Reports of low water levels at a few big hydropower plants in the West over the last few years have made it seem like hydropower is becoming less reliable. Last summer, officials in California were forced to shut down the Edward Hyatt Powerplant when water levels in Lake Oroville, the reservoir that feeds the plant, dropped below the intake pipes that send water into its turbines.
A research study just published in Nature Reviews Earth & Environment provides new information about how much the planet has warmed and what warming we may expect in the coming decades. This study is important because it motivates us to take actions to mitigate and respond to climate change. It shows what will happen if we don’t take action to slow global warming.
Fall is the perfect time to yank those thirsty lawns and install drought-tolerant landscapes with the help of cooler days and major financial incentives.
Homeowners and businesses in San Diego County can receive between $2 and $4 per square foot for removing grass and replacing it with low water-use plants that are better suited to withstand the hot and dry conditions that continue to hammer the West.
As of October 1st, the rain calendar was reset and we are officially in the rainy season now through April. But La Niña is still in place for the third year in a row with its cooler sea surface temperatures, something that rarely happens.
While we are entering what’s considered our rainy season, San Diego is also potentially heading into its third year of the drought, the state of California is in its fourth year of the drought and it’s the third year in a row of La Niña.
Hydropower production on the Upper Colorado River system for water year 2022, which ended on Sept. 30, was down about 20% compared with the previous year and about 30% compared with the yearly average since 2000, according to a Bureau of Reclamation official who oversees hydroelectric generation.
“The outlook is likely for pretty low generation years,” said Nick Williams, the Bureau’s Upper Colorado River Basin power manager.
Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia and local tribes celebrate the passage of Safe and affordable drinking water for Native American tribes, also known as AB 2877. “One of the goals is to help prevent future situations like what occurred at oasis mobile home park but ensure tribal lands, specifically underserved tribal areas, can receive and be prioritized to receive state water infrastructure grants,” says An official from the office of Assemblymember Garcia’s office.
A much-anticipated water storage project in northern California received a major financial commitment from the federal government Monday.
According to the Bureau of Reclamation, the Biden Administration has committed $30 million from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to the Sites Reservoir project.
President Richard Nixon vetoed the Clean Water Act in 1972. But Congress overrode him on a bipartisan vote, and the landmark law to reverse the toxic degradation of U.S. rivers, lakes and streams took effect half a century ago today.
The law was inspired in part by the notorious 1969 Cuyahoga River fire in Ohio, in which the river itself, laden with oil and other industrial pollutants, went up in flames.
In the past 25 years, California’s Salton Sea has grown more polluted and hazardous as it has lost one-third of its water. Shrinkage of similar lakes elsewhere mainly stems from warming trends and water diversion.
But a new paper in the journal Water Resources Research suggests that might not be the case with California’s most polluted inland lake.
The San Diego County Water Authority wants to keep the lights on, even when the Sun goes down. It plans to use San Vicente Reservoir to store solar power energy in so-called water batteries to maximize the city’s renewable energy potential, NPR reports.
Cities across California have an abundance of sunny days, which is perfect for providing renewable energy… as long as the Sun is up. The proposed project could store 4,000 megawatt-hours of energy per day, which could power 135,000 homes after the Sun goes down. To make this possible, the San Diego Water Authority would create a smaller upper reservoir just above the existing San Vicente Reservoir. These would be connected by a tunnel system and an underground powerhouse.
