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East Bay Water Officials Have Eyes On The Future

/in , , /by /SF Gateby Tony Hicks

East Bay Municipal Utility District officials have seen droughts come and go. But they seem to be coming more frequently this century.

Climate change is stoking devastating wildfire seasons year after year, drying the state out and just making it more flammable the following year. State water officials say that means less water in the Mokelumne River Watershed, the main source for EBMUD and its 1.4 million customers.

Last winter was the state’s driest since 1977, prompting the district to officially declare a stage one drought on April 27 and ask customers to cut ten percent of their water use. What can the East Bay expect moving forward?

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New Research Finds Climate Models Mostly Get It Right

/in , , /by /KPBS-FM/TVby Erik Anderson

New climate research, which was done mostly in San Diego, finds that a study of land temperatures during the last ice age confirms some widely held thoughts about climate change.

Lead author Alan Seltzer, a paleoclimatologist at the Wood’s Hole Oceanographic Institute, studied ancient water as a way to gain insight into previously unrecorded planetary temperatures.

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Student Photographers Capture Water

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Thirteen talented student photographers creatively captured the importance of water in their homes and in the context of the coronavirus pandemic in Sweetwater Authority’s 2021 High School Photo Contest.

Winners were selected from 50 students from South San Diego Bay high schools who submitted more than 100 entries in two categories: black and white, and color photography. In each photo, water plays a central part in favorite activities and quality of life.

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State Plans to Order Drought Restrictions, But it Doesn’t Have Good Water Data to Do It

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

As California descends deeper into drought, state regulators are planning to do something they’ve done few times in modern history: order thousands of people, farms, and even cities and towns that hold historic water rights to stop drawing water from the rivers, lakes and ponds they rely on.  The move is intended to make sure the dwindling flows in California’s waterways are reserved for those with the most senior water rights, as well as for fish and other wildlife.

Many of those with lesser rights would have to turn to storage, groundwater or another source, if they have it.  The problem, besides leaving several in a tough spot, is that the state doesn’t have an accurate tally of how much water is being pulled from its watersheds, nor who exactly is taking it.

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Water Usage Down Sharply in San Diego, Shrinking City’s Reliance on Expensive Imported Supplies

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

San Diego’s vulnerability to water shortages and drought is shrinking significantly because residents and businesses are using less water and city officials are boosting the local supply.

A new city analysis shows local water use dropped sharply from 81.5 billion gallons in 2007 to about 57 billion gallons in 2020, even though the city’s population has grown about 1 percent per year over that time.

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Dry Soils And Drought Mean Even Normal Snowpack Can’t Keep Up With Climate Change In The West

/in , , /by /CPR Newsby Michael Elizabeth Sakas

Brian Domonkos straps on a pair of cross-country skis and glides through the trees along Mosquito Creek west of Fairplay.

It’s May, but there’s still snow in Colorado’s mountains near the headwaters of the South Platte River.

Domonkos, the Colorado Snow Survey supervisor, gets to work measuring how much snowpack is left from the winter to runoff into streams, rivers and reservoirs this summer.

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San Francisco Sues State Over Bid to Restrict its Sierra Water Supplies

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

The city of San Francisco is reviving a long-simmering feud with the state over water, filing a lawsuit Friday that charges state regulators with trying to take away the city’s coveted Sierra Nevada water supplies.

The suit claims the state water board is demanding the city forfeit too much water from the Tuolumne River as part of a licensing deal for two dams in the faraway basin. State regulators have said the water is needed to maintain proper river flows and support struggling salmon, but city officials contend the demands would leave Bay Area residents and businesses vulnerable to water shortages.

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Opinion: Wastewater Recycling Got Derailed in Los Angeles. Now it’s Back On Track

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Marc Haefele

Twenty years ago, in the 2001 Los Angeles mayoral race, a topic usually seen as dull became the most lurid issue of the campaign. The topic was water recycling, and we are still being hurt by the rhetoric from that election today.

Candidate Joel Wachs, a longtime member of the City Council, didn’t even make the runoff that year. But during the primary he alarmed voters across the city by insisting that Los Angeles was furtively planning to pipe recycled sewage to millions of unsuspecting Angelenos — without, according to Wachs, adequate public input or scientific research.

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How California’s Drought Impacts Wildlife Populations and Their Behavior

/in , , /by /Fox2by Tom Vacar

The COVID-19 pandemic encouraged wildlife, looking for easy food, to visit quiet neighborhoods they normally didn’t. The drought may now be forcing them to do the same. Experts say, though you might like to, do not leave food and water out for wild animals showing up in neighborhoods. The bear that showed up in a tree near central San Anselmo this week is one of several recent North Bay sightings.

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A Few Lessons for California’s New Drought

/in , , /by /California WaterBlogby Jay Lund

We asked some colleagues for lessons that might be useful in managing the California’s new drought. Here is a first sampling of thoughts.

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