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Saving water saved a lot of power, too

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

As debate continues in San Diego County and around the state over how aggressively to conserve water amid a historic drought, a new study finds that cuts in urban water use have saved significant amounts of electricity and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. The analysis, published by UC Davis, capitalized on the unique circumstances created by California’s drought. It culled statistics that electric utilities and water districts statewide were required to submit because of Gov. Jerry Brown’s unprecedented order for residents and businesses to lower water consumption by an average of 25 percent.

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Bill Could Accelerate Sites Reservoir Timeline

/in /by /Appeal Democrat (Marysville)by Andrew Creasey

Sites Reservoir could be built sooner than anticipated — if it ever receives public funding,

Accelerating the construction timeline for the long-proposed reservoir project, as well as other proposed dams in the state, is the focus of a bill co-authored by Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Plumas Lake. Assembly Bill 2551 recently passed the Assembly and will head to the Senate. It would allow water storage projects to use so-called alternative delivery methods, allowing several steps in construction, such as designing and building, to happen at the same time.

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Manufacturing Grows Despite Drought, Regulations

/in /by /Central Valley Business Journal (Stockton)

For the Central Valley, known for farming and shipping, its status as a manufacturer is often overlooked.

However, here in San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Merced counties, companies make products ranging from auto parts for Tesla’s electric cars to the steel beams for Sacramento’s new Golden One arena. “Because of the diverse base we have, California remains No. 1 in the nation in manufacturing,” said San Joaquin Partnership President and CEO Mike Ammann. “It is more capital intensive and automated, and jobs are more skilled due to working with robots and computers.”

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Israeli Water Tech Cos to Tackle California Drought

/in /by /Globes (Israel)by Yuval Azulai Mentioned: Carlsbad Desalination Plant

Representatives of 26 water purification, desalinization, wastewater treatment, piping, irrigation, and other companies will travel to Los Angeles at the end of June. Seeking US money, Israeli water companies are turning to drought-stricken California. Representatives of no fewer than 26 water purification, desalinization, wastewater treatment, piping, irrigation, and other companies will travel to Los Angeles at the end of the month in an effort to slake the thirst of Californians, while making a few dollars in the process.

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New California Drought Threat: Bark Beetles and Tens of Millions of Dead Trees

/in /by /Chico Enterprise Recordby Heather Hacking

More rain arrived in Northern California this year, which is good news overall. Yet, more bad news is lurking in the forest: Bark beetles.

In fact, those bark beetles are lurking in backyards throughout Butte County. Trees were under stress the past few years due to lack of water. Bark beetles have an easier time attacking trees when the forest is in poor health. The adult insects work their way under the outer protective bark, feed on the soft inner bark, and lay eggs for the next generation.

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OPINION: California’s drought: How Trump’s blustering caricatured a genuine crisis

/in /by /Los Angeles Times by Michael Hiltzik

Of all the mistakes, misstatements, and assorted bloviations issuing from Donald Trump during the current presidential campaign, surely one of the leading head-scratchers is his May 27 assertion to the effect that “there is no drought” in California.

 

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La Nina is on the Way — Don’t Expect CA Drought to Lessen

/in /by /CNBC (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.)by Robert Ferris

Talk of El Nino has barely faded from the internet, and already attention has turned to what El Nino’s other half will bring to North America, especially drought-stricken regions in the West.

La Nina is El Nino’s counterpart in the cycle known as the El Nino Southern Oscillation, and with El Nino, it makes up one of the three phases of the oscillation. The third phase is a neutral one in between the two other. La Nina is essentially EL Nino’s opposite. As El Nino represents a warming of ocean temperatures in parts of the Pacific Ocean, La Nina is a time of cooling, usually of about 3-5 degrees Celsius, in the same region.

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Researchers See More Overhead Irrigation use in California’s Future

/in /by /The Porterville Reporter

Overhead irrigation systems have revolutionized agriculture across the United States and in other parts of the world, using less water than furrow irrigation and requiring significantly less labor and maintenance than drip systems. But in California, the No. 1 agriculture state in the nation, it hasn’t gotten off the ground.

That is beginning to change.

 

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Conservation Sticks as Californians Cut Water Use 26%

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Peter Fimrite

Californians fought the urge to take long showers and generally slosh water around after all the rainfall this year, cutting water use instead by 26.1 percent in April, state officials said Monday.

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California Water Savings Increased Despite Eased Mandates

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith Quoted: Bob Yamada

Residents and businesses in San Diego County and around the state continued to save large amount of waters in April, even as regulators have eased a mandate for cutting back on urban water use — and are poised to eliminate such targets altogether for many water districts in coming weeks.

State officials reported Monday that water use in California dropped by an average of 26.1 percent in April compared with the same month in 2013, the benchmark year set by Gov. Jerry Brown’s emergency water conservation order. That program began in June, got eased in March and is being downscaled again.

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