A nasty storm is brewing over the meteorological heart of Los
Angeles. A decision by government forecasters to relocate
downtown L.A.’s official weather observation station from USC
to Dodger Stadium is generating extreme heat and wind gusts
from some local climate experts. They insist the move will cast
fog on local efforts to document the effects of climate change.
“It contaminates the record,” said Jan Null, a veteran
California meteorologist who runs the Golden Gate Weather
Service. “It changes the ballgame.” The station — a curious
array of poles, metal boxes and shiny cylinders that weather
wonks know affectionately as “KCQT” — is slated to move from
USC to the Los Angeles Fire Department’s training center on the
south side of the stadium in Elysian Park on Monday. The last
time the key monitoring station moved was 25 years ago.
San Diego’s identity is inextricably tied to its coastline, a
widely cherished wonder that is in a constant state of change.
Depending on one’s perspective, the region’s seashore has been
enhanced or diminished by human endeavors for generations, all
the while being shaped by natural forces. Those elements
currently are coming together in a big way, changing — or
potentially changing — the San Diego coast. Numerous
projects touch on issues involving coastal protection and
access, climate change and sea-level rise, and public safety
and transportation. Most have touched off familiar conflicts of
varying intensity. Some of the projects are completed or
will be soon, while others are years away or still on the
bubble. Taken collectively, the changes could be
transformational. -Written by Michael Smolens, columnist for the San
Diego Union-Tribune.
Hundreds of new mining claims have been staked within the
community of Amargosa Valley, Nevada, on thousands of acres
directly adjacent to Death Valley National Park. These new
mining claims, documented here for the first time, are staked
above groundwater aquifers that feed the springs at Furnace
Creek in Death Valley National Park and provide drinking water
to the Timbisha Shoshone Reservation. Furnace Creek hosts the
park’s visitor center, hotels and other tourist amenities.
… The new claims were filed by Canadian-based Rover
Critical Minerals and follow a year of controversy over claims
filed near Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge just a few
miles away. The company’s proposed mining project in that area
sparked a lawsuit that led to the withdrawal of
project approval and prompted efforts to secure a mineral
withdrawal within the Amargosa Valley area.
California’s weather was made for demagogues. For as long as
records have been kept, the state has typically experienced a
series of dry years followed by a series of wet years. The
weather lines up conveniently with election cycles. A few years
of drought will prompt an excitable politician to declare that
projections clearly show the end of the world is upon us unless
California takes immediate action. Depending on the
circumstances, that action can be the election of that
politician to office, or re-election to office, or an
oppressive law that takes effect after the perpetrators are out
of office, or voter approval of borrowed money for an
overpriced project that might be a state-of-the-art boondoggle.
In 2018, as Gov. Jerry Brown prepared to head into the sunset
of his colorful political career, he signed two new laws that
imposed permanent drought-emergency restrictions on the people
of California. -Written by Susan Shelley, columnist with the LA Daily
News.
When Noah Williams was about a year old, his parents took him
on a fateful drive through the endless desert sagebrush of the
Owens Valley—which the Nüümü call Payahuunadü—in California’s
Eastern Sierra. Noah was strapped into his car seat behind his
mother, Teri Red Owl, and his father, Harry Williams, a Nüümü
tribal elder who loved a teachable moment. “Hey look—that’s our
water!” he liked to tell Noah whenever they drove past the
riffling cascades of the Los Angeles Aqueduct. … In a
state shaped by water grabs, drought emergencies, and “pray for
rain” billboards, Payahuunadü is the locus of
California’s most infamous water war—the fight
between Payahuunadü residents and the city of Los
Angeles, over 200 miles away. … Around 1904, Los Angeles city
officials came up with a plan to take the valley’s water for
themselves.
Many Los Angeles residents will see their sewer fees double
over the next four years, with the City Council approving the
increases Tuesday over the objections of business groups
concerned that landlords will be disproportionately affected.
The council voted 11 to 4 for the rate hikes, with
Councilmembers Monica Rodriguez, Kevin de León, Imelda Padilla
and Heather Hutt dissenting. The increases are needed to fund
the rising cost of construction and materials, officials with
the Bureau of Sanitation said. The officials said that labor
costs will rise 24% over the next five years because of a
recent salary package for city workers backed by Mayor Karen
Bass and the council.
Dow Chemical and Shell USA are facing a negligence suit in
California federal court by the city of Pomona, alleging the
companies are responsible for manufacturing commercial products
containing the toxic 1,2,3-trichloropropane that has migrated
into the city’s water supply and seeking to recoup costs over
response efforts. …
They generate green energy. They save money. They slow
evaporation. They float. And the Sweetwater Authority wants to
put them on its Sweetwater Reservoir. General Manager Carlos
Quintero said the water agency is exploring the environmental
impact of a 9.5 acre floating solar array that would be placed
near the Sweetwater Dam. It would cover roughly 1.3% of the
reservoir, Quintero said, and could generate as much as
two-thirds of the energy needed to make the reservoir water
drinkable and decrease a small amount of evaporation.
… Water agencies in other states have deployed floating
solar panels on reservoirs. Sweetwater would be the first in
California …
Heavy rains this winter and spring sent torrential flows down
local creeks and rivers, and L.A. County managed to capture and
store a significant amount of that stormwater, officials say.
To be exact, they snared an estimated 295,000 acre-feet of
water since last October, or 96.3 billion gallons. That’s
enough water to supply about 2.4 million people a year — nearly
one-fourth of the county’s population. … The county,
working with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and
other agencies, was able to capture and store this amount of
water thanks in part to investments totaling more than $1
billion since 2001, Pestrella said. Some of the money has gone
toward raising dams and increasing the capacity of spreading
grounds, where water is sent into basins and then percolates
underground into aquifers.
As summer approaches, the Imperial Irrigation District is
gearing up for another battle with the weeds that infest its
canals. To do that, the regional water agency is calling in
reinforcements: a small army of plant-munching fish. Water
weeds are a common problem for many irrigation districts, since
shallow canals and clear water create a welcoming environment
for aquatic plant life. The weeds regularly clog up the system
of gates and channels that ferry water to farms throughout
Imperial County.
A new project for the Mojave Water Agency aims to support
strategic planning for sustainable groundwater basin management
and conjunctive use projects, the agency announced. The
announcement came on Tuesday by Geoscience Support Services,
Inc., a geohydrology firm that provides specialized
hydrogeology and groundwater consulting and services.
Geoscience entered into a new contract with the Apple
Valley-based Mojave Water Agency to evaluate groundwater
resources and develop advanced recovery and management
strategies. The project supports the Mojave Water Agency’s
mission to manage groundwater basins and address risks to
sustainable water supplies.
It’s a tale as old as the American West: folks fighting over
water. This time, however, the battle brewing in a remote
California community is one you’ve likely never heard before.
The clash is centered in the normally sleepy community of Pine
Valley, which, according to most recent U.S. Census Bureau
figures, has a population of 1,645. Although you don’t have to
live in town to sign, that figure is close to how many people
signed a petition boasting 1,800 signatures that was circulated
to Stop SD Crescentwood Cemetery. … Critics argue, though,
that it sits above the Campo-Cottonwood Sole Source Aquifer,
which serves the groundwater needs of thousands of East County
residents. Depending upon whom you talk with, the facility
could host as few as four burials a year or as many as 350. The
problem … is that “effluvium” from decomposing human bodies
could leach into the ground, eventually making its way down and
contaminating the aquifer.
After yearslong battles with the city of San Diego over
crumbling stormwater infrastructure in their southeastern San
Diego neighborhoods, hundreds of people whose homes and
businesses were damaged by flash flood waters in January are
now suing the city. The $100 million mass tort lawsuit has
nearly 300 plaintiffs — homeowners and renters as well as
business owners in the communities of Southcrest, Logan Heights
and others along the Chollas Creek watershed. The lawsuit
contends that city leaders have known for years that the creek
and stormwater infrastructure around it are in urgent need of
attention.
California water officials are urging people and their pets to
avoid Silverwood Lake in San Bernardino County after a toxic
algal bloom was detected in the reservoir. The Department of
Water Resources has issued a caution advisory warning residents
to avoid parts of the popular recreation spot until further
notice due to the presence of harmful cyanobacteria, or
blue-green algae, in the water. Blue-green algae are a natural
part of many ecosystems, but can grow, or “bloom,” rapidly
under certain conditions including warmer water temperatures.
Experts say the issue is getting worse as climate change, aging
water infrastructure and human activities converge in water
bodies across the state.
For several years now, one question has held the key to
understanding just how much we should worry about the hundreds
of tons of DDT that had been dumped off the coast of Los
Angeles: How, exactly, has this decades-old pesticide — a toxic
chemical spread across the seafloor 3,000 feet underwater —
continued to reenter the food web? Now, in a highly anticipated
study, researchers have identified tiny zooplankton and
mid-to-deep-water fish as potential links between the
contaminated sediment and the greater ecosystem. For the first
time, chemical analyses confirmed that these deep-sea organisms
are contaminated by numerous DDT-related compounds that match
similar chemical patterns found on the seafloor and animals
higher up on the food chain.
Some California residents will see their sewer bills more than
double by mid-2028 if city officials approve a proposed budget
from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. Under the new plan, Bass
proposes a variety of budget increases for city services,
ranging from increased ambulance service costs from the fire
department to a slew of increases to the city’s bimonthly sewer
bill that will see the cost more than double if the Los Angeles
council approves the mayor’s budget. The budget proposal
from Bass, who previously served as a Democrat in the U.S.
House, comes as municipalities across the nation have
recently considered an increase in water bills while
citing a variety of reasons, ranging from new nanofiltration
systems to reduce the levels of per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances, known as PFAS, to less water storage in
reservoirs because of damaged dams.
The City of Malibu on April 25 hosted the North Santa Monica
Bay State of the Watershed, an impressive meeting coordinated
by Melina Watts, the watershed coordinator for Safe, Clean
Water LA. Attendees at the large gathering included
various water experts and policy officials; city engineers;
water quality professionals; watershed
coordinators; state, county, and municipal elected
officials; and public policy professionals who administer
various programs that address water policy
and representative from public works departments in
Los Angeles County, Malibu, Calabasas City, Westlake Village,
Hidden Hills, and Agoura Hills. The gathering’s central
purpose was for the attendees to inform one another of their
efforts by providing status updates concerning the many water
policy issues and programs that cover the vast area encompassed
within the North Santa Monica Bay Watershed. -Written by local freelance writer Barbara
Burke.
Bureaucratic blunders, mismanagement, partisan politics,
cross-border politics, understaffing, equipment failures. The
list of reasons for the longstanding sewage crisis at the
U.S.-Mexico border is long. At the center is the International
Boundary and Water Commission, the binational agency
responsible for preventing water pollution in the Tijuana River
and southern San Diego County shorelines. It has been severely
handicapped in its task. The result: beach closures due to
contaminated ocean water, economic losses and growing concerns
about the long-term health impacts caused by breathing,
smelling and touching sewage-tainted water. Each country is
represented by a commissioner appointed by their respective
presidents. Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner, appointed by
President Joe Biden in 2021, inherited the broken system. She’s
been trying to steer the federal agency in the right direction
ever since.
A lawsuit by the mining company with contracts to extract more
than 50 million tons of aggregate from Soledad Canyon has been
continued to July, according to court records. Cemex, a
multinational building materials company, is suing the State
Water Resources Control Board over the company’s application
for the rights to use the Santa Clara River. The State
Water Board said last year Cemex’s application would be
publicly re-noticed, after pressure from state lawmakers who
sought legislation to force the board to re-notice the request
to use the river to mine. When Cemex appealed the decision
to re-notice and the State Water Board denied that appeal,
Cemex sued in September, stating its application “has already
lingered since the first Bush administration.”
President Biden on Thursday expanded San Gabriel Mountains
National Monument by nearly a third in an action that was
widely praised by the Indigenous leaders, politicians,
conservationists and community organizers who had long fought
for the enlargement of the protected natural area that serves
as the backyard of the Los Angeles Basin. … Stretching
from Santa Clarita to San Bernardino, the San Gabriel Mountains
watershed provides Los Angeles County with 70% of its open
space and roughly 30% of its water. The added protections
will help ensure equitable access to the San Gabriels’ cool
streams and rugged canyons while also preserving clean air and
water.