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.
The high-stakes brawl over the drought-stricken
Colorado River comes to Capitol Hill this week. The
Trump administration’s top Western water official is
set to appear before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources
Committee on Wednesday as the Interior Department is
preparing to wrest control of the waterway later this summer.
The department already invoked emergency authorities in April
when it became clear that the river would see the lowest flows
on record this summer, threatening the ability to produce
hydropower and release water out of one of the country’s
largest reservoirs, Lake Powell. … Scott Cameron,
Interior’s acting Bureau of Reclamation commissioner, last week
said the department plans to release a draft plan for operating
the waterway unilaterally in the “mid-to-late summer.”
The construction, though not the long-term operation, of a
proposed 45-mile extension to the State Water Project, backed
by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, has received permission from
two key federal wildlife agencies. On Friday, the California
Department of Water Resources received permits known as
biological opinions from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
the National Marine Fisheries Service concluding that
construction can proceed under conditions designed to protect
endangered species and sensitive habitat. … The
opinion of the Fish and Wildlife Service orders builders to
take measures to avoid harming endangered or threatened
species.
An Assembly Bill sponsored by the Karuk Tribe, which seeks to
expand consultation between state water agencies and tribes
during water policy decisions, passed through the California
Assembly last week. … If signed into law, Assembly Bill 2218
would declare, as statewide policy, recognition of “the
inequities regarding access to, and control over, water caused
by state-sanctioned acts of termination, removal, and
assimilation inflicted upon all California Native American
tribes.” … A key provision of the bill is
requiring consultation with tribes when certain water policies
are revisited by state agencies. The State Water
Board, when investigating the basis of a water right, would
need to consult with a California Native American tribe whose
ancestral territory includes the water body, when requested.
A Kings County Judge may decide [this] week whether to
allow a lawsuit by the Kings County Farm Bureau to move to the
next phase in its quest to prove the State Water Resources
Control Board overstepped its authority when it placed
the region on probation in 2024 for lacking an adequate
groundwater plan. The Farm Bureau is also
disputing what it says was an improper blanket denial by the
Water Board of exemptions for some local agencies from those
probationary measures, which require farmers to meter and
register wells at $300 each, report extractions and pay the
state $20 per acre foot pumped. At a June 3 hearing, Kings
County Superior Court Judge Robert Burns said he may rule by
June 11 on whether to start the discovery process, where both
sides seek documents. If he does not issue a ruling, the
parties will meet July 2 to determine next steps.
Los Angeles area water agencies were hard hit in 2022 by
successive years of drought and an unprecedented meager State
Water Project allocation, but none was more impacted than Las
Virgenes Municipal Water District, which serves about 70,000
users in an upscale section of the city with virtually no other
supply alternatives, in-state or out. The severe per-person
water-use limit prompted officials to come up with a plan to
create new supply through a novel in-ocean desalination
process. … The nine-month pilot “exceeded expectations,” says
Mark Golay, OceanWell director of engineering projects. … The
goal is to scale to an ocean-based “farm” system of multiple
pods about 4.5 miles offshore of Malibu that could produce,
when operating by about 2028, up to 50-60 million gallons per
day.
A record-shattering drought has racked much of the US. But the
artificial intelligence industry is pushing ahead regardless,
with the majority of planned datacenters set to be built in
drought-ridden locations, a Guardian analysis has found. About
two-thirds of upcoming datacenters, which typically require a
large amount of water to operate, are set to be built in places
that have been among the driest in the country over the past
year. … Datacenter developers say the industry’s current
water use is still just a fraction of what much larger
consumers, primarily agriculture, already take, causing growing
strain on key sources such as the Colorado
River. … Yet the public backlash has been so
strong – polling shows 70% of Americans don’t want to live next
to a datacenter – that some states are considering new
restrictions.
Warning signs lined the sand at Coronado Beach this weekend as
elevated bacteria levels linked to another sewage spill from
Tijuana forced swimming closures along parts of San Diego
County’s coastline. County health officials extended
water-contact closures from Imperial Beach north through the
Silver Strand and into Coronado after a recent break in a
Mexican wastewater pipeline sent millions of gallons of
sewage-contaminated water toward the Pacific Ocean. The closure
comes despite emergency repairs completed this week on the
cross-border sewer line that collapsed for the second time in
recent weeks. … Mexican repair crews worked around the clock
to seal the damaged international wastewater pipeline. The
break increased flows through the Tijuana River Valley, where
polluted runoff eventually reached the ocean.
A project to restore habitat on the Cannibal Island unit of the
lower Eel River estuary has received a financial boost from the
Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB). At its May 28 meeting in
Sacramento, the WCB awarded the project a $4 million grant
under Proposition 4, the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire
Prevention, Drought Preparedness and Clean Air Bond Act, passed
by California voters in 2024. The property in question is owned
by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the
grant was awarded to CalTrout. … CalTrout is working with
researchers and state and federal agency partners to collect
scientific data and develop restoration plans to transform the
area from a largely diked and drained salt marsh into a diverse
mix of working agricultural lands and thriving natural
habitats.
Like many communities in the American Southwest, Las Vegas is
facing a prolonged drought that is forcing policy leaders to
make tough decisions about how best to mitigate the declining
water supply. In 2021, state lawmakers passed a measure that
ostensibly banned all irrigation of so-called “non-functional
turf.” The law officially goes into effect next January, but
the Southern Nevada Water Authority has already begun working
to replace that grass with more drought-tolerant landscaping,
mostly through rebates for customers who choose to
re-landscape. A lawsuit is now challenging the Southern Nevada
Water Authority’s grass removal program in federal court. The
suit claims that the program’s enforcement is overzealous and
is potentially causing environmental harm.
About 50 gallons of water spilled into a storm drain at GKN
Aerospace in Garden Grove, and testing is underway to see if
the water contained any toxic chemicals, Orange County health
officials said Friday. Specifically, officials are searching
for any trace of methyl methacrylate, or MMA. Approximately
7,000 gallons of that same chemical were in a tank at the
facility that went into crisis in late May, creating a risk of
explosion that forced the evacuation of 50,000 people in
portions of Garden Grove, Stanton, Anaheim, Buena Park, Cypress
and Westminster. The threat subsided on May 26 after officials
confirmed that the tank had cracked and was no longer
pressurized. The water spill occurred during a routine
effort to empty what the Orange County Health Care Agency
called an “onsite stormwater/condensation tank located in
an area unrelated to the incident site.”
Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday issued a statewide drought
emergency declaration, potentially freeing up additional state
funding for the state’s response to record-low snowpack
and prolonged warm temperatures across
Colorado. Colorado’s snowpack peaked in early March about
a month earlier than usual and at the lowest level since 1987.
Farmers, ranchers, fishing and rafting outfitters, and cities
and reservoir managers are already feeling the impacts of tight
water supplies this year on their wallets and water supply
budgets. Polis’ declaration follows recommendations Monday from
the Colorado Drought Task Force and the Water Conditions
Monitoring Committee.
When rain falls on California shopping centers and warehouses,
the water runs off parking lots carrying metal dust and
chemicals from vehicle tires and brake pads, oil and grease
from engines, and bacteria from trash. The gunk washes into
storm drains and pollutes creeks, rivers and beaches. Now
environmental advocates are pushing state regulators to
crack down by requiring stormwater permits.
… Groups that represent the businesses say they are
already paying property taxes that in L.A. County include a
special tax for cleaning up stormwater, and that imposing new
regulations in this way doesn’t make sense. But California
Coastkeeper Alliance and other nonprofit groups submitted
petitions to regional water officials across the state this
week demanding they begin regulating commercial propertiessuch
as big-box stores, auto dealers and industrial parks.
The top federal official on the Colorado River said his agency
is targeting the middle of this summer to formalize a new
water-sharing plan. Scott Cameron, the acting commissioner of
the Bureau of Reclamation, the federal agency which manages the
nation’s largest reservoirs, addressed a crowd of water experts
in Boulder, Colorado. “I can’t give you exact dates,” he
said, “But I would expect mid to late summer, and as we get
closer, we’ll try to signal a bit more precision around that.”
… Federal water officials have urged the seven states
that use the Colorado River to agree on a plan for sharing its
water. If they don’t, Reclamation will likely
install its own, but risk getting sued by states that could
accuse the federal government of overstepping its
authority.
The environmental footprint of data centers already rivals some
of the world’s largest countries, according to a United Nations
University report, which also predicts their water and energy
use and pollution will double in just four years as use of
artificial intelligence grows. Last year, global data centers
used 448 trillion watt-hours of electricity, more than all but
10 countries of the world, said the report issued Wednesday.
That electricity use produced about 208 million tons of carbon
dioxide, about the same amount as Argentina, and
producing that much energy consumed about 1.2 trillion
gallons of water, according to the report on the
environmental consequences of AI’s energy use.
Mexico completed emergency repairs Thursday to a ruptured
sewage line in Tijuana that spilled tens of millions of gallons
of raw sewage into San Diego’s South Bay waterways over the
weekend, but residents may continue smelling lingering odors.
The Tijuana parallel gravity line break sent an estimated 40 to
50 million gallons of sewage into the Tijuana River, according
to Chris Helmer, Environmental and Natural Resources Director
for Imperial Beach. The massive spill caused hydrogen sulfide
levels to spike in communities near the Tijuana River Valley,
creating a strong rotten egg smell. … Helmer warned that
similar infrastructure failures will likely continue,
especially during storm events. With El Niño conditions
expected this winter, he anticipates more potential breaks in
Mexico’s aging sewage systems.
As Colorado continues to navigate recurring drought and growing
water demands, researchers and water experts are looking beyond
traditional conservation measures and finding innovative ways
to reuse water that would otherwise go down the drain. At the
center of that effort is Water TAP, a technology accelerator
located at CSU Spur in Denver, where new ideas are being tested
to help communities make the most of every gallon. … One
of the facility’s flagship projects is called GRETA, Colorado’s
first commercial and legal graywater collection and reuse
system. Water from showers and handwashing sinks on the
building’s second floor is collected, treated, and reused to
flush toilets throughout the facility.
The Klamath Fish Hatchery near Chiloquin, Oregon, is back in
business after a five-year rebuild that turned a devastating
fire into a fresh start. The Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife reopened the hatchery to visitors on June 1, marking
the end of a long recovery from the 2020 Two Four Two Fire that
destroyed the facility’s 100-year-old main building and killed
approximately 50,000 triploid brown trout. Volunteer
firefighters saved staff residences and outbuildings by using
the hatchery’s own water pumps to fight the blaze.
Reconstruction took far longer than expected. … The result is
a new concrete, noncombustible building that is slightly larger
than the original and includes expanded fish-rearing capacity.
Boaters will have enhanced access between the Sacramento River
and the central Delta this weekend. The U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation announced it will open the Delta Cross Channel
Gates “to improve recreational boating access in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.” The gates are scheduled to
open at 10 a.m. Saturday (June 6), and will remain open through
10 a.m. Monday (June 8). … The Delta Cross Channel
facility is a gate-controlled diversion channel on the east
bank of the Sacramento River, about 30 miles downstream of
Sacramento. It facilitates the diversion of fresh water
from the Sacramento River into the interior Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta to the Central Valley Project and State
Water Project conveyance.
As California’s ocean salmon season returns, anglers now have a
new way to monitor catch progress and stay informed throughout
the season. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife
(CDFW) recently announced the launch of new digital tracking
tools designed to provide real-time visibility into both
recreational and commercial in-season ocean salmon harvests.
Available through CDFW’s Ocean Salmon Fishery Information
webpage, the new tools allow anglers to track the number of
salmon landed and monitor how much remains under each region’s
harvest guideline. The information is intended to help anglers
better plan trips while supporting in-season fishery management
and sustainable harvest goals.
Lake Mead could soon benefit from the nation’s largest
desalination plant thanks to an agreement that
would allow water agencies in Nevada, Arizona, and California
to explore ways to exchange water supplies across the
drought-challenged Colorado River Basin. On Wednesday,
the federal government and water agencies in the three states
signed a memorandum of understanding to develop a framework for
an interstate pilot program that could let agencies in Arizona
and Nevada tap San Diego’s Claude “Bud” Lewis Carlsbad
Desalination Plant. … The plan would not
directly send desalination-treated water to Lake Mead, but
would allow “paper” transfers and exchanges between states
using existing infrastructure and credits.
