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Four Things to Know About Colorado River Water in California

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Rachel Becker

Southern California water districts are grappling with what the fallout could look like if supplies from a critical source — the rapidly drying Colorado River — are cut next year.

The US Bureau of Reclamation warned at a U.S. Senate hearing in mid-June that seven western states had 60 days to voluntarily reach a deal: Cut Colorado River water use by 2 to 4 million acre-feet in 2023 or face federally-mandated cuts instead. It’s a massive amount — at least seven times more than Nevada is entitled to in a year.

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Taps Have Run Dry in a Major Mexico City for Months. A Similar Water Crisis Looms in the US, Experts Say

/in , , /by /Phys.orgby Maria Aguilar

About 300 miles southwest of San Antonio, water taps have run dry in a major Mexico city.

Thousands of residents wake up at dawn to check their taps and fill up containers. Others line up with large jugs, bottles and buckets at cisterns around the city, where fights have broken out when people try to jump the line.

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Better Atmospheric River Forecasts Are Giving Emergency Planners More Time to Prepare for Flooding

/in , , /by /Scientific Americanby F. Martin Ralph

I was eating breakfast on a Monday morning at Sears Fine Food in downtown San Francisco, casually watching the local five-day weather forecast on a television screen behind the counter. A little symbol along the bottom showed a happy-looking sun for the rest of the day. Wednesday had a friendly-looking cloud and a few raindrops, and Thursday had a dark, threatening cloud with heavier drops.

I knew Thursday’s conditions would be much rougher than the symbol conveyed. I had been studying detailed satellite data and weather models, and they indicated that a major atmospheric river (AR) was likely to hit the city. The symbol was completely inadequate for communicating the threat of the approaching storm.

 

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How the Western Drought is Pushing the Power Grid to the Brink

/in , , /by /Voxby Umair Irfan

It takes a lot of water to make power.

From spinning turbines to hydraulic fracturing to refining fuel, the flow of water is critical to the flow of electrons and heat. About 40 percent of water withdrawals — water taken out of groundwater or surface sources — in the United States go toward energy production. The large majority of that share is used to cool power plants. In turn, it requires energy to extract, purify, transport, and deliver water.

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Water-Rationing Worry Haunts US West With 40 Million at Risk

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Kellie Lunney

The federal government this week will announce the drought forecast for the arid Colorado River Basin, as well as possible cuts western states must make to conserve more water from a supply serving roughly 40 million people.

The Bureau of Reclamation Tuesday will issue its projection for conditions over the next two years in the West’s most important water supply—and the news is expected to be bleak.

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Tensions Grow Over Lack of a Water Deal for the Shrinking Colorado River

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

Two months ago, federal officials took the unprecedented step of telling the seven states that depend on Colorado River water to prepare for emergency cuts next year to prevent reservoirs from dropping to dangerously low levels.

The states and managers of affected water agencies were told to come up with plans to reduce water use drastically, by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet, by mid-August.

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More Evidence that California Weather is Trending Toward Extremes

/in , , /by /Water News Network / UC San Diego News Centerby Rob Monroe Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A team led by Kristen Guirguis, a climate researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, found evidence that the risk of hazardous weather is increasing in the Southwest.

The researchers investigated the daily relationships among four major modes of weather affecting California. How they interact governs the formation of weather events such as atmospheric rivers capable of bringing torrential rains and Santa Ana winds that can spread devastating wildfires.

“This study suggests that weather patterns are changing in a way that enhances hot, dry Santa Ana winds, while reducing precipitation frequency in the Southwest,” said Guirguis. “These changes in atmospheric circulation are raising the risk of wildfires during California winters.”

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West’s Drought Recovery Still Years Away Despite Recent Monsoons

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Bobby Magill

Heavy monsoon rains have helped to relieve the Southwest’s historic drought, but water officials say the deluge isn’t enough to reverse a drying trend that has depleted the region’s primary water sources.

Much of the West remains entrenched in a 23-year “historically unprecedented” drought driven by climate change, said Jonathan Deason, an environmental engineering professor at George Washington University.

“It’s going to take about three years of above-average rainfall to have substantial recovery,” he said.

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Opinion: Newsom’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Plan Makes More Sense. But It’s Still a ‘Water Grab’

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby George Skelton

The third attempt could be the charm for repairing California’s main waterworks, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

On paper at least, the latest plan by a governor to upgrade the delta into a more reliable state water supply seems to make much more sense than what his predecessors promoted.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s single-tunnel proposal is smaller and more respectful of the bucolic estuary’s small farms, waterfowl habitat, unique recreational boating and historic tiny communities. So, it’s potentially less controversial.

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Pipe Dreams: Why Far-Fetched Western Water Projects Won’t Go Away

/in , , /by /Gristby Jake Bittle

The California water wars of the early twentieth century are summed up in a famous line from the 1974 film Chinatown: “Either you bring the water to L.A., or you bring L.A. to the water.” Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the events the film dramatizes, but much of the West still approaches water the same way. If you don’t have enough of it, go find more.

As politicians across the West confront the consequences of the climate-fueled Millennium Drought, many of them are heeding the words of Chinatown and trying to bring in outside water through massive capital projects. There are at least half a dozen major water pipeline projects under consideration throughout the region, ranging from ambitious to outlandish. Arizona lawmakers want to build a pipeline from the Mississippi River more than a thousand miles away, a Colorado rancher wants to pipe water 300 miles across the Rockies, and Utah wants to pump even more water out of the already-depleted Lake Powell.

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