Your comprehensive source for California water news and information, organizing aggregated content from news outlets across the state, and supplementing that with detailed original coverage of meetings, conferences, water policy and science events. All delivered to your email box by 9am, with no bias, spin, or advocacy. Just simple, straight up information from California water's most trusted source.
Dr. Jeff Mount has a long history of involvement with science issues in the Delta. As a professor at UC Davis, he started the Center for Watershed Sciences, which became home to researchers working on the Delta; he was on the first iteration of the Delta Independent Science Board and eventually became its chair; and he has been a very […]
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The latest climate change assessments show reduced Delta exports and carryover storage due to climate change likely by mid-century In the latter half of 2018, both the federal and state governments released new climate change assessments that outline the projected course of climate change and its potential effects on water resources. Both federal and state assessments include chapters on water […]
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Panel discussion looks at groundwater-surface water interactions under SGMA from a regulatory, environmental, academic, and policy perspective The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act defines sustainable groundwater management in terms of avoiding six undesirable results defined in the legislation: declining groundwater levels, reduction in groundwater storage, land subsidence, sea water intrusion, water quality degradation, and depletion of interconnected surface water. Of these […]
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In recent years, media reports and editorials have suggested that environmental regulations have made Delta outflows increasingly large, project water exports are frequently limited or even halted by regulations to protect endangered species, and that regulations designed to protect endangered species, the Delta Smelt in particular, are the principal restrictions on exports and are thus responsible for most of the […]
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Panel discusses water rights and pumping allocations, groundwater recharge as a beneficial use, public trust doctrine and groundwater, and the fee authorities for GSAs In 2014, California passed the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which required all groundwater basins designated as high or medium priority to form Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to prepare locally-developed plans to bring the basin into […]
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Four essential policy reforms are needed to reduce the social, economic, and environmental costs of future droughts, says Dr. Mount California’s climate is changing. Hotter temperatures, a shrinking snowpack, shorter and more intense wet seasons, rising sea level, and more volatile precipitation—with wetter wet years and drier dry years—are stressing the state’s water management system. Recent climate projections indicate that […]
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Researchers at Lawrence Berkeley Labs discuss their work on groundwater recharge, brackish desalination, and seawater desalinization As droughts intensify and the snowpacks diminish, California will need creative solutions to provide enhanced water supplies for urban use and agriculture. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories are working on addressing these problems, focusing on groundwater recharge, low-cost desalination, and energy efficient purification. […]
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Timothy Parker and Graham Fogg discuss the benefits and the challenges of Managed Aquifer Recharge, and how MAR can be key to water security in a changing climate Groundwater is an essential water source, providing 35% of the fresh water used in California, and significantly more in drought years. However, when groundwater is used more rapidly than it is naturally […]
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Dr. Kurt Schwabe discusses the impact of water conservation on recycled water; Yorba Linda Water District GM discusses effects of 36% water conservation on his district During the recent drought, conservation mandates were imposed across the state with some areas mandated to cut their water use by one-third or more. However, reducing water consumption by one-third means a significant reduction […]
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In 2014 California enacted the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) which mandates that areas that depend upon groundwater achieve sustainability by 2040. Meeting the requirements of SGMA will mean a net reduction in groundwater overdraft of about 2 million acre-feet per year. The social, economic and environmental consequences—intended or otherwise—of this change in water policy are vast. Dr. Jeffrey Mount […]
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MAVEN'S NOTEBOOK
The diary of a confessed obsessive-compulsive California water news junkie
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