A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation Writer Matt Jenkins.
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The Newsom administration is coming under fire for paying $180
million to a private investment firm that speculates on water
in exchange for a relatively small amount of additional water
for Sacramento River salmon. Some environmental advocates fear
it could set a precedent for overcharging California
taxpayers in a water-constrained future. State
officials and supporters of the deal say it’s not that simple
because, among other things, it’s a one-time payment
for water in perpetuity, not just for one year. This
year, the Newsom administration reached the deal to purchase
water used by a Northern California farm, saying the goal was
to leave the water in the river to help fish and the
environment. … The $180 million was paid to RRG Capital
Management, based in Los Angeles and part of Renewable
Resources Group. … The water will come from a
7,500-acre farm called Fair Ranch, located along the Sacramento
River.
An atmospheric firehose could soon take aim at California,
raising the prospects of a wet and stormy Halloween and
Election Day. The massive pattern change is likely to
take shape during the last week of October and may persist into
the first full weekend of November. … Several
models are calling for upwards of 1 to 3 inches of rain around
the Bay Area by the first weekend of November. Even more
precipitation is forecast for southern California and
the Sierra. Exact amounts aren’t guaranteed by any
means at this time range, but the trend is hard to
ignore. California is primed for rain this winter, in part
due to unusual ocean heat associated with this year’s
extremely powerful El Niño.
For all the headlines about Arizona’s shrinking water supply,
some Phoenix-area realtors say it has not yet had a major
impact on business. At a recent event that brought together
real estate professionals with water, power and economic
experts, home sellers said few of their clients seem
concerned about future water availability, and
projected optimism about the ability of local utilities to plan
ahead for those challenges. … Mandatory cuts to
Arizona’s share of the Colorado River are expected to
slash the amount of water flowing through the Central Arizona
Project, a 336-mile canal system that carries water to the
Phoenix and Tucson areas. That has forced some hand wringing
and the deployment of expensive backup plans from local
utilities, which is expected to drive up residential
water bills over the coming years and decades.
Three environmental and public health groups are suing the
Environmental Protection Agency over its failure to establish
water quality protections for a widely used weedkiller
that’s contaminating rivers and streams across the
country, including parts of the Mountain
West. Atrazine is primarily used on crops like corn
and sorghum. While most contamination is concentrated in the
Midwest, affected watersheds extend into eastern
Colorado and New Mexico. A recent report from the
Center for Biological Diversity estimates that atrazine
contaminates 25% of river miles in the continental U.S. at
levels the EPA considers harmful to aquatic life.
… Scientific research has linked atrazine exposure to
harmful effects on aquatic plants and
wildlife. The pesticide has also raised
concerns about human health and drinking water.
A father and son from Nevada County were sentenced to jail and
ordered to restore land damaged by illegal mining along
Keystone Creek near Loganville in Sierra County, prosecutors
said. Gregory Arnoldi Jr. of Nevada City and Gregory Arnoldi
Sr. of Browns Valley pleaded no contest to felony vandalism of
public and private property and misdemeanor charges of
water pollution and stream alteration, the Sierra
County District Attorney’s Office said. The case involved
an illegally built dirt road and mining near the
creek. … The men were also charged with felony
conspiracy and misdemeanors alleging mining without a
reclamation plan or county use permit, grading without a permit
and failing to notify the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife before altering a stream.
[The California Coastal Commission approved changes in South
Coast Water District’s planned Doheny Ocean Desalination] on
Oct. 7, allowing South Coast Water District to relocate its
seawater intake wells as the district works toward a mid-2027
construction start. Originally planned for the Doheny State
Beach campground, the wells will instead be placed in the north
day-use area in light of further geological studies that found
the initial location would not provide enough seawater for the
plant. … The project, which received its original
Coastal Commission approval in 2022, would produce up to 5
million gallons of drinking water daily for South Orange
County, where roughly 90% of the region’s water comes from
Northern California and the Colorado River.
A new weather balloon launch site at Shasta College will help
scientists track atmospheric rivers and improve weather
forecasts across the Northstate. The site is the northernmost
launch location in the state established for the Center for
Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at UC San Diego’s
Scripps Institution of Oceanography. Researchers said the new
location will help fill a gap in weather observations across
Northern California, particularly in the Shasta and Redding
areas. … The region is particularly important for
studying atmospheric rivers because some storms move north
while others travel inland, making the area a key location for
gathering weather data.
Roseville Adult School has launched a 16-week water
distribution certification program to help address a growing
shortage of skilled water utility workers and prepare students
for careers in the field. … “Water systems rely on
highly motivated, qualified people with a high work ethic to
ensure that the water quality that’s being supplied to your
house is safe and disinfected, and there’s nothing other than
water coming out of your tap when you use it,” said Robert
Strebel, water distribution superintendent for Roseville.
Strebel explained that the water utility workforce is facing
challenges due to a lack of qualified workers. “I’d say right
now we struggle to find qualified people,” Strebel said.
… City officials said the program is an investment in
the future workforce and hope it will train more local
professionals to support the community’s water utility needs.
When Richmond residents think of the East Bay Municipal Utility
District (EBMUD), they probably think of the water streaming
from the faucet in their home. However, Contra Costa County
Supervisor John Gioia says there’s a lot more to the district
than just running water. Gioia, who served on the EBMUD board
from 1989 to 1998 before being elected as the supervisor
for west Contra Costa County, says EBMUD is valuable to
Richmond residents in a number of other ways. The
district, which is governed by a seven-member board of
directors, sets water rates and is responsible for maintaining
water quality and water pressure — something that’s critical
for fighting wildfires and coping with other natural disasters.
That’s why Gioia encourages voters to not overlook the Ward 3
EBMUD board of directors race on the Nov. 3 ballot.
Aircraft manufacturer Boom Supersonic announced plans Thursday
to hire 500 people and open a new manufacturing plant near
Centennial Airport. But the factory isn’t for its supersonic
jets, which are expected to be used in commercial flights in
2030. Rather, the engine is the star. The engine technology
developed for supersonic aircraft has found an
alternative use as a natural gas turbine engine to power data
centers without relying on the electrical grid — or
water. Boom calls it Superpower. “The easiest way to
overcome those problems is to enable data centers to make their
own electricity and do it without a drop of
water. That is absolutely what Superpower is about,”
said Blake Scholl, Boom’s CEO and founder, during a news
conference on Thursday at the company’s headquarters. “This is
a 42-megawatt natural gas turbine that runs on that same
supersonic technology, which means it’s used to being hot and
it doesn’t need cooling water. Not a drop.”
A judge won’t back down — even temporarily — from his
ruling that state water officials acted illegally in changing
the rules for home builders. In a new order, Maricopa
County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney rejected claims by Bo
Dul, an attorney for the Department of Water Resources, that
the ruling against a policy to prevent new home construction in
areas without a 100-year water supply was
likely to be overturned on appeal. … The new order
most immediately affects efforts by developers to build homes
in some communities on the edge of the Phoenix
area. But there are broader implications going
forward. The order reaffirms Blaney’s conclusion that
DWR is not free to make what he considered to be a significant
change in the rules about where residential development can
occur without going through the legal process, one that
requires public hearings and other input.
Although California lawmakers recently passed a suite of laws
intended to bring transparency to the development of new data
centers, local communities across the state are signaling that
disclosure isn’t enough. California currently ranks
third among U.S. states in overall data center
density, according to independent trackers like the US
Data Center Map, with the state home to 366 of such
facilities that are either fully operational, under
construction, or moving through the planning process.
Local elected officials are proposing data center moratoriums
to slow that momentum — if not stop it in its tracks.
… Opponents say these energy-hungry facilities strain
power grids, potentially deplete water
supplies and pollute the air, and contribute to
broader economic anxieties around AI-driven job
elimination.
… An area of cooler low pressure — an extratropical cyclone —
is spinning out off the coast of the Golden State. … For
Sacramento and Fresno, it will be the first good rain — not a
trace amount — since late spring. … As the cyclone moves
over land Thursday, showers that were moving out of the south
will flip and begin crashing in out of the north, this time
with less energy and moisture to keep rainfall sustained for
long. … Further up the mountains, several inches
of snow are expected to begin stacking up across the Sierra
above 8,000 feet, with the highest amounts between 3 to 6
inches. As temperatures continue to cool into the
coming months, setups similar to this will become increasingly
common as cool air from the north mixes with warm air from the
south.
… [Starvation Reservoir] was one of the first
reservoirs the Bureau of Reclamation built for the
Central Utah Project — an expansive system of
dams, diversions, tunnels and pipelines that takes water from
eastern Utah’s Colorado River Basin to western
Utah’s Wasatch Front. Starvation keeps water in the Uintah
Basin, though, compensating for water lost to the
state’s biggest cities. Most of that water goes to
irrigate fields and some fills taps across Duchesne County.
… The Central Utah Project and other transbasin
diversions have helped the Wasatch Front boom. But
Colorado River tributaries were left with less water,
harming habitat for fish. And while some farmers
benefit from Starvation Reservoir and other storage projects,
some promised reservoirs were never built,
leaving other areas of the Uintah Basin, including the Uintah
and Ouray Reservation, without adequate water storage, ongoing
bitterness and legal fights.
Are you an emerging leader ready to make a greater impact on
California water policy and management? Applications are now
being accepted for the Water Education Foundation’s
2027
California Water Leaders cohort, with submissions
due Dec. 3. Interested in learning more? Join our
exeuctive director, Jenn Bowles, and other members of the
Foundation team for a virtual Q&A session at 12:30
p.m. on Nov. 10. We’ll provide an overview of the
program and share tips for submitting a strong application.
Sign up here for the virtual Q&A.
Some California leaders who have spent years spearheading
changes to the state’s landmark environmental
protection law either haven’t taken a position on or
are opposing Proposition 45, which would take even
bigger chunks out of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality
Act. … Prop 45 — backed by the California
Chamber of Commerce, local chambers around the state,
developers and affordable housing advocates — aims to
expedite development by imposing strict deadlines on certain
categories of infrastructure projects described as
“essential”: housing, water, clean
energy, healthcare, public safety, wildfire mitigation,
broadband internet access, education and transportation. Yet
some key CEQA reformers are concerned about its unintended
consequences.
The snowpack that refills Folsom Lake, Lake Oroville and Lake
Shasta each spring — the reservoirs that supply roughly
two thirds of California’s population with water —
could shrink by about 40% within 25 years. As
temperatures warm, more of Northern California’s water is set
to arrive as rain instead of snow, with water running
downstream instead of melting slowly into reservoirs as a
stable water supply. It is one of a dozen projections
in California’s Fifth Climate Change Assessment, released
Monday. The report estimates the state will warm to around 4
degrees by the 2050s, that heat waves will last far longer,
that whiplash between drought and wet periods will be
more extreme, and that wildfire smoke will kill more
people in California than in any other state.
A potentially historic El Niño could bring some much-needed
benefits to California this winter, including increased
rainfall, improved reservoir levels, and a healthier mountain
snowpack after years of drought concerns.
… Forecasters predict much of California could see
above-average precipitation and temperatures this winter. It’s
unclear how the weather things will pan out this fall and
winter, but similar events in past El Niño years have brought
torrential downpours, coastal flooding, mudslides, power
outages, and giant waves. … “I’m not saying the
trade-off of having more rain outweighs the negative. But if we
are looking for some sort of positive reason for El Niño, we
can look towards the likelihood that we will see
higher-than-average seasonal rain, which, of
course, has been great,” KTLA meteorologist Henry DiCarlo said.
Endangered coho salmon and steelhead trout live and spawn in
habitats surrounded by human activity, such as the San
Francisco Bay area. During a recent storm, researchers found
high levels of the tire-derived pollutant 6PPD-quinone in
roadway outflows, creeks, and rivers. They report in ACS’
Environmental Science & Technology Letters that many samples
exceeded levels considered fatal to juvenile salmon. Treating
stormwater runoff and creating less toxic or non-toxic tire
materials could make healthier environments. … The
researchers collected water samples from six road outfalls, 14
creeks and rivers, and two estuaries around the San Francisco
Bay and the nearby coast in the peak of a rainstorm to provide
a snapshot of potential exposure. … The team found that
6PPD-quinone levels in 78% of the samples exceeded the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency’s value for the potential to
cause acute harm to aquatic organisms.
What does the Montecito Water District have to do with a
massive housing project proposed in North County? On September
29, the district voted to approve a nonbinding letter of intent
that would sell approximately 40 percent of its current state
water entitlement to Solstra Communities California, the group
aiming to build 4,000 homes on an expanse of rural land south
of Orcutt. The project, Solomon Hills, would build a new
community. … In a project description document submitted to
the County of Santa Barbara, Solomon Hills’ development team
says imported water will serve as the main domestic water
supply, including water from California’s state water project
and potentially the controversial Cadiz Water Project, which
seeks to extract groundwater from the Mojave Desert and pipe it
through a former oil pipeline. It also mentions a deal with the
Montecito Water District.
