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The City of Monterey is Entertaining a Plan to Import Water. It’s Not Without its Critics.

/in , /by /Monterey County Weeklyby David Schmalz

One thing that’s not in dispute is that the City of Monterey needs water. What is in question is where that water comes from. On Aug. 1, the Monterey City Council discussed the possibility of teaming up with the Marina Coast Water District for an agreement that would potentially deliver whatever water the city needs to make proposed housing developments a reality (like on Garden Road, for example, wherein office buildings near the airport would be converted to apartments).

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Maui’s Fire Became Deadly Fast. Climate Change, Flash Drought, Invasive Grass and More Fueled It

/in , /by /AP Newsby Claire Rush, Seth Borenstein, Jennifer McDermott

Hawaii went from lush to bone dry and thus more fire-prone in a matter of just a few weeks — a key factor in a dangerous mix of conditions appear to have combined to make the wildfires blazing a path of destruction in Hawaii particularly damaging.

Experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of these flash droughts as well as other extreme weather events like what’s playing out on the island of Maui, where dozens of people have been killed and a historic tourist town was devastated.

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Water-Short Cities in the West Want to Use Every Last Drop, Even When it Comes from Sewage

/in , , /by /KUNCby Alex Hager

It looks like a normal glass of water. It’s clear, cold and tasteless. But just a few hours ago, it was raw sewage.

That water is the end product of a process and technology known as water recycling, or direct potable reuse.

In the Western U.S., there’s more demand for water than there is supply, particularly in the Colorado River basin. While the region’s policy makers are mired in standoff about how to fix that imbalance at a broad level, cities with finite water supplies are finding creative new ways to stretch out the water they already have. In some places, that means cleaning up sewage and putting it right back in the pipes that flow to homes and businesses.

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Battle Rages Over ‘Sweetheart Deal’ Between Trump Administration and Giant Water District

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

Critics call it a “sweetheart deal” between the Trump administration and the Central Valley’s largest agricultural water district, and they claim it unfairly lines the pockets of major farm owners while imperiling California salmon and other fish species.

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Scientists Look Beyond Climate Change and El Niño for Other Factors That Heat Up Earth

/in , /by /AP Newsby Seth Borenstein

Scientists are wondering if global warming and El Niño have an accomplice in fueling this summer’s record-shattering heat.

The European climate agency Copernicus reported that July was one-third of a degree Celsius (six-tenths of a degree Fahrenheit) hotter than the old record. That’s a bump in heat that is so recent and so big, especially in the oceans and even more so in the North Atlantic, that scientists are split on whether something else could be at work.

Scientists agree that by far the biggest cause of the recent extreme warming is climate change from the burning of coal, oil and natural gas that has triggered a long upward trend in temperatures. A natural El Niño, a temporary warming of parts of the Pacific that changes weather worldwide, adds a smaller boost. But some researchers say another factor must be present.

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California Water Agency Under Investigation for Discriminating Against Tribes, People of Color

/in , /by /CalMattersby Rachel Becker

The Biden administration’s environmental justice office is investigating whether California’s water agency has discriminated against Native Americans and other people of color by failing to protect the water quality of San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s investigation was triggered by a complaint filed by tribes and environmental justice organizations that says the the state Water Resources Control Board for over a decade “has failed to uphold its statutory duty” to review and update water quality standards in the Bay-Delta.

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Diana Marcum, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Former Reporter for Los Angeles Times, Dies

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby James Rainey

Diana Marcum forged a career, and a life, by giving a voice to Californians whom many people didn’t take time to notice. Her favorite subjects were strivers and oddballs, the dispossessed and the people who dared to be delighted in the face of life’s struggles.

The veteran journalist chronicled drought and hunger and deep anxiety from the Central Valley, which she made her home for more than two decades. In even the darkest tales, she usually managed to deliver a ray of light.

Marcum, a former Los Angeles Times reporter who won the 2015 Pulitzer Prize for feature writing, died Wednesday night, according to her friend Janet Sluis. Marcum had a glioblastoma removed from her brain in early July, but fell into a coma shortly after surgery at Fresno Community Regional Medical Center and never fully recovered. She was 60.

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As Threat of El Niño Winter Looms, Newsom Signs Order to Hasten Levee Repairs

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith, Ian James, Susanne Rust

As forecasters sound the alarm about another potentially wet California winter fueled by El Niño, Gov. Gavin Newsom is taking urgent but controversial measures to prevent a repeat of the devastating floods that befell the state earlier this year.

An executive order signed by the governor this month will streamline levee repairs and debris removal to help protect and prepare communities for another potential inundation.

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Golf Course Operators Are Teaming Up to Survive Colorado River Water Cuts and a Future That’s Less Green

/in , , /by /CPR Newsby Michael Elizabeth Sakas

Golf professionals and course owners in the Southwest will meet for the first time to discuss how an industry defined by manicured grass can survive climate change, government water cuts and attract players to fairways and greens nourished with less Colorado River water.

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California Moves to Expand Reuse of Wastewater for Drinking

/in , , /by /Axios San Francisco by Shawna Chen

New proposed state regulations would allow cities to pipe highly purified wastewater directly into drinking water supplies.

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