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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At the urging of Gov. Gavin Newsom, California water officials
have been working with a group of agencies for years on a
far-reaching plan to protect the rivers that nourish the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The
Newsom administration is seeking an arrangement in which urban
and agricultural suppliers across the state agree to
take less water from California rivers, and help restore river
habitat, in exchange for more flexibility using water and
meeting regulations. … But even as the governor has
made finalizing what’s called the Bay Delta Plan a priority
before he leaves office in January, the state’s negotiations
with the water agencies appear to have come up short.
The State Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to
adopt the plan this week, yet water providers up and
down the state are taking issue with it, many saying it isn’t
the collaborative deal they were promised.
Arizona’s historic legal fight over Colorado River water is
drawing a warning from one of the Trump administration’s top
officials, even as an Arizona congressman defends the state’s
decision to take the federal government to court. U.S. Interior
Secretary Doug Burgum cautioned that the lawsuit could
backfire on a state already facing significant cuts to its
Colorado River water supply. ”The last thing that
Arizona should want to do is have a judge decide where the
water is going to go,” Burgum said during a visit to southern
Arizona earlier this week. … Burgum, who oversees the
Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Reclamation,
disputes the legal basis for the lawsuit. “I
think that the lawsuit will get tossed out because you can’t be
injured in theory,” Burgum said.
Communities in southwestern Colorado and the Four Corners
region that faced devastating floods this week will get
a break Monday from the storm system that forced evacuations
and damaged homes. Gov. Jared Polis declared a
disaster emergency for 12 counties due to flooding in
much of southern Colorado. The floods have caused
helicopter rescues, destroyed bridges and closed roads while
rain has continued to fall since Wednesday. Southwestern
Colorado had received about 3 to 7 inches of
rain, according to the NWS office in Grand Junction,
which monitors conditions across the Western Slope. All of
that rain flows downhill into the San Juan
River, which drains rivers and streams in southwestern
Colorado into the Colorado River. …
Meteorologists expect to see the river to peak at about 29.5
feet early Monday morning
San Bernardino County has partnered with a Cadiz Inc. affiliate
to establish a public financing authority that could
advance the company’s controversial Mojave Desert groundwater
pipeline project, which has faced years of
environmental opposition and litigation. The San Bernardino
Water and Power Authority announced its formation Monday, Oct.
19, following an inaugural meeting on Oct. 5. The county Board
of Supervisors unanimously approved the joint powers agreement
with Fenner Gap Mutual Water Co., the Cadiz affiliate, on April
21. The partnership marks another potentially significant
development for Cadiz, which has spent decades trying
to bring its groundwater in the Cadiz and Fenner valleys, near
Amboy, to Southern California communities despite
fears that pumping could dry up natural springs and damage
fragile desert ecosystems.
Six years ago, scientists in the Pacific Northwest untangled
a mystery about why salmon were dying in the
region, often in astonishing numbers — with as
many as 90% of the migrating adult coho salmon perishing in
parts of Puget Sound. The culprit turned out to be a
toxic chemical from tires washing into waterways. Now,
some of the same researchers that made the 2020 discovery
have confirmed that this tire-derived compound is
present, at worrisome levels, in salmon-bearing watersheds in
California. A study published last month in the
journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters finds that
at least 10 rivers and creeks in the Bay Area and Santa
Cruz region have had potentially lethal concentrations
of the chemical 6PPD-quinone after stormwater flowed into
them. … [F]ive of the California rivers and creeks that
logged harmful levels of the toxic substance are
federally designated as “critical habitat” for
endangered coho.
As the proposed Sites Reservoir project approaches its next
design phase, American Canyon officials are considering
whether to scale back the city’s planned share to better match
lower water-demand forecasts. American Canyon’s $3.6
million upfront investment in the estimated $6.8 billion
project gives it access to 25,000 acre-feet of water
storage capacity, or 1.8% of the project, to
help meet the needs of the fast-growing city. During
the City Council’s Oct. 20 meeting, City Manager Jason Holley
… said the city’s use of a major state-managed water
storage and delivery system fell from about 3,600 acre-feet in
2014 to about 2,200 acre-feet last year — a reduction
of roughly 1,400 acre-feet, or 39%. … Holley
suggested the city could therefore consider
“fine-tuning our participation level” in the Sites
project, potentially reducing its 1.8% share to 1%.
California State Parks increased the Mussel Fee Sticker price
Thursday, Oct. 22, raising the cost of a full two-year
sticker cycle from $16 to $42. The fee is $21 when a
sticker is first purchased in an even-numbered year and $42
when it is first purchased in an odd-numbered year. The fee is
separate from vessel registration. The Division of Boating and
Waterways said the higher fee will fund more
inspections, decontamination, early-detection monitoring and
public education to prevent invasive mussels from
spreading. California created the sticker program
in 2012 to help stop quagga and zebra mussels.
State Parks said the program expanded after the state detected
golden mussels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta in October 2024; the mussels have since been
found in other waterways and water infrastructure.
One of the most vexing initiatives on the November ballot is
touted by supporters as a long-awaited revision of California’s
56-year-old bedrock environmental law, including changes
promoted to speed housing construction and other key projects.
But many opponents are concerned about the potential lasting
impacts on California’s environment, as well as tighter limits
on public say over proposed development, fearing the changes
would serve as a “smokescreen” for industry. … CEQA is
one of the state’s most consequential environmental laws,
requiring close study and input on projects with potential to
harm such things as human health, air and water quality, and
wildlife habitat, or add to traffic, noise and greenhouse gas
emissions. … Those supporting the measure
say CEQA has been used to block many developments that
would serve local communities, including new housing, green
energy and water projects.
2026 was one for the record books in Colorado for water,
according to the Colorado Climate Center’s ‘Water Year in
Review Report’ just released on Tuesday. The report found that
this year was Colorado’s warmest on record by a substantial
margin and also one of our driest. Colorado also recorded its
lowest mountain snowpack, straining water resources and
contributing to widespread drought. This year’s climatic
conditions had substantial impacts across numerous sectors:
from agriculture and wildlife to human health and recreation.
Marty Lenz spoke with Allie Mazurek, Engagement Climatologist
with the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University,
on the findings, and more.
Environmental researchers, Tribal leaders, and government
officials gathered at the fifth biannual Salton Sea Summit to
evaluate ongoing ecological restoration efforts and outline
long-term strategies for California’s largest lake. Hosted by
the University of California, Riverside, and the Pacific
Institute on Oct. 16–17 at UCR’s Palm Desert Center, this
year’s summit—themed “Spotlight on Solutions”—focused on recent
collaborative actions taken to address the sea’s escalating
environmental and public health challenges. A primary focus of
the two-day conference was the State of California’s Species
Conservation Habitat (SCH) project. Speakers highlighted the
initiative’s creation of habitat ponds, which have successfully
supported local fish and bird populations while suppressing
dust emissions from exposed, dried lakebed—a major source of
air quality concerns for surrounding Imperial and Coachella
Valley communities.
In a promising sign of wildlife recovery in the Bay Area,
researchers have observed a river otter living along the San
Mateo County coast, the first documented sighting of the
nimble, furry-coated swimmers there since the 1800s, scientists
say. … Once numerous across the United States, river otters —
a more slender cousin of sea otters who spend their time mostly
in inland streams, creeks and bays — were hunted for their
dense fur in the 1800s and also experienced population declines
due to development and toxic chemicals. In recent years, river
otters have made a comeback across Northern California, with
sightings increasingly common along the shores of San Francisco
Bay, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Marin and Sonoma
counties. But they have been slow to expand their range down
the coast south of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Starting next year, a state law passed in 2023 will prohibit
cities from using potable water on ornamental lawns. The law,
AB1572, goes into effect in three stages — one at the start of
2027, one at the start of 2028 and the last starting at the
beginning of 2029. Those stages correspond to who the law
prohibits: cities, counties and other local agencies first,
then, in 2028, commercial properties and finally homeowners
associations. At the Oct. 6 Sunnyvale City Council meeting,
Winola Cheong, deputy director of environmental services,
detailed what the law meant for the
city. … Sunnyvale has already been converting
ornamental lawns on city property ahead of the law going into
effect. Consequently, Cheong said, all city properties are
already in compliance. Since Sunnyvale is ahead of the
curve, the city is using the additional runway to begin
outreach to commercial property owners and HOAs.
The Newsom administration is coming under fire for paying $180
million to a private investment firm that speculates on water
in exchange for a relatively small amount of additional water
for Sacramento River salmon. Some environmental advocates fear
it could set a precedent for overcharging California
taxpayers in a water-constrained future. State
officials and supporters of the deal say it’s not that simple
because, among other things, it’s a one-time payment
for water in perpetuity, not just for one year. This
year, the Newsom administration reached the deal to purchase
water used by a Northern California farm, saying the goal was
to leave the water in the river to help fish and the
environment. … The $180 million was paid to RRG Capital
Management, based in Los Angeles and part of Renewable
Resources Group. … The water will come from a
7,500-acre farm called Fair Ranch, located along the Sacramento
River.
An atmospheric firehose could soon take aim at California,
raising the prospects of a wet and stormy Halloween and
Election Day. The massive pattern change is likely to
take shape during the last week of October and may persist into
the first full weekend of November. … Several
models are calling for upwards of 1 to 3 inches of rain around
the Bay Area by the first weekend of November. Even more
precipitation is forecast for southern California and
the Sierra. Exact amounts aren’t guaranteed by any
means at this time range, but the trend is hard to
ignore. California is primed for rain this winter, in part
due to unusual ocean heat associated with this year’s
extremely powerful El Niño.
For all the headlines about Arizona’s shrinking water supply,
some Phoenix-area realtors say it has not yet had a major
impact on business. At a recent event that brought together
real estate professionals with water, power and economic
experts, home sellers said few of their clients seem
concerned about future water availability, and
projected optimism about the ability of local utilities to plan
ahead for those challenges. … Mandatory cuts to
Arizona’s share of the Colorado River are expected to
slash the amount of water flowing through the Central Arizona
Project, a 336-mile canal system that carries water to the
Phoenix and Tucson areas. That has forced some hand wringing
and the deployment of expensive backup plans from local
utilities, which is expected to drive up residential
water bills over the coming years and decades.
Three environmental and public health groups are suing the
Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to establish
water quality protections for a widely used weedkiller
that’s contaminating rivers and streams across the
country, including parts of the Mountain
West. Atrazine is primarily used on crops like corn
and sorghum. While most contamination is concentrated in the
Midwest, affected watersheds extend into eastern
Colorado and New Mexico. A recent report from the
Center for Biological Diversity estimates that atrazine
contaminates 25% of river miles in the continental U.S. at
levels the EPA considers harmful to aquatic life.
… Scientific research has linked atrazine exposure to
harmful effects on aquatic plants and
wildlife. The pesticide has also raised
concerns about human health and drinking water.
A father and son from Nevada County were sentenced to jail and
ordered to restore land damaged by illegal mining along
Keystone Creek near Loganville in Sierra County, prosecutors
said. Gregory Arnoldi Jr. of Nevada City and Gregory Arnoldi
Sr. of Browns Valley pleaded no contest to felony vandalism of
public and private property and misdemeanor charges of
water pollution and stream alteration, the Sierra
County District Attorney’s Office said. The case involved
an illegally built dirt road and mining near the
creek. … The men were also charged with felony
conspiracy and misdemeanors alleging mining without a
reclamation plan or county use permit, grading without a permit
and failing to notify the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife before altering a stream.
[The California Coastal Commission approved changes in South
Coast Water District’s planned Doheny Ocean Desalination] on
Oct. 7, allowing South Coast Water District to relocate its
seawater intake wells as the district works toward a mid-2027
construction start. Originally planned for the Doheny State
Beach campground, the wells will instead be placed in the north
day-use area in light of further geological studies that found
the initial location would not provide enough seawater for the
plant. … The project, which received its original
Coastal Commission approval in 2022, would produce up to 5
million gallons of drinking water daily for South Orange
County, where roughly 90% of the region’s water comes from
Northern California and the Colorado River.
A new weather balloon launch site at Shasta College will help
scientists track atmospheric rivers and improve weather
forecasts across the Northstate. The site is the northernmost
launch location in the state established for the Center for
Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at UC San Diego’s
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Researchers said the new
location will help fill a gap in weather observations across
Northern California, particularly in the Shasta and Redding
areas. … The region is particularly important for
studying atmospheric rivers because some storms move north
while others travel inland, making the area a key location for
gathering weather data.
Roseville Adult School has launched a 16-week water
distribution certification program to help address a growing
shortage of skilled water utility workers and prepare students
for careers in the field. … “Water systems rely on
highly motivated, qualified people with a high work ethic to
ensure that the water quality that’s being supplied to your
house is safe and disinfected, and there’s nothing other than
water coming out of your tap when you use it,” said Robert
Strebel, water distribution superintendent for Roseville.
Strebel explained that the water utility workforce is facing
challenges due to a lack of qualified workers. “I’d say right
now we struggle to find qualified people,” Strebel said.
… City officials said the program is an investment in
the future workforce and hope it will train more local
professionals to support the community’s water utility needs.
