Monterey County Water Digest

The Elmore Desert Ranch gets 22.5 billion gallons of water from the Colorado River, almost as much as is cleared for Scottsdale, Ariz. And that’s just a fraction of the 386.5 billion gallons from the river going to 19 other families in Imperial Valley.

The first reservoir in California in nearly 50 years is now on the fast track for completion.

Intense rains have California out of a drought less than a year after most of the state faced water shortages. A climatologist is urging wise water usage ahead of California’s next drought.

Wet weather and planned cuts by California, Arizona and Nevada averted declines that could have threatened water deliveries and power production—but long-term threats to the Colorado River remain.

“When expansion is done, we’ll be over 50% of the potable water supply being supplied by recycled water,” said Paul Sciuto, general manager for Monterey One Water.

Hundreds of wells in Tulare Lake aquifer are at risk of going dry. Today's recommendation is the first time that state officials have moved to crack down on local plans that fail to stop excessive groundwater pumping.

Water providers say rebates for residential areas are costly and residents may refuse to remove their lawns. The rules aim to save enough water for more than a million households a year.

The resolution would entail taking by eminent domain the Monterey water system, which is privately owned by Cal Am. If approved, the water system would be converted to public ownership.

The irrigation bill, which aims to force businesses and institutions to remove their lawns, now goes to the governor.

In some areas, kelp has declined over the past 10 years to historically low levels. Yet kelp forests in other areas of the sanctuary appear to be holding their own against the voracious urchin hordes.

Some 7,000 square miles of ocean on California’s Central Coast could soon become the largest national marine sanctuary in the continental U.S. It could also make history as one of the first federal sanctuaries to be spearheaded by a Native American tribe.

While the toxic algae bloom that sickened California marine mammals has dissipated, rescue centers prepare for more events as oceanographic conditions continue to present challenges.

Gavin Newsom signed an executive order aimed at accelerating levee repairs and debris removal to ensure communities along the Pajaro River are prepared for the winter.

Raising Shasta Dam to increase its capacity would provide 634,000 more acre-feet of water per year, legislators say. But that assumes there will always be enough precipitation, and the move risks flooding sacred Native American lands and harming local habitats.

In the magazine Nature, a team of scientists reports that they have detected changes in ocean color that cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone. These color shifts have occurred over 56 percent of the world’s oceans.

The environmental costs of ending water diversions from Mono Lake to Los Angeles would be mixed: It might help a shore bird habitat but would require changes that increase carbon emissions.

According to a new study, roughly 21% of the country can now expect their “1-in-100 year flood” to happen every 25 years.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had to concede defeat on trying to get the Legislature to give a very contentious water tunnel project streamlined regulatory treatment.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana ruled the U.S. Forest Service can continue to use aerial fire retardant to fight wildfires while waiting on a Clean Water Act permit.

Environmentalists say it’s past time for California water officials to halt Los Angeles’ diversion of Mono Lake’s tributaries. But L.A. officials insist that water is a tiny but vital part of the city’s water supply.

California regulators say the state is unlikely to run short of electricity this summer, thanks to new power sources and a wet winter that filled reservoirs to restart hydroelectric power plants shuttered during the drought.

Living in Pajaro, California, means living at the whims of the effects of climate change on both life and property. On March 11, the Pajaro River breached the town levee, flooding the town. It's been seven weeks since the levee breach.

Fort Bragg is embarking on an innovative pilot project to desalt ocean water for the Mendocino Coast community using carbon-free wave action to power an energy-intensive process that in other cases generates climate changing greenhouse gases.

The $2.2 million in funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law with funding leveraged by the Inflation Reduction Act. It aims to bring back species across an entire coastal landscape—from coastal grasslands to tidal salt marsh, eelgrass beds to native oysters.

And neither was 1952. The top honor should really go to 1983, which clinched first at 231% of normal, an analysis by the Bay Area News Group found.

The Eel River is now one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the United States, according to an annual report released by America's Most Endangered Rivers. The 50-year-old conservation group each year spotlights American waterways that are suffering but where key impending decisions could improve their fate.

During heavy storms, sediment and brush impediments have a damming effect. Water will flow along the path of least resistance, and when the channel is clogged, that path becomes cropland.

One of the options would override California’s water rights and split the cuts evenly between California, Nevada and Arizona—which would be a big blow to Imperial Valley farmers.

Native plant species can adapt to natural challenges, biologists say, but non-native plants and trees may not fare as well.

Just how “over” is the drought, and how unusual has this season of rain really been?

As epic Sierra Nevada snowpack threatens to overwhelm this phantom lake bed with spring runoff, some fear the Tulare Lake Compost facility could be transformed into an environmental disaster.

San Luis Reservoir, between Gilroy and Los Banos, is the largest off-stream reservoir in the United States.