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Unchecked Oil and Gas Wastewater Threatens California Groundwater

/in , , /by /Inside Climate Newsby Liza Gross

California has a reputation as a leader on climate and environmental policy. So it doesn’t advertise the fact that it allows the oil and gas industry to store wastewater produced during drilling and extraction in unlined pits in the ground, a practice that began in the early 1900s.

Now, though, researchers have revealed the environmental costs of California’s failure to regulate how its $111 billion oil and gas industry manages the wastewater, known as produced water.

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EPA Finally Has an Action Plan to Improve Water Infrastructure and Sanitation for US Tribes

/in , /by /Gristby Mark Armao

Hoping to step up the federal government’s response to long-standing water issues facing Native American communities, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released an “action plan” earlier this month that will seek solutions to the many barriers tribes have to running water and wastewater services.

The plan will guide the EPA Office of Water as it works with federally recognized tribes to implement the plan, which was prepared with input from the National Tribal Water Council, an EPA-funded advisory group. Priorities include the creation of federal baseline water-quality standards under the Clean Water Act.

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Opinion: Why San Diego County Should Be Spared Mandatory California Water Cutbacks

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby The San Diego Union-Tribune Editorial Board

Mandatory water cutbacks sure seem inevitable, even imminent, in California, by the numbers, by the images of emptying reservoirs, by the arc of history.

California just had its hottest summer on record, tying the 1936 Dust Bowl summer with average temperatures 2.6 degrees above normal. California also just had its second driest water year on record and worst since 1924, with just 11.87 inches of rain and snow statewide, about half the average. And California is in its second-worst year ever for wildfire damage, with nearly 2.5 million acres burned as of this month. The only worse year for that? 2020.

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Top Expert on California’s Atmospheric Rivers: ‘It Can Break the Drought’

/in , /by /SF Gateby Amy Graff

A moisture-rich atmospheric river is forecast to hit California on Sunday and Monday, delivering a much needed drenching of rain to a drought-plagued state at a time of year when big storms are unusual.

It’s unclear at this point where the bull’s-eye of the storm will dump the most rain, but forecasters agree it will likely be anywhere from far Northern California to Central California, with the San Francisco Bay Area being impacted. The wettest spots could see up to a foot of rain.

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Imagine A Day Without Water

/in , , /by /Water News Network Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority

San Diego County residents joined Americans across the country marking Thursday, October 21 as “Imagine A Day Without Water.” The nationwide awareness campaign offered opportunities to learn about our nation’s water systems and the hard work that goes into ensuring a day without water doesn’t become a reality for their community. The Vallecitos Water District partnered with the City of San Marcos to promote water conservation with a new video.

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At S.F.’s Anchor Brewing, the Beer’s for Drinking but the Water’s for Recycling

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

Anchor Brewing is San Francisco’s oldest operating brewery, producing its flagship steam beer since 1896. Now it’s making history in a new way.

The brewery will soon operate the city’s largest commercial water reuse facility. Instead of dumping out water after rinsing fermentation tanks and cleaning bottling lines, Anchor will collect, treat and recycle much of what used to go down the drain.

It’s not an undertaking to go into lightly. California is contending with one of its worst droughts in modern history, and water shortages are becoming an increasing part of day-to-day life. Getting Anchor’s water reuse system up and running is part of a broader effort by San Francisco water officials to preserve supplies by encouraging water users to recycle more and use less.

 

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Oceanside Wins Top Award From Watereuse California

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Linda Mcintosh

The City of Oceanside won an Award of Excellence for its recycled water outreach and education program on its water purification project, called Pure Water Oceanside, at the recent WateReuse California annual conference.

The award recognizes the city’s community outreach on the benefits of water reuse and its furthering of water recycling through its Pure Water Oceanside project.

The project, billed as the first fully operational indirect potable reuse project in San Diego County, is expected to provide about a third of Oceanside’s water supply.

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IID Rings Alarm on Shrinking Colorado River Crisis

/in , , /by /KECY, KYMAby Vince Ybarra

Imperial Irrigation District warns government officials and residents about how harmful the shrinking Colorado River is to our region. IID General Manager, Enrique Martinez, recently spoke to the United States House of Representatives about the issue the desert southwest is facing. He said the time to act is now.

“The drought has been in existence now for 21 years and has continued to challenge the inflows,” said Martinez.

He said the use of water has continued to increase over the years and the flow of water coming down the Colorado River has decreased. Martinez said unless there is major change in the current climate and we get more water during the winter months, we will continue to spiral with less and less water.

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‘Atmospheric River’ to Bring Heavy Rain to Much of California Starting on Sunday

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

An “atmospheric river” stretching across the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii is expected to bring strong winds and heavy rain to central and northern California starting on Sunday, with San Diego experiencing lighter precipitation on Monday.

The National Weather Service expects between 2 and 5 inches of badly needed rain in the higher elevations of Northern California with flash flooding possible.

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Study Suggests Flooding Could Reach Never-Before-Seen Levels in Sacramento, Central Valleys

/in , /by /Fox40by Melanie Townsend and Jordan Radach

While wildfires and droughts dominate California weather, residents have to prepare for another kind of disaster — flooding.

Sacramento is no stranger to seeing flooding of epic proportions. It happened during the Great Flood of 1862 that completely submerged Old Town, and the evidence is still right below our feet.

Floodwaters have plagued the Central Valley several more times before, happening again in 1986, 1995, 1997, 2006 and 2017, but new research by the organization Climate Central suggests that in 100 years, flooding in the Sacramento and Central valleys could reach levels never seen before.

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