Tag Archive for: Water Supply

Opinion: The Feds Can Curb a Foolish California Water Giveaway

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Editorial Board

About 15 miles north of Fresno sits Millerton Lake, a reservoir created in the 1930s when the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation built Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River. The dam provides irrigation water for fields and groves in much of the San Joaquin Valley, but it wiped out the Chinook salmon migration that had existed on the river for tens of thousands of years.

It also threatened the rights of landowners to divert naturally flowing San Joaquin River water for their fields. Instead of losing their rights, though, farmers who had land near the river agreed to trade their water to the federal dam project in exchange for “substitute water,” delivered to them from the Sacramento River.

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Los Angeles is Running Out of Water, and Time. Are Leaders Willing to Act?

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

On a clear afternoon recently, Mayor Eric Garcetti looked down at the Hollywood Reservoir from 1,200 feet in the air.

“It’s as low as I can ever remember it being,” Garcetti said of the reservoir from the back seat of a Los Angeles Department of Water and Power helicopter. “You can see the bathtub ring.”

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Amid Historic Drought, California Expected to Approve $140 Million Desalination Plant

/in , /by /Reutersby Daniel Trotta

A $140 million desalination plant is expected to be approved by California regulators on Thursday as the U.S. state contends with how to convert ocean water into drinking water amid the worst drought in 1,200 years.

Just five months ago, the Coastal Commission by an 11-0 vote rejected a privately owned plant that would have been 10 times the size of the proposed South Coast Water District’s Doheny Ocean Desalination Project in Orange County, just south of Los Angeles.

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Marin Municipal Water District to Preview New Supply Options

/in , , /by /Marin Independent Journalby Will Houston

As part of its study of new water supplies, the Marin Municipal Water District is planning a public workshop later this month to review how it will rate and compare the various options it is considering.

The online meeting at 5 p.m. Oct. 25 will provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions of district staff and its consultants who are drafting the water supply report.

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Expect More ‘Climate Surprises’ With California’s Water Supply

/in , , /by /Agri-Pulseby Brad Hooker

Water managers are preparing for a warm winter, a worse drought and a chance of biblical floods. As California discovered last year, the weather can swing wildly from one extreme to the next each month—offering little reliability for farmers planting winter crops or planning for the next irrigation season.

Conditions are lining up for a rare third year of La Niña, which tends to bring heavier precipitation to the Pacific Northwest and drier weather to most of California. Last year two atmospheric rivers delivered the bulk of the water supply in October and December, with total precipitation adding up to 76% of average for the water year that ended last month. But the last two winters have demonstrated that an adequate snowpack can disappear in just weeks under spring heat waves.

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Sacramento RegionalSan Expands Water Recycling Capacity With New Facility

/in , , /by /CapRadioby Randol White

One of the largest public works projects in Sacramento’s history has been quietly under construction, out of sight for most people in the region.

Sacramento RegionalSan is upgrading its wastewater processing facility in Elk Grove, which processes wastewater from customers across Sacramento County, and West Sacramento in Yolo County. On an average day, 150 million gallons of wastewater is handled at the facility.

 

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Opinion: Climate Change Forces California to Make Long-Term Adjustments, Immediate Water Cuts

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Michael Smolens

Internationally, the polar bear may be the climate-change canary in a coal mine.

Locally, it could be the avocado.

The fruit so identified with San Diego County agriculture has been on the decline for years. Severe weather, water availability and rising water prices — at least in part attributed to climate change — have reduced the yield of the crop and the revenue it generates.

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A California City’s Water Supply is Expected to Run Out in Two Months

/in , , /by /Washington Postby Joshua Partlow

The residents of this sun-scorched city feel California’s endless drought when the dust lifts off the brown hills and flings grit into their living rooms. They see it when they drive past almond trees being ripped from the ground for lack of water and the new blinking sign at the corner of Elm and Cherry warning: “No watering front yard lawns.”

The fire chief noticed it when he tested hydrants in August — a rare occurrence as Coalinga desperately seeks to conserve water — and the first one shot out a foot-long block of compacted dirt. The second one ejected a can of Axe body spray.

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A Judge Recommends Approving Pure Water Monterey Expansion, in What Could Change the Water Landscape

/in , , /by /Monteray County Weeklyby David Schmalz

The future water supply of the Monterey Peninsula got a big boost Sept. 30 when Anne Simon, an administrative law judge appointed by the California Public Utilities Commission, issued a proposed decision that, if approved by the CPUC next month, would authorize an expansion of the Pure Water Monterey recycled water project.

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Feds Propose Protections for California’s Longfin Smelt

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Michael Doyle

The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed Endangered Species Act protections Thursday for a crucial population of the longfin smelt, an unassuming California fish that has pit farmers against environmentalists and could end up redirecting the future course of the state’s water.

Reversing earlier calls made during both the Obama and Trump administrations, FWS said the San Francisco Bay-Delta distinct population segment of longfin smelt should be added to the list of endangered species.

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