You are now in California and the U.S. category.

Pueblo board approves plan to leave some of its water on Western Slope as part of study

/in /by /The Pueblo Chieftain (Pueblo, Colo.)by BY CHRIS WOODKA

A contract for a pilot program that would leave some of Pueblo’s water on the Western Slope was approved Tuesday by the Pueblo Board of Water Works.

Pueblo Water will leave 200 acre-feet (65 million gallons) of water from the Ewing Ditch for a fee of about $134,000 as part of an $11 million pilot project to test tools to manage drought in the Colorado River basin.

The program is paid for by the Upper Colorado River Commission, Bureau of Reclamation, Southern Nevada Water Authority, Denver Water, Central Arizona Water Conservation District and the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
Full Story

Rain Fills Reservoirs, But California Still Suffers Drought’s Effects

/in /by /SFGateby By Kurtis Alexander

The drought isn’t over, but the recent storms that many hope are part of a “March miracle” have put California a lot further down the road to recovery.

By Monday, seasonal rainfall jumped above the historic average across much of the state — uncommon territory over the past four years — with San Francisco notching 21 inches of rain since July 1, more than the city has seen in an entire year going back to 2011. California’s reservoirs, meanwhile, got a much-needed boost.

Full Story

California Water Cutbacks Draw Flood of Complaints as Reservoirs Rise

/in /by /Reuters (As Published by Yahoo News)by By Sharon Bernstein

Rick Williams stood on his dead front lawn near Sacramento, California, wondering why he still pays a drought surcharge on his water bill and cannot run his sprinklers as often as he needs when a nearby reservoir is so full it could overflow come spring.

After four years of catastrophic drought and nearly a year of mandatory water conservation measures, Williams is joining a growing chorus of consumers in the wetter parts of the state to call for an end to restrictions they see as overbearing.

Full Story

OPINION: Saving for When California’s March Miracle Goes Away

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee

The snowpack is back and the water is rising. Between last weekend’s storms and this weekend’s forecast, drought-weary California appears to have gotten the March miracle we were all hoping for. That’s the good news. The bad news is that, between this state’s natural climate and global warming, drought is now perpetually around the corner, and, as usual, people are already beginning to forget that.

So as much as we hate to sound like a broken record – or a dripping faucet – it bears repeating: No, California, you can’t stop conserving water just because we have wet weather.

Full Story

High Water Levels Could Lead to ‘Interesting’ Runoff Season

/in /by /KCRA (Sacramento)by By David Bienick

Federal water managers warned Tuesday that northern California could be headed for an “interesting” runoff season following a series of late-season storms. Officials with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation made the statements during a meeting of the State Water Resources Board in Sacramento.

“This is an area where we tend to want to be very cautious with people’s lives and livelihoods,” said Ron Milligan, operations manager for the Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project. The Bureau of Reclamation manages several reservoirs, including Folsom Lake and Lake Shasta. Both are more than three-quarters full and still rising following recent storms.

Full Story

OPINION: Lance W. Johnson: Californians Must Demand Accountability for all this Wasted Water

/in /by /The Modesto Beeby By Lance W. Johnson

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome. Put into action, that looks like the federal water policy that sends millions of gallons of water to the ocean for the purpose of protecting Delta fish that continue to die.

Since 1992, federal water regulators have increased Delta outflow requirements repeatedly; they now total millions of acre-feet per year. Despite these releases, regulators have never been able to prove, through peer-reviewed science, that any Delta fish have benefited – not even during wet years

Full Story

OPINION: Linking Water Rights to the Train a Horrible Idea

/in /by /The Modesto Beeby By Charlie Hoppin

As I write this opinion from my home in the Sacramento Valley, our rivers are at or near flood stage and the reservoirs are continuing to fill. The bad news is that the water not being captured in our reservoir system is mostly blowing out under the Golden Gate Bridge with little diverted south of the Delta.

Most of us who farm up here have state or federal contracts that are the basis of our water rights, which are an integral part of our land and its value.

Full Story

Recent Storms Cause Problem for Drought Tolerant Plants

/in /by /KION TV (Salinas)by By Brandon Castillo

Recent rain has refilled reservoirs and replenished ground water, but it’s also created a new problem. The plants people bought to help conserve, don’t like all the extra water. March has been a very wet month. For those who tried to conserve water with drought tolerant plants, all the rain on the Central Coast may have done those plants in.

“Just a plant that saw way too much water. In the case of this bunching bamboo it’s not going to make it,”said Salinas Councilman, and owner of McShane’s Nursery, Steve McShane.

Full Story

SWRO Water Declared ‘Drought-Resilient’

/in /by /Water Desalination Report Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority Water Resources Director Bob Yamada

State regulators certified the water supply from the Carlsbad Desal Plant as drought-resilient, reducing the regional impacts of emergency water-use mandates the state imposed in June 2015. The State Water Resources Control Board’s certification lowers the regional aggregate water conservation goal from 20 percent to about 13 percent, though water-use targets will continue to vary by local water agency.

Vallecitos Water District, the only retail water provider with a direct connection to the Carlsbad plant, will have its conservation target dropped to 16 percent compared to its previously mandated 24 percent reduction in potable water use.

California Revives Cloud-Seeding Effort as El Nino Disappoints

/in /by /Total Landscape Careby By Jill Odom

Hopes that El Nino will end California’s drought are withering. It appears they’re being replaced with high hopes for the science of cloud-seeding.

Southern California in particular has been suffering from a lack of precipitation and now Los Angeles County officials are reviving its cloud-seeding program for $550,000 a year. The program was abandoned in 2009 – several years after it had last been used – apparently out of fear that too much rain would destabilize hillsides charred from wildfires. It was resurrected last year after the governor’s declaration of a water emergency.

Full Story