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.
For the first time in nearly a decade, federal officials on
Tuesday auctioned off leases for new geothermal energy projects
in California — and all 13 parcels offered received bids.
Dozens of buyers participated in the Bureau of Land
Management‘s online sale of 10-year leases on 23,000 acres in
Imperial, Lassen and Modoc counties. … [N]ew technology known
as Enhanced Geothermal Systems is broadening the places where
geothermal energy can be created. … Instead of searching for
existing sources of hot subsurface water, they can create their
own reservoirs by fracturing dry rocks underground and
injecting them with water from above.
The seven states that depend on the Colorado River are racing
against the clock to meet the 2026 deadline to determine how
they will divvy up the dwindling water supply, with one caveat
— they need to submit their proposals by Nov. 11. The
current operating guidelines for the Colorado River are set to
expire next year after a century. … Amy Haas, Executive
Director of the Colorado River Authority of Utah, said she is
optimistic they’ll meet that November deadline.
Please note: An earlier version of this
story appeared in yesterday’s Aquafornia and was revised by the
publication to clarify quotes from sources, including those
from Elizabeth Koebele, that the state of Utah is willing
to do more to conserve Colorado River water, but has not said
it was willing to take a reduction in how much it is
allocated.
The scientist traipses to a pond wearing rubber boots but he
doesn’t enter the water. Instead, Brad Hollingsworth squats
next to its swampy edge and retrieves a recording device the
size of a deck of cards. He then opens it up and removes a tiny
memory card containing 18 hours of sound. … [N]o croaking
from the invasive bullfrog, which has decimated the native
red-legged frog population over the past century. It was
another good day in his efforts to increase the population of
the red-legged frog and restore an ecosystem spanning the
U.S.-Mexico border.
… [El Monte Nature Preserve, LLC.] is suing San Diego
for releasing six billion gallons of water from the El Capitan
Dam and Reservoir into the surrounding areas “without notice”
back in 2023. El Monte Nature Preserve’s nearby property was
one of those areas, and the release of water caused its water
table to rise by roughly 40 feet, resulting in “damage to the
value of the property,” according to the lawsuit. … [M]ost of
El Monte Nature Preserve’s property is zoned for sand mining.
… However, now that the property’s water table has
risen, it can no longer be mined for sand because the city
doesn’t allow sand mining below the water table.
In the Sacramento and San Joaquin regions, more than a thousand
miles of levees protect farms and communities, but these aging
structures are vulnerable to floods and earthquakes. When there
is a lot of water coming down the rivers, a system of weirs can
take pressure off the levees by moving water into bypasses. The
Army Corps of Engineers, along with state and local partners,
is now working to nearly double the size of the Sacramento weir
in West Sacramento to improve flood management in the region.
OceanWell is hoping to make salty ocean water drinkable with an
innovative subsea reverse osmosis project, dubbed the Water
Farm 1, which is expected to deliver up to 60 million gallons
per day of fresh water by 2030 to thousands of residents in
Southern California. Southern California is the perfect place
to start due to its over-pumped groundwater basins, recurring
and worsening droughts, and reliance on imports from sources
like the shrinking Colorado River.
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday that
Secretary Kristi Noem has waived the protections of the
Endangered Species Act and other federal statutes to “ensure
the expeditious construction” of the border wall through the
Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in
Texas. … [T]he federal government will no longer have to
follow the National Environmental Protection Act, the Clean
Water Act, the Migratory Bird Conservation Act and other
seminal federal laws. … The area targeted for construction
falls within the Rio Grande floodplain. A 1970
treaty between the U.S. and Mexico commits both countries to
ensuring that construction along the Rio Grande does not
obstruct the river or the flow of flood waters.
… Odds lean toward warmer and drier than normal conditions
lingering across the Beehive State over the meteorological fall
months of September, October and November, according to the
National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, which
released its final seasonal outlook late last week. Utah has a
50% to 70% probability of having above-normal temperatures and
a 33% to 50% probability of below-normal precipitation,
according to the outlook. Eastern parts of the state have the
strongest odds for warmer and drier conditions along with large
chunks of Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
Things are starting to look pretty good as the salmon season
ramps up with decent numbers now being reported on the Feather
River from Yuba City to the Outlet Hole. There are still some
slow days, but the guides are reporting an increasing number of
limits, private anglers are posting some pretty fish and bank
anglers are posting some equally impressive catches. There are
still two months of fishing in the upper zone and by
mid-September, there should be plenty of fish in the system.
… NPS also lagged this year in staffing up for the busy
summer season — a monthslong process that begins during the
winter — due to the Trump administration’s hiring freeze. …
Yosemite ultimately hired 25 fewer seasonal employees this year
compared with last because of the hiring delay, according to
the person familiar with the park’s staffing data. … Jobs
running the park’s water treatment and electrical
systems are particularly challenging to keep filled in
the remote region, they said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday placed
several employees on administrative leave effective
immediately, just one day after they signed an open letter
warning Congress that the Trump administration’s sweeping
overhaul of the agency could lead to catastrophic failures in
disaster response. Titled “Katrina Declaration,” the letter
accuses President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary
Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, of undermining the
agency’s capabilities, ignoring its congressionally mandated
authority and appointing unqualified leadership.
UCLA geographers using satellite data have discovered that kelp
forests recover better after marine heat waves in marine
protected areas than in unprotected areas. The researchers
believe that the protection put in place within MPAs may
support kelp against multiple environmental stressors.
… This effect, known as a trophic cascade, has been
documented in other ecosystems where apex predators are
protected. The finding is published in the Journal of Applied
Ecology.
The origin of water on our planet has not been definitively
proven. One theory suggests that H2O has always existed on
Earth and was released through volcanic eruptions. Another
hypothesis is that water arrived via the impact of comets and
asteroids. A more recent idea proposes that a cloud of water
vapor once enveloped the inner planets of the solar system,
including Earth. The likely answer is that a combination of all
of these factors brought water to our planet.
Dear Aquafornia Readers: This morning, the
Aquafornia news feed included
an article from the Moab Times-Independent
entitled “Utah agrees on cuts from the Colorado River, the
only Upper Basin state willing to budge.” We have since learned
that the article was subsequently removed from the newspaper’s
website.
… [A]ccording to Elizabeth Koebele, a University of Nevada,
Reno professor who studies the Colorado River, progress was
made during closed-door meetings this month, with Utah finally
agreeing to cut back on its water supply. The percentage of
water Utah is willing to cut back on is still unknown, with
Marc Stilson, deputy director of the Colorado River Authority,
saying that’s the “heart of the negotiations.” Though Stilson
said all seven states have shown interest in reducing their
water intake, Koebele said Utah is the only Upper Basin state
that’s willing to reduce its water rights — something the rest
of the three other states haven’t shown interest in.
[Please note: This article has since been
removed from the newspaper's website].
Headed for the Senate Appropriations Committee this week are
two state assembly bills that could spell out a big win for
California geothermal energy projects. While the proposed
legislation is not without opposition, the passage of assembly
bills 527 and 531 could also mean thousands of new jobs in
Mendocino County. … If the state were to pass these
bills, Sonoma Clean Power would ramp up its GeoZone project,
which would tap into geothermal energy within Mendocino and
Sonoma counties. … “[Y]ou potentially could be impacting
water sources and dropping the water table,” [Kim Delfino, a
lobbyist and founder of Earth Advocacy] said. “We would
like to see the determination that there will not be impacts to
water quality with the use of this technology
or fluids.”
… [O]fficials at the scene estimate 150 people lived in
unsanctioned encampments along the levee to make room for the
upcoming Pajaro River Levee reconstruction
project. In their wake were heaps of things the
residents had accumulated—tarps, tents, cooking equipment,
mattresses, clothes and a profusion of trash. … Pajaro
River Flood Management Agency (PRFMA) Director Mark Strudley
said that homeless services advocates are working to find
places for the evicted people to go. … Strudley
explained that the encampments endanger both the integrity of
the levee and the safety of the staff and other people who must
enter the levee.
… The Big Data Center Buildup is transforming the West (and
other regions) as quickly and radically as the post-war Big
Buildup of coal plants and other power infrastructure in the
1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. … As I’ve written here before, data
centers use huge amounts of energy and water,
and if they keep sprouting like weeds in business parks and
rural areas, then they very well could not only hamper, but
reverse the transition away from fossil fuels.
Our 41ˢᵗ annual Water Summit, an engaging day of discussions
addressing critical water issues in California and across the
West, will be held on Wednesday, Oct. 1, in Sacramento with the
theme Embracing Uncertainty in the
West. Speakers include Brenda Burman, former
Bureau of Reclamation commissioner and now general manager of
the Central Arizona Project; Tim Quinn, former executive
director of the Association of California Water Agencies; and
Jeff Mount, senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California’s Water Policy Center. Foundation members
receive a $100 discount on registration, but space is limited,
so
reserve your spot here.
The Department of Water Resources announced Monday its fish
monitoring station at the Feather River Fish Hatchery,
installed July 2023 about 6.5 miles from the hatchery, has
helped reduce staff hours spent conducting carcass surveys by
three-quarters — and, best of all, the counts of spring-run
salmon are up. The monitoring station is said to be a valuable
tool for scientists counting Chinook salmon and steelhead trout
populations in the Feather River; it uses an underwater camera
to track arrival timing, number, species and origin of
returning fish — whether natural or hatchery raised, according
to the release.
