Water customers with the Pajaro Valley Water Management Agency
can expect rate increases to kick in over the next five years,
after board members voted in late April to approve the fees.
The PVWMA serves coastal growers and farmers in south Santa
Cruz and north Monterey counties through 21 miles of water
pipelines running near Highway 1. The water, which is a blend
of recycled water, groundwater and Harkins Slough Recovery well
water, supplements farmer’s on-site agricultural wells.
The drought situation in the Bay Area has officially gone from
bad to worse. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, the entire
Bay Area is now in the “extreme” drought category, along with
nearly three-quarters of California. According to the latest
summary, precipitation in the state for the water year that
began Oct. 1 is well below normal, in the bottom 10th
percentile, and the greater Bay Area is “experiencing record or
near-record dryness.”
After one of the most destructive and extreme wildfire seasons
in modern history last year, a widening drought across
California and much of the West has many residents bracing for
the possibility this season could be worse. Anemic winter rain
and snowfall has left reservoirs and river flows down
significantly, even as the state experiences its driest water
year in more than four decades. Today, wildfire fuels in some
parts of California are at or near record levels of dryness.
The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors sent a letter
to the California Water Resources Control Board on May 4
formally opposing the Shandon-San Juan Water District’s (SSJWD)
two recent applications for water from Lake Nacimiento and
Santa Margarita Lake—a move that puts two partners on the Paso
Robles Groundwater Basin at odds with one another.
The City of Paso Robles is turning hungry animals loose in the
Salinas Riverbed to reduce the wildfire risk. Goats will be
grazing over the next month or so. They’re starting from the
north and going south, clearing two to three acres a day. On
Tuesday, there were upwards of 100 goats munching away at the
overgrown, fire-ready grasses in the fire-prone hot spot of the
Salinas Riverbed. … The herd is also chewing through poison
hemlock and other weeds, creating fuel breaks through which
wildfires are less likely to burn.
California’s current drought is already off to a strong start,
with some major challenges already looming just two years in.
Compared to the drought of 2012‒16, the normally wetter
Sacramento and North Coast regions have been hit much harder
than the rest of the state. Beyond the local challenges this
poses, drought in the Sacramento region is already having
statewide implications, given its key role in supplying water
to farms and cities further south.
A recent spate of spring blazes announced an alarmingly early
start to California’s wildfire season, which is fast occupying
too much of the year to fit any conventional understanding of
the word “season.” With historically low moisture measurements
suggesting vegetation is particularly primed to burn, too many
Californians are about to find themselves in wildfires’ way.
… The prospects for a respite aren’t hopeful. Following
California’s third driest rain season on record, Gov. Gavin
Newsom is tiptoeing toward acknowledging a statewide
drought.
A federal judge’s decision rebuffed environmental groups’
effort to increase water flow from California’s Twitchell Dam,
stating that wildlife conservation was not among the dam’s
authorized purposes and that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
(Bureau) had no authority to modify the water releases for
conservation purposes. U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr.
sided with defendants in San Luis Obispo Coastkeeper v.
Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District, rejecting
plaintiffs’ claim that by failing to release enough water to
benefit protected steelhead trout, the Bureau and local water
district were in violation of the ESA.
Regenerative farming practices integrate the entire ecosystem —
building upon the relationships of the natural world — to
simultaneously produce healthier, more abundant crops and
restore the Earth’s natural resources. … And
restoring soil health and fertility produces more abundant,
nutrient-dense crops that better resist pests and disease. It
increases soil’s ability to filter and store water, reduce
erosion and sequester carbon. And it builds a diversity and
abundance of microbes that drive every function of soil.
The beaver does more to shape its environment than nearly any
other animal on Earth. They can cause incredible amounts of
destruction to infrastructure; downing power lines, and
blocking and rerouting waterways. But their dam-building also
can improve water quality, reduce flood risk, and create the
conditions for complex wetland habitats to form —providing
refuge for wildlife and storing carbon in the process.
California is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet,
and the San Diego region is one of the most diverse in
California, but we are losing our biodiversity at an alarming
rate. The coming summer months and dry conditions are going to
further hurt that richness of life here. Conserving our water
resources directly and indirectly benefits our wildlife and is
consistent with the overall conservation ethic in San Diego,
which is why we need to prepare in case drought conditions
worsen.
-Written by Chuck Bonham, director of the CA Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
California could get 600,000 new acres of federally protected
wilderness under legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate
recently. The designation would ensure the lands remain free of
development, vehicles and commercial activity. … It
would also designate more than 583 miles of river — including
45 miles of San Gabriel River tributaries, as well as Little
Rock Creek — as “wild and scenic rivers,” a protection that
prohibits dams or new mining.
Dry, hot weather and strong winds have triggered a “red flag”
fire warning for parts of northern California, the first time
the National Weather Service has issued such a warning for the
region in the month of May since 2014. Temperatures in northern
California and the Bay Area are expected to peak 15F above
average on Monday and Tuesday, with 20- to 35mph wind gusts
expected in some parts, prompting the NWS to warn of dangerous
fire conditions in the Sacramento region. The red flag warning
is expected to expire after 11am Tuesday.
California is grappling with drought again, facing many of the
same conditions and challenges that were features of the
2012–16 drought—including stressed ecosystems, depleted
reservoirs, hard-hit farms and rural communities, threats to
urban water supplies, and the potential for extensive
wildfires. Knowing what’s different and what’s similar to our
last major drought can help us better prepare the most
vulnerable sectors for ongoing dry times. To put this drought
in context, this is only its second year. Historically,
droughts have lasted up to six years. Our most recent one
lasted five.
Following a winter with extremely low levels of rain, the
area’s main sources of irrigation water, Lake Mendocino and
Lake Sonoma, are in short supply. Drought conditions are not
new for local growers, unfortunately. Many continue to adjust
their viticultural practices to adapt to the ever-changing
climate. … New plantings will have more spacing between rows
to facilitate wider cross-arms, which will help promote shading
… drought-tolerant rootstocks that are more capable
of establishing deeper root systems quicker …
A dam that for decades prohibited coho salmon from reaching its
spawning habitat in the Santa Cruz Mountains will be taken down
starting this summer after building materials company Cemex and
the Sempervirens Fund reached an agreement, the environmental
group announced Wednesday. The dam, which is located on Mill
Creek, is on the 8,532-acre San Vicente Redwoods property,
which was formerly owned by Cemex.
A lack of wet weather is taking a toll on the state’s water
supply. Chris Orrock, a spokesperson for the California
Department of Water Resources … said while drought-like
conditions are very common for the state, this year is worse
than normal, especially considering back-to-back dry winters
with little snow and rain. It is so dry, in fact, that DWR
canceled Thursday’s snow survey at Phillips Station because
there was not enough snow on the ground.
A North County water district representing irrigated
agriculture near Shandon is asking the state for allocations of
Lake Nacimiento and Santa Margarita Lake water, which it
proposes to pipe into the nearby Paso Robles Groundwater Basin.
While pitched as a potential solution to the Paso basin’s
overdraft, the proposal is already getting blowback from two
county supervisors.
The frequency of natural disasters has soared in recent
decades. Total damage topped $210 billion worldwide in 2020.
With climate change, the costs attributed to coastal storms
will increase dramatically. At the same time, coastal habitats
such as wetlands and reefs are being lost rapidly. Some 20% of
the world’s mangroves were lost over the last four decades.
More than half of the Great Barrier Reef was degraded by
bleaching in 2020 alone. In California, we have lost more than
90% of our coastal marshes. -Written by Michael W. Beck, a research professor in
the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.
Attorneys for the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
filed a complaint with state regulators Tuesday asking that
California American Water Co. be forced to purchase water from
the expansion of a recycling project because Cal Am is failing
to meet a deadline for its part in increasing the local water
supply, according to language in the complaint. Any decision by
regulators is important because it will affect the ability of
the Monterey Peninsula to generate an alternative water source.
Cal Am in 2009 was hit with a state cease-and-desist order to
stop over-pumping from the Carmel River basin.
It’s been another dry year in California. Governor Gavin Newsom
has declared a drought emergency in two northern California
counties and the Sierra snowpack is well below normal. All that
does not bode well for this summer’s wildfire season. To get a
sense of what to expect this year, KAZU’s Doug McKnight spoke
with Cal Fire Battalion Chief Issac Sanchez…
Federal dollars are on the table to help farmers and ranchers
during the drought. The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared
a drought disaster in 50 California counties last month.
Advertisement Grants are now available to help with costs
associated with the dry conditions. After a winter with little
rain and snow, California is dry. … Nicole Montna Van Vleck
walked between two rice fields on Wednesday. One was newly
planted and covered in water. The other was bone-dry.
California is once again in a drought, just four years after
the last dry spell decimated ecosystems, fueled megafires and
left many rural communities without well water. Droughts are a
natural part of the landscape in the American west, and the
region has in many ways been shaped by its history of drought.
But the climate scientist Peter Gleick argues that the droughts
California is facing now are different than the ones that have
historically cycled through the Golden State.
Monterey One Water officials on Monday moved closer to its goal
of providing additional water for the Monterey Peninsula when
it unanimously approved a key environmental report for its
expansion project. The 10 members of the board of Monterey One
Water all voted to approve an environmental document called a
supplemental environmental impact report, or SEIR, that
advances closer to the expansion of its regional treatment
plant. … Monday’s action allows Monterey One to move
closer to expanding its treatment facility — Pure Water
Monterey — to increase the amount of treated water reintroduced
to groundwater and consequently dramatically increase the
Peninsula’s supply.
In what may become an iconic image for drought-stricken
California, Gov. Gavin Newsom stood on the parched bed of Lake
Mendocino on April 21 to announce an emergency declaration for
Sonoma and Mendocino counties. … [T]he reservoir was at a
historically low 43% of capacity, the harbinger of what could
be a devastating drought cycle not only for the Northern
California counties that fell within his drought declaration,
but for most of the state — indeed, the American
West. -Written by Michael Hiltzik, a Los Angeles Times
columnist.
Deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains, hidden by dense patches of
conifer and far from any paved road, a century-old, abandoned
dam whose purpose remains lost to history is quietly choking a
small, yet important waterway. But not for long. The unnamed,
30-foot-wide dam on Mill Creek, home to one of the southernmost
runs of endangered coho salmon, will be toppled this summer.
The demolition is part of a broader effort to both open up
passage for struggling fish along the Central Coast and restore
a cherished forest known as San Vicente Redwoods.
CZU Lightning Complex fire survivors who are rebuilding their
homes, are invited to join the Santa Cruz County Office of
Response, Recovery and Resilience on Saturday for a townhall on
the septic and water permitting process. … Attendees can
expect to learn about septic and water system permitting
requirements, but also county and state-level regulations that
apply to their properties. … The Office of Response, Recovery
and Resilience works with fire survivors on an
individual-basis, to help them understand what is needed
to ultimately, get a rebuild permit.
At this point, it seems like almost a given that California
will see another historic fire season. A meager rainy season is
in the rearview mirror. Snowpack is depleted. Vegetation and
soils are parched. … But there are still some key variables
that haven’t yet taken shape. Weather events, human behavior
and even luck will dictate whether 2021 goes down in the record
books like 2020, when California wildfires burned an area
larger than the state of Connecticut.
California’s continuing failure to adopt a comprehensive water
strategy is exacerbating its looming drought crisis. For nearly
two decades, the state has put its focus on dam projects and
the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta tunnel fiasco. The
primary aim is creating new ways of diverting additional water
to Central Valley farmers at the expense of the fragile,
over-tapped Delta, which supplies about one-third of the Bay
Area’s fresh water supply. There’s a better approach. President
Biden’s infrastructure plan calls for $50 billion to ease the
West’s drought crisis by heavily investing in water efficiency
and recycling programs.
The Marin Municipal Water District on April 20 enacted a series
of water conservation rules, including banning home car washes,
no watering of outdoor lawns between 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., and no
refilling decorative pools or fountains. A day later,
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a drought emergency for
the Russian River watershed in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
Marin County borders Sonoma. Newsom chose to make the
declaration in those two counties only, rather than statewide,
as some officials and farmers in the agricultural-rich Central
Valley had hoped. But Newsom said a broader drought declaration
could come as conditions change.
A storm system is bringing rain to the Valley and snow to the
High Sierra. Several inches of snow accumulation are expected
by the time the storm is through. There was light snowfall in
Shaver Lake Sunday evening, but not much was sticking.
… The National Weather Service in Hanford said even
though this storm is bringing in snow in the High Sierra, it
will not make a dent in the precipitation deficit we’ve been
seeing.
California is bracing for what’s likely to be another
destructive wildfire season in light of record-dry conditions.
A number of hot spots are in the Sierra Nevada, where rural
communities are still reeling from unprecedented wildfires last
year in both size and severity. … The research center
has never seen April fuel moisture levels so low in many
California places.
The Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has approved
approximately $33.5 million in grants to help enhance flows in
streams throughout California. A total of 30 stream flow
enhancement projects were approved for funding at its April 22
meeting. The approved projects will provide or lead to a direct
and measurable enhancement of the amount, timing and/or quality
of water in streams for anadromous fish or special status,
threatened, endangered or at-risk species, or to provide
resilience to climate change.
A former member of a Marina water advocacy group filed a motion
with state regulators requesting a change in a water decision
under the pretense of still being a member of the group,
officials with the group say. In a letter emailed to the
California Public Utilities Commission on Monday, Liesbeth
Visscher, the chairwoman of Citizens for Just Water, and Lisa
Berkley, one of the early members of the advocacy group,
informed the commission that a request to change a CPUC
decision, called a Petition for Modification, filed by
Margaret-Anne Coppernoll under the guise of being a current
member of the group was never authorized by the organization.
In fact, Coppernoll hasn’t been a member of the group since
2017 …
Let me introduce myself. I am a California water drop. I
condensed from billions of water vapor molecules in the air
above the North Pacific Ocean to become embedded in the clouds
that evolved into a large storm system. Through alternating ups
and downs, and freeze and thaw cycles, I was carried in a
rotating middle latitude wave cyclone as it drifted southeast
and toward California. As the storm swept across the Golden
State, I was forced to rise higher over the mountains and I
grew as a giant ice crystal until I fell as a
fluffy-turned-heavy snowflake in the Sierra Nevada Mountains.
As extreme drought conditions continue to expand across the San
Francisco Bay Area, a leading climate researcher issued a new
warning Thursday of another sign that a water supply crisis is
developing across the region. Dan McEvoy, a researcher
with the Western Region Climate Center, told KPIX 5 he was
startled to discover that several locations in Sierra had seen
the biggest decline in snowpack’s water content on record for
the time span covering the first three weeks of April…. [T]he
snowpack in the central Sierra has declined significantly to
just 37% of average. … Much of Northern California
experienced temperatures 4-degrees above average for the
period.
A burst of rain is expected to drench the Bay Area this
weekend, bringing much-needed moisture to a parched region. The
rains will likely be intense — but short-lived, tapering off to
another stretch of warm, dry conditions by the middle of next
week, meteorologists said. Showers were expected to start in
the North Bay as early as Saturday evening, with steady
rainfall pounding much of the Bay Area Sunday. Lingering
showers were expected in the central coast through Sunday
night, according to the National Weather Service.
A committee for the Monterey One Water Board has recommended
final certification of an environmental report crucial to the
expansion of Pure Water Monterey, signaling increased momentum
for the recycled water project. The five-member Recycled
Water Committee of the Monterey One Water Board of Directors
voted 4-0-1 on April 15 to recommend the board of directors
certify the completed supplemental environmental impact report,
or SEIR, needed for the expansion.
A weather pattern change will bring much-needed rain and
mountain snow to parts of the drought-stricken West, including
California, into the weekend. So far this month, the jet stream
has often taken a huge detour northward over the eastern
Pacific Ocean, effectively blocking Pacific storms from
reaching the West Coast.
Floodwaters are not what most people consider a blessing. But
they could help remedy California’s increasingly parched
groundwater systems, according to a new Stanford-led study.
The research, published in Science Advances, develops
a framework to calculate future floodwater volumes under a
changing climate and identifies areas where investments in
California’s aging water infrastructure could amplify
groundwater recharge.
[A]s massive a challenge as wildfire presents … a different
climate crisis could rival it as a destroyer of the California
dream: sea level rise. … AB 67 addresses state
infrastructure. It would ensure that state agencies incorporate
sea level rise estimates in the development of roads, ports,
airports, water-treatment, desalination and power plants. In
particular, it seeks to advance “natural infrastructure” such
as restored estuaries, wetlands, dunes and sea grasses that
could generate thousands of new “blue” jobs while reducing the
impact of rising water at a lower cost than hardened structures
such as seawalls. -Written by David Helvarg, an author and founder
of Blue Frontier, an ocean conservation group.
It won’t solve California’s drought problems, but it’s better
than nothing. The first rain in a month could wet the Bay Area
and much of Northern California this weekend, forecasters say,
as a late-season storm from the Gulf of Alaska appears to be
headed toward the region. Computer models show the rain will
begin late Saturday in the North Bay, spreading across the
wider Bay Area and Santa Cruz Mountains on Sunday. … The
weekend system also could bring snow to the Sierra Nevada on
Sunday.
California has entered another drought. But depending on who
you ask, the last one may have never really ended. Some
researchers believe the region is actually more than two
decades into an emerging “megadrought” — a hydrological event
that is on par with the worst dry spells of the past
millennium. Except this time, they say, human-caused climate
change is driving its severity — and will make it that much
harder to climb back out of.
Leaders of the Central Coast Water Authority fear that Santa
Barbara County is at a disadvantage in obtaining state water
because of the county’s failure to adopt an amendment to the
State Water Project that allows local water districts to buy
and sell water supplies outside the county. The CCWA is an
umbrella organization for all of the State Water Project
members in Santa Barbara County.
General Waste Discharge Requirements for Discharges
from Irrigated Lands, simply known as Ag Order 4.0, will
officially begin to be implemented. Just prior to the deadline,
the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board approved
the measure Thursday evening. There has been unease among
farmers throughout the lengthy development process as to how
the rule will affect production.
Santa Barbara County’s most depleted water basin, the Cuyama
Valley, is fast becoming the latest battleground in the fight
over how — and whether — to address the negative impacts of the
lucrative cannabis industry on farming and residential
communities. The giant groundwater basin underlying this
sparsely populated, heavily farmed, economically depressed
valley is one of California’s 21 most critically over-drafted
basins and the only one outside the Central Valley.
Monterey County must rescind all approvals of California
American Water’s proposed desalination project, per an order
from a Monterey County Superior Court judge who earlier this
year found the county violated the California Environmental
Quality Act by approving the project without identifying a
water source. The ruling was handed down April 3 by Judge Lydia
Villarreal, who on Jan. 21 granted in part—and denied in part—a
writ requested by the Marina Coast Water District regarding the
2019 approvals of the desal plant component of Cal Am’s
Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project.
A final decision on the pending Irrigated Lands Regulatory
Program known as Ag Order 4.0 is expected by Friday, April 16.
Producers have anxiously been monitoring the development of the
program from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board. Stakeholders have repeatedly provided feedback on the
proposal, detailing the challenges it would create within
agriculture. As the adoption deadline quickly approaches,
industry members still have concerns about multiple provisions
of the measure.
The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) today
launched California Nature to engage
Californians in advancing the State’s commitment to conserving
30 percent of lands and coastal waters by 2030 (30×30) and
enlisting nature-based solutions to combat climate change. The
website and a new online questionnaire are aimed at gathering
input from a broad cross-section of Californians.
The state plans to inspect three dairy ranches in the Point
Reyes National Seashore after independent water quality tests
conducted in nearby creeks and lagoons earlier this year found
E. coli bacteria concentrations up to 40 times higher than
state health standards. The San Francisco Regional Water
Quality Control Board plans to inspect Kehoe Dairy, McClure
Dairy and R&J McClelland Dairy, which are located near
Kehoe Creek and waterways that flow into Abbotts Lagoon in the
northern region of the national seashore.
Water is one of the world’s most vital resources. So is there
reason to freak out now that profit-hungry hedge funds and
other investors can trade it like a barrel of oil or shares of
Apple? That’s exactly what CME Group recently did in California
when it launched the world’s first futures market for water in
December 2020. Put simply, a futures market lets people place
bets on the future price of water.
-Written by Ellen Bruno, of University of
California, Berkeley and Heidi Schweizer, of North
Carolina State University.
The Superior Court of California, County of Monterey has told
Monterey County it must rescind all approvals for the Cal-Am
desalination project. According to the court, the county
violated the California Environmental Quality Act by approving
the desal project with identifying a water source. The court
ruling also means that the county can’t retroactively correct
the issue.
Tule elk are treasured creatures in California, and for years,
animal rights groups have butted heads with the Point Reyes
National Seashore over its practice of keeping elk fenced away
from nearby cattle ranches. Amid a dry 2020, the groups tried
to bring water to the creatures but were rebuffed by the
National Park Service. Now the federal agency has released a
report indicating that more than one third of the 445 elk
fenced in at Tomales Point died this past winter, bringing the
population down to 293.
A far-reaching proposal to outlaw hydraulic fracturing and ban
oil and gas wells from operating near homes, schools and
healthcare facilities failed in the California Legislature on
Tuesday, a major setback for progressive leaders who hail the
state as the nation’s bellwether on environmental protection.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in September called on state lawmakers to ban
fracking and voiced his support for safety buffer zones around
wells …
Drought-riddled California will spend over $500 million in the
coming months cutting fuel breaks, lighting prescribed burns
and conducting other wildfire prevention tactics under
legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. The Democratic
governor said the $536 million budget deal is the first of many
preventative steps he will authorize with the Golden State
careening toward another expected brutal wildfire season.
There’s just one week left to register for our Water 101
Workshop, which offers a primer on the things you need to know
to understand California water. One of our most popular events,
this once-a-year workshop will be held as an engaging online
event on the afternoons of Thursday, April 22 and Friday,
April 23.
Despite bipartisan calls to declare a state of emergency over
California’s deepening drought, Gov. Gavin Newsom sidestepped
questions Tuesday about when he may issue a proclamation. The
governor said his administration is talking with federal
officials daily about the status of the state’s water supply
after two years of minimal rainfall that have dried out much of
California.
A new $15 million Marina Coast Water District water storage
project designed to increase water storage by more than 3
million gallons and replace a septuagenarian Army water tank
and other aging infrastructure is moving forward as the
district brings on a new general manager.
Climate change affects our weather patterns, sea levels,
wildlife populations, and global temperatures, but very few
people understand the ramifications it’s had on the human
population. Believe it or not, our food, water, and air quality
have all been seriously affected by climate change, and as a
result, climate change has affected human health in a number of
dangerous and potentially deadly ways. … [D]roughts cause
wildfires, which are contributing to air quality problems.
We’ve already seen what the immense plumes of smoke created by
wildfires can do to air quality
in California and Australia.
The frequency of natural disasters has soared in recent
decades. Total damage topped $210 billion worldwide in 2020.
With climate change, the costs attributed to coastal storms
will increase dramatically. At the same time, coastal habitats
such as wetlands and reefs are being lost rapidly. Some 20% of
the world’s mangroves were lost over the last four decades.
More than half of the Great Barrier Reef was degraded by
bleaching in 2020 alone. In California, we have lost more than
90% of our coastal marshes.
-Written by Michael W. Beck, is a research professor in the
Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.
The Marin County Superior Court last
Friday ruled that the county in Northern California
failed to adequately protect coho salmon and their habitat in
the San Geronimo Valley. Marin County originally planned to
adopt a streamside conservation ordinance to preserve
vegetation, maintain water quality and prevent erosion in 2007
when it last updated its countywide plan. But 12 years later,
the measure has still not materialized, in violation of the
California Environmental Quality Act. The lawsuit was
brought by the Salmon Protection And Watershed Network (SPAWN)
and Center for Biological Diversity.
The chamise plants that blanket California’s shrubby chaparral
should have grown new sprouts by now, flowering after winter
rains before baking in the arid summer heat. They are highly
flammable and abundant in wildland areas — and, for that
reason, a bellwether to wildfire researchers. This month, a San
Jose State University team analyzing moisture levels was
shocked at what it found at study sites in the Santa Cruz
Mountains. At two locations researchers found no new growth to
cut from the shrubs. It’s an ominous sign of just how dry the
vegetation is around California, where boundless numbers of
plants and trees have been starved of life-sustaining water
thanks to an entire winter of paltry precipitation. Those dry
plants are fuel for wildfires, and they’re primed to burn
explosively.
Nearly every resident of California has experienced an
earthquake. Even the youngest schoolchildren have the safety
procedure drilled into them: duck under a table, hold on, and
pray that it’s only a small one. Barring a truly catastrophic
quake, the situation usually ends there. You go on with your
day as if nothing had happened, the near catastrophe completely
forgotten. Most people assume that the danger ends after the
last remnants of the tremor share the ground. But there is a
much more sinister side effect of earthquakes that affects
daily life around California and much of the rest of the world:
contaminating the groundwater supply.
After the worst fire season in California history and as
drought conditions raise fears of what’s to come, Gov. Gavin
Newsom and legislative leaders unveiled a $536-million proposal
Thursday to boost efforts at firefighting and a variety of
prevention measures, including vegetation management and the
construction of fire-resistant structures across the state. The
proposal, which the Legislature could send to the governor’s
desk as soon as Monday, marks an early agreement by the
governor and lawmakers to spend more than half of the $1
billion in wildfire funding Newsom called for in his state
budget proposal in January. The gravity of the issue became
clear last week after state officials reported the water
content in the Sierra Nevada snowpack stood at 59% of the
average for early spring.
A barely-noticed action early in March by the San Luis Obispo
County Board of Supervisors likely has placed greater control
of the region’s water supply in the hands of a few individuals
and private water agencies. On a split 3-2, north-south vote,
supervisors on March 3 approved an amendment to the county’s
contract with the state of California for deliveries from the
State Water Project (SWP). An approval that creates the
opportunity, some say, for a controversial practice called
“water banking.”
The City of Santa Cruz Water Department announced Tuesday the
replacement of a major water pipeline, that diverts water from
North Coast streams, has been completed. Less than a year after
the $5 million project began, 520 feet of 1960s era steel water
lines have been replaced by new ductile iron pipeline. Majors,
Laguna, and Liddell creeks feed into the newly-upgraded line.
Water from those streams are then delivered to the the Graham
Hill Water Treatment Plant, before arriving at customers’ taps.
… For a length of 220 feet, the water pipeline runs beneath
the San Lorenzo River. That made the project technically
challenging.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has marked
2021 as the third-driest water year, a period marked from
October to March, on record for the Golden State, potentially
setting up another deadly wildfire season after last year’s
record setting blazes. The department’s annual snow survey
released this month recorded precipitation levels at 50 percent
the annual average for the water year. The dry conditions
can also be seen in the state’s water supply, with the
department reporting that California’s major reservoirs are at
just 50 percent of overall capacity.
California is at the edge of another protracted drought, just a
few years after one of the worst dry spells in state history
left poor and rural communities without well water, triggered
major water restrictions in cities, forced farmers to idle
their fields, killed millions of trees, and fueled devastating
megafires. … Just four years since the state’s last
drought emergency, experts and advocates say the state isn’t
ready to cope with what could be months and possibly years of
drought to come.
With commercial salmon fishing in California likely headed
toward a shortened season starting in late June, fishermen out
of Half Moon Bay remain worried about what a short season means
during an already down year. … The shortened season will
be set based on an estimated low stock of chinook salmon
derived from statistical modeling. An ocean abundance forecast
of adult salmon estimated the Sacramento River in 2021 to have
around 271,000 salmon, while the Klamath River had around
181,500, both lower than their 10-year averages of 487,600 and
449,000, respectively, Morgenstern said.
It was in 2016 that the state of California declared a
four-year drought had finally come to an end. Now, in 2021, it
could be entering another very dry season. It is in the winter
season that folks on the West Coast welcome dreary days packed
with cloud and rain. California usually sees the most rain and
snow in the month of February. This year, however, was
different: It was quite dry all of the winter season, and we
can blame La Niña for this pattern. … Thirty per cent of
California’s water supply comes from the snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada mountain ranges and only 57 per cent of normal
precipitation has fallen this season. This, coupled with lower
than average snowpack for 2020 as well, could spell trouble
down the road when it comes to water supply.
A $230,000 revision of the Pure Water Monterey expansion
project’s environmental review document will move forward after
the Monterey One Water board approved the work earlier this
week. At the same time, board members backing the study
revision made it clear they wouldn’t support approving the
recycled water expansion proposal itself until an outside
funding source is available. On Monday, the Monterey One Water
board voted 7-3 to approve the work needed to update a
supplemental environmental impact report for the expansion
proposal, including consultant contracts and a cost-sharing
agreement with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
whose board agreed last month to cover most of the revision’s
cost.
In the wake of California’s worst-ever wildfire season,
researchers are exploring how mushrooms can help detoxify
polluted soil and water. Scientists and volunteers at
CoRenewal, a nonprofit dedicated to ecological restoration, are
conducting the experiment in burn zones along high-risk
waterways in Northern California. Burned and melted plastics,
metals, electronics, and building materials leave behind toxic
ash, which then washes into water systems. For instance, in the
months following the Tubbs Fire in 2017 and Camp Fire in 2018,
authorities found toxic levels of benzene—a cancer-causing
chemical—in local drinking water.
As California emerged from a historically tough five-year
drought in 2017, then-governor Jerry Brown signed two new laws
that required local water agencies to limit water use to 55
gallons per person per day, with water-use allotments dropping
to 50 gallons by 2030. Despite some misreporting to the
contrary, these limits on individuals were not
enforceable. Instead, the state imposed fines on districts
that failed to meet the new targets. It was pretty clear what
direction the state was taking: Since then, California has gone
all in for extreme conservation measures that could eventually
lead to rationing as water-use allotments drop. Unless
something changes, it may be only a matter of time before such
policies lead to personal restrictions on lawn-watering,
car-washing, and even showering.
-Written by Steven Greenhut, the western-region
director for the R Street Institute and a columnist for the
Southern California News Group.
Drought is returning to California as a second, consecutive
parched winter draws to a close in the usually wet north,
leaving the state’s major reservoirs half empty. But this
latest period of prolonged dryness will probably play out very
differently across this vast state. In Northern
California, areas dependent on local supplies, such as Sonoma
County, could be the hardest-hit. Central Valley growers have
been told of steep cuts to upcoming water deliveries.
Environmentalists too are warning of grave harm to native
fish. Yet, hundreds of miles to the south, the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California reports
record amounts of reserves — enough to carry the state’s most
populous region through this year and even next.
Eelgrass, a plant that grows in “underwater meadows” along the
California coast and emerges like a floating carpet at low
tide, is already known to be an important habitat for fish,
birds and baby Dungeness crabs. It turns out it can also reduce
seawater’s acidity back to preindustrial levels, creating
refuges for animals who can’t tolerate that byproduct of
climate change. … [S]eagrass meadows, which have shrunk in
number and size globally because of pollution and
development … may support wildlife as well as the
production of farmed oysters, mussels and
abalone. … The state already has efforts in place
to protect its eelgrass habitat. The California Ocean
Protection Council has a goal of preserving the state’s
existing 15,000 acres of seagrass beds and adding another 1,000
acres by 2025.
California’s wet season is coming to a close without a
much-sought “March miracle” storm, setting the stage for a
painful escalation of drought in the coming months. The April 1
snow survey, which measures the peak accumulation of snow in
the Sierra and southern Cascades just before it melts, will
show only about 60% of average snowpack. … The grim survey
results expected Thursday, which mark a second straight year of
significantly dry conditions, reinforce concerns about a
difficult fire season ahead and bolster the expanding calls for
water conservation.
Another advantage to “feeding” the soil in a region plagued
with persistent drought involves the tremendous water savings.
… With below-average precipitation in California,
its reservoirs are showing the impacts of a second dry year.
Lake Oroville stands at 55% of average and Lake Shasta,
California’s largest, now stands at 68%. Most
eco-conscious activists agree that, with the climate’s changing
patterns that lead to decreasing water supplies and die-offs of
pollinators, a lot more needs to be done to help keep our water
and food supplies plentiful.
The lack of rain and snow during what is usually California’s
wet season has shrunk the state’s water supply. The Sierra
Nevada snowpack, a crucial source of water as it melts over the
spring and summer, is currently at 65 percent of normal. Major
reservoirs are also low. Two state agencies warned last week
that the dry winter is very likely to lead to cuts in the
supply of water to homes, businesses and farmers. The federal
Bureau of Reclamation also told its agricultural water
customers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to
expect no water this year.
A water project that would generate revenue, make wise use of
reclaimed water and preserve large tracts of open space in the
city of San Luis Obispo was first made public over 10 years
ago. Since then, the city has made no progress on the proposal
to allow Edna Valley landowners to reuse some of the city’s
treated wastewater to irrigate vineyards and other agricultural
crops. Surplus water already could be assisting growers in Edna
Valley, which is an important part of the city’s
greenbelt.
– Written by Neil Havlik, who served as San Luis
Obispo’s natural resources manager from 1996 to 2012.
California’s drought conditions might normally prompt calls for
shorter showers and shutting off sprinklers. But Californians
are in no mood to hear it after a year of pandemic deprivation.
Especially from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who is facing an almost
certain recall election after imposing multiple rounds of
business closures and constantly telling residents to stay
home. … California is particularly parched because 2020
was not only dry, but extremely hot. Experts think the state is
about where it was in 2014, when former Gov. Jerry Brown asked
Californians to reduce their water use by 20 percent.
The upcoming salmon season doesn’t look promising for
recreational and commercial fishermen on the Coastside. But
environmentalists from the Central Valley are hoping to change
that in the future by easing the movement of salmon between the
Pacific Ocean and inland rivers. One of those rivers is the
Tuolumne River. Its stewards at the Tuolumne River Trust are
sounding the alarm over the river’s health and say that
committing more water to this distant river will help the
salmon populations more than 100 miles away in places like
Coastside fisheries.
Water quality testing commissioned by two groups lobbying for
the end of ranching in the Point Reyes National Seashore shows
fecal contamination exceeding federal recreational standards in
several waterways feeding the Pacific Ocean. In response,
seashore personnel point to their nearly finalized general
management amendment, which requires water quality
improvements. The tests from two rainy January days included
samples from and near Kehoe Lagoon, Abbotts Lagoon and Schooner
Creek, and showed exceedances in levels of E. coli and
Enterococcus—bacteria that serve as common indicators for fecal
contamination.
With World Water Day this week and the dry year emerging
throughout the Sacramento Valley, we take this moment to
reflect on the value of water as we cultivate a shared vision
in the region for a vibrant way of life. We encourage you to
watch and read the following vignettes that all showcase the
value of water.
According to USGS, 56 percent of streams sampled had one or
more pesticides in water that exceeded at least one
aquatic-life federal standard. Many of these pesticides are
also linked to a range of human and environmental health
effects including cancer, birth defects, neurological and
reproductive health impacts. … [A] report released by UC
Davis examined the the four-county Tulare Lake Basin and the
Monterey County portion of the Salinas Valley. The study found
that … agricultural fertilizers and animal wastes applied to
cropland are by far the largest regional sources of nitrate in
groundwater; nitrate loading reductions are possible, some at
modest cost. Large reductions of nitrate loads to groundwater
can have substantial economic cost…
California’s water use varies dramatically across regions and
sectors, and between wet and dry years. With the possibility of
another drought looming, knowing how water is allocated across
the state can make it easier to understand the difficult
tradeoffs the state’s water managers must make in times of
scarcity. The good news is that we’ve been using less over
time, both in cities and on farms. While there are still ways
to cut use further to manage droughts, it won’t always be easy
or cheap to do so. California’s freshwater ecosystems are at
particular risk of drought, when environmental water use often
sees large cuts. Watch the video to learn how Californians use
water.
Nitrogen pollution is one of agriculture’s biggest and most
intractable problems. Crops can’t grow without the critical
nutrient, and because sources of nitrogen are easy to come
by—synthetic fertilizer is cheap and manure from large animal
agriculture operations is plentiful—farmers often apply too
much, to try to ensure the highest yields. Because plants can’t
use it all, the excess makes its way into groundwater and
washes into waterways where it contaminates drinking water and
creates vast dead zones in oceans and lakes.
… California’s largest hotspot unsurprisingly includes
21 counties that cover the Central Valley, America’s produce
capital.
Earth Island Institute, a Berkeley, Calif.-based environmental
nonprofit, sued a collection of the world’s largest food,
beverage and consumer goods companies, saying their use of
millions of tons of plastic packaging has resulted in polluted
oceans, waterways and beaches. … Another novel element
of the case is that the Earth Island Institute is claiming the
10 companies in question are also harming the institute
specifically by allowing plastics to proliferate in the oceans
off of California, causing the nonprofit to expend enormous
sums to effect beach clean-ups and other related
projects.
Acting in advance of its Pure Water Monterey expansion project
partner, the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District board
has agreed to spend an additional $180,000 on updating the
project’s environmental document and source water analysis for
the proposal. On Monday, the water district board voted
7-0 to spend $181,125 on work to update the recycled water
expansion project’s supplemental environmental impact report
and conduct source water modeling in an attempt to address an
issue that has drawn heavy criticism and opposition.
The construction of 8 miles of water pipeline that will be
integral to the Pure Water Soquel project, was approved by
Soquel Creek Water District Board of Directors this week. The
Santa Cruz Mid-County Groundwater Basin, from which at least
50,000 residents depend on for drinking water, has been deemed
critically depleted by the state. Years of intensive pumping
for agriculture and drinking water has drawn out more water
from the aquifer than is being replenished naturally by
rainwater. That’s led to seawater seeping into underground
storage and wells. The Pure Water project aims to bolster
groundwater levels in the aquifer, and prevent seawater
contamination, which has already been detected in some areas.
Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) today
presented SB 1, a landmark bill to help California address the
impacts of sea level rise, to the Senate Committee on Natural
Resources and Water, which approved the bill in a 7-2 vote. …
SB 1, the Sea Level Rise Mitigation and Adaptation Act, directs
the Coastal Commission to take sea level rise into account in
its planning, policies, and activities, and would … expand
funding to assist more disadvantaged communities along the
coast that are vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise and
are actively working to address environmental justice issues.
Mother Nature proved again in late January that the force of
torrential rainfall and surging water can undo about a decade’s
worth of difficult, expensive habitat conservation work. The
Santa Rosa Creek project completed in October in Cambria was
designed to stabilize the path of the creek in a vulnerable
North Coast area, while protecting its bank and its eponymous
roadway. Devin Best, executive director of the Upper
Salinas-Las Tablas Resource Conservation District (RCD), said
the district worked with landowners “to preserve their property
and also maintain the road so it doesn’t wash away.”
Some invasive species targeted for total eradication bounce
back with a vengeance, especially in aquatic systems, finds a
study led by the University of California, Davis. The study,
published in the journal PNAS, chronicles the effort — and
failure — to eradicate invasive European green crabs from a
California estuary. The crabs increased 30-fold after about 90
percent had been removed. The study is the first experimental
demonstration in a coastal ecosystem of a dramatic population
increase in response to full eradication. … For the PNAS
study, researchers in 2009 began intensive efforts to eradicate
the European green crab from Stinson Beach’s Seadrift
Lagoon.
A trio of briefings on aging infrastructure and climate change
from the State Water Project will open with a stakeholder panel
discussion featuring Zone 7 Water Agency General Manager
Valerie Pryor during the California Water Commission’s meeting
on Wednesday (March 17), starting 9:30 a.m. The meeting agenda
includes three briefings under Item No. 9 including an overview
of the State Water Project and updates on the Climate Change
Vulnerability Assessment and the California Department of Water
Resources’ “efforts to address issues related to aging
infrastructure.”
The Western US is in the midst of yet another dangerous dry
spell. The drought has been building over the past year, and
since November, a greater stretch of the West has been in the
most severe category of drought than at any time in the 20
years that the National Drought Mitigation Center has been
keeping records. … Ryan Jensen saw the impacts of
California’s last major drought firsthand while working for the
Community Water Center in the San Joaquin Valley. When
residential wells ran dry, students had to shower in their
school locker rooms. To keep toilets running, some rural
households relied on hoses slung over fences from their
neighbors.
La Niña continues in the tropical Pacific, but it has weakened
recently, and forecasters estimate about a 60% chance of a
transition to neutral conditions in the late spring. Looking
farther out into the fall of 2021, El Niño is unlikely to
develop, and the chances of La Niña and neutral are similar.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) released the draft
California’s Groundwater – Update 2020, containing information
on the condition of the state’s groundwater, which is
especially important as California faces a critically dry water
year. DWR encourages community members and water managers to
review the publication and provide input.
The California commercial salmon season, due to start May 1,
will be only about half as long as last year’s season, after
the Pacific Fisheries Management Council settled on three
proposals for the dates and months fishing can take place this
season. The main reason for the shorter season is
the smaller number of adult Sacramento River
salmon expected to be in the ocean this spring and summer.
While commercial fishing boats were permitted to go out for 167
days total last year, the three proposals for the 2021 season
would only allow fishing for a total of 78 days, 94 days or 104
days.
For many Californians, water bills are piling up at
unprecedented rates during the pandemic, exacerbating water
affordability issues that disproportionately impact low-income
residents and communities of color. A recent
survey by the California State Water Resources Board,
which was supported by research from the UCLA Luskin
Center for Innovation, shows the extent of water bill debt
accumulation during the COVID-19 pandemic. Households owe a
combined $1 billion in unpaid bills, which has increased
substantially since the pandemic. The report finds that roughly
12% of Californians have overdue payments on their water
bills.
Thunderstorms dumped anywhere from a quarter to three-quarters
of an inch of rain in the Sacramento area Wednesday as the
region was pelted by dime-sized hail that filled streets and
front lawns. A cold weather system moved north along the
California coast before it combined with warm temperatures near
the ground and created the right conditions to form scattered
thunderstorms throughout Northern California, said Eric Kurth,
a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in
Sacramento.
Stinson Beach residents are smart to start working on their own
homegrown plan to prepare for rising sea levels. Even if
the state’s warning that coastal areas should be prepared for
an average 3.5-foot rise in sea level by 2050 comes true, much
of the beach and many low-lying homes could be subject to
regular flooding. Over the years, Stinson has already seen
some of the damage that can be done as a result of a
combination of higher tides and storm-driven waves.
The climate change cabal in Sacramento is ignoring some
extremely low hanging fruit in their bid to protect us from
ourselves. The reason they don’t see it is simple. It doesn’t
involve raising taxes, rewarding corporations or disruptor
greenies they align with, nor does it destroy jobs. The
California Legislature needs to ban grass lawns for front yards
as well as general commercial development for all new building
projects. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, editor of the Manteca
Bulletin.
Bad news for salmon lovers: The quantity of fish in Bay Area
coastal waters this year is expected to be far lower than in
2020. And fewer fish means less work for local fishers and
fewer salmon in stores. The number of adult king salmon
from the Sacramento River fall run is projected to be 271,000
this spring and summer, compared with last year’s estimate
of 473,200….The limited season reflects a downward trend in
the population of king salmon, also known as chinook, over the
last decade because of drought and state policies that have
limited the amount of water allotted to the parts of the
Sacramento River basin where the fish spawn and juveniles spend
their early months.
A Pacific storm brought more much-needed rain and snow to
California on Wednesday at the tail-end of a largely dry
winter. Winter storm warnings were in effect in the southern
Cascades, down the length of the Sierra Nevada and the
mountains of Southern California, the National Weather Service
said….The Sierra snowpack is an important contributor to
California‘s water supply, but at the start of March its water
content was about half the average normally recorded on April
1, when it is typically at its most robust.
California Water Service’s King City District donated more than
$37,000 to local community organizations in 2020 as part of its
ongoing commitment to improving the quality of life in the
communities it serves. … In addition, to help alleviate some
of the financial strain for customers who lost their jobs or
were otherwise hard-hit financially by the coronavirus
pandemic, the company forgave a portion of past-due water bill
balances for those who fell behind because of the
pandemic.
State residents have been struggling to keep up with their
water bills during the COVID-19 pandemic, but government
officials say help is on the way. Survey results from the State
Water Resources Control Board released in late January estimate
about 1.6 million or 12% of households across the state have
not paid their water bills resulting in an estimated $1 billion
in statewide household water debt. The average household debt
is $500.
California is home to a diversity of coastal ecosystems like
tidal marshes, seagrass beds, and estuaries. These ecosystems
provide flood and storm protection, healthy habitats for fish
and birds, and recreational spaces. They may also play an
important role in addressing climate change. A new COS
and Natural Capital Project study in Global
Environmental Change investigates the carbon sequestration
potential of habitats along the California coast and details
pathways incorporating carbon-capturing habitats into climate
change policy.
A newly constituted Monterey One Water board plans to consider
whether to move forward with an environmental impact report for
the previously stalled Pure Water Monterey expansion proposal.
Last month, the board unanimously agreed to direct agency staff
to prepare a report on the cost and timeline for reviving the
supplemental EIR for the board’s consideration at its March 29
meeting. The board would presumably decide whether to actually
go ahead with the work to update the document for potential
certification.
California, and Southern California in particular, is bone dry.
The calendar says spring officially begins with the equinox
March 20, but the meteorological winter — consisting of
December, January and February — is already in the record
books. In other words, the wettest months are over. Let’s take
a look at where the Golden State stands.
Marin County plans to reroute a Bolinas Lagoon creek as part of
an effort to prevent flooding along Highway 1, prepare for
sea-level rise and restore habitat for threatened species. The
county’s Bolinas Lagoon Wye Wetlands Project aims to redirect
Lewis Gulch Creek closer to its historic route and raise a
nearby road to allow the creek more room to wind and flow
during winter storms. The project would also restore
floodplains at the northern end of the 1,100-acre Bolinas
Lagoon that were lost over more than a century as wetlands made
way for roads and pastures.
Much of the western U.S. continues to endure a long-term
drought, one that threatens the region’s water supplies
and agriculture and could worsen wildfires this year. In fact,
some scientists are calling the dryness in the West a
“megadrought,” defined as an intense drought that lasts
for decades or longer. Overall, about 90% of the West is
now either abnormally dry or in a drought, which is among the
highest percentages in the past 20 years, according to this
week’s U.S. Drought Monitor.
Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, introduced a bill
Wednesday that would extend “critical water supply provisions”
in the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN)
Act for the next seven years in an effort to improve
California’s access to water. On Wednesday, Garcia introduced a
bill that would enact a seven-year extension for “critical
water supply provisions” in the WIIN Act, which became law at
the end of 2016.
Experts in coastal science and policy at UC Santa Cruz are
teaming up with researchers at UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego,
and the U.S. Geological Survey to address the many challenges
of adapting to climate change along California’s coast.
… California’s iconic shoreline, from its communities
and beaches to coastal wetlands and intertidal habitats, is
increasingly threatened by coastal hazards such as extreme
flooding and erosion associated with climate change, sea level
rise, storms, and El Niño events.
California will face another critically dry year, and residents
will need to adapt quickly to cope with water shortages and a
warmer, drier climate that has helped fuel destructive
wildfires. Officials with the state’s department of water
resources announced on Tuesday they had found that the water
content of the overall snowpack for 2 March amounted to 61% of
the average. The state’s largest reservoirs were storing
between 38% and 68% of their capacity, officials said, meaning
that the state would have a lot less water to carry it through
the rest of the year.
Human fingerprints are all over the world’s freshwater. A new
study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that
while human-controlled freshwater sources make up a minimal
portion of the world’s ponds, lakes, and rivers, they are
responsible for more than half of all changes to the Earth’s
water system. … Climate change already looms large over the
world’s freshwater supply. Major sources of drinking water,
like the Colorado River, have less water and are flowing
more slowly due to climate change—even as they face increasing
demand from our water-hungry farms and cities. Rainfall itself
is becoming more erratic in some locations, such as
California…
As climate change brings an increase in the frequency and
severity of droughts, forest dieback is a key cause for
concern: forests act as reservoirs of biodiversity and also
allow vast amounts of carbon to be stored, reducing the
so-called greenhouse effect. Oak trees, iconic veterans of
European and American forests, have previously been thought to
be highly vulnerable to drought. Now, thanks to a novel
non-invasive optical technique, scientists from INRAE and the
University of Bordeaux in France, with their colleagues from
University of California, Berkeley and Stanford University have
studied a range of oak species in North America to find out
more about their resistance to drought.
Early in 2020, when the severity of COVID‐19 became evident, US
water utilities implementing conservation programs had to act
quickly to determine how to mitigate changes in their
conservation programs and staffing. Prioritization and
collaboration helped utility staff settle into their new way of
working, which included adapting to online connection with
customers and each other. These adaptations might lead to
permanent changes. Thanks in large part to the power of
technology, many water conservation and customer education
programs have continued, with interest and participation even
increasing in some cases.
The winter storms that dumped heavy snow and rain
across California early in 2021 are likely not enough to negate
what will be a critically dry year, state water officials
believe. California’s Department of Water Resources on
Tuesday recorded a snow depth of 56 inches and water content of
21 inches at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada. The water
content of the overall snowpack was 61% of the average for
March 2 and 54% of the average for April 1, when it is
historically at its maximum.
Ninety-nine percent of the state is dry, according to ABC Seven
News Meteorologist Mike Nicco. More than half of the state is
in severe drought mode and 31% is in the extreme drought
conditions which includes part of the North Bay. The Bay
Area is abnormally dry right now, but that should have changed
in January and February as they are typically our wettest
months.
Monterey One Water just celebrated the one-year anniversary of
delivering recycled wastewater via the Pure Water Monterey
project. The advanced filtration system is used on treated
sewage water, which is then injected deep underground where the
new supply will be mixed with the existing water supply.
Even before phase one of the Pure Water Monterey project was
online, the board of M1W began debating an expansion of the
project. But that expansion has been on ice for months, after
the M1W board voted 11-10 (on a weighted vote) in April of 2020
not to proceed. It’s about to come back.
San Francisco has long been an international leader on
environmental issues. However, water policy has been a stain on
that record. … Many California rivers are overtapped by
excessive pumping, but few are in worse condition than the
Tuolumne River. In drier years, more than 90% of the Tuolumne’s
water is diverted. On average, 80 percent of the river’s flow
never makes it to the Bay. It’s not a surprise that the river’s
health has collapsed. …
-Written by Bill Martin, a member of the Sierra Club
Bay Chapter Water Committee, and Hunter Cutting, a member
of the Sierra Club Bay Chapter’s San Francisco Group Executive
Committee.
Caught between climate change and multi-year droughts,
California communities are tapping groundwater and siphoning
surface water at unsustainable rates. As this year’s
below-average rainfall accentuates the problem, a
public-private partnership in the Monterey/Salinas region has
created a novel water recycling program that could serve as a
model for parched communities everywhere.
Vanderbilt paleoclimatologists using pioneering research
have uncovered evidence of ancient climate “whiplash” in
California that exceeded even the extremes the state has
weathered in the past decade. Their findings present a
long-term picture of what regional climate change may look like
in the state that supplies the U.S. with more than a third
of its vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts.
The state’s Ocean Protection Council has awarded $1.3 million
to preserving and safeguarding estuary habitat at Elkhorn
Slough, which boasts the second-largest tidal salt marsh in
California. The wetland, once degraded by farming activities
such as diking, is at risk of impacts from climate change —
particularly rising sea levels.
San Juan Bautista made progress on its water compliance
projects on Feb. 16 as the City Council unanimously approved
contracts for moving wastewater out of the city, financing, and
a formalized agreement with the San Benito County Water
District to provide water. On Oct. 15, the city opted to
send its wastewater to the Hollister Wastewater Treatment Plant
and to acquire potable water from San Benito County Water
District’s West Hills Water Treatment Plant.
The Santa Cruz City Council is poised to approve a 5-year
extension between the City and Soquel Creek Water Districts on
a pilot program that would funnel excess surface water to
Soquel Creek during winter months, in hopes of bolstering
overdrawn groundwater supply there. That surface water, on
average, is projected to be around 115 million gallons
delivered by Santa Cruz Water to Soquel Creek during the wet
season, which would take strain off pumping the Santa Cruz
Mid-County Groundwater Basin.
Texas has always seen its share of extreme weather events,
but over the past two decades they have intensified. A few
years ago, after the fifth “ 500-year flood” in five years, I
remarked to a friend, “We’re going to have to stop calling them
that.” … Of course, this uptick in extreme weather is
not limited to Texas. Numerous places across the country—and
indeed the globe—have experienced multiple “historic” weather
events in recent years. Last year, droughts in California led
to six of the largest wildfires in the state’s
history. In 2017 and 2018, British Columbia had two consecutive
record-setting forest fire seasons.
-Written by Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer
with over 25 years of experience in the energy
industry.
A few weeks after [California's late-January] storm, in early
February, eight scientists with a research consortium called
the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network, or MARINe, hiked
towards a beach smothered by one of the Big Sur debris flows.
The sour smell of decomposing creatures hit them. A few turkey
vultures nipped at the sand. There were dead sea stars,
chitons, and likely hundreds of dead black abalone. In a
previous visit to this site, scientists were able to count 150
black abalone or “abs” in a small 50-meter area, with hundreds
left uncounted. A fraction of the site’s population remained.
Ancient giant redwoods are among the charred survivors in Big
Basin Redwoods State Park after a wildfire last year. Now
rangers and conservationists are developing plans to better
protect them out of fear that the world’s tallest trees may not
survive future blazes that are almost certain to come.
The main weather excitement of the season thus far was
certainly the major late January atmospheric event that was the
focus of my last blog post. Despite missing some the details
during the early portion of the event (winds were stronger and
precipitation less intense than originally predicted), the
storm largely evolved as expected–stalling along the Central
Coast and bringing very heavy double-digit rainfall totals
there, as well as extremely heavy snowfall throughout the
Sierra Nevada (on the order of 3-8 *feet* in many places).
A recent webinar on trading of guaranteed future water prices
on the stock market showed the potential to drive up the price
tag of water for public agencies. During a Feb. 2 California
Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) virtual meeting,
water stock market advocates were clear that prices would rise.
However, they stated that it would be a good thing, because
water has been undervalued and therefore wasted. Their approach
would encourage more efficient use of water, they told the CDFA
board.
In two key developments for proposed Lake Nacimiento and Lake
San Antonio water projects, a $17 million state grant for fish
screens as part of the Interlake Tunnel project is in the works
again while a draft engineer’s report for a long list of
maintenance and repair work at the Monterey County-owned
reservoirs has been released.
Tuolumne Utilities District will continue to process
applications for new water hookups because its Board of
Directors failed Thursday to reach a determination on future
supply and availability. The TUD board held a special workshop
Thursday to grapple with the oldest challenge in county history
when it comes to water, but the big picture has not changed.
The district relies on the South Fork Stanislaus River
watershed that still provides a limited amount of runoff, an
average of 104,000 acre-feet annually, and typically has access
to less than one-quarter of that.
The state of California has changed its sea level rise guidance
for state agencies and coastal communities, now advising in new
“Principles for Aligned State Action” that Californians employ
a single sea level rise target — plan for 3.5 feet by 2050 — as
opposed to the more flexible approach the state used in the
past. But this single sea level rise number does not represent
the best available science and could make California less
resilient to climate change.
–Written by Robert Lempert, a senior scientist at
the RAND Corp. and a member of the Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change, and David Behar, climate program director at
the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and co-chair of
the World Climate Research Programme’s Sea Level Rise Grand
Challenge Committee.
A large Canada-based utility service company has unveiled a
proposal to construct and operate a Moss Landing desalination
plant using brackish water from wells at the mouth of the
Salinas Valley. According to a Jan. 28 presentation by Liberty
Utilities official Kim Adamson, the proposal calls for a desal
plant capable of producing up to 32,000 acre-feet of drinking
water per year at a cost of about $1,000 to $1,500 per
acre-foot for Salinas, Castroville and Marina, and perhaps even
eventually the Monterey Peninsula.
As the first heavy rains of the season poured across the Santa
Cruz Mountains last month, emergency responders and residents
braced for debris flows, road closures and power outages.
Others also feared for their drinking water…. Across the
West, water districts are grappling with new and increasingly
common challenges as fire seasons grow longer and blazes
consume more suburbs and smaller communities. These fires are
not only destroying people’s homes and treasured possessions,
they are leaving behind an array of incinerated plastics, lead,
pesticides and other toxic particles that have the potential to
contaminate water supplies.
The City of St. Helena has agreed to monitor local groundwater
levels and stream flows, averting a potential lawsuit from an
environmental advocacy group. Following months of negotiations,
the city and Water Audit California released a joint statement
Friday announcing the city will collect monthly water levels
and annual extraction totals for local wells and provide a
public, “scientifically useful” summary of the data. The city
will conduct a comprehensive review of its water system,
develop new protocols for using the city’s own Stonebridge
wells, and work with Water Audit on the installation of new
stream gauges along the Napa River, York Creek and Sulphur
Creek.
Sub-seasonal to seasonal forecasts could someday give western
water managers as much as a two-year head start in planning for
either a wet or dry winter. The scientific methodology already
exists for what is known as S2S precipitation forecasting, but
putting it to work requires improving weather and climate
models and buying enough super-computer time to run the models
to test them. Now, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) report could spur Congress to approve the
$15 million annual investment necessary to translate S2S
forecasting from concept to implementation through pilot
projects in the West.
In a tense, two-and-a-half-hour board meeting on Feb. 4 that
included more than 100 attendees, San Lorenzo Valley Water
District (SLVWD) broached the subject of a potential merger
with Scotts Valley Water District (SVWD). The reaction from
those who attended the Zoom meeting was anything but subtle:
the majority opposed the idea, and representatives of SLVWD
found themselves back on their heels from the opening salvo.
California is in the early stages of a severe multi-decadal
drought, exacerbated by the climate crisis. As Dan Walters
pointed out in his recent commentary, we must move quickly to
prepare for water shortages and wildfires. A potent strategy to
improve the state’s water storage capacity involves an ancient
technology so ubiquitous that it is often overlooked: soil. The
urgency of California’s drought and wildfire risks require that
we invest in soil health now. -Written by Ellie Cohen, CEO of The Climate
Center, and Torri Estrada, executive director of
the Carbon Cycle Institute.
Coastal cities and farming regions can maximize supplies by
teaming up. And it could help with critical infrastructure
funding and upgrading water trading policies.
A storm is forecast to bring rain to the Bay Area on Thursday
Feb. 11, 2021. After a stretch of sunny, dry weather, the first
significant rainfall is heading to the Bay Area since an
atmospheric river storm pummeled Northern California two weeks
ago. A new storm is forecast to roll in Thursday night,
forecasters said Tuesday. It won’t be anywhere near as big as
the late January storm that triggered landslide warnings and
evacuations in Santa Cruz County communities, and washed out a
big chunk of Highway 1 in Big Sur.
There is a possibility that residents of Santa Cruz could be
asked to ration water usage in the spring after dry summer and
fall seasons. Santa Cruz Water Director Rosemary Menard gave a
preliminary presentation of the city’s water outlook to the
City Council on Tuesday, shortly after the second half of the
wet season began. The presentation evaluated four factors to
project what the city’s water outlook will look like and
whether residents will need to ration water as the dry season
approaches.
The flood of state bills addressing sea level rise this year is
surging faster than the ocean itself, as legislators recognize
the urgent need to prepare for the consequences expected in the
decades ahead.
A concern over a potential lawsuit by state water officials
against the Monterey Peninsula water district could threaten an
affordable housing project in Monterey. In May, the board of
directors of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
reversed a staff recommendation and approved sending roughly 5
acre-feet of additional water — some 1.7 million gallons — for
one section of a Garden Road project that will be built out by
developer Brad Slama.
A new set of winery wastewater guidelines will be imposed on a
statewide basis. The State Water Resources Control Board
recently adopted a general order regulating how wastewater will
be processed and discharged. … While the wine industry
is concerned with water quality issues, there is some concern
that a statewide mandate may not be the best approach to the
issue.
Four new Monterey Peninsula representatives on key local water
and wastewater agency boards could have a big say on the future
of two Monterey Peninsula water issues — the proposed
California American Water public takeover and the Pure Water
Monterey expansion proposal. Last week, Monterey architect
Safwat Malek was unanimously chosen to replace Molly Evans as
Monterey Peninsula Water Management Agency Division 3
director …
Marina Coast Water District is small but influential in local
water issues, caught in the middle on various politically
fraught issues. For one, the water district—which is
adjacent to California American Water’s service area, but not
in it—has long been an antagonist to Cal Am. The one-time
partners on a now-defunct desalination project have been
embroiled in litigation over that former project for years. And
Marina Coast has been an outspoken leader in opposition to Cal
Am’s more recent proposed desalination project, fighting it
since the earliest steps.
If the natural water supply doesn’t meet the water needs of an
increased population, Marin is going to have to revisit the
idea of building a desalination plant. Currently, the largest
U.S. desalination plant in San Diego produces 50 million
gallons daily at a cost of one cent per gallon. That cost is
kept low given the San Diego’s plant is adjacent to a power
station. If Marin had to draw its power from MCE or Pacific Gas
and Electric Co., the cost would rise to 1.33 cents per gallon
or $10 per billing unit over and above normal water
charges. -Written by Rick Johnson, who worked 40 years with the San
Francisco Water Department as a senior inspector and revenue
recovery project manager.
Farm groups say a proposed regulatory permit known as the
Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program for Central Coast
agriculture, which regulates waste discharge from irrigated
lands throughout the Central Coast, would make it more
difficult for farmers to achieve the desired results, while
harming the region’s agricultural economy.
[FEMA] intends to provide federal financial assistance … to
the Santa Cruz County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District, Zone 7 in Santa Cruz County, California, to install a
sheet pile wall through the center of the existing Pajaro River
levee adjacent to the southern edge of the Watsonville
Wastewater Treatment Plant. The proposed action would protect
the plant flooding if the levee is compromised by river
erosion, slope failure, and seepage.
After a particularly wet week, Californians shouldn’t hang up
their snow shovels and raincoats just yet. Those in Southern
California should expect 1 to 8 inches of snow to fall in the
mountainous areas of Ventura and Los Angeles counties between
late Tuesday and Wednesday night, said Kathy Hoxsie, a
meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Elsewhere in Los Angeles County, one-quarter to one-half of an
inch of rain is forecast to fall, with 3/4 inches expected in
the foothills, Hoxsie said.
When Palo Alto officials adopted a position in 2018 in support
of the Bay-Delta Plan, which aims to protect the Yosemite
ecosystem by restricting how much water cities can draw from
the San Joaquin River and its tributaries, they knew were
swimming against the prevalent political tide. Prompted by
water conservationists and environmentalists, the City Council
went against recommendations from the city’s Utilities
Department staff and its water supplier, the San Francisco
Public Utilities Commission, which relies on the Tuolumne River
for much of its water.
In the driest years for Monterey County, the water available in
the Salinas River is not enough to supply a single household.
In the wettest year of the past three decades, 1995, there were
100,000 acre-feet of water available, more than the total urban
usage in the county. Although the flow fluctuates wildly, the
average amount is far more than what is needed, for example,
for thirsty coastal cities desperate for housing. The water has
been available for decades – the right to use it is protected,
encouraged and even required by state law – but it’s been
flowing into the ocean, a casualty of Monterey County’s
political deadlock.
Hundreds of California wineries will be governed by statewide
wastewater processing rules for the first time. The move
toward a statewide regulatory framework is a five-year effort
and was finalized this week by the State Water Resources
Control Board. The board approved an order setting up
guidelines for wastewater processing at most of the more than
3,600 bonded wineries in the state, reported the North Bay
Business Journal. The new order promises to bring at least
1,500 of those wineries into a regulatory framework for
wastewater disposal for the first time.
Ten days ago the state set new heat records and brush fires
broke out. Burn areas in the Santa Cruz Mountains rekindled.
Then, over the last three days, a 2,000-mile-long filament of
water in the sky burst over the areas that last week sat brown
and smoking. Snow fell on peaks and even some lower hills in
the Bay Area. The California Department of Water Resources
Central Sierra snow measurement station jumped from 42 percent
of average to 62 percent of average.
In order to get a wetlands permit needed for development of the
former Concord Naval Weapons Station to move ahead, the City of
Concord will investigate the source of water unexpectedly found
near the one-time airfield north of Willow Pass Road. The
Concord City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to move
$12,000 of previously approved loan money to aid in the study
of where water is coming from on that land, located east of
Olivera Road near the Pixieland Amusement Park.
Nearly half of food grown in the United States gets thrown out.
More food is tossed once it reaches a household fridge than at
any other point in the supply chain. With every strawberry that
doesn’t get eaten comes the wasted water to grow it, the wasted
gas to transport it, the methane it emits while it rots, and
crowded landfills.
A storm that pounded Northern California with rain, snow, wind
and mud rolled southwards on Thursday, prompting flood warnings
and threats of mudslides in areas burned bare by wildfires. An
atmospheric river of moisture from the Pacific Ocean was
expected to dump 1 1/2 to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain in
Southern California from Thursday night into Saturday, with
winds up to 50 mph (almost 81 kph), according to the National
Weather Service. But threats also remained in portions of
central and Northern California.
Atmospheric rivers are relatively narrow bands of moisture that
ferry precipitation across the Pacific Ocean to the West Coast
and are key to California’s water supply…. While
atmospheric rivers are necessary to keep California’s water
reservoirs full, some of them are dangerous because the extreme
rainfall and wind can cause catastrophic flooding and
damage. Their presence has been likened to the West Coast
version of the hurricane hazard posed to the southeastern
United States.
An expansion project [at Los Vaqueros Reservoir] started in
2010 and completed in 2012 raised the dam height 34 feet to 224
feet. It increased the storage capacity 60 percent to 160,000
square feet. It also expanded recreational uses and stepped up
habitat protection. The surface covers 1,400 acres and has an
elevation at capacity is 524 feet. Los Vaqueros is also
where the next significant increase in California reservoir
storage could be in place by 2028. The $915 million
project will raise the dam 55 feet to 273 feet. It would
increase storage from 160,000 acre feet to 275,000 acre feet.
A strong storm system brought heavy rain and powerful winds to
the Bay Area late Tuesday, increasing the risks of mudslides
and flash floods that have already prompted evacuations in some
parts of Northern California. An atmospheric river barreled
into the West Coast, causing flooding, evacuations and dropping
snowfall in the Sierra. In some places, including San Benito
County and Big Sur, the storm was expected to bring up to 10
inches of rain by Wednesday.
As a resident of Marina and the president of the Board of
Directors of Marina Coast Water District, I feel it is very
important to correct inaccurate statements provided by former
Congressman Sam Farr. Yes, MCWD has needed to expend legal fees
in the past few years; however, the bulk of those fees are to
protect our precious water source from California American
Water. Cal Am seeks to construct a desalination plant that will
degrade our sole water supply source, groundwater… -Written by Jan Shriner, president of the Marina Coast
Water District board of directors.
The biggest storm of the season is barreling down on Northern
California. The Sacramento region could see up to 3 inches of
rain this week – perhaps doubling the amount of rain we’ve
received for the entire winter season – as an extreme storm
arrives Tuesday afternoon. The cold, wet system will bring
dangerous winds to the region, localized flooding and up to 80
inches of snow – yes, that’s nearly 7 feet – to the summits on
Interstate 80 and Highway 50.
Winter weather is finally arriving in Northern California. And
after weeks of dry, warm conditions and growing drought
concerns, it’s coming in hard. Forecasters say a sizable storm
— the first significant atmospheric river event to hit the
greater Bay Area this winter season and likely the biggest
storm in at least 12 months — will soak much of California
starting Tuesday night, continuing Wednesday, and bringing wet
roads, downed trees, power outages and the possibility of
mudslides.
Former U.S. Rep. Sam Farr is calling for the Marina Coast Water
District to be investigated for fiscal mismanagement and merge
with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, even as
the district is involved in a lawsuit that has successfully
challenged its water rates and could have implications for the
entire Ord Community.
Oh, that the rain of the past few days would be enough. And,
perhaps it will be, if forecasts for more during the upcoming
week hold true. At the least, however, the rain that does fall
will not dampen the possibility of more fires. Think about
that: Fires in January?
California water issues are notoriously complicated by a
massive diversity of users, ecosystems, applications and
futures. Indeed, water in the Delta has been described as
a “wicked problem” indicating that these problems cannot
be ignored and defy straightforward characterization and
solutions. Below we highlight how a Swiss cheese model might be
applied to vexing long-term declines in native fish populations
in California.
The State Water Resources Control Board adopted a general order
for how wastewater is processed and discharged at winery
locations in an ongoing effort to safeguard groundwater and
surface water from wastewater discharges. The order protects
groundwater and surface water quality while giving wineries the
flexibility to select compliance methods that best fit their
site-specific situation, including tiering the compliance
requirements to the winery size and associated threat to water
quality.
California’s wildfire threat could ease over the next few
weeks, with a series of storms bringing much-needed moisture
after heat and drought torched record acreage in the state. The
first downpour is already spreading across Northern California
Friday, and that will be followed by progressively stronger
systems through next week …
High winds, dry vegetation and unseasonably warm weather fueled
several wildfires in Northern California on Tuesday as hundreds
of residents were forced to evacuate, state fire officials
said. Fire crews were working on multiple fronts to contain at
least five active fires that ignited within the CZU Complex
Fire burn area in Santa Cruz County. Several nearby
neighborhoods were evacuated and firefighters struggled to gain
access because of hazardous tree conditions from the previous
blaze, according to state fire officials.
If 2020 taught us anything, it is that ACWA member agencies are
highly skilled at delivering essential services to their
customers even during the most unexpected and unprecedented
times. As we gear up for the new year, our members continue to
impress with their collaborative and coordinated efforts on
vital issues affecting California water management, including
the implementation of additional long-term water use efficiency
strategies to increase resiliency in dry years.
About a mile of bare, cracked earth now lies like a desertscape
between the boat ramp at the north end of Lake Mendocino and
the water’s edge of a diminished reservoir that helps provide
water for 600,000 Sonoma and Marin County residents. The
human-made lake near Ukiah is about 30 feet lower than it was
at this time last year, and Nick Malasavage, an Army Corps of
Engineers official who oversees operations at the reservoir,
said the scene is “pretty jarring.”
We’ve reached a critical moment to take action for endangered,
wild coho salmon and the forests and watersheds they need to
survive. But we can’t do it alone. From keeping an eye out for
pollution in the environment to using reusable tote bags, there
are many actions we can take as individuals to help create a
healthy planet for us all. We’ve put together five ways to be
salmon-friendly in 2021…
For many years Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has operated the
“Potter Valley Project,” a hydroelectric facility on the main
stem of the Eel River consisting of Scott and Cape Horn dams
and a tunnel diverting water into the Russian River watershed,
where it is used to generate a small amount of electricity and
for irrigation by farmers in Potter Valley and farther south in
Sonoma County. The construction of Scott Dam in 1922
completely blocked passage of critically imperiled anadromous
fish including salmon, steelhead and lamprey…
Leaders of the largest water district in Silicon Valley decided
Tuesday to move forward with a plan to build a $2.5 billion dam
near Pacheco Pass in Southern Santa Clara County — in what
would be the largest new reservoir in the Bay Area in 20 years
— despite learning that the cost has doubled due to unstable
geology on the site. Although several board members of the
Santa Clara Valley Water District expressed concerns during
their meeting about the growing price tag, others said the
proposed project’s water storage is needed for the future…
Recognizing the groundbreaking nature of the Pure Water
Monterey recycled water project, the U.S Department of the
Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation has awarded the project a
$15.5 million grant.
While nearly everyone agrees the city should pursue programs to
help provide more housing, any enthusiasm is tempered by the
elephant in the room: water. “We’re in a double bind,” Monterey
Councilman Alan Haffa said. “The state is telling us to build
more housing but when we want to convert commercial to
residential the state says that might not be acceptable. We’ve
dramatically reduced the amount of water we are using but the
state seems to be saying it’s not a new water (source) so it
doesn’t count. I’ve got a real problem with that.”
As North County water stakeholders wait for the state’s
approval of a 20-year Paso Robles Groundwater Basin
sustainability plan, the State Water Resources Control Board
recently expressed concerns about whether that plan does enough
to reverse the basin’s decline and protect domestic well users.
The latest hurdle in the effort to bring the Monterey
Peninsula’s water system under public control is a lawsuit by
the utility that currently owns it, California American
Water… Cal Am accused the government agency charged with
acquiring the system of violating the law by failing to fully
analyze how a public takeover would impact the environment. The
Monterey Peninsula Water Management District certified its
environmental analysis on Oct. 29, finding no significant
impacts.
PG&E has agreed to pay $5.9 million to a local nonprofit as
part of a tentative settlement between the company and water
regulators that resolves a long-running investigation into
Diablo Canyon Power Plant and its cooling system’s impact on
the marine environment. The draft settlement is the result of
more than 20 years of investigation and monitoring at the
nuclear power plant site.
California American Water has sued the Monterey Peninsula Water
Management District challenging the environmental review of the
district’s potential public takeover bid of the company’s local
water system. At the same time, Cal Am’s oft-delayed
desalination project suffered another setback when California
Coastal Commission staff declared a revised application
submitted last month is incomplete, asking a series of
questions and for additional information that could delay the
proposal by several more months.
San Luis Obispo County recently launched a project aimed at
developing a groundwater sustainability plan for the Arroyo
Grande Subbasin and is calling for community members with wells
that tap into the basin to help improve the county’s water
level data. The Arroyo Grande Subbasin consists of a seven-mile
stretch extending from the Lopez Dam to Highway 101 and was
established as its own entity in 2019.
Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, said he was removed from the
chairmanship of the Governmental Organization Committee over
the No. 1 issue in his district — water. The Merced Democrat
lost a previous committee assignment because of his opposition
to State Water Board proposals to take flows away from
agriculture and other water users on the Tuolumne, Stanislaus
and Merced rivers.
A free-flowing creek will replace Central California’s highest
priority fish passage barrier as the Salmon Protection and
Watershed Network (SPAWN) completes a community restoration
project along San Geronimo Creek [in Marin County], one of the
most important watersheds left for endangered coho salmon.
All of San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties are now in severe
drought. So is most of Merced County. And the three watersheds
in the Central Sierra that the Northern San Joaquin Valley
counties rely on to meet urban and agricultural needs are in
moderate drought. Topping that, all three of the Central Sierra
reservoirs that do the heavy lifting for water storage for the
Northern San Joaquin Valley as of Tuesday were all
significantly below average capacity for Dec. 8.
The fire that rampaged through the San Lorenzo Valley in August
and September burned hotter and destroyed more acreage than
anyone in these rugged, rural and breathtaking mountains can
remember…Now the region is bracing for more devastation, in
the form of potentially deadly debris flows caused by winter
storms.
The Templeton Community Services District recently looked at a
set of potential water policy priorities … It includes
an incentive program for property owners who want to sell back
or “relinquish” their water units, the ability to transfer
water units between properties owned by the same individual, a
landscape retrofit program, and updating the way the district
calculates single-family dwelling unit equivalent water demand.
Mike Hoover, a Santa Barbara geologist, wants to remind us of
the Medieval Drought, the epic dry period that held California
and the West in its grip for 400 years, beginning in 950 CE….
It was so bad, he said, that it may have led to malnutrition
and warfare among the prehistoric Chumash.
Investigating historic debris flows is paramount to get insight
on which areas of Santa Cruz County could be at risk this
coming winter and beyond. California Geological Survey
scientists working with Santa Cruz County, and the U.S.
Geological Survey, are tracking what triggers debris flows
using drones, rain gauges and cameras.
A recent exchange of letters between a public utility and a
state water authority highlights the continued stalemate in the
effort by the Monterey Peninsula to develop a new water supply
and end the overdrafting of the Carmel River.
Fewer properties over the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin will be
subject to severe water restrictions after the San Luis Obispo
County Board of Supervisors voted on Nov. 17 to revise the
basin’s “area of severe decline,” eliminating roughly 37,000
acres.
“King tides are about one-to-two feet higher than an average
tide, and it turns out that is about what we expect to see in
California in the next few decades from sea level rise,” said
Annie Cohut Frankel of the California Coastal Commission. “We
invite the public to look at how these high tides are impacting
our public beaches, our beach access ways, wetlands, roads and
other coastal infrastructure.”
