As climate change tightens its grip on the Colorado River basin, the states that use its water are struggling to agree on terms that will reduce their demand. Now, the federal government is stepping in with a plan to use billions of dollars to incentivize conservation.
When Stephanie Kampf visited one of her wildfire test plots near Colorado’s Joe Wright Reservoir in June of 2021, the charred remains of what had been a cool, shady spruce and fir forest before the Cameron Peak Fire incinerated it nearly took her breath away.
The extreme heat seen throughout the west is causing household lawns to cry out for water.
In July, the Stockton City Council adopted a resolution declaring a Stage 2 Water Shortage Emergency in response to the ongoing drought and record-low reservoir levels in California.
I don’t see how this ends well.
Most of the major players – the ones that matter, anyway, by which I mean Arizona, California, and the federal government – appear boxed in by constraints they can’t seem to overcome, while the water in the Colorado River’s big reservoirs is circling the drains.
San Diego officials say they will complete a long-delayed comprehensive analysis of city water rates this year that could lead to sharp increases to pay for major infrastructure projects such as the Pure Water sewage purification system now under construction. The last time San Diego completed such an analysis in 2015, city officials voted to raise water rates by 40 percent over a four-year period.
The San Diego County Farm Bureau named third-generation Oceanside farmer Neil Nagata its 2021 Farmer of the Year. The Farmer of the Year award is presented to an active or retired farmer who has had a positive impact on the agriculture industry, is active in the community beyond agriculture, and has represented the agricultural industry publicly on behalf of farming interests.
New officers for the San Diego County Water Authority board of directors were elected Thursday, with Mel Katz set to start a two-year term as chair on Oct. 1.
Katz, vice chair of the board for the past six months as a representative for Del Mar, will serve with incoming vice chair Nick Serrano, a board representative from the city of San Diego, and incoming secretary Frank Hilliker.
These days it can feel almost cliche to throw around the word “dystopian.” But it’s hard not to use it while standing on the narrow road crossing the Hoover Dam as tourists gawk at the hulking structure’s exposed columns that for decades were underwater.
The hottest days this summer pushed California’s power grid to its limit. People were asked multiple days to conserve energy to avoid rolling blackouts.
In 2016, the City of San Francisco was the first American municipality to ban the sales of water that comes in plastic bottles. At the time it was called a bold move that was building on a global movement to reduce the huge amount of waste from the billion-dollar plastic bottle industry.
South Lake Tahoe was an early adopter of the single-use plastic bag ban, as well as bans of single-use plastic, styrene, and straws.
