The Department of Water Resources announced on Jan. 8, 2014 that it has begun using renewable power purchased from a Dominion Solar Holdings’ solar project to help move water through the State Water Project.

The Dominion RE Camelot Solar Photovoltaic Project near Mojave in southeastern Kern County went into full commercial operation and began delivering power for the SWP on Dec. 23, 2014. The project’s single-axis photovoltaic panels directly track the sun’s movement to maximize the panels’ efficiency. Read more

Californians had the opportunity to receive the message to save water at least five times apiece in 2014 when the Save Our Water campaign ramped into high gear due to the state’s drought, delivering water conservation messages on television, radio, social media, websites and even lawn signs.

That was one of the statistics delivered today to the State Water Resources Control Board during an update by officials with the Save Our Water campaign, which is co-managed by ACWA and the Department of Water Resources.

Jennifer Persike, ACWA’s deputy executive director for external affairs and operations, told members of the State Board that additional funding given the campaign in 2014 helped to expand its reach into new channels and markets – including paid advertising. The campaign elicited 450,000 web site visits, 220,000 video views, 13,600 radio ads, 1,700 television ads and 140% increase in social media followers. Overall, the campaign achieved 210 million impressions of its message. Read more

With the State Water Resources Control Board considering action to extend the soon-to-expire emergency water conservation regulations for another 270 days, ACWA has provided recommendations supporting the extension and suggested additional improvements.

ACWA Special Projects Manager Dave Bolland presented ACWA’s recommendations during a State Board meeting held Tuesday to discuss the role of the emergency regulations in light of the state’s ongoing drought emergency. Read more

The chemical signature of water vapor emitted by combustion sources such as vehicles and furnaces has been found in the smoggy winter inversions that often choke Salt Lake City. The discovery may give researchers a new tool to track down the sources of pollutants and climate-changing carbon dioxide gas.

University of Utah scientists measured ratios of rare and common isotopes of hydrogen and oxygen in water, and estimated that water vapor from burning fossil fuels makes up as much as 13 percent of the water vapor in smog during Salt Lake’s winter inversions, with the percentage starting smaller and increasing as the inversion persists. Read more

 The water, equivalent to 140 trillion times all the water in the world’s ocean, surrounds a huge, feeding black hole, called a quasar, more than 12 billion light-years away.

“The environment around this quasar is very unique in that it’s producing this huge mass of water,” said Matt Bradford, a scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “It’s another demonstration that water is pervasive throughout the universe, even at the very earliest times.” Bradford leads one of the teams that made the discovery. His team’s research is partially funded by NASA and appears in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Read more