Forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) last week declared the beginning of an El Niño.
El Niño is marked by warmer-than-average surface water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean, specifically along the equator.
If we hope to solve our country’s most pressing natural resource challenges, we must go straight to the source: Americans on the ground who know firsthand what is needed to solve them.
The historic Colorado River agreement reached last month temporarily secures access to clean water in the West. All Americans deserve clean air and clean water, but unfortunately, the challenges confronting the Colorado River puts access to this vital resource in jeopardy.
San Diego’s boundary referees are rushing to push up a vote on a controversial water divorce before the state Legislature can step in.
The Local Agency Formation Commission is holding an emergency meeting Wednesday to push up a vote on whether two small farming communities can break up with the San Diego County Water Authority in search of cheaper water in Riverside County.
Because of the decrease in fossil fuel plants, an old idea suddenly looks new again in the consideration of power generation for TVA.
The utility has begun to study whether a pumped storage power plant similar to the Raccoon Mountain facility just west of Chattanooga might be feasible for either of two mountain ridges along the Tennessee River in Northeast Alabama.
The Vallejo Flood and Wastewater district will have its final public hearing tonight on a proposal to increase residential sewer rates.
Under the plan, sewer rates for Vallejo homeowners will increase by an average of $108 per year for 5 years. Each year monthly rates will rise by an average of $9 bringing the current rate of $64.12 per month or $768.44 per year to $109.18 per month or $1,310.16 per year by July 2027. A comparable increase in commercial and industrial rate schedules is also part of the proposal.
Representatives from more than a dozen Indigenous tribes spoke at a CU Boulder law conference last week about their interests in the Colorado River from each of their perspectives.
Many of the prominent state and federal officials who manage the water attended the conference. But as they and other water authorities prepare to negotiate the river’s future, it’s unclear how tribes will participate, to what degree tribes will be treated as equal sovereigns, and how their desire to use all the water they legally have rights to will be considered.
In the contentious, yearlong negotiations over how to share the pain of Colorado River shortages, California officials leaned on their state’s status as the basin’s most senior water rights holder — or the last in line to take cuts when supplies run low — to fend off arguments it should bear the brunt of reductions.
The gambit worked, ultimately sparking a compromise in which California will share cuts with Arizona and Nevada over the next three years. The deal means the state will give less than 10 percent of its annual allocation, in line with its original offer.
Lake Hodges has reopened for boating and fishing after a one-year closure to repair deteriorating concrete on the upstream face of its century-old dam.
“We are excited to be able to once again offer this beautiful fishing and recreational resource to the community,” said Arian Collins, San Diego’s supervising public information officer, in June 1 email.
In a world of worsening climate extremes, a single red line has caught many people’s attention.
The line, which charts sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic Ocean, went viral over the weekend for its startling display of unprecedented warming — nearly 2 degrees (1.09 Celsius) above the mean dating back to 1982, the earliest year with comparable data.
For eight days last summer, a group of about 80 California ranchers and farmers took more than half the Shasta River’s flow during severe drought conditions, violating state requirements designed to protect salmon. The state’s water regulator couldn’t stop the illegal diversion but fined the group the maximum penalty it could — $4,000. The fine translated to about $50 per person.
