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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A court has upheld a key decision by California’s water board
calling for reductions in water diversions from the San Joaquin
River and its tributaries to help revive struggling fish
populations. In his ruling, Sacramento County Superior Court
Judge Stephen Acquisto rejected lawsuits by water districts
serving farms and cities that would be required to take less
water under the standards adopted by regulators. The judge also
rejected challenges by environmental groups that had argued for
requiring larger cutbacks to boost river flows. The judge’s
ruling, issued in a 162-page order last week, supports the
State Water Resources Control Board’s 2018 adoption of a water
quality plan for the lower San Joaquin River and its three
major tributaries — the Tuolumne, Merced and Stanislaus rivers.
Thousands of leaking, idle oil wells are scattered across
California, creating toxic graveyards symbolic of a dying
industry. To tackle this “urgent climate and public
health crisis,” Santa Barbara Assemblymember Gregg Hart
introduced Assembly Bill 1866 last week. The bill would mandate
oil operators to develop plans to plug the 40,000 idle wells
(and counting) in the state within a decade, prioritizing those
within 3,200 feet of vulnerable communities. … Ann
Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense
Council, calls the system “very badly broken.” Companies “just
sit indefinitely on their defunct wells” as they leak methane
gas, pollute the air, and contaminate groundwater.
… Last fall, the county announced its plan to
spend $3.7 million to repair an “unpluggable” well at
Toro Canyon Creek. Drilled in the 19th century, this idle well
has leaked thousands of gallons of crude oil since
the 1990s, contaminating waterways and killing wildlife as a
result.
A nearly $3 billion effort shepherded by the Tahoe Regional
Planning Agency during the last two decades to ‘Keep Tahoe
Blue’ has prioritized spending on recreation and transportation
over improving water quality, according to the agency’s own
data. … Water clarity in Lake Tahoe declined from a
visibility level of 105 feet in 1967 to 70 feet in 1999,
according to the Act, which estimated that without remediation,
the lake would “lose its famous clarity in only 30
years.” The federal government owns 77% of the land in
the basin and “has a unique responsibility for restoring
environmental health to Lake Tahoe,” the Act says. It
authorized $300 million in funding “for environmental projects
and habitat restoration around Lake Tahoe.”
Nature is not what comes to mind when an outsider drives
into Bel Marin Keys, a tiny community that begins 1½ miles
east of Highway 101 in Marin County, reached by a single road
that passes a shopping center and small industrial buildings
along the way. The wide streets are monotonous, often lined
with homes that resemble those of countless 1960s subdivisions.
On some blocks, the only hint that creeks and wetlands might be
nearby are the red-winged blackbirds that touch down on utility
poles. … It’s a bucolic scene — and an engineering
landscape that wouldn’t exist if not for the intrusions into
former bay wetlands that now are at risk due to sea level
rise. That’s why residents of Bel Marin Keys voted to
approve a $30 million parcel tax this month aimed at building
stronger and taller levees, plus an improved set of locks to
keep adjacent waters from spilling into one of the lagoons that
give this precarious collection of 700 homes its character.
With only three months left on her contract, the longtime
attorney for the powerful Kern County Water Agency was ousted
Monday, March 18, during a special meeting. Six of the agency’s
seven directors voted in favor of terminating General Counsel
Amelia Minaberrigarai’s contract after a short closed session.
Director Laura Cattani was absent. The contract was terminated
as of March 23. It is set to expire June 30. … The
agency did not respond to questions about whether the
termination was for cause. Nor to questions about
Minaberrigarai’s replacement. It is also unclear why her
contract was terminated with only three months before it
expired. If she was fired without cause, the contract
requires she receive a lump sum equal to her base pay,
plus vacation that would have accrued for the remainder of the
contract’s term.
The California water conservation crisis continues as lawmakers
may delay rules that could significantly help improve
California water. Environmentalists are expressing concerns
after regulators proposed delaying the timeline of implementing
lawn water regulations by five years until 2040. KRCR
spoke with Butte Environmental Council Member, Patrizia
Hironimus, who said despite the delay of California rules, they
are still aiming to educate the community on how to cut down on
their lawn water use. While also collecting local data to give
to the state to help them understand the water crisis even just
in Butte County.
A state policy that seeks to protect California’s major rivers
and creeks by cracking down on how much water is pumped out by
cities and farms can move forward despite widespread
opposition, the Superior Court has ruled. The long-awaited
decision on what’s known as the Bay-Delta Plan denies 116
claims in a dozen separate lawsuits that seek to undo a 2018
update to the policy, most of which are from water agencies
saying the limits on their water draws go too far. The 160-page
verdict, released Friday by Sacramento County Judge Stephen
Acquisto, specifically notes that arguments made by San
Francisco against the regulation fell short.
California officials are trying to boost state wetlands
protections in order to guard against a 2023 Supreme Court
decision that slashed federal oversight of wetlands.
Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s A.B. 2875 would declare it the
state’s policy to ensure long-term gain and no net loss of
California’s wetlands. And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
administration is proposing to add 38 new positions to enforce
the state’s existing wetlands protection laws and scrutinize
development permits.
Can Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado agree to a new
apportionment of the Rio Grande’s waters without the U.S.
government’s approval? The Supreme Court of the United States
is set to hear a case next week that may affect access to water
for millions of Americans — and set a precedent that could
impact millions more, as increased usage and climate change
further strain supply of the precious resource. … If
[the court sides with the states], the government might be
understood to have less weight to throw around in other
negotiations, such as the one that is also happening about the
Colorado River.
In early February 2024 the Mountain Counties Water Resources
Association adopted new forest management principles with the
goal of solving the ongoing problem and severe effects of
California’s mega wildfires. “Over 100 years of
suppressing wildfires and changing climate have produced
overgrown forests and catastrophic mega wildfires that are
impacting communities, degrading California’s headwaters’ water
quality, water infrastructure and forest resources in Sierra
Nevada watersheds, (ultimately) creating a toxic smoke health
hazard throughout the state,” MCWRA’s website
reads. “These severe mega wildfires release tons of
greenhouse gases and eliminate the ability of forests to absorb
and store atmospheric carbon,” the website continues.
You may have heard that various kinds of invasive plants and
animals create problems for species that are native to an area.
In the case of the quagga mussel, which only grows to the size
of a thumbnail, its effects extend beyond the natural ecology
and into the built environment. … Rick Boatner, the
invasive species coordinator for the Oregon Department of Fish
and Wildlife, says the invasive mussels are what’s known as
filter feeders. “They’re removing the lowest part of the food
web out of the water system, the phytoplankton and stuff like
that,” Boatner said. “So now you will not have the food needed
for our salmon fry and steelhead trout species…”
The Kern subbasin, composed of 22 water entities across the
valley portion of Kern County, is working on a groundwater
sustainability plan its members hope will be accepted by the
State Water Resources Control Board after the subbasin’s
initial plan was deemed inadequate. Currently the subbasin has
two main objectives. One is partnering with Self-Help
Enterprises to assist with the administration of a program to
fix domestic wells harmed by over pumping. The other is
gathering support among the 22 entities to participate in the
Friant-Kern Canal subsidence study. Proposed partnership: Under
the proposal, Self-Help would assist with subbasin’s well
issues in several ways.
A network of artificial streams is teaching scientists how
California’s mountain waterways — and the ecosystems that
depend on them — may be impacted by a warmer, drier climate.
Over the next century, climate change is projected to bring
less snowfall to the Sierra Nevada. … In a new study,
University of California, Berkeley, researchers used a series
of nine artificial stream channels off Convict Creek in Mammoth
Lakes, California, to mimic the behavior of headwater streams
under present-day conditions and future climate change
scenarios.
In the near future, recycled wastewater could account for 30%
of the drinkable water in the East county. The water would go
through several purification steps at a new facility being
built in Santee. More than 10 years and $950 million after the
project began, the East County Advanced Water purification is
just a few years away from opening. The facility will provide
water to East County in a sustainable way. Before, much of the
water used in East County homes was released back into the
ocean. By the end of 2026, 11.5 million gallons of purified
water will be treated and released daily.
NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR (German Aerospace
Center) have agreed to jointly build, launch, and operate a
pair of spacecraft that will yield insights into how Earth’s
water, ice, and land masses are shifting by measuring monthly
changes in the planet’s gravity field. Tracking large-scale
mass changes – showing when and where water moves within and
between the atmosphere, oceans, underground aquifers, and ice
sheets – provides a view into Earth’s water cycle, including
changes in response to drivers like climate change.
Although pesticides can rid your home of cockroaches or farm
fields of unwanted insects, they also can harm fish and
potentially even people, according to a new study from Oregon
State University. At high concentrations, these commonly
used pyrethroid pesticides, bifenthrin, cyfluthrin and
cyhalothrin, act as a neurotoxin for pests. … At low
concentrations, the pyrethroid pesticides disrupt fish’s
endocrine system, which produces hormones. The scientists
wanted to better understand how short of an exposure would harm
fish.
Plans to build a water pump station in Novato are drawing
opposition from neighbors. The North Marin Water District is
considering building the station at “Site 2,” a parcel on a
city-owned greenway that borders Arroyo San Jose Creek near
Ignacio Boulevard and Palmer Drive. … Opponents say the pump
station will be an eyesore in the creek’s promenade area.
Household leaks waste nearly 1 trillion gallons of water
nationwide every year, enough to provide water to over 11
million homes. During Fix a Leak Week (March 18 to March 24),
the Department of Water Resources (DWR) encourages everyone to
find and fix leaks inside and outside their home to save water.
Leaks are not just a household problem – parts of California’s
water delivery infrastructure are aging and developing leaks
too. This aging infrastructure can cause significant water loss
and hinder our ability to deliver water efficiently. DWR is
committed to repairing them to maintain our infrastructure and
protect California’s valuable water supplies for future
generations.
California regulators this week proposed delaying new rules
aimed at reducing how much water people use on their lawns,
drawing praise from agencies that said they needed more time to
comply but criticism from environmentalists who warn that the
delay would damage the state’s already scarce supply. Last
year, California proposed new rules that would, cumulatively,
reduce statewide water use by about 14%. Those rules included
lowering outdoor water use standards below the current
statewide average by 2035. On Tuesday, regulators proposed
delaying that timeline by five years, until 2040. The State
Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to vote on the rules
later this year. The state would not punish people for using
too much water on their lawns.
The Sacramento Superior Court has ruled in favor of the State
Water Board’s 2018 Bay Delta Plan update, denying all 116
claims by petitioners. In December 2018, the State Water
Resources Control Plan adopted revised flow
objectives for the San Joaquin River and its three major
tributaries, the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced rivers. The
new flow objectives provide for increased flows on the three
tributaries to help revive and protect native fall-run
migratory fish populations. The Board also adopted a revised
south Delta salinity objectives, increasing the level of
salinity allowed from April to August. Several petitions
were filed in several counties challenging the Board’s
action.
