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King Tides for the Holidays: Exceptionally High Tides Could Bring Flooding to San Diego Ahead of Christmas

/in , /by /NBC 7 San Diegoby Christina Bravo

A perfect combination of cosmic events will occur this holiday season to bring astronomically high tides known as king tides to San Diego just before Christmas, forecasters say. The phenomenon, which describes what are typically some of the highest tides of the year, are scheduled to occur on Dec. 23 and 24. A second round is predicted to happen on Jan. 21 and 22. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) predicts that this winter season’s tides may cause coastal flooding in low-lying areas of San Diego.

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Arizona Gets Serious About Piping Water From Mexico in Nonbinding Desalination Resolution

/in , , /by /The Arizona Republicby Brandon Loomis

A state board tasked with vetting water supply augmentation proposals for Arizona on Tuesday passed a nonbinding resolution in support of a potentially massive seawater desalination plant in Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. A partnership led by Israeli desalination specialists IDE Technologies pitched the multibillion-dollar plan to the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority of Arizona’s board, saying it could replace or complement declining Colorado River water that flows through the Central Arizona Project’s canal. The plant would remove salt from seawater and pump it north into the canal, where it would flow through Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties.

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Fourth Year of Drought Brings Extreme Limits to Water Supply

/in , , /by /The Sun-Gazetteby Maddi Langton

As California is preparing for their fourth year of drought, the Bureau of Reclamation warns Central Valley Project water contractors of lessened water allocations. Two months after the start of the new water year on Oct. 1, the Shasta Reservoir, the state’s largest reservoir and cornerstone of the Central Valley Project (CVP), is currently at 31% capacity.

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Multiagency Deal Aims to Address Salton Sea

/in , , /by /Calexico Chronicle by Mike Salorio

The cavalry is coming, so to speak, in the form of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which entered into a feasibility study agreement with local and state government agencies to find shovel-ready solutions for saving the Salton Sea.

The significance of the collaboration was highlighted at a signing ceremony held at the North Shores Beach and Yacht Club near Mecca on Friday, Dec. 16, where the Salton Sea Authority, California Natural Resources Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers entered into the Imperial Streams Salton Sea Feasibility Cost-Share Agreement, which will develop and propose solutions to save the ever-receding Salton Sea.

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Water Authority Lays Out Colorado River Plan to Protect Lake Mead, Lake Powell

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

The Southern Nevada Water Authority has a plan for how the seven states that rely on the Colorado River can protect Lake Mead and Lake Powell. But whether the other six states have any interest in backing that plan remains to be seen. The water authority on Tuesday outlined how it thinks the Colorado River basin states and the federal government can drastically cut back on water use along the dwindling Colorado next year in order to keep water levels at its two major reservoirs from crashing further and threatening putting their ability to deliver water downstream and generate hydropower.

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Ramona Water District Considers Waiving Fees for Granny Flats

/in , , /by /Ramona Sentinelby Julie Gallant

Ramona Municipal Water District directors next month will discuss a proposal to waive water and sewer service fees for accessory dwelling units built at the same time as a single-family home. Directors reviewed fees for small accessory dwelling units, also known as ADUs or granny flats, at their Dec. 13 meeting. But instead of approving the proposal, they asked staff to research how other water districts manage the fees for those types of buildings.

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Opinion: It’s Time for the Feds to Pull Rank and Enforce Already Agreed Water Cuts

/in , , /by /The Arizona Republicby Bruce Babbitt

The speeches at the Colorado River summit in Las Vegas last week ranged all the way from pessimistic to panicked. Ted Cooke, the outgoing director of the Central Arizona Project, summed it up: “(T)here’s a real possibility of an effective dead pool“ at Lake Mead, making it impossible to release water through Hoover Dam for downstream delivery to Arizona and California.

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Army Corps Study of Salton Sea Could Yield Billions for Long-Term Restoration

/in , , /by /The Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has agreed to review both short-term and long-term options for restoring the Salton Sea, which could ultimately net billions for major public works to restore the crashing ecosystem of California’s largest water body. First up, the federal agency will, by March 1 of next year, complete streamlined federal environmental reviews of projects that are part of the state Salton Sea Management Program’s 10-year plan that is supposed to be completed by 2028, including some that are underway.

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Why is the Colorado River Drying Up?

/in , /by /Newsweekby Robyn White

The Colorado River’s water levels are the lowest they have been in a century. Scientists fear the reservoirs the river feeds into could reach deadpool level in the next few years. That would mean the water level would be too low to flow downstream from a dam or to drive turbines to generate power. And these reservoirs are integral for surrounding water supply.

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Amid Climate Change, a Question: What’s the Future of California Rice?

/in , /by /Capitol Weeklyby Aaron Gilbreath

After absorbing sunshine all summer, mature rice plants in California’s Sacramento Valley stand as high as three feet tall, in five inches of flood water. Planted in spring, farmers drain their fields in August, and they drive big, loud harvesters into them in September, gently separating the rice stalks from the grain, and blowing the harvest into bankout wagons that they tow beside them.

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