Posts Tagged: recharge

News

Desalination: Should California use the ocean to quench its thirst?

A beach in Carlsbad, San Diego County, which has the nation's largest desalination plant. (Photo: Sherry V Smith, via Shutterstock)

Here we are again: California is enduring another punishing drought, this one only a few years after the last one ended, which was the most severe drought in the state’s nearly 500 years of recorded history. Low winter snowpack combined with scorching summer temperatures and the driest winter months in 100 years have severely impacted the state’s water supply. Lake Oroville, an important reservoir in Butte County, had sunk to 49% of capacity by July 1

Opinion

Clock ticking on desert protection

Sunrise in the Mojave Desert, CAstle Peaks. (Photo: sierralara, via Shutterstock)

OPINION: The window of opportunity is rapidly closing for Senate Leader Toni Atkins and the California Legislature to save the Mojave Desert from Cadiz, Inc.’s reckless plan to suck the water out from under one of the Earth’s driest places and sell it to water golf courses and suburban lawns as far away as Orange County. Killed by Barack Obama and revived by Donald Trump, the water mining project would dramatically overdraw the aquifer below the desert and almost certainly stop the flow of water to the springs that preserve the Mojave’s fragile biodiversity.

News

Proposition 68: Money for parks, water, environment

Big Chico Creek in the town of Chico. (Photo: Bill Brimm, via Shutterstock)

The conventional wisdom in Sacramento is that high-dollar borrowing has a better chance of winning voter approval if the economy is strong. That thinking will be tested Tuesday. Proposition 68 would provide $4.1 billion for natural resources, state parks and water projects. It is backed by Democrats and their allies, and opposed by anti-tax groups.

News

Groundwater: The crucial challenge

A California Department of Water Resources geologist measures and records a pumping water level in a production well. (Photo: John Chacon,/DWR, 2013, via California Water Blog)

Analysis: California’s single most urgent water policy priority is preserving our groundwater supply. In normal years, groundwater provides one-third of our state’s urban and agricultural water. In dry years, it provides up to nearly two-thirds.

Opinion

Drought: Tearing up lawns is short-sighted

A view of the California drought from Marine One during President Obama's visit earlier this year. (Photo: White House)

OPINION: There is an Armenian proverb: “On a rainy day many offer to water the chickens.” And in a very dry year there are many who want to follow the call to tear out their lawns. The call is coming from the Department of Water Resources and others for urban homeowners to start tearing out their lawns, with financial incentives for doing so.

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