Aquafornia

Colorado lawmakers are pressing the Biden administration to offer payments to Native American tribes that are unable to use their full share of the Colorado River, arguing the groups should be compensated for reducing pressure on the drought-stricken waterway. Democratic Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper, along with Colorado’s Democratic Gov. Jared Polis, issued the plea Monday in a letter to the Bureau of Reclamation. “We strongly encourage you to explore other avenues for Colorado’s Tribal Nations to pursue funding related to drought response, recognizing that they are currently forgoing their water use not by choice, but resulting from a history of inequity reflected in their long-term lack of infrastructure,” the elected officials wrote.

Other tribal water and water negotiations articles:

• The Colorado Sun: Tribes won’t be paid for unused water through a federal fund. Colorado lawmakers want that to change.
• The Center Square: Major water funding announced ahead of Biden’s Gila River Indian Community visit
• The Las Vegas Review-Journal: What Are They Hiding?: Behind closed doors, the Colorado River’s future hangs in the balance

Governor Gavin Newsom today highlighted a new agreement between state and federal partners to enhance collaboration on floodplain projects in the Sacramento River Basin that bolster flood protection and habitat for fish and wildlife. The MOU furthers state-federal coordination on the planning, design and implementation of multi-benefit floodplain projects in the Sacramento River Basin that increase flood protection, restore habitat and ecosystems, improve groundwater recharge and water supply reliability, and sustain farming and managed wetland operations. The agreement is backed by the Floodplain Forward Coalition comprised of landowners, irrigation districts, and higher education and conservation groups.

Related floodplains restoration article:

• Western Water Rewind: California spent decades trying to keep Central Valley floods at bay. Now it looks to welcome them back

One of [San Diego's] many storm drain channels runs under the railroad tracks at Imperial Avenue and Merlin Drive. It’s covered with plants and trash. On Wednesday, mayoral candidate Larry Turner continued his campaign push. Turner used this storm channel as an opportunity to remind San Diego voters of the January 22nd flooding. Heavy rain overflowed storm drains, causing destruction across southeast San Diego. Since then, the city cleared more than a hundred tons of debris from those channels, but Turner says it’s too little too late. … ABC10News anchor Kimberly Hunt brought this issue to Mayor Todd Gloria more recently during our mayoral debate. Gloria defended the city’s response, touting seven million dollars he secured for the housing commission to assist victims of the January 22nd flooding. … He says a large part of $700 million in federal funds will go toward stormwater infrastructure in those neighborhoods. But Turner claims there are still a handful of channels that remain untouched.

Other water and election articles:

• The Press Democrat: Proposition 4 climate bond seeks to avoid future costs with current investment
• The Desert Sun: Opinion: Assemblymember Garcia: Yes on Prop. 4 now or pay more later
• The Arizona Republic: What to know about Central Arizona Water Conservation District candidates

A team of climate specialists from the NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research, Climate and Global Dynamics Lab, Texas A&M University, and Pennsylvania State University has found evidence for a rise in ocean levels during future atmospheric rivers (ARs) that form in the Pacific Ocean and make their way to the North American coast. In their paper published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, the group describes their study of previous ARs and how they applied what they learned to ARs of the future, when taking into account global warming. Over the next century, dramatic changes to the world’s climate are expected, from warming temperatures to more rain in some places and less in others. Another aspect of climate change that has not received as much press is the ongoing changes to the world’s oceans. In addition to warmer air over the oceans, the water temperature is also growing warmer.

Other weather and research articles:

• Record Searchlight: What NOAA, Old Farmer’s Almanac, AccuWeather say about La Niña in Redding this winter
• San Francisco Chronicle: Northern California in store for a big weather shift
• Simon Fraser University: Study: Impacts of heatwaves on river flows to change rapidly under climate change
• The Squamish Chief: Heatwaves are reshaping Squamish rivers—what it means for the community

Imperial County’s much-lauded Lithium Valley in California’s southeast corner has been bypassed for a second time by federal officials for critically needed funding, a key state official said on Wednesday. Noemi Gallardo, a member of the California Energy Commission who oversees reviews of proposed geothermal projects tied to lithium production, told The Desert Sun/USA Today Network that she was concerned that the U.S. Department of Energy had for a second time not selected any company seeking to produce lithium in California to receive a portion of $3 billion allocated by the Biden administration. Instead, 25 projects in 14 other states were chosen, for a total $600 million per year through 2026. … Jared Naimark, California mining organizer with the environmental group Earthworks, said he thought her remarks might have been directed at his group and Comite Civico over their lawsuit challenging county approvals of Controlled Thermal Resources’ Hells Kitchen geothermal and lithium project. The litigation questions water supply, air pollution and earthquake risk assessments. 

… The California Air Resources Board (CARB) will vote next month on whether to lock in the subsidies, which the Golden State has for years been offering to industrial dairies for installing technology that deploys bacteria to break down animal waste and then repurposes it as “renewable natural gas.” California officials argue these anaerobic digesters are environmentally beneficial because they capture methane, a gas produced by dairy cows that is about 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. But environmental groups and some residents of California’s Central Valley contend the technology also generates dangerous byproducts and encourages the propagation of polluting factory farms in vulnerable communities. … Water and air pollution linked to CAFOs, the authors warned, is disproportionately impacting low-income populations and communities of color. In Tulare County, they added, about 67 percent of residents are Hispanic/Latinx and 18.2 percent are living in poverty.

While the dust-up between water districts in Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties over access to water in Nacimiento Reservoir won’t qualify as a water war, it’s fair to call it a skirmish. At issue is a pair of applications filed with the state Water Resources Control Board, or simply Water Board, by a water district from Monterey County’s southern neighbor – the Shandon-San Juan Water District and its Groundwater Sustainability Agency. That water district is asking the state to approve applications to take additional water from Nacimiento Reservoir. In a written report to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 8, Ara Azhderian, the general manager of the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, or WRA, explained that the Shandon water district is asking the state for permission to appropriate 14,000 acre-feet at Santa Margarita Lake on the Salinas River southwest of Atascadero in San Luis Obispo County, and from Nacimiento Reservoir, also in San Luis Obispo County, or SLO.

… In California, the most important calendar may be the “water year,” which also begins on October 1, because how much the state’s reservoirs have in storage and how much nature provides in the form of rain and snow are existential factors in the lives of nearly 40 million people. … The current water year begins with healthy water savings. After two relatively wet winters, including the blockbuster 2022-23 season that ended several years of drought, major reservoirs have close to 100%, or above, of historic October levels. … That should be enough to carry the state through a relatively dry 2024-25 winter, which is possible because meteorologists see a 71% chance that the season will be dominated by a La Niña condition in the Pacific Ocean. It often — but not always — tends to push the jetstream to the north, bringing heavier precipitation to the Pacific Northwest but reducing rain and snow to the south, meaning California. 
—Written by Dan Walters, opinion columnist

 Lake Tahoe — the largest freshwater alpine lake in North America — is world-famous for its clear blue water, but the lake faces a multitude of threats requiring constant care and vigilance to keep it that way. “We’re more than a bumper sticker,” said Laura Patten, the Natural Resource Director at the League to Save Lake Tahoe, better known as Keep Tahoe Blue. “We really rely on the science to figure out what is happening in the lake.” Patten and other scientists studying Lake Tahoe say climate change and recreation pose the biggest threats to the lake in the 21st century. Longer and hotter periods of heat, more extreme fire seasons, and erratic precipitation patterns in the winter all play a part in Tahoe’s water quality. … It’s important to understand Tahoe’s crystal “blue” water is actually clear. The clear water reflects the blue sky and absorbs red light, making the water appear brilliant hues of blue. The clearer the water — or the better the water’s quality — the bluer the lake.