Earthquakes, snow, wildfires, flooding, smog, fog, heat,
drought — these are just some of extreme natural disasters and
climate conditions experienced in the Golden State in any given
year. California is notoriously the “land of extremes,”
Kristina Dahl, senior climate scientist at the Union of
Concerned Scientists, told ABC News. Snowpack from the winter
could quickly melt into flooding come spring. Heat waves in the
summer pave the way for wildfires in the fall. Now, intense
moisture from atmospheric rivers is walloping the West Coast
with an inundation of precipitation — oftentimes too much at
once. A pervasive megadrought has been plaguing the region for
decades and to top it off, tectonic shifts could cause an
earthquake at almost any given moment.
Could too much rain cause more pollutant problems? It’s
definitely something to keep an eye on as Southern California
prepares for yet another storm. The wet conditions have caused
sinkholes and toppled tress, but all the rain is also sending
more pollutants into the ocean. … One way Los Angeles
County has prevented more trash from flowing into the ocean is
with the latest device called “The Interceptor,” which sits at
the mouth of the Ballona Creek near Marina del Rey. It has
collected trash since October 2022. According to the
county, since then, it captured nearly 122,000 pounds of trash.
Of that load, 40,000 pounds of trash was captured from February
to today.
Heavy rain this week turned the Los Angeles River flood-control
channel into a raging torrent, and with new storms expected on
Monday, emergency officials are keeping a wary eye on a
well-known stretch that has long been vulnerable to flooding.
Glendale Narrows is a lush seven-mile section of rumbling
runoff between Griffith Park and downtown that attracts
numerous sightseers and bicyclists. But despite its Instagram
appeal, the narrows is a flood manager’s nightmare. It remains
one of the few areas along the World War II-era channel that
has a soft bottom due to its high water table. As a result, it
is prone to erosion and buildups of sediment, vegetation and
debris that could back up flows dumped by major storms.
San Diegans are facing a tidal wave of rate increases in coming
years for so-called drought-proof water — driven in large part
by new sewage recycling projects coupled with the rising cost
of desalination and importing the Colorado River. While many
residents already struggle to pay their utility bills, the
situation now appears more dire than elected leaders may have
anticipated. The San Diego County Water Authority recently
announced that retail agencies should brace for a massive 14
percent spike on the cost of wholesale deliveries next year….
Officials on the wholesaler’s 36-member board are anxiously
exploring ways to temper such double-digit price hikes, even
contemplating the sale of costly desalinated water produced in
Carlsbad.
Health officials have closed access to parts of Doheny State
Beach after roughly 4,000 gallons of sewage spilled onto the
beach in Dana Point on Wednesday. The spill came from a main
city sewer line in San Juan Capistrano, according to the Orange
County Health Care Agency. The closure extends 3,000 feet
around the spill site at the mouth of San Juan Creek at the
beach in Dana Point, according to officials. The area will
remain closed to swimming, surfing and diving until follow-up
tests show the water meets acceptable standards. Orange
County Supervisor Katrina Foley’s office is monitoring the
situation and asked the community to stay clear of the area.
After the recent rainfall, landslides closed a section of
Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point and an area behind
four apartment buildings in San Clemente, Foley said in a
written statement.
For the time being, it is not safe for pets or people to go
into the water at Lake Elsinore, the city warned Tuesday. The
reason is high levels of toxins from algae were found in the
lake. … Lake users are advised to stay out of the water
until further notice, including boating and other water
recreation activities. People should also keep their pets out
of the water and not eat fish caught in the lake, according to
the city. The toxins are enough to kill pets and make
humans sick, the city reported. In humans, symptoms of exposure
include diarrhea, vomiting, skin rashes and eye irritation.
Pets may experience diarrhea, vomiting, convulsions and death,
according to the notice.
Like many deserts, lack of rainfall in the Mojave has pushed
life to the furthest limits of adaptation, saturating the
region with rare and unique species found nowhere else in the
world. In fact, one-fourth of plant species growing in the
Mojave Desert—the smallest of four major deserts in North
America—are one of a kind. One of those plants is the
white-margined penstemon, a small pink bell-shaped flower fixed
on long hardy stems with waved oblong leaves. The highly
adapted flower has carved a niche in the Mojave by occupying
sandy desert washes, valley floors, and mountain foot-slopes
where little else grows. … But the imperiled
wildflower faces a number of threats to its survival, including
urban sprawl, climate change, energy development, off-road
recreation, and invasive grasses.
Despite its arid climate, California’s Imperial Valley produces
most of the U.S. winter vegetables, providing the lettuce,
celery, cilantro, spinach, cabbage, broccoli, carrots and other
crops that allow people from Seattle to Boston to eat salads
and cook fresh produce year-round. Unlike most agricultural
regions, the Imperial Valley—with little rain and no
groundwater—depends on a single source of water: the Colorado
River. … Now, that lifeblood may be threatened, as
competing interests battle over supplies from the depleted
river and federal officials threaten to intervene. Despite
holding senior water rights, which give them priority in times
of scarcity, [farmer Mark] Osterkamp and other Imperial Valley
growers face an uncertain future.
Mandatory water restrictions are being lifted for nearly 7
million people across Southern California following winter
storms that have boosted reservoirs and eased the severe
shortage that emerged during the state’s driest three-year
period on record. Citing improvements in available supplies,
the board of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California has decided to end an emergency conservation mandate
for agencies in Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino
counties that rely on water from the State Water Project.
However, officials urged residents and businesses to continue
conserving, and to prepare for expected cuts in supplies from
the Colorado River. The announcement follows an onslaught of
atmospheric rivers that have dumped near-record snowfall in the
Sierra Nevada and pushed the state‘s flood infrastructure to
its limits.
California’s 11th atmospheric river storm of the season
barreled through a beleaguered state this week, dropping more
rain and snow, sending thousands scrambling for higher ground
and leaving more than 300,000 without power. The rain was
expected to continue into Wednesday across Southern California,
which saw rainfall records Tuesday. … The storm arrives amid
near-record snowpack and one of California’s wettest winters in
recent memory. Nine back-to-back atmospheric river storms hit
the state in late December and early January, and a 10th
deluged the state last week. Though conditions are
expected to clear after the storm, the relief will be
short-lived as yet another atmospheric river has set its sights
on California next week, forecasters said — just in time for
the first day of spring.
This winter devastating floods and mudslides in California
killed at least 17 people, closed roads for days and caused
thousands to be evacuated. Mud and water ripped through the
hillside town of Montecito five years to the day after a 2018
slide there killed 23 people and destroyed more than 100 homes.
Between 1998 and 2017 landslides and mudslides affected nearly
five million people worldwide and took the lives of more than
18,000, according to the World Health Organization. In
contrast, wildfires and volcanic activity killed 2,400. In the
U.S. alone, slides and other debris flows kill 25 to 50 people
every year. Yet by and large we don’t hear very much about
hazardous slides. Tornadoes, volcanoes, wildfires and
hurricanes get more headlines. They get more scientific
attention, too.
California is no stranger to big swings between wet and dry
weather. The “atmospheric river” storms that have battered the
state this winter are part of a system that has long
interrupted periods of drought with huge bursts of rain —
indeed, they provide somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of all
precipitation on the West Coast. The parade of storms
that has struck California in recent months has dropped more
than 30 trillion gallons of water on the state, refilling
reservoirs that had sat empty for years and burying mountain
towns in snow. But climate change is making these storms
much wetter and more intense, ratcheting up the risk of
potential flooding in California and other states along the
West Coast.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency has filed a
complaint against the operator of a mobile home park in Acton,
alleging that the park is using two large unlawful cesspools to
collect untreated raw sewage. The complaint identifies Eric
Hauck as the operator of Cactus Creek Mobile Home Park in
Acton. He’s also identified as a trustee of Acton Holding
Trust. The EPA alleges that Hauck has two illegal cesspools on
the property, despite large capacity cesspools being banned by
the environmental agency more than 15 years ago. Cesspools,
according to the EPA, collect and discharge waterborne
pollutants like untreated raw sewage into the ground. The
practice of using cesspools can lead to disease-causing
pathogens to be introduced to local water sources, including
groundwater, lakes, streams and oceans.
Even with winter’s remarkable rainfall, Mono Lake will not rise
enough to reduce unhealthy dust storms that billow off the
exposed lakebed and violate air quality standards. Nor will it
offset increasing salinity levels that threaten Mono Lake
Kutzadika’a tribe’s cultural resources and food for millions of
migratory birds. Any gain Mono Lake makes surely won’t last due
to the [Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's] ongoing
diversions….If DWP won’t voluntarily cooperate in finding a
way to protect Mono Lake, then the State Water Board needs to
step up and save Mono Lake – again. -Written by Martha Davis, a board member for the
Mono Lake Committee.
After enduring historic drought conditions exacerbated by three
years of the La Niña weather phenomenon, California is finally
free from her clutches, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration said Thursday. However, El Niño may be looming,
and with it, comes a whole new set of weather and climate
challenges. Unlike the typically dry years La
Niña brings to California, El Niño tends to bring
increased chances of torrential storms, flooding, mudslides and
coastal erosion. It typically occurs every three to five years
when surface water in the equatorial Pacific becomes warmer
than average. This week, the World Meteorological Organization
forecast a 55 percent chance of an El Niño developing heading
into autumn.
In many ways, Owens Lake — which dried up early last century
when the city of Los Angeles began diverting the lake’s water
supply to a major aqueduct — is a cautionary tale and a
harbinger of disasters to come. Climate change is altering
patterns of drought and rainfall across the world, and demand
for water is growing. Just 500 miles from Owens Lake, Utah’s
Great Salt Lake is drying rapidly and creating another stream
of toxic dust. And while Owens Lake has finally managed to get
its air pollution problems in check, it came at enormous cost.
In a sense, it is lucky that there is such an example already
out there, if only to demonstrate how important it will be to
avoid a similar fate.
San Diego has a dozen years to cut almost 11 million metric
tons of annual greenhouse gas emissions from its economy to
meet climate goals set by Mayor Todd Gloria last
year. That’s like removing 2.2 million gas-powered cars
from the road. Jumpstarting those emissions cuts will cost the
city $30 million per year through 2028, according to a new cost
analysis produced by the city’s consultant, the Energy Policy
Initiatives Center at University of San Diego Law School. And
then, it’ll be up to the City Council to prioritize that
spending.
States that use water from the Colorado River are caught in a
standoff about how to share shrinking supplies, and their
statements about recent negotiations send mixed messages.
California officials say they were not consulted as other
states in the region drew up a letter to the federal government
with what they called a “consensus-based” set of
recommendations for water conservation. Leaders in states that
drafted the letter disagree with that characterization. The
reality of what happened during negotiations may lie somewhere
in between, as comments from state leaders hint at possible
differences between their definitions of what counts as
“consultation.” The squabble is a microcosm of larger tensions
between states that use water from the Colorado River.
Some 22 billion gallons of raw sewage have flowed from Mexico
into San Diego County since the end of December, the
International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) reported on
Wednesday. … Acknowledging that sewage flows have
dropped to 106 million gallons per day and continue to
decrease, the agency noted that two wastewater collectors
are out of service due to excessive sediment buildup.
Last Thursday, flows reached 800 million
gallons per day, according to the IBWC. The
wastewater influx is the result of an extended bout of winter
weather, which has made a chronic cross-border sewage situation
worse over the past few months.
Imperial Beach’s new mayor, Paloma Aguirre, is dealing with an
old problem in her city: beach closures forced by raw sewage
from Mexico. A recent string of powerful storms in the region
has forced lots of raw sewage, trash, tires and other debris
across the southern border into California. “Because of the
nature of our watershed, there’s an incredible amount of flow
coming from across the border with trash, tires and sewage
polluting not just our recreational valley but also the
beaches,” Aguirre said. Imperial Beach, the first coastal city
north of the U.S.-Mexico border, is covered in signs warning
people to keep out of the water.
