As we head into winter, and growing season is over in most of the country, it is California’s Imperial Valley that supplies many of the winter vegetables you count on to keep your family eating healthy. It supplies much of the country’s winter vegetables including lettuce, broccoli, cauliflower and other healthy produce. The Imperial Valley also provides a critical food source that consumers never see, but greatly impacts what we eat.
San Diego County is not currently facing water cuts as the historic drought reaches a new low and the nation’s largest reservoir — Lake Mead — is at its lowest water level on record, according to the San Diego County Water Authority.
For the second year in a row, Arizona and Nevada will face cuts in the amount of water they can draw from the Colorado River as the West endures more drought, federal officials announced Tuesday.
The cuts planned for next year will force states to make critical decisions about where to reduce consumption and whether to prioritize growing cities or agricultural areas. Mexico will also face cuts.
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema introduced a new water advisory council at Hoover Dam on Monday to discuss how to spend $4 billion in water and drought aid included in the Inflation Reduction Act.
The $4 billion is meant to stave off the worst effects of drought across the Colorado River system, which is suffering from overuse and two decades of drought exacerbated by climate change.
Arizona, California, and Nevada have agreed to further reduce their usage of Colorado River water over the next two years as the states figure out ways to prevent critically low water levels in Lake Mead.
The river accounts for 40% of Arizona’s water supply.
The states were already preparing for mandatory water cuts in 2022 resulting from the Tier 1 shortage federal declaration.
Last week water officials from Nevada and two other Colorado River states said they would reduce their draws from the ailing waterway.
Now they need to make that happen.
Water leaders in Nevada, Arizona, and California signed an agreement to voluntarily reduce their take from the Colorado River to help stave off mandatory cuts in the upcoming years.
California farmers who struggled to make it through record-breaking drought and heat in 2021 are bracing for another bad year, this time without any additional water from the state.
The state said it won’t give any water from the State Water Project to farmers unless drought conditions improve. That could mean even higher food prices at a time when consumers are struggling with an ongoing pandemic and inflation across the board.
The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is urging nearly 3 million water customers throughout the Bay Area to cut water usage by 10%, as it declares a water shortage emergency due to the ongoing drought.
“With California still experiencing devastating drought and the uncertainty around this rainy season, we need to make tough decisions that will ensure that our water source continues to be reliable and dependable for the future,” Mayor London Breed said in a statement Tuesday.
Despite recent rain, California is still in the depths of a drought. Conditions have improved, but barely. Most of the state is still in exceptional or extreme drought. In the South Bay, a million residents will soon be hit with the toughest water restrictions of any major urban area in California. Late Wednesday, the state PUC gave final approval to San Jose Water Company’s plan. Approval by state regulators means the call to cut water use is no longer voluntary for South Bay residents.
A harvester rumbles through the fields in the early morning light, mowing down rows of corn and chopping up ears, husks and stalks into mulch for feed at a local dairy.
The cows won’t get their salad next year, at least not from this farm. There won’t be enough water to plant the corn crop.
Climate change, drought and high demand are expected to force the first-ever mandatory cuts to a water supply that 40 million people across the American West depend on — the Colorado River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s projection next week will spare cities and tribes but hit Arizona farmers hard.
