You are now in California and the U.S. category.

Gov. Brown Declares California Drought Emergency Is Over

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Startlingly green hills, surging rivers and the snow-wrapped Sierra Nevada had already signaled what Gov. Jerry Brown made official Friday: The long California drought is over. Brown issued an executive order that lifts the drought emergency in all but a handful of San Joaquin Valley counties where some communities are still coping with dried-up wells. He also made it clear that the need for conservation is not going away. “This drought emergency is over, but the next drought could be around the corner,” Brown said in a statement. “Conservation must remain a way of life.”

Full Story

California Storms: This Rainy Season Now Ranks 2nd All Time In 122 Years Of Records

/in /by /The Mercury Newsby Mark Gomez

California’s current rainy season can no longer lay claim to being No. 1. After relatively modest rainfall in March, this season now ranks as the second wettest in 122 years of record-keeping, according to data released Thursday by federal scientists. Between October 2016 and March 2017, California averaged 30.75 inches of precipitation, the second-highest average since such records began being kept in 1895, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information, part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Full Story

Oroville Disaster May Have Been Caused By Weak Soil Under Spillway

/in /by /News Deeplyby Matt Weiser

The destruction of Oroville Dam’s main spillway in February likely occurred because it was built on highly erodible rock, according to several experts interviewed by Water Deeply. If confirmed by a forensic investigation now underway, rebuilding the spillway will require a much more expensive and time-consuming effort. The Oroville spillway was ripped apart in February as California Department of Water Resources (DWR) released water from the dam to make room for heavy storm runoff into the reservoir. It’s an important reminder that no matter how carefully built and maintained a dam might be, it will always remain vulnerable to unknowns.

Full Story

Scientists Link California Droughts And Floods To Distinctive Atmospheric Waves

/in /by /Phys Org

The crippling wintertime droughts that struck California from 2013 to 2015, as well as this year’s unusually wet California winter, appear to be associated with the same phenomenon: a distinctive wave pattern that emerges in the upper atmosphere and circles the globe. Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) found in a recent study that the persistent high-pressure ridge off the west coast of North America that blocked storms from coming onshore during the winters of 2013-14 and 2014-15 was associated with the wave pattern, which they call wavenumber-5.

Full Story

Scientists Link California Droughts And Floods To Distinctive Atmospheric Waves

/in /by /Phys.org
The crippling wintertime droughts that struck California from 2013 to 2015, as well as this year’s unusually wet California winter, appear to be associated with the same phenomenon: a distinctive wave pattern that emerges in the upper atmosphere and circles the globe.

Scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) found in a recent study that the persistent high-pressure ridge off the west coast of North America that blocked storms from coming onshore during the winters of 2013-14 and 2014-15 was associated with the wave pattern, which they call wavenumber-5.
Full Story

We Depend On Lakes We Can’t Fill To The Brim

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

April 1 is a telling date in California water policy each year. All the measurements — snowpack, water in reservoirs — are compared to that date. And this April 1, there was something very interesting to note. We all know it’s been a wet winter, but on April 1, most of California’s reservoirs were not full. We know there are some other issues in play with Lake Oroville — just 76 percent full at the end of the day April 1 — but most of the other lakes were down too. Shasta was 89 percent full, Trinity 90 percent, Folsom just 60 percent.

 

Full Story

BLOG: Remaking The Salton Sea

/in /by /Public Policy Institute of Californiaby Lori Pottinger

The Salton Sea—California’s largest lake—faces an environmental crisis. The already-shrinking desert lake will receive less water starting next year, which will accelerate the exposure of toxic dust along its shore, increase its already high salinity, and reduce a food source and habitat for hundreds of bird species that rely on the lake. The sea, which was created by a break in a Colorado River irrigation canal in the 1900s, for decades relied on irrigation runoff from local farms for sustenance.

Full Story

Sites Reservoir Gets An Important Ally

/in /by /The Sacramento Bee

In this year of record rainfall, billions of gallons of water are flowing to the ocean that – if only sufficient storage existed – could be stored for the drought that inevitably will return. If ever there were an argument for construction of Sites Reservoir to the west of the Sacramento River, this winter’s rain is it. The project is poised to get welcome support from Southern California. The Sacramento Bee’s Dale Kasler reported Thursday that the Southern California Metropolitan Water District is considering investing a modest sum, $1.5 million, to help plan for the $4.4 billion project in Glenn and Colusa counties.

Full Story

Bills Would Require Lead Testing At Schools In Texas And California

/in /by /WaterWorld

Two bills introduced this week would require mandatory lead testing at schools in California and Texas. House Bill 2395 was introduced by Rep. Nicole Collier, (D-Fort Worth), and would require the state’s 1,200 school districts and charters to pay for annual water supply testing, which is estimated to cost up to $3,000 per building, according to The Texas Tribune. Several Texas school districts have begun voluntarily testing their water, and replacing water fountains in some instances.

Full Story

How You Can Tell Trump Cares Nothing About Water: He’s Supporting The Ridiculous Cadiz Project

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Michael Hiltzik

It was obvious even during the presidential campaign that Donald Trump didn’t know much about water policy and didn’t have much inclination to learn. Now we have some hard evidence that his ignorance won’t keep him from stepping into a water policy quagmire. The evidence comes from an Interior Department ruling that appears to be aimed at clearing the way for a controversial, environmentally dangerous and largely pointless private water project out in the Mojave Desert.

Full Story