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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The San Joaquin River continues to sit at the center of
California’s most complex water disputes, and Los Banos remains
one of the communities most directly affected. As state and
regional leaders debate over mining, water storage, flooding,
fish habitats, and groundwater management, the outcomes will
shape how water moves through the Central Valley for
generations, and how much of it reaches local communities like
Los Banos.
The city of Santa Fe will no longer add fluoride to its water
supply, something city officials said was due in part to high
costs and ongoing research into the health risks and benefits
of fluoride. A naturally occurring mineral that helps
strengthen teeth, fluoride is frequently added to the water
supply for its dental benefits, but has attracted skepticism
from some corners, including U.S. Health and Human Services
Secretary Robert F. Kennedy. The Utah Legislature earlier this
year passed a law banning fluoride from being added to drinking
water statewide. Several other states are considering similar
measures.
… [T]he influence of mining on water rights, access and
allocations has implications that extend far beyond swings in
commodity prices. When large-scale hard rock mines extract
below the water table, they continuously pump massive volumes
of water out of the aquifer to “dewater.” The goal is to keep
operations free of groundwater. Such dewatering, however, can
have significant consequences for the hydrologic balance of
local aquifer systems, groundwater-dependent ecosystems, and
connected surface water (springs, rivers, etc…). The
management, governance, accounting and consequences of this
water movement is an important and ongoing (ground)water policy
question in many states, one that is worth looking at,
especially if, indeed, we are about to see a new mining boom.
Solano County officials are crafting an appeal of
the Certification of Consistency for the Delta tunnel
project. The state Department of Water Resources submitted its
certification for the Delta Conveyance Project
on Oct. 17. The county Board of Supervisors on Oct. 21 voted
unanimously in closed session to appeal the document. “Solano
will be working with San Joaquin, Yolo and (the) Central Delta
Water Agency to file a joint request that the Delta Stewardship
Council remand the Certification of Consistency back to DWR
because the county believes the DCP will have severe negative
impacts on the Delta and is inconsistent with the Delta Plan,”
the County Counsel’s Office said in an email response to the
Daily Republic.
National Weather Service offices in California are scaling back
operations ahead of the critical winter storm season, as
federal cuts and staffing shortages take a toll. The
California-Nevada River Forecast Center, which is run by the
weather service and provides water managers with critical data
to prevent river flooding, is seeing cutbacks that could end up
“limiting the state’s ability to track … dangerous shifts in
weather,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said last week. … The
number of written forecasts issued by the Sacramento office,
which watches for winter storms across the Northern
Sierra, has plummeted since it announced cutbacks in
April.
… Lake Powell’s water levels have been retreating for
the past two decades, revealing vast swaths of once-submerged
land. The falling water levels have jeopardized hydropower
generation and added anxiety to policy talks about managing the
region’s water supply. At the same time, they have put stunning
geologic features and lush riverside habitats back in the open
air. … Beavers are architects that make those animal
communities even stronger. … Recent studies have
tracked the emergence of old river features and the return of
native plants. This one aims to track the return of healthy
ecosystems, using beavers as a marker of progress.
… Humboldt County Superior Court Presiding Judge Kelly Neel
ruled against local nonprofit Friends of the Eel River (FOER)
in its lawsuit concerning the county’s management of
groundwater extraction in the Eel River Valley. The lawsuit,
first filed in 2022, argued that Humboldt County was falling
short of its responsibility to protect public trust resources
in the Eel by failing to consider the adverse effects of
groundwater pumping, particularly during the late summer and
early fall. … But Judge Neel instead found that the
county is already considering public trust resources on the Eel
through both its Groundwater Sustainability Plan and its well
permitting process.
San Diego may shift the second phase of the city’s Pure Water
sewage recycling system to a more efficient purification method
that could save billions of dollars, preventing steep jumps in
local sewer and water bills. The new method could dramatically
change the size, scope and cost of the massive project’s Phase
Two, which had been expected to be nearly twice as large as the
nearly complete first phase. … That change is possible
because California recently loosened its purification rules to
allow purified wastewater to be pumped directly into a
water system, instead of being stored for months in reservoirs
or underground basins.
Community members in Tucson packed the Pima County Board of
Supervisors meeting Tuesday asking them to put a stop to
Project Blue — a data center proposed for a 290-acre swath of
county land. A non-disclosure agreement obtained by the Arizona
Luminaria show Amazon Web Services is the company behind the
project. The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to
approve the land sale in June, and the proposal next sat the
city of Tucson — which needed to decide whether to annex the
land and provide millions of gallons of city water to cool off
computer systems inside the data center. City leaders
rejected that proposal this summer amid public outcry. Now
Project Blue’s developer, Beale Infrastructure, wants to use
electricity for its cooling needs from Tucson Electric Power,
or TEP.
Last week, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors
entertained a resolution that would renege on the board’s
previous support for dam removal projects in the Potter Valley,
where PG&E is in the process of decommissioning the Scott
and Cape Horn dams. The resolution was ultimately rejected in
favor of an alternative … under which “Mendocino County Board
of Supervisors reaffirms the County of Mendocino’s support for
the two co-equal goals of the Two Basin Solution, IWPC, ERPA,
and the Water Diversion Agreement.” However, due to
stipulations of the Brown Act, that resolution, which wasn’t
included on the agenda 72 hours in advance of the meeting, must
be voted on at a future meeting.
… In late September, a Chinook salmon was seen on
video ascending a fish ladder at Keno Dam, one of the
Klamath’s two remaining dams in the upper basin southwest
of Klamath Falls. Since then, cameras and radio tags have
confirmed the presence of salmon at various locations further
upstream, the Oregon Department of Fish and
Wildlife announced on Oct. 17. This marks the
salmon’s first return to the Upper Klamath Basin since the dams
were built in the early 20th century.
It’s been a year since golden mussels were first discovered in
California—and the state’s response has been swift and
strategic. In partnership with California State Parks and the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, DWR is taking
decisive action to combat the spread of this invasive species
and safeguard California’s vital water infrastructure. Golden
mussels pose a serious threat to the State Water Project (SWP),
which delivers water to 27 million Californians and 750,000
acres of farmland. To protect this critical infrastructure, DWR
has launched a series of proactive measures aimed at minimizing
the mussels’ impact on our water conveyance system.
… Members of the board overseeing the [Ariz.] Water
Infrastructure Finance Authority … are trying to figure out
how to spend what they have — and quickly. Instead of the $1
billion, the Legislature and then-Gov. Doug Ducey promised them
three years ago to find new water sources, the agency commonly
called WIFA has just over a third of that money. That’s
because lawmakers and current Gov. Katie Hobbs cut or
completely eliminated the second two $333 million payments
promised to WIFA. And they clawed back some of the deposits
already made to the agency, spending the money elsewhere, and
leaving the board with less than $400 million.
… Conflicts between river uses and property owners date back
decades in Colorado, a state that has the murkiest access laws
in the country. Courts have handed down rulings in contentious
lawsuits involving access on the Arkansas River and Colorado
River. Attorneys general have written opinions. Lawmakers have
tried twice to clear the waters around floating and wading
through private lands. And now, there’s even a split in a newly
formed stream access coalition with paddling groups leaving a
not-quite-unified effort to craft legislation that would open
all of Colorado waterways to the public.
A government agency that failed to provide running water to a
town in Puerto Rico for most of the last eight years may have
violated the U.S. Constitution, the First Circuit ruled Friday.
… The case appears to be the first of its kind in the
country, though the Sixth Circuit in 2019 found a potential
constitutional violation in Flint, Michigan’s distribution of
contaminated water. A federal judge in Puerto Rico
dismissed Morovis’ suit, ruling the outages didn’t “shock the
conscience,” as required for a due process violation. But on
appeal, U.S. Circuit Judge Julie Rikelman said PRASA’s alleged
deliberate indifference could meet that standard.
Downpours produced major impacts across California in October.
… The widespread drenching, however, didn’t translate into
large impacts on the California reservoir levels, data shows.
… California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, was at
57% of its total capacity through Wednesday, 5% above normal
for this time of year. … Lake Oroville, California’s
second largest reservoir, was at 55% of total capacity through
Wednesday, 2% above normal. … The October storm also
impacted the Sierra, where over a foot of snow fell in places.
As Chinook salmon continue to make progress in the Klamath
Basin following dam removal, a local organization is calling
for fish screens to protect both family farms and fish.
… KDD [Klamath Drainage District], which represents 12
large landowners covering 27,000 acres, most of which grow
grain, is emphasizing the urgency for fish screens. It says the
2016 Klamath Power and Facilities Agreement, signed by Oregon,
California, and the federal government, calls for these
governments to help protect landowners and put in measures like
fish screens, if needed.
San Diego County Water Authority officials expect wholesale
water rates to soar by as much as 150% over the next decade,
driven in part by the agency’s struggles to sell some of its
supply — struggles it expects to get worse because of San
Diego’s billion-dollar Pure Water project. A grim reality of
high water costs might persist for residents and businesses in
much of the region if the authority doesn’t find new buyers for
its water, according to a draft of the water authority’s
long-term financial plan presented to water officials on
Thursday.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released new and
updated planning tools that water systems across the country
can use to help prevent and respond to cybersecurity incidents.
These tools will help all public water systems protect access
to safe water and aid systems conducting risk and emergency
planning for cybersecurity. … The agency will also
continue to collaborate with water systems to implement best
management practices to swiftly address any cybersecurity
concerns as they arise.
Sacramento’s flood protection projects are falling behind and
that could have triggered a new building ban due to delays. A
similar moratorium was in effect for seven years up until 2015.
Now there’s been a last-minute effort to extend the Dec. 31
deadline. … ”There’s a lot of different flood threats
that could possibly happen in the Sacramento region; we’re not
called the river city for no reason,” said Sean de Guzman, the
flood operations manager at the California Department of Water
Resources. That’s why, back in 2007, state lawmakers set a
deadline requiring Sacramento to have a 200-year level of flood
protection by the end of this year.
