With Oct. 1 marking the beginning of a new water year, Mendocino County officials reported recently that local water districts are preparing for what could be another dry year.
In the latest update from the Mendocino County Water Agency, local water managers are quoted as describing their current status and outlook.
California American Water has shifted its plans for a desalination plant on the shores of Marina, announcing it will now seek to build the project in multiple phases.
“Phasing the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project strikes the right balance to meet the critical need for sufficient and reliable drought-proof water supply to meet demands in the near term while allowing for additional supply as it becomes needed over the next 30 years,” said Josh Stratton, a Cal Am spokesman, in an email. “In addition, as we heard from the community, phasing the project with the possibility of expanding the project to accommodate future regional water supply needs through public participation is important. This is a win-win for the region that provides an opportunity to help the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project be part of future water supply solutions for our customers and nearby communities.”
On Scott Beylik’s 4-acre farm about 60 miles northwest of Los Angeles, rows of tomato vines climb wires strung from the beams of his greenhouses. There’s no soil, so the roots are submerged in little bags with water. Every drop of water he uses goes directly to the plant.
s the drought in the West drags on, the future of water-loving crops like tomatoes hangs in the balance. Hydroponic farming — the technique Beylik farms with — uses as little as 10% of the water traditional systems use to grow tomatoes and other field crops.
With California’s four-year-old legal marijuana market in disarray, the state’s top prosecutor said Tuesday that he will try a new broader approach to disrupting illegal pot farms that undercut the legal economy and sow widespread environmental damage.
The state will expand its nearly four-decade multi-agency seasonal eradication program — the largest in the U.S. that this year scooped up nearly a million marijuana plants — into a year-round effort aimed at investigating who is behind the illegal grows. The new program will attempt to prosecute underlying labor crimes, environmental crimes and the underground economy centered around the illicit cultivations, said Attorney General Rob Bonta.
The fall season is settling into Sacramento, which means watering rules for the city will change soon.
As a part of a water conservation ordinance from 2017, the city of Sacramento set up restrictions on when businesses and residents water their lawns.
From Nov. 1 to Feb. 28, individuals can only water their landscape one day per week, on Saturday or Sunday, at any time of day. Watering on a weekday is not allowed.
California’s offer to conserve some of its share of Colorado River water over the next few years won’t solve the looming water and power crisis in the West — but it might be enough to kickstart negotiations among the states on a deal that could.
The biggest hurdle to striking an agreement that would sharply curtail water use among the seven states that share the river has been the impasse between the two thirstiest states — California and Arizona — over which should shoulder the brunt of the cuts as climate change fuels the deepest drought in the region in 1,200 years.
The Kyrene Water Reclamation Facility, built in the late 1980s and closed by budget cuts in 2010, is being brought back online as a part of Tempe’s response to the ongoing drought. The plant will collect and recycle wastewater, used mainly to recharge aquifers beneath the city.
The announcement comes as Arizona experiences abnormally dry conditions, with 23% of the state in severe drought, a term used to describe conditions where water and feed are inadequate for livestock, fire danger is high and little forage remains for wildlife, according to the National Integrated Drought Information System. In fact, the drought that has gripped Arizona since 2000 has been the driest in more than 1,200 years, and it’s expected to persist in the near future, according to a study by Nature Climate Change.
Back in 2021 the Hyatt Powerplant was taken offline because of historically low water levels.
DWR announced that the plant is expected to stay online through 2022. On Monday, the lake level was at 693 feet elevation whereas the level had dropped to 628 in September 2021.
The plant is capable of generating 714 megawatts when the lake is at full capacity.
The California Public Utilities Commission should reject calls to delay adding new power supplies in the state even though the Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant’s impending retirement may be put on hold, according to the California Independent System Operator.
CAISO also supports a recommendation from the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office that the commission authorize immediate procurements to address system needs from 2026 through 2030, the grid operator said in comments it filed at the commission on Thursday.
California’s largest inland body of water is in trouble. Inflows to the Salton Sea have decreased, salinity is growing, the ecosystem is collapsing, and neighboring communities are suffering high rates of respiratory illnesses caused, many believe, by contaminants in dust blowing off the exposed former seabed.
It’s not possible to import enough water quickly enough to save the ecosystem and cover the contaminants. The solutions must be more practical: Fixing the salinity will be the key to saving this crucial habitat. A targeted approach can also reduce dust.
