On the calendar today …
- GRA SF Bay: 2024 Darcy Lecture: Fiber Optic Distributed Sensing as a Window on Subsurface Flow from 6pm to 8pm. The advancement of fiber optic distributed sensing over the past two decades has enabled the measurement of subsurface hydraulics and geomechanics at unprecedented temporal and spatial detail. Fiber optic distributed sensing systems operate by firing laser light down a fiber optic cable and using backscattered photons to measure temperature, vibration, or strain. Kilometers of measurements can be made at scales as small as a centimeter and at sampling intervals of less than a millisecond. We will look at how this technology has improved our understanding of subsurface flow related to diverse applications such as stream discharge, managed aquifer recharge, remediation of contaminated sites, aquifer testing, fracture hydromechanics, and energy resources. As these instruments become more reliable, accurate, and economical, opportunities for revolutionary observations of groundwater systems will continue to expand in the coming decades. Click here to register.
In California water news today …
California’s biggest winter storm so far is on its way. Will it put a dent in the ‘snow drought’?
“After a worryingly weak start to the winter for California’s mountains, two storms — including what’s expected to be the biggest of the season so far — are expected to dump several inches of snow on the Sierra Nevada this week, days after some promising weekend snowfall. The first storm will move in Tuesday night, bringing a slight chance of snow showers in the evening followed by a chance of snow after midnight, according to the National Weather Service. The second, much stronger storm is expected to arrive Wednesday, with heavy snow and strong winds. … ” Read more from the LA Times. | Read via AOL News.
California snow: Map shows Sierra forecast during biggest storm of the winter
“After a slow start to the winter, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is playing catch-up in January. Storms last week dropped several feet of snow at Donner Summit and at Lake Tahoe ski resorts. But the biggest storm of the season is anticipated this Wednesday, and it could deliver impressive snowfall. Winter storm warnings are in effect for the Northern and Central Sierra from 10 p.m. Tuesday until 10 p.m. Wednesday. Flurries are expected to begin Tuesday night around Donner Summit, turning heavier around sunrise. Winds will gradually increase, gusting up to 50 mph during the day. By late afternoon, snowfall rates of 3 inches per hour could cause whiteout conditions. There is even a chance of thundersnow, when lightning strikes occur during heavy snowfall. … ” Read more from the SF Chronicle (gift article).
UC Berkeley Snow Lab welcomes new storm with California’s below-average snowpack
“There hasn’t been as much snow in the Sierra to date compared to last year. However, a second Sierra storm within a week is being welcomed by scientists at the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab. “It’s very snowy right now – very heavy snowfall rates coming down,” Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist and manager of the lab, said Tuesday. “This one is looking like it could be a dent. [It’s] not going to be a huge dent in the low snow conditions, but if we can have several other storms like it looks like we might, then it should end up helping at least a little bit.” … ” Read more from CBS News.
Healthy reservoir levels offset scant snowpack depths
“Unlike early 2023, when nonstop atmospheric river storms built a deep Sierra Nevada snowpack, replenished depleted reservoirs and flooded parts of California, snowfall and rain is sharply diminished so far this year. But state water officials say there is plenty of winter left to accumulate more snow and precipitation. California Department of Water Resources State Climatologist Michael Anderson said accumulation of snowpack has just begun, pointing out that half the state’s annual precipitation typically occurs during December, January and February. “This period of really wet/really dry was definitely on display last year, but what we’re seeing this year is not quite the strength of either wet or dry, so everything is a little bit subdued,” Anderson said. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
How full are Lake Shasta, Trinity Lake and other reservoirs going into 2024?
“A week into the new year, water levels at Shasta Dam and all but one other North State reservoir were above historic averages. That’s because rain and snowfall in spring 2023 are still helping repair North State lakes and their surrounding ecosystems after three years of drought damage, water and weather, experts said. Spring rains and heavier than average snowpack in the mountains kept Lake Shasta’s water level high despite a rather dry autumn. “This bodes well in re-filling Shasta (Lake) with an average rainfall amount this winter,” Bureau of Reclamation Area Manager Donald Bader said. … ” Read more from the Redding Record-Searchlight.
A look back at 2023’s volatile year in water
“If the year 2023 had a theme, it might have been “get ready to pivot on a dime.” That’s what water managers had to do when the driest three-year period on record gave way to a series of atmospheric rivers early in the year that pummeled the state. Volatility was the name of the game. Water managers who had hustled to innovate and adapt during the drought had to manage a sudden influx of water. As atmospheric rivers followed one another in quick succession, the poor condition of California’s crisis communications came to the fore. Swollen rivers and an epic snowpack led to the return of Tulare Lake, which in turn engendered a mad dash to save dairy cattle in harm’s way and exposed weaknesses in the valley’s planning and emergency responses. While flooding could have been worse, some (particularly low-income) communities were hit hard. … ” Read more from the PPIC.
C-WIN: Coming Clean: State Water Resources Control Board finally acknowledges “paper water”
“In a proposed update to a management plan for the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers and their shared Delta, the State Water Resources Control Board has finally acknowledged California’s water supplies are oversubscribed by 500%. Aimed at protecting water quality and fisheries, the Board’s Phase II Flow Update stipulates flow volume and temperature targets for the Bay-Delta. The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is the export point for both the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project, the massive water conveyance systems that send water to South State agribusiness operations and cities. “This update differs from past plans and policy revisions in one very important way,” says Carolee Krieger, the executive director of the California Water Impact Network, an organization that litigates for equitable water distribution. … ” Continue reading this press release from the California Water Impact Network.
California homeowners forced to live with contaminated water. ‘Why are we paying?’
“In the early 2000s, Los Angeles County school teacher Bruce Shank drove to just about every lake in California searching for a paradise to build his retirement home. He thought he had found it at Hidden Lake Estates, a small community on the Madera County side of Millerton Lake. There, he bought a lot for $149,000 in 2004 and started planning for his retirement home. But paradise turned into a nightmare a few years later, when he discovered the area’s drinking water was poisoned. In 2009, the county placed a building moratorium on the neighborhood, saying the community’s treatment plant was failing to provide enough good-quality water. Shank who had spent another $30,000 on architects and engineering wasn’t allowed to build the home. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
Audio: Lessons from California floodplain restoration
“The West continues to be shaped by water issues. In Oregon, some floodplains affected by human interference are being restored to manage climate issues. And restoration projects are happening in California too. Dos Rios Ranch Preserve is a restored floodplain in the state’s Central Valley. The region has been affected by drought and flooding, but the restoration is helping mitigate the effects of extreme weather on the landscape. Jake Bittle is a staff writer at Grist. He’s reported on these issues for the outlet and joins us with details of the story and what bigger lessons can be learned from the project.” Listen at Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Stepping up for salmon
“California is the southernmost extent of the salmon’s range in the Western Hemisphere. Four species—Chinook (also known as king), coho, and, to a lesser extent pink and chum salmon—historically thrived in California waters, providing dependable sources of highly nutritious food for both coastal bands and tribes in parts of the Central Valley. These fish were so integral to the lives of Indigenous people that in a 2017 letter to the Environmental Protection Agency, Karuk Tribe chairman Russell “Buster” Attebery declared, “The Karuk and other Klamath Basin Tribes are salmon people—our cultural identity is interwoven with the salmon life cycle.” That relationship is increasingly threatened by California’s declining salmon runs. … To protect their traditions and preserve an essential food source, California tribes are playing a major role in efforts to restore the state’s salmon runs. … ” Read more from Visit California.
In commentary today …
Rising sea levels and algae blooms threaten our coast. Nature may have a solution
“There’s never a dull moment when it comes to the Bay Area’s coastline. This week, scientists expect the king tides, some of the highest tides of the year, to hit our shores. These tides, which occur every winter and can measure up to 7 feet high, have the potential to flood coastal neighborhoods and are expected to last several days. And while king tides occur naturally and are not an effect of climate change, they do provide a preview of what Bay Area residents can expect as sea levels continue to rise. Already, climate change has caused the Bay Area’s water level to rise about 8 inches in the past 200 years and experts predict that the level could rise an additional 6 inches by 2030 and as much as 7 feet by 2100. That kind of rise is likely to cause hundreds of billions of dollars in damage to infrastructure and property, and potentially drown vital marsh habitat. But Bay Area regional agencies recently estimated that armoring the Bay Area’s shorelines against sea level rise would cost about $110 billion. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Emergency regulation readopted by State Water Board
“The California State Water Resources Control Board is continuing an emergency regulation curtailing the Scott and Shasta rivers. The regulation establishes minimum flow requirements to safeguard fish, secure supplies for human and livestock needs, and encourage voluntary efforts as alternatives to curtailments. While acknowledging the complex hydrology of the watersheds, Board Chair Joaquin Esquivel noted his hope that the regulation will help foster collaborative solutions. The Scott and Shasta rivers, vital tributaries to the Klamath River, face challenges from multiple years of drought, impacting water sources for Siskiyou County. … ” Read more from Ag Net West.
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
‘It’s a sad issue’: Emergency cleanup underway in Tahoe
“The first major winter storm of the year in Lake Tahoe brought more than just snow to its sandy shores — it also spread hundreds of thousands of pieces of polystyrene into the lake. The plastic foam particles, commonly called Styrofoam, are the remains of a floating pier likely on the northeast side of the lake, said Colin West, executive director of Clean Up the Lake and head of the ad-hoc clean up efforts. “It broke in the worst possible area,” possibly hitting a cement boat dock at Incline Village’s Ski Beach, he said. Continued impact against the cement dock led the plastic foam dock to fall apart, sending up to 200,000 or more small pieces of polystyrene to wash up on Incline Village beaches. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
Volunteers frantically clean up hazardous plastic beads found washed onto Lake Tahoe beach
“Dozens of people made their way to the shore lines of Lake Tahoe on Monday not to take a dip or take pictures, but to conduct a rapid clean up of thousands of plastic beads that were spread across the the beach near Incline Village, according to Incline Village Parks and Recreation. While conducting their frantic clean up of the environmental hazards, a rouge dock was found to have been knocked free during the recent storms and burst open, releasing tens of thousands of small plastic Styrofoam beads into the lake. Large waves caused by high winds washed the beads 15 to 20 feet from waters edge into the sand and fresh snow near Incline Village, according to parks and recreation. … ” Read more from Fox 40.
BAY AREA
Corps experiments with sediment feed from shallows
“On a hazy winter day this past December two tugs pushed two scows back and forth across the glassy bay between the Redwood City shipping channel and the shallows off Eden Landing. What looked like your ordinary harbor dredging project, with an orange clamshell clawing up mud to make way for deep-drafting ships, was actually quite extraordinary. That’s because the destination of the mud-loaded scows was not a disposal site but a mile-long, 138-acre stretch of shallow water near Whale’s Tail marsh. This particular stretch of shallows has been carefully chosen by scientists and computer models because local conditions here — tides, winds, wave direction, depth, proximity to marshes — should all help deliver the sediment to the marsh and recharge mudflats. And goodness knows they need it. With sea levels rising, many San Francisco Bay marshes will eventually drown. … ” Read more from Knee Deep Times.
IMPERIAL/COACHELLA VALLEYS
How Imperial Valley became a target for water
“If you were paying attention, strange things started happening in 2022. Reporters from the Washington Post, the New York Times, and other major news outlets began showing up in Holtville, Westmorland, and even in unassuming fields across the valley. Meanwhile, hedge fund managers were cold calling farmers asking about water availability and details about the water transfer market. In Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico, some city officials and congressional representatives introduced legislation or otherwise recommended to the Federal Government anti-agricultural policies with an eye towards hay production dominant in our area. It didn’t stop in 2022, either. Last year, activist publications attempted to track the irrigation practices of particular farming families in the Imperial Valley and posted their names in print. Now in 2024, a billion-dollar water deal is expected to be struck among all the river users in the next few months that will likely last for over a decade and has the potential to either cripple or empower our community. So what put the Imperial Valley in the national spotlight to begin with? … ” Read more from the Desert Review.
Along the Colorado River …
Understanding water supply forecast error on the Colorado River
“The Colorado River is perhaps the most critical resource to the southwestern United States, providing water to over 40 million people. In an average year, over half of this water comes from western Colorado, primarily in the form of snowmelt when high-elevation seasonal snowpack dissipates in the spring. The Colorado River has been managed with a large series of reservoirs. Seasonal water supply forecasts made by agencies like the Colorado Basin River Forecast Center (CBRFC) and the National Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) using data from high-elevation Snowpack Telemetry (SNOTEL) stations offer water managers insight into how much water to expect each year. These forecasts allow for less uncertainty and better management of these important reservoirs. However, 2020 and 2021 were low water supply years, much lower than one would expect based on snowpack values alone. … ” Read more from NIDIS.
Colorado River Basin reservoir storage at the end of 2023 – holding on to what we have
“There was not much loss in reservoir storage in the Colorado River basin in December 2023. Total storage in the basin’s reservoirs only declined by 17,000 acre feet during the month, and the combined contents of Lake Mead and Lake Powell increased by 68,000 acre feet. At year’s end, the basin’s water users have only consumed 21% of the gain in storage caused by the large snowmelt of 2023. Here are a few graphs depicting where we stand at the start of the new year. … ” Continue reading at Inkstain.
Agencies addressing low-water levels in Topock Marsh
“The Bureau of Reclamation, in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, is working to correct a significant drop in water levels in Topock Marsh. The 4,000-acre marsh is adjacent to the Colorado River in the Havasu National Wildlife Refuge. Managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, it serves as a recreation area and wildlife habitat for the tri-state area. Unusually low demands for water from downstream users and a control-gate leak contributed to the drop in the marsh’s water levels. … ” Read more from the Bureau of Reclamation.
The Gila River water shed has seen a significant drop in the last 30 years
“The Gila River watershed in Pinal County feeds many of the farms in between Phoenix and Tucson. Over the last 30 to 40 years the water has decreased rapidly. Watersheds are very important not just for farms but also for remote homes that use wells. The long-term drought we have been seeing that had an impact on the watershed has been going on since the early 90s. Nancy Caywood of Caywood Farms in Pinal County said: “It overflowed back in 1993. Since then, it’s never gotten the rain or the snowpack to replenish itself. It would go down and then come back up a bit, but we probably got into a bad drought right after that.” … ” Read more from Channel 4.
Can cloud seeding save a drought-stricken “national treasure”?
“About 15 miles southwest of Las Vegas, Nevada, I’m bouncing up a rutted gravel road in the foothills of the Spring Mountains with Pauline Van Betten, a local real estate agent and environmental advocate. “Go slow,” Van Betten said. “I do a lot of land that’s off-road and I’ve had two popped tires.” Van Betten is a land and water specialist with Save Red Rock, nonprofit group with a mission to preserve and protect Red Rock Canyon, a national conservation area north of here, known for its sandstone cliffs and scenic hiking trails. It’s June, and after a wet winter and spring, the rocky ground is dotted with purple and yellow wildflowers. “We had record rains,” she said. “Everything looks a lot greener because of it.” … ” Read more from Marketplace.
Utah farmers fear fallow fields
“Green River is the kind place where you might stop only briefly to pick up a sweet and juicy melon from a roadside stand along Highway 70, or for a place to sleep if all the hotels in Moab, an hour drive south, are full or too pricey. But for the Thayn family — Lee Thayn, his son and his grandchildren — Green River is paradise, a family haven for four generations of farmers. They are one of only a handful of full-time farmers in the small town, population 865.The 3,000-acre Thayn ranch is nestled along the west side of the Green River. The 730-mile-long river is the chief tributary of the Colorado River. It begins at the headwaters of the Wind River Mountains in Wyoming and flows through Utah, making a loop through a section of Colorado before meeting the Colorado River in Canyonlands National Park. … ” Read more from Utah Public Radio.
Why Colorado should expect a drier future with more wildfires and air pollution
“Yearly snow storms form an enormous frozen reservoir in Colorado, but climate change is threatening its future. Winter precipitation is, historically, unpredictable in Colorado. Cities, farmers and recreationists are used to varying supplies each year, but there was almost always enough to go around. A prolonged drought, rising temperatures and climate change have thrown a worrisome curveball. Now, experts are starting to see signs of a declining snow season. “The variation year-to-year is pretty extreme. Just because in 2023 we had a substantial snowpack doesn’t mean we’re not on this long-term decline,” said Jeff Deems, co-founder of Airborne Snow Observatories. “There’s a lot more below-average years these days than above-average.” … ” Read more from the Colorado Sun.
SEE ALSO: Why Colorado should expect a drier future with more wildfires and air pollution, from Colorado Public Radio
In national water news today …
World nears dangerous climate tipping point with snow in short supply
“It’s winter in the north, but you wouldn’t know it in many places: Snow is MIA, much to the chagrin of everyone from ski resort managers to schoolkids hoping for a day off. Though a punishing storm is dumping snow along the northern band of the US, events like that are proving an exception to what’s quickly becoming the new rule. Snowpack is in decline in the world’s regions most dependent on it for winter recreation, and more importantly, springtime water. Greenhouse gas pollution is contributing to winter precipitation falling as rain — or even not at all. Northern California’s snowpack this week sat at just 38% of its average, a worrisome figure given the dependence of the state’s $56 billion agriculture industry on melted snow. The Golden State isn’t alone; Italy’s snowpack is 45% below average and parts of Afghanistan have seen record lows. … ” Read more from Bloomberg (gift article).
See how 2023 shattered records to become the hottest year
“The numbers are in, and scientists can now confirm what month after month of extraordinary heat worldwide began signaling long ago. Last year was Earth’s warmest by far in a century and a half. Global temperatures started blowing past records midyear and didn’t stop. First, June was the planet’s warmest June on record. Then, July was the warmest July. And so on, all the way through December. Averaged across last year, temperatures worldwide were 1.48 degrees Celsius, or 2.66 Fahrenheit, higher than they were in the second half of the 19th century, the European Union climate monitor announced on Tuesday. That is warmer by a sizable margin than 2016, the previous hottest year. … ” Read more from the New York Times.
GRIST: Bottled water has up to 100 times more plastic particles than previously thought
“At this point, it’s common knowledge that bottled water contains microplastics — fragments of the insidious material that can be as small as a bacterial cell. But the problem is much worse than previously known: It turns out that bottled water harbors hundreds of thousands of even tinier pieces of the stuff. A paper published Monday used a novel technique to analyze one-liter samples of bottled water for plastic granules, going down to just 50 to 100 nanometers in length — roughly the width of a virus. They found nearly a quarter of a million of these tiny particles per liter, about 10 to 100 times more than previously published estimates. “We’ve opened up a whole new world,” Wei Min, one of the paper’s authors and a chemistry professor at Columbia University, told Grist. Until now, scientists lacked a quick and efficient way to identify nanoplastics, hindering research on their health and environmental impacts. … ” Read more from Grist.
