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 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.
The rate at which trees are dying in California has hit a
10-year low, according to a survey from the U.S. Forest
Service. Trees were dying at an alarming rate from 2015 to
2018, but after significant snow and rainfall in recent years,
trees are getting their necessary nutrients. ”We’ve had a
couple good years of precipitation,” said Jeffrey Moore, aerial
survey manager with the Forest Service. “We expected the amount
of mortality to start tapering off, and indeed that was the
case.” Severe droughts, he says, are the main culprits for the
amount of trees that die. Less water means fewer nutrients,
which then allows for a greater chance of trees to get disease
or infected with bugs that feed on dry bark. “The drought
itself was what we call the proximal factor,” Moore said. “It
weakened the trees to the point where other things could come
in and actually kill them outright.”
… Lake Tahoe is famous for its blueness. The growth and
spread of algae is one reason blue lakes around the world can
appear green in the summer. Algae form the base of many food
webs, and most algae in Lake Tahoe, though sometimes
unattractive, do not pose a health risk to people or animals.
Harmful algal blooms are a different story. HABs can be
mistaken for harmless types of algae that naturally occur in
Tahoe and can be found clinging to rocks, washing up on
beaches, and attached to the bottom of creek and river
channels. HABs, however, pose a risk to public health and
safety as they can produce toxins. The Lahontan Regional
Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) places a focus on
algae and HABs in Tahoe’s waterbodies. They are not alone. The
Tahoe Science Advisory Council (Science Council), and notably
its member the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center,
study the presence, abundance, and distribution of Tahoe’s
algae over time and how those characteristics are shifting with
climate change.
As the western United States heads into its traditional dry
season, water managers are assessing how winter rains have
helped replenish the region’s reservoirs. The vast majority of
precipitation that falls during the wet season results from
atmospheric rivers (ARs) that rain down life-sustaining water
but can also cause costly destruction. These fast-moving
“rivers” of water vapor in the sky supply up to half of the
region’s annual precipitation, with stronger ARs responsible
for the majority of flood damages along the West Coast. To
aid in predicting and monitoring these extreme weather events,
NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) operates nine
atmospheric river observatories at sites distributed along the
coast from Washington to Southern California. These unmanned
weather stations send round-the-clock observations back to the
laboratory, which analyzes and displays the data publicly on
its Atmospheric River Portal.
UC Riverside-led study has found that a smartphone app that
tracks household water use and alerts users to leaks or
excessive consumption offers a promising tool for helping
California water agencies meet state-mandated conservation
goals. Led by Mehdi Nemati, an assistant professor of public
policy at UCR, the study found that use of the app—called
Dropcountr—reduced average household water use by 6%, with even
greater savings among the highest water users. Dropcountr works
by interpreting water-use data from smart water meters, which
many utilities originally installed for remote reading to
streamline billing. The app turns data from these meters into
real-time feedback for consumers, showing how much water they
use, how their usage compares to similar households, and how it
has changed over time.
… Until recently my husband, Norm Benson, and I were
mom-and-pop operators of a water treatment and distribution
system at Clear Lake, an idyllic, nutrient-rich version of a
green Lake Tahoe, about 110 miles north of San Francisco.
We love our community and didn’t mind pitching in. Over the
years our mutual water system, the Crescent Bay Improvement
Co., has become unsustainable. Our treated lake water could not
meet state or federal drinking standards. … The state
and a much larger water company in recent years threw us a
lifeline, for which we are grateful. By the time we got help,
our water hadn’t been drinkable for years. We were hardly
alone. More than 400 water systems, serving 885,000
Californians, are failing across the state, the State Water
Resources Control Board reports. More than half those failing
systems are in disadvantaged communities, and two-thirds serve
mostly people of color. –Written by Mary Benson, a Lake County real estate broker
who operated a small water system at Clear Lake with her
husband.
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.
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.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
Today, Congresswoman Norma Torres and Congressman David Valadao
– members of the House Appropriations Committee – announced the
introduction of the bipartisan Removing Nitrate and Arsenic in
Drinking Water Act. This bill would amend the Safe Drinking
Water Act to provide grants for nitrate and arsenic reduction,
by providing $15 million for FY25 and every fiscal year
thereafter. The bill also directs the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take into consideration the needs of
economically disadvantaged populations impacted by drinking
water contamination. The California State Water Resources
Control Board found the Inland Empire to have the highest
levels of contamination of nitrate throughout the state
including 82 sources in San Bernardino, 67 sources in Riverside
County, and 123 sources in Los Angeles County.
Catastrophic weather events wreaked havoc on U.S. agriculture
last year, causing nearly $22 billion in crop and rangeland
losses, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
California accounted for $1.14 billion of that figure,
including nearly $880 million in damages from severe storms and
flooding. The figures represent a significant shift from
previous years, when drought and wildfires were California’s
biggest challenges. Since then, atmospheric rivers, Tropical
Storm Hilary and other weather events battered our farming
communities. - Written by Matthew Viohl, director of federal
policy for the California Farm Bureau
Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks
or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw
enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix
broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that
don’t work. … Across the U.S., trillions of gallons of
drinking water are lost every year, especially from decrepit
systems in communities struggling with significant population
loss and industrial decline that leave behind poorer residents,
vacant neighborhoods and too-large water systems that are
difficult to maintain.
