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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Utah lawmakers have given the state more voice in negotiations
over the Colorado and Bear rivers. The move, however, has some
environmentalists concerned about the sensitive multi-state
agreements that govern the rivers. Utah water agent Joel
Ferry’s job is to help secure his state’s future water needs.
Ferry, whose position was created during the 2024 legislative
session, said he’s looking at everything from conservation to
new sources. Previous legislation prevented him from
negotiating with other states tied to interstate water
compacts. Now, a new Utah law gives Ferry the power to
collaborate on water issues with states in the Colorado and
Bear river basins. But Kyle Roerink, executive director of the
Great Basin Water Network, a water policy nonprofit, is
concerned Ferry could be a wild card in sensitive talks over
the rivers’ futures.
For decades, the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) has
governed how projects done by federal agencies must assess
their impacts, and how the public is informed about these
projects. But how does this legislation actually work in
practice? And what changes are coming down the pike from the
Trump administration? … “What does it look like to manage
the Colorado River after 2026 when our current operating
guidelines expire? And what will the impacts be to farmers, to
municipalities, to wildlife habitat, to recreation or changing,
potentially, how we allocate water and manage water in the
Colorado River?” he (Chris Winter, the director of the Getches
Wilkinson Center for Natural Resources, Energy, and the
Environment at CU Boulder’s School of Law) said. “So that whole
entire process of how people and the public engage in that
conversation and submit their views to the government on what
the government should do, that whole process is governed by the
National Environmental Policy Act.”
Water years in California can be all over the place
with massive years immediately followed by major droughts. It’s
been described as hit and miss, but rarely do you get a
hit-hit-hit situation in one key metric for water in the state:
snowpack. Snowpack is highly variable since it’s a component of
water and temperature. You can have big snowfalls followed up
by warm and dry conditions, then by early spring when snow melt
and runoff is most important, some of the snowpack may be
already gone. … This water year is unique since most of
the snow has yet to melt and already California reservoirs as a
whole are well above average at 115%. … Many lakes are nearly
90% full with many months of runoff and inflows to
come. Reservoirs in the Central and Southern Region are
not quite as full, but still remain above average or at least
close bringing more good water news to the rest of the state.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
… A lot of hope was pouring into the river along with those
fish as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the
Klamath Tribes entered the beginning stages of starting a new
run of spring chinook salmon. … The country’s largest dam
removal project took four dams off the Klamath River in
Southern Oregon and Northern California over the past two
years. A free-flowing river has reemerged where
Copco 1 and 2, Iron Gate and J.C. Boyle dams used to be. For
Indigenous tribes, including the Klamath, Shasta, Karuk, Hoopa
Valley and Yurok, the project was a huge victory. Painful water
conflicts have dragged on for decades in the Klamath Basin,
with farmers, fish and tribes all suffering. Now four dams are
out, bringing renewed hope for salmon restoration. But on the
Klamath, it’s going to take a lot more to piece the basin
together again.
… The (Hualapai Tribe of Arizona) argued that BLM violated
the National Environmental Policy Act when it failed to take
into consideration the consequences mining could have on
water resources. An independent hydrologist
hired by the Tribe found that the lithium drilling project not
only impacted the spring water levels but could also
permanently damage Ha’Kamwe’ (Cofer Hot Springs). …
Studies have shown that lithium reserves worldwide and in the
United States are disproportionately proximate to tribal
lands. … Lithium mining can deplete local water
sources, including fresh groundwater, and cause air,
water, and land contamination, exposing humans to several
health risks, including damage to the nervous system, thyroid,
and kidneys.
Redwood City has the highest risk for severe coastal
floods of any California city, according to data
released Wednesday by Climate Central. The science and
communication nonprofit’s report finds over 22,000 people — 27%
of the city’s total population — reside in an area at
risk of a 100-year flood occurring in the next 25 years. The
city, located in San Mateo county, is one of a number of
California coastal and bayshore communities that face risks
from damaging floods, particularly in the coming decades, as
climate change causes sea levels to rise.
The city of San Diego spent $52 million last year on emergency
repairs for infrastructure projects such as replacing collapsed
storm drains, clearing water channels and repairing sinkholes
which arose due to heavy rain. Of the 29 emergency
repairs performed across the city last year, 23 were related to
stormwater infrastructure and totaled about $45 million,
according to a city report. Two years ago, city officials
decided to set aside money from the capital improvements budget
for an emergency line of funding for storm drains. As the city
faces a shortfall of about $250 million in the budget that
takes effect July 1, the emergency funds may become even more
critical to addressing stormwater needs.
Domestic well owners should not be charged fees for pumping
from the overdrafted Paso Robles Groundwater Basin, according
to one water district. “The problem has never been the de
minimis users,” Shandon-San Juan Water District Board of
Directors president Willy Cunha told The Tribune on Thursday.
Farmers are most responsible for dwindling water levels in the
basin, so they should be charged the fees — as long as the
rates are reasonable, he said. The Shandon-San Juan Water
District’s Board of Directors voted 4-0 on March 26 to pass a
resolution that opposed charging domestic well owners water
extraction fees, water district secretary Stephanie Bertoux
said. Why did only four directors vote? The board didn’t
provide the public proper notice that board member Matt
Turrentine would attend the meeting virtually, so he couldn’t
vote on the item, Bertoux said.
A smoldering chemical reaction brewing deep inside the recently
closed Chiquita Canyon Landfill in Castaic now threatens to
consume an entire 160-acre canyon of buried waste, endangering
a storage area for hazardous liquid waste, according to state
officials. … State regulators worry that damage to the
tank farm would cause chemical-laden leachate to spill onto the
landfill’s surface and potentially into nearby sources of
water. State agencies have ordered Waste Connections to
relocate the tank farm to prevent hazardous chemicals from
seeping into groundwater or spilling into
storm drains that feed into the Santa Clara River.
A 10-story development on the corner of Ashby and Shattuck
Avenues will move forward after labor unions and residents
brought forward environmental concerns to the City Council on
March 25. … Concerns about benzene levels initially came
from the project site’s listing in the State Water Resource
Control Board’s Geotracker database, when in 2013 and 2014,
soil sampling revealed elevated levels of benzene, petroleum
hydrocarbon gasoline and more chemicals. However, since
2022, soil sampling has confirmed that benzene levels were
within acceptable limits. … Further concerns about air
quality, soil toxins and groundwater were negated by the city
because, upon review, it found toxins and air quality standards
to be within the accepted limits.
Before sitting down with Pedro Pizarro, president and chief
executive officer of Edison International, I gave some thought
to how I would ask him about the Eaton fire. Pizarro lives in
Pasadena, not far from the charred remains of Altadena. His
company’s biggest subsidiary — the utility Southern California
Edison, which supplies electricity to 15 million people — has
been accused in dozens of lawsuits of igniting the fire. Should
I just straight-up ask him whether the deadly conflagration was
Edison’s fault? Turned out I didn’t have to. Pizarro brought up
the blaze. “We still don’t know whether Edison equipment caused
the Eaton fire. It’s certainly possible it did. I’ve pledged to
be transparent with the public as we continue to investigate,”
he said.
With the looming possibility that the Trump administration
could reduce federal limits on toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking
water, public health advocates are warning that people across
the country would suffer. Concerns for the future of the
federal limits come amid ongoing litigation over the federal
limits on six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
in drinking water. A 60-day stay on the litigation granted in
February ends Tuesday, after which the Trump administration
could seek to make changes to the standards, which were put
into place a year ago under the Biden administration. The
Biden-era rule requires public water systems to complete
initial monitoring for the PFAS chemicals by 2027, and to
implement technologies for reducing PFAS in their water by 2029
if levels exceed the limit. … The Trump administration has
not stated if it will seek to rework the rule but those who
helped fight for PFAS mitigation measures say they fear for its
future.
A federal judge late Thursday ordered Denver Water to halt
construction on the massive expansion of Gross Reservoir’s dam
in western Boulder County and sent three key environmental
permits back to the Army Corps of Engineers for a
rewrite. The order hands a major, if temporary, victory to
environmental and neighborhood opponents fighting the
half-finished, $531 million project to nearly triple the
storage capacity of the reservoir on South Boulder
Creek. Senior U.S. District Court Judge Christine Arguello
put a halt to construction nearly four months after Denver
Water and the river-defending nonprofit Save the Colorado
failed to negotiate a settlement that would further mitigate
damage from the project. When settlement talks stalled, Save
the Colorado asked for an injunction and Denver Water argued it
should go forward pending more talks.
… Navigating the historically intricate regulatory environment
has long posed challenges for agricultural producers and water
managers. However, growing momentum toward streamlining and
modernizing these regulatory frameworks signals a promising new
era of government-industry cooperation. Farmers throughout the
San Joaquin Valley are actively advocating for policies that
provide greater flexibility in water allocation, enhance local
groundwater management, and upgraded mixed use flood control
infrastructure. Recent executive orders and updated regulations
have already begun to reduce administrative burdens, providing
farmer with greater confidence and an enhanced sense of
certainty with making critical planting and investment
decisions. –Written by William Bourdeau, executive vice president of
Harris Farms, owner of Bourdeau Farms, director of the
Westlands Water District, director of American Pistachio
Growers, Family Farm Alliance, and chairman of the Valley
Future Foundation.
Taking medicine can help us get better when we’re ill. But our
bodies won’t absorb all of a drug. The leftovers leave in our
urine. Water treatment plants were never designed to remove
those drugs. So they just flow through these cleanup plants and
into rivers and other sources of drinking water. But a simple
low-cost, two-step process could help end that. An added
benefit, this treatment also removes plant fertilizers. And
that’s a good thing, because they can trigger blooms of harmful
microbes in lakes, rivers and streams. Researchers at the
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and at China
Agricultural University in Beijing developed the new process.
They shared how it works in the December 5 Journal of Hazardous
Materials.
California is only halfway through the rain year, and in
Redding’s case, the rainfall and snowfall amounts exceed what
the area typically receives in total precipitation, making 2025
one of the wettest years since 2019. …Wet winter storms
left waters in California’s largest reservoir,
Lake Shasta, less than 16 feet from the top on Tuesday.
Precipitation in March pushed the lake level more than 18 feet,
according to data from the California Department of Water
Resources, boosting the top almost as high as Shasta Dam was
after torrential rains in early February. It is expected the
lake may be full by end of May.
In a wide-ranging ruling that could have larger implications
for public interest lawsuits throughout California, the 5th
District Court of Appeal reversed a preliminary injunction that
had required water in the Kern River through the heart of
Bakersfield. … Bring Back the Kern, Water Audit California
and several other public interest groups sued the City of
Bakersfield in 2022 for dewatering the river. They are
demanding the city study the environmental impacts of its river
operations. That lawsuit is set for trial in December. The
preliminary injunction was an outgrowth of that 2022 lawsuit.
It was an attempt to keep water in the river for fish that had
come teeming back with high flows in 2023. The 5th
District’s ruling, issued Wednesday, reversed the injunction
but didn’t close the door to a possible future injunction and,
in fact, gave lengthy direction for how that could be done.
The Trump administration is considering rolling back a major
Biden-era regulation on “forever chemicals” in drinking water,
a move that could leave people more exposed to the substances
linked to cancer, high blood pressure and fertility problems.
But any attempt to weaken the rule would run into a formidable
statutory standard, experts say — the same one that has gotten
EPA into legal messes in the past. Finalized last spring, EPA’s
current rule requires water utilities to remove the man-made
chemicals from drinking water starting in four years. Formally
called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, “forever
chemicals” are known for their virtual indestructibility and
have been found in approximately half the nation’s tap water.
Time is running out to register for next week’s
Water 101 Workshop and go beyond recent national
headlines to gain a deeper understanding of how water is
managed and moved across California. Plus, only a handful of
spots remain for the opportunity to extend your ‘beyond the
headlines’ water education experience on our Central Valley
Tour! And come one, come all to our
annual Open House
& Reception on May 1.
The headgates are open and water is returning to Highline Lake
in the state park located outside of Grand Junction
(Colo.). The lake — fed by the Government Highline Canal
and connected to the Colorado River — was
drained in November after a years-long battle against invasive
zebra mussels. Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced that it
began refilling the lake on March 31. The first adult
zebra mussel was found in the lake in 2022, marking the first
discovery of the species in Colorado water. After finding more
mussels, Colorado Parks and Wildlife launched a response that
included applying molluscicide to the lake, water sampling,
cleanup efforts and ultimately, draining the lake entirely.
This was the first time the lake was fully emptied in 60
years.
