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 Vik Jolly.
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In a clear sign that California is not facing water shortages
or a drought this summer, Lake Oroville, the state’s
second-largest reservoir and a key component of California’s
water system, has nearly filled to the top. The massive
reservoir, contained behind America’s tallest dam, was 99% full
on Tuesday afternoon, at 122% of its historical average for
mid-May and still slowly rising, with just two feet to go to
fill entirely. … The water from Oroville and the State
Water Project is sent hundreds of miles to cities and farms
across the state, serving 27 million people from San
Jose to San Diego. … The very low snowpack
[this year, however] means that as Oroville and other massive
reservoirs are slowly drawn down … they won’t be topped up in
the coming months by melting snow. So although this year’s
reservoir levels are good news, experts say, another wet winter
will be needed next year because by this fall,
reservoir levels may be lower than normal.
An environmental organization is floating a concept that could
help the Colorado River system during extremely dry years like
this one and keep the nation’s two largest reservoirs above
critical thresholds. Boulder-based Western Resource Advocates
has released a concept paper that explores the idea
of a flexible pool of water that can be moved wherever it’s
needed most among the basin’s biggest reservoirs. Water
users in the Lower Basin states — California, Arizona
and Nevada — currently have about 3.2 million
acre-feet stored in Lake Mead through voluntary conservation
and efficiency measures. Water users bank water in this
pool, known as the Intentionally Created Surplus, and can take
this water back out again to use under certain
circumstances.
Tucson leaders unanimously rejected a massive data center
dubbed Project Blue last year amid outcry from the community
with concerns about water, power and resources
that they didn’t want put toward a data center. It was a heated
moment that came to a head during an August council meeting.
But despite that vote, the project is still being built.
Developer Beale Infrastructure got the zoning they needed from
Pima County instead and announced they would build the data
center to be air-cooled instead of
water-cooled. But now Tucson says a contractor working
on the construction of Project Blue has been using Tucson water
anyway and they’ve revoked their permit to do it.
… As utilities cope with weather extremes by scrambling to
repair their infrastructure and tapping new water sources, the
cost is beginning to show up in residents’ bills. Between 1998
and 2020, the average cost of water, sewer and trash collection
services increased more than twice as much as the overall U.S.
consumer price index. … Longer and more intense
droughts have triggered restrictions on water use from Florida
to Colorado. … Water has long been one of the most
affordable utility bills for American households. … But
climate change is increasingly battering utilities with weather
— and costs — they did not plan for. … Amid a
decades-long megadrought that has diminished aquifers and
caused a catastrophic decline in river flows, residents
of Southern California have seen rate increases of up to 17
percent over the past two years.
Scientists said this week that a developing El Niño is likely
to amplify heatwaves, droughts and floods this
year, but warned that the long-term warming caused by
burning fossil fuels remains the main driver of climate
extremes. El Niño is the warm phase of a semi-regular
temperature oscillation in the tropical Pacific Ocean, during
which massive amounts of heat stored in the ocean are released
into the atmosphere, temporarily raising the average annual
global surface temperature by as much as 0.3 degrees
Fahrenheit. … Hotspots at the confluence of El
Niño-driven droughts and ongoing planetary heating are expected
in wildfire-prone regions, including … the
western United States. … [T]he combination of El
Niño on top of ongoing warming has driven a “whiplash” between
extreme moisture and extreme drought in some regions.
Yuba Water Agency has awarded an engineering contract worth up
to $8 million as it begins planning to rebuild the penstock
pipe that ruptured above New Colgate Powerhouse in February.
The agency selected GFT Inc. to conduct engineering and design
services related to the damaged penstock. A penstock is a
large, pressurized pipe that carries water from a reservoir
into a hydropower plant and then back into the river. The
penstock rupture occurred Feb. 13, when a 15-foot-diameter
section of pipe failed above New Colgate Powerhouse, releasing
an estimated 400 acre-feet of water down the hillside.
… It also led to the deaths of hundreds, possibly
thousands, of juvenile salmon after lower Yuba’s river flows
dropped by more than half.
Friant Water Authority is planning an “aggressive” outreach
campaign before Memorial Day weekend in an effort to keep
golden mussels out of several eastside reservoirs, including
Millerton Lake. The campaign includes social media and
handouts urging boaters “Clean, Drain and Dry” all
watercraft and trailers. This is especially important
for boaters who have visited the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
ground zero for the golden mussel
infestation. Friant is working with California
State Parks and the Bureau of Reclamation to remind boaters to
check and clean watercraft before launching into Millerton
Lake. … Friant is also working on similar messaging with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which manages dam
infrastructure at Pine Flat, Kaweah Lake, Lake Success, Lake
Isabella.
After three consecutive years of closures and restrictions,
Chinook salmon fishing is set to return to major Northern
California river systems this summer and fall. … The
California Fish and Game Commission approved new sportfishing
regulations at its May 6 meeting, reopening salmon fishing on
the Klamath, Trinity and Sacramento river systems following
improved returns of adult Chinook salmon from the ocean.
… [L]ate spring-run Chinook salmon fishing in the
Klamath Basin will open July 1 and continue through Aug. 14 on
the Klamath River and through Aug. 31 on the Trinity River.
Fall-run Chinook fishing will begin Aug. 15 on the Klamath
River and Sept. 1 on the Trinity River, continuing through Dec.
31.
On Monday, May 11, Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz (CA-25) convened a
federal roundtable at the Hector Mario Esquer Building in
Calexico bringing together EPA Region 9 leadership, federal and
state agency representatives, and Imperial County stakeholders
to advance solutions to the New River crisis. …
Congressman Ruiz pressed federal and binational partners to
expedite action ahead of the release of the International
Boundary and Water Commission-led binational water quality
study, expected in June 2026. … The New River originates
south of Mexicali, Mexico, carrying raw sewage, industrial
waste, pesticides, and heavy metals across the international
border into Calexico before traveling 60 miles through Imperial
County and emptying into the Salton Sea.
The Solano County Supervisors held a discussion on Tuesday
about the Sacramento San-Joaquin Delta region and the
overlapping state agencies that protect it. Dick Tzou of the
Department of Resource Management said the delta covers 738,000
acres and provides three key resource areas to the region:
water supply, natural resources, and cultural value. Amanda
Bohl of the Delta Protection Commission explained the
relationship between her current organization, the Delta
Conservancy, and the Delta Stewardship Council. She said the
commission covers land use, heritage and support, the
conservancy handles ecosystem restoration and economic
development, and the council enforces regulations and oversees
scientific efforts.
… The Skagit River dams, the first of which was completed in
1926, have enabled Seattle’s citizen-owned utility to brag that
it “has delivered carbon-free hydropower for over 100 years.”
… City Light has quietly insisted that the upper
Skagit—before the dams were built—was too swift and gnarly for
salmon. … This fishy denial—long challenged by biological
evidence, Indigenous oral history and investigative reports on
local television and in online publications—is now biting the
utility and its half-million ratepayers in their pocketbooks.
… Mayor Katie B. Wilson signed a settlement Tuesday that
authorizes what a City Light manager says is by far the largest
payout in American history from a utility to Indigenous tribes
as part of a dam relicensing.
Colorado lawmakers abandoned a last-minute effort Monday to
pass environmental regulations for data center development in
the state. … The bill, also sponsored by Rep. Kyle
Brown, D-Louisville, would have required data center companies
to pay the full cost for the power needed to run their
facilities. It also would have ensured that data centers don’t
blow the state’s greenhouse gas emission reductions targets,
intended to stave off the worst effects of climate
change. Data center companies would have had to compete
for two available 15-year sales and use tax exemptions per
year, on criteria like clean energy and participation in grid
resiliency programs. They would have also been judged on the
quality of jobs created, community benefits and investments and
water efficiency.
Environmentalists and a salmon fishing group unsuccessfully
lobbied a California Senate committee to reject Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s reappointment of a veteran State Water Resources
Control Board member last week, as tensions over the board’s
upcoming vote on a controversial update to water policy for the
Sacramento and San Joaquin watersheds spilled into the
gubernatorial appointment process. Gov. Gavin Newsom nominated
Dorene D’Adamo to her fourth term on the board earlier this
year, ahead of an expected September vote on the Bay-Delta
Plan. … D’Adamo has been a voice on the board for
powerful interests such as the agricultural industry and urban
water districts interests, her opponents charged at a May 6
hearing of the Senate Rules Committee.
The debate over Sacramento’s water has been going on for
decades. From farming to urban uses, it’s a natural resource
that is in high demand, especially during droughts. On Monday
night, a celebration was held to announce that a new signed
agreement in place to make sure there’s enough water in the
future. Ashlee Casey with the Sacramento Water Forum said that
opposing groups including environmentalists, developers,
farmers and cities have all reached an agreement on how to best
use water that’s released from Folsom Dam and flows
down the American River. … Water usage is
outlined in a 334-page document that will guide the region over
the next 25 years.
Spring is a critical time for the Colorado River Basin
watershed, when snowmelt flows into major reservoirs. But after
a hot and dry winter, the state of spring runoff is grim,
especially at Lake Powell, where forecasters are
predicting the lowest water flows ever recorded. The
Colorado River Basin Forecast Center expects 800,000 acre feet
of water to flow into Lake Powell in the period between April
and July this year. That’s just 13% of the 30-year
average, between 1991 and 2020. What’s more,
about half of that water has already showed up to Lake Powell,
thanks to a record-breaking warmup in March that triggered an
early runoff, said Cody Moser, senior hydrologist at the
Colorado River Basin Forecast Center, in a webinar on
Thursday.
… [A] coalition of counties, ranchers, and water
advocates in Utah and Nevada is appealing federal
approval of a groundwater pipeline project in southern Utah.
The group is challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s March
2 approval of the Pine Valley Water Supply Project — a proposed
66-mile pipeline in the high desert near the Nevada border. A
timeline for construction has not been finalized. The project
is designed to move groundwater to the Cedar City area, where
officials say population growth and development are increasing
demand. Opponents argue the federal review fell short, saying
the agency relied on flawed science and failed to fully
consider impacts on aquifers, rural water supplies, and
groundwater-dependent ecosystems.
California growers are taking an increasing amount of
agricultural land out of production every year because of lack
of available irrigation water to grow those crops. And there is
likely little argument that laws and regulations play an
outsized role in that equation. Statewide, the debate revolves
around where the fault lies and what solutions can assure the
largest and most productive agricultural region in the United
States, and probably the world, remains in that lofty position.
… [California Farm Water Coalition Executive Director
Michelle] Paul said that as SGMA regulations are being written
and implemented, growers have to manage their own acreage
knowing they will have less water in the future.
The interior department is canceling a rule that put
conservation on equal footing with development, as Donald
Trump’s administration eases restrictions on industries and
seeks to boost drilling, logging, mining and grazing on
taxpayer-owned land. The 2024 rule adopted under Joe Biden
was meant to refocus the interior department’s Bureau of Land
Management, which oversees about 10% of land in the US. It
allowed public property to be leased for restoration.
… Bobby McEnaney with the Natural Resources Defense
Council said repealing the rule “means less protection for the
clean drinking water, less protection for
endangered wildlife that depend on healthy habitat, and less
accountability when corporations leave these landscapes damaged
and degraded.”
Evolution works over millennia. Climate change is moving far
faster. That mismatch is killing some of the planet’s most
vital ecosystems, including California’s towering redwoods and
the seagrass meadows along its coast, both of which store vast
amounts of carbon and support complex webs of life. Marine heat
waves, record wildfires and coastal development are pushing
these systems beyond their limits as climate change, driven by
emissions of fuels such as oil and gas, accelerates. An
estimated 1 million species face extinction, many within
decades, largely due to human activities such as habitat
destruction, pollution and overuse of natural resources,
according to a 2019 report by a United Nations-affiliated
intergovernmental scientific body.
A bill to accelerate flood protection projects along the Pajaro
River made further traction as the California Senate passed
legislation to expand contracting tools available to the Pajaro
Regional Flood Management Agency Thursday. Senate Bill 1055 —
authored by Sen. John Laird, D-Santa Cruz — aims to authorize
the agency to utilize additional methods to expedite
construction, including job order contracting, design, build,
best value and construction manager/general contractor
contracting. It also seeks to expand the number of contracting
tools available to the agency from three to seven, help reduce
project costs, accelerate construction timelines and improve
project delivery for levee maintenance and flood control
improvements.
