Despite recent rain and snow, California is back to dry conditions again after a very wet 2017. With about four weeks left in the normal wet season, the Sacramento Valley is at about 65 percent of average precipitation (less than one-third of last year’s precipitation). The southern Central Valley has less than 50 percent of average precipitation and Southern California is still drier. Snowpack is much less, at 37 percent statewide. Surface reservoirs, which almost all refilled and spilled in record-wet 2017, are now at 98 percent of average for this time of year, and will fall quickly as there is well-below-normal snowpack to melt.
Archive for date: March 8th, 2018
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Area water officials support helping low-income districts across the state clean up their drinking water supplies but have categorically opposed a recent budget trailer bill being considered in Sacramento that would impose a permanent statewide water tax to fund it. Officials from Foothill Municipal Water District — which serves La Cañada Irrigation District, Valley Water Co. and the Crescenta Valley and Mesa Crest water districts, among others — are joining others in voicing opposition to the Safe and Affordable Drinking Water Act.
Drought stricken California needs rain, but when the first downpours of the season happen, it brings large amounts of pollutants from city streets right to the ocean and the beaches of Long Beach. The city of Long Beach has approved a $30 million construction project, the Long Beach Municipal Urban Stormwater Treatment Project (LB-MUST). It will create a one-of-a-kind facility to capture runoff water from the Los Angeles and San Gabriel rivers. It not only captures the polluted water, but it will also clean it to be used for local wetlands and city irrigation projects.