“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.
“I don’t want a dam failure to wipe us out,” said one
businessperson near the Lake Perris Fairgrounds who quickly
added that “the construction is killing us.” The dam,
which sits near the fairgrounds, has been undergoing much
needed seismic retrofitting that was supposed to end in 2018.
The agency overseeing the project, California’s Department of
Water Resources, said the delays have been caused by the
complexity of the project, which involves the City of Perris,
the County of Riverside, several landowners and seven utility
providers.
Even as other communities in the Las Vegas Valley have recycled
water since the 1960s, the city closest to Hoover Dam uses up
to 500 million gallons a year one time and then casts it away,
lost to the air and desert. But that could change as Boulder
City’s new mayor favors ending the community’s decades-long
waste of precious water. Currently, Boulder City’s 16,000
residents use up to 1.5 million gallons of water a day for
drinking, bathing, cooking and other needs. The water is then
lightly treated, and some is sold for construction and other
nonhuman use, but the majority is pumped into nearby
evaporation ponds. In 2021, 250 million gallons were lost after
one use.
Approximately 100 concerned Delta residents gathered at a
public forum in the community of Hood Tuesday to express
concern with the Delta Tunnel proposal. … The proposal
reduces the original two tunnel plan, proposed by former
Governor Jerry Brown, to a single tunnel by the Newsom
Administration and the Department of Water Resources. … The
new plan calls for a 40-foot wide concrete tunnel to draw
water from the Hood and Courtland areas approximately 45 miles
south to Bethany Reservoir. The current estimates are that it
would cost $16 billion dollars and take 13 years to
complete. The tunnel would draw 3,000 cubic feet of water
per second and would account for approximately 13% to 15% of
the overall water supply.
Runways at major Bay Area airports could face flooding within
two decades if nothing is done to protect them from sea level
rise and storm surge, a new UC Berkeley study evaluating risk
to California coastal airports has found. The report, which
looked at exposure to flooding at California public airports
located within 6 miles of the coast, found vulnerabilities at
39 out of 43 by 2100. That includes all 14 Bay Area airports in
the study, half of which could face flooding on their runways
or taxiways in the next 20 years. San Francisco International
Airport and Oakland International Airport are two of the most
vulnerable airports statewide — though they are taking steps to
mitigate the problem.
The state of Colorado is projected to gain 1.8 million more
residents by the year 2050. While that can be a sign of
economic prosperity, a study by NumbersUSA indicates most
residents think that growth will have too many negative
impacts. … The study includes a scientific survey
of 1,024 Colorado residents conducted by the Rasmussen research
group. It focuses on several environmental issues, including
water. Citing increased traffic, the loss of open space,
and a strain on the water supply, 75% of Coloradans surveyed
said urban sprawl, which is the encroachment of cities into
natural space and agricultural space, is making Colorado a
worse place to live.
The Colorado River runs more than 1,400 miles starting as a
trickle of snowmelt in northern Colorado. It becomes a roaring
torrent as it cuts through canyons and five Western states. Now
after more than a century of dam building and development along
the river, it ends as a trickle again at the Arizona-Mexico
border. The river was once the lifeblood of the Cocopah, or
River People. The Cocopah Tribe has begun trying to return a
sliver of that landscape to what it once was. On this day you
hear the wind blowing and the traffic from Interstate 8 as cars
and trucks cross the Arizona-California border less than a mile
away. The Colorado River, or what’s left of it, meanders south
to Mexico with hardly any sound.
Citing Israel’s extraordinary success in meeting its
agricultural and household water needs, Marco Sermoneta told a
recent gathering of water industry professionals that his
country has much to offer other regions facing the dire problem
of water scarcity. … Sermoneta, who has been on the job
since August, was speaking at the Association of California
Water Agencies fall conference and exhibition, held Nov.
29-Dec. 1 in Indian Wells, near Palm Desert. The event
featured more than 40 programs, workshops and roundtable
conversations examining topics such as water management,
affordable drinking water and water supply. ACWA is a statewide
coalition of public water agencies.
Catastrophic flooding prompted civic leaders and engineers a
century ago to begin taming the Los Angeles Basin’s
rambunctious rivers with dams, storm drains and concrete. Now,
scientists warn that, in a warming world, the region can expect
an increase in epic downpours that could rapidly overwhelm its
aging flood control system, unleashing floodwaters across
low-lying working-class communities. On Tuesday, the Los
Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a motion calling
on the Department of Public Works to prepare a report on the
viability of existing flood control infrastructure, as well as
plans for reducing flood risks and making disadvantaged
communities more resilient.
California’s water system uses energy to pump, convey, treat,
and heat water. Although agriculture uses roughly four times
more water than cities, cities account for most water-related
energy use. Water is also required for hydropower generation,
thermoelectric power plants, and oil and gas extraction.
Improving water use efficiency can reduce energy consumption;
conversely, improving energy efficiency can reduce impacts on
water supply and quality. … The water system
uses approximately 20% of the state’s electricity and 30%
of its natural gas for business and home use, according to data
from 2001—accounting for more than 5% of California’s
greenhouse gas emissions.
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A Tehama County project is among the Wildlife Conservation
Board’s (WCB) selection of approved projects to be funded
through $24.46 million in grants to help restore and protect
fish and wildlife habitat throughout California. Some of the 16
approved projects will benefit fish and wildlife – including
some endangered species, while others will provide public
access to important natural resources. Several projects will
also demonstrate the importance of protecting working
landscapes that integrate economic, social and environmental
stewardship practices beneficial to the environment, landowners
and the local community.
A one-inch-diameter pipe carrying drinking water has been
leaking under Highway 128 at 2960 Foothill Blvd. in Calistoga
for more than three months. The leak has caused water to puddle
on the highway. … After several complaints from
residents brought the issue to the city’s attention,
[councilmember Gary] Kraus pulled the issue from the
consent calendar at the Nov. 15 City Council meeting, prompting
a response from Public Works director Derek Raynor.
… When the customary bidding process began back in
August, Raynor estimated the broken pipe was losing 30 gallons
of water a day and continued to leak at that rate though
mid-October. Since then the leak has gotten worse. Since
mid-October, he estimates, the pipe has been leaking at a rate
of two gallons a minute.
The California State Coastal Conservancy has allotted $2.2
million to a North Bay research group to take over caretaking
responsibilities and volunteer work for one of Marin County’s
largest wetland restoration sites. The Point Blue Conservation
Science nonprofit research group received the funds to continue
the upkeep of nearly 200 acres of the Hamilton wetlands and
forthcoming Bel Marin Keys wetlands near Novato for the next
two years. Its responsibilities include maintenance, replacing
aged or damaged interpretive signs and kiosks, running the
native plant nursery, planting, watering, coordinating
volunteer groups and leading school field trips.
As drought dried up rivers and reservoirs across Europe this
year, grim warnings from the past surfaced from the depths.
Wenn du mich siehst, dann weine, read the inscription on a
“Hunger Stone” exposed on a bank of the River Elbe in the Czech
Republic: “If you see me, then weep.” Still, as bad as the
drought appeared on the surface, a new satellite analysis
estimating freshwater availability in Europe shows that “what’s
even worse is the groundwater story that people cannot see,”
says the hydrologist Jay Famiglietti, director of the Global
Institute for Water Security at Canada’s University of
Saskatchewan. Famiglietti and collaborators analyzed two
decades of data from the U.S./German satellite missions known
as GRACE to find the rate of change in freshwater stored on the
European continent.
In America’s rush to build the nuclear arsenal that won the
Cold War, safety was sacrificed for speed. Uranium mills that
helped fuel the weapons also dumped radioactive and toxic waste
into rivers like the Cheyenne in South Dakota and the Animas in
Colorado. … The U.S. government bankrolled the industry, and
mining companies rushed to profit, building more than 50 mills
and processing sites to refine uranium ore. But the
government didn’t have a plan for the toxic byproducts of this
nuclear assembly line. Some of the more than 250 million tons
of toxic and radioactive detritus, known as tailings, scattered
into nearby communities, some spilled into streams and some
leaked into aquifers. … But the government has fallen
down in addressing another lingering threat from the industry’s
byproducts: widespread water pollution.
California’s water supply crisis has hit a tipping point, with
impacts spreading far and wide, reaching local communities and
critical industries, putting us once again in jeopardy. This is
a pivotal moment in the state’s future – one in which bold
political leadership will emerge, or future generations will
suffer. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent announcement on his new
water supply plan, is encouraging that leadership is
materializing, but the proof is in the pudding. The new
plan, California’s Water Supply Strategy: Adapting to a
Hotter, Drier Future, underscores the significant challenges we
face as a result of a changing climate, the need to transform
the current water system, and the importance of significantly
investing in California water systems to secure the future of
California’s water supply and reliability. -Written by Gary Arant, General Manager at Valley
Center Municipal Water District; and Kimberly
Thorner, the General Manager at Olivenhain Municipal Water
District.
There is less than a week left to
apply for our 2023 Water Leaders class
and be considered for the new cohort of California’s
preeminent water leadership program. Launched in 1997, the
Water Leaders program is aimed at providing a deeper
understanding of California water issues, building
leadership skills and preparing class members to take an
active, cooperative approach to decision-making about water
resources by studying a water-related topic in-depth
and crafting policy recommendations.
And, if you work for a member of the Association of California
Water Agencies, you can apply to have tuition and some
travel expenses covered under the
John P. Fraser Water Leaders Fellowship.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has
completed the removal of a drought salinity barrier from the
West False River in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The
barrier was installed in June 2021 to prevent saltwater
intrusion with less fresh water from upstream reservoirs and
streams flowing into the Delta during California’s ongoing
extreme drought conditions. DWR was required to remove
the structure by November 30 to comply with environmental
permits. … The barrier was initially constructed in response
to Governor Newsom’s April 21, 2021 state of emergency
proclamation directing the Department to initiate actions
necessary to prepare for and address potential Delta salinity
issues during prolonged drought conditions.
The winter storm that dropped rain across the Bay Area dumped
snow on the Sierras and ski resorts across Tahoe. Heavy snow
and slick roads also made for dangerous driving conditions but
the precipitation is a boon for California’s water
supply. Building on gains during a storm in early
November, this latest storm brought statewide snowpack up to
106% of normal for December 1, according to the California
Department of Water Resources. The snow is beneficial but
it’s still early in the season, said Andrew Schwartz, the lead
scientist at UC Berkeley’s Central Sierra Snow Laboratory. The
previous water year, for example, started out with plentiful
rains during October and December 2021 but were followed by
an extremely dry start to 2022.
Hear what may be ahead for California’s water supply in 2023 as
well as the latest improvements to snowmelt runoff forecasts at
our Winter
Outlook Workshop next Thursday, Dec.
8 in Southern California. The one-day workshop in
Irvine will include insight into whether La Niña conditions
projected to persist into this winter really mean anything as a
predictor in the new reality of climate whiplash. You also
will learn about what is and isn’t known in forecasting winter
precipitation weeks to months ahead, the skill of present
forecasts and ongoing research to develop predictive
ability. This event is ideal for anyone involved in
managing, modeling or forecasting water resources or anyone
simply interested in hearing the latest science.
A handful of small valley communities will be able to move more
rapidly on water projects thanks to millions in funding
recently allocated by the state Department of Water Resources
(DWR) as part of its water resilience program. DWR awarded $86
million throughout the state. About $44 million of that will go
to small communities facing water insecurity through the
department’s Small Community Drought Relief Program. The
announcement of DWR’s ninth, and final, round of funding under
this program comes as more than 1,400 wells have gone dry
throughout the state this year, 369 of those in the San Joaquin
Valley, according to the state’s dry well reporting system. The
recently announced funding will help support five projects in
the San Joaquin Valley.
Nearly 20% of California’s urban water agencies reported they
could see significant water shortages in the coming months as
the state braces for a potential fourth consecutive year of
drought. After surveying urban water agencies representing
roughly 90% of the state’s population, the California
Department of Water Resources early this week released its
first annual water supply and demand report that assesses how
the state is faring with water supply amid unrelenting drought
conditions. The assessment, which includes annual data through
July 1, found that while a vast majority – 82% – of urban water
suppliers who submitted reports say they have enough water to
meet projected demand in the coming year, around 18% – 73 out
of the 414 water suppliers – reported they will soon face
potential shortages.
The first sign of serious trouble for the drought-stricken
American Southwest could be a whirlpool. It could happen if the
surface of Lake Powell, a man-made reservoir along the Colorado
River that’s already a quarter of its former size, drops
another 38 feet down the concrete face of the 710-foot Glen
Canyon Dam here. … The normally placid Lake Powell, the
nation’s second-largest reservoir, could suddenly transform
into something resembling a funnel, with water circling the
openings, the dam’s operators say. If that
happens, the massive turbines that generate electricity
for 4.5 million people would have to shut down — after nearly
60 years of use — or risk destruction from air bubbles.
… Such an outcome — known as a “minimum power pool” —
was once unfathomable here. Now, the federal government
projects that day could come as soon as July.
Months before this fall’s rains began, Victoria Sanchez stood
out in front of her home on Cayuga Avenue in San Francisco’s
Mission Terrace neighborhood. Her block appeared ordinary on
that July day: rows of colorful Mediterranean-style homes
stretched wall-to-wall as the 44 Muni bus rumbled past the
corner. The scene was typical of many neighborhoods across San
Francisco with one distinct difference. Along the sidewalks and
driveways of Cayuga Avenue lay rows of sandbags, a reminder of
the destructive floods of sewage and stormwater that the rainy
season can bring — inundations that have ravaged the
neighborhood for decades. Sanchez walked her street with
an album full of photographs and news clippings as she retold
stories of the floods.
Four small Bay Area drinking water systems will receive
millions of dollars as part of California’s effort to protect
water deliveries as the drought drags into its fourth year. On
Tuesday, the California Department of Water Resources announced
$44 million in statewide Small Community Drought Relief Program
grants about $6.5 million of which is earmarked for four water
systems in Santa Clara, Solano and Sonoma counties. The
program is aimed at small systems with fewer than 3,000 service
connections that are most likely to suffer from aging
infrastructure and often rely on a single source of water.
“Small communities are the most vulnerable to the impacts of
our new hotter, drier climate and lack the resources to
immediately deal with these challenges,” DWR Director Karla
Nemeth said in a news release.
Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti is backing a new salary package
for the Department of Water and Power that includes a
significant hike in pay for hundreds of workers. The Los
Angeles City Council approved the labor deal Tuesday in a vote
of 11-0. Under the agreement with the International Brotherhood
of Electrical Workers Local 18, roughly 10,000 workers will
receive four “cost of living” pay increases totaling at least
10% and as much as 24% by October 2025, depending on inflation.
All workers will also get a one-time cash bonus of 3% of their
salary in December.
Most of California’s urban water agencies believe they have
enough supplies to last through another seven months of
drought, but nearly 20% of them — including many in Southern
California — say they could be facing significant shortages,
according to a new state report. The California Department of
Water Resource’s first annual water supply and demand
assessment surveyed the state’s urban water agencies to see how
they are managing tight supplies through conservation efforts
and improved drought planning. … [Metropolitan Water District
of Southern California] spokeswoman Rebecca Kimitch added
that deteriorating conditions on the Colorado
River mean the rest of Southern California could also see
calls for increased conservation in the coming months.
California’s newest infrastructure project will hit two
proverbial climate birds with one stone. And Los Angeles city
officials just decided last week to try one of its own. The
plan is to cover some of California’s exposed water canals with
solar panels. It will prevent evaporation amidst the state’s
historic drought. It will also create renewable energy as the
state attempts to meet lofty decarbonization goals. The idea
gained traction in California after researchers at UC Merced
studied the possibility on the state’s canals last year.
“If we put solar panels over all 4000 miles of California’s
open canals, we estimated we could save 65 billion gallons of
water annually,” says Brandi McKuin, who led the study. “That’s
enough for the residential water needs of 2 million people –
enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of farmland.”
Today on Giving Tuesday, a global day of philanthropy, you can
support impartial education and informed decision-making on
water resources in California and the West by making a tax-deductible donation to the
Water Education Foundation. Your support ensures that our
45-year legacy of producing in-depth news, educational
workshops and accessible information on water reaches new
heights in 2023.
The West uses too much water. For such a simple problem, the
obvious solution — use less — lies frustratingly out of reach.
That inability to change may seem hard to understand, but the
root of the problem becomes clearer if we consider the role of
the West in the historical development of the United States:
The purpose of our system of “free water” — heavily subsidized
water for irrigation — was to provide opportunities to
settlers. … With the New Deal, the Bureau of Reclamation
came into its own: Hoover Dam, completed in 1935 as the world’s
largest dam, served as a symbol for the country’s ability to
conquer nature. Progressives championed desert reclamation at
the turn of the century, but the federal government’s
willingness to build infrastructure and give water away on
extravagantly lenient terms was just as appealing for
conservatives after World War II. -Written by Revelator contributor Nate Housley.
Without any regard to impacts on wildlife, fire danger, rural
residents or recreational users at Loveland Reservoir near
Alpine in San Diego’s East County, the Sweetwater Water
Authority (SWA) on November 16 began draining down the lake
with an intent to reduce it to “dead pool” level – less than
one-half of one percent of the reservoir’s capacity, once
draining is completed over the next couple of weeks or so. The
water is being piped to Sweetwater Reservoir in Otay Mesa. From
there, it will be used to provide drinking water and other
water needs to residents in the South Bay communities of Chula
Vista, National City and Bonita. -Written by Miriam Raftery.
To many of the 100 or so full-time residents of Red Mountain, a
historic mining town on the northwestern tip of San Bernardino
County’s desert, John Hall is unofficially known as mayor.
Hall, 75, isn’t quite sure why. Maybe it’s because he’s lasted
more than 30 years in this hard-scrap place, where locals truck
in water to avoid the arsenic that decades of mining left in
the ground and their tap water. … It’s estimated the
state has about 47,000 abandoned mines. And of the roughly
24,400 sites on BLM-managed land, some 84% present physical
hazards, such as open mine shafts, while 11% present
environmental hazards such as contamination. Red Mountain
has both. Soil testing has found as much as 10,000
milligrams of arsenic per kilogram in some parts of Red
Mountain.
California already has one of the most variable climates in the
United States, and it’s getting more extreme. Our “weather
whiplash,” as it’s becoming known, is increasingly marked by
long periods of warm, dry conditions punctuated by stronger and
wetter atmospheric river storms. … Recognizing the
influence of atmospheric rivers on California’s changing
climate, Yuba Water is working with the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography’s Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at
UC San Diego, the California Department of Water Resources, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and others to
implement Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations in the
Yuba and Feather river watersheds. FIRO is a flexible water
management strategy that uses improved weather and water
forecasts …
The spawning of fall-run chinook salmon concluded at the
Feather River Fish Hatchery in early November with millions of
fish eggs now fertilized and incubated. For the second year in
a row, the hatchery increased the amount of fall-run chinook
salmon eggs collected to offset effects of California’s current
drought now going on its third year. This year, the hatchery
collected about 9.5 million fall-run salmon eggs, according to
the Department of Water Resources. The average number of
fall-run chinook salmon eggs collected at the hatchery is 7.2
million. Raquel Borrayo, spokeswoman for the Department of
Water Resources, said DWR and the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife agreed to increase the amount of fall-run chinook
salmon grown at the hatchery “to enhance the salmon fishery
during this drought period as the overall Central Valley salmon
numbers have been lower due to the drought.”
Seeking to modernize aged equipment and cut down on the
nitrogen that flows into the San Francisco Bay, Palo Alto and
its partners are embarking on an ambitious makeover of the
Regional Water Quality Control Plant, a project that will cost
$193 million and take about five years to complete. The City
Council is preparing to approve next month a $161 million
contract with Anderson Pacific Engineering Construction to
upgrade the wastewater treatment system at the regional plant
on Embarcadero Road, near the Baylands. … A key goal of
the upgrade is to reduce this outflow of nitrogen, which causes
algae to bloom in the bay, [plant manager] Jamie Allen
said. Over the summer, the a red algae bloom across
the region killed fish throughout the area.
An adaption strategy for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta must
address and reduce climate change impacts in a way that meets
the coequal goals, builds resilience for the future, and
prioritizes the most vulnerable communities. Climate change is
already altering the physical environment of the Delta,
resulting in significant impacts on its people and resources
that are only expected to worsen over time. The Delta
Stewardship Council recognized the need to address climate
change and completed the Delta Adapts Vulnerability Assessment
in 2021, which is the first comprehensive study of projected
climate hazards in the Delta and Suisun Marsh, identifying the
people and resources most vulnerable to increased flood risk,
extreme heat, drought, and wildfire smoke.
In other areas of the country, electricity grids are organized
under operators that coordinate and control the market across
state lines. But in the Western Interconnection, which serves
most of the western U.S. and parts of Canada, there are 38
different authorities responsible for balancing their own
grids. … That could be especially valuable as the West deals
with a decades-long drought that threatens hydropower, and as
states and utilities close large coal plants. A regional
market, experts say, would allow ample wind generation in more
central states to flow west, while solar production from states
like California and Arizona could be sent elsewhere.
The fierce struggle for water in a drought-stricken West
continues to roil politics — and embroil a host of tribal water
claims. The decades-long drought has dried up reservoirs and
forced federal water cutbacks for the 40 million people in
seven states who rely on the Colorado River for water. But it
has also dramatically increased the stakes for the region in
decades-old water claims by a host of tribes — including the
Navajo and the White Mountain Apache. The Tonto Apache Tribe
also has a decades-old claim to water from the Colorado River.
Efforts to settle that claim with water from the C.C. Cragin
Reservoir with a payment from the federal government to buy
into Payson’s pipeline have been stalled for years — and missed
out on a gush of federal pandemic and infrastructure aid to
tribes. -Written by contributor Peter Aleshire.
The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) Fall
Conference & Exhibition Nov. 29-Dec. 1 will draw local water
agency leaders from throughout California to Indian Wells for
three days of updates, analyses and perspectives on multiple
issues affecting the state’s water community. The event will
also feature an international perspective on water management
and connect attendees with a leader behind a movement to change
policy priorities in addressing catastrophic wildfires.
Delivering the Opening Breakfast keynote on Nov. 30, Ambassador
Marco Sermoneta, Consul General of Israel to the Pacific
Northwest, will share his insights about how Israel has
addressed water management challenges.
California water policy is often discussed and depicted as
being impossibly complex. In its essentials, it can be
seen much more simply, as in the flow chart below.
Without extreme events (such as floods and droughts), the
policy process would be simpler, but ironically less effective,
and less well funded. … California’s remarkable water
history shows that frequent extreme events have activated
enough innovation and preparations over 170 years such that
floods, droughts, and earthquakes are now much less threatening
to California’s population and economy. However, frequent
failures have not yet motivated adequate preparation and
management for ecosystems and rural water supplies.
Sacramento County officials on Friday said that two fuel tanks
at a Sacramento gas station have leaked gasoline into soil and
groundwater, though the risk to the general public is “very
low.” The county said the leak happened with two
underground fuel tanks at Bonfare Market and Gas Station, which
is located at 2600 Rio Linda Boulevard. A third underground
tank was not found to be faulty. The tanks have since been
emptied and are offline, the county said. The issues stem
from an initial report of a leak in February 2022, county
spokesperson Samantha Mott said. One tank was immediately
emptied and put out of service and an initial assessment did
not reveal groundwater contamination. Later, an
investigation as part of a clean-up plan found that gasoline
contamination had migrated, exposing groundwater to
contamination.
After more than a decade in the trying, a major desalination
plant to serve the Monterey Peninsula has cleared a significant
hurdle—in theory, at least. In a 13-hour meeting that adjourned
just after 10pm on Thursday, Nov. 17, the California Coastal
Commission approved a conditional coastal development permit
for California American Water, the private water utility that
serves the greater Monterey Peninsula, to build a desalination
project in neighboring Marina, a city whose residents are
vehemently opposed to it, and who would not be served by
it. One thing that was continually brought up during the
meeting, and that was acknowledged in the Coastal Commission’s
staff report that recommended approval (with many conditions,
some potentially insurmountable), is that the project is rife
with complexity, both from technical and environmental justice
standpoints. … One question that remained unanswered was
who would pay for the project.
Today we’ll start with a short history lesson about one of Los
Angeles’s most vital (and most forgotten) landmarks: the Los
Angeles River. For centuries, the river, which begins in the
San Fernando Valley and ends in the ocean in Long Beach,
sustained small communities of Native peoples. In the 1800s it
nurtured hundreds of vineyards and orange groves, and exporting
the harvests helped expand the Southland’s reputation around
the globe. … But determining exactly how to redesign the
river is a tall task. There are competing demands from some
environmentalists, who want the concrete removed; from
community activists, who worry that any new development would
lead to the displacement of poor residents; and from
engineering experts, who say the risk of flooding remains too
high to restore anything like the original river.
Tobyn Pilot took a few crunchy footsteps through the rough red
dirt near the edge of a towering cliff. Pilot, an operator at
the water plant in Page, Arizona, pulled out a hefty collection
of keys and unlocked a tiny plywood-paneled shed just a few
feet from the brink. The building is barely bigger than an
outhouse, but it’s a pivotal part of keeping the taps flowing.
… Hundreds of feet below, the Colorado River calmly chugged
along. It’s here, on the dusty precipice, that water from that
river is redirected into the Page’s city pipes. … Page
pulls its water from Lake Powell, the nation’s second-largest
reservoir. It’s held back by the behemoth Glen Canyon Dam.
Inside the dam, a pipe siphons water to Page as it passes from
the reservoir to the river on the other side. Drought and
steady demand have drained the reservoir to historic
lows, putting Page’s drinking water system in jeopardy.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) today announced
awarding $5 million in funding for seven emergency response
agencies within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to increase
their ability to respond to flood emergencies. This funding
will help to improve the emergency response efforts for first
responders and help these communities prepare for threats of
flooding in the Delta, which is increasingly vulnerable to
flooding from storm events and sea level rise.
In just a few months this year, abnormally low water levels in
rivers led China to shut down factories and to floods in
one-third of Pakistan, killing around 1,500 people and grinding
the country to a halt. A dried-up Rhine River threatened to tip
Germany’s economy into recession, because cargo ships could not
carry standard loads. And the Las Vegas strip turned into a
river and flooded casinos, chasing customers away. … With
mounting climate-fuelled weather disasters, social inequality,
species extinctions and resource scarcity, some corporations
have adopted sustainability programmes. One term in this realm
is ‘circular economy’, in which practitioners aim to increase
the efficiency and reuse of resources, including water —
ideally making more goods (and more money) in the process.
Colorado River Commission Chairman Herbert Hoover gathered the
seven states’ representatives at opened at 11:00 a.m. Nov. 15,
1922, for the 17th meeting in their efforts to forge an
agreement to share the Colorado River. They had been holed up
at Bishop’s Lodge outside Santa Fe for five days, wrestling
with how to divide the river. By that point in the negotiations
they had settled on a general framework, dividing the river
into an “upper” and “lower” basin, but were stuck on the
question of how much water the upper states would be required
to send each year to the lower states. Hoover intentionally set
a later starting time that day to give the upper river states
plenty of time to caucus among themselves to consider his
proposal from the previous day that the Upper Basin deliver 82
million acre-feet every ten years plus a 4 and ½ million acre
foot minimum annual flow.
Rep. Jared Huffman (D-02) isn’t the only one from the North
Coast making the rounds at the United Nations Climate Change
Conference. On Tuesday, Danielle Frank, of Ríos to Rivers and a
youth leader of the Hupa Valley Tribe, and Brook Thompson, who
is a member of the Yurok Tribe and Karuk Tribe, shared the
story of the dams in the Klamath River basin at a panel titled
Centering the Protection of Rivers and Rights in Achieving
Climate Justice in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. They were speaking
alongside Indigenous people from other parts of the world who
have also been fighting to protect rivers in their communities.
… Six dams in the Klamath River basin have severely
impacted water quality, temperatures and flows, which in turn
have led to the degradation of the ecosystem. In 2002, the
river experienced one of the largest fish kills in its history,
leading to a 20-year legal fight to bring the dams down.
In the last decade, California—along with the rest of the
world—has entered a new phase of climate change. The changes
that scientists predicted have started to arrive. California’s
already variable climate is growing increasingly volatile and
unpredictable: The dry periods are hotter and drier, and the
wet periods—lately too few and far between—are warmer and often
more intense. … The snowpack—that once-reliable annual source
of water—is diminishing as temperatures rise. Water withdrawals
during multiyear droughts are depleting the state’s reservoirs
and groundwater basins. … This report considers the
state of water in California: What changes are we seeing now,
and what should we expect in the near future?
There are worlds of difference between a rotting structure at
Fisherman’s Wharf, the iconic drama of the Ferry Building and
the shadowed concrete underneath the Bay Bridge where two piers
meet the aged Embarcadero seawall. What they share is a
vulnerability to earthquakes and sea level rise along an
artificial shoreline that’s more than a century old. They also
have a common owner — the Port of San Francisco, which has the
costly job of preparing that shoreline for a host of 21st
century challenges where the learning curve seems to get
steeper each year. Now, nearly four years after voters
approved a $425 million bond to prepare the seawall
and the structures along it for what the future might bring,
the port has selected the first six projects to pursue.
Santa Monica has found itself on the cutting edge of modern
water infrastructure in California, and the latest example of
that innovation is SWIP, the Sustainable Water Infrastructure
Project (SWIP), four years in the making, that is set to open
with a community celebration on Thursday morning, Nov. 17. The
project features some key innovations: a massive, 1.5-million
gallon stormwater harvesting tank that stores water prior to
treatment (meaning the city is far less limited in the amount
of water it can process during storm events); can
simultaneously treat stormwater runoff and wastewater generated
in Santa Monica; is enabled to provide water for irrigation,
dual-piped buildings and groundwater replenishment; and is
poised to convert to potable water supply if and when state
regulations permit.
For the second time since the Delta Stewardship Council’s
establishment in 2010, its regulatory authority has been upheld
by California’s judicial branch, clearing the way for the
Council to continue to apply its expertise and exercise its
broad authority in determining how to accomplish the goals and
objectives of the Delta Reform Act. On November 4, the Superior
Court of California ruled in favor of the Council regarding
lawsuits filed by 17 parties challenging two amendments to the
Delta Plan and the Programmatic Environmental Impact Report
(PEIR) prepared pursuant to the California Environmental
Quality Act (CEQA).
With Governor Newsom’s recent pledge to invest $8 billion in
water infrastructure, carbon-friendly concrete is increasingly
in the mix in Department of Water Resources’ (DWR)
infrastructure projects. This includes efforts to modernize
California’s largest water delivery system, the State Water
Project (SWP). … The cement industry produces about 7%
of carbon emissions globally (about double the emissions from
global air travel.) Over half of these emissions are from the
chemical alteration of materials during production. The
remaining emissions are from the burning of fossil fuels to
generate the high temperatures needed to make concrete.
To the Ute Mountain Ute, grappling with its water supply is an
ongoing challenge. Despite having senior water rights dating
back to 1868, when the Kit Carson Treaty created the
reservation, the tribe received none of its rightful water for
decades as non-Native settlers dammed rivers and diverted
flows. And like many tribes across the Southwest, it still
struggles to properly quantify and settle some of the water
claims already validated by a long stream of court decisions.
Even when tribes have been able to secure their water rights,
they have often lacked the expensive infrastructure for getting
it to their reservations, which means their water gets used,
without payment, by non-native groups.
The question addressed in this blog comes from a new PPIC
report that calls for reforms in management of environmental
water stored behind dams in California. The report shows it is
possible to manage water in ways that are compatible with
maintaining a natural ecosystem in streams below and above dams
(Null et al. 2022). An appendix to this report focuses on
fishes (Moyle et al. 2022). It provides information on how dams
and reservoirs affect native fish populations and supports the
need for improved water management to avoid future extinctions.
Lake Mead relies on inflow – mostly, water released from the
upstream Lake Powell. Until recently, Lake Mead typically
would get at least 8.23 million acre-feet of water annually
from Lake Powell – enough to cover the state of Maryland
in more than a foot of water. We began this year expecting
to get a lower 7.48 million acre-feet release from Lake Powell.
But the federal Bureau of Reclamation, for the first
time, trimmed that mid-year to 7 million acre-feet
because of how dangerously close Powell was to something called
“minimum power pool.” -Written by Arizona Republic columnist Joanna
Allhands.
The U.S. Geological Survey announced today it has signed a
cooperative agreement with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research
Institute, or MBARI, to develop portable robotic DNA samplers
capable of independently monitoring for living threats in the
rivers and streams without constant support from
researchers. With new investments from President Biden’s
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the partnership will help
advance detection of invasive species, pathogens and parasites
which cause ecological and economic damage to aquatic systems.
These organisms can wreak havoc on our waterways, threaten
commercial and recreational fishing industries and promote the
spread of zoonotic diseases that can impact humans.
For some in Pixley, the needs for a place to worship and for
reliable water are both affecting everyday life, and they hold
nearly equal value among some. … California is in a
prolonged drought, which only adds to Pixley’s problems.
The community is one of nearly 400 in California whose
water systems rated as “failing”. State emergency grants
and water-focused legislation offer solutions, but communities
face a long road ahead as California enters a fourth year of
drought and running water becomes harder to guarantee in some
places.
Monday morning, the San Luis Obispo County Service Area 23 –
Santa Margarita water system operator discovered a break-in at
the Santa Margarita water storage facility, according to the
San Luis Obispo County Health Department. The storage facility
fence was vandalized and the lock accessing one of the water
storage tanks was cut providing access to the drinking water
supply. Because it is unknown whether perpetrators tampered
with the water, as a precautionary measure, the tank was taken
out of service and is being drained. It held about 100,000
gallons of water at the time of the incident.
Earthquakes are a fact of life in California, and at the B.F.
Sisk Dam and San Luis Reservoir work is underway to ensure the
continued viability and durability of the key resources, even
when Mother Nature decides to shake things up. A major seismic
upgrade, the largest project of that scale that has occurred at
the site since its construction in 1967, received a $100
million investment earlier this year from the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law. It is Reclamation’s largest dam safety
project under the 1978 Safety of Dams Act.
It’s been more than two years since Cambria applied to turn its
emergency water system into a more permanent fixture, but
there’s been little progress since then. According to Cambria
Community Services District (CCSD) board member Harry Farmer,
the permit application was submitted to the county in July
2020. … Cambria’s water issues have been ongoing for
more than a decade, but the problems with the now-proposed
water reclamation facility started in 2014, after the district
declared a water supply emergency. Due to a dire water shortage
situation, SLO County proceeded to grant the CCSD an emergency
permit to build a water supply project, bypassing the typical
requirements needed to obtain an operating permit.
Register to join us Thursday, Dec. 8, for our Winter
Outlook Workshop in Irvine. The past
three-year span, 2019 to 2022, has officially been the driest
ever statewide going back to 1895 when modern records began in
California. With La Niña conditions predicted to persist into
this winter, what can reliably be said about the prospects for
Water Year 2023? Does La Niña really mean anything for
California or is it all washed up as a predictor in this new
reality of climate whiplash, and has any of this affected our
reliance on historical patterns to forecast California’s water
supply? The event is ideal for anyone involved in managing
water resources or simply interested in the
topic … Register here!
The Solano County Board of Supervisors agreed Tuesday to send a
letter to Caltrans supporting the Highway 37 Interim Project
for interim and long-term solutions to congestion and sea rise
issues. One of those solutions, Supervisor Erin Hannigan said,
will eventually be making the highway a toll road, which she
said many of the motorists using Highway 37 have indicated they
support if it means less congestion. “Due to current and
projected traffic congestion and flooding of the (Highway 37)
corridor, the region requires both an interim and long-term
solution to address these pressing concerns, including
balancing a variety of transportation needs with enhancing
recreational opportunities and protecting and enhancing
sensitive marshland habitats,” …
The state awarded $300,000 to the Allensworth Progressive
Association, a local nonprofit, to “implement
neighborhood-level projects that reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, improve public health and the environment and expand
economic opportunity for residents,” according to a press
release from the Governor’s office. The money will be
used, in part, for planning flood control and infrastructure
for wastewater management. … Funding comes from the
state’s Transformative Climate Communities program, which
awarded $96 million to 10 disadvantaged communities throughout
the state last month. The projects aim to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions by 64,000 metric tons, according to the press
release.
The effects of climate change are already “far-reaching and
worsening” throughout all regions in the United States
… The draft of the National Climate Assessment, the
government’s premier contribution to climate knowledge,
provides the most detailed look yet at the consequences of
global warming for the United States… As greenhouse gas
emissions rise and the planet heats up, the authors write, the
United States could face major disruptions to farms and
fisheries that drive up food prices, while millions of
Americans could be displaced by disasters such as severe
wildfires in California, sea-level rise in Florida or frequent
flooding in Texas.
Steve Deverel gazes out over a levee on the San Joaquin River
to a buoy where half a dozen sea lions are barking. It’s a loud
reminder that even here, 50 miles inland, some of California’s
most productive farmland lies perilously close to the Pacific
Ocean. At any moment, a weak spot in the more than 1,000 miles
of earthen levees protecting islands in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta could unleash a salty deluge, threatening
not just crops, but the drinking water for as many as 27
million Californians. Deverel, a Davis-based hydrologist,
refers to this threat as “The Big Gulp,” a breach that would
suck in tens of billions of gallons of river water, drawing
ocean water in its wake.
In October 2021, ecologists shattered the top of a dam on Mill
Creek, near Davenport, California, with a hydraulic hammer.
Within hours, the entire structure was down. For at least 110
years, the long-obsolete dam had kept threatened steelhead from
reaching important spawning habitat just upstream.
…. Then, in September 2022, [Ian] Rowbotham’s team
spotted juvenile steelhead above the former dam site. To their
surprise, they also found 15 juvenile coho salmon downstream.
It was the first time coho, an endangered species, had ever
been recorded in Mill Creek….The experience adds to a growing
body of research documenting the speedy recovery of fish and
other species after dams are removed
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced
more than $609 million in capitalization grants, through State
Revolving Funds (SRFs), to California for water infrastructure
improvements. The grants will supplement the state’s annual
base SRF of $144 million. The capitalization grants mark the
first significant distribution of water infrastructure
investments to California following passage of the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law. The law allocates more than $50 billion
toward water infrastructure.
Both sides of a controversial proposed Central Valley dam
hailed a Nov. 3 court ruling kicking back the project’s
environmental documents as a success. A Stanislaus County
Superior Court Judge ruled there was insufficient information
about a road relocation that is part of the proposed Del Puerto
Canyon Reservoir project, which would sit just above the town
of Patterson in the Diablo Range on the west side of the San
Joaquin Valley. More definitive information on the
proposed realignment of Del Puerto Canyon Road will have to be
provided in the Environmental Impact Report by project
proponents, the Del Puerto Water District and the San Joaquin
River Exchange Contractor Authority.
The Butte County Board of Supervisors will be unveiling,
discussing and likely approving its 2023 Infrastructure Master
Plan as compiled by its Public Works Department at its meeting
Tuesday. Each year the board goes through this process to
determine infrastructure needs. … Presentations will be
provided regarding the California drought as well as an update
on activities by Groundwater Sustainability Agencies.
Over and over again, drought launches California into a
familiar scramble to provide enough water. Cities and towns
call for conservation and brace for shortages. Growers fallow
fields and ranchers sell cows. And thousands of people discover
that they can’t squeeze another drop from their wells. So where
can California get enough water to survive the latest dry
stretch — and the next one, and the next? Can it pump more
water from the salty Pacific Ocean? Treat waste flushed down
toilets and washed down drains? Capture runoff that flows off
streets into storm drains? Tow Antarctic icebergs to Los
Angeles? The Newsom administration unveiled a roadmap
for bolstering the state water supply.
Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and
Science Tanya Trujillo today wrapped a visit to California
where she highlighted historic investments being made through
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to boost water
infrastructure and tackle western drought. On Thursday,
Assistant Secretary Trujillo joined state and local partners to
commemorate the Water Replenishment District (WRD)’s 60 years
of using recycled water for groundwater replenishment and to
celebrate a $15.4 million investment from the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law for WRD’s Groundwater Reliability
Improvement Program to help protect groundwater resources for 4
million people in the region.
A court ruling on the proposed Del Puerto Reservoir is a minor
setback, a leader on the project said. The ruling involved
only the environmental effects of relocating Del Puerto Canyon
Road from the reservoir site, said Anthea Hansen, general
manager of the Del Puerto Water District. The plaintiffs also
had cited concerns about wildlife, recreation and excessive
pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta…. Del Puerto is
partnering on the new reservoir with the four irrigation
districts that make up the San Joaquin River Exchange
Contractors Authority. They farm about 250,000 acres in a
stretch from Crows Landing to Mendota.
San Francisco-based water reuse technology company Epic
Cleantec announced that a luxury residential building in San
Francisco now hosts the city’s first approved and operational
onsite greywater reuse system. The system can recycle up to
7,500 gallons of greywater per day, or 2.5 million gallons per
year. The building, Fifteen Fifty, is owned by Related
California, an affiliate of Related Companies. … The Fifteen
Fifty installation captures, filters, and disinfects the
greywater from showers, laundry, and rainwater. It then
purifies the water and reuses it for toilet flushing. Greywater
reuse can help reuse up to 95 percent of a building’s water
use. For a state like California, grappling with an extended
drought, this conservation can be key.
In 2012, residents of Calipatria’s east side woke up to water
either all the way up to their doorstep or already inside their
homes. A nearby canal had overflowed, sending water toward the
Salton Sea due to what was being call a “100-year storm” that
hit the Imperial Valley at the time…. To help stop the
flooding from happening again, the city of Calipatria received
$3.9 million in state Proposition 68 grand funds for the East
Side Stormwater Drainage Improvement Project.
About three-quarters of $1 million in federal funds is headed
to three North Coast tribes to help build climate resiliency.
On Wednesday, the Department of Interior announced $45 million
in investments to tribal climate resilience projects across the
country, including $4.2 million to support nine tribes in
California. … The $1.2 trillion Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law was signed into law about a year ago and
includes a host of funding to repair the country’s bridges,
roads and railways. The law also included funds for climate
projects, including millions in funds for Klamath River
restoration projects, but nowhere near the amount of funding
that would have been made available had the law’s companion
bill, the Build Back Better Act, been passed.
The City of Paso Robles is proposing to gradually phase in
water rate increases over the next five years to support water
system operating and maintenance expenses, fund the city’s
share of debt service for the Nacimiento Water Project, and
provide funding for capital improvements needed to support safe
and reliable service. All city water customers are receiving
notices in the mail to announce a public hearing that will be
held on the proposed water rate increases on Dec. 20, at 6:30
p.m., at Paso Robles City Hall.
Keyes is getting $20.4 million of the $609 million announced
Wednesday for clean-water projects in California. The money
comes from the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill signed nearly
a year ago by President Joe Biden. It will go to projects that
remove pollutants from water, many of them in largely
low-income places like Keyes. Officials gathered at a plant
that already filters arsenic from wells supplying the 1,500 or
so customers of the Keyes Community Services District. The new
funding includes a $10.4 million grant that pays off a state
loan that had funded the project, completed in 2019.
Former U.S. Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman will take
over as general manager of the Central Arizona Project in the
new year, one that promises to include pivotal interstate
negotiations over conserving the Colorado River water that
supplies the CAP canal. Burman led the Bureau of Reclamation
during the Trump administration, a period in which the agency
managing Colorado River water and dams helped broker a Drought
Contingency Plan. In that plan, Arizona agreed to take
less water from the system to prevent catastrophic losses
later. Continued poor weather and overuse have since set off
new talks about conserving more in an attempt to halt Lake
Mead’s slide toward the point that the river no longer flows
past it.
For years, scientists and State officials have warned of the
need to prepare for a hotter, drier future as a result of
climate change. Earlier this year, Governor Newsom
released his water supply strategy for the State needs to adapt
to a hotter, drier future with climate change, explaining that
“DWR estimates a 10% reduction in water supply by 2040 …
consider[ing] increased temperatures and decreased runoff due
to a thirstier atmosphere, plants, and soil.” Despite
these public statements, the California Department of Water
Resources’ publicly available modeling predicts that by 2040,
climate change will increase runoff and make
California wetter.
Rachel Becker, who covers water resource issues for the
nonprofit news website CalMatters, is the first recipient of
the Water Education Foundation’s Rita Schmidt Sudman Award for
Excellence in Water Journalism honoring outstanding work that
illuminates complicated water issues in California and the
West. Foundation Executive Director Jenn Bowles announced the
award Oct. 27 at the Foundation’s Water Summit in Sacramento.
Joining Bowles for the presentation was her predecessor,
Sudman, a former radio and television reporter who led the
Foundation for nearly 35 years.
Environmental justice projects in neighborhoods next to some of
the city’s heaviest industrial areas have gotten an injection
of financial support. The state has awarded Richmond $35
million to plan and implement nine different community
initiatives that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and
improve public health, specifically in the Iron Triangle, Santa
Fe and Coronado neighborhoods. Richmond Rising … will work
with the city to provide residents more affordable options to
walk, bike and get around town; renewable energy-powered homes;
gray water systems; urban greening and cooling; and enhanced
food security. … “Bosque del Barrio” is a project
… to plant 1,000 trees and install thousands of square feet
of plants that filter stormwater along walkable corridors.
As California enters a possible fourth dry year, the Department
of Water Resources (DWR) has released its biennial report to
help water managers better understand how key factors, like
climate change and regulatory and operational considerations,
affect the operation of the State Water Project (SWP) under
historical and future scenarios. The State Water Project
provides water to 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of
farmland throughout the state. In the State Water Project Final
Delivery Capability Report 2021, there are estimates on the
SWP’s water delivery capability for current and future
conditions based on three major factors: The effects of
population growth on … water supply and demand; State
legislation intended to help maintain a reliable water supply;
Impact of potential climate change-driven shifts in hydrologic
conditions.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced
funding to the State of California for water infrastructure
improvements under the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). California has been
awarded more than $609 million in capitalization grants through
the State Revolving Funds (SRFs) to supplement the state’s
annual base SRF funding of $144 million. The announcement was
made at the Keyes Community Services District (Keyes CSD), a
community water system that was recently awarded $10.4 million
in SRF loan forgiveness funding, to improve drinking water
quality and compliance at four groundwater wells serving
several small, disadvantaged communities in the area.
Today’s Why Guy question comes from Tricia Towne: “Why hasn’t a
dam been built in over 50 years?” This is a popular question to
the Why Guy. The short answer is all the best sites to build
dams already have dams on them. Most were built in the 40s, 50s
and 60s to prevent catastrophic local flooding. The last
regional dam built, the New Melones Reservoir north of Sonora
was completed in 1980, about 42 years ago. Now, with
extreme drought, we need dams to store water. Well, guess
what? Looks like we’re getting a new dam at the Sites
Reservoir just west of Maxwell in Colusa
County. President Joe Biden just dedicated $30 million to
the project, which is targeted for a 2024 groundbreaking.
Sausalito is seeking a grant to install refillable water
stations and recycling containers in the city. The City Council
unanimously adopted a resolution on the consent calendar Oct.
25 to pursue the $102,000 grant from CalRecycle for the
installation of seven refillable water stations throughout the
city, community education and the installation of recycling
containers. … The city anticipates that the grant will
fund seven drinking fountains with water filling stations,
educational outreach and beverage recycling bins. The drinking
fountains will be installed in city parks in coordination with
the Parks and Recreation Commission.
Wildfires, drought, extreme heat and other effects of climate
change are rapidly accelerating and compounding in California,
according to a report from state scientists. The fourth edition
of “Indicators of Climate Change in California,” released
Tuesday, paints a stark picture of the escalating climate
crisis and documents how global reliance on fossil fuels has
had wide-ranging effects on the state’s weather, water and
residents. Since the last update in 2018, weather extremes have
intensified and become more erratic, officials
said…. The warmer conditions have affected water
availability in the state by causing more precipitation to
fall as rain instead of snow, the report says.
Flooding from a storm event so severe that it occurs only once
every 100 years would cause far greater damage to life and
property in the Los Angeles Basin than federal emergency
officials have forecast, according to UC Irvine researchers who
warn also that Black and low-income communities would be
hardest hit by the disaster. … [T]he paper is among the first
to examine how whiplashing weather extremes due to climate
change may impact the Los Angeles Basin — a region whose
development was guided by deep social and racial divisions that
favored white residents. In the Los Angeles Basin, researchers
found that Black, Latino, and Asian residents were —
respectively— 79%, 17%, and 11% more likely than white
residents to be exposed to waist-high flooding.
After about a decade of grinding its way through the federal
permitting process, Ormat, a geothermal company, was building a
new power plant in Dixie Valley to produce renewable energy.
… But soon came another legal snag. The company
halted construction in August while federal agencies meet to
discuss whether the project should move forward. The
rugged, remote corner of Nevada’s Great Basin region found
itself at the epicenter of a confrontation between some of
President Biden’s, and the nation’s, most pressing priorities:
renewable energy, wildlife conservation and Indigenous
rights…. environmentalists and tribes are pressing the
Biden administration to begin land and water protections at
Dixie Valley and elsewhere. The administration’s decision could
affect not just Ormat’s plans and this patch of Nevada but also
projects and landscapes across the country.
A San Diego committee has approved a series of agreements
between the city and a planned water recycling project in East
County, potentially heading off a court fight over a plant that
could help hundreds of thousands of people. The documents pave
the way for San Diego to hand over a pump station to the
Advanced Water Purification Project, and for the construction
of a pipeline so waste generated by East County can be diverted
from the city. The agreements were accepted Thursday in a 4-0
vote by the San Diego City Council’s environment
committee.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
When you oversee the largest
supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think
big.
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has
focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building
security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s
borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of
California’s population.
As California slowly emerges from
the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, one remnant left behind by
the statewide lockdown offers a sobering reminder of the economic
challenges still ahead for millions of the state’s residents and
the water agencies that serve them – a mountain of water debt.
Water affordability concerns, long an issue in a state where
millions of people struggle to make ends meet, jumped into
overdrive last year as the pandemic wrenched the economy. Jobs
were lost and household finances were upended. Even with federal
stimulus aid and unemployment checks, bills fell by the wayside.
A government agency that controls much of California’s water
supply released its initial allocation for 2021, and the
numbers reinforced fears that the state is falling into another
drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that most
of the water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project
will get just 5% of their contract supply, a dismally low
number. Although the figure could grow if California gets more
rain and snow, the allocation comes amid fresh weather
forecasts suggesting the dry winter is continuing. The National
Weather Service says the Sacramento Valley will be warm and
windy the next few days, with no rain in the forecast.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
The San Joaquin Valley, known as the
nation’s breadbasket, grows a cornucopia of fruits, nuts and
other agricultural products.
During our three-day Central Valley Tour April
3-5, you will meet farmers who will explain how they prepare
the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce that
helps feed the nation and beyond. We also will drive through
hundreds of miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams,
reservoirs and groundwater wells that provide the water.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
New water storage is the holy grail
primarily for agricultural interests in California, and in 2014
the door to achieving long-held ambitions opened with the passage
of Proposition
1, which included $2.7 billion for the public benefits
portion of new reservoirs and groundwater storage projects. The
statute stipulated that the money is specifically for the
benefits that a new storage project would offer to the ecosystem,
water quality, flood control, emergency response and recreation.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
Get a unique view of the San Joaquin Valley’s key dams and
reservoirs that store and transport water on our March Central
Valley Tour.
Our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, offers a broad view of water issues
in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the farms, orchards,
critical habitat for threatened bird populations, flood bypasses
and a national wildlife refuge, we visit some of California’s
major water infrastructure projects.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
Contrary to popular belief, “100-Year Flood” does not refer to a
flood that happens every century. Rather, the term describes the
statistical chance of a flood of a certain magnitude (or greater)
taking place once in 100 years. It is also accurate to say a
so-called “100-Year Flood” has a 1 percent chance of occurring in
a given year, and those living in a 100-year floodplain have,
each year, a 1 percent chance of being flooded.
Mired in drought, expectations are high that new storage funded
by Prop. 1 will be constructed to help California weather the
adverse conditions and keep water flowing to homes and farms.
At the same time, there are some dams in the state eyed for
removal because they are obsolete – choked by accumulated
sediment, seismically vulnerable and out of compliance with
federal regulations that require environmental balance.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and the country of Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch
map, which is suitable for framing, explains the river’s
apportionment, history and the need to adapt its management for
urban growth and expected climate change impacts.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
Dams have allowed Californians and others across the West to
harness and control water dating back to pre-European settlement
days when Native Americans had erected simple dams for catching
salmon.
This printed issue of Western Water examines water
infrastructure – its costs and the quest to augment traditional
brick-and-mortar facilities with sleeker, “green” features.
Everywhere you look water infrastructure is working hard to keep
cities, farms and industry in the state running. From the massive
storage structures that dot the West to the aqueducts that convey
water hundreds of miles to large urban areas and the untold miles
of water mains and sewage lines under every city and town, the
semiarid West would not exist as it does without the hardware
that meets its water needs.
This printed issue of Western Water discusses low
impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging
interest that are viewed as important components of California’s
future water supply and management scenario.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
changed nature of the California Water Plan, some aspects of the
2009 update (including the recommendation for a water finance
plan) and the reaction by certain stakeholders.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
It’s no secret that providing water in a state with the size and
climate of California costs money. The gamut of water-related
infrastructure – from reservoirs like Lake Oroville to the pumps
and pipes that deliver water to homes, businesses and farms –
incurs initial and ongoing expenses. Throw in a new spate of
possible mega-projects, such as those designed to rescue the
ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the dollar amount grows
exponentially to billion-dollar amounts that rival the entire
gross national product of a small country.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
financing of water infrastructure, both at the local level and
from the statewide perspective, and some of the factors that
influence how people receive their water, the price they pay for
it and how much they might have to pay in the future.
They are located in urban areas and in some of the most rural
parts of the state, but they have at least one thing in common:
they provide water service to a very small group of people. In a
state where water is managed and delivered by an organization as
large as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
most small water systems exist in obscurity – financed by
shoestring budgets and operated by personnel who wear many hats.
This issue of Western Water looks at water
infrastructure – from the large conveyance systems to the small
neighborhood providers – and the many challenges faced by water
agencies in their continuing mission of assuring a steady and
reliable supply for their customers.
Chances are that deep within the ground beneath you as you read
this is a vast network of infrastructure that is busy providing
the necessary services that enable life to proceed at the pace it
does in the 21st century. Electricity zips through cables to
power lights and computers while other conduits move infinite
amounts of information that light up computer screens and phone
lines.
This issue of Western Water explores the question of whether the
state needs more surface storage, with a particular focus on the
five proposed projects identified in the CALFED 2000 ROD and the
politics and funding issues of these projects.
