A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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This week’s featured articles …
ACWA CONFERENCE: Voluntary Agreements Update
At a December 2018 meeting of the State Water Resources Control Board, the Board was considering one of the highest-profile, complex water management issues: the adoption of Phase One for the Lower San Joaquin River for the update to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan.
“The Board was presented the potential for something different,” said Chelsea Haines, ACWA’s Regulatory Relations Manager, who opened the panel discussion at the ACWA Spring Conference in May 2022. “I think that potential is the culmination of the ideas and opportunities that people on this stage today brought forward. The State Water Board moved forward with adopting unimpaired flows for the lower San Joaquin, but in doing so, created an interesting opportunity in their resolution for the idea of a voluntary agreement.”
In March of 2022, three and a half years later, the Newsom administration and the public water agencies involved in the negotiations announced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on measures to provide additional water flows and new habitat to help improve conditions in the Delta watershed.
Click here to read this article.
DR. JAY LUND: Smarter Gambling with Water – Review of Water Supply Reliability Estimation
At the June meeting of the Delta Stewardship Council, Dr. Jay Lund, the immediate past chair of the Delta Independent Science Board, gave a presentation on the DISB’s recently-completed Review of Water Supply Reliability Estimation Related to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“The title of this presentation is ‘Smarter Gambling with Water,’ because much of what we’re doing with the Delta is inherently risky,” Dr. Lund said. “We don’t really know what the next year’s hydrology is going to be. We don’t know exactly what the next decade’s hydrology is going to be. We don’t know whether particular actions of any sort, be they ecosystem, restoration actions, or others, are going to behave exactly as we would hope or was as people have promised us even, because this Delta is a very complex place subject to a lot of variability.”
Click here to read this article.
FIVE QUESTIONS: Charley Wilson, Southern California Water Commission
The Southern California Water Coalition is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, comprised of leaders from a variety of businesses, cities, agricultural groups, labor unions, environmental organizations, water agencies, as well as the general public. Established in 1984, the Coalition has 200 members from across Southern California who facilitate productive dialogue and build consensus to solve California’s most critical water issues.
Charles Wilson is the
Click here to read this article.
MONTHLY RESERVOIR REPORT for July 1
Written exclusively for Maven’s Notebook by Robert Shibatani
As we enter summer’s anvil, where are we reservoir storage wise?
Relative to other years we have been fortunate in one sense since the excruciating heat waves that we have become all too familiar with have not emerged (… at least not yet). In fact, sporadic early summer storms have even provided some respite.
Click here to read the reservoir report.
In California water news this week …
California’s drought means less water to go around. Who is winning the pursuit for water — and who is losing?
“After three years of drought, the massive state and federal water projects that serve California’s cities and farms have less water to distribute, forcing water managers to increasingly ration supplies. This year, squeezed extra tight by the prolonged drought conditions, both the state and federal water projects are expecting to deliver mere fractions of what cities and farms are asking for. … Everyone gets less water during a drought. But the breakdowns of the state and federal projects’ water allocations show some groups — particularly farmers who have longtime rights to divert water — faring better than others. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle here: California’s drought means less water to go around. Who is winning the pursuit for water — and who is losing?
Huge reservoir near Bay Area could be expanded to store more water
“Motorists zooming along Highway 152 through Pacheco Pass between Gilroy and Los Banos notice an unusual site amid the parched, oak-studded hills: A vast inland sea. The shimmering body of water, San Luis Reservoir, is 7 miles long and a key part of California’s modern water supply created when President John F. Kennedy pushed a dynamite plunger there in 1962 to kick off its construction. Today water from the massive lake irrigates farmland across the Central Valley and also provides drinking water for Silicon Valley, including San Jose. Last Friday, a major new construction project started at San Luis — a $1.1 billion plan by the federal government to strengthen the huge earthen dam and raise it 10 feet to reduce the risk of it collapsing in a major earthquake. But more than earthquake safety work is afoot. ... ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News here: Huge reservoir near Bay Area could be expanded to store more water | Read via the Woodland Dail7 Democrat
California’s ‘broken’ water supply forecast to be audited
“There’ll be an audit of California’s water supply forecast after the state overestimated and prematurely released 700,000 acre-feet of water last year, officials announced Monday. A news release from Assemblymember Adam Gray (D-Merced) announced that Gray’s request for audit was approved. It aims to examine the impacts of the flawed forecasts and the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and State Water Board. “Errors on this scale have real and measurable consequences,” Gray said in the news release. … ” Read more from Channel 10 here: California’s ‘broken’ water supply forecast to be audited
California well water bill survives Senate committee
“A bill which would change the way groundwater wells are approved in California took a step forward Wednesday as it survived a fight in a California state Senate committee. The legislation was introduced by Assemblymember Steve Bennett, Democrat from Ventura, and would change the way new and expanded water wells are approved in California; focusing on areas that are experiencing rapid decline in groundwater reserves. Bennett told the committee that the goal of the bill is to provide some teeth to groundwater sustainability agencies (GSA), which are tasked with coming up with sustainable groundwater discharge plans under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act passed in 2014, to oversee new and expanded wells. ... ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service here: California well water bill survives Senate committee
Another group of Kern County water districts forming their own groundwater agency in face of possible state action
“A group of water districts clustered on the western edge of Kern County that are currently members of the Kern Groundwater Authority (KGA) announced they will form their own groundwater sustainability agency. The Westside District Water Authority, made up of the Belridge Water Storage District and the Lost Hills and the Berrenda Mesa water districts, announced at the June 22 KGA meeting, it would form its own groundwater agency but remain a member of the larger authority, according to General Manager Mark Gilkey. He said the districts share a number of similarities apart from the larger Kern subbasin, including that they overlie an area with very little useable native groundwater, and should have formed their own GSA years ago. This will bring the number of GSAs in the Kern subbasin to 13, the largest being the KGA. … ” Read more from SJV Water here: Another group of Kern County water districts forming their own groundwater agency in face of possible state action
New data viewer allows public to see the hidden groundwater basins beneath our feet and helps decision makers prepare for drought impacts
“With California in the third year of a severe drought and facing continued extreme weather swings, the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has been developing and using new data and forecasting tools to better anticipate and manage available water supplies. One new technology that DWR is implementing statewide is collecting airborne electromagnetic (AEM) data across California to better understand the groundwater aquifer structure and to support the state and local goal of sustainable groundwater management. The AEM method is an innovative helicopter-based technology that has been compared to taking an MRI of the subsurface, which helps DWR to better understand underground geology. The resulting underground images provide local groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) with data to identify priority areas for recharging groundwater. … ” Read more from DWR News here: New data viewer allows public to see the hidden groundwater basins beneath our feet and helps decision makers prepare for drought impacts
Groundbreaking celebrates California’s largest tidal habitat restoration project
“Today, state, federal, and local agencies gathered to celebrate the groundbreaking of the largest tidal habitat restoration project in California history. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP) are teaming up on the Lookout Slough Tidal Habitat Restoration and Flood Improvement Project in Solano County. It is a multi-benefit effort to restore the site to a tidal wetland, creating habitat and producing food for Delta Smelt and other fish species while also creating new flood capacity in the Yolo Bypass and reducing overall flood risk in the Sacramento area. “Drought and climate change have elevated the importance of these types of multi-benefit projects,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth. “This project will reduce flood risk for communities in the Central Valley and create much-needed habitat for Delta Smelt and other endangered and threatened fish species.” … ” Read more from DWR here: Groundbreaking celebrates California’s largest tidal habitat restoration project
Sacramento County wants to float money into new bill to remove over 30 abandoned vessels
“A privately-owned and abandoned former military boat recently burned by a fire will remain in one of Sacramento County’s waterways along with more than 30 other discarded watercraft, creating health and safety hazards. It would cost the county an estimated $6 to $9 million to safely remove and dispose of these “abandoned and derelict commercial vessels,” and there currently is no California program with the funding, authority or expertise to do the job. So, the abandoned vessels will continue to sit there in the water. “We don’t know how long they will remain there,” said Natasha Drane, Sacramento County’s governmental relations and legislative officer. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee here: Sacramento County wants to float money into new bill to remove over 30 abandoned vessels
A watershed moment with DWR’s Kamyar Guivetchi and Ajay Goyal
“Our partnership with the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is the bedrock for expanding our climate-modeling scenarios and tools to four additional watersheds in the San Joaquin Valley (SJV.) We sat down with Kamyar Guivetchi, Manager of the Division of Planning, and Ajay Goyal, Manager of the Statewide Infrastructure Investigations Branch, to talk about DWR’s role in the watershed expansion, what big-picture water management looks like now in California, and what it could, and hopefully should, look like in the future. Q: Thanks for chatting with us, both! So, a broad question to start: why does DWR see the Merced pilot and the watershed expansion as important for California water management? A: Kamyar Guivetchi (KG): Well, your question goes to the heart of the matter: climate change and how it’s dramatically altering California water resources, and the way we need to operate and modernize our infrastructure. … ” Read more from Sustainable Conservation here: A Watershed Moment with DWR’s Kamyar Guivetchi and Ajay Goyal
Press release: Public records act requires water district to disclose identities of wasteful water users
“Multiple media outlets have submitted public records requests to LVMWD, requiring the District to make public the names of its customers throughout the service area who are not compliant with the current water use restrictions. LVMWD’s policy is to maintain the confidentiality of its customer records and not to share the information without consent of the customer. However, the California Public Records Act compels the District to release certain information for customers who use water in a manner that is inconsistent with applicable policies. As a result, the District must release certain information on customers who have routinely exceeded 150% of their water budgets or otherwise not complied with water use restrictions since LVMWD declared a local drought emergency on November 2, 2021. It is important to note that no information will be released for customers who have consistently complied with the District’s water use restrictions. … ”
Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric
“Unprecedented dryness across the western United States is meeting with increasingly warm temperatures to create climate conditions so extreme that the landscape of California could permanently and profoundly change, a growing number of scientists say. The Golden State’s great drying has already begun to reduce snowpack, worsen wildfires and dry out soils, and researchers say that trend will likely continue, along with the widespread loss of trees and other significant shifts. Some say what’s in store for the state could be akin to the conditions that drove people thousands of years ago to abandon thriving cities in the Southwest and other arid parts of the world as severe drought contributed to crop failures and the crumbling of social norms. … ” Read more from the LA Times here: Extreme heat, drought will permanently scar California and its social fabric | Read via Yahoo News
The Pacific Ocean near San Francisco has been the coldest it’s been in more than a decade. Here’s what that means
“The water along the Bay Area coast has been so cold lately that surfers have wished they had thicker wetsuits. Farther offshore, it’s been even colder. For example, a weather buoy at Bodega Bay recorded water temperatures as low as 47.8 degrees on June 21, the coldest it’s been that day for over a decade. That compares to a mean over the decade of around 51 degrees for June, typically the coolest month for that buoy, and other buoys in the area have shown similar trends. It’s been so cold that some fish appear to have been staying in the warmer waters of the bay. ... ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle here: The Pacific Ocean near San Francisco has been the coldest it’s been in more than a decade. Here’s what that means
Newsom has a plan to keep the lights on in California — using fossil fuels
“A controversial plan from Gov. Gavin Newsom would reshape how business is done on the California power grid, potentially helping to extend the life of beachfront gas plants and the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant, making it easier for solar and wind farm developers to sidestep local government opposition, and limiting environmental reviews for all kinds of energy projects. State lawmakers could vote as early as Wednesday night on the polarizing legislation, whose text was revealed late Sunday. The bill would give the Department of Water Resources unprecedented authority to build or buy energy from any facility that can help keep the lights on during the next few summers — including polluting diesel generators and four gas-fired power plants along the Southern California coast that were originally supposed to close in 2020 but were rescued by state officials. ... ” Read more from the LA Times here: Newsom has a plan to keep the lights on in California — using fossil fuels | Read via Yahoo News
And lastly … Water: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
John Oliver discusses the water shortage in the American west, how it’s already impacting the people who live there, and what God has to say about it.
In commentary this week …
Sites Reservoir: A new reservoir for a new climate
Jerry Brown, Sites Project Authority Executive Director, writes, “In a year of unprecedented drought, a policy brief recently released by the independent Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) affirmed the need to modernize our state’s aging water infrastructure and highlighted the opportunities to better manage our water supplies by capturing excess storm and flood outflow from the Sacramento River. Today there is no existing infrastructure in place to capture and store truly excess water flows from the Sacramento River when they happen for use in subsequent dry years. Even in dry California, there are times when flows in the Sacramento River are huge, presenting an unrealized opportunity to capture and store significant amounts of water generated by stormwater and flood flows. This can be done safely for fish and is where Sites Reservoir would play a major role in adapting California’s water management for the changing climate. … ” Continue reading at the Sites Reservoir website here: Sites Reservoir: A new reservoir for a new climate
Comfortable cities ignore state water regs during drought
Ed Osann, Director of National Water Use Efficiency/Water Initiatives for the NRDC, writes, “This is a story within a story. The big picture is that California and much of the West is once again in extreme drought. From 2014 to 2017, California experienced its worst drought since statehood. Yet now, barely five years later, 97 percent of the state is experiencing severe drought again, and portions of Southern California that depend on the shriveled supplies of the State Water Project are under major curtailment orders. … The climate of the future has arrived. In the face of worsening drought, we’ve pointed out a wide set of measures that State and local governments, water utilities, and water customers can take to use drinking water more efficiently and better prepare for a warmer and drier future. See nine recommendations we made here last August. Yet in many of Southern California’s affluent, hip, and otherwise comfortable communities that depend on water from far-away sources, City Hall leaders continue to shrug off their responsibility to implement one of the state’s oldest water-saving statutes, the Water Conservation in Landscaping Act of 1992. … ” Read more from the NRDC here: Comfortable cities ignore state water regs during drought
Wine industry must use less water
Esther Mobley writes, “On Tuesday I moderated a panel at Napa Thrives, a wine-industry conference focused on climate change. The subject of my panel was one that’s been on many Californians’ minds lately: water. Notwithstanding the 2 inches of rain the North Bay got last weekend, we are still in a severe drought. A lack of water affects all of our lives here; California just ordered cities including San Francisco to stop pumping water from rivers and creeks. But it presents existential questions for California agriculture, including wine, as climate change intensifies our state’s drought cycle. If wine is to have a future here, it has to figure out how to reduce its water consumption. … ” Read more from the Anderson Valley Advertiser here: Wine industry must use less water
California’s climate-change fight should leverage blue carbon
Matthew Costa, a postdoctoral scholar at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and Melissa Ward, a research scientist at the University of Oxford and San Diego State University, write, “Climate change is causing heat waves, drought, fires, and other impacts across California. We must address these life-threatening issues by decreasing emissions and increasing removal of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. While California can lead on technological solutions, we should also immediately adopt low-cost and environmentally beneficial nature-based solutions while other methods are brought on-line. Adapting how California manages its forests, grasslands and farmlands can increase carbon sequestration. But no other ecosystem in the state can, on an acre-for-acre basis, soak up more carbon than coastal wetlands and seagrass beds (more than 10 times faster than terrestrial forests). … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News here: California’s climate-change fight should leverage blue carbon
How can California lead the U.S. in solving an ocean pollution crisis? One word: plastics
Anja Brandon, U.S. plastics policy analyst at the Ocean Conservancy and one of the architects of Senate Bill 54, writes, “When I reminisce about the time I spent at the beach as a kid, I remember peering into tide pools and splashing in the cool water of the Pacific. Something I don’t remember — but that now seems inescapable — is plastic pollution, everywhere. The difference is not my imagination. Global plastic production has nearly tripled in my lifetime. Plastics have reached every corner of the planet, from deep ocean trenches to mountaintops and even our lungs and bloodstreams. Single-use plastics are especially pervasive. More than half the litter found on our beaches and waterways by the Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup over the past three decades was single-use plastic packaging and food ware. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee here: How can California lead the U.S. in solving an ocean pollution crisis? One word: plastics
In regional water news this week …
Irrigators, tribes object to extending Klamath Project interim operations plan
“Farmers, ranchers and tribal members alike are urging the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation not to extend its interim operations plan for the Klamath Project, describing it as “unworkable and irrational.” The plan is a product of complex water management scenario in the Klamath Basin. It provides a formula for how much water will be allocated each year to irrigators, while balancing water needs for endangered fish in the Klamath River and Upper Klamath Lake. Brian Person, a senior adviser for the Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls, said the current interim plan was formalized in March 2020 and was set to expire Sept. 30. … ” Read more from the Herald & News here: Irrigators, tribes object to extending Klamath Project interim operations plan
Oregon State partnering with Yurok Tribe to envision Klamath River after dam removal
“Oregon State University researchers will embark in July on a 3½-year partnership with the Yurok Tribe to study what the connections between river quality, water use and the aquatic food web will look like after four Klamath River dams are dismantled. “We want to fill in gaps in the Western science as well as gaps in how we make equitable decisions based on both ecological science and Indigenous knowledge,” said OSU’s Desiree Tullos, professor of water resource engineering and the project’s leader. “Our partnership with the Yurok Tribe aims to bring together multiple and complementary ways of understanding and making decisions about the Klamath system.” The joint project with the Yurok Tribe is the first attempt to represent tribal knowledge in decision processes in the Klamath Basin, she said. … ” Read more from Oregon State University here: Oregon State partnering with Yurok Tribe to envision Klamath River after dam removal
What do increased releases from Folsom Dam mean for region’s water levels?
“Rising river levels? It’s been a surprising sight in recent days for people out along the American River. California is in year three of a severe drought and people are being asked to conserve, but water releases from Folsom Dam are being dramatically increased this week. Parts of the American River Parkway that had been dry ground just a few days ago are now covered with water, which is something surprising to many people along the shoreline. Releases from Folsom Dam have nearly doubled in the last week, causing levels on the lower American River to rise a foot and a half. … .So why is more water being released when we’re still in a drought? … ” Read more from CBS 13 here: What do increased releases from Folsom Dam mean for region’s water levels?
Marin district to vet costs, benefits of new water sources
“Marin Municipal Water District will hold a series of meetings focused on adding new water sources. The district, which serves 191,000 central and southern Marin residents, launched a water supply study in March as it faced depleting its local reservoir supplies after two years of severe drought. On Tuesday, staff will provide the district Board of Directors a first-time overview of the various water supply options the agency could consider as it looks to bolster its supply. The meeting begins at 5 p.m. Among the options being studied are desalination, increasing local reservoir storage, groundwater banking in Sonoma County, increasing water imports from the Russian River, expansion of recycled water systems, conservation measures and a pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal here: Marin district to vet costs, benefits of new water sources
Central Coast groundwater fight pits small farmers against world’s largest carrot growers
“In the early afternoon in the Cuyama Valley, a hot June sun bears down as a dry wind gusts through the remote area that runs along San Luis Obispo County’s southeastern border. Dust devils whip up the fine, tan soil, interrupted only by a pair of two-lane highways and the few hundred buildings that make up the valley’s towns of Cuyama, New Cuyama and Ventucopa — total population, roughly 660 people. It’s an arid contrast to the region’s dominating business of agriculture fed solely by a declining and far-from-infinite groundwater basin. … ” Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune here: Central Coast groundwater fight pits small farmers against world’s largest carrot growers
In wake of Poseidon desal plant’s denial, South Coast Water looks to fill hole in county’s water portfolio
“As the State of California faces a record drought, ocean desalination has been highlighted as a potentially more reliable alternative to imported water. Following the California Coastal Commission’s (CCC) unanimous vote to deny permits for the Brookfield-Poseidon Desalination plant in Huntington Beach last month, the South Coast Water District (SCWD) is working to obtain all major permits for its own desalination plant near Doheny by the end of the year. The local water district is looking to produce up to five million gallons of potable drinking water a day by 2027 through its proposed Doheny Ocean Desalination project. The Poseidon plant would have produced up to 50 million gallons of potable water daily. … ” Read more from Dana Point Times here: In wake of Poseidon desal plant’s denial, South Coast Water looks to fill hole in county’s water portfolio
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
NOTICE of Availability of Revised Draft Initial Biological Goals for Lower San Joaquin River and Notice of Workshop
ANNOUNCEMENT: Water Now’s Project Accelerator applications are open!
REGISTER NOW for the 7th Annual CA Water Data Summit: Data 2.0: From Dreams to Discovery
NOTICE: Upcoming Army Corps Regulatory Project Workshop -Endangered Species Act Consultation, Section 408/404 Integration, and Indirect Effects
FUNDING OPPORTUNITY: Two Fish Passage Funding Opportunities Open Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, One Focused on Indian Tribes
NOTICE: Revised Draft Emergency Curtailment and Reporting Regulation for the Delta watershed now posted
NOTICE: June 28 Weekly Update on Curtailment Status of Water Rights and Claims in the Delta Watershed
YOUR INPUT WANTED on State Water Board’s Racial Equity Action Plan
NOTICE: Proposed agenda for Delta Independent Science Board tour of Delta water facilities
