Even though the California Department of Water Resources reports a near normal snow pack after four years of little snow, the governor’s office is not ready to turn on the rinse-off showers at local state beaches yet.
The beach showers at Silver Strand, Torrey Pines, Cardiff, and South Carlsbad, were shut down last July. Later in the year, so were some campground showers and beach restroom sinks.
The Metropolitan Water District has been sued over the multi million-dollar purchase of five islands in the Sacramento River Delta.
Two Northern California counties, two water districts and two environmental groups filed suit on Thursday.
This year I introduced Assembly Bill 2438 to help speed construction of recycled water pipelines along existing rights-of-way by streamlining costly, time consuming regulations that have delayed or prevented these projects statewide.
Water wars in the West have existed since gold rush days. Mark Twain said it best: “Water is for fighting. Whiskey is for drinking.”
Storage dams, reservoirs, canals, ditches and tunnels have been built all over the West to serve agriculture, mining and domestic water supplies for nearly 175 years. The massive water systems in California were planned in the 1930s (6 million population ), built in the decades between 1940 (7 million ) and 1965 (population 18 million ). Most of the major projects were completed more than 50 years ago to serve a fraction of the 40 million population that exists today.
Endangered salmon blocked for nearly a century from hundreds of miles of the Klamath River in Oregon and California are expected to return en masse under unusual agreements signed Wednesday to tear down four hydroelectric dams.
U.S. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, who signed agreements with the governors of both states, said the plan would bring about one of the largest river restoration projects in the history of the U.S. The landmark deals also protect farmers and ranchers from rising power and water prices as the various interests work to end long-running water wars in the drought-stricken Klamath River basin.
The Otay Water District will soon choose a winner of its 2016 landscape contest, which seeks out yards that prioritize water conservation and eco-friendly features.
The winners, chosen over the next week or so, are selected based primarily on the yard’s environmentally-conscious features and how much water the homeowner saves.
Much of Sacramento’s charm flows from the American and Sacramento rivers. Those rivers also are a threat. The weak El Niño and years of drought notwithstanding, Sacramento remains the most flood-prone U.S. city this side of New Orleans. For all the levee work that has been completed – $2 billion worth since 1990 – more is needed.
On Thursday, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency Board of Directors will meet to consider calling again on property owners in the region’s flood-prone areas to vote to dig a little deeper.
With Lake Oroville at its highest level in nearly four years, state officials were cautiously optimistic that the reservoir will reach the crest this year.
The lake was less than 18 feet from the crest of 900 feet above sea level, as of 5 p.m. Friday. The last time the lake was this high was June 28, 2012. That year marked the last time Lake Oroville came within 13 inches of the crest as California’s current multi-year drought was just beginning.
Drought has been called a slow-moving natural disaster – unlike flood, fire and earthquake. Perhaps the only thing that moves slower is federal law and policy. Even so, with the California drought now in its fifth year, it must be asked: Where are the innovations in federal law that might have helped?
Politicians in Washington could have passed laws four years ago that would be yielding benefits today. These would be things like assistance with groundwater recharge, water conservation on farms, stormwater capture and wastewater recycling.
The California drought is not over. The great hope for major replenishment of California’s surface and groundwater supplies — the “Godzilla” El Niño — has failed thus far to live up to its super-sized hype, delivering only average amounts of rain and snow, primarily to the northern half of the state.
Average, however, is welcome. Average means that snowpack is visible atop the Sierra, water levels are rising in many reservoirs and a drought-fatigued public is getting a little emotional relief after enduring one “hottest-ever, driest ever” winter after another.
