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 Chris Bowman.
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NASA and the German Space Agency at DLR (German Aerospace
Center) have agreed to jointly build, launch, and operate a
pair of spacecraft that will yield insights into how Earth’s
water, ice, and land masses are shifting by measuring monthly
changes in the planet’s gravity field. Tracking large-scale
mass changes – showing when and where water moves within and
between the atmosphere, oceans, underground aquifers, and ice
sheets – provides a view into Earth’s water cycle, including
changes in response to drivers like climate change.
Although pesticides can rid your home of cockroaches or farm
fields of unwanted insects, they also can harm fish and
potentially even people, according to a new study from Oregon
State University. At high concentrations, these commonly
used pyrethroid pesticides, bifenthrin, cyfluthrin and
cyhalothrin, act as a neurotoxin for pests. … At low
concentrations, the pyrethroid pesticides disrupt fish’s
endocrine system, which produces hormones. The scientists
wanted to better understand how short of an exposure would harm
fish.
Plans to build a water pump station in Novato are drawing
opposition from neighbors. The North Marin Water District is
considering building the station at “Site 2,” a parcel on a
city-owned greenway that borders Arroyo San Jose Creek near
Ignacio Boulevard and Palmer Drive. … Opponents say the pump
station will be an eyesore in the creek’s promenade area.
Household leaks waste nearly 1 trillion gallons of water
nationwide every year, enough to provide water to over 11
million homes. During Fix a Leak Week (March 18 to March 24),
the Department of Water Resources (DWR) encourages everyone to
find and fix leaks inside and outside their home to save water.
Leaks are not just a household problem – parts of California’s
water delivery infrastructure are aging and developing leaks
too. This aging infrastructure can cause significant water loss
and hinder our ability to deliver water efficiently. DWR is
committed to repairing them to maintain our infrastructure and
protect California’s valuable water supplies for future
generations.
California regulators this week proposed delaying new rules
aimed at reducing how much water people use on their lawns,
drawing praise from agencies that said they needed more time to
comply but criticism from environmentalists who warn that the
delay would damage the state’s already scarce supply. Last
year, California proposed new rules that would, cumulatively,
reduce statewide water use by about 14%. Those rules included
lowering outdoor water use standards below the current
statewide average by 2035. On Tuesday, regulators proposed
delaying that timeline by five years, until 2040. The State
Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to vote on the rules
later this year. The state would not punish people for using
too much water on their lawns.
The Sacramento Superior Court has ruled in favor of the State
Water Board’s 2018 Bay Delta Plan update, denying all 116
claims by petitioners. In December 2018, the State Water
Resources Control Plan adopted revised flow
objectives for the San Joaquin River and its three major
tributaries, the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced rivers. The
new flow objectives provide for increased flows on the three
tributaries to help revive and protect native fall-run
migratory fish populations. The Board also adopted a revised
south Delta salinity objectives, increasing the level of
salinity allowed from April to August. Several petitions
were filed in several counties challenging the Board’s
action.
… A windswept county in the Sacramento Valley — whose
entire population of 22,000 people is just one-third of Palo
Alto’s — may soon be known for something else: the largest new
reservoir anywhere in California in the past 50 years. Last
weekend, President Biden signed a package of bills that
included $205 million in construction funding for Sites
Reservoir, a proposed $4.5 billion project planned for the
rolling ranchlands west of the town of Maxwell, about 70
miles north of Sacramento. … The make-or-break moment
for Sites is a series of hearings scheduled to run from June to
November in which the State Water Resources Control Board will
analyze fisheries studies and other documents and decide
whether to award it the water rights to move forward.
Snowfall this week in the Rockies has improved the water
picture for the Colorado River, but one expert says she’s not
counting her chickens before they’re hatched. Current
information on the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s website shows
that snowpack levels in the Upper Colorado River Basin are at
110% of normal for this time of year. That’s an improvement
over March 1 when it was at 101%. … important weeks are
still ahead, even though the snowpack peak is typically
measured on April 1 each year.
The Pacific Fishery Management Council is considering three
options for the ocean salmon season, set to begin May 16. The
federal council that manages water from California, Oregon and
Washington state came up with two options that would entail a
short salmon season, and it’ll come with small harvest limits
for both commercial and sport fishing. The last option includes
closing off the ocean fisheries for the second consecutive
year. Last year, commercial and recreation salmon fleets in
California were left anchored following the PFMC’s decision to
cancel the 2023 fishing season due to years of drought, low
river level and dry conditions affecting the Chinook salmon
populations in the Klamath and Sacramento rivers.
California enjoyed a second consecutive winter of above-average
precipitation this year, and many are hoping that will
translate to another relatively calm fire season. But that’s
far from a sure thing, even though the outlook for the next few
months is good, experts say. In 2023, about 320,000 acres
burned statewide due to wildfires, well below the five-year
average of 1.7 million acres. Storms that winter played a part:
Rain revitalized a landscape parched by years of drought and a
colossal Sierra Nevada snowpack provided additional moisture as
it melted through the warmer months. … The Northern
California Geographic Area Coordination Center’s
four-month outlook issued March 1 calls for minimal
fire activity across Northern California from March through
May.
After decades of advocating, tribal members cheered as a blast
at JC Boyle Dam this year kicked off the process of drawing
down the reservoirs behind three Klamath River dams. The
removal is expected to restore the river and reopen spawning
habitat that salmon haven’t been able to reach for more than a
century. OPB science reporter and editor Cassandra Profita
brings us the perspective of the tribes living along the
Klamath River: what the country’s largest dam removal project
means to them and their hopes for the future.
This half-hour special dives into the troubles and triumphs at
the Salton Sea. The sea is the largest body of water in
California. It formed after a levee at the Colorado River burst
in the early 1900s, and after the levee was fixed, it cut off
the flow of fresh water. Since then, the sea has become
polluted with chemical runoff from nearby farms. It’s also
slowly evaporating. The chemical-filled water releases gases
that trigger asthma in nearby communities, and toxic dust from
around the shoreline acts as an irritant as well. Despite
all of the negatives, there are a few positives. New wetlands
are forming as the sea slowly pulls away from the shoreline,
playing host to thousands of migrating birds. Developing
wetlands make the sea an important stop along the Pacific
Flyway.
The United States suffers the world’s second-highest toll from
major weather disasters, according to a new analysis — even
when numbers are adjusted for the country’s wealth. The report
released late last month by Zurich-based reinsurance giant
Swiss Re, which analyzed the vulnerability and damages of 36
different countries, suggests that weather disasters may become
a heavy drag on the U.S. economy — especially as insurers
increasingly pull out of hazardous areas. Those disasters are
driving up insurance rates, compounding inflation and adding to
Americans’ high cost of living. … Some insurers have
stopped offering home insurance policies in California, which
has seen numerous large wildfires in the past few years.
In a Sacramento office building, university students carefully
scan pieces of paper that underpin California’s most
contentious and valuable water disputes. One by one, they’re
bringing pieces of history into the digital era, some a century
old and thin as onion skin. The student workers are beginning
to digitize the state’s water rights records, part of a project
launched by the state’s water regulator earlier this year. It
may seem simple, but scanning two million musty pages is part
of a $60 million project that could take years. The massive
undertaking will unmask the notoriously opaque world of
California water. Right now, it’s practically impossible to
know who has the right to use water, how much they’re taking
and from what river or stream at any given time in the state.
Ten years. That’s how much time the Bay Area’s 37 wastewater
treatment plants will have to reduce fertilizer and sewage in
their water by 40%. The estimated price tag for the facility
upgrades is $11 billion. The San Francisco Regional Water
Quality Control Board plans to adopt the change as part of its
new discharge permit requirement beginning June 12. Previous
permits did not require reductions …The regulatory change
follows a damaging algae bloom in 2022 and 2023. A brown algae
species called Heterosigma akashiwo, which feeds off the
nitrogen in wastewater, infected the Bay and damaged aquatic
ecosystems.
Nearly six weeks after a major winter storm led to flooding and
landslide throughout Southern California, some homeowners in
Beverly Glen are still trying to return home. On Caribou Lane,
a landslide knocked a home off its foundation, and the debris
slid into the neighbors’ homes. That debris and mud left Samila
Bahsoon’s home with a lot of damage. … She has
potentially more than $600,000 in damage, and two insurance
companies already denied her claims. … She also
said when the neighbor’s home was knocked off the foundation,
the debris broke her water main. And it led to a massive water
bill. “LADWP sent me a $9,500 water bill, which is 6,500%
more than average for the last 35 years that this house has
been used,” she said.
Set against the context of unprecedented demand for water
supply solutions, Brownstein and WestWater Research brought
together water industry and finance leaders for the second
annual Sustainable Water Investment Summit. The World Resources
Institute’s latest data helps articulate the scale of the
demand for water supply reliability, sustainability and
innovation: by 2050, an additional billion people will be
living in arid areas and regions with high water stress, and by
2050, around 46% of global GDP is expected to come
from areas facing high-water risk (up from 10% currently).
Given these realities, it’s unsurprising that diverse interests
are now converging to meet the challenges of ensuring a
resilient and accessible water future. Polls find that 63% of
global companies now undertake water-related risk assessments,
and 1,100 CEOs have annual performance reviews tied to results
around water goals.
A restoration project at Talbert Marsh got the go-ahead
Thursday after the state Coastal Commission approved a coastal
permit application submitted by the Huntington Beach Wetlands
Conservancy as part of its consent calendar. The roughly 25
acres of Talbert Marsh stretch between Brookhurst Street to the
Santa Ana River Trail and make up one of four wetlands the
nonprofit owns and maintains. More than 90 bird species have
been observed at the marsh in addition to the adjoining
wetlands, according to the organization. The project along the
southeastern and western shorelines of South Island will
address erosion, which Coastal Commission staff said causes the
disappearance of coastal salt marsh vegetation and depletes
refuge spaces for sensitive bird species that live there.
In January, the Sierra Nevada snowfall outlook was bleak.
California’s snowpack sat at levels less than half of normal,
and more sand than snow lined the shores of Lake Tahoe. Across
the West, experts voiced concern about snow drought. But, in
California, prospects turned around the following month as a
steady stream of storms added to the snowpack, culminating in
an epic blizzard. Things played out quite differently in other
parts of the country — large swaths of the U.S., including the
Midwest, lack healthy snow levels. … In the future,
snowy winters producing well above-normal snowpack like last
year may still occur, but “those kinds of winters are going to
become less common in a warming world,” said Brian
Brettschneider, a climate scientist at the National Weather
Service Alaska Region.
The states that use the Colorado River have put out their
latest proposals on how to manage the river’s shrinking amount
of water, and the two plans reveal that there are still big
differences in how upstream and downstream states want to divvy
up future cuts to their water consumption. While state water
negotiators say they’re committed to figuring out how they can
compromise in the age of climate change when there is less
water available to the 40 million people who rely on it, the
Southern Ute tribal government in southwestern Colorado doesn’t
believe either proposal addresses their concerns or helps them
secure their water future.
