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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California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
While work crews continued dismantling dams on the Klamath
River, leaders of four tribes gathered on a riverbank last week
to watch and offer prayers as a valve on a tanker truck was
opened. Over two days, workers from the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife released 16 truckloads of
juvenile salmon that were raised in a newly built
hatchery. … The last time state workers released
Chinook salmon in February, they let loose more than 800,000
fish in a tributary upstream of Iron Gate Dam, which is slated
to be removed, and the fish were later found dead in the
river. Biologists determined the salmon died as they passed
through a tunnel beneath the dam. To prevent that from
happening again, state officials selected another location just
downstream of Iron Gate Dam.
A recent study in the journal Science analyzed dozens of
Chinese cities, revealing that they’re slowly sinking. This
phenomenon of the Earth’s surface literally being pushed down —
technically known as land subsidence — is not limited to the
tens of millions who will be impacted in China. From California
to Greece, human activity is making the land under our feet
more prone to subsiding than ever. … Local authorities
are starting to take notice. Earlier this month in
California, state water officials put a farming region known as
the Tulare Lake groundwater sub basin on “probation” to curb
excess water use.
On Friday, the Environmental Protection Agency designated two
types of “forever chemicals” as hazardous substances under the
federal Superfund law. The move will make it easier for the
government to force the manufacturers of these chemicals,
called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, to shoulder
the costs of cleaning them out of the environment.
… Although the EPA’s new restrictions are
groundbreaking, they only apply to a portion of the nation’s
extensive PFAS contamination problem. That’s because drinking
water isn’t the only way Americans are exposed to PFAS … In
Texas, a group of farmers whose properties were contaminated
with PFAS from fertilizer are claiming the manufacturer should
have done more to warn buyers about the dangers of its
products.
As the Bureau of Reclamation looks to prepare new rules for the
Colorado River, states across the West and other interested
stakeholders have proposed plans for the river’s future. These
alternative plans aim to shape the operation of the Colorado
River after many of the current rules expire in 2026. In April,
a coalition of conservation groups including Audubon,
Environmental Defense Fund, The Nature Conservancy, and others
submitted a plan for managing the Colorado River. Known as the
Cooperative Conservation Alternative, the proposal seeks to
broaden management efforts on the Colorado River to be more
inclusive of various interests, Tribes, and the environment.
Already fuller this year than it was at this time a year ago,
Lake Shasta continues to fill, creeping toward the top ―
sometimes rising just inches a day. But by early May, the lake
level is expected to stop rising and the long draw-down of the
lake will begin again and continue through the summer. The lake
is expected to reach about 5 feet from full sometime in early
May, according to Michael Burke, a spokesman for the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Shasta Dam. … Two
years ago, conditions at the lake were dire, with the water
level down to historically low levels. … But with the
lake fuller this year, many water agencies are receiving their
full allotment of water from the bureau.
State Sen. Anthony J. Portantino, who represents Pasadena, has
authored a bill mandating the study of microplastics’ health
impacts in drinking water. The Senate Environmental Quality
Committee approved the bill this week. By filing SB
1147, Portantino seeks to emphasize the need for further
research and action in addressing the pervasive presence of
microplastics in various environmental elements.
… The bill’s provisions include a requirement for all
water-bottling plants producing bottled water for sale to
provide an annual report to the State Department of Public
Health’s Food and Drug branch on microplastic levels found in
their source water. This data, as mandated by the bill, aims to
enhance transparency and consumer awareness regarding the
presence of microplastics in bottled water, a product consumed
widely across California.
State lawmakers are considering a bill that would let two
energy companies with coal-fired power plants in northwest
Colorado hang on to their water rights even after the plants’
planned closures in 2028. Senate Bill 197 says that industrial
water rights held by Xcel Energy and Tri-State Generation and
Transmission Association Inc. will be protected from
abandonment through 2050. Under Colorado law, a water right
that is not being used could end up on an abandonment list,
which is compiled every 10 years. Abandonment is the official
term for one of Colorado’s best-known water adages: Use it or
lose it. It means that the right to use the water is
essentially canceled and ceases to exist. The water goes back
into the stream where another water user can claim it.
The San Francisco Bay could experience a foot of water in sea
level rise by 2050 if high emissions continue, according to the
State of California’s Sea-Level Rise Guidance Report. There is
a push for major spending to control flooding in the Bay Area
before that scenario plays out – and one of the proposed
solutions is tidal marsh. Like many Pacific Islanders living
around East Palo Alto, the shoreline is a spiritual place to
Anthony Tongia and Violet Saena. … According to the
USDA Forest Service, more than 80 percent of the San Francisco
Bay’s original tidal wetlands have been altered or displaced.
This has impacted habitats and species that live along the
shoreline. It also partially led to recurring flooding in
several areas along the Bay.
Work has been underway on a recycled water treatment project in
Santee for about two years. In another two years, some East
County residents will get their drinking water from the East
County Advanced Water Purification program. It’s a massive
billion-dollar recycled water treatment plant north of Santee
Lakes that, at its peak, has 250 construction workers working
on it. Kyle Swanson, the CEO and general manager at the Padre
Dam Municipal Water District, says the project will meet about
30% of drinking water demands in East County alone. Right now,
most East County residents get their water from Northern
California and the Colorado River, according to Swanson.
… California has some of the tightest toxic regulations and
strictest air pollution rules for smelters in the country. But
some residents of the suburban neighborhoods around Ecobat
don’t trust the system to protect them. … Uncertainty,
both about the safety of Ecobat’s operation going forward and
the legacy of lead it has left behind, weighs heavily on them.
… Early on, environmental officials flagged reasons for
concern about the lead smelter. State and federal regulators
issued an order and a consent decree in 1987 because of the
facility’s releases of hazardous waste into soil and water. An
assessment from that time found “high potential for air
releases of particulates concerning lead.”
At its April 12, 2024, meeting, the Delta Stewardship Council
unanimously elected Council Member Julie Lee as chair and
Council Member Gayle Miller as vice chair. “As the chair of
this Council, I realize these are very big shoes to fill,” Lee
said. “I fully commit to you to do my very best to ensure that
the Council continues to fulfill its mission.” Chair Lee’s
election took effect immediately, and pursuant to the Delta
Reform Act, she may serve in that capacity for no more than
four years. Her current term on the Council expires on February
3, 2026. Prior to being appointed to the Council by Governor
Gavin Newsom in 2022, Lee served the Office of Governor Jerry
Brown and the following California state agencies: Government
Operations Agency, Building Standards Commission, Department of
Transportation, Department of Personnel Administration, Highway
Patrol, and Department of Corrections.
In what may be an illegal tax increase, the board of the
Metropolitan Water District just approved a two-year budget
that doubles the property tax it collects in its six-county
service area. MWD is a water wholesaler with 26 cities and
water retailers as its customers. Through those entities, MWD
supplies water to about 19 million people in Los Angeles,
Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura
counties. The new budget raises the wholesale rates by 8.5% in
2025 and then by 8.5% again in 2026. The rates for treated
water will go up 11% and then 10%. Metropolitan said it has to
raise rates and taxes to cover its operating costs because
they’ve been selling less water, first because of drought, and
then because of rain.
The recently announced closure of the salmon fishing season
delivered yet another devastating blow to the thousands of
families that depend on commercial and recreational fishing for
their livelihoods. For the second year in a row, fishing boats
at Fisherman’s Wharf will remain mothballed. The recent drought
contributed to the salmon decline, but the larger problem is
archaic water policies that allow too much water to be diverted
from our rivers and the Delta. As a result, salmon experience
manmade droughts almost every year, and the droughts we notice
become mega-droughts for fish. … California desperately needs
water reform, but strong opposition has come from what might
seem like an unlikely suspect. The San Francisco Public
Utilities Commission, which manages our Hetch Hetchy Water
System, is one of the worst culprits when it comes to poor
stewardship of our aquatic ecosystems. -Written by Peter Drekmeier, Policy Director for
the Tuolumne River Trust; and Scott Artis; Executive
Director of the Golden State Salmon Association.
With private investors poised to profit from water scarcity in
the west, US senator Elizabeth Warren and representative Ro
Khanna are pursuing a bill to prohibit the trading of water as
a commodity. The lawmakers will introduce the bill on Thursday
afternoon, the Guardian has learned. “Water is not a commodity
for the rich and powerful to profit off of,” said Warren, the
progressive Democrat from Massachusetts. … Water-futures
trading allows investors – including hedge funds, farmers and
municipalities – to trade water and water rights as a
commodity, similar to oil or gold. The practice is currently
limited to California, where the world’s first water futures
market was launched. So far, the market hasn’t taken off,
dampened by the reality that the physical trade of water in the
state has been limited. After a couple of wet years in
California, the price of water futures has also plummeted.
… Scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
(Berkeley Lab) recently conducted a study … finding that more
intense atmospheric rivers are more likely to occur in
succession within a short period of time. … California’s
winter climate is largely defined by these atmospheric rivers –
long, narrow regions in the atmosphere that transfer water
vapor from the tropics, most commonly associated with the West
Coast coming from the Pacific Ocean. When they make landfall,
they can release massive amounts of rain and snow.
The California State Water Resources Control Board will hold a
multiday public workshop to discuss voluntary agreements (VAs)
proposed by water users and state and federal agencies. The VAs
proposed are to update the Sacramento River and Delta
components of the Water Quality Control Plan for the San
Francisco Bay/Sacamento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta
Plan). The purpose for the planned workshop is for the VA
parties to provide a detailed overview of the VA proposal. It
is also planned to receive input and answer questions from
board members and receive input from the public. The workshop
will take place from April 24 through April 26, 2024. The
schedule for the workshop can be found here.
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Rosana Monge clutched her husband’s death certificate and an
envelope of his medical records as she approached the
microphone and faced members of the water utility board on a
recent Monday in this city in southeast New Mexico. “I
have proof here of arsenic tests — positive on him, that were
done by the Veterans Administration,” she testified about
her husband, whose 2023 records show he had been diagnosed with
“exposure to arsenic” before his death in February at age 79.
“What I’m asking is for a health assessment of the community.”
… Naturally occurring in the soil in New Mexico, arsenic
seeps into the groundwater used for drinking. In water, arsenic
has no taste, odor or color — but can be removed with
treatment. Over time, it can cause a variety of health
problems, including cancer, diabetes and heart disease,
endangering the lives of people in this low-income and
overwhelmingly Latino community.
… The main reason is the decline of the salmon population in
the Sacramento River to such an unsustainable level that
there’s reason to fear that it may not recover for years, if
ever — unless government policies are radically reconsidered.
… The crisis underscores the utter failure of the state’s
political leaders to balance the needs of stakeholders in its
water supply. In this case, the conflict is between large-scale
farms on one side and environmental and fishery interests on
the other. For decades, agribusiness has had the upper
hand in this conflict. -Written by Michael Hiltzik, LA Times columnist.
