In an effort to increase the city’s usable water supply, the long-awaited nearly $100-million brackish desalination plant in Antioch is expected to start operating within the next few months.
Acting Public Works Director Scott Buenting said the project, which started around 2021, is now nearing completion.
California strived to maintain its environmental leadership in 2024, with voters approving a $10 billion environmental bond and the state advancing its renewable energy goals — all while navigating a major budget deficit.
The Legislature approved only a few new major environmental policies as the deficit left environmental groups and renewable energy advocates clamoring for increased spending. Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature scaled back their “California Climate Commitment” spending package to $44.6 billion from $54.3 billion.
Last week, the Biden administration approved its overarching plan for how to run California’s systems of pumps, canals and reservoirs that serves millions of people and much of the state’s farmland.
The Bureau of Reclamation’s decision Friday ended a four-year effort to overturn the Trump administration’s previous 2019 rules for the Central Valley Project, which environmentalists and the state of California claimed did not adequately protect endangered fish.
Over the past few decades, California has prided itself on being a national leader in setting ambitious environmental goals and policies, from reducing carbon emissions to strengthening recycling and furthering the circular economy. Yet, when it comes to one of the state’s most pressing challenges—water quality and safety—California’s track record is less than successful.
Given the Golden State’s long standing water quality issues, it is all the more troubling that Governor Gavin Newsom recently vetoed SB 366, also known as the California Water Plan: Long-Term Supply Targets, legislation that sought to address this inequity. As California law states, clean water is a fundamental human right, and lawmakers cannot continue to ignore the glaring challenges facing the state’s water systems and the communities they serve.
The Biden administration has adopted new rules for operating California’s main water delivery systems in the Central Valley, endorsing a plan backed by state officials that aims to strike a balance between ensuring protections for imperiled fish species and providing a reliable water supply for farms and cities.
Federal and state officials said the new operating rules for the Central Valley Project and the State Water Project that were developed over the last three years will bring greater stability to the state’s supplies in the face of worsening droughts intensified by climate change.
California residents can expect an increase in their water allocation next year, the Department of Water Resources announced Monday.
Supplies from the State Water Project have risen from 5% earlier this month to 15%, providing more water for 27 million Californians.
New York City is the water poverty capital of the United States, according to a study citing census data, with 56,900 residents living without access to running water in 2021.
In second place was Los Angeles, with 45,900 people, followed by San Francisco, with 24,400. In Chicago and Houston, more than 22,000 residents do not have access to running water.
For decades, California’s water debates have centered on a familiar tension: agriculture versus urban consumption. Agriculture, which consumes 80% of the state’s developed water supply, has long dominated discussions about conservation and efficiency. Yet, a new contender is emerging, one poised to dwarf agriculture in water demand and reshape the state’s water future: artificial intelligence (AI).
California’s agricultural sector is the backbone of the nation’s food supply, using approximately 34 million acre-feet of water annually — over 11 trillion gallons. This water sustains crops like almonds, grapes and rice, many of which are highly water-intensive and vital to the state’s economy. For decades, agriculture has been framed as the primary focus of water conservation efforts, with farmers frequently cast as both stewards and villains of California’s strained water resources.
A barrage of storms known as atmospheric rivers is expected to soak the West Coast over the next eight to 10 days, raising the risk of flooding, power outages and holiday travel disruptions leading up to Christmas in a region that has already experienced significant weather activity this season.
The bulk of the rain and snow is likely to fall between British Columbia and Northern California, with Washington and Oregon poised to have some of the wettest, sloppiest weather.
Since last month’s atmospheric river that drenched the North State, the water level in Lake Shasta — California’s largest manmade reservoir — has shot up nearly 20 feet.
And after a few dry days this week, get ready for more rain in the northern Sacramento Valley as the region enters another wet pattern that is expected to go through Christmas.
