Water quality in California is regulated by several state
agencies, including the State Water Resources Control Board
(State Water Board) and its nine regional boards, which
enforce clean water laws and the Department of Public Health.
Water quality concerns are also often involved in disputes
over water rights, particularly in situations involving
endangered species or habitat.
The State Water Board administers the Clean Water Grant Program
that funds construction of wastewater treatment facilities. The
State Water Board also issues general permits for municipalities
and construction sites that try to prevent contaminants from
those sources from entering municipal storm sewers.
Drinking water standards and regulations are developed by federal
and state agencies to protect public health. In California, the
Department of Public Health administers the federal Safe
Drinking Water Act, which regulates drinking water quality in the
United States.
The Biden administration’s ambitions to crack down on “forever
chemicals” — touted as an administration priority — are facing
headwinds from key industries that say they could be unfairly
punished and held liable for contamination they did not create.
Members of the water and waste sectors are ramping up pressure
on Congress and EPA to shield them from an upcoming proposal as
the agency makes progress on addressing PFAS
contamination.
Gobs of oily tar continue to slip past containment booms and
drain into the Smith River, nearly a month after an overturned
trailer spilled 2,000 gallons of the hot asphalt binder onto
U.S. 199 between Hiouchi and Gasquet. Spokesperson Eric
Laughlin with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s
Office of Spill Prevention and Response confirmed with the
Outpost that the toxic goop is actively leaking into the Smith
River, and that the agency received new reports of the material
traveling downstream on Friday.
If you think about the pollution your car causes, chances are
you’re not thinking about the tires. And probably even less
about a faraway creek, where a Coho Salmon is dying. But
researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere
… say as the rubber wears away from car tires during
everyday driving, it spreads tiny micro particles, including a
destructive chemical called 6PPD. … Now, with
information gathered in part by the [San Francisco Estuary]
Institute, the State of California is stepping in, laying the
groundwork for potential regulations to curb the toxic tire
pollution.
The Orange County Water District and the City of Garden Grove
began operating one of four treatment plants being constructed
in Garden Grove to remove per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances
(PFAS) from local well water. PFAS are a group of thousands of
manmade, heat-resistant chemicals that are prevalent in the
environment and are commonly used in consumer products to repel
water, grease and oil. Due to their prolonged use, PFAS are
being detected in water sources throughout the United States,
including the Orange County Groundwater Basin, which supplies
77% of the water supply to 2.5 million people in north and
central Orange County.
When you picture water storage, a water tower on slanted stilts
imposed upon a blue sky or a concrete reservoir piping water to
the city might come to mind. The issue of water storage has
become a high priority as regions such as California experience
severe multi-year drought and are impacted by overextraction
from aquifers. … The most climate resilient and long-term
strategies to address water shortage lie at our feet, in the
meadows that anchor our rivers headwaters and floodplains that
extend across the broad lower river valleys.
Veterinarians and researchers at the University of California,
Davis have developed a new way to detect leptospirosis, a
life-threatening bacterial disease, in dogs using artificial
intelligence. Leptospirosis is caused by the Leptospira
bacteria, according to American Veterinary Medical Association,
and it is typically found in soil and water.
… Infections stem from urine-contaminated soil, food,
bedding or from an animal bite. Dogs can be exposed to the
bacteria from drinking water in rivers, lakes and streams, or
being in contact with infected wildlife, farm animals, rodents
and other dogs.
Engineers at UC Riverside are the first to report selective
breakdown of a particularly stubborn class of PFAS called
fluorinated carboxylic acids (FCAs) by common
microorganisms. Under anaerobic conditions, a
carbon-carbon double bond is crucial for the shattering the
ultra-strong carbon-fluorine bond by microbial communities.
While breaking the carbon-carbon bond does not completely
degrade the molecule, the resulting products could be relayed
to other microorganisms for defluorination under in aerobic
conditions.
The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board
announced the appointment of Eileen White as its executive
officer, succeeding Michael Montgomery. Her first day is July
11. White most recently served as director of East Bay
Municipal Utility District’s Wastewater Department, where she
recently led the development of EBMUD’s Integrated Master Plan
for its main wastewater treatment plant, along with EBMUD’s
Climate Action Plan, to guide operations, investments and
priorities for decades to come. White managed a workforce of
280 people.
For years, plaintiffs’ lawyers suing over health and
environmental damage from so called forever chemicals, known
collectively as PFAS, focused on one set of deep pockets—E. I.
du Pont de Nemours and Co. But over the past two years, there’s
been a seismic shift in the legal landscape as awareness of
PFAS has expanded. Corporations including 3M Co., Chemguard
Inc., Kidde-Fenwal Inc., National Foam Inc., and Dynax Corp.
are now being sued at roughly the same rate as DuPont,
according to a Bloomberg Law analysis of more than 6,400
PFAS-related lawsuits filed in federal courts between July 2005
and March 2022.
In the current legislative session, lawmakers are working on a
bill designed to reduce plastic waste. If they are unable to
draft legislation by June 30, the issue will go straight to
voters as a ballot measure. The initiative, the California
Recycling and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act, would require
all single-use plastic packaging and food ware used in
California to be recyclable, reusable, refillable or
compostable by 2030. … Over the last year, research has
shown the presence of these particles in human
blood, healthy lung tissue and meconium — the
first bowel movement of a newborn. They are also found in
marine organisms, ocean water, air and soil.
Discovery Bay’s Willow Lake will be sealed off from water flow
next week for an experiment to reduce the number of blue green
algal blooms. The experiment is being conducted and monitored
by two separate companies and will last approximately three
months. The lake will still be available for residents to use,
officials said. Dave Caron, owner of Aquatic EcoTechnologies,
conducted tests in Discovery Bay waters in 2020 and found
peroxide to be effective in reducing blooms, but not harming
other plant or animal life in the water.
Last week, an official and dire-sounding warning about high
nitrate levels in the city of Exeter’s water supply began
appearing on social media sites, and with them came comments
rife with speculation, fearful reactions and visions of
impending doom. The water situation in the midsize foothill
town, however, is not as dangerous or widespread as some of
those who stumble across the notice without context imagine it
is. … The reality, says Exeter’s Director of Public Works
Daymon Qualls, is Exeter’s water remains safe for most
consumers. It should not be consumed by infants and pregnant
women until the nitrate levels drop, probably in the autumn
when the dry season ends.
For Executive Pastor Mark Spurlock, expanding classroom space
at the Twin Lakes Christian School in Aptos has been addition
by subtraction. At least when it comes to saving water.
Following development offset rules outlined by the Soquel Creek
Water District, the school engineered water-saving solutions to
offset the new space they were building including replacing
lawn areas with a drought-friendly plaza that catches and
diverts water routed from nearby rooftops. … To
better understand seawater intrusion, Duncan says the layman
can think of the Santa Cruz area’s aquifer as a giant bathtub
with mountain watershed on one side, and ocean on the other.
A dash of ruthenium atoms on a mesh of copper nanowires could
be one step toward a revolution in the global ammonia industry
that also helps the environment. Collaborators at Rice
University’s George R. Brown School of Engineering, Arizona
State University and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
developed the high-performance catalyst that can, with near
100% efficiency, pull ammonia and solid ammonia — aka
fertilizer — from low levels of nitrates that are widespread
in industrial wastewater and polluted groundwater.
Even if you’ve never heard of imidacloprid, there’s a good
chance the world’s most-used neonicotinoid pesticide is lurking
somewhere in your home. Or on your dog. Or maybe even in your
groundwater or drinking-water supplies. This insecticide,
widely used for decades on fruits, vegetables and many other
crops, has triggered growing concerns over its well-documented
role in the dramatic declines of birds, bees, butterflies and
other insects across the globe. … With imidacloprid being
discovered in groundwater and drinking-water supplies across
the state, state regulators — and legislators — finally are
paying closer attention … -Written by Jonathan Evans, legal director of the
Center for Biological Diversity’s environmental health
program.
In addition to removing 25,000 pounds (11,339 kilograms) of
underwater litter [from Lake Tahoe] since last May, divers and
volunteers have been meticulously sorting and logging the types
and GPS locations of the waste. The dozens of dives that
concluded this week were part of a first-of-its-kind effort to
learn more about the source and potential harm caused by
plastics and other pollutants in the storied alpine lake on the
California-Nevada line.
Your eyes aren’t playing tricks. That honking blob that looked
like a sea lion near Tower Bridge — it probably was one.
Sightings of the marine animals often make their rounds on
Sacramento social media, and can send the average user down a
rabbit hole (if you’re new, or younger than, say, 35 you may
also be excited to learn about Humphrey, the vagabond humpback
whale). But why are these creatures — who typically spend their
time on the coast — appearing so far from the ocean? The
answer’s rather simple: They’re are more of them, and they’re
hungry.
Research in Seattle-area creeks has discovered tire bits
shedding lethal amounts of a little-known, salmon-killing
chemical called 6PPD-quinone. … In December 2020, 27
coauthors published an article in the journal Science
identifying 6PPD-quinone as the coho killer. Within weeks, the
U.S Tire Manufacturers Association asked California officials
to treat tires with 6PPD as a priority under the state’s
toxic-chemical laws. Coho salmon is an endangered species in
California. The California rule, once finalized, would give
manufacturers of tires sold there 180 days to assess any known
or potential alternatives to 6PPD in tire rubber.
Nearly one year ago, a nonprofit launched an unprecedented
effort to remove trash from Lake Tahoe’s entire 72-mile-long
shoreline. On Tuesday, it completed its mission. Clean Up the
Lake ended up removing 24,797 pieces of litter weighing a
combined 25,281 pounds from the treasured alpine lake on the
California-Nevada border. Since the 72-mile cleanup effort
kicked off on May 14, 2021, Clean Up the Lake’s team of staff
and volunteers spent dozens of days pulling everything from
beer cans and beach towels to engagement rings and a cordless
house phone from the water near shore.
A handful of state lawmakers gathered last week on the side of
the Tijuana River Estuary that’s not visibly clogged by
plastics and tires spilling from Mexico down canyon gullies or
down the river itself to ask the governor for money to, well,
stop trash from spilling over the border. Southern
California lawmakers hope Gov. Gavin Newsom will put $100
million in next year’s budget to be split equally between the
Tijuana River and the Mexicali-to-Salton-Sea-flowing New River,
both sewage-plagued water bodies.
The rural hillside community of Devore has erupted in a dispute
pitting a tiny local water company against a group of residents
opposed to construction of a potential $7 million reservoir on
a board member’s property. At issue with some residents is a
99-year land lease agreement, ratified in July 2021, between
the Devore Water Co. and Doug Claflin, a member of the
company’s board of directors. It would allow the water company
to build a 610,000-gallon water tank on Claflin’s property
to treat nitrate-contaminated water by blending it with clean
water to reduce nitrate levels.
On Thursday, the Orange County Coastkeeper filed a complaint in
the Central District of California against Hixson Metal
Finishing, FPC Management, LLC and Reid Washbon alleging
violations of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act and Clean
Water Act. According to the complaint, the Orange County
Coastkeeper is a California nonprofit public benefit
corporation dedicated to the preservation, protection and
defense of the environment, wildlife and natural resources of
Orange County.
In a state where every drop of water matters, Sears and another
grad student, Mikaela Richardson, are out collecting data that
will help answer an important question that’s gaining more
attention from the scientific community: If massive wildfires
continue to spread across the West, particularly at higher
altitudes where snowpack is more plentiful and critical, what
effect will that have on the region’s water supply?
California’s inability to meet its long-stated goal of cutting
solid waste by 75 percent by 2020 has prompted
environmentalists to craft a ballot initiative targeting
single-use plastic products – including a sharp limit on their
production. The initiative on the Nov. 8 ballot marks the
second time in six years that California voters have decided on
plastics use. … The latest initiative,
the California Recycling and Plastic Reduction Act, would
require all single-use plastic packaging and foodware to be
recyclable, reusable, refillable, or compostable by 2030.
Plastic seems to be everywhere nowadays, and based on existing
research on the greater San Francisco Bay, it is highly likely
that the Napa River and its watershed are filled with it, too.
… The most recent of [activist Chris] Malan and ICARE’s
missions is the Napa Watershed Microplastic Project, although
the group has historically conducted steelhead studies, helped
restore Suscol Creek and the like. An educational endeavor with
the hopes of teaching the public about microplastics, this new
project came about when ICARE members started to notice an
uptick in the amount of plastic in and around the Napa River.
The San Diego County Water Authority has been granted its first
ever utility patent for a device that inspects interior
sections of water pipelines that are inaccessible or not safe
to inspect without expensive specialized gear and training.
Water Authority Operations and Maintenance Manager Martin
Coghill invented the tool to save time, reduce costs and
improve safety during ongoing aqueduct inspections. The Water
Authority’s industry-leading Asset Management Program includes
a proactive search for pipeline weaknesses that can be
addressed before they become large and costly problems.
The city of San Diego has won an appeal in its suit challenging
a state mandate that required local water districts to pay for
mandatory lead testing at schools, the San Diego City
Attorney’s Office said Wednesday. The ruling issued Friday
finds that either the state’s Commission on State Mandates must
reimburse San Diego for water testing or the city can impose
fees, charges or assessments to cover testing costs.
The Los Angeles City Council unanimously voted Wednesday to
begin the process to phase out single-use plastics at city
facilities and city-sponsored events, as well as to take steps
toward a potential citywide ban on polystyrene products such as
Styrofoam. … Wednesday’s motion instructed the city
attorney to draft an ordinance banning single-use plastic at
city facilities and at events on city property.
Mayor Eric Garcetti and Councilman John Lee visited the
newly-completed Los Angeles Reservoir Ultraviolet Disinfection
Plant in Granada Hills on Monday, May 2, which the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power said will treat up to 650 million
gallons of water each day, more than enough to fill the Los
Angeles Memorial Coliseum twice. The new plant will be the last
stop in a complex water treatment processes. It is the second
ultraviolet facility in the network…
Trash collected from the bottom of Lake Tahoe will be turned
into art. The Tahoe Fund is commissioning artists to create a
sculpture in Tahoe City by using some of the recovered items
found during a year-long scuba cleanup of the lake performed by
the Clean Up The Lake team.
San Diego County officials Wednesday will introduce a new
water-testing technology they will begin using the very next
day to provide same-day public warnings of poor coastal water
quality that causes illness. San Diego leaders say the
results will be more accurate and posted within hours instead
of the next day, reducing the time the public could be at risk
if water is contaminated.
In a first-of-its-kind legal action, California is
interrogating the role of fossil fuel and chemical giants in
driving the plastics pollution crisis and deceiving consumers
about recycling. California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said
yesterday that the state is investigating Exxon Mobil Corp. and
other companies for “their role in causing and exacerbating”
plastics contamination. … “In California and across the
globe, we are seeing the catastrophic results of the fossil
fuel industry’s decades-long campaign of deception. Plastic
pollution is seeping into our waterways, poisoning our
environment, and blighting our landscapes,” said Bonta, a
Democrat, in a statement.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta on Thursday announced a
major investigation into companies that manufacture plastics,
the first of its kind in the nation, saying that for 50 years
they have been engaged in potentially illegal business
practices by misleadingly claiming that plastics products are
recyclable, when most are not. Bonta said he issued subpoenas
to ExxonMobil, with other companies likely to follow, and said
society’s growing plastics pollution problem — particularly in
oceans, which are littered by trillions of tiny pieces of
plastic — is something they are legally liable for and should
be ordered to address.
A truck driver who law enforcement believes was driving under
the influence dumped 2,000 gallons of “hot asphalt binder” in a
California forest this week. … Officials from Six Rivers
National Forest said the trailer contained 2,000 gallons
of “hot asphalt binder,” which began seeping into the Smith
River. … A quick response by forest workers, Caltrans,
Del Norte County Office of Emergency Services and other
agencies minimized the spread of the chemicals. They believe
there are no impacts to water quality.
Stormwater infrastructure in cities is highly visible and
serves to mitigate flooding and reduce pollution that reaches
local waterbodies. Being so visible, it might be reasonable to
assume that stormwater is adequately funded both in
infrastructure and water quality management. Yet, stormwater
infrastructure and water quality improvement are notoriously
difficult to fund.
Drought can increase the concentration of pathogens and other
contaminants in well water. And fires can damage the well
equipment and piping, leaching toxic chemicals into drinking
water and forcing property owners to consider costly repairs,
upgrades and filtering systems even as they rebuild their homes
and businesses. Beyond the West, heavier rains and floods
threaten well water quality, too.
Residents in the Cañón de la Pedrera neighborhood of Tijuana
about six miles south of the border are complaining about a
putrid odor that is so strong some days it has made a few
neighbors feel ill. … The smell has lasted for weeks and
seems to be coming from a nearby concrete channel where some
residents appear to have built their own makeshift drainage
system to dump their waste water into. … That water
flows down the river and eventually ends up in the Pacific
Ocean.
Today, the Responsible Flushing Alliance (RFA) published a new
infographic highlighting some of the strangest objects that
have been pulled out of municipal wastewater treatment catch
basins in three California areas. … Consumers are urged
to look for the “Do Not Flush” symbol on the packaging of wipes
that are not intended by the manufacturer to be flushable. This
includes baby wipes, household cleaning wipes, makeup removal
wipes, and other wipes made with plastic materials that do not
disperse in water.
Germs are hitching rides around the world’s waterways on the
tiniest of rafts — microscopic plastic fibers from human
clothing and fishing nets — and contaminate the shellfish that
consume them, according to research published Tuesday by
scientists at the University of California, Davis. These
researchers hope to see further study on how the pathogens in
these contaminated fish affect the humans and other animals
eating them.
Onja Davidson Raoelison, a doctoral candidate in environmental
engineering at UCLA, has been working to keep waterways safe.
Her research and studies focus on green infrastructure and how
wildfires impact water systems…. Raoelison has been looking
at how biofilters can protect water from debris and toxic
pollutants such as heavy metals.
National City resident Ramel Wallace wanted to know what was in
the apple juice-colored water that poured from his tap earlier
this month, so he tested it and sent me the results. While a
water quality test purchased from Walmart is not as detailed as
one taken by a hydrologic specialist at a lab, Wallace’s tests
didn’t seem to show anything out of the ordinary, said Justin
Brazil, Sweetwater’s director of water quality, after hearing
the results read to him by a reporter.
You can’t see it, but how we live impacts it and plays a vital
role in almost everything that happens in Arizona. Groundwater
is located deep beneath the surface and stored in aquifers,
which are porous rock that contain or transport
water. About 40% of the state’s water supply is
underground, with that number likely to increase due to
reductions in available water from the Colorado River. An
ongoing concern is what would happen if the valuable resource
got contaminated.
You could say that Orange Memorial Park in South San Francisco
is about to turn deep green. … [Colma Creek is] an
historic, natural waterway that was heavily cemented for flood
control in the early days of the area’s development. For
decades, the creek has carried runoff from the surrounding
watershed straight into San Francisco Bay, along with a
significant amount of trash. But that’s about to change.
The Salton Sea, located in Southern California, is a saline
terminal lake that has had many identities over the past
century or so. Since its reincarnation in 1905 due to lower
Colorado River flooding that partially refilled the Salton
Sink, it has been California’s largest lake by surface area,
covering approximately 350 square miles…. Yet with nearly 90%
of its inflow comprised of agricultural drainage waters from
the approximately 500,000 acres of irrigated farmland in the
Imperial Irrigation District (IID), and exposure to an
extremely arid climate that results in excessive evaporation
… the Sea’s natural attractions have faded as the lake has
become more polluted and nearly twice as saline as the
ocean….
Microplastics are a pathway for pathogens on land to reach the
ocean, with likely consequences for human and wildlife health,
according to a study from the University of California, Davis.
The study, published today in the journal Scientific Reports,
is the first to connect microplastics in the ocean with
land-based pathogens. It found that microplastics can make it
easier for disease-causing pathogens to concentrate in
plastic-contaminated areas of the ocean.
The White House Council on Environmental Quality has reversed
three key Trump administration changes that govern how federal
agencies implement the National Environmental Policy Act
(NEPA). The rule, published on April 20, 2022, finalizes what
the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) called “Phase One”
of their effort to review and revise the Trump administration’s
July 2020 overhaul of the NEPA regulations, and follows a
proposed rule that CEQ issued for public comments last fall.
In November 2021, salmon entering Putah Creek were part of a
large fish kill in the lower creek. The event took
everyone familiar with the creek by surprise and prevented
successful migration of the creek’s fall salmon. Only 4 or 5
adult Chinook salmon made it upstream to suitable spawning
habitat. The result was particularly tragic as it followed
on the heels of the restoration of a salmon run in the creek,
as well as habitat for other fishes.
Unsafe uranium levels have been detected in more than 14,000
community water systems across the United States, and 63% of
water records reported at least a trace amount of the
contaminant, according to a new nationwide analysis.
Concentrations of uranium, along with arsenic, barium,
chromium, and selenium, were the highest in community water
systems that serve semiurban Latinx communities.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, the San Diego
River has long been listed as an impaired water body, but SDSU
researchers are working to fix it. … In another study,
SDSU environmental engineer Natalie Mladenov and her
team found that high levels of bacteria correlate with the
presence of caffeine and sucralose, found only in human
waste.
A group of business interests that have been historic
cheerleaders for a Monterey Peninsula desalination project has
written a letter to officials at Pure Water Monterey, the
provider of potable recycled water along the Monterey
Peninsula, questioning the adequacy of source water for it and
a planned expansion of the project, questions Pure Water
Monterey says it has already answered. The Pure Water Monterey
project is key to helping solve the Peninsula’s chronic water
shortages as state regulators have significantly scaled back
the amount of water that can be pumped from the Carmel River.
Brewers from Colorado to Wyoming to California are watching
nervously as [drought] grows more acute. …
[Mitch] Steele, who spent a decade as brewmaster at Stone
Brewing outside San Diego, says most of Southern California’s
water blends Colorado River water with Sierra Nevada mountain
snowpack transferred via the California Aqueduct. Extreme
drought conditions in California results in suppliers upping
the blend percentage from the Colorado River, which picks up a
large quantity of minerals as it travels the long distance.
In 2004, Emeryville, an industrial suburb of San Francisco,
sent an environmental remediation crew to inject 15,000 gallons
of cottage cheese into groundwater below an abandoned factory.
The factory manufactured car bumpers from 1951 to 1967, and the
hexavalent chromium it left behind had since traveled into the
groundwater. Hexavalent chromium gives humans cancer, trivalent
chromium doesn’t, and cottage cheese converts the former to the
latter.
The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board)
recently updated the regulated community and the public on the
Board’s statewide investigation to study and sample potential
sources of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
The State Water Board’s investigation is aimed at public
agencies involved in drinking water and wastewater treatment,
as well as private entities involved in manufacturing or other
industries where PFAS may have been used in various products
and/or processes.
Entities seeking federal authorization for infrastructure
projects that may impact waters of the United States must
obtain a Section 401 certification under the Trump
administration’s narrowed Section 401 certification rule—for
now. On April 6, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the
Trump administration’s Section 401 certification rule will stay
in place while further litigation proceeds, potentially
signaling how the court may view the underlying merits of the
case pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth
Circuit.
Arellano Mobile Home Park … is one of seven east Coachella
Valley trailer parks where since November EPA inspectors have
found water containing arsenic levels above federal legal
limits — even from a faucet equipped with a filter
— and thousands of times above state public health
guidelines. Low-income residents at the small park and
others like it told The Desert Sun they’ve long endured
foul-smelling water and have had to buy
gallons of clean water for years to try to stay
safe.
Amid the sweeping backdrop of the Topatopa Mountains and a
field of colorful organic vegetables, members of the Ventura
County farming community joined advocates and water experts to
urge the passage of Measures A and B. The twin ballot measures
would close a loophole in Ventura County allowing oil and gas
companies to drill without environmental review using
antiquated permits. In most cases, these permits were granted
between 1930 and 1970. Cynthia King’s farm, where the
press conference took place, is surrounded by a CUP that was
approved in 1928.
SL Environmental Law Group recently announced that its client,
Ballico-Cressey School District in Ballico, California, has
filed a lawsuit against Dow Chemical and Shell Oil, sellers of
pesticides that contained the chemical 1,2,3 trichloropropane,
known as “TCP.” The lawsuit claims that these products have
contaminated a well that the district uses to supply drinking
water at Cressey School, where special drinking fountains have
been installed to remove TCP from the water so it is safe to
drink.
As Clean Up The Lake nears completion of their 72-mile project,
Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak joined the crew on Monday to thank
them for their progress thus far. On Monday, April 11, Sisolak
joined officials from the Nevada Department of Conservation and
Natural Resources, along with staff and volunteers from CUTL
and project sponsors Tahoe Fund and Tahoe Blue Vodka, at
Nevada’s Sand Harbor State Park to celebrate the historic
initiative to remove underwater trash and debris from nearshore
areas across the entire Nevada side of Lake Tahoe.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Radically transformed from its ancient origin as a vast tidal-influenced freshwater marsh, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem is in constant flux, influenced by factors within the estuary itself and the massive watersheds that drain though it into the Pacific Ocean.
Lately, however, scientists say the rate of change has kicked into overdrive, fueled in part by climate change, and is limiting the ability of science and Delta water managers to keep up. The rapid pace of upheaval demands a new way of conducting science and managing water in the troubled estuary.
Out of sight and out of mind to most
people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has
challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the
desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body
inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking
dust.
The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and
Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate
management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the
Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial
Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water
allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the
district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.
Voluntary agreements in California
have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve
environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows
and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be
diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state
regulators.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Each day, people living on the streets and camping along waterways across California face the same struggle – finding clean drinking water and a place to wash and go to the bathroom.
Some find friendly businesses willing to help, or public restrooms and drinking water fountains. Yet for many homeless people, accessing the water and sanitation that most people take for granted remains a daily struggle.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
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.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Low-income Californians can get help with their phone bills, their natural gas bills and their electric bills. But there’s only limited help available when it comes to water bills.
That could change if the recommendations of a new report are implemented into law. Drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board, the report outlines the possible components of a program to assist low-income households facing rising water bills.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
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.
For decades, cannabis has been grown
in California – hidden away in forested groves or surreptitiously
harvested under the glare of high-intensity indoor lamps in
suburban tract homes.
In the past 20 years, however, cannabis — known more widely as
marijuana – has been moving from being a criminal activity to
gaining legitimacy as one of the hundreds of cash crops in the
state’s $46 billion-dollar agriculture industry, first legalized
for medicinal purposes and this year for recreational use.
As we continue forging ahead in 2018
with our online version of Western Water after 40 years
as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also
got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.
State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing
up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and
combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish
and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps
unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved
Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if
anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that
marijuana was legal.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
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.
A new study could help water
agencies find solutions to the vexing challenges the homeless
face in gaining access to clean water for drinking and
sanitation.
The Santa Ana Watershed Project
Authority (SAWPA) in Southern California has embarked on a
comprehensive and collaborative effort aimed at assessing
strengths and needs as it relates to water services for people
(including the homeless) within its 2,840 square-mile area that
extends from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Orange County
coast.
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.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Algal blooms in rivers, creeks and
lakes are an increasing
occurrence in California, threatening human health and safety as
well as pets. Blue-green algal blooms (cyanobacteria) occur in
California during the summer months because hot temperatures
combined with low water levels stimulate growth. If there are
excess nutrients present in their environment, especially
nitrogen and phosphorus, algae populations grow at accelerated
rates, creating algal blooms.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
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.
This 28-page report describes the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada
region and details their importance to California’s overall water
picture. It describes the region’s issues and challenges,
including healthy forests, catastrophic fire, recreational
impacts, climate change, development and land use.
The report also discusses the importance of protecting and
restoring watersheds in order to retain water quality and enhance
quantity. Examples and case studies are included.
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.
A 20-minute version of the 2008 public television documentary
Salt of the Earth: Salinity in California’s Central Valley. This
DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking
engagements to help the public understand the complex issues
surrounding the problem of salt build up in the Central Valley
potential – but costly – solutions. Narrated by comedian Paul
Rodriquez.
California’s little-known New River has been called one of North
America’s most polluted. A closer look reveals the New River is
full of ironic twists: its pollution has long defied cleanup, yet
even in its degraded condition, the river is important to the
border economies of Mexicali and the Imperial Valley and a
lifeline that helps sustain the fragile Salton Sea ecosystem.
Now, after decades of inertia on its pollution problems, the New
River has emerged as an important test of binational cooperation
on border water issues. These issues were profiled in the 2004
PBS documentary Two Sides of a River.
As part of the historic Colorado River Delta, the Salton Sea
regularly filled and dried for thousands of years due to its
elevation of 237 feet below sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
World-renowned for its crystal clear, azure water, Lake Tahoe
straddles the Nevada-California border, stretching 22 miles long
and 12 miles wide and hemmed in by Sierra Nevada peaks.
At 1,645 feet deep, Tahoe is the second-deepest lake in the
United States and the 10th deepest in the world. The iconic lake
sits 6,225 feet above sea level.
The continued effort to improve water quality and reduce nonpoint
source pollution will hinge largely on a little-known pollution
control strategy known as total maximum daily loads (TMDLs),
which describe the amount of a particular pollutant that a water
body can absorb on a daily basis while remaining safe for
wildlife and people. While by no means a comprehensive
explanation of all the factors surrounding this complex subject,
this issue of Western Water provides a snapshot of TMDLs and what
they mean for water quality, supply and reliability.
2002 marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most significant
environmental laws in American history, the Clean Water Act
(CWA). The CWA has had remarkable success, reversing years of
neglect and outright abuse of the nation’s waters. But challenges
remain as attention turns to the thorny issue of cleaning up
nonpoint sources of pollution.
This issue of Western Water examines the problem of perchlorate
contamination and its ramifications on all facets of water
delivery, from the extensive cleanup costs to the search for
alternative water supplies. In addition to discussing the threat
posed by high levels of perchlorate in drinking water, the
article presents examples of areas hard hit by contamination and
analyzes the potential impacts of forthcoming drinking water
standards for perchlorate.
This issue of Western Water examines the presence of mercury in
the environment and the challenge of limiting the threat posed to
human health and wildlife. In addition to outlining the extent of
the problem and its resistance to conventional pollution
remedies, the article presents a glimpse of some possible courses
of action for what promises to be a long-term problem.
This issue of Western Water examines PPCPs – what they are, where
they come from and whether the potential exists for them to
become a water quality problem. With the continued emphasis on
water quality and the fact that many water systems in the West
are characterized by flows dominated by effluent contributions,
PPCPs seem likely to capture interest for the foreseeable future.
This issue of Western Water examines the challenges facing state,
federal and tribal officials and other stakeholders as they work
to manage terminal lakes. It includes background information on
the formation of these lakes, and overviews of the water quality,
habitat and political issues surrounding these distinctive bodies
of water. Much of the information in this article originated at
the September 2004 StateManagement Issues at Terminal Water
Bodies/Closed Basins conference.
This issue of Western Water examines that process. Much
of the information is drawn from discussions that occurred at the
November 2005 Selenium Summit sponsored by the Foundation and the
California Department of Water Resources. At that summit, a
variety of experts presented findings and the latest activities
from areas where selenium is of primary interest.
This issue of Western Water looks at some of the issues
facing drinking water providers, such as compliance with
increasingly stringent treatment requirements, the need to
improve source water quality and the mission of continually
informing consumers about the quality of water they receive.
This Western Water looks at proposed new measures to deal with
the century-old problem of salinity with a special focus on San
Joaquin Valley farms and cities.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the Russian and
Santa Ana rivers – areas with ongoing issues not dissimilar to
the rest of the state – managing supplies within a lingering
drought, improving water quality and revitalizing and restoring
the vestiges of the native past.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
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 printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater management and the extent to which stakeholders
believe more efforts are needed to preserve and restore the
resource.
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.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
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.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
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.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 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.
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.
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.
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.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
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.
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.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 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.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to California
Wastewater is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the history of wastewater
treatment and how wastewater is collected, conveyed, treated and
disposed of today. The guide also offers case studies of
different treatment plants and their treatment processes.
Finding and maintaining a clean
water supply for drinking and other uses has been a constant
challenge throughout human history.
Today, significant technological developments in water treatment,
including monitoring and assessment, help ensure a drinking water
supply of high quality in California and the West.
The source of water and its initial condition prior to being
treated usually determines the water treatment process. [See also
Water Recycling.]
People, farmers, industry and the environment in California
depend on clean water to survive.
Surface waters, however,
are threatened by a host of pollutants, such as bacteria, trash
and agricultural runoff. Groundwater in California also can
be contaminated by nitrates and industrial
chemicals that seep from the land above. [See also How is Drinking Water
Treated?]
Wastewater management in California centers on the collection,
conveyance,
treatment, reuse and disposal of wastewater. This process is
conducted largely by public agencies, though there are also
private systems in places where a publicly owned treatment plant
is not feasible.
In California, wastewater treatment takes place through 100,000
miles of sanitary sewer lines and at more than 900 wastewater
treatment plants that manage the roughly 4 billion gallons of
wastewater generated in the state each day.
There are nine regional water quality control boards statewide.
The nine Regional Boards are semi-autonomous and are comprised of
seven part-time Board members appointed by the Governor and
confirmed by the Senate. Regional boundaries are based on
watersheds and water quality requirements are based on the unique
differences in climate, topography, geology and hydrology for
each watershed. Each Regional Board makes critical water quality
decisions for its region, including setting standards, issuing
waste discharge requirements, determining compliance with those
requirements, and taking appropriate enforcement actions.
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act sets standards for drinking
water quality in the United States.
Launched in 1974 and administered by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the Safe Drinking Water Act oversees states,
communities, and water suppliers who implement the drinking water
standards at the local level.
The act’s regulations apply to every public water system in the
United States but do not include private wells serving less than
25 people.
According to the EPA, there are more than 160,000 public water
systems in the United States.
California boasts some of the finest quality drinking water on
the planet. Every day, people turn on their tap and receive
clean, safe water with nary a thought. But the water people take
for granted isn’t so reliable for residents of small water
systems and many disadvantaged communities (DACs) in rural
agricultural areas.
It may surprise some people to know that California is the fourth
largest producer of crude oil in the United States and has a long
history of oil exploration. Since the 1860s, wells in Kern County
and Southern California have been tapped for more than 500,000
barrels of oil each day.
For something so largely hidden from view, groundwater is an
important and controversial part of California’s water supply
picture. How it should be managed and whether it becomes part of
overarching state regulation is a topic of strong debate.
Is the water consumed by people everyday safe to drink or should
there be concern about unregulated contaminants, many of which
are the remnants of commonly used pharmaceutical and personal
care products?
For most people in the United States, clean, safe drinking water
is a given – a part of daily life that is assumed to be a
constant, readily accessible commodity. Underpinning that fact
are the vast, mostly unheralded efforts of the many people
throughout the country who work everyday to take the raw source
water from the environment and turn it into the safe drinking
water that makes life possible.
There may be no other substance in nature as vexing as selenium.
The naturally occurring trace element gained notoriety more than
20 years ago as it wreaked havoc among birds at the Kesterson
Reservoir in California’s Central Valley. The discovery of dead
and deformed birds sparked a widespread investigation that
revealed the pervasiveness of selenium throughout much of the
West; woven into the soil and rock of the landscape.
Most people take for granted the quality of their drinking water
and for good reason. Coinciding with America’s rapid urbanization
last century was the development of an extensive infrastructure
for the storage, treatment and delivery of water for generations
to come. The improvement in the quality of water provided by
water agencies has been so phenomenal that some of the best
tasting water in the world comes not from a plastic bottle, but
from the tap.
There’s danger lurking underground. The threat cannot be seen,
heard or felt immediately, but there it resides – in shallow
pockets of groundwater and deep, cold subterranean aquifers
situated hundreds of feet below the surface. The danger manifests
itself through the most vital human activity next to breathing,
the consumption of water. Experts know there is no such thing as
pure water. Microscopic bits of a host of elements that surround
us are present in the water we drink. They exist at levels that
are harmless, and in fact some of the constituents found in tap
water are beneficial to human health.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most
significant environmental laws in American history, the Clean
Water Act (CWA). The law that emerged from the consensus and
compromise that characterizes the legislative process has had
remarkable success, reversing years of neglect and outright abuse
of the nation’s waters.
The arrival of each storm brings more than rain and snow to
thirsty California. From the coastal redwoods to the streets of
Los Angeles, water flowing from hillsides and paved surfaces
carries with it a host of pollutants that befoul tributaries,
streams and rivers. The toll on the environment is measured in
closed beaches, reduced fish populations and, in some cases, a
lower quality of available water for human use. The sources of
pollution are sometimes easy to control with existing technology.
But in other cases, the ubiquitous nature of contaminants has
left regulators in a quandary over how to solve the problem.
Drinking water is the ultimate recycled resource. It is recycled
over years, centuries and millenniums. The water we use today is
the same supply with which civilization began. The water that
once coursed down the Ganges River or splashed into Julius
Caesar’s bathing pool may end up running from the tap in your
home.
Clean air vs. clean water sums up the controversy surrounding the
gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), an
oxygenate designed to help fuel burn cleaner, reducing tailpipe
emissions. Since 1996, the year it was first used statewide on a
year-round basis, MTBE has reduced smog from motor vehicles by 15
percent, according to air quality officials. It’s as if 3.5
million cars have disappeared from the roads – no small feat in
the automobile – dependent Golden State.
