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.
Republicans are quietly moving to kill proposed regulations for
PFAS-contaminated sewage sludge that is spread on farmland as
fertilizer, a practice that has sickened farmers across the
country, destroyed their livelihoods and contaminated food and
water supplies. … Republicans quietly
slipped a rider into a House appropriations bill that would
fund the EPA aims to derail the risk assessment process by
cutting off funding. The rider also includes language that
appears designed to permanently prohibit funding for the
implementation of regulations for some PFAS in sludge.
… Public health advocates and some Congress members are
now mobilizing to kill the rider, which they say is likely
illegal because it pre-empts the Clean Water
Act.
… Experts say wastewater infrastructure updates are crucial
as populations continue to boom in cities like Tijuana and
climate-fueled flooding triggers sewage overflows around the
United States. However, these projects can be costly and time
consuming. Delayed fixes leave many communities exposed to
bacteria-laden waterways, particularly along the coast, where
sea-level rise poses a dual threat to outdated
infrastructure. The Tijuana River is widely considered one
of North America’s most degraded waterways. The river winds
through urban areas in Mexico, where communities dump sewage,
trash and other waste directly into the water or onto the
streets, where it can wash in during a storm. … [T]he
problem is especially bad during heavy rainfall events such as
the atmospheric rivers that hit the West Coast.
A fishing village in far Northern California remained under a
tsunami warning Wednesday morning, even as officials reduced
the warning to an advisory for an area directly to the south,
along the Humboldt County coast. Crescent City, a community of
6,700 people that is 25 miles south of the Oregon border,
sounded warning sirens Tuesday evening, before the first waves
arrived not long after midnight. Waves reached a peak of four
feet in Crescent City before dawn on Wednesday.
… Crescent City, which is the county seat of Del Norte
County, is unusually prone to tsunamis, with dozens striking
over the past century. The reason is unusual geology: Just off
the coast, an underwater ridge called the
Mendocino Fracture Zone “funnels tsunamis into deeper water
where they pick up speed before they hit Crescent City,”
according to city literature.
The Calipatria City Council unanimously adopted a resolution
July 8, introduced by Mayor Michael Luellen, opposing the
expansion of solar development on farmland and affirming the
city’s commitment to protecting the Imperial Valley’s
agricultural heritage, economy and environment. Resolution No.
25-24 mirrors and supports a similar position adopted by
the Imperial Irrigation District, emphasizing that the rapid
conversion of irrigated, cultivated lands for energy
development is producing net-negative impacts for the
Calipatria area and the broader Imperial
Valley. “Agriculture has defined our region for over a
century. It is the foundation of our economy, our identity, and
our way of life,” said Mayor Luellen.
The Southern Steelhead Coalition is expanding its reach across
Southern California, nearly doubling the area it covers to
advance landscape-scale restoration efforts for the iconic
Southern California steelhead, a critically endangered species.
The coalition now covers more than 10 watersheds from Santa
Maria to the Santa Monica Mountains, coordinating projects
across partners through cost-effective strategies to recover
this endangered native fish. The coalition’s expansion is
a necessary step towards achieving our collective mission of
saving a species that serves as a vital indicator of watershed
health throughout the region.
EPA could improve permitting for carbon dioxide storage wells
and make the process more transparent for communities affected
by those projects, the agency’s independent watchdog said
Tuesday. The agency has received millions in funding since 2021
to speed up processing of permits for carbon dioxide injected
deep underground. A federal tax credit known as 45Q has made
those wells more attractive to oil and gas companies, spurring
a slew of new permit applications at EPA, which regulates the
practice to safeguard drinking water. But
while EPA has expanded its capacity to approve Class VI
injection wells, it failed to spend $1.2 million appropriated
for the program in 2023 within the appropriate time frame, the
agency’s Office of Inspector General said in a new
report.
The community coalition Defend Ballona Wetlands filed a lawsuit
on July 25 against the California Coastal Commission, alleging
the agency unlawfully approved a fossil gas project that
threatens the ecologically sensitive Ballona Wetlands
Ecological Reserve in Playa del Rey. The suit, joined by
Protect Ballona Wetlands and environmental scientist Robert van
de Hoek, accuses the commission of violating state
environmental laws by allowing Southern California Gas Co. to
plug and abandon two natural gas monitoring wells, Del Rey 14
and 19, without proper review. The lawsuit, filed in Los
Angeles County Superior Court, claims the commission engaged in
“piecemealing” by treating the well abandonment as a standalone
project, despite its connection to a larger, now-decertified
Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project.
A flurry of posts on Facebook in mid-June alarmed users about
harmful algae blooms (HABs) caused by cyanobacteria in Lake
Mendocino. The posts described an incident in which a dog died
of neurotoxin poisoning after swimming in the lake. The poster
was furious that no signage appeared at the lake about the
dangers for pets. … The dog owner or someone else from
the public filed a formal complaint with the Army Corps of
Engineers, which manages Lake Mendocino. The Army Corps
performed tests in late June. Said the Corps, “Last week, water
samples were collected from the South Boat Ramp, North Boat
Ramp, and Pomo-A Swimmers Area. The good news is that while
some cyanobacteria are present, the levels found were low, and
we didn’t detect any of the common toxin-producing
cyanobacteria.”
A new study from Los Alamos National Laboratory shows that New
Mexico’s beloved piñon pine trees may be more flexible in how
they handle extreme drought than scientists once thought.
Generally, all plants have a built-in drought alarm system
called a “stomatal closure point.” When soil gets too dry, the
plant hits a tipping point where it closes up to avoid
dehydration. While this can help the plant survive drought, it
also pauses growth and energy production. … But, when given
more water just before prolonged drought … piñon started to
change, mimicking the behavior of an “anisohydric” plant –
where the plant will let its water levels match the environment
around it. … [T]he discovery could have broad implications
for land managers, offering a tool to predict how ecosystems
might respond to drought.
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.
