Water News - Page 52 of 52 in California's San Joaquin Valley

Floods

Water districts stuffing Kern River water in every nook and cranny they can

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

The good news is that not a drop of Kern River water is going into the California Aqueduct to fill Southern California taps. Yet. But water managers are keeping an eagle eye on the snowpack and the weather hoping there are no sudden moves from either in the near future. A warm rain or rapid…

Floods

Survey says! We got a boatload of water coming soon

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

The numbers are in and they are good. Amazing, actually. The April 1 manual snowpack survey for the Kern River basin shows we are at an overall 215 percent of average, according to the Department of Water Resources. (See side box for particulars.) The basin was at 49 percent of average last year and that…

Federal System

Local water districts feel cheated by ‘exchange’

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

Oh, the fascinating stuff our protracted drought is revealing. I’m not talking about tires and old town foundations at the bottom of California’s reservoirs. This drought is also putting long-held assumptions about water rights under intense scrutiny. In this instance, a dispute over how the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has administered a contract spanning more…

Federal System

One more try for federal fixes to California’s water woes

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

Local water folks are hopeful, but not holding their breath, that the latest congressional effort to move a little more water down the pike from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta will actually succeed. Even if it does, I’m sure environmental activists already have their lawyers prepped and ready for launch. But it’s the holidays, so who…

Federal System

Water odds and ends

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

It’s all about water. At least this column will be. If you haven’t read the big, giant water bill that had Sen. Barbara Boxer’s panties in a big, giant twist, I encourage you to give it a skim. That bill has everything in it. Sure, it has provisions that will authorize some operational changes in the Sacramento-San…

Federal System

Water, water everywhere, but can we keep it?

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

Will we get the water? That’s the question everyone’s been asking. (And by everyone, I mean the other five or six people I know who are as weirdly interested in water as I am.) Storms are dumping, rivers are rising and lakes are filling — finally. Will we be able to squirrel that water away…

Development

How water from Kern grows sprawl in Madera

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

So, a pile of water banked in Kern County is being used to support a massive urban development in Madera County. Before you try and wrap your head around how that’s geographically possible, there’s the whole question of whether the banked water (and other water slated for the project) even can be used for that purpose. Then…

Conservation

It may be raining now, but we need to live like it’s dry

April 1, 2019

• by Lois Henry

This is sooooo California. The same day the state Water Resources Control Board announced it would continue the state’s drought emergency, so much water had to be let out of Lake Oroville that it broke the spillway. Drought? Huh? OK, so those optics were a bit confusing. But Water Resources was absolutely right to keep…

NEWS

Water districts stuffing Kern River water in every nook and cranny they can

Survey says! We got a boatload of water coming soon

Local water districts feel cheated by ‘exchange’

One more try for federal fixes to California’s water woes

Water odds and ends

Water, water everywhere, but can we keep it?

How water from Kern grows sprawl in Madera

It may be raining now, but we need to live like it’s dry

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