In general, regulations are rules or laws designed to control or
govern conduct. Specifically, water quality regulations under the
federal and state Clean Water Act “protect the public health or
welfare, enhance the quality of water and serve the purposes of
the Act.”
The worsening drought has canceled a large water sale to West
Side farmers by the Oakdale and South San Joaquin irrigation
districts. They announced Wednesday that their own
customers will need the water, which had been declared surplus
in early March. A revised forecast of Stanislaus River runoff
scuttled the sale, which could have brought up to $25 million
to the sellers.
Restoration flows will begin tomorrow, April 16, on the Trinity
River to help improve conditions after another critically dry
water year. A flow schedule based on the expected amount of
water available to support salmon restoration efforts on the
Trinity River is brought forward by the Trinity Management
Council each year. This week’s two-day schedule is slated to
increase daily average flows from 300 cubic feet per second to
1,300 cubic feet per second.
While high-profile surface-water initiatives like WaterFix and
the Delta Conveyance Project grab most of the headlines
pertaining to water management in the state, efforts to make
significant changes to the way groundwater is utilized have
been underway since 2014. Now, the state and the local water
agencies are seeking public comment on documents related to the
management of groundwater. In 2014, then-Gov. Jerry Brown
signed a three-bill legislative package collectively known as
the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to better
manage groundwater supplies over the long term.
California was the first U.S. state to legally recognize access
to safe, clean and affordable water as a human right. But
substantial parts of the state lack access to drinking water
that meets those criteria. A new study published by the
California State Water Board and supported by UCLA research
identifies a risk for failure among a significant portion of
the state’s small and medium-sized public water systems.
Monterey County must rescind all approvals of California
American Water’s proposed desalination project, per an order
from a Monterey County Superior Court judge who earlier this
year found the county violated the California Environmental
Quality Act by approving the project without identifying a
water source. The ruling was handed down April 3 by Judge Lydia
Villarreal, who on Jan. 21 granted in part—and denied in part—a
writ requested by the Marina Coast Water District regarding the
2019 approvals of the desal plant component of Cal Am’s
Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project.
A final decision on the pending Irrigated Lands Regulatory
Program known as Ag Order 4.0 is expected by Friday, April 16.
Producers have anxiously been monitoring the development of the
program from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board. Stakeholders have repeatedly provided feedback on the
proposal, detailing the challenges it would create within
agriculture. As the adoption deadline quickly approaches,
industry members still have concerns about multiple provisions
of the measure.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation delivered a gut-punch to Klamath
Project irrigators Wednesday, announcing a historically low
water allocation as the basin struggles with extreme drought.
Farms and ranches in the Project will receive an initial
allocation of just 33,000 acre-feet — the lowest total since
the shutdown of 2001 and barely 8% of historical demand. That
is dramatically lower than the bureau’s original estimate of
130,000 acre-feet based on hydrological conditions at the
beginning of March.
Radhika Fox, a former executive for a nonprofit water advocacy
group and water utility official, is leading the Biden
administration’s work to incorporate environmental justice into
EPA’s water work and chart a course to reverse a litany of
Trump-era rollbacks. She comes to the role with a deep history
in equity work and water infrastructure advocacy — a focus that
she’s already brought to bear in helping to shape President Joe
Biden’s call to remove all lead piping from drinking water
systems under his massive infrastructure proposal, and in
launching a review of the Trump administration’s overhaul of
the regulation governing lead levels in drinking water.
President Biden announced Wednesday that he will nominate Tommy
Beaudreau to be deputy secretary of the Interior Department,
ending a standoff between the White House and senators from
fossil-fuel-rich states who derailed the president’s first
choice. The selection of Beaudreau, an energy lawyer who was an
Obama administration official, came after Sens. Joe Manchin III
(D-W. V.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) objected to Elizabeth
Klein because of her past stance against fossil fuels.
The state plans to inspect three dairy ranches in the Point
Reyes National Seashore after independent water quality tests
conducted in nearby creeks and lagoons earlier this year found
E. coli bacteria concentrations up to 40 times higher than
state health standards. The San Francisco Regional Water
Quality Control Board plans to inspect Kehoe Dairy, McClure
Dairy and R&J McClelland Dairy, which are located near
Kehoe Creek and waterways that flow into Abbotts Lagoon in the
northern region of the national seashore.
Hundreds of farmers who rely on a massive irrigation project
that spans the Oregon-California border learned Wednesday they
will get a tiny fraction of the water they need amid the worst
drought in decades, as federal regulators attempt to balance
the needs of agriculture against federally threatened and
endangered fish species that are central to the heritage of
several tribes. Oregon’s governor said the prolonged drought in
the region has the “full attention of our offices,” and she is
working with congressional delegates, the White House and
federal agencies to find relief for those affected.
The Superior Court of California, County of Monterey has told
Monterey County it must rescind all approvals for the Cal-Am
desalination project. According to the court, the county
violated the California Environmental Quality Act by approving
the desal project with identifying a water source. The court
ruling also means that the county can’t retroactively correct
the issue.
Tule elk are treasured creatures in California, and for years,
animal rights groups have butted heads with the Point Reyes
National Seashore over its practice of keeping elk fenced away
from nearby cattle ranches. Amid a dry 2020, the groups tried
to bring water to the creatures but were rebuffed by the
National Park Service. Now the federal agency has released a
report indicating that more than one third of the 445 elk
fenced in at Tomales Point died this past winter, bringing the
population down to 293.
A far-reaching proposal to outlaw hydraulic fracturing and ban
oil and gas wells from operating near homes, schools and
healthcare facilities failed in the California Legislature on
Tuesday, a major setback for progressive leaders who hail the
state as the nation’s bellwether on environmental protection.
Gov. Gavin Newsom in September called on state lawmakers to ban
fracking and voiced his support for safety buffer zones around
wells …
On Wednesday, March 3rd, the Northern California Water
Association (NCWA) Board of Directors officially adopted our
2021 Priorities. The water leaders in this region look forward
to working with our many partners in 2021 to cultivate a shared
vision for a vibrant way of life in the Sacramento River Basin.
We will continue to re-imagine our water system in the
Sacramento River Basin as we also work to harmonize our water
priorities with state, federal, and other regions’ priorities
to advance our collective goal of ensuring greater water and
climate resilience throughout California for our communities,
the economy, and the environment.
Advocates, such as the Colorado Water Trust, a nonprofit that
spearheaded the new approach, say the tools can be used as
templates across other river basins, where older water rights
are already spoken for. … Across Colorado nearly 40,000
miles of streams flow year-round and, as a result, have the
potential to receive protection under the state’s Instream Flow
Program.
There’s just one week left to register for our Water 101
Workshop, which offers a primer on the things you need to know
to understand California water. One of our most popular events,
this once-a-year workshop will be held as an engaging online
event on the afternoons of Thursday, April 22 and Friday,
April 23.
The San Diego County Water Authority is no stranger to conflict
– virtually all of its dealings over the past decade have been
shaped by its feud with the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California. Now that feud is fueling
fights within the agency itself.
Imperial Irrigation District apparently has decided not to
sweat Michael Abatti’s decision to appeal his case against the
district to the nation’s highest court. IID announced Monday it
will not file a response to Abatti’s petition to the U.S.
Supreme Court over his ongoing legal dispute with the district
over water rights. The exception would be if the court requests
a response. IID General Counsel Frank Oswalt said in a press
release that a response is unnecessary.
Poseidon Water announced that the Third District California
Court of Appeal issued a decision denying the petition by
seawater desalination opponents to overturn the Sacramento
County Superior Court’s 2019 ruling upholding the California
State Lands Commission’s 2017 approval of an amended lease for
the proposed Huntington Beach Desalination Project (“Project”).
The Court of Appeal decision reaffirms that the State Lands
Commission correctly analyzed the Project under the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and that the Project protects
the state’s Public Trust resources.
Extreme drought conditions throughout the West are lowering
levels in the crucial water reservoir, Lake Mead. Scars of long
years of low precipitation are hard to go unnoticed at Lake
Mead, and the hot, dry summers have been felt for the last
several years in Arizona. 2020 was especially dry, with little
monsoon. Now, the West is in uncharted territory. Lake Mead is
projected to drop by several feet this year, from elevation
1,083 to about 1,068, according to officials with the Central
Arizona Project. The lake is hovering around 39 percent of its
full capacity.
[T]he 800 to 900 people in Tohatchi, and another 600 to 800 in
Mexican Springs, eight miles to the west, all depend on a
single well and single pump. If the pump running it fails,
or if the water level in it drops — both issues that have
troubled nearby Gallup this year — water will cut out for the
homes, the head-start center, the schools, the clinic, the
senior center, five churches, and the convenience store and gas
station. … [T]he Navajo Nation has waited more than a
century for pipes and water treatment plants that would bring
drinking water to all of its people while watching nearby
off-reservation cities and farms grow, swallowing up water from
the Colorado River Basin that the tribe has a claim to.
Legislation that would gradually phase out fracking and other
extraction methods that account for most of California’s
petroleum production faces its first big test in Sacramento on
Tuesday. The nine-member Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee is set to vote on a proposal, Senate Bill 467, that
would bar new permits for hydraulic fracturing, cyclic
steaming, steam flooding and water flooding. The legislation
would begin taking effect in 2023 and also prohibit renewing
existing permits for fracking and the other targeted methods,
which a committee bill analysis says accounts for an estimated
80% to 95% of the state’s oil production.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack designated 50 California
counties as natural disaster areas last month because of the
drought. And, over the weekend, Fresno Congressman Jim Costa
said on KSEE-24’s Sunday Morning Matters program that Gov.
Newsom should declare a statewide emergency because of the
dangerously dry conditions. …Yet, Newsom… last week
rejected a request from a bipartisan coalition of state
lawmakers from the Valley to declare a statewide drought
emergency.
Dozens of people gathered at Point Reyes National Seashore
Saturday to protest after the deaths of more than 100 rare tule
elk. Last week, the National Park Service announced 152 elk in
a fenced preserve died in 2020 because of overpopulation and
drought conditions. The drought has reduced the amount of water
in the area, leading to limited access and malnutrition.
The government of Mexico is on the verge of legalizing cannabis
for industrial, medical, and recreational purposes, legislation
that would make Mexico only the third country to legalize all
aspects of cannabis production and all types of the plant’s
use. … Water theft in California is alleged to be
frequently associated with legal and illegal cultivation of
cannabis. It equally pervades legal and illegal cannabis
cultivation in Oregon and Colorado.
-Written by Vanda Felbob-Brown.
One of the worst droughts in memory in a massive agricultural
region straddling the California-Oregon border could mean steep
cuts to irrigation water for hundreds of farmers this summer to
sustain endangered fish species critical to local tribes. The
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water allocations in
the federally owned Klamath Project, is expected to announce
this week how the season’s water will be divvied up after
delaying the decision a month.
Nancy L. Vogel of Sacramento has been appointed Deputy
Secretary for Water at the California Natural Resources Agency,
where she has been Director of the Governor’s Water Portfolio
Program since 2019 and was Deputy Secretary of Communications
from 2015 to 2017.
The little-known Joint Powers Authority charged with getting
the embattled Delta tunnel across its finish line recently
changed executive directors, marking an exit for Kathryn
Mallon, who had stirred controversy for her exorbitant pay and
alleged pressuring of a citizens advisory committee to work
through the most dangerous part of the
pandemic. Meanwhile, as California Governor Gavin Newsom
begins campaigning against the effort to remove him from
office, he’s soliciting huge donations from the same
south-state barons of agriculture who have promoted the
environmentally fraught tunnel concept for years.
Californians received a double dose of not so happy water news
last month; cutbacks were made to water allocations and a key
water price index surged higher. … The state’s Department of
Water Resources has wasted no time in sounding alarm bells;
officials have already announced 50 percent cutbacks from
December 2020’s projected water allotments to State Water
Project allocations for the 2021 water year. California
residents were warned “to plan for the impacts of limited water
supplies this summer for agriculture as well as urban and rural
water users.”
California’s shrinking Salton Sea is getting a closer look
scientifically with the state, local air districts, and
community groups examining air, water, and even dust from the
parched shoreline where water was once plentiful. The increased
scrutiny comes as the state has continuously failed to meet
dust suppression and habitat goals set in a 2017 management
plan to restore nearly 30,000 acres of the state’s largest body
of water by 2028. The sea spans Imperial and Riverside counties
near the Mexican border, where disadvantaged communities
breathe some of the nation’s worst air and suffer from high
asthma rates. Chronic nosebleeds are also common.
The State Water Resources Control Board announced the
completion of its first-ever comprehensive look at California
water systems that are struggling to provide safe drinking
water to communities and how to help them. With criteria for
the state’s Human Right to Water list recently expanded, the
assessment identifies both failing water systems and those at
risk of failing, offering the most indepth view of long-term
drinking water safety the state has ever had.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced today that this year’s
restoration flow schedule for the Trinity River will begin on
April 16. Each year, the Trinity Management Council advances a
flow schedule based on the expected amount of water available
to support salmon restoration efforts on the Trinity River. Due
to lack of precipitation and snowpack in the Trinity Mountains
this winter, the flow schedule for 2021 is scaled to a
critically dry water year. Critically dry is one of five water
year types used by the Trinity River Restoration Program to
decide how much reservoir water will be released in support of
the program’s goals to improve habitat for anadromous fish—fish
that migrate to fresh water from salt water to spawn—like
salmon and steelhead.
The California State Water Resources Control Board (the State
Board) will use $4.4 million of a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) grant to fund projects in seven counties around
the state. EPA’s Nonpoint Source Program grant assists the
State Board in implementing programs to address pollution
caused by runoff moving over the ground, known as nonpoint
source pollution. The Marin Resource Conservation District was
awarded over $700,000 by the State Board for its Conserving Our
Watersheds Program. This project helps ranchers within the
Point Reyes National Seashore prevent nitrogen, phosphorus,
sediment, and bacteria from livestock operations from running
off into Tomales Bay. Tomales Bay supports oyster production
and recreational activities including kayaking and fishing.
The Marin County Superior Court last
Friday ruled that the county in Northern California
failed to adequately protect coho salmon and their habitat in
the San Geronimo Valley. Marin County originally planned to
adopt a streamside conservation ordinance to preserve
vegetation, maintain water quality and prevent erosion in 2007
when it last updated its countywide plan. But 12 years later,
the measure has still not materialized, in violation of the
California Environmental Quality Act. The lawsuit was
brought by the Salmon Protection And Watershed Network (SPAWN)
and Center for Biological Diversity.
Despite its green reputation, California has a big fossil fuel
problem on its hands: neighborhood oil and gas drilling. In
California, there’s nothing preventing frackers or drillers
from setting up shop right next to your home, school, or
hospital — and indeed, this is the reality for 7.4 million
Californians currently living within 1 mile of oil and gas
drilling operations, who are disproportionately non-white and
low-income. Now, a new state bill called S.B. 467, slated
for a hearing in the California Senate Committee on Natural
Resources and Water on Tuesday, may reshape the lives of
frontline communities by eliminating fracking and instituting
mandatory buffer zones between oil and gas extraction and
places where Californians live, work, and study.
The theme of the April 14 meeting of the Cloverdale City
Council is seemingly water — the council will be viewing a
presentation on its updated water and sewer rate study and
giving direction on whether or not to proceed to a public
hearing with new rates, and will also be discussing whether or
not it wants to join the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water
Partnership.
Another legal challenge has been launched against a project by
downtown-based water infrastructure company Cadiz Inc. to pump
and transport water from its desert aquifer to connect with
existing water conveyance systems. This latest lawsuit was
filed March 23 against the Bureau of Land Management by the
Center for Biological Diversity, Earthjustice and the Sierra
Club. It asks the federal court to overturn a December BLM
decision to approve the conversion of an idle oil and gas
pipeline to carry water from Cadiz’s desert aquifer. Cadiz is
not a direct party to the lawsuit but would be impacted by a
decision resulting from the suit. The filing marks the third
decade in which Cadiz’ water transfer plan has faced legal
challenges from environmental groups.
On April 6, 2021, the State Water Resources Control Board
(State Board) approved the application of the State Wetland
Definition and Procedures for Discharges of Dredged or Fill
Material to Waters of the State (Procedures) as a water quality
control policy, carefully avoiding the scope of a recent court
order. This resolution will allow the Board to directly
apply the water Procedures to waters of the State as an
exercise of its policy-making authority rather than the water
quality control planning process.
Throughout 2020 and early 2021, California issued more than 300
permits to oil and gas companies for new underground injection
wells — an intensive form of oil production and wastewater
disposal. But the actual number of new injection wells is
likely higher, owing to the state’s opaque approval process
that has drawn scrutiny from auditors and environmentalists.
Some of these undercounted wells may be polluting groundwater
used for public drinking and agricultural purposes, according
to regulatory filings reviewed by Capital & Main. The impact of
injection wells on groundwater in California is understudied,
regulators say.
Groundwater is a key resource for water users in California’s
Central Valley, a major agricultural hub with an economic
output of tens of billions of dollars annually. Surface
deformation in the Central Valley has long been linked to
changes in groundwater storage, but the timing and movement of
water flow beneath the surface has been poorly understood due
to a lack of reliable data. Now, for the first time,
scientists at the University of California San Diego’s Scripps
Institution of Oceanography and School of Global Policy and
Strategy, as well as the U.S. Geological Survey are using
advanced satellite data to map the “pulse” of groundwater flow
through the San Joaquin Valley, the southern portion of the
Central Valley.
A tiny silver fish few people in the Bay Area have heard of
could be a new symbol of the state’s continuing battle over
water resources. San Francisco Baykeeper sued the Biden
administration on Thursday to list the local population of
longfin smelt as an endangered species. The environmental
group’s legal action comes nine years after the federal
government first declared that the fish warranted that status.
Once an important source of food for marine mammals, birds and
chinook salmon, the local population of the longfin smelt has
dropped by 99.9% since the 1980s. Scientists and
environmentalists say that reduction is a direct result of too
much water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system being
diverted to farms and other water users rather than flowing
through the bay to the Pacific.
In June 2017, the California Regional Water Quality Control
Board and the Central Valley Region adopted a Basin Plan
Amendment for the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River Basins
for the control of pyrethroid pesticide discharges. The
amendment establishes controls for pyrethroid discharges,
including prohibition of discharges of pyrethroid pesticides
above certain concentrations, total maximum daily loads (TMDLs)
for pyrethroid pesticides, recommendations for agency
regulation of pyrethroids and potential monitoring
requirements. Synthetic pyrethroids are the most common forms
of commercially available urban pesticides for ants, termites
and flying insects…
The city of St. Helena’s water system recently failed a
drinking water standard, city officials said Thursday evening.
… The city routinely monitors its distribution system for the
presence of drinking water contaminants. Testing results
received for Nov. 10, 2020, and March 9, 2021, showed the
system exceeded the standard or maximum contaminant level —MCL
— for haloacetic acids, or HAA, [Jo Ann Burkman, acting chief
operator for the city's water division] said. The standard
MCL for haloacetic acids is 60 ug/L; the running annual average
for the LSWTP Distribution System in the fourth quarter of 2020
measured 68 ug/L…
Our Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project has just
been updated to reflect the latest developments affecting
California’s largest surface water delivery system. The 24-page
guide explores the history of the Central Valley Project, from
its roots as a state water project that stalled amid the Great
Depression to its development as a federal project that
stretches from Shasta Dam in far Northern California to
Bakersfield in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
While California’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act promised comprehensive protection of the state’s
groundwater, significant gaps remain in its coverage. The
Department of Water Resources now has an opportunity to reduce
or eliminate those gaps and should seize the moment. We know
all Californians will experience another year of water
shortages and warmer, drier conditions that will require
conservation and which are likely to fuel destructive wildfires
in our forests and around our communities. We are all in this
together. Groundwater is critical for California, particularly
in dry years when it provides up to 60% of the water supply for
farms and people.
-Written by Jeanette Howard, director of The
Nature Conservancy’s freshwater science team; Melissa M.
Rohde, a groundwater scientist at The Nature Conservancy;
and Barton H. Thompson, senior fellow of the Woods Institute
for the Environment, and faculty director of Water in the West
at Stanford University.
Scientists have been predicting for years that the Colorado
River would continue to deplete due to global warming and
increased water demands, but according to new studies it’s
looking worse than they thought. That worries rancher Marsha
Daughenbaugh, 68, of Steamboat Springs, who relies on the water
from the Colorado River to grow feed for her cattle.
… Recent reports show that the river’s water flows were
down 20% in 2000 and by 2050 that number is estimated to more
than double.
South Bay officials are beginning to run out of patience over
the continued cross-border flow of sewage-tainted water. The
pollution warning signs have been up most of 2021 on the sand
in Imperial Beach. Last Friday, the pollution flowed north to
Coronado, forcing beach closures there. Imperial Beach’s top
officials are fed up.
California’s hottest commodity could become even more scarce as
state and federal officials announce water cutbacks on the
brink of another drought. Now, state legislators are banding
together to ask Governor Newsom to declare a state of emergency
amid what they call a water crisis. … [State Senator Andreas]
Borgeas authored a letter alongside the Assembly agriculture
committee chair and several other state lawmakers to send to
the governor. This comes after the California Department of
Water Resources announced a 5% allocation to farmers and
growers in late March.
A barely-noticed action early in March by the San Luis Obispo
County Board of Supervisors likely has placed greater control
of the region’s water supply in the hands of a few individuals
and private water agencies. On a split 3-2, north-south vote,
supervisors on March 3 approved an amendment to the county’s
contract with the state of California for deliveries from the
State Water Project (SWP). An approval that creates the
opportunity, some say, for a controversial practice called
“water banking.”
State water pollution officials have hit the city of Sunnyvale
with $187,000 penalty after the city’s wastewater treatment
plant spilled more than a quarter million gallons of partially
treated sewage into San Francisco Bay last summer. The spill
occurred on July 29 when a 36-inch welded steel pipeline
ruptured, releasing 292,600 gallons — the equivalent of about
12 backyard swimming pools — of partially treated sewage that
had not been disinfected into channels that flow into the bay
near Moffett Field. … The spill was one of the two largest
illegal discharges from a Bay Area sewage treatment plant into
San Francisco Bay over the past six years …
OID and SSJID … have invested considerable money into
improving salmon habitat on the Stanislaus River and as well as
conservation measures aimed at reducing growers’ use of water —
have proposed pushing the spring pulse flow from an anticipated
1,400 cfs at Vernalis to almost 3,000 cfs. … The SSJID and OID
have also worked with the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water
Authority and State Water Contractors that may get only 5
percent of the water they need from the Bureau this year to
purchase the [water] by diverting it once it enters the
Delta.
Robert (Bob) Anderson’s nomination as Solicitor of the
Department of the Interior was formally transmitted by the
White House to the United States Senate today. Bob
has served as Interior’s Principal Deputy Solicitor
since January 20, 2021. … For 20 years, Bob was a
law professor at the University of Washington and directed its
Native American Law Center. He has been the Oneida Indian
Nation Visiting Professor of Law at Harvard Law School for the
past twelve years. He is a co-author and editor of the leading
federal Indian Law treatise, Cohen’s Handbook of Federal Indian
Law, and is a co-author of a leading textbook on American
Indian Law. He has extensive expertise and has published many
articles in the fields of natural resources law, water law, and
American Indian law.
For the second time in less than a year, state health officials
plan to ask lawmakers to fast-track permitting authority over
hundreds of miles of streams left unprotected after a 2020
Trump Administration rollback of federal Clean Water Act rules.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s move
comes just weeks after a federal court denied Colorado’s effort
to prevent the new federal rules from taking effect.
Our two-day Water 101 Workshop begins on Earth Day,
when you can gain a deeper understanding of
California’s most precious natural resource. One of our
most popular events, the once-a-year workshop will be held as
an engaging online event on the afternoons of Thursday, April
22 and Friday, April 23. California’s water basics will be
covered by some of the state’s leading policy and legal
experts, including the history, geography, legal and political
facets of water in the state, as well a look at hot topics and
current issues of concern.
Not counting long and ugly court battles, the two most likely
solutions to California water wars are voluntary agreements or
involuntary edicts. Our Modesto Bee Editorial Board long
has favored voluntary agreements, or compromises negotiated
mainly between local irrigation districts (representing our
farmers) and state and federal officials. The other side,
chiefly represented by environmental and fishing interests,
would prefer that the California State Water Board simply take
huge amounts of water from our Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced
rivers, mostly to benefit fish — what could be called
involuntary edicts.
-Written by Garth Stapley, The Modesto Bee’s opinion
editor.
The State Water Board on Tuesday approved an update to dredge
and fill procedures for wetlands considered waters of the
state. According to staff, the new resolution simply reflects a
recent court decision that the board cannot centralize all of
its water plans and policies under one regulatory umbrella. For
water interests, however, the resolution raised significant
concerns and could create conflicts with regulations that
directly impact agriculture. Valerie Kincaid, an attorney
representing a coalition of valley water agencies, contended
the new resolution fails to comply with the judgement and
threatens to compromise the board’s integrity.
For seven days in mid-March 2021, the Bureau of Reclamation
substantially increased Folsom Lake storage releases. Roughly,
the releases tripled in volume (Figure 1). The release of over
20,000 acre-feet of water is significant for a year in which
Folsom storage is not much better than it was in the worst year
on record – 1977 (Figure 2).1 With the release in mid-March,
the lake level dropped 3 feet. Yes, there was rain in the
forecast and a decent snowpack, but certainly no flood
concerns. So why? The reason was to meet state water quality
requirements for Delta outflow. Delta outflow increased from
7,000 cfs to 12,000 cfs for a few days (Figure 3).
Las Vegas water officials want state lawmakers to require the
removal of thirsty grass landscaping that isn’t used for
recreation. Southern Nevada Water Authority lobbyist Andy
Belanger told lawmakers Monday that climate change and growth
in the Las Vegas area would require communities to take more
significant measures to conserve water. The agency estimates
that more than 5,000 acres of “nonfunctional turf” — grass not
used for recreational activities like golf, youth sports or
dog-walking — is spread throughout the region.
Unrelenting drought and years of rising temperatures due to
climate change are pushing the long-overallocated Colorado
River into new territory, setting the stage for the largest
mandatory water cutbacks to date. Lake Mead, the
biggest reservoir on the river, has declined
dramatically over the past two decades and now stands at just
40% of its full capacity. This summer, it’s projected to fall
to the lowest levels since it was filled in the 1930s following
the construction of Hoover Dam. The reservoir near Las
Vegas is approaching a threshold that is expected to
trigger a first-ever shortage declaration by the federal
government for next year, leading to substantial cuts in water
deliveries to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico.
Rural water users are panicking over a proposal to create a
market for the sale and purchase of water rights in Nevada,
unconvinced by arguments that the concept would encourage
conservation. Lawmakers on Monday weighed whether so-called
“water banking” would be preferable to prevailing water law
doctrines that govern surface and groundwater rights disputes
in the driest state in the U.S. A legislative hearing about two
proposals to allow water rights holders to sell their
entitlements pitted state water bureaucrats against a coalition
of farmers, conservationists and rural officials.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom voiced his support last year for a ban
on hydraulic fracturing by oil and gas companies, an effort
long fought by the industry and trade unions alike, he gave
Democrats a green light to send him legislation to achieve that
goal as they saw fit. But the crackdown on oil and gas
production under consideration by the California Legislature is
much wider in scope than the plan requested by the governor,
who may get more than he bargained for as he shoulders the
pressures of carrying out the state’s COVID-19 pandemic
response while battling a looming recall election. The
ambitious proposal would outlaw hydraulic fracturing, or
fracking, and a series of other oil extraction methods reviled
by environmental activists.
With commercial salmon fishing in California likely headed
toward a shortened season starting in late June, fishermen out
of Half Moon Bay remain worried about what a short season means
during an already down year. … The shortened season will
be set based on an estimated low stock of chinook salmon
derived from statistical modeling. An ocean abundance forecast
of adult salmon estimated the Sacramento River in 2021 to have
around 271,000 salmon, while the Klamath River had around
181,500, both lower than their 10-year averages of 487,600 and
449,000, respectively, Morgenstern said.
The California Department of Justice (DOJ) filed comments with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) regarding Sunset
Exploration’s proposal to drill for natural gas in the Suisun
Marsh. Located in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, this 88,000-acre
wetland is home to a number of endangered and threatened
species, including California Ridgway’s rail, black rail, and
Chinook salmon – and is just a few short miles from
environmental justice communities in Solano County…. DOJ
urges the Army Corps to fully consider the proposal’s
significant environmental impacts, including harm to these
communities and protected species, as well as increased
greenhouse gas emissions, before deciding whether to grant the
requested permit.
A $230,000 revision of the Pure Water Monterey expansion
project’s environmental review document will move forward after
the Monterey One Water board approved the work earlier this
week. At the same time, board members backing the study
revision made it clear they wouldn’t support approving the
recycled water expansion proposal itself until an outside
funding source is available. On Monday, the Monterey One Water
board voted 7-3 to approve the work needed to update a
supplemental environmental impact report for the expansion
proposal, including consultant contracts and a cost-sharing
agreement with the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
whose board agreed last month to cover most of the revision’s
cost.
A federal judge has thrown out a legal action from multiple
environmental organizations seeking to halt the expansion of a
key Denver Water storage facility, citing no legal authority to
address the challenge. … The expansion of Gross Reservoir in
Boulder County is intended to provide additional water storage
and safeguard against future shortfalls during droughts. The
utility currently serves customers in Denver, Jefferson,
Arapahoe, Douglas and Adams counties. In July 2020, the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission gave its approval for
the design and construction of the reservoir’s expansion. The
project would add 77,000 acre-feet of water storage and 131
feet to the dam’s height for the utility’s “North System” of
water delivery.
State officials are putting farmers in south-central Arizona on
notice that the continuing drought means a “substantial cut” in
deliveries of Colorado River water is expected next year. A
joint statement issued Friday by the state Department of Water
Resources and the Central Arizona Project said an expected
shortage declaration “will result in a substantial cut to
Arizona’s share of the river, with reductions falling largely
to central Arizona agricultural users.” The Central Arizona
Project is an aqueduct system that delivers Colorado River
water to users in central Arizona and southern Arizona,
including farmers, cities and tribes.
If the mountain of proposed legislation is any indication,
lawmakers are increasingly primed to crack down on the plastic
waste that is littering roadsides, washing onto beaches and
into oceans, being digested by fish, and ending up in our own
bellies. In Sacramento, at least a dozen bills go after plastic
pollution from a variety of angles, including reducing the
amount of single-use plastics and refilling returnable beverage
bottles. And in Washington, D.,C., a sweeping federal proposal
co-authored by Rep. Alan Lowenthal, D-Long Beach, would place
much of the responsibility for plastic reduction and recycling
on companies that make and utilize single-use plastics.
Barack Obama was seven months into his first term as President
of the United States, the World Health Organization had
declared a H1N1 flu pandemic, and the California State Water
Resources Control Board (State Board) adopted the current
Construction General Permit for Stormwater Discharges (Permit
or CGP). It was September 2009. Now, having
administratively extended the Permit since 2014 when, by its
terms, the Permit expired, the State Board may, under a
schedule released late last year, soon release a new draft CGP
for public comment, with a goal of adopting it late this
summer. As with the current permit, the proposed new CGP will
regulate the discharge of pollutants from construction sites in
California.
Although most residents have safe drinking water, more than 250
water systems serving 900,000 people were out of compliance
with drinking water standards in 2020. This is a chronic issue
for some systems; more than 170 have been out of compliance for
three or more years. More than half of these noncompliant
systems are in the San Joaquin Valley—California’s largest
farming region and home to a third of the state’s low-income
communities. Some tribal water systems face similar challenges.
Data are lacking on water quality provided by roughly 1,500
very small, county-regulated water systems and more than
350,000 domestic wells, but some of these supplies may have
chronic issues as well.
Water releases designed to benefit the critical outmigration of
juvenile salmon on the Stanislaus River as well as assist farms
and communities along the west side of the San Joaquin Valley
already starting to suffer the effects of two consecutive dry
years is languishing in the federal bureaucracy. Up to
100,000 acre feet is proposed to be released that belongs to
the South San Joaquin and Oakdale irrigation districts that
would provide a critical impulse flow from April 15 to May
15. That water based on measurements at Vernalis south of
Manteca where the Stanislaus River joins the San Joaquin River
would significantly improve the survivability of the threatened
salmon.
Last week, the California State Water Resources Control Board
(State Water Board) officially released an order (the Order) to
investigate and sample for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
(PFAS) at over 160 bulk fuel storage terminals and refineries
throughout California. The State Water Board’s Order is the
latest action in a series of investigative orders over the last
two years to study and identify industrial and municipal
sources of PFAS in California including at airports, landfills,
manufacturing facilities, chrome platers, and wastewater
treatment facilities.
As California emerged from a historically tough five-year
drought in 2017, then-governor Jerry Brown signed two new laws
that required local water agencies to limit water use to 55
gallons per person per day, with water-use allotments dropping
to 50 gallons by 2030. Despite some misreporting to the
contrary, these limits on individuals were not
enforceable. Instead, the state imposed fines on districts
that failed to meet the new targets. It was pretty clear what
direction the state was taking: Since then, California has gone
all in for extreme conservation measures that could eventually
lead to rationing as water-use allotments drop. Unless
something changes, it may be only a matter of time before such
policies lead to personal restrictions on lawn-watering,
car-washing, and even showering.
-Written by Steven Greenhut, the western-region
director for the R Street Institute and a columnist for the
Southern California News Group.
Seven agencies that have been working together to sustain the
groundwater in the Cosumnes Subbasin, which includes the
communities of Galt, Herald, Wilton and Rancho Murieta South,
held a workshop March 24. The presentation was intended to help
residents understand how groundwater will be used in the next
two decades in the Cosumnes Subbasin. The group has until Jan.
31, 2022 to submit its plan to the state on how it intends to
meet its target of replacing 20,000-acre feet per year (AFY) in
underground basins called aquifers to sustain the groundwater.
One of the takeaways from meeting is the plan will cost $2.25
million in the early years.
A groundwater market, which caps total pumping within one or
more basins, allocates portions of the total to individual
users and allows users to buy and sell groundwater under the
total cap, is a promising tool for basins implementing
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
(SGMA). … [G]roundwater markets can be a useful tool for
achieving basin sustainability, but they are not a good fit for
every basin or groundwater sustainability agency (GSA). … The
Fox Canyon groundwater market benefitted from the four enabling
conditions (water scarcity, fixed allocations, agricultural
stakeholder support, and capacity and funding) described below.
On its face, SGMA appears to promise comprehensive groundwater
management. The legislature sought to “provide for the
sustainable management of groundwater basins”. SGMA therefore
“applies to all groundwater basins in the state”…. DWR has
ranked only 18 percent (94 out of 515) of Bulletin 118
groundwater basins as medium or high priority, although these
basins account for virtually all of current groundwater pumping
in the state. The result is a fragmented regulatory system that
leaves significant gaps in the sustainable management of
California’s groundwater.
The huge, lush green meadows that stretch between the S.R. 203
junction with U.S. 395 and Crowley Lake may seem like they have
been there forever but in reality, their existence has been
under threat for several years after the Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power threatened to withdraw much of the water
from the meadowlands a few years ago, stating it needed the
water for its own uses. If implemented, the proposed
‘de-watering’ of much of the massive meadows would have turned
them into sage and dust, destroying wildlife habitat, historic
cattle grazing leases, the fishing habitat along Hot Creek and
the Upper Owens River and much more.
Mark Twain is often credited with saying, “Whiskey is for
drinking; water is for fighting over.” This remains true in
California, where drought conditions, climate change, and
population growth throughout the state’s history have made
water an increasingly valuable and regulated resource. The
legal landscape involves complex questions related to water
quality, water sustainability, and competing claims to water
rights. One notable area of controversy involves the adequacy
of water supply for new development projects.
California has one of the most complex and complicated water
systems in the nation. There are hundreds of water
districts, different reservoirs and rivers and canals
controlled by different jurisdictions, and lots of politically
charged legislation. Understanding this system is a
difficult undertaking, but those at the Modesto Irrigation
District believe they’re up to the task. Through
emotional storytelling and strong characters, the MID set out
to explain how the rivers in their district nourish
communities by talking to the men and women who depend on
them. The interviews and stories eventually turned into a
feature-length documentary called Until the Last
Drop.
Imperial Valley grower, landowner, and former elected official
Michael Abatti has filed a petition for “writ of certiorari”
with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking review of the California
Court of Appeal, Fourth Appellate District’s decision in Abatti
v. Imperial Irrigation District, according to a press release
from Abatti and his legal team. Michael Abatti, Imperial County
farmer Abatti is seeking to overturn a previous appellate court
ruling that asserts Imperial Irrigation District is the “sole
owner” of water rights in the Valley, and farmers do “not
(have) an appurtenant water right” but rather are entitled
merely to “water service” that is subject to modification by
the district at its discretion, the press release states.
Arsenic naturally occurs in the region’s groundwater and
Allensworth is served by two groundwater wells that have
contained arsenic levels up to 60 percent higher than state
defined safety levels for drinking water. … To tackle
those challenges in Allensworth, the community is collaborating
with SOURCE to outfit their local community center with two
Hydropanels to sustainably generate drinking water. The
Hydropanels use the warmth of the sun to draw clean,
pollutant-free water vapor out of the air through a patented,
water-absorbing material and into a reservoir inside the
panel.
With the end of the first quarter of 2021 approaching, we
thought it timely to issue an update on selected recent
developments and proposed changes in law and policy touching
environmental, land use, and natural resource issues. At the
national level, with the new Biden administration, federal
policies already have undergone a significant sea-change from
those of the Trump administration. And the Golden State
continues to lead with a protective agenda on land use,
environmental, and natural resources legislation and
regulation.
On March 24, 2021, deputies with the Humboldt County Sheriff’s
Office Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) served one search
warrant to investigate illegal cannabis cultivation in the
Salmon Creek area. … Assisting agencies found one water
diversion violation (up to $8,000 fine per day, per violation).
Additional violations with civil fines are expected to be filed
by the assisting agencies.
Updated water supply allocations announced last week would
still drain upstream reservoirs in order to deliver 4.5 million
acre feet of water to the contractors of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP), devastating
fish and wildlife. This week, the fisheries biologists at the
National Marine Fisheries Service projected that these planned
operations are likely to result in lethal water temperatures
that will kill 89% of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon
below Shasta Dam this year. This mortality estimate is even
worse than what was observed in 2014 and 2015, when salmon
populations were devastated by warm water in their spawning
grounds.
In the coming weeks, officials are expected to release a new
plan for reaching the goals set out under the Paris Climate
Agreement and recommend changes to several national monuments.
More broadly, the administration is considering steps that
could include taking a harder line on climate regulations.
… The Biden administration has also listed dozens of
Trump-era environmental rules across several agencies that it
plans to review, including rules governing air quality
standards, water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.
Industry attorneys say they’re bracing for a wave of corporate
liability and litigation as the Biden administration works
swiftly to fulfill a campaign promise to control “forever
chemicals.” The Environmental Protection Agency this month
announced it’s working on three water-related regulations for
per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. It sent a fourth
chemical data-collection proposal to the Office of Management
and Budget, or OMB, for approval. … One of the the four
regulations the EPA announced would provide a needed, national
drinking water limit for two PFAS…
Over the coming decades, California’s San Joaquin Valley will
transition to sustainable groundwater management under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), ensuring
reliable groundwater supplies for generations to come.
Sustainable groundwater management and a changing climate will
inevitably affect how land is used on a sweeping scale. By some
estimates, the amount of farmland that will have to be taken
out of production to balance groundwater demand and supply is
equivalent to the size of Yosemite National Park — a transition
that could serve a huge blow to the agricultural economy, rural
communities and the environment.
Last week, the Court of Appeal for the Fifth Appellate District
of California issued a long-awaited decision in the Antelope
Valley Groundwater Cases, resolving a dispute more than two
decades in the making. The case adjudicated groundwater rights
in the Antelope Valley Adjudication Area (AVAA) in northern Los
Angeles County and southeast Kern County. The adjudication,
which commenced in 1999, involved private water suppliers,
public agencies, the federal government, and overlying
landowners who pump water for agricultural, industrial,
commercial, and domestic uses. Although currently unpublished,
the court’s opinion illustrates several important developments
in California groundwater law.
As California’s seasons become warmer and drier, state
officials are pondering whether the water rights permitting
system needs revising to better reflect the reality of climate
change’s effect on the timing and volume of the state’s water
supply. A report by the State Water Resources Control Board
recommends that new water rights permits be tailored to
California’s increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable
enough to ensure water exists to meet an applicant’s
demand.
A legal battle over plans to log in the lower Gualala River
flood plain is heading into a fifth year, despite a recent
victory in state appeals court by Gualala Redwood Timber and
Cal Fire which first approved the project back in 2016. The
fight over the 342-acre timber project in the northwest corner
of Sonoma County adjacent Gualala Point Regional Park is now
shifting to a new case gearing up in federal court. … Friends
of the Gualala River, a 30-year-old grassroots nonprofit
organization supported by like-minded groups around the region,
is seeking to block the harvest, which is targeting stands of
second-growth forest including some century-old redwoods.
Even before the pandemic, Americans were already flushing far
too many wipes into the sewer system. After a year of staying
at home, the pipe-clogging problem has gotten worse.
… Sewer backups are up 50%… Last year, Washington
became the first state to pass legislation requiring
manufacturers to label their products with “do not flush”
disclaimers, and states including California have
also introduced bills that would mandate similar labels.
The city is getting ready to impose new penalties for water
customers who exceed their rations during St. Helena’s Phase II
water emergency. On Tuesday the City Council told staff to
bring the recommended penalties back for adoption at the April
13 council meeting. The new penalties would take effect May 1.
Meanwhile, city officials will develop clear conservation
targets and look at adjusting the city’s water management
policies, including how water allocations are calculated.
Vandals caused thousands of dollars in damage to a Calaveras
County water authority’s supply system and now the public’s
help is being sought to catch the suspects. The crime occurred
sometime during the weekend of Saturday, March 6th at the Utica
Water and Power Authority’s (Utica) public water supply system
east of Forest Meadows near the end of Pennsylvania Gulch Road
in the Murphys area. Authority officials note that this is the
only water supply for more than 10,000 residential, commercial
and agricultural customers between Murphys and Angels
Camp.
ACWA-sponsored SB 323 (Caballero) passed out of the Senate
Government and Finance Committee on March 25, following a
hearing in which ACWA staff and members testified in
support….The bill would improve financial stability for
public agencies by creating a 120-day statute of limitations
for legal challenges to water and sewer service rates. It comes
as water and wastewater agencies have faced increased
litigation from ratepayers over whether agency rates comply
with Proposition 218 and other existing laws.
The Ninth Circuit reversed a conviction for three counts of
violations under the Clean Water Act because the district court
failed to instruct the jury that the defendant needed to
knowingly discharge material “into water” to convict.
… In the summer of 2014, Lucero executed a scheme under
which he charged construction companies to dump dirt and debris
on lands near the San Francisco Bay, including wetlands and a
tributary subject to the Clean Water Act. Although Lucero
admitted to “walking the land” where the dumping happened, the
period when the dumping occurred was unusually dry due to
drought. The trial court found Lucero guilty on two counts of
discharges into wetlands and one count of discharge into a
tributary.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
A California Court of Appeal recently issued two opinions
affirming a physical solution limiting the right to pump
groundwater by a landowner who has never pumped from the
groundwater basin or who has not established the amount or
reasonableness of pumping. A landowner filed the underlying
lawsuit in 1999 to quiet title to its claimed superior
groundwater rights in a groundwater basin that had been in a
state of overdraft for decades. The lawsuit became a
comprehensive groundwater adjudication involving approximately
70,000 landowners in the Antelope Valley area of California,
including two separate classes and the United States.
Arizona tribal officials told a Senate committee Wednesday that
the federal government can help address a crisis with water
infrastructure on their lands through more funding, and less
meddling. Navajo Department of Water Resources Director Jason
John and Colorado River Indian Tribes Chairwoman Amelia Flores
made the comments during a Senate Indian Affairs Committee
hearing on water infrastructure for Native communities. Leaders
of Oregon and Alaska tribes also testified at the
hearing.
From the very first gold miners making claims to divert streams
in the Sierra Nevada foothills to the later wrangling that
enabled irrigation of Central Valley farmland and drinking
water to be sent to growing cities in California, water rights
are an indispensable cornerstone of the state’s water supply
and delivery system.
Meager anticipated snowmelt runoff is expected to mean another
challenging year for maintaining even below-optimal levels of
flows in the Colorado River downstream of the Palisade area for
the benefit of endangered fish. … What’s referred to as
the 15-Mile Reach of the river between the Palisade area and
the Gunnison River confluence is of particular concern for the
Upper Colorado River Endangered Fish Recovery Program, which
focuses on four endangered fish. The stretch is primarily used
by two of the fish — the razorback sucker and Colorado
pikeminnow. But it’s also used by a third, the bonytail. And a
fourth, the humpback chub, which favors downstream stretches
such as Westwater Canyon, indirectly benefits from efforts to
bolster flows in the 15-Mile Reach.
Water quality testing commissioned by two groups lobbying for
the end of ranching in the Point Reyes National Seashore shows
fecal contamination exceeding federal recreational standards in
several waterways feeding the Pacific Ocean. In response,
seashore personnel point to their nearly finalized general
management amendment, which requires water quality
improvements. The tests from two rainy January days included
samples from and near Kehoe Lagoon, Abbotts Lagoon and Schooner
Creek, and showed exceedances in levels of E. coli and
Enterococcus—bacteria that serve as common indicators for fecal
contamination.
A San Diego program that aims to keep toxic sewer water out of
the Pacific Ocean suffers from outdated methods and inadequate
efforts to identify and inspect the business sites of
industrial polluters, a new city audit says. The 56-page audit
says the program, which oversees industrial polluters served by
San Diego and 12 other local sewer districts, needs to step up
efforts to find polluters and modernize its inspection program.
The program – the Industrial Wastewater Control Program – is
also understaffed and not capable of handling the larger
workload it should handle without adding more workers, the
audit says.
An extra dry summer with potential for water shortages – that’s
what state and federal officials are telling Californians to
prepare for. Predictions for 2021 are bleak. Lake levels
are low and the Sacramento region is not getting the spring
showers many hoped for. According to the US drought monitor,
most of the Central Valley is experiencing severe to extreme
drought conditions. This week the Department of Water
Resources lowered its expected forecast of water deliveries
made to cities and farms by half. But any conservation
restrictions would be up to local authorities.
As a result of increasing demand for water, exacerbated by the
decades-long drought in the Colorado River system, the Colorado
State Engineer is considering a proposal that would impose
stricter limitations on the permitting of new groundwater wells
in the Yampa River Basin upstream of where the Yampa River
meets the Little Snake River. The Yampa River flows west
from its headwaters near Steamboat Springs, in northwest
Colorado. After it is joined by the Little Snake River,
it flows to meet the Green River near the Colorado-Utah state
line. From there, the Green River flows south as a major
tributary of the Colorado River.
One of the most critical negotiations for Utah’s future is
coming at a time when Utah’s delegations in Washington D.C. may
be less influential than every other party at the table. The
Colorado River Compact, hammered out in 1922 with few
amendments over the years, expires in 2026. Every other state
in the compact other than Utah has a majority Democratic or
split delegation in Washington. Those states? Colorado, New
Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and California.
The top state scientific agency charged with protecting
Californians from toxic chemicals has proposed adding the
“forever chemical” PFOA to the list of substances known to the
state to cause cancer in humans under the Safe Drinking Water
and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, otherwise known as
Proposition 65. The California Environmental Protection
Agency’s Office of Environmental Health and Hazard Assessment,
or OEHHA, said March 19 that PFOA “meets the criteria for
listing as known to the state to cause cancer under Proposition
65,” based on the findings of a National Toxicology Program
report last year.
It wipes out entire communities in a matter of moments, weakens
our lungs and even taints our drinking water, yet federal
strategy to combat wildfires remains outdated and largely
ineffective. The Biden Administration has an opportunity to
rewrite the playbook on combatting wildfires, according to
Stanford University science and policy experts whose research
on a range of related issues points toward bipartisan
solutions.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management decided to sell oil and gas
leases on public land in California for the first time in
nearly a decade without taking a hard look at the environmental
and public health impacts, according to a lawsuit filed Monday
in a federal court in the state. The agency’s “hasty”
environmental review ignored comments from experts and failed
to consider evidence showing fracking could pollute already
scarce groundwater resources, environmental groups say in the
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California
filing. The decision violated the National Environmental Policy
Act …
The name Erin Brockovich has become synonymous with those who
investigate and hold corporations to account for polluting
people’s water. Actor Julia Robert’s sassy film portrayal of
the single mum’s key role in winning the largest settlement
ever awarded at the time for a direct-action lawsuit against
Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), made her a household name.
… Despite the win, there was no Hollywood ending for the
community … Even with on-going clean-up efforts,
hexavalent chromium (also known as chromium-6, a chemical that
has been shown to cause lung cancer when inhaled by humans)
still haunts the plaintiffs, as the plume continued to spread.
A new poll shows Latino voters in California are even more
supportive than the general population of policies that protect
public lands and combat climate change. The new survey finds an
overwhelming majority of Latino voters, 85%, support President
Joe Biden’s new goal of protecting 30% of the country’s lands
and waters by the year 2030. … The poll also found 83%
of Latinos surveyed support dedicating funding to address air
and water pollution in lower-income parts of California,
compared to 72% of all voters.
Under an agreement with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), the USDA Forest Service closed 77 large-capacity
cesspools (LCCs) it operated in Arizona and California. The
Forest Service met the deadlines set forth in the agreement and
closed the cesspools, which can be sources of harmful water
pollution, in 11 national forests across the two states.
… Cesspools collect and release untreated raw sewage
into the ground, where disease-causing pathogens and harmful
chemicals can contaminate groundwater and surface waters that
are sources of drinking water.
The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, California’s state clean
water law, passed in 1969 and became the model for the 1972
federal Clean Water Act. Nearly half a century after passage of
the landmark federal law, it is time for both the state and the
nation to assess progress and chart a new course. Once again,
California is leading the way with Assembly Bill 377, a new
bill introduced by Assemblyman Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).
Although new legislation is needed, the existing federal and
California clean water acts have produced successes that should
be celebrated. -Written by Terry Tamminen, president of 7th
Generation Advisors and founder of Santa Monica
Baykeeper.
ACWA and its member agencies care greatly about water
affordability and recognize the centrality of this issue during
these uniquely challenging times. ACWA is advocating in
Washington, D.C. (already with some success) and in Sacramento
for federal and state funding to help public water systems and
treatment works cover customer arrearages accrued during the
pandemic. This funding is needed quickly — through immediate
action — as opposed to through the legislative process for
long-term policy bills.
Santa Clarita, a comfortable exurb of some 213,000 residents
about 30 miles northwest of Los Angeles, is one of hundreds of
California communities and districts grappling with the pricey
problem of drinking water that’s been tainted by per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), chemicals that have been
linked to cancer, liver damage, decreased fertility and
increased risk of asthma and thyroid disease. Last year the
Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency (SCV Water) joined a
multidistrict lawsuit filed in South Carolina that goes after
chemical manufacturers and makers of PFAS-laden aqueous
firefighting foam.
Tucked out of sight, oil wells run thousands of feet deep,
tapping thick crude from one of California’s many urban oil
fields. And in the fall of 2019, investigators with the state’s
oil agency flagged trouble. Nasco Petroleum was injecting
huge amounts of water into well bores above the legal pressure
limits, aiming to push more crude out of the aging downtown
field. … The wells, investigators wrote in a report to a
manager, posed “immediate” risks to drinking water aquifers.
Earth Island Institute, a Berkeley, Calif.-based environmental
nonprofit, sued a collection of the world’s largest food,
beverage and consumer goods companies, saying their use of
millions of tons of plastic packaging has resulted in polluted
oceans, waterways and beaches. … Another novel element
of the case is that the Earth Island Institute is claiming the
10 companies in question are also harming the institute
specifically by allowing plastics to proliferate in the oceans
off of California, causing the nonprofit to expend enormous
sums to effect beach clean-ups and other related
projects.
A proposal to create a watchdog for South Los Angeles County’s
dozens of disjointed and struggling water systems has stirred
fear among public agencies and companies further down the
pipeline that they could be the target of hostile
takeovers. AB 1195, introduced by Assemblywoman Christina
Garcia, would establish the Southern Los Angeles County
Regional Water Agency and grant it authority to assist failing
water systems with aging infrastructure, or to take control if
a system is no longer able to provide affordable, clean
drinking water.
Tribal leaders see President Joe Biden’s administration as
an opportunity to increase tribal consultation regarding issues
like water management, oil and gas leasing, and land
conservation. Here, we look at four major projects … that the
new administration is tasked with advancing…. Negotiations
among federal, tribal and state governments on water flows and
allocations in the Colorado River Basin began last year and are
set to conclude by 2026…. After years of political,
social and regulatory barriers, the undamming of the Klamath
River is within sight….
California landowners who haven’t been continuously pumping
from a depleted groundwater basin have lower priority rights
compared with entities that have continually pumped in recent
decades, a California state appeals court has said in a
first-of-its-kind ruling.
The bipartisan confirmation of Michael Regan as Administrator
of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) elevates a
public servant with a wealth of federal, state and nonprofit
experience. … This will require Regan to rely on his
expertise in air quality and climate issues—and the cleanup
agreements he brokered at NCDEQ—as he oversees increased
regulation of traditional energy sources and businesses whose
operations result in air, land and water pollution.
California has recently established a water futures market that
has brought with it some criticism as well as confusion. As the
first of its kind in the country, it will function similarly to
futures markets for other commodities. The market will allow
water users to lock in a particular price they are willing to
pay for water. This new futures market is entirely different
from water markets that allow the purchasing of water
allocations.
The city of Lathrop’s longstanding goal of discharging
highly-treated wastewater into the San Joaquin River could
clear a major hurdle tonight. Based on the current plan
the wastewater would be mainly discharged directly into the
river during winter months when irrigation demands are low and
river flow is high and reduced in the summer months when
irrigation demands along the river are at their peak.
California water suppliers could face state limits on the
concentration of two so-called “forever chemicals” before the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency sets national standards.
Maximum contaminant levels for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA)
and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are on track to be in
place in California in 2023 … The EPA announced in February
that it planned to regulate both chemicals and order nationwide
sampling for those and 27 similar compounds between 2023 and
2025.
Groundwater aquifers are best understood and managed locally;
therefore, the key to successfully implementing SGMA lies in
maintaining local control, something Farm Bureau vigorously
advocates. In addition, we have stressed that to reduce
dependence on groundwater, we must expand surface water storage
and recharge our groundwater aquifers when excess water is
available….Unless March somehow makes up for the lack of rain
and snow thus far this winter, we could see an increased
dependence on groundwater this growing season.
The National Marine Fisheries Service is considering whether
the spring-run and fall-run Chinook salmon that occupy the
rivers of Northern California and southern Oregon are
genetically distinct. The decision … would almost
certainly result in a listing under the Endangered Species Act
if seen as a separate species. … [T]he dams and
reservoirs that have been installed at various points
throughout the rivers of the West Coast create problems for
spring-run Chinook that are unique and separate from their
closely related cousins. It also allows the fall-run
species to outcompete the spring run since they both are able
to reach the same spots in the river to reproduce.
An estimated 100,000 Central Valley residents impacted by
nitrate groundwater contamination will soon be supplied with
safe drinking water on a temporary basis while more permanent
solutions are developed. These solutions in the form of
bottled water deliveries or bottle-filling kiosks are outlined
in Early Action Plans submitted to the Central Valley Regional
Water Quality Control Board for six geographic zones
deemed to have the most serious groundwater contamination
issues.
The San Joaquin Valley has begun to grapple with implementing
the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Figuring out
the math of balancing water supply and demand in ways that
cause the least economic harm to farmers and local economies is
challenging, and difficult tradeoffs are inevitable. We talked
with Emmy Cattani, a fifth-generation farmer from Kern County,
about some options.
We’re facing another very dry year, which follows one of the
driest on record for Northern California and one of the hottest
on record statewide. The 2012-16 drought caused
unprecedented stress to California’s ecosystems and pushed many
native species to the brink of extinction, disrupting water
management throughout the state. Are we ready to manage
our freshwater ecosystems through another drought? -Written by Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow,
and Caitrin Chappelle, associate director, at
the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy
Center.
Companies in these [pollution] cases weren’t required to plead
guilty; they weren’t convicted of any crimes, according to the
agreements. Instead, the government agreed to forego
prosecution for a certain time period or drop the case
altogether if the companies paid hefty fines and promised to
clean up the environmental damage they had inflicted.
… One concerned a waste hauler, Asbury Environmental
Services, accused of discharging marine diesel oil into a storm
drain that led to the Los Angeles River. In 2020, 10 years
after that incident, prosecutors wrapped up the case with a
nonprosecution deal.
A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled that the California
Coastal Commission did not abuse its power when it approved a
land-swap deal in 2018 that will allow for the rehabilitation
of 150 acres of wetlands, but also the development of up to 120
new oil wells. In a 22-page tentative ruling, Judge Mary
Strobel denied a request to stop the project in the Los
Cerritos wetlands in the southeastern part of the city.
Strobel’s ruling said that the commission did not misinterpret
the Coastal Act in approving the deal, and the public benefits
of the project were correctly weighed before voting to approve
the deal.
A judge has ordered the Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power to continue providing historic quantities of irrigation
water to lessees of its pasturelands east of Yosemite, despite
the agency’s assertion that climate change is making water
resources in the Sierra Nevada watershed increasingly
unreliable.
California is poised to issue the world’s first guidelines for
microplastics in drinking water despite no data on how
plentiful they are in the state, no scientific agreement on how
to test water for them and little research on their health
risks. The pieces of plastic — smaller than an ant, some
so tiny they can be seen only with a microscope — have
contaminated wildlife and human bodies through their food, air
and water. … Now the state Water Resources Control Board is
blazing a trail to issue a preliminary health-based threshold
and testing methods by July 1.
There has been no shortage of recent regulatory developments
concerning per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in
California, which are especially relevant to drinking water
systems and the consumer product community. On March 5, 2021,
the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board),
Division of Drinking Water (DDW), issued a notification level
of 0.5 parts per billion (ppb), and a response level of 5 ppb,
for perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS) in drinking
water. PFBS is a type of PFAS compound that is commonly
used as a replacement compound for perfluorooctane sulfonic
acid (PFOS).
Despite a February court opinion that vacated the quantified
water rights of the Klamath Tribes, the Oregon Water Resources
Department announced Friday that they will continue to enforce
the Tribes’ water calls until a judge orders
otherwise. The Klamath Tribes maintain senior water rights
in the Klamath Basin, which were affirmed by the Klamath
County Circuit Court last month, but Judge Cameron Wogan
wrote in his proposed order that those rights need to be
re-quantified.
The climate change cabal in Sacramento is ignoring some
extremely low hanging fruit in their bid to protect us from
ourselves. The reason they don’t see it is simple. It doesn’t
involve raising taxes, rewarding corporations or disruptor
greenies they align with, nor does it destroy jobs. The
California Legislature needs to ban grass lawns for front yards
as well as general commercial development for all new building
projects. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, editor of the Manteca
Bulletin.
As we celebrate National Groundwater Awareness Week, the
Northern California Water Association (NCWA) convened its
groundwater management task force this week to help coordinate
the various Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) in the
Sacramento Valley and to advance groundwater sustainability
throughout the region.
Learn from top water experts at our annual Water 101
Workshop about the history, hydrology and law behind
California water as well as hot topics such as water equity,
the Delta and flows, new federal administration and
more. This year’s workshop, set for April 22-23, will be held
virtually and feature a presentation devoted
solely to groundwater.
In a January test of the water in Abbotts Lagoon [at Point
Reyes National Seashore] …, the number of E. Coli cells found
in water samples was twenty times the safe amount. At Kehoe
Lagoon, the safety margin was exceeded by a factor of 40. It
gets worse for E. Coli’s nasty bacterial cousin known as
Enterococcus. It can devour your heart, stomach, brain, and
spinal cord. This monster thrives in raw sewage and intestines.
Kehoe Lagoon seethes with 300 times the acceptable amount of
this voracious creature. … Gee, you’d think the Park
Service would put up a few warning signs. But, no, there are
zero signs cautioning those who touch these waters that a drop
can wound and kill.
Vice President Kamala Harris was right on point last year when
she said that clean water is a fundamental human right.
President Biden has put those words into action by signing an
executive order establishing a White House council on
environmental justice. Every Californian has a right to clean,
reliable affordable drinking water. -Written by Jose Barrera, California’s state
deputy director for the League of United Latin American
Citizens.
A California man’s bid to invalidate a water district’s
property tax was dismissed because the challenge was not filed
within 60 days of the tax’s adoption, a state appeals court
ruled…
On the tail end of the second dry winter in a row, with water
almost certain to be in short supply this summer, California
water officials are apparently planning to largely drain the
equivalent of the state’s two largest reservoirs to satisfy the
thirst of water-wasting farmers. Gov. Gavin Newsom must stop
this irresponsible plan, which threatens the environmental
health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the water supply
for about one-third of the Bay Area residents. We should be
saving water, not wasting it.
California’s Governor broke new ground this year when he
committed to “transition away from harmful pesticides.” His
budget proposal to update fees charged on pesticide sales would
generate new funding that could be used to offer better
protections for farm workers, agricultural communities, and
vulnerable ecosystems, as well as help farmers adopt more
sustainable practices. … Pesticides remain a
widespread drinking water contaminant, particularly in
rural areas, and exposure to these pesticides has
been linked to increased vulnerability to COVID-19.
Proposed water wells in California don’t all require
environmental review under state and local permit laws, but
state standards governing well location will sometimes require
local governments to make discretionary decisions, triggering
such a look, a state appellate court said. The California
Environmental Quality Act requires discretionary
decisions—those that require an agency to exercise judgment in
deciding whether to approve a project—to undergo an
environmental review.
Water access in the western United States is controlled by
property rights to use water. In most of the region’s
watersheds, all of the water supply is legally claimed or is
projected to be by 2030. In such locations, new water demands
can frequently only be met through reallocation of existing
water rights. For decades, water markets have helped the
western U.S. voluntarily adapt water rights to new demands and
changing supplies, providing water for growing cities,
freshwater ecosystems and new farms and industries. However,
many have questioned whether western U.S. water law provides
sufficient flexibility to adapt to unprecedented water demand
and a changing climate.
[A] new 18-chapter book, written by agricultural economists at
UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UC Riverside, addresses issues such
as labor, water, climate and trade that affect all of
California agriculture. … Water, climate and trade pose
challenges and opportunities for California agriculture. In the
last decade, water scarcity and decreased water quality, along
with regulations to address these issues like the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act, have prompted farmers to use scarce
water to irrigate more valuable crops, as with the switch from
cotton to almonds.
California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots – home
to more unique species of plants and animals than any other
state in the U.S. This biodiversity makes up the beautiful land
and seascapes of the world’s fifth-largest economy and sustains
our health, cultures and quality of life. Yet it is
disappearing at alarming rates. … Environmental
laws such as the Clean Water Act and Endangered
Species Act are designed to protect the environment from
damage. What these laws are not designed to do is provide a
pathway for restoring nature damaged, for instance, by
development projects.
-Written by Ashley Boren, the CEO
of Sustainable Conservation, a San Francisco- and
Modesto-based nonprofit.
On February 18, 2021, the First Appellate District issued an
opinion in Sweeney et al. v. California Regional Water Quality
Control Bd., San Francisco Bay Region et al. (Case No. A153583)
(“Sweeney”). The opinion is much anticipated given its
relevance to the continued validity of the State Water
Resources Control Board’s recently adopted State Procedures for
Discharges of Dredged and Fill Material (“Procedures”).
The Appellate Court reversed the lower court in the entirety,
substantially deferring to the actions and prosecutorial
discretion of the State Water Resources Control Board (“State
Water Board”) and San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality
Control Board (“Regional Water Board”, collectively, “Water
Boards”) based on application of a revised standard of
review.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday joined a
lawsuit challenging a Trump-era rule revising nationwide
standards for controlling and remediating lead in drinking
water. While the final rule includes certain necessary
updates to the existing standard, these changes are
overshadowed by the unlawful weakening of
critical requirements and the rule’s failure to
protect the public from lead in drinking water to
the maximum extent feasible, as required by law.
Though the nonprofit tasked with Klamath River dam removal is
about to submit its definite plan to federal regulators, Del
Norte County and the Crescent City Harbor District are still
worried about potential negative impacts. Harbor commissioners
on Thursday agreed to sign onto a memorandum of understanding
that includes the county and the Klamath River Renewal
Corporation. The MOU contains conditions that ensures the
harbor and county can recover potential damages to the port and
the fishing industry that occur as a result of dam removal and
reservoir drawdown on the Klamath River.
It’s not long ago that Lake Cachuma, the main water source on
the South Coast, was in danger of going dry in a seven-year
drought. Water agencies from Carpinteria to Goleta spent
millions of dollars scrambling to buy surplus state aqueduct
water from around the state to avert a local shortage. They did
so not only because their groundwater levels were plunging and
Cachuma was failing, but because their yearly allocations from
the aqueduct had dropped to zero. Yet on Tuesday, the water
managers serving Santa Maria, Buellton, Guadalupe, Santa
Barbara, Goleta, Montecito and the Santa Ynez and Carpinteria
valleys will ask the County Board of Supervisors to grant them
the right to sell their state water allocations outside the
county — not permanently, but potentially for years at a
stretch.
Humboldt, Trinity and Mendocino counties could play host to
part of the largest new designation of federal wilderness in a
decade if Democratic sponsors of the land-protection package
can find a way through the divided U.S. Senate. A bill
sponsored by Rep. Jared Huffman, D-San Rafael, would designate
257,797 of new acres of wilderness in Northern California while
placing 480 miles of river in the region under the nation’s
strictest environmental protections for waterways.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent
today to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking
Endangered Species Act protection for the Clear Lake hitch, a
large minnow found only in Northern California’s Clear Lake and
its tributaries. The Trump administration denied the fish
protection in a December 2020 determination.
The Department of Justice can proceed with its claims that
California violated state law when it changed its water quality
control plan for the San Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta system in federal court, the Ninth Circuit ruled.
Granting a partial stay of the state law claims in federal
court is allowed in limited circumstances, but the federal
government’s actions here don’t amount to the type of forum
shopping that justifies a stay, according to the U.S. Court of
Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
On December 7, 2020, financial futures based on California
water prices began trading. This post is a short introduction
to these water futures. First, what’s a future? A future is a
type of contract. It obligates the seller, who receives money,
to provide some good at some future date, to the buyer, who
pays money now to lock in the right to buy that good at that
price. Humans have been using futures for thousands of years,
primarily for agricultural products. But in recent years the
futures markets have been expanding.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released the following
statement on being named chairman of the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. This subcommittee
has jurisdiction over funding levels for the Department of
Energy, the Army Corp of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation
and other federal agencies related to our nation’s energy and
water infrastructure programs.
The McMullin Area Groundwater Sustainability Agency (MAGSA), a
Groundwater Sustainability Agency in the Central Valley’s Kings
Subbasin, has been awarded a $10 million grant by the State
Water Resources Control Board through the Prop 1 Stormwater
Grant Program to expand the existing McMullin On-Farm Recharge
(OFR) Project located near Helm in Fresno County. The
Project is identified in MAGSA’s Groundwater Sustainability
Plan and is a key element in a vision developed by MAGSA to
achieve groundwater sustainability under California’s
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) through
innovative approaches in groundwater banking and crediting.
Bay Area political leaders and organizations have come together
to encourage the new Biden administration to protect Redwood
City’s salt ponds from future development by withdrawing a
Trump era appeal of a federal district court ruling deeming the
wetlands federally protected.
An expert panel has concluded that the decades-old practice of
irrigating agricultural food crops with “produced water” from
oil fields shows no evidence of increased risk to human
health. The panel’s 35-page Food Safety Project White
Paper is the result of five years of extensive crop sampling
and a thorough evaluation of data, along with a review of
existing literature…. The Central Valley Regional Water
Quality Control Board is inviting members of the pubic to
comment on the white paper at its next meeting on Feb. 18-19,
along with an option to submit written comments until March 5.
Emily Rooney, president of the Agricultural Council of
California, is a member of the advisory group for California’s
Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER)
drinking water program. She spoke with Agri-Pulse about an
unexpected coalition that helped bring about the 2019 law and
why the issue is important to agriculture.
Imposing hefty taxes on speculative water sales, requiring that
water rights purchased by investors be held for several years
before they can be resold, and requiring special state approval
of such sales are three ideas that might help Colorado protect
its water resources from speculators. The ideas were discussed
Wednesday at a meeting of a special work group looking at
whether Colorado needs to strengthen laws preventing Wall
Street investment firms and others from selling water for
profit in ways that don’t benefit the state’s farms, cities and
streams.
Shallow pools of water on lawns are ideal breeding grounds for
the mosquitoes that transmit West Nile virus, the most common
mosquito-borne disease in the United States. A new study by
scientists from UCLA and three other universities found that
reducing shallow pools of water where the insects lay their
eggs is key to preventing the spread of the virus. The study
… found that California’s water-use restrictions during
the statewide drought from 2012 to 2016 led to a decrease in
the number of mosquitoes that carry the virus.
Investors, farmers, and Reddit users can now all hedge bets on
the price of water in California thanks to the launch of the
first water futures market in the country late last year. It
represents a new financial outlook on water in California — one
driven by the market. Since its launch Dec. 7, the futures the
market has seen 180 trades — equivalent to over 550 million
gallons of actual water. But the water futures market has
nothing to do with the movement of real water: it’s just about
money.
Federal scientists and regulators repeatedly complained they
were sidelined by Donald Trump’s administration when they
warned of risks to wildlife posed by a California water
management plan, according to newly unveiled documents.
San Francisco is challenging the EPA over conditions imposed in
a permit that allows the city to send discharge from its
combined sewer system into the Pacific Ocean, according to a
petition for review in the Ninth Circuit.
Tools such a SWIIM–which stands for Sustainable Water and
Innovative Irrigation Management–provides a new standard in
water measurement that allows growers to receive an accurate
accounting of the water both delivered and consumed by their
orchards. … And, of course we are talking about SGMA, the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
On December 17, 2020, the Sacramento County Superior Court
issued a ruling limiting the ability of the California State
Water Resources Control Board (“State Board”) to implement its
adopted statewide wetlands and Waters of the State (“WOTS”)
regulations.
Save the Redwoods League today announced the successful
protection of Mailliard Ranch, a 14,838-acre property in
southern Mendocino County and the largest coast redwood forest
left in private family hands. The $24.7 million project secures
three conservation easements across the entire property, which
safeguard the land from subdivision and development, regardless
of future ownership. In addition to protecting sustainable
working forests across nearly 14,000 acres, the easement
protects nearly 1,000 acres of reserves, including old-growth
coast redwoods, mature mixed-conifer forest and salmon-bearing
streams.
On January 20, 2021, the California State Water Resources
Control Board (State Water Board) adopted a new statewide
general Waste Discharge Requirement (WDR) order for winery
process waste discharge facilities (New Winery Order). This
action will affect thousands of wineries and wine processing
facilities throughout the state.
Environmentalist groups aiming to stop a major controversial
housing development at the edge of Newark’s wetlands are
appealing an Alameda County court decision that would allow the
project to go forward, marking the latest volley in a
decades-long fight over the best use for the land. The Citizens
Committee to Complete the Refuge and the Center for Biological
Diversity … said the development “would contribute to
the loss of Bay wetlands and wildlife habitat,” such as the
endangered salt marsh harvest mouse, and could worsen flooding
in nearby areas.
Six states with drinking water standards for so-called “forever
chemicals” are now wrestling with what those limits mean when
water contamination from Department of Defense sites seep into
their communities. Members of Congress from both parties are
starting to vent their frustration at military foot-dragging
even as the states take different paths to address the
contamination.
With Democratic New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland poised to become
the first Native American Interior secretary, tribal
governments historically marginalized by the agency expect not
only a greater respect for their autonomy, but also a more
significant role in the nation’s land and water management
decisions.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug
against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes,
pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay
of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these
orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a
multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But
that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has
depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded
ecosystems. The land is literally sinking…
Groundwater provides about 40
percent of the water in California for urban, rural and
agricultural needs in typical years, and as much as 60 percent in
dry years when surface water supplies are low. But in many areas
of the state, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can
be replenished through natural or artificial means.
The Bureau of Reclamation released a summary report providing
an assessment of climate change impacts to water uses in the
West, including adding a new set of West-wide information based
on paleohydrology. The Water Reliability in the West – 2021
SECURE Water Act Report discusses changes and innovative
actions across the eight basins identified in the SECURE Water
Act.
Rivers may seem like immutable features of the landscape but
they are in fact changing color over time …The overall
significance of the changes are unclear and could reflect
various ways in which humans are impacting the environment,
said lead author John Gardner, an assistant professor of
geology and environmental science at the University of
Pittsburgh. One stark example from the study of rapid color
change is Lake Mead along the Colorado River.
To help you learn more about the importance of groundwater, the
Water Education Foundation has an array of educational
materials on this vital resource. And next week, the
Foundation’s online magazine, Western Water news, will
publish a special report examining how two local groundwater
agencies are taking different approaches to achieve
sustainability in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the most
critically overdrafted regions in the state.
California’s tussle with federal authorities over water
operations will get a second look under the new administration
of President Joe Biden. The 46th president plans to sign a
number of executive orders, including one that instructs agency
heads to review actions taken under President Donald Trump that
“were harmful to public health, damaging to the environment,
unsupported by the best available science, or otherwise not in
the national interest.” On the list for both the departments of
Commerce and Interior is a review of new biological opinions
adopted in 2019 governing water delivery in California.
The Sacramento County Superior Court recently issued a final
decision in San Joaquin Tributaries Authority v. California
State Water Resources Control Board, finding that the State
Water Resources Control Board (State Board) is not authorized
to adopt a state-level water quality control plan for waters
that are not classified as waters of the United States. As
a result, the State Board is prohibited from applying the Water
Quality Control Plan for Inland Surface Waters and Enclosed
Bays and Estuaries of California (Inland Surface Waters WQCP)
to wetlands that do not meet the federal definition of waters
of the United States.
Vicky Espinoza is on a mission. Vicky is passionate about
making sure rural, low-income communities and small-scale
farmers have a say in land-use and water-management decisions
in the San Joaquin Valley.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday, as part
of a 12-state coalition, submitted comments to the
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arguing that its new
draft guidance misinterprets the U.S. Supreme Court’s
decision in County of Maui v. Hawaii Wildlife Fund… In
the comment letter, the coalition argues that the EPA’s draft
guidance tips the scales in favor of polluters by providing
them with additional arguments to avoid regulation under the
Clean Water Act, contravenes the purpose of the
Act, and conflicts with the Court’s decision
in County of Maui.
The $227 billion budget proposed on Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom
includes $4.1 billion in spending on a suite of environmental
initiatives meant to fight climate change, gird California
against devastating wildfires, reduce smog, and bolster the
adoption of clean vehicles on the state’s roads.
With so much going on in the world right now, why should water
be a priority for the Biden administration? The fact is that
water challenges in the U.S. are severe and worsening. In
November, we hosted a webinar on our recommendations for the
next administration, taking audience questions on topics
ranging from the nation’s outdated infrastructure to the threat
to national security from rising international conflict over
water. Read on for our answers to some of these questions.
The Nevada Division of Environmental Protection announced that
$1 million in Clean Water Act grant funds provided by the U.S
Environmental Protection Agency will be used to complete 11
projects, including two in Lake Tahoe, to reduce “nonpoint
source pollution” and improve water quality across the state.
Cooperation between California and the federal government was
at a low ebb over the past four years. With a new
administration in the nation’s capital, what should be top
water priorities for collaboration between the state and the
federal government? The PPIC Water Policy Center recently
discussed this issue with a diverse group of experts.
After three decades of water wars in Southern California,
policy experts hope a new era in collaborative management will
offer inspiration for the ongoing and complex negotiations over
Colorado River allocations amid a historic and deepening
drought. “Those lessons need to catapult us forward,” said
Patricia Mulroy, former head of the Southern Nevada Water
Authority, during the fall meeting for the Association of
California Water Agencies in December. “These states, these
constituencies, these communities cannot afford for these
discussions to crater. Failure is not an option.”
Today, the Bureau of Reclamation announces the finalization of
the Municipal and Industrial Water Rate-setting Policy for
Central Valley Project water contractors. This accomplishment
provides agreement between CVP contractors, Reclamation, and
the Department of the Interior regarding the recovery of the
CVP cost for M&I water users.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a formal notice of
its intent to sue outgoing Interior Secretary David Bernhardt
for delaying protection for 11 species that have been
identified as warranting endangered status but placed on a
candidate list instead. The species that have been kept waiting
for protection are the monarch butterfly, eastern gopher
tortoise, Peñasco least chipmunk, longfin smelt, Colorado Delta
clam, three Texas mussels, magnificent ramshorn snail, bracted
twistflower and northern spotted owl.
Since the Clean Water Act passed in 1972, the assumption has
been that all waterways are protected from pollution… But the
Trump administration has managed to successfully chip away at
environmental protections in the US, including actions like
2020’s implementation of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.
The rule redefined which waterways are under the jurisdiction
of and protected by the Clean Water Act, omitting many wetlands
and non-perennial water sources, which means some areas of the
country are impacted more than others.
The EPA did issue a draft guidance memorandum relating to the
County of Maui decision, notice of which was published in the
Federal Register on December 10, 2020. However, instead of
clarifying the seven criteria stated by the Court in County of
Maui or the application of those criteria, the EPA took seven
and half pages to state three truisms and added an additional
criteria not stated in the Court’s decision bringing the total
number of factors to consider in determining whether a
discharge to ground water is the functional equivalent of a
discharge to navigable waters to eight.
Michael Raymond Plaziak, a water program expert and geologist
with a wide range of experience in water issues in both the
military and public sector, has been appointed executive
officer of the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Plaziak, who has been serving as acting executive officer at
the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, stepped into
his new role Dec. 14. He replaces former long-time executive
officer Patty Kouyoumdjian, who retired Aug. 21.
Now that the calendar has flipped to January 2021, it’s time to
say goodbye to the mess of the past year, yes? … The
pandemic’s economic dislocation continues to reverberate among
those who lost work. Severe weather boosted by a warming
climate is leaving its mark in the watersheds of the Southwest
[including the Colorado River]. And President-elect Biden will
take office looking to undo much of his predecessor’s legacy of
environmental deregulation while also writing his own narrative
on issues of climate, infrastructure, and social
justice….Litigation over toxic PFAS compounds found in
rivers, lakes, and groundwater is already active. Lawsuits are
likely to continue at a brisk pace…
The Sacramento Superior Court delivered a serious blow to
California’s regulatory program for the protection of wetlands
and other waters of the State. The State’s wetland protection
program (commonly known as the “Procedures”), which became
effective in May, was intended to create a regulatory structure
to fill the gap left by recent Trump administration regulations
that dramatically narrowed Federal wetland protections.
Ironically, the court’s order prohibits the State of California
from applying the Procedures to any waters other than those
already protected by Federal law, thus leaving in place the
very regulatory gap that the Procedures were intended to fill.
