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2019 California Central Valley Project Water Allocations Updated

/in , /by /Sierra Sun Times

The Bureau of Reclamation last week issued updated allocations for Central Valley Project contractors for the 2019 contract year. This update reflects the benefits of the series of storms that brought significant precipitation to California during February and early March. “The precipitation we’ve experienced since mid-February has provided a significant boost to the projected water supply for the Central Valley Project this year,” said Mid-Pacific Regional Director Ernest Conant. “With the improved CVP storage conditions and the latest runoff forecasts, we are pleased to increase the amount of water allocated to many of our water service contractors.”

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California Drought Officially Over After More Than Seven Years

/in , /by /KSBY (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)

California is officially free of drought after more than seven years, drought monitors said Thursday. The Golden State has experienced some form of drought for 376 consecutive weeks, the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska, tweeted. It’s the first time the state has been free of drought since Dec. 20, 2011. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tweeted that weather in 2017 helped matters, but moderate drought persisted. Rainfall this winter further alleviated the drought, although 7 percent of the state remains “abnormally dry.”

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Wet Winter Likely To Keep Colorado River Out Of Shortage Next Year

/in , /by / Las Vegas Review-Journalby Henry Brean

For the moment, Mother Nature is smiling on the Colorado River. Enough snow has piled up in the mountains that feed the river to stave off a dreaded shortage declaration for one more year, according to federal projections released Friday afternoon. Just a month ago, forecasters expected Lake Mead to start 2020 about 17 feet lower than it is now, below the trigger point for a first-ever federal shortage declaration on the drought-stricken river.

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Wet Winter Likely To Keep Colorado River Out Of Shortage Next Year

/in , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Henry Brean

For the moment, Mother Nature is smiling on the Colorado River. Enough snow has piled up in the mountains that feed the river to stave off a dreaded shortage declaration for one more year, according to federal projections released Friday afternoon. Just a month ago, forecasters expected Lake Mead to start 2020 about 17 feet lower than it is now, below the trigger point for a first-ever federal shortage declaration on the drought-stricken river. But several weeks of winter storms across the Mountain States have cut the lake’s expected decline by Jan. 1 roughly in half, leaving the reservoir east of Las Vegas safely above the shortage line, according to the new figures from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.

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Reclamation Drought Plan Would Nix Environmental Reviews

/in , , /by /E&E News (Washington, D.C.)by Jeremy P. Jacobs

As the Trump administration moves toward a drought contingency plan for the Colorado River, the Bureau of Reclamation is pushing legislation that would exempt its work from environmental reviews. That includes potential impacts on what has emerged as a major sticking point in the drought negotiations: Southern California’s Salton Sea, a public health and ecological disaster. Draft legislation obtained by E&E News would authorize the Interior secretary to implement the drought plan “notwithstanding any other provision of law” and “without delay.”

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Hundreds Wade Into Complex, Challenging World Of California Water

/in , /by /The Delano Record (Bakersfield, Calif.)by John Cox

Hundreds of Bakersfield agriculture, oil and political leaders came together March 7 to examine the challenges and opportunities associated with providing California residents and businesses with a secure, reliable supply of clean water. Lest the wet winter create a sense of complacency around one of the state’s most vital needs, specialists from various fields urged collective attention to the costly and increasingly complex problems that surround sourcing, storing and conveying water across the Golden State.

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California Is Now Drought-Free, Monitor Says. Wait, Didn’t That Happen 2 Years Ago?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Michael McGough

Thanks to a wet winter across the state, the entirety of California is free of drought for the first time since 2011, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s Thursday update. Don’t confuse that with former Gov. Jerry Brown’s April 2017 announcement that the statewide drought had officially ended. The drought officially began with Brown’s declaration of a state of emergency in January 2014.

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Two California Water Agencies Battling Over Colorado River Drought Plan

/in , , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Felicia Fonseca and Jonathan J. Cooper

A major Southern California water agency is trying to push the state through a final hurdle in joining a larger plan to preserve a key river in the U.S. West that serves 40 million people. Most of the seven states that get water from the Colorado River have signed off on plans to keep the waterway from crashing amid a prolonged drought, climate change and increased demands. But California and Arizona have not, missing deadlines from the federal government.

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California Is Drought-Free For The First Time In Nearly A Decade

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

It’s official: California is 100% drought-free. For the first time since 2011, the state shows no areas suffering from prolonged drought and illustrates almost entirely normal conditions, according to a map released Thursday by the U.S. Drought Monitor. Former Gov. Jerry Brown issued an executive order in 2017 that lifted the drought emergency in most of the state, leaving some breathing a sigh of relief. But he cautioned Californians to keep saving water as some parts of the state were still suffering from extreme drought.

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Here’s What A ‘Very Likely’ Sequel To California’s 1862 Megastorm Would Look Like

/in , /by /Popular Scienceby Eleanor Cummins

Dale Cox isn’t your typical prophet of the apocalypse. But in his work at the U.S. Geological Survey, the bald, bearded, and technically-precise project manager spends an inordinate amount of time on catastrophe. Since 2006, Cox has worked with the interdisciplinary Science Application for Risk Reduction division in an effort to model hypothetical but entirely feasible disasters—and sell local governments on prevention methods.

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