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 Solano County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday heard an
update on water issues, including the state’s Delta Conveyance
project, which would build a water tunnel to divert resources
south. The tunnel would be drilled under the Delta and would
remove water from the upper parts of the Sacramento River to
directly deliver it to pumps in Tracy. The water would
eventually be pumped to Southern California and the Central
Valley, bypassing the river delta itself. By taking in
freshwater at inputs near Courtland and Hood, the diverts water
in the delta that is currently halting saltwater intrusion. The
project is now expected to cost the state about $20 billion,
inflated up from the original cost of $12 billion.
As Hurricane Milton exploded from a Category 1 storm into a
Category 5 storm over the course of 12 hours yesterday, climate
scientists and meteorologists were stunned. NBC6’s John
Morales, a veteran TV meteorologist in South Florida, choked up
on air while describing how quickly and dramatically the storm
had intensified. To most people, a drop in pressure of 50
millibars means nothing; a weatherman understands, as Morales
said mid-broadcast, that “this is just horrific.” Florida is
still cleaning up from Helene; this storm is spinning much
faster, and it’s more compact and organized. In a way,
Milton is exactly the type of storm that scientists have been
warning could happen; Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, in California, called it
shocking but not surprising. “One of the things we know is
that, in a warmer world, the most intense storms are more
intense,” he told me. Milton might have been a significant
hurricane regardless, but every aspect of the storm that could
have been dialed up has been.
“How amazing is this! In the middle of L.A.,” exclaimed Melanie
Winter, who sat admiring the view from a canoe. “You get a
glimpse of what the river was, and what the river could be
again.” This oasis, part of the Sepulveda Basin Recreation
Area, is one of the few spots where the Los Angeles River isn’t
straitjacketed in concrete, allowing it to flow unencumbered
through a thriving riparian forest. For Winter, it’s a place
that shows the potential to solve multiple problems and improve
life in Los Angeles by reimagining the city’s heavily
engineered channels to make space for nature along the river.
For nearly three decades, Winter has been persistently
spreading her alternative vision for the river and the
watershed — a vision that includes “unbuilding” where feasible,
removing concrete and reactivating stretches of natural
floodplains where the river can spread out.
Measure J, put forth by the Coalition to End Factory Farming,
is on the ballot in Sonoma County this November. It would
require farms in Sonoma County classified by EPA as
Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) to either
downsize or shut down in a three-year period. According to the
EPA, CAFOs are classified as such when surpassing an exceeded
limit of animals held, with varying limits depending on the
animal. Farms can also be classified as CAFOs if they
release manure or wastewater to surface water.
… The debate grew contentious over a disagreement to how
medium CAFOs are classified and targeted by Measure J. Measure
J text would ban all CAFOs from running in Sonoma County and
downsize 21 large CAFOs to a size and water waste management
that meets EPA standards to no longer be a CAFO.
From the Bay Area to Sacramento and Stockton, from Fresno to
north of Redding, Californians — particularly low-income
immigrants from Asian countries and other people of color —
rely on the San Francisco Bay and the rivers that feed it for
food. But the vast watershed is in trouble, plagued by low
flows, algal blooms, urban and farm runoff and a legacy of
mercury contamination that dates back to the Gold Rush.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now investigating
claims that California’s management of the state’s largest
estuary has “discriminated on the basis of race, color and
national origin” with “its failure to update Bay-Delta water
quality standards,” which involve how much water is diverted to
cities and farms. The investigation also includes allegations
that the State Water Resources Control Board “has intentionally
excluded tribes and Black, Asian and Latino residents from
participation in the policymaking process.”
A decade after the Flint, Michigan, water
crisis raised alarms about the continuing dangers of lead
in tap water, President Joe Biden is setting a
10-year deadline for cities across the nation to replace their
lead pipes, finalizing an aggressive approach aimed at ensuring
that drinking water is safe for all Americans. Biden is
expected to announce the final Environmental Protection Agency
rule Tuesday in the swing state of Wisconsin during the final
month of a tight presidential campaign. The announcement
highlights an issue — safe drinking water — that Kamala
Harris has prioritized as vice president and during her
presidential campaign. The new rule supplants a looser standard
set by former President Donald Trump’s administration
that did not include a universal requirement to replace lead
pipes.
Water managers in two Tulare County groundwater agencies are
scrambling to keep their farmers out of state clutches as much
as possible, even knowing the solution will be painful. “As
long as we don’t saddle our landowners with another fee and a
report to fill out, that’s our goal,” said attorney Alex
Peltzer, who represents Lower Tule River Irrigation District
and Pixley groundwater sustainability agencies. “That is our
attitude and it is doable. It’s going to be unpopular and tough
to do, but it’s possible. We think we can help manage
landowners into a soft landing.” The only way to get
there, though, is to significantly reduce pumping – and fast.
As San Francisco prepares to ask the Supreme Court to ease
federal restrictions on sewage pollution into the ocean and the
bay, the case has divided the city’s all-Democratic leadership,
and put the city in the unusual position of siding with oil
companies and business groups and against the state and federal
governments. The Board of Supervisors will take up a resolution
Tuesday urging city officials to settle the case and avoid a
ruling that could harm offshore water quality nationwide.
San Francisco is siding with “the nation’s biggest polluters”
in a lawsuit that “has the potential to seriously destabilize
Clean Water Act protections at a time when environmental
protections are already under serious threat,” said the
resolution by Supervisors Myrna Melgar and Aaron Peskin.
Approving Proposition 4 would authorize $10 billion
in debt to spend on environmental and climate projects, with
the biggest chunk, $1.9 billion, for drinking water
improvements. The bond prioritizes lower-income
communities, and those most vulnerable to climate change, and
requires annual audits. Repaying the money could cost $400
million a year over 40 years, a legislative analysis said,
meaning taxpayers could spend $16 billion.
The Gila River Indian Community celebrated a historic milestone
in its work to provide solutions for water conservation and
renewable energy by activating the first-ever solar-over-canal
project in the country. “The Gila River Indian Community is
proud to be at the forefront of this groundbreaking
solar-over-canal project, which not only generates renewable
energy but also conserves our most precious resource — water,”
Gila River Indian Community Gov. Stephen Roe Lewis said in a
written statement. The project spans over 2,700 linear
feet of the Casa Blanca Canal, which is located along
Interstate 10 near Sacaton. The tribe said the project
represents a groundbreaking solution to the intertwined crises
of energy, water and climate change, specifically addressing
the unique needs of the Gila River Indian Community, the State
of Arizona, the southwest region and the Colorado River Basin.
The Almond Alliance offered its support for a $14 billion
disaster relief legislation introduced by U.S. Reps. David G.
Valadao, R-Calif., and Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., which offers
support for farmers and rural communities impacted by natural
disasters in 2023 including floods, droughts and wildfires. The
bipartisan Agriculture Disaster Relief Supplemental
Appropriations Act proposes $14 billion in disaster relief
funding to the agriculture secretary’s office for 2023 disaster
expenses, according to a news release. It incorporates
provisions from past relief programs, including drought
definitions and direct payments and ensures simultaneous
payment administration for all producers.
Six members of Colorado’s congressional delegation, including
Sens. John Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet, have come out in
support of a $99 million effort to secure historic Colorado
River water rights, a move that would provide environmental
benefits and protect Western Slope users from any potential
future sale. Western Slope water agencies, including the
Glenwood Springs-based Colorado River District, and the state
have committed $56 million to purchase the water from Xcel
Energy, which uses the water to operate its Shoshone hydropower
plant in Glenwood Canyon.
… [Brian] LeNeve is the former president and current
treasurer, conservation chair, and board member of the Carmel
River Steelhead Association (CRSA), based in Monterey,
California. The organization has one simple mission: Save the
federally threatened South Central California Coast population
of steelhead trout. … Due to the excessive pumping of
the river for municipal water, parts of the Carmel River that
once brimmed with life dry up every summer. When the river
dries, young steelhead become trapped and die by the thousands
from suffocation, heat, or lack of water. California steelhead
populations are already threatened by dams, invasive predators
like catfish and bass, agriculture, and more. Without
intervention, a Carmel River die-off could lead to the end of
this subspecies.
The Ventura County-based oil producer facing financial
liabilities relating to accusations it contaminated
Bakersfield’s municipal water system in June filed Wednesday
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection that would allow the
company to reorganize its debts while continuing to do
business. Griffin Resources LLC’s bankruptcy paperwork states
it owes between $100,001 and $1 million to a total of up
to 99 creditors. … A lawsuit the city of Bakersfield filed
July 24 alleged Griffin “intentionally, recklessly and
negligently” polluted local drinking water by allowing
pressurized natural gas to backflow into municipal pipes
starting June 3.
The doctor who exposed elevated levels of lead in the
bloodstream of children in Flint, Michigan, leading to a
nationwide crisis that has lasted years, has compared it with
the situation going on in southern California. “It’s a
very similar story of environmental contamination, an
environmental injustice,” said Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha
in a public health forum in Imperial Beach during the
weekend. “My biggest message is to tell the residents that they
are not alone,” she added. The statement comes shortly after
local researchers said they detected a poisonous
substance in the Tijuana River Valley as a result of the high
volume of raw sewage flowing from Mexico into the region.
… ADWR offers the following information in response to the
paper, which incorporates supposition and opinion masquerading
as fact (even using subjective and even judgmental phrases like
“what rational actor would invest in schemes to conserve
water,” “because of its sparkling qualities,” and “a tool as
flexible and alluring as Assigned Water”). First, ADWR agrees
wholeheartedly with the general premise that System Water is
preferable to any category of Assigned Water. Increased volumes
of System Water will improve outcomes for water users across
the entire Basin, as well as the environment. ADWR also agrees
with the need to divorce decisions regarding system operations
from any Assigned Water stored in the system. Ongoing
negotiations incorporate this concept, as seen in
the Lower Basin Alternative for Post- 2026 Operations.
However, ADWR takes issue with some of the allegations in the
Enduring Solutions paper.
Ongoing warming intensifies snowpack extremes, posing
significant hydroclimatic risks to socio-ecological systems.
However, the relation between snowpack extremes and subsequent
compound hydroclimatic extremes remains unclear. Here, we
investigated the impact of snowpack extremes on warm-season
compound hydroclimatic extremes in the Northern Hemisphere
using multisource datasets from 1980 to 2022. We found
widespread increases in deficient, short, and deficient-short
snowpack extremes, triggering more compound hot-dry extremes
within a month after snowpack disappearance (mean coincidence
rate over 0.6, p < 0.05).
The largest regulated water and wastewater utility company in
the United States announced Monday that it was the victim of a
cyberattack, prompting the firm to pause billing to customers.
New Jersey-based American Water — which provides services to
more than 14 million people in 14 states and on 18 military
installations — said it became aware of the unauthorized
activity on Thursday and immediately took protective steps,
including shutting down certain systems. The company does not
believe its facilities or operations were impacted by the
attack and said staffers were working “around the clock” to
investigate the nature and scope of the attack. The company
said it has notified law enforcement and is cooperating with
them. … According to its website, American Water manages more
than 500 water and wastewater systems in about 1,700
communities in California, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, New Jersey, Pennsylvania,
Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia.
In response to a petition from the Center for Biological
Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today
that the rare western wildflower Tecopa bird’s beak may qualify
for protection under the Endangered Species Act. The small
herbaceous plant with delicate pale pink flowers grows in
alkali wetlands in two desert basins in western Nevada and
eastern California. Its existence is threatened by
groundwater pumping for agriculture,
compounded by numerous proposed mining projects across its
range.
Water recycling — once dubbed “toilet-to-tap” by naysayers —
has officially entered a new era in California. This month,
statewide regulations for what’s technically called “direct
potable reuse” went into effect. The rules allow wastewater —
yes, the water that goes down the drain or is flushed down the
toilet — to be treated to drinkable standards then distributed
directly to homes and businesses. … Previously,
California law only allowed “indirect potable reuse,”
which is what the Fountain Valley facility does — highly
treated wastewater is injected underground into an aquifer,
where further, natural filtration occurs. Then that water is
put into the pipelines to our homes and businesses.
Direct potable reuse, which is what these newly effective
regulations are about, skips that step where the water is
injected into groundwater basins. Instead, the highly treated
sewage water goes directly to drinking water treatment plants
and then is distributed.
