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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The Department of the Interior today announced $223 million
from President Biden’s Investing in America agenda for water
recycling and desalination projects aimed at addressing the
impacts of drought. The funding from the Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law and annual appropriations is being awarded
to 18 projects in eight states through the Title XVI Water
Reclamation and Reuse and Desalination Programs. The selected
projects are expected to result in 305,936 acre-feet of annual
recycled water.
The biggest threat to Fresno’s greatest natural resource is
ready to strike. If community members don’t rally to the
occasion and stop this predator in its tracks, a multinational
mining corporation will gain permission to pillage and plunder
the San Joaquin River for another 100 years. With license to
employ methods that cause more environmental damage than those
used for the last century. Fresno County residents have rallied
for such causes in the not-too-distant past. In 2012, an
outpouring of citizen criticism prevented CEMEX from blasting
away Jesse Morrow Mountain near Yokuts Valley. Now it’s up to
us to keep the same company from dynamiting the San Joaquin
River bottom 3 miles outside the Fresno city limits. Yes,
dynamiting. To continue operations in areas depleted by
alluvial mining (i.e. extracting gravel, crushed stone, sand
and clay from stream bed deposits), CEMEX is seeking county
approval to blast and drill a 600-foot deep pit into the
river’s bedrock. —Written by Marek Warszawski, columnist for The Fresno
Bee
An extensive fight to protect the water of Nevada’s Amargosa
Valley may soon be won, ending a nearly two-year battle that
spanned from the nation’s capital to the porches of Nye County
residents forced to spend thousands of dollars to drill their
wells deeper. If approved, any new attempts of exploration for
lithium or any other minerals near the Ash Meadows National
Wildlife Refuge, about 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas, will be
denied for 20 years. The Bureau of Land Management recommended
that Deb Haaland, secretary of the Interior, use her power on
Tuesday to initiate a so-called 20-year “mineral withdrawal,”
an action that suspends new mining activity in a swath of land
that spans nearly 309,000 acres. The initiation of the
withdrawal process immediately suspends new mining development
activities in the proposed area for a period of two years,
during which land managers can conduct an environmental
review.
The coastal waters off Laguna Beach between Treasure Island and
Table Rock at Aliso Beach have been closed due to a sewage
spill, Orange County health authorities confirmed Tuesday
evening. Roughly 465,000 gallons of sewage spilled due to a
break in a main sewer line near Laguna Niguel Regional Park,
the Orange County Health Care Agency and the Environmental
Health Services said. An undetermined portion of that sewage
seeped into nearby beaches. Although the sewer line breach has
since been patched, area beaches remained closed to activities
that include swimming, surfing and diving. The waters will
remain closed until conditions improve, according to Orange
County officials.
Silicon Valley’s largest water agency will vote Tuesday on
whether to support Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to spend $20
billion to build a massive, 45-mile long tunnel under the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to make it easier to move water
from Northern California to Southern California. The board of
the Santa Clara Valley Water District, a government agency
based in San Jose, will consider contributing $9.7 million
toward planning and geotechnical studies for the project, which
it says could improve its water supply reliability — but which
is also one of California’s most long-running and controversial
water proposals. Newsom’s idea is to build a 36-foot
diameter concrete tunnel to take water from the Sacramento
River about 15 miles south of Sacramento, near the town of
Courtland, and move it roughly 150 feet deep, for 45 miles
under the marshes and sloughs of the Delta to the massive State
Water Project pumps near Tracy, reducing reliance on them.
At the beginning of the new year, California’s snowpack looked
promising. On Jan. 2, the state’s Department of Water Resources
measured the snowpack at 108% of average, for that
date. The bomb cyclone in November and a push of
winter storms in December had set up California’s mountains
with a better start than last year. On the same day last year,
the state’s snowpack was just 28% of average, to date.
… Weather experts say La Niña typically sets up a
weather pattern that favors Northern California with wetter
conditions, leaving the southern parts of the state drier. Now
that La Niña is officially in play, many say this trend will
likely continue.
… Officials now say the storage tanks that hold water for
high-elevation areas like the Highlands, and the pumping
systems that feed them, could not keep pace with the demand as
the fire raced from one neighborhood to another. That was in
part because those who designed the system did not account for
the stunning speeds at which multiple fires would race through
the Los Angeles area this week. … Municipal water
systems are designed for firefighters to tap into multiple
hydrants at once, allowing them to maintain a steady flow of
water for crews who may be trying to protect a large structure
or a handful of homes. But these systems can buckle when
wildfires, such as those fueled by the dry brush that surrounds
Los Angeles’s hillside communities, rage through entire
neighborhoods.
Preliminary year-end Colorado River numbers are stark. Total
basin-wide storage for the last two years has stabilized,
oscillating between 30 and 27 maf (million acre-feet), where
storage sits at the start of 2025[1]. That is lower than any
sustained period since the River’s reservoirs were built (Fig.
1). Stable is better than declining, but we did not succeed in
rebuilding reservoir storage during 2024’s excellent snowpack
but modest inflow. Although reservoir storage significantly
increased after the gangbuster 2023 snowmelt year, we have not
protected the storage gained in 2024 when inflow to Lake Powell
was ~85% of normal from a 130% of normal snowpack. We can’t
rely on frequent repeats of 2023; we must do better at
increasing storage in modest inflow years like 2024.
Four populations of California’s foothill yellow-legged frog
would be protected with the help of 760,071 acres of designated
critical habitat, under a Fish and Wildlife Service proposal
made public Monday. The proposed critical habitat includes
forested portions of the wildfire-prone Sierra Nevada as well
as the Santa Cruz mountains and coastal areas. Together, the
proposed critical habitat is designed to support the endangered
South Sierra and South Coast populations and the threatened
North Feather and Central Coast populations of the
yellow-legged frog. All told, the proposed critical
habitat is identified in 27 frog-occupied parcels, with 47
percent of the affected land owned by the federal government,
while 49 percent of the total acreage is privately owned.
Critical habitat is not a reserve, but activities involving
federal funding or other action on the land require
consultation with the Fish and Wildlife Service.
The bottler of Arrowhead Mountain Spring Water on Monday asked
a federal judge to issue an injunction against the U.S. Forest
Service after the agency refused to renew its permit for a
pipeline that runs through the San Bernardino National Forest.
U.S. District Judge Jesus Bernal didn’t make a ruling on
BlueTritonBrands’ request at the hearing in Riverside,
California. The judge indicated he’ll issue a decision in a few
days. The company, a former subsidiary of Nestlé and since last
year part of Primo Brands, claims its rights to the water that
percolates to the surface at Arrowhead Springs in Strawberry
Canyon predate the creation of the San Bernardino National
Forest in 1893. However, this past July the Forest Service
ordered BlueTriton to dismantle the pipeline that it has used
for decades to transport water from the springs.
A team of researchers with the University of Oregon on Monday
announced they have found a massive amount of water under the
Cascade Mountains in Oregon. They estimate it could hold at
least 81 cubic kilometers of water – or about three times the
water in Lake Mead, the reservoir on the Colorado River that is
held back by the Hoover Dam. … The team reported the
findings in a paper published Jan. 13 in the journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Most
Oregonians rely on water that originates from the
Cascades. For example, the McKenzie River, which supplies
most of Eugene’s drinking water, begins high in the mountains
at the spring-fed Clear Lake. But the discovery of this
underground aquifer’s size was a surprise.
Administrative comments filed last Friday by the Delta Tribal
Environmental Coalition (DTEC) urge the State Water Resources
Control Board (Board) to abandon unlawful private deal-making
with large water diverters and instead adopt regulations that
restore the health of the Bay-Delta, protect tribal uses of
water and strengthen engagement with Tribes and disadvantaged
communities in watershed management. DTEC’s comments are in
response to the Draft Water Quality Control Plan for the
Bay-Delta released by the Board in October 2024, according to a
press release from the Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition.
Katharine MacGregor, who was named this weekend as
President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for deputy secretary of
the Interior Department, appears well-positioned to lead the
incoming administration’s push for “energy dominance” on public
lands along with expanded access for hunting and fishing at
wildlife refuges and other public lands. And in what would be
her second stint in Interior leadership, she would be
well-poised to move efficiently, according to her colleagues
from the first Trump administration. “I don’t want to be too
flippant about it, but they’re not … around,” said Joe
Balash, who was Interior’s assistant secretary of lands and
minerals management in the first Trump administration. “Kate’s
been there. She knows how it works. She’s there to make things
happen. … This is no time for on-the-job training.”
As downtown-based water infrastructure company Cadiz Inc. is
well into the third decade of its pursuit of a massive water
storage and transfer project in the Mojave Desert, it’s turning
to a novel funding source: Native American tribes. In late
November, Cadiz obtained a letter of intent from the Santa
Rosa-based Lytton Rancheria of California Native American tribe
to invest up to $50 million in the Cadiz project, also known as
the Mojave Groundwater Bank. In an interview earlier this
month, Cadiz Chief Executive Susan Kennedy said the company is
now in talks with about a half-dozen other tribes. The aim, she
said, is to obtain financial commitments from these tribes
that, in combination with bond sales and other sources of
financing, should cover the $800 million cost of the project.
Harmful chemicals in sewage sludge spread on pasture as
fertilizer pose a risk to people who regularly consume milk,
beef and other products from those farms, in some cases raising
cancer risk “several orders of magnitude” above what the
Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable, federal
officials announced Tuesday. When cities and towns treat
sewage, they clean the liquids and separate out the solids,
which then need disposal. They make a nutrient-rich sludge that
is often spread on farm fields. The agency now says those
solids often contain toxic, lasting PFAS and treatment plants
can’t effectively remove them.
Nick Schwanz … was surprised to learn, however, that another
item, which appeared to be a routine and technical set of
zoning adjustments, actually carried huge implications for his
community. Schwanz, a board member of the Russian River Chamber
of Commerce, quickly pivoted and became one of the few to
comment on an apparent change to the federal flood zones that
could affect insurance rates, property values and building
especially along the lower Russian River. … At issue was
a new study by the Federal Emergency Management Agency of flood
hazards in the Russian River Watershed, the first update in 30
years. The maps are used to determine flood risks and insurance
requirements and must be adopted by counties to participate in
the National Flood Insurance Program. The update changes
flood-risk designations for some 2,500 parcels, with particular
effect in the Rio Nido, Guerneville, Monte Rio and Northwood
areas.
Hydrants in the hills of the Pacific Palisades ran dry
amid one of the worst blazes ever seen in Los Angeles
County, forcing firefighters to scramble to draw water from
pools and ponds or — even worse — watch as homes and businesses
burned. On the other side of the county, water pressure in
Altadena dropped to a trickle at times as flames from the
Eaton Fire destroyed neighborhoods. As stories of
firefighters struggling to find water circulated on
social media and in the news, residents demanded answers. The
response from local officials was consistent: municipal water
systems just aren’t designed to fight such intense and
prolonged wildfires. But as climate change makes what were
once-in-a-lifetime disasters more common and the borders
between urban and wildlands further narrow, stakeholders are
now questioning if that needs to change.
A groundwater agency on the western fringes of Kern County has
taken the unprecedented step of banning all pumping from wells
along the California Aqueduct for a 30-mile stretch. The move
is mainly designed to protect the vital artery that moves
hundreds of millions of gallons of water a day from northern to
southern California and is threatened by sinking land that
could crimp its ability to function. The ban is also
intended to prove whether groundwater pumping is the true
culprit.
As Los Angeles burned for days on end, horrifying the nation,
scientists made an announcement on Friday that could help
explain the deadly conflagration: 2024 was the hottest year in
recorded history. With temperatures rising around the globe and
the oceans unusually warm, scientists are warning that the
world has entered a dangerous new era of chaotic floods, storms
and fires made worse by human-caused climate change. The
firestorms ravaging the country’s second-largest city are just
the latest spasm of extreme weather that is growing more
furious as well as more unpredictable. Wildfires are highly
unusual in Southern California in January, which is supposed to
be the rainy season. The same is true for cyclones in
Appalachia, where
Hurricanes Helene and Milton shocked the
country when they tore through mountain communities in October.
The federal government awarded $4.25 million to the
Colorado-based Southern Ute Indian Tribe this week to defend
tribal water resources from climate-related challenges. The
Bureau of Indian Affairs Tribal Community Resilience branch
distributed grants to 124 projects nationwide, with funding
pooled from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the Inflation
Reduction Act and the 2024 federal budget. “Indigenous
communities face unique and intensifying climate-related
challenges that pose an existential threat to Tribal economies,
infrastructure, lives and livelihoods,” said Department of the
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland in a statement.
