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Failure at One of These 15,000 American Dams Would Be Fatal

/in /by /Smithsonian by Erin Blakemore

It’s not often that a hulking piece of infrastructure makes headlines, but the dam at California’s Lake Oroville did just that when it nearly failed last month. Though 180,000 people who were evacuated during the crisis are back home, people are now asking questions about the condition of the nation’s dams. As E&E News’ Jeremy P. Jacobs reports, there’s reason to worry: Nearly 15,500 of America’s dams could cause loss of life if they fail.

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As State Drowns In Winter Storms, California Water Use Is Lowest Since 2014

/in /by /CBS Sacramento

Officials say Californians are using less water than they have in years, thanks partly to winter rains that are doing the lawn-watering for them. The Water Resources Control Board said Tuesday that the average Californian used just 58.1 gallons of water a day in January. That’s the lowest residential use since the state started tracking water use in summer 2014.

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Safe To Drink?: San Marcos Schools Tested For Lead In Water

/in /by /NBC San Diegoby Wendy Fry

NBC 7 has learned three schools in the San Marcos Unified School District were involved in testing for lead levels in water provided to students on campus. Of the three schools, one had a water fountain with lead levels higher than acceptable, district officials confirmed Tuesday. The district recently tested the water at three schools including Alvin Dunn Elementary, Richland Elementary, and San Marcos Middle School.

 

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Global Warming Is Slamming California. Will Trump Take Notice?

/in /by /McClatchy Washington Bureau (Washington, DC)by Sean Cockerham

The drought has been declared over in most of California, with heavy winter rains sending water over the Oroville dam and forcing the evacuation of nearly 200,000 people. But climate change is still in the air, and the recent weather pattern is a harbinger of what’s to come. The abrupt shift to record rainfall is the kind of extreme weather forecast for a warming planet. “Current models suggest the dice are loaded toward an increased probability of this kind of year,” said Columbia University climate scientist A. Park Williams.

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Striking Photos Taken From Space Show Dramatic Impact Of 2017 Storms

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Amy Graff

Satellite photographs from the NASA Earth Observatory show the striking difference in California’s drought-ravaged landscape after ceaseless storms soaked the state at the start of 2017. These images taken from space reveal the dramatic changes that have unfolded across the state between 2014, amid the a multi-year drought, and winter 2017, a season marked by record rain- and snowfall.

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OPINION: Our Wild, Wet Winter Doesn’t Change This Reality — California Will Be Short Of Water Forever

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Jay Famiglietti and Michelle Miro

Over the last 18 months, California has experienced one of the driest, wettest and wildest rides in its recorded water history. As the 2015-16 water year opened in October 2015, drought had driven the state’s reservoir and groundwater levels to all-time lows. Entire towns were left without water. Reports of lakes turned to puddles, of wells running dry by the thousands, and of the cracked ground above depleted aquifers sinking several feet a year dominated state headlines.

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Jerry Brown Requests A Third Presidential Disaster Declaration

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jim Miller

Gov. Jerry Brown asked President Donald Trump on Tuesday to declare a major disaster for California due to damage caused by heavy rains that hit the state from Jan. 18 to 23. “This record-breaking precipitation resulted in numerous rivers, creeks and streams again exceeding flood stages throughout California,” Brown wrote Trump, saying the storms caused flooding, breached levees, left an estimated 55,000 homes and businesses without power, and led to six deaths. A presidential disaster declaration would make available federal assistance to reimburse state and local costs, small-business loans and other programs.

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Poway Names New Public Works Director

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The appointment of Mike Obermiller as Poway’s public works director was announced Tuesday by City Manager Tina White. Obermiller started with the city in August 2014 as the department’s assistant director. During his tenure, he served as the city’s liaison with several regional groups including the Metro Wastewater Joint Powers Authority and San Diego County Water Authority. Prior to joining the city, Obermiller served 20 years in the US Navy as a Civil Engineer Corps officer, leading comprehensive public works and construction management organizations in Japan, Iraq, Mississippi and California.

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Huge Sewage Spill Was Perhaps Far Bigger: 230 Million Gallons?

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Smith

The sewage spill on the Tijuana River in Mexico the fouled South County beaches may have been significantly larger than first estimated, although it’s unclear how regulators arrived at the new figure. Standing next to the river valley for a news conference Monday, Rep. Scott Peters said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now suspects that discharges may have totaled 230 million gallons, up from the initial figure of 143 million gallons. The original volume already ranked as one of the biggest spills in the region’s history.

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Drought Monitor Shows Dramatic Changes To National Map

/in /by /The Weather Networkby Mario Picazo

The latest Drought Monitor map was made public to begin March and shows a significant improvement in the very dry conditions experienced for months in the west, but a very different story for portions of the southern plains, the southeast and the northeast US.

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