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.
U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins took to social media
over the weekend to raise concern about dam removal on
California’s Eel River, even suggesting that the Trump
administration may intervene to stop or revise the project.
Rollins, on X, cited the loss of water for cities and farms
that would come with plans to remove two dams in Mendocino and
Lake counties while also invoking well-worn Republican
criticism about California “putting fish over people.” … In
the post, the agriculture secretary said she was working with
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to bring “real solutions” for
securing Northern California water supplies.
Continued disagreement over which states must absorb the pain
of future cuts to water supplies drawn from the
drought-stricken Colorado River could upend negotiations just
two months before a federal deadline, key state officials are
warning. Top Arizona water officials are demanding that the
four Upper Basin states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and
Wyoming — commit to future reductions in their own water use in
any agreement on a new long-term operating plan for the river.
The divisive warnings come in the wake of some progress this
summer, in which all seven states coalesced around a plan known
as “natural flow.”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune took the first steps Monday
to change the Senate rules so that large groups of lower-level
administration nominees can be confirmed by simple majority.
The process, which will play out in the coming days, could mean
President Donald Trump will soon see picks for EPA and the
departments of Energy, Interior and Agriculture approved after
weeks or months of delay. The list includes Jessica
Kramer to lead EPA’s water office and Katherine
Scarlett to lead the White House Council on Environmental
Quality. Both have garnered bipartisan support.
… The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld the
dismissal of a lawsuit that challenged the lack of a Clean
Water Act permit for an agricultural drainage project in
California. Agricultural organizations feared that if the
lawsuit’s interpretation of the Clean Water Act prevailed,
irrigated agriculture across the West would face a tremendous
new regulatory burden. Originally filed 14 years ago by
fishing and environmental organizations, the complaint alleged
the Grassland Bypass Project has violated the Clean Water Act
because it discharges non-agricultural pollutants into a
wetland along with runoff from irrigated farmland.
California relies on federal satellites to understand and
manage its water resources every day. Data from these
satellites are used to estimate irrigation use, manage
groundwater, predict storms, assess flooding, and track water
quality, among many other applications. … What may not be as
well known is that Landsat—along with other federal
satellites—also plays a key role in California water
management. While it would take too much time to catalogue all
the ways California uses federal satellite data to manage our
water resources, a few examples illustrate the importance of
these data.
Water is a driving force in the American West, and today it’s
at risk more than ever. Not just from overuse, not just from
megadrought, but from minuscule invaders that pose a nearly
unstoppable threat to the region’s rivers, lakes, dams and
reservoirs. …The mollusks’ westward sweep recently crossed a
feared Rubicon when Colorado discovered zebra mussels in its
portion of the Colorado River system, an imperiled lifeline to
40 million people.
The days of huge, unused swaths of public and commercial lawns
appear to be numbered in California and the Metropolitan Water
District is offering an incentive to hasten their demise, at
least in Southern California: A whopping $7-per-square-foot
rebate to businesses, schools and other public institutions
that replace their thirsty lawns with sustainable landscapes
containing native and/or drought-tolerant plants …. thanks to
a $30-million grant from California’s Department of Water
Resources and $96 million from the federal Bureau of
Reclamation’s Lower Colorado Basin System Conservation and
Efficiency Program.
In the more than four decades since I started at the L.A.
Times, we’ve never had a reporter cover water with the depth
and persistence of Ian James. California’s story is often the
story of water — who’s got it, who doesn’t and who will find
our next acre-foot. Ian is a former foreign correspondent who
has written about everything from novel water solutions like
reclaiming sewage, to the intersection of H2O with wildlife and
farms. Essential Cal talked to Ian about his work.
… The August meeting of the California Water Commission
featured an in-depth presentation on the Department of Water
Resources’ (DWR) draft Best Management Practices for addressing
land subsidence in California. These practices are designed to
help local groundwater sustainability agencies better
understand the causes of subsidence, how to monitor it
effectively, and strategies for managing its impacts.
… Subsidence is one of the six sustainability indicators
required to be managed under SGMA.
Salt marshes, critical buffers against coastal erosion, rely on
a net gain of sediment to maintain their elevation and
resilience as sea levels rise. A new study examines how two
different sediment delivery routes—wave-battered marsh edges
and meandering tidal creeks—combine to shape the future of
these vital ecosystems. Focusing on Whales Tail Marsh in
South San Francisco Bay, which features both an eroding
bay-facing edge and a major tidal creek, researchers deployed
net-deposition tiles and oceanographic sensors to track when,
where, and how sediment moved into and through the marsh.
California lawmakers are scrambling to finalize a last-minute
deal that would extend the state’s landmark greenhouse gas
reduction program – known as cap and trade – through
2045. At the center of this year’s reauthorization fight
are a number of controversial concessions that former Gov.
Jerry Brown gave to various industries – including oil and gas
– when the Legislature last renewed the program in 2017.
… The twist? There’s no bill. And even if the text of
legislation comes out by the Wednesday deadline to introduce
it, opponents argue that such a critical policy should not be
rushed through at the last minute.
Tribal leaders, Delta farmers, conservationists and
environmental justice advocates rallied for the imperiled
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta on the west steps of the
Capitol last Friday. As they held signs proclaiming “Pro Delta
Means No Tunnel” and “Stop the $100 Billion Delta Tunnel,” they
called on lawmakers to defend the state’s water rights,
environmental protections and public due process from Gov.
Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders’ attempts to bypass all of
those via new trailer bills benefiting Big Ag and water
agencies in Southern California. –Written by columnist Dan Bacher.
The Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board finalized a
settlement agreement on Aug. 13, outlining a $850,000 payment
from the California Department of Transportation and the North
Tahoe Public Utility District for the July 18, 2024 sewage
spill in Carnelian Bay, Calif. … The July 18, 2024 spill
occurred when a subcontractor working on a Caltrans Hwy
28/North Lake Blvd project punctured a sewer force main that is
owned and operated by NTPUD. The punctured main is the main
pipeline in the collection system for transporting raw sewage
out of the Lake Tahoe area.
… The mission of the agency [the Forest Service], established
during the Theodore Roosevelt presidency, was to steward and
preserve the nation’s forests, protect the water
quality and flow of rivers that supplied water to
downstream communities, and ensure an orderly process for
supplying timber. … The Trump administration has issued
a raft of orders aimed at increasing logging, mining, and oil
and gas production on public lands. … [N]ow the Roadless
Rule—the federal policy that prohibits road building,
reconstruction, and timber harvesting on 58.5 million acres of
public lands—is itself under fire. In June, Secretary of
Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins announced that her agency will
rescind the rule.
… The Royal Oaks Community is one of hundreds that dot
California’s Central Valley and Central Coast, an area which
single-handedly produces over 25 percent of the nation’s food.
Much of the region’s piped water infrastructure ranges from
contaminated to nonexistent. … Enter Community Water
Center, a non-profit organization that has been working in
rural California for two decades. … For the past five years
they have provided a free bottled water program to households
living with contaminated water, supported by California state
funding. But since the increase in ICE activity, the program
has faltered. … [D]espite water being delivered to their
doorsteps, community members are now afraid to partake.
… Sandhill cranes were once almost extinct in the eastern
U.S. Today, they’re making a comeback. These large
waterbirds disappeared across much of their breeding range in
the early 20th century as wetlands were drained for
agriculture. … Laws such as the Clean Water Act, and programs
that protect and restore wetlands and grasslands, such as the
USDA Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, have played an
important part in this species’ recovery. Hunting
regulations and migratory bird treaties have also been
key.
… NAU [Northern Arizona University] and University of
California Berkeley scientists working along the region’s Eel
River have discovered a micro-scale nutrient factory that keeps
rivers healthy and allows salmon to thrive. The scientists’ new
study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)
reveals how a partnership between algae and bacteria works like
nature’s clean-nitrogen machine, turning nitrogen from the air
into food that fuels river ecosystems without fertilizers or
pollution. The hidden nutrient factory boosts populations of
aquatic insects, which young salmon rely on for growth and
survival.
California lawmakers have approved SB 72, a sweeping water
management bill designed to set statewide water supply targets
and strengthen long-term planning. The measure, authored by
Senator Anna Caballero, passed the Assembly [last] week and now
heads to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for signature. Backed by
water agencies, counties and environmental and business groups,
SB 72 would enhance the California Water Plan, require regional
planning and collaboration across stakeholders, and codify
supply goals to help drought-proof the state.
Congressman Juan Ciscomani (R-AZ06) has joined with colleagues
from seven western states to reconstitute the Colorado River
Caucus, which he will co-chair with Democrat Rep. Joe Neguse of
Colorado. … Initially launched as a bipartisan effort by
members of the 118th Congress in 2023, the 12-member Colorado
River Caucus includes representation from Arizona, California,
Utah, Nevada, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Colorado.
Kern farmers will likely avoid state sanctions thanks to the
latest revision of the region’s groundwater plan that
substantially increased drinking water protections and
eventually gained state approval – with some required tweaks.
State Water Resources Control Board staff recommended on Friday
that the Kern subbasin be moved back under oversight of the
Department of Water Resources provided water managers fix three
outstanding issues.
