“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.
The California Natural Resources Agency in 2009 and again in
2013 issued reports on existing and anticipated climate change
impacts based on peer reviewed science. Assessments from those
reports have become part of the foundation as to why the
California Legislature has established policies aimed at
reducing greenhouse gas emissions and therefore the projected
impacts of climate change. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, Columnist for the Bulletin.
On a bright, blustery October day, a day that felt almost like
normal fall weather, I had a conversation with filmmaker Emmett
Brenner about his latest film, Reflection: A Walk with Water.
In the film, Brenner and fellow environmental advocates walk
the length of the Los Angeles Aqueduct to raise awareness about
the misuses of water in California and the acute effects it’s
having on the land.
A celebration event held Wednesday commemorated the recent
completion of a $37 million, three-year construction project at
the Santa Rosa Water Reclamation Facility on Washington Avenue
in Murrieta. Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District, Rancho
California Water District, and Western Municipal Water District
hosted the event. The three agencies are partners with the
Santa Rosa Regional Resources Authority, which owns and manages
the reclamation facility that serves portions of Murrieta,
Temecula, Wildomar, and surrounding communities.
The nation’s top civilian cybersecurity agency issued a warning
Thursday about ongoing cyber threats to the U.S. drinking water
supply, saying malicious hackers are targeting government water
and wastewater treatment systems. Authorities said they wanted
to highlight ongoing malicious cyber activity “by both known
and unknown actors” targeting the technology and information
systems that provide clean, drinkable water and treat the
billions of gallons of wastewater created in the U.S. every
year.
Subsidence by groundwater extraction has all but led to a
conveyance failure for parts of the Friant-Kern Canal. After
years of vying for funding to fix its most impacted 33-mile
stretch, the Friant Water Authority announced they have awarded
a contract to Brosamer & Wall/Tutor Perini Joint Venture for
phase one of the project. Brosamer & Waller, based in Walnut
Creek, was awarded a $177 million contract to perform the
construction aspects of the first phase of work to repair the
Friant-Kern Canal along the significant stretch.
This year witnessed one of the hottest and driest summers in
recent history for Western Canada and the American Southwest.
The resulting droughts adversely affected food supply and
helped send meat prices rising three times faster than
inflation. Despite the severity of these droughts, the worst
may be yet to come. … [L]essons can also be drawn from
low-tech solutions developed by ancient societies that
flourished in arid climates.
Governor Newsom has signed Assembly Bill 36 authored by
Assemblyman Gallagher (R-Yuba City) and co-authored by Senator
Nielsen (R-Tehama). The legislation helps fast-track
construction of the Paradise Irrigation District (PID) water
intertie and the Paradise sewer project, and is supported by
the Town of Paradise, the Paradise Irrigation District and the
State Building and Construction Trades Council of
California.
There is absolutely nothing boring about a tunnel boring
machine (TBM). Today’s TBMs resemble massive subterranean
factories, capable of cutting through harder rock and against
higher water pressures than ever before. TBMs can now operate
in mixed ground conditions and in a host of other environments
that would have been impossible as recently as the 1970s and
1980s.
Plans to expand a California Domestic Water Company (Cal
Domestic) treatment facility have been finalized … The
new treatment system will include six ion exchange vessels and
piping on a 3.5-acre property on Valley Boulevard in the city
of El Monte for the removal of per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances (PFAS) from the groundwater supply. Currently, PFAS
have been prioritized by both State and Federal regulatory
agencies to better understand the effects of these chemicals
and to reduce the potential risks to public health.
Tides are the biggest driver of Delta flows, and in Episode 2
we look at their impacts in different locations under a variety
of inflow conditions. Tides have a twice-daily cycle in
the region, with a range of about six feet at Martinez.
In the first part of the animation, we remove all
in-Delta controls and diversions and fix inflows at a common
moderate early summer level to isolate effects of tidal forces
from those of inflows, gates, and export diversions.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) today honored
the Regional Water Authority (RWA) with the national 2021
WaterSense® Partner of the Year Award for its dedication to
helping consumers and businesses save water, even with the
challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. This is
the second WaterSense Award for RWA, which in 2016 earned a
WaterSense® Excellence in Education and Outreach Award for its
outstanding efforts to educate Sacramento-area residents about
water efficiency and the WaterSense brand.
We also learned last week of two new ballot measures for the
2020 ballot … The first proposal would ban collective
bargaining for government workers. The second measure would
require 2 percent of the state’s general-fund revenue each year
to fund water projects until the state amasses an additional 5
million acre-feet of available water supplies. -Written by Steven Greenhut, Western region director
for the R Street Institute and a member of the Southern
California News Group editorial board.
Lake Mead is considered full when its stores reach 1,220 feet
above sea level or more, but the reservoir is projected to sink
to 1,066 feet above sea level by the end of the year, revealing
rock that has been submerged since it began filling in the
1930s. With every foot that Lake Mead falls, the basin comes
closer to triggering substantial cutbacks for certain water
users along the river. … [I]f lake levels continue to
decline, future cutbacks could impact the 30 Native American
tribes with lands in the basin.
Activists and researchers have teamed up to seek an affordable
flood insurance program for residents in the low-lying Canal
area of San Rafael. Stephanie McNally of Canal Alliance said
she is working on a pilot program with Jeffrey Rhoads of
Resilient Shore; Kathleen Schaefer, a researcher for the
University of California, Davis; and Stuart Spiegel, interim
manager of the National Estuarine Research Reserve System.
Their idea is in its early stages, and the team has submitted a
grant proposal to set up the program and find an insurance
funding source.
Bay Area environmental research groups Pacific Institute and
Next 10 paired up in a webinar on Sept. 28 to discuss a new
study focused on water usage, sourcing and the ways that
both are impacting greenhouse gas emissions. Colleen Dredell,
director of research at the San Francisco-based nonprofit Next
10, emphasized that the goal of the collaborative report,
entitled “The Future of California’s Water-Energy-Climate
Nexus,” was to come up with solutions that would help
California meet its targeted energy and greenhouse gas goals by
2030. Currently, California is not on track to meet these
goals.
Today, the Bureau of Reclamation and Friant Water Authority
announces the selection of a construction contractor to begin
work on the Friant-Kern Canal Middle Reach Capacity Correction
Project. Brosamer & Wall/Tutor Perini Joint Venture, based in
Walnut Creek, was awarded a $177 million contract to perform
the construction aspects of the first phase of work to repair
the Friant-Kern Canal along a portion of the 33-mile stretch.
This portion of the canal has lost more than half of its
capacity due to subsidence—a sinking of the earth from
groundwater extraction.
Experts in government, agriculture, water management and the
environment stressed during a U.S. Senate hearing on Wednesday
the danger that droughts fueled by climate change pose in the
West, including the Colorado River Basin. During a
hearing before an Energy and Natural Resources Committee panel,
witnesses said long-term solutions and an investment in water
infrastructure are needed to combat the effects of climate
change.
If what is already a historic drought goes on much longer, a
proposed water pipeline could help Marin avert disaster, but it
likely won’t be enough, The Marin Independent Journal reports.
The proposed $90 million, 8-mile pipeline that would stretch
across the San Francisco Bay across the length of the
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge could potentially provide as much as
13.5 million gallons of water each day, according to the
report.
State and federal officials told a Senate panel Wednesday that
there may be long-term solutions to the historic drought
gripping the West, and the water shortages that come with it,
but that the short-term outlook remains grim. The hearing comes
against the backdrop of a 20-year-long drought has left about
90% of the West affected. Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., said
tree-ring and soil evidence indicates that the region may be
going through the worst drought in 1,200 years – certainly the
worst in the 100 years or so that records have been kept.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack talked Tuesday about Central
Valley farmers’ role in a climate-safe future, and about
families stressed by food costs. He took part in a Zoom call
with Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, and leaders in California
agriculture. Vilsack discussed his department’s response to the
current drought and the barriers to exports of dairy foods,
nuts, citrus and other products. And he plugged the $1.2
trillion infrastructure bill now before Congress. It would
improve roads, rail, ports and other modes of transportation,
along with rural broadband and water supplies.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is known for damming rivers
and building levees to keep waterways at bay. But a new
initiative seeks natural flood control solutions as climate
change brings increasingly frequent and severe weather events
that test the limits of concrete and steel. … In
Northern California near the state capital
Sacramento, the Corps built the Yolo Bypass nearly a century
ago to divert floodwaters. Its 59,000 acres (24,000 hectares)
have also become habitat for native and endangered species,
including Chinook salmon and steelhead.
Congress approved a government funding bill last week that
threw $80 million at the Sites Reservoir in California in order
to keep the project on track. The project is meant to hold 1.5
million acre-feet of water for the state to be used during
droughts for agriculture, community usage and environmental
need, said a press release issued Tuesday by the organization
behind the Sites Reservoir.
A California Water Service project replacing 4,500 feet of old
pipe and the subsequent dechlorination of the new pipes has led
to water runoff in the Sunnybrae area of San Mateo, with Cal
Water workers noting most runoff inconvenience should be done
in a week.
The Pasadena City Council on Monday unanimously voted to adopt
the 2020 Water System and Resources Plan (WSRP) which creates a
25-year framework for future water related programs and
projects in the city. The WSRP, which will be
reviewed and updated every five years, recommends implementing
a number of projects worth approximately $430 million over the
25 year period, with $130 million anticipated over the
first five years.
The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced a new $8.5
million funding opportunity to improve the operational
flexibility of the U.S. hydropower fleet. Under this
solicitation, DOE’s Water Power Technologies Office (WPTO) will
fund up to six awards to advance hydropower technologies
to enhance grid reliability.
The [California City] City Council, on Tuesday, discussed the
possible benefits and pitfalls of ending its practice of
purchasing supplemental water from the Antelope Valley-East
Kern Water Agency and relying solely on its own wells for
water. Councilmember Kelly Kulikoff requested the discussion,
speaking in favor of ending the relationship with the agency
which supplies water from the State Water Project.
On the dusty, often unpaved roads that cross the Navajo Nation,
pickup trucks hauling water are a common sight. Navajo Nation
residents are 67 times more likely than other Americans to lack
running water in their homes. But outside more than 500 homes
on the Navajo reservation in Arizona and New Mexico are devices
that aim to help tackle this plumbing poverty. These
“hydropanels” absorb water from the air and deliver it straight
to a dispenser inside the house. Each one produces around five
liters (1 gallon) daily …
Skeptics (including me) assembled when Facebook, Google and
Microsoft made respective pledges to replenish more water than
they use within the next fifteen years. The main reason:
private companies are beholden to shareholders, boards, bottom
lines, and customers–not pledges. …For context, Google
accessed 2.3 billion gallons of water for use in three
America-based data centers (out of 21 data centers in operation
total) in 2019 alone. Facebook withdrew roughly 3.7 million
cubic meters of water in 2020, with the majority of that water
applied to cooling data centers and being lost to
evaporation. -Written by David Lynch, CEO of Klir, headquartered in
Reno, Nevada.
What are the climate risks to California’s state
spending? Alicia Seiger: Every sector of the economy will
be impacted by climate change, but the industries with the
greatest exposure overlap a lot with state spending, like
infrastructure. Construction projects near the coast can be
delayed by flooding amid rising sea levels. Should those
projects be moved inland? Are there alternative solutions to
the same infrastructure need? If not, do the state’s
counterparties have the ability to manage the costs of
potential delays or rebuilds?
As drought conditions persist statewide, officials with the
East Bay Municipal Utility District said on Monday the agency
has begun tapping into water from the Sacramento River to boost
local supplies. EBMUD, which delivers water to some 1.4 million
people across Alameda and Contra Costa counties, typically
draws from the Mokelumne River for its water supply. The agency
said the latest move is part of its drought response.
The storage level in Lake Mendocino was on pace to drop below
15,000 acre feet on Saturday, meaning a quarter of the supply
water managers had hoped to keep in store by Oct. 1 already has
been released. The rapid shrinkage of the reservoir after two
years of historic drought raises unsettling questions about the
future for a range of consumers along the upper Russian River,
whose supplies already are heavily restricted.
The Fresno City Council voted Thursday to drop its lawsuit
against Friant Water Authority. The council voted 5-1 to drop
the suit, filed earlier this month in Fresno County Superior
Court. Councilmember Garry Bredefeld cast the lone “no” vote,
and Councilmember Mike Karbassi was absent. The council
previously voted to sue the water authority so Fresno water
ratepayers wouldn’t be on the hook to pay for repairs to the
Friant-Kern Canal needed because Tulare County farmers pumped
too much groundwater, causing subsidence.
A new bill authored by state Sen. John Laird and Assemblymember
Robert Rivas will fund all of the state’s share of the design
and construction phase of the Pajaro River Flood Risk
Management Project, which will help move forward the
long-awaited work. SB 496 directs the Department of Water
Resources to pay 100% of the State’s cost-share for
reconstruction—a total of $140 million—of the Pajaro River
Flood Risk Management Project. Gov. Newsom signed the bill
on Sept. 24.
A multi-county, regional coalition of organizations bidding to
take over Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Potter Valley Project
didn’t get what it was asking for, but some believe that may be
a good thing for the Eel River and the fish that depend on it.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) on Sept. 23
rejected a request from the Two Basin Partnership [a group of
stakeholders]… that sought more time to form a singular
entity to take over the project from PG&E with an operating
agreement that would benefit both Eel River and Russian River
basin interests.
If the California Department of Water Resources says it, it
must be official: “Most of the Delta qualifies as an
environmental justice community,” said DWR environmental
program manager Carrie Buckman at a recent Delta
Conveyance Project Environmental Justice webinar. It was a
welcome statement of a fact that Restore the Delta documented
five years ago. The event was sponsored by the DWR and
was the last of four such webinars this summer. More than 100
people attended mid-program, and there were still about 75 by
the start of the Q&A portion of the agenda ninety minutes
in. -Written by Tim Stroshane, Restore the Delta’s policy
analyst.
Congress passed a government funding bill in a down-to-the-wire
vote on Thursday in the face of a looming shutdown. The
continuing resolution bill, a short-term spending resolution
that will keep the government funded through early December,
delegates $28.6 billion to disaster relief efforts, including
for wildfire prevention and response and the consequences of
drought. Here’s some of what the bill addresses on wildfires
and drought.
Pasadena’s Municipal Services Committee unanimously approved a
25-year planning guide for future water-related programs and
projects in the city during its Tuesday meeting. The
plan’s objective is to ensure the provision by the city of high
quality and affordable water services to the public.
The 2020 Water System and Resources Plan (WRSP), developed by
the Pasadena Water and Power Department, (PWP) provides the
City with a framework to evaluate future water supply programs
and infrastructure investment.
Researchers and environmental scientists from across the nation
kicked off the 2021 Humboldt Bay Symposium on Tuesday. … Tom
Suchanek, marine ecologist at the University of California,
Davis, … predicted that much of the West Coast would
experience nearly one foot of sea-level rise in the next 10
years and approximately two feet by 2050. By 2100, he predicted
California would see a five-foot rise.
It is no secret that in order to tackle its ongoing and future
water challenges spanning drinking water, wastewater, and
stormwater systems, the nation needs to significantly increase
its investments in water infrastructure and management
solutions. Facing ever-increasing stressors on water
systems—aging infrastructure, drought, flooding, contaminated
runoff—communities are looking for ways to build
sustainability, create resilience to climate change, protect
water quality, and equitably secure local water supplies for
everyone.
The first year of the 2021-22 legislative session recently
concluded and the Legislature and the Governor took significant
action on various elements to support and provide robust
funding for Ridgetop to river mouth water management, including
the immense benefits of Healthy Forests, Reactivating
Floodplains, Sustainable Groundwater Management, Vital Rivers
and Streams, and Healthy Soils and Farms, and Safe Drinking
Water.
The State Department of Water Resources will bolster funding
the long-anticipated Pajaro River levee system rebuild after
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 496 on Friday — a move
critical in protecting residents from frequent floods,
officials say. The levees — built in 1949 — haven’t stacked up
to heavy rainfall events. For Pajaro Valley residents and
farmers it’s been a decades-long saga of evacuations, property
damage, and safety risks. In 1995 the river flooded, killing
two people, and leaving more than $95 million in damages in its
wake.
Almost half a million American households lack basic indoor
plumbing, with renters and people of color in some of the
country’s wealthiest and fastest growing cities most likely to
be living without running water or flushing toilets, new
research reveals….The full analysis…reveals how so-called
plumbing poverty has gotten markedly worse in San Francisco and
Portland – two booming ostensibly progressive West Coast tech
hubs with a growing wealth gap and homelessness crisis.
The House last month voted for a Sept. 27 deadline to bring the
bipartisan infrastructure plan to the floor. On Sunday, Pelosi
didn’t specify when this week it would be voted on.
… Along with the infrastructure bill, Democratic
leadership is also hoping to push through the $3.5
trillion social spending package this week, in part to
retain the support of progressives who might otherwise not vote
for the infrastructure bill.
Importing muddy water from the Mississippi
River to save Arizona from drought could be as simple as
landing a man on the moon. As droughts force local
communities to find alternative solutions to water shortages,
Arizonans could turn to importing flood water in the
future. An interstate pipeline would be a lengthy project
in terms of time and effort that in a race against time isn’t
an immediate answer, rather a commitment that would test the
resolve of the state Legislature and Arizonans.
So Southern Californians didn’t decrease their water usage in
July, despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for a voluntary 15%
cutback? Well, of course not. The dusty lake beds, the dry
spigots, the serious water-use cutback orders and the most
frightening wildfires (so far, anyway) have been in Northern
California, and that’s where Newsom focused his most dire
warnings.
Why doesn’t L.A. pump its underground water up, process it to
remove the impurities and distribute it locally in the L.A.
area? The answer: L.A. does pump and use local groundwater —
but other water sources are important for replenishing the
supply. Until the first half of the 20th century, some
areas in Los Angeles County had very high groundwater and
springs that residents could use as a water source, said
Madelyn Glickfeld, co-director of the UCLA Water Resources
Group.
Trona, a town in California’s Mojave Desert, is at risk of
being left dry amid an ongoing water war that erupted after
legislation was passed in 2016 to sustain groundwater sources.
The town, which lacks its own clean source of water, has been
getting its water from wells located 30 miles away in the
Indian Wells Valley for decades, The Los Angeles Times
reported. The water is delivered through two pipelines to
Searles Valley Minerals, a mining company that uses the water
to produce soda ash, boron, and salt.
Could wastewater be the solution to our drought problems?
Valley Water thinks so and they are doubling down on it by
expanding their North San Jose advanced water purification
center and planning on building a new plant in Los Atos to
produce millions of gallons of purified drinking water. In the
heart of Silicon Valley, Valley Water is technology to lead the
county out of the drought.
The Orange County Water District (OCWD, the District) and
regional water agencies worked together with the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California (MWD) to reach a historic
agreement, the Santa Ana River Conservation and Conjunctive Use
Program (SARCCUP), to better prepare the region for future
droughts and promote water use efficiency in Orange, Riverside
and San Bernardino counties—an area serving millions of
customers.
Key staff from three water organizations along the Monterey
Peninsula have apparently reached an agreement on a deal that
will send hundreds of acre-feet of new water to California
American Water Co. for distribution up and down the Peninsula.
Monterey One Water, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management
District and Cal Am reached an agreement at a joint meeting
Wednesday whereby Cal Am agreed to purchase water from Monterey
One’s Pure Water Monterey expansion project.
The project is on the drawing board. Now the San Diego County
Water Authority and the city of San Diego are looking for a
private partner to build and operate a pumped energy storage
facility at the San Vicente Reservoir. The Water Authority and
the city have issued a request for proposal to find a suitable
team to develop one of the state’s largest “pumped hydro”
projects that would add megawattage and flexibility to
California’s electric grid. Proposals from potential partners
will remain open until Nov. 3.
The creeks are desert-dry, the reservoirs are frighteningly
low, and now 150,000 tons of rock have been dumped into the
Delta. During a typical summer, carefully coordinated releases
from upstream dams help keep saltwater from intruding too far
into the interior Delta, where it could threaten the state’s
water supply. But this is not a typical year, and by early May
state water managers realized they wouldn’t have enough storage
to maintain the standard hydraulic salinity barrier. So they
resorted to rocks instead.
Today local lawmakers toured the Kern Water Bank to see drought
impact firsthand. $50 million from the state budget is going to
fund Assembly Bill 252, which calls for land repurposing all to
focus on the drought and getting water flow back to where it
matters. … Farmers are faced with the harsh reality of
choosing to grow a crop on land that may not have enough water
to maintain it or keeping up fallow land that will sit empty
for the crop season.
Phoenix is a rapidly growing metropolitan area in a desert. As
the population increases, it will be more and more challenging
to supply water, food and energy — three essential resources
that are interconnected in complex and competing ways.
NPR’s Ari Shapiro speaks with author Giulio Boccaletti about
his new book Water: A Biography, which takes readers through
the complex and surprising history of humanity and
water. What is the one thing that has shaped the course of
human civilization more than any other? Well, according to the
author Giulio Boccaletti, the answer is water. The title of his
new book is “Water: A Biography.” It travels over centuries,
across continents to show how humans have built their lives
around this fickle, precious resource.
California Coastal Commission staff presented two important
items regarding sea level rise in coastal cities like Malibu at
the commission’s September meeting last week. The commission is
urging local communities to get proactive in planning how they
are going to deal with sea level rise and adapt to its effects
on infrastructure like roads, wastewater systems and stormwater
drainage. Some of these changes and the funding for them need
to be planned out years in advance.
The Water Forum has been working closely with the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation to coordinate a response to drought conditions
and reduce impacts to regional water supplies and the health of
the Lower American River. We recently welcomed Kristin White,
Operations Manager for Reclamation’s Central Valley Project, to
provide an update on drought conditions in California and
across the Western United States at the Water Forum Drought
Plenary. What she shared was both stark and sobering. It was a
glimpse into the problems facing federal and state water
managers during this extraordinarily challenging water year.
Following months of hydrologic saber-rattling, Fresno lawmakers
voted 4-2 to sue Friant Water Authority over a request for
payment to fund repairs to the Friant-Kern Canal in the south
Valley. The legal brinkmanship, which centers on a relatively
small sum – roughly $2.5 million, could have far-reaching
consequences by putting the water supply of California’s
fifth-largest city in jeopardy. During Thursday’s Fresno
City Council meeting, Fresno City Attorney Doug Sloan announced
the body voted to approve litigation seeking declaratory relief
from the cost-sharing measure proposal to fund subsidence
repairs.
The Two-Basin Partnership, comprised of California Trout,
the County of Humboldt, the Mendocino County Inland Water &
Power Commission, the Round Valley Indian Tribes, and Sonoma
County Water Agency, on September 2 asked the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) to allow additional time to
re-evaluate the proposed plan to take over the Potter Valley
Hydroelectric Project (Project). The Partnership
specifically requested that the time delay continue until May
31, 2022, at which time the Partnership will provide further
notice regarding its plans.
For the Marin Municipal Water District directors to suggest we
build a $65 million pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael
Bridge to harvest water from the Central Valley tells me they
are walking around with blinders on. We can’t keep expecting to
get water from somewhere else. You don’t have to go far to see
the impacts of the drought in the Central Valley. The water is
so low at Lake Oroville, the hydro plant may have to close. -Written by independent filmmaker Kristi Denton Cohen, a
Mill Valley resident.
The Bureau of Reclamation is collaborating with Natural
Resources Conservation Service to make federal funding
available to improve the efficiency of agricultural water use
throughout California. The projects funded through this
partnership will help communities build resilience to drought
through the modernization of water infrastructure and efficient
use of water resources.
Here we go again. We are being told California water supplies
are at risk and we need to start using less water under threat
of more mandatory water use restrictions. In 2019, we had one
of the wettest years on record. At the end of the 2019 water
year, major water storage reservoirs in California were at 125%
of average capacity. That was just two years ago. In 2019,
California had enough rainfall and snow pack to satisfy several
years of water supply demands if we had dams and reservoirs of
sufficient capacity to capture this life-giving resource. -Written by Steven Smith, Village News contributor.
With 88% of California in extreme or exceptional drought
conditions, counties across the Bay Area are preparing for what
could be several more dry years to come. The Bay Area Council
hosted a panel Thursday to discuss the current conditions, and
solutions. … Reservoirs across the Bay Area, which
supply water for millions of residents, are increasingly
depleting. In Marin County, images of the Nicasio Reservoir
show it shockingly low.
The Valley’s best hope to renovate its water infrastructure has
been put on the shelf for now. Senate Bill (SB) 559, the State
Water Resiliency Act of 2021, was moved to the state Assembly’s
“inactive file” on Sept. 8. … As written SB 559 offered
a holisitic, statewide approach to help restore the conveyance
capacity by created a fund to provide up to $785 million to
repair key parts of the state’s water infrastructure.
On Aug. 3, the State Water Resources Control Board completely
eliminated 2021’s surface water supplies for farms in much of
the state. It has impacted farmers like John Moore III, who
grows pistachios at Moore Farms in Arvin. … While
California is prone to drought, the last reservoir in the state
was completed in the 1980s. The state’s population has grown
tremendously since then. Moore says the state wouldn’t be
in this situation if more infrastructure was built.
Water management in the western United States is rooted in an
adversarial system that is highly sensitive to climate change.
Reforms are needed to ensure water management is efficient,
resilient and equitable moving forward.
-Written by Dylan R. Hedden-Nicely, Associate Professor of
Law and Director, Native American Law Program, University of
Idaho College of Law.
The Oro Loma Sanitary District Board of Directors recently
approved low-cost financing to replace old sewer collection
system infrastructure serving its customers and communities
while protecting the environment. With this financing, the
Board maintains its 10-Year Strategic Plan and implements
priorities to maintain its infrastructure in a pro-active
manner to avoid any impacts to customer service.
When 700,000 gallons of water from a broken pipe valve flooded
into Stern Grove, the onrush pushed the dirt from beneath 50 or
so eucalyptus trees, seriously weakening the hillside they had
anchored. The next day, Stern Grove Festival’s executive
director, Bob Fiedler, stepped into 4 feet of fresh mud and his
mind shifted from the prospect of canceling the finale concert
of the 2021 series to whether the 2022 season could happen.
Corporate America is making a new kind of climate pledge. In
recent months, multiple tech giants have pledged to use their
reach and resources to join the fight for water conservation.
Facebook made an announcement at the end of August declaring
their efforts to “be water positive by 2030.” And just this
week, Google made a similar announcement to make its data
centers more efficient and support water security in the
communities it operates in.
A $1 trillion infrastructure bill that received bipartisan
support in the Senate last month includes billions of dollars
for Western water projects and programs. The Biden
administration has called the infrastructure bill, which
includes $8.3 billion for Western water infrastructure,
“the largest investment in the resilience of physical and
natural systems in American history.” Of the $8.3 billion
dedicated to Western water, $450 million is set aside for a
competitive grant program to fund large-scale projects that
advance water recycling….That program could help pay for
a massive recycling project in California that would
leave Nevada with access to more water in Lake Mead.
It’s clear the climate crisis is washing away an integral piece
of our California life. Sea level rise, coastal flooding and
erosion pose major threats to our state — where nearly 85% of
people live and work in coastal counties such as San Francisco.
Left unchecked, the climate crisis jeopardizes our health,
homes, safety and economy. In San Francisco alone, for example,
sea levels are projected to rise up to 55 inches by the end of
the century. This increase could put nearly half a million
people at risk of flooding and threaten $100 billion in
property and infrastructure. -Written by Amelia Fortgang, chair of the Bay Area
Youth Climate Summit, a Youth Leadership Council member at
EarthEcho, and a senior at Lick-Wilmerding High
School.
The Bureau of Reclamation’s California Great-Basin Region
announces the selection of Levi Johnson as the Deputy Manager
for the Central Valley Operations Office. CVO oversees water
and power operations of Reclamation’s Central Valley Project,
one of the world’s largest and most complex water storage and
delivery systems. The CVP comprises 19 dams, 18 reservoirs, 11
powerplants, and over 500 miles of canals and aqueducts within
California’s Central Valley.
This whole reservoir system along the Colorado River Basin was
designed to get us through the drought years. Why isn’t it
working? A glimpse into the history of the system, how it was
designed and the impacts of climate change sheds light on why
it was destined to fail — and why it may never recover.
With drought sucking the Western US dry, Google announced new
plans to protect vital water resources. Google guzzles up water
to cool its data centers, three of which are in the
drought-stricken West. To offset its thirst, the company said
that by 2030, it wants to replenish 120 percent of the water it
consumes. … The company has
faced pushback from communities near its data center
in South Carolina and a new one to be built
in Arizona.
Pleasanton water ratepayers can expect a bigger water bill in
the future after the Pleasanton City Council unanimously
approved a funding plan for final design of the city’s per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) treatment and wells
rehabilitation project on Tuesday. … City officials are
currently proceeding with the estimated $46 million project’s
final design to address the detection of PFAS — synthetic
chemicals found in common household items like paint and known
to be harmful to humans — in the city’s wells.
For the past two weeks, a 375-foot dredge ship has been
cruising off the coast of San Francisco, ferrying thousands of
tons of sand from the seafloor to Ocean Beach and marking the
city’s latest effort to confront climate change. The ambitious
$7 million project is designed to anchor the city’s rapidly
eroding southern shoreline with a 3,000-foot-long, 30-foot-tall
sand berm. … Roads, underground infrastructure and
a major city wastewater treatment plant are at risk of being
swallowed by the sea.
The major arteries of California’s water-delivery system are
crumbling, but a proposal in the state Legislature to spend
$785 million fixing them is dead for the year. The legislation,
SB 559 was pulled off the table this week by its chief author,
state Sen. Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger), after an Assembly
committee stripped the funding and made other changes to the
legislation. Hurtado’s decision turns SB 559 into a two-year
bill that could be revived next year.
The visible signs of America’s lingering drought are obvious at
reservoirs across the American West. Drive from Las Vegas and
step out of your car at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead in Nevada or
peek out at Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, and you’ll
see the stone-stained “bathtub rings” indicating the high-water
marks of better times. … [A]s water levels drop, the unseen
effect of these drastic reservoir declines is
that hydroelectric power is decreasing.
The initial phase of a $5.5 billion transportation improvement
initiative at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) showcases
Oldcastle Infrastructure’s storm water management products. Key
to the sustainability and effectiveness of Intermodal
Transportation Facility-West, a new parking structure deemed
the face of LAX, is the Oldcastle Infrastructure StormCapture
detention system. This system and accompanying products
provided an efficient on-site solution to facilitate storm
water drainage and treatment.
As drought-stricken California considers constructing new dams,
a new study finds that many of the state’s existing structures—
despite efforts to prioritize healthy water temperatures— are
failing the cold-water ecosystems that depend on them. The
study, published in PLOS One, crunched data from 77 cold-water
streams across California to characterize their “thermal
regime” — that is, their annual temperature fluctuations over
an eight- to 12-year period.
With much of California and other western U.S. states
experiencing significant drought, the need to pursue further
advancements in desalination has never been greater. This was a
central theme of an Aug. 11 webinar, titled “Discussion on
Desalination — Treatments, Research, and the Future,” conducted
by the WateReuse Association. Historically, desalination
has been viewed as a separate component within the water
sector, but that perception is changing, said Peter Fiske,
Ph.D., the executive director for the National Alliance for
Water Innovation and one of three presenters featured during
the webinar.
The Bureau of Reclamation recently declared a water shortage on
the Colorado River, but that hasn’t stopped states from
proposing new water projects. Just about every drop on the
Colorado River is accounted for. But climate change has reduced
the amount of water in the system. Gary Wockner is with
Save the Colorado, a conservation group that is tracking new
projects.
The cleanliness of Tokyo, the diversity of New York and the
social services of Stockholm: Billionaire Marc Lore has
outlined his vision for a 5-million-person “new city in
America” and appointed a world-famous architect to design it.
Now, he just needs somewhere to build it — and $400 billion in
funding. The former Walmart executive last week unveiled plans
for Telosa, a sustainable metropolis that he hopes to create,
from scratch, in the American desert. The ambitious
150,000-acre proposal promises eco-friendly architecture,
sustainable energy production and a purportedly
drought-resistant water system.
San Francisco has pledged to invest another $600 million into
the city’s sewer system in an effort to prevent chronic
flooding in low-lying areas as part of an agreement with state
water quality officials. The San Francisco Bay Regional Water
Quality Control Board announced the tentative pact, which was
negotiated with city officials but needs final approval from
the Board of Supervisors and Mayor London Breed. The city’s
Public Utilities Commission has recommended approval.
The city of Antioch’s water supply has been challenged in
recent years by a variety of factors. But the Brackish Water
Desalination Project, the first desalination project of its
kind in the five-county Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region, is
intended to improve the reliability of the city’s water. The
city filed its notice of preparation for the project just over
four years ago and then broke ground on the plant in February
of this year.
There have been all kinds of efforts and money allocated to
trying to solve California’s water woes. Now an organization
states it has the solution — the 2 percent solution. In what
it’s calling the 2 percent solution More Water Now is working
to place an initiative on the November 2022 ballot that would
require 2 percent of the state budget to be allocated to the
state’s water resources. If placed on the ballot and approved
the water abundance ballot initiative would set aside 2 percent
of the state budget to water.
The Bureau of Reclamation selected 20 projects to share $3.1
million in applied science grants to develop tools and
information to support water management decisions. These
projects in 11 western states include improved water data,
modeling and forecasting capabilities.
Until further notice, the Bureau of Reclamation plans to close
the Delta Cross Channel gates during weekdays, beginning
Tuesday, September 7 at 10 a.m. The gates are expected to
reopen Fridays around 10 a.m. to facilitate weekend recreation
and close on Mondays around 10 a.m. Opening or closing gates
can be made on short notice and boaters are advised to check
the status of the gates, especially around holidays. The
process takes about one hour.
As reservoirs across California meet historic lows, we are
again faced with the reality of not enough water for the
environment, farms and people. … As our climate
continues to change, we can expect more of the same, and
possibly worse if we don’t make some meaningful changes to how
we manage water in California. We need to advance water
recycling projects, increase conservation and develop more
capacity to store water. One key part of the solution is the
construction of Sites Reservoir.
More than 50 years and millions of dollars of damage later —
and after spending hundreds of thousands more on studies and
plans — Marin County and the town of Ross are moving forward on
improving flood protection along Corte Madera Creek. The two
have reached a consensus on a $14 million plan that is headed
to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its approval and
funding. For too long, reaching a constructive consensus seemed
an erstwhile political exercise.
The first phase of much-needed repairs of the Friant-Kern Canal
is set to begin late this fall. It was reported at Tuesday’s
Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting construction on the
first phase of the project is set to begin in November. As part
the process to move the project along the board unanimously
approved a Memorandum of Understanding for the project to move
forward.
A pipeline stretching all the way across the Richmond-San
Rafael Bridge could partly address the water shortage. It
hasn’t been fully approved, but millions of dollars are being
spent to see if it could be a viable solution. Nearly
200,000 Marin County residents rely on the Mount Tamalpais
watershed for drinking water and other needs. But lack of
rainfall for years, and maybe many more, is drying up its
reservoirs.
As part of its recently enacted budget for 2021-22, California
included funding to help foster the development of one such
storage method, known as pumped-storage hydropower. In
particular, the budget provided $18 million to the city of San
Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority for use in
advancing their planned joint project known as the San Vicente
Energy Storage Facility. The funding will enable the two
entities to issue a request for proposals in September for a
private partner willing to develop the project at its own
expense.
There is hope that the unfortunate conditions of California’s
water supply this year will prompt decisive action on water
management and storage. President and CEO of Western Growers,
Dave Puglia noted that his conversations with growers have been
disheartening. There is significant concern that if California
gets another dry year, many farmers will not be able to
recover. The dire circumstances of the current water year
underscore the imperative need for an updated approach to water
management.
In 2014, in the middle of a severe drought that would test
California’s complex water storage system like never before,
voters told the state to borrow $7.5 billion and use part of it
to build projects to stockpile more water. Seven years later,
that drought has come and gone, replaced by an even hotter and
drier one that is draining the state’s reservoirs at an
alarming rate. But none of the more than half-dozen water
storage projects scheduled to receive that money have been
built.
The San Joaquin Valley is quickly become home to another
ignominious superlative: greatest number of water outages per
community. The state’s ever-worsening drought conditions are
pushing Valley communities to the brink on the precipice of a
statewide recall election. As the Sept. 14 election nears,
former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer returned to the San
Joaquin Valley on Friday for a briefing with members of the
Latino Water Coalition, Fresno County Supervisors, and an
assemblage of some of the top water experts in the region.
Mandatory limits on water use are likely to be imposed in the
near future on California residents, businesses and farms. Get
ready. You can’t change the weather, which has deprived the
state of its necessary rain and snowfall. But you can change
your response. After examining the state’s shockingly low
reservoirs, Gov. Gavin Newsom told reporters recently that a
statewide limit on water use may be needed to head off a supply
crisis caused by California’s historic drought, which continues
to worsen.
One fifth of electrical output in California is consumed by
pumping and processing water. By collecting rainwater, we can
reduce our carbon footprint, conserve California’s water
resources, and decrease our water bill. … In Bermuda,
every residence is required by law to have and maintain a
cistern capable of storing enough rainwater to sustain a family
of four for a year. The states of New South Wales and Victoria
in Australia require all new construction to be plumbed for
rainwater catchment and grey water recycling. As of 2017, 26
percent of the homes in Australia capture rainwater.
The award for dumbest idea of the recall election goes to the
rookie Democrat who proposed building a water pipeline from
California to the Mississippi River. It’s nutty economically
and politically. … The wacky proposal seems emblematic of the
nonsensical recall effort itself — the notion of wasting $276
million in tax money on a special election because
opportunistic Republicans want to oust the Democratic governor
one year before his term expires and he must run for reelection
anyway. -Written by George Skelton, LA Times columnist.
There was an unusual twist at Wednesday’s gubernatorial recall
debate in Sacramento: A Democrat participated for the first
time. And that Democrat, 29-year-old millionaire Ventura County
real estate investor Kevin Paffrath, jump-started the hour-long
debate with some unusual ideas. Paffrath, who has never held
elective office, proposed to solve California’s water shortages
by building a pipeline to the Mississippi River…. As
California falls deeper into an extraordinary drought, all
three GOP candidates threw shade on Newsom approach of
encouraging conservation. It was one of their most detailed
debate exchanges about water policy to date, yet yielded few
ideas for immediate action.
A collapsed underground pipe leaked at least 12,500 gallons of
raw sewage into Martinez storm drains and residents are being
cautioned to avoid surface water in the area, authorities said.
The leak, first noticed on Monday by oil refinery workers, was
blamed on the deterioration of a municipal sewer line just
south of the PBF oil refinery, formerly known as the Shell
refinery.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the largest estuary on the
West Coast, is a vital hub in California’s complex water
delivery system as well as a rich farming region, an important
wetlands area – and often, a source of conflict. Join us for an
engaging online journey on Sept. 9 to go deep
into the Delta and its 720,000-acre network of islands and
canals that supports the state’s two large water systems -
the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley
Project.
San Francisco’s Stern Grove will remain closed at its east end
“until further notice,” the city’s Recreation and Park
Department said, because of a ruptured water main on Sloat
Boulevard. As a result of flooding, Sunday’s series finale for
the 84th annual Stern Grove Festival has been canceled. The
free concert, featuring the always popular Oakland funk band
Tower of Power and the rapper Too Short, will not be
rescheduled.
In his first debate, the top-polling Democrat running in the
recall, Kevin Paffrath, called for filtration systems in
California buildings to protect against COVID-19 and proposed a
pipeline to the Mississippi River to address California’s
drought. Paffrath, who has made his name providing financial
advice on YouTube, argued that vaccine mandate decisions should
be left to individual businesses and schools, and promised to
protect Californians from COVID-19 by increasing availability
of N95 masks and HEPA filtration in schools and buildings.
NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer talks with Emily about
a dilemma facing many local governments now. Should they
develop in areas vulnerable to rising sea levels? On today’s
episode, we look at Sunnyvale, California, in the San Francisco
Bay Area. It’s a situation complicated by a landowner that
really wants to continue expanding there, Google. In an episode
last week, we asked who should be paying for climate change —
taxpayers or private landowners with waterfront property?
California is suffering from extremely dry conditions, so it
stands to reason that the candidates trying to oust and replace
Gov. Gavin Newsom have latched onto persistent but extremely
shallow and woefully outdated claims about the management of
the state’s water supply.
Wildfires and declining water levels at reservoirs have
threatened California’s power supply at various points this
summer. Desperate to avoid blackouts amid the compounding
crisis, California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom is eyeing the
construction of five “temporary” gas-fueled plants in the
coming months. According to Bloomberg, California’s Energy
Commission approved licenses for the emergency gas generators
on Tuesday for up to five years, each of which reportedly has
an individual capacity to generate 30 megawatts of energy.
As drought and climate change strangle the Colorado River, a
small county in Utah nevertheless continues forging ahead with
a billion-dollar pipeline to suck more water from it to sustain
its growing population. The proposed Lake Powell Pipeline, a
140-mile straw from one of the country’s largest reservoirs to
Washington County in southwestern Utah, has sparked backlash
from other states in the Colorado River basin and
environmentalists, and now has the Biden administration in a
difficult position.
Does time travel exist? Probably not, but let’s take a shot.
The California drought may give us a unique chance to go back
to 1955. That’s when the Folsom Dam was built, during they
heydays of dam building from the 1950s to the ’70s. California,
along with the rest of the United States, experienced major
population growth with the “Baby Boomer” era following World
War II. Agencies seeking to meet water demands constructed most
of the major dams in California including Oroville, Don Pedro,
San Luis, and Trinity Dams — all of which are over 2 million
acre-feet. -Written by Tom Frazier, a Merced writer, columnist,
photographer and supporter of the arts.
EPA laid out a path for states and tribes to take more time to
negotiate and tackle challenges before signing off on water
permits — an attempt to defang a controversial Trump-era rule
that allows only a year to approve or deny permits for
utilities and oil and gas pipelines. Sources say the move is an
attempt by the Biden administration to mitigate the adverse
effects of the Trump water rule finalized last year that’s
still on the books while showing sensitivity to advocates
fighting the proliferation of fossil fuel projects.
San Diego formally launched Friday the largest infrastructure
project in city history, a sewage recycling system that will
boost local water independence in the face of more severe
droughts caused by climate change. Dubbed “Pure Water,”
the multibillion-dollar project is the culmination of a lengthy
process featuring thorny lawsuits, complex labor deals and an
aggressive public education campaign to fight the derogatory
early nickname “toilet to tap.”
The Woodville Public Utilities District will receive a state
grant of more than $2.2 million to improve the quality of
drinking water for its community. The grant was recently
announced by the State Department of Water Resources as part of
a program to support communities facing water supply
challenges. The department announced the first round of funding
which will eventually total $200 million through the Small
Community Drought Relief Program. In the first round, 10 small
water systems in Tulare, Siskiyou, Shasta, Lake and Kern
Counties were chosen to receive $25 million.
In a year marked by record-breaking wildfires, extreme heat and
unprecedented water shortages, California lawmakers say there’s
another — seemingly distant, but just as urgent — climate
catastrophe the state cannot afford to ignore: sea level rise.
This oft-overlooked threat is the focus of more than a dozen
new bills and resolutions this year — a remarkable political
awakening mobilized by years of research and piecemeal efforts
across the state to keep the California coast above water.
California’s water infrastructure is decades old and
drastically needs to be fixed. Valley Senator Melissa Hurtado
just got water repair money from the Governor but it’s far less
than what she wanted. Senator Hurtado got $100-million
from Governor Newsom in her water bill. But it’s $685-million
short of what she was seeking. The money will go to four
water projects, the San Joaquin and San Luis Divisions of the
California Aqueduct, Delta-Mendota Canal and the Friant-Kern
Canal.
Not only does the Turlock-native Congressman refrain from
partisan politics for the most part, although those who don’t
understand why a Democrat would vote for Nancy Pelosi as House
Speaker as opposed to Kevin McCarthy will argue that point, but
Harder knows a drought when he sees one. The second term 10th
District congressman in late July noted that California is in
dire straits. Harder pointed out the reservoirs we rely on are
at a lower point now than they were at the depth of the last
drought that ended in 2019. -Written by Turlock Journal columnist Dennis
Wyatt.
With vast swaths of the West experiencing exceptional or
extreme drought conditions and more than 90 active wildfires, a
national coalition led by the California Farm Bureau has helped
secure Senate approval for major federal investments in
critical water projects. California Farm Bureau President Jamie
Johansson applauded the Senate’s passage of legislation to fund
$550 million in infrastructure spending over the next five
years. As drought conditions continue to worsen throughout the
West, he said, “now is the time to invest and make timely
improvements in our nation’s water management portfolio.”
In California’s water world, long dominated almost exclusively
by men, women are blazing a path — sometimes straight to the
top. … Karla Nemeth [director of California’s Department
of Water Resources] … said law and engineering
backgrounds used to be strictly prioritized in water, but the
field is opening up to other disciplines and collaborative
skills. Nemeth, arguably one of the state’s most powerful water
leaders, helms DWR, which manages California’s water resources,
infrastructure and systems.
Severe droughts are drying up rivers and reservoirs vital for
the production of zero-emissions hydropower in several
countries around the globe, in some cases leading governments
to rely more heavily on fossil fuels. The emerging problems
with hydropower production in places like the United States,
China and Brazil represent what scientists and energy experts
say is going to be a long-term issue … In
California, the State Water Project was forced to shut down a
750-MW hydroelectric power plant at Lake Oroville this month
for the first time since it was built in 1967 because of low
water levels.
Included in the sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill
approved by the Senate is funding for Western water projects
that farmers, water providers and environmentalists say are
badly needed across the parched region. … The plan would
provide $1.15 billion for improving water storage and transport
infrastructure such as dams and canals. Groundwater storage
projects, which replenish underground aquifers that aren’t
vulnerable to evaporation, would also get funding.
Experts studying the issue agree that sea level rise in coming
decades could pose an enormous threat to San Francisco Bay’s
shoreline. So perhaps it’s no surprise that there’s now talk of
looking into an equally enormous response. Why not build a
barrier to keep rising tides outside the Golden Gate?
Researchers in the past have dismissed this seemingly
straightforward concept on environmental grounds. Engineers are
skeptical, too. But the enormity of the challenge has some Bay
Area leaders saying it should at least be studied.
We are carefully assessing long-term options like desalination,
and weighing a myriad of factors including cost, timing,
environmental issues and how much additional water supply each
project may provide. During all of this careful consideration,
the Board of Directors has not lost the sense of urgency.
Reliably providing high-quality water to our customers is our
charge, and it is a charge not taken lightly. As we
continue to evaluate projects to secure additional water
supply, constructing a pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael
Bridge has emerged as a strong option to increase Marin Water’s
supply long-term. -Written by Larry L. Russell, vice president of the
Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors.
The City of Oceanside is being awarded $1.06 million for its
planned Well Expansion and Brine Minimization Project from the
Federal Bureau of Reclamation under the Water Infrastructure
Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act Desalination Program.
The City previously received $2.623 million from the Bureau of
Reclamation in 2018 and combined with this latest award, the
total grant funding for this project totals $3.683
million.
As Stanislaus creates a framework to spend millions of dollars
on improving county islands and urban pockets, there’s
disagreement among residents on how and where the money should
be invested. Some community leaders want housing to be the
priority, others are desperate for water. … People living in
unincorporated county islands in Stanislaus have long gone
without basic needs. Dark streets, unpaved sidewalks, lack of
sewer and potable water systems are everyday realities for many
residents.
A controversial construction project at McKinley Park in East
Sacramento is expected to be finished in early October. The
city built a 6-million gallon water vault underground at the
park to hold stormwater during heavy rain. The $32 million
project is supposed to prevent stormwater from going into East
Sacramento’s combined sewer system and cause flooding.
In the American West, water has always been a challenge. Prior
to the arrival of European explorers and settlers, there’s
broad evidence that droughts and water cycles heavily affected
Native Americans. For example, the people who built the Gila
Cliff Dwellings may have left the area when water supplies
dwindled. Later settlements by the descendants of Europeans
also followed water, with settlements placed near rivers so
there would be something to drink and grow food with.
In part one of this article, I covered the American West’s
water problems, as well as some of the ways they have been
solved with big engineering projects so far. Now, with climate
change and growth both pushing the limits of water supplies,
people are asking for even bigger projects, like a pipeline
from the Mississippi River to somewhere in the Colorado River’s
basin. Let’s talk about those ideas, even bigger ones, and why
none of them might be a good idea. -Written by Jennifer Sensiba, a long time efficient
vehicle enthusiast, writer, and photographer.
No matter where you live in Ventura County, recent
progress on removal of the Matilija Dam may be inspiring to you
because it reveals the relationships inside our local
watersheds. … Funding needs in the Ventura River
watershed have included millions of dollars for removal of the
Matilija Dam, which reduces the health of the Ventura River by
restricting flow, limits the replenishment of beaches by
holding back sediment, and excludes fish from access to 17
miles and 491 acres of potential headwaters habitat.
[A]s we sit squarely in the middle of another drought, adding
more seawater desalination facilities has become a louder
discussion. Right now, California has 12 desalination
facilities in operation, but there are calls for more.
There are three in the Northern California area near Monterey
and San Francisco. As for proposed desalination facilities,
there are 15 in all, including seven in Northern California.
Construction is underway in nearby Antioch on a brackish water
desalination facility that’s the first of its kind in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
In a strong bipartisan vote Tuesday of 69-30, the Senate
advanced the bipartisan infrastructure bill and sent it back to
the House. The INVEST in America Act spends roughly $1 trillion
including $110 billion for roads and bridges, $65 billion to
expand broadband access, and $17 billion for ports and inland
waterways. In the days leading up to the vote the American Farm
Bureau Federation as well as members of the Agricultural
Transportation Working Group urged lawmakers to support the
bipartisan infrastructure bill, which would increase
infrastructure spending by $550 billion over five years.
Whenever politicians are asked about the California water wars
that threaten our well-being in Modesto and Stanislaus County,
eventually the talk gets around to something like, “Well, you
know what we really need is more water storage.” As in dams,
mostly, and also off-stream reservoirs holding water captured
in wet years for use in dry ones. They say something
similar when reporters ask about drought, and sometimes about
wildfires and climate change. -Written by Garth Stapley, Modesto Bee columnist.
Moving to provide immediate support to communities facing water
supply challenges, the Department of Water Resources (DWR)
Wednesday announced the first round of funding commitments
for $200 million available through the Small Community Drought
Relief Program. DWR, in coordination with the State Water
Resources Control Board, is directing $25 million to 10 small
water systems in Tulare, Siskiyou, Shasta, Lake and Kern
Counties.
The Senate on Tuesday approved an expansive bill to rebuild the
nation’s aging roads and bridges, with $8.3 billion
specifically targeted to water infrastructure projects in the
West and billions more to fund national projects to mitigate
the impact of wildfires. … That includes $1 billion for
water recycling systems and more than $1 billion for water
storage and groundwater storage projects to take advantage of
wet years.
The welcome arch across Modesto’s main street proclaims,
“Water, wealth, contentment, health.” In essence, water, the
first word, directly leads to the following benefits. The same
formula applies to Marin. Now it’s the scarcity of water that
endangers our county’s ability to enjoy the benefits of wealth,
contentment and health. The entire American West is enduring a
drought of epic proportions. The globe’s climate will only get
warmer in the next 50 years. Marin is late preparing for that
eventuality. Doing so isn’t impossible but it comes with a
hefty price tag and can’t happen overnight. -Written by Dick Spotswood, Marin IJ columnist.
The circumstance we find ourselves in today is a prime example
of why we need to build Sites Reservoir now. Just a few years
ago, in 2017 and 2019, we experienced a series of atmospheric
river events that produced so much runoff that it overtopped
our flood control system … If Sites Reservoir had been in
place during that time, not only could we have avoided many of
those flooding impacts, but we also would have captured and
stored much of this excess runoff for use in a dry year like we
are currently experiencing. -Written by Robert Cheng, assistant general
manager of the Coachella Valley Water District, and Charley
Wilson, executive director of the Southern California
Water Coalition.
Senators were laboring Sunday toward eventual passage of
a $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package, resigned
to stay as long as it takes to overcome Republican holdouts who
want to drag out final votes on one of President Joe Biden’s
top priorities. The bill has won widespread support from
senators across the aisle and promises to unleash billions of
dollars to upgrade roads, bridges, broadband internet, water
pipes and other public works systems undergirding the
nation.
While recent commentary saddled the state with all the blame
for the lack of drinking water in Teviston, local jurisdictions
in the San Joaquin Valley must also accept responsibility.
Small water systems are caught between the historic legacy of
discriminatory policy, dropping groundwater levels caused by
overpumping, and chronically failing water systems. Local
governments have long resisted providing aid to these
communities or initiating processes that could require nearby
systems to provide water, particularly when those solutions may
impact wealthier neighbors.
Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced that he
secured over $71 million in federal funding for 20 projects
across California in the Senate’s Agriculture, Energy and
Water, and Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee
bills. The bills were approved by the Senate Appropriations
Committee this week and now await passage by the full
Senate.
Ural Federal University (UrFU) engineers have developed a new
desalination technology. It will significantly reduce the cost
of desalination and quadruple the volume of production. The
results of the research are published in the journal Case
Studies in Thermal Engineering. Today one of the most popular
and simple ways of desalination is the distillation of water
with the help of solar energy. UrFU scientists, together with
colleagues from Iraq, have developed a hybrid technology to
increase the efficiency of evaporation inside a solar distiller
by means of a rotating hollow cylinder and a solar collector.
The California Department of Water Resources begins
construction on Castaic Dam’s tower access bridge in Los
Angeles County to reduce seismic risks during a major
earthquake. … Work on the over 500-foot-long bridge
consists of strengthening the three bridge piers and installing
various components to the bridge superstructure to allow for
controlled movement during a seismic event. Each pier will be
encased with a reinforced fiber wrap compound, which requires
the temporary drawdown of Castaic Lake that began in early
May.
In the western United States, water law developed around two
main principles: (l) the goal of full beneficial use of
water, and (2) the need to afford vested water right holders
certainty as to their rights. At the time western water codes
developed, these goals were seemingly in harmony—rewarding
those who needed the water and invested in infrastructure for
water use with rights that were enforceable against subsequent
appropriators.
Another hurdle has been cleared in the pending and much needed
repairs of a 33-mile stretch of the Friant-Kern Canal. Known as
the Friant-Kern Canal Middle Reach Capacity Project, repairs
will be done on the 33-mile stretch of the canal form between
Lindsay and Strathmore to North Kern County. When the federal
government provided $206 million in funding for the project
last year that meant the project would finally become a
reality.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), chairman of the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development,
applauded the inclusion of California water priorities in the
Energy and Water funding bill for fiscal year 2022, which was
advanced out of committee today.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Friant Water Authority
announced today a 30-day public comment period for a repayment
contract related to costs of extraordinary operation and
maintenance work on the Friant-Kern Canal Middle Reach Capacity
Correction Project. This project will restore a 33-mile stretch
of the canal that has lost over half of its original capacity
to subsidence.
The waters of the Tuolumne River flow through Modesto two
ways. One is in the natural riverbed that cuts through the
city just south of downtown. The other is in the original
“Delta bypass tunnel” — the 46.7 mile pipeline across the San
Joaquin Valley beneath the Hetch Hetchy Trail that moves water
diverted from the reservoir the urban trail is named after. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, columnist for the Manteca
Bulletin.
Drought conditions have prompted the building of a 750-foot
wide rock barrier to prevent saltwater intrusion into the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The California Department
of Water Resources constructed the temporary barrier with
110,000 cubic yards of rock off West False River in Contra
Costa County. Principal engineer Jacob McQuirk said that
without the barrier, saltwater would endanger freshwater
supplies in the Delta and water exports to the south.
… McQuirk said 27 million people are dependent upon
those water supplies and that the barrier will be taken down by
November.
A review of 170 years of water-related successes in California
suggests that most successes can be traced directly to past
mistakes. California’s highly variable climate has made
it a crucible for innovations in water technology and
policy. Similar water imperatives have led to advances in
water management in other parts of the world. A close
look at California’s water model suggests that “far-sighted
incrementalism” is a path to progress.
Confronting the rise of attacks on major American
infrastructure and industry, the White House released an
executive order Wednesday in which President Joe Biden will ask
companies to layer on more cybersecurity protections. The order
follows up on a series of cybersecurity directives prompted
this year when the nation suffered a series of fuel shortages
after Russian-tied cybercriminals launched a ransomware attack
on Colonial Pipeline.
President Joe Biden’s latest leap into the Senate’s up-and-down
efforts to clinch a bipartisan $1 trillion infrastructure deal
comes with even more at stake than his coveted plans for
boosting road, rail and other public works projects. The
outcome of the infrastructure deal, which for weeks has
encountered one snag after another, will affect what could be
the crown jewel of his legacy. That would be his hopes for a
subsequent $3.5 trillion federal infusion for families’
education and health care costs, a Medicare expansion and
efforts to curb climate change.
Senators ran into new problems Monday as they raced to seal a
bipartisan infrastructure deal, with pressure mounting on all
sides to show progress on President Joe Biden’s top priority.
Heading into a make-or-break week, serious roadblocks remain.
Disputes have surfaced over how much money should go to public
transit and water projects.
The House of Representatives approved a $715 billion
infrastructure plan, and if the Senate passes it, it will mean
$20 million for the Valley Link project to connect Bay Area
Rapid Transit to the Altamont Corridor Express commuter train.
… California would be a big winner under the proposed
law. The bill includes more than $900 million for projects
throughout the Golden State. They include bridges, bike lanes
and express lanes … wastewater and drinking water
projects and other infrastructure to prepare for rising sea
levels.
On July 2, 2021, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
issued an important decision regarding Section 401 of the Clean
Water Act, overturning an Order by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC’s Order had found that
the state of North Carolina had unlawfully “coordinated” with
the license applicant to delay the state’s certification that a
new FERC license for the Bynum hydroelectric project complied
with state water quality laws. FERC found that North
Carolina’s participation in the delay meant that the state had
“waived” its authority under Section 401 to issue the
certification.
Rural communities suffering from failing infrastructure and low
capacity often miss out on important funding opportunities
because the methods used by state agencies to determine
eligibility are inadequate for rural forested areas, new study
finds. Pockets of wealth (around a lake shore or golf-course
development, for example) raise the median household income
(MHI), which can mask the poverty of nearby communities.
With rural wells running dry and reservoir levels dwindling
amid the Western drought, California senators are pressing
Congress for an infusion of cash to renovate the state’s
collapsing drinking water system. But instead of new dams or
desalination plants, Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla
want … to boost stormwater capture, groundwater recharge
and water recycling efforts in the Golden State and throughout
the U.S.
After some negotiation, the Friant Water Authority Board of
Directors will vote on a repayment contract with the Bureau of
Reclamation regarding the repair of a portion of the
Friant-Kern Canal. The Friant Water Authority and the
Bureau of Reclamation held its second round of negotiations
Thursday morning, which was a two-hour process hammering out
contract language in the repayment deal. … At the center
of the issue is a 33-mile stretch of the Friant-Kern Canal that
has lost over half of its original capacity to
subsidence.
Lawmakers and experts on Wednesday warned of gaping
cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the nation’s critical water
sector amid escalating attacks against a number of U.S.
organizations. … [C]oncerns came during a committee
hearing on cybersecurity vulnerabilities in critical
infrastructure that zeroed in on concerns around water and
wastewater treatment facilities. Cyber threats have soared
in recent years, including recent ransomware attacks on
critical infrastructure such as Colonial Pipeline, and the
water sector has not been immune.
A windfall of state funding is coming to San Diego, including
money for Ocean Beach Pier repairs, an energy-storage project
at San Vicente Reservoir, and the city’s Pure Water
program. Money from California’s state budget, signed last
week, will fund the series of San Diego projects and programs.
As California has imposed severe water cutbacks throughout the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta’s vast watershed, most
growers in the Delta region itself are still getting enough
water to bring their crops to harvest. With a majority of
landowners in the region holding pre-1914 riparian water
rights, the state has not curtailed their ability to pump water
from the Delta’s labyrinth of canals and waterways – at least
yet. In fact, growers whose land is on islands below sea
level have been pumping water off, San Joaquin County
Agricultural Commissioner Tim Pelican said.
Surrounded on three sides by the San Francisco Bay, residents
of Richmond are used to being near the ocean. But as rising
seas threaten to bring it even closer, Mayor Tom Butt is candid
about the risks. … Parts of Richmond are estimated to be
at risk from a three-foot increase in sea levels, even as the
waters of the Pacific Ocean along California’s coast are
projected to rise by more than twice that due to climate change
this century.
U.S. Rep. David Valadao (R-CA) last week introduced three
amendments to the Energy and Water Development Appropriations
fiscal year 2022 bill that aimed to alleviate California’s
ongoing drought, but House Appropriations Committee Democrats
voted down all three of them during a July 16 markup. The
congressman’s first amendment would have extended California
water storage provisions of the Water Infrastructure
Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act for one year …
The House on Wednesday approved a bill setting deadlines for
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to implement drinking
water regulations for so-called forever chemicals.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly called
PFAS, are widely used, man-made compounds that are found in
manufacturing and consumer products like Scotchguard,
flame-resistant materials, nonstick cooking surfaces and
firefighting foam used on military bases since the 1940s.
California Farm Bureau, as part of a national coalition
representing thousands of western farmers, ranchers, water
providers, businesses and communities, urged leaders of the
U.S. Senate to take action to address the shortcomings of aging
water infrastructure. Citing an “acute and critical need”
magnified by another all-too-familiar drought, the coalition
sent a letter last week to Chairman Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and
Ranking Member John Barrasso, R-Wyo., of the U.S. Senate
Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. It called for
increased federal investment in water infrastructure.
A 500 MW pumped energy storage project proposed jointly by the
City of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority
received $18 million in the California state budget. The
support will help fund the San Vicente Energy Storage
Facility through initial design, environmental reviews,
and the federal licensing process. The project … could
generate revenue to help offset the cost of water purchases,
storage, and treatment.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced the selection
of Michael Norris as the Area Manager of its Lower
Colorado Basin Region Yuma Area Office. He has served as the
Deputy Area Manager for seven years. In his new capacity,
Norris is responsible for delivery of Colorado River water to
the Yuma area and Mexico, groundwater and salinity management,
resource management, engineering and construction.
It doesn’t look like much now, a dry and dusty valley
surrounded by the modest mountains of California’s Coast Range.
These barren, brown hills an hour northwest of Sacramento will
be the future home of Sites Reservoir, one of the few major
water projects to be built in California since the 1970s.
California taxpayers are helping pay for Sites, which would
hold more water than Folsom Lake, through a $7.1 billion bond
they approved during the 2014 election.
Jet Martin wanted to stop service to a water meter to save
money for the homeowners in his Mira Mesa HOA. It turns out the
city said doing that will cost thousands of dollars. …
Martin’s HOA consists of 15 homes. There used to be sprinklers
that watered a once-grassy area that sits between two houses.
It was a space where residents in the HOA could sit, eat, and
enjoy the outdoors. They stopped watering the grass a couple of
years ago, but still pay a base fee to the city of nearly $30
per month.
A historic drought has desiccated much of the American West,
bringing reservoir levels to record lows and stoking fears of
catastrophic wildfires across the region. We spoke with two
members of the Water Policy Center research network and experts
on the Colorado River: Dr. Bonnie Colby of the University of
Arizona (she’s also a member of the Colorado River Research
Group) and John Fleck of the University of New Mexico. Prepare
to be surprised: we encountered some delightful optimism in
this wide-ranging conversation.
Each day, it seems, a new climate-related catastrophe makes
headlines. Salmon are dying in California, because the water
they inhabit has been heated to the point that it’s
inhospitable to life. The Hoover Dam reservoir is at
record-low levels, potentially affecting the water supply to
the West Coast. And California is, once again, in a drought.
States and municipalities across the country are asking
residents to conserve water as the precious resource is
threatened with impending scarcity. … We asked experts for
some easy ways to cut back on water usage. Here are their
suggestions.
Rick Daniels lies awake at night worrying about a rusty
contraption in a forlorn field, littered with discarded pipes
and fire hydrants. It is the only water pump in Needles that
meets state water quality standards, running 23 hours a day to
keep up with demand, according to Daniels, the city manager.
That’s a thin margin in one of America’s hottest cities, an
urban speck in the desert near California’s border with
Arizona. If this lone pump fails, 5,000 residents face the
ultimate risk of taps running dry, as temperatures soar past
120 degrees …
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Friant Water Authority
scheduled a teleconference contract repayment negotiation
session for costs of extraordinary operation and maintenance
work on the Friant-Kern Canal Middle Reach Capacity Correction
Project. The date and time of
the teleconference-only negotiation session are: July
22, 2021, from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. PDT Call
1-202-640-1187 and, when prompted, type in participant
passcode 523 487 550# The public is welcome to listen during
the session and comment after the negotiations close.
Climate change is forcing our state to reimagine our water
supply future. How do we do that? Easy — we reuse
water. Just like recycling a plastic bottle, we can
safely use recycled water to drink, irrigate parks, support
environmental uses, grow crops, produce energy, and much more.
More than just a new source of water, water recycling projects
provide a degree of local water independence. -Written by Jennifer West, managing director of
WateReuse California.
Several of the state’s key canals will get a sprinkle of state
money this year and next toward fixing more than $2 billion in
damage caused by sinking land from excessive groundwater
pumping. On July 12, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a massive budget
“trailer” bill, which authorizes actual funding for programs
and services outlined in the state budget that was passed June
15. The trailer bill included $200 million for the Department
of Water Resources to spend over the next two years on the
California Aqueduct, Delta-Mendota Canal and Friant-Kern Canal.
Together, repairs for those canals are estimated at $2.35
billion.
Alex Padilla made his first official visit to the Central
Valley as U.S. Senator, holding several discussions about
water. Padilla, along with other elected officials, held a
media availability at his only public event of the day — a tour
of the Dos Palos water treatment plant. There, he spoke about
the need to upgrade infrastructure for drinking water, as well
as water for farmers. Padilla says the infrastructure bill
being debated in the Senate will help with water, especially in
underserved areas.
Super Bowl weekend was the headline event last winter in Tampa,
Florida, where the mood was giddier than usual, given that the
hometown Bucs had advanced to the championship. But two days
before the big game, an incident just a few miles west of
Raymond James Stadium temporarily stole the show. A hacker
gained remote access to a water treatment plant in the town of
Oldsmar. The intrusion on February 5 lasted only a few minutes
— just long enough for the hacker to raise the concentration of
lye in the water by a factor of 1,000.
Every coast in the U.S. is facing rapidly increasing high tide
floods. NASA says this is due to a “wobble” in the moon’s orbit
working in tandem with climate change-fueled rising sea levels.
The new study from NASA and the University of Hawaii, published
recently in the journal Nature Climate Change, warns that
upcoming changes in the moon’s orbit could lead to record
flooding on Earth in the next decade. … They expect the
flooding to significantly damage infrastructure and displace
communities.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law a state bill on July 9 that
will allow Valley Water to use a method known as “best value”
to select a contractor for the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit
Project. Under current California law, Valley Water must select
the contractor with the lowest bid, regardless of their
experience. But Assembly Bill 271, signed by Gov. Newsom and
overwhelmingly passed by the California Legislature, authorizes
Valley Water to use a method known as “best value” to select a
contractor for the Anderson Dam Seismic Retrofit Project.
Dear Friends and Supporters of the Water Education Foundation
… we are busy preparing to move to a new office near the
confluence of the Sacramento and American rivers,
planning a blend of virtual and in-person programming for
the fall and offering a sale on our beautiful water maps
and guides so we don’t have to move them. We’re also looking to
hire a programs
and communications manager who is passionate
about all things water in California and across the
West. Resumes are due July 23.
Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego said water infrastructure and
transit investments in Arizona were two key items discussed
during a meeting with President Joe Biden on
Wednesday. Gallego was part of a bipartisan group of three
governors and four other mayors who met with Biden at the White
House to build support for a proposed $1.2 trillion
infrastructure package under consideration in the U.S.
Senate…. The group also talked about… the state’s long-term
drought and its effects on the Colorado River…
The city of Mountain View is planning for a surge in new
offices and homes in North Bayshore, placing dense new
development just a short jaunt away from the baylands. But new
sea level rise estimates show that future development could
very well end up underwater without flood protection, and it’s
unclear who is going to pick up the costly bill. Earlier this
year, Google announced its proposal to build 7,000 homes in
North Bayshore alongside 3 million square feet of offices less
than a mile from the bay.
On July 8, Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded two earlier drought
emergency declarations to cover 50 of the state’s 58 counties.
In May, he directed state agencies to consider easing
requirements for reservoir releases to conserve water upstream,
and to make water transfers easier. Both are needed. Notably,
the governor’s emergency proclamation did not impose water
conservation mandates. Instead, Gov. Newsom is leaving water
conservation to each region — a smart and necessary approach
that incentivizes regional investments in water supply. -Written by Sean Bigley, chair of
the Sacramento Regional Water Authority
Board, and Gary Croucher, chair of the San Diego
County Water Authority Board.
Climate change is exacerbating droughts and accelerating the
transformation and decline of California’s native forest and
aquatic ecosystems. As a state, we are poorly organized to
manage these effects, which need extensive focused
preparation. We need to adapt (and we will make mistakes
in doing so). Our human, economic and environmental losses
will be much greater, however, if we manage poorly because of
delay, complacency or panic. -Written by Jay Lund, professor of civil and
environmental engineering at the University of California at
Davis.
With drought on everyone’s mind, city leaders from Palo Alto
and Mountain View held a brief summit on June 18 at the
Regional Water Quality Control Plant to highlight a project
that both cities hope will help make water consumption more
sustainable for decades to come. Mayors Tom DuBois and Ellen
Kamei met with Valley Water board member Gary Kremen at the
Palo Alto facility to accept a $16 million check from the water
district.
Communities trying to fight sea-level rise could inadvertently
make flooding worse for their neighbors, according to a new
study from the Stanford Natural Capital Project. The
research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, shows how seawalls constructed along the San
Francisco Bay shoreline could increase flooding and incur
hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for communities
throughout the region.
For more than 60 years, California officials and experts have
discussed expanding the Sacramento River bypass and levee
system. … In summer 2020, contractors broke ground on
the first project to expand that capacity, the Lower Elkhorn
Basin Levee Setback (LEBLS) project. The California Dept. of
Water Resources is leading the design, construction and
permitting of the $103-million project, which will widen the
Sacramento Bypass and the east side of the Yolo Bypass.
A key message emerged when California water leaders gathered in
Modesto: Stop grumbling about drought, and get cracking on real
fixes. Rep. Josh Harder, R-Turlock, convened the Thursday
afternoon summit at the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau.
Several speakers called for new reservoirs and groundwater
recharge to hold wet-year surpluses for use in dry times
like 2021. The manager of a West Side irrigation district
invited others to follow her lead in using water recycled from
city sewage plants.
Lawmakers in Congress on Friday introduced a bill that would
pump tens of billions of dollars into fixing and upgrading the
country’s dams. The Twenty-First Century Dams Act, introduced
by Democratic U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster of New Hampshire, proposes
to spend nearly $26 billion to make the repairs that would
enhance safety and increase the power generation capacity of
the country’s 90,000 dams. It also calls for removing any dams
that have outlived their usefulness.
Southern California’s largest reservoir is filled to more than
80% of its total capacity, despite the fact the state as a
whole is in the second year of a severe drought. And Diamond
Valley Lake near Hemet is proving to be a key asset in making
up for the shortfall in water from other sources after another
year of below-normal precipitation.
While much of California’s earthquake risk has been
historically focused on the San Andreas fault and places like
Los Angeles and San Francisco, quakes are capable of causing
significant destruction in the state’s Sierra Nevada and
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta … UCLA experts warned
in 2014 that a major earthquake sending destructive shaking to
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta could potentially destroy
aging levees, causing flooding and drawing in saline water from
San Francisco Bay — which would contaminate one of the state’s
key water supply systems.
California’s fiscal year started more than a week ago, but
lawmakers and Gov. Gavin Newsom still don’t have a budget deal.
They’ve enacted placeholder legislation to keep the government
running while they hash out the final details, but the delay
leaves Californians waiting for details on how money for
critical areas including wildfires and infrastructure will be
spent. It’s a different situation than the budget stalemates of
past decades, when state government had to cut deals with banks
to ensure state workers were paid even as budget negotiations
dragged into the fall.
Slowly but surely, the San Lorenzo Valley community is
rebuilding itself after the CZU Lightning Complex fire. Its
water district is no exception. The San Lorenzo Valley Water
District lost all of its water intake infrastructure at the
Lyon Water Treatment Plant in Boulder Creek, built in 1994 with
the purpose of treating surface water coming from many streams
on the Empire Grade mountain. About 50% of the water stored at
the plant was lost as well. All of the 1,600 acres of the
watershed were affected by the wildfire.
As part of the ongoing initiatives to advance diversity and
equity, Monique Earl has been named to lead the newly-created
Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power. Earl will become part of
the senior management team reporting to General Manager Martin
Adams, and will be responsible for the oversight of policies,
practices and programs designed to improve diversity and
opportunities throughout LADWP and position the agency to
better serve communities with the highest needs.
Dublin San Ramon Services District’s new temporary supplemental
recycled water supply project not only aims to boost their
irrigation water, but it also doesn’t let anything go to waste
— especially human waste. Putting a new spin on the old
adage “one man’s trash is another man’s treasure,” DSRSD
recently launched a program to divert one to two million pounds
of sewage a day for three years from its sister agency Central
Contra Costa Sanitary District to the Jeffrey G. Hansen Water
Recycling Plant in Pleasanton, according to a statement from
DSRSD.
How can Marin County effectively address the severe drought
we’re in? Right now, many are reasonably urging the Marin
Municipal Water District to explore desalination and a water
supply line on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Apparently our
water district is proceeding expediently with this
exploration, so they can implement those measures as
quickly as possible if needed. However, we should recognize
that with urgent competition for water throughout the
southwestern U.S., these measures have uncertainties, will take
time and require very large expense and energy use. -Written by Tom Flynn, team lead at
GreenChange.net.
