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EMWD Receives $4.5 Million Funding Authorization for Desalination Program

/in , , /by /Smart Water Magazine

Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) this month was awarded nearly $4.5 million by the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to further expand EMWD’s groundwater desalination infrastructure.

EMWD has long been one of the most successful agencies in the nation at working with state and federal funding partners to secure external funding opportunities, helping to reduce the cost of infrastructure construction that would otherwise be paid for by customers.

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West Megadrought Worsens to Driest in at Least 1,200 Years

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Seth Borenstein

The American West’s megadrought deepened so much last year that it is now the driest in at least 1,200 years and is a worst-case climate change scenario playing out live, a new study finds.

A dramatic drying in 2021 — about as dry as 2002 and one of the driest years ever recorded for the region — pushed the 22-year drought past the previous record-holder for megadroughts in the late 1500s and shows no signs of easing in the near future, according to a study Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change.

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Atmospheric River Reconnaissance Flights Lays Groundwork for Improved Forecasts

/in , , /by /Action News Nowby Patrick Wright

Atmospheric Rivers are a fact of life in California and the West Coast. They carry large enough amounts of water to end a drought, but at the same time cause significant destruction to life and property.

A relatively new partnership between the Scripps Institution for Oceanography, NOAA, and the Air Force is using the Hurricane Hunters to fly into the storms with aims to improve forecasts and our understanding of Atmospheric River events.

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Finding Use for Fog: California Farmers Could Benefit From Using Fog Nets to Buffer Water Supplies

/in , , /by /KCRAby Heather Waldman

For most of us, fog is a nuisance. It makes driving difficult and it tends to dampen the mood of the day.

But Dr. Daniel Fernandez at Cal State Monterey Bay has been working with fog for nearly 20 years, using nets to collect tiny fog water droplets on murky, breezy days.

The fog nets are one-square meter of mesh-mounted vertically on poles in regions that are prime for fog. Places like the central and southern California coast are perfect, but the Central Valley is another spot with more foggy days than rainy days.

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Think Blue San Diego Relaunches

/in , , /by /Storm Water Solutionsby Cristina Tuser

San Diego, California, is relaunching the new and improved Think Blue San Diego.

This is a public awareness effort to educate people on how a modern storm water system helps ensure clean water and clean beaches for the future.

Think Blue San Diego is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, reported the city.

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Opinion: California’s Variable Water Supply Needs More Than Rainfall

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Allison Schutte and Nathan Metcalf

Downpours in October and December, along with record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada, alleviated dry conditions statewide and moved California out of the U.S. Drought Monitor’s “exceptional” drought category. The state is still mandating conservation and curtailing water diversions, however, and water agencies have declared water shortage emergencies and called for mandated water use restrictions.

Why is most of California still in an “extreme” or “severe” drought?

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Parts of SoCal to See First Rain of February. Here’s When and Where

/in , , /by /NBC Los Angelesby Accalia Rositani

Cooling down from weekend highs in the 90s, Los Angeles County has a chance for rain on Tuesday, its first in February.

An onshore flow Monday evening will start to push high clouds east, bringing cooler air to drop Tuesday’s temperature by 16 degrees. Monday’s highs are expected to be in the 70s and low 80s.

Showers will be scattered and light, with accumulations no more than 0.10 inch, but areas closer to the foothills might see up to an inch. The light precipitation will continue through the day Tuesday, drying up Wednesday morning.

This comes as the majority of LA County continues to experience a moderate drought, with the northernmost areas and neighboring Kern County experiencing a severe drought.

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The Drought in the Western U.S. Could Last Until 2030

/in , , /by /National Geographicby Alejandra Borunda

There have been brief moments of reprieve in the drought that has stretched on since 2000 in the western United States—a water-rich 2011, a snow-laden 2019—but those breaks have only highlighted the more dramatic feature of the last few decades: unrelenting dryness.

Without human-driven climate change forcing Earth’s temperatures up, the ongoing drought would still be painful and parched. But it would be unexceptional in the grand scheme of the past 1,200 years. A new study in Nature Climate Change shows that Earth’s warming climate has made the western drought about 40 percent more severe, making it the region’s driest stretch since A.D. 800. And there’s a very strong chance the drought will continue through 2030.

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Opinion: Will Salton Sea Lithium Dreams Come True? It Will Be Years Before We Know

/in , , /by /Desert Sunby Desert Sun Editorial Board

The underground chemical stew beneath the Salton Sea is believed to hold enough lithium to power millions of cars and homes with green energy. But only if — a big if — enough of that scalding “geothermal brine” can be brought to the surface and the lithium sifted out.

That’s an incredibly complex process. And it’s just about as hard for those who live around the sea to separate reality from dreams when it comes to the impact of all that lithium.

In the best case, we’ve heard over the years, a lithium boom could generate billions of dollars; bring thousands of badly needed jobs for those living near the sea; spur an environmental revival; and give clean energy to a region, the state and beyond.

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Floating Solar Panels Could Be the Next Big Thing in Clean Energy

/in , , /by /Popular Scienceby Thor Benson

Solar panels can be placed on your roof, on a plot of land, or basically anywhere else where they  are anchored to something solid. That said, there are only so many solid spaces available to install them. To beat climate change, our electricity mix is going to need a lot more renewable energy systems to take over fossil fuels.  Many in the solar industry are looking for a new home for solar panels—possibly even floating on water.

Floating solar farms have been around for over a decade, but water-bound panels became much more prominent in the last few years. The basic idea is to attach solar panels to plastic floats which then drift on a body of water.

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