Wholly H2o - California's Integrated Water Reuse Management Center

This looks like a great position at the Skoll Global Threats Fund in the Bay Area.  And when you start your new job, you can be sure to fund Wholly H2o!

Manager - Water Scarcity, San Francisco Bay Area, CA

It's enlivening to see cities taking the important and unavoidable step of approving graywater for indoor use, such as flushing toilets.  Good going, San Marcos, TX.  We're hoping to follow your footsteps in California soon.  Thanks to Brock Dolman of the OAEC Water Institute for passing this along.

San Marcos, TX City Council Approves Greywater for Toilet Flushing
Written by Water Legacy

Dear Interested Parties,

This announcement is to inform interested and affected parties of the
State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) plan to consider
adopting the State Fiscal Year (SFY) 2010/2011 Intended Use Plan (IUP)
for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) Program.

The Division of Financial Assistance (DFA) is seeking public comments
on the proposed SFY 2010/2011 IUP (Exhibit A).  The IUP will be
considered for adoption by the State Water Board at the Tuesday, August
3, 2010, Board meeting.  

DFA developed the draft 2010/2011 IUP that can be view on our website
at:
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/water_issues/programs/grants_loans/srf/announcements.shtml


The SFY 2010/11 IUP is required by the CWSRF federal statutes and
regulations, and is a condition of the yearly federal grants the program
receives.  The SFY 2010/11 IUP outlines the State Water Board¨€™s
business plan for the CWSRF Program during SFY 2010/11.  It identifies
the projects the State Water Board expects to fund during SFY 2010/11
and the performance measures used to track the effectiveness of the
CWSRF Program.

You may submit written comments regarding the proposed SFY 2010/11 IUP.
Written comments should be submitted as early as possible to allow for
thorough staff analysis.  Please indicate in the subject line ¨SFY
2010/2011 IUP.¨  All comments are due by noon on July 16, 2010, and
should be directed and sent to  This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Any questions regarding this issue should be directed to Rafaela B.
Padilla at (916) 327-9978 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Thank you,
Division of Financial Assistance Staff
State Water Resources Control Board

There are so many ways to participate in water-related state policy making.  No point is decrying the laws AFTER they are made.  Get involved in how your water is managed!  Here's an opportunity to comment on flow criteria for the SF Bay Delta.

NOTICE OF AVAILABILITY OF DRAFT REPORT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF FLOW CRITERIA FOR THE SACRAMENTO-SAN JOAQUIN DELTA ECOSYSTEM

Water Code section 85086 requires the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board or Board) to develop, within nine months of enactment of the requirement, new flow criteria to protect public trust resources for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta) ecosystem. The statute further requires the State Water Board to submit its flow criteria determinations to the Delta Stewardship Council within 30 days of their development. The purpose of the flow criteria is to inform planning decisions for the Delta Plan and the Bay Delta Conservation Plan. The statute specifies that the flow criteria shall not be considered predecisional with regard to the State Water Board’s subsequent consideration of a permit.
In accordance with Water Code section 85086, the State Water Board conducted a public process in the form of an informational proceeding, held on March 22-24, 2010, to develop the flow criteria. The State Water Board has considered the information submitted in connection with that proceeding, and has prepared a draft report determining flow criteria for the Delta ecosystem necessary to protect public trust resources. In developing the flow criteria, the State Water Board reviewed existing water quality objectives and used the best available scientific information. The flow criteria include the volume, timing, and quality of flow necessary under different hydrologic conditions.

 

The draft report is located on the State Water Board’s web site at:
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/waterrights/water_issues/programs/bay_delta/deltaflow/draft_report.shtml

A resolution to approve the draft report is scheduled for consideration by the State Water Board at its Board meeting on Tuesday, August 3, 2010. The State Water Board issues formal notice with the location and time of public meeting approximately ten days prior to such meetings. All State Water Board notices of public meeting and agendas are posted on the State Water Board’s website, at:
http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/board_info/calendar/index.shtml.

If you cannot access the draft report online, you may request a copy by contacting Phil Crader, Senior Environmental Scientist, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or (916) 341-5438.

 

Talk about designer water!!! Daylighting creeks and reestablishing riverways.  It's the "wave" of the today!!

As Los Angeles's River Runs Again, Designers Determine Its Course
Design is a Verb > Alissa Walker on July 17, 2010

I have not studied the complete history of famous rivers, but I think I can confidently say that the Los Angeles River is having a big month. In fact, it may be the river's biggest month since February 1938, when, flood-fueled, it sloshed so far out of its banks that it busted down dams, destroyed thousands of houses, and killed around 100 people. Engineers at that time couldn't handle the task of taming the beast in a way that could assure ecological conservation, so they controlled it the only way they knew how: Those lovely concrete channels that let the water slice through the city faster than a flushing toilet.

Because of this unfortunate oversight, the Army Corps of Engineers determined that the Los Angeles River was not made up of "traditionally navigable waters." It is, by the way, technically navigable; many people have kayaked all 50 miles of it—including one Army Corps employee who lost her job. And not all of it is a concrete chute. But, deemed unnavigable, the river lost its shot at federal funding that could have helped to tidy it up, including dollars from the Clean Water Act.

So that's why July 7 was a really big day for the not-quite-river: Representatives from the Environmental Protection Agency stood on its banks and made a sweeping statement that reversed its previous decision. The Los Angeles River was once again a river.

A big reason that the EPA made that statement was because they plan to make an example of Los Angeles's watershed. If they can revitalize our little cement chute, there's great hope for everything from sustainably managing seasonal floods in urban areas to "daylighting" buried creeks which are buried below years of development. And it's especially important that Los Angeles is in such a parched corner of the west, where access to water is a bigger concern for some people than money. We can be a model for making rivers run safely, cleanly, and beautifully through other metropolises.

Thus comes the Los Angeles River's next big milestone: July 16.

On this day, I joined a dozen other people in jail. We were atop the blisteringly hot helipad for the Twin Towers containment facility, where the concrete seemed to simmer endlessly in all directions, then blur mirage-like into the distant concrete of the train yards, bus yards, scrap yards. Lewis MacAdams, who founded the Friends of the Los Angeles River 23 years ago, used to carry a fake L.A. Weekly press pass to gain access to this roof, which offers one of the only truly unimpeded views of the river and how it curves through downtown. He pointed out the various landmarks below, as well as an interesting detail: From here, you can actually see how Los Angeles is nestled in a very obvious river valley.

We stood here because it had the very best view of Piggyback Yard, a 125-acre site where shipping containers move from trains to trucks. It's not used nearly as much as it used to be, and in a few years, it will be up for sale. The Friends of the LA River are planning on transforming it into the tongue-in-cheek Piggy Backyard, a park and mixed-use development which will offer the first truly revitalized and redeveloped portion of the river.

The most exciting part of the plans, which were revealed on that helipad, is that Piggy Backyard would actually be the age-old solution to managing those outrageous floods the 1930s engineers couldn't envision. The plan would essentially turn Piggy Backyard into a mini-floodplain by either widening the river channel, or diverting a significant amount of water into wetlands. When large amounts of water came surging downstream, it would flow freely into the greenspace, perhaps rendering some of the park unusable, but actually allowing the water to sink down into the aquifer, instead of being pushed out to sea.

The team behind this plan is the PBy Collaborative Design Group, a collective made up of architects at Michael Maltzan Architecture, Perkins + Will, and Chee Salette Architecture Office, as well as Mia Lehrer, the landscape designer who was also part of 2005's Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan (and judge of our recent school garden design contest). Lehrer noted that the groundbreaking for another park, Civic Park, was happening simultaneously, about a mile away. While parks are always welcome in downtown Los Angeles, it seemed ironic to be moving buildings around to make room for greenspace, when there was such an opportunity to naturalize our greatest resource just a few blocks away. "We need to focus on the river," she says.

Thankfully, there's even more attention being heaped upon the river (told you it was a good month). Two years ago the Community Redevelopment Agency revealed a proposal for a Cleantech Corridor, a massive plan to retrofit the city's outdated manufacturing district for green industry and sustainable living, making one of the largest greentech districts in the country. This month, SCI-Arc and The Architect's Newspaper announced the Cleantech Corridor & Green District Competition, where designers will communicate their visions for what this area should look like. As you can see from the map above, the corridor follows the river like a spine, meaning more architects, designers, and planners will be offering their ideas for how an urban river can interact with progressive businesses and residents.

And yes, there's more. California's High Speed Rail system—the impending train network linking the state's major cities—is also intertwined with the river's future. Piggy Backyard is walking distance from Union Station, where the city's high-speed rail station will be constructed, and any routes in or out of that station must pass over (or under) the river channel. Once again, designers and architects are figuring prominently into that vision. RailLA, which we've written about here before, launched a call for ideas that will be featured in an upcoming exhibition, LA Beyond Cars: A Global Perspective on Rail and Public Space, which will open July 29 in the city. It's impossible to envision the river without rail—namely because it's a site so criss-crossed with train tracks—most of which will need to remain in place. But also because they both offer symbols of Los Angeles's greener future.

In my time in Los Angeles I have found that there are two kinds of residents: Those of us who become fiercely protective of the river, and those of us who quite honestly don't even know that it's there. On that sweltering morning, standing on a prison, disoriented by my first true 360-degree view of my city, I admit it took me a few minutes to find it. But it was there, a strip of dark blue-green ribboning its way through the chalk-white channel. After seeing the plans for its future, and the designers who are so invested in them, in my mind, I was already swimming in it.

I'll just say it til I am BLUE in the face - employ conservation and efficiency people (if you don't know the difference between the two, see Water Efficiency and Conservation Defined).  If you can reduce your usage by 30% (which is quite simple with easy and cheap efficiency and conservation approaches), you will negate the need for dramatic steps such as building dams and peripheral canals.

California's Ailing Water Supply Needs Help

The City of Santa Rosa is going gangbusters in their approach to integrated water management.  Tools that align with storm water best practices could not be more crucial.  Designers should take full advantage of what Santa Rosa is offering: New Project Worksheet and Storm Water Calculator available for download

What many people do not consider every time they use the internet is the amount of energy AND water it takes to operate data centers, keeping them cool in temperature and well-functioning. Google is increasingly taking this into account as the number of data server centers continues to grow to match the use of their services.  Thanks to Sam Arons of Green Business Operations, Google Inc. for pointing out this page to me. 

The Cal Green Building Code, which includes water efficiency standards, will become a required code as of jan 2011. In our effort to centralize water reuse information under one roof, Wholly H2o has information specific to Cal Green as well as other Building Codes, and their water use specifications, http://www.whollyh2o.org/rating-systems.html  Thanks to Green-technology.org for posting this useful article on the topic.

Recently an associate was waxing eloquent, in a misinformed kind of way, about the lack of penalization for water polluters. Untrue, I countered. While certainly not all are caught, the CA state water board frequently sends out notice of violations and citations. Here are just the two most recent examples of how the state responds to complaints of illegal discharges into CA waterways.  See more pending liabilities and penalities at: http://www.waterboards.ca.gov/sanfranciscobay/public_notices/pending_enforcement.shtml