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More lawns becoming drought-tolerant

/in /by /Appeal-Democrat (Marysville)by Chris Kaufman

After multiple drought years, many Californians converted their lawns to more water-wise, native and low- maintenance landscaping — mostly with success, they report. Marysville and Yuba City both have landscaping following the trend, in collaboration with other agencies.

 “After a full year, we consider it a huge success,” said Lee Seidel, California Water Service district manager, of the landscaping at Marysville City Hall. “The planning and design itself has gotten nothing but compliments from the people that work at City Hall.”
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Los Angeles Looks for Extra Water Down Its Alleys

/in /by /The New York Timesby TATIANA SCHLOSSBERG

Of the roughly 300,000 acres in the city of Los Angeles, more than 2,000 are alleyways that cut through city blocks. And because they’re mostly paved, they do little to capture one of the city’s most prized resources: water.

Following the examples set by Chicago, Seattle and other cities, Los Angeles is working to transform these narrow spaces into networks of green alleys.

The main purpose, beginning with a green alley network in the South Park neighborhood of South Los Angeles, is to capture some of the storm water that is otherwise lost.

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More Investors Asked to Join Sites Reservoir Planning

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby Heather Hacking

Calling all water users: If you would like to buy in on water from a future Sites Reservoir, now is the time.

Plans for Sites Reservoir are moving forward, with a deadline of June 2017 to ask the state Water Commission to pay for half of the estimated $4.4 billion construction cost. Sacramento Valley water users had the first chance to ask for (and pay for) a future of the water supply pie. Sacramento Valley water districts are on paper to purchase about 128,000 acre-feet of water annually.

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BLOG: Growing Marijuana? State Will Now Regulate Water Use for Pot Cultivation

/in /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Matt Weiser

Within less than a year, as many as 50,000 marijuana growers in California could be required to obtain state permits for the irrigation water they consume. It is an unprecedented step aimed at preventing harm to the environment and other water users resulting from the rapid growth of marijuana cultivation in the state.

“Most of them are operating below the radar,” said Cris Carrigan, chief of enforcement at the State Water Resources Control Board. “As a result, we’ve gotten ourselves into an acute problem with streamflow and pollution associated with these activities.”

 

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Fires, Drought, Beetles Taking Toll on Tahoe Forest

/in /by /Tahoe Daily Tribune

Despite a good winter, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service Tahoe Management Unit says the basin’s forests are still stressed and in danger from wildfires.

“We had a better snow pack this year and a better precipitation season in the Tahoe Basin,” said Brian Garrett, urban forest manager for USFS. “But the trees in the forests are still extremely stressed and one season of 100 percent precipitation does not take you out of that condition.”

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Food shortages and sea level rise US voters’ top climate change concerns

/in /by /The Guardian (New York)by Oliver Milman

Diminishing food and water security and ruinous sea level rise are the leading climate change concerns of a section of the American electorate that is aghast at the lack of discussion of global warming during the presidential debate. A Guardian US survey of its readers found that pressure on food and water supplies is considered the most important consequence of climate change. Sea level rise, which is set to inundate coastal areas currently occupied by millions of Americans, is second on the list of the most urgent issues.

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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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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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