Stockholm’s architecture, waterways and balmy climate make Sweden’s capital a tourist haven in the summer. Throw in the networking appeal of almost 4,000 people in town for the annual World Water Week confab, including government officials and executives from big companies like Diageo, Apple and Nestlé, and it’s hard to imagine Wall Street types not flooding the event. But most stay away.
Her Senate Bill 1 is the year’s most far-reaching environmental legislation. It declares that the state would adhere to laws governing clean air, water, endangered species and labor that were in place in January 2017, when President Trump took office, and before he set about trying to unravel environmental law. Farm groups mounted a major campaign to sway legislators to amend or kill the bill, and seemed to be gathering momentum.
Scientists have detected microplastic pollution in Lake Tahoe’s deep blue waters for the first time. Now they are trying to determine its source and potential harm to the lake’s flora and fauna.
Preliminary analyses of water samples collected by researchers at the Desert Research Institute in Reno revealed the presence of particles of synthetic fiber and bits of red and blue plastic no bigger than the head of a pin.
California Water Service (Cal Water) recently completed two infrastructure projects in the Kern River Valley and Los Altos. The first was the installation of more than 4,200 feet of a new transmission water main in the Los Altos’ Rancho neighborhood, which will strengthen water system reliability and infrastructure resiliency for customers and enhance fire protection in emergencies. Cal Water crews installed new 16-inch, ductile iron water main on Covington Road, between Parma Way and South El Monte Avenue, and extending to the intersection of Foothill Expressway and South El Monte Avenue. “Through careful planning and execution, we were able to complete this complex water system improvement project without disrupting our customers’ water service,” said Cal Water District Manager Ron Richardson.
State oil and gas regulators say they’re launching an investigation of operations in a Kern County oil field after a series of large, uncontrolled crude petroleum releases near Chevron wells — including one that has continued on and off for more than 16 years and may have spewed out more than 50 million gallons of crude oil.
The state Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources, known as DOGGR, served Chevron with a notice of violation on Friday, ordering the company to stop major, uncontrolled surface flows at a site called Gauge Setting 5, or GS-5, in the Cymric oil field. Oil has been flowing from the location since March 2003.
The Bureau of Reclamation will provide a total of $16.98 million to five communities in California, Hawaii and Texas to help plan, design and construct congressionally authorized Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Projects. Title XVI is part of Reclamation’s WaterSMART Program that focuses on improving water conservation and helping water-resource managers across the West to make sound decisions about water use
Rocky Mountain water managers worried about climate-driven depletion across the Colorado River Basin are mulling a “grand bargain” that would overhaul obligations among seven southwestern states for sharing the river’s water. This reflects rising concerns that dry times could turn disastrous. An enshrined legal right of California and lower-basin states to demand more Colorado River water could imperil half of Denver’s water supply. The grand bargain concept arose from increasing anxiety in booming Colorado and the other upper-basin states — New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — about their plight of being legally roped into sending more water downriver, even if dry winters, new population growth and development made that impossible without shutting faucets.
The U.S. state of California is facing the biggest water reforms in its history after crippling drought exposed major failings in the water management behind the mighty food bowl.
California’s main water agency lowered the level of “forever chemicals” detected in water that would trigger notification requirements. The updated State Water Resources Control Board guidelines change notification levels for two per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, fluorinated chemicals that persist in the environment and have become ubiquitous in water supplies. Water agencies will have to notify their governing board—whether it’s their own board of directors or local government legislators—if they detect concentrations of the chemicals in their water sources. The state guidelines lower the notification trigger from 14 parts per trillion for perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) to 5.1 parts…
The Skagit Public Utility District is making water available to Skagit County farmers through the end of the month for emergency drought relief. PUD commissioners voted Aug. 8 to transfer some of its water rights to irrigation districts 15 and 22 in southwest Skagit County, allowing the districts to pump water from the Skagit River for crop irrigation. The state Department of Ecology approved the transfer Aug. 9. Jason Vander Kooy, a dairy farmer in district 15, said Wednesday the water will help about 10 farmers over 1,000 acres wrap up late-season irrigation.
