Third-generation farmer from California’s San Joaquin Valley may become the next head of the federal agency that oversees water supplies in the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin.
Aubrey Bettencourt, who recently stepped down as head of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, is expected to be formally nominated by President Donald Trump as the next commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
Congress will not stand on the sidelines much longer as the drought-riddled Colorado River system careens toward crisis and the states that share its flows remain deadlocked, one of the region’s most powerful Republican senators said Wednesday.
Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee of Utah used a Wednesday hearing as a show of political force on behalf of his state and it’s upstream allies — Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming — ahead of a critical decision point for a river that supplies 40 million people from the cattle ranches of Wyoming to the booming metropolises of Los Angeles, Phoenix and San Diego.
Colorado’s low snowpack and ongoing drought conditions led Gov. Jared Polis to declare a statewide drought emergency Thursday.
The governor activated Phase 3 of Colorado’s Drought Response Plan, which allows the state to take additional emergency response actions, such as emergency funding for unmet response needs, a request for a federal disaster declaration, and reductions in outdoor water usage at state facilities.
In a neighborhood flanked by grapevines and orange groves on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, people cannot drink the water from their faucets because it’s contaminated.
Residents in the area north of Porterville, many of them farmworkers, have been discussing a solution, which they expect will require running pipes to connect to the nearby city system.
Arizona is desperate for water. So much so that its taxpayers are willing to invest in treating Tijuana’s sewage so it’s drinkable.
How would that help Arizona? The state would ask Mexico for some of its Colorado River water in exchange.
After the West’s warm winter and fast spring thaw, reservoirs that many communities depend on are entering summer with little margin for error.
With reserves already thin, water managers in places such as Utah and Idaho are warning that summer could bring stricter conservation rules and heightened wildfire danger.
Summer is just around the corner, but our recent hot weather makes it feel like it’s already here. So, if you’re thinking about hitting the lake to go fishing, boating, or just relaxing… how full is that lake? And how about the water temperatures in the local rivers?
We’ve been talking about how the Sierra Nevada snowpack started it’s Spring melt-off early this year for a while now, so now it’s time to take a look at how our reservoirs are doing as we near Summer. And while the snowpack news has been bad, the reservoir news is pretty good. Most major reservoirs around the state are 75% to 95% full – great news! Because the Sierra snowpack is just about done, this will likely be their peak for the year – they likely won’t see any significant inflow until next November, at the earliest.
While the future of the Colorado River remains uncertain, officials from Nevada, California and Arizona are looking at other options to increase water stability in the southwest.
This week, the three states agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding to explore the legal and policy framework of possibly exchanging shares of Colorado River water and explore the potential need for federal funds to facilitate interstate exchanges.
San Diego signed a deal Tuesday to start talking about something that’s never been done before: Sell water to other thirsty states in the Southwest.
The San Diego County Water Authority received a lot of national press recently because it’s probably the only water agency in this Colorado River-dependent region that has claim over more water than its people and industries use. Even The New York Times showed up Tuesday to catch the Water Authority’s general manager, Dan Denham, raise a glass of desalted water with top Colorado River negotiators celebrating their shared interest in creating an interstate water market.
For years, Arizona has explored the possibility of turning seawater into drinking water as a way to help offset shortages on the Colorado River.
Now, state water leaders say a new partnership with California could move that concept one step closer to reality.
