Ramona and the city of Poway are pursuing an agreement to share drinking water resources when needed.
Both agencies say the exchange of water – by selling water to each other – would save them both money and increase their water supply reliability.
A study released in May, The Magnitude of California’s Water Challenges, anticipated annual statewide water supply losses in the coming decades as follows: ending groundwater overdraft 2-3 million acre-feet (MAF), less from the Colorado River 0.5-0.8 MAF, climate change 1-3 MAF, and increases to required environmental flows 1-2 MAF. The total losses? 4.6 to 9 MAF per year. It’s easy enough to quibble over these estimates, but a more productive response is to propose ways we can sustainably harvest more water in California. So that’s what we have done.
It’s been said in different ways by a variety of people, but there’s more than just a grain of truth in it: If the federal bureaucracy or a socialist regime were ever put in charge of the Sahara Desert, there would eventually be a shortage of sand. This helps explain why there is such a scarcity of water in California that permanent use restrictions have been, for the first time in the state’s history, set.
On July 3, the California State Water Resources Control Board approved the rules for “Making Conservation a California Way of Life.” Under this framework, retail water suppliers are going to have to figure out how to meet the imposed “water use objective,” which “is 70% or less of the supplier’s average annual water use” in 2024-26 by July 2040.
There are three go-to topics of conversation for Angelenos: weather, traffic and water. Our city is perpetually trying to rid itself of H20 or thirsting for it. Those opposing needs shaped L.A.’s topography and made a mythic king out of a self-taught engineer from Belfast. And recent drought has forced us to confront the reality of climate change, rethink our water sources and dig up our lawns.
Given how large water supply looms in the minds of Californians, our access to it in L.A. feels especially miraculous, and — during the relentless radiating heat of summer — uniquely enlivening.
The California Department of Water Resources announced an increased water supply allocation for 2024.
The forecasted allocation has increased to 40%, up from 30% last month.
The increase would provide an additional 420,000 acre-feet of water, according to the department. That’s enough water to serve around 1.5 million households for a year.
After a dry start to winter, California’s rainy season is finally well under way. December downpours sent water racing through streets in coastal Ventura County and the city of Santa Barbara. Flash floods hit San Diego in late January, and back-to-back atmospheric river-fueled storms arrived earlier this month, causing wind damage in Northern California and hundreds of mudslides in Los Angeles.
In the past few decades, we have witnessed the pendulum swinging back and forth in California between managing drought, to questions about how we will handle too much water. While the weather might be fickle, one thing is certain, climate change will make extreme weather more common and will require residents to invest in their stormwater infrastructure.
As the rain year continues to look promising, rice farmers are happy to expect most if not all of their water allocations will be delivered.
This week the Department of Water Resources announced a 75% water allocation to the irrigation districts served by the State Water Project.
The devastating drought is continuing to ravage the Central Valley and is creating more of a water crisis for farmers.
Right along the edge of West Fresno County sits miles and miles of uprooted almond trees. Farmer Joe Del Bosque says he’s never seen it like this.
When you go to the grocery store and fill the cart with food for your family, you are part of a long process that begins with soil, water, sunlight and the labor of farmers and farm workers. Most likely, the farms that grow most of your food are in a neighboring rural area or within a day’s drive from your home. California grows 61 percent of U.S.-produced fruits, nuts and vegetables. Many of our winter fruits and vegetables come from the Imperial and Coachella valleys as well as from the San Joaquin, Salinas and Sacramento valleys the remainder of the year.
