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While Already Scorchers, World Deserts Could Get Even Hotter

/in , /by /The Weather Networkby Mario Picazo

The world is becoming a warmer place, and according to research conducted by a group of scientists from the University of California in Riverside and Los Angeles, already scorching hot deserts are expected to get much hotter in the near future. The results published in the Climate Change Report for California shows how by mid-century, average daily temperatures in the deserts of Southern California could soar well above current values, and that would most likely be the norm across many other deserts around the world. Average daily high temperatures have already increased between 8 and 9°C this century, and if greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise at the current rate, the impact on California, and other desert regions of the world in a similar situation could spell trouble.

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Federal Official Blocks Water For Walker Lake Restoration, Conservation Group Alleges In Court Document

/in , /by /The Nevada Independent (Las Vegas)by Daniel Rothberg

A federal official is attempting to “obstruct” the flow of water to restore habitat at Walker Lake, the conservancy responsible for administering federal restoration funds alleged in federal district court last week. After years of litigation, lawyers for the Walker Basin Conservancy said that “at some point, the court must put a stop to the federal water master’s obstruction.”

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California Adopts 2030 Preferred System Portfolio With 12 GW New Wind, Solar, Storage, Geothermal

/in , , /by /Utility Dive (Washington, D.C.)by Robert Walton

California’s IRP decision Friday is a major step for the state, but regulators stressed that the review process will be more robust going forward as increasing amounts of capacity are procured by aggregators rather than distribution utilities. The targets the commission approved “are not hard procurement targets for the load-serving entities, but they do point to the scale of what we need to procure, and they indicate the attributes of resources that we need to achieve the emissions, reliability, and cost goals,” Commissioner Liane Randolph wrote in a blog post. The order sets out “the optimal 2030 portfolio of supply- and demand-side resources needed to achieve our state’s ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets.”

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California Attorney General Becerra To Army Corps: Directive To Weaken State Oversight Of Water Quality Is Unlawful

/in , , /by /Sierra Sun Times

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra yesterday joined a multistate comment letter objecting to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (Army Corps) directive to weaken states’ oversight of projects impacting water quality. The Army Corps’ directive would drastically shorten timeframes for state water quality certifications under Section 401 of the Clean Water Act (CWA). This abbreviated timeframe would prevent states from adequately assessing the water quality impacts of proposed federal projects to ensure states’ water resources are protected.

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OPINION: How Silicon Valley Provides The Blueprint For Cleaning Up Our Drinking Water

/in , , /by /The Washington Postby Jason A. Heppler

In 2016 the Colorado health department announced the presence of cancer-causing chemicals in drinking water in Fountain, Colo., just outside Colorado Springs. Tests by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that nearby military bases had been leaching toxic chemicals, including substances known as PFASs, into drinking water for decades, potentially contributing to higher-than-normal rates of cancer. The Department of Defense has since admitted their responsibility for at least 55 drinking-water site contaminations worldwide, and the EPA has announced new plans to set drinking-water limits for PFASs by the end of the year.

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Snowmelt Causes Seismic Swarm Near California’s Long Valley Caldera

/in , /by /Science Daily ( Rockville, Md.)

The unusual event prompted U.S. Geological Survey researcher Emily Montgomery-Brown and her colleagues to look back through 33 years of seismic and water records for the region. They found that rates of shallow seismicity were about 37 times higher during very wet periods versus dry periods. Although scientists have linked earthquakes to heavy rainfall or heavy runoff before this, the evidence connecting the two has been relatively weak or ambiguous, says Montgomery-Brown. In the Long Valley Caldera case, she says, “we’re seeing phenomenal correlation between the seismicity and the stream discharge, and we are seeing about 37 times the number of earthquakes during the wet season as during the dry season.”

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Salton Sea Pelican Population Declining At Startling Rate

/in , , /by /KESQ-TV (Palm Springs)by Sam Benson Smith

A new report paints a grim future for birds that rely on the Salton Sea habitat. Audubon California-released report uses bird-monitoring data from several different sources to show just how the destruction of the Salton Sea ecological habitat has decimated the populations of both pelicans and cormorants endemic to the area. As the Salton Sea recedes, the body of water’s salinity increases, which kills off its tilapia population. Without tilapia, the birds starve.

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A Look Back At The Specifics Of A Wild, Wet And Snowy Winter In California And The Southwest

/in , /by /Accuweatherby Brian Thompson

Following a pretty dry 2017-18 season, the storms came back with a frenzy this season across the Southwest, helping to propel many places to above-average precipitation. It was a fast transition in California in November from the destructive Camp and Woolsey fires in the first half of the month to storms, flooding and mudslides by the end of the month. December had extended dry periods, and most places ended up with below-average precipitation for the month. As a stormier pattern led to frequent storms and atmospheric river events as 2019 started, the heavy precipitation events caused flooding, mudslides and heavy snow.

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E.P.A. Proposes Weaker Standards On Chemicals Contaminating Drinking Water

/in , , /by /The New York Timesby Eric Lipton and Julie Turkewitz

After pressure from the Defense Department, the Environmental Protection Agency significantly weakened a proposed standard for cleaning up groundwater pollution caused by toxic chemicals that contaminate drinking water consumed by millions of Americans and that have been commonly used at military bases. Standards released by the agency on Thursday eliminated entirely a section that would have addressed how it would respond to what it has described as “immediate threats posed by hazardous waste sites.” Those short-term responses, known as removal actions, can include excavating contaminated soil or building a security fence around a toxic area.

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Cal Am Desal Plant Gets Narrow Planning Commission OK

/in , , /by /Monterey Heraldby Jim Johnson

Citing long-running efforts to secure a new Monterey Peninsula water supply and the state-imposed deadline for reducing unauthorized water usage, the county Planning Commission approved California American Water’s desalination plant north of Marina on Wednesday. By a 6-4 vote, the commission backed a use permit for the proposed 6.4 million gallon per day desal plant. The plant is designed to provide about 40 percent of the Peninsula’s planned new water supply to offset the state’s Carmel River pumping cutback order set to take full effect at the end of 2021, as well as reduce pumping from the Seaside basin. The commission’s approval can be appealed to the Board of Supervisors.

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