The use of smart meters to enforce water restrictions could encourage widespread conservation — but not without local backlash, a new study has found. Amid California’s ongoing drought, researchers partnered with the city of Fresno in summer 2018 to access and identify water violations via household meter data.
Over the last four decades, the area covered by lakes globally has grown by close to 18,000 square miles, an expanse nearly twice the size of Lake Erie. Scientists used satellite imagery and artificial intelligence to map 3.4 million lakes around the world between 1984 and 2019, finding that lake area grew as reservoirs expanded and rising temperatures melted glaciers and permafrost, particularly in Greenland, the Rocky Mountains, and the Tibetan Plateau.
Most of California’s urban water agencies believe they have enough supplies to last through another seven months of drought, but nearly 20% of them — including many in Southern California — say they could be facing significant shortages, according to a new state report. The California Department of Water Resource’s first annual water supply and demand assessment surveyed the state’s urban water agencies to see how they are managing tight supplies through conservation efforts and improved drought planning.
A strong low-pressure system associated with an upper-level shortwave trough will impact much of the US West Coast today through Thursday, with the development of an atmospheric river over Northern California. After the initial AR, a second low-pressure system will develop offshore and travel down the coast, bringing another round of precipitation to the region Friday into Sunday.
Boosting what has been a mediocre start so far to the winter season, a storm from the Pacific Northwest is expected to bring widespread rain to the Bay Area early Thursday and blanket the Sierra Nevada with up to 3 feet of new snow. “This is a pretty good event. It’s going to be beneficial across the board,” said Brayden Murdock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey. “We are excited for this one.”
Tucson Water is offering to leave “significant volumes” of its annual Central Arizona Project water supply in the Colorado River for the next three years in return for financial compensation from the federal government. But its letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation making that offer didn’t propose a cut to the city’s annual CAP allocation.
One of the Ramona Municipal Water District water tanks is getting a new name to honor Director Jim Robinson, who helped nurture a community park and the fairgrounds. The ID-5 water tank off Old Julian Highway between downtown Ramona and San Diego Country Estates is now known as the “Robinson Tank.”
Southern California’s powerful Imperial Irrigation District voted late Tuesday 3-2 to ink an agreement with federal and state officials that could yield as much as $250 million for Salton Sea restoration projects in exchange for not using another 250,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water. An acre-foot is enough to supply about two households.
The majority of California’s urban water suppliers will be able to meet consumer demand through next June, according to a new report from the state’s Department of Water Resources. Released Monday, the agency’s first-ever report on annual water demand and supply found that 338 of 414 urban water suppliers, including those that serve the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, anticipate no annual shortage with continued conservation.
Following recent rains, the city of San Diego started releasing water from Lake Hodges this week. The move, mandated by state safety officials, is part of ongoing maintenance at the reservoir’s deteriorating century-old dam. About 250 million gallons of water will flow into the San Dieguito River using valves in the dam, according to city officials.
