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 Interim Director Doug Beeman.
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A multinational mining company with a litany of environmental
violations seeks Fresno County’s blessing to blast a 600-foot
deep pit near the San Joaquin River, 3 miles before
California’s second-longest waterway flows into its
fifth-largest city. … CEMEX’s proposal is an atrocity against
Fresno’s greatest natural resource, already scarred by a
century of gravel mining the company previously agreed to wind
down, and should have been rejected point blank. Undeterred,
county planners and hired guns spent five years preparing a
draft Environmental Impact Report for the so-called Rockfield
Quarry Modification Project. Modification? They want to
dynamite hundreds of feet below ground in close proximity to
one of the country’s most endangered rivers. –Written by Marek Warszawski, opinion writer for The
Fresno Bee.
… To protect their longstanding wocus (edible pond lily)
gathering tradition and the habitat it depends on, the Klamath
Tribes have advocated for projects that restore the wetlands
that used to dominate the Southern Oregon landscape and provide
rich wildlife habitat that experts often describe as “the
Everglades of the West.” Last month, the tribes teamed up with
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Ducks Unlimited, Trout
Unlimited and private landowners to breach a dike on the
uppermost section of Upper Klamath Lake and restore 14,000
acres of wetland habitat.
Land is sinking at an alarming rate in some parts of the Bay
Area, exposing shorelines to worse threats from sea level rise
than was previously projected, a new study has found.
Several places along the San Francisco Bay — in San
Rafael, Corte Madera, Foster City and Bay Farm Island next
to the Oakland Airport — are sinking at a rate of more than 0.4
of an inch per year, the study from National Aeronautics and
Space Administration found, based on satellite imagery. In
those places, the sea level could rise by as much as 17 inches
by 2050, more than double the regional average of 7.4 inches,
compared to 2000 levels.
At its Thursday Feb. 13 meeting, the Placer County Water Agency
(PCWA) Board of Directors approved a $5.8 million contract for
the Hell Hole seasonal storage increase project, adding to the
capacity of the Hell Hole Reservoir so it can store more water
during wetter winters. … Storage at Hell Hole Reservoir will
increase by approximately 7,600 acre-feet, enough water to
supply more than 10,000 households in Placer County. … A direct
outgrowth from PCWA’s Middle Fork Project relicensing effort,
this project will allow greater control of water in wetter
years and provide environmental benefits to aquatic species in
the Rubicon River through pulse flows and increased instream
flows. Water then can be recovered at the Agency’s American
River Pump Station and Folsom Reservoir, located about 40 miles
downstream of Hell Hole Dam.
The White Sturgeon of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is
one of the most treasured fish species among anglers in
California. … I have spent hundreds of hours fishing for these
behemoths and have caught dozens of these fish over the
decades, but this fishery is now on the decline. … With this
decline in mind, the San Francisco Baykeeper, California
Sportfishing Protection Alliance, Restore the Delta, and
Friends of the River on Feb. 12 filed a lawsuit against
the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Secretary of the US
Department of the Interior for “failing to deliver a legally
required initial determination whether or not to list the San
Francisco Bay’s population of White Sturgeon as a threatened
species.”
… Accounting for ~90% of societal water consumption, irrigated
agriculture dominates humanity’s water footprint. Major
irrigation districts with substantial water gaps include
California’s Central Valley. … In the well-studied
California Central Valley, groundwater depletion has been
estimated and validated at 7–9 km3/year, with total water
storage losses ranging from 10–11 km3/year. Other research
reports groundwater depletion at 8.58 km3/year for California,
aligning with our estimate of 12.8 km3/year. Similarly, in the
extensively studied Colorado River Basin, we estimate
unsustainable water consumption at 3.8 km3/year, consistent
with previous estimates of 3–4 km3/year.
The Martis Valley Groundwater Basin stands as one of the
region’s most valuable natural resources, providing
mountain-filtered water to local communities. Recognizing its
importance, the Truckee Donner Public Utility District (TDPUD)
is moving forward with an update to the Martis Valley
Groundwater Management Plan (GMP), ensuring the long-term
sustainability and quality of this critical water
supply. … To safeguard the basin’s future, TDPUD has
collaborated with the Northstar Community Services District and
Placer County Water Agency since 2013, implementing proactive
groundwater sustainability efforts. The GMP, which undergoes a
review every five years, provides a framework for responsible
management and conservation.
Aquafornia is off Monday, Feb. 17, the federal Presidents Day
holiday.
We will return Tuesday with a full slate of water news. In the
meantime, follow us on X (Twitter) where we
post breaking water news and on LinkedIn, Instagram and
Facebook.
Scattered rain and mountain snow showers will continue across
Northern and Central California on Friday morning. But stormy
conditions will fade across California by the evening, giving
way to generally quiet weather for the three-day holiday
weekend. Continued showers could add up to an additional foot
of snow in the Sierra Nevada above 5,000 feet, with the
heaviest snowfall in the morning and midafternoon Friday.
Travelers heading across the Sierra for the holiday weekend
should prepare for winter driving conditions. In the Bay
Area, rain showers will be more hit-or-miss than Thursday’s
widespread precipitation.
The rainstorms that drenched Southern California two years ago
weren’t enough to replenish deep underground aquifers that had
been depleted by pumping over the last two decades, a new study
has found. Stanford University scientists analyzed how the
historic 2023 storms affected groundwater levels across Los
Angeles and Orange counties. They found that while shallow
aquifers rebounded, deeper aquifers more than 150 feet
underground regained only about 25% of the water they had lost
to pumping since 2006.
A new aquatic invader, the golden mussel, has penetrated
California’s ecologically fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
the West Coast’s largest tidal estuary and the hub of the
state’s vast water export system. While state officials say
they’re working to keep this latest invasive species in check,
they concede it may be a nearly impossible task: The golden
mussel is in the Golden State to stay – and it is likely to
spread.
The push to remove two dams on Northern California’s Eel River,
making it the longest free-flowing river in the state, took a
step forward Thursday with a major agreement among clashing
communities. The agreement, which unites local, state
and tribal leaders behind the retirement of PG&E’s Potter
Valley hydroelectric project and its two dams, promises
“restorative justice” compensation for the region’s indigenous
people and continued water exports to the Russian River basin,
where the PG&E facility has long sent supplies. … Most
fundamentally, it would raise river levels and give struggling
salmon and other fish access to spawning habitat blocked by the
dams for more than a century.
As the first major atmospheric river of the winter arrives in
Los Angeles, it brings with it the hope that the fire risk has
finally receded, the danger that severe landslides could occur
in the fire-scarred hills around the city, and the possibility
that Southern California’s rainy season is, at long last, going
to begin in earnest. Many accounts of the Palisades and Eaton
fires have attributed their intensity in part to a delay in the
winter rains, and that framing is not wrong. However, it
doesn’t answer a basic question: why does Los Angeles receive
virtually all its rain during the winter?
This spring, the Colorado River District will be hitting 11
communities in western Colorado to discuss water issues facing
the basin for its annual “State of the River” meetings.
During the meetings, the governmental agency will share
localized insights on river flow forecasts as well as updates
on the Colorado River system as a whole, water projects and
priorities, challenges facing water users as well as an update
on its acquisition of the Shoshone Water Rights in Glenwood
Canyon. Attendees will also have an opportunity to ask
questions about the factors shaping the river system.
State lawmakers skeptical of federal guidance on fluoride in
water are proposing limits or bans on community fluoridation, a
decades-long practice credited with reductions in dental decay
across the country. Lawmakers in four states have introduced
legislation that would outlaw adding fluoride to community
water systems, and four other states are considering bills to
make fluoride optional or limit its concentration. Only one,
Utah’s, has moved past its original chamber. The
anti-fluoridation legislation comes after President Donald
Trump tapped Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a water fluoridation
skeptic, to lead the US Department of Health and Human
Services. Kennedy was confirmed this week.
… Western water is as complex as an issue can get. Trump’s
uninformed, shoot-from-the-hip style does not bode well for
addressing the many connected and complicated issues facing
western water managers. The recent federal engagement in
California in the San Joaquin Valley was not only ineffective
but wasteful and dangerous. By all accounts, the White House
suddenly ordered the Army Corps of Engineers, operators of dams
on the Tule and Kawheah rivers, to start releasing water from
essentially zero to filling the river channels. Water was
released for a few days, reaching the terminus of both rivers
in the Tulare Basin. No lives were lost. Damage to property was
largely averted. But no good came of this action. –Written by Lester Snow, natural resources consultant,
former regional director for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and
former director of the California Department of Water
Resources.
The ACWA Board of Directors has named Marwan Khalifa as Interim
Executive Director of the association, effective Feb. 24,
overseeing day-to-day operations of the association and
managing approximately 40 staff in Sacramento and Washington
D.C. Khalifa serves as Chief Financial Officer and District
Treasurer for Mesa Water District, where he has worked since
2017 and will continue through Feb. 20. Prior to his
appointment, he also served as Chair of ACWA’s Finance
Committee and member of the ACWA Board and Executive Committee.
The Port of Oakland deepens its commitment to sustainability by
sending more dredged sediment from the Oakland Seaport to a
Solano County wetland restoration site. Montezuma Wetlands will
receive an approximately $2.1 million grant over the next three
years to allow more Port-dredged sediment to go towards
restoring wetlands and endangered species habitat. Regulations
require a minimum of 40% of sand, silt, and mud dredged from
berth maintenance to go towards beneficial reuse. Berths and
approach channels must be up to 50-feet-deep to accommodate the
big vessels that call the Port today.
A House Natural Resources Committee markup ostensibly focused
on Western water supplies and wildfire prevention was instead
dominated by Democratic gripes about President Donald Trump and
his “government efficiency” adviser Elon Musk. Indeed, the top
Democrat on the committee at one point complained that the
session was mere “housekeeping” while “lawlessness” reigned in
the executive branch. Such rhetoric stood in contrast to the
substantive action in the committee, where all of the bills,
save one, passed unanimously.
… The art of well whispering was one of several water-focused
sessions at the massive annual agriculture show. In the aptly
named presentation “Planning Around Limits: SGMA Strategies,”
representatives of SWAN Systems, an Australian irrigation
technology company, explained the basics of the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which aims to have local
entities bring aquifers into balance by 2040 and the importance
of complying with local regulations. SWAN’s Shannon
Rinkenberger encouraged landowners to engage with their local
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies.
