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Unpaid Utility Bills? California Will Pay Off $2 Billion to Avoid Shutoffs

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Jackie Botts

Two years ago the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power shut off electricity at Will Hollman’s home in the San Fernando Valley, forcing the family to rely on a gasoline generator. In late June of this year, the department disconnected the water, too — despite a statewide moratorium on water shutoffs that Gov. Gavin Newsom recently extended through Sept. 30.

Hollman, his 10-year-old son and his 16-year-old stepdaughter endured 11 days of temperatures in the high 90s to low 100s without water or power. For 11 days, they camped out in air-conditioned grocery stores, Starbucks or his truck. They couchsurfed and used friends’ showers. Hollman played it off with the kids as some kind of fun obstacle course.

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Drought: Marin Vets Options for Desalination, Water Pipeline

/in , , /by /Marin Independent Journalby Will Houston

Marin Municipal Water District announced Friday that it has found a potential vendor for temporary desalination plants and four Central Valley water suppliers that could transfer water to the county through a pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.

The emergency water projects are being explored based on forecasts that the majority of Marin residents could run out of water by July 2022 if the upcoming winter is as dry as last year’s. The district serves about two-thirds of the county including 191,000 residents in central and southern Marin.

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Coalition Urges Protection for Shrinking Colorado River

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

A group that included environmentalists, elected leaders and officials from business and agriculture gathered Thursday morning to put forth a slate of demands for a new approach to managing the Colorado River.

“We’re here to say, ‘Damn the status quo. No more business as usual,’ ” Kyle Roerink, executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, said from a makeshift lectern in a parking lot just above the Hoover Dam.

Management of the river, which feeds Lake Mead and serves 40 million people in seven states and Mexico, has failed and the approach must be revised, Roerink said.

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Why California Should be Preparing for Floods, Even in the Midst of Drought

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Stuart Leavenworth

The explorer John Wesley Powell once poked fun at the professional rainmakers of his time, writing, “Years of drought and famine come and years of flood and famine come, and the climate is not changed with dance, libation or prayer.”

As we now know, humans can change the climate — one reason the current drought is so intense, sparking what could be a record wildfire season and depleting mighty reservoirs such as Mead and Oroville.

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Drought-Stricken California Hasn’t Mandated Statewide Water Restrictions. Here’s Why

/in , , /by /KQEDby Ezra David Romero

After two consecutive dry winters and a series of early summer heat waves, the vast majority of California is gripped by drought.

Water levels in reservoirs like Lake Oroville, Shasta Lake and Lake Mendocino are dangerously low. Wells in parts of the San Joaquin Valley and along the Russian River are drying up, and local water officials have mandated water restrictions up to 40% in some areas.

Already, more than 85% of California is experiencing extreme drought conditions, according to the latest drought monitor released on July 15, and experts forewarn a third year of drought could be on the horizon if the state doesn’t see significant winter rain storms.

Former Gov. Jerry Brown required Californians to conserve 25% of their water during the third year of the last major drought. State leaders have not yet taken that step during this year.

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California Drought: La Niña Could Dash Hopes of Desperately Needed Rain This Winter

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicle by Omar Shaikh Rashad

The punishing drought conditions afflicting most of California are expected to endure for months, climate experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said Thursday.

There is a 60% chance, NOAA experts said, of a La Niña event this winter — conditions that would likely bring about a cool and very dry winter.

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Amid Escalating Drought, Bay Area Residents Slow to Cut Back on Water Use

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

As the sun began to rise over Santa Rosa’s Montgomery Village neighborhood, the headlights of a city work truck brought into view utility official Shiloh Jones’ target: wasted water.

Jones, part of Santa Rosa’s newly formed “water waste patrol,” had spotted a puddle on the sidewalk and traced it to a runaway irrigation system in a bed of pink roses.

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Contouring Tips Help You Make the Grade

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Moving both irrigation and our limited natural rainfall through your yard into storage areas via the use of various landscaping features borrow Mother Nature’s engineering. This is especially important during hot, dry summer months. If your yard is perfectly flat, you must move soil and features around to create more water-retaining contour areas.

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The Government Cut Off Water to Farmers in the Klamath Basin. It Reignited a Decades-Old War Over Water and Fish

/in , , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Anne Marshall-Chalmers

Drought has long fueled tensions between growers, who depend on the water for irrigation, and the Klamath Tribes, who hold two protected fish species as sacred.

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Could Meters be the Key to Conserving Water in California Agriculture? Watsonville Growers Explain

/in , /by /ABC 7 Newsby David Louie

As he set goals last Thursday for the Bay Area to conserve water, Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the lack of metering provides no sense of how much water is used by California agriculture. Growers in the Watsonville area in Santa Cruz County, however, are metered, and the meters have resulted in significant water conservation.

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