On the calendar today …
- MEETING: Department of Food and Agriculture from 10am to 2pm. In-person in Sacramento; remote access available. Agenda items include a drought update, Prop 1 and Delta updates, Sacramento Valley drought impacts, PPIC’s Ellen Hanak on drought and California agriculture, and a tree nut sector market/supply update. Click here for the full agenda and remote access instructions.
- MEETING: State Water Resources Control Board beginning at 9:30am. Agenda items include an update on drought and current hydrologic conditions, an update on monthly water production and conservation data reported by urban retail water suppliers, consideration of a proposed Resolution approving a Voluntary Water Sharing Agreement in the Upper Russian River, consideration of resolution approving amendments to the Central Coastal Basin Water Quality Control Plan; and an update on the CV-SALTS program. Click here for the full agenda.
In California water news today …
‘This is give a little to save a lot’: California water rights buyback proposal met with enthusiasm, resistance
“A new proposal in the California Senate includes using taxpayer money to buy out farmers’ water rights. The $1.5 billion plan would see the government purchase “senior water rights” for the purpose of benefitting endangered fish species in the state. Proponents argue it’s an opportunity to conserve not just water but types of salmon that are rapidly facing possible extinction while possibly paving the way for environmental water rights. Opponents believe it could force farmers to give up their long-held rights and potentially set a precedent for further rollbacks of those rights. … ” Read more from CBS 13 here: ‘This is give a little to save a lot’: California water rights buyback proposal met with enthusiasm, resistance
SEE ALSO: Northstate farmer reacts to state proposal to buy water rights, from KRCR
Will California’s new groundwater rules hurt small-scale farms and farmers of color?
“Decades of unregulated agricultural pumping combined with a warming climate and prolonged droughts have wrung California dry and left a massive water crisis. A landmark law, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which was passed in 2014 and will be fully implemented over the next 20 years, is supposed to cut groundwater withdrawal and stabilize water levels. If it succeeds at doing that, it could be a win for all who depend on groundwater, in theory. But a report recently released indicates that as local agencies try to figure out how to achieve that balance, some of the tools being proposed—including fees, limits on pumping, and water trading programs—may harm historically marginalized farmers and small-scale farms. The report titled “SGMA and Underrepresented Farmers,” by Clean Water Action, Community Alliance with Family Farmers (CAFF), Civic Well, University of California Agriculture & Natural Resources, and the Leadership Counsel for Justice & Accountability, also questions whether all local agencies charged with devising Groundwater Sustainability Plans (GSPs) are adequately including small farmers and farmers of color in the planning process. … ” Read more from Civil Eats here: Will California’s new groundwater rules hurt small-scale farms and farmers of color?
Letter: Coalition of water agencies write legislators, say a ‘bold plan’ for California water infrastructure is needed
“Dear Governor Newsom, Pro Tem Atkins and Speaker Rendon: As water managers from across the state, who have the responsibility to plan and provide for our customers’water future, we have an urgent message: We need new water now. Our collective ability to provide water supply and supply reliability for your constituents, and California’s economy, is collapsing and in a crisis that extends beyond the current drought. California’s existing water system can no longer deliver the water necessary to maintain Californians’ quality of life that the world’s fifth largest economy demands. You must act to change this trajectory. Maintaining the status quo is a recipe for deeper and perpetual disaster. Later this year, it is likely that some water agencies will be forced to cut back, or completely cut off, water supplies to commercial and industrial customers. How will a beverage plant make soda or a brewery make beer without water? They won’t. This is more than a drought; it is a water crisis. … ”
DWR encourages counties, communities to be ‘well prepared’ to support dry drinking water wells
“As California continues to experience climate-driven severe drought conditions, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) is providing tools and resources to help communities and domestic well owners prepare for potential well outages and other drought impacts. “Being ‘Well Prepared’ means that state and local agencies and well owners have an understanding of local groundwater conditions, can identify areas where drinking water supplies may be threatened, and know how to access assistance when it is needed,” said Paul Gosselin, DWR Sustainable Groundwater Management Deputy Director. “To meet the challenges of this current drought and future droughts, DWR is providing new and updated tools to help county drought leaders develop informed solutions that work best for their local communities.” … ” Read more from DWR here: DWR encourages counties, communities to be ‘well prepared’ to support dry drinking water wells
Radio show: These are the impacts of California’s worst drought on record
“Leila Fadel asks Hernan Hernandez of the California Farmworker Foundation about the state’s worst ever drought and what it means for growers, farmworkers, and grocery shoppers nationwide.” Listen at NPR here (5:06): Radio show: These are the impacts of California’s worst drought on record
Think you can cheat water restrictions? This tiny disk will tame the thirstiest water hogs
“It’s only the size of a silver dollar, but this tiny metal disk can tame even the biggest of Southern California water hogs. In an indication of just how dire drought conditions have become, the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District has unveiled a custom-built device that will drastically reduce water flow to customers who refuse to abide by newly enacted water restrictions. Designed to be installed at the main shutoff valve of a home or business, the small, metal washer has a center aperture that measures just one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter. When fixed in place, the device slashes water flow from 30 gallons per minute to less than one gallon per minute. … ” Read more from the LA Times here: Think you can cheat water restrictions? This tiny disk will tame the thirstiest water hogs | Read via Yahoo News
Radio show: One Planet: Why are California farmers irrigating crops with oil wastewater?
“On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we discuss an Inside Climate News Investigation about the use of wastewater from oil wells to irrigate food crops in California. For decades, farmers in California’s Kern County have turned to wastewater from oil production to help irrigate their crops during extended dry spells. The water irrigates 95,000 acres of cropland in California’s southern San Joaquin Valley, according to the California Regional Water Quality Control Board. What are the environmental and health effects of this practice? Guest: Liza Gross, reporter for Inside Climate News based in Northern California.” Listen at KALW here (28:26): Radio show: One Planet: Why are California farmers irrigating crops with oil wastewater?
How to win battles over water in the parched American West
“For at least 60 years there were no salmon in the Umatilla River. The water that the fish needed was being drawn off by the US government and used to irrigate 45,000 acres of former desert. But the Walla Walla, Cayuse, and Umatilla tribes, who lived beside the river, had not forgotten the fish that had sustained them for centuries. They wanted them back. A 1988 act of Congress returned some water to the river. Then, in 2004, the three tribes (legally organized as the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation) hired Joe Ely to help them get the rest. Ely, 64, is one of a handful of professional Indian water rights consultants and the only one who is himself an American Indian. “I’m going to try to obtain as much water as I can,” Ely tells his clients. “You’re going to have to deal with the conflict.” … ” Read more from Bloomberg here: How to win battles over water in the parched American West | Read via Yahoo News
Can this technology be an answer to farmland water use in the West?
” … The building on Magnuson’s property and what is inside represents a $650,000 investment that will save a tremendous amount of water and keep the rancher in business. It’s a shining light of hope for this cutting-edge technology to be a savior that is still bumping up against skepticism or wariness from bankers. He said he found a bank that loaned him the money, but will others take that leap? He does not know. … He opened the door to where all the magic takes place and introduced us to Hydrogreen nutrition technology. In this 75-foot by 40-foot structure, there are three towers with multiple trays that produce 9,000 pounds of feedstock per day. … ” Read more from KSL here: Can this technology be an answer to farmland water use in the West?
Water, wildfire, and climate change: How water and wildfire connect in a warming world
“At a basic level, the connection between wildfires and water is intuitive: fires start more easily, burn more intensely, and spread faster when it’s dry. That’s bad news, because climate change is increasing the risk of drought in certain regions. It’s particularly pronounced in the western United States, where heatwaves, megadroughts, and earlier snow melt are priming forests for wildfire. In fact, western forests are now roughly 50 percent drier due to climate change. Importantly, it’s not always the case that climate change reduces the amount of water an area receives. But it’s changing how, when, and in what form the drought-prone western United States gets its water—with profound consequences for watersheds, wildfires, and the communities downstream. … ” Read more from the Union of Concerned Scientists here: Water, wildfire, and climate change: How water and wildfire connect in a warming world
Tree mortality, density factors in 2020 Creek Fire
“Wildfires burning in western U.S. forests have increased in size and severity since the late 20th century, with a number of recent fires exhibiting characteristics that match the criteria for mass fires – or fires that burn with high intensity over large continuous areas for long durations of time. Operational fire behavior models, commonly used by federal and state fire suppression agencies to predict how wildfires will behave, cannot predict mass fire behavior, largely because they do not include the important combustion and fire-atmosphere interactions. The Creek Fire, which exhibited mass fire behavior when it burned through the southern Sierra Nevada in 2020, was analyzed to better understand the mechanisms and forest conditions that contribute to devastating wildfires. ... ” Read more from the Western Farm Press here: Tree mortality, density factors in 2020 Creek Fire
How active stewardship could protect California’s forests from extreme wildfire
“UC Berkeley professor Scott Stephens, a member of the PPIC Water Policy Center research network, has spent over 30 years studying wildfire in California. He spoke with us recently about what it will take to preserve the state’s forests in an era of increasingly catastrophic wildfires. Q: Even small fires now can pose threats to life and property. Are we in a new phase of climate change? A: There’s no doubt that climate change is having an impact, but I estimate that climate change is no more than 25% of the problem. I think it’s 75% forest structure—I don’t have a paper to back that up, that’s just my intuition from working in this field for 30 years. Drought has made fuel moisture conditions so low that sparks start new fires very efficiently. I never get worried about the size of fires, though—I get worried about what goes on inside: how much vegetation has burned severely, how much forest is dying, how big and continuous the high-severity patches are. … ” Read more from the PPIC here: How active stewardship could protect California’s forests from extreme wildfire
Study: Regional approach to wildfires beneficial
“After a rash of wildfires across Southern California in 2003, many counties, cities and neighborhoods adopted Community Wildfire Protection Plans to improve their preparedness and fire response. But Rob Hazard, fire marshal for Santa Barbara County, has noticed that CWPPs and resources are unevenly distributed across areas at high risk of wildfire. “Communities that are more affluent, more white, they are the ones that end up getting the grants, they’re the ones that end up getting the projects to mitigate risks,” Hazard said, “whereas more disadvantaged communities…often don’t have the organization to make that happen, or maybe it’s not the most pressing issue of the moment.” … ” Read more from the Western Farm Press here: Study: Regional approach to wildfires beneficial
In commentary today …
From water to energy, Calif. policies disproportionately harm minority communities
Julian Cañete, president and CEO of the California Hispanic Chambers of Commerce, writes, “As California continues to implement policies that are negatively impacting the agriculture and energy sectors, we must ask ourselves…who is looking out for California’s minority and disadvantaged communities? The latest example is California’s Central Valley, particularly Kern County. Kern is a dynamic county that has a long history of welcoming people from other parts of the United States and immigrants from other countries. People come to Kern County to find jobs, build businesses, and raise their families. As the third largest county by size in California, Kern has become incredibly diverse, with a Latino population of nearly 55 percent, just shy of half-a-million people. And while Kern County continues to play an important role for small business owners, the state’s water and energy policies are taking jobs away and shuttering businesses – instead of helping people reach the American dream, these policies are creating a California nightmare. … ” Read more from the San Joaquin Valley Sun here: From water to energy, Calif. policies disproportionately harm minority communities
Water equity? A single irrigation authority gets more water than all of Los Angeles
“Governor Gavin Newsom recently stated he might institute mandatory water restrictions on California ratepayers in response to the catastrophic drought afflicting the state. From one perspective, his declaration seems reasonable: despite an extremely dry winter and dwindling water supplies, water use in the state shot up almost 20% in March compared to the same month in 2020. It’s clear that ratepayers must shoulder their share of the responsibility for water conservation. But Newsom’s position ignores a baseline reality: even if ratepayers let every plant in their gardens die, flush their toilets once a day, and forego five-minute showers for sponge baths, the water savings won’t be that great. That’s because cities only use 10 % of the state’s developed water. Fully 80 percent goes to agriculture. The Governor has diligently avoided any talk of imposing deep cuts to the farming sector. But if he’s serious about saving water, said Carolee Krieger, the executive director of the California Water Impact Network, he’ll need to change his talking points – and fast. … ”
The Abundance Choice, Part 12: Numbers don’t lie
Edward Ring, contributing editor and senior fellow with the California Policy Center, writes, “Scope insensitivity happens whenever a statistic has huge emotional impact but in reality has little relevance to the issues and challenges it purports to illuminate. It is scope insensitivity that makes conscientious Californians willing to put a bucket in their shower. They believe that by faithfully capturing some of that shower water that otherwise goes down the drain, and painstakingly reusing that water to fill their toilet tank, or water some houseplants, they’re going to help manage water scarcity in California. This is well intentioned but ridiculous. Imagine if 40 million Californians saved a gallon of water from their daily shower every day, never missing a day, as if every Californian would ever do such a thing. That would amount to 44,836 acre feet per year, which equates to one-half of one percent of California’s average annual urban water consumption. And water going down the drain in California’s homes is already either reused, or could be with investment in upgraded wastewater treatment plants. … ” Read more from the California Globe here: The Abundance Choice, Part 12: Numbers don’t lie
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Klamath County trucks in water as drought leaves residential wells dry
“Klamath County faces a third year of drought emergency. One consequence of that: hundreds of residential wells have gone dry. The state has stepped in to provide emergency relief funding to truck in water. Kelley Minty Morris, the chair of the Klamath County Board of Commissioners, said recent rain and snow haven’t helped enough. “What was disheartening is that we still have not climbed our way out of the emergency response,” she said. “So not only did we continue to have wells that didn’t recharge, but then in 2022, we’ve had a significant number of new complaints. So we have been in emergency response mode since July of last year.” … ” Read more from OPB here: Klamath County trucks in water as drought leaves residential wells dry
Commentary: Klamath Basin firefighting resources will remain strong after dam removal
The Klamath River Renewal Corporation writes, “The Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) is best known for its main task: creating a free-flowing Klamath River by removing four hydroelectric dams under the oversight of state and federal regulators. Part of KRRC’s work is to limit impacts on the communities that rely on the many benefits the river provides, including water for firefighting. Our commitment – and a requirement of this project – is to ensure that dam removal will not cause a net reduction in regional firefighting resources. Both during and after demolition of the dams, KRRC is required to make sure the fire ignition risk that currently exists will not increase compared to the level of risk facing today’s Klamath Basin. … ” Read more from the Herald & News here: Commentary: Klamath Basin firefighting resources will remain strong after dam removal
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
Nevada State Lands grant funding available for water projects at Tahoe
“The Nevada Division of State Lands has announced grant funding is available for projects aiming to improve water quality at Lake Tahoe. The Lake Tahoe Water Quality and Erosion Control Grants Program, implemented by the Environmental Improvement Program, supports projects on the Nevada side of the Lake Tahoe Basin. Projects eligible for this latest round of grant funding include those that restore and enhance water quality or stream environment zones. … ” Read more from Tahoe Daily Tribune here: Nevada State Lands grant funding available for water projects at Tahoe
NAPA/SONOMA
Much still uncertain as State Water Board consider historic water sharing agreement for Russian River watershed
“The State Water Resources Control Board is poised to approve a historic agreement designed to allow Russian River water rights holders to share scarce supplies in the likely event regulators cut off withdrawals this summer because of the ongoing drought. If approved Tuesday, the Upper Russian River Voluntary Water Sharing Agreement would allow older “senior” water rights holders to give some of their share to junior claimants who might not otherwise have enough for irrigation and other needs. One water board staffer described it as a “voluntary effort to balance rights to water under existing law with the various needs in the watershed.” … ” Read more from the Press Democrat here: Much still uncertain as State Water Board consider historic water sharing agreement for Russian River watershed
Landscapers, property owners prep for ‘nonfunctional’ lawns to go brown under new California rule
” … A day after Gov. Gavin Newsom said more needed to be done to conserve water, the State Water Resources Control Board on May 26 decided that irrigation must be cut off to “nonfunctional” turf around commercial, industrial and institutional buildings. The panel also required urban water suppliers to move to “Level 2” drought response, which assume a 20% reduction in water supply and often include limiting outdoor watering to certain days and times for residential irrigation. Lawns and landscaping make up most of the urban demand on California’s water systems, and the governor’s office estimates that banning decorative lawns would save enough water to supply 780,000 households each year, the Sacramento Bee reported. ... ” Read more from the North Bay Journal here: Landscapers, property owners prep for ‘nonfunctional’ lawns to go brown under new California rule
CENTRAL COAST
Monterey County elected officials to debate a change in desal law
“Desalination projects have always been a contentious issue in Monterey County and a proposal that will be mulled by elected officials Tuesday afternoon is sure to raise the eyebrows of advocates for publicly owned desal projects. The idea that will be presented to the Board of Supervisors during its afternoon session beginning at 1:30 p.m. is an amendment to an existing ordinance allowing only public ownership of desal plants rather than private ownership. Tuesday’s action won’t approve or deny the ordinance, rather it will allow supervisors to give the nod to placing it on the June 21 agenda where they will consider what’s called a negative declaration, meaning under the California Environmental Quality Act requirements, the presiding governmental body — in this case the county — finds that a project will have no significant environmental damage. … ” Read more from the Monterey Herald here: Monterey County elected officials to debate a change in desal law
Sustainable Water Supply: Soquel Creek Water District
“The Soquel Creek Water District (SqCWD) in Santa Cruz County, California, is using innovative technologies to ensure a sustainable water supply for more than 40,000 residents on the state’s central coast.In 2014, California mandated that all groundwater basins in the state be sustainable by 2040. SqCWD, which gets 100% of its water from undergrown wells, launched an effort to map its underground water supply and replenish the groundwater basin using purified wastewater. First, the district conducted airborne geophysical surveys using electromagnetic technology to create a 3-D model of the groundwater basin. … ” Read more from Government Technology here: Sustainable Water Supply: Soquel Creek Water District
Could Central Coast get 3 new reservoirs to generate power by pumping water between lakes?
“As the prospect of a floating offshore wind energy development off San Luis Obispo County’s coast gets ever closer, energy storage developers are taking a good look at their prospects in the region. One company has proposals for pumped storage projects that involve moving water between reservoirs to generate electricity — which would call for three new reservoirs to be built along the Central Coast. Walnut, California-based Premium Energy Holdings LLC sent four preliminary permit applications to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) at the end of March for the projects. If granted, a preliminary permit would give the company permission to plan and conduct studies for four hydroelectric projects. … ” Read more from the Fresno Bee here: Could Central Coast get 3 new reservoirs to generate power by pumping water between lakes?
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Mountain House facing severe water shortage; SSJID will help
“Mountain House is literally days away from having its water cut back severely by the State of California. Today the South San Joaquin Irrigation District board will consider a transfer of 1,800 acre feet of water to help the community of 28,000 northwest of Tracy avoid being forced to ration water as California’s drought crisis deepens. The reason why the state is turning down the spigot to Bethany Irrigation District that Mountain House relies on to a mere dribble and how the SSJID is able to transfer water without hurting its tight supplies underscores how complicated both water policy and law is as well as the hydrology dynamics that Californians depend upon. ... ” Read more from the Manteca Bulletin here: Mountain House facing severe water shortage; SSJID will help
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
SoCal Stormwater Monitoring Coalition effort underway to build new vision for how dischargers collect, analyze stormwater data
“The SMC has launched a three-year effort to assess how Southern California’s stormwater management community could extract more managerially relevant insights from the millions of dollars that dischargers spend each year collecting and analyzing data as part of their stormwater permit requirements. The ongoing SMC Streamlining Annual Reporting project, which began in early 2021, is seeking to build broad, cross-sector consensus on what types of data analyses should be conducted to communicate a cohesive, regional portrait of the progress being made by stormwater dischargers each year as they work to effectively manage wet- and dry-weather runoff across thousands of square miles of diverse, heavily urbanized Southern California landscapes. … ” Read more from the SoCal Stormwater Monitoring Coalition here: SoCal Stormwater Monitoring Coalition effort underway to build new vision for how dischargers collect, analyze stormwater data
Battle rages anew over proposed $2 billion hydroelectric plant in Lake Elsinore
“Efforts are underway to revive a proposed $2 billion hydroelectric plant at Lake Elsinore that has been met with fierce opposition by residents, Riverside County and the Pechanga Band of Indians who claim ancestral ties to the land. Six months after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission dismissed its license application, Vista-based Nevada Hydro Corp. is again moving forward with its plans for a hydroelectric plant consisting of a 262-foot-high dam on a ridgeline above the lake and a 500-megawatt, underground power plant with turbines on 845 acres of U.S. Forest Service land. … ” Read more from Global Circulate here: Battle rages anew over proposed $2 billion hydroelectric plant in Lake Elsinore
May gray to June gloom: Why summer isn’t always sunny in California
“If you’ve spent your life in California, you’ve heard it dozens of times: A friend or family member bemoans a cloudy summer beach day or picnic, blaming “June gloom” or “May gray” for blotting out the sun. You may have even heard “no-sky-July” or “Fogust,” because the gray skies persist into late summer in some parts of the state. And, apparently, we really love our cute names for weather phenomena. Why do low clouds and fog hang around amid otherwise beautiful weather, making for these dreary summer days at the coast? The answer is a combination of high pressure, ocean winds and the temperature difference between the water and land, according to the National Weather Service. … ” Read more from Fox 5 here: May gray to June gloom: Why summer isn’t always sunny in California
Along the Colorado River …
Colorado River’s water deficit keeps growing, with no end in sight
“While the seven Colorado River Basin states including Arizona hunt for 500,000 acre-feet a year in water savings in both the Upper and Lower basins, the biggest problem facing the river lurks in the shadows: a supply-demand gap that keeps growing. Over the past five years, the river’s annual water flow, greatly diminished since 2000 compared to 20th century averages, has tumbled even faster. Water demands have also fallen, but not nearly as fast. The result is an annual deficit far greater than the 500,000 acre-feet of additional water that savings that Upper and Lower basins state water officials hope to achieve annually in their respective basins over the next few years through short-term conservation plans, to prop up Lakes Mead and Powell. The deficit is also most likely more than the 1.1 million acre-feet a year of river water that the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California and Nevada have already agreed to save over the entire course of their drought contingency plan, which they approved in 2019. … ” Read more from the Arizona Daily Star here: Colorado River’s water deficit keeps growing, with no end in sight
What happens if Glen Canyon Dam’s power shuts off?
“Critics of the Bureau of Reclamation had a favored slur for the concrete and earthen walls that the federal agency raised across magnificent canyons of the Colorado River watershed: cash register dams. The dig wasn’t wrong, especially during the agency’s mid-20th century construction spree. For decades, hydroelectric dams in the Colorado River Storage Project supplied cheap power and a relatively steady revenue stream from electricity sales that helped repay dam construction and operation costs while also subsidizing crop production and settlement of the American West. Today, the cash registers are ringing at much lower decibels. Sapped by a warming climate, the grand reservoirs of the Colorado River are in a two-decade decline, dropping low enough that hydropower from one of the grandest, Lake Powell, may soon be in doubt. … ” Read more from Circle of Blue here: What Happens If Glen Canyon Dam’s Power Shuts Off?
In national water news today …
The US drought situation is getting increasingly desperate
“The ramifications of the historic megadrought happening in the U.S. right now are getting increasingly serious. Hydropower is faltering, farmland is too parched to produce, and millions of people are currently under water restrictions. It’s a drought so big that it has eclipsed 1,200 years of climate history. Human-caused climate change is at least partially responsible. California is the U.S.’s produce aisle. The state grows more than a third of the country’s domestically harvested vegetables and two-thirds of our fruit and nuts. But feeding the nation requires a lot of water. Agriculture eats up about four times as much water in the state as urban water usage. Right now, farmers are struggling to meet their needs with what’s available. ... ” Read more from Gizmodo here: The US drought situation is getting increasingly desperate
Slow water: can we tame urban floods by going with the flow?
“After epic floods in India, South Africa, Germany, New York and Canada killed hundreds in the past year, droughts are now parching landscapes and wilting crops across the western US, the Horn of Africa and Iraq. The responses have included calls for higher levees, bigger drains and longer aqueducts. But these concrete interventions aimed at controlling water are failing. Climate extremes are revealing a hard truth: our development choices – urban sprawl, industrial agriculture and even the concrete infrastructure designed to control water – are exacerbating our problems. Because sooner or later, water always wins. … ” Read more from The Guardian here: Slow water: can we tame urban floods by going with the flow?
Department of the Interior proposes expanding conservation technique as climate change threatens greater species extinction
“In the first Endangered Species Act (ESA) interpretive rule produced under the Biden-Harris administration, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is proposing to revise section 10(j) regulations under the ESA to better facilitate recovery by allowing for the introduction of listed species to suitable habitats outside of their historical ranges. The proposed change will help improve the conservation and recovery of imperiled ESA-listed species in the coming decades, as growing impacts from climate change and invasive species cause habitats within their historical ranges to shift and become unsuitable. … ” Continue reading from the Department of the Interior here: Department of the Interior proposes expanding conservation technique as climate change threatens greater species extinction
Idle wells could provide paths to large-scale subsurface energy storage
“The continued adoption of intermittent renewable-power generation sources, such as wind or solar, requires large-scale, long-duration energy storage to buffer the intermittency of renewable power sources to supply 100% dispatchable power whenever it is needed. When required for durations longer than 24 hours and at large scale (500 MW or more), current energy storage solutions offer only 4–10 hours storage, becoming prohibitively expensive, as in the case of batteries or site-constrained and environmentally challenged pumped hydro systems. This paper presents a hyperscale energy-storage solution using repurposed idle oil and gas wells to store energy in subsurface saline aquifers. … The initial focus of the proposed solution is the California energy system, given both its electric power system and its large inventory of historical oil-producing infrastructure. … ” Read more from the Journal of Petroleum Technology here: Idle wells could provide paths to large-scale subsurface energy storage
