- WEBINAR: Climate Change and COVID-19: Can this crisis shift the paradigm? from 12pm to 1pm. This conversation will feature Berkeley researchers discussing the science and policy behind CO2 emissions and opportunities for a different path forward. Click here to watch online.
- STATE WATER BOARD ONLINE STAFF WORKSHOP:White Paper Discussion on Economic Feasibility Analysis in Consideration of a Hexavalent Chromium MCL from 1pm to 4pm. Click here for meeting notice. Click here to watch online.
What’s flushed today can be a problem months from now because of coronavirus fears: “Most businesses across the country and certainly in the Coachella Valley are dealing with the fallout from the coronavirus crisis on a daily basis. Beverli Marshall, however, believes her business might not feel the sting of the coronavirus for months yet — ultimately, about the same amount of time it’ll take something that shouldn’t be flushed down a toilet or rinsed down a drain to make it through the waste water system of Valley Sanitary in Indio. “We really need to talk more about things that we flush,” said Marshall, who is coming up on her first anniversary as general manager of Valley Sanitary after 20 years in the waste water business in the Bay Area. “It is very difficult to keep this in front of the population.” ... ” Read more from the Desert Sun here: What’s flushed today can be a problem months from now because of coronavirus fears
Researchers are retracing the steps of a century-old expedition to see how California’s birdlife has changed: “Steve Beissinger knows exactly what famed naturalist Joseph Grinnell was doing on June 2, 1932: He was hiking a ridge near Lagunitas, California, with his wife, Hilda. This was no lovers’ picnic. On their 3.5-hour trek, the duo undertook three separate bird counts, and Grinnell tallied each of the 94 birds from 31 species that they saw or heard. Beissinger knows all this because he’s been reading Grinnell’s diaries. Clues gleaned from two pages of neat cursive written 87 years ago led the modern ornithologist with University of California, Berkeley’s Museum of Vertebrate Zoology (MVZ) to what he’s certain is the same trail Grinnell investigated. On a May morning, he, his postdoctoral student Kelly Iknayan, and I returned to repeat the hike ourselves. ... ” Read more from Audubon Magazine here: Researchers are retracing the steps of a century-old expedition to see how California’s birdlife has changed
Monterey: Recycled water project: Pure Water expansion report, conditional approval to be considered: “Amid continuing debate over the role the proposed Pure Water Monterey recycled water project expansion will play in the Monterey Peninsula’s water supply, the proposal has reached a key stage. On Monday, the Monterey One Water board is scheduled to consider certifying a final supplemental environmental impact report for the expansion project and consider conditional project approval depending on an eventual water purchase agreement with California American Water. … ” Read more from the Monterey Herald here: Recycled water project: Pure Water expansion report, conditional approval to be considered
From meadow to marsh, habitats may take a hit during pandemic: “Lesser celandine, with its a small, pale yellow blossoms, looks like an innocuous plant. But the sprawling weed crowds out native species when it blooms in spring and then goes dormant, leaving ground brown and bare through summer and fall. Normally at this time of year, volunteers with the New York New Jersey Trail Conference’s Invasives Strike Force would be pulling up the species and other invasive plants during weekend meet-ups. This year, however, is anything but normal—the group suspended work on March 23. Across the country this spring as the COVID-19 pandemic has taken hold, conservation organizations and government agencies have postponed or canceled projects that require groups to meet and work together. ... ” Read more from Audubon here: From meadow to marsh, habitats may take a hit during pandemic
This week in water: “In a win for environmentalists, the Supreme Court rejected the Trump administration’s position on groundwater pollution. Could the coronavirus make the beer industry go flat? Changes in snowmelt threaten farmers in the West. Gloves, masks, and sanitizer bottles are being left in parks, on sidewalks, and in streets—and ending up in waterways. Without proper planning, the threat of hurricanes combined with COVID-19 could be a recipe for disaster. A scuba diving group is turning trash into treasure.” Listen to podcast or read stories here: This week in water
Supreme court ruling finds old, new middle ground on Clean Water Act’s application to groundwater, say Thomas Harter, Steph Tai, and Karrigan Bork: They write, ” … This week, the Supreme Court decided on a case involving discharge from a wastewater reclamation facility owned and operated by the County of Maui. In this case, the facility discharged 3 to 5 million gallons of treated wastewater per day into four injection wells about half a mile from the ocean. Recent research showed that much of the injected waste eventually discharges to the ocean. Environmental groups sued the county for not obtaining a CWA permit, arguing that point source discharge of pollutants that eventually reach surface water is governed under CWA. All sides agreed that the case at hand involved a point source of pollutant discharge and that the pollution eventually reached the ocean. The disagreement was whether the CWA requires the permit only if the pollutant discharge is directly into surface water, as argued by the defendants (a “bright-line test”). … ” Continue reading at the California Water Blog here: Supreme Court Ruling Finds Old, New Middle Ground on Clean Water Act’s Application to Groundwater
DAILY DIGEST, weekend edition: Kavanaugh takes cues from Scalia in groundwater ruling; Can nature help curb climate change?; Water battle brewing in Klamath Falls; Legal analyses on Clean Water Act ruling, WOTUS, and more …
- NOTICE: Public Stakeholder Webinar and Material on Water Loss Performance Standards
- POINT BLUE QUARTERLY NEWSLETTER: Climate solutions, solving water woes for wildlife and people; Preserving biodiveristy; and more …
- NOTICE: CEQA Scoping Meeting – Chlorine & Mercury Water Quality Objectives for San Francisco Bay
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.
