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Could Desalination Play a Role in the Future of the Colorado River?

/in , , /by /GreenBizby Sharon Udasin

Shattering the stillness of a frigid January moonlit sky, the sunrise’s amber aura glimmers over the Tinajas Altas mountain range — giving way to a sandscape of semi-succulent shrubs.

The sun’s increasingly insistent rays animate an otherwise desolate desert corridor that links the city of Yuma, Arizona, to the San Luis Port of Entry along the U.S.-Mexico border. White school buses shuttle Mexican agricultural workers to Arizonan farm acreage, home to America’s heartland of winter leafy greens.

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How Drought Pressured California to Mandate Consolidation, Drinking Water for Tooleville

/in , , /by /The Fresno Beeby Jesse Vad

Life in Tooleville wasn’t easy before the latest drought.

Residents of this tiny, two-road farmworker community, tucked into the edge of the Sierra Nevada foothills in eastern Tulare County, have been living on bottled water since 2014 because its two wells are contaminated with hexavalent chromium.

Then in July, one of those wells started to dry up, thanks to plummeting groundwater levels. State Water Resources Control Board officials agree Tooleville’s other well will likely hit sand in a matter of months.

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Marin Water District OKs $2.2 Million For Pipeline Design: Report

/in , , /by /Patch.comby Michelle Rotuno-Johnson

The Marin Municipal Water District approved $2.2 million Monday for designs and analysis of a proposed emergency pipeline to carry water into Marin County, the Marin Independent Journal reports.

The proposed pipeline would carry water from Central Valley to Marin County over the Richmond-San Rafael bridge.

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California Moves Slowly on Water Projects Amid Drought

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Adam Beam

In 2014, in the middle of a severe drought that would test California’s complex water storage system like never before, voters told the state to borrow $7.5 billion and use part of it to build projects to stockpile more water.

Seven years later, that drought has come and gone, replaced by an even hotter and drier one that is draining the state’s reservoirs at an alarming rate. But none of the more than half-dozen water storage projects scheduled to receive that money have been built.

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Lithium Fuels Hopes for Revival on California’s Largest Lake

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Elliot Spagat

Near Southern California’s dying Salton Sea, a canopy next to a geothermal power plant covers large containers of salty water left behind after super-hot liquid is drilled from deep underground to run steam turbines. The containers connect to tubes that spit out what looks like dishwater, but it’s lithium, a critical component of rechargeable batteries and the newest hope for economic revival in the depressed region.

Demand for electric vehicles has shifted investments into high gear to extract lithium from geothermal brine, salty water that has been overlooked and pumped back underground since the region’s first geothermal plant opened in 1982. The mineral-rich byproduct may now be more valuable than the steam used to generate electricity.

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Opinion: Priced Out and Shut Off: Tackling Water Affordability

/in , , /by /The Hillby Michael Mcafee and Susana De Anda

Right now, Congress is debating needed investments in our water system decades in the making. While the Senate’s compromise bill passed earlier this month includes billions for lead pipe replacement and helping communities prepare for future drought and floods, the bill falls short of ensuring all families can turn their tap on and access safe, affordable water.

Infrastructure spending isn’t enough. We must pair new water spending with bill assistance to ensure the water flowing through our upgraded pipes serves all households in America. This is especially true as the country faces another rise in COVID-19 cases.

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‘Forever Chemicals’ Found in Groundwater Near Military Bases

/in , , /by /AP Newsby John Flesher

High levels of toxic, widely used “forever chemicals” contaminate groundwater around at least six military sites in the Great Lakes region, according to U.S. Department of Defense records that an environmental group released Tuesday.

The Environmental Working Group said PFAS, an abbreviation for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, have oozed into the Great Lakes and pose a risk to people who eat fish tainted with the chemicals.

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Madera County Residents and Farmers Face Groundwater Challenge of a Lifetime

/in , /by /The Fresno Beeby Danielle Bergstrom

Madera County is running out of time as groundwater levels plummet to new depths.

Wells are going dry everywhere. Drillers have months-long waitlists. Residents are scrambling for water tanks. And farmers will soon face a reckoning after agriculture’s footprint, particularly nut trees, has more than doubled in the past 50 years — far outpacing irrigation supplies.

There’s growing consensus among farmers, county officials and residents that Madera’s groundwater problem will be solved mainly by cutting water demand, not by waiting for more dams to be built or even recharging excess water into the aquifer.

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Federal Judge Throws Out Trump Administration Rule Allowing the Draining and Filling of Streams, Marshes and Wetlands

/in , , /by /The Washington Postby Dino Grandoni and Brady Dennis

A federal judge Monday threw out a major Trump administration rule that scaled back federal protections for streams, marshes and wetlands across the United States, reversing one of the previous administration’s most significant environmental rollbacks. U.S. District Judge Rosemary Márquez wrote that Trump officials committed serious errors while writing the regulation, finalized last year, and that leaving it in place could lead to “serious environmental harm.”

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Running Out of Water, Drought-stricken Communities Find Creative Ways to Conserve

/in , , /by /KSBYby Amanda Brandeis

As unprecedented drought conditions plague much of the West, reservoirs are running dry. Communities reliant on these sources for drinking water are tightening restrictions to preserve adequate supplies.

“This is the first time it’s been this severe,” said Tom Colbert of Healdsburg, California. “It’s disheartening. We’ve had friends move out of California because of the drought and the wildfires.”

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