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On the calendar today …
- WEBINAR: Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate from 2pm to 3pm. The current approach to providing water is failing to meet the demands of the growing population and the challenges brought on by climate change. In Water for All: Global Solutions for a Changing Climate (Yale Univ Press: November 7, 2023), David Sedlak argues there are solutions to address global water shortages. He identifies the challenges, including ineffective policies and outdated infrastructure. The book also outlines the myriad of tools at our disposal to address the problem, from emerging technologies in desalination to innovations for recycling wastewater and capturing more of the water that falls on fields and cities. Join this WRRC Water Webinar featuring David Sedlak to hear more about his new book and learn about his research and proposed solutions to address global water challenges. Click here to register.
In California water news today …
Funding could be biggest hurdle faced by the Delta tunnel as water users weigh costs versus benefits of the $16 billion project
“The controversial Delta Conveyance Project may have bigger problems than legal action over its recently approved environmental impact report. Who’s going to pay the estimated $16 billion price tag? The concept, a tunnel to take Sacramento River water beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to thirsty towns and farms further south, relies on the end users footing the bill. But over the decades that the project has languished in various iterations, those end users have become less enthusiastic to open their wallets. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Storm could bring biggest thump of snow to the Sierra so far this season
“Farther south into Northwest California, rain will arrive during the day on Wednesday. Snow will begin to spread across the Klamath Mountain range and northern portions of the Sierra range by Wednesday night. This event will have the capacity to spread yards of snow across the Sierra Nevada from late Wednesday to Sunday morning, paired with gusty winds. The highest snowfall totals are expected across the northern and central Sierra Nevada with widespread amounts ranging from 4-8 feet above 5,000 feet. Some of the ridges and peaks in the high country may approach 10 feet of fresh snow. … ” Read more from AccuWeather.
How California’s rainy season is shaping up so far
“With its Mediterranean climate, California receives most of its annual precipitation in just a few months, with the bulk of it falling from December to February. That means that by the time March 1 comes around, we usually have a good sense of how much water we’re going to have for the rest of the year. The state keeps track based on a “water year” that runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, so the whole winter rainy season will fall in the same year’s statistics. As of Sunday, California had received slightly more rain than usual this winter — 105 percent of the average, according to state data. In some parts of the state, though, it’s been much rainier than normal. … ” Read more from the New York Times.
What’s behind this winter’s U.S. snow drought?
“It’s not that the United States has been entirely bereft of snow during what’s likely to end up as the nation’s warmest winter on record. But for most of the traditionally snowy swaths from the northern Great Plains to the Northeast, there’s been a startling lack of winter storms in 2023-24. The result: widespread bare ground in midwinter and what could end up being some all-time lows for seasonal snowfall. On top of that, there have been a couple of bizarre cases of extremely dry or wet snows, both of which threw monkey wrenches into the forecast and left many snow lovers crestfallen. At weather.com, Jonathan Erdman pulled together some of the noteworthy seasonal stats for a February 23 writeup. Erdman noted that the average snow extent across the contiguous U.S. on that date was a paltry 17%. That’s well short of the average to date of 37%, and the lowest for any February 23 in satellite-derived data going back to 2004. … ” Read more from Yale Climate Connections.
Gov. Newsom backs dam removal projects to boost salmon. Here’s what experts say
“If you drive down Highway 99, you might miss it. Hidden among the trees on the Mokelumne River is the East Bay Municipal Utility District. “What happens here is when salmon and steelhead come up into the river to spawn, a portion of those fish stay in the river and spawn naturally and a portion are drawn into the hatchery and are spawned manually then are grown to a size to release in the bay or the delta,” said Michelle Workman, a manager of Fisheries and Wildlife with the East Bay Municipal Utility District. Workers get knee-deep into the manmade raceway waters picking out salmon for spawning and tagging them to watch their progress. …There has been mounting pressure from environmental groups for California Gov. Gavin Newsom to step up and save the salmon. This is why the governor is now proposing a plan to remove dams preventing salmon from returning to streams to lay eggs. The Golden State Salmon Association says the proposed plan has its flaws. ” Continue reading from Channel 10.
Scientists use beavers to fight climate change
“As nearly 40% of the country is currently in drought, scientists are looking to the largest rodent in North America for help: the beaver. Researchers in California and Utah found that dams made by the animals can help create drought- and fire-resistant landscapes. “Beavers move in here and they slow this water down,” California State University professor Emily Fairfax told CBS News national correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti. “It goes into recharging the groundwater and that’s what we’re pumping for irrigation. That’s what we use for our food. That’s what we use for our lawns.” According to Fairfax’s research, the dams beavers make out of sticks and mud help to prevent rainwater and snowmelt from draining down rivers and into oceans. Instead, the dams work as a natural fire break and reservoir capable of storing water for years that gets released into land slowly over time to create a more fire- and drought-resistant landscape. … ” Read more from AOL News.
LAO Brief: The 2024-25 Budget: Flood Management Proposals
“The Governor’s budget proposes $95.1 million in 2024‑25, primarily from the General Fund, for a variety of flood‑related projects and activities. This includes (1) $29.6 million General Fund proposed for early action to repair damage from the 2023 storms, (2) $33 million General Fund to provide the state cost share for urban flood risk reduction projects conducted in collaboration with the federal government, (3) $31.3 million General Fund for three Central Valley multi‑benefit flood projects, and (4) $1.2 million ongoing from the Water Rights Fund for the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) to expedite permitting of flood diversions for groundwater recharge. Because the state is experiencing a serious—and worsening—budget problem, the Legislature will need to apply a high bar to its review of new General Fund spending proposals and be very selective in approving any of them. Based on our review, we find that the Governor’s flood‑related proposals for early action meet this high bar. … ” Read more from the Legislative Analyst’s Office: PDF version | HTML version
With flood risk rising, can community-based insurance fill a gap?
“Flood insurance is a safety net people hope never to need. But the net is full of holes, and hope is unreliable. When payments do come, they’re often too little and too late, especially for renters and lower-income communities. Residents of the Sacramento River community of Isleton, California, are no strangers to flooding. The town has flooded five times since its founding in 1874. Now, Isleton is working with researchers at the University of California, Davis, to pioneer a new strategy: community-based flood insurance. It’s designed to provide fast, flexible dollars immediately after a flood while investing in the area’s flood and financial resilience. Only one other, drastically different, place has tried it: New York City, with 10,000 times as many residents as Isleton’s 850. Other communities, from Pajaro, California, to New Orleans and Washington, D.C., have also expressed interest. … ” Read more from UC Davis.
A tale of two sea level rise solutions: Coastal communities in California brace for the future in radically different ways
” … Like all communities coming to terms with sea level rise, cities along California’s coast face one crucial choice: fight or flee. Climate models project Californians will see one foot of sea level rise in the next 25 years and three feet by the end of this century. How the state chooses to manage this is especially weighty because of its scale: California coastline accounts for a little less than half of the contiguous West Coast’s total mileage. With more people in California living below one meter (3.3 feet) of elevation than any other state except Louisiana, Californians are particularly vulnerable. Given the extent of the projected impacts, coastal communities nationwide are looking to California as a model for how to adapt to rising seas. Without a coordinated state-wide plan for sea level rise, however, cities and towns have arrived at vastly different approaches to their shared problem. This lack of coordination along the coast could present additional challenges down the line, sparing certain areas at first but ultimately worsening the impacts of sea level rise for more economically and environmentally vulnerable communities. … ” Read more from the Sierra Club.
In commentary today …
DAN WALTERS: California needs reliable water supply, but climate change brings more uncertainty
“There’s no issue more important to California than having a reliable supply of water, but the situation is increasingly uncertain from both immediate and long-term perspectives. Last week, federal and state water regulators told the state’s municipal water agencies and San Joaquin Valley farmers that they could count on getting just 15% of their contracted allocations this year because precipitation this winter in Northern California has fallen short of normal, despite storms that caused serious flooding in Southern California. “Many expected the initial allocation to be higher,” Federico Barajas, executive director of the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority, which represents dozens of agencies that receive Central Valley Project water, told the San Francisco Chronicle. “This low initial allocation is particularly challenging for agricultural producers, who are reliant on these projections for planning crops to grow during the year and for acquiring the financing necessary to support food production.” … ” Read more from Dan Walters at Cal Matters.
GSSA: water diversions obliterate upper Sacramento fall chinook salmon population by 96%
“Scott Artis, the Golden State Salmon Association’s executive director, responded to the latest California salmon return numbers reported in the Pacific Fishery Management Council report released on February 16, 2024: “Under Governor Newsom, the upper Sacramento River, formerly the most important salmon producing river south of the Columbia, has been killed off. It’s pretty simple. When you kill all of the baby salmon through environmentally disastrous water policies, 3 years later there won’t be fish to catch or spawning adult fish. This is a blatant attack on fish, rivers, the Bay-Delta ecosystem, and tens of thousands of salmon families from California to Oregon. … ” Continue reading from the Golden State Salmon Association.
Catch-and-release and mark-selective fisheries
Tom Cannon writes, “Current proposals by various governmental officials and agencies are not adequate to protect public trust fisheries. The Central Valley fall-run salmon escapement fell below 100,000 in 2022, levels not seen since the 2008 and 2009 drought (Figure 1). Spawning numbers in the upper mainstem Sacramento River near Redding were below 5000 in 2022, record low levels also not seen since 2016 and 2017. Fall-run salmon escapement numbers for the entire Sacramento River showed a similar pattern. Salmon fisheries were closed in 2009 and 2023 to ensure against over-fishing. The upper mainstem fall-run salmon population was historically the backbone of Central Valley salmon escapement and fisheries. That population and its natural-born component has crashed and is need of immediate attention. Otherwise, hatcheries will be shut down, no fisheries will be allowed to protect wild fish, and salmon will go the way of the condor. Aggressive action is needed to save the salmon and salmon fisheries. … ” Read more from California Fisheries.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Tribes of the Klamath Basin show us how to heal a river
“On January 16th, 2024, demolition experts blew a hole in the John C. Boyle Dam on the Klamath River in southern Oregon. One of four dams marked for demolition, it’s part of the largest dam removal project in United States history. This project was won, in no small part, by the Indigenous-led movement, Un-dam the Klamath. The explosion is captured in the video below: a thunderclap of dynamite, followed by the roar of the river rushing through the rubble. I’ve watched the video at least a dozen times. What is it that’s so cathartic about that moment of destruction? … ” Read more from Resilience.org.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Redding communities adapt as Shasta Lake release disrupts life in low-lying areas
“With more water being released from Shasta Lake, life is being disrupted a little in low-lying areas of Redding. Release from Shasta Lake through Shasta and Keswick dams is now 35,000 cubic feet per second (cfs). Bureau of Reclamation Area Manager Don Bader says it will give the lake a little more room for storms in the forecast. Downriver, in Redding, although the water is a couple of feet from reaching the pavement, Park Marina Drive is closed underneath the Cypress Avenue Bridge, forcing drivers to detour. … ” Read more from KRCR.
BAY AREA
Endangered coho salmon: California’s comeback kid with ‘surprisingly strong’ spawning season, says NPS
“California’s coho salmon have made a surprising comeback. The 2023-24 spawning season is on track to be the best in more than 15 years, said the National Park Service in a statement. “On one of the creeks, Olema Creek, the one that we saw the most spawning on, we thought we’d see somewhere in the neighborhood of around 40 nests,” National Park Service Fishery Biologist Michael Reichmuth said. “And we’re looking at double that. So, that’s a pretty big surprise and encouraging to see those kinds of numbers because it means the fish had high survival through their life, getting to that point.” “We had an epic day on Olema, with a single-day count of 150 adult coho salmon. This is the highest single-day count that we have (ever) recorded,” he said. … ” Read more from Fox Weather.
Crews install steel flood walls along Coyote Creek in San Jose
“A steel curtain for safety is taking shape along Coyote Creek in San Jose. Massive steel walls are going up along the South Bay waterway in hopes of preventing the kind of flooding that threatened lives back in 2017. The walls vary in height from a few feet to 15 feet, depending on an area’s vulnerability. “That’s the primary objective of the project, to provide people flood protection of that 2017 February flood event,” Santa Clara Valley Water District project manager Robert Yamane said. … ” Read more from NBC Bay Area.
CENTRAL COAST
California American Water files motion to dismiss Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s condemnation suit
“Today, California American Water filed a motion asking the Monterey County Superior Court to dismiss the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s (District) lawsuit seeking a government takeover of the company’s Monterey Peninsula water system through eminent domain. The motion argues that the District’s lawsuit fails to meet fundamental legal requirements necessary to proceed with such a significant action and should be dismissed. The motion is scheduled for a hearing by the court on April 26, 2024. “We remain committed to serving the Monterey Peninsula community with safe, reliable water service, and we will continue to do so,” said Evan Jacobs, Senior Director of External Affairs for California American Water. “The condemnation suit is going to waste millions of dollars in legal fees negatively impacting our residents, and we believe the District has neither the legal standing nor technical expertise to provide retail water service on the Monterey Peninsula.” … ” Continue reading this press release from California American Water.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
California’s phantom Lake Tulare has disappeared
“California’s phantom Lake Tulare has now disappeared. Despite recent heavy rainfall across the state, the lake’s water has receded and vanished once again, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Tulare Lake, dubbed the “ghost lake,” reemerged last year in the San Joaquin Valley after a series of intense atmospheric rivers that brought heavy rain and record levels of snowpack to the region. The original lake disappeared 80 years ago when water was diverted, and the land was repurposed for agricultural activities. Before then, the lake, which used to be fed by water from the Sierra Nevada, was the largest freshwater lake in the West. The water began receding earlier this month. … ” Read more from Newsweek.
MEETING NOTES: Bakersfield accrued the most Kern River water last year since buying its river rights in 1976
“City of Bakersfield Water Board held its first meeting Feb. 21, 2024 after not having met since Aug. 16, 2023. The meeting began with a monthly operations report for the month of December by Kristina Budak, the Water Resources Director. Budak highlighted sediment removal done in the Carrier Canal and removing lift heads in Mill Creek. Next, Solomon Sackett and Joshua Tristan, with Water Resources, reported that in the 2022-2023 water year (which runs each year from October 1 through September 30) the city accrued 491,086 acre feet in the Kern River – the most since the city’s acquisition of Kern River rights in 1976. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
City tells court that water district’s arguments ‘lack merit’ and that district has sufficient water for Sage Ranch
“The environmental impact report prepared by the city of Tehachapi for the proposed Sage Ranch residential development made the case that the project would not result in any significant, unmitigated impacts — and included a water supply assessment suggesting sufficient water exists for the project over the required 20-year horizon. The city of Tehachapi and Sage Ranch developer Greenbriar filed documents they believe support that position in Sacramento County Superior Court on Monday, Feb. 26 to defend the EIR approved by the Tehachapi City Council in September 2021. At the same time, the council approved a masterplan for the project that would transform 138 acres near Tehachapi High School by adding 995 residential units over seven years. … ” Read more from the Tehachapi News.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Has this been L.A.’s wettest February ever? What the rain forecast has in store
“A series of powerful storms brought Los Angeles close to having its wettest February ever recorded. Another storm is moving in Monday afternoon. Forecasters have been downgrading projections for the storm for days, and it’s looking less and less likely that it will provide enough rain to make history. The latest forecast calls for less than a half an inch of rain through Tuesday, with snow levels hovering around 7,000 feet. Even so, the last month has been remarkable. Downtown Los Angeles has recorded an incredible 12.56 inches of rain so far this February — a quadrupling of its average February rainfall. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
LA’s dry months are just around the corner. How much stormwater can we capture now?
“From January to February, Southern California went from quite dry to overwhelmingly wet, as a series of storms dropped more than a year’s worth of water in just a few weeks, loading up the L.A. River. Given that our dry months are coming up, just how much of that stormwater were we able to hold on to? And could we be doing better? The main way that we capture stormwater is by letting it soak into the Earth and travel through the soil into underground reservoirs. Back in the day, this would happen all across places like the L.A. Basin, but as we paved over much of the area, we lost much of our ability to sequester rainfall. That’s where spreading grounds, like those in the San Fernando Valley come in. … ” Read more from the LAist.
COACHELLA/IMPERIAL VALLEYS
LAO Brief: The 2024-25 Budget: Salton Sea Management Program
“The Governor’s budget proposes $65.2 million from the General Fund in 2024-25 to support the Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP) and authority for 18 new positions phased in over two years. This includes $60 million on a one-time basis to initiate six capital projects. Beginning in 2026-27, the Governor proposes to support the 18 positions with the Salton Sea Lithium Fund, which is anticipated to receive revenue from a lithium extraction tax in the coming years. … ” Read more from the Legislative Analyst’s Office: PDF version | HTML version
SAN DIEGO
San Diego County Water Authority announces routine maintenance on first aqueduct
“San Diego’s thirst for water will face a minor hurdle as the first conduit of life’s elixir undergoes its annual health check. The San Diego County Water Authority is rolling up its sleeves for a routine tune-up on parts of its First Aqueduct from February 25 to March 5, an exercise ensuring taps keep flowing without a hitch. This interruption, a blip on the calendar, pays homage to the thoroughfare that has slaked the city’s thirst since the late 1940s. … ” Read more from Hoodline.
Along the Colorado River …
Mines exporting to China threaten Arizona’s water
“This last year, the Arizona government repeatedly received favorable national attention for positive conservation actions: protecting the state’s scarce groundwater supplies from foreign-owned farms that repeatedly violated laws or over-pumped declining aquifers. Last December, Gov. Katie Hobbs was lauded for terminating the leases of state-owned land, where Fondomonte Arizona had for years pumped groundwater in excess of the terms of its contract. Fondomente is a subsidiary of Saudi dairy giant Almarai Co. The governor also announced that she will not renew three other leases to foreign agriculture interests. Attorney General Kris Mayes revoked permits to those foreign-owned enterprises for drilling additional wells. … ” Read more from the Arizona Capital Times.
Auditor blasts Arizona Land Department over leases to Saudi-owned farm with low rent, no water rules
“Arizona’s Auditor General has released a scathing report, criticizing the State Land Department for leasing land to a Saudi-owned company in western Arizona at cheap rates. The company, Fondomonte, used the land — and the groundwater beneath it — to grow alfalfa for dairy cattle in the Middle East. State Auditor General Lindsey Perry says the Land Department’s practices for valuing the land it leases don’t align with what’s recommended. In addition, state law requires the department to conduct a mass appraisal of its properties at least once every 10 years to determine its agricultural rental rates. But the last one was done in 2005. This resulted in $3.4 million less in revenues going into the land trust that provides revenues for K-12 education and other beneficiaries. At one of the company’s farm areas, the report says the state should have been getting $175 an acre based on 2018 rates, but was only being paid $30 an acre. … ” Read more from KJZZ.
Arizona: Reform water law to include the environment
“Arizona officials are proud of their 1980 state water policy. The Arizona Groundwater Management Act (GMA), after many earlier attempts, was approved only after the federal government threatened to withhold funding for the Central Arizona Project (CAP) unless Arizona controlled groundwater pumping. Without the CAP, California would have claimed “our” Colorado River water and restricted future economic development in Arizona. The environment wasn’t at the negotiating table then, so our rivers were on the menu. The GMA managed groundwater only in limited areas and sacrificed some rivers. We have now seriously degraded five of Arizona’s major perennial rivers: the Colorado, Gila, Salt, Santa Cruz, and San Pedro. Additionally, future perennial flow in the upper Verde River is deeply threatened. … ” Read more from the Arizona Capital Times.
Straining against invasion: Updated duplex strainer baskets installed alongside new UV light technology at Glen Canyon Dam to continue the fight against quagga mussels
“If left unattended, quagga mussels can cause extensive harm to a facility and the fight against this invasive species is seemingly never-ending. Further efforts are being put into place to uphold systemic stability at Glen Canyon Dam with the installation of new and improved strainer baskets. Quagga mussels create plenty of challenges when they are alive and intact and need to be removed. However, as they die and are removed, their shell debris collects in the system which can clog pipes if left unattended. These specific strainer baskets are being used to filter the cooling water that is piped from the penstocks to the generating unit’s air housing and baring coolers. … ” Read more from the Bureau of Reclamation.
Glen Canyon Dam celebrates 60 years of power generation in 2024
“This year Reclamation will celebrate 60 years of power generation at Glen Canyon Dam. The anniversary will be celebrated throughout the year, culminating with the precise anniversary September 4. The anniversary comes at a crucial point in time for the dam, while experts work to identify a range of alternatives and determine near and long-term operations for Lake Powell and Lake Mead and other water management actions for potentially decades into the future. “Sixty years ago, Glen Canyon Dam harnessed the power of the Colorado River to open the West to millions of people by providing for their water and power needs. This anniversary is a great opportunity for us to celebrate and recognize the many dam and powerplant workers who have made this achievement possible and continue its legacy today,” said Power Manager Nick Williams. … ” Read more from the Bureau of Reclamation.
In national water news today …
How a solar revolution in farming is depleting world’s groundwater
“There is a solar-powered revolution going on in the fields of India. By 2026, more than 3 million farmers will be raising irrigation water from beneath their fields using solar-powered pumps. With effectively free water available in almost unlimited quantities to grow their crops, their lives could be transformed. Until the water runs out. The desert state of Rajasthan is the Indian pioneer and has more solar pumps than any other. Over the past decade, the government has given subsidized solar pumps to almost 100,000 farmers. Those pumps now water more than a million acres and have enabled agricultural water use to increase by more than a quarter. But as a result, water tables are falling rapidly. There is little rain to replace the water being pumped to the surface. In places, the underground rocks are now dry down to 400 feet below ground. … ” Read more from Yale e360.
Microplastics found in every human placenta tested in study
“Microplastics have been found in every human placenta tested in a study, leaving the researchers worried about the potential health impacts on developing fetuses. The scientists analysed 62 placental tissue samples and found the most common plastic detected was polyethylene, which is used to make plastic bags and bottles. A second study revealed microplastics in all 17 human arteries tested and suggested the particles may be linked to clogging of the blood vessels. Microplastics have also recently been discovered in human blood and breast milk, indicating widespread contamination of people’s bodies. The impact on health is as yet unknown but microplastics have been shown to cause damage to human cells in the laboratory. The particles could lodge in tissue and cause inflammation, as air pollution particles do, or chemicals in the plastics could cause harm. … ” Read more from the Guardian.
