Every individual landscape sits in one of San Diego County’s 16 watersheds. The watershed approach to landscaping considers every garden its own mini-watershed, holding onto or cleaning the water falling on it and nurturing a diverse habitat of plants and insects.
A top federal water official told Congress on Tuesday that shortages on the Colorado River system have taken an even grimmer turn, with a whopping 2 million to 4 million acre feet of reduction in water use needed by 2023 just to keep Lake Mead functioning and physically capable of delivering drinking water, irrigation and power to millions of people.
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton testified early Tuesday to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Committee that levels at the reservoir have dropped to an all-time low of 28% of capacity, with no relief in sight.
“There is so much to this that is unprecedented,” Touton said. “But unprecedented is now the reality and the normal in which Reclamation must manage our system, for warmer, drier weather is is what we are facing.”
Oceanside urged residents Monday to cut back their water use, following a similar move by the City of San Diego in response to the State Water Board and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order requiring water suppliers to implement mandatory restrictions.
“The Water Utilities Department is complying with state regulations as the drought progresses,” said Rosemarie Chora, the city’s Water Utilities Division manager. “As summer approaches, we ask residents and businesses to do their part and be mindful of water usage.”
State lawmakers are proposing to set aside $2 billion to buy up water rights and repurpose farmland to rebalance the water supply amidst the state’s second drought in the last decade.
Most of the money being proposed in the 2022-23 budget, $1.5 billion, will be used to buy land with senior water rights to secure surface water from state and federal water projects as drinking water for disadvantaged communities struggling with contaminated groundwater and enhance stream and river conditions for habitats. Senior water rights are those that predate the state’s regulation of water use in 1914, which often supersede other rights to water supply during dry years.
Water has been flowing down the San Joaquin River since the beginning of April. But, ironically, late spring rains could halt the flow.
The water coming out of Millerton Lake just above Fresno is flowing because of a contract within California’s complicated water rights system.
Coronado’s tony seaside community and working-class Imperial Beach could be headed for a major reckoning with the sewage continuing to spilling over the border from Tijuana.
Beach closures that were once thought of as largely a wintertime occurrence now appear poised to become a year-round phenomena in San Diego’s South Bay.
However, that’s not because the cross-border pollution from Baja California’s overtaxed and crumbling wastewater system has dramatically escalated, according to county officials.
People in North Park reached out to CBS 8 about a standing water issue on their street. They say the puddles of water collect mosquitoes and carry a foul odor. CBS 8’s Brian White paid a visit to the 4300 block of 34th Street to talk with neighbors and get to the bottom of it.
“It’s an ongoing issue with mosquitoes, the smell, the eye sore looking at it,” said Page Carman. “It’s horrid.”
Rising temperatures and stagnant water generally signal trouble for human life, but they make for a great environment for the bright, blue-green scum often found in lakes, rivers and reservoirs that flourishes and blooms in hot weather.
These scum blooms, known as harmful algal blooms, are natural parts of the ecosystem, but can also release toxins that sicken or even kill people and animals. They’re becoming more common as temperatures rise and water systems are starved and disrupted, threatening not only public and wildlife health, but the state’s water supply, as well as beloved recreation areas like Lake Merritt in Oakland.
Healthy soil consists of elements we don’t typically think of as soil at all. In fact, one of the most critical aspects of soil is the space between the particles.
Soil space results from a process called aggregation. Solid matter will aggregate under the right conditions, forming space between the masses. This allows air and water to fill this area. Rain or irrigation water percolates through the soil, and aggregate spaces hold it like a storage tank. You can store more water and irrigate less frequently when you have more space
The Environmental Protection Agency warned Wednesday that a group of human-made chemicals found in the drinking water, cosmetics and food packaging used by millions of Americans poses a greater danger to human health than regulators previously thought.
The new health advisories for a ubiquitous class of compounds known as polyfluoroalkyl and perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, underscore the risk facing dozens of communities across the country. Linked to infertility, thyroid problems and several types of cancer, these “forever chemicals” can persist in the environment for years without breaking down.
