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Marin District Weighs Permanent Water Use Restrictions

/in , , /by /Marin Independent Journalby Will Houston

Some drought restrictions imposed on most Marin residents last year could become permanent, while others could be repealed in the coming weeks.

On Friday, the Marin Municipal Water District proposed keeping a two-day-per-week sprinkler irrigation limit in place for good but also rescinding some prohibitions to allow residents to wash their cars at home or refill their pools.

The debate on which rules to keep comes after the district and its 191,000 residents nearly faced depleted local reservoir supplies after two dry winters. But heavy downpours in late 2021 saved the county from the emergency by nearly refilling the district’s seven reservoirs.

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California Gives Rivers More Room to Flow to Stem Flood Risk

/in , , /by /ABC Newsby Kathleen Ronayne

Between vast almond orchards and dairy pastures in the heart of California’s farm country sits a property being redesigned to look like it did 150 years ago, before levees restricted the flow of rivers that weave across the landscape.

The 2,100 acres (1,100 hectares) at the confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers in the state’s Central Valley are being reverted to a floodplain. That means when heavy rains cause the rivers to go over their banks, water will run onto the land, allowing traditional ecosystems to flourish and lowering flood risk downstream.

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How San Diego Stands Out Amid California Drought

/in , , /by /FOX 5by Matt Meyer Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

After the driest first three months of a year in state history, California’s governor sounded the alarm last month, urging residents to use less water.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order asked Californians to tighten their belts and called on local water agencies to aggressively conserve water. But the order came with a caveat: “locally-appropriate actions” — as in, each part of the state can make decisions based on the unique conditions in their region.

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Pumped Storage Is Having a Moment. Will It Shift Renewables?

/in , , /by /EENewsby Miranda Willson Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

A massive clean energy project that doesn’t rely on wind or solar could help solve some of California’s electricity challenges — if it can get built.

Nine years after first proposing the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility, the city of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority announced in January that they were in talks with a private developer to advance the hydroelectric pumped storage project, which would be constructed northeast of the city.

The development is an example of what the hydropower industry hopes will be a tipping point for one of the oldest sources of renewable energy, even as some analysts and environmentalists remain skeptical of whether the challenges for water power can be overcome.

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Wet Weather to Provide Drought Relief Across West

/in , , /by /AccuWeatherby Jessica Storm

AccuWeather forecasters say the stormy parade of the northwestern United States is starting up again this week as storms are expected to sweep through the region one by one. This can provide drought relief for the Northwest as rain and snow will fall.

“The Gulf of Alaska will become the jumping-off point for numerous Pacific storms that will impact the northwestern United States with rounds of rain, wind and mountain snow throughout this week and right through next weekend and into early May,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Michael LeSeney.

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Reused Grey Water Cuts Water Usage, Saves You Some Green

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Beth Decarbo

Every time you take a shower, brush your teeth or do a load of laundry, you’re letting water — one of Earth’s most precious resources — just swirl down the drain. Instead, what if you reclaimed that water and reused it to flush toilets and water the flowers?

Some municipalities, homebuilders and water-recycling manufacturers are increasingly making that a viable option. In the United States, where the average household uses more than 300 gallons of water a day, one of the greatest untapped resources is grey water.

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Former Central California Water Manager Stole $25 Million in Water Over 23 Years, Prosecutors Say

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Gregory Yee

The former general manager of a Central Valley water district has been charged with stealing more than $25 million worth of water over 23 years, the latest development in a years-long saga of corruption and theft, federal authorities said Thursday.

A federal grand jury returned a five-count indictment against 75-year-old Aptos resident Dennis Falaschi, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for the Eastern District of California.

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Drought Jeopardizing California’s $50b Agricultural Sector

/in , , /by /The Hillby Sharon Udasin

California’s farms are the largest food producers in the nation, but ongoing drought conditions are wreaking havoc on this $50 billion sector.

Crop revenue losses, combined with groundwater over-pumping and upstream supply-chain impacts, may have slashed the state’s agricultural revenue as much as $1.7 billion in 2021, according to a new brief published by the Public Policy Institute of California.

Drought conditions last year also contributed to the loss of 14,600 related jobs, amounting to about 3 percent of a sector that employs more than 420,000 people, the authors stated.

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As Drought Hammers Mono Lake, Thirsty Los Angeles Must Look Elsewhere for Water

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagún and Ian James

With a third year of drought shrinking the creeks that cascade down the eastern Sierra Nevada, the level of Mono Lake has fallen so low it has triggered a 72% reduction in the amount of water Los Angeles can divert from area streams this year.

On April 1, Mono Lake’s level measured just under 6,380 feet above sea level — about 1 inch below a threshold set in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s licenses for diverting alpine runoff from streams that feed the lake east of Yosemite National Park.

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Opinion: Study Targets Stormwater, More Conservation to Sustain California’s Water Supply

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Michael Smolens Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

We conserve, recycle and desalinate water. Is capturing stormwater runoff the next big thing to try to ease California’s water woes?

The idea of putting treated stormwater runoff into the water supply has long been an intriguing notion in California. After all, rain and snow — essentially stormwater — feeds the state’s reservoirs. Runoff in urbanized areas — which is often polluted — doesn’t make it there and ends up flowing into waterways and the ocean, sometimes causing floods along the way.

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