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The Promise and Pitfalls of Desalination

/in , , /by /The Economist Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Carlsbad State Beach is a Southern California idyll. Palm trees adorn the cliffs above the sand, and surfers paddle out for the waves. From the beach it is impossible to tell that a huge desalination plant not half a mile away is sucking in seawater to produce 50 million gallons of new drinking water each day. It is the largest in America—for now. Soon it may share that title with a proposed sister plant 60 miles (97km) north in Huntington Beach. But only if that one is built.

Poseidon Water, the developer that also built the Carlsbad plant, first proposed the Huntington Beach facility in the 1990s. But it has taken the company more than two decades to persuade Californians of the plant’s necessity.

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Kings County Declares Local Drought Emergency

/in , , /by /The Sentinelby Eric Gill

The Kings County Board of Supervisors on Friday voted to declare a local emergency due to drought conditions in the area. All five Kings County supervisors voted in favor of declaring the local state of emergency.

The resolution was considered during a Special Meeting held April 1 to consider a recommendation submitted by Edward Hill, county administrative officer, and Matthew Boyett, a Kings County Administration staff member.

The primary purpose of the meeting — “declaring a local emergency due to drought conditions in Kings County” — was voted on after the closed session.

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Proposed Tulare County Reservoir Could Begin Banking Water as Soon as 2026

/in , , /by /The Sun Gazetteby Reggie Ellis

Last Friday’s report that California’s snowpack is just 38% of normal underscores the importance for Tulare County to not only take the drought more seriously, but to brace for drier winters to become the rule rather than the exception.

Two Tulare County irrigation water agencies aren’t waiting around to see how the state will cope with the current and future drought and are taking steps to secure more water storage in the Kaweah Subbasin. Tulare Irrigation District (TID) and Consolidated Peoples Ditch Company (CPDC) purchased 260 acres in December 2020 near McKay Point, where the Kaweah River forks into the Lower Kaweah and St. John’s rivers near Lemon Cove, to build a reservoir capable of storing 8,000 acre feet of water.

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State Water Board May Extend Restrictions to Russian River Water

/in , , /by /NBC Bay Area

A current regulation that curtails water rights in the Russian River watershed set to expire in July may be extended due to the continuing drought, according to the state agency charged with balancing all water needs of the state.

State Water Resources Control Board officials announced Friday the board released a draft emergency regulation to extend the regulation and clarify some of its requirements.

The Russian River runs from Mendocino County south into Sonoma County. It is the second-largest river in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, behind the Sacramento River.

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State Updates Climate Priorities

/in , , /by /Bakersfield.comby John Cox

State government released an updated set of strategies Monday for meeting the increasingly urgent challenges of climate change.

The six-point plan published online at climateresilience.ca.gov calls for doing more to protect vulnerable communities, strengthen public health and safety, reinforce the economy, speed up natural climate solutions, stick to the best available climate science and create partnerships to maximize resources.

The website’s debut followed a report Monday by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned governments have fallen behind in their efforts to limit temperature increases to 2.7 degrees on average.

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UN Warns Earth ‘Firmly on Track Toward an Unlivable World’

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Frank Jordans and Seth Borenstein

Temperatures on Earth will shoot past a key danger point unless greenhouse gas emissions fall faster than countries have committed, the world’s top body of climate scientists said Monday, warning of the consequences of inaction but also noting hopeful signs of progress.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change revealed “a litany of broken climate promises” by governments and corporations, accusing them of stoking global warming by clinging to harmful fossil fuels.

“It is a file of shame, cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track toward an unlivable world,” he said.

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Klamath Irrigators Vote for Water Deliveries Even if It Puts Federal Drought Funding at Risk

/in , /by /Jefferson Public Radioby Erik Neumann

After last year’s drought that saw protests and threats of breaking into federal water management facilities, the implications of the recent Klamath Irrigation District (KID) vote are unclear, but support from irrigators was widespread on March 29, 2022.

Out of 377 votes, 319 KID members voted ‘yes’ to the ballot question: “Pursuant to both our federal contract obligations and state water rights, do you want the district to attempt to deliver you water knowing it will likely complicate federal drought funding?”

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Climate Change Could Cost U.S. Budget $2 Trillion a Year by the End of the Century, White House Says

/in , , /by /Reutersby Timothy Gardner

Flood, fire, and drought fueled by climate change could take a massive bite out of the U.S. federal budget per year by the end of the century, the White House said in its first ever such assessment on Sunday.

The Office of Management and Budget assessment, tasked by President Joe Biden last May, found the upper range of climate change’s hit to the budget by the end of the century could total 7.1% annual revenue loss, equal to $2 trillion a year in today’s dollars.

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Mini Desalination Plants Could Refresh the Parched West

/in , , /by /Popular Scienceby Thor Benson

California and the rest of the American West are facing the worst drought in over 1,200 years. This drought is devastating the agricultural industry and creating conditions that lead to massive wildfires. According to the IPCC, climate change makes it likely that droughts will only continue to get worse. To maintain an adequate supply of fresh water, the region needs to develop technological solutions to dwindling water levels.

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Opinion: I’m a Scientist in California. Drought is Worse Than We Thought.

/in , , /by /The New York Times by Dr. Andrew Schwartz

This past week, I joined teams of other scientists gathering the most important measurements of the Sierra Nevada snowpack from over 265 sites throughout the state. Typically, this measurement marks the transition from snow accumulation season to the melt season and contains the most snow of any measurement throughout the year. The 2022 results, however, confirmed what those of us monitoring the state’s drought had feared: California’s snowpack is now at 39 percent of its average, or 23 percent lower than at the same point last year.

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