July 2, 2015
Monterey Peninsula graffiti may not be up to the standards of the LBC, but we can still match them in water consumption.
Residential water use in the Monterey Peninsula Cal Am service area jumped to 58.8 gallons per person per day in May. This is up from 55.8 gallons in April. The increase drops the Monterey Peninsula from 29th place on the list of the state’s most water-frugal cities and water districts, all the way down into an ignominious 48th place tie with Long Beach. How long ago now seems that glorious wet December of 2014, when Peninsula residents turned off their landscape irrigation systems and used only a little over 33 gallons per person per day; the second lowest total in the state. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by xasauan
June 9, 2015
A dry start to June
According to the latest report from the State Water Resources Control Board, residential water use in the Monterey Peninsula Cal-Am service area reached 55.8 gallons per person per day in April. This is up from 54.2 gallons per person per day in March, and 45 gallons per person per day in February. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by xasauan
May 20, 2015
The silted up San Clemente Dam awaits demolition
Recently published residential water consumption figures show residents of the Monterey Peninsula increasing their water use to an average of 54.2 gallons per person per day during March. This is up a bit from the 52 gallons per person per day used in January and February and drops the Monterey Peninsula from 29th place in the statewide water conservation sweepstakes, down to 44th. At 50 gallons per person per day, King City residents remain the best water conservationists in Monterey County. Read the rest of this entry »
3 Comments | Carmel River, Politics, Water | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
April 13, 2015
Plenty of warm days and beautiful sunsets, but not enough rain
Local officials have been arguing for years that there is little more the residents of the Monterey Peninsula can do to conserve water because they already use less water per capita than anyone else in the state. Back in November, we noted that this simply wasn’t true. We pointed out that our local Cal-Am service area actually ranked 68th in the state in per capita water use. Read the rest of this entry »
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Posted by xasauan
April 1, 2015
Airport expansion project gone awry or Aztec-inspired sacrificial?
The mayors of the Monterey Peninsula admitted today that the mammoth cinder block monument rising menacingly skyward along the side of Highway 68 is not really related to airport expansion, but is instead a modern sacrificial meant to propitiate the gods of the State Water Resources Control Board. Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Carmel River, Politics, Water | Tagged: Monterey Peninsula, residential ratepayers, swrcb | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
March 7, 2015
The Carmel River’s last major tributary, Garzas Creek, flows through Garland Regional Park.
Here’s some of what’s currently blooming along the creek and on the trail to the top of Vásquez Knob… Read the rest of this entry »
4 Comments | Carmel River, On Foot, Plants, Santa Lucias, Wildflowers | Tagged: Antonio María Vásquez, Garland Regional, Tiburcio Vasquez, Trillium chloropetalum, Vásquez Knob | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
February 9, 2015
The Carmel River Lagoon in 1947 (Laidlaw Williams photo)
There’s been some uproar lately over the plan to build a flood barrier in the Carmel River Lagoon and people have been asking on social media and elsewhere why anyone would propose to place such an assumed-to-be-ugly wall along the northern margin of such a beautiful wetland. A better question may be whether we can find a way to live our lives that doesn’t prevent steelhead from living at all. Either way, it’s a long story… Read the rest of this entry »
10 Comments | Carmel River, Coastal Development/Erosion, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, History, Politics, Water | Tagged: Army Corps of Engineers, Ecosystem Protective Barrier, monterey county, Scenic Road Protection Structure, Steelhead | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
January 16, 2015
As the flow of the Carmel River becomes too weak to resist the power of the sea, waves rebuild the sandbar.
Remember how in we got a lot of rain in the fall of 2012? Monterey logged 9.59 inches for November and December that year. The average for those two months is only 5.41 inches. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Big Sur, Carmel River, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, Fungus, Water | Tagged: Carmel River Lagoon, Chanterelle, Monterey rainfall | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
December 12, 2014
The Monterey Peninsula and the Carmel River mouth. Although the Carmel River is now flowing under Rosie’s Bridge, in the Village, no water has yet made it as far as the lagoon. Water reached the lagoon about 9:00 am this morning!
Before it even arrived, yesterday’s storm was being hailed as the storm of the decade, the century, or even of all time – both in terms of wind and rain. In the actual event, while wind gusts of up to 147 mph were recorded on the Sierra crest near Donner Pass, winds in coastal areas were much less severe than had been feared. The highest winds recorded in Big Sur and the Santa Lucia mountains were only a bit over 50 mph, which is nothing out of the ordinary for winter storms there. Read the rest of this entry »
Leave a Comment » | Big Sur, Carmel River, Fire, Flood & Apocalypse, Santa Lucias, Water | Permalink
Posted by xasauan
Xasáuan Today 