Sun-baked mud is cracking along the bare margins of Lake Mendocino, the reservoir near Ukiah that helps sustain river flows for imperiled fish and supply water to 600,000 people in Sonoma and Marin counties.
The shoreline is about 100 yards out, leaving the boat ramp near Coyote Valley Dam high and dry. No people were in or on the water Monday, and geese were feasting on whatever the lake bed gave up.
A national environmental organization on Monday threatened to sue Gov. Gavin Newsom to halt all new permits for gas and oil wells in the state, saying the governor has failed to protect Californians and the environment from hazards and pollutants released by the state’s billion-dollar petroleum industry.
Microsoft plans to address dwindling water resources in its latest environmental pledge. Microsoft made a new commitment to replenish even more water than it uses for its global operations by 2030, making the company “water positive.”
For the West this summer, the news about water was grim. In some parts of California, it didn’t rain for over 100 days. In western Colorado, the ground was so dry that runoff at first evaporated into the air. And in New Mexico and Nevada, the rains never came.
Bill Hasencamp is the manager of California’s Metropolitan Water District, which provides treated water to 19 million people. What was most unfortunate, he said, was that, “the upper Colorado Basin had a 100% snowpack, yet runoff was only 54% of normal.” In 2018, a variation happened — light snow and little runoff, which doesn’t bode well for the future.
The San Diego and Imperial Counties Chapter of the American Public Works Association recently recognized a San Diego County Water Authority pipeline relining project for its excellence as a public works project. The award commends the successful partnership between Water Authority staff, the contractor and local agencies working together to complete this critical repair to maintain the reliability of the regional water supply.
California’s water managers have had their hands full keeping our water systems safe and operational during the COVID-19 pandemic. But their work on addressing the fiscal consequences of the deep economic recession is just beginning. Three lessons from the Great Recession of 2007-09 could guide more effective policy responses today.
While Patricia Wood celebrates a top award in landscaping presented by her local water providers, there are probably more than a few disappointed gophers that are not singing her praises. Wood and a team of landscapers spent 2018 and 2019 transforming her 3,850-square-foot lawn, located along a cul-de-sac near Valhalla High School in Rancho San Diego, into drought-tolerant landscaping.
When wildfire strikes water, infrastructure that’s made out of plastic is particularly at risk of contamination. If pipes and tanks lose pressure, or get hot, chemicals can leach into the water supply. The CZU Lightning Complex Fire badly damaged seven and a half miles of water supply lines made of polyethylene, a plastic, in northern Santa Cruz County.
A rapid-fire review of potential fixes to the Friant-Kern Canal favors building a replacement canal for 20 miles alongside the existing canal where land subsidence has caused it to sag, severely restricting water flow, according to final environmental documents released Friday.
A House committee will meet Thursday to discuss the deteriorating public health crisis at a Southern California lake. The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife will review federal and state efforts to address problems at the Salton Sea. The Salton Sea is California’s largest lake at about 350 square miles, fed by runoff from the crop fields of the Imperial Valley, an agricultural powerhouse.
