Water & Climate Resiliency

Despite December storms, water supplies remain low in many areas. Some managers expect to impose severe restrictions on their customers

California’s air board today unanimously approved a sweeping state plan to battle climate change, creating a new blueprint for the next five years to cut carbon emissions, reduce reliance on fossil fuels and speed up the transition to renewable energy

December has delivered a powerful punch of storms to California. But the wet weather comes with a dry dose of reality: The state’s largest reservoirs remain badly depleted, projected water deliveries are low, wells are drying up, and the Colorado River’s water, already diminished by a megadrought, is severely overallocated

Water is the source of life and supports the survival of every living thing on earth. Water facilitates hydration to ensure the proper function of bodies and is the necessary solvent for promoting cleanliness inside and outside our bodies and surroundings

A series of storms has dumped immense amounts of water on California, but the state needs some new plumbing to take advantage of such events and counteract the effects of drought.

Despite a federal deadline today, California — the largest user of Colorado River water — has refused to cut back as much as six other states proposed in a new plan today. Imperial valley growers have the most to lose.

Growers and Southern California cities that get water from the state aqueduct will receive 30% of their requested allocations. That’s the most in January since 2017, after heavy rains fed the reservoirs.

The Colorado River’s water transformed the Imperial Valley desert into one of California’s most productive farm regions. But now growers will have to sacrifice 10% of their supply because of shortages in the river’s supply.

California is prioritizing groundwater recharge, stormwater capture, reservoir storage, water conveyance improvements and ambitious targets to build water resilience. State has committed more than $8.6 billion to build water resilience in the last two budgets and the 2023-24 budget proposal includes an additional $202 million for flood protection.

The giant Metropolitan Water District imposed first-ever restrictions today. Some suppliers in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties will limit watering of lawns to once a week to ease the burden on the drought-stricken state aqueduct. Unprecedented water restrictions are in store for about 6 million Southern Californians, a sign of deepening drought in counties that depend on water piped from the state’s parched reservoirs.

Among the many complex arguments over water in California, one particularly heated debate centers on whether the state should seek more drinking water from a plentiful but expensive source: the Pacific Ocean. The debate has reached a critical stage in Huntington Beach, where Poseidon Water has been trying for more than two decades to build one of the country’s largest desalination plants. The California Coastal Commission is scheduled to vote next month on whether to grant a permit to build the plant.

The California Coastal Commission recently recommended denying approval of a Huntington Beach based desalination plant that would produce 50 million gallons of drinking water per day, enough for 16% of the homes in the Orange County Water District, where 2.5 million people live. The company making the $1.4 billion proposal, Poseidon Water, has operated a similar plant, the largest in the United States, down the coast in Carlsbad since 2015.

A sprinkler runs and water flows down a driveway in Sacramento on Aug. 15, 2014. Get ready for a summer of brown lawns, water cops and even public shaming. The stakes of California’s devastating drought got a lot higher on Tuesday, when state water officials announced that residents and businesses used nearly 19% more water in March than they did two years ago, CalMatters’ Rachel Becker reports.

Millions of Southern Californians will wake up to the region’s most severe water restrictions ever on June 1, with local water agencies under orders to slash the use of supplies from the State Water Project by 35%. Many water experts say that the cuts are achievable and that reducing outdoor watering to one day a week can help yield immediate savings.

On May 12, the California Coastal Commission is expected to consider final approval of the Huntington Beach desalination plant. Poseidon Water has weaved through the state’s complex and evolving regulatory landscape for nearly two decades in pursuit of that development permit. Signing off on this project would demonstrate that seawater desalination — a proven water resource technology relied upon around the world to combat the effects of climate change and drought — has a future in California.

A California coastal panel on Thursday rejected a long-standing proposal to build a $1.4 billion seawater desalination plant to turn Pacific Ocean water into drinking water as the state grapples with persistent drought that is expected to worsen in coming years with climate change. The state’s Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny a permit for Poseidon Water to build a plant to produce 50 million gallons of water a day in Huntington Beach, southeast of Los Angeles.

To some, it defies common sense. California is once again in the middle of a punishing drought with state leaders telling people to take shorter showers and do fewer loads of laundry to conserve water. Yet at the same time, many of the same elected officials, pledging to solve the housing crisis, are pushing for the construction of millions of new homes.

A long-dead proposal to flood a bucolic valley north of Sacramento and create a massive reservoir for thirsty Southern California is finding new life — and opposition — amid the effects of climate change and worsening drought.

As drought continues to plague California, reconsidering water rights is becoming a topic, but change would be highly controversial. As a third year of drought continues, California officialdom is increasing pressure for more water conservation. Last week, the state Water Resources Control Board imposed a statewide ban on watering of “non-functional” turf, such as grass around commercial buildings, and directed local water agencies to implement water use restrictions.

After decades of fighting farmers in court over how much water they can take out of California’s rivers and streams, some state lawmakers want to try something different: use taxpayer money to buy out farmers. A proposal in the state Senate would spend up to $1.5 billion to buy “senior water rights” that allow farmers to take as much water as needed from the state’s rivers and streams to grow their crops.

California is not doing a good job of tracking changes to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its watershed. That’s making it even tougher to manage the water that is available for the benefit of the state’s communities, economy and environment.