-
California farms could use 93% less water but less-thirsty crops, such as grains and hay, are much less lucrative than nuts and fruits. Fallowing a small fraction of the thirstiest crops would save 9%.
-
Researchers found that the world’s most rapidly declining basins are in farm regions, especially drier areas like the San Joaquin Valley. Wells are drying out and land is sinking.
-
Groups have filed a legal petition to guarantee a minimum amount of water in the distressed river.
-
The legislation would expand California’s authority to fine water scofflaws who keep pumping. Even if fines had reached $10,000 a day, “I’m not so sure we wouldn’t have done it again,” one rancher says.
-
Southern California growers agreed to use less water through 2026 and receive federal funds in return. But it’s not a long-term solution to the Colorado River’s water woes.
-
Oregon’s water basins are being overdrawn year after year, and a strategy to protect them for future generations is desperately overdue, according to two lawmakers.
-
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.