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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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Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, 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 Daily Kos

Blog: Protests against Delta tunnel change in water diversion must be filed by April 29

As salmon and Delta fish populations continue to crash due to massive water diversions to corporate agribusiness, the State Water Resources Control Board just issued a public notice regarding the Delta Conveyance Project Change in Point of Diversion (CPOD) Petition that was submitted by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to the State Water Board on February 22, 2024. This notice acknowledges receipt of the change petition and details the process to submit a protest against the petition. You can expect a wave of formal protests against the change petition by fishing groups, Tribes, environmental justice organizations, conservation groups and Delta region cities and counties. Protests against the change petition must be filed by April 29th, 2024, with a copy provided to the petition, according to the Water Board. 

Aquafornia news Pleasanton Weekly

Pleasanton council to review potential bond sale to finance water infrastructure projects

The Pleasanton City Council will be reviewing a staff presentation on the city’s proposed plan to authorize and approve a bond sale for as much as $19 million to finance a portion of planned water infrastructure upgrades during Tuesday’s meeting. According to the March 5 staff report, staff will be presenting a debt financing overview and a resolution for the council to approve, which will declare the city’s intent to “reimburse expenditures relating to capital improvement projects from the proceeds of tax-exempt obligations.”

Aquafornia news The Center for Biological Diversity

News release: True cost of sprawl includes harm to people, wildlife, climate

Sprawl development built far from city centers carries direct and indirect costs that pull resources away from existing neighborhoods, harming communities and natural habitats, according to a new report published by the Center for Biological Diversity. The True Cost of Sprawl analyzed the environmental harms — including pollution, wildfire risks and public health threats — that come with poor land-use decisions. It found that suburban and exurban housing developments increase per capita infrastructure costs by 50%, pulling public funds from schools, parks, public transportation and other needs in existing communities for things like new roads and sewer systems.

Aquafornia news Vallejo Times Herald Online

Thompson secures $2.3 million for water projects in government funding agreement

U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson announced on Tuesday that funding of $2.3 million for three Solano County projects will be considered by Congress later this week. Thompson secured nearly $15 million for projects for his district, California’s Fourth. … The projects in Solano County are: $959,752 for the Rio Vista Wastewater Plant Consolidation and Reclaimed Water Project. The Rio Vista Wastewater Plant Consolidation and Reclaimed Water Project supports the Clean Water Act standards by aiming to eliminate the direct discharge of water into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, recharges the aquifer on which Rio Vista City relies for drinking water, and mitigates drought issues by providing a reusable water source.

Related article: 

Aquafornia news Forbes

Opinion: Innovation that can solve housing’s water scarcity challenge

So many hurdles are impacting new home construction, yet one is quickly growing more urgent and critical—access to water. In more and more places across the country, access to healthy, safe, and sustainable water supply is causing restrictions on new home building permits and challenging current homeowners with new water use policies. This challenge is triggering states and municipalities to reconsider new developments, halting them or shutting them down completely at a time when housing supply is at critically low levels. Groundwater shortages have shut down new permits in parts of Arizona where new homes would rely on wells. A large development with thousands of homes north of Las Vegas also was shut down due to concerns over water supply.
-By Jennifer Castenson, vice-president of ambassador and industry partner programs at Buildxact, providing leadership and collaboration across the various verticals involved in custom homebuilding and remodeling. 

Aquafornia news Sierra Club Angeles Chapter

Blog: San Diego has a cross border sewage problem

For decades, raw sewage from Tijuana, Mexico has, and continues, to flow across the border into San Diego, California.  This discharge flows into the Tijuana River Valley, and ultimately to the Pacific Ocean.  This pollution has negatively impacted the Tijuana River Valley and the Tijuana River Estuary, one of the last remaining estuaries in California, and the beaches.  Unhealthy concentrations of fecal indicator bacteria has forced the County of San Diego to close 10 miles of beach access from the US-Mexico Border all the way to the beaches of Coronado.   At the urging of Congressman Scott Peters, the San Diego State University School of Public Health issued a white paper which details the public health risks posed by the transborder flow of sewage.

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Plant a tree, get $100 under new MWD program

With many areas of Southern California starved for shade, the region’s largest water supplier has launched a rebate program offering residents and businesses up to $500 as an incentive to plant trees. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on Tuesday announced the addition of the tree incentive to its long-standing turf-replacement program, which offers cash to property owners who rip out water-guzzling grass and replace it with drought-tolerant landscaping. Starting this week, new applicants can seek a $100 rebate for each eligible tree planted — up to five trees total — as part of their turf-replacement project, according to a spokesperson for the district.

Related article: 

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: Monster blizzard shatters California ‘snow drought’ with up to 10 feet of new snow

A monster blizzard that blasted California’s Sierra Nevada with gusts of up to 190 mph and dumped more than 10 feet of snow over the weekend shattered the state’s “snow drought” and significantly boosted vital snowpack levels. The statewide snowpack by Monday had swelled to 104% of normal for the date, with a snow water equivalent of 24.4 inches. On Thursday — hours before the chilly winter storm was set to hit — the snowpack had measured only 80% of normal. It was an impressive turnaround compared with the beginning of the year when the snowpack was 32% of normal. Officials were optimistic the blizzard would offer a significant snow boost. It ended up being a game-changer.

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Aquafornia news E&E News

Colorado River states ready separate cut plans

Dueling state factions are set to submit separate plans over how to share the drought-stricken Colorado River to the Biden administration this month, but top water officials from one side of the divide on Monday vowed they will nonetheless return to the negotiating table in coming weeks. Officials from across seven states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the Upper Basin and Arizona, California and Nevada in the Lower Basin — are drafting new operating plans for the 1,450-mile-long river, including how to share the pain of any future cuts as climate change continues to shrink its flows. Colorado River Commissioner Becky Mitchell of Colorado said Monday that the four Upper Basin states are preparing for a March 11 target date to submit a plan to the Bureau of Reclamation.

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Aquafornia news SJV Water

Sinking canal has “everyone’s attention” and could put entire Tule subbasin under state control

Fallout over the ever sinking Friant-Kern Canal could affect growers throughout the Tule subbasin regardless of whether they get water from the canal. The state Water Resources Control Board already has the subbasin in its cross hairs for neglecting to create a coordinated plan to bring aquifers into balance under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). A hearing for the Tule subbasin is scheduled for September. Now, new – and worsened – subsidence (land sinking) beneath the Friant-Kern Canal has prompted the canal’s operator to seek help from the Water Board.

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Aquafornia news SummitDaily.com

Introduced bill intends to protect water resources after wildfires in national forests

The Watershed Protection and Forest Recovery Act would create a new Emergency Forest Watershed Program at the U.S. Department of Agriculture to aid and streamline watershed recovery efforts on U.S. Forest Service lands. The bill is intended to help communities protect their water supply after natural disasters on U.S. Forest Service lands. The bill was introduced by U.S. Senators Michael Bennet, D-Colo., Mitt Romney, R-Utah alongside U.S. Representatives Joe Neguse, D-Colo., Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, Yadira Caraveo, D-Colo. and John Curtis, R-Utah. According to a press release sent by Bennet’s office, following the East Troublesome Fire, water providers faced obstacles that limited their ability to protect drinking water supplies for communities downstream of the fire. 

Aquafornia news The Atlantic

AI is taking water from the desert

… The American Southwest has become the site of a collision between two civilization-defining trends. In this desert heat, the explosive growth of generative AI is pitched against a changing climate’s treacherous extremes. … Public data hint at the potential toll of this approach. Researchers at UC Riverside estimated last year, for example, that global AI demand could cause data centers to suck up 1.1 trillion to 1.7 trillion gallons of fresh water by 2027.

Related article: 

Aquafornia news The Associated Press

Trillions of gallons leak from aging drinking water systems, further stressing shrinking US cities

Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that don’t work. … Across the U.S., trillions of gallons of drinking water are lost every year, especially from decrepit systems in communities struggling with significant population loss and industrial decline that leave behind poorer residents, vacant neighborhoods and too-large water systems that are difficult to maintain.

Related article: 

Aquafornia news Nevada Current

Impacts of court groundwater decision still a long way off, top water regulator tells Nevada lawmakers

After years of groundwater decline and failed legislative action, a court decision in January affirmed the state’s right to limit groundwater pumping using the most current scientific data, but full implementation of the ruling may take some time. Last week, the state engineer — Nevada’s top water regulator — expanded on how the state will manage water resources in the aftermath of the recent Nevada Supreme Court decision that affirmed the state’s authority to develop science-based solutions to over-pumping, including managing surface water and groundwater as a single connected source when determining water rights. In the coming years, the court’s decision will have sweeping ramifications for Nevada, state engineer Adam Sullivan told lawmakers.

Related article: 

Aquafornia news California Fisheries Blog

Blog: 2024 salmon season in doubt

On March 1, 2024, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) held its CDFW Annual Salmon Information Meeting via a webinar. The prognosis for a 2024 salmon season does not look good. The closure of all California salmon fishing in 2023 brought an uptick in salmon escapement to 133,000 in the Sacramento River, which is somewhat positive. The forecast for this year’s fishable stock in the ocean (made up of broodyears 2021-2023), however, is not much better than last year’s, with the lingering effects of the 2020-2022 drought. If a normal fishery had been held last year or were to be held this year, the salmon stocks would no doubt fall into an “over-fished” status.

Aquafornia news The Washington Post

Why tribes are angry over some of Biden’s clean energy projects

… Verlon Jose is one of several tribal leaders nationwide who are growing frustrated with the Biden administration and its ambitious plans for clean-energy projects that could affect their ancestral lands. While the White House has worked to repair the federal government’s relationships with Indigenous peoples, that effort is conflicting with another Biden priority: expediting projects essential for the energy transition.

Aquafornia news Salt Lake Tribune

Opinion: Glen Canyon Dam has created a world of mud

When the San Juan River flows out of the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado, it contributes 15% of Lake Powell’s water. But there’s a problem: The river carries a hefty 55% of the sediment entering the reservoir, and that mud is piling up. … Now, as the San Juan River flows toward Lake Powell, it rambles over a huge pancake of mud that’s 49 miles long, a mile wide in some places, and as much as 120 feet deep in the final reaches of the San Juan River. Unique hydrology has contributed to this plug, a relatively wide canyon and multiple waterfalls slow down the river, allowing sediment to drop out. Though the San Juan is the muddiest tributary, all the Colorado’s tributaries drop a good deal of mud 100 miles or more upstream of Glen Canyon Dam. It’s a Western phenomenon caused by damming swift rivers …
-By Dave Marston, publisher of the independent nonprofit Writers on the Range.

Aquafornia news CBS - Sacramento

Costs cripple California’s leading crop, some almond growers say game over

California almond farms are struggling to pay the bills with low prices for their nuts. Trinitas Farm, an almond farm in Oakdale, filed for bankruptcy in February due to falling almond prices, rising water rates, and high interest rates making it impossible to keep up. Almond farmers that CBS13 spoke with agree but said the biggest driving force of this fallout can be summed up in one word: inflation. “It has now come to the point where I see the end of that coming, of that generational farming,” said Bill Van Ryn, who has an almond farm in San Joaquin County. He said farmers are simply crippled by costs and that is causing some California almond farmers to file for bankruptcy, likely with more to follow.

Aquafornia news Law360

Split Calif. panel backs drinking water regs on oil operators

A split California appellate panel threw out a trial court ruling finding drinking water regulations put in place by the California Geologic Energy Management Division are invalid, saying, instead, the challenged regulations are consistent with …

Aquafornia news SJV Sun

Water Blueprint taps Eddie Ocampo as chairperson

Eddie Ocampo has been elected as the new chairperson of the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley.  The Water Blueprint is an initiative consisting of agriculture, industry, government and nonprofit stakeholders working to develop sustainable water management in the Central Valley. … Ocampo is currently the Director of Community Sustainability at Self-Help Enterprises, a local organization that develops affordable housing. Along with Ocampo, Daniel Hartwig and Priscilla Rodriguez have joined the Water Blueprint’s board.