Aquafornia

Overview

Aquafornia
Water news you need to know

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

Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.

For breaking news, follow us on X (Twitter).

Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, the headlines below are the original headlines used in the publication cited at the time they are posted here and do not reflect the stance of the Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit that remains neutral.

Aquafornia news The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)

Partially treated sewage spills into SLO creek in Calif. storm

About 50,000 gallons of partially treated wastewater mixed with rainwater spilled from a San Luis Obispo treatment facility Thursday afternoon and into a creek, prompting a nearby beach closure. According to the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department, the sewage mixture began spilling from a treatment facility around 12:40 p.m. “due to the storm surge event.” The Department said approximately 50,000 gallons was released into San Luis Obispo Creek during the event. The spill was mitigated by 1 p.m., the release said.

Aquafornia news Information Week

Blog: Fabrication plants and data centers tax Arizona resources

… There are now 96 major data centers spread across Arizona, including 87 in the Phoenix metro area. AWS, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Meta, Nvidia, and others have a presence in the state. In addition, Intel, NXP, Texas Instruments, and Taiwan Semiconductor operate semiconductor fabrication plants. … Manufacturing processes at chip fabrication facilities consume up to 4.8 million gallons of water daily. Data centers typically pull between 500,000 gallons and 5 million gallons per day — mostly from underground aquifers — though some facilities use air-cooling and immersion cooling systems. 

Aquafornia news New Mexico Political Report

Federal legislation seeks to shield water, wastewater utilities from PFAS costs

Federal lawmakers are once again seeking to protect drinking water and wastewater utilities from some of the costs associated with PFAS contamination. A bipartisan bill introduced by U.S. Reps. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Washington, and Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, if enacted, would shield utilities from legal costs and cleanup liabilities associated with PFAS contamination. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has designated two types of PFAS — PFOA and PFOS — as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Local utilities expressed concerns that they would need to pay to remove PFAS from drinking water, which can be an expensive endeavor.

Aquafornia news Military.com

Navy SEAL candidates sickened by training in sewage-laced ocean water, Pentagon watchdog finds

Navy SEAL candidates in California are often training in water filled with bacteria that cause illnesses, a Department of Defense watchdog report found, and the service’s special warfare command does not have a formal policy for monitoring water quality and relocating training. The DoD inspector general’s findings, released last week, said candidates at Naval Amphibious Base Coronado would often train in the water even when local San Diego beaches nearby were closed to the public due to high levels of “fecal indicator bacteria.”

Aquafornia news Daily Press (Victorville, Calif.)

Jess Ranch Fishing Lakes reels in crowds at grand reopening

Jess Ranch Lakes has reopened in Apple Valley after a four-year closure. … The lake was closed for four years due to the new bird-borne fish disease Lactococcus garvieae that devastated fish throughout the entire state. The Ledfords were ordered to humanely put down and bury all existing fish by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The disease did not contaminate the water, Robert said, but it did take quite some time to rebound and raise enough healthy fish to reopen for business. Every new fish that the family raises in their hatchery is now vaccinated to protect against the bird disease.

Aquafornia news The Guardian (London)

A ‘recipe for extinction’: can the US’s envied nature protections survive Trump and his ‘God squad’?

… A slew of early actions by the Trump administration has set about throwing open more land and waters for the fossil fuel industry, triggering the reversal of regulations that strengthen the Endangered Species Act, the country’s landmark 1973 conservation bill, including a rule that protects migratory birds from unintentional killing. … A lack of resources has stymied many listed species from a full recovery and opponents of the act claim that it has unduly blocked economic development. Trump recently railed against protections afforded to the delta smelt, a small, unassuming creature in California that the president called an “essentially worthless fish”.

Other endangered species news:

Aquafornia news Orange County Register

Opinion: L.A. wildfires exposed a confluence of bad state policy

… (T)he Los Angeles wildfires – likely to be one of the costliest natural disasters in U.S. history – have exposed festering regulatory hurdles that have exacerbated the crisis. Many are years in the making, maddeningly complex and not given to quick solutions. It’s a confluence of bad policy involving brush clearance, water, insurance, firefighting, housing and climate change. Simply put, California has created a tangled web of regulation that renders this once-innovative state incapable of accomplishing anything efficiently.
–Written by Steven Greenhut, Western region director for the R Street Institute and a member of the Southern California News Group editorial board

Aquafornia news Water Online

Blog: Are you ready for the new water reuse regulations?

For decades, California has taken the lead in setting standards for water reuse. Other parts of the U.S. that have struggled with water stress or scarcity have used the state’s Title 22 regulations as a benchmark for their own guidelines or need-based treatment designs. On Oct. 1, 2024, California’s new Title 22 regulations took effect, which include guidance on direct potable reuse (DPR). Within the state, continued treatment investigation and investment are expected. Even outside California, water utilities, regulators, manufacturers, and design engineers should understand these new guidelines, the processes, and the technologies they cover in order to prepare themselves for implementation.

Aquafornia news The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)

Thursday Top of the Scroll: California’s largest reservoir has risen 22 feet, as more rain drenches the state

After an unusually dry January where most of Northern California went without rain for 27 days in a row, the storms have come fast and furious, dramatically improving the state’s water-supply outlook. So much rain fell in the first week of February that California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, near Redding, rose 22 feet. Shasta Lake is 34 miles long. The watershed at the state’s second-largest, Lake Oroville, in Butte County, has received 24 inches of rain in the past two weeks — five times the historical average — sending the reservoir level up 23 feet from Feb. 1 to Feb. 7. And now a new atmospheric river storm is forecast to soak the Bay Area and the rest of the state Thursday and Friday.

Other weather and water supply news:

Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

Storm hitting California may bring ‘damaging’ debris flows. These maps shows areas most at risk

Heavy rain is expected to sweep across Southern California on Thursday, raising the risk of flash flooding and mudflows in and around recent wildfire burn areas. Small mudflows were previously observed around the Palisades burn scar from last week’s storm, but Thursday’s storm will present a more pronounced risk. Thursday could be the wettest day in Los Angeles since February 2024, according to National Weather Service forecasts, with 2 to 3 inches of rain expected.

Other debris flow risk news:

Aquafornia news KJZZ (Phoenix, Ariz.)

Arizona senators ask Bureau of Reclamation to resume funding Colorado River projects

Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego are asking the Bureau of Reclamation to ensure projects for Colorado River preservation will still get their funding. The Bureau of Reclamation has already signed off on money for projects across Arizona — including an $86 million agreement to build a recycled water plant in Tucson in exchange for the city taking less Colorado River water over the next 10 years. But in a letter to the agency this week, the lawmakers say their constituents are reporting funding for some of that work has been paused amid the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze federal funding.

Other Colorado River news:

Aquafornia news The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)

Historic pact reached on future Eel River water flows into Russian River

Officials from three counties and the Round Valley Indian Tribes have reached a historic agreement that paves the way for continued diversions from the Eel River to bolster flows in the Russian River. The agreement represents a critical development for anyone whose water comes from the Russian River. The complex accord resulted from years of negotiations to preserve supplemental flows in the Russian River, the water lifeline for residents, ranchers and wildlife in Sonoma and Mendocino counties. The agreement also supports the restoration and fish recovery in the Eel River, which was crucial to securing support from environmental interests, tribes and Humboldt County residents.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news Water Education Foundation

Announcement: Registration now open for popular Bay-Delta tour in May; Water Summit set for Oct. 1

Register today for the return of our Bay-Delta Tour May 7-9 as we venture into the most critical and controversial water region in California. Get a firsthand look at the state’s vital water hub and hear directly from experts on key issues affecting the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay. The 720,000-acre network of islands and channels supports the state’s two large water systems – the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project – and together with the San Francisco Bay is an important ecological resource. You’ll learn firsthand how the drought is affecting water quality and supply that serves local farms, cities and habitat.

Aquafornia news Somach, Simmons & Dunn, Attorneys at Law

Blog: California Court of Appeal holds that a water district’s surcharge to cover water infrastructure construction costs violates Proposition 218

In California, a levy, charge, or exaction imposed by a local government is an unconstitutional and invalid tax if it does not qualify as one of seven enumerated tax exceptions and was not approved by at least a majority of voters. The California Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District recently invalidated a water rate increase imposed on non-agricultural water users because the water district failed to produce evidence that non-agricultural water customers were solely responsible for paying increased groundwater replenishment fees. The case highlights the evidentiary burden on local governments to demonstrate an exaction is not a tax under the California Constitution.

Aquafornia news The Water Desk (Boulder, Colo.)

Rain or snow? Observers help scientists understand wintry weather

Figuring out the dividing line between rain and snow has long flummoxed forecasters, especially in places like the high country of the American West, where complex topography and dramatic elevation differences shape the weather. … To gain a clearer picture of the rain-snow transition and its impact on the water cycle, scientists have been using a free phone app and data from thousands of volunteer observers who provide real-time reports of what precipitation type they’re seeing. The observations from the NASA-funded citizen science project—known as Mountain Rain or Snow—have highlighted the shortcomings of existing approaches to differentiating the phases of precipitation, according to a study published in Geophysical Research Letters in December. 

Aquafornia news The Colorado Sun (Denver)

Oil and gas advocate from Colorado named to lead BLM

President Donald Trump has nominated Colorado’s Kathleen Sgamma, the head of Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas trade group, to run the Bureau of Land Management.  Kathleen Sgamma Sgamma, a Denver resident, has been the head of the Western Energy Alliance since 2006, working to protect the interests of oil and gas producers amid an international embrace of cleaner energies. Sgamma and the Western Energy Alliance have been a vocal critic of former President Joe Biden’s increased regulation of the oil and gas industry. 

Other federal agency and water policy news:

Aquafornia news KQED (San Francisco)

SF dumps millions of gallons of sewage during big storms. Surfers say that needs to stop

… Atmospheric rivers almost guarantee one thing for San Francisco: millions of gallons of stormwater and raw sewage will get poured into the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay. In San Francisco, sewage and stormwater flow through the same pipes as part of a combined system. The problem is that large enough storms cause the system to overflow, which the city said typically happens less than 10 times a year. … Environmental groups and the state of California argue that the city is discharging too frequently and at such high volumes that it taints the waterways with bacteria that can cause illness if people come into contact with it.

Related article:

Aquafornia news MIT Technology Review

What a major battery fire means for the future of energy storage

A few weeks ago, a fire broke out at the Moss Landing Power Plant in California, the world’s largest collection of batteries on the grid. Although the flames were extinguished in a few days, the metaphorical smoke is still clearing. Some residents in the area have reported health issues that they claim are related to the fire, and some environmental tests revealed pollutants in the water and ground near where the fire burned. One group has filed a lawsuit against the company that owns the site. In the wake of high-profile fires like Moss Landing, there are very understandable concerns about battery safety. At the same time, as more wind, solar power, and other variable electricity sources come online, large energy storage installations will be even more crucial for the grid. 

Related article:

Aquafornia news In the Center Lane With Herb Paine

Blog: The mirage of water security: The politics of short-term fixes and scarcity

… With back-to-back atmospheric rivers poised to dump up to 10 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevadas and bring as much as 15 inches of rain to northern areas, California faces a familiar paradox: When it rains, it pours. Yet, water remains scarce when it’s needed most. Why? Because balancing environmental sustainability with agricultural and human needs has been an ongoing challenge in state policies. For example, substantial amounts of this precipitation are diverted to support fish populations, leaving the Central Valley – one of the nation’s most vital agricultural hubs – crippled by chronic water shortages, depleted groundwater, and rising unemployment.

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Well registration policy hammered out by Mid-Kings River groundwater agency advisory group

The new Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s advisory group made recent headway on improving plans and policies, though the agency is still behind its counterparts in the subbasin. … During a Feb. 10 meeting, the advisory group focused on updating Mid-Kings’ well registration and metering policies. The proposed changes will go before the GSA board for approval in March. When the former Mid-Kings imploded in summer 2024, the Kings County Board of Supervisors picked up the pieces and started anew creating the advisory group to represent growers. The advisory group has been doing a lot of heavy lifting going over core policies intended to help bring the area’s aquifers into balance, as mandated under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).