On the calendar today …
- MEETING: Delta Plan Interagency Implementation Committee Autumn Gathering from 9:30am to 2pm at the Bay Model in Sausalito. Following a tour of the Bay Model, members will discuss past, present, and future efforts to integrate modeling in the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Members will also discuss draft adaptation scenarios related to Delta Adapts, receive the 2021-2022 Delta Crosscut Budget Report, and discuss long-term Delta funding needs. The public is invited to attend the meeting, which will include a tour of the grounds at the start of the meeting. For more information regarding participation, location, and accessibility, please review the meeting notice.
- MEETING: State Water Resources Control Board beginning at 9:30am. Agenda items include an update on current hydrologic conditions, consideration of general WRDs for cannabis cultivation, consideration of establishing TMDLs for nitrogen in the Santa Ynez River basin, and consideration of a proposed Resolution approving an amendment to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Tulare Lake Basin to remove the Municipal and Domestic Supply and Agricultural Supply beneficial uses from groundwater within a designated horizontal and vertical portion of the southern region of the Lost Hills Oilfield. Click here for the full agenda and remote access instructions.
- MEETING: Department of Food and Agriculture from 10am to 2:15pm. Agenda items include Water & Farmland Transitions in the San Joaquin Valley; Global Agricultural Productivity Report; Agricultural Economic Issues and Emerging Trends; Equitable Food Initiative, and the Sacramento/Delta update to the Bay Delta Plan. Click here for the full agenda and remote access instructions.
- WEBINAR: Sustainable Conservation: Restoring our water resources from 11am to 12:15pm. Rivers and streams are the lifeblood of a watershed. They play a key role in regulating our water quality, providing wildlife habitat, irrigating our food, giving us recreation opportunities, and being a key barometer of natural and human health. Habitat restoration and streamflow enhancement projects are a key part of working holistically to secure a sustainable water future for California’s communities, agriculture, and wildlife. In this webinar, a panel of conservation experts will explore critical habitat restoration at a watershed scale. We’ll highlight the innovative and collaborative statewide work by the restoration community, from NGOs to government agencies, to restore miles of riparian habitat, revitalize our rivers and streams, protect iconic species, reconnect our surface and groundwater resources, and meet our complex climate challenges ahead. Click here to register.
In California water news today …
California’s extreme weather whiplash: So long, drought. Hello, El Niño
“Less than a year after facing historic water shortages, California this week was declared drought-free thanks to a year of epic rains, with an El Niño forecast that could keep wet conditions going into 2024. The U.S. Drought monitor’s latest data show the vast majority of California reporting no drought as of Oct. 17, though pockets in the northernmost and southeastern parts of the state are still considered abnormally dry. “For the most part, California had been drought-free” for weeks, but “a little smidgen” remained, said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska. A smidgen, indeed: On Oct. 10, only 0.7% of the state was in drought. And that area — a slim portion of Del Norte County in the upper left-hand corner of the state — had been getting consistently less dry since mid-September. … ” Continue reading at the LA Times. | Read via the Gazette Extra
Maps show California’s remarkable drought recovery. Here’s what comes next
“After years of enduring severe drought, U.S. Drought Monitor data reveals an apparent end to California’s prolonged parched conditions. Maps and tables show that the Golden State has seen a remarkable turn of events since last November, as an abundance of rain and snowfall replenished dry landscapes. The most recent map shows the state officially out of drought conditions. There are only two small areas with abnormally dry conditions, places that are in drought recovery. A map from one year ago is vastly different and shows much of the state covered in drought. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle. | Read via MSN News.
Reservoir levels remain above historical average across California
“California’s lakes and reservoirs remain in very good shape as an El Niño winter closes in. Following the record wet winter, lakes and reservoirs were nearly full to the brim as the melting snowpack made its way into them. After the melt-off period, Lake Shasta — the keystone of the Central Valley Project — was at 98% capacity, Oroville was at 100% capacity, and Folsom Lake was nearly full as well at 95% capacity. These bodies of water were quite parched heading into the winter due to the three years of drought preceding the past winter’s deluge and ranged from 25-32% capacity before the atmospheric river events rolled in. … ” Read more from Channel 10.
DR. JAY LUND: Why can’t we capture all the water in wet years?
John Chacon / DWR
“Capturing water from wet periods for use in drier seasons or years has been central to California’s water management since the early 1900s. Reservoirs and aquifers are routinely used for this purpose by many agencies and regions. How much more water can be saved in wetter times for later use? How much would this cost? What are the potential environmental costs (and benefits) of storing additional water? Dr. Jay Lund, Vice Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences and an engineering professor at UC Davis, dove into those questions in the presentation for Sacramento State’s Office of Water Programs webinar series. … ” Continue reading this article from Maven’s Notebook.
California governor taps new law to streamline Sites Reservoir project
“California Governor Gavin Newsom fast-tracked a massive reservoir project Monday using a law he signed this past summer to accelerate construction. The Sites Reservoir Project near the town of Maxwell, about 81 miles northwest of Sacramento, is slated to hold up to 1.5 million acre-feet of water — enough for 3 million households for a year. Once complete, it’ll increase Northern California’s water capacity by up to 15%. Additionally, it’s expected to lead to ecosystem improvements, benefits to flood control and added recreational opportunities. The Sites project already has $46.75 million in state funding. It’s eligible for a total of $875.4 million in Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014 funds. The total project cost is estimated at $4 billion. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
SEE ALSO:
- Governor Newsom Streamlines Sites Reservoir Project, press release from the Office of the Governor
- Governor Newsom Subverts CEQA to Jam Through Environmentally Destructive Sites Reservoir Project, from the Sierra Club
- Newsom accelerates plans for California’s largest reservoir in nearly 50 years, from the San Francisco Chronicle (Read via MSN News)
- Gavin Newsom fast-tracks plan to build California’s first new reservoir in nearly 50 years, from the Sacramento Bee (Read via AOL News)
Can the internet of things mitigate California’s historic drought?
“California’s developed annual average water use is approximately 80 percent agriculture, 10 percent municipal and 10 percent residential. Despite its struggles, the Pajaro Valley might still be ahead of the curve on water stewardship among California’s thousands of vegetable growers. The partners in the ‘Community Water Dialogue’ developed the idea to create a wireless irrigation network (entitled Project WIN) to help growers improve irrigation efficiency. The hope is to reduce water use in the region by 30% through optimized irrigation. The WIN Project uses wireless communication towers and connects with sensor technology to measure soil tension in real time via the internet. Soil tension measures water needs and plant stress. This real time information allows growers to anticipate when to irrigate and for how long – therefore keeping crops growing in optimal conditions. … ” Read more from Government Technology.
What is nitrate and could your water be contaminated with it?
“Martha Lorenz lives in the shade of orchards, living in the house where she grew up outside of Ceres, California. She remodeled it in the 1980s. “Grew up in the country. Almonds, grapes at one time, almonds all around now,” Lorenz said. “It was nice back then. Well, it was a lot smaller town, you know. Everything’s grown crazy the last several years.” She’s always gotten her water from a well. “I didn’t think anything about it as a kid, you know, you just go to the sink and get your glass of water,” Lorenz said. But that all changed two years ago when she found out her drinking water was contaminated with nitrate. … ” Read more from KCRA.
Mark Arax: What happened when California chose to rebuild a town devastated by wildfire
“Before the fire that destroyed almost everything here, Paradise was one of those blunders of American suburbia, a misplaced place that made little ecological sense. It inhabited a California landscape that wasn’t quite rolling foothill or rugged Sierra but an in-between zone where Ponderosa pines, Douglas firs and incense cedars kept the earth from baking like the great valley below. Psychically, it represented California affordability and escape, a refuge that drew a whole carnival of believers: hippie gun nuts and backwoodsmen, growers of pot and fruit, trailer park dwellers and two-income families in middle-class houses and retirees from the city who had enough equity to buy a lovely acre with a creek called Honey running through it. … ” Continue reading at the New York Times (gift article).
3 cities face a climate dilemma: to build or not to build homes in risky places
“With climate-fueled disasters killing hundreds of Americans annually and costing communities billions of dollars, a growing number of local governments are asking a basic question: Are there some places where people shouldn’t build homes? … It’s one of the most difficult choices a community can make. Local governments typically want more housing, not less, because budgets are generally funded by the property taxes from those homes. At the same time, a nationwide housing shortage is creating even more pressure to build. Two things are painfully apparent for many California cities: the massive statewide housing shortage and a growing danger from wildfires. With some of the most expensive housing in the U.S., California’s cities face requirements to build more housing to boost supply. But where to put it is tricky. About one-quarter of California is at high risk of burning, according to state wildfire authorities. And as the climate gets hotter, tens of thousands of homes have been lost in destructive wildfires in the last five years alone. … ” Read more from North Country Public Radio.
In regional water news and commentary today …
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
Invasive snails threaten Lake Tahoe ecosystem
“A startling discovery beneath Lake Tahoe’s pristine water has regulators and scientists scrambling to size up the potential threat to the local ecosystem. Two days after Labor Day, divers discovered the lake’s first new invasive species in 15 years: the New Zealand mudsnail. “I’m worried because this is something we’ve tried to keep out,” said Dennis Zabaglo, the Aquatic Invasive Species Program Manager for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. These snails are much smaller than the garden variety you’re familiar with. Each individual mudsnail takes up less space than a grain of rice, small enough to fit several on your fingernail. … ” Read more from Channel 10.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Sacramento project wins Bentley’s ‘Going Digital’ award for water/wastewater
“The City of Sacramento’s $1.7 billion EchoWater project was recently named a winner of Bentley Systems’ Going Digital Awards in Infrastructure, which recognizes users of the company’s software for excellence in infrastructure modeling and digital twin. The Sacramento Regional County Sanitation District’s (Regional San) EchoWater project is a decade-long expansion of the district’s regional wastewater treatment plant near Elk Grove, California. The treatment plant is the second largest of its kind in the nation and treats an average of 135 million gallons of wastewater each day from 1.6 million people throughout Sacramento County and West Sacramento. … ” Continue reading from Water Finance & Management.
BAY AREA
‘Potentially stronger storm system’ poised to sweep SF Bay Area
“The National Weather Service is warning that a “potentially stronger storm system” could impact the San Francisco Bay Area next week, likely between Nov. 14 and 17. The system has the potential to be the wettest system the region has seen since the rainy season began on Oct. 1, but with the event still more than a week away, a lot of uncertainty remains in the forecast. The early forecast suggests that the system could be a “strong atmospheric river,” said Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the weather service. These storms pull moisture from the subtropics, typically the region around Hawaii, and can release copious amounts of rain when they reach land. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
Valley Water makes progress at Anderson Dam
“It has been just over two years since Valley Water broke ground at Anderson Dam with the promise to protect the public and secure Santa Clara County’s water supply. Since then, our agency has made tremendous progress on this vital public safety and water supply project. Currently our work at the site is focused on building a new, larger outlet tunnel next to the dam. As of mid-October, contractors excavated more than 1,000 feet of the 1,736-foot-long tunnel, which will provide greater control over reservoir water levels. We anticipate the work on the outlet tunnel will take another two years to finish, and once that is done, Valley Water will begin rebuilding the dam and spillway. … ” Continue reading at the Morgan Hill Times.
State water officials present $16 million grant check to Zone 7
“Representatives from the California Department of Water Resources’ sustainable groundwater management grant program presented a $16 million grant check to Zone 7 Water Agency officials last week. According to Zone 7, the money was granted to the water agency so that it could use the money to help fund its new state-of-the-art water treatment facility to remove PFAS, otherwise known as forever chemicals, from the Stoneridge groundwater well in Pleasanton. “The Stoneridge project will help improve both water quality and water supply reliability for the residents and businesses in the Tri-Valley,” Zone 7 General Manager Valerie Pryor said in a press release from the DWR. … ” Read more from Pleasanton Weekly.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Modesto could get quarter-inch of rain. Where do reservoirs stand as irrigation season ends?
“The National Weather Service expects up to 0.25 inches of rain in the Modesto area, along with snow way up in its watershed. The forecast said the storm would last from Monday morning, Nov. 6, through Tuesday. The Modesto Irrigation District has recorded 0.2 inches of rain downtown since the July 1 start of its water year. An average year brings 12.17 inches, mostly from November through March. The Weather Service forecast up to 8 inches of snow in higher reaches of the Tuolumne River watershed. It’s main storage site, Don Pedro Reservoir, remains above-average thanks to abundant storms last winter and spring. MID shares it with the Turlock Irrigation District. … ” Read more from the Modesto Bee.
Runoff spikes impressive Tulare County groundwater recharge
“Central Sierra runoff delivered over 13.19 million acre/ft of snowmelt this past water year ending in September. That’s the arithmetic counting the snowmelt from the five major rivers from north to south-from the San Joaquin River down to the Kern near Bakersfield. For some of these watersheds like the Kings River it was the wettest year ever at 4.5 mil af. The Tulare Basin’s four rivers – Kings / Kaweah /Tule /Kern are just a few drops short of the 1983 record number with a combined runoff of a gushing 8.69 million acre/ feet. That’s what 31 atmospheric rivers that drenched California will do. … ” Read more from the Visalia Times-Delta.
Public mostly mum on prospect of state take-over of Kings County groundwater pumping
“With the state poised to possibly mandate how much water Kings County farmers are allowed to pump, it was surprising how quiet the first public workshop on this contentious issue was. While more than 225 people attended the online workshop Nov. 3, hardly anyone spoke or asked questions of the Water Resources Control Board staff. Staff provided a slide show and explanation of the state’s findings that the region, known as the Tulare Lake groundwater subbasin, does not have an adequate plan to bring its aquifer back into balance. That “inadequate” finding triggered possible intervention by the state Water Board, the enforcement arm of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which mandates that overdrafted subbasins bring their aquifers into balance by 2040. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
SEE ALSO: State Board GSP Hearing in Hanford November 8th, from Water Wrights
Pistachio Wars: Wonderful Company tax chief completes testimony in Assemi legal fight
“After a week off, the expansive litigation between Fresno’s Assemi family and The Wonderful Company returned to court on Monday. The backstory: The Assemis, owners of Touchstone Pistachios, are suing the Wonderful Company for breach of contract over Wonderful Company owner Stewart Resnick withholding a $25 million grower bonus for 2018 after the Assemis left the Wonderful Pistachio co-operative in 2019. Wonderful has countersued over alleged breach of contract in diverting millions of pounds of nuts away from Wonderful and defaulting on loans issued to the Assemis through membership in the Wonderful Co-Op. … ” Read more from the San Joaquin Valley Sun.
Kern County agencies seek nearly $50 million to repair damage and dig out from last winter’s storms
“Kern County agencies are still digging out, literally in some cases, from last winter’s storms as they seek federal funding and hope for enough time to fix damage before another wet winter. County agencies submitted requests for reimbursements totalling nearly $50 million for costs to repair damage from the 2023 storms and floods, according to a data sheet provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The two single largest individual reimbursement requests were from the Cawelo Water District and City of Bakersfield to repair weirs and structures on Poso Creek and the Kern River – $8.89 million and $8 million, respectively. The structures were damaged by torrential flows that brought tons of trees, rocks, dirt and trash barreling down those waterways. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Paperwork delays blamed for flooding from overgrown rivers. Will the process work better this winter?
“Entire towns flooded last winter because of permit delays, according to lawmakers and others. Debris from overgrown creeks and waterways up and down the state hadn’t been cleaned out in years for lack of proper permits. When water barreled down those channels, debris piled up, pushing water over levees and into hundreds of homes and businesses. No one wants to see a repeat, but some are worried not enough is being done to make sure creeks and waterways are prepared for another potentially wet winter. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), the main state-level permitting agency, agreed there were past delays, though it downplayed them as the culprit for last winter’s floods saying agencies could have gotten “emergency permits” if needed. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
LA County supervisors to vote on a plan to stop beach erosion
“With climate change creating ferocious storms that have blasted the Los Angeles County coastline with stronger ocean waves, beaches are eroding and sea levels are rising, often creating flooding that undermines coastal roads and buildings. To adapt to a changing shoreline climate, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors is proposing a coastal resiliency plan at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Nov. 7, starting at 9:30 a.m. The plan calls for reusing sediment that is scooped out of flood control channels, mountain river dams and harbors to fill in some of the 18 L.A. County beaches that have grown narrower due to loss of sand. It also calls for creating hybrid shoreline barriers that combine manmade materials with natural elements to lessen the impact of waves. “We want to make sure we are protecting what so many people come here to visit,” said Third District Supervisor Lindsey Horvath, who co-authored the motion with Second District Supervisor Holly Mitchell. “It is something a lot of us take for granted.” … ” Read more from the LA Daily News.
IMPERIAL/COACHELLA VALLEYS
A love-hate letter to alfalfa
Mackenzie Elmer writes, “Most of my life I knew alfalfa as the dopey kid from “The Little Rascals” with a dipstick coiffure who was, inexplicably, Darla’s crush. But driving through the fields of Imperial Valley mid-October, alfalfa was everywhere bailed in one- to half-ton cubes piled five high and 15 across. Voice of San Diego photojournalist Ariana Drehsler and I passed so much of it I wondered, how much does this stuff go for? Asking around revealed the market rate for alfalfa falls somewhere between $200 and $300 per ton or more, depending on where it’s grown and purchased. Like a mirage, the rows of green bales whizzing by looked more like stacks of cash. Imperial Valley is an alfalfa production machine. Farmers grow the flowering legume, generically called hay, to feed livestock. It’s Imperial Valley’s second-largest crop to cattle, generating over $269 million in 2022, according to the region’s most recent crop report. … ” Read more from the Voice of San Diego.
Along the Colorado River …
Feds bet on paying for water conservation to protect the Colorado River
“Arizona’s future was at a critical juncture at the beginning of 2023. Massive cuts to the state’s Colorado River water supply were being imposed. Deadlines loomed from the federal government for the seven states that rely on Colorado River water to come up with a solution for how to cut use even further as the nation’s two largest reservoirs recorded among their lowest levels ever after decades of drought caused by overconsumption and climate change. That precarious moment has now passed, Gov. Katie Hobbs said Friday at Phoenix City Hall as state, city, tribal and federal officials gathered to celebrate voluntary reductions of Colorado River water that will help preserve the system through 2026 as new operating guidelines for the entire region are negotiated. “Almost every challenge has a solution,” Hobbs said. Along the Colorado River Basin, that solution, for now, is coming in the form of a wet winter, a bit of collaboration between stakeholders in the region and billions of dollars from the federal government to entice users to conserve water. … ” Read more from Inside Climate News.
Colorado water panel advances bill to ban turf, rejects water conservation bill
“The major conservation legislation coming out of the General Assembly’s water resources and agriculture review committee turned out to be a proposal to ban nonessential turf. But the idea to change state law around water rights to encourage agricultural conservation failed to make it out of the panel, although it could still surface in the 2024 session. The 10-member committee is limited by statute to three bills, although the laws also allow the panel to advance more with a two-thirds vote. The committee tackled 10 bills on Oct. 31, voting to send nine on to the Legislative Council, the body that will review proposals from interim committee on Nov. 15. … ” Read more from Colorado Politics.
In national water news today …
Ecosystems as infrastructure: A new way of looking at climate resilience
“When people think of landscape architecture, small-scale recreational spaces like urban parks, gardens, and golf courses may come to mind. MacArthur “Genius Award” winner Kate Orff has a grander and more ecologically ambitious vision. Orff, director of Columbia University’s Urban Design Program, believes that architects should do more than just create beautiful spaces: They also need to work with nature to create resilient living environments that both help to knit human communities together and protect them against the ravages of climate change. SCAPE, the New York City-based design firm that Orff founded in 2007, is currently working in Louisiana on a project that will counter sea level rise and land loss in the Mississippi River Delta. SCAPE has also partnered with the Atlanta Regional Commission to create a 125-mile-long trail and greenway along the Chattahoochee River, which aims to bring racially diverse communities along its banks together, based on their shared love of the river. … ” Read more from Yale e360.
USEPA’s new Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality Certification rule becomes effective November 27, 2023
“On September 27, 2023, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) published its final 2023 Clean Water Act (“CWA”) Section 401 Water Quality Certification Improvement Rule (2023 Rule), which goes into effect on November 27, 2023. (88 Fed. Reg. 66558 [Sept. 27, 2023].) The 2023 Rule claims to strengthen the authority of States, territories, and Tribes to protect water resources by increasing discretion for those entities in granting water quality certifications that precede federal permits or licenses occurring within their respective jurisdictions. Section 401 of the CWA (33 U.S.C. §1341) requires that any person applying for a federal permit or license, which may result in a discharge of pollutants into waters of the United States, must obtain a State/Tribal water quality certification that the activity authorized by the federal permit complies with all applicable water quality standards, limitations, and restrictions. Therefore, no license or permit may be issued by a federal agency until Clean Water Act section 401 certification has been granted. … ” Read more from Downey Brand.
Five graphics that show some of the biggest threats facing the natural world
“Blazing fires, biblical floods and catastrophic storms are becoming increasingly common but they could be just a taste of things to come. Scientists say our planet is teetering towards a number of climate “tipping points” which could cause irreversible changes to the place we all call home. From the Antarctic ice sheet to the Amazon rainforest, the consequences of climate change can be seen right now – but it’s not the only threat to the natural world. In a series of graphics, we take a look at some of the biggest environmental challenges facing our planet. … ” Read more from CNN.
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
YOUR INPUT WANTED: Public comment period opens for Water Commission’s Draft White Paper on Drought Strategies
