California’s water warriors have a new arena for their perpetual conflict over the allocation of the state’s ever-evolving supply – a nearly 6,000-page proposal from the state Water Resources Control Board.
The draft essentially calls for sharp reductions in diversions from the Sacramento River and its tributaries to allow more water to flow through the environmentally troubled Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
October 1 marked the beginning of the new Water Year in California. Water years here run from October 1 until September 30 of the next calendar year, and are named for the calendar year of the bulk of the water year (January-October). It is a good time to reflect on the last year and make largely futile predictions of precipitation for the coming 12 months.
October isn’t just the start of our spooky season — it’s also the official start of the new water year. Historically, our wet season has stretched from mid-October to April, and water managers across the state are gearing up for what could be an even wetter year than last year, given the El Niño climate pattern, and a changing water cycle driven by human-caused climate change.
Up against an Oct. 14 deadline and with more than 700 bills on his desk heading into the weekend, Gov. Gavin Newsom decided the fate of bills — a lot of bills.
The governor’s office put out a big batch of nearly 150 actions on Saturday, a second one on Sunday of about 130 and a third one late Sunday night of about 190 more. That unusual volume for a weekend means he still has some 260 bills to go.
Ukiah’s recycled water project, known as the “purple pipe,” held a celebration October 5 to commemorate one billion gallons of recycled water water served since the project began. The event took place at the recycling facilities on 300 Plant Road in Ukiah, and included Congressman Jared Huffman and other elected officials, agency representatives, project staff, and a visit by Mrs. Williams’ 5th grade class at Yokayo Elementary School in Ukiah.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency honored the Vallecitos Water District with a WaterSense Partner of the Year Award for its video series promoting WaterSense and water efficiency in 2022. Vallecitos was one of nine Partner of the Year Award winners across the U.S.
WaterSense is a voluntary partnership program sponsored by the EPA. It identifies and labels water-efficient products, programs, and homes to help consumers learn ways to save water. More than 2,100 manufacturers, builders, retailers, utilities, government, and nonprofit organizations partner with WaterSense to promote water-efficient products, homes, and programs.
Vallecitos produced twelve videos released monthly in 2022, based on the EPA’s monthly feature topics. Each video focused on educating consumers about creating a WaterSense home. Among the topics covered by the 12 videos in the series are bathroom water consumption, efficient energy use, and one of the favorites, the “Shower With Power” video released in September 2022.
The video series produced by the Vallecitos Water District public affairs team was distributed by the U.S. EPA WaterSense program to help educate the public about water conservation nationwide. The videos can be downloaded for free on the EPA WaterSense partner platform.
Vallecitos began using video in 2019 to document the district’s workforce and infrastructure improvements on its social media platforms and has also engaged the public with discussions of critically important water management issues. It has won multiple awards for its work.
“We rely on video as a powerful communication tool at the Vallecitos Water District,” said Chris Robbins, Vallecitos Water District Public Information/Conservation Supervisor. “It’s how people like to consume information today,” “We invest a great deal of effort to make sure each video is an effective resource. This award from the EPA affirms we’re taking the right approach.”
Thanks to a decades-long supply diversification strategy and continued efficient use of water across the region, the San Diego County Water Authority announced that the region has reliable supplies to meet demands in Water Year 2024, which started October 1.
Hydrologists use Oct. 1 to begin measuring the snow and rain that will help carry water users through dry summer months the following calendar year. This fall, El Niño conditions continue to strengthen and could bring above-average precipitation to Southern California.
After a summer of record-smashing heat, warming somehow got even worse in September as Earth set a new mark for how far above normal temperatures were, the European climate agency reported Thursday.
Last month’s average temperature was 0.93 degrees Celsius (1.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1991-2020 average for September. That’s the warmest margin above average for a month in 83 years of records kept by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
“It’s just mind-blowing really,” said Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo. “Never seen anything like that in any month in our records.”
Perhaps the biggest development in water over the last three decades has been the change in attitude among consumers about their liquid assets. After repeated droughts punctuated by history-making deluges, Californians appear more open than ever to embracing reuse of stormwater, wastewater and seawater — as long as we can be certain that it is clean and safe to drink.
The city of Los Angeles on Wednesday, Oct. 5, received more than $19 million in state grant money for climate resilience projects, including the Department of Water and Power’s turf replacement program that will pay for free yard transformations in underserved communities.
