When rain storms pummel Sacramento, a city surrounded by levees, crews work all hours of the night to prevent flooding.
They monitor, control and maintain the city’s more than 100 stormwater lift stations, which residents depend on to pump water into creeks, canals, or the Sacramento or American Rivers.
After its first committee hearing, Assembly Bill 1337 was amended last week, which could be the opening salvo of a monumental political and legal war over who controls access to water in California – an issue that stretches back to the state’s founding in 1850.
Ron Caetano is packed and ready to go. His family photos and valuables are in the trailer and he’s put food in carry totes. He moved the rabbits and chickens and their automatic feeders to higher ground.
Over the last four months, storm after storm pounded the California coast – leading to dramatic changes in our water supply and drought conditions – including in San Diego. But many are asking whether it’s safe to say the drought is complete “over.”
The weekly published Drought Monitor shows that conditions significantly improved compared to last year.
Each year on April 22, one billion people across the globe take action to promote conservation and sustainability. Earth Day can drive a year — and even a lifetime — of energy, enthusiasm, and commitment to protect our planet.
This year’s Earth Day theme — “Invest in Our Planet” — aligns perfectly with what the San Diego County Water Authority and its 24 member agencies have done for decades. It points to the necessity of dedicating time and resources to ensuring a sustainable water supply for our community. And it speaks to the thoughtful investments we make in infrastructure and innovation that keep the water flowing while being mindful of the environment.
Investing in our planet can take many forms, and the challenges we face differ from community to community. One investment I encourage San Diegans to think about this Earth Day is landscape transformation. This is important because the biggest users of water at homes are our landscapes — perhaps as much as 70% of our water use, depending on where we live.
California’s snowpack is more than two-and-a-half times larger than average right now, according to the state’s Dept. of Water Resources. As the weather gets warmer, it’s going to melt. Geologists say there’s no question we needed the snow.
The Bureau of Reclamation released its 24-Month Study on Thursday, April 20, which includes an increase to downstream flows from Lake Powell to Lake Mead of up to 9.5 million acre-feet (maf) this water year, which runs from (October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023.
According to a press release from the Bureau of Reclamation, Glen Canyon Dam’s annual release volume for water year 2023 was initially set at 7.0 maf, based on the August 2022 24-Month Study, and is now projected to increase to up to 9.5 maf because of high snowpack this winter and projected runoff in the Colorado River Basin this spring.
Just west of this normally dusty prison town, a civic nightmare is unfolding: Tulare Lake, a body of water that did not exist just two months ago, now stretches to the horizon — a vast, murky sea in which the tops of telephone poles can be seen stretching eerily into the distance.
The San Diego County Water Authority said a new federal report that forecasts significant increases in reservoir levels along the Colorado River is “welcome news” for San Diego’s water supply.
The report released Thursday by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation forecasts that a near-record snowpack will raise Lake Mead at Hoover Dam by over 20 feet and Lake Powell farther north by 50 feet.
About two-thirds of San Diego County’s supplies are conserved Colorado River water.
Dan Denham, the Water Authority’s deputy general manager, said the federal report “is definitely welcome news and will buy us time to make crucial decisions.”
California’s ongoing floods and very wet year overall will continue to grab headlines, provide great pictures, and break some local records, but overall this year is unlikely to be truly extreme from historical or broader water policy and management perspectives. It can still be a very useful wet year, beyond just having lots of water.
