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Colorado River Conditions Are Worsening Quicker Than Expected. Feds Prepare to Step In.

/in , , /by /The Denver Postby Conrad Swanson

Running out of time and options to save water along the drying Colorado River, federal officials said they’re considering whether to release less water from the country’s two largest reservoirs downstream to Arizona, California and Nevada. Without enough snow this winter, the water level at Lake Powell — the country’s second-largest reservoir — will drop below a critical level by next November, according to a new report from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

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Ripon Cuts Watering to Once a Week Thru Feb. 28 Due to Drought

/in , /by /Manteca Bulletinby Vince Rembulat

The City of Ripon’s new watering schedule went into effect on Tuesday. The winter schedule calls for a once-a-week schedule, from Nov. 1 to Feb. 28. Manteca, by contrast, still allows watering twice a week in the winter as California enters its fourth year of drought.

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First Significant Snowstorm of the Season Hits Tahoe. Has Winter Come Early?

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Gerry Diaz

After a week of will-they-won’t-they, the global weather models finally locked in on the track of California’s first substantial storm of the wet season. The storm’s cold front will ride an atmospheric river of moisture as it sends round after round of heavy rain showers to Humboldt, Del Norte and Mendocino counties. These rains will then turn to snow as they climb the steps of the southern Cascades.

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Opinion: Feds Demand Colorado River Water Cutbacks

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Dan Walters

One must wade through a thicket of bureaucratic jargon to find it, but on Friday federal officials issued what appears to be a serious warning to California and other states that use water from the highly stressed Colorado River: If they cannot agree on sharp reductions in diversions of the Colorado’s water, the feds will impose them unilaterally. It’s the latest wrinkle in decades of interstate squabbling over the river, which has become more heated as the river’s flows continue to decline and conditions in its two major reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, reach the crisis stage.

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Colorado River Managers Looking to Release Less Water from Lake Powell

/in , , /by /The Colorado Sunby Chris Outcalt

Colorado River managers looking to protect critical infrastructure at Lake Powell’s Glen Canyon Dam are seeking the ability to release less water from Powell next year as they work to rebalance demand on the troubled river. “We are taking immediate steps now to revise the operating guidelines to protect the Colorado River System and stabilize rapidly declining reservoir storage elevations,” reclamation commissioner Camille Touton said late last week in a written statement.

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Opinion: Senator Kelly is Wrong on All Counts Concerning California and the Colorado River

/in , , /by /The Desert Reviewby Betty Miller

Arizona Senator Mark Kelley wrote a letter October 25 to Deb Haaland, U.S. Department of Interior Secretary, asking her to punish the people and communities surrounding the Salton Sea, to punish the migratory birds and fish that depend on the sea for subsistence because he is in a fight for his political seat against a contender that could beat him. The tens of thousands of people living around the Salton Sea experience the highest rates of asthma in the State of California from the drying sea that leaves behind toxic waste which become airborne as winds kick up.

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Hoopa Valley Tribe Sues US Over California Water Contracts

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Kathleen Ronayne

he Hoopa Valley Tribe alleged in a lawsuit Monday that the federal government is violating its sovereignty and failing to collect money from California farms that rely on federally supplied water to pay for damages to tribal fisheries. The tribe, which has a reservation in northwest California, says in its lawsuit against the Biden administration that the Trinity River that it relies on for food and cultural purposes has been decimated by decades of the federal government diverting water

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Opinion: Desalination Will Be Key to California’s Water Future. It Needs to Improve First

/in , /by /CalMattersby Grayson Zulauf

If the climate crisis is coming, the water crisis is already here. As rice fields were fallowed in California, Lake Mead water levels almost sunk so low that Hoover Dam could no longer generate power, and life-threatening toxic dust blew off the dried-up Salton Sea. Thirty percent of the world population will face water shortages of some kind by 2025. Things are only going to get worse.

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New US Plan Could Lead to Federal Action on Colorado River

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Felicia Fonseca and Kathleen Ronayne

The Interior Department announced Friday that it will consider revising a set of guidelines for operating two major dams on the Colorado River in the first sign of what could lead to federal action to protect the once-massive but shrinking reservoirs behind them. The public has until Dec. 20 to weigh in on three options that seek to keep Lake Mead and Lake Powell from dropping so low they couldn’t produce power or provide the water that seven Western states, Mexico and tribes have relied on for decades.

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Bay Area Rain, and the First Significant Sierra Nevada Snow is on the Way. Here’s When It Arrives.

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

Tire chains. Winter coats. Gloves. Remember them? Snow is expected to fall across the Sierra Nevada early next week as a storm from the Gulf of Alaska pushes into California and the rest of the West Coast, bringing a likelihood of light rain to the Bay Area. Although details will become clearer in the next few days, forecasters said Friday that at least a foot of snow is expected to fall at higher elevations on Tuesday in the Sierra, potentially causing visibility issues and the need for motorists to carry tire chains if they are heading over mountain passes Tuesday and Wednesday as temperatures fall.

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