A “perfect drought” happens when major sources of water all experience drought at the same time. It was behind California’s dry spell early last decade, and a new study shows they go back centuries.
Connie Woodhouse and David Meko, professors at the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, found the most recent span of 100 years, when five perfect droughts hit California, was not unusual compared to past centuries.
(KFSN Fresno, Calif.) – Canals that move water through the state are showing signs of aging.
The Delta-Mendota Canal was built in 1951, while the California Aqueduct was built in 1963.
You can find cracks in the canal system due to subsidence. The land is sinking in some areas due to years of groundwater over-pumping.
“I think we’ve fallen woefully behind when it comes to maintaining infrastructure as we’ve seen in growing populations,” says Cannon Michael.
Democratic congressmen from Fresno introduced two pieces of legislation that aim to repair aging canals and water infrastructure in California that’s been damaged by sinking ground levels – called subsidence, caused by groundwater pumping.
“The canals on the eastside and the westside are experiencing dramatic subsidence and therefore their capacity to move water has greatly diminished,” said Rep. Jim Costa during a news conference Monday before the backdrop of the central San Joaquin Valley’s Friant Dam, just outside Fresno.
The community-scale market segment has been plagued by ongoing policy neglect, and otherwise poor policy choices. Will policymakers heed the track record of demonstrated failure and finally create new programs that address previous problems?
California, long a progressive leader on renewable energy and climate change mitigation, has neglected a key market segment for renewable energy: the community-scale or wholesale distributed generation market.
The wholesale distributed generation segment consists of projects below 20 megawatts that connect to the distribution grid and export power to the grid for sale.
Temperatures in Idaho’s Columbia, Snake, and Salmon rivers were so warm in 2015 that they cooked millions of salmon and steelhead to death. As climate change leads to consistently warmer temperatures and lower river flows, researchers expect that fish kills like this will become much more common. Tribal members living on the Nez Perce reservation are preparing for this new normal.
“The biggest and most poignant impact for Nez Perce tribal members has been the loss of fishing and fish,” said Stephanie Krantz, the climate change coordinator for the tribe. “For tribal peoples, they are absolutely essential for survival.”
Arcata is returning to a question it asked 14 years ago: Should the city fluoridate its water?
The Arcata City Council will be voting Wednesday on whether there should be a measure on the November 2020 ballot asking residents whether or not the city should stop fluoridating its water. The item was brought forward at the request of Arcata City Councilman Paul Pitino. A measure previously appeared before voters in 2006 when almost two-thirds of Arcata citizens voted it down, but Pitino said now, “we know a little bit more.”
Researchers warn that future freshwater damming efforts could present significant dangers to aquatic life if allowed to proceed as planned, potentially threatening the habitats of up to 10,000 fish species.
A study, published Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, details how a large team of environmental researchers have charted out the potential consequences of both present and future damming efforts of freshwater sources.
Arizona is debating the next steps it should take to protect limited groundwater, 40 years after the state’s landmark Groundwater Management Act became law. As the arguments take shape, it’s instructive to look west to California, which did not have groundwater legislation in place until 2014. The first round of management plans – which cover the basins with the most critical groundwater issues, mostly in the agriculture-heavy Central Valley – were due Jan. 31. The process has been laden with drama. And it’s anyone’s guess, after years of debate, whether California regulators will sign off on some basins’ plans.
“I didn’t know what was happening — the water, usually clear and blue, was brownish red and murky.” Emily Pomeroy, a program manager with Save Our Shores, recalled a visit to Monterey’s Del Monte Beach in the summer months of 2019. “I’d heard of red tides before … but I had never seen one in person,” she said. These periods of discolored water that Pomeroy had stumbled upon can be called a “red tide” though in reality they are better known as a “harmful algal bloom.” They occur when water temperatures and nutrient levels rise, Pomeroy learned, and often lead to devastating consequences for marine life and those who depend on it.
California can hit its goal of going carbon neutral by 2045 if it pulls emissions out of the air and slashes greenhouse gases from farming, landfills and other sources, according to a federal study released yesterday. The nation’s most populous state needs to remove 125 million tons of carbon emissions per year from the atmosphere, roughly equivalent of removing 26 million cars from its roads annually, said an analysis by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.
