LeakBird

(May 21, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
The Department of Water Resources announced Wednesday that it would give State Water Project contractors 40% of what they requested. Although that figure remains low, it is far more than earlier allocation numbers, which started at 15% and then rose to 20% and 30%.
“Early May snow and rain improved [...]

(May 13, 2009, The New York Times)
For the third year in a row, Mark Watte plans to rely on the aquifer beneath his family farm for three-quarters of the water he needs to keep his cotton, corn and alfalfa growing, his young pistachio trees healthy and his 900 dairy cows cool.
That is 50 percent more [...]

(May 12, 2009, Jim Downing, The Sacramento Bee)
As another summer of drought approaches, hundreds of thousands of acres of San Joaquin Valley farmland are expected to be fallowed, and much of urban California faces 20 percent water cutbacks.
But in the Sacramento Valley, rice farmers have been busy for weeks spreading water 6 inches deep over [...]

(May 1, 2009, ClimateWatch, NPR)
NPR’s Morning Edition launched an “occasional series” on California’s water woes this morning. Veteran correspondent John McChesney begins with the impact on agriculture in the Central Valley’s Westlands Water District, the nation’s “biggest irrigated region.”
KQED’s Central Valley Bureau Chief and Climate Watch contributor Sasha Khokha will have three stories in the [...]

(May 7, 2009, The San Diego Tribune)
The city of Escondido is considering stepping up its water-conservation efforts from the current Level 1, voluntary water conservation, to Level 2, mandatory restrictions, starting July 1.
That could mean watering lawns only three days a week, Escondido’s utilities director Lori Vereker said.
The City Council is expected to decide [...]

(May 5, 2009, The San Luis Obispo Tribune)

San Luis Obispo residents could soon pay more for water and sewer services.
A typical family of four’s water bill could go up 12 percent this year, and an additional 11 percent in 2010, according to city water division Manager Gary Henderson.
The current rate of $47.15 for a household [...]

(May 4, 2009, KPBS)

San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders wants the city council to approve his call for mandatory water restrictions. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

Sanders says voluntary water conservation has saved about 5%, but he says that isn’t enough to meet the water restrictions coming this summer.
He wants to impose Level 2 mandatory [...]

(April 26, 2009, The Sacramento Bee)
Any doubt that California is hip-deep in an epic struggle for water was put to rest earlier this month when an estimated 10,000 farmers and farmworkers marched 50 miles across the gasping San Joaquin Valley.
The goal was to heighten awareness about their water shortage, brought about by a third [...]

(April 28, 2009, The Mercury News)

Water restrictions will begin Friday for about 90,000 residents from the North Coast to Capitola, after Santa Cruz leaders on Tuesday unanimously approved an emergency order to save water.
As a result, customers with Santa Cruz Water Department will be restricted to watering outdoors on two assigned days each week. Restaurants [...]

As you probably heard, California, in partnership with the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) and the California Department of Water Resources launched the “Save Our Water” campaign last week, and it’s actually based off of the very successful “Flex Your Power” campaign which helped save energy during the crisis of 2001.
The website for “Save [...]

(April 16, 2009, On the Water Front)
Yesterday was a big day for California. After eight years of minimal federal engagement in California’s critical resource issues, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar toured the Bay-Delta focusing on California’s water crisis and the need for federal engagement on solving the Bay-Delta’s problems (read more here and here). We couldn’t [...]

(April 26, 2009, The Ventura County Star)
Thousand Oaks plans to introduce a system of tiered water rates to motivate consumers to conserve…
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, which supplies state water to area cities and communities, is requiring its customers to implement the ordinance and tiered rates to encourage users to conserve…
(Original Article Here)

(April 23, 2009, The Pasadena Star-News)

Some San Gabriel Valley residents could see their water rates go up by as much as 56 percent next year under a proposal by California American Water Co.
California American Water, which provides water to 28,000 households and businesses – or about 100,000 people – in the San Gabriel Valley, [...]

(April 22, 2009, The Sacramento Bee)
Hoping Californians can save water like they did energy, the state on Tuesday launched a conservation campaign to nudge all residents to take simple steps to help each other through the drought.
Dubbed “Save Our Water,” the program is modeled after the highly successful “Flex Your Power” campaign that helped California [...]

(April 22, 2009, The New York Times)
Farmers in the state’s drought-stricken agricultural basin will finally get a meager supply of federal water to help irrigate crops this summer. Federal officials said storms in March allowed them to increase the amount of water sent to customers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Water districts that supply [...]

(April 20, 2009, The Mercury News)

Water users in Antioch will be asked to cut their consumption by 15 percent this summer.
The mandatory reduction comes because the Contra Costa Water District, from which Antioch purchases some of its water, has notified its customers of a decrease in available water this year, according to a city news [...]

(April 21, 2009, Aguanomics)
Southern Californians use about 350 gallons of water per day per household (of 3). That’s about 110 gallons/capita/day (gcd).
People in San Francisco use about 63 gcd, and people in the Bay Area use about 97 gcd.
(Original Post Here)

(April 19, 2009, The Los Angeles Times)
During a prolonged drought in the early 1990s, L.A.’s Department of Water and Power and Department of Public Works conducted an ambitious experiment. In eight homes, including those of several elected officials, they installed “gray water” equipment that diverted the outflows from washing machines, showers, bathtubs and bathroom sinks [...]

(April 16, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Cash-strapped California will receive $260 million in federal economic stimulus funds to fix dams, restore fisheries and habitat and help the state cope with drought conditions, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Wednesday.
(Original Article Here)

(April 17, 2009, The Christian Science Monitor)
California’s third year of drought is stirring up long-standing – and usually low-simmering – tensions between farmers in northern and central California and urban consumers in the state’s dry Southland.
(Original Article Here)

Want to use more water?  Pay for it.
David Zetland, Aguanomics.com
The Water Myth is the myth that we have an endless water supply, renewing itself ad infinitum. How can we not believe in this myth when even our cats can drink from the potable water in our toilet bowls, for which we pay less than [...]

(April 16, 2009, The Mercury News)

John Gioia’s homeowner association warned him last fall — during the drought — to water his front lawn more to meet the community standards for lush and green.
The association also has a 20-year-old rule that won’t let him replace his front lawn with rosemary, meadow grass and other drought-resistant plants.
“It [...]

(April 16, 2009, The New York Times)
Hundreds of farmers, farm workers and local elected officials walked along dusty roads in the Central Valley on Thursday, part of a four-day march to protest federal cutbacks in water supplies.
“No Water, No Jobs, No Food,” read one sign held above the crowd, expressing the frustration of many in [...]

(April 10, 2009, The Environmental Defense Fund)
California’s drought, now in its third year, is getting plenty of attention – both in-state and beyond its borders. This attention is deserved because in 2009, reduced water supplies are affecting our cities, farms and natural environment.
(Original Post Here)

(April 16, 2009, Aguanomics)
SFPUC’s announcement of rate hikes to begin in July 2009 are so modest as to make me think that no amoung of profligate use will go punished. Please consider the following, submitted as Comment to the Chronicle’s March 5 article, “On Coping With the Drought”:
“For every conscientous consumer, operating on personal principles [...]

(April 15, 2009, Paul Kedrosky, Infectious Greed)
Major water price increases and supply cuts are underway in southern California, both of which are long overdue. This part of the state is a desert, and yet too many people live there, and too many of them live their water consumption lives like they are somewhere with higher [...]

(April 15, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Because the East Bay Municipal Utility District has urged both voluntary and mandatory conservation during the recent dry spell, the agency is delivering less water, which means lower revenues.
In an attempt to make up for the shortfall, district staffers recommend raising water rates by 7.5 percent annually for the [...]

(April 15, 2009, The New York Times)
As part of the federal stimulus plan, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar offered California $260 million on Wednesday to patch the Central Valley’s decrepit water-delivery system and protect its threatened fish.
(Original Article Here)

(April 14, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Our state’s broken water delivery system – originally built more than 30 years ago to accommodate a state of 18 million people – now must supply this precious resource to more than 36 million people. By 2020, California’s population is expected to reach up to 48 million. The hub [...]

(April 12, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
The San Francisco Chronicle invites you to decide by playing our online water game. As you play, you’ll hear from a water manager about how cities can use less water, from a Central Valley farmer close to losing his crops and from a conservationist on why we need adequate [...]

(April 10, 2009, The San Diego Tribune)
Water and sewer rates may soon be going up in Del Mar.
The Del Mar City Council voted unanimously Monday to approve higher rates for the next five years and set an appeal hearing for May 26 for anyone who opposes the increase. The time of the hearing has not [...]

(April 8, 2009, Reuters)
Despite dire warnings of water shortages due to prolonged drought, the Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday rejected a plan to ration water in the nation’s second-largest city for the first time in 18 years.
The unanimous 15-0 vote against the plan marked a surprise setback for Los Angeles water managers, who like [...]

(April 2, 2009, The Mercury News)

There’s appears to be plenty of snow in the Sierra Nevada, but California water officials said Thursday it falls short of the amount needed to replenish the state’s reservoirs.
Across the 400-mile-long mountain range, the snowpack is holding about 81 percent of its usual statewide water content, according to the fourth [...]

(March 31, 2009, The Mercury News)
Displaying a bowl of minnows and pictures of unemployed farm workers and their families, California congressmen pleaded with their colleagues Tuesday to make an emergency exception to the federal Endangered Species Act.The lawmakers said efforts to protect a 3-inch-long fish, the delta smelt, have led to court-ordered reductions in the [...]

(March 24, 2009, The Wall Street Journal)
As Don Bransford prepares for his spring planting season, he is debating which is worth more: the rice he grows on his 700-acre farm north of Sacramento, or the water he uses to cultivate it.
After three years of drought in California, water is now a potential cash crop. Last [...]

(March 25, 2009, The Mercury News)
Silicon Valley’s largest water supplier is asking its customers to cut back on water usage by 15 percent this summer.With water levels low at its main reservoir, the board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District voted Tuesday for water cutbacks.
The district provides the water used by 1.8 million homes [...]

(March 23, 2009, The Mercury News)

Citing three dry years in a row, Silicon Valley’s biggest water supplier will vote this morning on whether to call for a 15 percent mandatory summer cutback, the first water rationing in Santa Clara County in 18 years. Yet, just over the county line, Fremont residents will face no restrictions.
On [...]

(March 22, 2009, The Mercury News)

As California’s drought continues, water rationing is becoming a reality in many cities — and Antioch is no exception.
On Tuesday, the City Council will be asked to weigh in on a water shortage contingency plan to cut consumption by an estimated 25 percent — the amount by which Antioch’s water [...]

(March 21, 2009, The San Francisco Chronicle)
A statewide drought emergency has prompted San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders to propose a plan that would reduce the city’s water use by about 20 percent.
The plan announced on Friday would require residents to cut their outdoor water use by 45 percent, and their indoor water use by 5 [...]

(March 20, 2009, The Mercury News)

The pain of a full-blown summer drought came closer to reality Friday when the staff of Silicon Valley’s main water supplier recommended a 15 percent mandatory cutback.
If the board of the Santa Clara Valley Water District — which is the wholesale supplier of drinking water for 1.8 million people from [...]

(March 21, 2009, Robert Glennon, AlterNet)
The following is an excerpt from “Unquenchable: American’s Water Crisis and What We Can Do About It” by Robert Glennon. Copyright 2009 Robert Glennon. Reproduced by permission of Island Press, Washington DC.
Editor’s Note: This excerpt is from the introduction of Glennon’s new book and follows a narrative about the water [...]

(March 20, 2009, The San Diego Tribune)
The top 10 percent of residential water customers in Poway account for roughly 40 percent of all water used by the city, and the top 5 percent use about 25 percent.
They would be most affected by a proposal the City Council is considering to institute tiered water rates that [...]

After reading today’s article in the San Diego Tribune in which the Metropolitan Water District has its drinking straws in its final water reserves and options, I’m convinced that water rationing will not be averted in Southern California (or perhaps all of California for that matter).  In other words, we can bank on water rationing, [...]

(March 16, 2009, The San Diego Tribune)
With its vast reserves running precariously low, the Metropolitan Water District has widened its unending search for water to even more distant sources.
Since 2007, Metropolitan’s stockpiles have shrunk by nearly half, drained by a combination of drought, diversions to safeguard fish, cuts in Colorado River supplies and population growth.
As [...]

(March 15, 2009, Treehugger)
Visitors to Disneyland likely don’t know that when they sip from Disney water fountains that the great tasting aqua treat was once streaming through a public sewer. Not to worry though. That sewer water is actually substantially cleaner and more carefully filtered than the water consumed in the average American household. Moreover, [...]

(March 14, 2009, The Oroville Mercury-Register)
The state is shopping for water for the Drought Water Bank, but a variety of factors has supplies drying up.Despite a hefty price for the sale of water, environmental constraints and good prices for commodities have far less Sacramento Valley water users signing up to sell water to other parts [...]

(March 9, 2009, Reuters)
From cotton farms to factories that make high-tech computer chips, companies face huge risks from droughts like those searing California and Australia and that recently parched the U.S. Southeast.
Climate scientists say droughts will become more common as higher temperatures evaporate water supplies and overuse drain aquifers faster than they can be replenished [...]

(March 11, 2009, Robert in Monterey, Calitics)
As someone who has written before of the water problems our state faces, and who has repeated the “omg worst drought ever” frame, it’s important that I give some necessary attention to Michael Fitzgerald of The Stockton Record, who called bullshit on the whole thing today:
California’s “drought” is overblown. [...]

(March 4, 2009, Robert Glennon, The Huffington Post)
Drought has prompted California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a state emergency. Water agencies are preparing to impose mandatory water rationing. We’re all hoping that melting snow in the Sierra will save the state’s farmers and city dwellers from hardship.
But once rain starts to fall – and it [...]

(March 10, 2009, The Orange County Register)
When Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called on Californians to reduce water use in the face of severe drought conditions, 78 households in The Reserve neighborhood of San Clemente were resting easy.
Those residents had signed on to participate in The Reserve Outdoor Sustainability Project, a study measuring the effects of efficient [...]