Sites Reservoir, the largest new water storage proposal in California, recently won a commitment of $816 million in state funds to help with construction. It promises to deliver enough water every year, on average, to serve one million homes. But regulatory realities looming in the background may mean the project has substantially less water at its disposal.
State law does not currently allow surface water to be used for groundwater recharge if the goal is managing pollution, reversing subsidence or controlling salinity. That could be a problem as local agencies begin trying to make their groundwater use more sustainable. Groundwater depletion is a big problem in parts of California. But it is not the only groundwater problem. The state also has many areas of polluted groundwater, and some places where groundwater overdraft has caused the land to subside, damaging roads, canals and other infrastructure. Near the coast, heavy groundwater pumping has caused contamination by pulling seawater underground from the ocean.
The Lake Oroville spillway’s 400-acre construction site is an intense flurry of activity. In one corner, an excavator driver uses an old tire as a squeegee to clean away loose rock and prep a foundation. In the steeply sloping spillway chute, a crane operator flies in a rebar cage to workers who tie it into neighboring chute wall segments. Everywhere, dump trucks buzz around the circuitous roadways while rock crushers and batch plants keep pace with dozens of dozers and excavators. Drones hover in the sky photographing and surveying the site, while inspectors pour over every detail of the finished assets.
Rep. Jeff Denham, one of the nation’s most vulnerable Republicans, is trying desperately to shut down a state water plan that’s widely disliked in his district. But nothing has worked so far. One thing could: Yet another lawsuit between the Department of Justice and the state of California over the issue. Denham first tried to include a provision in a congressional budget bill in July that would prevent a federal reservoir, called New Melones, from using federal dollars to participate in the plan, which would direct greater amounts of water out of his district’s water resources and into the ocean, purportedly to help salmon populations.
Monday marked the beginning of the 2019 water year. Experts say it’s hard to know what this year will bring – considering the state’s significant weather variability on a year-to-year basis – but steps are being taken to prepare in spite of the uncertainty. “It’s been relatively dry so far this past water year, but it’s no indication of what kind of year we are going to have in Water Year 2018-19,” said Mike Inamine, executive director of the Sutter Butte Flood Control Agency.
California voters in November will decide whether or not to approve a controversial $8.9 billion bond measure for water-related projects like groundwater storage, water treatment and restoring protected habitats.
The measure, Proposition 3, has divided the environmental community and drawn criticism from local newspapers, who say it would benefit wealthy farmers and agribusiness.
Rosa will spread the risk of life-threatening flash flooding over the interior Southwest, while a non-tropical storm spreads soaking rain into much of California this week.
Millions of people in the United States drink water contaminated with nitrates from agricultural runoff, which can have adverse effects on human health. For decades, cities and towns in California and the Midwest, where much of this pollution is concentrated, have tried to clean up their water—for a high price. Now, an Environmental Working Group report has found that the brunt of this cost falls on small, rural communities, where a disproportionate amount of residents are living in poverty.
The beginning of the eighth year of drought conditions in Santa Barbara should be a red-alert for water managers, but the crisis is being managed. A multi-part plan is being used to slow down the water use and preserve what’s in the local storage sites both above and below the ground.
In January of this year, a state law went into effect that requires public schools throughout California to test their drinking water for lead by July of 2019. Lawmakers enacted the regulation in an effort to improve water quality at schools. And while thousands of water districts have now tested their water for lead, a special report out of the education news website EdSource found many ways in which the law is lacking.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
