A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday by veteran journalist Matt Weiser. Send any comments 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.
On May 21, 2020, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
issued another order finding that the California State Water
Resources Control Board waived its authority under Section 401
of the Clean Water Act to issue a water quality certification
in the ongoing relicensing of Yuba Water Agency’s Yuba River
Project.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Institute for Water Resources
released a report on May 14 titled Managed Aquifer Recharge
(MAR) and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: Water Security
Through Resilience. … The report states USACE and its
partners have engaged, or are considering engaging, in the use
of MAR in a variety of settings and purposes throughout the
United States.
In a stark reminder that drought has once again taken hold on
the North Coast, Sonoma County is preparing to ask state water
regulators for permission to reduce water levels in the Russian
River this summer to conserve water stored in Lake Mendocino
and ensure minimal late-season flows for fish.
This is an excerpt from “Ruling the Waters: California’s Kern
River, the Environment, and the Making of Western Water Law” by
Douglas R. Littlefield, published in May 2020.
With its proposed Doheny desalination plant facing hurdles
because of costs and a lack of partner water districts, the
South Coast Water District board has agreed to spend $73,000 to
study a scaled-down alternative.
California state Sen. Steven Bradford (D-Gardena) introduced
legislation this week authorizing the Water Replenishment
District of Southern California to take control of the Central
Basin Municipal Water District, a move that would dissolve
Central Basin’s board of directors and put the distressed
agency in receivership.
The park’s 1,900 residents have been without a permanent
drinking water source for months, after the EPA announced last
summer that the park’s well water contained nearly 10 times the
permissible level of arsenic, a toxic metal.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a $196
million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA)
loan to the Inland Empire Utilities Agency in San Bernardino
County, California. The loan will help finance expanded
wastewater treatment capacity to support public health and the
environment in this growing community.
The National Audubon Society has reached an agreement with the
Arizona Department of Water Resources to help fund the Colorado
River Indian Tribes’ on-going efforts to conserve 150,000
acre-feet of water in Lake Mead over the next three years.
Likely hanging in the balance is the future of artificial water
fluoridation in the U.S. with shock waves possibly to be felt
in countries which still add synthetic fluoride agents to their
drinking water. The plaintiffs comprise a coalition of
citizens’ groups, while the defendant is the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency. At issue is the potential health risks posed
by artificial water fluoridation.
The imbalance on the Colorado River needs to be addressed, and
agriculture, as the biggest water user in the basin, needs to
be part of a fair solution. But drying up vital food-producing
land is a blunt tool. It would damage our local food-supply
chains and bring decline to rural communities that have
developed around irrigated agriculture.
The 2008 financial market crash was called a “black swan” event
— an extreme catastrophic event that was not anticipated. We
hope that when a catastrophic dam failure occurs in the United
States it will not be called a black swan, since there is
already strong evidence that the combination of aging and
poorly maintained infrastructure and climate extremes could be
very deadly.
A scientist within the Department of Water Resources’ Division
of Environmental Services has found a way to use gene-editing
technology, most recently used for COVID-19 diagnostic testing,
for ecological monitoring of threatened fish.
A study conducted by researchers at Duke University and RTI
International found that reusing oil field produced water that
has been mixed with surface water to irrigate crops in Kern
County’s Cawelo Water District does not pose any major health
risks.
Administration officials said the state must make painful
choices to keep funding intact for core environmental
regulatory and safety programs. They also point out that the
governor is proposing to boost spending for wildfire
preparedness by $90 million and would preserve funding to
enforce new clean drinking-water rules.
This practice entails on-site grinding of whole, removed trees
and the incorporation of the wood chips back into the almond
fields before the next replanting. … In terms of soil health,
the [University of California] researchers found a 58% increase
in soil carbon as well as a 32% increase in water holding
capacity compared to conventional burning practices. Overall
productivity of the trees increased by 20% as well.
Rick Callender, former president of the San Jose-Silicon Valley
NAACP and a longtime water executive, has been named CEO of
Silicon Valley’s largest water provider, the Santa Clara Valley
Water District. The district, also known as Valley Water,
provides drinking water and flood protection to 2 million
residents in Santa Clara County.
The CDC says there’s no evidence the coronavirus can spread to
people through pool water and that proper cleaning with
chlorine or bromine should inactivate the virus if it’s in the
water. So why are pools remaining closed if there’s no evidence
of the virus spreading through the water? Because of human
behavior.
At the May meeting of the California Water Commission,
Assistant Executive Officer Jennifer Ruffolo presented the
draft of the 2019 Annual Review of the Construction and
Operation of the State Water Project for the Commission’s
consideration and possible approval. Once approved, Commission
staff will distribute the review to DWR and the Legislature.
Under pressure to release more details about recent outbreaks
of the coronavirus in the local business community, Sonoma
County’s top public health official on Thursday revealed three
industries in which workers recently contracted the virus. Dr.
Sundari Mase, the county’s health officer, said recent
infections have been found among workers at a local winery, a
water filtration plant and among a group of farmworkers.
