Tag Archive for: Colorado River

Water District Plans Increase of Recycled Wastewater

/in , , /by /The Malibu Timesby Jimy Tallal

Department of Water Resources (DWR) officials announced they were cutting State Water Project allocations from 15 percent of what had been requested by water districts to 5 percent, due to extremely dry conditions. The State Water Project is just one of Malibu’s water suppliers — other sources include groundwater and the Colorado River.

“We’re experiencing climate change whiplash in real time, with extreme swings between wet and dry conditions. That means adjusting quickly based on the data and the science,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth in a prepared statement.

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Opinion: Dangerous Game of Chicken on the Colorado River

/in , , /by /The Salt Lake Tribuneby Kyle Roerink

Seven Western states and their leaders — all depending on water from the Colorado River — remain divided.

Split into basins by an imaginary border at Lees Ferry, Arizona, each state can share blame for the rapid depletion of reservoirs that once held over four years’ flow of the Colorado River. But now, Lake Powell and Lake Mead edge closer to empty. With water savings gone, the Lower Basin has been trying to cope, though the Upper Basin carries on business as usual. Meanwhile, 40 millions Americans depend on flows from this over-diverted river.

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With No Respite From Drought, Officials Call Upon Californians to Conserve Water

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

The start of this year has been the driest in California’s history. With the severe drought now in a third year, the state faces depleted reservoirs, a meager snowpack in the Sierra Nevada and a worsening water shortage on the Colorado River.

Under sunny blue skies in Sacramento, where it hasn’t rained in two months, officials stood Thursday in front of a mulch-covered garden and appealed for Californians to save water.

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Lake Powell to Drop Below Target Level, a Troubling Sign for Colorado River

/in , , /by /The Nevada Independentby Daniel Rothberg

In the coming days, Lake Powell, a major reservoir on the Colorado River, is expected to drop below a critical threshold, a sign of the water stress facing the region amid a prolonged drought, warming temperatures and changes in how water cycles through the environment.

Forecasters with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency charged with managing much of the West’s water infrastructure, expect Lake Powell to fall below a key low-level water mark within a matter of days.

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Lake Mead’s Source: How’s the Snowpack in the Rockies?

/in , , /by /3 News Las Vegasby Jeff Gillan

Most of Lake Mead’s water has been on quite the journey. Much of it was born on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains.

How much snow hits the Rockies tells us how much water will come to Lake Mead.

“After a pretty good start to the season, we were looking pretty close to normal, or even slightly above normal, in a lot of areas at the beginning of January,” says Paul Miller with the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center, which watches the snow and the river.

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Opinion: Seed Funding Needed for Major Water Recycling Project in Southern California

/in , , /by /Cal Mattersby Adel Hagekhalil

The Colorado is the second largest river that California depends on, second only to the Sacramento. Its enormous challenges tend to fall into the policy shadows in the Capitol’s water discussions. But climate change is rapidly reducing flows in this important river and that requires bold action.

Policymakers in Sacramento have a rare and golden opportunity to be part of a historic collaborative effort toward a broader solution.

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Dry Boat Ramps, Exposed Rocks at Lake Powell Reveal the Cost of Colorado River Drought

/in , , /by /Arizona Republicby Brandon Loomis

A small bucket loader scraped Wahweap Bay’s expanding strip of red mud and gravel, its operator smoothing the shoreline where concrete workers were busy chasing a lake in retreat.

To the left, where the bay had long offered kayakers and water skiers a loop around Lone Rock, the monumental slab now rose from dust flats instead of from flat water. To the right, in the channel that leads to Glen Canyon Dam and the Colorado River’s sunken bed, formerly submerged islands and peninsulas mapped out a warming climate’s continuing transformation of one of America’s great water stores and pleasure grounds.

A desert flooded by impounded waters in the last century has visibly reasserted itself in this one.

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The Colorado River Starts as Snow, and the Way We Understand It Is Changing

/in , /by /KUNCby Alex Hager

High in the Rocky Mountains, under thin air and bluebird skies, the Colorado River basin is slowly filling its savings account. Craggy peaks become smooth walls of white and piles of snow climb conifer trunks, covering even the deepest, darkest corners of the woods with a glimmering blanket.

The snow that accumulates in the mountains of Colorado and Wyoming will eventually become water in the Colorado River. Some of it will flow as far south as Mexico, running through kitchen faucets in cities and suburbs along the way, or watering crops that keep America fed through the winter.

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Water Authority to Make Precautionary Repairs to Key Pipeline in Bonsall

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority announced Monday that it will begin precautionary repairs to a key pipeline in Bonsall.

The Water Authority said its staff detected potential weaknesses in a 48-foot section of Pipeline 4 just north of West Lilac Road in late January using acoustic fiber-optic monitoring.

Plans are to shut down and drain that stretch of 90-inch diameter pipe starting Tuesday. Work to replace the segment will continue until the line is back in service approximately 10 days later.

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Interior Official: Federal Funds ‘Coming at Just the Right Time’ to Help Utah Drought

/in , /by /Desert Newsby Kyle Dunphey

Standing at the foot of the southern Wasatch Mountains in Spanish Fork, Tommy Beaudreau, deputy secretary of the Interior, said the recently passed bipartisan infrastructure package will make Utah more drought resilient, while easing tensions between Western states and Washington, D.C.

Less than a mile down the road, construction crews worked to install two massive pipelines — one that will replace the Salem Canal and one that is the final piece of a lengthy project to divert a portion of the state’s Colorado River allotment to southern Utah County.

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