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Fears Of Flooding Rise As Rain Returns To Bay Area

/in /by /SFGate (San Francisco)by Evan Sernoffsky and Peter Fimrite

Back-to-back bouts of rain that began Monday will make for an unusually wet week leading up to Halloween, said forecasters who are beginning to grow concerned about potential flooding this winter in fire-scorched areas. Sprinkles began falling Monday morning and spread throughout the afternoon, with downpours expected to last through the night. The stormy weather will continue until Tuesday evening, with as much as 2 inches of rain expected in the hardest-hit areas of the North Bay, National Weather Service meteorologists said.

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More Birds, New Trees After Colorado River ‘Pulse Flow’

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

Fresh stands of cottonwood and willow trees rising in the Colorado River Delta are evidence of the lasting environmental benefits an eight-week “pulse flow” of water deliveries to the area more than two years ago, according to a newly released report by U.S. and Mexican scientists. The study delivered to the International Boundary and Water Commission also showed an increase in the number and diversity of birds in the area following the unprecedented binational effort.

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BLOG: Dulzura Conduit: San Diego’s Fragile Link To An Important East County Water Resource

/in /by /Groksurf's San Diegoby George J Janczyn

Most everyone around these parts knows that the San Diego River, starting in the mountains to our northeast near Julian and captured at El Capitan Reservoir about 30 miles northeast of downtown San Diego, is a significant water resource for the city, but a lesser-known also important source, Cottonwood Creek, starts in the Laguna Mountains farther south. Cottonwood Creek first drains into Morena Reservoir, about 45 miles east/southeast of San Diego near the community of Campo. The reservoir also captures water from Morena Creek.

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Sites Reservoir Has A New Website, Logo and More Than Enough Investors

/in /by /Oroville Mercury Registerby Heather Hacking

Last week, folks who are in the inner circle of the plans for Sites Reservoir held a get-together in Maxwell to show off the group’s new office and new logo. Also new is a website, that talks about all things Sites Reservoir — a construction schedule, facts sheets and a list of interested participants (see sidebar). The next big step is money, particularly through a proposal to get a chunk of the $2.7 billion of bond funds available from California’s Proposition 1. The Sites Reservoir committee won’t be able to apply for that funding until around the middle of next year.

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California’s San Joaquin River — Agriculture vs. A Healthy River

/in /by /Digital Journalby Karen Graham

The San Joaquin River is the longest river in Central California, and the second most endangered river in the country. But because of dams, levees, and water diversion, over 100 miles of the river has been dry for 50 years. Sacramento – The San Joaquin River is second only to the Apalachicola, Chattahoochee and Flint rivers basin in Alabama, Georgia, and Florida as a seriously endangered river in this country.

 

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State Releases Report For Delta, Sacramento River Basin Water Flows

/in /by /Daily Republic (Fairfield)by Todd R. Hansen

The state’s Bay-Delta water quality and species protection efforts added another piece Friday with the release of the draft report on water flow in and out of the Sacramento River Basin. California’s Water Quality Control Board is seeking comment on the Scientific Basis Report, from which it will determine the necessary flows to “protect fish and wildlife beneficial uses.” “The report also acknowledges that non-flow measures should be integrated with flows to protect fish and wildlife,” the board staff said in a statement released with the report.

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After El Niño, What Weird Weather Could La Niña Bring?

/in /by /The Guardian (New York)by Kate Ravilious

This time last year the world’s weather was being dominated by one of the strongest El Niño events on record. As surface waters in the equatorial Eastern Pacific warmed by more than 2°C, a chain reaction of extreme weather events was set in motion. From torrential rains in Peru and huge storms pounding the coast of California, to drought and bushfire in Australia and Indonesia and catastrophic floods in south-east India (submerging parts of Chennai under eight metres of water), this El Niño really packed some punch.

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Regulators Propose Leaving More Water In California’s Rivers

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Carolyn Lochhead

Water users in San Francisco and its suburbs face a day of reckoning as state regulators move to leave more water in California’s two biggest rivers in an effort to halt a collapse in the native ecosystem of the San Francisco Bay and its estuary, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Even as water allocations to California farmers have been severely reduced, San Francisco water authorities have freely tapped the Tuolumne River, which the city dammed early in the last century at its headwaters in Yosemite National Park.

 

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No Easy Answers Left For Water Shortage

/in /by /Ventura County Starby Cheri Carlson

After five years of drought, no easy answers are left. Wells have run dry, lake levels have dropped to historic lows and last winter’s predicted storms were no-shows.That is, at least in the southern half of the state, leaving areas dependent on local rainfall some of the hardest hit. Those importing water, however, got a bit of reprieve as storms boosted supplies in Northern California. Just a few years ago, the opposite was true. Back then, Lake Casitas in the Ojai Valley was still relatively full.

 

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LA Asks State For More Money To Fund Recycled Water Projects

/in /by /Curbed Los Angelesby Elijah Chiland

Los Angeles has a serious dependence on imported water, and local officials want the state to pitch in more to help the city get more of its water from local sources. In a letter sent Friday to the California Water Resources Control Board and Department of Water Resources, Mayor Eric Garcetti and City Controller Ron Galperin asked the state to lift a $15 million limit on grants for water recycling projects awarded through a water bond approved by voters in 2014.

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