A national flood assessment tool could be out of date. A new study says this tool is not taking into account how many more severe events are happening because of climate change and how new construction could be at a higher risk.
It won’t be long before snow melt from the Sierra fills our two local lakes, Pine Flat and Millerton. It’s a sight to behold. Two lakes in central California with water almost to the top. Millerton Lake at 84% capacity of 500,000 acre-feet.
Much has been written on potential effects and adaptations for California’s water supply from climate warming, particularly from changes in snowpack accumulation and melting, sea level rise, and possible overall drying or wetting trends. But what about floods?
While Gavin Newsom has tried to shoehorn in the Delta tunnel, state lawmakers have been adamant about not including the project in the state budget. With the July 27 deadline looming to agree to a finalized budget for California, state lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom appear to still be split on the controversial Delta tunnel.
The largest Native American reservation in the United States has lost a key legal battle to protect access to a waterway that is critical to its citizens’ spiritual practices — and their survival.
All but one member of the Supreme Court’s conservative majority ruled Thursday against the Navajo Nation in its fight to ensure that the federal government is legally obligated to address the tribe’s need for water from the dwindling flows of the Colorado River.
There will be no state lawmakers on the Colorado River Drought Task Force, though Capitol leadership has a lot of influence over who is on the panel. The 17-member task force charged with spending the rest of the year studying the Colorado River water crisis to help state lawmakers respond is starting to take shape, with most of the panel now appointed.
The Marin Municipal Water District has approved a $305.9 million, two-year budget that will begin to make significant investments in new water supplies not seen by the agency in decades. “We have a very big job ahead of us with this budget,” Monty Schmitt, the president of the district’s elected board, said before it voted unanimously to adopt the budget on Tuesday.
“The story of Los Angeles is the story of water,” remarks Peter Massey, TreePeople’s project manager of Water Equity Programs, noting how California’s modern history is so deeply intertwined with water issues.
El Niño has arrived, bringing potentially major effects on weather around the world, such as drought and flooding, and possibly setting a new record for the hottest year. Seven years ago an exceptionally strong El Niño took hold in the Pacific Ocean, triggering a cascade of damaging changes to the world’s weather.
California’s two biggest reservoirs are all but full after reaching perilously low levels late last year. Lake Shasta, at 96% full, and Lake Oroville, at 100%, had fallen to around 25% to 30% of their capacity before the state’s historically wet winter rejuvenated them.
