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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In 2023, amid record-breaking rain and snow, two prisons in the
southern San Joaquin Valley faced a serious risk of flooding.
But neither prison, California State Prison, Corcoran or the
Substance Abuse Treatment Facility, had a robust evacuation
plan on hand and ready for the looming disaster. Instead,
the prisons developed a joint plan to transfer roughly 8,000
incarcerated people to other state prisons within 11 to 14 days
— or longer. Wheelchair-bound individuals, the plan stated,
would take six days to evacuate. And department buses intended
to shuttle people to safety could take up to a day to arrive.
The floods that year ultimately did not reach the prisons, but
the threat they posed illustrated how California’s
90,000-prisoner corrections system has failed to prepare for
natural disasters. That’s according to a report issued last
week by an independent agency that oversees the department’s
disciplinary process and internal investigations.
The Trump administration is proposing a jaw-dropping $609
million cut to the massive Central Utah Project, which supplies
water to millions of people in northern Utah. … “The Budget
provides $1.2 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation and the
Central Utah Project. The Budget reduces funding for programs
that have nothing to do with building and maintaining water
infrastructure, such as habitat restoration. Instead, the
Budget focuses Reclamation and the Central Utah Project on
their core missions of maintaining assets that provide safe,
reliable, and efficient management of water resources
throughout the western United States,” the reduction item says.
Federal scientists will no longer update a list of weather
disasters that cause billions of dollars in damage, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Thursday.
The list had been growing dramatically in recent years, a sign
of both extreme weather and increasing development across the
country. It is on a growing list of scientific datasets
that NOAA says scientists will no longer update or that the
administration will decommission entirely. The agency said the
existing disaster records, stretching from 1980 through 2024,
will remain accessible. Without updates to the database, it
could become harder for the country to assess the ways climate
change, building patterns and population trends are exposing
Americans to weather hazards.
Friday and Saturday are shaping up to be the hottest days so
far this year across much of Northern California. Just two days
later, valley and coastal rain and Sierra
Nevadasnow could be back in the
forecast. It’s part of an unsettled spring weather
pattern that continues across the West
Coast. … Rainfall totals will depend on the
trajectory of the storm. If it moves inland quickly, little to
no precipitation will fall in the Bay Area. If the storm
remains over the ocean, it will pick up more moisture and could
deposit a tenth to a half-inch of rain in parts of the Bay
Area. This wet scenario may also yield a half-foot of snow in
the northern Sierra.
Governor Newsom today announced that the California Department
of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is upgrading 21 fish hatcheries to
boost the state’s salmon and trout populations and protect
hatcheries from the impacts of climate change. The project
helps build the California salmon and trout supply, which are
central to the health of California’s biodiversity but also
indigenous peoples, communities, and the state’s
multimillion-dollar fishing industry. … The “Climate
Induced Hatcheries Upgrade Project” launched today was first
funded with $15 million in emergency drought funding in 2021.
Since that funding was allocated, CDFW has been working with
leading hatchery and hydrology consultants to identify specific
concerns with regard to water quality and quantity, fish
rearing and water supply infrastructure and operational
inefficiencies at the hatcheries.
Interior Department employees are preparing for notices of
layoffs as soon as next week, as the Trump administration
appears to ready further cuts at bureaus and agencies that have
already seen hundreds of employees voluntarily leave their
posts. Interior indicated in mid-April that it would pursue
staff reductions — continuing efforts initiated by the
so-called Department of Government Efficiency to slash
executive branch agencies — when it issued staffers a list of
“competitive areas” that could be subject to cuts.
… Interior declined to detail how many of its employees
— which numbered more than 69,000 individuals in September 2024
— have already accepted early retirement offers or enrolled in
the “deferred resignation program.” But according to
individuals with knowledge of reductions at
the Bureau of Reclamation, for example,
reductions have reached as many as 25 percent of the agency, or
1,400 people.
A letter California Asm. Josh Hoover posted to social media
Thursday provides insight into how State
Parks implemented their 30-day quarantine to
eradicate the invasive golden mussel at Folsom Lake, Lake
Natoma and Auburn’s Lake Clementine. Two weeks ago, Hoover sent
a letter to State Parks and the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation saying both agencies were not prepared in
their mussel response to balance the needs of boaters and
businesses who rely on the recreation industry. California
State Parks’ letter to Hoover on Monday says the
state department received a letter (from the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation) March 31 to protect waterways by April 15.
Mexican diplomats say climate change has hindered them from
settling a massive water debt to the United States, which is
bringing economic hardship to South Texas farmers. But a former
U.S. federal official on Thursday offered a different
explanation. “One of the issues that we see is that
domestic problems in Mexico are affecting what’s happening in
the United States,” said Maria Elena Giner. “Water is owned by
the (Mexican) government, yet they really don’t have good
control of the reservoirs. The states are becoming much more
active in opposing any water deliveries.” … Giner, who
has followed Mexican politics since the Carlos Salinas de
Gortari administration of 1988-1994, said Mexico has invested
in developing agriculture but not in making water management
more efficient.
A large swath of southern San Luis Obispo County was ordered to
boil its drinking water last week after bacteria was discovered
in Lopez Lake’s water distribution pipeline. Residents of
Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach, Pismo Beach, Oceano, Avila Beach
and other unincorporated areas of the South County had to to
boil drinking water for up to four days depending on where they
lived. … The county discovered the bacteria at five
routine testing sites in the Lopez water distribution system on
April 29. After a second round of tests, the county issued a
boil water notice on April 30 — which lifted for some residents
on May 2 and others on May 3. … On Thursday, the county
shared additional details of what led to the unprecedented boil
water notice for Five Cities residents. Here’s what happened.
House Republicans added a provision to their sweeping tax cut
package authorizing sales of hundreds of thousands of acres of
public lands in Nevada and Utah, prompting outrage from
Democrats and environmentalists who called it a betrayal that
could lead to drilling, mining and logging in sensitive areas.
Republicans on the House Natural Resources Committee adopted
the land sales proposal early Wednesday morning. The initial
draft had not included it amid bipartisan opposition. The land
sale provision was put forward by Republican Reps. Mark Amodei
of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah. The parcels could be used
for economic development, mining and infrastructure projects
such as the expansion of an airport and a
reservoir in Utah, according to local
officials and plans for the areas.
EPA’s political leaders have hedged on reorganization plans for
its stand-alone research office, but the office’s managers are
already warning staff of halting lab research and reassigning
key duties. In an email sent Thursday morning to all staff in
the Center for Public Health and Environmental Assessment, one
of the Office of Research and Development’s four research
centers, center Director Wayne Cascio and deputy Kay Holt
wrote, “Lab research will wind down over the next few weeks as
we will no longer have the capability to acquire supplies and
materials.” … CPHEA oversees multiple research
divisions, from climate science to pollutant assessments. One
of its divisions is the embattled Integrated Risk Information
System, or IRIS, which conducts chemical risk assessments that
industry lobbyists have for years challenged for overstating
the dangers of certain substances.
A Long Beach oil field will soon be restored to roughly 156
acres of public wetlands. City leaders and oil operators came
together Thursday at the groundbreaking ceremony on the Synergy
Oil Field, where privately owned oil operations have been
ongoing for over 60 years. “We are shutting down an oil field
that’s been here since the late 20’s and we are doing a
complete wetlands restoration project, to about 156 acres,”
John McKeown, CEO, Synergy Oil & Gas said … with
publicly accessible wetlands, walking trails, habitat
restoration, and a nature center focused on environmental
education. … It’s part of a broader effort to restore
the Los Cerritos Wetlands. Another 103 acres are set to be
restored through the Southern Los Cerritos Wetlands Restoration
Project in Seal Beach—led by the Los Cerritos Wetlands
Authority.
Residents who live in the Remen Tract neighborhood — an
unincorporated plot of land located within Pleasanton — have
depended on temporary fire hoses connected to fire hydrants for
months as their main source of water for their homes. These
temporary connections, according to neighbors and a city
spokesperson, were installed as a remedy for a main waterline
that broke in August 2024. After previously notifying the
residents, the city removed its fire hose connections last
Wednesday — mainly due to safety concerns regarding the rest of
the city’s water supply — leaving those six homes and residents
without water. … And what was more surprising to
… residents who live in that neighborhood was the city
informing them it will not be fixing their waterline, leaving
many scrambling to figure out how or if they should pay for
those repairs.
After a four-year downward trend, U.S. farm bankruptcies are on
the rise again, and with uncertainties about the impacts of
U.S. tariffs on export trade, there’s growing concern that the
financial health of farms across the country will continue to
falter. A total of 216 U.S. farms filed for Chapter 12
bankruptcy last year, up 55% from 2023. With 17 filings,
California led the nation. … Arshdeep Singh, a Fresno
County citrus grower and director of the Punjabi American
Growers Group, said there is no support for California farmers
in the San Joaquin Valley who have been financially pummeled by
impacts of the state’s Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act. Some have filed for bankruptcy or are
on the verge of it as their land value has plummeted and their
equity has evaporated, with banks calling on their loans.
The Klamath River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) finished the
removal of the four lower Klamath hydroelectric dams in Fall
2024 and the dam removal portion of the Klamath River Renewal
Project is now complete. … As the reservoirs drained in
January 2024, native seed mix was applied to the reservoir
footprints. This initial round of seeding was intended to
stabilize sediments and improve soil composition. Following
reservoir drawdown, the newly exposed lands were planted with
more than 66,000 pounds of native seed, 77,000 bareroot, plug,
and container plants, and more than 25,000 acorns. … The
winter rain we received this year has provided ideal conditions
to flush additional sediments down river as well as promoting
the growth of native vegetation. Restoration crews are in the
field performing another round of seeding, planting and weeding
this spring.
… Municipal water systems in cities and towns are carefully
engineered to meet the daily needs of homes, businesses and
public services, as well as emergency demands. In urban areas,
fires are typically localized, such as a house fire, affecting
only a small part of the community. … When the urban fire is
extinguished, the system pressure returns to normal and
hydrants are available for the next incident. However,
wildfires are far larger in scale and are driven by natural
factors like lightning or by human activities, such as
campfires, discarded cigarettes or arson. … Urban water
systems are not designed to combat catastrophic wildfires,
especially those that recently impacted Southern California,
where fire hydrants alone are insufficient. In such cases,
alternative water sources—such as tanker trucks and aerial
firefighting resources—become critical. –Written by David McNair, general manager of Scotts Valley
Water District.
Above the shimmering waters of Salt River Project’s Granite
Reef Diversion Dam, a scenic view of Red Mountain is on full
display, but below the surface, a dirty problem grows. As the
key piece of infrastructure diverts water from the Verde and
Salt Rivers into the region’s canal system, sand and sediment
continually build up until they spill into the canals. SRP now
has a new tool for cleaning the dam: a state-of-the-art dredge
to suck up the piles of sand. The dredge acts like a pool
cleaner, stirring up the underwater sediment before vacuuming
it to the surface. By removing the sediment, the dredge ensures
that water can be delivered cleanly and efficiently into SRP’s
canals, which provide water to about 2.5 million Phoenix-area
residents. Without removal, the sediment can spill into the
canals, increasing water treatment costs and leading to canal
closures.
As saguaros across the Sonoran Desert suffer from the combined
stresses of extreme heat and drought, researchers say these
climate changes threaten the large saguaro forests we see
across Southern Arizona and Northern Sonora. A new study finds
that severely hot and dry weather dramatically increased
saguaro mortality at two ends of the Sonoran Desert in 2020 and
2021 and that generally, the health of saguaros and other
desert vegetation has declined significantly. The continued
warming and drying threatens to irretrievably reduce the scale
of and, in some cases, possibly eliminate the large saguaro
forests, the researchers say.
The U.S. Department of Interior said Wednesday it extended more
than a dozen contracts with water-rights holders in California
and Arizona that aim to boost water funding and conservation
efforts in the Colorado River system for its seven western
states. Interior officials say it marked “major progress” with
the Bureau of Reclamation in securing a continuation of 18
short-term agreements with tribal, municipal and agricultural
water users in the lower Colorado River basin that will, they
said, “result in additional water savings” through 2026 and,
likewise, secure its short-term health as the region looks to
its post-2026 water-use guidelines for Lake Powell and Lake
Mead. … Scott Cameron, a senior adviser to U.S. Interior
Secretary Doug Burgum, said the Trump administration
was focused on strengthening the Colorado River system’s
drought response and “safeguarding the interests of western
communities” for more than 40 million citizens and hydropower
fuel resources in its seven states.
The company that sells Arrowhead brand bottled water has won a
court ruling overturning a decision by California water
regulators, who in 2023 ordered it to stop piping millions of
gallons of water from the San Bernardino National Forest.
Fresno County Superior Court Judge Robert Whalen Jr. said in
his ruling that the State Water Resources Control Board’s order
went “beyond the limits of its delegated authority.” The board
had ordered the company BlueTriton Brands to stop taking much
of the water it has been piping from water tunnels and
boreholes in the mountains near San Bernardino. … The judge
… said the legal question was “not about water rights,” and
he cited a provision stating the board does not have the
authority to regulate groundwater.
