Some comments carry more weight than others – such as comments from Gov. Jerry Brown.
The State Water Resources Control Board unveiled its plan to take 30 to 50 percent of the Merced, Tuolumne and Stanislaus rivers late last week. After taking four years to compile the 2,000-page report, the water board gave the people of the Northern San Joaquin Valley 60 days to digest it and make objections.
One Londonderry well owner left a trash can outside with the lid open in the rain Sunday night. She needs the water to flush her toilet.
She has also been doing laundry at her daughter’s house, showering in small increments so as not to let the water run continuously, and using paper products at meal time to wash fewer dishes. She, like many of her neighbors in Southern New Hampshire, is experiencing the affects of a months-long drought.
Today, the Earth got a little hotter, and a little more crowded. Saving BUB, Beautiful Unique Biodiversity, as in this Amazonian ant-mimic treehopper, is another reason to preserve carbon storing forests. Credit Andreas Kay at flickr A Key Preserver of Carbon Storage in Rainforests – are tapirs, which help disperse the seeds of the largest carbon-storing trees. The Surprising Link Between The Tapirs Of Costa Rica And Climate Change – They disperse seeds of the largest trees that store the most carbon, suggest new studies. Protecting tapirs and other large seed-eating mammals is key to preserving carbon storage capability in rainforests.
With California in its fifth year of severe drought and many western states experiencing another year of unusually dry conditions, plants are stressed.
Agricultural crops, grasses and garden plants alike can get sick and die when factors such as drought and excess sun force them to work harder to survive.
Now, plants can better tolerate drought and other stressors with the help of natural microbes, University of Washington research has found. Specifically, plants that are given a dose of microbes stay green longer and are able to withstand drought conditions by growing more leaves and roots and using less water.
California’s water problem is severe. Despite 2016 seeing a distinct improvement in precipitation over previous years, to almost average levels in many areas, much of the state is in extreme drought. As well as ordering mandatory water reductions, the state has also been looking to other solutions.
“Shade balls,” the 4-inch wide black plastic balls pictured above blanketing Los Angeles Reservoir, have been touted as one of those solutions. But they’re not. The primary purpose of the release, which went viral last year, was to obey Federal rules on covering drinking water. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) had previously used the balls in smaller reservoirs, and in the case of the Los Angeles Reservoir, says the balls helped the department save more than $250 million over installing a more permanent cover.
Central California is under a pollution alert for air more normally seen streaming from a pig smoker than in the sky. Multiple fires throughout the state are carbonizing vast amounts of forest, where the vegetation is dry as a wick from hot temperatures, scant precipitation, and years of persistent drought.
Now, one of the largest and longest-lasting of these blazes—the Soberanes Fire in the Los Padres National Forest—has become the most expensive wildfire to battle in U.S. history.
Closed for eight years because of a dam-raising project, the San Vicente Reservoir is scheduled to reopen to the public Thursday.
The city of San Diego-owned body of water in the East County will be available for boating and fishing. The marina will include a six-lane boat ramp, concessions stand to rent boats and supplies, parking lot for more than 300 vehicles and a picnic area.
“This is an exciting day for anglers, water sport enthusiasts, boaters and San Diego families,” Mayor Kevin Faulconer said.
One of the few upsides to California’s drought is that it has helped reduce pollution at some urban beaches, because less precipitation has meant less runoff from city streets and other paved surfaces. This in turn means less pollution draining into streams and bays.
Urban runoff is the number one source of pollution in places like Santa Monica Bay in Southern California. But the city is not relying on drought to help stop the problem. Instead it has taken the lead in implementing solutions, like “green streets” and runoff recycling to catch urban runoff before it hits the bay.
When Erin Brockovich went after PG&E for poisoning groundwater in the desert town of Hinkley, California — a campaign that later became a film starring Julia Roberts — the toxic chemical was a heavy metal called hexavalent chromium. Also known as chromium 6, the chemical is listed under California’s Prop 65 as causing cancer, developmental harm and reproductive harmin both men and women. A new report out today finds Hinkley isn’t the only California city with chromium 6 contamination. The report found 11 water districts serving some 400,000 Californians had hexavalent chromium in their tap water at levels above the state’s legal limit.
What if it were your job to make sure there’s enough water for everyone in your city to drink – in the middle of the worst drought in 500 years? That’s the job description for hundreds of water managers in California. While balancing supply and demand is always difficult in drought, the past year and half have been especially challenging as the state of California has whiplashed back and forth on mandatory water conservation.
