In Fort Bragg on the Mendocino Coast, city leaders are rushing
to install an emergency desalination system. In Healdsburg,
lawn watering is banned with fines of up to $1,000. In
Hornbrook, a small town in Siskiyou County, faucets have gone
completely dry, and the chairman of the water district is
driving 15 miles each way to take showers and wash
clothes. So far, California’s worsening drought has been
an inconvenience in big cities. But it’s already imperiling an
alarming number of communities, especially between the Bay Area
and the Oregon border, threatening the water supplies for more
than 130,000 people.
Advocates for public water systems on Tuesday jumped quickly on
a request by a Monterey County supervisor to consider amending
a law that currently allows only public ownership and operation
of desalination facilities. The request came in the form of a
board referral, an instrument allowing members of the Board of
Supervisors to make requests to the county’s chief
administrative officer for work by staff or additional
information on a specific topic.
As more communities impose water use restrictions because of
the drought, the California Coastal Commission is likely to
vote on a controversial proposal later this year that could
ease water worries for millions of Orange County residents.
After decades of debate, Poseidon Water just needs approval
from the commission to begin the construction of a desalination
facility in Huntington Beach that would produce 50 million
gallons of drinking water per day.
No other region in the country is warming faster than the
western United States when it comes to increasing daytime
highs, a trend that became apparent with the unprecedented and
record-shattering heat wave that took over the Pacific
Northwest earlier this summer. Heat has been building all
across the west this year. In June, Idaho, Utah, Arizona,
Nevada and California all had record heat statewide. Salt Lake
City had its warmest June in 74 years of records with an
average temperature of 80.2 F, which is 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit
above normal.
“Mussel Dogs” are making an appearance at Lake Nacimiento in an
effort to catch aquatic hitchhikers and protect local
ecosystems. During the weekends of the Mid-State Fair,
mussel-sniffing canines are helping public officials inspect
vessels in hopes of spotting invasive species known as quagga
or zebra mussels. The San Luis Obispo County Public Works
Department said zebra and quagga mussels typically “hitch”
rides on boats and travel to other lakes, causing damage to a
lake’s natural environment, boating and water equipment.
The House of Representatives approved a $715 billion
infrastructure plan, and if the Senate passes it, it will mean
$20 million for the Valley Link project to connect Bay Area
Rapid Transit to the Altamont Corridor Express commuter train.
… California would be a big winner under the proposed
law. The bill includes more than $900 million for projects
throughout the Golden State. They include bridges, bike lanes
and express lanes … wastewater and drinking water
projects and other infrastructure to prepare for rising sea
levels.
The Santa Barbara City Council will discuss negotiating a water
supply agreement with La Cumbre Mutual Water Company during
their regular meeting Tuesday. Due to water supply
shortages exacerbated by drought conditions, officials from La
Cumbre Mutual Water Company have asked the City to negotiate a
long-term supply agreement tied to the Charles E. Meyer
Desalination Plant. The Desal plant, which was
constructed by the City in 1991, acts as a regional water
supply for the City, the Goleta Water District and the
Montecito Water District.
I’ll keep this section brief, as there is much to discuss
regarding the upcoming pattern itself. But suffice it to say
that the interior of NorCal has continued to bake for most of
July, despite the slightly lessened pace of record-breaking
high temperatures. Some areas across the NorCal interior are
continuing to experience their hottest summer on record to
date, and this is in the midst of an extreme to record breaking
drought in the same region.
American Canyon is requiring residents and businesses to up
their water conservation efforts from 10% to 20%, though it’s
not yet ready to impose penalties. … While all five Napa
County cities are taking water conservation measures, each is
in a different situation when it comes to water sources. The
south county city of American Canyon has no local reservoir and
relies on State Water Project supplies that have seen a drastic
cutback.
As the drought tightens its grip on California, several Central
Coast cities are rolling out new water conservation messaging
and programs for its residents. … [Santa Maria Utilities
Director Shad Springer] noted the city receives most of its
water from a robust groundwater supply, supplemented by a small
portion of State Water. He said that although supplies continue
to remain strong, its vital the public conserve every drop.
Los Angeles received less than half its average rainfall last
year, most of the state is in a drought emergency, and Governor
Gavin Newsom has asked all residents to reduce their water
usage by 15%. But a stroll through any well-watered
neighborhood in Southern California would suggest otherwise.
… So far in Southern California, the golf courses are
almost as green as they were when it rained a lot a couple
years ago. Some Northern California communities have
already issued mandates to cut back water use, and some
homeowners have seen their wells run dry.
So what exactly is La Niña? The La Niña climate
pattern is a natural cycle marked by cooler-than-average ocean
water in the central Pacific Ocean. It is one of the main
drivers of weather in the United States and around the
world, especially during the late fall, winter and early
spring. It’s the opposite to the more well-known El Niño, which
occurs when Pacific ocean water is warmer than average.
Officials with the Monterey Peninsula water district
begrudgingly agreed Monday to pay for a feasibility study
requested by an intergovernmental body that has control over
the future of the district’s plan to take over California
American Water Co. The board of directors of the Monterey
Peninsula Water Management District during its regular meeting
Monday approved up to $70,000 to pay for a study that was in
effect ordered by the Local Agency Formation Commission…
In Northern California, wildfires are burning hot and fast.
…UC Davis Climate Modeling Professor Paul Ullrich says
without sufficient rain, fires are burning much hotter than
normal.
As the West descends deeper into drought, climate and water
experts are growing increasingly alarmed by California’s
severely shriveling reservoirs. On Monday, Shasta Lake — the
largest reservoir in the state — held a scant 1.57 million
acre-feet of water, according to the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, or about 35% of its capacity. A series of
satellite images captured by NASA show just how dramatically
the water level has fallen.
I recently wrote about how the U.S. Drought Monitor increased
the severity of the drought throughout the Central Coast from
an Abnormally Dry (D0) classification in late February to an
Extreme Drought (D3) level in June. On May 4, the entire
Central Coast reached a D2 (Severe Drought) classification. I
assumed that San Luis Obispo County would remain at this level
through the summer since we had moved into our historically dry
season of May through September. -Written by John Lindsey, a meteorologist and a media
relations representative for PG&E.
Fueled by a trifecta of dangerous weather conditions — strong
winds, low humidity and high temperatures — a series of
wildfires, including a so-called megafire that has already
charred more than 100,000 acres, continue to burn huge swaths
of drought-dried vegetation in Northern California. In Plumas
County, the massive Sugar fire, the first 100,000-acre fire in
California this year, had burned more than 105,000 acres by
Sunday night and was 82% contained, officials said.
Local water districts are suing Santa Barbara County, claiming
that they should not be subject to restrictions over certain
water sales and purchases. The districts claim that the
county doesn’t deliver or pay for any water and therefore
shouldn’t be able to dictate terms to them. The districts argue
that the county’s imposition of restrictions ultimately hurts
consumers. In response, the county claims that the
oversight is needed to maximize the entire water supply for all
consumers.
For years, petroleum hydrocarbons have been seeping from the
groundwater beneath the old oil tank farm property in Avila
Beach into tide pools below. Much of the source of the
pollution has been cleaned up, but an unknown amount remains.
The question now is, what should be done with it and could
over-aggressive remediation cause more harm than good?
The trickle of hydrocarbons — comprised of a mixture of
diluted, broken-down gas from the tank farm — was discovered in
May 2012 …
Official estimates of unpaid water and energy bills accumulated
during the pandemic verge on $2.7 billion, affecting a few
million Californians — and those figures have been
growing rapidly. The state has so far prioritized
rent relief — keeping people housed — over utilities
relief. [O]f the $158 million distributed as of July 16, less
than $40,000 had gone to utilities relief. Utility debt makes
up about 6% of all assistance requested so far. On July
11, lawmakers revealed a plan to use one-time federal relief
money to address the debt. … But it doesn’t extend current
shutoff moratoria past Sept. 30.
With California descending deeper into drought, Santa Rosa is
getting serious about water use. So are other communities that
are increasingly urging residents to conserve, sometimes asking
for water reductions, sometimes mandating them. Gov. Gavin
Newsom joined the cause last week, issuing a statewide plea for
voluntary savings. Still, amid the growing calls for
conservation, the Bay Area’s initial response has been slow.
Nearly a dozen of the region’s largest water suppliers that
have sought cutbacks recently have come up short of their
water-savings goals, according to water agency data reviewed by
The Chronicle.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom asked Californians to voluntarily
conserve water last week as he stood in front of the retreating
shoreline at Lopez Lake in San Luis Obispo County, some must
have had déjà vu. It was only six years ago when former Gov.
Jerry Brown stood in a field near Lake Tahoe that was bereft of
normally plentiful snow and called for water restrictions amid
the state’s punishing years-long drought. … As Californians
wonder when mandatory water restrictions might be coming,
officials and experts including those who played roles in
addressing the 2012-2016 drought say the pace and strategy of
Newsom’s current response sufficiently incorporates insights
gained from the past.
City of Santa Cruz water rights — that were established more
than 50 years ago — are up for revision and will be discussed
at two forthcoming public meetings. The rights, allocated by
the California State Water Resources Control Board, dictate
where and how water suppliers can use and move water.
… The revision to the rights, could open up doors for
the city to store winter water in aquifers such as the Mid
County Groundwater Basin, by which Soquel Creek and Central
Water Districts both pull water from.
The number of wildfires in California to date this year is
greater than the amount recorded in the same time period in
2020 — a year which saw more burned acreage than any recorded
year in history, according to data from the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Between
January 1 to July 11 of this year, approximately 4,163 fires
have burned in California, the department said. During the same
time period in 2020, 3,645 fires were reported by the
department.
The fires have burned more than 140,000 acres, from soaring
mountains along the California-Nevada border to forest north of
Mt. Shasta and the gateway to Yosemite. But many of 2021’s
biggest blazes have one thing in common: They are burning
faster and hotter than some firefighters have seen this early
in the year. A winter and spring of little rain and minimal
snow runoff — followed by months of unusually warm conditions
and several summer heat waves — left the vegetation primed to
burn fast, giving crews little time to get a handle on the
flames before they explode.
For the past few weeks, the American West has been confronting
a hellish climate nightmare of scorching heat waves, a severe
drought, and raging wildfires. And it’s not just the
West—or even the United States. In
typically chilly Siberia, ground temperatures reached
a blistering 118 degrees Fahrenheit. The Middle
East has been gripped by a searing heat wave and a drought
that has especially hammered Syria. In late June, a
small Canadian village was almost completely consumed
by wildfire. China is also bracing for another year
of extreme weather…
California is off to another record-breaking year of wildfires
as the state enters its most dangerous months, with extreme
heat and dry terrain creating the conditions for rapid
spread. More than twice as many acres burned in the first
six months of this year than during the same period last year —
and hundreds more fires, officials said. June saw a series
of destructive blazes that swept through rural counties at the
northern edge of the state, fueled by a historic Pacific
Northwest heat wave. But July is already shaping up to be
worse.
Slowly but surely, the San Lorenzo Valley community is
rebuilding itself after the CZU Lightning Complex fire. Its
water district is no exception. The San Lorenzo Valley Water
District lost all of its water intake infrastructure at the
Lyon Water Treatment Plant in Boulder Creek, built in 1994 with
the purpose of treating surface water coming from many streams
on the Empire Grade mountain. About 50% of the water stored at
the plant was lost as well. All of the 1,600 acres of the
watershed were affected by the wildfire.
The Contra Costa Water District is asking customers to reduce
their water use by 10% amid worsening drought conditions in
California. The district’s Board of Directors on Wednesday
voted unanimously to declare a Stage 1 water shortage level,
which includes calling for 10% voluntary
conservation … The district provides water to about
500,000 people in central and eastern Contra Costa County, from
the city of Martinez to Brentwood. Its main source of water is
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, which conveys water allocated
from the Central Valley Project through a contract with the
federal government.
Although 41 of California’s 58 counties are in drought
conditions, legislators are debating bills, such as Senate Bill
9 and Senate Bill 10, that address the construction of housing
to meet the state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation. Between
2023 and 2031, the state mandate for the nine-county Bay Area
is 441,000 units, representing an expected population increase
of 1,102,500. The allocation for Los Angeles County is
1,327,000 housing units to accommodate an expected population
increase of 3,317,500. The state’s propensity to accept the
RHNA numbers ignores our drought conditions. -Written by Rick Johnson, a retired 40-year
veteran of the San Francisco water department.
Another extreme heat wave is about to smother Northern
California — high temperatures well into the triple digits are
expected this weekend in Sacramento. … Temperatures are
predicted to soar as high as 115 farther north in the
Sacramento Valley, including near Redding. South Lake Tahoe
could approach 90 degrees.
Migrating agriculture north to the Sacramento Valley can’t be a
one-to-one trade where every venture survives. The Sacramento
Valley is approximately one-half the size of the San Joaquin
Valley, and at most, 15 to 20 percent of the land could host
relocated agriculture. The majority of San Joaquin agricultural
businesses won’t survive in their current form—but some could
find new life by converting their fallowed fields into solar
farms to help the state achieve its goal of fossil fuel-free
electricity by 2045. Or we can allow the San Joaquin Valley to
revert to the desert it was before our forefathers planted a
garden in it.
Lake Mead, which provides water for 25 million people in
the American West, has shrunk to 36 percent of its capacity.
One rural California community has run out of water entirely
after its well broke in early June. Fields are sitting fallow,
as farmers sell their water allotments instead of growing
crops, putting the nation’s food supply in peril. As the West
withers under extreme drought, legislators in the US House of
Representatives have introduced HR 4099, a bill that would
direct the Secretary of the Interior to create a program to
fund $750 million worth of water recycling projects in the 17
western states through the year 2027.
Major renovations will begin Wednesday on the Anderson Dam
tunnel project in Santa Clara County. The project will
require the reservoir to be drained – and it will be unable to
be used for 10 years. The timing is not great as
California remains in a drought but water officials say this is
a vital project for flood protection that will protect the
public for years to come. The reservoir can hold more than
300,000 gallons of water and is the water district’s largest
drinking water reservoir.
After a broiling Fourth of July holiday weekend, temperatures
are expected to keep climbing across Southern California. The
heat is expected to build throughout the week, with highs
soaring into the triple digits in some parts this weekend. The
National Weather Service predicts excessive heat will be
possible Friday through Sunday, with temperatures reaching
highs of 100 to 112 degrees in the Antelope Valley and the
interior of San Luis Obispo County.
In Sept. 2020, the 7-year-old female mountain lion pictured
above was dehydrated and burnt on the bottom of her paw pads.
The pain made it unbearable to walk. According to data
from a satellite tracking collar and camera footage, seven
months later she is chasing deer, mating, and has even
travelled hundreds of miles through the San Gabriel Mountain
wilderness in southern California, on those once lifeless feet.
… She was found at the edge of a Monrovia resident’s
backyard pond, where she crawled in search of water during the
Bobcat Fire …
The water spigots on California farms will soon be twisted
tighter. As the state faces a growing threat from drought, an
increasing number of water agencies are planning to require
flow meters on agricultural wells, part of a landmark effort to
measure and constrain pumping that used to be free and
unlimited. It’s a controversial step aimed at protecting water
supplies that could change cultivation practices in the Golden
State’s thirsty fields.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) published
its first reviews of local groundwater sustainability plans as
part of a 2014 state law regulating groundwater—and two Central
Coast aquifers are included in the initial wave of feedback.
DWR reviewed and found “deficiencies” in the Paso Robles
Groundwater Basin and Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin
sustainability plans—declining to give final approval to
either.
Sprinkled along the foothills of California’s Central Valley
stand the iconic blue oak woodlands. Towering up to 80 feet
tall and some reaching over 400 years old, the trees are home
to one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the
state. But extreme drought and wildfires are forcing the
woodlands into an uncertain future. A new study conducted by
U.S. Geological Survey researchers found that the historic
drought of 2012-2016 alone caused nearly 490 square miles of
tree cover loss — or the reduction of leaves and branches — in
the blue oak woodlands.
Wildfire season came early this year in the Bay Area after a
meager rainy season left the landscape tinder-dry, offering an
abundance of fuel for wildland blazes. In just the past few
years, California has seen some of the largest, deadliest and
most destructive fires in state history. Last year was a
record-buster, with nearly 10,000 blazes burning more than 4
million acres. Meanwhile, most of the state is in extreme or
exceptional drought conditions, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to
declare a drought emergency in a majority of the state’s
counties.
Here’s some good news (and then, some not-so-good news) for
those seeking a summer respite by the sea: Beaches across
California are much cleaner than in years past. In its annual
survey of more than 500 beaches, Heal the Bay reported Tuesday
that 93% of California’s beaches logged good water-quality
marks between April and October 2020 — an encouraging
assessment for a coastline that sees all manner of trash,
pesticides and bacteria (not to mention microplastics,
automotive fluids and tire particles) flushed into the ocean
whenever it rains.
With a record-shattering heat wave suffocating much of the
Pacific Northwest and a drought-fueled wildfire season already
well underway in New Mexico, Arizona and California, President
Biden will attend a virtual meeting with leaders of Western
states on Wednesday to discuss strategies to minimize
weather-related disasters this summer. Jen Psaki, the White
House press secretary, told reporters that the president
planned to bring together members of his cabinet and the
Western governors to assess “the devastating intersection of
drought, heat, and wildfires,” as well as “prevention,
preparedness, and response efforts for this wildfire season.”
An inter-governmental body wants Monterey Peninsula water
officials to pay for an independent third-party review of costs
associated with a planned takeover of California American Water
Co., a study water officials say they’ve already performed at a
cost of over a half-a-million dollars. A majority of
commissioners with the Local Area Formation Commission for
Monterey County (LAFCO) said Monday night they want the
Monterey Peninsula Water Management District to foot the bill
for an independent review to better establish the financial
wherewithal of the district to operate a water delivery
system…
A new study released Monday found that recent years of drought
in California devastated the state’s blue oak woodlands,
destroying more than 460 square miles of blue oak, a tree only
found in the Golden State. Named for the color of its leaves,
the blue oak woodlands date back to pre-European settlement and
are considered “one of the most biologically diverse”
ecosystems in the state, according to the study published in
the journal Frontiers in Climate.
Much of the Western half of the United States is in the grip of
a severe drought of historic proportions. Conditions are
especially bad in California and the Southwest, but the drought
extends into the Pacific Northwest, much of the Intermountain
West, and even the Northern Plains. Drought emergencies have
been declared. Farmers and ranchers are suffering. States are
facing water cutbacks. Large wildfires burned earlier than
usual with more major fires burning in Arizona, New Mexico and
other states. There appears to be little relief in sight.
The 2021 California drought is as bad if not worse as the one
in 2014, which endured for five long, dry years. As of Friday,
33 percent is in a state of “exceptional drought,” the most
severe drought category given by the federal U.S. Drought
Monitor. … Yet San Diego officials aren’t just calm in
the face of these troubling conditions, they’re downright
celebratory. The Water Authority initially scheduled a
press conference and photo op to tout its “drought-safe” status
and “how far the region has come since prior droughts,” but
postponed the event when Mayor Todd Gloria couldn’t make it.
Bay Area-born startup Lumineye began with a goal of giving
soldiers power to see through walls. But climate change has
broadened the market, and Lumineye is now working with
firefighters to tweak its product — a hand-held device that
uses radar to see people inside buildings and in thick brush.
… California’s drought, plus forests full of fuels and
communities along narrow roads in heavily treed areas make for
a lethal recipe, tragically exemplified by the 2018 Camp Fire
that killed 86 people in Paradise.
California’s drought and wildfire conditions are accelerating
at unprecedented rates, according to state officials, and
residents should brace for a summer of widespread burning and
mandatory water conservation measures in some regions. As
reservoir levels across the state continue to drop, and as
parched vegetation poses an increasing threat of wildfire,
officials in Sacramento and Southern California offered a bleak
assessment of the state’s drying climate, saying it has already
begun to affect people, plants and animals.
When discussing the drought, the question of which crops use
the most water comes up a lot. A Pacific Institute analysis of
California Department of Water Resources data sheds light on
the state’s top 10 water-intensive crops in 2015, the most
recent year for which the department has published water-use
estimates. … The analysis ranked pasture first among
California’s top 10 most water-intensive crops …, followed by
nuts and alfalfa…
We are excited to announce that a CalTrout project to Reconnect
Habitat is moving forward thanks to grant funding from the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
voter-approved Proposition 1 Watershed Restoration Grant. This
project is part of the South Coast Steelhead Coalition
portfolio to recover this endangered trout from the brink of
extinction.
In the weekly newsletter sent out by the City of Santa Barbara
on June 14, we are given a peek at how the water policy
followed by the city over the past decade has worked out. The
city provides us with a chart showing that consumers of water
in Santa Barbara pay substantially more for their water than do
Goleta, Carpinteria or Montecito at all but the very least
levels of consumption. Remarkably, huge estates in Montecito
irrigate their grounds at 68 percent of the cost of urban
homesteads in our city! -Written by Glen Mowrer, contributor to the Santa Barbara
Independent.
As Santa Barbara County and the rest of the state enter another
major drought crisis, a consortium of eight county water
districts just sued the County of Santa Barbara Board of
Supervisors, alleging the board is illegally interfering with
the water agencies’ ability to use the State Water pipeline
system to buy and sell water on the open market.
PG&E will pay the Central Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board $5.9 million in a landmark settlement that
recognizes the long-term impacts of dumping water used to cool
Diablo Canyon Power Plant back into the Pacific Ocean — but
also the realities of a plant that is expected to close in the
next decade.
The board of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
approved a letter to state water officials Tuesday that is a
stinging rebuke of what they say is California American Water
Company’s attempt to blame the district for Cal Am’s failure to
meet required milestones in its proposed desalination project.
Information supplied to the State Water Resources Control Board
is important to the entire Monterey Peninsula because it will
take that information and data and use it to make decisions
affecting the water availability to the Monterey Peninsula.
The Central Coast Water Authority is suing Santa Barbara County
over the management of the State Water Project. The
organization filed the lawsuit in Santa Barbara County Superior
Court and called the suit “significant and unprecedented” in
its announcement Monday. The Water Authority alleged in a news
release that the County Board of Supervisors inserted itself
into decisions about how to manage State Water supplies.
Drought may be the sneakiest of natural disasters. Although
human history teems with people engulfed by abrupt aridity —
the Akkadians of four millenniums ago, the Maya in the ninth
and 10th centuries A.D., the Great Plains farmers of the 1930s
— even today drought is a poorly appreciated phenomenon. …
The American West is once again facing drought, one of the
worst on record. Across a vast region encompassing nine states
and home to nearly 60 million people, the earth is being wrung
dry. -Written by Farhad Manjoo, NY Times opinion columnist.
The Central Coast Water Authority (CCWA) and its eight member
cities and water districts has filed a significant and
unprecedented lawsuit in Santa Barbara Superior Court against
the County of Santa Barbara regarding management of the State
Water Project. CCWA manages, operates and finances the
portion of the State Water Project in Santa Barbara
County.
Before last year’s devastating fire season, Gov. Gavin Newsom
directed firefighters to clear huge lines of trees and shrubs
near more than 200 communities to help stop or slow a potential
blaze. Much of the work was done in the Bay Area. These widely
promoted fuel breaks, a centerpiece of the governor’s
billion-dollar strategy to protect California from catastrophic
wildfire, however, have had limited success, according to data
reviewed by The Chronicle.
California, like the rest of the world, must wrestle with a
hard truth: Our climate has changed. As we face another
water-shortage crisis, we must acknowledge a sobering reality:
We’re not in a drought. This is our new normal. And we need to
adapt. It’s becoming increasingly clear that we can’t solve our
drought, or the myriad other environmental crises, without
protecting our ecosystems. And we can’t protect our ecosystems
without acknowledging that this work is globally connected. -Written by Assembly Member Laura Friedman,
D-Glendale; LA-based environmental and social policy
advisor Rosalind Helfand; and Mike Young, political and
organizing director of the California League of Conservation
Voters.
The Bay Area enjoyed a significant cooldown on the first day of
summer as the first major heat wave of the year subsided Sunday
— but forecasters are predicting another record-breaking hot
spell by next weekend. Last week’s heat wave saw a strong area
of high pressure build from the Southwest desert, strengthening
as it baked the central and southern regions of California
… Experts said the heat is likely to
intensify California’s already dire drought
conditions and bring potential wildfire danger.
After two decades at the helm of the California State Coastal
Conservancy, Sam Schuchat retires on June 25. His
replacement is yet to be named. But the emotional and political
intelligence he brought to the job will be missed. In the
coming years, Schuchat says he hopes to spend more time riding
his bike and playing music, not to mention travelling post
shelter-in-place. But he also expects to keep his finger on the
pulse of the California coast and to delve more deeply into
national climate change work.
It might be tempting to shrug at the scorching weather across
large swaths of the West. This just in: It gets hot in the
summer. But this record-setting heat wave’s remarkable power,
size and unusually early appearance is giving meteorologists
and climate experts yet more cause for concern about the
routinization of extreme weather in an era of climate change.
These sprawling, persistent high-pressure zones popularly
called “heat domes” are relatively common in later summer
months. This current system is different.
The Central Coast Water Authority, along with a number of its
customers — namely eight nearby California cities and water
districts — filed a lawsuit Friday claiming the Santa Barbara
County Flood Control and Water Conservation District
overstepped its authority by passing a new resolution that
imposes an undue burden on their water rights. The lawsuit,
filed in Santa Barbara County Superior Court, accuses the
district of meddling in its affairs by improperly imposing
restrictions on its right to transfer and exchange water with
other entities.
Monterey County elected officials on Tuesday gave an
enthusiastic thumbs up to a $45 million restoration project at
the mouth of the Carmel River that will provide a host of
environmental benefits, including natural flood control for an
area that has historically been hit hard by river flooding. The
Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a
resolution that will move the project, called the Carmel River
Floodplain Restoration and Environmental Enhancement, forward
with the nonprofit Big Sur Land Trust as its key partner.
Legislation from Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, that would help
hundreds of thousands of Californians who have fallen behind on
their water bills and are at risk of being disconnected from
water service cleared a key committee on Wednesday.
… Sen. Dodd’s legislation comes as the State Water
Resources Control Board heard results of a survey that found
water debt in California climbed to about $1 billion. The
survey estimated 12% of California households are behind on
their water bills with an average debt of $500 per
household.
Santa Cruz Water Department staff is completing its annual
spring fish survey, and with it comes some important
dispatches. Steelhead numbers are low with drought
conditions plaguing Santa Cruz for a second consecutive year.
But coho salmon, a species at-risk of extinction, were spotted
off Santa Cruz’s North Coast in the Laguna Creek estuary.
Documenting coho anywhere in Santa Cruz County is a relatively
rare event, explained Chris Berry, watershed compliance manager
with the city.
The intensive engineering of the river exacted a huge toll on
its native ecosystems. No species suffered more than the
Chinook salmon, whose epic migration from the Pacific Ocean to
its spawning grounds in the High Sierra was cut short by
numerous choke points, not the least of which was Friant’s
impenetrable barrier of concrete. … Rife with
compromises, [a 1988] settlement mandated that a mere half of
the San Joaquin’s original flow be restored. The river’s many
dams would remain, but alternative passages would be built and
new spawning areas added in the lower river.
Not long after former Gov. Jerry Brown announced the end of a
grueling six-year drought in 2017, the Legislature passed two
controversial water-efficiency laws designed to promote even
more conservation – even though residents have done a
remarkable job reducing their water usage. Those new laws
required utilities to reduce daily water usage by an average of
55 gallons per person by 2023.
Dangerously hot temperatures across the US south-west will
continue to climb this week, reaching higher than 120F (49C) in
some areas, exacerbating the region’s already-dire drought
conditions and increasing the risk of new fire
ignitions. Extreme heat will be felt across much of Utah,
along with southern and central California, Nevada and
Arizona. More than 48 million people across the west are
now under heat advisory watches or warnings …
A $45 million project that will partially reshape the area
around the mouth of the Carmel River promises to increase flood
control and restore the biodiversity in the area. Called the
“Carmel River Floodplain Restoration and Environmental
Enhancement,” the nonprofit Big Sur Land Trust, Monterey
County, the Monterey Regional Parks District and the state are
collaborating to restore the historic floodplain of a portion
of the Carmel River where it meets Highway 1.
Creeks and springs at Point Reyes National Seashore haven’t
completely dried up but they’re looking parched enough that
park staff set up three large troughs last week to ensure tule
elk herds get enough water to make it through what could be an
unprecedented drought. The 250-gallon troughs at the south end
of the Tomales Point Tule Elk Reserve will stay in place at
least until rains return next winter, National Park Service
officials said.
With a worsening drought gripping the West and wildfire season
looming, California is bracing for the most severe heat wave of
the year — one that promises to tax the state’s power supplies
while also offering a grim preview of challenging months to
come. The heat wave will bring triple-digit temperatures to the
valleys and inland regions of Southern California as well as
many parts of the rest of the state, heightening fire risks. It
comes as parts of Northern and Central California are turning
to water restrictions as the drought rapidly alters the
landscape.
Farmers are concerned for their crops as dry conditions has
worsen throughout the Central Coast. Earlier this year, it
started off a major storm. Ever since, farmers have not seen
much rainfall. According to the National Weather Service, the
‘extreme drought’ conditions has expanded throughout Santa
Barbara and San Luis Obispo County.
Higher bills will soon be on the way for the roughly 1.4
million people who get their water from the East Bay Municipal
Utility District, but at least for now they won’t be required
to cut their water use despite the drought. Beginning July 1,
the agency will charge customers 4% more for both water and
sewer services. And a year later, on July 1, 2022, the rate
will climb another 4%. The district’s board of directors
unanimously approved the rate increases at its meeting Tuesday
as part of the $2.25 billion budget it adopted for the next two
fiscal years.
One of the largest water districts in the San Francisco Bay
Area announced mandatory restrictions Wednesday and declared a
water shortage emergency, signaling the seriousness of drought
conditions across the region and state after two consecutive
dry winters. The Board of Directors for Santa Clara
Valley Water District, which serves 2 million customers,
unanimously approved a resolution requiring customers to reduce
water use by 15% compared with 2019 levels. The board is also
urging Santa Clara County to proclaim a local emergency.
Officials are raising the prospect of a permanent water
pipeline over the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge as a potential
drought-fighting strategy for Marin County. … [Ben]
Horenstein, the general manager of the Marin Municipal Water
District, was among the participants of a teleconference on
drought and wildfires organized by Assemblyman Marc Levine on
Wednesday. … For Marin, Horenstein said, the focus now
is on promoting as much conservation as possible through
mandatory water use restrictions and rebates for
water-efficient appliances and landscaping.
The first assessments of groundwater sustainability
plans have been released by the California Department of
Water Resources (DWR). In lieu of waiting until the end of the
two-year review period, DWR has decided to release assessments
as they are completed. Assessments have been completed for the
Santa Cruz Mid-County Basin in Santa Cruz County and 180/400
Foot Aquifer Subbasin in Monterey County. Assessments
for the Cuyama Valley Basin and Paso Robles Subbasin have also
been completed.
California’s drought is accelerating the start of the 2021
wildfire season — and intensifying the pressure on PG&E
Corp. to prevent more mega-fires of the sort that drove the
state’s largest utility into bankruptcy. Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. executives said Wednesday they’ve begun gearing up
for wildfire season weeks earlier than usual, including putting
helicopters in the air to practice for PG&E’s “public
safety power shutoffs.”
San Luis Obispo’s 2020 Water Quality Report shows zero
violations of health regulations. Jason Meeks is the supervisor
of the city’s water treatment plant. He has been working in
water and wastewater for nearly 22 years. Meeks said one of the
most important things for city residents to know about the 2020
Water Quality Report is that it only shows substances that were
detected in the water.
When a historic drought gripped California and the Bay Area,
water managers came together to keep drinkable water in the
homes of vulnerable areas in Marin and Contra Costa Counties.
Two veterans of those efforts describe the dramatic process,
and consider lessons it offers for today’s imminent drought.
Storms from the Pacific set to swing into the rain-starved West
Coast this week may end up turning detrimental, AccuWeather
forecasters say, by whipping up gusty winds and heightening the
risk of lightning-induced wildfires. With over 87% of the
Western states in moderate to exceptional drought, the news of
Pacific storms poised to sweep onshore may sound good on the
surface. However, the pattern will be a double-edged sword.
Each storm is expected to arrive with “very limited moisture,”
according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex
Sosnowski.
A proposal that would more than double the cost of sewer
service in the region over the next five years and has drawn
the rage of the area’s hospitality and business interests heads
to a board for final approval on June 7. The board of directors
for Monterey One Water, the regional wastewater management
service, will vote on the proposed schedule of rate increases.
If approved, ratepayers will see a 47-percent jump in their
sewage bills after July 1. By 2025, rates would be 122-percent
higher than they are today. … [T]he increase is needed to
maintain and update the utility’s $750 million infrastructure
assets, some of which are more than 30 years old.
Drought conditions in California remain at record highs, with
most of the state now classified in “extreme” or “exceptional”
drought, reflecting conditions across the Southwest, according
to a new report from climate scientists. Much of the Bay
Area and the northern Central Valley have been included in the
most severe “exceptional drought” zone, along with much of
southeast California, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) released its
first assessments of groundwater sustainability plans developed
by local agencies to meet the requirements of the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). DWR has completed its
assessment and approved plans for the Santa Cruz Mid-County
Basin in Santa Cruz County and 180/400 Foot Aquifer Subbasin in
Monterey County.
Too often, ocean water is laced with sewage and pollutants,
affecting how safe beaches are for swimming and surfing –
that’s the message of this year’s Clean Water Report released
Tuesday, May 25, by the Surfrider Foundation. …
[T]he report highlights inefficiencies in sewer
infrastructure and a need to stop urban runoff before it
reaches the coast, both main contributors to dirty water that
plagues the country’s coastlines.
The state Senate today approved legislation from Sen. Bill
Dodd, D-Napa, to help hundreds of thousands of Californians who
have fallen behind on their water bills and are at risk of
being disconnected from water service. … Sen. Dodd’s
legislation comes as the State Water Resources Control Board
heard results of a survey that found water debt in California
climbed to about $1 billion. The survey estimated 12% of
California households are behind on their water bills with an
average debt of $500 per household.
The Predictive Services 4-month outlook for the North Ops
region calls for drier and warmer than average weather through
September. There is some indication of a semi-regular low
pressure trough positioned along the west coast much of the
summer, which could lead to shorter stretches of intense dry
heat. Fuels, both dead and live and of all size classes, are
expected to dry to critical values earlier than usual at all
elevations, leading to a start to the active fire season 4-6
weeks earlier than usual.
Having received just 48% of normal rainfall for the water year,
which began Sept. 1 and will end Aug. 31, Santa Barbara County
may be experiencing a bit of déjà vu, having been placed in the
“severe drought” category again by the U.S. Drought Monitor.
But despite a winter that brought less than half the normal
rainfall, the county’s water supply is generally in good shape,
and able to provide enough for drinking, firefighting and
irrigation in the short term, city and county officials said.
Will the current drought increase the chances of another bad
fire season this year? We talked to Scott Stephens―a fire
ecologist at UC Berkeley and a member of the PPIC Water
Policy Center research network―about the risks, and what can be
done.
With California’s rivers running low after two consecutive dry
winters, state officials and local water agencies have pumped
out a steady stream of drought declarations and calls for water
conservation in recent weeks. It’s clear the Golden State is in
a drought and it could escalate to a crisis, but, you may be
wondering, just how bad is it?
Nearly half of the country — from the Pacific coast to the
Great Plains and upper Midwest — is experiencing moderate to
exceptional drought conditions. That’s expected to get worse
throughout the summer. … UCLA climatologist Park Williams:
“This drought is far from over. 2021 is shaping up to
potentially be the driest of all of the drought years in the
last century, and definitely one of the driest of the last
millennium.”
The state’s extensive water system supplies cities and farms;
prevents pollution of lakes, rivers, and coastlines; protects
against floods; and supports freshwater ecosystems and the
forested headwaters that are a major source of water supply.
Many local, state, and federal agencies oversee this system and
raise revenues from a variety of sources. California spends
about $37 billion annually, with the lion’s share (84%) coming
from local water bills and taxes. The balance comes from state
(13%) and federal (3%) contributions.
In just a few weeks, California’s water conditions have gone
from bad to terrible. Sacramento residents have been asked to
cut water usage 10%. Their counterparts on the Russian River
are being told to reduce their consumption 20%. Farmers across
the Central Valley are letting fields lie fallow and
dismantling their orchards. Government agencies are warning of
massive fish kills on the Sacramento River. After
a warm spring dried up practically the entire Sierra
Nevada snowpack — and robbed California of enough water to fill
most of Folsom Lake — state and federal officials have been
forced to dramatically ramp up their drought response plans.
In Watsonville, there are big developments for flood prevention
efforts along the Pajaro River. On Monday, local, state
and federal representatives signed a design agreement for the
river levee to prevent flooding for homes and farms. Overall
it’s a $400 million project designed to tame the constant
threat of flooding brought on by heavy rainfall.
Wildfires have burned roughly 14,000 acres in California
this year as a deepening drought grips the Southwest — more
than five times the acreage charred by the same time last
year. It’s a worrying trend that has fire officials taking
a proactive approach — from more funding to wildfire
prevention to hiring additional crews — after the state saw
its worst fire season ever in 2020. Only five
months into the year, a total of 2,340 fires have burned 14,340
acres, an increase of 1,284 fires and 11,793 acres over the
same period in 2020, according to new data from Cal Fire.
California’s drought, already rated “severe” to “extreme” for
most of the state, is expected to worsen throughout the summer,
combining with higher-than-average temperatures and dry
vegetation to steadily increase the risk of wildfires,
according to the interagency National Integrated Drought
Information System. That assessment comes in the wake of the
state’s worst wildfire season on record, 2020, which saw five
of California’s six largest recorded infernos and
extended the trend of wildfire seasons here growing longer
and more intense.
Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009,
NOAA funded 125 habitat restoration projects in coastal areas
throughout the country. … Through the Recovery Act, NOAA
partnered with the [California Conservation Corps] to support
more than 30 coastal habitat restoration projects. These
projects benefitted threatened and endangered salmon and
steelhead throughout coastal California. More than 200 corps
members worked to open waterways to fish migration, stabilize
stream banks, conduct project monitoring, and more.
California’s new drought is worsening. After two severely dry
winters, reservoirs are shrinking, fire danger is rising and
water supplies are looking more tenuous. The past two years
have been the driest in nearly half a century, since 1976-77.
How did the state find itself in a new crisis just as the COVID
pandemic is fading? Scientists say California’s parched plight
largely comes down to two words: “atmospheric river.” An
increasing body of research is showing that the state’s water
supply each year depends almost entirely on a handful of big
make-or-break storms. And the last two winters, too few
arrived.
The 2020 fire season was brutal for California. Wildfires
wreaked havoc across the state, burning more than 4.2 million
acres, the most in recorded history, and resulting in the
deaths of 33 people and the destruction of more than 10,000
structures. The outlook for the 2021 fire season isn’t any more
promising. A Chronicle analysis shows multiple measures of fire
danger all pointing in the same direction — California is
headed toward alarming, perhaps record-setting, dryness, and
heightened risk of wildfires.
Growers in the Central Coast region of California produce most
of the cool-season vegetables for the U.S. from March to
mid-November. After several years of multi-cropping vegetables,
the groundwater in many of the coastal valleys has become
contaminated with nitrate. Some wells have concentrations of
nitrate several times the federal drinking water standard of 10
ppm (parts per million) nitrate-N. Rural communities that rely
on groundwater as their sole source of drinking water must
purchase bottled water or install small reverse osmosis
systems.
The Estrella-El Pomar-Creston Water District (EPCWD) has begun
creating a groundwater level monitoring network. Initially, the
district has begun work to add 30 new groundwater level
monitoring sites, using existing wells, throughout the
37,000-acre district. The campaign marks a significant
effort in the basin to move toward groundwater sustainability
in the Paso Robles Subbasin, according to the EPCWD.
A growing number of drought stricken California farmers are
making the painful decision not to plant as much or anything at
all for fear of losing it all. It costs a lot of money to put
seeds or seedlings into the ground. But if a farmer cannot be
reasonably sure of a crop, why do it?
Tiny structures inspired by the shape of cactus spines allow a
newly created material to gather drinkable water from the air
both day and night, combining two water-harvesting technologies
into one. The material, a micro-architected hydrogel membrane
(more on that later), can produce water through both solar
steam-water generation and fog collection—two independent
processes that typically require two separate devices. A paper
about the material was published in Nature Communications on
May 14.
Facing extended drought, diminishing snowpack, and depleted
aquifers, California water managers face a harsh reality: our
20th century water systems – essentially linear designs in
which fresh water is extracted, centrally treated, distributed
to users, returned as wastewater, and finally treated and
discarded – are breaking down. Although this approach has
served us well for decades, we can no longer sustain ourselves
with a paradigm that uses water once and throws it away. -Written by Peter Fiske, a scientist at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and executive director of
the Department of Energy’s National Alliance for Water
Innovation.
More wildfires. Hotter days. Drought. Sea-level rise. Those
conditions are an increasing reality in California, which is
steadily becoming an altered state. But if the grimmest
predictions of experts about our state and climate change
become true, the conditions will become far worse.
Californians are gearing up for what could be another dangerous
wildfire season, particularly in light of significant drought
conditions. Grasses, shrubs, and forests are drying out early
due to a lack of precipitation, providing potential fuel for
wildfires. Red flag warnings—when high winds and low humidity
increase fire risk—have already been issued this year across
broad swaths of the state. Small spring wildfires have put
firefighters and communities on edge. Is the state prepared for
another bad wildfire season? And how much progress has been
made to improve the resilience of vulnerable communities and
headwater forests?
Construction on 8 miles of water pipeline that will be serve as
life-blood for the Pure Water Soquel Project, is set to begin
on May 24 in Santa Cruz. Three distinct components of building
are set to take place during the next several months. From late
May until June 15 crews will work around California Street,
from the Santa Cruz Wastewater Treatment Facility to Laurel
Street. After that, and until around July 6, construction will
take place on Laurel Street to Chestnut Street. The third
scheduled construction phase will run from July 6 through Aug.
12 on Chestnut to the west end of the Laurel Street Bridge.
California — already in the clutches of another drought
emergency — is looking over its shoulder at what happened
last time, anticipating the worst and evaluating the strategies
that worked and those that failed. So is California in a
better position to weather this drought? Some things are
worse, some better: Groundwater is still being pumped with no
statewide limits, siphoning up drinking water that rural
communities rely on. In northern counties, residents are
reliving the last disaster as water restrictions kick in again,
but in the south, enough water is stored to avoid them for now.
… The upshot is California isn’t ready — again.
As California descends deeper into drought, state regulators
are planning to do something they’ve done few times in modern
history: order thousands of people, farms, and even cities and
towns that hold historic water rights to stop drawing water
from the rivers, lakes and ponds they rely on. The move is
intended to make sure the dwindling flows in California’s
waterways are reserved for those with the most senior water
rights, as well as for fish and other wildlife. Many of those
with lesser rights would have to turn to storage, groundwater
or another source, if they have it.
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to throw $11.8 billion of California’s
money at climate change and the hazards it poses to the state.
The governor’s gargantuan revised budget proposal, released
Friday, includes expenditures to fight and prevent wildfires,
combat sea-level rise, put more Californians behind the wheel
of an electric vehicle and speed up the transition to a
carbon-free electricity grid. Nearly half of his climate change
package — $5.1 billion — would go toward easing the effects of
California’s newly-declared drought and remedying long-term
water supply problems, such as crumbling canals.
The COVID-19 pandemic encouraged wildlife, looking for easy
food, to visit quiet neighborhoods they normally didn’t. The
drought may now be forcing them to do the same. Experts
say, though you might like to, do not leave food and water out
for wild animals showing up in neighborhoods. … The bear
that showed up in a tree near central San Anselmo this week is
one of several recent North Bay sightings.
It’s only May, and I’m already having to write about wildfires
forcing Californians to evacuate their homes. Around 1,000
people were displaced from their homes Sunday as the Palisades
Fire in Los Angeles County grew to more than 1,300 acres. The
blaze, which was 0% contained as of Sunday afternoon, carved a
path through dense, old-growth chaparral that hadn’t burned in
more than 50 years, the Los Angeles Times reports. As such, it
embodied both California’s worsening drought and the grim
reality that its fire season is starting earlier and earlier
even as its conflagrations get larger and larger.
Climate change is exacerbating problems like habitat loss and
temperatures swings that have already pushed many animal
species to the brink. But can scientists predict which animals
will be able to adapt and survive? Using genome sequencing,
researchers from McGill University show that some fish, like
the threespine stickleback, can adapt very rapidly to extreme
seasonal changes. … Stickleback found in different
estuaries along coastal California provide a rare opportunity
to study natural selection in real-time.
On its surface, the idea of banking water to bridge the
certainty of future rain-deficient periods seems like an
innovative and non-controversial planning procedure. In the
end, however, it all depends on who holds the keys to the bank.
The notion of water banking has grabbed local attention lately
following a controversial and divided 3-2 vote March 3 by San
Luis Obispo County supervisors, a vote which numerous North
County entities view as opening the door to selling and
exporting county water resources to the highest outside bidder.
May is American Wetlands Month and this year also marks the
50th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of
International Importance. This intergovernmental treaty is
focused on the conservation and wise use of important wetlands
and their resources. … Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine
Research Reserve … provides habitat for a diversity
of wildlife species, including more than 100 species of fish,
500 species of invertebrates, and the region’s iconic southern
sea otters. … Tomales Bay is a marine-coastal
wetland consisting of estuaries, eelgrass beds, sand dune
systems, and tidal marshes.
As Californians can tell by the already beige hills, the early
fire weather warnings and the dusty umbrellas sitting deep
inside closets, it’s been drier than usual this winter. And
according to decades worth of precipitation data, that’s the
new normal. What’s considered “normal” for baseline rainfall
amounts is determined by a 30-year average that gets
recalculated every decade. The latest recalculation, according
to Jan Null, a forecaster who runs Golden Gate Weather
Services, “show a noticeably drier state” through 2020 compared
to the previous “normal” calculation covering 1981 through
2010.
AB-377, is a proposed state Assembly bill titled Water Quality:
Impaired Waters. The premise of this legislation seems to be
that local authorities are responsible for all the dirty water
in local waterways. While the goal of “cleaning up the water”
is commendable the proposed solution is problematic. The Lompoc
City Council discussed a staff request to oppose this
legislation on May 4; the staff explains that “Assembly Bill
(AB) 377 seeks to ensure California’s waterways are drinkable,
fishable and swimmable by 2050.” -Written by Ron Fink, a Lompoc resident.
The state is facing major water impacts, but for those reliant
on water wells — in mobile home parks, rural communities, and
areas where water district access is limited — the concern is
growing. The Department of Water Resources has created
a website that can help those who rely on well water
to figure out just how much at-risk they are of a water
shortage. The site was created after the last drought, but
with California’s drought only recently worsening, it had not
been widely used or needed until now. The interactive map
allows users to explore their area and keep tabs on their well
water situation.
Ed Russo, CEO of RussKap Holdings LLC, announced today that his
company stands ready and able to assist California in its
ongoing quest to fight forest fires. “By using atmospheric
water generators we can have constant water flowing into
traditionally dry parched areas which will help prevent a
simple spark from igniting into a large brushfire.” … In
addition to eliminating the terrible environmental degradation
caused by fires, this solution would cost a tiny fraction of
what the power and insurance companies spend to replace damaged
homes and businesses annually.
Last week, Senator Alex Padilla (D-Ca) announced the
introduction of a bill that will protect special places in the
Los Padres National Forest and Carrizo Plain National Monument
for their ecological, cultural, and recreational values. The
bill also prohibits future oil drilling in certain places,
improves equitable access to the outdoors, and benefits local
and statewide economies. The bill is a companion to
Representative Salud Carbajal’s Central Coast Heritage
Protection Act, which passed the House of Representatives in
February. It … safeguards about 159 miles of wild and scenic
rivers.
Most farmers are worried about their crops as they head into
the second straight dry year. Vineyard owners say they may be
the lucky ones because, at this point, grapes don’t need a lot
water — just warm sunshine. That would change with a prolonged
drought. … Kendall Hoxsey-Onysko, owner of the Napa Wine
Company, is a fifth-generation Napa Valley grape grower and her
family knows all about droughts and their impact on the wine
industry. Grapevines can thrive without a lot of water but
productivity depends on how long the drought lasts.
Every spring, California farmers brace themselves for signs of
wriggling organisms destined to launch multigenerational
attacks on their crops. Many insect species survive the
winter as eggs or larvae and then emerge in early spring as the
first generation to feed and breed on millions of acres of
California vineyards, orchards and row crops. Climate change
will complicate farmers’ efforts to control these pests in
complex and unpredictable ways. The most alarming
consequence is apt to be ramping up pesticide applications,
with broad implications for the safety of California’s
waterways—just as the state gears up for a future filled with
drought.
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.
