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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays. Or subscribe via RSS
Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, the headlines below are the original headlines used in the publication cited at the time they are posted here and do not reflect the stance of the Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit that remains neutral.
As salmon and Delta fish populations continue to crash due to
massive water diversions to corporate agribusiness, the
State Water Resources Control Board just issued a public
notice regarding the Delta Conveyance Project Change in Point
of Diversion (CPOD) Petition that was submitted by
the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to the State Water
Board on February 22, 2024. This notice acknowledges receipt of
the change petition and details the process to submit a protest
against the petition. You can expect a wave of formal
protests against the change petition by fishing
groups, Tribes, environmental justice organizations,
conservation groups and Delta region cities and counties.
Protests against the change petition must be filed
by April 29th, 2024, with a copy provided to the petition,
according to the Water Board.
The Pleasanton City Council will be reviewing a staff
presentation on the city’s proposed plan to authorize and
approve a bond sale for as much as $19 million to finance a
portion of planned water infrastructure upgrades during
Tuesday’s meeting. According to the March 5 staff report, staff
will be presenting a debt financing overview and a resolution
for the council to approve, which will declare the city’s
intent to “reimburse expenditures relating to capital
improvement projects from the proceeds of tax-exempt
obligations.”
Sprawl development built far from city centers carries direct
and indirect costs that pull resources away from existing
neighborhoods, harming communities and natural habitats,
according to a new report published by the Center for
Biological Diversity. The True Cost of Sprawl analyzed the
environmental harms — including pollution, wildfire risks and
public health threats — that come with poor land-use decisions.
It found that suburban and exurban housing developments
increase per capita infrastructure costs by 50%, pulling public
funds from schools, parks, public transportation and other
needs in existing communities for things like new roads and
sewer systems.
U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson announced on Tuesday that funding of
$2.3 million for three Solano County projects will be
considered by Congress later this week. Thompson secured nearly
$15 million for projects for his district, California’s Fourth.
… The projects in Solano County are: $959,752 for
the Rio Vista Wastewater Plant Consolidation and Reclaimed
Water Project. The Rio Vista Wastewater Plant Consolidation and
Reclaimed Water Project supports the Clean Water Act standards
by aiming to eliminate the direct discharge of water into the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, recharges the aquifer on
which Rio Vista City relies for drinking water, and mitigates
drought issues by providing a reusable water source.
So many hurdles are impacting new home construction, yet one is
quickly growing more urgent and critical—access to water. In
more and more places across the country, access to healthy,
safe, and sustainable water supply is causing restrictions on
new home building permits and challenging current homeowners
with new water use policies. This challenge is triggering
states and municipalities to reconsider new developments,
halting them or shutting them down completely at a time when
housing supply is at critically low levels. Groundwater
shortages have shut down new permits in parts of Arizona where
new homes would rely on wells. A large development with
thousands of homes north of Las Vegas also was shut down due to
concerns over water supply. -By Jennifer Castenson, vice-president of ambassador
and industry partner programs at Buildxact, providing
leadership and collaboration across the various verticals
involved in custom homebuilding and remodeling.
For decades, raw sewage from Tijuana, Mexico has, and
continues, to flow across the border into San Diego,
California. This discharge flows into the Tijuana River
Valley, and ultimately to the Pacific Ocean. This
pollution has negatively impacted the Tijuana River Valley and
the Tijuana River Estuary, one of the last remaining estuaries
in California, and the beaches. Unhealthy concentrations
of fecal indicator bacteria has forced the County of San Diego
to close 10 miles of beach access from the US-Mexico Border all
the way to the beaches of Coronado. At the urging of
Congressman Scott Peters, the San Diego State University School
of Public Health issued a white paper which details the public
health risks posed by the transborder flow of sewage.
With many areas of Southern California starved for shade, the
region’s largest water supplier has launched a rebate program
offering residents and businesses up to $500 as an incentive to
plant trees. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California on Tuesday announced the addition of the tree
incentive to its long-standing turf-replacement program, which
offers cash to property owners who rip out water-guzzling grass
and replace it with drought-tolerant landscaping. Starting
this week, new applicants can seek a $100 rebate for each
eligible tree planted — up to five trees total — as part of
their turf-replacement project, according to a spokesperson for
the district.
A monster blizzard that blasted California’s Sierra Nevada with
gusts of up to 190 mph and dumped more than 10 feet of snow
over the weekend shattered the state’s “snow
drought” and significantly boosted vital snowpack
levels. The statewide snowpack by Monday had swelled to
104% of normal for the date, with a snow water equivalent of
24.4 inches. On Thursday — hours before the chilly winter
storm was set to hit — the snowpack had measured only
80% of normal. It was an impressive turnaround compared with
the beginning of the year when the snowpack was 32% of
normal. Officials were optimistic the blizzard would offer
a significant snow boost. It ended up being a game-changer.
Dueling state factions are set to submit separate plans over
how to share the drought-stricken Colorado River to the Biden
administration this month, but top water officials from one
side of the divide on Monday vowed they will nonetheless return
to the negotiating table in coming weeks. Officials from across
seven states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the
Upper Basin and Arizona, California and Nevada in the Lower
Basin — are drafting new operating plans for the
1,450-mile-long river, including how to share the pain of any
future cuts as climate change continues to shrink its flows.
Colorado River Commissioner Becky Mitchell of Colorado said
Monday that the four Upper Basin states are preparing for a
March 11 target date to submit a plan to the Bureau of
Reclamation.
Fallout over the ever sinking Friant-Kern Canal could affect
growers throughout the Tule subbasin regardless of whether they
get water from the canal. The state Water Resources
Control Board already has the subbasin in its cross hairs for
neglecting to create a coordinated plan to bring aquifers into
balance under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
(SGMA). A hearing for the Tule subbasin is scheduled for
September. Now, new – and worsened – subsidence (land
sinking) beneath the Friant-Kern Canal has prompted the canal’s
operator to seek help from the Water Board.
The Watershed Protection and Forest Recovery Act would create a
new Emergency Forest Watershed Program at the U.S. Department
of Agriculture to aid and streamline watershed recovery efforts
on U.S. Forest Service lands. The bill is intended to help
communities protect their water supply after natural disasters
on U.S. Forest Service lands. The bill was introduced by U.S.
Senators Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Mitt Romney, R-Utah alongside
U.S. Representatives Joe Neguse, D-Colo., Celeste Maloy,
R-Utah, Yadira Caraveo, D-Colo. and John Curtis, R-Utah.
According to a press release sent by Bennet’s office, following
the East Troublesome Fire, water providers faced obstacles that
limited their ability to protect drinking water supplies for
communities downstream of the fire.
… The American Southwest has become the site of a collision
between two civilization-defining trends. In this desert heat,
the explosive growth of generative AI is pitched against a
changing climate’s treacherous extremes. … Public data
hint at the potential toll of this approach. Researchers at UC
Riverside estimated last year, for example, that
global AI demand could cause data centers to suck up 1.1
trillion to 1.7 trillion gallons of fresh water by 2027.
Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks
or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw
enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix
broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that
don’t work. … Across the U.S., trillions of gallons of
drinking water are lost every year, especially from decrepit
systems in communities struggling with significant population
loss and industrial decline that leave behind poorer residents,
vacant neighborhoods and too-large water systems that are
difficult to maintain.
After years of groundwater decline and failed legislative
action, a court decision in January affirmed the state’s right
to limit groundwater pumping using the most current scientific
data, but full implementation of the ruling may take some time.
Last week, the state engineer — Nevada’s top water regulator —
expanded on how the state will manage water resources in the
aftermath of the recent Nevada Supreme Court decision that
affirmed the state’s authority to develop science-based
solutions to over-pumping, including managing surface water and
groundwater as a single connected source when determining water
rights. In the coming years, the court’s decision will have
sweeping ramifications for Nevada, state engineer Adam Sullivan
told lawmakers.
On March 1, 2024, the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife (CDFW) held its CDFW Annual Salmon Information Meeting
via a webinar. The prognosis for a 2024 salmon season does not
look good. The closure of all California salmon fishing in 2023
brought an uptick in salmon escapement to 133,000 in the
Sacramento River, which is somewhat positive. The forecast for
this year’s fishable stock in the ocean (made up of broodyears
2021-2023), however, is not much better than last year’s, with
the lingering effects of the 2020-2022 drought. If a normal
fishery had been held last year or were to be held this year,
the salmon stocks would no doubt fall into an “over-fished”
status.
… Verlon Jose is one of several tribal leaders nationwide who
are growing frustrated with the Biden administration and its
ambitious plans for clean-energy projects that could affect
their ancestral lands. While the White House has worked to
repair the federal government’s relationships with Indigenous
peoples, that effort is conflicting with another Biden
priority: expediting projects essential for the energy
transition.
When the San Juan River flows out of the San Juan Mountains in
Southwestern Colorado, it contributes 15% of Lake Powell’s
water. But there’s a problem: The river carries a hefty 55% of
the sediment entering the reservoir, and that mud is piling up.
… Now, as the San Juan River flows toward Lake Powell, it
rambles over a huge pancake of mud that’s 49 miles long, a mile
wide in some places, and as much as 120 feet deep in the final
reaches of the San Juan River. Unique hydrology has contributed
to this plug, a relatively wide canyon and multiple waterfalls
slow down the river, allowing sediment to drop out. Though the
San Juan is the muddiest tributary, all the Colorado’s
tributaries drop a good deal of mud 100 miles or more upstream
of Glen Canyon Dam. It’s a Western phenomenon caused by damming
swift rivers … -By Dave Marston, publisher of the independent
nonprofit Writers on the Range.
California almond farms are struggling to pay the bills with
low prices for their nuts. Trinitas Farm, an almond farm in
Oakdale, filed for bankruptcy in February due to falling almond
prices, rising water rates, and high interest rates making it
impossible to keep up. Almond farmers that CBS13 spoke with
agree but said the biggest driving force of this fallout can be
summed up in one word: inflation. “It has now come to the point
where I see the end of that coming, of that generational
farming,” said Bill Van Ryn, who has an almond farm in San
Joaquin County. He said farmers are simply crippled by costs
and that is causing some California almond farmers to file for
bankruptcy, likely with more to follow.
A split California appellate panel threw out a trial court
ruling finding drinking water regulations put in place by the
California Geologic Energy Management Division are invalid,
saying, instead, the challenged regulations are consistent with
…
Eddie Ocampo has been elected as the new chairperson of the
Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley. The Water
Blueprint is an initiative consisting of agriculture, industry,
government and nonprofit stakeholders working to develop
sustainable water management in the Central Valley.
… Ocampo is currently the Director of Community
Sustainability at Self-Help Enterprises, a local organization
that develops affordable housing. Along with Ocampo,
Daniel Hartwig and Priscilla Rodriguez have joined the Water
Blueprint’s board.