Virtual Water Summit – May 25
The Water Association of Kern County’s annual Water Summit is virtual this year but will still pack a punch of who’s who in the water world.
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Students find saving water “elementary”
When a region’s groundwater is critically depleted and its dirt as hard as a frying pan, how do you refill the aquifer? Ask a fifth grader. Actually, ask the fifth and sixth grade combination class at Bakersfield’s Munsey Elementary School taught by Barbara Elrod. Elrod’s students discovered a pretty cool way to both conserve water…
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Delano’s “big dig”
The state’s new groundwater law has prompted a lot of dirt movement in the Central Valley. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act passed in 2014 mandates that overdrafted water basins get their aquifers in balance — don’t pump out more than goes back in — by 2040. In order to get there without massive farmland fallowing,…
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Valley groundwater may get (small) slice of state’s $15 billion surplus
The Governor’s proposal for how to spend California’s $15 billion surplus includes $60 million in direct grants to help replenish groundwater in the valley’s most depleted basins. The measure specifies the money is to be used in “critically over-drafted basins,” which lie mostly in the San Joaquin Valley. Water managers were pleasantly surprised, but not…
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Historic move: Fresno River rights to be decided
If all you’ve ever seen of the Fresno River is through Madera as you drive over it on Highway 99, you’d be forgiven for thinking it’s just a weed-infested, shopping cart collector rather than a real river. But there’s a lot to this unobtrusive waterway, which just made history as the first river in 40…
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Groundwater: The charge to recharge needs to be data driven
In the world of groundwater recharge, not all dirt is created equal. Where, when, how much and how fast water can best be recharged into the Central Valley’s severely depleted aquifers has become a critical question. A new tool aims to help answer those questions at the field-by-field level or up to an entire county….
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Dry year, not politics, behind 15-percent water allocation
Water may be highly political but dry is dry. And California is exceedingly dry this year, Department of Water Resources Director Karla Nemeth told SJV Water in explaining the state’s low 15-percent allocation for farms and cities that rely on water from the State Water Project. Given the results of Thursday’s final snow survey in…
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State’s low water allocation prompts frustration, suspicion
Is the State Water Project’s extremely low water allocation based on California’s fickle climate? Or politics? A growing chorus of frustrated water managers are wondering. After a dry January, the Department of Water Resources announced it would only be able to deliver 15 percent of contracted water amounts to farms and cities. That number hasn’t…
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High tech and low show state’s snowpack is still stingy
The snowpack above the Central Valley looked slightly better after March and April brought the winter weather that was AWOL during the first two months of 2020. But the late storms weren’t enough to get valley rivers much above the 60%-of-average mark, if that. You need to login to view the rest of the content….
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The atmospheric river is flowing
The storm finally arrived in Bakersfield early Tuesday evening. The storm was expected to bring significant rainfall to areas in the San Joaquin Valley after a dry January and even drier February, according to the National Weather Service’s Hanford office: You need to login to view the rest of the content. Please Login. Not a…
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Maven's Notebook is an excellent daily accounting of California water happenings statewide.
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