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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A large-scale pilot project studying the effects of recharging
water onto pistachio orchards, some with cover crops and some
without, is in full swing across the San Joaquin
Valley. The project, a collaboration between private
nonprofit Sustainable Conservation, American Pistachio Growers
and Fresno State University kicked off in January and will
study recharge on six orchards in Tulare, Merced and Madera
counties. Each pilot partner recharges onto 20 acres of orchard
with cover crops and 20 acres with no cover crops. …
Specifically, the project will look at whether recharge
cover crops can reduce nitrates in groundwater.
… [W]hat’s now known as geoengineering remains a strange,
somewhat ad hoc field even today. A recent report by the
Government Accountability Office, or GAO, found that the
federal government still does not have sufficient oversight
over weather modification activities and is also “not fully
meeting its responsibilities to maintain and share weather
modification reports.” … As drought
intensifies and water demand increases across the West, states
have been ramping up cloud-seeding efforts, as one way
to work around the lack of water. … Cloud seeding
alone can’t fix that. Another report from the GAO last
year found that the process still needs more research to
determine how well it works and why.
An Aspen activist is hoping to gain support for a paradigm
shift in the way people view their local waterway by granting
rights to the Roaring Fork River. Environmental psychologist,
author and Aspen Times columnist Lindsay Branham is asking
local elected officials to consider a resolution protecting the
Roaring Fork and its tributaries by recognizing that nature has
rights and that it’s the government’s responsibility to care
for them. … The Rights of Nature is a small but growing
movement that seeks to evolve the legal system’s relationship
with nature from one that views rivers as a resource and
property for human use, to recognizing that natural entities
have intrinsic value and an inherent right to exist.
California parks officials will begin another season of
herbicide treatments in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta later
this month, targeting invasive aquatic plants that clog
waterways, threaten boaters and disrupt marinas and irrigation
systems. Starting March 19, California State Parks’ Division of
Boating and Waterways (DBW) plans to treat thousands of acres
across the Delta and its southern tributaries as part of its
2026 control program. The invasive plants include water
hyacinth, South American spongeplant, Uruguay water primrose,
Alligator weed, Brazilian waterweed, curlyleaf pondweed,
Eurasian watermilfoil, coontail, fanwort and ribbon weed.
Conservation groups joined state Rep. Mandy Lindsay, Rep.
Elizabeth Velasco, Sen. Cathy Kipp and Sen. Lisa Cutter
Thursday to introduce a first-of-its-kind bill to protect
beavers on public lands and support their proven role in
building drought and wildfire resilience. The bill is
especially important as historically low snowpack heightens
drought and wildfire danger across Colorado. … House
Bill 26-1323 would prohibit killing beavers on public lands
while preserving flexibility to remove beavers when necessary
to address conflicts involving infrastructure, agriculture or
other management needs.
Ater more than five years, Turlock Lake State Recreation Area
will once again be open to the public. Stanislaus County,
Turlock Irrigation District and California State Parks
announced this week the approval of an agreement to re-open and
operate Turlock Lake thanks to nearly $8.2 million in funding
from the state of California for facility improvements and
one-time start-up costs. … Turlock Lake, with 26 miles
of shoreline, is owned by Turlock Irrigation District and sits
on the south side of the Tuolumne River, along the rolling
foothills of eastern Stanislaus County, about 25 miles
northeast of Turlock.
A California tribe is speaking out after reports surfaced that
soil created from composted human remains was spread on land
along the San Joaquin River—an action tribal leaders say is
deeply disrespectful to Native cultures and ancestral lands.
The Tribal Council of the Picayune Rancheria of the Chukchansi
Indians issued a public statement on Thursday condemning the
activity and calling for an immediate halt to the practice. The
tribe said the land in question lies within the ancestral
homeland of the Yokuts people and holds deep cultural and
spiritual significance for Native communities in the region.
The controversy centers on the San Joaquin River Parkway and
Conservation Trust, which manages a 76-acre property known as
Sumner Peck Ranch in Fresno County.
Mission Bay looks effortless now — sailboats drifting, joggers
circling the paths, SeaWorld rising across the water. It feels
permanent. It isn’t. Before it became Mission Bay, it appeared
on 19th-century maps as “False Bay.” For much of San Diego’s
early history, it was a shifting estuary of mudflats, tidal
creeks, and salt marsh. … Almost none of the
original salt marsh survives; however, one fragment remains at
the Kendall-Frost Mission Bay Marsh Reserve in Pacific Beach,
part of the University of California Natural Reserve System.
There, pickleweed still grows in salty soil, and shorebirds
move through tidal shallows — a living glimpse of the ecosystem
that once dominated the basin.
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.
