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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Fishermen in Arena Cove are abuzz as they prepare their boats
for salmon fishing for the first time since 2022. This
week marks the end of a three-year closure on commercial salmon
fishing. … The decision to resume commercial
salmon fishing came via the Pacific Fishery Management Council
Agency after significant improvements in key California salmon
populations were observed. … Along the Mendocino coast,
salmon fishing opened in the southern part of the county, in an
area that stretches from Pigeon Point in Pescadero to Point
Arena. Salmon fishing is allowed exclusively between May 1-6,
9-13, 16-20, 23-29, and August 1-7, 13-16, and 25-27.
Healthy watersheds support wildlife, recreation, and
clean water for communities across California. From a
public-health standpoint, we need to know if a river or stream
is safe to swim or fish in. From the lens of wildlife support,
in addition to being clean, a healthy aquatic habitat must
sustain a whole food web. Knowing a stream’s health also
indicates how resilient it is to adversities such as wildfires,
land-use changes and agricultural runoff. … Now,
researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, have
been awarded a $2.2 million grant from the program for a
project based on a rising and effective monitoring tool:
environmental DNA (eDNA). With the CDFW grant funding, UC Santa
Cruz researchers will lead a project to extend their
genomics-based biodiversity-monitoring platform to create an
eDNA-based stream-health index.
… The [Great Salt] lake has peaked at around 4,192 feet in
elevation and roughly a month earlier than expected, said Brian
Steed, the Great Salt Lake Commissioner, who is tasked by Utah
political leaders with saving the lake. Temperatures were
warmer than usual over the winter. Snowpack has been called
“no-pack” by state water officials. … The Great
Salt Lake presents an ecological crisis for northern
Utah, with reduced snowpack that fuels the water
supply; toxic dust storms from an exposed lake bed (arsenic is
among the naturally-occurring minerals in it); impacts to the
state’s economy, public health and wildlife.
At least 18 households in Mountain View are expected to remain
under a boil water notice as the city works to disinfect a
pipeline this week. Test results continue to show coliform
bacteria in a pipeline serving Drucilla Drive and Carla Court,
according to the city. On Wednesday, the city will begin the
process for a “super chlorination” of the pipeline.
… “This ‘super chlorination’ process is intended to
address the presence of low levels of coliform bacteria, which
appear to be concentrated in the water line serving homes on
Drucilla Drive and Carla Court,” the city said in an update
Monday night. … The city shut off water service to 67
households on April 24 after a cement slurry mix came into
contact with a water main during a pipe replacement project
near Bonita Avenue and Cuesta Drive.
Gilbert leaders are considering a $250,000 plan to expand a
grass removal rebate program as the town faces growing pressure
on its Colorado River water supply. The Town
Council is expected to look at a resolution this week on
whether to apply for a $125,000 federal grant through the
Bureau of Reclamation’s WaterSMART Small-Scale Water Efficiency
Project. The total cost of the project with a match would bring
the budget to $250,000. The funding, according to the town,
would expand Gilbert’s Non-Residential Grass Removal Rebate
Program. … Since the program launched in May 2023, 15
projects have removed 149,600 square feet of grass.
Nevada Gold Mines donated $500,000 to a PAC affiliated with
Gov. Joe Lombardo in March, making the mining conglomerate
one of the Republican governor’s top donors in his bid for
re-election. … The latest cash infusion has raised more
questions in comments on news articles and other online spaces
than usual because it followed the firing of Adam Sullivan, the
top official responsible for regulating water rights in the
state after the mining industry complained about him to the
governor’s office. … The mining industry’s complaints to
Lombardo’s office related to a draft proposal by the former
state water engineer designed as a “starting point” for public
input to reduce groundwater pumping in the Humboldt River
Basin, site of many Nevada Gold Mines properties.
A long-vacant city-owned parcel next to Eaton Blanche Park is
about to become two things at once: a passive park with
gardens, walking paths and a dog run, and an underground
stormwater capture facility designed to clean polluted runoff
before it reaches the Los Angeles River. … The Eaton
Wash Stormwater Capture Project sits on a vacant city-owned
parcel east of the Eaton Wash Channel, adjacent to Eaton
Blanche Park. The site was first identified as part of the
city’s Storm Drain Master Plan, according to the Public Works
Department. Underground, the system will divert storm and
dry-weather flows from the channel into a subterranean concrete
basin for treatment and infiltration, with a capture capacity
of 3.4 acre-feet, according to a state environmental
filing.
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.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
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.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
Today, Congresswoman Norma Torres and Congressman David Valadao
– members of the House Appropriations Committee – announced the
introduction of the bipartisan Removing Nitrate and Arsenic in
Drinking Water Act. This bill would amend the Safe Drinking
Water Act to provide grants for nitrate and arsenic reduction,
by providing $15 million for FY25 and every fiscal year
thereafter. The bill also directs the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take into consideration the needs of
economically disadvantaged populations impacted by drinking
water contamination. The California State Water Resources
Control Board found the Inland Empire to have the highest
levels of contamination of nitrate throughout the state
including 82 sources in San Bernardino, 67 sources in Riverside
County, and 123 sources in Los Angeles County.
