“Infrastructure” in general can be defined as the components and
equipment needed to operate, as well as the structures needed
for, public works systems. Typical examples include roads,
bridges, sewers and water supply systems.Various dams and
infrastructural buildings have given Californians and the West
the opportunity to control water, dating back to the days of
Native Americans.
Water management infrastructure focuses on the parts, including
pipes, storage reservoirs, pumps, valves, filtration and
treatment equipment and meters, as well as the buildings to
house process and treatment equipment. Irrigation infrastructure
includes reservoirs, irrigation canals. Major flood control
infrastructure includes dikes, levees, major pumping stations and
floodgates.
In a proactive move to address the challenges posed by climate
change and to align with statewide water management objectives,
Roseville has received an $8 million grant from the California
Natural Resources Agency and Department of Water Resources.
This financial infusion, thanks to the efforts of the Regional
Water Authority and local water agencies, will help finance the
development of two groundwater wells within the city by
covering nearly half the cost. Roseville’s share is part
of a more extensive regional funding package totaling $55
million, dedicated to supporting essential groundwater
infrastructure initiatives spanning the Sacramento region.
NOAA’s National Integrated Drought Information System (NIDIS)
has announced approximately $2 million in funding for projects
to support tribal drought resilience as part of President
Biden’s Investing in America agenda. This investment will help
tribal nations address current and future drought risk on
tribal lands across the Western U.S. while informing
decision-making and strengthening tribal drought resilience in
a changing climate. Proposals may request funding of up
to $700,000 total to be disseminated in the first year and
expended over three years in the form of cooperative
agreements. A total of 3–5 projects may be funded depending on
the project budget requested.
More than 800 U.S. buildings certified as “sustainable” are at
extreme risk of flooding — and may have to be abandoned as the
planet continues to overheat. That’s because the U.S. Green
Building Council — an influential nonprofit that works to make
buildings more climate-friendly — has for years largely
overlooked the impact of extreme weather. Its point-based
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certification
generally offers new building projects just four points out of
a possible 110 for taking steps to protect projects from
flooding. LEED certification is a big deal: It’s subsidized or
required by more than 350 local and state governments as well
as the General Services Administration, which manages the vast
federal building stock.
Last week, the U.N. hosted a summit on sustainable development,
including access to clean water. I have previously written
about declining water levels in the western U.S. and the use of
desalination to transform seawater into freshwater. Although
over 17,000 desalination plants are operating worldwide, there
are only about 325 in the U.S., with 45% in Florida, 14% in
California, and 9% in Texas. The reason they have not been more
widely adopted is traditionally, they are expensive to build
and use a lot of energy. Most of the desalination plants
operating today heat the salt water and pump it through
specialized membranes that separate the water from the
salts.
The Board of Directors of the Monterey Peninsula Water
Management District plans on holding a public hearing to
consider the acquisition of the Monterey Water System. The
board is considering adopting a Resolution of Necessity for
taking by eminent domain in order to convert the privately
owned and operated water system to public ownership and
control. Currently, the Monterey Water System is privately held
by the California American Water Company.
The South Lake Tahoe resident who alleges his home was damaged
by flooding caused by a California Tahoe Conservancy hopes the
lawsuit he filed against the agency is quickly and peacefully
wrapped up. The Conservancy acquired the Upper Truckee Marsh
land between the Tahoe Keys and the Al Tahoe Neighborhood in
the 1980s, although work didn’t begin on the project until the
2000s. The project ramped up in 2021 to dig new waterways
through the marsh, place check dams along the waterways and put
more water flow into Trout Creek. The goal of this work is to
rewet the marshland so it can act as a natural filter for water
flowing into Lake Tahoe, helping to increase lake clarity.
Although [California] supported dry cleaners in the transition
away from PCE [perchloroethylene] through grants to buy new
cleaning machines and by offering training on how to safely use
other cleaning solvents or do wet cleaning with detergents,
many cleaners feel they’ve been left out to dry when it comes
to cleaning up the pollution often found under their businesses
and neighbor’s water supplies. .. A PCE cleanup typically
costs about $1 million to more than $10 million. The high
costs come from the extensive mapping of groundwater and soil
samples required to determine the extent of a PCE plume — which
can flow for several miles in groundwater under cities — and
the regular monitoring of how effective the remediation efforts
are.
The infusion of federal money for infrastructure projects is a
welcome first step toward fixing deep problems with water
systems on tribal lands, but it’s only a first step, an Arizona
official testified Wednesday [Sept. 25]. Brian Bennon, director
of the tribal water department at the Inter Tribal Council of
Arizona, said tribes need to make sure they have funding for
operation and maintenance of the systems to keep them
going … Bennon was joined by Ken Norton, director
of the Hoopa Valley Tribal Environmental Protection Agency, and
Jola WallowingBull, director of the Northern Arapaho Tribal
Engineering Department, to testify on the problems that come
with underfunding of Native water systems.
In her groundbreaking book Water Always Wins: Thriving in an
Age of Drought and Deluge, environmental journalist and
National Geographic Explorer Erica Gies observes, “If water
were a category in a game of rock, paper, scissors, water would
beat them all every time.” At a time when drought, fire
and flood threaten countless lives, Gies talks to water experts
who are using cutting-edge science and traditional knowledge to
show how our relationship to water must change if we want to
survive. She takes the reader inside water projects ranging
from the marshlands of Iraq to the highlands of Peru, as well
as nearer to home in B.C. and California, uncovering a
breathtaking complexity we ignore at our peril. The result is a
riveting and engaging book that does for water what Suzanne
Simard has done for trees.
Engineers with the city of San Diego say local neighborhoods
are always one rainstorm away from disastrous flooding. They
say it’s because our storm system is decades past its lifetime.
And right now, they say, the city doesn’t have enough money to
set aside to fix problems that keep them up at night. … Many
of the issues we’re experiencing now are connected to the pipe
failures.
In 1883, two years after he created Hotel Del Monte, railroad
baron Charles Crocker facilitated the construction, near
Cachagua, of the so-called Chinese Dam – the Carmel River’s
first – which aimed to provide 400 acre-feet of water annually
to his hotel. … There is a plan in the works, years in the
making, though not yet quite near the finish line: the Rancho
Cañada Floodplain Restoration Project. The project calls
for widening and restoring the riverbed and banks where the
river flows through a 40-acre, mile-long stretch of Palo Corona
Regional Park through the section that was reclaimed from part
of the Rancho Cañada Golf Course in a purchase facilitated by
the Trust for Public Land, Trout Unlimited the Santa Lucia
Conservancy and the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District.
There’s no debate whether flooding is a serious risk for Santa
Venetia residents. … the county has started work on
repairing sections of the timber-reinforced earth berm that is
now protecting the area. … The wall, stretching from
Meadow Drive to Vendola Drive, is deteriorating. The county is
spending $300,000 to repair it. The plan is to finish the work
by the end of October, in time to upgrade protection before the
rainy season.
The Pleasanton City Council voted Tuesday to delay a
controversial plan to raise water rates by 62 percent over the
next three years. Council members voted to conduct further
analysis based on numerous resident concerns, and reconsider
the hikes at their Nov. 7 meeting. The council voted
unanimously to delay the vote, though Councilmember Julie Testa
left before the vote due to a family emergency.
… To better prepare and plan for a future with climate
extremes, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR)
has released the Public Review Draft of California Water Plan
Update 2023. … [The plan] focuses on three intersecting
themes: addressing the urgency of climate change, strengthening
watershed resilience, and achieving equity in water management.
… public comments can be made through Oct. 19,
2023.
Phillip Cesena transferred to San Franciscquito Canyon in
February 1928 to work as a ranch hand, mucking out stalls and
exercising ranch animals. The 15-year-old had just lost
his father, Leonardo, and wanted to support his mother,
Erolinda, and his 12 brothers and sisters by learning how to
break horses and perform trick riding for Hollywood westerns. A
month later, Cesena’s fate was sealed. The St. Francis Dam
burst, sending 12.6 billion gallons of water 15 stories high
racing through Santa Clarita, Saugus, Saticoy, Piru, Fillmore
and Santa Paula. The water wiped out villages and killed about
450 people before reaching the ocean near Oxnard some 54 miles
away. … Now, one community organizer is leading a push
to build a memorial to remember Cesena and all the others who
perished in what some call the worst civil engineering disaster
in the country’s history.
When the operator of the nation’s tallest dam applied for a new
federal permit in 2005, few expected the process to drag on for
more than a decade. It’s still not done. California’s Oroville
Dam is among a dozen major hydroelectric projects that have
been waiting over 10 years to receive a long-term permit from
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The sluggish process
is fueling uncertainty about the future of a key source of
clean power that has bipartisan support in Congress — but that
faces new challenges as the climate warms.
The past summer was the hottest ever in the Northern
Hemisphere. In fact, scientists announced last week that June,
July and August this year were the warmest on record globally,
confirming that the horrific heat waves in many places were as
awful as they seemed. But, as you’re probably already
aware, the summer didn’t bring record-breaking heat to
California. Some daily temperature records were broken in
July in Palm Springs, Anaheim and Redding, but overall, the
Golden State actually enjoyed its coolest summer since 2011.
A local water district is proposing an ambitious plan to turn
ocean water into drinking water, and while the idea of a “Blue
Water Farm” sounds promising, some environmental groups say
that ocean desalination should be a last resort and that more
can be done to conserve water in affluent communities.
Over the last two years, customers of the Las Virgenes
Municipal Water District (LVMWD) have seen restrictions and
fines over how much water they use. [District communications
manager Mike] McNutt added that the water district is
exploring new ways to keep lawns lush and green in big-money
neighborhoods like Calabasas, Westlake Village and Hidden
Hills. … Officials are hoping that they can bring in
precisely 10 million gallons of fresh water a day to the
district.
Despite the name, “Community Disaster Resilience Zones” are not
local havens capable of withstanding storms and other extreme
weather. But the Federal Emergency Management Agency, better
known as FEMA, is spending billions in hopes that they can be.
The agency has identified nearly 500 such “zones,” swaths of
land generally covering several miles that are ill-prepared to
tolerate flooding, earthquakes, heat waves, wildfires,
landslides and other natural hazards. As extreme weather is
expected to continue shattering expectations and local records
— from downpours drenching Death Valley to hurricanes pummeling
California’s coastline — these areas will be prioritized for
additional funding for protective improvements.
It’s been six months since the levee protecting the small
Central Coast farming community of Pajaro burst, flooding the
town and forcing thousands out of their homes. And
while repairs are underway, a permanent fix is still years
in the making.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Federal Highway
Administration (FHWA) today [9/15] announced the immediate
availability of $4.575 million in “quick release” Emergency
Relief funds for use by the National Park Service, the Forest
Service, and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. The funds will
offset costs of repair work needed for roads, trails,
parking areas, and other infrastructure as a result of flood
damage caused by Tropical Storm Hilary in Death Valley National
Park and other federal lands in California and Nevada last
month.
Reservoir hydropower offers a compelling combination of
stability and flexibility services for modern water and power
grids. However, its operating flexibility is poorly
characterized in energy system planning, missing opportunities
to cost-effectively uptake variable renewable energy (VRE) for
a clean energy transition. In this study, we have developed a
fully coupled reservoir operation and energy expansion model to
quantify the economic and environmental benefits attained from
adaptive hydropower operation in a high VRE future. Our case
study of the China Southern Power Grid reveals that, in a 2050
net-zero grid, simply adapting hydropower operations to balance
VRE can reduce 2018–2050 total system costs by 7% (that is,
US$28.2 billion) and simultaneously save 123.8 km3 of water
each year …
On September 9th, 2023 the Sixth Appellate District of
California’s Court of Appeals upheld the County of Monterey’s
decision to authorize permits for construction of California
American Water’s Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project
desalination facility.
With no end in sight for Arizona’s megadrought, many
researchers at Arizona State University are developing
innovations to mitigate the drought’s effects on residents,
agriculture and industry, and promote water resilience and
security. Claire Lauer, a professor of technical communication
in the School of Applied Professional Studies, part of the
College of Integrative Sciences and Arts (CISA) at ASU’s
Polytechnic campus, is applying her knowledge of user
experience, or UX, and Arizona’s water landscape to educate the
public about the intricacies of water usage because “there’s a
lot of misinformation about water out there,” she said.
“Educating the public on water management will help communities
make informed decisions, which can have a huge effect on
Arizona’s water policies and conservation efforts.”
A water district best known for supplying the celebrity-studded
enclaves of Calabasas and Hidden Hills could soon become famous
for a very different reason. The Las Virgenes Municipal Water
District recently partnered with California-based OceanWell to
study the feasibility of harvesting drinking water from
desalination pods placed on the ocean floor, several miles off
the coast of California. The pilot project, which will begin in
Las Virgenes’ reservoir near Westlake Village, hopes to
establish the nation’s first-ever “blue water farm.” … The
process could produce as much as 10 million gallons of fresh
water per day — a significant gain for an inland district
almost entirely reliant on imported supplies.
California lawmakers have passed a bill that would require
kindergarten-to-12th-grade schools in the Golden State to test
for brain-damaging lead in all drinking water outlets. Assembly
Bill 249 would require community water systems that serve
schools built before 2010 to test all potable water outlets for
lead, and to report results to the school, educational agency
and state water regulators. Outlets exceeding lead levels of 5
parts per billion would have to be shut down immediately.
Testing would be required before 2027, and would also apply to
preschools and child day care facilities on public school
property. The measure, authored by Assemblymember Chris Holden
(D-Pasadena), passed in the Senate and the Assembly this week.
It now heads to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for a final decision.
San Diego water bills would rise nearly 20 percent under a
rate-increase proposal the City Council is scheduled to
consider Tuesday. The increase, which city officials began
studying last fall, would be the first comprehensive rate hike
approved by the council in nearly eight years. It would include
a 10.2 increase this December and an 8.75 percent jump in
January 2025. City officials say they need additional revenue
increases to cover rising costs for imported water, upgrades to
thousands of aging pipes and a long list of short-term and
long-term capital projects. The capital projects include the
Pure Water sewage-recycling system, which has been under
construction since last year, and upgrades needed to several
aging city dams that state officials have deemed in poor
condition.
In an eight-mile swath of a damaged creek in unincorporated
Santa Clarita, the connections between humans, nature, water
supplies and survival of a rare fish are frayed by climate
change. … The project recently received a $12 million
grant to kickstart planning and design. The money was granted
to Public Works last week by the California Wildlife
Conservation Board. Construction is expected to begin in late
2024, according to Public Works. … The project has many
interrelated objectives: flood control, habitat restoration,
and returning safe, reliable water flow into the downstream
wells of homeowners who have been cut off from their water
source.
More than 11,000 people are now known to have died, with
thousands still missing, after Mediterranean storm Daniel made
landfall in Libya over the weekend. Inland areas were flooded,
as seen in Sentinel 2 images released by the European Union’s
space programme on Wednesday. Coastal settlements built near or
over alluvial fans and deltas of ancient Wadi — the Arabic term
traditionally referring to river valleys — were swept away. In
Derna alone, the worst affected city, the flood destroyed
two-thirds of all buildings and killed over 2,000 people.
… A “grey swan” is what experts describe as a
predictable, yet improbable, event with significant and
wide-ranging long-term impacts. Modern dams, reservoirs and
infrastructure to control floods are build to withstand
meteorological conditions as experienced in the last 100
years. -Written by David Bressan, a freelance geologist
working mostly in the Eastern Alps.
California is looking to boost water supply and considering new
regulations to recycling wastewater straight to your tap. Some
refer to it as toilet to tap, however experts in the field say
this phrase is anything but accurate. … CBS 8 visited
San Diego’s Pure Water project. It’s in phase one of
construction and will supply nearly half of the city’s drinking
water by the end of 2035. The water goes through a rigorous
recycling process. Our crews got to see it all happen at the
Pure Water demonstration site. “Five different treatment
steps,” said Dough Campbell, the deputy director of Pure Water
operations. Campbell said water is treated at a wastewater
plant before it ever arrives to Pure Water. Then the water goes
through a five step process of ozone, biologically active
carbon filters, membrane filters, reverse osmosis and
ultraviolet lighting.
The San Diego City Council approved $9 million Tuesday for
short-term repairs to two city dams found to have cracks and
other structural problems during state-ordered assessments in
2019. The repairs will be completed by Orion Construction
on the Morena Dam, which is 63 miles east of the city near
Campo and the Laguna Mountains, and El Capitan Dam, which is 7
miles east of Lakeside. While the dams are outside city
limits, they are part of San Diego’s vast water network that
includes nine reservoirs and dams located across the
county.
Work is still underway on a sinkhole in San Francisco’s Cow
Hollow neighborhood. A section of Fillmore Street remains
closed after a water main broke Monday damaging the street and
nearby homes and businesses. Repairs to the water main have
been fixed, but that’s just the beginning. ABC7 News reporter
Luz Pena has been covering this story and on Tuesday went with
one of the crews surveying the damage.
Iron be gone. Manganese, away. A $14.2 million groundwater
treatment facility that scrubs iron and manganese from supplies
at a wellfield in El Rio has switched on. The plant will
improve drinking supplies for thousands of Ventura County
residents, including families living at Naval Base Ventura
County. On Wednesday morning, officials and dignitaries
celebrated the United Water Conservation District project at
its El Rio facility at 3561 N. Rose Ave., north of Oxnard.
… Wednesday’s gathering marked completion of the plant’s
first phase after construction started around February
2022. The facility treats supplies pumped from deep
wells. The first phase will treat up to 3,500 gallons of
groundwater per minute. Future phases can expand capacity to
about 8,250 gallons per minute.
Residents in the area of Anderson Dam over the next few weeks
may hear loud warning horns and explosive sounds as crews
continue to excavate a tunnel under construction for the dam’s
seismic retrofit project, according to Valley Water.
Water district staff say the impact to residents and passing
traffic should be minimal. Starting on Sept. 12,
construction crews will begin the controlled blasting of hard
rock for the Anderson Dam Tunnel Project. Scheduled detonations
over the next few weeks will take place Monday through Friday,
and possibly on Saturdays, from 8am-7pm, Valley Water
spokesperson Matt Keller said.
Officials with the Department of Water Resources (DWR) said
maintenance work on Oroville Dam’s main spillway was expected
to start this week as construction staging equipment and
materials make their way to the worksite. Maintenance work is
expected to be performed on localized sections of the spillway
to address areas of deteriorated concrete and sealant
identified during annual inspections, DWR officials said. …
Other planned work includes the replacement of a “joint sealant
at select chute slab and wall joints that degrade over time due
to the spillway’s environment.” Officials also will inspect
51,000 feet of piping that supports the spillway’s drainage
system.
The wave of unusual disasters this summer now includes
Hurricane Lee, a storm that swelled from Category 1 to Category
5 in just 24 hours as it barreled toward Canada. It’s a prime
example of rapid intensification made worse by warming ocean
temperatures. It will add to what’s already been an exceptional
year of extreme weather. The US has set a new record for the
number of billion-dollar disasters in a year — 23 so far — in
its history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA). And this doesn’t even include the costs
from Tropical Storm Hilary in California or from the ongoing
drought in the South and Midwest, because those costs have yet
to be fully calculated.
California’s largest lake didn’t even exist 120 years ago, but
now it looms large over questions about how to manage the
Colorado River. Depending on who you ask, the Salton Sea is
either an important wildlife ecosystem or an environmental
disaster that’s ticking like a time bomb — 50% saltier than the
Pacific Ocean and a major source of dust as water recedes. The
Salton Sea Authority, an organization created 30 years ago to
work with the state of California to oversee comprehensive
restoration of the lake, filed an 11-page response to the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation to lend its voice to decisions about the
future of the Colorado River.
California will spend about $300 million to prepare a vast
groundwater and farming infrastructure system for the growing
impacts of climate change. California Department of Water
Resources announced Tuesday that it has awarded $187
million to 32 groundwater sub-basins, which store water for
future use that mainly flows from valuable snowmelt, through
the Sustainable Groundwater Management Grant
Program. Governor Gavin Newsom also announced
Tuesday that California’s Department of Food and
Agriculture will award more than $106 million in grants to 23
organizations, which will design and implement new carbon
sequestration and irrigation efficiency projects.
On Thursday, August 10, Butte Creek turned orange. The culprit:
a failed PG&E canal that caused orange sediment to flood
the creek potentially creating deadly conditions for native
fish currently inhabiting the watershed including threatened
spring-run Chinook salmon. Salmon are a keystone species, and
their health is intricately connected with the rest of the
ecosystem. Native fish across California are consistently
vulnerable to safe and responsible operation of hydroelectric
infrastructure such as dams and canals. In some cases, basins
like Butte Creek are managed by water-moving infrastructure,
guiding flows from the nearby Feather River watershed to Butte
Creek.
Microsoft said that the company consumed 6.4 million cubic
meters of water in 2022, primarily for its cloud data centers.
That represents a 34 percent jump over the year before, with
generative AI workloads believed to be at least partially to
blame. In its annual environmental sustainability
report, Microsoft reiterated its goal to be a water positive
company by 2030. As part of that effort, it said that it had
invested in six new projects that are expected to replenish
more than 15 million cubic meters of water over the next
decade.
Community leaders along the Mississippi River worried that dry
southwestern states will someday try to take the river’s water
may soon take their first step toward blocking such a
diversion. Mayors from cities along the river are expected to
vote on whether to support a new compact among the river’s 10
states at this week’s annual meeting of the Mississippi River
Cities and Towns Initiative, according to its executive
director Colin Wellenkamp. Supporters of a compact hope it will
strengthen the region’s collective power around shared goals
like stopping water from leaving the corridor.
Here is NOAA’s list of these 23 disasters, in chronological
order, along with their latest damage estimates. 1. California
Flooding ($4.6 billion): A parade of Pacific storms began just
after Christmas 2022 and lasted into March, dumping flooding
rain in parts of Northern California and the Central Valley, as
well as feet of record snowfall in parts of the Sierra and
Southern California high country. … 15. Late June Severe
Weather ($3.5 billion): This siege of storms from June
21-26 began in the High Plains, including destructive
hailstorms in Colorado, one of which injured almost 100
concertgoers near Denver, and a deadly tornado in
Matador, Texas.
Today, U.S. Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) announced new
grants for his district from the FY22 National Culvert Removal,
Replacement, and Restoration Grant Program (Culvert AOP
Program). Last Wednesday, Huffman visited the site of one of
these projects to examine how the award will be utilized and
the local impacts. … The grants have been awarded as
follows: $470,000 for the Wiyot Tribe Butte Creek
Fish Barrier Replacement Design, Humboldt County
… $5,000,000 for the Avenue of the Giants Fish
Passage, Humboldt County … $15,000,000 for the
State Route MEN-1 Fish Passage, Mendocino County…
Marin County’s two largest water suppliers say they have dam
safety strategies in place but intend to update their hazard
mitigation plans in the near future. The utilities were
responding to a Marin County Civil Grand Jury report urging the
agencies to prepare for more intense “atmospheric river” storms
caused by climate change. Both agencies are required to provide
responses under state law. The June report said the seven dams
managed by the Marin Municipal Water District and the one dam
managed by the North Marin Water District are in compliance
with regulatory standards.
Last winter, Sacramento faced a three-week series of
atmospheric rivers that brought flooding across the Valley and
downed trees and branches. As the region gets closer to another
rainy season, Sacramento’s utility department is preparing by
shoring up critical flood control infrastructure across the
city. The maintenance is similar to work done in years past,
according to a news release, and to work done in March. Work
will begin Sept. 18 at a ditch near Winters Street, before
moving to Strawberry Creek, the 5-B detention basin in North
Natomas, Lower and Upper Morrison creeks and ditches near the
Sacramento Northern Bike Trail.
A historic cattle ranch in California’s Solano County has been
a target of a secretive billionaire-backed group that’s been
buying up large swaths of land to create a new city northeast
of San Francisco. The latest offer of $17 million,
made in mid-July, by Flannery Associates LLC was for about 950
acres at a property known as Petersen Ranch, according to term
sheets, proposals and emails obtained by Bloomberg News through
the California Public Records Act. It was turned down by
the local water agency, which owns the land.
With the nation beginning to transition from fossil fuels to
clean energy like solar and wind power, oil and gas companies
are beginning to plug their wells here. So local leaders are
looking for the next economic development opportunity. And they
may have found their solution—divert more Colorado River water
with a new dam and reservoir that will generate more
hydropower, irrigate more agriculture and store more water for
emergencies. They’re not alone in that
quest. Wyoming ranchers are pushing for a new
dam to be used for irrigation. Colorado has
some diversions already under construction, with more
proposed across the state, to help fuel growth. Across the
states of the Upper Basin of the Colorado River—Wyoming,
Colorado, Utah and New Mexico—new dams are rising and new
reservoirs are filling …
Californians know wildfires and earthquakes; hurricanes, not so
much. So when Tropical Storm Hilary inundated Southern
California in normally bone-dry August, it showed just how
exposed homeowners are to a growing financial risk from
unpredictable climate-driven flooding. Standard homeowners
insurance policies don’t cover flooding and fewer than 2% of
California households have flood insurance, even as
intensifying winter storms overflow rivers and levees, batter
the coast and drench the desert. As Hilary, the first tropical
storm to strike the Golden State in 84 years, passed over Palm
Springs on Aug. 20, it dumped nearly a year’s worth of rain in
a day on the desert community, causing widespread flooding in
the surrounding Coachella Valley.
Historic amounts of federal money are flowing into the Bay Area
and California thanks to the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
(BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). How does your
organization or agency apply for some of it? … For
federal agencies without BIL and IRA announcement pages, we
recommend signing up for their newsletters—like “California
News Bytes” from the Bureau of Land Management—to help bring
possible opportunities to your inbox. Check the bureau or
agency websites that fall under the Department of the Interior,
such as the National Parks Service (BIL page, IRA page)
and the Bureau of Reclamation (BIL funding opportunities here,
and WaterSMART grants, a special program dedicated to
irrigation or water supply, can be found here), and Bureau
of Indian Affairs (BIL page).
Over the weekend, Burning Man attendees were forced to shelter
in place when the usually-parched Black Rock Desert got roughly
3 months’ worth of rain in 24 hours. … In the U.S.,
there’s strikingly little mainstream discussion of scaling
what’s arguably the simplest, cheapest and most sustainable
solution for harvesting water: catching it from the sky.
The time is ripe for a national policy agenda to dramatically
scale up rainwater harvesting. Around the world, humans
have been systematically gathering rainwater since ancient
times. The technologies are simple: Collect rainwater from
rooftops—on homes, warehouses, factories—and send it down
gutters into tanks, where it can be filtered and used for
domestic purposes, landscaping, or industrial processes. For
farms, harvesting rainwater typically means configuring land
with slopes and basins that maximize natural irrigation. -Written by Justin Talbot Zorn, senior adviser to the
Center for Economic and Policy Research; and Israel Mirsky is a
New York-based writer and technologist.
On Wednesday, Stockton East Water District and the California
Department of Water Resources (DWR) joined local and federal
officials to highlight a $12.2 million project that will
support groundwater recharge, water quality and habitat
restoration project along the Calaveras River. … The
event was held at the Bellota Weir Modification Project site on
the Calaveras River. Funded by DWR’s Urban Community
Drought Relief Program, the project will make conveyance
improvements and install a modern fish screen at the Stockton
East Water District’s Bellota municipal diversion intake on the
Calaveras River. The conveyance improvements would double the
amount of groundwater recharge per year and improve water
reliability and quality for the city of Stockton’s drinking
water. Additionally, the fish screen and new fishways will
restore fish habitats along the Calaveras River and allow safe
passage through the river for the threatened Central Valley
Steelhead and Chinook Salmon.
Friends of the River (FOR) and the California Sportfishing
Protection Alliance (CSPA), along with a coalition of tribes
and environmental organizations, on August 31 submitted a
protest against the water rights application and petitions of
the Sites Project Authority for the proposed Sites Reservoir.
FOR and CSPA, two of California’s oldest and most
respected water conservation organizations, said this protest
is part of a legally required process to ensure public concerns
are addressed when granting water rights in California.
It’s been nearly a year since the California Coastal Commission
gave an Orange County water district the green
light to build a new desalination plant in Dana Point. So
I decided to check in to see how the project is coming along.
In not surprising news, the plant’s price tag has gotten a
bit bigger while its timeline has gotten a bit longer. But the
project is still advancing, and it’s serving as a model for
water regulators as they develop a new set of guidelines aimed
at making the ocean a bigger source of California drinking
water going forward. Here are 10 things to know about the
Doheny desalination plant. If it’s built, Doheny would be
the second largest desalination plant in California, capable of
producing 5 million gallons of water each day. There is
potential to scale Doheny up down the line, to make as much as
15 million gallons a day. But the biggest plant, in Carlsbad,
produces 50 million gallons each day.
The San Gorgonio Pass Water Agency (SGPWA), a Southern
California State Water Contractor, is planning a new set of
percolation basins to support growing demand for water storage.
SGPWA is planning the Brookside West Recharge Facility, which
would complement the agency’s existing Brookside East Recharge
Facility. Brookside West’s 62.5 acres would house approximately
25 acres of recharge ponds. The ponds, or basins, would
import water from the State Water Project and filter the water
down through layers of soil and rock to be stored underground.
The facility may also be used for local stormwater capture and
to recharge treated reclaimed water.
Joe and Jennifer Montana are among the people suing San
Francisco, alleging city departments did nothing to prevent
“torrents of water and untreated sewage” from flooding their
homes. The lawsuit, filed in the San Francisco County Superior
Court on Aug. 24, was brought by dozens of families who live,
rent or own property in the Marina District. The families
allege that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and
Department of Public Works, as well as contractors they hired,
knowingly allowed negligent conditions to develop in their
neighborhood. … This problem came to a head during
winter storms over the past two years, the families say. The
suit claims 4.5 million gallons of “untreated
wastewater” flooded homes in Oct. 2021, and “torrents of
water and untreated sewage” inundated their properties again in
the storms of December 2022 and this past January.
Most statewide California candidates blow off the Central
Valley. There are more votes and media — and donors, of
course — on the coast. But not this year. The Central
Valley is up for grabs for Senate candidates vying to replace
Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The top three Democrats — who
represent coastal districts in Los Angeles, Orange County and
the Bay Area and aren’t well known in almond country —
made a beeline last Saturday from a major union endorsement
interview in Los Angeles to a $25-a-head fundraiser hosted by
Rep. Josh Harder along the Stockton waterfront. … But while
they’re all showing up to campaign in the Valley, none has
crafted a position on a crucial aspect of the issue in
America’s breadbasket that could give them an advantage over
their rivals: water. Specifically, the Delta tunnel, the
proposed 45-mile conveyance tunnel through the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta.
On an overcast morning on Friday, Aug. 25, as jets of water
from sprinklers rain down on the surrounding fields of lettuce,
a gaggle of journalists, politicians and public officials are
gathered at a press event along the Pajaro River levee, just
more than a stone’s throw from where it breached last March.
The breach occurred after weeks of sustained rainfall on the
Central Coast, and it wasn’t a surprise – for over 50 years,
federal, state and local officials have known the levee was
deficient, but there was never enough buy-in, or urgency, to do
something about it. Seemingly, that is starting to change, but
time will tell if it’s real, or just a public relations
band-aid to save face after the flooding in the community of
Pajaro, which displaced thousands of residents from their homes
and left some of those homes unlivable.
The Chino Basin Program (CBP), a program led by the Inland
Empire Utilities Agency (IEUA) and partners, has reached a
significant milestone as environmental engineering firm Brown
and Caldwell completes the preliminary design of a new 13.4
million gallons per day Advanced Water Purification Facility
(AWPF), a vital component of the innovative water program. The
preliminary design, developed in partnership with Water Systems
Consulting, Inc., provides the technical feasibility,
planning-level design, and preliminary costs for the AWPF that
can produce 15,000 acre-feet per year of purified water (water
for approx. 100,000 people) for groundwater replenishment that
meets Chino Basin water quality objectives and integrates the
flexibility to meet potential future regulations.
Clouds of thick white dust billowed through Death Valley
National Park this week as crews maneuvered bulldozers and Big
Cats to clear the remnants of a rare and record-breaking
tropical storm. On Aug. 20, Tropical Storm Hilary tore through
the park near the border of Nevada, dropping more than a year’s
worth of rain — 2.2 inches — in one day, forever transforming
one of the hottest and driest places on Earth. As Hilary
bore down, torrents of water rushed through Death Valley,
forging new gullies, displacing heavy rocks and undercutting
roadways, including State Route 190, one of the park’s main
thoroughfares. Chunks of the highway, including entire
lanes, now lay in crumbles, and officials say it could be
months before the park reopens.
America’s hydropower industry is hoping to reestablish some of
its former glory by making itself central to the nation’s
transition to clean energy—and it’s turning to Congress for
help. … Today, hydropower provides just a small fraction of
the nation’s electricity and is quickly being outpaced globally
by its clean energy rivals in new development. Now the
industry, with help from a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers,
hopes to change that trend. … The bill has gained early
support from industry, environmental groups, Native tribes and
even the Biden administration. But it’s also getting pushback
from some advocates who say that expanding or extending the use
of hydropower could actually worsen climate change and hasten
ecological degradation.
The North San Joaquin Water Conservation District recently
received some help from the federal government to ensure its
ratepayers continue to receive water. The U.S. Department of
Agriculture announced Tuesday that the district has been
awarded a $1 million grant to make repairs and upgrades to its
irrigation system. The investment will help make critical
improvements to upstream level control, gates, and flow meters
to meet delivery needs and support effective, safe groundwater
management, the agency said. Jennifer Spaletta, the district’s
attorney, said the grant money will be used to build a lateral
off the south distribution system located near Handel Road.
When we discuss water infrastructure in our industry, our
thoughts naturally gravitate toward its fundamental roles in
growing our food, supplying our homes, and powering industries.
However, within the depths of lakes and the fast-moving
currents of rivers, lies an often-overlooked aspect of water’s
importance – its profound social significance. Beyond its
utilitarian functions, water plays a vital role in fostering
community, recreation, and shared experiences that enrich our
lives in ways that extend far beyond basic necessities. Water
bodies serve as dynamic hubs for social interactions, acting as
gathering places where people come together to swim, boat, and
partake in a diversity of activities that enrich bonds among
friends and families. I am an avid river rafter, and I have
spent many days bobbing down whitewater with friends, old and
new, laughter echoing off rocky shores as we navigate the
waters and create memories.
The U.S. Geological Survey today announced an investment of
$1.5 million to improve urban waterways with science-based
projects, which local partners will match with nearly $1.5
million in additional funds as part of the Urban Waters Federal
Partnership. … The 11 new projects funded by the USGS
and partners in fiscal year 2023 represent a total investment
of nearly $3 million. As part of these projects, the USGS
and partners will: … Monitor sediment transport in
the Los Angeles River in Los Angeles, California. Study
water quality to support the Rio Salado Project in Phoenix,
Arizona. The project’s goal is to protect, restore and
revitalize the Salt and Middle Gila River
watersheds. Study groundwater and characterize surface
waters to support restoration of native vegetation on the Lower
Gila River in Phoenix, Arizona.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and four of his
colleagues submitted an amicus letter late Monday
night, citing shortfalls in the company 3M’s
multi-billion-dollar proposed settlement with contaminated
water utilities. The attorneys general said that while they are
in favor of moving forward with the settlement, 3M should pay
more than the $10 billion to $12 billion the firm has offered —
in order to fund the massive remediation efforts public
utilities will have to undertake to eliminate “forever
chemicals” from their supplies. … Joining Bonta in
submitting amicus letter were the attorneys general of Arizona,
the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 3M
in a statement said it was pleased with the agreement.
[Jan] Sramek is leading a group of Silicon Valley moguls
in an audacious plan to build a new city on a rolling patch of
farms and windmills in Northern California was the unofficial
beginning of what promises to become a protracted and expensive
political campaign. … After that comes a gantlet of
environmental rules, inevitable lawsuits and potential tussles
with the state’s Air Resources Board, the Water Resources
Control Board, Public Utilities Commission and Department of
Transportation — not to mention the local planning commission
and board of supervisors who oversee land use in Solano County.
The saga surrounding a group of mysterious investors who have
spent more than $800 million to buy up thousands of acres of
farmland in rural Solano County has gripped Bay Area residents,
local politicians and federal government agencies. Last week,
the Chronicle reported that the investors were revealed to be a
group of Silicon Valley notables who seem to be gearing up to
build a new city. Here is what is known about the effort,
according to Chronicle reporting … And a myriad of
questions surround the project, including where its water will
come from, how developers would address the area’s risk for
flooding and extreme heat due to climate change, the impacts to
the state’s agriculture distribution chain, and transportation
concerns in an area currently serviced by a two-lane highway.
About a half-mile off San Juan Road, past the lettuce fields,
excavators and tractors have begun moving earth to repair the
exact spot along the 12-mile Pajaro River levee that failed on
March 11, leading to catastrophic flooding and generational
disaster. Elected officials and community leaders from Santa
Cruz and Monterey counties and representatives from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers stood against a noisy backdrop of
construction Friday to update the community on where this
urgent project stands. The emergency repair underway will focus
on three sections of the levee. The first section, where the
levee burst in March, will finish by Nov. 2, according to Holly
Costa, emergency management chief for the corps.
Six years after unveiling plans to build a 320-foot high dam
and reservoir at Pacheco Pass in southern Santa Clara County,
the largest water district in Silicon Valley still hasn’t found
any other water agencies willing to help fund the project. But
this week, an unusual potential partner came to light: China.
The revelation of interest from one of the United States’ most
contentious rivals is the latest twist in the project’s shaky
history: The price tag has tripled to $2.8 billion since 2018
due to unstable geology found in the area. The Santa Clara
Valley Water District, which is pursuing the plan, has delayed
groundbreaking by at least three years, to 2027, instead of
2024 as announced five years ago. And environmentalists won a
lawsuit this summer that will require more study of how ongoing
geological work will affect endangered plants and
animals.
Rebuilding State Route 37 to elevate it above water in the face
of rising sea levels got a welcome $155 million boost from the
$1.2 trillion U.S. infrastructure Law of 2021, the California
Transportation Commission announced this week. The two-mile
Marin County section of the 21-mile commuter artery that runs
alongside San Pablo Bay connecting Marin, Sonoma, Napa and
Solano counties marks the beginning of a larger $4 billion
project planned for the whole corridor. State transportation
officials say work is expected to start in 2027 and end two
years later. The $180 million project approved Aug. 18 by the
state’s transportation commission will raise the roadway by 30
feet over Novato Creek by 2029, well above the projected year
2130 sea-level rise.
Marin County water agencies are expressing cautious optimism
about a new proposal to transfer ownership of a controversial
hydropower plant that affects one of the county’s main water
suppliers. The proposal centers on the Potter Valley Project, a
110-year-old hydropower plant in Mendocino County that is
operated by Pacific Gas & Electric Co. Water diverted by the
plant feeds into the Russian River watershed, which is a key
part of Marin’s water portfolio. After PG&E announced its
intention to surrender and decommission the power facility in
2019, there has been a question of whether water diversions to
the Russian River would continue. The new proposal submitted
this month by Sonoma Water, the Mendocino County Inland Water
and Power Commission and the Round Valley Indian Tribes would
transfer parts of the facility to a new entity that would
continue Russian River water diversions.
Tropical storm Hilary drenched much of Southern California
before its remnants moved on to douse several Western states.
While some communities suffered severe flooding and mudslides,
most got a beneficial soaking. But experts say that given the
overall setup, the aftermath could have been much worse — and
both luck and preparation played a role in avoiding a more dire
outcome. … Thanks to California’s steep terrain, dense
population and vast area burned by wildfires over the past
several years, it probably takes less rain to cause serious
flooding in the state than in other locations typically hit by
hurricanes and tropical storms.
The state received a significant boost to its efforts with
State Route 37 and San Pablo Bay last week with the infusion of
$155 million in federal funding. The California Transportation
Commission announced on Wednesday it formally allocated the
funds to elevate a key section of State Route 37 to guard
against future flooding on a vital regional corridor connecting
Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties and enhance habitat
connectivity for San Pablo Bay. The $180 million project will
raise the roadway by 30 feet over Novato Creek by 2029 — well
above the projected year 2130 sea-level rise. The $155 million
allocation comes from the federal Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act (IIJA) and is lauded by environmental groups and local
leaders who have been calling for investments to support the
long-term viability of state route 37.
The Butte County Board of Supervisors will be returning to
talks regarding a potential Flood Risk Reduction Feasibility
Study on Tuesday based on data gathered by its Public Works
Department. Stemming from discussions in both 2020 and 2021,
the public works staff was given direction by the board to work
with field experts and stakeholders to come up with a draft
study regarding Nord, Rock Creek and Keefer Slough. According
to the related agenda item, a presentation is planned for
Tuesday’s meeting that will go over the draft study, its
findings and what measures are possible for the county in
reducing the risk for these areas.
In 2021, hydropower contributed 16% to total global electricity
production, whereas in the United States it accounted for only
about 6% of the total (although it was responsible for 31.5% of
electricity generated domestically from renewable sources),
according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That
small share of U.S. production could be higher: The 2016
Hydropower Vision Report, published by the U.S. Department of
Energy’s (DOE) Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO), stated
that “U.S. hydropower could grow from 101 gigawatts (GW) of
capacity to nearly 150 GW by 2050.”
The San Diego County Water Authority filed suit Monday to stop
the rural Fallbrook and Rainbow water districts from leaving
the county system, citing environmental harm under the
California Environmental Quality Act. The lawsuit filed in
Superior Court challenges a decision by the San Diego Local
Agency Formation Commission to allow the two districts to join
Riverside County without paying what the Water Authority says
is their fair share of water-reliability investments. The
“detachment” effort is the first of its kind in California and
would shift approximately $140 million in costs to the rest of
the Water Authority’s customers.
The morning sun was still rising over the shriveled wheat
fields, and the villagers were already worrying about another
day without water. Rainwater stored in the village well would
run out in 30 days, one farmer said nervously. The groundwater
pumps gave nothing, complained another. The canals, brimming
decades ago with melted snow from the Hindu Kush, now dry up by
spring, said a third. … Two years after its takeover of
Afghanistan, the Taliban is overseeing its first major
infrastructure project, the 115-mile Qosh Tepa canal, designed
to divert 20 percent of the water from the Amu Darya river
across the parched plains of northern Afghanistan. The
canal promises to be a game changer for villages like Ishfaq’s
in Jowzjan province.
In the wake of Hilary’s lashing of Southern California,
the region awoke Monday to lingering damage from the historic
storm.The first tropical storm to hit Los Angeles in 84 years
dumped record rainfall and turned streets into muddy,
debris-swollen rivers; downed trees and knocked out power for
thousands of residents; and closed schools across the
Southland. Hilary was downgraded to a post-tropical storm early
Monday, the National Hurricane Center said in an
advisory. But even in its weakened state, it was still
predicted to bring “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding”
to parts of the southwestern U.S., the center said.
OceanWell and Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD)
announced today their partnership to pilot California’s
first-ever Blue Water farm. LVMWD Board of Directors
unanimously approved a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that
paves the way for the public/private partnership to research an
environment-first approach that addresses the increasing
concern of water scarcity and reliability. Blue Water is fresh
water harvested from the deep ocean or other raw water sources.
This, first-of-its-kind project, will test OceanWell’s
proprietary water purification technology to produce safe,
clean drinking water without the environmental impacts of
traditional coastal desalination methods.
Decades of land subsidence caused by unregulated and continued
groundwater overdraft have caused the Friant-Kern Canal, which
is a 152-mile gravity fed canal, to sink as much as 14 feet in
the area between Porterville and Delano. This damage has
resulted in a 60% loss of carrying capacity along the canal.
This water supply impact has caused harm, not only to the farms
that make the economic engine in the San Joaquin Valley run,
but also to cities and communities, whose primary source of
drinking water is from the underground aquifer. Now a fix is
underway and progress is being made, says Friant Water CEO
Jason Phillips.
Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced more than
$106 million in recommended funding for 16 West Coast and
Alaska state and tribal salmon recovery programs and projects
under the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF). The
funds, including $34.4 million under the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law and $7.5 million under the Inflation
Reduction Act, will support the recovery, conservation and
resilience of Pacific salmon and steelhead in Alaska,
California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. This funding is part
of President Biden’s historic Investing in America agenda,
which includes over $2 billion for fish passage investments
across the country.
Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Roger Marshall
(R-Kan.) have announced the EQIP Water Conservation
Act to allow local water agencies to access larger U.S.
Department of Agriculture grants for water efficiency and
conservation projects that benefit multiple farmers. In
the 2018 Farm Bill, Congress authorized the secretary of
agriculture to support water projects that conserve water,
provide fish and wildlife habitat, and combat drought through
the USDA’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP).
However, a subsequent USDA rule effectively nullified this
provision by capping EQIP payments for water agencies at
$900,000, only twice the funding limit for individual farmers’
projects. Since water agencies can represent hundreds of
farmers, the bill would remove that $900,000 cap and allow
water agencies to receive EQIP grants proportional to the
number of farmers they serve.
The Biden administration on Wednesday announced nearly $200
million in federal infrastructure grants to upgrade tunnels
that carry streams beneath roads but can be deadly to fish that
get stuck trying to pass through. Many of these narrow passages
known as culverts, often made from metal or concrete, were
built in the 1950s and are blamed in part for declining
populations of salmon and other fish that live in the ocean but
return to freshwater streams to spawn. By extension, fisheries
— including tribal-run operations in the Pacific Northwest —
have experienced losses they blame in part on such barriers as
culverts and dams. … While the most funding went to
Washington and Alaska, Maine was next with $35 million. Other
Western states to receive money are California, Oregon and
Idaho.
A breach in a PG&E-operated canal turned a Northern
California creek bright orange last week. PG&E
discovered a breach in the Butte Canal that was sending orange
sediment spilling into the waters of Butte Creek on Aug. 10,
PG&E spokesperson Paul Moreno told SFGATE. Upon finding the
breach, the utility company opened a side spill gate upstream
in order to stop water flowing to the canal. State and
federal resource agencies were then notified after PG&E
identified turbidity in the creek, Moreno said. … A
survey from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is
needed to determine whether the effects of the breach have
affected salmon mortality, Moreno said.
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
When you oversee the largest
supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think
big.
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has
focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building
security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s
borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of
California’s population.
As California slowly emerges from
the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, one remnant left behind by
the statewide lockdown offers a sobering reminder of the economic
challenges still ahead for millions of the state’s residents and
the water agencies that serve them – a mountain of water debt.
Water affordability concerns, long an issue in a state where
millions of people struggle to make ends meet, jumped into
overdrive last year as the pandemic wrenched the economy. Jobs
were lost and household finances were upended. Even with federal
stimulus aid and unemployment checks, bills fell by the wayside.
A government agency that controls much of California’s water
supply released its initial allocation for 2021, and the
numbers reinforced fears that the state is falling into another
drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that most
of the water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project
will get just 5% of their contract supply, a dismally low
number. Although the figure could grow if California gets more
rain and snow, the allocation comes amid fresh weather
forecasts suggesting the dry winter is continuing. The National
Weather Service says the Sacramento Valley will be warm and
windy the next few days, with no rain in the forecast.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
The San Joaquin Valley, known as the
nation’s breadbasket, grows a cornucopia of fruits, nuts and
other agricultural products.
During our three-day Central Valley Tour April
3-5, you will meet farmers who will explain how they prepare
the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce that
helps feed the nation and beyond. We also will drive through
hundreds of miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams,
reservoirs and groundwater wells that provide the water.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
New water storage is the holy grail
primarily for agricultural interests in California, and in 2014
the door to achieving long-held ambitions opened with the passage
of Proposition
1, which included $2.7 billion for the public benefits
portion of new reservoirs and groundwater storage projects. The
statute stipulated that the money is specifically for the
benefits that a new storage project would offer to the ecosystem,
water quality, flood control, emergency response and recreation.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
Get a unique view of the San Joaquin Valley’s key dams and
reservoirs that store and transport water on our March Central
Valley Tour.
Our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, offers a broad view of water issues
in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the farms, orchards,
critical habitat for threatened bird populations, flood bypasses
and a national wildlife refuge, we visit some of California’s
major water infrastructure projects.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
Contrary to popular belief, “100-Year Flood” does not refer to a
flood that happens every century. Rather, the term describes the
statistical chance of a flood of a certain magnitude (or greater)
taking place once in 100 years. It is also accurate to say a
so-called “100-Year Flood” has a 1 percent chance of occurring in
a given year, and those living in a 100-year floodplain have,
each year, a 1 percent chance of being flooded.
Mired in drought, expectations are high that new storage funded
by Prop. 1 will be constructed to help California weather the
adverse conditions and keep water flowing to homes and farms.
At the same time, there are some dams in the state eyed for
removal because they are obsolete – choked by accumulated
sediment, seismically vulnerable and out of compliance with
federal regulations that require environmental balance.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and the country of Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch
map, which is suitable for framing, explains the river’s
apportionment, history and the need to adapt its management for
urban growth and expected climate change impacts.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
Dams have allowed Californians and others across the West to
harness and control water dating back to pre-European settlement
days when Native Americans had erected simple dams for catching
salmon.
This printed issue of Western Water examines water
infrastructure – its costs and the quest to augment traditional
brick-and-mortar facilities with sleeker, “green” features.
Everywhere you look water infrastructure is working hard to keep
cities, farms and industry in the state running. From the massive
storage structures that dot the West to the aqueducts that convey
water hundreds of miles to large urban areas and the untold miles
of water mains and sewage lines under every city and town, the
semiarid West would not exist as it does without the hardware
that meets its water needs.
This printed issue of Western Water discusses low
impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging
interest that are viewed as important components of California’s
future water supply and management scenario.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
changed nature of the California Water Plan, some aspects of the
2009 update (including the recommendation for a water finance
plan) and the reaction by certain stakeholders.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
It’s no secret that providing water in a state with the size and
climate of California costs money. The gamut of water-related
infrastructure – from reservoirs like Lake Oroville to the pumps
and pipes that deliver water to homes, businesses and farms –
incurs initial and ongoing expenses. Throw in a new spate of
possible mega-projects, such as those designed to rescue the
ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the dollar amount grows
exponentially to billion-dollar amounts that rival the entire
gross national product of a small country.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
financing of water infrastructure, both at the local level and
from the statewide perspective, and some of the factors that
influence how people receive their water, the price they pay for
it and how much they might have to pay in the future.
They are located in urban areas and in some of the most rural
parts of the state, but they have at least one thing in common:
they provide water service to a very small group of people. In a
state where water is managed and delivered by an organization as
large as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
most small water systems exist in obscurity – financed by
shoestring budgets and operated by personnel who wear many hats.
This issue of Western Water looks at water
infrastructure – from the large conveyance systems to the small
neighborhood providers – and the many challenges faced by water
agencies in their continuing mission of assuring a steady and
reliable supply for their customers.
Chances are that deep within the ground beneath you as you read
this is a vast network of infrastructure that is busy providing
the necessary services that enable life to proceed at the pace it
does in the 21st century. Electricity zips through cables to
power lights and computers while other conduits move infinite
amounts of information that light up computer screens and phone
lines.
This issue of Western Water explores the question of whether the
state needs more surface storage, with a particular focus on the
five proposed projects identified in the CALFED 2000 ROD and the
politics and funding issues of these projects.
