After a promising start to winter, California’s snowpack has shrunk to below-average levels, causing state water officials to redouble their calls for water conservation.
On Tuesday, the statewide snowpack stood at only 83% of average for the day, a result the California Department of Water Resources blamed on fall and winter seasons that have brought only “moderate precipitation” and “relatively warm temperatures.”
It was the final Wednesday of a warm, dry February, and here as in much of California it seemed that spring had made an early arrival.
The sky was blue, temperatures mild. Almond and fruit trees were ablaze with blossoms. Along the highways, poppies were in full flower, competing for attention with ubiquitous Caltrans message boards that warned: “Severe drought/Limit Outdoor Watering.”
Although there are some short- and medium-term fixes already in the works, the job of saving the Salton Sea is a long-term proposition – one that requires planning well into the next decades.
A group of local leaders – known as the Long Range Plan Committee – has been assembled under the auspices of the California Natural Resources Agency to convene a series of meetings to listen to presentations that address long-term solutions for the sea.
In the 1980s, Bill Toone helped save condors from near extinction as the curator of birds for San Diego Zoo. Now, the Escondido resident is working on ways to save endangered animals and the imperiled people who live alongside them.
Toone, 60, is executive director of ECOLIFE, a conservation organization that promotes sustainable technology that benefits both people and nature.
This growing region needs more water, and it’s spending hundreds of millions to get it. A $72 million plant opened here in 2014 to turn wastewater into drinking water, and the Santa Clara Valley Water District is planning to build five more plants to purify water in the region
Water is scarce and expensive in California, and facilities like this one, the Silicon Valley Advanced Water Purification Plant, use some of the most advanced technology in the world to make sure Silicon Valley’s booming population will have water when it turns on the tap.
With a lot of recent publicity about El Nino, it can be easy to forget about the drought and saving water.“I don’t think it’s a question of relaxed so much as it is fatigued,” Poway Mayor Steve Vaus said. “You can send the message over and over and over again, but sooner or later people think, ‘Well, my neighbors are watering, so I’m going to water.’ It’s a domino effect.”
Poway’s mayor said he reminds residents about water conservation at every city meeting. Though El Nino has brought some rain this winter, Californians have also seen plenty of hotter-than-normal temperatures.
California’s recent trend toward warmer, drier weather has raised concerns that El Nino may be a bust and that the 5-year-old drought may hang around much longer. The Sierra Nevada snowpack has fallen below normal levels, and state data show Californians have been slipping in their monthly water-savings efforts.
“As a percent of normal, it keeps dipping because we’re supposed to be accumulating during this time not having bright sunny skies,” said California’s state climatologist Michael Anderson.
Two years ago, Californians voted to pass Proposition 1, a $7.5 billion general obligation bond, also known as the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014. As part of developing a comprehensive water plan for California’s future, Proposition 1 provides $2.7 billion of continuously appropriated funds for the Water Storage Investment Project (“WSIP”) through a competitive grant process.
The California Water Commission (“CWC”) is the state agency that has been charged with overseeing the allocation of the funds. The CWC is currently accepting written public comments through March 14, 2016, and accepting concept papers until March 31, 2016. The CWC must develop regulations to quantify the public benefits of water storage projects by December 15, 2016.
It was supposed to be one of the wettest Februaries on record. Instead, by one measure at least, it became the hottest.
At an average high temperature of 77.5, this February sailed almost two degrees above the previous record set in 1954, according to a Times analysis.
As most of you know, water remains one of the most pressing issues facing our state and region. Whether or not our drought is ending cannot yet be determined, though future droughts are a certainty.
I have long supported initiatives that would increase local water supplies. While a member of the Escondido City Council, I was an early supporter of the `toilet to tree’ plan. I joined with Escondido Growers for Agricultural Preservation (EGAP) to support using recycled wastewater to irrigate the citrus and avocado groves on the city’s perimeter. Since the capacity of the city’s outfall pipeline that delivers Escondido’s excess wastewater to the ocean is insufficient for future growth, a costly upgrade will soon become necessary. Instead of spending millions to upgrade the pipeline, Escondido is now building the first part of a multi-phased project to deliver this water to local farmers and other users. While this solution won’t work everywhere, the plan could become a model for the entire state.
