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Planning For A Drier Future In The Colorado River Basin

/in , /by /Public Policy Institute of California (San Francisco, Calif.)by Lori Pottinger

The Colorado River has experienced decades of over-allocation of its waters, making it harder to address the added challenges that climate change is bringing. The recently adopted Drought Contingency Plan (DCP) was an important step toward addressing the basin’s chronic water shortages, but more work is needed to prepare for a hotter, drier future. We talked to Doug Kenney—director of the Western Water Policy Program at the University of Colorado and a member of the PPIC Water Policy Center research network―about managing the basin for long-term water sustainability. Kenney organized a conference in June that covered these issues in depth.

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Storms, Floods Cause $1.2B Damage To Public Infrastructure

/in , , /by /Associated Press

Storms and flooding have caused significant damage throughout the U.S. during the first half of 2019. The Associated Press tallied about $1.2 billion of damage in 24 states based on preliminary assessments of public infrastructure categories established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The tally includes damage to roads and bridges, utilities, water control facilities, public buildings and equipment, and parks. Each state must meet particular damage thresholds to qualify for federal aid based on their populations. Most, though not all, of the damage costs tallied by the AP will be eligible for federal aid. Figures for some states include updated damage costs provided to the AP by state agencies after their initial reports to FEMA.

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Reclamation Offering Grant Funding To Prepare For Drought Resiliency Projects In 2020 And 2021

/in , , /by /California Water News Daily

Extended, multi-year droughts have become more the norm in the exception throughout the western United States and the Bureau of Reclamation is keenly aware of the situation. Consequently, Reclamation recently announced that it is making grant funding opportunities available to assist communities in building long-term resilience for future droughts. This funding opportunity is part of the WaterSMART Drought Response Program for projects in 2020 and 2021. Up to $300,000 per agreement is available for a project that can be completed within two years. Up to $750,000 per agreement is available for a project that can be completed within three years. Recipients must match the funding with a minimum of 50 percent non-federal cost-share.

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California Will Check On ‘Forever Chemicals’ In Drinking Water. What You Need To Know

/in , , /by /KQED News (San Francisco, Calif.)by Molly Peterson

Over 75 years, a billion-dollar industry has grown up around a group of toxic chemicals that helps keep carpets clean, makes water roll off of camping equipment, and stops your food from sticking to frying pans. There are nearly 5,000 of these chemicals in a class called PFAS, for perfluoralkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. We’re just beginning to understand the risk they pose. What chemists know is that the tough carbon-fluorine bonds in these “forever chemicals” make them break down very slowly in the environment — posing a persistent risk to water supplies.  The Centers for Disease Control has profiled PFAS, which has been studied in people and in animals. Studies have linked to it developmental problems, thyroid disease, harm to the immune system, and impaired liver function.

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Environment Report Out On New $1 Billion Dam Proposed For Santa Clara County

/in , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)by Paul Rogers

A plan to build a huge new $1.1 billion dam and reservoir near Pacheco Pass in southeastern Santa Clara County is taking a significant step forward with the release of hundreds of pages of environmental studies. The project, which would be the first new large dam built anywhere in the Bay Area since Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County in 1998, grew out of California’s recent five-year drought. Environmentalists have raised concerns about the project’s costs, and the fact that it would submerge 1,245 acres of oak woodlands on the north side of Highway 152 near Casa de Fruta — an area equal to about 943 football fields.

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OPINION: Farmers Don’t Need To Read The Science. We Are Living It.

/in , /by /The New York Timesby Alan Sano

Many farmers probably haven’t read the new report from the United Nations warning of threats to the global food supply from climate change and land misuse. But we don’t need to read the science — we’re living it. Here in the San Joaquin Valley, one of the world’s most productive agricultural regions, there’s not much debate anymore that the climate is changing. The drought of recent years made it hard to ignore; we had limited surface water for irrigation, and the groundwater was so depleted that land sank right under our feet. Temperatures in nearby Fresno rose to 100 degrees or above on 15 days last month, which was the hottest month worldwide on record, following the hottest June ever.

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Study Suggests New Climate Threats To California’s Oysters

/in , /by /KQED News (San Francisco, Calif.)by Kevin Stark

In the winter, rainstorms soak California’s coastline. In the spring and summer, strong winds blow waves into the narrow inlet of the Pacific Ocean. For the briny bivalves that live in the bay, this is part of the natural rhythm of life. But now, because of climate change, the torrents of winter rain run with increasing severity, and for oysters, all that freshwater can be dangerous. Summer’s waves bring increasingly acidic water, making it harder for small oysters to build their calcium-based shells. For years, scientists have warned that ocean acidification threaten oysters, but new research from UC Davis suggests that climate change ravages the creatures in a multitude of ways.

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Is It Too Late to Save Wild Salmon?

/in , , /by /Bloomberg (New York, N.Y.)by James Tarmy

Some of the world’s most famous conservationists have been hunters. Teddy Roosevelt, John James Audubon, and Ernest Hemingway each have the somewhat dubious distinction of saving animals’ habitats to try to kill them. Pacific salmon aren’t often mentioned alongside Roosevelt’s elephants or Hemingway’s tigers, but in Tucker Malarkey’s Stronghold (Random House, $28), fish is the biggest game of all. Malarkey’s protagonist is a charming misfit named Guido Rahr, who also happens to be her cousin. A naturalist almost as soon as he could walk, Rahr got hooked on fly fishing in his late teens, only to realize, to his horror, that the hydroelectric dams, agricultural runoff, commercial fishing industry, deforestation, and climate change in the Pacific Northwest could bring wild salmon to extinction.

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Spillway Boat Ramp Reopens Friday At Lake Oroville

/in , , /by /Chico Enterprise-Record (Chico, Calif.)by Oroville Mercury Register

The Lake Oroville Dam spillway boat ramp will officially reopen to the public (at least, on a partial basis) on Friday — more than two and a half years after it was closed in the aftermath of the spillway incident in February 2017. “We are thrilled to announce the reopening of the largest boat ramp facility at Lake Oroville,” said California’s Department of Water Resources director, Karla Nemeth, in a press release. “We want to thank the public for their patience during the Oroville spillway’s reconstruction.” DWR officials also recently gave the OK to reopen public access to the top of the Oroville Dam in late June.

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The Future Of Water Security | Serving Up Science

/in , /by /WKAR (Lansing, Mich.)by Sheril Kirshenbaum & Karel Vega

Water is critically important to agriculture as well as many aspects of our lives. On this week’s segment Sheril and Karel speak with Dr. Jay Famiglietti, director of the Global Institute for Water Security at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Canada about the future of water.

How much of Earth’s water is fresh water and why is that so important?

Famiglietti: It’s important because that’s the that’s the stuff that that helps us survive and flourish. And it turns out to be just a very small fraction of all the water that covers the earth. But ninety seven percent is ocean water, saline water, and only three percent is freshwater. Of that three percent, most of that is frozen.

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