Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems in the world.
They produce high levels of oxygen, filter toxic chemicals out of
water, reduce flooding and erosion and recharge groundwater. They
also serve as critical habitat for wildlife, including a large
percentage of plants and animals on California’s endangered
species list.
As the state has grown into one of the world’s leading economies,
Californians have developed and transformed the state’s marshes,
swamps and tidal flats, losing as much as 90 percent of the
original wetlands acreage—a greater percentage of loss than any
other state in the nation.
While the conversion of wetlands has slowed, the loss in
California is significant and it affects a range of factors from
water quality to quality of life.
Wetlands still remain in every part of the state, with the
greatest concentration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
its watershed, which includes the Central Valley. The Delta
wetlands are especially important because they are part of the
vast complex of waterways that provide two-thirds of California’s
drinking water.
It’s a growing threat that sneaks in with the tide. Sea levels
here in the Bay Area are expected to rise by a foot or more
over the next several decades, potentially overwhelming levees
and seawalls around the Bay. But now an environmental group
says one of the most powerful weapons we have to fight back, is
being literally, thrown away. … [T]ons of sediment that are
dredged out of the Bay every year and barged out sea, or dumped
in deep water … could be the perfect solution to bolster the
wetlands that surround the Bay.
Bay Area environmental groups are celebrating a decision by an
affiliate of Cargill to withdraw its appeal of a federal
judge’s finding that Redwood City salt ponds are protected by
the Clean Water Act. While the withdrawal does not mean
development is prohibited it does make it more difficult, as
the federal act requires permits be issued before any dredging
or filling of the salt ponds, a 1,365-acre area adjacent to the
San Francisco Bay filled with tidal pools, marshland and
commercial salt mining operations.
The California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA) today
launched California Nature to engage
Californians in advancing the State’s commitment to conserving
30 percent of lands and coastal waters by 2030 (30×30) and
enlisting nature-based solutions to combat climate change. The
website and a new online questionnaire are aimed at gathering
input from a broad cross-section of Californians.
The state plans to inspect three dairy ranches in the Point
Reyes National Seashore after independent water quality tests
conducted in nearby creeks and lagoons earlier this year found
E. coli bacteria concentrations up to 40 times higher than
state health standards. The San Francisco Regional Water
Quality Control Board plans to inspect Kehoe Dairy, McClure
Dairy and R&J McClelland Dairy, which are located near
Kehoe Creek and waterways that flow into Abbotts Lagoon in the
northern region of the national seashore.
Harmful algal blooms (or HABs) occur when colonies of algae,
under the right conditions, grow out of control and produce
toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine
mammals, and birds. Every U.S. coastal and Great Lakes state
experiences harmful algal blooms. In California, reports
of harmful algal blooms have increased from 91 in 2016 to 241
in 2019. In 2020, Stockton experienced a severe harmful
algal bloom; it marked the first year that algal blooms spread
into the San Joaquin and Calaveras Rivers so early in the
summer and fall months. Drought and heat are factors that
increase harmful algal blooms …
On Wednesday, March 3rd, the Northern California Water
Association (NCWA) Board of Directors officially adopted our
2021 Priorities. The water leaders in this region look forward
to working with our many partners in 2021 to cultivate a shared
vision for a vibrant way of life in the Sacramento River Basin.
We will continue to re-imagine our water system in the
Sacramento River Basin as we also work to harmonize our water
priorities with state, federal, and other regions’ priorities
to advance our collective goal of ensuring greater water and
climate resilience throughout California for our communities,
the economy, and the environment.
The San Joaquin Valley’s quest for groundwater sustainability
will result in large amounts of irrigated agricultural lands
being retired. A new book explores how some of these lands
could be restored to natural areas that bring multiple
benefits. We talked to Scott Butterfield, a senior scientist at
The Nature Conservancy and one of the book’s editors, about
this vision.
Ballona Wetlands activists and Westside residents are planning
an Earth Day protest, calling on local leaders to shut down the
Playa del Rey oil field and pushing back against what they call
a disguised restoration project meant to restore the gas
company’s infrastructure below the ecological reserve.
CITIZENS for a SUSTAINABLE HUMBOLDT (CSH) and the NORTHCOAST
ENVIRONMENTAL CENTER (NEC) have filed a lawsuit in the Humboldt
County Superior Court, with claims under the California
Environmental Quality, the State Planning and Zoning Law, and
other laws, challenging the environmental review and permits
approved by the Humboldt County Board of Supervisors.
Protecting the Bay Area from sea level rise may all come down
to mud. That’s the finding of a new report from San Francisco
Estuary Institute that tries to address a two-part problem
related to the looming threat of sea level rise: the lack of
natural sediment coming into the bay and the need to reinforce
its shorelines to protect the region from rising seas. There’s
a fairly straightforward solution, the nonprofit research
organization proposes: Take the sediment that’s dredged from
the bay’s shipping channels and barged out to sea or to deep
parts of the bay — 2½ to 3 million cubic yards of mud a year —
and use it to restore wetlands on the perimeter.
Legislation that would gradually phase out fracking and other
extraction methods that account for most of California’s
petroleum production faces its first big test in Sacramento on
Tuesday. The nine-member Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee is set to vote on a proposal, Senate Bill 467, that
would bar new permits for hydraulic fracturing, cyclic
steaming, steam flooding and water flooding. The legislation
would begin taking effect in 2023 and also prohibit renewing
existing permits for fracking and the other targeted methods,
which a committee bill analysis says accounts for an estimated
80% to 95% of the state’s oil production.
The Patch reports the Fire Department investigation found the
source of the March 23rd brush fire in the Ballona Wetlands
Ecological Reserve to be a homeless encampment in the area of
origin. The fire was accelerated by strong winds. While the
causes of these incidents are always concerning, there is
another important part of the story: an ecological and
historical one. Why did an intense brush fire burn at all in a
wetland? After all, wetlands are supposed to be wet.
The Suisun Marsh — known as the largest swath of contiguous
wetlands on the West Coast and a haven for thousands of
migrating waterfowl — has become the Bay Area’s latest
battleground between fossil fuel producers and
environmentalists hellbent on fighting climate change. A
Brentwood company, Sunset Exploration Inc., announced in
January it wants to explore for natural gas by drilling a
section of the 116,000-acre marshland about 9 miles southwest
of Suisun City in an area known as Hunter’s Point, according to
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
The California State Water Resources Control Board (the State
Board) will use $4.4 million of a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) grant to fund projects in seven counties around
the state. EPA’s Nonpoint Source Program grant assists the
State Board in implementing programs to address pollution
caused by runoff moving over the ground, known as nonpoint
source pollution. The Marin Resource Conservation District was
awarded over $700,000 by the State Board for its Conserving Our
Watersheds Program. This project helps ranchers within the
Point Reyes National Seashore prevent nitrogen, phosphorus,
sediment, and bacteria from livestock operations from running
off into Tomales Bay. Tomales Bay supports oyster production
and recreational activities including kayaking and fishing.
With a salmonella outbreak in eight states already under
investigation by the Centers for Disease Control, officials are
watching in California for another disease that impacts
waterfowl. Botulism killed thousands of waterfowl and other
birds last year on two national wildlife refuges near the
border of California and Oregon. Some estimates were as high as
60,000 dead birds. The Lower Klamath Basin and Tule Lake
national wildlife refuges were among the first created more
than 100 years ago. Millions of waterfowl and shore birds,
along with songbirds, migrated along the Pacific Flyway into
the two refuges and beyond. Today, between severe
restrictions on water flowing into and out of the refuges
and a crippling drought that shows no sign of letting up,
the refuge marshes are going dry.
On April 6, 2021, the State Water Resources Control Board
(State Board) approved the application of the State Wetland
Definition and Procedures for Discharges of Dredged or Fill
Material to Waters of the State (Procedures) as a water quality
control policy, carefully avoiding the scope of a recent court
order. This resolution will allow the Board to directly
apply the water Procedures to waters of the State as an
exercise of its policy-making authority rather than the water
quality control planning process.
A tiny silver fish few people in the Bay Area have heard of
could be a new symbol of the state’s continuing battle over
water resources. San Francisco Baykeeper sued the Biden
administration on Thursday to list the local population of
longfin smelt as an endangered species. The environmental
group’s legal action comes nine years after the federal
government first declared that the fish warranted that status.
Once an important source of food for marine mammals, birds and
chinook salmon, the local population of the longfin smelt has
dropped by 99.9% since the 1980s. Scientists and
environmentalists say that reduction is a direct result of too
much water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin river system being
diverted to farms and other water users rather than flowing
through the bay to the Pacific.
In June 2017, the California Regional Water Quality Control
Board and the Central Valley Region adopted a Basin Plan
Amendment for the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River Basins
for the control of pyrethroid pesticide discharges. The
amendment establishes controls for pyrethroid discharges,
including prohibition of discharges of pyrethroid pesticides
above certain concentrations, total maximum daily loads (TMDLs)
for pyrethroid pesticides, recommendations for agency
regulation of pyrethroids and potential monitoring
requirements. Synthetic pyrethroids are the most common forms
of commercially available urban pesticides for ants, termites
and flying insects…
California remains far behind its targets for addressing
exposed playa around the Salton Sea, according to data released
in the 2021 Salton Sea Management Program annual report.
But state officials expressed optimism in a public
workshop that they are finally beginning to catch up to those
goals. The state was supposed to implement dust suppression
projects or build wetlands habitat across 3,500 acres of
exposed playa by the end of 2020 to tamp down dust that’s
imbued with a century’s worth of salts, pesticides and other
agricultural runoff.
A year ago, when stay-at-home orders were a newly disorienting
fact of life, I started taking long walks through my
neighborhood on L.A.’s Westside. Wandering south from Palms
into Culver City, I realized I live near a huge concrete
channel — a creek, trapped in place — with a bike path along
the water, and a view of oil pumpjacks rising and falling atop
the Baldwin Hills. There were beautiful murals, too, showing a
healthy, thriving waterway. They were hashtagged
#KnowYourWatershed. And the more I admired them, the more I
realized that I did not, in fact, know my watershed, despite
growing up not far from here. -Written by Sammy Roth, a Los Angeles Times staff
writer.
As we begin spring in the Sacramento Valley, the region
illuminates – we see the brown landscape turn verdant, and the
Valley bustles with activity as people share the hope of a new
year and collectively cultivate a shared vision in the region
for a vibrant way of life. With the dry year in Northern
California, the water resource managers are working overtime to
carefully manage our precious water systems including rivers,
streams, reservoirs and diversions to serve multiple benefits.
To effectively do this, water resources must be managed in an
efficient manner, with the same block of water often used to
achieve several beneficial uses as it moves through the
region’s waterways.
The State Water Board on Tuesday approved an update to dredge
and fill procedures for wetlands considered waters of the
state. According to staff, the new resolution simply reflects a
recent court decision that the board cannot centralize all of
its water plans and policies under one regulatory umbrella. For
water interests, however, the resolution raised significant
concerns and could create conflicts with regulations that
directly impact agriculture. Valerie Kincaid, an attorney
representing a coalition of valley water agencies, contended
the new resolution fails to comply with the judgement and
threatens to compromise the board’s integrity.
The dams that are built in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River
Watershed protect thousands of people and billions of dollar’s
worth of agriculture but they are far too old and far too many
of them need repair. Some unnecessary dams are drying rivers
and putting business in front of the environment.
Tractors are working ground in the Sacramento Valley, as the
2021 rice season is underway. Whether it’s farmers, those in
cities or for the environment, this year will pose challenges
due to less than ideal rain and snowfall during the fall and
winter. Jon Munger At Montna Farms near Yuba City, Vice
President of Operations Jon Munger said they expect to plant
about one-third less rice this year, based on water cutbacks.
As water is always a precious resource in this state, rice
growers work hard to be as efficient as they can. Fields are
precisely leveled and will be flooded with just five-inches of
water during the growing season. Rice is grown in heavy clay
soils, which act like a bathtub to hold water in place.
High-tech planting and harvest equipment also help California
rice farms and mills operate at peak efficiency.
The California Department of Justice (DOJ) filed comments with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps) regarding Sunset
Exploration’s proposal to drill for natural gas in the Suisun
Marsh. Located in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, this 88,000-acre
wetland is home to a number of endangered and threatened
species, including California Ridgway’s rail, black rail, and
Chinook salmon – and is just a few short miles from
environmental justice communities in Solano County…. DOJ
urges the Army Corps to fully consider the proposal’s
significant environmental impacts, including harm to these
communities and protected species, as well as increased
greenhouse gas emissions, before deciding whether to grant the
requested permit.
Much of the state’s water infrastructure was designed decades
ago and was built to serve half the size of our current
population. Faced with aging infrastructure, California cities
have taken innovative approaches to modernizing water treatment
and recycling systems to meet the needs of a growing population
and a changing climate. One infrastructure need that many
residents take for granted is wastewater treatment.
… The San José-Santa Clara Regional Wastewater
Facility is the largest advanced wastewater treatment
facility in the Western United States. Originally built in
1956, today it serves more than 1.4 million residents and
17,000 businesses in eight cities in Silicon Valley and
unincorporated areas of Santa Clara County. Using
a treatment process that simulates the way nature
cleans water, the facility treats an average of 110 million
gallons of wastewater per day.
Eelgrass, a plant that grows in “underwater meadows” along the
California coast and emerges like a floating carpet at low
tide, is already known to be an important habitat for fish,
birds and baby Dungeness crabs. It turns out it can also reduce
seawater’s acidity back to preindustrial levels, creating
refuges for animals who can’t tolerate that byproduct of
climate change. … [S]eagrass meadows, which have shrunk in
number and size globally because of pollution and
development … may support wildlife as well as the
production of farmed oysters, mussels and
abalone. … The state already has efforts in place
to protect its eelgrass habitat. The California Ocean
Protection Council has a goal of preserving the state’s
existing 15,000 acres of seagrass beds and adding another 1,000
acres by 2025.
The Buena Vista Lagoon Ecological Reserve in San Diego County
sits between the cities of Oceanside to the north and Carlsbad
to the south. It’s historic because it was the state’s
first-ever reserve, created in 1968. … [H]omeowners in that
area, the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), CDFW
and several other groups came to an agreement after years of
dispute on how the lagoon should be altered so it thrives well
into the future. … Like lagoons up and down that part of San
Diego County, Buena Vista took in runoff from hills to the east
and fed water to the west into the Pacific Ocean. But in the
‘40’s a weir was added at the mouth by nearby landowners, so
the lagoon essentially became freshwater only. …
The huge, lush green meadows that stretch between the S.R. 203
junction with U.S. 395 and Crowley Lake may seem like they have
been there forever but in reality, their existence has been
under threat for several years after the Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power threatened to withdraw much of the water
from the meadowlands a few years ago, stating it needed the
water for its own uses. If implemented, the proposed
‘de-watering’ of much of the massive meadows would have turned
them into sage and dust, destroying wildlife habitat, historic
cattle grazing leases, the fishing habitat along Hot Creek and
the Upper Owens River and much more.
In recent years, the Wiyot Tribe in Northern California secured
ownership of its ancestral lands and is working to restore its
marine habitats; the nearby Yurok Tribe fought for the removal
of dams along the Klamath River and has plans to reconnect with
salmon, its traditional food source; and the Quapaw Nation in
Oklahoma has cleaned up contaminated land to make way for
agriculture and cattle businesses.
San Francisco Bay’s life support systems are unravelling
quickly, and a wealth of science indicates that unsustainable
water diversions are driving this estuary’s demise. Yet,
with another drought looming, federal and state water managers
still plan to divert large amounts of water to their
contractors and drain upstream reservoirs this summer.
Meanwhile, the state’s most powerful water districts are
preparing yet another proposal to maintain excessive water
diversions for the long-term. By delaying reforms that the
law requires and that science indicates are necessary, Gov.
Gavin Newsom encourages wasteful water practices that
jeopardize the Bay and make the state’s water future
precarious. -Written by Jon Rosenfield, a senior scientist for SF
Baykeeper.
The Delta Stewardship Council (Council) announced the hiring of
Ryan Stanbra, the Council’s legislative and policy advisor, to
the key post of chief deputy executive officer. … Appointed
by Governor Brown in 2015, Ryan joined the Council in the role
of legislative and policy advisor. He has played a pivotal role
in advising on critical Council initiatives like implementation
of reduced reliance on the Delta, interagency coordination and
outreach for the Delta Levees Investment Strategy, increasing
funding for critical science investments, and more. He has
served in the acting chief deputy executive officer role since
January.
Restoration projects, like species, evolve. The Sonoma Creek
Enhancement Project, originally about mosquito control, has
shown itself to be a boon to special-status tidal marsh
wildlife as well. More than a decade of adaptive management
actions made that happen. The existing marsh, formed
rapidly beginning in the 1960s by deposited sediment, lacked
the dendritic channels of a mature marsh. High tides brought in
water that pooled in a central basin and didn’t drain out,
providing breeding habitat for mosquitos. The disadvantages of
chemical treatment prompted land managers to look for
alternatives.
The Federal government is beginning a program for the
unemployed to retrain as much-needed Delta Smelt.
Following a two-day course, candidates will learn to: Seek out
turbid waters; Spawn in sand at secret locations; Surf the
tides; Make themselves present for counting in mid-water
trawls. Major California water projects and water users
are preparing to hire successful graduates for 1-2 year
non-renewable contracts.
Explore the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, one of California’s
most vital ecological and water resources, with a special
discounted education bundle that includes our brand-new Delta
Map and our recently updated Layperson’s Guide to the Delta.
Purchased separately, the map retails for $20 and the guide
sells for $15. But with our Delta Education Bundle you can
get both items for just $30.
Much like when tech money reshapes an historical neighborhood,
a beaver’s move downtown can cause the locals to worry. In
Napa, the animals’ sprawling waterfront complexes create
worrying pools along the riverbank, while the native
cottonwoods are whittled down and threaten landowners’ roofs.
It seems destined that two species known for their
environmental engineering would struggle to live in unison.
However, municipalities like Napa and Martinez in Contra Costa
County have learned to live with their beavers, and the
upcoming California Beaver Summit aims to set the record
straight.
Another advantage to “feeding” the soil in a region plagued
with persistent drought involves the tremendous water savings.
… With below-average precipitation in California,
its reservoirs are showing the impacts of a second dry year.
Lake Oroville stands at 55% of average and Lake Shasta,
California’s largest, now stands at 68%. Most
eco-conscious activists agree that, with the climate’s changing
patterns that lead to decreasing water supplies and die-offs of
pollinators, a lot more needs to be done to help keep our water
and food supplies plentiful.
It was perhaps unsurprising I wound up a field ecologist.
Raised in Wisconsin, I spent almost all my childhood free time
roaming largely unchaperoned in nature, pre-internet. It was
there that I developed a deep love for nature, water and fish
that would stay with me my whole life. It was a privileged
upbringing. And yet somehow it was years later, when I was 22
and taking a university field course, that I finally figured
out I wanted to pursue a career in fish and ecology. It’s
unclear how many biologists trace their paths back to
experiences like these, but I suspect there are many. Field
courses are so impactful, and we need them now, more than ever
before.
Efforts are continuing to support restoration of crucial
habitat for salmon spawning and rearing on the Merced River.
Last fall, Merced Irrigation District completed the Merced
River Instream and Off Channel Habitat Restoration Project.
Adult salmon, which migrated from the ocean to the river, are
already known to have used the new gravel beds for spawning.
Now, in the coming months, surveys will be done by biologists
to further study the use of the new stretch of river and the
developing juvenile salmon that may rear there.
When the first European explorers arrived in California’s
Central Valley, they found a vast mosaic of seasonal and
permanent wetlands, as well as oak woodlands and riparian
forests. What remains of those wetlands are still the backbone
of the Pacific Flyway; along with flooded agricultural fields,
they support millions of migrating waterbirds each
year. According to a just-released study from Audubon,
tens of millions of land birds rely on the Central Valley as
well… But today, the situation is dire. More than 90% of
wetlands in the Central Valley – and throughout California –
have disappeared beneath tractors and bulldozers.
-Written by Samantha Arthur, the Working Lands Program
Director at Audubon California and a member of the
California Water Commission.
A Brentwood company’s proposal to drill a natural gas well in
Suisun Marsh has become the latest flash point in California’s
quest to fight climate change and transition away from fossil
fuels. Sunset Exploration wants to search for a commercially
viable amount of gas at the site of an abandoned well in the
wetlands south of Suisun City. If the company finds enough
fuel, the Solano County project could be operational for 20
years, connecting to a pipeline that would help heat homes and
light stoves around the region. It’s the kind of proposal that,
in a prior era, might have encountered little organized
resistance.
Many of the wetlands in the western United States have
disappeared since the 1700s. California has lost an astonishing
90 percent of its wetlands, which includes streamsides, wet
meadows and ponds. In Nevada, Idaho and Colorado, more than 50
percent of wetlands have vanished. Precious wet habitats now
make up just 2 percent of the arid West — and those remaining
wet places are struggling. Nearly half of U.S. streams are in
poor condition, unable to fully sustain wildlife and people,
says Jeremy Maestas, a sagebrush ecosystem specialist with the
NRCS who organized that workshop on Wilde’s ranch in 2016. As
communities in the American West face increasing water
shortages, more frequent and larger wildfires and unpredictable
floods, restoring ailing waterways is becoming a necessity.
[F]or those who live in the legal Delta zone – some 630,000
people – the braided weave of the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Rivers and their maze of associated wetlands and levees
provides a place of home, community, and recreation. And, as a
recent study by the Delta Stewardship Council shows, climate
change is tugging on the watery thread holding it all together.
… The council’s overview reveals a grim outlook for the
millions of people that are tethered to the region’s water:
drought similar to that experienced in 2012-2016 will be five
to seven times more likely by 2050. This will result in more
severe and frequent water shortages and, as the report bluntly
states, “lower reliability of Delta water exports.”
The rivalry between farms and wildlife for water and land was
long seen as a zero-sum game, especially in California where
water is such a precious commodity that the state’s water
futures are traded on the stock exchange. That competition has
been particularly sharp in the Central Valley: 95% of the
region’s historic wetlands have transformed into farmland, and
the region’s increasingly scarce water supply has been
prioritized for farming. As a result, some of the migratory
birds that rely on the Central Valley for habitat, food, and
water sources have seen steep declines in the past
century.
Water quality testing commissioned by two groups lobbying for
the end of ranching in the Point Reyes National Seashore shows
fecal contamination exceeding federal recreational standards in
several waterways feeding the Pacific Ocean. In response,
seashore personnel point to their nearly finalized general
management amendment, which requires water quality
improvements. The tests from two rainy January days included
samples from and near Kehoe Lagoon, Abbotts Lagoon and Schooner
Creek, and showed exceedances in levels of E. coli and
Enterococcus—bacteria that serve as common indicators for fecal
contamination.
As California stares down the barrel of yet another dry year,
alarm bells are already ringing over conditions in the Delta.
Environmental groups, fishermen, tribes, and a host of others
are calling on the State Water Resources Control Board to
complete and implement a long-delayed update to the Water
Quality Control Plan for the Bay and Delta (Bay-Delta Plan), to
protect the imperiled ecosystem. At the same time, plans for a
structure with the potential to divert more water than ever to
southern cities and farms are creeping ahead.
Water is one of the most valuable resources on the
planet — we need it to survive, to stay clean
and healthy, to grow food, to run businesses, to
support ecosystems, and so much more. And yet clean,
accessible, abundant water is often taken for granted, in
part because its cost rarely reflects its true value. But
anyone who has spent even a day, or a few hours, without
access to water knows its vital importance. Still today
over 2.2 billion people globally lack
access to safe drinking water.
Nitrogen pollution is one of agriculture’s biggest and most
intractable problems. Crops can’t grow without the critical
nutrient, and because sources of nitrogen are easy to come
by—synthetic fertilizer is cheap and manure from large animal
agriculture operations is plentiful—farmers often apply too
much, to try to ensure the highest yields. Because plants can’t
use it all, the excess makes its way into groundwater and
washes into waterways where it contaminates drinking water and
creates vast dead zones in oceans and lakes.
… California’s largest hotspot unsurprisingly includes
21 counties that cover the Central Valley, America’s produce
capital.
The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, California’s state clean
water law, passed in 1969 and became the model for the 1972
federal Clean Water Act. Nearly half a century after passage of
the landmark federal law, it is time for both the state and the
nation to assess progress and chart a new course. Once again,
California is leading the way with Assembly Bill 377, a new
bill introduced by Assemblyman Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).
Although new legislation is needed, the existing federal and
California clean water acts have produced successes that should
be celebrated. -Written by Terry Tamminen, president of 7th
Generation Advisors and founder of Santa Monica
Baykeeper.
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will
likely hire a contractor for the sweeping Lower Walnut Creek
Restoration Project that aims to improve both flood control and
conditions for wildlife and recreation. County staff recommends
the board approve a deal with Four M Contracting, which came in
with the lowest bid on the project, at $11.285 million. The
Winters-based civil engineering firm specializes in wetland
enhancement projects and the creation of wildlife habitat.
Earth Island Institute, a Berkeley, Calif.-based environmental
nonprofit, sued a collection of the world’s largest food,
beverage and consumer goods companies, saying their use of
millions of tons of plastic packaging has resulted in polluted
oceans, waterways and beaches. … Another novel element
of the case is that the Earth Island Institute is claiming the
10 companies in question are also harming the institute
specifically by allowing plastics to proliferate in the oceans
off of California, causing the nonprofit to expend enormous
sums to effect beach clean-ups and other related
projects.
As of 2021, California is home to 31 distinct kinds of native
salmon, steelhead and trout species, 20 of which are found only
in our state. These fish are prized for their economic and
cultural significance by local communities, and for their
recreational attributes by anglers from around the world. But
these fish face an alarming threat that can’t be ignored. If
current trends continue, nearly half of these fish will be
extinct within the next 50 years. How do we know this? And
perhaps an even better question: what can be done about
it?
It’s not too hard to find salmon on a menu in the United
States, but that seeming abundance — much of it fueled by
overseas fish farms — overshadows a grim reality on the ground.
Many of our wild salmon, outside Alaska, are on the ropes — and
have been for decades. Twenty years ago Pacific salmon were
found to have disappeared from 40% of their native rivers and
streams across Oregon, Washington, Idaho and California.
… In California a groundbreaking project to
allow rivers to flood fallow farm fields in winter has helped
provide both food and rearing habitat for salmon — and has
helped prove that water managers don’t have to choose between
fish and farmers.
Tribal leaders see President Joe Biden’s administration as
an opportunity to increase tribal consultation regarding issues
like water management, oil and gas leasing, and land
conservation. Here, we look at four major projects … that the
new administration is tasked with advancing…. Negotiations
among federal, tribal and state governments on water flows and
allocations in the Colorado River Basin began last year and are
set to conclude by 2026…. After years of political,
social and regulatory barriers, the undamming of the Klamath
River is within sight….
Through collaborative projects, birds and endangered fish are
returning to areas they once reared in more than 100 years ago.
Partnerships among farmers, conservationists, universities, and
state and federal agencies are proving that by reactivating our
historic floodplains and using our bypasses during key times of
the year, we can create high-quality habitat that produces safe
haven and up to 149 times more food for salmon than the river.
These key projects demonstrate some of the work being done on
the wet-side of the levee.
The Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) will be accepting
grant applications for quagga and zebra mussel infestation
prevention programs from March 22 through April 30,
2021. All applications must be received by 5 p.m. on
Friday, April 30, 2021. … California water body
authorities have recognized the westward spread of mussel
infestation via the Colorado River System and the potential
harm to state waterways should lakes and reservoirs become
invaded. To help prevent California waterways from infestation,
DBW provides grants to entities that own or manage any aspect
of water in a reservoir that is open for public recreation and
is mussel-free.
Wildlife officers with the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife’s (CDFW) Marijuana Enforcement Team (MET) conducted a
raid of a clandestine cannabis grow on the North Grasslands
Wildlife Area, Gadwall Unit in Los Banos. The property is home
to dozens of species of nesting waterfowl, migratory birds,
rabbits, pheasants, birds of prey, small rodents and native
plants. … Several dead birds, including one Western
Meadowlark were discovered within the grow site. Thousands of
feet of black polyethylene pipe were stretched across the
property and was siphoning water from the permanent wetlands in
the closed zone. Officers also discovered dozens of dangerous
pesticides and chemicals.
Crews on Lake Tahoe’s South Shore continue work to remove
aquatic invasive plants from the Taylor Creek and Tallac Creek
marshes. A new fence was recently installed around the project
area and officials are asking recreators to respect the
protected area for safety and to ensure the greatest chance of
success for the project, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency
said in a press release. The fencing is intended to protect
large tarps that will be staked to the marsh bottom as part of
a project to remove Eurasian watermilfoil from the marsh
ecosystem…
Some invasive species targeted for total eradication bounce
back with a vengeance, especially in aquatic systems, finds a
study led by the University of California, Davis. The study,
published in the journal PNAS, chronicles the effort — and
failure — to eradicate invasive European green crabs from a
California estuary. The crabs increased 30-fold after about 90
percent had been removed. The study is the first experimental
demonstration in a coastal ecosystem of a dramatic population
increase in response to full eradication. … For the PNAS
study, researchers in 2009 began intensive efforts to eradicate
the European green crab from Stinson Beach’s Seadrift
Lagoon.
We’re facing another very dry year, which follows one of the
driest on record for Northern California and one of the hottest
on record statewide. The 2012-16 drought caused
unprecedented stress to California’s ecosystems and pushed many
native species to the brink of extinction, disrupting water
management throughout the state. Are we ready to manage
our freshwater ecosystems through another drought? -Written by Jeffrey Mount, senior fellow,
and Caitrin Chappelle, associate director, at
the Public Policy Institute of California Water Policy
Center.
Local political leaders and a dozen Bay Area environmental
groups are urging the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to reject a
permit proposal for an exploratory natural gas drilling project
in Suisun Marsh. The 88,000-acre wetland in Solano County — the
largest contiguous brackish marsh on the west coast of North
America — lies near the North Bay cities of Fairfield and
Benicia, at the mouth of the vast Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta where the salty waters of San Francisco Bay mix with
river water to create an estuary ecosystem that is home to
hundreds of species of birds, fish, amphibians and mammals,
including river otter, tule elk and the endangered salt marsh
harvest mouse.
A Los Angeles Superior Court Judge ruled that the California
Coastal Commission did not abuse its power when it approved a
land-swap deal in 2018 that will allow for the rehabilitation
of 150 acres of wetlands, but also the development of up to 120
new oil wells. In a 22-page tentative ruling, Judge Mary
Strobel denied a request to stop the project in the Los
Cerritos wetlands in the southeastern part of the city.
Strobel’s ruling said that the commission did not misinterpret
the Coastal Act in approving the deal, and the public benefits
of the project were correctly weighed before voting to approve
the deal.
Dwindling Chinook salmon runs have forced the Pacific Fishery
Management Council to shorten the commercial salmon fishing
season. The Sacramento Valley fall-run Chinook salmon runs are
projected to be half as abundant as the 2020 season while the
Klamath River fall Chinook abundance forecast is slightly
higher than the 2020 but is still significantly lower than the
long-term average. During a press briefing on Friday morning,
John McManus President of the Golden State Salmon Association
said the added restrictions will deal a blow to commercial
fishermen.
La Niña continues in the tropical Pacific, but it has weakened
recently, and forecasters estimate about a 60% chance of a
transition to neutral conditions in the late spring. Looking
farther out into the fall of 2021, El Niño is unlikely to
develop, and the chances of La Niña and neutral are similar.
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.
Stinson Beach residents are smart to start working on their own
homegrown plan to prepare for rising sea levels. Even if
the state’s warning that coastal areas should be prepared for
an average 3.5-foot rise in sea level by 2050 comes true, much
of the beach and many low-lying homes could be subject to
regular flooding. Over the years, Stinson has already seen
some of the damage that can be done as a result of a
combination of higher tides and storm-driven waves.
For decades, the Cargill salt ponds in Redwood City have
stretched into the San Francisco Bay like a blank slate. What’s
to come of them? The Cargill corporation sees the outline of a
new housing development, while environmental groups see a
restored wetland habitat. David Lewis and his group Save the
Bay recently joined a lawsuit against the former Trump
administration’s EPA in a back-and-forth battle over whether
the area falls under federal protection.
Last year, tens of thousands of water birds became paralyzed
and died in a gruesome botulism outbreak caused by lack of
water at two wildlife refuges on California’s border with
Oregon. And it could happen again this summer. The crippling
drought that has plagued the region for years shows no sign of
ending, and there’s been little relief from the bureaucratic
gridlock and lawsuits over water that has slowly starved the
Klamath Basin refuges of their supplies over the past two
decades.
In a January test of the water in Abbotts Lagoon [at Point
Reyes National Seashore] …, the number of E. Coli cells found
in water samples was twenty times the safe amount. At Kehoe
Lagoon, the safety margin was exceeded by a factor of 40. It
gets worse for E. Coli’s nasty bacterial cousin known as
Enterococcus. It can devour your heart, stomach, brain, and
spinal cord. This monster thrives in raw sewage and intestines.
Kehoe Lagoon seethes with 300 times the acceptable amount of
this voracious creature. … Gee, you’d think the Park
Service would put up a few warning signs. But, no, there are
zero signs cautioning those who touch these waters that a drop
can wound and kill.
There’s one type of oyster that’s indigenous to the San
Francisco Bay, and that’s the Olympia oyster (Ostrea lurida).
It’s named after Olympia, Washington, though these small, tangy
oysters can be found up and down the west coast from Alaska all
the way down into central Mexico. Olympias — or Olys for short
— can still be found in the San Francisco Bay today. But
scientists say pollution from agricultural runoff is too high
for commercial fishing.
Bad news for salmon lovers: The quantity of fish in Bay Area
coastal waters this year is expected to be far lower than in
2020. And fewer fish means less work for local fishers and
fewer salmon in stores. The number of adult king salmon
from the Sacramento River fall run is projected to be 271,000
this spring and summer, compared with last year’s estimate
of 473,200….The limited season reflects a downward trend in
the population of king salmon, also known as chinook, over the
last decade because of drought and state policies that have
limited the amount of water allotted to the parts of the
Sacramento River basin where the fish spawn and juveniles spend
their early months.
In November 2019, the city of Newark approved the “Sanctuary
West” project for Area 4, a plan to construct 469 single
family homes and 2,739 parking spaces. The land borders the Don
Edwards National Wildlife Refuge, and conservation groups and
state and federal agencies have targeted it for restoration
since the 1990s. … Area 4 is a rare San Francisco Bay
upland habitat. Tidal wetlands move inland over time as sea
level rises, but for the most part, in the Bay Area, cities are
built right up to the edge of the marsh and the wetlands have
nowhere to go.
The effort to return [California red-legged] frogs to
Southern California, which had been ongoing by Robert
Fisher from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Amphibian
Research and Monitoring Initiative Program for more than 20
years, began to move the needle in San Diego County when
Winchell started working with private ranchers Judy and Chuck
Wheatley who had just restored a pond on their property for the
reintroduction of the Western pond turtle. … The species was
decimated by disease and invasives, and disappeared from San
Diego County in 1974 and western Riverside County in
2001.
California is home to a diversity of coastal ecosystems like
tidal marshes, seagrass beds, and estuaries. These ecosystems
provide flood and storm protection, healthy habitats for fish
and birds, and recreational spaces. They may also play an
important role in addressing climate change. A new COS
and Natural Capital Project study in Global
Environmental Change investigates the carbon sequestration
potential of habitats along the California coast and details
pathways incorporating carbon-capturing habitats into climate
change policy.
California red-legged frogs disappeared from their natural
habitat in Riverside and San Diego counties decades ago.
Disease and invasive species were their downfalls, according to
John Heil, who works for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Now multiple partners — including national and international
nonprofits, government agencies, and private landowners — have
come together to change the course of the frog’s plight, Heil
explained.
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.
[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…
California is one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots – home
to more unique species of plants and animals than any other
state in the U.S. This biodiversity makes up the beautiful land
and seascapes of the world’s fifth-largest economy and sustains
our health, cultures and quality of life. Yet it is
disappearing at alarming rates. … Environmental
laws such as the Clean Water Act and Endangered
Species Act are designed to protect the environment from
damage. What these laws are not designed to do is provide a
pathway for restoring nature damaged, for instance, by
development projects.
-Written by Ashley Boren, the CEO
of Sustainable Conservation, a San Francisco- and
Modesto-based nonprofit.
The Board of Supervisors will hear the latest this week on the
program that aims to prevent destructive mussels from infesting
Clear Lake and will consider a proposal to extend a contract
for using the former juvenile hall as a temporary support
shelter for the county’s homeless residents. The meeting
will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday, March 9, and will be
available to the public virtually only.
AB 377, entitled the “California Clean Water Act,” introduced
by Assemblymember Rivas in February 2021, includes provisions
to eliminate all “impaired waterways” and make all waters in
California suitable for drinking, swimming, and fishing by
2050. If adopted, this bill would have significant
impacts on the ability to timely and cost-effectively comply
with discharge requirements set forth in National Pollutant
Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) permits, Waste Discharge
Requirements (“WDRs”), and waivers of WDRs (collectively,
“water quality permits”). The bill would also usher in an
era of focus on enforcement, rather than good-faith compliance.
Native fish, including smelt and salmon, in the southern Yolo
Bypass in Yolo County have new sources of food and shelter
thanks to a project that successfully restored more than 1,600
acres of former cattle pasture. The Lower Yolo Ranch Tidal
Restoration Project is a collaboration between multiple
agencies including the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and
Westlands Water District (Westlands) which serves western
Fresno and Kings counties. The agencies are working together to
meet a portion of state and federal requirements to restore
8,000 acres of tidal wetland habitat in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.
Marin County plans to reroute a Bolinas Lagoon creek as part of
an effort to prevent flooding along Highway 1, prepare for
sea-level rise and restore habitat for threatened species. The
county’s Bolinas Lagoon Wye Wetlands Project aims to redirect
Lewis Gulch Creek closer to its historic route and raise a
nearby road to allow the creek more room to wind and flow
during winter storms. The project would also restore
floodplains at the northern end of the 1,100-acre Bolinas
Lagoon that were lost over more than a century as wetlands made
way for roads and pastures.
Experts in coastal science and policy at UC Santa Cruz are
teaming up with researchers at UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego,
and the U.S. Geological Survey to address the many challenges
of adapting to climate change along California’s coast.
… California’s iconic shoreline, from its communities
and beaches to coastal wetlands and intertidal habitats, is
increasingly threatened by coastal hazards such as extreme
flooding and erosion associated with climate change, sea level
rise, storms, and El Niño events.
A man accused of illegally repairing a levee and damaging
sensitive aquatic habitat in the Suisun Marsh is facing a $2.8
million fine following a California appeals court decision last
month. John Sweeney, who ran a kiteboarding club on Point
Buckler Island in Solano County after buying it in 2011, must
also abide by a clean up and abatement order that requires him
to restore the marshlands and tidal channels damaged during the
levee work.
A forecast of relatively low numbers of Sacramento and Klamath
River fall Chinook salmon now swimming in the ocean off
the California coast points to restricted ocean and
river salmon fishing seasons in 2021. State and
federal fishery managers during the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife’s salmon fishery information on-line meeting
on February 25 forecast an ocean abundance this year of 271,000
adult Sacramento Valley fall Chinook salmon, about 200,000 fish
lower than the 2020 estimate.
California’s rivers, wetlands, and other freshwater ecosystems
are in poor health. Water management practices, pollution,
habitat change, invasive species, and a changing climate have
all taken a toll, leaving many native species in dire straits.
And the current approach for managing freshwater ecosystems is
not working. In this video Jeff Mount, senior fellow at the
PPIC Water Policy Center, discusses the many benefits these
ecosystems bring to California, and outlines a path for
improving their condition to secure these benefits for future
generations.
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.
Approximately 62 acres of land in Rio Vista, including the
former Army Reserve Center, have been incorporated into
legislation by Rep. John Garamendi, D-Solano, to increase the
boundaries of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta National
Heritage Area. This bill, known as House Resolution 1230,
passed in the U.S. House of Representatives Friday and will
move on to the Senate. The bill is an expansion of bicameral
legislation by Garamendi and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.,
that was signed into law in 2019 to provide $10 million for
community-based efforts to preserve the Delta’s cultural
heritage as well as its historical landmarks.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Friday abandoned
its appeal of a federal judge’s ruling last year that a
sprawling collection of Redwood City salt ponds is protected
from development under provisions of the Clean Water Act. The
move brings to an end the federal government’s attempts —
started during former President Trump’s administration — to end
protections that could have led to development at the site.
Related article:
A wetland enhancement project in south Oceanside has been
selected as the recipient of a $1 million federal grant from
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, it was announced Thursday.
The award was issued through the National Coastal Wetlands
Conservation grant program, which funds projects that protect,
restore and enhance coastal wetland ecosystems. The grant will
go toward construction of the first phase of the Loma Alta
Slough Wetlands Enhancement project, which is intended to
restore and enhance six acres of coastal wetland and upland
habitat near Buccaneer Beach.
The organization River Partners teamed up with California State
Parks and Butte County Resource Conservation District on
Thursday to host a flood plain restoration and
reforestation event. The event was called the
Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park Riparian Restoration
Project and was held near the Pine Creek Access point of the
Sacramento River in Chico.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a notice of intent
today to sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service seeking
Endangered Species Act protection for the Clear Lake hitch, a
large minnow found only in Northern California’s Clear Lake and
its tributaries. The Trump administration denied the fish
protection in a December 2020 determination.
Former Assemblymember Christy Smith announced that she has been
appointed by Speaker Anthony Rendon to serve on the Delta
Stewardship Council. … The Council was created to advance the
state’s coequal goals for the Delta – a more reliable statewide
water supply and a healthy and protected ecosystem, both
achieved in a manner that protects and enhances the unique
characteristics of the Delta as an evolving place.
California’s desert is littered with remnants of broken dreams
— hidden ghost towns, abandoned mines and rusty remains of
someone’s Big Idea. But nothing looms larger on an abandoned
landscape than the Salton Sea, which languishes in an
overlooked corner of the state. The water shimmers and broils
in the desert like a rebuke: born of human error, made worse by
100 years of neglect and pollution. California’s largest lake
is also one of its worst environmental blights, presenting a
problem so inverted that its toxic legacy intensifies as its
foul water disappears…. The blue-ribbon commission
members, appointed by state agencies, legislators and the
governor, hold
their first meeting today…
On Jan. 28 Defend Ballona Wetlands filed a lawsuit with the Los
Angeles Superior Court against the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife to stop the restoration project in the
Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve and challenge the
environmental impact report. The proposed project is set to
restore and revitalize 640 acres across the wetlands and create
10 miles of bike and footpaths.
Private landowners interested in enhancing, restoring and
protecting wetlands are encouraged to apply for the Wetland
Reserve Easements in California program facilitated by the
Natural Resource Conservation Service.
Conservation groups said 80 species were known to have gone
extinct, 16 in the last year alone. Millions of people rely on
freshwater fish for food and as a source of income through
angling and the pet trade. But numbers have plummeted due to
pressures including pollution, unsustainable fishing, and the
damming and draining of rivers and wetlands. The report said
populations of migratory fish have fallen by three-quarters in
the last 50 years. Over the same time period, populations of
larger species, known as “megafish”, have crashed by 94%.
The state’s Ocean Protection Council has awarded $1.3 million
to preserving and safeguarding estuary habitat at Elkhorn
Slough, which boasts the second-largest tidal salt marsh in
California. The wetland, once degraded by farming activities
such as diking, is at risk of impacts from climate change —
particularly rising sea levels.
A restoration project for the long-suffering Ballona Wetlands
is moving forward after the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife certified the final Environmental Impact Report for
the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve last year. Years
of neglect, human impact, and development took a toll on the
wetlands for years. The project aims to remove invasive
plants and leftover fill from the development of Marina Del
Rey, re-establish a functioning floodplain, and create natural
levees for flood protection against sea level rise.
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.
California’s environmental permitting system was developed to
prevent bad things from happening to the environment, but it
often slows efforts to do good things, too. How can California
improve regulatory processes to make them more efficient and
effective? The PPIC Water Policy Center recently discussed
these issues with a group of experts…
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.
Bay Area political leaders and organizations have come together
to encourage the new Biden administration to protect Redwood
City’s salt ponds from future development by withdrawing a
Trump era appeal of a federal district court ruling deeming the
wetlands federally protected.
There has been recent commentary and discussion around a
commodity futures market for water in California. In the
Sacramento Valley, we are not involved in this process; nor are
we participating in these contracts. Although we are not
entirely clear on this market or what is being traded, it is
clear that this new market does not involve real/wet
water–which is our focus in the Sacramento Valley. We will
continue to focus on serving water for cities and rural
communities, farms, fish, birds, other wildlife and recreation.
For the better part of the last two centuries, the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has been modified in any number of
ways to meet the demands of Californians. But a new
wide-ranging study looks at what might be the most serious
Delta threat that doesn’t come in the form of an excavator –
global warming.
Many of today’s under-resourced communities have no more access
to blue gold (scarce water) than the under-resourced white
residents of the Owens Valley have had since the 1920s. In 1924
greedy public and private water interests transformed the lush
Owen’s Lake into a noxious dust bowl. One of the guilty
parties LADWP (Department of Water and Power), recently
celebrated partial restoration of Owens Lake by constructing a
ghostly monument of granite and sculpted earth in the long
desiccated lake bed. … For many indigenous peoples denied
their rights to water for a century, partial restoration of the
lake without full restoration of their water rights is too
little, too late.
A pipeline rupture that gushed hundreds of gallons of oil into
the San Francisco Bay spurred a class action filed Tuesday that
accuses a Chevron refinery of prioritizing profits over safety
and threatening the survival of herring in the area for years
to come. … On Feb. 9, a Chevron refinery in the East Bay
city of Richmond, California, discovered a pipeline leak that
oozed about 700 gallons of a substance described
interchangeably by Chevron as “a mixture of recovered oil and
gasoline”, “petroleum and water mixture” and “hydrocarbons.”
The Santa Ana Regional Water Board released a tentative order
Friday detailing proposed revisions to Poseidon Water’s
controversial proposed $1.4-billion water desalination project
in Huntington Beach. The board’s tentative order would make
Poseidon responsible for five mitigation projects, including
four projects within the Bolsa Chica Wetlands and the
restoration of a 41.5-acre rocky reef offshore of Palos
Verdes.
Identifying familiar habitats can be beneficial, but which
habitat traits actually matter? A new study examines this
question for juvenile common loons (Gavia immer) in lakes in
northern Wisconsin. In central California we generally see
loons in the winter, mostly in coastal ocean waters and also at
some large reservoirs in Solano and Yolo County. But in summer,
these large birds are icons of northern Minnesota, Wisconsin,
New England, and Canada.
California is poised to begin the first major restoration
project at the Salton Sea. The state is investing more than
$200 million in a project that will create flooded ponds and
other habitats on the exposed lakebed at the southern edge of
the lake.
On December 17, 2020, the Sacramento County Superior Court
issued a ruling limiting the ability of the California State
Water Resources Control Board (“State Board”) to implement its
adopted statewide wetlands and Waters of the State (“WOTS”)
regulations.
An organic food company has committed $750,000 to studying a
sustainable farming strategy in the Sacramento Valley.
Cascadian Farm, a manufacturer of cereal, granola, granola bars
and frozen vegetables, announced the partnership with The
Nature Conservancy last week. The money will fund a trial on a
strategy that could turn working farmland into wildlife
habitat, regenerate groundwater and reduce flood risk.
Environmentalist groups aiming to stop a major controversial
housing development at the edge of Newark’s wetlands are
appealing an Alameda County court decision that would allow the
project to go forward, marking the latest volley in a
decades-long fight over the best use for the land. The Citizens
Committee to Complete the Refuge and the Center for Biological
Diversity … said the development “would contribute to
the loss of Bay wetlands and wildlife habitat,” such as the
endangered salt marsh harvest mouse, and could worsen flooding
in nearby areas.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Thursday released the
final rule for its Agricultural Conservation Easement Program,
or ACEP, which enables agricultural producers and private
landowners to protect farmlands, grasslands, and wetlands with
conservation easements. The rule updates ACEP as directed by
the 2018 Farm Bill and incorporates public comments made on an
interim rule.
Cascadian Farm, a pioneering brand in the organic movement,
announced its commitment of $750,000 to The Nature Conservancy
to help rebuild farmland in California’s Sacramento Valley. The
two-year investment will focus on partnering with farmers to
rebuild wildlife habitat and regenerate groundwater on more
than 25 million square feet, equal to 600 acres of farmland, in
this key sourcing region for the brand.
The major Northern California waterways may be getting a
renewed lease on their ecological and economic lives, as
federal support for protection and restoration of the San
Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary could nearly double in coming years
following enactment last month of the Protect and Restore
America’s Estuaries Act. As one of 28 “estuaries of national
significance” eligible for funding through the new law, the San
Francisco Estuary and other estuaries along every U.S. coast
each may now receive as much as $1 million a year in federal
aid…
Assemblymember Robert Rivas (D-Hollister), Senate Majority
Leader Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys) and California Coastkeeper
Alliance introduced the California Clean Water Act, Assembly
Bill 377, legislation that will put California back on track to
eliminate impaired waterways and make all waters statewide
suitable for conversion to drinking water, swimming, and
fishing by 2050.
DK Environmental announced its tule removal service for water
systems of all sizes throughout California. The company uses
amphibious aquatic maintenance equipment to clear blocked
waterways. DK Environmental, an aquatic vegetation removal
company based in Los Gatos, California, announced its tule
removal service. … Aimed at responsibly reducing problematic
tule that grows abundantly in California’s marshes, DK
Environmental’s tule removal service relies on its fleet of
amphibious aquatic maintenance equipment to clear tule from
water systems of all sizes, from large lakes to small ponds.
A California agricultural developer has agreed to pay a civil
penalty to resolve alleged violations of the Clean Water Act
(CWA) on property near the Sacramento River in Tehama County,
California. The developer must also preserve streams and
wetlands, effect mitigation, and be subject to a prohibitive
injunction, according to the Department of Justice. Roger J.
LaPant Jr. originally purchased the property in 2011 and sold
it in 2012 to Duarte Nursery Inc. which sold it that same year
to Goose Pond Ag Inc.
Sacramento, at least, is excited about Washington’s new climate
direction. Jared Blumenfeld and Wade Crowfoot head California’s
environmental protection and natural resources agencies,
respectively. Last week, they discussed with KQED’s Kevin Stark
what the change from the Trump to Biden administrations might
mean for California. … The president’s order to triple
protected land and waterways across the country should also
infuse the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land
Management with badly needed funds.
Migratory birds have followed the same flight patterns for
millennia, searching for abundant food resources. The journey
is often risky, and birds undergo harsh weather patterns—from
storms that can throw them off course to dry arid landscapes
that provide little to no food resources. A new study published
this week in Ornithological Applications found tens of millions
of birds depend on the river and wetland habitats weaved within
the Colorado River Delta and California’s Central Valley while
they make their journey across the dry western landscapes,
reports Corryn Wetzel for Audubon.
[FEMA] intends to provide federal financial assistance … to
the Santa Cruz County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District, Zone 7 in Santa Cruz County, California, to install a
sheet pile wall through the center of the existing Pajaro River
levee adjacent to the southern edge of the Watsonville
Wastewater Treatment Plant. The proposed action would protect
the plant flooding if the levee is compromised by river
erosion, slope failure, and seepage.
On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we are
speaking with Sacramento Bee environment reporter Ryan Sabalow
about his five part investigation, Nothing Wild: California’s
relationship with the animal kingdom is broken. Can it be
fixed? Invasive grasses are causing fires to explode, thousands
of water birds are dying miserable deaths, and the sage grouse
is at risk of disappearing forever. Sabalow explores
California’s ecological crisis and our relationship with its
wild places.
Why should we care about wetlands? Although wetlands
cover less than 4% of the Earth’s surface, 40% of all
animal species live or reproduce in them. One-third of all
organic matter on our planet is stored in places
like the gigantic Pantanal wetland in western
Brazil, the Sudd floodplain in southern Sudan or
the Wasjugan Marsh in western Siberia. Wetlands
filter, store and supply the planet with water and food
— more than a billion people worldwide depend on
them for sustenance. They also play a key role
in regulating the planet’s climate…
The Delta Conservancy has launched a new initiative aimed at
fixing all these problems — carbon emissions, soil subsidence,
and water security — at the same time. Called the Delta Carbon
Program, the initiative entails a two-pronged solution. First,
subsided islands are flooded, protecting them from the air and
so arresting further soil and carbon loss. Then the newly
inundated islands are re-vegetated with water-loving plants
that rebuild peat, reversing subsidence and so reducing the
risk of levee failure.
Two new lawsuits filed Thursday are challenging the legality of
the State of California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s
approval of a major project that could harm the Ballona
Wetlands and the abundance of diversity of species there.
Additionally, climate impacts and flood risk are significant
issues not adequately addressed by this proposed huge
industrial alteration.
San Francisco Bay is dwarfed by the Chesapeake Bay, Puget Sound
and other treasured estuaries when it comes to federal funding,
and California lawmakers want that changed. On Thursday, a
contingent of Bay Area members of Congress introduced
legislation that would boost federal money tenfold for
restoration of the region’s signature waters. Under the
proposal, $50 million a year for five years would flow to bay
projects that reduce water pollution, support wildlife, revive
wetlands and protect shoreline communities from sea level rise.
In order to get a wetlands permit needed for development of the
former Concord Naval Weapons Station to move ahead, the City of
Concord will investigate the source of water unexpectedly found
near the one-time airfield north of Willow Pass Road. The
Concord City Council voted unanimously Tuesday night to move
$12,000 of previously approved loan money to aid in the study
of where water is coming from on that land, located east of
Olivera Road near the Pixieland Amusement Park.
Today, 95% of the Central Valley’s historical floodplains are
cut off from the river by levees. Built in the early 1900s to
combat devastating floods, levees and bypasses were constructed
to corral mighty rivers and push water quickly through the
system. Even before invasive species, large rim dams, and Delta
water export facilities were introduced into the system, salmon
populations started to dramatically decline with the
construction of the levees. Simply put, the levees prevented
Chinook salmon from accessing their primary food source.
If you look deep into the eyes of a fish, it will tell you its
life story. Scientists from the University of California,
Davis, demonstrate that they can use stable isotopic analysis
of the eye lenses of freshwater fish—including threatened and
endangered salmon—to reveal a fish’s life history and what it
ate along the way. They conducted their study, published today
in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, through
field-based experiments in California’s Central Valley. The
study carries implications for managing floodplains, fish and
natural resources; prioritizing habitat restoration efforts;
and understanding how landscape disturbances impact fish.
Each spring and fall, an estimated 1 billion birds migrate
through the Pacific Flyway, which snakes down from Alaska,
along the West Coast of the United States and Mexico,
and into South America. … Now new research reveals what
has been long-suspected but never confirmed: California’s
Central Valley and the Colorado River Delta are hotspots for
North America’s migratory landbirds.
Back in September, while wildfires raged and the pandemic wore
on, California Gov. Gavin Newsom held a virtual press
conference to announce a bold new climate goal. By 2035, he
said, all new cars and trucks sold in California would be
zero-emission, in order to seriously curtail climate
warming-emissions. … But while Newsom has grabbed
attention for his clean car policy … environmental
experts say he hasn’t moved boldly enough on ecological
issues… Last summer, the governor issued a water
resilience portfolio that outlines 142 state
actions to help the state deal with water as the climate
crisis worsens….
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced
the selection of US Water Alliance CEO Radhika Fox as the
Principal Deputy Assistant Administrator for the Office of
Water. Fox was a Day One Presidential Appointee in the
Biden-Harris Administration. She will serve as the Acting
Assistant Administrator for Water.
In Oregon, the Klamath Basin wildlife refuges have fallen into
their winter silence now. The huge, clamorous flocks of geese
that fill the sky during migration have moved south. This
summer, a different silence gripped the basin. A dead silence.
The 90,000 acres of marshes and open water that make up the
Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges are a
small remnant of vast wetlands that once filled this region on
the Oregon-California border. -Written by Pepper Trail, a contributor to Writers on the
Range and a conservation biologist in Ashland, Ore.
President Joe Biden has made his priorities clear: subduing the
pandemic, economic recovery, climate action, and racial equity.
… Climate has received top-billing within the president’s
environmental agenda, but water infrastructure and water
systems could also see their status lifted. Some observers are
hopeful that the new administration and the Democratic Congress
will uncork federal water spending that has been steady but
flat in recent years.
The Sacramento County Superior Court recently issued a final
decision in San Joaquin Tributaries Authority v. California
State Water Resources Control Board, finding that the State
Water Resources Control Board (State Board) is not authorized
to adopt a state-level water quality control plan for waters
that are not classified as waters of the United States. As
a result, the State Board is prohibited from applying the Water
Quality Control Plan for Inland Surface Waters and Enclosed
Bays and Estuaries of California (Inland Surface Waters WQCP)
to wetlands that do not meet the federal definition of waters
of the United States.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles County officials released their
preliminary master plan for the river “reimagined” to
support both ecosystems and people who live along [the LA
River's] 51-mile corridor. … The long-awaited plan
— the result of five years of input from community residents,
organizations and people like renowned architect Frank Gehry —
will provide a foundation as the region balances its duty to
protect properties from flooding with the need for more access
to natural environments.
You may know it as Dog Ranch or perhaps Dead Man’s Drop Forest,
but forget that. The parcels immediately to the west of Samoa
Bridge [near Humboldt Bay] are now officially the Samoa Dunes
and Wetlands Conservation Area. “We’re looking to re-introduce
this place to our community,” says Mike Cipra, who heads up
Friends of the Dunes, the new titleholder of the 357 acres.
“This property is a fantastic jewel for our local community and
we want to emphasize just how special it is with the name.”
Construction began this week on a 4,110-acre wetlands project
on the Salton Sea’s playa near the mouth of the highly polluted
New River, the California Department of Natural Resources
announced Wednesday. Called the Species Conservation Habitat
Project, the $206.5 million plan will build ponds and wetlands
along the small delta to provide wildlife habitat and suppress
dust. The final design includes 340 additional acres of
coverage as compared to older projections, and work led by
Kiewit Infrastructure West Co. is expected to be finished by
2024.
The regulatory pendulum is expected to swing toward stricter
Clean Water Act enforcement, though experts say the Biden
administration’s changes probably won’t be immediate. Farmers
and environmentalists have been in a political tug-of-war over
the law’s scope for years, largely due to ambiguous legal
interpretations of the statute. While Democrats will now have
power over Congress, their majority is too slim to make changes
to the law, said Don Parrish, the American Farm Bureau
Federation’s senior director of regulatory relations.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has
certified the final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a
project aiming to restore the largest coastal wetlands complex
in Los Angeles County and increase public access to outdoor
recreation and natural spaces in one of the most densely
populated areas in the world. The Ballona Wetlands Ecological
Reserve (BWER) project will enhance and establish native
coastal wetlands and upland habitat…
California has lost more than 90% of its wetlands since the
arrival of European settlers. Wetlands play an increasingly
crucial role in absorbing excess water and protecting coastal
and inland communities from flooding. They also provide
critical habitat for wildlife, including a variety of species
found nowhere else on Earth, some of which are at risk of
blinking out of existence…. we’ve identified three critical
lessons California has to offer the world to improve
restoration on a global scale… -Written by Julie Rentner, president of River Partners, and
Manuel Oliva, CEO of Point Blue Conservation Science.
Buried in San Diego County’s lagoons are centuries worth of
carbon, cached in muddy stockpiles that scientists say could
help combat climate change. Recently, scientists with the
conservation organization Wildcoast and Scripps Institution of
Oceanography started studying how much carbon coastal wetlands
can capture, and how to restore these environments to boost
that capacity.
The Army Corps of Engineers finalized a rule on January 4 that
further retracts federal protections for the nation’s smallest
streams. The revisions to the nationwide permits, which
authorize the filling and dredging of waterways, are one of a
flurry of environmental deregulatory actions federal agencies
are taking in the final days of the Trump administration, even
though there is the possibility with a Democratic Congress that
the Biden administration will reverse them.
A study detailing environmental impacts of restoration efforts
at the Los Cerritos Wetlands (LCW) was unanimously certified
Thursday, Jan. 8, by the LCW Authority.
In a published opinion filed December 29, 2020, the First
District Court of Appeal affirmed a judgment denying a petition
for writ of mandate filed by the Santa Clara Valley Water
District (District) challenging waste discharge requirements
(WDRs) belatedly imposed by a responsible agency, the San
Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (Board), on
lead agency District’s flood control project…. The case
involved highly unique facts, and a number of interesting legal
issues concerning the Board’s authority under the Federal Clean
Water Act (CWA), the state Porter-Cologne Act, and CEQA.
California’s labyrinthine system of dams and levees cut off
once roaring rivers from millions of acres of their
floodplains, drastically reducing the habitat and food salmon
need to thrive. Climate change may hasten extinctions by
raising water temperatures and disrupting flows with bigger
floods and more frequent and severe droughts, which also
threaten to reignite conflicts over increasingly scarce
water. But such dire prospects have inspired a novel
alliance in one of the most productive agricultural valleys in
the country, which has turned adversaries into allies to offer
salmon and other threatened wildlife a lifeline.
Since the Clean Water Act passed in 1972, the assumption has
been that all waterways are protected from pollution… But the
Trump administration has managed to successfully chip away at
environmental protections in the US, including actions like
2020’s implementation of the Navigable Waters Protection Rule.
The rule redefined which waterways are under the jurisdiction
of and protected by the Clean Water Act, omitting many wetlands
and non-perennial water sources, which means some areas of the
country are impacted more than others.
For years, pairs of grebes would zoom across the water at Lake
Hodges in a dazzling mating dance, and then build their nests
on mats of dried brush suspended above the waterline. This
year, some of the birds are still pairing up, but their nesting
area near Interstate 15 no longer floods with seasonal rains,
and can’t sustain them. The eastern finger of the lake, which
long alternated between riparian woodland and seasonal ponds,
is permanently drained because of state-ordered changes to the
water level.
A petition in opposition to a Ballona Wetlands restoration
project approved by the state had more than 8,800 signatures as
of Monday. Defend Ballona Wetlands, which plans on
challenging the restoration in court, contends the project will
harm animals living in the reserve, including endangered
species and allege the state’s plan is motivated by bond money
and private interests, including a Southern California Gas Co.
gas storage facility under the wetlands.
The Sacramento Superior Court delivered a serious blow to
California’s regulatory program for the protection of wetlands
and other waters of the State. The State’s wetland protection
program (commonly known as the “Procedures”), which became
effective in May, was intended to create a regulatory structure
to fill the gap left by recent Trump administration regulations
that dramatically narrowed Federal wetland protections.
Ironically, the court’s order prohibits the State of California
from applying the Procedures to any waters other than those
already protected by Federal law, thus leaving in place the
very regulatory gap that the Procedures were intended to fill.
The Bureau of Reclamation sent Congress the final feasibility
report for the B.F. Sisk Dam Raise and Reservoir Expansion
Project. This marks an important step forward in returning
water supply reliability to south-of-Delta farmers, local
communities, and wildlife refuges.
A decade ago, a diverse coalition of tribes, farmers and
conservationists hashed out water-sharing settlements that
would have given the [Klamath basin] refuges a steady supply of
water each year, and in the process stopped years of lawsuits,
protests and acrimony. But Congress killed their efforts. Now
the refuges — and Lower Klamath in particular — are at risk of
drying up. And the fighting over water will only continue as
the watershed grows increasingly dry from climate change.
Deltas globally adjust with changes and fluctuations in
external conditions, internal dynamics, and human
management. This is a short history of big changes to
California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) in the past
and present, and its anticipated future. This history is
important for understanding how many of the Delta’s problems
have developed, changed, and continue to change.
A plan to restore the largest coastal wetlands complex in Los
Angeles County has received state approval as it advances
through a lengthy process. The California Department of Fish
and Wildlife said this week that it has certified the final
environmental impact to restore the Ballona Wetlands Ecological
Reserve.
Holidays are a natural time of introspection on who we are,
what we do, and why. Towards a bit of our own self-reflection,
some researchers from UC Davis’ Center for Watershed Sciences
(CWS) have each contributed a photo and short description of
their work. We hope you enjoy reading about us and learning
even more about us. It is hopefully a soft bookend to a wild
2020!
The sun shines meekly through a veil of morning fog and
wildfire smoke while several figures in orange vests, hard
hats, and face masks move slowly through a marsh on the north
shore of San Francisco Bay. …It’s early October at the mouth
of Sonoma Creek, where an unusual conservation project that
broke ground five years ago is nearing the finish line. Audubon
California and partner agencies are turning what was once a
400-acre stagnant backwater into a thriving wetland ecosystem
that will serve as a refuge from rising seas for decades to
come.
The beneficial effects of wetlands on water quality are well
documented, and wetlands are widely used both in urban and
rural settings to remove pollution arising from human
activities. The biogeochemical conditions in wetlands
particularly favor the removal of nitrate, which is often the
dominant form of nitrogen pollution in water.
Runoff from fertilizer and manure application in agricultural
regions has led to high levels of nitrate in groundwater,
rivers, and coastal areas. These high nitrate levels can
threaten drinking water safety and also lead to problems with
algal blooms and degradation of aquatic ecosystems. Previous
research has shown that wetlands improve water quality, but how
much of an impact are wetlands having on nitrate removal now,
and what improvements could wetland restoration deliver in the
future?
The steady drumbeat of support to get more water flowing in the
Kern River through Bakersfield continued Tuesday at the State
Water Resources Control Board. During the public comment
portion of the meeting three speakers from Bakersfield and Kern
County’s political realm urged board members to finally hear —
and grant — a decade-old petition by the City of Bakersfield to
appropriate water on the river to run through the heart of
town.
Working with Rep. Jerry McNerney, Rep. John Garamendi
expedited completion of the Army Corps feasibility study for
the San Francisco Bay to Stockton Navigation Improvement
Project. This feasibility study examines deepening the John F.
Baldwin and Stockton Deepwater Ship Channels from their
existing depths of -35 feet mean lower low water to -40 feet
and beneficially reusing dredged sediment for marsh restoration
of subsided islands in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The Biggs-West Gridley Water District, Ducks Unlimited and the
Bureau of Reclamation recently announced the completion of
Phase II (of five total phases) of the water supply project for
the world-renowned Gray Lodge Wildlife Area.
Seeking to overturn a federal district court determination that
the Cargill salt ponds in Redwood City are covered by federal
Clean Water Act protections, the Environmental Protection
Agency under the Trump administration and Cargill Inc.
representatives filed appeals to the ruling this week.
In the Central Valley, where agricultural and urban development
have claimed 95 percent of the region’s historic wetlands,
flooded croplands provide food and habitat that help egrets,
sandhill cranes and other iconic water birds get through the
winter. But many farmers are moving toward wine grapes, olives
and other “permanent crops” that don’t provide the same habitat
benefits as row crops. And now these land use changes, combined
with the uncertain effects of a warming world, have left
scientists scrambling to safeguard critical habitat in one of
most important wintering regions for water birds in North
America.
With more than $500,000 in combined state and federal funding
and the conceptual restoration planning for the Loma Alta
Wetlands Enhancement Project complete, the project is one step
closer to coming to fruition.
The federal role in restoring the Salton Sea is limited to a
handful of projects that address issues on lands in and around
the sea that are managed by federal agencies, including the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau
of Land Management, and Department of Defense. Unlike in areas
such as Lake Tahoe, the Everglades, and the Chesapeake Bay, the
federal government does not have a comprehensive program to
restore the Salton Sea.
Torrance’s Madrona Marsh Preserve and Nature Center will, by
March, finally see the overdue restoration of its vernal pools,
critically important wetland habitat home to numerous rare
plants and animals, including two species of fairy shrimp, at a
cost of about $470,000.
The Bureau of Reclamation, Ducks Unlimited, Inc. and Biggs-West
Gridley Water District completed the second phase of a
five-phase construction project to improve water conveyance for
the Gray Lodge Wildlife Area. This milestone includes
increasing capacity of two major canals that feed water to the
Gray Lodge Wildlife Area, home to more than a million waterfowl
annually.
Oceanside has been awarded a $175,000 federal grant for the
final design of the Loma Alta Slough Wetlands Enhancement
Project, which will restore about six acres with improved
habitat, trails, informational signs and possibly a connection
to the Coastal Rail Trail.
In early November, the Domestic Names Committee of the U.S.
Board of Geographic Names voted unanimously to name a peak in
Nevada’s Amargosa Valley, outside of Death Valley National
Park, for the endangered Devils Hole and the Ash Meadows
Amargosa pupfishes.
Crews began work this month in the marsh system of Taylor and
Tallac creeks in the Southwest portion of the Tahoe Basin to
remove aquatic invasive plants from an abundant and impacted
marsh ecosystem, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency announced.
Alfalfa is proving in University of California studies to be
remarkably resilient when flooded with large amounts of water
early in the year to refill ground depleted by deficit
irrigation, or to recharge groundwater drawn down by pumping.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced
Tuesday it’s awarding $10.7 million for fisheries habitat
restoration program projects. Ten out of the 27 projects
selected by the CDFW are in Humboldt County and will receive a
total of nearly $2.7 million of the funding.
While many people look towards the mountains for accessing
beautiful nature, the San Joaquin Valley Floor is home to many
amazing sights of nature and in particular, birds. Not only is
Tulare County home to over 100 types of birds, it is part of
the Pacific Flyway – one of the most important bird migration
paths in the world.
Why would a public water agency that exists primarily to serve
irrigation water to farmers on the west side of Fresno and
Kings counties undertake an ecosystem restoration project in
the Delta?
Westlands Water District announced Wednesday that it recently
completed the Lower Yolo Restoration Project, which restored
the habitat for fish and other wildlife species in part of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … The land had been previously
used for cattle grazing, and now it has transformed into tidal
marsh, riparian and upland buffer habitat.
HR 8775, the Salton Sea Public Health and Environmental
Protection Act, would create an interagency working group
called the Salton Sea Management Council to coordinate projects
around the lake’s receding shoreline.
A Biden administration won’t be able to untangle the legal and
regulatory “mess” under part of the Clean Water Act that
determines which streams, wetlands and other waters get federal
protection, legal scholars and litigators say.
Rangeland ecologists at the University of California, Davis,
found that when ranchers invest even one week a year in
practices that keep cows away from creeks — like herding,
fencing and providing supplemental nutrition and water — they
can improve riparian health by as much as 53 percent.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District and its
partner, the California Department of Parks and Recreation,
Angeles District, are one step closer on a project to restore
Malibu Creek’s ecosystem after receiving support from the
Corps’ top brass.
How did two of the most important waterfowl refuges in the
United States reach such a sad state? The decline of the Tule
Lake and Lower Klamath refuges was a hundred years in the
making. There are no villains here; rather it is simply a tale
of too little water to go around on an arid landscape.
An annual search for a tiny endangered and contentious fish in
the sprawling California Delta has once again come up empty.
The state’s annual Fall Midwater Trawl found no Delta smelt in
September’s sampling of the critical waterway. … Hoping to
reverse the trend, Westlands Water District and the California
Department of Water Resources announced completion of a Delta
habitat restoration project on Wednesday.
The U.S. EPA’s water infrastructure financing programs would be
in line for approximately level funding next year under a plan
for FY21 appropriations released by Senate Republicans last
week. … The Republicans’ proposal would provide EPA with just
under $9.1 billion next year, roughly in line with the agency’s
FY20 appropriation.
For decades it’s been an environmental jewel wedged between the
urban sprawl of Marina Del Rey and Playa Del Rey. But now the
Ballona Wetlands State Ecological Reserve, home to diverse
plant and animal wildlife, has become a battleground for
conservationists and other activists.
The incoming Biden administration is widely expected to undo
President Trump’s regulatory rollbacks on a range of water
rules including stream and wetland protections, drinking water
contamination, and the permitting of controversial energy and
flood projects.
“King tides are about one-to-two feet higher than an average
tide, and it turns out that is about what we expect to see in
California in the next few decades from sea level rise,” said
Annie Cohut Frankel of the California Coastal Commission. “We
invite the public to look at how these high tides are impacting
our public beaches, our beach access ways, wetlands, roads and
other coastal infrastructure.”
A new order from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, published
Friday afternoon, would, among other things, essentially give
state and local jurisdictions veto power over how communities
spend and match grants through the Land and Water Conservation
Fund, which funds access to recreation in states and federal
land acquisitions.
Reported deficiencies in the design and construction of the
water delivery system have resulted in poor water circulation
that has caused algae to overbloom, while cattails and duckweed
are growing like wildfire along pond shores, creating
conditions ripe for mosquitoes. Fairview Park administrator
Cynthia D’Agosta said maintenance costs have ballooned far
beyond the annual $40,000 anticipated at the outset of the
work.
Restoration projects are finally coming to the Salton Sea and
New River. Nearly $47 million dollars have been secured in
California’s state budget for the next year to begin mitigation
efforts at the Salton Sea and the New River.
“Probably water allocation and climate change would be the two
big pivots and increased opportunity for collaboration between
California and the federal government after 4 years of
conflicts and really outright warfare,” said Rick Frank, a
former California chief deputy attorney general. He is now a
professor at UC Davis law school.
