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On the calendar today …
- PUBLIC HEARING: Sites Reservoir Water Right Permit beginning at 9am. The State Water Resources Control Board is holding a multi-day public hearing on the Sites Project Authority’s application for a water right permit to store up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water annually in a proposed reservoir in the Sacramento Valley. View hearing on the Administrative Hearings Office YouTube channel.
- WEBINAR: California-Nevada January 2024 Drought & Climate Outlook Webinar from 11am-12pm. webinars designed to provide stakeholders and other interested parties in the region with timely information on current drought status and impacts, as well as a preview of current and developing climatic events (i.e., El Niño and La Niña). Click here to register.
In California water news today …
Drinking wastewater, building an island from scratch and creating an urban forest: 3 bold ways cities are already adapting to climate change
“Milan’s marble facades and narrow, stone-paved streets look elegant and timeless. But all of that stone emits heat and does nothing to absorb rain, and temperatures and flooding in the posh Italian city are only predicted to increase in the coming decades. In Jakarta, black floodwaters already rush into homes every winter along the Indonesian city’s many rivers. That water is filled with sewage and harbors disease, but many people can’t afford to move. Soon, climate change will put more of Jakarta — and many other low-lying cities — below sea level. And in arid San Diego, water is already treated like a precious commodity. As drought increases in the coming years, protecting this resource will become even more important. Human-caused climate change is transforming weather patterns and shifting ecosystems around the globe. … Cities will have to respond, and some are already taking bold steps. … ” Read more from Live Science.
How better data is helping to improve water management in California
“Careful stewardship is key for managing California’s highly sought-after water resources, but a lack of reliable data hampers this goal. That’s beginning to change, however, thanks to two things: technological advances and the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which celebrates its 10th anniversary this month. SGMA has made waves in the water management space since its passage in 2014. … SGMA has also brought about a quiet revolution in the data landscape. Better data collection began before SGMA, of course. But SGMA’s passage took the improvements to a new level. … ” Read the full post at the California Water Blog.
Governor Newsom issues legislative update, signs AB 460
Governor Gavin Newsom has announced that he has signed AB 460 by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D-Orinda) – State Water Resources Control Board: water rights and usage: civil penalties, and many more. Read the legislative update.
California governor signs law banning all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores
““Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at grocery store checkout lines in California under a new law signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that bans all plastic shopping bags. California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable. The new measure, approved by state legislators last month, bans all plastic shopping bags starting in 2026. Consumers who don’t bring their own bags will now simply be asked if they want a paper bag. … ” Read more from the Associated Press.
Desperate California wine growers are slashing prices on grapes. No one is buying
“For the first time in three decades, Lisa Graul hasn’t been able to sell her coveted Cabernet Sauvignon grapes, which she farms with her husband at their home in Calistoga. Her existing contracts with wineries expired this year and weren’t renewed, so she has slashed her pricing in a desperate attempt to lure in some buyers before harvest’s end — from her typical $9,500 per ton to $2,500. “Even that is negotiable,” she said. “We just want to make our expenses back at this point.” Graul isn’t alone. Grape growers across California who can’t find wineries to buy their fruit are offering unprecedented discounts, as they’re running out of time to make a profit on this year’s crop, or at the very least, cover their farming costs. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
California tears down levee in ‘largest tidal habitat restoration in state history’
“A piece of heavy construction equipment called a backhoe loader dug into a levee in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Wednesday, breaking down a portion of the earthen embankment and allowing tidal waters to flow across 3,400 acres of land for the first time in 100 years, officials said.The tearing down of the levee is among the final steps in a public-private project to restore tidal land — which was turned over to farmers and duck hunters — to its natural state. The plot of land, located in Solano County and just upriver from Rio Vista, is being called Lookout Slough, and it will provide new habitat for fish and wildlife and increase flood protection for the greater Sacramento area by boosting water storage capacity in the Yolo Bypass, Charlotte Biggs, an assistant division manager with the California Department of Water Resources and the lead on this project, told SFGATE. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
SEE ALSO:
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- See levee breach marking completion of Delta’s largest tidal wetland restoration project, video from the Sacramento Bee
- Imperiled Delta Smelt gain 3,400 acres of habitat in largest ever tidal restoration project, from SF Gate
Striper Season: Examining where and when striped bass occur in the Stanislaus River
“Striped bass (Morone saxatilis) are arguably one of the most popular sport fish in California’s Central Valley and the San Francisco Estuary. Any angler who has ever had a whopper (a technical term referring to a large fish) on the end of their line would understand why. Striped bass can grow quite large (over 50 cm/20 inches) and they fight hard. Since their introduction in the late 1800’s, they have become an important fisheries resource in California, so much so that they were the impetus for the start of the longest running Delta fish monitoring programs. Although fisheries biologists have been monitoring juvenile and adult striped bass in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Sacramento River for decades, very little monitoring occurred in the San Joaquin River and its tributaries. Therefore striped bass in the San Joaquin Basin have remained relatively mysterious. However, a quick search on Youtube for “striped bass” and “Stanislaus River” returns a number of videos showing anglers catching whopper stripers. … ” Read more from FishBio.
A key ingredient has been missing from California’s wildfires this year. Experts worry things will get worse if it arrives
“Large, explosive and destructive fires have torn through parts of California this year, well before the state’s most extreme fire weather conditions typically arrive, and it’s stoking fears that the season has devastating potential to come. It’s all happening because weather extremes that are becoming more likely in a warming world are combining with volatile effect. It’s been a typical fire season in California so far based on overall statistics. More than 6,000 wildfires have scorched nearly 1 million acres – very close to the average of about 950,000 acres, according to data from CAL FIRE. Only, some of the fires have been anything but normal. … ” Read more from CNN.
Wildfire statistics for the year so far
“The first day of fall has been a busy one for local firefighters, including three wildland fires within one hour. Peak fire season is upon us, here is a snapshot of what has happened so far. Since January 1, 2024 a total of 11,014 wildland starts were recorded in the Integrated Reporting of Wildfire Information (IRWIN) in California. 6,269 of those grew into fires 10 acres and larger. As of today, nearly a million acres have burned in the state, 1,425 structures have been destroyed and another 255 damaged per CAL FIRE statistics. … ” Continue reading from YubaNet.
Wildfires can release more energy than an atomic bomb. No wonder they look apocalyptic
“The first full weekend of September, with the Line fire 20,000 acres in size and only 3% contained, a resident of San Bernardino County described the sky as looking “exactly like a nuclear warhead had been set off.” On a basic level, this makes sense: By that point, the Line fire had already released more energy into the atmosphere than a dozen atomic bombs. And just as nuclear blasts produce a distinctive mushroom cloud, uncontrolled wildfires can be powerful enough to generate their own weather. When wood and other vegetation combust, it they produce four main compounds: carbon dioxide, smoke (itself a mix of toxic ingredients like carbon monoxide, methane, benzene and many more), heat and water vapor. Of those, carbon dioxide is the least relevant to the local weather — while it plays a major role in the global climate, that is more because of its long lifespan rather than its immediate potency. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
In commentary today …
California’s Prop. 4 tries to meet many resource needs. Is it worth $10 billion?
“On the November ballot, the $10 billion bond contained in Proposition 4 defies labeling. It’s not exactly a climate change bond, a water bond, a parks bond, a sustainable farming bond or a community assistance bond. It’s all of these, but it addresses pressing state priorities in baby steps. In a perfect world, voters could reject Prop. 4 as a message to the Democratically-controlled Legislature to stop creating spending packages with more ornaments than a Neiman Marcus Christmas tree. But we don’t have time to waste on climate change, which isn’t even mentioned in the bond’s title. California is nowhere near prepared for longer droughts and bigger floods and higher sea levels. Investments now will save taxpayers big money in the long run. Prop. 4 has barely enough top-priority spending in it to merit an endorsement. And rejecting it solves nothing because, after five years of ornament-making behind this bond, this Legislature simply can’t be expected to do materially better. … ” Continue reading at the Sacramento Bee.
SEE ALSO: California climate bond measure garners strong support in new poll, from E&E News
Delta Flows: The reckoning of California’s regional economic planning and water availability
“In this edition of Delta Flows, our Executive Director Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla reflects on what it truly means to build a sustainable and equitable climate economy, including Restore the Delta and partners’contribution in response to the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) Regarding the Reinitiation of Consultation on Long-Term Operations of the Central Valley and State Water Projects and the politics behind the Delta smelt.” Read the post from Restore the Delta.
In regional water news and commentary today …
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, partners remove illegal moorings
“The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) partnered with the California State Lands Commission this summer to begin removing illegally placed concrete mooring blocks and attached buoys from the bottom of Lake Tahoe. The removal of three boat anchoring blocks on the lake’s West Shore in August was the first such removal under the 2018 Shoreline Plan that capped the number of piers and boat moorings, according to the agencies. “This is an important step toward full implementation of a groundbreaking plan that was years in the making,” TRPA General Counsel John Marshall said. “We appreciate the work of our partners and our watercraft team to improve recreation and safety in Lake Tahoe’s iconic shoreline.” … ” Read more from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
AT&T to reel in 107,000 pounds of lead cables from Lake Tahoe
“AT&T has agreed to remove approximately 107,000 pounds of lead cables that have been submerged in Lake Tahoe for decades as part of a settlement announced last week. The decision follows a lawsuit filed by the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA) in 2021, which claimed that the cables were leaching toxic lead into the lake, posing risks to the environment and human health. Initially laid by the Pacific Bell Telephone Company over a century ago and later inherited by AT&T, the cables span about six miles across the lake’s floor. Scientific investigations revealed elevated levels of lead in the lake’s water and sediment near the cables, with biofilms—algae that serve as a food source for fish—showing concentrations 67,000 times higher than normal. These findings raised concerns about the lead’s potential impact on the lake’s aquatic ecosystem. … ” Read more from the Wireless Estimator.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Salmon management methods explained during free Feather River rafting excursions
“Free rafting tours this fall are scheduled each Saturday starting Oct. 5 through Nov. 9, 2024 by the Department of Water Resources (DWR). Each Saturday will have multiple floating classroom sessions with limited seats. Rafters will go through Feather River salmon spawning habitat with scientists from the DWR and the Pacific States Marine Fisheries Commission. Rafters will also hear about ongoing and planned research projects, restoration and monitoring projects, and fisheries management activities supported by DWR’s State Water Project. … ” Read more from Action News Now.
NAPA/SONOMA
Napa County to explore ways to pay for groundwater agency
“Napa County is looking for ways to fund its state-mandated Groundwater Sustainability Agency and could look to well-water users. Since 2019, the county has spent $8.7 million in general fund money on the groundwater agency. California law allows for a fee on groundwater extraction to pay the bills, a county report said. On Tuesday, Napa County supervisors, sitting as the Groundwater Sustainability Agency board, are to discuss funding options. They will use a report by SCI Consulting Group as a starting point. … ” Read more from the Napa Register.
BAY AREA
Martins Beach: Billionaire Vinod Khosla loses bid to halt state lawsuit seeking more public beach access
“For more than a decade, Martins Beach, a scenic stretch south of Half Moon Bay, has been ground zero for a nationally watched legal battle over who controls access to California’s sand and waves. Now a judge has rejected Silicon Valley billionaire Vinod Khosla’s attempt to throw out a lawsuit by state agencies that claim he has been “improperly and illegally” restricting public access to the popular beach for more than a decade. San Mateo County County Superior Court Judge Raymond Swope issued the decision late Thursday. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
SEE ALSO: Billionaire battle: Musk blasts Khosla over Martins Beach, curses him on social media, from the San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Kern County reclaims agricultural crown with $8.6 billion crop value
“In a significant rebound from the 2022 crop year, the 2023 Kern County Crop Report from the Agricultural Commissioner’s office highlights a 12% increase in crop value. The total gross value of all agricultural commodities produced in Kern County reached $8.626 billion in 2023, surpassing Fresno County’s 2023 report of $8.59 billion, and Tulare County’s record-breaking 2022 value of $8.612 billion. The top five commodities for 2023 were grapes, citrus, pistachios, almonds, and carrots, which made up over $5 billion — 66% — of the total value. The top 20 commodities make up 96% of the overall value. … ” Read more from Valley Ag Voice.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Where have all the orange groves gone?
“Detroit has cars. Chicago has slaughterhouses. New Orleans has jazz. We have orange groves. Had. For a hundred years, the Bothwell family’s orange grove in Tarzana stood at about a hundred acres. Now only 14 acres remain, the last surviving commercial citrus grove in the San Fernando Valley, and two-thirds of those — let’s call it 10 acres — could soon be plowed under to build 21 high-end houses. They plan to call it “Oakdale Estates.” Not even “Orange Grove Estates” as a memento mori. By the early 1970s, only 350 acres of commercial orange groves remained in the Valley. Thirty years ago, it had dwindled to about 40 acres. And now 14. My colleague Julia Wick once did the arithmetic and calculated that these 14 acres represent less than one-thousandth of what the Valley possessed at its peak. Here’s the thing with California’s oranges: The California gold rush, smack in the middle of the 19th century, was an enormous splash in the placer pan. … Then there came the other gold rush — slower, more modest, but with a steady yield that literally could be plucked from trees: the California orange. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
The Queen of Malibu’s big dam mistake
“In March 1924, Los Angeles geologist and engineer Wayne Loel sketched a simple diagram of a dam that would profoundly alter the Southern California environment for the next century. Loel’s pencil drawing depicts the tapering cross section of an arch dam rising 102 feet out of Malibu Creek, with a separate view showing the dam curving 85 feet across the canyon mouth. In a neat script on the upper right corner of the tracing paper, Loel wrote two words: Rindge Dam. The dam’s name was a nod to “the Queen of Malibu,” the imperious May K. Rindge, who owned a 17,000-acre ranch that stretched for 25 miles along the Malibu coast. Although it’s been functionally obsolete for 80 years, Rindge Dam survives as zombie infrastructure, dead but with a lethal afterlife that haunts Malibu Creek and the local coast. … ” Read more from Alta.
Ballona Wetlands: Lookout Slough Project shows the way
“The California Department of Water Resources held a ceremony on September 18th to celebrate completing the Lookout Slough Tidal Habitat Restoration Project. At 3,400-acres, Lookout Slough is the largest tidal wetland restoration project to date in the Sacramento-San Francisco Bay Delta. After breaking ground in June 2022, construction for the project included building over 3-miles of a 25-foot-tall levee, which provides flood protection with allowances for future sea level rise. Bulldozers also excavated 26 miles of open tidal channels, and restored native habitat through grading, fill placement, and natural revegetation. This method is similar to what California has proposed for the Ballona Wetlands. … ” Read more from The Patch.
Environmental permit you never heard of could clean, or foul, local waters
“At least 10,000 people were expected to hit local beaches and rivers and streams for Coastal Cleanup Day on Saturday, Sept. 21, picking up trash and generally sprucing up places – the coastline and inland waterways – that help make Southern California what it is. But eight days earlier, on a Friday, Sept. 13, exactly zero members of the general public came to the Cypress Civic Center for an open meeting about how Region 8 of the California Water Board should write its next MS4 permit. The document that was under discussion will set limits and other rules about any pollution that spills out of storm drains and flood control channels in much of Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties over the rest of this decade. (Los Angeles County goes through the same process.) And some of its proposed details – including a first-time effort to create a watershed management plan that might lead to tighter rules against wayward dischargers – are controversial. … ” Read more from the OC Register (gift article).
Palos Verdes landslide keeps getting worse. Residents’ anger boils
“Tom Keefer can only describe the last few weeks in their Rancho Palos Verdes neighborhood as a nightmare. Cut off from vital utilities for more than a month while living on the active landslide whose limits have yet to be determined, Keefer and his wife have seen their lives upended by the escalating emergency in ways they never could have foreseen. Beyond the closed roads, damaged homes and transformed landscapes caused by the devastating and ongoing land movement, they have found themselves struggling to safely store food and secure stable power while running repeatedly to the gas station for more ice and propane to keep their house, and lives, afloat. Amid the long list of challenges now accompanying daily life in their Portuguese Bend community, the predominant feelings among many residents are mounting anxiety and frustration — and even anger — over a lack of responsibility, answers or assistance from anyone in charge. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
IMPERIAL/COACHELLA VALLEYS
Astonishing bird counts at California’s dying Salton Sea
“After trudging through slippery muck to the edge of California’s vast, dwindling Salton Sea last summer, wildlife biologists were astounded by what they and fellow surveyors found: A quarter-million birds were ultimately tallied, feasting along what was supposed to be a much mourned near-dead zone on the 4,000-mile-long Pacific flyway. “In every direction, and almost around our feet, thousands of tiny shorebirds, no bigger than a few marshmallows, scurried among the mud feeding nonstop, slurping up whatever they were finding in the soupy shore,” wrote Andrea Jones, Audubon California’s senior director of conservation, in a follow-up report. … ” Read more from the Desert Sun.
SAN DIEGO
Top aide to San Diego Mayor Gloria tapped as Water Authority Board Chair
“A prominent aide to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria will start a two-year term as chair of the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors on Oct. 1. Nick Serrano, Gloria’s deputy chief of staff, has served as vice chair of the board for the past two years while representing the city. He was unanimously elected as chair Thursday and will serve with incoming vice chair Frank Hilliker from the Lakeside Water District, and incoming secretary Joy Lyndes from the San Dieguito Water District. … ” Read more from the Times of San Diego.
Imperial Beach reopens after 1,000-day closure due to water contamination
“Residents in Imperial Beach were able to enter the water for the first time in years on Sunday after closures were lifted. The San Diego County Department of Environmental Health and Quality announced Saturday that water at the Imperial Beach Pier, Carnation Avenue, and Silver Strand met state health standards following recent tests. The waters had been closed for more than 1,000 days due to contamination from the Tijuana River. … ” Read more from Channel 10.
Along the Colorado River …
Amid Southwest megadrought, Cornell researchers develop novel climate model for snow water resource metrics in Colorado
“For the last 24 years, the Southwest United States has been caught in the driest megadrought since 800 C.E. The megadrought is driven by several factors, primarily high temperatures. Since 2000, every state in the Southwest has experienced increasing average temperatures, with some states experiencing temperatures two degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average. Increased temperatures have shortened snow seasons and decreased the moisture in the soil, exacerbating drought. The megadrought has sparked concerns about the future of water resources in the Southwest, particularly regarding the Colorado River. The management of the Colorado River has been a pervasive issue among the seven states — Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — and tribal territories relying on the basin. … ” Read more from the Cornell Sun.
Corporations plunder West’s water amid worst drought in 1,200 years
“Rural La Paz County, Arizona, positioned on the Colorado River across from California, is at the center of a growing fight over water in the American Southwest. At the heart of the battle is a question: Should water be treated as a human right, to be allocated by governments with the priority of sustaining life? Or is it a commodity to be bought, sold and invested in for the greatest profits? As the West suffers its worst megadrought in 1,200 years, investors have increasingly eyed water as a valuable asset and a resource to be exploited. For years, investment firms have bought up farmland throughout the Southwest, drilling to new depths for their water-hungry crops and causing nearby wells to run dry. Now, new players have entered the scene: “Water management companies” are purchasing up thousands of acres of farmland, with the intention of selling the water rights at a profit to cities and suburbs elsewhere in the state. Some argue that treating water as a commodity can efficiently get it where it is needed most. But others fear that water markets open the door to profiteering and hoarding, leaving poorer communities in the dust. … ” Read more from Truthout.
In national water news today …
How cities run dry
“In April 2024, more than 9 million residents of Bogotá, Colombia’s capital city, were told to collect rainwater – if the city was lucky enough to experience a storm. Fed by the Guatiquía River, the Chingaza reservoir system, which supplies the area with 70% of its water, had reached critically low levels. To make what was left stretch through a dry spell with no clear end in sight, authorities divided the city into nine zones. Every day, one of the zones would go dry for 24 hours. No toilet would flush. No glass of water would be filled from the tap. Dishes would have to go unwashed. Bogotá Mayor Carlos Galan told residents they should be prepared to live with the water restrictions for a year. “The call is to take care of every drop of water,” the mayor’s office said, according to CBS News. … ” Read more from Yale Climate Connections.
