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Explainer: Western Water Projects in Infrastructure Deal

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Suman Naishadham

Included in the sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill approved by the Senate is funding for Western water projects that farmers, water providers and environmentalists say are badly needed across the parched region.

The Senate voted this week in favor of the legislation that seeks to rebuild U.S. roads and highways, improve broadband internet access and modernize water pipes and public works systems. The bill’s future in the House is uncertain.

The federal funding would come as the West bakes under a decadeslong drought that is straining water supplies.

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Small Towns Grow Desperate for Water in California

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Thomas Fuller

As a measure of both the nation’s creaking infrastructure and the severity of the drought gripping California there is the $5 shower.

That’s how much Ian Roth, the owner of the Seagull Inn, a bed-and-breakfast in this tourist town three hours north of San Francisco, spends on water every time a guest washes for five minutes under the shower nozzle.

Water is so scarce in Mendocino, an Instagram-ready collection of pastel Victorian homes on the edge of the Pacific, that restaurants have closed their restrooms to guests, pointing them instead to portable toilets on the sidewalk.

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California, Oregon Braced for Another Extremist Water Rebellion. Why It’s Calm, So Far

/in , , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow

Anti-government activists seemed primed for a violent clash with federal authorities this summer in the Klamath Basin along the California-Oregon border.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation had shut off water for most of the region’s 1,400 farms, denying access to the same irrigation canal in Klamath Falls, Ore., where during a drought two decades earlier, activists tried to pry open its headgates and clashed with U.S. marshals.

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Napa County Recycled Water Used at Record Levels Amid Drought

/in , , /by /Napa Valley Registerby Barry Eberling

Napa Valley Country Club golf course is lush and green, thanks to the purple pipe.

A two-year drought is helping to boost Napa County’s recycled water use to record levels. The Napa Sanitation District wastewater treatment plant provides enough non-potable irrigation water annually to fill St. Helena’s Bell Canyon reservoir and more.

Napa Valley Country Club in rural Coombsville started piping water from the plant six miles away in late 2015. That allows it to depend less on a well in an area where groundwater levels have long been a concern.

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California’s Dry Season is Turning Into a Permanent State of Being

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Greenby David R Baker, Brian K Sullivan, Josh Saul

Drought across the Western U.S. has forced California to ration water to farms. Hydroelectric dams barely work. The smallest spark — from a lawnmower or even a flat tire — can explode into a wildfire.

While this region has always had dry summers, they’re supposed to follow a pattern that leads to relief with the arrival of the annual rainy season in November. But a break is no longer guaranteed.

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Stanislaus River Basin Suffering from Its 5th Driest Year Since 1901

/in , , /by /Manteca/Ripon Bulletinby Dennis Wyatt

On any given day a small group of farmers gather behind Jimmy’s One Stop on Airport Way, kick back in resin patio chairs and shoot the breeze under a canopy of ragged trees.

If they glance to the east they can see the future of Manteca — as well as farmers in the South San Joaquin and Oakdale irrigation districts plus struggling Chinook salmon in the Stanislaus — flow by in the San Joaquin River.

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How Dry are Our Lakes as Drought Continues On Central and South Coasts?

/in , /by /KCLU Santa Barbaraby Caroline Feraday

The Central and South Coasts are once again experiencing a drought. We take a look at how it’s affecting one part of our region’s water supply.

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First Water Cuts in US West Supply to Hammer Arizona Farmers

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Felicia Fonseca

A harvester rumbles through the fields in the early morning light, mowing down rows of corn and chopping up ears, husks and stalks into mulch for feed at a local dairy.

The cows won’t get their salad next year, at least not from this farm. There won’t be enough water to plant the corn crop.

Climate change, drought and high demand are expected to force the first-ever mandatory cuts to a water supply that 40 million people across the American West depend on — the Colorado River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s projection next week will spare cities and tribes but hit Arizona farmers hard.

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New Plan Slows Lake Mead Decline by Paying Farms Not to Plant Crops

/in , , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Blake Apgar

Officials in Lower Colorado River Basin states want to slow the decline of Lake Mead’s water levels over the next few years by paying Southern California farmers not to plant crops.

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Despite Curtailment Order, Water Still Vanishing

/in , , /by /KRCBby Marc Albert
Despite a week-old curtailment order, water levels in the upper Russian River remain stubbornly low.
Since the end of July, operators of the Coyote Valley Dam at Lake Mendocino have sent 115 cubic feet per second down the Russian River. By the time the river reaches Healdsburg, barely 20 percent of the water remains.
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