A wet year and major conservation efforts are paying off in the short term for the Colorado River, with California, Arizona and Nevada on track to conserve a record 1 million acre-feet of water or more by the end of 2023, officials announced last week.
Since almost completely running out of water in 2015, and again in 2021, the City of Fort Bragg is working to make sure it stays ahead of any future droughts by investing in desalination.
“We stopped allowing people to wash dishes and had them use paper products and things like that, just disposable plates and things like that. So it was very serious at that time,” Director of Public Works for the City of Fort Bragg John Smith said.
For insight into the numerous atmospheric rivers that brought impressive precipitation accumulations to California this Water Year and how it compares to previous years, the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes provides this end of water year 2023 summary.
California is getting its first major water storage project in a dozen years, expanding an existing reservoir through federal funding.
Friday, the Department of the Interior and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority improved plans to implement the B.F. Sisk Dam Raise and Reservoir Expansion Project.
The Colorado River District is leading a coalition in what would be a history-making purchase involving historic water rights that are pivotal to Colorado River flows and water uses in western Colorado.
The California Department of Community Services and Development is extending its program to help low-income residents pay their current or past-due water and sewer bills. The federally funded Low Income Household Water Assistance Program was originally set to end in the fall, but will remain open through March 2024 — or until funds last.
Water is hard to come by on the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, and it has been for a long time. The Chippewa Cree tribe members who live on this reservation in north-central Montana get most of their water from a thin underground aquifer that is insufficiently replenished by occasional rainfall, and they’ve been under some form of water restriction for several decades.
The Biden-Harris administration October 19 announced next steps in the formal process to develop future operating guidelines and strategies to protect the stability and sustainability of the Colorado River system and strengthen water security in the West. The guidelines under development would be implemented in 2027, replacing the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and the Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which are set to expire at the end of 2026.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority announced that the state will continue to collaborate with Arizona and California on a long-term sustainable plan for the stability of the Colorado River.
According to a media release, the Bureau of Reclamation is moving the process forward to develop new operating guidelines for the Colorado River that will be in effect after 2026. To that end, the Lower Colorado River Basin states— water users in Nevada, Arizona and California—are contributing record volumes of water to Lake Mead.
After a blistering summer of record heat, raging wildfires and unpredictable storms, federal scientists on Thursday said a warm, wet winter driven by El Niño is in store for California and much of the rest of the country.
The first winter outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that a strong El Niño will remain in place through at least the spring, with further strengthening possible over the next couple of months.
