A group of senators has introduced the Support to Rehydrate the
Environment, Agriculture and Municipalities, or STREAM, Act.
The bill would increase water supply and modernize water
infrastructure throughout the West. The three senators, all
from states affected by the current drought, include Sens.
Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) and Kyrsten
Sinema (D-Ariz.). … Infrastructure improvements and
additions work toward a long-term solution. And it’s important
to think urgently, said the release.
UN and partner water experts say it is time to increase the
tapping of Earth’s diverse and abundant unconventional water
sources – the millions of cubic kilometres of water in deep
land-based and seabed aquifers, in fog and icebergs, in the
ballast holds of thousands of ships, and elsewhere. A
new book, Unconventional Water Resources … says
these potential supplies can help many of the 1 in 4 people on
Earth who face shortages of water for drinking, sanitation,
agriculture and economic development.
The problem with empty threats is, after a while, people just
stop listening. When it comes to water usage, Gov. Gavin Newsom
is learning that lesson the hard way. Newsom on Monday urged
Californians to cut water consumption or face mandatory water
restrictions as the state heads into its third summer of severe
drought. … How have Californians responded? The state
just experienced the driest January, February and March in its
recorded history. Yet, in March, the most recent month for
which data is available, residents, rather than conserve,
instead increased urban water use a staggering 18.9% statewide
compared to March 2020.
Old environmental arguments over the consequences of nuclear
power had seemed almost resolved in California. Antinuclear
sentiment was intensified by the 33-year succession of
accidents, from Three Mile Island in 1978 to Chernobyl in 1986
to Fukushima in 2011, severely diminished their appeal.
California was getting ready to wave goodbye to its last
nuclear plant. Up Close We explore the issues, personalities,
and trends that people are talking about around the West. The
political realities of 2022 and the need to reduce carbon
emissions might change things.
Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, is maneuvering against a bill
that seeks higher flows on local rivers. Assembly Bill 2639
would set a Dec. 31, 2023, deadline for the State Water
Resources Control Board to complete its plan for tributaries to
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. They include the Stanislaus,
Tuolumne and Merced rivers. The decision would follow decades
of wrangling over whether fish should get more water on the
lower rivers at the expense of farms and cities.
California’s vast network of surface water reservoirs is
designed to hold carryover storage from year to year to ensure
water is available for urban, agricultural and environmental
purposes during dry months and years. But climate change has
begun to affect our reliance on historical weather patterns to
predict California’s water supply, making it even more
difficult for water managers to manage drought conditions and
placing a greater emphasis on better precipitation forecasting
at longer lead times. Learn about efforts being made to
‘get ahead of the storms’ through new science, models and
technology at our special one-day workshop June 9 in
Irvine, Making
Progress on Drought Management: Improvements in Seasonal
Precipitation Forecasting.
Etched in dirt, a narrow furrow is the only clue that the
grasslands of Lime Ridge Open Space will soon be restored to
their original splendor, cleared of dangerous power lines that
could ignite nearby subdivisions. The undergrounding project,
costing $3.75 million a mile, represents the beginning of a
10,000-mile-long effort by Pacific Gas and Electric to bury the
state’s distribution lines to cope with the growing risk of
winds and wildfires linked to global warming. The utility
long resisted calls to bury its power lines as being too
costly.
The California Senate has proposed a $2 billion reconciliation
framework to rebalance water supply and water rights, as part
of proposed investments of $7.5 billion in state and federal
funds spread over three years for climate resiliency. It is the
most sweeping land retirement proposal since the landmark 1992
Central Valley Project Improvement Act.
Today, Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA), who represents Solano
Country and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in the 3rd
Congressional District, released the following statement on the
passage of the “Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) of 2022”
(H.R.7776) in the House Committee on Transportation and
Infrastructure: “The biennial Water Resources Development Act
strengthens flood protection, water resources, precious
ecosystems, and more in communities across California and the
nation”…
As drought and climate change tighten their grip on the
American West, the sight of fountains, swimming pools, gardens
and golf courses in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los
Angeles, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Albuquerque can be jarring
at first glance. Western water experts, however, say they
aren’t necessarily cause for concern. Over the past three
decades, major Western cities — particularly in California and
Nevada — have diversified their water sources, boosted local
supplies through infrastructure investments and conservation,
and use water more efficiently.
Californians responded to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s request for
voluntary water conservation earlier this year by using more,
not less. … Already, residents face sharp new outdoor water
restrictions June 1, and serious doubts over whether those
limits will be enough to cope with a historic water shortage.
It’s a good time to imagine the ideal California of the future,
in which information technology and rational pricing make water
conservation simple, understandable and a common way of life.
Here’s how it should work, as a resident pulls out his or her
phone and at the touch of a button checks the household’s water
use for that day in real time:
Residents in Santa Clara County could face fines of up to $500
— and in extreme cases, $10,000 — for wasting water, under new
drought rules approved Tuesday afternoon that are among the
toughest of any urban area in California. … The new
rules take effect June 1, but depend largely on citizen
complaints and very few “water cops” to investigate
them. Under the rules, residents who see water being
wasted can notify the district of the address and date of
incident by calling 408-630-2000, or emailing
WaterWise@valleywater.org, or reporting online….
Californians can expect to see more yellow grass around
hospitals, hotels, office parks and industrial centers after
water regulators voted Tuesday to ban watering of
“nonfunctional” turf in commercial areas. The State Water
Resources Control Board also moved to order all the state’s
major urban water providers to step up their conservation
efforts. The moves are the strongest regulatory actions state
officials have taken in the third year of the latest drought.
For the fourth time in 10 years, farmers I know in California
are facing a harsh reality — they won’t see a drop of water
from federal government reserves to supplement the little bit
they’ll get from Mother Nature. … Precision
agriculture — the use of technology like networked sensors and
artificial intelligence — is helping farmers get by without the
water they once had. The efficiencies are real, and the impact
is tangible. I’ve seen up close how precision agriculture is
making a difference for farms facing extreme drought. -Written by Michael Gilbert, CEO of Semios,
helping farmers use data to optimize every acre.
The California Water Commission approved a white paper that
contains its findings and the potential next steps for State
engagement in shaping well-managed groundwater trading programs
with appropriate safeguards for vulnerable water users: natural
resources, small- and medium-size farms, and water supply and
quality for disadvantaged communities. The white paper will be
shared with the Secretaries for Natural Resources,
Environmental Protection, and Food and Agriculture, who
requested the Commission’s engagement on this topic.
Annette Morales Roe learned how to waterski off the north shore
of the Salton Sea in the 1960s. … Her family stopped visiting
in the early 1970s, around the same time scientists began
warning that the Salton Sea would shrink and become
inhospitable to wildlife without a sustainable water source.
… Now, Roe is certain that she knows how to fix the
problem — and has the team to do it. As managing partner
and chief strategy officer of Online Land Planning LLC,
she is advocating for a plan that would reroute recycled water
that’s currently flowing into the Pacific Ocean to the Salton
Sea …
Bits of your pants, shirts, socks and fleece jackets are
polluting local waters. Cal Lutheran biology students have
discovered this disturbing fashion dilemma as part of a
scientific research project. For the past four years, CLU
biology professor Andrea Huvard, PhD, has guided dozens of
students in a long-term research project: They are studying the
presence of microfibers in the ocean, sediments and marine
animals around Southern California.
Engineers at UC Riverside are the first to report selective
breakdown of a particularly stubborn class of PFAS called
fluorinated carboxylic acids (FCAs) by common
microorganisms. Under anaerobic conditions, a
carbon-carbon double bond is crucial for the shattering the
ultra-strong carbon-fluorine bond by microbial communities.
While breaking the carbon-carbon bond does not completely
degrade the molecule, the resulting products could be relayed
to other microorganisms for defluorination under in aerobic
conditions.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday warned major water agencies to show
better conservation results or face mandatory statewide water
restrictions as California heads into its third summer of
severe drought. The threat is a sign of Newsom’s growing
impatience with the state’s failure to reduce urban water use,
as he has requested since last year. In fact, people have been
using more. … Newsom also said the state will closely monitor
the situation over the next 60 days, and he told the agencies
to submit water use data more frequently to the state and to
step up outreach and education efforts to communicate the
urgency of the crisis to the public.
This blog is a short introduction to a lesser known federal
bill that is one of the most significant pieces of fish and
wildlife legislation in decades. In Spring of 2021, Rep. Debbie
Dingell (D-Mich.) and Rep. Jeff Fortenberry (R-Neb.) introduced
the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act. During July 2021, a
separate adaptation of the act was also introduced in the
Senate (S.2372) by Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Sen. Roy
Blunt (R-MO). At its core, the bipartisan bill seeks to provide
$1.39B in annual funding for state and tribal fish and wildlife
agencies to protect and conserve declining species.
