A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
La Niña is brewing. Here’s what it means for California weather
“Forecasters expect La Niña conditions to develop this fall and winter, according to an update Thursday by the National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center. The agency has issued a La Niña watch, indicating that conditions in the tropical Pacific Ocean are favorable for the climate pattern’s formation in the coming months. La Niña is defined by cooler than average sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific along the equator. The ocean waters affect atmospheric activity, tilting the odds toward drier than normal conditions in Southern California and wetter than average conditions to the far north, especially in the winter. The Climate Prediction Center’s latest seasonal outlook for November, December and January hints at such a pattern. But the forecast isn’t guaranteed: La Niña may not emerge at all. And, even if it does, other factors could outweigh La Niña’s influence. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle (gift article).
SEE ALSO: For second straight year, La Niña weather coming to California, from SF Gate
The first atmospheric river of the season hits the West Coast. Here’s what California can expect.
“The first fall-like storm system of the season is pushing into to the West Coast. An AR-2 atmospheric river will be impacting the Pacific Northwest on Friday and early Saturday, bringing up to an inch of rain to the Seattle metro area and over 3 inches of rain to the high elevations of western Washington. Portland, Oregon, could pick up a half-inch of rain while the Oregon coast and Cascades receive an inch to two. The atmospheric river will quickly fall apart as it drops from Oregon into California, meaning – outside of the Shasta region – Northern California will largely miss out on precipitation from the early season storm. That being said, we’ll all benefit from some cooler temperatures! … ” Read more from ABC 10.
Atmospheric rivers may be diminishing on the West Coast and surging in the East, study finds
“It makes sense that atmospheric rivers would flood West Coast headlines as well as its coastlines. Eighty percent of all West Coast flood damage is attributable to these immense highways of water vapor, which can drench Central California with a season’s worth of rain or freeze Seattle in place with a blizzard. Damages to Pacific states from the surges of precipitation can add up to about a billion dollars annually. But what about East Coast atmospheric rivers? The daughter of former NOAA research scientist, Wenhao Dong, posed that exact question to her father when she was in first grade. “She was listening to the report about an atmospheric river over California,” he recalled. “She asked me, ‘Dad, do we have atmospheric rivers [in New Jersey]?’” That question partly motivated Dong and his collaborators to investigate how atmospheric rivers might be impacting the East Coast and West Coast differently. … ” Read more from Inside Climate News.
Solano water officials say Bay Delta Plan still needs work
“Area water officials said the revised Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan is better than the 2024 version, but “significant concerns remain.” “In general, the (state Water Resources Control Board) and their staff have taken our comments into consideration with regards to impacts to Solano County from the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan Update,” Chris Lee, general manager of Solano Irrigation District, wrote in a response to the Daily Republic. “In the revised draft, notable changes are: 1) Lake Berryessa has been recognized as a rain-fed system (not a snow-fed system); 2) The revised (unimpaired flow) numbers are reduced, but need more work. Fortunately, the Solano County Water Agency (and our member agencies) and Putah Creek are recognized as a Healthy Rivers and Landscapes participant, but if that program ceases to exist, we need more realistic number for Solano unimpaired flows,” Lee added. … ” Read more from the Daily Republic.
Delta Coalition urges State Water Board extend public comment on Bay-Delta Plan amid EPA civil rights investigation
“The Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition (DTEC), consisting of the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemem Wintu Tribe, Little Manila Rising, and Restore the Delta, has urged the State Water Resources Control Board to grant a 90-day extension of the public comment period and to defer or add hearing dates for the Bay-Delta Plan draft update. In a letter submitted on August 7 through the Environmental Justice Law and Advocacy Clinic at Yale Law School, DTEC underscores that the Board’s current 48-day timeline and hearing dates silences Tribes and communities most affected by the Bay-Delta Plan. The current timeline overlaps with sacred Tribal ceremonies and the ongoing case-in-chief hearings for the Delta Conveyance Project, a proceeding closely tied to the Bay-Delta Plan. … ” Continue reading this press release.
State’s proposed fee change for pumpers falls flat
“The State Water Resources Control Board reversed course on a proposed fee change for groundwater extraction in the San Joaquin Valley after receiving a volley of negative letters, saying changes are “premature.” The update came during an online Water Rights Fees meeting July 31. Fees target pumpers in overdrafted subbasins placed on probation by the Water Board for lacking adequate groundwater plans. State fees – $300 per well, per year plus $20-per-acre-foot pumped – are intended to repay the state an estimated $5.5 million a year that it says it costs to oversee six groundwater basins in the San Joaquin Valley where plans have been deemed inadequate. Water Board staff had suggested creating a graduated fee structure based on farm size, giving small growers a break at $5-per-acre-foot pumped and charging large growers $40 per acre foot pumped. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Building climate resilience in California’s Central Valley: How watershed modeling has recharged planning
“The San Joaquin Valley sits at the crossroads of California’s water challenges. It produces a quarter of the entire nation’s food (including 40% of its fruits and nuts), but excessive groundwater pumping is causing the ground to sink up to a foot per year in some places, buckling roads and canals. Extreme droughts exacerbate community water insecurity and put the region’s native fish at risk of extinction, but when it does rain, the flooding puts over two million people’s homes at risk. These existing water management challenges will be exacerbated by the effects of climate change. In this complex landscape, the Merced River Watershed Flood-MAR Reconnaissance Study is a model for how science, collaboration, and forward-thinking water management can drive real-world change. When the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Merced Irrigation District (MID) launched the study in 2021, the goal wasn’t just academic. They set out to answer a pressing question: how can this watershed adapt to climate extremes in a way that benefits farms, communities, and the environment? … ” Read more from Sustainable Conservation.
University researchers team up with nonprofit to make the most of groundwater recharge
“Researchers at Stanford University are working with an in-state nonprofit to take a new and hopefully more productive look at groundwater recharge activity around the Central Valley. Their approach is two-fold: university researchers are applying new technology for identifying the best locations for diverting floodwater, while the Chico-based nonprofit, called River Partners, works to maximize the benefits for not only farmers but also wildlife and recreational users. Although the partnership has no immediate plans for doing the work in Kern County, people involved say the initiative carries lessons that may be applicable in the southern San Joaquin Valley, such as better siting techniques and broader, fuller use of floodplains. … ” Read more from the Bakersfield Californian.
Deep-sea desalination pulls drinking water from the depths
“From Cape Town to Tehran to Lima to Phoenix, dozens of cities across the globe have experienced water shortages recently. And in the next five years the world’s demand for fresh water could significantly outpace supply, according to a United Nations forecast. Now several companies are turning to an unexpected source for a solution: the bottom of the ocean. Called subsea desalination, the idea is to remove the salt from water in the deep sea. If it worked at scale, the technology could greatly alleviate the world’s water access problems. Costs and energy requirements have kept desalination from going mainstream in most of the world. … Reverse osmosis is more efficient than distillation, but it takes a lot of energy to pressurize millions of gallons of seawater and move it through filters. What if we could let that movement happen naturally by harnessing the pressure hundreds of meters underwater? … ” Read the full story at Scientific American.
Plan to limit N fertilizers draws opposing sides to Irrigated Lands expert panel meeting
“As the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) inches toward regulating surface and groundwater pollution by agriculturally-sourced nitrogen, the regulatory framework continues to evolve. The Second Statewide Agricultural Expert Panel for the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP) met for Day 1 of its “Kick Off Meeting” on Friday, August 8, 2025 at the Cal EPA Building in Sacramento and via Zoom. After Karen Mogus, Chief Deputy Director of the State Water Board, opened the meeting, the expert panelists, all University of California-based scientists and Cooperative Extension specialists, introduced themselves. See list below. State Water Board staff then provided an overview of the ILRP, the reason that the panel was convened, and the questions it is charged with addressing. In summary, the ILRP is the state’s legal framework for regional “agricultural orders,” which regulate pollutant discharges from irrigated agriculture. … ” Continue reading at Maven’s Notebook.
California’s newest invaders are beautiful swans. Should hunters kill them?
“On an early August morning, it didn’t take long to spot the first pair of huge white swans with orange and black bills and graceful, curving necks as they swam in the marsh along the side of a Solano County levee road. They dabbled in the vegetation as a pickup drove through the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area. A short drive later, past a herd of a dozen tule elk, two more swans appeared in the marsh alongside the dirt road. Then four more. A few hundred yards down the road, out in the distance past a thicket of swaying reeds, dozens of swans swam in the water. For casual bird watchers, the sight of all these majestic animals might be a pleasure and bring to mind swan-themed works of literature, such as “Leda and the Swan” and “The Ugly Duckling.” But for wetland biologists and others with a stake in the health of the surrounding Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast, the birds represent the latest – and an exponentially growing – threat to the few remaining wetlands left in California. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Grand Canyon’s Dragon Bravo megafire shows the growing wildfire threat to water systems
“As wildfire crews battled the Dragon Bravo Fire on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim in July 2025, the air turned toxic. A chlorine gas leak had erupted from the park’s water treatment facility as the building burned, forcing firefighters to pull back. The water treatment facility is part of a system that draws water from a fragile spring. It’s the only water source and system for the park facilities on both rims, including visitor lodging and park service housing. The fire also damaged some of the area’s water pipes and equipment, leaving fire crews to rely on a fleet of large water trucks to haul in water and raising concerns about contamination risks to the water system itself. Wildfires like this are increasingly affecting water supplies across the U.S. and creating a compounding crisis that experts in water, utilities and emergency management are only beginning to wrestle with. … ” Read more from The Conversation.
Restoring forests or risking flames? Scientists debate active management
“On Sept. 8, 2020, a brush field in southern Oregon, in the northwestern U.S., caught fire. Over the next week, “walls” of flame tore through the towns of Talent and Phoenix in the Rogue River Valley. Here, hot, dry summers crisp low-lying vegetation, and convective winds — like those that kicked up in early September 2020 — can fan the spread of fire from even the smallest ignition. The 1,300-hectare (3,300-acre) Almeda Drive Fire was small by contemporary standards in the U.S. West, where blazes repeatedly shatter records. And this one was human-caused, as are more than 80% of fires in the U.S. But neither statistic made it any less devastating to the families of Talent and Phoenix, more than 2,600 of whom lost their homes to the blaze. Amid a swirling mix of past mismanagement of forests in the western U.S., an explosion of dense settlements, and hotter, drier conditions on account of climate change, there’s been a push in recent decades to actively manage forests for fire risk — aimed at avoiding disasters like the Almeda fire. … ” Read more from Mongabay.
Fifth District holds State Water Board’s adoption of regulations requiring new test for whole effluent toxicity violated federal Clean Water Act regulations governing NPDES permitting, but not CEQA, APA or Porter Cologne
“In a lengthy and highly technical published opinion filed August 5, 2025, the Fifth District Court of Appeal partly reversed and partly affirmed a judgment that had upheld the State Water Resources Control Board’s (“State Water Board” or “SWRCB”) adoption of the “State Policy for Water Quality Control: Toxicity Provisions” (the “Toxicity Provisions”), which policy in relevant part required use of a new “Test of Significant Toxicity” (“TST”) in analyzing a type of pollution known as “whole effluent toxicity.” Camarillo Sanitary District et al. v. State Water Resources Control Board (2025) ___ Cal.App.5th ___. Whole effluent toxicity does not refer to a specific chemical pollutant but defines when the combined effects of all pollutants in the water is deemed toxic. Whole effluent toxicity testing is required in various contexts within the complex web of federal and state statutes and regulations addressing water pollution and quality control, including in connection with wastewater discharge permits issued pursuant to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) governed by the Federal Clean Water Act (“CWA”; 33 U.S.C. § 1251 et seq). … ” Read more from Miller Starr Regalia.
Over 200 organizations call for major fixes to new CA state permitting law to protect public health, air and water quality, and natural lands
“A coalition of over 200 organizations from throughout California today called on Governor Newsom and the California Legislature to immediately fix major problems in the recently enacted “permit streamlining” law (Senate Bill 131) that threatens the health of neighborhoods and workplaces, the safety of our air and water, and areas critical to threatened wildlife. The coalition letter was signed by environmental, environmental justice, labor, affordable housing, public health, farm, local government, social justice, and food safety organizations. … SB 131 exempts a wide range of industrial and other development projects from CEQA including advanced manufacturing facilities that can be major sources of toxic contamination, air and water pollution, and destruction of wildlife areas. The new law’s definition of “advanced manufacturing” is so broad that it can include lithium compound, heavy metal, battery manufacturing, waste incineration, strip-mining, and other polluting industries. … ” Read the full press release.
California’s signature climate effort is up for renewal — and it’s a fight
“As California pushes toward its ambitious goals for addressing climate change, the fate of its signature program is hanging in the balance. For months, lawmakers, industry groups and environmental advocates have been mired in negotiations over whether and how to extend the cap-and-trade program, which limits planet-warming emissions, beyond its 2030 expiration date. The cap-and-trade program was nation-leading when it was authorized by state law in 2006. It requires major polluters such as power plants, oil refineries and other industrial facilities to purchase allowances, or credits, for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit, and lets those companies buy or sell their unused allowances at quarterly auctions. Each year fewer credits are created, lowering the total annual climate pollution in the state. Gov. Gavin Newsom is advocating for the program to be extended to 2045, and hopes to see it reauthorized before the end of the legislative session on September 12. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Pipes, pumps and people: The human challenge behind North America’s water future
“In North America we are looking into a future of uncertainty regarding long term safety of our water supply. A lot of factors contribute to this development, but one is more apparent now than ever. Our water infrastructure — pipes beneath our feet, ageing treatment plants and critical flood protections — is easy to take for granted. But there is a problem brewing and it is not regarding the water infrastructure alone. The true crisis is emerging not in concrete and steel, but in the ranks of skilled engineers and technicians needed to build and keep these systems working. North America is entering a workforce crisis. Which begs the question – who will maintain our water infrastructure in 2035 and beyond? … ” Read more from the New Civil Engineer.
In commentary this week …
Dan Walters: California Legislature’s final weeks could decide fate of Delta water tunnel
“Tanned, rested and presumably ready after a summer vacation break, state legislators will return to the Capitol next week for the final month of their 2025 session. … Despite the Capitol’s fixation on national political maneuvering — tinged by Newsom’s likely bid for the White House — there are pending matters that hit closer to home. None is more important than what’s been kicking around for at least six decades, a project to bolster California’s north-to-south shipments of water by bypassing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The project has gone by several names and morphed from a “peripheral canal” carrying water around the Delta to twin tunnels beneath the Delta and, most recently, to a single tunnel called the Delta Conveyance Project. Newsom’s administration believes it needs just one more thing to get the greenlight, legislation to exempt the project from the California Environmental Quality Act’s ponderous process, thereby denying critics the legal tools to delay the work. … ” Read more from Dan Walters.
Newsom’s Budget Trailers are a planned attack on the Delta
Ashley Overhouse, Defenders of Wildlife and Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, Restore the Delta write, “These last couple of years, the Newsom administration has certainly embraced the old (and inaccurate) adage of “water is for fighting and whiskey is for drinking.” Two dangerous and undemocratic proposals were made by the Newsom Administration in the form of “budget trailer bills” that accompanied the May version of the California state budget. The first was a broad-sweeping, extreme proposal to change California law, from eminent domain to water rights, to accommodate the proposed Delta Conveyance Project, also known as the Delta Tunnel. The second was seemingly more innocuous, exempting all Water Quality Control Plans (WQCP) from the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). While these changes in law may seem small – their impacts will be massive on the people tied to the Bay-Delta watershed. Though it may not be obvious to the public or even some elected officials, both bills erode democratic norms and endanger civic trust by bypassing public input, judicial and scientific review and legal accountability. These proposals are aimed at furthering greedy water interests at the expense of Delta communities and the wildlife that depend on Delta waters. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
Governor Newsom gives state lawmakers opportunity to make water supplies more secure for Californians
Lester Snow, Director of the California Department of Water Resources and Secretary for Natural Resources under Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, writes, “Since the 1960s, governors of both parties, quite different in their priorities, have struggled to protect water deliveries from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Every time voters, legislators, or regulators defeated a governor’s proposal, another proposal replaced it. Why? Because when the status quo invites economic and ecological catastrophe, if you’re governor, doing nothing is derelict. Governor Gavin Newsom has tackled this problem with as much energy and creativity as any of his predecessors. Upon taking office in 2019, he directed the California Department of Water Resources to reconsider Governor Jerry Brown’s proposed WaterFix project, which would have built two tunnels under the Delta to carry Sacramento River water to the State Water Project pumping plant that supplies 27 million Californians from San Jose to San Diego. Governor Newsom shrunk the project to a single tunnel, rerouted it to avoid disruptions to historic Delta towns as much as possible, eliminated a forebay and a riverside intake, and reduced by a third the volume of water the tunnel could carry. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
Cutting through the misinformation — the Delta Conveyance Project is essential for California’s water future
Charley Wilson, Executive Director of the Southern California Water Coalition, writes, “For years, the Delta Conveyance Project has been a target of relentless delay tactics, obfuscation, and misleading scare campaigns designed to derail this critical water infrastructure upgrade. Opponents have repeatedly employed false narratives and misinformation—not grounded in science or fact—to confuse the public and stall progress. California’s water future cannot afford such tactics. The reality is clear: California’s aging water delivery system is increasingly vulnerable to catastrophic failure from earthquakes, floods, and rising sea levels. Without modernization, over 27 million residents and the state’s agricultural economy face an unacceptable risk of water shortages. The Delta Conveyance Project is the only viable path forward to secure reliable, safe water supplies in the face of climate change and growing demand. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
Gavin Newsom’s tunnel vision: Sacrificing Northern SJ Valley to keep LA water cheap
Dennis Wyatt, editor of the Manteca Bulletin, writes, “Do not ever accuse Gov. Gavin Newsom of forward thinking when it comes to California, water, and climate. Newsom is ignoring his own climate warnings and going literally full bore ahead with a water solution born in the Stone Age of environmentalism in California where people were still allowed to use empty 55-gallon oil drums as residential burn barrels in the Los Angeles Basin. His archaic water project? The Delta Conveyance Project better known as the Delta tunnel. Yes, the state Department of Water Resources website currently describes it “an essential climate strategy (that) protects against future water supply losses caused by climate change, sea level rise, and earthquakes.” Such an assertion is simply the latest snake oil salesman gibberish for a state bureaucracy beholden to the Southern California Development-Mega Corporate Agriculture Complex. … ” Read more from the Manteca Bulletin.
Updated plan for Bay-Delta system balances needs of state water users
The California Chamber of Commerce writes, “The latest draft plan for managing the Bay-Delta system continues to include a California Chamber of Commerce-supported option that balances the diverse needs of urban, agricultural and environmental water uses while preventing reduced water supplies for the state. The draft update to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Plan was released on July 24 by the State Water Resources Control Board. The San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Bay-Delta) system is the source of drinking water for two-thirds of the state’s population. It also provides critical habitat for fish and wildlife, including many endangered and threatened species. … ” Read more from the California Chamber of Commerce.
San Joaquin Valley farmers left high and dry
The Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley writes, “Following multiple wet years in California, you’d think the state’s most productive farmland would finally have received its fair share of water. Instead, San Joaquin Valley farmers continued to receive just a fraction of their normal supplies. This baffling and troubling reality threatens the region’s entire economic future. Despite reservoirs brimming and the Sierra Nevada’s three straight years of average or above average snowpack, many San Joaquin Valley farmers reliant on the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP) have only received roughly half of their contracted water supplies. In some districts, the allocations have been even lower. This is more than a missed opportunity, it’s an abysmal failure of the state’s existing water supply infrastructure and failed environmental water policies. And the consequences are staggering. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
A California bill takes a novel approach to address clean drinking water
Natasha Navarra, a California-based writer whose work spans cultural criticism, health care equity and literary fiction, writes, “A new California bill would help ensure that our drinking water is safe. The legislation is important — and unusual in its approach. Senate Bill 466, authored by Sen. Anna Caballero, D-Merced, would shield water agencies from civil suits. The temporary legal immunity would protect them from lawsuits over chromium-6 contamination as they work to remove the cancer-causing chemical from drinking water supplies. The bipartisan measure would protect public water systems from civil liability related to hexavalent chromium contamination, commonly known as chromium-6, as long as they are actively implementing state-approved compliance plans or awaiting approval for proposed cleanup strategies. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
California’s water system must be prepared for climate change
“California’s water system, constructed in partnership with the federal government, was built on a predictable weather cycle every calendar year. Throughout the winter, snow piles in the Sierra before it melts in late spring and flows throughout the state just when farms need it most. For decades, this cycle, paired with our world-class water infrastructure, allowed for reliable water deliveries, captured excess flows in reservoirs and efficiently moved supply to refill our groundwater tables. But that rhythm is slowly changing. State climate indicators show the Sacramento River’s peak runoff now arrives nearly a month earlier — in March instead of April — compared with the mid-20th-century record. Looking ahead, the Department of Water Resources projects the Sierra’s April 1st snowpack will shrink by roughly half to two-thirds before the end of the century. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
Cloud-seeding is not a threat — it’s a time-tested tool to deal with water scarcity
Augustus Doricko, founder and chief executive officer of Rainmaker Technology Corporation, writes, “Farmers have an old saying: “Pray for rain, but keep the plow in the ground.” For generations, the people who feed this country have kept their faith while adapting to challenges with ingenuity and the use of new tools. Today American farmers, and the American people, face a dire risk that calls for the same approach. Water scarcity now poses a permanent threat to our food supply, our economy and our families. … Farmers have always been the beating heart of our nation. In many ways they are also the canary in the coal mine, which is why we should pay close attention to the issues they face and the solutions they are exploring in times of need. One such tool is cloud-seeding: a safe, scalable method that encourages more rain or snow from weather systems that are already moving through the sky. … ” Read more from The Hill.
California’s dysfunction could squander Lithium Valley’s half-trillion-dollar potential
Adela de la Torre, president of San Diego State University, writes, “Welcome to California’s “Lithium Valley,” where infighting, hyper-regulation and litigation run as deep as the estimated 18 million metric tons of lithium sitting beneath the arid landscape. Here, collective dysfunction may prevent a state in financial difficulty from seizing an opportunity potentially worth more than half a trillion dollars. What began as a generational opportunity for the region’s economy and for America’s green energy independence has turned into a stalled quagmire of empty promises, paralyzing self-interests and unfulfilled progress. Today the many players involved — environmental activists, community groups, elected representatives and private enterprises — stand at a crossroads. They can continue down the divergent paths that have yielded nothing, arguing over regulation, or they can come together and share in the rich economic and environmental rewards offered by this buried treasure. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Families and farmers deserve priority in California’s climate future
Brian Shobe, Policy Director at the California Climate and Agriculture Network, writes, “Climate change is not a distant threat. It’s a daily reality affecting the health, food supply, and livelihoods of all Californians. The farmers and ranchers I work with are acutely facing the worsening effects of climate change. In recent years, floods have washed away farms, extreme heat waves have decimated harvests, and wildfires have damaged crops and killed livestock. These climate impacts are driving up the cost of food for everyone. That’s why every Californian has a stake in how the next 20 years of climate policy will be decided this month when lawmakers finalize the terms for extending the state’s Cap-and-Trade program. … It’s alarming to see state leaders consider reauthorizing Cap-and-Trade in a way that prioritizes the oil and gas industry – California’s largest source of pollution – at the expense of hardworking families and farmers struggling with the climate crisis. … ” Read the full commentary at the SJV Sun.
The Earth is drying — sparing no sector and creating cascades of chaos
Columnist Mark Gongloff writes, “You might not believe it if you’ve experienced one of the flash floods hammering the planet from Texas to Vietnam this summer, but the Earth is becoming drier — at least the parts where most people live. Given how this can affect every aspect of human existence, from farming to geopolitics, it’s past time we started treating this like the emergency it is. Measurements from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment satellites suggest the continents have been losing fresh water at an alarming rate since 2002, according to a recent study in the journal Science Advances. Some parts of the planet are becoming wetter, especially in the tropics, but the drying parts are drying more quickly than the increasingly wet parts are getting wet. The drying parts are also spreading, gaining roughly two Californias’ worth of land every year and recently merging into “mega-drying” regions sprawling across vast stretches of continents. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
Mr. President, Pacific Northwest water does NOT flow to L.A.
Forbes senior editor Alan Ohnsman writes, “Traditionally, U.S. Presidents try to be circumspect and accurate when fielding press conference questions, relying on information from experts to avoid misstatements that confuse or misinform the public. Donald Trump is anything but traditional. His knack for puzzling or downright false statements is well known from his first term, but in his second go-round as President, he’s outdoing himself–especially when it comes to the environment and climate. … But his lack of understanding of where Southern California gets its water is remarkably poor. Last week, shortly after wandering around the White House roof, the 79-year-old Commander-in-Chief held forth at a briefing on what he believes is the source of L.A.’s water: the Pacific Northwest. “I’ve been fighting with them for a long time to let the water come down from the Pacific Northwest, essentially,” he said, after an event on planning for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. “They’ve got to allow the full complement of water to come down from the Pacific Northwest.” … ” Continue reading at Forbes.
Playing fireman, Trump has actually increased California’s fire risk
Columnist Thomas Elias writes, “Many politicians love to play fireman, often visiting disaster scenes and advising real firefighters on how they can do things better. No politico does this more than President Trump, who frequently advises California governors they need to “rake the forests” to prevent fires. He conveniently ignores the fact that the federal government he controls owns most of the lands he wants raked and that any money to do it would have to come from the federal budget. Facts have rarely dissuaded Trump from things he believes in or disputes, though, including items like climate change and whether captured undocumented immigrants have the right to court hearings before they are summarily dumped back into their home countries — or others where languages they may not recognize or understand are spoken. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
In regional water news this week …
Potter Valley project ending: How will this impact winegrowers?
“Here’s the plain‑English version of what’s about to happen — and what it means if you grow grapes or buy fruit in Sonoma County. PG&E has now filed its formal surrender application to take down Scott Dam (Lake Pillsbury) and Cape Horn Dam — the backbone of the old Potter Valley setup that fed the Russian River for a century. In the same breath, they asked FERC to let the new Eel‑Russian Project Authority (ERPA) build a pump‑station replacement at the former Cape Horn site so we still get seasonal (wet‑weather) transfers into the Russian River system. That filing is real and live. Two big shifts to understand. First, the near‑term operating rules are tightening. … Second, the long‑term geometry of our supply changes from “year‑round trickle” to “catch it in the rain.” … ” Read more from the Sonoma Gazette.
Cloverdale warns: Save water now or face the squeeze later
“Cloverdale’s leaders aren’t waiting for the taps to slow to a trickle. With Russian River flows slipping and reservoir levels already lagging, the City Council is preparing to declare Stage 1 water conservation — telling residents to cut back now, while it’s still voluntary, or risk mandatory restrictions before summer’s done. At the Aug. 13 meeting, staff reported that local storage is lower than average for mid-August. State regulators have already reduced the minimum flows in the upper Russian River to preserve upstream storage. Cloverdale, which draws its entire supply from wells next to the river, is especially vulnerable to low-flow years. “We want to be proactive so we don’t find ourselves in a crisis later,” Mayor Todd Lands said. … ” Read more from the Sonoma Gazette.
Monterey: The CPUC approves current water supply and future demand, clearing the way for desal plant.
“After months of delay, the California Public Utilities Commission, the state’s regulator of private utilities, finally voted on Thursday, Aug. 14 on a critical procedural step in California American Water’s quest to build a desalination plant: Establishing the current water supply in Cal Am’s local system, and the projected demand in the year 2050. … Last spring, Administrative Law Judges Robert Haga and Jack Chang issued a proposed decision that adopted a projected water demand of 13,732 acre-feet by 2050—the number Cal Am had pushed for—and a current supply of 11,204 acre-feet per year, which was a good bit higher than Cal Am had put forward. On Aug. 14, the commissioners voted 4-0 to adopt that proposed decision, sort of. Somewhere along the way, a typo snuck in—1,210 acre-feet was transposed as 1,120 acre-feet—and as a result, the proposed decision, as adopted Thursday, establishes a current supply of 11,114 acre-feet, 90 acre-feet less than the original proposed decision. … ” Read more from Monterey Now.
Central Valley homeowners are watching property values sink with the land
“In parts of the San Joaquin Valley, sinking land has become such a serious problem, it’s beginning to depress home prices, new research shows. Homes in large portions of California’s Central Valley have been sinking, as have roads, bridges, canals and levees, as too much water is drawn out of underground aquifers. Now researchers at UC Riverside have found that home prices are 2.4% to 5.4% lower than they would be if the land were stable, translating to losses of $6,689 to $16,165 per home. The study looks at sales between 2015 and 2021. Mehdi Nemati, a UC Riverside assistant professor of environmental economics and policy who led the study, said his team knew that sinking land was already affecting homeowners across the Central Valley, with cracking foundations, wells going dry, higher insurance premiums and increased stress. But he said they were startled by their results. … ” Read more from the LA Times. | Read via AOL News.
Ventura: HOA Fences with USACE: Fencing plans for Hollywood Beach raise concerns among residents
“A plan by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) to reshape about 18 acres of Hollywood Beach sand dunes and surround them with wood-post and rope “permanent symbolic fencing” to protect nesting birds has angered neighbors. Many residents of the beach community near Oxnard say they knew nothing about the proposal until long after it was voted on by the California Coastal Commission (CCC) on May 10, 2024, which was part of a plan for future dredging operations around Channel Islands Harbor and the Port of Hueneme. The state meeting was held at the Sovereign Nation of the Elk Valley Rancheria in Crescent City, about 20 miles south of the Oregon border. … ” Read more from the Ventura County Reporter.
New Pacific Institute report: Shrinking Salton Sea just one part of a larger air pollution problem
“A new report released today by the Pacific Institute, a global nonpartisan think tank, assesses the complex and growing air quality threats in the Salton Sea region of southeastern California and outlines more effective strategies to protect public health. As the Salton Sea has shrunk by more than 60 square miles over the past 30 years due to reduced water use in the region, more dry lakebed—known as “playa”—has been exposed, contributing to dangerous dust levels in an area already burdened with some of the highest respiratory hospitalization rates in California. But the report finds that playa dust is only one piece of a broader pollution burden that includes unpaved roads, desert winds, farming practices, diesel emissions, and more. “Breathing Hazard: Air Pollution in the Salton Sea Region” synthesizes findings from dozens of published sources to improve understanding of what contributes to air pollution in the region and how to protect public health most effectively. … ” Read more from the Pacific Institute.
Hopes for a Lake Hodges Dam replacement dim, despite safety concerns
“San Diego is backing away from plans to rebuild the Lake Hodges Dam, thanks to ballooning cost estimates and the county water authority announcing it’s no longer willing to pay half the cost. The state declared the dam unsafe two years ago, demanded the water level be lowered because of flood risk and ordered San Diego to accelerate efforts to rebuild the 106-year-old dam. The city was on track to begin the rebuild by the end of 2029 — until a recent analysis determined the estimated costs had climbed from $275 million to somewhere between $474 million and $697 million. That new 386-page analysis, which was conducted by an outside consultant, has prompted the cash-strapped county water authority to withdraw its support for the rebuild. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
