The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band is calling on Santa Clara
County to stop a project they say will destroy hundreds of
acres of sacred land. A private company wants to build a sand
and gravel mining plant there and will need the county’s
approval to do it. It’s not just the tribe that’s against
this project. The tribe has the support of San Jose Mayor
Sam Liccardo, the ACLU and environmental groups like Green
Foothills. They all say the risks far outweigh the benefits and
once the damage is done, there’s no turning back. …
[E]nvironmentalists also say digging pits hundreds of feet into
the soil will have devastating effects on the groundwater table
and interrupt the migration patterns of animals that live
there.
Thanks to a law in California signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom this
past June, there could be much less plastic waste in
California within a decade, serving as a potential pilot for
this legislation being enacted elsewhere. The landmark
legislation requires that all packaging in the state
be compostable or recyclable by 2032, and sets guidelines for
increasing the levels of recycling of plastic packaging in the
state by the same year. By signing SB 54 into law, Newsom seeks
to hold polluters responsible, shifting the burden of
responsibility for plastic pollution from consumers to the
plastics industry.
In 2016, the City of San Francisco was the first American
municipality to ban the sales of water that comes in plastic
bottles. At the time it was called a bold move that was
building on a global movement to reduce the huge amount of
waste from the billion-dollar plastic bottle industry. South
Lake Tahoe was an early adopter of the single-use plastic bag
ban, as well as bans of single-use plastic, styrene, and
straws. … Plastic bottles break down into tiny pieces
(microplastics) that can be found in the lake and water bottles
are the most commonly sold in South Lake Tahoe. At this time,
soda bottles and other beverages sold in plastic will still be
available. Water sold in reusable cans and boxes is becoming
more popular, and they will still be allowed.
According to a September 15 Environment California press
release, California Department of Pesticide Regulation (CDPR)
data confirm more bad news on neonicotinoid (neonic)
contamination: nearly all urban waterways in three counties
show the presence of the neonic imidacloprid at levels
above the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s)
chronic benchmark for harm to aquatic ecosystems; in five other
counties, well over half showed its presence at similar levels.
Neonic use is strongly correlated with die-offs and other harms
to a variety of bees and pollinators, and to other beneficial
organisms.
The devastating drought is continuing to ravage the Central
Valley and is creating more of a water crisis for farmers.
Right along the edge of West Fresno County sits miles and miles
of uprooted almond trees. Farmer Joe Del Bosque says he’s never
seen it like this. … Del Bosque says they’ve done
everything to be efficient with their water. He says every
orchard and field has water-saving technology. But that’s
not enough. Now, he’s calling on lawmakers to increase their
water storage to be able to save more water in the future.
At times this summer, the shores of San Francisco Bay looked
like a piscine battlefront — strewn with dead white and
green sturgeon, leopard sharks, striped bass, bat rays, smelt,
anchovies, and other fish. It started in late July in Alameda
and expanded throughout the entire Bay. By late August, some
10,000 fish had reportedly died at Oakland’s Lake Merritt
alone. … The murk came from the sheer density of the culprit,
which was multiplying in the millions: a miniscule organism
called Heterosigma akashiwo — akashiwo means “red tide” in
Japanese.
In just the past month, as California temperatures soared
during a drought so severe some experts say it hasn’t been this
parched in 1,200 years, about 250 wells, mostly in the state’s
bread basket, have gone dry. They’re part of the more than
1,100 California wells that have dried up so far this year, a
60% increase from 2021. While that may not seem like a lot,
given that California has 274,000 wells, it’s an ominous sign
and a personal tragedy for the one million Californians who
struggle for clean water. In many cases, it also pits hugely
important agricultural producers, who rely on underground water
for their crops, against their own workers, who need it to
drink.
Most parents take extra precautions to protect their children
from toxic chemicals — from locking cabinets of cleaning
supplies to scrutinizing ingredient labels. But some toxic
chemicals are near impossible to limit their exposure to.
California can change that. Perfluoroalkyl and
polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, are a class of
over 9,000 industrial compounds that are added to
everyday products to repel stains, water or oil. … Commonly
referred to as “forever chemicals,” they do not break down in
the environment — ever. … According to the nonprofit
Environmental Working Group, these chemicals may be
contaminating the drinking water of up to 200 million
Americans.
-Written by Rebecca Fuoco, science communications
officer at the Green Science Policy Institute; and Arlene
Blum, founder and executive director of the Green Science
Policy Institute and a research associate in the Cell and
Molecular Biology Department at UC Berkeley.
Microplastics, or the small fragments of plastics and polymers
from clothing, packaging and cosmetics, are now found virtually
everywhere on Earth — from the highest peaks to the depths
of the ocean. At five millimeters long or less, these tiny
specks are also cropping up in the air we breathe, the food we
eat and the water we drink. Microplastics have been detected in
commercially farmed shellfish and, recently, in beef and pork,
with little known about how much plastic we’re ingesting — or
the impacts of this material on our health or the health of the
planet. That’s why this month, California took the first
step in regulating microplastics in its municipal water
supplies, making it the first government agency in the world to
do so.
On a windswept morning, dozens of volunteers scattered along
the rocky shores of the Oakland estuary, donning yellow safety
vests and wielding orange trash grabbers. Others pushed kayaks
into the water, paddling to nearby beaches with trash bags
stuffed into life jackets. They came to collect the forgotten
remnants of people’s lives: plastic Easter eggs, cannabis
containers, the rusted skeleton of a bicycle and hundreds of
plastic bottle caps washed up on the shoreline. Saturday
marked California’s 38th Coastal Clean-Up Day, which
brought nearly 30,000 volunteers to the state’s shorelines to
pick up the trash that ends up here. This year, residents
collected over 220,000 pounds of trash and an additional 29,702
pounds of recyclable materials statewide.
A committee of San Francisco supervisors Thursday challenged
Mayor London Breed’s assertion that the city understands the
risk of climate change-related flooding in the Bayview-Hunters
Point neighborhood. Members of the Government Audit and
Oversight Committee reviewed a June report from the San
Francisco Civil Grand Jury that confirmed what Bayview-Hunters
Point residents have been saying: The city is not acting fast
enough on how sea level rise could surface legacy toxic
contamination and spread it in neighborhoods near the Cold
War-era naval shipyard.
Contaminated water has been found in urban areas in California,
including the affects to the Central Coast, according to data
released by the California Department of Pesticide Regulation.
Imidacloprid is a neonicotinoid (or neonics), a pesticide that
is also linked to bee die-offs. These pesticides are shown to
disrupt the nervous system of bees, other insects and songbirds
causing paralysis and death. … According to the CDPR,
this insecticide can remain in the soil for long periods of
time and be transported by rain or irrigation systems, which
leads to contamination in California’s water.
On September 7, 2022, California became the first government in
the world to require microplastics testing for drinking water,
an emerging contaminant that is found throughout the
environment. The State Water Resources Control Board (State
Water Board) approved a policy handbook that details how it
will implement a four-year plan, including testing logistics as
well as how it will select the public agencies that will be
required to test. Microplastics represent an emerging
contaminant of concern for which there are still a number of
unanswered questions.
Starting in late August of this year, the San Francisco
Baykeeper and state and regional authorities
began receiving increasingly frequent reports of
unprecedented numbers of dead fish in the path of a
massive “red tide” algae bloom on San Francisco Bay. The
fish included large sturgeon, sharks, bat rays, and
striped bass, as well as big quantities of smaller fish
such as gobies and anchovies, in the water and along the
shoreline of the bay. As a investigative reporter who has
focused on fish, water, environmental justice and
regulatory capture issues for 40 years, the images of the dead
fish and other marine organisms were particularly devastating,
since I’ve spent thousands of hours fishing on and reporting on
the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary.
Lake Merritt, in the center of Oakland, California, is a tidal
estuary connected to the Pacific Ocean. It usually teems with
life, both human and marine. In early September, its 3-mile
shoreline was bustling with joggers. But in the
sunset-blackened waters, the gleaming white corpses of
thousands of decaying fish bobbed along in the gentle tide and
piled up in mounds along the lagoon’s edges. In late July, an
algae bloom began spreading in San Francisco Bay, which
stretches 60 miles north to south.
One of the most hotly debated issues in California wine these
days involves a chemical that can be found in every Home Depot
in America: Roundup. Monsanto’s high-profile herbicide is the
go-to method of weed control for many California vineyards. …
But Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, is probably a
carcinogen, according to the World Health Organization.
… That revelation has spurred a new outcry in the
California wine industry. Some winegrowers who farm according
to organic, biodynamic or regenerative protocols — which
prohibit the use of glyphosate and other synthetic chemicals —
are speaking out against Roundup with renewed fervor, calling
for an end to its use in vineyards.
State and local governments across the country are suing
manufacturers of toxic chemicals that are contaminating much of
the nation’s drinking water, aiming to shield water customers
and taxpayers from the massive cost of cleaning them up. These
pervasive “forever chemicals,” known as PFAS, are linked to a
variety of health hazards, including cancer. Now, as state
lawmakers and federal regulators get serious about removing
them, scores of governments and water suppliers are in pitched
court battles over who is on the hook for hundreds of billions
of dollars in damage — the companies that created the chemicals
or the customers who are drinking them. … In Orange
County, Calif., water managers found PFAS in dozens of wells
that draw from a vast groundwater basin that supplies 2.5
million people.
Point Reyes National Seashore’s leadership could have done a
lot better in responding to water tests that show unacceptable
pollution levels. The park declined our request for comment,
citing ongoing litigation seeking to derail the park’s new
ranch and elk management plan. That plan, to its credit,
includes measures to reduce ranches’ possible role in pollution
levels – some of which far exceeded state health standards for
E. coli bacteria – and resumption of regular testing. The
recent report was conducted by an environmental engineering
firm hired by environmental organizations, among them the
Olema-based Turtle Island Restoration Network, part of which
includes the Salmon Protection and Awareness Network, or
SPAWN.
Toxic waste lurking in the soil under West Oakland
neighborhoods is the next environmental threat in this
community already burdened by pollution. The stability of
buried contamination from Oakland’s industrial past relies on
it staying in place in the soil. But once the rising waters of
San Francisco Bay press inland and get underneath these pockets
of chemicals and gases, a certain amount of that waste will not
stay in place. Instead, it will begin to move. More than 100
sites — colorless gases in dirt under schools, flammable
chemicals buried in shallow soil near parks, petroleum in
pockets of groundwater from iron manufacturing — lie in wait.
Air pollution in Salt Lake City was so bad last year it set off
the fire alarms in Elizabeth Joy’s clinic. Joy, a family
and sports medicine doctor, said that her patients had to be
evacuated as part of the emergency response. Yet in
sending the patients outside, the alarms actually put people in
an even more dangerous position given the city’s air quality at
the time — which was judged to be the worst in the
world on that particular day. … Cars and wildfires
contribute to Utah’s air pollution, but the Great Salt Lake is
a less obvious but important contributor. Sitting just
northwest of Salt Lake City, the largest saltwater lake in the
Western Hemisphere is drying up because of water use and
drought amid a changing climate, sending dust with toxic metals
— including arsenic — in the air of a metro area with
approximately 1.2 million people.
The water scarcity California has been experiencing over the
last two decades is the result of the worst drought to hit the
American Southwest in the past 1,200 years. … [I]ssues
regarding water quality arise due to the state’s high use of
pesticides in agriculture, with several Environmental
Protection Agency-reapproved toxic herbicides not being
regulated by state legislation. From 2004 to 2015, over 2
billion pounds of pesticides have been used in California, with
the most recent numbers indicating an annual use of 209
million pounds. Though it represents only 2-3% of total U.S.
cropland, the Golden State uses up to 20% of all pesticides
employed in the U.S. -Written by Stan Gottfredson, CEO of Atraxia
Law, a San Diego-based firm that helps agricultural workers and
their families affected by paraquat exposure compile the
necessary information to support their Parkinson’s disease
injury claims against liable manufacturers.
Scuba divers who pulled 25,000 pounds of litter and junk out of
Lake Tahoe last year have just begun a similar cleanup in
Fallen Leaf, a small alpine lake adjacent to Tahoe, and they’re
already surprised by the amount of garbage they’re finding.
… After scouring one mile of the lake’s 7-mile shoreline
down to 25 feet of depth, the crew has pulled out 3,000 pounds
of refuse, including about 100 car tires. … Over three
days this fall, in addition to pulling up countless beer cans
and glass bottles, West’s crew of 16 volunteers also discovered
what they believe to be the remains of a 100-year-old Ford
Model T automobile: four narrow tires, a chassis and an engine
block resting on the silty lake bed.
Protecting California’s waterways from pesticides is the joint
responsibility of all Californians. These protections need to
be implemented within urban as well as agricultural
environments because typical watersheds are influenced by
hundreds, if not thousands, of individual point sources that
are associated with homes, other residential buildings, farms
and right-of-ways. While it is true that one individual point
source can lead to contamination of a waterway, it is often the
cumulative effects of numerous point sources that leads to
exceedances of pesticides.
With water contamination at Point Reyes National Seashore at
dangerous levels, the California Coastal Commission gave the
green light Thursday to a strategy to regulate private ranchers
and require them to stop practices that increase fecal
pollution from cattle. The commission spent hours Thursday
debating a second version of a water-quality strategy from the
National Park Service, to address chronic water pollution
caused by private ranching in the only national seashore on the
West Coast.
A secluded stretch of beach near Torrance and Rancho Palos
Verdes was closed Wednesday morning after 5,000 gallons of
sewage spilled into nearby Malaga Creek, officials said.
Lifeguards with the Los Angeles County Fire Department walked
along RAT Beach, just south of Torrance Beach, warning people
to stay out of the water, said Kealiinohopono Barnes, a
spokesperson for the department. … The spill
occurred sometime Tuesday evening when a main sewer line in
Rancho Palos Verdes became backed up, possibly because of tree
roots, said Liz Odenhal, spokesperson for L.A. County
Supervisor Janice Hahn’s office.
San Francisco Bay is sick this summer. A toxic algae bloom, the
biggest since 2004, is floating across the bay, visibly
changing the color of the water and killing off tens of
thousands of fish. The takeaway from this unprecedented bloom
is clear: The Bay Area needs to revolutionize its water
management. Algae blooms are fueled by two primary
ingredients. One is higher temperatures which, as the past
week’s record-breaking heat wave has shown, seems to
be a guarantee going forward. The other is excess nutrients,
principally nitrogen and phosphorus, which serve as a food
source for algae. -Written by Spreck Rosekrans, executive director of
the nonprofit Restore Hetch Hetchy.
California water regulators [Wednesday] approved the world’s
first requirements for testing microplastics in drinking water
sources — a key step towards regulating tiny fragments that are
ubiquitous in the environment. After years of research
involving more than two-dozen laboratories, the State Water
Resources Control Board unanimously approved a policy handbook
for testing water supplies for microplastics over four years.
Under the plan approved [Wednesday], up to 30 of the state’s
largest water providers will be ordered to start quarterly
testing for two years, beginning in the fall of 2023.
After an unprecedented harmful algae bloom first turned San
Francisco Bay a murky brown color and then littered its shores
with dead fish, many people assumed it was yet another climate
disaster to add to the list, along with extreme drought,
wildfires and heat waves. While scientists suspect climate
change played a role in triggering the bloom, what fueled it is
not a mystery. Algae blooms need food to grow, and this one had
plenty: nutrients originating in wastewater that the region’s
37 sewage plants pump into the bay. In other words — we
wouldn’t have this problem without the poop and pee of the Bay
Area’s 8 million residents.
Microplastic is everywhere. The tiny particles that shed from
clothing, food packaging and tires are in the air, the soil,
the ocean and, almost certainly, your drinking water. This
week, California is poised to become the first place in the
nation, and perhaps the world, to begin requiring water
agencies to test for the contaminant. State water regulators,
after years of working with more than 20 labs in seven nations
to pioneer a means of monitoring microplastics, are scheduled
to adopt a testing and reporting requirement Wednesday.
New water quality tests conducted at several waterways in the
Point Reyes National Seashore found unsafe levels of fecal
bacteria, including up to 170 times the state health standard
for E. coli at one site. The tests were performed by Douglas
Lovell of the Streamborn environmental engineering firm in
Berkeley. Environmental organizations that raised funds to hire
Lovell said the test results are the latest proof that the
National Park Service is not efficiently addressing water
pollution caused by private cattle and dairy ranches that lease
land from the park.
A toxic algae bloom known as “red tide” is likely the cause of
fish and other sea animals dying and washing up on shores
around the Bay Area – including the shores of San Pablo Bay on
the west side of Mare Island. Dozens, if not hundreds of
sturgeon have washed up in recent days, as well as a handful of
bass. The losses among the sturgeon population have been great
enough from this red tide event that state Fish and Wildlife
Service officials are reportedly considering shutting down the
sturgeon fishery to fishing.
Late last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S.
EPA) moved forward to list perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and
perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) (including their salts and
structural isomers) as “hazardous substances” under the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and
Liability Act (CERCLA) (otherwise known as “Superfund”).
EPA released a pre-publication version of a proposed rulemaking
that officially begins U.S. EPA’s efforts to regulate and
address per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
contamination.
As the latest IPCC report warned, it is ‘now or never’ to limit
global warming below 1.5C. Countries around the world are
already bearing the brunt of climate change but the reality is
that, unless we reverse this trend, the effects that we are
going to experience in the near future are going to be
significantly more devastating. … Here are the top
environmental issues in North America and what the government
is doing to tackle them. … A report released
in August 2022 by California’s State Water Resources Control
Board found that in the Western state alone, nearly one
million people face possible long-term health
conditions from drinking water containing unsafe levels of
contaminants such as arsenic and nitrate.
Oceanside is preparing to launch a $7 million upgrade of its
downtown storm drain system to prevent seasonal flooding, but
the California Coastal Commission has raised concerns about the
plan. City officials met with the Coastal Commission staff Aug.
24 to discuss a possible 90-day extension of the city’s
application for a coastal development permit needed for the
project. The three-month delay should give the city enough time
to resolve issues the commission has raised about what’s called
the storm drain system’s “outfall,” where the water empties
onto the beach at Surfrider Way, said Jonathan Smith, the
project manager for the city, on Monday.
A harmful algal bloom known as a red tide is killing off
“uncountable” numbers of fish in the San Francisco Bay Area,
with residents reporting rust-colored waters, and piles of
stinking fish corpses washing ashore. The fish, first reported
dead along the San Mateo County shoreline last Tuesday, are
most likely being asphyxiated as a result of the algae, said
Jon Rosenfield, a senior scientist with San Francisco
Baykeeper, an environmental group that is tracking the fish
kill. … While such algal blooms are not uncommon, the
scope and deadliness of the one in the Bay Area is concerning,
Dr. Rosenfield said. Even the hardiest of fish, like the
sturgeon, an ancient creature, are dying, he said. Bat rays,
striped bass, yellowfin gobies and even sharks are washing
ashore dead.
The three-year-long Control Methods Test (CMT) began this
summer in the Tahoe Keys. The projected mid-July reopening date
of closed waterways has come and gone and it may be several
more weeks until boaters, paddlers, swimmers, and pets can
access those closed areas. The reason for the delay is the need
for the double turbidity curtains to stay in place for
waterways treated with herbicides. Per their permit with
Lahontan Water Board, the Tahoe Keys Property Owners
Association (TKPOA) and those hired to do the tests cannot
remove the curtains until all herbicide residues from Triclopyr
get below 1 part per billion. It is currently hovering around 3
parts per billion according to the TKPOA interim General
Manager Mark Madison.
One of the Bay Area’s largest algae blooms in recent memory
could intensify with the arrival later this week of the
longest, most intense heat wave of the year — creating
pitch-perfect conditions for the toxic algae to potentially
kill even more fish across the San Francisco Bay, experts and
water regulators said Monday. The bloom — which is a chief
suspect in the killing of thousands of fish across the San
Francisco Bay over the last several days — appears to be
affecting everything from tiny yellowfin goby to sharks, bat
rays and possibly even green sturgeon, an already threatened
species.
Los Angeles County public health officials issued ocean water
warnings for four beaches Monday after recent tests found high
bacterial levels in the water. The Santa Monica Pier, Mother’s
Beach in Marina del Rey, inner Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro and
Topanga Canyon Beach in Malibu are covered by the Department of
Public Health advisory. Visitors to the beaches are advised to
avoid swimming and other activities because bacterial levels
exceeded state health standards when they were last tested.
The illness that would change Rob Purdie’s life started with a
headache, a terrible pain that began around New Year’s 2012 and
stayed for months. It was only after several trips to urgent
care facilities, multiple doctors and incorrect diagnoses –
everything from sinus infections to cluster headaches – he
learned what was wrong with him. The Bakersfield, California,
resident had meningitis caused by Valley fever, a disease that
comes from Coccidioides, a fungus endemic to the soil of the US
south-west. … Valley fever is increasing in California’s
Central Valley, as it has for years, and experts say that in
the future cases could rise across the American west as the
climate crisis renders the landscape drier and hotter.
Oakland residents woke up Sunday morning to find thousands of
dead fish lining the shores of Lake Merritt, in what scientists
say may be attributed to a sudden increase in the amount of
algae in the water that are toxic for some marine life. The
phenomenon — known as an algal bloom — is occurring throughout
the Bay Area, from Marin County up north all the way down south
to parts of Santa Clara County’s water sources. Algal blooms
occur when the nutrients from wastewater treatment plants,
including nitrogen and phosphorous, reach a threshold that
allows for uncontrolled algae growth.
It’s a beautiful March day out on Lake Tahoe, the sun is
shining, the air is still and there are few other boats on the
lake so the water looks like glass. The water is so pristine,
it’s hard to imagine there can be anything ugly in the water.
Looking into the water, schools of trout swim underneath a boat
and about 50 yards away, bubbles are rising from two scuba
divers below. However, when Seth Jones and Monique Rydel
Fortner, co-founders of Below the Blue, surface, they are
dragging with them a rusted engine block that had been used as
a makeshift buoy anchor. After only a few hours on the
lake, which is a short day for the two who can spend whole days
diving Lake Tahoe’s shores, they pulled up 650 pounds worth of
discarded items.
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance filed a
complaint against Clover Flat Land Fill Inc., alleging the
defendant violated the Federal Water Pollution Control Act
(FWPCA) by discharging polluted stormwater out of their Clover
Flat Resource Recovery Park and Landfill industrial facility.
The plaintiff is a non profit public benefit organization with
the aim of protecting, preserving, and defending the
environment, the complaint says; the defendant allegedly
operates the Clover Flat Resource Recovery Park and Landfill.
According to the complaint, since January 1 2021, the defendant
has continued to violate the FWPCA, the General Industrial
Stormwater Permit issued by California, and the National
Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) general permit.
Stormwater runoff containing a toxic compound from automobile
tires that washes into streams is lethal to protected coho
salmon, Pacific steelhead, and Chinook salmon, according to new
research published today. In contrast, sockeye salmon seem
largely unaffected by the same compounds. The newly identified
risk to steelhead and Chinook salmon could help inform
mitigation efforts for construction and overhaul of highways on
the West Coast to ensure that future runoff is less lethal to
salmon and steelhead. Some western states have already begun
designing highways with inexpensive filtration measures shown
to protect salmon.
The East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) has agreed to
pay a $816,000 penalty for discharging 16.5 million gallons of
partially treated wastewater into the San Francisco Bay, the
water board announced on Monday. The discharge flowed
from EBMUD’s Point Isabel Wet Weather Facility to Richmond
Inner Harbor in the bay in October of 2021. The wastewater was
released during a major rainstorm, according to the SF Bay
Regional Water Quality Control Board, which approved the
settlement. The discharge contained chlorine at
concentrations toxic to aquatic life, the water board said.
EBMUD had run out of the chemical used to remove chlorine prior
to the release.
A series of watershed cleanups is scheduled for next month in
Sonoma and Mendocino counties, and the organizers putting them
together are looking for volunteers. The cleanups are scheduled
during Creek Week, which is marked by some California cities
and environmental organizations during the fourth week of
September. The Russian River Watershed Association announced
the series of cleanups set to take place between Sept. 17 and
24, presenting opportunities for eco-conscious volunteers to
connect with the community while helping to protect the
drought-stricken Russian River watershed.
A nearly half-billion-dollar investment in new sewage treatment
facilities in Tijuana could clean up perpetually polluted
beaches in San Diego, U.S. and Mexican officials say. Officials
from both countries signed a treaty through the International
Boundary and Water Commission that commits to funding new
sanitation projects during a ceremony at the Tijuana River
National Estuarine Research Reserve in Imperial Beach on
Thursday. The agreement pledges about $350 million in U.S.
spending and $144 million from the Mexican government to
replace failing sewage treatment facilities in Tijuana.
Recent revelations in the Southern California News Group about
the way DDT was dumped directly into the San Pedro Bay have
caused some to wonder at how such a thing could be allowed to
happen, knowing what we now know about the long-banned toxic
pesticide. Looking at its history might help to explain. A
German chemistry student, Othmar Zeidler, first discovered DDT
— or dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane — in 1873. But it only
began entering into wider use when chemist Paul Hermann Muller
resynthesized it in 1936 while investigating two other
pesticides.
Off an unmarked dead-end road surrounded by farmworkers
harvesting strawberries just north of Moss Landing on Thursday,
Ignacio Garcia stood on his cement driveway near a dozen or so
five-gallon plastic bottles of water. The water is needed, he
explained, because his own well is contaminated. … Garcia,
who has become an advocate for his community, is far from
alone. When the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board began testing wells in the area in 2018, groundwater
contamination was bad enough to warrant periodic testing of
44,000 wells in the region. Back in 2014, of 1,627 domestic
wells tested in some areas, more than 40% exceeded public
health drinking water standards for one particular contaminant
– nitrate.
When it comes to climate change, cows have taken a reputational
hit. These belching bovines have been villainized for releasing
methane, a greenhouse gas with more than 25 times the
heat-trapping power of carbon dioxide. But now, a growing
number of Bay Area farmers are working to repolish the image of
the humble dairy cow, recasting their role from gaseous
emitters to carbon-capturing machines and powering farmers’
ability to fight the impacts of climate change. Chief among
them is Albert Straus, founder and owner of Straus Family
Creamery and Dairy in Marshall, an unincorporated town on the
northeast shore of Tomales Bay.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, and U.S. Rep. Tom
McClintock, R-Roseville, made an appearance in Nevada on
Tuesday to join this year’s Lake Tahoe Summit — an annual
discussion among state, federal and environmental leaders on
how to better the Lake Tahoe Basin. Hosted by U.S. Sen. Jacky
Rosen, D-Nevada, this year’s conference revolved around the
prompt “Protecting Lake Tahoe’s Future” — noting both the
accomplishments made over the years, and how to move forward as
climate change continues to bring about new or intensified
challenges to the community. Many leaders mentioned water
quality, forest management and wildfires as talking points.
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
Blasted by sun and beaten by waves,
plastic bottles and bags shed fibers and tiny flecks of
microplastic debris that litter the San Francisco Bay where they
can choke the marine life that inadvertently consumes it.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Each day, people living on the streets and camping along waterways across California face the same struggle – finding clean drinking water and a place to wash and go to the bathroom.
Some find friendly businesses willing to help, or public restrooms and drinking water fountains. Yet for many homeless people, accessing the water and sanitation that most people take for granted remains a daily struggle.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Low-income Californians can get help with their phone bills, their natural gas bills and their electric bills. But there’s only limited help available when it comes to water bills.
That could change if the recommendations of a new report are implemented into law. Drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board, the report outlines the possible components of a program to assist low-income households facing rising water bills.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
For decades, cannabis has been grown
in California – hidden away in forested groves or surreptitiously
harvested under the glare of high-intensity indoor lamps in
suburban tract homes.
In the past 20 years, however, cannabis — known more widely as
marijuana – has been moving from being a criminal activity to
gaining legitimacy as one of the hundreds of cash crops in the
state’s $46 billion-dollar agriculture industry, first legalized
for medicinal purposes and this year for recreational use.
As we continue forging ahead in 2018
with our online version of Western Water after 40 years
as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also
got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.
State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing
up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and
combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish
and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps
unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved
Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if
anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that
marijuana was legal.
Joaquin Esquivel learned that life is
what happens when you make plans. Esquivel, who holds the public
member slot at the State Water Resources Control Board in
Sacramento, had just closed purchase on a house in Washington
D.C. with his partner when he was tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown a
year ago to fill the Board vacancy.
Esquivel, 35, had spent a decade in Washington, first in several
capacities with then Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then as
assistant secretary for federal water policy at the California
Natural Resources Agency. As a member of the State Water Board,
he shares with four other members the difficult task of
ensuring balance to all the uses of California’s water.
A new study could help water
agencies find solutions to the vexing challenges the homeless
face in gaining access to clean water for drinking and
sanitation.
The Santa Ana Watershed Project
Authority (SAWPA) in Southern California has embarked on a
comprehensive and collaborative effort aimed at assessing
strengths and needs as it relates to water services for people
(including the homeless) within its 2,840 square-mile area that
extends from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Orange County
coast.
Microplastics – plastic debris
measuring less than 5 millimeters – are an
increasing water quality concern. Entering the water as
industrial microbeads or as larger plastic litter that degrade
into small pellets, microplastics come from a variety of
consumer products.
Contaminants exist in water supplies from both natural and
manmade sources. Even those chemicals present without human
intervention can be mobilized from introduction of certain
pollutants from both
point and nonpoint sources.
Directly detecting harmful pathogens in water can be expensive,
unreliable and incredibly complicated. Fortunately, certain
organisms are known to consistently coexist with these harmful
microbes which are substantially easier to detect and culture:
coliform bacteria. These generally non-toxic organisms are
frequently used as “indicator
species,” or organisms whose presence demonstrates a
particular feature of its surrounding environment.
Point sources release pollutants from discrete conveyances, such
as a discharge pipe, and are regulated by federal and state
agencies. The main point source dischargers are factories and
sewage treatment plants, which release treated
wastewater.
Problems with polluted stormwater and steps that can be taken to
prevent such pollution and turn what is often viewed as
“nuisance” runoff into a water resource is the focus of this
publication, Stormwater Management: Turning Runoff into a
Resource. The 16-page booklet, funded by a grant from the State
Water Resources Control Board, includes color photos and
graphics, text explaining common stormwater pollutants and
efforts to prevent stormwater runoff through land use/
planning/development – as well as tips for homeowners to reduce
their impacts on stormwater pollution.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
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.
Salt. In a small amount, it’s a gift from nature. But any doctor
will tell you, if you take in too much salt, you’ll start to have
health problems. The same negative effect is happening to land in
the Central Valley. The problem scientists call “salinity” poses
a growing threat to our food supply, our drinking water quality
and our way of life. The problem of salt buildup and potential –
but costly – solutions are highlighted in this 2008 public
television documentary narrated by comedian Paul Rodriguez.
A 20-minute version of the 2008 public television documentary
Salt of the Earth: Salinity in California’s Central Valley. This
DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking
engagements to help the public understand the complex issues
surrounding the problem of salt build up in the Central Valley
potential – but costly – solutions. Narrated by comedian Paul
Rodriquez.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
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 28-page Layperson’s Guide to California
Wastewater is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the history of wastewater
treatment and how wastewater is collected, conveyed, treated and
disposed of today. The guide also offers case studies of
different treatment plants and their treatment processes.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
This printed issue of Western Water, based on presentations
at the November 3-4, 2010 Water Quality Conference in Ontario,
Calif., looks at constituents of emerging concerns (CECs) – what
is known, what is yet to be determined and the potential
regulatory impacts on drinking water quality.
This issue of Western Water looks at some of the issues
facing drinking water providers, such as compliance with
increasingly stringent treatment requirements, the need to
improve source water quality and the mission of continually
informing consumers about the quality of water they receive.
This issue of Western Water examines PPCPs – what they are, where
they come from and whether the potential exists for them to
become a water quality problem. With the continued emphasis on
water quality and the fact that many water systems in the West
are characterized by flows dominated by effluent contributions,
PPCPs seem likely to capture interest for the foreseeable future.
This issue of Western Water examines the presence of mercury in
the environment and the challenge of limiting the threat posed to
human health and wildlife. In addition to outlining the extent of
the problem and its resistance to conventional pollution
remedies, the article presents a glimpse of some possible courses
of action for what promises to be a long-term problem.
This issue of Western Water examines the problem of perchlorate
contamination and its ramifications on all facets of water
delivery, from the extensive cleanup costs to the search for
alternative water supplies. In addition to discussing the threat
posed by high levels of perchlorate in drinking water, the
article presents examples of areas hard hit by contamination and
analyzes the potential impacts of forthcoming drinking water
standards for perchlorate.
2002 marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most significant
environmental laws in American history, the Clean Water Act
(CWA). The CWA has had remarkable success, reversing years of
neglect and outright abuse of the nation’s waters. But challenges
remain as attention turns to the thorny issue of cleaning up
nonpoint sources of pollution.
