San Benito County Water Digest

Wet weather and planned cuts by California, Arizona and Nevada averted declines that could have threatened water deliveries and power production—but long-term threats to the Colorado River remain.

The federal bipartisan infrastructure law and the WIIN Act have combined to fund a major expansion of San Luis Reservoir.

Hundreds of wells in Tulare Lake aquifer are at risk of going dry. Today's recommendation is the first time that state officials have moved to crack down on local plans that fail to stop excessive groundwater pumping.

Water providers say rebates for residential areas are costly and residents may refuse to remove their lawns. The rules aim to save enough water for more than a million households a year.

The irrigation bill, which aims to force businesses and institutions to remove their lawns, now goes to the governor.

Raising Shasta Dam to increase its capacity would provide 634,000 more acre-feet of water per year, legislators say. But that assumes there will always be enough precipitation, and the move risks flooding sacred Native American lands and harming local habitats.

In the magazine Nature, a team of scientists reports that they have detected changes in ocean color that cannot be explained by natural, year-to-year variability alone. These color shifts have occurred over 56 percent of the world’s oceans.

The environmental costs of ending water diversions from Mono Lake to Los Angeles would be mixed: It might help a shore bird habitat but would require changes that increase carbon emissions.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom had to concede defeat on trying to get the Legislature to give a very contentious water tunnel project streamlined regulatory treatment.

The U.S. District Court for the District of Montana ruled the U.S. Forest Service can continue to use aerial fire retardant to fight wildfires while waiting on a Clean Water Act permit.

Environmentalists say it’s past time for California water officials to halt Los Angeles’ diversion of Mono Lake’s tributaries. But L.A. officials insist that water is a tiny but vital part of the city’s water supply.

California regulators say the state is unlikely to run short of electricity this summer, thanks to new power sources and a wet winter that filled reservoirs to restart hydroelectric power plants shuttered during the drought.

The San Benito County Water District will be awarded two grants to support water resiliency efforts in the county. The project that received funding, Accelerated Drought Response Project, is centered around groundwater recharge efforts.

The San Juan Bautista City Council approved a $18.7 million water agreement with the city of Hollister. City Manager Don Reynolds announced that the project to divert the city’s wastewater to the Domestic Wastewater Treatment Plant in Hollister is firmly on track.

Fort Bragg is embarking on an innovative pilot project to desalt ocean water for the Mendocino Coast community using carbon-free wave action to power an energy-intensive process that in other cases generates climate changing greenhouse gases.

The $2.2 million in funding comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law with funding leveraged by the Inflation Reduction Act. It aims to bring back species across an entire coastal landscape—from coastal grasslands to tidal salt marsh, eelgrass beds to native oysters.

And neither was 1952. The top honor should really go to 1983, which clinched first at 231% of normal, an analysis by the Bay Area News Group found.

The Eel River is now one of the 10 most endangered rivers in the United States, according to an annual report released by America's Most Endangered Rivers. The 50-year-old conservation group each year spotlights American waterways that are suffering but where key impending decisions could improve their fate.

One of the options would override California’s water rights and split the cuts evenly between California, Nevada and Arizona—which would be a big blow to Imperial Valley farmers.

As epic Sierra Nevada snowpack threatens to overwhelm this phantom lake bed with spring runoff, some fear the Tulare Lake Compost facility could be transformed into an environmental disaster.

San Luis Reservoir, between Gilroy and Los Banos, is the largest off-stream reservoir in the United States.

Steve Loup, the county’s public works administrator, informed the San Benito County Board of Supervisors that individuals could go into Pacheco Creek, on an emergency basis, to clean out debris, some of which has amassed for decades.

It has been many years since water was released from the Hernandez Reservoir, and it would be natural for residents to worry when they saw water coming over the spillway, said Jason Ince, with the California Department of Water Resources Division of Safety.

California was once home to the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, but Tulare Lake disappeared as water was diverted to irrigate crops. This year, however, the lake will once again re-emerge.

The salmon industry, worth about half a billion dollars, is devastated. The culprits: Drought and decades of water diversions and development.

In his initial climate budget proposal, the governor has cut about $561 million from local coastal resilience projects. Legislators, cities express concerns.

A $4.4 billion project on the Sacramento River to add dams and store more water that will be sent south, the Sites Reservoir is still years away from completion. The final environmental report is expected this year.

On Jan. 31, the San Juan Bautista City Council approved a bond for its wastewater project, filled vacancies on the Planning Commission and reviewed its transportation and connectivity plan.

California has given the federal government its own counterproposal for apportioning reductions of Colorado River water, saying a plan offered by six other states would disproportionately burden farms and cities in Southern California.

"It isn't just a slap of the Band-Aid," said one official. "This is going to take some time."

A number of climate researchers say recent storms appear to be typical of the deluges the state has experienced periodically and not the result of global warming.

For the first time in more than two years, most of the state is in moderate drought, not severe drought.