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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The 30×30 initiative is a global effort to set aside 30% of
land and sea area for conservation by 2030, a move scientists
hope will reverse biodiversity loss and mitigate the effects of
climate change. Now adopted by state and national governments
around the world, 30×30 creates an unprecedented opportunity to
advance global conservation. When it comes to the water side of
30×30, most programs focus primarily on conservation of oceans,
but a new study by researchers at the University of California,
Berkeley argues that freshwater ecosystems must not be
neglected. Published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in
Ecology and the Environment, the paper urges policy makers to
explicitly include freshwater ecosystems like rivers, lakes,
and wetlands in 30×30 plans, and outlines how their
conservation will be critical to achieving the initiative’s
broader goals.
National and regional media love a good fight, and lately a day
doesn’t pass without a major news story or op-ed focused on
Colorado River disagreements, particularly amongst the seven
states of the Colorado River Basin (Arizona, California,
Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming). Which state
must bear the brunt of shortages needed as Colorado River flows
decline? Which sector of water users takes the hit as climate
change continues to diminish the river? Should urban water
supplies be protected because that’s where all the people are?
(Municipal water supply representatives will quickly remind us
that if all urban uses of Colorado River water were cut off,
there would still be a shortage). Should agricultural water
supplies be protected because we all need to eat?
We have seen the future of water in California this winter and
it does not look good. After 200% rainfall and historic
snowpack, what do we have? They keep saying we are not out of
the drought. But when it starts raining like this, that is — by
definition — the end of a drought. How much rainfall do they
need? Actually, I probably shouldn’t ask that. I probably won’t
like their answer. There are no average rainfall years in
California. There are wet years and dry years. We are idiots
because we do not catch the rainfall from the wet years and
save it for the dry years.
A powerful storm barreling toward California from the tropical
Pacific threatens to trigger widespread river flooding
throughout the state as warm rain melts a record accumulation
of snowpack and sends runoff surging down mountains and into
streams and reservoirs. Although state officials insist they
are prepared to manage runoff from what is now the 10th
atmospheric river of a deadly rainy season, at least one expert
described the combination of warm rain, epic snowpack and moist
soils as “bad news.” … Already, the National Weather
Service is warning residents that a number of rivers could
surge beyond their flood stage, inundating nearby roads and
properties. Likewise, some reservoir managers have already
begun releasing water in anticipation of heavy inflows through
the weekend.
Construction to start the removal process of the Klamath River
dams will start this month and all four dams are scheduled to
be removed from the river by the end of 2024. The Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission approved the $450 million dam
removal project in November of 2022. It will be the largest dam
removal project in American history. The Klamath River
Renewal Corporation (KRRC), who took over ownership of the dams
from Pacific Power, is leading the historic construction
project. This month, construction preparation work is underway.
Construction on the dams will begin this summer, starting with
Copco 2.
…. On March 20 … the entire Colorado River will be looming
over the [Supreme Court] justices when they hear oral arguments
in Arizona v. Navajo Nation. The case, which dwells at the
intersection of Native treaty rights and water rights, will
mark the court’s latest foray into the byzantine rules and
regulations that govern limited supplies of water in one of the
driest parts of the country. For the Navajo Nation, the court’s
decision on its 19th-century treaty rights could have serious
consequences for its future.
States that use water from the Colorado River are caught in a
standoff about how to share shrinking supplies, and their
statements about recent negotiations send mixed messages.
California officials say they were not consulted as other
states in the region drew up a letter to the federal government
with what they called a “consensus-based” set of
recommendations for water conservation. Leaders in states that
drafted the letter disagree with that characterization. The
reality of what happened during negotiations may lie somewhere
in between, as comments from state leaders hint at possible
differences between their definitions of what counts as
“consultation.” The squabble is a microcosm of larger tensions
between states that use water from the Colorado River.
Explore the epicenter of groundwater sustainability on
our Central Valley Tour
April 26-28 and engage directly with some of
the most important leaders and experts in water storage,
management and delivery, agriculture, habitat, land use policy
and water equity. The tour focuses on the San Joaquin Valley,
which has struggled with consistently little to no
surface water deliveries and increasing pressure to reduce
groundwater usage to sustainable levels while also facing water
quality and access challenges for disadvantaged
communities. Led by Foundation staff and
groundwater expert Thomas Harter, Chair for Water
Resources Management and Policy at the University of
California, Davis, the tour explores topics such as subsidence,
water supply and drought, flood management, groundwater
banking and recharge, surface water storage, agricultural
supply and drainage, wetlands and more. Register
here!
To capitalize on strong flows resulting from
higher-than-average snowpack, the State Water Resources Control
Board approved a petition by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to
divert over 600,000 acre-feet of San Joaquin River flood waters
for wildlife refuges, underground storage and recharge. With
this approval, the State Water Board has authorized nearly
790,000 acre-feet in diversions for groundwater recharge and
other purposes since late December 2022 – the amount of water
used by at least 1.5 million households in a single year.
Neil McIsaac has something many other dairy farmers here don’t:
a storm-runoff capture system that can provide backup water for
his herd when local reservoirs go dry, as they did last year.
Already, he and others involved in the project say it has
proven its worth. It has captured 670,000 gallons so far this
winter, enough to slake the thirst of his 700 cows for a month,
Mr. McIsaac said.
In Sarge Green’s 40-plus year career, he’s worn an astonishing
number of hats. Now a water management specialist with
California State University, Fresno, Sarge has worked on water
quality issues at the regional water board, served as general
manager of an irrigation district, and managed two resource
conservation districts (RCDs). He’s also a director for the
Tule Basin Land and Water Conservation Trust and the Fresno
Metropolitan Flood Control District. He’s been a long-time
partner with the PPIC Water Policy Center in our San Joaquin
Valley work as a trusted member of our research network. Sarge
remains deeply involved in efforts to help San Joaquin Valley
farms and communities cope with the challenges of implementing
the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. We spoke with him
about a pressing issue in the valley: how to manage farmland
that will be transitioning out of intensive irrigation.
It’s officially the snowiest year to date in Lake Tahoe.
Following a nearly two-week series of storms that dropped more
than 15 feet of snow in parts of the Sierra Nevada, the
official numbers are in. Lake Tahoe has received more snowfall
as of March 6 than in any other season — or at least any season
since 1971-72, the earliest year for which the UC Berkeley
Central Sierra Snow Lab on Donner Summit has daily
measurements. As of March 6, the Snow Lab has measured 580
inches, or just over 48 feet, of snow since Oct. 1.
A particularly wet season has swept across the southwestern
U.S., a region that has suffered under a severe megadrought for
over two decades. But what has this meant for Colorado River
reservoir Lake Mead? Storms of rain and snow have hit
California particularly badly in recent months, and have spread
into neighboring states like Nevada. Reservoirs like Lake Mead
rely on seasonal snowmelt and rainfall. Because of the drought,
these weather patterns have been less frequent and harder to
predict in recent. This means water levels at the largest
man-made lake in the U.S., Lake Mead, are rapidly declining.
While images of discarded plastic bottles and bags dominate
news headlines, in reality most plastics contaminating Earth’s
lands and waters are barely visible to the naked eye. And these
microplastics (fragments less than 5 millimeters in diameter)
have become a problem too big to ignore. They are ubiquitous,
found in nearly every environment around the world, and
threatening ecosystems and animals ranging in size from
plankton to whales. They are also in drinking water, food and
our bodies — posing serious questions about the long-term
impacts to human and planetary health. From skin care products
and paint to plastic containers and car tires, these
microplastics originate from almost every industry. However,
many people don’t realize that their clothing is also made from
plastic. When we wash and wear synthetic textiles, they shed
microplastics, called microfibers.
The wrong kind of weather can turn a manageable wildfire into
an uncontrollable blaze. In California, Santa Ana winds
notoriously fan flames with streams of hot, dry air, and
Europe’s 2022 summer of record-breaking heat was also a summer
of record-breaking fires. But it isn’t just weather that
influences fires—fires can influence weather, too. … New
research has suggested that smoke from particularly large
blazes can change local weather, making fires even worse. This
could be bad news for fire-prone regions experiencing more
frequent fires due to climate change. But the study,
published in Science, also hinted that building
fire-weather interactions into weather forecasts could help
direct firefighting resources to where they’ll be most
effective.
The state Regional Water Quality Control Board on Wednesday
will receive an update on a 2017 mitigation case involving what
were three downtown cleaners. The businesses at the time were
One Hour Cleaner, which was located at 710 Madison St.,
Fairfield Cleaners, 625 Jackson St., which is now home to the
Republican Party headquarters, and Gillespie Cleaners at
622-630 Jackson St., the state reported. One other
business that was not responsible for any contamination, but
was affected, is Fairfield Safe & Lock, which is still doing
business at 811 Missouri St. … The report states that
the Tetrachloroethene – or PCE – plume that was discharged into
the groundwater has been reduced by more than 90% since the
mitigation plan was approved in September 2017.
Weeks of frigid air temperatures in the Sierra have caused Lake
Tahoe’s water to “mix” for the first time since 2019, as cold
water at the surface sinks to the lake’s 1,600-foot depths,
bringing clearer water up. That means that the historically
crystal-clear lake, which has grown murkier over the past
several decades, is the clearest it has been in four years. The
lake’s clarity, which is a sign of its overall health and
typically drops to 60 or 70 feet deep, now goes down to 115
feet. … But it won’t last long, said Geoffrey Schladow,
a professor and director of the UC Davis’ Tahoe
Environmental Research Center. … Water clarity in the
lake was at an average depth of 61 feet in 2021,
compared with 102 feet in 1968, when it was first studied by UC
Davis. It also tends to be clearer in winter than summer, when
there is more algae growth and sediment.
Some 22 billion gallons of raw sewage have flowed from Mexico
into San Diego County since the end of December, the
International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) reported on
Wednesday. … Acknowledging that sewage flows have
dropped to 106 million gallons per day and continue to
decrease, the agency noted that two wastewater collectors
are out of service due to excessive sediment buildup.
Last Thursday, flows reached 800 million
gallons per day, according to the IBWC. The
wastewater influx is the result of an extended bout of winter
weather, which has made a chronic cross-border sewage situation
worse over the past few months.
The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed tighter limits
on wastewater pollution from coal-burning power plants that has
contaminated streams, lakes and underground aquifers across the
nation. Under the Clean Water Act, the Environmental Protection
Agency sets pollution standards to limit wastewater discharge
from the power industry and other businesses. The Trump
administration rolled back pollution standards so utilities
could use cheaper technologies and take longer to comply with
guidelines for cleaning coal ash and toxic heavy metals such as
mercury, arsenic and selenium from plant wastewater before
dumping it into waterways. The Biden administration’s proposal
for stricter standards at coal-burning plants also encourages
the plants to retire or switch to other fuels such as natural
gas by 2028.
The recent series of storms that swept through the region
wrought havoc in many ways, but they did improve water levels
in California. Without minimizing widespread storm damage and
attending hardship, it is nice to see the hills green again and
hope the rainy trend continues. It’s also a great relief to
note that statewide Sierra snowpack was registering at nearly
200% of normal levels at the beginning of February, and that
preliminary reservoir gauge readings published for the Santa
Clara Valley Water District’s 10 local reservoirs at the same
time showed five of those reservoirs at or above 80% capacity.
And as reported in The Mercury News on Jan. 12: “For the first
time in more than two years, the majority of California is in
moderate drought, not severe drought.” -Written by Andy Gere, president and COO of San
Jose Water.
