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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 Vik Jolly

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Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: Like Texas, many parts of California face serious flood risks

The deadly flash flood along Texas’ Guadalupe River showed the devastating toll such a disaster can take, and California could face similar dangers when extreme weather strikes. Low-lying areas along rivers and creeks can be hazardous when downpours and torrents come, as shown by past floods in parts of the state including the Los Angeles area, the Central Valley and the Central Coast. When a series of extreme winter storms hit California in 2023, about two dozen people died statewide, including some who were swept away by floodwaters and others who were killed by a rock slide, falling trees or car crashes. … In a 2022 study, researchers, including UC Irvine’s [Brett] Sanders, estimated that up to 874,000 people and $108 billion in property could be affected by a 100-year flood in the Los Angeles Basin, revealing larger risks than previously estimated by federal emergency management officials.

Other flood risk news:

Aquafornia news Arizona Daily Star (Tucson)

Groundwater replenishment left hanging by new Arizona law

A newly signed bill giving developers the ability to buy and retire farmland in favor of subdivisions has been hailed by supporters as the single biggest improvement in state water law since the landmark Arizona Groundwater Management Act passed 45 years ago. It’s been promoted as a ticket to water savings, since homes typically use significantly less water than cotton fields. It’s also seen as a path to more affordable housing in the Phoenix area and Pinal County, where the law would have an impact. … But what’s called the Ag to Urban law comes with a big question mark that centers on the often downplayed concept of groundwater replenishment. The law will significantly increase the amount of water that must be recharged into the aquifer to compensate for groundwater pumped by new homes that are built on retired farmland. As of now, it’s not clear where that extra water will come from. 

Other groundwater news across the West: 

Aquafornia news The Denver Post (Colo.)

Concept for Colorado River agreement emerges in states’ negotiations

After months of stalemate, glimmers of hope have emerged for consensus on a new plan to manage the shrinking Colorado River. Negotiators from the seven river basin states said in a series of meetings in recent weeks that they were discussing a plan rooted in a concept that breaks from decades of management practice. Rather than basing water releases on reservoir levels, it would base the amount released from the system’s two major reservoirs on the amount of water flowing in the river. The new concept would be more responsive as river flows become more variable. The comments signal a break in months of stalemate between the Upper Basin states — Colorado, Utah, New Mexico and Wyoming — and the three Lower Basin states: California, Nevada and Arizona. … The new concept for managing the river reflects an attempt to account for the reality of the shrinking river and will, if adopted, adjust releases from the reservoirs based on the amount of water in the river.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

Aquafornia news E&E News by Politico

White House details proposed NOAA research, science cuts

The Trump administration wants to ax about $2.2 billion in NOAA research endeavors, grant programs and other initiatives under its proposed 2026 budget, dramatically reshaping one of the government’s core science agencies. In a recently released “budget justification” document laying out the full details of NOAA’s proposed budget, the administration takes aim at the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research, which it wants to dissolve, shifting much of its work to the National Weather Service and National Ocean Service. Among the largest OAR programs the budget would terminate are 16 NOAA cooperative institutes that include 80 universities performing high-level research on an array of NOAA priorities, from earth systems modeling to ocean health to advanced weather radar. The administration would also eliminate the 50-year-old national Sea Grant program, which is widely supported by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress.

Other weather forecasting and climate science news:

Aquafornia news Cowboy State Daily

Feds could end Wyoming’s controversial cloud seeding program for good

A new federal effort could end Wyoming’s cloud seeding program.   Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia, announced Saturday her intention to introduce a bill criminalizing cloud seeding and other “dangerous” weather modification techniques. Cloud seeding involves releasing the chemical silver iodide into clouds. The compound causes ice crystals to form from liquid water within the clouds, in turn leading to rain or snow. The Wyoming Water Development Office began winter cloud seeding programs in 2014 after studying it for several years. The office’s first project was a ground-based effort in the Wind River Range. The office began aerial operations in the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre ranges in 2018. … Silver iodide is toxic enough to be regulated by the Clean Water Act. However, the effects of the chemical haven’t been scientifically proven, according to the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists. Some studies show the amount of silver iodide to be harmless while others claim there could be effects on marine life from accumulation over time. 

Other cloud seeding news:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Boaters carry raft 16 miles to protest how hydropower saps Kern River

It started out like a typical whitewater rafting trip on the North Fork of the Kern River. Boaters paddled through churning rapids, gliding past boulders and crashing through breaking waves. But after a few miles, as they approached a dam, the group drifted to the bank and lifted their blue raft out of the water to begin an eight-hour journey on land. Their plan: to hold an unusual protest by carrying the raft on foot for 16 miles beside a stretch of river that is rendered impassable where the dam takes much of its water and reroutes it far downstream. … [W]hitewater enthusiasts, including some who run rafting businesses, are demanding changes in the [Southern California Edison’s Kern River No. 3] hydroelectric plant’s operations to leave more water in the river. They are calling for measures to ensure flows for boating as Edison seeks to renew its license for the hydroelectric plant from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Other Kern River news:

Aquafornia news Politico

Interior reorganization will shift nearly 5,700 employees

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum’s office will absorb nearly 5,700 employees from various agencies under a reorganization plan, according to an internal document detailing the shift. The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) obtained the list of the employees who are being reassigned to the secretary’s office from their individual agencies overseen by the Interior Department, which the group shared with POLITICO’s E&E News. The employees work in specific specialties, such as communications and information technology. The document — which provides the employees’ emails, duty locations, job areas and other information — shows Interior moving staffers from the Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, Fish and Wildlife Service, Interior Business Center, National Park Service, Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Geological Survey, and Office of the Solicitor. 

Aquafornia news KSL (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Utah now the only US state with unwanted drought situation

Virtually all of Utah is in a drought for the first time in nearly three years. Technically, 99.99% of the state is listed in moderate or severe drought in the latest U.S. Drought Monitor report, but it was enough for the National Integrated Drought Information System to point out Thursday that the Beehive State is now the only U.S. state entirely in drought at the moment. Dry conditions and above-normal temperatures pushed the remaining parts of central and northern Utah that were still considered “abnormally dry” into moderate drought, Curtis Riganti, a climatologist for the National Drought Mitigation Center, wrote in the report. … It comes after the Utah Division of Water Resources reported earlier this week that outflows from the state’s reservoirs are outpacing inflows earlier than usual, which is something that typically happens later in the summer. Utah’s statewide reservoir system is now 79% full, which is above the July median average of 73% but far below last year’s average of 91%.

Other Utah water news:

Aquafornia news San Diego Union-Tribune

Residents want to know: How do you decide safe levels of hydrogen sulfide?

… The odor comes from a toxic gas that’s colorless and smells like rotten eggs. It’s hydrogen sulfide, or H2S, a byproduct of the millions of gallons of untreated sewage from Mexico that regularly chokes one of America’s most endangered rivers, the Tijuana River. UC San Diego researchers, led by Kim Prather, recently found that sewage-linked bacteria and toxic chemicals in the river are airborne. In the past couple of years, the volume of sewage flows, laced with contaminated stormwater, noxious chemicals and trash, has been the highest in the last quarter-century, worsening conditions for those living and working nearby. … But the data remains woefully insufficient to conclude what long-term exposure means for individuals, especially for vulnerable groups such as children or those with respiratory problems. And there are only three monitors generating information for a border region that is home to tens of thousands of residents who have raised concerns for years.

Other Tijuana River sewage news:

Aquafornia news KQED (San Francisco)

Mono Lake could be losing its California gulls

California gulls that nest at the eastern Sierra’s Mono Lake suffered a catastrophic breeding failure last year, according to the latest installment in a four-decade-long series of reports tracking the birds’ health. Biologists with Point Blue Conservation Science said in their study of the gulls’ 2024 breeding season that although 20,000 breeding birds built roughly 10,000 nests at the lake, just 324 chicks survived. … The report attributed the low survival rate to the scarcity of the brine shrimp essential to the breeding gulls’ diet. That scarcity, in turn, is the product of an unusual stratification of lake waters due to its artificially low levels. … The gulls’ reproductive crash is prompting calls for state water regulators to reconsider measures ordered more than three decades ago to restore Mono Lake’s degraded ecosystems.

Aquafornia news Public Policy Institute of California

Blog: Is dust on the rise in California?

… California has a semi-arid climate, with several desert and desert-like regions, including the southern San Joaquin Valley, the Mojave Desert, the Mono Lake region, and the Imperial Valley/Salton Sea area. When these locations experience strong winds, it mobilizes dust particles, and fallowing facilitates dust emission by exposing the surface to strong winds. These events will likely increase with rising temperatures. Human health is front of mind here: direct exposure to dust causes respiratory and cardiovascular issues and Valley fever. But there are other implications as well. We know, for instance, that dust impacts snowpack. Snow typically reflects a lot of solar energy back into space. However, any impurities on its surface can reduce that reflection. Dust-covered snow absorbs part of the solar energy, and the more that happens, the faster the snow melts. That can lead to earlier snowmelt and increased river runoff at the beginning of the season, potentially increasing water scarcity at the end of the growing season.

Other dust news:

Aquafornia news Envirotech Online

This is a model for partnering with Indigenous groups for environmental monitoring

… Long before the dams came down, tribal nations in the Klamath Basin had already developed sophisticated scientific programmes. … The Yurok Tribal Fisheries Department tracks water quality and habitat projects, while the Karuk Department of Natural Resources blends traditional ecological knowledge with advanced scientific tools, even modelling cultural fire regimes in partnership with universities. By 2006, both tribes were already deeply involved in project planning and managing long-term water quality data for the Klamath. Today, the Klamath Basin Monitoring Program continues this model of collaboration, with water quality data gathered by both USGS scientists and tribal teams. The more recent Klamath River Monitoring Program, launched in July 2024, formalises this approach further: tribal representatives from the Karuk, Yurok and Klamath Tribes appear alongside federal agencies and NGOs on its leadership roster.  

Other Klamath River news:

Aquafornia news News From The States

Colorado AG Weiser weighs challenge to Trump’s ‘energy emergency’

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser’s office will consider joining a lawsuit challenging President Donald Trump’s declaration in January of a national energy emergency, he told Newsline in an exclusive interview on Saturday. Last week, the Trump administration’s Bureau of Land Management invoked the emergency declaration to complete an accelerated environmental review of a permit to expand a loading facility near Price, Utah for oil coming out of the nearby Uinta Basin. … Eagle County and state officials have long opposed increased oil trains along the Colorado River. In a June 27 letter to Jerry Davis, acting Utah state director for the BLM, Weiser wrote that an expedited environmental assessment for the proposed Wildcat right-of-way expansion would be a “violation of applicable laws and regulations” that would block proper public input and “subject Colorado communities to significant economic, environmental, and health and safety risks.”

Other Uinta Basin news:

Aquafornia news Action News Now (Chico, Calif.)

Summer maintenance begins at Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville after completion of salmon tagging operation

The Feather River Fish Hatchery in Oroville has wrapped up its tagging operations for adult spring-run Chinook salmon. According to the California Department of Water Resources, around 7,919 salmon were tagged this season. Officials say the tagging helps track the success of hatchery operations and improve fish population management. The DWR and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife also continued thiamine treatments to address vitamin deficiencies in Chinook salmon, enhancing their survival from egg to juvenile. The California Department of Water Resources reported that more than 17,000 spring-run Chinook salmon returned to spawn this year, marking the best return since 2013. Despite recent drought impacts, the hatchery continues to meet and exceed production goals.

Other salmon news:

Aquafornia news Chemistry World (Royal Society of Chemistry)

US surface water monitoring data insufficient for 99% of chemicals of potential environmental concern, study finds

An analysis of US surface water monitoring records has found that less than 1% of chemicals of potential environmental concern have suitable monitoring data available. The researchers said the findings highlighted both the shortcomings of, and prospects for, macroscale chemical risk evaluations in the US and globally. The ever-increasing speed with which new chemicals are entering the environment has created a significant challenge for the assessment of environmental risks. To find out how the availability of surface water monitoring data affects the interpretation of chemical risk, the researchers compiled 112 million chemical monitoring records for almost 2000 chemicals, along with 78 million environmental records collated between 1958 and 2019 from across the US. They then linked this monitoring data with established toxicity thresholds collated from regulatory sources for over 170,000 chemicals.

Other US water pollution news:

Aquafornia news E&E News by Politico

California asks judge to reject push to halt climate disclosure laws

California Justice Department attorneys pushed a federal judge Tuesday to reject an industry motion that would immediately halt the state’s nation-leading climate disclosure laws, arguing that the rules have not been implemented and are not placing a burden on businesses. The hearing comes on the same day that the California Air Resources Board was supposed to finalize rules implementing SB 253 and SB 261. CARB Chair Liane Randolph said last week that the agency aims to finish the rules by the end of this year and did not plan to release any updates Tuesday. The rules would create the first emissions disclosure standards in the United States and potentially offer a model for other states, after the Securities and Exchange Commission announced in March that it would stop defending a Biden-era federal disclosure law in court.

Other California climate legislation news:

Aquafornia news The SJV Sun (Fresno, Calif.)

John Harris, Valley farming titan behind Harris Ranch, passes at 81

Central Valley farmer, noted horse breeder, and philanthropist John Harris passed away on Wednesday. He was 81 years old and just 12 days shy of his 82nd birthday. … He became the sole shareholder and CEO of Harris Farms in 1981 following the death of his father and led the ranch for decades, including Harris Ranch Inn & Restaurant, Harris Ranch Beef Company, Harris Feeding Company, Harris Farms Thoroughbred Division and Harris Fresh. … Harris was also known for his philanthropic efforts, often supporting his alma mater UC Davis, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and Fresno State. At Fresno State, his philanthropy personally benefited Jordan College of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, the Craig School of Business, the Bulldog Foundation, the Fresno State Library and the Kremen School of Education and Human Development. 

Aquafornia news The Fresno Bee

Where to enjoy San Joaquin River in Fresno, Madera

… One day, according to a master plan, green spaces that straddle the water and form the 22-mile San Joaquin River Parkway will be connected with trails and offer visitors more ways to safely, legally and comfortably get to the water. The San Joaquin River Conservancy, formed in the early 1990s to create the parkway, has acquired some of the properties it needs to make that possible. But today, many of the conservancy-owned lands are tagged with “Closed” signs and closed to the public. … Still, there are a number of spaces today that provide true public access to people seeking opportunities for outdoors fun, exercise, education and more along the river. These spaces — some of them already connected by trails and offering popular fishing, biking and hiking spots — signal what could be for the 22-mile stretch of water that many consider to be the Fresno-Madera region’s hidden gem.

Aquafornia news

Happy Independence Day from Aquafornia!

Dear Aquafornia readers,

Aquafornia is off for the July 4th holiday and the following Monday. But we will return with a full slate of news on Tuesday, July 8.

In the meantime, follow us on X/Twitter where we post breaking water news, and on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn, where we post other water-related news.

The team at the Water Education Foundation wishes everyone a safe and enjoyable Independence Day!

Aquafornia news AP News

Thursday Top of the Scroll: Monsoon season brings the promise of rain for the arid southwestern US

… Forecasters say it has been a wet start to this year’s monsoon season, which officially began June 15 and runs through the end of September. Parts of New Mexico and West Texas have been doused with rain, while Arizona and Nevada have been hit with dust storms, which are a common hazard of the season. … Just ahead of the monsoon, officials with the Navajo Nation declared an emergency because of worsening drought conditions across the reservation, which spans parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah. … Forecasters with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the National Integrated Drought Information System say monsoonal rainfall only provides a fraction of the West’s water supplies, with the majority coming from snowpack. Still, summer rains can reduce drought impacts by lessening the demand for water stored in reservoirs, recharging soil moisture and groundwater, and reducing the risk of wildfires.

Other monsoon and drought news around the West: