Drought

Communities, largely home to low-income Latino residents, still have dry wells. Restoring groundwater takes decades, with costly, long-term replenishment projects — and ultimately, much less pumping.

California and six other drought-parched states have until Tuesday to hammer out a deal to cut their voracious thirst for Colorado River water by up to 30%.  Don’t hold your breath.  As the New York Times reported over the weekend, no one is volunteering to make the cuts that the federal government is now demanding, […]

Has California reached an upper limit on what it can do to regulate guns? Following a pattern as old as gun control itself, state lawmakers are responding to the back-to-back mass shootings that killed 18 people this week with more legislation: Democratic Sens. Catherine Blakespear of Encinitas and Nancy Skinner of Oakland announced Thursday they’re […]

Growers and Southern California cities that get water from the state aqueduct will receive 30% of their requested allocations. That’s the most in January since 2017, after heavy rains fed the reservoirs.

The Colorado River’s water transformed the Imperial Valley desert into one of California’s most productive farm regions. But now growers will have to sacrifice 10% of their supply because of shortages in the river's supply.

A dozen days of wet and wild weather haven’t ended the drought, and won't cure the driest period in the West in the past 1,200 years.

As a "bomb cyclone" descends on Northern California tonight, storms have already tested a region highly vulnerable to flooding. One report says the Central Valley needs $30 billion in improvements over 30 years.

The massive, bomb-cyclone-fueled storm set to unleash on California today — dumping more rain and snow across much of the already-soaked state while whipping it with winds as high as 70 mph — illuminates some of the underlying climate and environmental issues confronting state lawmakers, who return to Sacramento today to recommence the 2023 legislative […]

Urgently trying to help an endangered species devastated by drought, biologists hauled 40,000 eggs to the McCloud River this year, then brought the young fish back again to migrate. So far, it's gone well.

Despite December storms, water supplies remain low in many areas. Some managers expect to impose severe restrictions on their customers.