A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
Pattern flip to bring dramatic change to the West, leading to a big cooldown and even snow
“A shocking change in the weather is ahead for western United States as the recent record warmth will be replaced by much cooler conditions and even some early-season snow, warn AccuWeather meteorologists. The flip in the weather pattern, driven by a strong cold front, will end the heat wave that has brought record-smashing, triple-digit heat to parts of the Southwest and replace it with temperatures that are several degrees below historical averages. This will represent a downward swing of as much as 25 degrees in daytime high temperatures over the course of less than a week. … ” Read more from AccuWeather.
A warm, wet El Niño winter is in store for California and much of the U.S.
“After a blistering summer of record heat, raging wildfires and unpredictable storms, federal scientists on Thursday said a warm, wet winter driven by El Niño is in store for California and much of the rest of the country. The first winter outlook from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts that a strong El Niño will remain in place through at least the spring, with further strengthening possible over the next couple of months. El Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño-La Niña Southern Oscillation pattern — sometimes referred to as ENSO — and is a major driver of temperature and precipitation patterns across the globe. “The anticipated strong El Niño is the predominant climate factor driving the U.S. winter outlook this year,” said Jon Gottschalck, chief of the operational prediction branch at NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center. … ” Read more from the LA Times. | Read via AOL News.
Major earthquake in the Delta could be disastrous for California’s water supply
“While the earthquake that struck near Isleton Wednesday morning wasn’t strong, the location did raise questions about the possible risk to an area that is critical to the state’s water supply. The Delta region in Sacramento County relies on more than 1,000 miles of aging levees to protect local farms and communities that could be vulnerable in a more powerful quake. Nothing shattered at Isleton’s Delta Boyz Dispensary, but the aging structure it is housed in got a good shake. Cameras caught the staff jumping out of their seats just before 9:30 a.m. “Yeah. This is an old building. It’s been here for a long time. Isleton was erected I guess 120, 130 years ago,” said Vince Perdue, who works at Delta Boyz Dispensary. … ” Read more from CBS Sacramento.
4.2 magnitude quake strikes Northern California, triggering ShakeAlert
““It felt like an 18-wheeler ran into the building,” Devery Stockon, manager of the Owl Harbor Marina in Isleton, said Wednesday morning. Stockon said the earthquake shook the marina’s office for about a minute, but did not appear to cause any lasting damage to the facility, which is built on stilts near an inlet of the San Joaquin River. The area is less than a mile south of the earthquake’s epicenter, which was on Brannan Island in the maze of waterways through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, according to USGS. Californians reported feeling light shakes as far south as Stockton and as far north as Sacramento, according to the USGS’ crowdsourced intensity map. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
California’s groundwater supplies rose after winter storms. Now we know how much
“For decades, California’s groundwater supplies have plummeted because of too much pumping. In some places, due to the heavy draws, the land above has collapsed, roads and bridges have buckled and communities have run out of water. But this year, after the historically wet winter, there was at least some reprieve for the state’s overburdened aquifers. Groundwater levels rose or were flat at the vast majority of wells tracked by the state, compared with last year, while groundwater levels dropped significantly at just 9% of the thousands of monitored wells. The well data, released in a report last week by the California Department of Water Resources, is among the first to show the benefit to groundwater supplies that resulted from the bounty of rain and snow seeping into the earth this year. While a lot of that seepage was natural, some of it was intentionally steered underground in a process known as aquifer recharge. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Rebates can offer solutions to California’s groundwater woes
“Many aquifers in California and around the world are being drained of their groundwater because of the combined impacts of excess pumping, shifts in land use, and climate change. However, a new study by scientists at UC Santa Cruz and UC Berkeley, published on Oct. 18 in Nature Water, may offer a solution – it describes the development and operation of a novel incentive program that uses water rebates to pay for some of the costs of getting stormwater runoff into the ground. The program is called recharge net metering (ReNeM). Although California satisfies about 40% of freshwater demand with groundwater during “normal years,” many parts of the state are highly or entirely reliant on groundwater, especially during droughts. The Central Coast hydrologic region, extending from Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara, is especially dependent on groundwater, lacking significant snowpack that generates spring flows, does not have major rivers or reservoirs behind dams, and is not significantly involved in intrastate water transfers. … ” Read more from UC Santa Cruz.
SCIENCE SPOTLIGHT: What role do mercury-contaminated floodplains play in methylmercury contamination in the Delta?
“For the September Delta Lead Scientist report, Lead Scientist Dr Laurel Larsen spotlighted the study, Effects of vegetation on methylmercury concentrations and loads in a mercury-contaminated floodplain, which looked at the role that mercury-contaminated floodplains play in methylmercury contamination in the Delta. Mercury is a potent environmental neurotoxin; chronic exposure can cause tremors, speech problems, emotional instability, and hallucinations. Mercury contamination is a major issue for California’s waterways due to its extensive use during the Gold Rush era. Mercury was used to enhance gold recovery in all types of mining operations, but especially in placer mining, which used jets of water to recover gold from the sand and gravels along the waterways. … ” Read more from Maven’s Notebook.
‘Forever chemical’ bans face hard truth: many can’t be replaced
“As lawmakers around the world weigh bans of cancer-linked “forever chemicals,” many manufacturers are pushing back, saying there often is no substitute for the compounds. Minnesota and Maine have passed legislation to effectively outlaw the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, in nearly all products by the early 2030s. Dozens of other states are also considering curbing their use. And the European Union’s Chemical Agency has proposed a widespread ban. In response, Ford Motor Co. warned Maine state officials in May that “there is no commercially available technology that exists in the world today” that can replace a PFAS-containing thermoplastic used for electric vehicle batteries. Earlier this month, the US Defense Department said that banning PFAS, used in weapons systems, information technology and machinery, “would greatly impact national security,” a view echoed by the US Chamber of Commerce and other industry groups. … ” Continue reading from BNN Bloomberg.
Biden-Harris administration advances long-term planning efforts to protect the Colorado River System
“The Biden-Harris administration today announced next steps in the formal process to develop future operating guidelines and strategies to protect the stability and sustainability of the Colorado River system and strengthen water security in the West. The guidelines under development would be implemented in 2027, replacing the 2007 Colorado River Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages and the Coordinated Operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead, which are set to expire at the end of 2026. The Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation published the Proposed Federal Action and a Scoping Summary Report related to Colorado River Basin operations post-2026. The Scoping Report, which was supported by a 60-day public scoping period, will inform the post-2026 operating guidelines. This planning process is separate from ongoing efforts to protect the Colorado River Basin through the end of 2026. … ” Continue reading from the Bureau of Reclamation.
New Colorado River rules will be hard to agree on. A new report shows just how tricky it could be
“States that use water from the Colorado River are drawing nearer to an important deadline for negotiating the river’s future. A new report from the federal government shows states are aiming to agree on a plan to cut back on water, but still remain divided about how to share the shrinking supply that flows to tens of millions across the Southwest. The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages reservoirs and dams across the Western U.S., released the results of its “scoping” process on Thursday. During a two-month stretch over the summer, Reclamation gathered input from states, environmental groups, tribes and others with a stake in the river’s future. The desires expressed by water users will help inform the Environmental Impact Statement, a federal document which outlines the amount of water released from major reservoirs. A draft of that document is expected by the end of 2024. … ” Read more from KUNC.
What the extreme fire seasons of 1910 and 2020 – and 2,500 years of forest history – tell us about the future of wildfires in the West
“Strong winds blew across mountain slopes after a record-setting warm, dry summer. Small fires began to blow up into huge conflagrations. Towns in crisis scrambled to escape as fires bore down. This could describe any number of recent events, in places as disparate as Colorado, California, Canada and Hawaii. But this fire disaster happened over 110 years ago in the Northern Rocky Mountains of Idaho and Montana. The “Big Burn” of 1910 still holds the record for the largest fire season in the Northern Rockies. Hundreds of fires burned over 3 million acres – roughly the size of Connecticut – most in just two days. The fires destroyed towns, killed 86 people and galvanized public policies committed to putting out every fire. … ” Read more from The Conversation.
And lastly … Rare monster-looking fish with sharp teeth washes up on California coast
“The deep-sea creature is an image horror films are made of: Dark black flesh, teeth sharp as glass and an antenna that glows to entice prey in the ocean’s depths. It’s quite fitting that the spooky-looking angler fish washed up on Friday the 13th, just weeks before Halloween. It is the second angler fish to washed up at Crystal Cove State Park in recent years. Another of the deep water fish, also dubbed the Pacific Football Fish, was found on the shore by a park visitor in 2021, making international news. The fish found last week was picked up by California Department of Fish and Wildlife for further research, according to a social media post by State Parks officials. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
New water legislation …
Updates on California water law: New legislation and regulations
“The California 2023 Legislative Session ended on September 14, 2023, and presented the Governor with several important changes to California’s water-related statutes. The Governor had until October 14, 2023, to sign all bills into law. In addition, the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) recently issued revised regulations concerning water rights reporting requirements and deadlines. This alert highlights key water legislation approved by the Governor, as well as the State Board’s new reporting requirements. … ” Read more from Allen Matkins.
Once hailed as a drought fix, California moves to restrict synthetic turf over health concerns
“Gov. Gavin Newsom last week passed on a chance to limit the use of the so-called “forever chemicals” in legions of plastic products when he vetoed a bill that would have banned them in synthetic lawns. His veto of an environmental bill that overwhelmingly passed the Legislature underscores California’s convoluted guidance on the plastic turf that some homeowners, schools and businesses use in place of grass in a state accustomed to drought. Less than a decade ago then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed a law prohibiting cities and counties from banning synthetic grass. At the time, the state was in the middle of a crippling drought and fake lawns were thought to be helpful in saving water. But this year Democrats in the Legislature went in a different direction, proposing bills that would discourage synthetic turf. They’re worried about health risks created by the chemicals present in these lawns, including perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS chemicals. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Groundwater court disputes will consider environmental justice in new law signed by Gavin Newsom
“Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law last week that will incorporate environmental justice principles in legal disputes that stands to impact future groundwater use decisions across California’s agriculture dominated regions. The law, AB 779, will require state courts to consider water use by small farmers and disadvantaged communities when settling those disputes, which historically skew in favor of larger agricultural businesses. Solving disputes through adjudication in the courts costs millions of dollars in legal fees and takes years. “Small farmers and disadvantaged communities are underrepresented in adjudications because of their high costs and long duration,” said Julia Stein, deputy director for UCLA’s Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.“This law takes steps to ensure those communities have access to information about adjudication proceedings and that the court takes their water use into account.” … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
Governor signs water shutoff protection bill into law
“Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 3 into law in October to expand due process protections for those unable to pay their bills and ensure access to safe sources of water. Existing water protection laws, such as the Water Shutoff Protection Act of 2018, created a 60-day grace period to cover past debt as well as established a payment system for those served by water companies with 200 or more customers. Senate Bill 3, authored by State Senator Dodd, expands those same protections to more people by lowering the threshold of applicable water service companies to those that serve 15 or more customers. … ” Read more from KEYT.
With wildfires growing, California writes new rules on where to plant shrubs
“In most neighborhoods, houses are hugged by greenery – flowers surround the front steps, large shrubs screen the windows. But in wildfire-prone places, such as California, fire experts say this typical suburban template needs to drastically change as human-driven climate change makes intense wildfires more frequent. California has long had the strongest defensible space rules in the country. Now, it’s drafting rules that would make it the first state to limit the vegetation directly next to buildings. In areas at high risk of wildfire, plants within five feet of a house would be strictly limited. The new rules are not expected to go over well. … ” Read more from KASU.
Two new laws aimed at protecting drinking water for small town residents
“Two bills aimed at protecting small towns mired in debt, drinking water contamination and dropping groundwater levels have become law. Senate Bill 3, authored by state Senator Bill Dodd (D-Napa,) extends water shutoff protections to households in communities with less than 200 water connections. That includes a handful of towns in the San Joaquin Valley such as Fairmead, Cantua Creek, El Porvenir and Tooleville, among others. Assembly Bill 664, authored by state Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-San Jose,) requires landlords to either accept a state-funded water connection in situations where small systems are consolidated with larger ones or provide their own source of reliable drinking water. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Governor signs Senator Cortese’s bill building water efficiency in new buildings
“New buildings in California will become more water efficient following Governor Newsom’s approval of SB 745 by Senator Dave Cortese, which requires new state building standards to drop water usage while adopting designs that capture recycled water for building and landscaping uses. These standards will incorporate systems for reusing water and treating graywater, plumbing that intakes greater amounts of recycled water, and using alternative water sources. Buildings remain in operation for up to a century before they are replaced. In response to the hotter and drier conditions caused by climate change, California must adapt by reducing the amount of drinkable water that new buildings use for non-drinking purposes. … ” Read more from Senator Cortese’s office.
CalTrout and partners applaud Governor Newsom for signing AB 809 into law
“Long-term fish monitoring programs in California have often struggled to receive adequate attention and funding. However, we are thrilled to share that AB 809 was recently signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom. This bill will establish a dedicated program to support the long-term monitoring of California’s native salmon and steelhead trout populations. AB 809 was authored by Assemblymember Bennett, and CalTrout co-sponsored this bill with our partners in the California Salmon and Steelhead Coalition, The Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited. The California Monitoring Program (CMP) was created to monitor and collect comprehensive data on our endangered anadromous fish populations, including Chinook salmon, coho salmon and steelhead to inform future management decisions. This bill will put CMP into statute, which will allow us to ensure continuous operation of the program and eliminate data gaps. … ” Read more from Cal Trout.
What did Newsom sign — and veto — this legislative season?
“California will soon be home to a task force dedicated to fentanyl overdose prevention. School districts will need to think through body shaming, and prepare policies on how to prevent it. And community colleges will be required to provide in-state tuition for some in Mexico, including low-income students that live less than 45 miles from California’s border. Those were among 100 new measures Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law Friday, working through the last of a stack of 1,046 bills sent to his desk from the legislature dominated by his fellow Democrats. In his final day of bill signings Friday — the deadline was midnight Saturday — Newsom vetoed just two bills, for a total of 890 signed and 156 vetoed in 2023. That’s a slight uptick in rejecting proposed legislation that reflects both his concerns about the state’s finances in an uncertain economy, as well as his national political ambitions. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
In commentary this week …
Proposed water conservation rule exempts California’s most profligate users
“A proposed regulation supported by the State Water Resources Conservation Board (SWRCB) would impose permanent water conservation mandates on about 400 California cities and water agencies that collectively serve about 95% of the state’s residents. Newsom administration regulators claim the measure would save about 413,000 acre-feet of water annually, or enough to supply about 1.2 million households. But Max Gomberg, a water policy expert, former SWRCB member, and a senior consulting analyst for the California Water Impact Network, said the new rule does nothing to reign in the most profligate consumers of the state’s water: Central Valley agribusiness. … ” Continue reading from C-WIN.
Farmers need support in rollout of groundwater law
Justin Fredrickson, a water and environmental policy analyst for the California Farm Bureau, writes, “A Public Policy Institute of California report last month warned of historic challenges for the state’s leading agricultural region under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The report, “Managing Water and Farmland Transitions in the San Joaquin Valley,” drills down on previous PPIC work in an update that reminds us of the sheer scope and magnitude of what is at stake as the 2014 groundwater law is implemented. Under SGMA, the report estimates average annual water supply for farm irrigation is expected to drop by 20% by 2040. The PPIC said the impacts could result in the retirement of 500,000 acres of irrigated farmland annually and up to 900,000 acres in a worst-case scenario. The difference between the high and low ends is dependent to a significant extent on efforts to promote water trading. This is examined at different scales—local trading, basin-level trading and valley-wide trading. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Too many carrots and not enough sticks
Andy Caldwell, COLAB Executive Director and a local radio talk show host, writes, “Unfortunately, the good people of Cuyama and a majority of our county supervisors can’t tell the difference between a carrot and a grape. Moreover, they are convinced that the water table beneath the surface of the earth is one giant bathtub, instead of barely connected diversely stratified aquifers. Historically, the water beneath a property belonged to the property owner overlying the aquifer. This is critically important to farmers, because if they don’t have access to the water underlying their property then they simply own dirt, meaning they can’t grow anything. However, the State of California has dramatically changed historic water laws by way of the State Groundwater Sustainability Act. … ” Read more from the Hanford Sentinel.
Column: Occupied land
Trudy Wischemann writes, ““I wish you’d write about Palestine,” said my dear friend who pre-reads these columns weekly, correcting grammar and mistakes of the heart. I invited him to try his hand at it, and you may see his words here next week on that throbbing subject. Below the warfare there, which is currently decimating lives, land and centuries of human structures built to make the occupation of that land into Home, the question lies unresolved. Who is to occupy that land, or any other, and under what conditions? Whose land is it? Whose land is Ukraine? Whose land is Cuyama Valley, or the bed of Tulare Lake? During the fight over the acreage limitation in the 1970s, the Fresno-based nonprofit National Land for People had a bumper sticker that said “La tierra pertenece al que la trabaja”—the land belongs to those who work it. … ” Read more from the Foothills Sun-Gazette.
Editorial: Should L.A. care about salt in New Orleans’ tap water? Yes. Here’s why
The LA Times editorial board writes, “Los Angeles residents would be wise to keep an eye on New Orleans, where saltwater from the Gulf of Mexico is creeping up the Mississippi River and threatening the drinking water supply. Officials are tracking the daily movements of the saline wedge, which was predicted to reach some of the city’s water intake valves by Thanksgiving. More recent forecasts hold out hope that most intakes will escape saltwater contamination. The central United States baked in record-breaking heat and suffered through below-average rainfall this summer, dropping the usually mighty Mississippi to extremely low levels for the second year in a row. The greatly diminished flow to the gulf currently lacks the volume to push back the heavy, salt-laden gulf water, which sneaks upstream along the river bottom. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
To shut down the supply side of climate change, start here
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, and Bill McKibben, founder of Third Act, writes, “September was a scary month — or as one prominent climate scientist termed it, “gobsmackingly bananas.” It broke all temperature records for the month and by a record margin. The Earth busted through — at least temporarily — the 1.5-degree Celsius (2.7-degree Fahrenheit) red line that the nations of the world drew with the Paris accords. Almost as scary as the temperature, however, has been the reaction — or, more precisely, the lack of it in Washington. But now an enormous opportunity looms for the Biden administration: Its chance to prove to the world that it takes the supply side of the climate challenge as seriously as the demand side. Having begun to credibly cut demand for fossil fuels by boosting electric vehicles, heat pumps and solar panels with the the Inflation Reduction Act, the White House needs to start turning down the supply by stanching the spiking exports of fossil fuels. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Climate change isn’t just about emissions. We’re ignoring a huge part of the fight
David G. Victor, nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, professor at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and Scripps Institution of Oceanography; and Veerabhadran Ramanathan, professor emeritus of climate sustainability at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and climate solutions scholar at Cornell University, write, “Last month, we heard yet again about the need to stop global warming at about 1.5 degrees centigrade above preindustrial levels. The International Energy Agency outlined a plan to meet that goal, and the United Nations secretary-general implored nations to get serious about cutting emissions to make it a reality. That goal is a fantasy. This summer, global warming already yielded monthly average temperatures that exceeded preindustrial averages by 1.5 degrees. It took more than a century for global annual average temperatures to reach the first degree, which happened around 2015. Climate data suggest that the next half-degree is likely to happen by the early 2030s, if not sooner, and that 2023 will be the warmest year on record. The reality of rapid warming requires that every country create an adaptation strategy to become more resilient to the effects of climate change. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Here’s one way to protect California’s beaches from rising seas: Stop messing with them
Karina Johnston, a doctoral student at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management and the Marine Science Institute, writes, “Protecting our coasts from sea level rise is increasingly urgent, especially for densely populated coastal communities such as Southern California’s. Coastal flooding and beach erosion from rising seas and storms are far more than a threat; they’re already happening in many places in California and beyond. But new research suggests one relatively simple means of shoring up our beaches: leaving them alone. As I and my colleagues at UC Santa Barbara and our partner institutions showed in a recent paper, natural dune formation can help restore and adapt urban coasts to climate change. In fact, we found that natural processes can cause the sands to rise much faster than the seas. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
American dams are being demolished. And nature is pushing that along
Richard Parker, author of “Lone Star Nation” and a forthcoming narrative history of the Southwest, “The Crossing,” writes, “This summer, the first of four dams on the West’s Klamath River was destroyed, unleashing a torrent of cold water that had been held back for a century. By the end of 2024, three more dams near the California-Oregon border will come down, restoring the massive runs of salmon and steelhead along some 400 miles that once defined the river basin. For more than a hundred years, dams in the American West have created vast reservoirs, sources of hydroelectric power and irrigation for farms and ranches. But after declining in their power output and providing unpredictable sources of water — not to mention their massive environmental damage to fish, Native American cultures and the land itself — they are coming down from Connecticut to California. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
In regional water news this week …
After the flood: As the world’s largest dam removal takes shape, restoration ecologists are poised to transform a landscape
“Standing on an outcrop of volcanic rock, Joshua Chenoweth looks across the languid waters of California’s Iron Gate Reservoir and imagines the transformation in store for the landscape. In early 2024, operators will open the floodgates on the 49-meter-high dam that blocks the Klamath River, allowing the more than 50 million tons of water it impounds to begin to drain. Once it’s gone, heavy equipment will dismantle the structure. All that will remain of the 11-kilometer-long reservoir that filled the valley for 60 years will be steep-sided slopes coated in gray mud, split once again by a free-flowing river. Within months, however, that sediment will be covered with a fine, green carpet of seedlings and colorful splashes of flowers, many planted by Chenoweth’s team. … ” Read more from Science Magazine.
Farmers, tribes weigh in on river flows for salmon
“Farmers, ranchers, tribal members and others who rely on water from the Scott River and Shasta River watersheds turned out last week to offer insights to state officials considering an emergency regulation to set minimum flows on the tributaries. The gathering at an informational workshop on Oct. 6 in Sacramento came in response to a July 1 petition by the Karuk Tribe, which asked the California State Water Resources Control Board to use its emergency powers to set permanent minimum instream flows to prevent the extinction of coho salmon. In August, the water board directed staff to return with a plan to adopt interim flow measures to support salmon. It also asked farmers, tribes and other interested parties to work together to develop plans for long-term restoration of the salmon fishery. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Floodplain forward: Reactivating floodplains in the Sacramento Valley to benefit fish and farms
“As climate change exacerbates drought, it can often feel like there is not enough water to go around to protect the interests of both humans and wildlife. However, CalTrout takes a unique role in the conservation space to balance those interests and bring about benefits for both farmers and fish. How? In the Sacramento Valley, we work with a coalition of partners to reactivate floodplains. A floodplain is a low-laying area of ground adjacent to a river, subject to routine (you guessed it!) flooding. Cyclical flooding allows river ecosystem access to the tremendous food web of resources produced in floodplain wetlands. It is the act of the river expanding to inundate these nutrient-rich lands that allows the river food web access to the solar energy stored in floodplain plants and soils. This energy travels into the water via microbial break down of plant matter. Microbes and bacteria eat the nutrients, which in turn feed abundant invertebrates, which in turn feed fish and birds. It’s this consistent inundation of floodplains that allows river valleys to actually make fish! … ” Read more from Cal Trout.
Invasive mudsnails detected at Lake Sonoma Fish Hatchery
“The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) and partners have confirmed the presence of New Zealand mudsnails (NZMS) at Warm Springs Fish Hatchery near Lake Sonoma. While NZMS have been detected in other portions of the watershed, this is the first confirmed detection at Warm Springs Hatchery. NZMS were detected in an intake pipeline and an aeration pond during a regularly scheduled quarterly hatchery survey this summer. Since the detection, scientists have conducted surveys in about 75 percent of Coho-bearing streams in the watershed and have not observed NZMS presence beyond previously known locations. … ” Continue reading from the Department of Fish & Wildlife.
Biologist asks judge to limit Coyote Valley Dam’s impact on endangered salmon
“An attorney for a Northern California fisheries biologist asked a federal judge on Tuesday to order changes to flood control procedures at Coyote Valley Dam, saying current operations endanger species in the salmon family. Sean White says the dam, which guards his city of Ukiah from flooding in the nearby Lake Mendocino, is a danger to Central California coast steelhead, coho and Chinook salmon. Populations of the fish in the lake and the East Fork Russian River are under threat, too, White said in his 2022 complaint. White claims the dam’s flood control operations violated the Endangered Species Act by jeopardizing salmon populations. Sediment stirred up by water rushing in from the dam can result in “abrading and clogging gills, and indirectly cause reduced feeding, avoidance reactions, destruction of food supplies, reduced egg and alevin survival, and changed rearing habitat.” Philip Williams, White’s attorney, asked a federal judge on Tuesday to forbid the dam from releasing any water unless it was essential. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Audio: ‘Like a thiefdom’: How one California family controls who floods and who doesn’t
“California has had one of its wettest years in recorded state history after enduring extreme drought. That’s good news for reservoirs that supply drinking water and water for farming. But a parade of strong storms also caused widespread flooding. The Los Angeles Times has a new investigation looking into how one powerful family controlled where the floodwaters went in the agricultural lands of Tulare County — with little accountability. Here & Now’s Deepa Fernandes speaks with Susanne Rust, an investigative reporter part of the team on this story for the LA Times.” Listen at KASU.
Kern River legal wrangling raises questions about how – or whether – the river can serve the needs of people, fish and ag
“Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp came back several times during an Oct. 13 hearing to what he saw as a “major issue” in the dispute over keeping water in the Kern River – its plumbing. The plaintiffs, a group of entities headed by Bring Back the Kern, have argued that water could flow in the river through Bakersfield for the public and fish and all the river users could still have their shares if water managers simply changed the spot where they siphon off their water. Nope, can’t happen, responded the City of Bakersfield and agricultural water districts with rights to the water. Bring Back the Kern is seeking a preliminary injunction to stop diversions off the river that may harm fish populations that have rebounded during this year’s epic runoff. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Environmental groups seek change to water flows for California’s Kern River
“A Kern County judge heard arguments Friday in a case targeting water flows in the Kern River and whether they’re sufficient to support its fish. Groups including Bring Back the Kern and the Center for Biological Diversity want the city of Bakersfield’s water diversions from the Kern blocked. They filed suit in late 2022, saying Bakersfield had conceded that its water diversions have led to damage and threatened the quality of the river’s ecosystem, including fish and wildlife. That reduction in riparian and wetland habitats has led to a decrease in wildlife, the environmental groups say. At the hearing Friday, the groups asked Kern County Superior Court Judge Greg Pulskamp for a preliminary injunction requiring Bakersfield to maintain a sufficient amount of water in the Kern River that would keep its fish in good condition. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Mono Lake’s impressive rise will be tempered by increased exports
“As Mono Lake rose nearly five vertical feet this year, visitors and residents in the Mono Basin marveled at Mono Lake’s fast-changing shoreline. Driving along Highway 395, we witnessed a peninsula become an island at Old Marina. Osprey nests built on land-locked tufa at South Tufa are again protected by watery moats. Long-dry brackish and freshwater lagoons along the north and east shores resurfaced. The surface area of the lake has increased more than four and a half square miles, shrinking the landbridge and increasing the distance between predatory coyotes and California Gull nesting grounds. The lake rise is cause for celebration and began at a time when the lake level was dangerously low. … ” Continue reading at the Mono Lake Committee.
More green, less gray: LA County maps big plans for its water supply
“The winter storms that drenched much of California from December 2022 through March 2023 refilled reservoirs. As more rain and snowmelt come, though, most will go uncaptured because the state’s outdated infrastructure was designed to swiftly carry rainwater to the ocean. LA County aims to change that. In a typical year, about 15 inches of rain falls in the Los Angeles area. Nearly half of that fell in August 2023 as the aftermath of the historical tropical storm, a remnant of Hurricane Hilary, passed through Southern California. Roughly a third of the water supply in the area comes from locally pumped groundwater that is continually replenished by percolation when it rains. Nevertheless, not all of that rain can be captured so it can be reused as drinking water or to restock the groundwater. Some years have seen more than 100 billion gallons of flow into the Pacific Ocean —which is equivalent to the water needs of more than 2 million people. That’s a big reason voters approved Measure W in 2018. … ” Read more from ESRI.
SoCal: After ‘miracle’ water year, can agencies capture more from next El Niño?
“It was a perfect storm of, well, pretty perfect storms. There was a lot of rain and snow during California’s just completed “water year,” from Oct. 1, 2022 to Sept. 30 — nearly double the historical average in the southern half of the state. But all of that rain didn’t fall too fast, and snowpack-melting temperatures didn’t spike too high, making it possible for most areas to avoid major flooding. The agencies that capture and store stormwater also have become better at finding ways to keep more of that precipitation in Southern California rather than letting it all run out to the ocean. Recent projects by the Chino Basin Watermaster, for example, which manages the aquifer that sits under much of northwestern Inland Empire, allow the agency to capture an additional 4,000 acre feet of stormwater. (Each acre foot is enough to serve two households for a year.) And given how much rain fell, Justin Nakanowater, who serves as the agency’s manager of technical resources, said the Chino Basin was able to hold onto 20,000 acre feet of water this year — two and half times more than last water year. … ” Read more from the OC Register.
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
NOTICE of Public Availability of Changes to Proposed Regulations for Direct Potable Reuse (SBDDW-23-001)
NOTICE: State Water board accepting provisional data corrections; staff slides available
