And if California is to ever truly meet its water needs without further stealing from one region — the Owens Valley, the delta — for the benefit of essentially arid lands, it eventually must reprioritize water usage and regulate crops. Government long has regulated land use for shopping malls, factories and dumps. Why not also
The adoption of a Merced County ordinance regulating groundwater transfers was halted today by a handful of last-minute comments and suggestions from stakeholders, including a text message sent by Merced Irrigation District’s general manager to the county CEO. The groundwater ordinance was set for a first reading at the Board of Supervisors meeting today, but
As California struggles through the drought, the first to suffer are rural residents with shallow private wells and limited incomes. They live in cabins in Modoc County, among the golden rolling hills of Paso Robles, in the farmworker towns of the San Joaquin Valley and a chaparral-covered valley in northern Los Angeles County. Their growing
A hydraulic study shows the Tulare water delivery system may be over committed, City Manager Don Dorman said. The study shows water production to meet demands from Tulare residents, Matheny Tract dwellers, who will be added, and county residents, some of whom are seeking a safe water source, must be increased, Dorman said. “Without substantial,
After three years of historically dry and hot weather, the images of California’s drought have become familiar: empty fields, brown lawns, dry stream beds. But for every one of those scenes, there are other parts of the state where water has been flowing freely and the effects of drought are hard to see. It’s all
California lawmakers’ failure to pass water legislation this Congress raises questions about strategy, tactics and the ability to learn from falling short. It also sets the stage for next year when – wait for it – the whole anti-drought drama returns for an encore. On Thursday night, the House concluded its work for the 113th
After three years of relentlessly bad news about California's historic drought, the drenching storm that barreled in Thursday from Hawaii finally delivered the state some desperately needed good news. One storm does not end a drought as severe as this one, meteorologists and water managers emphasized again Thursday. But this storm and last week's milder
The recipe for San Francisco’s famously delicious tap water is, gulp, about to change. Most city spigots, which, since the 1930s, have gushed water from Yosemite’s pristine Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, will start delivering the Sierra supply blended with a splash of local groundwater — by many measures, a far inferior source. The San Francisco Public Utilities
The State Water Project, which carries runoff from the mountains of Northern California to much of the state, expects to limit annual water deliveries to 10 percent of what is requested in the coming year due to the prolonged drought. The cutback announced Monday, while not unexpected, is another reminder of California’s precarious water situation
More than two-thirds of California voters authorized the state to borrow more than $7 billion to improve a water system strained by more than three years of drought. Now the difficult job of smartly targeting problems and effectively implementing projects is beginning. With that huge amount of money on the table, many government and non-governmental