Since winning the election, President-elect Donald Trump has been talking about immigration, border security and government efficiency.
But in California farm country, his comments about water are also getting top attention.
Our water supply is far from infinite. According to the UN, nearly 1.8 billion people are projected to live in areas with absolute water scarcity by 2025, and two-thirds of the world’s population could be living under water-stressed conditions.
If water becomes scarce or unavailable for an extended period, would you drink recycled sewage water?
Colorado River water users in California have together voluntarily conserved more than 1.2 million acre-feet of water in just two years, adding the water to Lake Mead to help stabilize the reservoir during historic drought conditions, according to figures released Wed. Dec.4, according to a recent CRBC press release.
The achievements, reported during a meeting of the Colorado River Board of California (CRBC) during this year’s Colorado River Water Users Association’s conference, result from the implementation of a series of conservation agreements in 2023 and 2024, along with agencies storing conserved water in Lake Mead. The agreements involve the Bard Water District, Coachella Valley Water District, Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe, Imperial Irrigation District, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Palo Verde Irrigation District, San Diego County Water Authority, and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
We can’t escape our history. In 1984, the Southern California Water Coalition (SCWC) was founded in response to the ballot-box defeat of the Peripheral Canal, a predecessor to today’s Delta Conveyance Project. This pivotal moment highlighted the urgent need for a unified effort to address Southern California’s water challenges.
The vision back then was clear: bring together water leaders, agriculture, businesses, local governments, and labor to educate Southern Californians on where their water comes from and the need for water infrastructure investment to assure future reliability. Over the past 40 years, SCWC has steadfastly carried out that mission, spreading awareness about the region’s reliance on imported water from the Colorado River and Northern California, as well as the strides we’ve made in using water more efficiently.
Valley Center Municipal Water District’s supplier the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA) will be shutting down the First Aqueduct December 7-17 to do warranty inspections on the recent relining work.
As in the past, the VC district will have some limited access to water from the 2nd Aqueduct. Leading up to the shutdown it is placing additional water in storage.
A nearly billion-dollar investment will go to almost a dozen western states for critical upgrades to water delivery and drought resilience infrastructure, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced Tuesday.
“As we work to address record drought and changing climate conditions in the Colorado River Basin and throughout the West,” Acting Deputy Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis said Tuesday in a release. “These investments in our aging water infrastructure will conserve community water supplies and revitalize water delivery systems.”
Residents in Poway will soon be paying more on their water bills following a unanimous vote by city council Tuesday night.
“Finances are tough for a lot of people so they should look somewhere else and not take something as basic as water and price it out for a lot of people who can’t afford it,” resident Jim Bunner said.
California farmers could soon be caught up in a political fight between Sacramento and Washington.
State Democrats want $25 million to sue the Trump administration.
When Catherine and Bryan Binotti moved into their La Mesa 1950 ranch-style home four years ago, they had, in a way, kind of a head start on the landscaping. The owners before them had put in some drought tolerant landscaping, Catherine noted. But a lot of it had died back. So the outdoor space had the bones of a beautiful garden but had long since lost the luster.
“There was the rockrose and gold coin daisy,” she said. “But they were dead and needed to be pulled out. But some sprouted from seed.”
Supplies from the State Water Project for the water year that began Oct. 1 will initially be a “conservative” 5% of requests in case of a dry year, the California Department of Water Resources announced Monday.
Last year the initial allocation was 10%, but grew to 40% by the end of the year thanks to normal rain and snow.
