Several news sources featured in the Daily Digest may limit the number of articles you can access without a subscription. However, gift articles and open-access links are provided when available. For more open access California water news articles, explore the main page at MavensNotebook.com.
On the calendar today …
- MEETING: Delta Protection Commission beginning at 10am. The Delta Protection Commission will reconvene its meeting from last week to decide what action to take in response to DWR’s October 14 submission of the Certification of Consistency to the Delta Stewardship Council. The Commission has four options: filing an appeal, submitting comments on appeals filed by others, doing both, or taking no action. Click here for the meeting notice and remote access instructions.
- PUBLIC MEETING: Draft 2025 UWMP Guidebook Release from 10am to 11am. The purpose of this meeting is to inform urban water suppliers and interested parties of the updates to the UWMP Guidebook for the 2025 reporting cycle and to share how comments and feedback can be submitted. Click here to register.
- WEBINAR: Seasons Change- How Climate Change Is Affecting California Native American Traditional Seasons and Practices from 12pm to 1pm. Since time immemorial, California Native Americans have lived in harmony with the natural cycles of the seasons, guided by the sun, moon, tides, and weather. However, colonial settlement and accelerating climate impacts have displaced communities from ancestral lands, waters, and ecosystems, disrupting these traditional connections. Join us to learn from panelists about how environmental changes such as extreme heat, drought, sea-level rise, and species loss are altering cultural practices and shaping tribal resilience and adaptation today. Click here to register.
- WEBINAR: Basin Characterization Exchange: An Overview of California’s Groundwater: Bulletin 118 – Update 2025 from 12:30pm to 1:30pm. Join this Basin Characterization Exchange webinar to hear the Department of Water Resources present an overview of California’s Groundwater: Bulletin 118 – Update 2025, with a focus on the newly available Basin Characterization content. Click here to register.
In California water news today …
Storminess to continue along the West Coast this week in wake of recent flooding
“On the heels of an impactful Pacific storm that will continue to bring rain and showers to portions of California, Nevada and Arizona through the remainder of the weekend, AccuWeather forecasters warn that another storm will sweep into the West Coast with additional moisture. … From Sunday night to Monday night, the next zone of low pressure will introduce additional moisture and windy conditions to the West Coast. While rainfall totals with the upcoming storm will be less in comparison to the Pacific storm that moved onshore over the weekend, existing issues may be compounded. “With recent impactful significant rainfall in the region, additional downpours can cause a renewed flood risk in Central and Southern California through early week. Snow at pass levels with the additional storm can bring travel delays through early week,” stated AccuWeather Meteorologist Alex Duffus. … ” Read more from AccuWeather.
SEE ALSO: Atmospheric river storm leaves six dead after drenching California, from The Guardian
California’s rule book on El Niño and La Niña is broken
“La Niña is still firmly in place as winter approaches. NOAA data released on Thursday shows cooler than average sea surface temperatures continuing across the central and eastern equatorial Pacific, and most models keep the pattern around through winter, although it is expected to remain weak. That weak signal arrives at a time when many Californians still rely on an old rule of thumb: El Niño means wet and La Niña means dry. It is an idea that stuck easily. It’s tidy and rooted in real science. But as recent winters have shown, it’s also incomplete and sometimes misleading. “When El Niño entered public consciousness in the early ’80s, it was tied to one of the wettest winters on record,” said longtime Bay Area meteorologist Jan Null. “Then we hit 1997-98 — another huge El Niño, another flood season. So that idea got cemented. Once it’s in the public psyche, it’s hard to shake.” … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Fall Run Chinook salmon runs looking much better this year on the Sacramento and Klamath
“Fall-run Chinook salmon returns to the Sacramento River and Klamath River systems are looking much better this year, the third year of a total closure of commercial ocean salmon fishing in California coast, than they did last year, according to preliminary data. An estimated 40,000+ king salmon have returned to Coleman National Fish Hatchery on Battle Creek, the hatchery that provides the salmon for the main stem Sacramento, according to James Stone, President of the Nor Cal Guides & Sportsmen’s Association. Hatchery staff took in 28-30 million total eggs for Fall Run Chinook this year to date, a big improvement from last year when the facility had to obtain eggs from the Feather, Nimbus, and Mokelumne hatcheries to meet its production goal. Due to the low numbers of fish that returned to Coleman the last 3 years, recreational salmon fishing on the Sacramento River was closed for the third year in a row, although a limited salmon season was allowed on the Feather, American and Mokelumne rivers this year. … ” Read more from the Daily Kos.
SEE ALSO: Sacramento salmon success, from the Union Democrat
Solar panels built over California canals generate power, save water
“An irrigation district in California’s Central Valley region has installed arrays of solar panels atop a series of canals to demonstrate how such systems can generate electrical power and, through shading, reduce the loss of water from evaporation. The solar arrays are also intended to reduce maintenance costs on the canals by limiting the amount of vegetation that forms in the canals and hampers water flow, explained Bill Penney, P.E., civil engineering department manager at the Turlock Irrigation District. Founded in 1887 as California’s first publicly owned irrigation district, the TID helped bring water to the “dry land nestled between the Tuolumne, Merced, and San Joaquin rivers,” according to the district’s website. In the 1920s, the TID also began to generate electricity for its customers, first through a hydropower dam but now also via natural gas facilities as well as wind and solar generation, noted Penney. The canal solar arrays project is just the latest innovative concept to be tried in the TID’s nearly 140-year history, Penney said. … ” Read more from Civil Engineering Source.
Into the fog: Researching the coastal staple
“The future of coastal fog is anything but clear. Daniel Fernandez, a Cal State Monterey Bay professor and electrical engineer-turned-fog researcher, recently launched the Pacific Coastal Fog Research project. Fernandez and a team of researchers around the U.S., the self-annointed “Fog Five,” were awarded a $733,000 grant from the Heising-Simons Foundation to study the impact of climate change on fog over the next five years through the project. The Fog Five hope to clear up the debated present and future state of the iconic scenery staple of California’s coast. “It’s so ever-present in so many of our lives,” Fernandez says. “Whether we love it or hate it, it’s there.” … ” Read more from the Monterey Herald.
How snowy could it be where you live this winter? See how snowfall is changing across the United States and find out if this winter will be cold and snowy.
“The magic of a winter wonderland runs deep in American culture, from the prospect of spending the day by the fireplace as snow piles up outside to the promise of canceled classes for schoolkids. But data shows there’s less of that magic in the last half decade than there used to be — particularly in the central and eastern United States. A new analysis by The Washington Post found that swaths of the Plains, Midwest and East Coast have received much less snow than average over the past five winters — a trend that may continue this season, unless the polar vortex makes an early winter visit. The biggest snow shortages have occurred near the East Coast, with the Carolinas, D.C., Rhode Island, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, Delaware and New Jersey all seeing snow decrease by at least 35 percent since 2020. Around 70 percent of states in the contiguous U.S. have seen declining snowfall in recent winters, although parts of the West and some of the South have experienced more snow. … ” Read more from the Washington Post.
California moves to fill climate void left by the federal government on the world stage
“Last week, people from around the world descended on Belém, Brazil, a gateway to the Amazon rainforest. They’re there through this week for the United Nations ’ annual climate summit, called COP30, so-named for the 30 years the meeting has been in existence. But missing among them will be delegates from the federal government of the U.S., including President Donald Trump, who has denied the existence of climate change. The lack of federal officials does not mean the country won’t be represented, however. Filling the void are leaders from states and cities alike. And California is leading the pack. “California is a stable and reliable partner in low-carbon green growth,” Gov. Gavin Newsom said while attending the gathering along with several of his top climate leaders. “I’m here because I don’t want the United States of America to be a footnote at this conference.” … ” Read more from the LAist.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Commentary: A reality check on the Eel River dams
Dr. Jeanine Pfeiffer writes, “The century-old Eel River dams pose safety risks — Scott Dam is located along an earthquake fault line and adjacent to a massive boulder that is slowly moving, a precursor to a massive natural landslide; are unreliable (aggregated sedimentation surrounds and constrains the needle valve at the base of the dam) and expensive. The dams have led to heightened invasive species incursion (e.g., Sacramento Pikeminnow) and hazardous levels of mercury toxicity. Fish from Lake Pillsbury Reservoir are inedible due to mercury bioaccumulation, something that impacts the entire aquatic food web. Chinook, steelhead and coho native to the Eel River, and culturally significant to over a dozen Native California tribes in the region, are at 3% of their historic levels. Water diversions, excessive sedimentation, and ensuing poor water quality (low dissolved oxygen, high temperatures), lack of access to spawning habitat, and poorly designed fish ladders are the culprits: dam removal will address all of these issues. … ” Read more from the Mendocino Voice.
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
From mountains to meadows: Building a watershed-scale monitoring network in the Sierra Nevada
“A snowflake swirls high in the atmosphere, whisked across the winter sky before landing on Crystal Peak in the eastern Sierra Nevada Mountains. It sits on this peak until the spring, when temperatures warm and the snowmelt starts to flow into the nearby Dog Valley. Surging down the slope, the water molecule now drains into Dog Creek and its watershed, which careens down past the California-Nevada border. Snaking through mountains and meadows full of wildflowers, the creek joins the Truckee River just over the border into Nevada. Here, the river widens and slows, meandering east through Reno, trading alpine scenery for vast, arid desert. After slicing through the city, it bends north and empties into Pyramid Lake. It’s here, on the edge of the Great Basin, that its journey ends for now. Along the way, the former snowflake changes, transforming matter state and dropping over 3,000 feet in elevation. Yet, the creek and river through which it flows also initiate changes in the surrounding ecosystem: expanding, contracting, and instigating chemical and biological fluxes that scientists are only beginning to uncover. … ” Read more from the Environmental Monitor.
First-of-its-kind dive reaches Tahoe’s depths, helping explore the unknown
“For over 30 years, Fran Stam said she and her family have been visiting Lake Tahoe, something she said she’s grateful for. “There’s just nothing like it,” Stam said. “I think anywhere else in the world.” The beautiful hues of the lake’s water is one of the biggest draws, Stam explains. “To be able to look down, you know, hundreds of feet and, well, maybe not hundreds, but yeah, to see what’s on the bottom and just the feel of the water,” Stam said. “It’s absolutely gorgeous.” Lake Tahoe draws 3 to 6 million visitors a year for its crystal-clear water and surrounding beauty. Protecting that clarity — and better understanding the lake — helped drive the first-ever livestreamed expedition using an unmanned robot to its deepest point, says Amy Berry, CEO of the Tahoe Fund. … ” Read more from Spectrum 1.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Good fire festival highlights healing, resiliency in Paradise
“The Paradise community came together Saturday to celebrate “good fire” at Noble Park for the Good Fire Festival. Kira Hukak, a member of the Butte County Fire Safe Council, said good fire can have many meanings, but mainly it is “fire with intention.” “Humans have a really amazing piece to play with fire; we are fire tenders,” she said. “It’s low-intensity fire with the intention of ecological restoration.” Hukak said that prescribed burns, a common form of “good fire,” are extremely important to wildfire resiliency. She said not only do prescribed burns help prevent new wildfires, but they also help regenerate wildlife in areas already affected by fires. “It builds soil health, it helps our native seed bank, it promotes healthy forests,” she said. “So, we feel very fortunate to be able to promote that here today, and we want to kind of catalyze it.” … ” Read more from the Chico Enterprise-Record.
Editorial: Sac supervisors shouldn’t just rubber-stamp SMUD’s Coyote Creek project
The Sacramento Bee editorial board writes, “The Sacramento Municipal Utility District — SMUD — has made a mistake it is unable to extricate itself from: A lack of due diligence surrounding the site of a potential energy project by outside developer D.E. Shaw Renewable Investments (DESRI) has put more than 1,400 acres — and 3,700 native oak trees — at risk of destruction for a solar array that critics say was poorly planned. But it’s not too late yet for Sacramento County to knock back DESRI and SMUD’s plan and reverse this potential environmental catastrophe slated for our own backyard. The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors and the lead land use planners for the project will meet Nov. 18 to decide whether to approve its environmental review. This is the last chance for Sacramento to correct this error: The supervisors need to send this plan back to the drawing board. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
BAY AREA
Bay Area braces for two more storms after rain records broken across California
“Unrelenting rain is expected to persist in the Bay Area as two back-to-back storm systems close in on the region this week, accompanied by up to 60 mph wind gusts, possible thunderstorms, landslides and flooding.Unlike the subtropical moisture that contributed to last week’s atmospheric river, a cold front coming out of the Gulf of Alaska is driving the first system that’s expected to arrive as soon as Sunday night. The storm is expected to hit the North Bay before making its way through the rest of the region, impacting San Francisco, the Peninsula and the East Bay by the Monday morning commute, Karleisa Rogacheski, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service’s Bay Area office, told SFGATE. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
Physics and Chemistry of San Francisco Bay Sediments – Lectures by Professor Ray B. Krone, 1991
“San Francisco Bay is a tidally-energetic estuary where clay muds are the dominant sediment building wetlands, depositing in channels and harbors, and responding to sea level rise since San Francisco Bay was most recently inundated about 8,000 years ago. These sediments mainly come from the Central Valley and become cohesive when they encounter enough salinity in the western Delta. This causes the cohesive sediments to flocculate into larger particles which then settle, deposit, erode, circulate, and redeposit where the tides and flow take them. UC Davis Professor Ray Krone was a founder of the field of cohesive sediment transport in the 1960s, related to sedimentation, erosion, and management of clay sediments. His approach is very fundamental, based on the physics, chemistry, and modeling of these processes. His last course lectures from 1991, which were recorded, have been recently discovered, lightly edited, and are now posted on Youtube. … ” Read more from the California Water Blog.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Worst of storm may be over in LA, OC, but potential hazards remain
“Drivers are being warned to remain alert for potential debris-related dangers this week after heavy rain pelted the region on Saturday, triggering mudslides, felled trees and flooding. A Los Angeles city official said dozens of trees were toppled on Saturday, according to Rose Schoenfeld, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. The weather agency has not verified the total. “In the past 24 hours, we saw around a half an inch up to close to two inches (of rainfall) across the LA Metro area and that was able to cause a pretty good amount of flooding concerns, roadway issues and rock and mud on the road,” Schoenfeld said Sunday morning. The county will continue to see showers into the week as another storm hits the area. Shoenfeld said that while the rainfall will not be as widespread, there may be heavier downpours in some areas. … ” Read more from the LA Daily News.
A guerrilla gardener installed a pop-up wetland in the LA River. Here’s how — and why
“To many locals, the Los Angeles River — hugged by concrete embankments and heavy vehicle traffic — hardly seems like a river at all. The waterway bisecting the city was converted to a giant storm drain nearly a century ago to contain flood waters. Today, it’s an extension of the urban network of concrete, running beneath freeways and bridges as it collects all kinds of refuse: spent tires, scrap metal, trash thrown from car windows. But when Doug Rosenberg came upon a shopping cart tipped over in the river’s shallow waters back in 2020, he saw the potential to meet nature halfway. “It had begun to bloom some greenery around it, and there was a great blue heron perched on the cart, hunting in this little spot,” Rosenberg recalled. “That was when it clicked for me — that any 3D geometry at all in that river channel will trap sediment, will begin a micro-bloom of ecosystem.” … ” Read more from NPR.
Santa Monica’s groundbreaking path to water self-sufficiency
“On Main Street in Santa Monica, Calif., a parking lot sits between the courthouse and a boarded-up convention center. Visitors looking for a parking spot or charging their electric vehicles would never guess that a world-class water management system churning out millions of gallons of purified water sits underneath it. The city’s Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project (SWIP) is a state-of-the-art water recycling system that has helped bring Santa Monica 85 percent of the way to complete water self-sufficiency. Groundwater from the Santa Monica Basin is the major source of supply for the city, augmented by purchases from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. In 2011, the city was importing almost half its water, generating fears about what officials would do in case of an emergency. … ” Read more from Governing.
Lakewood couple’s $8,000 water bill reduced after contacting ABC7 On Your Side Investigates
“Inflation is giving us all sticker shock these days, but a bill that was sent to a Lakewood couple had them up in arms. When Del and Barbara Anderson’s water bill went from around $80 to more than $8,000, they turned to ABC7 On Your Side Investigates. The Andersons have been married for 67 years, and they’ve always been proud penny pinchers. So you can only imagine what they thought when their water bill for May arrived, and it was for exactly $8,383.50 worth of water! “I thought, we don’t even use anything that takes in that much water,” Barbara told ABC7 On Your Side. “Nothing seems right about this whole thing,” added Del. … ” Read more from KABC.
SAN DIEGO
Emergency dredging proposed for Oceanside Harbor entrance
“An emergency dredging is needed to clear a growing sandbar that’s a hazard for boats at the entrance to the Oceanside, Harbor Division Manager Joe Ravitch said last week. At least two vessels have capsized in recent weeks in the surf created by what boaters call a shoal, Ravitch said. Both events required rescues by the Oceanside Fire Department’s lifeguards. Notices have been issued asking boaters not to use the entrance “unless they really need to” and to “always be cautious going in and out,” he said. An “off-cycle dredge” is expected within the next month, based on availability of the dredge and its operator, Manson Construction, the company that regularly maintains the harbor channel, said Jayme Timberlake, Oceanside’s coastal zone administrator. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Storm threat raises flood, health fears in Tijuana River Valley
“With a rain-heavy storm passing through, residents in the Tijuana River Valley face flooding and serious health concerns from contaminated floodwaters. However, community members in the South Bay continue have taken steps to lessen the storm’s impact, including Eileen Barnes, the owner of Surfside Ranch in San Ysidro. Barnes spent time fortifying her family’s property, which she said floods every time it rains. She put sand in box stalls where their 25 horses are kept to level the area and reduce puddles. Barnes said normally they don’t prep much, but that changed after the January 2023 storm. … ” Read more from Fox News.
Along the Colorado River …
Key expert: Upper Basin states must use less Colorado River water
“Ted Cooke, the former Central Arizona Project general manager whose nomination to head the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was scuttled by congressional opposition, says the four Upper Colorado River Basin states will have to accept cuts in their water use to make a seven-state deal work to ensure the river’s future. If they don’t, and something isn’t done to curb river water use quickly, he says a “catastrophe” could occur as soon as next year in which Lake Powell’s water level would be too low for Glen Canyon Dam to generate power for 13 million electricity customers, and the U.S. would be unable to release river water from Lake Powell or Lake Mead for use by the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada. Cooke does agree with the Upper Basin states’ view that the Lower Basin states’ overuse of river water has drained lakes Mead and Powell. But he said the Upper Basin’s position is that it shouldn’t have to take cuts now, because it’s already suffering from lack of precipitation, is weak and not very valid. … ” Read more from the Arizona Daily Republic.
Utah among ‘upstream states’ Arizona governor says is uncommitted to Colorado River conservation
“Utah and other upstream states aren’t doing enough to commit to sharing and conserving water in the Colorado River system, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs said Wednesday as seven-state talks on managing the critical supply blew past a Trump administration deadline with no deal. “Not only do they refuse to commit to any water use reductions, they tell our negotiators that it is too complicated and impossible for them to reduce water use. And I have a really hard time believing that,” Hobbs said at a news conference in Yuma. The remarks suggested that the upstream states — Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico — and the downstream states — Arizona, California and Nevada — have a ways to go before agreeing on how to manage the river. The dwindling supply of water now serves the needs of 40 million people, for everything from washing dishes to irrigating crops and running factories. Colorado officials responded to Hobbs’ remarks, which resembled others she’s made about the negotiations recently, by saying they remained committed to the talks that have been ongoing for more than two years. A joint statement from the seven states, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Department of the Interior on Tuesday said they’ve made collective progress. … ” Read more from St. George News.
Lake Mead predicted to plunge to record low, newest projections show
“Lake Mead is projected to sink below record lows in less than two years, according to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. By September 2027, the reservoir will dip to 1,038.48 feet above sea level, the federal government’s “most probable” projection for the next two years shows. That’s more than 2 feet under the lake’s lowest level, recorded in the summer of 2022, signaling that water managers aren’t expecting snowpack in the Rocky Mountains to deliver the Colorado River system from an over-two-decade-long period of mega-drought any time soon. … ” Read more from the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
Trump wants to renew hydropower project permitting on reservations without tribal consent
“Last week, more than a dozen tribes across the U.S. commented on a new proposal by the Trump administration to let developers obtain preliminary permits for hydropower projects on reservations in spite of tribal opposition. This rule would apply to projects like dams, reservoirs and pump-storage facilities — all overseen by the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which, under a Biden-era rule, does not issue such permits without consent. The regulator is being asked to change course by Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “He put tribes in the same sentence as third parties, and what that tells me is that there’s that lack of respect,” said Stewart Koyiyumptewa, who is the Hopi tribal historic preservation officer. “When FERC doesn’t notify tribes of potential projects in the area, it undermines the tribe’s resources, and makes way for litigation.” … ” Read more from KJZZ.
Chandler begins girding for cuts in water supply
“The City of Chandler updated its drought management plan on Nov. 13, partly because officials know they may need it very soon. The seven Colorado River basin states have been fighting over its water for years, and the time to decide which state gets how much is near. The one reality that Arizona municipalities know is that they will be getting less – possibly a lot less. The Grand Canyon State agreed to have the lowest priority claim to Colorado River water in exchange for the federal government’s help to build the Central Arizona Project canal system. “We don’t know exactly what the cut is going to be, but we know that a lot of cities in Central Arizona will be taking a cut starting in 2027,” said Simone Kjolsrud, Chandler’s water resources advisor. … ” Read more from the Santan Sun News.
How Queen Creek will fund $244.4M water deal
“Queen Creek Town Council on Wednesday is scheduled to complete a $244.4 million purchase of Harquahala Basin groundwater to secure the town’s water security well into the next decade. The complex deal calls for acquiring 1.2 million acre-feet over decades at a rate of no more than 12,000 acre-feet annually that would be paid largely through Certificates of Participation, a type of lease-purchase financing tool, and a loan of undetermined size from a state authority. An acre-foot equals 325,851 gallons of water – which the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) estimates is enough water to supply three homes for a year. … ” Read more from the East Valley Tribune.
MAHA condemns ‘playing God with the weather,’ but Utah Republicans embrace engineers playing ‘Rainmaker’
“Inside a Salt Lake City warehouse, a group of men are controlling the weather. As the team of drone pilots and environmental specialists — employees of the cloud seeding company Rainmaker — spray chemicals into the sky, a small crowd, including one of Utah’s top environmental officials, watches carefully. The process of cloud seeding, a long-studied method of artificially inducing precipitation, has been creating rain and snow in Utah since the 1950s. But in the era of President Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy’s “Make America Health Again” movement, weather modification has become a target of conspiracy theories and political attacks. In September, Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene held a hearing titled “Playing God with the Weather — a Disastrous Forecast” and is pushing legislation to heavily fine and potentially jail anyone conducting “weather modification” activities. “Modern attempts at weather control don’t appeal to divinity,” Greene said in her opening statement. “Instead, they use technology to put chemicals in the sky.” But in Utah, cloud seeding is just about the water. … ” Read more from the Salt Lake Tribune.
Colorado’s snowpack is lagging, badly, but forecasters say there’s still time to recover
“Dry, dry, dry. And warm, warm, warm. That’s been the weather story across Colorado so far this November. Colorado’s mountain snowpack is off to a slow start this season, and the Denver metro area still hasn’t seen flurries. Snowpack levels across the state remain far below average, though meteorologists say weather patterns are expected to shift in the coming days, bringing a better chance for winter storms before the end of the month. “When it comes to having enough snowpack for water and filling reservoirs, it’s very early in the snowpack accumulation season. So that’s a good thing. We could recover,” said Aldis Strautins, senior hydrologist with the National Weather Service in Boulder. … ” Read more from Colorado Public Radio.
In national water news today …
U.S. data centers could consume as much water as 10 million Americans by decade’s end
“When Cornell University systems engineer Fengqi You started modeling the environmental footprint of data centers three years ago, the A.I. boom was just beginning. Even then, You and his colleagues noticed something missing from the conversation. “When we started this, we saw that A.I. was growing very fast,” You said. “It was clear it would have to be aligned with power-grid planning, with water and other resource planning. There were no discussions about these topics — but we wanted to bring real numbers, rigorous analysis on A.I.’s physical footprints.” You and his team’s new paper, published in the journal Nature Sustainability, delivers those numbers — and they’re enormous. Depending on how fast the A.I. industry expands, the authors predict U.S. data centers could annually consume as much water as 10 million Americans and emit as much carbon dioxide as 10 million cars. Those estimates put the annual resource consumption of the A.I. industry in the range of the entire state of New York. … ” Read more from Yale e360..
Hydropower is getting less reliable as the world needs more energy
“On Brazil’s third-largest river basin, deep in the Amazon, a massive hydroelectric power plant stands as a monument to the world’s oldest source of clean energy — and the big challenges it faces. Drought and time have taken their toll on the plant, the Tucuruí Dam and hydroelectric power project. Up close, visitors can see leaks that form little, unwanted waterfalls. Completed around 40 years ago, the Tucuruí plant and hundreds of others worldwide are coming under increasing pressure just as humanity needs a lot more electricity. Droughts and dry spells have made it hard for plants to generate enough energy. Too much rain has also been a problem, because floods can damage their equipment. … Canada, China, the United States and other countries have also struggled with low hydroelectric production in recent years. How to make up for those shortfalls while achieving ambitious emissions and economic goals will be on the agenda at the United Nations’ annual climate conference in Belém, a six-hour drive from Tucuruí. … ” Read more from the New York Times.
‘Tapping Potential’ report finds water investment could add trillions to GDP
“A new report from the Value of Water Campaign (VoW) examines how investment in U.S. water infrastructure could have a significant impact on GDP in the coming years. The analysis explores both the risks of inaction and the economic benefits of closing the water infrastructure investment gap. The report, Tapping Potential: The Economic Benefits of Investing in Water Infrastructure, is a first-of-its-kind impact assessment, developed by the Value of Water Campaign in partnership with engineering consultant Stantec and economic services company One Water Econ. According to the report, every $1 million invested in water infrastructure generates $2.5 million in economic output, 10-plus jobs, $837,000 in labor income and $1.4 million in GDP. At 2025 funding levels, that translates to 2.2 million jobs, $307.9 billion in GDP, and $588.4 billion in economic output supported by water infrastructure. … ” Read more from Water Finance & Management.
