Constructed wetlands for winery wastewater treatment: A review on the technical, environmental and socio-economic benefits

Science of the Total Environment (Elsevier) | April 19th, 2023

In wineries, wastewater production and solid waste generation can pose serious environmental threats. Winery wastewater production has a seasonal behavior and needs a tre

In wineries, wastewater production and solid waste generation can pose serious environmental threats. Winery wastewater production has a seasonal behavior and needs a treatment system that can adapt to these fluctuations while reducing costs, and environmental impacts and promoting other winery activities. The implementation of constructed wetlands (CWs) has been demonstrated to be a competitive solution for winery wastewater and sludge treatment. In this article, worldwide experiences over the last 25 years of CWs for winery wastewater treatment are reviewed. The review shows that the application of hybrid CWs coupled with anaerobic digestion can reduce >90 % of the organic pollutants and solids from winery wastewater while avoiding clogging. These efficiencies and advantages can be also attained with French vertical systems. Not only CWs have a good technical performance, but they also reduce up to >90 % the environmental impacts associated with winery wastewater treatment. It is due to low energy requirements, no chemicals consumption and avoidance of off-site management and transportation practices. In terms of costs, CWs can reduce up to 60 times the costs associated with winery wastewater treatment and management. More efforts should be made in order to define the social benefits of this technology and the quality of the recovered resources (e.g. treated water, fertilizer) in order to promote the circular economy without compromising human and ecosystem health.

Cuyama Valley, California Hydrologic Study: An Assessment of Water Availability

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) | May 29th, 2015

CV-SALTS Central Valley Region Salt & Nitrate Control Program Surveillance and Monitoring Program

Central Valley Salinity Alternatives for Long-Term Sustainability (CV-SALTS) | February 3rd, 2023

The prioritized Nitrate Control Program and phased Salt Control Program are designed to address both legacy and ongoing salt and nitrate accumulation issues in groundwate

The prioritized Nitrate Control Program and phased Salt Control Program are designed to address both legacy and ongoing salt and nitrate accumulation issues in groundwater and salinity concerns in surface waters. However, the primary focus of early actions being implemented under the Nitrate Control Program (i.e., the first ten years) is on groundwater quality and in particular nitrate impacts to drinking water supplies. The overarching management goals and priorities of the SNCP are to: Ensure safe drinking water supply; Reduce salt and nitrate loading so that ongoing discharges neither threaten to degrade high quality waters absent appropriate findings by the Central Valley Board, nor cause or contribute to exceedances of water quality objectives; and Implement long-term, managed restoration of impaired waterbodies.

CV-SALTS Modesto Management Zone Implementation Plan

Valley Water Collaborative | September 5th, 2023

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Central Valley Water Board) adopted amendments to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento River and San

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board (Central Valley Water Board) adopted amendments to the Water Quality Control Plan for the Sacramento River and San Joaquin River Basins and the Water Quality Control Plan for the Tulare Lake Basin (Basin Plans) to incorporate a Salt and Nitrate Control Program. The Nitrate Control Program is designed to achieve the following three management goals in the Central Valley Region: • Goal 1 – Ensure a safe drinking water supply; • Goal 2 – Reduce salt and nitrate loading so that ongoing discharges neither threaten to degrade high quality waters absent appropriate findings by the Central Valley Water Board nor cause or contribute to exceedances of water quality objectives; and, • Goal 3 – Implement long-term, managed restoration of impaired water bodies. Click here for CV-SALTS Priority 1 publication index

Delta Adapts: Creating a Climate Resilient Future

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | June 25th, 2021

The time to act is now. Climate change is already altering the physical environment of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Marsh (Delta), and we will continue t

The time to act is now. Climate change is already altering the physical environment of the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and Suisun Marsh (Delta), and we will continue to experience its effects through hotter temperatures, more severe wildfires, and prolonged droughts. Over the long term, climate change in the Delta is expected to harm human health and safety, disrupt the economy, diminish water supply availability and usability, shift ecosystem function, compromise sensitive habitats, and increase the challenges of providing basic services. Many of these impacts will disproportionately affect vulnerable communities. Although the exact extent and timing of these impacts is uncertain, this climate change vulnerability assessment phase of Delta Adapts will help the Delta Stewardship Council (Council) understand specific regional climate risks and vulnerabilities. Regional, collaborative adaptation strategies rooted in science are more critical than ever. The next phase of Delta Adapts, preparing an adaptation strategy, will identify ways to address the risks and vulnerabilities.

Delta Narratives: Managing the Garden: Agriculture, Reclamation, and Restoration in the Sacramento -San Joaquin Delta

Delta Protection Commission (DPC) | August 5th, 2015

This paper examines land and water use in the Delta from before European contact in 1769 to the beginning of the twenty-first century. The focus lies, first, on the ecolo

This paper examines land and water use in the Delta from before European contact in 1769 to the beginning of the twenty-first century. The focus lies, first, on the ecological transformation of the region during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century from a tidal wetland to an engineered, reclaimed agricultural landscape, as well as on some of the individuals most responsible for that transformation and, second, on more recent environmental conditions in the Delta, especially water quality issues, and on the restoration of wetlands around the Delta’s margins. This paper begins with the Delta’s geological origins, and then discusses how Native Americans used and modified the land, and accounts for the activities of Spanish, Mexican, and early Anglo explorers in the region, as well as the consequences of those activities for indigenous peoples. It then traces the various stages of Delta reclamation from the time of California statehood, beginning with Swamp and Overflowed Lands Act of 1850. It examines the challenges of levee building, which was carried out at first by hand largely by Chinese laborers, and later by mechanized equipment, most notably clamshell dredges. Once reclaimed, Delta mineral and peat soils yielded a wide variety of agricultural products, including potatoes, grains, asparagus, sugar beets, and orchard fruits, among others, which are discussed in some detail. This paper also examines the history of salmon fishing and canning in the Delta before turning more broadly to the twentieth-century federal and state water projects that have affected the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers in different ways and that at various times have both improved and degraded water quality in the Delta. It concludes by coming full circle to late-twentieth century conservation efforts that have aimed to restore parts of the Delta and that have led to the creation of a variety of state, federal, and other protected lands, primarily along the Delta’s fringes, even while the heart of the Delta continues to grapple with seemingly intractable issues of water quality and water conveyance.

Delta Working Landscapes Program Final Report

Delta Protection Commission (DPC) | October 14th, 2013

The Delta Working Landscapes Program (Program) is a group of projects which demonstrate how farmers can integrate habitat restoration into farming practices. The objectiv

The Delta Working Landscapes Program (Program) is a group of projects which demonstrate how farmers can integrate habitat restoration into farming practices. The objectives of the Program are to improve the environmental quality of existing landscapes in the Delta; coordinate programs with local farmers; understand the social, economic, environmental and governmental policy hurdles and/or incentives to perform conservation practices; and communicate to farmers the advantages of implementing wildlife friendly agricultural practices. The Delta Protection Commission was awarded a three year grant to construct the program through the California Bay-Delta Program in 2005. Program partners included California Department of Fish and Wildlife Ecosystem Restoration Program, Hart Restoration (Hart) and Ducks Unlimited (DU). Hart established vegetative buffers along irrigation ditch banks and hedgerow grass plantings. These plantings were designed to provide habitat for wildlife, improve water quality by reducing runoff of pesticides and sediment, enhance levee stability, and retard levee erosion. DU coordinated restoration enhancement projects which included creating seasonal and permanent wetlands on marginal farmlands. These projects provide waterfowl brooding habitat, a food source, and additional habitat sites which promote healthier waterfowl flocks. These projects total 312 acres of seasonal and permanent wetlands and 6.5 miles enhanced levees and waterways. Project areas established native plant life, have been repopulated by wildlife, and filter agricultural drainage which improves water quality and enhances levee stability. Multiple species of waterfowl are using the restoration habitat for brooding and feeding as well as staying later into the season. No easements, MOUs, fee purchases, or eminent domain were used. Challenges to Working Landscapes projects include prior long term use of pesticides and herbicides which have created a hostile environment for native plants and wildlife. Additionally, some cultural practices are not conducive to habitat creation such as practices which rely on herbicides instead of tillage. Furthermore, economic costs are affiliated with physical land alterations, and in some cases permit requirements are cumbersome. Despite these challenges, successful public/private partnerships are possible. Working Landscapes projects can be expanded through better communication between policy and regulatory agencies and publicizing successful projects.

Delta Working Landscapes: Public and Private Partnerships for Habitat

Delta Protection Commission (DPC) | October 1st, 2012

The Delta Working Landscapes Program (Program) is a group of projects which demonstrate how farmers can integrate habitat restoration into farming practices. The objec

The Delta Working Landscapes Program (Program) is a group of projects which demonstrate how farmers can integrate habitat restoration into farming practices. The objectives of the Program are to improve the environmental quality of existing landscapes in the Delta; coordinate programs with local farmers; understand the social, economic, environmental and governmental policy hurdles and/or incentives to perform conservation practices; and communicate to farmers the advantages of implementing wildlife friendly agricultural practices. The Delta Protection Commission was awarded a three year grant to construct the program through the California Bay-Delta Program in 2005. Program partners included Hart Restoration (Hart) and Ducks Unlimited (DU). Hart established vegetative buffers along irrigation ditch banks and hedgerow grass plantings. These plantings were designed to provide habitat for wildlife, improve water quality by reducing runoff of pesticides and sediment, enhance levee stability, and retard levee erosion. DU coordinated restoration enhancement projects which included creating seasonal and permanent wetlands on marginal farmlands. These projects provide waterfowl brooding habitat, a food source, and additional habitat sites which promote healthier waterfowl flocks. To date, these projects total 312 acres of seasonal and permanent wetlands and 6.5 miles of enhanced levees and waterways. Many of the revegetated areas are thriving with native plant life, have been repopulated by wildlife, and filter agricultural drainage which improves water quality and enhances levee stability. Multiple species of waterfowl are using the restoration habitats for brooding and feeding as well as staying later into the season. Challenges to Working Landscapes projects include prior long term use of pesticides and herbicides which have created a hostile environment for native plants and wildlife. Additionally, some cultural practices are not conducive to habitat creation such as practices which rely on herbicides instead of tillage. Furthermore, economic costs are affiliated with physical land alterations, and in some cases permit requirements are cumbersome. Despite these challenges, successful public/private partnerships are possible. Working Landscapes projects can be expanded through better communication between policy and regulatory agencies and publicizing successful projects.

Developing agricultural pest management strategies with reduced-risks to surface water: An economic case study of California's Central Coast region

Elsevier | May 4th, 2024

Development and Interpretation of Daily Seasonal Water Supply Forecasts

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) | February 26th, 2009

This Technical Note documents the process used to develop the Daily Water Supply Forecast procedures and serves as a guide for helping users interpret the results. Thi

This Technical Note documents the process used to develop the Daily Water Supply Forecast procedures and serves as a guide for helping users interpret the results. This product was developed to supplement official water supply forecasts generated at the beginning of each month during the water supply season. The water resource community requested daily calibrated water supply forecasts to aid in the assessment of increased climate variability. The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) National Water and Climate Center (NWCC) developed these procedures that use hydroclimatic data collected by the SNOTEL and USGS data networks.