Water restrictions began Wednesday for 6 million residents in Southern California, as the state enters its third year of severe drought and what water officials say is the state’s driest year on record.
Residents and businesses must limit their outdoor watering to one or two days per week or to a set volume of water, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced.
Managers of California’s most overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable, detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered basins into balance.
It was a task that required more than 250 newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a groundwater basin.
Altogether, they submitted plans for 20 basins for review by the California Department of Water Resources in January 2020. Earlier this year, DWR rendered its verdict: Most of the basin plans were incomplete.
Earlier this year, DWR rendered its verdict: Most of the basin plans were incomplete. Now groundwater agencies responsible for 12 of the 20 basins are racing to meet a late July deadline to submit revised plans that meet SGMA’s requirements or risk the state stepping in to manage their groundwater basins.
Millions of Angelenos awoke Wednesday to a new, more arid future as unprecedented water restrictions went into effect across Southern California.
For some, the sweeping limitations on outdoor watering felt like déjà vu from the last time the state was in a significant drought, when lawns turned brown and short showers became the norm. For others, the rules were a frustrating reminder of how little has changed.
While the state of California is in its third year of drought, the Sacramento City Council has approved the sale of up to $5 million worth of water from the Sacramento and American Rivers.
Carlos Eliason, spokesperson for the City of Sacramento Department of Utilities, said there is about 16,500 acre feet of surface water on our rivers. The city council approved to drop the 10,000 acre feet of input, or about 3.26 billion gallons of water, and divert it to state contractors and the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
The Biden administration unveiled a plan Thursday to undo Trump-era rule changes to a key section of the Clean Water Act, essentially giving states, territories and tribes more say on fossil fuel or industrial projects that could pollute their watersheds.
The Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed rule centers on Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, a longstanding provision that gives states more authority to certify or deny federal permits that are necessary for certain projects, including oil and gas pipelines.
On Tuesday afternoon, the area surrounding the State Capitol in Sacramento was blanketed in a kind of hush, typical of the first day back after a holiday weekend. It was warm, sunny and breezy.
When people spoke, one thing dominated the conversation: What is going on with the Assembly speakership?
Southern California is imposing mandatory water cutbacks as the state tries to cope with the driest conditions it has faced in recorded history. Starting Wednesday, about 6 million people in parts of Los Angeles, San Bernardino and Ventura counties are limited to watering outdoor plants once a week — an unprecedented move for the region.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies water to about 19 million people, declared a water shortage emergency in April and voted unanimously to curtail water use, either by restricting outdoor watering or by other means.
Hydropower is by far the largest renewable worldwide, producing over twice as much energy as wind, and over four times as much as solar. And pumping water up a hill, aka “pumped storage hydropower”, comprises well over 90% of the world’s total energy storage capacity.
But in spite of hydropower’s outsize impact, we don’t hear much about it in the U.S. While the past few decades have seen wind and solar plummet in price and skyrocket in availability, domestic hydropower generation has remained relatively steady, as the nation has already built hydropower plants in the most geographically ideal locations.
Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday unveiled a White House plan to tackle water security as a foreign policy priority in light of ever tightening global water supplies.
The plan pledges U.S. leadership in the efforts to ensure there is enough water to support food supplies and healthcare systems. Under the initiative, the U.S. government will also spearhead ways to defuse potential disputes over access to water, Harris said.
So it begins.
More than 6 million water users (that is, humans) across Southern California woke up on Wednesday to find themselves under new drought restrictions.
If you’ve been following the numbers, none of this should be surprising
