Aquafornia

Overview

Aquafornia
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 Vik Jolly

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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.
Aquafornia news Lost Coast Outpost (Eureka, Calif.)

The EcoNews Report podcast: Are your Easter lilies poisoning the Smith River?

For decades pesticide-intensive farming of Easter lily bulbs on the Smith River Plain has contaminated groundwater and surface waters of the Smith River estuary, threatening the health of wildlife and humans along one of California’s healthiest, most ecologically pristine rivers. Now the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is considering new regulations to address this persistent pollution. Greg King, Executive Director of the Siskiyou Land Conservancy, joins the program to discuss an important upcoming townhall meeting … and what it would take to effectively regulation pesticide pollution.

Aquafornia news San Diego Union-Tribune

Opinion: Water chief keeps focused on long game amid rate-hike heat

Disputes over water have been a constant in California history, and San Diego is going through a particularly rough patch on that front these days. … Last week, the San Diego City Council delayed action until the end of this month on another round of proposed increases in water and sewer rates — 63 percent and 31 percent, respectively, over four years. A city budget analysis said there is no wiggle room and warns of dire consequences if the rates are not raised, but council members insisted it was too much.
–Written by San Diego Union-Tribune columnist Michael Smolens.

Other water management opinions:

Aquafornia news The Daily Sentinel (Grand Junction, Colo.)

Land trust counts early successes in protecting water

A year into an effort to prioritize protection of water resources as part of its mission, the Colorado West Land Trust is putting out some hard numbers on how it is doing on that so far. Since the plan’s introduction, the land trust has permanently conserved eight properties directly supporting livelihoods tied to water security, it said in a news release. … It also cites its completion of 13 weeks of on-the-ground restoration work, partnering with the Western Colorado Conservation Corps, to improve watershed function and resilience.

Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

‘They’re everywhere’: Rodent boom overwhelms California farms

… Once rodents have settled in on one farm, they can spread to neighboring properties, creating a pervasive — and expensive — problem. The creatures chew through irrigation lines and equipment wires, pull bark from trees and feast on ripening fruit and nuts. Last month, the California Almond Board said rodents had racked up more than $300 million in damages to the state’s almond orchards between fall 2023 and fall 2024. The main culprit was roof rats, a species that has also plagued homes and restaurants in the South Bay. … [H]igher rainfall could also be a factor, since it fosters the low vegetation that gives the creatures shelter. A broader theory posits that shorter, warmer winters associated with a changing climate extend the rodents’ foraging and breeding season.

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Marine mammals dying in record numbers along California coast

… The corkscrew-shaped bacteria, leptospirosis, causes severe abdominal pain in sea lions by damaging their kidneys and inflaming their gastrointestinal tracts. … Since the end of June, officials say nearly 400 animals have been reported stranded or sickened along the Central Coast beaches. … Hundreds more probably were washed away before anyone spotted them, or died at sea. The historically large and long bacterial outbreak is adding to an already devastating death toll for the seals, sea lions, dolphins, otters and whales who live in and migrate through the state’s coastal waters.

Aquafornia news KUTV (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Friday Top of the Scroll: Southern Utah prepares for possibility of water shortage

After a dismal snowpack, sustained drought conditions, and a relatively weak monsoon season, southern Utah is preparing for the possibility of a water shortage. A newly proposed conservation plan outlines what the county will require municipalities to do should reservoirs run low. … The water shortage contingency plan, released Wednesday, would require each city to decrease its water use by a set percentage. … If municipalities fail to reach that reduction rate, they could face punitive pricing, ranging from a 300% to 500% increase from the standard.

Other Utah drought news:

Aquafornia news WaterWorld

How the government shutdown affects water and wastewater utilities

… The shutdown may result in regulatory delays that included new or pending permits, guidance documents and approvals. State-submitted programs like NPDES permits and TMDLS won’t be acted on during shutdowns. … Routine EPA inspections for drinking water systems, wastewater facilities or stormwater compliance are paused until a funding bill is passed. Enforcement only continues if it is tied to imminent threats to human health or property. No new EPA grants for water infrastructure upgrades, stormwater resilience or research partnerships will be awarded during the shutdown. 

Other shutdown water impact news:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

With Colorado River talks at impasse, critics demand transparency

The Colorado River, which provides water across the Southwest, has lost about 20% of its flow in the last quarter-century, and its depleted reservoirs continue to decline. But negotiations aimed at addressing the water shortage are at an impasse. … [Great Basin Water Network Executive Director Kyle] Roerink and leaders of five other environmental groups criticized the lack of information about the stalled negotiations, as well as the Trump administration’s handling of the situation during a news conference Wednesday as they released a report with recommendations for solving the river’s problems.

Other Colorado River news:

Aquafornia news The Sacramento Bee (Calif.)

Opinion: California’s dying salmon test our environmental values. We’re flunking

California salmon are as central to our historic identity as the symbol on our state flag, the California grizzly. It is a sad and ironic tragedy that the grizzly has been extinct for generations. What does it say about us if salmon may soon follow? … Losing salmon would be an ecological disaster for our freshwater ecosystems, forests, riverbanks and other native species if their links to the salmon were severed. Healthy salmon runs mean jobs for Californians, but the industry generating $1 billion is at risk, and is a historic piece of California’s culture.
–Written by Sacramento Bee columnist Tom Philp.

Other salmon news:

Aquafornia news Aspen Public Radio (Colo.)

How Colorado’s biggest water utility is approaching wildfire and its drinking water impacts

Bigger, hotter, and more severe wildfires are changing Colorado’s fire seasons. They change the way watersheds work, and can hurt drinking water resources across the state. Denver Water, the state’s largest utility, provides water to more than 1.5 million people in the metro area. It attempts to address some of these concerns in its From Forests to Faucets program. … Madelene McDonald, a watershed scientist for the utility oversees the program, and spoke with Rocky Mountain Community Radio’s Caroline Llanes to share more.

Other wildfire and water systems news:

Aquafornia news The Guardian (U.K.)

California governor under pressure over bill to ban cookware made with PFAS

Gavin Newsom, the California governor, is facing intense pressure from industry, and even some celebrity chefs, as he weighs whether or not to sign a bill that bans the sale of cookware made with Pfas or “forever chemicals”. … The industry pressure is part of a broader attack that aims to derail similar bans on Pfas in cookware in other states, public health advocates say. … [Clean Water Action Legislative Director Andria] Ventura noted the California water and sewer utility trade group endorses the ban because utilities are left with the cost of trying to remove PFAS pollution from drinking water.

Other PFAS news:

Aquafornia news Palo Alto Online (Calif.)

New horizontal levee aims to enrich Baylands habitat in Palo Alto

… The city [Palo Alto] broke ground in September on Bay Area’s first horizontal levee, a gently sloped expanse next to the Regional Water Quality Control Plant that officials hope to finish by next spring. Once completed, landscaped levee will incline from the tide toward Embarcadero Road. The area will be filled with marsh plants that will be treated with treated wastewater from the wastewater plant through an underground pipe. The levee will serve as yet another filtering system for the effluent as it goes from the treatment plant to the Bay.

Other water treatment news:

Aquafornia news The Record-Courier (Minden, Nev.)

Storm could bring first snow to higher peaks

Snow levels could drop to 7,500-8,000 feet by Friday morning, which might bring some snow to the higher peaks of the Sierra Nevada. “Two-day … totals have a majority of the Sierra between a Trace to 1-inch, with localized amounts of up to 2-4 inches in Mono County (Tioga Pass, Sonora Pass), and 1-2 inches for Mount Rose,” said National Weather Service Reno Meteorologist Colin McKellar. “It’s not a big snow event by any means, but the first decent snowfall this fall.”

Other snow forecast news:

Aquafornia news Bloomberg

Private funding is set to help California’s sea otters recover

… [T]here’s only about 3,000 sea otters in California. The playful predators’ voracious appetite for destructive species like green crabs and purple urchins has transformed Elkhorn Slough, the state’s second-largest estuary, into an aquatic Serengeti and makes the central coast’s carbon-sequestering kelp forests more resistant to climate change. … The US government determined in 2022 that reintroducing sea otters on California’s North Coast and Oregon would be a boon to biodiversity and climate resilience. … But as the Trump administration moves to slash funding for wildlife programs, a nonprofit co-founded by a Silicon Valley entrepreneur is stepping in.

Other wildlife conservation news:

Aquafornia news Believer Magazine

Essay: The last resort

… The Salton Sea is California’s largest lake—and, many say, its greatest environmental blunder. Born of periodic floods from the Colorado River, it is not a lake that is meant to last. For millions of years, the river would breach its banks, fill the Salton Sink, then change its mind and meander back into the Gulf of California. Left without inflows and outflows, the water that remained would evaporate. That was the rhythm of this place: flood, shrink, repeat. Eventually, humans broke the pattern. Farmers arrived in the early 1900s, when the lake basin was dry. They claimed the fertile floodplain and tried to tame the river. They put bottles in the banks to mark their water claims. They dug canals and levees. Then came the biblical flood.

Other Salton Sea news:

Aquafornia news The Mendocino Beacon (Calif.)

Public feedback requested for countywide hazard mitigation plan

… The County of Mendocino is updating the 2020 Hazard Mitigation Plan, in collaboration with local municipalities, districts, and other community organizations. … In March, the county was awarded funding to improve flood emergency response capabilities throughout Mendocino County by the Department of Water Resources (DWR), Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Bond Act of 2006. The county is in the process of locating a vendor, with the goal of creating a Flood Response Plan, identifying communications needs, purchasing communications equipment and placing flood response supplies in strategic areas countywide.

Other disaster preparedness news:

Aquafornia news Grist

In Arizona, a fight against valley fever collides with Trump’s policies

… Valley fever is endemic to southern Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, and parts of Central and South America, but nowhere are cases of the disease more common than in Arizona. … [R]esearchers across the West who study the fungus think another factor may be driving the trend: supersoaker winter monsoons followed by scorching summer heat and drought, a cycle made more intense by climate change. … “The main driver for us is certainly this very clear association for coccidioides between heavy precipitation cycles followed by drought,” said George Thompson, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Davis, School of Medicine who specializes in fungal diseases. 

Other Valley fever news:

Aquafornia news City News Service (Los Angeles)

County looking at co-management options for El Capitan Reservoir

San Diego County will consider options to co-manage El Capitan Reservoir with the city of San Diego after getting the green light from the Board of Supervisors this week. On Wednesday, supervisors unanimously voted to spend up to $600,000 annually – as part of a four-year pilot program, beginning in the 2026-27 fiscal year – for the county Department of Parks and Recreation to operate and maintain recreation at the reservoir. The total amount of $2.4 million will also cover expanding hours and staffing costs, along with possible facility upgrades, according to information on the county agenda.

Aquafornia news CBS Sacramento (Calif.)

State steps in after Patterson city leaders reject Keystone Ranch housing development

… The California Department of Housing and Community Development sent a Sept. 22 letter to [Patterson] city leaders after the council voted in April to reject the Keystone Ranch project, a 95-acre development within the Zacharias Master Plan area. … The letter said Patterson failed to make the required findings under the state Housing Accountability Act before denying the project. The city, however, argues its decision stemmed from new restrictions imposed by state water regulators. The Department of Water Resources ordered Patterson to cut groundwater pumping by 10% after rejecting the city’s sustainability plan, triggering new environmental review requirements under the California Environmental Quality Act.

Aquafornia news KVOA (Tucson, Ariz.)

University of Arizona study links tree rings to climate extremes

A new study from the University of Arizona reveals how historical tree-ring data can help predict extreme summer weather events. Researchers, led by Ellie Broadman, analyzed tree rings to understand locked jet stream wave patterns, often preceded by La Niña winters, which can result in severe weather impacting agriculture and public health. … The study, published in AGU Advances, presents the first-ever reconstruction of historical jet stream patterns over the last 1,000 years. … The findings suggest that La Niña winters often lead to locked wave patterns in summer, offering a valuable tool for forecasting extreme weather. 

Other climate science news: