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Program to Replace Nitrate-Laden Drinking Water Moving Too Slowly, Advocates Say

/in , /by /SJV Waterby Jesse Vad

Free water deliveries have started for some San Joaquin Valley residents with nitrate contaminated wells.

But advocates worry that nine months into the state’s nitrate control program, outreach has been lacking and not enough wells have been tested.

The nitrate control program launched in May of 2021. It offers free water deliveries for residents whose wells test over the limit for nitrates. The program is mandated by the State Water Resources Control Board and funded by nitrate polluters throughout the valley.

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State Groundwater Management May Require Metered Wells, Additional Fees

/in , /by /Kenwood Pressby Christian Kallen

The lengthy, multifaceted work of the Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency reached a benchmark in December 2021 when its board approved a Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP) and sent it off to the state for review and potential approval. The plan, including references and appendices, came in at a hefty 1,285 pages, though attentive readers can get the gist in the 28-page executive summary. The final plan is online at sonomavalleygroundwater.org, or available in hard copy at the Sonoma Valley Regional Library, 755 W. Napa St., Sonoma.

Probably the most notable part of the plan is the section dealing with potential groundwater user fees and permits — necessary steps to assure the plan is viable and effective.

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Opinion: California’s Variable Water Supply Needs More Than Rainfall

/in , , /by /Bloomberg Lawby Allison Schutte and Nathan Metcalf

Downpours in October and December, along with record snowfall in the Sierra Nevada, alleviated dry conditions statewide and moved California out of the U.S. Drought Monitor’s “exceptional” drought category. The state is still mandating conservation and curtailing water diversions, however, and water agencies have declared water shortage emergencies and called for mandated water use restrictions.

Why is most of California still in an “extreme” or “severe” drought?

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A Vision for More Sustainable Farmlands

/in , /by /High Country Newsby Theo Whitcomb

From above, California’s San Joaquin Valley spills out of the Sierra Nevada in a checkerboard of earth-toned farmland. It’s some of the most valuable land in the world; every year, the agribusiness industry here produces billions of dollars’ worth of milk, vegetables and nuts. But the scale, and the industrial intensity, of agriculture require an enormous amount of groundwater to be pulled out of aquifers deep belowground — more than the industry can afford to pump, according to hydrologic modeling.

According to projections from the Public Policy Institute of California, between 535,000 and 750,000 acres — around 15% of the valley’s irrigated farmland — will need to be taken out of irrigated production in order to meet the requirements of the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

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The Drought in the Western U.S. Could Last Until 2030

/in , , /by /National Geographicby Alejandra Borunda

There have been brief moments of reprieve in the drought that has stretched on since 2000 in the western United States—a water-rich 2011, a snow-laden 2019—but those breaks have only highlighted the more dramatic feature of the last few decades: unrelenting dryness.

Without human-driven climate change forcing Earth’s temperatures up, the ongoing drought would still be painful and parched. But it would be unexceptional in the grand scheme of the past 1,200 years. A new study in Nature Climate Change shows that Earth’s warming climate has made the western drought about 40 percent more severe, making it the region’s driest stretch since A.D. 800. And there’s a very strong chance the drought will continue through 2030.

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Opinion: Will Salton Sea Lithium Dreams Come True? It Will Be Years Before We Know

/in , , /by /Desert Sunby Desert Sun Editorial Board

The underground chemical stew beneath the Salton Sea is believed to hold enough lithium to power millions of cars and homes with green energy. But only if — a big if — enough of that scalding “geothermal brine” can be brought to the surface and the lithium sifted out.

That’s an incredibly complex process. And it’s just about as hard for those who live around the sea to separate reality from dreams when it comes to the impact of all that lithium.

In the best case, we’ve heard over the years, a lithium boom could generate billions of dollars; bring thousands of badly needed jobs for those living near the sea; spur an environmental revival; and give clean energy to a region, the state and beyond.

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Floating Solar Panels Could Be the Next Big Thing in Clean Energy

/in , , /by /Popular Scienceby Thor Benson

Solar panels can be placed on your roof, on a plot of land, or basically anywhere else where they  are anchored to something solid. That said, there are only so many solid spaces available to install them. To beat climate change, our electricity mix is going to need a lot more renewable energy systems to take over fossil fuels.  Many in the solar industry are looking for a new home for solar panels—possibly even floating on water.

Floating solar farms have been around for over a decade, but water-bound panels became much more prominent in the last few years. The basic idea is to attach solar panels to plastic floats which then drift on a body of water.

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One Colorado Farmer Is Going Against the Grain to Use Less Water. It’s Working.

/in , , /by /The Colorado Sunby Chris Outcalt

On a chilly morning 5 miles north of Fruita, Lowell King, standing at the edge of a cornfield, reaches down, grabs a clump of dirt, and starts tearing at the soil with his meaty fingers. King eventually points to a tiny white spot in the dirt. “Anytime you can see stuff almost like that mold right there, that’s fungi,” he says. “And there’s all this other good stuff, and these roots intertwined; that’s what increases your water infiltration.”

King, who’s been farming in the Grand Valley since 2005, is illustrating an important principle of a concept known as regenerative agriculture — a technique he says could help Colorado stretch its dwindling water supplies. But adopting that philosophy also requires rejecting deeply entrenched conventional farming methods, such as tilling fields to prepare the ground for planting.

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Where California’s Key Reservoirs Stand After the 2nd Driest January Ever

/in , , /by /SF GATEby Amy Graff

California hasn’t seen rain in over a month, and some of the state’s key reservoirs are starting to be impacted.

Shasta Lake, the state’s largest reservoir, was at 54% of its historical average as of Feb. 9, compared to 72% last year, the California Department of Water Resources said. San Luis Reservoir on the eastern slope of the Diablo range is at 59% of its historical average, compared to 71% last year.

Other reservoirs are up from where they were at this time last year.

“This would be expected given that last year was the 2nd driest year for CA in our observed record and the 2020-2021 two year period set a new record for dryness,” Michael Anderson, the state climatologist for the Department of Water Resources, wrote in an email.

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California Sizzles in February Heatwave

/in , , /by /phys.orgby Paula Ramon

A heatwave was bringing unseasonably high temperatures to California on Thursday, sending sun-worshippers to the beach, but also sparking a brushfire.

Forecasters issued a heat warning for the most populous US state through to Sunday, warning the mercury could hit a height-of-summer 90 Fahrenheit (32 Celsius) in Los Angeles, well above the average for winter.

California, in common with much of the western United States, is enduring a historic drought and wild swings in weather that scientists say is exacerbated by man-made climate change.

“If you warm the planet, you’re going to break heat records,” said geographer Justin Mankin of Dartmouth College.

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