Climate Point: In California, 'non-functional turf' is out during the drought

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I'm Erin Rode in Palm Springs, California.

This week, California banned the irrigation of so-called “non-functional turf” in the commercial, institutional, and industrial sectors as the state continues to look for ways to reduce water consumption amid the drought, I reported for The Desert Sun. Non-functional turf is defined as "turf that is solely ornamental and not regularly used for human recreational purposes or for civic or community events.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has also threatened to impose additional mandatory water restrictions if residents don’t reduce their water use on their own, as Californians continue to fall short of voluntary conservation targets. 

California follows Nevada, which took things a step further in a new state law that went into effect this year. While Californians are just banned from watering their non-functional turf, the Nevada law mandates the actual removal of turf lawns at housing developments and commercial sites around Las Vegas. 

Meanwhile, the extreme drought conditions in the West have renewed calls to rewrite the century-old Colorado River Compact, including from former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Ian James reports for the Los Angeles Times. The agreement divides the river’s decreasing flow among seven states, but Babbitt says it’s time to revamp the agreement to account for the reduced amount of water.

Here are some other stories that may be of interest.

Must-read stories

Lithium wars. In a rural pocket of North Carolina, lithium mining startup Piedmont Lithium has promised to transform the area into a clean-energy boomtown, Alexander C. Kaufman reports for HuffPost. But while Gaston County, North Carolina was the epicenter of global lithium production in the 1950s, today’s residents are pushing back against plans to bring back the industry over concerns with the potential impacts to the water table and other issues. As the Biden Administration pushes for more domestic mining to increase the supply of minerals like lithium that are needed for the clean energy transition, Gaston County is the latest example of local opposition in lithium-rich communities. 

Air monitoring. While many living in toxic hot spots call for air monitors to flag hazardous emissions levels, these air monitors alone aren’t enough to save communities from toxic industrial pollution, Lisa Song and Lylla Younes report for ProPublica. Calvert City, Kentucky has air monitors that for years have shown that the community is exposed to high levels of ethylene dichloride — but even with years of data, regulators still haven’t stopped the offending polluter. 

Wildfires in the West

Pause on prescribed burns. U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore announced a suspension of all planned fire burning operations on all national forest lands while the agency reviews protocols and practices ahead of planned burns this fall, Susan Montoya Bryan reports for the Associated Press. Moore cited extreme fire danger and unfavorable weather conditions, amid the expanding drought conditions, hot and dry weather, and extreme wind that have caused explosive fire behavior in the southwestern U.S. The decision comes as the agency has faced criticism for a prescribed fire in New Mexico that escaped its containment lines in April, joining with another fire to form what is currently the largest fire burning nationally. 

But more burns are needed. Even as the Forest Service puts controlled burns on pause for the next 90 days, experts say the practice needs to expand as wildfires become more frequent and more intense in the U.S., Elizabeth Weise reports for USA Today. Fire ecologists criticized the agency’s decision to halt all controlled burns after the New Mexico incident, while Forest Service Chief Randy Moore said the pause was due to current extreme wildfire risk conditions. 

“There’s a lot of politics in play,” said Matthew Hurteau, a professor at the University of New Mexico, who studies the effects of wildfires and climate change on Southwestern forests. “After a plane crashes, we don’t shut down all air travel for three months,” he said. "The worst thing that can happen to our wildfire situation is that it get politicized."

Future forests. Forests often regenerate after wildfires, but climate change could change that, Joan Meiners reports for the Arizona Republic. Meiners spoke with Donald Falk, an associate professor with the University of Arizona’s Laboratory of Tree-Ring research, about what Arizona’s forests could look like in 2122. “After the year 2000, it's like a switch was flipped. Wildfires are 10 times as large. We are seeing ecosystems change, and I would say that the pace of change has really picked up. We're seeing a lot of mortality of trees, from wildfire and just because it's getting too hot and dry for the kinds of forests that we used to have to survive,” Falk told Meiners. 

Hot takes

Hurricane forecast. Meteorologists say as many as 10 hurricanes could form during this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 through Nov. 30. If this forecast comes true, 2022 will be the record seventh consecutive year of above-normal activity. USA Today

New records. Heat records were broken across the U.S. last week, from Grand Island, Nebraska (96 degrees) to Shreveport, Louisiana (94 degrees). USA Today

Idle? Inspectors found six idled oil wells leaving methane near homes in Bakersfield, California last week. The Desert Sun 

Dam-removal. The largest dam-removal project in U.S. history is expected to begin in Northern California next year. San Francisco Chronicle 

Nuclear university. Purdue University and Duke Energy are teaming up to explore using nuclear power for the university’s long-term energy needs, a move they say would be unprecedented for a college campus. Indianapolis Star 

And another thing

The Peanut Farmer. Former president Jimmy Carter has weighed in on a debate over a proposed gravel road that would cut through a federal wildlife refuge in King Cove, Alaska, Henry Fountain reports for the New York Times. A recent federal appeals court ruling upheld a Trump-era land deal that would let the road project move forward. Conservation groups say the ruling could gut the landmark Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, a federal law signed in 1980 that protects the nearby Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and 100 million more acres of public lands in the state. 

Carter, who signed the law in question, supported an appeal of the ruling by conservation groups this month in a rare legal brief filed by a former president.