- The State Water Board will hold a workshop to give an update on the progress of the Water Boards Data Management Strategy and Innovation Team beginning at 1:30pm. Click here for the meeting notice.
- On Saturday, the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project is holding a Least Tern Habitat Enhancement Event from 9am to 1pm at the Eden Ecological Reserve in Hayward. Click here for an event flyer with information on how to RSVP.
Wet weather to make a welcomed return to California early next week: “The general storm track along the West Coast this year has left much of the Golden State high and dry so far, increasing concerns for the upcoming fire season as abnormally dry conditions expand statewide. Thankfully, a southerly shift in the jet stream will bring a welcomed return of wet weather as a pair of storms bring an end to the dry streak in the coming days. The first of two storm systems to impact the state will come as a cold front sweeps down the Pacific coastline late Friday and into the day on Saturday. … ” Read more from Accu-Weather here: Wet weather to make a welcomed return to California early next week
The portion of California considered to be in moderate drought continues to expand: “Drought conditions in California continued to expand, according to the most recent U.S. Drought Monitor data released Thursday. After what experts are calling California’s driest February on record, slightly more than 34% of the state was deemed to be in moderate drought. That’s an increase of about 11% over figures released a week ago. … ” Read more from the LA Times here: The portion of California considered to be in moderate drought continues to expand
Sacramento River salmon forecast up, Klamath forecast down: “State and federal fishery scientists gave presentations on the numbers of salmon that spawned in the Sacramento and Klamath River systems last year, along with the estimated ocean abundance this year, during the annual California Department of Fish and Wildlife salmon information meeting held in Santa Rosa on Feb. 27. … ” Read more from The Record here: Sacramento River salmon forecast up, Klamath forecast down
Space Saloon, Designers on Holiday will host design festival addressing California’s water scarcity: “The organizers of camp residency programs Space Saloon and Designers on Holiday have announced the launch of DeSaturated, an eight-day design-build festival in California’s Cuyama Valley, a two-hour drive north of Los Angeles. With the rugged high desert landscape as its backdrop, the “community-in-residence” program will draw attention to the state’s water scarcity. “Water shapes life,” its website states, “yet access to this resource is neither equitable nor just. Wildfires, droughts and severe floods have strained the state of California in the last decade, pointing out the limitations of territorial development that impose market logics on scarce and fragile resources.” … ” Read more from The Architect’s Newspaper here: Space Saloon, Designers on Holiday will host design festival addressing California’s water scarcity
Section 401 Water Quality Certification Waiver/Hydroelectric Relicensing: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission addresses Southern California Edison Company request for declaratory order: “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) issued a February 20th document titled: Declaratory Order on Waiver of Water Quality Certification (“Order”) The Order addresses a petition filed by Southern California Edison Company (“Edison”) requesting that the FERC declare that the California State Water Resources Control Board (“California”) waived its authority to issue a certification for the relicensing of certain hydroelectric projects under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act. Edison is stated to be an applicant for six projects within the Big Creek Hydroelectric System (“Projects”). ... ” Read more from JD Supra here: Section 401 Water Quality Certification Waiver/Hydroelectric Relicensing: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission addresses Southern California Edison Company request for declaratory order
Fifth District holds EIR for Kern County’s ministerial oil and gas well permitting ordinance violates CEQA due to improperly deferred mitigation for water supply impacts, inadequate mitigation for farmland conversion, and inadequate analysis of noise impacts: “In a partially-published, 150-page slip opinion resolving appeals in consolidated cases, and filed February 25, 2020, the Fifth District Court of Appeal affirmed in part and reversed in part a trial court decision finding CEQA defects in the 1800-plus page EIR prepared for Kern County’s adoption of an ordinance designed to provide a streamlined, ministerial permitting process for new oil and gas wells in the county. … The published portion of the opinion held the EIR improperly deferred the formulation and implementation of mitigation for significant water supply impacts; failed to adequately mitigate farmland conversion impacts due to improper reliance on agricultural conversion easements (ACEs) as offsetting mitigation; and failed to adequately analyze noise impacts by relying solely on an absolute cumulative numerical limit threshold of significance, rather than also analyzing the significance of the magnitude of project noise increases over ambient levels in differently affected settings. ... ” Read more from JD Supra here: Fifth District holds EIR for Kern County’s ministerial oil and gas well permitting ordinance violates CEQA
National Water and Climate Update: Powerful tornadoes result in widespread destruction in Tennessee: “The Natural Resources Conservation Service produces this weekly report using data and products from the National Water and Climate Center and other agencies. The report focuses on seasonal snowpack, precipitation, temperature, and drought conditions in the U.S. Severe EF-3 and EF-4 tornadoes have swept across Tennessee, with major destruction to Nashville in the early morning of March 3. The National Weather Service in Nashville is continuing their efforts to analyze the strength of the tornadoes. Preliminary indications are that the path of the strong EF-3 tornado had winds of 165 mph and a damage path of 53.4 miles, one of the longest on-the-ground tornadoes in the state’s history. The EF-4 tornado touched down in Cookeville, with winds of up to 180 mph. Several other smaller tornadoes were also spawned from this supercell thunderstorm. There has been extensive damage to businesses, homes, and infrastructure, with reports of 24 deaths and many injuries across the region. … ” Read the report here: National Water and Climate Update
Even fake snow failed in a record-warm winter linked to the polar vortex and climate change: “In New York’s Central Park, cherry trees put out their pale pink blooms in January — months ahead of schedule. Temperatures in Sweden were so high ski resorts couldn’t make artificial snow for their slopes. Snowplow operators in New Jersey had to go looking for landscaping work instead. And after one of the hottest, driest Februarys in state history, parched California is already ablaze. Across much of the Northern Hemisphere this year, winter was a shadow of its former self — and climate change is partly to blame. … ” Read more from the Washington Post here: Even fake snow failed in a record-warm winter linked to the polar vortex and climate change
Helping the snow gods: cloud seeding grows as weapon against global warming: “Winter bonfires paying homage to snow gods have long been a tradition in cold weather regions around the world. But in the last 70 years or so, communities in the western United States have gone beyond rituals and added a technological twist. Across hundreds of mountaintops, from the Sierra Nevada to the Sawtooths, Wasatch and Colorado Front Range, cloud seeding experts are now often burning small amounts of silver iodide with the aim of bolstering dwindling water supplies. ... ” Read more from Inside Climate News here: Helping the snow gods: cloud seeding grows as weapon against global warming
Why does the weather stall? New theories explain enigmatic ‘blocks’ in the jet stream: ” … Few weather phenomena are as widely experienced—but poorly understood—as an atmospheric block. When a block arises, typically at the western edge of a continent, the jet stream splits, trapping a blob of seemingly static air thousands of kilometers across. Such blocks can last for weeks, and drive heat waves, drought, and winter cold snaps. At the same time, the persistent flows around the edges of a block can route storm after storm to the same spot. A block “has very different impacts in different seasons,” says Tim Woollings, an atmospheric dynamicist at the University of Oxford. “But it’s always quite extreme.” Yet atmospheric scientists have long struggled to understand why blocks occur and last so long, and how they might change in a warming world. Several new theories are offering answers. … ” Read more from Science Magazine here: Why does the weather stall? New theories explain enigmatic ‘blocks’ in the jet stream
Women in the water sector: barriers to gender diversity: “Water and sanitation companies must become more productive and efficient to meet the challenges ahead, as pressures on water resources increase in the face of rapid urbanisation and climate change. New approaches, technologies and solutions are needed to move away from business as usual: this is where employee diversity can provide fresh perspectives to help utilities shape the future and achieve their goals. A new study by The World Bank looks into the barriers women face in the water sector, where less than one in five workers are women, and identifies interventions companies can adopt to increase gender diversity. … ” Read more from Smart Water here: Women in the water sector: barriers to gender diversity
Many would be left behind in Governor Newsom’s voluntary water agreements, says Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta: She writes, “It’s understandable that state Senator Anna Caballero wants to feel “great hope and guarded optimism” for Governor Newsom’s voluntary agreements (“California governor’s water negotiations leave no one behind,” Page 6A, Feb. 24). Everyone working on California water wants meaningful solutions. Unfortunately, too many are left behind in these deals and we have seen no evidence of “solutions that can benefit everyone.” Environmental justice communities of Stockton and the Bay-Delta have not been considered in the voluntary agreements plan, or in the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint. … ” Read more from the Modesto Bee here: Many would be left behind in Governor Newsom’s voluntary water agreements
Connecting California: Viewing the state’s past, future from Bakersfield’s Panorama Park: Joe Mathews, columnist for Zocalo Public Square, writes: “From Yosemite Valley to the Golden Gate, California boasts extraordinary vistas. But if you’re looking for the most thought-provoking view in the state, skip the beaches and mountains, and head for Bakersfield’s Panorama Park. When you walk through this narrow neighborhood park atop the Panorama Bluffs on Bakersfield’s northern edge, you don’t actually see everything. It only seems like you can. When you take in this panoramic view of Kern Country, you are not just looking out upon our nation’s greatest valley. You’re also witnessing how California’s past and present are converging to create a different future. ... ” Read more from The Desert Sun here: Connecting California: Viewing the state’s past, future from Bakersfield’s Panorama Park
Patterson: Del Puerto growers once again face meager water supply: “Growers in the Del Puerto Water District, which runs along the Interstate 5 corridor from Vernalis to Santa Nella, are once again dealing with a meager allocation of water to nurture their crops and orchards in 2020. After a promising start to the rainy season gave way to dry conditions through much of January and all of February, federal south-of-the-delta water contractors such as Del Puerto learned last week that their initial allocation of water through the Central Valley Project is 15 percent of a full supply. … ” Read more from Westside Connect here: Del Puerto growers once again face meager water supply
Monterey: Final Peninsula water supply, demand report to be finished next week: “Monterey Peninsula Water Management District General Manager Dave Stoldt has promised a final report by next week on a Peninsula water supply and demand analysis at the center of the debate over the future of the Peninsula’s water. In response to a pair of letters from Peninsula city managers last month requesting time to conduct an independent review of the water supply and demand analysis, Stoldt emailed last week that he planned to complete the final report within two weeks. It would include responses to issues raised by the city managers, the community, and California American Water and its consultant said Stoldt. … ” Read more from the Monterey Herald here: Final Peninsula water supply, demand report to be finished next week
San Luis Obispo: Trumping pumping: Andrew Christie, director of the Santa Lucia Chapter of the Sierra Club, writes: “When last I discussed bad ideas for solving California’s water problems in this space (“Don’t go in the tunnel,” Dec. 12), we covered everything wrong with the Delta Tunnel proposal and why SLO County’s supervisors should not pony up $2.5 million to be a part of it. On Feb. 19, Donald Trump came to Bakersfield to flourish an even worse idea, via a Presidential Memorandum on Developing and Delivering More Water Supplies in California (Essentially: diverting more rivers and building a bunch of dams). Last year, Trump’s Department of the Interior executed an about-face on previous biological opinions wherein federal scientists had determined that diverting more water would harm fish and wildlife. These have been replaced by opinions more to the president’s liking. … ” Read more from New Times SLO here: Trumping pumping
“A witch’s brew” | State EPA says Simi nuclear site must be cleaned up: “On Feb. 13 in Simi Valley, a group called the Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) Work Group held a community meeting regarding the failure of Boeing, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to adequately clean up the radioactive and carcinogenic chemicals left at the site following a 1959 partial nuclear meltdown and other spills, leaks and accidents that occurred at the rocket testing and fuel fabricating lab on a mesa in the hills of Simi Valley. The news of the 1959 melting of radioactive fuel rods was never released to the public. ... ” Read more from the Ventura Reporter here: “A witch’s brew” | State EPA says Simi nuclear site must be cleaned up
San Diego: Taking steps to resolve water lawsuits: Jim Madaffer, Chair of the San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors, writes: “After securing more than $350 million for water supply projects in the San Diego region – along with other benefits – the San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors on Feb. 27 voted to dismiss related claims against its Los Angeles-based supplier, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. This is a major step toward resolving the litigation, in which we claimed water rights and challenged water rates and charges imposed by MWD on the Water Authority and the region’s ratepayers from 2010-2018. Our board’s action will allow the parties to avoid a trial scheduled for June 2020 and clear the way for judgment to be entered in the older cases. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune here: Taking steps to resolve water lawsuits
Southern Utah lawmaker’s resolution reiterates state’s intent to ‘use our allocation’ of Colorado River: “The Colorado River is often referred to as the hardest working river in the West, as it supplies water to 40 million people across the southwest, including Utah. A compact made in the last century allots a percentage of water to Utah and six other states, and a resolution passing through the Utah Legislature reaffirms the state’s intent to develop its portion of the Colorado River. Water has become an increasing concern for Utah, one of the driest states in the nation, as the population continues to grow. In southwest Utah, the Colorado River is a key component of the Lake Powell Pipeline project. … ” Read more from St. George News here: Southern Utah lawmaker’s resolution reiterates state’s intent to ‘use our allocation’ of Colorado River
ESTUARY PEARLS: Farewell to some key Estuary figures
DELTA eNEWS: ~~ Free Museum~ Interview Panel~ DPAC Openings~ Carbon Credits~ Ecosystem Management ~~
Image credit: CA streamflow assessment map, courtesy of Belize Lane. From this paper: Lane, B. A., Dahlke, H. E., Pasternack, G. B., & Sandoval‐Solis, S. (2017). Revealing the diversity of natural hydrologic regimes in California with relevance for environmental flows applications. JAWRA Journal of the American Water Resources Association, 53(2), 411-430.
