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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The planet has experienced its ninth consecutive month of
record-breaking warmth, with a simmering February rounding out
the Northern Hemisphere’s hottest meteorological winter on
record, international climate officials announced this week.
The global surface temperature in February was 56.4 degrees —
about 0.2 degrees warmer than the previous February record set
in 2016, according to the European Union’s Copernicus Climate
Change Service. … While much of the Northern hemisphere,
including the United States, experienced its warmest
meteorological winter on record, parts of Southern California
and Los Angeles saw temperatures below their historical
average, according to a report from AccuWeather. The state
ended the month with a major winter blizzard that dumped
up to 10 feet of snow across portions of the Sierra
Nevada.
National Groundwater Awareness Week is next week, and in the
spirit of promoting groundwater knowledge, the Department of
Water Resources (DWR) is excited to announce that its
innovative groundwater mapping project is complete and will
provide critical information about our underground water
supply. The
Statewide Airborne Electromagnetic (AEM) Survey Project has
now completed surveys in all high-and-medium-priority
groundwater basins in California. AEM surveys use
state-of-the-art helicopter-based technology to scan the
earth’s subsurface to depths of up to 1,000 feet, like taking
an MRI of the earth, to visualize the aquifer structures
beneath our feet. You can see the AEM equipment in action in
this DWR video: DWR’s Airborne
Electromagnetic (AEM) Surveys: The AEM Method
(youtube.com).
The State Water Resources Control Board received a letter from
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
submitting instream flow recommendations to inform a long-term
flow-setting process to support anadromous salmonids and
year-round ecological stream function on Mill, Deer, and
Antelope Creeks. Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks are
tributaries to the Sacramento River and provide aquatic habitat
for several native fish species including Chinook salmon
(spring-run, fall-run, and late fall-run), Steelhead, and
Pacific Lamprey. Additional information will be forthcoming on
the next steps in considering the recommendations. Additional
information related to this matter can be found on the Mill,
Deer, and Antelope Creeks – Flow Recommendations webpage.
As an endorheic—or terminal—lake with no outlet, Mono Lake
loses water naturally only through evaporation. Evaporation is
a complex process, influenced by radiation, wind, temperature,
and humidity. The rate of evaporation varies across seasons and
over the lake’s surface. With no long-term observational data
of evaporation at Mono Lake, the effect of evaporation on the
water balance is not well understood. Longtime Mono Lake
Committee hydrogeographer Peter Vorster studied evaporation
here for a short period in the early 1980s. He determined Mono
Lake loses nearly four vertical feet of water to evaporation
each year. With a more current understanding of evaporation
specifically at Mono Lake, the Committee can better estimate
lake level fluctuation.
At a recent listening session hosted by Attorney General Kris
Mayes, Cochise County residents called on state officials to do
more to protect Arizona’s groundwater — and pointed the finger
at one rural lawmaker for blocking progress. Cochise
County residents such as Anne Carl reported that mega farms,
dairies and lithium mines are sucking the groundwater out of
the earth and leaving it dry which causes the ground to shake
and crack. … Residents blamed Rep. Gail Griffin
(R-Hereford), the powerful chair of the House Natural
Resources, Energy and Water Committee, for blocking bills that
they say would protect their water rights. Mayes, a Democrat
who’s spoken strongly against drill permits previously awarded
to foreign-owned companies, suggested they vote her out and
vowed to act if the Legislature will not.
Rep. David Valadao (R–Hanford) has secured $55 million in
direct funding for community improvement projects.
Fifteen projects throughout Congressional District 22 will
receive federal grants, per Valadao’s request. The big
picture: The largest project on the list is $9 million to
construct a new homeless shelter campus in
Bakersfield. … Delano’s Well 42 project will receive $6
million to fund the creation of a new city well and treatment
plant to provide clean and contaminant free water.
… Here’s a look at the rest of the projects that Valadao
secured funding for: … $1.75 million for the city of Lindsay
to replace an old main pipeline to improve water quality. $3.25
million for the Arvin-Edison groundwater recharge project to
reduce landowner’s groundwater pumping and provide in-lieu
groundwater recharge.
As water supplies come under more stress across the West, some
states are seeing increased legal activity related to water
rights. Bloomberg has reported some states, including Utah, are
setting up specific water courts, or judges who deal mainly in
water law. Colorado has had this kind of a setup for more than
50 years. Holly Strablizky is a water referee for
the Water Court in Colorado. The Show talked with her
about what her job entails.
A once-in-a-generation downturn in the wine market is reshaping
California’s grape-growing regions as farmers tear out vines to
rebalance supply with declining demand. Throughout this winter,
bulldozers plowed through Lodi’s wine country, leveling
vineyards and piling vines in mangled heaps on either side of
Highway 99 in San Joaquin County. Thousands of acres in the
region have been removed or are slated for removal, according
to an ongoing survey of its members by the Lodi District Grape
Growers Association.
The oil and gas industry could be on the hook for billions of
dollars as a growing number of states consider making the
sector pay for climate impacts such as floods and sea-level
rise. At least four states are debating legislation, modeled on
the federal Superfund program for contaminated land, that would
hold major fossil fuel companies liable for damage caused by
the historical emissions of their products. In Vermont, which
saw record flooding last year, a majority of the House and a
supermajority of the Senate have signed onto the proposal, all
but ensuring it will pass. Similar bills have been introduced
in New York — where it already has passed the Senate — as well
as Massachusetts and Maryland.
Sea otters, once hunted to near extinction, are staging a
comeback in California. Their return has revealed the
incredible positive effects these furry apex predators can have
on the state’s coastal ecosystems, including kelp forests and
seagrass meadows. Now, there’s another coastal ecosystem to add
to that list, one that plays an important role in bank
stabilization, water filtration, and carbon storage: the salt
marsh. In a new study in Nature, researchers found that sea
otters have reduced bank erosion rates by 69% in Elkhorn
Slough, a coastal wetland south of San Francisco, in the
decades since their return to the estuary. Their big effect is
due to their big appetites—the Elkhorn Slough salt marsh has
been eroding, in part, because of root-munching shore crabs
that burrow into the soil and destabilize the banks.
After a wet year and a push to conserve water in the Southwest,
federal officials say the risk of the Colorado River’s
reservoirs declining to critically low levels has substantially
eased for the next couple of years. The Biden administration’s
top water and climate officials said the rise in reservoir
levels and the ongoing conservation efforts will provide some
breathing room for the region’s water managers to come up with
new long-term rules to address the river’s chronic
overallocation problem and the worsening effects of climate
change. … The states proposed the short-term cuts to
deal with water shortages through 2026, when the current rules
for managing the river expire. The Bureau of Reclamation
released its final analysis of the water reductions
on Tuesday …
Three weeks after citizens stood up at a public meeting in
Siskiyou County, California, and raised concerns about heavy
metals in the Klamath River, the situation is about as clear as
the river. And the river’s pretty muddy. The breaching of the
Iron Gate, Copco 1 and JC Boyle hydroelectric dams in January
was done to draw down the reservoirs behind the dams as a
prelude to dam removal later this year. But the drawdown
released vast amounts of sediment that had been backed up
behind the dams. And some of those sediments contain metals.
… Only after a year from when drawdown is complete will
the company test for more metals, as directed by the state.
… On Monday, the Upper Colorado River Commission — an
interstate agency composed of one federal representative and
commissioners from the Upper Colorado River Basin states of
Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — took a step toward
greater collaboration between the states and the
tribes. The commission unanimously approved
a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with six Colorado
River tribes: the Jicarilla Apache Nation, Navajo Nation, Ute
Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ute
Indian Tribe and the Shivwits Band of Paiutes. The
agreement states that the Upper Colorado River Commission and
the six tribes will meet about every two months to discuss
shared interests on the Colorado River. Other tribes are
welcome to join the agreement. The MOU does not give the
tribes a permanent seat on the Upper Colorado River Commission,
like the states and federal government.
It’s difficult to build big water infrastructure projects in
California. It takes collaboration and agreement across
geographic and political divides. It takes time, funding, and
the will of diverse stakeholders to advance solutions to
address our state’s biggest water challenges. When you have a
project that boasts all the above, you can get the job done.
For us, that project is Sites Reservoir. Sites Reservoir is a
new way of capturing and storing water – rather than damming a
major river, the proposal involves utilizing existing
infrastructure to convey and store water off-stream and deliver
it back into the system when it’s needed the most. When
flows are high on the Sacramento River – and once all other
senior water rights are met – a portion of the water will be
piped into Sites Reservoir. -Written by Congressman Mike Thompson,
representing California’s 4th Congressional District;
and Congressman Doug LaMalfa, lifelong farmer representing
California’s 1st Congressional District, which includes the
physical footprint of Sites Reservoir.
To adapt to climate extremes and become more water resilient in
California, modernizing the state’s water data—including the
way it is collected, stored, shared and used—may lead to more
informed decisions. Improving data practices to best manage
California’s water resources helped drive discussions last week
as state and local water managers, farmers, environmentalists
and others gathered in Sacramento for the 62nd annual
California Irrigation Institute Conference. … With a
theme of “Fluid Futures: Adapting to Extremes,” the Feb. 26-27
event focused on leveraging information and data technology to
help with water-management decisions. Erin Urquhart, water
resources program manager for the National Aeronautics and
Space Administration, offered insights on the benefits of
Earth-observing missions that gather water data from space.
The impacts to Lake County’s water supply were debated at the
Board of Supervisors meeting February 27 with discussion
centered over the substantial effects on the county’s future
water supply if PG&E’s proposed plans are carried out in
full. Consideration was made of: A. requesting a letter of
support from the State Department of Water Resources, and B,
approval of resolution authorizing the grant application,
acceptance and execution of the Potter Valley Project
de-commissioning. Such action means probable removal of Scott
Dam and maybe elimination of Lake Pillsbury. Asking the Board
chair to sign the letter was Matthew Rothstein, Chief Deputy
County Administrative Officer along with Patrick Sullivan,
treasure/ tax collector.
Wooden fence posts poking just above the surface and tall oaks
with their trunks submerged are sure signs that the land is
flooded. That word, “flooded,” has a negative connotation, an
association with destruction. But here it is positive – even
protective. And if the San Francisco Estuary Institute, Sonoma
County Water Agency, and Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation get
what they want, more water, not less, is destined for this
place. The Laguna de Santa Rosa drains much of urban Sonoma
County, a watershed of 250 square miles, and is the largest
tributary of the mighty Russian River. The more water that this
creek and its floodplain can slow and absorb, the less water
will rush downstream to threaten truly catastrophic flooding in
Guerneville, Monte Rio, and Rio Nido.
The Environmental Protection Agency has granted approval to a
North County tribe to administer a water quality standards
program on its reservation. The Rincon Band of Luiseño
Indians has become the 11th tribe to secure the right to uphold
its own water quality standards out of the 148 federally
recognized tribes in the Pacific Southwest region, which is
comprised of Arizona, California and Nevada. The move
means the tribe can operate in a manner akin to a state,
allowing it to implement and manage specific environmental
regulatory functions and the ability to secure grant funding to
support its programs.
After a series of atmospheric river storms dumped record levels
of rain on Southern California, the region’s largest natural
freshwater lake has recovered in a major way. As of last week,
Lake Elsinore was deeper than it had been since June 2011,
according to data from the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water
District. Years of drought and the occasional wet winter have
caused wide variations in the lake’s depth. At 1,248 feet above
sea level, the lake is now more than 10 feet deeper than it was
in July 2022, and almost 15 feet deeper than at its lowest
recent point, in November 2018.
Clean Up The Lake, the environmental non-profit responsible for
the 72-mile cleanup of Lake Tahoe, has recently completed a
two-year monitoring effort on the lake. CUTL conservation dive
teams revisited 20 litter hotspots in the 0 to 25-foot depths
along the Nevada shoreline that were identified during the
72-mile cleanup of Lake Tahoe in 2021. The primary purpose of
this project was to survey these nearshore zones along the
Nevada shoreline to observe changes in litter accumulation and
perform surveillance for aquatic invasive species (AIS) that
may have progressed since 2021. By revisiting places that were
already cleaned, the data collected helped determine the status
of litter accumulation in Lake Tahoe, its rate of change since
the 72-mile cleanup, and the efficacy of CUTL’s SCUBA-enabled
cleanup methodology.