A man in Arizona sees a glimpse of a potentially frightening future. A future where the planet is hotter, the soil is drier, and our most precious resource is evaporating.
His job is delivering water. And his job is getting harder.
John Hornewer is now having to drive hours farther each day to fill his truck, which, in turn, fills the subterranean tanks at homes in an area outside Phoenix.
A shortage on the Colorado River has put tremendous pressure on the water supply that serves more than 40-million people in the Western United States.
But a punishing drought and the over allocation of the river have also created an urgent problem for California’s Salton Sea.
A series of winter storms will work together to usher in some of the coldest and windiest conditions of the season across California. These winds will be accompanied by waves of atmospheric moisture that will crash into Northern California from Wednesday to Friday morning.
Widespread rain showers will impact most of the Bay Area on Wednesday through Friday, while periods of snow showers will be possible farther inland — including the Sierra Nevada and some foothills near the coast. These winter storms will also hoist thunderstorms onto the coastline, raising the chances for small hail and ice pellets in areas along Highways 101 and 1.
Raw sewage is flowing into the Tijuana River Valley.
A private developer inadvertently damaged a 60-inch pipe on Feb. 10 which led to the spillage, according to the International Boundary and Water Commission.
Most of the sewage is spilling into Smuggler’s Gulch and Goat Canyon.
Lynetta McElroy stands outside her home on a tree-lined street in the south L.A. neighborhood of Leimert Park, where she’s lived since the 1980s.
“Leimert Park was known for its beautiful lawns,” McElroy said. “No fences, and you could go to one corner and you could see just about to the next corner. It gave a community feeling. I’ve always loved this area. And it took a while to get a home in this area, needless to say.”
A significant winter storm is expected to deliver heavy rain and snow to a wide swath of the United States this week, from the West Coast to the Northeast.
Cold air from Canada will interact with a pair of fronts, causing “numerous weather hazards” and abnormal temperatures while “almost all of the country [experiences] some form of notable weather,” the National Weather Service said.
Seven new members of the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors have been seated.
The newly appointed members are expanding the agency’s leadership and policy making skills during a critical period for water in the west region, said San Diego County Water Authority board chairman Mel Katz.
After three of the driest years in California history, this winter’s storms brought some of the wettest and snowiest weeks on record to parts of the state. Snowpack accumulated during winter is vital to the state’s water system because the natural form of water storage melts during the spring and fills reservoirs that can then distribute water downstream where needed.
When Bay Area residents wake up later this week and get a look outside, they might wonder if they’ve been transported many degrees north, with snow from an unusually cold and windy winter storm possibly carpeting the region’s major peaks and even reaching hills as low as 1,000 feet.
Their timing wasn’t great.
After moving to Sonoma County from Santa Monica in 2020, Kim and David Lockhart purchased River’s Edge Kayak & Canoe in Healdsburg. Heavy rains across the region the year before had caused widespread flooding, especially along the lower Russian River.
