The Petaluma City Council on Monday night declared a drought emergency, ratcheting up restrictions on residents’ water use in the city’s latest effort to conserve the region’s dwindling water resources.
In a 6-1 vote late Monday night, the council approved a resolution for the Stage 4 emergency. The move calls for a 30% mandatory water reduction goal for city water customers, up from the previous goal of 25%.
Just hours before the Caldor fire threatened to level the resort town of South Lake Tahoe, the massive blaze performed a staggering feat: burning from one side of the Sierra to the other.
It seared through crests and valleys, over foothills and ridges — and also at elevations of 8,000 feet or higher.
Carlos Quintero was appointed as General Manager of the Sweetwater Authority. He starts his new position September 27.
The Sweetwater Authority Governing Board approved Quintero’s contract at its September 8 meeting.
“After a highly-competitive recruitment process, the Governing Board is excited to have Carlos Quintero joining the Authority as General Manager,” said Governing Board Chair Hector Martinez. “His extensive experience in the water industry will serve him well in his new role. We look forward to working with him and continuing the Authority’s mission to serve the community.”
At its meeting last night, the @SweetwaterAuth Governing Board appointed Carlos Quintero to the role of General Manager, effective September 27, 2021. Welcome Carlos! 👋 pic.twitter.com/njNRuX1aZt
— Sweetwater Authority (@SweetwaterAuth) September 9, 2021
Construction will start soon on the first of three projects to increase the reliability of drinking water for Poway water customers now and generations to come. Two water storage tanks will be built asd part of a temporary bypass project.
During construction access to some amenities at Lake Poway will be impacted.
A $1 trillion infrastructure bill that received bipartisan support in the Senate last month includes billions of dollars for Western water projects and programs.
The Biden administration has called the infrastructure bill, which includes $8.3 billion for Western water infrastructure, “the largest investment in the resilience of physical and natural systems in American history.”
“Mega-drought” has become a frightful “thing” in public and media discussions. In the past 1,200 years, California had two droughts lasting 120-200 years, “megadroughts” by any standard. Could the state’s water resources continue to supply enough water to drink, grow crops and provide habitat for fish with such an extreme, prolonged drought today?
Clearly, some ecosystems and rural communities would be devastated by such a drought, and it would certainly affect all California residents. But with careful management, California’s economy in many ways could substantially withstand such a severe drought.
There’s a hive of PhDs at the University of California at Davis who are working to reinvent food production in the Golden State. Researchers have fanned out across the globe collecting rare plant samples; others are grafting Frankenstein trees and stitching together root systems of plums and peaches to create better almond and walnut trees.
The Colorado River Basin is enduring two decades of drought, and water shortages are on the horizon. But scientists say this isn’t the worst-case scenario. The region has undergone longer, deeper droughts in the past. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke with paleoclimatologist Matt Lachniet of the University of Nevada-Las Vegas about how knowing the past can help us plan for a warmer, drier future.
Officials say the City of San Luis Obispo is water-secure for now, despite several years of drought conditions.The City of San Luis Obispo relies on water from Santa Margarita Lake, Whale Rock Reservoir and Nacimiento Reservoir. Mychal Boerman is Deputy Director of Water for the city. He said Nacimiento’s water capacity is at 13 percent, due to low rainfall years and continuous use of the reservoir for Salinas Valley farming
California lawmakers on Thursday voted to spend more than $2 billion to prevent wildfires and address a severe drought, closing the book — for now — on a $262.5 billion operating budget that began the year with a record deficit because of the pandemic and ended with a record surplus in spite of it.
