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Some Southern California Cities to Ban Outdoor Watering for Two Weeks

/in , , /by /The Orange County Registerby Brooke Staggs

Residents and businesses in some Southern California cities could be forced to let their lawns go brown in September, as emergency pipeline repairs cut off water supplies from the vital Colorado River for two weeks.

With a record-setting drought limiting other options, Burbank sent notice Tuesday that no sprinklers or other automated irrigation will be allowed at homes or businesses from Sept. 6-20. The city is encouraging residents to put buckets in their showers and mulch in their flower beds to help keep plants alive during the ban.

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Manchester Pipeline Projects Continue with Installation of Recycled Water Pipeline

/in , /by /Water News Network

Olivenhain Municipal Water District is beginning construction this week on a new recycled water pipeline in Encinitas along Manchester Avenue and South El Camino Real from Via Poco to Tennis Club Drive. Once complete, customers connecting to this new pipeline will irrigate with recycled water, which will reduce demand for imported potable water by more than 10 million gallons every year.

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Escondido Landscape Makeover Winner Goes from Weeds to Wow

/in , , /by /Water News Network

When Jeanne Reutlinger moved to her Escondido home in 2019, the neglected front yard was full of weeds, baked by the sun, and car exhausts from the street. Three years later, Reutlinger’s vision and hard work for a natural low maintenance habitat created a pollinator’s paradise full of native plants. Her efforts won the 2022 City of Escondido’s Landscape Makeover Contest.

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Tear Out Your Lawn, Save California

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Jeanette Marantos and Lisa Boone

In case you missed the memo: Glossy green lawns fed by sprinklers arcing water into the sky just don’t work anymore in these days of lingering drought.

As the supply of water in reservoirs and wells continues to shrink around California, we need to change what and how we’re irrigating.

Public parks might arguably be good locations for large expanses of turf in Southern California’s low-rain climate, but around our houses?

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California Cities Introduce Rules and Fines on Water Use During the Drought

/in , , /by /FOX 40by Matthew Nobert

As California enters yet another year of drought, cities and counties across the state implemented water restrictions in the hopes of reducing strain on the states water sources.

According to the state, banning the watering of non-functional lawns will save hundreds of thousands of acre-feet of water a year.

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California’s Megadrought is Worse Than You Think

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Anne C. Mulkern

When Maria Regalado Garcia tried to wash the dishes in her California home one recent morning, only a trickle of water emerged from the kitchen faucet. Other taps in her Tooleville house in rural Tulare County ran similarly dry.

The lack of water meant Garcia, 85, couldn’t brush her teeth properly or fill a swamp cooler that pumps out chilled air — a necessity with temperatures topping 100 degrees in her central California town. So Garcia fled to her granddaughter‘s home in Exeter, a few minutes away, to have a place cool enough to sleep.

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Opinion: A Water Crisis is Here, the West Must Act Aggressively, Collectively

/in , , /by /The Denver Post

A billboard in St. George urges residents to use less water — “Utah is in a drought.”

Other nearby billboards in Washington County advertise one of the largest outdoor swimming pools in the world and a soon-to-arrive luxury surfing community with three artificial lakes.

It certainly doesn’t feel like this arid city – hosting the nearby headwaters for two important tributaries to the Colorado River — is in a drought.

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Drought-Friendly Lawn Makeovers Take Root Among Santa Clara County Homeowners

/in , , /by /CBS Bay Areaby Len Ramirez

As the drought drags on, there is surging demand in Santa Clara County for rebates that pay you back for removing a water-thirsty lawn.

“I have so much more appreciation for the California native plants now,” said Julie Garrett, who re-landscaped her front yard in San Jose.

She used drought tolerant plants, and a patch of UC Verde buffalograss — a new alternative turf grass that can go long periods without water.

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As West Burns, House Passes Major Drought and Wildfire Resilience Package

/in , /by /Gristby Emily Pontecorvo

The Western U.S. saw wildfire season kick into high gear last week. As firefighting crews made progress toward containing a blaze in Yosemite National Park in California, another fire erupted near the Oregon border and quickly became the largest California wildfire of the year. Flames also tore through tens of thousands of acres in northern Montana and eastern Idaho.

On the other side of the country, in swampy but fire-free Washington, D.C., Democratic lawmakers were feeling the heat.

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State Can Seek Environmental Safeguards for Oroville Dam Beyond Federal Regulations, California Supreme Court Rules

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Bob Egelko

The state Supreme Court allowed local governments and conservation groups Monday to ask the state for further safety measures and environmental safeguards at the Oroville Dam despite federal authority to license the facility, where a breach and spill forced 188,000 people to evacuate their homes in 2017.

The ruling will not interrupt operations at the nation’s tallest dam, a 770-foot structure on the Feather River in Butte County. But the 5-2 decision enables California water officials to conduct additional review, under state environmental laws, of the dam and other federally regulated water projects.

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