Irrigation Water

Communities still have dry wells. Restoring groundwater takes decades, with costly, long-term replenishment projects — and ultimately, much less pumping.

Despite a federal deadline Tuesday, California — the largest user of Colorado River water — has refused to cut back as much as six other states proposed in a new plan today. Imperial Valley growers have the most to lose.

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.

Imperial Valley farmers and Southern California cities would get 9% less water from the Colorado River than the amount allocated under their senior rights.

A single irrigation district in California, along the Mexican border, takes more water from the Colorado River than all of Arizona and Nevada. It's under pressure to use less.

The extended heatwave in the Northwest is forcing farmers to adapt, and pray their water supply doesn’t get cut off.

Recent storms brought much-needed precipitation to Southern Oregon. But after a year of drought, the region’s reservoirs haven’t improved much.

California wants to limit the water that farmers can pump from depleted aquifers. To enforce those limits, regulators are turning to remote sensing satellites.

Suffering severe drought, the state’s water board is poised to prevent thousands of growers and others from pumping water from the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. The state lost a lawsuit with irrigation districts during the last drought.

A dry summer, after previous drought years, has led to irrigation water in the Rogue Valley being turned off for at least two weeks.

The Klamath Basin is facing another year of drought. Klamath County commissioners have requested that Gov. Kate Brown make a state-level declaration.

An irrigation ditch may be a pleasant place for a streamside stroll, but there are issues in having the water run out in the open. Evaporation and leakage…