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Santa Fe Irrigation Board Considers New Water Rates

/in , , /by /Rancho Santa Fe Reviewby Karen Billing

At an Aug. 18 special meeting to review water rate structure alternatives, the Santa Fe Irrigation District board opted to pause and take more time to get additional details on its options.

The board had planned to make a decision on proposed new rate structures at its Sept. 29 meeting, selecting from options of tiered rates by water supply, tiered rates by meter size or budget-based rates, in which customers are given individual budgets and usage above the budget incurs a higher rate.

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Drought Expected to Continue Even With a Wet Winter

/in , , /by /NBC Bay Area by Damian Trujillo

Droughts are here to stay. That’s the warning from Santa Clara Valley Water as we continue to face a severe water shortage and uncertainty with regard to the upcoming winter months.

Rain or not, the message is to expect droughts to be a much more regular part of life, meaning conservation and preparation need to become lifelong habits as well.

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Weather Whiplash: Summer Lurches From Drought to Flood

/in , , /by /Associated Pressby Seth Borenstein

Parts of northern Texas, mired in a drought labeled as extreme and exceptional, are flooding under torrential rain. In a drought.

Sound familiar? It should. The Dallas region is just the latest drought-suffering-but-flooded locale during a summer of extreme weather whiplash, likely goosed by human-caused climate change, scientists say. Parts of the world are lurching from drought to deluge.

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Here’s How to Choose a Professional to Help Create a Water-Saving Landscape

/in , , /by /Times of San Diego by Water News Network Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

If you choose to design, implement and maintain a new water-saving landscape yourself, you can follow the Homeowner’s Guide to a WaterSmart Landscape to help you plan, prepare, and work through each step. Free classes and online videos can help.

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California’s Water from Colorado River Could Be Crippled by a Big Earthquake. Drought Makes Fixes Vital

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

As drought, global warming and chronic overuse push the Colorado River to perilous new lows, water officials are hoping to prevent an earthquake from severing a critical Depression-era aqueduct that now connects millions of Southern Californians to the shrinking river.

Recently, officials from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California celebrated as crews lowered a section of earthquake-resistant pipeline into a portion of the Colorado River aqueduct — the 242-mile system of pumps, tunnels, pipelines and open canals that carry water from Lake Havasu to Southern California.

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California Drought: Why More Than 530,000 Acres of Farmlands Are Now Left Barren

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Yoohyun Jung

The years-long drought and dwindling water supply are estimated to have left more than 531,000 acres of California farmlands unplanted without harvest this year — a 36% increase since August of last year.

The new estimates on acres farmed from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reflect the struggles of some California farmers to procure water to irrigate their crops as major government water projects supplying their water remain thirsty as drought continues for a third year.

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Citing Nevada’s Example, Cortez Masto Calls on Feds to Make Other States Conserve Water

/in , , /by /Nevada Currentby Jennifer Solis

Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto joined state water officials Monday to demand immediate federal action on the Colorado River water crisis as Nevada faces its second year of mandatory water cuts.

Last week, federal officials announced that Nevada would lose about 8% of its water allocation, or 25,000 acre-feet of water, starting January 2023 as a stopgap solution to stabilize water levels at Lake Mead.

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Opinion: California Faces Existential Threat of a Megaflood

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Dan Walters

California had been a state for scarcely a decade and was home to fewer than 500,000 people when it was hammered in the winter of 1861-62 by the most powerful series of rainstorms in recorded history.

“This event, which was characterized by weeks-long sequences of winter storms, produced widespread catastrophic flooding across virtually all of California’s lowlands — transforming the interior Sacramento and San Joaquin valleys into a temporary but vast inland sea nearly 300 miles in length and inundating much of the now densely populated coastal plain in present-day Los Angeles and Orange counties.”

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NM City, Victim of Government Burn, Now Faces Water Shortage

/in , , /by /Associated Press by Susan Montoya Brown and Brittany Peterson

In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, buzzing chainsaws interrupt the serenity. Crews are hustling to remove charred trees and other debris that have been washing down the mountainsides in the wake of the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history, choking rivers and streams.

Heavy equipment operators are moving boulders dislodged by the daily torrential summer rains that have followed the flames.

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Hollywood Celebrities Among Those Warned of Water Waste During Drought

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Debbie L. Sklar

Rules for thee but not for me?

Residents across the state including those in San Diego County are being urged to reduce their water use in response to a protracted drought, but some big celebrity names are being called out for allegedly not doing their share.

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