Rosana Monge clutched her husband’s death certificate and an
envelope of his medical records as she approached the
microphone and faced members of the water utility board on a
recent Monday in this city in southeast New Mexico. “I
have proof here of arsenic tests — positive on him, that were
done by the Veterans Administration,” she testified about
her husband, whose 2023 records show he had been diagnosed with
“exposure to arsenic” before his death in February at age 79.
“What I’m asking is for a health assessment of the community.”
… Naturally occurring in the soil in New Mexico, arsenic
seeps into the groundwater used for drinking. In water, arsenic
has no taste, odor or color — but can be removed with
treatment. Over time, it can cause a variety of health
problems, including cancer, diabetes and heart disease,
endangering the lives of people in this low-income and
overwhelmingly Latino community.
Nutrient (nitrogen [N] and phosphorus [P] chemistry)
downgradient from onsite wastewater treatment system (OWTS) was
evaluated with a groundwater study in the area surrounding
Elizabeth Lake, the largest of three sag lakes within the Santa
Clara River watershed of Los Angeles County, California.
Elizabeth Lake is listed on the “303 (d) Impaired Waters List”
for excess nutrients and is downgradient from more than 600
OWTS. The primary objective of this study was to develop a
conceptual hydrogeological model to determine if discharge from
OWTS is transported into shallow groundwater within the
Elizabeth Lake subwatershed and contributes nutrients to
Elizabeth Lake in excess of the total maximum daily load
limit.
In an effort to protect more than 5 million Californians from a
cancer-causing contaminant, state regulators today set a new
standard that is expected to increase the cost of water for
many people throughout the state. The State Water Resources
Control Board unanimously approved the nation’s first drinking
water standard for hexavalent chromium, which is found
naturally in some California groundwater as well as water
contaminated by industries. Now water suppliers will be forced
to install costly treatment to limit the chemical in water to
no more than 10 parts per billion — equivalent to about 10
drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Ecuador on Tuesday began to ration electricity in the country’s
main cities as a drought linked to the El Niño weather pattern
depletes reservoirs and limits output at hydroelectric plants
that produce about 75% of the nation’s power. The power cuts
were announced on Monday night by the ministry of energy, which
said in a statement that it would review its decision on
Wednesday night. … The power cuts in Ecuador come days after
dry weather forced Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá to ration
water as its reservoirs reached record lows, threatening local
supplies of tap water. In the town of La Calera, on the
outskirts of Bogotá, water trucks visited neighborhoods where
water has been scarce recently because a local stream that
supplies the town with water is drying up.
Kings County growers will face millions of dollars in fees and
a mandate to report groundwater pumping after California
officials voted unanimously today to put local agencies on
probation for failing to protect the region’s underground water
supply. The unprecedented decision is a first step that could
eventually lead to the state wresting control of a groundwater
basin in a severely depleted part of the San Joaquin
Valley. Before issuing the probation order, the State
Water Resources Control Board had repeatedly warned five
groundwater agencies in Kings County that their management plan
for the Tulare Lake basin is seriously deficient, failing to
rein in the dried-up wells, contaminated water and sinking
earth worsened by overpumping.
A new lawsuit filed by public drinking water systems in
California against manufacturers of toxic “forever chemicals”
is among the first to cite new Biden administration regulations
that set strict limits for the chemicals in drinking water. The
Orange County Water District and more than a dozen other
California water utilities filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles
federal court on Friday against seven manufacturers of per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, including Dynax America
Corp. and Arkema Inc. The lawsuit accuses the manufacturers of
negligence and of creating a nuisance by contaminating water
with PFAS, and seeks money to remediate that contamination.
For the first time in California history, state officials are
poised to crack down on overpumping of groundwater in the
agricultural heartland. The State Water Resources Control
Board on Tuesday will weigh whether to put Kings County
groundwater agencies on probation for failing to rein in
growers’ overdrafting of the underground water supply.
Probation — which would levy state fees that could total
millions of dollars — is the first step that could allow
California regulators to eventually take over management of the
region’s groundwater.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [last week] unveiled
the first nationwide limits on dangerous “forever chemicals” in
drinking water, setting standards that will have sweeping,
costly effects throughout California. … In California
alone, traces of the compounds have been detected in water
systems serving more than 25 million people, nearly a third in
disadvantaged communities, according to an analysis by
the Natural Resources Defense Council.
… the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [on
Wednesday] announced the final National Primary Drinking Water
Regulation establishing the first national legally enforceable
drinking water standards … for six per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly referred to as
“forever chemicals” …. actions required for public water
systems under the final rule are likely going to require
significant investment of money, time, and human effort.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced
the first federal limits on PFAS — manmade “forever
chemicals” linked to cancer, organ damage and other health
issues — in the nation’s drinking water. The regulation,
which was initially proposed in 2023, requires water systems to
reduce levels of six of the most studied types of PFAS to
the lowest levels that can be reliably measured with
testing. … The Bay Area’s drinking water generally
has low levels of PFAS because large water systems in the
region get most of their drinking water from pristine sources
in the Sierra or local reservoirs in regional parks, according
to researchers who study toxic chemicals in drinking water. The
city of San Francisco, for instance, gets most of its water
from Hetch Hetchy, a reservoir north of Yosemite Valley.
California lawmakers want to establish the state’s position on
environmental health, taking a first step Monday in their
proactive approach to ensure processes for the state’s
environmental management remains secure, regardless of any
federal changes. … The Los Angeles Democrat is
propositioning a constitutional amendment that would enshrine
into law the Californian’s right to clean air, water and the
environment. Assembly Constitutional Amendment 16,
authored by Bryan, passed Monday out of the Assembly Natural
Resources Committee and into his chamber’s Appropriations
Committee. It must pass both houses by at least two-thirds and
then secure a majority vote at the polls.
The Commerce Department announced Monday it pledged up to
$6.6 billion to Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC,
which will add a third chip manufacturing facility in Arizona
to the two in the works. The grant will go down in Washington
as one of the crown jewels of the Biden administration’s
initiative to bring the supply chain for ubiquitous—and
strategically vital—computer chips back to the United
States. But in Phoenix, where the factories are going to
be built, TSMC faces a lingering question: where’s the water
going to come from in one of the driest cities in the
country?
They’re in makeup, dental floss and menstrual products. They’re
in nonstick pans and takeout food wrappers. Same with rain
jackets and firefighting equipment, as well as pesticides and
artificial turf on sports fields. They’re PFAS: a class of
man-made chemicals called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances.
They are also called “forever chemicals” because the bonds in
their chemical compounds are so strong they don’t break down
for hundreds to thousands of years, if at all. They’re also in
our water. A new study of more than 45,000 water samples
around the world found that about 31 percent of groundwater
samples tested that weren’t near any obvious source of
contamination had PFAS levels considered harmful to human
health by the Environmental Protection Agency.
New California legislation seeks to permanently ban paraquat, a
powerful and widely used weedkiller that has been linked to
Parkinson’s disease and other serious health issues. Assembly
Bill 1963, introduced recently by Assemblymember Laura Friedman
(D-Glendale), would sunset the use of paraquat beginning in
January 2026. The herbicide, which is described by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency as highly toxic, is regularly
sprayed on almonds, grapes, cotton and other crops in the
state. … California is the nation’s top user of paraquat
…
Nearly half of US prisons draw water from sources likely
contaminated with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, new research
finds. At least around 1m people incarcerated in the US,
including 13,000 juveniles, are estimated to be housed in the
prisons, and they are especially vulnerable to the dangerous
chemicals because there is little they can do to protect
themselves, said Nicholas Shapiro, a study co-author at the
University of California in Los Angeles.
The Navajos live in the same 1,400-mile-long Colorado River
Basin that brings fresh water to millions in Southern
California, yet about 30% of homes on the reservation were
built without indoor plumbing. With the absence of pipes
connecting homes in this isolated corner of the reservation to
a water source, many Navajos must spend hours each week driving
to a community center in the tribal settlement of Dennehotso to
refill portable tanks. … Some see hope in a
proposed landmark agreement that would settle all
outstanding water rights disputes between the Navajo, Hopi and
San Juan Southern Paiute tribes and the state of Arizona. If
the final terms of the agreement are approved by the tribal
government, the Navajos will ask Congress for $5 billion in
federal funding to expand the reservation’s water delivery
infrastructure.
Chemical manufacturer 3M will begin payments starting in the
third quarter to many U.S. public drinking water systems as
part of a multi-billion-dollar settlement over contamination
with potentially harmful compounds used in firefighting foam
and several consumer products, the company said. St. Paul,
Minnesota-based 3M announced Monday that last year’s lawsuit
settlement received final approval from the U.S. District Court
in Charleston, South Carolina. The agreement called for payouts
through 2036. Depending on what additional contamination is
found, the amount paid out will range from $10.5 billion to
$12.5 billion.
The San Luis Valley Groundwater Basin stretches from San Luis
Obispo to Edna Valley — but a toxic chemical swirling in the
water prevents the city from using the resource for drinking
water. That will soon change, however. San Luis Obispo won a
$6.6-million grant to install wells that remove
tetrachloroethylene, a chemical also known as PCE, from the
groundwater, according to city water resources program manager
Nick Teague. The wells should be operational by 2026 and will
allow the city to fulfill about 12% of its drinking water
needs, he said.
Groundwater in Arizona belongs to all of us. It is a public
resource and sensible management of it is vital to our shared
future. But instead of fulfilling their obligation to
protect this finite and diminishing water supply, Arizona’s
Republican legislators have introduced dozens of bills at the
statehouse aimed at enriching residential developers and
corporate farmers who want to expand their groundwater
use. Many of these bills are advancing and will end up on
the governor’s desk. One intent of these bills is to
weaken the state’s assured water supply requirement for
development in urban areas. This crucial consumer protection
prevents the sale of subdivision lots that lack a 100-year
water supply, thereby assuring our desert state’s
longevity. -Written by Kathleen Ferris, a Phoenix water
attorney and sits on the Governor’s Water Policy
Council.
The Biden-Harris administration is redoubling its efforts to
improve cybersecurity for the nation’s water systems. In March,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White
House issued a dire warning to state governors alerting them of
the need to protect water and wastewater systems from ongoing
cybersecurity threats and requested that the states provide
plans to decrease the risk of attacks on water and wastewater
systems in their state. … While the letter focused on
the national need for investment in water infrastructure,
California’s water systems are in particularly dire need for
upgrades. The EPA has previously estimated that California
needs about $51 billion in improvements to its water
infrastructure.
[Denise] Moreno Ramírez wasn’t surprised when she heard an
Australian mining company, South32, planned to open a
manganese, zinc, lead and silver operation in the same area
where her family had worked. … But this latest proposed mine
was alarming, she said, because Biden is fast-tracking
it in the name of the energy transition – potentially
compromising the mountain’s delicate ecosystems, many of which
have begun to be restored as mines have shut
down. … A growing network of Arizona residents say
that allowing the mine to proceed as planned could introduce a
grave new layer of environmental injustices.
…Conservationists say they worry that South32 is seeking to
use water irresponsibly amid long-term drought.
Residents at Friendly Acres Mobile Home Park were given bottled
water and warned about possible contamination in their
well during a March meeting organized by the Central Valley
Regional Water Quality Control Board and California’s Division
of Drinking Water. First reported by the Red Bluff Daily News,
the concern stems from alarming levels of per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances. Those man-made chemicals, called
PFAS, are used to make a huge number of modern products like
stain-resistant material, nonstick cookware, food packaging and
waterproof clothing. They’ve also been linked to health impacts
including cancer, liver and thyroid damage.
A generational issue for the families living in San Lucas
continues as they’ve gone decades without drinking water. Soon
federal, state, and local leaders will secure nearly a million
dollars to build a pipeline to King City. … Plants not
growing, animals dying, young children unable to bathe, this is
the reality for those living in the unincorporated South
Monterey County town of San Lucas.
Plastic fragments have been found at the top of the Alps, in
the deepest parts of our oceans and likely, in your local
waterways. Some of this microplastic is in the form of nurdles.
You may not be familiar with them, but these lentil-sized
plastics pose a huge threat to our waters and
wildlife. Nurdles, also called plastic pellets, are the
building blocks of plastic manufacturing. At plastic factories,
pellets that fall on the floor or get contaminated with dirt
are sometimes washed down drains. Because they’re small and
lightweight, nurdles are often spilled during transport too.
… Plastic pellets are extremely difficult to clean up once
they reach our waterways, and often polluters are not held
accountable.
To address the concern of historic groundwater overdraft in the
San Joaquin Valley, the California Water Institute at Fresno
State, with assistance from students and faculty, conducted a
feasibility study to explore the potential for groundwater
recharge within disadvantaged communities. … The analysis
identified four potential locations for the design and
construction of recharge basins near or in the cities of
Kerman, Raisin City, Caruthers and Laton.
Two Tahoe towns are saying no to plastic water
bottles. South Lake Tahoe’s ban on single-use
plastic water bottles and paper cartons is slated to go into
full effect next month, soon after neighboring Truckee
passed an ordinance to implement a similar
ban. … The League to Save Lake Tahoe found that
single-use plastic bottles are one of the top five types of
litter in the Tahoe Basin, Truckee’s news release
states.
Plastics are also … used in agriculture. Macroplastics are
used as protective wraps around mulch and fodder; they cover
greenhouses, shield crops from the elements, and are used to
make irrigation tubes, sacks, and bottles. … While there are
significant benefits to using plastics in agriculture, there
are emerging concerns regarding the risks associated with
agricultural plastics. Over time, macroplastics slowly break
down, fragmented by wind and sunlight into ever-smaller pieces
to generate microplastics and nanoplastics. These tiny plastic
particles seep into the soil, changing its physical structure
and limiting its capacity to hold water.
For two weeks, Tsholofelo Moloi has been among thousands of
South Africans lining up for water as the country’s largest
city, Johannesburg, confronts an unprecedented collapse of its
water system affecting millions of people. Residents rich and
poor have never seen a shortage of this severity. While hot
weather has shrunk reservoirs, crumbling infrastructure after
decades of neglect is also largely to blame. The public’s
frustration is a danger sign for the ruling African National
Congress, whose comfortable hold on power since the end of
apartheid in the 1990s faces its most serious challenge in an
election this year.
CBS 8 is Working for You to get to the bottom of water billing
problems in the City of San Diego. It’s been four months since
Mission Hills homeowner Ken Perilli received a notice in the
mail that his water bills were being withheld, pending an
investigation by the city of San Diego into “abnormal water
use.” “The first reaction is to panic that you have a leak
under a slab, and that you’re going to be facing an expensive
plumbing repair bill,” said Perilli. He called a plumber and
checked for water leaks, but nothing seemed abnormal. “I
investigated the abnormal reading. And you can see that there
is dirt in front of the meter. So, the abnormal reading is that
there was no reading taken, I believe,” said Perilli. On
the social media site Next Door, Perilli said he found dozens
of similar complaints by neighbors.
“Water is Life,” was the Lakota rallying cry at Standing Rock
as thousands weathered severe freezing conditions to stop an
oil pipeline threat to their water. In Arizona water is life
too but here we’re way beyond having our water resources
threatened. They’re right now being needlessly and excessively
plundered for corporate profit as the Arizona Corporation
Commission rolls out the red carpet for fossil fuel energy,
depletes our precious water resources and ends up maximizing
utility shareholders’ dividends. Now most of us can wrap
our heads around this — burning fossil fuels to make
electricity causes and worsens climate change, but it’s harder
to wrap your head around just how much water is consumed in the
process. Here’s how much water is used by different energy
sources to produce 1 megawatt hour of electricity. -Written by Rick Rappaport, a member of Tucson Climate
Coalition, Tucson Chapter of Citizens Climate Lobby and
Arizonans for Community Choice Energy
At the Indian Wells Valley Water District board meeting on
March 11, the Water District board moved forward in learning
about the process of consolidating the Dune 3 water mutual
company into their service area. Some negotiation and planning
still needs to happen before any decision is finalized, but for
the moment the board is willing to cautiously move forward in
the process. The IWV Water District serves water to IWV
residents by pumping water out of the IWV groundwater basin.
However, they are not the only ones doing so. Dotted all across
IWV are domestic well owners and even a few other public or
private organizations resembling a water district. If one of
those organizations fails, an obligation still exists to serve
water to the people in that region.
Imagine putting billions of dollars into creating something
that tastes like nothing. When it comes to municipal water
systems the world over, that’s what water companies strive to
provide — no bad or off flavors, no assertive minerals, just
bland safety. It’s a miracle, and one we shouldn’t take for
granted. In The Taste of Water, author Christy Spackman looks
beyond the glass to ask how our water should and shouldn’t
taste. Spackman, a professor at Arizona State University, is
also the director of the Sensory Labor(atory), an experimental
research collective dedicated to disrupting longstanding
sensory hierarchies. Through her work, she became interested in
why people eat what they do and how the management of taste and
smell done by food scientists and engineers, shapes the
experiences we often take for granted.
The U.S. government is warning state governors that foreign
hackers are carrying out disruptive cyberattacks against water
and sewage systems throughout the country. In a letter released
Tuesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan
warned that “disabling cyberattacks are striking water and
wastewater systems throughout the United States.” The letter
singled out alleged Iranian and Chinese cyber saboteurs.
Sullivan and Regan cited a recent case in which hackers accused
of acting in concert with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had
disabled a controller at a water facility in Pennsylvania. They
also called out a Chinese hacking group dubbed “Volt Typhoon”
which they said had “compromised information technology of
multiple critical infrastructure systems, including drinking
water, in the United States and its territories.”
Microplastics are tiny, nearly indestructible fragments shed
from everyday plastic products. As we learn more about
microplastics, the news keeps getting worse. Already
well-documented in our oceans and soil, we’re now discovering
them in the unlikeliest of places: our arteries, lungs and even
placentas. Microplastics can take anywhere from 100 to 1,000
years to break down and, in the meantime, our planet and bodies
are becoming more polluted with these materials every day.
Finding viable alternatives to traditional petroleum-based
plastics and microplastics has never been more important. New
research from scientists at the University of California San
Diego and materials-science company Algenesis shows that their
plant-based polymers biodegrade — even at the microplastic
level — in under seven months. The paper, whose authors are all
UC San Diego professors, alumni or former research scientists,
appears in Nature Scientific Reports.
At least 70 million Americans get their water from a system
where toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” were found at levels that
require reporting to the Environmental Protection Agency.
That’s according to new data the EPA released in its ongoing
5-year review of water systems across the nation. The number
will almost certainly grow as new reports are released every
three months. … Found in drinking water, food,
firefighting foam, and nonstick and water-repellent items, PFAS
resist degradation, building up in both the environment and our
bodies. Salt Lake City; Sacramento,
California; Madison, Wisconsin; and Louisville,
Kentucky, were among the major systems reporting PFAS
contamination to the EPA in the latest data release.
What if the looming calamities of climate change, plastic
pollution, the energy crisis and our whole environmental
doom-scroll are symptoms of just one malady and it’s something
we actually can fix? That’s right, the planet is fighting a
single archvillain: Waste. Americans live in the most wasteful
civilization in history. … Waste is so deeply embedded in our
economy, products and daily lives that it’s hard to see
clearly, or to see at all. … How is it “normal”
that 40% of what our industrial farm and food system
produces ends up as garbage? … The average American
throws out three times more trash today than in 1960. Pin much
of that garbage growth on plastic waste, so pervasive now that
tiny bits of it are in food, water, beer and even human hearts,
lungs and newborn babies’ poop. -Written by Edward Humes, a Pulitzer Prize-winning
journalist. His latest book, “Total Garbage: How We Can Fix Our
Waste and Heal Our World,” will be published in April.
Hastings, Minnesota, is staring down a $69 million price tag
for three new treatment plants to remove PFAS chemicals from
its water supply, ahead of new US federal regulations limiting
the amount of so-called forever chemicals in public drinking
water — which could come as early as this month. … [T]he
project amounts to a “budget buster,” says city administrator
Dan Wietecha. Operation and maintenance costs for the new
plants could add as much as $1 million to the tab each year
… Cities across the US are bracing for costly upgrades
to their water systems as the Environmental Protection Agency
moves to finalize the first-ever enforceable national drinking
water standards for PFAS — or per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances — a large group of man-made chemicals used for
decades in manufacturing and in consumer products.
School-age children affected by the water crisis in Flint,
Mich., nearly a decade ago suffered significant and lasting
academic setbacks, according to a new study released Wednesday,
showing the disaster’s profound impact on a generation of
children. The study, published in Science Advances, found
that after the crisis, students faced a substantial decline in
math scores, losing the equivalent of five months of learning
progress that hadn’t recovered by 2019, according to Brian
Jacob, one of the study’s authors. The learning gap was
especially prevalent among younger students in third through
fifth grades and those of lower socioeconomic status. There was
also an 8 percent increase in the number of students with
special needs, especially among school-age boys.
Allensworth is one of the testing grounds for a hydropanel that
creates drinking water out of thin air. But two years into the
program, community members say the hydropanel company has left
them high and dry while many of the hydropanels have broken
down. Allensworth has struggled with arsenic-laced
groundwater for decades. In 2021, Source Global, the company
behind the hydropanels, installed two in Allensworth to test
out the technology. Each panel generates about a gallon of
drinking water per day by condensing water vapor in the air
into liquid form. In 2022, a philanthropic organization
bought 1,000 hydropanels to be installed throughout the Central
Valley. Allensworth now has about 42 panels, according to
Source Global.
The California State Water Resources Control Board issued a
$6.6 million grant for a city of San Luis Obispo project
intended to clean up contaminated groundwater. Presently, the
city does not use groundwater for its drinking water supply.
SLO’s potable water supply comes from Whale Rock Reservoir,
Santa Margarita Lake and Nacimiento Reservoir. City
officials have sought to diversify the water supply in an
attempt to achieve “greater drought and climate change
resiliency.” Previously, contamination from
tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, served as a barrier to doing so.
PCE is a toxic chemical produced by dry cleaning and industrial
activities, which took place in the city decades ago. The
cleanup project will consist of the city building two new
groundwater supply wells that are expected to be fully
operation in 2026.
In California and across the country, household water rates
have been rising as utilities invest to upgrade aging
infrastructure, secure future supplies and meet treatment
standards for clean drinking water. As monthly water bills
continue to increase, growing numbers of customers have been
struggling to pay. New federal legislation would establish a
water assistance program to help low-income families pay their
bills and prevent shutoffs of water service. The bill,
introduced by Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla, would make
permanent a federal program that Congress authorized in 2020
during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program provided more than $1
billion in assistance, but it’s expiring.
Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks
or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw
enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix
broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that
don’t work. … Across the U.S., trillions of gallons of
drinking water are lost every year, especially from decrepit
systems in communities struggling with significant population
loss and industrial decline that leave behind poorer residents,
vacant neighborhoods and too-large water systems that are
difficult to maintain.
Water regulation in Arizona has devolved into a game of
chicken. The governor and farmers are rivals revving their
engines, hoping their opponent will flinch first. Caught
in the middle is Gila Bend, a groundwater basin south of
Buckeye, where the state could decide to impose its most
stringent form of regulation, whether folks like it or not.
Both sides are using Gila Bend as a bargaining chip to win
support for competing legislative proposals. But to what
end? - Written by Joanna Allhands, Arizona Republic digital
opinions editor
The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee is holding an
important hearing Thursday on S. 2385, a bill to
refine the tools needed to help Tribal communities gain access
to something that most non-Indian communities in the western
United States have long taken for granted: federally subsidized
systems to deliver safe, clean drinking water to our homes.
… This is the sort of bill (there’s a companion on the
House side) that makes a huge amount of sense, but could easily
get sidetracked in the chaos of Congress. The ideal path is for
the crucial vetting to happen in a process such as Thursday’s
hearing, and then to attach it to one of those omnibus things
that Congress uses these days to get non-controversial stuff
done. Clean water for Native communities should pretty clearly
be non-controversial.
State health officials know that extreme heat can cost lives
and send people to the hospital, just like wildfire smoke. Now,
new research finds that when people are exposed to both hazards
simultaneously — as is increasingly the case in California —
heart and respiratory crises outpace the expected sum of
hospitalizations compared to when the conditions occur
separately. … The study joins a growing body of research
about the intersection of different climate risks. Last month,
California-based think-tank the Pacific
Institute published a report about how converging
hazards — including wildfires, drought, flooding, sea level
rise and intensifying storms — are harming access to drinking
water and sanitation in California and other parts of the
world. The deadly 2018 Camp fire in Butte
County impacted an estimated 2,438 private wells, the
report said.
After more than two decades of
drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the
arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking
water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the
water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are
racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable
reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on
imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
… A state audit from the California Water Resources Control
Board released last year found that over 920,000 residents
faced an increased risk of illness–including cancer, liver and
kidney problems–due to consuming unsafe drinking water. A
majority of these unsafe water systems are in the Central
Valley. The matter has prompted community leaders to mobilize
residents around water quality as politicians confront
imperfect solutions for the region’s supply. Advocates point
out that impacted areas, including those in Tulare County, tend
to be majority Latino with low median incomes. … This
year’s extreme weather has only worsened the valley’s problems.
The storms that hit California at the start of this year caused
stormwater tainted with farm industry fertilizer, manure and
nitrates to flow into valley aquifers.
Tiny pieces of plastic waste shed
from food wrappers, grocery bags, clothing, cigarette butts,
tires and paint are invading the environment and every facet of
daily life. Researchers know the plastic particles have even made
it into municipal water supplies, but very little data exists
about the scope of microplastic contamination in drinking
water.
After years of planning, California this year is embarking on a
first-of-its-kind data-gathering mission to illuminate how
prevalent microplastics are in the state’s largest drinking water
sources and help regulators determine whether they are a public
health threat.
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Shortly after taking office in 2019,
Gov. Gavin Newsom called on state agencies to deliver a Water
Resilience Portfolio to meet California’s urgent challenges —
unsafe drinking water, flood and drought risks from a changing
climate, severely depleted groundwater aquifers and native fish
populations threatened with extinction.
Within days, he appointed Nancy Vogel, a former journalist and
veteran water communicator, as director of the Governor’s Water
Portfolio Program to help shepherd the monumental task of
compiling all the information necessary for the portfolio. The
three state agencies tasked with preparing the document delivered
the draft Water Resilience Portfolio Jan. 3. The document, which
Vogel said will help guide policy and investment decisions
related to water resilience, is nearing the end of its comment
period, which goes through Friday, Feb. 7.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Each day, people living on the streets and camping along waterways across California face the same struggle – finding clean drinking water and a place to wash and go to the bathroom.
Some find friendly businesses willing to help, or public restrooms and drinking water fountains. Yet for many homeless people, accessing the water and sanitation that most people take for granted remains a daily struggle.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Low-income Californians can get help with their phone bills, their natural gas bills and their electric bills. But there’s only limited help available when it comes to water bills.
That could change if the recommendations of a new report are implemented into law. Drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board, the report outlines the possible components of a program to assist low-income households facing rising water bills.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
Joaquin Esquivel learned that life is
what happens when you make plans. Esquivel, who holds the public
member slot at the State Water Resources Control Board in
Sacramento, had just closed purchase on a house in Washington
D.C. with his partner when he was tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown a
year ago to fill the Board vacancy.
Esquivel, 35, had spent a decade in Washington, first in several
capacities with then Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then as
assistant secretary for federal water policy at the California
Natural Resources Agency. As a member of the State Water Board,
he shares with four other members the difficult task of
ensuring balance to all the uses of California’s water.
A new study could help water
agencies find solutions to the vexing challenges the homeless
face in gaining access to clean water for drinking and
sanitation.
The Santa Ana Watershed Project
Authority (SAWPA) in Southern California has embarked on a
comprehensive and collaborative effort aimed at assessing
strengths and needs as it relates to water services for people
(including the homeless) within its 2,840 square-mile area that
extends from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Orange County
coast.
A statewide program that began under a 2015 law to help
low-income people with their water bills would cost about $600
million annually, a public policy expert told the California
State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) at a
meeting last week.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
Directly detecting harmful pathogens in water can be expensive,
unreliable and incredibly complicated. Fortunately, certain
organisms are known to consistently coexist with these harmful
microbes which are substantially easier to detect and culture:
coliform bacteria. These generally non-toxic organisms are
frequently used as “indicator
species,” or organisms whose presence demonstrates a
particular feature of its surrounding environment.
This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses
the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent
facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully
illustrated with color photographs.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
This 30-minute DVD explains the importance of developing a source
water assessment program (SWAP) for tribal lands and by profiling
three tribes that have created SWAPs. Funded by a grant from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the video complements the
Foundation’s 109-page workbook, Protecting Drinking Water: A
Workbook for Tribes, which includes a step-by-step work plan for
Tribes interested in developing a protection plan for their
drinking water.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
Finding and maintaining a clean
water supply for drinking and other uses has been a constant
challenge throughout human history.
Today, significant technological developments in water treatment,
including monitoring and assessment, help ensure a drinking water
supply of high quality in California and the West.
The source of water and its initial condition prior to being
treated usually determines the water treatment process. [See also
Water Recycling.]
A tremendous amount of time and technology is expended to make
surface water safe to drink. Surface water undergoes many
processes before it reaches a consumer’s tap.
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act sets standards for drinking
water quality in the United States.
Launched in 1974 and administered by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the Safe Drinking Water Act oversees states,
communities, and water suppliers who implement the drinking water
standards at the local level.
The act’s regulations apply to every public water system in the
United States but do not include private wells serving less than
25 people.
According to the EPA, there are more than 160,000 public water
systems in the United States.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater management and the extent to which stakeholders
believe more efforts are needed to preserve and restore the
resource.
This printed issue of Western Water, based on presentations
at the November 3-4, 2010 Water Quality Conference in Ontario,
Calif., looks at constituents of emerging concerns (CECs) – what
is known, what is yet to be determined and the potential
regulatory impacts on drinking water quality.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the challenges facing
small water systems, including drought preparedness, limited
operating expenses and the hurdles of complying with costlier
regulations. Much of the article is based on presentations at the
November 2007 Small Systems Conference sponsored by the Water
Education Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
This issue of Western Water looks at some of the issues
facing drinking water providers, such as compliance with
increasingly stringent treatment requirements, the need to
improve source water quality and the mission of continually
informing consumers about the quality of water they receive.
This issue of Western Water examines PPCPs – what they are, where
they come from and whether the potential exists for them to
become a water quality problem. With the continued emphasis on
water quality and the fact that many water systems in the West
are characterized by flows dominated by effluent contributions,
PPCPs seem likely to capture interest for the foreseeable future.
This issue of Western Water examines the problem of perchlorate
contamination and its ramifications on all facets of water
delivery, from the extensive cleanup costs to the search for
alternative water supplies. In addition to discussing the threat
posed by high levels of perchlorate in drinking water, the
article presents examples of areas hard hit by contamination and
analyzes the potential impacts of forthcoming drinking water
standards for perchlorate.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
