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Colorado River States Agree to Federal Request to Hold Back Water in Lake Powell

/in , , /by /The Nevada Independent by Daniel Rothberg

In a letter sent Friday, the seven states that use the Colorado River agreed with the U.S. Department of Interior and recommended that federal water managers take an emergency action aimed at stabilizing a dwindling Lake Powell, one of the main storage reservoirs on the river.

Earlier this month, federal water managers warned the states, including Nevada, that they were considering an emergency action to hold water back in Lake Powell, an attempt to stabilize the reservoir at serious risk of losing the ability to generate hydropower and deliver water to Page, Arizona, a city with roughly 7,500 residents, and the LeChee Chapter of the Navajo Nation.

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What 76 Inches of Sierra Snowfall Looks Like From Space

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Jessica Flores

The recent storm that brought wet weather to the Bay Area last week dumped an “impressive” amount of snow on the Sierra Nevada for the month of April, said the National Weather Service.

The storm dumped 31.1 inches of snow, increasing April’s snowfall total to 76 inches — “almost double what we received January through March,” the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab tweeted Friday.

Snowfall totals also slightly increased California’s snowpack in the last week to 35% of average as of Friday — up from 28% of average on April 15, according to the California Department of Water Resources.

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Bill to Aid Farmworkers Jilted by Drought Effects Advances in Calif. Legislature

/in , , /by /The Sun

A new bill aimed at bringing relief to farmworkers affected by the drought is now one step closer to becoming law.

The bill, introduced by Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D–Sanger), aims to provide financial assistance to farmworkers struggling to afford basic necessities. Wednesday it passed in a state senate committee, four to one.

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Folsom Lake Levels Improve, Drought Conditions Still an Issue

/in , , /by /FOX 40 (Sacramento)by Julian Tack and Gurajpal Sangha

The latest Spring snowstorms helped increase California’s water supply and lake levels, but the Golden State continues to face drought conditions.

April’s wet weather in northern California have increased water levels at lakes like Folsom Lake.

“The particular storm of this week increased the rain and snow over northern California by about 5-10 percent,” said Meteorologist and forecaster Jim Mathews with the National Weather Service.

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Late-Season Snowfall Helps California in Dry Winter, Drought

/in , /by /AP News

Heavy snow in Northern California has given a recent boost of moisture to a region grappling with drought.

The Central Sierra Snow Lab at the University of California, Berkeley said Friday that more than 16 inches (43 centimeters) of snow fell in the past day.

“We are now at 61% of our normal #snow #water equivalent for this date,” said a tweet from the lab specializing in snow hydrology and climatology.

The spring storm had triggered warnings from the Oregon border down through the southern Cascades and the northern Sierra Nevada. But the late-season precipitation was welcome after a dry winter.

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Owens Valley Tribes Honor a Legacy of ‘Beauty and Suffering’ With Historic Site Nomination

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagún

Spirits live here. That’s what Paiute and Shoshone tribal members say about the Owens Lake playa, an arid, eerily flat expanse along the eastern Sierra Nevada range that is prone to choking dust storms.

It is best known as the focal point of a historic feud that began in the early 1900s, when Los Angeles city agents quietly bought up ranch lands and water rights for an aqueduct to quench the thirst of the growing metropolis 200 miles to the south.

L.A. diverted so much water via the aqueduct system that the 110-square-mile lake dried up and it was nearly impossible for local farmers and ranchers to make a living — a scandal dramatized in the classic 1974 film “Chinatown.”

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Why Rural Communities Struggle to Bring in Much-Needed Federal Grants

/in , , /by /High Country Newsby Kylie Mohr and Theo Whitcomb

Bounded by the Bitterroot Mountains to the west and the Sapphire Mountains to the east, Montana’s Bitterroot Valley is home to renowned fly fishing streams and soaring vistas. Its forests, however, are facing the greatest wildfire risk in the entire state, with towns like Florence, Victor and Darby all in the nation’s 98th-plus percentile for risk. Yet houses continue to be built at a rapid clip, many of them in hazardous areas.

Theoretically, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, a $1.2 trillion bill that funds improvements in transportation, water, energy, broadband and climate resilience projects, should be able to help.

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California Senate OKs Lower Standard for Indoor Water Use

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Adam Beam

Mired in an extreme drought, California lawmakers on Thursday took the first step toward lowering the standard for how much water people use in their homes — a move that won’t be enforced on individual customers but could lead to higher rates even as consumption declines.

California’s current standard for residential indoor water use is 55 gallons (208 liters) per person per day. The rule doesn’t apply to customers, meaning regulators don’t write tickets to people for using more water than they are allowed.

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La Niña Likely to Continue, Intensifying Drought, Wildfires; Snowpack Hits 91% of Average

/in , /by /Water Education Coloradoby Jerd Smith

As warm spring winds whip the Eastern Plains, sapping soils of moisture, and the state’s reservoirs sit at below-average levels, water managers got more bad news Tuesday: this two-year drought cycle could continue through the summer and into the fall leading the state into its third year of below-average snowpack and streamflows and high wildfire danger.

Looking ahead the weather pattern known as La Niña, which has created the intense drought of the past two years, is likely to continue, according to Peter Goble, a climate specialist with Colorado State University’s Colorado Climate Center.

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Gov. Cox Issues State of Emergency Due to Drought

/in , , /by /KUTVby Matthew Jacobson,

Gov. Spencer Cox issued a drought state of emergency effective immediately.

The governor made the announcement at his monthly press conference.

“We’ve had a very volatile water year, and unfortunately, recent spring storms are not enough to make up the shortage in our snowpack,” Cox said in a media release. “Once again, I call on all Utahns – households, farmers, businesses, governments and other groups – to carefully consider their needs and reduce their water use. We saved billions of gallons last year and we can do it again.”

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