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Despite last weekend’s rainstorms, California is still faced with a serious drought. So it’s perhaps not surprising that state regulators are talking about ways to return to state-mandated conservation targets and preparing for even stricter measures. Regulators are planning to roll out California’s first-ever water budgets — budgets for each district’s allowable supply. The long-range requirements will require permanent adjustments to new water efficiency measures — and a shift in the way each Californian lives.

 

Flint, Mich., is not the only place in the U.S. facing a devastating, preventable public health disaster. In January 2018, water that had been flowing into the Salton Sea will be diverted from the Imperial Valley and sent to urban water districts. As a result, the Salton Sea will shrink rapidly, leaving behind vast areas of dry lake bed. These exposed beaches will be a source of highly toxic, wind-blown dust affecting the health of hundreds of thousands of Californians living in the Coachella and Imperial valleys.

The big weekend storm means an end to the official fire season and perhaps the start of long-term healing to California’s drought-devastated pine forests. There are twists to both stories. Over the weekend near Tahoe, the snow line was roughly 8,500 feet, well above 7,056-foot Donner Pass on Interstate 80, and flash-flood watches were posted early Sunday for creeks and below burn areas in the Tahoe region.After the series of storms passes, the high snow level means hikers and shoulder-season campers still will have access to vast areas of national forest, including right up to the Sierra crest at Tahoe.

Twenty-seven years ago, on Oct. 17, 1989, I was a City Council member going about my normal business in Santa Cruz. I returned home in time for game three of the Giants v A’s World Series. As I settled in, the TV jumped at me. A 6.9 earthquake centered about ten miles away was shaking the region. I ran out through the kitchen as dishes pitched out of the cupboards. Outside I couldn’t take my eyes off a neighbor’s palm tree as it waved almost to the ground. Eventually, I made my way to City Hall at the edge of our decimated downtown.

Last year’s El Niño turned out to have less impact on California than expected — the forecast for much higher rainfall did not come to pass, though precipitation totals achieved nearly normal levels and reservoirs in Northern California refilled. Now we are entering a period climate scientists call La Niña. El Niño is characterized by higher than normal temperatures in the Northeastern Pacific Ocean, the effects of which change weather patterns. La Niña, which means The ‘little girl’ in Spanish, is the opposite, the anti-El Niño.