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Dear Friend of SSV,
At the close of last month's water newsletter I promised more water talk. Well, despite the arid, dysfunctional landscape that we call our daily lives not showing too many green shoots of improvement, nevertheless we persist here at SSV. So today we announce a fascinating show for our WET Talk #2 on the seemingly dry topic of water demand forecasting and its many impacts.
No one has ever gotten into trouble for putting one's estimating thumbs on the water demand scale, but the times we now live in demand better balance between urban and agriculture needs and the necessary stewardship of of our rivers and watersheds. Cry us a river, Peter Drekmeier and Sarah Diringer. Actually, no need for tears, for the message (spoiler alert) ultimately is one of hope. What has been long thought of as a highly competitive zero sum game should in fact really be a cooperative exercise. If we are smart, supportive and alert to responsibilities of good governance, the Bay Area can have adequate potable water supply while our rivers can have consistent flows.
If you were unable to attend our first WET talk with preeminent water policy expert and this year’s William Landreth Visiting Fellow at Stanford's Water in the West (WitW) Felicia Marcus, not to worry. We have the full recording up right now on the SSV YouTube Channel and will soon have it broken down into delicious bite-size bits there as well as on the events page at sustainablesv.org. Definitely worth a listen.
Don't forget that RSVP Button ,
Dennis Murphy
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Linda Lezotte / San Jose Mercury
Valley Water wants you to adopt a creek
As part of Valley Water’s mission to provide flood protection for our communities, we are continuously preparing for the possibility of flooding. We must regularly keep our streams and creeks well maintained to handle the rainy season and protect the many species of wildlife that live there.
Valley Water’s primary flood prevention efforts are performed annually under the Stream Maintenance Program (SMP). The SMP work kicked off on June 15 and will continue through Oct. 15. We will work at over 30 different locations throughout Santa Clara County that we’ve identified as critical flood protection projects. This work is necessary to help reduce the impact of flooding if we are hit with sudden downpours that could overwhelm our waterways, causing them to overflow into our streets and homes. The program is also intended to improve wildlife habitat by removing invasive plants, trash and debris.
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Bakersfield.com
CPUC to decide future of water utility decoupling
Some Bakersfield residents' water bills will be fundamentally restructured, with big cost implications, if the California Public Utilities Commission votes Thursday to end an experiment that 12 years ago erased a financial incentive to sell people more water.
Under the proposal, California Water Service and other investor-owned utilities would no longer bill customers a surcharge covering the cost difference between expected and actual water usage.
The CPUC's consumer-advocacy arm supports the proposal and estimates it would save ratepayers 10 percent to 15 percent, maybe more, on their water bills.
But Cal Water, which covers about half of Bakersfield (city government supplies the other half), says the way the plan is built it would raise low-usage, low-income customers' bills by up to 20 percent.
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Washington Post
‘In Deep,’ a new podcast, explores the complex science of making water clean and drinkable
“In Deep,” a new podcast from American Public Media, holds its nose and dives into the complexities of clean water. Hosted by former Marketplace reporter Jed Kim, the podcast covers the water system from top to bottom.
The eight-episode series reports on sewage, water treatment and the science that takes water from non-potable to crystal clear. That journey changed dramatically once scientists discovered that water transmits disease. In the first episode, “Dirty Water,” Kim covers how British physician John Snow cracked the secret of cholera transmission.
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SVCW Manager Teresa Herrera
SVCW Reaches Milestone for Expanding its Energy Resiliency and Efficiency Program
Silicon Valley Clean Water (SVCW) reached an important milestone that was years in the making when it received approval from PG&E to export energy generated at the treatment plant back into the power grid. This milestone advances green energy capabilities at SVCW by allowing onsite cogeneration engines to operate at their full capacity of 1,250 kW.
Not only can SVCW now export energy generated at the treatment plant back to the power grid, but the plant’s 1,040 kW Energy Storage System using Tesla batteries will now store energy at night when demand for energy is low and cost of energy is much cheaper.
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USC News
Predicting drought in the American West just got much more difficult
People hoping to get a handle on future droughts in the American West are in for a disappointment, as new USC-led research spanning centuries shows El Niño cycles are an unreliable predictor.
Instead, they found that Earth’s dynamic atmosphere is a wild card that plays a much bigger role than sea surface temperatures, yet defies predictability, in the wet and dry cycles that whipsaw the western states. The study, published today in Science Advances, is a detailed assessment of long-term drought variability.
The findings are significant for water management, agriculture, urban planning and natural resources protection. Recent droughts have claimed many lives and caused damaging crop losses, making drought forecasting a high priority. Meanwhile, the West faces rapid population growth at the same time that forecasts show dry times ahead due to global climate change.
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Santa Rosa Press Democrat
PD Editorial: Klamath dam deal is in peril, but hope remains
Four dams on the Klamath River along the California-Oregon border were going to be removed. All sides had agreed to the deal — the dams’ owners, Indigenous tribes, farmers, communities, everybody with a stake. Leave it to federal regulators to muck everything up. Now the deal is in jeopardy, and all sides should return to the negotiating table to salvage it.
In 2016, all sides signed onto a plan to remove the dams. Competing interests gave way to compromise.
PacifiCorp, the power company that owns the dams, would transfer them to a nonprofit that would oversee their removal. The company would contribute $200 million toward removal costs, and the remaining $250 million would come from California by way of a 2014 water bond. PacifiCorp would avoid some liability and unforeseen costs. It also would be done with a headache that’s gone on for years.
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Forbes
NBA Star Stephen Curry makes significant equity investment in OXIGEN Beverages
Golden State Warriors superstar Stephen Curry might be dreaming about playing in the NBA’s Orlando bubble restart, but in reality, he has made a significant investment in OXIGEN Beverages and joined the premium bottled water company as a co-owner.
“It’s a different taste, and not all waters are made the same,” he told me while recalling his original experience with OXIGEN. “So I started to ask questions around what the business is like, what their mission is… and [realized] there’s a lot of synergy” in terms of health and wellness, and sustainability.
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Washington Post
Marie Tharp’s maps revolutionized our knowledge of the seafloor
Despite all the deep-sea expeditions and samples taken from the seabed in the past 100 years, humans still know little about the ocean’s deepest reaches. And there are good reasons to learn more.
Most tsunamis start with earthquakes under or near the ocean floor. The seafloor provides habitat for fish, corals and complex communities of microbes, crustaceans and other organisms. Its topography controls currents that distribute heat, helping to regulate Earth’s climate.
July 30 marked the 100th anniversary of the birth of Marie Tharp, a geologist and oceanographer who created maps that changed the way people imagine two-thirds of the world.
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