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Farmers Worry Water-Rights Proposal Could Affect Food Supply

/in , , /by /23ABCby Breanna Polk

As drought continues to be a concern across California and Kern County, there is a new proposal in the state senate that could spend up to $1.5 billion to buy back the water rights that allow farmers to take as much water as they need from the state’s rivers and streams to grow their crops.

After decades of fighting farmers in court over how much water they can take out of California’s rivers and streams, some state lawmakers want to try something different: use taxpayer money to buy out farmers. It comes at a time when the state’s drought tracker says that almost 98 percent of California is currently experiencing yet another severe drought, which is resulting in low river levels.

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Sacramento Watering Rules Don’t Apply to Your Trees. Here’s How to Care for Them in Drought

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Noor Adatia

Sacramentans should continue to water their trees regularly despite the city’s watering restrictions on lawns and landscapes.

While residents can only water their lawns and landscapes twice a week during the dry season until the end of October, trees are exempt from this restriction, according to the city.

Why are trees exempt from this rule, and how can I keep my trees healthy?

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Conference Highlights Deficiency of Models for Drought Situations

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Kevin Winter

As the drought in California and across much of the western United States enters another summer season, several experts participated in a conference hosted by the California Department of Water Resources and the Water Education Foundation on Thursday to discuss issues of how modeling precipitation can impact decisions made by policymakers.

One of the main takeaways of the conference was that the current modeling programs are not effective as they should be in helping water districts, state water agencies and federal departments in planning water distributions.

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Court Rules Federal Government Didn’t Stiff Fresno, Other Water Users During Last Drought

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Lois Henry

The federal government did not breach its contract when it gave water users, including the city of Fresno, a zero water allocation in the extreme drought year of 2014, according to a ruling issued June 6 in Federal Claims Court.

It may not seem fair, Judge Armando Bonilla wrote in his ruling, and “To be clear, a zero allocation for the Friant contractors was harsh,” but the fact is the Friant division of the Central Valley Project is outranked by superior water rights held by the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors.

 

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Plan For Success: Create A Plot Plan

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Any WaterSmart landscape makeover starts with observing and recording your property as it exists today. Think of it as a bird’s eye view or satellite map showing your property’s boundaries and physical features. This becomes the basis of all your planning.

You need a few basic tools to draw your own plot plan. They include a tape measure for accurate measurements, a ruler to measure and draw straight lines, a clipboard, a pencil, and paper, preferably one-quarter inch grid graph paper.

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SoCal’s Lush Golf Courses Face New Water Restrictions. How Brown Will the Grass Go?

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith and Ian James

To some residents of Southern California, the golf course is a detested symbol of social privilege and water profligacy — a lush playground for the wealthy that can drink more than 100 million gallons a year, even as neighboring lawns shrivel and brown.

“Why are golf courses still a thing?” East Hollywood resident Spence Nicholson said recently. The 38-year-old called them little more than a “massive waste” of resources.

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State Curtails River Diversions Again. What That Means to Modesto-area Water Users

/in , , /by /The Modesto Beeby John Holland and Dale Kasler

The state has again stopped river diversions in much of Stanislaus and nearby counties, but the effect on farms and cities is minimal for the moment.

The orders allow water agencies to continue delivering supplies already in reservoirs. They include the Modesto and Turlock irrigation districts and San Francisco on the Tuolumne River, and the Oakdale and South San Joaquin districts on the Stanislaus River.

These agencies have enough stored water for this year, but they still challenge the state’s authority over their long-held river rights.

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This SoCal Business Developed a System to Reuse Water as a Way to Fight the Drought

/in , , /by /ABC 7by Rob McMillan

Recycling has become a big part of saving water amid California’s historic drought, and businesses across the state are implementing it in interesting ways.

Wasting water is something that has bothered Buzz Boettcher for years.

“I’ve done a lot of offshore sailing and racing over the years, and it didn’t make sense that ten people could live on a boat for 15 days out in the ocean and survive on 200 gallons of water, and you come ashore, and you use 20,000 gallons a month,” he said.

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How CA’s Ancient Hidden Waterways Could Be Key to Recharging State’s Depleted Groundwater

/in , /by /ABC 7by Spencer Christian and Tim Didion

For California’s water experts, months in the air could soon reveal secrets under the ground, including the remnants of ancient waterways hidden for thousands of years. It’s a discovery that could be key to recharging the state’s depleted groundwater.

Katherine Dlubac, Ph.D., is overseeing the high-tech survey for the California Department of Water Resources.

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Scientists Find the Colorado River Was Blighted by a Worse Drought in the 2nd Century

/in , , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Matthew Renda

While the current drought afflicting the Colorado River Basin is the worst since federal scientists began keeping records, a new study using paleoclimatic data discovers it is not the worst drought in the region’s recent geological history.

Researchers at the Bureau of Reclamation published the study Thursday in Geophysical Research Letters, a peer-reviewed geoscience journal.

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