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Family Farms Struggling as California Drought Worsens: ‘We Haven’t Faced Anything Like This’

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Nadia Lopez

Amid this year’s severe drought, Hmong farmer June Moua had to leave a portion of her 10-acre plot of land in eastern Fresno County dry and fallow. Large sections of the rows of crops she did plant, including bunches of water-intensive greens, have wilted and shriveled into crunchy bits of brown foliage. Her kale and bok choy are casualties of the central San Joaquin Valley’s dwindling water supply. Declining groundwater levels have made it harder for her to pump water from her well into her fields.

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Atmospheric River Storm to Douse the Bay Area With ‘Much-Needed Rainfall’ Next Week

/in , /by /The Mercury Newsby Summer Lin

The Bay Area is preparing for the second atmospheric river storm to soak the region this rainy season and alleviate the dire drought conditions in Northern California. There will be a slight chance of rain on Friday night into Saturday morning, with less than 0.10 of an inch forecasted in the North Bay, according to the National Weather Service.

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Climate Change is Acidifying and Contaminating Drinking Water and Alpine Ecosystems

/in , , /by /Scientific Americanby Elizabeth Miller

Garrett Rue grew up fly fishing in central Colorado, often surrounded by mountains stained amber and maroon, and hiking along streams that seemed to borrow those colors. Sometimes he would cast for native trout and come back with nothing—because there was nothing to catch. Then he started hearing stories about people in nearby mountain communities who couldn’t drink their own water. He began to wonder: “These streams have problems supporting ecosystems, and they’re not usable for drinking. What’s going on here?”

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Carlsbad Proposing Water Rate Increase, Cites Rising Costs

/in , /by /The Coast News Groupby Steve Puterski

The Carlsbad City Council approved a water-rate increase proposal over three years during its Nov. 3 meeting. The city, which operates the Carlsbad Municipal Water District (CMWD) and handles water, wastewater and recycled water, will hold a public hearing on Jan. 11, 2022, before voting on final approval.

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Opinion: A Vote on Water Storage May Be Near

/in , , /by /The OC Register

A proposed ballot measure would force the state to dedicate 2% of the general fund to building more water storage for California’s urban areas and farms. The Water Infrastructure Funding Act of 2022 would require the transfer of the funds into a trust account every year until the projects funded by the account have created an additional 5 million acre-feet of additional water supply that can be reliably delivered to Californians every year thereafter.

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Touton Confirmed as Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation

/in , , /by /Las Vegas Review-Journalby Gary Martin

Camille Touton of Nevada was confirmed by the Senate on Thursday to be commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water management of the Colorado River in Western states. Democratic and Republican senators approved President Joe Biden’s nominee on a voice vote.

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Data Confirms Salmon Slaughter on California’s Main River

/in , /by /Courthouse News Serviceby Nick Cahill

Nearly an entire run of juvenile winter-run Chinook salmon cooked in the Sacramento River this past summer, casting doubt as to whether the iconic species can survive the one-two punch of drought and climate change.

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Toxins Long Buried May Surface as Groundwater Rises

/in , /by /NBC Bay Areaby Stephen Stock, Robert Campos, Mark Villarreal and Michael Horn

Water rising beneath the ground, pushed up by intruding salt water as sea levels rise, now impacts thousands of toxic waste sites throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. A six-month investigation by NBC Bay Area found that the threat from rising groundwater isn’t decades in the future but, in some cases, may be imminent. In many hot spots from the North Bay to the South Bay, UC Berkeley scientists told the Investigative Unit they’ve recorded groundwater already at or near the surface.

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Water Authority Completes Pipeline 3 Relining in Mission Trails Regional Park

/in , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

San Diego County Water Authority Operations and Maintenance staff recently completed a complex relining project on a section of Pipeline 3 in central San Diego, within Mission Trails Regional Park. Pipeline 3 traverses the western portion of the region from the Riverside County border in the north to Lower Otay Reservoir in the south. The proactive Pipeline 3 relining project is part of the asset management program to make preventative repairs to large-scale infrastructure.

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How Californians Can Save More Water

/in , , /by /The New York Times (California Today)by Soumya Karlamangla Mentioned: San Diego Couty Water Authority

The results are in: Californians aren’t saving enough water. Amid a historic drought, Gov. Gavin Newsom has asked us to reduce water consumption by 15 percent. Yet in August, the most recent month for which data is available, we’d brought usage down just 5 percent compared with the same time last year. Of course, not all water-saving is the responsibility of California households. Eighty percent of California’s water goes toward agriculture, and other businesses play a big role too.

(Editor’s note: The New York Times published a previous story, How San Diego Has Water Despite A Punishing Drought.)

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