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Officials Hope A New Treatment Plant Will Help Fix This Small Sacramento County Town’s Drinking Water Issues

/in , /by /ABC10by Carlos Herrera

Unsafe drinking water is common in Northern Californian cities. So common, in fact, that Governor Gavin Newsom called it a crisis during his State of the State address in February. That’s why water officials in Sacramento County are taking steps to solve the problem for residents of Hood, a small town located 20 miles south of Sacramento. Sacramento County Water Resources recently broke ground on the new Hood Water Treatment Plant, providing a new source of safe and reliable drinking water for the community.

 

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Mysterious Freshwater Reservoir Found Hidden Beneath The Ocean

/in , , /by /Fox Newsby Christopher Carbone

Scientists have found a gigantic freshwater aquifer hidden deep below the ocean. The surprising discovery, from a new survey of the sub-seafloor off the northeast U.S. coast by researchers from Columbia University, appears to to be the largest formation of this type anywhere in the world — stretching from Massachusetts to New Jersey and extending continuously out about 50 miles to the edge of the continental shelf. Researchers said that if it was discovered on the surface it would create a lake covering some 15,000 square miles.

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Sustaining Integrated Portfolios For Managing Water In California

/in , , /by /California Water Blogby Jay Lund

Recently Governor Newsom issued a call for a state portfolio of actions to manage water under rapidly changing climate and other conditions.  Portfolio approaches attempt to integrate and balance a variety of actions (supply and demand management, surface water and aquifers) for single purposes (water supply, floods, safe drinking water) and often for multiple benefits, involving multiple interests.  A previous essay reviewed the successes and limitations of portfolio approaches to water management in California

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Can Utah’s Water Supply Keep Up With Its Booming Population?

/in , /by /Desert News (Utah)by Kim Bojorquez

Will Utah’s water supply catch up with the state’s rising population, expected to double by 2065? It was one of the several questions posed at Utah State University’s Research Landscapes series focused on Utah’s waterscapes. The event Tuesday at the O.C. Tanner headquarters in Salt Lake City attracted a mix of state and local government officials, businesses leaders, developers and nonprofit organizations. Rep. Timothy Hawkes, R-Centerville, said now is a great point in time to reflect on Utah’s water, as he remembers a time when talking about water would invoke ridicule or hostility.

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‘Centers Of Insurrection’: Central Valley Farmers Reckon With Climate Change

/in , , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Mark Shapiro

On an average day on the Burroughs farm outside of Denair, about an hour’s drive southeast of Modesto, you might witness the surprising sight of cows wandering amidst the almond trees. Chickens might peck their way by. And most definitely there will be plenty of free-spirited birds and bees and insects flickering across the scene, not to mention flowers and grasses unbound on the ground, making for a thick undermat amidst the rows of trees.

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Invasive Mussel Threatens Lake Powell Pipeline Project

/in , , /by /AP News

An invasive mussel that has taken up residence in Lake Powell on the Colorado River is threatening Utah’s push to develop a $1.8 billion pipeline to deliver water to fast-growing areas. The Army Corps of Engineers has asked the state to provide a plan on how it will prevent the pipeline from transporting quagga mussels from the lake on the Arizona-Utah border, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday. The 140-mile (225-kilometer) pipeline aims to transport water to Washington and Kane counties in southern Utah. The line is planned to end at Sand Hollow Reservoir near St. George.

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Officials: State Reservoirs Looking ‘Robust’

/in , , /by /Oroville Mercury - Registerby Brody Fernandez

The Department of Water Resources (DWR) announced Thursday it will increase the 2019 State Water Project allocation to 75 percent from 70 percent. According to DWR officials, this will be the final allocation for the calendar year. The initial allocation in November 2018 was 10 percent. “This winter’s robust storms resulted in above average snowpack and reservoir levels bringing California a much-improved water year from last year,” said DWR Director Karla Nemeth in a press release. “The full reservoirs will provide a healthy buffer for if we return to drier conditions next year.” According to the DWR’s website, a full reservoir provides optimal recreation opportunities and serves as a vital “water bank account” to help California cope with future drought conditions.

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Court Throws Out Federal Approval Of Cadiz Water Pipeline

/in , , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

A federal judge has struck down Trump administration decisions that cleared the way for Cadiz Inc. to build a water pipeline across public land in the California desert. The ruling is a blow to the company’s decades-long effort to pump groundwater from beneath its desert property 200 miles east of Los Angeles and sell it to urban Southern California. Cadiz wants to use an existing railroad right of way across federal land to pipe supplies from its proposed well field to the Colorado River Aqueduct. In 2015, during the Obama administration, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management said Cadiz couldn’t use the right of way and would therefore have to obtain federal permission to run the proposed pipeline across surrounding federal land.

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How Is Climate Change Affecting Oceans? Check The Tide Pools

/in , , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Nick Rahaim

On a sunny afternoon in mid-April, Professor Eric Sanford crouched in a tide pool off Bodega Bay and turned over algae-covered rocks in search of a chocolate porcelain crab, a dime-size crustacean with blue speckles. The creature has been spotted in small numbers around Bodega Bay for decades. But five years ago a severe marine heat wave, dubbed “the blob,” caused a sharp increase in its numbers north of the Golden Gate, says Sanford, a marine ecologist who researches climate change and coastal ecosystems at UC Davis’ Bodega Marine Lab. “I look at how organisms adapt to climate change,” says Sanford, who regularly publishes articles in scientific journals on how life between the Northern California tides is changing.

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California Bill On PFAS Chemicals Advances, But In Watered Down Form

/in , /by /KQED (San Francisco)by Hannah Hagemann

A California Senate committee has voted in favor of a bill requiring that water providers notify their customers if they detect a class of chemicals called PFAS in drinking water. The Environmental Quality Committee passed AB 756 on Wednesday, 6-0. The bill now heads to the Appropriations Committee. If it passes there, the full Senate will vote on it.  PFAS, which stands for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are waterproof, grease-repellent, and heat-resistant chemicals that are fairly ubiquitous, found in popcorn bags, firefighting foams, nonstick pans, makeup, and even food like ground beef. Scientists estimate there are 4,700 PFAS, some of which have been linked to cancer, infertility, developmental disorders, increased cholesterol and weakened immunity.

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