The drought in California may be easing after a long and wet winter, but that doesn’t mean the Golden State is free from water troubles. That’s why a new campaign by LA agency Quigley-Simpson for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (a state-established cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving nearly 19 million people) is informing people that water conservation is still a priority.
The so-called “superbloom” has apparently made some fans of wildflowers super obnoxious. Diamond Valley Lake’s wildflower trail has become so popular these past few weeks, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California – which oversees the lake – had to close it “due to excessive foot traffic.” To put it plainly, too many people were going off-trail and trampling the wildflowers. “Measures were set up to reinforce the importance of trail rules and to ensure that the Reserve resources are protected while visitors experience the beauty of the wildflowers,” according to Diamond Valley Lake’s website.
The Trump administration has removed a major roadblock to plans by a Santa Monica company to pump ancient groundwater from below the Mojave Desert and sell it to urban areas of Southern California. The federal Bureau of Land Management has rescinded a 2015 administrative finding that Cadiz, Inc. needed to obtain a federal right of way permit and thus had to complete comprehensive environmental studies before it could build a water pipeline within 43 miles of railroad right of way owned by the Arizona & California Railroad.
Testing for lead in water systems at San Diego Unified School District campuses began Monday, according to district officials. The testing program comes a couple of months after elevated levels of lead, copper and bacteria were discovered at three campuses in the San Ysidro School District. Testing previously took place at Emerson-Bandini Elementary School in Southcrest after a nurse saw a therapy dog reluctant to drink the water — which turned out to contain a variety of contaminants, including lead, according to multiple news reports.
The National Weather Service says a series of storms is supposed to hit California from Thursday through Saturday. Cindy Mathews is with the weather service. She says this will not be a repeat of the rain and runoff that we had in early February. “The term ‘atmospheric river’ is being applied to this weekend’s storm, but it is not one of the extreme ones,” says Mathews. “Snow levels will start out at pass levels and fall to below 5,000 feet by Saturday. So, it’s a moderate-type atmospheric river.” She also says a second storm could arrive Tuesday.
It was just before noon on a recent Sunday morning and a line had formed for the port-a-potties near the Wildflower Trail at Diamond Valley Lake in Riverside County. Cars were backed up around a bend in the road, and frustrated people resorted to parking two miles away and walking in.
They had come to see the “super bloom,” of wildflowers that have sprung up around the trails snaking around this drinking water reservoir. People are excited to take pictures of the flowers and themselves among the flowers, and many areas have been trampled.
Three years after Democratic Governor Jerry Brown stood on a dry, brown mountainside and declared a drought emergency, state water scientists trekked to the same spot near Sacramento on Thursday to measure nearly four feet of snow – about twice as much as is normal for March and April at that location. “California enters the snowmelt season with a large snowpack that will result in high water in many rivers through the spring,” State Climatologist Michael Anderson said in a statement.
President Donald Trump announced Sunday more than a half-billion dollars would be coming to California to help cover the damage from the winter storms, including $274 million for repairs to the Oroville Dam spillway. The fulfillment of the fourth presidential declaration for damage from the winter storms totals an estimated $540 million. Gov. Jerry Brown appealed for financial assistance last month in Washington. Brown met with Robert Fenton, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as part of the Democratic governor’s outreach to the new administration and congressional Republicans who control federal spending.
Here in California, we’ve been on a roller coaster when it comes to water. After five years of crippling drought, the Golden State had one of its wettest winters on record. So what has all the rain and snow meant for our water supply in Southern California? It depends on where you live and where your water comes from. About thirty percent of Southern California’s water comes from far, far away: Lake Oroville, a giant reservoir in the Sierra Nevada about 80 miles north of Sacramento.
In the past several months, three schools in the San Diego region have revealed the presence of alarming levels of lead in their drinking water. Lead is unsafe at any level and it is especially damaging to children’s brains. Now, San Diego Unified and other school districts across the county are moving to test many more schools. Here’s what we know and what we do not.
