San Diego County is launching aggressive efforts to counter climate change, with a new climate action plan and a sweeping sustainability plan designed to reduce net carbon emissions to zero by 2035.
The County Board of Supervisors received reports on both projects Wednesday and discussed the balancing act required to slash carbon emissions while preserving jobs and expanding housing.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Californians to voluntarily conserve water last week as he stood in front of the retreating shoreline at Lopez Lake in San Luis Obispo County, some must have had déjà vu.
It was only six years ago when former Gov. Jerry Brown stood in a field near Lake Tahoe that was bereft of normally plentiful snow and called for water restrictions amid the state’s punishing years-long drought.
Signing an Executive Order on July 8, California (CA) Governor Gavin Newsom has asked Californians to voluntarily cut their water use by 15% to mitigate severe drought conditions across the state, and to protect water reserves and help maintain critical flows for fish and wildlife.
During the last drought from 2012 to 2016, Californians were ordered to cut their water use by an average of 25% statewide. With the new drought emergency declarations, there is still no statewide emergency or mandate to reduce water use.
The request applies to businesses and agriculture as well as residents. Meeting the target could save enough water to supply 1.7 million average households for one year, according to state officials. Fifty counties, about 42% of the state’s population, are now under drought emergencies — essentially everywhere except San Francisco and urban Southern California.
Encinitas, Calif. — Olivenhain Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors honored at its July 14 meeting Ken and Susan Terzes as the winner of OMWD’s 2021 WaterSmart Landscape Contest.
As California experiences another drought cycle, homeowners in the San Diego region continue to makeover their landscapes with native plants that need less water. An Escondido couple recently transformed their landscape to save water and won the City of Escondido Landscape Makeover Contest too.
Escondido homeowners Michael and Teresa Everett first learned about the 2021 Escondido Landscape Makeover Contest from Escondido family-owned El Pantio Nursery. It was the motivation they needed to makeover their landscaping with native plants.
Global warming has already left its mark on the backbone of California’s water supply, and represents a growing threat to its first developed agricultural region, state experts have warned in a new study.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta fuels California’s $3 trillion economy, including its $50 billion agricultural industry, sustains more than 750 plant and animal species and supplies 27 million people with drinking water.
Climate change is exacerbating droughts and accelerating the transformation and decline of California’s native forest and aquatic ecosystems. As a state, we are poorly organized to manage these effects, which need extensive focused preparation. We need to adapt (and we will make mistakes in doing so). Our human, economic and environmental losses will be much greater, however, if we manage poorly because of delay, complacency or panic.
Farmers are facing a water shortage right as we head into peak growing season. It’s hitting their bottom line — and potentially yours.
Solano County farmer Spencer Bei shows us one of the wells his family uses to farm 15,000 acres. He says he is losing pressure now as he is pumping because he is pulling more from the aquifer due to a lack of surface water and no rain in sight.
To finally determine a lasting definition of waterways that qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new water director says everyone with a stake in the issue will need to be engaged.
Radhika Fox recently spoke to The Associated Press about the Biden administration’s plan to rewrite the regulation, also called Waters of the United States. The contentious rule was scaled back by the Trump administration after being expanded under President Barack Obama.
Nearly $3.25 million in federal funding was preliminarily secured for separate project requests at the Salton Sea and the New River on Monday, July 12, according to the office of Congressman Juan Vargas, D-Chula Vista. The funding was part of a 2022 House Appropriations Energy and Water Subcommittee bill that included requests of $2.546 million for a major Salton Sea research project, $200,000 for a Salton Sea feasibility study, and $500,000 for planning and design phases for a potential New River restoration project, Vargas’ press release states.
