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Unabated Global Warming Threatens West’s Snowpack, Water Supply

Low-elevation snowpack across the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada and the Cascades will disappear in the coming decades if global warming continues unabated, according to a new study. The changes will cause water shortages in the region and dry out forests and grasslands, the study’s authors say.

According to the research, the snow line—the altitude above which it snows, and below which it rains—will climb as much as 800 feet in the Colorado Rockies, and 1,400 feet in the Rockies of Idaho and Wyoming by 2100 if greenhouse gas emissions continue at the current rate.

Water Conservation Has Saved Energy, Cut Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Study Finds

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 reductions 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%.

Court Suspends Southern California Water District’s Land Buy

Southern California’s largest water supplier was temporarily blocked from buying sprawling farmland that could be used to help build twin tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a court ruled Tuesday.

The state’s 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento granted a temporary restraining order the day before escrow was set to close on Metropolitan Water District’s $175 million deal for 20,000 acres. The ruling delays the district’s purchase by no more than a few weeks, Metropolitan attorney Catherine Stites said.

State Water Board Dismisses $1.5 Million Fine

A state panel on Tuesday dismissed a $1.55 million fine it levied last year against a Delta-area agency accused of ignoring an order to stop diverting water during the drought.

State water regulators alleged last June that Byron-Bethany Irrigation District in the southern Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta defied a state order issued to dozens of senior water rights holders. The order told them to stop pulling water from streams and rivers due to extremely dry conditions.

 

 

BLOG: Critical Index Finds Smelt Nearly Extinct in Delta

Delta smelt have hovered close to extinction for years, but biologists say they’ve never seen anything like this spring.

“There’s nothing between them and extinction, as far as I can tell,” said Peter Moyle, a U.C. Davis biologist who has studied smelt and other Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fish species for nearly four decades. Last week, the state Department of Fish and Wildlife released the results of spring trawling surveys that track adult delta smelt. The surveys found just handfuls of fish across the huge area where they are known to spawn.

Appellate Court Temporarily Blocks Delta Island Sale

A state appellate court has temporarily blocked the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s $175 million purchase of five islands in the heart of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. On Tuesday, the 3rd District Court of Appeal granted a temporary stay preventing the sale from closing.

Last month, a San Joaquin County judge refused to grant a request for a preliminary injunction filed by environmental groups, local water districts, and San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties. Those groups sued in April, aiming to halt the sale pending an environmental review.

Court Suspends Metropolitan Water District’s Massive Delta Land Buy

Southern California’s largest water supplier was temporarily blocked from buying sprawling farmland that could be used to help build twin tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a court ruled Tuesday.

The state’s 3rd District Court of Appeal in Sacramento granted a temporary restraining order the day before escrow was set to close on Metropolitan Water District’s $175 million deal for 20,000 acres. The ruling delays the district’s purchase by no more than a few weeks, Metropolitan attorney Catherine Stites said.

Desalination test facility in the works

Water managers are taking the next steps in exploring whether to increase the amount of drinkable water produced from desalination in San Diego County by up to four times the current level.

Construction of a test facility at Camp Pendleton is scheduled to start this fall. There are no plans at this point to build a full-scale plant, but officials could approve such an undertaking to begin as early as 2020 if various factors exist.

BLOG: The Drought Solution That’s Under Our Feet

Now in the fifth year of an epic drought, Californians have explored ways to save water and wring it out of typical and atypical sources. The search has spanned the gamut from funding research, investing in expensive solutions like desalination plants, toying with the idea of recycling wastewater, imposing water-use restrictions, letting lawns go dry and experimenting with irrigation efficiency techniques for the crops that feed the country.

Thirsty crops, a burgeoning population and below-average precipitation have also led to seriously overdrawn groundwater sources that took a very long time to fill up.

Hillary Clinton in drought-plagued Fresno: ‘We’re going to get to work on water’

Sure enough, Clinton sprinkled a number of mentions of water into her standard stump speech, promising the crowd that if she’s elected president, “we’re going to get to work on water.”

Her proposals were vague. She noted the “water systems here [were] built before our time,” before pledging to invest anew in infrastructure. New water projects have been a top priority for Fresno’s agriculture industry, which has struggled to adapt to the state’s lingering drought. In another nod to the local industry, Clinton changed her standard riff promising to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws.