Widespread rains throughout Northern California are pointing to a third straight, great water year, something we cannot take for granted.
Our emphasis is on the overall supply with attention to the six mega reservoirs that hold an almost unbelievable amount of water.
Tribes across the West have worked with states to protect the Colorado River and conserve enough water to raise elevations in the river’s two largest reservoirs, Lakes Powell and Mead, a move that has helped states during critical droughts.
Now tribes want to make it clear that any future agreements on how to manage the river’s water must include their input and an acknowledgment that they intend to develop their water rights.
A California appellate court dealt a setback this week to the state’s Delta tunnel project, ruling that the Department of Water Resources lacks the legal authority to issue billions of dollars in bonds to dig the controversial conveyance under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California.
In an opinion issued Wednesday, the state’s 3rd District Court of Appeal said the bond plan — first approved by water managers in 2020 — was too vague and gave the department “unfettered discretion” to decide what to build and how to pay for it. The court upheld a 2024 decision by a Sacramento judge, siding with project opponents led by the Sierra Club and several capital region counties, including Sacramento.
I arrived late to the Upper Colorado River Commission meeting in Las Vegas, having briefly gotten lost in the disorienting maze of garishly lit slot machines, escalators reaching to the heavens, and hallways with a vanishing point at infinity. Could there be a more incongruous place to hold a convention about something so natural and sublime as water?
Just as I took my seat, Becky Mitchell, the forceful, passionate commissioner from the state of Colorado, said something puzzling and important. “The Lower Basin states continue to overuse their allocation of Colorado River water.”
A series of December storms delivered a welcome boost to California’s snowpack, scientists said on Tuesday in a closely watched assessment of the state’s water resources for the year ahead.
The snowpack survey recorded a snow depth of 24in (61cm), said Angelique Fabbiani-Leon, state hydrometeorologist at the California department of water resources’ snow surveys and water supply forecasting unit. The survey was conducted at the Phillips station in the Sierra Nevada, a mountain range that covers the eastern part of the state.
There’s nothing better than a long, hot shower after a particularly grueling day, but with energy costs soaring nationwide, it might be hard to justify pushing the water heater to its limit.
However, by upgrading to a heat pump water heater, you might feel a little less guilty about savoring that time in your steamy oasis. Heat pump water heaters draw heat from the surrounding air to warm your water, rather than burning fuel or relying on energy-intensive heating elements.
The Newsom administration and local agencies are working to capture stormwater for future use as California faces a series of major storms during the holiday period.
According to officials, the efforts are intended to strengthen water supplies statewide while reducing flood risks as heavy rain moves across the region. The development comes California braces for winter storms expected to impact the state throughout the holiday season. Governor Gavin Newsom said California has taken early, coordinated steps to protect residents from the storms’ impacts.
Lake Shasta waters lapped higher after a series of atmospheric rivers dumped up to a foot of rain in the region.
Not counting runoff, storms added 12-14 inches of rain to all areas of the lake between Dec. 19 — when the series of wet winter storms started — and Dec. 26, said Nathan Rick with the National Weather Service Sacramento branch. Another 1.5 inch was expected to fall before the Dec. 27-28 weekend.
Lush green fields of alfalfa spread across thousands of acres in a desert valley in western Arizona, where a dairy company from Saudi Arabia grows the thirsty crop by pulling up groundwater from dozens of wells.
The company, Fondomonte, is the largest water user in the Ranegras Plain groundwater basin, shipping hay overseas to feed its cows in the Middle East. Like other landowners in the area, it has been allowed to pump unlimited amounts from the aquifer, even as water levels have declined.
