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NOAA Warns of Water Use Cutbacks, Fires and Low Levels in Reservoirs Amid Significant Drought

/in , , /by /The Hillby Celine Castronuovo

Dry weather is likely to persist in the U.S. in the coming months, with the possibility of water use cutbacks in California and the Southwest as more than half of the country experiences moderate to severe drought conditions, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.

NOAA’s Spring Outlook report stated that the U.S. could face the most significant spring drought since 2013, with the potential to impact roughly 74 million people across the country.

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Lake Mendocino Hits Record Low for March; Water Managers Plead for Inland Residents to Conserve

/in , , /by /The Mendocino Voiceby Lana Cohen

Lake Mendocino and Lake Pillsbury are the lowest they have been for this time of year since they were constructed, rainfall is between six and seven inches behind this time in 1977, and the forecast for the next two weeks has little to offer in terms of precipitation. To summarize, things are looking grim. In light of low water supplies and a dismal rain forecast, the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District declared a reduced water supply alert earlier this month, calling for Water District customers “to follow their water conservation plans and begin water shortage contingency planning.”

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Tucson Official Says City Can Fight Water Cuts Despite Data

/in , , /by /AP News

Tucson’s top water official has said that the city could withstand a “worst plausible scenario” cut of 50% of its total Colorado River allocation from the Central Arizona Project canal system.

Interim Assistant City Manager Tim Thomure said much of the water that could be cut is not currently under customer use and that the city stores more than one-third of its CAP supply in large basins for emergency use, the Arizona Daily Star reported Saturday.

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California Agencies Will Reap Windfall from Biden Infrastructure Plan — If It Gets Traction

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ralph Vartabedian

A Biden initiative expected to pour up to $3 trillion into repairing America’s decrepit infrastructure and funding other programs has sparked a scramble across the nation for the federal funds — with California expecting to reap the biggest piece.

The potential federal bounty opens the door to a list of ambitious projects: electrifying the Burbank-to-Anaheim passenger rail system, straightening the Los Angeles-to-San Diego rail line to cut travel time, and building a 1.3-mile tunnel to extend a passenger line to downtown San Francisco.

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Make it Rain: US States Embrace ‘Cloud Seeding’ to Try to Conquer Drought

/in , , /by /The Guardianby Oliver Milman

With three-quarters of the US west gripped by a seemingly ceaseless drought, several states are increasingly embracing a drastic intervention – the modification of the weather to spur more rainfall. The latest reports from the US Drought Monitor have provided sobering reading, with 40% of the US west of the continental divide classed as being in “exceptional drought”, the most severe of four levels of drought.

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Drought Is the U.S. West’s Next Big Climate Disaster

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Greenby Brian K Sullivan, Michael Hirtzer, Kim Chipman and Marvin G Perez

Normally at this time of year, Katy Kemp’s 80 head of cattle would be grazing on her family’s ranch in Staples, Texas. Instead, the herd is living off dwindling hay stores as drought dries up grassland and chokes off crops. Parts of Texas are so starved for water that ranchers are trucking feed 1,000 miles from Montana, driving up prices there and leaving hay producers completely sold out.

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Opinion: Pushing Congress to Move on Aging Water Infrastructure

/in , , /by /Western FarmPressby Dan Keppen

The American food consumer has access to fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains and meat throughout the year. That’s largely because of Western producers and the projects that provide water to these farmers and ranchers.

Western irrigators have been dealing with changes in climate and hydrology for more than a century. But the outlook for water supplies in the future is not positive.

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PFAS Water Lawsuits Expose Financial Impacts on State’s Poor Communities

/in , /by /Capital & Mainby Dan Ross

Santa Clarita, a comfortable exurb of some 213,000 residents about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is one of hundreds of California communities and districts grappling with the pricey problem of drinking water that’s been tainted by per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, chemicals that have been linked to cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility and increased risk of asthma and thyroid disease.

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World Water Day Highlights Value of Water

/in , /by /Weather.comby Jay Wesner Childs

Billions of people don’t have clean drinking water, or anywhere sanitary to wash their hands. Half of the world’s malnutrition cases are caused by a lack of water, sanitation and hygiene. Flooding caused nearly $77 billion in economic losses worldwide between 2009 and 2019.

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Drought: Santa Clara Valley Water District Asks Public to Step Up Water Conservation

/in , , /by /The Mercury News by Paul Rogers

In the latest sign that California is entering a new drought, Silicon Valley’s largest water provider on Tuesday asked the public to step up water conservation efforts.

“We have no idea how long it will last or how bad it might get,” said Tony Estremera, chairman of the board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District. “Clearly we can’t just sit back and wait for more rain.”

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