In California water news today …
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: How AI can help protect California streams and fish
“Rivers in California once swelled and ebbed as the seasons changed and as wet years gave way to dry ones. Salmon and other now-imperiled aquatic species depended on these historic patterns. But today dams and diversions have altered most of the state’s waterways, leaving their natural flows a mystery. “Natural flows have been a longstanding question in water management, especially for fish,” says Kirk Klausmeyer, who directs data science for The Nature Conservancy in California. “To restore stream habitats, we need to try and replicate natural flows—but we don’t have the data.” Only about 10% of California’s rivers have stream gauges. Luckily, though, a few rivers both have gauges and are still essentially free flowing. Data from this handful of rivers can be used to predict the natural flows in altered streams had they been left untouched. But people crunch these numbers quite slowly. … ” Continue reading at Maven’s Notebook.
A Stanford economist says we should think of water like radio waves
“Water, water everywhere. And increasingly, not a drop a drink. As tensions over the future of water consumption hit their boiling point, a new working paper published through the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) posits one way to quell them, at least in California: remake the state’s water transfer market in the image of a radio spectrum auction. In the US, western states have provided the most acute window into an increasingly complex and difficult process to secure water. Lake Mead and Lake Powell, two crucial reservoirs, sit nearly half-empty. California, Arizona, and Nevada were only able to muster a stopgap conservation agreement in October after years of squabbling over climate change-sapped flows from the Colorado River. California is pursuing a $14 billion tunnel to move water from the northern part of the state to the south. Not to mention all the Native American tribes left in the lurch as their long-standing rights to water get subjugated by state and local US governments. Now the NBER paper, authored by Stanford economist Paul Milgrom and graduate student Billy Ferguson, suggests a spectrum auction that ran from 2016 to 2017 could offer one solution. … ” Read more from Quartz Magazine.
SEE ALSO: New Proposal Aims to Revamp California’s Water Transfer Market, from BNN Breaking
Rep. Garamendi: Delta Conveyance Project not the only plan in town
“Around the glitter of the holidays, Gavin Newsom’s ambitious proposal to engineer a water tunnel under the San Joaquin Delta moved a step closer to reality; but there are alternatives to the controversial tunnels, including one proposed by U.S. Representative John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove. On Dec. 21, the California Department of Water Resources, or DWR, announced its certification of the environmental impact report for the Delta Conveyance Project. Governor Gavin Newsom’s $16 billion plan is designed to draw freshwater from tributaries of the Sierra Nevada and deliver it south to satisfy the thirst of greater Los Angeles. … While the governor’s plan has seized headlines, Garamendi believes building a tunnel is a “multibillion-dollar boondoggle.” … ” Read the full story at SF Gate.
DWR certifies EIR for Delta Conveyance Project – Advancing controversial project and setting up likely legal showdown
“After releasing the final environmental report (EIR) for the Delta Conveyance Project on December 8, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) certified it on December 21, 2023. The certification of the final EIR is a significant step forward for the Delta Conveyance Project, a key project for the Newsom administration. It also provides the basis for legal challenges, which are all-but inevitable. The Delta Conveyance Project is the latest in a long line of proposed conveyance projects designed to bring water from northern California to southern California. Different iterations of the project have been discussed for several decades, with key distinguishing features for the Delta Conveyance Project including the fact that there will be a single tunnel constructed to convey water and that it will be underground. … ” Read more from Nossaman.
California could see a snow drought this year. What will it mean for the state’s water supply?
“The California Department of Water Resources recorded 7 1/2 inches of snow depth and a snow water equivalent of 3 inches during Tuesday’s first snow survey of the season at Phillips Station. The sparse patches of snow across the ground were a telltale sign of disappointing results that the data backed up. Tuesday’s measurement revealed about 30% of the average for the date, according to the department. Sean de Guzman, who manages the Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Unit for the department, said on the same day last year, he was standing on nearly 6 feet of snow with about 17 1/2 inches of snow water content. “Vastly different to where we were last year, but still, it’s only the beginning of January for this year,” he said in an interview with LAist’s daily news program AirTalk, which airs on 89.3 FM. “We still have a few more months to build up on our snowpack.” … ” Read more from the LAist.
SEE ALSO: A serious Sierra Nevada ‘snow drought’, from the LA Times
SGMA & dairy. What do you want to know?
Geoff Vanden Heuvel writes, “A few days ago, I had an opportunity to chat with a dairy real estate professional who is a regular reader of the MPC Friday Report. I asked him what information would be useful for the California dairy industry with regards to the water situation. He said that there were two things that folks wanted to know. How much groundwater are they going to be able to pump in the future and, secondly for dairy farmers, how will they be able to handle their manure nutrients if access to groundwater is limited? These are two very good questions, and I will attempt to give you the best answers available right now. … ” Read more from the Milk Producers Council.
Groundwater issues highlight bigger problems
Richard Smoley writes, “The New York Times is no doubt aiming for a Pulitzer with its multi-article series on groundwater use in America. Personally, I have found the articles extremely informative. (Dairy operations replacing potatoes in Idaho?!) Major areas of groundwater depletion include California’s Central Valley and the western Great Plains. The installment most relevant to the produce industry is on central California’s Pajaro Valley. The Pajaro Valley has a problem to some extent shared by the Salinas Valley to its southeast: because of its proximity to the Pacific, groundwater depletion leads to saltwater intrusion from the ocean—a trend from which, once started, there’s no turning back. … ” Read more from Growing Produce.
Vitamin discovered in rivers may offer hope for salmon suffering from thiamine deficiency disease
“Oregon State University researchers have discovered vitamin B1 produced by microbes in rivers, findings that may offer hope for vitamin-deficient salmon populations. Findings were published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology. The authors say the study in California’s Central Valley represents a novel piece of an important physiological puzzle involving Chinook salmon, a keystone species that holds significant cultural, ecological and economic importance in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Christopher Suffridge, senior research associate in the Department of Microbiology in the OSU College of Science, and doctoral student Kelly Shannon examined concentrations of thiamine and the microbial communities in rivers of the Sacramento River watershed. Thiamine is the compound commonly referred to as vitamin B1 and is critical to cellular function in all living organisms. … ” Read more from the Milk Producers Council.
SEE ALSO: Video: Bubbles, Lights and Sounds: DWR Uses Bioacoustics to Help Guide Juvenile Salmon, from DWR News
The chickadee in the snowbank: A ‘canary in the coal mine’ for climate change in the Sierra Nevada mountains
“Wet snow pelts my face and pulls against my skis as I climb above 8,000 feet in the Sierra Nevada of eastern California, tugging a sled loaded with batteries, bolts, wire and 40 pounds of sunflower seeds critical to our mountain chickadee research. As we reach the remote research site, I duck under a tarp and open a laptop. A chorus of identification numbers are shouted back and forth as fellow behavioral ecologist Vladimir Pravosudov and I program “smart” bird feeders for an upcoming experiment. I have spent the past six years monitoring a population of mountain chickadees here, tracking their life cycles and, importantly, their memory, working in a system Pravosudov established in 2013. … Our research shows that a mountain chickadee facing deep snow is, to borrow a cliche, like a canary in a coal mine – its survivability tells us about the challenges ahead. … ” Read the full story at The Conversation.
The choreography connecting kelp forests to the beach
“The Santa Barbara Channel’s kelp forests and its sandy beaches are intimately connected. Giant kelp, the foundation species of rocky reefs, serves as a major part of the beach food web as fronds of the giant seaweed break away from the forest and are transported to the beach. But the relationship goes deeper. In a paper published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team of scientists demonstrates that kelp forests can do more than supply food to tiny, hungry crustaceans living in the sand. They can also influence the dynamics of the sandy beach food web. “The amount of kelp on the reef changes through time in a way where the peaks and low points in abundance across several kelp forests are matched together,” said lead author Jonathan Walter, a senior researcher at the University of California, Davis, and its Center for Watershed Sciences. … ” Read more from UC Davis.
In commentary today …
Challenging the water othodoxy
Edward Ring, co-founder and senior fellow with the California Policy Center, writes, “Along with energy, water abundance is a nonnegotiable prerequisite for conditions we value and aspire to achieve: prosperity, affordability, resilience, and equity. But judging from California’s restrictive policies over the past fifty years, continuously escalating in severity and scope, you would think the opposite is true. California state water policy, despite occasional rhetorical nods towards the value of abundance, remains resolutely committed to enforcing water scarcity. The laws and regulations that reflect this bias may come from the California Legislature, but their impetus comes from the culture. Environmentalism that is often extreme and often misguided and unbalanced is promoted by powerful nonprofit organizations and their donors, and reinforced by journalists and commentators who tend to be remarkably uninterested in explanations that might challenge the scarcity orthodoxy. … ” Continue reading at the California Globe.
Taxing groundwater is a sure way to preserve it
Mark Gongloff, Bloomberg Opinion editor and columnist, writes, “Without really meaning to, farmers in a small California valley have spent the past 30 years in an experiment to see what happens when the groundwater they pump to their crops is taxed. The results are in, and they are striking. They could point the way to preserving a precious resource under threat worldwide. But the experiment also highlights the difficult trade-offs that preparing for a sustainable future on a heating planet will bring. … ” Read more from Bloomberg (gift article).
California’s water future
Charlie Carner with Welljet writes, “The good news is, California has plenty of water. So those who think we’re in a “Mega-Drought!” and “Running Out of Water!!” can cool their carbon-neutral jets. But then, if California has plenty of water, why is everyone ripping out their lawns and replacing them with some kind of fake grass that is made from fossil fuels and causes cancer? Why are towns dying of thirst, and groves and orchards being plowed under? Why are multi-generational farmers going bust on the richest and most productive agricultural land on Planet Earth? California doesn’t have a water supply problem. California has a water allocation problem. … ” Continue reading at Water Wrights.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Mendocino National Forest grows by nearly thousand acres
“It’s a new year, and one of growth for the Mendocino National Forest. North of Potter Valley, nearly a thousand acres of oak woodland sandwiched between the Sanhedrin Wilderness and the Eel River is switching hands into public ownership. Called the Thomas Creek project, the tract of land has been held by the Wilderness Land Trust, with the intent to transfer, since October 2022. Now the 917-acre property, which for years was held privately, is part of the Mendocino National Forest. … ” Read more from NorCal Public Media.
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
Tahoe finally gets snow, and there’s more on the way
“After an end to 2023 marked by rain, slush, and a general lack of natural snow, the first storm of 2024 brought a blanket of white to Lake Tahoe. A Tuesday evening cold front covered the Sierra Nevada in white, with ski resorts around Lake Tahoe reporting anywhere from 4 inches of fresh snow at Incline Village’s Diamond Peak to 15 inches at Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort, south of the Tahoe basin. The areas south and southwest of the lake received the most snowfall, leaving Kirkwood Ski Resort, Sierra-at-Tahoe Resort and Mammoth Mountain with the most fresh snow. Resorts on Tahoe’s western rideline reported moderate storm totals, with Palisades Tahoe measuring 8 inches of fresh snow at its summit, and 11 inches at Sugar Bowl’s summit. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
SEE ALSO: Tahoe’s first big 2024 snowfall delighted skiers. Here’s how it impacted the snowpack, from the SF Chronicle
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Folsom Lake water level at 112% of normal
“After a slow start for foothill rain this season, the annual autumn decline of Folsom Lake has finally leveled off and the reservoir is beginning to fill again with wet weather forecast. Even with only light rain and a weak snowpack last month, Folsom Lake still begins 2024 at a healthy 112-percent of normal for this time of year, or 465,000 acre-feet of water stored. The average for this time of the season is roughly 414,900 acre-feet, officials said. After Folsom dropped to 410 feet above sea level Dec. 18, the lake stood at 412 feet as of Tuesday, Jan. 2, according to Lakesonline.com. One of the most misunderstood reservoirs in the state, Folsom Lake’s primary purpose is flood control, and can theoretically fill up three times a year (if the dam stopped releasing), authorities said. … ” Continue reading at Gold Country Media.
NAPA/SONOMA
Sonoma and Mendocino counties unite with Round Valley Indian tribes to preserve vital water resources
“Sonoma County, in a pivotal collaboration with Mendocino County and the Round Valley Indian Tribes, has embarked on a groundbreaking initiative to safeguard a crucial water supply for the region. This move comes as the counties join forces under the newly established Eel-Russian Project Authority. The Board of Supervisors’ recent decision to join the Eel-Russian Project Authority marks a significant step in regional water management. This new entity is tasked with the construction, ownership, and operation of a facility dedicated to continuing the century-old practice of diverting water from the Eel River into the Russian River. This diversion has been instrumental in sustaining agriculture, supporting residential needs, and maintaining aquatic ecosystems in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. … ” Read more from the Sonoma Gazette.
BAY AREA
Vallejo opens new front in water dispute with American Canyon
“Vallejo recently initiated legal action to try to stop American Canyon from annexing an area northeast of the city, opening up another instance of the ongoing legal dispute between the two cities over water rights. Vallejo, in a legal petition filed Dec. 7, asked Napa County Superior Court to halt a proposed American Canyon annexation of 83 acres in the area around Watson Lane, near the ongoing Watson Ranch housing development. The city said American Canyon’s environmental review of the annexation doesn’t properly plan for how much water Vallejo is required to provide to the city under a 1996 water service agreement — the source of the larger dispute. … ” Read more from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
CENTRAL COAST
Cuyama water lawsuit moves forward as Bolthouse, Grimmway drop out
“The Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin adjudication is scheduled to begin on Jan. 8 in Los Angeles County Superior Court, but Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms are no longer plaintiffs in the lawsuit. Originally filed in 2021, the adjudication calls for a judge to rule on how much water everyone can pump from the basin, which is one of California’s 21 critically overdrafted basins that has a state-required groundwater sustainability plan. The sustainability plan calls for a 60 percent reduction in water use in 20 years. The suit sparked frustration for Cuyama residents, who later launched a boycott against the carrot-growing companies and a petition calling for the corporations to drop the lawsuit. Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway, which left the lawsuit in August and November, respectively, said in separate statements that companies remaining as lawsuit plaintiffs are landowners in the valley and aren’t affiliated with either ag corporation. … ” Continue reading at the Santa Maria Sun.
Restoring Los Padres’ native steelhead trout habitat
“The anadromous Southern California steelhead (SCS) trout distinct population segment (DPS) indigenous to Southern California received Endangered Species status in 1997 due to declining populations. Annually returning adult SCS, from the ocean to freshwaters, is estimated at less than 1% of historical numbers. Over the last two decades, the situation for these trout native to the Los Padres National Forest (LPNF) has continued to deteriorate owing to surface water extractions, dams, drought, climate change and impacts due to wildfire. The endangered species now has one of the highest levels of federal protection. Stream conditions and steelhead critical habitat were further degraded by the massive Zaca Fire in 2007 that denuded landscapes and contributed to greater sediment deposition downstream, affecting steelhead access to traditional spawning grounds. … ” Read more from the Santa Maria Times.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Delano water bottling plant prompts concerns over exporting native groundwater
“News of the new Niagara Bottling plant going up in Delano hit the local groundwater agency with surprise and alarm. The plant is permitted to use 1.6 million gallons of groundwater per day, according to a will-serve letter issued by the city in August 2022. That works out to 1,788 acre feet per year, assuming full operation for 365 days. Even with downtime, the plant will create a substantial pull on the already overdrafted aquifer, said Roland Gross, General Manager of the Southern San Joaquin Municipal Utility District (SSJMUD), which also acts as the area’s groundwater sustainability agency (GSA). … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Turlock Irrigation District joins effort to restore river salmon habitat
“Turlock Irrigation District, Modesto Irrigation District, and the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission have joined forces on an $80 million habitat restoration program along the lower Tuolumne River to improve the health and long-term recovery of the fishery and local communities it serves. TID, MID and the SFPUC recently chose River Partners — a non-profit restoration organization based in Chico — to lead the planning and restoration efforts. Over the next year, River Partners is slated to design a series of projects along the lower Tuolumne River and its floodplain — from Don Pedro Reservoir downstream to the San Joaquin River — that will improve conditions for salmon and other native aquatic species. … ” Read more from the Turlock Journal.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Will Southern California have wet winter? Yes, no, or wait and see, say experts
“What will California’s water picture look like in the next 12 months? The predictions are literally all over the map. After a measurement of the snowpack in the Sierra Nevada on Tuesday, Jan. 2 found only 7.5 inches of snow — 30 percent of the average depth — the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) put out a statement saying residents should prepare for “flood or dry conditions in the months ahead.” Why the cover all bases announcement? Experts say that California’s unpredictable weather, coupled with warmer temperatures from climate change creating more rain than snow, makes the forecast cloudy with a chance of anything. Throw in a strong El Niño in the eastern Pacific and the predictions become even more varied. … ” Read more from the OC Register (gift article).
SCV Water OKs purchasing recycled water from Vista Canyon
“The city of Santa Clarita and the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency entered into an agreement to have SCV Water purchase recycled water from the city for irrigation purposes, according to a SCV Water news release. The recycled water would come from the city’s Vista Canyon Water Factory, which can produce up to 371,000 gallons of recycled water per day, according to the release. That equates to 415.5 acre-feet per year, or about 137 football fields filled with a foot of water. “The use of recycled water is a key component of our conservation and water use efficiency programs,” said SCV Water’s Chief Engineer Courtney Mael in the release. “Every gallon of recycled water used results in a gallon of drinking water that can be saved for potable domestic uses.” … ” Read more from The Signal.
Massive sewage spill closes several L.A. County beaches
“A large sewage spill into the Los Angeles River has forced the closure of several L.A. County beaches on Wednesday. The spill occurred in San Gabriel where around 15,000 gallons of sewage spilled into Rubio Wash which leads to the L.A. River. A grease blockage in the city sewer main line caused the spill, according to Long Beach city officials. While the origin of the spill is 25 miles away, officials said the sewage will eventually arrive in Long Beach, contaminating over six miles of public beach areas. … ” Read more from KTLA.
SAN DIEGO
Divers to install one end of San Diego’s pure water pipeline
“There’s been a pipeline floating on top of the Miramar Reservoir in San Diego. It is one end of an 8-mile conduit that will connect the reservoir to the city’s wastewater recycling plant, now under construction. Later this week, this part of the pipeline will be under 100 feet of water. “We are getting ready to install an approximately one mile branch pipeline that will be built above water and will be sunk in place, to allow us to distribute purified water evenly within the Miramar Reservoir,” said Elif Cetin, a civil engineer with San Diego’s Strategic Capital Projects Department. … ” Read more from KPBS.
‘All options on the table’: New year brings continued push for Imperial Beach sewage crisis
“Imperial Beach remains closed because of sewage pollution from Tijuana. FOX 5 talked with Mayor Paloma Aguirre about what their approach is this new year. Aguirre said all hands are on deck to get funding to repair and expand the San Ysidro Waste Water Treatment Plant. Aguirre also said she is not letting up the pressure on Mexico to fix their treatment plants. “We are in a crisis and it needs to be treated as such,” said Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre. … ” Read more from Fox 5.
Along the Colorado River …
How last year’s winter continues to bail out the Colorado River
“With precipitation and snowpack falling behind normal levels for this time of year, the 40 million people served by the Colorado River have last year’s wet winter to thank for the Basin’s relative stability. Right now, the entire American West is struggling with snow drought. Snowpack for the Upper Colorado River Basin — which includes Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — stands at a dismal 57.7% of average as of Jan. 3. This time last year, snowpack in the region had already reached 130% above average. … ” Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune.
El Niño likely to provide steadiness in Arizona water levels over next year
“Heavy precipitation due to El Niño could help maintain Arizona’s water levels in 2024, according to a climatologist in the state. Randy Cerveny, also a professor of geographical sciences at Arizona State University, said the weather pattern that typically results in higher than normal precipitation levels across the Southwest, including in Arizona, is key for keeping water levels at least steady this year. “Water that falls during the monsoon tends to run off and not really contribute much to the level of our reservoirs, but it’s the snow that gradually melts and percolates down into the groundwater, into the reservoirs that is really important stuff,” Cerveny told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Tuesday. … ” Read more from KTAR.
In national water news today …
Special Report: Making better sense of water usage
“There are many approaches a water system can take to promote and achieve conservation. Advanced metering and other “smart water” solutions, for instance, may be right for one system but not ideal for another based on several factors. In this exclusive, complimentary eBook from Water Finance & Management and Flume Utility & Business Solutions, we explore how water metering affects conservation, the effectiveness of customer service initiatives to curb water usage, and how Flume is working to providing another solution in the toolbox for conservation that can have mutual benefits to the utility and end user. … ” Read more from Water Finance & Management.
