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Top Expert on California’s Atmospheric Rivers: ‘It Can Break the Drought’

/in , /by /SF Gateby Amy Graff

A moisture-rich atmospheric river is forecast to hit California on Sunday and Monday, delivering a much needed drenching of rain to a drought-plagued state at a time of year when big storms are unusual.

It’s unclear at this point where the bull’s-eye of the storm will dump the most rain, but forecasters agree it will likely be anywhere from far Northern California to Central California, with the San Francisco Bay Area being impacted. The wettest spots could see up to a foot of rain.

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Imagine A Day Without Water

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

San Diego County residents joined Americans across the country marking Thursday, October 21 as “Imagine A Day Without Water.” The nationwide awareness campaign offered opportunities to learn about our nation’s water systems and the hard work that goes into ensuring a day without water doesn’t become a reality for their community. The Vallecitos Water District partnered with the City of San Marcos to promote water conservation with a new video.

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At S.F.’s Anchor Brewing, the Beer’s for Drinking but the Water’s for Recycling

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

Anchor Brewing is San Francisco’s oldest operating brewery, producing its flagship steam beer since 1896. Now it’s making history in a new way.

The brewery will soon operate the city’s largest commercial water reuse facility. Instead of dumping out water after rinsing fermentation tanks and cleaning bottling lines, Anchor will collect, treat and recycle much of what used to go down the drain.

It’s not an undertaking to go into lightly. California is contending with one of its worst droughts in modern history, and water shortages are becoming an increasing part of day-to-day life. Getting Anchor’s water reuse system up and running is part of a broader effort by San Francisco water officials to preserve supplies by encouraging water users to recycle more and use less.

 

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Oceanside Wins Top Award From Watereuse California

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Linda Mcintosh

The City of Oceanside won an Award of Excellence for its recycled water outreach and education program on its water purification project, called Pure Water Oceanside, at the recent WateReuse California annual conference.

The award recognizes the city’s community outreach on the benefits of water reuse and its furthering of water recycling through its Pure Water Oceanside project.

The project, billed as the first fully operational indirect potable reuse project in San Diego County, is expected to provide about a third of Oceanside’s water supply.

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IID Rings Alarm on Shrinking Colorado River Crisis

/in , , /by /KECY, KYMAby Vince Ybarra

Imperial Irrigation District warns government officials and residents about how harmful the shrinking Colorado River is to our region. IID General Manager, Enrique Martinez, recently spoke to the United States House of Representatives about the issue the desert southwest is facing. He said the time to act is now.

“The drought has been in existence now for 21 years and has continued to challenge the inflows,” said Martinez.

He said the use of water has continued to increase over the years and the flow of water coming down the Colorado River has decreased. Martinez said unless there is major change in the current climate and we get more water during the winter months, we will continue to spiral with less and less water.

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‘Atmospheric River’ to Bring Heavy Rain to Much of California Starting on Sunday

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

An “atmospheric river” stretching across the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii is expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain to central and northern California starting on Sunday, with San Diego experiencing lighter precipitation on Monday.

The National Weather Service expects between 2 and 5 inches of badly needed rain in the higher elevations of Northern California with flash flooding possible.

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Study Suggests Flooding Could Reach Never-Before-Seen Levels in Sacramento, Central Valleys

/in , /by /Fox40by Melanie Townsend and Jordan Radach

While wildfires and droughts dominate California weather, residents have to prepare for another kind of disaster — flooding.

Sacramento is no stranger to seeing flooding of epic proportions. It happened during the Great Flood of 1862 that completely submerged Old Town, and the evidence is still right below our feet.

Floodwaters have plagued the Central Valley several more times before, happening again in 1986, 1995, 1997, 2006 and 2017, but new research by the organization Climate Central suggests that in 100 years, flooding in the Sacramento and Central valleys could reach levels never seen before.

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Infrastructure Bill Seen as Way to Pay Farmers to Cut Water Use

/in , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Tripp Baltz

Four states in the drought-wracked West considering whether to pay farmers to cut their water use see federal infrastructure legislation as a possible revenue source.

The $550 billion bipartisan legislation approved in the Senate includes $25 million for the four states—Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming.

“There’s that bucket, and a lot of other buckets, in the federal infrastructure bill that could come into play for drought contingency planning implementation,” said Amy Ostdiek, interstate and federal manager in the Colorado Department of Natural Resources.

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In This California County, One Town Has No Water. Another Has Enough to Share.

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Scott Wilson

This town took a big step toward making fresh water along the rocky, wild North Coast of California.

As its wells ran dry this month, town officials looked to technology as an emergency measure, hoping to keep both residents and a lifeblood tourism industry with running faucets. The town spent $335,000 on a desalination plant, a small machine of tubes and pumps that officials christened earlier this month. Turning brackish water into useful water, the plant now provides a quarter of the local supply.

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Water Authority Prepares for First Level of Shortage Contingency Plan

/in , , /by /KPBS-TV and City News Serviceby Melissa Mae and City News Service Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority is preparing to activate a voluntary conservation of its Water Shortage Contingency Plan in support of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to sustain California’s water supply after two record-dry years.

The agency’s 36-member board of directors will decide at its formal monthly meeting on Oct. 28 whether to activate the drought response plan, following Wednesday’s recommendation by staff.

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