Most Californians agree the state’s drought situation is very serious, but only a minority of voters say they and their families have been significantly affected by the current water shortage, according to a new poll.
The survey of more than 9,000 voters statewide found that 71% said the state’s water shortage is “extremely serious,” while 23% described it as somewhat serious.
In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains, buzzing chainsaws interrupt the serenity. Crews are hustling to remove charred trees and other debris that have been washing down the mountainsides in the wake of the largest wildfire in New Mexico’s recorded history, choking rivers and streams.
Heavy equipment operators are moving boulders dislodged by the daily torrential summer rains that have followed the flames.
About 300 miles southwest of San Antonio, water taps have run dry in a major Mexico city.
Thousands of residents wake up at dawn to check their taps and fill up containers. Others line up with large jugs, bottles and buckets at cisterns around the city, where fights have broken out when people try to jump the line.
It was the end of a fight that lasted for almost a decade. On 12 May 2022, the California Coastal Commission, which has a legal mandate to protect the coastline of the US state, voted to deny the building permit for a large seawater-desalination plant that was proposed to be erected near Huntington Beach. Ever since the application to build the plant was made in 2013, this mega-project has been dividing experts, politicians and activists.
The western United States continues to suffer from a historic level of drought. California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot spoke during the Western Food and Ag Issues Summit hosted by Agri-Pulse. He offers a key example of the drought’s severity.
“We are facing a worsening regional drought across most of the American West that’s unprecedented in nature. I spent the first half an hour of my day with the Western Growers talking about the Colorado River Basin.”
The Colorado River’s precipitous decline pushed Arizona lawmakers to deliver Gov. Doug Ducey’s $1 billion water augmentation fund — and then some — late Friday, their final night in session.
Before the votes, the growing urgency for addressing the state’s oncoming water shortage and the long timeline for approving and building new water projects nearly sank the legislation.
Millions of residents of southern California are now limited to one day a week of outdoor irrigation, just like a huge chunk of northern Utah.
The restrictions in play are the result of the worst drought in the western United States in 12 centuries, the severity of which was reported in a scientific journal earlier this year.
Mission Springs Water District implemented several water conservation measures on Wednesday, including a ban on outdoor water use for spray irrigation during daylight hours.
An emergency regulation approved by the State Water Resources Control Board last week requires urban water suppliers to implement their Level 2 demand reduction actions by June 10.
The Imperial Irrigation District is preparing a water apportionment plan for Imperial Valley growers to rein in a projected water overrun after the federal government declared a water shortage, reducing the amount of water that Arizona, Nevada and Mexico can claim from the Colorado River.
The IID holds the largest and most secure federal entitlement on the Colorado River, but current Bureau of Reclamation projections show the district exceeding its allocation by more than 92,000 acre-feet of water this year as grain prices reach record highs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Marin Water Board of Directors rescinded the county’s water shortage emergency declaration and updated its water use rules this week, adopting new requirements for outdoor irrigation and swimming pools.
A water emergency in Marin County was declared in the fall of 2021 after reserves reached critically low levels. According to the water board, the county’s reservoirs are way up and are currently at 90 percent capacity due to record rainfall that arrived in October and December of last year.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
