A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Chris Bowman.
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Emerald Bay is known for its beauty, with an island castle at
its center, and an underwater state park full of sunken boats.
But that’s not all that lies beneath the water’s surface. Two
defunct, lead-clad telecommunications cables run across the
mouth of the bay and along Tahoe’s southwestern shores. An
ongoing court battle and investigation by the Wall Street
Journal have brought the cables into the public eye. The
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance has sued AT&T
to have the cables removed, while competing studies by AT&T
and WSJ resulted in drastically different findings on whether
the lines pose any risk to the lake and its visitors.
California may be a leader in the fight against climate change,
but the state is years, even decades, behind other states when
it comes to granting environmental rights to its citizens.
While a handful of other state constitutions, including those
of New York and Pennsylvania, declare the people’s rights to
clean air, water and a healthy environment, California’s does
not. That could change as soon as November. Under a proposal
moving through the Legislature, voters would decide whether to
add one sentence to the state constitution’s Declaration of
Rights: “The people shall have a right to clean air and water
and a healthy environment.”
Fresno State is making waves in water education. The university
announced on Tuesday that it’s offering a new minor. The course
is part of a collaboration with the California Water Institute.
It will focus on water from an agricultural point of view, as
well as impacts on the environment and the effects on people
and society throughout the Central Valley, the state, and the
American West. This minor is unique because it requires
students to take classes in several different departments and
even other colleges at the university.
In the two decades to 2019, global plastic production doubled.
By 2040, plastic manufacturing and processing could consume as
much as 20% of global oil production and use up 15% of the
annual carbon emissions budget. Most of the plastic we make
ends up as waste. As plastic manufacturers increase production,
more and more of it will end up in our landfills, rivers and
oceans. Plastic waste is set to triple by 2060. Producers often
put the onus back on consumers by pointing to recycling schemes
as a solution to plastic pollution. … Our new
research found the relationship is direct – a 1% increase
in plastic production leads to a 1% increase in plastic
pollution, meaning unmanaged waste such as bottles in rivers
and floating plastic in the oceans. -Written by Kathryn Willis, Postdoctoral Researcher
with CSIRO; Britta Denise Hardesty, Senior Principal
Research Scientist, Oceans and Atmosphere, CSIRO; Katie
Conlon, Researcher at Portland State University;
and Win Cowger, Research Director at the Moore
Institute for Plastic Pollution Research, University of
California, Riverside.
In recently published research, a consortium of local, state,
and federal agencies including USGS and NOAA introduces the
Advanced Quantitative Precipitation Information (AQPI) system,
which aims to improve prediction and monitoring of
precipitation, streamflow, and coastal flooding in the San
Francisco Bay Area. Combining real-time observations with
state-of-the-art modeling, AQPI represents a significant
advancement in forecasting capability. Developed as a response
to the urgent need for better water-management tools in
California, this experimental system will bolster
decision-making processes for communities vulnerable to extreme
weather events. The Bay Area’s complex landscape, nestled
between coastal mountain ranges, has long posed challenges for
accurate precipitation monitoring.
With runoff from this year’s snow and rain boosting the levels
of California’s reservoirs, state water managers on Tuesday
announced plans to increase deliveries of supplies from the
State Water Project to 40% of full allotments, up from 30% last
month. The increased allocation, which had been widely
expected, means that suppliers serving 27 million Californians,
as well as some farming areas, will have substantially more
water available to use and store this year. But the Department
of Water Resources also said officials have had to limit
pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta this year
because of environmental protections for native fish.
Farmers in the critically overdrafted Tulare Lake Subbasin in
the San Joaquin Valley are bracing for escalating costs as
state and local agencies assess fees on wells and groundwater
pumped. For the first time, the California State Water
Resources Control Board last week placed the subbasin on
probationary status as part of regulations under the state’s
landmark 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA.
… Kings County Farm Bureau Executive Director Dusty Ference
said new state and local groundwater-related fees will impact
farmers and communities.
Last fall, UC Riverside’s Dr. Hoori Ajami co-authored a study
looking at how long-term droughts are impacting river flows
across the US. We asked Dr. Ajami and The Nature Conservancy’s
lead river scientist, Dr. Bronwen Stanford, to tell us about
the study and its implications. First, what is a “baseflow
drought” and how is it distinct from a precipitation drought?
Hoori Ajami: Water in a stream has two sources: precipitation
and groundwater. “Baseflow” is groundwater’s contribution to a
stream’s flow. We were specifically interested to see how a
river’s baseflow changes after a precipitation drought. …”
From the Sacramento River to the coast, salmon populations have
struggled to survive, and fishing for salmon in California has
been canceled for the second season in a row, marking the third
season in the state’s history a fishing ban has been in place.
The heart of the problem: dams and climate change. …
Steve Lindley, director of NOAA’s Fisheries Ecology Division at
the Southwest Fisheries Science Center, said
the removal of dams from Oregon to Northern
California on the Klamath will help with survival even if
drought returns.
Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, known as PFAS,
can be found in those items and hundreds of other household
products. the chemicals have made their way into our showers,
sinks and drinking glasses — a 2023 study detected PFAS in
nearly half of the nation’s tap water. … For the first time,
the Environmental Protection Agency is regulating PFAS. This
month, the E.P.A. announced that it would require municipal
water systems to remove six forever chemicals from tap
water. Lisa Friedman, a reporter on the Climate desk at
The New York Times, wrote about the new rules.
When Californians voted for Proposition 1 in 2014, they had
every reason to expect sound investments in climate-resilient
water projects. And all but one of the projects selected to
receive the proposition’s $2.7 billion in water supply funding
fulfill those criteria.They replenish groundwater basins and
enhance the storage capacity of existing reservoirs to better
withstand droughts — benefits that are realized by all people
across the state. Unfortunately, the one project that does not
measure up — the Sites Reservoir Project — would be publicly
funded to the tune of nearly $900 million. -Written by Max Gomberg, a former California
State Water Resources Control Board climate adviser and a
senior policy consultant and board member of the California
Water Impact Network.
More than a year after floods devastated the small town of
Woodlake in Tulare County, residents finally feel hopeful about
the future thanks to new infrastructure projects and an ongoing
lawsuit they are bringing against local governments and other
agencies. In March of 2023, homes in northwest Woodlake
were hit with floods after historic storms and snowpack brought
a deluge onto the valley floor. It took many residents months
and tens of thousands of dollars to repair their homes.
Residents banded together and took legal action against what
they said was a government failure to properly prepare and
respond to the floods.
Arizona Democrats are looking to capture voters mindful of one
resource that is sparse in the desert state: water. As
political battles over abortion and the southern border hit
close to home for some Arizonans, record-setting
high-temperature summers and droughts worry many. Democrats
look to rein in rural voters who have turned on the party by
framing water as a “life or death” matter going into the 2024
elections. … In tandem, Mayes and Gov. Katie Hobbs
(D-AZ) have cracked down on controversial farms that
had unlimited access to the state’s limited groundwater
supply. Last year, the pair ended a contract with a Saudi
Arabian company, Fondomonte, that grew alfalfa in Arizona and
then shipped the hay back to the Middle East. Under the
contract from former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, the company
was given unlimited access to groundwater in Arizona.
Every year on April 22, we celebrate Earth Day, which
originally started in the 1970s with a focus on recycling,
using less electricity, and conserving water. Fast forward to
today, Earth Day has become so much more and is everything from
mitigating the impacts of climate change to environmental
justice. For environmental scientists like me, doing research
in various ecosystems on all sorts of species, every day can
begin to feel like Earth Day. After all, in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta, we are doing everything we can to improve our
corner of the world.
On April 23, during the administrative public hearing of the
Board of Mesa County Commissioners, they approved a
million-dollar contribution toward the permanent protection of
the most senior, non-consumptive water right on the Colorado
River — the Shoshone water rights. “Mesa County’s $1 million
investment in the Shoshone water rights is not just a financial
commitment, but a pledge to our community’s future,” said
Bobbie Daniel, Chair of the Board of Mesa County Commissioners.
“By safeguarding these rights, Mesa County ensures that the
West Slope’s lifeblood — our beloved Colorado River — continues
to sustain our families, farms, and natural habitats. …”
Fresno State is introducing a groundbreaking new minor, in
collaboration with the California Water Institute, focusing on
multiple facets of the water industry for students to add to
their educational plan. … This new water minor is designed
for students who want to learn more about water systems in
California, as well as those interested in water-related
careers after graduation. The minor is open to all disciplines
at Fresno State and allows students of any study background to
learn more about the water management challenges that impact a
reliable water supply.
As it does every year, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS)
will be evaluating plant and animal species to determine which
ones deserve federal protection under the Endangered Species
Act. About half of the species chosen for analysis so far in
2024 have something in common: Their futures depend on the
conservation of wetlands. A mere coincidence? Probably
not. While wetlands cover just 6 percent of the earth’s
land surface area, they provide habitat for a whopping 40
percent of plants and animals. In all likelihood, we can
expect this trend of wetland-dependent species coming under the
protection of the Endangered Species Act to continue, predicts
Amy McNamara, a freshwater ecosystems strategist for NRDC. But
this, she says, “is something that we should work to avoid at
all costs.”
Atmospheric river storms are like punches in a boxing match. A
flurry of weak ones are OK. But it’s best to avoid the big
knockout blows. That’s exactly what happened in California this
winter. Scientists say that from Oct. 1 to April 1, the state
actually received more atmospheric rivers, the famous
moisture-laden meteorological events that are critical to the
water supply, than it did last year — 44 this winter compared
to 31 last winter. But the intensity made all the difference.
Statewide, California had just 2 strong atmospheric rivers this
winter, compared with 7 last year. Many of the biggest this
winter hit Washington and Oregon instead. The result was, for
the most part, a remarkably, blissfully average rainy season
for California. 3 were moderate and 7 were strong. This year,
26 were weak, 16 were moderate and 2 were strong.
With San Diego more than half done with the first phase of its
Pure Water sewage recycling system, city officials say they are
considering major changes to how they will handle the second,
larger phase. … Plans for the second phase, which were
mostly put in place 13 years ago, could change significantly
based on new state regulations and new information about how
much purified water the city is projected to need. … But
the city could abandon a plan to build the phase two
purification plant on a vacant 17-acre site in Mission Valley,
and plans to store purified water from that plant in either
Lake Murray or the San Vicente Reservoir.
