When companies think about risk, most of them don’t think about water. Historically, water has been available even in areas prone to drought, and flooding followed a fairly predictable pattern. But as the climate warms, the world is beginning to see more extremes — and that often means too little or too much water.
As California enters a fourth straight year of drought, more residents are taking advantage of free, online webinars helping them create a beautiful, water-efficient outdoor landscape. New three-hour workshops are now scheduled through December, funded in part by the County of San Diego Watershed Protection Program.
The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant has served more than 100 billion gallons of high-quality, locally controlled water over the past seven years – a milestone passed in late October, as California entered a fourth consecutive year of severe drought.
Operations at one of Spain’s largest hydropower plants have been halted due to drought-like conditions, foreshadowing the future of the rapidly receding Lake Mead.
Electric utility company Endesa SA has shut down its facility in Mequinenza, Zaragoza, Spain after its water levels receded below 23 percent capacity, Bloomberg reported. This is below the minimum required to produce electricity. The plant first opened in 1966, and until now, has never been shut down.
With a multi-year drought bearing down on California and the West, there’s an intense focus on nearly every drop of water. But in a few weeks, we may begin to get a history making look at where that water is and where it’s going. Not just here, but around the entire planet.
Balancing the state’s groundwater supplies for a sustainable future may not be easy due to severe drought and ongoing economic challenges facing farmers. “We’ve got the lowest prices and highest production costs and the least-reliable water supply that we’ve had since I’ve been farming,” said Bill Diedrich of Firebaugh, who farms row crops and permanent crops on the west side in Madera and Fresno counties. “We’ve had one or the other but not all three at the same time.”
The effects of climate change are already “far-reaching and worsening” throughout all regions in the United States, posing profound risks to virtually every aspect of society, whether it’s drinking water supplies in the Midwest or small businesses in the Southeast, according to a draft scientific report being circulated by the federal government.
Due to the persistence of California’s unprecedented megadrought, capturing rainfall when it occurs is a conservation priority. Several water districts in North San Diego County are offering discounted rain barrels.
Amid a record-breaking drought and calls to drastically reduce water use across California, Los Angeles residents saved a staggering 6 billion gallons during the hottest months of the summer, officials announced Monday. From June through September, Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers used 6 billion gallons of water less than during the same period last year.
The Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at Scripps Institution of Oceanography runs a weather prediction system called ‘West-WRF’ that has been optimized for predicting rainfall along the West Coast primarily from atmospheric rivers (AR). Forecast data from West-WRF is used by water managers to improve reservoir operations and to inform CW3E AR reconnaissance activities.
