California’s water future is dire indeed — there’s not only the likelihood of too little, but also the possibility of way too much.
The potential for broad, devastating effects of climate change have become familiar over the years. In recent times, the prospect of actually running out of water has gone from the abstract to a realistic scenario in some regions of California and the Southwest.
San Diego County is not currently facing water cuts as the historic drought reaches a new low and the nation’s largest reservoir — Lake Mead — is at its lowest water level on record, according to the San Diego County Water Authority.
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The lower water levels people might be seeing at Lake Hodges are not drought-related but instead are due to the ongoing work repairing the 100-year-old Lake Hodges Dam. The emergency work on the dam began in May and is expected to be completed by October.
San Diegans on Tuesday continued to avoid any immediate repercussions from the 22-year megadrought that has ravaged the Colorado River, threatening the water supply of 40 million people across the American West. The region gets more than half its water from the river through a 2003 deal with farmers in the Imperial Valley, which has so far proved a prescient, albeit costly maneuver.
The mighty Colorado River isn’t so mighty anymore. The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Tuesday steps will be taken to protect the increasingly fragile source of water.
“The worsening drought crisis impacting the Colorado River Basin is driven by the effects of climate change, including extreme heat and low precipitation. In turn, severe drought conditions exacerbate wildfire risk and ecosystems disruption, increasing the stress on communities and our landscapes,” said Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau.
San Diego and the rest of California won’t have to shoulder any mandatory water cuts from the Colorado River next year, unlike Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the federal government’s water manager, unveiled Tuesday how it predicts this decades-long drought will affect major reservoirs next year. The levels of those reservoirs serve as a barometer for how much water the river’s seven basin states and Mexico can receive. The Colorado River, the largest freshwater source for the western U.S. and northwestern Mexico, provides enough water for 40 million people and fuels a massive agricultural industry.
For the second year in a row, Arizona and Nevada will face cuts in the amount of water they can draw from the Colorado River as the West endures an extreme drought, federal officials announced Tuesday. California has avoided cutbacks for now.
Drought-pummeled lawns across Los Angeles County will be a little bit thirstier for 15 days in September when officials suspend outdoor watering in several areas to repair a leaking pipeline, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California announced Monday.
The emergency repair will shut down the 36-mile Upper Feeder pipeline — which delivers water from the Colorado River to Southern California — from Sept. 6 to 20, the MWD said. The leak was discovered this year, and the pipeline has been operating at reduced capacity under a temporary fix while officials designed a more permanent solution.
The city of San Diego Monday lifted a boil water notice for about 600 residential customers in a portion of the Tierrasanta neighborhood who were affected by fluctuating water pressure issues following a burst pipeline last week.
Multiple tests showed no quality issues with water coming from the tap. The California Division of Drinking Water reviewed the findings and approved the lifting of the notice.
