Kristen Villebrun and Wendy Bush hoped they wouldn't have to pray for Chedoke Creek, but four years after they first raised alarm about the water's condition, they were part of an Indigenous full moon ceremony to do just that. About 50 people showed up near Princess Point on the dark and frigid Monday evening for the monthly ceremony, which was particularly special as it focused on Chedoke Creek. The body of water that runs into Cootes Paradise had about 24 billion litres of sewage and storm water runoff leak into it due to a gate being left open.
The Department of Water Resources significantly overestimated the state water supply in 2021 because of an error to take into account severe drought due to climate change, the California State Auditor said in a report Thursday. The agency has relied on historical climate data when developing its forecasts, instead of taking into account new methods that better account for extreme conditions, the report said.
California's recent spate of epic Pacific storms has blanketed the Sierra Nevada range in a snowpack at or above record levels, state water resource officials said on Monday at a measuring station where less than 3 inches was documented last April. The bounty of mountain snow, on which California has long relied as a critical natural storehouse of fresh water during dry weather, comes as welcome relief after three years of record drought that had still gripped the state a few months ago.
