The western United States has built their water infrastructure on a melting foundation, and unless we do something about global warming, scientists worry the consequences will be catastrophic.
Chula Vista, Calif. – Thanks to investments in local water supplies, and customers’ water-saving efforts, Sweetwater Authority has sufficient water to meet customer needs, despite forecasts of a third consecutive dry year.
Earlier this week, the Department of Water Resources announced an initial water allocation of 0% from the State Water Project for California water districts. These allocations do not significantly impact the water available to Authority customers. The yearly allocation is a small portion of the total water supply for San Diego water agencies.
The Authority’s local water supplies include two reservoirs and groundwater wells connected to the Authority’s desalination facility, which provides a drought-proof water source. The majority of the water the Authority provides customers each year comes from these local sources.
The grim news about the climate emergency just keeps rolling in. San Diego International Airport saw its driest November since 1980, with only a trace of rain recorded the entire month. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the state Department of Water Resources said that California agencies that provide water to 27 million residents and 750,000 acres of farmland will get 0 percent of requested water from the reservoirs, canals and dams that comprise the State Water Project. Seven agencies will get some water, but only for urgent health and safety needs, including indoor sanitation and fire suppression.
The San Diego County Water Authority — which made the courageous and game-changing decision in 1991 to diversify its supplies and no longer rely so heavily on the giant, mercurial Metropolitan Water District of Southern California — won’t be affected by the state decision. In a normal year, officials said Thursday, 10 percent of the authority’s water comes from the State Water Project. But this year, it’s received none and still has plenty of water available.
It was 55 degrees and sunny Thursday at Sugar Bowl Resort, where the opening day of the 2021 ski season — already delayed because of warm weather — was still listed as “TBD.”
“Winter hasn’t quite arrived in Tahoe yet,” officials wrote in a note about the postponement. “The team will be working nightly and ready to flip the switch when Mother Nature cooperates.”
But the mountain isn’t the only place feeling the pinch from lack of snow. A new study led by researchers at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory found that dwindling snowpack across California and the western United States could shrink dramatically more — or in some cases disappear — before the end of the century.
When physicians want to take a look at a patient’s vascular system to see things that aren’t visible to the naked eye, they often turn to MRI technology. That is what experts with the California Department of Water Resources are doing to analyze the state’s water system – specifically the underground aquifers that collect and store precipitation and other surface water.
Encinitas, Calif. — Olivenhain Municipal Water District has partnered with neighboring water districts—San Dieguito Water District, Santa Fe Irrigation District, and Carlsbad Municipal Water District—to offer discounted rain barrels to area residents this winter.
Rain barrels ordered by January 31, 2022 will be available for pick up at Solana Center for Environmental Innovation located at 137 North El Camino Real in Encinitas.
Fifty-gallon barrels are on sale for $97, with a final cost of $62 after a $35 rebate from water wholesaler Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Rebates on rain barrels and other water-saving measures are available at www.socalwatersmart.com.
Most California water districts will receive virtually no water next year from the State Water Project other than for health and safety needs amid “unprecedented drought conditions,” the state’s the Department of Water Resources announced Wednesday.
The announcement to zero out the State Water Project’s allocation for 2022 comes as officials anticipate a third straight dry year in California that has reservoirs at or nearing record lows.
In a statement Wednesday, DWR Director Karla Nemeth said preparations are needed now with a dry winter expected and with drought conditions likely to continue into next year.
“We will be working with our federal partners and SWP contractors to take a conservative planning approach to balance limited water supplies with the needs of residents, businesses, and the environment,” Nemeth said.
But the San Diego region is better off than other parts of the state, including elsewhere in Southern California, officials say. Since the 1990 drought, San Diego water experts have relied on multiple water sources and not just the state’s.
The Yuba County Water Agency might sell billions of gallons of water to Marin County through a proposed pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Under the proposed agreement, the agency would be able to sell Marin and the East Bay Municipal Utility District at least 10,000 acre-feet of water from its New Bullards Bar Reservoir at an estimated cost of more than $10 million.
With the drought showing no signs of abating, California officials announced Wednesday they plan to deliver almost no water from the State Water Project to begin next year — and suggested that mandatory cutbacks in urban usage could come if conditions stay dry.
Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, said the various cities and farm-irrigation districts that belong to the State Water Project — the elaborate state-run network of reservoirs and canals — are getting “essentially a zero allocation” to start 2022.
California water regulators have proposed new emergency drought regulations that would prohibit a wide range of wasteful water behaviors for the entire state.
On Tuesday, the State Water Resources Control Board released a draft of the regulations that would prohibit “excessive” irrigation, ban the use of potable water for street cleaning and forbid landscape irrigation within 48 hours of a rain storm, among other things.
The new mandatory rules would be enforced by local water agencies and people found to be wasting water could face fines, according to a statement from the Water Board, which will vote on the proposal sometime in January for the entire state.
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