Posts Tagged: water
Sewage to Sustenance
Senior Public Information Officer
- UC Riverside,Plant materials that would otherwise become trash may be the key to solving two big problems: diminishing freshwater supplies for farms and diminishing effectiveness of antibiotics.
On average, agriculture accounts for 70% of global freshwater use. In California, which produces nearly half of all U.S.-grown fruits, nuts, and vegetables, that number rises to 80%.
The United Nations estimates food production will need to double by 2050. However, water supplies will not increase accordingly. Instead, due to climate change and drought, water resources are quickly shrinking.
One solution to the increasing need for farm water is to use treated municipal wastewater. There are roughly 16,000 wastewater treatment plants in the U.S., each of them capable of processing up to 10 million gallons every day.
“It's a huge amount of processed water that's mostly clean and can be used again, but there's a problem,” said Ananda Bhattacharjee, assistant project scientist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Salinity Laboratory, based at UC Riverside.
“This water can contain chemicals of emerging concern, like antibiotics, that are difficult to detect and treat without advanced and expensive instrumentation,” he said. “These instruments also require trained laboratory personnel to operate and maintain.”
Once exposed to the antibiotics in the water supply, soil bacteria immediately start developing resistance to the drugs because they want to survive. “Bacteria are amazing biological sensors,” he said. As the bacteria develop resistance, antibiotics stop working.
Once crops are irrigated with contaminated reclaimed water, plants that get harvested and come to our dinner tables may contain residual antibiotics, resistance genes, and resistant bacteria.
To correct this issue, Bhattacharjee is leading a new, $1 million project testing a low-cost technology to make the reclaimed water safer for agricultural re-use. Funded by the USDA's Agriculture and Food Research Initiative, the project will test how effectively biochar made from various types of discarded plant materials can “polish” the water.
Biochar is a charcoal-like substance made by burning organic material. Burning any organic matter, even wood chips, in limited-oxygen environments retains the mass of the burned substance. The remaining, charred substance is highly absorbent.
“It's like activated charcoal used in HEPA filters and HVAC systems. Biochar works on the same principal; it adsorbs chemicals present in reclaimed water and allows only clean water to pass through,” Bhattacharjee said.
Based on this principle, Daniel Ashworth, a soil scientist at the Salinity Laboratory, first built a bench-scale filtration system with biochar for the removal of antibiotics in synthetic wastewater. The results were very promising, with antibiotics removal efficiency of up to 98%.
“Encouraged by Dr. Ashworth's experiments, we will be designing the larger-scale biochar-based polishing systems for removing residual antibiotics in reclaimed water,” Bhattacharjee said.
Using biochar polishers could potentially remove the need to detect the antibiotics in reclaimed water, assisting treatment plants that do not have advanced detection or treatment technologies, and cannot afford them.
Affordability is one of the best features of the biochar system. “As engineers, we try to keep it simple. If we can build something for a dime, we don't want to have to spend a dollar,” Bhattacharjee said.
For this project, scientists from UC Riverside, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, US Salinity Laboratory, and the University of California's Agriculture and Natural Resources are teaming up to test biochar made from multiple kinds of plant materials left over from agricultural field production.
To start, they'll collect treated sewage sludge and plant materials such as pistachio shells and date palm leaves which would otherwise be thrown away. These materials will be turned into biochar for designing filtration systems that reclaimed water can pass through.
Ultimately, the team would like to develop a database of different, inexpensive biochar materials that can all be used for removing harmful compounds from reclaimed water for agricultural reuse, especially crop irrigation.
If the costs remain low and effectiveness remains high, the research team hopes growers will install biochar-based reclaimed water polishing systems on their farms. “That is the major goal of the project, taking this from bench scale to full field scale,” Bhattacharjee said.
Right now, the whole ecology of fields is changing due to residual antibiotics in irrigation systems. The reclaimed water gets into the soil, earthworms feed on organic matter in the soil, and they develop antibiotic resistance in their guts. Then they may release this resistance through their feces, making additional changes to soil microflora, which keeps the cycle of resistance going.
“We are slowly spiking our own agricultural fields with this resistance,” Bhattacharjee said. “Demonstrating this issue was our first project, Bacteria Wars: episode one. Now we have a technique to remove the antibiotics and resistant bacteria, reducing the antimicrobial resistance spread in agriculture. This is our episode two: Researchers Strike Back.”
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Water risks to agriculture: Too little and too much
Water is among the most precious resources on the planet. Some areas don't get enough; some get too much. And climate change is driving both of those circumstances to ever-growing extremes.
Two UC Merced experts in civil and environmental engineering took part in a recent report by the Environmental Defense Fund examining the issue and potential solutions. Associate Professor of Extension Tapan Pathak and Professor Josué Medellín-Azuara co-authored the report, "Scarcity and Excess: Tackling Water-Related Risks to Agriculture in the United States," and wrote the section pertaining to California.
In addition to climate change, disruptive human interventions such as groundwater over-extraction, sprawling drainage networks and misaligned governance are driving up water-related agricultural costs, particularly in midwestern and western states, the researchers found.
The problem is magnified in California, which hosts the largest and the most diverse agricultural landscape in the U.S., Pathak and Medellín-Azuara wrote, with gross revenues from farms and ranches exceeding $50 billion.
"Due to the favorable Mediterranean climate, unique regional microclimate zones, a highly engineered and developed water supply system, and a close connection between producers and research and cooperative extension institutions, California's agricultural abundance includes more than 400 commodities, some of which are produced nowhere else in the nation," the UC Merced researchers wrote.
But the state's varying climate and water needs pose a challenge. Though most of the precipitation falls in the northern part of California, the southern two-thirds of the state account for 85% of its water demand. And all of those crops must be watered in the summer, when there is little, if any, rainfall.
Some of the water comes from snowpack developed through winter storms and stored in reservoirs as it melts. Much of it comes from the Colorado River.
"Substantially less water is captured and stored during periods of drought, imperiling California's water supply and putting agricultural water needs at risk," Pathak and Medellín-Azuara wrote.
Climate change, with increasing periods of drought between excessively wet winters, magnifies that risk.
"Further, the rate of increases in the minimum temperatures in the Sierra Nevada is almost three-fold faster than maximum temperatures, resulting in potential decrease in the snowpack, earlier snowmelt, and more water in liquid form as opposed to snow," the researchers wrote. "According to the California Department of Water Resources, by 2100, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is projected to experience a 48% to 65% decline from the historical average."
Climate change is also expected to affect the availability of water from the Colorado River.
Climate extremes such as heat waves, drought and flooding - giving rises to increased weeds, pests and disease - are already significantly impacting agriculture and the broader economy, Pathak and Medellín-Azuara wrote.
The state's drought from 2012 to 2016 led to about 540,000 acres of fallow farmland in 2015, costing the state's economy $2.7 billion in gross revenue and 21,000 jobs. With the lack of precipitation, farmers increasingly pumped groundwater to irrigate crops, depleting those resources.
The report goes on to recommend policies, programs and tools be developed for agricultural resilience, including:
- Changing land use and crop management practices to support a transition to an agriculture footprint that can be sustained by the available water supplies.
- Increasing farmer and water manager access to important data and innovative technological tools to support their efforts.
- Reimagining built infrastructure and better using natural infrastructure so regions are better equipped to handle weather extremes.
- Developing policy and funding mechanisms to support mitigation and adaptation to water-related risks, avoid maladaptation and ensure food and water security.
"California's innovative agriculture needs to rapidly adapt to more volatile water availability, climate-driven higher water demands, and regulation protecting groundwater reserves, communities and ecosystems," Medellín-Azuara said. "The early adoption of more sustainable practices in agriculture will likely pay off dividends both in the short and long terms."
Added Pathak, "California faces significant challenges related to climate change, but it also presents opportunities for innovations, collaborations and sustained growth. To make agriculture resilient to climate risks, we need to engage in holistic solutions that integrates environmental, social, economic and policy considerations."
Fifty Years of Water Research Projects in California
For decades, California has supported research to improve water resources management. Within our archives at the California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR), we have records of nearly 250 funded research projects going back fifty years. This led us to ask, how have water research topics in California changed over time?
First, let's step back in history. In 1957, with State Water Project construction looming, the California State Legislature funded the first University of California Water Resources Center at UCLA to provide training and research for water planning. Soon after, in 1964, the federal Water Resources Research Act authorized water research institutes in each state. In California, the existing UC Water Resources Center became part of the new network of federal institutes. Located first at UCLA, then UC Davis and UC Riverside, the Water Resources Center coordinated research, extension, and education activities, and also maintained California's Water Resources Center Archives. In 2011, the WRC reopened as the California Institute for Water Resources (CIWR) within the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR).
For decades, CIWR and its predecessors have offered grants for water research at California's universities. The focus and scope of funded projects have evolved. From 1970 to 1999, the California Water Resources Center typically funded a few projects each year by University of California (UC) researchers. From 1999-2008, the program grew with state support and funded 7-20 research projects across five categories including hydrology, ecosystems, water quality, management, and law & policy. Since 2011, the California Institute for Water Resources has funded research projects at UC (campuses and extension) and California State University campuses. CIWR has administered nearly $2 million in federal funds, including $1 million to early career researchers, which are all matched by state funding. While these grants are only a small part of water research in the state, the grants for early career academics are an indicator of emerging water research in California.
From the database of funded projects, we analyzed project titles going back to 1970 using the keyword extraction model Keybert to identify keywords of projects in each decade from 1970 through 2025. We filtered the keywords for duplicate terms (i.e. hydrologic and hydrological) and removed geographic names (i.e. California). We analyzed the top keywords (up to 8 keywords) in each decade, then also grouped a larger set of keywords (40 keywords) using content analysis to evaluate broader research themes.
Groundwater is an area of recent high interest due to the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), but groundwater research has been prominent for decades. “Groundwater” was a top keyword from research topics in 5 of 6 decades. California has recognized groundwater management challenges for a long time. From 1970-2000, “sediment” and “aquatic” were prominent with increased research interests in water quality and habitat. After 1990, additional environmental keywords appeared, including “rivers”, “salmon”, and “ecosystem”, reflecting growing interest in broader environmental restoration goals in California water management. The keyword analysis also identified how research is influenced by management realities, with “drought” being a noted research topic in the 1980's, 2000's, and 2010's corresponding with several major drought periods in California. Agricultural water research grew after 2010 with CIWR's relocation as a statewide organization in the University of California and UC ANR.
Grouping keywords into themes of research revealed additional insights. Across decades, top themes have remained relatively consistent. From 1970-2000, water quality and treatment were key themes. During this time, wastewater treatment research expanded significantly, while the state established research in salinity management programs. Starting in the 1990's, research focusing on ecosystems exploded, reflecting broader policy and management challenges that arose with aquatic species habitat and the San Francisco-San Joaquin Delta. Agricultural water management research increased after 2010, explained in part by the incorporation of UC Cooperative Extension research in CIWR projects, but this also reflects the growing interest in adapting California's agricultural practices to changing climate conditions and water availability. Climate and soils research is a consistent topic and has become more prominent since 2020. Recent projects in this area especially incorporate needs to understand climate change effects on water resources, as well as research to understand links between water management, availability, and soil science.
This approach helps consider how future research in California water can align with policy and management goals. For instance, recent project titles do not directly reflect current policy goals for resilience and adaptation, even though such goals may underlie outcomes of current studies. Recent interest in equity as a policy goal is also not reflected. Contemporary tools in both research methods and policy implementation are inadequate to address the ambitious goals sought by policies such as the Human Right to Water (Assembly Bill 685). More research, outreach, and extension are needed.
California is a laboratory for water management innovations. State and federal support for research are important drivers of innovation. Research being developed by California's current early career academics will forge the water management solutions implemented in future decades.
Erik Porse is the Director of the California Institute for Water Resources and an Associate Cooperative Extension Specialist in the University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources.
UCCE Mendocino & Lake Counties Contact Information and Interest Signup Survey
It has been many years since UC Cooperative Extension aka Farm Advisors have done an educational interest survey and updated our client contact database. There have been a lot of changes in our staff and many new farmers and ranchers have come into our counties so the time is right to update old information and let others, that are not familiar with our programs, join our clientele/supporter contact list.
We've also decided to go to a more modern program for informing the public and our supporters about the educational and research programs we offer in Mendocino and Lake Counties. The name of the program we'll be using is called Constant Contact.
We've learned from the Covid restrictions how to offer some of our educational programs through webinars, zoom conferences and social media. We realize not everyone likes some of these formats, or have poor Internet connection speeds. We are offering our traditional public workshops and field days again. We want to make sure you get our information through your preferred delivery methods. For some of you who may not be familiar with our programs, a few questions below will help you to know the specific areas we can provide information and research on and will insure you only get what you're interested in.
Thanks in advance for taking the time to fill out our survey. Personal information provided to us is confidential and will never be shared with anyone. If, after filling out our survey and receiving information from us, you no longer want to be contacted by us you may at any time asked to be removed from our contact database. All participants who submit a survey are eligible to enter a random drawing to win one of three Amazon $100 e-gift cards. We will be drawing for winners from everyone who opted in for the drawing and complete our survey.
The survey is on-line at: https://surveys.ucanr.edu/survey.cfm?surveynumber=7082
Please also share the link with others who would be interested in our programs. Thanks!!!
Groundwater Help
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) developed the Underrepresented Community Technical Assistance Program (URC TA Program) after learning that some Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) have not been able to address the needs, risks, and vulnerabilities with the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to a sufficient extent within their Groundwater Sustainability Plan(s) (GSPs) or Alternative to a GSP (Alternative). DWR recognizes the need for addition assistance and, thus, implemented the URC TA Program to address this need and is the sole mission of the URC TA Program.
The mission of the URC TA Program is to determine the needs, risks, and vulnerabilities with the implementation of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) for URCs in medium and high priority basins, including critically overdrafted (COD) basins.
DWR retained the services of a consultant group in 2021 to begin the URC TA Program utilizing Proposition 68 funds.
DWR is assisting Tribes and other URCs identified in the heat Maps found below. The URC TA Program will provide onsite engineering, geologic, hydrologic, and other technical services to the communities based upon a ranking of water systems. The types of services provided include, but are not limited to:
- Groundwater level monitoring
- Aquifer testing to determine long-term yield and supply
- Identifying Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems (GDEs)
- Analyze well interference
- Identifying additional water supply
- Analyze existing well condition using downhole video log
- Rehabilitation of water storage tank
- Long-term water supply and demand analysis
- Analyze and help to facilitate water transfers
In addition, DWR hired a nongovernmental agency (NGO) in 2022, using General Funds provided by the Budget Act of 2021, to expand upon the URC TA Program. The additional services DWR is providing through this agreement will:
- Create a template for local domestic well impact mitigation to develop plans for drinking water well protection. Share the data with three (3) local GSAs for the GSAs to develop a mitigation program. Provide ongoing community engagement by attending the three GSAs board meetings or committee meetings to submit the community's needs, risks, and vulnerabilities of URCs in their basin to amend GSPs or Alternatives.
- Analyze and provide feedback on proposed policies and programs by submitting written feedback to the three identified GSAs a minimum of three times a year for two years.
- Revise the existing Communication and Engagement Plan (CEP), if needed.
- Develop educational and outreach materials, if needed.
- Work with the three GSAs and community leaders previously identified to support and implement drinking water and wastewater service projects to help reduce vulnerabilities to groundwater contamination by providing written feedback to those three GSAs.
- Develop a financial strategy plan for the three GSAs to identify long-term strategies for addressing impacts of depleting groundwater supplies, drought, and climate change.
- Identify two common groundwater dependent vegetation species and develop groundwater thresholds that would lead to irreversible transition from a stable state of ecosystem structure. Develop a technical memo with the results of the study and datasets to support incorporation of results into GSP updates.
DWR was provided an additional $9.5 million in General Funds to expand the definition of a URC to include small and socially disadvantaged farmers and to provide technical assistance to the small farmers located within medium and high priority basins and COD basins. Additional information will be provided in early 2023.
Local entities will be able to request services through the SGM_TA@water.ca.gov email address managed by SGM Grant Program Team.
The Technical Assistance Program identifies communities throughout California with water supply challenges such as dry groundwater wells, water shortages, or poor water quality. Using publicly available data, DWR prepared a community identification tool (CIT) that collects relevant information for each census block within the State of California. The data includes, but is not limited to, Median Household Income (MHI), threats to groundwater, access to drinking water, and surface water quality. This information is used to quantify areas of greatest water-related need and applied statewide for Tribal Communities and within hydrologic regions including Northern California, Central California, and California's Central Coast for other Underrepresented Communities. For more information on the Underrepresented Community Prioritization Tool methodology, please refer to the Technical Memorandum Summary.
https://water.ca.gov/Work-With-Us/Grants-And-Loans/Sustainable-Groundwater/Underrepresented-Communities-Grants
DWR SGM TA Services