A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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This week’s featured articles …
DELTA COUNCIL: Wildfires increasing in acres burned and severity, but total cost to California remains unclear
California’s forests are facing a growing threat: wildfires. The severity and frequency of these fires are on the rise, fueled by poor fire management practices, prolonged drought, and bark beetle infestation. These factors are only worsened by the changing climate, with hotter and drier summers, warmer winters, and a shift from snow to rain in precipitation patterns. As a result, wildfires in California are becoming more frequent, intense, and extensive, leaving a devastating impact on the state.
Fires occurring outside the Delta don’t directly affect it; however, there can be indirect impacts from fires in the Delta watershed, such as increased sediment and debris, runoff, fire retardants, dissolved contaminants, other water quality impacts, and poor air quality from smoke. To learn more about these impacts, the June meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council featured a panel discussion on wildfires.
Click here to read this article.
DELTA WATERMASTER: Delta Alternative Compliance Plan, Delta Drought Response Pilot Program
At the June meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, Delta Watermaster Jay Ziegler updated the Council on the implementation of the Delta Alternative Compliance Plan for compliance with SB 88 and the Delta Dry Year Response Plan.
Click here to read this article.
In California water news this week …
Tribes and conservation groups rally at State Capitol for water justice and to save imperiled salmon
“Representatives of California Tribes, fishing groups and conservation groups held a big rally at the State Capitol on July 5 to advocate for water rights and to protest the Governor’s plans to build the Delta Tunnel and Sites Reservoir and the state and federal government’s refusal to release sufficient flows downriver for salmon and the other fish. Speakers repeatedly discussed California’s history of genocide against indigenous peoples and how this history continues into the present with the current salmon crisis that has left Tribes without once-abundant salmon populations. In addition to the press conference and rally calling for healthy rivers and a healthy estuary, the day long event include lobbying visits to offices in support of current legislation that they says puts California on the path to a sustainable water future. … ” Read more from Dan Bacher at the Daily Kos.
Coalition of tribes, fisheries, environmentalists demand changes to ‘dysfunctional’ state water rights system
A coalition of California tribal governments, fishery groups and environmental justice organizations rallied on the steps of the State Capitol Building Wednesday to demand significant changes to a “dysfunctional” water rights system in the state. The collective of 20 tribal communities and prominent environmental groups, like the Sierra Club and San Francisco Baykeeper, called on the Newsom Administration to reform the state’s water rights system so it can better support salmon populations and the overall health of rivers, estuaries, specifically the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. “We are currently experiencing degradation of our water, air and right to public access of our waterways,” said Artie Valencia, community organizer and government liaison of Restore the Delta. “Our frontline communities are the ones who will deal with the consequences of water exports at the expense of the health, safety and quality of life for environmental justice communities.” … ” Read more from SF Gate.
Facing possible state action, SJV groundwater agencies are scrambling to comply with SGMA, leaving some landowners in the lurch
“Growers in a chunk of land sandwiched between Highway 43 and Earlimart in the south valley learned earlier this week they are being booted out of the groundwater sustainability agency they had hoped would help solve their overdraft issues. The Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) board voted to terminate its oversight of what’s known as the “western management area,” about 7,500 acres just west of its boundaries. That area has no surface water and is almost totally reliant on groundwater, making it a challenge to bring into compliance with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. “The continued inclusion of the Management Area in the DEID GSA is no longer consistent with the successful sustainable management of other lands within the DEID GSA,” read a statement by the Delano-Earlimart GSA on June 28. “As such, the DEID GSA is terminating its (memorandum of understanding.)” … ” Read more from SJV Water.
A water war is underway in Santa Barbara County’s carrot country
“The Cuyama Valley, the driest region in Santa Barbara County, is awash in discontent. The world’s largest carrot producers, newly subject to restrictions on over-pumping, are suing all other landowners over water rights, and legal fees are mounting. The Cuyama groundwater basin, which covers 380 square miles east of Santa Maria, overlapping with Kern, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties, is on the list of the state’s 21 basins in “critical overdraft.” Over time, more than twice as much water has been pumped out by farmers as has been replenished, resulting in ever-declining water levels underground. … Last year, records show, Grimmway Farms, the largest carrot corporation in world, and Bolthouse Farms, the second largest, pumped 28,500 acre-feet of water from the Cuyama basin — equivalent to nearly a year’s supply for three cities the size of Santa Barbara, population 87,000. The two companies, based in Bakersfield, are by far the biggest water users in the valley; they alone account for more than 40 percent of basin pumping. … ” Read more from the Santa Barbara Independent.
How extreme weather could threaten California’s dams
“California is home to the tallest dam in America, located 60 miles north of Sacramento in Oroville. A failure of that dam would be catastrophic; in one particularly alarming scenario, it would send a wave more than 185 feet tall sweeping into the valley below, inundating several towns. When the St. Francis Dam in northern Los Angeles County failed in 1928, the disaster was one of the deadliest in state history. But in a state threatened so regularly by Mother Nature, the risk of flooding from a dam failure doesn’t tend to get much attention. And that’s despite the fact that just six years ago, as Christopher reported, the Oroville Dam nearly failed. “Fires happen more frequently, and drought years are more common than wet ones,” he told me. “But the biggest disasters in the state’s history have been floods.” California’s dams are unprepared for extreme weather, experts told Christopher. … ” Read more from the New York Times (gift article).
Can we desalinate water without all the mess?
“In May 2022, California officials unanimously rejected a plan to build a US $1.4-billion desalination plant in Huntington Beach. The plant, the officials said, would produce costly water and possibly harm the marine environment. The decision wasn’t an outright rejection of desalination, but it did highlight some of the problems that have made desalination an impractical solution to California’s water problems. Dragan Tutic, founder and CEO of Oneka Technologies, says large desalination plants powered by fossil fuels aren’t the only way to get fresh water out of the ocean. His company is getting ready to bring what it says is sustainable, practical desalination to the small city of Fort Bragg on California’s North Coast. … ” Read more from Hakai Magazine.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s climate agenda highlights tensions with environmental groups
“In the rush to cut California’s pollution and rid the state of fossil fuels, the most intriguing confrontation hasn’t involved business leaders or the oil industry. Instead, it’s simmering tensions between the state’s robust environmental advocacy wing and California’s progressive governor who considers himself one of their own. The modern environmental movement has its roots in California, including the founding of the Sierra Club. Gavin Newsom, who rose from local politics in liberal San Francisco to become governor of the nation’s most populous state, sees himself as a descendant of that progress, proudly carrying the movement’s goals on the world stage. Yet in the early days of Newsom’s second term in office, some of his loudest criticism has come from inside the proverbial house. … ” Read more from the Associated Press.
As California fire season begins, debate over wildfire retardant heats up
“As the first heat wave of summer plunges California into yet another wildfire season, some environmental groups are taking aim at a commercial fire retardant that most residents have grown all too familiar with during recent, devastating fire years. Phos-Chek, that neon-pink goo that airplanes dump over wildfires, is a sticky slurry of ammonium phosphate designed to coat vegetation and other fuels to deprive advancing flames of oxygen. Fire authorities swear by the product, calling it indispensable. But critics argue that officials are overlooking the product’s ecological risks. Studies have shown the retardant can harm plants, fish and other species, including steelhead trout and Chinook salmon. It can also act as a fertilizer that grows more vegetation, which can later act as fuel for fires. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
USGS: Tap water study detects PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ across the US
“At least 45% of the nation’s tap water is estimated to have one or more types of the chemicals known as per- and polyfluorinated alkyl substances, or PFAS, according to a new study by the U.S. Geological Survey. There are more than 12,000 types of PFAS, not all of which can be detected with current tests; the USGS study tested for the presence of 32 types. This USGS research marks the first time anyone has tested for and compared PFAS in tap water from both private and government-regulated public water supplies on a broad scale throughout the country. Those data were used to model and estimate PFAS contamination nationwide. This USGS study can help members of the public to understand their risk of exposure and inform policy and management decisions regarding testing and treatment options for drinking water. … ” Continue reading this press release from the USGS.
In commentary this week …
Editorial: Kill the Delta tunnel boondoggle before it’s too late
“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s decision Monday to concede defeat in fast-tracking the Delta tunnel raised hopes that the $16 billion boondoggle was, at long last, dead. Californians should be so lucky. This a project that has never penciled out, wouldn’t add a drop of new water to California’s supply and would be an environmental disaster for the largest estuary west of the Mississippi. Yet Newsom, like former governors Jerry Brown and Arnold Schwarzenegger before him, keeps seeking ways to keep it alive. It’s the zombie water project that state officials won’t let die. Be very afraid. … ” Continue reading from the San Jose Mercury News.
Rather than going with the flow, DWR needs a course correction on water supply modeling
State Senator Melissa Hurtado writes, ““We can’t continue this. It’s not sustainable for our community,” Coalinga City Councilman Adam Adkisson told CNN in November 2022 when drought forced his community to confront unprecedented water scarcity, and market forces all too ready to capitalize on that hardship. The city eventually paid $1.1 million to a public irrigation district on the open market for an amount of water previously costing $114,000. Water scarcity, driven by extreme weather patterns and swings, is making a necessity of life unaffordable, with repercussions for not only our communities’ livelihoods, but also our economy and food security. To respond, we need forecasting models utilizing the most updated data available. Despite the corresponding hardships to many vulnerable communities, the state imposes water restrictions across California, and they demand the utmost water efficiency practices from businesses to reduce our aggregate water consumption. In fairness, we must also command this same level of discipline of our state agencies tasked with managing the allotments and delivery of water. … ” Read more from the Bakersfield Californian.
Who has a right to water?
Del Norte County resident Kevin Hendrick writes, “I think safe drinking water should be a basic human right, but this is not reality. One in ten people on the planet lack access to clean water. Overuse, water pollution, lack of infrastructure, and changing weather patterns due to climate change are some of the drivers of water scarcity. Droughts are causing regional famines because there is not enough water to grow crops. Who has a right to the water that’s left? Basically, the state of California and the federal government own all the water in California. Individuals and entities are allowed to “use” the water through licenses, permits, contracts, and government approval. Therefore, a water right is not an ownership right, but rather a use right. It is within the power and responsibility of the state and federal governments to regulate the right to use water in California. Before I discuss proposed changes to water rights, I want to provide additional information about water delivery in California. … ” Read more from Del Norte County.
How the Navajo Nation has been shafted by U.S. presidents, including Joe Biden
Tom Philp, opinion writer for the Sacramento Bee, writes, “If any American water rights system truly respected seniority, the Navajo Nation would get its full share. The tribe was here first. Instead, our system leaves roughly a third of those on a reservation the size of West Virginia without running water. The Supreme Court recently ruled 5-4 against a claim by the Navajo seeking a federal plan to someday receive more water. The decision has set back for generations the Navajo’s quest for more water. This did not have to happen. President Joe Biden could have reversed the position of every president since Dwight D. Eisenhower and agreed to develop a water plan for the Navajo Nation. He could have legitimized his selection of Interior Secretary, Deb Haaland, who is the first Native American to hold the office. … ” Continue reading from the Sacramento Bee.
Court of Appeals decision strikes the precautionary principle in determinations under the Endangered Species Act
Paul S. Weiland writes, “The directive from Congress that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) must base their decisions on the “best scientific and commercial data available” under section 7 of the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) has inarguably contributed to the conservation of imperiled species. The California condor, the gray wolf, and the bald eagle are all examples of this. Unfortunately, the federal wildlife agencies predictably drift from value-neutral assessment of the status of species and the effects of human activity on those species to assumptions in line with the precautionary principle, when confronted with substantive uncertainties regarding the ecologies of listed species and the environments that they inhabit. The essence of that principle as applied to listed species in the context of section 7 consultation is the notion that one should draw all inferences in a manner that tends to underestimate the distribution and abundance of a species, overestimate the effects of proposed federal actions on a species, and, even, underestimate the effects of measures intended to yield benefits for the species. … ” Read more from the Center for California Water Resources Policy & Management.
We’ve got it all wrong about sequoias and wildfire
Chad Hanson, an ecologist and the director of the John Muir Project, writes, “As my colleagues and I hiked through the Nelder giant sequoia grove south of Yosemite National Park recently, we could barely believe our eyes. In 2017, the Railroad fire swept through nearly all of the Nelder Grove, burning lightly in most areas but very intensely in the portion where we walked, about six years after the fire. The naturally regenerating giant sequoia forest was so vigorous and lush that, in many places, we had to pull the stems of young sequoias apart just so we could walk between them. There were hundreds of them on almost every acre — many of them already 8 or 9 feet tall. It was a remarkable sight because, in that particular location, the Railroad fire burned hot, killing trees, including about three dozen mature sequoias. This high-intensity fire patch is isolated; it’s nearly half a mile from the grove’s nearest remaining live, mature sequoias. How was the extraordinary rejuvenation of giant sequoias possible there? … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Looking for the next California tech boom? You’ll find it in our farmlands
Joel Kotkin, the presidential fellow in urban futures at Chapman University, and Marshall Toplansky, a clinical assistant professor of management science at the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University, writes, “The world may see California largely as home to Silicon Valley and Hollywood, but it’s agriculture technology where we can most clearly outshine our competitors. In a new study, “Nurturing California Industries,” we identified it as among the six industries most critical to the state’s economic future. In many ways, advances in agricultural technology will have as much to do for California’s future as AI, streaming movies and electric vehicles. Agriculture is, by far, California’s strongest sector in terms of employment. In the latest 2022 Census of Wages and Employment, agriculture employs 419,582 people in this state, more than four times the number in the next-largest state, Washington. While tech businesses and corporate headquarters head elsewhere, California’s agricultural supremacy remains unchallenged. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
California’s environmental decisions show a legacy of failure
Jeff Geraci, environmental scientist, writes, “It’s quite fitting that California, a state masquerading as the pinnacle of environmental achievement, displays upon its flag an animal that was driven to extinction by the state’s own failed environmental policies.Democrats have had total control of California for almost half a century and with the help of some swamp-dwelling Republicans, they’ve trashed our quality of life. Whether it’s their fanatical and divisive social and economic ideology, or their disdain for the constitutional rights of the citizenry, it’s their environmental policy failures that truly stand out. … ” Read more from the Desert Sun.
In regional water news this week …
8,500 pounds of trash left at Lake Tahoe after Fourth of July celebrations
“More than four tons of trash was left behind from the Fourth of July celebrations at Lake Tahoe. It took volunteers with the League to Save Lake Tahoe about three hours to clean up the 8,559 pounds of litter left behind. That trash included cigarette butts, plastic food wrappers, beach toys and even barbecues taken from six beach sites, parking lots and streets around the Tahoe Basin. Zephyr Shoals was the most impacted of their cleanup sites. Organizers of the cleanup said nearly 6,279 pounds of litter was strewn across the beach and piled between bushes and trees in a nearby forest. Zephyr Shoals is an unmanaged area on Tahoe’s east shore, far from trash cans, dumpsters or toilets. … ” Read more from ABC 10.
State-funded stormwater-capture, recharge project breaks ground in Stanislaus County
“The State Water Resources Control Board joined the Central California Irrigation District (CCID) and Del Puerto Water District (DPWD) in Newman last Thursday to celebrate the launch of the Orestimba Creek Recharge and Recovery project, which is expected to capture up to 3,500 acre-feet per year of stormwater flows for irrigation while reducing flooding risks to nearby disadvantaged communities. The project is scheduled for completion in June 2024. The State Water Board committed $5.6 million from its Prop 1 Stormwater Grant Program to fully fund construction of the project’s recharge ponds and diversion and conveyance structures. To provide needed flexibility to plan for and maximize stormwater capture over successive wet seasons, the board issued its second‑ever five‑year temporary permit to the water districts in May. … ” Continue reading this press release from the State Water Resources Control Board.
‘Stay out of the water’: what lurks below California’s zombie lake?
“There are portions of California’s Tulare Lake, with its blue water that stretches for miles and birds bobbing around the shoreline, where it can be easy to forget that a few months ago, none of this was here at all. But then an irrigation hose or a fence post or a power line pokes through the surface, reminding passersby and authorities tasked with patrolling the lake what lies under the water. The vast lake, once the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi before it was drained by agricultural canals, reappeared this year amid a barrage of intense storms and flooding that swallowed up farmland in rural Kings county. Hundreds of acres of cotton, tomato and pistachio fields, workers’ homes, roads and power infrastructure are submerged within the lake, much of it beyond the sight of the visitors who have flocked to the shoreline. They have stopped by new viewing points and trudged to road closure signs with drones in hopes of seeing the historic lake first-hand. … ” Read more from The Guardian.
Water suit enters a crucial phase
“Structured mediation in the Santa Barbara ChannelKeeper case continues to progress toward possible resolution, according to parties involved in the talks. On June 28, a further status conference in the litigation took place in Los Angeles County Superior Court, with Judge William F. Highberger getting an update from major parties taking part in sessions with mediator David Ceppos. Parties included defendant and cross-complainant the city of Ventura, along with cross-defendants Casitas Municipal Water District, the city of Ojai, the East Ojai Group, Ventura River Water District, Meiners Oaks Water District, the Wood-Claeyssens Foundation, Rancho Matilija Mutual Water Company and the Ventura County Watershed Protection District. … ” Read more from the Ojai Valley News.
Roughly 89,000 in Oxnard and Camarillo areas get notices about water adjudication case
“Tens of thousands of Ventura County residents recently received notices about a lawsuit over groundwater rights in parts of Ventura County. The roughly 89,000 legal documents were sent to property owners alerting them that a groundwater adjudication case is starting. Any of them wanting to participate must file a response by Aug. 30. If they don’t, they may be unable to do so later and their rights to groundwater from the Oxnard and Pleasant Valley basins could be affected. A group of agricultural property owners called the OPV Coalition filed the lawsuit in 2021. Pending in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, it seeks to determine groundwater rights in the two basins that include areas in Oxnard, Camarillo, Port Hueneme, Ventura and nearby unincorporated communities. … ” Read more from the Ventura County Star.
San Diego: LAFCO decision could raise region’s water bills by nearly $200 million
“Updated figures released today show that disadvantaged communities, working families, farmers, and others across San Diego County will be forced to pay nearly $200 million more over the next decade for water service unless agencies seeking to leave the Water Authority are required to fully cover their costs. On July 10, the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission’s board is expected to vote on a plan for the Fallbrook and Rainbow water agencies to leave the San Diego County Water Authority, possibly with the inclusion of an “exit fee.” However, LAFCO’s figures are based on years-old data and flawed projections that understate the annual costs of detachment by at least 50%. Like everything else, costs related to water supplies have inflated significantly over the past three years. … ” Continue reading at the Water News Network.
Imperial Irrigation District opens new conservation and operational reservoir
“The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors saluted the district’s completion of its newest water conservation and operational reservoir located just east of the city, which will conserve 400 acre-feet of water annually and provide water operational flexibility to growers in the valley’s Northend. The new operational reservoir, recently dedicated by the IID Board as the Lloyd Allen Water Conservation Operational Reservoir, is the first mid-lateral canal reservoir constructed through IID’s System Conservation Program. It has a total storage capacity of 40 acre-feet and is located along the district’s E Lateral Canal — the longest in the district’s delivery system at 13 miles in length. In addition to conserving water, the new reservoir supports the district’s On-Farm Efficiency Conservation Program, providing improved water delivery service to growers. … ” Read more from the Desert Review.
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
NOTICE of Additional Comment Period for Proposed Regulations Relating to the Delta Levees Investment Strategy
NOTICE: Conditional Approval of Groundwater Protection Targets within the Central Valley Region
NOTICE: Delta Science Program seeks next Delta Lead Scientist
UPCOMING PUBLIC WORKSHOPS: How the State Can Prepare for Drought in a Non-Drought Year
