In California water news today …
Pacific storm train to bring one-two punch of wet weather and renewed flooding this weekend
“California residents have received a welcome break from rain and storms following the deadly mudslides that tore through southern parts of the state earlier in the month. The floodgates of the Pacific Ocean will again be flung open as AccuWeather meteorologists project a storm duo to provide a one-two punch of wet weather this weekend into early next week. A brief storm will break the dry stretch for Northern California around midweek. “After several days of mostly dry weather, there will be a quick but heavy shot of rain moving through northern parts of the state from Wednesday night into Thursday,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr said. … ” Read more from AccuWeather.
Dangerous atmospheric river among trio of storms threatening California with significant flooding
“El Niño is about to deliver another unhealthy dose of wild weather to California. Three distinct storms, each more impactful than the last, will hit the West Coast starting Wednesday and continue into next week, the FOX Forecast Center said. This is not welcome news for a state recently ravaged by dangerous weather. “Wave by wave, opportunity by opportunity. It just stacks up,” FOX Weather Meteorologist Britta Merwin said. “The first one will probably be just fine, but as we work our way through the weekend, more issues will pop up. The snow up the mountains will be epic. Be careful with weekend travel, and then also travel coming back after a ski weekend with another storm on the way.” … ” Read more from Fox Weather.
Before and after images show California snowpack replenished by fierce storms
“California’s mountain peaks are coated in white after a strong set of storms pummelled the state last week, with before and after images offering a promising sign for the state’s snowpack. The atmospheric river-fueled storms were deadly and destructive, but also critical to replenishing water supplies in a state that has experienced a prolonged drought. The heavy rain dropped several feet of fresh snow, replenished reservoirs, and fed waterfalls and ephemeral lakes. New satellite imagery from Nasa showcases the impact the dousing had on California’s snowpack, which acts as a water savings account. Roughly 5ft of snow fell in areas along the Sierra Nevada during the very wet week, with the images capturing large areas turned newly white. … ” Read more from the Guardian.
El Niño is fading — but La Niña may be on way. What it means for California weather
“The current El Niño is among the strongest on record, according to the National Weather Service Climate Prediction Center. But El Niño’s time in the limelight is coming to an end. The warmer-than-average Pacific waters that define El Niño are cooling off and temperatures are expected to drop below normal in the coming months. The Climate Prediction Center issued a La Niña watch last week, meaning conditions are favorable for La Niña to develop this summer. But even as El Niño fades, it doesn’t mean that California’s storms are going away. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Train derailment spills coal into popular Northern California river
“A train carrying coal derailed on Sunday, spilling into a scenic Northern California river outside the town of Blairsden, officials said. The train derailed shortly before 7 a.m. near the Middle Fork of the Feather River in Plumas County because of a “track defect,” according to a hazardous materials report from the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services. Fifteen of the cars on the train derailed, the report said, all of them “fully loaded” with 118 tons of coal each. Of those cars, 13 of them released an “unknown amount” of coal into the river, the report said. At least one railcar also fell into the river, and officials are on the scene conducting cleanup, the report said. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
- SEE ALSO: Train Carrying Coal Derails in Feather River Canyon, from Dan Bacher at the Daily Kos
World Ag Expo: Water seminar lands with a thud as speaker details “devastating” amount of acreage expected to go out of production
“The sun was shining and blue skies reigned over the 57th World Ag Expo in Tulare County Tuesday but inside seminar trailer No. 2 the mood was gloomy to dismal as panelists discussed the San Joaquin Valley’s water outlook. The upshot is that with surface supplies from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta shrinking and increased groundwater pumping restrictions looming, more than 900,000 acres in the Central Valley will have to go out of production, according to Michael Ming, a broker with Alliance Ag Services LLC, which has been tracking ag land valleys with respect to water for nearly 20 years. The bulk of that fallowing will be in Kern, Kings and Tulare counties, he said. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Water district between two counties and two subbasins forges its own groundwater sustainability path
“The small Kern-Tulare Water District moved forward recently in breaking away from two other groundwater agencies to form its own independent groundwater sustainability agency (GSA). As the state’s historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) turns 10 this year and the 2040 deadline to bring aquifers into balance edges closer, groundwater agencies have splintered and reformed throughout the southern San Joaquin Valley. Most notably, the Kern Groundwater Authority which initially had 16 water district members, reorganized as most of those members have broken off to form their own, or regional GSAs. Kern-Tulare, which covers 19,600 acres, and straddles two water subbasins and two counties, had always planned to go independent, said Kent Stephens, president of the Kern-Tulare board of directors. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Farmers regroup after storms batter state
“With a respite from stormy weather, farmers say they are surveying for any damage and waiting for the ground to dry so they can access fields and orchards to make repairs or do other practices. Historic and deadly storms that brought two weeks of rain and powerful winds to California led to mudslides, flooding and widespread power outages and related evacuations. A state of emergency was declared for eight Southern California counties. In Santa Barbara County, farm manager Sheldon Bosio of Goleta-based Terra Bella Ranches said three mudslides affected about 40 avocado trees or about half an acre, which is half of what was lost from mudslides caused by storms last year. “We farm a lot of hillsides, so a terrace will break from saturated soil, and then it moves and takes out the avocados below,” Bosio said. “The avocado trees at the top of the hill, where the majority of the weight (from the mud) was, those got buried, but the trees at the bottom are salvageable.” … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
The city of tomorrow will run on your toilet water
“The residents of the 40 floors of San Francisco apartments above our heads may live in luxury, but really, they’re just like the rest of us: showering, washing their hands, doing laundry. Normally in the US, all their water would flush out to a treatment facility, and eventually out to a body of water; 34 billion gallons of wastewater is processed this way across the country every day. But with multiple problems for cities now converging—extreme heat, water shortages, and rapid population growth—increasingly scientists are finding clever ways to extract more use from water that’s flushed away. … Theoretically, the used water that flows out of your home contains 10 times the amount of energy it takes for a treatment facility to process it. It’s also rich in valuable nutrients and minerals, says Peter Grevatt, CEO of the Water Research Foundation, a US nonprofit supported by water utilities. And so as well as recycling water, Epic Cleantec is experimenting with heat exchangers that can extract energy from a building’s wastewater and use it to warm up the water going back upstairs, thus reducing utility bills. The company is also developing a system that processes residents’ black water—which includes human waste and food organics from kitchen sinks and dishwashers—into a soil amendment. … ” Read the full story at Wired Magazine.
Fire and water
“Fire is not coming easily to the pile of dried grass and brush. Four college students fuss with the smoldering heap while Ron Goode, a bear-like man with a graying braid, leans on his cane and inspects their work. Crouch down low, he tells them. Reach farther into the brush with the lighter. Tentative orange flames spring to life and a student in a tie-dyed t-shirt blows gently, imploring them not to die. It’s a clear November day in the western foothills of California’s Sierra Nevada near the town of Mariposa. The students, visiting from the University of California, Berkeley, are here to help revitalize a patch of live oaks that belongs to Goode’s wife’s family. Goode, the chairman of the North Fork Mono Tribe, is here to teach them how. Now in his early 70s, Goode and his tribe have worked for decades to restore neglected meadows and woodlands on private property, reservations belonging to other tribes, and on their own ancestral homelands in the Sierra National Forest. And restoration, in these dry hills, calls for fire. … ” Read more from Biographic.
In commentary today …
Water policy in California is missing a north star
Heather Dyer, General Manager of San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, and Craig Miller, General Manager of Western Water, writes, “Water policy in California is missing a north star. Think of the last time you started on a difficult journey without a plan for where you wanted to end up. Seems silly right, how could you possibly succeed if you don’t know where you are headed? Did you know that unlike in other sectors, we have no clear, single target that defines what makes up a sustainable, statewide water supply for 40 million-plus Californians? As a result, new proposals come out piecemeal, and we find ourselves trying to do the right thing in silos, without a clear idea of the big picture. With a statewide target in mind, hundreds of water agencies in California could begin working in unison to reach unprecedented heights. … ” Read more from the OC Register.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Special meeting for Klamath River dam removals
“On Tuesday night (2/13/24) a special meeting to talk about the effects of the Klamath River dam removal was held in Montague. NBC5 News was there to see how the Klamath River Renewal Corporation is responding to the public’s concerns. The Copco Lake Community Center is where the county of Siskiyou is held a special meeting for its Board of Supervisors discussing the Klamath River Renewal Corporation’s project. KRRC says there are two main benefits of removing the dams; to improve water quality for fish and open up about 400 miles of historic habitats. This is the largest dam removal in the history of the nation and some people have not been happy with how it’s been turning out. … ” Read more from KOBI 5.
PG&E’s hesitation casts shadow on Eel-Russian River diversion plan
“The plan to continue a diversion from the Eel River into the Russian after the Potter Valley dams are removed hit a snag last week, when PG&E balked at the proposed permitting strategy. PG&E owns and operates the hydropower facility, and is eager to get rid of it in the wake of mechanical failures and a report of earthquake hazards at Scott Dam, which impounds Lake Pillsbury. But a regional coalition of local governments, CDFW, and conservation organizations is planning for life after dam removal by designing a method to continue diverting water when the Eel River is high. There are two partially designed alternatives for the diversion facility, one of which has garnered an open legal threat from a national river conservation non-profit. … ” Read more from the Mendo Fever.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Butte County adopts groundwater recharge plan
“The Butte County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted the Butte County Recharge Action Plan during its meeting Tuesday in an effort to help bolster groundwater reserves throughout the region. Department of Water and Resource Conservation Director Kamie Loeser brought the item before the board with a presentation by Assistant Director Christina Buck, who helped head the project. Loeser said the plan was spurred by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order last year that loosened restrictions on collecting floodwater. After the order, Butte County put forth a letter of intent to create a project. “The plan identifies five main actions with accompanying implementation steps that the county will pursue in partnership with the groundwater sustainability agencies and other agencies and organizations within the county,” Loeser said. … ” Read more from the Chico Enterprise-Record.
SEE ALSO: Butte County forges ahead with flood water storage plans, addressing groundwater deficit, from KRCR
BAY AREA
Bay Area weather: Wednesday kicks off series of storms
“After a week of quiet weather, Wednesday will mark the beginning of another wet pattern in the Bay Area. While Wednesday’s rainmaker isn’t expected to be particularly strong, storms will become more impactful heading into the weekend and those systems could possibly cause more flooding. Bay Area residents planning a Valentine’s Day dinner Wednesday should pack an umbrella. Light rain is possible throughout the morning, but heavier rainfall is expected to pick up in the North Bay midday, spread to San Francisco in the afternoon and the South Bay in the evening. Gusts of 20 to 35 mph are possible from noon to 8 p.m., especially near the water. A quarter to half-inch of rain is expected in most cities, but locally up to an inch could accumulate, especially in the North Bay and the Santa Cruz Mountains. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Caltrans proposes southern Marin flood control project
“A notoriously flood-prone section of southern Marin could soon get its own defense against sea-level rise. Caltrans is proposing protections for the area along Richardson Bay between Marin City and Tamalpais Valley. The project would include the Manzanita Park and Ride lot and the Highway 101 interchanges at Shoreline Highway and Donahue Street. “The goal of the project is to provide community protection and safe access in the face of near- and long-term sea-level rise in a way that does not degrade the sensitive habitat of the shoreline estuaries,” said Matt O’Donnell, a spokesperson for Caltrans. “The intent of this outreach is to incorporate public input early in the Caltrans’ project development process, to ensure project development is informed by the community in a transparent way.” … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Metropolitan: Fixing a budget hole
“Southern California has done a great job saving water — so good a job that it’s now facing a budget deficit. The Metropolitan Water District, the state’s largest water supplier, is considering double-digit rate increases after its 19 million customers saved so much water over the past two years that sales dropped to their lowest levels since the 1970s. Monday’s board hearing exposed the tension between funding even more conservation and figuring out how to pay for stable supplies during future periods of drought. “If we’re all using less water, is there actually a need for us to be making more water? And who’s going to be taking that water? And who’s going to be willing to pay?” said Lois Fong-Sakai, a board member representing the San Diego Water Authority (which is known for its stable but pricey water). … ” Read more from Politico (scroll down for story).
Pico Water District wants to raise rates 111% over five years, 51% March 1, 2024
“According to online financials, the Pico Water District (PWD), which serves nearly 30% of Pico Rivera residents, has been raising its rates annually for years, but apparently, that has not fixed the infrastructure or financial problems of the tiny water district. The PWD recently retained Water Resources Economics for a water rate study to develop a five-year schedule to increase water rates that “will sufficiently fund the District’s expenses and provide financial sustainability.” PWD has scheduled a public hearing to discuss and potentially implement the recommended changes at a public meeting this Thursday, February 15. … ” Read more from the Los Cerritos News.
SAN DIEGO
City of San Diego releases 600 million gallons of water from Lake Hodges
“Record rainstorms across the county have forced the City of San Diego to release hundreds of millions of gallons of water from Lake Hodges dam in recent weeks. The city of San Diego is under a state order to keep the water level low in the lake — at about 30 percent of capacity — due to safety concerns over Lake Hodges dam. It’s more than 100 years old. The city says it will take at least a decade to replace the dam, meaning the release of water will continue when large rainstorms roll in. “I’ve seen them releasing tons of water at the dam,” a mountain biker at Lake Hodges told CBS 8. … ” Read more from CBS Channel 8.
Birds? Red tape? Army Corps of Engineers? What’s to blame for historic San Diego flooding?
“Imagine a map of San Diego County riven through with a series of crooked, twisting capillaries, all headed toward 7 o’clock, combining into bigger and bigger veins, until, nearly to the coast, they gather into two thick arteries that, after passing under Interstate 5, merge into a single waterway north of Naval Base San Diego. Just before that southern digit dives under the Five to carry away all of the water in the 16,000-acre Chollas Creek Watershed, though, is Chollas Creek itself, an approximately 30- to 40-foot wide concrete-sided trough that, on Jan. 22, pulsed with millions and millions of gallons of water, rain that fell on Spring Valley and Lemon Grove, both of which experienced torrential flooding; that fell on sections of I-15 and I-805; that fell on National City, where scores of people were displaced by flooding; and that fell on the San Diego neighborhoods of Encanto and Mountain View. … ” Read more from Channel 7.
Backlogged water bills | Tens of thousands of San Diego customers still waiting for water bills
“Nearly a year passed before Point Loma resident Jerry Greene received his water bill. He thought his wife had set up auto-pay to have the water bill automatically deducted from their account. Unfortunately, Greene’s wife thought the same. Then, in November 2023, Greene received a notice from the Water Department informing him that something was wrong with his water meter and that the department was investigating his bill. During that time, Greene had no idea that he was not receiving bills. He had no idea that the city suspected a leak at his house. How could he? He had not received a notice or a bill for nearly a year. … ” Read more from CBS Channel 8.
San Diego State University report calls Tijuana River contamination a public health crisis. ‘We know people are getting sick.’
“A new report released Tuesday and written by researchers at San Diego State University calls the Tijuana River a “public health crisis,” citing broad evidence of unhealthy conditions from untreated sewage to industrial waste. Authors synthesize multiple studies that have documented pollution over the years, leading with a recent paper that documented that the threat also extends to ocean-going mammals. Bottle nose dolphins stranded in San Diego died from infection by a bacteria “generally transmitted through contact with feces or urine in contaminated water, food or soil.” … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune. | Read via MSN News.
SEE ALSO: New report finds Tijuana River contamination a public health crisis, from Fox 5
Rep. Issa calls on international water commission to explain cost overruns
“Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Fallbrook, has sent a letter to the Commissioner of the International Boundary and Water Commission addressing what he describes as cost overruns and lack of transparency around the efforts to fix sewage infrastructure on the border, and Issa’s office has initiated an investigation Tuesday to better understand the operation. Last month, Gov. Gavin Newsom reiterated the need for Congress to approve $310 million that President Joe Biden included in his emergency supplemental appropriations bill to address contamination in the Tijuana River Valley — specifically the South Bay International Wastewater Plant, which is a federal facility on federal land. … ” Read more from KPBS.
Along the Colorado River …
Fewer water cuts than earlier anticipated in Arizona; conservation is still key
“A record-breaking wet winter last season means more water is coming to Arizona. But don’t go out and start watering your lawns just yet. “We should always regard water as the most precious resource and use it carefully,” said Sarah Porter, the Kyl Center for Water Policy Director at ASU. This year, the federal government is letting the state get more water from the Colorado River because the water in Lake Mead is higher, but restrictions are still in place. “While we can enjoy a little bit of relief we really need to get back to where we have been trying to go,” said Porter. … ” Read more from Arizona Family.
Audio: People in this Arizona town say a new clean energy project will drain their wells
“The battle over who gets to use often dwindling rural groundwater in Arizona continues, and attention has turned to La Paz County. There, outside of a tiny town called Brenda, Arizona, a Southern California company called Heliogen is asking the federal government to let it use groundwater from a stressed basin to create a clean energy fuel. It’s called “green hydrogen” — and it’s a complicated process, involving an array of mirrors pointing toward a central tower that would use solar power to coax liquid hydrogen for carbon-free fuel from the water underground. But, the people who live near this proposed project say it will drain their wells. And they weren’t informed that this wouldn’t be your average solar energy project. The Arizona Republic’s Brandon Loomis reported the story, and The Show spoke with him about it.” Listen at KJZZ.
Grand Canyon under threat from invasive species if Lake Powell plan fails
“The Bureau of Reclamation has proposed a new water plan to stop invasive fish in the Colorado River from wreaking havoc—but a conservation group has warned that it isn’t enough. The humpback chub, which is native to the Colorado River and found nowhere else on Earth, is threatened by an invasion of smallmouth bass—a species that’s making its way into the humpback chub’s habitat. The Colorado River runs through the Glen Canyon Dam, which forms Lake Powell, and eventually into the Grand Canyon. The smallmouth bass live in Lake Powell, and until recently, they had nowhere else to go. However, lower water levels in the reservoir are allowing these fish to escape past the dam, and into the Colorado River. … ” Read more from Newsweek.
What a multi-million dollar price tag for Colorado River water says about the West’s unquenchable thirst
“In Colorado, the water that comes from our taps and keeps our fields growing can be in limited supply. That means heated debates over water – who gets to use it and how money should be spent to keep it flowing – are constant. That is evident right now, after a Colorado water agency announced plans to buy nearly $100 million of water from the Colorado River, even without plans to change how that water is used. “The purchase represents the culmination of a decades-long effort to keep Shoshone’s water on the west side of Colorado’s mountains, settling the region’s long-held anxieties over competition with the water needs of the Front Range, where fast-growing cities and suburbs around Denver need more water to keep pace with development,” explained KUNC reporter Alex Hager. He joined In The NoCo host Erin O’Toole to tell us more.” Listen at KUNC.
Dozens of Colorado farmers, ranchers and one city offer to cut Colorado River water use in exchange for $8.7M
“Coloradans gunning to join this year’s effort to save water in the Colorado River Basin could help conserve up to 17,000 acre-feet of water — much more than the 2,500 acre-feet saved in 2023 — and receive about $8.7 million in return. The voluntary, multistate program pays water users to temporarily use less water. State and federal officials relaunched the effort, called the System Conservation Pilot Program, in 2023 in response to federal calls to cut back on water use in the drought-stressed river basin. After a stumbling relaunch in 2023, this year’s program is moving forward with more applications, more potential water savings and more money for participants. … ” Read more from the Colorado Sun.
In national water news today …
Groundwater levels are dropping around the world
“Farmers rely on groundwater to grow crops, especially when rainfall is scarce. Declines in this crucial resource can slash agricultural yields and have long-term effects on water quality, well levels, and even local geology—when groundwater is depleted, the land above can subside. Groundwater level declines have accelerated in 30% of the world’s aquifers, according to an assessment published in Nature. The declines were particularly pronounced in agricultural regions with dry climates. The assessment drew on 40 years of water level data collected from 170,000 monitoring wells in 1,693 aquifers. … ” Read more from EOS.
