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California’s Drought and Wildfire Dangers Rising at Stunning Pace

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Faith Pinho and Alex Wigglesworth

California’s drought and wildfire conditions are accelerating at unprecedented rates, according to state officials, and residents should brace for a summer of widespread burning and mandatory water conservation measures in some regions.

As reservoir levels across the state continue to drop, and as parched vegetation poses an increasing threat of wildfire, officials in Sacramento and Southern California offered a bleak assessment of the state’s drying climate, saying it has already begun to affect people, plants and animals.

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Drought Woes in Dry US West Raise July 4 Fireworks Fears

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Lindsay Whitehurst

Many Americans aching for normalcy as pandemic restrictions end are looking forward to traditional Fourth of July fireworks. But with a historic drought in the U.S. West and fears of another devastating wildfire season, officials are canceling displays, passing bans on setting off fireworks or begging for caution.

Fireworks already have caused a few small wildfires, including one started by a child in northern Utah and another in central California. Last year, a pyrotechnic device designed for a baby’s gender reveal celebration sparked a California blaze that killed a firefighter during a U.S. wildfire season that scorched the second-highest amount of land in nearly 40 years.

Some regions of the American West are experiencing their worst drought conditions in more than a century this year, said Jennifer Balch, director of Earth Lab at the University of Colorado.

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An Entire California Town is Without Running Water — In a Heat Wave

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Melissa Montalvo

This is how California’s water crisis is going these days: The only functioning well in the rural community of Teviston broke in early June, leaving more than 700 residents without running water as temperatures in the Central Valley soared to triple-digits in a drought.

“It’s day to day” for the people of Teviston, said Frank Galaviz, a board member of the Teviston Community Services District, in an interview with The Fresno Bee.

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Severe Heat, Drought Pack Dual Threat to Power Plants

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Hannah Northey and Peter Behr

Record-setting heat and drought gripping the western United States are exposing a potentially severe risk to the nation’s long-term power supply, and experts warn that grid operators lack sufficient tools to plan and carry out a defense.

A future of worsening water scarcity in heat-blistered parts of the United States could imperil fossil fuel power plants and nuclear reactors that depend on enormous quantities of fresh water in their operations, according to a report by a group of analysts from the Energy Department’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory and other researchers.

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Summer Dreams Dry up on the Russian River, a Paradise Whipsawed by Drought, Flood and Fire

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Diana Marcum

If there was any respite to be found, it was here on the Russian River.

A river otter popped up next to Larry Laba’s inflatable canoe, then dived down with a plop. A yellow swallowtail butterfly, big as a hand, fluttered past.

Yet everywhere were signs of the West’s ever-intensifying drought, with the Russian River taking the early hit.

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Opinion: Answering Your Questions About Marin Municipal Water District Supply

/in , /by /Marin Independent Journal by Cynthia Koehler

Summer is here and, as most everyone knows, we are in a severe and historic drought. Rainfall levels for the last 18 months have been the lowest on record in more than 140 years.

The Marin Municipal Water District board of directors called for voluntary water conservation, then adopted mandatory water-use restrictions months ago, well before the state and most other water agencies took action. We are fortunate to live in a community that is active, engaged and willing to take action to ensure that we weather this crisis with sufficient water to meet everyone’s basic needs.

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MWD GM Hagekhalil: “We Need to Work Together”

/in , , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors welcomed new Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General Manager Adel Hagekhalil at its June 24 meeting. Hagekhalil was greeted with applause and smiles during the meeting, and at a special reception that followed at the Water Authority’s San Diego office.

Board Chair Gary Croucher called Hagekhalil’s appointment a “prime opportunity” for MWD and the San Diego County Water Authority to benefit water users throughout Southern California, before the new MWD General Manager addressed the Board.

“Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your kind words, water is about people, and I want to salute you for what you have done in San Diego [to create more local water supply],” said Hagekhalil. “We know how important water is to our economy, we know how important it is for our businesses – water is life.”

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As Climate Change Turns Up The Heat in Las Vegas, Water Managers Try to Wring New Savings to Stretch Supply

/in , /by /Western Water (Water Education Foundation)by Gary Pitzer

Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River. Authorities are responding by aiming to wring more water savings out of everything from ice machines and grassy medians to industrial cooling towers, an aggressive conservation effort that could provide examples for communities throughout the Southwest.

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Another Dry Year on the Colorado River Could Force States, Feds Back to Negotiating Table

/in , , /by /KUNCby Luke Runyon

Colorado River water managers could be pulled back to the negotiating table as soon as next year to keep its biggest reservoirs from declining further.

The 2019 Drought Contingency Plan was meant to give the U.S. and Mexican states that depend on the river a roadmap to manage water shortages. That plan requires the river’s biggest reservoir, Lake Mead, to drop to unprecedented levels before conservation among all the lower basin states — Arizona, Nevada and California — becomes mandatory. California isn’t required to conserve water in the reservoir until it drops to an elevation of 1,045 feet above sea level.

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Wildfires Threaten Urban Water Supplies, Long After the Flames Are Out

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Henry Fountain

Wrangling a 25-foot-long tube of straw up a steep hillside studded with charred pine trees, three volunteer workers placed it in a shallow trench that had been dug along the slope.

Locked in place with wooden stakes, the sausage-like tube was part of an effort to avoid a potentially large and long-term problem with the drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people to the east. The tube, with others above and below it, should help prevent the hillside, made unstable last fall by a large wildfire, from choking the water supply with sediment when the thunderstorms known as monsoon rains arrive as expected this summer.

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