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We’re in Year Five of California’s Drought

/in /by /Slate Magazine (New York)by By Eric Holthaus

On Wednesday, California said goodbye to its mandatory statewide water restrictions for urban use, a tip of the umbrella to the relatively wet winter northern parts of the state had, which helped fill reservoirs and brought a relatively normal snowpack to the Sierras.

That decision was probably premature. For Southern California especially, the drought is still just as bad as ever. In much of the Sierra Nevada and Southern California, there’s still two or three entire years of rain missing since this drought began five years ago.

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Judge Finds Fault With “Delta Plan”

/in /by /Stockton Recordby By Alex Breitler

A plan that was supposed to serve as a comprehensive roadmap for the Delta through the year 2100 now must be partially rewritten, after a judge this week ruled on complaints stemming from no fewer than seven lawsuits.The “Delta Plan,” as the document is known, had been challenged by players on multiple sides of California’s water battle — by environmentalists, by Delta farmers, and by Southern California water users who rely on the Delta for a portion of their water supply.

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Inside The Looming Disaster of the Salton Sea

/in /by /ThinkProgressby by Alejandro Davila Fragoso

The lake is drying up, uncounted dead fish line the shore, and the desert town is losing people.

It could be the plot of a post-apocalyptic movie set in the future, but this is actually happening here and it has been going on for years. It wasn’t always like this, of course. There was a time when this town was booming. There was a time when the Salton Sea, California’s largest lake, was the “French Riviera” of the state, and the pride and joy of Imperial County.

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California Water Commission Approves Regulations to Guide the Sustainable Groundwater Management Plans of California Communities

/in /by /YubaNet (Nevada City)

California today moved a big step closer to implementation of an historic law to protect groundwater basins from overdraft, as the California Water Commission approved regulations that will guide creation of sustainability plans by local groundwater agencies. Approval of the regulations advances the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), enacted by Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. in September 2014 after more than a century of largely unregulated groundwater pumping in California. Groundwater supplies over a third of the water Californians use on average. In drought, some regions rely on groundwater for 60 percent or more of their water supplies.

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OPINION: Don’t Build Wastewater Plants Until They’re Needed

/in /by /Merced Sun-Starby By Richard L. Harriman

The State Water Resources Control Board is reconsidering the state’s water supply and conservation regulations. Meanwhile, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is being implemented and Valley cities are updating their pre-drought 2010 Urban Water Management Plans.

This convergence of state, regional and local regulatory regimes provides an opportunity to address urban water reuse in the city of Merced and other Valley communities.

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‘Early warning signal’: Lake Mead hits historic low

/in /by /Las Vegas Sunby Daniel Rothberg

Lake Mead’s surface Wednesday evening hit its lowest level since the man-made reservoir was created by the building of the Hoover Dam in 1935.

The surface of the lake — a critical source of water for Nevada, California, Arizona and Mexico — is expected to drop lower in the coming weeks, but rebound before the beginning of next year, when jurisdictions would be asked to accept shortages in supply.

 

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OPINION: Prepare Now for Wildfires

/in /by /Auburn Journalby By Daniel Berlant

The risk of wildfires is nothing new to Californians and Auburn residents. Drought or no drought;the truth is California’s Mediterranean climate lends itself perfectly to wildfires. They are a natural part of our ecosystem. There is no doubt that the rain this winter has been great, but don’t let it fool you, the risk for wildfires is still high.

While the fire-prone American River Canyon this summer will be filled with fuel for a major wildfire, almost all of Placer County, and especially the Auburn area, is at risk for wildfires.

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Many California Cities Predict No Conservation Requirements Under New Water Rules

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee by By Ryan Sabalow and Phillip Reese

Before throngs of TV news cameras in April last year, Gov. Jerry Brown stood on a patch of bare Sierra dirt that should have been covered in snow and told Californians they had to be unified in conserving water.

Noting that his call for voluntary conservation had not resulted in a significant change in habits among urban and suburban residents the previous summer, Brown said that he had no choice but to order urban water providers to collectively reduce water use by 25 percent compared with 2013. “We’re in an historic drought,” Brown said. “And that demands unprecedented action.”

 

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Judge: California Delta Land Deal Can Move Forward

/in /by /FOX40 (Sacramento)

A judge says Southern California’s largest water supplier can move ahead with plans to buy sprawling farmland that could be used to help build twin tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

A superior court judge sided Thursday with Metropolitan Water District. It’s buying 20,000 acres in the delta islands east of San Francisco for $175 million. San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties argued that Metropolitan didn’t adequately study how the deal may harm the fragile delta before striking the deal.

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California Water Conservation to Return to Local Hands

/in /by /Associated Press (As Published by ABC News)by Amy Taxin and Scott Smith

Eric Graham has fake grass. Across the street, Louie Torres has dead grass. The Irvine neighbors, like most Californians, know lush, green lawns are a distant dream even as the state’s long drought eases.

But California’s decision Wednesday to return conservation goals to local control has them hoping their bills will get a little more manageable, and their yards a little less ugly.

“It looks terrible,” said Torres, 49, as he looked at his brown yard. “I’ve been trying to save water. They said, ‘brown is the new green.'”

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