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Scripps Institution of Oceanography Gets $4.9M Grant to Find Cause of Deadly Algae Blooms

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Bradley J. Fikes

Harmful algae blooms periodically erupt off the West Coast, injuring or killing marine mammals and costing fisheries millions. To better understand and predict these blooms, UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography has been awarded a $4.9 million federal grant. The five-year grant from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was announced Monday. It’s intended to shed light on why algae in the genus Pseudo-nitzschia sometimes produce the neurotoxin domoic acid.

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Fishery Plans Aim to Add Flexibility to Water System

/in , /by /AgAlertby Christine Souza

In an action that influences how water will move through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, federal fisheries agencies have issued new biological opinions to guide operation of federal and state water projects. Representatives of farmers and water districts said the opinions released last week promise to enhance the flexibility of the California water system. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA Fisheries determined that the proposed long-term operations of the federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project do not jeopardize the continued existence of protected salmon and delta smelt in the bay-delta watershed.

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Demand-Management Groups Multiply in Colorado Water Fight

/in , /by /The Aspen Timesby Heather Sackett

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — The state of Colorado’s investigation into the feasibility of a demand-management program has spawned the spinoff of several additional groups to study the issue, underscoring persistent tensions between the Western Slope and Front Range water managers. In June, the Colorado Water Conservation Board named 74 people — most of them experts in their fields — to nine workgroups charged with helping the state study whether a water-use reduction plan is right for Colorado.

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Artwork From 4 Area Students to be Featured in 2020 ‘Water is Life’ Calendar

/in , /by /La Cañada Valley Sunby Valley Sun Staff

Four students living within the Foothill Municipal Water District service area were named finalists in this year’s “Water is Life” art contest. Their works made the final selection of 36 drawings that will be included in the 2020 Metropolitan Water District of Southern California calendar. Crescenta Valley High School ninth-grader Heidy Hur, La Cañada High School 7/8 student Jacqueline Lee, Paradise Canyon Elementary School second-grade student Reya Etman and La Cañada Elementary School first-grader Isabella McArthur wowed the judges with their creative works of art urging water conservation.

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Padre Dam’s Ambitious Drinking Water Recycling Project to Get Federal Funding

/in , , /by /Times of San Diegoby Chris Jennewein

The Padre Dam Municipal Water District announced Tuesday that its East County Advanced Water Purification project was selected to apply for nearly $350 million in federal funding. The water purification project is expected to create a sustainable municipal water supply through purification of east San Diego County’s recycled water, according to district officials. The project is scheduled for completion in 2025 and could generate up to 11.5 million gallons of drinking water per day, roughly 30% of east county’s drinking water demand.

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Garamendi Water Infrastructure Bill Passes Committee

/in , /by /The Reporterby Nick Sestanovich

A bill by Rep. John Garamendi, D-Solano, to support local wastewater treatment and water recycling infrastructure projects unanimously passed the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Tuesday. The bill is part of House Resolution 1497, which aims to reauthorize the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Water State Revolving Fund. Garamendi’s bill aims to extend the maximum term for National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System issued under the federal Clean Water Act from five to 10 years.

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World Unprepared For Impact of Climate Change On Mountain Water Supplies: Experts

/in , , /by /Reuters by Emma Farge and Cecile Montavani

The world faces increased flooding, droughts and possible conflicts due to the effects of climate change on fresh water supplies drawn from mountains but is “woefully unprepared” to tackle these risks, experts said.

Mountain-sourced water supplies, which provide about half of all drinking water worldwide, is becoming more unpredictable as warmer temperatures melt glaciers and change precipitation patterns and river levels, affecting countries unevenly.

In some areas, such as the Alps, extra water from glaciers has caused flash floods while shrinking snow cover in the Andes has led to droughts in places like Chile.

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Agencies Dismiss Concerns About Trump’s Calif. Water Plan

/in , , /by /E&E News by Adam Aton

California water projects have pushed winter-run chinook salmon into the single place that remains suitable for them to breed: the reservoir behind the Shasta Dam.

Even that sanctuary fails during drought years as the same pressures that drove salmon into the reservoir — too little water and too much heat — take hold in their only breeding ground. Climate change is making those pressures worse, and the chinook population is closer than ever to extinction, according to NOAA Fisheries.

 

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The Fight To Stop Nestlé From Taking America’s Water To Sell In Plastic Bottles

/in , , /by /The Guardian by Tom Perkins

The network of clear streams comprising California’s Strawberry Creek run down the side of a steep, rocky mountain in a national forest two hours east of Los Angeles. Last year Nestlé siphoned 45m gallons of pristine spring water from the creek and bottled it under the Arrowhead Water label.

Though it’s on federal land, the Swiss bottled water giant paid the US Forest Service and state practically nothing, and it profited handsomely: Nestlé Waters’ 2018 worldwide sales exceeded $7.8bn.

Conservationists say some creek beds in the area are now bone dry and once-gushing springs have been reduced to mere trickles. The Forest Service recently determined Nestlé’s activities left Strawberry Creek “impaired” while “the current water extraction is drying up surface water resources”.

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Eastern Municipal Water District Receives $36M State Grant for Groundwater Improvements

/in , , /by /California Water News Daily by California Water News Daily

Eastern Municipal Water District’s (EMWD) proposed Perris North Groundwater Program received a major boost with a $36.3 million grant from the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB). The proposed project is a long-term solution to improve groundwater quality in the North Perris Groundwater Basin, in the Moreno Valley area of Riverside County. The program would also make beneficial use of available local groundwater supplies, further reducing reliance on imported water supplies, by up to 6,700 acre-feet per year.

The grant award covers up to 50 percent of the estimated $72 million program to remove and contain nitrates, perchlorates, volatile organic compounds, and total dissolved solids from groundwater in the basin. It is the largest grant in EMWD’s history.

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