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State Plans to Order Drought Restrictions, But it Doesn’t Have Good Water Data to Do It

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

As California descends deeper into drought, state regulators are planning to do something they’ve done few times in modern history: order thousands of people, farms, and even cities and towns that hold historic water rights to stop drawing water from the rivers, lakes and ponds they rely on.  The move is intended to make sure the dwindling flows in California’s waterways are reserved for those with the most senior water rights, as well as for fish and other wildlife.

Many of those with lesser rights would have to turn to storage, groundwater or another source, if they have it.  The problem, besides leaving several in a tough spot, is that the state doesn’t have an accurate tally of how much water is being pulled from its watersheds, nor who exactly is taking it.

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Dry Soils And Drought Mean Even Normal Snowpack Can’t Keep Up With Climate Change In The West

/in , , /by /CPR Newsby Michael Elizabeth Sakas

Brian Domonkos straps on a pair of cross-country skis and glides through the trees along Mosquito Creek west of Fairplay.

It’s May, but there’s still snow in Colorado’s mountains near the headwaters of the South Platte River.

Domonkos, the Colorado Snow Survey supervisor, gets to work measuring how much snowpack is left from the winter to runoff into streams, rivers and reservoirs this summer.

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San Francisco Sues State Over Bid to Restrict its Sierra Water Supplies

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

The city of San Francisco is reviving a long-simmering feud with the state over water, filing a lawsuit Friday that charges state regulators with trying to take away the city’s coveted Sierra Nevada water supplies.

The suit claims the state water board is demanding the city forfeit too much water from the Tuolumne River as part of a licensing deal for two dams in the faraway basin. State regulators have said the water is needed to maintain proper river flows and support struggling salmon, but city officials contend the demands would leave Bay Area residents and businesses vulnerable to water shortages.

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Opinion: Wastewater Recycling Got Derailed in Los Angeles. Now it’s Back On Track

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Marc Haefele

Twenty years ago, in the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral race, a topic usually seen as dull became the most lurid issue of the campaign. The topic was water recycling, and we are still being hurt by the rhetoric from that election today.

Candidate Joel Wachs, a longtime member of the City Council, didn’t even make the runoff that year. But during the primary he alarmed voters across the city by insisting that Los Angeles was furtively planning to pipe recycled sewage to millions of unsuspecting Angelenos — without, according to Wachs, adequate public input or scientific research.

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How California’s Drought Impacts Wildlife Populations and Their Behavior

/in , , /by /Fox2by Tom Vacar

The COVID-19 pandemic encouraged wildlife, looking for easy food, to visit quiet neighborhoods they normally didn’t. The drought may now be forcing them to do the same. Experts say, though you might like to, do not leave food and water out for wild animals showing up in neighborhoods. The bear that showed up in a tree near central San Anselmo this week is one of several recent North Bay sightings.

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Biden Backs Disputed Trump Contract in Court

/in , /by /E&E Newsby Jeremy P. Jacobs

The Biden administration will defend controversial water delivery contracts to California farmers issued in the Trump era, according to a court filing yesterday, rejecting pleas from a tribe and environmentalists to rescind them.

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A Few Lessons for California’s New Drought

/in , , /by /California WaterBlogby Jay Lund

We asked some colleagues for lessons that might be useful in managing the California’s new drought. Here is a first sampling of thoughts.

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Water Crisis “Couldn’t be Worse” on Oregon-California Border

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Gillian Flaccus

The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year.

In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system.

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New Report: Drought to Hit Rural Latino Communities Hardest

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Rachel Becker

Rural, low-income Latino communities across California were hardest hit by the last drought and could see drinking water shortages again this year as extreme drought spreads across the state, according to a report released today by non-partisan advisors to California’s lawmakers.

The report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office warns state officials to prepare by ramping up monitoring of wells in vulnerable communities and lining up emergency drinking water supplies to send there.

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California and the West Are in for Another Tough Fire Year, Federal Officials Forecast

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Anna M. Phillips

After a 2020 fire season that shattered records and killed 33 people in California, federal wildfire experts predict another tough one for the state due to widespread and worsening drought conditions.

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack told reporters Thursday that they had been briefed by government wildfire experts at the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, to expect another extremely active fire season complicated, for the second year, by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. With nearly half of the United States gripped by a severe drought, officials said that Americans living throughout much of the West should plan for a year of “above average wildfire potential.”

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