Justices Ron Robie and Stacy Boulware Eurie are spearheading an
effort to educate California’s judiciary about climate change
and water issues. We asked them why they’ve taken on this
task—and what they hope to accomplish. You are leading the
judiciary’s efforts to train judges and justices on water and
climate. What does this entail, and why is it so important?
Justice Robie: I’ve taught classes on the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) for about 20 years. Water is a
similar specialized area like CEQA, and more water cases are
being assigned to larger courts. It seemed logical that using
the CEQA model would be good for water.
The Marin Municipal Water District is preparing to launch more
in-depth studies of new water supply projects, beginning with
assembling consulting teams. The district board is set to vote
on contracts with new consulting teams next month to begin
preliminary technical, environmental and engineering studies of
larger, more complex projects. The projects include expanding
local reservoir storage, constructing a brackish Petaluma River
desalination plant and installing new pipelines to transfer
Russian River water directly into local reservoirs. Unlike the
broader study completed earlier this year that identified which
of the supply options the district could pursue, the more
in-depth analyses are needed to provide details on how and
whether they can be built, as well as the costs and
environmental impacts.
One of our favorite aspects to teaching is (occasionally) being
able to really surprise a student. Many of the fun nature facts
folks pick up nowadays come from TV, YouTube, social media, and
other media outlets. But these outlets have an inherent bias:
they focus on the charismatic species. That is, the species
that are big, fluffy, and widely adored. Yet there are so many
fascinating species and ecology in the lesser appreciated
taxonomic groups (not to mention, focusing on charismatic
species leads to inequitable conservation – Rypel et al. 2021).
And often, learning about these overlooked species can really
blow the mind! Today, we’d like to introduce you all to the
fascinating reproductive behavior of freshwater mussels.
California’s top water agency is under federal investigation
after a coalition of California tribal nations and
environmental justice groups filed a civil rights complaint
accusing it of discriminating against several Native tribes and
communities of color. The complaint, filed in December, says
the California Water Resources Control Board has failed to
protect the water quality of one of the nation’s largest
estuaries — the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta — and has
intentionally blocked tribal members and residents of color in
some cities from giving input on major decisions.
Agricultural irrigation induces greenhouse gas emissions
directly from soils or indirectly through the use of energy or
construction of dams and irrigation infrastructure, while
climate change affects irrigation demand, water availability
and the greenhouse gas intensity of irrigation energy. Here, we
present a scoping review to elaborate on these
irrigation–climate linkages by synthesizing knowledge across
different fields, emphasizing the growing role climate change
may have in driving future irrigation expansion and reinforcing
some of the positive feedbacks. This Review underscores the
urgent need to promote and adopt sustainable irrigation,
especially in regions dominated by strong, positive feedbacks.
Today, the Department of Commerce and NOAA announced more than
$106 million in recommended funding for 16 West Coast and
Alaska state and tribal salmon recovery programs and projects
under the Pacific Coastal Salmon Recovery Fund (PCSRF). The
funds, including $34.4 million under the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law and $7.5 million under the Inflation
Reduction Act, will support the recovery, conservation and
resilience of Pacific salmon and steelhead in Alaska,
California, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. This funding is part
of President Biden’s historic Investing in America agenda,
which includes over $2 billion for fish passage investments
across the country.
Sitting high above the Colorado River, the Nankoweap Granaries
may be the best-known archaeological site within the Grand
Canyon, stopped at by nearly every commercial river trip. But a
new study by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has found that
hundreds of other archaeological sites up and down the Colorado
River, some thousands of years old, have been degraded by
nearly half a century of operation of the Glen Canyon Dam. In a
paper published this spring, researchers found that 68% of
archaeological sites along the river have been impacted by
increased erosion as a result of dam operations. That’s up from
2000, when surveys showed only 56% of sites had such impacts.
The study comes after researchers looked at 50 years of aerial
photography over sites and data collected over 30 years during
site visits and surveys.
Brown and Caldwell recently announced the addition of water
reuse technical leadership as Sandy Scott-Roberts joined the
firm as program management director to help California
communities tap into drought-proof drinking water sources.
Having spent most of her career at an internationally
recognized water district, Scott-Roberts has 20 years of
managing capital improvement projects, encompassing the
planning, design, and construction of water treatment
facilities, including pipelines, pump stations, recharge
basins, and injection wells. A career highlight includes
managing the final expansion of the 130 million gallons per day
Groundwater Replenishment System, the world’s largest water
purification system for indirect potable reuse.
Currently, Fresno County has about 26 days per year when
temperatures are over 100 degrees. 30 years from now, we’re
expected to have nearly 43 triple digits days, according to the
First Street Foundation, which studies climate data. Experts
say this can have a drastic effect on our water system.
… ”The big, big change that we have seen is that
temperatures have warmed, on the order of about three degrees
Fahrenheit, that seems like a small number, but that warming
has two main effects on our water resources,” said UC Merced
Professor, PhD., John Abatzoglou. Abatzoglou explains the
increase in temperatures means the atmosphere and agricultural
systems need more water.
Climate change — and changing political winds — are prompting
shifts in strategy at California’s largest agricultural water
district. Westlands Water District, which occupies some 1,100
square miles of the arid San Joaquin Valley, is in the midst of
an internal power struggle that will determine how water fights
unfold across the state. After years of aggressively
fighting for more water, Westlands is making plans to live with
less. In 2016, Donald Trump campaigned in the valley, promising
to “open up the water” for farmers in the then-drought stricken
state. Its leaders are now sounding a more Biden-esque note:
They are planning to cover a sixth of the district with solar
panels to start “farming the sun” instead of thirsty crops like
almonds and pistachios.
Undocumented Californians affected by winter storms and floods
are slowly starting to receive money from a special relief
program the state launched for them two months ago. In June,
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office announced it plans to spend $95
million from the state’s Rapid Response Fund to help thousands
of flood victims recover from storm damage and financial
setbacks. The beneficiaries would be immigrants who don’t
qualify for federal emergency assistance or state unemployment
insurance because they are undocumented. More than 20
nonprofits have contracts with the Department of Social
Services to distribute the money. So far they have begun
handing out nearly $18 million to about 12,000 residents — but
it’s at an uneven pace.
The 2023 Tahoe State of the Lake report was released for public
viewing, and Tahoe Environmental Research Center Director
Geoffrey Schladow was able to present the findings at the
Granlibakken Thursday, July 20. The report informs
non-scientists about the important factors impacting the health
of the basin, and provides the scientific details for
preservation and management within Lake Tahoe. The 2023
report summarizes data collected during 2022 in the context of
the long-term record of research done in Lake Tahoe.
Researchers at UC Davis have been continuously monitoring the
lake since 1968.
In most parts of the Global South where coffee is produced, the
impacts of climate change are being felt through changes in
water supplies, resulting from increased rainfall variability.
Successive droughts are impacting crop yields in a varied list
of countries, including Ethiopia, Kenya, India, and Indonesia.
Professor Dr. Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi of the International
Water Management Institute (IWMI) and University of
KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental
Sciences, says an estimated 70 per cent of land under coffee
production belongs to smallholder farmers in climate change
hotspots with inherently low adaptive capacity. … Ben
Faber, an advisor at the University of California Cooperative
Extension, specialises in soils, water and subtropical crops,
especially those along the subtropical California coast with
its Mediterranean climate of winter rain and summer drought. He
says water salinity is an obvious sign of water stress.
The struggle for safe drinking water in the Central Valley has
been around for generations. Even the first settlers to the
region had to deal with water quality issues since the Valley
is uniquely situated at the bottom of a large basin. The
California dairy industry has stepped up to implement feasible
solutions that will keep our friends and neighbors safe and
able to maintain their livelihoods. But it will take collective
and coordinated action by the agricultural industry, state and
local leaders, regulators and environmental groups to
adequately improve our water quality. This fight is deeply
personal for me, having grown up on a diversified farm in the
Central Valley and spending my career in farm management and
agriculture. -Written by Anja Raudabaugh is the chief executive
officer of Western United Dairies.
In 2021, our team at UC Merced found that covering California’s
extensive network of irrigation canals with solar panels could
make significant contributions to both clean energy and water
conservation, serving two of the state’s most pressing needs at
once. In addition to the added solar power, we found that
shading all 4,000 miles of the state’s canals and aqueducts
could save as much as 63 billion gallons of water annually by
reducing evaporation — enough to irrigate 50,000 acres of
farmland or provide water to the homes of more than 2 million
people. Now we have a chance to put those projections to the
test. Last year, we joined the California Department of Water
Resources, the San Joaquin Valley’s Turlock Irrigation District
and the firm Solar AquaGrid to build the nation’s first such
project and assess the feasibility of covering canals across
the state. -Written by Brandi McKuin, project scientist with
the Sierra Nevada Research Institute at UC Merced; and Roger
Bales, a distinguished professor of engineering and
management at UC Merced.
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE; Corps) is the federal
agency responsible for planning and building much of the
nation’s flood management infrastructure. Historically, USACE
and Congress (which authorizes and appropriates funding for
flood risk management projects) have been criticized for using
an economic evaluation system that favors projects in wealthier
areas, where property values are higher. This appears to be
changing. We asked Dr. Tessa Beach, chief of planning and
environmental services for the San Francisco District, to tell
us more about the resources available for historically
underserved communities.
Over the last few years, we have heard plenty of disturbing
stories about wells going dry in the small, poor towns across
the San Joaquin Valley, such as East Porterville and East
Orosi. In 2012, California reacted by declaring access to water
to be a human right, but with little money attached to stop
what was now a human-rights violation. More recently, alarms
have been ringing about the state seeking to abolish its
longstanding system of water rights. This concern is overblown,
at least at the moment, and a little refining of the state
water rights system might make it easier to supply poor, rural
communities with some water. The 2012 law is little more than a
values statement, enacted after a rash of drying-up domestic
wells made international headlines. -Written by Thomas Holyoke, professor of political
science at California State University, Fresno; Cordie
Qualle, a lecturer in civil and geomatics engineering at
California State University, Fresno; and Laura
Ramos, interim director of research and education at the
California Water Institute at California State University,
Fresno.
Despite a years-long drought and water evaporating due to
rising temperatures, states such as California, Arizona and
Nevada continue to rely on the river in the absence of a
long-term solution. One year ago, after negotiations between
state governments failed, the federal government intervened and
set mandatory cutbacks in usage of the river’s water supply.
The story of the Colorado River should serve as a warning sign
for the world: Even developed Western countries will face
crises if water resources aren’t properly managed. Israel, on
the other hand, is sitting pretty. … The strength of
Israel’s water economy is clear: As large swathes of Europe and
the U.S. struggle to cope with water shortages, Israel has
dramatically reduced its dependence on naturally occurring
drinking water.
One of the West’s top water kingpins is back, and in an
unlikely new spot. Jeffrey Kightlinger, retired general manager
for the powerful Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California, has been hired as a consultant by the Imperial
Irrigation District, which in the past has been his bitter
rival on Colorado River policy. The contract comes at a
critical juncture, as seven states and federal officials ramp
up negotiations over a long-term agreement to keep the massive
but dwindling river and its reservoirs functional. IID holds
the rights to by far the largest share of that water.
As the Orange County Board of Supervisors looked to submit its
responses to this year’s slate of Orange County Grand Jury
reports, the supervisors held an in-depth discussion on one
report in particular: “Historic Rain Yet Drought Remains.”
Board members on Tuesday, Aug. 8, discussed the county’s
recommendation to partially disagree with certain parts of the
report, which largely found that South Orange County’s reliance
on imported water will be impacted by climate change and must
adapt. At issue was the finding that “future water supplies are
impacted by climate change, and current supplies will not meet
future demands.” The county argued that it does not have the
expertise to determine future impacts from climate change.
