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 Bureau of Reclamation recently agreed to take the first
step in a major water project for northern Arizona, and it
could impact Flagstaff’s future water supply. The water
supply at Flagstaff’s Red Gap Ranch has been in the city’s
hands for nearly two decades. Now a new study could bring the
long-planned water pipeline one step closer to reality. The
Bureau of Reclamation will begin an appraisal-level study to
assess the pipeline’s feasibility, design and cost. It’s the
first federal step in a project meant to boost water resilience
during drought and disasters. If built, the pipeline would
stretch more than 35 miles from Red Gap Ranch to the city. The
study follows support from Gov. Katie Hobbs and Sen. Mark
Kelly, and aligns with a broader tribal water rights agreement
signed last fall.
California is a national and global powerhouse when it comes to
nuts. Recent data shows that the Golden State produces roughly
80% of the world’s almonds and 60% of the world’s pistachios.
It’s a lot of nuts and a lot of money. But changing climate
conditions are challenging nut growers. With warming winters
and a propensity for drought, crops that did
well 20 years ago might not make it 20 years from now. That’s
where the plant geneticists and breeders at UC Davis’ Wolfskill
Experimental Orchard come in. This week, Gabriela Glueck,
KCRW’s Julia Child Reporting Fellow, takes us on a trip to the
orchard to meet with two nut crop breeders who are trying to
set up California almond and pistachio growers for success.
Officials in Santa Barbara County are exploring the possibility
of allowing visitors to swim in Lake Cachuma, a human-made
reservoir in the Santa Ynez Valley where swimming has been
banned since its creation in 1953. … Swimming is banned
at the lake because it’s used as a local water source. That’s
been the case since the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation created the
lake in 1953 by constructing the Bradbury Dam, then called the
Cachuma Dam, thereby blocking the flow of the Santa Ynez River.
The lake is still owned by the Bureau of Reclamation, though
it’s managed by the county. Bantilan said the county is in
touch with local water agencies about allowing swimming at the
lake, a move that’s already taken place at other reservoirs in
the state.
Carlsbad’s residential water and sewer rates will increase 20%
on July 1 and a total of 49% over the next three years under a
plan approved Tuesday by the City Council. Several residents
opposed the rate hikes, but city staffers said they are needed
to pass along a 14% increase in the price of water purchased
from the San Diego County Water Authority and to cover
inflation and the rising costs of maintenance and capital
improvements. … The City Council approved the new rate
structure on a 4-1 vote with Councilmember Melanie Burkholder
opposed. Burkholder said the higher bills would be bad for
business, and that the city should “do more with less” and
consider deferred maintenance.
Air pollution remains a major problem in many parts of
California. … However, the contribution of anthropogenic dust
from agricultural sources, among major pollutants in
California’s semi-arid Central Valley, remains largely
unclear. … We find that the Central Valley accounts for
about 77% of total fallowed land areas in California, where
they are associated with about 88% of major anthropogenic dust
events. … We also find that the geographic coverage of these
fallowed lands expanded between 2008 and 2022 with associated
increasing anthropogenic dust activities. … Overall, our
results have important implications for public health,
including increased risk for Valley fever and for regional
climates, such as increases in extreme precipitation and
snowmelt over the Sierra Nevada. … (D)eposited dust can
change snowmelt timing over the Sierra Nevada and substantially
impact California’s vulnerability to water
resources.
… Rivers are easily wounded. But given a chance, they heal
themselves with remarkable speed. Their life pours back. On 2
October 2024, the century-old Iron Gate dam was removed from
the upper Klamath River, who flows out of Oregon and into
California. Its demolition concluded the largest de-damming
project in US history, and was the outcome of two decades of
campaigning and watershed activism, led by members of the
Klamath Tribe. Only a few days later, something extraordinary
happened. A sonar camera set up by scientists detected a single
chinook salmon migrating upstream to spawn, past the
pinch-point where the Iron Gate Dam had stood. It was the first
fish to make that journey in more than 100 years, guided by an
ancient navigation system and driven by an undeniable urge.
In the beginning there was water and land, rivers and
floodplains. Now there are levees and dams, and centuries of
history brought by the rivers dictating the fate of Sutter and
Yuba counties. Knowing the history of the land, a reasonable
person may wonder how — more than why — people have lived there
for so long. A new exhibit at the Sutter County Museum delves
into that answer, showing the history of floods and human
intervention in the Yuba-Sutter area. … The museum’s new
flood exhibit walks visitors through the evolution of the land
surrounding the Sutter Buttes and extending past the Feather
and Yuba rivers.
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.
