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Conference Highlights Deficiency of Models for Drought Situations

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Kevin Winter

As the drought in California and across much of the western United States enters another summer season, several experts participated in a conference hosted by the California Department of Water Resources and the Water Education Foundation on Thursday to discuss issues of how modeling precipitation can impact decisions made by policymakers.

One of the main takeaways of the conference was that the current modeling programs are not effective as they should be in helping water districts, state water agencies and federal departments in planning water distributions.

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Court Rules Federal Government Didn’t Stiff Fresno, Other Water Users During Last Drought

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Lois Henry

The federal government did not breach its contract when it gave water users, including the city of Fresno, a zero water allocation in the extreme drought year of 2014, according to a ruling issued June 6 in Federal Claims Court.

It may not seem fair, Judge Armando Bonilla wrote in his ruling, and “To be clear, a zero allocation for the Friant contractors was harsh,” but the fact is the Friant division of the Central Valley Project is outranked by superior water rights held by the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors.

 

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SoCal’s Lush Golf Courses Face New Water Restrictions. How Brown Will the Grass Go?

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith and Ian James

To some residents of Southern California, the golf course is a detested symbol of social privilege and water profligacy — a lush playground for the wealthy that can drink more than 100 million gallons a year, even as neighboring lawns shrivel and brown.

“Why are golf courses still a thing?” East Hollywood resident Spence Nicholson said recently. The 38-year-old called them little more than a “massive waste” of resources.

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State Curtails River Diversions Again. What That Means to Modesto-area Water Users

/in , , /by /The Modesto Beeby John Holland and Dale Kasler

The state has again stopped river diversions in much of Stanislaus and nearby counties, but the effect on farms and cities is minimal for the moment.

The orders allow water agencies to continue delivering supplies already in reservoirs. They include the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts and San Francisco on the Tuolumne River, and the Oakdale and South San Joaquin districts on the Stanislaus River.

These agencies have enough stored water for this year, but they still challenge the state’s authority over their long-held river rights.

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Scientists Find the Colorado River Was Blighted by a Worse Drought in the 2nd Century

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Matthew Renda

While the current drought afflicting the Colorado River Basin is the worst since federal scientists began keeping records, a new study using paleoclimatic data discovers it is not the worst drought in the region’s recent geological history.

Researchers at the Bureau of Reclamation published the study Thursday in Geophysical Research Letters, a peer-reviewed geoscience journal.

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Opinion: Why Is Almost No One Planning for a Future Without the Colorado River?

/in , /by /AZ Centralby Joanna Allhands

You’d think that, given how dangerously low Lake Mead is getting, we’d have a good idea of what life might look like without that water.

Yet few major players are modeling for a future without Colorado River water – or even a future in which we are asked to live on markedly less of it.

Ironically, the deeper the lake plunges, the more reluctant water managers seem to be about fleshing out the worst-case scenario.

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A ‘Dangerous and Deadly Heat Wave’ Is on the Way, the Weather Service Warns

/in , /by /CNNby Judson Jones

A “dangerous and deadly heat wave” is on the way for the Southwest through the weekend, the Phoenix National Weather Service warns.

More than 30 million people are under heat alerts, and more than 50 daily high-temperature records could be broken through the weekend – including in Death Valley, California, one of the hottest places on earth.

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Parts of Southern California Used 26% More Water in April, Despite Conservation Pleas

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

Coastal Southern California increased water usage by more than 25% for the month of April, lagging behind most other parts of the state in conservation and appearing to dismiss dire warnings of supply shortages.

According to data released Tuesday by the State Water Resources Control Board, cities and towns in the South Coast hydrologic region — an area that includes Los Angeles and more than half the state’s population — used 25.6% more water in April than in April 2020, the first year of the current drought.

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California Seeks to Rein in Water Usage by Closing a Nearly 2-Month Gap in Getting Data From Suppliers

/in , /by /CBS Sacramento

In response to prolonged drought across the West and ahead of the scorching summer months, California is asking its urban water suppliers to voluntarily report water consumption data sooner — so the state can better assess whether its water conservation goals are being met.

Years of low rainfall and snowpack coupled with more intense heat waves have fueled the state’s historic, multiyear drought conditions, rapidly draining its reservoirs.

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More Than 22 Million in Southwest Brace for Dangerous Heat

/in , /by /The New York Timesby Derrick Bryson Taylor

Dangerous and potentially deadly heat will settle over the Southwestern United States for the next several days, with temperatures in some locations expected to break records and exceed 110 degrees.

More than 22 million people in California, Nevada and Arizona are under some sort of heat-related alert through at least part of the weekend, the National Weather Service said. A heat wave is defined as a period of abnormally and uncomfortably hot and unusually humid weather that lasts for two or more days.

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