A planning and training workshop for 100 U.S. Bureau of Reclamation employees in San Diego County included tours of Sweetwater Authority and Otay Water District facilities. The Reclamation employees visited San Diego in September to participate in a planning training workshop.
This October marks 20 years since San Diego cut a famous deal that protected it from drought but paved the way for putting a high price on otherwise free water from the Colorado River.
The hard-fought deal – called the Quantification Settlement Agreement, or QSA – dramatically lowered how much water California takes each year from this river that makes life possible in seven western U.S. states and northern Mexico. It ensured, for the first time, that California wouldn’t use any more than its share. And it achieved that by putting a cap, for the first time, on how much water the farmers in Imperial Valley could take. Water officials would now meticulously count every gallon that once haphazardly emptied from farm fields into the Salton Sea. Today, that massive lake is in danger of becoming a massive public health and ecological disaster.
The San Diego County Water Authority says higher than expected rainfall amounts and an anticipated El Niño are keeping levels high.
The outlook for the upcoming water year in San Diego County is good, in terms of supply, the County Water Authority said, but that doesn’t mean San Diegans should decrease their conservation efforts.
Efren Lopez, a water resources specialist with the County Water Authority, told ABC 10News that water supply for the county looks good for 2024 in comparison to 2023, when the state was dealing with a severe drought.
But then things turned around.
To understand where you’re going, you have to know where you’ve come from. That’s the idea researchers were pursuing with the recent geochemical analysis of a single stalagmite from a cave in Grand Canyon National Park.
More specifically, they measured the ratio of stable isotopes in calcite deposits within the stalagmite to help predict how the volume of groundwater aquifers may be affected by a warming climate.
Colorado River officials plan to expand a conservation program next year that pays farmers and ranchers to use less water. But questions remain about some of the proposed ideas and the program’s overall efficacy.
The state initially launched the System Conservation Pilot Program in 2015 as a part of a multistate effort to conserve water from the Colorado River, which provides water for millions of residents throughout seven states as well as Mexico. The effort was designed to see if conservation efforts could stabilize the water levels in critical reservoirs along the river, like Lake Powell.
The Colorado River crosses seven states and Mexico and is 1,450 miles long – the sixth longest in the nation according to river conservation organization American Rivers. More than a natural spectacle, the river supplies drinking water for one in 10 Americans and just half of the river water nourishes nearly 90% of the nation’s winter vegetable crops.
The Colorado River is in trouble, and farmers and ranchers are on the front lines of the crisis.
A new report surveyed more than 1,020 irrigators across six of the seven states that use the river’s water: Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. About 70% said they are already responding to water shortages but many identified a trust gap with state and federal agencies that are trying to incentivize further water savings.
Less than one week until California’s new water year begins, experts say the state is nearly free of drought — but there is no guarantee that another wet winter is soon to arrive.
The state, according to the Sept. 19 U.S. Drought Monitor, is 93% free of drought, a big improvement since measuring at 72% drought-free three months ago.
Some states in the arid West are looking to invest more money in water conservation. Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico have agreed to re-up a water conservation program designed to reduce strain on the Colorado River. Those states, which represent the river’s Upper Basin, will use money from the Inflation Reduction Act to pay farmers and ranchers to use less water.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
