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Heavy monsoon rains have helped to relieve the Southwest’s historic drought, but water officials say the deluge isn’t enough to reverse a drying trend that has depleted the region’s primary water sources.
Much of the West remains entrenched in a 23-year “historically unprecedented” drought driven by climate change, said Jonathan Deason, an environmental engineering professor at George Washington University.
“It’s going to take about three years of above-average rainfall to have substantial recovery,” he said.
The California water wars of the early twentieth century are summed up in a famous line from the 1974 film Chinatown: “Either you bring the water to L.A., or you bring L.A. to the water.” Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the events the film dramatizes, but much of the West still approaches water the same way. If you don’t have enough of it, go find more.
As politicians across the West confront the consequences of the climate-fueled Millennium Drought, many of them are heeding the words of Chinatown and trying to bring in outside water through massive capital projects. There are at least half a dozen major water pipeline projects under consideration throughout the region, ranging from ambitious to outlandish. Arizona lawmakers want to build a pipeline from the Mississippi River more than a thousand miles away, a Colorado rancher wants to pipe water 300 miles across the Rockies, and Utah wants to pump even more water out of the already-depleted Lake Powell.
As summer begins to wind down, the dry weather that has plagued California this year continues, leading to a number of new drought-related issues.
Over the course of the past 30 days, 11 new dry well reports in Butte County have been sent to the California Department of Water Resources. That comes out to 39 in the past year and 98 total.
Additionally, Glenn County has seen 105 total dry well reports and Tehama County has reported 229, according to data from DWR.
As the current drought stretches into a third year, the San Diego County Water Authority is providing water saving tips as part of a drought survival kit to San Diegans. San Diegans have learned how to conserve water, but there is always more we can do. Water Authority Water Resources Specialist Efren Lopez joined CBS 8 Anchor/Reporter Carlo Cecchetto on the news program “The Four” to discuss Gov. Newsom’s new water portfolio strategy and offer additional ways San Diegans can reduce water use.
Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a new water strategy on Thursday that plans for a future with 10% less water and shifts the emphasis from conservation to capturing more water that otherwise flows out to sea.
Climate change has contributed to more severe drought but has also set the stage for more intense flooding when rain does fall, as was demonstrated last week in California’s Death Valley, one of the hottest, driest parts of the United States.
It’s a picture-perfect day in Southern California. The sun is beating down on this Carlsbad beach, where volleyballs hit the sand and surfers paddle out into the waves. Just steps from here, the salty water lapping the shore is being transformed.
This beach neighbors the largest desalination facility in the Western Hemisphere. The Carlsbad Desalination Plant uses a complex web of pipes, tanks and specialized filters to pull salt and impurities out of ocean water, turning it into part of the drinking supply for San Diego County.
Water managers are feeling the crunch of a supply-demand imbalance along the Colorado River. Fresh water reserves are shrinking as climate change squeezes the river that supplies 40 million people and fields of crops across seven states. Some have proposed desalination technology as a way to augment that supply, easing the strain on a river that supplies a growing population from Wyoming to Mexico. Experts say it could be part of the solution, but likely won’t make much of a dent in the region’s water crisis.
At the Carlsbad plant, former seawater poured into a cup from a freshwater spigot. Michelle Peters, technical and compliance manager for plant operator Poseidon Water, held it and took a drink.
“At 10 a.m, the morning surfers were swimming in it off the coast in the ocean here,” she said. “Now it’s high-quality drinking water, ready for consumption.”
The drought continues to grip the west with no signs of letting up.
One of the hardest hit places is the Colorado River, which serves about 40 million people, including right here in the Coachella Valley.
But action is being taken.
The question persists even though it shouldn’t: Can California conserve its way out of this drought?
The answer is clearly no. But then again, if water policy in California were as clear as water itself, Jake Gittes would never have been told to “forget it.”
As we enter some of the hottest and driest months in a historic drought, local water officials have asked the state to allocate more water to the area surrounding Malibu to help mitigate wildfire risk. Unfortunately, that request has been denied.
The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District that services the Santa Monica Mountains unincorporated Malibu area, Calabasas, Agoura Hills, Westlake Village and Hidden Hills, in partnership with the Metropolitan Water District, made the request to the State Water Project citing the area designated as “very high fire hazard severity zones.”
