New officers for the San Diego County Water Authority’s
Board of Directors were elected today, with Mel Katz starting
his two-year term as Board chair on Oct. 1. Katz, vice chair of
the Board for the past six months as a representative for the
City of Del Mar, will serve with incoming Vice Chair Nick
Serrano, a Board representative from the City of San Diego, and
incoming Secretary Frank Hilliker. Katz will serve as the 27th
board chair since the Water Authority’s founding in 1944.
Just as California is preparing its electrical grid to provide
90% clean energy by 2035, our state leaders must also look to
future investments in water infrastructure. The need for a safe
and reliable source of water will continue well into the
future, underscoring the need for investing in a modern
infrastructure system today. Much of California’s water
infrastructure system was constructed decades ago, and while
reliable, it is not infallible. On Sept. 6, the Metropolitan
Water District (MWD) of Southern California began emergency
repairs on its Upper Feeder pipeline, requiring millions of
Southern Californians to suspend outdoor watering for up to 15
days. -Written by Jennifer Capitolo, executive director
of the California Water Association, a leading trade
association that represents more than 90 regulated water
utilities across California serving more than 7 million
customers.
At its June 23, 2022 meeting, the Delta Stewardship Council
adopted an amendment to Delta Plan Chapter Four (Protect,
Restore, and Enhance the Delta Ecosystem), referred to as the
Ecosystem Amendment. The Ecosystem Amendment is the result of a
multi-year, iterative effort of public and agency outreach and
coordination, and it leverages decades of research and planning
to identify a path forward, increase coordination, and work
toward a common vision for a restored Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta ecosystem.
Thanks to a law in California signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this
past June, there could be much less plastic waste in
California within a decade, serving as a potential pilot for
this legislation being enacted elsewhere. The landmark
legislation requires that all packaging in the state
be compostable or recyclable by 2032, and sets guidelines for
increasing the levels of recycling of plastic packaging in the
state by the same year. By signing SB 54 into law, Newsom seeks
to hold polluters responsible, shifting the burden of
responsibility for plastic pollution from consumers to the
plastics industry.
On Tuesday evening, California Governor Gavin Newsom appointed
Yurok Tribe’s Forestry Department Director Dawn Blake to the
State Board of Forestry and Fire Protection. … Dawn is
an enrolled Hoopa Tribal member and Yurok descendant with a
Master of Science degree in natural resources. … Ranging from
wildlife research to prescribed burning, Dawn is well-versed in
all aspects of modern forest management. As the Yurok Forestry
Director, she manages more than 70,000 acres of Yurok-owned
forest for the benefit of current and future generations of
Yurok people. She oversees the Tribe’s 15,000-acre Old-Growth
Forest and Salmon Sanctuary on Blue Creek, a critically
important tributary of the Klamath River.
Fear and confusion over a new groundwater monitoring technology
pushed back the “penalty phase” of Madera County’s attempt to
get a handle on its pumping problem. The Madera County Board of
Supervisors was supposed to have voted on penalties for growers
who pump more than they’re allowed at its Sept. 13 meeting. But
after three hours of debate and hearing from more than 15
members of the ag community about whether the county’s new
water monitoring system – Irriwatch – is working properly,
supervisors pushed the decision off to Sept. 27.
Over the past two years, Silicon Valley’s largest water
provider, the Santa Clara Valley Water District, has had a long
list of challenges and setbacks. In 2020, the federal
government ordered its largest dam, Anderson, near Morgan Hill,
drained for earthquake repairs. The price tag has since doubled
to $1.2 billion. The district’s plan to build another big dam
near Pacheco Pass also doubled in cost, and that $2.5 billion
project has been hit with a lawsuit and funding shortfalls. As
the drought worsened, the district has pushed for conservation
and spent tens of millions of dollars to buy water from
Sacramento Valley farmers at high prices.
State Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, on Wednesday declared the last
week of September as Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Week in
recognition of the rivers playing a critical role in the
state’s economy and environment. The proclaimed week will kick
off Sunday and was established from Senate Concurrent
Resolution 119. Dodd said the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Conservancy and Delta Protection Commission have both been
vital in protecting the expanse formed by the Sacramento and
San Joaquin rivers.
On Friday, October 7th, the California Environmental Law &
Policy Center at U.C. Davis School of Law will convene a major,
day-long conference to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the
federal Clean Water Act. The event will assess the
progress the U.S. has made over the past half-century in
abating water pollution; focus on some of the law’s most
contentious, current features; and predict how the Act will
likely–and should–evolve in the decades to come.
A developer’s proposal to build a surfing lagoon in the
Coachella Valley desert has been rejected by the city of La
Quinta after residents raised concerns about noise, lighting
and the resort’s substantial water footprint in a time of
severe drought. The City Council’s five members voted
unanimously Wednesday night against a zoning change that would
have allowed the developer to build the resort and surf
park. … The wave basin would have stretched across
12 acres and required 18 million gallons to fill. … The
uproar parallels a larger debate over how the Coachella Valley
— with its 120 golf courses, artificial lakes and developments
filled with thirsty grass — should adapt to worsening water
scarcity.
Yes, Northern California received some rain this week, dousing
much of the Mosquito Fire and bringing a light coating of snow
to the Sierra Nevada. But one of the worst droughts in recorded
history remains an everyday reality, and the outlook for winter
is for more of the same, a top official with the state
Department of Water Resources said this week. … On
the other hand, [John Yarbrough, the agency’s assistant deputy
director] said the state will enter the upcoming winter in
better shape than it did a year ago. The flurry of storms last
October and December means California’s major reservoirs are
holding more water than at the same time in 2021.
To combat an increasingly hotter and drier atmosphere, state
officials are looking to fund new water projects that could
kickstart a recycled water system on the coast. With a
dwindling snowpack and fewer available resources, researchers
from the Department of Water Resources project that climate
change impact could reduce the state’s water supply by up to 10
percent by 2040. That’s about 6 million to 9 million acre-feet
of water supply. For comparison, the Shasta Reservoir holds 4.5
million acre-feet. To make up for losses, the state is
looking at financing major water projects. Last month Gov.
Gavin Newsom announced a slew of moves to increase water supply
and adapt to more extreme weather patterns caused by climate
change through 2040. One of the biggest ways it could do that
is through recycled water.
Arizona farmers this year benefitted from mitigation water that
otherwise would have cut their Central Arizona Project
irrigation deliveries to zero. They won’t be so fortunate next
year. When the Bureau of Reclamation issued its first-ever
Tier 1 restriction of Colorado River water from Lake Mead,
Arizona’s farmers faced the elimination of their surface water
supplies from the Central Arizona Project (CAP) for 2022. That
portion of CAP surface water, known as the “ag pool,” is part
of a 512,000-acre-foot cut Arizona faced under the restrictions
as part of the Drought Contingency Plan, an agreement designed
to preserve water in the Colorado River system.
As most reading this know, we have lost 90% of the wild fish
that used to navigate our rivers and streams in California.
Here on the South Coast, steelhead populations have dwindled
into the single digits and extinction is a very real
threat. CalTrout has been studying the causes and remedies
for the shocking decline in wild fish for over 50 years and
updating our Save our Salmonids (SOS) report as a roadmap back
to wild abundance. Five initiatives came out of that report,
one of them – Reconnect Habitat – calls for us to
remove barriers to fish migration to and from the ocean and
their spawning habitat. In this case, the barrier is the
100-foot Rindge Dam.
Like many other researchers, environmental engineering
professors Erin Hestir and Joshua Viers are trying to quantify
water use in California’s Central Valley. The difference is,
they are doing it from the sky. Through NASA’s applied sciences
program, their team will leverage the power of Earth-orbiting
satellites and drones to gather data with high spatial and
temporal resolution and then analyze it to help resource
managers make better-informed decisions, particularly around
water use in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
As the state’s water worries continue, more Californians are
getting serious about saving water. In Sacramento, the city
said more people are turning off the tap and keeping an eye on
their neighbors. … New numbers reveal that when it comes
to water misuse, complaints from the public have more than
doubled. From July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022, the city received
3,051 complaints about water misuse. The year before that,
1,170 complaints were received. Through a public records
request, KCRA 3 Investigates found countless complaints of
water-wasting; with people calling, emailing and sending photos
and videos to report water gushing down the drain.
California’s reservoirs will enter fall in a slightly better
position than last year, but the Golden State should prepare
for more dryness, extreme weather events and water quality
hazards in 2023, officials say. … [S]ome of the state’s
biggest reservoirs, including Lake Oroville and Lake Shasta,
are slightly more full than they were at the same time last
year, but still remain well below average. Water managers are
now preparing for a “fourth dry year,” as well as more
unpredictable weather and wildfires associated with climate
change, DWR Assistant Deputy Director John Yarbrough said
during a meeting of the California Water Commission.
Most parents take extra precautions to protect their children
from toxic chemicals — from locking cabinets of cleaning
supplies to scrutinizing ingredient labels. But some toxic
chemicals are near impossible to limit their exposure to.
California can change that. Perfluoroalkyl and
polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, are a class of
over 9,000 industrial compounds that are added to
everyday products to repel stains, water or oil. … Commonly
referred to as “forever chemicals,” they do not break down in
the environment — ever. … According to the nonprofit
Environmental Working Group, these chemicals may be
contaminating the drinking water of up to 200 million
Americans.
-Written by Rebecca Fuoco, science communications
officer at the Green Science Policy Institute; and Arlene
Blum, founder and executive director of the Green Science
Policy Institute and a research associate in the Cell and
Molecular Biology Department at UC Berkeley.
A court ruling last week over senior water rights came as
welcome news to agricultural interests that have long battled
the State Water Resources Control Board over drought
curtailments. Yet while the decision sets a limit on the
board’s authority, the agency retains several regulatory tools
for curtailing the diversions, and lawmakers could add more.
California’s Sixth Appellate District Court of Appeal ruled the
board lacks jurisdiction under the state water code “to curtail
an entire class of pre-1914 appropriative water rights.”
Farmers obtained them before California began regulating water
rights in 1913 and have fought hard to preserve them ever
since.
Incarcerated Californians — and those who live in neighboring
rural communities — may be exposed to dangerous levels of
arsenic in their drinking water, a new study has found. Arsenic
concentrations in the water supply of the Kern Valley State
Prison and three nearby Central Valley communities exceeded
regulatory limits for months or even years at a time, according
to the study, published on Wednesday in Environmental
Health Perspectives. To draw their conclusions, the
authors combed through 20 years of water quality data from the
prison and the adjacent communities of Allensworth, McFarland
and Delano, where groundwater aquifers contain unhealthy levels
of naturally occurring arsenic.
