A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
Ex-leader of Bureau of Reclamation calls for Trump administration to eliminate it
“A progressive civil servant who led the Bureau of Reclamation under former President Clinton is now urging the incoming Trump administration to eliminate his former agency — an entity he has long deemed superfluous. Daniel Beard, who served as commissioner from 1993-95, said in a statement shared with The Hill that if the “administration is serious about reducing government bureaucracy, cutting wasteful expenditures and restructuring federal agencies, it should start by abolishing the Bureau of Reclamation.” Beard argued Congress only maintains the Bureau of Reclamation for political reasons, stressing that the agency’s every function could be overseen by the private sector or other federal, state, regional or local entities. … ” Read more from The Hill.
Let’s do the bi op again
“Central Valley agriculture’s star is rising with President-elect Donald Trump’s return to power. Now, it just needs to figure out what to do with it. Trump made a point on the campaign trail of promising California’s Republican-leaning farmers he’d “turn on the faucet” and deliver more water than ever before to them, even if he had no chance of winning California’s electoral college votes. Valley interests knew they were risking in-state ire by backing Trump, but to hear them tell it, they had no choice. “I have become a single-issue voter. It’s all about water,” said Johnny Amaral, chief of external affairs for the Friant Water Authority, one of the biggest recipients of federal water deliveries in the Central Valley. “Maybe not since John F. Kennedy, when he came out to California and dedicated the San Luis Reservoir site, has there been a president who has been so strong and so vocal on this.” … ” Read more from Politico.
NOTEBOOK FEATURE: Numerous appeals filed for DWR’s consistency determination for the Delta Conveyance Project geotechnical activities
“Last Friday, the Delta Stewardship Council reported that four appeals had been filed for the Department of Water Resources (DWR) certification of consistency with the Delta Plan for the geotechnical activities associated with the Delta Conveyance Project. The draft certification only concerns certain geotechnical activities related to data collection (cone penetration tests, soil borings, and water quality sampling within soil borings), and not for the project in its entirety. Four appeals by about eighteen local agencies, conservation groups and Tribes were filed before the deadline. … ” Continue reading at Maven’s Notebook.
Deal reached to expand massive reservoir near Bay Area to increase water supplies
“In a significant boost for increasing Northern California’s water supplies, eight water agencies have reached an agreement with the federal government to spend nearly $1 billion to raise the height of the dam at one of California’s largest reservoirs, San Luis Reservoir between Gilroy and Los Banos. Already the fifth largest reservoir in the state, San Luis would expand by 130,000 acre feet — enough water for 650,000 people a year — under the deal, which calls for raising its 382-foot dam by 10 feet to store more water during wet years to use during droughts. The agreement is set to be commemorated Wednesday at an event at the Department of Interior in Washington, D.C. Santa Clara County residents would be the main beneficiaries of project, which requires rerouting more than 1 mile of Highway 152. … ” Read more from the Mercury News (gift article).
Will La Niña emerge this year? The forecast is starting to shift
“The odds of La Niña have decreased again, according to a monthly update by the Climate Prediction Center on Thursday. The agency reports a 57% chance that La Niña develops during the period from October to December. That’s a decrease from an update last month, when forecasters announced a 71% probability that La Niña would be present during that same three-month period. For now, the climate pattern is expected to be in place through January-March 2025 and still has the potential to influence California weather this winter. … “The tropical Pacific Ocean has not cooled as much as expected, and it’s getting late in the year for La Niña to develop,” Emily Becker, a member of the center’s forecasting team, said by email. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle (gift article).
Returning a piece of the Delta to nature’s blueprint
“Standing on the levee road, surrounded by trees and an inert slough, it’s hard to get a read on distance or orientation. But that’s the Delta – a mosaic of water, land and sky that harkens to an undiscovered part of California that defies time or categorization. The Delta is critical to Reclamation’s Central Valley Project and the Department of Water Resources’ State Water Project operations – the hub where water flows in California. Improving the health of the ecosystem is equally important, an aim that pushes the construction and completion of ambitious and comprehensive restoration projects. One of those undertakings, the Prospect Island Tidal Habitat Restoration Project, is being recognized this week by state and federal officials. Once part of the Delta’s patchwork of farmland, Prospect Island awaits a transformation that promises to return it to the tidal-driven wetland it was before levees blocked the connectivity. DWR is leading the $69.4 million project, with funding coming from Reclamation to support the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program. … ” Read more from the Bureau of Reclamation.
How floating wetlands could transform restoration in California’s Delta
“Floating wetlands sound like something straight out of a fairy tale, fanciful landscapes where the laws of nature are suspended. But these buoyant mats of peat and tall, spiky marsh plants called tules are very real. That said, floating wetlands do possess qualities that border on magic. They historically broke off from marshes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, and could be so big―up to several acres―that people call them floating islands. And they’re so sturdy that one even bore a herd of livestock to safety during California’s Great Flood of 1862, which filled the Central Valley to depths of 30 feet. People can walk on floating wetlands too. “They’re squishy, and kind of bob up and down,” says Steven Deverel, principal hydrologist at the Davis-based consulting firm HydroFocus. But, Deverel and other researchers say, the most wondrous thing about floating wetlands is their potential for restoring the Delta. According to new findings that are preliminary but promising, floating wetlands could help Delta smelt and other imperiled native fish. … ” Read more from Maven’s Notebook.
A century after Owens Valley aqueduct protest, event marks tense time in L.A. water history
“It’s a chapter of California history filled with subterfuge and conflict: More than a century ago, agents secretly working for Los Angeles posed as farmers and ranchers as they bought land and water rights across the Owens Valley. Their scheme laid the groundwork for the construction of the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which in 1913 began sending the valley’s water to the growing city 233 miles away. Residents were so enraged in the 1920s that some carried out a series of attacks on the aqueduct, blasting it with dynamite. But there was also one major nonviolent protest, an act of civil disobedience 100 years ago that is being commemorated this weekend with a series of free community events in Lone Pine. In that defiant act of resistance on Nov. 16, 1924, a group of about 70 unarmed men took over an aqueduct spillway and control gates north of Lone Pine and began releasing all the water back into the dry channel of the Owens River. That act, called the Alabama Gates occupation, grew as more than 700 residents of all ages came to celebrate the takeover during four days of festivities, bringing food and barbecuing as the protest became a community picnic. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
New report: Meeting information needs for water markets: Understanding water diversion and use
“Water scarcity is a growing problem for agriculture and ecosystems across the U.S. Southwest. In many areas, unsustainable water use has overstretched local water supplies, and climate change is making these supplies more volatile. Water markets have the potential to enhance climate resilience by helping water users adapt to short-term variations in water supply and by easing long-term transitions to more sustainable levels of water use. However, this promise can only be realized if markets are truly fair and effective—able to achieve their intended goals without causing negative side effects. Our new report examines a foundational prerequisite for fair and effective water markets: adequate information about water diversion and use. This information is necessary because it defines what can be traded, enables market administrators and participants to track trading transactions and changes in the physical and legal availability of water, and facilitates assessment of the impacts trading has on others. … ” Read more from Legal Planet.
REPORT SUMMARY: Five Guiding Principles for Effective Voluntary Agreements
“California has increasingly focused on developing voluntary agreements (VAs) with water users to achieve regulatory goals in some watersheds. Ideally, voluntary agreements combine the protectiveness of regulation with the creativity and flexibility of negotiation, potentially achieving better outcomes faster and with less conflict than traditional regulatory methods. These potential benefits include faster implementation of measures, reduced conflict among stakeholders, and the ability to adapt to changing conditions. However, this ideal has only sometimes been realized in practice. The report, Five Guiding Principles for Effective Voluntary Agreements, was written to help agencies, potential signatories, and the interested public assess proposals for voluntary agreements and forge a viable path toward achieving critical regulatory goals. Written by former chair of the State Water Board Felicia Marcus (Visiting fellow at Stanford University), Nell Green Nylen (Berkeley Law), Dave Owen (UC Law San Francisco), and Michael Kiparsky (Berkeley Law), the report details concern for the voluntary agreements as proposed, and outlines five policy recommendations for moving the process forward to a successful outcome. … ” Read more from Maven’s Notebook.
PPIC: Priorities for California’s water: Are we ready for climate change?
“Back in 2021, when California was in the grips of one of the driest periods on record, we held an event to discuss how to make needed changes. During the event, research fellow Alvar Escriva-Bou addressed the elephant in the room: “Is climate change outpacing us?” Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources, reframed the question slightly. “Are we ready?” she asked. “The answer to that is: not yet.” Three years later, Director Nemeth’s words still ring true. California faces many immediate challenges around water management, but as the record-breaking heat of 2024 makes clear, temperatures are rising—and Californians are contending with the consequences. … ” Read more from the PPIC.
In commentary this week …
Improving our amazing water system in California
David Guy, Executive Director of the Northern California Water Association, writes, “With the recent precipitation that has been emerging in the new water year and the weather whiplash we have seen in California the past several decades, this is a good time to think about the importance of our amazing water system in California, how we can continually modernize and improve our water system, and provide our water resources managers with the tools to effectively prepare for the new water year—not knowing whether this upcoming year will be wet, dry, or another average water year like 2024. … ” Read more from the Northern California Water Association.
Aren’t restoring the San Francisco Bay-Delta and Central Valley salmon California Values?
Dan Bacher writes, “In the face of an incoming Trump administration, Governor Gavin Newsom on Nov. 7 issued a proclamation convening a special session of the California Legislature to “safeguard California values and fundamental rights,’ but those values apparently don’t include restoring the San Francisco-Bay Delta Estuary and Central Valley salmon populations. Newsom said the special session will focus on “bolstering California legal resources to protect civil rights, reproductive freedom, climate action, and immigrant families.” This is the first of several actions by the Newsom Administration, in partnership with the Legislature, as the Governor begins “shoring up California’s defenses against an incoming federal administration that has threatened the state on multiple fronts,” according to the Governor’s Office. … ” Read more from IndyBay.
In regional water news this week …
The other side of the world’s largest dam removal: Removing dams from the Klamath River in Northern California seems like a clear win for fish and rivers. Why do some locals hate it?
“It’s a blustery day in the autumn of 2023, and I’m standing in a roadside pullout in Northern California, looking at the past and future of the Klamath River. Immediately upstream I see Iron Gate Dam—17 stories tall, nearly four times as wide— completely blocking its red-rock canyon. There are four such dams, with Iron Gate as the first and largest, in 60 kilometers of river rising to the northeast. It’s a stretch sometimes called Reservoir Reach, and it has shut salmon out of hundreds of kilometers of potential habitat in the Upper Klamath Basin for more than a century. The dams are the river’s past. … ” Read more from Hakai Magazine.
Sierra Nevada may hold key to meet California’s ambitious 30×30 goal
“California’s 30×30 goal was a topic at the Sierra Nevada Alliance Conservation Conference held at Lake Tahoe Community College, Nov. 7-8. In 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom committed the state to conserving 30% of lands and coastal waters by 2030, and the key to meeting the ambitious goal could be right here in the Sierra Nevada. “One thing that’s very unique about the Sierra Nevada region is there’s more public lands here than any other region in the state, as I’m sure you all are familiar with,” Madeline Drake with the California Natural Resources Agency said to the full house at the Duke Theater that Friday morning. The assistant secretary for biodiversity and habitat was this year’s keynote speaker and provided an update on the 30×30 initiative. California was one of the first to commit to the goal with the initiative in 2020. In January of 2021, the Biden administration issued an executive order on tackling the climate crisis and committed the United States to 30×30 through its America the Beautiful initiative. The year following, many countries came together for a United Nations in 2022 to agree to a 30×30 goal. … ” Read more from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
Agencies ‘excitingly’ remove Taylor Tallac creek bottom barriers, still more work to do
“Under the gaze of the freshly powdered Mt. Tallac, workers wade through Taylor Creek and Tallac Creek to pull up rebar, sand bags and what appear to be large black tarps. “We’re excitingly removing the bottom barriers,” aquatic biologist Sarah Muskopf with the USDA Forest Service explains. The cause for excitement is the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and Forest Service’s three year long treatment with these barriers has proved to be successful against the invasive Eurasian watermilfoil and curly-leaf pondweed, starving them of critical sunlight. A root check this summer revealed the barriers had killed the weeds, but the work doesn’t stop with the celebration. There’s still more work to do in the 2,600 acre site where managers are focused on the wetland portion found near Baldwin Beach. They’re placing attention there for a very important reason. “These are really the last naturally functioning wetlands that we have in the basin,” Muskopf says, “although more are going to be restored.” … ” Read more from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
Protecting our watersheds: How Placer County Water Agency and Yuba Water Agency are reducing wildfire risk to protect water supplies
“Though summer is behind us, the risk of wildfires persists in our region’s forests. According to Cal Fire, eight of California’s 10 most destructive wildfires started in either September, October, or November. Regional Water Authority (RWA) member agencies are hard at work on projects to reduce wildfire risk and protect our precious water supplies. In the bustle of daily life, it’s not unusual to lose sight of where our water comes from. But it’s worth remembering that our water flows from the Sierra Nevada forests, where water falls as snow and rain, then flows downhill into our reservoirs and groundwater aquifers. A century of well-intentioned but overzealous firefighting has left our watershed forests too dense with trees. Throw in the growing influence of climate change — hotter summers and more intense storms — and the threat to our water supply is immense. … ” Continue reading this article.
California Coastal Commission reluctantly approves San Francisco seawall project
“Caught between the possibility of hundreds of thousands of people losing the ability to flush their toilets and an eroding beach, the California Coastal Commission begrudgingly approved on Thursday a project to construct a seawall along a portion of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. Buried beneath Ocean Beach along the southern portion of San Francisco’s Great Highway lies a storm and wastewater drain called the Lake Merced Tunnel. As climate change raises sea levels, the cliffs that encase the tunnel are ever more vulnerable to erosion, and the possibility of the tunnel itself being destroyed. If that happens, wastewater could flood the beach. To prevent that from happening and to protect other nearby city infrastructure, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission proposed a $175 million project to build a 3,200-foot buried seawall. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Climate change could bring disaster or solutions to San Joaquin Valley
“A projected increase in the kind of “atmospheric river” type storms California experienced in the historic 2023 water year could be disastrous for the San Joaquin Valley – or its salvation. The difference depends on whether locals can adapt to the coming changes by absorbing the intermittent deluges and storing that water for later dry times. Right now, systems in the San Joaquin and Sacramento River watersheds were built to collect and move precipitation that first lands as snow in the Sierra Nevada mountains and then slowly melts through springtime. A warmer climate, though, will mean more rain than snow, filling rivers and reservoirs more quickly, said Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, during a webinar hosted by the Sustainable Conservation. “This is particularly true in the San Joaquin and Sacramento River watersheds,” he said. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Hanford confirms no PFAS chemicals in drinking water
“Chemicals that can cause infertility and increase cancer risks are not in Hanford’s drinking water, the city announced on Friday. The Utilities and Engineering Department tested 11 city drinking water wells and found no Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS). According to the State Water Resources Control Board, PFAS are a large group of potentially harmful substances that have historically been used in industry and consumer products, such as non-stick cookware and stain-resistant fabrics and carpets. The substances can contaminate drinking water when they are used or spilled onto the ground or into lakes and rivers. … ” Read more from Your Central Valley.
Los Angeles set to build facility to transform wastewater into clean drinking water
“Los Angeles will soon begin building a $740-million project to transform wastewater into purified drinking water in the San Fernando Valley, expanding the city’s local water supply in an effort to prepare for worsening droughts compounded by climate change. The city plans to break ground next month to start construction of new facilities at the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys. When completed, the facilities will purify treated wastewater and produce 20 million gallons of drinking water per day, enough to supply about 250,000 people. The drinking water that the plant produces will be piped 10 miles northeast to L.A. County’s Hansen Spreading Grounds, where it will flow into basins and percolate into the groundwater aquifer for storage. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will later pump the water from wells, and after additional testing and treatment, the water will enter pipes and be delivered to taps. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
