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Opinion: Water Rights Reformers Scored Only a Minor Victory in the Legislature

/in , , /by /Cal Mattersby Dan Walters

A centerpiece of California’s perpetual political and legal wrangling over allocation of water is the complex array of rights that stretch back to the earliest years of statehood in the 19th century.

Simply put, those who claimed water before 1914, when the state assumed legal control, have “senior rights” that traditionally have entitled them to virtually unlimited supplies even when other users face cutbacks during drought.

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Future Ancestors of Freshwater Fishes in California

/in , , /by /California WaterBlog by Peter B. Moyle

We are living in the Anthropocene, an era being defined by global mass extinctions caused by humanity. While on-going and impending extinctions of birds and other terrestrial vertebrates gain the most attention, the situation with freshwater fishes (and other freshwater organisms) is as bad or worse, partly because many freshwater extinctions are nearly invisible events, hidden by murky waters (Moyle and Leidy 2023).

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Earth Just Had its Warmest August — and Summer — on Record, Spurring Dire Warnings

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Haley Smith

Amid a backdrop of extreme weather events and devastating wildfires, federal and international officials this week issued dire warnings about record-setting temperatures and the worsening effects of climate change.

Last month was the planet’s warmest August on record, and the Northern Hemisphere experienced its hottest meteorological summer, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday.

“Global marine heat waves and a growing El Niño are driving additional warming this year, but as long as emissions continue driving a steady march of background warming, we expect further records to be broken in the years to come,” read a statement from NOAA chief scientist Sarah Kapnick.

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EPA Bolsters States’ Control of Water, Infrastructure Permitting

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby E.A. Crunden

The Biden administration is restoring significant state and tribal authority over water resources and expanding their leverage on infrastructure permitting decisions, including for pipelines.

With a final rule announced Thursday, EPA reversed Trump-era limitations on state permit approvals, a move the agency said would bolster state and tribal abilities to protect their waters. In addition to restoring certain oversight powers, the move also gives states, tribes and territories a direct role in determining the duration of review processes.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement that the rule would support “economically secure, healthy, and sustainable communities” and foster the relationship between the federal government and its lower-level partners.

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‘Salton Sea Conservancy’ Bill Stalls in California Legislature Amid Bureaucracy Concerns

/in , /by /Palm Springs Desert Sunby Erin Rode

Would a proposed Salton Sea Conservancy help efforts in the troubled region? Elected officials and local organizations are split, with some saying it will just add another layer of bureaucracy to already mired efforts.

California Senate Bill 583, authored by state Sen. Steve Padilla, D-San Diego, and coauthored by Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, would create the Salton Sea Conservancy, “tasking it with coordinating management of all conservation projects in the region to restore the shrinking sea and reducing the negative health impact the Sea imposes,” according to Padilla’s office. There are currently 10 similar state conservancies under the California Natural Resources Agency, including the local Coachella Valley Mountains Conservancy.

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Pumped Storage Hydropower is the Greenest Renewable Energy Technology, Study Says

/in , , /by /OPBby Monica Samayoa

Pumped storage hydropower is the greenest renewable energy technology for large-scale energy storage, a new study suggests.

Researchers with the National Renewable Energy Laboratory said closed-loop pumped storage hydropower will have a lower carbon footprint throughout the lifecycle of the technology, from construction to decommissioning, than other renewable energy storage technologies like lithium-ion batteries. Portland Business Journal first reported the study.

Closed-looped pumped storage hydropower uses two water reservoirs located at different elevations, one higher than the other, that generate power as water flows or gets pumped, from one reservoir to another. Closed-looped pumped storage hydropower is not connected to continuously naturally flowing water sources.

As the nation continues to push forward to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and transition from using fossil fuels to limit the effects of climate change, storing renewable energy in batteries or pumped storage hydropower has come up as a possible solution for creating cleaner energy at a large scale. Other grid-scale technologies have proven difficult to create, from gathering essential minerals to finding an area large enough to place these technologies. Researchers said closed-looped pumped storage hydropower could be the answer.

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Earth is Outside its ‘Safe Operating Space for Humanity’ on Most Key Measurements, Study Says

/in , , /by /APby Seth Borenstein

Earth is exceeding its “safe operating space for humanity” in six of nine key measurements of its health, and two of the remaining three are headed in the wrong direction, a new study said.

Earth’s climate, biodiversity, land, freshwater, nutrient pollution and “novel” chemicals (human-made compounds like microplastics and nuclear waste) are all out of whack, a group of international scientists said in Wednesday’s journal Science Advances. Only the acidity of the oceans, the health of the air and the ozone layer are within the boundaries considered safe, and both ocean and air pollution are heading in the wrong direction, the study said.

“We are in very bad shape,” said study co-author Johan Rockstrom, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany. “We show in this analysis that the planet is losing resilience and the patient is sick.”

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Climate Change Making Summer Hotter Despite Mild Season in California

/in , , /by /ABC 10 by Brenden Mincheff

It wasn’t too bad of a summer season here in Northern California and really, when it comes to temperature, the entire state of California had a pretty mild summer.

Perhaps Kaitlyn Trudeau, a meteorologist with Climate Central, summed it up best: “Well, it wasn’t as hot as it’s been in recent years.”

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Pleasanton Residents Protest Water Rate Hikes

/in , /by /The Independent by Fay Yassini

 A petition that has garnered more than 1,800 signatures on change.org is challenging the accuracy of the data that the City of Pleasanton has presented about proposed water rate increases.

The Pleasanton City Council meets next Tuesday to consider raising water rates starting in November. The city says residents would be charged an average of $33 more every two months to start, but rates could go up as much as $75 for that same time period by 2026.

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Water, Sewer Bills in This SLO County City Could Rise by Nearly 20% Due to Deficit

/in , /by /The Tribune by John Lynch

Water and sewer bills in Grover Beach could increase by nearly 20% to make up for a $2 million deficit in revenue, the city announced Wednesday in a news release. At its Sept. 5 meeting, the Grover Beach City Council learned about the findings from a recent utility rate study, heard recommendations and unanimously instructed the city staff to start the Proposition 218 process, a step in notifying the public about proposed rate changes, the release said.

 

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