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Farmers Brace for Water Cuts to Help River

/in , , /by /AgAlert (California Farm Bureau Federation)by Peter Hecht

As the Colorado River water crisis deepens amid withering drought in the West, Imperial Valley growers with historic rights to water from the river are making calculations on whether to farm or fallow.

This month, the Imperial Irrigation District, which supplies Colorado River water to farmers in America’s largest growing region for winter vegetables, joined other California water agencies in offering to take a dramatic cut in the amount of water they pull from the river.

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Bodies of Water All Over North America are Drying Up Due to Drought, Climate Change: Experts

/in , , /by /ABC Newsby Julia Jacobo

Bodies of water all over North America are drying up as a result of drought and a decrease in precipitation, experts told ABC News.

Earlier this year, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicted that the 22-year megadrought affecting the West would not only intensify but also move eastward.

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Water Managers Bracing for the Worst

/in , , /by /Escalon Timesby Dennis Wyatt

New Melones Reservoir — critical to Escalon farmland, as well as Manteca, Lathrop, and Tracy water supplies — was at 616,704 acre feet on Oct. 6.

That’s less than half the average 1,326,146 acre feet of water storage for the date of Oct. 5.

To put that in perspective, it is 47 percent of the average in storage for the start of a new California water year that officially started on Oct. 1.

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Opinion: Arizona Must Slash Colorado River Water Use by Next Year. Here are 4 Ways to Do It

/in , , /by /AZ Centralby Ron Burke and Mary Ann Dickinson

All eyes are on Arizona and the six other Colorado River basin states that recently missed the federal government’s deadline to adopt a plan that substantially cuts water usage in just one year.

The 23rd consecutive year of drought, fueled by climate change, has accelerated the basin’s water crisis. Quite simply, demand for water within basin states exceeds what the river can sustainably provide.

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The Department of Water Resources Looks to Improve Runoff Forecasting as it Plans for Another Dry Year

/in , , /by /Maven's Notebook

At the September meeting of the California Water Commission, commissioners were given a briefing by the Department of Water Resources on their preparations for yet another dry year and the steps they are taking to prepare the State Water Project for climate extremes and the challenges of drought, flood, and wildfire.

Key takeaways from these presentations:

  • The Department of Water Resources is planning for another dry year; given recent years, the Department is learning to expect the unexpected.
  • Although conditions at Oroville are greatly improved over last this time last year, the Department is looking to have 1.6 MAF in Oroville before they will consider making some water available for export.
  • The Department is working to improve its forecasting by expanding its use of aerial snow surveys which are more accurate, and developing models that are less reliant on historic data and more reliant on modeling based on characteristics.
  • The 2023 State Water Project Delivery Capability Report will include climate change data and new risk-informed future projections.
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As Baby Boomers Retire, The Water Workforce Faces Its Own Drought

/in , , /by /LAistby Erin Stone

This week marks the 50th Anniversary of the 1972 Clean Water Act, which, among other things, made it a legal requirement to clean up sewage to certain standards before dumping it into rivers or the ocean.

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Gila River Tribe Will Take Offer to Conserve Water, but Yuma Farmers Say it’s Not Enough

/in , , /by /Arizona Republicby Brandon Loomis

The Gila River Indian Community is the first Arizona water rights holder to publicly pursue the federal government’s new offer of compensation to leave Colorado River water in Lake Mead.

Tribal Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis announced the plan on Monday at a gathering of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s water advisory council, which is reviewing ways to spend $4 billion of Inflation Reduction Act funds targeted at Colorado River drought relief, as well as funds approved in an infrastructure funding law.

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Interior Announces $137 Million for California Dam Projects

/in , , /by /GV Wireby Bill McEwen

While many environmentalists oppose the construction and expansion of dams, the Biden Administration believes in the value of above-ground water storage.

The Department of Interior on Monday announced $210 million in funding for water storage and conveyance projects in the western United States.

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Pollution Still Flows Through Clean Water Act Loophole

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Hannnah Northey

Congressional staffers who helped craft the landmark Clean Water Act 50 years ago acknowledge they left a big hole in the law — one that’s now blamed for the single largest pollution source in streams, rivers and lakes.

Nonpoint-source pollution — a technocratic term describing pesticides, oil, fertilizers, toxins, sediment and grime that storms wash into waterways from land — still befuddles federal regulators to this day.

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Fragile Forests: Millions of California Trees Dying Due to Drought

/in , , /by /Fox 40 Newsby Dennis Shanahan

In forests throughout the Golden State, trees are turning a dark shade of rust, succumbing to the impacts of the drought in a well-documented phenomenon known to forest scientists as tree mortality.

The problem first peaked in 2016 when the U.S. Forest Service released images from a statewide aerial survey, estimating 62 million trees died that year.

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