Aquafornia

SYRCL, in partnership with the Tahoe National Forest, completed the second year of project implementation on 229 acres of meadow, fen, and meadow edge habitat within five high priority meadows in the North Yuba Watershed: Haskell Headwaters Fen, Chapman Saddle Meadow, West Church Meadow, Freeman Meadow, and Bear Trap Meadow.  Meadows are important ecosystems for sequestering carbon, they serve as habitat for threatened native species, and act as a “water bank” by holding snow water as it melts then slowly releasing it through the summer.   As temperatures rise and precipitation shifts from snow dominant to rain dominant, the resiliency of these meadow ecosystems is increasingly threatened. While existing habitat degradation in these meadows was initially caused by a variety of historic human impacts, this degradation is expected to worsen in response to the impacts of climate change without intervention.  

A $10-billion California bond measure to finance water, clean energy and other environmental projects was leading by a wide margin in Tuesday’s election. Proposition 4 called for spending $3.8 billion for water projects, including those that provide safe drinking water, water recycling projects, groundwater storage and flood control. An additional $1.5 billion would be spent on wildfire protection, and $1.2 billion would go toward protecting the coast from sea level rise. Other money would be used to create parks, protect wildlife and habitats, fight air pollution, address extreme heat events and fund sustainable agriculture.

Related articles:

• The Sacramento Bee: California voters decisively favor Prop 4, $10 billion climate bond
• CalMatters: Water, wildfires, climate: Californians leaning toward approving $10 billion bond
• KQED: California’s $10 Billion Climate Bond Ahead With a Strong Lead

The recent discovery of a new type of invasive mussel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is raising concerns that the non-native species could cause major ecological harm and inflict costly complications for the infrastructure California relies on to deliver water across the state. … After finding the golden mussels in O’Neill Forebay, state workers have begun surveys to determine the extent of the infestation in the State Water Project system, including the California Aqueduct, which transports water pumped from the Delta to cities and farmlands. The increased monitoring and maintenance that will be required is expected to have an economic impact for the State Water Project, increasing water delivery costs, said Tanya Veldhuizen, manager of the Department of Water Resources’ Special Projects Section.

Related article:

• SFGate: A tiny threat could have big impacts on California’s drinking water

… The Arizona [semiconductor manufacturing] facility is being built to mimic its “mother fab” in Taiwan, where TSMC has already invested heavily in water reuse at its existing fabs. Company officials say the new facility in Arizona aims to be as efficient as possible. With blueprints in hand, [Greg] Jackson’s job is to make that statement a physical reality. … TSMC says its reuse and recycling efforts will make its water use manageable and even small compared with other Arizona water uses. Phoenix doesn’t expect it to strain city resources. At the same time, other growth stemming from TSMC’s arrival, uncertainty around the region’s Colorado River supplies, and additional environmental concerns related to semiconductor manufacturing generally could create more troubling questions for the Phoenix community.

On a corner lot in Leimert Park in dusty South Los Angeles, not far from Obama and Crenshaw Boulevards, sits a curiosity that’s wildly different from all the neighboring grassy yards. Abundant and lush, it looks like a mash-up between a country idyll and something dreamed up by Dr. Seuss. Run by a gardening wizard named Jamiah Hargins, this wee farm in the front yard of his bungalow provides fresh produce for 45 nearby families, all while using a tiny fraction of the water required by a lawn. … The project has expanded to three front yard microfarms growing in adjoining neighborhoods and transformed into a nonprofit organization. …The mini farms bring environmental benefits, thanks to irrigation and containment systems that capture and recycle rain. That allows the farms to produce thousands of pounds of food without using much water.

The Colorado River Basin is in the midst of a 23-year drought. Reduced precipitation, mostly in the form of snow in the western mountains, has caused water administrators at the federal, state and local level to seek ways to cut back usage. But many of us in the high country do not need water managers to tell us to reduce usage. Mother nature kindly, or unkindly, does that for us.  With limited storage at higher elevations, snowpack is the source for virtually all water on the West Slope. As the Basin experiences a steady decline in precipitation, West Slope water users, especially irrigators, find that in many years, they are subject to “natural curtailment.” Less snowpack means less water.   

On September 28, 1994, the California State Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously to approve Decision 1631, amending the water licenses of the City of Los Angeles in order “to establish fishery protection flows in streams tributary to Mono Lake and to protect Public Trust resources at Mono Lake and in the Mono Lake Basin.” … Board member Marc Del Piero pronounced: “Today we saved Mono Lake.” Remarkably, not one of the parties that participated in the hearing process that led to D1631 appealed the decision—most notably, not even the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP). D1631 provided water for the lake and streams. At the same time the Mono Lake Committee had helped to secure water solutions for Los Angeles that included conservation programs and millions of dollars in state and federal funding to develop local supplies. A decades-long water battle had ended with all parties agreeing to stop fighting and move forward to implement the solution.

The Board of Supervisors Tuesday signed off on the final budget for a signage project along the Santa Ana River Trail, covering most points on the segment that traverses Riverside County with guideposts, relying on a federal allocation to pay for it. … The initial project budget was $1 million, but Regional Parks & Open Space District officials determined the full amount would not be required, so the board revised the final budget at a slightly lower sum in accordance with updated figures. “The signage program project aims to enhance the quality of life for Riverside County residents and Santa Ana River Trail users by maintaining clean, safe and equitable outdoor recreational opportunities,” according to documents posted to the board agenda.

… Thanks to its unique geographical intersection of ocean, mountains, deserts, wetlands and urban development, San Diego County is recognized as the most biologically diverse county in the continental United States, according to the Nature Conservancy. That’s the subject of “Nature — San Diego: America’s Wildest City,” which premieres at 8 p.m. Wednesday on PBS stations and the PBS app. A giant-screen version of the film, titled “Wild San Diego,” will follow on Nov. 22 for a seven-year engagement at the San Diego Natural History Museum. … The film looks at a handful of wildlife species that are not only native to San Diego County but that also have either adapted to, or been hurt by, the presence of humans, who arrived in this region 12,000 years ago and have increased 500-fold in number to 3.3 million over the past 100 years. The greatest influence humans have had on wildlife, the documentary says, is how we manage our water resources.