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Recent Storms Give Drought-Weary California Cause for Hope, but Will They Continue?

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

Winter storms that doused California with much-needed rain and snow over the last week have managed to ease some dire drought conditions, but experts warned that the state still has a long way to go to truly reverse its historic dry streak. For many, the massive storm system that soaked swaths of the West Coast with inches of rain and feet of snow was a reminder of seasons past as it snarled traffic, triggered rock slides and sparked a blizzard of “winter wonderland” posts on social media.

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Colorado River Users Set to Meet, but Water Deal Seems a Ways Off

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

As Western water managers get set to gather in Las Vegas this week, a long-sought deal to curtail water use along the cratering Colorado River still seems a ways off. Nearly six months have passed since Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton first asked the Western states to come up with a plan to cut back on water use from the river next year by as much as 30 percent, but a cohesive proposal from the seven states that pull from the Colorado that supplies water to some 40 million people has yet to emerge.

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Too Soon to Know How Sierra Nevada Snowfall Will Impact California’s Ongoing Drought

/in , , /by /CapRadioby Mike Hagerty

For the second weekend in a row, Sacramento and the Sierra Nevada mountains saw back-to-back storms bringing rain to the valley and snow to the hills. Despite the recent wet weather, including snow intense enough to snarl mountain travel in the Sierra this weekend, California is still grappling with a number of drier-than-usual winters and persistent drought. So how much did these storms help?

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Is California’s Drought Over? Water Providers Still Predict Shortages Next Year

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Alastair Bland

December has delivered a powerful punch of storms to California. But the wet weather comes with a dry dose of reality: The state’s largest reservoirs remain badly depleted, projected water deliveries are low, wells are drying up, and the Colorado River’s water, already diminished by a megadrought, is severely overallocated. Throughout California, urban water managers are bracing for a fourth consecutive drought year.

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Experts Split on Need to Retool Colorado River Compact

/in , , /by /Arizona Daily Starby Tony Davis

Management of the depleted Colorado River needs an overhaul, speakers at a University of Arizona-sponsored conference agreed. But at a conference called last week to observe the 100th anniversary of the interstate compact that divided river water rights among Western states, the speakers disagreed over whether the Colorado River Compact itself needs a major rework.

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Colorado River Water Users Convening Amid Crisis Concerns

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Ken Ritter

Living with less water in the U.S. Southwest is the focus this week for state and federal water administrators, tribal officials, farmers, academics and business representatives meeting about the drought-stricken and overpromised Colorado River. The Colorado River Water Users Association conference, normally a largely academic three-day affair, comes at a time of growing concern about the river’s future after more than two decades of record drought attributed to climate change.

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Colorado River Compact: As Colorado River Flows Drop and Tensions Rise, Water Interests Struggle to Find Solutions That All Can Accept

/in , , /by /Water Education Foundation (Western Water)by Nick Cahill

When the Colorado River Compact was signed 100 years ago, the negotiators for seven Western states bet that the river they were dividing would have ample water to meet everyone’s needs – even those not seated around the table.

A century later, it’s clear the water they bet on is not there.

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Storm Blankets Sierra Nevada in Heavy Snow, Brings Rain Across California

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

A storm blanketed the Sierra Nevada in heavy snow and soaked much of California with rain, bringing a wet start of winter weather after three years of record drought. The storm brought 3 to 4 feet of fresh snow in parts of the Sierra Nevada over the weekend. From the San Francisco Bay Area to Southern California, between 1 inch and 4 inches of rain fell in many areas.

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Planned Upper Colorado River Basin Program Reboot Could Pay Water Users to Conserve

/in , , /by /KUNCby Alex Hager

As climate change continues to shrink the Colorado River’s largest reservoirs, a group of four states that use its water are set to lay out plans to reboot a conservation program. The Upper Colorado River Commission – comprised of Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and New Mexico – plans to announce details of an extended “System Conservation Pilot Program” through which water users could be paid to cut back on their use.

The soon-to-be-launched program aims to use a pool of $125 million from the Inflation Reduction Act for payouts to “mitigate the impacts of long-term drought and depleted storage,” according to presentation slides obtained by KUNC.

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Drought-Ravaged L.A. Seeks Surprising Source of Water: A Contaminated Superfund Site

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

As drought and climate change ravage California’s once-reliable supply of drinking water, officials in Los Angeles are setting their sights on a relatively new, almost untapped resource for the city’s 4 million residents: the Superfund site in their own backyard. Nearly 70% of the city’s 115 wells in the San Fernando Valley groundwater basin — the largest such basin under the purview of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power — have been sitting unused for decades after dangerous contaminants seeped into the aquifer.

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