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How Can Imperial Beach Residents Participate in Solutions Against Flooding? This Group Wants to Help

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Tanya Murga

Every year, Imperial Beach residents board up their windows and shovel ocean sand off streets left underwater during high tide.

Researchers have been testing technology that warns the city in time to prepare for the arrival of powerful waves and, most recently, digging groundwater wells to track flooding.

The community can also play a significant role in reducing Imperial Beach’s flooding problems, researchers at San Diego State University said last week. How residents can get involved is what the researchers are hoping to find out.

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Tensions Grow Over Lack of a Water Deal for the Shrinking Colorado River

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

Two months ago, federal officials took the unprecedented step of telling the seven states that depend on Colorado River water to prepare for emergency cuts next year to prevent reservoirs from dropping to dangerously low levels.

The states and managers of affected water agencies were told to come up with plans to reduce water use drastically, by 2 million to 4 million acre-feet, by mid-August.

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More Evidence that California Weather is Trending Toward Extremes

/in , , /by /Water News Network / UC San Diego News Centerby Rob Monroe Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

A team led by Kristen Guirguis, a climate researcher at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, found evidence that the risk of hazardous weather is increasing in the Southwest.

The researchers investigated the daily relationships among four major modes of weather affecting California. How they interact governs the formation of weather events such as atmospheric rivers capable of bringing torrential rains and Santa Ana winds that can spread devastating wildfires.

“This study suggests that weather patterns are changing in a way that enhances hot, dry Santa Ana winds, while reducing precipitation frequency in the Southwest,” said Guirguis. “These changes in atmospheric circulation are raising the risk of wildfires during California winters.”

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Do It Yourself or Hire a Landscape Professional?

/in , , /by /Water News Network

If you choose to design, implement and maintain a new WaterSmart landscape yourself, you can follow the Homeowner’s Guide to a WaterSmart Landscape to help you plan, prepare, and work through each step. Free classes and online videos can help.

 

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West’s Drought Recovery Still Years Away Despite Recent Monsoons

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Bobby Magill

Heavy monsoon rains have helped to relieve the Southwest’s historic drought, but water officials say the deluge isn’t enough to reverse a drying trend that has depleted the region’s primary water sources.

Much of the West remains entrenched in a 23-year “historically unprecedented” drought driven by climate change, said Jonathan Deason, an environmental engineering professor at George Washington University.

“It’s going to take about three years of above-average rainfall to have substantial recovery,” he said.

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Opinion: Newsom’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta Plan Makes More Sense. But It’s Still a ‘Water Grab’

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby George Skelton

The third attempt could be the charm for repairing California’s main waterworks, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

On paper at least, the latest plan by a governor to upgrade the delta into a more reliable state water supply seems to make much more sense than what his predecessors promoted.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s single-tunnel proposal is smaller and more respectful of the bucolic estuary’s small farms, waterfowl habitat, unique recreational boating and historic tiny communities. So, it’s potentially less controversial.

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Pipe Dreams: Why Far-Fetched Western Water Projects Won’t Go Away

/in , , /by /Gristby Jake Bittle

The California water wars of the early twentieth century are summed up in a famous line from the 1974 film Chinatown: “Either you bring the water to L.A., or you bring L.A. to the water.” Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the events the film dramatizes, but much of the West still approaches water the same way. If you don’t have enough of it, go find more.

As politicians across the West confront the consequences of the climate-fueled Millennium Drought, many of them are heeding the words of Chinatown and trying to bring in outside water through massive capital projects. There are at least half a dozen major water pipeline projects under consideration throughout the region, ranging from ambitious to outlandish. Arizona lawmakers want to build a pipeline from the Mississippi River more than a thousand miles away, a Colorado rancher wants to pipe water 300 miles across the Rockies, and Utah wants to pump even more water out of the already-depleted Lake Powell.

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California County Sees 11 New Dry Wells Reported in Past Month

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Jake Hutchison

As summer begins to wind down, the dry weather that has plagued California this year continues, leading to a number of new drought-related issues.

Over the course of the past 30 days, 11 new dry well reports in Butte County have been sent to the California Department of Water Resources. That comes out to 39 in the past year and 98 total.

Additionally, Glenn County has seen 105 total dry well reports and Tehama County has reported 229, according to data from DWR.

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In Los Angeles, the Grass Isn’t Always Greener This Year

/in , /by /New York Timesby Jill Cowan

Erin Brockovich made her name decades ago as an environmental activist who exposed corporate wrongdoing that polluted drinking water.

So she felt a bit defensive when a television reporter asked how her name landed on a list of water guzzlers during a dire California drought. At one point last year, she received a $1,700 bill for two months of water and fines.

Ms. Brockovich ultimately decided she had to get rid of her lawn, a central part of the backyard oasis she had built over more than two decades living in Agoura Hills, a suburb of large homes with immaculate yards about 40 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. She replaced 3,100 square feet of grass with high-tech artificial turf.

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Water Authority Offers Water Saving Tips on CBS 8

/in , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

As the current drought stretches into a third year, the San Diego County Water Authority is providing water saving tips as part of a drought survival kit to San Diegans. San Diegans have learned how to conserve water, but there is always more we can do. Water Authority Water Resources Specialist Efren Lopez joined CBS 8 Anchor/Reporter Carlo Cecchetto on the news program “The Four” to discuss Gov. Newsom’s new water portfolio strategy and offer additional ways San Diegans can reduce water use.

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