Water Resources

Across the prosperous state of California communities struggle to achieve clean, safe and affordable water in their taps and streams. Fellows Mike Antos and Carolina Balazs report on the outcome of a Switzer Network Innovation Grant aimed at providing the state's Department of Water Resources with policy and practice recommendations to ensure environmental justice is integrated into future funding and planning decisions.

From The Wall Street Journal: West Virginia lawmakers approved a measure on Saturday to roll back strict water-protection rules enacted last year after a chemical spill contaminated drinking water for 300,000 people in West Virginia’s capital. ... Environmental groups fought the measure. "It reduces the regulation of tens of thousands of above-ground storage tanks, some of which have the potential to contaminate drinking water," said Evan Hansen, president of Downstream Strategies, an environmental consulting company based in Morgantown, W.Va.

In the past, every time it rained, says Nancy Steele, the city was wasting precious water it didn't even use. The executive director of the Council for Watershed Health, Steele helped plan the Elmer Avenue Neighbourhood Retrofit, and she points to what looks like a normal storm drain. "There's no bottom," she says, pointing to a retrofitted stormdrain. "A normal storm drain would be all concrete. It would direct the water into the storm drain system, which would take the water into, in our case, the L.A. River."

When 2014 Fellow Karen Andradea arrived at UC Berkeley in 2009, she was surprised to discover how challenging it was for outside organizations to partner with students and faculty on research projects. So she set out to create the UC Berkeley Science Shop, a publicly accessible entity that connects small nonprofits, local government agencies, small businesses, and other civic organizations with undergraduate and graduate student researchers.

Rigorous integration will ensure the goals inspire rather than deter commitment, say Angel Hsu and Alisa Zomer. Sustainable development is an elusive concept, one that is open to interpretation and difficult to define, let alone measure. UN negotiators therefore have a challenging task: how to specify a clear set of indicators to track the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) before they are finalised in September.

The Johnson Creek Watershed Council last week announced the selection of Daniel Newberry as its next executive director. He will relocate to the watershed area from southern Oregon and will begin leading JCWC on Feb. 26. Founded in 1995, JCWC is a grassroots nonprofit organization whose mission is to promote restoration and stewardship of the Johnson Creek watershed through science and community engagement.

Earlier this week, the DEP revealed that its work so far in implementing the above-ground storage tank safety provisions of the landmark legislation have led to the discovery of 1,100 tanks that are “not fit for service” and need to be replaced or eliminated. “This is a great illustration of the above-ground storage tank act working,” said Evan Hansen, of Downstream Strategies. “It’s encouraging to see [the] DEP taking action on the tanks that present the highest risk to the state’s drinking water supply.”

The Klamath’s problems will get worse with climate change and increasing river temperatures, says Rebecca Quiñones, a U.C. Davis researcher who has extensively studied the Klamath ecosystem. “All the climate models show that the main stem of the [Klamath] river is going to be really Some conservationists say hatchery production is making Chinook salmon more vulnerable to warming trends. inhospitable to salmon,” Quiñones says. Read more