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Billion-Dollar Disasters: The Costs, in Lives and Dollars, Have Never Been So High

/in , , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Judy Fahys

Extreme weather will surely have its own chapter in the turbulent history of 2020. The human and economic toll of Covid-19 was already enormous this fall, when it became clear that 2020 was on track to break the previous record for big weather disasters, fueled in part by climate change. From the derecho that battered the Midwest with hurricane-force winds to unprecedented wildfires that scorched more than 700,000 acres in Colorado and gave California its worst fire season in history, weather and climate events like these represented only a few line items in the latest tally of the nation’s billion-dollar disasters.

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Farmers Swap Out Irrigation Methods To Keep The Colorado River From Growing Saltier

/in , , /by /Aspen Public Radioby Jodi Peterson & KVNF

AJ Carrillo farms 18 acres outside of Hotchkiss, Colo., in the high desert of the Western Slope about an hour southeast of Grand Junction.  When he irrigates his peach orchard, water gushes from big white plastic pipes at the top of the plot and takes half a day to trickle down to the other end of his five-acre orchard. Carrillo is planning to convert his Deer Tree Farm from flood irrigation, which is commonly used in Western Colorado, to a new and much more efficient style of irrigation – microsprinklers.

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Is Farming with Reclaimed Water the Solution to a Drier Future?

/in , , /by /Salonby Cirrus Wood

On a Saturday in late October, Carolyn Phinney stands hip-deep in a half acre of vegetables, at the nucleus of what will one day be 15 acres of productive farmland. “You can’t even see the pathways,” she says, surrounded by the literal fruits of her labors. The patch is a wealth of herbs, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, kale, winter squash, and zucchini. So much zucchini — fruits the size of bowling pins hidden under leaves as big as umbrellas.

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Dismal California Snowpack is Bad Sign for Water Supplies

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

A month into California’s peak storm season, the lack of wet weather is beginning to weigh on the state’s water supply.

The snowpack in the Sierra and southern Cascades, which provides as much as a third of the water used by California cities and farms, is about 55% of average for this time of year. It hasn’t been this low at this time since 2017, when the state was emerging from a five-year drought.

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Trump Signs Spending Bill That Could Send Millions of Dollars to the Salton Sea

/in , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

President Donald Trump on Sunday signed a roughly $900 billion stimulus package meant to tackle both COVID-19 relief as well as federal spending. Tucked in the 5,593-page-long law, courtesy of Southern California Democrats, are provisions that hold the potential to unlock millions of dollars of new federal spending to address the Salton Sea.

The bill notably modifies the Water Resources Development Act by authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite a study on the feasibility of constructing a perimeter lake around the Salton Sea. It’s one of the large-scale plans floated to address the lake’s woes, and this move could speed up the process.

The law also includes more than $150 million for the Army Corps to carry out such studies on water issues at the Salton Sea and elsewhere.

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Climate Change Measures Top California Environmentalists’ 2021 State Priorities

/in , , /by /The Mercury Newsby Martin Wisckol
California is helping lead the charge in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but more needs to be done as climate change remains the state’s top environmental issue in 2021 issue, according to top environmental lobbyists in Sacramento. Other issues on their agenda include plastic pollution, recycling, wildlife protections, and greater repair and reuse of appliances and electronic products before they are discarded.
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Vanderlaan Named LAFCO Chair, Reappointed to New Term

/in , , /by /Fallbrook Village Newsby Joe Naiman Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Bonsall resident Andy Vanderlaan will chair the 2021 meetings of San Diego County’s Local Agency Formation Commission, and he was also reappointed for another four-year term on the LAFCO board.

One 8-0 LAFCO vote Dec. 7 reappointed Vanderlaan as LAFCO’s public member. A separate 8-0 vote elected Vanderlaan as the LAFCO board chair for 2021 while electing County Supervisor Jim Desmond as the vice-chair for the 2021 meetings.

The public member’s term actually expires in April 2021. LAFCO had the option of reappointing Vanderlaan or seeking additional applicants. The reappointment of Vanderlaan was contingent upon his willingness to serve a seventh term. “I’m inclined to do that,” he said.

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Sites Reservoir Awarded $13.7 Million in 2021 Federal Budget Bill

/in , /by /Sun Herald.com

Sites Reservoir was awarded $13.7 million in the 2021 federal spending bill, authorized through the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, according to a press release. With the passage of the legislation, Congress has now approved approximately $23.7 million in WIIN Act funding to the Bureau of Reclamation for Sites Reservoir.

 

Historic Colorado Wildfire Season Could Impact Drinking Water For Millions

/in , /by /4CBS Denverby Dillon Thomas

The historic wildfire season of 2020 could impact drinking water for more than a million Colorado residents. Environmental researchers and natural resource specialists have conducted a BAER Survey, which stands for Burned Area Emergency Response. The survey evaluated how the record-breaking Cameron Peak Fire and East Troublesome Fire could impact Colorado’s snowpack and watershed. The Poudre and Upper Colorado River Basins provide drinking water for more than a million people in northern Colorado, and soon those in Thornton. The Colorado River also flows from Willow Creek Reservoir near Granby to Las Vegas and farther southwest.

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FPUD Adopts PSAWR Guidelines

/in , , /by /Fallbrook Village News by Joe Naiman Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

Earlier this year, the San Diego County Water Authority approved an ordinance adopting a Permanent Special Agricultural Water Rate and setting the eligibility criteria. On Dec. 7, the Fallbrook Public Utility District board voted 5-0 to update FPUD’s Administrative Code to incorporate the PSAWR.

“It will become a permanent SAWR program with eligibility changes,” Ken Endter, board president of FPUD, said.

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