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Colorado River Water Managers Optimistic About Drought Plan as Deadline Looms

/in , , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Colton Lochhead

Western water managers are optimistic that a deal to buoy the drought-stricken Colorado River can be pieced together in the waning days before a deadline set by the federal government rolls around next week.

The Bureau of Reclamation has given the seven states in the basin until the end of January to propose their own plan for voluntary reductions needed to prevent the river’s two main reservoirs from crashing, or risk the federal government moving forward with its own measures that would most likely result in mandated cuts.

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Storms Dumped Snow on California. Will It Bring a Reprieve From the Drought?

/in , , /by /The Guardianby Gabrielle Canon

Extreme weather hammered California through the first weeks of the year – but also offered a badly needed reprieve. The deep snow dumped on the Sierra Nevada during a series of strong storms left the state with a robust water savings account of sorts.

As the weather warms over the spring and summer months, the melting snow fills rivers, streams and reservoirs long after California’s rainy season has ended. Considered one of its most important reservoirs, the snowpack provides roughly a third of California’s water supply.

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Agencies Fast-Track Project to Capture Flood Waters

/in , /by /Merced County Times

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is partnering with the State Water Resources Control Board to fast-track efforts to capture flood waters to recharge groundwater basins. Water captured during extreme wet periods such as the one California is now experiencing will be stored in groundwater basins for use during dry periods.

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California Winter Storms Boost Water Allocations for Cities

/in , /by /AP Newsby Adam Beam

Weeks of historic rainfall in California won’t be enough to end a severe drought, but it will provide public water agencies serving 27 million people with much more water than the suppliers had been told to expect a month ago, state officials announced Thursday.

The Department of Water Resources said public water agencies will now get 30% of what they had asked for, up from the 5% officials had previously announced in December.

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Colorado River States Attempt To Reach Water-Use Plan — Again

/in , /by /Roll Callby Valerie Yurk

The seven states most affected by dwindling Colorado River levels are meeting over the next few days to draft proposals for managing the basin’s water levels, potentially preventing the Interior Department from imposing its own water cuts.

The seven Colorado River Basin states — Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California — have been sparring over who receives the biggest reductions in allocations after Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton announced a 2019 deal with the states that hinged on them saving 2 million to 4 million acre-feet of water, as much as a third of the river’s flows, or the federal government would intervene.

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Colorado River and Lake Mead Are Rising, but Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Michael Smolens Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Northern California reservoirs and the Sierra snowpack were dramatically bolstered by the string of recent storms, and that’s good news for millions of people across the state.

Just not necessarily those who live in San Diego.

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The Colorado River is Overused and Shrinking. Inside the Crisis Transforming the Southwest

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James and Molly Hennessy-Fiske

The Colorado River begins as melting snow, trickling from forested peaks and coursing in streams that gather in the meadows and valleys of the Rocky Mountains.

Like arteries, its major tributaries take shape across Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, coming together in a great river like no other — a river that travels more than 1,400 miles and has defined the rise of the American Southwest over the last century.

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Tijuana Running Out of Water, Turns to California for Help

/in , , /by /FOX 5 (Border Report)by Salvador Rivera Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

As of Friday morning, more than 600 colonias were without running water in Tijuana and Rosarito, where residents say service has been spotty since last year.

Facing the possibility of running out of water, Tijuana’s State Commission for Public Services, CESPT, turned to the San Diego County Water Authority for help.

Agreements in place between Mexico and the United States allow for water deliveries in times of emergency or severe drought.

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Drought Threatens Hydropower Produced by Colorado River

/in , , /by /Marketplaceby Savannah Maher

The seven U.S. states along the Colorado River — Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California — are up against yet another deadline to curb their water use amid extreme drought. They have until Tuesday to agree on massive voluntary cuts or the Bureau of Reclamation, a Department of the Interior agency, has said it will impose cuts on them.

The basin states have called the federal government’s bluff before, but whatever happens next week, millions of westerners and their livelihoods will be affected.

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How Golf Courses Are Adapting to a Changing World

/in , , /by /CBS8by Alex Kleinman

Tens of thousands of golf fans are watching the world’s top golfers tee off at the Farmers Insurance Open. The tournament sits on towering cliffs that stand starkly against the picturesque backdrop of the Pacific Ocean.

But in that backdrop sits a worrying reminder of the tremendous power of Mother Nature — one that has forced the golf community to reevaluate its relationship with the environment.

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