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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Nearly all of California’s major reservoirs are fuller than
they were in previous years after a wet and stormy
winter. … The state’s largest reservoir, Lake Shasta, is
at 92% capacity as of Sunday, which amounts to 115% of its
historical capacity for this time of year, according to data
from the California Department of Water Resources. The lake is
at a surface elevation of 1,055 feet, according to data
from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, a continuation of rising
water levels since the holiday season’s heavy downpours.
(Shasta Lake is considered full at 1,067 feet, according to
Lakes Online, a website that records lake data.) The season’s
rains also have filled California’s other large reservoirs,
including Lake Oroville and Trinity Lake, which are now at at
90% and 87% capacity, respectively. If Oroville surpasses 100%,
it would be the third straight year the reservoir has hit
capacity.
Other water supply and snowpack news around the West:
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be
reconvening an independent panel of health experts to make a
new recommendation on putting fluoride in drinking water, a
spokesperson said on Monday. The use of the mineral, which is
added to water to strengthen tooth enamel and promote dental
health, has been a hot-button political issue in some states
for decades. ”HHS is reconvening the Community Preventive
Services Task Force to study and make a new recommendation on
fluoride,” an HHS spokesperson said. The statement
followed an Associated Press report quoting Secretary of Health
and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying at an event in
Salt Lake City, Utah, that he plans to tell the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoride in
drinking water.
… The latest Trends Report from the California ASFMRA (American
Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers) reveals a
significant correction in land values due largely to SGMA,
though land values in some cases did not seem to be following
as quickly with what some said was coming. … For the San
Joaquin Valley, where the northern region enjoys more ample
water supplies than other parts of the valley, even there,
farmland values have declined
significantly. … Conservative estimates suggest that
$17 billion of value in irrigated lands alone has been erased
from financial ledgers, according to Scott Bozzo, an accredited
farm manager with Macotera Ag Group from Lodi,
California. … California’s most valuable agricultural
county by gross output continues to be Kern. … The
highest agricultural land values in Kern County remain in the
river districts or where districts have done a good job
managing groundwater.
The United States is holding back water payments to Mexico in
order to send a message, the U.S. International Boundary and
Water Commissioner told Border Report. “The first action
that the State Department has done is in denying water
deliveries to Mexico in the Tijuana area,” U.S. IBWC
Commissioner Maria-Elena Giner told Border Report last
week. Under a 1944 international treaty, Mexico is
supposed to send 1.75 million acre-feet of water to the United
States via the Rio Grande over five-year
cycles. … The United States, likewise, under the
treaty is required to send to Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of
water from the Colorado River. But Giner says requested
deliveries to Tijuana, Mexico, south of San Diego, were not
recently fulfilled. And she says more holding back of water,
and other resources, could come next if Mexico fails to send
the U.S. water.
As California continues to recover from devastating January
wildfires and extreme dryness that reached deep into winter,
there are early signs that the state and surrounding region
could face a troubling fire season in the months
ahead. The rainy season in the West is winding down, but
much of the region remains well behind on rainfall. The
Southwest is in deep drought after largely missing out on
storms this winter. Much of the broader West is forecast to
have unusually hot and dry weather in the coming weeks and
months. And that heat — along with the recent proliferation of
additional fire-fueling vegetation — could accelerate the
turnaround into yet another wildfire season, with high risks of
concerning conflagrations even for areas that had adequate rain
and snow this winter.
A coalition of top scientists loaded its last set of wastewater
samples for analysis Sunday after receiving the final word from
San Diego County late last week that the work should cease due
to a nationwide clawback of federal public health funds. Since
February 2021, the San Diego Epidemiology and Research for
COVID Health program (SEARCH), a collaboration of UC San Diego,
Scripps Research Institute and the genomics program at Rady
Children’s Hospital, have used advanced science to analyze
wastewater samples collected from three different treatment
plants in San Diego County. Samples have been used to estimate
both the amount and type of viruses shed by the region’s 3.3
million residents. … But those efforts ground to a halt
Monday after researchers received word that the roughly
$400,000 per year provided by the county’s public health
department would cease.
The Bureau of Reclamation has announced a $134 million award
for the proposed Sites Reservoir Project. This new water
storage project would be the second largest off-stream
reservoir in the nation and would increase Northern
California’s water storage capacity by up to 15 percent. The
award, funded by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the
Nation Act, previously received $389.65 million and was also
authorized $256.5 million from the Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act, for a total of $780.15 million in federal
contributions to date.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has
released a status report highlighting the progress of its
Beaver Restoration Program. The initiative aimed to return
beavers to their native watersheds in California to restore
wetlands and combat climate change effects. Between October
2023 and September 2024, the CDFW placed 28 beavers across five
sites in the Sierra Nevada. The project, in partnership with
the Tule River Tribe and the Maidu Summit Consortium, has
already seen beavers producing litters and building dams.
In 1991, the state of California largely banned burning of rice
straw after harvest, and farmers turned instead to winter
flooding of fields to break down straw. As a result, wildlife
has flourished in rice fields which reproduce, to some extent,
the wetland habitat that once covered most of California’s
Central Valley. Rice fields now support some 200 species
including fish, birds and reptiles. Winter flooding depends on
sufficient water supplies and farmers have come under pressure
from drought, climate change and economic changes, putting this
success story at risk. Last year, the California Rice
Commission asked researchers at UC Davis and Point Blue
Conservation Sciences to estimate how many acres of rice would
be required to support multiple species.
The cliché “third time’s the charm” proved true for Berkeley’s
efforts to fix the aging culverts connecting the Aquatic Park
lagoon with the San Francisco Bay. Berkeley received a $4.1
million state grant last month after trying twice before in
recent years for funding to repair or rebuild the deteriorating
100-year-old tubes running under Interstate 80, said Scott
Ferris, head of the city’s parks and waterfront department.
Prone to cracking and clogging, the failing tubes are believed
to be primary culprits for the lagoon’s chronic pollution, as
they’re less and less efficient in channeling bay water in and
out of lagoon with the tides, a cleansing action. Of particular
concern are the lagoon’s periodic but persistent high rates of
enterococcus bacteria, a health risk for humans, and marine
die-offs, primarily affecting rays and leopard sharks.
Federal and California state officials announced Monday a set
of new inspection and quarantine requirements for the launch of
boats at Folsom Lake and Lake Clementine later this month. The
rules are aimed at preventing an infestation of golden mussels,
which were recently identified in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta and that “pose a significant threat to the ecological
health of all waters of the state, its water conveyance
systems, infrastructure, and water quality,” California State
Parks said. Folsom Lake and Lake Clementine in the Auburn
State Recreation Area will be temporarily closed to all
trailered or motorized vessel launching for a month, from April
14 until May 14.
The City is letting some people in the county who get their
water from wells instead hook up to its city water supply
for free. The work to the water tank started in October and now
crews are welding the red steel panels as part of the base of
the massive tank. It’s a milestone for the one million gallon
water tank project underway. … The City Manager, Pete Carr,
said the water tank will bring water to 185 homes and a mobile
home park with 75 residents and fire hydrants to neighborhoods
which previously had none. The city received $16 million in
state grants for the project.
In Orange County, California, wastewater from people’s homes is
not considered waste. Instead of treating it and sending it to
the ocean, Orange County purifies its wastewater with an
additional three-step process. Each day, the county treats
about 130 million gallons until it’s safe enough to drink.
Patel: “And then we take that highly treated, recycled water,
and we surface-spread it in a series of lakes or ponds and then
let it naturally seep or percolate down and replenish the
aquifer.” Mehul Patel is with the Orange County Water District.
He says the aquifer is a key source of water for people who
live in the area.
On “The Evergreen,” we’ve talked about the history behind the
largest dam removal project in the United States: the long
fight over water in the Klamath basin between Tribes and
farmers, the process of getting the dams out, and what dam
removal means to the Tribes along the river. Today, we’re
bringing you up to date. What’s on folks’ minds now that all
the dams are out a year later — and what still needs to be done
to piece this basin together again? Cassandra Profita is an
editor and reporter at OPB. She’s been covering the Klamath Dam
removal for years and joins us to talk about the challenges
that remain to repair salmon habitat.
The battle over whether California should build a $20-billion
water tunnel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is
escalating, with Gov. Gavin Newsom pushing to lay the
groundwork for the project before his term expires and state
water regulators considering whether to grant a key
authorization. The State Water Resources Control Board has
begun holding a series of hearings on a petition by the Newsom
administration to amend water rights permits so that flows
could be diverted from new points on the Sacramento River where
the intakes of the 45-mile tunnel would be built. The process
has grown tense in recent weeks, as the Newsom administration
and water agencies have pushed back against how the board’s
officials are handling parts of the process, and as opponents
have urged the board not to bend to political pressure.
Southern California’s wildfire-ravaged national forests soon
could fall under the ax, literally. An emergency order issued
by U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on
Friday, April 4, directs federal personnel to increase timber
quotas by 25% on nearly 113 million acres of national forests
across the nation. A map accompanying the order with areas
targeted by the declaration shows large swaths of California,
including northern woodlands and what appear to be the Angeles,
San Bernardino, Los Padres and Cleveland national
forests. … National forests were originally created
beginning in 1891 as reserves to protect watersheds and
forests for drinking water and timber supply, after heavy
overlogging threatened both. Under the updated 1976
National Forest Management Act, the forest service’s
multi-pronged mission is to protect watersheds, timber stands
and healthy wildlife populations.
The Trump administration’s slash-and-burn approach to federal
programs has delivered a considerable hit to the nation’s
environment, but experts say its plans to repeal hard-won
protections for clean air and water will also directly
jeopardize Americans’ health — and their wallets. Two new
reports from environmental watchdog groups outline how the
administration’s recent regulatory rollbacks, cuts to climate
programs and promotion of fossil fuel production will
significantly increase the cost of living for millions of
people and bring about hundreds of thousands of premature
deaths.
Water and environmental groups in southwestern Colorado have
not heard a peep from the federal government since their $25.6
million grant got caught up in a widespread funding freeze,
officials say. Southwestern Water Conservation District pulled
together a unique collection of partners in 2024 to tap into an
immense stack of federal cash for environmental projects in the
Colorado River Basin. The partners were “ecstatic” Jan. 17 when
they found out their application to fund 17 projects was
accepted, Steve Wolff, district manager, said. Three days
later, President Donald Trump paused spending, and the
district’s partnership has been in limbo ever since. Other
Colorado groups are in the same boat with millions of dollars
of awarded grant funding on the line. … The uncertainty
has impacted a slew of environmental projects across the Upper
Colorado River Basin — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The Bureau of Reclamation today (April 4) announced a $134
million award for the proposed Sites Reservoir Project. This
new water storage project would be the second largest
off-stream reservoir in the nation and would increase Northern
California’s water storage capacity by up to 15 percent. The
award, funded by the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the
Nation Act, previously received $389.65 million and was also
authorized $256.5 million from the Infrastructure Investment
and Jobs Act, for a total of $780.15 million in federal
contributions to date. Located 81 miles northwest of
Sacramento, Sites Reservoir would store water diverted
from the Sacramento River via the existing Red Bluff Pumping
Plant and Hamilton City Pump Station after all other water
rights and regulatory requirements are met. Water would be
released to beneficiaries throughout the state primarily during
drier periods when it is needed.
… leadership of the Hoopa Valley and Yurok tribes signed an
agreement to share 50,000 acre feet of water from the Trinity
Reservoir. It’s the latest push for water rights specified in
1950’s-era federal policy but have yet to materialize on the
ground, despite a supportive 2014 U.S. Department of the
Interior legal opinion. “This agreement is a victory, but there
is much more work to be done. We will continue to advocate for
the protection and restoration of our natural resources,
ensuring future generations of our people have what they need
to prosper,” said Joe James, chairman of the Yurok Tribe in a
statement in the release.
