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Topic: Central Coast

Overview November 11, 2018

Central Coast

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Aquafornia news March 30, 2023 Los Angeles Times

California tells Army Corps to speed up Pajaro levee repairs

It took a major disaster and the prolonged displacement of hundreds of farmworkers, but the small Monterey County community of Pajaro is finally getting the help and attention of federal, state and local lawmakers its residents have sought for decades. On Tuesday, California lawmakers sent a letter to Michael Connor, assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, urging him to speed construction on a levee that failed earlier this month, flooding the small town, and to provide immediate emergency relief funds to shore up the damaged infrastructure. In addition, Gov. Gavin Newsom requested a presidential major disaster declaration that, if approved, could bring support and relief to the more than 2,000 residents who had to evacuate as the Pajaro River poured onto their streets and into their homes.

Related articles: 

  • The Sacramento Bee: CA congressional delegation asks Biden grant storm support
  • Foothills Sun-Gazette: Residents question rebuilding as Woodlake extends emergency declaration
  • Manteca Bulletin: Harder pushes funding to fight ‘big rats’ threat to area levees
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Aquafornia news March 30, 2023 NPR

In California, leafy greens farmers both suffered from floods and welcomed the water

Most of the country’s lettuce and other leafy greens come from California’s Salinas Valley, where 13 atmospheric rivers this winter have obliterated local drought conditions. Farmers have welcomed the water and also sometimes struggled with the deluge. Reporter Amy Mayer has this look at what it all means for spring salads. AMY MAYER, BYLINE: Andrew Regalado and his father trudge through sticky mud on the edge of a field at World’s Finest Farm in Hollister, Calif. They’ve owned the organic vegetable and herb farm for about 17 years. In a creek bed just beyond the field, cloudy brown water leaps at the banks, and that’s days after floodwaters have mostly receded. Another storm is coming. ANDREW REGALADO: If this water’s still here, there’s a good chance we might get flooded again. Yeah, so it’ll be a tough year.

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Aquafornia news March 30, 2023 KQED - San Francisco

Could carbon removal be California’s next big boom industry?

Shaun Kinetic rests his hand on what looks like an out-of-place pile of hay bales. The bales, which are actually the leftovers from a corn harvest, sit under a shade structure in a parking lot in an industrial area of San Francisco sandwiched between highways. Those corn stalks, leaves and cobs would normally get plowed back into the field they came from in Half Moon Bay, or be left to decompose, releasing the carbon inside them back into the atmosphere. Only some of these leftovers are needed to maintain soil health and prevent erosion. … Unlike carbon capture, which involves trapping polluting greenhouse gasses at their source of emissions, carbon removal entails pulling the gas out of the atmosphere through either nature-based approaches, like conserving existing wetlands, or technological methods, like that used by Charm.

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Aquafornia news March 29, 2023 CBS - San Francisco

California lawmakers seek emergency funding for long overdue Pajaro River levee repairs

A coalition of federal lawmakers from California are pressing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to speed up extensive repair work on the Pajaro River levee system in Monterey County that has taken decades to begin despite multiple breaches of the levee, most recently on the night of March 10, when the entire community of Pajaro was evacuated because of flooding. In a letter to the Corps dated Monday, U.S. Sens. Alex Padilla and Dianne Feinstein and U.S. Reps. Jimmy Panetta and Zoe Lofgren asked the Corps to use emergency funding to expedite technical and direct assistance with the flood control work, speed up the review process and expedite the release of $149 million that was already approved for the levee project in late 2021 as part of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Related articles: 

  • NBC News: Decades of levee failures amount to disaster in a mostly Latino California town hit by floods
  • Civil Eats: California Farmworkers Are Underwater in More Ways Than One
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Aquafornia news March 29, 2023 KVPR - Bakersfield

In Corcoran, some fear a ticking time bomb lurks in the peaks of the Sierra Nevada

From his pickup truck, Fernando Estrada sees an ocean of water. … A dozen feet ahead of his truck, the asphalt disappears into seemingly endless blue, interrupted only by a lone shed or occasional power pole jutting from the surface. Estrada is witnessing the return of Tulare Lake. … Some Corcoran residents fear the Sierra’s majestic, snow-capped peaks have become a ticking time bomb – waiting to explode over the life many have created for themselves on the lakebed. As the weather warms, biblical amounts of water are waiting to gush into already-overloaded dams and rivers. That’s why Rosie Garza says she purchased a home flood-insurance policy on Friday. … Garza says “a lot of people” in Corcoran are scared of what’s to come, and are buying flood insurance fast.

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Aquafornia news March 29, 2023 CNN

Waterlogged California set to get more rain, wind and snow, exacerbating flooding concerns

A powerful Pacific storm continues to bring more rain, snow and damaging winds to California, a state already waterlogged from at least 12 atmospheric rivers that have delivered a barrage of rain and snow in recent months. Up to 3 inches of rain have fallen over the central California coast, and more is one the way Wednesday. Up to 4 feet snow is likely in the northern coastal mountain ranges and the Sierra by Wednesday. A slight, Level 2 of 4, risk for excessive rainfall remains across the central California coast through early Wednesday morning, with the expectation the risk will weaken throughout the day.

Related articles: 

  • NPR: Another storm is expected to bring more snow and flooding to California
  • Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom: Governor Newsom Expands Storm State of Emergency, Requests Presidential Major Disaster Declaration to Support Ongoing Response and Recovery 
  • Mercury News: Looming atmospheric river may put California at highest snowpack level ever. What’s your forecast?
  • Fox Weather: Bomb cyclone blasts California with heavy rain, high winds, mountain snow
  • SF Gate: Storm updates - See the ‘impressive’ area of low pressure off California coast
  • SF Gate: Why the Pacific Crest Trail will be more dangerous than ever this year
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news March 29, 2023 The Sacramento Bee

It’s a bad year for California salmon. Here’s how it hurts the economy and environment

State officials were supposed to take a conservative approach to approving salmon fishing season this year — and they did. California’s fishing season had been scheduled to open April 1. Instead, as a result of low salmon projections, the season has been canceled. Salmon provides more to the state than meets the eye. … According to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, salmon numbers are irregular during the three year life cycle. Data has shown that in years following wetter seasons fish stock has increased. Consequently there has been a decline in stock for years following drier seasons.

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Aquafornia news March 28, 2023 Mercury News

Opinion: California must provide a global model for coastal resiliency

This winter’s atmospheric river storms, coastal flooding, erosion, sea level rise, saltwater intrusion into rivers, and sedimentation dumping thousands of tons of soil into the ocean were only the most recent of the state’s disasters. The year 2022 alone brought a massive red tide in San Francisco Bay, the continued die-off of 95% of northern California’s kelp forest between the Golden Gate and Cape Mendocino, and a spike of gray whale deaths along the entire coast. Climate impacts threaten communities, both human and wild, ranging from whales and their ice-dependent Arctic prey to the 26 million people living in the state’s 19 coastal counties that, as of 2021, generated around 85% of the state’s $3.3 trillion dollar GDP.
-Written by David Helvarg, author and executive director of Blue Frontier, an ocean conservation and policy group. 

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Aquafornia news March 28, 2023 San Francisco Chronicle

Map shows unusual impact of California storms on the ocean

While the world’s oceans have hit a record high temperature, the Pacific Ocean off the California coast remains colder than average. In fact, in virtually no place in the world is the ocean so much colder than normal, according to a map from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. … The stormy weather is clearly a factor. The winds associated with storms have pushed water from the north to the south. The weather has also brought upwelling, when frigid water from the depths is pulled to the surface. San Francisco Bay has also been unusually cool.

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Aquafornia news March 27, 2023 The Guardian

They grow America’s strawberries. A vicious flood made them climate migrants

In the early hours of 11 March, pummeling rains wore down a levee on the Pajaro River, unleashing a torrent. [Theresa] Barajas, 50, had escaped with her daughter and grandson under the blare of sirens. But the floods swallowed the town – and perhaps their future here. … Most of the US’s summer strawberries are grown in the Pajaro valley and nearby Salinas, as are a number of other berries and greens. But without urgent government intervention and investment, the immigrant farm workers who pick them could become climate migrants. Many lack legal status, and are therefore ineligible for federal disaster relief funds or unemployment insurance. Even those who do are struggling to feed themselves and their families in one of the most expensive and under-resourced agricultural communities in the US.

Related articles: 

  • Mercury News: Monterey spent one-fifth what Santa Cruz did on Pajaro River flood control. Did that contribute to catastrophic levee break?
  • Monterey Herald: Monterey County agriculture - Flooding is watering down the bottomline
  • CalMatters: California floods, bank collapse expose infrastructure woes and whose safety we value
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  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news March 24, 2023 Mercury News

Pajaro residents cleared to return to flood-ravaged Monterey County farm town

Doris Padilla, 65, stood almost catatonic Thursday outside her mud-covered house on Florence Street in Pajaro, unable to begin the grueling work of rebuilding. Unlike the neighbors busying themselves shoveling contaminated mud and debris and moving waterlogged furniture and carpets out of their homes, Padilla just couldn’t move. She waited outside her house for her son to come home from work and start cleaning up. … Monterey County authorities Thursday morning lifted evacuation orders for the flood-ravaged farm town, allowing residents to return to their homes in most cases for the first time since they were forced to flee in the middle of the night March 11 after a levee failed upriver and inundated their community.

Related article: 

  • Mercury News: ‘They let us down’ – California flooding victims demand answers as town hall devolves into shouting match
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Aquafornia news March 24, 2023 Bloomberg

Battered California faces billions in storm damage to crops, homes and roads

The costs of California’s relentless winter storms keep rising. And outside of the human toll — with at least 28 people killed since January — the price will be measured in billions. The “bomb cyclone” that lashed San Francisco on Tuesday was the latest in an epic series of extreme weather events to hit California since New Year’s Eve. It blew out windows from skyscrapers, flung barges into a historic bridge, sent trees tumbling across roads, knocked down power lines, and threatened a major freeway as the waterlogged hillside beneath it started to collapse….The price tag for all this mayhem — road repairs, damaged homes, lost crops — won’t become clear for months. But the early estimates are sobering.

Related articles: 

  • Visalia Times-Delta: Community of Allensworth comes together to face historic flooding
  • YourCentralValley: Kings County faces ‘biblical’ floods
  • California Water Research Blog: Chaos in Tulare County shows need for advance flood planning
  • The San Diego Union-Tribune: Oceanside declares local emergency, will seek state & federal funding for storm response
  • Vox: Yes, there was just a tornado near Los Angeles. Is climate change to blame?
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news March 24, 2023 The Sacramento Bee

Is California still in a drought? Map shows latest conditions ahead of more rain, snow

For the first time in more than two years, much of the southwest portion of California is free of both drought and “abnormally dry” conditions. According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, Santa Barbara, Ventura and Orange counties are drought-free. San Diego and Los Angeles counties, although they show improvement in the last seven days, haven’t completely shaken “abnormal dry” and “moderate drought” statuses. The bird’s eye view: Every week, California moves further away from its once drought-stricken conditions. Most of the central Sierra, foothills, Central Valley and the entire coast have exited drought conditions. Roughly 64% of the state is drought-free.

Related articles: 

  • CNN: Record snowpack, nearly full reservoirs - Here’s the state of California’s drought after an epic winter
  • San Francisco Chronicle: Maps show areas of California where rainfall totals have surged above average
  • The Sacramento Bee: Lopez Lake reservoir spills during SLO County CA storm
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news March 23, 2023 Monterey County Weekly

Monterey Peninsula Water Management District moves forward with an attempted public buyout of private water utility Cal Am.

The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District … announced it has finalized its appraisal of Cal Am, the private utility water provider for the Monterey Peninsula, to buy it out in what could be a friendly—but likely hostile—attempted takeover. It will most certainly end up in court—Cal Am has repeatedly said it’s not for sale—but this is nonetheless a long-awaited moment. On Monday April 3, at 5:30pm in the Monterey City Hall council chambers, the district will host a public presentation outlining the methodology its consultants used in the appraisal, followed by a Q&A. But regardless, the die will have already been cast: the district’s statement notes that while the presentation is occurring, “it is expected that an offer to purchase the system will be made to Cal Am on or about the same time.”

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Aquafornia news March 23, 2023 NPR

Thursday Top of the Scroll: Why California’s drought won’t really end, even though it’s raining

The state has been deluged by storms this winter, hit by 12 atmospheric rivers that have led to evacuation orders, rising rivers and broken levees. In some parts of the Sierra Nevada, more than 55 feet of snow have fallen. With reservoirs filling up, many Californians are eager to put the severe, 3-year drought behind them. A major water supplier in Southern California recently lifted mandatory conservation rules that limited outdoor watering. Large parts of the state are now free of drought, according to the federal government’s Drought Monitor, which looks at rainfall and soil moisture. But in California, water shortages aren’t just due to a lack of rain, and the state’s chronic water problems are far from over.

Related articles: 

  • San Francisco Chronicle: Here’s where California reservoir levels stand after latest round of rain
  • Gizmodo: See How a Wild, Wet Winter Has Transformed California
  • Washington Post: Incredible images of a hurricane-like storm that walloped California
  • New York Times: What Does All This Rain Mean for California’s Drought?
  • Record Searchlight: As Lake Shasta rises 111 feet to fill to historic level, is California’s drought over?
  • Mercury News: Map – See California’s drought nearly disappear in just six months
  • KEYT – Santa Barbara: Often-dry Twitchell Reservoir east of Santa Maria filling up to dramatically high level
  • NBC: 5 deaths reported in California storms; rare tornado near Los Angeles tears off roofs
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news March 22, 2023 Axios

What a deluged California means for farmworkers

As the latest storm associated with a strong atmospheric river sweeps through California, already strained farmworkers across the state are bracing for yet another setback. The big picture: The rounds of atmospheric river events have decimated crops and reduced work opportunities for many of the state’s farmworkers, who lack access to social safety nets. What they’re saying: Hernan Hernandez, executive director of the nonprofit California Farmworker Foundation, tells Axios that lasting structural damages from the rounds of storms are compounding with the loss of work for farmworkers, particularly in Monterey, Santa Cruz, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.

Related article: 

  • AgAlert: Farms statewide hit by storms and floods
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Aquafornia news March 22, 2023 UC Santa Cruz

Scientists, policy leaders, and insurance experts meet to address climate risks

The March 16 Coastal Climate Resilience Symposium at the Seymour Marine Discovery Center focused on the role of insurance and nature-based solutions in reducing the risks of flooding and other natural disasters, which are being exacerbated by climate change and rising sea levels. Coastal scientists, insurance industry experts, and representatives of state and federal agencies came together at the meeting to address challenges and opportunities for building coastal resilience to climate change. The flooding from a levee breach in nearby Pajaro served as a somber reminder of the urgency of the issues they had gathered to discuss.

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Aquafornia news March 22, 2023 Associated Press

California faces more flooding after strong Pacific storm

A strong late-season Pacific storm that brought damaging winds and more rain and snow to saturated California was blamed for two deaths and forecasters said additional flooding was possible Wednesday in parts of the state. Tuesday’s storm focused most of its energy on central and southern parts of the state, bringing threats of heavy runoff and mountain snowfall. In the north, intense hail was reported in Sacramento, the state capital. Locally heavy rain and snowmelt may cause flooding Wednesday in southern California and central Arizona, the National Weather Service warned.

Related articles: 

  • Mercury News: ‘Explosively developed’ - Showers linger into Wednesday following Bay Area’s ‘once in every 10 year’ weather event
  • Los Angeles Times: California’s wild storm: The Fujiwhara effect, a bomb cyclone, even landspout, tornado warnings
  • Reuters: Storm-weary California lashed with 12th ‘atmospheric river’ cloudbursts
  • San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area flood risks linger in these spots after extreme storm slams region
  • CNN: More than 135,000 power outages reported in California after another atmospheric river brings heavy rain and hurricane-force winds 
  • New York Times: Scenes From Recent Atmospheric Rivers in California
  • New York Times: Two Dead After Winds Pummel a Weather-Beaten California
  • The Guardian: Heavy rain leaves LA highway flooded, wreaking havoc for commuters – video
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news March 22, 2023 KQED

Fewer than 10% of levees in the greater Bay Area have a federal flood risk rating

Atmospheric river-fueled storms have hammered the network of hundreds of levees in coastal counties near the San Francisco Bay — from the agricultural fields of Monterey County to urban places like San Leandro, Walnut Creek and Richmond to more rural parts of the North Bay. At least two major levees, in Salinas and Pajaro, have failed since New Year’s Eve. The levee breach along the Pajaro River, which divides Santa Cruz and Monterey counties, left the entire town of Pajaro in a deluge of water. More than 3,000 residents could be displaced for several weeks. The disastrous flood submerged a significant acreage of agricultural land there, and the mostly lower-income Latino community now faces overwhelming economic and housing uncertainty.

Related article: 

  • San Francisco Chronicle: Challenges mount for residents of flooded Pajaro who stayed behind
  • Santa Cruz Good Times: How the Pajaro Flooding is Impacting California 
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news March 21, 2023 ABC News

Amid extreme climate and natural disasters, is California still a desirable place to live and vacation? Experts weigh in.

Earthquakes, snow, wildfires, flooding, smog, fog, heat, drought — these are just some of extreme natural disasters and climate conditions experienced in the Golden State in any given year. California is notoriously the “land of extremes,” Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told ABC News. Snowpack from the winter could quickly melt into flooding come spring. Heat waves in the summer pave the way for wildfires in the fall. Now, intense moisture from atmospheric rivers is walloping the West Coast with an inundation of precipitation — oftentimes too much at once. A pervasive megadrought has been plaguing the region for decades and to top it off, tectonic shifts could cause an earthquake at almost any given moment.

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Aquafornia news March 20, 2023 Fox Weather

California crops lost after floods; how much of the US will feel the shortage?

Too much thing, rain, is sinking farmers’ bottom lines across California’s Central Coast. The area some call “America’s salad bowl” more resembles a soup bowl as round after round of atmospheric river-fueled storms overwhelmed farmland. We all may start to notice a difference in the grocery store as some staples become harder to find. FOX Weather brought you to Pajaro, California when the levee failed recently. The farming community in the Pajaro River Valley disappeared under feet of water. Similar scenes played out across the Salinas River Valley, another iconic farm area in Monterey County which is the fourth top agricultural producer in the state, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture.

Related article: 

  • Washington Post: California’s massive snowpack is driving fears of major farmland flooding
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Aquafornia news March 17, 2023 Inside Climate News

Roundup, the world’s favorite weed killer, linked to liver, metabolic diseases in kids

For Brenda Eskenazi, what once seemed merely a rich vein of epidemiological knowledge has turned out to be a mother lode. Eskenazi, who runs the Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas study (known as CHAMACOS, Mexican Spanish slang for “little kids”), has tracked pairs of mothers and their children for more than 20 years. She’s collected hundreds of thousands of samples of blood, urine and saliva, along with exposure and health records. … So when Charles Limbach, a doctor at a Salinas health clinic, saw an explosion of fatty liver disease in his young patients and found a study linking the condition in adults to the weed killer glyphosate, he contacted Eskenazi.

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Aquafornia news March 17, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Friday Top of the Scroll: As drought retreats across California, flood risk rises

Though California may be ending its winter with quenched reservoirs and near record snowpack, meteorologists are warning that the state will face increased flooding risk in the coming months as Sierra Nevada snowmelt fills rivers and streams. On Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s spring flood outlook reported that drought conditions will continue to improve in much of the state, but the potential for flooding will worsen in the face of heavy snowpack and elevated soil moisture. … The severity of that flooding remains to be seen, however, and depends on a variety of weather factors, experts say. … Potential triggers for rapid snowmelt could be an early season heat wave or another series of warm storms, Swain said …

Related articles: 

  • Associated Press: Drought over? Spring outlook finds relief — and flood risk
  • Los Angeles Times: Don’t put away the rain gear quite yet, California
  • Ventura County Star: Southern California’s Lake Piru spills due to rain storms
  • New York Times: A Very Wet Winter Has Eased California’s Drought, but Water Woes Remain
  • CA Department of Water Resources: Update on Lake Oroville Operations – March 16, 2023
  • Porterville Recorder: Ongoing battle - USACE monitoring Success Lake water releases
  • Visalia Times-Delta: Lake Kaweah reaches capacity, no evacuations in Visalia expected
  • Fresno Bee: Evacuation warning due to flooding concerns in new area of Tulare County, sheriff says
  • Mercury-News: “When can we go home?” Pajaro residents agonize as key question remains unanswered
  • Los Angeles Times: Drone photos show sharply higher California reservoirs 
  • ABC 7 – Los Angeles: Only 36% of California remains in drought after series of storms improve conditions statewide
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Aquafornia news March 17, 2023 KCBX - Central Coast

California storms are taking a toll on farmworkers like those in the town of Pajaro

California is finally seeing a break from the rain. That is giving people time to take stock of the damage in flooded areas, areas including the town of Pajaro in the state’s central coast. A levee broke there last weekend and forced thousands of residents, many of them farm workers, to evacuate. Farida Jhabvala Romero from member station KQED went there yesterday. And, Farida, what did you see? … The first thing is that the water has receded a lot in the main parts of town. And so I was able to drive through Main Street, which was impossible just a couple of days ago, when everything was underwater. And you could really tell the water mark about two to three feet up on building walls. You could tell the damage is going to be really extensive. I saw a beauty salon, for example, that was missing part of its front wall. 

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Aquafornia news March 17, 2023 Monterey Herald

Cal Am says it intends to sign water purchase agreement

After more than a year of wrangling, California American Water Co. has agreed in principle to sign an agreement to purchase water from a major expansion of a Monterey Peninsula water recycling project that when completed will provide for thousands of acre-feet of additional water. Evan Jacobs, external affairs manager for Cal Am, confirmed Thursday that what was agreed upon was a filing made by the state Public Advocates Office that gave Cal Am a portion of what it wanted. The filing still must be approved by the California Public Utilities Commission, or CPUC, but it’s the first time all sides have agreed in principle since September of 2021. The Public Advocates Office helps to ensure Californians are represented at the CPUC by recommending solutions and alternatives in utility customers’ best interests.

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Aquafornia news March 16, 2023 Farm Progress

Calif. strawberry fields devastated by flooding

The winter of 2022-23 has been devastating for California’s strawberry industry. After storms in December and January caused over $200 million in crop damage from wind, rain and floods, damage from recent flooding from the Pajaro and Salinas rivers in Monterey County has caused hundreds of millions of dollars more in losses, the California Strawberry Commission reports. The latest disaster comes as farmers had borrowed money to prepare the fields and were weeks away from beginning to harvest, said Rick Tomlinson, the commission’s president. As soon as the cleanup is complete, farmers will begin the process of preparing the fields and starting over, he said.

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Aquafornia news March 16, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Evacuations near California dam as storm breaks rainfall records

The 11th atmospheric river storm of the season left a trail of soggy misery in California as it broke decades-old rainfall records and breached levees this week. In the Tulare County city of Porterville, residents on both sides of the Tule River were ordered to evacuate Wednesday morning as levels rose at Lake Success, sending water running over the spillway at Schafer Dam. … Lake Success saw a significant increase in inflows overnight, peaking at nearly 19,800 cubic feet of water rushing in per second Wednesday morning, according to state data. Visalia and Porterville have declared a state of emergency. The increased flow from the spillway is adding more water to the river and tributaries below, both of which are already full from the last storm, Monteiro said, adding that there is “flood concern.”

Related articles: 

  • Inside Climate News: California, Battered by Atmospheric Rivers, Faces a Big Melt This Spring
  • Los Angeles Times: After homes flood in Tulare County, decision to pave over creek for new houses draws blame
  • Axios: California deals with flooding fallout from “potent” atmospheric river
  • CBS: Atmospheric river brings flooding, power outages and landslides to Southern California
  • KTLA – Los Angeles: Water rescues spike as storm flood Southern California roads, rivers
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Aquafornia news March 15, 2023 Monterey County Weekly

Pajaro/Sunny Mesa water system customers remain under “do not drink” order indefinitely

In the wake of flooding caused by a breach of the Pajaro River levee around midnight between March 10 and 11, the Pajaro/Sunny Mesa water systems were put on a “do not drink” order on March 11, just before 1pm.  That means even boiling the water, filtering it or otherwise treating it will not necessarily make it safe. That’s not because the water is known to be unsafe—it hasn’t been tested yet—it’s just that it might be.  Judy Varela with Pajaro/Sunny Mesa says that three wells have been impacted by the flooding, and it’s not known if any of the floodwaters have seeped down the well shafts and into the groundwater supply, and it’s also not yet known what contaminants, if any, are in those floodwaters. 

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Aquafornia news March 15, 2023 CalMatters

Storm flood: Can California aid those the feds exclude?

It was late Friday morning when muddy, brown water started rushing onto Michelle Hackett’s Salinas Valley farms. On one side of her family’s Riverview Farms cannabis business, a county-mandated retention pond overflowed. Next door, a farm abandoned by another grower — one of dozens of cannabis businesses to shut down in Monterey County in recent years — spawned another small river headed straight for Hackett and her skeleton crew. … Cannabis businesses like Hackett’s —  along with thousands of undocumented farmworkers and the area’s unhoused residents — fear they’ll be left to fend for themselves as yet another winter storm batters California’s Central Coast, local officials and advocates say. 

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Aquafornia news March 15, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: SoCal sees record rainfall as storm brings flooding, evacuations and power outages in NorCal

California’s 11th atmospheric river storm of the season barreled through a beleaguered state this week, dropping more rain and snow, sending thousands scrambling for higher ground and leaving more than 300,000 without power. The rain was expected to continue into Wednesday across Southern California, which saw rainfall records Tuesday. … The storm arrives amid near-record snowpack and one of California’s wettest winters in recent memory. Nine back-to-back atmospheric river storms hit the state in late December and early January, and a 10th deluged the state last week. Though conditions are expected to clear after the storm, the relief will be short-lived as yet another atmospheric river has set its sights on California next week, forecasters said — just in time for the first day of spring.

Related articles: 

  • CNN: Hundreds of thousands in deluged California are without power as state’s 11th atmospheric river sweeps through
  • Bay Area weather: Thousands in Monterey, Santa Cruz county evacuated — possibly for days
  • Eureka Times-Standard: Highway 101 washes out in SoHum; flood warnings issued in Humboldt County
  • USA Today: 350,000 without power as winter storms pound Northeast, California - Live weather updates
  • New York Times: California Levee Failures Mount as Storms Continue Relentless Drive
  • Lake County News: Clear Lake reaches ‘full’ level; county Health Services issues health advisory due to flood waters
  • LADWP: LADWP Makes Progress on Repairs to Storm-Damaged Los Angeles Aqueduct, Plans for Next Rain Event
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Aquafornia news March 15, 2023 Scientific American

Landslides kill and hurt thousands, but science largely ignores these disasters

This winter devastating floods and mudslides in California killed at least 17 people, closed roads for days and caused thousands to be evacuated. Mud and water ripped through the hillside town of Montecito five years to the day after a 2018 slide there killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes. Between 1998 and 2017 landslides and mudslides affected nearly five million people worldwide and took the lives of more than 18,000, according to the World Health Organization. In contrast, wildfires and volcanic activity killed 2,400. In the U.S. alone, slides and other debris flows kill 25 to 50 people every year. Yet by and large we don’t hear very much about hazardous slides. Tornadoes, volcanoes, wildfires and hurricanes get more headlines. They get more scientific attention, too.

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Aquafornia news March 15, 2023 The Sacramento Bee

How do Sacramento atmospheric river storms compare to January?

“Atmospheric river storm” is becoming part of Californians’ everyday vocabulary in 2023. Kicking off the year, these systems have been unrelenting. Floods, broken levees and record rain have berated communities across the state. There have been not one, two or five of these storms this year — but at least 10, the National Weather Service told The Bee. A silver lining: Drought conditions have improved dramatically. In Sacramento, the most notorious of these storms hit in early January, with the latest round the first two weeks of March.

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Aquafornia news March 15, 2023 Grist

How rising temperatures are intensifying California’s atmospheric rivers

California is no stranger to big swings between wet and dry weather. The “atmospheric river” storms that have battered the state this winter are part of a system that has long interrupted periods of drought with huge bursts of rain — indeed, they provide somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of all precipitation on the West Coast.  The parade of storms that has struck California in recent months has dropped more than 30 trillion gallons of water on the state, refilling reservoirs that had sat empty for years and burying mountain towns in snow. But climate change is making these storms much wetter and more intense, ratcheting up the risk of potential flooding in California and other states along the West Coast. 

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Aquafornia news March 14, 2023 Growing Produce

California’s blueprint for ag growth rooted in the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

The atmospheric rivers that flowed over California in January dumped about a foot of rain — equal to an entire year’s average — in many parts of the state’s parched Central Valley, which encompasses only 1% of U.S. farmland but produces 40% of the nation’s table fruits, vegetables, and nuts. With February, ordinarily the second wettest month, still to be counted, talks of all the land that will have to fallowed as a result of the drought have quieted for now. But most Golden State growers have come to realize that droughts will simply be a part of farming going forward, and the safety net is gone. That safety net was groundwater pumping. For more than a half-century, farmers in the Central Valley, the multi-faceted state’s chief production area, have been pumping more water from aquifers than can be replenished, causing wells to be drilled deeper and deeper.

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Aquafornia news March 14, 2023 Modern Farmer

To cultivate modern sustainability, a California wine region is turning to very old methods

Ask any of the wine grape growers planting own-rooted stock why they’re farming these massively risky grapevines and they’ll all tell you the same thing: They just want to make really great wine. But there’s another benefit to the gamble, too—unlike most American wine grapes, which are overwhelmingly grown on grafted rootstock, own-rooted vines are especially drought-tolerant, produce a more predictable crop and use significantly fewer resources. There’s a huge downside to using own-rooted vines, though. If they get attacked by phylloxera, the entire crop will die. It won’t be a loss of just one season’s grapes—the entire vineyard itself will be totally destroyed. And the invasive species is present in the soil in vineyards throughout America.

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Aquafornia news March 14, 2023 San Francisco Chronicle

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: Atmospheric river-fueled storm arrives in California. Here’s which areas will be in the bull’s-eye

California is once again bearing the brunt of inclement weather, as a low-pressure system off the coast rapidly intensifies and becomes a storm, tapping into another atmospheric river that’s flowing between Hawaii and California. The storm that started Monday night is forecast to raise powerful winds along the coast that will spread to all corners of the Bay Area, Central Coast and Central Valley and peak just before sunrise on Tuesday. These winds will ferry heavy rainfall, thunderstorms and the risk for more flooding across most of the California coast and eventually Southern California. 

Related articles: 

  • Los Angeles Times: New storm set to pound California — and another after that. What to know about March’s wet forecast
  • Mercury News: Highway 1 flood cuts off Santa Cruz and Monterey counties as another atmospheric river storm roars in
  • Los Angeles Daily News: Another storm system marching toward Southern California will bring rain, snowmelt, flooding
  • Mercury News: Flood map – More flooding forecast for Bay Area, Central California rivers. See the risk near you
  • CNN: Treacherous flooding is about to get worse in California as another atmospheric river closes in on storm-battered residents
  • New York Times: Another ‘Significant’ Atmospheric River Is Drenching California
  • SF Gate: Parts of Salinas Valley covered in water as river floods
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Aquafornia news March 14, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Age, drought, rodents and neglect weaken California levees, heightening flood danger

The levee breach that left an entire California town underwater this weekend is putting a spotlight on how the state’s vital flood control infrastructure is being weakened by age, drought, climate change, rodents and neglect — leaving scores of communities at risk. On Friday night, the swollen Pajaro River burst through the worn-down levee, flooding the entire town of Pajaro and sending its roughly 3,000 residents into what officials are now estimating to be a multi-month-long exile. A second breach was reported on Monday…. Experts say similar weaknesses plague levee systems across California and the nation. As climate change threatens to intensify and exacerbate extreme weather events — such as flooding and even drought — the unease and desperation of residents and emergency responders in communities near these crumbling systems is growing.

Related articles: 

  • Los Angeles Times: Before epic flood, officials knew Pajaro levee could fail 
  • San Francisco Standard: Devastating Images of Monterey County After the Pajaro River Levee Break
  • Insurance Journal: Storm Breached California River’s Levee, Hundreds Evacuated
  • Bay Area News Group: Flood fighters race to plug 360-foot levee breach along Pajaro River as next storm roars closer
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Aquafornia news March 13, 2023 Monterey Herald

Monterey Peninsula water district loses key lawsuit

Legal challenges to a Monterey Peninsula water district’s ratepayer fee that dates back a least a decade reached fruition this week when a judge ruled against the district and ordered it to stop collecting the fee. The ruling could have a huge impact on district revenues at a time when the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District is partnering with Monterey One Water to invest in the Pure Water Monterey expansion project, which the district says could supply enough water to the Monterey Peninsula for the next few decades. At issue are two fees. The first is a “user fee” that was collected as a pass-through charge on California American Water Company’s bills. But state regulators in 2011 ordered a halt to it, so the district created another fee called a “water supply fee” that was collected through property taxes. 

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Aquafornia news March 13, 2023 MSN

El Niño queues up as three-peat La Liña ends: What it means to California

After enduring historic drought conditions exacerbated by three years of the La Niña weather phenomenon, California is finally free from her clutches, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday. However, El Niño may be looming, and with it, comes a whole new set of weather and climate challenges. Unlike the typically dry years La Niña brings to California, El Niño tends to bring increased chances of torrential storms, flooding, mudslides and coastal erosion. It typically occurs every three to five years when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer than average. This week, the World Meteorological Organization forecast a 55 percent chance of an El Niño developing heading into autumn.

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Aquafornia news March 13, 2023 Mercury News

Oroville Dam floodgates opened as storms fill massive reservoir

In another sign that the drought is ending across much of California, state water officials opened the floodgates at Oroville Dam on Friday to let water out of the state’s second-largest reservoir to reduce the risk of flooding to downstream communities. … At noon, water began cascading down the huge concrete spillway for the first time in four years. On Friday, Oroville reservoir was 75% full — or 115% of its historical average for early March. It has risen 180 feet since Dec. 1, and continued to expand steadily with millions of gallons of water pouring in from recent storms.

Related articles: 

  • The Sacramento Bee: Central Coast reservoir spills for first time in 18 years 
  • Sacramento Bee: As California gets drenched, officials opening Oroville Dam spillway for first time in 4 years
  • SFist: Some Bay Area Reservoirs Overflowing Amid Recent Rain
  • KRCR – Redding: DWR slightly increases release rate for Oroville Dam
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Aquafornia news March 13, 2023 CNN

Monday Top of the Scroll: Another atmospheric river is coming for California, where neighborhoods already are flooded and hundreds are in shelters

Still reeling from storms that inundated neighborhoods, forced rescues and damaged roads, storm-battered California is bracing for another atmospheric river that threatens even more flooding Monday. More than 17 million people remain under flood watches across California and Nevada early Monday as the storm makes its menacing approach – the 11th atmospheric river to hit the West this winter season. The new storm, arriving on the heels of another atmospheric river, could exacerbate flooding and damage in some places. Already, those in the central and northern parts of California are crowding into shelters and dealing with flooded neighborhoods, along with mudslides, dangerous rushing rivers, collapsed bridges and unusable roads.

Related articles: 

  • Weather West: Another strong storm may bring even more substantial and widespread flooding & wind-related impacts late Mon-Tue
  • Los Angeles Times: Battered by destructive flooding, California braces for another atmospheric river storm
  • Record Searchlight: Northern California storm could bring rain, wind and possibly funnel clouds
  • Mercury News: Flooding puts Interstate 880 in Fremont under water
  • SF Gate: ‘Life-threatening’ flash floods devastate small California town
  • CBS – Sacramento: Sacramento River levels rise with more rain in the forecast
  • Capital Public Radio: Latest atmospheric river expected Monday night, renewing flood concerns in Sacramento region
  • Red Headed Blackbelt: Multiple Waves Of Rain Will Bring Flooding Over The Next Few Days, Warns The National Weather Service
    Chico Enterprise-Record: Butte County water rescue squad heads to Central Coast to assist in flood effort
  • Santa Maria Times: New residents – and water – flood into the new city of Santa Maria
  • Fox 5 – San Diego: As atmospheric river exits, a new storm threatens California
  • Sacramento Bee: It’s no longer a matter of if but when a catastrophic flood will hit Sacramento
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Aquafornia news March 10, 2023 Monterey Weekly

Judge rules against Monterey Peninsula Water Management District in lawsuit about surcharge

In the coming years, Cal Am ratepayers could see a surcharge on their property tax bills disappear. Or, maybe not.  On March 3, Monterey County Judge Carrie Panetta ruled that the continued collection of the surcharge—which is collected by California American Water and then paid to the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District—violated the sunset clause in an ordinance MPWMD approved in 2012 to create that charge. Collectively, it costs Cal Am ratepayers about $3.4 million annually.  The reason that charge might not go away soon is that on March 20, MPWMD’s board will be meeting in closed session to decide, among other things, whether or not to appeal the ruling. If they do appeal, it could take a couple of years or more before the appeal is decided.

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Aquafornia news March 10, 2023 Patch - Berkeley

UC Berkeley researchers present plan for freshwater conservation

The 30×30 initiative is a global effort to set aside 30% of land and sea area for conservation by 2030, a move scientists hope will reverse biodiversity loss and mitigate the effects of climate change. Now adopted by state and national governments around the world, 30×30 creates an unprecedented opportunity to advance global conservation. When it comes to the water side of 30×30, most programs focus primarily on conservation of oceans, but a new study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley argues that freshwater ecosystems must not be neglected. Published Tuesday in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, the paper urges policy makers to explicitly include freshwater ecosystems like rivers, lakes, and wetlands in 30×30 plans, and outlines how their conservation will be critical to achieving the initiative’s broader goals.

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Aquafornia news March 8, 2023 Monterey County Weekly

Opinion: Cal Am is conspicuously absent as Pure Water Monterey celebrates a milestone

Sara Rubin here, looking at a glass of water on my desk and appreciating all of the technology and infrastructure and people behind the scenes who worked to bring me that water. Specifically, I am thinking about Pure Water Monterey, a high-tech water recycling system at Monterey One Water in Marina, that uses a four-step process to treat wastewater—the same stuff that goes out the drains of our showers and gets flushed down our toilets. The four-step process includes ozone pre-treatment, membrane filtration, reverse osmosis and oxidation with UV light and hydrogen peroxide. Like I said—to all of you working to build this stuff and get me my glass of water, thank you.
-Written by Sara Rubin, editor of the Monterey County Weekly.

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Aquafornia news March 8, 2023 CalMatters

Newsom budget would slash funds that protect coast

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed budget would cut funding for coastal resilience projects almost in half, eliminating more than half a billion dollars of state funds this year that would help protect the coast against rising seas and climate change. The cuts are part of Newsom’s proposed $6 billion in reductions to California’s climate change programs in response to a projected $22.5 billion statewide deficit. California’s coastal resilience programs provide funding for local governments to prepare coastal plans and pay for some projects that protect beaches, homes and infrastructure at risk from rising sea levels. Greenhouse gases are responsible for warming the planet, which melts ice and causes sea levels to rise.

Related articles: 

  • Marin Independent Journal: Santa Venetia flood berm project faces huge funding gap
  • Yuba Water Agency: Yuba Water unveils plans and priorities for future flood risk reduction work
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Aquafornia news March 7, 2023 The New York Times

Central Valley farmworkers struggle to recover after floods

In 1910, the Los Angeles real estate developer J. Harvey McCarthy decided that this small agricultural town in the Central Valley would be his “city beautiful,” a model community and an automobile stop along the road to Yosemite. An infusion of money brought Planada a bank, hotel, school, church and its own newspaper, the Planada Enterprise, by the following year. A celebration for the town’s first anniversary drew an estimated 10,000 people (though Planada had only several hundred residents) as the city had become the best-known place in Merced County. But McCarthy eventually abandoned the community, located nine miles east of Merced, leaving its settlers to pick up the pieces. It remained a farming town and is now home to 4,000 mostly low-income and Spanish-speaking residents who work at nearby orchards.

Related article: 

  • KPBS: Winter storms cause mix of relief and frustration for local farmers
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Aquafornia news March 7, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Is El Niño returning? What it means for California

The stubborn La Niña climate pattern that gripped the tropical Pacific for a rare three years in a row is waning, and the odds of an El Niño system forming later this year are getting stronger, according to recent meteorological reports. The El Niño-La Niña Southern Oscillation, sometimes referred to as ENSO, has a major influence on temperature and rainfall patterns in different parts of the world, with La Niña often associated with drier-than-normal conditions in California, especially the southern part of the state. El Niño, on the other hand, is linked to an enhanced probability of above-normal rainfall in California, along with accompanying landslides, floods and coastal erosion, though it is not a guarantee.

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Aquafornia news March 7, 2023 CA Department of Water Resources

News release: DWR and partners promote California’s hidden water resource during Groundwater Awareness Week 2023

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) today kicked off National Groundwater Awareness Week 2023 with an engaging educational event held at the California Natural Resources Agency headquarters in Sacramento. The event featured an array of groundwater partners who provided presentations describing their work in groundwater and why groundwater is such an important water resource in California. After the presentations, the in-person audience visited educational stations where they engaged with the day’s speakers and other groundwater professionals.

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  • Lodi News: Eastern San Joaquin groundwater plan gets a thumbs up
  • Agri-Pulse Communications: California to develop groundwater trading strategy
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Aquafornia news March 6, 2023 San Francisco Chronicle

California could get hit with new atmospheric river this week, and consequences could be concerning

Northern California could be in for a new atmospheric river storm by the end of the week, potentially blasting the Bay Area with substantial rain, and the Sierra with even more heavy snow, but likely not as fierce as the wet storms that wreaked damage across the region at the start of the year, forecasters say…. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA and the Nature Conservancy, said Sunday evening that an atmospheric river could be a concern regarding the state’s snowpack, which on Friday reached its highest level this century for the start of March. Such rain-on-snow events — when heavy rain falls on snow in higher elevations — could result in snow melting faster, flooding downstream areas, overwhelming rivers and overloading buildings with heavy slush, weather experts say.

Related articles: 

  • Bloomberg: California Braces for More Heavy Rains and Flooding
  • Modesto Bee: What might happen if a wet spring follows the Modesto watershed’s plentiful winter?
  • Action News – Chico-Redding: More snow on the way, are people in Paradise feeling snow fatigued?
  • San Diego Union-Tribune: San Diego County’s drought level falls to lowest point in 2 years
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Aquafornia news March 3, 2023 Monterey County Weekly

Opinion: Exploring solutions for the Salinas Valley’s water needs

David Schmalz here, thinking about water. More specifically, I’m thinking about the water supply in the northern Salinas Valley, which has long been in a critical state of overdraft.  In last week’s issue of the Weekly, I wrote a story about how seawater intrusion continues to worsen in the northern part of the valley, which is a result of that overdraft. In natural conditions, without any pumping, the water in the aquifers moves downward, toward the Monterey Bay, but when over-pumping occurs, that pressure differential reverses as groundwater levels decline—seawater starts to intrude inland into the aquifers, eventually reaching a point of salinity to where it can’t be used to irrigate crops.
-Written by Weekly columnist David Schmalz.

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  • Monterey Weekly: As the proposed Interlake Tunnel project advances, the question is: Is it worth it? 
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Aquafornia news March 3, 2023 CalMatters

Friday Top of the Scroll: State rejects local plans for protecting San Joaquin Valley groundwater

State water officials on Thursday rejected six local groundwater plans for the San Joaquin Valley, where basins providing drinking and irrigation water are severely depleted from decades of intensive pumping by farms. The plans — submitted by local agencies tasked with the job of protecting underground supplies — outline strategies for complying with a state law requiring sustainable groundwater management. The Department of Water Resources deemed the plans inadequate … Groundwater depletion has hurt the San Joaquin Valley’s small, rural communities, home to many low-income Latino residents who have been forced to live on bottled water and drill deeper wells, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Related articles: 

  • Courthouse News Service: California groundwater management agencies falling behind on conservation goals
  • SJV Water: State rejects six San Joaquin Valley groundwater plans, which could bring enforcement action
  • Community Water Center: Department of Water Resources Rightfully Rejects Six Inadequate Groundwater Plans, While Approving Other Faulty Plans That Leave Drinking Water Users At Risk
  • California Department of Water Resources: California Advances Groundwater Sustainability with Release of Decisions for Management Plans in Critically Overdrafted Basins
  • CBS – Sacramento: Severe storms not enough to recharge California’s groundwater
  • Ridgecrest Independent: Ridgecrest City Council to hear about groundwater less often
  • Ridgecrest Independent: IWVGA enters agreement with Navy, BLM
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Aquafornia news March 2, 2023 KSBW - Monterey

Record rainfall out to sea has water agencies talking about tapping the potential

The Carmel River Watershed has seen record rainfall this winter beating out 1998 for the wettest year to date and the rain is not done yet. But most of that water won’t end up in your tap instead it’s flowing out to the ocean. … That 91,000 acre-feet is equivalent to roughly 29.6 million gallons of water going out to sea or nine years’ worth of drinking water for the Peninsula. … Not every drop of rainwater this winter went out to the Pacific. To date his water year the Peninsula’s water utility California American Water has banked about 500 acre-feet of water off the Carmel River, less than a tenth of what the Peninsula will use in a year, the water’s been piped to the Seaside Basin and stored in injection wells.

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  • Capitol Weekly: Opinion: Solutions for Prioritizing Investment in California’s Critical Water Infrastructure
  • UCI Podcast: Evaluating California’s flood risk
  • ERA Economics: Urban stormwater runoff - Waste or resource?
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Aquafornia news February 28, 2023 Water Talk Podcast

Episode 42: Regenerative Viticulture — Water Talk

A conversation with UCCE Viticulture Advisor Dr. Chris Chen (Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino Counties) and soil scientist Noelymar Gonzalez-Maldonado (UC Davis) about regenerative viticulture, soils, and climate resilience in vineyards. Released February 24, 2023.

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Aquafornia news February 28, 2023 Santa Cruz Sentinel

Going with flow: How the Santa Cruz water treatment plant took on January’s storms

January’s relentless storms brought power outages, floods, landslides and falling trees. But Santa Cruz residents had one critical resource they never had to worry about  — clean drinking water. … Santa Cruz draws drinking water from multiple surface water sources. It’s a complex system and it keeps the operators on their toes, especially during storms. … Loch Lomond Reservoir, which is held by the Newell Creek Dam, holds about one year’s worth of drinking water supply. That supply, which workers sometimes refer to as “the lake,” can be pulled in for treatment as needed, but operators try to use other sources first. “We kind of look at the lake as it’s a reserve for the dry years,” said Ben Curson, a water treatment operator.

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Aquafornia news February 27, 2023 California WaterBlog

Blog: Will more wildfire and precipitation extremes mussel-out California’s freshwater streams?

Apocalyptic scenes of wildfires and floods are now familiar to Californians. However, the ecological impacts from these events remain understudied in California and across the world. Gaps in awareness and understanding on the issue are especially intense for freshwater mussels, whose cryptic and sedentary life-histories belie their importance to freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity (see previous post on freshwater mussels). One difficulty in studying effects of wildfire on freshwater ecosystems is that there is often a “right time in the right place” factor to appropriately conduct the science. For example, researchers and biologists often need to be studying a population or ecosystem before a burn so effects afterwards can be quantified – ideally alongside nearby unaffected control sites. Yet such natural experiments are rare because we never know when and where major wildfires will strike.

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Aquafornia news February 27, 2023 The Sacramento Bee

Morro Bay wastewater treatment goes online ahead of deadline

Morro Bay officials celebrated the start of operation for the city’s $160 million wastewater treatment facility — months ahead of a state-imposed deadline — on a chilly, rainy Thursday morning. The Morro Bay Water Resources Center is the largest municipal project in the city’s history, Scott Collins, Morro Bay’s outgoing city manager, said at Thursday’s ceremony. Located at 555 South Bay Blvd. south of town, the new sewage treatment facility will use “scientifically proven, advanced purification processes,” including reverse osmosis and ultraviolet advanced oxidation, according to a news release. The plant processes an average of 1 million gallons of wastewater a day, but can process up to 8.14 million gallons per day during storm events, according to engineer Erick Bevington.

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Aquafornia news February 27, 2023 The New York Times

Why it’s hard for California to store more water underground

Despite the storms that have deluged California this winter, the state remains dogged by drought. And one of the simplest solutions — collecting and storing rainfall — is far more complicated than it seems. Much of California’s water infrastructure hinges on storing precipitation during the late fall and winter for use during the dry spring and summer. The state’s groundwater aquifers can hold vast quantities of water — far more than its major reservoirs. But those aquifers have been significantly depleted in recent decades, especially in the Central Valley, where farmers have increasingly pumped out water for their crops. And as Raymond Zhong, a New York Times climate journalist, recently reported, the state’s strict regulations surrounding water rights limit the diversion of floodwaters for storage as groundwater, even during fierce storms …

Related articles: 

  • ABC 7 – Los Angeles: Orange County Water District looks to replenish groundwater basin for the 2nd time this year
  • CA Natural Resources Agency: 6 ways California is capturing & storing water from storms 
  • KSBW – Monterey: Record rainfall out to sea has water agencies talking about tapping the potential
  • Hanford Sentinel: Kings River runoff estimated at 180%
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Aquafornia news February 23, 2023 Monterey Herald

Critical Carmel River fish rescue facility damaged in flood

Among the homes and businesses severely damaged by flooding along the Carmel River on Jan. 9 was a critical steelhead trout facility protecting the endangered fish that have suffered because of over-pumping of the river to provide drinking water for the Monterey Peninsula. Operated by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, the Sleepy Hollow Steelhead Rearing Facility in Carmel Valley was designed in the early 1990s and came online in 1996 to rescue federally listed endangered steelhead trout that have been cut off from upstream spawning grounds. The over-pumping has turned parts of the river into ponds that trap the steelhead. 

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Aquafornia news February 22, 2023 KCBX - Central Coast

Cal Poly beekeeper optimistic about local honeybees after winter rains

Honeybees are essential pollinators for our local and global food supply, and after years of drought and other threats, a local beekeeper is optimistic about the coming season. Jeremy Rose teaches beekeeping at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. He also owns a local bee business. He said honeybee colonies managed by beekeepers live in wooden boxes that stack on top of one another. The boxes have small openings so the worker bees can go in and out.

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Aquafornia news February 22, 2023 KTLA - Los Angeles

Winter storm to boost California’s snowpack at the right time

A significant winter storm is expected to deliver heavy rain and snow to a wide swath of the United States this week, from the West Coast to the Northeast. Cold air from Canada will interact with a pair of fronts, causing “numerous weather hazards” and abnormal temperatures while “almost all of the country [experiences] some form of notable weather,” the National Weather Service said. Snow accumulation of 1 to 2 feet is expected for most mountain ranges across the West, where the storm is arriving at an ideal time to lift the region’s already impressive snowpack. As of Tuesday, snowpack in California was sitting at 174% of normal for Feb. 21, according to the California Department of Water Resources. Regionally, the Southern Sierra was at 208%, Central Sierra at 176% and the Northern Sierra/Trinity at 144%.

Related articles: 

  • Los Angeles Times: Frigid storm to slam California: Blizzard warning for local mountains, snow at low elevations
  • San Francisco Chronicle: Bay Area to experience very unusual snow event in parts of the region
  • Weather West: Substantial (very) low elevation snowfall possible later this week in CA as cold and active weather pattern develops
  • EarthSky blog: Pacific winter snowstorm coming … again
  • USA Today: 23 million Americans under winter storm warnings as blizzards barrel across Midwest, West
  • NBC – Bay Area: Climate in Crisis - Wildfire Impact on Sierra Snowmelt
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Aquafornia news February 22, 2023 The New York Times

Parched California misses a chance to store more rain underground

It sounds like an obvious fix for California’s whipsawing cycles of deluge and drought: Capture the water from downpours so it can be used during dry spells. Pump it out of flood-engorged rivers and spread it in fields or sandy basins, where it can seep into the ground and replenish the region’s huge, badly depleted aquifers. … Yet even this winter, when the skies delivered bounties of water not seen in half a decade, large amounts of it surged down rivers and out into the ocean. Water agencies and experts say California bureaucracy is increasingly to blame — the state tightly regulates who gets to take water from streams and creeks to protect the rights of people downriver, and its rules don’t adjust nimbly even when storms are delivering a torrent of new supply.

Related articles: 

  • Ag Alert: Farmers race to sink water into ground after storms
  • Red Bluff Daily News: Tehama County Groundwater Commission to go over well registration program
  • Modesto Bee: TID farmers will get full water allotments, and then some, thanks to wet weather 
  • Western Water Rewind: California Water Agencies Hoped A Deluge Would Recharge Their Aquifers. But When It Came, Some Couldn’t Use It 
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Aquafornia news February 21, 2023 Santa Cruz Sentinel

Opinion: Finding sanctuary: Plastics threaten the marine sanctuary

Nine atmospheric rivers hit California from Dec. 27 to Jan. 16, with an average of 12 inches of rainfall, including nearly 40 inches in Santa Cruz. Almost half of the rainfall on the Central Coast entered Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary (MBNMS) through rivers and streams, carrying with it millions of tons of natural and human-made debris.  Human debris comes in many forms, much of it consisting of lightweight and mass-produced plastic products used by Californians every day…. Aside from the eyesore marine debris evokes, plastics may have acute and chronic effects on the marine ecosystem and its inhabitants. 
- Written by Lisa Wooninck, superintendent of NOAA’s Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.  

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Aquafornia news February 21, 2023 Mercury News

Winter rain thrills winemakers, even amid threats of mudslide, ‘wet vintage’

As Prudy Foxx walked through rows of ripening fruit at several vineyards nestled among the Santa Cruz Mountains last September, she cringed at the spindly shoots rising from the stocky grapevine trunks. … A similar scene played out last fall at many vineyards around the Bay Area: years of drought taking a destructive toll on the vines, threatening a billion-dollar industry and putting more stress on California’s scant stored water resources. Then, like a “godsend,” the rains came. Over several weeks in December and January, storms dropped more than a foot of rain on Northern California, smashing historic records and leaving a wide swath of devastation in their wake. 

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Aquafornia news February 21, 2023 Mercury News

Q & A: What California’s winter storms mean for future – UCSC professor weighs in

For three weeks after Christmas, California was pounded with a series of nine atmospheric river storms. The drenching rains replenished reservoirs that had been seriously depleted during three years of severe drought. But they also caused flooding from the Central Valley to Santa Barbara, triggering mudslides, sinkholes and power outages, and left 22 people dead. Along the coast, big waves ripped a 40-foot hole in the Capitola Wharf, destroyed facilities at Seacliff Beach State Park, flooded homes, wrecked businesses and caused millions of dollars in erosion. For the past 55 years, Gary Griggs, a Distinguished Professor of Earth Sciences at UC Santa Cruz, has studied big storms, sea level rise and California’s changing coastline. UCSC’s longest-serving professor, he is one of the nation’s experts in the ways oceans reshape the land. 

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Aquafornia news February 17, 2023 Coastal View

More than 400 sign petition to end debris transportation to local beach

A Change.org petition asking the city of Carpinteria and Santa Barbara County to stop moving rock and sand from local basins onto the Carpinteria beach has amassed over 400 signatures, quickly gaining traction across local social media channels since its launch late last week. The petition – created by Carpinteria resident Michelle Carlen – urges the city, the county and First District supervisor Das Williams to “stop using (the area) as a dumping ground.” … The debris removal began in January, through the Santa Barbara County Flood Control, following the rough storms where debris and other items flooded nearby debris basins. Workers began clearing out the Arroyo Paredon, Santa Monica and Toro Canyon debris basins, removing rocks and sediments to Carpinteria beach near Ash Avenue.

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Aquafornia news February 17, 2023 Envirotech Online

Blog: How do we monitor the pollutants produced by desalination?

Monitoring the pollutants that result from desalination is critical for ensuring that the process is carried out in an environmentally sustainable manner. There are several instruments that are commonly used to monitor pollutants in the marine environment, including chemical sensors, optical sensors, and biological indicators.  Chemical sensors are used to measure the concentration of various pollutants in the water, including heavy metals, organic matter, and pathogens. These sensors can be deployed in real-time, providing continuous monitoring of water quality, and can be used to detect changes in water quality over time. Some chemical sensors are also capable of measuring multiple parameters simultaneously, which can help to provide a more comprehensive picture of water quality. 

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Aquafornia news February 17, 2023 CalMatters

Floods, fires, droughts show California needs bigger safety net for farmworkers, advocates say

Torrential rains and floods submerged whole towns and killed more than 20 people in parts of California in January. They also caused thousands of farmworkers to lose weeks of pay because the flooded fields and orchards were surrounded by treacherous, watery and muddy roads. The steep storm-related losses — along with recent revelations that some farmworkers are living in substandard conditions — are bolstering advocates’ argument that California should expand its safety net to help its agricultural workforce survive such setbacks. Some lawmakers are listening to them. State Sen. María Elena Durazo and Assemblymembers Wendy Carrillo and Miguel Santiago — all Democrats from Los Angeles — introduced SB 227, which would create an Excluded Workers Program to pay undocumented, unemployed workers $300 per week for each week of unemployment, up to 20 weeks.

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Western Water August 12, 2022 Nick Cahill California Groundwater Map WESTERN WATER-Could Virtual Networks Solve Drinking Water Woes for California’s Isolated, Disadvantaged Communities? By Nick Cahill

Could Virtual Networks Solve Drinking Water Woes for California’s Isolated, Disadvantaged Communities?
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: UCLA pilot project uses high-tech gear in LA to remotely run clean-water systems for small communities in Central California's Salinas Valley

UCLA’s remote water treatment systems are providing safe tap water to three disadvantaged communities in the Salinas Valley. A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.

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Western Water January 16, 2020 Douglas E. Beeman Layperson's Guide to Groundwater Douglas E. Beeman

Water Resource Innovation, Hard-Earned Lessons and Colorado River Challenges — Western Water Year in Review
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK-Our 2019 articles spanned the gamut from groundwater sustainability and drought resiliency to collaboration and innovation

Smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire as viewed from Lake Oroville in Northern California. Innovative efforts to accelerate restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires. Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address persistent challenges facing the Colorado River. 

These were among the issues Western Water explored in 2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed them.

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Western Water October 10, 2019 California Groundwater Map Gary Pitzer

Recharging Depleted Aquifers No Easy Task, But It’s Key To California’s Water Supply Future
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: A UC Berkeley symposium explores approaches and challenges to managed aquifer recharge around the West

A water recharge basin in Southern California's Coachella Valley. To survive the next drought and meet the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability law, California is going to have to put more water back in the ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging overpumped aquifers is no easy task.

Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though, landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally recharged.

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Western Water September 26, 2019 California Water Map Gary Pitzer

Often Short of Water, California’s Southern Central Coast Builds Toward A Drought-Proof Supply
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Water agencies in Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo counties look to seawater, recycled water to protect against water shortages

The spillway at Lake Cachuma in central Santa Barbara County. Drought in 2016 plunged its storage to about 8 percent of capacity.The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.

Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.

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Announcement July 10, 2019

Explore a Scenic But Challenged California Landscape on Our Edge of Drought Tour
August 27-29 Tour Examines Santa Barbara Region Prone to Drought, Mudslides and Wildfire

Pyramid LakeNew to this year’s slate of water tours, our Edge of Drought Tour Aug. 27-29 will venture into the Santa Barbara area to learn about the challenges of limited local surface and groundwater supplies and the solutions being implemented to address them.

Despite Santa Barbara County’s decision to lift a drought emergency declaration after this winter’s storms replenished local reservoirs, the region’s hydrologic recovery often has lagged behind much of the rest of the state.

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Tour November 6, 2019 - 7:30am - November 7, 2019 - 6:30pm Nick Gray Central Coast Tour Highlights Dam Removal & River Restoration, Ocean Desal and Innovative Recycling Project Using Ag Runoff Explore Airborne Mapping of Seawater Intrusion on Central Coast Tour November 6-7 Central Coast Tour Explores Solutions to Water Resource Challenges That Offer Lessons for California

Central Coast Tour 2019
Field Trip - November 6-7

This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that have potential applications statewide.

  • Paul Sorensen Presentation
  • Keith Van Der Maaten Presentation
  • Andy Fisher Presentation
  • Jeff Cattaneo Presentation
  • Pure Water Monterey Presentation
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Western Water October 5, 2018 Douglas E. Beeman Douglas E. Beeman

What Would You Do About Water If You Were California’s Next Governor?
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Survey at Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit elicits a long and wide-ranging potential to-do list

There’s going to be a new governor in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.

So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?

That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.

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Western Water May 4, 2018 Layperson's Guide to Groundwater Gary Pitzer

Novel Effort to Aid Groundwater on California’s Central Coast Could Help Other Depleted Basins
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Michael Kiparsky, director of UC Berkeley's Wheeler Water Institute, explains Pajaro Valley groundwater recharge pilot project

Michael KiparskySpurred by drought and a major policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of recovery.

Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner that reflects its original intent.

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Aquapedia background December 29, 2016 Layperson's Guide to Flood Management

ARkStorm

Sacramento's K Street during the 1862 flood that inundated the Central Valley.ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011 report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.

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Western Water Excerpt August 16, 2016 Jenn Bowles

Outdated Dams: When Removal Becomes an Option
Summer 2016

Mired in drought, expectations are high that new storage funded by Prop. 1 will be constructed to help California weather the adverse conditions and keep water flowing to homes and farms.

At the same time, there are some dams in the state eyed for removal because they are obsolete – choked by accumulated sediment, seismically vulnerable and out of compliance with federal regulations that require environmental balance.

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Aquapedia background May 17, 2016 Layperson's Guide to Groundwater California Groundwater Map

Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)

A man watches as a groundwater pump pours water onto a field in Northern California.A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management plans with the state as the backstop.

SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the “management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without causing undesirable results.”

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Western Water Magazine March 4, 2016

Tapping the Ocean: What is the Role of Desalination?
Winter 2016

This issue looks at the role of ocean desalination in meeting California’s water needs today and in the future.

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Publication February 12, 2015

The 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
A Handbook to Understanding and Implementing the Law

This handbook provides crucial background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook also includes a section on options for new governance.

  • Read the Handbook
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