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In California water news today …
Atmospheric rivers from research to reconnaissance: A conversation with research meteorologist Marty Ralph
“In the late 1990s, hardly anyone had heard of the storms called atmospheric rivers. That includes Marty Ralph, founding director of Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) and a leading expert on these relatively recently recognized streams of water vapor in the sky. Atmospheric rivers are long, narrow plumes of exceptionally wet air that shoot across the ocean and drop rain or snow when they hit land. These storms deliver much of the precipitation and cause most of the flooding in the Western U.S., with economic damages averaging $1.5 billion a year. Ralph was already investigating the storms now known as atmospheric rivers back in the ‘90s. He just didn’t realize it until he read the paper that coined their name. “The light bulb literally went off: that’s what I’d been studying,” he recalls. “It was published in 1998 and I came across it in 2003, and it changed the course of my work and helped create what we’re doing today at CW3E.” … ” Continue reading at Maven’s Notebook.
Nowhere in America is safe from climate-fueled storms and fires
“Forecasters had warned for days that Hurricane Helene was likely to cause widespread devastation. But when the powerful storm struck Florida and barreled through the eastern U.S. last week, killing more than 180 people and taking whole communities offline, it still managed to come as a shock. Florida’s Big Bend, where Helene made landfall, previously went decades without a hurricane strike. In the past year or so, it has now seen three. The western half of North Carolina, once held up as a haven from the worst impacts of climate change, has been paralyzed by floods. Across the U.S., natural catastrophes are becoming more expensive and more common. Global warming is supercharging the atmosphere with more water and energy, fueling increasingly violent weather. The destructive storms, droughts, floods and wildfires are colliding with communities where millions of people live, with more costly homes and possessions — and so much more to lose. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News. | Read via PhysOrg.
SEE ALSO: American dams weren’t built for today’s climate-charged rain and floods, from the Portland Press Herald
California’s new water recycling rules turn wastewater to tapwater. What this means for you
“Water recycling — once dubbed “toilet-to-tap” by naysayers — has officially entered a new era in California. This month, statewide regulations for what’s technically called “direct potable reuse” went into effect. The rules allow wastewater — yes, the water that goes down the drain or is flushed down the toilet — to be treated to drinkable standards then distributed directly to homes and businesses. Mickey Chaudhuri, treatment and water quality manager for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), said the new rules are “a gamechanger.” “It’s a groundbreaking moment for California,” Chaudhuri said. “The regulations are a model for other states and other countries.” … ” Read more from the LAist.
The foodscape – (re) connecting salmon to the productive capacity of their watersheds
“In 1927, the famous ecologist Charles Elton (when he was 27 years old) set the stage for the modern ecological study when he published his great treatise “Animal Ecology.” In it, he penned: “Food is the burning question in animal society, and the whole structure and activities of the community are dependent upon questions of food-supply” (Elton 1927). This sentiment is older than modern science of course – it reflects millennia of human history where people tracked great animal migrations and observed relationships between animals and their environment. And yet, oddly, this sentiment failed to take root in the last century of salmon research and management. For over a hundred years or so, salmon managers focused on a litany of strategies for recovering salmon: hatchery production, harvest quotas, managing streamflow below dams, improving physical habitat, and fish passage. … And yet recently there has been a reawakening to what Charles Elton recognized 96 years ago – and what Indigenous stewards from Europe to Asia have known for millennia before: that ‘food’ is at the heart of ecological resilience and also of the relationship between humans and other biota (e.g. Quaempts et al 2018). Simply put, we are unlikely to recover robust salmon populations without recovering the dynamic food webs that sustain them (Naiman et al. 2012, Bellmore et al. 2022, Rossi et al. 2024). … ” Read more from the California Water Blog.
Delta Smelt summer 2024 – One is the loneliest number
Tom Cannon writes, “A weekly survey by the US Fish and Wildlife Service1 targeting Delta smelt captured one Delta smelt in early August 2024. It was the first and only Delta smelt caught this summer in that smelt-targeted survey in the Bay-Delta Estuary. A late April IEP juvenile fish survey (the 20-mm Survey) caught several juvenile Delta smelt in the same area. What is unique about this location in Suisun Bay? In 2024 the low-salinity-zone (LSZ) has been located in Suisun Bay for most of the spring and summer, as Delta outflows have been maintained at 8,000-12,000 cfs. The LSZ is the critical spring-summer habitat of the Delta smelt (a salinity range related to high survival in the population). … ” Read more from the California Fisheries blog.
Oh, nuts! Wildfire smoke harms a crucial part of California’s economy, study says
“It’s no secret that California’s large-scale fires can harm wildlife and the water supply, but researchers say they also can wreak havoc on a major state export. While most native species have adapted to withstand smaller, naturally occurring fires, they aren’t built for the high-intensity blazes the state has seen in recent years. But a new study from the University of California, Davis has found that these fire have even longer-reaching effects: Megafires, like the ones the state saw in 2020, also can severely hamper neighboring trees’ ability to produce pistachios, walnuts and almonds. Researchers looked at Central Valley nut orchards, one of the key components of California’s agriculture, and found that nut trees produced a significantly smaller crop in 2021 following the wildfires. In some cases, farms produced about 15% fewer nuts, but other orchards’ yields were cut in half. … ” Read more from the LAist.
Wildfire data is flawed — here’s how to fix it
Sarah Hyden writes, “Both Congress and the U.S. Forest Service have told us that our forests and communities are experiencing a “wildfire crisis” — that an increasing amount of wildfire is burning on our landscapes and fire severity is increasing. The primary “solution” they’re currently planning and implementing, embodied in the Wildfire Crisis Strategy, is a substantial increase in logging, thinning and burning treatments in our forests, for which Congress has provided billions of dollars of funding, along with the mandate to get it done. So that begs the question — to what extent are we actually in a wildfire crisis? Certainly the aggressive and environmentally damaging logging and over-burning being carried out in some forests, with much more to come, should be based on solid data and science. As someone who’s worked to protect western forests for over 15 years as an advocate and journalist, including as the cofounder and director of The Forest Advocate, I’m searching for answers to fundamental questions underlying prevailing forest-management paradigms and strategies. … ” Read more from The Revelator.
Ocean Protection Council refines plans to protect CA coastal waters
“California has set a goal to protect 30% of its land and waters by the year 2030, so the Ocean Protection Council is working on which waters should count as protected and is identifying new conservation measures. A public comment period on its draft framework just ended. Drew Talley, professor of environmental and ocean sciences at the University of San Diego, said the proposal is on the right track but needs a little more work when it comes to estuaries, where the rivers meet the sea. “It doesn’t look at some of the main threats those systems are facing,” Talley explained. “Including sea level rise, degraded water quality and ongoing effects of historical alterations like dams and diking and urban runoff.” … ” Read more from the Public News Service.
In commentary today …
How Proposition 4 would prepare California for climate change’s dangers
Angel S. Fernandez-Bou, senior climate scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, writes, “Proposition 4 is a critical water and wildfire bond for California, and all Californians should understand it well to make an informed decision in the November elections. However, there are many people who don’t know about it yet. That’s why, when Radio Bilingüe invited me to talk about the facts surrounding Prop 4, I felt it was a good opportunity to provide Californians, especially Spanish speaking residents of the Central Valley, with information they often don’t receive. … In today’s climate crisis, California is facing unprecedented challenges that affect our infrastructure, natural resources, and communities, especially those already suffering from inequality and underinvestment. California has a Mediterranean climate, which, like other parts of the world, is becoming more extreme: wildfires, unbearable heat waves, and water shortages are just a few of the recurring problems that have worsened due to climate change. Proposition 4 seeks to address these problems through a bond that would fund water and wildfire resilience and environmental justice projects. … ” Read more from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
Carbon capture projects pay billions to polluters but aren’t worth much to Californians
Dolores Huerta, president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and co-founder of the United Farm Workers union with César Chávez, and Nayamin Martinez, executive director of the Central California Environmental Justice Network, write, “Perhaps no other state in the nation has done more to fight climate change than California. We stood up to the powerful auto industry and passed the first U.S. ban on new gasoline-powered car sales. The state is suing the world’s largest oil producers for decades of climate deception. Soon we’ll be stopping all new fracking as part of an historic plan to end oil extraction across the Golden State. Even businesses, municipalities and advocates are uniting around an ambitious goal of achieving 100% clean power by 2045 by investing billions in renewable energy and eliminating the root cause of climate change — burning fossil fuels. Now we appear poised to undermine this progress by opening California’s doors to the fossil fuel industry’s latest greenwashing scheme: carbon capture and storage. Let’s hope our politicians and environmental regulators, including the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy, reconsider. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
There’s a ticking time bomb in the heart of Orick, and it’s not clear whether anybody can do anything about it
” … The levee system that runs through the heart of Orick consists of two earthen levees that flank each side of Redwood Creek. Over the years, the main channel has become impaired by vegetation and sediment deposits that restrict the channel’s capacity and increase local flood risk. Over the last three decades, [Ron] Barlow has written countless letters and convened dozens of meetings with county, state and federal officials on behalf of the Orick Community Services District (CSD) Board of Directors, which he chairs, to sound the alarm over ongoing maintenance issues with the Redwood Creek levee system. If the levee isn’t repaired – and soon – Barlow fears the creek will breach the levees and decimate the struggling community. … ” Read the full article at the Lost Coast Outpost.
Prescribed burns planned to restore river and forest health in Northern Mendocino County
“The Eel River Recovery Project, in collaboration with local landowners, and the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), is planning a prescribed burn on lower Tenmile Creek in the coming weeks. This restoration burn will treat approximately 30-acres of forest understory fuels as part of an ambitious multi-year watershed-wide forest health project. The Lower Tenmile Creek project area is located near Hwy 101 approximately 5 miles north of Laytonville. Burning will begin as soon as favorable weather and humidity conditions allow for safe and effective operations. During the burn, smoke may be visible in the area. The burn will be assisted by qualified Burn Boss Scot Steinbring of Torchbearr with permission from CAL FIRE, pending an approved burn plan, burn permit, smoke permit, and cooperative weather conditions. Resources committed to prescribed burn include 2 engines and 20 ground personnel. … ” Read more from the Mendocino Voice.
Along the Colorado River …
Enduring solutions on the Colorado River
“As we work to reduce water use on the post-2026 Colorado River, two paths lie open before us. One is to incentivize conservation by giving water users the chance to bank saved water for later use. Known most commonly as Intentionally Created Surplus (ICS), and more broadly in a series of increasingly creative implementations as “Assigned Water,” this creates short term savings. But in the long run, the approach entitles the users to take the water back out of the bank. The other involves permanent reductions – “System Water.” Water use is reduced for the benefit of the Colorado River as a whole. Investment in Assigned Water, attractive to water managers because of the allure that they can get their water back, has crowded out investment in the more durable System Water reductions that will be needed to bring the Colorado River into balance. As we develop new operating rules for the river, we need to be mindful of the differences involved. … ” Read more from Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University.
ADWE responds to “enduring solutions on the Colorado River”: Baseless accusations and little substance
“On August 16, 2024, the Kyl Center for Water Policy published a paper entitled “Enduring Solutions on the Colorado River.” The paper compares intentionally created surplus (“ICS”) under current Colorado River operating guidelines (described in the paper as “Assigned Water,” which may include any similar storage program to be developed in the future) to system conservation (referred to as “System Water,” but intended to describe water that is voluntarily conserved rather than used, and that accrues to the benefit of the Colorado River system, rather than to any particular user). ADWR offers the following information in response to the paper, which incorporates supposition and opinion masquerading as fact (even using subjective and even judgmental phrases like “what rational actor would invest in schemes to conserve water,” “because of its sparkling qualities,” and “a tool as flexible and alluring as Assigned Water”). … ” Read more from the Arizona Department of Water Resources.
Scientists study implications of oxygen level changes on Lake Powell’s fish population, algae
“A delicate balance of oxygen levels in Lake Powell affects the fish that live in the water, and scientists are monitoring whether recent changes in the chemical makeup of the lake could affect habitat and water quality. Bridget R. Deemer, a research ecologist at the U.S. Geological Survey’s Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center, told St. George News that Lake Powell’s water quality can experience significant changes, depending on a variety of factors. Deemer explained that the lake is an “oligotrophic ecosystem,” which is a marine ecosystem with low nutrient levels.Deemer’s office has reportedly observing larger and more frequent low dissolved oxygen zones developing in the reservoir. … ” Continue reading at St. George News.
In national water news today …
World’s rivers are driest they have been in decades
“Last year, the world’s rivers had their driest year in at least three decades, according to a new U.N. report, which warns that heat and drought are sapping vital waterways. Warming is fueling both heavier rainfall and more intense drought globally. As the planet heats up, “we are facing growing problems of either too much or too little water,” said Celeste Saulo, secretary-general of the U.N. World Meteorological Organization, which authored the new report. In 2023, the hottest year on record, the Mississippi River and Amazon River basins were at all-time lows, while the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Mekong rivers, which all have their headwaters in the Himalayas, were also unusually dry. Across nearly half the globe, rivers were drier than normal. … ” Read more from Yale e360.
SEE ALSO: The world’s rivers faced the driest year in three decades in 2023, the UN weather agency says, from the Associated Press
