NG: Why is America running out of water?

[China]

Once 'paradise,' parched Colorado valley grapples with arsenic in water

 

When John Mestas' ancestors moved to Colorado over 100 years ago to raise sheep in the San Luis Valley, they "hit paradise," he says.

 

"There was so much water, they thought it would never end," Mestas says of the agricultural region at the headwaters of the Rio Grande.

 

Now decades of climate change-driven drought, combined with the overpumping of aquifers, is making the valley desperately dry — and appears to be intensifying the levels of heavy metals in drinking water.

 

Like a third of people who live in this high alpine desert, Mestas relies on a private well that draws from an aquifer for drinking water. And, like many farmers there, he taps an aquifer to water the alfalfa that feeds his 550 cows.

 

"Water is everything here," he says.

 

Mestas, 71, is now one of the hundreds of well owners participating in a study that tackles the question: How does drought affect not just the quantity, but the quality, of water?

 

The study, led by Kathy James, an associate professor at the Colorado School of Public Health, focuses on arsenic in private drinking wells. Arsenic, a carcinogen that occurs naturally in soil, has been appearing in rising levels in drinking water in the valley, she says. In California, Mexico, and Vietnam, research has linked rising arsenic levels in groundwater to drought and the overpumping of aquifers.

 

As the West grapples with a megadrought that has lasted more than two decades, and states risk cutbacks in water from the shrinking Colorado River, the San Luis Valley offers clues to what the future may hold.

 

Nationwide, about 40 million people rely on domestic wells, estimates Melissa Lombard, a research hydrologist for the U.S. Geological Survey. Nevada, Arizona, and Maine have the highest percentage of domestic well users — ranging from about a quarter to a fifth of well users — using water with elevated arsenic levels, she found in a separate study.

 

During drought, the number of people in the contiguous U.S. exposed to elevated arsenic from domestic wells may rise from about 2.7 million to 4.1 million, Lombard estimates, using statistical models.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

A Breakthrough Deal to Keep the Colorado River From Going Dry, for Now

 

Arizona, California and Nevada have agreed to take less water from the drought-strained Colorado River, a breakthrough agreement that, for now, keeps the river from falling so low that it would jeopardize water supplies for major Western cities like Phoenix and Los Angeles as well as for some of America’s most productive farmland.

 

The agreement, announced Monday, calls for the federal government to pay about $1.2 billion to irrigation districts, cities and Native American tribes in the three states if they temporarily use less water. The states have also agreed to make additional cuts beyond the ones tied to the federal payments to generate the total reductions needed to prevent the collapse of the river.

 

Taken together, those reductions would amount to about 13 percent of the total water use in the lower Colorado Basin — among the most aggressive ever experienced in the region, and likely to require significant water restrictions for residential and agriculture uses.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[The Sisko]

On 4/23/2023 at 10:55 PM, China said:

Arizona revokes water permits for Saudi Arabia-owned alfalfa farm

 

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that drill permits for a Saudi Arabia-owned alfalfa farm in La Paz County have been revoked.

 

Two deep-water wells were approved for Fondomonte Arizona LLC eight months ago, which Mayes called “unconscionable” given the state’s need to preserve water.

 

“For too long, our state leaders have been asleep at the wheel while this crisis has only grown,” Mayes said in a tweet. “Well, with new state leadership and the ever-increasing urgency of the issue, now is the time for the state government to get serious about regulating groundwater across Arizona.”

 

Mayes said last week in a letter to the Arizona Department of Water Resources that there were inconsistencies in the permit applications and urged the department to scrutinize any new applications from Fondomonte.

 

She called for improved coordination between the Arizona State Land Department and ADWR.

 

Several large corporate farms in western and southeastern Arizona have come under criticism for using large amounts of water as the southwestern United States is experiencing a severe drought.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Uh oh, Arizona is going all woke and starting to hate freedom. Where's Ron DeSatan when you need him? 'Muricuh FIRST!!

 

On 5/18/2023 at 11:40 AM, Xameil said:

So, let me get this right....Arizona is mainly in the Arid/sub-Arid climate, with a minimal humid area. So this farmer chooses to grow one of the most water inteslnsive crops there is....cotton. got it.

Wait, there's more. The taxpayers are footing much of the bill for it.

 

Quote

 

For central Arizona farmers, coming to terms with the reality that a Colorado River allocation is not an entitlement

 

...Pinal County is not exactly prime desert farming real estate, lacking the ready access to Colorado River water that you see in the valleys of Yuma, Imperial, Palo Verde, or on the Colorado River Indian Reservation. With little surface flow and an aquifer that cannot sustain farming in the long run, the only real alternative is imported Colorado River water via the Central Arizona Project, the canal that pumps water up from the Colorado River. But that is very expensive water, tough to afford without subsidy if you’re growing alfalfa and cotton. And so subsidize we have (see this from Michael Hanemann for a history of CAP subsidies). Everybody’s irrigation water is subsidized in the West, but the Pinal County farmers’ water is subsidized a lot. Here’s how:

 

For the purpose of understanding Pinal County’s role in the current discussions, the key subsidy to look at is the deal signed by the counties’ ag interests in 2004 as part of the Arizona Water Settlements Act. Faced with high water costs even under the then-existing subsidy regime, the water districts signed a deal to essentially give up stronger water rights to free up water to meet Indian water rights settlement in return for yet more subsidy. Here’s how CAP explains it:

 

In return for what has been estimated at $343 million in subsidies since the deal was signed in 2004, the Pinal County farmers agreed to cheap water when it was available, but importantly this water was subject to availability. If water runs short, they’re among the first to see their supplies cut. The farmers were compensated in return for taking on greater risk. At least that’s the way the rules are written, and that’s the deal the farmers’ representatives cut, to the tune of about $25 million per year in subsidy – from the taxpayers of the greater Tucson-Phoenix area to the farmers of Pinal County to grow mostly cotton and alfalfa.

 

 

[China]

Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles

 

Arizona has determined that there is not enough groundwater for all of the housing construction that has already been approved in the Phoenix area, and will stop developers from building some new subdivisions, a sign of looming trouble in the West and other places where overuse, drought and climate change are straining water supplies.

 

The decision by state officials very likely means the beginning of the end to the explosive development that has made the Phoenix area the fastest growing metropolitan region in the country.

 

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs, gets more than half its water supply from groundwater. Most of the rest comes from rivers and aqueducts as well as recycled wastewater. In practical terms, groundwater is a finite resource; it can take thousands of years or longer to be replenished.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[CobraCommander]

31 minutes ago, China said:

Arizona Limits Construction Around Phoenix as Its Water Supply Dwindles

 

Arizona has determined that there is not enough groundwater for all of the housing construction that has already been approved in the Phoenix area, and will stop developers from building some new subdivisions, a sign of looming trouble in the West and other places where overuse, drought and climate change are straining water supplies.

 

The decision by state officials very likely means the beginning of the end to the explosive development that has made the Phoenix area the fastest growing metropolitan region in the country.

 

Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and its suburbs, gets more than half its water supply from groundwater. Most of the rest comes from rivers and aqueducts as well as recycled wastewater. In practical terms, groundwater is a finite resource; it can take thousands of years or longer to be replenished.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

[China]

A side effect of the low water supply/levels is apparently delay of "The Big One" quake in southern California:

 

Scientists find why the 'big one' may not have shaken California...yet

 

In the middle of the driest California desert, just along the southerly State Route 86, you can find sun-bleached shells littering the ground.

 

They're telltale signs of a once colossal lake that has come and gone over the last thousands of years, a place called Lake Cahuilla. Today, the much smaller, and shrinking, Salton Sea takes its place. In a new geologic study, scientists have found Lake Cahuilla may have continually played a role in helping stoke major quakes along the southern portion of the infamous San Andreas Fault — which is overdue for a giant quake, a "big one" in Southern California. (Other big ones have certainly hit other parts of the fault, namely the devastating 1906 quake(opens in a new tab) near San Francisco.) The mighty lake, however, hasn't filled to its max depth of over 300 feet since the early 1730s, back when George Washington was just born.

 

Without the giant lake there, putting enormous pressure on the San Andreas and contributing to a more vulnerable fault, the coming big one — a Southern California quake that could cause some 1,800 deaths(opens in a new tab), $200 billion in damage, and untold disruption — might be further delayed. But, critically, the fault might also accumulate even more pressure, resulting in a more potent temblor.

 

A total of six sizable quakes shook Southern California when the lake filled. Over the last century, the much smaller, and less heavy, Salton Sea filled the desert basin, which is largely sustained by agricultural runoff. It's now evaporating. Water scarcity has increased in the hotter, drying West, and farmers have found ways to more efficiently irrigate crops, leading to less runoff flowing into the artificial sea. In our modern world, where the Colorado River now provides water to some 40 million people(opens in a new tab), there's certainly no water to spare for a sprawling natural lake. Expansive Lake Cahuilla will not come again, at least while civilization is here.

 

So the question looms: Without a giant lake potentially triggering quakes, when's the big one coming?

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

A racist past and hotter future are testing Western water like never before

 

As droughts strain water supplies across Western states, some cities and farmers have struggled with mandatory cutbacks. Determining who gets cut is decided by the foundational pecking order of Western water: the older your claim to water, created as the country expanded westward, the better protected it is.

 

When there's a shortage, those with newer water rights have to cut back first, sometimes giving up their water completely before older claims lose a single drop.

It's known as "first in time, first in right." But "first" is a relative term.

 

"First in time, first in right is kind of laughable, because the ones that were here first were the indigenous people," says Gary Mulcahy, government liaison for the Winnemem Wintu tribe in Northern California.

 

As the climate gets hotter and further shrinks strained water supplies, Western states are grappling with whether a century-old water system created by white settlers can equitably handle a future of worsening droughts.

 

Rights to water have long been seen as sacrosanct by many. But after decades of exclusion, Native American tribes are helping lead the charge both in California and on the Colorado River, arguing for overhauling an arcane system they say is inherently racist.

 

California lawmakers are debating whether to create new authority to rein in the oldest water users, who have long contended their rights can't be constrained by the state. Cities like San Francisco and farming districts with senior water rights are lobbying hard against the bills, saying billions of dollars invested into the water system are at stake.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

On 4/23/2023 at 10:55 PM, China said:

Arizona revokes water permits for Saudi Arabia-owned alfalfa farm

 

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes announced that drill permits for a Saudi Arabia-owned alfalfa farm in La Paz County have been revoked.

 

Two deep-water wells were approved for Fondomonte Arizona LLC eight months ago, which Mayes called “unconscionable” given the state’s need to preserve water.

 

“For too long, our state leaders have been asleep at the wheel while this crisis has only grown,” Mayes said in a tweet. “Well, with new state leadership and the ever-increasing urgency of the issue, now is the time for the state government to get serious about regulating groundwater across Arizona.”

 

Mayes said last week in a letter to the Arizona Department of Water Resources that there were inconsistencies in the permit applications and urged the department to scrutinize any new applications from Fondomonte.

 

She called for improved coordination between the Arizona State Land Department and ADWR.

 

Several large corporate farms in western and southeastern Arizona have come under criticism for using large amounts of water as the southwestern United States is experiencing a severe drought.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

How a Saudi firm tapped a gusher of water in drought-stricken Arizona

 

A megadrought has seared Arizona, stressing its rivers and reservoirs and reducing water to a trickle in the homes of farmworkers near this desert valley.

 

But green fields of alfalfa stretch across thousands of acres of the desert land, shimmering in the burning sunlight. Wells draw water from deep underground, turning the parched earth into verdant farmland.

 

For nearly a decade, the state of Arizona has leased this rural terrain west of Phoenix to a Saudi-owned company, allowing it to pump all the water it needs to grow the alfalfa hay — a crop it exports to feed the kingdom’s dairy cows. And, for years, the state did not know how much water the company was consuming.

 

The lack of information was a choice.

 

Soon after the company, Fondomonte Arizona, arrived in the Butler Valley in 2015, state planners suggested asking the company to install meters and report its water use, according to a memo reviewed by The Washington Post. That way, the memo argued, the state could “at least obtain accurate information” on water drained from the valley — water that could otherwise serve as backup for booming urban areas.

 

But the proposal “hit a stone wall,” John Schneeman, one of the planners, told The Post. It was spurned, he said, by officials in the administration of then-Gov. Doug Ducey (R) who were “cautious of tangling with a powerful company.” The proposal also ran headlong into a view, deeply held in the rural West, that water is private property that comes with access to land, rather than a public resource.

 

The inaction was an early sign of how state officials gave leeway to Fondomonte as a global fight for water took root in the Arizona desert. Leaving water unprotected amid a drought worsened by climate change has been a boon to Saudi Arabia, where industrial-scale farming of forage crops such as alfalfa is banned to conserve the Persian Gulf nation’s limited water supply.

 

A Post investigation — based on government documents and interviews with public officials, ranchers in the valley, farmworkers, and townspeople who live near the alfalfa fields — found that Arizona’s lax regulatory environment and sophisticated lobbying by the Saudi-owned company allowed a scarce American resource to flow unchecked to a foreign corporation. To advance its interests before the state, Fondomonte hired an influential Republican lawyer as well as a former member of Congress. And it sought to win over its rural neighbors, providing a high school with donations that included Fondomonte-sponsored sports bags and face masks emblazoned with the company logo to protect students from covid.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Colorado River has lost 10tn gallons of water since 2000 due to climate crisis

 

The climate crisis has caused the ailing Colorado River basin, a system relied upon by 40 million people in the US west, to lose more than 10tn gallons of water in the last two decades, new research has found.

 

The volume of water lost due to rising global temperatures has been so enormous that it is equal to the entire storage capacity of Lake Mead, the US’s largest reservoir that was formed by the Hoover Dam, or enough water to fill around 15bn Olympic-sized swimming pools.

 

The Colorado River provides vital water supplies to people across the US west, as well as nourishes ecosystems and millions of acres of farmland, but has dwindled since 2000 due to a “megadrought” that has been significantly worsened by climate change.

 

Without the influence of human-caused global heating, researchers for the new study found, reservoir levels wouldn’t have slumped to such low levels that the first ever federally declared water shortage was declared, requiring a desperate, temporary deal to be struck between states in May to cut water use.

 

Benjamin Bass, a hydrological modeler at the University of California-Los Angeles and lead author of the study, said the researchers were “surprised” at how sensitive the Colorado River basin is to warming temperatures.

 

“The fact that warming removed as much water from the basin as the size of Lake Mead itself during the recent megadrought is a wakeup call to the climate change impacts we are living today,” Bass said.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Burying their head in the sand with respect to climate change isn't going to help:

 

‘Save Flathead Lake’ Group Demands ‘Truth’ Over Depleted Water Levels

 

During a series of four meetings promoted by the Flathead County Republicans, organizers challenged scientific consensus on the region’s historic drought and placed blame on Tribal dam management practices

 

n Aug. 4, a Lake County citizen action group called “Save Flathead Lake” held a meeting in the basement of the Kalispell Eagle’s Club to discuss the impacts and causes of Flathead Lake’s historically low lake levels, which on Aug. 8 sat nearly 30 inches below the traditional full-pool elevation maintained for summertime recreation and irrigation. The depleted lake levels recently prompted a natural disaster declaration for the region as waterfront businesses and agricultural producers grapple with the economic consequences of drought and elected leaders make appeals for federal relief.

 

Organizers of “Save Flathead Lake” have pushed back on much of the hydrological reasoning behind the steep drop in water storage, however, and during last week’s meeting they challenged the scientific consensus while placing blame on the operators of the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ (SKQ) Dam.

 

One of a series of four gatherings held in the region over the last week, it was promoted by the Flathead County Republican Central Committee and hosted by Dr. Annie Bukacek, a Public Service Commissioner who gained notoriety as a leader in the local anti-vaccine movement after she joined the Flathead City-County Board of Health in early 2020. She resigned from that position in April 2022 to pursue a bid for the state’s utility regulator, though she said her role facilitating the “Save Flathead Lake” meeting was as a private citizen.

 

“I am disinclined to believe that the low level of Flathead Lake is due to climate change,” Bukacek said at the top of the meeting while introducing Linda Sauer, a retired healthcare administrator who led the discussion. “It is the job of people to take measures such that drought and floods don’t negatively impact us and when people don’t do their job properly, events like low lake levels are bound to happen.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

[Jabbyrwock]

4 hours ago, China said:

Burying their head in the sand with respect to climate change isn't going to help:

 

‘Save Flathead Lake’ Group Demands ‘Truth’ Over Depleted Water Levels

 

During a series of four meetings promoted by the Flathead County Republicans, organizers challenged scientific consensus on the region’s historic drought and placed blame on Tribal dam management practices

 

n Aug. 4, a Lake County citizen action group called “Save Flathead Lake” held a meeting in the basement of the Kalispell Eagle’s Club to discuss the impacts and causes of Flathead Lake’s historically low lake levels, which on Aug. 8 sat nearly 30 inches below the traditional full-pool elevation maintained for summertime recreation and irrigation. The depleted lake levels recently prompted a natural disaster declaration for the region as waterfront businesses and agricultural producers grapple with the economic consequences of drought and elected leaders make appeals for federal relief.

 

Organizers of “Save Flathead Lake” have pushed back on much of the hydrological reasoning behind the steep drop in water storage, however, and during last week’s meeting they challenged the scientific consensus while placing blame on the operators of the Seli’š Ksanka Qlispe’ (SKQ) Dam.

 

One of a series of four gatherings held in the region over the last week, it was promoted by the Flathead County Republican Central Committee and hosted by Dr. Annie Bukacek, a Public Service Commissioner who gained notoriety as a leader in the local anti-vaccine movement after she joined the Flathead City-County Board of Health in early 2020. She resigned from that position in April 2022 to pursue a bid for the state’s utility regulator, though she said her role facilitating the “Save Flathead Lake” meeting was as a private citizen.

 

“I am disinclined to believe that the low level of Flathead Lake is due to climate change,” Bukacek said at the top of the meeting while introducing Linda Sauer, a retired healthcare administrator who led the discussion. “It is the job of people to take measures such that drought and floods don’t negatively impact us and when people don’t do their job properly, events like low lake levels are bound to happen.”

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

We have the data, we win:

https://waterdata.usgs.gov/nwis/rt

[China]

Houston, nation's 4th largest city, tightens water restrictions as Texas drought deepens

 

An intensifying drought across the Lone Star State has forced more communities to increase water restrictions in an effort to head off any potential shortages.

 

The country’s fourth-largest city, Houston, recently announced it will enter the second stage of its drought contingency plan, which limits outdoor watering. It's the first time Houston has been in this level of it's drought plan since 2011.

 

"The Drought Contingency Plan calls for Stage Two mandatory water conservation measures when the significant drop in annual rainfall and higher-than-normal daily temperatures lead to continued stress on the water system," the city stated.

 

Locals had hoped Tropical Storm Harold would lead to widespread drought relief, but the storm did little to turn the drought status around in Texas.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Water levels on the Mississippi River are plummeting for the second year in a row

 

Water levels along the Mississippi River are plummeting for the second year in a row after this summer’s blistering heat and low rainfall triggered extreme drought across parts of the Central US.

 

The low water levels have made a unique rock formation in the Mississippi River, usually surrounded by water, accessible by foot, and the Army Corps of Engineers is increasing the size of a levee in Louisiana to prevent sal****er from surging into drinking water in New Orleans.

 

The drought comes as a critical harvest season approaches and farmers across the Midwest are concerned about water supply and barge deliveries. Officials and residents along the river worry about the widespread impacts another decline could bring.

 

Every water level gauge along a nearly 400-mile stretch of the Mississippi from the Ohio River to Jackson, Mississippi, is at or below the low-water threshold, according data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and US Geological Survey.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

TIMELINE: Sal****er wedge could reach New Orleans by late October

 

Louisiana faces a threat not seen since the late 1980s.

 

The ongoing drought affecting the midwestern and southern regions of the United States has led to alarmingly low water levels in the Mississippi River. The situation has resulted in the intrusion of sal****er from the Gulf of Mexico into the river in southeast Louisiana, posing a potential threat to the drinking water supply for thousands of residents in the coming weeks.

 

To address the situation, the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness held a press conference Friday at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans.

 

Governor Edwards says the historic low river levels are expected to persist for several weeks. He will be asking for an emergency declaration from the federal government to take precautions and to be eligible for reimbursements.

 

As the salt water continues its journey upriver, it could affect the drinking water for an additional 20,000 people in Belle Chasse. Subsequently, there is a risk that the salt water may reach the drinking water intake for the Algiers community in New Orleans, located across the river from the French Quarter.

 

With no significant rainfall expected in the foreseeable future, experts warn that the sal****er intrusion could reach parts of New Orleans by late October. Mayor LaToya Cantrell on Friday signed an emergency declaration in preparation for the impacts. She says her administration is monitoring more than 50,000 lead pipes across the city.

 

Click on the link for the full article

Edited September 23, 2023 by China

[China]

New Orleans residents brace for salt water intrusion as Biden declares national emergency

 

President Joe Biden on Wednesday declared a federal emergency for a sal****er intrusion in the Mississippi River, which is threatening New Orleans’ water infrastructure.

 

A lack of rainfall has led to lower levels of fresh water in the Mississippi River, which has allowed the denser sal****er layer beneath to rise upstream over the past two months.

 

Usually, the strength of the river flow in tandem with an underwater sill work to keep the sal****er at bay. But on Monday, the sal****er overtopped the sill, entering the drinking water of Plaquemines Parish in Louisiana.

 

That same day, Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards sent a request to Biden to declare the situation a federal emergency so that the state could draw on funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

 

Biden’s Wednesday approval comes as officials scramble to keep the sal****er from infiltrating more neighborhoods along the Mississippi Valley, which could leave many residents without potable water.

 

Click on the link for the full article

[China]

Arizona Senate Republicans, Farm Bureau withdraw from governor’s water policy council

 

Senate Republicans and the Arizona Farm Bureau withdrew their membership from Arizona Gov. Katie Hobb’s Water Policy Council calling it “beholden to out-of-state special interests,” according to a press release from the caucus.

 

Sen. Sine Kerr, who is also the chair of the Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy & Water, said the council is “nothing more than a forum to rubber stamp the progressive environmental goals of special interest groups.” 

 

Kerr also accused the council of having a “radical agenda” that has the potential to damage the economy and “kill the livelihoods” of ranchers and farmers. The Arizona Farm Bureau released a statement with similar sentiments, saying the priorities of the AZFB have been given “very little” consideration at best, or at worst, “totally dismissed.”

 

“While we respect the efforts made by Governor Katie Hobbs’ administration to address pressing issues related to rural groundwater, we believe the current process in place has been deaf to the concerns and priorities of Arizona’s farm and ranch families and we must withdraw from it entirely,” the news release said.

 

The Water Policy Council was created by Hobbs earlier this year to come up with ways to update how the state manages water amid shortages. Across the state, groundwater is mostly unregulated, and not tracked, meaning anyone can use as little or as much water as they would like without consequence.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

 

[China]

Record-low water levels recorded along the Mississippi River during prime season to ship grain

 

Mississippi River water levels have reached new record lows from Missouri to Arkansas, preventing shipments of grain and other important goods from making their way downriver during one of the busiest times of year, according to data from the National Weather Service (NWS).

 

The phenomenon is a repeat of last year, when hundreds of barges sat idle along the Mississippi River because of shallow waters.

 

On Monday morning, Mississippi River surface levels in both Memphis, Tennessee, and Osceola, Arkansas, were recorded at -11.67 feet below normal levels, according to the NWS.

 

By Monday afternoon, water levels had dwindled even lower to -11.85 feet in Memphis and -11.8 in Osceola.

 

Low stage for both locations is -5 feet.

 

A long stretch of hot, dry weather has caused record-low water levels on the Mississippi River for two years in a row – an extremely rare consecutive-year phenomena, data shows. Much of the region surrounding the Mississippi River is experiencing moderate to severe drought, with exceptional drought recorded in the lower basin states, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.

 

Click on the link for the full article

 

I'm thinking these drought occurrences are going to become much less rare and much more regular.

[China]

California is 100% drought free

 

California is 100% drought free for the first time in over three years, according to the California Drought Monitor. 

 

Roughly 5% of Northern California and Southeast California are "abnormally dry," but are not considered to be drought-stricken. 

 

The news comes as California is forecast to receive above-average rainfall for the winter season, according to the Farmer’s Almanac.

 

 

[China]

Lake Mead to rise 10+ feet after feds agree to pay California water districts millions

 

A historic agreement is reshaping the future of the Colorado River. Water in Lake Mead will rise at least 10 feet after water districts representing California farmers and other major water users in the state agreed to significant cuts in exchange for hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government.

 

“Less than a year ago, the Colorado River was in a very different place than we are today,” contended J.B. Hamby, Colorado River Commissioner for California. Lake Mead is up a whopping 40 feet from what was projected last year.

 

“Lake Mead is really doing what it is intended to do. That is store water in the wet years so that it is available in the dry years,” explained Bronson Mack, Outreach Manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority. However, decades of prolonged drought along Colorado river persist.

 

“The future of the river is going to be less water; therefore, we need to make sure all states that share the Colorado River and those in Mexico are all contributing to water conservation,” Mack asserted.

 

Wednesday, major users of Colorado River water convened at Paris Las Vegas.

 

“The states were at odds. Even this January, it was the six other Colorado River Basin states versus California and within the span of a few months of time, we were able to bridge divides,” Hamby shared at the meeting.

 

The Biden Administration says it is making the largest climate investment in history. As part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the federal government will pay $295 million dollars to water districts mostly in California and tribes to use less water, a lot less.

 

“The amount of water that California water users have committed to conserving through these agreements, it is more than three times what we use in a year,” Mack stated. All that unused water will stay in Lake Mead.

 

“That is going to help keep water levels higher, approximately 10 feet or more going forward,” Mack reported. While Arizona, California, and Nevada are all using less water today than two decades ago, Nevada has been a leader in conservation. Why aren’t we getting financial rewarded?

 

“Nevada has opted not to accept federal dollars for the conservation efforts that we have been doing because accepting those dollars means that water that has been conserved isn’t available in the future,” Mack revealed.

 

Click on the link for the full article and video

[China]

Colorado ranchers sentenced after tampering with rain gauges to increase crop subsidies

 

Two southeastern Colorado ranch owners were recently sentenced to pay $6.6 million to resolve federal charges that they damaged or altered rain gauges in an effort to get paid for worsening drought conditions. 

 

By preventing the rain gauges from accurately measuring precipitation, the men aimed to increase the amount of money they could receive from the federal government, according to court documents. 

 

Patrick Esch, 72, and Ed Dean Jagers, 62, both of Springfield, received short prison sentences - Esch two months and Jagers six. They also were ordered to pay a combined $3.1 million in restitution - the estimated amount of fraudulently inflated funds they received from the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation. As well, they agreed to pay a combined $3.5 million to settle the allegations.

 

Click on the link for the full article