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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With drought conditions worsening in southern Utah, Gov.
Spencer Cox says he’s working on issuing an emergency
declaration. Despite northern Utah seeing average snow
this year, counties in the south are exceptionally dry. Cox
said he’s currently working with local officials on the
declaration, which could extend to a handful of counties in the
southwestern corner of Utah that have seen a meager snowpack
this winter. … Statewide, the snow water equivalent —
which is basically the amount of water currently in the
snowpack — is at about 78% of normal, according to the Natural
Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, which tracks the
snowpack at sites around the state. Much of northern Utah is
between that or higher, with Snowbird’s site at 96%, and a site
in Big Cottonwood Canyon at 115%.
For decades, residents of Bakersfield have lived with a river
that’s little more than a channel of dust. The Kern, which
pours from the snowy peaks of the southern Sierra, descends
upon California’s ninth-largest city and, in all but the
wettest of years, runs dry. A sandy, weed-strewn corridor is
left winding unremarkably through the downtown, beside roads,
beneath bridges and behind businesses. … A group of
residents is trying to change that. Cooper and dozens of others
are fighting to bring water back to the Kern River, hoping to
create a lush, parklike centerpiece in a city best known for
the sunbaked oil fields and farms that surround it. It
isn’t an easy go. The river’s waters are already largely
accounted for, some serving the municipal needs of Bakersfield
and nearby communities, but most drawn for agriculture, the
engine of the regional economy.
A senate bill has been introduced to the Nevada legislature
this session that could prohibit the sale of plastic water
bottles in Nevada Lake Tahoe communities, if passed. The bill
is similar to the City of South Lake Tahoe’s ordinance that
went into effect on Earth Day of last year and the Town of
Truckee’s ordinance, taking effect this upcoming Earth Day.
Both ban the sale of certain plastic water bottles and both
municipalities lie on the California side of Lake Tahoe.
Senate Bill 324 would introduce similar restrictions in
communities that abut the Nevada portion of the Lake Tahoe
Watershed. The proposed bills prohibits sale of disposable
plastic water bottles under four liters.
Upon joining the faculty at UC Davis, Hap (Dunning) initiated a
course in water law, which became his passion and the focus of
the rest of his professional career. In the late 1970s, he
served as executive officer of the Governor’s Commission to
Review California Water Rights Law. He later served on the
California Water Commission and the Bay Delta Advisory Council,
and he sat on the board of directors of several nonprofits,
including among others The Bay Institute of San Francisco, the
Rocky Mountain Mineral Law Foundation, and the Tuolumne River
Trust. Much of his scholarship dealt with the application of
the public trust doctrine to water rights. In its landmark
decision on that topic in 1983, the California Supreme Court
cited the papers from a major conference Hap organized at UC
Davis in 1980. (Dunning also served on the Water
Education Foundation’s Board of Directors from
1997-2014.)
… A new proposal from the White House Office of Management
and Budget would dramatically reorganize NOAA and gut most of
its climate research programs in fiscal 2026. Part of that plan
includes terminating funding for NOAA’s cooperative institutes
and its 10 laboratories, which are heavily staffed by CI
researchers. The plan, presented last week in an OMB document
known as a “passback” memorandum, is technically still
hypothetical. While passbacks typically outline the priorities
eventually included in the White House’s budget proposal each
fiscal year, Congress must ultimately approve the president’s
request. But even if Congress rejects the cuts that the Trump
administration proposes for fiscal 2026, experts worry that
funding for the remainder of fiscal 2025 is still in question.
… Since the summer of 2014, the California Department of
Water Resources has received 337 reports of dry wells over the
basin, San Luis Obispo County groundwater sustainability
director Blaine Reely said. In 2024, people pumped about
25,500 acre-feet of water more than was returned to the
underground reservoir, according to the most recent annual
report on the basin. The California Department of Water
Resources considers the basin “critically overdrafted,” and
residential property owners with dry wells are some of the
first casualties of a poorly managed groundwater supply. Those
residents blame farms and vineyards for pumping more than their
fair share of water. According to the basin’s 2024 report,
agriculture used about 94% of the water pumped from the basin.
Nearly a thousand Imperial Beach residents are joining a
lawsuit against the operators of the South Bay International
Wastewater Treatment Plant, including Veolia Water, over the
ongoing sewage crisis that has plagued the community for
decades. Residents report health problems, devalued homes and
diminished quality of life due to billions of gallons of sewage
flowing from the Tijuana River into their community.
… The lawsuit, filed by Frantz Law Group in November, is
one of five similar legal actions initiated in the past year.
It accuses Veolia Water of negligence and conscious disregard
for community safety by exposing South Bay residents to raw
sewage and contamination.
This week, the Pacific Fishery Management Council adopted
recommendations for ocean salmon fishing along the West Coast;
for an unprecedented third year in a row, the council has
recommended closing commercial fishing off the California coast
and allowing only limited commercial fishing in Oregon and
Washington. … (Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations Executive Director Lisa )Damrosch told the
Times-Standard that commercial fishermen have been feeling the
effects of — and working to prevent — salmon population
collapse in the Sacramento Valley. She stressed the PCFFA’s
long-term goals of returning to a system of production
hatcheries, if Californians want to continue to divert water to
farming interests in Central and Southern California.
Late last summer, on August 29th, 2024, the United States Fish
and Wildlife Service listed the San Francisco Bay-Delta
distinct population segment of longfin smelt (Spirinchus
thaleichthys) as ‘endangered’ under the federal Endangered
Species Act (ESA). With this decision, the Longfin Smelt joins
the Delta Smelt (Hypomesus transpacificus), the longfin’s
infamous cousin species, as a list species under the
ESA. Longfin smelt had already been listed as ‘threatened’
under the California Endangered Species Act (CESA), but the new
federal listing is a sign of the challenges that smelt and the
broader Delta ecosystem face. The listing brings additional
protections and new regulatory requirements that may further
complicate water management in the Delta. This blog post
provides an overview of this population of Longfin Smelt,
explains what listing means, and then discusses ongoing work at
UC Davis and beyond to recover Longfin Smelt populations.
The Climate Prediction Center’s recent dire drought
outlook for California and the western United States has
some more bad news: The dry, hot conditions will worsen air
quality and introduce more dust and pollen allergens into the
air. Meteorologists say Southern California will bear the brunt
of the worst air quality and allergens, but the Central Valley
may also be affected if wind patterns blow north. … The
dry, hot conditions could lead to more dust storms — also
called haboobs — in the region as well, meteorologists
reported. Here’s what to know about how the dry, hot conditions
will affect air quality in California.
California wildlife officials detected an invasive species in
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that threatens numerous
ecosystems in the northern part of the state. On April 16,
officials announced the Golden Mussel Task Force, a statewide
interagency group aimed at curbing the spread of the invasive
species. Agencies include the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife, California State Parks, and the California Department
of Food and Agriculture. Here’s what you need to know about
Golden Mussels.
California farmer Aubrey Bettencourt has been appointed as the
Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service
(NRCS). Bettencourt previously served as the President and
CEO of the Almond Alliance and was the Deputy Assistant
Secretary for the U.S. Department of the Interior during
President Donald Trump’s first administration. … Along
with her roles with the Almond Alliance and the USDA,
Bettencourt comes to the NRCS after working as the Global
Director of Government Relations and External Affairs for
Netafilm, which is an Orbia company.
… Advocates for communities overburdened by industrial
pollution and the impacts of climate change say years of
progress toward cleaner air, water and corporate accountability
are at stake. … While it took down environmental justice
maps and datasets, the EPA published a new webpage inviting
fossil fuel and chemical companies to apply for presidential
exemptions to pollution limits. … The EPA recently set
up a new webpage with step-by-step instructions to apply for
two-year waivers from nine major EPA pollution protections. …
The rules include tougher limits on dangerous pollution from
smokestacks and chemical plants, new emission standards for
cars and trucks for reducing asthma and lung disease, and a
historic rule designed to update water systems and protect
children from lead in drinking water.
California’s largest lake is shrinking—and transforming. NBC
Palm Springs’ Olivia Sandusky set sail from Bombay Beach to
explore the beauty, controversy, and potential of the Salton
Sea. Stretching 343 square miles and sitting 226 feet below sea
level, the Salton Sea is both majestic and endangered. Local
photographer Kevin Key, who now calls Bombay Beach home, says
he fell in love with the tranquility and surreal sunsets. But
the picturesque views mask serious problems: pollution from
agricultural runoff, receding shorelines, and a sharp decline
in wildlife. Despite decades of restoration attempts, many
question whether meaningful progress is being made. At the
sea’s south end, an ambitious future is taking shape: Lithium
Valley. With over 17 million metric tons of lithium beneath its
geothermal brine, the area is a focal point for renewable
energy development.
Understanding how solar PV installations affect the landscape
and its critical resources is crucial to achieve sustainable
net-zero energy production. To enhance this understanding, we
investigate the consequences of converting agricultural fields
to solar photovoltaic installations, which we refer to as
‘agrisolar’ co-location. We present a food, energy, water and
economic impact analysis of agricultural output offset by
agrisolar co-location for 925 arrays (2.53 GWp covering
3,930 ha) spanning the California Central Valley. We find that
agrisolar co-location displaces food production but increases
economic security and water sustainability for farmers. Given
the unprecedented pace of solar PV expansion globally, these
results highlight the need for a deeper understanding of the
multifaceted outcomes of agricultural and solar PV co-location
decisions.
The Trump administration on Wednesday signaled it intends to
approve a land transfer that will allow a foreign company to
mine a sacred Indigenous site in Arizona, where local tribes
and environmentalists have fought the project for decades and
before federal courts rule on lawsuits over the
project. … The federal government’s initial
environmental impact statement for Resolution Copper’s mine
concludes that the project will destroy sacred oak groves,
sacred springs and burial sites, resulting in what “would be an
indescribable hardship to those peoples.” It would also use as
much water each year as the city of Tempe,
home to Arizona State University and 185,000 people. It would
pull water from the same tapped-out aquifer
the Phoenix metro area relies on, where Arizona has prohibited
any more extraction except for exempted uses like mines.
The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is
taking legal action against the new owners of the pipeline
involved in the 2015 Refugio Oil Spill. On Thursday, the board
unanimously voted to refer Sable Offshore Corp. to the
California Attorney General for allegedly violating state water
laws by polluting waterways. The company is accused of
performing pipeline work along the Gaviota Coast without proper
permits and dumping waste into nearby streams. Sable reportedly
ignored warnings and withheld key information.
… According to state officials, Sable’s work on the
offshore platform – which includes the pipeline tied to the
2015 Refugio oil spill – violates several sections of the
state’s water code and threatens water quality.
Water is essential to daily life, but few people realize the
journey it takes before reaching their taps. In Burbank. Every
drop of drinking water originates from hundreds of miles away,
making Burbank uniquely dependent on external suppliers. The
cost of importing this water continues to rise, and it is
important to understand the factors driving these costs and how
they may impact our community in the future. Unlike other
cities that can tap into local rivers or lakes, Burbank’s
drinking water is entirely purchased from the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California (MWD). This imported
water originates from two sources – water from the San
Francisco Bay Delta, which includes runoff from melting snow in
the Northern Sierra Nevada mountains, and the Colorado
River. –Written by Richard Wilson, assistant general manager,
water systems at Burbank Water and Power.
… Today, more than 27 million people in the three states rely
on water from the Colorado River—roughly two-thirds of the
total population that the river serves. Yet even as that
dependence on the river grew, a collision between human and
environmental needs was brewing. … For municipal and
agricultural water managers who depended on the Colorado, the
growing list of endangered species was a wakeup call. It
spurred a decade-long effort to craft a multi-party agreement
that allowed water agencies to continue delivering water to
their users while staying ahead of the mounting endangered
species issues. That effort has largely proven successful, but
as the program now crosses the 20-year mark, new questions are
arising about how to keep it strong for the next three decades
in the face of grinding drought, contentious negotiations over
the river’s future, and new uncertainties about the federal
government’s role in its continued implementation.
The end of the last California ice age 10,000 years ago did the
final carving of Yosemite Valley. It’s part of the
400-mile-long stretch of granite we now call the Sierra that
tectonic forces pushed upward over 2.4 million years ago. The
global warming that followed the end of the last ice age gets
credit for creating the Rodney Dangerfield of California’s
great natural wonders — the Sacramento San Joaquin
Delta. Before temperatures started heating up to force the
retreat of the vast glaciers that once covered a large swath of
what is today eastern California, the sea level was more than
300 feet lower with the edge of present-day San Francisco
nearly 20 miles from the ocean. The Great Central Valley was a
massive inland sea. And at the bottom of that sea was what is
today the Delta.
