(With expanded coverage of all the Western States)
by Patrick Ruckert
www.californiadroughtupdate.org/20230713-California-Water-and-Infrastructure-Report.pdf
A Note to Readers
No real changes in California’s water situation, but we do have a serious drought in the Mid-west. The U.S. Drought Monitor for California tells part of that story. The first few articles on the Mid-west drought tell the rest.
Meanwhile, “Everything Must Be Green.” Despite couching a semi-useful piece of legislation in the California legislature this week, that speeds up the approval and building of needed infrastructure projects, the “green” mantra for everything should make everyone sick.
Though one project that did take a good step forward, as part of that legislation, the Sites Reservoir, which will store about a million acre feet of water from excess flows of the Sacramento River, is nearer the beginning of construction.
The all but undeclared, but increasingly aggressive war against farmers in California, has taken an ugly turn this week, with Democrats in the Legislature using charges of past racism to restrict historic water rights going back over 100 years. Two articles illustrate that: “California Democrats move forward bill to chip away historic water rights,” and “A racist past and hotter future are testing Western water like never before.”
On the Colorado River, the winter storms have given a boost to both Lake Mead and Lake Powell, though both are still below 30% of storage capacity. The second article highlights the history and present conflicts within the Imperial Valley of California as debate goes on in somehow reducing withdraws from the river by 2-4 million acre feet per year, from here on out.
This week’s Feature is an article by my colleague Michael Carr: “Only Technological Attrition Will Work .”
