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Opinion: How Bad the Climate Crisis Gets is Still Up to Us. We Just Have to Act

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Sammy Roth

As usual, California was ahead of the game. It’s been two decades since lawmakers passed the first law to begin requiring electric utilities to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. Nearly as long since Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for 1 million solar roofs. A decade since the state first mandated large numbers of electric cars on the road, and four years since Berkeley became the first U.S. city to ban gas appliances in new homes.

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The EPA is Investigating How California Manages its Water Following Complaints from Tribes

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Adam Beam

President Joe Biden’s administration has agreed to investigate how California manages its water after some Native American tribes and environmental groups complained the state’s policies are “rooted in white supremacy.” The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week it would investigate the California State Water Resources Control Board.

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Opinion: Recess is Over, Californians Demand Climate Action from State Legislators

/in , , /by /Capitol Weeklyby Irene Kao and Mike Young

In the final week of what became the hottest month in history, it was reported that California is not on track to reach our 2030 climate goals to reduce emissions to 48% below 1990 levels. As we experience more extreme heat, droughts, water scarcity, and intense wildfires, California’s role as a climate leader for the nation and world is called into question.

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To Help Navigate Looming Water Cuts, Imperial Irrigation Hires its Longtime Rival from LA

/in , , /by /The Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

One of the West’s top water kingpins is back, and in an unlikely new spot.

Jeffrey Kightlinger, retired general manager for the powerful Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, has been hired as a consultant by the Imperial Irrigation District, which in the past has been his bitter rival on Colorado River policy. The contract comes at a critical juncture, as seven states and federal officials ramp up negotiations over a long-term agreement to keep the massive but dwindling river and its reservoirs functional. IID holds the rights to by far the largest share of that water.

Kightlinger, 63, said of his new client, “It’s an intriguing thing … IID is obviously a big player, and I’ve been doing this for a long time, so I think it could work out well for both of us. “

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How Much Water is Left in the Colorado River? Scientists and Officials are Scrambling to Find Out

/in , , /by /CNN

Fresh off a phenomenal winter snowpack, water levels on the Colorado River are going up for the first time in years.

As a result, federal officials will announce this week that they are easing water restrictions in the Southwest starting next year, three sources familiar with the plan told CNN, lifting the region from a Tier 2 water shortage to a Tier 1. It’s a remarkable turnaround that will give back billions of gallons of Colorado River water to millions of people in the Southwest, primarily in Arizona and Nevada.

But they can’t breathe a sigh of relief. Officials, farmers and tribes are bracing for more difficult negotiations on how to divvy up the river when the current interstate agreement expires in 2026.

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Warming is Shifting Napa’s Wine Growing Season

/in , , /by /Water News Network / Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diegoby Alex Fox

The start of wine grape growing season in California’s Napa Valley now comes nearly a month earlier than it used to because of the region’s warming climate, according to a new study from a team led by UC San Diego Scripps Institution of Oceanography researcher Dan Cayan.

The research, published online in the International Journal of Climatology on June 29, is based on an analysis of local temperature records spanning 1958-2016 that charts the effects of natural climate variations such as the Pacific Decadal Oscillation and the growing influence of human-caused climate change upon the seasonal rhythms and shorter term temperature extremes in Napa Valley.

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40 Million People Share the Shrinking Colorado River. Here’s How That Water Gets Divvied Up.

/in , , /by /The Colorado Sunby Shannon Mullane

The Colorado River provides water for millions of people, including Coloradans from the Western Slope to the Eastern Plains. But much of the river system is overallocated, its waters are overused and its flows are shrinking. “It’s not a rosy picture. We’ve been in a drought for a very long time,” said Kevin Reidy, senior state water efficiency specialist with the Colorado Water Conservation Board, the state’s top water agency. “Really, what we’re looking at is aridification across the state, across the Southwest.”

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Tucson’s Storm to Shade Program is a Model for Drought-Stricken Areas

/in , , /by /KGUN 9by Matt Vasilogambros

There are no lush green lawns among the rows of single-family homes that line a quiet boulevard a mile west of the University of Arizona campus. Instead, small lizards scurry across gravel to the shade of cacti, shrubs and trees native to the Southwestern desert, as cicadas drone and backyard chickens cluck in the triple-digit heat now common here in July.

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Inside a Plan to Completely Drain Lake Powell

/in , , /by /Newsweekby Anna Skinner

Lake Powell will cease to exist if one group’s plan to restore Glen Canyon as the “heart of the Colorado River” comes to fruition.

An above-average snowfall and excessive precipitation in the spring have bolstered the water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, but Glen Canyon Institute Executive Director Eric Balken told Newsweek that he doubts that Lake Mead will ever return to full capacity

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Lorelei Cloud Makes History in a Critical Time as First Tribal Council Member on the Colorado Water Conservation Board

/in , , /by /CPR Newsby Tom Hesse

Lorelei Cloud joined the Colorado Water Conservation Board in March as the first tribal council member to serve in the position.

Cloud, the vice chair of the Southern Ute Tribal Council, was appointed to the position by Gov. Jared Polis. She joins the board at a critical time for water not just in Colorado, but across the American West.

As the representative for the San Miguel-Dolores-San Juan drainage basin, she represents land that covers not just the Southern Ute and Ute Mountain Ute reservations, but also 10 counties in southwestern Colorado.

She spoke to Colorado Matters about including Indigenous voices in water discussions and the challenges ahead for the Colorado River.

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