For California, the arrival of winter means the beginning of our rainy season, at least relatively speaking.
However much precipitation California is going to receive in a year, the bulk of it typically falls between December and March. And given the severity of our state’s ongoing drought, the amount of rain we get this winter couldn’t be of more importance.
Thousands of jobs in infrastructure — like clean energy and roads — could come to California and San Diego thanks to a $1 trillion package signed Monday by President Joe Biden.
The hard-fought, bipartisan package, inked into law by Biden on the White House lawn, makes major financial commitments into broadband internet, the power grid, airports and environmental cleanup efforts, among others areas. Its largest area of spending is in road and bridges where new spending over the next five years is expected to be $110 billion.
An estimated 40 million people rely on water that originates in the Colorado River Basin, but the river can no longer keep up with demand, and it’s raising serious questions about the future of water in the west.
Surrounded by bright orange pumpkins and empty shanks of corn outside his store east of Pueblo, Shane Milberger surveys his field.
Despite pleas to conserve water during a historic drought, Californians have not saved much at all this year. But there are exceptions. We look at how Healdsburg dramatically cut its water use.
President Biden on Monday signed a historic $1-trillion bipartisan bill that he said will overhaul the nation’s infrastructure and boost the nation’s economy, which has been battered by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Touting the legislation as a job creator, the president said it was also an example of him fulfilling a campaign promise to reach across the aisle to get things done.
Construction continues in Mission Trails Regional Park to upgrade the San Diego County Water Authority’s untreated water supply system. The estimated completion of the project has been extended from mid-2022 to late 2022 due mostly to necessary design changes. The project will improve the delivery of a safe and reliable water supply to treatment plants serving the central and southern areas of San Diego County.
Trail closures will continue Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and reopen as soon as it is safe. The Water Authority’s work in Mission Trails Work will not affect the delivery of high quality drinking water to homes. Graphic: San Diego County Water Authority
For more information about the project including an interactive map showing the closed trails, visit sdcwa.org/mission-trails-FRS. Call 877-682-9283, ext. 7004, or email with questions.
The rolling hills and ranchlands of eastern Contra Costa County are known for wineries, cattle ranches, wind turbines and growing subdivisions.
But soon they may be known for something else: The biggest new water storage project in the Bay Area in years. And now, amid the current drought, nearly every major water agency in the region wants a piece of it.
Faced with a worsening drought and the ever-present threat of more wildfires, the Bay Area needed a miracle. And last month, it got one. An unexpected and almost unprecedented October deluge gave the Hetch Hetchy reservoir, the primary water supply for San Francisco and most of the Bay Area, a more than 21-foot bump in its water level. That’s an 11% boost; and the prospect of breaking the drought this rainy season suddenly no longer sounds impossible.
As I write this on an October weekend, rain is falling steadily in Davis and has been for most of the day. This is the first real rain we have had in over seven months. But it is not the end of the drought. Multiple storms are needed. The landscape is a dry sponge, reservoirs are empty, water rationing is in place or expected to be, and aquatic species are in decline. Water agencies are trying to capture all the water they can behind dams with bypass flows for fish minimal.
Washington has become known as the town where nothing gets done. But Congress on Nov. 5 approved a bipartisan $1.2-trillion infrastructure bill that lawmakers say will expand access to high-speed internet, rebuild old roads and bridges and create networks of electric car charging stations. Biden is scheduled to sign the bill Monday during a ceremony at the White House.
