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 Doug Beeman.
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Please Note: 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.
Signature-gathering has begun to place an initiative on the
2022 ballot that would force the legislature to fund more water
storage in California. But even supporters admit, the success
of the measure may depend on the weather. With many reservoirs
in the state drying up and no guarantee of a wet winter, some
Central Valley farmers and Southern California water districts
are pushing an initiative called the ‘Water Infrastructure
Funding Act of 2022.’
Oil companies that blast water and chemicals into the earth to
extract fossil fuels are having trouble getting new permits for
their California operations even sooner than expected. Gov.
Gavin Newsom pledged the state would stop issuing new permits
for fracking by 2024, but California has already begun to ban
the controversial oil extraction method in practice by denying
permits in droves with little fanfare. … [Fracking has]
long been a controversial method because of what climate
activists see as unacceptable dangers, including the
possibility that it can contaminate groundwater.
The State Water Resources Control Board today adopted
a resolution affirming its commitment to advancing
racial equity and acknowledging that its programs were
established within a structural framework that perpetuates
inequities based on race. In the resolution, the State Water
Board pledges to express this commitment through
institutionalizing racial equity in its policies, programs and
service to communities while fostering greater workforce
diversity, equity and inclusion within the agency.
Don’t hold your breath for California’s drought ending with
this winter’s rains. Instead, you’d do well to hold your shower
time to a minimum. There’s less than a 40% chance of water
supplies getting back to normal after this winter, with a
slightly better than 50% chance that the state’s drought will
worsen, according to forecasters at a Monday, Nov. 22, drought
webinar hosted by the National Integrated Drought Information
Center.
While record amounts of rain have greatly reduced the risk of
wildfire in some Northern California regions, the southern
reaches of the state are not so lucky. Southern California
anticipates the return of dangerous fire weather for the
Thanksgiving holiday. Residents of Los Angeles and Ventura
counties have been on alert since early Sunday when strong
Santa Ana winds began battering the region with warm, dry
gusts.
Farmers in the heart of California’s agricultural belt – Kings
County – sense something is awry with their water supplies. In
this intensively farmed, perennially dry county, water is
leaving at a concerning rate. … As far as [walnut farmer
Steve Walker] knows, no agency, city or county board is
trying to figure out what’s really happening. … But this
much he knows — certain groundwater wells in the county are
running practically year round, even in wet years.
The simple way to think about this crisis: There’s no longer
enough water to go around to meet the needs of farmers and
Native American populations as well as fish and birds. For more
than a century, the federal government has overseen an
intricate and imperfect system of water distribution intended
to sustain an ecosystem and an economy. The whole precarious
balance was based on the assumption that enough snow would
always fall…
Denver officially broke its all-time record for the latest
first measurable snow when the Mile High City reported no
snowfall on Sunday, surpassing a record that had stood since
Nov. 21, 1934. AccuWeather meteorologists say that it
could be weeks before the next chance for significant
accumulation in the city. April 21 was the last time that snow
accumulated in Denver, and for a brief moment last week, it
looked like the snowless streak was about to come to an end.
When you see a constant stream of water heading into the sewer
drain stemming from a pipe leak, do you ever wonder how much of
it is wasted water? Chances are, the amount of water going down
the drain isn’t being tracked. At the same time, Californians
are being asked to conserve water during a severe
drought.
Every year, on one day in October, generations of the Washoe
Tribe gather on the shores of Lake Tahoe for a day of fishing
using handmade spears, harpoons, and nets made from willow,
dogbane, and other traditional materials. The Washoe have
centered their lives around Lake Tahoe for thousands of years,
catching and drying fish in the summers to sustain them through
the winters. But in the colonialist world, the tribe of roughly
1,400 members has little access to the lake.
Seismic work at Castaic Dam’s tower access bridge in Los
Angeles County has reached a milestone, wrapping up a project
on three bridge piers as its owner — the California Department
of Water Resources — works on reducing risk of quake damage at
its water facilities. … The 500-foot-long bridge provides
access for operations and maintenance crews to the structure
that allows releasing water from Castaic Lake. The bridge was
built in 1974 and later retrofitted in 1998 following the
Northridge Earthquake.
At the September meeting of the California Water Commission,
Kealiʻi Bright, Assistant Director of the Division of Land
Resource Protection at the California Department of
Conservation (or DOC), gave a presentation on a new program
being spun up to repurpose farmland being retired due to SGMA
implementation. Mr. Bright began by acknowledging that the
Department of Conservation being at a Water Commission might be
unusual because they are not a groundwater agency or any kind
of water agency, but they are an agency with a suite of
programs that invest in natural and working lands’ land use
…
To save coho salmon from extinction and promote healthy water
quality for residents, SPAWN provides indisputable scientific
data and calls on decision makers to take speedy and decisive
action to protect Marin’s coho salmon and expand their chances
for recovery to sustainable population levels. Currently, the
Marin County Board of Supervisors can ensure protections for
coho salmon by passing a science-based, common-sense Streamside
Conservation Area Ordinance.
An agreement with the California Water Replenishment District
(WRD) to cover the construction costs of new treatment
facilities will result in improved water quality and millions
of dollars in savings for Pico Water District customers. Under
the terms of the agreement, WRD will provide nearly $4.3
million in reimbursements for equipment to remove per- and
poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) detected in the groundwater
supply. Scientific studies indicate that exposure to PFAS over
certain levels may result in adverse health effects.
About 75,000 gallons of sewage spilled in San Rafael’s
Montecito and Happy Valley neighborhoods after a pipe backed
up, officials said Monday. The spill happened last week off
Highland Avenue above San Rafael High School. It is the latest
sewage spill believed to be linked to the atmospheric river
storm that battered the Bay Area on Oct. 24, according to the
California Regional Water Quality Control Board.
While the U.S. Forest Service pours resources into a runaway
battle on wildfire, it is losing the
war over water. About half of Western
water supply originates on national forest
land. But before that water reaches the West’s
major cities or great rivers, much
of it has already been claimed. Thousands of
farmers, ranchers, cities, housing developments and
industrial users pump water from the ground, channel
it away from streams into ditches or pipelines, and hold it
back in ponds and reservoirs — all to use public
water, often for private purposes.
The recent rainfall has offered Mendocino County some respite
from the drought, bringing many communities out of a crisis
situation. But it’s still not clear for how long. Now
communities throughout the county are using this breathing room
to make their water systems more resilient to drought before
next summer. That includes re-establishing a standalone county
water agency.
The first floating data center built for Nautilus Data
Technologies is getting a second-phase expansion in Stockton,
Calif., while the firm accelerates plans for it and Bechtel to
engineer and construct others in Maine and possibly
Ireland. The multi-year program allows Nautilus to deploy
its water-based system for sustainable and efficient data
center cooling, while Bechtel focuses on development and
construction. … Nautilus completed the floating 7-MW scalable
Stockton 1 Data Center, located on a barge on the San Joaquin
River, last year before it signed an agreement in June with
Bechtel.
I just moved to Lake County and live next to the lake. I heard
the other day that Lake County doesn’t have water rights to
Clear Lake? Is that correct? Can I take water from the lake to
irrigate my garden? I also have a pond on my property and a
well, who has rights to those sources of water? Thanks for
clearing this up! — Wondering about Water Rights Walter Walter,
Thank you for asking these questions. I get asked about water
rights quite a bit actually. You are right about Clear Lake’s
water rights — they actually belong to Yolo County.
Faced with the need to reduce the demand on water supplies,
Marin County developers would have to pay thousands of dollars
in new fees, according to a proposal by the Marin Municipal
Water District. The Marin Independent Journal reported that the
water district’s board is considering a new measure which would
require future projects in its jurisdiction to have a net-zero
demand on reservoirs.
