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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 Los Angeles Times

What will Mexico City do when its water taps run dry?

Water shortages are becoming a way of life in cities across the globe — Los Angeles; Cape Town, South Africa; Jakarta, Indonesia; and many more — as climate change worsens and authorities often pipe in water from ever-more-distant sources. “Water sources are depleted around the world,” said Victoria Beard, a professor of city and regional planning at Cornell University. “Every year, more cities will face ‘Day Zero,’ with no water in their piped systems.” Mexico City — founded by the Aztecs on an island amid lakes, with a rainy season that brought torrents and flooding — might have been an exception. For decades, the focus has been getting rid of water, not capturing it. But a grim convergence of factors — including runaway growth, official indifference, faulty infrastructure, rising temperatures and reduced rainfall — have left this mega-city at a tipping point after years of mostly unheeded warnings.

Aquafornia news California Trout

Blog: Eel River dams headed for removal, water users support dam-free diversion

In 2023, PG&E announced its plans to remove both Scott and Cape Horn dams on the Eel River as part of its license surrender and decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project. CalTrout has long advocated for removing both dams to improve salmon and steelhead populations in the Eel River by reconnecting the cold, perennial streams in the headwaters behind the dams. CalTrout has also been working with water users in the Russian River basin seeking to maintain the water supplied by a transbasin diversion tunnel. On Tuesday, March 19, 2023, partners and stakeholders met to select a design alternative for a potential future diversion from the Eel River to the Russian River that balances both needs of water users and fish.

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Aquafornia news Wine Business

Are wineries complying with California’s new winery wastewater order? The answer: Yes and No

California wineries appear to be complying with the Water Board’s statewide Winery General Order’s winery wastewater requirements, but the pace is slow, state statistics reveal. And many are not in the compliance reporting pipeline at all, data shows. (An overview page is provided here.) The order was passed, the water boards said, for two major reasons. One was because, “Winemakers requested the order to address the statewide inconsistencies in permitting.” This request was from large wineries that operate numerous facilities throughout the state. (Smaller wineries opposed this in the public hearings.) … As of Feb. 20, 2024, 201 wineries had begun the process of filing, leaving a gap of 1,449 wineries (the difference between 1,650 and 201, based on the initial estimates). 

Aquafornia news UC San Diego

New study: Say hello to biodegradable microplastics

Microplastics are tiny, nearly indestructible fragments shed from everyday plastic products. As we learn more about microplastics, the news keeps getting worse. Already well-documented in our oceans and soil, we’re now discovering them in the unlikeliest of places: our arteries, lungs and even placentas. Microplastics can take anywhere from 100 to 1,000 years to break down and, in the meantime, our planet and bodies are becoming more polluted with these materials every day. Finding viable alternatives to traditional petroleum-based plastics and microplastics has never been more important. New research from scientists at the University of California San Diego and materials-science company Algenesis shows that their plant-based polymers biodegrade — even at the microplastic level — in under seven months. The paper, whose authors are all UC San Diego professors, alumni or former research scientists, appears in Nature Scientific Reports.

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Aquafornia news KQED - San Francisco

California may ease urban water-use rules as residents still urged to conserve

Even in wet years — like the last two, which saw disastrous flooding in many parts of the state — Californians need to use less water. That’s the message the State Water Resources Control Board conveyed to the public during a workshop as the agency considers new rules for water conservation in urban areas. By promoting water conservation as “a California way of life,” the board’s goal is that the looming regulations will save enough water for about half a million households annually. Californians spoke out Tuesday over the state’s plan to rein in urban water use that is ultimately less drastic than a previous version of the regulations.

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Aquafornia news Patch - Livermore

Toxic blue-green algae warning for Lake Del Valle: Park District

The East Bay Regional Park District’s Water Management Department has issued an advisory for toxic blue-green algae at Lake Del Valle in Livermore, Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton, and other swimming areas around the East Bay. “Blue-Green Algae (also called cyanobacteria) are natural organisms that are present around the world in ocean and fresh water,” the park district reports on its website. “Certain conditions – low water levels, limited water circulation, increased temperature and light, among other factors – can cause blue-green algae to bloom and, in some cases, release toxins. Scientists do not know what causes the blue-green algae to become toxic. We do know that these blooms are increasing around the world.” Blue-green algae was first detected at an East Bay Regional park in 2014 and has been a constant threat ever since. In face, algae blooms and toxins have been observed at all major Park District water bodies.

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Aquafornia news Tahoe Daily Tribune

News Release: Tahoe Conservancy to acquire Motel 6 property including 31 acres of sensitive lands

The California Tahoe Conservancy joins with its funding partners—the California Wildlife Conservation Board, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, Tahoe Fund, and League to Save Lake Tahoe—to announce the Conservancy is acquiring 31 acres of environmentally sensitive land along the Upper Truckee River in South Lake Tahoe. “This environmental acquisition may be the most important in a generation to protect Lake Tahoe,” said California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot. “By reconnecting the most important wetland that filters water flowing into the Lake, this investment protects the Lake’s precious water quality and also provides an important corridor for local wildlife. This project demonstrates the great value of the California Tahoe Conservancy, to work diligently over years—sometimes decades—to see important environmental improvements to fruition.”

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: State Water Board reduces pumping fees by half but some say it’s still too high

Members of the state Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously on Tuesday, March 19, to reduce pumping fees for groundwater users in subbasins that come under state control, known as “probationary status.” The controversial fee was lowered from $40 per-acre-foot of pumped water to $20 per acre foot. The board will hold its first probationary hearing on the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers Kings County, on April 16. … Groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) for Tulare Lake and five other San Joaquin Valley subbasins were rejected twice by the state as inadequate, which is why they are now coming before the Water Board to determine if they should be put into probationary status.

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Aquafornia news Colorado Sun

“Do your job”: Colorado lawmakers tell Congress to fund water repairs

Colorado lawmakers say they want Congress to do its job and fund repairs to a deteriorating irrigation system in southwestern Colorado. The irrigation system, called the Pine River Indian Irrigation Project, is one of 16 federal projects in the West that have fallen into disrepair. The maintenance backlog is extensive and would cost more than $2.3 billion to address. … Southern Ute representatives focused on the Indian Irrigation Fund during Colorado River Drought Task Force meetings in 2023.

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Aquafornia news The Associated Press

California tribe that lost 90% of land during Gold Rush to get site to serve as gateway to redwoods

California’s Yurok Tribe, which had 90% of its territory taken from it during the Gold Rush of the mid-1800s, will be getting a slice of its land back to serve as a new gateway to Redwood National and State Parks visited by 1 million people a year. The Yurok will be the first Native people to manage tribal land with the National Park Service under a historic memorandum of understanding signed Tuesday. … Much of the property was paved over by a lumber operation that worked there for 50 years and also buried Prairie Creek, where salmon would swim upstream from the Pacific to spawn. … The ’O Rew property represents just a tiny fraction of the more than 500,000 acres of the ancestral land of the Yurok, whose reservation straddles the lower 44 miles of the Klamath River. The Yurok tribe is also helping lead efforts in the largest dam removal project in U.S. history along the California-Oregon border to restore the Klamath and boost the salmon population.

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Aquafornia news KRCR - Redding

Klamath undamming ahead of schedule while county officials find heavy metal contamination

The deconstruction of Copco Dam Number One is going to get underway in the next few weeks, and the Klamath River Renewal Corporation says it’s all going ahead of schedule. Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) CEO Mark Bransom says things are going exceptionally in the progress of undamming the river. Sharing, with approval to move forward on Copco Dam Number 1, they’re now looking at a finish by the end of summer, and only better days for the Klamath River from there. “They will begin a series of drilling into the top of Copco Number One, packing those holes with explosives, detonating those explosives and the idea is to break up that large concrete dam into more manageable chunks of concrete,” Bransom said.

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Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Court upholds state plan to require more water in California rivers

A court has upheld a key decision by California’s water board calling for reductions in water diversions from the San Joaquin River and its tributaries to help revive struggling fish populations. In his ruling, Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto rejected lawsuits by water districts serving farms and cities that would be required to take less water under the standards adopted by regulators. The judge also rejected challenges by environmental groups that had argued for requiring larger cutbacks to boost river flows. The judge’s ruling, issued in a 162-page order last week, supports the State Water Resources Control Board’s 2018 adoption of a water quality plan for the lower San Joaquin River and its three major tributaries — the Tuolumne, Merced and Stanislaus rivers.

Aquafornia news Santa Barbara Independent

Cleaning up California’s oil graveyards

Thousands of leaking, idle oil wells are scattered across California, creating toxic graveyards symbolic of a dying industry.  To tackle this “urgent climate and public health crisis,” Santa Barbara Assemblymember Gregg Hart introduced Assembly Bill 1866 last week. The bill would mandate oil operators to develop plans to plug the 40,000 idle wells (and counting) in the state within a decade, prioritizing those within 3,200 feet of vulnerable communities. … Ann Alexander, senior attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, calls the system “very badly broken.” Companies “just sit indefinitely on their defunct wells” as they leak methane gas, pollute the air, and contaminate groundwater. … Last fall, the county announced its plan to spend $3.7 million to repair an “unpluggable” well at Toro Canyon Creek. Drilled in the 19th century, this idle well has leaked thousands of gallons of crude oil since the 1990s, contaminating waterways and killing wildlife as a result. 

Aquafornia news KSBY - Central Coast

Proposed bill could help low-income families struggling with increased bills

Residents in Grover Beach are feeling the pinch as water rates surged this month, but a new bill could ease their burden. “We had a rate increase of $26, which we were billed once every two months,” said Dave Browning, who lives in Grover Beach. “That was roughly $13 per month.” Grover Beach residents recently felt the impact of a long-discussed water rate hike. “We did send a couple of letters, and I know they’ve received quite a few from what I was being told,” Browning said. And while many still have strong opinions about it moving forward, those facing the reality of the hike now are concerned about how they’ll pay for it.

Aquafornia news Nevada Current

Lake Tahoe remains murky after 25 years and a $2.9 billion investment 

A nearly $3 billion effort shepherded by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency during the last two decades to ‘Keep Tahoe Blue’ has prioritized spending on recreation and transportation over improving water quality, according to the agency’s own data. … Water clarity in Lake Tahoe declined from a visibility level of 105 feet in 1967 to 70 feet in 1999, according to the Act, which estimated that without remediation, the lake would “lose its famous clarity in only 30 years.”  The federal government owns 77% of the land in the basin and “has a unique responsibility for restoring environmental health to Lake Tahoe,” the Act says. It authorized $300 million in funding “for environmental projects and habitat restoration around Lake Tahoe.”

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Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

‘People who move here don’t leave’: Why this rich California enclave is bracing homes for rising seas

Nature is not what comes to mind when an outsider drives into Bel Marin Keys, a tiny community that begins 1½ miles east of Highway 101 in Marin County, reached by a single road that passes a shopping center and small industrial buildings along the way. The wide streets are monotonous, often lined with homes that resemble those of countless 1960s subdivisions. On some blocks, the only hint that creeks and wetlands might be nearby are the red-winged blackbirds that touch down on utility poles. … It’s a bucolic scene — and an engineering landscape that wouldn’t exist if not for the intrusions into former bay wetlands that now are at risk due to sea level rise. That’s why residents of Bel Marin Keys voted to approve a $30 million parcel tax this month aimed at building stronger and taller levees, plus an improved set of locks to keep adjacent waters from spilling into one of the lagoons that give this precarious collection of 700 homes its character.

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Powerful Kern water agency ousts longtime legal counsel

With only three months left on her contract, the longtime attorney for the powerful Kern County Water Agency was ousted Monday, March 18, during a special meeting. Six of the agency’s seven directors voted in favor of terminating General Counsel Amelia Minaberrigarai’s contract after a short closed session. Director Laura Cattani was absent. The contract was terminated as of March 23. It is set to expire June 30. … The agency did not respond to questions about whether the termination was for cause. Nor to questions about Minaberrigarai’s replacement. It is also unclear why her contract was terminated with only three months before it expired. If she was fired without cause, the contract requires she receive a lump sum equal to her base pay, plus vacation that would have accrued for the remainder of the contract’s term. 

Aquafornia news KRCR - Redding

Butte environmentalists speak out about delayed water regulations

The California water conservation crisis continues as lawmakers may delay rules that could significantly help improve California water. Environmentalists are expressing concerns after regulators proposed delaying the timeline of implementing lawn water regulations by five years until 2040. KRCR spoke with Butte Environmental Council Member, Patrizia Hironimus, who said despite the delay of California rules, they are still aiming to educate the community on how to cut down on their lawn water use. While also collecting local data to give to the state to help them understand the water crisis even just in Butte County.

Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: California policy protecting major rivers upheld in long-awaited court decision

A state policy that seeks to protect California’s major rivers and creeks by cracking down on how much water is pumped out by cities and farms can move forward despite widespread opposition, the Superior Court has ruled. The long-awaited decision on what’s known as the Bay-Delta Plan denies 116 claims in a dozen separate lawsuits that seek to undo a 2018 update to the policy, most of which are from water agencies saying the limits on their water draws go too far. The 160-page verdict, released Friday by Sacramento County Judge Stephen Acquisto, specifically notes that arguments made by San Francisco against the regulation fell short. 

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Aquafornia news E&E News

The Supreme Court slashed wetland protections. California is trying to fill the gap

California officials are trying to boost state wetlands protections in order to guard against a 2023 Supreme Court decision that slashed federal oversight of wetlands. Assemblymember Laura Friedman’s A.B. 2875 would declare it the state’s policy to ensure long-term gain and no net loss of California’s wetlands. And Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is proposing to add 38 new positions to enforce the state’s existing wetlands protection laws and scrutinize development permits. 

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