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Scientists Cook Up New Recipes For Taking Salt Out Of Seawater

/in , , /by /PHYS.org (Los Angeles)

As populations boom and chronic droughts persist, coastal cities like Carlsbad in Southern California have increasingly turned to ocean desalination to supplement a dwindling fresh water supply. Now scientists at the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) investigating how to make desalination less expensive have hit on promising design rules for making so-called “thermally responsive” ionic liquids to separate water from salt. Ionic liquids are a liquid salt that binds to water, making them useful in forward osmosis to separate contaminants from water.

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Cal Am Seeks Three-Year Rate Increase Starting In 2021

/in , /by /Monterey Heraldby Jim Johnson

California American Water is seeking to raise its Monterey area average customers’ bills by nearly 18 percent over a three-year period from 2021-2023. In its latest general rate case filing with the California Public Utilities Commission on July 1, Cal Am is seeking to raise water rates in its Monterey main district to increase revenue by about $8.4 million to cover new capital investment, increased labor expense, higher operations and administrative costs, and increased depreciation. Under the proposal, the “average” Cal Am customer would see their monthly rates increase from about $89.40 to $105.42 over the three-year period.

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Bringing Climate Projections Down To Size For Water Managers

/in , /by /Earth and Space Science News (Washington D.C.)by Kimberley M. S. Cartier

Models of what global climate will look like in 10, 50, and 100 years get more sophisticated every year. But what will climate change mean for water resources in regional communities? A group of researchers is building tools to help scientists and regional water managers answer that question. “We’ve been developing new models and new techniques…to refine our understanding of the uncertainty in projections going forward—for hydrology, for snowpack, for important water resources, for flood extremes,” said Andy Wood, a hydrometeorologist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colo. Wood is the principal investigator of the project. “We’re creating a large set of projections that go forward and tell us about future water security,” he said.

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California May Be First To Force Water Suppliers To Notify Customers Of Myriad Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’

/in , , /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)by Janet Wilson

The clock is ticking. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Wednesday to decide on a bill that would make California the first state in the nation to require water suppliers who monitor a broad class of toxic “forever chemicals” to notify customers if they’re present in drinking water. “A decision will come tomorrow,” a spokesman for Newsom said Tuesday. He declined to say what it would be. The PFAS chemicals, which have been widely used in everything from firefighting foam to Teflon pans, Scotchgard products and even some dental floss, have been linked in some research to cancers, developmental problems and thyroid and liver disease. They’re known as “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down in the environment or in human bodies.

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Study: El Niño Has Outsize Economic Effect On California

/in , , /by /The Washington Postby Mike Branom

Considering it’s been long known that El Niño conditions often bring about flooding precipitation to California, a ripe field for study would be a thorough examination of the damage wreaked. And who knows catastrophic damage better than insurers? Their specialized knowledge prompted a pair of San Diego researchers to compare 40 years of insurance data against climate and water data to quantify the effect of El Niño on flood damage in the western United States. The findings of Tom Corringham and Daniel Cayan, both of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California at San Diego, confirm the connections between extreme weather events and El Niño, which is the periodic warming of equatorial waters in the Pacific Ocean.

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Storms To Raise Risk Of Isolated flooding Over Interior West As North American Monsoon Continues

/in , /by /AccuWeatherby Alex Sosnoski

Portions of the interior western United States will be at risk for localized flash flooding and isolated severe thunderstorms this week. Just about every state west of the Great Plains and east of the Pacific coast will be at risk for thunderstorms in the pattern. However, some of the most dangerous storms may target the desert areas. As July ends and August begins, a surge of humid air from Mexico is forecast to bring a significant uptick in the amount of shower and thunderstorm activity over the deserts and mountains. The weather pattern is no stranger to the region during the summer and is considered to be routine during the North American monsoon season that extends from June to September.

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California Releases Roadmap For Water Resources Sustainability

/in , /by /CA Forward

Earlier this month, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) released the California Water Plan Update 2018. Update 2018 outlines state strategies and actions for managing California’s most precious resource in every region of the state. Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot highlighted the importance of the Water Plan, “Water management in California is a grand exercise in partnerships…State government and our many partners achieve more when we work together…Perhaps most importantly, Update 2018prioritizes supporting local and regional efforts to build water supply resilience across California. This approach recognizes that different regions of the state face different challenges and opportunities, yet all benefit from coordinated State support.”

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“Blue Power” Could Make Wastewater Plants Energy-Independent

/in , /by /New Atlasby David Szondy

Coastal wastewater treatment plants may be a nasty but necessary way to handle the effluent from our cities, but a new study by Stanford University indicates that they could also double as power plants to make them energy independent and carbon neutral. By mixing fresh water from the plants with seawater, the researchers say they have the potential to recover 18 gigawatts of electricity worldwide.

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Faster Water Cycle Brings Worries Of Increased Drought And Flooding In The United States

/in , , /by /The Weather Channelby Ron Brackett

New calculations of changes in the water cycle over the United States pinpoint several areas that could become increasingly dry over the next few decades, a new study says. They also showed areas that could see more flooding.

The water cycle is the movement of water on the planet — from falling as precipitation, such as rain, ice or snow, to being absorbed in the soil or flowing into groundwater and streams and then being evaporated to start all over again.

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Wind, Solar, Batteries And Carbon Taxes In California And Texas

/in , , /by /pv magazine by John Weaver

A research paper, The role of energy storage in deep decarbonization of electricity production, by University of Michigan scientists mixes energy storage types and pricing, carbon taxes, unique power grids in Texas and California, and adds 60 gigawatts of wind and solar to to model CO2 reductions and curtailment in economic markets.

The biggest finding of the research suggests that California will much sooner gain benefit from energy storage before Texas will because of a mix of flexible and inflexible generation, and types of renewables deployed. In California, the 60 GW deployed would lower emissions 72% – while in Texas 54%. Adding the carbon taxes and energy storage would make emissions fall 90% in California, but only increase to a 57% drop in Texas.

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