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 Chris Bowman.
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A lithium boom in southeastern Utah is only getting bigger, and
the mining companies involved in two new explorations for the
mineral want to use a lot of water. The Bureau of Land
Management recently greenlit two lithium drilling projects in
Grand County, and environmentalists fear each will have harmful
effects on the sensitive landscape in Utah’s canyon country —
and its limited water resources. Lithium is an essential
element for rechargeable batteries — needed in phones,
computers and electric vehicles — that are considered crucial
for a transition to clean energy. Typically, lithium mining
uses water to rinse the mineral free from salty
brines. One of the recently approved projects is headed by
A1 Lithium Inc., a subsidiary of Australia-based Anson
Resources. This exploratory drilling — for which a previous
application was rejected by the BLM — would take place on State
Route 313, the main road that leads to Canyonlands National
Park and Dead Horse Point State Park.
Just after sunrise during low tide, Dave Halsing pointed to a
vast brown and green marsh on the bayshore at Menlo Park that
only months ago was a barren, industrial salt pond. Snowy
egrets fluttered down to the fertile muck in search of shrimp
and crab larvae. Not long ago, bulldozers breached the levee
along the 300-acre pond that’s just a couple miles from Meta’s
headquarters. The breach allowed water from the bay to dilute
the salty brine, algae to form, pickleweed to grow, and fish
and shorebirds to return. It’s part of a 50-year project to
restore wetlands in the bay. … The new tidal marsh will
also buffer rising seas, protecting the shore from flooding. It
offers recreation for humans, too, with a new nature
trail opening this month. While only a half-mile long, it
creates a pedestrian connection between the city of Menlo Park
and existing trails in Bedwell Bayfront Park, which adjoins the
reclaimed area.
In the autumn of Moo Deng, California is dealing with an
invasive outbreak of rodents that could be considered the
anti-Moo Deng: they’re not cute, they’re not in captivity, and
they’re dangerous on a number of levels. We’re talking about
nutria, sometimes called “swamp rats,” who can measure up to
two feet long and weigh up to 20 pounds, and are recognizable
for their bright orange front teeth. And these damned
things are trouble. “Nutria have devastating impacts on wetland
habitats, agriculture, and water conveyance/flood protection
infrastructure,” according to the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife (CDFW). “Nutria consume up to 25% of their body
weight in above- and below-ground plant material each day. Due
to their feeding habits, up to 10 times the amount of plant
material consumed is destroyed, causing extensive damage to the
native plant community, soil structure, and nearby agricultural
crops.”
Scientists have built a solar-powered desalination system that
does not need expensive batteries and which could produce vast
amounts of low-cost drinking water for millions around the
world. The innovative plant, which was designed by MIT
researchers, responds quickly to subtle changes in the level of
sunlight – such as a passing cloud – to make the most of the
available solar energy. As a result, it requires no extra
batteries for energy storage, nor a supplemental power supply,
and therefore can produce large amounts of drinking water with
exclusively renewable energy. The MIT engineers behind the
project tested a community-scale prototype on groundwater wells
in New Mexico in the US over six months. The system produced up
to 5,000 litres of water per day, despite large swings in
weather and available sunlight, and used more than 94 per cent
of the electrical energy generated from the system’s solar
panels.
With their orchards, vineyards and high-value crops, California
farmers have embraced drip and other forms of microirrigation,
making such systems the leading method used to water their
crops. Despite increased adoption of drip, the traditional and
more low-tech method of flooding the ground and using gravity
to deliver water to crops remains popular in the Golden
State—and not just for field crops. Less popular in California
are sprinkler systems, even though they remain the most widely
used irrigation method in the nation. There’s a reason
microirrigation has taken off. Drip systems, in general,
improve irrigation efficiency, said Khaled Bali, an irrigation
water management specialist at the University of California
Kearney Agricultural Research and Extension Center in Parlier.
With improved irrigation efficiency, farmers can produce higher
yields per unit of applied water, he added.
An oil spill that temporarily closed the Smith Canal to fishing
is in the final throes of being cleaned up. The Coast Guard has
turned over responsibility for the effort to the Environmental
Protection Agency for ongoing monitoring. “We go out and
get (with) contractors and oversee their work and make sure it
gets done properly,” said Michael Brogan, a San Francisco-based
spokesman for the EPA. Initial reports from the Coast
Guard noted that a container with a capacity of 380 gallons had
been discovered in the area, but that figure was later
downsized to a 280-gallon capacity, Brogan said. While it is
not clear how much oil was released, “this is a relatively
small spill,” Brogan said, adding that it still needed to be
treated quickly and seriously. … The spill, believed to have
been caused by illegal dumping, was discovered Sept. 28 when a
sheen was spotted on the water. About a mile of the canal from
Yosemite Lake at American Legion Park to Mission Road was
closed. Absorbent booms were deployed in an effort to contain
the oil.
… California Policy Editor Debra Kahn moderated a water panel
at the California Economic Summit in Sacramento … hosted by
California Forward. Some highlights of the conversation, which
focused on regionalism and being OK with messing up: Yana
Garcia, California’s Environmental Protection Agency secretary,
during her introduction to the panel: “In the water space,
overall, we have to take risks. … We’re at a very nascent stage
still in the shifts that our ecosystems are showing us, and the
shifts in weather patterns and the shifts in our water
supply. The great progress that we’ve made in moving
toward a carbon neutral economy have to also be seen in how
we’re securing the state’s water supply moving forward.”
At a meeting hosted by the Grass Roots Institute, multiple
agencies responsible for housing and planning for sea level
rise came together to understand the scope of climate migration
and the types of impacts that they need to prepare for.
The Coastal Commission, Mendocino County Planning Dept, City of
Fort Bragg Planning, Mendocino Council of Governments (MCOG),
and Supervisors Dan Gjerde and Ted Williams joined about 60
participants. Tim Robustelli from the Washington DC-based
think tank, New America, provided an overview of the findings
that his organization published in an April
report. … In California, wildfires, drought, sea
level rise, and flooding are the most likely impacts, according
to Robustelli. He said that 25 % of Californians live in
areas with high risk of wildfire, and 20% live within areas of
high risk for flooding. In just one year (2021), over
600,000 residents were displaced from wildfires in California.
A Santa Barbara Superior Court judge … overruled an
attempt by Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District to stop a
matter pertaining to Tehachapi Basin water rights from being
decided as part of a probate case. Attorney Robert Kuhs, the
water district’s legal counsel, said in an email … that
the court adopted its tentative ruling as an order and denied
the district’s motion during the Oct. 3 hearing. The water
district’s filing included an assertion that the water rights
case belongs in Kern County — not Santa Barbara — because a
1971 judgment in Kern County Superior Court established water
rights in Tehachapi Basin and designated the water district as
Watermaster.
About 125,000 customers in Long Beach are under a boil water
notice Thursday after a water main break the day before led the
city’s utility department to issue the requirement. Customers
in the 90805, 90807, and portions of the 90806 zip code are
under the boil water order until further notice. The water main
break happened Wednesday around 11:20 a.m. in the California
Heights neighborhood, near the intersection of Orange Avenue
and East Wardlow Road. Water gushed through streets in the area
until it was capped around one hour later. Long Beach Utilities
Department notified customers of the break Wednesday and
conducted system flushing, which removes naturally occurring
sediment that settled after the loss of water pressure. That
sediment is not harmful according to the department.
After one of its hottest and driest summers, Southern
California could remain abnormally warm and dry this winter as
La Niña conditions develop, a cycle that can trigger irregular
weather patterns worldwide. La Niña tends to produce
drier weather in Southern California and the Southwest during
the winter, a critical time to replenish water resources. Drier
vegetation can also worsen the risk of wildfires. Even if this
La Niña is weaker, it could still have serious regional
implications. Northern California may see a wetter-than-average
weather this winter, according to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. While seven of the 10 La Niña
events this century resulted in dry years in California,
research also suggests that even as the climate grows hotter
and drier overall, the precipitation that California does
receive will arrive in stronger storms, increasing the risk
from flooding, according to the California Department of Water
Resources.
The only head-to-head debate in California’s high-stakes
U.S. Senate race between Rep. Adam B. Schiff and former
Dodger Steve Garvey was dominated Tuesday by contentious
exchanges on a host of national political issues — from
immigration to the economy, expanding conflict in the Middle
East, reproductive healthcare and global warming. … Later in
the debate, Feinstein came up again, on the issue of
environmental regulations — and whether Schiff would ease
water restrictions on
farmers. Schiff said he would not “support
eviscerating” regulations, but would do what Sen. Feinstein
did, which is “look for those opportunities where we can have a
win, both for our farms, our cities and our environment.”
Garvey said environmentalists in the state need to work with
farmers, and that he is a “consensus builder” who can help make
that happen.He called water the “platinum issue in California,”
and one Schiff doesn’t know how to fix.
Another big hitter in California rivers has waded into the
ongoing Kern River legal battle. California Trout, a
conservation group dedicated to healthy rivers, filed a brief
with the 5th District Court of Appeal asking justices to
reinstate an injunction that had required enough water be
kept in the river for fish to survive. CalTrout has been
watching the Kern River case closely, said attorney Walter
Collins. “First, the Kern is a really important river in
California,” Collins said. “And our interest in this case
surrounds (California) Fish and Game Code 5937. It is a central
pillar of protection in California for rivers and species. Any
time it’s under threat, CalTrout will be there to protect its
legacy.” Fish and Game Code 5937 states dam owners must put
enough water downstream to keep fish in good condition. It was
the linchpin in restoring other rivers, including the San
Joaquin in Fresno County and was the underpinning of the
injunction on the Kern River.
Two newly signed laws by Governor Gavin Newsom are intended to
help city governments improve their readiness for major storms,
similar to the one that hit San Diego in January. The water
from that storm was too powerful for the city’s storm drainage
system to handle. On Tuesday, as crews cleared brush and debris
from an neighboring Encanto stormwater channel, Mayor Todd
Gloria and Assembly Member David Alvarez praised the new state
measures. Assembly Bill 3227, also known as the Streamlining
Storm Water Channel Maintenance Act, will expedite routine
maintenance of stormwater channels and facilities by
eliminating administrative delays usually caused by the
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
… The area where [Samantha Arthur] stands was underwater
three years ago. More polluted shoreline is exposed every day.
But behind her, areas planted with salt brush and other native
bushes and grasses painted an autumn palette of dun brown,
silvery gray and light green. Dust emissions along select edges
of the rapidly dwindling lake — about 1,320 acres in the Tule
Wash area near Salton City — have now been slashed by 90%,
according to Arthur, deputy water secretary for the state
natural resources agency, and other elated officials.
They’re tracking data from nearly two dozen gawky looking,
instrument-laden monitors placed both downwind and upwind of
the aggressive straw bale and native planting program along the
western shoreline. Now that they’ve figured out what works,
officials say they can replicate the efforts again and
again. … But a coalition of researchers and
environmental justice groups charged last week that those
measures and more rudimentary ones by the Imperial Irrigation
District are too little, too late, and will be “obsolete”
before they are finally completed.
A federal judge rejected a petition from environmental
activists for more strict regulation of large livestock
operations in a win for the U.S. meat industry. The U.S. Court
of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, based in San Francisco, threw
out a lawsuit that would have changed how the Environmental
Protection Agency regulates concentrated animal feeding
operations. Pork producers applauded the decision. The lawsuit,
filed and led by Food & Water Watch, challenged the EPA’s
decision last year to deny a petition that would have required
all farms to obtain permits to operate their CAFOs unless they
could prove they’re not a source of pollution. In their
petition, activist groups argued livestock operations are
releasing pollution into waterways in
violation of the Clean Water Act, and that the EPA has an
obligation under federal law to regulate discharge of animal
waste.
The Valero oil company and Amports, owner of terminals that
ship oil products, have agreed to pay $3.3 million to settle a
lawsuit by the environmental group SF Baykeeper, which said the
companies had discharged petroleum coke pollutants into bay
waters outside Valero’s refinery in Benicia. The settlement,
approved Monday by a federal judge, includes $2.38 million to
be paid to the nonprofit Rose Foundation for Communities and
the Environment, which will distribute it to local groups for
projects related to water quality. The rest will go to SF
Baykeeper for costs related to the lawsuit that it filed in
March 2022. While denying any wrongful acts, Valero and
Amports agreed to take steps to improve shipping and loading of
the petroleum product, sweep residue from ship decks, regularly
test the waters and pay additional sums for any further
pollution. Valero will pay $1.5 million of the settlement and
Amports $1.8 million.
The Pit River Tribe, joined by other Indigenous tribes and
environmental groups, has launched a proposal to establish the
Sáttítla National Monument in northeastern California. Modeled
after Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument, the initiative aims
to protect sacred lands and preserve the region’s rich cultural
and ecological heritage. Pit River Chairman Yatch Bamford said
the tribe is working to protect approximately 200,000 acres of
critical tribal cultural land from the threats of geothermal
development and industrialization. The area, he emphasized, is
not only a sacred landscape but also home to a vital aquifer
and the headwaters that sustain much of California’s
water supply.
Several Colorado lawmakers in Congress have expressed support
for the Colorado River District’s efforts to purchase the
Shoshone water rights on the Colorado River. On Monday,
Oct. 7, six members of the state’s congressional delegation
sent a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, demonstrating
support for the district’s forthcoming application for funding
from the Inflation Reduction Act. The district anticipates
seeking $40 million toward the total $99 million required to
acquire the water rights. … The Shoshone Power Plant in
Glenwood Canyon has the oldest and largest non-consumptive
water rights on the Colorado River. The rights account for 1
million acre-feet of water a year flowing through the upper
reaches of the Colorado River, down through Glenwood Canyon and
out to the state line. For many decades, the Colorado River
District has worked to preserve these rights and flows. In
December, it struck a deal with Xcel Energy to purchase the
rights for $98.5 million. It has four years to secure the
funding and pay for the rights under the current
agreement.
With California’s Klamath Dam removal project finally
completed, new before and after photos show the dramatic
differences along the river with and without the dams. The
photos were taken by Swiftwater Films, a documentary company
chronicling the dam removal project – a two-decade fight that
concluded on 2 October. “The tribally led effort to dismantle
the dams is an expression of our sacred duty to maintain
balance in the world,” the Yurok tribal chairman, Joseph L
James, said in a statement. “That is why we fought so hard for
so long to tear down the dams and bring the salmon home.”
Between 1903 and 1962, the electric power company PacifiCorp
built a series of dams along the Klamath River to generate
electricity. The dams disrupted the river’s natural flow, and
the migratory routes of its fish – including, most famously,
the Chinook salmon.
