A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
California acts to halt Kings County’s groundwater overpumping
“Kings County growers will face millions of dollars in fees and a mandate to report groundwater pumping after California officials voted unanimously today to put local agencies on probation for failing to protect the region’s underground water supply. The unprecedented decision is a first step that could eventually lead to the state wresting control of a groundwater basin in a severely depleted part of the San Joaquin Valley. Before issuing the probation order, the State Water Resources Control Board had repeatedly warned five groundwater agencies in Kings County that their management plan for the Tulare Lake basin is seriously deficient, failing to rein in the dried-up wells, contaminated water and sinking earth worsened by overpumping. … ” Read more from the Cal Matters.
Split opinions lodged at hearing on possible state takeover of groundwater use in Tule Subbasin
“Four members of the State Water Resources Control Board got an earful on the future of the Tule Subbasin during a public hearing held in Porterville on April 8. A draft staff report released in March recommends probation for the subbasin for failing to get a handle on groundwater overdraft. Probation is the first step toward possible state takeover of groundwater pumping. If a subbasin does not address issues within a year, it would then enter Chapter 11 and state bureaucrats can set pumping limits, charge fees and issue steep fines to growers who go over their allotted amount. For more than three hours, farmers, drinking water quality advocates, technical consultants and managers from several of the basin’s groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) weighed in on the report’s recommended action. … ” Continue reading from SJV Water.
ACWA members share thoughts on SGMA at 10-year milestone
“Aaron Fukuda keeps wondering when he’ll see Porsches and Ferraris driving past his office in rural Tulare County. But so far, it’s the same stream of old beat-up Ford F-150s driven by farmers and their workers. The people driving those trucks keep the Tulare Irrigation District (TID) General Manager awake at night. They are family farmers and people who depend on Central Valley agriculture for a living, as opposed to the wealthy captains of the agri-business industry so often depicted in news media. And while those people certainly exist, they are not the ones most directly impacted by SGMA, pronounced sigma, which has long since become verbal shorthand for the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Marking its 10th year this September, the landmark trifecta of legislation signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2014 is today moving from planning into implementation. … ” Read more from ACWA Water News.
SEE ALSO: Local Control Remains Key to SGMA’s Success as Act Notches 10th Year, commentary by ACWA Executive Director Dave Eggerton
First-of-its-kind watershed study highlights how innovative tools help build climate resilience in the San Joaquin Valley
“California’s changing climate brings new challenges each year for water managers as they navigate extreme shifts from drought to flood while working to ensure safe, reliable water supplies for California’s 39 million residents. Water managers address these challenges in their local watersheds, which are often at the forefront of the impacts of climate change. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is working with local and regional water agencies such as the Merced Irrigation District to conduct cutting-edge climate vulnerability assessments of watersheds in the San Joaquin Valley and evaluating how flood protection and groundwater recharge strategies can be used to adapt to climate vulnerabilities. … ” Read more from DWR News.
NCWA partners with State Water Contractors to release video about the voluntary agreements
“With the State Water Board hosting a workshop next week on the Agreements to Support Healthy Rivers and Landscapes, we have joined with the State Water Contractors to help describe the Agreements and the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes program. We encourage you to watch the new whiteboard video to learn more. The Agreements are a transformational approach to managing California’s water, which is important to address our new climate reality by implementing innovative approaches and forging partnerships to navigate the complexities of our shifting water landscape and safeguard the future of our state’s natural resources. … ” Read more and watch video at the Northern California Water Association.
California State Water Resources Control Board will hold a multiday workshop to discuss voluntary agreements
“The California State Water Resources Control Board will hold a multiday public workshop to discuss voluntary agreements (VAs) proposed by water users and state and federal agencies. The VAs proposed are to update the Sacramento River and Delta components of the Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacamento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta Plan). The purpose for the planned workshop is for the VA parties to provide a detailed overview of the VA proposal. It is also planned to receive input and answer questions from board members and receive input from the public. … ” Read more from Water World.
Delta coalition files lawsuit demanding State Water Board action on DWR’s outdated water rights before considering Delta Conveyance Project approval
“After waiting 14 years, water rights protestants to a 2009 proceeding filed a complaint against the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) alleging it has given preferential treatment to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) regarding antiquated water rights claims, and failed to implement state laws requiring the reasonable and equitable development of water diversions and the protection of water resources in the State. DWR is still relying on water rights permits for the development of the controversial Delta Conveyance Project that were issued in 1955 and 1972, despite dramatic changes in the population size of California and in the hydrological cycle due to climate change. The complaint alleges that DWR has failed to comply with state water rights law requiring water rights be timely put to full beneficial use; the purpose of this requirement is to safeguard the public interest. … ” Continue reading this press release.
Sites Reservoir project northwest of Sacramento gains momentum
“The conversation surrounding California’s water continues. The Sites Reservoir project northwest of Sacramento has a price tag of $4 billion and is funded by local, state and federal dollars. The 1.5 million-acre project would divert water from the Sacramento River into a valley near Maxwell, California, and use it for storage. California water rights are a bit tricky – and strict – and that’s the phase the Sites Project Authority is in. They say things are ramping up, however. A hearing officer has put forth a schedule for the hearings surrounding water rights to conclude by the end of this year and a decision could be made in early 2025. … ” Continue reading at CBS Sacramento.
Water pollution is fueling ocean acidification. Environmentalists urge California to act
“As the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities continue to increase the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, the ocean is absorbing a large portion of the CO2, which is making seawater more acidic. The changing water chemistry in the ocean has far-reaching effects for plankton, shellfish and the entire marine food web. And here’s one important fact about ocean acidification: It’s not happening at the same rate everywhere. The California coast is one of the regions of the world where ocean acidification is occurring the fastest. And researchers have found that local sources of pollution are part of the problem. In particular, effluent discharged from coastal sewage treatment plants, which has high nitrogen levels from human waste, has been shown to significantly contribute to ocean acidification off the Southern California coast. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Environmental groups call for action to curb California’s coastal hot spots caused by ocean acidification and hypoxia
“Recently, California Coastkeeper Alliance, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and a coalition of environmental organizations called on Governor Newsom, the State Legislature and state agencies to take immediate and decisive action to protect California’s coast from the alarming impact of ocean acidification and hypoxia. Recent research has shown that land-based nutrients discharged to the ocean from large coastal wastewater facilities are linked to ocean acidification and the loss of oxygen, creating ocean acidification and hypoxia hot spots. During late summer months, magnified by daily coastal sewage treatment plant discharges, ocean acidification and hypoxia hot spots form, causing marine habitat compression on average of 20% but up to 60% (vertically) for 25% (horizontally – over 1,000 square miles) of the Southern California Bight; even at distances of up to 50 miles offshore. … ” Continue reading this press release.
Unraveling the mysteries of consecutive atmospheric river events
On the heels of an atmospheric river that brought destructive flooding to California, another is on the way. This view shows the system developing over the Pacific. Credit: CSU/CIRA & NOAA
“In California’s 2022-2023 winter season, the state faced nine atmospheric rivers (ARs) that led to extreme flooding, landslides, and power outages – the longest duration of continuous AR conditions in the past 70 years. Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) recently conducted a study using machine learning to better understand these complex weather systems, finding that more intense atmospheric rivers are more likely to occur in succession within a short period of time. A recent paper published in Communications Earth and Environment details their findings. California’s winter climate is largely defined by these atmospheric rivers – long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that transfer water vapor from the tropics, most commonly associated with the West Coast coming from the Pacific Ocean. When they make landfall (i.e. pass over land), they can release massive amounts of rain and snow. The catastrophic environmental and economic effects of AR’s highlight the urgency of studying them, especially as Earth’s climate changes. … ” Continue reading from the Berkeley Lab.
After massive Dubai flooding, some blame cloud seeding for California storms. Why that’s not true
“When more than a year’s worth of average rainfall occurred in the desert nation of the United Arab Emirates, many began to speculate how so much rain fell in over a day. The state-run WAM news agency called the rain Tuesday “a historic weather event” that surpassed “anything documented since the start of data collection in 1949,” The Associated Press reported. From the span of late Monday into the end of Tuesday, more than 5.59 inches of rainfall soaked Dubai. The average yearly amount for Dubai International Airport is 3.73 inches. Some are suggesting that cloud seeding could have been a factor for flooding in UAE, which relies on that process and desalination to supplement a scarce groundwater supply. The topic has also prompted some to blame cloud seeding for heavy storms and flooding in California. … ” Read more from KCRA.
US lawmakers Elizabeth Warren and Ro Khanna seek to ban trade in water rights
“With private investors poised to profit from water scarcity in the west, US senator Elizabeth Warren and representative Ro Khanna are pursuing a bill to prohibit the trading of water as a commodity. The lawmakers will introduce the bill on Thursday afternoon, the Guardian has learned. “Water is not a commodity for the rich and powerful to profit off of,” said Warren, the progressive Democrat from Massachusetts. “Representative Khanna and I are standing up to protect water from Wall Street speculation and ensure one of our most essential resources isn’t auctioned off to the highest bidder.” Water-futures trading allows investors – including hedge funds, farmers and municipalities – to trade water and water rights as a commodity, similar to oil or gold. The practice is currently limited to California, where the world’s first water futures market was launched. So far, the market hasn’t taken off, dampened by the reality that the physical trade of water in the state has been limited. After a couple of wet years in California, the price of water futures has also plummeted. … ” Read more from The Guardian.
California sets nation’s first water standard for cancer-causing contaminant
“The State Water Resources Control Board unanimously approved the nation’s first drinking water standard for hexavalent chromium, which is found naturally in some California groundwater as well as water contaminated by industries. Now water suppliers will be forced to install costly treatment to limit the chemical in water to no more than 10 parts per billion — equivalent to about 10 drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool. California water systems are expected to spend $180 million a year to comply, including testing and treatment. The water board said the average cost for most people would be less than $20 per month, with 87% paying about $8 per month. The cost rises an average of $135 per month for people served by water agencies with fewer than 100 connections. Water suppliers warned officials that the costs of complying would hit low-income customers especially hard. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Missouri could crack down on water exports to drought-weary West
(even though there aren’t any, LOL) “Missouri lawmakers say water has almost always been plentiful in their state, giving no reason to think twice about a concept known as riparian rights — the idea that, if you own the land, you have broad freedoms to use its water.But that could change under a bill advancing quickly in a state legislature that is normally sharply divided. The measure would largely forbid the export of water across state lines without a permit, even though there is no evidence that is happening on any large scale. Just the specter of water scarcity is inspiring bipartisan support. Besides persistent drought in parts of the state and plummeting Mississippi River levels in recent months and years, lawmakers are wary of the West, and the chance that thirsty communities facing dwindling water supplies will look east for lakes and rivers to tap. … ” Read more from the Washington Post (gift article).
Earth’s record hot streak might be a sign of a new climate era
“The heat fell upon Mali’s capital like a thick, smothering blanket — chasing people from the streets, stifling them inside their homes. For nearly a week at the beginning of April, the temperature in Bamako hovered above 110 degrees Fahrenheit. The cost of ice spiked to ten times its normal price, an overtaxed electrical grid sputtered and shut down.With much of the majority-Muslim country fasting for the holy month of Ramadan, dehydration and heat stroke became epidemic. As their body temperatures climbed, people’s blood pressure lowered. Their vision went fuzzy, their kidneys and livers malfunctioned, their brains began to swell. At the city’s main hospital, doctors recorded a month’s worth of deaths in just four days. Local cemeteries were overwhelmed. The historic heat wave that besieged Mali and other parts of West Africa this month — which scientists say would have been “virtually impossible” in a world without human-caused climate change — is just the latest manifestation of a sudden and worrying surge in global temperatures. … ” Continue reading at the Washington Post (gift article).
In commentary this week …
Column: The salmon industry faces extinction — not because of drought, but government policies and politics
Columnist Michael Hiltzik writes, “Snapshots from an environmental and economic disaster: Kenneth Brown, the owner of Bodega Tackle in Petaluma, reckons he has lost almost $450,000 in the last year. “I haven’t taken a paycheck in seven or eight months,” he says. He has had to lay off all but one employee, leaving himself, his son and the one remaining worker to run the business. James Stone, board president of the Nor-Cal Guides & Sportsmen’s Assn., says more than 120 guides who serve recreational fishing customers in and around the Sacramento River and San Francisco Bay have been all but put out of business, costing the economy as much as $3.5 million a year. Sarah Bates, the owner of a commercial fishing boat in San Francisco, has seen 90% of her income washed away. She has watched a commercial fleet capacity of nearly 500 boats reduced nearly to zero. The circumstance affecting all three is the shutdown of the crucial fall-run salmon fishing in California, which the Pacific Fishery Management Council, a governmental body, recently extended for 2024, the second year in a row. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Commentary: Bleak future if state prioritizes Delta ecosystem over human needs
Cary Keaten, general manager of the Solano Irrigation District, writes, “The governance of San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta water quality falls under the authority of the State Water Quality Control Board. Among other duties, the Water Board is responsible for adopting and updating the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta Plan). … The legal obligation of the Water Board is to create water quality control plans that “reasonably” protect the beneficial uses of water encompassing diverse needs such as municipal, industrial, agricultural, and ecological requirements. However, many commenting agencies found the Bay-Delta Plan focused on protecting ecological systems at the expense of municipal, industrial, and agricultural uses. Specifically, the Unimpaired Flow alternative proposed in the Staff Report would all but eliminate the uses of the Solano Project’s water for anything other than the state’s purposes (the Solano Project includes Lake Berryessa, Monticello Dam, Lake Solano, the Lake Solano Diversion Dam, and the Putah South Canal). There are several factors highlighting this conclusion. … ” Read more from the Daily Republic.
In regional water news this week …
Klamath irrigators express frustration over allocation
“Despite favorable conditions in the Klamath Basin, irrigators say the initial federal water allocation falls short of what farmers in the Klamath Water Project should receive this year. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the project, announced this week that Klamath Basin irrigators will receive an initial allocation of 230,000 acre-feet from the lake. That is 35% less than estimated needs, said Paul Simmons, executive director and counsel for the Klamath Water Users Association. “Within a few weeks, Upper Klamath Lake will be completely full for the first time in seven years, and the snowpack is in good shape for this time of year, yet we are looking at the fifth-worst allocation in the 120 years since the Klamath Project was authorized,” said Simmons, who called the allocation “deeply disappointing.” “Because of the way the internal distribution of water works, we are looking at family farms that will go without water for the fifth straight year.” … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Trinity River named among America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2024
“Today, American Rivers named the Trinity River, the largest tributary of the Klamath River, among America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2024. Excessive water withdrawals and rising water temperatures threaten the river, and the people and salmon who depend on it. With the removal of the Klamath River dams, a watershed-wide restoration effort has begun. The Trinity River–the main source of cold, clean water for the Lower Klamath River where over 65,000 adult salmon died in 2002–is critical to this effort. “Rivers cannot be harvested for their parts and remain healthy, just like we can’t divert excessive volumes of blood from our body without experiencing systemic failure. We need to stop thinking of the Trinity as a piped tributary to the Sacramento River and recognize that its natural value to the Klamath far exceeds any single Central Valley user’s benefit,” said Ann Willis, California Regional Director, American Rivers. … ” Read more from American Rivers.
PG&E powerhouse failure on the Yuba — CPUC to decide on PG&E’s proposal to transfer hydroelectric projects
“On March 6th and 7th , a significant leak was found at the PG&E Spaulding Powerhouse. About two weeks later, the community learned that there was significant additional damage — columns in the powerhouse had crumbled. Pipes that divert water to the South Yuba and Bear River were also damaged in an earlier storm, leading to a significant cut-off to water flow. These events have raised concerns about the reliability of this aging infrastructure and highlighted the urgent need to address these vulnerabilities. … ” Continue reading from the South Yuba River Citizens League.
SEE ALSO: Spaulding update: One of four issues restored to half capacity by mid-June, from Yuba Net
Questions abound in case of contamination of Sacramento River tributary
“A federal judge denied summary judgment to a California nonprofit that accuses a solid waste facility in Butte County of allowing contaminants to seep out of its facility and into a wetland preserve that leads to a Sacramento River tributary during a major rainstorm. Nonprofit California Open Lands maintains a wetland preserve in Butte County that sits near the Neal Road Recycling and Waste Facility, operated by the Butte County Department of Public Works. The devastating Camp Fire damaged the facility in November 2018, and in February 2019 a rainstorm inundated the area. The plaintiffs claim the storm caused leachate from the facility to seep into a stormwater basin and into a ditch that flowed to the plaintiff’s wetland preserve. The stormwater then flowed out of the preserve into an unnamed creek, then into Hamlin Slough — a tributary of Butte Creek which is itself a tributary of the Sacramento River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Biologist squares off again with Army Corps of Engineers over endangered salmon protections
“The Army Corps of Engineers argued for the second time Thursday that a Northern California fisheries biologist had no concrete evidence that Coyote Valley Dam harms endangered chinook and steelhead salmon. The dam guards the city of Ukiah from flooding from nearby Lake Mendocino, but Sean White, a fisheries biologist, claims that the dam’s flood control operations violate the Endangered Species Act and jeopardizes salmon populations. White says that sediment stirred up by water rushing in from the dam can increases the turbidity of the water, resulting in abrading and clogging of gills, and indirectly causes reduced feeding, avoidance reactions, destruction of food supplies, reduced egg and alevin survival and changed rearing habitat in the fish. In October 2023, U.S. District Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley denied summary judgment to White. The judges said he had failed to show that the dam was harming the fish or that any injunction could remedy any hypothetical harm. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Replacement Central Valley canal threatened by groundwater extraction
“The land had been sinking so fast for so long that the canal was failing, so they built an entire new canal, but now that’s sinking as well. It’s a dramatic reminder that after two good years, California’s water challenges still run deep. The Friant-Kern Canal, which runs along the east side of the San Joaquin Valley, and it is the lifeline for many farmers and communities in that region. The system starts at Millerton Lake, and from there, it runs 152 miles to the south, powered entirely by gravity. But gravity means going downhill and that has gotten complicated. Decades of groundwater pumping have caused the valley floor to sink, and the canal with it. KPIX first toured the site back in August of 2022, The fix is a duplicate canal built right along side the old one, only higher, so the water can still flow downhill. That new canal will go into service in the next few weeks, and it already faces the very same problem as the last one. … ” Read more from CBS San Francisco.
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
ANNOUNCEMENT: Protest Deadline Extended for the Department of Water Resources’ Water Rights Change Petition for the Delta Conveyance Project to May 13, 2024
