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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As Clear Lake, which sits in Lake County, north of
Napa, faces mercury contamination, toxic algal blooms
and predatory invasive fish, the Clear Lake hitch — known by
local tribes as the chi — are in serious trouble. Another fish
unique to the watershed, the Clear Lake splittail, is already
extinct. After years of advocacy and on-the-ground work to save
the fish, the seven tribes around the lake signed an agreement
with state agencies and local governments Friday to
formally co-manage the troubled body of water. Nearly
two centuries after Europeans took over these lands, it’s a
literal watershed: the first agreement governing a watershed
since the state launched an initiative to bring 7% of
California’s lands and waters under the care of
tribes. The tribes hope it will turn their ad hoc
emergency work — which has coincided with an increase of chi in
the lake — into a lasting strategy to protect the fish.
The State Water Resources Control Board issued a water quality
certification for the proposed Sites Reservoir Project in
Northern California. The certification satisfies one of the
major requirements for construction of a 1.5
million-acre-foot water storage facility that would be
the largest built in California in more than 50 years. The
off-stream reservoir in Glenn and Colusa counties, near the
community of Maxwell, would divert water from the Sacramento
River when flows are relatively high. The stored water would
serve farms, cities and the environment. The water quality
certification is separate from the Sites Project Authority’s
related water rights application, which the State Water
Board will consider at its Nov. 4 public
meeting.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is launching a
new scientific study designed to identify a broad
range of known and previously unidentified pollutants that
may be present in drinking water. The research will
use non-targeted analysis, an analytical approach that allows
scientists to screen samples for thousands of potential
contaminants rather than testing only for a predetermined list
of chemicals. EPA said the study will examine potential
pollutants including pharmaceuticals, per- and polyfluoroalkyl
substances (PFAS) and more than 1,000 other contaminants.
… EPA said the findings are expected to help
inform future research and prioritize potential agency
actions.
The Department of the Interior last month announced Colorado
River supply cuts affecting the basin states of Arizona, Nevada
and California, leaving many communities bracing for reduced
water access. San Diego, though, says decades of costly
investments — some criticized for driving up water bills — have
positioned the region to avoid the pain other Southwest
communities now face. … San Diego
continues to grapple with the costs of securing its own water
future, but its investments have shielded it from the outcomes
of other Colorado River communities that are vulnerable to
shortages. That’s created an opportunity for San Diego
to sell its water to those communities — such as
a deal it made with Riverside, netting $100 million in
the first five years.
Washington County officials know the idea of drinking treated
wastewater can be hard to stomach for some. They’re hoping a
new $7 million demonstration facility can help get
southern Utahns past that “ick factor.” The Washington
County Water Conservancy District is designing the facility to
allow visitors see — and taste — the purification process
firsthand in hopes of building public confidence in
recycled water long before the district’s full-scale
treatment facility comes online. “We want to be
transparent,” said Zach Renstrom, district general manager.
“People will be able to come [to the facility] and actually see
the process … and we will describe all the different methods
that we have to go through to get to that [drinkable]
standard.”
A steady stream of industrial chemicals, heavy metals and
pesticides are flowing into the Tijuana River on a regular
basis, according to a new water quality report from San Diego
Coastkeeper, a pattern the nonprofit’s executive director says
points to ongoing, unregulated discharges from
manufacturing plants across the border. … The
report, released this month, documents a year of monthly
sampling at four sites in the lower Tijuana River watershed,
tracking sewage contamination, heavy metals, industrial
chemicals, pesticides and other pollutants flowing
across the border from Mexico into the river, its estuary and
the Pacific Ocean. … E. coli levels at all four sites
exceeded the laboratory’s measurable range for most of the
year, according to the report.
A partial collapse of a glacier was likely the trigger of a
devastating flash flood in Nepal that has so far left over
1,000 dead and another 4,000 missing. The disaster a world away
from California has raised a question for people who live along
the state’s Sierra Nevada mountain range, where glaciers still
populate its highest peaks: Could something like that happen
here? Andy Jones, a paleoclimatologist at the University of
Wisconsin-Madison who has spent years studying California’s
glaciers, said a catastrophic event such as the one in Nepal is
extremely unlikely in California – mainly because glaciers here
are smaller and the region is generally drier. “It doesn’t seem
like a similar event could happen in the Sierra Nevada,” Jones
said.
Serving on any board is typically a thankless job. But for
directors of the Kern County Water Agency, there are perks.
Directors are paid $325 per meeting – up to 10 meetings per
month. That goes for any public meeting as long as they’re
attending on behalf of the agency. But that’s not all.
Directors can also receive medical, dental, vision, long-term
care, life and travel insurance benefits through the agency.
Medical benefit premiums are shared with the agency. Director
contributions can range from zero to about $500 a month,
depending on the plan and level of coverage, according to the
agency. Premiums for dental, vision, long-term care, life and
travel insurance are 100% covered by the agency. Annual costs
of those perks to the agency are $100,895 for meeting stipends;
$76,178 for medical premiums for four of the seven directors;
and a combined total of $17,945 for the other insurance
categories.
A broad coalition of Solano County cities, businesses,
agricultural interests, health care providers and community
organizations is asking Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to
intervene before a new Bay-Delta water plan is finalized,
warning that proposed flow requirements could put the county’s
water supply at risk. The coalition, led by the Solano Economic
Development Corporation, is asking the governor’s office to
direct the State Water Resources Control Board to formally
recognize the 2000 Putah Creek Accord as the governing
framework for the Putah Creek watershed. The request comes as
the State Water Board moves toward adoption of an updated
Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan. Written comments on the
final draft are due Sept. 18, with the board scheduled to
consider adoption of the plan Oct. 28-29.
St. Helena city staff are working out a strategy to clear up
the discolored or brown water that sometimes spurts out of city
pipes, a persistent, decades-long problem staff have largely
attributed to built-up iron and manganese minerals in the water
distribution system. “We’re clearly not where we want to be,”
Joe Leach, the city’s public works director, said at the City
Council’s meeting Tuesday, Sept. 8. St. Helena’s next step to
address the water discoloration issue is expected to involve
another stage of investigation — by adding a camera system to
the water pipes to look for sediment and corrosion, advancing
water-quality sampling and more — so the city can narrow in on
underlying causes and then carry out a cleanup strategy.
The chances of a wet winter — with soaking storms, coastal
flooding and other problems — are growing in the Bay Area and
across California as El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean
continue to strengthen. On Thursday, scientists at NOAA, the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said there is
a greater than 90% chance of a strong El Niño being
present in October, November and December, and a 75%
probability that it will rank as the strongest in history since
modern records began in 1950, up from 69% last month.
… In addition, supercomputer models from many of the
world’s top meteorological organizations are showing
increasing chances that all of California, not just
Southern California — which normally has higher odds
of a wet winter than Northern California during El Niño years —
could see heavy rainfall, particularly after
December.
Water officials from the United States and Mexico have signed a
new agreement for sharing the Colorado River. Mexico will take
less water from the river under the new deal, but gain a degree
of certainty about its ability to access a shrinking river with
a shaky future. Expert onlookers are heralding the deal
as a success and a rare example of cross-border
collaboration. They said the cuts are necessary in
response to a severely depleted Colorado River. … A
previous agreement from 2017 will expire at the end of this
year. The new one will be in effect from the beginning of 2027
to the end of 2028. For that term, Mexico will take larger cuts
than it has in the past. The new deal reduces Mexico’s
share of the Colorado River by 250,000 acre-feet, about 17% of
its original allocation from the Colorado River.
Last month tied July 2023 as the hottest month recorded
worldwide, with temperatures 1.65C above preindustrial levels,
the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said
Thursday. August 2026 was the first month since
November 2025 to exceed 1.5C of global warming.
Western Europe just completed its hottest summer on record,
eclipsing a mark set in 2003. In another sign of the planet
heating up, sea-surface temperatures across most of the
world’s oceans are expected on Thursday to mark their 100th
straight day at record levels for the time of year,
according to an analysis by Climate Central, an independent
nonprofit in Princeton, N.J. Daily sea-surface
temperatures outside the polar regions have been at record
levels since June 2, according to the analysis, which uses data
from the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature water deal is starting to unravel
just months before he leaves office. The governor’s plan sought
to direct billions of state, federal and water district dollars
toward restoring the sensitive Bay-Delta ecosystem
while providing farms and cities with more flexible access to
the water. Now, two of its most important partners,
the federal government and Westlands Water District, the
largest irrigation district in the Central Valley, are
threatening to walk away. This development puts Newsom in a
bind as he tries to cement a water legacy built around
making California’s water supply more reliable — an
agenda that has occasionally put him on the same side as the
Trump administration.
The San Francisco Bay shoreline’s first-of-its-kind horizontal
“living levee” project is now open to the public. More than
2,000 plants hailing from 30 species are planted on a
500-foot-long slope of the Harbor Marsh shores in the Palo Alto
Baylands. Traditional levees are constructed from rocks or
concrete, but this project is piled high with
vegetation to create a healthier ecosystem for the marsh,
acting as a natural buffer between the land and water.
Its overall goal: to provide the shore with protection from
rising sea levels, which can cause flooding. … The
plants are irrigated by treated wastewater
from the Regional Water Quality Control Plant, which is owned
by Palo Alto.
After a wildfire, water systems face two challenges: physical
damage to the system and public trust. Fires can damage pipes,
treatment facilities, and storage, while contaminants may enter
the water system and take time to detect and remove. At the
same time, residents may be asked not to use their tap while
systems are assessed and repaired. But even after service is
restored, people may remain unsure whether their water is safe.
Water systems need both the capacity to restore service quickly
— and clear, trusted communications to tell residents when tap
water is safe to use again. Those findings are at the center of
a new workshop synthesis report from the UCLA Luskin Center for
Innovation and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources.
A report released Sept. 9 by California Ocean Science Trust
(OST), in partnership with UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution
of Oceanography, analyzes the state of the science behind flood
risk modeling and mitigation as part of an effort to
incentivize risk reduction. The report assesses current flood
modeling practices and offers eight recommendations to improve
how mitigation infrastructure is reflected in the catastrophe
models that are used to set insurance prices. Titled
Strengthening Incentives for Flood Risk Reduction in
Catastrophe Modeling and Insurance: Recommendations for
California Coastal Counties, it calls for improved practices
ranging from better representation of phenomena such as
atmospheric rivers in the models, greater access to federal
flood insurance data, and making it clear in insurance premiums
what savings could be achieved through risk reduction.
At the time of its initial construction, California’s State
Water Project was one of the largest water infrastructure
projects in U.S. history. Construction began in 1961, and the
first water deliveries reached Southern California in 1972.
Spanning over 700 miles from the Feather River watershed in
California’s upper northeast to Lake Perris in the south, it
remains a marvel of modern engineering and a testament to the
state’s 20th century technological dominance. Its construction
was witnessed and documented by both the public and the state
government, and California’s Department of Water Resources
(DWR) hosts a massive public photo archive that continues to
grow. … In addition to their technical and
aesthetic mastery, the images express a sense of utopian
optimism. The photos in this essay, all taken from 1962 to
1968, reflect a post-World War II confidence that grand
infrastructure could tame and re-engineer where “nature” fell
short.
Utah officials are increasing monitoring along the Colorado
River after an automated water sampler detected zebra mussel
DNA near Potash — a warning sign that officials say they are
taking seriously, but not yet considering an
infestation. The detection comes as Utah continues its
aggressive effort to keep invasive mussels from spreading
beyond Lake Powell. Bruce Johnson, with the Utah Department of
Natural Resources’ Aquatic Invasive Species program, says the
positive sample is an indicator that the state needs to take a
closer look. … Johnson says the state has designated the
Colorado River as infested as far south as the Utah border,
with detections around Grand Junction and Loma. Lake Powell,
meanwhile, is already infested with quagga mussels.
NOAA Fisheries has awarded $103 million in funding for 16
habitat restoration projects across the country. These projects
will recover and sustain our nation’s fisheries by ensuring
fish have access to high quality habitat. … Fisheries
rely on healthy habitats like wetlands, rivers, and coral reefs
as important areas to grow, eat, and reproduce. These projects
will restore healthy habitat for fish across the country. …
California: California Trout: Reconnecting floodplain habitat
for coho salmon in the Klamath River. ($5.4 million) California
Department of Water Resources: Restoring fish passage to
support habitat for salmon and sturgeon. ($8 million)
