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Why no one won this year’s water wars

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Thursday, May 2, 2024

SACRAMENTO, California — California is having a really good water year. But all the rain and snow is doing almost nothing to lubricate the state’s perpetual conflicts between fish and farms.Neither farmers, cities nor environmentalists feel like they’re getting enough water from the State Water Project and the federally run Central Valley Project, a semi-coordinated labyrinth of reservoirs, canals and pumping stations that together irrigates nearly 4 million acres.Farmers and cities are arguing that the storms mean they should get more than the 40 percent of their contractual deliveries that they’ve been promised so far (they get about 63 percent on average). They’d have more of an argument if endangered fish weren’t also getting massacred at the pumps: The water projects have already exceeded their take limit for the season for steelhead trout, meaning they’re violating the Endangered Species Act.Everyone is frustrated with Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden’s administrations, which operate the systems, as well as with themselves:“That water is not recoverable,” said Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, which represents the 27 water agencies that get supplies from the State Water Project, including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Santa Clara Valley Water District. “We should all be in timeout right now.”With so many cooks in the kitchen, there’s a variety of culprits. Westlands Water District, which gets its water from the CVP, is blaming the Biden administration, which runs the project through the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation and the Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service.Westlands General Manager Allison Febbo said she thinks the high steelhead losses could have been due to the fish returning in above-average numbers, rather than to pumping decisions. She’s calling for a hearing in the Republican-led House into how the CVP applied the Endangered Species Act this year.“We are frustrated,” she said in an interview. “The actions being taken have real world consequences in our district, and we don’t see those actions particularly substantiated.”Jon Rosenfield, science director of the environmental group San Francisco Baykeeper, is pointing at Newsom’s Department of Water Resources, which he argues loosened protections for fish during the last drought.“This is a direct result of the Newsom administration waiving its water quality rules, which it already acknowledges are inadequate, for three years in a row,” he said. He also said the state ran its pumps too early, when there were a lot of fish present.Newsom administration officials are penitent and vowing to change, but are also making the argument for more investment.DWR Director Karla Nemeth called the low allocations “unusual” and traced them in part to more real-time efforts by the state to protect endangered fish after a severe die-off roughly two decades ago prompted lawsuits.She outlined a series of “fixes,” including increasing genetic testing of fish to better figure out which ones absolutely need to be protected and building the Delta Conveyance Project, a controversial tunnel to reroute deliveries underneath the overplumbed Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.“This year was kind of a poster child for infrastructure that’s not really up to the challenge of the next century, and more work that needs to be done,” she said in an interview.(Reclamation didn’t respond to a request for comment, while NMFS said “We limit impacts on threatened and endangered species based on all of the best available science to protect them and provide opportunities for their recovery.”)The fight will continue playing out in several venues: State and federal agencies are currently renegotiating the underlying fish-science documents that guide management decisions, which are still governed by Trump-era rules.And last week, they kicked off the monthlong process to plan summer releases from Lake Shasta, the largest reservoir in the state, which will crystallize the conflict as well as anything: Water managers will try to find a balance between releasing water for farms when they need it in the summer and maintaining cool-enough water reserves to send down rivers to protect endangered salmon eggs in the fall.On one point, everyone agrees: California’s water system is broken, whether it’s a wet, a dry or average year.“I don’t think that we are well-positioned for the type of adaptive management and real-time response that’s going to be needed in order to maximize our resources for the environment and for people and farms,” Pierre said. “This year really highlighted that.”Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO’s California Climate newsletter.

California's wet winter exposed enduring conflicts between fish and farms.

SACRAMENTO, California — California is having a really good water year. But all the rain and snow is doing almost nothing to lubricate the state’s perpetual conflicts between fish and farms.

Neither farmers, cities nor environmentalists feel like they’re getting enough water from the State Water Project and the federally run Central Valley Project, a semi-coordinated labyrinth of reservoirs, canals and pumping stations that together irrigates nearly 4 million acres.

Farmers and cities are arguing that the storms mean they should get more than the 40 percent of their contractual deliveries that they’ve been promised so far (they get about 63 percent on average). They’d have more of an argument if endangered fish weren’t also getting massacred at the pumps: The water projects have already exceeded their take limit for the season for steelhead trout, meaning they’re violating the Endangered Species Act.

Everyone is frustrated with Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden’s administrations, which operate the systems, as well as with themselves:

“That water is not recoverable,” said Jennifer Pierre, general manager of the State Water Contractors, which represents the 27 water agencies that get supplies from the State Water Project, including the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the Santa Clara Valley Water District. “We should all be in timeout right now.”

With so many cooks in the kitchen, there’s a variety of culprits. Westlands Water District, which gets its water from the CVP, is blaming the Biden administration, which runs the project through the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation and the Commerce Department’s National Marine Fisheries Service.

Westlands General Manager Allison Febbo said she thinks the high steelhead losses could have been due to the fish returning in above-average numbers, rather than to pumping decisions. She’s calling for a hearing in the Republican-led House into how the CVP applied the Endangered Species Act this year.

“We are frustrated,” she said in an interview. “The actions being taken have real world consequences in our district, and we don’t see those actions particularly substantiated.”

Jon Rosenfield, science director of the environmental group San Francisco Baykeeper, is pointing at Newsom’s Department of Water Resources, which he argues loosened protections for fish during the last drought.

“This is a direct result of the Newsom administration waiving its water quality rules, which it already acknowledges are inadequate, for three years in a row,” he said. He also said the state ran its pumps too early, when there were a lot of fish present.

Newsom administration officials are penitent and vowing to change, but are also making the argument for more investment.

DWR Director Karla Nemeth called the low allocations “unusual” and traced them in part to more real-time efforts by the state to protect endangered fish after a severe die-off roughly two decades ago prompted lawsuits.

She outlined a series of “fixes,” including increasing genetic testing of fish to better figure out which ones absolutely need to be protected and building the Delta Conveyance Project, a controversial tunnel to reroute deliveries underneath the overplumbed Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.

“This year was kind of a poster child for infrastructure that’s not really up to the challenge of the next century, and more work that needs to be done,” she said in an interview.

(Reclamation didn’t respond to a request for comment, while NMFS said “We limit impacts on threatened and endangered species based on all of the best available science to protect them and provide opportunities for their recovery.”)

The fight will continue playing out in several venues: State and federal agencies are currently renegotiating the underlying fish-science documents that guide management decisions, which are still governed by Trump-era rules.

And last week, they kicked off the monthlong process to plan summer releases from Lake Shasta, the largest reservoir in the state, which will crystallize the conflict as well as anything: Water managers will try to find a balance between releasing water for farms when they need it in the summer and maintaining cool-enough water reserves to send down rivers to protect endangered salmon eggs in the fall.

On one point, everyone agrees: California’s water system is broken, whether it’s a wet, a dry or average year.

“I don’t think that we are well-positioned for the type of adaptive management and real-time response that’s going to be needed in order to maximize our resources for the environment and for people and farms,” Pierre said. “This year really highlighted that.”

Like this content? Consider signing up for POLITICO’s California Climate newsletter.

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A West Texas pecan farm fights to save its water supply as neighbors sell it to growing cities

A yearslong dispute over exporting water to growing Texas cities offers a hint at the battles to come as the state’s population booms and water supply dwindles.

Subscribe to The Y’all — a weekly dispatch about the people, places and policies defining Texas, produced by Texas Tribune journalists living in communities across the state. FORT STOCKTON — Zachary Swick plucked a pecan from one of the 78,000 trees at a sprawling West Texas farm — a rare sight in the desert known for oil rigs and pump jacks. He peeled away the pecan’s layers, leaving a stain on his hands that would be difficult to wash off. One day, Swick said, there might not be any pecans left to peel. Swick is the farm manager at Belding Farms, which has been owned for decades by the Cockrell family. Each year, the farm produces 5 million pounds of the iconic Texas nut. The farm sits atop a reservoir of underground water used to produce the pecans since the 1960s. The farm shares the water with its neighbors. Under Texas law, all property owners have the right to use the water underneath their boots. One of those neighbors is Fort Stockton Holdings, a company established by oil baron and one-time gubernatorial candidate Clayton Williams. Fort Stockton Holdings, for years, has sought to sell its share of the water to West Texas’ growing cities. The 50-year deal between the company and the cities of Midland, Abilene and San Angelo would exchange water from the aquifers for $261 million. Midland is the capital of the Permian Basin, a 61-county region that holds the state’s vast oil reserves. Over the last decade, Midland has added 10,000 people. About 138,000 people call it home. And more are expected as the oil industry shows no signs of slowing. “Our goal was to secure a long-term, sustainable water supply that requires minimal treatment and can meet the city's future needs,” Midland Mayor Lori Blong said in a statement. Fort Stockton Holdings did not return requests for comment. The most important Texas news,sent weekday mornings. Belding Farms has asked the Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District, the local governing body tasked with managing water rights, to protect the water to ensure it isn’t swallowed up by the deal. Fort Stockton Holdings will sell 28,400 acre-feet of water per year as part of the contract, more than twice as much as the farm uses on an annual basis. Earlier this month, the groundwater district rejected Belding Farms’ request to put more rules and fees around the exports. However, the decision is only one factor in a yearslong feud between the two powerful families. The conflict is a harbinger of the water wars the state will face as the population continues to swell. By 2060, Texas is expected to add up to 14 million more people, according to a study by Texas 2036 — and there is not enough water for everyone, let alone agriculture and industry, experts say. Already, the state has lost its sugar industry to a dearth of water in the Rio Grande Valley. Swick does not want pecans to be next. “We're mining a resource that is, in essence, being depleted, and that's our biggest concern,” Swick said. “Will that water be as consistent as it has been in the past?” General Manager Zachary Swick shows freshly picked pecans. Credit: Julian Mancha for The Texas Tribune Pecans are a Texas staple. It is the only nut indigenous to the state. The tree dates back to prehistoric times, according to the Texas State Historical Association. The Texas Legislature in 1919 declared pecans the official state tree. The Cockrell family began planting pecan trees in the 1960s. Today, about 40 employees work year-round to tend to the farm, from the orchard manager and foremen to mechanics. The season begins each year in March. Workers stimulate cross-pollination throughout the year. The pecans mature during the summer and fall. And in the winter, the farm shucks the trees. Farming the 2,200 acres requires water — and a lot of it. The farm uses between 11,000 acre-feet and 12,100 acre-feet of water annually. The farm employs different irrigation mechanisms to keep the farm hydrated efficiently, including a technique called land leveling, in which excess water pools on a terrace between the trees to prevent run-off. The farm also has cement canals along the property that hold the water and stop it from seeping into the soil. Over the years, the farm has bolstered its efforts to conserve water. In 2022, it spent about $455,000 to install a sprinkler system that covers 96 acres. Instead of a mist, the sprinklers shoot out a stream of water to prevent evaporation. Also scattered across the farm are soil moisture probes that monitor whether the ground needs to be watered. Swick said that he and the farm try to be proactive in conserving water because a dry spell could result in a crisis for the farm and the surrounding community. A particular concern is the wells, Swick said, which are not able to pump water if the aquifers are below a certain threshold. “If we are not proactive, the ramifications of that could be huge,” he said.” We could lose large sections of our farm if not all of it.” Belding Farms sits atop a reservoir of underground water used to produce the pecans since the 1960s. Credit: Julian Mancha for The Texas Tribune Texas has a long history of private property rights, which includes water. As the state’s population has grown, larger cities have turned to rural landowners to buy their water. Groundwater districts, like Middle Pecos, can act as an arbiter. The 98 groundwater conservation districts, which are mostly in rural or sparsely populated communities, manage the water supply. Groundwater districts are the state’s “preferred method of groundwater management in order to protect property rights,” an update to an old mandate known as the rule of capture that allowed landowners to pump water as they wished. The conflict between Belding Farms and Fort Stockton Holdings began in 2009 when the latter first attempted to sell roughly 50,000 acre-feet annually. One acre-foot of water is about 325,851 gallons of water. The groundwater district initially rejected the request, in part because the exports needed more protections attached to it. At the time, then-mayor of Fort Stockton, Ruben Falcon, said the residents felt “that the future water supply is threatened by having a large amount of water transferred out of the aquifer.” In 2017, Fort Stockton Holdings and the groundwater district reached an agreement to allow the holding company to pump and sell 28,400 acre-feet of water. That’s when Belding Farms sued the groundwater district, which controls the permits for export agreements like the one between Fort Stockton Holding and the other cities. In total, the farm has sued five times and petitioned the groundwater district to establish controls around the exports, including defining so-called unreasonable impacts. Unreasonable impacts would define the points at which the aquifer is too low. The farm also asked the district to impose a 20-cent export fee for every 1,000 gallons. These collections would provide financial compensation to landowners affected by unreasonable impacts, such as having to deepen their wells. The groundwater district rejected both in its October session. Two of the cases reached the Supreme Court of Texas. The first is the settlement agreement between Fort Stockton Holdings and the groundwater district, which allowed the company to sell the water. The second case concerns a renewal permit for Fort Stockton Holdings, which will need to continue to sell the water. Groundwater District board members say they must grant companies and individuals the ability to use the groundwater as they see fit, adding it has been caught in the crosshairs of a generational dispute. In 2012, the Texas Supreme Court ruled in an unrelated case that groundwater districts could not severely limit landowners from pumping water. At the time, the attorney for the Edwards Aquifer Authority said the ruling would “make life much more complicated for groundwater districts.” “When you’re giving big chunks of the pie, it's like you have to keep giving big chunks of that pie out because if you start telling people no, you’re going to get sued,” said Robert Mace, executive director at The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment. “That’s a case the district’s probably going to lose.” Still, landowners who drill a water well that is within the jurisdiction of a groundwater conservation district must register it. Groundwater conservation districts issue permits for commercial wells or wells that pump large volumes of water from the aquifer. They also issue spacing, drilling and production requirements. Groundwater districts determine their supply by monitoring the water underground. Every five years, they submit a report to the Texas Water Development Board that calculates the available water for the next 50 years. The groundwater district uses that information for regional planning and how much water can be permitted for pumping. Justin Thompson, a research assistant professor at the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas, said the goal was to maximize the use of the available water while balancing that against protecting the supply. “They have an unenviable task,” he said. A watering runoff system runs down the orchard rows at Belding Farms. It acts as an irrigation mechanism to prevent run-off. Credit: Julian Mancha for The Texas Tribune Left: In 2022, Belding Famrs spent about $455,000 to install a sprinkler system that covers 96 acres. Right: Newly grown pecans at Belding Farms. Credit: Julian Mancha for The Texas Tribune Ty Edwards, the general manager of the Middle Pecos Groundwater Conservation District, said he sees his role less as a regulator and more as a relationship manager. The groundwater conservation district must represent and protect the interests of groundwater users. If a landowner disagrees with the groundwater district’s decision, they can approach the board members and request changes. Edwards said that is the point of a local governing agency. Three pools of water flow underneath the soil in Fort Stockton, a geographically unique makeup that isn’t common in Texas. The Edwards Trinity aquifer is closest to the surface. The Rustler aquifer is below it. The Capitan Reef Complex aquifer is the deepest one. The farm and holding company are not the only water rights owners in Pecos County. In the County, 4,000 wells tap into the aquifer. Almost 3,000 of those belong to landowners who registered their wells. Nearly 1,000 are permitted. One hundred wells make up the majority of the water use, including Fort Stockton Holdings, Belding Farms, the city of Fort Stockton, another pecan farm and a detention facility. Last year, a combined 42,205 acre-feet of water was pumped from the Edwards-Trinity aquifer. That’s more than Midland and Ector counties, which pumped a combined 25,000 acre-feet of groundwater in 2021, according to the regional water plan submitted by 32 counties to the Water Development Board. Fort Stockton Holdings’ deal with the cities will add 24,800 acre-feet more pumping annually. Edwards said that the groundwater district evaluated pumping levels over the years and determined that the impact on the aquifer would not be a risk. He said the monitoring mechanisms are protective of the aquifer. Since the deal was first proposed, Fort Stockton Holdings and the Cockrell family armed themselves with lawyers, scientists and consultants who have sparred for years, disputing the data they present to each other. Edwards said the data Belding Farms provided helped them arrive at their decision. Although it is not opposed to exports outright, the Cockrell family argues this amount could drain the aquifer faster than it can recharge. They said the groundwater conservation district's monitoring ability is not robust enough and can only provide estimates of the water levels. Experts also pointed to excessive agricultural pumping in the 1950s, which caused the local springs, called Comanche Springs, to dry up. Edwards, who volunteered at Belding Farms in his youth, said the water supply was not in danger. He said the historical data going back decades portrays a healthy aquifer capable of withstanding the added demand. “We’re not going to let their wells go dry,” Edwards said. General Manager Zachary Swick at the pecan assortment plant. The state has lost its sugar industry to a dearth of water in the Rio Grande Valley. Swick does not want pecans to be next. Credit: Julian Mancha for The Texas Tribune At the groundwater district’s October meeting, tensions were high. The 11 board members sat around a conference table beneath a wide-screen TV where scientists, lawyers and consultants gathered and waited their turn to speak. Opposite the TV, the Cockrell family’s attorney, Ryan Reed, sat in a folding chair. Behind him sat Carlos Rubenstein, a former commissioner for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, erstwhile chair and board member of the Texas Water Development Board, now a consultant for the family and farm. Reed once again asked the groundwater district to consider setting stricter rules and defining unreasonable impacts. What he is asking is not included in the law. It would be up to the groundwater district to establish. Fort Stockton Holding’s attorney spoke next, calling the request a fearmongering tactic. He said their studies show the aquifer can sustain the added pumping. Board members said they would convene the residents and discuss adding export fees at their discretion, not the 20-cent amount the Cockrell family recommended. After the meeting, Edwards sat in his office with a plate of barbecue in front of him. A groundwater field technician cooked the meal. He said Texas law compels them to treat groundwater users equally and that the Legislature does not give them enough teeth to take on every battle. In the meantime, he said he trusts the science. “Nobody likes the fact that water is going to leave Pecos County,” Edwards said. “None of the board members like it. You're not going to find anybody in the community that supports them moving water out of the county, but we didn't write the laws.” Shortly after the meeting, Reed said the groundwater district’s decision was shortsighted in refusing to agree to the farm’s terms. Reed did not say what the farm would do next, only that the fight was far from over. Disclosure: Edwards Aquifer Authority, Texas 2036 and Texas State Historical Association have been financial supporters of The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that is funded in part by donations from members, foundations and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no role in the Tribune's journalism. Find a complete list of them here.

Water

Agriculture

Crisis

Boil Water Advisories Can Be Confusing. Here Are Some Safety Tips From Experts

The city of Asheville has restored running water to most of its users nearly a month after Hurricane Helene damaged infrastructure and killed more than 200 people around the region

As a mother of two, Robin Funsten knows it’s impossible to bathe her 2-year-old without getting water in the toddler's mouth. But she's never had to worry about that until recently. A month after deadly Hurricane Helene devastated the U.S. Southeast, Funsten and more than 100,000 residents on city water in western North Carolina remain on an indefinite boil water notice as workers clear sediment from reservoirs and run water quality tests. Residents have described water that reeks of chlorine and is brown or yellow.As much of the U.S.'s water infrastructure ages and climate change fuels disasters, experts say water advisories will become more common.“We are in the midst of an uncertain time, not just in Asheville, but as we think about climate change writ large in some of these major unexpected storms,” said David Dyjack, executive director of the National Environmental Health Association. Boil water notices are given when microbes in tap water could be dangerous if ingested. They're different than do-not-drink water advisories — issued when chemicals or toxins in tap water could cause sickness if swallowed or inhaled – and do-not-use notices for water that could be dangerous to even touch. “Do not drink” means only bottled water should be consumed. “Do not touch” means bottled water should be used for all purposes.As Funsten noted, water safety guidelines can be confusing, and the discolored water isn't reassuring. “Because it still feels so unclear to me, I’d rather be safe than sick,” she said about choosing to shower at a facility using a different source than tap water. Experts emphasize residents should follow safety guidelines from local authorities, as every situation is unique and safety measures may vary by personal risk. Amid these guidelines are personal decisions people can take for their own comfort, much like Funsten did. Ultimately, the most important thing is to avoid drinking water straight from the tap, said Natalie Exum, environmental health scientist at John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “What we need to be primarily concerned about is water ... that should be boiled before it goes into your body, because there could be a lot of microbial contamination there.”Here are some tips from experts and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention when under a boil water advisory. The CDC says to bring water to a full rolling boil for one minute. At elevations above 6,500 feet (1,981 meters), boil for three minutes. To prevent burns, allow water to cool before drinking it or giving it to pets. Bottled water is also a safe alternative. If on a private well that experienced flooding or damage, contact your local health officials for testing guidance before using the water, even if you boil it.Boil water or use bottled water for drinking, to make ice and to prepare or cook food. If making pasta, for example, boil the water for a full minute first before adding. Wash and rinse fruits and vegetables with boiled, then cooled, water.In many cases, it is OK to use tap water and soap to wash your hands during a boil water advisory, according to the CDC, but it’s important to follow advice from local officials.Dyjack recommends using at least a 60% alcohol disinfectant after washing your hands with tap water.Exum stressed that washing your hands is “critically important” during water advisories. If you have an open wound or rash, keep it clean and covered to prevent infection from exposure to contaminated water.Use boiled water if hand-washing dishes. Alternatively, wash dishes with detergent and hot water as you normally would, then soak them for at least one minute in a separate bin with bleach – one tablespoon of unscented bleach per gallon of water. Air dry them completely before use.The CDC says dishwashers are generally safe if they have a sanitize cycle or if the hot wash reaches at least 150°F (66°C), but local guidelines can vary, including Asheville's, which recommends 170°F (77°C). Check the manual or contact the manufacturer to find out how high your dishwater temperature reaches.Under a boil water advisory, it can be safe to bathe or shower if you avoid swallowing water. Avoid shaving nicks.If you have an open wound, Jasen Kunz, with the CDC's waterborne disease prevention branch, advised not to bathe. “You would need to provide an alternative source for that water or consider boiling it and letting it cool before using it.”Use boiled then cooled or bottled water to brush your teeth.Unless you received a “Do not use” water notice, it is safe to do laundry. But note that sediment in the water may discolor clothing. Ensure clothes are dry before wearing. What if someone is pregnant, elderly, an infant or immunocompromised? If you or a family member fall into any of these groups, experts suggest extra safety measures.They recommend giving babies and young children sponge baths to reduce chances of swallowing water.Dyjack said it's best not to shower or bathe someone from these groups using tap water. Breastfeeding is the best option for feeding an infant when there's a boil water notice, according to the CDC. If you feed your child formula, provide ready-to-use formula if possible. If you must make formula, use water that has been boiled and cooled, or use bottled water.While a generally healthy person may be OK if they accidentally sip contaminated water, Exum said vulnerable people are more likely to get sick, dehydrate faster or feel other symptoms. “So you really are just trying to avoid these hospital visits that can be very scary and very draining on the hospital resources.” How can water utilities improve communication around this? Dyjack, from the National Environmental Health Association, encouraged local governments to address residents’ uncertainty and questions through public meetings, podcasts, websites, listservs or by setting up a 24/7 water hotline. “It’s important to put a face on it and allow people to express themselves," he said. “When a community and local government collaborate to solve an issue, there’s nothing that they can’t accomplish.”Funsten, the Asheville resident, said having to boil water for most uses adds chores, time and “big changes to our routine."Others, like Katherine Hyde Hensley, a perinatal psychologist in the area, described feeling “fried” by the mental toll of living with non-potable water on top of helping other mothers navigate their own anxieties about it. Although water might not be restored as quickly as electricity after a disaster, Exum said, “It will come back. You will be OK... Just try and get through each day." The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment.Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See - Sept. 2024

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Food

‘We were trapped like rats’: Spain’s floods bring devastation and despair

Residents describe impact of floods and downpours – with some places hit with a year’s worth of rain in just eight hoursSpanish flash floods – live updatesThe gratitude that greeted Tuesday’s dawn downpours was short-lived in Utiel. When the longed-for rains finally reached the town in the drought-stricken eastern Spanish region of Valencia, they were merciless in their abundance.“People were very happy at first because they’d been praying for rain as their lands needed water,” said Remedios, who owns a bar in Utiel. “But by 12 o’clock, this storm had really hit and we were all pretty terrified.” Continue reading...

The gratitude that greeted Tuesday’s dawn downpours was short-lived in Utiel. When the longed-for rains finally reached the town in the drought-stricken eastern Spanish region of Valencia, they were merciless in their abundance.“People were very happy at first because they’d been praying for rain as their lands needed water,” said Remedios, who owns a bar in Utiel. “But by 12 o’clock, this storm had really hit and we were all pretty terrified.”Trapped in the bar, she and a handful of her customers could only sit and watch as Spain’s worst flooding in almost 30 years caused the Magro River to overflow its banks, trapping some residents in their homes and sending cars and rubbish bins surging through the streets on muddy flood waters.Damaged cars lie amid debris along damaged rail lines in the flood-hit city of Valencia. Photograph: Manuel Bruque/EPA“The rising waters brought mud and stones with them and they were so strong that they broke the surface of the road,” said Remedios, who gave only her first name.“The tunnel that leads into the town was half-full of mud, trees were down and there were cars and rubbish containers rolling down the streets. My outside terrace has been destroyed – the chairs and shades were all swept away. It’s just a disaster.”By Wednesday afternoon, the death toll in Valencia and the neighbouring region of Castilla-La Mancha stood at 72. Utiel’s mayor, Ricardo Gabaldón, told Las Provincias newspaper that some of the town’s residents had not survived the floods, but was unable to provide an exact number.Hours earlier, Gabaldón had told Spain’s national broadcaster, RTVE, that Tuesday had been the worst day of his life. “We were trapped like rats,” he said. “Cars and rubbish containers were flowing down the streets. The water was rising to 3 metres.”People in the town fear some of the dead may have been older people who were unable to escape the flood waters.“Anyone who could get to higher ground did, but there were some old people who couldn’t even open their front doors and they were trapped there inside their own houses,” said Remedios.Residents of La Torre on the outskirts of Valencia city were confronted by similar scenes on Wednesday morning.“The neighbourhood is destroyed, all the cars are on top of each other, it’s literally smashed up,” Christian Viena, a bar-owner in the area, told the Associated Press by phone.A man carries a dog in Letur, Albacete province, after flash floods hit the region. Photograph: Mateo Villalba Sanchez/Getty Images“Everything’s a total wreck, everything is ready to be thrown away. The mud is almost 30cm deep.”Spain’s meteorological office, Aemet, said that more than 300 litres of rain per square metre (30cm) had fallen in the area between Utiel and the town of Chiva, 20 miles (50km) away, on Tuesday. In Chiva, it noted, almost an entire year’s worth of rain had fallen in just eight hours.The ferocious rains have come as Spain continues to experience a punishing drought. Last year, the government approved an unprecedented €2.2bn (£1.9bn) plan to help farmers and consumers cope with the enduring lack of rain amid warnings that the climate would only get worse, and more unpredictable, in the future.“Spain is a country that is used to periods of drought but there’s no doubt that, as a consequence of the climate change we’re experiencing, we’re seeing far more frequent and intense events and phenomena,” said the environment minister, Teresa Ribera.As Wednesday wore on, a distressing picture of the human and economic damage began to emerge. Spain declared three days of national mourning.Spain's prime minister warns people affected by floods to 'stay on guard' – videoThe prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the entire country felt the pain of those who had lost their loved ones, and urged people to take every possible precaution as the torrential rains moved to the north-east of the country.The defence minister, Margarita Robles, said 1,000 members of the military emergencies unit had been deployed to help regional emergency services. In a sign that more bodies could also remain trapped in the mud and in houses, she also offered mobile morgues.One man used a phone call to RTVE to plead for any news of his son, Leonardo Enrique Rivera, who had gone missing in his Fiat van after going to work as a delivery driver in the Valencian town of Riba-roja on Tuesday.A man walks among debris in Letur. Photograph: Susana Vera/Reuters“I haven’t heard from him since 6.55 yesterday,” said Leonardo Enrique. “It was raining heavily and then I got a message saying the van was flooding and that he’d been hit by another vehicle. That was the last I heard.”Esther Gómez, a town councillor in Riba-roja, said workers had been stuck overnight in an industrial estate “without a chance of rescuing them” as streams overflowed.“It had been a long time since this happened and we’re scared,” she told Agence France-Presse.As the search for the dead continued, experts warned that the torrential rains and subsequent floods were further proof of the realities of the climate emergency.“No doubt about it, these explosive downpours were intensified by climate change,” said Dr Friederike Otto, lead of World Weather Attribution at the Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London.“With every fraction of a degree of fossil fuel warming, the atmosphere can hold more moisture, leading to heavier bursts of rainfall. These deadly floods are yet another reminder of how dangerous climate change has already become at just 1.3C of warming. But last week the UN warned that we are on track to experience up to 3.1C of warming by the end of the century.”There were similar, if differently expressed, sentiments in Utiel on Wednesday.“There was one guy here with me yesterday, who’s 73, and he said he’d never seen anything like this in all his years,” said Remedios. “Never.”

Water

Climate

Government

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sues Biden administration over listing freshwater mussels as endangered

The lawsuit claims the endangered designation for six mussel species is a misuse of environmental law that threatens Texas’ economy.

Sign up for The Brief, The Texas Tribune’s daily newsletter that keeps readers up to speed on the most essential Texas news. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Tuesday that his office is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Biden administration officials for declaring six freshwater mussel species endangered and another threatened earlier this year. In June, federal regulators added the Guadalupe fatmucket, Texas fatmucket, Guadalupe orb, Texas pimpleback, Balcones spike, and false spike to the endangered listing, meaning the species is in danger of extinction. The Texas fawnsfoot also received a threatened listing, which means it is likely to become endangered in the future. In a press release, Paxton said the Biden administration is “once again, weaponizing environmental law to target the State of Texas … We are suing to block their latest attempt to undermine the Texas economy and unlawfully interfere with State-led efforts to protect our wildlife and natural resources.” Freshwater mussels, often referred to by experts as “the liver of the river,” filter harmful substances like algae and other bacteria from bodies of water, which helps clean water systems. According to the Wildlife Service, a single freshwater mussel can pump and filter between eight and 15 gallons of water per day, making them some of the most powerful filters in watersheds. But the once-abundant species have declined in recent years as development destroys habitat. They’ve also been heavily impacted by drought, which increases water temperatures when rivers are low. Experts said the endangered designation will result in cleaner rivers, streams and creeks. The listing ruled that 1,577 miles of rivers and creeks in the Colorado, Guadalupe, Brazos and Trinity river basins as critical habitat or an area important to the species’ conservation and recovery. Critical habitat designations prevent government agencies from issuing permits or funding for activities that would harm the mussels or their habitat in those areas. The state’s lawsuit claims that the Fish and Wildlife Service's listing requirements are "nearly impossible for the public to understand" and give vague guidelines on what developers and landowners can do with their own land in the critical habitat. The most important Texas news,sent weekday mornings. Paxton’s statement said the federal government failed to follow the specific procedures and committed several errors in its final endangered species listing determination. He added that the designations force restrictive regulations on Texas that limit and impact economic development.

Water

Conservation

Government

China's 'Hawaii' Under Water as Tropical Storm Dumps Record Rainfall

BEIJING (Reuters) - For a third day, extreme rainfall pounded the southern Chinese province of Hainan, known as China's "Hawaii", amid the transit...

BEIJING (Reuters) - For a third day, extreme rainfall pounded the southern Chinese province of Hainan, known as China's "Hawaii", amid the transit of yet another tropical cyclone, leaving the island half-submerged in a year of record-breaking wet weather.Cities in Hainan including Sanya, famed for its palm trees, seafront hotels and sandy beaches, remained waterlogged on Tuesday due to Tropical Storm Trami to the south. On Monday, Sanya logged 294.9mm (11.6 inches) of rainfall over a 24-hour window, the most for any day in October since 2000.Trami made landfall in central Vietnam on Sunday after a slow trek across the South China Sea from the Philippines, where it left at least 125 people dead and 28 missing. While Hainan did not take a direct hit from Trami, Chinese authorities took no chances, recalling all fishing vessels and evacuating over 50,000 people.China's entire eastern coastline has been tested by extreme weather events this year - from the violent passage of Super Typhoon Yagi across Hainan in September to the strongest tropical cyclone to strike Shanghai since 1949. Scientists warn more intense weather is in the offing, spurred by climate change."In October, the national average precipitation was 6.3% higher than the same period in previous years," Jia Xiaolong, a senior official at the National Climate Centre, said at a news conference on Tuesday.Last week, the water along China's Bohai Sea inexplicably rose up to 160 cm (5.2 feet) in a matter of hours despite the absence of any wind, leading to a tidal surge that flooded the streets of Tianjin and many cities in the northern provinces of Hebei and Liaoning."It's hard to imagine how much power was needed to push such a large area of sea water to one place," Fu Cifu, an official at the National Marine Environmental Forecasting Centre, told state-run Xinhua news agency at the time.China is historically no stranger to floods, but its prevention infrastructure and emergency response planning are coming under increasing pressure as record rains flood populous cities, ravage crops and disrupt local economies.Amid disaster recovery efforts this summer, authorities had to provide billions of dollars in additional funding to support reconstruction in multiple regions from the south to the northeast of China.In July, the country suffered 76.9 billion yuan ($10.8 billion) in economic losses from natural disasters, with 88% of those losses caused by heavy rains and floods from Typhoon Gaemi, the most for the month of July since 2021.($1 = 7.1403 Chinese yuan renminbi)(Reporting by Ryan Woo; Additional reporting by Neil Jerome Morales in Manila; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)Copyright 2024 Thomson Reuters.

Water

Climate

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