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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Water rates in the United States have risen more than twice as
much as groceries over the past decade, and more than 1.5 times
the overall rate of inflation, which has left Bay Area
residents with some of the biggest water bills in the nation,
according to a new report. An analysis of the country’s 500
largest community water providers, published by the consumer
advocacy group Food and Water Watch on Tuesday, cites the
privately held San Jose Water Company as the
nation’s most expensive water retailer. … Thirteen of
the 25 most expensive providers are in California,
with their rates averaging more than twice the national
average. The authors of the report say the average
national water rate hike of 62% between 2015 and 2025 is
largely due to the need to upgrade aging
infrastructure, treat water pollution and adapt to more extreme
weather with climate change, on top of lagging federal water
investments.
Arizona is investing nearly $8.5 million on a study of a
seawater desalination project in Mexico, the
second such Gulf of California proposal that the state’s water
augmentation authority has agreed to investigate this year. The
state Water Infrastructure Finance Authority board approved
funds for the feasibility study at an Oct. 5 special meeting.
The board also approved $5.7 million for study of option
to purify water for reuse in Mexico,
potentially to include treatment of water for use in Tijuana,
Mexicali and San Luis Rio Colorado. All of the projects would
lead to Arizona helping produce water for Mexico in
exchange for some of that country’s Colorado River
water, though the desalination plant may also include
an option to pipe water north.
… The California Chamber of Commerce collected the signatures
necessary to qualify Proposition 45 for the November statewide
ballot, in an effort to overhaul the California Environmental
Quality Act, commonly known as CEQA. The changes, if approved
by a majority of voters, will help lower housing, energy and
water costs, supporters say, by cutting
burdensome regulations and making it easier to build everything
from homes to reservoirs to solar farms.
Environmental groups call the measure a giveaway to
developers, and are lining up to fight it. The contest
is expected to be the first clear indication in years
about whether Californians are willing to rewrite environmental
regulations — which they have traditionally supported
— as concerns about housing prices, utility bills and other
costs have soared to the top of polls.
Denver Water leaders aimed to reduce customers’ use by 20%
across the board this year in response to record-breaking
drought. But so far, the customers of the state’s largest
utility have fallen short. Through the end of September, Denver
Water customers reduced their water use by 9%,
according to Greg Fisher, the utility’s manager of demand
planning. Three months remain in the year, and Fisher expressed
hope that a full lawn watering ban implemented Thursday
— accompanied by threats of steep fines — would help the
utility meet its goal. … In total, customers
used 10,800 acre-feet less water than normal so far this year,
according to Denver Water. … The utility issued 2,000
warnings and levied 110 fines that totaled approximately
$30,000.
Microplastic concentrations in Nevada’s Truckee River increased
nearly tenfold during spring runoff, according to new research
that offers a glimpse into how plastic pollution moves
through some western waterways. Researchers with the
Desert Research Institute sampled the river, which flows from
Lake Tahoe through Reno and eventually to Pyramid Lake, during
low flows in fall 2022 and again during unusually high spring
flows in 2023. On average, they detected 0.4 microplastic
particles per liter in the fall and 3.7 per liter in the
spring. … [T]he new research highlights how much
concentrations can change depending on river
conditions — something the authors say water
managers and researchers should consider when deciding when to
sample.
As Southern California endures a dangerous October heat wave,
Los Angeles officials are preparing for a potentially powerful
El Niño season. At the new Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power Emergency Operations Center, the warnings went out that
the El Niño weather event that is forecast has the potential,
with warmer ocean water, to deliver damaging weather
conditions to Southern California. The National
Weather Service said strong El Niño events can increase the
likelihood of wetter-than-normal conditions across Southern
California during the winter. … City officials said Los
Angeles has already begun taking steps to reduce
potential damage and protect property and roadways from
possible storm impacts, particularly in the Palisades
burn area.
In June, Iranian hackers breached California Water Service
systems and claimed they could have shut down water
service to thousands of customers. According to Cal Water,
those claims were false, but the next month, more water sector
cyberattacks targeted systems in at least 12 states across the
United States. While most impacts were relatively minor, in
Minnesota, the hardest-hit state, a coordinated attack hit more
than 30 water systems over two days. California appears
to have largely been spared in this summer’s cyberattacks on US
water agencies, but the threat remains. In late
August, another group threatened the US with “unexpected and
critical events in the energy, water, and telecommunications
industries.”
… Newsom on Wednesday rejected the California Indian Freedom
Act (AB 1881) and the Indigenous Water Rights Act (AB 2218),
despite unanimous votes in both chambers of the State
Legislature. … The timing coincides with severe conditions on
the Scott River, a major Klamath Basin salmon stream. On Sept.
27, gauges near Fort Jones showed the river at 8 cubic feet per
second, far below the state’s 33 cfs minimum for September.
… Tribal leaders say the condition of the Scott River
shows why AB 1881 and AB 2218 mattered. The bills would have
given tribes a stronger hand in the water‑rights and permitting
decisions that influence flows in the Scott and Shasta rivers.
… A coalition … is calling on the State Water
Resources Control Board to conduct a comprehensive audit of
water use in Scott Valley.
Sierra Nevada meadows may cover a relatively small portion of
the landscape, but scientists say they play an
important role in supporting wildlife, storing water and
maintaining biodiversity. Researchers and
conservationists recently gathered at the University of Nevada,
Reno’s Lake Tahoe campus to discuss what is known about these
ecosystems and what still needs to be studied. The workshop,
sponsored by the Tahoe Institute for Global Sustainability,
brought together researchers from different fields to identify
gaps in meadow research and explore ways to improve
conservation and restoration efforts. … According to the
UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences, the Sierra
Nevada contains more than 18,000 individual
meadows covering approximately 280,000 acres.
California state agencies have quietly been using
confidentiality agreements to keep some scientific data and
discussions behind the Newsom administration’s updated
Bay-Delta plan a secret, raising concerns about transparency in
the rule-making process. The California State Water Resources
Control Board is set to vote later this month on the
updated Bay-Delta plan, a massive policy proposal that
aims to balance water needs for communities and agriculture
while protecting fish, wildlife, and the environment in the San
Francisco Bay-Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
… State officials have denied they are hiding
anything and maintain the process has been
transparent. The proposed update to the Bay-Delta
plan heavily relies on voluntary agreements, deals negotiated
between state agencies and major water users, such as
farmers.
Arizona needs to cut back on Colorado River use, and water
managers are working on a new plan that would tap into
an underground water savings account to help do that.
As part of its response to record-low reservoir levels, the
federal government is mandating water cutbacks for Arizona,
California and Nevada. On top of that, the states are
volunteering to cut back more water. To do that, they’re
passing the hat, getting contributions from water users — like
cities and farms — that add up to a larger total. Many of those
users get money from the federal government to cut back on
water use. But on Thursday, officials with the Central
Arizona Project laid out the details of another strategy to
help reach that goal. Some cities and private
utilities in the Phoenix metro could promise to conserve water
and, instead of money, get access to an underground
backup supply held by the Arizona Water Banking
Authority.
A groundbreaking ceremony in southern Tulare County last week
signaled the start of another chapter in the long and expensive
effort to fix the sinking Friant-Kern
Canal. Construction began on five new Friant
Water Authority pump stations that will lift water out of the
canal and into Tea Pot Dome Water District and Saucelito
Irrigation District systems, reducing growers’ reliance
on groundwater. The project is expected to cost
$46 million and take two and a half years to complete. More
than $500 million – so far – in local, state and federal
funding has been dedicated to fixing the canal, which
has sunk along a 33-mile section from about Pixley to
the Kern County line due to excessive groundwater
pumping. Friant is looking for up to $400 million more
to start the next phase of construction.
After a long dry spell starting in early spring and lasting
through the summer, Lake Oroville’s high-level streak came to
an end this year. The lake currently sits at 752 feet in
elevation, roughly 47% of its total capacity.
However, as California Department of Water Resources
spokesperson Jaden Torres noted, it remains at 85% of
its historical level for this time of year, likely in part
because of past droughts. … The other question that
remains is how the El Niño event will affect water levels in
the north state. In September, Gov. Gavin Newsom declared an
emergency in response to the incoming weather event, but how it
will play out for Northern California is unknown.
For decades, the San Luis Valley has been shipping out its
irreplaceable aquifer water one potato at a time. While the
trucks are filling with moist potatoes, the aquifer is draining
to levels widely expected to hit historic lows at this month’s
official measurement. … The local water conservation
district is pushing a state-approved plan in water
court that would charge a group of well-dependent farmers …
$500 an acre-foot for water. … While high-profile
special interests and advocates from Denver to Las Vegas to Los
Angeles make noise about the crisis in Colorado River flows,
the Rio Grande has quietly become one of the most
troubled major rivers in the U.S. … Climate change
and long-term drought have robbed the headwaters region of
significant water. Farmers accelerated the drain by punching
thousands of wells into the unconfined aquifer to water
potatoes, barley, alfalfa and cattle.
The U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has
advanced legislation that would extend federal support for
desalination projects and research, including
grants for large-scale facilities and pilot testing of emerging
technologies. The Desalination Reauthorization Act, introduced
by Sens. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) and John Cornyn (R-Texas), was
ordered reported by the committee Oct. 1 with an amendment in
the nature of a substitute. The legislation would extend the
Bureau of Reclamation’s authority to provide grants for
desalination projects, which is scheduled to expire this
year. It also would allow the programmatic approval to
cover public-private partnerships and prevent Reclamation from
imposing an administrative cap on individual project funding,
allowing eligible large facilities to receive the full 25%
federal cost share.
San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria Friday proclaimed a local emergency
in the city ahead of potentially severe weather associated with
the coming El Niño season. The proclamation follows
emergency declarations made by California and the County of San
Diego. … The proclamation will remain in effect
for seven days unless ratified by the San Diego City Council,
which will consider doing so at its regular meeting on Tuesday.
… Officials warn this El Niño cycle could bring heavy
rain, strong winds, mountain snow and coastal
flooding. The looming El Niño event is already
breaking records, and forecasters expect it to continue to
strengthen, potentially becoming the strongest in
recorded history.
No single failure explains the devastation of the Palisades and
Eaton fires that burned through Los Angeles County in January
2025, a new report concludes. Instead, the blazes exposed
weaknesses across a system never designed to combat a
wind-driven conflagration that spread from structure to
structure at sweeping scale. The 723-page report dropped Friday
morning. Commissioned by Gov. Gavin Newsom, it lands during his
last months in office and just days after California’s
Legislative session concluded. The report doesn’t pin the
disaster on a single agency or decision. Its authors caution
against seeking one culprit or one magic fix. As a
result, the report, which completes an analysis of some of the
most deadly, destructive and costly fires in state history,
raises a harder question: If responsibility is spread across an
entire system, who is responsible for fixing it?
The San Diego Foundation Wednesday granted nearly $1 million in
the Binational Resilience Initiative for 10 projects ranging
from addressing Tijuana River pollution to restoring coastal
habitats in the California-Baja region. The $983,439 granted
will also go to general water health projects and support
research and education. … Projects include one between
San Diego Coastkeeper and Proyecto Fronterizo de Educación
Ambiental AC to streamline river data for scientists and the
public in both the United States and Mexico.
… Universidad Autónoma de Baja California and 4 Walls
International were granted $145,000 to improve stormwater
management and reduce flooding in the Tijuana River Valley
through “green infrastructure, sediment control and floodplain
restoration,” a statement from San Diego Foundation read.
Casa Grande held its first public hearing on a data center, but
it did not go as residents had hoped. Now, a data center,
battery and natural gas facility — roughly the same size as New
York City’s Central Park — will be allowed to take shape 8
miles from the city’s downtown. … The city has limited
the Grande Valley Data Center complex to 300 acre-feet of water
— or 97 million gallons of water use per year. That includes
water for cooling servers in the facilities and for generating
natural gas power on-site. We don’t know how much energy the
site will use, if it will connect to the state’s grid, or
when. Speakers were particularly disturbed by the
project’s intended water use amid major Colorado River cuts
that have impacted farmers in the community and across Central
Arizona.
… Just think about what we’ve got going on in the next
month: First, on October 1st, the Department of Interior’s
2027–2028 Operating Guidelines for the Colorado River go into
effect. … Second, the deadline for public comments on
the State Water Board’s revised Draft Water Right Permit for
Sites Reservoir is October 5. … Third, on October 7th,
the California Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Bring
Back the Kern v. City of Bakersfield. … Fourth, on
October 15th, the Delta Stewardship Council will hold a public
hearing to consider appeals concerning the California
Department of Water Resources’ revised Certification of
Consistency with the Delta Plan for the Delta Conveyance
Project. … And fifth, of course, we have the upcoming
Water Board hearings on the Bay Delta Plan, Oct. 28-29.
… This moment feels particularly weighty, and just
looking at concrete happenings in October undersells it.
