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Mendoza, Argentina
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I. Dam Licensing. Most dam licensing in the United States is by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Draining Selenium Tainted Water from San Joaquin Valley
Source: USGS
II. Selenium and irrigation in California.
The accumulation of selenium (Se) in the waste water draining from irrigated fields in the San Joaquin Valley has become a major problem in California water management, especially as there are only two readily available outlets for the waste water, 1) a flow into the Sacramento Delta where the waste poisons water destined to be pumped into the California Water Project and then into San Francisco Bay where it threatens wildlife or 2) flow into the interior basin near Hanford where the water evaporates and the resulting brine and dusty soil have truly toxic levels of Se. Selenium and the San Joaquin Valley, a power point presentation from the Geochemistry program at the University of Arkansas, illustrates the sources of selenium and the problems associated with it. There have been a number of proposed solutions to the problem, including a drain into San Francisco Bay (see map above). The problem is far from resolved, and no easy solution is in sight.
Sacramento Delta
Source: Project Groundswell
III. Salinization of the Sacramento Delta.
Drought caused low water flows and the heavy duty withdrawal of water from the Sacramento River for shipment southward has led to salt water intrusion into the large delta area at the mouth of the Sacramento Rive, the zone where it flows into San Francisco Bay. That salt water intrusion, in turn, threatens the quality of the water drawn into the San Luis Reservoir at the Harvey Banks Pumping Plant near Tracy in San Joaquin County on the edge of the Delta. The State of California has a Bay-Delta Conservation Plan which illustrates the various options currently under consideration to move water from the Sacramento River around the Delta so that it does not pick up salt. Only in California could a water movement proposal this expensive be given serious consideration!
