Faced with dire water shortages and a severe drought, California has moved to enact emergency restrictions that will prevent thousands of farmers and landowners from using water drawn from an enormous system of streams and rivers that services nearly two-thirds of the state.
As wells and reservoirs dry up across California amid worsening drought conditions, Ruth Reservoir, which provides water for most of Humboldt County’s population centers, is at 87% capacity — exactly where it should be.
John Friedenbach, general manager of the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District, said Ruth Reservoir has remained resilient through the drought.
Colorado is proposing to ramp up requirements that agricultural water users, ranging from big companies to small mom-and-pop farms, measure the amount of water they divert from streams, rivers and waterways.
The state engineer says a statewide rule is necessary to prepare Colorado for a water-scarce future. Some water users, however, accuse the state of taking a heavy-handed and overly expensive approach that will force landowners to install devices in areas that don’t need them.
This year’s drought is on the verge of going from bad to worse for thousands of farmers in the Central Valley. Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board approved emergency curtailment regulations. The move impacts 5,700 of the 6,600 water rights holders in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed. Assemblyman Adam Gray (D-Merced) says Tuesday’s decision by the board is the wrong approach. He had petitioned the board to vote against the emergency measures.
A “mega-drought” across the Southwest will force the federal government to declare a water shortage on the Colorado River this month. The decision would be historic for the watershed, which serves 40 million people in seven states: California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. The river system provides irrigation that turns desert into farmland and is an important source of drinking water and hydroelectric power. The looming first-ever declaration will be triggered when the country’s largest reservoir, Lake Mead, dips below a certain level.
Lake Oroville, one of California’s biggest reservoirs, reached its lowest-ever point this week, breaking a record set decades ago in the latest troubling sign of the punishing drought conditions afflicting the state.
The lake reached a “new historic low elevation” of 642.73 feet of water, which is down from 645 feet in September 1977, said John Yarbrough, assistant deputy director of the California State Water Project, in a statement.
Some farmers in one of the country’s most important agricultural regions will have to stop taking water out of major rivers and streams because of a severe drought that is threatening the drinking water supply for 25 million people, state regulators said Tuesday.
The Water Resources Control Board approved an emergency resolution empowering regulators to halt diversions from the state’s two largest river systems. The order could apply to roughly 86% of landowners who have legal rights to divert water from the San Joaquin and Sacramento river watersheds. The remaining 14% could be impacted if things get worse.
Lake Oroville reached the lowest levels since September 1977, measuring 643.5 feet above sea level at 10 a.m. Tuesday. For comparison, when Lake Oroville is full, the surface water level is 900 feet above sea level.
Increasing issues are arising from the low levels being seen at Lake Oroville. Water operations manager for the Department of Water Resources State Water Project Molly White said last week in an email that due to the falling lake levels, the Edward Hyatt Power Plant may be forced to close down for the first time in its history due to low lake elevation.
More than 40 million people rely on the Colorado River in the West, and every drop of it is used. But with climate change, there’s now less water to go around. To try and avoid a multi-state legal battle over this precious resource, Colorado and other states are considering paying people to keep more water in the river.
In southwest Gunnison County, farmers and ranchers rely on water that would otherwise end up in the Colorado River. Drought has plagued the area for more than 20 years, so the resource is now more valuable than ever.
Roseville residents will be required to reduce water use by 20% beginning Monday, Roseville officials announced Tuesday.
The reduction, which began as a voluntary measure months ago, is now mandatory for all residents and builds on the 10% cut that was announced in May. The new measure to conserve water “recognizes that the water supply outlook worsens at Folsom Lake and throughout California,” city officials said in a news release.
