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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People are being asked to stay away from the lower Russian
River after an unknown volume of untreated wastewater spilled
from a sewage treatment plant in Guerneville during the
tail-end of a storm that drenched Sonoma County and flooded
many roads across the region. Heavy overnight rainfall — part
of the region’s prolonged atmospheric river — caused storage
ponds at the facility to overflow early Tuesday morning, said
Stuart Tiffen, a spokesman for Sonoma Water, which operates the
Russian River Treatment Plant. Affected residents were alerted
of the spill Tuesday morning, officials said. … Some of
the discharge was traveling a quarter of a mile through a
forested area before it reached the mainstem of the river,
officials said.
A vote last month by the Westlands Water District board to sign
off on the environmental impact report for a massive solar
project on Fresno County’s westside marked a major milestone in
the development of the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan. … In
addition to generating much-needed electricity, VCIP could
boost Fresno County’s property tax revenues as well as
groundwater supplies. … VCIP will give Westlands and
private farm owners the opportunity to sell or lease land for
solar companies to develop. If Westlands sells land, it will
move onto property tax rolls and boost tax revenues for Fresno
County. … Westlands plans to retain small pockets within
sold parcels for drill sites to pump water into the ground
instead of pumping it out.
One of the biggest and most controversial talking points
surrounding the battle against the January 2025 Southern
California wildfires was water supply – or a lack
thereof. … Then-Los Angeles Fire Department Chief
Kristin Crowley was vocal about the water shortage, criticizing
city officials for not providing enough funds for the fire
department. Gov. Gavin Newsom, days after the blaze
erupted, also called for an investigation into why a
117-million-gallon reservoir in the area was out of
service. But a year has now passed, and some Altadena
residents are still frustrated about the water situation.
With salmon returning to the upper reaches of the Klamath River
following the removal of four dams, the newly established
Klamath Indigenous Land Trust (KILT) has purchased 10,000 acres
of salmon habitat for conservation. … The return of
salmon to the Klamath River has been a bright spot for Pacific
salmon along the U.S. West Coast, where dwindling populations
have resulted in three years of cancelled commercial salmon
seasons. State, federal, and Tribal authorities have invested
heavily in conservation and recovery efforts to help the
population rebound, including the removal of dams and other
fish barriers.
… The Court of Appeal for the Third Appellate District just
upheld a Sacramento County judge’s decision in 2024 that state
authorities have an invalid bond plan to fund the highly
embattled project. Specifically, the appellate court agreed
with the original judge that the state Department of Water
Resources, or DWR, lacks the authority to issue revenue bonds
to pay for the massive tunnel. … Sacramento, Yolo, San
Joaquin, Solano, Contra Costa, Butte and Plumas counties were
major litigants against DWR in the case.
A nonprofit conservation group is accusing federal appraisers
of ignoring water concerns in southern Arizona, leading to
overvalued properties. The Tucson-based Center for Biological
Diversity said it received documents via the Freedom of
Information Act showing that U.S. Department of Housing and
Urban Development (HUD) and Federal Housing Administration
(FHA) appraisers are not including environmental water scarcity
factors in their reports for homes in Sierra Vista and Fort
Huachuca. … He [Center for Biological Diversity
co-founder Robin Silver] fears ignoring environmental
water concerns in the area could lead to a housing crash.
If you read the research on microplastics, these pollutants
appear to be as frightening as they are ubiquitous. … A
study published last month in Science Advances offers some new
clues as to how water may be contributing to their spread.
Scientists already knew that plastics degrade through exposure
to sunlight and repeated weathering by waves, sand or other
debris. But the new study suggests contact with water itself is
also a factor: in both marine and river environments,
researchers found that microbubbles can form on the surface of
a piece of plastic, breaking it down—and releasing tiny,
practically invisible plastic bits into the surrounding water.
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.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
Today, Congresswoman Norma Torres and Congressman David Valadao
– members of the House Appropriations Committee – announced the
introduction of the bipartisan Removing Nitrate and Arsenic in
Drinking Water Act. This bill would amend the Safe Drinking
Water Act to provide grants for nitrate and arsenic reduction,
by providing $15 million for FY25 and every fiscal year
thereafter. The bill also directs the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take into consideration the needs of
economically disadvantaged populations impacted by drinking
water contamination. The California State Water Resources
Control Board found the Inland Empire to have the highest
levels of contamination of nitrate throughout the state
including 82 sources in San Bernardino, 67 sources in Riverside
County, and 123 sources in Los Angeles County.
