A cyberattack over the weekend on the Municipal Water Authority
of Aliquippa has international implications. Aliquippa
would seem to be an unlikely target for international cyber
criminals, but the U.S. Department of Homeland Security is
investigating the possible attack by an anti-Israeli Iranian
group on the water authority. On Saturday, the
nondescript water authority building in the woods on the
outskirts of Aliquippa became the target of an international
attack. A piece of computer technology that monitors water
pressure suddenly shut down and a message appeared on its
screen. … Deluzio says the Aliquippa attack raises
concerns about more attacks within the United States and the
vulnerability of our critical infrastructure, especially in our
poorer communities.
The governing board of the Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency is
meeting in closed session Friday to discuss a 36-page complaint
against manufacturing giant 3M and more than a dozen other
businesses in October 2020, accusing them of poisoning the
state’s water supply with their products. The lawsuit
claims that from the 1960s through the present, the company has
manufactured and distributed “fluorosurfactant products” —
known to the average consumer as chemicals that create Teflon
coating, “Scotchgard,” stainproofing compounds, waxy surfaces
and aqueous film-forming foam (“AFFF”), a firefighting agent
used to control and extinguish Class B fuel fires.
In 2022, Ashok Gadgil conducted the first field trial of a
water-treatment system for the 600 or so residents of
Allensworth, California, who have been battling arsenic
contamination for some time. The system is a more efficient
iteration of technology that Gadgil and his team installed in
India in 2016 to provide rural and marginalized communities
with access to safe drinking water at low cost1. Like many
small rural communities, Allensworth — a historically Black
town with a majority Latinx population today — has no access to
high-quality surface-water treatment facilities that are common
in urban areas. Instead, these communities often use wells,
which are at high risk of contamination with arsenic and other
toxic substances.
Growing concern over per- and polyfluorinated substances (PFAS)
is cascading into a surge of unprecedented litigation. Like the
chemicals themselves, PFAS-related lawsuits are becoming
ubiquitous, spreading far beyond the initial exposure and
environmental contamination claims we’ve seen to date. These
legal actions are now encompassing a broader array of
defendants that have incorporated PFAS chemicals into their
products or packaging, venturing into uncharted territory
concerning bodily injury, and expanding into other causes of
actions. Given the current absence of substantial judicial
precedent regarding coverage matters and liability defenses in
the context of PFAS and aqueous film forming foam (AFFF),
manufacturers, sellers, and commercial consumers of PFAS and
their insurers will be closely watching litigation, looking to
future rulings for guidance about the viability of coverage
defenses raised in other pollution claims.
Recent headlines warned the nation that drinking water for
almost a million people was at risk of saltwater contamination,
as seawater migrated up the Mississippi River toward New
Orleans. Fortunately, nature and humans (through the
construction of an underwater dam and other extraordinary
measures) intervened and — for now — the risks have been
reduced. But with a changing climate increasing both sea level
and chances of drought, saltwater will continue to threaten
drinking water supplies in the future. Susan Gorin The
potential for seawater intrusion isn’t limited to the lower
Mississippi River. In southern Sonoma County, where the San
Pablo Baylands form the boundaries of the Sonoma Valley
groundwater sub basin, the potential has long existed for
seawater to migrate inland to replace fresher groundwater
pumped from aquifers in areas of long-term groundwater
depletion. Written by Susan Gorin, a Sonoma County supervisor and
chair of the Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sustainability
Agency.
When Racha Mousdikoudine opens her kitchen faucet, she never
knows what will happen. “Maybe I won’t get any water at all,”
she told CNN. … For the last four months, Mousdikoudine and
her two children have had little or no running water in their
home on the French territory of Mayotte, and island of around
310,000 people in the Indian Ocean off the eastern coast of
Africa, between Mozambique and the island of
Madagascar. Mayotte is facing an unprecedented water
crisis amid one of the worst droughts in its history, as the
impacts of the human-caused climate crisis collide with a
chronic lack of investment in the water system. The island
is grappling with its worst drought since 1997. Its two
water reservoirs have reached a “critical level of decline” –
one is at 7% of capacity and the other at 6%, according to the
most recent estimates, and they are on the verge of drying
up. It has led to drastic water cuts.
A first-of-its-kind winegrower sustainability certification
program in Napa Valley is changing its rules to require that
vineyards eliminate the use of synthetic herbicides. Napa
Green, a nonprofit established in 2004, announced Tuesday it
will require members to phase out their use of Monsanto-made
weed killer Roundup by 2026, and all other synthetic herbicides
by 2028. The program currently has around 90 participating
wineries. … The move makes Napa Green the first of about 20
sustainable winegrowing certification programs worldwide to
phase out synthetic herbicides. It also represents a change in
position for Napa Green. Last year, Brittain told the San
Francisco Chronicle that she feared banning Roundup would
alienate growers. Glyphosate, the active ingredient in
Roundup, has been linked to cancers such as non-Hodgkin’s
lymphoma with repeat exposure.
Turlock and Ceres residents finally are drinking treated water
from the Tuolumne River, [according to] officials gathered
Tuesday at the plant, which reduces the cities’ reliance on
wells. Hefty rate increases starting in 2018 are covering most
of the $220 million cost. … “High-quality drinking water is
now flowing to our communities that are so much in need of a
long-term solution to the declining groundwater levels and
increasingly stringent water-quality regulations,” Ceres Mayor
Javier Lopez said. The Turlock Irrigation District is selling
part of its river supply to the plant, just east of the Geer
Road Bridge. Advocates say less pumping by the cities will mean
a more abundant aquifer for farm and urban users alike.
A struggle over water rights has led to a carrot boycott in
California’s Cuyama Valley north of Santa Barbara. The cause of
contention is groundwater rights. Groundwater is the only
source of water available in the region, and its aquifers are
being rapidly drained. Wells have had to be sunk to 680 feet
below the surface to gain access to the water, reports The Los
Angeles Times. Signs reading “BOYCOTT CARROTS” and “STAND
WITH CUYAMA AGAINST CORPORATE GREED” are aimed at the region’s
two largest growers, Grimmway Farms BB #:112956 and
Bolthouse Farms BB #:111358, which specialize in carrots
and are by far the largest water users in the area. -Written by Richard Smoley, contributing editor for
Blue Book Services.
The Orange County Water District (OCWD) Board of Directors is
proud to announce the appointment of John Kennedy as general
manager, effective January 27, 2024. Kennedy, who currently
serves as the District’s executive director of engineering and
water resources, was selected by the Board to succeed Michael
R. Markus, who retires after more than 35 years with OCWD,
including serving as general manager since 2007. Kennedy brings
to the role more than 40 years of experience in the water and
civil engineering industry. His career with OCWD, which began
in 1995, has seen him responsible for a wide range of critical
functions, including developing long-term financial
projections, capital improvement programs, and acting as a
liaison with 19 local cities and retail water districts.
While tap water in California is considered safe by most
standards, specific contaminants are finding their way into the
drinking water supply. Take per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
(PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals”) for example, which
have been shown to have serious adverse effects on human
health, including cancer, thyroid disorders, ulcerative
colitis, infertility. The list goes on. In fact, tap water in
urban areas in Southern and Central California appears to be a
hot spot for contamination by these chemicals, according to new
U.S. Geological Survey research. Pollution involving “forever
chemicals” is widespread. -Written by Mike DiGiannantonio, an attorney with
Environmental Law Group and lives in Hermosa Beach.
Yountville Town Council said the town is taking action to
bolster its water testing process after issuing two boil water
notices earlier this year. The notices — in July and October —
were connected to positive E.coli tests in samples of the
town’s water supply. Though they were canceled within a few
days, the notices prompted town officials to determine how to
avoid such instances in the future. The Town Council decided
Nov. 7 to improve its current water testing system by
collecting supplementary data and actively monitoring chlorine
levels.
When Leigh Harris and her husband Franck Avril moved into their
dream home, Leigh said she felt like the luckiest person in the
world. The home is in Rio Verde Foothills, Arizona, near
Scottsdale in unincorporated Maricopa County. … There was
just one downside. Their home was built on a dry lot, which
means there were no pipes connected to a city water supply.
… Leigh and Franck’s experience is an extreme version of
the kind of trade-offs we all may have to consider in the
future. Under the growing threats from drought, extreme heat,
wildfire and floods, what are we willing to endure to keep
living in the places we love? And who will have a choice?.
Former Humboldt County 5th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg
was appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom to the North Coast Regional
Water Quality Control Board. The board’s stated goal is to
“preserve, enhance, and restore the quality of California’s
water resources and drinking water,” according to the agency’s
website. The board also works to “ensure proper water resource
allocation and efficient use.” Sundberg is the general manager
of the Heights Casino in Trinidad.
In March, Redding was testing its water supply as part of a
federal effort to gather information about unregulated
contaminants. A group of chemicals known as PFAS were
discovered. PFAS stands for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl
substances. These chemicals stay in the environment for a very
long time, and are linked to negative health effects including
cancer. But, on Tuesday, Redding’s Water Utility Manager Josh
Watkins said the data doesn’t tell the whole story. … Watkins
said that the well has not been used since it was taken offline
in September. … The most dangerous PFAS chemicals have
mostly been voluntarily phased out, according to the EPA.
However, because of their nature, these chemicals remain in the
environment. One ongoing use of PFAS chemicals is in
firefighting foam used at airports.
California environmental nonprofits and local agriculture
organizations recently filed lawsuits against the state and
regional water boards over nitrate regulations, but for
different reasons. Agriculture wants a better balance
between the need to grow food and need to protect water
quality, while environmental groups want to see a limit to
nitrates’ use in agriculture. Nitrates are inorganic
compounds containing nitrogen that can come from man-made or
natural resources and are used to help with the soil quality in
agriculture, but they can cause problems when they enter into
ground or surface water, said Ted Morton, executive director
for Santa Barbara Channelkeeper.
As Maui grapples with the trauma of the August fires and tries
to envision the future of Lahaina, the mission to rebuild is
complicated by a major obstacle: the contamination of the
drinking water system. When fires tore through the town on Aug.
8, the heat melted pipes, polluting the water inside with toxic
chemicals. Officials are now testing for contamination property
by property. Early testing has already exposed the presence of
the carcinogen benzene and other chemicals but officials are
only starting to understand the scope of the problem. They
haven’t widely sampled the core of the burn zone. Testing
will be followed by a mass flushing of the system until the
water runs clean. Approximately 2,200 service lines were
impacted and may need to be replaced.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that it would
provide $28.97 million in financial aid for 31 potential new
water reuse and desalination projects. The funding will help
prepare feasibility studies and undertake planning efforts such
as preliminary project design and environmental compliance
activities. … The 31 projects are in California, Idaho,
Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah. The projects also bring a
cost-share contribution of $64.7 million, bringing the total
investment of $93.7 million.
Voters in Fallbrook and Rainbow approved of detaching from the
San Diego County Water Authority for cheaper water in Riverside
County in early voting results Tuesday night. After nearly
three years of battling the Water Authority over what they say
is increasingly high water rates, voters have had enough. …
In July, the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission
(LAFCO) approved the request for Rainbow Municipal Water
District and Fallbrook Public Utility District to leave the
Water Authority for Riverside’s Eastern Municipal Water
District. Detachment is a two-step process. After LAFCO’s
decision, voters in both Rainbow and Fallbrook would also need
to approve the detachment.
The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality is seeking
public comment on expanded plans to reuse wastewater for
drinking. The department released a roadmap for its Advanced
Water Purification Program last week. ADEQ says the move comes
amid increased water scarcity due to persistent drought.
Its roadmap would provide guidelines for municipal and private
utilities to treat sewage and send the recycled water directly
to homes. As it stands, treated effluent is filtered through
the ground before the water is ready for consumption. ADEQ
Deputy Director Randy Matas says specific treatment techniques
will be left up to local communities, as the map is solely
seeking to provide standards.
City of Napa residents are invited to attend a public hearing
on proposed water rate increases scheduled for Tuesday, Nov. 7,
the city reminded residents on social media today. The meeting,
which is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. will be held at Napa
City Hall located at 955 School Street. … Proposed water
rate increases, should they be approved by city leaders, will
help to pay for maintenance, including infrastructure
Investments which include planned capital improvements and debt
service on past capital improvements, the city said.
Seawater intrusion is the movement of saline water from the
ocean or estuaries into freshwater systems. The seawater that
has crept up the Mississippi River in the summer and early fall
of 2023 is a reminder that coastal communities teeter in a
fragile land-sea balance. Fresh water is essential for
drinking, irrigation and healthy ecosystems. When seawater
moves inland, the salt it contains can wreak havoc on
farmlands, ecosystems, lives and livelihoods.
… In groundwater basins of central and
southern California, widespread pumping has caused
groundwater levels to drop hundreds of feet in some areas. This
is tipping the seesaw and causing groundwater from the sea to
move far inland. Accessible groundwater has supported irrigated
agriculture in these areas, but now the double hazard of
reduced groundwater availability and seawater
intrusion threatens crops like strawberries and lettuce.
Martha Lorenz lives in the shade of orchards, living in the
house where she grew up outside of Ceres, California. She
remodeled it in the 1980s. … She’s always gotten her
water from a well. ”I didn’t think anything about it as a
kid, you know, you just go to the sink and get your glass of
water,” Lorenz said. But that all changed two years ago
when she found out her drinking water was contaminated with
nitrate. … Nitrate is odorless and colorless and
can be dangerous. In infants, it can cause “Blue Baby
Syndrome,” which causes low oxygen in the infant’s blood. It
can be fatal. Nitrate can also cause cancer if the level in
water is higher than 10 milligrams per liter. … Nitrate
can come from a number of sources: urban wastewater applied on
the land, septic tanks, farm manure, or fertilizer on golf
courses or crops.
Deadlines are upcoming related to the multi-district per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) litigation. The relevant
settlements are with DuPont, Chemours, and Corteva
(collectively, DuPont) and 3M, parties who allegedly
manufactured various PFAS chemicals. The currently-pending
settlements cover $1.185 billion for DuPont and $10.5-$12.5
billion for 3M. The litigation is focused on alleged
contamination of drinking water caused by DuPont’s and 3M’s
alleged manufacture of PFAS chemicals. PFAS are a family of
manmade chemicals that are used due to beneficial properties
like repelling water.
Desalination facilities have critics who claim it’s too
expensive and environmentally destructive, but there are
supporters who want to make existing reverse osmosis technology
better and many new ideas are being tested here in Southern
California. … A water technology company named SeaWell
believes desalination will work best off shore, so they are
testing their equipment at the Navy’s sea water desalination
test facility at Port Hueneme.
The precarious state of Big Basin Water Co. is beginning to
stabilize, but the private water provider still faces a long
and bumpy road ahead. That was the message delivered by Big
Basin’s newly appointed receiver late Thursday night to a crowd
of roughly 50 customers packed into the Boulder Creek Fire
District station along with 40 more who tuned in via Zoom. The
meeting featured Nicolas Jaber, an attorney and project manager
of receiverships with Silver and Wright LLP, which is the law
firm tasked in early October by a Santa Cruz County Superior
Court judge with managing the water system and bringing it back
into compliance with regional standards.
[A]t least once a year since 2019, the Smithwick
Mills water system, which serves about 200 residents in
[Texas], has reported high levels of the synthetic chemical
1,2,3-trichloropropane … Water quality tests from the
Smithwick Mills utility have revealed an average TCP level of
410 parts per trillion over the past four years — more than 80
times what would be allowed in California. But the utility
hasn’t taken any action. It doesn’t have to. The chemical isn’t
regulated in drinking water by the EPA or the Texas Commission
on Environmental Quality, which means neither agency has ever
set a maximum allowable level of TCP.
Parents gathered at Farallone View Elementary School on
Thursday morning to hear administration plans after the Montara
Water and Sanitary District shut off water service to the
school today due to its public health concerns caused by
construction at the site. For many children at the school, it
was also time to face their first Porta-Potty. Cabrillo Unified
School District officials scrambled to get portable sanitation
stations in place for the school day and to assure some potable
water was in place.
In the last four years, the Nolls have spent almost half a
million dollars on consultants, investigatory reports, water
bottles and filtration systems, well testing, and more.
Starting on July 31, 2019, the family lived under constant
threat from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board: a fine of $5,000 a day for not complying with a cleanup
and abatement order for pollution that the Nolls maintained
from the beginning wasn’t their fault. … This summer,
the water board finally rescinded its order against them,
acknowledging the Nolls’ “time and resources to provide safe
drinking water to the residents of the Buckley Road community”
in its July 2023 notice to the Nolls but not much else.
America’s stewardship of one of its most precious resources,
groundwater, relies on a patchwork of state and local rules so
lax and outdated that in many places oversight is all but
nonexistent, a New York Times analysis has found. The majority
of states don’t know how many wells they have, the analysis
revealed. Many have incomplete records of older wells,
including some that pump large volumes of water, and many
states don’t register the millions of household wells that dot
the country. … While farmers face severe risks from
groundwater depletion, many warn that too much regulation would
harm their livelihoods and the nation’s food supply. “Farming
would not exist as we know it in California without the use of
groundwater,” said Chris Scheuring, a water attorney at the
California Farm Bureau and a family farmer himself.
Communities across California are facing extreme water
challenges. Decades of overpumping groundwater coupled with
ongoing drought has led to crises including depleted aquifers,
domestic and shallow wells running dry, issues with groundwater
salinity, and devastating floods. Fairmead, an unincorporated
community in the San Joaquin Valley, faces significant concerns
about its drinking water supply. The Madera Subbasin, in which
the community is located, is categorized as “critically
overdrafted.” Many residents have experienced their wells
drying up, and drilling deeper wells is cost-prohibitive for
most.
Californians who need help paying their water bills can benefit
from a state-administered program. The Low Income Household
Water Assistance Program, which is administered by the state
Department of Community Service and Development, is available
to both renters and homeowners. “Many low-income residents
behind on their water or sewer bills have received hundreds or
even thousands of dollars in financial support to help pay
their bills,” California CSD said on its website. Through March
or until federal funding runs out, Californians can apply for
one-time help to “pay past due or current residential water and
sewer bills and keep their water on,” state officials added.
Pleasanton is moving forward with a plan to build two new
drinking-water wells to replace its wells found to be
contaminated. The new wells would be drilled away from the ones
contaminated with the potentially harmful per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances — known as PFAS — that caused
the city to stop using the three wells it currently operates.
The City Council this month approved moving forward with the
project, which will take about four years to complete and cost
an estimated $23 million to $43 million, according to city
figures. However, city officials have not decided how to pay
for the entire project. The City Council only committed
$500,000 from the city’s water fund to cover planning and
development costs.
Increasing salt production and use is shifting the natural
balances of salt ions across Earth systems, causing
interrelated effects across biophysical systems collectively
known as freshwater salinization syndrome. In this Review, we
conceptualize the natural salt cycle and synthesize increasing
global trends of salt production and riverine salt
concentrations and fluxes. The natural salt cycle is
primarily driven by relatively slow geologic and hydrologic
processes that bring different salts to the surface of the
Earth. Anthropogenic activities have accelerated the processes,
timescales and magnitudes of salt fluxes and altered their
directionality, creating an anthropogenic salt cycle.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced on Thursday $8
million in new research funding to understand how the toxic
compounds known as “forever chemicals” are affecting plants and
animals in agricultural, rural and tribal communities. The
agency announced the new funds as part of an effort to develop
ways to identify and mitigate exposure pathways to per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of more than 12,000
chemicals known as PFAS. These nearly indestructible chemicals,
which do not exist in nature, accumulate in the environment and
in living things, including people. They contaminate air, soil
and waterways and have been detected in the blood of nearly
every person tested in the United States. The agency is
offering researchers five $1.6 million grants over four years.
Phoenix is moving forward with plans to build a facility to
turn wastewater into drinking water by 2030 and Gilbert wants
in. Town Council on Tuesday will consider entering into a
non-binding agreement with Phoenix to investigate a regional
advanced water purification facility. The item is on the
consent agenda. The memorandum of understanding will “advance
the planning and studies needed to fund, design and construct
the facility,” Water Resources Manager Lauren Hixon said in a
report to council.
This month, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced that San
Luis Obispo County was among 31 Western U.S. planning projects
to receive $28.9 million in funding to support potential new
water reuse and desalination projects. SLO County was awarded
$550,000 in matching funds to start a feasibility, technology
and project location study to take advantage of our over 80
miles of ocean frontage that could help transform seawater into
drinking water. With the prospect of future droughts due
to global warming, “this renewable, almost inexhaustible
resource would not be diminished by climate change,
insufficient rainfall, or water conservation efforts,” says
Angela Ford, SLO DESAL (Desalination Executable Solution and
Logistics) Plan manager and supervising water resources
engineer with the county.
The largest fire in New Mexico history began with a disastrous
government agency blunder. Its consequences for land and a
small northern New Mexico city’s water were magnified by
man-made climate change. … The fire burned the
upper reaches of the Gallinas River watershed, the drinking
water source for more than 17,000 people in and around Las
Vegas. The fire had plenty of fuel — the watershed hadn’t had a
major burn in more than a century. Ash and sediment flushed
into the river from the bald slopes of the burn scar are
undeniable threats to the city’s water treatment system.
… Fires in recent years have destroyed water systems in
Superior, Colorado; Detroit, Oregon; Malden, Washington; and in
the California locales of Paradise, Santa Rosa, and the San
Lorenzo Valley.
The company that sells Arrowhead 100% Mountain Spring Water is
suing to challenge California regulators’ recent ruling that
the company must stop taking much of the water it pipes from
the San Bernardino National Forest for bottling. BlueTriton
Brands filed the lawsuit this month in Fresno County Superior
Court, arguing in its complaint that the State Water Resources
Control Board overstepped its authority “far beyond what
California law allows.” The board voted
unanimously in September to order the company to halt its
“unauthorized diversions” of water from springs in the San
Bernardino Mountains.
The Oct. 15 derailment near Pueblo spilled mountains of coal
over I-25, collapsed a bridge, and killed a truck driver. This
was tragic, but it could have been much worse. It could
have been a two-mile-long train filled with crude oil–the kind
that the Uinta Basin Railway would send through Colorado up to
five times a day. … Julius T. Murray, speaking for his Ute
Indian Tribe, urged federal taxpayers to finance the railway to
make up for historical mistreatment of his tribe by the federal
government. … While Mr. Murray reveres the Colorado
mountains from which his people were moved long ago, he
dismisses the threats to those same mountains which these oil
trains pose — both the threat that inevitable derailments could
ignite wildfires in Colorado’s inaccessible timbered canyons or
spill crude oil into the Colorado River … -Written by Malin Moench, a Utah resident, who spent
37 years analyzing the economics of public utilities and
logistics at the federal level.
Over the hills of northern Nebraska and along the banks of the
Missouri River lies the village of Santee on the Santee Sioux
Nation Reservation. Home to fewer than 1,000 residents, it’s
isolated from Nebraska’s major population centers and almost an
hour from the nearest Walmart in Yankton, South Dakota. For the
past four years, the reservation has not had access to safe
drinking water. And for four years, the tribe has been unable
to afford the necessary infrastructure to fix the problem.
… While the Santee are experiencing an especially dire
situation, dozens of other tribes across the country also have
water access issues, from the Navajo Nation’s battle for water
rights in the desert southwest to the Apsaalooke Nation’s
wastewater contamination in Montana.
Providing affordable, safe and reliable water service in
California is becoming increasingly challenging. Water service
providers must deal with aging infrastructure, increasingly
stringent water quality regulations and the threat of more
frequent and extreme weather events, such as fires, drought and
flooding, due to climate change. Smaller water service
providers may struggle with adapting their operations to comply
with changes in water quality requirements. These systems,
which often rely on a single water source, are less resilient
in dealing with contamination or natural disasters.
Additionally, due to their smaller customer bases, it can be
difficult for these systems to charge rates that cover
necessary long-term improvements while maintaining
affordability.
Since almost completely running out of water in 2015, and again
in 2021, the City of Fort Bragg is working to make sure it
stays ahead of any future droughts by investing in
desalination. ”We stopped allowing people to wash dishes
and had them use paper products and things like that, just
disposable plates and things like that. So it was very serious
at that time,” Director of Public Works for the City of Fort
Bragg John Smith said. He says part of the reason why Fort
Bragg was so impacted by the droughts is because there are no
groundwater sources within the city. “If we don’t have the
aquifer or the streams and those types of things flowing, then
we just run out of water,” Smith said.
Today, at an event near Marina, California, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water
Radhika Fox joined City of Monterey Mayor Tyller Williamson and
other local officials to announce a Water Infrastructure
Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan to Monterey One Water.
This $76 million loan will expand existing water reuse capacity
from 5 million gallons per day to 7.6 million gallons per day
while ensuring residents and businesses in the surrounding
areas have a climate resilient water supply. Since its
creation, EPA’s WIFIA program has announced $19 billion in
financing to support 113 projects that are strengthening
drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure and
creating tens of thousands of jobs.
The Tucson City Council has approved a plan laid out by
municipal authorities to secure drinking water for residents in
the coming years. In a 6-1 vote last Tuesday, the council
green-lit what’s called the One Water 2100 Plan —
it’s part of a sustainability package put together by Tucson
officials and it spells out where drinking water for Tucson
will come from in the coming years. … One Water 2100
outlines four distinct drinking water sources — stormwater,
groundwater, surface water and recycled water. The city is
looking at ways to manage water resources depending on various
factors — like Colorado River allocation, drought management
and shifting community needs in Tucson.
Let’s call it what it is – San Diego has a cost of water
crisis. All the things San Diego built to get water
and keep it here is pushing up the price of this key molecule
with little sign of it dropping. The Escondido City Council
just OK’d an 8 percent increase in January, triggering outrage
from locals, reports KPBS. The city of San Diego jacked up
rates almost 20 percent through 2025. The conductor of
this breakaway train is the San Diego County Water Authority,
which brings in water from big sources and sells it to places
like Escondido and San Diego. It recently passed on a 9.5
percent price mark-up to its 24 customer water districts. A
couple of those districts are so peeved, they’re hoping to
leave San Diego entirely for cheaper water elsewhere.
Officials in Yountville announced Sunday afternoon they have
lifted the mandatory order for residents to boil water before
consumption that was issued Friday after E. coli was detected
in the municipal water supply. Town and state officials said
Sunday the local water supply met mandated testing requirements
for negative results. The State Water Resource Control Board
approved the use of town water. The order marked the second
time Yountville issued a mandatory boil water order. A
precautionary order was issued for three days in July.
The California Department of Community Services and Development
is extending its program to help low-income residents pay their
current or past-due water and sewer bills. The federally funded
Low Income Household Water Assistance Program was originally
set to end in the fall, but will remain open through March 2024
— or until funds last. Here’s how to apply for one-time support
paying your water and sewer bill, and who qualifies …
As lawmakers around the world weigh bans of cancer-linked
“forever chemicals,” many manufacturers are pushing back,
saying there often is no substitute for the compounds.
Minnesota and Maine have passed legislation to effectively
outlaw the use of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS,
in nearly all products by the early 2030s. Dozens of other
states are also considering curbing their use. And the European
Union’s Chemical Agency has proposed a widespread ban. In
response, Ford Motor Co. warned Maine state officials in May
that “there is no commercially available technology that exists
in the world today” that can replace a PFAS-containing
thermoplastic used for electric vehicle batteries.
Navajo Nation Speaker Crystalyne Curley told a U.S. Senate
committee that many Navajo citizens still struggle to find
clean drinking water, and joined other officials seeking help
to secure reliable supplies. … The hearing was a chance
to examine the ongoing challenge of clean water access for
tribal communities, said Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, the
committee’s chairperson. It also offered an opportunity to hear
testimony not only from Curley but from other tribal leaders,
experts and federal partners on how the investments made by the
bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act has
assisted in these communities.
The Pleasanton City Council is set Tuesday to consider
allocating $500,000 from the water enterprise fund balance to
the water replacement capital improvement program so staff can
proceed with the planning process to develop two new city-owned
wells. According to the staff report, the council will vote on
establishing the new capital improvement project for the two
new wells — which are being called Well 9 and Well 10 — and
will look to approve the water supply alternatives study final
report draft from Oct. 12, which outlines why the two new wells
are most economically viable options to bring clean water to
residents.
The California Water Service in Bakersfield hosted their annual
‘Imagine a Day Without Water.’ The day aims to highlight the
essential nature of water. Officials with Cal Water gave us a
tour of their Northeast Bakersfield plant that adds around 20
million gallons of water to the city’s water supply every day.
The water at this site goes through a rigorous five-step
process that ensures the water they source from the Kern River
is clean.
… But this year Democrats in the Legislature went in a
different direction, proposing bills that would discourage
synthetic turf. They’re worried about health risks created
by the chemicals present in these lawns, including
perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as
PFAS chemicals. One of the bills Newsom signed, for
instance, undoes the Brown-era law and allows cities
and counties to again ban artificial turf. Some California
cities have already begun moving to prohibit fake lawns,
including Millbrae in San Mateo County and San Marino in Los
Angeles County. … Microplastics from the grass
blades and crumb rubber can also leach into groundwater and
freshwater bodies.
… A state audit from the California Water Resources Control
Board released last year found that over 920,000 residents
faced an increased risk of illness–including cancer, liver and
kidney problems–due to consuming unsafe drinking water. A
majority of these unsafe water systems are in the Central
Valley. The matter has prompted community leaders to mobilize
residents around water quality as politicians confront
imperfect solutions for the region’s supply. Advocates point
out that impacted areas, including those in Tulare County, tend
to be majority Latino with low median incomes. … This
year’s extreme weather has only worsened the valley’s problems.
The storms that hit California at the start of this year caused
stormwater tainted with farm industry fertilizer, manure and
nitrates to flow into valley aquifers.
Tiny pieces of plastic waste shed
from food wrappers, grocery bags, clothing, cigarette butts,
tires and paint are invading the environment and every facet of
daily life. Researchers know the plastic particles have even made
it into municipal water supplies, but very little data exists
about the scope of microplastic contamination in drinking
water.
After years of planning, California this year is embarking on a
first-of-its-kind data-gathering mission to illuminate how
prevalent microplastics are in the state’s largest drinking water
sources and help regulators determine whether they are a public
health threat.
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Shortly after taking office in 2019,
Gov. Gavin Newsom called on state agencies to deliver a Water
Resilience Portfolio to meet California’s urgent challenges —
unsafe drinking water, flood and drought risks from a changing
climate, severely depleted groundwater aquifers and native fish
populations threatened with extinction.
Within days, he appointed Nancy Vogel, a former journalist and
veteran water communicator, as director of the Governor’s Water
Portfolio Program to help shepherd the monumental task of
compiling all the information necessary for the portfolio. The
three state agencies tasked with preparing the document delivered
the draft Water Resilience Portfolio Jan. 3. The document, which
Vogel said will help guide policy and investment decisions
related to water resilience, is nearing the end of its comment
period, which goes through Friday, Feb. 7.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Each day, people living on the streets and camping along waterways across California face the same struggle – finding clean drinking water and a place to wash and go to the bathroom.
Some find friendly businesses willing to help, or public restrooms and drinking water fountains. Yet for many homeless people, accessing the water and sanitation that most people take for granted remains a daily struggle.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Low-income Californians can get help with their phone bills, their natural gas bills and their electric bills. But there’s only limited help available when it comes to water bills.
That could change if the recommendations of a new report are implemented into law. Drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board, the report outlines the possible components of a program to assist low-income households facing rising water bills.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
Joaquin Esquivel learned that life is
what happens when you make plans. Esquivel, who holds the public
member slot at the State Water Resources Control Board in
Sacramento, had just closed purchase on a house in Washington
D.C. with his partner when he was tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown a
year ago to fill the Board vacancy.
Esquivel, 35, had spent a decade in Washington, first in several
capacities with then Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then as
assistant secretary for federal water policy at the California
Natural Resources Agency. As a member of the State Water Board,
he shares with four other members the difficult task of
ensuring balance to all the uses of California’s water.
A new study could help water
agencies find solutions to the vexing challenges the homeless
face in gaining access to clean water for drinking and
sanitation.
The Santa Ana Watershed Project
Authority (SAWPA) in Southern California has embarked on a
comprehensive and collaborative effort aimed at assessing
strengths and needs as it relates to water services for people
(including the homeless) within its 2,840 square-mile area that
extends from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Orange County
coast.
A statewide program that began under a 2015 law to help
low-income people with their water bills would cost about $600
million annually, a public policy expert told the California
State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) at a
meeting last week.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
Directly detecting harmful pathogens in water can be expensive,
unreliable and incredibly complicated. Fortunately, certain
organisms are known to consistently coexist with these harmful
microbes which are substantially easier to detect and culture:
coliform bacteria. These generally non-toxic organisms are
frequently used as “indicator
species,” or organisms whose presence demonstrates a
particular feature of its surrounding environment.
This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses
the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent
facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully
illustrated with color photographs.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
This 30-minute DVD explains the importance of developing a source
water assessment program (SWAP) for tribal lands and by profiling
three tribes that have created SWAPs. Funded by a grant from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the video complements the
Foundation’s 109-page workbook, Protecting Drinking Water: A
Workbook for Tribes, which includes a step-by-step work plan for
Tribes interested in developing a protection plan for their
drinking water.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
Finding and maintaining a clean
water supply for drinking and other uses has been a constant
challenge throughout human history.
Today, significant technological developments in water treatment,
including monitoring and assessment, help ensure a drinking water
supply of high quality in California and the West.
The source of water and its initial condition prior to being
treated usually determines the water treatment process. [See also
Water Recycling.]
A tremendous amount of time and technology is expended to make
surface water safe to drink. Surface water undergoes many
processes before it reaches a consumer’s tap.
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act sets standards for drinking
water quality in the United States.
Launched in 1974 and administered by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the Safe Drinking Water Act oversees states,
communities, and water suppliers who implement the drinking water
standards at the local level.
The act’s regulations apply to every public water system in the
United States but do not include private wells serving less than
25 people.
According to the EPA, there are more than 160,000 public water
systems in the United States.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater management and the extent to which stakeholders
believe more efforts are needed to preserve and restore the
resource.
This printed issue of Western Water, based on presentations
at the November 3-4, 2010 Water Quality Conference in Ontario,
Calif., looks at constituents of emerging concerns (CECs) – what
is known, what is yet to be determined and the potential
regulatory impacts on drinking water quality.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the challenges facing
small water systems, including drought preparedness, limited
operating expenses and the hurdles of complying with costlier
regulations. Much of the article is based on presentations at the
November 2007 Small Systems Conference sponsored by the Water
Education Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
This issue of Western Water looks at some of the issues
facing drinking water providers, such as compliance with
increasingly stringent treatment requirements, the need to
improve source water quality and the mission of continually
informing consumers about the quality of water they receive.
This issue of Western Water examines PPCPs – what they are, where
they come from and whether the potential exists for them to
become a water quality problem. With the continued emphasis on
water quality and the fact that many water systems in the West
are characterized by flows dominated by effluent contributions,
PPCPs seem likely to capture interest for the foreseeable future.
This issue of Western Water examines the problem of perchlorate
contamination and its ramifications on all facets of water
delivery, from the extensive cleanup costs to the search for
alternative water supplies. In addition to discussing the threat
posed by high levels of perchlorate in drinking water, the
article presents examples of areas hard hit by contamination and
analyzes the potential impacts of forthcoming drinking water
standards for perchlorate.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
