(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 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, Durham MyNC)
Starting June 1, Durham residents will have to follow rules when they’re watering their lawns. Monday night the Durham City Council approved new year-round water restrictions for all customers here.
The new schedule applies to all spray irrigation systems:
Those customers with odd-numbered addresses can water once on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday before [...]
(April 27, 2009, The San Antonio Business Journal)
The Edwards Aquifer Authority has officially declared a drought for the San Antonio region, requiring groundwater permit holders to reduce consumption by 20 percent for at least the next 30 days.
The mandatory Stage I drought restriction applies to all Edwards Aquifer water users served by the San Antonio [...]
(April 24, 2009, The San Diego Union-Tribune)
After months of warnings and voluntary conservation programs, the San Diego County Water Authority yesterday moved to Level 2 drought alert.
The decision will spark mandatory water rationing of about 8 percent for residents throughout the county, from San Ysidro to Fallbrook. The planned restrictions include bans on certain [...]
(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 3, 2009, Kelly Zito, The San Francisco Chronicle)
Get ready for singed lawns, dusty cars and pricier produce.
California water officials reported Thursday that the end-of-winter snowpack remained at low levels for the third year in a row, and water agencies in the Bay Area and around the state are asking residents to conserve at levels [...]
(Jan. 29, 2009, The Press Democrat)
The Sonoma County Water Agency expects to impose mandatory water restrictions in four to six weeks, the earliest and most aggressive step the agency has ever taken to combat what is shaping up to be a potentially devastating drought.
The agency will declare this a dry water year on Sunday and [...]
(Jan. 13, 2009, San Gabriel Tribune)
There is a 50 percent chance Southern California’s main water agency could ration water deliveries by spring, according to a report released Tuesday.
Previously, the agency said there was a 33 percent chance of rationing.
“We would basically be … capping water supplies to our local agencies,” said Bob Muir, a [...]
(Jan. 14, 2009, Central Coast)
More than 20 cities stretching from the Bay Area to the Mexican border matched or broke record high temperatures Tuesday, including Monterey at 74 and Salinas at 76, according to AccuWeather.
In Santa Cruz, where the high of 79 was one degree short of the 1948 record, many took to the beaches [...]
