The City of Ripon’s new watering schedule went into effect on Tuesday. The winter schedule calls for a once-a-week schedule, from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28. Manteca, by contrast, still allows watering twice a week in the winter as California enters its fourth year of drought.
After a week of will-they-won’t-they, the global weather models finally locked in on the track of California’s first substantial storm of the wet season. The storm’s cold front will ride an atmospheric river of moisture as it sends round after round of heavy rain showers to Humboldt, Del Norte and Mendocino counties. These rains will then turn to snow as they climb the steps of the southern Cascades.
One must wade through a thicket of bureaucratic jargon to find it, but on Friday federal officials issued what appears to be a serious warning to California and other states that use water from the highly stressed Colorado River: If they cannot agree on sharp reductions in diversions of the Colorado’s water, the feds will impose them unilaterally. It’s the latest wrinkle in decades of interstate squabbling over the river, which has become more heated as the river’s flows continue to decline and conditions in its two major reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, reach the crisis stage.
Outdoor irrigation in San Marcos and nearby communities will be restricted to two days a week starting Tuesday, according to the Vallecitos Water District.
The agency — which also serves parts of Carlsbad, Escondido and Vista, as well as the Lake San Marcos and other unincorporated communities — had limited watering of lawns and other landscaping to three days a week from June through October.
Residents can choose the days they would like to water. The restrictions don’t apply to farmers with agricultural water accounts or nurseries.
Colorado River managers looking to protect critical infrastructure at Lake Powell’s Glen Canyon Dam are seeking the ability to release less water from Powell next year as they work to rebalance demand on the troubled river. “We are taking immediate steps now to revise the operating guidelines to protect the Colorado River System and stabilize rapidly declining reservoir storage elevations,” reclamation commissioner Camille Touton said late last week in a written statement.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelley wrote a letter October 25 to Deb Haaland, U.S. Department of Interior Secretary, asking her to punish the people and communities surrounding the Salton Sea, to punish the migratory birds and fish that depend on the sea for subsistence because he is in a fight for his political seat against a contender that could beat him. The tens of thousands of people living around the Salton Sea experience the highest rates of asthma in the State of California from the drying sea that leaves behind toxic waste which become airborne as winds kick up.
he Hoopa Valley Tribe alleged in a lawsuit Monday that the federal government is violating its sovereignty and failing to collect money from California farms that rely on federally supplied water to pay for damages to tribal fisheries. The tribe, which has a reservation in northwest California, says in its lawsuit against the Biden administration that the Trinity River that it relies on for food and cultural purposes has been decimated by decades of the federal government diverting water
If the climate crisis is coming, the water crisis is already here. As rice fields were fallowed in California, Lake Mead water levels almost sunk so low that Hoover Dam could no longer generate power, and life-threatening toxic dust blew off the dried-up Salton Sea. Thirty percent of the world population will face water shortages of some kind by 2025. Things are only going to get worse.
Carlsbad, Calif. (Nov. 1, 2022) – The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant has served more than 100 billion gallons of high-quality, locally controlled water over the past seven years – a milestone passed in late October, as California entered a fourth consecutive year of severe drought.
The plant produces an average of more than 50 million gallons of high-quality, locally controlled water every day. It’s a foundational water supply for the San Diego region that minimizes vulnerability to drought and other water supply emergencies. The facility is the largest, most technologically advanced and energy-efficient desalination plant in the nation, and it has provided a sustainable water supply to residents and businesses in San Diego County since December 2015.
“As we mark this achievement, water from the seawater desalination plant continues to reduce our dependence on imported water sources, which has the effect of making more water available for drought-stricken communities elsewhere,” said Mel Katz, Board chair for the San Diego County Water Authority. “Since coming online in 2015, the Carlsbad Desalination Plant has met nearly 10% of the region’s water demand, and it will be a core water resource for decades to come.”
The desalination plant is a key piece of the region’s multi-decade strategy to diversify its water supply portfolio. A 30-year Water Purchase Agreement between Poseidon (Channelside) LP and the Water Authority allows for the production of up to 56,000 acre-feet of water per year, enough to meet the needs of approximately 400,000 people.
Desalination uses reverse osmosis technology to remove water molecules from seawater. Water from the ocean is forced through tightly-wrapped, semipermeable membranes under very high pressure. The membranes allow the smaller water molecules to pass through, leaving salt and other impurities to be discharged from the facility.
“Reaching 100 billion gallons demonstrates the value, effectiveness, and reliability of the desalination plant, as it produces high-quality water to help meet the needs of the region’s residents and businesses,” said Channelside President, Sachin Chawla.
More information about the desalination plant is at carlsbaddesal.com and sdcwa.org.
