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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.
Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, 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 nation’s largest dam-removal project is moving along faster
than planned, with the demolition work on the Klamath River,
near the California-Oregon border, due to wrap up as soon as
next month – and salmon expected to make their long-awaited
return soon after. Following months of blasting and drilling,
three large hydroelectric dams slated for dismantling this year
are close to being cleared out of the river channel while a
smaller fourth dam was taken out last fall. Officials at the
Klamath River Renewal Corp., which is managing the $500 million
deconstruction effort about a six-hour drive from San
Francisco, credit a combination of good weather and speedy
crews for putting the bulk of the work on track to finish about
a month and a half before their Oct. 15 deadline.
… The Imperial Irrigation District — the biggest user of
water from the 1,450-mile (2,334-kilometer) river — has offered
to pay farmers to shut off irrigation to forage crops including
alfalfa for up to 60 days during the peak of the sweltering
summer. While farmers often balk at the idea of letting fields
lie fallow, at least 80% of properties eligible for the new
program have been signed up to participate, said Tina Shields,
the district’s water department manager. “We don’t like to do
fallowing down here,” Shields said. “They’re making business
decisions.” The move comes as farmers of alfalfa and other
crops that feed cattle have seen the price of hay plummet amid
rising supply. For many, that means a summer crop of alfalfa
could bring in less in revenue than the $300 in federal funding
per acre-foot of water that the water district is willing to
fork over if they simply stop watering it, experts said.
Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” are widely added to pesticides,
and are increasingly used in the products in recent years, new
research finds, a practice that creates a health threat by
spreading the dangerous compounds directly into the US’s food
and water supply. The analysis of active and inert ingredients
that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved for
use in pesticides proves recent agency claims that the
chemicals aren’t used in pesticides are
false. … Among chemicals in pesticides are PFOA and
PFOS, two of the most dangerous PFAS compounds. The EPA has
found virtually no level of exposure to the two chemicals in
drinking water is safe.
Ecologists and climate scientists agree that “nature-based
solutions” like the reforestation of degraded pasture lands and
restoration of coastal wetlands can play a key role in
combatting climate change. These projects take advantage of the
natural carbon cycle—in particular, photosynthesis’ conversion
of carbon dioxide into biomass—to remove excess carbon dioxide
from the atmosphere. Investing in nature-based solutions also
can increase community resilience to destructive climate
impacts such as sea rise and storm surges in coastal areas,
excessive heat, catastrophic wildfires, and the like. And
nature-based investments can produce other valuable “ecosystem
services” such as clean water, biodiversity, and multiple
cultural and socio-economic benefits…
Dos Rios, named for the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers that
meet at the edge of the park, is the first new California state
park in more than a decade. But it isn’t like most state parks.
In addition to bringing much-needed green space to an
underserved area, its unusual design uses nature-based climate
solutions that reinvigorate native wildlife. By restoring the
natural floodplain, the park will also help mitigate flooding
that threatens residents in the area. … Dos Rios is like
a time machine. Just 15 years ago, this plot of land looked
much like its surroundings. “These floodplains were once
laser-leveled fields that grew alfalfa, or a rotation of corn
and winter wheat, which would be harvested and moved over to
where the dairies are to feed the cows,” says conservationist
Julie Rentner. Now, the land looks more like it did hundreds of
years ago, before farms and towns cropped up, before the
Central Valley became an agricultural hub of America.
There’s a lithium bonanza happening at the Salton Sea. … The
boom started when one of the world’s largest supplies of
lithium was discovered one mile below the dying lake. The metal
is required to produce electric car batteries and is essential
to reducing carbon emissions. Yet lost in the excitement
about the money and new jobs that the mining projects could
bring are the concerns of the people who live there. The
impoverished area — which is more than 80% Latino — already has
a childhood asthma rate that is more than twice the national
average. The asthma cases have been tied to the toxic dust
created as the Salton Sea recedes from lack of water. And some
local residents fear that the number of respiratory cases could
soar even higher as the lithium mining projects drink up more
of the area’s much fought over allocation from the Colorado
River.
A new partnership between five water agencies gives Rubidoux
Community Services District (RCSD) access to high-quality,
imported drinking water to meet growing demand. Over the past
50 years, the population in RCSD, a Western Municipal Water
District (Western Water) wholesale customer, has increased from
4,000 to 40,000. RCSD previously relied on only local
groundwater and needed a new way to bolster water supplies to
serve its growing community. Now, four water agencies have
joined forces with RCSD to ensure they have enough safe,
reliable drinking water for every customer. Through a new
agreement with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California (Metropolitan), San Bernardino Valley Water District
(San Bernardino Valley), West Valley Water District (WVWD), and
Western Water, up to 2,000 acre-feet of water imported through
the State Water Project will soon flow to RCSD customers’ taps
every year.
Government agencies, insurance companies and disaster planners
rely on national flood risk models from the private sector that
aren’t reliable at smaller levels such as neighborhoods and
individual properties, according to researchers at the
University of California, Irvine. In a paper published recently
in the American Geophysical Union journal Earth’s Future,
experts in UC Irvine’s Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering caution that relatively new, nation-scale flood
data provides an inadequate representation of local topography
and infrastructure, factors known to control the spread of
floods in urban areas. … Sanders and colleagues at UC
Irvine and the University of Miami developed a more detailed
model named PRIMo-Drain that, they said, improves the accuracy
of flood inundation predictions by including fine-resolution
topographic data; information about levees and channel
conditions; and particulars about stormwater infrastructure
such as culverts, subsurface pipes and street drains.
From prolonged drought to excessive flooding, water conditions
in California have been anything but consistent during the past
few years. That’s a problem for one of the world’s leading
agricultural regions. With climate change threatening one of
California’s biggest industries, we need to invest in a truly
resilient and reliable water future. We need Sites Reservoir.
After the worst drought on record in 2022, historic, wet
winters in 2023 and 2024 produced record rain that filled
reservoirs and aquifers above average levels. It was a welcome
change for California’s farms, which were relying on depleted
wells and aquifers in the previous two years. But it wasn’t
enough to overcome losses from the state’s large groundwater
deficit. If it were already operational, Sites Reservoir—a 1.5
million acre-feet off-stream water storage project planned for
rural Glenn and Colusa counties north of Sacramento—would be
100% full as of this past spring.
These days, water conservation agencies and University of
California Cooperative Extension farm advisors are advocating
adding soil-moisture sensors to create precision irrigation
management in drought-prone California agricultural areas. They
say the technology has come a long way in the past 50 years and
continues to evolve with Wi-Fi connectivity and digital
readings. Tate obtained her soil-moisture sensor through a
grant from the Ventura County Resource Conservation District,
which received state funding to make the technology available
for regional avocado, strawberry and vegetable growers. … The
value of a soil sensor is twofold, according to Jamie
Whiteford, a conservation scientist who manages grants for the
Ventura district. It can prevent overwatering of tree crops or
indicate that the root zone is drying up and in need of
irrigation to avoid stressing the tree.
Flume Water, a leader in smart water monitoring solutions, has
been selected by the California Department of Water Resources
(DWR) to study indoor residential water use in support of the
state’s water conservation initiatives. This partnership aligns
with the “Making Conservation a California Way of Life”
legislation, which sets new water use objectives for urban
water suppliers throughout California. … In
collaboration with DWR, Flume will analyze indoor residential
water use across California, as mandated by Senate Bill 1157.
This legislation revised the indoor water use standards,
establishing a state-wide standard of 42 Gallons per Capita per
Day (GPCD) beginning January 1, 2030. Flume’s study will
evaluate the feasibility of these future indoor residential
water use standards and assist with analyzing their impacts and
benefits. Peter Mayer, P.E., Principal of WaterDM a seasoned
water researcher, will serve as the project’s Principal
Investigator.
In many ways, this stretch of waterfront in Capitola paved the
way for California’s beachfront communities — it claims to be
the first and oldest oceanfront resort in California. The
Venetian Court homes are still standing nearly 100 years after
they were built, a longtime symbol of the picturesque
California coast. But after strong storms battered the
area for the second winter in a row, they’re also emblematic of
the challenges communities along the shore will battle in the
face of climate change. … The Venetian Court homes are
part of a central homeowners association, with each homeowner
paying $179 per month, which goes toward communal expenses like
upkeep of the public walkways, lighting, water and even
maintaining the seawall that protects the homes from the ocean.
But that seawall can’t fully protect the homes, with winter
storms breaching the concrete barrier year after year.
On Monday, July 22, the city of Malibu posted on its website
that members of the community can review the proposed Final
Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) for the Topanga Lagoon
Restoration Project from July 15 through August 13. The
proposed FEIR identifies the range of closely related
alternatives considered for the project, as well as the
preferred alternative. The Topanga Lagoon Restoration Project
is a multiagency cooperative effort by California State Parks,
CalTrans, County of Los Angeles Department of Beaches and
Harbors and the Resource Conservation District of the Santa
Monica Mountains to restore the Topanga Lagoon ecosystem. It is
one of the last coastal wetlands in Southern California. The
project aims to protect and restore precious biological and
cultural resources, create an integrated program for coastal
access, emergency response and interpretation, and proactively
address the effects of sea level rise at the Topanga Lagoon
ecosystem.
In a case that could limit the authority of federal and state
agencies to regulate water pollution, San Francisco is arguing
to the Supreme Court that it is responsible only for the
pollutants its sewage-treatment plants discharge into the
ocean, and not for the quality of the waters themselves. The
court agreed in May to hear San Francisco’s appeal of a ruling
that said the city was failing to protect swimmers and bathers
from discharges of sewage into the Pacific Ocean. The ruling,
due by June 2025, will determine whether local governments can
be penalized for pollution near their shores, or whether — as
they contend — the law requires them only to limit contaminants
to levels set in advance, like specific discharges per million
parts of water. In its Supreme Court filing, San Francisco
compared itself to a chef telling cooks what ingredients to
include in a pot of soup, rather than vaguely instructing them
not to make the soup “too salty.”
Global temperatures hit the highest levels in recorded history
on Sunday, according to preliminary data from Europe’s top
climate monitor — another worrying sign of how human-caused
climate change is pushing the planet into dangerous new
territory. The results from the Copernicus Climate Change
Service show the planet’s average temperature on July 21 was
17.09 degrees Celsius (62.76 degrees Fahrenheit) — breaking a
record set only last year. The historic day comes on the
heels of 13 straight months of unprecedented
temperatures and the hottest year scientists have
ever seen. “We are in truly uncharted territory,” Copernicus
director Carlo Buontempo said in a statement. “And as the
climate keeps warming, we are bound to see records being broken
in future months and years.”
House lawmakers should move quickly to adopt nine new water
settlements for Native American tribes across the West, along
with updates to a handful of others, or risk seeing the $12
billion price tag grow even larger, a subcommittee chair warned
Tuesday. The House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water,
Wildlife and Fisheries reviewed a dozen bills that would enact
new agreements or update existing settlements for tribal water
resources across Arizona, California, New Mexico and Montana.
“Few issues in the American West are as pressing or vexing as
the escalating water crisis,” subcommittee Chair Cliff Bentz
(R-Ore.) said. “As the water in the West continues to dry up
and become more and more dear, tribal water issues are becoming
more and more critical.”
In November, California voters will decide whether to approve
of a bond that would fund state climate initiatives.
Legislators announced the $10 billion bond will appear on the
November ballot as Proposition 4 earlier this month. Dozens of
environmental groups advocated for it, especially in light of
state budget cuts made earlier in the year that impacted
climate programs. Many advocates are optimistic
voters will approve of the bond, citing a PPIC survey
published earlier this month that found 59% of California
voters would likely vote “yes.” … The bond would fund a
wide range of the state’s climate efforts. Its main focus areas
include state water projects (like those aimed at ensuring safe
drinking water for all Californians), reducing wildfire risks,
coastal resilience, extreme heat mitigation, sustainable
agriculture, protection of biodiversity, air quality and
equitable access to outdoor spaces.
Four large agricultural water districts have kicked in an
initial $580,000 to pay for water projects in several
communities dotting the vast farming areas of western Fresno
County. The funding amount will remain the same until the
districts revisit the program in three years. The four
districts – Central California Irrigation District, Firebaugh
Canal Water District and the Columbia and San Luis canal
companies – are members of the San Joaquin River Exchange
Contractors Water Authority, which covers 240,000 acres from
about Newman down to Firebaugh mostly in Fresno
County. Together they have funded the new Community
Infrastructure Program, which will focus primarily on projects
benefiting the disadvantaged communities of Mendota, Firebaugh,
Gustine, Dos Palos, Los Banos and Newman. However, nonprofits,
community organizations and local governments may apply for
funding as well.
The House passed a sweeping water infrastructure bill Monday
that could help curb flooding, slow coastal erosion and restore
struggling ecosystems, in a rare show of bipartisanship as
election season heats up. Lawmakers approved the “Water
Resources Development Act of 2024,” which would authorize the
Army Corps of Engineers to move forward with 12 new water
infrastructure projects and study 159 more potential projects.
The vote was 359-13. The biennial legislation directs the Army
Corps’ work on flood control, navigation and ecosystem
restoration and has historically been popular among Republicans
and Democrats.
Farmland valuations continued their downward trajectory in Kern
County, in some cases dropping a whopping 47.6% over the
first six months of 2024, according to the second quarter Kern
County Ag Land Values report put out by brokerage firm Alliance
Ag Services LLC. Some farmland has dropped back to, or even
below, 2005 prices. “I don’t think we’re at the bottom yet, but
it feels like it’s getting closer,” said Ag Alliance broker
Michael Ming. Alliance Ag has been tracking the value of
farmland in Kern County by water source for nearly two decades.
Since the crippling 2012-2016 drought and passage of the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), the numbers have
been mostly dismal. The future value of farmland will all
depend on water, he said. … Reduced water supplies from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and increased groundwater pumping
restrictions under SGMA mean more than 900,000 acres in
the Central Valley will likely have to go out of
production.
