Climate change is wreaking havoc on the water systems that Californians rely on, from the Sierra Nevada to the Colorado River basin.
No one knows that better than Adel Hagekhalil, who as general manager of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, is at the epicenter of the state’s most intractable water woes.
The seven states that share the Colorado River’s water celebrated some conservation wins at their annual meeting here this week but quickly began sparring over who will bear the brunt of future pain that they agree a drying climate will dole out.
When the highest stakes water negotiations in a century opened this fall, the largest, most powerful state — California — was represented by the youngest person at the table, a 27-year-old named John Brooks Hamby, who graduated from college barely four years ago.
In the face of heavy opposition from environmental groups, Gov. Gavin Newsom and his administration are pushing forward with a controversial plan to build a 45-mile water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — a project the governor says is vital to modernizing the state’s aging water system.
The U.S. government is entering a new era of collaboration with Native American and Alaska Native leaders in managing public lands and other resources, with top federal officials saying that incorporating more Indigenous knowledge into decision-making can help spur conservation and combat climate change.
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom utilized the state’s new infrastructure streamlining bill to accelerate the building of Sites Reservoir. This is great news for all Californians, particularly farmers who provide a safe, healthy, reliable food supply. Sites Reservoir is a critical element in California’s struggle to maintain a reliable water supply in the face of climate change.
A new law expanding California’s atmospheric river research program goes into effect next year. It connects flood and reservoir control operations with new technologies and strategies that can help operators accurately predict the arrival of these storms.
It might seem hard to imagine, but there’s a connection between water supplies in Northern California’s Sacramento region and distant cities such as Las Vegas. We may be separated by deserts and mountain ranges, but these very different places could actually share water. And with a little cooperation, all of us could survive the challenges of climate change, whether it’s a shrinking Colorado River or declining Sierra Nevada snowpack.
Sixteen cities, including four in the U.S., signed a commitment to protect vulnerable communities from severe flooding and drought through C40 Cities’ new Water Safe Cities Accelerator, launched on Nov. 22.
The United Nations Climate Conference, called COP28, begins on Thursday in Dubai and students and faculty from UC San Diego (UCSD) will be there.
The UN climate conference is a global meeting of politicians and scientists that have a strong bearing on the fight against global warming. It’s where the Paris Agreement was adopted in 2015.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
