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Water Rate Subsidies Coming to San Diego

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby By David Garrick

Relief from spiking water rates for low-income residents in San Diego could be available as soon as summer 2017.

In the wake of 40 percent rate increases over four years that the City Council approved last November, the city is creating a special assistance fund for the poorest among its roughly 280,000 ratepayers. The fund, which the council approved unanimously last week, will come from tax-deductible donations and possible matching funds from corporations or the city’s general fund.

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Santa Barbara Rejects Subsurface Water Intake For Desalination Plant

/in /by /Noozhawk (Santa Barbara)by By Joshua Molina

The city of Santa Barbara won’t pursue a subsurface ocean intake for its desalination plant after a study revealed that the process would either be infeasible or fail to meet the city’s needs.

Like most desalination plants, the city’s plant has an open water intake pipe in the ocean, but environmentalists say that process kills microorganisms and other sea life. In response to the concerns, the city commissioned a study to evaluate six different ways to extract water through a subsurface — from the seabed — process.

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VIDEO: Farming in an Age of Drought

/in /by /The Atlantic (Washington, D.C.)by By Greyson Korhonen

Jesus Ramos is a first-generation Mexican immigrant and farm owner who, after coming to America to work as a field hand, grew his business into a 140-acre orange farm. But today, Jesus and his family’s way of life is under threat. California is experiencing an unprecedented drought and the exceptionally dry conditions are particularly alarming for farming communities like Terra Bella, where Jesus lives and works.

 

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Au-gust of News Episode 2—California Water Crisis

/in /by /The Arbiter (Boise State University)by By August McKernan

Drought conditions in California have actually improved this week as a steady stream of storms and rain pelted the state, according to this week’s Drought Monitor report.

Currently, about 74 percent of the state is experiencing severe drought, a 10 percent improvement over last week’s report. However, the California drought has caused unparalleled devastation to the region, and will continue to do so barring any significant increase in annual rainfall or extreme intervention.

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California Snowpack Returns, but Fears Held for Future

/in /by /Climate Central (Princeton, N.J.)by By John Upton

California’s main water reservoir — its mountain snowpack — has made a triumphant return to the Sierra Nevada following severe shortfalls in recent years.

A string of winter storms boosted by El Niño has restored much of the mountain snow that melts through summer to help top up the state’s reservoirs, but the prognosis for the decades ahead remains grim.Climate change is projected to corrode California’s snowpack, forcing water officials to rethink how they store and distribute water in a state that’s prone to prolonged droughts.

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Largest California Reservoirs Releasing Water for Flood Safety

/in /by /The Sacramento Beeby By Dale Kasler

After years of drought, Northern California has so much water that the state’s two largest reservoirs are releasing water to maintain flood-control safety.

The water releases from Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville don’t mean the drought is over. But they represent the latest evidence that drought conditions are easing as El Niño has brought meaningful amounts of rain and snow to Northern California for the first time since 2012. Yet the free-flowing water remains a significant source of controversy throughout Northern California.

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How Water From Mexico Can Save the Salton Sea

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by By Gustavo Solis

Filling the Salton Sea with imported water from Mexico is not a new idea. The proposal has been around in one form or another since the 1970s. While the idea has a track record of inspiring excitement, support hasn’t translated to funding.

Previous studies – including by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the Salton Sea Authority – deemed it too costly to pull off. But the tides have changed. At the beginning of 2018 the Imperial Irrigation District is set to cut off flow of water from Colorado River into the Salton Sea, as required by the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement.

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Our Water System: What a Waste

/in /by /The New York Times by By Michael E. Webber

AMERICA has a water problem. To put it simply, the national network for providing safe, clean water is falling apart.

This state of affairs, which is the focus of a summit meeting on Tuesday at the White House, threatens more than our drinking water supplies. Water is used in every sector of industry, grows our food, affects our health and props up our energy system. The price of this neglect will be high. In Flint, Mich., the mayor has estimated that it will cost as much as $1.5 billion to fix or replace lead pipes.

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Will the World’s Next Wars be Fought Over Water?

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby By Peter Engelke

California’s ongoing drought is one sign that we have entered some uncharted and uncomfortable territory. Of the fears that have risen alongside a warming planet, perhaps none have attracted more attention than the “water wars” hypothesis.

This hypothesis says that increased water shortages around the world will lead to war between states. It goes something like this: as water is central to all human activities, including food production, no state can allow its water resources to be compromised. Therefore, in a world of squeezed water supply, states should be willing to go to war to protect their access to water. At its core, the “water wars” hypothesis expresses our deepest anxieties about a drought-laden future, wherein desperately thirsty societies take up arms against one another.

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El Niño Didn’t Bring the Winter Many Wanted

/in /by /Visalia Times-Deltaby By David Castellon

Despite predictions of winter coming in like Godzilla across California, the season didn’t have the claws and teeth that some forecasters expected.

Snow and rainfall was heavier than average this winter — which ended on Saturday — but not by much, a disappointment to some considering the season had a strong El Niño weather pattern. That phenomenon, caused by warmer-than-average water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, has the potential to help generate a wet winter for much of California.

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