California is most likely heading into a fourth consecutive year of drought.
The state’s water year ends tomorrow, which has prompted predictions about what’s in store for the next 12 months. (California’s water year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, so that the winter rainy season falls within a single water year.)
As its fourth year begins, the Chula Vista Hydro Station offers new activities in 2022, helping Chula Vista Elementary School District students learn about using water wisely through hands-on activities.
A unique joint educational partnership between the Sweetwater Authority, the Otay Water District, and the Chula Vista Elementary School District, the Hydro Station, opened in 2019 at the Richard A. Reynolds Groundwater Desalination Facility.
As California’s 2022 water year ends this week, the parched state is bracing for another dry year — its fourth in a row.
So far, in California’s recorded history, six previous droughts have lasted four or more years, two of them in the past 35 years.
Despite some rain in September, weather watchers expect a hot and dry fall, and warn that this winter could bring warm temperatures and below-average precipitation.
Consumer Reports and NBC 7 Responds’ Claudia Simones look at ways to help you save money and help during drought conditions.
A renewable energy plant being commissioned in Oregon on Wednesday that combines solar power, wind power and massive batteries to store the energy generated there is the first utility-scale plant of its kind in North America.
The project, which will generate enough electricity to power a small city at maximum output, addresses a key challenge facing the utility industry as the U.S. transitions away from fossil fuels and increasingly turns to solar and wind farms for power. Wind and solar are clean sources of power, but utilities have been forced to fill in gaps when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining with fossil fuels like coal or natural gas.
Last month, California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot warned Bay Area residents to brace for a fourth dry year in a row. As the state’s drought continues to compromise the drinking water supply of millions of people across the state, for some Californians, scarcity isn’t the only reason they can’t access water.
For California’s low-income communities, the cost of potable water is increasingly out of reach.
California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, is located 175 miles north of Sacramento. But what happens there impacts farming throughout the entire Central Valley.
Shasta Lake is capable of holding 4,552,100 acre-feet of water, which is almost five times the capacity of Folsom Lake. When full, Shasta boasts 365 miles of scenic shoreline. But for those visiting the lake in recent months, it is impossible to ignore how that shoreline is shrinking. The water is about 150 feet below the ideal surface level.
“We’re coming out of the three driest years on record,” explained Don Bader, area manager for the Bureau of Reclamation. “So that’s a huge hit to our storage, as you can see.”
The latest measurements from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows the American West is in for another dry La Niña winter, unwelcome news for the West currently struggling to keep flowing its main source of water: the shrinking Colorado River.
“That’s the worry in the present situation is that the odds now are now with La Niña are tilted against a really wet winter, at least in the southern half of California which of course has already been really dry,” said Dan Cayan, a research meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
Even as the recent 15-day watering ban in LA county ended earlier than scheduled last week, water – specifically lack of water – remains a top concern for many city officials. However, Santa Monica Water Resource Manager Sunny Wang reported to the planning commission last week that unlike some nearby municipalities, Santa Monica’s is on track to maintain the stability of the city’s water supply and eventually make the city self-sufficient in terms of water.
To encourage water conservation as drought conditions persist, Carlsbad Municipal Water District, Olivenhain Municipal Water District, San Dieguito Water District, and Santa Fe Irrigation District have partnered to offer discounted rain barrels to area residents this fall. Collecting rainwater for future use not only can save drinking water and money, but also reduces irrigation runoff that can carry pollutants into local waterways and beaches.
