A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
Dam removal deal could create longest free-flowing California river
“The push to remove two dams on Northern California’s Eel River, making it the longest free-flowing river in the state, took a step forward Thursday with a major agreement among clashing communities. The agreement, which unites local, state and tribal leaders behind the retirement of PG&E’s Potter Valley hydroelectric project and its two dams, promises “restorative justice” compensation for the region’s indigenous people and continued water exports to the Russian River basin, where the PG&E facility has long sent supplies. Restoring the Eel River to its natural flow has been an enduring goal for many along the waterway. Most fundamentally, it would raise river levels and give struggling salmon and other fish access to spawning habitat blocked by the dams for more than a century. Several obstacles have stood in the way, however — none so great as concern that cities and farms in Mendocino, Sonoma and Marin counties might lose the Eel River water that is piped into their Russian River supplies. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle. | Read via MSN News.
Eel River pact redresses past wrongs, provides model for compromise among diverse interests, officials say
“There was emotion in the room Thursday as public officials from around the North Coast gathered in Sacramento for a ceremonial signing. They were putting their names to a historic agreement on the future of the Eel River that secures crucial water supplies for the Russian River watershed while redressing past oversights and injustices. Negotiated over more than six years to chart a way forward once Pacific Gas & Electric decommissions its Potter Valley powerhouse and tears out dams that have degraded the Eel River and imperiled fish species, the multiparty pact gives equal attention to river restoration needs and to modernizing water diversions for Russian River users in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. In the process, it confers Eel River water rights to the Round Valley Indian Tribes in northeast Mendocino County, requiring beneficiaries on the Russian River to pay them $1 million a year for the privilege of transferring water from the Eel into the Russian River. … ” Read more from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
State proposes retroactive changes to farmland retirement program that some fear could pull rug out from ongoing projects
“A proposal to retroactively change some of the goals of California’s $90-million farmland retirement program has literally stopped numerous projects in their tracks. “Right now, all implementation projects are basically stopped,” said Reyn Akiona of Valley Eco, a consulting firm overseeing state-funded farmland conversion projects in the Kaweah, Tule and Merced subbasins. “No tractors are moving until we get guidance on this piece of language.” The proposed language change in the Multibenefit Land Repurposing Program comes down to, basically, one word – “meaningful.” The state Department of Conservation, which oversees the program, put out a proposal to change funding guidelines – retroactively – by adding that each project must include “meaningful benefit to a disadvantaged community” as a goal. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Update on State Water Board’s SGMA intervention efforts
“Natalie Stork, director of the State Water Resources Control Board’s Office of Sustainable Groundwater Management, spoke at the 2025 California Irrigation Institute conference about the state’s intervention process for groundwater management. She provided updates on six San Joaquin Valley groundwater basins with Groundwater Sustainability Plans deemed inadequate by the Department of Water Resources and outlined the steps needed for these basins to exit the intervention process. Her presentation also reviewed the successes and challenges encountered during the first decade of implementing the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. … ” Continue reading at Maven’s Notebook.
Kings County Farm Bureau: SGMA remains a top concern for Tulare Lake Subbasin Growers
Dusty Ference writes, “Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSA) in the Tulare Lake Subbasin (TLSB) remain focused on complying with SGMA as KCFB’s lawsuit against the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) works to address concerns regarding SGMA oversight by state regulators. Local GSAs are committed to creating groundwater management plans (GSP) that comply with the law while protecting landowners in the subbasin. The Mid-Kings River GSA (MKRGSA) has appointed its Stakeholder Advisory Committee, which the board of directors has tasked to review the GSA’s current GSP and suggest updates to the plan. The committee met for the first time on Monday, Jan. 13, 2025. At that meeting, Garrett Gilcrease and Kevin Ruble were appointed Chair and Vice Chair of the committee. The group also agreed to meet every Monday afternoon beginning Jan. 27 at 2 p.m. … ” Read more from the Hanford Sentinel.
Atmospheric Rivers explain atypical El Niño and La Niña years
“El Niño and La Niña are climate phenomena that are generally associated with wetter and drier winter conditions in the Southwestern United States, respectively. In 2023, however, a La Niña year proved extremely wet in the Southwest instead of dry. New research from scientists at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography finds that atmospheric rivers explain the majority of atypical El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) years, such as 2023. For example, during 2023’s La Niña, California experienced a series of nine atmospheric rivers that added up to the state’s 10th wettest year on record. The study, published in the journal Climate Dynamics and supported by the California Department of Water Resources and the Southwest Climate Adaptation Science Center, shows that atmospheric rivers can overwhelm the influence of El Niño and La Niña on annual precipitation totals in the American West. This has important implications for water managers, who rely on seasonal forecasts based on El Niño and La Niña to inform key planning decisions around reservoirs and water allocation. … ” Read more from Scripps Institute of Oceanography.
Atmospheric rivers bring busy times to UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab
“Located at Donner Pass in the Sierra Nevada,the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, or CSSL, has been a leading research field station in snow physics, meteorology, climatology and hydrology for more than 75 years. The lab has built an extensive repository of information, regularly conducting manual observations in the field and collecting automated measurements on a wide range of weather, hydrological and climatological data, according to Andrew Schwartz, director of CSSL. “The first thing that’s very special there, is that there’s a person on site for every storm to take manual snow depth and water volume measurements every time there’s precipitation, and that’s been happening since the 40s,” said Marianne Cowherd, PhD candidate in the Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management. “It’s one of the longest records of snowfall amounts every single day that exists, especially in the United States, and so having a long record like that is really great for understanding how weather works in that area, and also tracking climate change.” … ” Read more from the Daily Californian.
DWR issues an official notification of validation action for Delta Conveyance Program bond financing
“The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has issued a Notice of Validation Action for Delta Conveyance Program bond financing. This provides an official notification of the “validation action” DWR filed with the Sacramento County Superior Court in January regarding DWR’s authority to, among other things, issue revenue bonds to finance the planning, design, construction and other capital costs of Delta conveyance facilities, such as the Delta Conveyance Project DWR approved in December 2023. … ” Read more from DWR.
NASA-led study pinpoints areas sinking, rising along California coast
“Tracking and predicting sea level rise involves more than measuring the height of our oceans: Land along coastlines also inches up and down in elevation. Using California as a case study, a NASA-led team has shown how seemingly modest vertical land motion could significantly impact local sea levels in coming decades. By 2050, sea levels in California are expected to increase between 6 and 14.5 inches (15 and 37 centimeters) higher than year 2000 levels. Melting glaciers and ice sheets, as well as warming ocean water, are primarily driving the rise. As coastal communities develop adaptation strategies, they can also benefit from a better understanding of the land’s role, the team said. The findings are being used in updated guidance for the state. “In many parts of the world, like the reclaimed ground beneath San Francisco, the land is moving down faster than the sea itself is going up,” said lead author Marin Govorcin, a remote sensing scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California. … ” Read more from NASA.
What data-driven science reveals about the twisted saga of Western water rights
“In the American West, water is a sacred and scarce resource plagued by pollution, shortages, and contentious fights over legal rights, often between Indigenous peoples and business groups. At Caltech, Laura Taylor, a postdoctoral instructor in the Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, conducts data-driven research that combines satellite imagery with historical and economic analysis to point to policy solutions for fairer resource allocation and cleaner water. Through her work, Taylor has demonstrated that the processes tribes must go through to have their long-established legal rights to water quantified and enforced may actually be contributing to the degradation of this resource. Water shapes life, economy, and power, Taylor notes. But decades of overuse, drought, and inequitable allocation have made water a fiercely contested resource, particularly in the West. … ” Read more from Pasadena Now.
Agencies to consider species and habitat protection rules
“Actions are being taken on several proposed species listings and habitat designations under the U.S. and state Endangered Species Acts that could affect California farmers and ranchers. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced several proposed actions to list certain species as threatened or endangered, or designate critical habitat. The agency is tasked with protecting species that have experienced dramatic population declines or face imminent risk due to habitat loss, invasive species or environmental degradation. After the service releases a proposed decision to list a species, it has one year to make a final determination. During that time, public comments have the potential to sway proposed listing decisions, said Kari Fisher, California Farm Bureau senior director and counsel of legal advocacy. … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Environmental groups sue Trump administration over white sturgeon
“Four Bay Area environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Monday, alleging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Secretary of the U.S, Department of the Interior failed to deliver a legally required initial determination as to whether San Francisco Bay’s population of white sturgeon should be listed as a threatened species. San Francisco Baykeeper, California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Restore the Delta, and Friends of the River joined forces to file legal action against the new administration regarding the Endangered Species Act. The groups said the suit will be an early indicator of how this administration will act — or fail to act — to protect the bay’s fish and wildlife. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
What the war on nutria says about Mike Johnson’s challenges running the House
“With about six weeks to go before the government shuts down, House Republicans are still bickering over how best to spend taxpayer dollars. But representatives were able to come together on one thing: finding money for the war on nutria. The U.S. House voted 361-56 late Tuesday night to continue the $60 million Nutria Eradication and Control Reauthorization Act until 2030. It’s a bipartisan cause that is bigger than just Louisiana. California nutria recently have migrated into food-producing areas along the San Joaquin River. “We’re in a war with giant swamp rats, and our farms, levees and waterways will pay the price if we lose,” said Rep. Josh Harder, D-California and chief sponsor of the bill. But Louisiana is still central to the debate. … ” Read more from NOLA.
A ‘recipe for extinction’: can the US’s envied nature protections survive Trump and his ‘God squad’?
“Donald Trump has already begun dismantling parts of the envied US endangered species protections in his quest to boost oil and gas drilling, in part using a panel with an ominous name: the God squad. A slew of early actions by the Trump administration has set about throwing open more land and waters for the fossil fuel industry, triggering the reversal of regulations that strengthen the Endangered Species Act, the country’s landmark 1973 conservation bill, including a rule that protects migratory birds from unintentional killing. The department of interior has been tasked with allowing all previously refused drilling leases, including in the Alaskan Arctic, and with drawing up plans to “review and, as appropriate, revise all withdrawn public lands”. This could shrink wildlife refuges and national monuments, which are protected lands designated by the president. Trump slashed the size of two vast national monuments in Utah when last in office. … ” Read more from The Guardian.
US wildfire suppressants rife with toxic heavy metals, study finds
“The US federal government and chemical makers have long concealed the contents of pink wildfire suppressants widely spread by firefighting aircraft to contain blazes, but new test results provide alarming answers – the substances are rife with cadmium, arsenic, chromium and other toxic heavy metals. The suppressants are a “major” source of toxic pollution that causes heavy-metal levels to spike in the environment, and the products themselves contain metal levels up to 3,000 times above drinking water limits, the peer-reviewed research found. The government and chemical makers have claimed up to 20% of aerial suppressants’ contents are “trade secrets” and exempt from public disclosure, so while there has been suspicion of the substances’ toxicity, the study is the first to confirm the metals’ presence. … ” Read more from The Guardian.
California Court of Appeal holds that a water district’s surcharge to cover water infrastructure construction costs violates Proposition 218
“In California, a levy, charge, or exaction imposed by a local government is an unconstitutional and invalid tax if it does not qualify as one of seven enumerated tax exceptions and was not approved by at least a majority of voters. The California Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District recently invalidated a water rate increase imposed on non-agricultural water users because the water district failed to produce evidence that non-agricultural water customers were solely responsible for paying increased groundwater replenishment fees. The case highlights the evidentiary burden on local governments to demonstrate an exaction is not a tax under the California Constitution. (Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Assn. v. Coachella Valley Water Dist. (Jan. 31, 2025 E080870) 2025 Cal.App. Lexis 44 (Howard Jarvis).) … ” Read more from Somach Simmons & Dunn.
LAO report: The 2025-26 Budget: Proposition 4 Spending Plan
“Governor Proposes Multiyear Spending Plan to Implement Proposition 4. In November 2024, voters approved Proposition 4, a $10 billion bond measure focused on increasing the state’s resilience to the impacts of climate change. The Governor has proposed a multiyear spending plan to implement the bond, including appropriations totaling $2.7 billion in 2025‑26. The Governor also proposes shifting some prior appropriations from the General Fund and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) to instead be supported by Proposition 4. This brief assesses the Governor’s proposals to implement Proposition 4, the $10 billion climate bond approved by voters in November 2024. … ” Read more from the LAO Report.
In commentary this week …
President Trump is the great disrupter and California water management needs disruption
Geoff Vanden Heuvel, Director of Regulatory and Economic Affairs for the Milk Producers Council, writes, “California is in a situation right now where the northern part of the state (above Sacramento) is very wet, and the rest of the state is pretty dry. The major reservoirs in northern California, Lake Shasta and Lake Oroville, are releasing huge amounts of water to maintain flood control space in the lakes. This water flows down the Sacramento River on its way to the ocean, and the amount of water being released is staggering. Well over 100,000 cubic feet per second (200,000 acre feet per day) is flowing out to the ocean. You would think that now is the time to fully utilize the pumping capacity of the water export projects that transfer water from northern California to the dry central and southern parts of the state, but that is not happening. The federal pumps are running at full capacity, but the bigger state pumps are only running at about 40% of their permitted capacity. WHY? … ” Read more from the Milk Producers Council.
A new, dangerous era of water management begins under President Donald Trump
Lester Snow, a natural resources consultant with more than 45 years of water management experience in the West, including regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, director of the California Department of Water Resources and secretary of the California Natural Resources Agency, writes, “I have been around western water management long enough to work for some very different leaders. In Arizona, I worked under Gov. Bruce Babbitt implementing the state’s groundwater management act. Later, in California, I worked for Govs. Pete Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger, both with different styles and priorities. Now, however, I fear we have entered a new, dangerous era under President Donald Trump’s second term. In recent days, we have witnessed water management decisions being made in Washington without the benefit of input from local experts and those being impacted. Western water is as complex as an issue can get. Trump’s uninformed, shoot-from-the-hip style does not bode well for addressing the many connected and complicated issues facing western water managers. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
Senators must stop federal usurpation of state water rights
Jim Jones, a Vietnam combat veteran, former Idaho Attorney General (1983-1991) and former Idaho Supreme Court Justice, writes, ” … The most troubling aspect of this episode is the apparent misconception that the federal government can do whatever it wishes with water stored in a federal reservoir. Quite to the contrary, the great majority of the stored water belongs to irrigation companies and other state water right holders. Regardless of the party in control of semi-arid western states, those states have fiercely safeguarded their precious water resources from federal overreach and waste. … To prevent a repeat of the Central Valley debacle in the Gem State, our Congressional delegation should immediately educate the President and his staff of the long-standing tension between federal and state interests in the water rights field. Idaho and the other western states have spent countless hours in planning, litigating and compromising how water within our borders should be allocated and managed to best suit local conditions. We might not always make the best choices, but since we have to live with the system we devise, we are much better positioned to do the job than any unschooled eastern bureaucrat. … ” Read the full commentary at the Idaho Press.
Why Rep. Vince Fong believes Trump’s action on water is right for California
Representative Vince Fong writes, “California’s water policies are getting needed national attention. Now more than ever, ensuring Californians have reliable, stable, and abundant supplies demands urgent and bold action. For too long, radical environmental agendas have taken precedence over the needs of the people of California. The Central Valley and Southern California have persevered through constant uncertainty of reduced water supplies due to bureaucratic decisions, and it is time to prioritize people over politics. Many want to ignore the fact that water deliveries are down, needed infrastructure projects remain trapped in red tape, and California’s water future continues to be focused on more restrictions instead of creating more abundance. The State Water Project, which sends water from Northern California, accounts for 30% of Southern California’s water supply. … ” Read more from the Fresno Bee.
L.A. wildfires exposed a confluence of bad state policy
Steven Greenhut, Western region director for the R Street Institute and a member of the Southern California News Group editorial board, writes, “One of the common themes in my writing has been the state’s commitment to expanding bureaucracy and regulation, without much regard for whether the new programs accomplish their stated goals. Residents and businesses simply deal with the new taxes and red tape and adapt. California is such a beautiful and energetic place that people here muddle through despite the burdens the state government puts in their way. But the Los Angeles wildfires – likely to be one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history – have exposed festering regulatory hurdles that have exacerbated the crisis. Many are years in the making, maddeningly complex and not given to quick solutions. It’s a confluence of bad policy involving brush clearance, water, insurance, firefighting, housing and climate change. Simply put, California has created a tangled web of regulation that renders this once-innovative state incapable of accomplishing anything efficiently. Instead of building a resilient system that handles whatever Mother Nature throws our way, our state constantly uses climate change as an excuse for inaction on nuts-and-bolts issues. … ” Read more from the OC Register. | Read via the Inland Daily Bulletin.
A Trump-Newsom agreement on water? Public has the right to know
Scott Artis, Executive Director of the Golden State Salmon Association, and Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, Executive Director of Restore the Delta, write, “There’s a lot to be nervous about in today’s world. Here’s another: President Trump and Gov. Gavin Newsom are talking about the future of the environmentally threatened San Francisco Bay-Delta. On Feb. 5, they met at the White House to discuss fire relief and water issues. Neither party revealed what water issues were discussed or if an agreement was reached. The public and the people who depend on the health of the magnificent Bay-Delta ecosystem, have a right to know the details of these private talks. And they have cause to be concerned. There are recent signs of an emerging alignment between Trump and Newsom on weakening Bay-Delta protections. Newsom wants to build a massive Delta tunnel — a mind-boggling 36 feet in diameter — to pump more water south from the Sacramento River. Trump wants to eliminate all Bay-Delta environmental protections that limit water diversions. If you put these two ideas together — the biggest water tunnel in the world and no environmental protections — the result would be an economic, ecological and human disaster. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News (gift article).
California’s process for reviewing petitions to protect species needs immediate reform
Paul S. Weiland writes, “In November 2023, the California Fish and Game Commission received a petition to list the white sturgeon under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA). White Sturgeon are native to the western United States, including California, Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, as well as British Columbia. In California, white sturgeon have long been a popular sport fish that spawn in the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers and their tributaries. The Department of Fish and Wildlife issued a perfunctory 90-day evaluation of the petition in March 2024. My colleague penned a post in June 2024 urging the Commission to view the petition with a critical eye, rather than a rubber stamp. But in that same month, the Commission voted unanimously to oblige the petitioners and make the species a candidate for listing. Candidates for listing are afforded the same protections that extend to species listed as threatened or endangered under section 2085 of CESA. Accordingly, the decision to make a species a candidate for listing can have significant and costly consequences for regulated communities, which include public agencies, such as cities and water districts, and private entities, such as homeowners and corporations. … ” Read more from Delta Currents.
Trump’s possible not-so-secret agenda: Canadian water exports and lots of them
Eric Reguly with Canada’s Globe and Mail writes, “Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland, own Gaza, take back ownership of the Panama Canal and turn Canada into the 51st state. The President is a liar and a con artist, but his desire to occupy vast parts of the planet does not seem a bluff or a negotiating tactic. But why Canada? The United States dominates north-south trade and plays a leading role in many Canadian industries, including oil, mining, autos and retailing. It buys any product or commodity it wants from Canada with ease. Economically, if not politically, Canada is in effect the 51st state, has been forever. But there is one crucial commodity that the United States does not have access to: water. Water may be the real reason, or one of the top reasons, propelling his desire to turn Canada into Minnesota North. … ” Read more from The Globe and Mail.
Congress must continue to fund these critical strategies to fight and prevent wildfires
Matt Dias, president and CEO of the California Forestry Association, and Doug Teeter, the District 5 Supervisor for Butte County, write, “Northern Californians watched the Los Angeles-area fires in sympathetic horror, knowing all too well the devastation brought by these disasters. The Camp Fire in November 2018 took almost everything from so many in Butte County, and it’s unbearable to see others experience the same devastating losses. Wildfires are often viewed as a Northern California issue: the Park Fire last July — the fourth largest fire in California’s history — burned in the same counties as the infamous Camp, North Complex and Dixie fires. Northern California also battled the CZU Lightening Complex, August Complex, Valley, Tubbs and Caldor wildfires. When we say we have great empathy for our neighbors in Southern California, we truly mean it. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
In regional water news this week …
Sacramento reaches record settlement over water meters
“The City of Sacramento has reached its most significant settlement in the city’s history of $13.4 million to settle its three-year lawsuit against Teichert Construction Company and others, according to a news release. The lawsuit alleges non-compliant work and fraudulent billing on the Accelerated Water Program. The Accelerated Water Program is a state requirement that all homes and businesses have water meters by 2025. As part of its $62 million contract with the city, Teichert Construction was hired to install approximately 13,000 water meters in the South Land Park, Tradewinds, North Sacramento, Meadowview, Golf Course Terrace, and Lemon Hill neighborhoods. City Attorney Susana Alcala Wood said in a press release last week that Sacramento residents won’t be deprived of materials and services they paid for. … ” Read more from Capital Public Radio.
Behind the scenes in Sacramento’s storm drains
“Sacramento doesn’t have gravity on its side in a flood. “We are in a bowl. Everything that we move, we have to lift and set downstream,” said Mike Wasina, who oversees drainage at several sites across the city like this one – Pumping Station 2 – which moves rain and wastewater out of central Sacramento neighborhoods. The city had already gotten a half inch of rain by Thursday afternoon. The heaviest day in this series of storms was over an inch and a half. Still, not even the biggest pump was running. Supervising Plant Operator Philip Meyer has worked with these pumps for 17 years. “The total height of the pump and the motor itself I’d say is probably close to 35 to 40 ft tall,” he said, standing next to a 4-foot-wide blue pump that spanned several floors of the building. “So it’s a very large piece of equipment and it’s one of the smaller pumps at this facility.” … ” Read more from Capital Public Radio.
Stockton is behind in flood control
“As bad as the flood risks are in Sacramento, they might be worse in Stockton. Like Sacramento, Stockton has two major rivers — the San Joaquin and the Calaveras — that converge in the city. Like Sacramento, Stockton’s rivers can overflow because of winter storms and Sierra snowmelt, factors that experts say are increasing with climate change. Stockton differs from Sacramento in one key area: the quality of its flood-protection system. Stockton’s levees haven’t received a major overhaul since the 1990s, while Sacramento’s have received widespread upgrades in the last 20 years. “We think they’re in danger,” says Jane Dolan, chair of the Central Valley Flood Protection Board. “They’re behind on flood protection.” … ” Read more from Comstock’s.
Sonoma County’s water battle: A temporary win for supes, but what’s next?
“Water is life in Sonoma County. It fuels our vineyards, sustains wildlife, and keeps our communities thriving. But for months, landowners, farmers, and environmentalists have been locked in a legal battle over who gets to tap into the county’s groundwater—and at what cost. Now, a judge’s decision has temporarily allowed the county to resume issuing new well permits, but the fight is far from over. After nearly two months of being unable to issue new well permits, Sonoma County has been given the green light—at least for now. A judge’s recent decision has temporarily lifted a court order that halted well permitting, allowing the county to resume processing applications for non-emergency wells. … ” Read more from the Sonoma Gazette.
San Francisco dumps millions of gallons of sewage during big storms. Surfers say that needs to stop
“Nina Atkind loves surfing, but she’s also a detective of sorts. During storms — like the massive systems that recently rocked the Bay Area — she cloaks herself in an apple-red rain jacket and pulls up her tan gaiters before wading out into the swirling water at San Francisco’s Ocean Beach. During one recent storm in mid-December, Atkind dips a glass jar into the ocean as angry waves crash against the beach, frothy brown rollers pushing up towards the dunes at Vincente Street. The jar fills with the cloudy water, and she screws on a black cap. “It looks yucky with a bunch of debris,” Atkind said on a recent storm day in December. “I see microplastic in there.” Atkind manages the Surfrider Foundation’s San Francisco chapter and delivers the water to a lab where it will be analyzed. … ” Read more from KQED.
SoCal: Worst of year’s biggest storm passes, but mudslide and debris flow risk remains
“The brunt of the storm passed through Southern California Thursday night after heavy rain snarled traffic, caused debris flows and sparked warnings about flooding, thunderstorms, wind and hail. But officials warned that people should remain cautious on Friday, especially around canyons and steeper terrain where the risk of mudslides and rockslides remains. The Sierra Madre foothills experienced a significant mud flow of several feet, trapping a truck and likely damaging houses. LAist reporter Erin Stone said that officials were advising residents who had stayed to shelter in place, although evacuation orders had been issued Thursday. … ” Read more from the LAist.
Another cost of rebuilding after LA fires? Higher water bills.
“It wasn’t just homes and wildlands that burned in the Eaton Fire. Vital drinking water infrastructure, like pump stations, storage tanks, and reservoirs, were among the wreckage. As the long-term damage to these water systems becomes clearer, so does the need to figure out how to cover the costs of the repairs. “We’re possibly looking at modest to large ratepayer impacts for these systems,” said Greg Pierce, director of UCLA’s Human Right to Water Solutions Lab, about another potential cost that residents might have to grapple with as they go about the pricey venture of rebuilding their lives and communities. “That’s just building back to how things were, before you even get to ideas about, ‘Let’s build back modestly or much more climate resilient,’” Pierce added. “The price tags just get higher and higher.” … ” Read more from the LA Public Press.
The new NIMBY battle over the waste from the L.A. Fires
“Gov. Gavin Newsom of California visited Altadena on Tuesday to praise the progress of the cleanup after the devastating Eaton and Palisades fires, vowing to complete debris removal at “unprecedented, record-breaking speed.” Catalina Pasillas has a problem with the debris, but her home is far from Altadena. She lives near one of the four federal staging areas where hazardous materials from the rubble are being stored. Ms. Pasillas, a real estate agent who lives in Duarte, about a mile from one of the sites in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles, said smoke from the fires had exacerbated her asthma. Now, she worries that the waste site, in Lario Park, will poison the air even more. “I understand they need to put the toxic waste somewhere,” she said. “But it feels like they chose our city because they thought we wouldn’t say anything.” … ” Read more from the New York Times (gift article).
Air, soil, water and dust: New study focuses on long-term health impacts of LA wildfire pollution
“A team of university researchers has launched a planned 10-year project to examine pollution from Los Angeles’ recent wildfires and study its long-term impacts on health. The researchers, including those from UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health, say they want to look at what exposure to pollution from thousands of burned structures does to people over time. Specifically, they say, they’ll look at how Angelenos’ respiratory, neurological, cardiovascular, immune and reproductive systems may be affected. Although the project is expected to go on for years, some answers may be available much sooner. … ” Read more from the LAist.
Finally we know where toxic ash from the L.A. wildfires could end up
“Despite repeatedly warning that wildfire debris likely contains hazardous substances, public officials are preparing to dump millions of tons of contaminated ash and rubble from the Eaton and Palisades fires into Southern California landfills that were not designed to handle high concentrations of toxic chemicals. For weeks, Los Angeles County leaders have urged residents to avoid wildfire ash. Public health officials have said they suspect the debris is teeming with brain-damaging heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals from thousands of incinerated homes and cars. Ordinarily, when these toxic chemicals are found at high levels in solid waste, they would be disposed of at hazardous waste landfills — typically located far from densely populated areas and specifically engineered with environmental protections to prevent leakage that might affect nearby residents. However, every year when disasters strike California, a series of emergency waivers and disaster exemptions allow for potentially contaminated debris — including wildfire ash — to be treated as nonhazardous waste and taken to landfills that typically only handle trash and construction debris. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Los Angeles groundwater remained depleted after 2023 deluge, study finds
“The greater Los Angeles area has long been subject of intense seismographic monitoring. A network of highly sensitive seismometers peppers the region on a constant vigil for earthquakes. Now researchers at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability have developed a new way to use that existing infrastructure and its decades of data to estimate water levels in the region’s aquifers, which serve some 10 million residents of Los Angeles and Orange counties. The researchers analyzed the impact of 2023’s historic series of atmospheric river storms, which dumped more than 140% of California’s 20th-century average annual precipitation in just three months. Those rains, combined with torrential rainfall from an August storm that began as Hurricane Hilary, nearly refilled surface reservoirs and shallow aquifers depleted by decades of drought and groundwater extraction, the Feb. 14 study in Science shows. But even a year of extreme precipitation failed to replenish aquifers located 50 meters or more below the surface. Unlike the shallow aquifers, these deeper aquifers regained only about 25% of the groundwater they had lost since 2006. … ” Read more from Stanford University.
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
NOTICE: Updated Technical Guidance for Water Code Section 1242.1, groundwater recharge
