Cassie Cerise lives on her family’s ranch on Missouri Heights,
a mesa above Carbondale named for the home state of some of the
area’s earliest settlers. Like her parents and grandparents,
she runs cattle and irrigates hay and alfalfa fields — some by
sprinklers, others by flood — with water from Cattle Creek. But
this season, Cerise and her husband, Tim Fenton, decided to let
about 73 acres go dry and get paid for the water they aren’t
using as part of the federally funded System Conservation
Program, which is aimed at addressing the crisis on the
Colorado River. According to Cerise’s contract with the Upper
Colorado River Commission, which oversees the program, not
watering her fields this season will save about 83 acre-feet of
water.
San Diego County supervisors have formally weighed in on a
contentious — and increasingly costly — plan by two rural water
districts to break away from a regional authority they say is
too expensive. The county board voted 3-1 this week in favor of
a recommendation from Supervisor Joel Anderson to support state
legislation that would require approval by a majority of all
voters within the regional water authority — rather than only
those residents of a breakaway district. “This process would
allow water customers of all (San Diego County Water Authority)
member agencies to decide what is best for our region’s water
future and the potential implications of their own water
bills,” the former state senator told his board colleagues.
… After facing a La Niña winter for three years straight and
getting doused with a wet and snowy winter last year, El Niño
is expected to take California on a different winter ride. …
The winter season, which officially begins Dec. 21, in Northern
California is forecast to have an equal chance of being below
or above normal precipitation, according to the
December-January-February [NOAA] outlook. It was published Aug.
17. “It’s a little uncertain,” [Tom Krabacher, professor of
geography at Sacramento State] said about El Niño’s effect on
rain in Northern California. “It can bring more rain or can
have a relatively normal rain.” He said this is because the
weather event shifts the storm tracks, pushing the rain farther
south.
As implementation of the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA) proceeds, it’s no secret that the San
Joaquin Valley will have to adapt to a future with less water
for irrigation. Our research shows that overall irrigation
supplies may decline by as much as 20% by 2040. Land uses will
have to change, and some have raised concerns that SGMA’s
implementation could put smaller farms at a disadvantage, given
their more limited resources and capacity. To gain insight on
these issues, we conducted a detailed geographical analysis of
cropping patterns and water conditions by farm size on the San
Joaquin Valley floor, using county real estate records on
ownership of agricultural parcels (individual properties of
varying sizes) to identify farms.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and four of his
colleagues submitted an amicus letter late Monday
night, citing shortfalls in the company 3M’s
multi-billion-dollar proposed settlement with contaminated
water utilities. The attorneys general said that while they are
in favor of moving forward with the settlement, 3M should pay
more than the $10 billion to $12 billion the firm has offered —
in order to fund the massive remediation efforts public
utilities will have to undertake to eliminate “forever
chemicals” from their supplies. … Joining Bonta in
submitting amicus letter were the attorneys general of Arizona,
the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 3M
in a statement said it was pleased with the agreement.
On February 27, 2023, in a much anticipated decision,
California’s Second District Court of Appeal overruled the
trial court by determining that the State Water Resources
Control Board (“State Water Board”) did not violate its duty to
prevent waste and unreasonable use of water when it declined to
investigate wastewater discharges from four Los Angeles area
Publicly Owned Treatment Works (“POTWs”). The Court found that
the State Water Board’s duty under state law to prevent waste
and unreasonable use of water is “highly discretionary” and
does not require an investigation or assessment of every
allegation of unreasonable use. The Appeals Court updated its
decision on June 2, 2023. (Los Angeles Waterkeeper v. State
Water Resources Control Board, 92 Cal.App.5th 230 (2d Dist.
2023).)
A difference of $38 million dollars in taxes to those in the
Indian Wells Valley hung in the balance as the Indian Wells
Valley Groundwater Authority discussed funding options for the
imported water pipeline project at the IWVGA’s board meeting on
Aug. 23. The mood of the room reflected the gravity of the
decision. Conversation slowed, political rivalries cooled, and
board members asked the same clarifying questions from subject
matter experts for a third or fourth time. Ultimately, too many
questions remained on such an important decision, and so the
IWVGA board tabled it until their next meeting on Sept. 13. No
further delays will be possible; the IWVGA will need to make a
decision at their September meeting.
A joint team of researchers have demonstrated successful
atmospheric water harvesting using ambient sunlight in the
Death Valley desert, according to a press release from the
Pohang University of Science & Technology (POSTECH). The
study, published in the journal Nature Water, was led by
Woochul Song from the Division of Environmental Science &
Engineering POSTECH and Omar M. Yaghi, Professor of Chemistry
at the University of California, Berkeley. Harvesting
atmospheric water presents challenges, particularly in regions
with humidity less than 70%, as it necessitates a substantial
amount of energy to condense the vapor, rendering it an
ineffective solution.
In a city infamous for business-squelching bureaucracy, no
agency is more maligned than the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power. Developers who want to build housing, shopping
centers or other commercial projects face steep costs and long
delays in getting permits and connections to the city’s
electric power system. The DWP’s convoluted process can add so
much time, money and uncertainty to a project that some
businesses decide to build elsewhere, costing the city
much-needed investment, particularly in housing. This month the
DWP adopted the second of two policies aimed at making the
utility more business friendly by cutting power infrastructure
costs for individual housing and commercial projects. It’s a
good start, but there’s a lot more work to do.
The San Diego County Water Authority Board of Directors August
24 voted unanimously to appoint Dan Denham as general manager.
The appointment follows the June retirement of former General
Manager Sandra L. Kerl. Denham has served in several leadership
capacities with the Water Authority for the past 17 years,
including his most recent post as deputy general manager. In
that role, he oversaw the MWD and Colorado River programs,
along with the Engineering, Water Resources, and Operations &
Maintenance departments. Denham also continues to oversee the
implementation of long-term agricultural-to-urban conserved
water transfers that are among the largest in the United
States. As a commissioner on the Quantification Settlement
Agreement Joint Powers Authority, he leads the Water
Authority’s fulfillment of environmental mitigation obligations
and legislative advocacy efforts at the Salton Sea.
The state has assigned an engineering company to take control
of, and improve, the water system in the small Tulare County
town of Teviston. Teviston, a rural community of about 460
people, has been hard hit by water problems for years. The town
well broke down in the drought of 2021, leaving families
without water and many without any way to cool themselves in
soaring summer temperatures. Its water is also contaminated by
1,2,3, TCP, a dangerous carcinogen. The state Water
Resources Control Board gained the authority to appoint
administrators to water systems in 2018. Appointed
administrators take over struggling systems that can’t deal
with issues ranging from water quality to technical and
managerial challenges.
The Modesto City Council voted Tuesday evening to boost water
rates nearly 25% by 2027. The average residential bill will go
from $67.13 a month now to $83.66 in 2027, a staff report said.
Actual charges are much higher in the dry months and lower in
other times. Under state law, the proposal would have died if a
majority of the 75,584 customers filed protests. Only 144 did.
Climate scientists are bracing for potentially lengthy El Niño
and La Niña events, according to a new study revealing how the
underlying mechanism for climate variability is responding to
increased greenhouse gas emissions in unpredicted ways and
inducing El Niño-like conditions after volcanic eruptions. The
research published in Nature Wednesday details recently
discovered trends of the “Pacific Walker Circulation,” (PWC) an
atmospheric phenomenon relating to east-west circulation along
the equatorial Pacific. The pattern plays an atmospheric role
in the El Niño–Southern Oscillation, the dominant mode of
global interannual climate variability that comprises two
phases: El Niño and La Niña.
Strolling on the Lake of the Sky Trail, U.S. Forest Service
officer Daniel Cressy marveled at the wildlife that first
attracted him to Lake Tahoe. A bald eagle nestled into the top
of a Jeffrey Pine looking out over the shimmering blue of North
America’s largest alpine lake, and rising in the distance was
Mount Tallac, a 9,739-foot peak that he’s skied many times.
Then, along the path, Cressy spotted a tree with “J&B”
carved into its trunk. … That small stain of
civilization epitomized the growing tension between the
millions of tourists who provide economic sustenance to the
High Sierra paradise and the effort to preserve the natural
splendor that draws them, a clash that came into sharp focus
this week with a weeklong visit from world’s most powerful
tourist, President Joe Biden.
Some places in the U.S. are already struggling
with groundwater depletion, such as
California, Arizona, Nebraska and other parts of the
central Plains. … [Jonathan Winter, an associate professor of
geography at Dartmouth College and an author on a new
study on future U.S. irrigation costs and benefits] used a
computer model to look at how heat and drought might affect
crop production by the middle and end of this century, given
multiple scenarios for the emissions of warming greenhouse
gases. In places like California and Texas where “everyone is
dropping their straw into the glass” of groundwater, as Winter
put it, current levels of irrigation won’t be viable in the
long term because there isn’t enough water. But use of
irrigation may grow where groundwater supply isn’t presently an
issue.
Earlier this summer, state water officials introduced draft
regulations that, if passed, would allow purified wastewater to
be directly introduced to drinking supplies. Currently,
purified wastewater has to be introduced to environmental
buffers like groundwater aquifers before being added to
drinking supplies, but the new regulations would allow treated
water to bypass this step after undergoing additional
purification processes.
The Butte County Board of Supervisors will be returning to
talks regarding a potential Flood Risk Reduction Feasibility
Study on Tuesday based on data gathered by its Public Works
Department. Stemming from discussions in both 2020 and 2021,
the public works staff was given direction by the board to work
with field experts and stakeholders to come up with a draft
study regarding Nord, Rock Creek and Keefer Slough. According
to the related agenda item, a presentation is planned for
Tuesday’s meeting that will go over the draft study, its
findings and what measures are possible for the county in
reducing the risk for these areas.
When Adel Hagekhalil speaks about the future of water in
Southern California, he often starts by mentioning the three
conduits the region depends on to bring water from hundreds of
miles away: the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the Colorado River
Aqueduct and the California Aqueduct. As general manager of the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Hagekhalil
is responsible for ensuring water for 19 million people,
leading the nation’s largest wholesale supplier of drinking
water. He says that with climate change upending the water
cycle, the three existing aqueducts will no longer be
sufficient. … For Southern California to adapt,
Hagekhalil said, it will need to recycle more wastewater,
capture stormwater, clean up contaminated groundwater, and
design new infrastructure …
How much does it cost to grow an acre of romaine hearts in the
nation’s salad bowl? A new study from the University of
California at Davis Cooperative Extension gives us a
comprehensive breakdown for costs in the state’s Central Coast
region: Monterey, Santa Cruz, and San Benito counties. The
short answer: for a 1,500-acre operation, growing costs,
$7,400, harvest costs $9,383, for a total of $16,793 per acre.
… Water costs (always a fascinating subject): low, at
$282 per acre-foot, reflecting the fact that Salinas Valley
crops rely more or less exclusively on groundwater. Total
irrigation costs are $582 per acre. Incidentally, although the
grower is responsible for pumping costs, any underground costs
(such as wells running dry) are borne by the landowner.
Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nasarenko announced on
Monday that charges have been filed against Daniel Conklin
Naumann for multiple felony counts of grand theft and theft of
utility services after diversion bypasses were discovered on
two commercial pumps that irrigated Naumann’s crops. The
Camarillo resident owns and operates Naumann Family Farms in
Oxnard and is a publicly elected board member of the United
Water Conservation District. For a portion of the period he has
been charged, Naumann was also an alternate board member of the
Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency.
