The California Independent System Operator has approved three reliability improvements for storage management that are set to take effect this summer when extreme heat could cause a spike in demand.
The word “crisis” ended a Colorado River conference that drew representatives from Southwest U.S. states, tribes and Mexico to Las Vegas this week.
A top Interior Department official closed the Colorado River Water Users Association conference on Friday calling the next three months critical for agreements to deal with drought and climate change.
One deadline is next Tuesday, when federal water managers close public comment on an effort expected to yield a plan by summer to use at least 15% less river water split among seven Western U.S. states, 30 Native American tribes and Mexico.
Conservation groups are going to court to try to bring back a flowing river in Bakersfield, where for years so much water has been diverted in canals to supply farms that the Kern River is usually reduced to a dry, sandy riverbed.
A coalition of California tribes and environmental justice groups filed a civil rights complaint Friday against the State Water Resources Control Board, charging it with discriminatory water management practices that it says have led to the ecological decline of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Chinook salmon haven’t spawned in the McCloud River for more than 80 years. But last summer, thousands of juveniles were born in the waters of this remote tributary, miles upstream of Shasta Dam.
For decades the San Francisco Estuary, which includes San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, has been routinely described as “the largest estuary on the west coast of North America.” This appeared in publications of all types, presumably to emphasize the importance and unique nature of the estuary. But this claim is wrong. While the San Francisco Estuary is quite large, with many unique features, the Salish Sea Estuary is the largest by far.
As parched California receives much needed rain and snow this winter, some local water officials are calling on state leaders to invest in new infrastructure projects that will store freshwater for inevitable dry times to come. The worst megadrought in 1,200 years is devastating the water supply in the Western United States.
The Colorado River’s largest reservoirs stand nearly three-quarters empty, and federal officials now say there is a real danger the reservoirs could drop so low that water would no longer flow past Hoover Dam in two years. That dire scenario — which would cut off water supplies to California, Arizona and Mexico — has taken center stage at the annual Colorado River conference in Las Vegas this week, where officials from seven states, water agencies, tribes and the federal government are negotiating over how to decrease usage on a scale never seen before.
There weren’t any smiles coming from panelists while addressing attendees at the Colorado River Water User Association’s annual conference at Caesars Palace on Thursday. The depletion of water in the Colorado River Basin has water officials alarmed, and they shared the facts.
Utah saw a snowy start to December, which is an encouraging sign for a state experiencing ongoing drought. But experts say it’s still early, and even if Utah has an above-average winter, it’ll take several strong years to make up for a multi-year water deficit.
