Pro-Russia hackers have exploited shoddy security practices at multiple US water plants in recent cyberattacks that have hit a wider swathe of victims than was previously documented, according to an advisory by US federal agencies obtained by CNN.
There may be more drinking water waiting to be found in the Western U.S., a new computer model suggests.
The new model uses artificial intelligence (AI) to get better estimations of water supply across large distances in the West. Details on the computer model and its findings were published in Proceedings of the AAAI Conference on Artificial Intelligence by researchers at Washington State University.
Governor Gavin Newsom, with the support of the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and other state agencies, signed into effect new developments for the California Water Plan which details water conservation efforts for the next five years.
Newsom said that the state has invested $9 billion in the last three years, and that “I want folks to know that we are not just victims of fate, that we recognize the world we’re living in.”
Giant pumps hum inside a warehouse-like building, pushing water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the California Aqueduct, where it travels more than 400 miles south to the taps of over half the state’s population.
But lately the powerful motors at the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant have been running at reduced capacity, despite a second year of drought-busting snow and rain.
The reason: So many threatened fish have died at the plant’s intake reservoir and pumps that it has triggered federal protections and forced the state to pump less water.
EVERY DROP COUNTS: California had (is still having, amazingly) a really good water year. But all the rain and snow is doing almost nothing to lubricate the state’s perpetual conflicts between fish and farms.
Alate season winter storm bringing up to 24 inches of snow to the Sierra Nevada mountains this weekend could prompt California water officials to release water from some of the state’s reservoirs for flood prevention.
Thursday, President Biden is expected to announce an infusion of funding aimed at eliminating the country’s dangerous lead pipes that carry drinking water into people’s homes and businesses.
The Department of Justice, representing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), alongside the Attorney General of California, on behalf of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, has lodged a civil complaint in federal court against the City and County of San Francisco. The complaint highlights alleged Clean Water Act violations spanning the past decade.
Twelve years after California became the first state in the nation to declare a “human right to water,” achieving this basic societal goal of securing clean water for all 39 million state residents is more daunting than ever.
Colorado and other Upper Basin states must pay particular attention to recently published scientific studies detailing the improved water budget on the Colorado River Basin. On April 4, 2024, The Colorado Sun published a story with the headline “Cherish that hamburger. It cost a quarter of the Colorado River, according to researchers.”
