Aquafornia

The San Diego City Council on Tuesday punted a decision on adopting a new structure of water rates that would lower bills for apartment buildings but increase them for most single-family homes. The proposal is intended to bring the city into compliance with Proposition 218, a voter initiative from 1996 that regulates fees charged by local governments, including fees for water service. In 2015, a group of water customers sued San Diego, arguing the city’s tiered rate structure for single-family homes violated Prop 218, which requires water agencies to charge customers no more than their proportional cost of the service. The city argued the higher rates charged to the heaviest water users were a lawful way to incentivize conservation. But the courts sided with the plaintiffs, finding the city had not presented enough evidence to justify its tiered water rates.

Other water bill news:

• Los Angeles Times: Californians are paying some of the highest water bills in the country
• CBS8 (San Diego): San Diego City Council considers changes to how residents are billed for water
• Voice of San Diego: How San Diego tenants went on strike over their utility bills – and won
• The San Diego Union-Tribune: New state law could help San Diego revive lower water rates for people who conserve
• San Diego Union-Tribune: Opinion: Water costs are quietly killing San Diego County farms

Scottsdale is moving forward with plans to create a large water users ordinance to help mitigate the effects of Colorado River water cuts. The changes under consideration would apply to new large water users, not existing ones. At the Scottsdale City Council’s Sept. 22 work study session, staff recommended new requirements as projected demand increases for large water users. Businesses that use more than 100,000 gallons per day would need to produce a conservation plan. Those that use more than 250,000 gallons per day would need to conduct an economic impact analysis. And those that use more than 500,000 gallons per day would need additional review and council approval. The new plan would include penalties for large water users who violate their conservation plans, which current city regulations do not include.

Other Colorado River management news:

• Audubon: Blog: Water demand and our estuary: The cost of reduced flows to estuarine ecosystems

An industrial park in Irvine, California, may seem an odd spot to show off technology that wouldn’t be out of place in Dune, but that’s what’s happening on a sweltering September morning. … Engineers open panels to check systems and an iPad that shows a steadily ascending line that reveals the device’s purpose: harvesting water from thin air using special materials known as metal organic frameworks, or MOFs. … The materials won Omar Yaghi, the company’s founder, the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 2025, and Atoco has shown they work in prototypes capable of producing gallons of water per day. What’s unique about this iteration of Atoco’s technology is what it doesn’t require. No grid connection or even electricity is needed to grab water from the air at the microscopic level, nor is it required to in turn wring the water out of the materials in a form useful for humans.

Other data center water use and regulation news:

• KTVU (Oakland, Calif.): SF approves data center moratorium, other Bay Area cities reviewing policies
• KRCR (Redding, Calif.): Humboldt County supervisors paused most new data center applications in 4-1 vote
• Denver7 (Colo.): Northern Colorado communities weigh data center moratoriums
• Government Technology: Aurora, Colo., mayor says hyperscale data center must be stopped
• The Equation (Union of Concerned Scientists): Blog: How do data centers impact public health?
• JDSupra: Legal brief: California links data center permitting and licensing to new water use disclosure and drought planning obligations

A five-year review of the Vina Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s plan could determine whether Chico and Durham residents face chronic drought conditions, according to Groundwater for Butte. The public has until Oct. 26 to submit comments on proposed changes that critics say don’t go far enough to protect domestic wells and local ecosystems. The Vina GSA released its draft Periodic Evaluation and proposed plan amendments in September. Required under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the review will shape how groundwater is managed across the Vina Subbasin for the next 5 years. Groundwater levels in the Vina Subbasin have already declined an average of 25 feet over the past 25 years. The current plan would allow roughly 20 more feet of decline before stabilizing at its long-term goals, effectively turning historic drought-level groundwater conditions into the new normal.

On a stultifyingly hot August day, dozens of black-necked stilts and a scattering of white and brown pelicans bob and wheel on the milky blue waters of a manufactured pond, atop what was once the southwestern end of the vast Salton Sea. … The sea — that luminous, sometimes odiferous body of water bordering the Coachella Valley’s southeastern edge — is both California’s largest lake and a huge agricultural drainage with few natural inflows and no outlet to flush pesticides, fertilizers, and other waste from the lake. … But after decades of false starts and dead-end plans, there has been real progress on California’s “first phase” plan to restore habitat or tamp down dust on nearly 30,000 acres of dried-out, polluted lakebed — out of 45,000 already exposed acres. A massive deposit of  lithium, enough to power 375 million electric vehicles, has been mapped deep beneath the lakebed and adjoining lands.

Other Salton Sea news:

• Imperial Valley Press Online: Researchers, officials seek public input on Lithium Valley health assessment

Water rates in the United States have risen more than twice as much as groceries over the past decade, and more than 1.5 times the overall rate of inflation, which has left Bay Area residents with some of the biggest water bills in the nation, according to a new report. An analysis of the country’s 500 largest community water providers, published by the consumer advocacy group Food and Water Watch on Tuesday, cites the privately held San Jose Water Company as the nation’s most expensive water retailer. … Thirteen of the 25 most expensive providers are in California, with their rates averaging more than twice the national average. The authors of the report say the average national water rate hike of 62% between 2015 and 2025 is largely due to the need to upgrade aging infrastructure, treat water pollution and adapt to more extreme weather with climate change, on top of lagging federal water investments.

Related:

• Inside Climate News: Water bills surged more than other costs in US homes over 10 years, a ‘striking’ new report shows​
• Stateline: Americans’ water bills are growing faster than groceries, overall inflation
• Bloomberg: Rising water bills have added to the squeeze on American households
• The Guardian: US households pay 62% more for water than they did a decade ago, study finds

… The California Chamber of Commerce collected the signatures necessary to qualify Proposition 45 for the November statewide ballot, in an effort to overhaul the California Environmental Quality Act, commonly known as CEQA. The changes, if approved by a majority of voters, will help lower housing, energy and water costs, supporters say, by cutting burdensome regulations and making it easier to build everything from homes to reservoirs to solar farms. Environmental groups call the measure a giveaway to developers, and are lining up to fight it. The contest is expected to be the first clear indication in years about whether Californians are willing to rewrite environmental regulations — which they have traditionally supported — as concerns about housing prices, utility bills and other costs have soared to the top of polls.

Microplastic concentrations in Nevada’s Truckee River increased nearly tenfold during spring runoff, according to new research that offers a glimpse into how plastic pollution moves through some western waterways. Researchers with the Desert Research Institute sampled the river, which flows from Lake Tahoe through Reno and eventually to Pyramid Lake, during low flows in fall 2022 and again during unusually high spring flows in 2023. On average, they detected 0.4 microplastic particles per liter in the fall and 3.7 per liter in the spring. … [T]he new research highlights how much concentrations can change depending on river conditions — something the authors say water managers and researchers should consider when deciding when to sample.

In June, Iranian hackers breached California Water Service systems and claimed  they could have shut down water service to thousands of customers. According to Cal Water, those claims were false, but the next month, more water sector cyberattacks targeted systems in at least 12 states across the United States. While most impacts were relatively minor, in Minnesota, the hardest-hit state, a coordinated attack hit more than 30 water systems over two days. California appears to have largely been spared in this summer’s cyberattacks on US water agencies, but the threat remains. In late August, another group threatened the US with “unexpected and critical events in the energy, water, and telecommunications industries.” 

Other water cybersecurity news:

• Government Technology: Water-specific cyber center broadens reach amid growing threats​​
• CyberScoop: Opinion: The US needs a real plan to defend its water systems