When a coalition of California and federal agencies announced a new Delta Smelt Resiliency Strategy last week, the ambitious plan to save the region’s nearly extinct fish grabbed headlines.
But whether most, or even parts, of the comprehensive program can realistically put in place the changes needed to rescue this endangered native species is another question.
The California Supreme Court is set to issue a ruling Thursday that could add millions of dollars to the cost of the governor’s $15.7 billion plan to build two giant water tunnels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. At issue is whether California officials must pay landowners to access thousands of acres of private property to conduct preliminary environmental and geological tests for the project. California officials insist no payments are needed because the tests would not significantly interfere with or damage the land, which is mostly used for farming, cattle ranching and recreation.
Climate change and population growth are rapidly increasing stress on our water systems, challenging their ability to deliver critical services. To respond to this, we need more than simple course adjustments in how we manage our water – we need entirely new paradigms that will improve resource efficiency and support more sustainable urban water systems.
Considerable work is being done to develop new visions for sustainable water infrastructure. Actualizing these visions, however, is another battle, one that requires increasing innovation in the urban water sector.
Local officials are judged on how well their governments provide basic services from transportation to trash collection. So it has been with drinking water: if the water was safe to drink and reliably delivered, water managers were doing their job. Moreover, when water managers thought about long-term planning, the answer was always the same: increase supply.
Climate change, new economic realities and population growth in the Sun Belt (from California to Florida) has made water management much more complex.
Don’t expect to see a reservoir built in the hills west of Maxwell anytime soon.
Plans to build the Sites Reservoir have been in the works since 1957, and if it is eventually approved, work on the project probably would not be complete for another 10 to 12 years, according to Jim Watson, the Sites Reservoir Project general manager.
“Sites is not for us. Sites is for our grandchildren,” said Nadine Bailey, chief operating officer for the Family Water Alliance in Maxwell.
As the state slogs through its fifth year of drought, many water agencies are increasingly turning to alternative water sources to boost supplies — source like seawater, brackish groundwater and recycled wastewater.
But those need a lot of energy to treat. Now a local state senator wants to use California’s growing renewable energy supply to help meet that demand. “In the old days I remember we had this thing called Flex Your Power,” said state Senator Bob Hertzberg (D-Van Nuys).
The California State Water Resources Control Board will soon set a maximum contaminant level for 1,2,3 Trichloropropane, or 1,2,3 TCP.
It’s found in industrial solvents and cleaning agents, but it was once found in two popular soil fumigants made by Dow Chemical and Shell Oil Company.
The pesticide byproduct contaminated groundwater throughout the Central Valley. State water regulators have found 1,2,3 TCP in 94 public drinking water systems in 16 counties.
Right now, water systems in California are only required to notify residents if the chemical is found at a certain health-based advisory level.
Now that the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California officially owns 20,000 acres of Delta farmland, a question asked of General Manager Jeff Kightlinger at a public forum last week becomes even more relevant.
The question: As an absentee landowner in the Delta, what does it mean to Metropolitan to be a “good neighbor?”
Southern California’s largest water supplier has bought sprawling farmland that could be used to help build twin tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
The Sacramento Bee reports (http://bit.ly/2a3qYUm) the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California said Monday it has completed its purchase of five islands at the hub of California’s water system east of San Francisco.
The newspaper reports Metropolitan announced the completion of the purchase in a two-paragraph memo to board members from the agency’s general counsel.
