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 Interim Director Doug Beeman.
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The Ramona Municipal Water District has announced that the
community’s water system does not contain lead after an
inventory of service lines. The water district reviewed the
service lines to determine the material of those lines and
fittings in response to federal regulations aimed at protecting
communities from lead exposure, the agency announced Dec. 20.
As part of compliance requirements with the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency’s (EPA) Revised Lead and Copper Rule, the
water district has been conducting an inventory of underground
water service lines that connect the water main lines to
plumbing in homes and businesses. “None of the district’s water
main lines contain lead,” the water district said in a
statement.
According to the document, PFAS are a large class of chemicals
that have been used in industry and consumer products since the
1940s. People can be exposed to the chemicals through consumer
products, occupational contact and/or by consuming food or
water that contains PFAS. The U.S. EPA announced in April 2024
the final National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for six
PFAS chemicals. The regulation will apply to public drinking
water systems when fully implemented. … The EPA document
states that potable reuse facilities can closely monitor
different chemicals that enter the system. The systems can
leverage the Clean Water Act or upgrade their treatment systems
to prevent PFAS from entering the system.
We missed the goalpost. Most of Arizona’s urban areas were
supposed to reach “safe yield,” the point where we are
replenishing roughly as much groundwater as we pump, by 2025.
But we’re not anywhere close. The state’s five initial
groundwater Active Management Areas (AMAs), including Phoenix,
still pump more water than they replace. And, if anything, are
moving further away from their management goals, which were set
four decades ago. So, what do we do now? That remains the great
unanswered question. —Joanna Allhands writes opinions primarily about Arizona
water and the Colorado River.
As the Monterey Peninsula becomes increasingly dependent on
recycled water, the cost of water is going to rise, and already
has. Although recycling water is cheaper than desalinating it,
it’s still energy intensive. Add to that, energy from the grid
can be unreliable – Monterey One Water, which treats
wastewater and recycles some of it for potable use, lost power
in 2022 for a total of 65.2 hours at its treatment plant in
Marina, as the PG&E substation supplying energy to the
plant experienced interruptions. While generators were able to
keep things humming, it’s not an ideal scenario for the
facility – wastewater is constantly flowing, and needs to
be treated before being discharged out to sea.
As climate change warms the planet, wildfires have become so
unpredictable and extreme that new words were invented:
firenado, gigafire, fire siege — even fire pandemic. California
has 78 more annual “fire days” — when conditions are ripe for
fires to spark — than 50 years ago. When is California’s
wildfire season? With recurring droughts, it is now year-round.
Nothing is as it was. Where are the worst California wildfires?
All over. Whatever NIMBYism that gave comfort to some
Californians — never having a fire in their community before —
no longer applies to most areas. Los Angeles County is
the latest victim.
Tucson officials are moving forward on a plan to create
southern Arizona’s first water treatment facility that turns
wastewater into drinking water. Tucson City Councilmembers
voted to approve a proposal to use some $86 million worth of
Bureau of Reclamation funding to build the new treatment
facility and save Colorado River water as a result. Tucson
Water Director Jon Kmiec says things began about 16 months ago,
when the water utility asked the agency to fund an advanced
water purification plant in Tucson’s northwest side.
Nearly a quarter of animals living in rivers, lakes and other
freshwater sources are threatened with extinction, according to
new research published Wednesday. “Huge rivers like the Amazon
can appear mighty, but at the same time freshwater environments
are very fragile,” said study co-author Patricia Charvet, a
biologist at Brazil’s Federal University of Ceará. Freshwater
habitats – including rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, bogs and
wetlands – cover less than 1% of the planet’s surface, but
support 10% of its animal species, said Catherine Sayer, a
zoologist at the International Union for Conservation of Nature
in England. The researchers examined around 23,500 species of
dragonflies, fish, crabs and other animals that depend
exclusively on freshwater ecosystems. They found that 24% were
at risk of extinction – classified as vulnerable, endangered or
critically endangered – due to compounding threats from
pollution, dams, water extraction, agriculture, invasive
species, climate change and other disruptions.
The push to explore a potential Superfund designation for the
Tijuana River Valley hit a snag Wednesday when the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency told San Diego County leaders
that the federal agency’s priority is to control the flows of
sewage and trash that spill over from Mexico. Investigating
potential contamination in the border region was best left to
the state, they said. Last week, the federal
agency denied a petition to review whether a six-mile
stretch of the lower river valley qualifies as a Superfund
site, a determination it made based largely on data from 2018
and 2019. That data, collected by the U.S. Customs and Border
Protection and the International Boundary and Water Commission,
found concentrations of hazardous chemicals in water and
sediment, but not at levels that exceeded the EPA’s regional
screening levels for human health concerns.
… The decline of the Great Salt Lake drew increased scrutiny
in recent years, after the lake hit record lows in 2022. At the
time, experts warned that if conditions continued, the lake
could be completely dry within 5 years. Environmentalists sued
the state over the lake’s decline, arguing it has violated its
public trust obligations by threatening a public health crisis
and ecological collapse and also filed an Endangered Species
Act petition to protect a bird whose declining population is
heavily reliant on the Great Salt Lake during its annual
migration. But the last two years have been wet years,
leading to policymakers, including the state’s governor, to
downplay the issue, despite continued concern over the future
of the lake from academics and environmentalists.
Today, the Los Vaqueros Reservoir Joint Powers Authority (JPA)
approved the resolution to officially dissolve the JPA and
directed staff to proceed with all actions to support this
decision. Without question, this is a significant and somber
day for the JPA and the Phase 2 Los Vaqueros Reservoir
Expansion Project (Project). As we move forward with the
dissolution process, it is important to document the
contributions and lessons learned from this effort.
To find chemical engineering problems to solve, William
Tarpeh uses a simple formula. “Name a wastewater, either
where it comes from or something about it. Name a pollutant you
want to get rid of, and then name a product you’d be interested
in making,” said Tarpeh, an assistant professor of chemical
engineering in the Stanford School of Engineering. This
combination has fueled Tarpeh’s interests since he was a
Stanford undergraduate. Now, it shapes his vision for finding
innovative ways to extract value from wastewater, including new
research that involves designing and refining ways to reclaim
ammonia from nitrate-contaminated wastewater streams.
California implemented permanent water rationing for urban
water users on January 1. The California State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB) designed the regulations, which will
affect about 405 water providers serving about 95 percent of
the state’s population. These providers in turn will need to
determine how to meet their SWRCB quotas. The stringency of the
rationing varies across locations. Newsweek reports estimated
water delivery reductions of 92 percent for the City of Vernon,
58 percent for the City of Atwater, and 43 percent for the City
of Glendora by 2040. It also reports that by 2040, about 36
percent of water suppliers will need to cut water delivery by
an estimated 10 percent or more. About 31 percent of suppliers
are estimated to avoid any cuts by 2040. Fines for
noncompliance could reach $10,000 per day, though compliance
apparently won’t be enforced until 2027.
The draft State Water Resources Control Board Water Quality
Control Plan for the San Francisco Bay / Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta Watershed (WQCP) is “both illegal and morally
indefensible,” said water policy experts from the
California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) in a press
statement. “The draft plan would illegally delegate
responsibility for maintaining healthy rivers and vibrant
communities to water contractors serving corporate
agriculture,” said Max Gomberg, a C-WIN board member and the
former Climate and Conservation Manager for the State Water
Resources Control Board. “It is morally indefensible for the
Water Board to rubber stamp backroom deals that deliberately
exclude tribes, environmental justice communities, and
scientific experts.”
Ongoing efforts to revegetate areas along the Klamath River in
the former John C. Boyle dam’s “footprint” were among items
discussed during a Monday night meeting of the Native Plant
Society’s Klamath Basin Chapter. Robert Roninger, a fish
biologist with the Bureau of Land Management’s Klamath Falls
Field Office, presented two publicly available videos about the
dam removal and multi-year plans to restore about 2,500 acres
of land that had been created as reservoirs by the Iron Gate,
Copco 1, Copco 2, and Boyle dams. In a power point
presentation, Roninger focused on restoring about 275 acres
that had resulted from the John C. Boyle Dam Project Area and
the faster than expected return of fall Chinook and Coho salmon
to the Klamath River in Oregon.
Even in San Diego, it’s typical to get some rain in the
winter. Except this year, the San Diego County Water
Authority said it’s the third driest start to the rainy
season in 150 years. “Typically, we should have about three to
four inches of precipitation around the county, and we’re at
around less than a quarter of an inch,” Senior Water Resource
Specialist Efren Lopez said. This doesn’t mean we’re in
trouble. The Water Authority said we have plenty of water in
our reservoirs. The Olivenhain Dam and Reservoir in
Escondido is at full capacity. It stores emergency water and
water imported from the Colorado River, plus it collects rain.
… The SD Water Authority said the San Diego region
has 21 reservoirs with a total of about 719,000
acre-feet of storage.
… The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is awarding $3 million
to support three projects in California under the National
Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program. Coastal wetlands
are vitally important in protecting us from floods, filtering
our water, supporting recreation and local economies, and
providing habitat for fish and wildlife. Despite their
importance, there has been a steady loss of coastal wetlands,
and California is no exception. Nationwide, the Service
is awarding $25.7 million to support 28 projects in 11 coastal
states, which will restore or enhance over 10,000 acres of
coastal wetlands and adjacent upland habitats and more than
eight miles of streams and shoreline. State, local and Tribal
governments, private landowners, conservation groups and other
partners will contribute $16.8 million in additional funds to
support these projects nationwide.
During a storm, garbage carelessly discarded in the street in
Lake Forest or Irvine doesn’t stay there. Each year, between
100 to 300 tons of trash winds up flowing up to 15 miles
downstream along San Diego Creek, ultimately polluting the
Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve. … That’s why the Newport
Beach City Council approved construction of a garbage
interceptor at the end of San Diego Creek in July 2023. It’s a
preventive waste management system similar to Baltimore’s two
Mr. Trash Wheels, which use floating containment booms to
direct debris toward a conveyor belt powered by a water wheel
and solar panels. The $5.5-million project is about 90%
complete, with it’s conveyor belt barge and other components
already positioned at the creek, Kappeler said. Crews were in
the process of installing its solar panels and battery Monday.
The trash wheel could be up and running as soon as late
February.
… Together, CAL FIRE, the SNC, and the US Forest Service
committed $10 million, meeting nearly half of the estimated $23
million needed to complete shovel-ready, wildfire-resilience
projects in the Crystal Basin over the next 5-10 years. Those
funds support a strategic portfolio of fuel reduction and
recreation infrastructure improvements in the Crystal Basin, a
scenic island of green forest and mountain lakes in the
Eldorado National Forest that is surrounded by large,
high-severity burn areas created by the 2014 King Fire and 2021
Caldor Fire. As a result of this catalyst funding, HELP is
already seeing early, unanticipated successes.
… One major environmental concern associated with cannabis
cultivation is the excessive demand for water. Cannabis plants
require a large amount of water, particularly in arid regions
where many grow operations are located. Data from the
California Department of Water Resources show that legal
cannabis cultivation can consume more water than many other
crops, which puts additional strain on already limited water
supplies, especially in drought-stricken areas. In response,
certain states have begun adopting regulations to mitigate
water usage by requiring specific water allocations for
cannabis farms. For instance, California, which produces nearly
70% of the nation’s cannabis, instituted stricter water
regulations in response to prolonged droughts. Under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, cannabis cultivators
must now develop and implement water conservation plans that
align with broader resource management strategies.
As fires raged across Los Angeles on Tuesday, some firefighters
battling the Palisades fire reported on internal radio systems
that hydrants in Pacific Palisades were coming up dry. “The
hydrants are down,” said one firefighter. “Water supply just
dropped,” said another. … A spokesman for the Department
of Water and Power acknowledged reports of diminished water
flow from hydrants but did not have details on the number of
hydrants without water or the scale of the issue. In a
statement, the DWP said water crews were working in the
neighborhood “to ensure the availability of water supplies.”
“This area is served by water tanks and close coordination is
underway to continue supplying the area,” the DWP said in its
statement.