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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The headlines below are the original headlines used in the publication cited at the time they are posted here and do not reflect the stance of the Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit that remains neutral.
After Colorado River negotiators missed a mid-November
deadline, Colorado water experts ranged from disappointed to
optimistic. But they agreed on one thing: State negotiators
need to break their current impasse — whether that’s by
hiring a mediator or taking a hard look at conservation.
… Water watchers are buzzing about the potential for big
announcements at the Colorado River Water Users Association
conference in Las Vegas next month, the largest gathering of
Colorado River professionals each year.
The Department of the Interior today announced Secretary’s
Order 3446, which streamlines federally funded construction
projects at Bureau of Reclamation facilities across the 17
Western states. The order reduces administrative burdens, cuts
costs for water and power users and supports faster delivery of
critical infrastructure across the
West. … Reclamation will begin implementing the
order immediately. One of the early efforts will be the
B. F. Sisk Dam Raise and Reservoir Expansion
in partnership with the San Luis and Delta Mendota Water
Authority. … The expansion will add 130,000 acre-feet of
storage capacity to the 2 million acre-feet San Luis Reservoir,
the largest off-stream reservoir in the United States.
Nearly 5.5 billion gallons of water were captured during one of
the wettest Novembers on record in Los Angeles, the LADWP said.
After a dry start to the water year, November
brought several days of rain. The city captures water
through its stormwater system, residential rain barrels and
cisterns, and expansive spreading grounds where water collects
to recharge underground aquifers. That groundwater can be
pumped and treated to meet water quality standards for homes
and businesses. The LADWP’s stormwater system has the
capacity to capture more than 27 billion gallons under average
conditions, the agency said.
A large portion of wetlands in the Mountain West could lose
federal protections under a new proposal from the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA). But a couple of states in the region
are working to build their own safeguards. On Nov. 17, EPA
Administrator Lee Zeldin and the Army Corps of Engineers
announced a proposal for a narrowed definition of “Waters of
the United States” (WOTUS), the designation that determines
which rivers, streams and wetlands qualify for protection under
the Clean Water Act. … Two Mountain
West states—New Mexico and Colorado—are developing their own
systems to protect waters that have lost federal oversight.
In Algeria, water shortages left faucets dry, prompting
protesters to riot and set tires ablaze. In Gaza, as people
waited for water at a community tap, an Israeli drone fired on
them, killing eight. In Ukraine, Russian rockets slammed into
the country’s largest dam, unleashing a plume of fire over the
hydroelectric plant and causing widespread blackouts. These are
some of the 420 water-related conflicts researchers documented
for 2024 in the latest update of the [Oakland-based]
Pacific Institute’s Water Conflict Chronology, a
global database of water-related violence. The year featured a
record number of violent incidents over water around the world,
far surpassing the 355 in 2023, continuing a steeply rising
trend.
The deadline for landowners in the North Kings Groundwater
Sustainability Agency (GSA) in north Fresno County is Sunday,
Nov. 30. Otherwise, well owners will be subject to a $100
penalty per well. The GSA has been on a quest to identify an
estimated 7,000 wells within its boundaries since May. … The
registry will help the agency fill “data gaps,” get a better
handle on groundwater management and demonstrate a desire to
maintain local control to state regulators. It stems from the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA),
which requires local agencies bring aquifers into balance by
2040.
The state of California has announced funding for several
salmon and steelhead recovery projects as part of a USD 87
million (EUR 75 million) investment in conservation. … The
grant funding – which was approved at the WCB’s November
meeting – will be spread across 16 projects, several of which
directly tie into the California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter,
Drier Future – a plan released by Governor Gavin Newsom in
January 2024 to coordinate the state’s response to declining
salmon populations. … The bulk of the funding – roughly
USD 71 million (EUR 61 million) – will go directly to projects
supporting salmon health and habitat in California’s rivers.
What will life be like for farmers in the Russian River
Watershed after the Potter Valley Project is decommissioned and
its dams removed? “An absolute disaster,” said one
attendee of a forum held in Ukiah Monday to update the public
on the process of dismantling the Pacific Gas and Electric
Company’s hydroelectric plant in Mendocino County. … As
for which storage options might be pursued, [IWPC legal council
Scott] Shapiro said that was not something the IWPC was
prepared to address at this point, as the first step was
“making sure the water continues to flow, the second part is
figuring out how to maximize water storage.”
Mexico’s national university and a U.S. NGO comprising water
management experts have agreed to jointly develop a digital
platform with information on the water resources that the two
neighboring countries share. The National Autonomous University
of Mexico (UNAM)’s Institute of Geography will work with the
Permanent Forum on Binational Waters (PFBW) to create and run
the platform that will include scientific data, maps and other
key information in Spanish and English about the shared water
sources in the border region, most prominently the Río Bravo
(Rio Grande on the U.S. side), the Colorado
River and the Tijuana River basin.
Now that the former Motel 6 building, restaurant, and parking
lot have been demolished from the Upper Truckee Marsh in South
Lake Tahoe, planning is underway to bring this wetland back to
life. To support the next phase of this project, the Tahoe Fund
announced “A Million for the Marsh” campaign to raise the first
$1 million of private funds to help secure the public funds the
California Tahoe Conservancy will need to revive this area and
bring significant improvements to Lake Tahoe’s clarity.
For years, farmers have struggled with water supplies.
Sometimes, because of drought. Other times, because of
government red tape. But now, they are facing a new threat that
requires all hands on deck— from laboratories to the
legislature. “The potential impact is significant,” says Kelly
Vandergon, Deputy General Manager for Operations and
Maintenance at Westlands Water District. FOX26 was there
Friday, as crews carried out maintenance on a pump near Five
Points along the California Aqueduct. As they removed the
traveling water stream pump you could see shell after shell–
Golden Mussels— attached to the pipe.
California is taking the first steps in realizing an
idea to save billions of gallons of water each year
and produce enough clean energy to power a city the size of Los
Angeles for nine months annually. The simple but brilliant
concept? Cover as much of California’s roughly 4,000 miles
of irrigation canals with solar canopies as possible.
… Now, after almost a decade of careful study and
planning, the highly anticipated Project Nexus, a
private/public/academic partnership between the California
Department of Water Resources, Turlock Irrigation District, and
Solar Aquagrid — based on research by UC Merced and UC Santa
Cruz — is online.
Accessing rivers and streams is a “fundamental component of our
culture and identity,” says an unnamed narrator in the opening
minutes of a Colorado filmmaker’s latest short film. Yet it is
also “an enduring conflict.” In his 20-minute documentary
“Common Waters,” filmmaker Cody Perry puts a spotlight
on Colorado’s murky river-access laws and how decades of
ambiguity have led to public confusion. … The issue has
a long and tumultuous history in Colorado, which has seen a
host of legal battles over recreationists entering sections of
waterways that overlap with private land. At the center of the
debate is the question of when and whether the public has a
right to use those segments of streams.
Ventura officials have warned hundreds of residents in the
Pierpont neighborhood not to use their tap water after trace
amounts of gasoline was detected in the city’s water supply
near Harbor Boulevard and Monmouth Way. … It was unclear
exactly how the gasoline may have gotten into the drinking
water supply. Over a year ago, a gas-like odor spread through
the beachside Pierpont neighborhood, prompting two evacuations
in four days. More than a week after initial reports, agencies
said they traced the source to the Sinclair gas station on
Harbor Boulevard.
A string of early-season storms that drenched Californians last
week lifted much of the state out of drought and significantly
reduced the risk of wildfires, experts say. … Overall,
the state is at 186% of its average rain so
far this water year, according to the Department of
Water Resources. … The [Central Sierra Snow Lab]
research station at Donner Pass has recorded 22 inches
of snow. Although that’s about 89% of normal for this
date, warmer temperatures mean that much of it has already
melted. … The snow water equivalent, which measures how
much water the snow would produce if it were to melt, now
stands at 50%.
Other weather and water supply news around the West:
The Trump administration is struggling to head off a crisis
along the West’s most critical river, but the pollution
regulation it proposed last week could make the problems worse,
according to water experts. The EPA proposal would dramatically
restrict the number of streams and wetlands that receive
protection under the federal Clean Water Act
even though the agency itself acknowledges it would exclude
many of the mountain streams and wetlands that are the source
of more than 70 percent of the flow of the Colorado
River. … If the EPA proposal moves forward, those
diminishing supplies could face increased pollution.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has released a
comprehensive new assessment of water conveyance in the San
Joaquin Valley. … The study, an action in Governor Newsom’s
2020 Water Resilience Portfolio, finds that the top priority
for improving conveyance in the San Joaquin Valley is stopping
or minimizing land subsidence, especially near State
Water Project and Central Valley
Project conveyance facilities. This can only be
achieved over the long term by raising groundwater levels above
critical thresholds. The study also finds that repair of
existing conveyance infrastructure is more important than
expanding or building new conveyance because the region has
limited surface water supplies.
Data centers are notoriously thirsty. Researchers at Lawrence
Berkeley National Laboratory have found that, in 2023, the
facilities consumed roughly 17 billion gallons of water for
their operations in the U.S. alone. But that’s only a small
part of the picture: A much, much larger share of data center
water-intensity is indirect, a byproduct of the facilities’
enormous appetites for energy. … However, new research
from Cornell University shows that there’s a way to mitigate
both the climate and water footprints of these
facilities: Build them in places with lots of wind and solar
energy.
Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs joined governors from Hawaii,
Montana, Idaho and Utah to talk about water, energy,
agriculture and healthcare at Western Governor’s Association’s
winter meeting in the Phoenix area on Thursday, Nov.
20. The conference brought state leaders together less
than two weeks after the seven basin states who rely on
Colorado River water failed to come to an
agreement on new management guidelines. … ”I’m sure I
would have the exact same views as Governor Hobbs if I was a
Lower Basin state,” [Utah Gov. Spencer] Cox said during the
press conference. … While Cox has pushed for resolving a new
agreement without federal intervention–despite the missed
federal deadline–Hobbs continued campaigning in favor of it.
Efforts to improve the revitalization of Battle Creek were
recently achieved through River Partners’ acquisition of the
historic 1,721-acre Battle Creek Ranch in Tehama County. The
acquisition was made possible through a $15.05 million grant
approved by the California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB),
which also awarded nearly $600,000 to retire a water-right
diversion associated with the property. The goal is to restore
one of California’s most important salmon-bearing waterways,
according to WCB. The acquisition will conserve the last
unprotected lands along lower Battle Creek, which would
complete a nearly three-decade-long effort to preserve all
properties along the waterway’s 7.5-mile lower reach.
