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Punishing Bay Area Drought Prompts Calls for Major Water Rethink

/in , , /by /KQEDby Ezra David Romero

Each morning for months, Amelia Morán Ceja has peered out her window, searching Sonoma’s wine country for dark clouds or the residue of rain on the leaves of her grapevines.

Her searching has proved futile, and now she’s worried as California faces its third consecutive summer with drought.

The dry conditions threaten her thirsty vines at Ceja Vineyards and elevate the risk from fire and heat waves. The triple threat is a “perfect storm during harvest,” she said.

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Manteca Water Use Soars 14.6% as Drought Deepens

/in , , /by /Manteca Ripon Bulletinby Dennis Wyatt

Manteca’s per capita water use surged 14.6 percent in March as the city’s consumption continued to grow significantly over 2020 even after making adjustments for population gain.

The double-digit gain in year-to-year use comes nine months after Governor Gavin Newsom asked Californians to voluntarily cut water usage by 15 percent based on 2020 consumption levels. So far water use on average in California jurisdictions is down by 6 percent although Manteca clearly isn’t one of them.

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Report to California Legislature: Prepare for Sweeping Effects of Climate Change

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Rachel Becker and Julie Cart

Painting alarming scenes of fires, floods and economic disruption, the California Legislature’s advisors today released a series of reports that lays out in stark terms the impacts of climate change across the state.

The typically reserved, nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office outlined dire consequences for Californians as climate change continues to alter most aspects of daily life. Much of the focus of the six-part series is detailing the economic cost as the changing climate alters where and how Californians build, grow food and protect the most vulnerable residents.

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NASA Finds New Way to Monitor Underground Water Loss

/in , /by /NASAby Jane J. Lee

Scientists have produced a new method that holds the promise of improving groundwater management – critical to both life and agriculture in dry regions. The method sorts out how much underground water loss comes from aquifers confined in clay, which can be drained so dry that they will not recover, and how much comes from soil that’s not confined in an aquifer, which can be replenished by a few years of normal rains.

The research team studied California’s Tulare Basin, part of the Central Valley. The team found that the key to distinguishing between these underground sources of water relates to patterns of sinking and rising ground levels in this heavily irrigated agricultural region.

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Despite Cutbacks to the Rest of the State, Some Ag Districts Get Full Allotment of Water

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Jesse Vad

Even as most agricultural water supplies are being cut to the bone, with California descending into a third year of extreme drought, the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractor districts will apparently receive 650,000 acre feet — 100% of their “critical year” allotment.

The move is just one of the quirks in California’s byzantine world of water rights.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has increased the amount of water coming out of the Friant Dam above Fresno to help satisfy its contract with the Exchange Contractors.

 

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The Promise and Pitfalls of Desalination

/in , , /by /The Economist Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Carlsbad State Beach is a Southern California idyll. Palm trees adorn the cliffs above the sand, and surfers paddle out for the waves. From the beach it is impossible to tell that a huge desalination plant not half a mile away is sucking in seawater to produce 50 million gallons of new drinking water each day. It is the largest in America—for now. Soon it may share that title with a proposed sister plant 60 miles (97km) north in Huntington Beach. But only if that one is built.

Poseidon Water, the developer that also built the Carlsbad plant, first proposed the Huntington Beach facility in the 1990s. But it has taken the company more than two decades to persuade Californians of the plant’s necessity.

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Kings County Declares Local Drought Emergency

/in , , /by /The Sentinelby Eric Gill

The Kings County Board of Supervisors on Friday voted to declare a local emergency due to drought conditions in the area. All five Kings County supervisors voted in favor of declaring the local state of emergency.

The resolution was considered during a Special Meeting held April 1 to consider a recommendation submitted by Edward Hill, county administrative officer, and Matthew Boyett, a Kings County Administration staff member.

The primary purpose of the meeting — “declaring a local emergency due to drought conditions in Kings County” — was voted on after the closed session.

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Proposed Tulare County Reservoir Could Begin Banking Water as Soon as 2026

/in , , /by /The Sun Gazetteby Reggie Ellis

Last Friday’s report that California’s snowpack is just 38% of normal underscores the importance for Tulare County to not only take the drought more seriously, but to brace for drier winters to become the rule rather than the exception.

Two Tulare County irrigation water agencies aren’t waiting around to see how the state will cope with the current and future drought and are taking steps to secure more water storage in the Kaweah Subbasin. Tulare Irrigation District (TID) and Consolidated Peoples Ditch Company (CPDC) purchased 260 acres in December 2020 near McKay Point, where the Kaweah River forks into the Lower Kaweah and St. John’s rivers near Lemon Cove, to build a reservoir capable of storing 8,000 acre feet of water.

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State Water Board May Extend Restrictions to Russian River Water

/in , , /by /NBC Bay Area

A current regulation that curtails water rights in the Russian River watershed set to expire in July may be extended due to the continuing drought, according to the state agency charged with balancing all water needs of the state.

State Water Resources Control Board officials announced Friday the board released a draft emergency regulation to extend the regulation and clarify some of its requirements.

The Russian River runs from Mendocino County south into Sonoma County. It is the second-largest river in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, behind the Sacramento River.

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State Updates Climate Priorities

/in , , /by /Bakersfield.comby John Cox

State government released an updated set of strategies Monday for meeting the increasingly urgent challenges of climate change.

The six-point plan published online at climateresilience.ca.gov calls for doing more to protect vulnerable communities, strengthen public health and safety, reinforce the economy, speed up natural climate solutions, stick to the best available climate science and create partnerships to maximize resources.

The website’s debut followed a report Monday by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that warned governments have fallen behind in their efforts to limit temperature increases to 2.7 degrees on average.

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