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Nevada Looks to Conservation as Colorado River Dwindles

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Daniel Rothberg

Only a few miles from the Las Vegas Strip, in the Mojave Desert, is an unlikely scene: A county park with walking trails and thick vegetation that circles a vibrant rush of flowing water.

Known as the Las Vegas Wash, the water running through this channel is a crucial part of how Nevada has managed to keep its net Colorado River use below its allocation, despite booming population growth and two decades of persistent drought, worsened by a changing climate.

 

(AP EDITOR’S NOTE: This is part of a collaborative series on the Colorado River as the 100th anniversary of the historic Colorado River Compact approaches. The Associated Press, The Colorado Sun, The Albuquerque Journal, The Salt Lake Tribune, The Arizona Daily Star and The Nevada Independent are working together to explore the pressures on the river in 2022.)

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Supervisors Take 1st Step to Overhaul Water, Drought Management Strategies

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Elizabeth Ireland and City News Service

The Board of Supervisors directed the chief administrative officer Wednesday to update the county’s water and drought-management strategies, including sustainability efforts, and deliver a final report within the next year.

The overhaul, proposed by board Vice Chairwoman Nora Vargas, will incorporate the entire region, including local municipalities, Imperial County and bi-national cities.

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As the Colorado River Shrinks, Water Managers See Promise in Recycling Sewage

/in , /by /KUNCby Alex Hager

In the parched Colorado River basin, water managers are turning over every stone looking for ways to keep the taps flowing. Now, they’re finding more water in some unusual places – shower drains and toilet flushes.

At a sprawling sewage treatment plant in Carson, California, the occasional breeze delivers a pungent whiff of a reminder of how used water becomes “reused.” Here, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is planting the seeds for a massive new facility, where a multi-billion-dollar installation could help recycle wastewater and keep drinking supply flowing for the agency’s 19 million customers.

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Solvang to Consider Construction Moratorium Due to Drought Conditions

/in , , /by /Santa Ynez Valley Newsby Jennifer Best

Solvang City Council members Monday requested a construction moratorium in the face of drought conditions. The issue will be placed on their agenda for the Oct. 10 meeting for public input and council action.

“You’ve heard already here, and if you’ve been listening to the planning commission you’ve probably been getting e-mails, that maybe we should consider a construction moratorium until we get out of this drought. We are forcing everybody to take rather large cutbacks in water, and then you want to add in a hotel or apartments or whatever else,” Council Member Mark Infanti said.

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Opinion: Can We Save the Diminishing Colorado River?

/in , /by /The Hillby Bruce Yandle

Years of hot, dry conditions and population growth across the Southwest have brought painful reductions in Colorado River water flow allocations to Arizona, California, Nevada and Mexico. Based on a 1920s multi-state pact, the Department of the Interior sounds an alarm when the river’s reservoirs fall to extremely low levels, leaving states with no choice but to severely cut their water use, limiting consumption by agriculture, industry and citizens.

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Farming, Water and Wall Street On Colorado’s Western Slope

/in , /by /AP Newsby Chris Outcalt

Under the blazing afternoon sun, Joe Bernal navigates a shiny-green John Deere tractor onto a dirt road a few miles north of downtown Fruita. Bernal is headed to cut hay in a field a few hundred feet down the road. On his way, he points out the land his family has acquired over the years. His grandparents had 150 acres over there. His parents bought this land here. His great grandparents, who showed up in 1925, lived in a house right there.

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Opinion: Water Woes Will Only Get Worse for California

/in , /by /Antelope Valley Press

We are so technologically advanced, that we can send messages to people thousands of miles away in mere seconds; we have access to a world of knowledge with a few computer keystrokes, cars can drive themselves and phones are mini computers that we carry in our pockets. 

Despite all the strides the human race has made to make life more convenient, we still struggle with things like drought, climate change and water shortages.

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Vallecitos Water District Landscape Makeover Winners Lead By Example

/in , , /by /Water News Network

Three San Marcos families invested their time and effort into transforming their front yards into beautiful water-efficient designs. Their hard work has paid off in lower water bills and being named the winners of the 2022 Vallecitos Water District Landscape Makeover Contest.

 

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A Rare Third Year of La Niña is on Deck for California, Forecasters Say

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hayley Smith

Californians should brace for another year of La Niña as the stubborn climate pattern in the tropical Pacific is expected to persist for a third consecutive year, forecasters say.

The latest outlook, published Thursday by the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, has increased the chances of La Niña sticking around through November to 91%, a near certainty. The pattern may also linger into winter, with an 80% chance of La Niña from November to January and a 54% chance from January to March.

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A Warmer, Drier West: A Detailed History and Possible Future of Water Use in the West

/in , , /by /KCETby Kim Stringfellow

On October 13, 1893, Major John Wesley Powell, celebrated explorer, geologist and Civil War veteran, addressed delegates of the Second Irrigation Congress in Los Angeles, declaring to the capitalists, politicians and boosters attending (and whose main agenda was to develop the arid West), “What matters it whether I am popular or unpopular? I tell you, gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply these lands.” Powell’s blunt prophetic statement did not win support. The delegates booed him off the stage.

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