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Lithium in a California Lake Could Help U.S. Gain Energy Autonomy

/in , /by /NBC Newsby Guad Venegas

Deep in the Southern California desert, a massive drill rig taps into what could be the energy of the future.

Temperatures in the region can reach 120 degrees Fahrenheit, and residents live under the threat of toxic dust caused by decades of agricultural runoff depositing chemicals into the Salton Sea, a saltwater lake.

But in the brine lies lithium, a key ingredient for electric vehicle batteries, and the billion-dollar drilling project promises to not only transform an impoverished region, but also help the United States gain energy independence.

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Scientists See Silver Lining in Fed’s Efforts at Lake Powell

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Joan Meiners

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced last week that it plans to adjust management protocols for the Colorado River in early 2022 to reduce monthly releases from Lake Powell in an effort to keep the reservoir from dropping farther below 2021′s historic lows.

As of Jan. 6, the nation’s second-largest reservoir — part of a Colorado River system that provides drinking water to approximately 40 million people throughout the West — sat at an elevation of 3,536 feet, the Spectrum reported.

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California City Finds a Creative Way to Conserve Water

/in , , /by /Yale Climate Connectionsby YCC Team

This past summer, as California faced a historic drought, reservoirs used by the small city of Healdsburg dropped to record lows.

“It puts us in a situation where we just simply don’t have enough water to go about our normal daily practices,” says Terry Crowley, the city’s utility director.

He says to conserve water, Healdsburg needed to slash consumption by 40%. City officials limited household use and banned watering ornamental lawns.

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Climate Change Resilience Begins With Water, Say These UC AG Researchers

/in , , /by /KVPRby Kerry Klein

On the rare days it rains in western Fresno County, the soils in Jeffrey Mitchell’s experimental fields soak up the water like a sponge. “The water disappears within less than a minute, even for four inches of water,” he said, laughing.

Mitchell is a cropping systems specialist with the University of California Cooperative Extension. His quick-absorbing soils keep the rainfall from pooling and overflowing, like it does in many surrounding fields.

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Technological Solutions to Droughts

/in , /by /phys.orgby Aaron Orlowski

Perennial water shortages in California will likely only grow worse due to climate change. But emerging technologies offer hope—if Californians can stop taking water for granted, says David Feldman, UCI professor of urban planning & public policy and director of Water UCI.

Water shortages will become more severe as both droughts and floods become more intense, with less rain and snow falling during dry seasons and more falling during wet ones. Capturing the excess precipitation and saving it for dry periods will also only get more challenging.

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Dropping Reservoirs Create ‘Green Light’ for Sustainability on Colorado River

/in , , /by /The Aspen Timesby Heather Sackett

Some Colorado River scholars say that a plan by the lower-basin states to leave more water in Lake Mead embodies a principle they explore in a recently published article: Dropping reservoir levels have opened a window of opportunity for water-management policies that move the river system toward sustainability.

In December, water managers from California, Nevada and Arizona signed a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, to spend up to $200 million to add 500,000 acre-feet of water in both 2022 and 2023 to Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir, which has dropped precipitously low due to climate change and drought.

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Opinion: Marin Voice: Water District Board Member Lays Out Plan to Build 3-Year Supply

/in , /by /Marin Independent Journalby Monty Schmitt

The heavy rains of the past three months have been truly extraordinary. And while the rains have brought much-needed relief to Marin’s water supply crisis, they are a harbinger of the dangers we still face.

Consistent with the predicted effects of climate change, dramatic swings in rainfall – big storms and big droughts – will be the norm in California.

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Atmospheric River Storm Observations Take Flight Over Pacific Ocean

/in , , /by /Water News Networkby Steve Koppes and Lauren Wood Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Research on atmospheric rivers takes flight as UC San Diego’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes taps “Hurricane Hunter” aircraft for specialized scientific missions.

The aircraft will fly for a 13-week period (that began January 5) to glean critical data for improving forecasts of atmospheric river storms over the Pacific Ocean. Those storms, or “AR’s,” provide up to half of the U.S. West Coast’s annual precipitation and a majority of the flooding.

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Why This Viral Map Isn’t the Best Indicator of California Drought

/in , , /by /SF GATEby Amy Graff

With a parade of storms sweeping California in December, the federal government’s US Drought map has shown severe drought conditions fade across the state in recent weeks, and on the most recent map released Thursday, “exceptional drought” — the most extreme level of drought — completely disappeared from the map.

The map quickly went viral on Reddit, but Jeanine Jones, the drought manager for the California Department of Water Resources, cautioned that the map isn’t an accurate depiction of the overall picture in the state and said that the drought is far from over.

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As the Colorado River Shrinks, Can the Basin Find an Equitable Solution in Sharing the River’s Waters?

/in , , /by /Western Water (Water Education Foundation)by Douglas E. Beeman

Impacts from climate change and two decades of drought on the Colorado River are fueling fears that states in the Upper Basin – Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming – could be forced to curtail their own water use to fulfill obligations under the century-old Colorado River Compact to send a certain amount of water downstream to the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada.

There has never been a so-called “Compact call” on the river. But as evidence grows that the river isn’t yielding the water assumed by the 1922 Colorado River Compact, questions arise about whether a Compact call may be coming, or whether the states and water interests, drawing on decades of sometimes difficult collaboration, can avert a river war that ends up in court.

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