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Obama Seeks More Coordination on Dealing with Drought

/in /by /San Jose Mercury Newsby By Darlene Superville

President Barack Obama on Monday directed the federal government to come up with a less reactionary and more long-term strategy for dealing with drought.

 About 12.5 percent of the continental U.S. was experiencing drought as of mid-March, said Alice Hill, a key Obama aide on this issue.That translates into more than 39 million people, or about one-eighth of the U.S. population, living with drought in the lower 48 states, mostly in the West and with much of California suffering through its fifth year of dryness.
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California Drought Continues, Despite March Deluge

/in /by /The Washington Postby By Angela Fritz

No doubt — it’s been a great month for California.

A more favorable, wet El Niño pattern has finally kicked in after a pathetically dry February. Across the northern half of the state, major cities including San Francisco and Sacramento have already seen more rain in the first 10 days of March than they normally do in the entire month.

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OPINION: Practical, Plus High-Tech Solutions Can Ease California’s Water Crisis

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee by By Thomas G. Del Beccaro

The impact of California’s water policies is far-reaching. More than just a question of the length of showers, they directly contribute to high unemployment and poverty. The solution to our water crisis can boost employment and reduce poverty – and it’s high time we get practical about it.

In the last 15 years, I have traveled to 54 of California’s 58 counties. It is heartbreaking to see the effects of our policies in places such as East Porterville, where residents go without water, or the divisions that these policies cause over property rights, reservoirs and dams.

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OPINION: Tunnels Don’t Add Up, Now We Know Why

/in /by /Merced Sun-Star

For years now, Gov. Jerry Brown has been telling us that he will save the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – the greatest freshwater estuary on this side of the continent – by taking water out of it.

Environmental scientists have hustled out to make his case. Wildlife experts have joined the “Oyez” chorus. And state water managers insist it is our only option. Among the biggest and most enthusiastic backers is the largest irrigation district in the world, Westlands Water District, and the largest urban water supplier in the world, Metropolitan Water District.

 

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Panel: El Niño Won’t Solve Water Woes

/in /by /The Bakersfield Californianby By J.W. Burch IV

On a day that brought with it two inches of rain in Wofford Heights and a quarter inch of rain at Meadows Field, experts gathered to discuss the effect El Niño will have on Kern County this year.

 

The “El Niño: Miracle or Just Mediocre” discussion was held Tuesday by the Water Association of Kern County, along with KBAK.

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OPINION: Hopes Rise as Winter Rain Brings Green Spring

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby By Dan Walters

The National Weather Service distributed a remarkable photo the other day – a satellite view of California showing just how green it has become after heavy winter rains.

The occasion was St. Patrick’s Day, but the photo’s true meaning was the vernal equinox’s age-old promise of renewal. California is green again, except for its deserts and its snow-covered mountains, and its reservoirs are, for the first time in years, holding healthy amounts of water – so much, in fact, that releases are being increased to make room for melting snow.

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Decision Time for California Governor’s Big Water Project

/in /by /ABC Newsby By Ellen Knickmeyer and Scott Smith

Atop a dirt levee his great-grandfather built in the 1800s to hold back California’s mightiest river, Northern California farmer Russell van Loben Sels looks out over the site of a new water project, one that would be the state’s most ambitious in a half-century.

Promoted by Gov. Jerry Brown, the $15.7 billion project would run giant twin pipes, each four stories high, underground for 35 miles and eventually pull thousands of gallons of water a second from the stretch along the Sacramento River where van Loben Sels farms to cities and farms to the south.

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Decision Time for California Governor’s Big Water Project

/in /by /Associated Press by By Ellen Knickmeyer and Scott Smith

Atop a dirt levee his great-grandfather built in the 1800s to hold back California’s mightiest river, Northern California farmer Russell van Loben Sels looks out over the site of a new water project, one that would be the state’s most ambitious in a half-century.

Promoted by Gov. Jerry Brown, the $15.7 billion project would run giant twin pipes, each four stories high, underground for 35 miles and eventually pull thousands of gallons of water a second from the stretch along the Sacramento River where van Loben Sels farms to cities and farms to the south.

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California Pushes Huge Underground Water Tunnels

/in /by /USA Today

Gov. Jerry Brown wants to restructure California’s water system by building two massive underground tunnels to divert water to farms and cities in the south. But his administration faces strong opposition for the $15.7 billion project.

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Expanding use of recycled water would benefit the environment and human health

/in /by /Phys.orgby By Enrique Rivero

Expanding the use of recycled water would reduce water and energy use, cut greenhouse gas emissions and benefit public health in California—which is in the midst of a severe drought—and around the world.

A new study by the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, published online March 17 in the American Journal of Public Health, found that recycled water has great potential for more efficient use in urban settings and to improve the overall resiliency of the water supply.
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