New report says climate change likely to make water more scarce in California

Mike Sprague in the Pasadena Star-News: Gov. Jerry Brown declared the state's drought over, but in the long term the availability of water locally is still going to pose a problem, according to a new government report. A report released last week by the Interior Department said annual flows in three river basins - the Colorado, Rio Grande and San Joaquin - could decline by as much 8 percent to 14 percent over the next four decades.

The Colorado and San Joaquin rivers supply water to Southern California. "The study basically verifies previous work that has been done by climate scientists," said Timothy Brick, who represents Pasadena on the board of the Metropolitan Water District.

"These are big warning flags to Southern California," Brick said. "We need to stop talking about drought and start talking about a new era of wise water use that takes into account climate change and other realities - the still-increasing population in Southern California and environmental challenges for our imported water supplies."

The report doesn't contradict Brown's elimination of the drought declaration in California, Brick said. "This year rain has been generous," he said. "(But) people recognize that one year doesn't end a drought."…

Coyote Dry Lake in the Mojave Desert, California, shot by Jeff T. Alu, Wikimedia Commons, under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license