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On the calendar today …
- VIRTUAL STAFF WORKSHOP: Kaweah Subbasin Draft Staff Report from 11am to 1:30pm. Staff will explain the draft staff report and share more about how to participate in the State Water Board’s state intervention process. Staff will also accept verbal public comments on the draft staff report at the workshops. Staff presentation will start at 11:00 AM. Staff will begin accepting public comments at 12:15 PM Zoom link: https://waterboards.zoom.us/j/94221922558
In California water news today …
Safeguarding California’s freshwater ecosystems against climate change: A conversation with aquatic ecologist Ted Sommer
“California’s freshwater ecosystems―from springs and wetlands to rivers and estuaries―are in trouble and the warming world is hastening their decline. Fish and the wealth of other aquatic species that live in these habitats are increasingly vulnerable as freshwater flows shrink and water temperatures rise. “Climate change is right on top of us, it’s really coming a lot faster than we expected,” says aquatic ecologist Ted Sommer, a fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy Center and former lead scientist for California Department of Water Resources. “Many freshwater species could be extinct by the end of the century.” … To help make this task less daunting, Sommer led a team that identified tools for reversing the decline in freshwater species and ecosystems. The team presented their findings in a May 2024 report called Climate-Smart Tools to Protect California’s Freshwater Biodiversity. To learn more, Robin Meadows spoke with Sommer about tools that can be used right away, tools that are more conceptual but worth considering, and the need to think beyond conventional approaches to conserving freshwater ecosystems. … ” Click here for the full article from Maven’s Notebook.
Collecting data, tracking water, and managing climate change in the Delta
Delta Watermaster Jay Ziegler talks new water tracking and data systems and the threats climate change poses in the Delta that impacts all of California.
Tropical moisture to raise chance of thunderstorms this week
“For the first time this summer, subtropical moisture is expected to overspread California, raising the chance of thunderstorms across the central part of the state this week. A few thunderstorms popped up over the mountains of Southern California on Sunday, and the threat will push northward Monday and Tuesday. Across the Bay Area, Central Coast, Central Valley and Sierra Nevada, the most favorable period for thunder and lightning is Monday evening through Tuesday night, but the overall chance at any given location is low. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Take a quiz: How well do you know California water?
“California has an extensive and complex water system. Can many people name all the waterways on this common California water map (with the names removed)? Give it a try. No cheating. (Unlike some map quizzes and the 1957 California Water Plan, this map has no imaginary features, except perhaps when some of the river channels run dry.) … ” Read more from the California Water Blog.
Deep sea mining threatens sea life, environmentalists say. California law has a solution
“As diplomats from around the world convene in Jamaica next month to discuss international guidelines on deep sea mining, environmental activists are urging nations to consider a California law they say could mitigate the need to destroy fragile ocean ecosystems. “Mining the deep sea will destroy one of the most mysterious and remote wildernesses on the planet, all to extract the very same metals we throw in the trash every day,” said Laura Deehan, state director of Environment California Research & Policy Center. “While we work to protect California’s coastal ocean life, we should join in calls to protect the deep ocean before it’s too late.” The report was by experts with the environmental groups Environment America and U.S. PIRG, as well as the Frontier Group, an environmental, nonprofit think tank and research firm. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Extreme wildfires have doubled in the last two decades
“While a number of high profile wildfires in recent years has suggested that global warming has made fire season longer and deadlier, a paper published Monday is one of the first pieces to detail how both the frequency and magnitude of extreme wildfires have doubled over the last 20 years. “There’s a growing perception among the media, and scientific articles as well, that fire is changing on Earth that we’re experiencing more extreme events,” said Calum Cunningham, a postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Tasmania’s Fire Centre and lead author of the paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution. “But surprisingly, that hadn’t actually been documented.” Cunningham and his team used NASA satellite data from 2003 to 2023 and calculated the “daily clusters of summed fire radiative power,” or the energy released from fire every day. They then selected the top .1% of all fire events over the last two decades — about 3,000 wildfires. They found that the number of extreme wildfires has increased 2.2-fold from 2003 to 2023, and that the six most extreme events have all come in the last seven years. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
In commentary today …
The “Silver Bullet” required to improve California’s water rights system: More & better data
Richard Frank, Professor of Environmental Practice and Director of the U. C. Davis School of Law’s California Environmental Law & Policy Center, writes, “Recently I’ve posted stories about efforts to enforce California’s water laws in the face of efforts by some diverters to evade and ignore limits on their ability to privatize public water resources–especially in times of critical drought. One post focused on the federal government’s successful criminal prosecution of a San Joaquin Valley water district manager who illegally diverted millions of gallons of water from the government’s Central Valley Project for more than two decades. Another commentary discussed long-overdue California legislative efforts to increase financial penalties for violations of state water curtailment orders like those by diverters on the Shasta River who ignore severe drought conditions for their private gain. Such federal and state enforcement efforts are critically important if California’s scarce water resources are to be allocated fairly and equitably among competing water users and needs. But a chronic deficiency of California’s water rights system is the absence of comprehensive and timely reporting of water diversions throughout the state. Without such data, state and federal water regulators can’t administer and enforce water rights systems effectively and on a timely basis. … ” Continue reading at the Legal Planet.
The Salton Sea 10-year management plan is a waste of time, money and resources
Kerry Berman, a Palm Desert resident, a certified interpretive guide, an I-naturalist, and author, writes, “The Native American Cahuilla Nation has lived in the valley and stewarded the land for over 8,000 years. The majority of Western Europeans settled here during the last 175 years and have managed to create the real potential of the worst environmental disaster in California history with two situations: 1) The Salton Sea is on the brink of collapse creating a health, environmental and economy disaster due to the residing playa exposing dangerous chemicals creating toxic fine particulate matter we breath when the wind blows. Fish and birds are dying off faster than ever before. 2) The lack of fresh water from the Colorado River (reductions since 2018) has already affected our ability to recharge our aquifer sufficiently to supplement natural run off from rain and snowmelt causing the ground to subside in several areas in our east valley. Perhaps it would be better to develop less water-intensive developments. … ” Continue reading at the Desert Sun.
Reforming California’s landmark coastal law can restore balance between housing and environment
Christopher Pederson, former attorney and chief counsel for the California Coastal Commission, writes, “The California Coastal Act is a monumental achievement of the environmental movement. It limits oil drilling that imperils the planet’s climate and threatens to foul our shoreline. It prevents paving stunningly beautiful rural areas of the coastline. It preserves threatened wetlands and other sensitive habitats. It expands public access to the shoreline despite the fierce opposition of some of the richest landowners in the country. The urban aspects of the Coastal Act, however, have too often failed. The end result: extraordinarily expensive coastal housing, exurban sprawl into the hottest regions of the state, an almost entirely car-dependent transportation system along the coast, and painfully long commutes for workers who cannot afford to live near their employers. This tension has built up over time, leading to an intense debate over reforms in the Capitol and elsewhere in recent years. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
California’s debate over coastal zone reforms has created a false choice between homes and protections
Fred Keeley, mayor of Santa Cruz, writes, “As someone who has had the honor of representing the city of Santa Cruz in a variety of public offices over several decades, I feel called to wade into the current debate over housing production in the coastal zone. Some members of the Legislature have blamed the state’s high cost of housing (in part) on the California Coastal Act, the landmark law that has made our coastline the envy of the nation. They argue that the law is standing in the way of badly needed new development in beach communities, and the solution is to simply exempt housing projects from the Coastal Act. But California doesn’t need to sacrifice coastal protection for new housing. That’s a false choice. We can increase density in coastal cities in a way that’s also environmentally responsible. Santa Cruz is already doing it. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
In regional water news and commentary today …
State workers return to Sacramento office complex where tests found Legionella contamination
“State workers returned to offices last week amid an outbreak of Legionella, a bacteria that can cause mild to severe lung infections, was found in water at a midtown Sacramento state office complex yards from the Capitol. The discovery, first reported by CalMatters, was announced ahead of the first day of the state’s derided return-to-office plan, where government employees are mandated to work from the office at least two days a week instead of full-time at home. An email sent out June 14 alerted employees located in five buildings that make up the East End Complex on Capitol Avenue that Legionella had seeped into the water infrastructure. The buildings contain offices for the California Department of Education, California Department of Public Health and the Department of Health Care Services and can hold up to 6,000 employees. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
To protect the eelgrass meadows in San Francisco’s Richardson Bay, the anchor-out era near Sausalito is coming to a close.
“From a single blade of eelgrass, life overflows. Amphipods build tiny hollow tube-homes on it, while marine snails eat it, and nudibranchs travel its length in search of prey. Small eelgrass sea hares graze epiphytes attached to the blades and lay their yellow eggs inside transparent jelly-like blobs on the thick green of the grass. Amid the meadows, pipefish hide and graceful rock crabs scavenge, and in the fall and spring, giant schools of silvery Pacific herring enter the San Francisco Bay, the end point of their weeks-long annual migration. … To give shelter and food to the species that rely on it, eelgrass needs to thrive. And in Richardson Bay, which lies between Sausalito and Tiburon in Marin County, dozens of acres of eelgrass are tangled in with the anchor chains of dozens of boats that often float just five feet above the meadows. When tides shift, the ground tackle—that is, any equipment used to anchor the boat, usually a long and heavy chain—is yanked by the pull of the vessel. In circular, sweeping motions, the chain slices the eelgrass rhizomes, the lateral tubes from which the shoots and roots grow. The chains and ground tackle erode the sediment, creating a depression in the substrate. … There are almost 80 acres of scarring in Richardson Bay. … ” Read the full story at Bay Nature.
Carbon-capture projects launch in Los Angeles County as CO2 levels reach global records
“As soaring fossil fuel emissions continue to heighten global warming, multiple projects seeking to remove carbon dioxide from the air have been launched across Los Angeles Country — an effort that project developers say is destined to make Southern California a global leader in climate adaptation. Under a blazing Palmdale sun recently, state and local officials gathered to break ground on one such project, a first-of-its-kind wastewater treatment facility that also removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Project Monarch, a public-private partnership between the Palmdale Water District and the climate technology company Capture6, will not only provide residents with new water supplies, but will also help California achieve its goals of 100% renewable energy and carbon neutrality by 2045, according to Nancy Vogel, deputy secretary for water at the California Natural Resources Agency. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Along the Colorado River …
Groundwater in the Colorado River Basin will struggle to recover from warming temperatures, study shows
“A research study in the East River Basin, a small, mountainous river basin in western Colorado, shows that groundwater will fall in a warming climate — and it can take streams down with it. These streams, including the East River, carry water from their headwaters through tunnels, canals and pipes to homes, farms and businesses in the overstressed Colorado River Basin. Groundwater’s role in this process has often been overlooked: Most of the water in Colorado’s mountain streams comes from snowpack, and without a lot of data, it’s been assumed that groundwater is not really a huge player. That’s not the case, said Rosemary Carroll, the lead researcher on a groundwater study published in May in the academic journal, Nature Water. … ” Read more from the Colorado Sun.
Does Arizona have enough water? Phoenix-area cities are spending big to make sure it does
“Brett Fleck does not have an easy job. He manages water for a city in the desert. He has to keep taps flowing while facing a complicated equation: The city is growing — attracting big business and thousands of new residents every year — but its main source of water is shrinking. Standing on the edge of a sun-baked canal with palm trees lining its banks, Fleck watched water flow into the pipes that supply the Phoenix suburb of Peoria, Arizona. “We’re really having a complete changeover in how people view the Colorado River from a reliability standpoint,” he said. … ” Read more from KUNC.
In national water news today …
Research reveals toxic PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ accumulate in testes
“New research has found for the first time that PFAS “forever chemicals” accumulate in the testes, and the exposure probably affects children’s health. The toxic chemicals can damage sperm during a sensitive developmental period, potentially leading to liver disease and higher cholesterol, especially in male offspring, the paper, which looked at the chemicals in mice, noted. The research is part of a growing body of work that highlights how paternal exposure to toxic chemicals “can really impact the health, development and future diseases of the next generation”, said Richard Pilsner, a Wayne State University School of Medicine researcher who co-authored the study. “We’ve always been concerned with maternal environmental health effects because women gestate the babies … but this research is really saying there is a paternal contribution to offspring health and development,” Pilsner added. … ” Read more from the Guardian.
