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 Chris Bowman.
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Further legal action on the Kern River was put on pause
Thursday morning following an order by the 5th District Court
of Appeal that stayed a local injunction mandating enough water
be kept in the river for fish. … The underlying lawsuit was
filed in 2022 by Bring Back the Kern and several other public
interest groups along with Water Audit California, against the
City of Bakersfield for dewatering the river. … That 2022
lawsuit demands the city study the impacts of its river
operations on recreation and the ecosystem under the Public
Trust doctrine, which states all natural resources are held in
trust by the state for the greatest beneficial use by the
public. That was once automatically considered to be farming,
industry and municipal uses. But in recent years, recreation,
aesthetics and the environment have gained equal footing.
A new project for the Mojave Water Agency aims to support
strategic planning for sustainable groundwater basin management
and conjunctive use projects, the agency announced. The
announcement came on Tuesday by Geoscience Support Services,
Inc., a geohydrology firm that provides specialized
hydrogeology and groundwater consulting and services.
Geoscience entered into a new contract with the Apple
Valley-based Mojave Water Agency to evaluate groundwater
resources and develop advanced recovery and management
strategies. The project supports the Mojave Water Agency’s
mission to manage groundwater basins and address risks to
sustainable water supplies.
Despite the prevailing dry conditions in warmer months, the
Sacramento Valley and the north Delta have remained free of
harmful algal bloom (HAB) detections—a testament to our
proactive monitoring and mitigation efforts. As we continue to
closely watch over these waterways and utilize the latest
technology, we’re committed to keeping our communities safe and
our ecosystems thriving. With warmer temperatures and summer
recreation at California freshwater lakes and rivers on the
horizon, it is time for Californians to be vigilant about the
dangers posed by freshwater Harmful Algal Blooms
(HABs). According to the California Department of Water
Resources (DRW), algal blooms can release toxins into the water
which have the potential to significantly harm both people and
pets. It can also create hypoxia which impacts fish
populations.
The effort to grant “rights of nature” to Boulder Creek through
Nederland as a legacy for generations to come lasted less than
three years. The human guardians appointed to voice those
rights lasted less than five months. The Nederland town board
voted unanimously late Tuesday to repeal a 2021 rights of
nature resolution meant to give a policy voice to watershed
environmental protections, in clearly stated pique at a
nonprofit group opposing a dam the town wants to build on the
creek’s middle branch. Nederland board members
claimed they were misled by Save the World’s Rivers and its
leader Gary Wockner to bolster river protections, only to have
the group file formal objections in water court to Nederland’s
plan for a new reservoir on Middle Boulder Creek.
The Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) today
presented its 2024 Excellence in Water Leadership Award to
Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) General Manager Andy Fecko
for his leadership and commitment to water resource issues,
especially in reducing fuel load in our National Forest system
lands. At PCWA, Fecko manages several billion dollars of
infrastructure that must be operational at all times, including
during and after wildfires that have become more common and
destructive in the past decade. In response to the devastating
Kings Fire in 2014, Fecko led the region’s creation of the
French Meadows Forest Restoration Project – a public/private
forest health partnership. The project consists of 30,000 acres
of ecological thinning within the Tahoe National Forest. This
is a first-of-its-kind project that established the formula for
success in California forest management, which is based on
collaboration.
Six years ago the state water board approved an order
establishing new nitrogen monitoring and reporting requirements
in the Central Valley. Growers in other regions have faced
similar mandates.
Fresno State students can now learn more about one of
California’s most precious resources – water. There’s a new
educational offering at Fresno State. The interdisciplinary
program is designed to teach students all about water systems
in California. Political Science Professor Thomas Holyoke says
it’s different than other minors. “This would require students
to take a variety of classes from different areas of the
university,” Holyoke said. That includes classes in geology,
geography, agriculture, political science and beyond.
Subsidence has reared its head again as a key factor cited by
state Water Resources Control Board staff for recommending that
the Kaweah groundwater subbasin be placed on probation – the
first step toward possible state takeover of groundwater
pumping. The recommendation was contained in a draft report
released May 6, which set Nov. 5 for Kaweah’s hearing before
the Water Board. Subsidence was listed as a major factor in
similar staff reports for the Tulare Lake and Tule subbasins.
Tulare Lake was, indeed, placed on probation by the Water Board
April 16 and the Tule subbasin comes before the board Sept. 17.
The Kaweah report identified additional challenges
for water managers in the subbasin, which covers the northern
half of Tulare County’s valley portion into the eastern fringes
of Kings County.
After yearslong battles with the city of San Diego over
crumbling stormwater infrastructure in their southeastern San
Diego neighborhoods, hundreds of people whose homes and
businesses were damaged by flash flood waters in January are
now suing the city. The $100 million mass tort lawsuit has
nearly 300 plaintiffs — homeowners and renters as well as
business owners in the communities of Southcrest, Logan Heights
and others along the Chollas Creek watershed. The lawsuit
contends that city leaders have known for years that the creek
and stormwater infrastructure around it are in urgent need of
attention.
Two California water utilities went before the state’s Supreme
Court on Wednesday to argue that the Public Utilities
Commission cut corners when it decided to discontinue the use
of surcharges to compensate the utilities for sales shortfalls
from water conservation efforts. The Golden State Water Co. and
the California-American Water Co. claim that the commission
made the decision to eliminate the so-called decoupling
mechanisms without giving them adequate notice that it was
considering this option as part of a yearslong rulemaking
procedure. As a result, the utilities argue, they had no
opportunity to provide evidence to support their case that
these mechanisms — which allow them to impose a surcharge on
their customers when they face a revenue shortfall because of
California’s efforts to conserve water in drought-plagued years
— were serving their purpose.
After another wet winter, record rainfall has turned California
green and replenished the state’s reservoirs, which had been
perilously low during the worst days of the drought. Lake
Oroville, the state’s second-biggest reservoir, often serves as
a rainfall barometer. As of Tuesday, Oroville was at 100%
capacity, according to data from the state Department of Water
Resources. … The left photograph shows Enterprise Bridge
on Dec. 21, 2022, when the lake was at 29% of its total
capacity. The right side shows the same area April 24, 2024,
when the lake was at 96% of capacity — a figure it has now
eclipsed. As of May 7, Lake Oroville was at 128% of its
historical level. Lake Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir,
was 97% full Tuesday, or 115% of its historical level.
Over the past decade, a signature California program that
charges polluters for their planet-heating emissions has
generated billions of dollars for state initiatives, and Gov.
Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that these revenues are effectively
helping to reduce pollution and combat climate change.
… The program has also supported projects intended to
reduce wildfire risk by thinning vegetation and restoring
degraded forests. … Another issue that
has generated criticism is the fact that about 65% of
the annual cap-and-trade revenues must be dedicated each year
to several programs, with 25% going to high-speed rail and the
remainder split between affordable housing, transit and rail,
low-carbon transit operations, and safe drinking water.
The ongoing drought across the western United States has led to
concerns about the future of hydropower. As reservoirs see
water levels drop, officials worry about electricity generation
being reduced, as well. This is an issue Syris
Valentine has written about. Valentine is the climate
solutions fellow with Grist Magazine. He joined The Show to
talk about what he’s learned.
It’s the largest salmon restoration project in the world and
its happening in our backyard. In the past few months,
four dams on the Klamath River have been disabled and the river
is flowing freely for the first time in more than a century.
… The initial phase of drawdown – the draining of Iron Gate,
Copco, and JC Boyle reservoirs – is now complete.
A new study found that the Colorado River may experience a
rebound after two decades of decreased flows due to drought and
global warming. “Importantly, we find climate change will
likely increase precipitation in the Colorado headwaters,”
Professor Martin Hoerling, the study’s lead author, wrote to
The Salt Lake Tribune in an email. “This will compensate some
if not most of the depleting effects of further warming.”
Recently published in the Journal of Climate, the study by
researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative
Institute for Research in Environmental Science used data from
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. … The
study’s climate projections forecast that there is a 70% chance
that climate change will lead to increased precipitation in the
Upper Basin between 2026 and 2050. That precipitation increase
could boost the river’s flows by 5% to 7%.
California water officials are urging people and their pets to
avoid Silverwood Lake in San Bernardino County after a toxic
algal bloom was detected in the reservoir. The Department of
Water Resources has issued a caution advisory warning residents
to avoid parts of the popular recreation spot until further
notice due to the presence of harmful cyanobacteria, or
blue-green algae, in the water. Blue-green algae are a natural
part of many ecosystems, but can grow, or “bloom,” rapidly
under certain conditions including warmer water temperatures.
Experts say the issue is getting worse as climate change, aging
water infrastructure and human activities converge in water
bodies across the state.
The town of Seagraves sits on the high plains of West
Texas, not far from the New Mexico border. Nearby, water pumped
from the Ogallala Aquifer irrigates fields of peanuts and
cotton. Dissolved in that West Texas water are copious amounts
of fluoride. The tap water in Seagraves contains levels of the
mineral that many experts believe could have neurotoxic
effects, lowering children’s IQs. The science on that effect is
unsettled, and most experts say better research is needed. But
nearly everyone agrees that at some point, high fluoride levels
ought to be a matter of greater concern — even if they don’t
always agree on what that point is. Many cities add low
levels of fluoride to drinking water in a bid to prevent tooth
decay, but the policy has long been controversial. Lost
in that debate are the roughly 3 million Americans
whose water naturally contains higher concentrations of
fluoride — often at levels that even some fluoridation
advocates now acknowledge could have neurodevelopmental
effects.
After more than an hour of discussion, which included the
addition of some new conditions of approval by staff as well as
public comments both in opposition and support, the California
Coastal Commission unanimously approved the project. In
granting the Harbor District’s permit application, the
commission cleared away one of the last remaining
administrative hurdles for Nordic Aquafarms’ proposed
fish-production factory on the Samoa Peninsula. The coastal
development permit will allow the Harbor District to upgrade
its seawater intake infrastructure in Humboldt Bay, install new
underground water pipelines along the bay, perform a variety of
environmental mitigation activities and, eventually, withdraw
up to 11.8 million gallons of water per day for tenants in the
future National Marine Research and Innovation Park.
Businesses should start preparing for more regulatory
notification and reporting, recordkeeping obligations, and
potential liability now that the Environmental Protection
Agency has issued its first-ever national, legally enforceable
drinking-water standards for “forever chemicals.” The EPA has
set near-zero maximum contaminant levels, or MCLs, for six per-
and polyfluoroalkyl substances, and we expect this development
to broadly impact PFAS regulation. Water systems operating
under state drinking water standards for PFAS will have to
comply with the more stringent MCLs. The costs to treat PFAS in
drinking water to meet the MCLs will cost billions of
dollars. -Written by Jeffrey Dintzer and Gregory Berlin of the
Alston & Bird law firm.
California’s reservoirs are not only vital to the state’s
complex water systems, providing millions of people and the
state’s agricultural economy with needed access to water;
they’re also important gauges for how healthy the state is
overall. This year’s at-capacity reservoirs have been a boon
for a region besieged by drought over much of the past decade,
but more work is needed to help ensure a plentiful and
water-wise future for the most populous state in
America. Enter Sites Reservoir, a long-in-the-works
project that aims to be the biggest reservoir development in
nearly half a century. It’s been a massive dream for
decades, an idea first worked up by landowners and water
districts northwest of Sacramento. Thanks to a new infusion of
federal cash, the proposal is closer than ever to actually
happening — but not without a very real cost.
