A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation Writer Matt Jenkins.
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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.
California’s state parks system is getting larger, following a
trio of new additions announced on Earth Day. State
officials said the three parks will be located in an area where
these public spaces have long been few and
far-between. They are the Feather River
Park near Olivehurst in Yuba County — the county’s
first state park — the San Joaquin River
Parkway in Fresno and Madera counties, and the Dust
Bowl Camp near Bakersfield in Kern County. … State Parks
Director Armando Quintero spoke with Insight Host Vicki
Gonzalez about these latest efforts to expand recreational and
conservation efforts in the Central Valley.
When you think about how California’s water travels, you might
imagine the water cycle diagram many of us were shown in
elementary school: evaporation, transpiration, condensation,
precipitation. However, the reality is a bit more complicated,
especially in California’s spring-fed systems, which
are of critical importance for water security for both
fish and people. … In 2023, CalTrout and our
partners embarked on a three-year study to provide a
scientifically based toolset to better understand, manage, and
advance the protection of the cold, clean spring waters in the
Upper Sacramento River Basin. New research
from CalTrout and our partners at UC Davis, Lawrence Livermore
Lab, and Cal State East Bay is revealing how these spring
systems actually work, and how resilient they may be as
California’s climate changes.
With watering restrictions in place in many communities
across the Denver metro area, more people are considering
different ways to conserve water and use it in their lawns.
Installing a rain barrel can be a great option, but there are
some rules in place for how you can use that water.
… Under Colorado state law, homeowners can install up to
two rain barrels with a combined storage of 110 gallons of
water or less. … Rainwater that’s collected can be used
only for outdoor use, like watering your lawns, plants, or
gardens. … The rainwater collected must also be used
outdoors on the same property it was collected on.
As thirsty downstream states along the Colorado
River drainage continue to clamor for water,
Wyoming is having problems of its own, as
indicated by low levels at Fontenelle Reservoir in
Lincoln County. As of early April, Fontenelle Reservoir was at
49% of its full storage capacity, according to the Bureau of
Reclamation — despite March inflows roughly 99% of average.
Downstream from Fontenelle, Flaming Gorge Reservoir will be
drawn down between 660,000 and up to 1 million
acre-feet between now and April 2027, according to the Bureau
of Reclamation. … So far, there are not any plans for
similar drawdowns at Fontenelle Reservoir. But some Wyomingites
wonder if that’s inevitable as drought conditions persist
across the West.
A Northern California member of Congress is opening an inquiry
into the Trump administration’s bid to stop dam removal on the
Eel River, citing potential legal,
environmental, economic and water-supply problems. Rep. Jared
Huffman, D-San Rafael, wants details on why Agriculture
Secretary Brooke Rollins is advocating for a Southern
California water agency to buy the century-old Potter Valley
hydroelectric project in Mendocino and Lake counties,
including its two dams, and continue operating
it. … “My concern is that this is part of a bigger
water play,” Huffman told the Chronicle. … “There’s also a
history here that can’t be divorced from this moment: Folks in
Southern California and the Central Valley have had their eye
on Eel River water for a long time.”
San Joaquin County leaders are declaring a local state of
emergency due to the impact of golden mussels in the area. The
San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors passed a motion Tuesday
to declare the local emergency on golden mussels, an invasive
species that officials say are threatening the local
ecosystem and infrastructure in Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. By declaring the resolution, the board of
supervisors are requesting that Gov. Gavin Newsom proclaim a
state of emergency and multiple state agencies, including the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Department of Water
of Resources and State Water Resources Control Board, provide
assistance on the issue.
… [T]he second-largest new data center being considered
statewide … would be less than half a mile from … the
center of Imperial Valley. If finished by 2028, as the
developer expects, the at least 950,000-square-foot, two-story
data center could be the largest operating statewide, taking up
17 football fields’ worth of land. The roughly $10
billion, 330-megawatt data center would require 750,000 gallons
of water a day to operate, said developer Sebastian Rucci, who
insists electricity and water costs won’t rise due to the data
center. … On top of the data center boom in California,
the hundreds of water districts, a deepening
Southwestern megadrought and the diminishing of the Colorado
River increasingly complicate water issues.
On Tuesday, April 28, Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz (CA-25) pressed
The Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) Administrator
Lee Zeldin at the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on
Environment hearing on the FY2027 EPA Budget, securing a
commitment from the administrator to visit the New River
region, engage with the binational water quality study, and
apply the same federal model used to address the Tijuana River
crisis to the New River in the Imperial Valley. … Ruiz
detailed the severe conditions facing communities along the New
River, which originates south of Mexicali carrying raw sewage,
industrial waste, pesticides, and heavy metals across the
border into Calexico before traveling sixty miles through
Imperial County and emptying into the Salton
Sea.
Large swaths of the United States are in desperate need of
soaking rainfall as drought continues to deepen. … The
driest state compared with its average has been
Utah, where there has been a 59 percent
reduction in precipitation since October. Not far behind are
Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico, seeing a 46,
43 and 39 percent reduction, respectively. “The West’s
hydrology and climate are very much out of sync with the
historical rhythm,” said assistant Utah state climatologist Jon
Meyer. … Record low winter snowfall and record high
March temperatures resulted in extremely premature snowpack
melt and dismal water runoff volumes. That is also the case in
Colorado, where “the mountain snowpack is in historically bad
shape,” Colorado state climatologist Russ Schumacher wrote
earlier this month.
A bill that would have effectively weakened protections for
animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) was
pulled last-minute before a vote by the U.S. House of
Representatives on Earth Day (April 22). For endangered
California condors and steelhead trout
recovering in the backcountry canopies and streams of Los
Padres National Forest, no vote is good news, according to
Central Coast environmental groups. … It would have
slowed the process of listing species and fast-tracked
delisting — meaning, if the federal government wished to remove
any species from protection, it would have been able to
do so more quickly.
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has introduced its first
nationwide platform designed to help water planners evaluate
whether current and future water needs can be met. The new
National Water Availability Assessment Data Companion aims to
simplify access to critical information that was previously
scattered across multiple sources. According to the agency,
nearly 27 million people in the United States—around 8% of the
population—live in regions where water demand regularly
approaches or exceeds natural supply. The newly released tool
addresses longstanding challenges in accessing comprehensive
datasets by consolidating information on water supply and
demand for approximately 80,000 watersheds.
The billionaire-backed California Forever project, which is in
talks with Suisun City to expand the city’s borders and build a
city for thousands of residents, could threaten the sensitive
Jepson Prairie habitat right outside of its borders and the
endangered species who live there, environmentalists said
during a tour of the site on Friday. Jepson Prairie is a
1,566-acre preserve south of Dixon and east of Travis Air Force
Base that is home to several vernal pools, which are seasonal
wetlands that fill with water in the winter and dry up in the
summer. When the pools exist, flowers bloom around the
perimeter and shrimp and salamanders lay their eggs. When the
pools dry up, they look like muddy plains, which is beneficial
for certain crustaceans.
Large bundles of rock and wood called ‘rockwads’ are being put
into the Sacramento River just north of Turtle
Bay to provide a vital area for young fish to hide. Project
leaders said they hope the novel approach to salmon recovery
will recreate natural hiding areas for native fish. People’s
use of the Sacramento River over the last several decades has
left it fairly bare of debris. The installation of the Shasta
Dam essentially blocking off the historic debris flow that
would come down from the mountains following major storms. That
debris that once acted as hiding spots for young salmon and
trout to avoid larger predators. This has been one of several
factors experts believe to have contributed to California’s
salmon population declining.
Sycamore Island, a 600-acre property on the banks of
the San Joaquin River in the Central Valley,
is a little pocket of nature in the middle of a metropolis.
… Last week, Sycamore Island became part of California’s
largest expansion to its state park system in decades. On Earth
Day, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled plans for three new California
state parks and announced the expansion of several more. The
state parks expansion touches the redwoods, the Sierra Nevada,
the Pacific Coast and the Central Valley. … The San
Joaquin River Parkway, including Sycamore Island, is a proposed
state park that would consist of 874 acres of riverfront
property and will provide river access and recreation
opportunities for communities in Fresno and Madera.
Spring is already a month in, and rainfall has been scarce
across San Diego. That’s prompting more homeowners to rethink
their backyard landscaping — swapping out thirsty grass lawns
for drought-tolerant plants that are better for the environment
and easier on the wallet. Plants native to Southern California
are built for dry conditions. Drought-tolerant species have
evolved to thrive through the region’s notoriously dry spring
and summer seasons — and now, more residents are taking note.
Sprinkler-heavy landscapes are giving way to low-water designs
that reduce both maintenance and monthly water bills.
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.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
