In California water news today, Proposal would delay WOTUS rule for two years; Oroville Dam: Recreation along Feather River suffers while DWR surveys; Calistoga takes steps to protect water supply after fire; No place like home for Mokelumne salmon; LADWP approves pump test; Panel recommends changes to two-decade old EPA water affordability guidelines; and more …
On the calendar today …
- WEBCAST: The Delta Caucus is holding a forum on the California Water Fix in Walnut Grove beginning at 10am. Click here for the agenda. Click here to watch on webcast.
- WEBCAST: A Brown Bag seminar will be held from 12pm – 12:30pm on the research triad of monitoring, process studies and modeling and how it led to transformative science to inform policy and regulation of selenium in Northern San Francisco Bay. Click here for more information.
In the news today …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
- NEWS WORTH NOTING: Subsidence Lowers Friant – Kern Canal by 5 Inches in 5 Months; Juvenile Central Valley spring-run chinook salmon monitoring; California Central Valley steelhead monitoring plan
- BROWN BAG SEMINAR: Development of Recommended Flow Targets to Support Biological Integrity Based on Regional Flow-Ecology Relationships for Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Southern California Streams
- SCIENCE NEWS: Spotting redds: The art of biology; Piling it on: Benefits of large wood in streams; Floods are necessary for maintaining healthy river ecosystems; and more …
Proposal would delay WOTUS rule for two years: “In an effort to provide more time to reconsider a definition of “waters of the United States,” and to prevent ongoing court cases from interfering in that process, federal agencies have proposed to delay the effective date of a controversial WOTUS rule by two years. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of the Army have been working to revise a 2015 WOTUS rule written by the agencies during the Obama administration. The 2015 rule drew widespread criticism from farmers, ranchers, agricultural groups and others, for expanding the agencies’ Clean Water Act jurisdiction over water, land and land use. … ” Read more from Ag Alert here: Proposal would delay WOTUS rule for two years
Oroville Dam: Recreation along Feather River suffers while DWR surveys: “Politicians and river guides are calling upon the state Department of Water Resources to mitigate sediment build up in the Feather River following the Oroville Dam crisis. James Stone, president of the Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association, said sediment is a long-standing issue in this section of the river but that this was the worst year so far, by far. Assemblyman James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, and Sen. Jim Nielsen, R-Red Bluff, have also worked with the association and brought attention to the issue, recently lobbying for action in Washington, D.C. ... ” Read more from the Chico Enterprise-Record here: Oroville Dam: Recreation along Feather River suffers while DWR surveys
Calistoga takes steps to protect water supply after fire: “With the assistance of Cal Fire, Calistoga’s Public Works took erosion control measures to protect one of Calistoga’s water sources that was affected by the Tubbs Fire in October. “Basically, we laid wattle all around the bathtub (of Kimball Reservoir), and that was done in a day,” said Derek Rayner, deputy public works director at a Watershed Information and Conservation Council (WICC) meeting held at the Community Center this month. ... ” Read more from the Napa Register here: Calistoga takes steps to protect water supply after fire
No place like home for Mokelumne salmon: “It could be a record year for salmon on the Mokelumne River, but not without some extraordinary human intervention. More than 15,200 adult salmon had returned to the fish hatchery below Camanche Dam as of last week. The record is just over 18,000 fish. “It’s gonna be close,” said Jose Setka, manager of fishery and wildlife with the East Bay Municipal Utility District. The district, which diverts Mokelumne water to the Bay Area, uses the 54-year-old hatchery to artificially spawn salmon since they lost much of their historic habitat above the dam. ... ” Read more from the Stockton Record here: No place like home for Mokelumne salmon
LADWP approves pump test: “After nearly an hour of public comment opposed to the Well 385R pump test, it took the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Board of Commissioners about 10 minutes to put a unanimous stamp of approval on the two-month trial run of the Five Bridges well. The question at hand at yesterday’s board meeting was a vote on accepting the Initial Study/Negative Declaration. Following the comment period, Commissioner Aura Vasquez asked Anselmo Collins, the director of water operations, what steps came next. … ” Read more from the Sierra Wave here: LADWP approves pump test
Panel recommends changes to two-decade old EPA water affordability guidelines: “In a highly anticipated report, a panel chartered by Congress to advise public agencies on effective governance recommends that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency revise how it appraises financial burdens when communities are required to upgrade water and sewer systems. Observers say that the revisions, if the EPA accepts them, could change the agency’s permitting and enforcement of municipalities under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act, the bedrock federal environmental laws that occasionally result in multibillion-dollar modifications of water treatment facilities. That means communities could have more time to complete required projects. … ” Read more from the Circle of Blue here: Panel recommends changes to two-decade old EPA water affordability guidelines
In commentary today …
Ivory tower water grab is outrageous, says Raul Riesgo: He writes, “In a recent Viewpoints article (“A new approach to protecting rivers,” Nov. 20), three academics propose accomplishing the greater good by very bad means that are also clearly unconstitutional. They would strip California’s water rights from private property owners without compensation and grant those rights to the environment and ecosystems, free of charge. Cities, farms, hydropower, fisheries, industry and other uses be damned, they seem to imply. California’s infamous “Whisky is for drinking; water is for fighting” collection of water laws has no greater bedrock than this: Citizens and others who own early claims to water rights have a state guarantee to the first use of water flowing to them in rivers, streams, lakes, underground aquifers and other bodies of water. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee here: Ivory tower water grab is outrageous, says Raul Riesgo
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
- NEWS WORTH NOTING: Subsidence Lowers Friant – Kern Canal by 5 Inches in 5 Months; Juvenile Central Valley spring-run chinook salmon monitoring; California Central Valley steelhead monitoring plan
- BROWN BAG SEMINAR: Development of Recommended Flow Targets to Support Biological Integrity Based on Regional Flow-Ecology Relationships for Benthic Macroinvertebrates in Southern California Streams
- SCIENCE NEWS: Spotting redds: The art of biology; Piling it on: Benefits of large wood in streams; Floods are necessary for maintaining healthy river ecosystems; and more …
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About the Daily Digest: The Daily Digest is a collection of selected news articles, commentaries and editorials appearing in the mainstream press. Items are generally selected to follow the focus of the Notebook blog. The Daily Digest is published every weekday with a weekend edition posting on Sundays.
