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Tijuana, Reliant on the Colorado River, Faces a Water Crisis

/in , , /by /AP by Suman Naishadham Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Luis Ramirez leapt onto the roof of his bright blue water truck to fill the plastic tank that by day’s end would empty into an assortment of buckets, barrels and cisterns in 100 homes.

It was barely 11 a.m. and Ramirez had many more stops to make on the hilly, grey fringes of Tijuana, a sprawling, industrial border city in northwestern Mexico where trucks or “pipas” like Ramirez’s provide the only drinking water for many people.

“Each time, it gets farther and farther where we have to go,” he said, blaming the city’s water problems on drought and population growth, before jumping into the driver’s seat next to 16-year-old assistant Daniel Alvarez.

Among the last cities downstream to receive water from the shrinking Colorado River, Tijuana is staring down a water crisis driven also by aging, inefficient infrastructure and successive governments that have done little to prepare the city for diminishing water in the region.

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Climate-Heating El Niño Has Arrived and Threatens Lives, Declares UN

/in , , /by /The Guardianby Damian Carrington

The arrival of a climate-heating El Niño event has been declared by the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO), with officials warning that preparation for extreme weather events is vital to save lives and livelihoods. The last major El Niño was in 2016, which remains the hottest year on record. The new El Niño comes on top of the increasing global heating driven by human-caused carbon emissions, an effect the WMO called a “double whammy”.

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Toxic Algae Outbreaks Off US West Coast Set to Worsen With El Niño

/in , , /by /Bloombergby Coco Liu

Sea lions and dolphins have been washing up sick or dead on Southern California beaches, poisoned by eating fish containing a dangerous neurotoxin. It’s the result of a harmful algae bloom, a natural phenomenon that turns water blue, bright green, brown or red, and occurs mostly in the summer and fall.

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Colorado Tribes Fear the Effects of U.S. Supreme Court Ruling Against Navajo Nation in Water Rights Case

/in , , /by /The Colorado Sunby Elliott Wenzler

Colorado tribes are worried that a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last month against the Navajo Nation in a Colorado River water rights case may narrow the federal government’s broad, historic responsibility to provide them with aid. In Navajo Nation vs. Arizona Dept. of the Interior, the tribe was seeking to sue the federal government to require it to assess the tribe’s water rights along the Colorado River and help to create a plan to develop them for the 170,000 tribal members who live there.

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World Hits Record Land, Sea Temperatures as Climate Change Fuels 2023 Extremes

/in , , /by /Times of San Diego by Reuters

The target of keeping long-term global warming within 2.7 Fahrenheit is moving out of reach, climate experts say, with nations failing to set more ambitious goals despite months of record-breaking heat on land and sea.

As envoys gathered in Bonn in early June to prepare for this year’s annual climate talks in November, average global surface air temperatures were more than 2.7F above pre-industrial levels for several days, the EU-funded Copernicus Climate Change Service said.

Though mean temperatures had temporarily breached the 2.7F threshold before, this was the first time they had done so in the northern hemisphere summer that starts on June 1. Sea temperatures also broke April and May records.

“We’ve run out of time because change takes time,” said Sarah Perkins-Kirkpatrick, a climatologist at Australia’s University of New South Wales.

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Is Seawater Desalination Right for California?

/in , , /by /WaterWorldby Erik Desormeaux

With an unclear future for the state’s freshwater sources, California’s interest in seawater desalination continues to grow. Support for desalination in California is growing. Currently, California has 12 seawater desalination facilities, but only two are of a significant size. Although a key state agency has recently approved plans for two more moderate size facilities, the perception of seawater desalination in the state is quite poor and project proposals face a steep uphill battle.

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Harder Pushes for Heavy Snowpack Strategy

/in , , /by /Manteca Bulletinby Dennis Wyatt

Congressman Josh Harder Thursday stood near ground zero of where the fluctuating snowpack in the Sierra can cause serious problems when it is too little and when it is too much. Harder was at the San Joaquin National Wildlife Refuge that extends to the Stanislaus River just 10 miles south of Manteca. He was there to get an update on efforts to eradicate large invasive swap rodents known as nutrias that can seriously damage vegetation and levees.

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Opinion: Looking for the Next California Tech Boom? You’ll Find It in Our Farmlands

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Joel Kotkin and Marshall Toplansky

The world may see California largely as home to Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but it’s agriculture technology where we can most clearly outshine our competitors. In a new study, “Nurturing California Industries,” we identified it as among the six industries most critical to the state’s economic future.

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Expect a Hot, Smoky Summer in Much of America. Here’s Why You’d Better Get Used to It

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Seth Borenstein

The only break much of America can hope for anytime soon from eye-watering dangerous smoke from fire-struck Canada is brief bouts of shirt-soaking sweltering heat and humidity from a southern heat wave that has already proven deadly, forecasters say. And then the smoke will likely come back to the Midwest and East.

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San Diego County Water Authority Head Sandy Kerl Retires

/in , /by /The Bond Buyerby Keeley Webster Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Sandra Kerl, the long-time general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, retired Thursday after more than 40 years of public service.

Deputy General Manager Dan Denham will serve as acting GM until the board of directors finds a permanent replacement.

“It has been my privilege to work with so many talented and dedicated people during my 14 years at the Water Authority,” said Kerl. “I have complete confidence that they will carry on our mission without skipping a beat.”

Sandra Kerl-Retires-San Diego County Water Authority

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