In late April 1996, Lake Powell sat at an elevation of 3,673 feet — just 27 feet below its maximum capacity. At that time of plenty, Arizona lawmakers worried that the state wasn’t using its full share of Colorado River water.
Instead of potentially ceding those flows to California, the state opened a kind of liquid piggy bank, storing away a share of its water for an uncertain future.
The State Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday approved a groundbreaking agreement that allows “senior” water rights holders in the upper Russian River watershed to share their supply with junior rights holders whose claims might otherwise be suspended due to drought.
The collaborative, community-first approach, negotiated over many months by agricultural, municipal, tribal and other stakeholders in the region, is the first of its kind to try to bring balance to the allocation of scarce water supplies in a state governed by what one board member called an “inherently inequitable” water rights system.
A proposal to use up to $1.5 billion to purchase farmer’s senior water rights has made its way into the budget negotiations between lawmakers and Governor Gavin Newsom, the Associated Press reports.
It comes at a time when 98 percent of the state is experiencing a severe drought and is part of the larger $7.5 billion Water and Drought Package “to build a climate resilient water system.”
In sweeping water curtailments stretching from Fresno to the Oregon state line, cities and growers in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta watershed have been ordered to stop pumping from rivers and streams.
The cutbacks, announced today by the State Water Resources Control Board, will affect 4,252 water rights in the Delta watershed, including 400 or more held by 212 public water systems, beginning Wednesday. But they’re concentrated around the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, where state officials expect “significant, very deep cuts.”
The U.S. EPA announced a settlement with California’s Imperial Irrigation District (IID) for violations of the Clean Water Act.
The violations include the pollution of local wetlands, reported EPA.
A Nov. 5, 2020, EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers inspection of IID’s construction of drain banks in the area discovered that activities resulted in the discharge of sediment to approximately 1 acre of wetlands.
A popular Joshua Tree park trail is now closed so that bighorn sheep can have easier access to water amid the state’s continuing drought conditions, park officials said.
The 49 Palms Trail was closed on June 1 and was expected to stay off limits until summer monsoon rains provide enough rainfall to make water more available to the animals, according to Joshua Tree National Park officials.
Kyle Swanson has been unanimously appointed by the Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors as the District’s new CEO/General Manager. He steps into his new role following the retirement of prior CEO/General Manager Allen Carlisle.
“I am excited about this opportunity to serve both the organization and the community as the new CEO/General Manager for Padre Dam Municipal Water District,” said Swanson.
The Fallbrook Public Utility District on June 5, celebrated its 100th year of providing water and sewer service in Fallbrook. From its first years serving 800 customers, the utility district, or FPUD, now supplies water to more than 35,000 residents in North San Diego County.
Desalination projects have always been a contentious issue in Monterey County and a proposal that will be mulled by elected officials Tuesday afternoon is sure to raise the eyebrows of advocates for publicly owned desal projects.
The idea that will be presented to the Board of Supervisors during its afternoon session beginning at 1:30 p.m. is an amendment to an existing ordinance allowing only public ownership of desal plants rather than private ownership.
Dangerous levels of toxic PFAS are contaminating water supplies in areas around at least 12 military bases, new Department of Defense testing has revealed, drawing concern from public health advocates that the DoD is not doing enough to protect the public.
The data released this week by the military shows levels for five kinds of PFAS compounds at what Scott Faber, vice-president of government affairs for Environmental Working Group, characterized as “extremely high” levels, and he said they present a health threat to residents living nearby.
