Avenal will get an emergency allotment of water to prevent the dire scenario of the city going completely dry this year, a Bureau of Reclamation official announced Tuesday. The amount – 450 acre-feet – had been requested by Avenal officials. They calculated it was enough to meet the town’s basic needs through March 1, 2015,
The federal government — in a move questioned by some biologists as to its effectiveness — is going to release 23,000 acre feet of water in October from New Melones during the fall run of Chinook salmon in the Stanislaus River. That’s enough water to supply the domestic needs of the cities of Manteca, Ripon,
The giant wholesaler that provides drinking water for half the California population has drained two-thirds of its stored supplies as the state contends with a punishing drought, officials said Monday. Without plentiful rain and snow in coming months, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California could consider cutbacks to its regional distributors next year. If such limits
The survey, by the Public Policy Institute of California, also determined likely voter sentiment on other major issues: • Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown leads Republican Neel Kashkari by 21 percentage points in the race for governor, with the challenger failing to alter the dynamic after their only scheduled debate. Brown, running for a historic fourth term, leads
California’s Supreme Court is being pressed to take up a case that could dramatically alter oversight for groundwater, building on a landmark water rights ruling the court made a generation ago. Earlier this summer, a Sacramento Superior Court judge ruled that rural Siskiyou County in Northern California must consider people downstream who depend on the
With California’s reservoir levels dropping, just about everyone is wishing the state had gotten more water this year. That doesn’t just depend on the weather, according to a team of scientists. Sierra Nevada forests play a big role in the state’s water supply. Just like crops, trees consume water. And Sierra Nevada forests are denser
A recent survey of California almond growers shows that the state's devastating drought has forced many farmers to drill new wells, rely on salty groundwater and bulldoze trees. The survey offers a glimpse into farming practices for one of the state's largest crops -- 860,000 acres statewide. Almonds are grown widely in the San Joaquin
For the first time in its history, California will establish statewide management of water pumped from the ground, under legislation signed this week by Gov. Jerry Brown. The package of regulations was heralded by supporters as a long-overdue step in changing the state's laissez-faire approach to underground water sources that can account for up to 60%
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Authorities in the most over-pumped basins would have to submit sustainability plans to the state by January 2020. Other basins ranked as a priority would have another two years to adopt a plan. The agencies would then have an additional 20 years to stop serious overdraft, which means the full force of the measures wouldn't