In February, 1914, the rainfall in the Mojave Desert region exceeded by nearly fifty per cent in three days the average annual precipitation.
Where the steel siphon crosses Antelope valley at the point of greatest depression, an arroyo or run-off wash indicated that fifteen feet was the extreme width of the flood stream, and the pipe was carried over the wash on concrete piers set just outside the high water lines.
Drought-weary Californians breathed a sigh of relief because another “March Miracle” series of storms soaked much of the northern half of the state. Sadly for the people of the Golden State, their relief is mostly misplaced. The state reported that the statewide snowpack is only 87 percent of normal and El Niño was mostly a disappointment. Farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley will receive only 5 percent of their allocation from the Central Valley Project this year. It looks like we are heading into the fifth year of a historic drought.
A judge has refused to block a Southern California water agency’s controversial purchase of five islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Judge Barbara Kronlund in San Joaquin Superior Court declined to grant a temporary restraining order Friday to officials from San Joaquin and Contra Costa counties, who sued two weeks ago to keep the Metropolitan Water District from completing its $175 million purchase of the five islands.
A battle is raging over one of the most fundamental aspects of San Diego County’s future: how folks get around.
Will commuters overwhelmingly continue to drive their cars to work, as they’ve done for decades? Or will lawmakers fashion a public transportation system — consisting largely of bus, trolley and train lines — that’s efficient and sexy enough to appeal to millennials and perhaps their parents?
San Diego public utility officials shut off customers’ water with no warning and have no specific policy outlining how to restart service or adjudicate complaints, local consumer advocates say. The city also piles on unnecessary fees and penalties — even adding years-old parking tickets and library fines to the balances due — before agreeing to restore water service, the Utility Consumers’ Action Network says.
Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz, speaking at the state Republican Party Convention, dug into the state’s complex water policies Saturday, suggesting that it might be possible to replenish the Delta smelt population with a little romantic music and a disco ball.
More than a trillion gallons of fresh water have been dumped into the Pacific Ocean “because of a little three-inch bait fish,” Cruz said, saying the state’s environmental policies have overreached in protecting it.
Coachella Valley water agencies are again making the case that the state should ease its drought restrictions, especially for those here in the desert.
Officials argue that this region’s unique circumstances – the hot climate, a varying tourist season/year-round population mix that distorts actual per capita usage and access to groundwater as well as surface water sources – should be considered in the decision-making process rather than following a more one-size-fits-all approach statewide.
With the drought continuing in California despite El Niño, more and more homeowners are considering alternatives to thirsty lawns. But before pulling up the turf, consider your options and their advantages and disadvantages.
Grass typically uses about 60 gallons of water per week for every 10-by-10-foot area. That can add up in a hurry. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 30 to 60 percent of a household’s water usage goes toward landscape irrigation.
California faces major changes in its water supply. The sooner everyone realizes these changes are coming, the better the state will be able to cope with what lies ahead.
Today’s changes are driven by efforts to end groundwater depletion, by sea level rise and loss of snowpack, salts and nitrate accumulating in groundwater, new invasive species, population growth and California’s globalized economy and agriculture.
Thanks largely to conservation efforts, the San Diego County Water Authority’s latest water management plan envisions the region will use 14 percent less water in 2020 than originally forecast.
The latest draft of the 2015 Urban Water Management Plan was released for public review on Friday. It is available online. The water authority estimates that future water demands will be about 14 percent lower in 2020 and 15 percent lower in 2035 compared to projections in the 2010 plan.
