In California water news today, What’s Up With All the Late-May Rain? Atmospheric Science Suggests Answers; More storms eye California, western US into Memorial Day weekend; After 25 years winter-run salmon return to Battle Creek; Mendocino Pygmy Forest Protection Project awarded funds; Study Shows Boats Anchored by Sausalito Cause Significant Harm to Bay Ecosystem; As states gather to sign Colorado River drought plan, focus turns to what’s next; Trump’s EPA shifts more environmental enforcement to states; 4 fights to watch as energy, environment bills get votes; and more …
In the news today …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
- DAILY DIGEST, weekend edition: The battle over CEQA, the state’s iconic environmental law; Mark Arax on chasing stories for his book: The Dreamt Land; Legislators want safe drinking water but can’t agree on how to fund it; Is it too late for the Salton Sea?; and more …
- NEWS WORTH NOTING: Now Available: Delta Conservation Adaptive Management Action Strategy; State Water Board grant and loan funds Arvin project to resolve arsenic contamination in drinking water
- RESERVOIR AND WATER CONDITIONS for May 20
- UPCOMING WEBINARS: Flood risk, Harmful Algae Blooms, Water quality, Drought outlook, Planning tools for SGMA, WOTS and WOTUS, Conceptual models for IRWM, and more …
- FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Wetlands Restoration for Greenhouse Gas Reduction 2019 Draft Solicitation and Guidelines
More storms eye California, western US into Memorial Day weekend: “Additional storms bearing rain, locally gusty thunderstorms and high-elevation snow will take aim at California and the balance of the western United States into the Memorial Day weekend. “A block in the jet stream is forcing storms to take a much more southern route onshore into western North America than usual for the latter part of May,” according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Brett Anderson. The first storm in the series brought disruptive snow and record-setting rainfall to California last Wednesday into Thursday. ... ” Read more from Accu-Weather here: More storms eye California, western US into Memorial Day weekend
What’s Up With All the Late-May Rain? Atmospheric Science Suggests Answers: “What’s up with all of this Bay Area rain in May? For anyone fascinated with Bay Area weather, this has been a good week to do some questioning. If you’ve been wondering, there are some good explanations — some straight-forward, others a bit more complicated. … ” Read more from CBS Sacramento here: What’s Up With All the Late-May Rain? Atmospheric Science Suggests Answers
After 25 years winter-run salmon return to Battle Creek: “For years fisheries experts have watched the number of winter-run chinook salmon dwindle as they suffered through drought and adverse conditions in the Sacramento River. But this year a small crop of the endangered salmon have made their way back from the ocean to return Battle Creek in southern Shasta County, something that hasn’t happened in some 25 years. And officials hope the fish are the beginning of a new run of salmon in the creek. … ” Read more from the Redding Record Searchlight here: After 25 years winter-run salmon return to Battle Creek
Endangered Winter-Run Chinook Salmon return early, a good sign for the species: “U.S. Fish And Wildlife Service Biologists are welcoming a surprise in the Sacramento River this spring. Some of the endangered Winter-Run Chinook Salmon have returned early and it is a good sign for the future of the species. Biologists found that at least 13 male juvenile Winter-Run Chinook Salmon have already returned after being released into Battle Creek one year ago. These fish were part of a group of 214,000 released into the river last year. ... ” Read more from KRCR here: Endangered Winter-Run Chinook Salmon return early, a good sign for the species
Mendocino Pygmy Forest Protection Project awarded funds: “Mendocino Land Trust has received funding from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to acquire a 93-acre conservation easement off of Gordon Lane, just south of Mendocino, with the purpose of conserving 49 acres of rare pygmy forest. Residents of California’s North Coast have long admired these enchanting tiny forests, but their rarity and sensitivity have not always been well understood. A recently completed, four-year study, conducted by CDFW and the California Native Plant Society, examined the unusual qualities of the soil and plant associations that have, over centuries, created the dynamic habitat of the Mendocino pygmy forests. … ” Read more from Lake County News here: Mendocino Pygmy Forest Protection Project awarded funds
Study Shows Boats Anchored by Sausalito Cause Significant Harm to Bay Ecosystem: “Richardson Bay, the inlet that opens into the San Francisco Bay from Sausalito and Tiburon, is home to multiple fragile ocean ecosystems that depend on eelgrass as a habitat, nursery and food source. According to a new study by Audubon California, the illegal mooring of private boats has caused significant harm to the eelgrass bed in that bay, with 25 to 41 percent of the seafloor habitat suffering damage. … ” Read more from CBS Sacramento here: Study Shows Boats Anchored by Sausalito Cause Significant Harm to Bay Ecosystem
Madera City Council ponders building 2.5 million-gallon tank: “A presentation to the Madera City Council Wednesday evening focused on current water usage, projected peak water demands and highlighted the immediate need for a new 2.5 million-gallon concrete water storage tank to meet the water needs of today’s users and also to meet required fire-flow targets. The estimated cost of the project is more than $18 million, including land acquisition, engineering, site and tank construction, water transmission lines and financing costs, but is expected to meet the demand for water going forward. … ” Read more from the Madera Tribune here: Madera City Council ponders building 2.5 million-gallon tank
Can small-scale farmers grow a healthier California? “From above, the crops of California’s Central Valley look like a giant tile floor. Some of the tiles are fuzzy; these are the densely planted almond and mandarin groves that dominate large swaths of the Valley. Others are striped; these are rows of grapes growing on long trellises. They stretch for 450 miles across the heart of California, many belonging to industrial farm operators that net millions of dollars a year in profits. What a satellite image won’t show you are the complicated social and political frameworks that govern the Central Valley. ... ” Read more from High Country News here: Can small-scale farmers grow a healthier California?
Dispute over Desert Hot Springs groundwater management picks up steam in latest report: “Three years ago, a Desert Hot Springs water district sued a Palm Springs-based state water contractor. Mission Springs Water District alleged that Desert Water Agency, which also provides water to more than 100,000 Palm Springs and Cathedral City residents, made a board decision that violated a previous settlement between the two agencies. The 2015 decision, Mission Springs argued, gave Desert Water Agency the exclusive ability to manage groundwater inside the water district’s boundaries. A few months later, Mission Springs sued. ... ” Read more from the Desert Sun here: Dispute over Desert Hot Springs groundwater management picks up steam in latest report
As states gather to sign Colorado River drought plan, focus turns to what’s next: “After months of tense, difficult negotiations, a plan to spread the effects of anticipated cutbacks on the drought-stricken Colorado River is nearing completion. On Monday, representatives of the seven states that rely on the river will gather for a formal signing ceremony at Hoover Dam, the real and symbolic center of the Lower Basin Drought Contingency Plan. The plan is a blueprint for shortage sharing built around water levels in Lake Mead, the giant reservoir on the Arizona-Nevada border that has sunk to near-record low levels after two decades of drought. … ” Read more from Arizona Central here: As states gather to sign Colorado River drought plan, focus turns to what’s next
Final 100 miles of the Colorado highlight how badly the river is overtaxed: “From above, tracing the Colorado River along the Arizona-California line in an airplane, it’s easy to see how it happened. As the river bends and weaves through the Southwest, its contents are slowly drained away. Concrete canals send water to millions of people in Phoenix and Tucson, Los Angeles and San Diego. Farms, ribbons of green contrasted against the desert’s shades of brown, line the waterway. Farther downstream, near Yuma, the river splits into threads, like a frayed piece of yarn. … ” Read more from Cronkite News here: Final 100 miles of the Colorado highlight how badly the river is overtaxed
Trump’s EPA shifts more environmental enforcement to states: “Susan Holmes’ home, corner store and roadside beef jerky stand are right off Oklahoma Highway 31, putting them in the path of trucks hauling ash and waste from a power plant that burns the high-sulfur coal mined near this small town. For years, when Bokoshe residents were outside, the powdery ash blowing from the trucks and the ash dump on the edge of town would “kind of engulf you,” Holmes said. “They drove by, and you just couldn’t breathe.” Over three decades, the ash dump grew into a hill five stories high. Townspeople regard the Environmental Protection Agency as the only source of serious environmental enforcement. Whenever people took their worries about ash-contaminated air and water to state lawmakers and regulators, “none of them cared,” Holmes said. ... ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service here: Trump’s EPA shifts more environmental enforcement to states
4 fights to watch as energy, environment bills get votes: “House Republican appropriators are poised to push back against Democratic spending bills this week that would reorder the Trump administration’s energy and environmental priorities. The House Appropriations Committee will mark up the fiscal 2020 Energy and Water spending bill tomorrow, followed Wednesday by the Interior-EPA bill. Both measures are expected on the House floor in June. While lawmakers held their fire on amendments at the subcommittee level, they are expected to offer plenty of proposed changes this week. Democrats are likely to fend off GOP attempts to reverse large hikes in EPA spending or limit offshore and Arctic drilling. The parties could also reach compromises on Everglades spending levels and a path ahead for nuclear waste disposal. ... ” Read more from E&E News here: 4 fights to watch as energy, environment bills get votes
Precipitation watch …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
https://mavensnotebook.com/2019/05/20/reservoir-and-water-conditions-for-may-20/
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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.
