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Hosing Down the Driveway? Why California Has No Statewide Water Wasting Rules as it Heads Into a New Drought

/in , /by /The Mercury Newsby Paul Rogers

Anyone who lived through California’s last big drought from 2012 to 2016 remembers the rules.

You couldn’t water your yard so much that the water ran off into the street or sidewalk. Or hose down a driveway. Hotels had to put up signs telling customers they could choose not to have sheets and towels washed every day. Ornamental fountains were prohibited unless they recycled water. Watering landscaping within 48 hours of rain was forbidden. Cities couldn’t water grass on street medians. And if you washed a car with a hose, it had to have a nozzle.

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Reclamation Halts Water Deliveries to Northern Calif. Farmers

/in , , /by /The San Joaquin Valley Sunby Alex Tavlian

More than a month after announcing it was suspending water deliveries to farmers on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, the Bureau of Reclamation delivered equally bad news to farmers north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

Their water supplies, tabbed at 5 percent of their contracted amount, were not available for delivery via the Central Valley Project due to limited supply.

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Opinion: There is No Drought

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Times by The Times Editorial Board

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency last month in Sonoma and Mendocino counties because of severe drop-offs in the winter rains that once had been counted on to fill reservoirs in the Russian River watershed, north of the San Francisco Bay Area. Like most other California reservoirs, those human-made lakes were built in the 20th century, an unusually wet period when compared with more than a thousand years of climate records reconstructed from studies of ancient tree rings and geological evidence.

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Opinion: Drought-Tolerant San Diego Won’t Go Thirsty in the Dry Stretch Ahead

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Michael Smolens Quoted: San Diego County Water Authorty

San Diego takes droughts very seriously. That’s why the region is well-positioned to weather an extended dry spell with enough water.

Local officials don’t shrug at the drought conditions across the state that have triggered emergencies in a couple of northern counties. For one thing, the wildfire threat can be as dangerous here as anywhere.

San Diego may be more drought-tolerant than in the past when it comes to water, but it may never be fire-resistant.

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Opinion: How San Diego County’s Water Supply Investments Protect Our Economy and Quality of Life From Drought

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Gary Croucher Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Increasingly ominous signs suggest that we are entering another multiyear drought in California. The State Water Project recently reduced projected water deliveries for 2021 from 10% of requested supplies to 5 percent, and on April 21, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a regional drought emergency in the Russian River watershed in Northern California.

But it’s a different story in San Diego County.

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Marin County Water District to Consider More Drought Restrictions This Week

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicle by Jessica Flores

After recently approving the Bay Area’s first widespread restrictions on water customers amid worsening drought conditions, officials with the Marin Municipal Water District will vote Tuesday on imposing more.

 

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South Bay Water Officials Draw on Distant Reserves, Weigh Options as Drought Deepens

/in , , /by /KPIXby Len Ramirez

While drought conditions are upon the Bay Area, water officials in Santa Clara County plan to draw from distant reserves for now and seek to increase storage and expand water recycling in the future.

Half of the water in Santa Clara County comes from somewhere else, sometimes hundreds of miles away.

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Sierra Snow Survey Canceled Due to Impacts of Dry Weather, Water Supply Also at Risk

/in , , /by /KCRA (Sacramento)by Emily Maher

There is dry dirt where water should be at Folsom Lake. A lack of wet weather is taking a toll on the state’s water supply.

Chris Orrock is a spokesperson for the California Department of Water Resources. He said while drought-like conditions are very common for the state, this year is worse than normal, especially considering back-to-back dry winters with little snow and rain.

“In fact, this year is a critically dry year,” Orrock said.

It is so dry, in fact, that DWR canceled Thursday’s snow survey at Phillips Station because there was not enough snow on the ground. Orrock said much of the lower elevation snow is already gone and some of the higher elevation snow is beginning to melt as well.

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Stunning Drone Photos over Lake Oroville Show Drought Emergency in Northern California

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby By Robert St. John (L.A. Times) and Justin Sullivan (Getty Images)

Stunning drone photographs of Lake Oroville help illustrate the drought emergency declared by Gov. Gavin Newsom in two Northern California counties. Water levels at Lake Oroville have dropped to 42% of its 3,537,577 acre foot capacity.

Conditions are particularly acute in Mendocino and Sonoma counties because the local water supply depends on rainfall in the Russian River watershed.

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IID Responds to False Caims of Private Property Right Ownership of Imperial Valley’s Water

/in , /by /The Desert Review

In what amounted to a routine request for more information, the clerk of the United States Supreme Court requested the Imperial Irrigation District to file a response to Michael Abatti’s petition for certiorari on Monday, April 26, according to a press release.

The following day, the Imperial County Farm Bureau issued a press release incorrectly suggesting that the US Supreme Court is concerned that the California Appellate Court’s ruling on the Abatti case would deprive Imperial Valley residents of water.

Among other things, the Farm Bureau’s statement and brief filed with the court suggested that Imperial Valley’s water rights are property rights enjoyed by those who own agricultural land and described doomsday scenario consequences if the Supreme Court does not intervene to create private property rights to water where none exist, according to the release.

Various users in the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada have contracts to divert water from the Colorado River dating back to the construction of the Hoover Dam. IID exclusively holds the contract with the United States to deliver water for beneficial use on lands in the Imperial Valley.
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