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One year later, the shade balls dumped in the Los Angeles Reservoir have proven to be successful in saving water, according to the L.A. Department of Water and Power. In August of last year, L.A. officials released an additional 20,000 balls into the Los Angeles Reservoir, bringing the total number of balls in use to 96 million. The 36-cent plastic balls were designed to block sunlight, preventing chemical reactions that can cause harmful algae blooms.

As the California drought persists, dying trees are slowly becoming the state’s largest natural disaster, Cal Fire said.

The California Supreme Court has ruled that a Southern California water supplier can go ahead with the purchase of five Delta Islands, regardless of the opposition and lawsuit against it. Metropolitan Water District (MWD) will go ahead with the $175 million sale of the Delta Islands as ruled by the Supreme Court. Since MWD initiated the sale, several injunctions have been placed against it stopping the purchase from going through. Several lawsuits have also been filed by San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties, Delta Island farmers and a series of environmental groups.

 

Congressman Jeff Denham introduced the New WATER Act Thursday in hopes of authorizing a pilot project that would provide long-term, low-cost financing for water resources infrastructure in reclamation states.“The Central Valley desperately needs to build more infrastructure for water storage and delivery,” said Denham, who introduced the bill Thursday.

 

San Francisco faces potentially drastic cutbacks in its water supply, as state regulators proposed leaving more water in three Northern California rivers Thursday to protect wildlife in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta estuary, the linchpin of California’s water supply. The draft rules by the State Water Resources Control Board would raise the amount of water into the Merced, Stanislaus and Tuolumne rivers to 30 to 50 percent of what would naturally flow in them. That means less water would be available for urban users and farmers in the northern San Joaquin Valley, compounding their need to conserve.