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Ramona Farmers, Winery Owners Weather Dry Years with Water Conservation Strategies

/in , , /by /Ramona Sentinelby Julie Gallant Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Farmers and winery owners in Ramona and other parts of San Diego County are weathering the drought better than their counterparts in Northern California and the Central Valley through a mix of smart water use strategies, adequate water supplies and resources such as free irrigation system evaluations, according to water experts.

One reason local agricultural water users have avoided shortfalls in water supplies is because residents and businesses have been reducing the amount of water they use per person over the last 30 years, said Jeff Stephenson, water resources manager for the San Diego County Water Authority.

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Los Angeles Shifts Water Supplies as Drought Hammers State Water Project

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

Cities in Southern California rely largely on water flowing through aqueducts from the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada. But some parts of the region, such as Ventura County and northwestern L.A. County, don’t have access to Colorado River water and depend entirely on the water that comes from the Sierra through the State Water Project.

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Water Is Scarce in California. But Farmers Have Found Ways to Store It Underground

/in , , /by /NPRby Dan Charles

Aaron Fukuda admits that the 15-acre sunken field behind his office doesn’t look like much.

It’s basically a big, wide hole in the ground behind the headquarters of the Tulare Irrigation District, in the southern part of California’s fertile Central Valley. But “for a water resources nerd like myself, it’s a sexy, sexy piece of infrastructure,” says Fukuda, the district’s general manager.

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Another Bay Area City Is Poised to Declare a Drought Emergency and Mandate Water Conservation

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Jessica Flores

Amid California’s worsening drought, Pleasanton city officials on Tuesday are expected to declare a local drought and water shortage emergency, and require residents to reduce their water usage by 15%. The Pleasanton City Council will vote at Tuesday’s meeting. In a report accompanying the council’s agenda, staff urged council members to make such declarations after board members with the Zone 7 Water Agency voted to do the same in September. The water agency, which serves the cities of Livermore, Pleasanton, Dublin, San Ramon and parts of Dougherty, said Tri-Valley customers are falling short on water reduction compared with 2020.

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Congress Approves $80 Million for Sites Reservoir

/in , , /by /Enterprise Recordby Chico Enterprise-Record

Congress approved a government funding bill last week that threw $80 million at the Sites Reservoir in California in order to keep the project on track.

The project is meant to hold 1.5 million acre-feet of water for the state to be used during droughts for agriculture, community usage and environmental need, said a press release issued Tuesday by the organization behind the Sites Reservoir.

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State and Federal Experts Call for Water Conservation as ‘Exceptional’ Drought Continues,

/in , , /by /The Recordby Laura S. Diaz

San Joaquin County communities are having their woes compounded as they struggle with the effects of one historic drought while still struggling with the effects of another.

With constituents concerned about the ongoing drought and resources available, Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Stockton, hosted a panel of state and federal experts to discuss the critical situation, its statewide effects and best water practices.

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Dinner Table Lessons Launch Water Industry Careers

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

Jobs in the water and wastewater industry provide stable employment in meaningful careers, delivering a vital resource families and businesses depend on. With half of all current employees expected to retire in the next 15 years, recruitment efforts hope to fill many of these essential positions.

Family ties provide a positive influence in filling these roles with the next generation of water professionals in several water agencies in San Diego County.

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Here’s How Much Rain Fell in 30 Greater San Diego Communities During the Big Storm

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

The massive electrical storm that hit San Diego County on Monday and early Tuesday brought significant rain to a county badly in need of precipitation. Here’s a sample of rainfall across the region, as compiled by the National Weather Service. A new storm might arrive on Thursday.

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EBMUD Begins Drawing Water From Sacramento River as Part of Drought Response

/in , , /by /NBC Bay Areaby Bay City News

As drought conditions persist statewide, officials with the East Bay Municipal Utility District said on Monday the agency has begun tapping into water from the Sacramento River to boost local supplies.

EBMUD, which delivers water to some 1.4 million people across Alameda and Contra Costa counties, typically draws from the Mokelumne River for its water supply.

The agency said the latest move is part of its drought response.

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S.F. Saw Just 9 Inches of Rain This ‘Water Year.’ Here’s How That Compares to Normal

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kellie Hwang

The water year has officially come to an end — and once again, the Bay Area has come up dry.

How dry? The region received a little more than a third of normal precipitation from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021, according to data from the National Weather Service — a common occurrence for the past several years, which bodes ill for a region already at the worst “exceptional” level on the U.S. Drought Monitor map.