Less than one week until California’s new water year begins, experts say the state is nearly free of drought — but there is no guarantee that another wet winter is soon to arrive.
The state, according to the Sept. 19 U.S. Drought Monitor, is 93% free of drought, a big improvement since measuring at 72% drought-free three months ago.
Researchers from the U.S. Department of Agriculture have created a searchable atlas that compiles regional research and efforts to deal with water scarcity and drought.
The map, called the Water Adaptation Techniques Atlas, was developed by the agency’s Southwest and California Climate Hubs and so far contains 183 case studies from Arizona, California, New Mexico, Nevada and Utah.
Drought is a regular event in California. In recent decades, California has experienced five prolonged drought periods (1976-77, 1987-1992, 2007-09, 2011-16, 2020-22). Urban water agencies have responded with investments in supply and demand management measures, which have made California’s cities more resilient to drought effects. What motivated these investments?
The United States Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission held a citizens forum in Yuma about restoration efforts for the Colorado River Delta. Local leaders say it’s going to take a binational effort from Mexico and the U.S. to restore higher water levels in the Colorado River.
The Colorado River is the lifeblood of the Southwestern U.S., providing billions of gallons of water to cities and farms in states including Arizona and eventually down to Mexico. Estuaries along the river in Mexico dried up, losing vital habitats along the way. “Along the course of the Colorado River, most of the water isn’t there anymore,” said Karl Flessa, geosciences professor at the University of Arizona.
Water customers in the city of Napa will likely pay higher rates starting in 2024.
The city’s utilities department laid out the proposed increases – the first in three years – in a Tuesday presentation to the Napa City Council. Joy Eldredge, the city utilities director, made the case for rate hikes, stating that Napa’s water division will face an annual $6.8 million budget deficit if rates aren’t adjusted.
Residents living along Colorado’s northern Front Range and Northeastern Plains experienced a pretty wet year — the wettest, in fact, in 128 years.
And water experts expect this winter isn’t likely to be much different.
Becky Bolinger, assistant state climatologist at the Colorado Climate Center, said those areas had the wettest year since the state started keeping those records 128 years ago.
A long stretch of hot, dry weather has left the Mississippi River so low that barge companies are reducing their loads just as Midwest farmers are preparing to harvest crops and send tons of corn and soybeans downriver to the Gulf of Mexico.
The transport restrictions are a headache for barge companies, but even more worrisome for thousands of farmers who have watched drought scorch their fields for much of the summer. Now they will face higher prices to transport what remains of their crops.
Farmer Bruce Peterson, who grows corn and soybeans in southeastern Minnesota, chuckled wryly that the dry weather had withered his family’s crop so extensively they won’t need to worry so much about the high cost of transporting the goods downriver.
“We haven’t had rain here for several weeks so our crop size is shrinking,” Peterson said. “Unfortunately, that has taken care of part of the issue.”
The San Diego County Water Authority offers free WaterSmart classes, with both virtual and in-person options, taught by local landscape design professionals. Classes help participants understand landscape design and maintenance, soil identification and health, turf types and removal tips, plant selection, rainwater catchment, irrigation retrofits and project installation, whether completed as a DIY project or with contractor assistance.
Participants get the knowledge and skills they need to transform their yards into spaces that are water-efficient, sustainable, and beautiful year-round. The workshops are typically offered in spring and in fall clusters, with fall classes scheduled for September through November.
Five topics are available to choose from, including:
Participants who attend all five workshops and meet other program criteria can sign up to receive an in-home visit by a landscape professional who will help them create customized landscape transformation plans, through the Designer at Your Door service. For more information, visit sdcwa.org/your-water/conservation/classes.
“The workshops are designed to help residents create and maintain their own beautiful and water-efficient outdoor spaces,” said Debby Dunn, a water resources specialist for the Water Authority. “Most of our residential water use is outdoors in our landscapes. This is why learning how to create water-efficient spaces is a great way for San Diegans to continue doing their part to use water efficiently.”
For people who prefer to learn at their own pace, the Water Authority offers short, entertaining and educational on-demand videos, with topics that mirror the workshops. To watch the videos go to sdcwa.org/your-water/conservation/classes and click on the videos link.
Low-water plants, improved irrigation technologies, and WaterSmart classes not only save water, but also reduce energy use, protect our natural resources, and create beautiful outdoor living spaces.
Last week, Lake Mead water levels started to even out after experiencing a steep increase for the last five months, but it isn’t expected to last for long.
After years of drought, Lake Mead, which is in Nevada and Arizona, reached drastically low levels last summer, prompting fears that a dead pool—the point where water levels are too low to flow downstream—would occur much sooner than originally thought.
A centerpiece of California’s perpetual political and legal wrangling over allocation of water is the complex array of rights that stretch back to the earliest years of statehood in the 19th century.
Simply put, those who claimed water before 1914, when the state assumed legal control, have “senior rights” that traditionally have entitled them to virtually unlimited supplies even when other users face cutbacks during drought.
