As the Biden administration kicks off a years-long negotiation process to divvy up the shrinking water supply of the Colorado River, there are finally some signs of optimism after several bleak years.
A record-breaking winter snowpack last year halted a precipitous downward spiral on the river and raised water levels at the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lakes Mead and Powell.
On Tuesday night, the Redding City Council unanimously voted to sign a letter of opposition regarding water regulations that have been approved for the state of California.
City council voted to take a stand against “Making Conservation A Way Of Life” a strategy approved by the State Water Board in early 2023 and now officially in effect.
Every manifestation of the dangerous weather wreaking havoc around the world has one thing in common: water. As the Earth’s climate changes, the lack of water, or its sudden abundance, is reshaping the global economy and international trade. From prolonged drought slowing down ships in the Panama Canal to deluges halting industrial production in Japan, it’s one of the most obvious ways that rising temperatures are affecting businesses.
The California Water Service in Bakersfield hosted their annual ‘Imagine a Day Without Water.’ The day aims to highlight the essential nature of water.
Officials with Cal Water gave us a tour of their Northeast Bakersfield plant that adds around 20 million gallons of water to the city’s water supply every day.
San Diego has secure water supplies that are the envy of many agencies throughout the western United States.
The key to this was an agreement reached 20 years ago this week with the Imperial Irrigation District to send Colorado River water from that desert farming region to San Diego County.
The nation’s largest agriculture-to-urban water transfer was primarily accomplished through vast payments by San Diego to Imperial Valley farmers to modernize their
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.
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.
One week away from the city of Escondido voting on a potential double-digit water rate increase, council members received a presentation about the rate increase already decided on by San Diego County Water Authority.
“The board ultimately chose to go with a smoothing approach for the rate increases with an effective rate increase of 9.5% for calendar year 2024,” said Tish Berge, deputy general manager for SDCWA.
Berge explained the smoothing approach meant projected future increases wouldn’t be as steep. The county water authority cites several similar factors as the city for needing to raise the rate like inflation and maintaining infrastructure, but they also say they’ve lost money as a result of more frequent rainfall.
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.
San Vicente Dam, completed in 1943, was designed for ‘200-year extreme rainfall’ (the heaviest rain that will fall once every 200 years). However, when the worst drought hit California in 1991, the state government and residents agreed to prepare for climate change and decided to expand.
