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El Niño Hits California: These Maps Tell the Story of Heavy Rains

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby By Joseph Serna and Frank Shyong

California is about to be hit by the first El Niño storm of the year. It’s the beginning of what could be a week of rain in the drought-battered state.

 

In Southern California, the heaviest storm is expected Tuesday, when up to two inches of rain is forecast to drop on the coast and valleys and up to four inches could pour onto the mountains and foothills. Forecasters expect four storms to hit the Southland by Friday, but caution that rain is only a part of the story.

 

 

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Rain to Last through Evening Rush Hour in San Diego

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby By Gary Robbins

The North Pacific storm that blew ashore early Tuesday will last until mid-evening and will drop at least an inch of rain at San Diego’s Lindbergh Field, says the National Weather Service.

 

“The system will taper off into scattered showers tonight, but there will be a second wave of rain starting Wednesday night, and it will be even heavier,” said James Thomas, a weather service forecaster. “Lindbergh could get 1.4 inches of rain by early Thursday.

The precipitation from the two storms could easily surpass Lindbergh’s average January rainfall of 1.98 inches.

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Could Coastal Desalination Efforts Help Farmers

/in /by /Western Farm Pressby By Todd Fitchette Mentioned: Carlsbad Desalination Project

While San Diego could soon lose its NFL franchise, the county can at least boast the nation’s largest desalination plant in marketing literature.

 

San Diego’s popularity as a destination location is obvious to those of us who’ve been there and witnessed near-perfect weather, regardless of the date on the calendar. I suspect losing its NFL franchise may make some waves, but at least it happened in a year where the football team went 4-12 and arguably has some rebuilding of its own to do.

 

 

 

 

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Salton Sea License Plates Not Yet Popular

/in /by /KPBSby By Claire Trageser

An effort to create commemorative Salton Sea license plates has been slow to take off.

Last year, the Greater Palm Springs Convention and Visitors Bureau began working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to sell the specialty plates.

The plates cost $50 to $98, depending on whether the driver wants to keep his old license number. A portion of the money would go to the Salton Sea Authority to benefit environmental restoration of the sea.

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How One Man Plans to Make Billions Selling Water from Mojave Desert to Drought-Stricken California

/in /by /EcoWatchby By Cole Mellino

Scott Slater, CEO of Cadiz Inc., has a controversial plan. He wants to pump 814 billion gallons of water from the Mojave Desert to Los Angeles, San Diego and other drought-stricken communities in Southern California—making more than $2 billion in the process.

 

Slater’s company owns the water rights to 45,000 acres of land in the Mojave Desert, and he’s already secured contracts to sell the water for $960 per acre-foot (the amount of water it takes to cover an acre of land in a foot of water), according to The Guardian. At that price, the company stands to make $2.4 billion over the 50-year period of its water extraction deal with San Bernardino County.

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Recycled Water in Demand, And Not Just For Parks, Golf Courses

/in /by /Contra Costa Timesby By Sam Richards

The ongoing drought has driven interest in using recycled water instead of drinking-quality water wherever possible, but making that happen depends largely on where the “purple pipes” run.

 

Wastewater treatment agencies in the East Bay have been selling (or giving away) the water that runs through those purple pipes — essentially wastewater that has been treated to a lesser degree than water purified for drinking and other domestic purposes — for uses ranging from watering home gardens to helping cool down a power plant.

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First El Niño Rain Hits L.A.; Bigger Storms Later In the Week

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby By Joseph Serna

The first of a series of El Niño-related storms hit Southern California on Monday, drenching highways and soaking potentially unstable hillsides, authorities said.

Though there were only a few crashes reported on the freeways and no reports of significant flooding, cities along the Angeles National Forest foothills warned residents to begin preparing for a weeklong deluge that could lead to mud flows.

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How Much Water? Officials Hope to Project What’s Needed, What Mother Nature Will Provide And What’s Next

/in /by /The Orange County Register by By Aaron Orlowski

Projections of future water supplies and demand reveal a shortage of billions of gallons by 2040, a shortage that Orange County water managers say must be filled in the coming years.

 

More water is needed – or at least more money needs to be spent curtailing increases in demand.

 

To help figure out how to fill that shortfall, the Municipal Water District of Orange County is preparing a study that predicts how much water Mother Nature will supply in the coming decades and offers methods for determining which water supply projects – desalination plants, recycling facilities, water storage and many others – the county can build to bank and even supplement nature’s gifts.

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Tunnels Fight Changes Venue

/in /by /Recordnet.com (Stockton)by By Alex Breitler

Ten years after the first seeds were planted for the proposed twin tunnels, the battle shifts to a new arena in 2016 — a critical year for the controversial project.

 

A small state agency will soon begin the daunting process of deciding whether to change the water rights for the state and federal water projects, allowing them to divert some of their water from the Sacramento River and bypass the Delta for the first time.

 

The water rights must be changed before a shovelful of earth can be turned.

 

But it won’t be simple. Months of hearings are expected, starting in April.

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Beginning Sunday Night, Los Angeles Could See A Week Full Of Rain

/in /by /The Los Angeles Timesby By Frank Shyong

A series of El Niño-related rainstorms and snowfall is expected to begin late Sunday night and could last all the way into next weekend.

There’s a 30% chance of rain between 10 p.m. Sunday and 4 a.m. Monday, and a 70% chance Monday morning, said Robbie Munroe, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard, with the possibility of up to a half-inch of rain.

The strongest storm of the week is likely to hit Tuesday, Munroe said, bringing 1 to 2 inches of rain in foothill areas and up to 4 inches at higher elevations. Mountain areas above 6,000 feet could see up to 2 feet of snow.

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