Category: Water in the News

This article highlights a growing problem in America, namely the cybersecurity (or lack thereof) of critical infrastructure.  This may be one of the few times we can be thankful that Sheep Creek Water Company largely operates on analog equipment and depends on gravity to bring the water from the canyon down to our homes…

That said, even though I don’t have firsthand knowledge of Sheep Creek’s technology setup, there is almost certainly a good deal of security hardening that could be done.  If the billing system went down…

The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday issued a new memorandum, ordering all public water systems to meet a series of basic cybersecurity requirements while also making cybersecurity audits a part of regular scheduled safety inspections.

“We know Americans rely on these critical services, and we know that Americans expect that they are resilient to cyberattacks,” White House Deputy National Security Adviser Anne Neuberger told reporters, ahead of the memorandum’s release.

“There have been cyberattacks against water systems in the United States and in countries around the world, so this is an incredibly timely action,” she added.

https://www.voanews.com/a/us-moves-to-shield-drinking-water-from-cyberattacks-/6988817.html

This is a long but very interesting article with a local flavor, talking about where much of the water comes from in desert areas.  Sheep Creek Water Company relies exclusively on groundwater, and it is a precious resource indeed.  The tunnel that was dug over one hundred years ago to move water turned out to be a water source that taps into an ancient flow, and that ancient flow has been providing water to Phelan ever since.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/01/cadiz-farms-fossil-water/671652/

The science of water dating is young, but it is starting to introduce ethical considerations into California water decisions. In the high desert city of Victorville, where years of overpumping have left groundwater supplies dangerously low, Izbicki has provided his age data to water managers. “When you tell people their water is 10,000 years old, that changes the conversation,” he says. The community focused on conserving that supply, and began recharging the aquifer to sustain it—one of the three alternatives to the Cadiz project noted by the water-policy expert Jeffrey Mount. Since Izbicki’s first studies of Victorville water in 1995, Mount says, the water table has stabilized. Izbicki has since provided data to three other high-desert communities to help them manage their groundwater.

…

The long failure to seriously consider the ethics of groundwater management, Groenfeldt says, is a symptom of a larger misunderstanding. When we think about water scarcity, it’s easier to picture a dry lake bed than a drained aquifer. Although groundwater constitutes the vast majority of the planet’s nonfrozen freshwater resources, most people know little about it, perhaps imagining that it collects in underground caverns or lakes. In truth, an aquifer is more like a porous sponge, a network of geologic and chemical interactions that defies reduction to simple formulas. Mount says the current crisis will force us to confront this collective ignorance.

“We’re at this once-a-century transition in water management,” Mount says. “The next generation after me is going to be obsessed with groundwater.”

…from October 2022:
https://californiawaternewsdaily.com/legislation/indoor-water-use-legislation-signed-by-governor/

Last week Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 1157 (Hertzberg) which lowers indoor water use standards to 47 gallons starting in 2025 and 42 gallons in 2030.

“Climate change is resulting in less available water and more challenging water management,” the Governor said in a written statement. “I am signing this bill to incentivize efficient urban water use while also maintaining access to water for all Californians.”

This impacts “urban” water suppliers, which are defined as having more than 3000 customers or supplying more thand 3000 acre-feet of water annually.  Thankfully, Sheep Creek Water Company is not an urban water supplier, but Phelan/Pinon Hills Community Service District is.

This kind of news will keep showing up as water scarcity becomes more and more of an issue.  I really think Sheep Creek Water Company’s 100 year-old water rights are only going to become more valuable over the next few decades…

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/new-york-investors-snapping-up-colorado-river-water-rights-betting-big-on-an-increasingly-scarce-resource/

Bernal’s family came to the Grand Valley nearly 100 years ago, and he has lived there his whole life.

But now, he has a new neighbor: a New York-based investment firm called Water Asset Management, which he says bought a farm in the valley around 2017 that Bernal now rents and helps operate.

According to public records, the hedge fund — which is headquartered on Madison Avenue in Manhattan — has bought at least $20 million worth of land in Western Colorado in the last five years, making it one of the largest landowners in the Grand Valley.

The hedge fund, founded in 2005, says it invests exclusively in assets and companies that ensure water supply and quality. In 2021, its co-founder and president, Matthew Diserio, called water in the United States “a trillion-dollar market opportunity.”