On March 22, 2022, the Environmental Council of Sacramento, the Sacramento Valley Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, the Sacramento Audubon Society, the Sierra Club Sacramento Group, and the Xerces Society submitted a joint letter regarding water issues in the County Action Plan of Sacramento COunty.
By Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times | March 15, 2022 | The Sacramento Bee
LOS ANGELES — California will end winter in a perilous position as record-shattering dryness converges with lagging water conservation efforts in nearly every part of the state, officials said Tuesday. After months of cutting back, new data from the State Water Resources Control Board show that rather than conserving water, Californians increased urban water use 2.6% in January, compared to the same month in 2020 — the baseline year against which current savings are measured.
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/environment/article259443499.html#storylink=cpy
By the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board | February 2, 2022 | The Sacramento Bee
Sacramento — which once only had to worry about seasonal floods — now worries each year about delivering water to its citizens in a hotter and drier California. But there is a way for Sacramento to capture rain and snow, and for the broader region to keep surface reservoirs like Folsom and Oroville lakes nearly full. This same technique could help Sacramento capture enough water to share with neighboring areas in dry years, as well as to store it when we need it most.
Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/article257812568.html#storylink=cpy
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September 2021
Not sure when you’re supposed to be watering? If you live in the Sacramento region, just check the map on the Be Water Smart website! It’s easy!
Image by Peggychoucair from Pixabay
On September 8, 2021, ECOS and Habitat 2020 submitted a letter regarding the Groundwater Sustainability Plan of the South American Sub-basin (SASb), just south of the American River.
Climate change in the Sacramento region requires innovation to deal with more extremes in precipitation. In wetter years, we should pump water into groundwater basins so that we can pump it out during drier years. Just south of the American River is the South American Sub-basin (SASb) that we agree should be used this way. The SASb Groundwater Sustainability Plan includes a Sustainable Yield value – the amount of groundwater that can be extracted annually from the SASb while maintaining it at a sustainable level. This letter provides comments on how the draft Groundwater Sustainability Plan develops the Sustainable Yield level and proposes management actions that should be taken to ensure the SASb’s Sustainable Yield is maintained in the future.
Click here to read our letter in full.
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By Ralph Propper And Tom Gray | July 31, 2021 | Special To The Sacramento Bee
ECOS Board President Ralph Propper co-authored this op-ed, published in the Sacramento Bee on July 31, 2021.
Vigilance is required to reduce water consumption and water waste. Water your lawn less and early in the day to minimize evaporation; don’t let sprinklers run off onto sidewalks; fix household leaks; take shorter showers and wash only full loads of dishes and clothes.
You should also, however, be sure to efficiently water your trees. Many trees were lost in the last drought, an unintended casualty from reduced lawn watering. Let’s give them special care this time.
Invest in long-term water efficiency measures, like removing or reducing your lawn by half in favor of water-sipping native plants, or adding high-efficiency appliances, WaterSense-labeled smart sprinkler timers, high-efficiency sprinklers and drip irrigation. Many local water agencies offer rebates and other incentives to help residents pay for these improvements — some have recently even doubled rebate amounts.
Water providers are doing their part to preserve water in our lakes and rivers by sustainably shifting to using more groundwater.
Saving water today could leave some carry-over storage in Folsom Reservoir for next year. We don’t want to drain that bank account in case next winter is dry, too.
https://www.sacbee.com/opinion/op-ed/article253036003.html
Click here to read the article in full.
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