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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Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday will be in the Bay Area to
announce a new water supply strategy for California as the
state contends with a historic drought. Newsom is scheduled to
be in Contra Costa County for a news conference detailing
“water supply actions” California is taking to adapt to hotter,
drier conditions caused by climate change, the governor’s
office said. He also is expected to announce new
leadership for California’s infrastructure
efforts. Drought has been a major concern for
Californians. A new study by the nonpartisan Public Policy
Institute of California found that 68% of state residents say
the water supply is a big problem where they live.
The next “big thing” in California water development may not be
soaring 300-foot high dams. Instead, it may be intentionally
diverting winter storm runoff to flood almond orchards
northeast of Ripon and vineyards near Manteca and similar
permanent cropland throughout the San Joaquin Valley. Proactive
recharging of groundwater using California’s immense acreage of
permanent crops such as almond orchards and grape vineyards
could emerge as a pivotal and critical component of a plan to
meet water demands as well as address hydrology patterns
expected to be modified by climate change.
Michael Jones ducked under an idle sprinkler and strode across
the sandy soil where he planned to plant drought-resistant
crops, hoping to save water amid the driest period in more than
1,200 years. … A company known as Renewable Water Resources
(RWR) aims to drill a series of deep wells on a nearby ranch it
owns and pipe the water more than 200 miles north to a Denver
suburb, where sprinklers rotate on manicured lawns. The
firm recently sought $10 million from Douglas County to
kickstart its project. … If the state engineer’s office,
its water court, and federal regulators were to approve RWR’s
plan, it would mark the first time that private investors could
ship water from an aquifer in one part of the state to a
community in another.
Many small and rural communities across California are
vulnerable to drought and water shortages as they lack the
diverse water sources and infrastructure of big cities like San
Francisco and Los Angeles. In some cases, these communities are
forced to rely on bottled water or water hauled in from
elsewhere, which experts say is costly and
unsustainable. Data from the state water board’s 2022
“Drinking Water Needs Assessment” shows that nearly 90 water
providers across the state, including six in the Bay Area, have
had to resort to bottled or hauled-in water to fully meet their
communities’ drinking water needs in the past three years.
The unveiling of the Inflation Reduction Act lit a fuse in
Washington, just before the lazy days of the August recess…
The House is expected to vote on the bill on Friday. With its
drought provisions, the bill focuses attention on the Bureau of
Reclamation…. The $4 billion dollars in the Inflation
Reduction Act is more than double its annual budget. It’s
certainly a large chunk of money, said Jennifer Gimbel, senior
water policy scholar at the Colorado Water Institute at
Colorado State University. But it is “a drop in the bucket for
what is needed” to address a growing aridity that now covers
more than 70 percent of the West in some stage of
drought.
Until the development of the major state and federal water
projects that began delivering surface water to the area in the
second half of the 20th century, the Central Valley relied
almost exclusively on groundwater. Heavy pumping of groundwater
has led to significant land subsidence throughout the valley,
causing major damage in some areas to canals, aqueducts, and
other infrastructure. This subsidence was particularly
pronounced in the valley’s southern half, which is known as the
San Joaquin Valley. By 1970, approximately half the San Joaquin
Valley, or roughly 5,200 sq mi, had subsided by at least 1 ft,
according to the website of the U.S. Geological Survey. Some
locations had subsided by as much as 28 ft.
It’s a sound we haven’t heard very often during the last few
month. It’s the sound of rain. One of the nation’s leading
climatologists says those sounds could continue to be
infrequent, with key indicators showing that we could be in for
a third straight year of drought. “This is the third year in a
row that La Nina has hung in there,” said Dr. Bill Patzert. “It
keeps the jet stream farther north. The southern tier of the
United States tends to be drier, and the northern tier tends to
be stormier.” He said it’s too late in the year for an El Nino
to develop, which could mean above average rainfall.
Nowhere is the Southwest’s worst drought since the year 800
more evident than Lake Powell and Lake Mead, the pair of
artificial Colorado River reservoirs whose plunging levels
threaten major water and power sources for tens of millions of
people. Already, the region is being forced to adapt to the
sweeping effects of climate change, and the lakes and their
surrounding area are nearing an environmental point of no
return. … Lake Mead is projected to get down to 22
percent of its full capacity by year’s end, while Lake Powell
is expected to drop to 27 percent, according to estimations
from the federal Bureau of Reclamation. Both now sit at
record lows.
California farmers and ranchers affected by a third consecutive
year of drought and related emergency curtailments of water
deliveries have planted fewer acres, fallowed fields or reduced
livestock herds to make it through the season. Siskiyou County
rancher Ryan Walker, president of the county’s Farm Bureau,
said farmers affected by emergency water curtailments—readopted
in July by the State Water Resources Control Board—face water
shortages and high hay prices, which impact ranchers’ ability
to maintain livestock herds.
[A]s climate change brings hotter, drier conditions, the
American dream is getting harder to achieve in the Valley.
Because of severe drought the past few years, farmers have left
some fields unplanted. And with fewer acres to plant and
harvest, many workers have had their hours cut or lost their
jobs. … [State senator Melissa Hurtado] says many of
these workers are struggling to pay rent and feed their
families. So she’s proposed legislation that
would provide qualified farmworkers with a $1,000 monthly
stipend for three years.
On Wednesday, Kern’s Congressmen Kevin McCarthy (R-Bakersfield)
and David Valadao (R-Hanford) sent a letter to the Interior
Secretary requesting documents related to her review of the
2019 Biological Opinions. The opinions determined operations
for the Central Valley Project and California State Water
Project did not jeopardize endangered species. Valadao
noted if the review ended with a reversal of the decision, it
would be detrimental for our local economy and Valley farmers.
Tulare Lake. Gone. Owens Lake. On a resuscitator but near
death. Mono Lake: Its life hangs in the balance. They —
and many more California lakes and rivers — were the victim of
defying Mother Nature and sucking massive amounts of water from
one basin to another. Bypassing a massive amount of water from
the Delta ecological system by tunneling under it — what could
possibly go wrong? It is why the recent latest reincarnation of
Los Angeles’ not-to-secret plan to destroy the Delta along with
their partners-in-crime on the western side of Kern County is
pure tunnel vision.
Recent severe rains in Death Valley that flushed debris across
roadways, damaged infrastructure and carried away cars are
being described by meteorologists and park officials as a
once-in 1,000-year event. The arid valley was pelted with
roughly an inch and a half of rain on Friday, near the park’s
rainfall record for a single day. The storm poured an
amount of water equal to roughly 75% of the average annual
total in just three hours, according to experts at Nasa’s Earth
observatory.
The Glenn Groundwater Authority (GGA) is encouraging residents
to conserve water at home, work and on the farm to help the
local groundwater basin. … The GGA is the Groundwater
Sustainability Agency managing the Glenn County portion of the
Colusa Subbasin, which covers the area generally south of Stony
Creek, east of the coast ranges, west of the Sacramento River,
and north of the Glenn-Colusa County line.
For now, the Klamath River dams stand secure. But their days
upon the Earth are numbered, as plans for the removal of three
dams in California and one in Oregon move ahead. When they are
gone, the river will witness a flotilla of kayaks celebrating
the open water. That’s the plan, anyway, and native teens from
tribes up and down the Klamath recently completed a training
session for the first post-dam navigation of the river. Save
California Salmon is one of the groups involved in the project.
We hear from SCS staffer Danielle Frank about the plans.
[At the California State University Monterey Bay’s student
union] Chants of “No Cal Am, save our water,” could be heard
from the parking lot, as around 50 people representing or
supporting the grassroots organization, Citizens for Just
Water, protested outside the building before the meeting
started. Tensions were equally high inside, as residents
shouted over Cal Am representatives, criticizing them and the
proposed desalination project. But despite the agitation, Cal
Am’s Manager of External Affairs Josh Stratton said the
public’s vocal frustration was exactly what the organization
was expecting when they decided to hold the forum.
Temperatures have been soaring in LA for much of this week, and
it seems like the days will keep getting hotter. With climate
change happening, and concerns about loss of habitat for
creatures big and small, some folks are looking for little ways
to make a big impact. Enter microforests. At their smallest,
they’re 10 foot by 10 foot, planted in urban areas with diverse
native trees and shrubs to help provide wildlife habitats and
clean the air. Native plant horticulturist and educator
Katherine Pakradouni planted LA’s first microforest in Griffith
Park, and says it has already attracted a wide range of
animals, including bugs, birds, lizards, and squirrels.
Coastal cliffs in California’s far northern counties are
eroding faster than those elsewhere in the state, according to
a new study that used high-resolution data to pinpoint hot
spots where cliffs are receding rapidly along the state’s
entire coast. In the Bay Area, locations with some of the
highest rates of clifftop erosion include Daly City, Pacifica
and Bodega Bay, according to the study published this month by
researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San
Diego. The highest erosion rates were found near Humboldt Bay
and in a few remote locations in Del Norte County.
We urge the legislature to pass and Gov. Newsom to sign SB 1469
which offers water providers a powerful tool to help encourage
customers to save water and fight the drought. … SB 1469
makes permanent a program called decoupling which sounds
technical but is really a very simple concept to conserve
water. … Decoupling changes the water utility business model
from selling to conserving water by severing the link between
water sales and everyday system operations. It eliminates an
incentive for water providers to sell more water. SB 1469 will
… establish progressive, equitable water rates so those who
use more water pay more, and those who use less will pay
less. -Written by Roberto Barragan, executive director
of the California Community Economic Development Association,
which advocates for community revitalization in diverse urban
and rural neighborhoods.
Along the banks of Prairie Creek in Humboldt County, the last
wisp of fog gives way to a bright blue sky revealing a busy
construction site below ancient redwoods. This summer marks the
second year of construction by the Yurok Tribe on a large
collaborative project that is transforming a developed and
degraded site into the southern gateway to Redwood National and
State Parks. In 2022, the Prairie Creek Floodplain Restoration
Project began a two year phase to restore 11 acres of riparian
habitat, create 800 feet of a new creek channel, and construct
a second backwater pond to provide slow water refugia for
juvenile salmon and steelhead.
