Despite droughts, the recession and natural disasters,
California’s urban population continues to grow.
This population growth means increasing demand for water by urban
areas—home to most of California’s population [see also
Agricultural Conservation]. As of 2012, seven of the most
populated urbanized areas in the United States are in California.
Companies selling shampoo, food and other products wrapped in
plastic have a decade to cut down on their use of the polluting
material if they want their wares on California store shelves.
Major legislation passed and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on
Thursday aims to significantly reduce single-use plastic
packaging in the state and drastically boost recycling rates
for what remains. … Most plastic products in the
United States are not recycled, with millions of tons ending up
in landfills and the world’s oceans. It harms wildlife and
shows up in drinking water in the form of microplastics.
The West is parched, and getting more so by the day. Lake Mead
— the country’s largest reservoir — is nearing “dead pool”
levels, meaning it may soon be too low to flow downstream. The
entirety of the Four Corners plus California is mired in
megadrought. Amid this desiccation, hundreds of the country’s
data centers use vast amounts of water to hum along. Dozens
cluster around major metro centers, including those with
mandatory or voluntary water restrictions in place to curtail
residential and agricultural use. Exactly how much water,
however, is an open question given that many companies don’t
track it, much less report it.
If there is a promised land for home developers in San Joaquin
County, it might just be Manteca. Lathrop thanks to the
15,001-home planned River Islands community was — once
aberrations involving Paradise and Santa Cruz growth due to
people returning to rebuilt homes after being burned-out
in a PG&E sparked wildfire and the return to in-person
learning at University of California campuses — the fastest
growing city in California in 2021. … Mountain House
will likely be checked to a large degree by water. It needed a
10,000 acre-foot water transfer from the South San
Joaquin Irrigation District to try and weather the drought this
year after the state cut off their water deliveries.
[T]he prospect of harvesting 2.8 billion pounds this year —
just shy of the 2.9 billion pounds in 2021 and the record 3.1
billion pounds in 2020 — has industry leaders both excited and
worried. That’s because about 1.3 billion pounds of unsold
almonds are still sitting in piles at processing and packing
facilities. The problem comes at a time when inflation and a
historic drought are pushing the costs of production and water
supplies to an all-time high, and the price of almonds has
fallen to an all-time low of about $2 per pound. It’s a sharp
reversal for the industry after four decades of relentless
expansion across 1.6 million acres in California’s agricultural
Central Valley from Tehama County to southern Fresno County.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a sweeping plastic-reduction
measure that aims to dramatically shrink the amount of
disposable packaging and food ware that Californians use in
their daily lives. The bill, SB54, is the result of a
breakthrough legislative deal between some environmentalists,
business groups and waste haulers, a last-minute compromise
that led proponents to withdraw an anti-plastic waste
initiative from the November ballot. … “California won’t
tolerate plastic waste that’s filling our waterways and making
it harder to breathe,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re
holding polluters responsible and cutting plastics at the
source.”
High above the Pacific Ocean, tucked in the steep contours of
mountainous Malibu, [David Hertz and his wife, Laura
Doss-Hertz] supply their house, pool, and network of
firefighting hoses with water harvested from the air. The
couple use their property – dubbed Xanabu – as a demonstration
site for atmospheric water generation.
… Globally, 1 in 3 people do not have access
to safe drinking water, according to the World Health
Organization. This urgency is driving support for
innovations in atmospheric water generation to address the two
biggest hurdles to widespread use: scaling it up, and making it
accessible – and affordable – to people in regions that
need it most.
Unprecedented dryness across the western United States is
meeting with increasingly warm temperatures to create climate
conditions so extreme that the landscape of California could
permanently and profoundly change, a growing number of
scientists say. The Golden State’s great drying has already
begun to reduce snowpack, worsen wildfires and dry out soils,
and researchers say that trend will likely continue, along with
the widespread loss of trees and other significant shifts. Some
say what’s in store for the state could be akin to the
conditions that drove people thousands of years ago to abandon
thriving cities in the Southwest and other arid parts of the
world as severe drought contributed to crop failures and the
crumbling of social norms.
The Colorado River’s precipitous decline pushed Arizona
lawmakers to deliver Gov. Doug Ducey’s $1 billion water
augmentation fund — and then some — late Friday, their final
night in session. Before the votes, the growing urgency for
addressing the state’s oncoming water shortage and the
long timeline for approving and building new water projects
nearly sank the legislation.
When I reminisce about the time I spent at the beach as a kid,
I remember peering into tide pools and splashing in the cool
water of the Pacific. Something I don’t remember — but that now
seems inescapable — is plastic pollution, everywhere. The
difference is not my imagination. Global plastic production has
nearly tripled in my lifetime. Plastics have reached every
corner of the planet, from deep ocean trenches to mountaintops
and even our lungs and bloodstreams. … We need a
multifaceted approach that includes using less plastic and
improving recycling rates. -Written by Dr. Anja Brandon, the U.S. plastics
policy analyst at the Ocean Conservancy and one of the chief
architects of the Senate Bill 54.
It’s just a few days into summer, and heat waves have already
toppled records across the globe, from the Russian Arctic to
the muggy Gulf Coast. With July and August — usually the
hottest summer months — still to come, the early extreme heat
offers a grim picture of summer’s growing danger.
… According to a recent survey, a little more than
half of Americans say they have been personally affected by
extreme heat. That number is much higher in California, where
71 percent of the survey respondents say it has affected their
lives, whether through climbing electricity bills or declining
health. After this summer, it may spike higher still.
The last few years have seen one distressing news story after
another about the scourge of plastic waste: Single-use plastic
packaging dumped in the ocean is killing sea animals who
mistake it for food. Elephants in Sri Lanka are dying after
ingesting plastic trash piled up in open-air landfills.
Discarded bottles, bags and wrapping broken down into
microplastic have invaded our food system and even our
bloodstream. Microplastic is in the air we breathe and water we
drink. … California however, is on the verge of taking
the first substantial steps in the nation to reduce the flow of
the harmful waste — if lawmakers don’t blow the chance.
Even as a persistent drought strangles the Colorado River and
threatens the viability of giant reservoirs and dams erected
decades ago, Western states and local governments are eyeing
more projects to tap the flow of the 1,450-mile river and its
tributaries. Whether those potential new reservoirs or other
diversions would further tax an already overwhelmed system, or
actually help states and municipalities adapt to a changing
climate while making better use of their dwindling supplies, is
a point of contention between environmentalists and water
managers.
As California endures water restrictions due to widespread
drought, a proposed $2.5-billion reservoir expansion project in
Santa Clara County promises to increase the amount of
freshwater for more than a million people. But a group of
environmentalists and landowners claim in a lawsuit filed
earlier this month that the local water district did not
conduct the necessary environmental studies to determine how
the project planned near Pacheco Pass would affect the region’s
wildlife and undeveloped land.
Las Vegas is ripping up millions of square feet of grass -
including greenery along the iconic strip – as the city
struggles with a decades-long drought made worse by climate
change. Lawmakers last year outlawed turf that is only
decorative, and property owners across the city are replacing
grass with a mix of artificial turf and desert-friendly plants.
The law does not apply to golf courses or private houses, but
new homes are not allowed to use real grass.
Critics of plans to build a huge new reservoir in Santa Clara
County near Pacheco Pass have filed a lawsuit against the
proposed $2.5 billion project, presenting a new hurdle for what
would be the largest reservoir constructed in the Bay Area in
more than 20 years. The group, called the Stop the Pacheco Dam
Coalition and made up of environmentalists and landowners whose
rural ranchland property would be flooded, sued the Santa Clara
Valley Water District in Santa Clara County Superior Court
earlier this month. In the suit, opponents allege that the
water district, a government agency based in San Jose, violated
state law when it decided not conduct environmental studies …
The Colorado River Compact turns 100 this year, but any
celebration is damped down by the drying-up of the big
reservoirs it enabled. The Bureau of Reclamation’s “first-ever”
shortage declaration on the river acknowledges officially what
we’ve known for years: the Compact and all the measures
augmenting it, collectively known as The Law of the River, have
not prevented the river’s over-development. -Written by George Sibley, a contributor to
Writers on the Range, an independent nonprofit dedicated to
spurring lively discussion about Western issues.
Utah’s [Great Salt Lake] and wetlands are disappearing as
farms and communities divert the rivers that flow into the
basin. … In 2021 the lake’s southern end hit a record low,
and this year, it could drop even lower. More than half
its volume has evaporated, and in areas the shoreline has
receded miles. … These benchmarks, combined with an
ongoing megadrought wringing the West dry, have recently
spurred a flurry of new laws, policies, and programs aimed at
slowing the decline of the largest saline lake in the Western
Hemisphere, a haven for millions of birds representing
hundreds of species.
Alex Cardenas. J.B. Hamby. Jim Hanks. Javier Gonzalez. Norma
Sierra Galindo. … They’re the elected directors of the
Imperial Irrigation District, or IID, which provides water to
the desert farm fields of California’s Imperial Valley, in the
state’s southeastern corner. They control 3.1 million acre-feet
of Colorado River water — roughly one-fifth of all the Colorado
River water rights in the United States. And if you live
in Southern California — or in Phoenix, Las Vegas, Denver or
Salt Lake City — the future reliability of your water supply
will depend at least in part on what IID does next.
Summer officially begins next week — and in California, it may
be a cruel one. Even with the upheaval of the pandemic mostly
behind us, the menace of drought and rising temperatures is
threatening to derail the return to normal. This year’s
extraordinarily dry, warm weather, which is expected to
continue in the coming months, is stoking fears of a multitude
of problems: increasing water restrictions, extreme heat, power
outages, wildfire and smoke — potentially all of the above in
one vicious swoop. … Already in California, climate
volatility, as palpable as it’s been, has joined the list of
reasons people cite for wanting to move away, after soaring
home prices, high taxes and traffic.
Drought is so ubiquitous in California that
developers and property owners say they’re running out of
options to reduce water usage at office properties
without making significant investments that are difficult
to stomach with reduced property occupancies and stagnant
rental rates.
The Colorado River begins in the Rocky Mountains, collecting
snowmelt as it meanders through an alpine valley. Across a vast
swath of Colorado, Wyoming and Utah, the river grows as it
takes in major tributaries: the Gunnison, the Dolores, the
Green and others. The Colorado River Basin encompasses more
than 246,000 square miles in seven U.S. states and northern
Mexico. … Water diverted from the river flows from taps in
Denver, Phoenix and Las Vegas and throughout much of Southern
California, supplying nearly 40 million people. About 70% of
the water diverted from the river in the U.S. is used for
agriculture … The region’s heavy use of the river
is colliding like never before with the climate, which is
growing hotter and drier.
The tiny San Luis Obispo County town of San Simeon is slowly
prying the door open to welcome new development after a 36-year
moratorium. During a special meeting held Thursday evening, the
San Simeon Community Services District’s Board of Directors
unanimously voted to issue intent-to-serve letters to those
still on the coastal community’s water connection waitlist. The
waitlist has 13 developments still vying for a hookup to the
town’s sewer system so they can build motels, retail spaces or
residences in the town near the entrance to Hearst Castle.
Eureka attorney, landowner and timber operator Ken Bareilles
had been battling state land-use regulations for some 50 years
before he bought his forested property outside Healdsburg in
2015. … Even as he fought to withdraw his plea and
minimize the consequences, Bareilles’ probation was revoked in
2011 for violations of county and state Fish and Game codes.
They included illegal grading, altering a streambed, conducting
timber operations outside his permit area and contributing to
pollution in a stream designated critical habitat for steelhead
trout.
Los Angeles is able only to consistently draw from 41 of 115
wells in the San Fernando Basin, a collection of regional
underground aquifers that currently provide about 10% of city
water supply. This has caused a 50% reduction in its historical
groundwater supply. But the LA Dept. of Water and Power says
the basin has the potential to provide as much as 21% of city
water. As a result, the department is working with federal and
state officials, potentially responsible polluted site owners
and a slew of engineering and construction firms on multiple
remediation projects to return a more significant portion of
groundwater supply to the drinking water system.
If the Great Salt Lake, which has already shrunk by two-thirds,
continues to dry up, here’s what’s in store: The lake’s flies
and brine shrimp would die off — scientists warn it could start
as soon as this summer — threatening the 10 million migratory
birds that stop at the lake annually to feed on the tiny
creatures. Ski conditions at the resorts above Salt Lake City,
a vital source of revenue, would deteriorate. The lucrative
extraction of magnesium and other minerals from the lake could
stop. Most alarming, the air surrounding Salt Lake City would
occasionally turn poisonous.
“Water is not a constraint to growth,” according to EDAWN
(Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada) Director
Mike Kazmierski. But the hard truth is that the Sierra Nevada
snowpack is in control of our regional water supply, not EDAWN.
And, according to new research by the Lawrence Berkeley Lab,
most of the Sierra Nevada snowpack will likely be gone by 2050
because of climate change and drought. We are told by regional
water managers that we have enough water rights to fuel growth
in the Truckee Meadows and nearby valleys for the next 50
years. -Written by Bob Fulkerson, a fifth-generation
Nevadan and lead national organizer for Third
Act.
Nestled along the Central Coast, Cambria is a picturesque
town … Cambria has also been running out of water for nearly
four decades and — like many spots along the Central Coast
in San Luis Obispo County — it does not have a permanent
solution in the offing. The unincorporated town of more than
5,000 people is dependent wholly on two creeks, the Santa Rosa
and San Simeon, for its water supply. As climate change ramps
up, those creeks are drying out more rapidly and more
frequently.
Rising seas caused by climate change could ultimately expose
thousands of people to hazardous chemicals at San Francisco’s
biggest redevelopment project — and the city is unprepared for
the risks, according to a new grand jury report. … [T]he San
Francisco civil grand jury report warns that groundwater could
carry dangerous buried substances to the surface as the water
table rises at the site, which was contaminated decades ago
with heavy metals, volatile organic compounds and radioactive
substances. The result could be catastrophic “for health, for
environmental safety, and for the resilience of future
development,” the report notes.
The Nisqually is one of many tribes with their backs shoved
against the concrete wall of challenges that salmon face today,
and so they, too, have resorted to hatcheries—facilities where
humans direct salmon sex, fertilizing eggs in plastic buckets
and giving naive young salmon a head start before their journey
through an untender world. In the past, hatcheries have been
implicated in Pacific salmon declines—issues tribes in western
Washington first started addressing in the late 1990s.
A major electric vehicle manufacturer has inked a 10-year
deal with a company operating at the south end of the
Salton Sea for battery-grade lithium hydroxide, a huge boost
for nascent production in an area that has long struggled with
unemployment and pollution. Controlled Thermal Resources’
Hells Kitchen … subsidiary is pushing to scale up commercial
production of lithium from geothermal brines, utilizing
renewable energy and steam to produce batter-grade lithium
products in an integrated, closed-loop process, eliminating the
need for more environmentally damaging evaporation brine ponds,
open pit mines, and fossil-fueled production.
Confetti flew as nearly a dozen officials from state and local
water groups tossed dirt into the air, signaling the official
groundbreaking of the East County Advanced Water Purification
project. … The new water recycling plant will clean and
purify 15 million gallons of wastewater every day, sending it
to the Lake Jennings reservoir. Water from that reservoir is
then treated again before it goes into the system and is
delivered to local homes and businesses.
During the next few years, key issues for Zone 7’s Water Agency
Board of Directors will involve managing the drought, deciding
whether to mandate increased water rationing, and determining
whether to continue support for the state’s scaled-down Delta
Conveyance project. The infrastructure project — now one tunnel
instead of two — would take massive quantities of water rushing
from the Sierra Nevada through the Sacramento River and divert
them from their natural flow into the San Francisco Bay-Delta
Estuary, so that they can be used by 27 million residents and
750,000 acres of farmland from the Tri-Valley to San Diego.
A Fort Collins-based development group that wants to build a
338-mile pipeline to bring water from the Green River-fed
Flaming Gorge Reservoir in Utah and Wyoming to Colorado’s Front
Range says it has secured a development partner for the
project, which could cost as much as $2.3 billion. Water Horse
Resources LLC, a Fort Collins company led by founder and CEO
Aaron Million, has secured MasTec Inc., based in Coral Gables,
Florida, as development partner, the company said. MasTec is a
construction company specializing in infrastructure, with 2021
revenue of almost $8 billion, according to filings with the
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
To some, it defies common sense. California is once again in
the middle of a punishing drought with state leaders telling
people to take shorter showers and do fewer loads of laundry to
conserve water. Yet at the same time, many of the same elected
officials, pledging to solve the housing crisis, are pushing
for the construction of millions of new homes. … [According
to experts] there’s plenty of water available for new
Californians if the 60-year trend of residents using less
continues and accelerates into the future. Case in point:
Angelenos use 44% less water per person annually than they did
four decades ago …
Today, there are hundreds of hatcheries in the Northwest run by
federal, state and tribal governments … The fish they send to
the Pacific Ocean have allowed restaurants and grocery seafood
counters to offer “wild-caught” Chinook salmon even as the fish
became endangered. The hatcheries were supposed to stop the
decline of salmon. They haven’t. The numbers of each of the six
salmon species native to the Columbia basin have dropped to a
fraction of what they once were, and 13 distinct populations
are now considered threatened or endangered.
As drought and climate change tighten their grip on the
American West, the sight of fountains, swimming pools, gardens
and golf courses in cities like Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los
Angeles, Salt Lake City, Boise, and Albuquerque can be jarring
at first glance. Western water experts, however, say they
aren’t necessarily cause for concern. Over the past three
decades, major Western cities — particularly in California and
Nevada — have diversified their water sources, boosted local
supplies through infrastructure investments and conservation,
and use water more efficiently.
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.
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.
~John Wesley Powell
Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
Owens Lake is a dry lake at the terminus of the Owens River
just west of Death Valley and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. For at least
800,000 years, the lake had a continuous flow of water, until
1913 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
(LADWP) completed the 233-mile Los Angeles
Aqueduct to supplement the budding metropolis’
increasing water demands.
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.
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.
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.
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 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
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.
Despite droughts, recession and natural disasters, California’s
urban population continues to grow.
This population growth means increasing demand for water by urban
areas—home to most of California’s population [see also Agricultural
Conservation]. As of 2021, three of the nation’s 10 most
populated cities are in California.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water discusses low
impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging
interest that are viewed as important components of California’s
future water supply and management scenario.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
changed nature of the California Water Plan, some aspects of the
2009 update (including the recommendation for a water finance
plan) and the reaction by certain stakeholders.
This printed issue of Western Water explores some of the major
challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for
climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and
dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the
content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.
This issue of Western Water asks whether a groundwater
compact is needed to manage this shared resource today. In the
water-stressed West, there will need to be a recognition of
sharing water resources or a line will need to be drawn in the
sand against future growth.
This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of
smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from
improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the
improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the
water community say conserving water is not merely a response to
drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which
every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.
When water and growth was featured in the May/June 1995 Western
Water, the debate in the California Legislature was about whether
a local water district should have any say when it came to
providing water to new developments. Of the four bills before
state lawmakers, it was Sen. Jim Costa’s SB 901 that cleared the
Legislature and was signed into law. The bill established a
voluntary link between water and land-use planning by requiring
planning departments to consult with local water purveyors about
the availability of new supplies.
