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.
The tiny Marin County town of Nicasio is up in arms, not
because the nearby dam will fail, but because an expansion plan
could flood their town if it succeeds. To store more
water, the Marin Municipal Water District wants to use a rubber
dam to raise the level of Nicasio Reservoir by about 4 and a
half feet. Just upstream of the reservoir is the tiny hamlet of
Nicasio, with about 250 homes and a population under
1,000. The folks in Nicasio are on wells and get no water
from the reservoir except when it helps cause floods.
California Congressmen Juan Vargas (D-CA-52) and Rep. Scott
Peters (D-CA-50) have announced they’re requesting $45 million
to help combat cross-border pollution. According to a press
release from Rep. Vargas, he and Rep. Peters added $45 million
to the U.S.-Mexico Border Water Infrastructure Program (BWIP)
in the 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
Appropriations Bill. The bill has passed the U.S. House
Appropriations Committee. Vargas says the funding can be
used to help combat cross-border pollution, which has plagued
the Tijuana River Valley for decades.
The acting head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency was
unable to say whether the agency would continue under the Trump
administration when asked by lawmakers Wednesday. Testifying
before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee
on Emergency Management, acting FEMA chief David Richardson was
asked by Democrats point blank whether FEMA will continue to
exist. President Donald Trump has suggested repeatedly that the
agency could be eliminated as part of his government-shrinking
measures. … Richardson made his first Capitol Hill
appearance for the hearing on FEMA reform. The emergency
management agency is under heavy scrutiny in the wake of
flooding in Texas earlier this month that killed more than 130
people.
The removal of metal and concrete debris from the American
River is closer to fruition after the Placer County Board of
Supervisors authorized for the contract to be finalized
Tuesday. The State Route 49 Bridge broke into three pieces and
was washed away in December 1964, when the partially
constructed Hell Hole Dam failed during an atmospheric river
event. The debris was never removed, as construction of the
Auburn Dam three miles downstream was authorized, and still
lies in a stretch of the river within the Confluence of the
Auburn Recreation Area 60 years later. The board approved
a fund transfer agreement in February 2023 to receive $8
million from the California 2022-23 budget for the American
River Debris Removal Project, following coordination with
Protect American River Canyons (PARC).
Property owners who pump water for their farms or businesses
from the Paso Robles Area Groundwater Basin may soon need to
pay for their groundwater. Right now, they have the opportunity
to protest those fees. Residential well owners, however,
won’t be charged those fees directly — which means they can’t
protest them either, according to Ryan Aston, a consultant who
developed the proposed rates. … The agency will hold a
public hearing to consider the rates on Aug. 1. If a majority
of recipients submit a written protest, the agency can’t
implement the rates. Otherwise, the board can vote to enact the
fees.
… State lawmakers are under pressure from Big Ag to kill or
rewrite legislation that would make it easier to convert
farmland to solar production. The Legislature rejected a
similar bill last year, despite looming regulations that will
require Central Valley farmers to pump less groundwater. In
southeastern California, meanwhile, the powerful Imperial
Irrigation District — which controls more Colorado River water
than the entire state of Arizona — voted this month to oppose
further solar development on Imperial Valley farmland, even as
a climate-fueled megadrought drains the river’s major
reservoirs. … AB 1156 would let growers in
water-stressed areas suspend their contracts to enable solar
development, without anyone paying the fee. The solar company
would pay full property taxes. Local officials would need to
sign off. And again: If less water inevitably means lost
farmland, why not incentivize solar? –Written by Sammy Roth, climate columnist for the Los
Angeles Times.
The clearness of Lake Tahoe’s deep, blue waters tells a story.
The lake’s incredible clarity, which today averages 60 to 70
feet deep, is among Lake Tahoe’s most famous features. Despite
having been on the ropes at times over the past 100 years, that
clarity endures. The most recent report on Lake Tahoe’s clarity
from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center shows
that the visibility of the lake’s water averaged 62 feet last
year. By any standard, being able to see a 10-inch white disk
descend six stories into a body of water is amazing. But as the
report states, clarity could be better, could be worse and must
be better understood. –Written by Julie Regan, executive director of the Tahoe
Regional Planning Agency, and Jason Vasques, executive director
of the California Tahoe Conservancy.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
Today, Congresswoman Norma Torres and Congressman David Valadao
– members of the House Appropriations Committee – announced the
introduction of the bipartisan Removing Nitrate and Arsenic in
Drinking Water Act. This bill would amend the Safe Drinking
Water Act to provide grants for nitrate and arsenic reduction,
by providing $15 million for FY25 and every fiscal year
thereafter. The bill also directs the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take into consideration the needs of
economically disadvantaged populations impacted by drinking
water contamination. The California State Water Resources
Control Board found the Inland Empire to have the highest
levels of contamination of nitrate throughout the state
including 82 sources in San Bernardino, 67 sources in Riverside
County, and 123 sources in Los Angeles County.
