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Proactive Pipeline Repair Maintains Water Supply Reliability, Affordability

/in , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority is proactively fixing a 90-inch diameter pipeline in Bonsall. The work is part of the agency’s long-term commitment to maintaining regional investments in water supply reliability and affordability.

Water Authority staff detected potential pipeline weaknesses just north of West Lilac Road in late January using real-time acoustic fiber-optic monitoring. This technology locates distressed sections of pipelines even while they are in use as part of the Water Authority’s high-tech asset management program.

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California Snow Levels Plummet in February, Ensuring Third Year of Drought

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

With California’s wet season nearing its end, snow levels across the state remain disappointingly low, and state officials are warning that a lack of melt-off will mean another year of difficult water shortages.

Officials with the California Department of Water Resources, who are scheduled to conduct their monthly snow survey on Tuesday, will find snowpack in the state’s mountains measuring less than 65% of average for the date. The reading bodes poorly for the scores of reservoirs that fill with melted snow — the source of almost a third of California’s water.

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Forecasters: ‘Miracle March’ Not Likely for Tahoe, Sierra as Drought Continues

/in , , /by /Reno Gazette Journalby Amy Alonzo

It’s been a tale of two winters.

After record-breaking storms pushed Tahoe-area snowpack to 200% of normal on Jan. 1, winter has all but disappeared.

January and February are historically the wettest months for Nevada and California. But this year, many snow-measuring sites in the eastern Sierra recorded the lowest precipitation levels on record for the first two months of 2022.

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Cascading Climate Calamities Target West’s Water, Legal System

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Bobby Magill

A dire United Nations climate change report confirms what water lawyers in the West have known for a long time—that drought is becoming the norm in the region, and adaptation is essential.

“Every time we see it written down, it gets a little more real,” said William Caile, a water lawyer who is of counsel at Holland & Hart LLP in Denver, referring to the report’s forecasts of water scarcity.

The report, released Monday by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), is a 3,675-page deep-dive into what the latest scientific research says about what’s at risk as fossil fuels continue to warm the planet. Water scarcity amid rising air and streamwater temperatures will afflict much of North America, exacerbating biological diversity losses, agricultural productivity decline, and wildfire, the report found.

The Southwest is among the regions that the IPCC says will soon be profoundly different. The Colorado River, which provides water to 40 million people from Denver to Los Angeles, courses through the increasingly arid Southwest, which is approaching a “tipping point” at which long-term water scarcity conflict with high water use and farming, the report concludes.

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Dry Boat Ramps, Exposed Rocks at Lake Powell Reveal the Cost of Colorado River Drought

/in , , /by /Arizona Republicby Brandon Loomis

A small bucket loader scraped Wahweap Bay’s expanding strip of red mud and gravel, its operator smoothing the shoreline where concrete workers were busy chasing a lake in retreat.

To the left, where the bay had long offered kayakers and water skiers a loop around Lone Rock, the monumental slab now rose from dust flats instead of from flat water. To the right, in the channel that leads to Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River’s sunken bed, formerly submerged islands and peninsulas mapped out a warming climate’s continuing transformation of one of America’s great water stores and pleasure grounds.

A desert flooded by impounded waters in the last century has visibly reasserted itself in this one.

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Agencies Break Ground for Regional Recycled Water Facility

/in , , /by /Highland Community News

Thursday, Feb. 24, three lead water agencies broke ground on the first phase of a regional recycled water project that will keep recycled water in local groundwater basins for future use. East Valley Water District (EVWD), San Bernardino Municipal Water Department (San Bernardino Water) and San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District (Valley District) are partnering on a multi-phase regional recycled water project that includes infrastructure to store and transport water through Highland and San Bernardino.

The Weaver Basins Groundbreaking was held at the site on Greenspot Road in the city of Highland. This groundbreaking is just one part of Phase I of a larger Regional Recycled Water System. Included in Phase 1 is the installation of a 30-inch pipeline, which will bring water to the Weaver Basins site.

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What Can Be Done to Keep California’s Utility Bills From Getting Even Higher?

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Rob Nikolewski

As rising power bills leave many Californians howling — with San Diego Gas & Electric customers paying the highest rates — the regulatory agency that approves what the state’s three big investor-owned utilities can charge opened a two-day workshop Monday to discuss what can be done to keep prices from climbing even higher.

The California Public Utilities Commission, known as the CPUC, heard from a range of voices that included consumer and trade groups, energy analysts, environmental organizations, academics and the power companies themselves during the virtual meeting opening day.

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Successful Pipeline 4 Repair Saves San Diego County Ratepayers Money

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

Tens of millions of gallons of water will soon be flowing again through a major pipeline in North San Diego County following a successful repair on Pipeline 4 near Bonsall. The repair is part of the Water Authority’s proactive approach and long-term commitment to maintaining regional water supply.

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Satellite Images Show Just How Quickly Sierra’s Snowpack Is Retreating

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Gwendolyn Wu

The storms that frosted the Sierra Nevada with a healthy layer of snow in December soon gave way to dry weather, and the snowpack is showing it.

Satellite images from NASA show a big difference even between January and February. Images from Jan. 9 showed a blanket of snow over the Sierra Nevada and their foothills, with clouds overshadowing parts of the Bay Area and Central Valley.

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California Agriculture Takes $1.2-Billion Hit During Drought, Losing 8,700 Farm Jobs, Researchers Find

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

Severe drought last year caused the California agriculture industry to shrink by an estimated 8,745 jobs and shoulder $1.2 billion in direct costs as water cutbacks forced growers to fallow farmland and pump more groundwater from wells, according to new research.

In a report prepared for the California Department of Food and Agriculture, researchers calculated that reduced water deliveries resulted in 395,000 acres of cropland left dry and unplanted — an area larger than Los Angeles. In estimating the costs, they factored in losses in crop revenue and higher costs for pumping more groundwater.

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