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 historic dam-removal project on the Klamath River, along
the remote California-Oregon border, is hitting another
milestone this week as demolition of the largest of four
targeted hydroelectric dams gets underway. Iron Gate Dam, a
173-foot dam in Siskiyou County, is scheduled to start being
disassembled by work crews Wednesday, an endeavor that is
expected to continue until September or October. The
62-year-old dam is the third so far to face the wrecking ball.
The small Copco #2 Dam was removed last year, the 126-foot
Copco #1 Dam is currently being taken down, and the 68-foot
J.C. Boyle Dam is scheduled for dismantling starting May 13.
All of the demolition work is expected to be completed this
year.
Two months after Navajo Nation officials released details of a
sweeping agreement to secure rights on the Colorado and Little
Colorado rivers, there have been numerous community meetings to
discuss what it means for people to secure water access. What’s
clear is that the settlement, known as the Northeastern Arizona
Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement, is about equity,
human rights and securing access to water for the next 100
years for the Navajo people. … The agreement would
settle all of the Navajo Nation’s water rights claims in
Arizona, which includes the Colorado River Upper Basin, the
Colorado River Lower Basin, Little Colorado River Basin and
some groundwater. The proposal will be put into
legislation and voted on by the Navajo Nation Council before it
is sent to Congress, where lawmakers could make their own
adjustments.
Twelve years after California became the first state in the
nation to declare a “human right to water,” achieving this
basic societal goal of securing clean water for all 39 million
state residents is more daunting than ever. This is a moral
imperative for one of the largest economies in the world. There
is no good reason for clean, safe water to be elusive to an
estimated 1.2 million Californians who get their water from
failing water systems beset with financial problems and safety
concerns. But there is an undeniable reason: The state’s water
system was in far worse shape than previously thought.
California needs to drill more than 55,000 new wells and fix
nearly 400 failing public water systems. -Written by Tom Philp, Sacramento Bee columnist.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
On April 25, 2024, the Delta Stewardship Council unanimously
appointed Dr. Lisamarie Windham-Myers as its new lead scientist
for the Delta Science Program. She had been serving in an
interim capacity during the lead scientist recruitment process
due to the early departure of the prior lead scientist. At the
recommendation of the Delta Independent Science Board, the
Council extended Dr. Windham-Myers’ term to a full three-year
term through November 30, 2026. … Dr. Windham-Myers is a
systems ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who is known
internationally for her work leading teams to advance the
understanding of carbon sequestration in aquatic systems.
A new memo from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is raising
concern about the infrastructure at the Glen Canyon Dam and its
ability to deliver water downstream should levels at Lake
Powell continue to decline. Environmental groups are calling it
“the most urgent water problem” for the Colorado River and the
40 million people who rely on it. … Without upgrades to
the dam’s infrastructure, the bureau’s ability to get water
downstream to the lower Colorado River basin as required by the
Colorado River Compact could be in jeopardy. Even after
record-breaking snowfall in 2023 and an above average 2024
winter, Lake Powell remains at about 32% full, according to
data from the bureau. And scientists estimate flows
in the river have decreased by roughly 20% over the last
century, with warming temperatures resulting in a
10% decrease in runoff.
Kern River combatants are headed back to court where a local
advocacy group hopes to force the City of Bakersfield to goose
up flows, which were cut to a trickle leaving piles of dead
fish west of Bakersfield. The hearing is set for May 9 at 8:30
a.m. in Division J before Kern County Superior Court Judge
Gregory Pulskamp. “Nobody should be happy with the condition of
the Kern River right now; the people deserve and the law
requires a flowing river, not a couple of stagnant pools with
gasping and cooking fish,” wrote Attorney Adam Keats in an
email. Keats represents Bring Back the Kern and a coalition of
other public interest groups in a lawsuit with Water Audit
California against Bakersfield that seeks to have the city
study how its water diversions impact the environment. The city
owns water rights to the Kern as well as the river bed and six
that it operates in from about Hart Park west to Enos Lane.
The Great Salt Lake’s southern arm reached 4,195 feet elevation
at times over the stormy weekend as it nears reaching that
figure daily for the first time in five years. While that’s a
key water level in the ongoing efforts to preserve the lake
after it reached an all-time low in 2022, the state agency
tasked with overseeing the lake’s future recently took a field
trip to other parts of the Southwest as it soaks up ideas that
could help improve future water inflows.
In Salinas, U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren presented checks
appropriated by Congress for two community projects totaling
nearly $2 million. This federal funding is for water
infrastructure in Salinas and Watsonville. More specifically
going toward local wastewater treatment projects. … In
Salinas, the money will be used to expand the industrial waste
treatment facility with plans to lower the operational
costs. Watsonville’s treatment facility also needs major
upgrades. Public works for the city says the cost for the
repairs can go anywhere from $30 to $40 million.
California Forever announced today that the group has collected
20,472 petition signatures for their initiative that would
change Solano County zoning laws to accommodate a new city of
400,000 people between Fairfield and Rio Vista. The Silicon
Valley billionaire-funded development group turned the
signatures in to the Solano County Registrar of Voters on
Tuesday, according to county records. … Opponents of the
project have raised concerns about additional traffic that the
project will add to the highways, the potential for the
development to interfere with the training and other operations
at Travis Air Force Base and where the development is going to
source its water.
For decades, concerns about automobile pollution have focused
on what comes out of the tailpipe. Now, researchers and
regulators say, we need to pay more attention to toxic
emissions from tires as vehicles roll down the road. At
the top of the list of worries is a chemical called 6PPD, which
is added to rubber tires to help them last longer. When tires
wear on pavement, 6PPD is released. It reacts with ozone to
become a different chemical, 6PPD-q, which can be extremely
toxic—so much so that it has been linked to repeated fish kills
in Washington state. … The Yurok Tribe in Northern
California, along with two other West Coast Native American
tribes, have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to
prohibit the chemical.
A rebuild of a key pump station that prevents flooding around
Interstate 580 in San Rafael has hit a roadblock. Crucial
electrical components needed to operate the new San Quentin
pump station are unavailable at least until October because of
supply chain shortages.
Rain-swollen water levels at two Kenyan hydroelectric dams are
at “historic highs,” and people downstream should move away,
the Cabinet said Tuesday, ordering residents of flood-prone
areas across the country to evacuate or they’ll be moved by
force. Kenya, along with other parts of East Africa, has been
overwhelmed by flooding that killed 66 people on Monday alone
and in recent days has blocked a national highway, swamped the
main airport and swept a bus off a bridge. More than 150,000
people are displaced and living in dozens of camps. With
seasonal rains forecast to increase, the Cabinet said residents
of areas that have had flooding or landslides in the past and
those living near dams and rivers that are considered at high
risk will be told by Wednesday to evacuate. Those who refuse
will be moved by force.
Water use in California is typically thought of in three parts:
water for the environment (50%), water for agriculture (40%),
and water for communities (10%) per the Public Policy Institute
of California (PPIC). As a result, “ag” is the sector of the
economy that comes to mind first when we talk about the state’s
water supply. But the rest of California’s economy also
requires water. California’s manufacturers – one of the state’s
largest industry sectors, accounting for 11.8% of state GDP –
need water. -Written by Lance Hastings, President and CEO of
the California Manufacturers & Technology
Association.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
