California is no longer facing an acute drought. But we’re waking this morning to a vivid reminder of another environmental threat.
Major wildfires, from the Mexican border to Oregon, burned through the weekend. And it’s only the start of summer. The largest fire, in Kern County near Bakersfield, spread quickly, destroying at least 250 structures and killing at least two people.
Part of the solution to California’s demand for water in the face of the state’s crippling drought may lie 10,000 feet beneath the surface of the state’s Central Valley. New research published in the journal PNAS suggests that the region’s aquifers, areas deep underground where water can collect, have three times the usable groundwater as previously estimated.
“It’s not often that you find a ‘water windfall,’ but we just did,” said study author Robert Jackson, a professor at Stanford University, in a press release. “There’s far more fresh water and usable water than we expected.”
In a surprising new study, Stanford researchers have found that drought-ravaged California is sitting on top of a vast and previously unrecognized water resource, in the form of deep groundwater, residing at depths between 1,000 and nearly 10,000 feet below the surface of the state’s always thirsty Central Valley.
The resource amounts to 2,700 billion tons of freshwater, mostly less than about 3,250 feet deep, according to the paper published Monday in the influential Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Drought-stricken California might have a hidden water bonanza. A Stanford University study released Monday said the state has three times more groundwater located in deep aquifers than earlier estimated.
The research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, said this water source is much deeper than traditional aquifers and that tapping it would likely require a lot of money and engineering expertise.
Drought, extreme heat and high winds have fueled wildfires across the western U.S. this month. But another enemy is driving California’s most destructive blaze of the fire season so far: tens of millions of dead trees.
A year after California attacked the drought with an unprecedented water rationing program that drove cities and towns to cut back 24 percent collectively, state officials have changed course and given local agencies the leeway to come up with their own water-saving goals.
The Bureau of Reclamation announces the selection of three California water districts to receive $3 million total in Agricultural Water Conservation and Efficiency grants for Fiscal Year 2016. The grants, combined with local cost share contributions, total more than $6 million slated for water management improvement projects to be implemented during the next two years.
The AWCE program is a joint effort with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to promote district level water conservation improvements that facilitate on-farm water use efficiency and conservation projects. With NRCS support, Reclamation selected three projects for funding.
In a decision that could delay or complicate Gov. Jerry Brown’s plan to build two huge tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a Superior Court judge ruled Friday that a comprehensive management plan for the estuary is no longer valid.
I’ve photographed dozens of wildland fires in my 37 years as a photojournalist and as a resident of Bodfish, we’ve been packed and ready to go more than once. But the Erskine Fire has wrought devastation like I have never seen, and hope to never see again.
The 2002 Deer Fire started behind my house and burned many structures in the area as the wind-whipped flames ran into our neighboring town of Lake Isabella, causing havoc along its path. Like our neighbors, we prepare as much as possible by clearing brush, pine needles and weeds. We’ve cleaned out a ravine behind the house three times already this year.
California voters could have yet another decision to make on an already-packed November ballot. The state Assembly voted today to add a three billion dollar bond measure for state and local parks.
Democratic Assemblyman Eduardo Garcia said a lack of funding has caused parks to fall into disrepair. “It’s been close to 14 years since this body has last approved a substantial funding measure designed to improve and expand park and outdoor infrastructure in the state of California,” says Garcia.
