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Report: Drought Expands; Oklahoma Sees Worst Conditions

/in /by /The Associated Press

Drought is tightening its grip across the American Southwest as extreme conditions spread from Oklahoma to Utah, according to new federal data released Thursday. On the southern high plains, Oklahoma remains ground zero for the worst drought conditions in the United States. About 20 percent of the state is facing exceptional drought conditions — the worst possible classification. Most of Colorado also is under severe drought and almost all of the Texas Panhandle is seeing extreme drought or worse conditions.

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Tunnel Vision: What The Big Water Vote Means

/in /by /Voice of San Diegoby Ry Rivard Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Last fall, after years of study, the state’s largest water agency voted to spend $4 billion on a new project to bring water south from Northern California’s rivers. Other water agencies were supposed to help pay, but most backed out. On Tuesday, after a few weeks of scrambling, Metropolitan decided the project was worth nearly any price. Its board voted to spend $11 billion to save the project. For the extra billions of dollars, there’s no guarantee of more water.

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Southern California Water Agency Votes To Fund Controversial Plan To Build Two Delta Tunnels

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted Tuesday to shoulder most of the cost of revamping the system that delivers water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin delta to the Southland, committing nearly $11 billion to building two massive tunnels.

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Recent Years Prove We Need More Water Storage

/in /by /CALmattersby Dan Walters

The first thing to remember about precipitation in California is that it’s unpredictable, as the past several winters have once again shown us. Several years of severe drought ended in the 2016-17 winter with near-record rain and snow storms that filled the state’s badly depleted reservoirs. The 2017-18 “water year,” as hydrologists call it, began with what seemed to be a return to drought but then, in March, the state experienced a steady stream of storms that added to the Sierra snowpack upon which Californians are so dependent.

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Commentary: Why A Tax On Drinking Water Is Wrong

/in /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby Bill Pommering

The vast majority of Californians are fortunate enough to take access to clean drinking water for granted. However, the fact that some Californians in small, rural communities do not have this access is a travesty in this modern day and age. It can and must be fixed as an urgent state priority. Resolving this unacceptable situation will come at a high price.

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Report: How Los Angeles Could Source Its Water Locally

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Tara Lohan

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti believes his city is poised for a “second Mulholland moment.” William Mulholland was responsible for the construction, over a century ago, of the 200-mile-long aqueduct to Owens Valley that helped drive L.A.’s growth. In a recent op-ed, Garcetti wrote, “we have launched a second opportunity to reimagine our water infrastructure.” But this time it will take place closer to home. The city announced a plan in 2015 to reduce imported water 50 percent by 2025 and produce half of the city’s water supply locally by 2035.

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Recent Storms Put California’s Water Supply In Good Shape For Dry Season

/in /by /AccuWeather (State College, Pa.)by Kristina Pydynowski

Despite a dismal start to the rainy season, recent storms have helped to ease fears of water shortages across California during the upcoming drier months. The extended fire season and unusually dry start to the winter may have worried many residents about the state’s water supply for the dry season. California has a distinct wet and dry season. After the wet season typically peaks between December and March, the state relies on reservoirs and melting snow from the mountains for its water supply in the drier months that span late spring to the fall.

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The ‘Nightmare’ California Flood More Dangerous Than a Huge Earthquake

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby Rong-Gong Lin II

California’s drought-to-deluge cycle can mask the dangers Mother Nature can have in store. During one of the driest March-through-February time periods ever recorded in Southern California, an intense storm dumped so much rain on Montecito in January that mudflows slammed into entire rows of homes. Hundreds of homes were damaged or destroyed, and at least 21 people died.

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Tijuana Sewage Spills Have Been an Environmental Problem for Decades so What’s the Solution?

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Sandra Dibble

There was not a cloud in sight on this winter morning as surfers rode the waves south of the U.S. border fence, off of Playas de Tijuana. Anna Lucía López Avedoy stood on the street above, focusing instead on the stream pouring from a storm drain, splashing down a small rocky cliff, trickling down the sand and finally into the Pacific Ocean.

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A Strong Tunnel Vision

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Two tunnels, one or none? The question continues to swirl around plans to perform major surgery on the sickly heart of California’s water system. Confronted with a shortage of funding, state officials announced last month that they would move ahead with the construction of one giant water tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta rather than two. But the announcement did little to settle the fate of the project, which Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration considers vital to sustaining water deliveries to one of the country’s richest agricultural regions and the urban sprawl of Southern California.

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