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OPINION: Our View: Managing water takes foresight

/in /by /Twin Falls Times-News

It’s easy to take water for granted. Turn on the faucet, and the water comes out.

But we live in a desert, where just 9 inches of rain fall each year and the aquifer on which we rely for drinking water is at its lowest point in 100 years. Couple that with a population surge, plans to build hundreds more homes in Twin Falls alone and a booming regional food-manufacturing industry, and cities are right to worry just how much larger we can get before there isn’t enough water to support it all.

 

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Our View: Conservation should be a lifestyle

/in /by /Desert Dispatch (Barstow CA)

Californians seem to be adopting conservation as a lifestyle, and that’s encouraging. It’s also necessary. As the state, particularly the southern portion, didn’t get the full benefit of El Nino this past winter and spring, drought conditions persist in much of California. If you’ve lived here for any length of time, you know that drought is a fairly regular occurrence in our state. We see periods of higher- and lower-than-normal precipitation, but the latter seem to be occurring more often and for longer spans.

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Environmental issues top of mind with readers

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)

Climate change is a threat to our quality of life and our economy. The staggering costs of deepening droughts, water shortages, wildfires and epic storms will accrue until we take action.

We know that excess greenhouse gases (GHG) cause climate change. We also know that we must aggressively cut GHG to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. There are no shortcuts.

In Palm Springs, our last GHG audit in 2010 revealed that 70 percent of our GHG emissions come from the gas and electricity used to heat, light and cool our buildings.

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Area support of diversion plans runs wide, deep

/in /by /The Daily Sentinel (Colorado)by Dennis Webb

A proposal to divert Colorado River water to Denver recently has won the endorsement of Gov. John Hickenlooper and the approval of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

But Denver Water’s Gross Reservoir expansion project may be just as notable for its general lack of opposition west of the Continental Divide. That’s thanks to a wide-ranging agreement, effective in 2013, in which Denver Water obtained concessions including a promise that numerous Western Slope parties to the agreement wouldn’t oppose the expansion project. In return, Denver Water made a number of commitments to the Western Slope.

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OPINION: United defense key to Delta’s future

/in /by /Stockton Recordby Jerry McNerney

With more predictions of drought-like conditions for California in the near future, it is difficult to find workable solutions when some politicians mislead the public at a critical time for our state’s water supply. It was especially alarming to hear that Donald Trump recently stood before a Central Valley audience to declare “there is no drought.” Such a display of ignorance by a presidential candidate is not only deeply disturbing, but it further inflames California water politics and undercuts efforts to find common ground to address this crisis.

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Water agencies relax penalties — but still urge conservation

/in /by /The Bakersfield Californianby THEO DOUGLAS

Given the chance to police themselves after a wetter winter, Bakersfield’s five urban water districts are holstering their batons — relaxing or removing conservation standards while still preaching a message of saving water. Local water officials say that’s not a contradiction. They point out the State Water Resources Control Board decided in May to let local agencies set their own standards relative to 2013 water usage — though requiring them to ensure a three-year supply during dry years like those from 2012 to 2015.

 

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California isn’t flooding; it’s burning

/in /by /Manteca Bulletinby Dennis Wyatt Quoted: Manteca Bulletin

It’s time to fight fire with fire. Senate Bill 5 — the bane of Central Valley cities, counties, and property owners  who have never flooded but now have to spend hundreds of millions on upgrades to protect against events that are considered small on the flood rating scale — came about in 2007. It was on the heels of Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans that was far from a fair comparison to flooding concerns as well as record damages from Central Valley floods in February 1986, January 1997 and January 1999.

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Business, water interests seek to increase bass limits to help salmon

/in /by /The Redding Record Searchlightby Damon Arthur

A group representing powerful statewide business and water interests has filed a petition to ease Sacramento River fishing regulations for striped bass, a predator fish some blame for the demise of chinook salmon.

The California Fish and Game Commission will consider the petition, which also includes changes to black bass regulations, during its meeting next month in Folsom.

The filing is the latest in an ongoing debate over striped bass, a non-native fish some say eat enormous amounts of young salmon in the Sacramento River and in the Delta as the little fish try to make it to the ocean.

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Sustainable use of groundwater matters

/in /by /Sierra Vista Heraldby Robert Weissler

Is it possible to plan new housing that makes sustainable use of groundwater? Why should we care? One word: California. The members of the Friends of the San Pedro River have concerns that, without our own groundwater use being sustainable, we will follow in California’s footsteps.

While California has historically suffered intermittent water shortages, the past five years of drought have resulted in drying rivers and aquifers, as groundwater was pumped to compensate for the shortfall in the snowpack and surface water.

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Wind, not Water, to Blame for Drought, Says Study

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Tara Lohan

Since California’s most recent drought began more than four years ago, scientific studies have been helping us better understand the causes and implications. We know now that a lack of precipitation has largely been caused by a very stubborn high-pressure system sitting off the West coast – dubbed at one time the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge. We’ve also learned that high-pressure systems like this may be the kind of thing we’ll see more of with climate change. A new study published in Geophysical Research Letters helps increase our understanding of the relationship between drought and the water cycle.

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