In California water news today, Hopes for Delta smelt rebound dashed by record-low survey; Report: Systemic failures caused crisis at Oroville Dam; DWR ignores local advice on Oroville Wildlife Area rock harvest; Soaking storm may end Southern California wildfire season next week; New offshore drilling proposed off California coast by Trump administration; What not to ignore about water infrastructure; and more …
On the calendar today …
- The Delta Independent Science Board meets at 9am. Among the agenda items are updates on Prospectus Planning for Upcoming Reviews. Click here for more information.
- A Brown Bag Seminar at 12 pm on Considerations from the CA Water Quality Monitoring Council from Karen Larsen, State Water Board Deputy Director. Click here for more information.
In California water news today …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
Hopes for Delta smelt rebound dashed by record-low survey: “A tiny fish caught in California’s tug of war over water has become harder to find than ever, a state survey found, despite a very wet winter last year that had raised hopes for a bounce back after five years of drought. Environmentalists say the record-low fall survey for the Delta smelt bolsters the case for protecting salmon and other wild fish with sharper limits on water exported from the Sacramento San Joaquin River Delta to San Joaquin Valley farms and many cities in California. ... ” Read more from the East Bay Times here: Hopes for Delta smelt rebound dashed by record-low survey
Report: Systemic failures caused crisis at Oroville Dam: “National dam safety experts say long-term and systemic failures by officials in California and elsewhere caused last year’s near-disaster at the nation’s tallest dam. The report released Friday comes from experts appointed to investigate the causes of spillway collapses at California’s Oroville Dam. Both spillways at the half-century old dam gave way in February 2017, forcing evacuation orders for nearly 200,000 people downstream. … ” Read more from the Eureka Times-Standard here: Report: Systemic failures caused crisis at Oroville Dam
(Maven note: The report was released this morning and a press call scheduled for later today. Look for much more on this story in the Weekend Daily Digest, or if it’s interesting enough, possibly a breaking news alert later today.)
Oroville Dam: DWR ignores local advice on Oroville Wildlife Area rock harvest: “State Department of Water Resources officials recently met with Oroville Dam Coalition members to consider their ideas for the Oroville Wildlife Area project, but announced later the same day that the department had different plans. DWR will take 80,000 cubic yards of aggregate from the wildlife area to use in spillway reconstruction, but not in the way the coalition had hoped, which would have included habitat restoration benefits as well. … ” Read more from the Chico Enterprise-Record here: Oroville Dam: DWR ignores local advice on Oroville Wildlife Area rock harvest
Soaking storm may end Southern California wildfire season next week: “The first significant storm of the winter season may bring drenching rain and heavy mountain snow to the southwestern United States, including Southern California, next week. The weather pattern began to change across the region during the first few days of 2018 as a small amount of moisture began to flow in from the Pacific Ocean and into California. This trend will continue and is poised to ramp up as a storm affects California and much of the Southwest spanning Monday night through Tuesday night. ... ” Read more from AccuWeather here: Soaking storm may end Southern California wildfire season next week
New offshore drilling proposed off California coast by Trump administration: “The Trump administration on Thursday proposed the largest expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. history, releasing a plan to allow new drilling off the coasts of Northern, Central and Southern California, along with most of the East Coast. “Today we’re embarking on a new path for energy dominance in America,” U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said during a conference call with reporters. The plan would allow oil and gas companies to lease 47 areas off America’s coastlines from 2019 to 2024, totaling up to 90 percent of the offshore areas where oil drilling is potentially allowed. Of those, seven of those areas would be in the Pacific Ocean — two off Northern California, two off Central California, two off Southern California and one off Washington state and Oregon. … ” Read more from the Mercury News here: New offshore drilling proposed off California coast by Trump administration
What not to ignore about water infrastructure: “Infrastructure was supposed to be an arena of bipartisan comity in Donald Trump’s first year as president. Instead, it became an afterthought as the administration tussled with Congress over health care, border security, and tax cuts while jettisoning waves of advisers and staff. Having signed the tax bill just before Christmas, Trump promised to offer a public works plan in the new year. Large sums of money are potentially in play — a $1 trillion figure has been discussed by both Democrats and Republicans for repairing, modernizing, and extending the nation’s water pipes, roads, airports, dams, transmission lines, bridges, and sewer systems. … ” Read more from the Circle of Blue here: What not to ignore about water infrastructure
In commentary today …
Climate change is forcing conservationists to pick winners and losers. How to decide? Jane Braxton Little writes, “For trout in the rivers above Oroville Dam, survival is a slough. They have been navigating around dams in waters sullied by a century of logging, ranching and road building. Now they face streams shared with invasive species hitchhiking around the world at a pace accelerated by climate change. How’s a fish to endure? To find out, a crew of scientists is collecting water samples across the watershed, from the Middle Fork of the Feather in Sierra Valley to Yellow Creek in Humbug Valley. They are looking for signs of trout – rainbow, brook and brown – as well as threatening intruders – New Zealand mud snails, quagga mussels and the pathogens that cause whirling disease in fish. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee here: Climate change is forcing conservationists to pick winners and losers. How to decide?
In regional news and commentary today …
Months after Wine Country fires, damaged vineyards face uncertainty: “On top of Moon Mountain, at the Gilfillan Vineyard, Scott Knippelmeir kneels to the ground, pulls off the outer layers of a grape vine’s loose wood, and cuts into its trunk. He’s checking for signs of life. If the trunk is green, that’s good: The vine is still alive. If it’s dry and coffee-brown, that means the vine is dead. Sounds simple enough, except that there are nearly 12,000 individual grape vines at this 6.5-acre vineyard, and each one appears to have suffered a different fate in October’s Nuns Fire. “The destruction just seems so … random,” says Knippelmeir, Gilfillan’s vineyard manager. … ” Read more from the SF Chronicle here: Months after Wine Country fires, damaged vineyards face uncertainty
Tri-Dam draws down Lake Tulloch for maintenance: “Waters at Lake Tulloch were about 30 feet lower Wednesday than the normal maximum level, as Tri-Dam personnel continue a scheduled, extended drawdown for safety inspections, testing and maintenance on the 60-year-old, 205-foot-high Tulloch Dam. That means acres of rocks that are usually underwater and normal high-water marks about 509 feet above sea level are exposed, while docks designed to float are perched high and dry in the dry bathtub ring that stands between private waterfront homes and the reservoir below. ... ” Read more from the Union Democrat here: Tri-Dam draws down Lake Tulloch for maintenance
South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District fined for ‘serious’ water violations: “The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board has fined the South San Luis Obispo County Sanitation District $9,000 for violations over a nearly two-year period, whichincluded too much fecal matter and chlorine in the water that the Oceano Wastewater Treatment Plant discharged into the ocean. The three violations — two “serious” and one “non-serious” — occurred between July 2015 and May 2017. ... ” Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune here: South Coast Sanitation District fined for ‘serious’ water violations
Thomas Fire: First estimate of agricultural losses tops $171 million: “As firefighters in Southern California worked to achieve full containment on the Thomas Fire, agricultural officials in Ventura County issued their first estimate of damage to crops and farm structures, reporting that losses will exceed $171 million, with more than 70,000 acres of cropland and rangeland affected. The Ventura County agricultural commissioner’s office based its initial assessment on information about agricultural locations within the perimeter of the fire, which started on Dec. 4 and grew into the state’s largest wildfire, burning nearly 282,000 acres as of late last week. ... ” Read more from Ag Alert here: Thomas Fire: First estimate of agricultural losses tops $171 million
Santa Clarita: Valencia Water Company fails to sample water after finding slight increase in nitrates: “Officials at the Valencia Water Company failed to step up their water sampling after one of its wells revealed a level of nitrate that exceeded the state limit and warranted closer scrutiny. Nitrates are salts that occur naturally and are used heavily in fertilizers. Failure to sample water as often as it should have done, however, did not compromise the water quality, a Valencia Water Company official said. ... ” Read more from the Signal here: Valencia Water Company fails to sample water after finding slight increase in nitrates
Along the Colorado River …
Pop up water treatment plant aims to keep chemical out of Lake Mead: “You’ve heard of pop-up stores and pop-up restaurants, but what about a pop-up water treatment plant? Environmental regulators and water officials gathered Thursday at the Las Vegas Wash to mark the completion of a temporary treatment facility designed to keep pollution from an industrial site in Henderson from seeping into the wash and flowing downstream into Lake Mead and the Colorado River. … ” Read more from the Las Vegas Review Journal here: Pop up water treatment plant aims to keep chemical out of Lake Mead
Park Service proposes methods to control invasives in Grand Canyon: “Rising numbers of invasive brown trout and green sunfish in the Colorado River downstream of Glen Canyon Dam have spurred the National Park Service to propose a range of new actions to control those and other non-native aquatic species in Glen Canyon and Grand Canyon. But a few of the ideas, including long-term electrofishing and the introduction of more non-native fish to the river, are drawing concern from fishing and environmental organizations as well as the Arizona Game and Fish Department. … ” Read more from the Arizona Daily Sun here: Park Service proposes methods to control invasives in Grand Canyon
Precipitation watch …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
- CAL WATER FIX HEARING AT THE STATE WATER BOARD: Ruling letter addresses testimony and exhibits for Part 2
- DWR’S SUSTAINABLE GROUNDWATER MANAGEMENT PROGRAM: Update for January 4
Sign up for daily email service and you’ll never miss a post …
Sign up for free daily email service and you’ll get all the Notebook’s aggregated and original water news content delivered to your email box by 9AM. And with breaking news alerts, you’ll always be one of the first to know …
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.
