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Bipartisan Push on California Drought Relief

/in /by /Roll Call (Washington, D.C.)by By Jeremy Dillon

California lawmakers from both sides of the aisle called on President Barack Obama to direct federal agencies to pump more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, which has been replenished by rainfall, to bring drought relief to the agriculturally intense San Joaquin Valley.

A letter by a coalition of 11 California Republican House members, led by Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy , R-Calif., and another from Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein urged the Obama administration to allow water exports after high water levels resulting from El Niño rain.

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Oroville Dam Spillway Gates Open for First Time in Years

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Recordby By Ryan Olson

Dozens of people made their way toward Oroville Dam to see water surge down the dam’s controlled spillway Thursday.

It’s the first time the spillway has been in opened in five years to maintain storage space in Lake Oroville for flood control. Over the past 10 years, the spillway has been open for flood control just twice. Many people parked their vehicles just off of Oro Dam Boulevard East and got out to see the turbulent water cascade down the long concrete chute away from the earthen dam.

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Feinstein, GOP press Obama administration on delta water

/in /by /SFGate by By Carolyn Lochhead

As lingering El Niño rains swell the state’s rivers, Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein joined California House Republicans on Thursday to demand that President Obama order more water to be pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farms in the San Joaquin Valley.

Feinstein and the Republicans sent separate, similar letters to Obama timed to apply maximum political pressure on his administration.

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Santa Barbara Rejects Subsurface Water Intake For Desalination Plant

/in /by /Noozhawk (Santa Barbara)by By Joshua Molina

The city of Santa Barbara won’t pursue a subsurface ocean intake for its desalination plant after a study revealed that the process would either be infeasible or fail to meet the city’s needs.

Like most desalination plants, the city’s plant has an open water intake pipe in the ocean, but environmentalists say that process kills microorganisms and other sea life. In response to the concerns, the city commissioned a study to evaluate six different ways to extract water through a subsurface — from the seabed — process.

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VIDEO: Farming in an Age of Drought

/in /by /The Atlantic (Washington, D.C.)by By Greyson Korhonen

Jesus Ramos is a first-generation Mexican immigrant and farm owner who, after coming to America to work as a field hand, grew his business into a 140-acre orange farm. But today, Jesus and his family’s way of life is under threat. California is experiencing an unprecedented drought and the exceptionally dry conditions are particularly alarming for farming communities like Terra Bella, where Jesus lives and works.

 

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Au-gust of News Episode 2—California Water Crisis

/in /by /The Arbiter (Boise State University)by By August McKernan

Drought conditions in California have actually improved this week as a steady stream of storms and rain pelted the state, according to this week’s Drought Monitor report.

Currently, about 74 percent of the state is experiencing severe drought, a 10 percent improvement over last week’s report. However, the California drought has caused unparalleled devastation to the region, and will continue to do so barring any significant increase in annual rainfall or extreme intervention.

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California Snowpack Returns, but Fears Held for Future

/in /by /Climate Central (Princeton, N.J.)by By John Upton

California’s main water reservoir — its mountain snowpack — has made a triumphant return to the Sierra Nevada following severe shortfalls in recent years.

A string of winter storms boosted by El Niño has restored much of the mountain snow that melts through summer to help top up the state’s reservoirs, but the prognosis for the decades ahead remains grim.Climate change is projected to corrode California’s snowpack, forcing water officials to rethink how they store and distribute water in a state that’s prone to prolonged droughts.

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Largest California Reservoirs Releasing Water for Flood Safety

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby By Dale Kasler

After years of drought, Northern California has so much water that the state’s two largest reservoirs are releasing water to maintain flood-control safety.

The water releases from Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville don’t mean the drought is over. But they represent the latest evidence that drought conditions are easing as El Niño has brought meaningful amounts of rain and snow to Northern California for the first time since 2012. Yet the free-flowing water remains a significant source of controversy throughout Northern California.

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Our Water System: What a Waste

/in /by /The New York Times by By Michael E. Webber

AMERICA has a water problem. To put it simply, the national network for providing safe, clean water is falling apart.

This state of affairs, which is the focus of a summit meeting on Tuesday at the White House, threatens more than our drinking water supplies. Water is used in every sector of industry, grows our food, affects our health and props up our energy system. The price of this neglect will be high. In Flint, Mich., the mayor has estimated that it will cost as much as $1.5 billion to fix or replace lead pipes.

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El Niño Didn’t Bring the Winter Many Wanted

/in /by /Visalia Times-Deltaby By David Castellon

Despite predictions of winter coming in like Godzilla across California, the season didn’t have the claws and teeth that some forecasters expected.

Snow and rainfall was heavier than average this winter — which ended on Saturday — but not by much, a disappointment to some considering the season had a strong El Niño weather pattern. That phenomenon, caused by warmer-than-average water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, has the potential to help generate a wet winter for much of California.

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