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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One of the largest tree die-offs in California history, which
has turned evergreen forests into a bleak canvas of oranges and
browns, appears to be subsiding after nearly a decade of
wreckage. New data from the U.S. Forest Service shows that the
number of trees that perished in California last year hit a
10-year low. The 6.6 million trees counted as dead is still
above normal, scientists say, but it marks a major letup in the
run of drought, bugs and disease that’s
decimated forests across the state. The epidemic peaked in 2016
with 62 million dead trees. The improvement, revealed in the
preliminary results of Forest Service aerial surveys, is
credited to wet weather. … Healthy forests
are vital, notably for ecosystems, water supplies,
carbon storage and communities reliant on forest recreation and
the timber trade. Large numbers of dead trees can also increase
the risk of wildfire.
In an ominous sign for an already struggling project, state
officials on Wednesday said they are unhappy with the lack of
progress over plans by the Santa Clara Valley Water District to
build a huge new dam near Pacheco Pass and Henry W. Coe State
Park in Santa Clara County. Members of the California Water
Commission, an 8-member agency appointed by Gov. Gavin Newsom
that tentatively committed $504 million in state bond funding
seven years ago to the $2.7 billion project — and still could
revoke it — expressed frustration at the district’s shifting
timelines and lack of specifics and accomplishments.
… On Wednesday, district officials told the water
commission that they still haven’t secured major permits needed
to start construction, haven’t secured water rights, and only
have completed 30% of the design. They said they wouldn’t be
able to break ground until 2029 and won’t complete construction
until at least 2036.
Sen. Jerry McNerney is laying down the gauntlet against Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s budget proposal to fast-track a controversial
Delta water tunnel. What happened: McNerney said he has the
votes to defeat Newsom’s bid last week to speed up the
permitting for a tunnel underneath the state’s main water
delivery hub, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, if it came to
that. “I’m confident that we do,” the former House Democrat
said in an interview following a press conference on the
issue. A version of the proposed project has been floating
around — first as a canal, then a pair of tunnels — for more
than a half-century, during which it has reliably brought out
opposition from environmental groups and elected officials in
the Delta region concerned about habitat loss and construction
impacts.
As we head into summer, be sure to mark your calendars for our
popular fall programs which will all be opening for
registration soon! Our first-ever Klamath River Tour
runs September 8-12 (tickets by lottery); the annual
Water
Summit takes place at the Kimpton Sawyer Hotel in
Sacramento October 1; and our classic Northern
California Tour runs October
22-24. Plus, the Water Education Foundation’s
2024 Annual Report is now available in a new
interactive, digital format.
Lake Mead has declined about three feet in elevation since the
start of May, and officials are prepping for a future with less
water with an extended boat ramp at Hemenway Harbor. While
seasonal dips are normal this time of year, the reservoir is
about 10 feet lower than it was at this same time last
year. As of Monday, Lake Mead’s elevation clocked in at
1,059 feet, while Lake Powell to the northeast is at 3,558
feet. Both reservoirs are currently 32% full. Winter
totals have now been calculated, with the Upper Colorado region
tracking at just 58% of the median snowpack as of Monday. This
region is the source of most of Nevada’s annual water
supply. Current runoff projections from that snowpack are
at just 55%, continuing a troubling trend. Colorado River
streamflow has shrunk by about 20% since 2000.
Other snowmelt and water supply news around the West:
For the first time, water is flowing into the Species
Conservation Habitat Project at California’s beleaguered Salton
Sea—creating vital refuge for shorebirds and bringing
much-needed relief from airborne dust in nearby communities.
… The state-run Salton Sea Management Program announced the
water flows into the project’s east pond in early May. The
inflow is a mix of water from the Salton Sea and the New River.
This is the first step in the watering of the project. Toward
the end of the month, state officials expect to begin watering
the East Pond 1 Expansion Pond. Together, these ponds will
provide about 2,000 acres of new habitat for migrating
shorebirds, waterfowl and other waterbirds. … The
flooding will substantially reduce acreage of playa, exposed
lakebed that that can send clouds of windborne dust blowing
into nearby communities.
For decades, drilling a well in the Salinas Valley and its
outlying rural communities has required only one bureaucratic
step – applying to the county’s Environmental Health
Bureau for a ministerial permit and paying a one-time fee. But
with the advent of the Salinas Valley Basin Groundwater
Sustainability Agency (SVBGSA) in 2017, that paradigm was no
longer sustainable. In the years since forming following
California’s 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
SVBGSA has been collecting data and creating reports to send to
the state Department of Water Resources to show proof the
region is on track to meet SGMA’s requirements to achieve
groundwater sustainability by 2040. If the Department of Water
Resources doesn’t think a GSA is effectively doing that, it is
empowered to step in and take over the process, which is the
worst-case scenario for stakeholders who want to retain local
control over managing their groundwater.
The Environmental Protection Agency and International Boundary
and Water Commission on Tuesday announced the fast-track
expansion of the International Wastewater Treatment Plant in
the Tijuana River Valley. The facility has been in a state of
disrepair for years and had been undergoing a remodel to double
its capacity at a cost of more than $600 million, the work was
slated to take several years to complete. But according to the
EPA and the IBWC, the construction will now be done in 100
days, expanding capacity from 25 million gallons to 35 million
per day. “It’s something we’ve been asking for a long
time,” said Paloma Aguirre, mayor of Imperial Beach, the
American city most affected by the sewage and pollution that
comes in from Mexico on a daily basis. The contamination
has forced the city’s beaches to be closed for more than 1,000
consecutive days.
The head of the Environmental Protection Agency clashed with
Democratic senators Wednesday, accusing one of being an
“aspiring fiction writer” and saying another does not “care
about wasting money.’’ … The heated exchanges, at a
Senate hearing to discuss President Donald Trump’s proposal to
slash the agency’s budget in half, showed the sharp partisan
differences over Zeldin’s deregulatory approach. … Sen.
Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Zeldin that a plan to cut EPA
spending by 55% means that, to Zeldin and Trump, “more than
half of the environmental efforts of the EPA … to make sure
Americans have clean air and clean water are
just a waste.” If approved by Congress, the budget cuts “will
mean there’s more diesel and more other particulate matter in
the air” and that “water that Americans drink is going to have
more chemicals,” Schiff said.
In 1987, the Carmel River Steelhead Association filed a
complaint with the State Water Resources Control Board, arguing
that utility company California American Water was pumping too
much water from the Carmel River to supply users in and around
the Monterey Peninsula, harming steelhead trout. That state
board agreed, and in 1995, issued Order 95-10, directing Cal Am
to find a replacement water supply for river water it was
illegally siphoning away from the habitat. It’s 30 years later,
and Cal Am has complied. Since 2021, it has pumped within its
legal limit (3,376 acre-feet per year) from the Carmel, down
from about 14,000 acre-feet at the time. And yet Order 95-10 is
still in place, with state officials calling for a “permanent
replacement” supply before lifting it. … For years, Cal
Am and leaders in the hospitality industry have argued a
“permanent replacement” will require massive new infrastructure
– specifically, a desalination plant.
The call of American bullfrogs was deafening when scientists
from the University of California, Davis, first began
researching the impact of invasive bullfrogs on native
northwestern pond turtles at Yosemite National Park. … But
the ponds of Yosemite sound different today, with a chorus of
native species making themselves heard. The researchers’ study,
published in the May issue of the journal Biological
Conservation, found that as the park was depopulated of
bullfrogs, northwestern pond turtles began to return. The study
suggests that removing invasive bullfrogs may be necessary in
priority conservation areas to help pond turtle populations
recover.
The California Tahoe Conservancy let the public tour its latest
restoration project at the former Motel 6 property in South
Lake Tahoe Wednesday. According to the group, the portion of
the Truckee River underneath the Motel 6 is the missing link
between miles of marshland that feeds into Lake Tahoe,
providing critical wetland habitat among other environmental
benefits. “These wetlands provide a lot of really important
functions. One of those is protecting and improving water
quality by providing natural filtration,” Senior Environmental
Scientist at the California Tahoe Conservancy Stuart Roll said.
In addition to helping keep Tahoe blue, the marshland habitat
is home to several ecosystems and wildlife. “Lots of species
use these wetland, and so restoring them and improving them
really helps biodiversity and ecosystems in Lake Tahoe,” Roll
said.
A few years ago, scientists started identifying a potentially
major culprit in the dramatic decline of the coho salmon
fishery — a chemical known as “6PPD-quinone,” a byproduct of a
chemical used in automotive tires. Throughout the course of
their life, tires deposit the precursor of this chemical
everywhere they travel. This precursor degrades into 6PPD-q and
enters the water system, killing coho in particular — a
protected species under the Endangered Species Act — with great
efficiency. Now, a new study from Humboldt Waterkeeper,
conducted in Eureka and Arcata throughout the last few months,
shows that you don’t need a huge, dense car population to
generate potentially lethal concentrations of 6PPD-q — regular
old parking lots seem to do it just fine. … The
study comes at a time when the California Assembly is
considering legislation — Assembly Bill 1313 — that would
require owners of large parking lots to acquire
stormwater discharge permits and mitigate
their runoff.
Water credits, farm equipment, a piece of the
farm itself. These are some of the assets farmers have sold
this year to finance their operations. Typically, many
farmers take out yearly operating loans to pay for labor,
fertilizer, fuel and other input costs, and then they pay back
the loans after harvesting and selling their crops. But as the
farm economy struggles, lenders have pulled back, and some
farmers are liquidating assets to continue
farming. “What’s happened is the working capital—those
loans—just dried up,” said Bill Berryhill, who farms in
Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties. “It’s a little
tough to farm without any operating money.” … In
addition to low commodity prices and high farming costs,
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act has impacted lending and pushed some growers to
sell land, especially in the San Joaquin Valley.
A new study from the San Francisco Estuary Institute shows
concerning levels of “forever chemicals” — or per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances — in at least 10 fish species in the
San Francisco Bay, with contamination levels particularly high
in the southern region. PFAS chemicals are considered dangerous
due to their near-ubiquity in food and everyday-use products,
as well as their inability to break down easily in the body and
environment. They have been linked to a variety of conditions
and diseases, including some cancers and reproductive issues.
Studies have shown elevated PFAS levels in freshwater fish, and
even though saltwater fish tend to see lower amounts, Rebecca
Sutton, managing senior scientist at the San Francisco Estuary
Institute, said studying fish in bodies of water like the San
Francisco Bay is still critical.
According to a recent report from global water market data and
insights provider Bluefield Research, nearly one in five
gallons — 19.5% — of treated drinking water in the United
States is lost before it reaches customers or is improperly
billed. Known as non-revenue water (NRW), Bluefield estimates
that it costs utilities more than $6.4 billion (USD) in
uncaptured revenues annually. According to Bluefield, a major
contributor to water loss is vast and aging distribution
networks that span more than 2.2 million miles across the
country. Water main breaks are estimated to occur every two
minutes, placing significant financial, operational and
infrastructure burdens on utilities and their stakeholders.
Along with physical water loss, utilities also need to be
concerned about under-registering meters that may improperly
bill customers for their water usage, resulting in lost revenue
for the utility. The total value of the water lost from
physical leakage and water that goes unbilled, is non-revenue
water.
Fifteen California lawmakers from both parties are up in arms
over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest proposal to to use the budget
process to fast-track the Delta tunnel — a deeply
controversial, $20 billion plan to replumb the estuary and
funnel more water south. With the clock ticking for the
Legislature to pass a budget bill tackling the state’s $12
billion deficit, Newsom dropped a spending plan last week that
would add sweeping changes to permitting, litigation,
financing, and eminent domain and land acquisition issues aimed
at speeding approval of the massive
project. … Assembly and Senate Democrats and
Republicans representing Delta counties, including Sacramento,
Yolo, Contra Costa and San Joaquin, fired back in a letter last
week, saying it would “change several, separate parts of state
law to benefit only a portion of California, to the detriment
of Californians north of the Delta.”
Limited Chinook salmon fishing on sections of the Mokelumne,
Feather and American rivers is being reopened for the first
time in two years, the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife announced Tuesday. … The Department of Fish and
Wildlife says salmon stocks throughout the state have been
harmed by multiyear droughts, causing
inadequate spawning and migration conditions, ocean forage
shifts and thiamine deficiencies. Thiamine, also called Vitamin
B1, is an essential nutrient for salmon and their reproduction.
Scientists have theorized that anchovies, which are often prey
for salmon, produce the thiaminase enzyme that breaks down
thiamine. It’s believed warmer climates have caused anchovy
populations to shift to ocean areas where river salmon go to
grow and find food before returning to their rivers to spawn.
The western U.S. is experiencing a late-season snow drought,
according to an update Wednesday by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated Drought
Information System. The diminished snowpack could result in
water supply issues and increased wildfire risk in the coming
months, the authors wrote. Above-normal temperatures and a lack
of precipitation in April and early May caused depletions even
in basins where snow had piled up in prior months.
… “While the rate of the snowmelt has not had a major
impact on forecasted April through July seasonal runoff, below
average spring precipitation has lowered runoff projections
slightly,” said Andy Reising, manager of the California
Department of Water Resources’ snow surveys and water supply
forecasting unit.
The Trump administration significantly cut funding for flood
prevention projects in blue states across the country while
creating new water construction opportunities in red states,
undoing a Biden-era budget proposal that would have allocated
money more evenly, according to a data analysis prepared by
Democratic staffers. California and the state
of Washington lost the most funds, with the administration
cutting water construction budget for those states by a
combined $606 million, according to the analysis, which was
shared with CNN. Texas, meanwhile, gained $206 million. …
Collectively, states with Democratic senators lost over $436
million in funding compared to what they would have received
under the last proposed budget of President Joe Biden’s
administration, the data analysis shows. Republican-led states
gained more than $257 million, the analysis shows.
