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Water news you need to know

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 Chris Bowman.

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Aquafornia news Morning Ag Clips

Facing an uncertain water future

The future availability of irrigation water for California growers has never been less certain. To help growers survive a future of “water uncertainty,” the non-profit Soil Health Academy today announced an on-farm school at the Burroughs Family almond orchard April 30-May 2 in Denair, California, that will offer agricultural producers principles and tools to grow profits and resiliency with much less water. The school, sponsored by Simple Mills, will feature instruction, demonstrations and insights from world-renowned soil health pioneers Gabe Brown, Allen Williams, Ph.D., along with Chuck Schembre and other orchard, vineyard and vegetable production experts.

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Friday Top of the Scroll: After winter storms, California can expect a late start to the wildfire season

A series of late-season winter storms has filled reservoirs, boosted snowpack and left forecasters anticipating a late start to California’s wildfire season. And while the odds are also tilting toward a milder than normal fire season overall, that outlook could change by July, said National Interagency Fire Center meteorologist Jonathan O’Brien. … For now, Predictive Services is forecasting below-normal large fire activity in Southern California in May and June, and normal activity in Northern California.

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Aquafornia news CNN

Arizona governor: Foreign-owned farm no longer pumping groundwater on state land to feed cattle overseas

A Saudi Arabian farm previously permitted to pump unlimited amounts of groundwater to grow alfalfa for dairy cows overseas has stopped irrigating its crops on state land in Arizona’s Butler Valley, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Thursday. Hobbs and the Arizona State Land Department announced after a recent inspection Fondomonte had stopped pumping water in the Butler Valley groundwater basin and has begun to take steps to leave the property. Hobbs took full credit for the outcome, saying it was a result of her move to terminate and decline to renew Fondomonte’s leases on state land in the area, part of a broader crackdown from Hobbs and her Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes.

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Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

‘We can do better’ – Western states divided over long-term plans for Colorado River water

With climate change compounding the strains on the Colorado River, seven Western states are starting to consider long-term plans for reducing water use to prevent the river’s reservoirs from reaching critically low levels in the years to come. But negotiations among representatives of the states have so far failed to resolve disagreements. And now, two groups of states are proposing competing plans for addressing the river’s chronic gap between supply and demand. In one camp, the three states in the river’s lower basin — California, Arizona and Nevada — say their approach would share the largest-ever water reductions throughout the Colorado River Basin to ensure long-term sustainability. 

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Aquafornia news Santa Maria Sun

LA Superior Court rules on Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin boundaries

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge confirmed that the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin is one connected basin—not separate subbasins—allowing for the groundwater adjudication to move forward following a year-and-a-half of delays and litigation. … The Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin is one of California’s 21 critically overdrafted basins that was required under the 2014 California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to create a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) and corresponding groundwater sustainability plan. After the California Department of Water Resources approved the sustainability plan, which called for a 60 percent water use reduction in 20 years, agricultural corporations Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms filed a groundwater adjudication against every landowner in the Cuyama Valley in August 2021. 

Aquafornia news SJV - Water

Infrastructure the main topic at Kern’s annual water summit

With nature providing plenty of water – finally – this year, and groundwater regulation well underway, water managers, farmers and others turned their focus to infrastructure at Thursday’s Water Summit put on by the Water Association of Kern County. Early in the day’s line up of speakers, Edward Ring, senior fellow with the California Policy Center, captured the audience’s attention with an extensive cost-benefit analysis of the Delta Conveyance project, a tunnel that would take Sacramento River water beneath the ecologically sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta 45 miles to be exported south. His conclusion: the project has a whopping price tag for a “dribble” of water.

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Aquafornia news Arizona's Family - Phoenix

Phoenix approves water conservation ordinance, impacting businesses that use 250,000 gallons or more per day

Water conservation is a top issue for cities across the Southwest. Now, Phoenix continues plans to reduce water use and prepare for the future. Phoenix City Council approved a water conservation ordinance for “big water users” this week. “It is Phoenix making sure that when a large volume user comes along, there is a sufficient benefit,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU. It only impacts new developments. Under the ordinance, companies that use more than 250,000 gallons of water per day will have to submit water conservation plans to the city. This could impact some hospitals, resorts, and manufacturers. Then, companies that use more than 500,000 gallons of water per day need to submit a conservation plan and ensure 30% of their water usage comes from recycled water. 

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

New study: Microplastics may be risk factor for cardiovascular disease

Add one more likely culprit to the long list of known cardiovascular risk factors including red meat, butter, smoking and stress: microplastics. In a study released Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, an international team of physicians and researchers showed that surgical patients who had a build-up of micro and nanoplastics in their arterial plaque had a 2.1 times greater risk of nonfatal heart attack, nonfatal stroke or death from any cause in the three years post surgery than those who did not. … Petroleum-based plastics do not biodegrade. Over time, they break down into smaller and smaller pieces — known as microplastics, microfibers and nanoplastics — and have been found in household dust, drinking water and human tissue and blood.

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Aquafornia news Salt Lake Tribune

As Lake Powell falls, artists in Moab explore the rise of Glen Canyon

What goes up must come down — perhaps even for things as massive as Lake Powell. That’s the topic of the Glen Canyon Institute’s March 15 event, “Glen Canyon Rises.” Featuring artists, musicians and writers, the event celebrates the re-emergence of the legendary canyon as the water table keeps dropping in the massive reservoir shrouding the canyon, Lake Powell. The Moab Times-Independent spoke with two of the event’s participants, writer (and former Salt Lake Tribune reporter) Zak Podmore and photographer Dawn Kish, about their work to document the return of the southern Utah canyon sometimes called America’s lost national park.

Aquafornia news KJZZ - Tempe

Arizona’s drought turns 30 this year. ‘Toilet to tap’ may be one way to help ease the water crisis

People born in 1994 will be turning 30 this year — and so will the drought in Arizona. Groundwater is the primary source of water for the state, along with allotments from the Colorado River. But due to a population that has nearly doubled since the drought began in 1994, groundwater is drying up. In response, Gov. Katie Hobbs put a moratorium on new housing developments last year unless developers can prove they have safe access to non-groundwater sources for 100 years before they can begin construction. Along with efforts to encourage home water use reduction, another solution being considered is a bit greener: direct potable reuse (DPR), known colloquially as “toilet to tap.” But the issue is far more complex than a catchy tagline.

Aquafornia news Stockton Record

Blog: Salmon fishing closures or restrictions are likely this year

The ocean and river salmon seasons in California are likely to be closed or severely restricted this year based on low abundance forecasts for Sacramento and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon that were released by state and federal fishery scientists at the CDFW’s annual salmon information meeting via webinar on March 1. California representatives are now working together to develop a range of recommended ocean fishing season alternatives taking place now at the March 6-11 Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meeting in Fresno. Final season recommendations will be adopted at the PFMC’s April 6-11 meeting in Seattle, Wash. Due to the collapse of fall-run Chinook salmon on the Klamath/Trinity and Sacramento River systems in 2022, all commercial and recreational salmon fishing on the ocean was closed in California and most of Oregon last year.

Aquafornia news San Gabriel Valley Tribune

Millions in the pipeline for San Gabriel Valley projects, Rep. Napolitano says

Nearly $20 million in federal community project funds for 14 San Gabriel Valley projects, and $1.67 billion for Southern California water infrastructure were a step closer to reality after a House of Representatives vote this week, according to the Rep. Grace Napolitano’s office. The $19.6 million was money Napolitano secured in this year’s congressional spending bills, she said. The 14 projects include: $5,500,000 for the San Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority’s San Gabriel Basin Restoration Fund…

Aquafornia news Maven's Notebook

Nutrients from wastewater treatment plants may threaten coastal marine life―should California regulate them?

The State Water Resources Control Board is exploring regulating nutrients emitted from Southern California wastewater treatment plants into the ocean. The controversial move is prompted by concerns that these discharges may accelerate acidification and oxygen loss in the region’s coastal waters, harming nearshore marine life. The wastewater treatment industry says this nutrient regulation is premature. Environmentalists say it’s overdue. … Wastewater effluent from 23 million people is piped offshore in Southern California. The resulting acidity boost could be enough to start dissolving the shells of crabs and small snails called pteropods, which swim near the ocean surface and are a favorite food of many fish and whales. And the resulting oxygen depletion could deprive anchovies, which many commercial fish eat, of their habitat.

Aquafornia news PR Newswire

News release: Cadiz closes financing, secures development capital for water supply projects

Cadiz, Inc. (NASDAQ: CDZI / CDZIP, the “Company”) announced today that it has completed a financing transaction that significantly strengthens its financial position and provides the Company with liquidity to accelerate development of its water supply projects in Southern California. The financing includes a new $20 million loan to fund operations and capital expenses associated with development of the Company’s water supply projects and extends all debt maturities to 2027.

Aquafornia news Marin Independent Journal

Marin water managers gain edge in weather science

Water management might look different in Marin County as agencies partner to understand extreme weather better. The North Marin Water District, the Marin Municipal Water District and Marin County joined the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes Water Affiliates Group in January. The group researches “atmospheric rivers” and other severe weather to improve water management, mitigate flood risk and increase water supply reliability. … The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says atmospheric rivers are storms that move most of the water vapor out of the tropics. According to the Water Affiliates Group, heavy rainfall from these flows of condensed water is responsible for almost 85% of floods on the West Coast.

Aquafornia news CBS - Sacramento

Helicopters map California groundwater basins with electromagnetic tech

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) has mapped out the state over the last few years to gain a better understanding of its groundwater basins. The department has been using new technology combined with helicopters to create a database about what lies below. Out of sight, out of mind, many people might not think about the water that could lie below our feet, but the DWR knows groundwater is critical to California. The state has 515 basins that can hold up to five times more groundwater than all surface water combined. However, state officials need to learn more about these basins. With phase one of their airborne electromagnetic survey project done, they’re one step closer.

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Aquafornia news The Associated Press

Thursday Top of the Scroll: States in Colorado River basin pitch new ways to absorb shortages but clash on the approach

The seven U.S. states that draw water from the Colorado River basin are suggesting new ways to determine how the increasingly scarce resource is divvied up when the river can’t provide what it historically promised. The Upper Basin and the Lower Basin states, as neighbors, don’t agree on the approach. Under a proposal released Wednesday by Arizona, California and Nevada, the water level at Lake Mead — one of the two largest of the Colorado River reservoirs — no longer would determine the extent of water cuts like it currently does. The three Lower Basin states also want what they say is a more equitable way of distributing cuts that would be a 50-50 split between the basins once a threshold is hit. 

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Aquafornia news CalMatters

The Klamath River salmon die-off was tragic. Was it predictable?

A recent large die-off of young salmon released into the Klamath River shocked and dismayed state biologists, reinforcing that human efforts to restore nature and undo damage can be unpredictable and difficult to control. The tiny Chinook salmon turned up dead downriver just two days after they were released from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s brand new Fall Creek Fish Hatchery, built to supply the Klamath River as it undergoes the largest dam removal in history. … No wild salmon were harmed. And the consequences aren’t expected to be catastrophic for the Klamath hatchery project.

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Aquafornia news Voice of San Diego

Can the ocean save the Colorado River? San Diego thinks so.

Facing rising costs and rates, the leaders of San Diego’s water lifelines are looking to sell some of its most expensive supply: de-salted ocean water from a massive plant in Carlsbad. But, at the same time, they’re also trying to make more of it. Dan Denham, the San Diego County Water Authority’s new general manager, says he wants to expand seawater desalination not because he thinks San Diego needs more water, but because he thinks they can sell it and recoup at least a little of the massive investment local rate payers have made on the plant. … “We’re looking to expand the plant as an opportunity for users, whether that’s in southern California or the lower Colorado River basin,” Denham said.

Aquafornia news Water Education Foundation

Announcement: Upcoming workshops, tours and international conference to focus on groundwater

With National Groundwater Awareness Week approaching and 2024 marking the 10ᵗʰ anniversary of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in California, upcoming Water Education Foundation tours and events will help you gain a deeper understanding of groundwater fundamentals. Join us April 5 for our annual Water 101 Workshop, which includes a session that will provide an overview of the state’s groundwater resources, its importance in the state’s water supply, its history of use and overuse and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Learn what other topics will be covered and register here. Workshop participants can also join the Groundwater Tour the day before the workshop. And in April, our three-day Central Valley Tour will have a strong focus on groundwater as it moves through the San Joaquin Valley.