Final Technical Report #1: Condition Assessment of Coastal Streams in Southern and Central California

California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) | July 1st, 2004

Historical assessments of stream condition have usually focused on describing the chemical quality of streams. As we have made progress in controlling chemical problems�

Historical assessments of stream condition have usually focused on describing the chemical quality of streams. As we have made progress in controlling chemical problems it has become obvious that the ultimate concern is actually the health of the plants and animals that inhabit these streams (EPA 2000). Streams in good ecological condition provide habitat for diverse aquatic communities, and provide clean drinking water and recreational opportunities for people. Biological organisms in a stream integrate the many chemical and physical stressors that act on the stream ecosystem, thus stream condition can be determined by assessing appropriate biological indicators, or combinations of these indicators, called indices. California’s Aquatic Bioassessment Lab recently developed a benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) for the central and southern coasts of California (Ode et. al. in review). The index is based on benthic macroinvertebrate (BMI) samples collected from 275 sites in this region by the US Forest Service, US EPA and regional Water Quality Control Boards. The index defines the composition of BMI assemblages when human disturbance is absent or minimal (reference conditions), and because it is based on metrics that are responsive to key stressor gradients, it allows detection of potential ecological impairment when BMI samples from test sites are compared to reference conditions. Thus, the B-IBI provides a yardstick for measuring ecological conditions, and allows us to categorize site conditions as either “Good”, “Fair” or “Poor” based on BMI assemblages.

Final Urban Water Management Plan Goleta Water District

Goleta Water District (GWD) | December 20th, 2005

Final Value Planning Study Report for Through Delta Facility, Sacramento, California

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | July 1st, 2007

Financial Statement Analysis of CVP Contractors

Delta Vision Blue Ribbon Task Force (Delta Vision) | July 20th, 2008

This report provides an analysis of the condensed financial statements of the 10 largest Central Valley Project (CVP) irrigation contractors in the San Joaquin Valley (Va

This report provides an analysis of the condensed financial statements of the 10 largest Central Valley Project (CVP) irrigation contractors in the San Joaquin Valley (Valley). The 10 were selected because of their size measured by CVP water deliveries, relative to both aggregate CVP deliveries in the Valley and for all of California. The report includes, for those contractors, a summary of those financial statements for eight years, respective net capital repayment obligations, and acre-feet (AF) of water delivered. This is the third of several written reports which ENTRIX will complete relative to CVP Financing and Repayment Issues. Subsequent reports will include an analysis and discussion of the generation and distribution of hydroelectric power from CVP facilities and a comprehensive document summarizing revised forms of all reports submitted.

Financing Delta Improvements and Environmental Mitigation

California Research Bureau (CRB) | September 1st, 2008

Resolution of the Delta’s water supply, water quality, and fish problems may involve building various structures, possibly including gates, pumps, canals, levees, and d

Resolution of the Delta’s water supply, water quality, and fish problems may involve building various structures, possibly including gates, pumps, canals, levees, and dams, and undertaking landscaping rearrangements to improve habitat for several species of flora and fauna. Resolution also involves changing water flow regimes in ways that would make more or less water, but probably less, available for human uses. This work and these changes will cost serious money. Cost estimates for many of these actions have not yet been developed. This paper explores approaches to financing these “improvements” and “mitigations.” While a little abstract, this is abstraction that matters. It will determine from whose pockets a good deal of money will come. California has a long history of financing water projects. The first section of this paper reviews this history, in hopes of identifying water-financing principles that might be adapted to Delta improvements and mitigation. Some deep-seated controversies about how Delta improvements should be financed have roots in this history, and it may be helpful to point them out. A core idea in California’s approach to financing water projects is that beneficiaries should pay for them. Decades ago, this was a straightforward proposition – people or water districts should pay for the necessary dams, canals, and pumps and the costs of operating them in proportion to the amount of water they received. In the current age of rising environmental sensitivity, it is a little muddier. An alternative formulation that applies, at least crudely, to housing developments and highway projects, is that project proponents should pay to mitigate at least some of the environmental harm that their project is likely to cause. The second section of this paper explores this controversial subject. It seems unlikely that any consensus can be reached about how to finance facilities in the Delta without reaching some agreement about how to deal with this matter. This paper was first issued in July, 2008. This version contains a few clarifications made in response to the Blue Ribbon Task Force’s reviewers. The author is grateful for their suggestions.

Financing Water Supply and Sanitation in a Changing Climate

Pacific Institute | October 22nd, 2020

Human-caused climate change is real and accelerating, creating new challenges for all aspects of freshwater management. Important gaps in our understanding of these chall

Human-caused climate change is real and accelerating, creating new challenges for all aspects of freshwater management. Important gaps in our understanding of these challenges include both the complications climate change poses for planning, implementing, and sustaining water supply and sanitation (WSS) systems, especially for the poor; and the links between these systems and the emissions of greenhouse gases that worsen the overall climate problem. This paper addresses these gaps. 

Finishing the All-American Canal

Scientific American | September 1st, 2020

Work on the All-American Canal is going forward so rapidly that the great 80-mile ditch and its appurtenant features will be ready to de­liver irrigation water to the Im

Work on the All-American Canal is going forward so rapidly that the great 80-mile ditch and its appurtenant features will be ready to de­liver irrigation water to the Imperial Valley in southeastern California some time during the first half of 1938. The waterway is being dug across a normally desert region that once formed the wa­ter bed of the prehistoric northern ex­tension of the Gulf of California, as we know it today. Paradoxically, that far­ flung section of the Gulf was transform­ ed into a generally barren and arid region by the very river that is to be tapped to assure the continued agricul­tural productivity · of soil that can be made amazingly fruitful by irrigation.

Fire (plus) flood (equals) beach: coastal response to an exceptional river sediment discharge event

Nature Portfolio (Springer Nature) | March 9th, 2022

Wildfire and post-fire rainfall have resounding effects on hillslope processes and sediment yields of mountainous landscapes. Yet, it remains unclear how fire–flood se

Wildfire and post-fire rainfall have resounding effects on hillslope processes and sediment yields of mountainous landscapes. Yet, it remains unclear how fire–flood sequences influence downstream coastal littoral systems. It is timely to examine terrestrial–coastal connections because climate change is increasing the frequency, size, and intensity of wildfires, altering precipitation rates, and accelerating sea-level rise; and these factors can be understood as contrasting accretionary and erosive agents for coastal systems. Here we provide new satellite-derived shoreline measurements of Big Sur, California and show how river sediment discharge significantly influenced shoreline positions during the past several decades. A 2016 wildfire followed by record precipitation increased sediment discharge in the Big Sur River and resulted in almost half of the total river sediment load of the past 50 years (~ 2.2 of ~ 4.8 Mt). Roughly 30% of this river sediment was inferred to be littoral-grade sand and was incorporated into the littoral cell, causing the widest beaches in the 37-year satellite record and spreading downcoast over timescales of years. Hence, the impact of fire–flood events on coastal sediment budgets may be substantial, and these impacts may increase with time considering projected intensification of wildfires and extreme rain events under global warming. Wildfire is an important factor in hillslope erosion and sediment yields of mountainous and forested

Fire and Water: Assessing Drinking Water Contamination After a Major Wildfire

American Chemical Society (ACS) | August 2nd, 2021

We investigated patterns of volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination in drinking water systems affected by the California 2018 Camp Fire. We performed spatial analys

We investigated patterns of volatile organic compound (VOC) contamination in drinking water systems affected by the California 2018 Camp Fire. We performed spatial analysis of over 5000 water samples collected over a 17 month period by a local water utility, sampled tap water for VOCs in approximately 10% (N = 136) of standing homes, and conducted additional nontargeted chemical analysis of 10 samples. Benzene contamination was present in 29% of service connections to destroyed structures and 2% of service connections to standing homes. A spatial pattern was apparent. Tap water in standing homes 11 months after the fire contained low concentrations of benzene in 1% of samples, but methylene chloride was present in 19% of samples, including several above regulatory limits. Elevated methylene chloride was associated with greater distance from the water meter to the tap, longer stagnation time, and the presence of a destroyed structure on the service connection; it was inversely associated with certain trihalomethanes. Nontargeted analysis identified multiple combustion byproducts in the water at 2/10 homes. Our findings support the hypothesis that pyrolysis and smoke intrusion from depressurization contributed to the benzene contamination. Further research is needed to test the hypothesis that methylene chloride may be generated from the dehalogenation of disinfection byproducts stagnating in galvanized iron pipes.

Fire influence on land–water interactions in aridland catchments

Oxford University Press (OUP) | January 9th, 2025

Wildfires have increased in size, frequency, and intensity in arid regions of the western United States because of human activity, changing land use, and rising temperatu

Wildfires have increased in size, frequency, and intensity in arid regions of the western United States because of human activity, changing land use, and rising temperature. Fire can degrade water quality, reshape aquatic habitat, and increase the risk of high discharge and erosion. Drawing from patterns in montane dry forest, chaparral, and desert ecosystems, we developed a conceptual framework describing how interactions and feedbacks among material accumulation, combustion of fuels, and hydrologic transport influence the effects of fire on streams. Accumulation and flammability of fuels shift in opposition along gradients of aridity, influencing the materials available for transport. Hydrologic transport of combustion products and materials accumulated after fire can propagate the effects of fire to unburned stream–riparian corridors, and episodic precipitation characteristic of arid lands can cause lags, spatial heterogeneity, and feedbacks in response. Resolving uncertainty in fire effects on arid catchments will require monitoring across hydroclimatic gradients and episodic precipitation.