The San Francisco Bay (Bay) drains water from 40 percent of
California. This includes flows originating from the Sierra
Nevada mountain range and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers
that make their way down through Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta
through the Bay to the Pacific Ocean.
The Bay is the largest harbor on the U.S. Pacific Coast and
covers about 400 square miles with an average depth of 14 feet.
Its deepest point is 360 feet at the Golden Gate.
Every year, more than 67 million tons of cargo pass through the
Golden Gate. The Bay also supports commercial bait shrimp,
herring and Dungeness crab fisheries.
The Bay is a vital estuary and a key link in the Pacific Flyway,
and millions of waterfowl use the shallow portions of the bay as
a refuge each year.
This year, 45 separate bills were introduced in the California
State Legislature aimed at amending the California
Environmental Quality Act. The sudden enthusiasm for changing
CEQA appears to stem from the recent controversy related to UC
Berkeley enrollment that erroneously blamed our state’s
landmark environmental law for the university’s poor planning.
… CEQA has also protected our region’s natural treasure,
the San Francisco Bay itself, from being filled. In 2001,
environmental review led the Board of Supervisors to reject a
proposed runway expansion at SFO after analysis showed it would
cause extensive harm to the Bay. -Written by Aaron Peskin, San Francisco District 3
Supervisor and member of the Bay Conservation and Development
Commission and the San Francisco Bay Restoration
Authority.
Forecasters expect a heat wave to bake the inland regions of
the Bay Area this week, with temperatures pushing into the 90s
and lower 100s. People living in the Central Valley and areas
around Sacramento face the highest risk of dangerous,
sweltering heat, according to a map tweeted Sunday by the
National Weather Service. It shows hot spots along the eastern
side of the Bay Area, and the weather becoming more moderate
toward the coast. … This week’s broiling weather
comes at the tail end of a ruthless summer in
California, marked by persistent drought and rising
temperatures. The season arrived with 100-degree
heat and a string of wildfires.
Marin officials might amend the county’s general plan to permit
denser housing in environmentally sensitive areas and areas
lacking water and sewer service. The Board of Supervisors and
the Planning Commissioners held a joint meeting Tuesday to
discuss changes to the general plan to allow more housing. The
county is under a state mandate to zone for 3,569 more
residences in the unincorporated areas over eight years,
beginning in 2023. The general plan allows development to occur
only at the lowest end of the density range in the Ridge and
Upland Greenbelt, the Baylands Corridor, areas with sensitive
habitat and areas without water or sewer connections.
Coastal cliffs in California’s far northern counties are
eroding faster than those elsewhere in the state, according to
a new study that used high-resolution data to pinpoint hot
spots where cliffs are receding rapidly along the state’s
entire coast. In the Bay Area, locations with some of the
highest rates of clifftop erosion include Daly City, Pacifica
and Bodega Bay, according to the study published this month by
researchers at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San
Diego. The highest erosion rates were found near Humboldt Bay
and in a few remote locations in Del Norte County.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday will be in the Bay Area to
announce a new water supply strategy for California as the
state contends with a historic drought. Newsom is scheduled to
be in Contra Costa County for a news conference detailing
“water supply actions” California is taking to adapt to hotter,
drier conditions caused by climate change, the governor’s
office said. He also is expected to announce new
leadership for California’s infrastructure
efforts. Drought has been a major concern for
Californians. A new study by the nonpartisan Public Policy
Institute of California found that 68% of state residents say
the water supply is a big problem where they live.
The city of Antioch sits right next to the largest source of
fresh water in Northern California. But it’s facing a water
supply crisis because of changes to the Delta, both natural and
man-made. … So, they’re doing what a lot of other
cities have only pondered–they’re building the first
surface-water desalination plant in the Bay Area. The new
facility, located at the city’s wastewater treatment plant,
will use large reverse-osmosis filters to create 6 million
gallons of fresh water per day–about a third of the city’s
needs–but with room for expansion.
People and pets are urged to stay out of the Oakland Estuary
and away from Alameda’s shoreline after potentially harmful
algae blooms were discovered, following several water tests.
For weeks, the water has looked muddy and murky, prompting
those who live on or near the water to question the unusual,
dark brown color. … At times, a green slime or sludge
appears near the surface of the water. Water samples were
taken by several agencies following KTVU’s questions and
reports about the water quality.
A new cruise will soon pamper passengers on a unique river
journey from San Francisco to Stockton, Sacramento, Napa and
back – for a hefty sum. With prices starting at $6,095,
passengers will travel round trip from San Francisco to
California’s capital city through the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta on a eight-day voyage dubbed the “San Francisco Bay
Cruise,” officials from American Cruise Lines said in a news
release. The most luxurious accommodation – a grand suite
with a private balcony – costs $11,680 per person. It’s
the company’s first-ever cruise in California, officials said,
with an itinerary along the San Joaquin, Napa and Sacramento
rivers.
Researchers at Stanford University and Emory University have
launched a nationwide initiative to monitor monkeypox,
COVID-19, and other infectious diseases in communities by
measuring viral genetic material in wastewater. The effort will
also provide health officials and the public with free,
high-quality data, which is critical to informing public health
decision making. The initiative is already producing data,
including the first detections of monkeypox DNA in wastewater
in the United States.
Proponents of a new plan to rehabilitate San Francisco Bay say
they hope to make significant gains in the coming years because
of millions of dollars in new federal funds. The estuary, the
largest on the west coast of North America, covers 60,000
square miles from the foot of the Sierra Nevada to the Golden
Gate, including the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The
estuary and the surrounding mountains, which hold about half of
California’s water supply, are home to highly diverse
ecosystems, including 100 endangered and threatened species,
and support a multi-billion dollar economy.
In the past few years, the San Francisco Estuary region has
confronted epic wildfires, historic rainfall intensity and
flooding, and chronic drought. The whiplash of these events has
confirmed that climate change has already begun to impact human
and wildlife communities from Sacramento to San Francisco, and
beyond. [T]he pervasive, horrific violence against Black,
Brown, and Asian and Asian-American people has amplified
long-term calls for racial justice, galvanizing new commitments
to address historic and present inequity through every thread
of our social fabric. These events have set the context for the
multi-stakeholder process that updates the San Francisco
Estuary Blueprint.
For generations, the 21-mile route linking Marin County and
Vallejo has been essential for commuters and travelers. Now
Highway 37 has become something more — a centerpiece in a
growing debate on how the Bay Area and California should
respond to climate change and when politicians should bite the
bullet to spend the billions of dollars needed to deal with it.
Caltrans is studying a plan to widen a traffic-prone, 10-mile
stretch of the highway at a cost of nearly half a billion
dollars while it comes up with a longer-term fix. But some
advocates say they should skip that step while significant
funding is available and do what all parties agree will
eventually need to be done by elevating the road.
Californians began paying more attention to their water use as
summer arrived, but statewide conservation remains well short
of what the governor has requested during the drought. In June,
municipal water consumption dropped 7.6% compared to the same
month in 2020, marking a second straight month of savings,
according to state data released Tuesday, and parts of the Bay
Area did considerably better. The four prior months, however,
saw increases in water use, sometimes by double digits.
… California has experienced three extraordinarily dry
years, exacerbated by rising temperatures, that have left
reservoirs low, groundwater diminished and alternative supplies
like desalination pinched.
The Bay Area’s unusual drizzly weather is expected to continue
through the weekend and could escalate into isolated
thunderstorms late Sunday into Monday, according to the
National Weather Service. The thunderstorms are expected to
mostly affect the southern portions of the Bay Area and the
central coast, according to Roger Gass, a meteorologist with
the weather agency. Locally heavy rain is possible.
One day while [civil engineer James Levine] was looking
out at the bay from his Emeryville office, Levine was struck by
the steep unnatural riprap shoreline surrounding most of the
bay that discourage wildlife from gathering there. He also
thought about the many tons of sediment that needed to be
dredged from the bay so that big ships could pass — and what he
could do with that fill to encourage wildlife habitat
elsewhere. Thus was born the Montezuma Wetlands Project in
Solano County, a private initiative begun in the early 2000s
that addresses two problems: the historic loss of wetlands and
how one can responsibly dispose of millions of cubic yards of
sediments dredged annually from San Francisco Bay Area ports,
harbors and channels.
A plan to remove a more than 80-year-old bridge in downtown San
Anselmo as part of a key flood control effort in the Ross
Valley has hit a snag. The news came as part of a mandated,
annual report on the use of funds generated by a stormwater
drainage fee presented to the Board of Supervisors earlier this
month. The fee was narrowly approved by voters in 2007 to do
flood prevention projects in the Ross Valley. Its passage
followed destructive storm-driven floods in 1982 and 2005 that
damaged 1,200 homes and 200 businesses.
Nearly 100 tons of sprawling fishing nets, piles of plastic
toothbrushes, laundry baskets, yoga mats, freezers and even a
laundry machine arrived at the Sausalito docks this week.
Fortunately for all, this haul of garbage was stored aboard a
130-foot-long sailing cargo ship that had just returned from a
cleanup mission in the sprawling garbage patch floating in the
Pacific Ocean. The cleanup operation was the latest to be
performed by the Sausalito-based nonprofit Ocean Voyages
Institute. The firm has been journeying to the swirling mass of
plastic and debris located between Hawaii and California since
2009 and has removed more than 692,000 pounds of trash.
Marin Municipal Water District officials, continuing their
quest to boost supply, met this week for a detailed cost
assessment on expanding reservoirs and connecting to new
sources. District staff stressed to the board that — unlike
other options under review such as desalination and recycled
water expansion that can produce a continual flow of water —
enlarging reservoirs or building pipelines to outside suppliers
does not guarantee water will be available when needed.
A company operating a sand-mining facility in Alameda County
will pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle charges
that it discharged untreated wastewater into Alameda Creek last
year, officials with the state Water Resources Control Board
(WRCB) said Thursday. Mission Valley Rock must pay nearly the
statutory limit after it allegedly discharged 41,000 gallons of
untreated wastewater from its Sunol facility in March. The
total settlement is $368,940. According to the WRCB, Mission
Valley Rock failed to properly decommission a pipeline, which
then ruptured, depositing several inches of sediment in the
creek bed and along the bank.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting
applications for approximately $29 million in grants, the
largest annual allocation ever, to protect and restore San
Francisco Bay watersheds and wetlands. The agency is announcing
two separate funding opportunities with a due date for
applications of September 20, 2022. … The San Francisco
Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund (SFBWQIF), a
competitive grant program EPA has administered since 2008, has
already provided $71 million over the years in 59 grant
awards.
The Board of Supervisors will consider new standards for well
permits at their meeting Aug. 9 in response to California case
law to protect rivers and other “public trust resources,”
according to a July 11 press release. The county will hold a
public hearing on the proposed amendment to the county’s well
ordinance, which would create new guidelines for Permit
Sonoma’s evaluation of environmental impact to drill new or
replacement groundwater wells. The ordinance may effect
approximately one-third of well permit applications sent to
Permit Sonoma and new wells may be subject to hundreds of
dollars in fees and new equipment based on the proposal.
A citizen suit action was filed by an environmental
organization alleging the public water system was potentially
subject to the RCRA “imminent and substantial endangerment
provisions” because the groundwater it utilized contained
hexavalent chromium. The hexavalent chromium in the groundwater
likely originated from a release at a wood treating facility
known as the Wickes site. The environmental organization
California River Watch (“CRW”) concluded that the hexavalent
chromium from the Wickes site migrated through groundwater to
the Elmira Well Field (“Well Field”). The City of Vacaville
(“City”) allegedly drew a significant amount of its water from
the Well Field.
Firefighters and air quality experts are cautiously optimistic
that a plan to flood the stubborn Marsh Fire with 10 million to
20 million gallons of water could finally end a two-month
nightmare for several eastern Contra Costa County cities
perpetually shrouded in a fog of acrid smoke from the
long-simmering blaze. ConFire crews flipped on three additional
water pumps Wednesday, bringing to five the number of pumps
pulling water from nearby Mallard Slough onto the 200-acre
property outside Pittsburg, which has been burning since late
May.
Pittsburg water customers will soon see a 5% increase in their
water rates for each of the next five years as a result of
council action this week. Paul Rodrigues, city finance
director, cited increases in the cost of energy and raw water,
and the need to make capital improvements – at a $76.5 million
price tag – in the water treatment plant as reasons for the
increases. Both commercial and residential customers will be
affected, but seniors will pay less, seeing only a 2% increase
each year.
The heavy storms that soaked the Bay Area last October ended
fire season and brought hope — dashed during dry winter months
later — that the state’s drought might be ending. But while
millions of people were celebrating the downpour the week
before Halloween, the rains also caused an environmental
headache in the East Bay, overwhelming a wastewater treatment
plant and sending 16.5 million gallons of partially treated
sewage into San Francisco Bay. On Monday, state regulators and
the East Bay Municipal Utility District, a government agency
that operates the plant at Point Isabel in Richmond, agreed to
settle the case in a deal that requires the district to pay
$816,000 for violations of clean water rules.
The city of American Canyon has filed a lawsuit asking a court
to force the city of Vallejo to provide drinking water to
certain areas of American Canyon under a 1996 service agreement
that Vallejo has sought to limit because of severe drought.
American Canyon filed its lawsuit last week in Napa County
Superior Court, which alleges that Vallejo breached the water
service agreement between the two cities by failing to provide
water to the Canyon Estates development, a new water delivery
location for Vallejo that American Canyon said was “designed
and constructed with Vallejo’s oversight and approval.”
The Marin Municipal Water District took a deeper look at some
of the more complex and expensive options on the table for new
supply: desalination plants and recycled water. The district
board and consultants with the Jacobs Engineering firm held
discussion Tuesday on the preliminary cost estimates, water
yields and challenges of building desalination plants and
expanding the district’s recycled water system.
On July 1, 2022 a panel of the Ninth Circuit issued a
superseding opinion in California River Watch v. City of
Vacaville, Appeal No. 20-16605, withdrawing its previous
opinion in the same case and reaching the opposite result. The
case is a rare example of a court reversing itself, and has
important implications for water suppliers in California and
nationwide. In California River Watch, the plaintiff
sought to impose RCRA liability on a water supplier based on
the presence of hexavalent chromium in the water it supplied to
customers, despite the fact that the water complied with the
Maximum Contaminant Level (MCL) for chromium established under
the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA).
Extreme precipitation from hurricanes and atmospheric rivers
can lead to increased flooding in the world’s coastal zones,
where more than 630 million people reside. Tidal marshes act as
important buffers in these areas, absorbing the initial impact
of storm surges and strong winds. In addition, tidal marsh
ecosystems rely on storm events to deposit sediments that help
with marsh accretion. In a new study, Thorne et al. focused on
tidal marsh accretion and elevation change in the San Francisco
Bay after an atmospheric river event in 2016-2017.
The National Weather Service has issued an advisory that King
Tides will cause minor flooding to coastal areas of the San
Francisco shoreline starting Monday night and will continue to
Friday, with the highest tide expected after midnight on
Thursday. The flooding is expected to begin tonight at 8 p.m.
King Tides are the highest predicted tides of the year in a
coastal region and normally occur only once or twice a year –
when the moon is closest to the earth. The event usually takes
place from January to December, but can also take place during
the summer.
The Bay Area’s largest water agencies on Tuesday were expected
to assess their current drought situations and possibly discuss
further restrictions on water use. Valley Water in the South
Bay, which supplies water for thousands in the Santa Clara
Valley, will report that between June 2021 and May 2022,
customers used 3% less water compared to 2019. That’s far short
of the 15% reduction goal set by the district’s board.
A company operating a sand mining facility in Alameda County
must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle allegations
it discharged untreated wastewater into Alameda Creek last
year, officials with the State Water Resources Control Board
said Thursday. Mission Valley Rock Company must pay nearly
the statutory limit after it allegedly discharged 41,000
gallons of untreated wastewater from its Sunol facility in
March 2021.
Where does your drinking water come from? Berkeley native and
self-described “water warrior” Nina Gordon-Kirsch wants you to
know. This month, Gordon-Kirsch, 33, is walking roughly 200
miles from her home in Oakland to the headwaters of the
Mokelumne River, the source of drinking water for most of the
East Bay. She aims to call attention to the knowledge gap
between urban residents and their water, a resource she says is
taken for granted.
Petaluma residents neighboring a planned groundwater well
project in the Oak Hill Park area are asking city leaders for
more transparency and review before approving its construction,
following concerns that the area’s foundation may be too
fragile. The Oak Hill Municipal Well Project would install a
well on a 5.58-acre, city-owned property at 35 Park Avenue, as
city officials look to offset the need for purchased water and
increase the reliability and diversity of local water supplies
during the ongoing drought. But neighbors are concerned the
well will have a negative impact on the environment and make
way for sinkholes.
As sea-level rise and flooding threaten to cut off Marin City
from emergency services and block one of the busiest North Bay
highways, the state Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom have
allocated $30 million in the state budget to begin planning for
defenses. The budget adopted on Tuesday provides $20 million to
begin designing flood protections on Highway 37 and the Novato
Creek Bridge. Another $10 million is for planning defenses for
recurring flooding on Highway 101 that blocks the only road in
and out of Marin City.
A lawsuit accusing Vacaville of endangering its residents with
tap water polluted with hexavalent chromium — the
cancer-causing chemical made infamous in the film “Erin
Brockovich” — was dismissed Friday by a federal appeals court,
which said the city merely carried the water in its pipes and
isn’t responsible for contamination caused by others. The city
was sued in 2017 by the environmental group California River
Watch, which said Vacaville had failed to inspect or clean up
the water it had piped in from wells near a former
wood-processing plant whose owners had dumped the chemical into
the ground for many years.
Blasted by sun and beaten by waves,
plastic bottles and bags shed fibers and tiny flecks of
microplastic debris that litter the San Francisco Bay where they
can choke the marine life that inadvertently consumes it.
Estuaries are places where fresh and
salt water mix, usually at the point where a river enters the
ocean. They are the meeting point between riverine environments
and the sea, with a combination of tides, waves, salinity, fresh
water flow and sediment. The constant churning means there are
elevated levels of nutrients, making estuaries highly productive
natural habitats.
Understanding the importance of the Bay-Delta ecosystem and
working to restore it means grasping the scope of what it once
was.
That’s the takeaway message of a report released Nov. 14 by the
San Francisco Estuary Institute.
The report, “A
Delta Renewed,” is the latest in a series sponsored by the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). Written by
several authors, the report says there is “cause for hope” to
achieving large-scale Delta restoration in a way that supports
people, farms and the environment. SFEI calls itself “one of
California’s premier aquatic and ecosystem science institutes.”
Zooplankton, which are floating
aquatic microorganisms too small and weak to swim against
currents, are are important food sources for many fish species in
the Delta such as salmon, sturgeon and Delta smelt.
This 3-day, 2-night tour, which we do every year,
takes participants to the heart of California water policy – the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterfowl, and extends from Alaska and Canada, through
California, to Mexico and South America. Each year, birds follow
ancestral patterns as they travel the flyway on their annual
north-south migration. Along the way, they need stopover sites
such as wetlands with suitable habitat and food supplies. In
California, 90 percent of historic wetlands have been lost.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
15-minute DVD that graphically portrays the potential disaster
should a major earthquake hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“Delta Warning” depicts what would happen in the event of an
earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale: 30 levee breaks,
16 flooded islands and a 300 billion gallon intrusion of salt
water from the Bay – the “big gulp” – which would shut down the
State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumping plants.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive plants can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native plants and animals. “Space
Invaders” features photos and information on six non-native
plants that have caused widespread problems in the Bay-Delta
Estuary and elsewhere.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
Operated by the U.S. Army Corps of the Engineers, the San
Francisco Bay/Delta Model is a hydraulic model of San Francisco
Bay and the Delta and is housed in a converted World II-era
warehouse in Sausalito in Marin County.
Stretching 320-feet by 400-feet wide, the Bay Model
features a replica of the Bay Delta watershed from the Golden
Gate to the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. Pumping systems move hundreds of gallons of water
throughout the display and create 14-minute tidal ebb and flow.
Invasive species, also known as
exotics, are plants, animals, insects and aquatic species
introduced into non-native habitats.
Often, invasive species travel to non-native areas by ship,
either in ballast water released into harbors or attached to the
sides of boats. From there, introduced species can then spread
and significantly alter ecosystems and the natural food chain as
they go. Another example of non-native species introduction is
the dumping of aquarium fish into waterways.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
