One thing that's become clear amid the fallowed cropland and rationing is that there is not enough water storage in California to sustain all the competing interests. The dilemma has again put a spotlight on the precious water that gets away. In an average year, rain and snowmelt in California generate about 71 million acre-feet
The federal government’s operation of Folsom and Nimbus dams is harming fall-run Chinook salmon and steelhead in the American River, several environmental and fishing groups allege in a complaint filed this week with the state. The groups are urging the State Water Resources Control Board to amend the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s permits to require colder
A somewhat optimistic Mark Cowin, director of the California Department of Water Resources, said the flurry of late-winter storms could cause regulators to open the flood gates of the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project ever so slightly. It’s possible, after forecasters incorporate the new snowpack data from April 1, the SWP allocation
A bill that would place a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in oil drilling in California was approved by a state Senate panel this week. The measure was passed by a bare majority of five votes by the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee after some Democrats abstained and Chairwoman Fran
California’s historic drought and shrinking water supplies are putting a spotlight on hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” and its thirst for freshwater. In other states, the controversial technique is a heavy water consumer, using millions of gallons of freshwater to extract oil or gas from each well. In California, fracking uses less water on average than
As the Brown administration prepares to open multi-agency, multi-stakeholder negotiations for California’s first groundwater management program, the San Jose Mercury News published a two-part story with useful background and many interviews with regulators. Part I - The rush to drill is driven not just by historically dry conditions, but by a host of other factors
Officials announced Tuesday that they are temporarily waiving an endangered species protection to enable water managers to send more Northern California water south. The move comes as fishery agencies are under increasing political pressure to take advantage of late winter storms and ramp up pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the center of the state's
A record-high share of Californians say the supply of water is a big problem in their part of the state, and nearly all residents say they have reduced their water use in response to the drought. These are among the key findings in a statewide survey released today by the Public Policy Institute of California.
Perhaps because of all the doom-and-gloom drought predictions, Californians today are more likely than they were a year ago to vote for an $11.1 billion bond for state water projects, the Public Policy Institute of California's latest poll finds. The poll found Gov. Jerry Brown's approval rating has slipped from its record high in January,
For half a century, the Colorado River’s great dams and the 30 million people who siphon water from the reservoirs behind them have effectively killed the river at Morelos Dam, west of Yuma. Only when the Rocky Mountains have piled up and melted more snow than the dams can contain, as they did in 1998,