Lake Tahoe is expected to fill up for the first time in five years, courtesy of recent and unusually wet winters. The lake last filled up in June 2019, but snowmelt should be sufficient to fill it this spring, according to a United States Department of Agriculture report released this month.
A few weeks ago, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology declared that the Pacific Ocean is no longer in an El Niño state and has returned to “neutral.” American scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been more hesitant, but they estimate that there is an 85% chance that the Pacific will enter a neutral state in the next two months and a 60% chance that a La Niña event will begin by August.
As summer approaches, the Imperial Irrigation District is gearing up for another battle with the weeds that infest its canals. To do that, the regional water agency is calling in reinforcements: a small army of plant-munching fish.
In a normal year, about 40% of California’s water supply is stored groundwater, and more than 80% of Californians use it, according to the California Department of Water Resources.
Groundwater is the water that is a buffer in the years the state is in drought. For the first time since 2019, the agency reports groundwater storage increased during the 2023 water year, which is great, but the state’s groundwater is still in deficit.
Just a block away from La Mesa’s downtown is a residential street lined with sweet vintage Craftsman and Spanish-style homes. Most have lawns in their front yards, but there are some unique gardens that show off the owners’ distinctive style. One of them belongs to Joy Andrea, a petite, retired phys ed teacher who spent her career at Sweetwater Union High School District.
At a special board meeting April 30, the Fallbrook Public Utility District and Eastern Municipal Water District celebrated switching water wholesalers in a move that allows Eastern to provide water service to FPUD. FPUD also recognized many community leaders who worked hard spreading the message of the benefits of detaching. They made phone calls, posted Measure A signs around town, ran ads, and created a campaign to inform people that made the switch go from a possibility into a reality.
The U.S. government is dedicating $60 million over the next few years to projects along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico and West Texas to make the river more resilient in the face of climate change and growing demands.
California’s reservoirs are not only vital to the state’s complex water systems, providing millions of people and the state’s agricultural economy with needed access to water; they’re also important gauges for how healthy the state is overall. This year’s at-capacity reservoirs have been a boon for a region besieged by drought over much of the past decade, but more work is needed to help ensure a plentiful and water-wise future for the most populous state in America.
Mexico City is parched.
After abysmally low amounts of rainfall over the last few years, the reservoirs of the Cutzamala water system that supplies over 20 percent of the Mexican capital’s 22 million residents’ usable water are running out.
The Delta Tunnel proposal exemplifies California’s political dysfunction. It will probably never get built, but it promises to dominate all discussions of major state and federal spending on water infrastructure for the next decade, preventing any other big ideas from getting the attention they merit.
