The North Bay saw record rainfall last week, which is good news for the state’s water supply that has been healthy for the past two years after a lengthy drought.
The heavy precipitation was still visible in the increased volume of water flowing in a number of Marin County creeks and waterfalls Tuesday.
Living in Southern California, it may frequently cross your mind: when will the next big earthquake hit?
“We’re afraid of earthquakes because they’re sudden, we can’t predict them, you don’t see them coming,” seismologist Lucy Jones told Eyewitness News.
Unless a new bill to grow California’s essential water supply, SB 366 (Caballero), is signed into law, our only progress on water supply this year – as this summer’s record temperatures foreshadow potential droughts to come – will be another, dubious conservation mandate, which is a multi-billion-dollar effort for a miniscule volume of water.
SB 366 is where state policy should start: With an overall target for a sustainable, statewide water supply, and a timeline to achieve that target. Our legislators agree: The legislature has done the right thing with the bill passing both the Assembly and Senate without receiving a single “no” vote and now needs only Gov. Newsom’s signature by Sept. 30 to become law.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is making moves to keep control of California’s water — and protect the state’s endangered species from a potential second Trump administration.
With federal and state officials in the midst of renegotiating how they manage a 400-mile system of reservoirs, pumps and canals that moves water out of the San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta to deliver it to taps and farms across the state, California water officials are taking steps to adopt guidelines from the state’s own wildlife officials rather than federal ones.
California’s history is defined by building great and innovative infrastructure projects that improve our quality of life and set our state up for continued economic prosperity. From the Golden Gate Bridge to interstates 5 and 80, these projects are symbols of how major infrastructure investments can drive incredible economic growth. Though the creation of these projects was seemingly impossible to many at their inception, they quickly became an essential part of our critical infrastructure fabric that sustains our economy and way of life.
We are at a similar crossroads in building reliable water infrastructure to deliver water to two-thirds of Californians through the Delta Conveyance Project. This proposed project has been studied, refined, redesigned and rerouted due to extensive public input and thoughtful improvements by Gov. Newsom’s administration.
Fresno drivers headed to the Bay Area via Pacheco Pass on Highway 152 can’t help but take note of a sprawling inland sea that seemingly appears out of nowhere among the yellowed, oak-dotted foothills.
This is San Luis Reservoir, essentially a 2 million acre-foot holding tank built to irrigate San Joaquin Valley farms and supply drinking water to Silicon Valley. Its construction was considered such a significant addition to California’s water supply that President John F. Kennedy turned out in 1962 to push the dynamite plunger.
Continuing my comments from last week regarding California’s water supply and conservation, I am reminded of a trip to Chico some 35 years ago. Our family was living through our second drought since moving here in 1973. You may recall a couple of years ago I wrote how this state is subject to recurring droughts roughly every 7 to 10 years. Dry years are nothing new.
We were in Chico in August and it was hot. In San Diego County we had already been warned about water usage and how to conserve. So when I drove around Chico I was shocked to see how many yards were being watered around noon-time. I was a bit unnerved seeing so much water running down curbsides when we down south had to curtail our consumption.
Continuing my comments from last week regarding California’s water supply and conservation, I am reminded of a trip to Chico some 35 years ago. Our family was living through our second drought since moving here in 1973. You may recall a couple of years ago I wrote how this state is subject to recurring droughts roughly every 7 to 10 years. Dry years are nothing new.
California’s major reservoirs are nearly full thanks to two wet winters, the Sierra snowpack is deeper than usual and the state is likely to receive even more rain and snow this spring.
There’s no issue more important to California than having a reliable supply of water, but the situation is increasingly uncertain from both immediate and long-term perspectives.
