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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Some of the top players in Central Valley water policy are
urging farmers to take action while the time is ripe to press
their elected representatives to work with President Donald
Trump on making real change in the amount of water that will be
delivered to the region for years to come. That was as
the core of the message delivered to over 100 farmers at the
fifth annual California Water Alliance forum, held in Fresno on
Friday. … The message from (Rep. Vince) Fong and (Friant
Water Authority CEO Jason) Phillips was simple: With Trump at
the helm, this is a once in a generational opportunity to flip
California’s water crisis on its head and return to a period
several decades ago when water flowed freely across the
state.
Snowpack was near normal for much of the upper Colorado River
basin this winter. By April 1, which is what hydrologists
typically consider to be the end of winter for water
measurement, the upper basin had received about 90% of its
historical median snowpack. … Despite the overall positive
snowpack report, hydrologists and drought forecasters are not
optimistic about runoff. Forecasters predict that through July,
runoff will be at 67% of average above Lake Powell, the largest
reservoir on the Upper Basin. “Dry soils across the West,
both going into the winter season and during the spring,
combined with a relatively hot, dry March have really
diminished our predicted streamflow for the summer,” said Nels
Bjarke, a hydrologist with the Western Water Assessment.
California wildlife officials will shut down a state-run fish
hatchery in Humboldt County, ending more than 50 years of
operations due to rising costs, aging infrastructure and
federal limits on steelhead production. The Mad River Fish
Hatchery, which raises a modest number of steelhead and rainbow
trout and serves as an access point to the picturesque Mad
River for recreation and fishing, will close in June after
decades of financial challenges. … Because the Northern
California steelhead found in the Mad River are federally
protected as a threatened species, the hatchery is limited to
raising only 150,000 fry per year under regulations meant to
preserve the wild DNA of fish that breed naturally in the
waterway, the agency said.
Seven months before fire swept through the Pacific Palisades
neighborhood of Los Angeles, the city’s water managers were
formulating a plan to revive an old reservoir to temporarily
boost the area’s limited water capacity. The Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power was exploring the option because
the neighborhood’s main reservoir — the Santa Ynez Reservoir —
had been taken offline as a result of a torn cover, which
officials had begun preparations to repair early in 2024. The
repair project was still months away from completion this
January when the fire broke out, and with the reservoir empty,
firefighters ran short of water in fighting the blaze. Emails
released to The New York Times under public records law show
that the city had searched for solutions to rectify the
monthslong supply shortage but, despite lengthy discussions and
preliminary preparations, failed to correct the problem in
time.
For people on the West Coast, atmospheric rivers, a weather
phenomenon that can bring heavy rain or snow from San Diego to
Vancouver, are as common a feature of winter as Nor’easters are
in Boston. … But it is also a specific meteorological
phenomenon that describes the moisture-rich storms that develop
over the Pacific Ocean and dump precipitation when they collide
with the mountain ranges of Washington, Oregon and California.
These plumes of exceptionally wet air transported through the
atmosphere by strong winds are not unique to the West Coast,
though. They occur around the world, and a growing number of
meteorologists and scientists are beginning to apply the term
to storms east of the Rocky Mountains.
For the first time, scientists have mapped groundwater
variables nationally to understand which aquifers are most
vulnerable to contamination from orphan wells. Oil and
gas wells with no active owner that are no longer producing and
have not been plugged are considered orphan wells. These
unplugged wells can create pathways for contaminants like
hydrocarbons and brine to migrate from the oil and gas
formation into groundwater zones. … USGS scientists Joshua
Woda, Karl Haase, Nicholas Gianoutsos, Kalle Jahn and Kristina
Gutchess published a geospatial analysis of water-quality
threats from orphan wells this month in the
journal Science of the Total Environment. They found that
factors including large concentrations of orphaned wells and
the advanced age of wells make aquifers in Appalachia, the Gulf
Coast and California susceptible to
contamination.
Three years ago, when Utah’s Great Salt Lake was at its lowest
levels, state lawmakers were alarmed enough to try what may be
impossible: save the lake from drying up. If Utah succeeds, it
would be the first place in the world to reverse a saline
lake’s decline. The salt lake — the largest in the Western
Hemisphere — once covered an area larger than Rhode Island.
Today, more than half its water is gone. About 800 square miles
of lake bed sits exposed, baking in the desert heat, sometimes
billowing toxic dust plumes across the state’s urban core.
… But the measures the state is pursuing will take
decades to reap results, if ever. Critics now say the pace and
scale of the efforts must greatly increase.
… As climate change drives up flooding risk, the safest
move for Isleton residents might be to abandon their small city
— but short of that drastic option, insurance could provide a
safety net. Now, with help from researchers, the state has
funded its first community flood program, providing one private
insurance policy for all Isleton residents at no cost. Isleton
is piloting community-based insurance for California, which
desperately needs alternatives. … Isleton hoped to fund
the program independently after the pilot ends in 2027 by
establishing a parcel tax, but many residents seem unsupportive
of paying it. Despite the uncertain future, Isleton’s new
leadership said they plan to lock in the insurance policy this
month.
Humans might be the ultimate ecosystem engineers in the sense
that we constantly modify ecosystems and change the processes
which drive them. In some cases, this can harm biodiversity by
displacing native ecosystem engineers which deliver important
benefits for other species and bolster both habitat and species
diversity (Romero et al. 2015). Humans also can leverage their
ecosystem engineering to benefit biodiversity, such as through
mimicking ecosystem engineering structures as part of
restoration. Our recent paper (Goss et al. 2025) reviews how
mimicked ecosystem engineer structures might help meet
restoration goals, and potential risks with the use of these
human-engineered structures.
PG&E mostly agrees with a recent opinion piece urging the
removal of Scott Dam due to a better understanding of the
seismic risks. As described in our draft decommissioning plan,
PG&E considers the expedited removal of the Scott Dam to be
in the best interest of PG&E customers. It is also the most
appropriate long-term mitigation to address the seismic risk.
In the meantime, PG&E has implemented interim measures to
reduce near-term seismic risk — the most prominent being the
restricted maximum reservoir storage elevation. However,
contrary to the opinion piece, PG&E’s decision not to seek
a new license for the Potter Valley Project — a hydroelectric
facility — is based on the fact the project is not economical
for PG&E’s customers. –Written by Dave Canny, vice president of PG&E’s North
Coast Region.
San Luis Obispo County lifted the boil-water order for all
remaining areas on Saturday afternoon, following a
water-contamination alert that lasted four days. According to
an alert from the county, the boil-water order was lifted
shortly after noon, allowing residents in Pismo Beach and Avila
Beach to resume normal water use, after the State Division of
Drinking Water gave the all-clear. … The county said it
was working with state officials to investigate the cause of a
single positive E. coli test result that spurred the boil
order. The investigation is expected to take 30 days. Director
of Public Works John Diodati said the drinking water is safe
and will be monitored and tested as the county investigates the
cause.
Four City Councilmembers, City of Malibu staff and a
group of concerned citizens rolled up their sleeves at a work
session on April 24, deliberating about three keystone issues
that officials must make decisions about before those who are
rebuilding homes are able to submit architectural
plans and permit applications for city approval. The meeting
addressed wastewater treatment for parcels destroyed by the
Palisades Fire, geotechnical study requirements, and
self-certification by some design professionals, an approach
that would save fire victims time and money. Residents
were palpably frustrated because the four long months since the
fire have been full of tumult and the tough
issues discussed in the session are complicated, will take a
lot of time and will be expensive.
Other local water management and infrastructure news:
Housing developers and conservation advocates clashed over a
bill Thursday that would encourage the federal government to
open thousands of acres of public land in Clark County for
development, a move critics say will encourage sprawl and
supporters argue would lower housing costs. … The
resolution’s opponents cited concerns about water scarcity,
utility costs, urban sprawl, and the urban heat island effect.
… A joint study by Clark County and the City of Henderson
found that development under the Clark County Lands Bill could
increase daily water demand by 49 million gallons, or about 18%
of Nevada’s total allocation from the Colorado River.
Up and down the coast, sea birds, sea lions, dolphins and even
whales have fallen victim to the bloom starting in late
February. One recent Sunday, 16 dead dolphins were collected
from San Diego-area beaches. … This is the fourth year
in a row there’s been significant blooming of Pseudo-nitzschia
off the coast of California. It creates domoic acid, a
neurotoxin that accumulates in small fish, like sardines and
anchovies, which are then eaten by marine mammals and birds.
… Recent algae blooms were fueled by La Niña weather patterns
that brought colder, nutrient-rich waters to the surface. A
“ribbon” of cold water formed in December and was still in
place in April, extending about 30 miles off the shoreline.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
