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.
Water leaders across California are beginning to prepare for another wet winter, as a new water year got underway this week.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the state’s reservoirs are the fullest they’ve been at the start of a water year in 40 years. And, with an El Niño weather pattern looking more and more likely, so is the possibility for a lot of rain in the months ahead.
A tiny, shuttered wastewater treatment facility in north Phoenix that the City Council voted to bring back online Wednesday will be the city’s first to use advanced water purification technology that officials hope to make widespread within a decade.
Storms, floods, fires and other extreme weather events led to more than 43 million displacements involving children between 2016 and 2021, according to a United Nations report.
More than 113 million displacements of children will occur in the next three decades, estimated the UNICEF report released Friday, which took into account risks from flooding rivers, cyclonic winds and floods that follow a storm.
Saying the targets to cut water use in cities and towns will be costly and difficult to achieve, water agencies throughout California have raised concerns about an ambitious state proposal that would require more water conservation statewide beginning in 2025.
Several speakers pleaded with the State Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday to rethink proposed regulations intended to reduce Californians’ water use in the face of climate change.
“Making Conservation a California Way of Life” is a series of proposed regulations that stems from two laws passed in 2018. Those laws require the state water board to implement efficiency standards and performance levels for local agencies’ water use.
