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Feds Put Another $5 Million Toward Klamath Basin Drought Relief

/in , /by /ABC12by Jamie Parfitt

The federal Bureau of Reclamation has pledged another $5 million toward drought relief in the Klamath Basin as farmers and other stakeholders in the region continue to grapple with a major shortage of water.

Reclamation previously awarded $15 million toward the Klamath Project Drought Response Agency, and the additional $5 million will join those funds. KPDRA is tasked with distributing the fund to irrigators in Oregon and California who are without an external water supply due to the drought. Reclamation said that the initial funds will be distributed on a per-acre basis later this year.

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Corps of Engineers Considers Nature-Based Flood Control

/in , /by /U.S. Newsby Travis Loller, Associated Press

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is known for damming rivers and building levees to keep waterways at bay. But a new initiative seeks natural flood control solutions as climate change brings increasingly frequent and severe weather events that test the limits of concrete and steel.

It only makes sense to use Mother Nature’s flood defenses as one of the tools to combat destruction from intense rains in the middle of the country and storms and sea level rise on the coasts, says Todd Bridges, who heads the Corps Engineering with Nature initiative.

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Dinner Table Lessons Launch Water Industry Careers

/in , , /by Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Jobs in the water and wastewater industry provide stable employment in meaningful careers, delivering a vital resource families and businesses depend on. With half of all current employees expected to retire in the next 15 years, recruitment efforts hope to fill many of these essential positions.

Family ties provide a positive influence in filling these roles with the next generation of water professionals in several water agencies in San Diego County.

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Here’s How Much Rain Fell in 30 Greater San Diego Communities During the Big Storm

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

The massive electrical storm that hit San Diego County on Monday and early Tuesday brought significant rain to a county badly in need of precipitation. Here’s a sample of rainfall across the region, as compiled by the National Weather Service. A new storm might arrive on Thursday.

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EBMUD Begins Drawing Water From Sacramento River as Part of Drought Response

/in , , /by /NBC Bay Areaby Bay City News

As drought conditions persist statewide, officials with the East Bay Municipal Utility District said on Monday the agency has begun tapping into water from the Sacramento River to boost local supplies.

EBMUD, which delivers water to some 1.4 million people across Alameda and Contra Costa counties, typically draws from the Mokelumne River for its water supply.

The agency said the latest move is part of its drought response.

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S.F. Saw Just 9 Inches of Rain This ‘Water Year.’ Here’s How That Compares to Normal

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kellie Hwang

The water year has officially come to an end — and once again, the Bay Area has come up dry.

How dry? The region received a little more than a third of normal precipitation from Oct. 1, 2020, to Sept. 30, 2021, according to data from the National Weather Service — a common occurrence for the past several years, which bodes ill for a region already at the worst “exceptional” level on the U.S. Drought Monitor map.

Drought: Marin Requests Reservoir Water for Rural Residents

/in , , /by /Marinijby Will Houston

As the deepening drought threatens to dry up some West Marin wells in the coming months, the county government wants to tap into dwindling reservoirs to avoid a potential public health emergency.

The county proposes to truck reservoir water for the next four months to an estimated 10 to 20 residences in areas such as Nicasio, San Geronimo Valley and Lucas Valley. The actual number of residents is not certain, county officials said, as qualification criteria are still being drafted.

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Water Authority Gets $36 Million Back in Rate Dispute with Metropolitan Water

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

The Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District will pay damages and interest totaling $36 million to the San Diego County Water Authority in a long-running dispute over water transport charges.

The decision by Metropolitan Water’s board followed a California Court of Appeal decision upholding earlier rulings in favor of San Diego. The latest payment will bring the San Diego authority’s cash recovery on behalf of local ratepayers to more than $80 million. Compensation for attorney fees is also possible, potentially bringing the total to $94 million.

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Opinion: What if Farmers Really Could Use 50% Less Water? Arizona Would Be a Different Place

/in , /by /AZ Centralby Joanna Allhands

What if farmers could use half the water than they are now without sacrificing crop yield?

Arizona would be a different place.

There are roughly 946,000 acres of farmland in the state, according to the most recent federal farm census in 2018, using an estimated 4.4 million acre-feet of water.

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What is La Niña ?

/in , /by /AccuWeatherby Mary Gilbert

The term La Niña may be one that casual weather observers as well as aficionados hear meteorologists using from time to time, especially when breaking down long-term weather trends or providing a sneak peek at conditions expected during an upcoming winter or hurricane season. But, what exactly is La Niña? Let’s take an in-depth look.

The key to how winter in the United States may unfold often lies thousands of miles away in the open waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. It’s there where the roots of a climatological phenomenon known as La Niña originate and eventually help shape weather patterns worldwide.

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