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Farmers Urged to Think Big and Small to Survive Groundwater Cutbacks

/in , /by /Bakersfield.comby John Cox

The thinking started small and then grew much bigger at a gathering Tuesday in Bakersfield that was intended to provide a “survival toolkit” for farmers and water managers facing drastic restrictions on Central Valley groundwater pumping. Irrigation and other technical specialists opened the meeting by promoting ways to maximize the region’s existing water resources. Discussions ranged from individual investments in desalination to gathering water-use data as a way for farmers to defend against government accusations of over-pumping.

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Extreme Storm Could Overwhelm Southern California Dam and Flood Thousands

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Louis Sahagun

HESPERIA, Calif. — Federal engineers have found that a dam protecting the high desert communities of Victorville, Hesperia, Apple Valley and Barstow falls short of national safety standards and could erode and collapse in an extreme flood, inundating thousands of people. Officials for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Tuesday that they had raised the risk factor for the Mojave River Dam from “low” to “high urgency action” because of “performance concerns” discovered at the 48-year-old structure, which joins a growing inventory of California dams showing signs of severe stress.

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New Baja California Governor Promises To Stop Cross-Border Sewage

/in , /by /KPBSby Brooke Ruth, Jade Hindmon

Jaime Bonilla was sworn into office Friday as governor of California’s neighboring Mexican state. As a member of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Morena party, his election marks the first time in 30 years that the PAN party hasn’t held power in Baja. In his first major speech since taking office, Governor Bonilla promised to address poverty, public safety issues and end cross-border sewage flows within six months. Bonilla, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, formerly served as an elected member of the Otay Water District in Chula Vista.

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Metropolitan to Study Stormwater Recharge Potential in So Cal

/in , /by /Fox 40

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is expanding its effort to learn more about the water supply potential of local stormwater capture with a new $7.5 million pilot program approved today by its board of directors. By funding construction of new stormwater projects and installation of monitoring equipment on existing ones, the program will gather data on the amount of water produced by projects that capture local rainfall and stormwater runoff and use it to recharge groundwater basins in the region.

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San Diego Taking Steps to Revive Landmark Water Recycling Program Amid Legal Dispute

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick

SAN DIEGO — San Diego took key legal steps Tuesday aimed at reviving efforts to construct the city’s $4 billion Pure Water pipeline, which was abruptly halted this summer by a legal dispute over the use of unionized construction workers. The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to remove pro-union language from contracts for Pure Water, a recycling system that would purify treated sewage into drinking water and supply one-third of San Diego’s water supply by 2035.

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Odds Of Reaching 100% Of Normal Water Year Precipitation

/in , , /by /Center For Western Weather and Water Extremesby Dr. M.D. Dettinger

Drought status is often represented by maps of how much precipitation has fallen in the year to date, or how that amount differs from normal amounts of precipitation to date. Up-to-date examples of such maps are presented below:

A somewhat different viewpoint on the development of drought considers how much precipitation has fallen (or not) and how much is likely to fall in coming months, based on climatology. The following are maps of this and previous years’ drought development that explicitly takes both of these aspects into account.

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New Mexico Delegation Takes Aim At US West’s Water Scarcity

/in , , /by /AP News

As things begin to dry out again in New Mexico, members of the arid state’s congressional delegation are looking for ways to combat water scarcity here and across the American West.

U.S. Sen. Tom Udall is blaming climate change for growing water scarcity. The New Mexico Democrat worries that snowpack in the region is getting smaller and unable to adequately feed the Rio Grande and the rest of the state’s groundwater supplies.

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Does A Rain-Free October Signal A Return to Drought In California?

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by Paul Duginski

“There are 200 different definitions of drought,” said climatologist Bill Patzert. “If you’re a firefighter with no rain in the month of October, and there are strong Diablo and Santa Ana winds, it’s a drought.”

Southern California got no rain during October, and it was desiccated by super-dry Santa Ana winds.

The jet stream that fed cold air into the Great Basin last week, fueling strong Diablo and Santa Ana winds in California, could have been delivering the first rain storms of the season from the Gulf of Alaska if it had been positioned about 500 miles to the west.

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Opinion: A Fresh Look At The Future Of Hydropower Requires That We See Clearly Its Past and Present

/in , , /by /The Hill (Washington D.C.)by WM. Robert Irvin

As society grapples with climate change and the challenge of decarbonizing the national energy grid, proponents increasingly hold up hydropower as an indispensable part of the solution, touting it as “clean, green energy.” They decry what they see as the unfair federal and state tax and regulatory advantages of wind and solar. In a recent editorial arguing for “a fresh look,” the National Hydropower Association declared that hydropower “isn’t being discussed as a clean energy solution by the environmental community” despite that it is dependable, renewable and “protects and preserves our natural ecosystems.”

In fact, American Rivers and many others in the environmental community acknowledge hydropower’s potential role in a decarbonized energy future, but a fresh look at that potential requires a clear view of hydropower’s past and present.

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Drought Here To Stay But Action Can Ease The Pain

/in , /by /The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, Australia)

Drought is defined by the Bureau of Meteorology as “acute water shortage” (“How bad’s the drought and what’s causing it?”, November 4). It is certainly not going away, and in all likelihood will become more prevalent. Politicians from all sides are realising that a modified Bradfield scheme (diverting monsoonal waters west of the dividing range in Cape York) is the only way to restore the Murray and Australia’s agriculture. Barnaby Joyce and Pauline Hanson are advocating it.

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