The nation’s climate scientists say November was warmer than usual, and it was yet another month in a pattern of rising global temperatures. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tracks global temperatures and researchers say the warming trend is continuing.
Last week’s storm did little to ease the drought in Arizona’s reservoirs. But there’s still plenty of winter left.
The Bureau of Reclamation makes two-year projections, based on weather and water levels in Colorado River reservoirs, and its most recent projections have been dire.
That could set the stage for an Arizona water shortage in 2022. Snowpack in the mountains is now 69% of normal, but Patti Aaron, a spokeswoman for the bureau, says a little snow could go a long way.
The United States has some of the safest drinking water in the world. But its water supply is facing a new challenge — a slimy growth inside pipes that is encouraging outbreaks of illness responsible for over 7 million illnesses and 6,000 deaths every year.
California American Water has sued the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District challenging the environmental review of the district’s potential public takeover bid of the company’s local water system.
The Trump administration has relaxed a regulation restricting water flow from showerheads, a pet peeve of President Donald Trump, who complained that he wanted more water to make his hair “perfect.”
Since 1992, federal law has dictated that showerheads shouldn’t spew more than 2.5 gallons (9.5 liters) of water a minute.
An international research team has proposed to use nighttime radiative cooling to harvest water from PV panels and reuse it for module cleaning during the daytime. According to their findings, the proposed system has, also, a beneficial effect on the modules’ operating temperature.
It’s not just Californians paying attention to the state’s water supply anymore. It’s Wall Street.
In a sign of the growing value of water in a warming world, investors began trading futures of the coveted commodity, tied to California water prices, for the first time last week.
The novel marketplace allows speculators to make money betting on future prices of California water while allowing farmers, businesses and municipal suppliers to hedge against price swings and stabilize their costs.
Rising seas can evoke images of waves crashing into beachfront property or a torrent of water rolling through downtown streets. But there’s a lesser-known hazard of climate change for those who live along shorelines the world over: freshwater in the ground beneath them creeping slowly upward. For many Bay Area residents who live near the water’s edge, little-publicized research indicates the problem could start to manifest in 10-15 years, particularly in low-lying communities like those in Oakland, Alameda and Marin City.
In what was hailed as a “landmark agreement,” farmers in an area of southern Tulare County blamed for sinking the Friant-Kern Canal from excessive groundwater pumping will chip in a hefty amount to help pay for a fix.
How hefty could be decided by their payment choice.
A longer term payment option would be $200 million.
Amid long-term forecasts indicating California could be headed into another dry winter, discussions at the California Farm Bureau Annual Meeting focused on current and future water policy and the challenges facing short- and long-term supplies.
During a breakout session as part of the virtual Annual Meeting, Ernest Conant, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation regional director for the California-Great Basin Region, described how regulatory constraints have affected water allocations from the federal Central Valley Project.
