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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Driving around the cities and small towns of the West, one of
the most consequential changes to the landscape are hard to
see. Data centers, the buildings of the future, are usually
low-slung, their large bulk is best seen from above. A
drone’s-eye view shows a spreading, warehouse-flat landscape
born of the economic and electrical revolution that is
reshaping places like Phoenix, the city of Santa Clara in
Silicon Valley, or rural Oregon towns close to the Columbia
River. … Heat is the enemy of data operations, reducing
their efficiency or even making them inoperable. What creates
the heat? The armies of servers gobbling up vast amounts of
electricity. What cools it? A variety of technologies, with
one, evaporative cooling, requiring significant amounts of
water.
The mythology of rugged individualism often touted in the West
comes to a screeching halt where water is concerned, especially
here in Los Angeles. That’s because the city has long been
propped up by water shipped from hundreds of miles away to the
extent that today, about 85% of its drinking water is imported.
… Imported water is an addiction the city will have to kick
if it’s to weather the worsening impacts from climate change.
That’s why, since at least 2008, LA leaders have pushed the
city — but have so far failed — to massively increase the
amount of recycled wastewater it uses for drinking. Currently,
that number is around 2%. These plans took a major step forward
with the completion last December of Pure Water LA, a city plan
to massively scale-up the amount of wastewater it recycles at
the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant in Playa Del Rey. The aim
is to eventually make the city 70% reliant on local supplies.
Today, about 15% of water is derived from local supplies.
The Trump administration this week ramped up its efforts to
erode nationwide climate progress with a sweeping executive
order aimed at undermining states’ ability to set their own
environmental policies, including key components of
California’s fight against climate change. In an order dated
April 8, the president directed Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi to
identify and “stop the enforcement of” state laws that address
climate change and other environmental initiatives.
… The order also takes aim at California’s cap-and-trade
program — a first-of-its-kind initiative that sets limits on
companies’ greenhouse gas emissions and allows them to sell
“credits” for unused emissions to other companies.
In an emergency directive issued late last week, U.S.
Department of Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced
her department’s plan to expand logging and timber production
by 25 percent and, in the process, dismantle the
half-a-century-old environmental review system that has blocked
the federal government from finalizing major decisions
concerning national forest lands without public insight. …
While it may seem intuitive that cutting down high-risk trees
will lead to less organic material that could incinerate,
environmentalists say the administration’s plans to increase
timber outputs, simplify permitting, and do away with certain
environmental review processes are likely to only escalate
wildfire risk and contribute more to climate change.
The Trump administration ruined what should have been a good
spring in the Klamath River basin. By abruptly laying off
federal personnel and freezing payments for already authorized
programs and projects, the administration replaced a budding
sense of hopefulness in the basin with fear and uncertainty,
and tore at fragile bonds years in the making among upper basin
ranchers and farmers, federal, state and local governments,
nonprofits and Native tribes. In a region where conflict over
water has simmered for the last quarter-century, trust was
already fragile. Now it is smashed to smithereens. Through the
21st century the Klamath has lurched from crisis to crisis,
usually related to the extended drought that has hovered over
the basin most of that time. What distinguishes the current
debacle is that it has no relation to natural phenomena. It’s
entirely man-made — and entirely unnecessary. –Written by Jacques Leslie, author of “Deep Water: The
Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the
Environment.”
Millions of people across the United States could be drinking
water contaminated with dangerous levels of substances created
when utilities disinfect water tainted with animal manure and
other pollutants, according to a report released Thursday. An
analysis of testing results from community water systems in 49
states found that nearly 6,000 such systems serving 122 million
people recorded an unsafe level of chemicals known as
trihalomethanes at least once during testing from 2019 to 2023.
… New York, Oklahoma, California and Illinois followed Texas
with hundreds of water systems in each of those states showing
higher-than-allowed levels of TTHMs during the testing period,
the EWG report found. More than 64.5 million people are served
by 3,170 systems in the ten states that had the most
violations.
East Bay Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) is keeping boat
launches closed for the 2025 season at three of its reservoirs
in an effort to prevent the spread of golden mussels.
Earlier this year, EBMUD closed boat access to the Pardee and
Camanche reservoirs, both located in the Sierra foothills,
until further notice. In an update on Wednesday, EBMUD
announced the boat launches at the two reservoirs, along with
the San Pablo Reservoir in the East Bay, will remain closed
throughout the 2025 season. … Others, like Folsom Lake
above Sacramento, are requiring that all boats be cleaned,
inspected and quarantined for 30 days on the premises before
they can be launched. … EBMUD isn’t taking any chances. The
primary purpose of their reservoirs is as a water supply, and
they aren’t going to jeopardize their infrastructure in the
name of recreation.
… On Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Department of Public
Health announced the ocean water advisory placed on Las Flores
State Beach to Santa Monica State Beach had been
lifted. The decision was made based on water testing and
analysis conducted by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality
Control Board on the ocean water and sand between the end of
January and mid-March. Both areas were tested for metals,
nutrients, polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbons, which are all chemicals that may be found in
water runoff based on previous California wildfires, officials
said. Results showed “no chemicals related to wildfires at
levels that are dangerous to human health,” according to a news
release.
… The push against so-called non-functional turf has spread
across Western cities that rely on Colorado River water. …
Arizona Department of Water Resources Director Tom Buschatzke
wants to nix non-functional turf in areas where housing growth
on groundwater has been paused as a sign to other Colorado
River basin states that we are using every drop wisely.
… Republican Tim Dunn is pushing Senate Bill 1523 to,
among other things, prohibit cities from requiring builders to
install a minimum amount of non-functional turf in their
projects. … Don’t overlook why we are weeding through these
details at this moment: Because even though Republican
lawmakers are bitterly fighting Buschatzke over how to handle
groundwater in metro Phoenix, they agree that some limits on
grass could help bolster our negotiating position on the
Colorado River. –Written by opinion columnist Joanna Allhands.
The Division 1 board seat on the powerful Kern County Water
Agency came full circle Tuesday after Jay Kroeker was appointed
to fill the vacancy left by Ted Page who resigned early last
month. Kroeker is a son-in-law of the late Fred Starrh who held
that same seat for 28 years before being beaten by Page in an
upset election in 2010. Starrh died in 2019. Kroeker is a
partner in Starrh Farms, which operates mostly in northwestern
Kern County. Their lands are in the Lost Hills Water District
and Belridge and Semitropic water storage districts, which get
water from the State Water project, and the Shafter-Wasco
Irrigation District, which holds a federal contract for water
from the Central Valley Project.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has provided an
update on the results so far of returning beavers to
watersheds, which included working with the Tule Rive Tribe to
return beavers to the Tule River. So far the effort to return
beavers to the Tule River has been challenging when it comes to
all three releases that were done. All of the seven beavers in
the first release may have been killed by predators and there
has also been human tampering of monitoring equipment. CDFW
stated after a year-and-a-half the beavers have begun their
work as “ecosystem engineers” initiating the restoration of
wetlands and building resilience to the effects of climate
change such as drought and wildfire.
The Nacimiento Regional Water Management Advisory Committee is
in a critical legal battle against Monterey County’s
mismanagement of Lake Nacimiento’s water levels. Excessive
water releases and the controversial Interlake Tunnel Project
threaten to devastate recreation, tourism, and the local
economy. A San Luis Obispo County judge has ordered Monterey
County to engage in a final settlement process with our
committee to address these ongoing issues. … For years,
Monterey County’s water releases from Lake Nacimiento have been
mismanaged and at times appear to have exceeded legal limits,
with documented cases such as the 12,000 acre-feet over-release
in 2018—valued at over $30 million—was released in violation of
the state-issued operating permit. –Written by the Nacimiento Regional Water Management
Advisory Committee
Officials in multiple cities across the United States in recent
months have warned citizens about scams targeting water systems
that involve payments to improve so-called quality issues and
provide adequate testing. … A similar situation happened
in February in Fairfield, California, where a female homeowner
said that a strange man and woman showed up on her porch
requesting to come into her home. “He says, ‘What we’re doing
in the neighborhood is we’re checking the 94533 ZIP codes,
which your water is contaminated.’ I said, ‘What do you mean,
contaminated?’” Fairfield resident Martha Andrade told local
NBC affiliate KCRA. … In December, residents of Santa
Maria, California, reported to local officials that scam
artists were in their neighborhoods selling water treatment
units—telling homeowners that the costs associated with the
units would be reimbursed by the city, according to local NBC
affiliate KSBY.
Over the last three years, the Colorado River Basin has
experienced three relatively healthy winters. But that
decent snowpack, after melting, hasn’t filled reservoirs like
Lake Mead and Lake Powell as much as water users across the
West might like, due to years of drought and
overuse. Recent forecasts show Lake Mead and Lake Powell
will remain roughly one-third full after snow melts down from
the mountains across the West into the Colorado River and its
tributaries this year. … This year’s lackluster
forecasted runoff into Lake Powell coincides with tense
political negotiations between the seven states that use
Colorado River water: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
Other water supply and snowpack news around the West:
The secretary of commerce is personally reviewing all contracts
with commitments above $100,000 at the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, causing backups and uncertainty in
the agency that is responsible for the country’s weather
forecasts, marine fisheries management and coastal management.
NOAA is housed within the Department of Commerce. Howard
Lutnick is reviewing all NOAA contracts above $100,000,
according to three agency employees who spoke anonymously out
of fear of retribution at work. There are hundreds of such
contracts across the agency that need to be reviewed each year
and several that have been paused or otherwise impacted by the
secretary’s review, according to an agency employee familiar
with the contracting process.
Faced with the rapid spread of golden mussels across California
waterways, state and federal officials are imposing strict new
measures at Folsom Lake and Lake Clementine to prevent the
invasive species from taking hold. Beginning Monday, all
trailered or motorized boats at the two popular Sacramento-area
lakes will be required to undergo inspection and a mandatory
30-day quarantine before launching. Golden mussels, native
to Asia, were first detected in California waters last fall in
the Port of Stockton. Since then, they have spread rapidly
through connected waterways, reaching as far south as
Bakersfield. Officials warn that the freshwater mollusks
threaten California’s water infrastructure, power systems and
aquatic ecosystems by clogging pipes, outcompeting native
species and damaging boats by attaching to hulls and clogging
engines.
NEARLY SOLD OUT! Our Central Valley Tour travels
the length of the San Joaquin Valley where water supply and use
have been in the national headlines, including our first
stop at San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos. Register
here before
tickets are gone! Can’t join our Central Valley Tour? You
can still learn about the Central Valley’s water resourcehs
with our array of educational guides and maps. And join us May 1 for
our annual open
house and reception at our office near the
Sacramento River!
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said he wants
communities to stop fluoridating water, and he is setting
the gears of government in motion to help make that happen.
Kennedy this week said he plans to tell the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending
fluoridation in communities nationwide. And he said he’s
assembling a task force of health experts to study the issue
and make new recommendations. At the same time,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced it
would review new scientific information on potential health
risks of fluoride in drinking water. … Here’s a look at how
reversing fluoride policy has become an action item under
President Donald Trump’s administration.
A tiny water district in western Tulare County is poised to
nearly triple in size by annexing 13,000 acres of land that has
become “the stepchild nobody wants” for its lack of surface
water. The Atwell Island Water District, at 7,300 acres, sought
the annexation in order to help farmers in the area get access
to surface water, said board member Deanna Jackson. Atwell
has a small federal contract for water from the Central Valley
Project and is a subcontractor for water from the Cross Valley
Canal in Kern County as well. Jackson also runs the overarching
Tri-County Water Authority Groundwater Sustainability Agency,
tasked with bringing the region’s aquifers into balance per the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Atwell is a
member agency of Tri-County, which also brought this acreage
into its boundaries.
“Safe drinking water,” “greenhouse gas emissions,” and “climate
change” are just a few of the 100+ words and phrases now banned
at the Department of Agriculture’s research division, according
to a recently-leaked memo. More Perfect Union reports that in
March, staff at the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS)
were sent a long list of words and phrases by a section head
and told that they may no longer use any of them in certain
official contexts. The memo was sent by Sharon Strickland, the
Northeast Area Financial Management, Travel and Agreements
Section Head at the ARS, to staff. The ARS is the research wing
of the USDA, overseeing over 600 research projects and 2,000
scientists.
