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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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Climate Change Creating More Devastating Rainfall Events in Wildfire Burn Scars

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

Devastatingly large wildfires followed by intense precipitation events will grow in frequency as the effects of climate change become more widespread and entrenched, a study published Friday has found.

The American West has long been susceptible to landslides and flooding that afflict areas recently scorched by wildfires. The fire destroys vegetation that stabilizes slopes and prevents large-scale erosion while exposing more of hillsides and riverbanks to the ravaging effects of intense rain.

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Opinion: California Water War Peace Treaty? Not Quite

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Dan Walters

The holy grail of those involved in California’s decades-long political and legal battle over how the state’s water supply should be allocated has been some sort of master agreement.

There have been countless efforts at negotiating such a peace treaty and some premature declarations of success. However, California’s water wars have continued with skirmishes in the water bureaucracy, in the Legislature, in Congress, in the courts and even in the White House.

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Friant Dam Water Releases Increasing. Why There’s Concern on San Joaquin River

/in , /by /Merced Sun-Starby Robert Kuwada

With a major warming trend in the forecast and temperatures in Fresno reaching the 80s on Sunday, the Bureau of Reclamation is alerting the public to monitor flow conditions and to exercise caution when on the San Joaquin River due to increased releases from Friant Dam.

The bureau started releases into the river on Friday to help meet contractual obligations to deliver Central Valley Project water to the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors on the west side of the Valley

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Here’s How Much the Latest Rainstorms Affected Water Levels in California’s Reservoirs

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Danielle Echeverria

The storms that rolled across the Bay Area and much of California on Sunday and Monday delivered some of the highest rainfall totals of the calendar year so far, as meteorologists predicted — but that still isn’t much, they said Tuesday.

“On a bigger picture, this is one of the biggest storms we’ve had of 2022,” said Matt Mehle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. “But we’ve only had a handful of systems actually bring any precipitation to the Bay Area in January and February.”

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Arizona Will Endure Another Hot, Dry Spring as Drought Persists

/in , /by /AZ Big Mediaby Emily Sacia

People in Arizona hoping for a break this spring from the drought gripping the state will be disappointed, with climatologists calling for minor to exceptional drought conditions, what one calls the state’s “new normal.”

The spring outlook released this month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted the largest drought coverage seen in the U.S. since 2013, with as much as 60% of the continental U.S. facing drought conditions.

“This outlook that NOAA is saying, that we’re going to develop or have worsening drought, it’s not surprising, it’s not unexpected,” said Erinanne Saffel, Arizona’s state climatologist.

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Gov. Newsom Outlines a Peace Agreement on California Water. Will the Fighting Finally End?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration unveiled a $2.6 billion environmental peace treaty on the Central Valley’s overtaxed rivers Tuesday. The deal calls for farms and cities to surrender billions of gallons of water while contributing funds to help restore troubled fish habitats.

Newsom’s top aides called the 34-page memorandum of understanding a compromise measure that will leave more water in the rivers — but not as much as many environmentalists believe is needed to prop up ailing populations of salmon, steelhead and other fish. And some key water users, such as the city of San Francisco, haven’t yet signed onto the plan.

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