A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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This week’s featured articles …
CA WATER COMMISSION: Implementing groundwater recharge in the Central Valley
The recent succession of atmospheric rivers has spurred support for groundwater recharge, creating a wave of momentum for moving recharge projects forward. Earlier this year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order to enable local water agencies that are water users to capture water from the latest round of storms to recharge state groundwater supplies. At the April meeting of the California Water Commission, a panel discussed current groundwater recharge activities happening in the Central Valley, and their associated opportunities and challenges.
Click here to read this article.
DELTA ISB: Decision-making under deep uncertainty: What is it and why is it useful?
The Delta is constantly changing and predicting these changes has become a difficult task. As California’s climate changes in sometimes unexpected ways, looking to what has happened in the past is no longer adequate. New methods approaches to managing the Delta will be necessary. But how will the Delta change in the future, and how can we be prepared?
To deal with the increasing uncertainty of future conditions, the Delta Independent Science Board has taken on a project to raise awareness about scientific tools and concepts that can aid management and policy decision-making. As part of this project, the board is hosting a webinar series called “Decision-making Under Deep Uncertainty.” The first webinar featured Alice Hill, a senior fellow for energy and the environment at the Council on Foreign Relations. Ms. Hill discussed the challenges and advantages of planning for extreme events, and identified effective ways to organize government entities around these issues.
Click here to read this article.
In California water news this week …
Charts show how unpredictable El Niño can be for California weather
“The official arrival of El Niño conditions raises fears for another wet California winter. But these conditions don’t guarantee that the state will face torrential downpours and floods, as it did during the infamous El Niño winters of 1982-83 or 1997-98, experts say. “That, I think, is one of the huge misconceptions,” said Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather Services and adjunct professor at San Jose State University. Though El Niño typically brings wetter than average weather to California, and La Niña generally brings drier than average conditions, the opposing climate patterns don’t guarantee any particular weather, and individual years often buck the trend. Last winter, for example, coincided with La Niña but brought historic downpours and snow across the state. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle (gift article).
West gets reprieve from drought, but forecasters predict change as El Niño approaches
“Much of the West Coast is experiencing a welcome break from years of historic drought due to an unexpected, remarkably wet winter, even as an extraordinary snowpack begins to melt. California was the first to receive a series of strong storms starting in December, defying predictions that the winter would be another dry one. According to a new report Thursday from the National Integrated Drought Information System, parts of the Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, Utah, Arizona and western Colorado saw snow water equivalent levels reach 200% to 300% above normal – and they even set new records. During the winter, anomalously cold temperatures were persistent and widespread, with November to March temperatures measuring among the lowest third of all years since 1895 across much of the West. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Return of El Niño threatens new levels of economic destruction
“As the world struggles to recover from Covid-19 and Russia’s war in Ukraine grinds on, the arrival of the first El Niño in almost four years foreshadows new damage to an already fragile global economy. The shift to a warming phase from the cooler La Niña can generate chaos, especially in fast-growing emerging economies. Power grids strain and blackouts become more frequent. Extreme heat creates public health emergencies, while drought adds to fire risks. Crops are lost, roads are flooded and homes are destroyed. According to Bloomberg Economics modeling, previous El Niños resulted in a marked impact on global inflation, adding 3.9 percentage points to non-energy commodity prices and 3.5 points to oil. They also hit growth to gross domestic product, especially in Brazil, Australia, India and other vulnerable countries. Combined with more extreme weather and hotter temperatures due to accelerated climate change, the stage is now set for the world’s costliest El Niño cycle since meteorologists started keeping track. … ” Read more from Bloomberg (gift article).
Step inside California’s covert control room that’s moving ‘more water than places to put it’
“From an unmarked Sacramento office building next to a Costco, a handful of dispatchers in front of computer screens move enough water to quench the thirst of 27 million Californians. A few clicks open the gates for nearly two dozen dams and ship entire cities worth of water through 700 miles of canals. Every day they heave it up 1,926 feet, the highest single water lift in the world, and consume more energy than anything else in the state. Just months ago, three of the driest years on record sapped the world’s largest water utility into a state of anemia. Now a historic snowpack is gushing off the Sierra and the Operations Control Center of the California State Water Project is moving a deluge. In fact, it’s moving too much. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee. | Read via Yahoo News.
The path forward for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
“The legislation that launched the state’s comprehensive regulation of groundwater, commonly known as SGMA, was passed in 2014. One of the foundational principles of SGMA is that groundwater is to be managed locally, with the state providing support, guidance and backstop enforcement of the law. After nearly nine years, much progress has been made in organizing the governmental efforts to sustainably manage California’s groundwater. While the law sets 2040 as the year when the elimination of “undesirable results” is to occur, steady progress toward that objective is required. Paul Gosselin is the Department of Water Resources (DWR) official in charge of implementing SGMA for the state. At a water conference this week he explained what we can expect from DWR over the next couple of years. … ” Read more from the Milk Producers Council.
Californians were asked to cut water use 15% during the drought. How close did they get?
“The results are in: As California endured its three driest years on record, urban water users made a significant effort to conserve water, but fell far short of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request to reduce their use by 15%. Between July 2021, when Newsom first called on water users to voluntarily cut back, and March of this year, when he rescinded that request amid a very wet winter, statewide savings were 7%, or about half of what was requested. That amounts to about 9 fewer gallons per person per day, a Los Angeles Times analysis has found. The findings varied considerably by region and by water district, with the North Coast and San Francisco Bay areas saving the most water — 14% and 12%, respectively — against the baseline year of 2020. The inland Tulare Lake and Colorado River regions saved the least, 4% and 2%, respectively. (The analysis did not include agricultural water use.) … ” Read more from the LA Times.
SEE ALSO: What the data says (and doesn’t say) about drought, from the LA Times
Balancing aquatic habitat and human water supply in California: a Q&A with Doug Chalmers
“A new journal article published in PLOS Water highlights a novel tool by SEI called Aquatic Habitat Assessment (AHA), developed to assist a California water district in balancing the water supply needs of critical fish species and humans alike in the Silicon Valley technology hub. Co-lead author and SEI Scientist Doug Chalmers explains how AHA came to be and its potential for addressing human-versus-habitat water conflicts throughout the world. Q: The catalyst for this research began with a complaint against a California water district. Can you tell us about that? A: For a long time, the Santa Clara Valley Water District operated its reservoirs and water system to prioritize meeting local water supply for municipal and surrounding agriculture use, as well as to replenish local aquifers. … ” Read more from the Stockholm Environment Institute.
Facing the dragon: California’s nasty ecological debts
Andrew L. Rypel writes, “When I was younger, a close friend of mine struggled with a crippling debt. It was during that unique period shortly before and after college graduation. He had, in relatively short order, maxed out three credit cards, plus taken out a line of credit as a ‘student loan’. … Being young at the time, watching this unfold was a formative experience. It taught me the important and timeless lesson: There is no free lunch. Recently, I have been reflecting on California’s intractable environmental woes: its ecosystems, water, and the communities who rely on them. For many, these problems seem too difficult to solve, so much as to classify them as ‘wicked problems’. Sometimes however, solutions require fresh perspectives. For example, there is much we can glean from economics and study of debt. In this essay, I explore the concept of ecological debts, the extent to which California has amassed ecological debt, and what a return to solvency might look like. … ” Read the full post at the California Water Blog.
The promise and potential of solar canals
“California’s massive network of water canals, which totals about 4,000 miles, could be transformed into a renewable energy resource for the state—but not necessarily through hydropower. Rather, power could come from solar panels installed over the canals. Project Nexus, a research group formed by California’s state government, will work with Solar AquaGrid, the Turlock Irrigation District, and researchers at the University of California, Merced, to try out an innovative tool in California’s fight against climate change and drought: solar canals. The group will install 8,500 feet of solar panels over three sections of water canal in central California to determine the feasibility of installing solar canals across the state. Canals that have been covered with canopies of solar panels offer multiple benefits. … ” Read more from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute.
Will Newsom’s Delta tunnel plan hold up the budget?
“As legislative leaders continue to negotiate a budget deal with Gov. Gavin Newsom ahead of the start of the fiscal year on July 1, expansive “trailer bills” proposed by the governor — essentially riders to the spending plan that provide an expedited path to changing policy — are the biggest remaining holdup to an agreement. A package of measures advanced by Newsom to streamline the permitting process for infrastructure projects has proved particularly contentious, with lawmakers increasingly speaking out publicly about their discomfort with rushing through the proposal, which was unveiled just last month, in the budget. A major concern for some legislators is the possibility that Newsom could use the permitting overhaul to fast-track the Delta tunnel, a controversial project that would carry more water to Southern California and is vehemently opposed by many residents of the north. … ” Continue reading from Cal Matters.
Valadao, Costa introduce legislation to improve drinking water quality, forest health
“Today, Congressman David G. Valadao (CA-22) and Congressman Jim Costa (CA-21) introduced the Headwaters Protection Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation increases investment to improve the health of watersheds and ensure private investments benefit downstream communities. “Water is the lifeblood of the Central Valley,” said Congressman Valadao. “Ensuring our rural communities have access to safe, clean, and reliable water is my top priority. Valley communities who are often forced to rely on surface and groundwater will benefit from increased investments to improve our watersheds and prevent pollution.” … ” Read more from Congressman Valadao.
In commentary this week …
Water is precious in the American West. California barely even tries to manage it
Nell Green Nylen, a senior research fellow at the Wheeler Water Institute in the Center for Law, Energy & the Environment at UC Berkeley School of Law; Dave Owen, a professor at UC College of the Law San Francisco, and Michael Kiparsky, director of the Wheeler Water Institute, write, “For eight days last summer, a group of about 80 California ranchers and farmers took more than half the Shasta River’s flow during severe drought conditions, violating state requirements designed to protect salmon. The state’s water regulator couldn’t stop the illegal diversion but fined the group the maximum penalty it could — $4,000. The fine translated to about $50 per person. That’s not much of a deterrent. The reality is when water, arguably California’s most important resource, is stretched thinnest, the state can’t effectively stop people from taking it out of turn. As a result, many communities and individuals struggle to meet basic human needs for water and the ecosystems we all depend on suffer. … ” Continue reading at the San Francisco Chronicle (gift article).
California leaders made promises after Planada flooded. They need to keep them
Anastacio Rosales writes, “Planada has been my home for 58 years. I’ve worked many different jobs, particularly in agriculture – as do many of the hard-working folks who make up the Planada community. So many of us have worked for years building up savings to purchase a home here. That is why it was heartbreaking for us when the homes we labored so much for were damaged or completely destroyed in the January floods. These were more than houses – they were symbols of a lifetime of hard work. … California legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom have already pledged statewide disaster assistance, but it barely scratches the surface. The UC Merced Community and Labor Center determined we need $20.3 million from the state budget to recover. Planada needs our state leaders to listen to us and advocate for this vital funding. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Water bills will increase costs to ratepayers
The Southern California New Group editorial board writes, “Due to the torrential rains earlier this year, California is enjoying a rare period with little drought. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, as of June 6, the last date posted, 71% of the state is not in a drought, compared to just 27% in March. This is a good time to get water policy right. California water law is incredibly complex. But any changes ought to move toward more property rights, not fewer. Unfortunately, the Legislature is advancing three bills that would reduce property rights for water owners, increasing the costs to ratepayers. All three bills passed in their houses of origin on May 30. Assembly Bill 1337 is by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland. In the bill’s language, it would “expand the instances when the diversion or use of water is considered a trespass,” meaning the government itself would exert more control. It passed 45-20. … ” Read more from the OC Register.
Overregulation won’t help California manage its water supply. Here’s what will
Mike Wade, Executive Director of the California Farm Water Coalition, writes, “Regarding “Water is precious in the American West. California barely even tries to manage it” (Open Forum, SFChronicle.com, June 13): While we agree with the opinion piece that water is precious, our agreement ends there. The authors want your readers to believe California’s Water Resources Control Board needs drastic new powers. What readers should first understand is that no matter who holds the water rights, both the California Constitution and the state water code protect all uses deemed beneficial by the state, require that those uses be balanced and protect against water being wasted. Beneficial uses include water for human use, environmental protection and food production. To that end, the water board has wide-ranging powers to protect all users, including referring matters to the state attorney general. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Peter Gleick: Finding a new path to water conservation for the next millennium, for California and the world
Peter Gleick, co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, writes, “In the long sweep of human history, water has always played a central role in determining the geography of civilizations, and eons ago it influenced the migration of our early ancestors out of Africa and across the world. The ability to manage water contributed to the success or failure of empires along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers of the Middle East, the Indus in southern Asia, and the Yangtze in China. This First Age of water saw the earliest efforts to manipulate water with dams, aqueducts and intentional irrigation, and also the first water laws, institutions and water conflicts. As human populations and economies outgrew local water resources, a new age led to revolutions in science, engineering, medicine and knowledge. During this Second Age of water, we uncovered the chemical, physical and biological nature of water, improved our ability to understand and control the hydrologic cycle, learned about the causes and cures for water-related diseases and built the agricultural systems that let us feed and support today’s 8 billion people. We now have the technology to produce the cleanest water from the most contaminated, purify and recycle water to support astronauts on the space station and launch instruments and robotic explorers into the far reaches of the solar system, often looking for water. But this second age has also led to unintended consequences … ” Continue reading at the LA Times.
SEE ALSO: The future of water: A new book from water expert Peter Gleick urges a rethinking of how we use, manage and value one of our most important resources, from The Revelator
Proposed water regulations may not help the people they are supposed to
Ike Brannon, a senior fellow at the Jack Kemp Foundation, writes, “Late last year the Environmental Protection Agency proposed a new set of rules that would designate perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) – two types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) – as hazardous substances, and other regulations that would reduce the allowable level of these substances in the drinking water to just four parts per trillion. These stringent limits—which go beyond the UN recommendations of twelve parts per trillion as well as those of any other country and approach or exceed what state-of-the-art technology can currently detect—would dramatically increase costs for water treatment facilities, requiring most of them to make new investments in equipment both to detect and remove the substances. The lower threshold would provide a new impetus for future lawsuits. … ” Read more from Forbes.
More logging won’t curb wildfire smoke
Chad Hanson, Ph.D., a forest and fire ecologist with the John Muir Project, writes, “With wildfires sweeping across 10 million acres of Canada’s forests in recent weeks, residents of New York and other northeastern U.S. cities and towns have struggled with wildfire smoke, and the irritation of eyes and lungs that it can cause. The conversations under the hazy, orange-tinted skies in recent days have turned political. People are concerned. They want answers, and solutions. Unfortunately, in response, some elected officials are offering mainly misinformation, cynical opportunism, and a new form of climate denialism. … ” Continue reading at The Hill.
In regional water news this week …
Project Irrigators “look forward to fair fight” on Upper Klamath Lake elevations and fish populations
“Klamath Project irrigators received good news on June 7. Judge Stephen Bushong, who is conducting the judicial phase of the Klamath Basin water rights adjudication, confirmed that the irrigation districts in the Project would be able to put on an evidentiary case opposing water rights claims for high Upper Klamath Lake elevations for the benefit of fish. The ruling implements one aspect of the 2010 Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement (KBRA). Under that agreement, Project irrigators agreed to stand aside during the administrative phase of the water rights adjudication, allowing the Klamath Tribes and the United States to pursue whatever water right in Upper Klamath Lake they sought without opposition from Project interests. … ” Read more from the Klamath Falls News.
“It’s a monster”: ACID struggles to manage water after year of drought
“Last year, the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District (ACID) didn’t receive any water for the first time in more than 100 years. Prolonged California drought conditions meant the local irrigation district, which serves about 700 users, lost 82% of its usual allocations from the federal Bureau of Reclamation. Board members sold off the remaining 18% for about $12 million, claiming they couldn’t distribute it equitabilly along the thirty-five miles of ACID canal. The decision provoked outrage among many District users, who were left with questions about how hard the Board fought the federal government to protect the District’s senior water rights, and whether the water that was sold could have been kept in the District to provide some benefit. Some district irrigators survived the summer by selling off cattle, others let their fields turn to star thistle. … ” Read more from the Shasta Scout.
In California’s Monterey Bay area, a proposed desalination plant divides wealthy communities and poorer ones
“Few people would argue that California’s decade-long drought has been anything but a disaster. As in all disasters, there are some who seek to help—and others who are looking to capitalize. On the picturesque Monterey Peninsula, critics accuse a private utility of trying to do the latter and profit off the area’s water scarcity. They say that the local water utility, California American Water (better known as Cal-Am), is pushing an expensive and largely unpopular desalination plant that, they complain, has pitted wealthy communities against poor ones. Last November, the California Coastal Commission approved a permit for a sprawling, $330 million seawater desalination facility in Marina—a blue-collar city of 22,500 residents that is located about 15 minutes north of the more affluent community of Monterey. If approved, Cal-Am’s desalination plant would produce 4.8 million gallons of freshwater per day and would be the first seawater desalination plant constructed in California in nearly a decade. … ” Read more from the Sierra Club.
Birds flock to a resurrected Tulare Lake, peaking at nearly the size of Lake Tahoe
“Beyond a ‘road closed’ sign, telephone poles file out into flood water, stretching all the way to the hazy coastal range in the distance. Occasional houses, farming equipment and barns emerge from the choppy blue expanse like a mirage. And everywhere you look, birds: Ibises bob between rows of drowned wheat in nearby flooded farm fields. Cliff swallows swoop back and forth where water laps against asphalt, gathering mud for their nests. Black-necked stilts, tri-colored blackbirds, egrets, western sandpipers, curlews, long-billed dowitchers, and more have found plentiful habitat in the southern Central Valley this year—including the resurrected Tulare Lake, which surged back to life with this winter’s historic rains. “There will be hundreds or maybe even thousands of birds in those fields, foraging and looking for insects and other tasty morsels,” says Xerónimo Castañeda, conservation manager for California Audubon’s working lands program. … ” Read more from Bay Nature.
Newport Beach’s CAD project on pause amid lawsuit by O.C. Coastkeeper
“In what may be a tentative victory for environmentalists and those opposed to the project, plans for the confined aquatic disposal site in Newport Bay have been halted as a result of a lawsuit filed by Orange County Coastkeeper. The environmentalist group has long contested the construction of the CAD, which is meant to contain dredged material considered too toxic for open ocean release from federal channels. Opponents of the project have contended that U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans wrongfully characterize the sediment as “harmless,” though city officials say the Environmental Protection Agency described it as neither toxic nor threatening. The Coastal Commission gave the OK for the project in October 2022, and the first dredge of those same channels occurred in the summer of that year. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Everyone is racing to decide a San Diego water divorce
“San Diego’s boundary referees are rushing to push up a vote on a controversial water divorce before the state Legislature can step in. The Local Agency Formation Commission is holding an emergency meeting Wednesday to push up a vote on whether two small farming communities can break up with the San Diego County Water Authority in search of cheaper water in Riverside County. That’s because they’re in a race against the clock with Assemblywoman Tasha Boerner, a Democrat from Encinitas, who introduced another new bill that effectively would dethrone LAFCO of its power over the decision. She’s also pursuing what’s known as an “urgency clause,” which means the law would go into effect immediately upon enactment. … ” Read more from the Voice of San Diego.
Imperial Valley farmers await water deal
“California, Arizona and Nevada reached a long-sought consensus last month on how to conserve water and prevent the Colorado River from running dry. Under the plan for states to reduce their water use by 13% through 2026, farmers in the Imperial Valley are expected to shoulder much of the burden. But growers in the valley, who are entitled to more than a third of the water in the river’s Lower Basin, say they have had to delay plans to fallow crops and save water this summer. That’s because details on compensation have yet to be worked out between the Imperial Irrigation District and the federal government, which pledged to make $1.2 billion available for impacted water users. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Feds announce start of public process to reshape key rules on Colorado River water use by 2027
“A public process started Thursday to reshape the way Colorado River water is distributed, with federal officials promising to collect comments about updating and enacting rules in 2027 to continue providing hydropower, drinking water and irrigation to farms, cities and tribes in seven Western U.S. states and Mexico. The U.S. Interior Department said it will publish in the Federal Register on Friday a call for replacing guidelines that expire in 2026, including pacts enacted in 2007 for states to share cutbacks in water drawn from a river diminished by drought and climate change, as well as operating plans for the key Lake Powell and Lake Mead reservoirs. An agreement between the United States and Mexico on use of Colorado River water also is set to expire at that time. … ” Read more from the Associated Press.
SEE ALSO: Interior Department Initiates Process to Develop Future Guidelines and Strategies for Protecting the Colorado River, press release from the Bureau of Reclamation
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
NOW AVAILABLE: Final 2023 Sacramento River Temperature Management Plan
SF BAY NOTICE of Public Workshop & CEQA Scoping Meeting for a Basin Plan Amendment to Address NPDES Permitting Needs
FEATURE: El Niño is back – that’s good news or bad news, depending on where you live
FEATURE: Las Vegas Needs to Save Water. It Won’t Find It in Lawns.
