A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday by veteran journalist Matt Weiser. Send any comments to Foundation News & Publications Director Doug Beeman.
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Please Note: 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.
Two lawsuits against a Kern County groundwater sustainability
agency show the potential implications for agriculture and
other businesses with historic, overlying water rights….”It’s
one of the first groundwater sustainability plans we’re seeing
that could wholly restrict agriculture in a water-poor area,
while ignoring overlying rights and preferring other,
non-agricultural users in the basin,” [the California Farm
Bureau Federation's Chris] Scheuring said.
Over-pumping of groundwater has caused domestic wells to go dry
in the San Joaquin Valley. Yet many of the first round of plans
prepared to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA) do not yet propose ways to address this problem. We
explored groundwater planning with three members of the
environmental justice community—Angela Islas of Self-Help
Enterprises, Justine Massey of the Community Water Center, and
Amanda Monaco of the Leadership Counsel for Justice and
Accountability.
As Congress debates recovery strategies and stimulus efforts,
water should be a bigger part of the conversation. Water can
serve as a lever to achieve greater economic equity and access,
environmental resilience, and technological innovation, among
other benefits. Now is the time for Washington to elevate water
as a core issue to drive a lasting recovery.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 974 to streamline the
permitting process for low-income communities to deliver clean
drinking water for residents. The law … offers low-income
communities relief for the expensive and exhaustive permit
process for small, disadvantaged community water systems with
water contaminants beyond the state standard or failing wells.
A national environmental organization is preparing to sue Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s administration for issuing new fracking permits,
including six approved on Friday, Kassie Siegel, director of
the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute,
said Tuesday.
Now in its second year, a long-term project intends to learn
whether rice farming in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta can
succeed economically while helping to preserve the region’s
uniquely carbon-rich peat soils.
The Del Puerto Water District is set to vote Wednesday on
approving a final environmental impact study on a much-disputed
storage reservoir in western Stanislaus County. … According
to proponents, the reservoir storing up to 82,000 acre-feet
will provide more reliable water deliveries to farmers south of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta… Water pumped from the
nearby Delta-Mendota Canal would be stored behind the dam.
Four candidates are vying for two seats on the Imperial
Irrigation District’s five-member board of directors on Nov. 3.
The election will be the culmination of contentious races that
already eliminated one incumbent in the primary. Water is power
in the Imperial Valley, where one of California’s agricultural
hubs is fed by a huge Colorado River allotment, an
apportionment controlled by IID.
My research group published a new paper last week in the
international Water journal that presents some very good news
for water-stressed areas: cities are succeeding in decoupling
their growth from their water needs. Our research – focused on
20 cities in the Western US – revealed some surprising
findings…
California’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment
can list bisphenol A under the state’s Safe Drinking Water and
Toxic Enforcement Act despite challenges regarding the lack of
evidence of its harm to humans, a state appeals court said
Monday.
A newly formalized Water Subcabinet will focus on “efficient
and effective management and modernization” of water supplies
while eliminating duplication among federal agencies, according
to an executive order from President Donald Trump.
The $681 million project, led by the East [San Diego]
County Advanced Water Purification Project Joint Powers
Authority, will recycle daily wastewater flows from Santee, El
Cajon, Lakeside, Winter Gardens and Alpine. The recycled water
will then go through an advanced treatment process that
includes membrane filtration, reverse osmosis and advanced
oxidation to produce purified water.
The City of San Mateo, in partnership with Foster City, has
succeeded in its application for a $277 million loan from the
Environmental Protection Agency. The Clean Water Program is a
$1 billion, 10-year capital infrastructure improvement program
to repair, replace, and upgrade aging sewage conveyance and
wastewater treatment infrastructure, serving approximately
170,000 residents…
Seawater desalination operator Poseidon is poised to take over
the Agua Hedionda Lagoon maintenance dredging that has been
done by local power companies since 1954. Permits are being
obtained for the work to begin in November or early December
with expectations to finish by mid-April…
A slew of Bakersfield locals told board members how much an
actual, wet river means for residents. Speakers asked board
members to make the Kern a priority and finally allocate
unappropriated water on the river that has been in limbo at the
board for the past 10 years.
Working over the last year, construction crews expect to
complete a new 2-mile levee near Novato in the coming weeks. It
will allow bay waters to eventually reclaim nearly 1,600 acres,
or about 2.5 square miles, of former tidal marshes that had
been diked and drained for agriculture and development during
the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Two days before the deadline to submit its “compliance
project,” the San Juan Bautista City Council voted 4-1 on a
regional approach to solving its water problems over an
in-house option. The city will send its waste water to the
Hollister Wastewater Treatment Plant and import water from the
West Hills Water Treatment Plant.
A commonly held assumption among many Californians is that La
Niña means a dry winter is coming, and in years when the
opposite occurs, El Niño, a wet winter is considered more
likely. So brown lawns and water rationing are just around the
corner, right? Not necessarily.
A major analysis by California researchers projected that the
amount of area burned by wildfire could jump 77% by the end of
the century. Another study by UCLA warned that by 2050 fire on
average would scorch twice as much land in Southern California.
A doubling happened this year, instead of three decades from
now.
Chinook salmon have become a welcome and familiar sight in
recent years in Putah Creek. Considered a keystone species
across the Pacific Northwest, Chinook salmon hold a special
place in our past and present as a cultural and food resource.
This includes for indigenous peoples of California, such as the
Patwin people, on whose land UC Davis is located.
