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.
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.
The final official snow survey of the year finds the California snowpack at just 18% of average thanks to record heat in March.
“It feels like we skipped spring this year and dropped straight into a summer heatwave,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources. “What should be gradual snowmelt happened suddenly weeks ago.”
California’s snowpack is supposed to reach its peak April 1, so today, state surveyors hold their final Sierra snow survey of the year.
But instead of peak snow, there’s almost none.
What if nuclear power could fix the Colorado River’s water crisis?
That’s the pitch from Ben Burr, president of the Idaho-based Blue Ribbon Commission, who is shopping a proposal to build new desalination plants on California’s coast. The plants would convert Pacific Ocean seawater into freshwater and pump it hundreds of miles inland, adding new water to a system that has spent decades losing it.
It’s a good problem to have in drought prone San Diego, an excess of water. Now, the county plans to sell some of it to other areas in need.
The San Diego County Water Authority has announced the sale of water to the Western Municipal Water District that covers parts of Riverside County, including Temecula.
Under pressure to strike a compromise on water cuts, and amid talk of litigation, Wyoming and other upper Colorado River Basin states are pointing to the climate-driven disaster unfolding in the West to insist they can’t cut what Mother Nature isn’t providing in the headwaters.
While some observers suspect that argument is cover for withholding more cuts in water use, the upper-basin contingency insists it has negotiated in good faith, and still hopes to strike a deal with its lower-basin counterparts, despite missed deadlines. They simply cannot commit to calculations that are beyond their control.
The Helix water district is flipping the switch on their new electric vehicle charging capabilities. This comes as the state of California is requiring public agency fleet vehicles to shift towards being electric and fast. All new vehicles purchased must be zero-emission by 2030.
NBC 7’s Dana Williams checked out the new technology and shares why these chargers, in particular, are so important for San Diegans.
A water transfer agreement involving the Western Municipal Water District, the San Diego County Water Authority, and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was signed March 19 in San Diego.
The signing followed a unanimous SDCWA board vote to approve the agreement. Western Water will purchase a minimum of 10,000 acre-feet of water annually from the CWA.
Water, get your water here!
With Andrea and Bella out, Scott Lewis, Jakob McWhinney and Will Huntsberry held it down this week. Former County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher is re-emerging post-controversy. We’re talking press conferences, speeches and a new Substack, “Grounded,” about his life on a family ranch.
