A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
Who gets the water in California? Whoever gets there first.
“The story of California’s water wars begins, as so many stories do in the Golden State, with gold. The prospectors who raced westward after 1848 scoured fortunes out of mountainsides using water whisked, manically and in giant quantities, out of rivers. To impose some order on the chaos, the newcomers embedded in the state’s emerging water laws a cherished frontier principle: first come first served. The only requirement for holding on to this privileged status was to keep putting the water to work. In short, use it or lose it. Their water rights assured, the settlers gobbled up land, laid down dams, ditches, communities. Yet, still today the state is at the mercy of claims to water that were staked more than a century ago, in that cooler, less crowded world. As drought and overuse sap the state’s streams and aquifers, California finds itself haunted by promises, made to generations of farmers and ranchers, of priority access to the West’s most precious resource, with scant oversight, essentially forever. … ” Read more from the New York Times (gift article).
California’s final report on disputed Delta tunnel project shows fish and farms still at risk
“California’s water agency released a final report Friday on the controversial plan to build a tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The highly anticipated document is expected to lead to approval of the water project. The environmental impact report said the tunnel’s construction and operations would significantly impact the Delta’s endangered and threatened fish species, tracts of important regional farmland and tribal cultural resources that include human remains. State officials say some of those impacts will be mitigated, and that the Delta Conveyance project is needed to slow a long term decline in water supplies by capturing more during intense storms for southern California cities and farms. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee. | Read via AOL News.
State releases final environmental review of controversial Delta tunnel bringing it closer to a construction date
“Final environmental documents for the contentious $16 billion Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta tunnel project were released by the Department of Water Resources Friday, clearing a significant hurdle in the years-long process leading up to construction. The Delta Conveyance Project would construct an underground tunnel to move water from the Sacramento River down to the start of the California Aqueduct in what state officials say would be modernized infrastructure to bring significantly more water to users in preparation for more extreme wet and dry years as climate change continues to accelerate. Creating greater reliability in the State Water Project system has been a key factor in support from users south of the delta, who have rarely received their full allocations over the past 10 or more years. … ” Continue reading from SJV Water.
Delta Counties say final Environmental Impact Report for the Delta Conveyance Project is deficient and won’t address climate change
“In response to Department of Water Resources’ release of a final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the Delta Conveyance Project through the Sacramento‐San Joaquin Delta, Patrick Hume, Chair of the Delta Counties Coalition (DCC), made the following statement on behalf of the five jurisdictions that would be most negatively impacted: “This tunnel project described in the Final EIR continues to be based on last century thinking and merely moves water from the north to the south without adding any new water to the system. It is a deeply flawed plan that does not improve statewide water supplies and would harm the Delta, the region, and California’s economy. … ” Continue reading from the Delta Counties Coalition.
Bay Delta hearings: How much water flow should we give our rivers?
“Competing science reports about how much water rivers need were presented at a recent State Water Resource Control Board meeting. Environmental advocates calling for more river flows in the Sacramento River watershed — the largest in the state — made arguments to save imperiled fish, aligning with a draft staff report recommending that flows increase from 40% to 55% of unimpaired river flows. They argue that this would reverse the decline of numerous fish species, and the downstream Bay Delta and ocean ecosystems that depend on them. … However, ranchers and those who support less in-stream water, favored more consumptive uses, such as agriculture and water storage. Such groups have proposed voluntary agreements as an alternative to the staff recommendation. These agreements would instead focus on habitat construction — such as spawning gravel beds, fish passages and floodplain reactivations — in lieu of more water in the rivers. … ” Read more from the Livermore Independent.
Democrats have a trust problem in the Delta
“Gov. Gavin Newsom’s effort to build a mega tunnel to send water from Northern California to Southern California faces the same obstacle that doomed past governors’ efforts: deep distrust from residents of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The governor has, in recent days, reaffirmed his support for a 45-mile underground tunnel that would move water under the Delta south into the system that provides water to 27 million residents. His stance has reignited opposition from Delta residents, environmentalists, the fishing industry and tribal communities. One of Newsom’s sharpest critics on the issue has been Rep. Josh Harder, a Democrat who represents much of the inland estuary. He told Playbook that the project embodies a decades-old resentment about Sacramento politicians putting the needs of SoCal ahead of one of the state’s poorest regions. … ” Read more from Politico.
SEE ALSO: Delta Conveyance Project discussed on Cap Radio’s Insight
Losing McCarthy and Feinstein is a double-barreled blow for California’s water clout
“Kevin McCarthy’s chaotic exit from Congress on top of the death of Senator Dianne Feinstein has left California’s water world – and particularly the San Joaquin Valley – in somewhat of a representational void at the federal level. Both politicians brought a lot of firepower in their respective leadership positions as well as wealth of knowledge of the complexities of this state’s water needs, politics and pitfalls. Yes, there are other electeds well-versed in water, including Fresno’s Jim Costa and Vallejo’s John Garamendi. But both are in the minority party – at the moment – and neither hold leadership positions that can move legislation along, according to water managers. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
California water ideas that deserve more attention
“Water systems run on ideas, among many other things. Many ideas are discussed for improving and adapting California water management to meet current and future challenges. Some ideas seem to receive too much attention, and others receive too little attention. For this post, we solicited ideas from some UC Davis Center for Watershed Science members that seem to deserve more attention. … ” This post discusses restoring Tulare Lake, developing a system of Freshwater Protected Areas, requiring habitat management as a condition on water rights, imposing time limits on water rights, managing reservoirs more intentionally for fisheries, improving protection of aquatic ecosystems from wildfires, a unified modeling tool for the Delta System, state water accounting system, joint-ventures for restoring basin ecosystems, and more. Read the post at the California Water Blog.
Weather and watershed forecasting make for dam smart water use
“In December 2012, heavy downpours from an atmospheric river—a long atmospheric pathway that transports large amounts of water vapor—deluged parts of Northern California, including around Lake Mendocino near Ukiah. Water levels behind the lake’s Coyote Valley Dam rose enough to trigger a required release downstream to make space in the reservoir for future rainfall. But storms later in the 2012–2013 wet season never arrived to replenish the lake. Indeed, the state was entering a multiyear drought that resulted in low lake levels and cast the released water as a valuable resource lost. At the time, the policy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), which manages flood operations for Coyote Valley Dam and more than 700 others nationwide, was to drain all water from Lake Mendocino’s flood pool as soon as downstream conditions allowed for a safe release, regardless of forecasted conditions, wrote Patrick Sing of USACE’s San Francisco District in an email to Eos. Sing began managing the water in Lake Mendocino’s flood control space in 2015 alongside Sonoma Water, which manages releases from the reservoir’s water supply space. … ” Read more from EOS.
State encourages early planning to capture winter storm runoff for groundwater recharge
“The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is encouraging local agencies to prepare groundwater recharge projects early to maximize the capture and storage of any upcoming storm runoff to recharge groundwater basins. Groundwater provides water for millions of Californians and recharging groundwater basins not only supports overall ecosystem health, but it can also help ensure long-term sustainable groundwater supplies for communities that use groundwater for drinking water, agriculture, and business. Last year, federal, state, and local agencies had to pivot quickly from planning for a fourth consecutive dry year, to addressing what became a historic wet year. We witnessed unprecedented collaboration, coordination and actions to capture as much of the unexpected heavy rainfall and snow melt as possible to help reduce flood risk in vulnerable communities and recharge depleted groundwater basins. … ” Read more from DWR News.
Fresno State
“In the face of prolonged droughts and diminishing water tables, a research report sheds light on an innovative solution that could reshape California’s water management landscape. The report examines the effectiveness and cost-efficiency of shallow subsurface artificial groundwater recharge in comparison to traditional groundwater recharge basins. The research, conducted at the Fresno State farm in 2021-22, indicates that this method outperforms traditional recharge basins in both efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Cordie Qualle, the lead researcher, stated, “The research indicates that the [shallow subsurface artificial groundwater recharge] system does not have the evaporation losses which occur with recharge basins and is approximately six- to eight-times less expensive to implement than a recharge basin of the same size.” … ” Read more from Fresno State.
Could offshore desalination solve California’s water woes?
“Coastal desalination facilities have long been viewed by some as a way for California to solve its water woes, but such technology has sparked significant controversy over the years because of its high costs, environmental impacts, and intensive energy requirements. However, new rapidly deployable technologies that aim to treat seawater in the ocean and then pump it onshore are undergoing testing in the Golden State. Such offshore approaches offer potential solutions to address California’s critical water shortages while reducing the downsides of traditional onshore desalination. … ” Continue reading from The Source.
CDFW releases beavers into the wild for first time in nearly 75 years
Wildfires can unlock toxic metal particles from soils, Stanford study finds
“Wildfires can transform a benign metal in soils and plants into toxic particles that easily become airborne, according to a new study from Stanford University. Published Dec. 12 in Nature Communications, the research documents high levels of a hazardous form of the metal chromium at wildfire sites with chromium-rich soils and certain kinds of vegetation compared to adjacent unburned sites. Known as hexavalent chromium or chromium 6, this is the same toxin made notorious by the 2000 film Erin Brockovich. “Our study suggests far more attention should be paid to wildfire-modified chromium, and we presume additional metals as well, to more thoroughly characterize the overall threats wildfires pose to human health,” said lead study author Alandra Lopez, a postdoctoral scholar in Earth system science at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability. … ” Read more from Stanford News.
SEE ALSO: How wildfires can spread cancer-causing chemicals, from the Washington Post
In commentary this week …
Three key water projects mean new supplies for San Joaquin Valley farmers
Cannon Michael, a sixth-generation California farmer and chair of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, writes, “Water is the lifeblood of California, and the state has always faced unique challenges in managing its precious water resources. In recent years, a series of ambitious projects spearheaded by the San Luis and Delta-Mendota Water Authority have been undertaken to restore California’s critical water infrastructure and to begin to address some of its members most pressing supply issues. … Some key projects are the recently completed rewinding of the large motors at the C.W. “Bill” Jones Pumping Plant, the restoration of lost capacity of the Delta-Mendota Canal, and the raising the B.F. Sisk Dam to expand San Luis Reservoir storage. Each of these are of vital importance to the future of California. These projects, some complete and some in progress, will provide numerous benefits, including increasing the reliability of critical water infrastructure, increasing resilience to future droughts, and decreasing flood risk. … ” Read more from the Fresno Bee. | Read via AOL News.
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.
More Delta flow or Delta tunnel? One good decision will stop the next bad decision
Chris Shutes with the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance writes, “On December 8, 2023, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) issued its Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for its Proposed “Delta Conveyance Project” (aka tunnel under the Delta). In thousands of pages of responses to comments, DWR affirms that its Draft EIR was right on just about everything. One thing DWR says it was right about is how it didn’t need to analyze an alternative that looked at increasing flow through the Delta. The reasoning is telling: “Regarding the comment regarding an alternative with increased unimpaired flow, such an alternative was determined to not be consistent with the project purpose nor would it meet most of the stated basic project objectives in Chapter 2, Purpose and Project Objectives.” … ” Read more from the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance.
The Endangered Species Act is America’s most radical environmental law: Now we just need federal agencies to effectively enforce it
Jason Mark with the Sierra Club writes, “Is there any American environmental law as radical as the Endangered Species Act? It’s more profound than the Organic Act, which gave the country—and really the whole world—the idea of national parks. It’s more revolutionary than the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act, which safeguard the essential elements of existence. The Wilderness Act—with its sometimes-archaic language, “the earth and its community of life . . . untrammeled by man”—is unmatched in its poetry. Yet even in comparison to that law, the Endangered Species Act is exceptional in its generosity toward other life-forms, its expression of ecological solidarity. When I wrote radical, I meant the word’s original sense, as in connected to the root of things. For the Endangered Species Act seeks to protect the whole tree of life—root, stem, branch, leaf. It defends flora as well as fauna, and the law’s authors were explicit that it would cover the whole of the animal kingdom, “any mammal, fish, bird, amphibian, reptile, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod, or other invertebrate.” … ” Read more from the Sierra Club.
SEE ALSO: Celebrating a Half Century of America’s Greatest Wildlife Conservation Law, from the Sierra Club
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 this week …
Nature undammed: The largest-ever dam removal is underway, a milestone in the nation’s reckoning over its past attempts to bend nature to human will
“It was a small moment, with little fanfare, in one of the most remote patches of northern California. Just the rat-a-tat of three Caterpillar excavators gnawing through concrete signaled the beginning of the largest dam removal project in the history of the country, and perhaps the world. There was no ribbon cutting or ceremonial dynamite detonation. But the demolition on that June day arrived only after decades of argument and activism. The Klamath River dams, built between the early 1900s and 1960s, fundamentally reshaped one of the West’s most important watersheds. They electrified this hard-to-reach part of the country for the first time, powering the nation’s vision of a Manifest Destiny. … ” Read more from the Washington Post.
‘Like a dead zone’: Undoing decades of environmental harm on a California river
Credit: Yurok Tribe
“In late September 2023, a one-mile stretch of the Trinity River in northern California looks and sounds like a construction site. Large yellow machines crawl across bare ground, the steady growl punctuated with warning beeps. Behind pyramids of stockpiled materials — mulch, gravel, logs — the river flows serenely. Aldaron McCovey manipulates his excavator, using the back of the bucket to deftly smooth out fine material on a bare new bank. “It was a little overcut, so we’re filling it in so that there’s no standing water,” he explains. A fisheries restoration technician for the Yurok Tribe, McCovey is working on an ambitious restoration project called Oregon Gulch, just east of Junction City, Calif. Here, crews from the Yurok Tribe Construction Company are rerouting a straightened stretch of the Trinity River into a newly sculpted meander to help restore the river’s form and function. … ” Read more from The Revelator.
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.
Nevada County Board of Supervisors votes against reopening Grass Valley gold mine
“The Nevada County Board of Supervisors voted Thursday against reopening a gold mine in Grass Valley that has been closed for almost seven decades. The gold mine’s owner, Rise Gold Corp., had argued that it had a vested right to extract gold from the Idaho-Maryland Mine that closed in 1956. Rise Gold purchased it in 2017. The supervisors found that the mine was abandoned in the mid-1950s leaving the mine’s owners no vested rights. Rise Gold lawyers argued that the 67 years since gold mining had occurred was only a pause. “We’re disappointed with the decision,” said Joseph Mullin, president and CEO of Rise Gold. … ” Continue reading at the Sacramento Bee. | Read via Yahoo News.
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.
RiverArc project aims to shift water demands from American River to Sacramento River while protecting sensitive environment
“In an important move to secure the region’s water future, the Placer County Water Agency Board of Directors recently approved funding and contracts to begin work on RiverArc. This new project is designed with climate change in mind; it aims to both help ensure a reliable water supply in the region and protect the sensitive environment of the Lower American River. Droughts are expected to become more common and long-lasting due to climate change. Currently, many water purveyors in the California capital region rely on water from the Lower American River. This becomes a problem during drought because as flows diminish and temperatures grow warmer, native fish species such as Chinook salmon and steelhead trout become threatened. … ” Read more from Roseville Today.
Agencies to advance historic Tuolumne River salmon habitat restoration program with leading California nonprofit
“The Modesto and Turlock Irrigation Districts (MID and TID) and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) are teaming up to design and implement a collaborative, holistic habitat restoration program along the lower Tuolumne River to improve the health and long-term recovery of the fishery and local communities it serves. MID, TID and the SFPUC are self-funding the $80 million program. The joint effort demonstrates the power of public-private partnerships in making critical, lasting improvements to ecosystem and community health along California waterways like the Tuolumne River. The agencies recently chose the leading California riverway restoration organization, River Partners, to lead planning and restoration efforts for the multi-year effort. … ” Continue reading this press release.
Levee breach creates new tidal marshland in San Francisco Bay
“In case you missed it, the San Francisco Bay just got bigger. Cheers went up as crews breached a levee just a few hundred yards from Highway 101 near Menlo Park. And as a crowd watched from a nearby hilltop, waters poured into a former industrial salt pond, 300 acres that will slowly and steadily turn into the Bay Area’s newest tidal marsh. “Nature can really restore itself. In many cases if we give it a chance, if we give it a head start, we give it a push. And that’s what we’re doing here,” says David Lewis, director of the nonprofit Save the Bay. The group spearheaded a volunteer program to green the edge of the Ravenswood site over the last several years, creating what’s known as a horizontal levee to absorb the rising tides from sea level rise. … ” Read more from ABC 7.
Water on the Monterey Peninsula: The board game.
“David Schmalz here. Several weeks ago, Weekly Editor Sara Rubin suggested the time was ripe for a cover story about the Peninsula’s water situation. I agreed, as the many nuances of the current state of play are hard to capture in a single news story—it’s a complicated topic. To try and spice it up a bit, we decided to make it a game to get readers engaged with what is often a dry, wonky topic. The goal is to help readers learn about the state of play by playing along. I love fun ideas. We initially thought of the board game Candy Land as a model. But after letting the concept ferment for a few weeks we decided instead to invent our own version. … ” Read more from Monterey Weekly. | Play Board Game
Multi-million dollar verdicts reached in battle between farming giants in Fresno County
“A Fresno County jury reached a verdict in a lawsuit between two of California’s wealthiest growers. Four years ago, Farid Assemi, a San Joaquin Valley farmer, developer, and healthcare scion, filed a $30 million lawsuit against Stewart Resnick, America’s wealthiest farmer. Lawyers with Assemi could not be immediately reached for comment. Assemi’s lawsuit landed just days after the family held up their 2019 pistachio crops over Resnick’s alleged failures to assure the Assemi family that they would get the full value of their 2019 crop. Assemi later filed a second claim in court, arguing Resnick’s Wonderful Pistachio cooperative deliberately undervalued the family’s nuts. … ” Read more from Fresnoland.
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.
Fish don’t care about Kern River rights kerfuffle – just the flows
“Public interest groups that succeeded in getting a court order mandating 40% of the Kern River’s flows be kept in the river to maintain fish, don’t want to be drawn into a fight over water rights created in the wake of that order. “Fish have no part in the argument between beneficial users. To a fish there is only one question: is there sufficient water to live in good condition?” concludes a motion by the public interest groups opposing an effort to overturn or reconsider the court’s fish flow order. Agricultural water districts with long held rights to the river were incensed when the City of Bakersfield used the fish flow order to increase its take of river water and jump the line ahead of other users. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Drought-proofing Los Angeles County
“This week has been big for water resilience in Los Angeles County. On December 5, the Board of Supervisors approved a comprehensive L.A. County Water Plan that highlights the need and approaches to achieve 80 percent local water supplies by 2045. The new target comes from the OurCounty sustainability plan that was approved in 2019. Currently, only about 40 percent of L.A. County’s water supplies comes from local sources such as groundwater and recycled water, while the city of LA is currently at about 20 percent local water. The vulnerability of regional and imported water supplies was exposed during the two major droughts we’ve experienced over the past decade. These events have demonstrated that L.A. County cannot achieve water and climate resilience without a rapid, transformative move toward local water self-sufficiency. … ” Read more from the NRDC.
Water Authority contingent wants to undo divorce settlement
“Some San Diego water leaders aren’t ready to settle with two defecting water districts leaving the county for Riverside. Five of the 36 board directors of the San Diego County Water Authority called for a special meeting to cancel peace talks with two North County communities divorcing the district to search for cheaper water elsewhere. The request came in a Dec. 11 letter to the board’s chairman. The signers were San Diego board member, and former chair, Jim Madaffer, Gary Croucher and Tim Smith from Otay, Marty Miller from Vista Irrigation and Michael Hogan Santa Fe Irrigation water districts. “There are still significant financial, operational, legal, regional and public issues that have not been fully detailed or addressed,” the letter says. It goes on to list 14 different topics like the costs of losing two water districts on the other 22 member agencies and the authority of the Local Agency Formation Commission or LAFCO – the boundary referees that OK’d Fallbrook and Rainbow’s departure. … ” Read more from the Voice of San Diego.
Surf’s never up anymore at this Southern California beach
“When the swells are breaking just right, Paloma Aguirre, the mayor of this beachside town, loves to grab her bodyboard and catch some waves. She now has to drive 40 minutes north to get in the water. For the better part of the past two years, the roughly 4 miles of beachfront in the San Diego County town Aguirre leads has been closed to swimmers by environmental regulators because of constantly high bacterial contamination. Beaches all along the California coast have been periodically closed for decades due to pollution. But the situation in the San Diego area has become acute, as the combination of rain runoff and contaminated water discharges from neighboring Tijuana and the Tijuana River, which flows into an estuary along the coast just north of the border, combine to shut down some picturesque beaches for weeks at a time. “I’m a surfer. I’m in love with the beach and I can’t surf in my own town,” Aguirre said. … ” Read more from the Wall Street Journal.
Water pressure builds between upper and lower basins over future distribution of the Colorado River
“Water cuts are going to be painful — that’s one thing seven state representatives agreed upon Thursday at the 75th meeting of the Colorado River Water Users Association held at the Paris Las Vegas Hotel. Governor-appointed representatives from the lower basin states of California, Nevada and Arizona largely disagree with upper basin representatives from Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Wyoming on the thresholds of pain tolerance required to manage future sustainable use of the vital resource and reach a post-2026 operative agreement. “What often keeps me awake at night is having enough water for our children and grandchildren,” confessed Aaron Chavez, president of the Colorado River Water Users Association, in opening remarks before the 1,700 stakeholders in attendance. Hailing from the lower basin, Chavez additionally sits as executive director of the San Juan Water Commission in New Mexico. … ” Continue reading at the Courthouse News Service.
California’s Colorado River water cuts will last a few years. Then what?
“California just agreed to significantly cut its Colorado River water use, but the deal might not be the conservation boon that it seems. On Wednesday, the Biden administration agreed to divert $295 million in water infrastructure funds to California. In exchange, California, which gets more Colorado River water per year than any other state, will conserve 643,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead through 2025. California’s water cuts are part of an agreement solidified in May between the Lower Colorado River Basin states — Arizona, California and Nevada — to cut their water use by at least 3 million acre-feet through the end of 2026. … ” Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
NOTICE: Board Issues Response Order to Petition for Reconsideration of 2022 Curtailment Orders
NOW AVAILABLE: The California Data Collaborative (CaDC) has launched the Urban Water Use Objective (UWUO) Easy Report
SB-88 DIVERSION MEASUREMENT: Updated Website, Workshop Recording, and Office Hours Now Available
