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.
Three years ago, the AB&I metal foundry ceased all
operations in East Oakland. … The years of metal
smelting had left contaminants such as arsenic and lead in the
hardscape, soil, and groundwater, and the
polluted lot was supposed to be undergoing a yearslong
remediation process. … [Community members] soon came to
realize the site was being used as a tow yard by a company
called Auto Plus Towing. … Now an array of organizations
— the city, the companies, the watchdog group, the county, the
state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, the San
Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board — are trying
to deal with the fallout, and make sure the polluted site
finally gets cleaned up.
… As Californians struggle to recover from compounding
climate disasters, Gov. Gavin Newsom is moving to fast-track
the Delta Conveyance Project, presenting lawmakers with a
familiar choice. But before committing billions to yet another
major water project, we must confront some hard lessons from
our past. … As mayor of Los Angeles in the early 1900s,
Frederick Eaton partnered with William Mulholland to develop
the L.A. Aqueduct, a massive conveyance system that redirects
water from Mono Lake and Owens Valley. … It was one of
the most significant and destructive water transfers in U.S.
history. –Written by Devon Provo, an urban planner and senior
policy manager at Accelerate Resilience L.A.
A brutally hot and dry summer is taking its toll on Utah’s
reservoirs, with water levels showing a “drastic decline,”
which officials say is more than double the normal rate. The
Utah Division of Water Resources shared Thursday that the
state’s reservoir storage currently sits at 67 percent, which
is slightly above the normal level of 65 percent for this time
of year. That number is much lower than at the same point in
2024, when the storage levels were at 83 percent.
… Along with the arid weather conditions, the water
level declines can also be attributed to last season’s
disappointing snowpack around the state.
For the first time in three years, anglers have been able to
fish sections of the Feather River, American River and
Mokelumne River for salmon. Since the opener on July 16, the
fishing has been productive but by no means hot on the Feather
River. But for anglers unable to fish for salmon in all Central
Valley streams since 2022, the fishing has drawn many to the
riverbanks near Oroville to catch a big, bright Chinook.
Recently, low counts have resulted in the continued closure of
Chinook salmon fishing in the Klamath River Basin and mainstem
Sacramento River by the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
As wildfires blazed through Los Angeles, turning buildings and
lives to ash, President Trump politicized the tragedy, blaming
an endangered species. In a January 8 Truth Social post, Trump
said—erroneously—that Governor Gavin Newsom caused the
wildfires by keeping water from Southern California to save “an
essentially worthless fish,” the delta smelt.
… It turns out Donald Trump had a political score to
settle. … In 2020, Newsom sued the federal government,
successfully, to halt a Central Valley water infrastructure
project that could help farmers but harm the smelt, thereby
violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The Hi-Desert Water District (HDWD) has broken ground on the
second phase of a $103 million sewage collection system in
Yucca Valley, California. … When completed later this
year, the new system will convey an estimated 210,000 gallons
of wastewater per day through 32 miles of new pipelines to the
Yucca Valley Wastewater Treatment and Water Reclamation
Facility. Commissioned in 2020, the facility is the region’s
first centralized treatment plant and provides critical
capacity for wastewater recycling and groundwater protection.
The Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) in Perris,
California, has launched new programs aimed at helping
residents and businesses use water efficiently amid
conservation efforts. A new portal called ‘Landscapes for
Living‘ is now available to help residents create their ideal
outdoor living space while using water efficiently.
… EMWD said it believes the approach can be a model for
other water agencies across California and other states,
focusing more on the promotion of aesthetically pleasing
landscapes rather than just conservation and fear of rising
water rates.
In a move to strengthen Southern California’s long-term water
reliability, Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors
this week approved a new framework that will allow local water
agencies across the region to sell and purchase locally
produced supplies among one another. Through the Local Supply
Exchange Framework approved by the board on Tuesday (Aug. 19),
Metropolitan will help facilitate an exchange of local supplies
between its member agencies – providing potential new water
sources for some communities, and an opportunity for other
communities to financially benefit from investments in supplies
and demand management programs they have already made.
… [I]n the past decade-plus, wildfire, and its effects on the
area’s water supply, has become an increasing concern for city
and state officials. … Enter the multiagency partnership
and cost-share funding collaborative created to assess the
impacts of post-wildfire hazards on critical water
infrastructure and to identify strategies to minimize these
impacts before and after fires. … Weston Toll, watershed
program specialist for the Colorado State Forest Service, said
after the partners had “treated a lot of low-hanging fruit, we
needed to start treating the right acre in the right
location.”
CBS Sacramento Law enforcement removed an illegal marijuana
cultivation site where more than 2,000 plants were located in
California’s Sequoia National Park last week, officials said on
Thursday. … The same cultivation site was raided last
year, but it was not rehabilitated until this year due to the
presence of hazardous chemicals. National park officials
reported damage to the site, such as diverting water
from a nearby creek and installing irrigation lines.
Officials said a significant amount of vegetation was cleared
from the site and several large pits were built to store the
diverted water.
… The Tehama County Groundwater Commission and the Tehama
County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Board of
Directors, serving as the region’s Groundwater Sustainability
Agency (GSA), continues to work on the county’s state-required
Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP). … Since the start of
the GSP process, the county’s GSA has been plagued with issues
associated with the plan, its development and implications. The
2023 Tehama County Grand Jury in its findings determined the
fee assessment of .29 cents an acre placed on well owners in
the county was faulty in the areas of inequitable fees,
inadequate communication, accountability and other
issues.
The effort to build California’s largest new reservoir in
decades received a welcome commitment of cash on Wednesday —
nearly $220 million — which will help keep the project on track
to break ground as soon as next year. Planned for 70 miles
northwest of Sacramento, the proposed Sites Reservoir won the
bulk of the funding because plans to expand the Los Vaqueros
Reservoir in Contra Costa County fell through, freeing up money
in the state’s 2014 water bond. The remainder of the money for
Sites came from last year’s state climate bond.
Colorado water officials announced Wednesday a rough plan to
figure out how the state would handle an unwelcome specter in
the Colorado River Basin: forced water cuts. Mandatory water
cuts are possible under a 100-year-old Colorado River Compact
in certain circumstances, mainly if the river’s 10-year flow
falls too low. It’s a possibility that is one or two “bad
years” away, some experts say. Colorado, however, does not
have a clearly defined plan, or regulations, for how exactly it
would handle such forced water cuts. … If the river’s
flow falls below a 10-year rolling average of about 82.5
million acre-feet, the Lower Basin states — Arizona, California
and Nevada — could demand that the Upper Basin send more water
downstream based on the 1922 Colorado River Compact. In
the water world, this is often called a “compact call.”
Karla Nemeth, the Director of the California Department of
Water Resources, says the Delta Conveyance Project is a crucial
step in updating the State Water Project, which has been
serving Californians for decades. … California’s water policy
has evolved significantly since the 1950s with increased focus
on environmental protection and equitable access to water. To
address these complexities, officials say that revitalizing the
State Water Project is seen as a key step towards ensuring
water resilience. … Governor Newsom has called the Delta
Conveyance Project “one of the most important climate
adaptation projects in the country.”
… The Uncompahgre strain of Colorado River cutthroat trout,
which is unique to the upper Dolores River watershed in extreme
southwest Colorado, lives in Wildcat Creek, and the fear on the
part of biologists with Colorado Parks and Wildlife was that
the Stoner Mesa Fire — which, as of Wednesday, August 20, had
consumed almost 9,000 acres and was burning out of control —
would not only have immediate impacts to the native fish, but
also leave a lasting toxic legacy. So, ahead of the fire’s
path, CPW work crews, along with biologists crews from the San
Juan National Forest, electroshocked the remote reaches of
Wildcat Creek and removed 266 native cutthroats.
Climate change enhances extreme rains more than the ordinary
drizzle. New research shows that frontal rain increases the
most, and illustrates why extreme rains caused by other
phenomena are not equally affected. … In a recent study
published in Geophysical Research Letters, she [Kjersti
Konstali, University of Bergen] and her colleagues looked into
the mechanisms making the heaviest rainfall not just more
extreme, but more extreme relative to not quite as extreme
rainfall. … The wettest days occur when cyclones march
in with fronts and an atmospheric river—a powerful troika now
and in the future. But of the three, the front causes the
largest increase.
A planned-for reduction in the amount of water Pacific Gas &
Electric Co. is releasing from Lake Pillsbury caught Potter
Valley farmers and ranchers off guard earlier this month during
a key point in the summer growing and ranching
season. PG&E says stakeholders should have been
expecting the dip in water pressure, which occurred on Tuesday,
Aug. 5. … As the Potter Valley agricultural community
panicked over keeping cattle and crops sated, rumors erupted on
social media that PG&E had begun cutting off the water
supply from Scott Dam in advance of the structure being torn
down as part of the decommissioning of PG&E’s Potter Valley
Project, which includes a shuttered hydroelectric power
plant.
… For almost 40 years in the middle of the 20th century,
workers at an oil refinery with connected facilities in
Wilmington and Carson buried truckloads of slop oil and acid
sludge directly on site. Decades later, much of that waste is
still in the soil and water table, state records
show. Phillips 66, which now owns the century-old
refinery, will idle the plants by the end of the
year. … Among the pollutants in the
groundwater under the Carson and Wilmington facilities,
overseen by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control
Board, are lead from buried waste and dangerous levels of per-
and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from foam used to fight
fires at the refinery.
On the one hand, state and federal agencies pledged more than
$40 million to the recovery and future protection of Planada,
the tiny farm town swamped by floods in 2023. Multiple agencies
and helping organizations were mobilized and tasked with
rebuilding the 840 homes lost after Miles Creek busted its
banks south of Merced. On the other hand, more than two years
is a long time to wait to get back home. Add to that what some
say has been poor communication and a lack of transparency and
residents are frustrated. … On top of their long,
frustrating wait, residents fear they could be flooded out
again if Miles Creek isn’t kept clear and the region is hit by
another string of atmospheric rivers.
Landowners who rely on domestic wells for drinking water may be
able to seek help from the Mid-Kings River Groundwater
Sustainability Agency if the tap runs dry. In an Aug. 12 board
meeting, the GSA unanimously approved a $2 million program to
help owners repair wells damaged by excessive groundwater
pumping and keep water flowing to residents. … In April
2024 the state Water Resources Control Board put the region on
probation for lacking an adequate groundwater plan. A month
later, Mid-Kings imploded after the Kings County Water District
bailed and the county was left to pick up the pieces.
