Long Beach had to close its coastline for 63 days over the last
five years because of upstream sewage spills, but city staff
told council members Tuesday that the total amount of economic
or environmental damage caused by the recurring spills is hard
to estimate. Beach closures caused by raw sewage are a
perennial problem in Long Beach because the city is downstream
from much of Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles and San
Gabriel rivers carry debris and pollutants into the ocean,
which can make bacteria levels in Long Beach’s water unsafe for
use.
For decades, the chemical industry has shown a pattern of
promoting its products to the public without disclosing their
harms. We have now found that for chemicals known as PFAS, this
industry practice has been harming our health once again. Per-
and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS, have been
produced since the 1940s and are used in consumer products such
as nonstick cookware, stain-resistant carpets, and waterproof
clothing. Many studies have shown that PFAS persist in the
environment and have contaminated drinking water, soil, and
peoples’ bodies. The early producers of PFAS — 3M and DuPont —
promoted them as a miracle of modern science.
On Thursday, September 28, approximately fifteen gallons of
hydraulic oil leaked into Indian Creek Reservoir and the
reservoir is closed for recreational use. Indian Creek
Reservoir is a freshwater reservoir in Alpine County operated
by the South Tahoe Public Utility District. Fresh water is
released out of the reservoir through a dam into Indian Creek.
The valve on the dam was tested on Wednesday, September 27 as
part of an annual dam inspection. Operational issues were noted
during the inspection. On the morning of Thursday, September
28, crews were working to fix the valve on the dam by adding
hydraulic oil into the lines.
Microplastics have been found in the deepest recesses of the
ocean, atop Mount Everest, in fresh Antarctic snow, in our
blood and lungs and now, for the first time, in the
clouds. In a study published in Environmental
Chemistry Letters, researchers in Japan found
microplastics in mists that shrouded the peaks of Mount
Oyama and Mount Fuji, Japan’s highest
mountain. Researchers analyzed samples collected between
heights of 1,300 to 3,776 metres altitude and found nine
different types of polymers and one type of rubber, ranging in
size from 7.1 to 94.6 micrometres. They hypothesized that
the high-altitude microplastics could influence cloud formation
and possibly modify the climate.
A California bill is looking to make oceans cleaner by
requiring new washing machines to filter microfibers from their
emissions, a move designed to stop microfibers from falling off
clothes and harming ecosystems—but the state has faced pushback
from laundromats. AB 1628—which hasn’t yet been approved
by the governor—would require all new residential and
commercial washing machines sold on or before January 1, 2029,
to include a microfiber filtration system to reduce the amount
of microfibers that end up in oceans and freshwater, though
older models without the filter can still be used if they were
bought before the set date.
Two highly toxic chemicals polluting a former
NASA research site are also probably contaminating the Los
Angeles River and aquifer from which the region’s agricultural
growers draw their water, watchdog groups and a whistleblower
charge. … The Santa Susana field laboratory about 30
miles north of downtown Los Angeles is already notorious for
its radioactive waste, but the site, which is owned by the
federal government and Boeing, is also now suspected of
leaching polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) “forever chemicals” into the
water.
The state of California’s regulatory agencies, especially the
Department of Pesticide Regulation (DPR), boast that we have
the toughest network of environmental laws, designed to protect
public health, in the country. Yet over the decades, it has
been devilishly difficult for people with negative health
impacts resulting from pesticide exposures to prove it in
court. … [N]either DPR nor any county ag commissioners
consider the interactions and cumulative impacts of multiple
pesticides over time as required by the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). A further CEQA requirement –
considering less toxic alternatives to specific pesticide
applications – is regularly and roundly ignored. -Written by Woody Rehanek, a farmworker for 18
years and a special ed teacher for 18 years for Pajaro Valley
USD. He is a member of SASS (Safe Ag Safe Schools) and CORA
(Campaign for Organic & Regenerative Agriculture).
Wildlife officers with the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s (CDFW) Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) spearheaded
several enforcement investigations in August and September.
From Sept. 4-8, MET officers targeted several illegal cannabis
operations on rural private lands in Shasta, Tehama and Sutter
counties. Officers received a tip from a hunter who stumbled on
one of the trespass grow sites and reported it. As a result,
MET officers eradicated more than 5,500 illegal plants,
arrested four suspects, seized several firearms including one
stolen handgun, dismantled several water diversions and removed
thousands of pounds of trash.
The Zone 7 Water Agency recently unveiled its new
state-of-the-art water treatment facility, which will use an
ion exchange treatment process to remove PFAS chemicals from
the Stoneridge groundwater well in Pleasanton. … Nearly 30
Tri-Valley officials, residents and Zone 7 staff members
gathered for the event to celebrate the first-of-its-kind
facility in Northern California. Located on Stoneridge Drive
just west of Mohr Elementary School, the Ion Exchange PFAS
Treatment Facility uses tanks that are filled with small
ion-exchange polymers, which are designed to attract PFAS
chemicals, otherwise known as forever chemicals, in the water.
Jack Driscoll-Natale was learning about measuring the health of
local waterways for a class at Pacific Collegiate School his
sophomore year when he realized there wasn’t enough publicly
available data to complete his lab work. So he decided to build
his own tool that can continuously monitor water quality. Now
the 17-year-old senior is racking up awards and plaudits from
scientists for his invention, which can upload a continuous
stream of water quality data to a publicly accessible website
for the fraction of the cost of professional equipment.
For much of the 20th century, Fort Ord was one of the largest
light infantry training bases in the country … [L]eft behind
were poisonous stockpiles of unexploded ordnance, lead
fragments, industrial solvents and explosives residue, a toxic
legacy that in some areas of the base remains largely where the
Army left it. … The Army has set up two treatment plants
at Fort Ord to remove solvents and other contaminants from
groundwater. In 2021, 12,000 acres were removed from the
Superfund program, reflecting progress in the cleanup, though
fully cleaning up the groundwater could take another 30 years,
officials said.
[T[o strike oil in America, you need water. Plenty of
it. Today, the insatiable search for oil and gas has
become the latest threat to the country’s endangered aquifers,
a critical national resource that is already being drained
at alarming rates by industrial farming and cities in
search of drinking water. The amount of water consumed by
the oil industry, revealed in a New York Times investigation,
has soared to record levels. … And now, fracking companies
are the ones scrambling for water. A 2016 Ceres
report found that nearly 60 percent of the 110,000 wells
fracked between 2011 and 2016 were in regions with high or
extremely high water stress, including basins in Texas,
Colorado, Oklahoma, and California.
Citing numerous studies indicating the breadth of environmental
damage caused by single-use plastics – common in restaurant
take-out products – the Monterey County Supervisors Tuesday
afternoon will consider banning their use. If passed, an
ordinance banning the use of single-use plastic will join a
groundswell of restrictions by cities, counties and the state.
The state has enacted Senate Bill 1046 set to take effect Jan.
1, 2025 that will ban all single-use plastic bags provided
prior to checkout at food stores. The most common of these are
the plastic bags used in produce sections. Los Angeles County
has already banned single-use plastics anywhere in the
unincorporated area of the county.
Although [California] supported dry cleaners in the transition
away from PCE [perchloroethylene] through grants to buy new
cleaning machines and by offering training on how to safely use
other cleaning solvents or do wet cleaning with detergents,
many cleaners feel they’ve been left out to dry when it comes
to cleaning up the pollution often found under their businesses
and neighbor’s water supplies. .. A PCE cleanup typically
costs about $1 million to more than $10 million. The high
costs come from the extensive mapping of groundwater and soil
samples required to determine the extent of a PCE plume — which
can flow for several miles in groundwater under cities — and
the regular monitoring of how effective the remediation efforts
are.
Damien Lopez, age 4, has symptoms that many people who live
near Southern California’s Salton Sea also have. “His cough
gets very wheezy. I try to control him,” his mother Michelle
Lopez said. … A 2019 University of Southern
California study published in the International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that
between 20% and 22% of children in the region have asthma-like
symptoms, a little more than triple the national rate for
asthma, according to numbers from the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention. Dr. David Lo, a professor of biomedical
sciences at the University of California, Riverside, led a
university study last year that determined the Salton Sea
itself is responsible for the high incidence of asthma for
those who live near it.
Investigations over several years have found that even the
“purest” groundwater is not immune to contamination from a
carcinogenic chemical long used by a common business operation
found in towns and cities across the state: dry cleaners. Since
the 1940s, perchloroethylene, or PCE for short, has been a
popular chemical employed in dry cleaning shops across the
country. … [I]n dry cleaners’ common practice — before
better equipment and regulations were developed — the chemical
was often dumped down drains or splashed on porous floors. As a
result, over the past 50 years, PCE leaked into the soil and
groundwater under the handful of former South Lake Tahoe dry
cleaners — and likely thousands of others in California.
The Brake Pad Legislative Report, recently released by The
Department of Toxic Substances Control and the State Water
Resources Control Board, documents widespread compliance with
the 2010 California Motor Vehicle Brake Friction Material Law
(Brake Pad Law) and a subsequent reduction in aquatic
pollution. The Brake Pad Law limits the amount of copper and
other toxic substances allowed in brake pads in order to reduce
the amount of these substances entering California’s streams,
rivers, lakes, and marine environment. Copper is toxic to many
aquatic organisms, and vehicle brake pads are a major source of
copper pollution in urban runoff. As of 2021, more than 60
percent of brake pads on the market are copper-free, which
corresponds to an estimated 28 percent decrease in copper
entering urban runoff.
The Tijuana River sewage emergency has reached the state level
once again. All 18 mayors in San Diego County have sent another
letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, asking for his help to
address the ongoing sewage and chemical pollutants flowing into
the ocean from the river. … Paloma Aguirre, the mayor of
Imperial Beach, where beaches have been closed now for 650
consecutive days, said that going to the beach is one of the
last free recreational things people can do, and that issue
affects people living beyond the coast.
For two decades, researchers worked to solve a mystery in West
Coast streams. Why, when it rained, were large numbers of
spawning coho salmon dying? As part of an effort to find out,
scientists placed fish in water that contained particles of new
and old tires. The salmon died, and the researchers then began
testing the hundreds of chemicals that had leached into the
water. A 2020 paper revealed the cause of mortality: a chemical
called 6PPD that is added to tires to prevent their cracking
and degradation. When 6PPD, which occurs in tire dust, is
exposed to ground-level ozone, it’s transformed into multiple
other chemicals, including 6PPD-quinone, or 6PPD-q. The
compound is acutely toxic to four of 11 tested fish species,
including coho salmon.
[Editor's note: Scroll to fourth section of story
for water-related bills]A bill headed to
Newsom’s desk would ban the use of drinking water to irrigate
purely decorative grass that no one uses. Another bill approved
by lawmakers would allow cities to ban the installation of
artificial turf at homes, based on research showing that fake
grass can result in microplastics washing into streams and the
ocean. Assembly Bill 249 would tighten standards for lead
testing in schools’ drinking water. In the latest chapter
in San Diego County’s ongoing water drama, lawmakers approved a
bill that could make it harder for local water agencies to
withdraw from larger regional water authorities — but too late
to stop the contentious bureaucratic divorce already underway
in San Diego County due to high water costs. Assembly Bill
779 would tweak California’s work-in-progress groundwater rules
to “level the playing field for all groundwater users,
particularly small farmers and farmers of color,” according to
three UCLA law students who helped write the bill.
The Uinta Basin in northeastern Utah is one of the richest oil
shale deposits in the country. It is estimated to hold more
proven reserves than all of Saudi Arabia. Enefit, an Estonian
company, was the latest in a long line of firms that hoped to
tap it. It’s also the latest to see such plans collapse — but
perhaps not yet for good. The company has lost access to the
water it would need to unearth the petroleum and relinquished a
federal lease that allowed research and exploration on the
land. The two moves, made late last month, appear to signal the
end of Enefit’s plans to mine shale oil in the Uinta
Basin.
Avid hiker Alyssa Johnston was exploring a trail in the High
Sierra when something in the distance caught her eye. She
approached the bright colors and realized they were Mylar
balloons — and did not belong in the wilderness. Mylar
balloons, which have a metallic coating and are filled with
helium, have become a concern for biologists and nature lovers,
disrupting the enjoyment of outdoor spaces and posing harm to
wildlife. Their ability to travel long distances in the air
means they are polluting extremely remote areas, although
responsible balloon shops are working to educate customers on
safe disposal. Johnston has pulled balloons out of lakes
numerous times. Often, she said, “they’ll just disintegrate and
I’m just trying to pick up all the little pieces because it’s
this beautiful, pristine lake and then now you have this ‘Happy
Birthday’ balloon.”
Saying this is “a pivotal moment that calls for resolute
action,” all 18 mayors in San Diego County sent a letter last
week to Gov. Gavin Newsom imploring him to declare a state of
emergency over the decades-long sewage crisis at the
border. … But what exactly would a state of emergency
do? And does the sewage crisis meet the criteria? … When
a state of emergency is declared, a lot of red tape is cut. For
example, it could accelerate and simplify the bidding process
for construction contracts and free up federal money for
personnel, equipment and supplies.
Jesus Campanero Jr. was a teenager when he noticed there was
something in the water. He once found a rash all over his body
after a swim in nearby Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake
in California. During summertime, an unbearable smell would
waft through the air. Then, in 2017, came the headlines, after
hundreds of fish washed up dead on the shore. “That’s when it
really started to click in my head that there’s a real issue
here,” says Campanero, now a tribal council member for the
Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians of California, whose
ancestors have called the lake home for thousands of years. The
culprit? Harmful algal blooms (HABs).
For decades, Mexico has dumped millions of gallons of sewage
from the Tijuana River Valley into the Pacific Ocean, without
any concern for the environment. The sewage then moves north,
contaminating the waters of Imperial Beach, and even Coronado.
Year after year, politicians have tried and failed to stop the
sewage. In September 2020, under President Donald Trump,
Congress allocated $300 million to the EPA as part of Trump’s
replacement for NAFTA, the US-Mexico-Canada agreement. Despite
the allocation of funds, the money was halted once the Biden
Administration took over, which is normal procedure. Biden
Administration officials wanted to “re-study” how best to use
the funding, to effectively attack the sewage problem.
California may put oil companies on the financial hook to plug
and clean aging oil fields after lawmakers approved a measure
meant to prevent taxpayers from footing the bill for orphaned
wells. In a year that has been relatively quiet for climate
legislation, the passage of Assembly Bill 1167 on Thursday
night marked a win for environmentalists and communities mainly
around Los Angeles and the San Joaquin Valley facing methane
leaks from aging oil wells that require costly cleanup.
… Orphaned wells, as they’re called, risk harmful leaks
of oil, polluted water and methane often near residential
areas. According to the Geologic Energy Management Division,
known as CalGEM, California has plugged about 1,400 wells since
1977 at a cost of $29.5 million.
Would a proposed Salton Sea Conservancy help efforts in the
troubled region? Elected officials and local organizations are
split, with some saying it will just add another layer of
bureaucracy to already mired efforts. California Senate Bill
583, authored by state Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, and
coauthored by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, would
create the Salton Sea Conservancy, “tasking it with
coordinating management of all conservation projects in the
region to restore the shrinking sea and reducing the negative
health impact the Sea imposes,” according to Padilla’s office.
There are currently 10 similar state conservancies under the
California Natural Resources Agency, including the local
Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy.
For decades, it was the secret behind the magic show of
homemaking across the US. Applied to a pan, it could keep a
fried egg from sticking to the surface. Soaked into a carpet,
it could shrug off spills of red wine. Sprayed onto shoes and
coats, it could keep the kids dry on a rainy day. But the most
clandestine maneuver of perfluorooctanoic acid, or PFOA, was
much less endearing: seeping into the blood and organs of
hundreds of millions of people who used products containing the
chemical. … In recent years, PFOA has also become the
target of widespread regulatory action, news media attention
and even a Hollywood movie as contaminated drinking
water was discovered in hundreds of communities across the
country.
On Thursday, August 10, Butte Creek turned orange. The culprit:
a failed PG&E canal that caused orange sediment to flood
the creek potentially creating deadly conditions for native
fish currently inhabiting the watershed including threatened
spring-run Chinook salmon. Salmon are a keystone species, and
their health is intricately connected with the rest of the
ecosystem. Native fish across California are consistently
vulnerable to safe and responsible operation of hydroelectric
infrastructure such as dams and canals. In some cases, basins
like Butte Creek are managed by water-moving infrastructure,
guiding flows from the nearby Feather River watershed to Butte
Creek.
A relatively simple, inexpensive method of filtering urban
stormwater runoff dramatically boosted survival of newly
hatched coho salmon in an experimental study, according to a
press release from Washington State University (WSU). The
findings, published in the journal Science of the Total
Environment, are consistent with previous research on adult and
juvenile coho that found exposure to untreated roadway runoff
that typically winds up in waterways during storms resulted in
mortality of 60% or more. For the coho hatchlings in this
study, mortality from runoff exposure was even higher at 87%.
When the stormwater was run through a biofiltration method —
essentially layers of mulch, compost, sand and gravel — nearly
all the coho hatchlings survived, though many of resulting fish
had smaller eyes and body sizes than a control group.
Kaiser, California’s largest healthcare provider, has agreed to
a $49 million settlement with the State Attorney General’s
Office and six district attorneys, including in Alameda County,
for illegally dumping hazardous waste, medical waste, and the
protected health information of more than 7,000 patients at
Kaiser facilities statewide, Attorney General Rob Bonta
announced on Friday. … [He said]: “Batteries containing
toxic, corrosive chemicals could leach into the surrounding
environment and pollute the soil and groundwater. Prescription
medications could leach into the water table and affect our
drinking water.” He added that hazardous chemicals could
start a fire that pollutes the air and harms the local
ecosystem.
The Feather River Recreation and Parks District is inviting the
public to make a difference in the community by joining in the
annual Feather River Clean Up Day. … Volunteers along
with staff from FRRPD and Department of Water Resources will be
tasked with picking up trash and removing invasive plants along
the river trail from Riverbend Park to the Feather River Nature
Center and Native Plant Park. … The week prior to the
event FRRPD staff and members of the Butte County Housing
Navigation Center will be notifying homeless camped along the
river and in the parks that the clean up will be happening and
providing resources to them for relocation. The day of the
event, FRRPD staff and members of the Butte County Sheriff’s
Department will be removing homeless camps in the remote areas
of Riverbend Park.
Two sides involved in a lawsuit over Clover Flat Landfill near
Calistoga have different thoughts on the dismissal of the case
in Napa County Superior Court. The group WhataWasteNV.org in
October 2021 sued the Upper Valley Waste Management Agency,
which oversees the privately owned landfill. It alleged a
franchise agreement update between the agency and landfill
operator allows the landfill to accept more waste and required
environmental study. … The lawsuit is part of a larger
debate over the landfill in hills framing the Napa Valley.
Opponents formed the group WhataWasteNV.org and want
to close the landfill. WhataWasteNV.org’s website
describes the group’s concerns about “storing waste atop our
community’s watershed.” “It is time to rethink this
outdated practice that increases fire risk, threatens our water
supply with contamination and risks degradation of our
community and the Napa Valley brand,” the website says.
“The Owens Valley is nothing but a resource colony,” Kathy
Jefferson Bancroft, tribal historic preservation officer for
the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Reservation, told me. …
Bancroft’s office is a site of an historic struggle for
historic preservation and not the only site or the only
struggle against DWP in this valley. The largest, most unifying
fight in the valley community has been to force DWP to reduce
the amount of alkali dust from the dry Owens Lake, which, 20
years ago produced the worst air pollution in America. An
unintended consequence of the campaign to make DWP comply with
the state and federal Clean Air acts has been the arrival of
increasing numbers of shorebirds in the reborn Owens Lake.
A submerged tugboat in the Empire Tract area of San Joaquin
County was leaking fuel and oil into the Delta waterway on
Monday morning, according to the sheriff’s office. The boat was
near Herman and Helen’s Marina, the San Joaquin County
Sheriff’s Office said. The sheriff’s office boating safety
unit went to the scene trying to contain the spill. Outside
agencies — including Environmental Health, Office of Emergency
Services, Fish & Wildlife, Woodbridge Fire Department, and the
U.S. Coast Guard Pollution Response Team — were also contacted
to assist in the spill.
Chemical pesticides are produced synthetically and applied as a
main method for pest removal, especially in agriculture. In
2020, pesticide consumption was 2.66 million metric tons, with
the United States being the largest pesticide-consuming country
worldwide with 407.8 thousand metric tons of pesticides used,
and Brazil coming in second with 377.2 thousand tons consumed.
From 1990 to 2010, the global consumption of pesticides
increased by more than 50%. According to Soloneski et al., more
than 99.9% of pesticides applied to crops worldwide become
toxic residues in the environment, never reaching their
specific targets. These compounds are usually toxic and persist
in both terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.
The Salton Sea is a highly saline body of water in California.
It was once part of the Gulf of California, but the region
south of the Salton Sea dried up and now it is a large lake. It
is the largest lake in California. The Salton Sea, the largest
lake in the state, was once a thriving body of water, but it
has gone through so much that it is now drying up. A
combination of runoff from nearby farms and communities, as
well as its location, are to blame. Because of this
catastrophe happening to the Salton Sea, it has caught the eye
of various government officials, from local electeds, state
legislators, and federal politicians. But the question of the
hour is, what is in the Salton Sea? And is it safe to
swim?
In the absence of an enforceable federal drinking water
standard for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (“PFAS”), many
states have started regulating PFAS compounds in drinking
water. The result is a patchwork of regulations and standards
of varying levels, which presents significant operational and
compliance challenges to impacted industries. This client alert
surveys the maximum contaminant levels (“MCLs”), as well as
guidance and notification levels, for PFAS compounds –
typically perfluorooctane sulfonate (“PFOS”) and
perfluorooctanoic acid (”PFOA”) – in drinking water across the
United States.
Congress has allocated billions of dollars to address
contamination caused by the ubiquitous class of “forever”
chemicals known as PFAS—with billions also earmarked in recent
legal settlements with manufacturers—but drinking water
managers, construction sector experts and other stakeholders
say the true cost of cleanup could be much higher. The
prevalence of PFAS, short for per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances, is a real and growing concern. Thousands of
different chemicals have been used in everything from
firefighting foam and construction materials to clothing and
household products, and have been detected in food sources,
water supply, wildlife and human tissue—with new ones still
being discovered. Some are identified as a threat to human
health, even in small amounts.
Six trees were found “poisoned” at a private beach in one
of Tahoe’s most exclusive neighborhoods recently, spurring
an investigation and pointing to the area’s long history of
tree violations. According to the Tahoe Daily
Tribune, the mystery began in July 2022, when Incline Village
General Improvement District staff members found six other
trees at Burnt Cedar Beach that smelled like fuel. The latest
poisonings bring the total of poisoned trees at Burnt Cedar
Beach to 12. Representatives from the Incline Village Parks and
Recreation department told SFGATE that the restricted beach,
which is outfitted with a pool, swimming cove and full-service
bar, is only accessible to residents and their guests.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and four of his
colleagues submitted an amicus letter late Monday
night, citing shortfalls in the company 3M’s
multi-billion-dollar proposed settlement with contaminated
water utilities. The attorneys general said that while they are
in favor of moving forward with the settlement, 3M should pay
more than the $10 billion to $12 billion the firm has offered —
in order to fund the massive remediation efforts public
utilities will have to undertake to eliminate “forever
chemicals” from their supplies. … Joining Bonta in
submitting amicus letter were the attorneys general of Arizona,
the District of Columbia, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 3M
in a statement said it was pleased with the agreement.
The Central Valley of California only contains 1% of U.S.
farmland, but generates 8% of the country’s agricultural output
and produces a quarter of the nation’s food. Much of this
astounding production comes from the 8,500 square kilometers of
farmland in the Sacramento River watershed, which covers the
northern portion of the Central Valley. This extensive farmland
means that the watershed is exposed to a significant amount of
compounds commonly used in farming, including pesticides. As
water flows over the land to streams and rivers, it carries
these contaminants along with it, ultimately dumping them in
waterways and floodplains, where they often make their way into
the food web. Consequently, juvenile Chinook salmon
(Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) feeding and rearing within the
watershed can be exposed to these harmful compounds.
A federal appeals court panel Friday halted an exploratory gold
drilling project in the eastern Sierra Nevada that was set to
begin this week. Kore Mining Ltd. planned to drill for gold
near Mammoth Lakes. The project involved 12, 600-foot deep
holes on some 1,900 acres. It would have required vegetation
clearing and less than a mile of temporary access roads. Four
groups — Friends of the Inyo, the Center for Biological
Diversity, the Western Watersheds Project and the Sierra Club —
sued Kore Mining and the U.S. Forest Service in October 2021,
arguing the drilling would impact area groundwater that feeds
into the Owens River and cause the bi-state sage grouse to
abandon its habitat. A federal judge in March sided with the
defendants.
Coal mining depleted areas of a critical aquifer in the Black
Mesa region of the Navajo Nation, but a federal agency didn’t
consider the losses environmentally damaging, researchers
concluded in a new study of the aquifer in northern Arizona.
The researchers detailed what they said were failures by the
federal Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement to
hold the Peabody mining company responsible for the
environmental effects of coal mining in the Black Mesa area.
The findings of the study, conducted by the Institutes for
Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, didn’t surprise Nicole
Horseherder, executive director of Tó Nizhóní Ání, a group
working to protect Black Mesa water, among other things.
California health officials are warning of a potential
increased risk of valley fever, a respiratory disease caused by
fungus that grows in soil across many parts of the state. This
winter’s heavy rains may have caused an increase in the growth
of the Coccidioides fungus, which causes valley fever, the
California Department of Public Health announced in a press
release. Valley fever occurs when dust containing the fungus is
inhaled, leading to respiratory symptoms that can turn severe
or even fatal. Periods of heavy rain can cause
the Coccidioides fungus to become more active, according
to research conducted by the University of California,
Berkeley and CDPH. That means valley fever cases could spike in
the coming months, as spores that grew during this year’s
record rainfall dry out and become airborne in dust.
So-called “forever chemicals” have been found in 45% of
the nation’s tap water, according to a recent government study,
but is your tap water affected? If you’re wondering whether or
not your tap water might contain synthetic chemicals known as
PFAS, nonprofit Environmental Working Group created an
interactive map using official records and data from public
drinking water systems to show where forever chemicals were
found to be above and below the advised maximum concentration
level, 4 parts per trillion (PPT). … Sample sites
in the 12-65 PPT range were found in and around Grass Valley,
California; Fresno, California; Los Angeles; Lakewood,
Colorado; … The USGS said most PFAS exposure was found
near urban areas and potential chemical sources, with higher
counts in the following regions: Great Plains, Great Lakes,
Eastern Seaboard and Central/Southern/California.
Today, the bumblebee is among more than 200 endangered species
whose existence is threatened by the nation’s most widely used
insecticides (one classification of pesticides), according to a
recent analysis by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The endangered species range from Attwater’s greater
prairie chicken to the Alabama cave shrimp, from the American
burying beetle to the slackwater darter. And the star cactus
and four-petal pawpaw are among the 160-plus at-risk plants.
The three neonicotinoids — thiamethoxam, clothianidin and
imidacloprid — are applied as seed coatings on some 150 million
acres of crops each year, including corn, soybeans and other
major crops. Neonicotinoids are a group of neurotoxic
insecticides similar to nicotine and used widely on farms and
in urban landscapes.
When the July Fourth crowds cleared out from Tahoe’s beaches
this year, visitors left thousands of pounds of trash behind —
Zephyr Shoals alone had 8,500 pounds of rubbish. The next day,
volunteers flocked to the beaches, picking up broken coolers
and lawn chairs, plastic cups and aluminum cans. But more
rubbish, unseen by the volunteers, hid just beneath the sand.
Across Tahoe’s beaches, scraps like bottle caps, bits of
Styrofoam and cigarette butts remained. … Traditional
methods for rounding up litter in the water and on the
lakeshores are no longer sufficient, according to the League to
Save Lake Tahoe, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting the
Tahoe Basin. Enter the BEBOT and the PixieDrone, zero-emission
robots designed specifically to clean sandy beaches and the
surfaces of lakes.
Strolling on the Lake of the Sky Trail, U.S. Forest Service
officer Daniel Cressy marveled at the wildlife that first
attracted him to Lake Tahoe. A bald eagle nestled into the top
of a Jeffrey Pine looking out over the shimmering blue of North
America’s largest alpine lake, and rising in the distance was
Mount Tallac, a 9,739-foot peak that he’s skied many times.
Then, along the path, Cressy spotted a tree with “J&B”
carved into its trunk. … That small stain of
civilization epitomized the growing tension between the
millions of tourists who provide economic sustenance to the
High Sierra paradise and the effort to preserve the natural
splendor that draws them, a clash that came into sharp focus
this week with a weeklong visit from world’s most powerful
tourist, President Joe Biden.
The Grand Junction Planning Commission voted 7-0 on Tuesday to
approve a conditional use permit for a sand and gravel pit
located near the Colorado River. The proposed gravel pit would
sit on about 28 acres on C 1/2 Road, in an area zoned for
community services and recreation. The area that is within 100
feet of the river will not be mined, according to a city staff
report. Some of the vegetation on the site has already been
cleared in anticipation of construction, Grand Junction
Principal Planner Kristen Ashbeck said. The site will be mined
over 10 years, Ashbeck said, with operations focusing on a
small area at a time.
Does California have a ban on plastic bags? The goals of Senate
Bill 270, the so-called plastic bag ban, spoke to the “three
Rs” of waste reduction: Reduce the number of plastic bags
Californians use, reuse the ones they receive, and recycle them
once their useful life has ceased (the bags, not the
Californians). The thin plastic bags that used to line every
bathroom trash can and litter box in California were and are
made of low-density polyethylene, or LDPE. More than 30 billion
of those single-use plastic carryout bags used to be
distributed across California every year. … Though
plastic bags represent a fraction of plastics produced, they
are a unique source of blight, according to Mark Murray, the
executive director of environmental group Californians
Against Waste. They blow into tree branches, clog sewer drains,
wrinkle jellyfish-like in our oceans and tumble across our
roads.
What do nail polish, children’s foam-padded sleeping mats and
tires have in common? Not much at first glance, but all have
been identified as “priority products” under California’s Safer
Consumer Products regulations administered by the California
Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) under the state’s
Green Chemistry law. The Regulation and Its Requirements The
regulation designating motor vehicle tires containing the
chemical N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-p-phenylenediamine
(6PPD) as a priority product became final on July 3, 2023,
making tires containing 6PPD the seventh priority product
identified under the law.
Fears, concerns and legal challenges over a proposed oil train
route along the Colorado River were finally addressed in
federal court last week. Until then, plans for the Uinta Basin
Railway project, which would ferry vast amounts of crude oil
from northeast Utah eastward alongside the Colorado River,
sailed through federal agencies tasked with approving large
transportation projects. But then the U.S. Court of Appeals in
Washington, D.C., successfully challenged the project’s
environmental impact assessments, siding with the railway’s
opponents and striking a blow against what would have been the
largest petroleum corridor in the United States.
When you hear the word “microfiber,” you probably think of the
now-ubiquitous reusable cloths used for cleaning floors, wiping
up spills and polishing countertops. For environmentalists,
however, that word has a much more sinister meaning. It
describes the tiny threads that textiles — clothes, bedding,
towels and, yes, reusable cleaning cloths — shed by the
millions during each spin through the washing machine and which
ultimately end up polluting the environment, particularly
oceans, rivers and lakes. Since most clothing is made with
synthetic materials, such as polyester and acrylic, it means
that most microfibers are also microplastics.
Toxic chemicals have been leaking into the groundwater under
and around the San Luis Obispo County Regional Airport for
about five decades. It’s not the only airport in the state
dealing with this contamination, but it is the first to address
the problem with a formal plan. That’s because the
contamination impacted dozens of private wells for homes and
businesses. Many affected residents feel like the process is
moving too slowly. … But the foam is full of harmful
chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.
They’re often called “forever chemicals” because they don’t
break down in the environment. … Beginning in 2019, the
State Water Board ordered 30 airports in California to
investigate PFAS contamination. According to the board, all of
them showed some level of impact. As for the SLO airport,
a vast majority of the more than 70 wells in the area were
contaminated.
California produces millions of tons of hazardous waste every
year – toxic detritus that can leach into groundwater or blow
into the air. It’s waste that can explode, spark fires, eat
through metal containers, destroy ecosystems and sicken people.
It’s dangerous material that we have come to rely on and ignore
– the flammable liquids used to cleanse metal parts before
painting, the lead and acid in old car batteries, even the
shampoos that can kill fish. It all needs to go somewhere. But
over the past four decades, California’s facilities to manage
hazardous waste have dwindled. What’s left is a tattered system
of older sites with a troubling history of safety violations
and polluted soil and groundwater, a CalMatters investigation
has found.
The language is stark: People in torched areas of Maui should
not try to filter their own drinking water because there is no
“way to make it safe,” Maui County posted on its Instagram
account this week. … These warnings reflect new science
and are intended to avoid the whiplash of conflicting
information received by people impacted by the 2018 Camp Fire
in California, who received messages from four different
agencies. Until a few years ago, wildfire was only known
to contaminate drinking water at the source, such as when ash
runs into a river or reservoir. California’s Tubbs Fire in 2017
and the Camp Fire “are the first known wildfires where
widespread drinking water chemical contamination was discovered
in the water distribution network,” according to a recent study
published by several researchers including Whelton with the
American Water Works Association.
Tiny pieces of plastic waste shed
from food wrappers, grocery bags, clothing, cigarette butts,
tires and paint are invading the environment and every facet of
daily life. Researchers know the plastic particles have even made
it into municipal water supplies, but very little data exists
about the scope of microplastic contamination in drinking
water.
After years of planning, California this year is embarking on a
first-of-its-kind data-gathering mission to illuminate how
prevalent microplastics are in the state’s largest drinking water
sources and help regulators determine whether they are a public
health threat.
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
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.
