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Opinion: Innovation Needed to Solve State’s Water Challenges

/in , /by /CalMattersby Danielle Blacet and Adrian Covert

Earlier this month, camera crews once again gathered in the Sierra Nevada to watch a man plunge a pole through the snow. The pole was removed and, following a tense few moments, Californians learned we experienced another dry winter, and we are plunging further into drought. These snowpack surveys are quaint rituals, but they’re also a jarring reminder of how little technological innovation has occurred in California’s water sector.  The case for action is clear.

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Southern California Water Giant Wants Sacramento Valley Water — and has $44 Million to Spend

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler

With California in the throes of a second year of drought conditions, the mega-water agency of Southern California served notice Tuesday that it’s prepared to spend up to $44 million to buy water from Northern California to shore up its supplies.

The board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which serves 19 million urban residents, authorized its staff to begin negotiating deals with water agencies north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, where supplies are generally more plentiful.

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Opinion: Failure to Prepare Deepens the Pain from Dry Years

/in , /by /AgAlertby Danny Merkley and Chris Scheuring

It’s that time of year, when we find out it’s that kind of year. We appear at the doorstep of a “critically dry year,” and most reservoir levels are significantly below average. Those conditions bring painfully to mind the awful drought years of 2014 and 2015, and threaten water supplies for California farms and cities, and for the protected fish species that must also get by in these lean years. For direct diverters, the State Water Resources Control Board recently sent letters to 40,000 water right holders of record, asking them to start planning for potential water supply shortages later this year, and identifying actions water users can take to increase drought resilience.

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Threatened by Shasta Dam Raise, McCloud One of America’s Most Endangered Rivers, Conservation Group Says

/in , /by /Redding Record Searchlightby Damon Arthur

While the federal government sees the prospect of raising the height of Shasta Dam as a way to increase water storage for a thirsty California, the Winnemem Wintu of Shasta County see it as a threat to their culture.

It was a theme picked up this week by American Rivers, a conservation group that named the McCloud River one of America’s 10 most endangered rivers because of the proposal to raise the height of Shasta Dam.

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Ag Community Welcomes More Environmentally Friendly Farming But Says It’ll Take Money

/in , /by /Bakersfield Californianby John Cox

California’s agricultural community made clear in a series of public meetings last month that growers, dairies and ranchers stand ready to expand forward-thinking environmental practices — but that such activities don’t necessarily make financial sense without some form of government support.

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San Francisco Bay: Protection from Costly Disasters is Being Thrown Away, Scientists Say

/in , /by /The Mercury Newsby Paul Rogers

For more than 100 years after California’s Gold Rush, developers and city leaders filled in San Francisco Bay, shrinking it by one third to build farms, freeways, airports and subdivisions.

All that changed in the 1970s with modern environmental laws. But now as sea level rise threatens to cause billions of dollars of flooding in the coming decades, the bay is going to need to be filled again — but this time in a different way, according to a new scientific report out Tuesday.

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Biden Administration Declares California Drought Disaster. What Is Newsom Waiting For?

/in , /by /GV Wireby Bill McEwen

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack designated 50 California counties as natural disaster areas last month because of the drought. And, over the weekend, Fresno Congressman Jim Costa said on KSEE-24’s Sunday Morning Matters program that Gov. Newsom should declare a statewide emergency because of the dangerously dry conditions. Vilsack is a Democrat and former Iowa governor who served eight years as President Obama’s top farming official. Costa is a Democrat.

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Opinion: Drought Hits California — and Newsom

/in , /by /CALmattersby Dan Walters

By any standard, California is experiencing one of its periodic droughts after two successive years of below-normal precipitation.

“We are now facing the reality that it will be a second dry year for California and that is having a significant impact on our water supply,” state water resources director Karla Nemeth said in late March as the state reduced projected deliveries of water to 5% of requested demand.

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Extreme Conditions Now Sparking Drought Contingency Plan for First Time

/in , /by /KOLD News 13 (Tucson, Ariz.)by Megan McNeil

Extreme drought conditions throughout the West are lowering levels in the crucial water reservoir, Lake Mead. Scars of long years of low precipitation are hard to go unnoticed at Lake Mead, and the hot, dry summers have been felt for the last several years in Arizona. 2020 was especially dry, with little monsoon. Now, the West is in uncharted territory. Lake Mead is projected to drop by several feet this year, from elevation 1,083 to about 1,068, according to officials with the Central Arizona Project. The lake is hovering around 39 percent of its full capacity.

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Officials Confident in Water Supply Management Without Drought Declaration

/in , , /by /AG Net Westby Brian German

Despite a dry water year, state officials do not feel that a drought declaration is necessary. During a recent meeting of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture, Director of the California Department of Water Resources, Karla Nemeth provided a water update.

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