The heavy rainfall of early 2019 has been a welcome sight for many in San Diego County hoping for an improvement in California’s drought conditions. However, with that rainfall comes some concern about the structural integrity of county dams and the potential for catastrophic flooding on par with a devastating event that happened over 100 years ago in the South Bay.
Arizona’s efforts to finish a Colorado River drought plan are moving forward after leaders of the Gila River Indian Community announced that they will proceed with their piece of the deal. The community’s leader, Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis, had threatened to pull out of the agreement if the Legislature didn’t drop a bill that he said would undermine the community’s water rights under a hard-fought settlement.
To help make sure you stay informed on the most shared and talked about stories in San Diego County, each Saturday we’ll revisit five stories from the previous week and capsulize them in this digest with the most recent updates. A report released this week confirms that most of California is no longer in drought thanks to a series of winter storms that have walloped the state in February. San Diego County is part of the 33 percent of the state that remains in the abnormally dry category but it is a stark improvement from three months ago, when the entire state was in that category.
Stretching hundreds of miles from the mountains bordering Los Angeles north toward the state capital, the San Joaquin Valley doesn’t resemble landscapes typically associated with California. Devoid of the skyscrapers, beaches and bridges that make California famous, the sprawling valley is instead filled with thousands of farms and oil fields that quietly help drive the state’s $2.7 trillion economy. Known as the “food basket of the world,” for over a century the valley and its rich soil have spoiled Americans with a wide variety of nuts, produce, wine grapes, dairy and even cotton.
The chance that Oroville Dam’s reconstructed primary spillway gets used in the coming days is unlikely, the California Department of Water Resources said Friday. Still, water officials are keeping a close watch on the Lake Oroville water level, which is rising. Inflows into the lake as the result of mountain runoff, as well as predicted rainfall, will lead the water in Lake Oroville to continue to rise. As of 5 p.m. Friday, the lake sat at roughly 775 feet, far below the main spillway gates, which are at 813 feet. So, how does it all work? Here’s how things could play out, according to DWR.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s long-time general manager, Maureen Stapleton, informed the agency’s board this week that she will be retiring. Sandy Kerl, who has been the authority’s deputy general manager since 2009, will serve as acting general manager, while the 24-member water wholesaler conducts a search.
Drought conditions have dramatically improved this winter in the West and this trend is expected to persist into the spring. A dominate weather pattern featuring a southward dip in the jet stream, or upper-level trough over the western U.S., has allowed a series of precipitation-rich storm systems to track through the region, especially over the last month.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s General Manager notified the region’s water board on Wednesday that she is retiring. Maureen Stapleton has held the top job at the agency for more than two decades. She led the Water Authority through the complicated settlement negotiations surrounding the Colorado River. That deal cleared the way for a huge water transfer with the Imperial Valley that provides a significant chunk of local drinking water. Stapleton also encouraged projects like the Carlsbad Desalination plant as a way to diversify the region’s water supply.
The odds are looking increasingly poor that Arizona and other Western states will meet a March 4 federal deadline for wrapping up Colorado River drought plans. That’s not just because of the ongoing conflict over a now-shelved water rights bill for Eastern Arizona that prompted a threat from the Gila River Indian Community to bolt this state’s drought plan. It’s also not just because of a Southern California irrigation district’s efforts to secure $200 million in U.S. funds to shore up the dying Salton Sea. Without that money, the Imperial Irrigation District — which holds more Colorado River rights than anyone else — says it won’t sign onto the drought plan that is supposed to cover all seven river basin states.
As a result of improved water supply conditions, the California Department of Water Resources on Wednesday announced an increase in 2019 State Water Project allocations. State Water Project contractors south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are set to receive 35 percent of their requests for the 2019 calendar year, up from 15 percent allocation announced last month. Allocations are reviewed monthly based on snowpack and runoff information and are typically finalized by May.
