California Governor Wants To Capture More Stormwater, Raising Environmental Concerns
In its latest attempt to quench a historic, ongoing drought, California is taking unprecedented regulatory action to refill its supplies.
“California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed an executive order … to safeguard his state’s water supplies from the effects of extreme weather,” The Hill reported. “The order will help expand California’s capacity to capture storm runoff during wet years by accelerating groundwater recharge options, according to the governor’s office.”
The action was prompted by growing stress on California’s water management systems from multiple fronts. On the one hand, a megadrought with no end in sight has forced consumption cuts and threatened the state’s water future. On the other, massive storms recently inundated it with dangerous flooding.
“The state can expect continued swings between extreme wet and extreme dry periods that can present risks of severe flooding and extreme drought in the same year,” Newson explained in the order, according to The Hill. “California must adapt to a hotter, drier future.”
The order is designed to help state agencies permit more groundwater recharge, accelerating such projects and encouraging water agencies to expedite the permitting processes for opening new ones. It also asks officials to evaluate the rules that govern reservoir releases and water diversions and directs state agencies to provide input on California’s ongoing drought response measures.
But environmentalists fear that the changes will withhold too much water from the local environment to the detriment of its wildlife.
“Environmental groups say pulling that much water out of the rivers would be a death sentence for the salmon and other threatened fish species that depend on strong, cool flows in the rivers to survive,” per the Associated Press. “They’re furious with Newsom, whom they view as a hypocrite for touting himself as a champion of the environment while disregarding the laws designed to protect it.”
As California continues to evolve its water management practices in the face of a changing climate, it’s clear that the balance between the environment and consumption will continue to change as well. While new regulatory actions and innovations keep coming, the fundamental issue is one that the state has always wrestled with.
“It’s one of the oldest disputes in California, a state that for more than a century has manipulated the natural flow of rivers and streams to transform the Central Valley into one of the most fertile stretches of farmland on Earth while also supplying some of the nation’s most populous coastal cities,” AP reported. “The Newsom administration says a changing climate requires new rules.”
To read more about how California is handling the ongoing drought, visit Water Online’s Water Scarcity Solutions Center.