Eleven years ago, when the San Diego County Water Authority was going through the final stages of approving what had, by that time, become a decade-long odyssey to create the first desalination plant on the West Coast, the agency made a prediction.
As stakeholders across the U.S. West prepare to rewrite the rules on Colorado River conservation, experts are urging them to consider Mexico’s needs up front.
The 1,450-mile waterway, which stretches from the Rocky Mountains to the Sonoran Desert, is considered the lifeblood for about 40 million people in both countries.
After months of pounding rains and a cooler than usual June, California reservoirs are bursting with water leaving only 6% of the state currently in drought. A year ago, more than 99% of California was in drought, according to the U.S. drought monitor. Torrential rains transformed an arid landscape into a water rich environment with rushing waterways, brimming lakes and swollen underground basins.
Amid a historic heatwave and months of drought, Mexico’s government has launched the latest phase of a cloud seeding project it hopes will increase rainfall. The project, which began in July, involves planes flying into clouds to release silver iodide particles which then, in theory, will attract additional water droplets and increase rain or snowfall.
While temperatures push well above 100 degrees, it’s easy to forget that Arizona’s deserts lie on top of groundwater basins that formed during the Ice Age. The state’s rural communities rely on that water, which experts say is a finite resource. But in most cases, it’s not regulated in any meaningful way. That lack of regulation has begun to show, as wells dry up and local residents call for action.
The ongoing and historic drought has many Valley cities declaring water shortages. In Mesa, the city is in stage one of its water shortage management plan. While they’re reducing water usage citywide, Mesa is also spending millions to boost its water infrastructure. Construction started on a 10.5-mile pipeline on Monday. The plan is to build out the Central Mesa Reuse Pipeline and it begins at Greenfield and Southern.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s Turf Replacement program aims to update homeowners’ landscaping practices by encouraging the removal of existing grass and replacing it with organic, drought-tolerant alternatives. With a focus on water conservation and sustainability, the program seeks to combat the effects of water scarcity and promote responsible water usage among residents.
It is essential to note that synthetic turf is not an approved option for conversion under this program. Instead, the emphasis is on promoting organic and eco-friendly landscaping solutions that align with the city’s environmental goals.
Water is the lifeblood of civilizations, and the management of this precious resource has always been a challenging task. The Imperial Irrigation District (IID) holds a significant stake in water rights, playing a vital role in water distribution and agriculture. This essay delves into the history, challenges, and strategies employed by IID to manage water rights responsibly and sustainably.
Vista Homeowner Diane Krupnak redesigned her front yard to save water and won the 2023 Vista Irrigation District WaterSmart Landscape Contest.
The annual contest recognizes outstanding watersmart residential landscapes based on the criteria of overall attractiveness, appropriate plant selection, design, appropriate maintenance, and efficient irrigation methods.
Making the desert bloom. That’s what our local water district has accomplished in the nearly 70 years of its existence.
Although settlers first came to Valley Center in the 1860s, the town’s population stayed at just a few hundred people throughout the first part of the 20th Century. On the eve of the formation of the district, the population was about 900, according to the Valley Center History Museum. But in 1954 the voters of the community voted overwhelmingly to create the Valley Center Municipal Water District (VCMWD). From then on, the town has grown with the water district, which made it possible to grow to the population it is today, around 22,000 (VCMWD’s total service area population is 29,700.)
What made that all possible was the creation of the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) in 1944 and the completion of the 1st San Diego Aqueduct in the later 1940s’s. The Aqueduct’s purpose was to bring water from the Colorado River to San Diego County, from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (the “Met”) to provide something more than the area’s limited groundwater and streams that flowed during rainy seasons like we have had this year, but otherwise not so much.
