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Record High Ocean Temperatures off Southern California Raise Fears of Prolonged Marine Heatwave

/in , /by /The Guardianby Roque Planas

For more than a century, shoreline stations operated by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography have measured water temperatures along the California coast. This year, they are flashing a warning sign.

Over the last three months, several stations have repeatedly posted record-breaking daily high temperatures – with the La Jolla station registering temperatures a full 10F above historical average at one point last month.

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What You Need To Know About Desalination, a Growing Source of Drinking Water

/in , /by /Times of San Diego

As climate change intensifies droughts, disrupts rainfall patterns and fuels wildfires, more regions are turning to the sea for drinking water.

Desalination, which is the process of removing salt from seawater, offers a way to produce freshwater in regions that lack sufficient rain, rivers or groundwater to meet demand. Today, it supplies water to hundreds of millions of people worldwide, from the Middle East to the U.S., and its use is growing as water scarcity deepens.

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WaterSmart Makeover: Creating a Space of Year-Round Color in Chula Vista

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Caron Golden Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Cathy Spence didn’t grow up gardening. She attributes that to the multiple moves her military family made when she was growing up — before they settled in Chula Vista. Now, she lives with her husband David in the same area — with their cute scruffy terrier mix rescue, Skipper.

They bought their house in 2018 after both retired from the military. David had been an emergency manager in the Army Corps of Engineers, while Cathy was a Department of Defense worker in the family services side of the Army and Air Force in Alaska, then in Germany, Georgia and Japan.

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Winter’s Alarmingly Low Snowpack Offers a Glimpse of the Changing Rhythm of Water in the Western U.S.

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Imtiaz Rangwala

Winter is more than just a season in the Western U.S. It is a savings account to get farms and homes through the long, dry summer ahead. As the snowpack that accumulates in the mountains through winter slowly melts in late spring and summer, it feeds into rivers and reservoirs that keep communities and ecosystems functioning.

The April 1 snowpack measurement has long been the single most important number in Western water management, considered a strong proxy for how much water the mountains are holding in reserve.

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Two-Day Outdoor Watering Schedule Now in Effect Through October in Pasadena

/in , /by /Pasadena Now

Pasadena Water and Power announced that the city’s two-day-per-week outdoor watering schedule is now in effect through October 31 as part of the City of Pasadena’s ongoing Level 2 Water Supply Shortage Plan. This measure limits outdoor irrigation to conserve water during the dry season.

Under the schedule, residents and businesses with even-numbered addresses may irrigate their landscapes on Mondays and Thursdays, while those with odd-numbered addresses may water on Tuesdays and Fridays. All outdoor watering must occur before 9 a.m. or after 6 p.m. Exceptions are made for hand-watering, tree maintenance, and irrigation systems that use low-flow drip emitters producing no more than two gallons per hour.

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OPINION: Yuba River Disaster: It Could Be Coming to a River Near You

/in , /by /Cal Mattersby Keiko Mertz

The recent rupture of a massive pipe at the New Colgate Powerhouse on the Yuba River, about 50 miles north of Sacramento, was not a natural disaster. It was an infrastructure failure.

The rupture of the penstock pipe in February sent a torrent of water down a steep hillside, triggering erosion that carried sediment and man-made debris into the Yuba River. An oil sheen was detected. The emergency also triggered the shutdown of another powerhouse downstream, causing a sudden drop in river flows, killing hundreds — possibly thousands — of young Chinook salmon at a time when the state has been trying to help struggling salmon populations recover.

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EPA Proposes Studying Microplastics for Potential Drinking Water Limits

/in , /by /Fox 5 San Diegoby Rachel Frazin, The Hill

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) plans to propose to study microplastics and pharmaceuticals in what could be the first step toward drinking water limits for these substances.

The Trump administration is touting the move as a win for the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) movement, a subset of voters that is skeptical of the chemical and pharmaceutical industries — and has at times been critical of the Trump administration EPA.

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How the San Diego County Water Authority Uses Data and Inspection Technology To Guide Infrastructure Decisions

/in , /by /PICA Corp Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: Martin Coghill

When Martin Coghill talks about water infrastructure, he does not start with technology. He starts with responsibility.

Coghill is the Operations and Maintenance Manager for Asset Management at the San Diego County Water Authority, where he leads a team focused on corrosion control and aqueduct integrity. Together, they help maintain a system of roughly 308 miles of large-diameter pipelines that ultimately serve about 3.3 million people across the region.

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Corpus Christi Prepares for Level 1 Water Emergency As Reservoirs Drop and Council Debates Industrial Cuts

/in , /by /KRIS 6 Corpus Christiby Jacob Daniels

Corpus Christi’s reservoirs are critically low, and a water emergency looks almost unavoidable.

The city has been under drought restrictions since June 2022 and is now preparing for a Level 1 water emergency. This step triggers when the city is within six months of not meeting demand.

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Record Low Colorado Mountain Snow Won’t Bode Well for Water in the Drought-Stricken US West

/in , /by /AP News Coloradoby Mead Gruver and Brittany Peterson

Hydrologist Maureen Gutsch trudged through the mud and slush to confirm a grim picture: Colorado just had its worst snowpack since statewide recordkeeping began in 1941.

Even more troubling, mountain snow accumulations peaked a month early and contained just half the average moisture.

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