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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… Current snowpack levels in the Upper Colorado River
Basin hit 90% of normal on Friday. The region includes
parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming, providing the
runoff that collects in reservoirs along the river and
eventually reaches Lake Powell and Lake Mead. And 90% is better
than where snowpack stood on Monday, when it had declined to
86%. It’s been a volatile end to winter, with big swings rather
than a steady increase to peak levels. Snowpack measurements —
SWE, or snow water equivalent — generally peak the first week
of April, when temperatures warm and more snow melts than new
accumulation from snowfall.
Pumping from the Paso Robles groundwater sub-basin continued at
unsustainable levels last year — with agriculture extracting
more water than domestic well owners and municipal water
systems combined, according to a new report. The
sub-basin, which pools underground from the area east of
Highway 101 to north of Highway 58, was designated as
“critically overdrafted” by the California Department of Water
Resources. Basin users pumped 75,100 acre-feet of water in
2024, up from 63,600 acre-feet in 2023 — an 18% increase,
according to the latest annual report for the
basin. … That’s far from the estimated sustainable
yield of 61,100 acre-feet per year. … This is the eighth
year in a row that pumping exceeded the sustainable yield.
Recently, two critical policy committees passed Senate Bills 10
and 594, authored by Senator Steve Padilla (D-San Diego). SB 10
would expressly authorize funds from the new toll road to be
used for water treatment, environmental mitigation, and
restoration of the Tijuana River Valley, and SB 594 would give
communities across the state with existing environmental
pollution burdens the opportunity to voice their concerns in a
publicly noticed hearing when a new landfill development is
proposed, as is the case in the River Valley. … SB 10
passed the Senate Transportation Committee last week by a vote
of 11 to 3, and SB 594 passed the Senate Environmental Quality
Committee today by a vote of 5 to 0. Both bills now head to the
Senate Appropriations Committee.
A massive lithium discovery beneath California’s Salton Sea has
set off a high-stakes push for what some have implied could be
America’s best shot at lithium self-sufficiency. The U.S.
Department of Energy confirmed in late 2023 that an estimated
18 million metric tons of lithium—often called “white gold” on
account of its silvery-white appearance and economic
importance—valued at roughly $540 billion is trapped in the
geothermal brine beneath the Salton Sea, a shrinking lake in
Southern California’s Imperial Valley. … Despite optimism
surrounding the potential economic upsides, some of the
projects are not without criticisms. One lawsuit filed by CCV
(Comite Civico del Valle) and Earthworks, an environmental
nonprofit, argued that the Hell’s Kitchen project’s
environmental review failed to account for potential air and
water hazards.
Nature cameras are becoming a popular way to check out
wildlife. A bald eagle camera in Southern California has more
than 600,000 YouTube subscribers. Now, Sacramento County could
soon have its own permanent wildlife feed. Alan Friedman is the
man behind Sacramento’s salmon cam. “Technology has been
amazing to assist us in observing wildlife,” he said. It’s a
first-of-its-kind project along the American River Parkway. The
live camera is designed to catch a glimpse of Chinook salmon as
they swim up the American River at the end of their long
journey from the Pacific Ocean. County park commissioners
recently approved the concept, and now Friedman is launching a
pilot project at Sailor Bar in Fair Oaks.
The long-anticipated expansion of Monte Rio Redwoods Regional
Park took a major step forward this week. The Sonoma County
Board of Supervisors approved Regional Parks’ application for
an $8 million state grant—key funding toward the $24 million
needed to acquire 1,517 acres of forestland near Monte
Rio. Save the Redwoods League plans to purchase the
property, currently owned by Mendocino Redwood Co., and
transfer it to Sonoma County Regional Parks by summer 2025. The
acquisition will expand the current 515-acre park to more than
2,000 acres, connecting protected land from the Russian River
to the Pacific Ocean. … The land includes young-growth
redwoods, Douglas fir, oak woodlands, and essential watershed
areas feeding the Russian River—habitat crucial for endangered
coho salmon and steelhead trout.
Clean water and scenic beauty for Santa Barbara’s creeks may
come at a cost to the city’s homeowners. At least, that’s how
creekside residents see it. Many are not happy about the city’s
proposed creek buffer ordinance, which would require any and
all new developments to stay away from a creek’s edge.
The city has 16 creeks. They zigzag through neighborhoods,
showing off bare bottoms that host only a trickle of water for
most of the year. Right now, the city is working on a
draft ordinance that prohibits new development within 50 feet
of any of these creeks. That includes buildings, patios, and
non-native gardens (yes, even tomato plants). The only
development that would be allowed in buffer zones without city
approval would be the planting of native vegetation and debris
removal for flood control purposes. Existing development would
be allowed to stay where it is, as well as be repaired and
remodeled without city approval.
… A decade ago, California led the nation by creating a
suite of state programs that help farmers transition to
climate-friendly methods, many of which also improve farm
resilience to extreme weather. These methods include strategies
like planting perennials at the field edge or using cover crops
in the off-season, both of which boost soil carbon and improve
farmers’ ability to capture and store winter moisture for our
increasingly long dry seasons. The problem, however, is
that the California legislature hasn’t funded these programs
adequately or consistently. In recent grant cycles, farmer
demand for these incentives has outstripped available funding
by two or three times. –Written by Liz Carlisle, a public voices fellow of the
OpEd Project and an associate professor of environmental
studies at UC Santa Barbara.
There’s no doubt that customers of Padre Dam Water District,
already paying among the highest rates in the nation, will pay
even more for the coming year. It’s just a matter of how much.
At its April 2 meeting, PDWD’s board of directors heard from
the San Diego County Water Authority General Manager Dan Denham
about all the various reasons his agency will probably increase
what it charges for the water it imports from the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California (Metro), the Los
Angeles-based agency that transfers water south from both the
Colorado River and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … For
the coming fiscal year, Denham said the CWA board hasn’t set
the figure yet (some reports put it at 14 percent), but he
expects the increase to be in “the double-digit range” and the
following year to be in the single digits.
California’s Los Angeles River was once a free-flowing river
that frequently flooded. It was the primary source of
freshwater for the City before the opening of the Los Angeles
Aqueduct in 1913. Starting in the late 1930s, this urban
corridor was channelized and lined with concrete to efficiently
convey floods and minimize erosion. Today, high-velocity and
uniform flow depths degrade habitat conditions for native
aquatic species, and do not provide refugia during floods. This
study examined how to redesign the channel bed to provide
increased flow complexity and habitat heterogeneity within this
confined urban stream and restore fish passage by providing
lower velocities suitable for migration. This study evaluated
methods that could be implemented within confined urban
channels to improve ecosystem function without significantly
raising the flood stage at high flows. Additional goals include
improving recreation and aesthetics, for example adding bike
paths and improved access to the river.
Nearly 60 years ago, a self-described “awkward” teenager from
Sacramento, California, named Mark Dubois, met the most
powerful teacher of his life–the Stanislaus River. Mark’s
relationship with the river and the influence of river
defenders worldwide would ultimately help inspire the founding
of International Rivers and galvanize a global movement to
protect and celebrate our planet’s vital arteries and veins and
challenge what Dubios refers to as “outdated neocolonial
development models.” … Mark slowly got involved in efforts
to save the Stanislaus. By 1973, he joined Jerry Meral, David
Kay, and the public relations team Roanoke to form Friends of
the River (FOR) to speak for the river and oppose the project.
For Mark, his deep love affair with the life of the river was
teaching him about the antiquated paradigm behind large-scale
development that only values nature when it’s extracted and
converted into a commodity.
Sen. Ben Allen accepted amendments Wednesday to narrow the
scope of his bill meant to protect state waters from Trump
administration rollbacks. What happened: The Senate
Environmental Quality Committee said it would approve SB 601—
which would create the term “nexus waters” to encompass all
waters of the state that were under federal jurisdiction before
the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA — after
Allen agreed to amend it to clarify that it doesn’t apply to
agricultural runoff or drinking water. “We are taking
amendments to be very clear that we’re only talking about point
sources, not non-point source,” said Sean Bothwell, executive
director at California Coastkeeper Alliance and author of the
bill.
Utah lawmakers have given the state more voice in negotiations
over the Colorado and Bear rivers. The move, however, has some
environmentalists concerned about the sensitive multi-state
agreements that govern the rivers. Utah water agent Joel
Ferry’s job is to help secure his state’s future water needs.
Ferry, whose position was created during the 2024 legislative
session, said he’s looking at everything from conservation to
new sources. Previous legislation prevented him from
negotiating with other states tied to interstate water
compacts. Now, a new Utah law gives Ferry the power to
collaborate on water issues with states in the Colorado and
Bear river basins. But Kyle Roerink, executive director of the
Great Basin Water Network, a water policy nonprofit, is
concerned Ferry could be a wild card in sensitive talks over
the rivers’ futures.
For decades, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has
governed how projects done by federal agencies must assess
their impacts, and how the public is informed about these
projects. But how does this legislation actually work in
practice? And what changes are coming down the pike from the
Trump administration? … “What does it look like to manage
the Colorado River after 2026 when our current operating
guidelines expire? And what will the impacts be to farmers, to
municipalities, to wildlife habitat, to recreation or changing,
potentially, how we allocate water and manage water in the
Colorado River?” he (Chris Winter, the director of the Getches
Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the
Environment at CU Boulder’s School of Law) said. “So that whole
entire process of how people and the public engage in that
conversation and submit their views to the government on what
the government should do, that whole process is governed by the
National Environmental Policy Act.”
Water years in California can be all over the place
with massive years immediately followed by major droughts. It’s
been described as hit and miss, but rarely do you get a
hit-hit-hit situation in one key metric for water in the state:
snowpack. Snowpack is highly variable since it’s a component of
water and temperature. You can have big snowfalls followed up
by warm and dry conditions, then by early spring when snow melt
and runoff is most important, some of the snowpack may be
already gone. … This water year is unique since most of
the snow has yet to melt and already California reservoirs as a
whole are well above average at 115%. … Many lakes are nearly
90% full with many months of runoff and inflows to
come. Reservoirs in the Central and Southern Region are
not quite as full, but still remain above average or at least
close bringing more good water news to the rest of the state.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
… A lot of hope was pouring into the river along with those
fish as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the
Klamath Tribes entered the beginning stages of starting a new
run of spring chinook salmon. … The country’s largest dam
removal project took four dams off the Klamath River in
Southern Oregon and Northern California over the past two
years. A free-flowing river has reemerged where
Copco 1 and 2, Iron Gate and J.C. Boyle dams used to be. For
Indigenous tribes, including the Klamath, Shasta, Karuk, Hoopa
Valley and Yurok, the project was a huge victory. Painful water
conflicts have dragged on for decades in the Klamath Basin,
with farmers, fish and tribes all suffering. Now four dams are
out, bringing renewed hope for salmon restoration. But on the
Klamath, it’s going to take a lot more to piece the basin
together again.
… The (Hualapai Tribe of Arizona) argued that BLM violated
the National Environmental Policy Act when it failed to take
into consideration the consequences mining could have on
water resources. An independent hydrologist
hired by the Tribe found that the lithium drilling project not
only impacted the spring water levels but could also
permanently damage Ha’Kamwe’ (Cofer Hot Springs). …
Studies have shown that lithium reserves worldwide and in the
United States are disproportionately proximate to tribal
lands. … Lithium mining can deplete local water
sources, including fresh groundwater, and cause air,
water, and land contamination, exposing humans to several
health risks, including damage to the nervous system, thyroid,
and kidneys.
Redwood City has the highest risk for severe coastal
floods of any California city, according to data
released Wednesday by Climate Central. The science and
communication nonprofit’s report finds over 22,000 people — 27%
of the city’s total population — reside in an area at
risk of a 100-year flood occurring in the next 25 years. The
city, located in San Mateo county, is one of a number of
California coastal and bayshore communities that face risks
from damaging floods, particularly in the coming decades, as
climate change causes sea levels to rise.
The city of San Diego spent $52 million last year on emergency
repairs for infrastructure projects such as replacing collapsed
storm drains, clearing water channels and repairing sinkholes
which arose due to heavy rain. Of the 29 emergency
repairs performed across the city last year, 23 were related to
stormwater infrastructure and totaled about $45 million,
according to a city report. Two years ago, city officials
decided to set aside money from the capital improvements budget
for an emergency line of funding for storm drains. As the city
faces a shortfall of about $250 million in the budget that
takes effect July 1, the emergency funds may become even more
critical to addressing stormwater needs.
Domestic well owners should not be charged fees for pumping
from the overdrafted Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, according
to one water district. “The problem has never been the de
minimis users,” Shandon-San Juan Water District Board of
Directors president Willy Cunha told The Tribune on Thursday.
Farmers are most responsible for dwindling water levels in the
basin, so they should be charged the fees — as long as the
rates are reasonable, he said. The Shandon-San Juan Water
District’s Board of Directors voted 4-0 on March 26 to pass a
resolution that opposed charging domestic well owners water
extraction fees, water district secretary Stephanie Bertoux
said. Why did only four directors vote? The board didn’t
provide the public proper notice that board member Matt
Turrentine would attend the meeting virtually, so he couldn’t
vote on the item, Bertoux said.
