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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Four area lawmakers are coming together and calling for the
reopening of Folsom Lake to boaters. Assemblyman Josh Hoover,
Congressman Kevin Kiley, Senator Roger Niello, and Assemblyman
Joe Patterson are demanding action in response to the lake’s
recent closure, citing concerns about its impact on the
region’s economy and recreational access. The group contends
that restrictions tied to invasive species prevention have gone
too far and are calling for immediate steps to allow boaters
back on the water as peak season approaches. In a joint letter
sent this week to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the
California Department of Parks and Recreation, the group
expressed strong concerns about the lake’s recent closure and
the impact it is already having on local recreation and
businesses.
The Bureau of Reclamation recently agreed to take the first
step in a major water project for northern Arizona, and it
could impact Flagstaff’s future water supply. The water
supply at Flagstaff’s Red Gap Ranch has been in the city’s
hands for nearly two decades. Now a new study could bring the
long-planned water pipeline one step closer to reality. The
Bureau of Reclamation will begin an appraisal-level study to
assess the pipeline’s feasibility, design and cost. It’s the
first federal step in a project meant to boost water resilience
during drought and disasters. If built, the pipeline would
stretch more than 35 miles from Red Gap Ranch to the city. The
study follows support from Gov. Katie Hobbs and Sen. Mark
Kelly, and aligns with a broader tribal water rights agreement
signed last fall.
California is a national and global powerhouse when it comes to
nuts. Recent data shows that the Golden State produces roughly
80% of the world’s almonds and 60% of the world’s pistachios.
It’s a lot of nuts and a lot of money. But changing climate
conditions are challenging nut growers. With warming winters
and a propensity for drought, crops that did
well 20 years ago might not make it 20 years from now. That’s
where the plant geneticists and breeders at UC Davis’ Wolfskill
Experimental Orchard come in. This week, Gabriela Glueck,
KCRW’s Julia Child Reporting Fellow, takes us on a trip to the
orchard to meet with two nut crop breeders who are trying to
set up California almond and pistachio growers for success.
Officials in Santa Barbara County are exploring the possibility
of allowing visitors to swim in Lake Cachuma, a human-made
reservoir in the Santa Ynez Valley where swimming has been
banned since its creation in 1953. … Swimming is banned
at the lake because it’s used as a local water source. That’s
been the case since the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation created the
lake in 1953 by constructing the Bradbury Dam, then called the
Cachuma Dam, thereby blocking the flow of the Santa Ynez River.
The lake is still owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, though
it’s managed by the county. Bantilan said the county is in
touch with local water agencies about allowing swimming at the
lake, a move that’s already taken place at other reservoirs in
the state.
Carlsbad’s residential water and sewer rates will increase 20%
on July 1 and a total of 49% over the next three years under a
plan approved Tuesday by the City Council. Several residents
opposed the rate hikes, but city staffers said they are needed
to pass along a 14% increase in the price of water purchased
from the San Diego County Water Authority and to cover
inflation and the rising costs of maintenance and capital
improvements. … The City Council approved the new rate
structure on a 4-1 vote with Councilmember Melanie Burkholder
opposed. Burkholder said the higher bills would be bad for
business, and that the city should “do more with less” and
consider deferred maintenance.
Air pollution remains a major problem in many parts of
California. … However, the contribution of anthropogenic dust
from agricultural sources, among major pollutants in
California’s semi-arid Central Valley, remains largely
unclear. … We find that the Central Valley accounts for
about 77% of total fallowed land areas in California, where
they are associated with about 88% of major anthropogenic dust
events. … We also find that the geographic coverage of these
fallowed lands expanded between 2008 and 2022 with associated
increasing anthropogenic dust activities. … Overall, our
results have important implications for public health,
including increased risk for Valley fever and for regional
climates, such as increases in extreme precipitation and
snowmelt over the Sierra Nevada. … (D)eposited dust can
change snowmelt timing over the Sierra Nevada and substantially
impact California’s vulnerability to water
resources.
… Rivers are easily wounded. But given a chance, they heal
themselves with remarkable speed. Their life pours back. On 2
October 2024, the century-old Iron Gate dam was removed from
the upper Klamath River, who flows out of Oregon and into
California. Its demolition concluded the largest de-damming
project in US history, and was the outcome of two decades of
campaigning and watershed activism, led by members of the
Klamath Tribe. Only a few days later, something extraordinary
happened. A sonar camera set up by scientists detected a single
chinook salmon migrating upstream to spawn, past the
pinch-point where the Iron Gate Dam had stood. It was the first
fish to make that journey in more than 100 years, guided by an
ancient navigation system and driven by an undeniable urge.
In the beginning there was water and land, rivers and
floodplains. Now there are levees and dams, and centuries of
history brought by the rivers dictating the fate of Sutter and
Yuba counties. Knowing the history of the land, a reasonable
person may wonder how — more than why — people have lived there
for so long. A new exhibit at the Sutter County Museum delves
into that answer, showing the history of floods and human
intervention in the Yuba-Sutter area. … The museum’s new
flood exhibit walks visitors through the evolution of the land
surrounding the Sutter Buttes and extending past the Feather
and Yuba rivers.
With Utah facing a drier year, Gov. Spencer Cox issued an
executive order (Thursday) declaring a state of emergency in 17
counties due to drought conditions. … The governor’s
executive order comes after the Drought Response Committee
recently recommended he act due to drought conditions. …
Cox’s emergency declaration also comes after he told reporters
last week he was working on issuing one due to worsening
drought conditions in southern Utah, which has seen a weak
snowpack this winter. Though the governor said last week it’s
been a “pretty normal year for most of the state,” there are
some areas that are worse off than others. Currently,
severe drought covers 42% of the state, and 4% is in extreme
drought, according to the state’s website. This year,
Utah’s snowpack peaked at 14.3 inches on March 23, which is
equal to the state’s typical annual peak, according to state
officials. However, southwestern Utah’s snowpack was only about
44% of normal.
Arizona has taken another step forward in securing the future
of water in the desert. New rules for turning wastewater into
drinking water have been approved. The purification
process is one that the Arizona Department of Environmental
Quality said more local utilities could adopt. An oversight
council has just approved the new advanced water purification
rules. ADEQ said the rules create a regulatory framework
ensuring safe and reliable purification of wastewater for
drinking. With the new steps, Arizona cities and water
providers can apply for a permit to use advanced water
purification. By doing that, ADEQ said it creates a crucial
tool for managing water resources amid ongoing drought and
increasing demand.
In response to a letter urging federal officials to prevent the
decommissioning of the Potter Valley Project, the acting
commissioner of the federal Bureau of Reclamation advised that
the matter is under review. … The letter, which was sent to
Aaron Sykes, a board member with the Lake Pillsbury Alliance,
ends with: “The Department of the Interior is working to
(ensure) that concerns such as yours regarding projects like
Potter Valley are part of the review process to ensure the
Administration’s goals are achieved.” In April, a letter signed
by the presidents of four local County Farm Bureaus –
Mendocino, Lake, Sonoma and Marin – was sent to federal
officials asking “the Trump Administration to intervene and
prevent (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) from
approving (Pacific Gas and Electric’s) decommissioning plan
(for the Potter Valley Project) until a long-term solution is
secured.”
Coast Guard rescue missions failing after running into
unexpected currents. Surprise atmospheric river storms flooding
downtown San Francisco. Seafood contaminated by unseen algal
blooms. California scientists fear these scenarios, and more,
are possible under the Trump administration’s recommendation to
reduce the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
budget by $1.7 billion. Several scientific programs in
California are slated for significant reductions or elimination
if the budget proposal is pushed through Congress. Scientists
say the cuts would hamper weather forecasting, disrupt critical
ocean data collection and decimate climate research.
The EPA’s visit to the South Bay to see the sewage crisis
firsthand is something both the U.S. and Mexican governments
are calling productive, vowing together to finally accelerate a
plan to solve the problem affecting people for decades. …
(Alicia) Bàrcena (the Mexican Secretary of the Environment and
Natural Resources) says Mexico has made an enormous effort on
its part, stating that it has just finished construction on the
San Antonio de Los Buenos wastewater treatment plant in
Tijuana. She says that was a $38 million investment that will
allow for more than 800 liters of wastewater to be treated per
second. … Bàrcena also says Mexico will prioritize
redirecting treated water from two plants in Tijuana to a dam
to avoid its discharge into the Tijuana River.
As the deadline to renegotiate Colorado River
water use agreements approaches, Democratic
Senator John Hickenlooper says he is “frustrated”
with the lack of progress on a consensus between the seven
basin states. … New guidelines are needed by 2026 to
replace the current set of rules. Federal officials previously
released five conceptual alternatives, including a “no action”
option required under environmental law, to determine how to
allocate dwindling water resources. One proposal emphasizes
infrastructure protection and strict limits on water deliveries
during shortages, while another promotes expanded conservation
and flexible storage solutions.
In a major environmental restoration project, two barriers were
removed from Jalama Creek, allowing Southern Steelhead to swim
up the creek. … “Southern California Steelhead are highly
endangered,” said Larra Riege, Restoration Manager at the
Dangermond Preserve. … ”Removing these barriers, these
ghost dams and the other barrier, removing old infrastructure
that’s not serving any purpose anymore, being able to take them
out and then let nature take its course is really satisfying.”
… Researchers are preparing their first survey to see if the
steelhead are discovering that the once-blocked creek is again
open for fishy business. The conservancy is looking at
additional projects to clear fish passage barriers on Jalama
Creek tributaries, to give the fish even more breeding and
living space.
As part of a science mission tracking one of Earth’s most
precious resources – water – NASA’s C-20A aircraft conducted a
series of seven research flights in March that can help
researchers track the process and timeline as snow melts and
transforms into a freshwater resource. The agency’s Uninhabited
Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) installed on
the aircraft collected measurements of seasonal snow cover and
estimate the freshwater contained in it. … The Dense UAVSAR
Snow Time (DUST) mission mapped snow accumulation over the
Sierra Nevada mountains in California and the Rocky Mountains
in Idaho. Mission scientists can use these observations to
estimate the amount of water stored in that snow.
… According to data from the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography, 56 atmospheric rivers impacted the western U.S.
during late 2024 and early 2025, with the majority affecting
Oregon and Northern California. … Forecasters note that
Northern California typically experiences about six strong
atmospheric rivers every year, but by April 1, that number
had already reached nine. This increase in storm system
intensity and frequency led to above-normal precipitation
levels, particularly in critical watershed zones, but, in
contrast, Southern California saw very few significant storms,
receiving only a handful of weak systems. As a result,
precipitation totals in Southern California dropped to 70% or
less of average levels through early March, setting the stage
for an increasingly dangerous fire season.
Wholesale water rates — a key driver of the water bills of
residents and businesses across the county — are not expected
to rise nearly as much next year as previously thought. County
water officials on Thursday lowered their projected wholesale
water rate hike for next year from 18% to 12%, thanks primarily
to higher projected water sales to local agencies over the next
three years. The higher sales projections are based partly on
the particularly dry winter and spring San Diego has
experienced, which has increased demand for irrigation water
from farmers and people with large lawns. … (T)he dry winter
has pushed the expected demand from member agencies for next
year about 10% higher than was estimated just last month — from
300,000 acre-feet to 327,000 acre-feet.
The Sites Project Authority revealed that the Sites Reservoir
could have captured more than 550,000 acre-feet of water from
late November 2024 through early April 2025. According to
officials, this amount of water capture could have benefited
more than three million people. Fritz Durst, Chair of the Sites
Project Authority Board of Directors, emphasized the
reservoir’s potential. “Once again, we’re seeing how well Sites
Reservoir would perform during wet periods if it were
operational today, by capturing and storing water for drier
periods,” Durst said. The analysis showed that the reservoir is
designed to capture and store water during wet periods. It aims
to increase water flexibility, reliability, and resiliency
during drier times. In February 2025 alone, Sites could have
diverted over 150,000 acre-feet of water. These diversions
would add to the 850,000 acre-feet captured last season, nearly
reaching the reservoir’s full capacity.
The term “full allocation” is central to discussions about
water rights for farmers on and off the Klamath Reclamation
Project, but its meaning is often misunderstood. For the more
than 220,000 acres of farmland in the Klamath Reclamation
Project, a “full allocation” of water is not a single number
but a range of measurements tied to contracts, legal
adjudications, and the practical needs of crops. As poor
federal policy continues to strain the region’s water
resources, clarity on this term is essential for informed,
on-farm decision-making. According to some contracts, such as
the 1905 contract entered into by the Klamath Irrigation
District, and for Tule Lake Irrigation District, which cover
more than 100,000 acres within their borders, a “full
allocation” is defined as water sufficient for beneficial use
without waste. That number is unknowable …but able to be
roughly estimated as exceeding 300,000 acre-feet for these two
districts in an average year. –Written by Gene Souza, the executive director of the
Klamath Irrigation District.
