Jason Kraling sank his fingers deep into the spongy soil on Mount Laguna Saturday and pulled out a fistful of dead leaves, brittle pine needles, shards of wood and rich brown soil.
“Look at how moist this is,” said Kraling, a fire battalion chief with the U.S. Forest Service. “We’ve gotten a reprieve from how dry things were last summer. It’s a good time for prescribed burns.”
December rainfall and cooler temperatures in San Diego County make it the perfect time of year for homeowners to create low-water-use landscaping to fit their needs. The San Diego County Water Authority offers its first 2022 WaterSmart Landscape Makeover Series of free online classes starting Wednesday, February 2. Registration for the four-class series closes on Monday, January 17. Register at WaterSmartSD.org. There is no fee to participate, but course participation is limited.
San Diego’s rainy season is off to a good start thanks to a series of atmospheric rivers according to Alex Tardy who is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
“Well, for this year, this is our third. The one in late October was strong for Northern California, weak for us, then there was December 14th and that was strong for Southern California,” Tardy said.
I’ll keep this part pretty short and sweet: for the Water Year to date, most of California is in pretty good shape when it comes to precipitation. And that’s good news, given the historic severity of the regional drought as recently as late September.
As the world struggles for consensus on climate action and national policy focuses on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change occur all around us. Drought, intense heat, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes and rising seas, all on a scale not previously seen and often happening concurrently, bear witness to this.
The Ojai Valley in Ventura County is a magical place. Consider its elements: the sweet smell of California citrus blossoms in the spring, the open space preserved by orchards, the seasonal creeks that run free through the cultivated lands. But the Ojai Valley is also a place in peril. That’s because the water source that keeps this inland Ventura hamlet thriving is nearly dry.
Governor Gavin Newsom has released his 2022-23 state budget proposal, the California Blueprint. The $213 billion budget includes significant investment for addressing coronavirus, wildfires, homelessness, and drought. California is currently experiencing a $45.7 billion surplus heading into the next fiscal year. Building on the $5.2 billion dollar investment in water issues last year, the budget proposal includes an additional $750 million investment to address the ongoing drought.
It’s been almost a month since the Bay Area’s last atmospheric river and the hope is there will be more rain in the coming weeks, so water restrictions can be eased.
California can hope that’s the fairytale like water story in Marin and Santa Cruz comes true statewide: eased restrictions. The two major atmospheric rivers and some other healthy rains came to the Bay region since October, working wonders for water supplies.
The Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant (“CDP”), which recently celebrated its five-year anniversary, produces 50 million gallons of fresh water per day. It now accounts for one-third of all water generated in San Diego county.
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in early 2020, the facility needed to completely overhaul its workflow in a matter of weeks. CDP not only managed to cut its staffing, implement remote monitoring, and keep its operators fully sheltered onsite — it also did so without any drops in productivity.
The facility rapidly worked to make its staff as lean as possible — but also while maintaining steady production. Although changes needed to occur quickly, the CDP is subject to a wide range of regulations and compliance requirements: any modifications to operations needed to be collaborated and approved by the San Diego County Water Authority as well as state regulators.
California’s 2021 calendar year is over, but its 2022 Water Year (which started October 2021) is already three months old and still early in its wet season. So far this wet season is actually wet.
It is a good time to assess the condition of the present drought and whether it is likely to end with this wet season. And under such conditions, what are water management activities and policy initiatives we should be doing?
