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San Francisco Could See Its First Rainfall Since January as a Potentially Wetter California Weather Pattern Takes Shape

/in , , /by /The Weather Channelby Linda Lam

Much needed rain will finally return to California and will likely end a month-plus dry streak in San Francisco and Sacramento. Dry conditions have prevailed across most of California since late January due to the upper-level pattern.  A strong area of high pressure aloft near California has pushed the jet stream and storm track northward into the Pacific Northwest.

The persistence of this pattern has resulted in drought conditions during the wet season. Nearly 70% of the Golden State is abnormally dry, and about a third of the state is in moderate drought, according to the latest report from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

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Nevada Supreme Court Hears Arguments About the State’s Role in Protecting Water for the ‘Public Trust’

/in , , /by /The Nevada Independentby Daniel Rothberg

The Nevada Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday in a case weighing how state regulators should consider “public trust” values — the environment or recreation — when the sustainability of lakes or rivers could be harmed by how the state has allocated water rights.

The questions before the court stem from ongoing federal litigation over the use of water in the Walker River. But the case has received significant attention because it could provide an opportunity for the state’s top court to bolster legal protections for the environment. At the same time, agricultural groups, businesses and municipal water users fear a broad ruling could upend their existing water rights.

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Study: Water Restrictions to Mean Billions in Lost Farm Revenue

/in , , /by /The Business Journal by The Business Journal Staff

A new study by University of California researchers anticipates drastic economic losses in the face of future restrictions on water available for San Joaquin Valley agriculture.

The study by economists David Sunding and David Roland-Holst at UC Berkeley examined the economic impact of two types of restrictions to water supplies for ag: on groundwater pumping as part of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act and future reductions in surface water due to regulatory processes by the state and federal government.

Up to one million acres of farmland could be fallowed over the next 20 to 30 years — about one-fifth of all acres currently under cultivation in the San Joaquin Valley. Associated farm revenue loss would be about $7.2 billion a year.

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Seepage Monitors Installed at Oroville Dam

/in , /by /KRCR News by Kelli Saam

This week, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) will install eight new measurement devices at the base of the Oroville Dam. The devices, called piezometers will monitor seepage and will be used to confirm seepage measurements that the DWR already collects. Seepage refers to a small amount of water that can pass through the dam.

DWR said seepage is normal and expected, especially in large, earthen dams like Oroville. Seepage is measured and collected through a drainage system.

There were 56 piezometers originally installed in the dam fifty years ago which, as anticipated, have since stopped functioning. DWR plans to install additional piezometers throughout the facility in the coming years.

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Opinion: California’s Inner-Struggle for Common Sense on Water

/in , , /by /The Sun by Wayne Western Jr.

As you have probably heard, initial 2020 water allocations have been announced by the Bureau of Reclamation for Central Valley Project contractors.

For agriculture, north-of-Delta is currently allocated 50 percent of their contract while south-of-Delta ag users will receive is 15 percent.

Friant Class 1 users initial allocation is 20 percent while Class 2 is zero. Wildlife refuges will receive 100% while the San Joaquin Restoration Program will receive just under 71,000 acre-feet of water.

Other allocations cover senior water right holders and municipal and industrial uses.

It’s critical to note that reservoir levels and snowpack are not great but are also nowhere near the terrible levels of 2014 and 2015.

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February Ranked Among the Driest on Record Across California. Forecasters Hopeful for a ‘Miracle March’

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by Hannah Fry

After one of the driest Februaries on record across much of California, the first day of March brought a dash of rain and a dusting of fresh powder to the parched landscape.

The storm, which rolled into Los Angeles County on Sunday afternoon, dropped less than one-tenth of an inch of rain on the coast, while higher elevations saw between one-quarter and an inch of precipitation.

Snow Valley Mountain Resort in the San Bernardino Mountains reported a foot of snow from the system, while Frazier Park in Kern County received a 3-inch dusting, said John Dumas, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.

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Water Sector Collaborates on National Water Reuse Action Plan

/in , , /by /Water Finance & Management by WFM Staff

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, along with federal partners, has released the National Water Reuse Action Plan: Collaborative Implementation, a collection of bold actions developed in collaboration with water sector organizations that will reshape the way communities around the nation manage water. The plan identifies 37 actions across 11 strategic themes to give communities tools to consider and adopt water reuse as part of an integrated water resources plan.

EPA announced its intent to facilitate the development of the National Water Reuse Action Plan one year ago on Feb. 27, 2019.

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How Beef Eaters in Cities are Draining Rivers in the American West

/in , , /by /National Geographicby Alejandra Borunda

It’s not exactly news that the rivers of the western U.S. are in trouble.

For decades, their water has been siphoned off by climate change-fueled heat and an ever-growing human demand for grassy front lawns and long showers. The biggest user of river water by far, though, is agriculture—and new research shows that across the western United States, a third of all consumed water goes to irrigate crops not for human consumption, but that are used to feed beef and dairy cattle. In the Colorado River basin, it’s over 50 percent.

The burgers, steaks, yogurt, and ice cream Americans eat in abundance, the new results show, is directly related to the overuse of river water—leaving the ecosystems and communities that depend on those rivers drastically stressed under even the best of circumstances.

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Rain, Snow Kindle Hopes of ‘March Miracle’ in Parched California

/in , /by /GV Wire by GV Wire

It’s looking a lot more like winter in California’s parched mountains today.

Snow fell across the Sierra and in the mountains of Southern California on Sunday.

And, while the immediate forecast calls for a return of dry skies, the National Weather Service in Hanford says there is a possibility of rain on the Valley floor and snow in the mountains on Saturday.

The early March turnabout followed two months that set records for dryness in parts of the state.

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Feds Ink Deal with Water District Tied to Bernhardt

/in , /by /E&E News by Jeremy P. Jacobs

The Trump administration on Friday awarded a permanent water delivery contract to the country’s largest agricultural district, brushing aside environmentalists’ concerns about California’s uncertain water future in the face of climate change.

At issue is irrigation water that flows through the Bureau of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project to the Westlands Water District, a Rhode Island-sized agricultural powerhouse and former client of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt.

Reclamation cast the agreement as a good deal: In return for a contract that lasts in perpetuity, Westlands pays off its debt for the Central Valley Project construction much faster. As of Sept. 30, 2018, Westlands owed about $480.7 million to the federal government.

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