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How Nevada Uses More Than Its Tiny Share of the Colorado River Each Year

/in , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Colton Lochhead

Nevada gets less than a 2 percent cut from the Colorado River’s waters, but the state actually uses far more water than that each year, all while staying well within its century-old legal water rights.

It’s all thanks to an extensive water recycling program in the Las Vegas Valley and something called “return flow credits,” which allow the state to pull extra water out of Lake Mead for every gallon of wastewater treated and returned to the reservoir via the Las Vegas Wash.

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Weather Whiplash Leads to Dramatic Turnaround of Lake Sonoma

/in , /by /CBS Bay Areaby Wilson Walker

If you wanted to measure California’s change of water fortunes, the boat ramp at Lake Sonoma would be one place to do it.

The lake is the scene of an incredible four-month turnaround, for the very water system where the drought officially started.

“As you recall, three years ago, the governor literally was up at Lake Mendocino,” recalled Grant Davis with Sonoma Water. “Declaring the start of the drought basically, basically April 2021.”

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California Surpasses All-Time Snowpack Record

/in , , /by /KTL5by Travis Schlepp

Weeks of off-and-on storms across California may have been a source of frustration for many of the state’s residents, but it’s been good news for the state’s snowpack.

Precipitation has been so dramatic and persistent in recent months that this year’s historic snowpack totals are now believed to be the largest on record.

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The Oceans Just Reached Their Hottest Temperature On Record as El Niño Looms. Here are 6 Things to Watch for

/in , , /by /CNNby Laura Paddison and Rachel Ramirez

Scientists have watched in astonishment as ocean temperatures have steadily risen over the past several years – even as the cooling La Niña phenomenon had a firm grip on the Pacific. The oceans have been record-warm for the past four years, scientists reported in January. Then in mid-March, climatologists noted that global sea surface temperature climbed to a new high.

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Water Windfall: Key California Reservoir Fills for Just Third Time in 12 years

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Paul Rogers

Five months ago, San Luis Reservoir — the massive lake along Highway 152 between Gilroy and Los Banos — was just 24% full, an arid landscape of cracked mud and lonely boat ramps painfully far away from the dwindling water’s edge.

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Where Do Valley Rivers Start – and End? Examining Our ‘Tremendously Engineered’ System

/in , , /by /KVPRby Kerry Klein

California has one of the most complex water systems in the world. And so, the factors giving rise to our region’s floods are more complicated than the simple cascading of rain and snowmelt downhill during a rainier-than-average wet season.

We are well into one of the wettest winters on record in the San Joaquin Valley. Historic precipitation levels have buried the high Sierra Nevada under more than 50 total feet of snow. And parts of the Valley, stricken for years by severe drought, are underwater.

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EPA Announces $170 Million WIFIA Loan for Carlsbad Desalination Plant in San Diego, California

/in , , /by /Water Digest Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced a $170 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan to Poseidon Resources in San Diego County, California, to support its Carlsbad Desalination Plant Intake Modification and Wetlands Project, which will help provide sustainable access to drinking water.

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Turning Seawater into Drinking Water

/in , , /by /Atlanta News Nowby Trason Bragg Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The power and technology behind the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, which turns seawater into drinking water, is described in this video report from Reporter Trason Bragg.

The Carlsbad Desalination Plant is the largest, most technologically advanced and energy-efficient desalination plant in the nation, and it has produced more than 100 billion gallons of drinking water for San Diego County since operations began in December 2015.

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’We’re Looking Really, Really Good’: Bay Area Water Agencies End Water Restrictions, Drought Surcharges

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

Nothing says the end of drought like ending water restrictions — and the pesky drought surcharges on utility bills.

On the heels of California’s remarkably wet winter, the Bay Area’s biggest water agencies, including the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and East Bay Municipal Utility District, have either rescinded their drought policies or are about to do so.

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It’s All White: Colorado’s Statewide Snowpack Tops 140%, Though Reservoirs Are Still Low

/in , , /by /The Colorado Sunby Jerd Smith

Colorado is awash in white this spring, with statewide snowpack topping 140% of average this week, well above the reading a year ago, when it stood at just 97% of normal.

“Conditions in the American West are way better than they were last year at this time,” state climatologist Russ Schumacher said Tuesday at a joint meeting Tuesday of the Water Availability Task Force and the Governor’s Flood Task Force.

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