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California District Curbs Water Supply to Over-Users in Drought

/in , , /by /Reutersby Omar Yunis

As a historic drought grips southern California, one district is getting tough on water usage violators by reducing their supply directly from the source so that sprinklers and outdoor hoses no longer work.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Calabasas, north of Los Angeles, places metal disks with a small hole into the main water supply lines to offending homes. Flow per minute drops from around 30 gallons to just one gallon – enough for cooking, washing dishes and showers, but not gardening.

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Catalina Island Uses SoCal Edison Desalination Plant to Avoid Drought

/in , , /by /ABC 7by Jaysha Patel

If you take a boat ride to Catalina Island, you’ll notice it’s surrounded by the ocean.

“We’re about 4,000 people on a year-round basis, but we get up to a million visitors a year, and so of course that impacts a lot of our infrastructure because we have these visitors and thank God we do because we’re an entirely tourist-based community,” said Avalon Mayor Anni Marshall.

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Major Water Cutbacks Loom as Shrinking Colorado River Nears ‘Moment of Reckoning’

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

As the West endures another year of unrelenting drought worsened by climate change, the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined so low that major water cuts will be necessary next year to reduce risks of supplies reaching perilously low levels, a top federal water official said Tuesday.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said during a Senate hearing in Washington that federal officials now believe protecting “critical levels” at the country’s largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — will require much larger reductions in water deliveries.

(Editor’s Note: Sandra L. Kerl, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, issued a statement on U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton’s testimony today before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the severity of the drought on the Colorado River and need for near- and long-term innovation and investment: https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/san-diego-county-water-authority-general-manager-issues-statement-on-colorado-river-conditions-and-sustainability/)

 

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Did California Learn Anything From the Last Drought? ‘Gambling’ With Water Continues

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

The governor of California stood in a patch of dry brown grass as he made his proclamation:

“We’re in a new era. The idea of your nice little green grass getting lots of water every day — that’s going to be a thing of the past,” he said. “We’re in a historic drought, and that demands unprecedented action.”

But it wasn’t Gavin Newsom speaking — it was the state’s previous governor, Jerry Brown, and the year was 2015.

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The Cruelest Summer Yet? California Is Facing Drought, Heat, Power Outages and Fires — All at Once

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

The Cruelest Summer Yet? California Is Facing Drought, Heat, Power Outages and Fires — All at Once

Even with the upheaval of the pandemic mostly behind us, the menace of drought and rising temperatures is threatening to derail the return to normal.

This year’s extraordinarily dry, warm weather, which is expected to continue in the coming months, is stoking fears of a multitude of problems: increasing water restrictions, extreme heat, power outages, wildfire and smoke — potentially all of the above in one vicious swoop.

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To Create a Water-Saving Landscape, First Get to Know Your Soil Conditions

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

Every individual landscape sits in one of San Diego County’s 16 watersheds. The watershed approach to landscaping considers every garden its own mini-watershed, holding onto or cleaning the water falling on it and nurturing a diverse habitat of plants and insects.

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Feds Float Drastic Measures to Stanch California’s Water Crisis

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

A top federal water official told Congress on Tuesday that shortages on the Colorado River system have taken an even grimmer turn, with a whopping 2 million to 4 million acre feet of reduction in water use needed by 2023 just to keep Lake Mead functioning and physically capable of delivering drinking water, irrigation and power to millions of people.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton testified early Tuesday to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Committee that levels at the reservoir have dropped to an all-time low of 28% of capacity, with no relief in sight.

“There is so much to this that is unprecedented,” Touton said. “But unprecedented is now the reality and the normal in which Reclamation must manage our system, for warmer, drier weather is is what we are facing.”

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Residents Urged to Intensify Action Against Drought by City of Oceanside

/in , , /by /NBC 7 San Diego Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Oceanside urged residents Monday to cut back their water use, following a similar move by the City of San Diego in response to the State Water Board and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order requiring water suppliers to implement mandatory restrictions.

“The Water Utilities Department is complying with state regulations as the drought progresses,” said Rosemarie Chora, the city’s Water Utilities Division manager. “As summer approaches, we ask residents and businesses to do their part and be mindful of water usage.”

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Building Healthy Soil: Give It Some Space

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Healthy soil consists of elements we don’t typically think of as soil at all. In fact, one of the most critical aspects of soil is the space between the particles.

Soil space results from a process called aggregation. Solid matter will aggregate under the right conditions, forming space between the masses. This allows air and water to fill this area. Rain or irrigation water percolates through the soil, and aggregate spaces hold it like a storage tank. You can store more water and irrigate less frequently when you have more space

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24 Area Water Agencies to Collect Over $90M

/in , , /by /San Diego Business Journalby Karen Pearlman Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Two dozen members of the San Diego County Water Authority, a wholesale water supplier in the county, will be collecting more than $10 million as part of a successful litigation against the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

A total of $90.7 million has now been collected by water agencies from Carlsbad to Yuima in Pauma Valley through the SDCWA’s successful rate litigation.

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