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How to Properly Install Irrigation for a New Water-Saving Home Landscape

/in , , /by /Times of San Diego Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Successfully installing water-saving irrigation starts long before you get out your tools. You need to complete an assessment of your landscape plan’s specific water needs, draw a complete plan showing the layout, then select your irrigation and purchase your irrigation equipment. If your soil needs amendments (and it almost certainly does), you must get this done first. With all of this important prep work complete, you can start to implement the design.

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The End of Snow Threatens to Upend 76 Million American Lives

/in , , /by /Bloombergby David R Baker, Brian K Sullivan, Kim Chipman and Mark Chediak

The Western US is an empire built on snow. And that snow is vanishing.

Since most of the region gets little rain in the summer, even in good years, its bustling cities and bountiful farms all hinge on fall and winter snow settling in the mountains before slowly melting into rivers and reservoirs.

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UN Warns Two Largest US Water Reservoirs at ‘Dangerously Low Levels’

/in , , /by /The Hillby Sharon Udasin

The United Nations warned on Tuesday that the two biggest water reservoirs in the United States have dwindled to “dangerously low levels” due to the impacts of climate change.

The situation has become so severe that these reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are on the verge of reaching “dead pool status” — the point at which water levels drop so low that downstream flow ceases, according to the U.N. Environment Program.

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Critically Low Water Levels at Lake Shasta, California’s Largest Reservoir

/in , , /by /FOX KTVUby Mark Sayre

KTVU is continuing its week-long series of stories about the drought with a look at the dire situation at California’s largest reservoir.

Lake Shasta provides water not only to agriculture in the Central Valley, but also to several regional Bay Area water systems. Lake Shasta is located 10 miles from Redding, in Shasta County, and about 200 miles north of the Bay Area.

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California Water Agencies Cope With Diminishing Water Supply

/in , , /by /WaterWorldby Wayne Tate

As of Spring 2022, National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS) data show nearly 70 percent of the lower 48 U.S. states in drought, affecting more than 100 million residents.

California in particular is facing a deepening water crisis, with over 93 percent of the state experiencing extreme drought. 2022 is the state’s driest year on record for the past 128 years, while 58 counties in the state are currently under a U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) disaster designation.

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The Future of Desalination

/in , /by /Geographicalby Roman Goergan

It was the end of a fight that lasted for almost a decade. On 12 May 2022, the California Coastal Commission, which has a legal mandate to protect the coastline of the US state, voted to deny the building permit for a large seawater-desalination plant that was proposed to be erected near Huntington Beach. Ever since the application to build the plant was made in 2013, this mega-project has been dividing experts, politicians and activists.

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A Race to Save the Fish as Rio Grande Dries, Even in Albuquerque

/in , /by /AP Newsby Brittany Peterson and Suman Naishadham

On a recent, scorching afternoon in Albuquerque, off-road vehicles cruised up and down a stretch of dry riverbed where normally the Rio Grande flows. The drivers weren’t thrill-seekers, but biologists hoping to save as many endangered fish as they could before the sun turned shrinking pools of water into dust.

For the first time in four decades, America’s fifth-longest river went dry in Albuquerque last week.

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Drought and Old Pipes Could Slow Colorado River to a Trickle

/in , /by /E&E Newsby Jennifer Yachnin

In their pleas to Western states to cut back on water use from the Colorado River Basin, federal officials are keenly focused on keeping Lake Powell’s elevation at 3,490 feet — the minimum needed to keep hydropower humming at Glen Canyon Dam.

But if federal efforts can’t stop the reservoir from shrinking to new lows — its elevation is 3,536 feet as of Monday — the lights going out might not even be the worst problem.

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The Cost of Clean Water: Inflation, Supply-Chain Snarls Force San Diego to Pay $80M More for Treatment Chemicals

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick

San Diego gave emergency authorization this week to pay an extra $80 million to chemical suppliers that say they need to sharply raise prices because of pandemic-related supply-chain issues, higher fuel costs and rising costs for raw materials due to inflation. City officials say the chemicals are essential for treating sewage and keeping drinking water clean and healthy.

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Democratic Lawmakers Representing Delta-area Urge Gov. Newsom to Cancel Delta Tunnel Plan

/in , /by /KCRAby Hilda Flores

California lawmakers representing the state’s Delta area are calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to cancel his plan for an underground tunnel that would reroute water from Northern to Southern California.

Representatives John Garamendi, Josh Harder, Jerry McNerney and Mike Thompson, all Democrats, released a joint statement in response to the draft environmental impact report for the project.

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