Topic: Stormwater

Overview

Stormwater

Stormwater runoff has emerged as a primary water quality issue. In urban areas, after long dry periods rainwater runoff can contain accumulations of pollutants. Stormwater does not go into the sewer. Instead, pollutants can be flushed into waterways with detrimental effects on the environment and water quality.

In response, water quality regulators use a range of programs to reduce stormwater pollution including limiting the amount of excess runoff and in some cases recapturing freshwater as well.

Typical stormwater runoff pollutants include:

  • Fertilizer
  • Pesticides/Herbicides
  • Heavy Metals
  • Oil and grease
  • Bacteria/viruses
  • Sediment
  • Construction Waste
  • Trash
Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

SF allegedly dumps big amounts of sewage into creek during storms

When heavy rain overwhelms wastewater treatment plants in San Francisco, causing stormwater to overflow onto streets and into the bay, sewage is an unfortunate part of the mix.  After heavy rain, the largest recipient of the potent brew of stormwater and sewage in the city is Mission Creek — a channel to the bay that is home to houseboats, walking trails and a kayak launch. At Mission Creek, Islais Creek, another channel at India Basin, and a few locations in between, the city discharges 1.2 billion gallons of “combined sewer discharges” in a typical year, according to the environmental group S.F. Baykeeper, which has notified the city it intends to sue over how such discharges impact the environment. A large portion of the combined sewer overflows — which SFPUC said are composed of 94% treated stormwater and 6% treated wastewater — is making its way without basic treatment into the bay during storms, according to S.F. Baykeeper. 

Aquafornia news KPBS - San Diego

New state bill aims to force companies to clean up pollution in the Tijuana River

Still water in the Tijuana River Valley reflects the chirping birds who live there, giving the impression it is as nature made it — until you see the floating trash and smell the stagnant, polluted water. For decades, activists tried to clean up the Tijuana River’s watershed as it flowed from Tijuana into San Diego’s coastal waters, which are contaminated with both human and industrial waste. A recent study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that coastal pollution is also transferring to the air. “This is nothing short of an environmental and public health crisis, and it has been made worse by the fact that California companies are part of the problem,” said State Senator Steve Padilla Monday, while announcing SB 1178, a bill to address cross-border pollution.

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Aquafornia news LAist

LA has big plans to turn a landfill into a wetland, but delays are jeopardizing the project

… Los Angeles desperately needs to become more like a sponge. That will help to capture more stormwater locally when rain does come and lessen devastating flooding, said Edith de Guzman, a UCLA water equity and climate adaptation researcher. … The Rory M. Shaw Wetlands Park Project will turn a 46-acre landfill formerly used for materials such as concrete and gravel into an engineered wetland that can boost local water supply and alleviate local flooding. It’ll also become a 15-acre park with a lake and walking paths. … But now, the biggest barrier to completing the project is funding, said Mark Pestrella, the director of L.A. County Department of Public Works, which is spearheading the project (after it’s constructed, the city of L.A. will take over maintenance). The new goal is to complete it by 2028 or 2029.

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Aquafornia news Marin Independent Journal

Marin water managers gain edge in weather science

Water management might look different in Marin County as agencies partner to understand extreme weather better. The North Marin Water District, the Marin Municipal Water District and Marin County joined the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes Water Affiliates Group in January. The group researches “atmospheric rivers” and other severe weather to improve water management, mitigate flood risk and increase water supply reliability. … The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says atmospheric rivers are storms that move most of the water vapor out of the tropics. According to the Water Affiliates Group, heavy rainfall from these flows of condensed water is responsible for almost 85% of floods on the West Coast.

Aquafornia news LAist

How you can help refill LA’s aquifers by capturing stormwater at home

Recently, we dove deep on how every time rain falls in Southern California, gigantic pieces of infrastructure come to life in an effort to sequester as much of the stormwater as possible. Water agencies implement dry wells, dams and spreading grounds the size of neighborhoods to give each drop a chance to percolate deep into the soil and refill our overdrawn reservoirs. The problem is we’ve all but run out of room for spreading grounds, and while the water agencies are implementing other options, you can make a difference at the household level as well. All you need is a shovel, some rocks and a tiny patch of land. The goal is simple: you want to slow down water and give it a chance to sink into the earth.

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Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

California missing out on billions of gallons of stormwater

For too long, California and other states have viewed stormwater as either a threat or an inconvenience — something to be whisked away from cities and communities as quickly as possible. But as traditional sources of water face worsening strain from climate change, population growth, agriculture and other factors, those unused gallons of rainwater pouring across asphalt or down rain gutters are starting to be viewed as an untapped resource that can help close the widening gap between supply and demand. In a report released Thursday, researchers with the Pacific Institute determined that every year, 59.5 million acre-feet of stormwater go uncaptured across the United States — or roughly 53 billion gallons per day. 

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Aquafornia news Mono Lake Committee

Blog: Will DWP increase Mono Basin diversions this year?

Water diversions to Los Angeles—and away from Mono Lake—began just after noon on January 31. With the turn of a control wheel, the Los Angeles Department of Water & Power (DWP) opened the aqueduct, sending Mono Basin water into the Mono Craters tunnel and on a 300-mile journey down the aqueduct system. … On April 1, the maximum limit on water exports will increase nearly fourfold. Will DWP choose to maintain the same export level as recent years? Or will it choose to quadruple its water diversions—and push Mono Lake’s level downward? This year is also shaping up to be the year for action on the California State Water Resources Control Board’s rules that govern the DWP diversions, and the flaws that have become visible over the 30 years since those rules were set forth.

Aquafornia news The Santa Barbara Independent

Getting to bottom of Goleta’s million-gallon sewage spill

The cause of Santa Barbara County’s biggest offshore sewage spill in recent memory — north of one million gallons — remains the subject of an ongoing investigation, the county supervisors were told in an informational briefing this Tuesday morning.  The supervisors were most interested in figuring out why it took six days for its Department of Public Health to get the news of a leak that was first detected late Friday, February 16. 

Aquafornia news CalMatters

New study: California’s urban runoff flows down the drain. Can the drought-plagued state capture more of it?

California fails to capture massive amounts of stormwater rushing off city streets and surfaces that could help supply millions of people a year, according to a new analysis released today. The nationwide report, by researchers with the Pacific Institute, ranks California ninth nationwide among states with the most estimated urban runoff. … The analysis reports California sheds almost 2.3 million acre-feet of precipitation from pavement, roofs, sidewalks and other surfaces in cities and towns every year. If it were captured and treated, that would be enough to supply more than a quarter of California’s urban water use, or almost 7 million Southern California households each year.

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Aquafornia news E&E News

Lawmakers urge restraint on microplastics regulations

Senators agree more research is needed to understand how microplastics affect human health, but they’re split on what actions should be done in the meantime. During a joint hearing Tuesday of two Environment and Public Works subcommittees, Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) urged lawmakers to move “with caution.” “We have to be careful that we’re not getting ahead of, as we would say, the science and burden these municipalities that are trying to meet today’s regulations,” said Mullin, ranking member of the Chemical Safety, Waste Management, Environmental Justice and Regulatory Oversight Subcommittee.

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Aquafornia news LAist

How much stormwater can we actually capture?

From January to February, Southern California went from quite dry to overwhelmingly wet, as a series of storms dropped more than a year’s worth of water in just a few weeks, loading up the L.A. River. Given that our dry months are coming up, just how much of that stormwater were we able to hold on to? And could we be doing better? The main way that we capture stormwater is by letting it soak into the Earth and travel through the soil into underground reservoirs. Back in the day, this would happen all across places like the L.A. Basin, but as we paved over much of the area, we lost much of our ability to sequester rainfall. That’s where spreading grounds, like those in the San Fernando Valley (seen below), come in.

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Aquafornia news SF Gate

California beaches close after 1 million gallon sewage spill

More problems arose on the Central Coast following a wild storm Monday that flooded the region and transformed the runways at the Santa Barbara Airport into a flooded plain. The Santa Barbara County Public Health Department announced Thursday that it was closing two beaches in the county indefinitely, after waterways were contaminated by thousands of gallons of sewage spilling from a sewer line and manhole that were damaged due to the storm. Goleta Beach is closed from 1 mile east to 0.5 mile west of the Goleta Slough outfall after “a release of approximately 500,000 gallons of sewage from a damaged force main sewer line near the Santa Barbara Airport to the Goleta Slough during the recent rain event,” the department wrote in a media release. 

Aquafornia news Western Water Notes

Blog: An ephemeral lake reveals itself in Death Valley

Visiting Death Valley today, it is hard to imagine nearly all of it once underwater. It contains the lowest point in the U.S. It is known for record-setting heat and aridity. But the land there — and many of the basins that dot the Mojave and the Great Basin — were once filled with water. During the last Ice Age, in the late Pleistocene, a lake filled much of what is now called Death Valley to a depth of about 600 feet. That’s only a bit shallower than the modern-day Lake Huron (with a max. depth of about 750 feet). It is believed that the body of water, later described as Lake Manly, stretched 90 miles long and 11 miles wide. And it was hardly alone. Further east, in the heart of the Great Basin, Lake Lahontan and Lake Bonneville, at their peak, stretched hundreds of miles.

Aquafornia news Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom

News release: How California has captured water from storms

California is taking advantage of this year’s storms to expand water supplies, building off of last year’s actions to capture stormwater. Last year, the Newsom Administration’s actions resulted in three times more groundwater recharge capacity than would have otherwise occurred. Since 2019, the Governor has allocated $1.6 billion for flood preparedness and response, part of the historic $7.3 billion investment package and to strengthen California’s water resilience. Here’s what the state is doing this year to capture water:

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Aquafornia news Voice of San Diego

Leucadia’s drainage issues span decades, and there’s still a long way to go 

Twelve years ago, a San Diego County grand jury urged the city of Encinitas to find a long-term solution to improve the existing stormwater infrastructure in Leucadia Roadside Park, a neighborhood in Encinitas.  Last month, historic flooding across San Diego County damaged the homes and businesses of more than 1,000 residents – Leucadia Roadside Park was one of the communities hit hard. The area’s inadequate stormwater infrastructure was a major reason why. … Five of those businesses had substantial damage, four are still closed for repairs, she said, and one of those businesses may not be able to reopen. Repairs are costing some business owners tens of thousands of dollars. 

Aquafornia news San Diego Union-Tribune

SDSU report calls Tijuana River contamination a public health crisis. ‘We know people are getting sick.’

A new report released Tuesday and written by researchers at San Diego State University calls the Tijuana River a “public health crisis,” citing broad evidence of unhealthy conditions from untreated sewage to industrial waste.  Authors synthesize multiple studies that have documented pollution over the years, leading with a recent paper that documented that the threat also extends to ocean-going mammals. Bottle nose dolphins stranded in San Diego died from infection by a bacteria “generally transmitted through contact with feces or urine in contaminated water, food or soil.

Related article: 

Aquafornia news Marin Independent Journal

Caltrans proposes southern Marin flood control project

A notoriously flood-prone section of southern Marin could soon get its own defense against sea-level rise. Caltrans is proposing protections for the area along Richardson Bay between Marin City and Tamalpais Valley. The project would include the Manzanita Park and Ride lot and the Highway 101 interchanges at Shoreline Highway and Donahue Street. An online public meeting to introduce the plans is set for 6 p.m. Feb. 29. The webinar can be accessed at bit.ly/3ud2ovl. … The lower half of the Manzanita lot is closed an average of seven to 12 weeks out of the year because of frequent tidal flooding driven by sea-level rise, according to Caltrans. Intense rains coupled with high tides also flood the southbound Highway 101 offramp at the Donahue Street interchange in Marin City, O’Donnell said.

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Silver lining to California winter storm damage: lower property taxes

If the floods, slides and landscape mayhem triggered by the string of winter storms severely damaged your house in California, there’s one bit of relief you can claim: a property tax cut. Under state law, property owners who suffer at least $10,000 in damage to their home’s current market value can apply for a reassessment. They have to file an application with their county assessor’s office within 12 months of the incident unless their county offers a later deadline. … If your home was substantially damaged or destroyed in the recent storms, Proposition 19 from 2020 allows you to transfer the taxable value to a newly purchased or constructed house anywhere in the state within two years after you sell the damaged property.

Aquafornia news Voice of San Diego

San Diego let wetlands take root and complains it can’t remove wetlands to prevent floods

Wetlands, a muddy, weedy and endangered ecosystem, protect coasts from storm surge and sea-level rise. They provide habitat for countless threatened species and they clean rainwater from storms before it flows to the surf.  But they also clog up channelized creeks designed to send flood water into the ocean before it destroys homes and businesses. To prevent devastating floods in the future, the city of San Diego will have to figure out how to better balance its responsibilities to protect them while protecting people and their property.  It is not doing either very well. The city got a lot of heat from residents after record-breaking rain and resulting floods destroyed their homes Jan. 22. The southeastern fork of Chollas Creek topped its banks and flooded houses and apartment buildings with five feet of water in some places.  

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Aquafornia news Chico Enterprise-Record

Butte County supervisors to consider groundwater recharge plan

After sending a letter of intention to the California Department of Water Resources last June to begin collecting flood water, Butte County is looking to set a plan in motion. Butte County Water and Resource Conservation Assistant Director Christina Buck is set to give a presentation about the proposed Recharge Action Plan before the Board of Supervisors during Tuesday’s meeting. According to the item attachment, the presentation will go over the plan’s recharge goal along with recommended actions. Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order to simplify local jurisdictions’ abilities to claim floodwater for groundwater storage. The letter issued by the county to DWR was the first step in coming up with a long-term plan for the county to do just that.

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Aquafornia news California Globe

Opinion: California is hardly harvesting the deluge

A historic barrage of atmospheric rivers hit California. Across the Sierra Nevada and down through the foothills into the valley, rivers turned into raging torrents, overflowing their banks and flooding entire communities. California’s Central Valley turned into an inland sea, as low lying farms and grasslands were incapable of draining the deluge. That was 1861, when one storm after another pounded the state for 43 days without respite. Despite impressive new terminology our experts have come up with to describe big storms in this century – “bomb cyclone,” “arkstorm,” and “atmospheric river” – we haven’t yet seen anything close to what nature brought our predecessors back in those pre-industrial times over 150 years ago. But we are getting rain this year. Lots of rain. According to the National Weather Service, by the time 2024’s first two atmospheric rivers are done with California, the state will have been inundated with an estimated 11 trillion gallons of water. That’s 33 million acre feet, in just 10 days. Are we harvesting this deluge?
-Written by Edward Ring, a contributing editor and senior fellow with the California Policy Center, which he co-founded in 2013 and served as its first president. 

Aquafornia news Mercury News

Paper or no plastic: New bill may eliminate plastic bags in California entirely

… A bill lawmakers introduced Thursday, Feb. 8, in Sacramento would apply the Trader Joe’s policy statewide, banning stores from offering customers any sort of plastic film bags at checkout. If you’re thinking “didn’t we already do that?” the answer is yes and no. … “If you have been paying attention – if you read the news at all in recent years – you know we are choking our planet with plastic waste,” state senator Catherine Blakespear said. “A plastic bag has an average lifespan of 12 minutes and then it is discarded, often clogging sewage drains, contaminating our drinking water and degenerating into toxic microplastics that fester in our oceans and landfills for up to 1,000 years.”

Related article: 

Aquafornia news The Guardian

US court bans three weedkillers and finds EPA broke law in approval process

Dealing a blow to three of the world’s biggest agrochemical companies, a US court this week banned three weedkillers widely used in American agriculture, finding that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law in allowing them to be on the market. The ruling is specific to three dicamba-based weedkillers manufactured by Bayer, BASF and Syngenta, which have been blamed for millions of acres of crop damage and harm to endangered species and natural areas across the midwest and south. … Dicamba is also prone to drifting on the wind far from where it is applied. And it can move into drainage ditches and bodies of water as runoff during rain events. Monsanto, along with the chemical giant BASF, introduced new formulations of dicamba herbicides they said would not be as volatile, and they encouraged farmers to buy Monsanto’s newly created dicamba-tolerant crops. 

Aquafornia news CNN

LA County captured enough rain this week to provide water to 65,600 residents for a year

While this week’s atmospheric river drenched Southern California with record-breaking rainfall, some water managers were busy capturing some of that runoff to save for dry days ahead. Others were busy fending off an environmental disaster. Los Angeles County Public Works captured 2.7 billion gallons of stormwater as the rain fell in sheets, public information officer Liz Vazquez told CNN in an email – enough water for 65,600 residents for a year. In all, stormwater capture facilities across Southern California snagged around 15,000 acre-feet – or around 4.9 billion gallons – for recharge into groundwater since Sunday night, according to Rebecca Kimitch, a spokesperson for Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

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California Water Agencies Hoped A Deluge Would Recharge Their Aquifers. But When It Came, Some Couldn’t Use It
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: January storms jump-started recharge projects in badly overdrafted San Joaquin Valley, but hurdles with state permits and infrastructure hindered some efforts

An intentionally flooded almond orchard in Tulare CountyIt was exactly the sort of deluge California groundwater agencies have been counting on to replenish their overworked aquifers.

The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.    

Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland. Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.

Tour Nick Gray

Headwaters Tour 2023
Field Trip - June 21-22 (optional whitewater rafting June 20)

On average, more than 60 percent of California’s developed water supply originates in the Sierra Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade Range. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality. 

This tour ventured into the Sierra to examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and throughout the state.

Western Water California Water Map Gary Pitzer

A Study of Microplastics in San Francisco Bay Could Help Cleanup Strategies Elsewhere
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Debris from plastics and tires is showing up in Bay waters; state drafting microplastics plan for drinking water

Plastic trash and microplastics can get washed into stormwater systems that eventually empty into waterways. Blasted by sun and beaten by waves, plastic bottles and bags shed fibers and tiny flecks of microplastic debris that litter the San Francisco Bay where they can choke the marine life that inadvertently consumes it.

A collaborative effort of the San Francisco Estuary Institute, The 5 Gyre InstituteSan Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board and the regulated discharger community that aims to better understand the problem and assess how to manage it in the San Francisco Bay is nearing the end of a three-year study.

Western Water California Water Map Gary Pitzer

California’s New Natural Resources Secretary Takes on Challenge of Implementing Gov. Newsom’s Ambitious Water Agenda
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Wade Crowfoot addresses Delta tunnel shift, Salton Sea plan and managing water amid a legacy of conflict

Wade Crowfoot, California Natural Resources Secretary.One of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.

That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach” on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.

Western Water California Groundwater Map Layperson's Guide to Flood Management Gary Pitzer

Southern California Water Providers Think Local in Seeking to Expand Supplies
WESTERN WATER SIDEBAR: Los Angeles and San Diego among agencies pursuing more diverse water portfolio beyond imports

The Claude “Bud” Lewis Desalination Plant in Carlsbad last December marked 40 billion gallons of drinking water delivered to San Diego County during its first three years of operation. The desalination plant provides the county with more than 50 million gallons of water each day.Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.

In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)

Western Water Groundwater Education Bundle Gary Pitzer

Imported Water Built Southern California; Now Santa Monica Aims To Wean Itself Off That Supply
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: Santa Monica is tapping groundwater, rainwater and tighter consumption rules to bring local supply and demand into balance

The Santa Monica Urban Runoff Recycling Facility (SMURRF) treats dry weather urban runoff to remove pollutants such as sediment, oil, grease, and pathogens for nonpotable use.Imported water from the Sierra Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on imported water.

Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s, Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.

Western Water California Water Map Gary Pitzer

When Water Worries Often Pit Farms vs. Fish, a Sacramento Valley Farm Is Trying To Address The Needs Of Both
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: River Garden Farms is piloting projects that could add habitat and food to aid Sacramento River salmon

Roger Cornwell, general manager of River Garden Farms, with an example of a refuge like the ones that were lowered into the Sacramento River at Redding to shelter juvenile salmon.  Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.

And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.

Headwaters Tour 2018

Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality.

Headwaters tour participants on a hike in the Sierra Nevada.

We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and throughout the state. 

GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
Western Water Jenn Bowles Jennifer Bowles

EDITOR’S NOTE: Assessing California’s Response to Marijuana’s Impacts on Water

Jennifer BowlesAs we continue forging ahead in 2018 with our online version of Western Water after 40 years as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.

State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that marijuana was legal.

Western Water California Water Bundle Gary Pitzer

Statewide Water Bond Measures Could Have Californians Doing a Double-Take in 2018
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Two bond measures, worth $13B, would aid flood preparation, subsidence, Salton Sea and other water needs

San Joaquin Valley bridge rippled by subsidence  California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.

Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.

Headwaters Tour 2019
Field Trip - June 27-28

Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality. 

Aquapedia background

Runoff

Snowmelt and runoff near the California Department of Water Resources snow survey site in the Sierra Nevada east of Sacramento.Runoff is the water that is pulled by gravity across land’s surface, replenishing groundwater and surface water as it percolates into an aquifer or moves into a river, stream or watershed.

Aquapedia background

Microplastics

Microplastics

Microplastics – plastic debris measuring less than 5 millimeters – are an increasing water quality concern.  Entering the water as industrial microbeads or as larger plastic litter that degrade into small pellets, microplastics come from a variety of consumer products.

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Point Source vs. Nonpoint Source Pollution

Point Source Pollution

Point sources release pollutants from discrete conveyances, such as a discharge pipe, and are regulated by federal and state agencies. The main point source dischargers are factories and sewage treatment plants, which release treated wastewater.

Publication

Stormwater Management: Turning Runoff into a Resource
Published 2007

Problems with polluted stormwater and steps that can be taken to prevent such pollution and turn what is often viewed as “nuisance” runoff into a water resource is the focus of this publication, Stormwater Management: Turning Runoff into a Resource. The 16-page booklet, funded by a grant from the State Water Resources Control Board, includes color photos and graphics, text explaining common stormwater pollutants and efforts to prevent stormwater runoff through land use/ planning/development – as well as tips for homeowners to reduce their impacts on stormwater pollution.

2014 Santa Ana River Watershed Conference

The 6th Annual Santa Ana River Watershed conference was held October 14, 2014 at the Riverside Convention Center in Riverside.

The event was convened by the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority (SAWPA) and coordinated by the Water Education Foundation.

What is One Water One Watershed (OWOW)?

OWOW is an innovative Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP) planning process being developed within the Santa Ana River Watershed.

Product

Colorado River Facts Slide Card

This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs.

Video

Overcoming the Deluge: California’s Plan for Managing Floods (DVD)

This 30-minute documentary, produced in 2011, explores the past, present and future of flood management in California’s Central Valley. It features stories from residents who have experienced the devastating effects of a California flood firsthand. Interviews with long-time Central Valley water experts from California Department of Water Resources (FloodSAFE), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Central Valley Flood Management Program and environmental groups are featured as they discuss current efforts to improve the state’s 150-year old flood protection system and develop a sustainable, integrated, holistic flood management plan for the Central Valley.

Video

Restoring a River: Voices of the San Joaquin

This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an overview of the geography and history of the river, historical and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was agreed to.

Video

A Climate of Change: Water Adaptation Strategies

This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an excellent overview of climate change and how it is already affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are underway to plan and adapt to climate.

Video

Stormwater Management: Turning Runoff into a Resource

20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater, and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource through various activities.

Video

Drinking Water: Quenching the Public Thirst (60-minute DVD)

Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from, how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress Wendie Malick. 

Video

Drinking Water: Quenching the Public Thirst (30-minute DVD)

A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water: Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking engagements to help the public understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to households throughout the state.

Product

Go With the Flow: A Storm Water Pollution Prevention Message

This 7-minute DVD is designed to teach children in grades 5-12 about where storm water goes – and why it is so important to clean up trash, use pesticides and fertilizers wisely, and prevent other chemicals from going down the storm drain. The video’s teenage actors explain the water cycle and the difference between sewer drains and storm drains, how storm drain water is not treated prior to running into a river or other waterway. The teens also offer a list of BMPs – best management practices that homeowners can do to prevent storm water pollution.

Publication

Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law
Updated 2020

The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as the most thorough explanation of California water rights law available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation ditch through the complex web of California water rights.

Publication

Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water Management
Published 2013

The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication that provides background information on the principles of IRWM, its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water management approach.

Aquapedia background

Stormwater

For all the benefits of precipitation, stormwater also brings with it many challenges.

In urban areas, after long dry periods rainwater runoff can contain heavy accumulations of pollutants that have built up over time. For example, a rainbow like shine on a roadway puddle can indicate the presence of oil or gasoline. Stormwater does not go into the sewer. Instead, pollutants can be flushed into waterways with detrimental effects on the environment and water quality.

Lake Tahoe

Lake Tahoe is one of the world’s most beautiful yet vulnerable lakes. Renowned for its remarkable clarity, Tahoe straddles the Nevada-California border, stretching 22 miles long and 12 miles wide in a granitic bowl high in the Sierra Nevada.

Tahoe sits 6,225 feet above sea level. Its deepest point is 1,645 feet, making it the second-deepest lake in the nation, after Oregon’s Crater Lake, and the tenth deepest in the world.

Western Water Magazine

Levees and Flood Protection: A Shared Responsibility
May/June 2012

This printed issue of Western Water discusses several flood-related issues, including the proposed Central Valley Flood Protection Plan, the FEMA remapping process and the dispute between the state and the Corps regarding the levee vegetation policy.

Western Water Magazine

Mimicking the Natural Landscape: Low Impact Development and Stormwater Capture
September/October 2011

This printed issue of Western Water discusses low impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging interest that are viewed as important components of California’s future water supply and management scenario.

Western Water Excerpt Gary PitzerRita Schmidt Sudman

Mimicking the Natural Landscape: LID and Stormwater Capture
September/October 2011

Growth may have slowed in California, but advocates of low impact development (LID) say the pause is no reason to lose sight of the importance of innovative, low-tech management of stormwater via incor­porating LID aspects into new projects and redevelopment.

Western Water Magazine

Pervasive and Persistent: Constituents of Growing Concern
January/February 2011

This printed issue of Western Water, based on presentations at the November 3-4, 2010 Water Quality Conference in Ontario, Calif., looks at constituents of emerging concerns (CECs) – what is known, what is yet to be determined and the potential regulatory impacts on drinking water quality.

Western Water Magazine

Smart Water Use: Stretching the Urban Supply
May/June 2005

This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the water community say conserving water is not merely a response to drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.