Aquafornia

On Oct. 2, about a year-and-a-half after the Pajaro River levee failed, flood agencies broke ground on the long-awaited Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project. The five-year, $599 million project sets out to protect the river valley and its tributaries from 100-year storms, by constructing stronger levees and working on improvements to the area. Following the celebration, the environmental watchdog group LandWatch commissioned a report from EcoDataLab … to get a better sense of whether the levee improvements would protect potential housing development within the floodplain. The resulting Pajaro River Flood Risk Report, released earlier in October, focuses on whether the project’s design sufficiently accounts for future climate impacts, assessing the area under both typical and extreme weather scenarios. The report concludes that, with proper levee maintenance, the area is suitable for housing development. 

Other Pajaro Basin article:

• Santa Cruz Sentinel: Pajaro Valley Water celebrates 40 years; looking back on struggles and looking ahead to new projects

County supervisors on Tuesday approved a groundwater pumping reduction plan for an area in Stanislaus’ West Side in hopes of preventing intervention from the state. The Delta-Mendota Groundwater Subbasin is considered to be critically overdrafted, according to the California Department of Water Resources, raising concerns about ground subsidence near the Delta-Mendota Canal and California Aqueduct. Affected parties in the Delta-Mendota groundwater subbasin, in west Stanislaus and Merced counties, developed six coordinated groundwater sustainability plans, which were deemed incomplete by the state after a two-year review and declared inadequate after amendments were submitted to address deficiencies in 2022. Faced with a perceived three-strikes rule, the local agencies decided to work with a consultant on a single plan for reduced pumping, along with well metering and monitoring, which was approved by Stanislaus supervisors Tuesday.

A series of USGS interactive maps have recently been published. The maps identify locations and levels of mercury contamination resulting from historical gold mining California’s Sierra Nevada. … Many may not know that mercury was used by miners during the California Gold Rush to extract gold. Using a process called amalgamation miners would combine mercury with gold ore to form a gold-mercury amalgam. The mercury was then removed by heating. After the mercury had evaporated, pure gold was left behind. However, this method had severe environmental consequences.

San Diegans across the political spectrum worry a changing of the guard at the White House could bring major upheaval to the federal agency on the frontlines of the Tijuana River sewage crisis: The International Boundary and Water Commission or IBWC. The president of the United States appoints the IBWC leader and a post-election shake up could add uncertainty to the already precarious state of one of San Diego’s largest pollution problems. Treating millions of gallons of sewage spilling from Tijuana into San Diego is just one among myriad IBWC water management responsibilities along 1,255-miles of the U.S.-Mexico border. … With little recourse to hold Mexico responsible for the contamination, San Diegans historically pinned blame on the IBWC. But since President Joe Biden appointed Maria-Elena Giner to the top post in August of 2021, most agree she’s done a good job – despite a very low bar – and don’t want to see her go. 

Related articles:

• Latin Times: Gov. Newsom finally visits Tijuana River as local leaders say fixing treatment plant not enough to address sewage crisis
• Border Report: Work begins on $600 million plant to treat sewage from Mexico
• 10News San Diego: $400M project launched to tackle South Bay sewage crisis
• CBS 8 (San Diego): South Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant expansion will help minimize cross-border sewage
• Fox 5 KUSI (San Diego): Governor Newsom visits wastewater treatment plants in South Bay

The two hurricanes that walloped the southeast recently—Helene and Milton—caused extensive damage and loss of life, with Helene becoming the second-deadliest hurricane in the last 30 years. Although thousands of miles away, these two hurricanes serve as reminders about flood management in California. … California storms can be just as intense and destructive as hurricanes. Although hurricanes are not part of California’s natural disaster portfolio, people sometimes forget that California has its own equivalent in atmospheric rivers (ARs). These storms—which often carry as much water as the Amazon River up in the atmosphere—originate in the subtropical Pacific Ocean and deliver prodigious amounts of rain and snow to California. Although ARs do not pack the high-speed winds of hurricanes, their precipitation intensities match what we’ve seen in Helene and Milton. 

Lake Powell, a vital water source in the Colorado River Basin that serves 40 million people, has suffered from severe drought in recent years. Though water levels have recovered from historic lows, the lake may never be full again, and the reasons go beyond just climate change and record temperatures. One often-overlooked factor affecting water availability is the extensive forest cover throughout the basin, according to Gene Shawcroft, the Colorado River commissioner of Utah.

When you imagine a ripe, juicy peach, you might not picture it growing in a red rock canyon. Centuries ago, however, tribes in the Four Corners cultivated vast orchards of an heirloom variety called the Southwest peach. … [Reagan] Wytsalucy, a plant scientist with the Utah State University extension in San Juan County and a member of the Navajo Nation, said this peach was a vital part of the Indigenous diet and trade economy for hundreds of years. Accounts from Spanish missions describe sprawling orchards grown by Pueblo Indians as early as the 1630s. The Southwest peach is smaller and less sweet than what you find at the supermarket. Its flavor also varies based on which part of the region it’s from, she said. Some taste like melon. Others have a hint of cinnamon. Traditionally, Navajo people would dry peaches to preserve them for the following year, and one tree could feed a whole family.

Related article:

• KUER (Salt Lake City): With water rights in hand, Navajo still hope to restore farms on Utah’s San Juan

Flocks of birds have returned to the shallow waters along Highway 99 south of Yuba City where fields of rice grew weeks before, a sure sign that harvest is over and winter is near. Like most crops throughout the state, by this point in the year, the rice fields of Montna Farms have been harvested and stored. Testing of the farm’s medium grain rice has come back at a typical, high quality, said Jon Munger, Montna Farms vice president of operations. But it remains to be seen whether this summer’s heat wave in the Sacramento Valley affected the quality of rice planted and harvested later in the season.

There is no life without water — therefore access to water might be considered a human right. However, that has not always been the case in American water law. A new book explores of case laws and evolving concepts in how water is governed, encompassing topics such as climate change, tribal rights and technologies for accessing water in areas where it is rapidly disappearing. “Water Law: Concepts and Insights, 2nd Edition” was co-written by Robin Kundis Craig, Robert A. Schroeder Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Kansas; Noah Hall of Wayne State University and Robert Adler of the University of Utah. “We were lamenting how there were no good water law books for students in the east. They were primarily focused geographically on the west, so we decided to write our own,” Craig said. “We wanted to get into how water law intersects with common and environmental law. It’s not strictly a case book, but we updated it, largely for human rights focus that has been added for water.”