California’s aging water infrastructure desperately needs an upgrade.
Shorter, more intense rain storms, less snowpack and more prolonged stretches of drought reflect the reality of climate change. There’s no one project, no single action, that will save California from a dry and unreliable water future.
When the Thomas Fire reached Ventura city limits early on Dec. 5, 2017, a critical tool to help curb the flames quickly disappeared: water.
Some of the more than 500 people who ultimately lost their homes sued Ventura over that lack of water, though they later directed their energy at Southern California Edison, which investigators found caused the fire.
After much analysis and debate, a panel of industry veterans has selected the winners of ENR’s 7th annual Global Best Projects competition. Like ENR’s successful regional and national U.S. competitions, Global Best Projects identifies and honors the project teams behind outstanding design and construction efforts of the past year.
The California State Assembly has approved a bill that would spend up to $130 million a year to improve drinking water.
About a million people in California don’t have access to clean drinking water. Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a tax on residential water bills to fix that. But lawmakers rejected it.
California is a leader in renewable energy, and the state has pledged to use only clean sources for electricity, including wind and solar power, by 2045. One hurdle is energy storage, but an old solution involving water may help the state reach its goal of zero emissions. The solution is “pumped storage,” which uses water in reservoirs at different elevations to smooth the fluctuations of intermittent power from the wind and sun, and makes electricity available when it is needed. California has mandated 60% renewable energy sources for its power generation by 2030, and all zero-emission sources by 2045, which could include nuclear generation along with renewables.
The U.S. Forest Service estimates 147 million trees in California died following the state’s prolonged drought. New research out of UC Merced suggests a culprit: Extremely dry soil.
Not all California droughts have led to massive forest die-offs. The difference this time, according to an article published Monday in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Geoscience, was the drought’s intense heat and longevity.
Three years ago, presidential candidate Donald Trump got right to the heart of Central Valley agriculture’s fight over its most precious resource. “We’re going to solve your water problem. You have a water problem that is so insane,” Trump told a campaign audience at Selland Arena in May 2016. “It is so ridiculous where they’re taking the water and shoving it out to sea.”
Trump said the seemingly endless grind among agricultural, urban, and environmental interests over water resources would be simple to fix.
Weather conditions that make this a landmark year, like more rain, could be part of the reason for the algae blooms in Horseshoe Lake, putting the upper Bidwell Park lake off limits for use for the foreseeable future.
Swimming in the lake, for humans or dogs, is warned against, and new city signs say exposure to the algae can kill animals. Those who fish need to take special steps in preparing their catch.
Based on two weeks of research into the probable future of water supplies in the American West, it’s pretty clear that no water expert or journalist truly believes Colorado is likely to become a lifeless, waterless desert, within the lifetime of anyone currently alive.
California’s political leaders have made the long-overdue decision to clean up the Central Valley’s contaminated drinking water, and help cash-strapped rural water districts.
The catch: rather than assess a fee on water users or tapping into the state’s budget surplus, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature relied on cap-and-trade money to pay for a portion of the operation.
