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Opinion: One Water District is Trying to Make Sure Agriculture Cleans Up Its Own Mess

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Jacques Leslie

A Central California water board is poised to do something rare in American agriculture: It is trying to establish enforcement mechanisms — not just toothless regulations — to limit the use of farm fertilizers that contribute to dangerous levels of groundwater pollution. If the effort is successful, within a few decades it will have reversed or at least stopped adding to the pollution of groundwater beneath the Salinas and Santa Maria valleys.

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Torched Towns Beset by Poisoned Water

/in , /by /E&E Newsby Hannah Northey

After a wildfire ripped through central California last month, residents in the Riverside Grove neighborhood in the Santa Cruz Mountains discovered another danger: contaminated water coursing through their pipes.

Benzene, a chemical tied to cancer, leukemia and anemia, was detected in the town’s drinking water after 7 miles of plastic water piping was torched in the CZU Lightning Complex Fire south of San Francisco. Plastic pipes are used for their flexibility in earthquake-prone California. Today, about 450 homes there remain under a “do not drink” advisory.

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Surprise Finding: Calif. Drought Vulnerability ‘Very Low’

/in , , /by /E&E Newsby Thomas Frank

California is one of the least vulnerable states to drought even as it faces record wildfires, according to a first-ever state ranking funded by NOAA. The “Drought Vulnerability Index” finds that Oklahoma is the most susceptible to extreme dryness followed by two other states — Montana and Iowa — with a “very high” drought vulnerability.

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Friant-Kern Canal Fix Gets Over Major Hump

/in , , /by /The Sun Gazetteby Reggie Ellis

The plan to fix subsidence in the Friant-Kern Canal and restore water deliveries to farmers in southern Tulare County and Kern County got over a major hump last week. On Sept. 18, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the Friant-Kern Canal, released final environmental documents for its plan to repair a 33-mile stretch of canal between Lindsay and McFarland. The final environmental impact report represents a significant milestone in beginning work to restore flows to the lower third of the 153-mile long canal running along the Valley’s east side.

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WIFIA Improvement Act Looks to Assist Public Water Projects

/in , , /by /AgNet West

The WIFIA Improvement Act of 2020 was recently introduced as a means for helping provide support for public water projects. The bipartisan legislation would make changes to the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act of 2014. The amendments would make water projects eligible for low-interest federal loans from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Reservoir-Release Pilot Project in Colorado Begins this Week to Test Possible Compact Call

/in , , /by /The Aspen Timesby Heather Sackett

Beginning Wednesday, Front Range water providers will release water stored in Homestake Reservoir in an effort to test how they could get water downstream to the state line in the event of a Colorado River Compact call. Aurora Water, Colorado Springs Utilities and Pueblo Board of Water Works will each release 600 acre-feet from Homestake Reservoir, which is near the town Red Cliff, for a total of 1,800 acre-feet that will flow down Homestake Creek to the Eagle River and the Colorado River.

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How Beavers Became North America’s Best Firefighter

/in , , /by /National Geographicby Ben Goldfarb

The American West is ablaze with fires fueled by climate change and a century of misguided fire suppression. In California, wildfire has blackened more than three million acres; in Oregon, a once-in-a-generation crisis has forced half a million people to flee their homes. All the while, one of our most valuable firefighting allies has remained overlooked: The beaver.

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Teichert Ponds Fish Dying Due to Ash, Poor Air Quality and Lack of Oxygen

/in , , /by /Enterprise Recordby Justin Couchot

Over the last week the city of Chico has received several calls from nearby residents informing staff members of dead fish floating in Teichert Ponds near Highway 99 in Chico. The Park and Natural Resource Manager for Chico and Butte County Linda Herman confirmed the dead fish being reported are on the back side of the pond near the fresh water area, saying the fish have succumbed to lack of oxygen in the water due to a thick layer of ash that has formed atop many parts of the pond.

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Last Minute Loan Keeps Drinking Water Projects Afloat

/in , , /by /San Joaquin Valley Waterby Lois Henry

Small, failing drinking water systems got a funding life preserver among a flurry of budget bills at the chaotic end of the California legislative session.

Drinking water advocates had fretted the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) program, intended to help struggling water systems in mostly poor, rural areas, would fall victim to the pandemic-flattened economy.

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California Approves New Treatment Method for Removing Nitrate from Groundwater

/in , , /by /Water World

An innovative process that uses naturally occurring bacteria to remove nitrate from contaminated groundwater has received approval from California’s State Water Board as a treatment method.

The validation stems from a recent pilot study of the Hall BioProcess™ by MIH Water Treatment, Inc. and the San Antonio Water Company in Upland, California.

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