A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Doug Beeman.
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Please Note: The headlines below are the original headlines used in the publication cited at the time they are posted here, and do not reflect the stance of the Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit that remains neutral.
Water transfers, trades and sales doubled this year as drought
left San Joaquin Valley farmers scrambling for supplies. …
[Sam Boland-Brien, program manager at the State Water Resources
Control Board’s Division of Water Rights] said he’s seen
about twice the amount of transfers this year compared to an
average water year.
Social media users are playing the blame game when it comes to
California’s drought. Read enough comments online and you’ll
see many similar responses blaming the state government for its
management of water: California should have more water storage.
California dumps water into the ocean. Northern California
sends too much water to Southern California. UC Davis experts
said those assertions are incorrect.
A month after the Visalia City Council threw out a policy
designed to prevent urban sprawl, the Sierra Club is
threatening to sue the city over the change … requesting
an injunction against implementation of the new policy, which
does not include an ag mitigation policy (AMP). … The
city attorney advised the General Plan could be “modified” due
to changes in case law since 2014, such as the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act which could affect the availability
of water to some farmland within the city’s growth boundaries.
The Foundation’s virtual journeys will whisk you away to
explore California’s key rivers and water regions this
fall from the Sacramento River to the headwaters in the
Sierras. Plus, our annual Water
Summit will feature water managers and other
water experts who are dealing with the “new normal” as
unprecedented drought and wildfires challenge the status
quo.
A pair of environmental groups are developing a path for Los
Angeles residents to conserve water with a goal of using just
13 gallons per day, down from the current California average of
86 gallons, officials said Tuesday. … the U.S.
Green Building Council-Los Angeles is partnering with the 50
Liter Home Coalition to develop a plan.
Utah’s drought-induced water crisis has softened somewhat after
a string of monsoons, but the state’s water supplies are far
from safe, with reservoirs across the state falling below 40%
full, state officials told lawmakers Tuesday. Only a massive
snowpack this winter can assure adequate supplies going into
next year, and even then, Utah’s water future remains uncertain
in the face of long-term drought and climate change. In
July the entire state was in extreme or exceptional drought and
Utah’s two largest lakes hit their lowest levels ever.
More than 94 percent of the West is in drought this week,
according to the US Drought Monitor, with six states entirely
in drought status: California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and
Montana. Parts of the West saw record-setting rainfall that
brought some slight relief to the region, but most areas remain
dry. Against the backdrop of climate change-fueled drought,
wildfires have charred nearly 6 million acres of vegetation
across the region. Fire experts say that dry and windy
conditions create a prime environment for wildfires to spark
and spread.
A complex of lightning-sparked wildfires burning in
California’s Sierra Nevada has exploded in size, prompting
evacuations and the shutdown of Sequoia national park, where
the fire is burning close to the park’s namesake trees. The KNP
Complex fire, composed of the Paradise and Colony fires, took
hold in the dense, mountainous vegetation on 9 September. By
Wednesday morning, the blaze had scorched more than 7,000
acres….Fueled by higher temperatures and extreme drought
conditions, more than 7,400 wildfires have burned in California
this year, scorching more than 2.2m acres.
To expedite the delivery of much-needed drinking water to
coastal Mendocino County residents whose wells have gone dry,
the California State Water Resources Control Board has amended
its previous curtailment orders to allow the city of Ukiah to
draw water from the Russian River for emergency supplies.
The Valley’s best hope to renovate its water infrastructure has
been put on the shelf for now. Senate Bill (SB) 559, the State
Water Resiliency Act of 2021, was moved to the state Assembly’s
“inactive file” on Sept. 8. … As written SB 559 offered
a holisitic, statewide approach to help restore the conveyance
capacity by created a fund to provide up to $785 million to
repair key parts of the state’s water infrastructure.
This year’s wine harvest is well underway throughout
California, and vintners in some parts of the state say they’re
feeling the effects of climate change more acutely than ever.
The drought has left grapevines parched. Fruit yields
are dramatically low. Vines look visibly stressed. In some
vineyards, all of the grapes seem to be ripening all at once,
presenting winemakers with a logistical impossibility. And the
threat of wildfire — which, by this time last year, had ruined
grapes up and down the state with pernicious smoke — remains on
everyone’s mind.
Currently every drop of water that comes out of faucets in
Ceres comes straight out of the ground. But come June 2023,
some of that water will be directly piped from the Tuolumne
River after it’s been treated. Construction is about 25 percent
completed and running $1 million under budget, a manager of the
project told the Ceres City Council on Monday evening.
… Ceres will ultimately receive up to 15 million gallons
of water per day while Turlock takes 30 million gallons. Two
additional phases will increase the plant’s capacity to produce
45 million gallons per day for the two cities.
The scientific consensus is that human-caused climate change
has in recent decades raised average temperatures in the West
about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit, and nearly two full degrees
on maximum temperature days, according to Matthew Lachniet, a
geoscience professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The days of Coloradans putting off climate change as a worry
for hurricane-ravaged Louisiana or a water-challenged Middle
East now seem to be over. Following are just a few of the
ways “climate change now” made its full force known in the
Rocky Mountains this year and showed its impact on everyday
life.
Water resources managers and the leaders in Northern California
continue to advance Ridgetop to River Mouth water management
… There are unique opportunities in the Sacramento River
Basin to advance ridgetop to river mouth water management,
which can best be envisioned by looking holistically at: 1)
headwaters and forest health, 2) floodplain reactivation for
public safety and fish and wildlife, 3) sustainable groundwater
management (including groundwater recharge and banking), 4)
healthy soils and farms; 5) safe drinking water; and 6) vital
rivers and streams.
Almonds in California are no longer sustainable at current
levels. That’s the consensus of recent headlines describing the
prolonged historic drought — and increasing restrictions on
water use — currently impacting the state’s $6 billion industry
and its efforts to produce 80 percent of the world’s
almonds. The U.S. Drought Monitor is showing California
to be slowly approaching 90% of the state categorized as being
in ‘extreme’ drought —especially in the Central Valley.
New testing results that have found record-high levels of
cyanotoxin at sampling sites on Clear Lake prompted the Public
Health officer on Wednesday night to issue a warning to those
who source their water from private intakes on the lake.
Ocean desalination has been named as one of the South Coast
Water District’s top priorities—even more so as California
undergoes an unprecedented water shortage. In 2008, a Pilot
Ocean Desalination Project was first initiated at Doheny State
Beach, and the facility operated successfully for 21 months
between 2010 and 2012. Subsequent to this effort, the District
has proceeded with planning for an Ocean Desalination
Facility.
The lawsuit Kern County filed this week against Gov. Gavin
Newsom is aimed at not only ending his de-facto ban on fracking
but also at easing state regulatory constraints on at least two
other oilfield techniques common locally. As part of its
larger argument that the Newsom administration has overstepped
its constitutional authority, Monday’s petition for a writ of
mandate in Kern County Superior Court asserts Newsom had no
right in 2019 to place a moratorium on high-pressure cyclic
steaming or require extensive “area of review” analyses prior
to approval of underground injections.
The availability of potable water is not a reason to oppose
development in drought-threatened California. The view that
water should limit development is one of the false claims made
by Not-In-My-Back-Yard organizations that want to stop the
future. The NIMBY mantra that new development poses risks to
the environment, that we will run out of water, is wrong. Less
than 5 percent of annual water supply is used inside
residences. There are many NIMBY organizations making these
false claims, some with longstanding national stature. -Written by Jim Larimer, a resident
of Miramar.
Environmentally minded residents of East County have an
opportunity to help make the Delta a little better. The annual
Delta Waterway Cleanup will take place Saturday, Sept. 18 from
9 a.m. to noon. The Delta Protection Commission (DPC) sponsors
this event, and has similar ones scheduled in each of the five
counties that adjoin the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta. In
Contra Costa County, volunteers will focus their efforts on
Bethel Island. The Delta cleanup is part of California’s
Coastal Cleanup Day, the state’s largest annual volunteer
event.
