Category: Water

By Tamara Audi in Santa Barbara County, Calif., and Alison Sider in Houston The oil spill in Santa Barbara County, Calif., could be as large as 2,500 barrels, or 105,000 gallons, in a worst-case scenario outlined Wednesday by the burst pipeline’s operator, which estimated 500 barrels may have reached the water. As an investigation and cleanup efforts began in the aftermath of Tuesday’s spill near the shore, federal officials said the oil had spread into two large patches in the Pacific Ocean, covering an area 9 miles long by midday. Wednesday night, Gov. Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency in the county, which frees up emergency state funding and resources to help in the cleanup. It was uncertain how much oil seeped from the pipeline operated by Plains All American Pipeline LP. Initial estimates had put the leak at 500 barrels, or 21,000 gallons, of oil. Cleanup crews […]

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Richard Thornton / Shutterstock.com Environmentalists filed a motion requesting a preliminary injunction today in a California court to immediately stop the daily illegal injection of millions of gallons of oil field wastewater into protected groundwater aquifers in the state. Last week, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity in Alameda County Superior Court that challenges California regulators’ emergency rules meant to rein in the state’s disastrous Underground Injection Control (UIC) program . Officials with the state’s Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) have admitted that their agency improperly permitted more than 2,500 wells to pump oil industry wastewater and fluids from enhanced oil recovery techniques like acidization and steam flooding into groundwater aquifers that should be protected under the federal Safe Drinking Water Act. Instead of shutting down the offending wells, however, DOGGR issued emergency rules last February […]

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SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – California regulators on Wednesday adopted the first statewide rules for the permitting of seawater desalination projects that are expected to proliferate as drought-stricken communities increasingly turn to the ocean to supplement their drinking supplies. The action, which sets uniform standards for minimizing harm to marine life, was welcomed by developers of the state’s two largest desalination projects as bringing much-needed certainty and clarity to the regulatory approval process. "It reaffirms that the Pacific Ocean is part of the drinking water resources for the state of California," Poseidon Water executive Scott Maloni told Reuters after the rule was enacted on a voice vote in Sacramento by the State Water Resources Control Board. The measure leaves the permitting process in the hands of the state’s regional water boards while establishing a single framework for them to follow in evaluating applications to build seawater treatment plants, expand existing […]

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Drought threatens to haunt the manicured paradise of Los Angeles, writes Edwin Heathcote Swimming pools are seen behind homes in Palm Springs, California April 13, 2015. The average daily water usage per person in Palm Springs is 201 gallons, more than double the California average, according to the New York Times. California’s cities and towns would be required to cut their water usage by up to 35 percent or face steep fines under proposed new rules, the state’s first-ever mandatory cutbacks in urban water use as the state enters its fourth year of severe drought. Communities where residential customers use more than 165 gallons of water per person per day would have to cut back by 35 percent. Picture taken April 13, 2015. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson W ater has shaped the state of California and its biggest city, Los Angeles . Cities usually take time to grow but Los Angeles […]

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New laws intended to safeguard California’s dwindling groundwater largely exclude crucial basins in Los Angeles and Orange counties, on the grounds that local monitoring systems for them are already in place. But that is not keeping their water levels from descending to historically low levels, NBC4 has learned. “The system has worked until now,” said Anthony Zampiello, executive director for the watermaster overseeing the main San Gabriel basin, historically replenished by runoff from the mountains. What has changed things is this third year of drought. “Now it’s stressing all the safeguards put into place,” Zampiello said. The court order that established the San Gabriel watermaster four decades ago also specified an “operating range” for groundwater levels. Water as measured at the key well in Baldwin Park fell below the operating range in February and has continued to drop to the point it is now 18 feet below. “It’s never […]

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Access to water supply will be a defining issue of 21st century thumbnail Ireland’s recent experience of the politics of water introduces us to a worldwide trend which is set to become one of the defining issues of the 21st century. Water is an essential element of life but it is a scarce resource, under pressure from transboundary conflicts, climate change and capitalist growth policies. In her book Blue Future: Protecting Water for People and the Planet Forever , Canadian author Maude Barlow, identifies three major issues in the politics of water: diminishing freshwater supplies; inequitable access between richer and poorer states and peoples; and water justice especially for women and indigenous communities. Several compendiums of contemporary risks put water conflicts at the top of the international agenda. Some 50 per cent of the world’s usable water supply is transnational, running through two or more states. Last year a […]

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