Oceanside is preparing to launch a $7 million upgrade of its downtown storm drain system to prevent seasonal flooding, but the California Coastal Commission has raised concerns about the plan.
City officials met with the Coastal Commission staff Aug. 24 to discuss a possible 90-day extension of the city’s application for a coastal development permit needed for the project.
María Dolores Díaz sighs when she opens her water bill every month because she knows what she’ll see: another bill that she’ll struggle to pay.
Diaz looks at the envelope and doesn’t want to open it because she wonders: How much, this time? “Ya nomás miro la carta y ‘aí ya no lo quiero abrir!’ Porque yo digo ‘¿ahora cuánto?’”
California water conservation experts sounded an alarm on Tuesday. They warned Bay Area residents to brace for a fourth dry year in a row, as the drought persists.
“We are making investments across the state and in the Bay Area to help build our resilience to drought and to climate change,” said Wade Crowfoot, the California National Resources Agency Secretary. “The conservation actions we take now will pay off in water reliability later in the future.”
When Yvonne Savio talks, savvy SoCal gardeners listen. And her message for fall is big: Despite a long tradition of planting during the “mild” days of September, her counsel this week is to put off any planting — even starting seeds — until late October or November, because folks, it’s just too darn hot these days, especially with the drought-induced restrictions on outdoor watering.
“We may or may not have enough water to keep them sufficiently watered to thrive. I’m talking thrive, not survive,” said Savio about cool-season plants, such as leafy greens, arugula, broccoli and peas. “It’s basically a waste for you to start seeds this month or next month, since you can’t put them outside, so I’m giving you a good excuse to put it off until November.”
Over the past decade, California has gone from being the state with the least groundwater regulation to adopting a law that serves as an international model. How the state implements its landmark groundwater law during California’s worst drought on record could inform global climate change adaptation practices for generations.
The Golden State has one shot over the course of the next 20 years to bring its depleted aquifers into balance and achieve sustainability. Californians are counting on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act to get the state there.
The Dallas area is still reeling from record-breaking downpours that triggered flash floods across northeastern Texas last week. The event swamped houses, submerged vehicles and prompted hundreds of emergency rescues. At least one death has been reported so far.
The sheer volume of rain was stunning, with some locations receiving more than a foot. But the deluge was all the more surprising because Dallas has been choked by severe drought for months.
Sandra L. Kerl, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s 24-month projection for water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell.
Already in doubt from the West’s changing climate, a proposed pipeline across southern Utah remains bogged in a regulatory limbo that could hold up the project indefinitely.
If built, Utah’s 143-mile Lake Powell pipeline would draw up to 86,000 acre-feet of the Colorado River’s flow — depleted by drought and overuse — from the ever-shrinking Lake Powell for use in St. George and Kane County.
By the time Utah water bosses clear a stalled environmental review and secure the water rights, however, there may be no Lake Powell as we’ve known it, just a “dead pool” stacked behind Glen Canyon Dam. Complicating this bleak picture is the pipeline’s current design, which places the intakes above the lake’s future levels, leaving them high, dry and unusable if the drought continues to drain the lake.
Residents throughout the Southland will yet again be faced with additional watering restrictions as state officials work to limit overuse in the face of California’s worst drought in 1,200 years.
The 15-day shutdown is scheduled to begin on Sept. 6 as Metropolitan Water District crews work on repairing a crucial pipeline that serves more than 4 million Southern Californians, affecting areas like Beverly Hills, Burbank, Glendale, Long Beach, Pasadena, San Fernando, Torrance, and those served by the Central Basin Municipal Water District, Foothill Municipal Water District, Three Valleys Municipal Water District, and the West Basin Municipal Water District.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has advanced the nation’s largest dam-removal project, which could restore flowing water to more than 400 miles of the Klamath River near the California-Oregon line.
FERC’s release Friday of its final environmental impact statement reiterated its support for removing the Lower Klamath Project’s four hydroelectric dams.
