People who live in the Southwest know it’s been especially hot and dry the past couple of years, but a new government report shows those conditions are actually historic.
Precipitation across multiple basins in six states from January 2020 through August 2021 was the lowest recorded since researchers started tracking with gauges in the late 1800s.
Like a human fingerprint, California’s Sacramento Valley is truly unique. On the leading edge of ecological and economical sustainability, it’s also an exceptional place to live, work, and raise a family.
The Sacramento Valley joins together a world-renowned mosaic of natural and human abundance: productive farmlands, teeming wildlife refuges and managed wetlands, the largest salmon runs south of the Columbia River, dynamic rural and urban communities, and life-giving rivers and creeks that support it all.
After water levels at a California dam fell to historic lows this summer, the main hydropower plant it feeds was shut down. At the Hoover Dam in Nevada — one of the country’s biggest hydropower generators — production is down by 25%. If extreme drought persists, federal officials say a dam in Arizona could stop producing electricity in coming years.
Severe drought across the West drained reservoirs this year, slashing hydropower production and further stressing the region’s power grids. And as extreme weather becomes more common with climate change, grid operators are adapting to swings in hydropower generation.
Officials said Sunday that no oiled wildlife has been located in San Diego County from last weekend’s massive oil spill off the coast of Orange County.
Meanwhile, San Diegans can expect to see shoreline cleanup assessment teams and contracted crews in protective gear monitoring, inspecting and cleaning San Diego County beaches.
Doug Thompson couldn’t believe what he’d just been told. His wife, a botanist, was advising a Coachella Valley country club on drought-resistant landscaping, and Thompson, who got to talking with the groundskeeper, asked how much water it takes to irrigate a golf course.
(Editor’s note: As of Friday, October 8, the Carlsbad Desalination Plant continues operating at full production with no indication of oil in the feed water. As a precautionary measure, protective booms have been placed at several locations in the Aqua Hedionda Lagoon, including in front of the desalination plant intake).
Poseidon Water and the San Diego County Water Authority issued the following joint statement in response to emergency response efforts following the recent oil spill off the coast of Orange County. No oil has been detected by the plant’s monitoring system.
“The San Diego County Water Authority and Poseidon Water appreciate precautionary efforts by state emergency response crews to install a protective boom at the mouth of Agua Hedionda Lagoon, which provides intake water for the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant. State agencies are also installing a second barrier near the plant intake.
October marks the beginning of a new calendar for those who measure and manage the west’s water. The good news? Across the Colorado River basin, there’s a lot less “exceptional drought.”
The amount of land under the absolute driest designation is down about 60% in less than a year. The bad news is that more than 90% of the basin remains in some level of drought.
Large clusters of tarballs were found along beaches in Oceanside and Carlsbad, San Diego County officials said Thursday, with similar reports being made in Encinitas and Del Mar.
The black balls of tar, about the size of a quarter, are suspected to have come from the massive oil spill off the coast of Orange County, where a ruptured pipeline has spewed more than 144,000 gallons of crude oil into the ocean.
Experts in government, agriculture, water management and the environment stressed during a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday the danger that droughts fueled by climate change pose in the West, including the Colorado River Basin.
During a hearing before an Energy and Natural Resources Committee panel, witnesses said long-term solutions and an investment in water infrastructure are needed to combat the effects of climate change.
Extended droughts broken up by rainy years are part of a natural cycle here in California. Our state is once again in another dry period, with areas of Northern California already experiencing a significant impact. It is not a question of if, but when the Coachella Valley faces a similar fate.
Thanks to decades of targeted projects and careful planning, Mission Springs Water District will have enough water to serve our 40,000 customers in and around Desert Hot Springs.
