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In This California County, One Town Has No Water. Another Has Enough to Share.

/in , /by /The Washington Postby Scott Wilson

This town took a big step toward making fresh water along the rocky, wild North Coast of California.

As its wells ran dry this month, town officials looked to technology as an emergency measure, hoping to keep both residents and a lifeblood tourism industry with running faucets. The town spent $335,000 on a desalination plant, a small machine of tubes and pumps that officials christened earlier this month. Turning brackish water into useful water, the plant now provides a quarter of the local supply.

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Q&A: La Niña’s Back and It’s Not Good for Parts of Dry West

/in , , /by /AP Newsby Seth Borenstein

For the second straight year, the world heads into a new La Niña weather event. This would tend to dry out parts of an already parched and fiery American West and boost an already busy Atlantic hurricane season.

Just five months after the end of a La Niña that started in September 2020, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced a new cooling of the Pacific is underway.

 

How Much Is Water Worth? Why A Billionaire-Owned Stake In A California Water Bank Could Be Worth More Than $1 Billion

/in , , /by /Forbesby Michela Tindera and Chloe Sorvino

How much is access to water worth? In this episode, we aim to answer that question by looking at the Kern Water Bank, one of California’s largest underground water storage facilities. From above, it looks a lot like a giant puddle. But underneath it has the capacity to hold the equivalent of roughly 500 of New York City’s Central Park Reservoirs. And, as one expert says, it’s the “absolute jewel” of California water banking.

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‘Extreme Year’: Past 12 Months Among the Driest Ever in California History

/in , , /by /The Union Democratby Guy McCarthy

The current ongoing two-year dry period in California, punctuated by the third-driest water year on record for the Central Sierra, is part of California’s overall arid fate so far in the 21st century, according to the state Department of Water Resources.

The Golden State’s hydrology now increasingly resembles conditions in the Colorado River Basin this century, where multiple, consecutive, drier-than-average years are mixed with an occasional wet year. California’s last wet water year was 2016-2017, the second-wettest on record.

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Drought Emergency: San Jose Mayor Liccardo Proposes Outdoor Watering Limits To 2x/Week, Renews Calls To Conserve

/in , , /by /CBS SF Bay Area

San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo renewed calls for residents to conserve water and proposed outdoor watering restrictions Wednesday as California’s ongoing drought deepens.

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Water Is Scarce in California. But Farmers Have Found Ways to Store It Underground

/in , , /by /NPRby Dan Charles

Aaron Fukuda admits that the 15-acre sunken field behind his office doesn’t look like much.

It’s basically a big, wide hole in the ground behind the headquarters of the Tulare Irrigation District, in the southern part of California’s fertile Central Valley. But “for a water resources nerd like myself, it’s a sexy, sexy piece of infrastructure,” says Fukuda, the district’s general manager.

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Congress Approves $80 Million for Sites Reservoir

/in , , /by /Enterprise Recordby Chico Enterprise-Record

Congress approved a government funding bill last week that threw $80 million at the Sites Reservoir in California in order to keep the project on track.

The project is meant to hold 1.5 million acre-feet of water for the state to be used during droughts for agriculture, community usage and environmental need, said a press release issued Tuesday by the organization behind the Sites Reservoir.

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Drought: Marin Requests Reservoir Water for Rural Residents

/in , , /by /Marinijby Will Houston

As the deepening drought threatens to dry up some West Marin wells in the coming months, the county government wants to tap into dwindling reservoirs to avoid a potential public health emergency.

The county proposes to truck reservoir water for the next four months to an estimated 10 to 20 residences in areas such as Nicasio, San Geronimo Valley and Lucas Valley. The actual number of residents is not certain, county officials said, as qualification criteria are still being drafted.

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Banking on Water That Never Came

/in , , /by /Herald and Newsby Alex Schwartz Herald

Nestled below rocky outcroppings dotted with junipers on the eastern shore of old Tule Lake, John Prosser’s 97-acre homestead at Bloody Point is a haven amidst the chaos of the Klamath Basin water crisis.

Prosser, a history buff, purchased the property last fall, its fields having sat largely fallow for years despite the presence of a private irrigation well. By August, the field’s newly planted stand of alfalfa was busy rebounding after its first cutting — a rare sight of green in the Klamath Project this year.

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Supes Boost Water Reuse Requirements for New Buildings

/in , /by /San Francisco Examinerby Bay City News

New buildings will need to collect and reuse much more water than what is required for existing buildings, after the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved new regulations Tuesday.

The ordinance more than doubles the amount of water that new large buildings will be required to collect and reuse on site, said Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, its author. He said it also directs the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to come up with a plan for expanding The City’s supply and use of recycled water.

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