On the calendar today …
- HYBRID SEMINAR: Weather Generator Tool from 8:30am to 5:00pm. Join the Department of Water Resources for a hybrid technical seminar to learn about a publicly available new “Weather Generator” tool to help hydrologists, scientists, and technical practitioners in water resources management to better understand and prepare for the impacts of climate change on water resources. The free tool and accompanying data will help depict increased temperature effects on droughts and floods (especially associated with atmospheric rivers). The weather generator is especially useful for stress-testing water resource systems to identify climate change vulnerabilities and provides a significant benefit to water resource decision-makers who are trying to ensure their systems can manage plausible but previously unobserved extreme events in order to protect their communities. Virtual Registration: https://ca-water-gov.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcqfuiorDojE9OONdMC4Ihfyr2_2d-mpgXO In Person Registration: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weather-generator-technical-seminar-tickets-764920827787?aff=oddtdtcreator
- PUBLIC WEBINAR: SAFER: Overview of Proposed Updates to the Drinking Water Cost Assessment Model from 9:30am to 11am. The State Water Board will hold a public webinar to provide an opportunity for stakeholders to learn about and provide feedback on the overview of the proposed Drinking Water Cost Assessment Model updates. Click here for the notice.
- WEBINAR: Fundamental and Ecological Thermal Physiology of California Chinook Salmon from 10am to 11am. Presenter: Ken Zillig, University of California, Davis Remote Access: Join by computer at: https://noaanmfs-meets.webex.com/noaanmfs-meets/j.php?MTID=mcd207c7faa0b6e6449f165028ad4c156
- PUBLIC MEETING: 2021 Reinitiation of Consultation on the Long-Term Operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project from 1pm to 3pm. Reclamation will hold a quarterly meeting to provide an update on the development of the Biological Assessment and Environmental Impact Statement for the 2021 Reinitiation of Consultation on the Long-Term Operation of the Central Valley Project and State Water Project, pursuant to the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. Development of the biological assessment is required by the federal Endangered Species Act as part of the Reinitation of Consultation on the Long-Term Operation of the CVP and SWP. The assessment evaluates potential effects of operating the CVP and SWP on federally listed species and proposed species, as well as designated and proposed critical habitat. The meeting will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams. For meeting materials, including the link to the meeting, visit www.usbr.gov/mp/bdo.
- GRA SAC VALLEY: PER – and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. General overview of PFAS including brief discussions on fate and transport, investigation, remediation, regulated PFAS compounds, and then finish up with a case study. Click here to register.
- GRA SoCAL: Holiday event and poster session from 5:30pm to 8:30pm. We’re wrapping up the calendar year with a winter gathering and poster session at Brewery X. This is the perfect time to meet and reconnect with colleagues, peers, and friends in Southern California groundwater. We’re also inviting all interested attendees to share their work via posters in the brewery. This event will be on the brewery patio, so bring your favorite winter jacket. Looking forward to seeing you there, and learning about what we’ve all been doing in 2023! Click here to register.
- WEBINAR: Sacramento Regional Water Bank Stakeholder Forum from 6pm to 7:30pm. The Regional Water Authority (RWA) is hosting its third Stakeholder Forum for the Sacramento Regional Water Bank, a project using the Sacramento region’s natural infrastructure, our groundwater aquifer, as a reservoir for depositing water during wet times for withdrawal during dry times. During this event, we’ll be highlighting Sacramento Regional Water Bank activities from this past year and detailing what’s ahead for 2024 and beyond. For more information: https://sacwaterbank.com/ Click here to register.
In California water news today …
Atmospheric Rivers return as El Niño gains strength
The storm track is shifting to favor a wetter outlook for California leading into a bigger holiday travel week. This as El Niño gains strength in the Pacific.
El Niño cycles could become more predictable. Here’s why it matters for California
“Cycles between El Niño and La Niña — the infamous weather patterns that can bring wet or arid weather to California — may become more predictable in the coming years, according to preliminary research presented Monday at the American Geophysical Union conference in San Francisco. Whether California sees downpours and floods one year, or dry weather and firestorms another can be connected to the El Niño Southern Oscillation, an oceanic climate variable that influences global weather patterns. These periods of ocean temperature extremes in the eastern equatorial Pacific happen fairly irregularly, but can result in severe weather across the globe. The new research out of the University of Colorado Boulder finds these patterns may become more predictable and reliable to forecast as the planet warms. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
California poised to allow ‘toilet to tap’ projects, in landmark water rule
“California water regulators are poised to approve long-awaited rules that will allow local water agencies to convert sewage — such as what drains from toilets and showers — directly into drinking water. The landmark regulations will go before the State Water Resources Control Board for consideration next week. If approved, they would enable projects sometimes dubbed “toilet to tap” to move forward in numerous communities including Santa Clara County, Los Angeles and San Diego. Reusing water “gives us a supply that in essence is always going to be there,” said Darrin Polhemus, deputy director in the division of drinking water at the water board. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Addressing groundwater overdraft in the Sacramento Valley
“Although the Sacramento Valley has relatively abundant surface water supplies, groundwater is also an important resource for many of its communities and farms. In fact, one-third of the valley’s farmland depends entirely on groundwater, and more than half (60%) of all farmland relies at least in part on groundwater. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) now requires local water users to steward this resource and prevent undesirable results of overdraft, or excess pumping. In a previous blog post, we examined how groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) in the region’s 16 basins assess overdraft. While the problem is far less acute than in the drier San Joaquin Valley to the south, many basins have issues to address. In this post, we explore how the plans envisage bringing their basins into balance. … The math for bringing basins into long-term balance is relatively simple: it requires expanding water supplies, reducing water demands, or a combination of these two approaches. Plans must present quantitative estimates of the anticipated volume of water that would be added or saved (also known as “yield”) from these efforts. … ” Read more from the PPIC.
Kern’s key groundwater agency fades to the background as water districts continue to grapple with overpumping
“What had been the single largest groundwater agency in Kern County – the Kern Groundwater Agency – will be morphing into something new after the first of the year but no one is exactly sure what that new entity will be, nor what its duties will include. “It’s not disbanding but I’m unsure exactly how it will continue,” said Dan Waterhouse, Chairman of the KGA board. “There will still be a need for an overarching entity to hold contracts and administer grant funds. But the subbasin is moving toward more regionality.” The change comes after multiple water districts split from the KGA starting in 2022 to develop their own agencies and their own groundwater plans. At least part of the impetus of that Balkanization was potential enforcement action under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). … ” Continue reading from SJV Water.
State Board Bay Delta Hearing part 1
Don Wright of Water Wrights writes, “The State Water Resources Control Board’s staff have written a draft report dealing with updates to the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary, also known as the Bay-Delta Plan. A public comment hearing and staff workshop was held Monday, December 11, 2023 starting at noon, on Zoom and in-person at the Joe Serna Jr. CalEPA Building in Sacramento. There have been two other such hearings earlier on November 17th and December 1st. The executive summary of the report was 69 pages. But take heart, more than half the pages are charts and graphs and such. Multiple links to the report are attached after the report and just those alone took up two single spaced pages to list.The hearing began with State Board Chairman Joaquin Esquivel giving the legally required opening notices and thoughts about how the Delta impacts all of California. All five of the State Board members were present with Dee D’Adamo participating online. … ” Read more from Water Wrights.
From flush to faucet: More places look to turn sewage into tap water
“After an Orange County resident flushes her toilet, the water flows through the Southern California community’s sewer system, meanders its way to the sanitation plant, has its solids removed, is piped to a wastewater recycling facility next door and undergoes three different purification processes until it is clean enough to drink. “It tastes like water,” said Mehul Patel, executive director of operations for the Orange County Water District’s project, after taking a gulp from a clear plastic cup at the sampling station, as he stood outside the final purification process facility on a warm afternoon earlier this month. “It’s just like any other water, but it’s gone through a lot,” he said. “People shouldn’t judge where it came from, but where it is now.” No large community in the U.S., not even Orange County, is taking water from toilets and transforming it directly into clean drinking water right now. But Patel’s demonstration might offer a glimpse of the future, as states and communities across the country design new plants that will do just that, giving communities more control over their water supply as the climate gets drier. … ” Read more from Stateline.
California wildfires could be transforming natural metals into cancer-causing compounds
“Wildfires in parts of the U.S. West may be transforming a benign form of chromium into its cancer-causing counterpart — potentially endangering first responders and surrounding communities, a new study has found. The research, published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications, identified high levels of the hazardous metal hexavalent chromium, or chromium-6, at specific types of burn sites along California’s North Coast. Also known as “the Erin Brockovich chemical,” chromium-6 emerged in the public eye in the 1990s after Brockovich — then a legal aid — found that it was contaminating drinking water and sickening residents of Hinkley, Calif. … ” Read more from The Hill.
Top White House cyber aide says recent Iran hack on water system is call to tighten cybersecurity
“A top White House national security official said recent cyber attacks by Iranian hackers on U.S. water authorities — as well as a separate spate of ransomware attacks on the health care industry — should be seen as a call to action by utilities and industry to tighten cybersecurity. Deputy national security adviser Anne Neuberger said in an interview on Friday that recent attacks on multiple American organizations by the Iranian hacker group “Cyber Av3ngers” were “unsophisticated” and had “minimal impact” on operations. But the attacks, Neuberger said, offered a fresh warning that American companies and operators of critical infrastructure “are facing persistent and capable cyber attacks from hostile countries and criminals” that are not going away. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
And lastly … Army Corps of Engineers releases pet calendars
“After its giant cat calendar went viral last year, the Army Corps of Engineers’ Portland, Oregon, office is back with another one for 2024—and a version featuring giant dogs. “This product was created to tell the story of our district and what we do in a way that is really enjoyable for the average public,” Portland district spokesperson Chris Gaylord told Stars and Stripes. The Army Corps of Engineers’ Portland office handles civil works in Oregon and southwestern Washington. The calendars feature giant dogs and cats superimposed over scenic photos featuring public infrastructure projects throughout the region. … ” Read more and download calendars from the Association of the US Army.
In commentary today …
Small legal change has big implications for California’s climate preparedness
Roger Dickinson, CivicWell Policy Director and co-author of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, and Julie Rentner, River Partners Executive Director, writes, “This year was the epitome of climate-driven weather whiplash experts stress is the new norm for California. In a matter of weeks, the worst drought in California’s history gave way to record-setting rain and snow. By July, a vast majority of the Golden State was drought-free. More than 30 atmospheric rivers caused billions of dollars in damage, refilled 175 square miles of the ancient Tulare Lake, and cost 22 people their lives. Climate experts warn that future floods could be up to five times more severe than the historic 1997 flood that submerged nearly 300 square miles across the state. The worst-case scenario could cost up to $1 trillion in damages. This winter, however, also showed how restoring floodplains can both reduce flood risk for communities and increase critical water supplies for the dry years we know are around the corner. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
Salmon in 2024
Tom Cannon writes, “The Feather River Hatchery released approximately 8 to 10 million fall-run salmon smolts in the spring of each release year. All were trucked to the Bay or coast, except for 1.5 million released to the lower Feather River in April of wet year 2023. My guess is that the number of the fishable salmon in the ocean that are 2-to-4-year-old fall-run Feather hatchery fish could be 500,000 fish in 2024, with 125,000 marked with an adipose fin clip. … ” Continue reading from the California Fisheries blog.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
New bridge unlocks fish habitat on Scott River tributary
“In December 2023, CalTrout and our partners restored access to three miles of anadromous habitat in Mill Creek – the lowermost tributary to the Scott River – for the first time since the 1980s! Through the Scott Bar Mill Creek Fish Passage Restoration Project, we removed an existing road crossing, which was a total barrier to fish passage, replaced it with a channel spanning bridge, and re-profiled the channel and its confluence with the Scott River. The existing confluence with the Scott was a steep bedrock cascade, which blocked fish passage during all but the highest flows. The new channel is at a much lower slope and filled with great habitat features for cover and shade. Now, regardless of upstream conditions in the Scott, whether it runs dry or disconnects, coho salmon will always be able to access this tributary for spawning and rearing. Habitat will also be used by fall-run Chinook salmon, steelhead, lamprey, and other native fishes. … ” Read more from Cal Trout.
PG&E draft plans for Scott Dam, pilloried as tone deaf
“The Board of Supervisors and county administration excoriated Pacific Gas & Electric for bulldozing through a tentative plan to demolish a vital dam and whose absence can harm Lake County financially and ecologically. At a special meeting Friday, December 8, Patrick Sullivan, treasurer/tax collector, speaking on behalf of Matthew Rothstein, chief deputy executive administrative officer, conveyed an urgent message, a letter in response to, PG&E’s (Potter Valley Project) initial Draft Surrender Application and Conceptual Decommissioning Plan, prepared last month, calling for the removal of Scott Dam. “Unfortunately, this draft plan is defined by what it lacks, first and foremost, no concern is demonstrated for presence of property owners in the Lake Pillsbury area,” Sullivan said, standing in for Rothstein. … ” Read more from the Lake County Record-Bee.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Stanislaus forest seeks to tame megafires on 260,000 acres. Valley air, water could benefit
“The Stanislaus National Forest has released a plan that could bring it much closer to its goal of preventing massive fires. The draft details how selective logging and other methods could reduce the risk on about 260,000 acres. It would ramp up prescribed burning, an indigenous practice that had long kept the forest floor open. The Stanislaus already is doing such work on another 245,000 acres thanks mainly to a $55 million federal grant awarded in April 2022. It will run through 2030 and also protect homes generally north of Highway 108 as far east as Strawberry. … ” Continue reading from the Modesto Bee.
With closing arguments, lawyers paint wildly different views of Assemi-Wonderful Pistachio split
“Closing arguments began on Monday in the Assemi Brothers’ trial against The Wonderful Company over a breach of contract regarding their pistachio operations. The Wonderful Company owner Stewart Resnick returned to court for the closing arguments, joining Darius Assemi and Kevin Assemi as the trial winds down. Farid Assemi did not attend on Monday due to his health. Assemis speak first: Following Judge Jeffrey Hamilton giving instructions to the jury on how they should deliberate once closing arguments conclude, attorney James Bennet, representing the Assemis, kicked off the final phase of the trial. … ” Read more from the San Joaquin Valley Sun.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Uncontrolled chemical reactions fuel crises at L.A. County’s two largest landfills
Hundreds of feet underground, in a long-dormant portion of Chiquita Canyon landfill, tons of garbage have been smoldering for months due to an enigmatic chemical reaction. Although operators of the Castaic landfill say there’s no full-blown fire, temperatures within the dump have climbed to more than 200 degrees, and area residents have complained of a burned garbage odor wafting through the neighborhoods. Meanwhile, 12 miles to the southeast, Sunshine Canyon landfill has suffered water intrusion from torrential storms earlier this year. That seepage has fueled bacteria growth within the Sylmar landfill, giving rise to putrid odors that have nauseated students and staff at a local elementary school. The highly unusual reactions at Los Angeles County’s two largest landfills have raised serious questions about the region’s long-standing approach to waste disposal and its aging dumps. These incidents have impaired pollution control systems, allowing toxic gases and polluted water to migrate into unwanted areas. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Surfers creating standing waves at Aliso Creek have ignited a heated standoff in Laguna Beach
“There is a showdown brewing in Laguna Beach between boardriders, the city council, homeowners, and environmental groups over the right to manually breach the sand berm at Aliso Creek to create a standing river wave. For decades, surfers, skimboarders, and bodyboarders have flocked to Aliso to ride its world-renowned shorebreak and, occasionally, a standing wave that forms when the creek flows into the ocean. The environmental groups, namely Laguna Bluebelt Coalition and Surfrider Foundation, say that manually breaching the berm alters the habitat and can unnecessarily introduce bacterial pollution and toxins to the ocean. The homeowners on Aliso Beach worry that the backed-up creek water threatens their properties. The city of Laguna Beach has yet to formalize a firm stance, but they do have plans to install a camera at the beach (at a cost of $35,000) to monitor, and possibly, thwart those who try to dig out the berm. Each side of the conflict is armed with differing opinions, documents, letters, and studies to support their cases. … ” Read more from Inertia.
Along the Colorado River …
Water rights are at the heart of protecting the Colorado River
“The Colorado River Valley, the Grand Canyon equivalent of waterways in the US, is drying up amid the fighting for, and trading of water rights. Numerous players are involved, but as the FT’s Aime Williams explains, driving a deal where everyone agrees to cuts is complicated.”
The deal that’s shaping the future of the American West
“The future of the American West is quietly being hashed out in the conference rooms of a Las Vegas casino this week. Just across the strip from the Bellagio’s fountains, in the shadow of an enormous Eiffel Tower-knock-off, negotiators from the seven states that share the Colorado River are racing to reach a deal on how to share the West’s most important — and shrinking — waterway. Climate change has shriveled the river’s flows by more than 20 percent over the past two decades, and the only question now is how much worse things will get. The negotiations over how to share the pain of bringing water use in line with the shrunken waterway will have huge implications for the 40 million people who rely on it at their taps in metro areas from Denver to Phoenix to San Diego, as well as for the powerhouse farming operations that use roughly three-quarters of the river’s water to irrigate some of the country’s most productive agricultural land. … ” Read more from Politico.
Some breathing room as water managers meet to weigh Colorado River’s future
“The annual Colorado River Water Users Association meets this week, but for the first time in several years, state water policy leaders say there’s less urgency for short-term fixes and more time to focus on long-term solutions. A wet winter and a recent conservation deal have bought some breathing room as the biggest water policymakers in the arid West convene in Las Vegas at the Colorado River’s marquee annual event. The event brings together hundreds of scientists, politicians, tribal members, farmers and others with a stake in the future of the water supply for roughly 40 million people across the Southwest. While they still face the daunting challenge of agreeing on water cutbacks by farms, ranches and cities from Wyoming to Mexico, many say last year’s wet winter helped clear the way for more productive talks. “I think where we are heading into this one is, fortunately, not much to really get too excited about, which is a nice thing,” said JB Hamby, California’s top water negotiator. … ” Read more from Cronkite News.
The fate of the West’s water rests on the shoulders of this 27-year-old
“When the highest stakes water negotiations in a century opened this fall, the largest, most powerful state — California — was represented by the youngest person at the table, a 27-year-old named John Brooks Hamby, who graduated from college barely four years ago. In the short time since then, Hamby — who goes by J.B. — has risen from recent Stanford grad to candidate for his hometown irrigation district to chair of the Colorado River Board of California, a position that makes him the state’s lead negotiator for its rights to the West’s most important river. With climate change dramatically shrinking the waterway’s flows, the seven states that share the river must now decide how to allocate deep, painful cuts in water use that will determine the future of communities across a huge swath of the country. Whether Hamby can navigate the reflexive defensiveness of this region’s hardened farmers matters not just to his own political future. It could determine the fate of a broad swath of the American West. … ” Read more from Politico Magazine.
Farmers and ranchers in the Southwestern U.S. face challenges due to human-induced atmospheric warming
“The American Southwest has always been a dry place — cue the romantic visions of hot, rugged, sun-bleached, seemingly infinite landscapes and star-filled night skies. And yet, the plants, animals and people of the Four Corners region (Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona) have managed to adapt to and even flourish in the land of low rainfall and high temperatures. Long before the arrival of Spanish settlers to the region in the 1500s, Indigenous Puebloan communities practiced agriculture that is uniquely suited to and thus thrived in this dry environment. When the Spanish introduced cattle and other livestock, available forage was found suitable and abundant enough for grazing, leading to a dominance of ranching in the region. However, the rising temperatures brought on by human-driven atmospheric warming are bringing big changes to agricultural life in the Southwest. According to a recent paper by researchers at UC Santa Barbara and UC Merced, “increased temperatures from human-caused climate change are having persistent and damaging impacts on vegetation productivity, with significant implications for ranchers and other land users in the region.” … ” Read more from UCSB’s Current.
Arizona: Groundwater report shows steep decline, largely because of agriculture
“A recent report from Arizona’s water agency shows a steep decline in groundwater levels in every large basin tested, mainly due to agriculture. A state law passed in 2022 requires the Department of Water resources to assess Arizona’s groundwater basin supply and demand each year at the beginning of December. According to the department’s first annual report, all but the smallest basin are seeing rapid water decline. Sarah Porter, director of ASU’s Kyl Center for Water Policy, says the report’s findings are unsurprising. … ” Read more from KJZZ.
In national water news today …
The year in water, 2023: Scenes from the great acceleration
“The morning before its fearsome winds and formidable rains wrecked the Pacific coast of southern Mexico, Hurricane Otis did not inspire unusual alarm. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center, in Miami, were tracking its path. In a 10 A.M. Central Time update on October 24, they sensed that Otis was becoming “better organized,” and though it was classified at the moment as a mere tropical storm, they noted the potential for “rapid intensification.” They expected hurricane status by the time it made landfall later that night or early the next morning. Nothing more than a run-of-the-mill late season cyclone. In the afternoon Otis shifted gears, like a race car entering a straightaway. Drawing strength from warmer-than-normal coastal waters, Otis morphed within 12 hours from a tropical storm to a Category 5 juggernaut. Forecasters and authorities were caught off-guard. Only one storm in modern times – Hurricane Patricia, in 2015 – had strengthened so quickly. Forecasters changed their tone. … ” Read more from Circle of Blue.
NEW REPORT: Escalating Water Risks Threaten U.S. Agriculture
“Deepening patterns of water scarcity and excess pose a growing threat to agriculture across much of the United States according to a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund. The study finds intensifying climatic extremes — combined with accelerating disruptive human interventions, including groundwater over-extraction, sprawling drainage networks and misaligned governance — are driving mounting water-related agricultural costs, particularly in midwestern and western states. “Water risks increasingly form the most critical threat to food and fiber production in the United States,” said Rachel O’Connor, senior manager of Climate-Resilient Water Systems, Environmental Defense Fund and a lead author of the report. “There are, however, a number of emerging pathways to counteract these threats. New technology and data platforms can significantly improve on-farm water management. Investments in aquifers as natural infrastructure can boost both drought and flood resilience. Perhaps most critically, partnerships and collaboration are vital to developing durable solutions that address the problem at scale.” … ” Continue reading this press release from the Environmental Defense Fund.
More than 44,000 species now threatened with extinction
“In its latest accounting, the International Union for Conservation of Nature finds that more than 44,000 species worldwide are threatened with extinction. Of these, nearly 7,000 face an immediate threat from climate change. “Species around the world are under huge pressure,” Craig Hilton-Taylor, of IUCN, said in a statement. “So no matter where you look, the numbers of threatened species are rising.” This year, the organization tracked 157,000 species for its Red list, finding that climate change poses a growing threat to wildlife. At particular risk are freshwater fish, such as Atlantic salmon, which are now classified as “Near Threatened.” … ” Read more from Yale e360.
SEE ALSO: World’s freshwater fish at risk of extinction, experts say. Here’s how it could affect you, from ABC 7
