A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Chris Bowman.
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For decades, concerns about automobile pollution have focused
on what comes out of the tailpipe. Now, researchers and
regulators say, we need to pay more attention to toxic
emissions from tires as vehicles roll down the road. At
the top of the list of worries is a chemical called 6PPD, which
is added to rubber tires to help them last longer. When tires
wear on pavement, 6PPD is released. It reacts with ozone to
become a different chemical, 6PPD-q, which can be extremely
toxic—so much so that it has been linked to repeated fish kills
in Washington state. … The Yurok Tribe in Northern
California, along with two other West Coast Native American
tribes, have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to
prohibit the chemical.
A rebuild of a key pump station that prevents flooding around
Interstate 580 in San Rafael has hit a roadblock. Crucial
electrical components needed to operate the new San Quentin
pump station are unavailable at least until October because of
supply chain shortages.
Rain-swollen water levels at two Kenyan hydroelectric dams are
at “historic highs,” and people downstream should move away,
the Cabinet said Tuesday, ordering residents of flood-prone
areas across the country to evacuate or they’ll be moved by
force. Kenya, along with other parts of East Africa, has been
overwhelmed by flooding that killed 66 people on Monday alone
and in recent days has blocked a national highway, swamped the
main airport and swept a bus off a bridge. More than 150,000
people are displaced and living in dozens of camps. With
seasonal rains forecast to increase, the Cabinet said residents
of areas that have had flooding or landslides in the past and
those living near dams and rivers that are considered at high
risk will be told by Wednesday to evacuate. Those who refuse
will be moved by force.
Water use in California is typically thought of in three parts:
water for the environment (50%), water for agriculture (40%),
and water for communities (10%) per the Public Policy Institute
of California (PPIC). As a result, “ag” is the sector of the
economy that comes to mind first when we talk about the state’s
water supply. But the rest of California’s economy also
requires water. California’s manufacturers – one of the state’s
largest industry sectors, accounting for 11.8% of state GDP –
need water. -Written by Lance Hastings, President and CEO of
the California Manufacturers & Technology
Association.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
As California’s wet season comes to a close, forecasters are
already starting to talk about next winter: A La Niña weather
pattern is expected to develop. La Niña — the inverse of
El Niño — impacts weather around the world and is often
associated with wetter conditions in Northern California and
drier weather in Central and Southern California.
… While winter precipitation in California was below
normal in three of the last five La Niña years, it
was well above normal, even in Central and Southern California,
in one.
A thousand years ago, native fish and birds rested in a fertile
floodplain at the intersection of the Sacramento and Feather
rivers and Butte creek along their migratory routes. Since the
turn of the 20th century, the area has been engulfed in rice
fields. But in the next decade, the bygone natural floodplain
is coming back. That’s after California conservation nonprofit
River Partners secured millions for restoration work on 750
acres from state wildlife agencies and Apple Inc., the
multinational tech company. It’s all part of the state’s effort
to conserve important wild lands for their myriad climate
benefits and Apple’s support for clean energy and conservation
projects to counterbalance pollution and water consumption from
its operations.
Prosecutors have accused Dennis Falaschi, 77, a gregarious
local irrigation official [with the Panoche Water District], of
masterminding the theft of more than $25 million worth of water
out of a federal canal over the course of two decades and
selling it to farmers and other local water districts.
According to the allegations, proceeds that should have gone to
the federal government instead were used to benefit Falaschi,
his water district and a small group of co-conspirators, much
of it funneled into exorbitant salaries and lavish fringe
benefits. … Some farmers who relied on Falaschi and his
irrigation district were outraged — at the government. They see
him as the Robin Hood of irrigation. … For more than a
year, Falaschi maintained his innocence, insisting there had
been no theft. Then this spring, his attorneys filed paperwork
that said he was prepared to change his plea. Exactly what he
will plead guilty to remains unclear.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week rejected a
massive pumped hydropower proposal on the Navajo Nation in
Arizona, cementing a new agency policy to no longer advance
energy projects opposed by tribes whose land would be affected.
The Navajo Nation filed comments last month opposing the
proposed Big Canyon Pumped Hydro project, which would have
dammed the Lower Colorado River and flooded hundreds of acres
to create reservoirs to store and dispatch power. The tribe
warned that the storage project could create “adverse impacts”
to water and cultural resources, as well as the tribe’s water
rights. Those comments were enough to nix the project’s
preliminary permit application, which had been pending since
2020.
As the California State Water Resources Control board meets at
the California Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters for
three days of discussion on its Bay-Delta Water Quality Control
Plan Solano County water officials are there to speak in
opposition to a course of action that could see the county’s
water allocation from Lake Berryessa cut by 75 percent. Chris
Lee and Alex Rabidoux of the Solano County Water Agency
presented information regarding the growth of salmon
populations in Putah Creek in recent years. The state has
claimed that diminished river flows in these areas are harming
fish habitats and are ecologically detrimental to the water
system as a whole, but SCWA argues that Putah Creek is already
a standout example of salmon repopulation.
The state Fish and Game Commission recently declared the
Southern California steelhead trout an endangered species. You
think? These native beauties have been endangered for decades.
In March, there was excitement when one steelhead was spotted
in the Santa Ynez River basin in Santa Barbara County. “One
fish where 25,000 used to be,” says Russell Marlow, south coast
project manager for California Trout, a nonprofit activist
organization. … “While I celebrate the ability of one
fish to exist, it’s a giant red flag.” Three adult steelhead
were sighted five years ago in the Santa Clara River that flows
between Santa Clarita and Oxnard, Marlow adds. Only 177
Southern California steelhead have been seen in the last 25
years, he says. Endangered? They’re practically
extinct. -Written by LA Times columnist George Skelton.
The city of Sanger has allowed its largest private employer,
Pitman Family Farms, a years-long delay in settling $1 million
in payments after the city failed for years to collect money
tied to the company’s increased water use. Pitman Family Farms
poultry processor, known for its line of high-end chickens sold
under the brand Mary’s Chicken, has steadily grown in recent
years. The family-owned company established its plant in Sanger
in 2002 and is today the second largest employer in the city
behind the public school district. As the company has grown its
business – including several plant expansions over the years
from a one-story to a four-story processing plant – its use of
city water has increased. This growth has had an impact on the
city’s infrastructure, but the city wasn’t properly charging
the company for its water use, city records show.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is shutting down its
15.5-mile-long Main Tuolumne Canal, the chain of flumes and
ditches that conveys 95% of Tuolumne Utilities District’s
drinking water supply, this Sunday, April 28, to next Sunday,
May 5, and TUD is urging all of its customers to limit water
use for the temporary shutdown. … The Main Tuolumne
Canal outage is strictly for routine biannual maintenance on
the flumes and ditches each spring and fall. Beginnings of the
Main Tuolumne Canal, which brings water from Lyons Reservoir to
Phoenix Powerhouse, and other ditches further downstream that
are owned by TUD, date back to the 1850s when Gold Rush miners
needed water at their diggings in places like Sonora and
Columbia.
