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California District Curbs Water Supply to Over-Users in Drought

/in , , /by /Reutersby Omar Yunis

As a historic drought grips southern California, one district is getting tough on water usage violators by reducing their supply directly from the source so that sprinklers and outdoor hoses no longer work.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Calabasas, north of Los Angeles, places metal disks with a small hole into the main water supply lines to offending homes. Flow per minute drops from around 30 gallons to just one gallon – enough for cooking, washing dishes and showers, but not gardening.

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Catalina Island Uses SoCal Edison Desalination Plant to Avoid Drought

/in , , /by /ABC 7by Jaysha Patel

If you take a boat ride to Catalina Island, you’ll notice it’s surrounded by the ocean.

“We’re about 4,000 people on a year-round basis, but we get up to a million visitors a year, and so of course that impacts a lot of our infrastructure because we have these visitors and thank God we do because we’re an entirely tourist-based community,” said Avalon Mayor Anni Marshall.

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Drought Picture Grows More Bleak for Agriculture

/in , /by /AgAlertby Christine Souza

As California toils through a third consecutive drought year, many Sacramento Valley farmers, well known for supporting waterfowl that stop along the Pacific Flyway, are being left high and dry.

The farmers are facing water-supply challenges that are worse this season than in previous dry years.

“This drought is hitting Northern California really hard and in some unprecedented ways,” said Ellen Hanak, director of water policy for the Public Policy Institute of California, speaking last week on drought at a meeting of the California State Board of Food and Agriculture.

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California Drought: “Smart” Water Meters Coming to San Jose, Other Bay Area Cities in Latest Effort to Boost Conservation

/in , /by /The Mercury Newsby Paul Rogers

You’ve got a smartphone. Maybe a smart watch. Or even a smart doorbell.

In the coming months and years as California struggles with worsening droughts, millions of Bay Area residents will soon be getting a smart water meter.

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A Project Looking to Move Water From Utah to Colorado’s Front Range Gets New Funding, Partner

/in , /by /The Colorado Sunby Chris Outcult

The way the story goes, the one Fort Collins resident Aaron Million first told more than a decade ago, the whole thing started with one of those ah-ha moments, a split-second grasp of some sliver of grand opportunity.

Million, who in the mid-2000s, was pursuing a master’s degree in agriculture and resource economics at Colorado State University, was holed up in the library on a Sunday night. At some point, Million’s attention wandered to a collection of early 1900s Colorado state maps. Million fixated on a 41-mile stretch of the Green River that briefly swerves in and out of the Northwest corner of the state.

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To Survive Severe Drought This Summer, California Should Learn From Cape Town’s Water Crisis

/in , /by /TIMEby Aryn Baker

In my household we shower every few days. We don’t flush every time. After a dinner party, I empty my guests’ water glasses into the houseplants. It’s been four years since I lived through Cape Town’s water crisis, but hard-earned habits die hard. My water conservation routines may sound like too much information, or even borderline unhygienic, but as the threat of water scarcity looms large around the world, they may well be worth adopting.

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How the Desert Gets Water, Imperial Irrigation and Coachella Valley Water Districts

/in , /by /NBC Palm Springsby Carmela Karcher

The Colorado River provides water to seven states in the western part of the country and serves about 40 million people, including Southern California.

But as of Tuesday, the Bureau of Reclamation is urging three major water districts, including the Imperial Irrigation and Coachella Valley Water Districts, to cut back by mid-August.

So, how does a desert even get its water in the first place?

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Major Water Cutbacks Loom as Shrinking Colorado River Nears ‘Moment of Reckoning’

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

As the West endures another year of unrelenting drought worsened by climate change, the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined so low that major water cuts will be necessary next year to reduce risks of supplies reaching perilously low levels, a top federal water official said Tuesday.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said during a Senate hearing in Washington that federal officials now believe protecting “critical levels” at the country’s largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — will require much larger reductions in water deliveries.

(Editor’s Note: Sandra L. Kerl, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, issued a statement on U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton’s testimony today before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the severity of the drought on the Colorado River and need for near- and long-term innovation and investment: https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/san-diego-county-water-authority-general-manager-issues-statement-on-colorado-river-conditions-and-sustainability/)

 

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Did California Learn Anything From the Last Drought? ‘Gambling’ With Water Continues

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

The governor of California stood in a patch of dry brown grass as he made his proclamation:

“We’re in a new era. The idea of your nice little green grass getting lots of water every day — that’s going to be a thing of the past,” he said. “We’re in a historic drought, and that demands unprecedented action.”

But it wasn’t Gavin Newsom speaking — it was the state’s previous governor, Jerry Brown, and the year was 2015.

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The Cruelest Summer Yet? California Is Facing Drought, Heat, Power Outages and Fires — All at Once

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

The Cruelest Summer Yet? California Is Facing Drought, Heat, Power Outages and Fires — All at Once

Even with the upheaval of the pandemic mostly behind us, the menace of drought and rising temperatures is threatening to derail the return to normal.

This year’s extraordinarily dry, warm weather, which is expected to continue in the coming months, is stoking fears of a multitude of problems: increasing water restrictions, extreme heat, power outages, wildfire and smoke — potentially all of the above in one vicious swoop.

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