Water leaders across California are beginning to prepare for another wet winter, as a new water year got underway this week.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the state’s reservoirs are the fullest they’ve been at the start of a water year in 40 years. And, with an El Niño weather pattern looking more and more likely, so is the possibility for a lot of rain in the months ahead.
Josh Kane didn’t know a lot about avocado farming 10 years ago, but he does now.
In 2001, Kane’s mother bought a 60-acre avocado farm, the Rice Canyon Ranch, in Fallbrook, thinking it would be a good investment. But, some not-so-good advice, and the 2014 drought, had the business in a nosedive. Rice Canyon took a long-term investment perspective and invested in innovative measures, including tree stumping and grafting. Those strategies, along with smart irrigation, helped turn the farm around.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation awarded Oceanside $201,000 for the city’s Water Recycling and Desalination Planning Project, it was announced Wednesday.
Oceanside received the award after applying for WaterSMART funding to investigate expanding water reuse and increasing water recharge, according to the city’s water utilities department.
The federal funding will be used to evaluate the expanded use of treated effluent at the San Luis Rey Water Reclamation Facility to produce recycled water, and expansion of the Advanced Water Purification Facility for groundwater recharge and higher quality recycled water and seawater desalination, according to the city.
Saying the targets to cut water use in cities and towns will be costly and difficult to achieve, water agencies throughout California have raised concerns about an ambitious state proposal that would require more water conservation statewide beginning in 2025.
A water district known for supplying celebrities and affluent communities like Hidden Hills and Calabasas is trying a new approach for collecting fresh water.
The Las Virgenes Municipal Water district is studying the feasibility of harvesting drinking water from desalination pods on the ocean’s floor.
Several speakers pleaded with the State Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday to rethink proposed regulations intended to reduce Californians’ water use in the face of climate change.
“Making Conservation a California Way of Life” is a series of proposed regulations that stems from two laws passed in 2018. Those laws require the state water board to implement efficiency standards and performance levels for local agencies’ water use.
The Colorado River is one of the most important sources of fresh water in the United States, flowing through Arizona and six other states.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation, it provides water to nearly 40 million people for municipal use.
The typically parched, brown hills above Los Angeles are a vibrant shade of green — a rarity for early October.
In state parks, waterfalls and rivers that were vastly reduced are now gushing with water.
And in Lake Oroville, boats float on deep blue water that only a year ago was shrinking toward record lows.
The transformed landscape is the result of a remarkable California water year that saw 141% of average rainfall statewide, officials announced this week. The state received 33.56 inches of rain — nearly twice the amount of rain recorded during the previous water year and nearly three times the amount from the year prior. The water year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
A planning and training workshop for 100 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees in San Diego County included tours of Sweetwater Authority and Otay Water District facilities. The Reclamation employees visited San Diego in September to participate in a planning training workshop.
For the sixth consecutive year, the San Diego County Water Authority’s Water News Network website was recognized as the Best Public Service/Consumer Advocacy Website. The Water News Network was awarded for its public outreach and education at the San Diego Press Club’s 50th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards.
