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☆ How much water is left in the Colorado River? Scientists and officials are scrambling to find out
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-14 | by ( Ella Nilsen | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

It’s a remarkable turnaround that will give back billions of gallons of Colorado River water to millions of people in the Southwest, primarily in Arizona and Nevada. Snow-covered peaks near the headwaters of the Colorado River outside Winter Park, Colorado, in March. Scientists estimate that Colorado River flows have decreased by about 20% compared to the early 20th century. “There are tough choices ahead,” Becky Mitchell, the Colorado commissioner for the Upper Colorado River Commission, told CNN. Bill Hasencamp, the manager of Colorado River Resources for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Persons: It’s, Brenda Burman, “, Will Lanzoni, Jessica Lundquist, ” Lundquist, Jason Connolly, Jonathan Overpeck, ” Overpeck, you’ve, Brad Udall, Udall, ” Udall, We’ve, haven’t, “ What’s, ” Becky Mitchell, “ It’s, ” Burman, ”, Bill Hasencamp Organizations: CNN, Southwest, Central Arizona Project, of Reclamation, University of Washington, Rockies, Getty, University of Michigan’s School for Environment, Sustainability, Biden, UCLA, Colorado State University, Scientists, The Central, Commission, Colorado River Resources, Metropolitan Water Locations: Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, Rocky, University, Winter, , Colorado, AFP, Lake Mead, The Central Arizona, Scottsdale , Arizona, Phoenix, Metropolitan Water District, Southern California, Los Angeles

Another atmospheric river storm brought strong winds, rainfall and flooding to California this week, prompting levee breaches and mudslides and breaking decades-old rainfall records across the state. Only about 36% of California now remains in drought, according to data from the U.S. Drought Monitor released on Thursday. Since the storms have eased some water supply shortages, the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California recently lifted water restrictions for nearly 7 million people. The governor noted that widespread damage across the state from the winter storms was an indication of how climate change is triggering worsening weather extremes. The state's emergency agency and private weather forecasters in January estimated that damage from California's winter storms could surpass $1 billion.

☆ Explainer: Why weeks of rain in California will not end historic drought
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-12 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

But the state's water infrastructure, mostly built in the 20th Century when the population was barely half of today's 40 million, is ill-equipped for the new situation. On Dec. 14, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California declared a drought emergency for all 19 million people in the region. Despite a deluge that by one estimate has been expected to dump more than 20 trillion gallons (80 trillion liters), the state's major reservoirs remain well below their historic average. INFRASTRUCTURE DEFICITThe state's infrastructure, largely a network of cement canals, lacks the capacity to capture excess stormwater. Even as the Colorado River basin faces its own drought, and the atmospheric rivers provide no relief, the Colorado River suffers more from overuse than from a lack of precipitation.

☆ California tries to harness megastorm floods to ease crippling droughts
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-15 | by ( Sharon Bernstein | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/3] The dried out Arroyo Pasajero Creek is seen alongside an aqueduct in Huron, California, U.S. on October 25, 2022. Outside the United States, countries including India are also beginning to increase the use of recharge ponds to store water in natural or human-made aquifers. While the idea of storing water underground is not new, a recent California law regulating groundwater use has spurred a spate of projects that the state is helping to fund. The new pond, on about 20 acres of former farmland , will help to guide water underground to store it for residents as well as agriculture. Since then the state's population has nearly doubled to 40 million residents.

☆ Remaking the River That Remade L.A.
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-10 | by ( Michael Kimmelman | Photographs Adali Schell | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +33 min

Remaking the River That Remade L.A.February 1938 was a wet month in Los Angeles. Reservoirs overflowed, dams topped out and floodwaters careered down Pacoima Wash and Tujunga Wash toward the Los Angeles River. The Los Angeles River was never a storybook river of the kind that, like the Hudson or the Seine, we associate with great cities. Among the naysayers is a venerable organization called Friends of the Los Angeles River, founded by the Texas-born poet and performance artist Lewis MacAdams. “With all the problems L.A. is facing,” he said, “even if it costs $50 billion to fix the river, we should just effing do it.”The headwaters of the Los Angeles River aren’t easy to find.

☆ Amid historic drought, California expected to approve $140 mln desalination plant
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-13 | by ( Daniel Trotta | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Oct 13 (Reuters) - A $140 million desalination plant is expected to be approved by California regulators on Thursday as the U.S. state contends with how to convert ocean water into drinking water amid the worst drought in 1,200 years. Instead of relying on water pumped from hundreds of miles (km) away, through the State Water Project or the Colorado River, the South Coast Water District would now have its own water supply. The Doheny plant would produce 5 million gallons of drinking water per day, more than enough to meet the needs of the district's 35,000 people. The Coastal Commission staff, which recommended rejecting Poseidon, favors building Doheny, which would be the 12th desalination plant approved by the regulator. The Doheny plant will use a sub-surface intake that creates a barely perceptible current.

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