The Colorado River is one of the most important sources of fresh water in the United States, flowing through Arizona and six other states.
According to the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation, it provides water to nearly 40 million people for municipal use.
Most of the fish that Marco Valdez catches at the mouth of the Sweetwater River in the South Bay he throws back. He says that in his community, talk of water contamination circulates on the regular – and ever more often.
“You hear this in the news all the time, Pa’,” Valdez told an inewsource reporter as he reeled in his line.
Agencies in Fresno County, from small cities to irrigation districts, are hoping money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrives in time to help them fix damage from last winter’s battering storms as they scramble to get ready for another looming wet winter.
Fresno County was slammed hard by storms in January and March. While some repairs are almost finished, local governments and other agencies are still waiting to hear the outcome of applications they sent FEMA for tens of millions of dollars in reimbursements.
The typically parched, brown hills above Los Angeles are a vibrant shade of green — a rarity for early October.
In state parks, waterfalls and rivers that were vastly reduced are now gushing with water.
And in Lake Oroville, boats float on deep blue water that only a year ago was shrinking toward record lows.
The transformed landscape is the result of a remarkable California water year that saw 141% of average rainfall statewide, officials announced this week. The state received 33.56 inches of rain — nearly twice the amount of rain recorded during the previous water year and nearly three times the amount from the year prior. The water year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
A planning and training workshop for 100 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees in San Diego County included tours of Sweetwater Authority and Otay Water District facilities. The Reclamation employees visited San Diego in September to participate in a planning training workshop.
For the sixth consecutive year, the San Diego County Water Authority’s Water News Network website was recognized as the Best Public Service/Consumer Advocacy Website. The Water News Network was awarded for its public outreach and education at the San Diego Press Club’s 50th annual Excellence in Journalism Awards.
Arizona governor Katie Hobbs said this week her administration is terminating state land leases that for years have given a Saudi-owned farm nearly unfettered access to pump groundwater in the dry southwestern state.
A new water year is here and there is much anticipation for what a growing El Niño will bring California. There is a likelihood the state could see back to back big water years.
After a year of unprecedented heat and flooding, experts are cautiously hopeful for California’s new water year with the threat of the historically unruly El Niño looming.
With the start of the new water year this week, state officials say there is plenty to celebrate. State climatologist Michael Anderson said in a Tuesday briefing that between October 2022 to March of this year, the state got 153% of normal rainfall, making it the sixth wettest water year on record.
After a devastating drought in 2021 that left Lake Oroville at their lowest water level ever at 628.47 feet, the lake has now seen an intense increase in water levels.
“This past winter storms provided a huge boost to the state water projects, water supply, especially at our largest reservoir at Lake Oroville,” said Ted Craddock, Deputy Director of the State Water Project.
