San Francisco residents are about to see another downside of drought: higher water rates.
Like a growing number of water agencies in California, the city’s water department has been losing millions of dollars as households and businesses, doing their part in a third dry year, conserve more and fork over less money to the utility.
The record-breaking heat wave last week in East Antarctica, the coldest region on Earth, saw temperatures surge as much as 85 degrees Fahrenheit above average, bringing readings near freezing and unexpected surface melting instead of the usual sub-zero conditions.
The heat wave adds to a quickly growing list of previously “unthinkable” climate events, and puts an exclamation point on an Austral summer that included brutal heat waves and record-high intensity wildfires in Argentina and Chile and flooding caused by record-setting rains in eastern Australia that killed more than 20 people and left thousands homeless.
World Water Day is on Tuesday, so water officials are calling on Californians again to conserve more water in the face of a worsening drought.
One of the best ways to conserve water is to reduce outdoor watering, so Metropolitan Water District held a news conference at the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers & Native Plants to encourage Angelenos to use native plants that are more acclimated to Southern California’s dry weather and require much less water than grass.
Ray Stokes has never been one for hair-on-fire histrionics. After serving 26 years as the resident Wizard of Oz running the Central Coast Water Authority — which conveys roughly 25,000 acre-feet of water a year from the rivers of Northern California to the spigots of Santa Barbara County — Stokes knows a thing or two about droughts. The one California now finds itself caught in might be the worst. “It’s very drastic,” stated the usually understated Stokes.
Farmers in the Highland Valley between Ramona and Escondido are fighting their water district over a plan to force them to pay thousands of dollars to switch the type of water they use to irrigate their crops — or else go without the water.
The plan is now mired in a delay of almost two years as the Ramona Municipal Water District considers the risk it will get sued and the impacts on its fire hydrant system.
Two projects — intent on increasing the recycled water supply in disadvantaged communities — have received $3.79 million in federal funding.
The first, called the North Gardena Water Lateral, will install 3,700 feet of new pipeline — and deliver nearly 6 million gallons of recycled water annually — to Peary Middle School and Mas Fukai Park.
The Palmdale Water District Board of Directors approved the District’s entry into a program to transfer water for State Water Contractors during dry years, such as this one.
The program allows State Water Contractors, such as Palmdale Water District, to purchase water allocated to fallow rice farms in Northern California.
District officials estimate it possibly will need to purchase an additional 1,000 acre-feet of water to meet its supply needs this year, according to the staff report.
California has emerged as the first state to advance limits on hexavalent chromium in drinking water, a contaminant linked to cancer first made famous by Erin Brockovich’s advocacy efforts.
The California Water Resources Control Board’s Drinking Water Program on Monday unveiled a proposal to set a “maximum contaminant level” (MCL) of 10 parts per billion, or ppb, in water.
Amid California’s prolonged droughts, Central Coast water managers are making a new push to increase water storage capacity in Monterey County.
More specifically they’re making a renewed push for a $300 million project to increase water storage capacity at one of the county’s largest but driest reservoirs; Lake San Antonio.
When it comes to cybersecurity, a recent report by the Legislative Analyst’s Office found the agriculture and water sectors have a long way to go.
Now, a Central Valley lawmaker is proposing legislation to help beef up cybersecurity for those sectors.
