Imagine we were presenting you with an investment opportunity. It would cost a lot, and similar programs have failed miserably.
Human rights violations would very likely occur. There are more viable alternatives available with similar (or lower) costs, but we’re asking you to invest anyway because we are certain we could figure out a way to make a failed program work this time.
Colorado and California are rethinking water management for a hotter, drier future, while balancing urban water needs with the benefits agriculture brings to rural communities.
Most years, ranchers in Wyoming irrigate their land with water from the Green River—a tributary of the Colorado—in the summer so they have forage to feed their cattle late in the season.
It’s still technically summer but snow is falling in the Sierra along the California-Nevada line.
California transportation officials posted a photo on the Caltrans District 3 Twitter account shortly after noon Monday showing snow accumulating on U.S. Interstate 80 at the top of Donner Summit about 10 miles (16 kilometers) west of Truckee, California.
Caltrans is urging motorists to slow down.
A strong cold front packing winds gusting up to 50 mph (80 kph) sent sending temperatures plummeting Monday across western Nevada.
A 2017 comprehensive study of salmon, steelhead and trout in California showed that half of the steelhead and salmon populations native to the Klamath River are in danger of extinction within the next 50 years. Removing the four aging hydroelectric dams from the river would significantly improve ecological and geomorphic conditions throughout the Klamath watershed and play a key role in returning these fish to stable population levels.
The California Department of Water Resources still has unfinished business at Lake Oroville, despite completion of major construction on the spillways earlier this year following the 2017 events that triggered more than 180,000 people living downstream to evacuate.
Major construction on the main spillway that was heavily damaged in 2017 was completed this spring by Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., along with the emergency spillway next to it. The company’s contract work is expected to be substantially complete this December with the contractor fully offsite by next spring.
Completion and operation of the much-anticipated Pure Water Monterey recycled water project have been delayed again and it is now expected to miss another key water delivery deadline set for the end of this year.
But an accelerated proposed timeline envisions California American Water starting to extract water banked in the Seaside basin from the recycled water project by February or March, before the current six-month waiting period.
There’s no certain answer as to how the nutria population re-emerged after being declared eradicated in California decades ago but the population is spreading and causing serious concern. The Department of Fish and Wildlife was recently awarded $10 million to wipe out the large, invasive rodents and that effort is now well underway.
“There are amazing little wetlands scattered throughout the state that people have no idea are even present,” says Greg Gerstenberg, senior wildlife biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “That’s exactly where they thrive.”
It didn’t take long for the completion of the Drought Contingency Plan to create value to Arizona and the Colorado River Basin. Its focus on stabilizing Lake Mead and creating incentives to “bank” water in the reservoir already are paying dividends.
DCP is providing a safe harbor while we work on important issues leading up to 2026, when the existing guidelines for the operation of the Colorado River system expire.
We now have an opportunity to build on the successful Arizona process that led to the DCP signing. Arizona is Stronger Together. And that will serve us well as we work toward the next step – maintaining a stable, healthy Colorado River system as we face a hotter and drier future.
In a dusty empty lot on the edge of town, Camarillo public officials picked up shovels and broke ground Wednesday to commence the construction of a long-awaited desalter plant.
The groundbreaking ceremony was decades in the making for the North Pleasant Valley Groundwater Desalter Plant, which aims to convert brackish water from the Calleguas Creek watershed into potable water for the city of Camarillo.
