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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… The Sierra’s frozen reservoir provides about a third of
California’s water and most of what comes out of the faucets,
shower heads, and sprinklers in the towns and cities of
northwestern Nevada. … In the past, it has been arduous
work to gather such snowpack observations. Now, a new
generation of tools, techniques, and models promises to ease
that process, improve water forecasts, and help California and
other states safely manage one of their largest sources of
water in the face of increasingly severe droughts and
flooding. Observers, however, fear that any such advances
could be undercut by the Trump administration’s cutbacks across
federal agencies, including the one that oversees federal
snowpack monitoring and survey work.
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff on Tuesday urged Commerce
Secretary Howard Lutnick and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s acting secretary to restore a
database that tracked billion-dollar U.S. disasters. He said
its removal prevented lawmakers, insurance companies and
taxpayers from seeing the growing cost of more frequent natural
disasters and from planning for future extreme weather
events. … Schiff, who represents California, also warned
that sweeping job cuts at NOAA have left the agency
understaffed ahead of hurricane season, which begins June 1,
saying that 30 of 122 weather forecast offices at the National
Weather Service lack chief meteorologists.
Scientists have released some of the first independent test
results confirming that drinking water in fire-affected areas
around Altadena and the Pacific Palisades is largely free of
harmful contaminants, as an Altadena utility lifted the last
“do not drink” notice left in the burn zones. Researchers with
the LA Fire HEALTH Study released results on Friday from 53
homes spread across the burn areas and the more than three
miles surrounding them. They found only one with a toxic
substance at dangerous levels: at one home, the water contained
benzene, a known carcinogen, at concentrations slightly above
the state’s allowable level of 1 part per billion. The
findings add to mounting evidence that the affected area’s
drinking water is safe.
The Environmental Protection Agency has terminated a $20
million grant that would have funded the construction of
critical water and energy infrastructure on the Walker River
Paiute Tribe reservation in Northern Nevada. Nevada’s
Clean Energy Fund was notified May 1 the EPA terminated a $20
million Community Change Grant awarded to the nonprofit to
advance major infrastructure projects that would help the
Walker River Paiute Tribe adapt to the impacts of climate
change. The grant is one of more than 780 environmental justice
grants terminated by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, according to
court documents filed as part of an ongoing lawsuit against the
Trump administration.
With an uncertain future and a concerned public, new changes to
the state’s water control manual made their way before the
Butte County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday with the hope of
garnering favor for public safety. Oroville Mayor David Pittman
was joined by Oroville Dam Advisory Commissioner Robert Bateman
as they presented the proposed changes by the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers to the board as well as their concerns about
potential flooding. As it stands, the spillway is graded to
handle flows up to 350,000 cubic feet per second, but that
doesn’t necessarily mean the levees downstream can sustain that
kind of force. “In 1997, we had a flow of 160,000 cubic feet
per second,” Pittman said. “At the Bedrock Park point, we had
leakage through the levee that were able to successfully flood
fight, but we don’t know how many times we can do that again.”
A Fresno County community is celebrating breaking ground on a
long-awaited project to connect residents to Sanger’s water
system. It would give residents in the rural area of Tombstone
access to safe, reliable drinking water. … It’s all made
possible by California’s Safe and Affordable Drinking Water
Fund, which is a bill signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2019.
… The fund provides $130 million year after year through
the year 2030 in an effort to highlight drinking water needs,
more so in areas where access to and clean water are not
available. The State Water Boards reported that since
Governor Newsom has served in his role, the number of
Californians who don’t have access to clean drinking water has
been cut by more than half.
A proposed decision from two California Public Utilities
Commission administrative law judges dropped Friday afternoon,
May 9, that could have major implications as to whether Cal
Am—the investor-owned utility that supplies water the Monterey
Peninsula—will be able to move forward with its proposed
desalination project in Marina, which has been a lightning rod
of controversy for more than a decade. … Ultimately, the
decision that will matter is the one that’s adopted by the
CPUC, and the various parties have just over two weeks to now
file comments and point out parts of the proposed decision they
find fault with, but with an important caveat: The judges will
only consider information that’s already in the administrative
record—nothing new can be introduced.
It wouldn’t make much sense to prohibit people from shooting a
threatened woodpecker while allowing its forest to be cut down,
or to bar killing endangered salmon while allowing a dam to dry
out their habitat. But that’s exactly what the Trump
administration is proposing to do by changing how one word in
the Endangered Species Act is interpreted: harm. For 50 years,
the U.S. government has interpreted the Endangered Species Act
as protecting threatened and endangered species from actions
that either directly kill them or eliminate their habitat. Most
species on the brink of extinction are on the list because
there is almost no place left for them to live. Their habitats
have been paved over, burned or transformed. Habitat protection
is essential for their survival.
… Carlsbad, unlike many other seaside communities facing
gut-wrenching decisions about how to handle coastal erosion,
might just have the time, space and resources to get ahead of
the problem. Plenty of advocates in the region hope the city
can be a model for climate adaptation with its proposal to move
the road inland. But its ambitions depend on its ability to
find outside funding and build public support locally for the
project. Right now, the city is on track to choose the
path of “retreat now,” before an emergency situation, rather
than “retreat later,” the default option for many communities —
especially those facing harder decisions to move homes and
businesses rather than just infrastructure.
If Congress is able to follow through on it, more than 10,000
acres of public land in southwest Utah could change hands. The
sale, though, would essentially trade one government owner for
another. Washington County, the city of St. George and the
Washington County Water Conservancy District would each pick up
acres that could benefit future road and water projects. …
Unlike the Nevada side of the plan — which encompasses
significantly more acreage — hardly any of the land in Utah is
expected to go toward building attainable housing. Instead,
many of the parcels are tied to Washington County’s
water supply. … There are similarities
between some areas marked on an amendment map and plans for the
currently on-hold Lake Powell Pipeline.
An accident of history has left California with two massive,
overlapping water projects: the federally operated Central
Valley Project (CVP) and the State Water Project (SWP) operated
by the California Department of Water Resources. Maintaining
and operating two projects that serve the same purpose is
inefficient. Moreover, the projects are often beset by
controversy and conflict when state and federal administrations
change. … To cope with a changing climate and declining
reliability of water supply, California and the federal
government need to consider fully integrating the two projects.
This would allow for more efficient water storage and
distribution, improved water markets, increased groundwater
banking and recharge, and better and more consistent
environmental protection.
The Agriculture Department will restore information about
climate change that was scrubbed from its website when
President Trump took office, according to court documents filed
on Monday in a lawsuit over the deletion. The deleted data
included pages on federal funding and loans, forest
conservation and rural clean energy projects. It also included
sections of the U.S. Forest Service and Natural Resources
Conservation Service sites, and the U.S. Forest Service’s
“Climate Risk Viewer,” which included detailed maps showing how
climate change might affect national forests and grasslands.
The lawsuit, filed in February, said the purge denied farmers
information to make time-sensitive decisions while facing
business risks linked to climate change, such as heat waves,
droughts, floods and wildfires.
With dwindling water supplies, cities throughout Arizona are
exploring multiple ways to meet residents’ water needs. In
March, the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality gave
municipalities a new tool: Wastewater treated by advanced
purification can now flow directly from local water systems
into residents’ taps. For years, cities have used advanced
purified water as an indirect potable source, recharging it
into aquifers or other water supplies, and later extracting it
for purification and human consumption. The new regulations
enable cities to use advanced purified water immediately for
direct consumption. Advanced purified water is wastewater that
has undergone a multi-step process to remove impurities and
meet state drinking water standards. The treatment uses
ultrafiltration, reverse osmosis, ultraviolet light
disinfection and advanced oxidation.
The Senate is poised to vote in the coming days on President
Donald Trump’s nominee to be EPA’s top attorney. Senate
Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) took steps Monday to wind
down debate on Sean Donahue’s bid for EPA general counsel.
Democrats have accused Donahue — who served at EPA during
Trump’s first term and also worked at a solar company and a New
York law firm — of not having enough qualifications or
experience for the position. Donahue has practiced law for
less than three years and has supervised only a handful of
attorneys — far fewer than the 200 who work at EPA’s Office of
General Counsel.
The California Department of Water Resources is telling boaters
to expect an invasive mussel inspection program in effect at
Lake Oroville by Memorial Day weekend. DWR said Friday that it
is still finalizing the details of the mandatory inspection
program for Lake Oroville, Thermalito Forebay and Thermalito
Afterbay. But staff have already begun placing concrete blocks
around Thermalito Afterbay to block access to unauthorized
launch areas and direct launching to Monument
Hill. … DWR said it is working with other lake
managers on a reciprocity program to allow boat owners to use
other lakes without the need for reinspection. The agency added
that it is working with Yuba Water Agency to put a similar plan
to Lake Oroville in place at New Bullards Bar in June.
New data suggest that a disappointing snowpack could result in
less water than previously thought for America’s two largest
reservoirs. Lake Mead is a vital water source for millions of
people across Nevada, Arizona, California, and parts of Mexico.
Its declining levels potentially jeopardize municipal water
supplies, agricultural irrigation, and hydroelectric power
generation. Officials previously raised concerns about the
water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell, following a lacking
winter snowpack that threatened to stall progress made during
last year’s wetter-than-average season. The resulting
water supply is expected to be even lower than earlier
projections. Scientists now forecast runoff into Lake Powell to
reach just 55 percent of the average, down from the previous
estimate of 67 percent.
Millions of kilometres of rivers around the world are carrying
antibiotic pollution at levels high enough to promote drug
resistance and harm aquatic life, a McGill University-led study
warns. Published in PNAS Nexus, the study is the first to
estimate the scale of global river contamination from human
antibiotics use. Researchers calculated that about 8,500 tonnes
of antibiotics – nearly one-third of what people consume
annually – end up in river systems around the world each year
even after in many cases passing through wastewater systems.
… The research team used a global model validated by field
data from nearly 900 river locations. They found that
amoxicillin, the world’s most-used antibiotic, is the most
likely to be present at risky levels.
Groundwater is the only source of water for the city of
Ridgecrest, the U.S. Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, and
the farms and businesses located throughout the Indian Wells
Valley. At current pumping rates, this basin will likely run
out of water within 40 years. That may seem like an issue for
future leaders. Yet the longer the problem is ignored, the more
difficult it will be to solve. And this problem has been
ignored for decades. This situation is not exclusive to the
Valley — aquifers around the world, in places ranging from
Spain and Chile to Iran and China, are among those experiencing
rapidly dropping groundwater levels. But according to recent
research published in the science journal Nature, the Indian
Wells Valley Basin is one of a handful of California regions
experiencing some of the world’s most rapidly declining
aquifers.
The U.S. and Mexico are nearing completion of an agreement that
would address the cross-border sewage crisis that has affected
Southern California’s beaches for years. Authorities from the
Environmental Protection Agency say the proposed deal,
currently under final review, could be implemented as soon as
this summer and would commit both nations to significant
infrastructure improvements. … The statement (by
Environmental Protection Agency chief Lee Zeldin), made to X,
formerly Twitter, said: “This week, EPA transmitted to Mexico a
proposed ‘100% solution’ that would PERMANENTLY END the
decades-old crisis of raw sewage flowing into the U.S. from
Mexico. Next, technical groups from both nations will be
meeting to work through the details necessary to hopefully
reach an urgent agreement.”
California State Sen. Steve Padilla urged community members and
stakeholders to set aside “petty historic differences” during
his keynote speech at the Imperial Valley Salton Sea
Conference, held Friday, May 9, at Imperial Valley College. The
event, co-hosted by Los Amigos de Comunidad Inc., Imperial
Valley College, and the Pacific Institute, marked the first
major conference focusing on the Salton Sea from an Imperial
Valley perspective. The conference brought together regional
leaders, environmental advocates, scientists and state
officials to discuss both the challenges and opportunities
presented by the deteriorating lake. Padilla’s call for unity
came as he reflected on decades of political and community
division that he said have stalled meaningful progress for the
Salton Sea and surrounding communities.
