San Diego officials say they will complete a long-delayed
comprehensive analysis of city water rates this year that could
lead to sharp increases to pay for major infrastructure
projects such as the Pure Water sewage purification system now
under construction. The last time San Diego completed such an
analysis in 2015, city officials voted to raise water rates by
40 percent over a four-year period. City water customers
already face a 3 percent rate hike in January to cover rising
imported water costs. That increase, which the City Council
approved this week, was prompted by the County Water Authority
voting in June to increase what it charges the city for
imported water.
Antioch is investing in its water supply future. A new $110
million desalination plant is being built in Antioch. With
construction underway at an existing water treatment facility,
the new desalination plant will service the needs of Antioch’s
population of more than 115,000 people, as well as help to
improve its water supply reliability, city officials say.
… The primary reason for the need for the desalination
plant is due to increased salinity in the water supply. The
city of Antioch derives much of its water source from the San
Joaquin River …
Thanks to a law in California signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this
past June, there could be much less plastic waste in
California within a decade, serving as a potential pilot for
this legislation being enacted elsewhere. The landmark
legislation requires that all packaging in the state
be compostable or recyclable by 2032, and sets guidelines for
increasing the levels of recycling of plastic packaging in the
state by the same year. By signing SB 54 into law, Newsom seeks
to hold polluters responsible, shifting the burden of
responsibility for plastic pollution from consumers to the
plastics industry.
Two companies are teaming up to respond to the drought in
California by turning the water in tomatoes into drinking
water. Los Banos-based Ingomar Packing Company, a tomato
processor, is partnering with Botanical Water Technologies to
make this happen. Tomatoes are made up of about 95% water.
… Despite coming from tomatoes, Rees said the water
doesn’t taste like it. … The plan is for the Los Banos
Ingomar site to create more than 200 million gallons of potable
water per year by 2025.
In 2016, the City of San Francisco was the first American
municipality to ban the sales of water that comes in plastic
bottles. At the time it was called a bold move that was
building on a global movement to reduce the huge amount of
waste from the billion-dollar plastic bottle industry. South
Lake Tahoe was an early adopter of the single-use plastic bag
ban, as well as bans of single-use plastic, styrene, and
straws. … Plastic bottles break down into tiny pieces
(microplastics) that can be found in the lake and water bottles
are the most commonly sold in South Lake Tahoe. At this time,
soda bottles and other beverages sold in plastic will still be
available. Water sold in reusable cans and boxes is becoming
more popular, and they will still be allowed.
According to a September 15 Environment California press
release, California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR)
data confirm more bad news on neonicotinoid (neonic)
contamination: nearly all urban waterways in three counties
show the presence of the neonic imidacloprid at levels
above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s)
chronic benchmark for harm to aquatic ecosystems; in five other
counties, well over half showed its presence at similar levels.
Neonic use is strongly correlated with die-offs and other harms
to a variety of bees and pollinators, and to other beneficial
organisms.
In just the past month, as California temperatures soared
during a drought so severe some experts say it hasn’t been this
parched in 1,200 years, about 250 wells, mostly in the state’s
bread basket, have gone dry. They’re part of the more than
1,100 California wells that have dried up so far this year, a
60% increase from 2021. While that may not seem like a lot,
given that California has 274,000 wells, it’s an ominous sign
and a personal tragedy for the one million Californians who
struggle for clean water. In many cases, it also pits hugely
important agricultural producers, who rely on underground water
for their crops, against their own workers, who need it to
drink.
Most parents take extra precautions to protect their children
from toxic chemicals — from locking cabinets of cleaning
supplies to scrutinizing ingredient labels. But some toxic
chemicals are near impossible to limit their exposure to.
California can change that. Perfluoroalkyl and
polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, are a class of
over 9,000 industrial compounds that are added to
everyday products to repel stains, water or oil. … Commonly
referred to as “forever chemicals,” they do not break down in
the environment — ever. … According to the nonprofit
Environmental Working Group, these chemicals may be
contaminating the drinking water of up to 200 million
Americans.
-Written by Rebecca Fuoco, science communications
officer at the Green Science Policy Institute; and Arlene
Blum, founder and executive director of the Green Science
Policy Institute and a research associate in the Cell and
Molecular Biology Department at UC Berkeley.
Incarcerated Californians — and those who live in neighboring
rural communities — may be exposed to dangerous levels of
arsenic in their drinking water, a new study has found. Arsenic
concentrations in the water supply of the Kern Valley State
Prison and three nearby Central Valley communities exceeded
regulatory limits for months or even years at a time, according
to the study, published on Wednesday in Environmental
Health Perspectives. To draw their conclusions, the
authors combed through 20 years of water quality data from the
prison and the adjacent communities of Allensworth, McFarland
and Delano, where groundwater aquifers contain unhealthy levels
of naturally occurring arsenic.
Sonoma County staff are polishing off a new draft of revisions
to the county’s well regulations after the county Board of
Supervisors delayed adopting the original revisions in order to
obtain more community input on the possible impacts of the
changes. The revisions are intended to align the county’s well
ordinance with California’s Public Trust Doctrine, which
requires local governments to protect public-use waterways ,
such as those used for commerce, recreation, navigation or
habitat. The core of any proposed changes would require well
permit applicants to meet certain criteria based on their
proximity to protected waterways and use of groundwater. There
would also be a public trust review of the well’s potential
impact on those nearby waterways.
Funding from Arizona Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Mark Kelly’s
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs law will be used to provide
more safe drinking water across the state. … Over
$32,000,000 will be provided towards Arizona projects through
the Environmental Protection Agency.
Microplastics, or the small fragments of plastics and polymers
from clothing, packaging and cosmetics, are now found virtually
everywhere on Earth — from the highest peaks to the depths
of the ocean. At five millimeters long or less, these tiny
specks are also cropping up in the air we breathe, the food we
eat and the water we drink. Microplastics have been detected in
commercially farmed shellfish and, recently, in beef and pork,
with little known about how much plastic we’re ingesting — or
the impacts of this material on our health or the health of the
planet. That’s why this month, California took the first
step in regulating microplastics in its municipal water
supplies, making it the first government agency in the world to
do so.
Earlier this month, the California Department of Water
Resources announced a new round of funding for desalination
projects in the state. Six million dollar grants will be made
available for new projects that help expand the Golden State’s
fresh water supply. The move comes on the heels of a new water
initiative Governor Gavin Newsom has launched to address
California’s historic drought. … A
2019 study estimated there are just under 16,000
desalination plants in operation worldwide, spread across 177
countries. It’s a rapidly growing industry, with reverse
osmosis technology in particular behind much of the capacity
growth in recent years.
According to the Rev. Dennis Hutson, people used to love the
taste of Allensworth’s water. … Now, many residents of
this historically Black community know that it is not safe to
drink water from the wells in their town. Like many areas
throughout California, the groundwater beneath Allensworth is
tainted with dangerous levels of arsenic, a highly carcinogenic
element that can seep into the water table from
deposits in the soil and bedrock.
In an effort to protect the drinking water source for one
million Bay Area residents from destructive wildfires, crews
will soon work to masticate vegetation on Maple Way around
watershed lands. In collaboration with Cal Fire, the San
Francisco Public Utilities Commission, who oversees the SFPUC
Peninsula Watershed, will hire contractors to mulch vegetation
into small pieces. Reducing the size of vegetation growth will
limit the risk of extreme fire around the watershed, the
Edgewood County Park and surrounding private property, said Cal
Fire.
A new study from the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),
Western States Water Council (WSWC) and Airborne Snow
Observatories, Inc. points the way to accelerating how
knowledge and technology are transferred to and from public
agencies and environmental organizations. … In this
latest paper, the team outlines a path for how to protect
environmental resources by not only offering technical
solutions, but by developing strategic relationships and
fostering a culture of organizational support. Two water case
studies – the Airborne Snow Observatory (ASO) and the
Cyanobacteria Assessment Network (CyAN) – are used to highlight
how effective knowledge and technology transfer can be
done.
Contaminated water has been found in urban areas in California,
including the affects to the Central Coast, according to data
released by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
Imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid (or neonics), a pesticide that
is also linked to bee die-offs. These pesticides are shown to
disrupt the nervous system of bees, other insects and songbirds
causing paralysis and death. … According to the CDPR,
this insecticide can remain in the soil for long periods of
time and be transported by rain or irrigation systems, which
leads to contamination in California’s water.
On September 7, 2022, California became the first government in
the world to require microplastics testing for drinking water,
an emerging contaminant that is found throughout the
environment. The State Water Resources Control Board (State
Water Board) approved a policy handbook that details how it
will implement a four-year plan, including testing logistics as
well as how it will select the public agencies that will be
required to test. Microplastics represent an emerging
contaminant of concern for which there are still a number of
unanswered questions.
Desalination is a controversial topic, due to its environmental
impacts, energy use and monetary cost. California currently has
12 desalination plants, but there could be many more in the
future. DWR is offering $6 million in financial assistance to
support desalination projects that will help develop new
sources of local water supplies in California, according to a
news release from DWR. While desalination is a complex
process, [Kris Tjernell, deputy director of the Integrated
Watershed Management with the California Department of Water
Resources] described it as “simply the removal of salts
and other impurities from water, such that it becomes available
for drinking water, agricultural irrigation and other potential
uses.”
Months after a judge ruled the City of San Diego is
overcharging some water customers, the city has yet to pay up,
or make changes to its rates. Attorneys say the delay is
costing taxpayers millions in penalty fees. They filed the
case back in 2017, saying San Diego was violating a portion of
the California constitution, which states governments that
provide services are not allowed to charge more for those
services than it costs them to deliver. … Specifically,
the suit alleged San Diego had been overcharging single family
residential customers in tiers 3 and 4, which are those who use
more water than the average customer.
Severe drought continues to impact California, and many
residents need immediate relief. As summer winds down,
Northstate communities are battling the lowest water levels of
the year as is typically the case in September, and 2022 being
the driest year on record, in the 139 year history of data
keeping in Redding, has only exacerbated the problem. The
Shasta County Department of Resource Management received a
grant of over $2.4 million in July from the state Water
Resources Control Board to be used through 2024. Relief efforts
made possible by this grant include bottled water delivery,
well deepening, repairs and replacement.
One of the most hotly debated issues in California wine these
days involves a chemical that can be found in every Home Depot
in America: Roundup. Monsanto’s high-profile herbicide is the
go-to method of weed control for many California vineyards. …
But Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is probably a
carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization.
… That revelation has spurred a new outcry in the
California wine industry. Some winegrowers who farm according
to organic, biodynamic or regenerative protocols — which
prohibit the use of glyphosate and other synthetic chemicals —
are speaking out against Roundup with renewed fervor, calling
for an end to its use in vineyards.
State and local governments across the country are suing
manufacturers of toxic chemicals that are contaminating much of
the nation’s drinking water, aiming to shield water customers
and taxpayers from the massive cost of cleaning them up. These
pervasive “forever chemicals,” known as PFAS, are linked to a
variety of health hazards, including cancer. Now, as state
lawmakers and federal regulators get serious about removing
them, scores of governments and water suppliers are in pitched
court battles over who is on the hook for hundreds of billions
of dollars in damage — the companies that created the chemicals
or the customers who are drinking them. … In Orange
County, Calif., water managers found PFAS in dozens of wells
that draw from a vast groundwater basin that supplies 2.5
million people.
The water scarcity California has been experiencing over the
last two decades is the result of the worst drought to hit the
American Southwest in the past 1,200 years. … [I]ssues
regarding water quality arise due to the state’s high use of
pesticides in agriculture, with several Environmental
Protection Agency-reapproved toxic herbicides not being
regulated by state legislation. From 2004 to 2015, over 2
billion pounds of pesticides have been used in California, with
the most recent numbers indicating an annual use of 209
million pounds. Though it represents only 2-3% of total U.S.
cropland, the Golden State uses up to 20% of all pesticides
employed in the U.S. -Written by Stan Gottfredson, CEO of Atraxia
Law, a San Diego-based firm that helps agricultural workers and
their families affected by paraquat exposure compile the
necessary information to support their Parkinson’s disease
injury claims against liable manufacturers.
[Valeria] Contreras lives in Allensworth, a small town of about
500 people an hour’s drive north of Bakersfield, in
California’s Central Valley. She runs her own catering company,
and in her spare time she is also the general manager of the
Allensworth Community Services District, which oversees the
town’s water supply. Back in February, Contreras had no idea
why the water had stopped flowing. And it was her job to fix
it. … Clean, safe and affordable drinking water is
considered a human right under state law, but nearly a million
residents don’t have access to it. Like Contreras, many of them
live in the Central Valley, a patchwork of desert scrub and
irrigated farmland that’s twice the size of Massachusetts and
produces 25% of the nation’s food supply.
In this alternate universe, one water agency sees black while
the other sees white. One sees good while the other sees bad.
One says yes while the other says no. And none of it would
matter much — except that everyone who showers and drinks and
flushes the toilet is paying for it. … That grand jury,
you may recall, told these two water giants in our compact
little county to get over themselves, relinquish their pricey
fiefdoms and form a single, unified, regional, county-level
water authority to finally speak with — and this is the grand
jury’s flourish — “One Voice.” -Written by Orange County Register columnist Teri
Sforza.
Dropping aquifer levels in the Klamath Basin have convinced
Oregon regulators to weigh in on groundwater management across
the state line in California. The Oregon Water Resources
Department has found fault with how groundwater resources are
characterized in a management plan for the Tule Lake area of
northern California. “We felt pretty strongly they were not
appreciating the decline concerns that we have on the Oregon
side of the border,” said Tom Byler, the agency’s director,
during a recent meeting of the state’s Water Resources
Commission. The OWRD objected that Tule Lake’s groundwater
sustainability plan analyzed data from 2015-2018, which doesn’t
consider vigorous groundwater development in earlier years or
other problems that have developed more recently.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the San Luis Rey
Indian Water Authority celebrate the signing of a funding
agreement that provides $15 million in direct financial
assistance to Tribal communities. As California experiences a
third consecutive year of drought – and plans for the
possibility of a fourth dry year to come – many communities
face challenges in accessing clean, safe drinking water. This
funding will help advance water infrastructure projects that
will improve water for families, enhance water supply
reliability, and upgrade existing water infrastructure on
Tribal lands.
California water regulators [Wednesday] approved the world’s
first requirements for testing microplastics in drinking water
sources — a key step towards regulating tiny fragments that are
ubiquitous in the environment. After years of research
involving more than two-dozen laboratories, the State Water
Resources Control Board unanimously approved a policy handbook
for testing water supplies for microplastics over four years.
Under the plan approved [Wednesday], up to 30 of the state’s
largest water providers will be ordered to start quarterly
testing for two years, beginning in the fall of 2023.
Microplastic is everywhere. The tiny particles that shed from
clothing, food packaging and tires are in the air, the soil,
the ocean and, almost certainly, your drinking water. This
week, California is poised to become the first place in the
nation, and perhaps the world, to begin requiring water
agencies to test for the contaminant. State water regulators,
after years of working with more than 20 labs in seven nations
to pioneer a means of monitoring microplastics, are scheduled
to adopt a testing and reporting requirement Wednesday.
Like a growing number of Central Californians, [Jesús] Benítez
is bearing the brunt of the state’s punishing drought, which is
evaporating the state’s surface water even as a frenzy of well
drilling saps precious reserves underground. As a result,
the number of dry wells in California has increased 70%
since last year, while the number of Californians living with
contaminated drinking water is at nearly 1 million. The
majority of those people live in low-income communities and
communities of color, state data show — and experts say heat,
drought and climate change are only making those inequities
worse.
The U.S. Forest Service is warning campers to beware of bears
going into the upcoming Labor Day holiday weekend. The bears,
hungry and thirsty, are on the move because of the ongoing
drought conditions. The bears have been seen recently roaming
and foraging for whatever food they can find. Water is also a
magnet as well, as it attracts other wild animals, officials
said.
Late last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.
EPA) moved forward to list perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and
perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) (including their salts and
structural isomers) as “hazardous substances” under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act (CERCLA) (otherwise known as “Superfund”).
EPA released a pre-publication version of a proposed rulemaking
that officially begins U.S. EPA’s efforts to regulate and
address per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
contamination.
New funding from the California Department of Water Resources
promises to help a struggling Tulare County town clean up its
water and turn on its taps. Tooleville, a rural community of
about 200 people at the base of the Sierra Nevada, has only
intermittently had water since its second well recently failed
– the latest victim of California’s intensifying megadrought.
… Even when the well produces water, it’s often contaminated
with unsafe levels of nitrates, a byproduct of nearby
agriculture cultivation that can reduce oxygen levels in the
blood.
As the latest IPCC report warned, it is ‘now or never’ to limit
global warming below 1.5C. Countries around the world are
already bearing the brunt of climate change but the reality is
that, unless we reverse this trend, the effects that we are
going to experience in the near future are going to be
significantly more devastating. … Here are the top
environmental issues in North America and what the government
is doing to tackle them. … A report released
in August 2022 by California’s State Water Resources Control
Board found that in the Western state alone, nearly one
million people face possible long-term health
conditions from drinking water containing unsafe levels of
contaminants such as arsenic and nitrate.
California’s water affordability crisis has been simmering for
years as water rate increases have outpaced inflation,
rising 45% between 2007 and 2015 alone. By September 2021,
nearly 650,000 residential and 46,000
business accounts owed more than $315 million in unpaid
water and wastewater bills. Latino and Black
communities have been hit the hardest, with higher average
debt. About half a million account holders had their water shut
off for unpaid bills in 2019, according to state
data. California lawmakers voted overwhelmingly Monday and
Tuesday to offer assistance: A bill that creates a new
state program to help low-income Californians … pay
their water and sewage bills is now expected to be sent to Gov.
Gavin Newsom for his signature.
EPA is set to unveil a new federal mandate requiring states to
expand inspections of about 1,600 water systems to include
cybersecurity threats, according to a senior administration
official. The official, who asked to remain anonymous in order
to speak candidly, said EPA is not issuing a new rule but
instead will release a so-called implementation memo based on
the agency’s existing authority under the Safe Drinking Water
Act. Ultimately, states already responsible for inspecting
everything from tanks to pumps and operations at hundreds of
public water systems across the nation would also be
responsible for ensuring utilities are protected against
hackers.
In the desert near Agua Dulce, north of Los Angeles, hikers
along the Pacific Crest Trail who reached mile marker 502
encountered a cistern of water that smelled bad and tasted
worse, with a dead rat floating inside. They got out their
filters and refilled their bottles anyway. “Will update if I
get sick,” one wrote on a message board to those coming up
behind. The message was just one sign of how global warming is
affecting life along the trail, where, during a hot season
nearly devoid of rain, water tanks and caches were more
important than ever, the last line of defense against
dehydration. At least some hikers willing to take their
chances.
As California’s water crisis deepens, a new project aims to
help conserve resources and ensure disadvantaged communities
are not left behind. Cadiz Inc. is hanging onto its years-long
goal of storing water before it evaporates and then selling or
giving it away to communities in Southern California. … Cadiz
incorporated owns over 70 square miles of property in the
eastern Mojave Desert and are hoping to turn the land into a
key conservation site. … For decades, the company has
proposed pumping groundwater from beneath the desert and
selling the water to urban cities in Southern California.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has released the
pre-publication of the long-awaited Proposed Rule designating
perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic
acid (PFOS) as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive
Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act
(CERCLA), also known as “Superfund.” The White House
Office of Management and Budget found the proposed rule to be
economically significant. This designation means the rule is
expected to annually cost $100 million or more, and requires
the EPA to conduct a Regulatory Impact Analysis.
Without reform, California’s [water rights] system means that
the most senior water rights holders—those who declared the
water theirs during the violent and exclusionary settling of
California in the late 1800s, early 1900s, predominantly
irrigation districts—get first claim to the available water,
while water for people to drink and bathe and water for the
environment only get the leftovers. But it doesn’t have to be
this way. This century-old system of water rights does not
reflect current values, and it should not dictate how the state
prioritizes our limited water supplies. FM3 recently polled
Californians to obtain their views on a variety of
matters, including our water rights system.
The two-street town of Tooleville finally saw significant
progress in a decades-long quest for clean drinking water this
week when the state Department of Water Resources (DWR)
announced $7.2 million in funding for an interim connection
project. Tooleville will be hooked up to the nearby city of
Exeter’s water system, something advocates and Tooleville
residents have been asking for since the 2010s.
… Tooleville has been plagued by contaminated water for
decades. Most residents rely on bottled water. And the ongoing
drought has resulted in surrounding farmers pumping more
groundwater, dropping Tooleville’s water table and repeatedly
drying up its two aging community wells.
Chemists at UCLA and Northwestern University have developed a
simple way to break down almost a dozen types of these nearly
indestructible “forever chemicals” at relatively low
temperatures with no harmful byproducts. In a
paper published today in the journal Science,
the researchers show that in water heated to just 176 to 248
degrees Fahrenheit, common, inexpensive solvents and reagents
severed molecular bonds in PFAS that are among the strongest
known and initiated a chemical reaction that “gradually nibbled
away at the molecule” until it was gone, said UCLA
distinguished research professor and co-corresponding author
Kendall Houk.
As part of ongoing efforts to help small communities address
water supply challenges amid extreme drought and build water
resilience for the future, the Department of Water Resources
(DWR) announced its eighth round of funding through the Small
Community Drought Relief Program. In coordination with the
State Water Resources Control Board, the program will provide
$40 million to 15 projects in Butte, Humboldt, Lake, Madera,
Mariposa, Placer, San Luis Obispo, Riverside, Sierra, Tehama,
Trinity, Tulare, Ventura and Yolo counties. Of the selected
projects, 12 will directly benefit disadvantaged communities to
implement long-term solutions such as pipeline replacement,
well installation, and infrastructure upgrades to improve water
resilience and water quality.
When Martha Lorenzo was told she could get clean drinking water
simply by installing some panels and extracting moisture from
the air, she was in disbelief. In April, Lorenzo had three
solar, hydro panels installed outside her home by the company
Source Global, based in Scottsdale, Arizona. The panels absorb
water vapor pulled from the air. Connected to a line under
a panel and run into her home, she gets about nine to 11
gallons of drinking water every day. … The water comes
from a number of sources including humidity from plants and
trees and much more on rainy or foggy days.
In the foothills of the Rocky Mountains … [t]he clock is
ticking for Las Vegas, a college town and economic hub for
ranchers and farmers who have called this rural expanse of the
Sangre de Cristo mountain range home for generations. It has
less than 30 days of drinking water left. Events have been
canceled in an effort to discourage more people from coming to
town. Residents are showering with buckets in hopes of
salvaging extra water for other uses. Restaurants are worried
they may have to cut back on serving their signature red and
green chile dishes. The three universities that call Las Vegas
home are coming up with conservation plans as the school year
kicks off.
As our programs team at the Water Education Foundation is
busy this summer putting together fall events such as
tours, our annual Water Summit and our Water Leader alum
reunion, our journalism team is helping to raise water
awareness every day. You can access our newsfeed each morning of
the top articles on water issues in California and the West and
even get it sent to your inbox. You can also find interactive
maps showing reservoir levels, water-savings tips and more on
our special online drought
resource page. And we just published
our latest Western
Water article focused on a pilot program
in the Salinas Valley that is run remotely out of Los Angeles.
Off an unmarked dead-end road surrounded by farmworkers
harvesting strawberries just north of Moss Landing on Thursday,
Ignacio Garcia stood on his cement driveway near a dozen or so
five-gallon plastic bottles of water. The water is needed, he
explained, because his own well is contaminated. … Garcia,
who has become an advocate for his community, is far from
alone. When the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board began testing wells in the area in 2018, groundwater
contamination was bad enough to warrant periodic testing of
44,000 wells in the region. Back in 2014, of 1,627 domestic
wells tested in some areas, more than 40% exceeded public
health drinking water standards for one particular contaminant
– nitrate.
PFAS, a group of manufactured chemicals commonly used since the
1940s, are called “forever chemicals” for a reason. Bacteria
can’t eat them; fire can’t incinerate them; and water can’t
dilute them. And, if these toxic chemicals are buried, they
leach into surrounding soil, becoming a persistent problem for
generations to come. Now, Northwestern University chemists
have done the seemingly impossible. Using low temperatures and
inexpensive, common reagents, the research team developed a
process that causes two major classes of PFAS compounds to fall
apart, leaving behind only benign end products.
Sacramento Department of Utilities announced it will be
flushing water mains across the city this week to “help
maintain high drinking-water quality for residents,” a press
release states. Flushing the water mains will prevent sand,
sentiment, and biofilm from building up in the water system.
The city mainly gets water from the Sacramento and American
rivers, according to the press release. The flushing began on
Tuesday, in an effort to be proactive in keeping natural
buildup out of the city’s drinking water, said spokesperson
Carlos Eliason.
More than 100 wells in Tehama County have gone dry as local
agencies work to provide water to those affected. Clint Weston
of Tehama County Environment Health provided the board of
supervisors with an update Tuesday on the wells’ status. The
county has a reported 135 dry wells that have been made aware
of services to provide free water or purchase water out of the
Corning municipal system. Many of these dry wells are in small
parcels scattered around the county’s southern portion, and
these are county wells not connected to any water systems.
A seawater desalination plant opened in Chula Vista in August
of 1967. The Clair Engle Desalting Plant was an experimental
test facility built by the Department of Interior capable of
producing one million gallons of fresh water daily. The Chula
Vista plant replaced a similar facility that was moved from
Point Loma in 1964 to provide fresh water for the U.S. navy
base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In 1973 federal funding
dried up and the Chula Vista plant closed. After the city
council decided it was cheaper to buy imported water, San Diego
turned down an offer to take over operating the facility .
Southern Californians know about neighbors using more than
their fair share of water. But what about growers who steal
water from farms, businesses or even houses? L.A. Times
columnist Patt Morrison looked at the long history of poaching
in California and how it relates to today’s water fights.
Here’s what Patt says. Watch L.A. Times Today at 7 p.m. on
Spectrum News 1 on Channel 1 or live stream on the Spectrum
News App. Palos Verdes Peninsula and Orange County viewers can
watch on Cox Systems on channel 99.
On a tour of increasingly parched California on Thursday, U.S.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland visited a water recycling
project in Irvine to tout her department’s allocation of more
than $310 million to combat a western “megadrought” fueled
largely by climate change. Joined by Rep. Katie Porter
(D-Irvine) and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille
Calimlim Touton, Haaland stood before heavy equipment at the
Syphon Reservoir Improvement Project and said she felt
“overjoyed” to announce the funding of 25 water recycling
projects, 20 of which are in California…. Another water
official, however, voiced frustration over how the federal
government awarded assistance, and said there needed to be a
“new paradigm” for grants in the face of recurring drought.
Northern California is home to nearly four million people, from
downtown Sacramento to mountain towns to small farming
communities. Of those four million, approximately 600,000 are
living in disadvantaged communities. For the past decade, the
Legislature and Governor have implemented various policies to
support disadvantaged communities in California, ensuring these
communities have access to reliable, clean water when they turn
on the tap. This dynamic was particularly vivid with the
recognition of a Human Right to Water (HR2W) in 2012, making
California the first state to enact legislation recognizing
“safe, clean, affordable, and accessible” water as a human
right.
About 300 miles southwest of San Antonio, water taps have run
dry in a major Mexico city. Thousands of residents wake up
at dawn to check their taps and fill up containers. Others line
up with large jugs, bottles and buckets at cisterns around the
city, where fights have broken out when people try to jump the
line. This is the scene in the industrial hub of
Monterrey, Mexico—the nation’s third largest city and one of
its wealthiest. … But Monterrey isn’t alone in
its water crisis. Drought is sapping the water from huge
swaths of North America and making it increasingly hard for
humans to count on running water.
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.
