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IID Responds to False Caims of Private Property Right Ownership of Imperial Valley’s Water

/in , /by /The Desert Review

In what amounted to a routine request for more information, the clerk of the United States Supreme Court requested the Imperial Irrigation District to file a response to Michael Abatti’s petition for certiorari on Monday, April 26, according to a press release.

The following day, the Imperial County Farm Bureau issued a press release incorrectly suggesting that the US Supreme Court is concerned that the California Appellate Court’s ruling on the Abatti case would deprive Imperial Valley residents of water.

Among other things, the Farm Bureau’s statement and brief filed with the court suggested that Imperial Valley’s water rights are property rights enjoyed by those who own agricultural land and described doomsday scenario consequences if the Supreme Court does not intervene to create private property rights to water where none exist, according to the release.

Various users in the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada have contracts to divert water from the Colorado River dating back to the construction of the Hoover Dam. IID exclusively holds the contract with the United States to deliver water for beneficial use on lands in the Imperial Valley.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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