Big unknowns: What legal marijuana means for water in Western states; As fish disappear, Trump Administration seeks to pump more water south; Interior Secretary nixes Klamath water agreement; Tribes, upper basin irrigators react; First significant rain since Thanksgiving weekend expected in California this week; ‘Unimpressive’: Forecaster says this week’s storms won’t turn around water, snow shortage; California wildfires demonstrate breadth of water quality threat; Parts of California, West may never look the same after wildfires; and more …
On the calendar today …
- The state legislature reconvenes.
In the news today …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
Big unknowns: What legal marijuana means for water in Western states: “States throughout the West have rushed to legalize marijuana over the last four years. The biggest by far is California, where recreational use of the drug became legal on January 1. The states are clamoring for the tax revenue in these new markets, but they seem less concerned with how they may affect water resources. Even now, no state regulators can answer a basic question about marijuana cultivation: How much water will this new industry consume? Yet state and local governments are permitting tens of thousands of indoor and outdoor marijuana farms without such answers. ... ” Read more from Water Deeply here: Big unknowns: What legal marijuana means for water in Western states
As fish disappear, Trump Administration seeks to pump more water south: “The Trump administration, teeing up a fight with California regulators, is trying to pump more water through the fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the southern half of the state despite fresh evidence of the estuary’s shrinking fish population. A proposal by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to “maximize water deliveries” represents the administration’s first concrete effort to make good on a promise Donald Trump made while campaigning for the presidency in Fresno, where he vowed to deliver more water to San Joaquin Valley farmers and derided protections for endangered fish species. ... ” Read more from the Fairfield Daily Republic here: As fish disappear, Trump Administration seeks to pump more water south
Interior Secretary nixes Klamath water agreement; Tribes, upper basin irrigators react: “An agreement created in 2014 between the Klamath Tribes and Upper Basin landowners that was contingent on the former Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement has dissolved. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke issued a negative notice in the Federal Register, effective Dec. 28, for the Upper Klamath Basin Comprehensive Agreement (UKBCA), essentially the final step in terminating the comprehensive agreement between Upper Basin irrigators and land owners and the Klamath Tribes. … ” Read more from the Herald and News here: Interior Secretary nixes Klamath water agreement; Tribes, upper basin irrigators react
DROUGHT/WEATHER
First significant rain since Thanksgiving weekend expected in California this week: “Californians thirsting for relief from a parched, nearly rainless start to the state’s wet season are finally getting some relief this week. The single meteorological factor contributing to one of the driest final three months of the year on record in California has been a stubborn area of high pressure aloft. Nicknamed the “ridiculously resilient ridge” during the heart of the state’s exceptional drought earlier in the decade, this atmospheric roadblock has steered the Pacific storm track well north of California much of the fall and early winter so far. … ” Read more from the Weather Channel here: First significant rain since Thanksgiving weekend expected in California this week
‘Unimpressive’: Forecaster says this week’s storms won’t turn around water, snow shortage: “As much hope as a new year brings, it’s not going to make much difference when it comes to weather. Two upcoming storms will be “unimpressive” for the north valley, according to a local weather forecaster. Any amount of the wet stuff is good, but the forecast doesn’t hold more than half an inch or so of rain — a quarter inch of rain per storm, between Wednesday night and Friday. … ” Read more from the Chico Enterprise-Record here: ‘Unimpressive’: Forecaster says this week’s storms won’t turn around water, snow shortage
Record dry raises fears of drought’s return: “It’s been almost a year since Los Angeles residents felt any real rain, and precious little snow is in the Sierras, but water managers say it’s too early for fears that California is sliding back into drought as abruptly as the state fell out of it. Water officials carry out the first of their regular ritual winter snow measurements before news cameras on Wednesday. Plunging rods into snowpacks to measure the snow depth, water managers use the event to acquaint Californians with the state of the water supply. … ” Read more from CBS 2 here: Record dry raises fears of drought’s return
WILDFIRES:
California wildfires demonstrate breadth of water quality threat: “Although California has been able to quell its latest set of wildfires, the state is still dealing with fallout brought to its drinking water sources and systems. In December, the Los Angeles area dealt with wildfires that forced at least 50,000 people to evacuate, destroyed over 240,000 acres of land, and threatened water services, as Water Online has previously reported. Though the fires are now out, water problems persist. ... ” Read more from Water Online here: California wildfires demonstrate breadth of water quality threat
Parts of California, West may never look the same after wildfires: “As hotter and bigger fires blaze through the West and yet another year passes with a disastrous toll, America’s wildlands are having a harder time bouncing back. Some spots, from the singed valleys of Wine Country to the steep slopes of the Sierra, may never look the same. The fiercer fires are killing more of the vegetation needed to provide seeds for regrowth, and scientists are learning that even when new trees sprout, many are struggling with the warmer and more extreme weather wrought by climate change. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle here: Parts of California, West may never look the same after wildfires
TRENDS
Food safety expert warns latest bizarre Silicon Valley $60 ‘raw water’ trend could quickly turn deadly: “When food-safety expert Bill Marler saw The New York Times’ trend piece on Silicon Valley’s recent obsession with raw water, he thought he was reading a headline from The Onion. According to The Times, demand for unfiltered water is skyrocketing as tech-industry insiders develop a taste for water that hasn’t been treated, to prevent the spread of bacteria or other contaminants. In San Francisco, “unfiltered, untreated, unsterilized spring water” is selling for as much as $60.99 for a 2.5 gallon jug. Startups dedicated to untreated water are popping up. People — including startup Juicero’s cofounder Doug Evans — are gathering gallons of untreated water from natural springs to bring to Burning Man. … ” Read more from Business Insider here: Food safety expert warns latest bizarre Silicon Valley $60 ‘raw water’ trend could quickly turn deadly
STATE AND FEDERAL POLICY
California’s new laws for 2018: “Hundreds of new laws come into effect to begin 2018 in California. From cannabis legalization, to a new minimum wage standard and tighter gun control laws millions of Californians will feel the impact of the laws immediately. State Government Reporter Ben Bradford has a breakdown of the major legal changes in the Golden State to begin the new year. … ” Read more from Capital Public Radio here: California’s new laws for 2018
How the Trump era is changing the federal bureaucracy: “Nearly a year into his takeover of Washington, President Trump has made a significant down payment on his campaign pledge to shrink the federal bureaucracy, a shift long sought by conservatives that could eventually bring the workforce down to levels not seen in decades. By the end of September, all Cabinet departments except Homeland Security, Veterans Affairs and Interior had fewer permanent staff than when Trump took office in January — with most shedding many hundreds of employees, according to an analysis of federal personnel data by The Washington Post. … ” Read more from the Washington Post here: How the Trump era is changing the federal bureaucracy
In commentary today …
More water for Central Valley farmers worth considering, says the San Diego Union Tribune: They write, “The Trump administration announced Friday that it had begun an 18-month analysis of whether to provide California farmers more water from the Central Valley Project, the largest federal water project in the nation, honoring a promise that Donald Trump made on the campaign trail. “If I win, believe me, we’re going to start opening up the water so that you can have your farmers survive, so that your job market will get better,” Trump told supporters at a Fresno rally in May 2016. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union Tribune here: More water for Central Valley farmers worth considering
More water, more truth in media, says Don Polson of Red Bluff: He writes, “Among the indicators of improvement that can be reasonably ascribed to having President Donald J. Trump in office is the story just published in Saturday’s Daily News, “Pumping from biggest federal water project may be hiked.” “The Trump administration said Friday it will look at revving up water deliveries to farmers from California’s Central Valley Project, the largest federal water project in the United States…” Environmentalists decry it, of course, but they are simply reacting out of ideological pique and umbrage over no longer being the fanatical “tail” wagging the resource “dog.” Let’s hope the predictable litigation quickly finds a federal judge, and eventually the Supreme Court, that has not been steeped in the obsession with putting critters, bugs and fish over humans. … ” Continue reading here: More water, more truth in media
In regional news and commentary today …
Cotati neighbors discover surprising fact about Laguna de Santa Rosa: “Shortly after Jenny Blaker and her husband moved to Cotati in 1996 they were approached by the city with a request to acquire a creek- bordered strip of land behind their house so that an existing bike trail might be extended. The couple agreed. Upon completion, Blaker was pleased with the trail, but not with how the project left the creek. “Bulldozed, bare of vegetation,” she described it. Gathering together a few friends and neighbors, they approached the city and the Sonoma County Water Agency for permission to plant native species along the creek’s edges. … ” Read more from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat here: Cotati neighbors discover surprising fact about Laguna de Santa Rosa
Homeless camp grows near Sacramento water intake: “A homeless camp on the banks of the Sacramento river adjacent to the city’s largest water intake facility has been growing unchecked by city authorities. What was once a quiet plaza with a central water feature at the entrance to the intake area is now covered in feces and smells of urine. The water intake facility provides as much as 160 million gallons of water out of the Sacramento River every day, a stretch of river now lined with garbage and waste.” Watch video here: Homeless camp grows near Sacramento water intake
King tides cause no storm surge or serious impacts along Santa Barbara coast: “There wasn’t much of an impact from the latest round of King Tides along the Montecito coastline this morning. The tides have been boosted by the full moon but without an associated storm, there’s no significant surge. In the past that has caused heavy erosion, and in some cases, flooding in parking lots and coastal properties. This month has two full moons. … ” Read more from KEYT here: King tides cause no storm surge or serious impacts along Santa Barbara coast
Huntington Beach: ‘We’re infested’: Stingrays injure a record 73 people in one day at beach: “Lifeguards at Huntington Beach in Southern California say they’ve never seen anything like it. A horde of stingrays has taken up residence in the shallow water off the popular beach, injuring a record 73 people Friday with their sharp spines. “We’re infested,” Marine Safety Lt. Claude Panis told The Orange County Register. “That’s just how many we treated. In my 40 years, that’s as many as I’ve had in a single day. It’s a problem.” … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee here: Huntington Beach: ‘We’re infested’: Stingrays injure a record 73 people in one day at beach
Along the Colorado River …
Clouds with a silver lining: Seeding storms to boost the Colorado River: “People in seven western states and Mexico rely on the Colorado River for their water supplies. As the climate warms, the mighty river’s flows are expected to shrink—straining its ability to meet demands of cities and farms. Water managers are bracing themselves for potential shortages and therefore keeping a watchful eye on Colorado’s snowpack, where much of the water originates. More snow means more runoff—so many cities, water districts, and even ski areas are participating in a little-known program to “fire up” more snowflakes from winter storms. ... ” Read more from the Colorado Independent here: Clouds with a silver lining: Seeding storms to boost the Colorado River
Precipitation watch …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
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About the Daily Digest: The Daily Digest is a collection of selected news articles, commentaries and editorials appearing in the mainstream press. Items are generally selected to follow the focus of the Notebook blog. The Daily Digest is published every weekday with a weekend edition posting on Sundays.
