You are now in California and the U.S. Home Headline Media Coverage category.

Arizona Positioned to Take on Cuts in Colorado River Supply

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Felicia Fonseca

Water officials in Arizona say they are prepared to lose about one-fifth of the water the state gets from the Colorado River in what could be the first federally declared shortage in the river that supplies millions of people in the U.S. West and Mexico.

Arizona stands to lose more than any other state in the Colorado River basin that also takes in parts of Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado, Nevada and California. That’s because Arizona agreed long ago to be the first in line for cuts in exchange for federal funding for a canal system to deliver the water to Arizona’s major metropolitan areas.

Full Story

Drought-Depleted Rivers Force Salmon Hatcheries to Truck Fish to the Pacific

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

Millions of young salmon raised at fish hatcheries in the Central Valley will be trucked to San Francisco Bay and other coastal sites for release, because the rivers they’d normally travel to get to the ocean are drying up, state and federal officials said Wednesday.

Full Story

3 More Bay Area Water Districts Take Drastic Steps With Drought Looming

/in , , /by /SF Gateby Amy Graff

Three more big Bay Area water agencies are calling on residents to conserve water as drought looms in California following two consecutive extraordinarily dry winters.

Board members with both the East Bay Municipal Utility District and Sonoma Water approved proclamations Tuesday to declare drought emergencies.

Full Story

From Dust Bowl to California Drought: A Climate Scientist on the Lessons We Still Haven’t Learned

/in , , /by /The Guardianby Maanvi Singh

California is once again in a drought, just four years after the last dry spell decimated ecosystems, fueled megafires and left many rural communities without well water.

Droughts are a natural part of the landscape in the American west, and the region has in many ways been shaped by its history of drought. But the climate scientist Peter Gleick argues that the droughts California is facing now are different than the ones that have historically cycled through the Golden State.

Full Story

Federal Dollars Available for Farmers, Ranchers Facing Drought in California

/in , /by /KCRA-TV (Sacramento)by Emily Maher

Federal dollars are on the table to help farmers and ranchers during the drought. The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared a drought disaster in 50 California counties last month. Grants are now available to help with costs associated with the dry conditions.

Full Story

Navajo Nation Wins Revival of Colorado River Water Rights Suit

/in , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Maya Earls

The Navajo Nation can pursue its lawsuit seeking to force the federal government to secure water from the Colorado River for the reservation, the Ninth Circuit said Wednesday, reversing a lower court’s dismissal of the tribe’s breach of trust claim.

The tribe doesn’t seek a judge’s determination of its rights to the river, which the Interior Department says would fall under the Supreme Court’s original jurisdiction, according to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circut.

Full Story

Biden Races Courts for Chance to Torpedo Trump Water Rule

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Jeremy P. Jacobs and Pamela King

President Biden has gone full throttle in his first 100 days seeking to reverse Trump-era environmental rollbacks. But on one controversial rule, the president’s team may not be able to outpace the judicial system.

Key lawsuits that could define the reach of the Clean Water Act are working their way through federal courts — despite Biden administration attempts to stop them so it can craft its own regulations.

Full Story

NID Declares a Drought Emergency, Requests Customers to Voluntarily Conserve Water

/in , /by /YubaNet.comby Susan Launer

Bracing for expanding drought conditions and dwindling local water supply, the Nevada Irrigation District Board of Directors proclaimed a drought emergency throughout the District’s service area, which includes portions of Nevada, Placer, Yuba counties. The declaration was made during the Board’s April 28 meeting.

Full Story

Questions Linger About Environmental Impact of Poseidon Plant

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Every year that it converts a bit of the Pacific Ocean into drinking water, the proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant would kill tiny marine life crucial to the sea’s food web.

Questions of how and when to offset that environmental harm remain unresolved in regulators’ ongoing review of Poseidon Water’s plans to build a $1-billion desalting plant on the Orange County coastline.

Full Story

Value of Water: Mission Trails FRS II

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

The Mission Trails Flow Regulatory Structure II Project, or FRS II, will be an underground concrete water tank in Mission Trails Regional Park that will store slightly less than five million gallons of water and be used to balance flows in the aqueduct system. FRS II will be the second underground water tank in the park – both work to efficiently move water through the region. Construction is underway and expected to be completed in 2022.