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 U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision on Sackett v.
Environmental Protection Agency dramatically weakened
protections for millions of acres of the West’s essential
wetlands and streams. Under the ruling, only bodies of
water with a “continuous surface connection” to a “relatively
permanent” traditional, navigable water body can be legally
considered part of the waters of the United States (WOTUS) and
therefore covered by the Clean Water Act. … In the absence of
federal regulations, state dredge-and-fill permitting programs
can protect wetlands, and California, Oregon and Washington all
have broad protections for non-WOTUS wetlands and streams. And
since the Sackett decision, Colorado and New Mexico have passed
laws restoring clean water protections for waters excluded from
WOTUS.
In a bipartisan compromise between state lawmakers and the
executive branch, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs approved a
program estimated to conserve nearly 10 million acre-feet of
water and facilitate thousands of new housing developments
across central Arizona. State Senator T.J. Shope’s Senate
Bill 1611 met Hobbs’ pen Monday morning, setting in motion what
state officials refer to as the “Ag-to-Urban” plan. …
Under the program, farmers in either of the active management
areas would voluntarily relinquish groundwater rights on
individual acres of land irrigated by groundwater in three of
the previous five years. In exchange, a farmer would receive
conservation credits based on the number of acres
relinquished. The farmer would then sell the acres to land
developers, who would “pledge” the credits to a water provider
that services that land.
The U.S. House of Representatives during the last week of June
passed the Wastewater Pollution Prevention and
Environmental Safety (WIPPES) Act, a bipartisan, bicameral, and
ACWA-supported legislation. This legislation would require wipe
manufacturers to clearly label their products as non-flushable
to protect wastewater systems from pollution and structural
damage, which can cost millions of dollars to repair critical
infrastructure nationwide. The legislation passed by a
unanimous voice vote, indicating broad support in the
chamber. The WIPPES Act was introduced in March by U.S.
Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), Kevin Mullin
(D-CA-15), Lisa McClain (R-MI-10) and Tom Kean (R-NJ-07). Next,
the WIPPES Act will be taken up in the U.S. Senate.
Utah’s drought has intensified in recent weeks, but help could
soon be on the way. A “light” monsoonal system is forecast for
the middle of this week, thanks to a pair of storms near Utah
that should rotate moisture in the state, said KSL
meteorologist Matt Johnson. A high-pressure system near the
Four Corners is helping push water vapor from the Gulf of
Mexico, also referred to as the Gulf of America, toward Utah,
while a low-pressure system off the California coast may do the
same from the Pacific Ocean. … Precipitation totals will
vary across the state, depending on where a storm pops up.
Monsoonal storms can often dump heavy totals in localized
areas, leading to flooding potential, but they also leave some
communities without much precipitation.
In all the talk about the San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater
restrictions and resulting loss of agriculture, it’s important
to consider how transitioning from farming operations to
clean-energy production creates construction job opportunities
for thousands of area workers. The mandate to meet state clean
energy goals by 2045 — and the loss of farmland due to
groundwater restrictions under the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act — have opened the door to a vast solar resource
that can keep land economically productive and local people
employed in good jobs for the long term. But current law makes
these land transitions cumbersome and complicated, hampering
the region’s potential to become a solar energy hub. If
corrected, the switch from unusable farmland to low-water-use,
clean energy projects would generate billions in tax revenue
and labor income while lowering household electric bills and
cleaning up our air.
Two of Mendocino County’s key water agencies—the Inland Power
and Water Commission (IWPC) and the Ukiah Valley Basin
Groundwater Sustainability Agency (UVBGSA)—met this June to
address funding gaps, contractor amendments, and looming
questions about long-term water infrastructure and governance.
As the region braces for continued drought pressures and state
compliance deadlines, both agencies are navigating complex
inter-agency negotiations, unexpected cost overruns, and the
challenge of maintaining quorums amid member
withdrawals. The Inland Power and Water Commission held a
closed session to discuss price and terms of negotiations with
PG&E regarding the Potter Valley Project. … Although the
possibility of extra costs had been raised in December, an
invoice totaling $67,280 was not submitted until the day of the
meeting. With the 2025–26 budget already finalized, a payment
plan will need to be arranged.
A group of Environmental Protection Agency employees on Monday
published a declaration of dissent from the agency’s policies
under the Trump administration, saying they “undermine the EPA
mission of protecting human health and the environment”. More
than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with
about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation,
according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science
magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA
scientists or academics to also sign. The latter figure
includes 20 Nobel laureates. The letter represents rare
public criticism from agency employees who could face blowback
for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal
support for climate, environmental and health science.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health made a similar
move earlier in June.
The U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture recently announced
it would try to roll back the “roadless rule,” a decades-old
policy that prevents road construction and logging on nearly 4
million acres of national forest in Utah. … Utah leaders
celebrated the decision, with House Speaker Mike Schultz,
R-Hooper, calling it a “big win” for the state. But in
Utah, proponents of the rule say it’s a vital tool for
protecting the state’s forests, which in turn keep
water clean, provide habitat for wildlife and allow
recreation opportunities. “This rule protects almost half
of the forest service land in Utah,” said Kate Groetzinger,
communications director for the Center for Western Priorities.
“This opens about half of Utah’s forest land to logging that
has been previously protected. That can drastically change the
feel of some of our most popular forests.”
A new Fresno County Civil Grand Jury report found that the City
of Fowler has been working to address its drinking water not
meeting state standards. The grand jury report, which was
released on Monday, detailed that while the city’s water does
not currently meet state standards, the city has been working
for the past seven years to rectify the
situation. Microplastic 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) was
found in Fowler’s drinking water after it was detected above
the legal limit in one of the city’s wells. … The grand
jury found that Fowler has planned to install a new filtration
system for several years but could not afford it without some
extra funding. … The grand jury is recommending that
Fowler should improve its training process for all Public
Works, Water Department operators and should improve its
website to make it easier to find all water information in
order to improve transparency, among other
recommendations.
The Western Hills Water District board on Saturday approved a
huge increase in water service rates in an attempt to maintain
a water supply for the 600-home Diablo Grande community in
western Stanislaus County. The Kern County Water Agency, some
200 miles away, had threatened to stop water deliveries June 30
if the financially troubled Western Hills district did not
resume payments for an annual 8,000 acre-feet allocation. Mark
Kovich, president of the Western Hills board, said at
Saturday’s meeting that district representatives would meet
with KCWA officials Monday to discuss the next steps. Last
week, Kern’s board took action to extend the deadline related
to the potential water shutoff to Sept. 30. KCWA has said
it would continue deliveries through Dec. 31 if the Western
Hills district came up with money to make monthly payments, so
that date remains in effect with the water rate increase
approved Saturday.
On this week’s “In Focus SoCal,” Spectrum News’ Renee Eng …
also sits down with Assemblymember Lori Wilson to discuss the
Delta Conveyance Project, which was not included in the final
state budget. Wilson, along with other Delta lawmakers, opposed
the project that would create a massive underground tunnel to
reroute a big chunk of the state’s water supply.
… Wilson offered alternative solutions that the Delta
Caucus would consider, strengthening the state water system
without impact on the Delta.
… A new technology equips membranes used in the
reverse-osmosis desalination process with
electrical conductivity, improving their ability to separate
salts and other contaminants from hard-to-treat waters. Active
Membranes, a California-based company, licensed the technology
originating from UC Riverside and UCLA to advance its
development and bring it to market. Their team received funding
for this work from the National Alliance for Water Innovation
(NAWI), a public-private partnership led by the U.S. Department
of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley
Lab). NAWI focuses on advancing technologies that enable the
use of unconventional water sources in real-world settings. In
addition to federal support, NAWI is backed by several
California water agencies, reflecting strong regional interest
in securing reliable water supplies. According to NAWI
Executive Director Peter Fiske, the new active membrane can
effectively treat wastewater that is brought to the
surface during oil and gas extraction.
The Kaweah subbasin is the second San Joaquin Valley region to
successfully escape state intervention, managers learned
today. In a phone call with state Water Resources Control
Board staff, managers of Kaweah’s three groundwater
sustainability agencies got the news that their efforts to
rewrite their groundwater management plans were good enough for
staff to recommend that they return to Department of Water
Resources oversight. … The Chowchilla subbasin
successfully made the u-turn from state enforcement back to
oversight in early June. Fukuda said Kaweah will follow much
the same path as Chowchilla. The Water Board will consider
the staff recommendation for Kaweah at a meeting in the fall,
when it can pass a resolution formally sending Kaweah back to
DWR. Returning to DWR oversight guarantees landowners
freedom from additional fees under the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act, which mandates that overdraft stop and aquifers
reach balance by 2040.
Lake Mead has dropped about 2 feet since the beginning of June
as drought conditions continue to worsen across Nevada. On
the first of the month, the elevation was 1,057 ft and as of
June 29, it’s now at 1,055.13 ft. Currently, the elevation
higher than it’s record-breaking low year in 2022. However, the
reservoir is sitting lower than where it was in 2020, 2021,
2023, and 2024. The reservoir is currently at 31% capacity,
while Lake Powell sits at 32% capacity, according to the latest
teacup diagrams from Bureau of Reclamation (BOR). The current
unregulated inflow of water from the Colorado River to Lake
Powell is estimated to be 45% of average through July,
according to the latest 24-month Most Probable Study for the
Upper and Lower Colorado Basin Regions from BOR.
… To many of its visitors, and the several hundred people who
live along its 31-mile shoreline deep within the sprawling
Mendocino National Forest, Lake Pillsbury is the region’s
heartbeat. But Scott Dam, at the foot of Lake Pillsbury, and
another, smaller dam on the river 12 miles downstream, have
also become a headache for Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which
owns both dams. And that’s creating a controversy that’s drawn
interest from everyone from those who live on Lake Pillsbury,
to North Bay communities whose water supplies are linked to
both dams, to federal agencies now under control of President
Donald Trump. … PG&E is on track to decommission
those dams, and under a historic agreement reached earlier this
year, both are being slated to be torn down in what would be
the nation’s next big dam removal project, freeing up the
headwaters of California’s third longest river to help revive
its troubled salmon and steelhead trout runs.
When it rains in Pescadero, Irma Rodriguez gets to work —
lining up containers on her patio to catch as much water as she
can. … The small rural town has one public water system, and
it serves less than half of the population. Now, San
Mateo County is preparing to raise rates for that system —
potentially tripling costs — deepening concerns among residents
already struggling to get by and not addressing those who
have no clean running water at all. … Of the seven
public water systems within 2 miles of Pescadero assessed by
the California State Water Resources Control Board in 2024, six
were either failing or at risk of failing. Only one — County
Service Area No. 11, or CSA-11 — was deemed to have “no
risk.” The “no risk” rating doesn’t reflect how many
people in the area actually get their water from creeks or
private wells that may never be tested, leaving their water
safety uncertain.
In a move environmentalists are hailing as an important victory
for Chinook salmon conservation, the federal government has
agreed to decide this year whether the fish warrants federal
protections. By Nov. 3, the National Marine Fisheries Service
must decide whether so-called Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon
and Northern California Coastal varieties of Chinook salmon
warrant protections under the Endangered Species Act. By Jan. 2
of next year, feds must do the same for Washington Coast
spring-run Chinook salmon, according to a settlement agreement
from Thursday. The Center for Biological Diversity — joined by
the Native Fish Society, Umpqua Watersheds, and Pacific Rivers
— in February sued the service and two top officials after the
service failed to issue 12-month findings on the groups’
petitions to list the fish.
An invasion of smallmouth bass from the Great Lakes region is
spreading to new areas of the Colorado River in Arizona. The
bass have already thwarted efforts to save threatened native
fish in the upper river basin, and wildlife officials are
fighting to keep the same from happening below Lake Powell,
even if it requires cranes, excavators and maybe one day, a
giant metal curtain. Federal officials say they took a major
step in fighting the bass invasion below the Glen Canyon Dam in
June. The National Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation have
cleared out a warm backwater in the river where bass and other
invasive species used to spawn, eliminating a critical resource
for the predatory fish that could wipe out one of the last
holdouts for some of the Colorado River’s threatened and
endangered fish. Every bass that spawned in the slough
became a threat to native fish, experts say. Smallmouth bass
eat native fish eggs and young.
Over 500,000 acres of farmland in California are expected to
come out of production by 2040 because of water limitations
from drought and state regulations. While some of this land may
be put to other uses, much of this acreage could be left
fallow. Finding ways to keep growing crops even when water is
limited would help farmers, protect the environment, and
support the economy. Winter cereals such as wheat, barley, and
triticale could be a part of the solution. These crops are low
maintenance and offer growers options for flexible management.
They can be grown with little water input, relying mostly on
precipitation from the winter rains, and can be harvested for a
range of forage and grain products. In some parts of
California, winter cereals are grown without any irrigation,
but rainfall in the San Joaquin Valley is unpredictable and
typically lower than the state average, making dryland
agriculture more difficult.
A magnitude 3.6 earthquake shook Shasta County early Friday
morning, waking residents shortly before 4 a.m. The quake’s
epicenter was not far from Shasta and Keswick Dams, prompting
dam operators to conduct precautionary inspections. Michael
Burke from the Bureau of Reclamation said … ”After the
earthquake, we actually went out to Spring Creek, Whiskeytown,
Lewiston and Shasta Dam and did a visual inspection, and there
was no findings.” The Shasta Dam, which recently celebrated its
80th anniversary, remains structurally sound despite showing
some wear. Experts said the dam’s concrete will not fully cure
for another 20 years. In related news, the Bureau of
Reclamation’s brand-new Shasta Dam Cam has gone live, offering
a 24/7 view from atop the visitors center. The camera provides
a continuous view of the three Shastas: Shasta Dam, the Shasta
Reservoir and Mount Shasta.
