A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Chris Bowman.
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Giant pumps hum inside a warehouse-like building, pushing water
from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the California
Aqueduct, where it travels more than 400 miles south to the
taps of over half the state’s population. But lately the
powerful motors at the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant have been
running at reduced capacity, despite a second year of
drought-busting snow and rain. The reason: So many threatened
fish have died at the plant’s intake reservoir and pumps that
it has triggered federal protections and forced the state to
pump less water. The spike in fish deaths has angered
environmentalists and fishing advocates, who argue the state
draws too much water from the delta while failing to safeguard
fish.
The federal and state governments accused San Francisco on
Wednesday of discharging huge amounts of untreated wastewater
and sewage into the bay and the ocean for many years, violating
environmental laws and endangering beach-goers and aquatic
life. … And they said it’s been getting worse: In the rainy
season from October 2022 to March 2023, more than 4 billion
gallons were spewed into the waters. The lawsuit seeks
court orders requiring the city to change its practices, and
hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties to be paid to the
federal and state governments.
Water systems will need to comply with new rules on
contaminants at the state and federal levels after two
regulations were approved this month. That could bring
challenging costs to water providers. And still, advocates say
protections aren’t good enough. On April 17, the state
Water Resources Control Board passed a maximum contaminant
level (MCL) for hexavalent chromium, a heavy metal that can
occur naturally and through improper industrial site disposal.
… On April 18, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) designated perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and
perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as hazardous substances.
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The award-winning Great Salt Lake Collaborative is expanding to
cover the Colorado River, and St. George News is among the
newsrooms kicking off this new reporting initiative. Called the
Colorado River Collaborative, the organization is made up of 11
Utah media partners that have agreed to report on the river,
its tributaries and destinations. Stories will explore how
Utahns are impacted by the river and how they can address a
dwindling water supply in the face of drought, climate change
and rapid growth. As a solutions journalism initiative,
Collaborative stories will also explain what can be done to
adapt to the new realities facing the river, what actions are
being taken and why.
Against a backdrop of the Colorado River, members of the
Colorado River Indian Tribes watched Secretary of the Interior
Deb Haaland, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Amelia Flores, the
tribe’s chairwoman, sign a historic agreement on April 26 that
asserts the tribe’s right to lease portions of their allocation
of the river’s water to users away from the tribal land. The
agreement between the tribe, the Interior Department and
Arizona gives the tribe the ability to lease, exchange or store
a portion of its Colorado River water entitlement. As one
leader expressed, the tribe is stepping away from the “outdated
framework” of federal restrictions that constrained their means
to supply water to areas off the tribal land.
Pro-Russia hackers have exploited shoddy security practices at
multiple US water plants in recent cyberattacks that have hit a
wider swathe of victims than was previously documented,
according to an advisory by US federal agencies obtained by
CNN. Though the attacks have not impacted drinking water, the
advisory lays bare the cybersecurity challenges facing the
thousands of water systems across the US, many of which are
often short of cash and personnel to deal with threats.
It’s a good water year in California. As of early April, the
snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains was 110 percent of
average. Winter rain storms have filled reservoirs, creeks,
streams and lakes. And as the mountain snow melts, more water
will be added. For almond grower Christine Gemperle, it
means that, for the second year in a row, she will open the
gates of the irrigation canal next to her orchard located in
the Turlock water district of California’s Central Valley
orchard and flood her property. As the water in the canal
permeates the soil, it will travel deep below the surface,
recharging depleted groundwater reserves. The groundwater
versus surface water distinction is important, especially for
dry regions such as the Golden State.
The seasonal waterfalls at Yosemite National Park are in
spectacular full force, with one “secret waterfall” taller than
an iconic New York City skyscraper almost at peak flow.
… The 2,400-foot falls ran year-round last season,
but they’re not expected to do so again this year. Last
winter’s record Sierra Nevada snow helped keep them
from going dry, something that had happened only once before in
the previous decade. … While still impressive, this
season’s ephemeral water show doesn’t pack quite the punch it
did a year ago at this time, when 10 ephemeral waterfalls
cascaded throughout the park. Waterfalls throughout Yosemite
are only getting snowmelt from a “surprisingly average”
Sierra winter, according to NASA.
If you’re a Southern California gardener planning to grow food
this summer, it’s time to pay attention to how they grow
veggies in the desert, because July, August and September will
likely be HOT. Yes, I know, it’s been and continues to be a
record-setting wet and chilly spring, but starting in June, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Assn’s National Weather
Service expects most of the country to have higher-than-average
temperatures for the rest of the year.
After screening proposals to expand water storage capacity, the
Marin Municipal Water District has narrowed its options. But
expansion of the Soulajule reservoir — the district’s star
prospect — is drawing mounting opposition from neighboring
ranchers who fear that their multigenerational homes and
ranches will be engulfed by the new footprint created by the
larger dam.
Work began Wednesday on removing the third of four dams that
nearly destroyed salmon populations on the Klamath River in
Oregon and California and caused some of the nation’s
largest-ever fish kills. Karuk elder Leaf Hillman and his wife,
Lisa, were on hand to see the first shovelful of dirt scraped
from the top of the earthen dam. They and other tribal fish and
water protectors had fought for years to demolish the dams that
nearly made one of their cultural touchpoints and primary food
sources extinct. … The Iron Gate Dam was the last of the
dams built to provide electricity to Northern California in the
early 20th century. … Klamath River Renewal Corporation, the
nonprofit in charge of the largest dam removal project in the
U.S. to date, chose to drain the reservoirs in the dead of
winter because it was in between fish runs.
The recent drought in the Panama Canal was driven not by global
warming but by below-normal rainfall linked to the natural
climate cycle El Niño, an international team of scientists has
concluded. Low reservoir levels have slowed cargo traffic in
the canal for most of the past year. Without enough water to
raise and lower ships, officials last summer had to slash the
number of vessels they allowed through, creating expensive
headaches for shipping companies worldwide. Only in recent
months have crossings started to pick up again. The area’s
water worries could still deepen in the coming decades, the
researchers said in their analysis of the drought. As Panama’s
population grows and seaborne trade expands, water demand is
expected to be a much larger share of available supply by 2050,
according to the government.
The historic dam-removal project on the Klamath River, along
the remote California-Oregon border, is hitting another
milestone this week as demolition of the largest of four
targeted hydroelectric dams gets underway. Iron Gate Dam, a
173-foot dam in Siskiyou County, is scheduled to start being
disassembled by work crews Wednesday, an endeavor that is
expected to continue until September or October. The
62-year-old dam is the third so far to face the wrecking ball.
The small Copco #2 Dam was removed last year, the 126-foot
Copco #1 Dam is currently being taken down, and the 68-foot
J.C. Boyle Dam is scheduled for dismantling starting May 13.
All of the demolition work is expected to be completed this
year.
Two months after Navajo Nation officials released details of a
sweeping agreement to secure rights on the Colorado and Little
Colorado rivers, there have been numerous community meetings to
discuss what it means for people to secure water access. What’s
clear is that the settlement, known as the Northeastern Arizona
Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement, is about equity,
human rights and securing access to water for the next 100
years for the Navajo people. … The agreement would
settle all of the Navajo Nation’s water rights claims in
Arizona, which includes the Colorado River Upper Basin, the
Colorado River Lower Basin, Little Colorado River Basin and
some groundwater. The proposal will be put into
legislation and voted on by the Navajo Nation Council before it
is sent to Congress, where lawmakers could make their own
adjustments.
Twelve years after California became the first state in the
nation to declare a “human right to water,” achieving this
basic societal goal of securing clean water for all 39 million
state residents is more daunting than ever. This is a moral
imperative for one of the largest economies in the world. There
is no good reason for clean, safe water to be elusive to an
estimated 1.2 million Californians who get their water from
failing water systems beset with financial problems and safety
concerns. But there is an undeniable reason: The state’s water
system was in far worse shape than previously thought.
California needs to drill more than 55,000 new wells and fix
nearly 400 failing public water systems. -Written by Tom Philp, Sacramento Bee columnist.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
On April 25, 2024, the Delta Stewardship Council unanimously
appointed Dr. Lisamarie Windham-Myers as its new lead scientist
for the Delta Science Program. She had been serving in an
interim capacity during the lead scientist recruitment process
due to the early departure of the prior lead scientist. At the
recommendation of the Delta Independent Science Board, the
Council extended Dr. Windham-Myers’ term to a full three-year
term through November 30, 2026. … Dr. Windham-Myers is a
systems ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who is known
internationally for her work leading teams to advance the
understanding of carbon sequestration in aquatic systems.
A new memo from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is raising
concern about the infrastructure at the Glen Canyon Dam and its
ability to deliver water downstream should levels at Lake
Powell continue to decline. Environmental groups are calling it
“the most urgent water problem” for the Colorado River and the
40 million people who rely on it. … Without upgrades to
the dam’s infrastructure, the bureau’s ability to get water
downstream to the lower Colorado River basin as required by the
Colorado River Compact could be in jeopardy. Even after
record-breaking snowfall in 2023 and an above average 2024
winter, Lake Powell remains at about 32% full, according to
data from the bureau. And scientists estimate flows
in the river have decreased by roughly 20% over the last
century, with warming temperatures resulting in a
10% decrease in runoff.
Kern River combatants are headed back to court where a local
advocacy group hopes to force the City of Bakersfield to goose
up flows, which were cut to a trickle leaving piles of dead
fish west of Bakersfield. The hearing is set for May 9 at 8:30
a.m. in Division J before Kern County Superior Court Judge
Gregory Pulskamp. “Nobody should be happy with the condition of
the Kern River right now; the people deserve and the law
requires a flowing river, not a couple of stagnant pools with
gasping and cooking fish,” wrote Attorney Adam Keats in an
email. Keats represents Bring Back the Kern and a coalition of
other public interest groups in a lawsuit with Water Audit
California against Bakersfield that seeks to have the city
study how its water diversions impact the environment. The city
owns water rights to the Kern as well as the river bed and six
that it operates in from about Hart Park west to Enos Lane.
