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California has been regulating river flows, however imperfectly, for more than a century. But it didn’t even begin restricting groundwater extraction in a major way until a mere decade ago. Farmers in many areas must now figure out how to stay in business by using less groundwater themselves — or by ensuring their neighbors do.
Airole Way
Visitors hiked along the adjacent Dana Point Headlands nature preserve on Tuesday morning, many completely unaware of the damage to the cliff, which is only visible from the ocean. The city was still working its way through 562 mudslides as of Wednesday evening. Based on current models, Orange County is likely to see more rain from the system moving into the region this weekend than other areas such as San Diego, though forecasters say it’s too early to say exactly how potent the storm will be. Strong downpours triggered more than 500 mudslides in the city of Los Angeles alone and damaged more than 45 homes and buildings.
How climate change is disrupting California's storms
By absorbing and storing carbon, our nation’s waterways and wetlands – and the forests, grasslands, and farmlands they nourish – play a critical role in the fight against climate change. Over 100 inaugural members from across the country have already signed on to support freshwater restoration in their communities, including ten states, eight Tribes, and 24 local governments. The over 100 inaugural members that have already signed on to support freshwater restoration in their communities include seven states, eight Tribes, and 24 local governments. Athough a system that’s failing does not necessarily mean it’s contaminated, 77% of the state’s failing water systems have at least one contaminant exceeding safe drinking water standards. In Kern County, 83% of failing water systems have exceeded a maximum contaminant level, or MCL. E. Joaquin Esquivel, chair of the water board, acknowledged the scope and complexity of the challenge but also touted the state’s progress in recent years.
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Come summertime, it’s not unheard of that ranches and farms all but drain the Shasta to a trickle. For many beloved products — nuts and grapes, milk and lettuce — America depends heavily on California. Its farms produce billions of dollars more each year than those in Texas, Nebraska and other states far more defined by agriculture. Water sustains jobs and livelihoods across the state’s economy, which outranks those of all but a handful of nations.
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Bel-Air
Sucking water from deep underground has caused the surrounding land to settle as the pockets of air between layers of soil collapse, wreaking havoc with bridges and even gravity-fed canals. Though California passed its first-ever groundwater regulations in 2014, water districts won’t be required to limit pumping for at least another four years. Data in the maps of surface water claims and groundwater wells comes from the California State Water Resources Control Board and Department of Water Resources. Surface water claims are represented on the map based on the year diversion commenced for senior water rights and the permitted year for junior rights.
Monster of the Month w/ Colin Dickey: Arctic Ghosts
Growing up in Philadelphia in the 1940s, Lynda performed on a TV variety show sponsored by an automat. Her father, Jack Harris, produced the cult hit The Blob and later moved the family to California. Though wealthy enough to afford two Rolls-Royces and a zip code, he refused to pay for Lynda to attend art school, so she found work in a dress shop, where she tried her hand at creating ads for the store. By the time she was 24, she’d launched her own advertising agency, Lynda Limited, given birth to three children, and gotten divorced. Earthquakes and rains have taken their toll on the house, which was designated as a Los Angeles Historic Cultural Monument in 1976. Recent renovations have stabilized the building and it remains a private residence rarely open to the public.
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The farmers had to relinquish 14 billion gallons of “paper water”—junior water rights that exist only de jure, since there simply isn’t enough rainfall most years to fulfill them. In exchange, they got ownership of the Kern Water Bank, a naturally occurring underground reservoir that lies beneath 32 square miles of Kern County, which sits toward the southern end of the Central Valley. The bank held up to 488 billion gallons of water, and because it sat beneath a floodplain it could be easily recharged in wet years with rainfall and surplus water piped in from the Delta. The Resnicks, who’d given up the most paper water rights, came to hold a majority vote on the bank’s board and the majority of its water.
They also blame widespread use of agricultural fertilizers and fumigants, and say the health risks are borne disproportionately by rural, low-income and predominantly nonwhite communities. In the summer, when temperatures in their home surged to 120 degrees, they finished the safe water within days. The State Water Resources Control Board insists that limited resources and a lack of involvement from some local governments have partly contributed to a persistent backlog of cases and assistance requests.
DEA’s big marijuana shift could be a lifeline for California’s troubled pot industry
She said neighbors and others in the area have died from stomach cancer, and she and others wonder if their water was to blame. Some rely on twice-a-month deliveries funded by state grants and ration their water until the next distribution. When that runs out, some families are left with no choice but to drink and cook with contaminated tap water. Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.
The Starcraft 40-passenger bus was traveling westbound on Exposition Boulevard with only the driver and one passenger aboard when the collision occurred, according to a statement from USC Transportation. The bus driver and passenger were the two most severely injured, according to fire department officials. LOS ANGELES (AP) — At least 55 people were hurt, two seriously, when a Metro light rail train and a University of Southern California shuttle bus collided Tuesday along a busy thoroughfare in downtown Los Angeles, officials said. A just-completed house developed on speculation on one of the largest lots in Palm Beach’s Phipps Estates enclave has sold for $43.77 million, the price recorded Tuesday with the deed.
After the fall harvest comes winter pruning, spring pest management, and summer watering and mowing. The nut industry’s nearly year-round employment has allowed farmworkers to put down roots. They can live with their families, send their kids to school, and start to grasp for the American Dream. Recently, he began providing more accurate accounting after the water board’s lawyers assured him that he wouldn’t be forfeiting the district’s rights by doing so.
Short-term exposure can cause eye, throat and skin irritation, and may affect memory, concentration and muscle coordination. Joseph Heide, community development manager at the nonprofit Self-Help Enterprises, said that projects to address water quality problems can take five to 10 years to finish, and that officials need to expedite them to three. Other researchers say that subsidence — the sinking of the earth due to the overpumping of aquifers — can also release trapped arsenic into groundwater. Arsenic is typically contained in rocks and sediment, but it can become soluble and enter groundwater supplies when it encounters conditions of low oxygen and high pH levels — both of which are particularly common in older groundwater.
Some experts worry the growth of failing Central Valley water systems offers a glimpse into California’s future as climate change, drought, groundwater overpumping, aging infrastructure and heightened water standards push more systems to the brink. They say that addressing these failures will require not only more effort by the state, but from local officials as well. It’s true that the Golden State’s vast network of dams, reservoirs, and canals has served the state so well over the past 80 years that Californians have come to take it for granted.
Delta water has transformed the arid Southland into the state’s population center and the nation’s produce aisle. But it has done so at the cost of pushing the West Coast’s largest estuary to the brink of collapse; last year the drought finally prompted regulators to eliminate most Central Valley water deliveries. Since 1999, Fountain Trailer Park in North Edwards has received 74 violations for exceeding safe drinking water standards for arsenic. In the last three years, customers received notices that their water has arsenic up to eight times the state’s threshold of 10 parts per billion, according to data obtained by The Times.
To understand one reason California struggles so mightily to track its water, you might visit a small room in Sacramento that is jam-packed with some of the state’s most valuable mysteries. Economic development has transformed California’s northernmost landscapes in great waves. Miners dredged the Scott River in pursuit of gold, creating a 600-acre gravel moonscape that remains to this day.
