Tag Archive for: Water Supply

Opinion: One Size Doesn’t Fit All for Drought Response, but All Californians Must Help

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Steve Welch and Sandy Kerl

All Californians play a role in preserving and enhancing our water supplies for a drought-resilient future. California again is in a familiar state of drought, although not all communities are affected equally.

Some regions are in extreme water shortage; others are not. We must address these differences. That starts with all Californians understanding where their water comes from and what they can do to use it wisely.

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Water Authority General Manager Sandra Kerl Named CUWA Board Chair

/in , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

San Diego County Water Authority General Manager Sandra L. Kerl is taking the reins as board chair of California Urban Water Agencies (CUWA), a nonprofit corporation that supports development of sound water policy statewide.

The Water Authority is one of 11 member agencies of CUWA that are collectively responsible for serving drinking water to about two-thirds of California’s population. As the united voice for the state’s largest urban water purveyors, CUWA provides a technical perspective to promote common understanding and consensus-based solutions for urban water issues.

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The West’s Most Important Water Supply is Drying Up. Soon, Life for 40 Million People Who Depend on the Colorado River Will Change.

/in , , /by /The Denver Postby Conrad Swanson

White sandstone cliffs create a ring around Lake Powell in contrast to the honey- and red-colored desert rock nearby. Evidence that water once, not all that long ago, filled America’s second-largest reservoir.

Fed by the Colorado River, Lake Powell, in south-central Utah, has seen wet years and dry years over the past two decades. Mostly dry years.

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After $100 Million Huntington Beach Denial, What’s the Future of Desalination in California?

/in , , /by /The Center Square by Madison Hirneisen and Cole Lauterbach

After a high profile, decades-long battle to build a desalination plant in Huntington Beach ended in denial, all eyes will be on the California Coastal Commission as it considers whether or not to approve two smaller desalination projects this fall.

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Opinion: Every Californian Holds the Key to Drought Response

/in , , /by /CalMattersby Sandy Kerl and Steve Welch Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

All Californians play a role in preserving and enhancing our water supplies for a drought-resilient future. California again is in a familiar state of drought, although not all communities are affected equally. Some regions are in extreme water shortage; others are not. We must address these differences. That starts with all Californians understanding where their water comes from and what they can do to use it wisely.

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Water Authority Proposes 2023 Rates and Charges for Member Agencies

/in , , /by /Water News Network Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority is taking strategic steps to minimize 2023 rate increases for its 24 member agencies and their customers while ensuring a safe, reliable, and affordable water supply as drought grips California for a third consecutive year.

Water Authority staff proposed increasing 2023 rates and charges for member agencies by 5.2% for treated water and 3.7% for untreated water. The increases are attributable to historically high inflation, significant energy cost increases from SDG&E, and continued cost increases by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

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California District Curbs Water Supply to Over-Users in Drought

/in , , /by /Reutersby Omar Yunis

As a historic drought grips southern California, one district is getting tough on water usage violators by reducing their supply directly from the source so that sprinklers and outdoor hoses no longer work.

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District in Calabasas, north of Los Angeles, places metal disks with a small hole into the main water supply lines to offending homes. Flow per minute drops from around 30 gallons to just one gallon – enough for cooking, washing dishes and showers, but not gardening.

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Major Water Cutbacks Loom as Shrinking Colorado River Nears ‘Moment of Reckoning’

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Ian James

As the West endures another year of unrelenting drought worsened by climate change, the Colorado River’s reservoirs have declined so low that major water cuts will be necessary next year to reduce risks of supplies reaching perilously low levels, a top federal water official said Tuesday.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton said during a Senate hearing in Washington that federal officials now believe protecting “critical levels” at the country’s largest reservoirs — Lake Mead and Lake Powell — will require much larger reductions in water deliveries.

(Editor’s Note: Sandra L. Kerl, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority, issued a statement on U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton’s testimony today before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on the severity of the drought on the Colorado River and need for near- and long-term innovation and investment: https://www.waternewsnetwork.com/san-diego-county-water-authority-general-manager-issues-statement-on-colorado-river-conditions-and-sustainability/)

 

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Feds Float Drastic Measures to Stanch California’s Water Crisis

/in , , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Janet Wilson

A top federal water official told Congress on Tuesday that shortages on the Colorado River system have taken an even grimmer turn, with a whopping 2 million to 4 million acre feet of reduction in water use needed by 2023 just to keep Lake Mead functioning and physically capable of delivering drinking water, irrigation and power to millions of people.

Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton testified early Tuesday to the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Committee that levels at the reservoir have dropped to an all-time low of 28% of capacity, with no relief in sight.

“There is so much to this that is unprecedented,” Touton said. “But unprecedented is now the reality and the normal in which Reclamation must manage our system, for warmer, drier weather is is what we are facing.”

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Fallbrook Public Utility District Celebrates 100 Years of Service

/in , , /by /Water News Network

The Fallbrook Public Utility District on June 5, celebrated its 100th year of providing water and sewer service in Fallbrook. From its first years serving 800 customers, the utility district, or FPUD, now supplies water to more than 35,000 residents in North San Diego County.

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