A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation Writer Matt Jenkins.
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The State Water Resources Control Board has recommended a
danger advisory, its highest warning for toxic algae, at Lake
Pillsbury after sampling ahead of the Labor Day weekend found
toxin levels above the state’s danger threshold, Lake County
Health Services said in a notice. The reservoir sits behind
PG&E’s Scott Dam on the upper Eel River and is the largest
lake in the Mendocino National Forest. It has 31 miles of
shoreline, according to the U.S. Forest Service. The county
said State Water Board staff collected a water sample at Lake
Pillsbury Resort on Aug. 24 as part of a pre-holiday assessment
and found high concentrations of cyanobacteria, the microscopic
bacteria also called blue-green algae, and 23.84 micrograms per
liter of microcystins and nodularins, the toxins the bacteria
produce.
The Sierra Nevada Conservancy announced they have approved
nearly $1.5 million for new projects that will boost
sustainable recreation and tourism in the Sierra-Cascade from
Proposition 68. … According to the Sierra Nevada
Conservancy, the new recreation and tourism grants went to
projects in Alpine, Butte and Inyo counties. … Inyo
County received a $498,610 grant for its Owens River Water
Trail project, which will help create a 6.1-mile paddling route
for non-motorized watercraft and the addition of both a
durable, ADA-accessible, public access launch site and take-out
site on the Lower Owens River. The new facilities will be
located on land owned by the Los Angeles Department of Water
and Power but will be managed under a long-term lease by Inyo
County.
A new study finds health care costs associated dust blowing off
a shrinking Great Salt Lake could cost as much as $2 billion a
year. Lena Harris, an assistant professor at Texas A&M,
wrote the working paper with researchers from Arizona State
University and University of California Davis. She said they
did a “back of the envelope calculation” that found just
factoring PM 2.5 and PM10 blowing off the lakebed at scale
could lead to significant costs for emergency room visits and
years off Utahns’ lives. … The study also explored health
benefits of getting water into the lake, factoring in acquiring
agriculture water (spending as much as $1,000 an acre-foot).
For every additional acre-foot of water in the Great Salt Lake?
One model finds Utahns would get on average about $1,295 per
acre-foot in health benefits.
A massive spill of raw sewage and untreated
wastewater into the Arkansas River in southeastern
Colorado continues to wreak havoc on the region. Water in the
river downstream of the spill, east of Pueblo, is still testing
high for dangerous nasties like the bacteria E. coli.
… And all of this is happening during one of the most
agriculturally important times for the Lower Arkansas Valley,
as watermelon, cantaloupe, chile peppers and other crops are
harvested. … These new water quality challenges pile on
top of earlier 2026 farming obstacles in the valley. Much of
the Colorado-famous melon crop from the area was devastated in
early season hail storms.
The state Legislature this week approved $158.2 million to
protect the Delta and the State Water Project
infrastructure. The Legislature approved $90.2 million
to fortify the Delta’s aging levees, along
with up to $68 million to safeguard the State Water
Project’s California Aqueduct and canals. … The
budget funding is only about half of the $300 million
that was initially requested. Moreover, that
request was for $300 million annually, divided equally between
the Delta levees and the State Water Project infrastructure.
… Also included in Tuesday’s budget approval was $5
million to acquire Jersey Island in the Delta and repair its
levees.
As major changes hang over the shape of the region’s water
supply, a group of agricultural landowners in northern Sonoma
County is advancing the latest attempt to create a new
water district for the area. … The proposal
comes at a pivotal moment for water users throughout
the Russian River watershed. … Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. last year surrendered its license for the
[Potter Valley] project, saying it is outdated
and costly, leaving the utility, local governments and federal
regulators to re-envision the future of the Eel and
Russian River watersheds without the Scott and Cape Horn dams
in Lake and Mendocino County. For Alexander Valley’s
agricultural landowners, the proposed water district is an
attempt to gain more control over how the valley prepares for
that future.
The Colorado River is on the brink of collapse because of
climate change and overuse of water. Reservoirs supplying water
to tens of millions of people in the southwest reached record
lows this summer.The nation is racing to
refill them with conservation measures so they can
still generate hydropower and reliably deliver water to users
downstream. Fish are struggling. Rafters are having
trouble navigating low water. Despite all this, the seven
states sharing the water supply remain at a yearslong
impasse over how to conserve the river. “The Colorado
River is in as bad a shape as it’s ever been,” said Doug
Kenney, chairman of the Colorado River Research Group at CU
Boulder’s Getches-Wilkinson Center.
The summer’s deluge of monsoon rain has eased demand on local
water supplies, but it won’t be enough to pull Utah out
of a drought or refill the state’s shrinking
reservoirs, state water officials warn. That’s because monsoon
storms often hit lower elevations and come in short, intense
bursts, said Laura Haskell, drought coordinator with the Utah
Division of Water Resources. Much of that water rushes over the
ground instead of flowing into the streams that feed Utah’s
reservoirs. … At the end of August, Utah’s
reservoirs were at 52% of their total capacity
statewide, according to the state water division.
That’s 15% below what’s typical for this time of year — and 18%
lower than where reservoirs stood at this time last year.
Our 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit, an engaging day of discussions addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West, will
be held on Thursday, Oct. 29, in Sacramento with the theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western Water. Speakers and
conversations will highlight emerging topics related to the
challenges and opportunities facing management of the
West’s most precious natural resource. As previously
announced, the day will open with a keynote address from
Tom Gibson, the new director of California’s Department
of Water Resources. See more recently announced
speaker names
hereand find out how to register.
Since their introduction to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in
California in October 2024, golden mussels continue to be a
major concern for Lake Tahoe and other regional bodies of
water. … Senators and other lawmakers and leaders
addressed the threat multiple times at the 30th Tahoe Summit,
which recently took place at Sand Harbor State Park. In a
pull-aside at the summit with Senator Catherine Cortez Masto,
the Tribune inquired about federal action targeting golden
mussels. “Our fight right now is to stop the spread,”
Senator Cortez Masto said. “We have actually passed several
pieces of legislation because we see what’s happening.”
California lawmakers passed seven bills aimed at
increasing oversight of data centers in the final days
of the legislative session and sent the measures to Gov. Gavin
Newsom for consideration. Among the bills are proposals from
Bay Area Assemblymembers Diane Papan and Rebecca Bauer-Kahan
that would require greater disclosure of water and
energy use by data center operators. … Papan’s
legislation focuses on water use before and after a data center
begins operating. One bill would require developers to disclose
projected water use. “It requires data centers to inform
localities of how much water they’re going to use prior to
construction,” Papan said.
… The Trump administration is one step closer to repealing
the 2001 Roadless Rule and opening nearly 45 million acres of
national forests across the U.S. to possible development. …
Over 1 million people in the Intermountain region get water
directly from watersheds that include roadless areas, according
to the Forest Service. Water that flows through roadless areas
in the region also journeys downstream to larger waterways and
supports an additional 3.7 million people. … More road
construction and logging could increase sediment in creeks,
streams and rivers that run through the national forests and
degrade the water quality. Less trees in the forest after a
timber harvest could also lead to quicker snowmelt runoff in
the spring.
A new $27 million layer of technology at the city’s 32-year-old
southside water treatment plant will bring more efficient and
effective cleanup of PFAS compounds known as “forever
chemicals“ from that area’s long-polluted
aquifer, Tucson Water officials said. The newly installed
“ion exchange” treatment method will allow more
contaminated water to be treated every day, perhaps
twice as much, Tucson Water Director John Kmiec said. It will
allow the plant to treat water tainted with heavier
concentrations of PFAS compounds than are currently being
treated. … The construction was paid for mainly from a $25
million federal grant, distributed by the Arizona Department of
Environmental Quality, plus another $2 million from the city.
The public is invited to help maintain trails and clear
vegetation along the Kings River for National Public Lands Day
Sept. 26. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its partners
will host the event, which will be held at the Kings River
Wildlife Area, 27295 Pine Flat Rd. in Sanger from 8 a.m to
noon. … The program, a collaboration between the Kings
River Conservation District, Kings River Water Association and
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, holds various
volunteering opportunities along the Kings River including a
fish population survey and a trout incubating program.
When your given handle as a water taste-testing judge is “Trash
Panda,” crowd expectations are low. That was my strategy
as I faced 12 gleaming glasses of city water from around
Colorado at the Rocky Mountain Water Conference this week —
admit up front that my palate is hopelessly scorched from
decades of mouth-shredding Froot Loops and scalding coffee. And
acknowledge that even on a good day, my family claims I
couldn’t smell the ocean from a boat. They gave me a badge
and a score sheet anyway, because the bar for what passes as
late-day entertainment for 300 water engineers is equally low.
These experts in sewage lift pumps and ionizing water filters
were indeed diverted by me and my fellow handful of judges,
perhaps because they could sense our fear.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
