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Clock is Ticking On Dreams of Saving Salton Sea With Water From Mexico’s Sea of Cortez

/in , , /by /Desert Sunby Mark Olalde

Coachella Valley-based architect Nikola Lakic knows how to fix the withering Salton Sea. Or, at least he says he does.

Lakic believes it’s possible to import water from Mexico’s Sea of Cortez — or, perhaps, from the Pacific Ocean off the California coast — through a multi-billion-dollar system of pipes. He would construct mangrove habitat for natural water filtration, send desalinated water to geothermal plants and, amid all this, restore California’s largest lake.

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‘Big Risk’: California Farmers Hit by Drought Change Planting Plans

/in , , /by /Reutersby Christopher Walljasper

Joe Del Bosque is leaving a third of his 2,000-acre farm near Firebaugh, California, unseeded this year due to extreme drought. Yet, he hopes to access enough water to produce a marketable melon crop.

Farmers across California say they expect to receive little water from state and federal agencies that regulate the state’s reservoirs and canals, leading many to leave fields barren, plant more drought-tolerant crops or seek new income sources all-together.

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Urban Water Districts Consider Mandatory Conservation as Drought Deepens

/in , , /by /Politicoby Debra Khan

Urban water agencies are planning to impose mandatory conservation orders after federal water managers slashed deliveries this week amid a rapidly deepening drought.

The Bureau of Reclamation cut water deliveries from the Central Valley Project by about half. That has prompted the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which serves 2 million residents in the Silicon Valley region, to consider a potential conservation order at its board meeting next month. And the Contra Costa Water District, which serves 500,000 residents in the East Bay, is now planning to vote on one in July.

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That Mississippi River Pipeline? Bureau of Reclamation Weighed In About A Decade Ago

/in , , /by /KJZZby Ron Dungan

The Arizona Legislature wants to look into the feasibility of pumping water from the Mississippi River to Arizona.

But the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has already studied the idea, and weighed in on the project in 2012.

The agency studied factors such as cost, legal issues, power use and the amount of time the project would take.

A report estimated the project could cost up to $14 billion; the timetable was around 30 years.

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Cutbacks in Water for Central AZ Farmers Expected

/in , , /by /Arizona Capitol Timesby Greta Forslund

Arizona may be facing its first official declaration of water shortage next year, a move that would trigger water cutbacks of 512,000 acre-feet — almost 20% of Arizona’s Colorado River entitlement — affecting mainly agricultural users. 

The 24-Month Study on the Colorado River system, released this month by the Bureau of Reclamation, projects that in June water levels in Lake Mead will fall below 1,075 feet for the first time, which would put the state in a Tier 1 shortage.

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Opinion: Drought Hits California — and Newsom

/in , /by /CALmattersby Dan Walters

By any standard, California is experiencing one of its periodic droughts after two successive years of below-normal precipitation.

“We are now facing the reality that it will be a second dry year for California and that is having a significant impact on our water supply,” state water resources director Karla Nemeth said in late March as the state reduced projected deliveries of water to 5% of requested demand.

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Rural Valley Cities Secure Permanent Water Supply in Deal with Feds

/in , /by /The Sunby Daniel Gligich

Three rural Valley cities finalized deals with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to cement permanent access to water from the Central Valley Project on Monday, the Federal bureau announced. The cities of Avenal, Coalinga, and Huron converted their water contracts with Federal water authorities along with Firebaugh-based Pacheco Water District and Panoche Water District, and Los Banos-based San Luis Water District. The move signals an end to negotiations that took over a year and a half to complete.

 

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Record Low Lake Powell and Bad 2021 Drought Forecast Sets Stage For Water Cuts

/in , , /by /The Colorado Sunby Jason Blevins

The dry 2020 and the lack of snow this season has water managers in seven states preparing for the first time for cutbacks outlined in drought contingency plans drafted two years ago. A sobering forecast released this week by the Bureau of Reclamation shows the federally owned Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the nation’s two largest reservoirs and critical storage for Colorado River water and its 40 million users — dipping near-record-low levels.

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Upper Colorado River Drought Plan Triggered for First Time

/in , , /by /KUNC (Greeley, Colorado)by Luke Runyon

Increasingly bleak forecasts for the Colorado River have for the first time put into action elements of the 2019 upper basin drought contingency plan.

The 24-month study released in January by the Bureau of Reclamation, which projects two years of operations at the river’s biggest reservoirs, showed Lake Powell possibly dipping below an elevation of 3,525 feet above sea level in 2022. That elevation was designated as a critical threshold in the agreement to preserve the ability to produce hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam.

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Colorado River Expert Biden’s Pick for Interior Water Post

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Tripp Baltz and Bobby Magill

Tanya Trujillo, an expert on water law and the Colorado River Basin, is President Joe Biden’s choice to serve in the Interior Department’s top water and science position.

If confirmed by the Senate, Trujillo, currently the Lower Basin project director for the Colorado River Sustainability Campaign, will serve as principal deputy assistant secretary for water and science, overseeing the Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Geological Survey.

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