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How Does Climate Change Affect Mountainous Watersheds That Give Us Our Water?

/in , , /by /Berkeley Labby Christina Procopiou

The image of huge chunks of ice breaking away from glaciers and ice sheets, then floating out to sea in Earth’s most remote places, may be the most iconic symbol of a warming planet. And while most people will never see these familiar phenomena up close, what’s happening within some of the iciest settings still affects people and regions thousands of miles away.

Ecologist Heidi Steltzer, a Fort Lewis College professor and member of the Department of Energy’s Watershed Function Scientific Focus Area (SFA) project led by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, studies how reduced snowpack and earlier snowmelt caused by climate change impact water supply in high-mountain areas..

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To Guard Against Drought, Santa Maria Looks To Acquire Rights To Suspended State Water Supply

/in , , /by /Santa Maria Times by Razi Syed

To guard against volatility in the amount of state water it receives, Santa Maria and several other Central Coast Water Authority members are planning to claim an additional 12,214 acre-feet of state water that was set aside decades ago.

The move — which would be funded by issuing a $42 million bond — would increase Santa Maria’s annual right to state water from 17,820 to over 27,000 acre-feet each year.

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2019 Water Year Sees Above-Average Rainfall

/in , , /by /Turlock Journalby Angelina Martin

After a lackluster amount of rainfall throughout the San Joaquin Valley in 2018, the recent end to the 2019 precipitation year was a welcome sight for community members wary of drought thanks to plenty of storms that brought above-average numbers.

This past precipitation year, which began Sept. 1, 2018 and ended Aug. 31, 2019, saw 45.65 inches of rainfall — nearly 10 inches more than the historical average for the area or about 125 percent of average for the date.

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Paradise Residents Still Can’t Drink the Water

/in , , /by /KQEDby Molly Peterson

Since last November, when the Camp Fire almost completely destroyed the town of Paradise, the cancer-causing chemical benzene has tainted the town’s water, leaving it undrinkable. Now an independent team of scientists will begin testing for the carcinogen and other pollutants inside the houses that the fire left standing.

“The main goal is to really understand what’s going on, basically, and to address any issues that come up,” environmental health investigator Dr. Gina Solomon told residents at a recent Paradise Irrigation District meeting.

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Future Uncertain For Shasta Dam Raising After Irrigation District Stops Work On Study

/in , , /by /Redding Record Searchlightby Damon Arthur

Following losses in court, a Fresno-based irrigation district has backed off its plans to do an environmental study on raising the height of Shasta Dam.

The Westlands Water District announced Monday that it has stopped working on the report because it could not meet the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s schedule for the project.

The bureau is trying to get non-federal partners to help pay half the cost of the $1.4 billion project to raise the height of the dam 18½ feet.

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Recycled Water Now Flows Through Repurposed Agricultural Pipeline Benefiting Area’s Watershed

/in , , /by /California Water News Daily

Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, Riverside County Flood and Water Conservation District and the City of Lake Elsinore recently celebrated the transformation of an abandoned agricultural pipeline that has now been converted to move water from EVMWD’s Regional Water Reclamation Facility into Lake Elsinore. The supplemental recycled water provides an additional source of water for the lake.

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The Interior Secretary Wants to Enlarge a Dam. An Old Lobbying Client Would Benefit.

/in , , /by /New York Timesby Coral Davenport

For years, the Interior Department resisted proposals to raise the height of its towering Shasta Dam in Northern California. The department’s own scientists and researchers concluded that doing so would endanger rare plants and animals in the area, as well as the bald eagle, and devastate the West Coast’s salmon industry downstream.

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Templeton Community Services District Celebrates New Drought-Resistant Water Supply Project

/in , , /by /Paso Robles Dailyby News Staff

The Templeton Community Services District celebrated the completion of its new drought-resistant water supply project at a ribbon-cutting held on Wednesday, Sept. 25.

The project, called the Upper Salinas River Basin Conjunctive Use Project (US-CUP) captures existing wastewater flows generated within the eastside of the District and will return these flows back to the Meadowbrook Wastewater Treatment Plant (MWWTP). The wastewater undergoes treatment and is then discharged into the river alluvium that contains the Salinas River underflow providing subsequent conveyance to District wells that divert from the underflow downstream.

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‘Historic’ Winter Storm Dumps 3 Feet of Snow, Smashes Records in West

/in , , /by /USA Todayby John Bacon

One week after summer’s end, a “winter” storm began blasting parts of the West with up to 3 feet of snow, smashing records with low temperatures, heavy snow, strong winds and blizzard conditions forecast into Monday.

Snow was piling up across parts of California, Oregon, Washington, Montana, Idaho, Nevada and Utah. The National Weather Service, calling the storm “historic,” said temperatures in some areas would drop as much as 30 degrees below normal.

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$100 million desalination project to be led by Lawrence Berkeley National Lab

/in , , /by /Bay Area News Group by Paul Rogers

In a effort to widen the use of a nearly limitless — but expensive — source of water for California and other places worldwide that are prone to shortages, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been selected to lead a $100 million project aimed at bringing down the cost of desalination.

The money, announced this week and awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy, will fund a research consortium of 19 universities around that the country that include Stanford, UC-Berkeley, UCLA and others, along with 10 private industry partners and other Department of Energy institutions, like Oak Ridge National Lab in Tennessee.

The goal, organizers say, is to reduce the cost of removing salt from ocean water to make it a more viable drinking water source for California and other areas. Closely related, planners also hope to clean up other types of water that are being largely wasted or underused so they can be a source for cities, farms and wildlife.

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