The federal government plans to spend $3 million this year constructing a new wetland along the Alamo River in order to rehabilitate habitats and help clean up some of the polluted water flowing into the Salton Sea.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced the new funding as part of a larger spending plan for about $166 million, which will be used for purposes ranging from drought-related projects to rural water infrastructure.
After months of responding to calls to save water, Southern Californians say they’ve hit a wall.
Nearly 9 in 10 respondents say they strongly or somewhat agree that “I’ve already cut back on water use at my home as much as I can” and “There’s not much more I can do to save water,” according to a recent survey commissioned by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
A majority also said they are willing to decrease their consumption.
Despite better a winter that is shaping up to be wetter than average in some parts of California, experts say it’s far from enough to put much of a dent in the four years of drought that preceded it.
As such, the controversy on how to allocate water and what restrictions to put on communities, farms and other businesses is unlikely to get a reprieve any time soon.
It happened again: For the third day in a row Wednesday, Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California endured record-breaking temperatures.
Although the calendar says February, residents of L.A., Camarillo and Oxnard all sweated through summer-like conditions as temperatures climbed well into the 80s by noontime, according to the National Weather Service
A new state report shows California farmers reaping record sales despite the epic drought, thriving even as city-dwellers have been forced to conserve water, household wells have run dry and fish have died.
California’s 76,400 farms recorded $53.5 billion in sales in 2014, the year Gov. Jerry Brown declared the state in a drought emergency and launched what in 2015 became mandatory conservation for cities and towns. The sales figures are the most recent annual ones released by the state agriculture department.
The idea to host an outrigger canoe race on the Salton Sea began as a way to start the racing season earlier but has evolved into a dream of something much bigger. Event organizers said they hope bringing recreation back to the Salton Sea will help save the sea itself.
In the 1950s, the Salton Sea was a destination for recreation. It was a popular resort area with yacht clubs, large marinas and a championship golf course that attracted celebrities.
The county may need less water than once projected, but the Orange County Board of Supervisors made it known Tuesday that it still supports construction of a proposed $1 billion Huntington Beach desalination plant.
One week after the Municipal Water District of Orange County projected that the county’s water demand in 2040 would be 17 percent lower than previously estimated, supervisors voted to reaffirm their support for the desal plant and urged the California Coastal Commission to approve the project’s final permit.
The world must increase its usable water supply and effectively manage water demand – and that could provide opportunities, says a new report from the Fresno-based agribusiness research department of Rabobank, N.A.
The report “Agricultural Water – Free Flowing Markets Sustain Growth” focuses on water markets as a tool that has been proven to be effective at delivering water where it’s most valued. Rabobank contends that markets are an important part of ensuring that the proper allocation of water can occur, and helping ensure that the agricultural industry has access to enough water to be economically viable.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has spent months fighting to keep certain information about its turf removal rebate program from being released, arguing in court that customers’ names and addresses should remain confidential.
If the utility ultimately prevails, one of the beneficiaries of its legal battle could be City Atty. Mike Feuer, who received a lawn removal rebate from the DWP in 2014.
Dying native fish, rural communities with dry wells and some other sectors hardest-hit by California’s drought may still need extra support long after the current dry spell ends, an analysis of the state’s drought response said Friday.
The nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office also urged officials to study the effectiveness of the state’s more than $3 billion in drought programs to learn lessons for managing the next drought.
