Stormwater runoff has emerged as a primary water quality issue.
In urban areas, after long dry periods rainwater runoff can
contain accumulations of pollutants. Stormwater does not go into
the sewer. Instead, pollutants can be flushed into waterways with
detrimental effects on the environment and water quality.
In response, water quality regulators use a range of programs to
reduce stormwater pollution including limiting the amount of
excess runoff and in some cases recapturing freshwater as well.
Fishers are fighting tire companies’ attempt to dismiss an
Endangered Species Act suit over the use of a rubber additive
known as 6PPD, which harms salmon, telling a California federal
judge the companies are trying to delay accountability…
Today, legislation to protect California’s iconic salmon and
steelhead trout authored by Assemblymember Diane Papan (D-San
Mateo) was approved by the Assembly Committee on Transportation
with a bipartisan vote. The S.A.L.M.O.N Act (Stormwater
Anti-Lethal Measures for Our Natives Act), would mandate the
development and implementation of a regional strategy by the
Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to eliminate (a
contaminant from tire rubber) from stormwater discharges
into specified salmon and steelhead trout-bearing surface
waters of the state.
Years after a massive spill at a Los Angeles water treatment
facility dumped millions of gallons of raw sewage into the
Pacific, officials with the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency have ordered several improvements at the plant to help
prevent another such disaster, even when facing more intense
storms from a changing climate. The administrative order of
consent, issued this month, requires the Hyperion Water
Reclamation Plant in Playa del Rey to make significant fixes to
its operations and infrastructure, including improving
monitoring systems and overflow channels, after the federal
agency’s review of the 2021 spill. The agreement, between the
EPA and the Los Angeles Sanitation and Environment division,
mandates the updates be implemented by the end of 2025, though
some are required to be completed as soon as within 30 days,
according to the order.
When heavy rain overwhelms wastewater treatment plants in San
Francisco, causing stormwater to overflow onto streets and
into the bay, sewage is an unfortunate part of the mix.
After heavy rain, the largest recipient of the potent brew of
stormwater and sewage in the city is Mission Creek — a
channel to the bay that is home to houseboats, walking trails
and a kayak launch. At Mission Creek, Islais Creek, another
channel at India Basin, and a few locations in between, the
city discharges 1.2 billion gallons of “combined sewer
discharges” in a typical year, according to the environmental
group S.F. Baykeeper, which has notified the city it intends to
sue over how such discharges impact the environment. A large
portion of the combined sewer overflows — which SFPUC said
are composed of 94% treated stormwater and 6% treated
wastewater — is making its way without basic treatment
into the bay during storms, according to S.F. Baykeeper.
Still water in the Tijuana River Valley reflects the chirping
birds who live there, giving the impression it is as nature
made it — until you see the floating trash and smell the
stagnant, polluted water. For decades, activists tried to clean
up the Tijuana River’s watershed as it flowed from Tijuana into
San Diego’s coastal waters, which are contaminated with both
human and industrial waste. A recent study from the Scripps
Institution of Oceanography found that coastal pollution is
also transferring to the air. “This is nothing short of an
environmental and public health crisis, and it has been made
worse by the fact that California companies are part of the
problem,” said State Senator Steve Padilla Monday, while
announcing SB 1178, a bill to address cross-border pollution.
… Los Angeles desperately needs to become more like a
sponge. That will help to capture more stormwater locally when
rain does come and lessen devastating flooding, said Edith de
Guzman, a UCLA water equity and climate adaptation researcher.
… The Rory M. Shaw Wetlands Park Project will
turn a 46-acre landfill formerly used for materials such as
concrete and gravel into an engineered wetland that can boost
local water supply and alleviate local flooding. It’ll also
become a 15-acre park with a lake and walking paths.
… But now, the biggest barrier to completing the project
is funding, said Mark Pestrella, the director of L.A. County
Department of Public Works, which is spearheading the project
(after it’s constructed, the city of L.A. will take over
maintenance). The new goal is to complete it by 2028 or 2029.
Water management might look different in Marin County as
agencies partner to understand extreme weather better. The
North Marin Water District, the Marin Municipal Water District
and Marin County joined the Center for Western Weather and
Water Extremes Water Affiliates Group in January. The group
researches “atmospheric rivers” and other severe weather to
improve water management, mitigate flood risk and increase
water supply reliability. … The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration says atmospheric rivers are storms
that move most of the water vapor out of the tropics. According
to the Water Affiliates Group, heavy rainfall from these flows
of condensed water is responsible for almost 85% of floods on
the West Coast.
Recently, we dove deep on how every time rain falls in Southern
California, gigantic pieces of infrastructure come to life in
an effort to sequester as much of the stormwater as
possible. Water agencies implement dry wells, dams and
spreading grounds the size of neighborhoods to give each drop a
chance to percolate deep into the soil and refill our overdrawn
reservoirs. The problem is we’ve all but run out of room
for spreading grounds, and while the water agencies are
implementing other options, you can make a difference at the
household level as well. All you need is a shovel, some rocks
and a tiny patch of land. The goal is simple: you want to
slow down water and give it a chance to sink into the earth.
For too long, California and other states have viewed
stormwater as either a threat or an inconvenience — something
to be whisked away from cities and communities as quickly as
possible. But as traditional sources of water face worsening
strain from climate change, population growth, agriculture and
other factors, those unused gallons of rainwater pouring across
asphalt or down rain gutters are starting to be viewed as an
untapped resource that can help close the widening gap between
supply and demand. In a report released Thursday,
researchers with the Pacific Institute determined that every
year, 59.5 million acre-feet of stormwater go uncaptured across
the United States — or roughly 53 billion gallons per
day.
Water diversions to Los Angeles—and away from Mono Lake—began
just after noon on January 31. With the turn of a control
wheel, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) opened
the aqueduct, sending Mono Basin water into the Mono Craters
tunnel and on a 300-mile journey down the aqueduct system.
… On April 1, the maximum limit on water exports will
increase nearly fourfold. Will DWP choose to maintain the same
export level as recent years? Or will it choose to quadruple
its water diversions—and push Mono Lake’s level
downward? This year is also shaping up to be the year for
action on the California State Water Resources Control Board’s
rules that govern the DWP diversions, and the flaws that have
become visible over the 30 years since those rules were set
forth.
The cause of Santa Barbara County’s biggest offshore sewage
spill in recent memory — north of one million gallons — remains
the subject of an ongoing investigation, the county supervisors
were told in an informational briefing this Tuesday
morning. The supervisors were most interested in figuring
out why it took six days for its Department of Public Health to
get the news of a leak that was first detected late Friday,
February 16.
California fails to capture massive amounts of stormwater
rushing off city streets and surfaces that could help supply
millions of people a year, according to a new analysis released
today. The nationwide report, by researchers with the Pacific
Institute, ranks California ninth nationwide among states with
the most estimated urban runoff. … The analysis reports
California sheds almost 2.3 million acre-feet of precipitation
from pavement, roofs, sidewalks and other surfaces in cities
and towns every year. If it were captured and treated, that
would be enough to supply more than a quarter of California’s
urban water use, or almost 7 million Southern California
households each year.
Senators agree more research is needed to understand how
microplastics affect human health, but they’re split on what
actions should be done in the meantime. During a joint hearing
Tuesday of two Environment and Public Works subcommittees, Sen.
Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) urged lawmakers to move “with
caution.” “We have to be careful that we’re not getting ahead
of, as we would say, the science and burden these
municipalities that are trying to meet today’s regulations,”
said Mullin, ranking member of the Chemical Safety, Waste
Management, Environmental Justice and Regulatory Oversight
Subcommittee.
From January to February, Southern California went from quite
dry to overwhelmingly wet, as a series of storms dropped more
than a year’s worth of water in just a few weeks, loading up
the L.A. River. Given that our dry months are coming up, just
how much of that stormwater were we able to hold on to? And
could we be doing better? The main way that we capture
stormwater is by letting it soak into the Earth and travel
through the soil into underground reservoirs. Back in the
day, this would happen all across places like the L.A. Basin,
but as we paved over much of the area, we lost much of our
ability to sequester rainfall. That’s where spreading
grounds, like those in the San Fernando Valley (seen below),
come in.
More problems arose on the Central Coast following a
wild storm Monday that flooded the region and transformed
the runways at the Santa Barbara Airport into a flooded
plain. The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department
announced Thursday that it was closing two beaches in the
county indefinitely, after waterways were contaminated by
thousands of gallons of sewage spilling from a sewer line and
manhole that were damaged due to the storm. Goleta Beach
is closed from 1 mile east to 0.5 mile west of the Goleta
Slough outfall after “a release of approximately 500,000
gallons of sewage from a damaged force main sewer line near the
Santa Barbara Airport to the Goleta Slough during the
recent rain event,” the department wrote in a media
release.
Visiting Death Valley today, it is hard to imagine nearly all
of it once underwater. It contains the lowest point in the U.S.
It is known for record-setting heat and aridity. But the land
there — and many of the basins that dot the Mojave and the
Great Basin — were once filled with water. During the last
Ice Age, in the late Pleistocene, a lake filled much of what is
now called Death Valley to a depth of about 600 feet. That’s
only a bit shallower than the modern-day Lake Huron (with a
max. depth of about 750 feet). It is believed that the body of
water, later described as Lake Manly, stretched 90 miles long
and 11 miles wide. And it was hardly alone. Further east, in
the heart of the Great Basin, Lake Lahontan and Lake
Bonneville, at their peak, stretched hundreds of miles.
California is taking advantage of this year’s storms to expand
water supplies, building off of last year’s actions to
capture stormwater. Last year, the Newsom Administration’s
actions resulted in three times more groundwater recharge
capacity than would have otherwise occurred. Since 2019,
the Governor has allocated $1.6 billion for flood preparedness
and response, part of the historic $7.3 billion investment
package and to strengthen California’s water resilience. Here’s
what the state is doing this year to capture water:
Twelve years ago, a San Diego County grand jury urged the city
of Encinitas to find a long-term solution to improve the
existing stormwater infrastructure in Leucadia Roadside Park, a
neighborhood in Encinitas. Last month, historic flooding
across San Diego County damaged the homes and businesses of
more than 1,000 residents – Leucadia Roadside Park was one of
the communities hit hard. The area’s inadequate stormwater
infrastructure was a major reason why. … Five of those
businesses had substantial damage, four are still closed for
repairs, she said, and one of those businesses may not be able
to reopen. Repairs are costing some business owners tens of
thousands of dollars.
A new report released Tuesday and written by researchers
at San Diego State University calls the Tijuana River a “public
health crisis,” citing broad evidence of unhealthy conditions
from untreated sewage to industrial waste. Authors
synthesize multiple studies that have documented pollution over
the years, leading with a recent paper that documented that the
threat also extends to ocean-going mammals. Bottle nose
dolphins stranded in San Diego died from infection by a
bacteria “generally transmitted through contact with feces or
urine in contaminated water, food or soil.
A notoriously flood-prone section of southern Marin could soon
get its own defense against sea-level rise. Caltrans is
proposing protections for the area along Richardson Bay between
Marin City and Tamalpais Valley. The project would include the
Manzanita Park and Ride lot and the Highway 101 interchanges at
Shoreline Highway and Donahue Street. An online public meeting
to introduce the plans is set for 6 p.m. Feb. 29. The webinar
can be accessed at bit.ly/3ud2ovl. … The lower half of
the Manzanita lot is closed an average of seven to 12 weeks out
of the year because of frequent tidal flooding driven by
sea-level rise, according to Caltrans. Intense rains coupled
with high tides also flood the southbound Highway 101 offramp
at the Donahue Street interchange in Marin City, O’Donnell
said.
If the floods, slides and landscape mayhem triggered by the
string of winter storms severely damaged your house in
California, there’s one bit of relief you can claim: a property
tax cut. Under state law, property owners who suffer at least
$10,000 in damage to their home’s current market value can
apply for a reassessment. They have to file an application with
their county assessor’s office within 12 months of the incident
unless their county offers a later deadline. … If your
home was substantially damaged or destroyed in the recent
storms, Proposition 19 from 2020 allows you to transfer the
taxable value to a newly purchased or constructed house
anywhere in the state within two years after you sell the
damaged property.
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
On average, more than 60 percent of
California’s developed water supply originates in the Sierra
Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade Range. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
This tour ventured into the Sierra to examine water issues
that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and
throughout the state.
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.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine
water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts
downstream and throughout the state.
GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
As we continue forging ahead in 2018
with our online version of Western Water after 40 years
as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also
got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.
State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing
up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and
combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish
and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps
unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved
Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if
anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that
marijuana was legal.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
Microplastics – plastic debris
measuring less than 5 millimeters – are an
increasing water quality concern. Entering the water as
industrial microbeads or as larger plastic litter that degrade
into small pellets, microplastics come from a variety of
consumer products.
Point sources release pollutants from discrete conveyances, such
as a discharge pipe, and are regulated by federal and state
agencies. The main point source dischargers are factories and
sewage treatment plants, which release treated
wastewater.
Problems with polluted stormwater and steps that can be taken to
prevent such pollution and turn what is often viewed as
“nuisance” runoff into a water resource is the focus of this
publication, Stormwater Management: Turning Runoff into a
Resource. The 16-page booklet, funded by a grant from the State
Water Resources Control Board, includes color photos and
graphics, text explaining common stormwater pollutants and
efforts to prevent stormwater runoff through land use/
planning/development – as well as tips for homeowners to reduce
their impacts on stormwater pollution.
This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses
the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent
facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully
illustrated with color photographs.
This 30-minute documentary, produced in 2011, explores the past,
present and future of flood management in California’s Central
Valley. It features stories from residents who have experienced
the devastating effects of a California flood firsthand.
Interviews with long-time Central Valley water experts from
California Department of Water Resources (FloodSAFE), U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Central Valley Flood
Management Program and environmental groups are featured as they
discuss current efforts to improve the state’s 150-year old flood
protection system and develop a sustainable, integrated, holistic
flood management plan for the Central Valley.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
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.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
This 7-minute DVD is designed to teach children in grades 5-12
about where storm water goes – and why it is so important to
clean up trash, use pesticides and fertilizers wisely, and
prevent other chemicals from going down the storm drain. The
video’s teenage actors explain the water cycle and the difference
between sewer drains and storm drains, how storm drain water is
not treated prior to running into a river or other waterway. The
teens also offer a list of BMPs – best management practices that
homeowners can do to prevent storm water pollution.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
For all the benefits of precipitation, stormwater also brings
with it many challenges.
In urban areas, after long dry periods rainwater runoff can
contain heavy accumulations of pollutants that have built up over
time. For example, a rainbow like shine on a roadway puddle can
indicate the presence of oil or gasoline. Stormwater does not go
into the sewer. Instead, pollutants can be flushed into waterways
with detrimental effects on the environment and water quality.
Lake Tahoe is one of the world’s most beautiful yet vulnerable
lakes. Renowned for its remarkable clarity, Tahoe straddles the
Nevada-California border, stretching 22 miles long and 12 miles
wide in a granitic bowl high in the Sierra Nevada.
Tahoe sits 6,225 feet above sea level. Its deepest point is 1,645
feet, making it the second-deepest lake in the nation, after
Oregon’s Crater Lake, and the tenth deepest in the world.
This printed issue of Western Water discusses several
flood-related issues, including the proposed Central Valley Flood
Protection Plan, the FEMA remapping process and the dispute
between the state and the Corps regarding the levee vegetation
policy.
This printed issue of Western Water discusses low
impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging
interest that are viewed as important components of California’s
future water supply and management scenario.
Growth may have slowed in California, but advocates of low impact
development (LID) say the pause is no reason to lose sight of the
importance of innovative, low-tech management of stormwater via
incorporating LID aspects into new projects and redevelopment.
This printed issue of Western Water, based on presentations
at the November 3-4, 2010 Water Quality Conference in Ontario,
Calif., looks at constituents of emerging concerns (CECs) – what
is known, what is yet to be determined and the potential
regulatory impacts on drinking water quality.
This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of
smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from
improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the
improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the
water community say conserving water is not merely a response to
drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which
every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.