Sierra Could Get 80 More Inches of Snow By Christmas
Snow, snow, snow!
The folks at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Lab have been tracking the fluffy white stuff and predict that Christmas will be the snowiest day of the week.
You are now in California and the U.S. Media Coverage category.
Merced Irrigation Officials Scramble to Fix Groundwater Plan, As Fear of Restrictions Loom
Officials with Merced-area water agencies say they’re updating a key regional groundwater plan after the California Department of Water Resources said it didn’t go far enough to reach state water sustainability targets.
Large Water Pipeline in Kings County Raising Questions, Concerns
A large water pipeline being built near Lemoore in Kings County is raising eyebrows as much for its possible uses as for the name associated with its construction — John Vidovich.
Water Officials Set to Wring More Savings From Stressed Colorado River
Last week water officials from Nevada and two other Colorado River states said they would reduce their draws from the ailing waterway.
Now they need to make that happen.
Water leaders in Nevada, Arizona, and California signed an agreement to voluntarily reduce their take from the Colorado River to help stave off mandatory cuts in the upcoming years.
California Reservoir, With Estimated $3.9B Cost, Gains Funding Approval
California is taking steps toward a 2024 start of construction on the 1.5-million-acre-feet Sites Reservoir thanks to new funding.
The California Water Commission in December determined the Sites Reservoir, located on the west side of the Sacramento Valley, is eligible for funding through the state’s 2014 voter-approved Proposition 1 Water Storage Investment Program, thereby opening access to $800 million, about 20% of the project’s $3.93 billion price tag.
Water Worries in West Force Sports Teams to Get Creative
The Arizona Diamondbacks ripped out the grass at Chase Field ahead of the 2019 season, replacing it with synthetic grass. It was a business decision, but it also ended up being a water-conservation measure.
The Phoenix-based major league baseball team thought it would save 2 million gallons a year. In the first season, the savings were closer to 4.5 million gallons, which is roughly the annual water usage of 49 households in the Phoenix area, according to the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
“This challenge has been approaching for years and has been on our radar,” said Diamondbacks President and CEO Derrick Hall, whose team has saved 16 million gallons of water since the turf was installed. “We have tremendous relationships with the state’s legislators and executives, and have had discussions about water for years.”
Opinion: The Lower Basin Inked A Plan To Save Lake Mead In Just 4 Months. But We’re Not Done
The takeaway from the “500-plus plan,” the recently inked effort to save Lake Mead, can be summed up in just three words:
We’re. Not. Done.
That doesn’t make the deal any less consequential.
The Pain Of The West-wide Drought In 2021
Like a sinister specter that won’t vanish, drought was already writing the playbook for water supplies in Utah and the rest of the West as early as fall of 2020.
The year 2021 may have been months ahead, but extremely dry conditions during those last few months of 2020 amplified the reality of what was to come: drought, and a nasty one.v
Federal Drought Funding Includes $40 Million to ‘Stabilize’ Lake Mead Water
A federal plan to spend $210 million on water conservation programs includes $40 million for “conserving 500,000+ acre-feet of water over the next two years to stabilize the decline of Lake Mead.”
The plan also includes $10 million for efforts to suppress wildfires in the West.
Water Authority Manager says Colorado River Out of Easy Solutions
John Entsminger walks a fine line as Southern Nevada’s top water official.
On one side, he has to explain the seriousness of a shrinking Colorado River to climate change skeptics and people who are content with not immediately handling the West’s water woes. On the other, he has to quell concerns of crisis on a river that supplies water to 40 million people in the U.S. and Mexico.
