In California water news today …
The vision of El Niño as producer of historic California storms may be outdated
“In 1983, El Niño brought historic flooding to parts of Southern California, toppling sections of fishing piers and inspiring some to travel submerged streets by surfboard. In 1998, it returned, dusting regional mountains with snow through May. For Californians’ collective mind, the weather phenomenon, defined by an eastward-moving, warmer-than-normal sea surface along the equatorial Pacific, is shaped by those traumatic, potent winters with record precipitation. But as some earth scientists see a bit of 1983 or 1998 in the coming winter’s strong El Niño, they may be neglecting a new reality: A stormy, wet El Niño of that vintage hasn’t struck California this century. … ” Read more from NBC News.
El Niño: What it is, how it devastates economies, and where it intersects with climate change
“There is a band of water across the equatorial Pacific Ocean, stretching from the coast of South America through to the island nations of Southeast Asia, whose temperature climatologists closely monitor as a driver of global weather patterns. Typically, warm water that settles around Indonesia during early spring works as an atmospheric engine, an energy source that affects weather patterns around the world for the coming year. But every two to seven years, this atmospheric engine shifts. When unusually warm water settles instead off the western coasts of Mexico and South America during the spring, the moisture and energy released into the atmosphere can profoundly change regional weather, from North America and South America to Asia and Africa. As of mid-November, forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration give a more than 55% chance of a strong El Niño this winter. Odds are 35% for a historically strong El Niño, like those that happened from 2015 to 2016, and 1997 to 1998. Odds are 62% that El Niño will persist into spring 2024. … ” Read more from the Journalists Resource.
A better way to promote urban water conservation
“Reducing per capita water use in cities and suburbs is key for helping communities get through droughts. And together with strategies to improve water supplies, it can also help build long-term water resilience in the face of our changing climate. In recent decades, Californians have been making great strides in long-term water conservation, and this latest drought showed once again that communities will go the extra mile to save water during droughts if needed. But while it’s often assumed that water conservation is inexpensive, it actually can be very costly. In response to 2018 legislation, the State Water Board is now considering new urban water use regulations whose statewide costs would far exceed their benefits. What’s more, these costs would significantly impact affordability, hitting inland, lower-income communities hardest. In this post, we explore some of the proposed regulations’ challenges and suggest some better approaches for implementing the law. An accompanying dataset provides further details. … ” Read more from the PPIC Water.
Letter: Supplemental Comments on the Delta Conveyance Project DEIR
“By this letter, our public interest organizations submit additional supplemental comments on the Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Delta Conveyance Project. These comments follow up the comments our organizations submitted on December 15, 2022, and supplemental comments we submitted on June 29 and October 30, 2023. These supplemental comments provide significant new information regarding environmental impacts of the proposed project that became available after DWR made the subject Draft EIR available for public review on July 27, 2022. The public interest organizations joining in this supplemental comment letter are Sierra Club California, Planning and Conservation League, Environmental Water Caucus, Center for Biological Diversity, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, California Water Impact Network, AquAlliance, Friends of the River, and Restore the Delta. California Water Research contributed to these comments. … ” Read the letter here.
In California, farmers test a method to sink more water into underground stores
“In recent decades, as water has grown increasingly precious, Californians have tried countless ways to find more of it and make it last longer, including covering agricultural canals with solar panels to prevent evaporation, building costly desalination plants and pulling out tracts of water-hungry grass. “Those low-hanging fruit have already been grabbed — that means you have to get more creative,” said Molly Bruce, a research fellow with the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. In California’s Pajaro Valley, where floods last winter breached a levee along a river and submerged parts of a nearby town, water managers are testing out another idea: paying farmers for the amount of water they’re able to help filter back into the earth. Supporters like Bruce say it’s an idea that could help refill California’s quickly depleting groundwater supplies, at costs cheaper than many other water-saving measures. … ” Read more from Inside Climate News.
Stored water gives farmers hope for plentiful supplies
“As California’s weather swings from droughts to floods, farmers say they are planning for either extreme but remain confident knowing the water supply in state reservoirs is well above the historical average for this time of year. Yolo County farmer Fritz Durst said his crystal ball for the 2024 water year is unclear but added that surface water supplies remain plentiful with more winter weather to come. “Since the reservoirs are healthy right now, we are predicting—unless it’s just an absolute, no-rain-at-all drought—that we will be getting some of our water,” said Durst, a Sacramento River settlement contractor who farms rice, alfalfa, sunflowers, tomatoes and cereal crops near Knights Landing. “I don’t know if we’ll get all of it. That remains to be seen, but it doesn’t look as negative as it looked (going into) last year,” he said. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
A California dry farmer’s juicy apples show how agriculture can be done with less water
“Leaves rustled as Mike Cirone reached into a tree and gently picked an apple. The orchard was filled with a profusion of ripe fruit in shades from golden-green to pinkish red. But unlike other crops that guzzle water from canals and wells, this bounty of apples grew on its own without irrigation. Cirone specializes in dry farming — applying little or no water, and relying on rainfall and the moisture stored in the ground. This is how farming has long been done in See Canyon near San Luis Obispo, where the orchards spread out beside a creek at the foot of a steep ridge shaded by oak trees. Cirone has been farming here for 40 years, perfecting his growing techniques and cultivating dozens of varieties of apples. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Record salmon run returns to Mokelumne River, main stem Sacramento run is dismal
“A record high number of over 23,000 fall-run Chinook salmon have returned to the Mokelumne River, a tributary of the San Joaquin River, while the second lowest number of Sacramento River fall Chinook have come back to Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek this year. The fish are returning from the ocean during a year when all salmon fishing was closed in California’s rivers and ocean waters due to the projected low ocean abundance of Sacramento and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon. The previous record for the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery was 19,962 salmon for the 2017 fall run ending in January 2018. … ” Read more from the Stockton Record.
Water saving solar panels, coming soon to a canal near you
“The upcoming COP28 climate conference has suddenly blown up in a wave of scandal, but the energy transition marches on. Exhibit A is the idea of shading irrigation canals with solar panels for a planet-saving win-win-win. The cooling effect of the water improves solar conversion efficiency, the shade prevents excess water loss from evaporation, and the use of built infrastructure preserves land from development. What’s not to like? The idea of water-saving solar panels on canals first surfaced in India back in 2012. More recently it crossed the CleanTechnica radar in February of 2022 when a collaborative public-private PV collaboration called Project Nexus began taking shape in California, using a canal in the state’s Turlock Irrigation District as a proving ground. … ” Read more from Clean Technica.
State seeks helps in defining ‘regenerative agriculture’
“Input is being sought on how California should define “regenerative agriculture” and how it relates to state programs. The California Department of Food and Agriculture, in collaboration with State Board of Food and Agriculture, will be hosting public listening sessions seeking feedback from stakeholders. December 6 will be the first scheduled listening session, which will take place via Zoom. A recommended framework has already been proposed by CDFA’s Environmental Farming Act Science Advisory Panel. … ” Read more from Ag Net West.
Sierra Club calls California Forever’s plans to build new city a ‘clandestine possession’
“In what amounted to a campaign kickoff for the coalition fighting California Forever’s plans for a new city in Solano County, leaders from the Sierra Club and other groups held a rally Tuesday morning announcing their opposition to the project. At a news conference, Sierra Club Solano Group Chair Princess Washington characterized the project as a “clandestine possession.” Washington said that the Bay Area had lost 270,000 acres of agricultural land in the last decade, and that the Solano project would jeopardize tens of thousands of acres of additional farmland. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
NREL-led effort addresses problem of plastic in rivers
“An avid scuba diver who also surfs and sails, Ben Maurer prefers the sights and sounds of the ocean to any other setting, so he leaves the waves and water behind reluctantly. “I feel a lot more peace around the ocean,” said Maurer, whose home in San Diego is about a mile from Mission Bay and a couple more miles from the Pacific Ocean. “I feel a lot more excitement at the same time. It’s a really special place for me, and I’ve worked really hard in my life to stay near the water. The most miserable I’ve been is when I’ve been landlocked.” A native of northern California who earned his doctorate in oceanography, Maurer has spent the last three and a half years with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), which has its main campuses in landlocked Colorado. But Maurer works from home and over the past year has crisscrossed the country, boating down major rivers to investigate the ongoing problem of waterborne plastics. He is the principal investigator of the Waterborne Plastics Assessment and Collection Technologies project, otherwise known as WaterPACT. … ” Read more from NREL.
Blue power: Will ocean waves be California’s new source of clean energy?
“The world’s oceans may be vast, but they are getting crowded. Coastal areas are congested with cargo ships, international commercial fishing fleets, naval vessels, oil rigs and, soon, floating platforms for deep-sea mining. But the Pacific Ocean is going to get even busier: Nearly 600 square miles of ocean off California have been leased for floating wind farms, with more expected. Now the state is considering hosting another renewable energy technology in the sea: Blue power, electricity created from waves and tides. A new law signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October instructs state agencies to study the feasibility and impacts of capturing ocean movement to create power and report back to the Legislature by January 2025. The goal is to jumpstart an industry that could fill in the power gaps as California tries to achieve its goal of transitioning to an all-renewable electric grid by 2045. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
California redwoods are swiftly recovering from wildfire
“In 2020, a wildfire tore through Big Basin Redwoods State Park in California’s Santa Cruz Mountains, charring the bark of the park’s namesake trees to an ominous black. But today, almost all of those towering old-growth redwoods are showing substantial new growth. Not all species in the park are faring equally well: Researchers note that some birds and fish, including coho salmon and steelhead trout, are still many years from recovery. But the difference in the redwoods themselves is dramatic and encouraging. … ” Read more from Reasons to be Cheerful.
Conservationists sue to stop planting of giant sequoias
“The National Park Service is working to replant several groves of giant sequoias devastated by recent wildfires. But some conservationists say planting is unneeded and could damage forests. Severe wildfires in 2020 and 2021 killed as many as 19 percent of all giant sequoias, the largest trees in the world, which grow only in scattered groves in the Sierra Nevada range in California. The Park Service has begun planting sequoias in two hard-hit groves where it says seedlings are particularly scarce, and it plans to undertake planting in four others. Officials say that without planting, burned areas could turn to shrubland. An official assessment finds, however, that planting projects could inflict some damage. … ” Read more from Yale e360.
‘Deep disappointment:’ Global climate envoy Newsom is alienating environmentalists at home
“Gov. Gavin Newsom has been positioning himself as a global climate leader this year, evangelizing California environmentalism in China and at the United Nations. But at home, he is increasingly at loggerheads with leading environmentalists. Environmental groups and tribes say the governor’s plan to protect water supply from climate change will exacerbate existing ecological devastation and irreversibly damage the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, the central hub of the state’s water system. While this relationship has been fraying for years, a new fault line opened this month when Newsom used newfound authority to fast track approval for the largest proposed piece of concrete water infrastructure to be built by the state in decades. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
When stagnant waters become fresh
“When I moved to the West Coast, I began praying for rain. At first these prayers were provoked by wildfires in surrounding regions. Then by heat waves and drought. Then by shrinking rivers and dying fish. Living in the arid West—and with climate change only making things worse—I quickly learned that water is life. … Though I pray for rain, I don’t depend on it. When I drive to the grocery store to pick up my daily bread, I gladly receive the gifts of irrigation. In the arid West, these irrigation projects rely on dams and the reservoirs they create. To put the matter bluntly, regardless of whether God sends rain, the dams will provide. … There is at least one sign of change, however. Dams are coming down at increasing rates. By one count, 65 were removed in 2022. Many of these were relatively small, non-power-producing structures. This summer, however, a new milestone in dam removal was reached. … ” Read more from Christian Century.
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
Snow on horizon for end of week in Tahoe basin
“There is a chance of snow for the Tahoe/Truckee area starting Wednesday and sticking around through Saturday, according to a National Weather Service Reno office report. NWS has a 20% chance of snow starting Wednesday with snow becoming more likely Thursday. “A couple of fast moving systems will bring light snow to the region late Thursday through Saturday. This may result in some slick roadways at times, especially outside of daylight hours,” the report states. … ” Read more from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
Meadow restoration in the Sierra-Cascade—keeping the momentum flowing
“There’s a lot to love about meadows in the Sierra-Cascade region and recent momentum in restoration efforts means there could be a lot more meadows to love. Currently, approximately 50 percent of known existing meadows are degraded or expected to be degraded and many more have already disappeared. The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) and its partners are working to restore these beloved ecosystems so that they can continue to provide essential services. A recent study by the U.S. Forest Service’s Pacific Southwest Research Station found that meadows historically covered 3 times the amount of area as they do today. This is more than previously documented, raising the possibility that meadows could be restored across even more of the landscape. … ” Read more from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.
SF State’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus: A river runs through it
“Geologist Raymond LeBeau first visited SF State’s Sierra Nevada Field Campus (SNFC) on a course field trip when he was a master’s student. After that, he couldn’t stop returning. “I just kept finding myself back up there, and very happily so. It’s always so much fun staying there because you’re right by the river that runs through. It’s really beautiful,” says LeBeau (M.S., ’23), who spent a lot of time there as a student researcher. “There are always all these classes going on: art classes, birding and mushroom classes, astronomy classes, all sorts. You mingle with all these interesting people and talk about your research.” Despite its beauty and power to inspire and educate, SNFC often comes as a surprise to people — even SF State alums. That’s understandable: It’s not exactly around the corner from the Quad. Situated a little over 200 miles northeast of SF State’s main campus, SNFC started in 1949 and is now a 7.1-acre campus in remote Sierra County near the Sierra Buttes and the North Yuba River. Each summer, hundreds of people visit for research, workshops, meetings, social gatherings and more. … ” Read more from SF State University.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Redding’s sewer project stalls: City investigates contractor issues delaying Magnolia Area improvements
“The City of Redding is investigating issues with the contracted work that installed the underground infrastructure in the Magnolia Area Sewer Improvement Project along Placer Street, the city announced on Tuesday. According to city officials, they say the investigation will temporarily delay the paving and re-striping project until the city and the contractor, Jason Abel Construction, find a solution to the issue. The Magnolia Area Sewer Improvement Project has been ongoing since July 2022. … ” Read more from KRCR.
Fish food program expands to public enrollment with reverse auction
“Today, 95% of the Central Valley’s historical floodplains are cut off from rivers by levees. Built in the early 1900s to combat devastating floods, levees and bypasses were constructed to corral mighty rivers and push water quickly through the system. Even before invasive species, large rim dams, and Delta water export facilities were introduced into the system, salmon populations started to dramatically decline with the construction of levees. Simply put, levees cut off fish in rivers from one of their primary food resources, bugs that grow in floodplain wetlands. CalTrout launched the Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields (“Fish Food”) project in 2017, working with farmers and water suppliers to pioneer innovative practices to help recover fish and wildlife populations in the greater Sacramento Valley by reconnecting floodplain-derived wetland food webs to river. The Fish Food program, in brief, uses managed flooding to produce super-abundant zooplankton populations (bugs, i.e. fish food), and delivers that flood water (and fish food) to fish-bearing waterways in the winter and spring – the time of year for juvenile salmon rearing and outmigration through the Sacramento Valley. … ” Continue reading at Cal Trout.
BAY AREA
Point Reyes legal battles over elk stress dairy farmers
“In the 1960s, dairy farmers along the Marin County coast agreed to sell their ranches to the federal government to facilitate creation of the 71,000-acre Point Reyes National Seashore in 1972. That sales accord created a partnership enabling 27 working ranches to continue operating—scattered between public beaches, hiking trails, campgrounds and, later, a reserve for native tule elk. But now Tim Kehoe and other Point Reyes dairy farmers say they fear they could be forced to shutter. They argue their way of life has been put in peril by years of environmental lawsuits challenging the U.S. National Park Service’s management of ranching, as well by as a recent proposal by park officials to remove fencing that separates elk from livestock. “Up until about five or six years ago, we never thought about this coming to an end,” said Tim Kehoe, a third-generation rancher who works a 1,000-acre dairy farm with his two brothers, Tom and Mike. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Richardson Bay monitors cite signs of eelgrass recovery
“Eelgrass health in Richardson Bay might be taking a turn toward recovery — news that was met with cautious optimism this month by the bay’s managers. The most recent findings on the health of the eelgrass were presented to the Richardson’s Bay Regional Agency board at a special meeting on Nov. 16. Overall, researchers found that damage to the eelgrass bed has plateaued, said Rebecca Schwartz Lesberg, president and founder of Coastal Policy Solutions, the agency’s consultant. The health of the eelgrass, an assessment that includes all threats to it, remains questionable, but the acreage is no longer decreasing, according to Schwartz Lesberg. While it is also not growing, she said this is a sign that restoration and conservation efforts are working. … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal.
Bay Area refinery that spewed dust hit with proposed class action lawsuit
“Two Martinez residents are suing the Martinez Refining Company’s owner, PBF Energy, accusing the company of violating federal pollution laws and asking the court to establish an independent oversight board with broad access to emissions data. Alena Cruz and Shannon Payne filed the proposed class action lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claiming the 860-acre refinery bordering Martinez has had “upsets and disruptions that cause toxic clouds of dust to disperse over its neighbors and create an increased risk of harm to their health.” Their attorney, Joseph Cotchett, said the lawsuit is the first from residents against the refinery stemming from a major upset at the plant on Thanksgiving night in 2022. Staff had been troubleshooting equipment problems for days when two stacks spewed a material called spent catalyst into neighborhoods, coating cars, gardens and other surfaces with an ashlike dust. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Community organizations turn to rain gardens to prevent flooding in East Palo Alto
“Last winter, residents experienced the second largest flood in East Palo Alto history. Now Bay Area nonprofits are installing gardens designed to soak up stormwater and mitigate future flooding. On Nov. 11, Climate Resilient Communities (CRC), Fresh Approach and Grassroots Ecology broke ground on the first of 25 rain garden systems to be installed for homeowners at no cost. CRC received nearly $1 million in funding for the project from Coastal Communities, an organization working to reduce water pollution. “To date, there isn’t anything else like this in the county,” Reid Bogert, stormwater program director for the San Mateo Countywide Water Pollution Prevention program, said. He said he’s excited to see it used as a model elsewhere. … ” Read more from the Mountain View Voice.
CENTRAL COAST
Over 24,000 acres of Gaviota Coast permanently protected from development
“More than 24,000 acres of the Gaviota Coast are now permanently protected. A new conservation easement bans development in The Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve. The preserve is one of the last undeveloped stretches of wilderness on California’s Coastline. It’s the kind of place where mountain lions still hunt marine mammals on the beach. … ” Read more from KCBX.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Fall rainfall remains below-normal in Central Sierra
“Nearly two months into the new water year, rain and snow have been below average in the Mother Lode and the rest of the Central Sierra so far this autumn. Meanwhile, Ebbetts and Sonora passes remain open, there’s a freeze warning Tuesday in the Central Valley, there are chances of rain in the foothills and snow in the mountains later this week, and some prescribed burning is expected to continue in Tuolumne County. The National Weather Service issued a freeze warning for Tuesday morning covering much of the Central Valley, including the westernmost edges of Calaveras and Tuolumne counties. … ” Read more from the Union Democrat.
Merced agencies sought state approval to clear stream beds for more than five years before last winter’s floods. Now they’re suing.
“A string of emails appears to show that one state agency stood in the way of stream channel maintenance for more than five years, which may have led to flooding that caused severe damage in Merced County, according to a recent lawsuit. The emails begin in 2018 and go back and forth for years between several Merced agencies – seeking a permit agreement to clear stream beds of the Black Rascal, Bear and Miles creeks – and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW.) The emails show repeated warnings by CDFW that maintenance work could not be done without a permit agreement. Then, after 2023 floods destroyed homes, businesses and farmland, at least one email suggests staffers at CDFW sought to shift blame for the delayed channel work onto local agencies. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Malibu is bracing for El Niño
“Residents of Malibu are being urged to prepare for the potential impacts of El Niño this winter. El Niño is the temporary warming of the eastern Pacific Ocean near the equator, which experts say is occurring now and is likely to produce above-average rainfall in Southern California. When the ocean water rises 1.5 degrees Celsius above normal, that’s considered a strong El Niño. “It does appear as though this 2023 is going to come pretty close to that if not exceed that,” Ben Reppert, a meteorology professor at Penn State University, recently told KTLA. … ” Read more from KTLA.
IMPERIAL/COACHELLA VALLEYS
Study: Salton Sea has enough lithium to make more than 375 million EV batteries
“The mineral-rich stew bubbling thousands of feet beneath the shores of Southern California’s Salton Sea contains one of the largest lithium deposits in the world, with enough of the valuable metal to make batteries for more than 375 million electric vehicles, according to a long-awaited analysis published Tuesday. “It’s pretty exciting how much is there,” said Michael McKibben, a geology research professor from UC Riverside who worked on the 371-page report commissioned by the Department of Energy. Since there are fewer than 300 million vehicles on the road in the United States today, the study suggests there’s ample lithium in this remote desert outpost to help replace every gas-guzzler in the country with an emission-free EV. … ” Read more from the Riverside Press-Enterprise.
SAN DIEGO
New pump installed at Hollister Street Pumping Station in Imperial Beach
“A new pump and motor was installed in the Hollister Street Pumping Station Tuesday. The station is located just off Hollister Street in Imperial Beach. While this will not fix the transboundary sewage contamination, many are saying any improvement is a step in the right direction. The U.S. Section of the International Boundary and Water Commission confirmed the new pump is being installed Tuesday. … ” Read more from Fox 5 San Diego.
Along the Colorado River …
Colorado’s winter is off to an uninspiring start, climate experts say
“Coloradans are getting their first glimpse of this year’s snow season, and according to climate experts, it’s off to a lackluster start, measuring just 60% of normal. Snow in the mountains is a sign it’s time to bundle up or break out the winter sports gear. But Colorado’s mountain snowpack also provides water to millions of people across the country. This season is starting at a deficit: Snowpack is below normal, soils are too dry and drought conditions are creeping into more areas of the state. “Overall, we don’t like starting off slow. It makes it harder to make up these early deficits that we see,” said Becky Bolinger, assistant state climatologist, during a state Water Conditions Monitoring meeting Tuesday. “But it’s also a reminder that it is still early in the cold season, and we have a lot of season left.” … ” Read more from the Colorado Sun.
In national water news today …
‘Forever chemicals’ in thousands of private wells near military sites, study finds
“Water tests show nearly 3,000 private wells located near 63 active and former U.S. military bases are contaminated with “forever chemicals” at levels higher than what federal regulators consider safe for drinking. According to the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that analyzed Department of Defense testing data, 2,805 wells spread across 29 states were contaminated with at least one of two types of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, above 4 parts per trillion, a limit proposed earlier this year by the Environmental Protection Agency. That new drinking water standard is expected to take effect by the end of the year. But contamination in those wells was lower than the 70 parts per trillion threshold the Pentagon uses to trigger remediation. … ” Continue reading at KFF Health News.
U.S. Military says national security depends on ‘forever chemicals’
“The Department of Defense relies on hundreds, if not thousands, of weapons and products such as uniforms, batteries, and microelectronics that contain PFAS, a family of chemicals linked to serious health conditions. Now, as regulators propose restrictions on their use or manufacturing, Pentagon officials have told Congress that eliminating the chemicals would undermine military readiness. PFAS, known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment and can build up in the human body, have been associated with such health problems as cancer. In July, a new federal study showed a direct link between testicular cancer and PFOS, a PFAS chemical that has been found in the blood of thousands of military personnel. … ” Read more from Cancer Health.
