Several news sources featured in the Daily Digest may limit the number of articles you can access without a subscription. However, gift articles and open-access links are provided when available. For more open access California water news articles, explore the main page at MavensNotebook.com.
In California water news today …
Hundreds of deaths, thousands of injuries, billions of dollars: The cost of extreme heat in California
“A blistering California heat wave over the past week and through the Fourth of July holiday could be topped off by the hottest temperature ever recorded on Earth. That kind of extreme heat has led to more deaths than wildfires and cost billions of dollars over a decade, according to the state insurance department. Following through on a mandate from 2022, a new report from the department looked at seven extreme heat events in the state from 2013 to 2022 and found they took the lives of several hundred Californians. The events also had a total economic impact of $7.7 billion in the form of lost wages and productivity, agricultural and manufacturing disruptions, power outages, infrastructure damage and more. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
SEE ALSO:
-
- El Niño-fueled record heat streak stretched to 13 months in June, from the Courthouse News Service
- Persistent heat wave in the US shatters new records, causes deaths in the West and grips the East, from KTLA
- In a troubling milestone, Earth surpasses 1.5 degrees C of warming for 12 consecutive months, from the LA Times
California’s new permanent water restriction will hit these 3 areas hardest
“A new regulation approved by California’s State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) last week is going to hit some cities a lot harder than others, with water suppliers in the Golden State’s Central Valley facing the biggest cuts. The policy, called Making Conservation a California Way of Life, will require the state’s largest water utilities to reduce the amount of water they provide to customers over the next 15 years by close to 40 percent. If they don’t, they could be fined as much as $10,000 a day. The board’s goal is to make California more water-resilient and efficient, as well as avoiding the government having to introduce emergency measures during periods of drought. … According to the board’s estimates, cuts greater than 30 percent will only affect six suppliers (two percent of all suppliers in the state affected by the regulation) by 2025 and 46 (12 percent) by 2040; this means that 118,370 people will be affected by the largest cuts by next year, and 1,733,569 in 15 years. … ” Read the full article at Newsweek.
Hoping to reduce Colorado River dependency, Southern California bets big on wastewater recycling
“Can wastewater be made potable again on a mass scale? Water-district managers in California think so. At a wastewater treatment plant in Carson in the Los Angeles area, scientists and engineers have been fine-tuning their purification process since 2019. The facility — known as the Grace F. Napolitano Pure Water Southern California Innovation Center — purifies 500,000 gallons of water each day with the goal of someday processing 300 times that amount, or 150 million gallons daily. The project is still in the environmental planning and review phase, and for now the water is just for research — not drinking. But with construction on a permanent plant slated to begin as early as 2026, researchers here hope arid Southern California could soon be home to one of the biggest water-recycling operations in the world. “We’re in the business of doing big projects,” Deven Upadhyay, interim general manager at the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, said in an interview. “We saw that in the future, we could not rely on an unsustainable supply of water.” … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Historic Klamath River renewal: Copco No. 1 dam deconstruction advances ecological revitalization
“The Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) is proceeding with the removal of the Copco No. 1 Dam, the second of four to be removed as a part of the Klamath dam removal project. Following successful test blasting at the beginning of March 2024, deconstruction is underway of the dam that was constructed in 1918 for the sole purpose of hydroelectric power generation. The dam has blocked fish passage for over 100 years and is expected to be fully removed by the end of August 2024. “We are excited to get to work,” said Mark Bransom, CEO of KRRC. “The dam is fully exposed and can be safely disassembled.” … ” Continue reading at International Water & Power.
Restoration of Tidal wetlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – Where are we at?
“Tidal wetlands in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta used to be vast. You may have seen artistic renditions of how the landscape may have looked with meandering channels weaving through a mosaic of land and water and with teaming wildlife. In fact, prior to European colonization, the the Delta used to be a whole 95% tidal freshwater wetlands covered in tule and cattail vegetation, stewarded by a number of Indigenous Tribes. We know this historical landscape was forever changed when settlers forcibly removed Indigenous people and their stewardship practices from the landscape, and spent the subsequent hundred and fifty years diking and draining the wetlands to create farmland. … ” Read more from the California Water Blog.
Act your age: Study reveals different age structures between hatchery and wild salmon
“The age at which an animal reaches adulthood plays an important role in shaping populations. This defining age may vary between fish raised in a hatchery – with the luxuries of reliable access to food and protection from predators – and fish that are roughing it out in the wild. These differences, in turn, could impact the productivity and sustainability of fisheries. Understanding how hatcheries may be shifting the maturation age of fish is critical for their conservation. To this end, a recent study in California sought to investigate whether winter-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) reared in a conservation hatchery matured at different ages than their wild counterparts (Chen et al. 2023). The results of their investigation suggest that there is, indeed, variation between the age structures of hatchery and wild populations, a finding which has important implications for management. … ” Read more from FishBio.
BOOK REVIEW: Liquid Asset: How Business and Government Can Partner to Solve the Freshwater Crisis
Justin Scott-Coe writes, “I got my start in the water world as a technical writer for a small consulting firm called Integrated Resource Management. After three years of fascinating work for clients from small cities to Fortune 500 companies, I moved into the public sector, but I often think back to that brief experience on the business side of water. As a result, I found Barton “Buzz” Thompson‘s new book, Liquid Asset: How Business and Government Can Partner to Solve the Freshwater Crisis (Stanford University Press, 2024), of immense personal and professional interest. What blew me away was his skillful and comprehensive articulation of a water sector that is, has always been, and must continue to be fundamentally a public-private partnership. Informed by decades of academic and legal expertise, Thompson has provided an incredibly important and valuable book to have on your water shelf. … ” Continue reading this book review.
In commentary today …
$5 bass bounty could help threatened salmon & reduce need for $20B tunnel
Dennis Wyatt, editor of the Manteca Bulletin, writes, “The Bureau of Reclamation has made a strong case to declare the non-native bass Public Enemy No. 1 in California’s perennial water wars. And the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has indirectly agreed. Decisions by the federal agencies this past week could end up having major ramifications on the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s future, blow a big hole in a major argument for the Delta tunnel, and reset how water much water even in drought years is sent into the San Francisco Bay. … Each vetted plan reached the same decision: It is environmentally sound and effective to reduce the numbers of non-native species to strengthen the number of threatened native species. … ” Read more from the Manteca Bulletin.
Salmon need passage of Assembly bill
Frankie Joe Myers, the vice chair of the Yurok Tribe and a resident of Weitchpec, writes, “Salmon are a cornerstone of our culture and the importance of salmon to our people cannot be overstated. Salmon are intertwined with our cultural identity and religion — what it means to be Yurok. Our ceremonies celebrate the annual migrations of salmon, and the harvest and preservation of salmon is central to community activities that have persisted for generations. In late January, Gov. Gavin Newsom released a strategic plan aimed at helping restore California’s dwindling salmon population. The Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Dryer Future, lays out a plan for ensuring that California salmon and the communities who rely on them have a future in our changed climate. The Yurok Tribe applauded the Newsom administration and stood with the governor when this plan was released, and we now urge Governor Newsom to set in motion his plan by signing AB1272. … ” Read more from the Eureka Times-Standard.
Prisoner’s dilemma of groundwater
Michael Craviotto of Moorpark writes, “The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) is a landmark legislation in California, enacted in 2014 to ensure the sustainable management of groundwater resources. The primary goals of SGMA are to prevent overdraft, bring groundwater basins into balanced levels of pumping and recharge, and provide a framework for local Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) to develop and implement Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs). … Unfortunately, as the saying goes, “Whiskey is for drinking, and water is for fighting.” When these local agencies develop GSPs, they are almost destined to be litigated which results in a Prisoner’s Dilemma for all parties involved. The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a game theory scenario featuring two rational individuals who face a choice: either collaborate for shared benefit or betray one another to achieve personal advantage. The dilemma highlights that although mutual cooperation leads to the best collective outcome, each prisoner has a strong incentive to defect. As a result, both prisoners often end up defecting, leading to a worse outcome for both than if they had cooperated. … ” Continue reading at the Santa Barbara Independent.
California’s almond industry gets a bad rap. This organization aims to fix that
Lauren Tucker, project coordinator for The Almond Project and the nonprofit convener White Buffalo Land Trust, writes, “California’s $11 billion-dollar almond industry is always under the spotlight. You might have heard about the sector’s water consumption or the trucking of bees to pollinate the state’s 1.3 million acres of crops. Other headlines have contemplated what fluctuating prices and leveling demand might mean for the industry’s future. Even Gov. Gavin Newsom poked fun at taking on “Big Almond” on comedian Bill Maher’s HBO show earlier this year. But it’s important to see the forest for the trees — or, in this case, the aromatic orchards that bloom in the spring and almond kernels that mature in the summer. Almonds are the state’s leading agricultural export, responsible for nearly 80% of the world’s almonds. Efforts to demonize the almond simply do not help the industry evolve to meet environmental goals and address current issues. … ” Read more from the Fresno Bee.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Eel River restoration: Tackling 200 years of degradation
“An initial report on restoration and conservation of the Eel River lays out the complexities of the watershed and future efforts to rehabilitate it. The report, funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, was prepared by CalTrout and scientists working with Stillwater Sciences, Applied River Sciences, and UC Berkeley. While the upcoming removal of the Potter Valley Project is expected to restore habitat above Scott Dam, the report focuses mainly on the many other factors that have degraded the river over the last two hundred years. Unregulated logging and fishing are historical impairments, as are the two massive floods of 1955 and 1964, which were intensified by the degradation of the forest around the river. … ” Read more from Mendo Fever.
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
Record number of volunteers find much cleaner beaches this July 5th
“In an inspiring outpouring of support, 774 volunteers from inside and outside the Tahoe Basin spread out across more than a half dozen beaches around the Lake early yesterday morning to remove litter, refresh, and revitalize the shoreline following the 4th of July holiday. Fortunately, their hard work didn’t take much time, as they arrived to mostly clean stretches of sand, trails, and streets. For the League to Save Lake Tahoe, their 15 event partners, members of the Destination Stewardship Plan, and the global community of Tahoe-lovers, this was precisely how they hoped to ring in the 11th annual “Keep Tahoe, Red, White & Blue” July 5th Beach Cleanup – with far smaller amounts of trash to clean up than in the recent past. … ” Read more from YubaNet.
SEE ALSO: Trash on Lake Tahoe beaches much improved. How much did they clean up after holiday?, from the Sacramento Bee
BAY AREA
Column: Recently active MMWD needs to keep pushing projects
Columnist Dick Spotswood writes, “After years of dithering, late last month Marin Municipal Water District staff presented to the five-member board a project, hopefully the first of many, to provide water security for its 191,000 customers in Southern and Central Marin. The $10 million plan is to pump water when needed from the water district’s smallest reservoir, Phoenix Lake, to the Bon Tempe Treatment Plant. Its staff says the goal is to transport “approximately 260-acre feet of water a year, improving drought resilience.” It’s a good first step. As in the past, when plans are submitted, environmental activists object. They inevitably claim that any real-world effort to increase safe and secure water supplies will negatively affect the fish in the watershed. For decades, MMWD has delayed action to increase drought resiliency to protect a handful of steelhead trout. I like fish as much as anyone. At some point the fish folks’ single-minded effort to save a particular species of trout needs to be balanced with practical efforts to help human beings. … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal.
Commentary: Fair’s ‘Make a Splash’ theme hits on our close tie to water
Chris Choo, assistant director for the Marin County Community Development Agency, writes, “The theme for this year’s Marin County Fair is “Make a Splash.” As you enjoy all that the fair has to offer, please consider this year’s theme of water. Visit the education booths and learn about our drinking water supplies, drought planning and remember the necessity of clean water. Water is essential and, in Marin, the proximity to water is connected to our sense of place, our terrific weather and opportunity to play along at the coast and bay. As you ride to the top of the giant Ferris wheel, take a look around at that view. You can probably imagine it right now – Mount Tamalpais, Mount Burdell and the ridges of open space in between that offer hiking, biking and habitat for wildlife and plants, some of which live nowhere else but in Marin. … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal.
Fremont blames heat for massive Lake Elizabeth fish die-off
“About 1,000 fish at Lake Elizabeth in Fremont’s Central Park have died this week after the excessive heat wave caused low oxygen levels in the water, according to a city spokesperson. With city high temperatures in the mid-to-upper 90s the first half of the week, the lake got hotter and oxygen levels dropped, suffocating close to 1,000 fish since Wednesday. “Fish dying off in Lake Elizabeth in the summer is not completely unusual. We do get a small number of fish that die off every year,” city spokesperson Geneva Bosques said. But this year’s heat wave is doing unexpected numbers on the lake’s fish population. The city sent a specialist with Livermore-headquartered Applied Marine Sciences to take test samples of the water to inspect oxygen levels and the possibility of an algae bloom, Bosques said. But she added there is no “visible indication” of a dangerous algae bloom, such as the one that killed off thousands of fish in Oakland’s Lake Merritt during a 2022 heat wave. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
CENTRAL COAST
New flood zones may affect residents across Santa Barbara County
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency has updated its Flood Insurance Rate Map, which is used to identify areas that may require property owners to purchase flood insurance. The maps will be used to determine which parts of the region are at risk of flooding. Before the maps are officially adopted, the County of Santa Barbara is working to inform residents on how the maps affect them. “There may be some people who […] previously were not in one of these flood zones and then FEMA went and looked at the area and determined that their residence now is in a flood zone,” said Lael Wageneck, a public information officer for Santa Barbara County. … ” Read more from Noozhawk.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
A beloved palm and pine tree mark California’s center. Now they’re being cut down
“Whenever Cassie Yoshikawa drives through the Central Valley on the former US Highway 99, she looks for the century-old landmark that symbolizes the midpoint of California: the Palm and the Pine. Located on the highway median and towering over neighboring oleander shrubs, the Canary Island palm and the Deodar cedar tree are said to represent the spot where the balmy bottom of California meets its woodsier counterpart. In a state where north-south divisions run deep, the trees have long been a bright spot that speaks to the spirit of each half. “It’s a cool little claim to fame given how the pine represents northern California and the palm represents southern California,” said Yoshikawa, a Fresno-based travel blogger. … ” Read more from The Guardian.
Almost no dam problems at Tulare County’s seven sites
“In a system with more than 1,400 dams, California has 42 that are in need of repairs. State officials consider these 42 dams deficient and as a result, the state’s Division of Safety of Dams (DSOD) directed their owners, which include cities, counties, utilities, and water districts, to operate at a lower than maximum storage level. None of these dams are in Tulare County. The DSOD has listed all seven dams in Tulare County under state jurisdiction as “satisfactory” – its top grade. These dams are Bravo Lake Reservoir, Crystal Lake, Elk Bayou, Lady Franklin Lake, Larson Dam, Sand Creek, and Upper Monarch Lake. … ” Read more from the Visalia Times-Delta.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Unfinished wetlands from Playa Vista pact capture the promise, perils of California housing
“On the far western edge of Los Angeles, Ruth Galanter parked her car in Playa Vista and walked across Lincoln Boulevard. For the former LA city councilwoman, this boundary divides her long history of service to her district and the city. On one side is a historic achievement, one that represents the possibility of growth and progress — on the other, hundreds of acres of land trapped in an exasperating standoff. Behind Galanter as she crossed Lincoln was Playa Vista, a community that took decades to conceive, debate and construct and now serves as home to more than 10,000 people. It’s an extraordinary accomplishment in a city where housing is notoriously difficult to create and urgently needed. Before her was a scrubby patch of marsh, land that was hard-won during the fight over Playa Vista but remains unrestored. This sort of coastal marsh is in alarmingly short supply in California, but here is being blocked, paradoxically, by those who call themselves environmentalists. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Along the Colorado River …
Reclamation begins cold water flows to disrupt spawning of nonnative fish below Glen Canyon Dam
“As a result of warmer river temperatures, the Bureau of Reclamation will begin releasing deeper, and therefore, colder water on Tuesday, July 9 from Lake Powell through Glen Canyon Dam to disrupt the establishment of smallmouth bass, which could negatively affect populations of threatened humpback chub below the dam. The need for these flows was triggered after the average observed daily water temperatures reached smallmouth bass reproduction thresholds above 15.5 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) at the confluence of the Colorado River with the Little Colorado River. “The most healthy and vibrant populations of humpback chub are found in the stretch of the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam that runs through the Grand Canyon,” said Reclamation Upper Colorado River Basin Regional Director Wayne Pullan. “We have a great interest and commitment to preserving our progress in recovering the humpback chub and protecting all native fish species within the Grand Canyon. And this summer, by using these cooler flows, we have our best operational chance to achieve these goals.” … ” Read more from the Bureau of Reclamation.
In national water news today …
Biden issues regulatory plans that could be toast if Trump wins
“President Joe Biden has laid out his regulatory blueprint for the remainder of the year and beyond if he wins his reelection bid. The spring Unified Agenda, released by the White House late Friday afternoon, details rules to be drafted agency by agency in the coming months that will tackle climate warming gases and polluted waterways as well as guard against toxic chemicals and protect pristine public lands. Coming at a key juncture for Biden, who is locked in a tight race with former President Donald Trump, the document lends a sharp contrast between the tough regulations proposed by the Democrat and his Republican opponent’s campaign pledge to tear down the administrative state. … ” Read more from E&E News.
