Monterey County Water Articles

California has used reclamation districts to turn millions of acres of unusable swamps into fertile agricultural land, starting in the earliest days of the Gold Rush. Here’s how it happened.

A discrimination complaint filed by Native American tribes and environmental justice groups alleges that California has failed to protect water quality in the Bay-Delta. The EPA is investigating.

One thing that’s not in dispute is that the City of Monterey needs water. What is in question is where that water comes from. On Aug. 1, the Monterey City Council discussed the possibility of teaming up with the Marina…

Waste would undergo extensive treatment and testing before it’s piped directly to taps, providing a new, costly but renewable water supply. The state’s new draft rules are more than a decade in the making.

When the sea rises due to climate change, what does that look like on the ground? At Moss Landing and Elkhorn Slough, we can now look into the future – or rather, different choices for the future.

Just two years after its formation, the Pajaro Regional Flood Management Agency is already at risk of splintering.

California will cut use of water from the Colorado River drastically under a new agreement announced by the Biden Administration on May 22. Nevada and Arizona have also agreed to the cuts.

The future of farming in California is changing as the planet warms, altering the rain and heat patterns that guide which crops are grown where. “We’re adjusting for survival,” one grower said.

SALINAS VALLEY — Migrant students from Gonzales, Soledad, Greenfield and King City high schools recently participated in a three-day adventure in citizen science through the Watershed Guardians project, sponsored by the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History. The Watershed Guardians …

As winter rains caused Monterey County’s rivers to swell past capacity and rush out to the sea, people began asking: Isn’t there a way to catch and reuse all that water? That’s what Monterey is preparing to do through a…

MONTEREY COUNTY — Lake San Antonio staff is reporting cyanobacteria blooms occurring at multiple locations near the south shore of the lake in southern Monterey County. Out of an abundance of caution, since it is not currently known if the …

Almost one million California residents are forced to drink from contaminated water supplies, or pay for bottled water. Economic inequality makes the crisis worse. What is the state doing to fix it?

When the Pajaro River flooded, nonprofit groups stepped up first to help victims. And they’ll keep helping, even after media coverage fades away.

On Thursday, April 6, Karen Marcos keeps a watchful eye on her young daughter on the steps of the Watsonville Veterans Memorial Building while her husband is inside, seeking relief from the floods that have upended their lives.

David Schmalz here, still alive after kayaking down the last five-or-so miles of the Carmel River on Saturday with two friends, one of whom had to bail early on after her inflatable kayak was punctured. That happened right by a…

For the last few months, since the retirement of former Monterey County Water Resources Agency general manager Brent Buche, Lew Bauman has taken on the role on an interim basis until Buche's replacement could be hired.

The expansion of the recycled water project Pure Monterey, which will provide an additional 2,250 acre-feet of water to the Monterey Peninsula, can finally move forward as Cal Am has signed an agreement to purchase its water.

Earlier this winter, a briefly hot topic in local politics was: Which elected officials to nominate for a vacant seat on the California Coastal Commission?

Gov. Gavin Newsom officially sought federal assistance for Monterey County and other California communities impacted by recent storms and flooding on Tuesday, March 28 by requesting a presidential major disaster declaration from the Biden Administration that would allow resources from…

In the wake of the flooding that forced more than 2,000 people in Pajaro from their homes and into nearby shelters, motels and even their own cars, on-the-ground federal and state assistance has been conspicuously absent.