The coast at La Jolla. Photo: Dancestrokes)A North Coast lawmaker has come to the defense of Charles Lester, the executive director of the California Coastal Commission who has come under fire from a number of commissioners seeking his ouster at the panel’s meeting next month in Moro Bay.
Lake Oroville ravaged by drought. (Photo: State Department of Water Resources, 2014)Analysis: California ecosystems are losing their resilience and their ability to sustain native plants and animals. In the past, even in droughts, there were natural refuges to sustain native species. Today, most of these ecosystems are changing rapidly from human impacts and many have deteriorated to critical condition. Refuges are scarce.
A suburban home with a lawn that hasn't been watered in months. (Photo: Suzanne Tucker, via Shutterstock)Despite the hottest June on record, Californians cut back on their water use statewide by by 27.3 percent statewide compared with June 2013, a reduction that exceeded the level ordered in the governor’s emergency drought regulations. The cut in usage amounted to more than 182,000 acre-feet of water, or about 59.4 billion gallons by urban water suppliers.
Islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, an aerial view. The Delta is home to about half of California's drinking water. (Photo: Worldislandinfo.comAs part of the newly formed Californians for Water Security, we support moving forward with Governor Jerry Brown’s Bay Delta Conservation Plan (BDCP), a bold strategy to ensure our state is making the most of our limited water supplies. That’s why we are disappointed to see certain groups opposing the plan to build a modern water pipeline to fix California’s aging statewide water distribution infrastructure.
Millerton Lake in Fresno County formed by the Friant Dam. Photo: K.J. KolbCalifornians in cities and towns across the state cut their water usage only slightly – 2.8 percent — during February compared with the same month in 2013, an indication that despite the severity of the drought, conservation is not taking hold. Felicia Marcus, the chair of the State Water Resources Control Board, said “the February results are very disturbing.”
The dry bed of Ivanpah Lake in San Barnardino County, which had been filled by the 2004-05 rains. (Photo: Ed Berlen)With four fifths of California suffering through extreme drought, the state is poised to impose conservation measures last seen nearly 40 years ago during an earlier, unprecedented parched period. There will be restrictions on lawn watering, car and pavement washing, runoff, fountains and the like, with violations of up to $500 a day.
Northern California's Lake Oroville, the state's largest reservoir, formed by the Feather River and Oroville Dam. (Photo: Quinn Comendant.)It’s enough water to fill Lake Oroville and more, and it’s flowing out on to lawns and landscapes in cities and communities across the state each year, according to the Department of Water Resources (DWR). But with the state deep in drought and water supplies dwindling, there’s a movement underfoot that’s hoping to change that.
As the debate intensifies over the historic attempt to build an $18 billion tunnel system through the vast estuary east of San Francisco, the stage shifts to the state Capitol, where partisans are taking their case directly to lawmakers.
The Brown administration, saying it wants to protect the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and