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Series of Winter Storms is Headed for California. Here’s When Each One is Expected to Hit

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Gerry Díaz

Bay Area residents would do well to keep their gloves handy, as they’ll be fighting a parade of storms that started on Boxing Day. Monday’s contender brought light showers and winds that evolved into heavy rainfall and intense winds by the Tuesday morning rush hour. In parts of the East Bay hills, Peninsula and North Bay highlands, winds gusted over 50 mph and were accompanied by intense rainfall across the region, where totals exceeded an inch and a quarter at both official downtown San Francisco and Oakland weather stations. More torrential downpours came down over the Santa Cruz Mountains and North Bay highlands, where stations like Felton and Mt. Tam exceeded 4 inches of rain.

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Thousands Will Live Here One Day (as Long as They Can Find Water)

/in , /by /The New York Timesby Keith Schneider

Surrounded by miles of creosote and ocotillo in the Sonoran Desert, state officials and business leaders gathered in October against the backdrop of the ragged peaks of the White Tank Mountains to applaud a plan to turn 37,000 acres of arid land west of Phoenix into the largest planned community ever proposed in Arizona. The development, Teravalis, is expected to have 100,000 homes and 55 million square feet of commercial space. But to make it happen, the project’s developer, the Howard Hughes Corporation, will need to gain access to enough water for its projected 300,000 residents and 450,000 workers.

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2022: So. Much. Water. News!

/in , , /by /SJV Waterby Lois Henry

Here we are nearing the end of another year. And the SJV Water team has been taking stock, reflecting and pondering the accumulation of news and events that made up 2022. (Really, we’re taking some much needed time off and I’m, personally,  “checkin’ the snow pack” –  code for skiing – and needed to stockpile some content. SHHH!)

 

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How Tracking Atmospheric Rivers Could Transform California’s Reservoir Levels During Drought

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Jack Lee

Atmospheric rivers can wreak havoc on the West Coast. These “rivers in the sky” stream enormous amounts of moisture from the tropics to western North America — double the flow of the Amazon River, on average. This moisture can produce downpours that cause widespread flood damage. From 1978 to 2017, this damage amounted to $1.1 billion per year according to a 2022 study. But atmospheric rivers are also crucial for life in California.

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Nevada Calls on Utah and Upper Colorado Basin States to Slash Water Use by 500,000 Acre-Feet

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribuneby Brian Maffly

Nevada water managers have submitted a plan for cutting diversions by 500,000 acre-feet in a last-ditch effort to shore up flows on the Colorado River before low water levels cause critical problems at Glen Canyon and Hoover dams. But the Silver State’s plan targets cuts in Utah and the river’s other Upper Basin states, not in Nevada, whose leaders contend it already is doing what it can to reduce reliance on the depleted river system that provides water to 40 million in the West.

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Opinion: No More Band-Aids: How to Make the Colorado River Sustainable for the Long Term

/in , , /by /The Arizona Republicby Margaret Garcia and Elizabeth Koebele

The Colorado River Basin is in the midst of a sustainability crisis. Climate change and severe drought, coupled with historic overallocation of the river, have caused water users to rapidly drain the system’s major reservoirs to their lowest levels since construction.

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As Desalination Gains Traction in Parts of California, Santa Cruz Weighs Future of Its Water Supply

/in , , /by /Lookout Santa Cruzby Christopher Neely

When it comes to the view of desalination as a tool to drought-proof local water systems in California, 2022 has been a roller-coaster year. In May, the California Coastal Commission, a 12-member appointed board responsible for overseeing the state’s 1,100 miles of coastline, rejected on environmental grounds a $1.4 billion desalination facility proposed for Huntington Beach.

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‘Full On Crisis’: Groundwater in California’s Central Valley Disappearing at Alarming Rate

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

Scientists have discovered that the pace of groundwater depletion in California’s Central Valley has accelerated dramatically during the drought as heavy agricultural pumping has drawn down aquifer levels to new lows and now threatens to devastate the underground water reserves. The research shows that chronic declines in groundwater levels, which have plagued the Central Valley for decades, have worsened significantly in recent years, with particularly rapid declines occurring since 2019.

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A Water War Is Brewing Over the Dwindling Colorado River

/in , , /by /ProPublicaby Abrahm Lustgarten

On a crisp day this fall I drove southeast from Grand Junction, Colorado, into the Uncompahgre Valley, a rich basin of row crops and hayfields. A snow line hung like a bowl cut around the upper cliffs of the Grand Mesa, while in the valley some farmers were taking their last deliveries of water, sowing winter wheat and onions. I turned south at the farm town of Delta onto Route 348, a shoulder-less two-lane road lined with irrigation ditches and dent corn still hanging crisp on their browned stalks. The road crossed the Uncompahgre River, and it was thin, nearly dry.

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California Program Pays Farmers to Fallow Fields to Preserve Water Amid Drought

/in , , /by /CBS Sacramentoby Rachel Wulff

With climate change and drought, the state of California is incentivizing not using farmland or fallowing it. The move comes as irrigation in some areas is damaging residential wells. Katie Staack farms 3,500 acres of almonds in Stanislaus County. She is one of the hundreds interested in the newly created LandFlex program. “The program is really unique because it’s focused on wet water, making sure we have wet water for our communities and aquifers, our ecosystems and farms,” Aubrey Bettencourt said.

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