Tag Archive for: Drought

How California Reservoir Water Levels Will Change, According to Predictions

Many of California’s reservoirs are far above their average capacity, but water levels are expected to change as the winter season progresses.

The U.S. Southwest has suffered from years of drought, and until recently, the most severe impacts have been centered around Lake Mead and Lake Powell and much of California. Last year, none of California was free from drought, and more than 16 percent of the state suffered from exceptional drought, which is the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) most extreme classification.

California Bans Watering Grass at Certain Businesses

A bill signed into law Friday by Governor Gavin Newsom will now ban certain businesses from watering its grass in an effort to reduce water usage.

The bill is modeled after the State placed similar rules on commercial, industrial and government agencies from using drinking water for grass deemed “non-functional” in 2022.

QSA: Landmark Conservation Pact Marks 20 Years of Water Security for San Diego

Twenty years ago, in October 2003, water officials from across the Southwest signed the largest water conservation-and-transfer agreement in U.S. history, the QSA, or Quantification Settlement Agreement. The agreement has provided decades of water security for San Diego County and benefits for numerous partners across the Southwest. In total, that pact supplies more than half of the water that sustains San Diego County’s 3.3 million residents and $268 billion economy.

Opinion: We Must Approach Recycled Water Solution With Open Mind

In Marin County, we have limited options when we face the next, inevitable drought. Recycled water, the reuse of purified wastewater, is one of the most viable options and belongs in the water supply of every urban area of coastal California.

Reliable Water Supplies Make San Diego Region Well-Prepared for 2024

Thanks to a decades-long supply diversification strategy and continued efficient use of water across the region, the San Diego County Water Authority announced that the region has reliable supplies to meet demands in Water Year 2024, which started October 1.

Hydrologists use Oct. 1 to begin measuring the snow and rain that will help carry water users through dry summer months the following calendar year. This fall, El Niño conditions continue to strengthen and could bring above-average precipitation to Southern California.

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Reliable Water Supplies Make San Diego Region Well-Prepared for 2024

Thanks to a decades-long supply diversification strategy and continued efficient use of water across the region, the San Diego County Water Authority announced that the region has reliable supplies to meet demands in Water Year 2024, which started October 1.

Hydrologists use Oct. 1 to begin measuring the snow and rain that will help carry water users through dry summer months the following calendar year. This fall, El Niño conditions continue to strengthen and could bring above-average precipitation to Southern California. In a recent El Niño forecast by NOAA, there is a greater than 95% chance that El Niño continues across the Northern Hemisphere through the winter into 2024. The chance of a “strong” El Niño is 71%.

“San Diego County continues to have the water necessary to support our $268 billion economy and quality of life for 3.3 million residents,” said Mel Katz, chair of the Water Authority Board of Directors. “We are grateful for the reprieve from drought – but we recognize that dry times will return, probably sooner than later. We are ready when they do.”

Despite significant rain and snow over the past 12 months, longer-term trends indicate a hotter, drier Southwest climate. Across the arid Southwest, water agencies are spending billions of dollars to increase water supply reliability as they balance the costs of investments against the costs of not having enough water for homes and businesses.

Long-term investments and water-use efficiency sustain region

Since the early 1990s, the Water Authority and its 24 member agencies have made major investments in supply reliability, including in the landmark conservation-based 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement, which provides over half of the region’s water, the building of the nation’s largest seawater desalination plant, and in the maintaining and upgrading of water infrastructure. That strategy has paid off during dry times. Just one year ago, the situation was dramatically different in other parts of Southern California, as millions of residents were reduced to health and safety water rations – though regional investments meant the San Diego region was spared.

Reliable water supplies

Compared to recent years, the new water year begins with improved supply conditions at the Water Authority’s two imported water sources – the Colorado River and the Sierra Nevada. On the Colorado River, a good water year and conservation efforts raised storage levels, prompting the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to declare that California will not face supply restrictions through 2024.

Meanwhile, in Northern California, Lake Oroville and San Luis Reservoir – two key State Water Project reservoirs – had 2.76 million more acre-feet in storage combined at the end of August 2023 compared to the prior August. (An acre-foot is approximately 325,900 gallons, or enough water to meet the annual needs of three typical single-family households.)

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The San Diego County Water Authority added desalinated seawater to its supply portfolio in 2015 with the start of commercial operations at the nation’s largest seawater desalination plant. Photo: San Diego County Water Authority

In the San Diego region, water users also benefit from the Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad Desalination Plant, as well as increased water storage levels in many local reservoirs. At the end of August 2023, member agency local storage was up 137,400 acre-feet, or 80%, compared to the same time in 2022. Meanwhile, the Water Authority had approximately 100,000 acre-feet available in emergency and carryover storage. This represents emergency storage for up to six-months and carryover storage to minimize or avoid potential supply cutbacks during periods of drought or other supply shortage events.

Making Water Conservation a ‘California Way of Life’: Controversial State Rules Could Cost $13 Billion

Saying the targets to cut water use in cities and towns will be costly and difficult to achieve, water agencies throughout California have raised concerns about an ambitious state proposal that would require more water conservation statewide beginning in 2025.

 

Could Seafloor Desalination Be a Drought Solution?

A water district known for supplying celebrities and affluent communities like Hidden Hills and Calabasas is trying a new approach for collecting fresh water.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water district is studying the feasibility of harvesting drinking water from desalination pods on the ocean’s floor.

How Top Lawmakers Are Working to Secure Arizona’s Drinking Water

The Colorado River is one of the most important sources of fresh water in the United States, flowing through Arizona and six other states.

According to the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation, it provides water to nearly 40 million people for municipal use.

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WaterSmart Moves Pay Off for Fallbrook Avocado Farm

Josh Kane didn’t know a lot about avocado farming 10 years ago, but he does now.

In 2001, Kane’s mother bought a 60-acre avocado farm, the Rice Canyon Ranch, in Fallbrook, thinking it would be a good investment. But, some not-so-good advice, and the 2014 drought, had the business in a nosedive.

So, Kane quit his job in commercial real estate and stepped in to help his mom turn the farm around, or “they would have lost the investment,” said Kane.

During that time, the Fallbrook area had been a hub for agriculture, specifically avocados. But many farms ceased operating due to a complex suite of factors that include increasing water and labor costs, competition from imports, and climate volatility.

Rice Canyon took a long-term investment perspective and invested in innovative measures, including tree stumping and grafting. Those strategies, along with smart irrigation, helped turn the farm around. But challenges remain.

Award-winning water-use efficiency

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Water Savings Incentive Program, or WSIP, helped Kane to increase water-use efficiency at the farm. Rice Canyon Ranch and Kane were recognized with an award. He was one of six honorees selected based on their remarkable water-saving projects and facility upgrades funded by the WSIP.

Each unique project was recognized in a May 2023 ceremony for its technological innovations, environmental stewardship and water sustainability.

Metropolitan’s One Water Awards ceremony at the California Endowment in Los Angeles honored organizations that used funding from the WSIP to make major improvements to their water management operations and equipment, such as installing smart irrigation technology, water recirculation systems and soil moisture sensors.

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The Rice Canyon Ranch avocado farm. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Long-term sustainable change

“The transformation of daily operations for these organizations translates into long-term, sustainable change for entire communities,” said Metropolitan General Manager Adel Hagekhalil. “The ceremony demonstrated that when everyone does what they can to use less water, we produce real water savings that benefits millions.”

Named for Metropolitan’s approach to water management that values and acknowledges that all water resources are connected, the One Water Awards program amplifies the success of participants in its WSIP. The program provides funding to commercial, industrial, institutional and agricultural customers that make water efficiency upgrades to their facilities but may not qualify for Metropolitan’s standard commercial rebate programs. It pays up to $0.60 per 1,000 gallons of water saved annually through customized projects that are developed by each organization to fit its needs.

“Outside of the box” strategies for avocado farm

The WSIP program and incentives were critical to implementing Rice Canyon’s strategies and have helped significantly reduce costs.

Rice Canyon replaced existing, or old trees, with “high-density planting.” How did removing old trees and high-density planting save water and money?

Kane says Haas avocado trees reach up to “40 feet and out 50 feet, it’s a massive tree and older trees would climb higher and higher in the old way of growing.”

Instead of planting trees like the typical spacing for avocado farms in the past, the new trees were planted on 10 feet by 10 feet spacing. Kane says that change to smaller spacing allowed reduced water usage, reduced loss due to deep percolation, inhibited weed growth, and excessive evaporation loss through overgrown canopies. Plant “material changes” meant using mulch to save water.

“Avocado roots are only about six inches deep, so they require a lot of water,” Kane explained. “But adding a layer of mulch keeps the roots wet, reducing irrigation and saving water.”

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The 60-acre Rice Canyon Ranch avocado farm is supplied with water from the San Diego County Water Authority and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, one of the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies. Photo: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

Tree spacing to save water

“With the fruits on the canopy – and all the water needed to pull the water up to the canopy – a 9-foot-tall tree, cutting and pruning it back, is more efficient with the sun, space and way more efficient with the water,” said Kane.

Kane says before the changes in tree spacing, use of mulch, and smart irrigation, the water costs for the avocado farm were about $250,000 a year.

“Our water costs are about $62,000 a year now, a cut of roughly 75-percent, which is huge,” Kane said.

He said the farm received $238,000 from the WSIP program for the water-efficiency project and the operation now saves about 34-38 million gallons of water a year. Kane says the 10-year projected water savings is 350 million gallons.

Even with the grant, and all the changes to the farm – including smart irrigation techniques, Kane says competition from outside the U.S. is a big factor in making a profit.

“We’re giving it a go and trying, but the price per pound – with competition from a lot of overseas fruit, from Mexico, Argentina, Peru – is a key factor for us,” said Kane.

WaterSmart advice for growers

“Farming is not easy by any means,” said Kane. “The price we get for our avocados is about the same per pound today as we got 10 years ago. There are no guarantees, but the way we had to make it work was to reduce water expenses as much as we could.”

Kane has this advice to remain profitable for other growers of avocados or similar crops for smart irrigation.

“You have to think outside the box to make it, decrease expenses and increase profits – never stop learning,” said Kane. “Any old time farmer growing avocados the same way as 40 years ago, must change and adapt with the times.”

He says despite the water cost savings, use of water sensors and other changes, growing avocados for Rice Canyon is a tough business.

“It is a labor of love, not a business of income, but the water grant gets us closer to making it work,” said Kane.

(Editor’s Note: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a water wholesaler. Since 1990, Metropolitan has invested nearly $1 billion in conservation programs, saving about 3.5 million acre-feet of water. Rice Canyon Ranch is supplied with water from the San Diego County Water Authority and the Rainbow Municipal Water District, one of the Water Authority’s 24 member agencies.)