On the calendar today …
- PUBLIC MEETING: Clear Lake Hitch from 11am to 12pm. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (Department) is hosting a virtual, informational public meeting on February 7, 2024, from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm PST, to present the Draft Study Plan: Instream Flow Evaluation for Clear Lake Hitch Passage in Tributaries of the Clear Lake Watershed, Lake County. Click here for more information and the meeting link.
- LUNCH-MAR: Updates to the Groundwater Accounting Tool from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Join a joint Lunch-MAR and Data for Lunch presentation on February 7th to learn more about the Groundwater Accounting Platform: an open-source tool that helps California water managers, landowners, and water users track water budgets and usage more easily in near real-time. The California Water Data Consortium and Environmental Defense Fund have partnered to expand the Platform to new regions, and to build additional features and functionalities to help more groundwater agencies and landowners track water use allocations under SGMA. Come hear more about progress made in developing this tool and how you might be able to use it in your basin. Presenters: EDF and the Data Consortium. Click here to register.
In California water news today …
The good news, bad news on California’s water supplies, drought after record rainfall
“Let’s start with the good news. The record-setting rain that’s pummeled Southern California over the past few days, coupled with solid water storage from last year’s wet winter, has Harvey De La Torre, head of the Municipal Water District of Orange County, offering this reassuring prediction: “I’m very confident that we will not need drought restrictions in 2024.” After a run of historically dry years, no part of California has been under drought conditions since September, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The new storm is likely to reduce water demand for weeks, with most Californians well trained to turn off sprinklers during storms. Also, state records show that both rainfall and snowpack levels — which were far below average just a couple weeks ago — are now much improved. But in not-so-great news, water experts say conditions in this “Pineapple Express” storm haven’t been ideal for bolstering the state’s water supply. … ” Read more from the OC Register (gift article).
Bomb cyclone to dump more water than in Lake Mead on California
“California is expected to receive more rainfall by Friday from an atmospheric river storm than what Lake Mead in Nevada—the largest reservoir in the U.S.—can hold, meteorologists have said, as the state continues to face the threat of flooding. On Tuesday, Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), calculated that as of that morning, 7.7 trillion gallons of precipitation had fallen, with a further 3 trillion gallons expected in the following few days—bringing the 10-day total to around 11 trillion gallons. At its full capacity, Lake Mead can hold just over 8.5 trillion gallons of water, though its water level has been receding in the past two decades and its actual volume as of January stood at almost 3.1 trillion gallons. California has been battered by two atmospheric river storms, the first making landfall last week and the second, more powerful, beginning on Sunday. … ” Read more from Newsweek.
California braces for more rain, flood risks after brief respite from downpour
“A brief pause in precipitation will greet Southern California after a record-setting storm system pummeled the region, caused hundreds of mudslides and prompted a state of emergency. The break will be short-lived as the next storm in a series of February systems is expected to arrive Wednesday afternoon, when a “trough of low pressure,” originating from waters off Alaska, will make its way down the West Coast, according to the National Weather Service. “Do not let the break Wednesday morning misguide you − more rain and mountain snow coming Wednesday afternoon and night,” the weather service said on X. “This system will be able to interact with the lingering moisture from our current storm to bring one last band of organized precipitation Wednesday afternoon and night.” … ” Read more from USA Today.
Why record rain hasn’t washed away California’s water woes
“John Kennedy watched in frustration Tuesday as floodwaters pulsed through the Santa Ana River, past systems the Orange County, Calif., water manager uses to capture precious water and send it underground. For a second consecutive winter, rain is not just falling on once-parched California — it’s inundating the Golden State in record-setting volume, faster than it can be saved. … But storms like these won’t be able to wash away California’s long-term water worries Kennedy and the rest of the state hold: whether there will be enough water to sustain the state for the future. When so much rain falls in such a short span of time, it overwhelms the natural and man-made systems that try to contain it. Rather than filling up reservoirs or sinking slowly into the soil, the floodwaters surge across landscapes and rip through communities before finally washing out to sea. … ” Read more from the Washington Post.
SEE ALSO:
- California rainfall totals: Maps show where winter storms brought the most precipitation so far, from the San Francisco Chronicle
- Here’s how much it has rained in California, from the LA Times
- The biggest factors behind California’s historic flooding, from Axios
One solution to states’ water problems could be auctioning off the rights
“There are a lot of debates and questions about how we allocate water, especially as supplies become scarcer. But what if we thought about water the same way we think about radio spectra? Billy Ferguson is thinking about that. Ferguson is a Ph.D. student in economics at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he focuses on water property rights and market design. He and his advisor, the Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Milgrom, have written a paper suggesting water could be auctioned off in a manner similar to a radio spectrum auction. Ferguson joined The Show to talk more about this idea and the connections he says he’s discovered between water allocation and electromagnetic spectrum allocation.” Listen to the show or read transcript from KJZZ.
A Republican’s quixotic quest against dam removal
“Water is flowing unimpeded down the Klamath River to the Pacific Ocean for the first time in more than a century — and Rep. Doug LaMalfa is depressed. “It’s our worst defeat since I’ve been a legislator,” he said in an interview ahead of PacifiCorp’s emptying of three reservoirs on the Klamath River in order to demolish the dams that stand in front of them. It’s the largest dam removal project in the country, and it’s a harbinger of the shifting politics around rivers in the age of climate change. The traditional fault lines that have long pitted anti-dam environmentalists and tribes against pro-dam farmers and utilities, who benefit from their water and electricity, are blurring. Dam owners are increasingly buckling under the costs of repairs, tighter environmental standards for migrating fish and the difficulties of managing more extreme storms and drought from climate change. … ” Read more from Politico.
Conservation, plus construction, can address California’s water crisis, say advocates
“Last month, Groundswell for Water Justice, a grassroots advocacy group, joined civil rights leaders at the State Capitol in Sacramento. They demanded immediate action to address the state’s worsening water and housing crises. A 2021 California auditor Report found that more than one million Californians lacked access to safe, clean drinking water. Two in three of those people, they found, were people of color. According to data from the US Census Bureau Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances found that expenditures on drinking water infrastructure in California declined overall since 2010, but much of the infrastructure is old. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) estimates that a third of their 6,780 miles of water pipes installed over 80 years ago will reach the end of their useful life in the next 20 years. … ” Read more from Voice and Viewpoint.
Costa, Valadao introduce measures to help Valley farmers
“Two Congressmen representing the Central Valley have introduced measures to assist California communities ravaged by drought and extreme heat, as well as to advance and promote policies essential to U.S. agriculture. On Feb. 1, California Congress Member David Valadao, R-22nd District, and Nevada Congress Member Dina Titus, D-1st District, introduced the Water Conservation Economic Adjustment Act (Act). According to a press release from Valadao’s office, the bill “aims to make additional resources available for regions experiencing adverse economic changes caused by drought and extreme heat.” … ” Read more from the Sun-Gazette.
Atmospheric rivers returned California’s lost lake—’it wants to remain’
“In a usually dry and arid area of California, there is now a gigantic 100-mile-long lake. This is Tulare Lake, the “ghost lake” that reemerged last year in the San Joaquin Valley as a result of a series of atmospheric rivers that released an onslaught of rain onto the state. The lake used to be the largest freshwater lake in the Western U.S., fed by water flowing down from the Sierra Nevada. But when the land was redeveloped for agricultural purposes around 80 years ago, it began to dry up. The rivers that fed the lake were then diverted elsewhere and it became farmland. So Tulare Lake was no more, and it has been sitting dry ever since. The San Joaquin Valley sees a little over 10 inches of rain every year, the National Weather Service reports. But last year the record amount of precipitation unleashed onto the state meant that it all had to go somewhere—and so marked the lake’s great return. … ” Read more from Newsweek.
SEE ALSO: The largest body of water west of the Mississippi disappeared 130 years ago. Now it’s back, from PhysOrg
Hoopa Valley Tribe: Pressure grows on Biden administration to set aside illegal Trump-era water contract with Westlands Water District
“In a stinging rebuke to the Biden Administration’s Bureau of Reclamation, two major stewards of California’s environment called on the Interior Department’s chief lawyer to set aside an illegal contract for the lion’s share of water from the federal Central Valley Project. Expressing incredulity at the inaction of the Biden Administration, a February 5 letter from the Sierra Club of California and the Center for Biological Diversity points out what the Hoopa Valley Tribe has claimed for years, and all have known for months–the contract that Westlands negotiated with the Trump Administration’s political team violated numerous state and federal laws and the contract itself. … ” Continue reading from the Hoopa Valley Tribe.
Newsom announces strategy to help salmon populations
“As California experiences hotter, drier temperatures due to climate change, Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced the state’s first strategy to protect and help restore salmon species to reduce their risk of extinction. The California Salmon Strategy, released last week, is a 37-page document that outlines actions state agencies are already taking to stabilize and recover salmon populations. It also maps out additional or intensified actions needed in coming years. The document identifies six priorities and 71 actions. The salmon strategy’s priorities call for: removing barriers and modernizing infrastructure for salmon migration; restoring habitat; protecting water flows in key rivers at the right times; modernizing hatcheries; transforming technology and management systems; and strengthening partnerships. California Farm Bureau senior policy advocate Alexandra Biering said, “Many of the strategy actions—from dedicated habitat to dam removal and ecosystem flows—require the participation of private landowners and water rights holders.” … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Hungry sea otters are helping save California’s marshlands from erosion
“The return of sea otters and their voracious appetites has helped rescue a section of California marshland, a new study shows. Sea otters eat constantly and one of their favorite snacks is the striped shore crab. These crabs dig burrows and also nibble away roots of the marsh grass pickleweed that holds dirt in place. Left unchecked, the crabs turn the marsh banks “into Swiss cheese,” which can collapse when big waves or storms hit, said Brent Hughes, a Sonoma State University marine ecologist and co-author of the new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. Researchers found that the return of the crab-eating sea otters to a tidal estuary near Monterey, California, helped curb erosion. “They don’t completely reverse erosion, but slow it down to natural levels,” said Hughes. … ” Read more from NorCal Public Media.
Were December’s coastal floods a harbinger of things to come?
“California was surprised by heavy coastal flooding back in December, with communities from Ventura northwards experiencing flooding in low-lying shoreline areas. We reached out to sea level rise expert Gary Griggs, a distinguished professor of earth sciences at UC Santa Cruz, to learn more about why that flooding happened—and what it might mean for California’s future. Q: Why was coastal flooding so bad in December? A: In December, sea levels in Monterey and San Francisco were 9 and 13 inches above what’s predicted, respectively, due to El Niño. That may not seem like a lot but on a gently sloping shoreline, that can push water inland by 100 feet. That, combined with very large waves and high tides, pushed water inland along the coast. That’s why several coastal areas flooded. … ” Read more from the PPIC.
Record hot oceans are causing havoc from California to Chile. Is climate change to blame?
“A single overlying factor is blamed for contributing to catastrophes along the Pacific Coast, from floods in California to deadly wildfires in Chile – hotter ocean temperatures. But whether it’s El Niño or climate change that’s turning up the heat, or some combination of the two, is still a subject of some debate. Some scientists say they see evidence of both in the week’s disastrous weather. Other scientists say it’s too soon to say for sure whether climate change is contributing to more intense moisture in the atmospheric rivers pummeling the Pacific Coast this winter and last. Either way it’s clear ocean temperatures offshore are significantly warmer than normal. And warmer oceans and warmer air allow the atmosphere to hold more moisture, almost 4% more moisture for every degree of warming. … ” Read more from USA Today.
Climate change isn’t producing expected increase in atmospheric moisture over dry regions
“The laws of thermodynamics dictate that a warmer atmosphere can hold more water vapor, but new research has found that atmospheric moisture has not increased as expected over arid and semi-arid regions of the world as the climate has warmed. The findings are particularly puzzling because climate models have been predicting that the atmosphere will become more moist, even over dry regions. If the atmosphere is drier than anticipated, arid and semi-arid regions may be even more vulnerable to future wildfires and extreme heat than projected. The authors of the new study, led by the U.S. National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), are uncertain what’s causing the discrepancy. “The impacts could be potentially severe,” said NCAR scientist Isla Simpson, lead author of the study. “This is a global problem, and it’s something that is completely unexpected given our climate model results.” … ” Read more from NIDIS.
In commentary today …
Where does water wind up? You might be surprised
“Water, the essence of life, is an indispensable resource intricately woven into the fabric of our daily existence. From the food on our plates to the gadgets in our hands, water silently plays a pivotal role in the creation of almost everything we encounter. In a world where water scarcity is a looming concern, it is essential to explore the profound impact of water in the production of goods and services that shape our lives as well as the food we feed our families. Criticism often falls on agriculture for its water use. Consumers in California face limits of 55 gallons per person, per day in allowable indoor water use. It isn’t surprising that they might react negatively when confronted with the fact that more than 800 gallons of water is needed to grow the food one person consumes in one day. However, food is something we literally cannot live without. In addition, it’s crucial to recognize that the end user of farm water is not farmers but consumers. Whether you’re shopping for the items in a chicken fajita recipe, a bunch of broccoli or a carton of ice cream, you’re carrying water home from the farm. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
The long life and sudden demise of federal wetlands protection
Dan Farber writes, “It’s no wonder that one EPA staffer’s reaction to the Supreme Court ruling was a single word: “Heartbroken.” In 2023, the Supreme Court ended fifty years of broad federal protection to wetlands in Sackett v. United States. It is only when you look back at the history of federal wetland regulation that you realize just how radical and destructive this decision was. For instance, under the Court’s reasoning, a Reagan Administration regulation as a blatantly illegal environmentalist overreach. Here’s a timeline of the major events. … ” Continue reading at Legal Planet.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
The Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District wants to give water back to the Mad River to safeguard local control
“When the last remaining pulp mill on the Samoa Peninsula shuttered in 2010, the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District (HBMWD) lost its entire industrial customer base, resulting in an 80 percent drop in water consumption across the district. To make up for the dramatic reduction in water use, the district launched a water resource planning initiative to look for ways to increase industrial use to maintain its existing water rights, which are slated for review by the State Water Resources Control Board in 2029. If the district can’t find a way to increase its water use in the next five years, it could stand to lose nearly 50 percent of its water rights under the state’s “use it or lose it” system. “We have to figure out how to maintain our local water rights because, in the state of California, water rights are owned by the state,” district General Manager John Friedenbach told the Outpost. … ” Read more from the Lost Coast Outpost.
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
Tahoe ready for season’s best skiing after 4 feet of fresh snow in a week
“After a relatively dry start to skiing season, the storms that drenched California’s lowlands the past week have brought a welcome dollop of fresh snow to the Sierra, ushering in what might be the year’s best skiing and riding conditions. “The big storm is what everyone needed to get in the mode,” said Jon Slaughter, Sugar Bowl Resort’s director of marketing and sales. “You can finally put the rock skis away and get out there and just enjoy it.” January delivered a steady rhythm of light snowfall to the mountains, but the first week of February has been deep, filling in thinly covered terrain and helping ski areas open trails and chairlifts that had previously been closed. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Feather River Land Trust easement permanently protects Lake Almanor
“Feather River Land Trust announces the permanent protection of Lake Almanor for public benefit, with a conservation easement. Pacific Gas and Electric Company will continue to own and manage Lake Almanor including its hydropower operations, leases, and recreational facilities. The conservation easement held by FRLT permanently protects 29,057 acres of PGE-owned land at Lake Almanor — including the reservoir itself — from subdivision and detrimental land use changes — while ensuring continuation of legal public access to the reservoir and surrounding lands for recreation, including boating, swimming, fishing and hunting. … ” Read more from the Lassen County Times.
BAY AREA
More rain is coming to the Bay Area, but it won’t overwhelm like weekend storm
“The middle of the week will feel familiar to many Bay Area residents, with rain drops falling on the region and some residents and businesses still in the dark from a lack of power — though there will be some differences, too. “We should see it kind of come on about late Wednesday morning, and it’s gonna rain,” National Weather Service meteorologist Nicole Sarment said Tuesday afternoon. “But this isn’t even the same thing. At the very most, we’re thinking maybe three-quarters of an inch, probably a lot less. And those (showers) wlll be at some of the usual places where it generally rains the most.” One such place — at least during the second heavier wave of an “atmospheric river” weather system — was the Santa Cruz Mountains, and Sarment said they again may be hit with the lion’s share of rain. It’s not great news for an area already saturated by at least 5½ inches of rain over the past week — and in some places, more than 8 inches. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
Heavy winds send 300-foot marina dock floating down Delta, ‘freaking out’ residents
“It’s not every day that you see a 300-foot marina dock float down the river, but when the big storms hit this past weekend, residents along Bethel Island’s Taylor Slough witnessed just that. And days later, they’re still watching it and wondering what will happen to the double-wide dock structure from the defunct Anchor Marina at 1970 Taylor Road. The docks broke free during heavy winds Sunday and started moving down Taylor Slough in this far eastern Contra Costa community, shearing off parts of private docks along the way. “It was a high-anxiety day I tell you,” said Fred Koslowski, a Taylor Road resident who called 911 on Sunday morning after seeing the docks, which broke in two, start moving diagonally across the slough. … ” Read more from the East Bay Times.
CENTRAL COAST
Lake Cachuma approaching full as runoff from big storm pours in
“Runoff from the weekend’s big storm continued pouring into Lake Cachuma on Monday, and officials say they expect the reservoir to fill to capacity later this week. When that happens, it will mark the first time in nearly two decades that Cachuma has spilled in back-to-back years, according to Matthew Young, Water Agency manager for Santa Barbara County. The last time that happened was 2005 and 2006, Young told Noozhawk. At midday Monday, the lake was about a foot below spill level, and was 97% full, according to the county Public Works Department. … ” Read more from Noozhawk.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Judge dismisses two claims, keeps key pieces of Kern River lawsuit intact
“A motion that challenged four claims made in a lawsuit against the City of Bakersfield over how it operates the Kern River got a half-and-half ruling from Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp Monday evening. However, the heart of the lawsuit – that Bakersfield breached its duties under the Public Trust Doctrine by dewatering the river through town – will remain intact. “The City does not have the discretion to ignore its statutory and public trust duties,” Pulskamp’s ruling states. The judge also overruled opponents’ arguments that the Kern River isn’t subject to California Fish and Game Code 5937, which requires dam owners to allow enough water to pass those structures to keep downstream fish in good conditions. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
SEE ALSO: Fish in California’s Kern River remain protected following new ruling, from the Courthouse News Service
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Las Tormentas: L.A. County meets a next-level atmospheric river
” … The Western Coast of North America has long been under a unique climate threat: It’s a geographical bullseye for the meteorological mayhem of atmospheric rivers, Pacific-based storms that sweep up tropical moisture and dump it at the first land mass, typically California. As the Pacific Ocean warms and the air above it holds more moisture, climate scientists have predicted these storms will become super-loaded—“wetter, longer and wider.” Imagine the amount of water in the Amazon spilling all over one spot. Now double it. And this on a coast where even in cooler years, normal-grade atmospheric rivers have been responsible for more than 99 percent of all flood damage. Starting Sunday night, Los Angeles County got a terrible trailer for these climate-amped horror storms. … ” Read more from Inside Climate News.
SEE ALSO: How much rain has fallen in Southern California during the storm? Here’s a map, from Yahoo News
Lingering atmospheric river soaks California, threatening more flooding and mudslides
“A deadly atmospheric river storm lingered over Southern California for a third day on Tuesday, soaking the region with rains that threatened to trigger more flooding and mudslides as the weather system crept toward the Desert Southwest. After a day of record-breaking rainfall across the region, a flood watch for Los Angeles County was extended until early Wednesday. A flash-flood warning was posted for the Orange County coast, and flood advisories were issued as far south as San Diego and the U.S.-Mexico border. A final but short-lived burst of heavy rain was forecast to douse Southern California again on Wednesday afternoon and evening before showers taper off by the week’s end. … ” Read more from NBC News.
Los Angeles records 475 mudslides during historic storm that has drenched Southern California
“One of the wettest storms in Southern California history unleashed at least 475 mudslides in the Los Angeles area after dumping more than half the amount of rainfall the city typically gets in a season in just two days, and officials warned Tuesday that the threat was not over yet. “Our hillsides are already saturated. So even not-very-heavy rains could still lead to additional mudslides,” Mayor Karen Bass said during an evening news conference. “Even when the rain stops, the ground may continue to shift.” Officials expressed relief that the storm hadn’t yet killed anyone or caused a major catastrophe in Los Angeles despite its size and intensity, with nearly 400 trees toppling. … ” Read more from KCRA.
LA County Sanitation cuts deal on old sewage spill as storm sparks new problem
“A day after this week’s storm pushed a new flow of sewage into Dominguez Channel – prompting beach closures in Long Beach and San Pedro – the state announced a deal with the Los Angeles County Sanitation District over a massive 8.5 million-gallon spill that hit the same area in December 2021. The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts’ Joint Outfall Collection System will pay $6 million to help improve water treatment at Calas Park, a 9-acre recreational area in Carson that was linked to some of 14 spills that hit the region from 2018 through 2021, according to a deal announced Tuesday, Feb. 6, by the California Water Resources Board. The agreement settles negotiations between the Sanitation District and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, which sought damages related to the spills. … ” Read more from the Long Beach Press-Telegram.
Pounding rains force millions of gallons of raw sewage to spill from L.A. County sewers
“Heavy rains pummeling Southern California for the last several days are forcing millions of gallons of raw sewage to spew from sewer connections across Los Angeles County and flow into coastal waters off Long Beach and San Pedro, according to health and sanitation officials. As communities throughout the Los Angeles Basin cope with mudflows, power outages and flooding, county sanitation crews have struggled to contain multiple sewage spills that have sent waste flowing down major streets and into storm drain systems leading to environmentally sensitive Cabrillo Beach and the Port of Los Angeles, among other locations. “The problem has been an extremely unusual amount of rain water leaking into the county sewer system causing more flow than some sewer pipelines can handle,” said Bryan Langpap, a spokesman for the L.A. County Sanitation District. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
SEE ALSO: 8 million-plus gallons of sewage spilled into Dominguez Channel, according to LA County update, from the Whittier Daily News
IMPERIAL/COACHELLA VALLEYS
Lakebed dust is a worry in Utah. For California’s Salton Sea, it’s a full-blown problem
“Sitting on the couch next to his mom inside their mobile home in Mecca, California, 5-year-old Ruben Mandujano lets out a gurgled cough while playing on a tablet. The phlegm stuck in his throat is noticeable. But the constant cough is something he’s used to. … The family has grown accustomed to the frequent infections. Both of their children suffer from asthma. A cupboard in their kitchen is dedicated to dozens of over-the-counter and prescription drugs. Mandujano said her son’s problems get worse when the air quality is awful – another common issue for Coachella and Imperial Valley residents. Mecca, where the Mandujano family lives, is enveloped by agricultural fields and a short distance from the north shore of the declining Salton Sea, a saline lake facing similar turmoil as Utah’s Great Salt Lake. … ” Read more from KUER.
SAN DIEGO
San Diego has dodged a bullet so far, but flood risk remains
“The atmospheric river took its time, but eventually it ran through San Diego County. It delivered about as promised, with more than 1.8 inches of rain falling in San Diego by 1 p.m. Tuesday, more than 4 inches soaking Palomar Mountain, and more than 6 inches drenching San Onofre. The storm caused widespread flooding in and around Los Angeles Sunday and early Monday, but the bulk of the rain didn’t arrive in the San Diego region until after dark Monday. “Sometimes, it’s not whether or not it will happen that’s hard to forecast, it’s the timing,” said Jonathan Rutz, an atmospheric scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. … ” Read more from the Voice of San Diego.
SEE ALSO: The atmospheric river has passed over LA and San Diego, with another storm behind it, from NPR
Along the Colorado River …
In managing Colorado River dam, feds ignored climate change, conservationists tell appeals court
“Conservationists asked the Ninth Circuit Tuesday to reverse a summary judgment finding that the federal government’s plan to manage water flow through the Glen Canyon Dam properly addressed the future impacts of climate change. Amid a two-decade megadrought, the water levels in Lakes Powell and Mead, Arizona’s two largest reservoirs connected by the Colorado River at either mouth of the Grand Canyon, have each dropped to one-third its previous level. Studies suggest the entire Colorado River system, which serves more than 40 million Americans across seven states, is likely to run completely dry before the drought ends. Conservationist groups Save the Colorado, Living River and the Center for Biological Diversity asked the U.S. Department of the Interior to consider emerging climate science and the severe potential of climate change in updating its management plan in 2016 for the Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell, which has a water level 3,564 feet above sea level. Experts say the dam will lose hydropower if the water level drops below 3,490 feet. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Arizona seeing gradual improvement in drought and lake levels
“It’s been a dry start to winter in Arizona and other parts of the western U.S., but over the past two weeks, storm after storm has put a dent in the recent drought. “With the storms on the way, it’s definitely going to improve, and our runoff forecast has increased because of the potential storm,” said Tim Skarupa with Salt River Project (SRP). Arizona still needs a bit more help from Mother Nature. Nearly two-thirds of the state is still under some form of drought. It’s a big difference compared to early 2023 when a very active winter kept nearly 80% of Arizona drought-free. … ” Read more from Channel 15.
Utah: How one of the nation’s fastest growing counties plans to find water in the desert
“Like many places across the West, two things are on a collision course in Utah’s southwest corner: growth and water. Washington County’s population has quadrupled since 1990. St. George, its largest city, has been the fastest-growing metro area in the nation in recent years. And projections from the University of Utah say the county’s population — now at nearly 200,000 people — could double again by 2050. But it also sits in the northernmost reaches of the dry, hot Mojave Desert. The region has essentially tapped out the Colorado River tributary it depends on now, the Virgin River. So, the big question is: where will the water for all those new residents come from? … ” Read more from KANW.
In national water news today …
US EPA proposes rules to expand cleanup of PFAS at hazardous waste sites
“Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued two new proposed rules, which further expand EPA’s regulatory oversight of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The first rule would modify the definition of hazardous waste as it applies to cleanups at permitted hazardous waste facilities and to clarify EPA’s authority to address emerging contaminants that are not included in the regulatory definition of hazardous waste. The second rule would add nine particular PFAS, their salts, and their structural isomers, to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s (RCRA) list of hazardous constituents for potential assessments and corrective actions. … ” Read more from Downey Brand.
