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Southwest Drought Worsens As Hot June Weather Arrives

/in , /by /The Weather Network

June is here and the heat is on across many areas of the southern U.S., including the Four Corner states. Despite some recent precipitation, which helped lower drought numbers in some counties, overall conditions continue to intensify and expand. Rivers and watering holes across different areas of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico are drying up, forcing the closure of popular mountain recreation areas. Water restrictions are becoming the norm across the region.

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These Fish Are At The Heart Of California’s Water Debate. But Extinction Could Be Close

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

As a young biologist in the 1970s, Peter Moyle remembers towing nets behind boats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and catching 50 to 100 translucent, finger-length smelt in a matter of minutes. Moyle doesn’t see those days coming back. “I think extinction is imminent the way things are going,” said Moyle, a prominent UC Davis fisheries biologist. State biologists have found hardly any Delta smelt in their sampling nets in the past two years. Consecutive surveys in late April and early May found no smelt at all. Those results don’t mean the smelt have completely vanished.

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360,000 Californians Have Unsafe Drinking Water. Are You One Of Them?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Dale Kasler, Phillip Reese, and Ryan Sabalow

At the Shiloh elementary school near Modesto, drinking fountains sit abandoned, covered in clear plastic. At Mom and Pop’s Diner, a fixture in the Merced County town of Dos Palos, regulars ask for bottled water because they know better than to consume what comes out of the tap. And in rural Alpaugh, a few miles west of Highway 99 in Tulare County, residents such as Sandra Meraz have spent more than four decades worrying about what flows from their faucets. “You drink the water at your own risk,” said Meraz, 77. “And that shouldn’t be. We have families here with young children.”

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New Device Produces Water From Thin Air – No Electricity Required

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

Water is all around us. The only problem is that it remains trapped in the atmosphere until the right conditions release it as rain or snow. Now Omar Yaghi, a chemistry professor at the University of California, Berkeley, has helped find a way to grab that water anytime we need it.

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Drought Or No Drought: Jerry Brown Sets Permanent Water Conservation Rules For Californians

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Paul Rogers Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Although he declared an end to California’s historic five-year drought last year, Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed two new laws that will require cities and water districts across the state to set permanent water conservation rules, even in non-drought years. “In preparation for the next drought and our changing environment, we must use our precious resources wisely,” Brown said in a statement. “We have efficiency goals for energy and cars – and now we have them for water.”

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Get Ready To Save Water: Permanent California Restrictions Approved By Gov. Jerry Brown

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Taryn Luna and Alexi Koseff

The drought may be over, but California residents should prepare themselves for new and more permanent restrictions on water use. Gov. Jerry Brown signed a pair of bills Thursday to set permanent overall targets for indoor and outdoor water consumption. Assembly Bill 1668 by Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, D-Glendale, and Senate Bill 606 from state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Los Angeles, give water districts more flexibility than the strict cuts mandated under Brown’s emergency drought order and will eventually allow state regulators to assess thousands of dollars in fines against jurisdictions that do not meet the goals.

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Parks And Politics: What You Need To Know About Propositions 68 And 70

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by Julie Cart

What to make of the propositions on California’s June 5 ballot? As ever, the issues span the political spectrum. But two address the environment, one asking voters to shell out billions to improve it and another that could make it more difficult for the state to spend billions on helpful projects. Taken together, these measures would provide money to shore up crumbling levees, give kids more places to play and help clean the air—albeit at a price—and affect how the state spends proceeds of the cap-and-trade system that California uses to reduce greenhouse gases. Let’s unpack.

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NASA Study Says Freshwater Shortages Will Be Biggest Challenge Of This Century

/in , /by /Clean Technicaby Steve Hanley

Researchers have examined data collected by NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE)  satellite mission during the period 2002 to 2016 to track freshwater trends worldwide. In a new report, they claim that data shows access to freshwater will be the biggest challenge to humanity in the 21st century. The GRACE data made it possible for the researchers to track changes in freshwater resources around the world even in areas where local data has been scarce or unavailable, according to a report in The Guardian.

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We All Want Water Storage, Here Is An Innovative Pitch That’s Succeeding

/in , /by /ABC 10 (Sacramento)by Rob Carlmark

In the heart of the drought, reservoirs were getting sucked dry and the immediate concern was that we would not have enough water for everybody. These were stressful, dramatic days and in 2014, California residents voted to spend billions of dollars to fend off the next drought. The Prop 1 Water Bond was passed by 66 percent of voters and the long road to build water storage, and conservation, were underway.

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The Battle Over Hetch Hetchy Reservoir In Judges’ Hands

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

The battle to drain the reservoir in Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley reignited Wednesday as critics of the historic dam told a panel of judges in Fresno that their legal case to raze it should proceed, despite an earlier decision to dismiss the suit. In California’s Fifth District Court of Appeal, attorneys for the group Restore Hetch Hetchy reiterated their longtime argument that San Francisco should not be operating a reservoir in a national park because it violates a provision of the state Constitution requiring reasonable water use.

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