In California water news today …
California’s 2022 water year – both wet and dry
Jay Lund writes, “After two years of solid drought, and four months into California’s “wet” season, we don’t know if this year will be wet or dry. This is normal for California. But this year’s monthly precipitation “whiplash” is unusual. For northern California, October was the 2nd wettest October in 102 years of record (400% of average October from one 2-day storm!). November was the 31st driest November (50% of average). December was the 23rd wettest December (160% of average), and January was the 7th driest January on record (16% of average). Wow! In this dizzying back and forth, where are we overall? … ” Continue reading at the California Water Blog here: California’s 2022 Water Year – Both Wet and Dry
Turlock Irrigation District lands $20 million grant to see if placing solar panels atop canals makes sense
“The Turlock Irrigation District plans to use a $20 million state grant to demonstrate solar panels atop canals. TID would be the first water agency in the nation to try such a thing if its board votes Tuesday to accept the money. The panels would feed electricity into transmission lines already along the canals, helping TID boost the renewable sources for its 103,000 or so power customers. The devices also would shade the water, possibly reducing evaporation losses for farmers. … ” Continue reading at the Modesto Bee here: Turlock Irrigation District lands $20 million grant to see if placing solar panels atop canals makes sense
California Water Board assures the public that oil wastewater is safe for irrigation, but experts say the evidence is scant
“After years of controversy, the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board assured the public in the fall that eating California crops grown with oil field wastewater “creates no identifiable increased health risks,” based on studies commissioned as part of an extensive Food Safety Project. Yet a review of the science and interviews with a public health scientist affiliated with the project and other experts show that there is scant evidence to support the board’s safety claims. The “neutral, third-party consultant” the board retained to conduct the studies, GSI Environmental, has regularly worked for the oil industry. That work includes marshaling evidence to help Chevron, Kern County’s biggest provider of produced water, and other oil giants defend their interests in high-stakes lawsuits around the country and globe. … ” Read more from Inside Climate News here: California Water Board assures the public that oil wastewater is safe for irrigation, but experts say the evidence is scant
Watch: This farmer has been working to revive San Joaquin River for over 65 years
“In central California, the San Joaquin River snakes 366 miles from the Sierra Nevada through the fertile farmland of the San Joaquin Valley before joining the Sacramento River, which flows into the San Francisco Bay and out to the Pacific. Like other bodies of water throughout the western U.S., the San Joaquin has suffered from a decade of drought. … Raisin farmer Walter Shubin wants to protect the river. In Walt, from American Rivers and filmmaker Justin Clifton, viewers learn why the San Joaquin is so special to Shubin and how he’s seen it change over the years. Though the film is from a few years back, the work to revive the river continues. … ” Read more from Outside here: This farmer has been working to revive San Joaquin River for over 65 years
A model for the future: “Pilot” White Slough Tidal Wetlands Restoration Project – first of its kind in Humboldt Bay
“A multitude of benefits and a model for the future. That’s the result of the recently completed White Slough Tidal Wetlands Restoration Project. In addition to being the first project in Humboldt Bay to tackle a failing levee, sea level rise and the loss of important habitat by improving infrastructure, the White Slough “proof of concept” project provides a resilient living shoreline and flood protection for ranchlands and roads (as a part of US-101). This pilot project would become a team effort, spanning five years, two project leaders, three project managers and many other dedicated professionals. The project consists of 41 acres on the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge and is managed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It began in 2014 shortly after a tide breached the dike in the area, threatening to convert critical marshland to mudflats. … ” Read more from the US Fish & Wildlife Service here: A model for the future: “Pilot” White Slough Tidal Wetlands Restoration Project – first of its kind in Humboldt Bay
Agency releases 2 million salmon into Sacramento River
“The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently completed the release of 2 million juvenile fall-run Chinook salmon from the Success on the Coleman National Fish Hatchery into the Sacramento River. The hatchery is located in Anderson. “Nobody here at . . . Coleman has ever transported that small of fry before despite staff having a lot of experience transporting fish,” Brett Galyean, hatchery manager and project leader with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement. “When you do something new, you’re always just a little bit leery of the outcome, so we started off with really small loads and then as we gained confidence in our technique and watched what the fish were showing us during the transport, we upped that number throughout the day.” … ” Read more from the Daily Republic here: Agency releases 2 million salmon into Sacramento River
Beaver dams help wildfire-ravaged ecosystems recover long after flames subside
“Oregon endured the third-largest wildfire in its recorded history last summer. The Bootleg Fire tore through the Upper Klamath Basin, an ecologically sensitive area that is home to multiple threatened and endangered species including the northern spotted owl and two fish—the koptu and c’waam (shortnose sucker and Lost River sucker)—that are culturally vital to the area’s Klamath Tribes. The fire left behind a charred landscape more than twice the size of New York City. … Oregon endured the third-largest wildfire in its recorded history last summer. The Bootleg Fire tore through the Upper Klamath Basin, an ecologically sensitive area that is home to multiple threatened and endangered species including the northern spotted owl and two fish—the koptu and c’waam (shortnose sucker and Lost River sucker)—that are culturally vital to the area’s Klamath Tribes. The fire left behind a charred landscape more than twice the size of New York City. … ” Read the full story at Scientific American here: Beaver dams help wildfire-ravaged ecosystems recover long after flames subside
The fastest population growth in the West’s wildland fringes is in ecosystems most vulnerable to wildfires
“The view from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in Southern California can be beautiful – pine forests and chaparral spill across an often rugged landscape. But as more people build homes in this area, where development gets into wild land, they’re facing some of the highest risks for wildfires in the country. The type of trees, plants and grasses at any location will influence how likely the area is to burn. However, our new research shows that some areas of the wildland-urban interface – the land where development ends and wilderness begins – are at much higher risk of burning than others. A key reason is how vulnerable the local vegetation is to drying out in a warming climate. … ” Read more from The Conversation here: The fastest population growth in the West’s wildland fringes is in ecosystems most vulnerable to wildfires
In commentary today …
The WIFIA loan program can go far. It should go together.
Chad Praul, P.E., director of the domestic portfolio at Environmental Incentives, and John Ryan, principal of InRecap LLC, write, “If you need to go fast, go alone. If you need to go far, go together.” Classic proverbs about everyday life aren’t usually relevant to topics like innovative federal financing for U.S. public infrastructure renewal. But here’s an exception: the U.S. EPA’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) Loan Program has rapidly developed an independent niche in the debt capital markets for large, highly rated public water agencies. That’s an impressive achievement and a solid foundation for future growth. Yet the Program needs to go much farther to realize its full potential. As the proverb says, when you need to go far, go together. In WIFIA’s case, that means going together with other sources of policy and impact-oriented infrastructure finance that are headed in the same direction. And one of the best ways for the Program to work together with innovative capital is already in WIFIA’s toolbox – the capability to provide US federal guarantees on loans and bonds. … ” Continue reading at Water Finance & Management here: The WIFIA Loan Program Can Go Far. It Should Go Together.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Column: Don’t give up trying to save the Klamath River dams. It’s about more than the fish
Bob Kaster, long-time Yreka resident and retired Superior Court Judge, writes, “It’s been almost a year since my last rant against the proposal to remove four dams along the Klamath River. My attention was recently again drawn to that topic on Dec. 14, when the Siskiyou County Water Users Association made a presentation to the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors, asking the board to adopt a resolution nominating an area called the Ancient Beswick Forest and Cultural Area for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. The declared reason for requesting the inclusion of the area was “to provide for the protection of the area’s resources now and into the future for the citizens of Siskiyou County and the nation.” ... ” Read more from the Siskiyou Daily News here: Column: Don’t give up trying to save the Klamath River dams. It’s about more than the fish
Humboldt County forecast to have warm, dry weather this week
“Humboldt County is set to see an abnormally warm, dry week for this time of year. While Monday could begin on the cool, cloudy side with marine layer fog on the coast lingering in the afternoon and evening, the rest of the week will have clear skies and warmer weather, heating up the county during a winter month. “Heading into Tuesday, and especially Wednesday, Thursday, we’re going to be looking at more of a drier offshore flow pattern, and what that’s going to do is help to promote warmer temperatures and push that marine layer back from the coast,” Alex Dodd, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service office in Eureka, said. “So that means we’re going to be seeing quite a bit of sunshine, probably clear skies, even all through the nighttime hours. Starting with Tuesday morning, for the most part, especially Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, it’s looking pretty clear and sunny and just really nice weather. For the most part winds will be very light.” … ” Read more from the Eureka Times-Standard here: Humboldt County forecast to have warm, dry weather this week
BAY AREA
Bay Area winter dry spell clouds hopes for busted drought
“Many families spent part of their Sunday outdoors at locations like San Mateo’s Harborview Park enjoying a chance to soak up the sun along waterfront trails as the forecast continues to show dry, warm days in the weeks ahead, drying up progress made late last year toward ending the drought. The first part of 2022 has fallen behind 2020 in total precipitation according to the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences — a disappointing turn after October and December’s rain gave some hope this would be a wet year. … ” Read more from CBS Bay Area here: Bay Area winter dry spell clouds hopes for busted drought
Fix for West Marin water contamination set to begin
“A project to address saltwater contamination affecting the West Marin water supply is set to begin after nearly a year’s delay — and at a much higher price. The North Marin Water District has approved a $192,000 construction contract to build a new well that would be free from saltwater contamination that has affected two-thirds of its wells. The contamination was so bad last year that the district had to set up an emergency water station for the first time for residents who have salt-restrictive diets. “We’re all glad that the thing is finally being drilled,” said Point Reyes Station Village Association president Ken Levin. … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal here: Fix for West Marin water contamination set to begin
Commentary: Marin Municipal Water District must increase commitment to creating recycled water
Steve Isaacs, founder of the Marin Coalition for Water Solutions, writes, “As a member of the Marin Coalition for Water Solutions group, I believe water recycling is an important option in providing Marin with a sustainable water supply. With water recycling, Marin residents don’t have to rely on outside, potentially undependable sources to meet our needs. So, is anyone actually drinking recycled water? The answer is yes, they are, and here are some examples … ” Read the full commentary at the Marin Independent Journal here: Commentary: Marin Municipal Water District must increase commitment to creating recycled water
After 6,000 miles at sea, elephant seal C548 meets up with researchers at Bay Area beach to share her data
““I suspect it will be a slightly sticky situation,” Roxanne Beltran told the team gathered in a parking lot at Año Nuevo State Park on the San Mateo County coast. “Breeding season situations are pretty nuts. We’ll all be on high alert.” … UC Santa Cruz scientists go into high gear from mid-January to early February each year, when scores of female seals return to Año Nuevo to give birth following foraging journeys of about 6,000-miles round-trip to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Since the 1960s, hundreds of the deep-diving seals have collected data for scientists at UC Santa Cruz, which manages a natural reserve within the park, and universities around the world who research not only seals but the ocean itself. … ” Read the full story at the San Francisco Chronicle here: After 6,000 miles at sea, elephant seal C548 meets up with researchers at Bay Area beach to share her data
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Surfers helped clean up California oil spill with mapping app
“The smell of oil hit early morning beach walkers in Huntington Beach on Sunday, October 3. The cause: tens of thousands of gallons of crude oil had leaked from a rift in the underwater pipe leading from an offshore rig. Lovers of Southern California beaches reacted with alarm, and members of the nonprofit Surfrider Foundation responded. Within a week, the Surfrider Foundation had registered 10,000 volunteers who were directed to the geospatial crowdsourcing Surfrider Tar Ball Reporting App and could start adding pictures and dropping pins where onshore oil removal was needed. … ” Read more from ESRI here: Surfers helped clean up California oil spill with mapping app
SAN DIEGO
‘We are absolutely gobsmacked that they would think this would be possible here’ | Group opposes $1.5B San Vicente Energy Storage Facility Project
“The City of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority are planning to develop the San Vicente Energy Storage Facility Project. The proposed hydro energy storage facility at the San Vicente Reservoir could generate enough energy for about 135,000 households. … The estimated cost is $1.5 billion. “Who is going to be stuck with the $1.5 billion cost? We are absolutely gobsmacked that they would think this would be possible here,” said Diane Conklin, the leader of the Mussey Grade Road Alliance, a conservation group based in Ramona. ... ” Read more from Channel 8 here: ‘We are absolutely gobsmacked that they would think this would be possible here’ | Group opposes $1.5B San Vicente Energy Storage Facility Project
Along the Colorado River …
Are high-pressure ridges really to blame for the West’s drying climate?
“So what’s causing this recent slowdown in precipitation over the past few decades that’s drying up the West? It’s easy to point to persistent and stronger high-pressure ridges. High-pressure ridges are associated with hotter and dryer temperatures in the summer, and the lack of snowstorms during the winter, because the patterns essentially block clouds and storms from entering the area. … It’s also what Wei Zhang, an assistant professor in Utah State University’s Department of Plants, Soils and Climate, expected to find when he first began sifting through all sorts of weather data from 1980 to 2018. But that’s not what he found … Continue reading at KSL here: Are high-pressure ridges really to blame for the West’s drying climate?
Gregory Natural Bridge resurfaces as long-term drought hammers Lake Powell
“Glen Canyon is revealing itself. David Brower, the first executive director of the Sierra Club and a three-time Nobel Peace Prize nominee, once said flooding Glen Canyon would be “America’s most regretted environmental mistake.” But almost 60 years after the fact, the full extent of that “mistake” remains mysterious. Archaeologists and naturalists hastened to detail the canyon’s contents even as the Glen Canyon Dam was under construction. By the time the waters of Lake Powell began to rise in 1963, their photos and notebooks salvaged accounts of petroglyphs, natural bridges and extensive, pristine ecosystems in the Glen Canyon area. But their work was far from complete. … ” Read more from the Arizona Daily Sun here: Gregory Natural Bridge resurfaces as long-term drought hammers Lake Powell
As Colorado warms, dry soil sucks up more water. That’s bad news for rivers and farmers.
“John Stulp was born on the Eastern Plains. Fifty years ago he began farming with his father-in-law near Lamar. Together he and his wife, Jane, brought up five children in southeastern Colorado, raising cattle and dryland wheat. Along the way Stulp was elected as a Prowers County commissioner, and later served as Gov. Bill Ritter’s commissioner of agriculture and Gov. John Hickenlooper’s water policy adviser. When his service to the state was done in 2019, he headed back home to the prairie. But the prairie is changing. … ” Continue reading at the Colorado Sun here: As Colorado warms, dry soil sucks up more water. That’s bad news for rivers and farmers.
In national water news today …
EPA clashes with Fla. over use of Trump WOTUS rule
“EPA and Florida are nose to nose over the state’s use of Trump-era Clean Water Act regulations for permitting. At the heart of the debate is the Trump administration’s Navigable Waters Protection Rule that pulled back protections for streams and wetlands across the nation. Federal judges in Arizona and New Mexico vacated the rule and sent it back to EPA last summer, saying the Trump definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) had “fundamental, substantive flaws.” But Florida isn’t budging. The state insists on continuing to apply the old Trump definition in its permitting decisions about wetlands, streams and other water features — and has said that at least one project doesn’t need a Clean Water Act permit to damage wetlands and surface waters as a result. … ” Read more from E&E News here: EPA clashes with Fla. over use of Trump WOTUS rule
A third of Americans are already facing above-average warming
“More than a third of the American population is currently experiencing rapid, above-average rates of temperature increase, with 499 counties already breaching 1.5C (2.7F) of heating, a Guardian review of climate data shows. The US as a whole has heated up over the past century due to the release of planet-warming gases from burning fossil fuels, and swaths of the US west, north-east and upper midwest – representing more than 124.6 million people – have recorded soaring increases since federal government temperature records began in 1895. Though the climate crisis is convulsing the US, it is doing so unevenly. … ” Read more from The Guardian here: A third of Americans are already facing above-average warming
Melting glaciers may contribute less to sea level rise than previously thought
“Climate scientists have long warned how much water could be displaced into the ocean by melting glaciers. Now, experts say they have a new idea on just how much that amount could be — and it’s actually a little less than we thought. Melting glaciers are, in a lot of ways, a bellwether for climate change on Earth. Their size and structure are directly linked to changes in both the atmosphere and the water itself, so their shrinkage can give us some much-needed information — not to mention incontrovertible evidence — on the status of our battle with climate change. Because of this importance, experts have tried to better understand the consequences of melting glaciers. … ” Continue reading at the Courthouse News Service here: Melting glaciers may contribute less to sea level rise than previously thought
More news and commentary in the weekend edition …
In California water news this weekend …
California desperately needs rain. What are the chances of a ‘miracle’ in March?- California is heading underground to explore its biggest water storage potential
- Kicking off 2022 with significant implications for agriculture and SGMA: GSP Assessments, Submittals and Alternative Five-Year Updates
- Finding use for fog: California farmers could benefit from using fog nets to buffer water supplies
- Could solar development advance groundwater sustainability in the San Joaquin Valley?
- Legal journal: California’s Constitutional Right to Fish
- Emergency regulations allow CDFW to extend angling restrictions in coastal waters experiencing prolonged, low-flow conditions from drought
- LAO calls for more drought dollars for agriculture
- ‘Been going on a couple months’: unknown stench makes its way through Knights Landing
- As Valley Water makes progress at Anderson Dam, the project increases in size and cost
- Feral pigs putting environment, drinking water at risk in the East Bay
- Riverside County, state authorities present $19.25M Salton Sea North Lake project
- And more …
Click here for the weekend digest.
Also on Maven’s Notebook today …
DELTA CONVEYANCE PROJECT Updates: Planning and New Materials
NOTICE: Consideration of revised draft Order on Petitions for Reconsideration of 2021 TUCP and TMP
NEPA DOCS: 2022 Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority In-Basin Water Transfers
