California’s climate, characterized by warm, dry summers and mild
winters, makes the state’s water supply unpredictable. For
instance, runoff and precipitation in California can be quite
variable. The northwestern part of the state can receive more
than 140 inches per year while the inland deserts bordering
Mexico can receive less than 4 inches.
By the Numbers:
Precipitation averages about 193 million acre-feet per year.
In a normal precipitation year, about half of the state’s
available surface water – 35 million acre-feet – is collected in
local, state and federal reservoirs.
California is home to more than 1,300 reservoirs.
About two-thirds of annual runoff evaporates, percolates into
the ground or is absorbed by plants, leaving about 71 million
acre-feet in average annual runoff.
In the Capital Region, water determines destinies. The
10-county area is both plagued by drought and one of the
country’s most at-risk regions for catastrophic flooding. The
physical existence of Sacramento and surrounding cities and the
viability of the region’s heavily irrigated agriculture depend
on water resources engineers like Mary Paasch.
Every time someone turns on the tap in San Diego County, out
flows the work of Peter MacLaggan. MacLaggan was the point man
in the construction of the Carlsbad desalination plant, a
nearly $1 billion public-private partnership that since 2015
has supplied nearly 10 percent of the potable water consumed in
the county. … MacLaggan, 65, plans to retire March 31
after 20 years at the private company Poseidon Water and nearly
40 years in the water industry.
After years of uncertainty over its source of water, residents
of Weed now have a guaranteed supply from the spring the city
has been using for more than 100 years. … The Weed City
Council approved a sale agreement with Crystal Geyser Roxanne
Thursday night for water rights to two cubic feet-per-second
from Beaughan Springs.
The forested watersheds of the Sierra Nevada are the origin of
more than 60 percent of the state’s developed water supply.
Sierra Nevada megafires that kill all, or nearly all,
vegetation across large landscapes pose serious risks to this
system. In the immediate aftermath of a fire, high-severity
burn areas lack vegetation to stabilize soils. … The
resulting sediment enters nearby creeks and rivers, degrading
water quality and adversely affecting regional aquatic
habitats.
President Biden signed into law a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief
package, the American Rescue Plan of 2021, aimed to provide
financial relief to Americans and incentives to stimulate the
economy as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest
package … provides $500 million for low-income water and
wastewater grants. Funds will be allotted to states and tribes
based on percentage of households with income less than 150
percent of the federal poverty line.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) released the draft
California’s Groundwater – Update 2020, containing information
on the condition of the state’s groundwater, which is
especially important as California faces a critically dry water
year. DWR encourages community members and water managers to
review the publication and provide input.
The Grand Canyon Protection Act was recently introduced by U.S.
Rep. Raύl Grijalva and passed in the House and has been
introduced in the Senate by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema. The bills will
permanently protect about 1 million acres of public lands
surrounding Grand Canyon from the harmful and lasting damage of
new uranium mining. … This legislation is critical
to stopping the threats that mining poses to water quality and
quantity, unique habitats and wildlife pathways, and to sacred
places. -Written by Sandy Bahr, director for Sierra
Club’s Grand Canyon Chapter, and Amber Wilson
Reimondo, Energy Program director with Grand Canyon
Trust.
Thunderstorms dumped anywhere from a quarter to three-quarters
of an inch of rain in the Sacramento area Wednesday as the
region was pelted by dime-sized hail that filled streets and
front lawns. A cold weather system moved north along the
California coast before it combined with warm temperatures near
the ground and created the right conditions to form scattered
thunderstorms throughout Northern California, said Eric Kurth,
a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in
Sacramento.
Today marks the anniversary of the deadliest man-made disaster
in California history. It’s a largely forgotten event
which killed hundreds of people in Ventura County. On March
12th, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, sending a wall of
water more than 50 miles from the Santa Clarita area through
the Santa Clara River Valley. More than 400 people died.
The water surged through parts of Piru, Fillmore, Santa Paula
and Ventura in the middle of the night. It was later
determined that the newly complete dam collapsed because of a
combination of issues with the terrain, and design.
Climate change and other environmental pressures are already
putting the pinch on water resources in California, the
Southwest and other arid parts of the world. Over-tapped
groundwater, rivers and lakes are forcing water managers to
find new supplies. Some of these can be costly, like treating
wastewater for drinking water. Or they can come with a hefty
price tag and outsized environmental footprint, like
desalination or new dams. There’s another option on the
table, though: stormwater. If we do the accounting right,
runoff from precipitation is a cost-effective supplementary
water resource, experts say.
When it comes to maintaining pressure in municipal water
systems, consistency is the name of the game. Pressure
transients can have a serious impact on both service quality
and asset life. The challenge is determining if transients are
taking place and pinpointing their source in a timely manner to
mitigate the destructive effects. That was the situation facing
the East Valley Water District (EVWD), which provides water and
wastewater services to 103,000 residents of California’s San
Bernardino County. Pressure transients, aging assets, bedding
failures and corrosion are all potentially contributing factors
to observed line breaks.
Robb Whitaker, the Water Replenishment District general manager
whose retirement announcement triggered months of infighting,
will make his exit Friday, just as the search for the
district’s next leader begins again. Whitaker is concluding 17
years at the helm of the water district, where he spent the
bulk of his career. He is credited with championing visionary
programs and projects that allowed the district to rely solely
on local water resources.
The climate change cabal in Sacramento is ignoring some
extremely low hanging fruit in their bid to protect us from
ourselves. The reason they don’t see it is simple. It doesn’t
involve raising taxes, rewarding corporations or disruptor
greenies they align with, nor does it destroy jobs. The
California Legislature needs to ban grass lawns for front yards
as well as general commercial development for all new building
projects. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, editor of the Manteca
Bulletin.
As we celebrate National Groundwater Awareness Week, the
Northern California Water Association (NCWA) convened its
groundwater management task force this week to help coordinate
the various Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) in the
Sacramento Valley and to advance groundwater sustainability
throughout the region.
The massive COVID-19 relief bill Congress approved Wednesday
will pump more than $150 billion into California’s economy,
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration said Wednesday, including a
$26 billion windfall for the state’s already burgeoning budget
surplus. … [The U.S. Treasury Department has told state
governments] they can use the money to respond to the public
health emergency, provide government services or invest in
water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.
When an oil or gas well reaches the end of its lifespan, it
must be plugged. If it isn’t, the well might leak toxic
chemicals into groundwater and spew methane, carbon dioxide and
other pollutants into the atmosphere for years on end.
… There are nearly 60,000 unplugged wells in Colorado in
need of this treatment — each costing $140,000 on average,
according to the Carbon Tracker, a climate think tank, in a new
report that analyzes oil and gas permitting data. Plugging this
many wells will cost a lot —more than $8 billion, the report
found.
Hearings have been scheduled to resume in April for Poseidon
Water’s controversial proposed Huntington Beach desalination
plant. Last April the California Regional Water Quality Control
Board, Santa Ana Region was expected to vote on renewing a
permit for the proposed $1 billion project but the workshop was
canceled due to COVID-19. A hearing scheduled for
September was also delayed so Poseidon could have
more time to address water board concerns.
Driven by maintenance costs and supply price increases, higher
water bills could be coming to San Jose residents as soon as
July—despite pandemic-related hardships and resident pushback.
… Santa Clara Valley Water District, the wholesale water
provider in the county, could raise rates by 9.6%, which
translates to about a $4.50 increase per month to customers.
The company’s directors will vote on the proposed increases in
May and rate hikes would take effect July 1.
Vice President Kamala Harris was right on point last year when
she said that clean water is a fundamental human right.
President Biden has put those words into action by signing an
executive order establishing a White House council on
environmental justice. Every Californian has a right to clean,
reliable affordable drinking water. -Written by Jose Barrera, California’s state
deputy director for the League of United Latin American
Citizens.
Hail and rain blanketed much of the Greater Sacramento Area
this week, though experts say it’s not likely to play a major
role in the state’s drought position. … Having endured
two consecutively dry winters, California’s snowpack in most
areas is less than 75% of normal for this time of year,
according to the National Drought Mitigation Center. Many
water agencies in California have discussed water conservation
measures, the center wrote in its latest drought report. The
North Marin Water District in the San Francisco Bay Area has
already considered voluntary and mandatory water conservation
orders.
Today, [Tribes, Schools, and NGOs] released the Advocacy
and Water Protection in Native California High School
Curriculum and Teacher’s Resource Guide. The curriculum
… responds to California’s urgent water, climate and
educational crises, along with the need for Native American
culturally informed education and representation in
schools. The curriculum features online, classroom, and
nature-based learning and responds to reports that Humboldt,
Del Norte, and other counties are failing Native students, and
that Native youth are facing a mental health crisis due to
COVID-19 and the state’s water and climate crises.
When you think of shipping Humboldt’s Finest in Ziplocs
to Southern California, you’re not thinking of bags of
river water. But, putting Humboldt’s water in giant baggies on
a boat to Southern California was a plan actually
taken seriously in 2003 to encourage more water use.
Humboldt historically has an outsized allocation of water from
the state because the former pulp mills consumed an
astronomical amount of water. Squandering water in order to
preserve our state water allocation was the idea of some
political leaders and business people. Written by J.A.
Savage.
As persistent drought and climate change threaten the Colorado
River, several states that rely on the water acknowledge they
likely won’t get what they were promised a century ago. But not
Utah. Republican lawmakers approved an entity that could push
for more of Utah’s share of water as seven Western states
prepare to negotiate how to sustain a river serving 40 million
people. Critics say the legislation, which the governor still
must sign, could strengthen Utah’s effort to complete a
billion-dollar pipeline from a dwindling reservoir that’s a key
indicator of the river’s health.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s draft 2020 Urban Water
Management Plan was released for public review today. The plan
highlights how regional investments in a “water portfolio
approach” to supply management and a sustained emphasis on
water-use efficiency mean that San Diego County will continue
to have sufficient water supplies through the 2045 planning
horizon — even during multiple dry years.
A Pacific storm brought more much-needed rain and snow to
California on Wednesday at the tail-end of a largely dry
winter. Winter storm warnings were in effect in the southern
Cascades, down the length of the Sierra Nevada and the
mountains of Southern California, the National Weather Service
said….The Sierra snowpack is an important contributor to
California‘s water supply, but at the start of March its water
content was about half the average normally recorded on April
1, when it is typically at its most robust.
On the tail end of the second dry winter in a row, with water
almost certain to be in short supply this summer, California
water officials are apparently planning to largely drain the
equivalent of the state’s two largest reservoirs to satisfy the
thirst of water-wasting farmers. Gov. Gavin Newsom must stop
this irresponsible plan, which threatens the environmental
health of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the water supply
for about one-third of the Bay Area residents. We should be
saving water, not wasting it.
A recent report from Colorado River experts says it’s time for
radical new management strategies to safeguard the Southwest’s
water supplies. It’s meant to inform discussions on how to
renegotiate certain parts of the Law of the River that will
expire in 2026. KNAU’s Melissa Sevigny spoke about the report
with Jack Schmidt, director of the Center for Colorado River
Studies at Utah State University.
Those of us in the water industry are always looking for new
ways to ask our customers to save, conserve, and never waste
water. And we do that for good reason. We live in a region
prone to regular periods of drought, punctuated by sudden and
catastrophic floods. Last year we had a very dry year, and this
water year is off to a very dry start as well. Sonoma Water,
which supplies drinking water to 600,000 residents in Sonoma
and Marin counties, relies on rainfall to fill our reservoirs
and consecutive years of below-average rainfall are always
cause for concern. Will this be a two-year dry spell, or the
beginning of a multi-year drought? Written by Barry Dugan, Senior Programs Specialist in
the Community and Government Affairs Division at Sonoma
Water.
If 2020 was a difficult water year for the Klamath Basin, then
2021 is likely to be even more challenging. With record-low
inflows coming into Upper Klamath Lake, the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation anticipates it will not have anywhere near enough
water this summer to meet minimum requirements for endangered
fish — let alone enough water to meet irrigation demands for
farmers and ranchers. Jeff Payne, deputy regional director for
the bureau, said the basin in Southern Oregon and Northern
California appears to be entering a second consecutive year of
extreme drought, exacerbating what was already a critical
situation.
California Water Service’s King City District donated more than
$37,000 to local community organizations in 2020 as part of its
ongoing commitment to improving the quality of life in the
communities it serves. … In addition, to help alleviate some
of the financial strain for customers who lost their jobs or
were otherwise hard-hit financially by the coronavirus
pandemic, the company forgave a portion of past-due water bill
balances for those who fell behind because of the
pandemic.
California’s Governor broke new ground this year when he
committed to “transition away from harmful pesticides.” His
budget proposal to update fees charged on pesticide sales would
generate new funding that could be used to offer better
protections for farm workers, agricultural communities, and
vulnerable ecosystems, as well as help farmers adopt more
sustainable practices. … Pesticides remain a
widespread drinking water contaminant, particularly in
rural areas, and exposure to these pesticides has
been linked to increased vulnerability to COVID-19.
State residents have been struggling to keep up with their
water bills during the COVID-19 pandemic, but government
officials say help is on the way. Survey results from the State
Water Resources Control Board released in late January estimate
about 1.6 million or 12% of households across the state have
not paid their water bills resulting in an estimated $1 billion
in statewide household water debt. The average household debt
is $500.
Opponents of a proposed desalination facility along the
Huntington Beach coastline are aghast that Gov. Gavin Newsom
has taken steps to help end a years-long regulatory logjam.
Although an environmentalist, the governor clearly recognizes
the importance of developing new water sources to meet
California’s needs. Privately funded facilities plants that
turn saltwater into drinking water aren’t the only solution to
California’s water shortages, but they are one solution. For
instance, a similar plant in Carlsbad has the capacity to meet
9 percent of San Diego County’s water needs. That’s an enormous
contribution, especially with another drought looming.
Three new directors representing the cities of Los Angeles and
San Fernando, and the Municipal Water District of Orange County
were seated today on the board of directors of the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California. Environmental and social
justice advocate Miguel Luna joins the 38-member board as a Los
Angeles representative … Government relations consultant Adan
Ortega returns to Metropolitan to represent San Fernando
… Water industry veteran Dennis Erdman joins the board
to represent the Municipal Water District of Orange County …
The Bureau of Reclamation announced the selection of Semitropic
Water Storage District and Bard Water District as the two
recipients of the Agricultural Water Use Efficiency Grant
Program for fiscal year 2020. Combined with Natural Resources
Conservation Service support and local cost-share
contributions, approximately $5 million in water efficiency
improvement projects will be implemented during the next two
years. The AWUE program works with NRCS to promote
district-level improvements to increase on-farm water use
efficiency and conservation projects. Reclamation is funding
the two projects with NRCS support.
Professor Marc Beutel and his graduate student Mark Seelos have
been recognized for papers and a presentation on toxic mercury
mitigation by the North American Lake Management Society.
… “About half the reservoirs in California are impaired
because of historic mercury and gold mining,” Seelos said.
Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot said the Delta flows
issue has been decades in the making and “it’s going to
take some time to figure this out.”
This winter, Northern California has seen significantly below
average rainfall and snowpack, and as Cal Fire prepares for the
potential of another intense wildfire season, communities
across the North Coast are struggling to determine how to best
prepare for the “new normal” precipitated by climate change,
and what solutions might work to build community resiliency. At
the University of California Hopland Research and Extension
Center (HREC), researchers have long been examining how the
environment has been changing with the climate, best practices
for land management after wildfires, changes to water
resources, and more…
For the first time ever, rancher Jimmie Hughes saw all 15 of
the ponds he keeps for his cattle dry up at the same time this
year. Now, he and his co-workers are forced to haul tanks
of water two hours over dusty, mountain roads to water their
300 cows. … The Southwest is locked in drought again,
prompting cutbacks to farms and ranches and putting renewed
pressure on urban supplies. Extreme to exceptional drought is
afflicting between 57% and 90% of the land in Colorado, New
Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Arizona and is shriveling a snowpack
that supplies water to 40 million people from Denver to Los
Angeles, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor.
In times of drought, California’s Central Valley is full of
farmers hindered by the lack of water. And this region, where
the bulk of the nation’s fruits and vegetables are cultivated,
is driving up the demand for water. Although many farmers
without easy access to water often buy and pump it in from
their neighbors, droughts often fuel massive price increases.
And this often makes water so cost-prohibitive that it can
discourage farmers from even planting crops. This predicament
led a firm to recently list water as the newest commodity on
the Chicago Mercantile Exchange. Now, water futures are traded
daily. This helps farmers lock in a price for water, so they
have a cushion if a drought threatens their crop revenues.
A newly constituted Monterey One Water board plans to consider
whether to move forward with an environmental impact report for
the previously stalled Pure Water Monterey expansion proposal.
Last month, the board unanimously agreed to direct agency staff
to prepare a report on the cost and timeline for reviving the
supplemental EIR for the board’s consideration at its March 29
meeting. The board would presumably decide whether to actually
go ahead with the work to update the document for potential
certification.
California water regulators are requiring water suppliers to
shift wells offline, blend sources, or notify customers when
they detect a third “forever chemical” at certain thresholds.
The State Water Resources Control Board issued an order Friday
setting a response level of 5 parts per billion for
perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS).
[A] new 18-chapter book, written by agricultural economists at
UC Davis, UC Berkeley and UC Riverside, addresses issues such
as labor, water, climate and trade that affect all of
California agriculture. … Water, climate and trade pose
challenges and opportunities for California agriculture. In the
last decade, water scarcity and decreased water quality, along
with regulations to address these issues like the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act, have prompted farmers to use scarce
water to irrigate more valuable crops, as with the switch from
cotton to almonds.
A new Colorado River study predicts we may need to make even
deeper cuts to keep our reservoirs from tanking over the long
haul. But the dire conclusions within the study aren’t what
make it so intriguing. It’s how the group arrived at them. The
Future of the Colorado River project, an effort based out of
Utah State University, has produced six white papers to
evaluate new approaches to water management along the river.
And, most notably, it is using the Colorado River Simulation
System (CRSS), the same modeling tool the Bureau of Reclamation
uses to develop its long-term water availability forecasts for
the basin. - Written by Joanna Allhands, a columnist for the Arizona
Republic.
[Heather] Dyer was the fish biologist spearheading U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service efforts to protect the Santa Ana sucker,
the tiny fish whose habitat was threatened by water projects
along the Santa Ana River….Doug Headrick, the former general
manager of San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District, was
so impressed with Dyer he hired her away from the federal
government and put her in charge of leading …the development
of the Upper Santa Ana River Habitat Conservation Plan. …The
plan is expected to be approved by state and federal agencies
this year….Dyer, meanwhile, has been promoted to the position
of Valley District’s CEO and general manager…
San Diego is ready to start building the long-awaited Pure
Water sewage recycling system, now that city officials have
resolved litigation that delayed the project 18 months and
increased its estimated cost to $5 billion, city officials say.
Pure Water will boost San Diego’s water independence by
recycling 83 million gallons of treated sewage into potable
drinking water by 2035.
California, and Southern California in particular, is bone dry.
The calendar says spring officially begins with the equinox
March 20, but the meteorological winter — consisting of
December, January and February — is already in the record
books. In other words, the wettest months are over. Let’s take
a look at where the Golden State stands.
This beautifully illustrated 24×36-inch poster, suitable for
framing and display in any office or classroom, highlights the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, its place as a center of
farming, its importance as an ecological resource and its
vital role in California’s water supply system.
The text, photos and graphics explain issues related to land
subsidence, levees and flooding, urbanization, farming, fish and
wildlife protection. An inset map illustrates the tidal action
that increases the salinity of the Delta’s waterways.
California’s legislative session came to a wild ending in 2020
when the clock ran out on major bills. Key pieces of
environmental legislation were among those that died on the
floor, and conservationists are hoping 2021 brings a different
story….Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, [proposed
a climate resiliency bond that] would include $240 million for
Salton Sea restoration, $250 million for groundwater management
and $300 million for grants for clean and reliable drinking
water.
Rep. Deb Haaland’s bid to become the first Native American
interior secretary was made more likely Thursday by an unlikely
Republican supporter, Sen. Lisa Murkowski of oil-rich Alaska,
who said she still had serious reservations about Haaland’s
past opposition to drilling. Murkowski was the only Republican
on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to approve
Haaland (D-N.M.) in the narrow 11-to-9 vote. Haaland’s
nomination now moves to the full Senate, where the entire
Democratic caucus and two Republicans, Murkowski and Susan
Collins (Maine), are expected to back her, cementing her
confirmation.
Water levels in the world’s ponds, lakes and human-managed
reservoirs rise and fall from season to season. But until now,
it has been difficult to parse out exactly how much of that
variation is caused by humans as opposed to natural cycles.
Analysis of new satellite data published March 3 in Nature
shows fully 57 percent of the seasonal variability in Earth’s
surface water storage now occurs in dammed reservoirs and other
water bodies managed by people. … The western United
States, southern Africa and the Middle East rank among regions
with the highest reservoir variability, averaging 6.5 feet to
12.4 feet.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave America’s
infrastructure a C- grade in its quadrennial assessment issued
March 3. ASCE gave the nation’s flood control infrastructure –
dams and levees – a D grade. This is a highly concerning
assessment, given that climate change is increasingly stressing
dams and levees as increased evaporation from the oceans drives
heavier precipitation events. … Climate scientists at
Stanford University found that between 1988 and 2017, heavier
precipitation accounted for more than one-third of the $200
billion in [flood] damage…
When [the Colorado River Compact was] signed in 1922,
the Colorado River drainage was divided into two divisions;
Upper: Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Utah; Lower: Arizona,
California, Nevada. At that time, it was felt the total average
annual flow was 16.4 million acre feet. As a result, each basin
was assigned 50%, or 7.5 million acre feet, with the 1.4
million acre feet surplus allocated to Mexico. … As a
result, the Upper Basin is obligated to provide 7.5M acre feet
to the Lower Basin, regardless of the actual flow of water in
any given year. Obviously, snowpack and the consequent flow is
not a constant and years of drought and low flows create a
problem for the Upper Basin. -Written by Bryan Whiting, a columnist for the
Glenwood Springs (Colo.) Post Independent.
The hot dry conditions that melted strong snowpack early in
2020 and led to severe drought, low river flows and record
setting wildfires across the state could be a harbinger of what
is to come in Colorado. Climate change is likely to drive
“chaotic weather” and greater extremes with hotter droughts and
bigger snowstorms that will be harder to predict, said Kenneth
Williams, environmental remediation and water resources program
lead at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, headquartered in
California.
The City recognizes the changing aesthetics of the drinking
water, which is common with surface water supplies. Starting on
March 5th our State Water Project supply source (Delta water)
will be unavailable for three weeks to perform maintenance
which necessitates using our Lake Hennessey water. The
taste and odor is not unique to Napa’s water sources – seasonal
algae blooms are common to many surface waters. As algae dies
off they release odor causing compounds. Most persons
describe the aesthetics of this phenomenon as earthy and/or
musty.
When Malini Ranganathan, PhD, an associate professor at
American University and interim faculty director of the
Antiracist Research and Policy Center, conducted research in
Exeter, a flourishing agriculture town in California’s Central
Valley, she didn’t expect to see similar conditions to what
she’d witnessed in India’s low-income housing areas. Residents
in one of the world’s richest states were depending on bore
water and water tankers to drink because tap water was
unsafe.
Yuba Water Agency’s board of directors today approved an
agreement that adds the Cordua Irrigation District to the
historic Lower Yuba River Accord, a model water management
agreement that supports endangered salmon and steelhead,
ensures water supplies for cities and farms and reduces
conflict over water use.
Much of the western U.S. continues to endure a long-term
drought, one that threatens the region’s water supplies
and agriculture and could worsen wildfires this year. In fact,
some scientists are calling the dryness in the West a
“megadrought,” defined as an intense drought that lasts
for decades or longer. Overall, about 90% of the West is
now either abnormally dry or in a drought, which is among the
highest percentages in the past 20 years, according to this
week’s U.S. Drought Monitor.
Rancho California Water District crews are continuing work to
replace more than a mile of aging pipeline under westbound
Temecula Parkway in Temecula. The project, which will
ultimately replace about 8,000 feet, or about a mile and a
half, of aging recycled water pipeline between Bedford Court
and Rancho Pueblo Road, began in November, and according to
Rancho Water staff work is expected to continue through the
middle of next year. According to RCWD, when district customers
use recycled water it helps to free up drinking water for
cooking, showering or cleaning.
The [Utah] state Senate approved a bill Wednesday that would
establish the so-called Colorado River Authority of Utah, along
with a $9 million “legal defense fund,” intended to ensure that
the state receives its allotted share of the Colorado’s
dwindling flows….Utah has shared the Colorado River’s flow
with six Western states under a century-old agreement, but the
Beehive State has been slow to push its stake, according to
backers of HB297. Accordingly, Utah uses 54% of its share,
Senate President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, said…
The Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 on Tuesday to approve an
extension of the county’s state water contract for 50 years,
saying it would ultimately save ratepayers money. … Eight
water agencies in Santa Barbara County, from the Carpinteria
Valley to the City of Santa Maria, presently import water
through the California Aqueduct. By 2035, their ratepayers will
have paid off the $575 million construction debt for the
pipeline that county voters approved in 1991 on the heels of a
six-year drought. It extends from the aqueduct in Kern County
to Lake Cachuma.
Congressman Mike Garcia, R-Santa Clarita, introduced a bill
Wednesday that would extend “critical water supply provisions”
in the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN)
Act for the next seven years in an effort to improve
California’s access to water. On Wednesday, Garcia introduced a
bill that would enact a seven-year extension for “critical
water supply provisions” in the WIIN Act, which became law at
the end of 2016.
[A]s often as I write about the importance of building clean
power infrastructure to fight climate change, the cheapest,
easiest way to reduce emissions is to use less energy in the
first place. And in Los Angeles, at least, one of the cheapest,
easiest ways to use less energy is to use less water.
Sacramento is typically ranked first or second in the country
for the risk of flooding….This year, the California-Nevada
River Forecast Center is forecasting a low potential for
flooding due to spring snowmelt.
California will face another critically dry year, and residents
will need to adapt quickly to cope with water shortages and a
warmer, drier climate that has helped fuel destructive
wildfires. Officials with the state’s department of water
resources announced on Tuesday they had found that the water
content of the overall snowpack for 2 March amounted to 61% of
the average. The state’s largest reservoirs were storing
between 38% and 68% of their capacity, officials said, meaning
that the state would have a lot less water to carry it through
the rest of the year.
California water has joined gold, energy and bitcoin as a
commodity whose future value can be traded on a financial
exchange and the first market trades on water futures took
place three months ago. The market, based on values determined
by NASDAQ’s Veles Water Market Index, was hailed by some as a
useful tool so California farmers can reduce the risk of
drought-driven escalation in water costs. It was sharply
criticized by others, from a United Nations representative to
racial justice groups as potentially limiting access to
something essential to life.
Looking back over the past 30 years, the Northern California
Water Association has grown into an organization that the early
founders can be extremely proud of. The men and women who had
the foresight and passion to start the organization should be
given a large amount of gratitude. What now is a
high-level organization that fosters water management for
multiple beneficial uses, sprung from very humble beginnings.
Human fingerprints are all over the world’s freshwater. A new
study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that
while human-controlled freshwater sources make up a minimal
portion of the world’s ponds, lakes, and rivers, they are
responsible for more than half of all changes to the Earth’s
water system. … Climate change already looms large over the
world’s freshwater supply. Major sources of drinking water,
like the Colorado River, have less water and are flowing
more slowly due to climate change—even as they face increasing
demand from our water-hungry farms and cities. Rainfall itself
is becoming more erratic in some locations, such as
California…
Early in 2020, when the severity of COVID‐19 became evident, US
water utilities implementing conservation programs had to act
quickly to determine how to mitigate changes in their
conservation programs and staffing. Prioritization and
collaboration helped utility staff settle into their new way of
working, which included adapting to online connection with
customers and each other. These adaptations might lead to
permanent changes. Thanks in large part to the power of
technology, many water conservation and customer education
programs have continued, with interest and participation even
increasing in some cases.
The city of St. Helena strongly encouraged all residents and
businesses this week to join efforts to conserve its water
supply, particularly water used for outdoor irrigation. …The
city remains in Phase II Water Shortage Emergency because of
limited rainfall this season and the low level of the city’s
reservoir, Martin Beltran, a management analyst for the city’s
Public Works Department, said Monday in a news release.
In an innovative time where power and energy have evolved
tremendously in the past few decades, efficiency and
conservation have become new focal points, constantly being
optimized in balance with costs. A study conducted by UC Davis’
Center for Water-Energy Efficiency illuminates the possibility
of saving not only water but also energy and greenhouse gas
emissions through water conservation programs.
Despite taking two years off from Congress, David Valadao
(R—Hanford) is getting back to work by introducing new
legislation to help keep water flowing in the Central Valley.
Early this month, Valadao introduced the Responsible, No-Cost
Extension of Western Water Infrastructure Improvements, or
RENEW WIIN, Act, a no-cost, clean extension of operations and
storage provisions of the WIIN Act. The RENEW WIIN Act would
extend the general and operations provisions of Subtitle J of
the WIIN Act and extend the provision requiring consultation on
coordinated operations of the Central Valley Project and State
Water Project.
A part of the natural water cycle, groundwater is an important
element of California’s water supply, especially in the Central
Valley, where one in four people rely on it entirely. It is an
especially important resource in the Solano Subbasin, a
geographic area that includes Dixon, parts of Vacaville,
Elmira, Rio Vista, unincorporated Winters, Davis, the Montezuma
Hills, Isleton, Sherman Island and Walnut Grove. And every
quarter, the Solano Subbasin Groundwater Sustainability Agency
Collaborative, aka the Solano Collaborative, hosts a Community
Advisory Committee meeting and will so again from 3 to 5 p.m.
Wednesday.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors in
February 2021 announced a plan to distribute a rebate of $44.4
million to its 24 member agencies across the region after
receiving a check for that amount from the Los Angeles-based
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California to pay legal
damages and interest, according to a SDCWA press release.
Anyone who has hosted a good dinner party knows that the guest
list, table setting and topic of conversation play a big role
in determining whether the night is a hit or the guests leave
angry and unsatisfied. That concept is about to get a true test
on the Colorado River, where chairs are being pulled up to a
negotiating table to start a new round of talks that could
define how the river system adapts to a changing climate for
the next generation.
The winter storms that dumped heavy snow and rain
across California early in 2021 are likely not enough to negate
what will be a critically dry year, state water officials
believe. California’s Department of Water Resources on
Tuesday recorded a snow depth of 56 inches and water content of
21 inches at Phillips Station in the Sierra Nevada. The water
content of the overall snowpack was 61% of the average for
March 2 and 54% of the average for April 1, when it is
historically at its maximum.
NEWS RELEASE: The Department of Water Resources today
conducted the third manual snow survey of the season at
Phillips Station. The manual survey recorded 56 inches of snow
depth and a snow water equivalent (SWE) of 21 inches, which is
86 percent of average for this location. The SWE measures the
amount of water contained in the snowpack and is a key
component of DWR’s water supply forecast….statewide the
snowpack’s SWE is 15 inches, or 61 percent of the March 2
average, and 54 percent of the April 1 average.
Addressing the San Diego region’s limited local water supplies
with innovative ideas is something the San Diego County Water
Authority has become known for. Using expertise gained from
decades of successful planning and projects, the Water
Authority is developing strategies to reduce the future cost of
water that sustains the economy and quality of life across the
county.
A tsunami of love is what anyone walking into 67-year-old
Deborah Bell-Holt’s Jefferson Park home can expect. … That’s
why when the pandemic hit, she welcomed back with open arms
eight of her children and grandchildren. All of a sudden, her
household grew from four to 12. But those extra family
members added another wrinkle to Holt’s already complicated
situation with water affordability. At the beginning of the
pandemic Holt owed $8,000 to LADWP, now her debt is over
$17,000.
A majority of Colorado voters believe the state should spend
more money on protecting and conserving its water resources,
but they’re not willing to support new state taxes to fund the
work, according to a series of bipartisan polls conducted over
the past 18 months. … Though the polling also showed some
support for such potential tools as a new statewide tourism tax
or a bottle tax, that support eroded quickly when likely voters
were asked about a new statewide tax, with 39% of likely voters
saying they were skeptical the state could be trusted to spend
the money wisely…
Water may be life, but most residents of Southern California do
not often reflect on the complex series of canals, pumps, and
pipelines that connect where they live to water sources like
the Colorado River, the Sierras, or the numerous water basins
under LA County. Even less appreciated is the role water
districts play in combining water sources, treating our water,
and distributing it. Major water districts influence water
quality and rates. They decide how to meet future water needs
in an era of drought and climate change. These agencies
determine if your water comes from sustainable local sources
like conservation and recycling or from desert-damaging water
mining projects like Cadiz.
The Helix Water District Board of Directors last week
unanimously approved funding for the district’s first financial
customer assistance program, which will help East County
residents who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The
“Helix Helps Customer Assistance Program” will roll out in
April and will offer a one-time credit of up to $300 for
eligible single-family residential customers who are behind on
their bills.
A disappointingly dry February is fanning fears of another
severe drought in California, and cities and farms are bracing
for problems. In many places, including parts of the Bay Area,
water users are already being asked to cut back. The
state’s monthly snow survey on Tuesday will show only about 60%
of average snowpack for this point in the year, the latest
indication that water supplies are tightening. With the end of
the stormy season approaching, forecasters don’t expect much
more buildup of snow, a key component of the statewide supply
that provides up to a third of California’s water.
As the planet warms, scientists expect that mountain snowpack
should melt progressively earlier in the year. However,
observations in the U.S. show that as temperatures have risen,
snowpack melt is relatively unaffected in some regions while
others can experience snowpack melt a month earlier in the
year.
Last year, Utah experienced its worst drought in 20 years.
Typically Utahns count on spring snowpack to remedy a dry year
and while February snows have been a boon to ski areas the
question remains: are they enough to generate an average water
supply?
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra on Monday joined a
lawsuit challenging a Trump-era rule revising nationwide
standards for controlling and remediating lead in drinking
water. While the final rule includes certain necessary
updates to the existing standard, these changes are
overshadowed by the unlawful weakening of
critical requirements and the rule’s failure to
protect the public from lead in drinking water to
the maximum extent feasible, as required by law.
That it hasn’t rained much this year isn’t all bad news,
especially in the aftermath of the Creek Fire that burned
nearly 40% of the San Joaquin River watershed. Most
importantly, mountain communities devastated by the Creek Fire
have not faced the secondary disaster that can be brought by
weather, like in Santa Barbara County when heavy rain in the
burn scar of the Thomas Fire led to deadly and destructive
mudslides. Some areas near Big Creek and North Fork are at risk
of hazardous, post-fire debris flows.
The California Water Service recently announced it made a
monetary donation to two local community organizations for its
philanthropic contributions in 2020. Cal Water’s Antelope
Valley District made a donation totaling $3,000 to the Antelope
Valley Boys and Girls Club, as well as, the Hughes-Elizabeth
Lakes Woman’s Club.
The Bureau of Reclamation and Department of Water Resources
plan to allocate approximately 5 million acre feet of water
this year – as long as California allows them to effectively
drain the two largest reservoirs in the state, potentially
killing most or nearly all the endangered winter-run Chinook
salmon this year, threatening the state’s resilience to
continued dry conditions, and maybe even violating water
quality standards in the Delta.
Lake Wohlford Dam is an important water storage, flood control
and recreational facility that has served Escondido for
generations. Restoring storage capacity and making it
earthquake-safe is critically important, which is why I
introduced AB 692. The dam was originally constructed in
1895 to store water transported via a wooden flume from the San
Luis Rey River to Escondido. One of the first rock-fill dams in
California, Lake Wohlford Dam was 76 feet high and had a
storage capacity of about 3500 acre-feet.
-Written by Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron,
R-Escondido.
Ninety-nine percent of the state is dry, according to ABC Seven
News Meteorologist Mike Nicco. More than half of the state is
in severe drought mode and 31% is in the extreme drought
conditions which includes part of the North Bay. The Bay
Area is abnormally dry right now, but that should have changed
in January and February as they are typically our wettest
months.
On Feb. 22, 2021, Lake Powell was 127.24 feet below ‘Full Pool’
or, by content, about 38% full. Based on water level
elevations, these measurements do not account for years of
sediment (clay, silt, and sand) accumulation—the millions of
metric tons on the bottom. Geologist James L. Powell said, “The
Colorado delivers enough sediment to Lake Powell to fill 1,400
ship cargo containers each day.” In other words, Lake
Powell is shrinking toward the middle from top and bottom. The
lake is down over 30 feet from one year ago, and estimates
suggest it could drop another 50 feet by 2026. The Bureau of
Reclamation estimated the lifespan of Glen Canyon Dam at
500–700 years. Other estimates aren’t as optimistic, including
some as low as 50 years.
California is spending more than $200 million to keep an
unfolding ecological crisis from getting worse. The state wants
to stabilize habitat along the southern bank of the Salton Sea,
the state’s largest lake. That is good news for nearby
residents concerned about their health, but the restoration
could also affect everyone who draws water from the Colorado
River. At issue is the wide swaths of exposed lakebed that have
been uncovered as the thirsty lake’s water evaporates in the
desert air. The lake bottom is typically a deep layer of fine
silt. When covered by water, it poses no risk. But once exposed
to the air, and whipped up by the region’s strong winds, the
dust becomes a major health risk.
Monterey One Water just celebrated the one-year anniversary of
delivering recycled wastewater via the Pure Water Monterey
project. The advanced filtration system is used on treated
sewage water, which is then injected deep underground where the
new supply will be mixed with the existing water supply.
Even before phase one of the Pure Water Monterey project was
online, the board of M1W began debating an expansion of the
project. But that expansion has been on ice for months, after
the M1W board voted 11-10 (on a weighted vote) in April of 2020
not to proceed. It’s about to come back.
An invisible line splits the rural road of Avenue 416 in
California’s Tulare county, at the point where the nut trees
stretch east toward the towering Sierra Nevada mountains in the
distance. On one side of the line, residents have clean water.
On the other side, they do not. On the other side lies East
Orosi, an unincorporated community of about 700 where children
grow up learning to never open their eyes or mouths while they
shower. They know that what comes out of their faucets may harm
them, and parents warn they must not swallow when they brush
their teeth. They spend their lives sustaining themselves on
bottled water while just one mile down Avenue 416, the same
children they go to school with in the community of Orosi can
drink from their taps freely and bathe without a second
thought.
The San Diego County Water Authority’s Board of Directors
Thursday announced a plan to distribute a rebate of $44.4
million to its 24 member agencies across the region. They did
so after receiving a check for that amount from the Los
Angeles-based Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California to pay legal damages and interest after a long legal
battle. The money resulted from the water authority’s
decade-long litigation in Superior Court seeking to compel MWD
to set legal rates and repay overcharges.
A Senate committee unanimously approved a bill Thursday to
create Utah’s Colorado River Authority, which would be tasked
with helping the state renegotiate its share of the river.
Originally the bill allowed broad reasons to close meetings and
protect records. It’s since been changed twice to come more
into compliance with the state’s open meeting and record laws.
Critics of the bill said it’s still not enough. Mike O’Brien,
an attorney with the Utah Media Coalition, said having a
narrower scope for open meetings and records exemptions makes
the bill better than when it was first introduced. But he
wishes it would follow laws already there.
Sterling Construction Company, Inc. today announced that its
subsidiary, Road and Highway Builders, LLC, has been awarded a
$135 million heavy civil contract by the City of Los Angeles
for the construction of the North Haiwee Dam No. 2 in Inyo
County, CA. …The project will also involve the rerouting of
the Los Angeles Aqueduct, which supplies clean drinking water
to the city of Los Angeles, to allow for the appropriate
tie-ins for the dam construction.
This month, the comment period for a potentially landmark piece
of legislation ended. Since California v. Arizona in 2000, the
Colorado River Indian Tribes have the sole rights to more than
600,000 acres-feet of water from the Colorado River, but they
are barred from selling or leasing any of this water to outside
communities. The proposed federal legislation, led by
the tribes themselves, would allow them to lease some of this
water as long as they reduce their own water consumption by an
equivalent amount.
-Written by Isaac Humrich, a senior at Sunnyslope High
School in Phoenix and a member of American Conservation
Coalition.
San Francisco has long been an international leader on
environmental issues. However, water policy has been a stain on
that record. … Many California rivers are overtapped by
excessive pumping, but few are in worse condition than the
Tuolumne River. In drier years, more than 90% of the Tuolumne’s
water is diverted. On average, 80 percent of the river’s flow
never makes it to the Bay. It’s not a surprise that the river’s
health has collapsed. …
-Written by Bill Martin, a member of the Sierra Club
Bay Chapter Water Committee, and Hunter Cutting, a member
of the Sierra Club Bay Chapter’s San Francisco Group Executive
Committee.
The Water Replenishment District of Southern California (WRD)
is the largest groundwater agency in the State of California,
managing and protecting local groundwater resources for over
four million residents. WRD’s service area covers a
420-square-mile region of southern Los Angeles County, the most
populated county in the United States. The 43 cities in the
service area, including a portion of the City of Los Angeles,
use about 215,000 acre-feet (70 billion gallons) of groundwater
annually which accounts for about half of the region’s potable
water supply.
On December 7, 2020, financial futures based on California
water prices began trading. This post is a short introduction
to these water futures. First, what’s a future? A future is a
type of contract. It obligates the seller, who receives money,
to provide some good at some future date, to the buyer, who
pays money now to lock in the right to buy that good at that
price. Humans have been using futures for thousands of years,
primarily for agricultural products. But in recent years the
futures markets have been expanding.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released the following
statement on being named chairman of the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. This subcommittee
has jurisdiction over funding levels for the Department of
Energy, the Army Corp of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation
and other federal agencies related to our nation’s energy and
water infrastructure programs.
Democratic lawmakers and advocates are urging Joe Biden to back
legislation proposing unprecedented investment in America’s
ailing water infrastructure amid the country’s worst crisis in
decades that has left millions of people without access to
clean, safe, affordable water. Boil advisories, leaky lead
pipes, poisonous forever chemicals, bill arrears and raw sewage
are among the urgent issues facing ordinary Americans and
municipal utilities after decades of federal government
neglect, which has brought the country’s ageing water systems
hurtling towards disaster. … Water supplies and
sanitation have been disrupted over and over in recent decades
– in Louisiana, Puerto Rico, California, Ohio and elsewhere …
Federal regulators have issued a preliminary permit for a
pumped-hydropower project using water from Lake Powell, but
conservation groups say climate change could make the plan
unsustainable. The project would pump water from the lake,
drain it downhill to a generator, and send the power to massive
batteries for storage. The 2,200-megawatt project would supply
cities in Arizona, California and Nevada, over lines previously
used by the retired Navajo Generating Station. Gary Wockner,
executive director for Save the Colorado, which opposes the
plan, said falling water levels will make the Colorado River
Basin an unreliable source of water.
Arizona, California, and Nevada will need to cut their use of
Colorado River water by nearly 40 percent by 2050. A
study by researchers at Utah State University, which
the Arizona Daily Star reported this past Sunday, noted
that Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming—the Upper Basin
states—will have to reduce their usage, as well, though not by
as much as those pulling water from the Lower Basin.
Consider California’s water systems. That they are not designed
for what is coming seismically is no secret. Southern
California still imports most of its water, and all of that
imported water has to cross the San Andreas fault to get to us.
None of those crossings has been engineered to work after the
San Andreas breaks, and the Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power has estimated that it will take 18 months to repair all
of them. -Written by seismologist Lucy Jones, the founder of
the Dr. Lucy Jones Center for Science and Society and the
author of “The Big Ones.”
California’s hydrologic conditions remain dry as February draws
to a close. Although late January storms improved a then-dismal
snowpack, statewide snowpack remains at about two-thirds of
average for this time of year (or 54 percent of the April 1st
average) and natural flow in key Sierra Nevada watersheds is
still tracking at amounts seen in the severe drought years of
2014 and 2015.
The San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District has decided
to join them, not fight them. Stymied by environmental barriers
and losses in court for 11 years, the large water wholesaler
serving 700,000 residential and business customers from Fontana
to Yucaipa is on the precipice of releasing an environmentally
based plan that would nearly double its supply of water by
diverting billions of gallons from the Upper Santa Ana River,
while mitigating the effects on 20 indigenous fish and bird
species.
As Executive Officer Jessica R. Pearson identified in her
December blog on the Delta Adapts initiative, “social
vulnerability means that a person, household, or community has
a heightened sensitivity to the climate hazards and/or a
decreased ability to adapt to those hazards.” With an eye
toward social vulnerability and environmental justice along
with the coequal goals in mind, we launched our Delta Adapts
climate change resilience initiative in 2018.
Picture the desert landscape of a Mad Max movie populated with
vigilantes devoted to acquiring not gasoline — but water.
This scenario isn’t as far-fetched as you might think. “Water
wars” describes conflicts between countries, states, or groups
over the right to access water resources, usually
freshwater. … As Los Angeles expanded during the
late 19th century, it outgrew its water supply, and L.A.’s
mayor, Fred Eaton, came up with the plan to divert water from
the Owens Valley to L.A. via an aqueduct.
For centuries, farmers have found ingenious ways of making the
best of the water available, but access to fresh water is
becoming more and more unpredictable. Extreme weather events
and drought is as much of a threat, as flash flooding in farms
and food producers. … In California’s Central
Valley, a region that produces a quarter of the USA’s food and
relies mostly on water pumped from underground, to irrigate the
crops, is fast running out of its water supply.
New Frontier Data, the premier data, analytics and technology
firm specializing in the global cannabis industry, in
partnership with Resource Innovation Institute and the Berkeley
Cannabis Research Center, releases Cannabis H2O: Water Use and
Sustainability in Cultivation. The report provides an in-depth
look at water usage in the regulated cannabis cultivation
market and how its use compares to the illicit market and
traditional agricultural sectors. … The report reveals that
the cannabis industry uses significantly less water than other
major agricultural crops in California.
Vanderbilt paleoclimatologists using pioneering research
have uncovered evidence of ancient climate “whiplash” in
California that exceeded even the extremes the state has
weathered in the past decade. Their findings present a
long-term picture of what regional climate change may look like
in the state that supplies the U.S. with more than a third
of its vegetables and two-thirds of its fruits and nuts.
With much of Northern California swathed in a severe drought,
the city of Healdsburg is asking residents to voluntarily
conserve water by reducing irrigation and switching to drought
resistant plants, fixing leaky faucets and running clothes and
dishwashers at full capacity. As of Jan. 19, precipitation was
at 40% of normal rainfall according to Felicia Smith, a utility
conservation analyst with the city of Healdsburg.
From California’s perspective, the view upriver is not
encouraging. More than half of the upper part of the river
basin is in “exceptional drought,” according to the U.S.
Drought Monitor, while the Lower Basin is even worse off: More
than 60% of it is in the highest drought level. In January,
water levels in Lake Powell, the river’s second-largest
reservoir, dropped to unprecedented depths, triggering a
drought contingency plan for the first time for the Upper Basin
states of Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. Since
2000, the Colorado River Basin has seen a sustained period of
less water and hotter days. This is, as climate scientists like
to say, the “new normal.”
AT FIRST GLANCE, THIS STRUCTURE appears to be an enigma. It’s a
bridge between two granite monoliths, an above-ground tunnel,
and an aqueduct carrying water over a creek. This structure is
actually part of an elaborate water system. The Feather River
Canyon is a scenic wonder. Sheer granite slabs rise hundreds of
feet above the water. Almost equally impressive are the
measures engineers have taken to conquer this rugged terrain.
The red flags are everywhere for a builder staring out at wide
swaths of Riverside County’s second largest city: grassy lots,
bumpy dirt roads, entire blocks without streetlights and an
unreliable water system where water pressure drops without
warning. … Still, the lack of infrastructure, from roads
and electricity to water and sewer, hasn’t stopped state
housing planners from earmarking some 14,000 low-income units
in Moreno Valley to help address the state’s housing crisis —
even if none of it ever gets built.
I came to the little town of Ojai in Ventura county with a
history of running municipal water conservation programs, most
recently working with Pasadena Water and Power as a drought
coordinator. We were at the end of a 6 year drought and I
started working for Patagonia, a clothing company with a social
and environmental ethic in Ventura, who hired me to review
either ocean desalination or connecting to the state water
project as water supply options. I recommended neither.
Climate change will continue to impact the West, and
particularly its water supply—the many impacts include longer
and more damaging wildfire seasons as well as prolonged
drought. Federal leadership and action are needed to address
the climate crisis. With the 117th Congress now in session,
Audubon is advocating at the federal level for funding and
policy priorities that restore habitat, protect communities,
and support birds through proactive water management and
conservation.
A government agency that controls much of California’s water
supply released its initial allocation for 2021, and the
numbers reinforced fears that the state is falling into another
drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that most
of the water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project
will get just 5% of their contract supply, a dismally low
number. Although the figure could grow if California gets more
rain and snow, the allocation comes amid fresh weather
forecasts suggesting the dry winter is continuing. The National
Weather Service says the Sacramento Valley will be warm and
windy the next few days, with no rain in the forecast.
California’s wet season has not brought much relief so far and
the outlook is not promising. …Unfortunately, the outlook is
not promising. Little to no precipitation is expected through
the end of February. California, with the exception of far
northern areas, will likely experience drier than average
conditions during the March through May period, according to
NOAA. Above-average temperatures are also anticipated for the
southern half of the state this spring.
Tuolumne Utilities District provided an update on Thursday
regarding negotiations to acquire Pacific Gas and Electric Co.
assets in the South Fork Stanislaus River watershed and rights
to water in New Melones Reservoir, though the possible costs
remain unclear due to a confidentiality agreement. The TUD
Board of Directors hosted a rare joint meeting via video with
the county Board of Supervisors, Sonora City Council, local
Me-Wuk Indian tribes, and other stakeholders, during which
members spoke about the need for community-wide cooperation and
collaboration due to the scope of the undertaking.
The Santa Cruz City Council is poised to approve a 5-year
extension between the City and Soquel Creek Water Districts on
a pilot program that would funnel excess surface water to
Soquel Creek during winter months, in hopes of bolstering
overdrawn groundwater supply there. That surface water, on
average, is projected to be around 115 million gallons
delivered by Santa Cruz Water to Soquel Creek during the wet
season, which would take strain off pumping the Santa Cruz
Mid-County Groundwater Basin.
The McMullin Area Groundwater Sustainability Agency (MAGSA), a
Groundwater Sustainability Agency in the Central Valley’s Kings
Subbasin, has been awarded a $10 million grant by the State
Water Resources Control Board through the Prop 1 Stormwater
Grant Program to expand the existing McMullin On-Farm Recharge
(OFR) Project located near Helm in Fresno County. The
Project is identified in MAGSA’s Groundwater Sustainability
Plan and is a key element in a vision developed by MAGSA to
achieve groundwater sustainability under California’s
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) through
innovative approaches in groundwater banking and crediting.
Texas has always seen its share of extreme weather events,
but over the past two decades they have intensified. A few
years ago, after the fifth “ 500-year flood” in five years, I
remarked to a friend, “We’re going to have to stop calling them
that.” … Of course, this uptick in extreme weather is
not limited to Texas. Numerous places across the country—and
indeed the globe—have experienced multiple “historic” weather
events in recent years. Last year, droughts in California led
to six of the largest wildfires in the state’s
history. In 2017 and 2018, British Columbia had two consecutive
record-setting forest fire seasons.
-Written by Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer
with over 25 years of experience in the energy
industry.
Crops are now blooming here in the San Joaquin Valley, which
marks the beginning of harvest season for farmers. As a
drier-than-usual wet season continues to unfold, many are
worried about how current drought conditions will impact this
year’s crop.
“Basic climate science reveals that Lake Powell is not a
reliable water source for this ill-conceived project.” The
reference to ‘basic climate science’ refers to recent computer
models that show a drier climate throughout the American
Southwest over the next few decades, allegedly due to the
continued use of fossil fuels all around the globe. But even
without access to clever computer models, we have all seen Lake
Powell and Lake Mead — America’s two largest water reservoirs —
struggle to remain even half full, as we watch water users
extract more water than nature can replace.
Lake Wohlford Dam is an important water storage, flood control
and recreational facility that has served Escondido for
generations. Restoring storage capacity and making it
earthquake-safe is critically important, which is why I
introduced AB 692. The dam was originally constructed in 1895
to store water transported via a wooden flume from the San Luis
Rey River to Escondido. One of the first rock-fill dams in
California, Lake Wohlford Dam was 76 feet high and had a
storage capacity of about 3500 acre-feet.
-Written by Assemblymember Marie Waldron,
R-Escondido
Utah House Bill 297 is a dangerous spending bill that provides
its benefactors with exemptions to conflict-of-interest laws
that raises serious moral questions about what is happening at
the Utah Legislature. The bill creates another heavily-funded
and secretive government agency — the Colorado River Authority
— that would receive an initial $9 million, plus $600,000 per
year thereafter, in addition to collecting unknown sums of
money from other agencies. -Written by Claire Geddes, a consumer advocate and former
director of Utah Legislative Watch.
The Santa Clarita Valley Water Agency has extended its public
comment period for the Saugus Formation Aquifer to March 19,
with the addition of a second virtual public meeting. The
meeting is expected to provide community members with an
additional opportunity to learn more about how the agency is
keeping its water safe for drinking water consumption through
minimizing and reducing the public health and environmental
effects of hazardous substances that have been identified in
the aquifer, as well as treatments that could allow several
wells to return to service.
When Gov. Gavin Newsom was photographed dining at an opulent
Napa Valley restaurant during a surge in coronavirus cases,
many Californians saw it as hypocrisy. For opponents of a
planned $1-billion desalination plant along the Orange County
coast, however, the optics were menacing. The unmasked Newsom
was celebrating the birthday of a lobbyist for Poseidon Water,
which is close to obtaining final government approval for one
of the country’s biggest seawater desalination plants.
There are six Mono Lake tributaries to be exact – Rush, Lee
Vining, Parker, Walker, Wilson, and Mill creeks. And the fact
is Mono Lake never had any surplus water; its fullness has
always depended on the amount of water running into it. So as
soon as some of that water was cut off, which began in 1941,
the Lake started to plummet and the entire ecosystem dependent
on those “half a dozen little mountain brooks” soon
followed.
Nearing the 50th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act,
Assemblyman Robert Rivas held a press conference on Feb. 2 to
discuss the proposed California Clean Water Act, AB 377. The
legislation, co-introduced by Rivas and state Senate Majority
Leader Robert Hertzberg, would work to ensure all rivers,
lakes, oceans and other bodies of water in California are clean
enough for drinking, swimming and fishing purposes by
2050.
As she promised, State Senator Melissa Hurtado has reintroduced
legislation that would provide fund to improve California’s
water infrastructure, including the Friant-Kern Canal. On
Friday, Hurtado, a Democrat from Sanger whose district includes
Porterville, introduced the State Water Resiliency Act of 2021
that would provide $785 million to restore the ability of
infrastructure such as the Friant-Kern Canal to deliver water
at their capacity. The bill would also go to fund other
infrastructure such as the Delta-Mendota Canal, San Luis Canal
and California Aqueduct.
The main weather excitement of the season thus far was
certainly the major late January atmospheric event that was the
focus of my last blog post. Despite missing some the details
during the early portion of the event (winds were stronger and
precipitation less intense than originally predicted), the
storm largely evolved as expected–stalling along the Central
Coast and bringing very heavy double-digit rainfall totals
there, as well as extremely heavy snowfall throughout the
Sierra Nevada (on the order of 3-8 *feet* in many places).
On a bright February morning, Kulwant Singh Johl, a
third-generation Punjabi American farmer, checked the rain
gauge in front of his neat stucco home in Northern California’s
Yuba-Sutter area. Gusts and drizzles had battered his peach
orchard nonstop for a week, but it still wasn’t enough to
quench the recent drought. … And indeed, the
intensifying drought could devastate livelihoods of many
multigeneration Punjabi American farmers in California. This
year, many may have to sell their hard-earned farm plots and
leave an industry that they hold in high esteem.
Old Man Winter has been busy of late, bringing much-needed
relief to Utah’s dangerously low snowpacks. But don’t let the
piles of fresh snow fool you. After near-record low
precipitation over the past year, Utah water supplies remain in
serious trouble even with the recent return of long-absent wet
weather.
Lower groundwater levels can prevent drainage of water and
salts from a basin and increase aquifer salinity that
eventually renders the groundwater unsuitable for use as
drinking water or irrigation without expensive desalination.
Pauloo et al. (2021) demonstrate this process for the
Tulare Lake Basin (TLB) of California’s Central Valley. Even if
groundwater pumping does not cause overdraft, it can cause
hydrologic basin closure leading to progressive salinization
that will not cease until the basin is opened by allowing
natural or engineered exits for groundwater and dissolved salt.
The process, “Anthropogenic Basin Closure and Groundwater
Salinization (ABCSAL)”, is driven by human water
management.
Less water for the Central Arizona Project — but not zero
water. Even more competition between farms and cities for
dwindling Colorado River supplies than there is now. More
urgency to cut water use rather than wait for seven river basin
states to approve new guidelines in 2025 for operating the
river’s reservoirs. That’s where Arizona and the Southwest are
heading with water, say experts and environmental advocates
following publication of a dire new academic study on the
Colorado River’s future. The study warned that the river’s
Upper and Lower basin states must sustain severe cuts in river
water use to keep its reservoir system from collapsing due to
lack of water. That’s due to continued warming weather and
other symptoms of human-caused climate change, the study said.
In 1955 he joined Downey, Brand, Seymour and Rohwer in
Sacramento, becoming a partner in 1958 and specializing in
water and natural resources law. He represented the California
Central Valley Flood Control Association and over 30
reclamation, levee, water, and irrigation districts and mutual
water companies in the Sacramento Valley. He was actively
involved in negotiations leading to the water right settlement
agreements between the Sacramento River water users and the
United States in 1964. He formed the North Delta Water Agency
and negotiated the agreement in 1981 between that Agency and
the State of California, protecting water quality and uses
within the northern half of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
California’s $86 million date industry produces more than half
of the nation’s dates. Most of the fruit is grown in the arid
Coachella Valley. Despite efforts by growers to conserve water,
data was lacking on date palms’ actual water use to refine the
best irrigation management for the crop until a recent research
project led by Ali Montazar, UC Cooperative Extension
irrigation and water management advisor for Imperial and
Riverside counties.
California and Texas, the country’s two most populous states,
have each faced major energy crises within the past six months
that share a primary cause: extreme weather….The Lone Star
State’s plight is many orders of magnitude worse than the
rolling blackouts Californians endured over two blistering days
in August. Yet both situations have exposed the extent to which
the United States’ vital energy infrastructure is threatened by
erratic and extreme weather conditions that are becoming
increasingly common as climate change advances.
A recent webinar on trading of guaranteed future water prices
on the stock market showed the potential to drive up the price
tag of water for public agencies. During a Feb. 2 California
Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) virtual meeting,
water stock market advocates were clear that prices would rise.
However, they stated that it would be a good thing, because
water has been undervalued and therefore wasted. Their approach
would encourage more efficient use of water, they told the CDFA
board.
California’s Sierra snow pack is 68% of average after a series
of storms in recent weeks. The Department of Water Resources
says the statewide average is down slightly from the 70% number
about two weeks ago during the last monthly snow survey. The
snow pack was sagging at about 40% of normal back in
mid-January.
The Tuolumne Utilities District hosted a joint meeting to
provide local stakeholders an update on efforts to acquire
PG&E assets like Pinecrest Reservoir and Lyons Dam, and
water rights from New Melones. The informational meeting
included the Tuolumne County Supervisors, Sonora City Council
and local tribal representatives.
Despite the challenges of working through a pandemic, river
restoration practitioners continued to pursue dam removal
projects in 2020 to revitalize local economies and communities
and reconnect 624 upstream river miles for fish, wildlife and
river health. Sixty-nine dams were removed in 2020 across 23
states, including: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont,
Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
The first few months of this rainfall season were below average
across California, with drought conditions evident statewide.
Although the Golden State received a much-needed soaking in
late January, moderate drought conditions remain across Santa
Clara County. Valley Water remains focused on preparing
for future wet and dry years through various projects and
programs, including the proposed expansion of Pacheco Reservoir
in southern Santa Clara County. -Written by Valley Water Directors, Vice Chair Gary
Kremen, John L. Varela, and Richard P. Santos.
Two elections held in the last three months have placed San
Bernardino County resident Jasmin Hall in a position where she
wields the most influence among a handful of African Americans
serving in California water industry leadership roles. Late
last year, Hall’s colleagues elected her the first African
American president of the Inland Empire Utilities Agency
(IEUA). Earlier this year, she was sworn in to serve in that
role.
“I was inspired by Erin Brockovich to help communities with
contaminated tap water,” says Ryan Sinderbrand, a junior at
Westlake High School in Thousand Oaks, “so I took some
environmental and sustainability classes to learn more. I’d
watched the news, and I’d heard stories about how serious the
problem was.” Wanting to help, he researched communities in
California with contaminated water and came across the
Coachella Valley.
An expert panel has concluded that the decades-old practice of
irrigating agricultural food crops with “produced water” from
oil fields shows no evidence of increased risk to human
health. The panel’s 35-page Food Safety Project White
Paper is the result of five years of extensive crop sampling
and a thorough evaluation of data, along with a review of
existing literature…. The Central Valley Regional Water
Quality Control Board is inviting members of the pubic to
comment on the white paper at its next meeting on Feb. 18-19,
along with an option to submit written comments until March 5.
Tuolumne Utilities District will continue to process
applications for new water hookups because its Board of
Directors failed Thursday to reach a determination on future
supply and availability. The TUD board held a special workshop
Thursday to grapple with the oldest challenge in county history
when it comes to water, but the big picture has not changed.
The district relies on the South Fork Stanislaus River
watershed that still provides a limited amount of runoff, an
average of 104,000 acre-feet annually, and typically has access
to less than one-quarter of that.
First Texans lost their power. Now, they’re losing their
potable water. After enduring multiple days of freezing
temperatures and Texans dripping faucets to prevent frozen
pipes from bursting, cities across the state warned residents
on Wednesday that water levels are dangerously low and may be
unsafe to drink. They’re telling Texans to boil tap water for
drinking, cooking, brushing their teeth and for making ice — as
residents have been struggling to maintain power and heat while
an unprecedented winter storm whips across the state.
Much like COVID-19 is changing our election practices and
day-to-day business operations, climate change could change
your water rights, according to the State Water Resources
Control Board. In the past, I have eluded to the shift from
historical facts used for analysis and forecasting to a
fear-based guessing game that allows an unelected bureaucracy
backed by a one-party-rule elected body to usurp your property
rights. -Written by Wayne Western, Jr. the Sun’s Agriculture
Pulse contributor, writing on the San Joaquin Valley’s
agricultural community and water issues.
Imposing hefty taxes on speculative water sales, requiring that
water rights purchased by investors be held for several years
before they can be resold, and requiring special state approval
of such sales are three ideas that might help Colorado protect
its water resources from speculators. The ideas were discussed
Wednesday at a meeting of a special work group looking at
whether Colorado needs to strengthen laws preventing Wall
Street investment firms and others from selling water for
profit in ways that don’t benefit the state’s farms, cities and
streams.
The Marin Municipal Water District is calling on customers to
voluntarily cut back on their water use for the first time
since the 2013 drought in response to meager rainfall
reminiscent of the notorious 1976-1977 drought.
A local water utility company is set to share information about
how the Littlerock Creek watershed was adversely affected by
the Bobcat fire. Palmdale Water District will host a free,
virtual event at 3 p.m. on Feb. 24 and provide information to
the public about what steps are being taken to mitigate the
damage. Much of the watershed has been burned and there is
concern that potential heavy debris flow will create excessive
sediment in the Littlerock Reservoir and affect water quality.
In its 25-year plan ensuring the San Diego region has enough
water to go around, the county’s largest water provider didn’t
appear to take the region’s biggest water recycling project to
date very seriously, at least at first. Emails between the San
Diego County Water Authority staff and city of San Diego
officials show the city had to argue for the second and biggest
phase of its Pure Water program to be considered a realistic
future source of drinking water.
A western water conference that draws national speakers each
year — and normally draws Basin irrigators to Reno for the
weekend — is being held virtually this Thursday and Friday due
to COVID precautions. The Family Farm Alliance conference,
organized in part by Klamath Falls-based executive director Dan
Keppen, is themed “A Bridge over Troubled Water” this year. The
alliance advocates for irrigated agriculture in 17 western
states, including in Oregon.
Utah lawmakers say drought and the dwindling Colorado River
make it more important than ever for the state to act now to
safeguard its interest in the river.
Growers all over the U.S. are concerned about labor, and those
in the Golden State are no exception. The California Fresh
Fruit Association (CFFA) announced the results of their “Top
Issues Survey” for 2021, and labor- and water-related issues
were prominently featured. CFFA members were recently surveyed
to rank the top issues for the association to focus its efforts
on this year.
Industrial “forever chemicals” found in hundreds of consumer
goods and linked to adverse health effects may face new
regulations under the Biden administration. Why it matters:
Environmental groups and members of Congress are calling on
President Biden to follow through with his promise to designate
the long-ignored and largely unregulated synthetic chemicals,
which can last for hundreds of years without breaking down, as
hazardous substances. They’re also calling for him to set
enforceable limits for the chemicals in the Safe Drinking Water
Act and to fund toxicity research on them.
The Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District and the Trinidad
Rancheria are moving forward with a feasibility study to
investigate the possibility of extending water service from
McKinleyville up to the Rancheria. The Trinidad City Council
and the Westhaven Community Services District declined to
participate in the study last month, citing risks of
overdevelopment.
Investors, farmers, and Reddit users can now all hedge bets on
the price of water in California thanks to the launch of the
first water futures market in the country late last year. It
represents a new financial outlook on water in California — one
driven by the market. Since its launch Dec. 7, the futures the
market has seen 180 trades — equivalent to over 550 million
gallons of actual water. But the water futures market has
nothing to do with the movement of real water: it’s just about
money.
The process to recoup over $1 billion in repairs to Oroville
Dam’s spillways after the 2017 crisis is receiving more federal
funds. The Department of Water Resources announced Feb. 1 that
the Federal Emergency Management Agency released an additional
approximately $308 million in requested funds for the Oroville
Dam spillways reconstruction and emergency response. These
funds are in addition to over $260 million that FEMA has
already committed to …
The San Diego Water Authority thinks the region is going to
need way more water over the next few decades, but the smaller
agencies that buy water from them aren’t so sure. They think
the Water Authority is projecting too much growth in future
water demand, and they’re worried that if they’re right,
residents are going to end up paying for it, even as they
curtail their own water usage.
A series of precipitation-producing storms continue to
contribute to the abundance of new snow to the Sierra and
officials hope to see Northern California to catch up soon from
the slow start to winter and remnants from a dry 2020. Last
week, state water officials made their second trek to the
Sierra to measure the latest snowpack, which showed great
improvement and hopes that more is on the way. Statewide, the
water content of the snowpack was 70 percent of average to date
…
A major water banking proposal northwest of Bakersfield that
won coveted Proposition 1 funding in 2018, was hit by two
lawsuits earlier this month, one claiming it is nothing more
than a wolf in sheep’s clothing intent on selling Kern River
water to southern California. The City of Bakersfield and
the Kern County Water Agency filed separate complaints Feb. 2
against the Kern Fan Groundwater Storage Project seeking to
have the project’s recently approved environmental impact
report deemed inadequate. …
A series of storms will usher in a wet holiday weekend across
Northern California, threatening to put a damper on outdoor
activities and cause driving delays for holiday travelers. The
soaking rains that doused much of the Bay Area on Thursday were
anticipated to dissipate by sunrise on Friday, according to the
National Weather Service. But more wet weather is expected to
arrive Saturday and Monday, bringing light to moderate rains
and cooler temperatures.
The Kern County Farm Bureau issued a “call to action” this week
asking local growers and ranchers to participate in a series of
upcoming meetings that will influence the role California’s
agricultural lands will be expected to play, or continue to
play, in fighting climate change.
Veteran water industry executive Tish Berge is joining the San
Diego County Water Authority as assistant general manager,
bringing experience from every aspect of water utility
management to serve the region. Berge is currently general
manager of the Sweetwater Authority, one of the Water
Authority’s 24 member agencies. Berge starts her new role
February 22 alongside Deputy General Manager Dan Denham and
General Manager Sandra L. Kerl.
When the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak swept
across the United States, toilet paper, hand sanitiser and
Clorox wipes flew off store shelves. But shopping carts have
also been full of something that most Americans get supplied
straight to their home: Water.
Utah House Speaker Brad Wilson says the state needs to do
everything it can to protect its share of water in the
drought-challenged Colorado River, and the creation of a new
entity would foster that protection. … He and Senate
President Stuart Adams, R-Layton, are sponsors of the Colorado
River Amendments, HB297, which would set up the Colorado River
Authority of Utah with $9 million in one-time money and
$600,000 of ongoing money.
In a tense, two-and-a-half-hour board meeting on Feb. 4 that
included more than 100 attendees, San Lorenzo Valley Water
District (SLVWD) broached the subject of a potential merger
with Scotts Valley Water District (SVWD). The reaction from
those who attended the Zoom meeting was anything but subtle:
the majority opposed the idea, and representatives of SLVWD
found themselves back on their heels from the opening salvo.
When it comes to water availability in the Santa Clarita
Valley, the issue is not new and has certainly been discussed
“ad nauseam,” but we seem to look on it as a new subject every
couple of years. … The SCV Water team are supposed to be
experts, they have monitored the valley’s water use for years,
they know the differences in water use based on the season and
should have accounted for our water needs. But instead, what
they have done is continually add new users, stretching the
supply over a larger base…
-Written by Alan Ferdman, a Santa Clarita resident and a
member of the Canyon Country Advisory Committee board.
While the situations and circumstances may have been
unfamiliar, SCV Water faced them with expertise,
professionalism and compassion. We assessed the situation,
adjusted our sails, and adapted to meet the challenges while
holding fast to our mission: Providing responsible water
stewardship to ensure the Santa Clarita Valley has reliable
supplies of high-quality water at a reasonable cost.
-Written by Gary Martin, board president of the Santa
Clarita Valley Water Agency.
Nearly every home has a water heater, but people tend not to
think about it until the shock of a cold shower signals its
failure. To regulators, though, the ubiquitous household
appliance is increasingly top of mind for the role it could
play in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and weaning the power
grid from fossil fuels High-tech electric water heaters can
double as thermal batteries, storing excess production from
wind and solar generators. In California,
officials aim to install them in place of millions of
gas water heaters throughout the state. That would reduce the
need to fire up polluting fossil fuel power plants to supply
electricity for water heating after the sun sets.
In the five years since Colorado’s Water Plan took effect, the
state has awarded nearly $500 million in loans and grants for
water projects, cities have enacted strict drought plans,
communities have written nearly two dozen locally based stream
restoration plans, and crews have been hard at work improving
irrigation systems and upgrading wastewater treatment plants.
But big challenges lie ahead — drought, population growth,
accelerating climate change, budget cuts, wildfires and
competing demands for water, among others.
There’s a race on in California, and each day matters: the
precipitation during winter that fuels the snowpack in the
Sierra Nevadas and fills groundwater supplies has been slow to
start, and faltering at best. Northern California remains stuck
in one of the worst two-year rainfall deficits seen since the
1849 Gold Rush, increasing the risk of water restrictions and
potentially setting up dangerous wildfire conditions next
summer. The current precipitation is only 30% to 70% of what
the state would expect to have seen during a normal year – with
no more big rainfall events on the horizon for February.
A Northern California water users’ association has filed a
motion against a $450 million plan to tear down four dams on
the Klamath River they claim irrevocably hurts local
homeowners. The motion was filed with the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) last Wednesday by the Murphy and
Buchal Law firm on behalf of the Siskiyou County Water Users
Association. It claims the interstate agreement reached by
Oregon and California last year to remove the dams has incurred
“irreparable damage” to lakefront home values in the COPCO Lake
area as water levels are feared to decline.
The Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District recently
ruled in Wyatt v. City of Sacramento that a City’s imposition
of a surcharge in the form of a “general tax” on
property-related utility services payable to the City’s general
fund did not violate Proposition 218 (Prop. 218). The
appellate court decision confirms that a surcharge imposed on a
utility enterprise is a cost of providing utility services and
is therefore properly part of the Prop. 218 analysis of
determining whether revenues exceed funds required to provide
the services.
It might be hard to imagine that it has already been more than
five years since we exited the extreme dry years of 2014 and
2015. At that time, local, state and federal water managers
were taking unprecedented actions in response to the dry
conditions to maximize beneficial uses and every Californian
was feeling the impact of multiple dry years. … In their
blog earlier this year, Fritz Durst and Brent Hastey outlined
much of the work that has occurred since 2015 to prepare
for the next dry year. In addition to those actions, we also
have worked to better identify the timing and quantity of water
needed during dry years to maximize habitat benefits with
limited resources.
In the latest Delta Conveyance Deep Dive video, we take a look
at the financing mechanisms that make the project possible,
both now, in the initial planning stages, and in the future if
the project is approved. It might not sound like the most
exciting aspect of the project but it’s certainly one area
where there’s a lot of public interest and concern. With a
project of this scale (the most recent estimate of the total
cost is around $16 billion) it’s not surprising that
people want to know who’s footing the bill.
Two decades ago, Nicole Horseherder, a member of the Navajo
Nation, coordinated a community meeting. Beneath the shade of
Juniper trees at her late grandmother’s house, several dozen
people gathered to find a way to protect their pristine water.
The springs and wells along Black Mesa, a semi-arid, rocky mesa
that overlies the Navajo Aquifer, were increasingly drying up,
as tens of billions of gallons of potable water were used to
extract, clean, and transport coal mined in the region. This
meeting was the start of a long struggle to safeguard the
community from coal projects, which threatened the drinking
water supply of both the Navajo and Hopi people.
A storm is forecast to bring rain to the Bay Area on Thursday
Feb. 11, 2021. After a stretch of sunny, dry weather, the first
significant rainfall is heading to the Bay Area since an
atmospheric river storm pummeled Northern California two weeks
ago. A new storm is forecast to roll in Thursday night,
forecasters said Tuesday. It won’t be anywhere near as big as
the late January storm that triggered landslide warnings and
evacuations in Santa Cruz County communities, and washed out a
big chunk of Highway 1 in Big Sur.
In the five years since Colorado’s Water Plan took effect, the
state has awarded nearly $500 million in loans and grants for
water projects, cities have enacted strict drought plans,
communities have written nearly two dozen locally based
stream-restoration plans and crews have been hard at work on
improving irrigation systems and wastewater treatment plants.
But there are big challenges ahead — drought, population
growth, accelerating climate change, budget cuts, wildfires and
competing demands for water, among others.
Bracing for potentially a second consecutive year of dry
conditions, California water officials, farmers and researchers
participating in an irrigation conference discussed recharging
aquifers with stormwater and increased water efficiency among
ways to diversify the state’s water supply.
Three new directors representing the cities of Fullerton and
Santa Ana as well as the Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal
Water District were seated on the board of directors of the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.
A new report finds that nearly 70,000 San Diego families are
behind on their water bills during the pandemic, with more than
11,000 owing over a thousand dollars. That same study by
the state’s Water Resources Control Board finds that one in
eight California households are behind on their water bills: a
a tsunami of debt adding up to more than a billion dollars.
California American Water recently announced its end-of-year
investment total and system improvements for 2020. More than
$68 million total was invested on system upgrades and various
improvement projects in the communities we serve throughout the
year. These improvements come despite the complications and
challenges posed by COVID-19 public health emergency.
Marin County water districts are weighing the need for
mandatory conservation actions in the face of abnormally low
rainfall and what could be another prolonged drought. Marin’s
two largest suppliers — the Marin Municipal Water District and
the North Marin Water District — plan to begin with voluntary
conservation measures before considering more restrictive
options such as rationing and irrigation bans similar to those
of the 2014 drought.
