Nearly half of the country — from the Pacific coast to the Great Plains and upper Midwest — is experiencing moderate to exceptional drought conditions. That’s expected to get worse throughout the summer. As William Brangham reports, it’s the western states in particular that are taking the hardest hit, and the possibilities for devastating wildfires are at an all-time high.
In cities, heavy rains wash away the gunk collecting on sidewalks and roads, picking up all kinds of debris. However, the amount of microplastic pollution swept away by this runoff is currently unknown. Now, researchers in ACS ES&T Water report that stormwater can be a large source of microplastics and rubber fragments to water bodies and, with a proof-of-concept experiment, show that a rain garden could keep these microscopic pieces out of a storm drain.
Between Las Vegas and Arizona, Lake Mead, the body of water that is fed by the Colorado River, dropped below 1,075 feet on Tuesday. The low water marks are signaling what could be the first-ever water shortage on the Colorado River, CNN reports.
The lake’s levels show a continuing decline, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), and any hope of recovery won’t happen until at least the end of 2022.
Joe Del Bosque is leaving a third of his 2,000-acre farm near Firebaugh, California, unseeded this year due to extreme drought. Yet, he hopes to access enough water to produce a marketable melon crop.
Farmers across California say they expect to receive little water from state and federal agencies that regulate the state’s reservoirs and canals, leading many to leave fields barren, plant more drought-tolerant crops or seek new income sources all-together.
Urban water agencies are planning to impose mandatory conservation orders after federal water managers slashed deliveries this week amid a rapidly deepening drought.
The Bureau of Reclamation cut water deliveries from the Central Valley Project by about half. That has prompted the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which serves 2 million residents in the Silicon Valley region, to consider a potential conservation order at its board meeting next month. And the Contra Costa Water District, which serves 500,000 residents in the East Bay, is now planning to vote on one in July.
President Joe Biden’s fiscal 2022 budget lays out a 24.1% boost to the EPA’s core rule-writing and enforcement programs and a 7.5% increase in staffing to get the work done, according to a detailed blueprint released on Friday.
The plan envisions a $3.4 billion request to implement the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, and other statutes, up from $2.8 billion in the current budget. That funding would cover a huge range of activities, such as creating ways to attain ambient air quality standards and overseeing states’ management of hazardous waste.
California’s water supply got cut again Wednesday, with the federal government reducing allocations to cities and farms as the drought intensified.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that municipal water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project will have this year’s allocations slashed from 55% down to 25% — a level not seen since the drought of 2015.
That could put additional pressure on the municipalities around greater Sacramento that depend on supplies from Folsom Lake, whose water levels have sunk dramatically this spring. The reservoir is at 46% of its usual capacity for late May.
Hoover Dam has helped store Colorado River water since 1935, but reservoir levels are nearing the lowest point since Lake Mead was filled.
Hoover Dam towers more than 700 feet above Black Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada state line, holding back the waters of the Colorado River. On top of the dam, where visitors peer down the graceful white arc of its face, one of its art deco-style towers is adorned with a work of art that memorializes the purposes of the dam.
It’s not yet Memorial Day weekend, but the Bureau of Reclamation is taking drastic measures because of the California drought. On Wednesday, the Bureau announced that farmers north and south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta would receive no water from the Central Valley Project. Municipal, Industrial Water Deliveries Cut 30%. In addition, municipal and industrial water-service contractors north and south of the Delta will see their allocations cut from 55% of their historic use to 25%.
In the latest and possibly most severe evidence yet of California’s worsening drought, the federal government on Wednesday announced it will cut water deliveries to urban areas it serves by more than half — and to zero for many farmers across the Central Valley.
The move will result in mandatory water restrictions across Santa Clara County, said Rick Callender, CEO of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which provides water to 2 million people.
“We are truly in an emergency situation,” Callender said. “We’re going to be seeking everything we can do to address this emergency. The public should expect tighter restrictions.”
