Today Californians face increased risks from flooding, water
shortages, unhealthy water quality, ecosystem decline and
infrastructure degradation. Many federal and state legislative
acts address ways to improve water resource management, ecosystem
restoration, as well as water rights settlements and strategies
to oversee groundwater and surface water.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a landmark water protection bill
Wednesday to ensure clean water in nearly 800 Arizona streams,
lakes and rivers that are critical for everyday use. The
legislation will preserve water quality, list protected Arizona
waters and develop management practices that will protect the
waterways.
In many American communities, rivers irrigate the farms that
feed families, quench people’s thirst—rivers are the source of
more than two-thirds of the drinking water in the U.S.—sustain
wildlife habitat, and provide an economic boost for
communities. Yet only a very small portion of those waterways
are protected from threats ranging from pollution to damming,
which would wreck the water’s natural flow.
… California’s Regional Water Quality Control Boards
have authority to designate ONRWs but to date have done so for
only two bodies of water: Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake. However,
the state did initiate an analysis of the Smith River as
an ONRW but has not completed the effort. The Smith is a
Pacific salmon stronghold.
When Ramona Hernandez turns on her kitchen faucet in El Adobe,
an unincorporated town just a few miles southeast of
Bakersfield, the water that splashes out looks clean and
inviting. But she doesn’t dare drink it. … Drinking the
tap water in this tiny community of dusty ranches and unpaved
roads could expose Hernandez to arsenic. So, for years, she and
her husband, Gerardo, have shuttled twice a week to the nearby
town of Lamont to load up on bottled water. At a cost of about
$80 a month, it’s enough for drinking and cooking.
One thing that’s been re-emphasized, time and again, during the
pandemic travails of the past 14 months: Farming is essential.
During the coming few months, as California struggles through
another drought, we’ll learn whether our elected and appointed
public officials feel the same way. [A]n overarching, long-term
problem needs to be solved to make sure farm employees can not
just work safely, but can have jobs, period: water supplies.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a
resolution proclaiming a local drought emergency. The vote on
the resolution during Tuesday’s special meeting was unanimous.
The resolution comes after Fresno leaders joined officials from
three other Central Valley counties on Friday to declare a
regional drought emergency and urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to do the
same statewide. Fresno County Chairman Steve Brandau said the
drought “is a crisis that we are putting upon ourselves.” He
said he’s not a water expert, but it has been “painful” for him
to watch “as water flows out into the ocean unused for human
resources.”
On Thursday the U.S. Senate voted to pass S. 914, the
Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act
(DWWIA). It is the first infrastructure bill approved by
the Senate this Congress. The bipartisan, comprehensive clean
water and drinking water infrastructure legislation will
authorize strong annual water infrastructure investment to help
boost total federal investment. In full, the legislation
authorizes more than $35 billion for drinking water and
wastewater resource development projects across the country …
Now that Democrats have full control of Washington for the
first time in a decade, Bay Area lawmakers want to make sure
they don’t walk away empty-handed. For many of them, that means
seeing green. After several years of historically severe
wildfires, heat waves and recurring drought conditions, bills
related to climate change are at the top of the agenda for many
lawmakers with local ties. Some of the legislative proposals
… would address the threats of extreme weather by allocating
more money to reduce wildfire risks, strengthen water
infrastructure and upgrade the electric grid.
California Senators have unveiled a $3.4 billion drought relief
package to address the hardships created by ongoing dry
conditions. The Senate Budget Plan on Drought, Safe Drinking
Water, Water Supply Reliability, and Ratepayer Assistance would
be the single largest investment to address drought challenges
in California. During the Senate Budget & Fiscal Review
Subcommittee 2 on Resources, Environmental Protection and
Energy hearing, the proposal was passed by a 4-0 vote. The
proposal offers a comprehensive approach to drought relief,
with funding designated for water supply projects, research,
and water-use efficiency projects.
California could get 600,000 new acres of federally protected
wilderness under legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate
recently. The designation would ensure the lands remain free of
development, vehicles and commercial activity. … It
would also designate more than 583 miles of river — including
45 miles of San Gabriel River tributaries, as well as Little
Rock Creek — as “wild and scenic rivers,” a protection that
prohibits dams or new mining.
A little more than a week ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that
not only would California effectively ban hydraulic fracturing,
or fracking, by 2024, but the state also would work to phase
out oil extraction entirely by 2045. … It was — like the
governor’s promise last year that the state would ban the sale
of new gas-powered cars by 2035 — a sweeping pronouncement
meant to show urgency in addressing climate change while the
state he leads struggles with many of its most dire effects.
But meeting those goals requires complex regulatory
maneuvering.
As California slowly emerges from the depths of the COVID-19
pandemic, one remnant left behind by the statewide lockdown
offers a sobering reminder of the economic challenges still
ahead for millions of the state’s residents and the water
agencies that serve them – a mountain of water debt. Water
affordability concerns, long an issue in a state where millions
of people struggle to make ends meet, jumped into overdrive
last year as the pandemic wrenched the economy.
On the way out the door, the Trump administration committed
many environmental and financial scandals. One can cost
low-income water users while lining the pockets of one of
California’s largest and most powerful water districts. The
focus of one scandal was the failure of the Trump
administration to collect required fish and wildlife mitigation
costs set out in the Central Valley Project Improvement Act.
Passed by Congress in 1992, it established new financing
rules. -Written by Caty Wagner, the Southern California
Water Organizer for Sierra Club California, and Brandon
Dawson, the acting director of Sierra Club California.
Rarely has a routine water resources bill generated so much
political buzz, but as senators hoisted the measure to passage
Thursday the bipartisan infrastructure legislation served as a
potential template for building consensus around President Joe
Biden’s ambitious American Jobs Plan. The Drinking Water and
Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021 authorizes about $35
billion over five years to improve leaky pipes and upgrade
facilities, and is widely supported by lawmakers and their
states back home. This time, though, it could be so much more —
a building block in Biden’s broader $2.3 trillion proposal to
invest in roads, bridges and other infrastructure.
British journalist James Bartholomew is widely credited with
creating the phrase “virtue signaling” to describe positioning
oneself on the popular side of an issue without actually doing
anything about it. Politicians are particularly prone to
uttering words or making token efforts on difficult issues to
stave off criticism about their failure to act meaningfully.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is California’s champion virtue-signaler as
he faces a recall election later this year. … There’s no
better example than Newsom’s ever-shifting attitude toward
hydraulic fracturing to increase petroleum production. -Written by Dan Walters
More than a dozen Central Valley lawmakers and elected
officials met on Friday to declare a regional drought emergency
and urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to do the same statewide. Three
state senators and three Assembly members joined the chairs of
the boards of supervisors from Fresno, Madera, Tulare and Kings
counties in a bipartisan news conference at Harlan Ranch in
Clovis to call for action that the group said is necessary to
divert a crisis.
The Senate approved a $35 billion water infrastructure bill
after defeating controversial amendments — marking the
advancement of the first piece of a larger infrastructure
package.
Legislation from Sen. Bill Dodd, D-Napa, to help ensure
low-income and pandemic-strapped Californians struggling to
make water bill payments do not lose access to water service
cleared a key committee hurdle today. … Sen. Dodd has
proposed two bills to ensure access and affordability. Senate
Bill 222 establishes a water assistance fund for low-income
rate payers experiencing economic hardship. And SB 223 expands
protections and protocols for customers who are faced with
having their water shutoff because of an inability to pay their
bills. They were approved today by the Senate Environmental
Quality committee with overwhelming support.
The Nevada Assembly voted Thursday to approve a non-residential
turf removal proposal brought by Southern Nevada water
regulators, who say it will save the water-shy Las Vegas Valley
12 billion gallons of water per year. With little debate from
lawmakers, the Assembly voted 30-12 on Assembly Bill 356,
sending the proposal to the Senate. Four Republicans — Glen
Leavitt, R-Boulder City, Heidi Kasama, R-Las Vegas, Melissa
Hardy, R-Henderson, and Jill Tolles, R-Reno — crossed party
lines to vote with the 26 Democrats.
The West Coast’s most important estuary is dying, and Gov.
Gavin Newsom has hastened its demise. As he took office two
years ago, Newsom promised to generate voluntary agreements
among farmers, environmentalists and government officials on
the rules for allocating water that flows through the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … [C]onditions in the delta
have grown so dire that in March the National Marine Fisheries
Service estimated that high water temperatures could kill 90%
of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon in the Sacramento River
this year.
-Written by Jacques Leslie.
Federal dollars are on the table to help farmers and ranchers
during the drought. The U.S. Department of Agriculture declared
a drought disaster in 50 California counties last month.
Advertisement Grants are now available to help with costs
associated with the dry conditions. After a winter with little
rain and snow, California is dry. … Nicole Montna Van Vleck
walked between two rice fields on Wednesday. One was newly
planted and covered in water. The other was bone-dry.
Gov. Doug Ducey on April 21 signed a bill that provides larger
grants for developing water projects in rural areas, but
questions linger on whether there will be any money for
them. House Bill 2388, sponsored by Rep. Gail Griffin,
R-Hereford, expands the amount of a single grant from the Water
Supply Development Revolving Fund from $100,000 to
$250,000. The recipient water provider must be
located in a county with a population of fewer than 1.5 million
people. While Griffin said the fund isn’t just
meant for rural areas, some experts who work with water believe
the benefits can greatly help many rural communities.
On Earth Day, the California Coastal Commission conditionally
approved a general management plan for a 28,700-acre federally
owned park in the San Francisco Bay Area — a plan vehemently
opposed by conservationists because it calls for killing native
tule elk in an area where thousands of acres of federal land
are leased to small dairy and cattle beef farmers.
… Last year, an estimated one-third of one the
tule elk herds died due to malnutrition, likely
exacerbated by drought conditions which decimated the animals’
foraging habitat at Point Reyes.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) today awarded $26
million in grant funding for capital project investments to
improve water supply security, water quality and the
reliability of domestic wells – advancing access to safe,
affordable drinking water. This funding provides
important assistance for successful local implementation of the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which
establishes a framework for managing the state’s groundwater
resources and will help California be better prepared for
longer, more severe droughts.
Gov. Gavin Newsom directed the state Friday to stop issuing
permits for the oil extraction method known as fracking by
January 2024 and to draw up plans to end all fossil-fuel
drilling in California by 2045 — the most sweeping declaration
of its kind in the nation. … Eliminating all extraction would
have far-reaching consequences in California, the nation’s
seventh-largest producer of crude oil… [Fracking
has] long been a controversial method because of what
climate activists see as unacceptable dangers, including the
possibility that it can contaminate groundwater.
Limited access to clean water remains a struggle for millions
of Americans. And lack of water access is expected to become an
even greater problem in the coming years across the U.S. and
around the world. … To help boost water supplies in
Southern California, water and sanitation officials are working
on plans for the largest recycled water project in the nation.
The Biden administration and Congress are stepping up efforts
to control the release and cleanup of poly and perfluoroalkyl
substances, or PFAS, in drinking water sources and elsewhere,
joining states that have expanded scrutiny of the chemicals,
which are used widely in manufacturing and are extremely
persistent in the environment. EPA’s current “advisory”
limit on PFAS in drinking water is 70 parts per trillion, but
some states have set or proposed required levels from 6.5 to 20
ppt, including California …
Given a growing body of evidence that many chemicals in
plastics pose human health risks, Californians should welcome
recently-passed legislation putting the state on path to be the
first to track microplastics in tap water. Because
plastics are highly resistant to biodegradation, instead
fragmenting into ever smaller bits, eventually reaching micron
and nanometer dimensions (there are 25.4 million nanometers in
one inch)—they travel unseen in wind and waterways so that even
the most remote regions of the globe, like the Arctic
seabed and summit of Mount Everest, are contaminated
with microplastics. -Written by Sarah Mosko.
The Biden administration has launched a working group focused
on addressing drought conditions in the West as the region
continues to suffer from a long period of water scarcity. The
group, which will be co-chaired by the departments of the
Interior and Agriculture, will work with state, local and
tribal governments on community needs in weathering drought,
according to a news release from the Interior Department.
A new report is highlighting the gaps in California’s water
infrastructure — and how much money the state will need to fix
it. The report, published by the state’s Water Resources
Control Board, found that 620 public water systems and 80,000
domestic wells are at risk of failing to provide affordable and
uncontaminated water, a problem that California will need
$4.7 billion of extra funding to solve. The report includes the
first-ever analysis of the state’s domestic wells — a common
water source for rural communities. Threats to these systems
are often poorly understood due to lack of good data.
Concurrent efforts to address the needs of Central Valley
canals are moving forward. The Canal Conveyance Capacity
Restoration Act aims to restore the capacity of here San
Joaquin Valley canals. … More than $653 million in federal
funding would be provided to support repairs of the Friant-Kern
Canal, the Delta Mendota Canal, and the California
Aqueduct….The bill also includes $180 million to help restore
salmon runs on the San Joaquin River.
[A]s massive a challenge as wildfire presents … a different
climate crisis could rival it as a destroyer of the California
dream: sea level rise. … AB 67 addresses state
infrastructure. It would ensure that state agencies incorporate
sea level rise estimates in the development of roads, ports,
airports, water-treatment, desalination and power plants. In
particular, it seeks to advance “natural infrastructure” such
as restored estuaries, wetlands, dunes and sea grasses that
could generate thousands of new “blue” jobs while reducing the
impact of rising water at a lower cost than hardened structures
such as seawalls. -Written by David Helvarg, an author and founder
of Blue Frontier, an ocean conservation group.
The state assembly on Monday unanimously approved a bill that
would assist with the retrofitting of Anderson Dam in Morgan
Hill. Assembly Bill 271, which was introduced and authored by
Assemblymember Robert Rivas, passed in the assembly April 19 on
a vote of 71-0, according to Rivas’ office. The bill now
proceeds to the state senate. The legislation builds on Rivas’
previous efforts to expedite the construction of Anderson Dam,
which has been deemed seismically unsafe and is currently
undergoing a significant retrofit.
As drought conditions worsen across Northern California, the
Marin Municipal Water District is about to become the Bay
Area’s first major water agency to make the leap to mandatory
water restrictions. The utility is expected to adopt a plan
Tuesday that would require nearly 200,000 residents of southern
and central Marin County to limit outdoor watering to one day a
week as well as to stop washing their cars, refilling their
swimming pools and power-washing their homes, among other
things. Offenders could face fines of up to $250…
Thousand Oaks plans to upgrade much of its aging infrastructure
over the next two fiscal years, with help from President
Joe Biden’s recently enacted American Rescue
Plan. … The proposed $111 million budget contains
132 projects, mostly infrastructure improvements. The
10 most expensive projects are, in millions of
dollars: $19.9 — Converting an irrigation well at the Los
Robles Golf Course to a treated drinking water source for
municipal supplies, lessening the city’s reliance on more
expensive imported water.
Last Tuesday, American Rivers released its annual America’s
Most Endangered Rivers list for 2021. Because of a Trump-era
proposal to raise Shasta Dam, the group named northern
California’s McCloud River as the nation’s 7th most threatened
river. Over the past century, California has engineered the
structure of water capture and distribution in the state.
… During the Trump administration, then Secretary of the
Interior David Bernhardt advanced plans to increase the height
of Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet and to expand Shasta Lake by more
than 200 billion gallons.
Incomplete local record-keeping may stymie EPA efforts to
locate the nation’s lead pipes to meet President Joe Biden’s
goal of replacing them and improving drinking water quality,
authorities say. A better way to reduce lead contamination in
the nation’s drinking water, a former Environmental Protection
Agency water chief says, is by enforcing an existing rule
requiring utilities to replace some of their lead pipes every
year. The Biden administration’s infrastructure plan, released
March 31, calls for replacing all lead drinking water pipes
throughout the U.S. to avoid lead contamination drinking water
…
The Yurok Tribe said it’s sounding the alarm as culturally
invaluable salmon edge closer to extinction. The Yurok also
said it is canceling its commercial fishery for the fifth time
this year. Tribal officials said past water management
decisions and climate change have put Klamath river salmon
stocks at risk. The tribe said it’s gravely concerned about the
rapidly declining salmon stocks in the Klamath River
Basin … Tribal officials said [Reclamation's] plan
provides bare-minimum flows for imperiled Klamath salmon and
sucker fish populations.
A proposed $3.3 billion bond that proponents argue will
“accelerate California’s economic recovery and build a
healthier, more equitable and resilient food and farm system,”
cleared the Assembly Agriculture Committee …. $75
million is earmarked for groundwater protection, $50 million of
which would go to the Department of Conservation for grants to
groundwater sustainability agencies, counties and others “for
development or implementation of local programs supporting or
facilitating reduced use of groundwater and multi-benefit land
repurposing at the basin scale.”…The bill would go before
voters in the fall of 2022 if it clears the Legislature.
After years of neglect, numerous measures to make sure much
needed and overdue repairs of the Friant-Kern Canal are fully
funded continue to be introduced. Congressman Jim Costa and
Senator Dianne Feinstein were the latest to introduce
legislation on Thursday that would help fund repairs for the
Friant-Kern Canal. Along with Congressman Josh Harder they
introduced a bill that has bipartisan support, the Canal
Conveyance Restoration Act that would provide more than $800
million for repairs to three San Joaquin Valley canals,
including the Friant-Kern Canal, along with restoring salmon
runs in the San Joaquin River.
While high-profile surface-water initiatives like WaterFix and
the Delta Conveyance Project grab most of the headlines
pertaining to water management in the state, efforts to make
significant changes to the way groundwater is utilized have
been underway since 2014. Now, the state and the local water
agencies are seeking public comment on documents related to the
management of groundwater. In 2014, then-Gov. Jerry Brown
signed a three-bill legislative package collectively known as
the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to better
manage groundwater supplies over the long term.
California was the first U.S. state to legally recognize access
to safe, clean and affordable water as a human right. But
substantial parts of the state lack access to drinking water
that meets those criteria. A new study published by the
California State Water Board and supported by UCLA research
identifies a risk for failure among a significant portion of
the state’s small and medium-sized public water systems.
Congressman Jim Costa (D–Fresno) introduced a bill on Thursday
that would provide over $800 million in funding to water
projects in California. If the Canal Conveyance Capacity
Restoration Act is enacted, $653 million in Federal funds will
go to restore the capacity of three canals in the Central
Valley, and $180 million will be used to restore salmon runs on
the San Joaquin River.
As the latest evidence of extended drought and extreme wildfire
danger confirms, California’s climate is changing quickly. Its
policy on burning planet-warming fuels — not so much. A
state Senate bill to ban hydraulic fracturing and otherwise
restrict oil and gas extraction died in its first committee
Tuesday, with Gov. Gavin Newsom and three Democratic lawmakers
withholding support.
Residents across San Jose can expect to see their water bills
increase in the coming months no matter what company they get
their water from — a trend that could continue year after year
for the next decade. Santa Clara Valley Water District,
the region’s wholesale water provider, plans to raise its rates
by up to 9.6% each year for the next eight years, followed by
an 8.7% jump the following two years. The monthly rate
increases would equate to an approximate $4.50 to $5.10
increase per month for customers, according to the water
district.
A far-reaching proposal to outlaw hydraulic fracturing and ban
oil and gas wells from operating near homes, schools and
healthcare facilities failed in the California Legislature on
Tuesday, a major setback for progressive leaders who hail the
state as the nation’s bellwether on environmental protection.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in September called on state lawmakers to ban
fracking and voiced his support for safety buffer zones around
wells …
Drought-riddled California will spend over $500 million in the
coming months cutting fuel breaks, lighting prescribed burns
and conducting other wildfire prevention tactics under
legislation signed by Governor Gavin Newsom. The Democratic
governor said the $536 million budget deal is the first of many
preventative steps he will authorize with the Golden State
careening toward another expected brutal wildfire season.
Advocates, such as the Colorado Water Trust, a nonprofit that
spearheaded the new approach, say the tools can be used as
templates across other river basins, where older water rights
are already spoken for. … Across Colorado nearly 40,000
miles of streams flow year-round and, as a result, have the
potential to receive protection under the state’s Instream Flow
Program.
There’s just one week left to register for our Water 101
Workshop, which offers a primer on the things you need to know
to understand California water. One of our most popular events,
this once-a-year workshop will be held as an engaging online
event on the afternoons of Thursday, April 22 and Friday,
April 23.
Legislation that would gradually phase out fracking and other
extraction methods that account for most of California’s
petroleum production faces its first big test in Sacramento on
Tuesday. The nine-member Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee is set to vote on a proposal, Senate Bill 467, that
would bar new permits for hydraulic fracturing, cyclic
steaming, steam flooding and water flooding. The legislation
would begin taking effect in 2023 and also prohibit renewing
existing permits for fracking and the other targeted methods,
which a committee bill analysis says accounts for an estimated
80% to 95% of the state’s oil production.
Despite its green reputation, California has a big fossil fuel
problem on its hands: neighborhood oil and gas drilling. In
California, there’s nothing preventing frackers or drillers
from setting up shop right next to your home, school, or
hospital — and indeed, this is the reality for 7.4 million
Californians currently living within 1 mile of oil and gas
drilling operations, who are disproportionately non-white and
low-income. Now, a new state bill called S.B. 467, slated
for a hearing in the California Senate Committee on Natural
Resources and Water on Tuesday, may reshape the lives of
frontline communities by eliminating fracking and instituting
mandatory buffer zones between oil and gas extraction and
places where Californians live, work, and study.
A desert city built on a reputation for excess and indulgence
wants to become a model for restraint and conservation with a
first-in-the-nation policy banning grass that nobody walks on.
Las Vegas-area water officials have spent two decades trying to
get people to replace thirsty greenery with desert plants, and
now they’re asking the Nevada Legislature to outlaw roughly 40%
of the turf that’s left. The Southern Nevada Water Authority
estimates there are almost 8 square miles (21 square
kilometers) of “nonfunctional turf” in the metro area — grass
that no one ever walks on or otherwise uses in street medians,
housing developments and office parks.
ACWA staff testified with a support-if-amended position on AB
1500 (E.Garcia) during an Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife
Committee hearing on April 8. The bill is one of two climate
resilience bond proposals that are currently advancing through
the state Legislature and could be headed for the June 2022
ballot. AB 1500 would create a $6.7 billion bond measure. ACWA,
with input from the State Legislative Committee’s Bond Working
Group, is requesting amendments to the bills to add funding for
water-related climate resilience projects that help provide a
reliable water supply during drought and flood. The amendments
propose the bill include funding for conveyance, dam safety,
groundwater protection and sustainable groundwater management,
flood management, integrated regional water management and safe
drinking water for disadvantaged communities, as well as water
quality and water reuse and recycling.
After the worst fire season in California history and as
drought conditions raise fears of what’s to come, Gov. Gavin
Newsom and legislative leaders unveiled a $536-million proposal
Thursday to boost efforts at firefighting and a variety of
prevention measures, including vegetation management and the
construction of fire-resistant structures across the state. The
proposal, which the Legislature could send to the governor’s
desk as soon as Monday, marks an early agreement by the
governor and lawmakers to spend more than half of the $1
billion in wildfire funding Newsom called for in his state
budget proposal in January. The gravity of the issue became
clear last week after state officials reported the water
content in the Sierra Nevada snowpack stood at 59% of the
average for early spring.
A tiny silver fish few people in the Bay Area have heard of
could be a new symbol of the state’s continuing battle over
water resources. San Francisco Baykeeper sued the Biden
administration on Thursday to list the local population of
longfin smelt as an endangered species. The environmental
group’s legal action comes nine years after the federal
government first declared that the fish warranted that status.
Once an important source of food for marine mammals, birds and
chinook salmon, the local population of the longfin smelt has
dropped by 99.9% since the 1980s. Scientists and
environmentalists say that reduction is a direct result of too
much water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system being
diverted to farms and other water users rather than flowing
through the bay to the Pacific.
Governor Gavin Newsom frequently says California is a leader in
sustainability and the transition away from fossil fuels. The
governor has also issued an executive order to fight climate
change in response to the deadly wildfires that ravaged our
state last year. Despite these public statements and official
efforts, it’s puzzling that his administration has been
promoting the climate-wrecking Poseidon desalination plant in
Huntington Beach as an infrastructure to source additional
water for California. There are plenty of things we can do to
ensure that Southern Californians have enough water to
thrive….
-Written by Alejandro Sobrera, the Orange County Hub
Coordinator for the Sunrise Movement, a youth led effort to
bring about a just transition to a greener
world.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes will receive $209,000 for
irrigation canal projects, Congressman Paul Gosar announced
Tuesday. The federal funds were awarded by the U.S. Department
of the Interior to help CRIT pay for canal lining. The project
is intended to help stop water seepage from the canal. CRIT
relies on the Colorado River as its primary source of water,
and water conserved with help the Tribes meet existing demand
during times of drought, Gosar said. The project will line
nearly 4,000 feet of the earthen canal with a membrane covered
in sprayed concrete. The stretch of canal has been identified
as having the most significant seepage rate of all 232 miles of
canals in the Colorado River Irrigation Project, according to
the Bureau of Reclamation.
As drought worsens in the West, a coalition of more than 200
farm and water organizations from 15 states that has been
pushing to fix the region’s crumbling canals and
reservoirs is complaining that President Joe Biden’s new
infrastructure proposal doesn’t provide enough funding for
above- or below-ground storage.
For the first time since her historic ascension as the nation’s
first woman vice president, Kamala Harris returned to her
native Oakland on Monday to promote the Biden administration’s
ambitious proposal to rebuild the country’s infrastructure and
create jobs…. Harris toured the East Bay Municipal Utility
District’s water treatment plant, speaking to employees and
touting the district as the kind of operation that should be
emulated. …. Harris highlighted the water portion of the
[Biden] plan, saying the goal is to invest in jobs that can
build up, replace and modernize water infrastructure — all with
the goal of getting clean drinking water to everyone.
Rural water users are panicking over a proposal to create a
market for the sale and purchase of water rights in Nevada,
unconvinced by arguments that the concept would encourage
conservation. Lawmakers on Monday weighed whether so-called
“water banking” would be preferable to prevailing water law
doctrines that govern surface and groundwater rights disputes
in the driest state in the U.S. A legislative hearing about two
proposals to allow water rights holders to sell their
entitlements pitted state water bureaucrats against a coalition
of farmers, conservationists and rural officials.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom voiced his support last year for a ban
on hydraulic fracturing by oil and gas companies, an effort
long fought by the industry and trade unions alike, he gave
Democrats a green light to send him legislation to achieve that
goal as they saw fit. But the crackdown on oil and gas
production under consideration by the California Legislature is
much wider in scope than the plan requested by the governor,
who may get more than he bargained for as he shoulders the
pressures of carrying out the state’s COVID-19 pandemic
response while battling a looming recall election. The
ambitious proposal would outlaw hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking, and a series of other oil extraction methods reviled
by environmental activists.
Perhaps more than any other part of the country, California
stands to benefit from the $2.2 trillion proposal introduced
last week by President Biden…. the sweeping plan would inject
huge sums of money into wider roads, faster internet,
high-speed trains, charging stations for electric cars, airport
terminals, upgraded water pipes and much more. … The
infusion is being seen not only as the path to a long-overdue
upgrade of the freeways, dams and aqueducts that have long been
California’s hallmark but also as a way to scale up and export
the state’s ambitious climate policies.
If the mountain of proposed legislation is any indication,
lawmakers are increasingly primed to crack down on the plastic
waste that is littering roadsides, washing onto beaches and
into oceans, being digested by fish, and ending up in our own
bellies. In Sacramento, at least a dozen bills go after plastic
pollution from a variety of angles, including reducing the
amount of single-use plastics and refilling returnable beverage
bottles. And in Washington, D.,C., a sweeping federal proposal
co-authored by Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, would place
much of the responsibility for plastic reduction and recycling
on companies that make and utilize single-use plastics.
President Biden announced the first components of his proposed
$2 trillion national infrastructure plan to rebuild failing,
aging, and outdated water, energy, transportation, and
communications systems. While the current information provides
only the broadest outlines of his proposals, and the details
will have to be worked out in specific legislation to be
debated in Congress, it is clearly the most ambitious plan to
have been put forward in many years.
As California emerged from a historically tough five-year
drought in 2017, then-governor Jerry Brown signed two new laws
that required local water agencies to limit water use to 55
gallons per person per day, with water-use allotments dropping
to 50 gallons by 2030. Despite some misreporting to the
contrary, these limits on individuals were not
enforceable. Instead, the state imposed fines on districts
that failed to meet the new targets. It was pretty clear what
direction the state was taking: Since then, California has gone
all in for extreme conservation measures that could eventually
lead to rationing as water-use allotments drop. Unless
something changes, it may be only a matter of time before such
policies lead to personal restrictions on lawn-watering,
car-washing, and even showering.
-Written by Steven Greenhut, the western-region
director for the R Street Institute and a columnist for the
Southern California News Group.
Seven agencies that have been working together to sustain the
groundwater in the Cosumnes Subbasin, which includes the
communities of Galt, Herald, Wilton and Rancho Murieta South,
held a workshop March 24. The presentation was intended to help
residents understand how groundwater will be used in the next
two decades in the Cosumnes Subbasin. The group has until Jan.
31, 2022 to submit its plan to the state on how it intends to
meet its target of replacing 20,000-acre feet per year (AFY) in
underground basins called aquifers to sustain the groundwater.
One of the takeaways from meeting is the plan will cost $2.25
million in the early years.
On its face, SGMA appears to promise comprehensive groundwater
management. The legislature sought to “provide for the
sustainable management of groundwater basins”. SGMA therefore
“applies to all groundwater basins in the state”…. DWR has
ranked only 18 percent (94 out of 515) of Bulletin 118
groundwater basins as medium or high priority, although these
basins account for virtually all of current groundwater pumping
in the state. The result is a fragmented regulatory system that
leaves significant gaps in the sustainable management of
California’s groundwater.
Now that his massive coronavirus relief package is law,
President Joe Biden is laying out his next big proposal: A
roughly $2 trillion plan for improving the nation’s
infrastructure … Biden’s plan allocates $111
billion to rebuild the country’s water infrastructure. It
would replace all of the nation’s lead pipes and service lines
in order to improve the health of American children and
communities of color. The White House says replacing the pipes
would reduce lead exposure in 400,000 schools and childcare
facilities. The proposal would upgrade the country’s
drinking water, wastewater and stormwater systems, tackle new
contaminants and support clean water infrastructure in rural
parts of the country.
With the end of the first quarter of 2021 approaching, we
thought it timely to issue an update on selected recent
developments and proposed changes in law and policy touching
environmental, land use, and natural resource issues. At the
national level, with the new Biden administration, federal
policies already have undergone a significant sea-change from
those of the Trump administration. And the Golden State
continues to lead with a protective agenda on land use,
environmental, and natural resources legislation and
regulation.
In the coming weeks, officials are expected to release a new
plan for reaching the goals set out under the Paris Climate
Agreement and recommend changes to several national monuments.
More broadly, the administration is considering steps that
could include taking a harder line on climate regulations.
… The Biden administration has also listed dozens of
Trump-era environmental rules across several agencies that it
plans to review, including rules governing air quality
standards, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Over the coming decades, California’s San Joaquin Valley will
transition to sustainable groundwater management under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), ensuring
reliable groundwater supplies for generations to come.
Sustainable groundwater management and a changing climate will
inevitably affect how land is used on a sweeping scale. By some
estimates, the amount of farmland that will have to be taken
out of production to balance groundwater demand and supply is
equivalent to the size of Yosemite National Park — a transition
that could serve a huge blow to the agricultural economy, rural
communities and the environment.
Even before the pandemic, Americans were already flushing far
too many wipes into the sewer system. After a year of staying
at home, the pipe-clogging problem has gotten worse.
… Sewer backups are up 50%… Last year, Washington
became the first state to pass legislation requiring
manufacturers to label their products with “do not flush”
disclaimers, and states including California have
also introduced bills that would mandate similar labels.
ACWA-sponsored SB 323 (Caballero) passed out of the Senate
Government and Finance Committee on March 25, following a
hearing in which ACWA staff and members testified in
support….The bill would improve financial stability for
public agencies by creating a 120-day statute of limitations
for legal challenges to water and sewer service rates. It comes
as water and wastewater agencies have faced increased
litigation from ratepayers over whether agency rates comply
with Proposition 218 and other existing laws.
As a result of increasing demand for water, exacerbated by the
decades-long drought in the Colorado River system, the Colorado
State Engineer is considering a proposal that would impose
stricter limitations on the permitting of new groundwater wells
in the Yampa River Basin upstream of where the Yampa River
meets the Little Snake River. The Yampa River flows west
from its headwaters near Steamboat Springs, in northwest
Colorado. After it is joined by the Little Snake River,
it flows to meet the Green River near the Colorado-Utah state
line. From there, the Green River flows south as a major
tributary of the Colorado River.
One of the most critical negotiations for Utah’s future is
coming at a time when Utah’s delegations in Washington D.C. may
be less influential than every other party at the table. The
Colorado River Compact, hammered out in 1922 with few
amendments over the years, expires in 2026. Every other state
in the compact other than Utah has a majority Democratic or
split delegation in Washington. Those states? Colorado, New
Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.
The top state scientific agency charged with protecting
Californians from toxic chemicals has proposed adding the
“forever chemical” PFOA to the list of substances known to the
state to cause cancer in humans under the Safe Drinking Water
and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, otherwise known as
Proposition 65. The California Environmental Protection
Agency’s Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment,
or OEHHA, said March 19 that PFOA “meets the criteria for
listing as known to the state to cause cancer under Proposition
65,” based on the findings of a National Toxicology Program
report last year.
Environmental groups are calling for massive spending on an
infrastructure package they view as a generational opportunity
to address climate change, ramping up pressure on Democrats to
deliver on campaign trail promises on clean energy and
environmental justice. As Democrats call for bipartisanship and
Republicans demand a narrower and cheaper bill, greens will be
warning the new congressional majority against giving in to GOP
demands. That tension came to a head yesterday when reports
emerged in The New York Times and The Washington Post that
White House aides were working on an ambitious $3 trillion
infrastructure legislative effort encompassing climate, taxes
and income inequality.
It wipes out entire communities in a matter of moments, weakens
our lungs and even taints our drinking water, yet federal
strategy to combat wildfires remains outdated and largely
ineffective. The Biden Administration has an opportunity to
rewrite the playbook on combatting wildfires, according to
Stanford University science and policy experts whose research
on a range of related issues points toward bipartisan
solutions.
A Biden initiative expected to pour up to $3 trillion into
repairing America’s decrepit infrastructure and funding other
programs has sparked a scramble across the nation for the
federal funds — with California expecting to reap the biggest
piece. …Rep. John Garamendi, a Northern California Democrat
who is a senior member of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee…spent more than an hour with Biden
in recent weeks and came away convinced that the program will
be broad enough to improve most areas of the nation’s
infrastructure: highways, passenger rail, electric grids, dams,
sewers and water systems, ocean terminals and
airports….
A new poll shows Latino voters in California are even more
supportive than the general population of policies that protect
public lands and combat climate change. The new survey finds an
overwhelming majority of Latino voters, 85%, support President
Joe Biden’s new goal of protecting 30% of the country’s lands
and waters by the year 2030. … The poll also found 83%
of Latinos surveyed support dedicating funding to address air
and water pollution in lower-income parts of California,
compared to 72% of all voters.
ACWA and its member agencies care greatly about water
affordability and recognize the centrality of this issue during
these uniquely challenging times. ACWA is advocating in
Washington, D.C. (already with some success) and in Sacramento
for federal and state funding to help public water systems and
treatment works cover customer arrearages accrued during the
pandemic. This funding is needed quickly — through immediate
action — as opposed to through the legislative process for
long-term policy bills.
Today, Representative Josh Harder (CA-10) sent a letter with
Rep. Jerry McNerny (CA-9) requesting new federal funds for the
Lower San Joaquin River Flood Risk Management and Feasibility
Study projects. The $36.5 million in requested funds would go
toward the Army Corps of Engineers and San Joaquin Area Flood
Control Agency’s critical flood damage reduction efforts. If
implemented, the project will protect 165,000 Valley residents,
reduce annual property damage by 84%, and increase the
resilience of 262 critical infrastructure sites, 12 of which
are essential to daily life in the Valley. The project is
expected to yield $7 for every $1 of taxpayer money invested.
A proposal to create a watchdog for South Los Angeles County’s
dozens of disjointed and struggling water systems has stirred
fear among public agencies and companies further down the
pipeline that they could be the target of hostile
takeovers. AB 1195, introduced by Assemblywoman Christina
Garcia, would establish the Southern Los Angeles County
Regional Water Agency and grant it authority to assist failing
water systems with aging infrastructure, or to take control if
a system is no longer able to provide affordable, clean
drinking water.
Senate President pro Tempore Toni G. Atkins (D-San Diego) today
presented SB 1, a landmark bill to help California address the
impacts of sea level rise, to the Senate Committee on Natural
Resources and Water, which approved the bill in a 7-2 vote. …
SB 1, the Sea Level Rise Mitigation and Adaptation Act, directs
the Coastal Commission to take sea level rise into account in
its planning, policies, and activities, and would … expand
funding to assist more disadvantaged communities along the
coast that are vulnerable to the impacts of sea level rise and
are actively working to address environmental justice issues.
California water suppliers could face state limits on the
concentration of two so-called “forever chemicals” before the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets national standards.
Maximum contaminant levels for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)
and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are on track to be in
place in California in 2023 … The EPA announced in February
that it planned to regulate both chemicals and order nationwide
sampling for those and 27 similar compounds between 2023 and
2025.
Groundwater aquifers are best understood and managed locally;
therefore, the key to successfully implementing SGMA lies in
maintaining local control, something Farm Bureau vigorously
advocates. In addition, we have stressed that to reduce
dependence on groundwater, we must expand surface water storage
and recharge our groundwater aquifers when excess water is
available….Unless March somehow makes up for the lack of rain
and snow thus far this winter, we could see an increased
dependence on groundwater this growing season.
The San Joaquin Valley has begun to grapple with implementing
the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Figuring out
the math of balancing water supply and demand in ways that
cause the least economic harm to farmers and local economies is
challenging, and difficult tradeoffs are inevitable. We talked
with Emmy Cattani, a fifth-generation farmer from Kern County,
about some options.
Last week, President Biden signed into law a historic,
wide-reaching $1.9 trillion stimulus package aimed at throwing
a lifeline to Americans struggling through the pandemic. In
California, the news has come as a particular relief.
… $16 billion: That’s the amount that is expected
to be split between city and county governments to help make up
for lost local tax revenue during the pandemic. And that’s what
pays for essential services like law enforcement and
firefighters. The money can also be used for water, sewer and
broadband infrastructure projects.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday pledged swift work by
Congress on a job and infrastructure package that will be
“fiscally sound,” but said she isn’t sure whether the next
major item on President Joe Biden’s agenda will attract
Republican backing. … “Building roads and bridges and
water supply systems and the rest has always been bipartisan,
always been bipartisan, except when they oppose it with a
Democratic president, as they did under President Obama, and we
had to shrink the package,” said Pelosi, D-Calif.
California is poised to issue the world’s first guidelines for
microplastics in drinking water despite no data on how
plentiful they are in the state, no scientific agreement on how
to test water for them and little research on their health
risks. The pieces of plastic — smaller than an ant, some
so tiny they can be seen only with a microscope — have
contaminated wildlife and human bodies through their food, air
and water. … Now the state Water Resources Control Board is
blazing a trail to issue a preliminary health-based threshold
and testing methods by July 1.
President Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief
package, the American Rescue Plan of 2021, aimed to provide
financial relief to Americans and incentives to stimulate the
economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest
package … provides $500 million for low-income water and
wastewater grants. Funds will be allotted to states and tribes
based on percentage of households with income less than 150
percent of the federal poverty line.
The Grand Canyon Protection Act was recently introduced by U.S.
Rep. Raύl Grijalva and passed in the House and has been
introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. The bills will
permanently protect about 1 million acres of public lands
surrounding Grand Canyon from the harmful and lasting damage of
new uranium mining. … This legislation is critical
to stopping the threats that mining poses to water quality and
quantity, unique habitats and wildlife pathways, and to sacred
places. -Written by Sandy Bahr, director for Sierra
Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, and Amber Wilson
Reimondo, Energy Program director with Grand Canyon
Trust.
The climate change cabal in Sacramento is ignoring some
extremely low hanging fruit in their bid to protect us from
ourselves. The reason they don’t see it is simple. It doesn’t
involve raising taxes, rewarding corporations or disruptor
greenies they align with, nor does it destroy jobs. The
California Legislature needs to ban grass lawns for front yards
as well as general commercial development for all new building
projects. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, editor of the Manteca
Bulletin.
One of the largest undammed river systems in California, the
South Fork Trinity watershed supports vulnerable populations of
salmon and steelhead, and boasts dramatic scenery. The South
Fork National Recreation Trail parallels the river’s rapids and
pools through stands of pine, fir, and oak. Nearly 500 miles of
water, including parts of the South Fork Trinity River and its
tributaries, would be permanently protected by the Northwest
California Wilderness, Recreation, and Working Forests Act,
sponsored by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA), which was also included
in the Protecting America’s Wilderness and Public Lands Act
that recently passed the House.
The massive COVID-19 relief bill Congress approved Wednesday
will pump more than $150 billion into California’s economy,
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration said Wednesday, including a
$26 billion windfall for the state’s already burgeoning budget
surplus. … [The U.S. Treasury Department has told state
governments] they can use the money to respond to the public
health emergency, provide government services or invest in
water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.
Vice President Kamala Harris was right on point last year when
she said that clean water is a fundamental human right.
President Biden has put those words into action by signing an
executive order establishing a White House council on
environmental justice. Every Californian has a right to clean,
reliable affordable drinking water. -Written by Jose Barrera, California’s state
deputy director for the League of United Latin American
Citizens.
A bipartisan group of California lawmakers is confronting
pollution problems along the U.S.-Mexico border, especially in
the Tijuana River Valley between San Diego and Tijuana. Several
House members who represent Southern California introduced a
bill called the Border Water Quality Restoration Act. Similar
legislation was presented last week in the U.S. Senate. If
approved, it will give the Environmental Protection Agency the
authority to coordinate all federal, state, and local agencies
when planning construction and infrastructure projects to
mitigate pollution in waterways throughout the southern border.
California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots – home
to more unique species of plants and animals than any other
state in the U.S. This biodiversity makes up the beautiful land
and seascapes of the world’s fifth-largest economy and sustains
our health, cultures and quality of life. Yet it is
disappearing at alarming rates. … Environmental
laws such as the Clean Water Act and Endangered
Species Act are designed to protect the environment from
damage. What these laws are not designed to do is provide a
pathway for restoring nature damaged, for instance, by
development projects.
-Written by Ashley Boren, the CEO
of Sustainable Conservation, a San Francisco- and
Modesto-based nonprofit.
AB 377, entitled the “California Clean Water Act,” introduced
by Assemblymember Rivas in February 2021, includes provisions
to eliminate all “impaired waterways” and make all waters in
California suitable for drinking, swimming, and fishing by
2050. If adopted, this bill would have significant
impacts on the ability to timely and cost-effectively comply
with discharge requirements set forth in National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permits, Waste Discharge
Requirements (“WDRs”), and waivers of WDRs (collectively,
“water quality permits”). The bill would also usher in an
era of focus on enforcement, rather than good-faith compliance.
California’s legislative session came to a wild ending in 2020
when the clock ran out on major bills. Key pieces of
environmental legislation were among those that died on the
floor, and conservationists are hoping 2021 brings a different
story….Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, [proposed
a climate resiliency bond that] would include $240 million for
Salton Sea restoration, $250 million for groundwater management
and $300 million for grants for clean and reliable drinking
water.
Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, introduced a bill
Wednesday that would extend “critical water supply provisions”
in the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN)
Act for the next seven years in an effort to improve
California’s access to water. On Wednesday, Garcia introduced a
bill that would enact a seven-year extension for “critical
water supply provisions” in the WIIN Act, which became law at
the end of 2016.
Despite taking two years off from Congress, David Valadao
(R—Hanford) is getting back to work by introducing new
legislation to help keep water flowing in the Central Valley.
Early this month, Valadao introduced the Responsible, No-Cost
Extension of Western Water Infrastructure Improvements, or
RENEW WIIN, Act, a no-cost, clean extension of operations and
storage provisions of the WIIN Act. The RENEW WIIN Act would
extend the general and operations provisions of Subtitle J of
the WIIN Act and extend the provision requiring consultation on
coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project and State
Water Project.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday joined a
lawsuit challenging a Trump-era rule revising nationwide
standards for controlling and remediating lead in drinking
water. While the final rule includes certain necessary
updates to the existing standard, these changes are
overshadowed by the unlawful weakening of
critical requirements and the rule’s failure to
protect the public from lead in drinking water to
the maximum extent feasible, as required by law.
Lake Wohlford Dam is an important water storage, flood control
and recreational facility that has served Escondido for
generations. Restoring storage capacity and making it
earthquake-safe is critically important, which is why I
introduced AB 692. The dam was originally constructed in
1895 to store water transported via a wooden flume from the San
Luis Rey River to Escondido. One of the first rock-fill dams in
California, Lake Wohlford Dam was 76 feet high and had a
storage capacity of about 3500 acre-feet.
-Written by Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron,
R-Escondido.
Though the nonprofit tasked with Klamath River dam removal is
about to submit its definite plan to federal regulators, Del
Norte County and the Crescent City Harbor District are still
worried about potential negative impacts. Harbor commissioners
on Thursday agreed to sign onto a memorandum of understanding
that includes the county and the Klamath River Renewal
Corporation. The MOU contains conditions that ensures the
harbor and county can recover potential damages to the port and
the fishing industry that occur as a result of dam removal and
reservoir drawdown on the Klamath River.
Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties could play host to
part of the largest new designation of federal wilderness in a
decade if Democratic sponsors of the land-protection package
can find a way through the divided U.S. Senate. A bill
sponsored by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, would designate
257,797 of new acres of wilderness in Northern California while
placing 480 miles of river in the region under the nation’s
strictest environmental protections for waterways.
This month, the comment period for a potentially landmark piece
of legislation ended. Since California v. Arizona in 2000, the
Colorado River Indian Tribes have the sole rights to more than
600,000 acres-feet of water from the Colorado River, but they
are barred from selling or leasing any of this water to outside
communities. The proposed federal legislation, led by
the tribes themselves, would allow them to lease some of this
water as long as they reduce their own water consumption by an
equivalent amount.
-Written by Isaac Humrich, a senior at Sunnyslope High
School in Phoenix and a member of American Conservation
Coalition.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released the following
statement on being named chairman of the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. This subcommittee
has jurisdiction over funding levels for the Department of
Energy, the Army Corp of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation
and other federal agencies related to our nation’s energy and
water infrastructure programs.
Democratic lawmakers and advocates are urging Joe Biden to back
legislation proposing unprecedented investment in America’s
ailing water infrastructure amid the country’s worst crisis in
decades that has left millions of people without access to
clean, safe, affordable water. Boil advisories, leaky lead
pipes, poisonous forever chemicals, bill arrears and raw sewage
are among the urgent issues facing ordinary Americans and
municipal utilities after decades of federal government
neglect, which has brought the country’s ageing water systems
hurtling towards disaster. … Water supplies and
sanitation have been disrupted over and over in recent decades
– in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, California, Ohio and elsewhere …
The McMullin Area Groundwater Sustainability Agency (MAGSA), a
Groundwater Sustainability Agency in the Central Valley’s Kings
Subbasin, has been awarded a $10 million grant by the State
Water Resources Control Board through the Prop 1 Stormwater
Grant Program to expand the existing McMullin On-Farm Recharge
(OFR) Project located near Helm in Fresno County. The
Project is identified in MAGSA’s Groundwater Sustainability
Plan and is a key element in a vision developed by MAGSA to
achieve groundwater sustainability under California’s
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) through
innovative approaches in groundwater banking and crediting.
Lake Wohlford Dam is an important water storage, flood control
and recreational facility that has served Escondido for
generations. Restoring storage capacity and making it
earthquake-safe is critically important, which is why I
introduced AB 692. The dam was originally constructed in 1895
to store water transported via a wooden flume from the San Luis
Rey River to Escondido. One of the first rock-fill dams in
California, Lake Wohlford Dam was 76 feet high and had a
storage capacity of about 3500 acre-feet.
-Written by Assemblymember Marie Waldron,
R-Escondido
Utah House Bill 297 is a dangerous spending bill that provides
its benefactors with exemptions to conflict-of-interest laws
that raises serious moral questions about what is happening at
the Utah Legislature. The bill creates another heavily-funded
and secretive government agency — the Colorado River Authority
— that would receive an initial $9 million, plus $600,000 per
year thereafter, in addition to collecting unknown sums of
money from other agencies. -Written by Claire Geddes, a consumer advocate and former
director of Utah Legislative Watch.
New legislation would ban all fracking in California by 2027,
taking aim at the powerful oil and gas industry in a state
already planning to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars
by 2035. … Environmental groups say [fracking] can cause
significant harm to air quality and water supplies.
Emily Rooney, president of the Agricultural Council of
California, is a member of the advisory group for California’s
Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER)
drinking water program. She spoke with Agri-Pulse about an
unexpected coalition that helped bring about the 2019 law and
why the issue is important to agriculture.
Tools such a SWIIM–which stands for Sustainable Water and
Innovative Irrigation Management–provides a new standard in
water measurement that allows growers to receive an accurate
accounting of the water both delivered and consumed by their
orchards. … And, of course we are talking about SGMA, the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
On December 17, 2020, the Sacramento County Superior Court
issued a ruling limiting the ability of the California State
Water Resources Control Board (“State Board”) to implement its
adopted statewide wetlands and Waters of the State (“WOTS”)
regulations.
Six states with drinking water standards for so-called “forever
chemicals” are now wrestling with what those limits mean when
water contamination from Department of Defense sites seep into
their communities. Members of Congress from both parties are
starting to vent their frustration at military foot-dragging
even as the states take different paths to address the
contamination.
With Democratic New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland poised to become
the first Native American Interior secretary, tribal
governments historically marginalized by the agency expect not
only a greater respect for their autonomy, but also a more
significant role in the nation’s land and water management
decisions.
Shortly after taking office two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom
promised to deliver a massive compromise deal on the water
rushing through California’s major rivers and the
critically-important Delta — and bring lasting peace to the
incessant water war between farmers, cities, anglers and
environmentalists. … [C]oming to an agreement as promised
will require Newsom’s most artful negotiating skills. He’ll
have to get past decades of fighting and maneuvering, at the
same time California is continuing to recover from the worst
wildfire season in modern state history and a pandemic that has
since killed more than 42,000 state residents.
Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), Senate Majority
Leader Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and California Coastkeeper
Alliance introduced the California Clean Water Act, Assembly
Bill 377, legislation that will put California back on track to
eliminate impaired waterways and make all waters statewide
suitable for conversion to drinking water, swimming, and
fishing by 2050.
In a flurry of first-week executive orders, President Biden
sent a definitive message that his administration would move
faster on climate change than any before. Now, the question is
whether it will be fast enough. Scientists warn that the
coming decade will be critical for slowing heat-trapping
emissions, potentially keeping average annual global
temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared
to the mid-19th century. Right now, the world is on track
for an increase of 3 degrees Celsius, a level
that ensures more destructive wildfires and hurricanes,
devastation for coral reefs and rising seas flooding the
coastlines.
U.S. Representative David G. Valadao introduced the
Responsible, No-Cost Extension of Western Water Infrastructure
Improvements, or RENEW WIIN, Act, a no-cost, clean extension of
operations and storage provisions of the WIIN Act (P.L.
114-322).
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA)
announces the release of its final Human Right to Water
Framework and Data Tool (CalHRTW 1.0)—comprised of an
interactive web tool and report, Achieving the Human Right to
Water in California: An Assessment of the State’s Community
Water Systems. In developing the Human Right to Water Framework
and Data Tool, California becomes the first state in the
country to develop a tool for measuring the progressive
realization of the human right to water.
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. The land is literally sinking…
Groundwater provides about 40
percent of the water in California for urban, rural and
agricultural needs in typical years, and as much as 60 percent in
dry years when surface water supplies are low. But in many areas
of the state, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can
be replenished through natural or artificial means.
Wildfires and smoke have ravaged large parts of California, sea
level rise is threatening the golden coast’s viability and
drought is looming in the future. … But for the first
time in four years action on climate change is gaining momentum
on the federal level — President Joe Biden signed multiple
executive orders related to the crisis in his first week in
office. Meanwhile California has held ground on climate
policies as the Trump Administration rolled back environmental
rules and regulations.
U.S. Reps. Raul Ruiz, D-Palm Desert, and Juan Vargas,
D-San Diego reintroduced a bill this week that is aimed at
cleaning up the New River, a highly polluted waterway
originating near Mexicali, Mexico that flows
north, emptying into the Salton Sea. The bill, HR491,
would direct the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to create
an organization to be called the California New River
Restoration Program, which would coordinate funding and cleanup
projects.
Pascua Yaqui Council members called it “a blessing” Tuesday.
They were talking about $900,000 in federal funds that will be
used to bring water to the tribe’s lands for irrigation, the
first fruits of a successful effort last year by members of the
state’s congressional delegation to win $150 million in federal
funding for water projects around the state. … The money
comes from an Army Corps of Engineers fund dedicated to water
infrastructure projects in Arizona. Under the bill, local
governments can enter into agreements with the corps for water,
wastewater treatment, environmental restoration and other
projects.
We talk about microplastics in the ocean and on land fairly
often, but they are present in drinking water as well. The
California Legislature passed a bill in 2018 requiring
monitoring of the tiny plastic particles in drinking water.
Standards are due to be set up by the state Water Resources
Control Board this year. Scott Coffin, a researcher with the
agency, visits with an overview of the issues with
microplastics, and how the monitoring effort is coming along.
On Jan. 15, State Assemblymembers Robert Rivas and Rudy Salas
introduced Assembly Bill 252, which if approved would help
alleviate the impacts of the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA) on farmers and ensure that farmland taken out of
production due to SGMA is reused to provide conservation,
recreation, or other benefits to local communities.
Vicky Espinoza is on a mission. Vicky is passionate about
making sure rural, low-income communities and small-scale
farmers have a say in land-use and water-management decisions
in the San Joaquin Valley.
The $227 billion budget proposed on Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom
includes $4.1 billion in spending on a suite of environmental
initiatives meant to fight climate change, gird California
against devastating wildfires, reduce smog, and bolster the
adoption of clean vehicles on the state’s roads.
With so much going on in the world right now, why should water
be a priority for the Biden administration? The fact is that
water challenges in the U.S. are severe and worsening. In
November, we hosted a webinar on our recommendations for the
next administration, taking audience questions on topics
ranging from the nation’s outdated infrastructure to the threat
to national security from rising international conflict over
water. Read on for our answers to some of these questions.
Cooperation between California and the federal government was
at a low ebb over the past four years. With a new
administration in the nation’s capital, what should be top
water priorities for collaboration between the state and the
federal government? The PPIC Water Policy Center recently
discussed this issue with a diverse group of experts.
Members of California water and agricultural communities have
been applauding a number of provisions related to water
infrastructure within the omnibus funding
bill President Trump recently signed into law. More than
$200 million in the bill will go to repairing parts of the
Friant-Kern Canal. Friant Water Authority CEO Jason Phillips
attributed the provision to the work of several California
lawmakers, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy,
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes and Senator Dianne Feinstein.
Phillips said the funding allows the water agency to begin
construction early this year.
Under Proposition One, passed by the voters in 2014, the Delta
Conservancy was allocated $50 million for ecosystem restoration
in the Delta. Currently, the Conservancy has awarded
funding to 29 projects for about $39 million of that $50
million with a potential ecological benefit on up to 8,000
acres as a result.
Now that the calendar has flipped to January 2021, it’s time to
say goodbye to the mess of the past year, yes? … The
pandemic’s economic dislocation continues to reverberate among
those who lost work. Severe weather boosted by a warming
climate is leaving its mark in the watersheds of the Southwest
[including the Colorado River]. And President-elect Biden will
take office looking to undo much of his predecessor’s legacy of
environmental deregulation while also writing his own narrative
on issues of climate, infrastructure, and social
justice….Litigation over toxic PFAS compounds found in
rivers, lakes, and groundwater is already active. Lawsuits are
likely to continue at a brisk pace…
President Trump signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act,
2021 on December 27, 2020. The Appropriations Act is a
true omnibus. It covers an array of topics, including
provisions important to California specifically, such as the
federal share of activities related to the CALFED Bay-Delta
Program.
The Sites Reservoir was awarded $13.7 million in the 2021
federal spending bill. The 2021 federal spending bill …
included $1.4 trillion to fund government agencies and a $900
billion pandemic relief package. Sites Reservoir is proposed
for construction in remote ranch lands in Colusa County, about
70 miles north of Sacramento. It was originally given a $5.1
billion price tag, but the Sites Project Authority reduced it
to $3 billion in May.
The Friant Water Authority cleaned up some of the most
important work in the last month of the year hashing out a
legal settlement with farmers in southern Tulare County.
Represented by the Eastern Tule Groundwater Sustainability
Agency (GSA) farmers agreed to contribute at least $125 million
to repair the significant subsidence-caused sag in the
gravity-fed canal that has cut water deliveries by 60%.
The roughly $900 billion stimulus package meant to
tackle both COVID-19 relief as well as federal spending
includes provisions that hold the potential to unlock millions
of dollars of new federal spending to address the Salton Sea.
The bill notably modifies the Water Resources Development
Act by authorizing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to expedite
a study on the feasibility of constructing a perimeter lake
around the Salton Sea.
Water—it’s an issue that can be all-consuming for a lawyer, and
for much of Alf W. Brandt’s career it seemed that way. Some
geo-pundits believe the next major war will be fought over
water, not oil. At the very least, its use or misuse can divide
even the most civil community. Which shouldn’t be the case,
Brandt emphasizes while taking on a philosopher’s tone during
an autumn interview with Vanguard.
The Salton Sea’s shoreline is receding, exposing a dusty
lakebed known as the “playa.”…The problem isn’t new. Yet
California, though largely responsible for fixing it, has
barely touched the more than 25 square miles of exposed
playa. It’s been almost two decades since an agreement was
signed in 2003, committing the Imperial Irrigation District,
the Colorado River’s largest user, to conserve water that once
flowed from farms into the lake and send it to other districts.
Knowing the lake would recede, the state committed to
mitigating the health and environmental impacts.
A group of agriculture, timber and environmental organizations
is asking the state to commit to spending up to $1.5 billion on
wildfire prevention programs in the next year. Representatives
from those groups said Wednesday that bureaucratic red tape and
funding issues have held up needed fire prevention projects to
prevent the types of deadly wildfires California has endured
the past five years.
At the beginning of 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom
announced some framework for voluntary agreements on
pumping water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. In
February, the Trump administration signed their
own water legislation for California that relaxed
biological opinions providing additional water to flow through
the Delta. California promptly sued the administration’s
actions under the direction of Newsom which put a halt to
the federal decision and paused the voluntary agreements
momentum. Does all of that change now that a Democratic party
is transitioning into leadership?
Assemblyman Adam Gray, D-Merced, said he was removed from the
chairmanship of the Governmental Organization Committee over
the No. 1 issue in his district — water. The Merced Democrat
lost a previous committee assignment because of his opposition
to State Water Board proposals to take flows away from
agriculture and other water users on the Tuolumne, Stanislaus
and Merced rivers.
The latest update to a video series detailing the impacts of
the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) has recently
been released. The bilingual SGMA video series is available on
the YouTube channel CaliWaterAg. The latest installment,
Part 1.4, addresses land repurposing related to SGMA.
Working with Rep. Jerry McNerney, Rep. John Garamendi
expedited completion of the Army Corps feasibility study for
the San Francisco Bay to Stockton Navigation Improvement
Project. This feasibility study examines deepening the John F.
Baldwin and Stockton Deepwater Ship Channels from their
existing depths of -35 feet mean lower low water to -40 feet
and beneficially reusing dredged sediment for marsh restoration
of subsided islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes are proposing federal
legislation that would allow CRIT to lease a portion of its
first priority Colorado River water rights in Arizona to
outside interests within the state. The Tribe says the
legislation would help drought relief efforts in Arizona while
presenting economic opportunities for tribal members.
Shortly after the networks called the 2020 presidential race
for Joe Biden, a list of four priorities appeared on the
president-elect’s transition website. Certain observers noticed
a common thread — an undercurrent, if you will — that knitted
these priorities together: water. Water, which washes hands
during the pandemic. Water, which is needed for factories to
produce goods, farms to grow crops, and cities to reboot.
Water, which has sometimes been denied to communities of color
or delivered in polluted form. And water, which is how a
warming planet will wreak much of its havoc.
It’s easy to understand why people who rely on private wells
for their water can feel powerless about the future of their
supply — wells pump water from underground aquifers shared by
many neighbors.
In a letter to President-elect Joe Biden last week, the
American Water Works Association urged the incoming
administration to prioritize COVID-19 relief for water
utilities and investment for the overall water infrastructure
sector.
Exposure to toxic “forever” chemicals could hinder the
effectiveness of a COVID-19 vaccine, with outsize implications
for some communities and workers.
HR 8775, the Salton Sea Public Health and Environmental
Protection Act, would create an interagency working group
called the Salton Sea Management Council to coordinate projects
around the lake’s receding shoreline.
House Democrats are working to reintroduce major legislation
targeting toxic chemicals singled out by President-elect Joe
Biden as a priority for his administration.
The COVID-19 pandemic and related economic turbulence forced
the state legislature and Governor Newsom to make tough
decisions this year about which issues to prioritize and which
to sideline. … Despite the challenging circumstances, several
high-priority bills covering safe drinking water and wildfire
risk reduction were enacted.
The Fresno lawmaker, who easily won a ninth term, put his hat
in the ring Thursday after the defeat of long-time chairman
Collin Peterson, D-Minn. The House is expected to remain under
Democratic control.
President Trump’s signature on a bill expanding the fight
against a large, vexatious rodent called the nutria is an
instructive victory for a newly reelected Democrat from a swing
district in California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Klamath Basin irrigators in Oregon and California will be able
to access up to $10 million in federal emergency drought relief
funds under a bill supported by U.S. Rep. Greg Walden (R-OR)
that became law on Oct. 30 with the president’s signature.
The Protecting America’s Wilderness Act (H.R. 2546) would
protect and restore over one million acres of public lands and
well over 500 miles of rivers throughout the state, including
in Northwest California’s wild lands and along the Central
Coast.
The pesky 3-foot-long, buck-toothed nutria is getting the
better of California. The large rodent is chewing up rivers and
wetlands and threatening to mow down farmland and
infrastructure, and the state is struggling to contain
it. Relief may be on the way.
The desire for crystal clean water is one that the president
repeats frequently, even dating to his 2016 presidential
campaign. Immaculate water, he has also said. Clear water.
Beautiful water. But the focus on appearances is superficial,
according to a number of water advocates and analysts.
Revisions to environmental rules that the administration has
pursued during the first term of the Trump presidency will be
detrimental to the nation’s waters, they said.
As Congress debates recovery strategies and stimulus efforts,
water should be a bigger part of the conversation. Water can
serve as a lever to achieve greater economic equity and access,
environmental resilience, and technological innovation, among
other benefits. Now is the time for Washington to elevate water
as a core issue to drive a lasting recovery.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 974 to streamline the
permitting process for low-income communities to deliver clean
drinking water for residents. The law … offers low-income
communities relief for the expensive and exhaustive permit
process for small, disadvantaged community water systems with
water contaminants beyond the state standard or failing wells.
A high-stakes Supreme Court confirmation and COVID-19
negotiations may be the focus on Capitol Hill, but a sprawling
water infrastructure bill is still advancing quickly behind the
scenes.
House Natural Resources Committee ranking member Rob Bishop
wants the House to fast-track legislation that would pave the
way for hundreds of millions of dollars for water and
sanitation development across Indian Country.
Congress has given final approval to a bill that would take on
nutria, a giant rodent threatening waterways in the Central
Valley and beyond. … The measure, HR 3399, would provide $12
million to California and several other affected states for
nutria control, research and related efforts.
House lawmakers passed the bill Oct. 1, allowing irrigators to
access up to $10 million for emergency drought relief in the
basin straddling Southern Oregon and Northern California. The
bill passed the Senate in July, and now heads to President
Trump to be signed into law.
Gov. Gavin Newsom put the final nail in the bipartisan bill’s
coffin on Wednesday when he vetoed the legislation, arguing
that the bill was too focused on one canal project: The
Friant-Kern.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill that would have
provided funding to fix the ever-sinking Friant-Kern
Canal. SB 559 would have required the Department of Water
Resources to report to the legislature by March 31, 2021, on
federal funding for the Friant Water Authority or any other
government agency to restore the capacity of the Friant-Kern
Canal. The bill would also have required DWR to include a
proposal for the state to pay up to 35 percent of the cost of
the project.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday added his signature to a new law
that orders the formation of a commission to study the
feasibility of lithium extraction around the Salton Sea. Local
politicians hope the commission will lead to the creation of a
green economy around the state’s largest lake, which is a
geothermal hotspot. It was one of several bills focused on
California’s environment that Newsom dealt with this week.
Senator Melissa Hurtado (D-Sanger) secured Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
signature on legislation that will speed the permit process for
low-income Central Valley communities to deliver clean drinking
water for residents. Senate Bill 974 exempts new water projects
that serve small, rural communities from some provisions of the
California Environmental Quality Act…
This bipartisan legislation (H.R.8217) would amend the Water
Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) of 2014 to
make public water projects like the off-stream Sites Reservoir
Project eligible for low-interest, longer-term federal loans
from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Rep. T.J. Cox, a Democrat who represents a portion of
Southwestern Tulare County, introduced the Western Water
Storage Infrastructure Act, an $800 million bill addressing
surface and groundwater storage and water delivery. … The
bill is designed to essentially replace funding authorized by
the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation, WIIN,
Act, which has been exhausted.
A bill that would have provided funding for the Friant-Kern
Canal was abandoned by the California State Legislature on
Sunday. It’s route to abandonment is a short, but confusing one
centering on California’s wildfires
The California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction
Act ..would significantly reduce waste from single-use plastics
and plastic packaging. Manufacturers would be required to make
their packaging and certain products increasingly reusable,
recyclable or compostable by 2032.
The measure, put forward by state Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa
Monica), requires municipal fire departments, chemical plants
and oil refineries to gradually stop using the foam, replacing
it with alternatives that don’t contain perfluoroalkyl and
polyfluoroalkyl substances, a class of chemicals commonly known
as PFAS…. a significant amount of drinking-water
contamination comes from their use in firefighting foam…
As if a global pandemic was not enough, the tumultuous
legislative session comes to a close as much of the state is on
fire. Understandably, lawmakers had already significantly pared
down their legislative packages to focus on a response to
COVID-19. And, then last week many important bills on
environmental justice and natural resources stalled.
On Thursday, the California State Senate Appropriations
Committee defeated a bill that would reduce the amount of lead
leached from faucets and fixtures to no more than 1 microgram
of lead – five times less lead than faucets are designed to
leach today.
A new Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, has made
headway in Congress, most recently with House passage of a bill
authorizing about $9 billion for Army Corps of Engineers flood
and storm protection, environmental restoration and other
projects. But with time running short before Congress breaks
for the Nov. 3 elections, industry sources say water
infrastructure legislation may be put off until an expected
lame duck session.
In 2018, two laws were passed to aid California in making water
conservation a way of life: SB 606 and AB 1668. These two laws
highlight water efficiency and conservation and are meant to
outline certain roles and actions to be carried out by the
California Department of Water Resources, the State Water
Resource Control Board and water suppliers.
Water is the lifeblood of our region and there are immense
challenges to providing and maintaining a reliable and
resilient water supply for both farms and communities in the
Central Valley. As your congressional representatives, we’ve
been working together to bring resources back home to address
our collective needs.
A correct analysis of the state’s water supply is always
important, but especially during drought years. A new bill
introduced by Rep. Josh Harder and Sen. Dianne Feinstein on
Friday hopes to improve the state’s water management by
establishing an airborne snowpack observation program.
Supporters of an initiative to reduce plastic waste today
submitted more than 870,000 voter signatures to qualify the
Plastics Free California initiative for the ballot –
significantly more than the 623,212 signatures required.
Funding for much needed repairs at least in the short-term for
the Friant-Kern Canal continues to move closer to becoming
reality. The House of Representatives last week passed H.R.
7617… Included in that minibus is $71 million for repairs to
the Friant-Kern Canal during the next fiscal year.
The Emergency Assistance for Rural Water Systems Act allows
USDA Rural Development to provide affordable and sustainable
financial options for rural utilities impacted by COVID-19.
Assistance includes grants, zero percent loans, one percent
loans, principal and interest reduction, loan modifications and
direct operational assistance…
The act, which allocates $900 million a year to the Land and
Water Conservation Fund and provides up to $9.5 billion over
five years to begin clearing up a maintenance backlog at
national parks, was approved on a 310-to-107 vote in the House.
It was introduced last year by Representative John Lewis, the
Georgia Democrat and civil rights leader who passed away last
month.
The state is peppered with failing small water systems, many
serving low-income communities without the resources to repair
them. … That’s where the new Safe and Affordable Funding for
Equity and Resilience (SAFER) program comes in.
Saving our planet will require unprecedented focus and
investment from every sector of our society and all levels of
government — especially the federal government. Yet when it
comes to the San Francisco Bay — a national treasure and the
lifeblood of our region, producing over $370 billion in goods
and services annually and supporting more than 4 million jobs —
the federal government has been complicit in its deterioration.
Four years after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers upgraded the
flood risk for the Whittier Narrows Dam from high urgency to
very high urgency, the U,S. House of Representatives on Friday
approved a budget package that included nearly $385 million to
fix the dam.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) joined Senator John Kennedy
(R-La.) to introduce legislation to amend the Nutria
Eradication and Control Act. The legislation would authorize an
additional $6 million a year to increase assistance for states
that implement initiatives to eradicate the invasive species.
The Environmental Justice for All Act would amend the Civil
Rights Act to … require federal agencies to consider health
effects that might compound over time when making permitting
decisions under the federal Clean Air and Clean Water acts.
