As the Colorado River’s giant reservoirs have declined during the last two decades, even larger amounts of water have been pumped and drained from underground, according to new research based on data from NASA satellites.
I used to have no problem with tap water. I grew up in Cincinnati with parents who, at dinner, filled a pitcher straight from our kitchen sink. In St. Louis during college, I subsisted on campus water fountains. I later moved to New York, which boasts “the Champagne of tap water” and claims it to be the secret ingredient in its bagels. During a two-year stint in Montana, I went on long hikes and sipped stream water, shockingly cold and straight from the glaciers, but other than that, I drank from the tap. And then I landed in Los Angeles, where everyone I met used a filter.
Taking a look at our very important California water grid, I’m ABC 10 Chief Meteorologist Monica Woods, and when we look at the overview of all of this, we have our main groundwater basins, which are what’s underneath the ground, as well as our main aboveground storage and conveyance systems.
Fifteen California lawmakers from both parties are up in arms over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest proposal to to use the budget process to fast-track the Delta tunnel — a deeply controversial, $20 billion plan to replumb the estuary and funnel more water south. With the clock ticking for the Legislature to pass a budget bill tackling the state’s $12 billion deficit, Newsom dropped a spending plan last week that would add sweeping changes to permitting, litigation, financing, and eminent domain and land acquisition issues aimed at speeding approval of the massive project.
Above-normal temperatures combined with paltry precipitation levels have led to rapid snowmelts across the U.S. West — reducing water supplies for the spring and summer, federal meteorologists are warning. Nearly all Western basins are now experiencing a late season “snow drought,” or a period of unusually minimal snow accumulation for a given point in the year, according to reports released by the National Integrated Drought Information System on Tuesday.
Elected officials and advocacy groups in San Joaquin County are sounding the alarm after Gov. Gavin Newsom called for fast-tracking the Delta Conveyance Project.
The $20 billion project would divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and send it south. Critics warn it could drain water needed for agriculture in the Central Valley and harm Delta smelt, Chinook salmon and other imperiled fish.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a proposed addition to his state budget May 14 that would “fast-track” water infrastructure improvements. The presented changes would, among other things, change the way property acquisitions — including eminent domain — are dealt with relative to water infrastructure projects under the State Water Project. It would also change how protests to water rights permitting decisions are managed.
“For too long, attempts to modernize our critical water infrastructure have stalled in endless red tape, burdened with unnecessary delay,” Newsom said in a news release. “We’re done with barriers — our state needs to complete this project as soon as possible, so that we can better store and manage water to prepare for a hotter, drier future.”
In a state often struggling with water scarcity and record-breaking droughts, a promising milestone is being reached in Northern California.
Lake Oroville is expected to reach its full capacity of 900 feet this spring, fueled by robust snowmelt from California’s northern mountains, according to Newsweek.
The University of California, Davis and University of California, Merced released an economic report on the future of water in California, May 13. The report found that projected declines in the state’s water supplies could result in the fallowing of up to 3 million acres of farmland, the loss of 67,000 jobs statewide and lasting damage to California’s agricultural and rural communities if no action is taken.
Florida has become the second state to officially ban fluoride in public water. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed SB 700, also known as the Florida Farm Bill, into law Thursday. The bill doesn’t specifically mention the word “fluoride,” but it effectively bans the mineral by preventing “the use of certain additives in a water system.” It will go into effect July 1.
