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California’s Dry October Could be a Sign of More Concentrated Rainy Seasons

/in , /by /Capital Public Radioby Ezra David Romero

The first part of fall has been dry so far in California, and that trend might continue. UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain said it’s not unusual for rain to be scarce in October, but that dry conditions – like the ones forecast over the next few weeks – are increasingly being pushed deeper into autumn. “We expect there to be a further concentration of California’s already narrow rainy season into even fewer months during just the middle of winter,” Swain said, as laid out in his recent blog post. Swain’s research suggests this trend is already evident, especially in Southern California.

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OPINION: Untangling the Complexities of California’s Proposition 3 Water Bond

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Heather Cooley, Sonali Abraham, Sarah Diringer and Cora Kammeyer

On November 6, California voters will decide the fate of Proposition 3 (the Water Supply and Water Quality Act of 2018), which authorizes the sale of $8.9 billion in new general obligation bonds for water-related infrastructure and environmental projects. This includes funds – most of which would be distributed through grants – for various projects related to water supply, watershed health, flood management, groundwater, facility upgrades and fish and wildlife habitat. Many are confused about the bond, and numerous organizations have taken positions supporting or opposing it. We at the Pacific Institute, a California-based think-tank focused on water, are taking no formal position on Proposition 3, opting instead to offer the voting public some insights into its complexities.

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OPINION: State Water Grab will Devastate our Community

/in , /by /The Modesto Beeby Dave Long and Jeff Marchini

Are you a mechanic? A food processor? A trucker? Do you work in a bank? Sell insurance? Much more simply, do you drink water in eastern Merced County? Assuming you answered yes to any of these questions, get ready: the State Water Resources Control Board will soon vote to take more than $230 million and about 1,000 jobs from our community. In July, the water board released its newest plan to require that twice as much water remain in the Merced River and flow north into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. After a series of hearings and delays, the board is poised to adopt this doomed-to-fail plan on Nov. 7.

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Delta Caucus Objects to Federal Loan to Support Tunnels Project

/in , /by /Daily Democrat (Woodland, Calif.)

Members of California’s Legislative Delta Caucus, including its co-chairmen, Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, and Assemblymember Jim Frazier, D-Discovery Bay, sent a letter Friday to the Environmental Protection Agency objecting to a $1.6 billion loan for construction of the state’s controversial twin tunnels project on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta known as WaterFix. “This project poses devastating environmental consequences for the state’s most important waterway while threatening the economic vitality of the entire region,” said Dodd, one of nine lawmakers to sign the letter.

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In Water-Stressed West, an Old Water Efficiency Metric Needs a Reboot

/in , /by /Water Deeplyby Gary Pitzer

People in California and the Southwest are getting stingier with water, a story that’s told by the acre-foot. For years, water use has generally been described in terms of acre-foot per a certain number of households, keying off the image of an acre-foot as a football field a foot deep in water. The longtime rule of thumb: One acre-foot of water would supply the indoor and outdoor needs of two typical urban households for a year.

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The Energy 202: California Says Trump’s Fuel Standards Plan Will ‘Forfeit Our Best Chance to Fight Climate Change’

/in , /by /Washinigton Postby Dino Grandoni

California is coming out swinging in its official response to one of the Trump administration’s most consequential attempts at rolling back regulations to date — to freeze fuel-efficiency standards for cars and trucks through 2026.

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Prop. 3 Would Provide Funds For California Water Projects, But Opponents Argue Few Will See The Benefits

/in , /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Ezra David Romero

Should a bond for both habitat restoration and water-infrastructure projects be paid for by all Californians or just the groups that would directly benefit? That’s up for voters to decide. Proposition 3 would authorize $8.9 billion in state bonds for water-related infrastructure and environmental projects, including $30 million for repairs along the American River. But with interest it could cost Californians more than $17 billion.

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President Trump Approves Funding For Water Projects That Could Mean More California Reservoirs

/in , /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Ezra David Romero

President Donald Trump signed a bipartisan infrastructure bill this week that could lead to raising the Shasta Dam and funding other reservoir projects. The plan is to spend $6 billion throughout the country over 10 years. The president says the funding will go toward ports, reducing flood risk, restorying ecosystems and performing upkeep on waterways — “which are in deep, deep trouble, but they won’t be for very long,” Trump added.

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Oregon, Already Struggling With Drought, May Have Still More to Come

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Matt Weiser

Oregon is known by many as a wet place, with persistent rain and forests enveloped in fog. This year is different. In a matter of just six weeks over the summer, one-third of Oregon was instead enveloped by extreme drought. That figure comes from the National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS), a branch of NOAA. The results also rank 86 percent of Oregon in severe drought territory, a slightly less severe category.

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Soot-Filled Rivers A Concern Following Wildfires

/in , /by /The Weather Network

During the record-breaking 2018 fire season, the typically clear waters of Cameron Falls in Waterton Lakes National Park in southern Alberta flowed black. But it had nothing to do with the extensive fires that torched much of British Columbia and a small part of Waterton. The carbon came from the remnants of another wildfire that had raced 26 kilometres — from one end of the park to the other — in less than eight hours the year before. Heavy rain from a violent thunderstorm in July 2018 flushed the ash, soot and blackened debris that lay on the forest floor into the Cameron River.

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