In California water news today, Groundwater: A firehose of paperwork is pointed at state water officials; Amid the wasteland of the Salton Sea, a miraculous but challenging oasis is born; CA Fish and Game Commission will discuss Delta fishery management plan on December 11; State of the Estuary: Speakers discuss issues facing Estuary wildlife and their wetland habitats, as well as drones and other new tools that will help future management; State of the Estuary: Speakers talk about emerging water quality issues such as stormwater management, contaminants in effluent, wastewater in Suisun Marsh, and nutrients discharged into the Bay; Fires, floods and free parking: California’s unending fight against climate change; How PFAS negotiations fell apart; and more …
In the news today …
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
- DAILY DIGEST, weekend edition: Some farmers sell off fields ahead of groundwater law; Friant-Kern Canal is getting a lot of bipartisan love – but no money so far; Pattern change to bring drier trend through mid-December; Trump takes aim at trickle-down toilets, faucets; and more …
- NEWS WORTH NOTING: How Bay Area water agencies delivered reliable water service during power shutoffs; DWR awards $24.2 million for desalination projects; IID seeks resolution over mitigation water delivered to Salton Sea in 2010
Groundwater: A firehose of paperwork is pointed at state water officials: “The onslaught of paperwork will be mind boggling. Eye popping. Elephant choking. Pick your metaphor and it still won’t capture the situation. When the calendar strikes Jan. 31, 2020, water agencies around the state will have sent hundreds of thousands of pages of technical data, plans and comments meant to shore up groundwater levels in our most overdrafted areas. Officials at the state Department of Water Resources are expecting about 45 groundwater sustainability plans to be filed by the deadline. They’ll come from 19 water basins bunched mostly in the Central Valley that are considered critically overdrafted per the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. … ” Read more from SJV Water here: Groundwater: A firehose of paperwork is pointed at state water officials
Amid the wasteland of the Salton Sea, a miraculous but challenging oasis is born: “It came as a bittersweet surprise to biologists and government agencies monitoring the steadily shrinking Salton Sea’s slide toward death by choking dust storms and salt. Thousands of acres of exposed lake bed have become, of all things, the unintended beneficiaries of lush marshlands that are homes for endangered birds and fish at the outlets of agricultural and urban runoff that used to flow directly into the Salton Sea. … ” Read more from the LA Times here: Amid the wasteland of the Salton Sea, a miraculous but challenging oasis is born
CA Fish and Game Commission will discuss Delta fishery management plan on December 11: Dan Bacher writes, “The California Striped Bass Association (CSBA), the Nor-Cal Guides & Sportsmen’s Association (NCGASA), the NCGASA Delta Anglers Coalition and other groups are mobilizing people to attend the California Fish and Game Commission in Sacramento on Wednesday, December 11, at 9:30 a.m. to make sure that the Delta fishery management policies being proposed continue to protect striped bass, black bass and other gamefish. ... ” Read more at the Daily Kos here: CA Fish and Game Commission will discuss Delta fishery management plan on December 11
State of the Estuary: Speakers discuss issues facing Estuary wildlife and their wetland habitats, as well as drones and other new tools that will help future management: “State of the Estuary Conference presentations featuring decades of data on fish, ducks, seabirds, and cetaceans revealed both hopeful and alarming trends. “The loss of federal funding for the midwinter waterfowl survey, usually conducted using small aircraft, has researchers looking at drone-based alternatives,” said waterfowl biologist Susan De La Cruz of the US Geological Survey. … ” Read more from Estuary News here: Speakers discuss issues facing Estuary wildlife and their wetland habitats, as well as drones and other new tools that will help future management
State of the Estuary: Speakers talk about emerging water quality issues such as stormwater management, contaminants in effluent, wastewater in Suisun Marsh, and nutrients discharged into the Bay: “City of San Pablo project manager Amanda Booth went deep into the nitty gritty on green stormwater infrastructure at a State of the Estuary Conference session. “Talk to the utility agencies before you even start,” she said. “Read PG&E’s Greenbook guidelines. Know your city’s franchise agreements with gas, electrical, sewer, and water companies, figure out who pays to relocate facilities, for example, if that becomes necessary.” Changing the flow lines of runoff at the street, parcel and regional scale is what stormwater management via green infrastructure is all about. ... ” Read more from Estuary News here: Speakers talk about emerging water quality issues such as stormwater management, contaminants in effluent, wastewater in Suisun Marsh, and nutrients discharged into the Bay
Fires, floods and free parking: California’s unending fight against climate change: ” … Life in Southern California, once as mild and predictable as the weather, is being transformed as the climate grows hotter, drier and in some regions windier, fueling more intense wildfires, deadly mudslides and prolonged extreme drought. The changing natural world is in turn forcing a fundamental social reckoning, altering the choice of crops on some of the nation’s most bountiful farms, erasing the certainty of electrical power in some of its wealthiest homes and exposing the limits of environmental activism among some of its most liberal voters. ... ” Read more from the Washington Post here: Fires, floods and free parking: California’s unending fight against climate change
How PFAS negotiations fell apart: “Before Democrats managed to secure provisions to address a class of toxic chemicals in an annual defense measure, negotiations fell apart at the hands of their own members. For months, Democrats pushed to attach provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act that would designate a class of 5,000 toxic chemicals, known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), as hazardous. Doing so would spark federal cleanup standards. Democrats also wanted EPA to set a strong drinking water standard. But a final NDAA bill, likely to emerge today, will only include relatively minor measures against PFAS. And Democrats will keep looking to pass tougher standards in a divided Congress and with Senate Republicans deeply skeptical of hurting chemical companies. … ” Read more from E&E News here: How PFAS negotiations fell apart
The world’s supply of fresh water is in trouble as mountain ice vanishes: “High in the Himalaya, near the base of the Gangotri glacier, water burbles along a narrow river. Pebbles, carried in the small river’s flow, pling as they carom downstream. This water will flow thousands of miles, eventually feeding people, farms, and the natural world on the vast, dry Indus plain. Many of the more than 200 million people in the downstream basin rely on water that comes from this stream and others like it. But climate change is hitting those high mountain regions more brutally than the world on average. ... ” Read more from National Geographic here: The world’s supply of fresh water is in trouble as mountain ice vanishes
As water runs low, can life in the Outback go on? ” … As a crippling drought and mismanagement have left more than a dozen Australian towns and villages without a reliable source of water, the country is beginning to confront a question that strikes at its very identity: Is life in Australia’s vast interior compatible with the age of climate change? In the outback — a landscape central to Australian lore, far removed in distance and spirit from the coastal metropolises — rivers and lakes are disappearing, amplifying fears that wide swaths of rural territory may eventually have to be abandoned. … ” Read more from the New York Times here: As water runs low, can life in the Outback go on?
In commentary today …
The cronyism and conflicts behind Trump’s attack on California: Robert Weissman writes, “Angered by California’s temerity first in voting for his opponent in 2016 and then in repeatedly going to court to challenge his illegal actions, President Trump and his administration have launched an all-out assault on California. This attack surely is done out of personal pique. But like so much of what drives this administration, it delivers the goods for corporate cronies. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle here: The cronyism and conflicts behind Trump’s attack on California
What we can learn from the saving of a San Mateo County creek: Kellyx Nelson writes, “Butano Creek runs through the sleepy little farm town of Pescadero, just down the road from San Francisco and over the hill from the heart of Silicon Valley. This modest creek once connected endangered native salmon and steelhead to their historical spawning and rearing habitats through Pescadero Marsh. But the channel filled with sediment over time, ultimately blocking the connection to the Pacific for many years. ... ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle here: What we can learn from the saving of a San Mateo County creek
More news and commentary in the weekend edition …
In regional news and commentary today …
Cost of Sonoma County’s historic seasonal crossings going up, expediting need for permanent solution: “Faced with climbing costs from rising river flows, the county’s public works department has plans to make a century-old, bridge maintenance program ancient history. Crews spent this past Thursday using a large crane to remove a 100-foot temporary span for vehicles across the Russian River at Asti to ensure it doesn’t wash away during winter storms. With wet weather already bearing down, the work represented the last of a few similar jobs around the county to prevent the bridges and related concrete blocks from being taken out by heavy flows and washing down river, potentially damaging other infrastructure. … ” Read more from the Santa Rosa Democrat here: Cost of Sonoma County’s historic seasonal crossings going up, expediting need for permanent solution
Marin wins federal aid for raising homes in flood zones: “More than a dozen Marin County homeowners have been awarded federal funding to help pay for elevating their flood-prone homes. The funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will pay for 75% of the cost of raising each of the 16 homes, which are in Greenbrae, Santa Venetia, Ross, Tam Valley, Kentfield and Black Point. Each of the homes lies within the 100-year flood plain determined by FEMA, which means the homes have at least a 1% chance of flooding each year. … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal here: Marin wins federal aid for raising homes in flood zones
Paso Robles turns to recycled water to irrigate public spaces: “Paso Robles, California, recently announced the completion of the new Tertiary Treatment Facilities at its wastewater treatment plant (WWTP), augmenting the roughly 30,000-resident city’s water stewardship in a state dealing with water scarcity. Black & Veatch served as designer and engineer of record for both the secondary treatment project and the tertiary treatment project heralded as one of the largest, most complex infrastructure projects in the history of the 130-year-old city known for its hot springs. … ” Read more from Environmental Leader here: Drought-prone California town turns to recycled water to irrigate public spaces
Rancho Cucamonga-based water district reports data breach: “Unauthorized access of a server used to process payments for a San Bernardino County water utility may have exposed some customers’ billing information to theft, authorities disclosed last week. Central Square, an outside vendor for the Cucamonga Valley Water District, reported that a server handling one-time credit card transactions for the utility had been breached between Aug. 26 and Oct. 14, CVWD officials said Dec. 4 in a post on the utility website. … ” Read more from the Daily Bulletin here: Rancho Cucamonga-based water district reports data breach
Frank Brown’s revolutionary design of the Bear Valley Dam made him famous: “The Bear Valley 1884 Dam that created Big Bear Lake was the culmination of Frank Brown’s dream of creating an irrigation colony in the far west since leaving Connecticut in 1877. The single arched dam revolutionized dam building and made Frank Brown famous. The multiple arched dam built in 1912 with 10 arches became an engineering standby based on the 1884 dam. In 1892, to speed construction of a new Bear Valley dam, Brown purchased a Pelton Wheel to produce electricity to run the power winches, drills and other equipment. This was the first use of electricity in the San Bernardino Mountains. … ” Read more from the Redlands Community News here: Frank Brown’s revolutionary design of the Bear Valley Dam made him famous
How do you run a surf shop when sewage spills constantly close the beach? “When sewage spills from Tijuana close the South Bay shoreline, Jesse Ramirez can’t sell wet suits or rent out surfboards. As the owner of the Surf Hut in downtown Imperial Beach, Ramirez can only watch as foot traffic and sales decline. But he doesn’t stress too much. Ramirez learned early on the importance of budgeting for beach closures. “We have a little sewer day fund,” Ramirez said. “Over many years, we’ve learned to put a safety net so when it does happen, we’re ready.” … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune here: How do you run a surf shop when sewage spills constantly close the beach?
Baja California water supplies remain at critical levels: “Tijuana and Rosarito residents may have gotten a brief reprieve from scheduled water shut-offs, but the delivery of water throughout Baja California is a vulnerable system in need of urgent repairs, state and water officials stressed this week. Like San Diego, Tijuana gets most of its water supply — at least 95 percent — from the Colorado River. It’s delivered through a single aqueduct that carries the water all the way across the state, including up and over La Rumorosa, a mountain pass more than 4,000 feet above sea level. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune here: Baja California water supplies remain at critical levels
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.
