A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Vik Jolly.
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The San Francisco Baykeeper and others sued the federal
government on Monday, accusing it of harming fish protected by
the Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological
Diversity, Friends of the River and baykeeper claim that
pumping excessive amounts of water from the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta hurts fish like the Central Valley
steelhead, North American green sturgeon and Chinook
salmon. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s operation of the
Central Valley Project affects factors like water temperature
and salinity. Those factors, along with the volume and
direction of the water, cause fish to swim into harmful
environments, the conservation groups say in their suit.
It’s now March in California, which means the wettest stretch
of the water year – December, January, and February – have come
and gone. It’s the time of year when we take stock of the
winter that was, and what that means for our water resources.
… The three biggest reservoirs – Shasta, Trinity, and
Oroville, all in Northern California – are nearly at capacity
and well above average. … Statewide, California’s
snowpack is at 62% of the March 2nd average, and 55% of April
1st average. So essentially, we’ve received half of the snow
we’d expect to get. But even that is somewhat remarkable,
considering the Sierra had its lowest snowpack on record before
the big Christmas week snowstorm.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
GOP lawmakers are pushing several bills to regulate Arizona’s
groundwater, but none would do anything to conserve the state’s
water supply. Democrats and Republicans got close to passing
bipartisan legislation to conserve rural groundwater supplies
over the last few years, but a final deal has never
materialized. This year, GOP lawmakers are instead pushing a
series of partisan water bills, including one that would
protect the rights of Arizona residents and businesses to
continue pumping groundwater. GOP lawmakers’ bills generally
protect the water allocation rights of industries like
agriculture and homebuilding. Conserving groundwater often
means restricting development.
… What looks like prolonged drought may actually be something
more permanent in the Southwest, a shift toward a drier
baseline driven by rising temperatures. Even when rain and snow
return, the landscape holds less water than it once
did. Scientists have a term for this larger shift:
aridification. Unlike drought, which is defined by
below-average precipitation over months to decades,
aridification describes a long-term transformation of the
climate system itself. Warming temperatures increase
evaporation from soils, plants and snowpack, meaning the same
amount of precipitation now produces less usable water.
… Over the long term, aridification favors fast-growing,
non-native species over slow-growing natives adapted to
historic rainfall patterns. Invasive grasses fill the gaps,
increasing fire risk and reducing biodiversity.
The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will
take up a sweeping legislative package this week aimed at
bolstering weather forecasting and warning programs. Chair Ted
Cruz (R-Texas) and ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) are
moving quickly to turn around their “Weather Research and
Forecasting Innovation Reauthorization Act,” S. 3923. They
introduced the legislation last week and will bring it to a
committee vote Wednesday. Lawmakers will also consider a
two-year NASA reauthorization, an amended version ofS. 933,
that has the support of both Cruz and Cantwell. The weather
package includes 17 bills meant to strengthen forecasting and
weather warning programs at NOAA.
State officials in California have announced the implementation
of a statewide water-saving plan meant to conserve water
resources amid worsening climate change. … The program, born
out of a successful 2025 bill by state Sen. Anna Caballero,
D-Fresno, would update California’s current water program by
using data from watersheds throughout the state to help close
gaps between water demand and supply. The push to update the
state’s water program comes from concerns that worsening
climate change is depleting the state’s already-sensitive water
supply. … According to the Department of Water
Resources, climate change could cause the state to lose up to 9
million acre-feet of water by 2040.
A new report published by Bluefield Research suggests that the
biggest risk to water infrastructure is not happening on-site
within data center facilities, but rather at electric power
plants. Titled The Water-Power Nexus: How Data Centers are
Reshaping the U.S. Water Landscape, the report explains that
surging electricity demand is shifting water risks upstream to
power generation and impacting communities that never
anticipated becoming “ground zero for AI infrastructure.”
… The report explains that indirect water consumption
linked to electricity generation is expected to nearly double
in the next five years, increasing from 54 billion gallons in
2025 to 91 billion gallons by 2030.
State regulators have reached a settlement with the Goleta West
Sanitary District for the 2024 spill that released more than 1
million gallons of raw sewage into the Goleta Slough and the
Pacific Ocean. Goleta West entered into the settlement
agreement with the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board on Friday, including paying a $1.55 million civil
penalty. Investigators attributed the February 2024 spill to
external corrosion on a section of underground pipe. On Feb.
16, 2024, a broken force main owned by the Goleta West Sanitary
District released more than 1 million gallons of raw
sewage.
Beginning this month, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department will
resume seasonal operations for aquatic invasive species check
stations across Wyoming. These mandatory stations help ensure
watercraft are not bringing invasive species of mussels into
the state’s waterways. “Wyoming is one of few places in the
country that hasn’t detected invasive zebra or quagga mussels
in the water,” Game and Fish AIS Coordinator Josh Leonard said.
“Our agency is working to keep it that way, and make sure these
destructive species stay out of the state’s
waters.” Leonard said any out-of-state boater, as well as
Wyoming residents who have taken their watercraft outside the
state, need to go through the inspection checkpoints.
… In 1994, Los Angeles County’s water quality watchdog made a
troubling discovery: Beneath the Phillips 66 refinery’s Carson
site, there was a lake — of oil. … For more than a
century, after all, the refinery polluted the surrounding
groundwater and air by producing toxic chemicals. … The
regional watchdog, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality
Control Board, ordered Phillips 66 to clean up the lake by
pumping out the toxic waste and treating contaminated water.
Those remediation efforts continue to this day. … But
there is still no estimated date, [Los Angeles Water Board
spokesperson Ailene] Voisin said, for when the cleanup effort
will be done.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority has asked a Clark County
District Court judge to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that grass
removal led to thousands of valley trees dying. You may
remember that several local residents sued the agency and
argued the SNWA’s grass removal mandates lack proper legal and
constitutional oversight. The lawsuit argues that only 10% of
trees in the Las Vegas Valley survive after grass removal and
that the policies have created a “valley-wide graveyard of
trees” that would take decades to recover. According to
court records filed last week, the SNWA states the plaintiffs
in the case were already paid to have grass removed, so they
“cannot complain about prospective nonfunctional grass
designations.”
February storms brought fresh snow to the Sierra Nevada, but
California’s snowpack remains far smaller than average during a
winter that has brought record warmth across much of the West.
California water officials said Friday that the Sierra snowpack
is at 66% of average for this time of year. … California
relies on the Sierra snowpack for about 30% of its water. But
extreme warmth across the West this winter has meant more
precipitation falling as rain, not snow — a symptom of global
warming, which in recent years has been pushing average snow
lines higher in the mountains and changing the timing of
runoff.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
A simple bill on the Colorado River Authority of Utah has been
amended in a sign that negotiations are not going well. House
Bill 473, sponsored by Rep. Scott Chew, R-Jensen, started
simply by moving the Colorado River Authority of Utah from
underneath the Governor’s Office and over to the Utah
Department of Natural Resources. But language has been
added into the bill to bolster its authority to stick up for
Utah’s interests in the ongoing high-stakes negotiations over
the river that supplies water to more than 40 million
across the West. Rep. Chew told members of the Senate
Natural Resources Committee that it was done because
negotiations between the seven states along the Colorado River
have not yielded a new agreement.
… Urban water agencies that get Central Valley Project
supplies from the Sacramento and American rivers are set to
receive 100% of their contracted water. Irrigation water
service contractors — or agricultural water users — on the
Sacramento River are also getting their full contracted
amounts. Jim Peifer, executive director of the Sacramento
Regional Water Authority, said he views the allocation as a
positive sign of water supply conditions this year, with no
shortages expected for the region. Peifer, however, warned that
conditions can change from year to year.
California officials on Thursday adopted the final two state
permits that California’s last operating nuclear power plant
needed to continue operating through 2030. The Central
Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board approved a
certification that Diablo Canyon’s waste discharges comply with
the Clean Water Act and a permit regulating how the plant
discharges water from its cooling system back into the Pacific
Ocean. Pacific Gas & Electric, which operates the plant,
celebrated the decision.
The Southern California steelhead trout is a fish that has been
on the endangered species list since 1997,
and habitat loss has played a key role in their
population decline. But recently, a local nonprofit, the
U.S. Forest Service and other partners completed a roughly $6
million project in the Los Padres National Forest Service in
Ventura County to improve their
habitat. At Wheeler Gorge Campground in the Los Padres
National Forest, a gentle water now feely rushes through Bear
Creek. The creek, along with the North Fork Matilija Creek at
Wheeler Gorge are part of the Ventura River Watershed and are
habitats for the federally endangered steelhead trout.
Recently, the State Water Resources Control Board held
comprehensive hearings on the update of the Bay Delta Plan that
governs how much water flows from the state’s rivers though the
largest estuary on the Pacific coast. The ecological health of
the San Francisco Bay Delta estuary has been at risk from
inadequate freshwater flows and climate change. The state’s
draft plan was criticized by Delta farmers, the fishing
industry, environmental advocates and dozens of individuals.
Scientists warned it will lead to ecological collapse of the
estuary. The hearings also exposed friction between tribal
nations living in the Bay Delta watershed and the state
government’s water planning and policies.
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors this week discussed
allocating a half-million dollars to regional entities involved
with the decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project, with one
supervisor questioning the need for it and another saying it
was essential. Ultimately, the board approved $500,000
earmarked for the Mendocino County Inland Water and Power
Commission and the Eel-Russian Project Authority. The money
would go to “unanticipated” costs that may incur, according to
Tony Rakes, deputy county chief executive officer. The
Potter Valley Project, owned by PG&E, is a hydroelectric
facility that will be dismantled as soon as 2028.
As Arizona lawmakers look to address constituent concerns over
data center growth in the state, water usage is increasingly
fading from the conversation. Republican and Democratic
legislators introduced 13 bills this session related to data
centers, but now that the Legislature has entered crossover
week, many of the bills aimed at curbing data center water
usage have landed on the cutting room floor. Those bills,
sponsored by Democratic lawmakers, would have limited daily
water usage for data centers — many of which rely on large
amounts of water to keep the technology and facilities
cool.
Cambria’s long-idled, often controversial water-reclamation
facility got a unanimous go-ahead by county planning
commissioners Thursday, when they authorized the decade-old
installation for operations at times other than just during
declared severe water-shortage emergencies. Commissioner Anne
Wyatt made the motion to approve the Cambria Community Services
District’s coastal development permit application for the
project. The vote came after a three-hour hearing. If opponents
appeal the Planning Commission’s decision, county supervisors
would be next in line to consider the multi-million-dollar
project, possibly followed by the California Coastal
Commission.
