Millions of people rely on water from the Colorado River, but there’s just not enough to quench everyone’s thirst. In other words, there’s a big gap between the amount of water in the river, and the amount that people are using.
When a toilet is flushed in California, the water can end up in a lot of places — the ice in a skating rink, the manufactured snow on ski slopes, in pipes providing irrigation for farmland. And — coming soon — in your drinking glass.
In the minds of many Californians, El Niño has long loomed as a rainmaker of epic proportions. In 1982-83, the Pacific climate pattern caused storms that pounded the state’s shoreline, damaging 1,000 homes between Santa Barbara and the Mexican border and washing the tip of the Santa Monica Pier out to sea.
In a historic effort to protect the Colorado River from extended drought, the San Diego County Water Authority and five other major California water districts have signed the first of a series of agreements to save 1.6 million acre-feet of water.
The Biden administration has announced new water-saving agreements with California water agencies intended to shore up supplies on the overburdened Colorado River.
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.
Over the next two decades, Los Angeles County will collect billions more gallons in water from local sources, especially storm and reclaimed water, shifting from its reliance on other region’s water supplies as the effects of climate change make such efforts less reliable and more expensive.
As California grapples with worsening cycles of drought, a proposal to create a new water district in Butte County has sparked fears of a profit-driven water grab by large-scale farmers and outside interests.
As part of the historic Lower Basin Plan between Arizona, California and Nevada to conserve 3 million acre-feet of water by 2026 to protect the Colorado River system from extended drought, the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors on Friday, Dec. 1 unanimously approved the 2023 System Conservation Implementation Agreement with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation.
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.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
