The Santa Fe Irrigation District has adopted its Drought Response Level 2 reduction actions in order to meet state guidelines for water conservation. The board made its decision at the June 16 meeting.
“Drought and water-use efficiency are a way of life for all Californians and our local communities,” said Michael Hogan, SFID board president in a news release.
The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors, James C. Hanks, shared in a statement on Thursday, regarding the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton’s testimony on June 14 before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the severity of the Colorado River drought and the need for short- and long-term drought solutions across the West.
“The current hydrological conditions on the Colorado River, which have entered the third decade of unprecedented drought, are well known and are not going unnoticed,” said Hanks. “Over the past two decades, Imperial Valley growers have been using less water while working to meet the nation’s food supply needs, conserving over 7 million acre-feet in support of the Colorado River and California water supplies.”
Erica Wolski, a former senior technical manager at Woodard & Curran, is the new general manager at Ramona Municipal Water District.
Wolski, 44, who starts in the position on Wednesday, has been a Ramona resident since 2019 and a San Diegan since 2010. She said she is looking forward to helping the water district develop its transparency and customer engagement.
Ramona Municipal Water District reported on the status of transferring the district’s oversight of fire and emergency medical services to the county and approved a two-year budget at the June 14 meeting.
The two topics are intertwined because transferring fire and EMS services to the San Diego County Fire Protection District would likely free up discretionary funds available from property taxes to spend on water, fire and parks services, said the water district board’s President Jim Hickle.
The Marin Municipal Water District has failed to adequately prepare for severe drought and should create a four-year water supply, the Marin civil grand jury said in a new report.
Last year, the district faced depleting local reservoir supplies as soon as summer 2022. While rains in late 2021 nearly refilled reservoirs, the drought “exposed serious shortcomings” in the district’s ability to offer a reliable water supply and has shaken public confidence in the district’s leadership, the report states.
House Democrats’ $56.3 billion fiscal 2023 Energy-Water spending bill released last night seeks to bolster a host of Biden administration clean energy and water infrastructure deployment goals that are running into funding limitations this year.
In total, the bill’s topline number would represent an increase of $3.4 billion above the fiscal year 2022 level, including $48.2 billion for the Department of Energy, $8.9 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers and $1.9 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation.
It’s almost July, which is typically the beginning of California’s fire season.
You’ve probably heard that wildfires in the Golden State have increasingly become a year-round danger, no longer limited to a few months a year. But even still, the start of the traditional summer-and-fall fire season brings a slew of heightened risks for us to contend with.
Lake Oroville, the largest reservoir in a state system that provides water to 27 million Californians, has already reached its peak level for the year, barely surpassing half of its capacity, according to the Department of Water Resources.
Officials had warned the lake — key to the roughly 700-mile State Water Project, which pumps and ferries water across the state for agricultural, business and residential use — was at “critically low” levels on May 8.
Water managers in the western U.S. are facing a monumental task. Federal officials have given seven states an August deadline to figure out a plan to conserve an unprecedented amount of water. Without major cutbacks in water use, the nation’s two largest reservoirs are in danger of reaching critically low levels.
In the face of a regional drought, many Orange County cities are trying to cut back on water consumption by rolling out conservation policies – echoing efforts from the previous drought that ended a few years back.
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency in October 2021 based on the state’s drought condition. In May, the State Water Board adopted regulations that require all local water suppliers to heighten water conservation policies.
