In Marin County, we have limited options when we face the next, inevitable drought. Recycled water, the reuse of purified wastewater, is one of the most viable options and belongs in the water supply of every urban area of coastal California.
San Vicente Dam, completed in 1943, was designed for ‘200-year extreme rainfall’ (the heaviest rain that will fall once every 200 years). However, when the worst drought hit California in 1991, the state government and residents agreed to prepare for climate change and decided to expand.
California water regulators have released a long-awaited analysis of options for managing flows in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where fish populations have been declining and the ecosystem has been deteriorating.
The delta is the central hub of the state’s water system, drawing together rivers from a vast watershed and supplying pumps that send water flowing to cities and farms.
California’s water warriors have a new arena for their perpetual conflict over the allocation of the state’s ever-evolving supply – a nearly 6,000-page proposal from the state Water Resources Control Board.
The draft essentially calls for sharp reductions in diversions from the Sacramento River and its tributaries to allow more water to flow through the environmentally troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
October 1 marked the beginning of the new Water Year in California. Water years here run from October 1 until September 30 of the next calendar year, and are named for the calendar year of the bulk of the water year (January-October). It is a good time to reflect on the last year and make largely futile predictions of precipitation for the coming 12 months.
October isn’t just the start of our spooky season — it’s also the official start of the new water year. Historically, our wet season has stretched from mid-October to April, and water managers across the state are gearing up for what could be an even wetter year than last year, given the El Niño climate pattern, and a changing water cycle driven by human-caused climate change.
Up against an Oct. 14 deadline and with more than 700 bills on his desk heading into the weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom decided the fate of bills — a lot of bills.
The governor’s office put out a big batch of nearly 150 actions on Saturday, a second one on Sunday of about 130 and a third one late Sunday night of about 190 more. That unusual volume for a weekend means he still has some 260 bills to go.
Ukiah’s recycled water project, known as the “purple pipe,” held a celebration October 5 to commemorate one billion gallons of recycled water water served since the project began. The event took place at the recycling facilities on 300 Plant Road in Ukiah, and included Congressman Jared Huffman and other elected officials, agency representatives, project staff, and a visit by Mrs. Williams’ 5th grade class at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah.
After a summer of record-smashing heat, warming somehow got even worse in September as Earth set a new mark for how far above normal temperatures were, the European climate agency reported Thursday.
Last month’s average temperature was 0.93 degrees Celsius (1.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1991-2020 average for September. That’s the warmest margin above average for a month in 83 years of records kept by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“It’s just mind-blowing really,” said Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo. “Never seen anything like that in any month in our records.”
Perhaps the biggest development in water over the last three decades has been the change in attitude among consumers about their liquid assets. After repeated droughts punctuated by history-making deluges, Californians appear more open than ever to embracing reuse of stormwater, wastewater and seawater — as long as we can be certain that it is clean and safe to drink.
