California Archives

Colorado River Water Shortage Declared for First Time; California Could See Cuts by 2024

August 17, 2021/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Janet Wilson and Ian James

The federal government on Monday declared a first shortage on the Colorado River, announcing mandatory water cutbacks next year for Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. California will not be immediately affected, but U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials warned that more cuts would likely be necessary.

The river supplies drinking water and irrigation for 40 million people. The declaration of a shortage was triggered by the spiraling decline of Lake Mead, which stores water used by California, Arizona, Nevada and Mexico.

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Megadrought Spurs First-Ever Federal Colorado River Cutbacks

August 16, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /E & E Newsby Jeremy P. Jacobs

The Biden administration today will declare a water shortage on the Colorado River for the first time ever, triggering cutbacks in the Southwest due to a decadeslong drought that experts say is a sign of what’s to come.

Bureau of Reclamation officials will announce that water levels in the river’s main reservoirs have dropped so low they have triggered mandatory delivery reductions in Arizona and Nevada.

The announcement comes as heat waves and wildfires are scorching the West, presenting the Biden administration with another crisis. A 20-year “megadrought” in the seven-state Colorado River Basin has caused Lake Mead and Lake Powell to drop to levels not seen since they were originally filled a half-century ago.

“This drought has come on faster and harder than last time,” said Ellen Hanak, the director of the water policy center at the Public Policy Institute of California, referring to the last Golden State drought that ended in 2016. “We are in year two, but we’re in as bad a shape as year three of what was a record drought last time.”

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California Senators Seek to Expand Federal Authority Over Threatened Salton Sea

August 16, 2021/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Chelsea Campos /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

California Senators Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein introduced a bill on Friday to expand federal authority over the ecologically threatened Salton Sea east of San Diego County.

The Salton Sea Projects Improvements Act would significantly expand the ability of the Bureau of Reclamation to partner with state, local, and tribal governments to address the public health and environmental crisis at the Salton Sea.

The bill also increases the amount the Bureau of Reclamation is authorized to spend towards these efforts from $10 million to $250 million.

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Small Towns Grow Desperate for Water in California

August 16, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /The New York Timesby Thomas Fuller

As a measure of both the nation’s creaking infrastructure and the severity of the drought gripping California there is the $5 shower.

That’s how much Ian Roth, the owner of the Seagull Inn, a bed-and-breakfast in this tourist town three hours north of San Francisco, spends on water every time a guest washes for five minutes under the shower nozzle.

Water is so scarce in Mendocino, an Instagram-ready collection of pastel Victorian homes on the edge of the Pacific, that restaurants have closed their restrooms to guests, pointing them instead to portable toilets on the sidewalk.

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California, Oregon Braced for Another Extremist Water Rebellion. Why It’s Calm, So Far

August 16, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow

Anti-government activists seemed primed for a violent clash with federal authorities this summer in the Klamath Basin along the California-Oregon border.

The federal Bureau of Reclamation had shut off water for most of the region’s 1,400 farms, denying access to the same irrigation canal in Klamath Falls, Ore., where during a drought two decades earlier, activists tried to pry open its headgates and clashed with U.S. marshals.

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Roseville Drought Declaration Establishes Watering Days, Enforcement Measures

August 12, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /Gold Country Media

Beginning this past Monday, Roseville residents are required to reduce water use by 20 percent.

The mandatory conservation requirement builds upon the 10-percent voluntary water use reduction announced in May and recognizes that the water supply outlook is stressed at Folsom Lake and throughout California.

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Why Can’t We Build a Desalination Facility Off the Coast of California Near Drought-ridden Cities?

August 12, 2021/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /ABC10by Walt Gray

Today’s Why Guy question comes from Todd, who asks, “Why can’t we build just one solar/hydro-powered desalination plant off the coast of California nearest the most drought-ridden city/cities?”

Todd, as we sit squarely in the middle of another drought, adding more seawater desalination facilities has become a louder discussion. Right now, California has 12 desalination facilities in operation, but there are calls for more.

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Can Water Megaprojects Save The US Desert West? (Part 1)

August 12, 2021/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /CleanTechnicaby Jennifer Sensiba

In the American West, water has always been a challenge. Prior to the arrival of European explorers and settlers, there’s broad evidence that droughts and water cycles heavily affected Native Americans. For example, the people who built the Gila Cliff Dwellings may have left the area when water supplies dwindled. Later settlements by the descendants of Europeans also followed water, with settlements placed near rivers so there would be something to drink and grow food with.

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California’s Clean Grid May Lean on Oil, Gas to Avoid Summer Blackouts

August 12, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /REUTERSby Nichola Groom

California, struggling to balance its clean energy push with the need to boost tight power supplies and avoid rolling blackouts, will lean more on fossil fuels in coming weeks to keep the power on if scorching heatwaves stretch its grid.

The Golden State, which has among the world’s most aggressive environmental policies, faces a potential supply shortfall of up to 3,500 megawatts during peak demand hours in the coming weeks. That is about 2.6 million households worth of electricity supply.

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California Just Recorded Its Hottest July Ever. Charts Show It’s Part of a Trend

August 11, 2021/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Chelsea Campos /San Francisco Chronicleby Kellie Hwang

California just closed the books on its hottest July on record, a whopping 5.3 degrees above normal.

It was the latest in a rash of record-setting months over the past year, as the state saw its hottest July, June, October, September and August in history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA data shows that the average monthly temperature in July was 80 degrees, 5.3 degrees above normal, or the average temperature from 1901 to 2000. June’s average temperature was 75 degrees, 6.8 degrees above normal.

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