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Grants Awarded to Restore Safe Drinking Water for Lake Morena Residents—but Process May Take Until 2024

/in , /by /East County Magazineby Karen Pearlman

For more than two years, Lake Morena Village area water users have been drinking bottled water because of formidable nitrate levels in the region’s wells, the main source of water for drinking in the rural San Diego county burg.

In September 2019, the county issued a do-not-drink order for about 125 customers of the Lake Morena Views Mutual Water Company, one of the two main water suppliers in the area.

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Rancho Guejito Tapped Groundwater Deep in San Pasqual Valley. Some Farmers Aren’t Happy About It.

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Joshua Emerson Smith

Hank Rupp stands on the edge of a holding pond on the historic Rancho Guejito — more than 22,000 acres purchased nearly 50 years ago by the now-deceased shipping mogul Benjamin Coates and considered by many the ecological crown jewel of San Diego County.

The 20-foot-deep reservoir — fed in part by several 1,000-foot wells dug on a more recently acquired property — is vital to the transformation of Rancho Guejito into a working agribusiness.

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The Western U.S. Might Be Seeing its Last Snowy Winters

/in , , /by /Fast Companyby Adele Peters

When a fire started spreading quickly in Boulder County, Colorado, on December 30, destroying nearly 1,000 homes as residents fled, the ground was dry. This was unusual: Boulder typically gets around 30 inches of snow between September and December. But last year, it had only a total of 1.7 inches over the same period before heavier snow finally started falling on December 31—too late to save the neighborhoods that burned.

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Snowpack Up 160% in ‘Good Start’ to 2022

/in , , /by /AgAlertby Christine Souza

After two consecutive years of drought, the state Department of Water Resources conducted the season’s first manual survey of the snowpack Dec. 30 and found a promising result—deep snow totaling 160% of average for the time of year.

State Climatologist Michael Anderson said storms in December that dumped several feet of snow in the Sierra Nevada and brought much-needed precipitation were “a great start to the water year.”

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‘Extraordinary is No Longer Extraordinary’: US Scientists on a Year of Climate Disasters

/in , , /by /The Guardian

The American west faced an unprecedented year of climate disasters in 2021.

A cold wave in February triggered temperatures 50F below average in Texas, killing at least 150 across the state and leaving millions without power and water. Heatwaves over the summer broke temperature records across different western states, killing hundreds in the northwestern US and Canada. Fires seared through large swathes of the west, razing the northern California town of Greenville and searing through groves of giant sequoia trees.

This summer, the Guardian interviewed a panel of climate scientists about their experiences living through the crises that climate research had long foretold. As the year ends, they share their reflections on what’s happened – and what gives them hope, even as climate catastrophe looms.

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Drought Remains a Threat Even After Wet December

/in , , /by /Orange County Registerby Martin Wisckol

Despite December’s heavy rains and record snowfall, water agencies remain geared up for California’s two-year-old drought to extend through 2022.

The precipitation did bring encouraging signs, including a Dec. 30 report from the Department of Water Resources that the snowpack at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada is at a healthy level. The 78 inches of snow was 202% of the average for the site at that time of year, offering hope for an abundance of the imported water used in much of Southern California.

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Higher Rates for LADWP’s Biggest Water Users Are Now in Effect

/in , , /by /Spectrum News 1by Susan Carpenter

Water-hogging customers in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power service area will see higher bills this year.

Effective Jan. 1, LADWP began charging its heaviest water users as much as $3.60 more for every 748 gallons they take from their taps. Water bills for customers who use lower amounts will stay roughly the same as last year.

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LAFCO Finalizes Denial of Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s Cal Am Takeover

/in , /by /Monterey Heraldby Tom Wright

The Monterey County Local Agency Formation Commission voted 5-2 Wednesday to finalize its denial of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s planned takeover of California American Water.

The 5-2 LAFCO vote followed its initial vote Dec. 6 to dismiss the water district’s application for the buyout, an acquisition mandated by a 2018 ballot measure.

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San Diego Experiencing Longest Sub-70 Degree Weather in Six Years

/in , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Robbins

The National Weather Service says that San Diego’s daytime high temperature remained below 70 degrees on Wednesday for the 37th consecutive day.

By mid-afternoon, the temperature had only reached 65 and was not trending upward.

This is the longest that the city has stayed below 70 since 2015-16, when it remained unusually cool for 38 days between December 10 and January 16.

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Can Cloud Seeding Squeeze More Rain out of Storms? How Much?

/in , /by /KCRWby Kathryn Barnes

Despite a rush of rain and snow heading into 2022, 85% of California remains in severely dry conditions, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

That’s why water agencies in Southern California and beyond are trying to squeeze a bit more water out of the storms that come this winter using a method called cloud seeding.

It’s a weather modification technique that uses silver iodide to bond cloud droplets together to form ice crystals, which grow into snowflakes and fall as either snow or rain, depending on the elevation.

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