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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What goes up must come down — perhaps even for things as
massive as Lake Powell. That’s the topic of the Glen Canyon
Institute’s March 15 event, “Glen Canyon Rises.” Featuring
artists, musicians and writers, the event celebrates the
re-emergence of the legendary canyon as the water table keeps
dropping in the massive reservoir shrouding the canyon, Lake
Powell. The Moab Times-Independent spoke with two of the
event’s participants, writer (and former Salt Lake Tribune
reporter) Zak Podmore and photographer Dawn Kish, about their
work to document the return of the southern Utah canyon
sometimes called America’s lost national park.
People born in 1994 will be turning 30 this year — and so will
the drought in Arizona. Groundwater is the primary source of
water for the state, along with allotments from the Colorado
River. But due to a population that has nearly doubled since
the drought began in 1994, groundwater is drying up. In
response, Gov. Katie Hobbs put a moratorium on new housing
developments last year unless developers can prove they have
safe access to non-groundwater sources for 100 years before
they can begin construction. Along with efforts to encourage
home water use reduction, another solution being considered is
a bit greener: direct potable reuse (DPR), known colloquially
as “toilet to tap.” But the issue is far more complex than a
catchy tagline.
The ocean and river salmon seasons in California are likely to
be closed or severely restricted this year based on low
abundance forecasts for Sacramento and Klamath River fall-run
Chinook salmon that were released by state and federal fishery
scientists at the CDFW’s annual salmon information meeting via
webinar on March 1. California representatives are now working
together to develop a range of recommended ocean fishing season
alternatives taking place now at the March 6-11 Pacific Fishery
Management Council (PFMC) meeting in Fresno. Final season
recommendations will be adopted at the PFMC’s April 6-11
meeting in Seattle, Wash. Due to the collapse of fall-run
Chinook salmon on the Klamath/Trinity and Sacramento River
systems in 2022, all commercial and recreational salmon fishing
on the ocean was closed in California and most of Oregon last
year.
Nearly $20 million in federal community project funds for 14
San Gabriel Valley projects, and $1.67 billion for Southern
California water infrastructure were a step closer to reality
after a House of Representatives vote this week, according to
the Rep. Grace Napolitano’s office. The $19.6 million was money
Napolitano secured in this year’s congressional spending bills,
she said. The 14 projects include: $5,500,000 for the San
Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority’s San Gabriel Basin
Restoration Fund…
The State Water Resources Control Board is exploring regulating
nutrients emitted from Southern California wastewater treatment
plants into the ocean. The controversial move is prompted by
concerns that these discharges may accelerate acidification and
oxygen loss in the region’s coastal waters, harming nearshore
marine life. The wastewater treatment industry says this
nutrient regulation is premature. Environmentalists say it’s
overdue. … Wastewater effluent from 23 million
people is piped offshore in Southern California. The resulting
acidity boost could be enough to start dissolving the shells of
crabs and small snails called pteropods, which swim near the
ocean surface and are a favorite food of many fish and whales.
And the resulting oxygen depletion could deprive anchovies,
which many commercial fish eat, of their habitat.
Cadiz, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDZI / CDZIP, the “Company”) announced
today that it has completed a financing transaction that
significantly strengthens its financial position and provides
the Company with liquidity to accelerate development of its
water supply projects in Southern California. The financing
includes a new $20 million loan to fund operations and capital
expenses associated with development of the Company’s water
supply projects and extends all debt maturities to 2027.
Water management might look different in Marin County as
agencies partner to understand extreme weather better. The
North Marin Water District, the Marin Municipal Water District
and Marin County joined the Center for Western Weather and
Water Extremes Water Affiliates Group in January. The group
researches “atmospheric rivers” and other severe weather to
improve water management, mitigate flood risk and increase
water supply reliability. … The National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration says atmospheric rivers are storms
that move most of the water vapor out of the tropics. According
to the Water Affiliates Group, heavy rainfall from these flows
of condensed water is responsible for almost 85% of floods on
the West Coast.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has mapped
out the state over the last few years to gain a better
understanding of its groundwater basins. The department has
been using new technology combined with helicopters to create a
database about what lies below. Out of sight, out of mind, many
people might not think about the water that could lie below our
feet, but the DWR knows groundwater is critical to California.
The state has 515 basins that can hold up to five times more
groundwater than all surface water combined. However, state
officials need to learn more about these basins. With phase one
of their airborne electromagnetic survey project done, they’re
one step closer.
The seven U.S. states that draw water from the Colorado
River basin are suggesting new ways to determine how the
increasingly scarce resource is divvied up when the river can’t
provide what it historically promised. The Upper Basin and
the Lower Basin states, as neighbors, don’t agree on the
approach. Under a proposal released Wednesday by Arizona,
California and Nevada, the water level at Lake Mead — one of
the two largest of the Colorado River reservoirs — no longer
would determine the extent of water cuts like it currently
does. The three Lower Basin states also want what they say is a
more equitable way of distributing cuts that would be a 50-50
split between the basins once a threshold is hit.
A recent large die-off of young salmon released into the
Klamath River shocked and dismayed state biologists,
reinforcing that human efforts to restore nature and undo
damage can be unpredictable and difficult to
control. The tiny Chinook salmon turned up dead downriver
just two days after they were released from the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife’s brand new Fall Creek Fish
Hatchery, built to supply the Klamath River as it undergoes the
largest dam removal in history. … No wild salmon were
harmed. And the consequences aren’t expected to be catastrophic
for the Klamath hatchery project.
Facing rising costs and rates, the leaders of San Diego’s water
lifelines are looking to sell some of its most expensive
supply: de-salted ocean water from a massive plant in Carlsbad.
But, at the same time, they’re also trying to make more of
it. Dan Denham, the San Diego County Water Authority’s new
general manager, says he wants to expand seawater desalination
not because he thinks San Diego needs more water, but because
he thinks they can sell it and recoup at least a little of the
massive investment local rate payers have made on the plant.
… “We’re looking to expand the plant as an opportunity for
users, whether that’s in southern California or the lower
Colorado River basin,” Denham said.
With National Groundwater
Awareness Week approaching and 2024 marking
the 10ᵗʰ anniversary of the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act in California, upcoming Water Education Foundation
tours and events will help you gain a deeper understanding of
groundwater fundamentals. Join us April 5 for our
annual Water
101 Workshop, which includes a session that
will provide an overview of the state’s groundwater
resources, its importance in the state’s water supply, its
history of use and overuse and the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA). Learn what other topics will be covered
and register
here. Workshop participants can also join
the Groundwater
Tour the day before the workshop. And in
April, our three-day Central Valley
Tour will have a strong focus on groundwater as it
moves through the San Joaquin Valley.
The planet has experienced its ninth consecutive month of
record-breaking warmth, with a simmering February rounding out
the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest meteorological winter on
record, international climate officials announced this week.
The global surface temperature in February was 56.4 degrees —
about 0.2 degrees warmer than the previous February record set
in 2016, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate
Change Service. … While much of the Northern hemisphere,
including the United States, experienced its warmest
meteorological winter on record, parts of Southern California
and Los Angeles saw temperatures below their historical
average, according to a report from AccuWeather. The state
ended the month with a major winter blizzard that dumped
up to 10 feet of snow across portions of the Sierra
Nevada.
National Groundwater Awareness Week is next week, and in the
spirit of promoting groundwater knowledge, the Department of
Water Resources (DWR) is excited to announce that its
innovative groundwater mapping project is complete and will
provide critical information about our underground water
supply. The
Statewide Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) Survey Project has
now completed surveys in all high-and-medium-priority
groundwater basins in California. AEM surveys use
state-of-the-art helicopter-based technology to scan the
earth’s subsurface to depths of up to 1,000 feet, like taking
an MRI of the earth, to visualize the aquifer structures
beneath our feet. You can see the AEM equipment in action in
this DWR video: DWR’s Airborne
Electromagnetic (AEM) Surveys: The AEM Method
(youtube.com).
The State Water Resources Control Board received a letter from
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
submitting instream flow recommendations to inform a long-term
flow-setting process to support anadromous salmonids and
year-round ecological stream function on Mill, Deer, and
Antelope Creeks. Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks are
tributaries to the Sacramento River and provide aquatic habitat
for several native fish species including Chinook salmon
(spring-run, fall-run, and late fall-run), Steelhead, and
Pacific Lamprey. Additional information will be forthcoming on
the next steps in considering the recommendations. Additional
information related to this matter can be found on the Mill,
Deer, and Antelope Creeks – Flow Recommendations webpage.
As an endorheic—or terminal—lake with no outlet, Mono Lake
loses water naturally only through evaporation. Evaporation is
a complex process, influenced by radiation, wind, temperature,
and humidity. The rate of evaporation varies across seasons and
over the lake’s surface. With no long-term observational data
of evaporation at Mono Lake, the effect of evaporation on the
water balance is not well understood. Longtime Mono Lake
Committee hydrogeographer Peter Vorster studied evaporation
here for a short period in the early 1980s. He determined Mono
Lake loses nearly four vertical feet of water to evaporation
each year. With a more current understanding of evaporation
specifically at Mono Lake, the Committee can better estimate
lake level fluctuation.
At a recent listening session hosted by Attorney General Kris
Mayes, Cochise County residents called on state officials to do
more to protect Arizona’s groundwater — and pointed the finger
at one rural lawmaker for blocking progress. Cochise
County residents such as Anne Carl reported that mega farms,
dairies and lithium mines are sucking the groundwater out of
the earth and leaving it dry which causes the ground to shake
and crack. … Residents blamed Rep. Gail Griffin
(R-Hereford), the powerful chair of the House Natural
Resources, Energy and Water Committee, for blocking bills that
they say would protect their water rights. Mayes, a Democrat
who’s spoken strongly against drill permits previously awarded
to foreign-owned companies, suggested they vote her out and
vowed to act if the Legislature will not.
Rep. David Valadao (R–Hanford) has secured $55 million in
direct funding for community improvement projects.
Fifteen projects throughout Congressional District 22 will
receive federal grants, per Valadao’s request. The big
picture: The largest project on the list is $9 million to
construct a new homeless shelter campus in
Bakersfield. … Delano’s Well 42 project will receive $6
million to fund the creation of a new city well and treatment
plant to provide clean and contaminant free water.
… Here’s a look at the rest of the projects that Valadao
secured funding for: … $1.75 million for the city of Lindsay
to replace an old main pipeline to improve water quality. $3.25
million for the Arvin-Edison groundwater recharge project to
reduce landowner’s groundwater pumping and provide in-lieu
groundwater recharge.
As water supplies come under more stress across the West, some
states are seeing increased legal activity related to water
rights. Bloomberg has reported some states, including Utah, are
setting up specific water courts, or judges who deal mainly in
water law. Colorado has had this kind of a setup for more than
50 years. Holly Strablizky is a water referee for
the Water Court in Colorado. The Show talked with her
about what her job entails.
A once-in-a-generation downturn in the wine market is reshaping
California’s grape-growing regions as farmers tear out vines to
rebalance supply with declining demand. Throughout this winter,
bulldozers plowed through Lodi’s wine country, leveling
vineyards and piling vines in mangled heaps on either side of
Highway 99 in San Joaquin County. Thousands of acres in the
region have been removed or are slated for removal, according
to an ongoing survey of its members by the Lodi District Grape
Growers Association.