For the second straight year, the world heads into a new La Nina weather event.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/science/environment/la-ninas-back-s-not-good-parts-dry-west-rcna3076
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The Article Was Written/Published By: The Associated Press
Severe drought that began in late 2019 continues to punish the region while experts say climate change and deforestation may be intensifying the phenomenon
In the shadow of towering grain silos that line the bank of the River Paraná, South America’s second-longest waterway, Lucas Krivenchuk stands watching workers rush to load a barge with soybeans.
“Twelve barges had to leave today, but only six will make it out: there’s no time, the water’s dropping too fast,” said Krivenchuk, general manager of the Trociuk private port in southern Paraguay. “It’s the first time that any have left in two months.”
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/sep/27/paraguay-severe-drought-depletes-river
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The Article Was Written/Published By: William Costa in Paraguay
The General Sherman Tree in Sequoia National Park’s Giant Forest was wrapped for protection against the possibility of intense flames, officials said.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/world-s-largest-tree-wrapped-fire-resistant-blanket-due-threat-n1279420
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The Article Was Written/Published By: The Associated Press
Three new wildfires ignited in California on Sunday as the state reported progress in containing the Caldor fire. The Aruba fire sparked in San Diego C…
Source: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/570957-three-new-wild-fires-ignite-in-california-as-caldor-fire-slows
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Jordan Williams
While the Gulf South is underwater, the West is ablaze in a serious way. On Sunday, fire officials put residents of the city of South Lake Tahoe under an evacuation warning due to the spread of the Caldor Fire.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/the-caldor-fire-has-taken-an-ominous-turn-toward-lake-t-1847583107
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Dharna Noor
As climate-driven drought and wildfires rage in California, the Biden administration is struggling to navigate the hard politics that come with deciding who gets access to the state’s precious — and dwindling — water supplies.
Responding to the hot and parched conditions that have contributed to the wildfires and worsened the water shortages this summer has strained both federal and state capacity. Now the Biden administration is delaying action on the fundamental question at the heart of California’s long-running water wars: How much water should be reserved for species protections, at the expense of the state’s powerful agricultural industry?
An incendiary political question at any time, changes to the system put in place under former President Donald Trump would be sure to set off a political storm during a punishing drought that has cut some farms’ water deliveries to zero.
“None of the options for the federal government in this drought would be anything but controversial,” said Jeffrey Mount, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonprofit think tank that analyzes California policies. “This is a lose-lose; whatever you do, it’s going to be highly controversial with someone.”
At the heart of the fight is the Trump administration’s rewrite of endangered species rules, which limit the amount of water that can be pumped from the state’s water hub in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Central Valley farms. Trump used California’s water wars as a political cudgel, blaming environmental protections for agriculture’s water woes during one of his campaign-style rallies in the conservative Central Valley, and tapping the lobbyist for the state’s most powerful agricultural district, David Bernhardt, to be his Interior secretary.
Green groups are desperate to overturn the Trump-era rules and want the Interior Department to craft new, far more protective ones. They say the administration’s decision to leave the contentious Trump-era rules in place for months does not jibe with Biden’s efforts to cast himself as an environmental champion, and could lead to the extinction of endangered salmon. But the powerful Central Valley agricultural interests that benefited from those Trump policies are praising Biden’s “deliberate” approach.
Biden administration officials say they have simply had their hands full responding to the emergencies spawned by the historic drought. But taking on California’s water wars also poses a political challenge because neither Gov. Gavin Newsom nor the state’s senior Democratic senator Dianne Feinstein are in any hurry to overturn the Trump-era policies.
The drought looms largest in the agriculture-rich Central Valley, home to the state’s most restive, Republican-leaning voters, where Newsom has treaded carefully and has no incentive to anger farmers ahead of next month’s recall election. Although he sued the Trump administration over its contentious water rules, he’s also championing an alternative proposed by water districts to meet cutbacks proposed by state regulators. And he’s accepted $250,000 in donations from agricultural interests to defend himself against the recall.
“If I was advising Gov. Newsom on water policy, I’d put it on the list of land mines to not step on. Certainly prior to the recall, and probably prior to the election next year,” said Darry Sragow, a longtime California Democratic strategist.
Case in point: The governor has so far refused to order mandatory water conservation by urban districts as former Gov. Jerry Brown did in 2015, even as the state faces its third-driest year on record, tying 2014 for low precipitation.
Meanwhile, Feinstein has long been sympathetic to the state’s agricultural sector when it comes to water. In 2016, she pushed contentious changes through Congress allowing fishery agencies to relax Endangered Species Act protections in the Central Valley over objections from her longtime Democratic colleague, staunch environmentalist and former Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Feinstein, who urged the state to work with the Trump administration on its California water policies, indicated that she supported the Biden administration’s go-slow approach.
“The Biden administration is rightly focusing on the drought, which is the worst in more than 40 years and is causing havoc with water managers’ plans due to climate change,” she said in a statement. “The administration needs to devote all of its attention to ensuring there’s sufficient drinking water for rural communities, avoiding the most severe effects on endangered fish and preventing crushing hardships for farmers.”
She argued there is no need to rush to revise the endangered species protections since they primarily govern actions during the winter rainy season, dismaying environmentalists who saw the Trump administration’s California water policies as a giveaway to politically powerful water users.
The endangered species protections at the center of the fight are meant to protect the chinook salmon, steelhead, and the Delta smelt, a small, endangered fish that resides in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay-Delta and is imperiled by the massive pumps that send water to central and southern California farms and cities.
But, even as the science painted an increasingly dire picture for the species, the Trump administration opted to loosen protections rather than strengthen them. Without swift changes to the Trump administration policies, both species could disappear on Biden’s watch, green groups say.
Although Biden included the endangered species rules in a day-one list of Trump actions his administration would review, his Interior and Commerce departments issued a May memo indicating they plan to leave them in place through at least the end of November. The administration has since said in court that it plans to begin reconsidering the rules by the beginning of October.
Crafting new endangered species rules is a years-long process; environmentalists say it must begin immediately if the fish are to have any chance at survival.
But Biden administration officials say that staff experts are consumed with responding to the immediate crisis of the drought, and that, since they have such little water to work with this year, reversing the Trump policies immediately still wouldn’t make much difference to how they are managing the situation on the ground.
That measured approach has reassured major agricultural interests that benefited from the Trump-era policies.
“I believe that the Biden administration is taking a slow, deliberate approach to water issues in California,” said Tom Birmingham, general manager of Westlands Water District, Bernhardt’s former lobbying client. “I know that water issues in California are often controversial and there are hyperbolic statements that are often made about California water issues, but thus far I’ve been impressed by the deliberate approach taken by the new administration.”
The Biden administration’s Bureau of Reclamation has taken some steps to stave off the effects of the drought on fish and other species, like reducing water flows for power generation at Shasta Dam to preserve cold water for later in the season when fish need it to keep their eggs cool.
However, environmental groups say the administration should have gone further in cutting water deliveries to agricultural customers, pointing to the deaths of adult salmon caused by rising water temperatures in May and June. And Reclamation’s plan to manage the Sacramento River still predicts more than four-fifths of this year’s eggs will die due to high water temperatures.
“It seems like the Bureau of Reclamation is operating exactly the same as if Donald Trump was still the president and all those terrible appointees were still in place,” said Bob Wright, a lawyer representing environmental groups in water litigation. “As far as the Bureau of Reclamation and what they’re doing with water, there’s been no change.”
But Jeff Kightlinger, the immediate past general manager of Metropolitan Water District, the nation’s largest drinking water supplier, said the administration was being “cautious” as it sought to strike a balance.
“I think certainly some environmental groups want to pull them more left, and I think they’re being pretty centrist,” he said.
Source: https://www.politico.com/states/california/story/2021/08/18/drought-fires-and-politics-put-bidens-california-water-plans-on-hold-1389265
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Debra Kahn and Annie Snider
California Rep. Jared Huffman and fellow Democratic Rep. Joe Neguse from Colorado are urging President Joe Biden to declare a drought disaster in the West.
Driving the news: The lawmakers wrote to Biden Wednesday, calling on his administration to support Western governors’ Federal Emergency Management Agency drought disaster declaration request issued earlier this month, as they experience water cuts driven by rapidly depleting supplies.
Drought conditions across Colorado have reached historic levels.
I’m leading my colleagues in urging the federal government to declare a drought disaster declaration and ensure robust federal resources to make the west more resilient to drought. pic.twitter.com/kuo16JEw87
— Rep. Joe Neguse (@RepJoeNeguse) August 25, 2021
What they’re saying: “There is little to no livestock feed available in the West, farmers are considering selling their livestock or land, and many species of wildlife are suffering from wildfires and lack of water,” Neguse and Huffman said.
The big picture: Nearly all of the American West is experiencing some form of drought, and many Western states have been hit by extreme heat waves and historic wildfires this year.
Source: https://www.axios.com/western-lawmakers-biden-fema-drought-disaster-call-da4c077e-ccea-4079-92dd-990e897f3282.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Falconer
Securing more resources to fight the fire is the “No. 1 priority in the nation,” the state’s top fire official said.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/explosive-california-wildfire-knocking-door-tahoe-area-n1277493
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Tim Stelloh
Wildfires and declining water levels at reservoirs have threatened California’s power supply at various points this summer. Desperate to avoid blackouts amid the compounding crisis, California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom is eyeing the construction of five “temporary” gas-fueled plants in the coming months.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/california-just-approved-5-temporary-gas-plants-as-drou-1847538224
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Brianna Provenzano
Newly released satellite images of the Colorado River and Lake Mead in Nevada show the impact the historic drought has had on the region in just one year.
The big picture: The nation’s largest reservoir by volume is at its lowest level since being filled after the Hoover Dam’s completion in the 1930s — prompting the federal government to this week for the first time declare a water shortage for Lake Mead. The Hoover Dam has been operating below its maximum capacity all summer, and it may drop further.
Source: https://www.axios.com/satellite-images-extreme-drought-colorado-river-1be12df1-c222-4114-b790-171c3761ac17.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Rebecca Falconer
Officials issue first-ever declaration of tier 1 shortage at Lake Mead as it falls to lowest level since its creation
Officials have declared a dire water shortage at Lake Mead, the US’s largest reservoir, triggering major water cuts in Arizona and other western states. The US Bureau of Reclamation’s first-ever declaration of a “tier 1” shortage represents an acknowledgment that after a 20-year drought, the reservoir that impounds the Colorado River at the has receded to its lowest levels since it was created in the 1930s.
Already, the lake is at about 35% capacity – the white “bathtub ring” that lines its perimeter indicates where the water level once was. The lake’s level is projected to fall even lower by the end of the year, prompting cutbacks in January 2022, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Monday.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/16/lake-mead-drought-reservoir-water-level-cuts
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Maanvi Singh
Satellite images of the Greek island of Evia reveal in stark relief the devastation wrought by climate change-fueled wildfires that have ripped through the Mediterranian in recent days, leaving behind hundreds of thousands of acres of decimated forests and communities forced to rebuild their lives in a warming world.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/satellite-images-reveal-greece-s-hell-on-earth-1847480916
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Andrew Couts
Heat warnings and advisories are in effect for at least two dozen states through the end of the week. 25 million people are projected to see highs reach or eclipse 100°F this week, as yet another powerful heat dome-dominated weather pattern affects a huge swath of the country.
Why it matters: The heat wave will combine with drought conditions in the Pacific Northwest to aggravate an already dire wildfire situation, and bring more miserable weather to residents of Portland, Oregon, and other states hit hard by record-shattering heat in late June and early July.
By the numbers: A strong area of high pressure across the Pacific Northwest, also known as a “heat dome,” will ratchet up the heat from northern California to Washington state during the Wednesday-through-Saturday period in particular.
Threat level: When it comes to fire weather, the Weather Service forecast office in Medford, Oregon, is warning of “excessively hot, very unstable and dry air” across southern Oregon and northern California — where the Bootleg Fire is still burning, in addition to the Dixie and other blazes.
Context: The heat wave comes just a day after a landmark climate science report was released by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which definitively linked the increasing frequency and severity of heat waves to human emissions of greenhouse gases.
Source: https://www.axios.com/heat-wave-us-august-25219a5f-3280-485a-86c7-5350a75c7203.html
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Andrew Freedman
Seven of the largest wildfires in California history have all ignited since 2018, which one expert said is largely fueled by drought and forest conditions.
Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/dixie-fire-explodes-largest-blaze-u-s-third-largest-california-n1276202
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Wilson Wong
The West is currently facing its worst megadrought in at least 1,200 years. This has caused multiple states to impose water restrictions, and it doesn’t look like things are going to get better any time soon. Lake Mead’s water supply, which provides water to Arizona, Nevada, and part of Mexico, is currently at its …
Source: https://gizmodo.com/how-the-california-megadrought-is-affecting-food-prices-1847435913
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Thor Benson
A town in Northern California has been nearly completely destroyed after the Dixie Fire charged through late Wednesday. The state’s largest wildfire tore through the downtown, destroying historic buildings and prompting panicked evacuations in a dramatic scene of destruction.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/the-dixie-fire-destroys-an-entire-california-town-as-da-1847428276
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Molly Taft
Officials approve new rules that will bar farmers and landowners from using water drawn from key watershed
Faced with dire water shortages and a severe drought, California has moved to enact emergency restrictions that will prevent thousands of farmers and landowners from using water drawn from an enormous system of streams and rivers that services nearly two-thirds of the state.
Regulators on the water resources control board, which oversees the allocation of the state’s water, voted unanimously on Tuesday to stop diversions from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a vast watershed sprawling from Fresno to the Oregon border. This unprecedented action will primarily affect those using water for agricultural irrigation purposes, the Los Angeles Times reported. The restrictions will force some farmers to rely on alternative supplies, such as groundwater wells. But the timing of the order, which will take effect in two weeks, could spare many growers from hardship as the greatest agricultural demand on the watershed tends to fall in late spring and summer, the newspaper said.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/aug/04/california-drought-sacramento-san-joaquin-river-delta
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Dani Anguiano and agencies
Iranian officials have warned of historic drought while experts blame years of poor water management.
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/58012290
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The Article Was Written/Published By:
Water levels in Utah’s Great Salt Lake have officially dwindled to their lowest ever recorded. It’s an effect of the megadrought that has impacted water supplies across the West.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/utahs-great-salt-lake-is-officially-at-its-lowest-point-1847370873
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Tom McKay
Amid the West’s dire megadrought, there’s more bad news on the water front. Lake Powell, a crucial reservoir on the Colorado River, has now hit its lowest level on record since the reservoir was first filled in the late 1960s.
Source: https://gizmodo.com/lake-powell-second-largest-reservoir-in-u-s-hits-rec-1847361776
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The Article Was Written/Published By: Molly Taft
