San Joaquin County has avoided the worst impacts of the drought, which has cost California $1.7 billion and more than 14,000 jobs, a recent report found.
Surface water conditions in the San Joaquin Valley are less severe than during the 2012-16 drought, and are better in the north valley than in the south, the report by University of California researchers found.
From afar, the rows of knobby grapevines blend into the landscape of pink-blossomed almond trees and fragrant citrus. But get up close and you’ll see something strange: The trunks of the vines are standing in several inches of glistening, precious water.
These grapes, at the Kearney Agricultural Research Center in California’s San Joaquin Valley, are part of a grand experiment that many hope will help solve the state’s deepening water crisis.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay for it. Guzman called it the “absolutely greatest opportunity.”
Guzman talked with Western Water about how her past experiences are informing her work at EPA, some of the top priorities in EPA Region 9 and how the federal bipartisan infrastructure funding law is providing a unique opportunity to address the region’s water needs, including for tribal nations and disadvantaged communities.
Amid a historic drought in California, water conservation rebates were increased by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Thursday, offering residential customers $500 rebates for high-efficiency clothes-washer purchases and $250 for water-efficient toilet purchases.
The rebates were previously $400 for high-efficiency washers, which use up to 55% less water than standard ones. According to the DWP, the more efficient appliances can reduce water use by more than 11,000 gallons per year.
DWP’s rebates for water-efficient toilets were previously $150. Rebate eligible toilets use more than 30% less water than standard models.
On Thursday, the State Department of Water Resources, DWR, announced it second round of allocation for the ongoing repairs of the Friant-Kern Canal, this time allocating $29.8 million.
In November of last year, DWR announced an initial allocation of $39.2 million for the Friant-Kern Canal repairs. The funds being allocated by DWR were included in the state budget.
Human-induced climate change is warming the planet and, in turn, enabling our atmosphere to hold more moisture. The magnitude and extent of this shift are challenging to see on a global scale, but its effects on local weather are much more noticeable: Greater evaporation in some regions and increased precipitation in others has already driven more frequent and intense droughts and rainfall — with the risk of more extreme weather events looming in the near future.
The Otay Water District selected four winners in its New Year-themed Instagram photo contest as part of its campaign to encourage water-saving efforts during the statewide drought. One is an Otay Water District customer, and three others live within San Diego County.
The four talented photographers put their skills to use, helping to make their community’s residents and businesses more aware of the need to save water.
San Francisco residents are about to see another downside of drought: higher water rates.
Like a growing number of water agencies in California, the city’s water department has been losing millions of dollars as households and businesses, doing their part in a third dry year, conserve more and fork over less money to the utility.
The record-breaking heat wave last week in East Antarctica, the coldest region on Earth, saw temperatures surge as much as 85 degrees Fahrenheit above average, bringing readings near freezing and unexpected surface melting instead of the usual sub-zero conditions.
The heat wave adds to a quickly growing list of previously “unthinkable” climate events, and puts an exclamation point on an Austral summer that included brutal heat waves and record-high intensity wildfires in Argentina and Chile and flooding caused by record-setting rains in eastern Australia that killed more than 20 people and left thousands homeless.
World Water Day is on Tuesday, so water officials are calling on Californians again to conserve more water in the face of a worsening drought.
One of the best ways to conserve water is to reduce outdoor watering, so Metropolitan Water District held a news conference at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers & Native Plants to encourage Angelenos to use native plants that are more acclimated to Southern California’s dry weather and require much less water than grass.
