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.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum signed a directive Tuesday that
could allow local irrigation districts and other Bureau of
Reclamation customers more say in managing their federally
funded projects. … Burgum asserted his Secretarial Order 3446
could benefit water and power users throughout the 17 Western
states served by the bureau. … A dam-raising
project in California’s San Joaquin Valley will
exemplify how the new system might work, according to an
Interior Department news release. Burgum’s order directs the
Bureau of Reclamation to work with local water and power
partners to modify certain contracts and establish new contract
terms.
Chinook salmon are once again populating an upper part of the
largest local tributary of the San Francisco Bay, thanks to the
recent completion of a multiyear fish passage and restoration
project. … The salmon’s passage up Alameda Creek,
which carves through Niles Canyon and the Sunol Wilderness
Regional Preserve to the Diablo Range, was made possible this
year through the relocation of a PG&E-owned gas pipeline
near the Interstate 680 overpass, CalTrout wrote. … This
month, PG&E and CalTrout wrapped up efforts to relocate the
pipeline and bury it under the riverbed, allowing salmon to
migrate upstream once more.
Water from the Colorado River and its tributaries irrigates
farms, sprinkles lawns and quenches the thirst of millions
across Utah and the greater Southwest. While only 27% of the
state’s water comes from it, some 60% of Utahns rely on the
Colorado River for drinking water, agriculture and industries
such as energy and mining. … With less water flowing
through the river system, though, states will have to cut back
their consumption. But negotiators can’t agree on who carries
that burden. If that plan includes mandatory cuts to Utah’s
water use, that may affect cities, tribes and farmers across
the state.
An appeal submitted last week may pause the Delta Conveyance
Project (DCP) if the Delta Stewardship Council, the state body
charged with implementing a Delta sustainability plan, upholds
the appeal. … The state Delta Protection Commission
on Nov. 17 voted 9-0 with one abstention to appeal an Oct. 14
certification by DWR that the tunnel project is consistent with
a regional management strategy known as the Delta Plan.
… The letter details some 3,800 acres of farmland that
would be lost to the project, along with damages to the
region’s $250 million recreation industry.
Water replenishment charges imposed by the Coachella Valley
Water District are unconstitutional taxes because the district
failed to justify its practice of charging customers in
different areas unequal rates, a California appeals court held.
The California Court of Appeal, Fourth District, held these
charges violate the allocation rule in the California
constitution which requires fees and taxes to be fairly
allocated among payers. The court determined the district
couldn’t provide a reasonable justification for charging higher
rates to residents in its western area compared to those in its
eastern area, so the court affirmed a refund of about $13.4
million.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power says it has
captured nearly 5.5 billion gallons of water since Oct. 1
following the recent storms. … According to the National
Weather Service, downtown Los Angeles received more than five
and a half inches of rain in November, making it the 5th
wettest November on record. … The DWP captured rain
through stormwater infrastructure, residential rain barrels and
cisterns, and large spreading grounds such as the Tujunga
Spreading Grounds that help recharge underwater aquifers, also
known as “groundwater banks.”
If you want a glass of water with your meal in Aurora, soon you
might have to speak up. Aurora Water is asking local
restaurants to move to a water-by-request-only model.
… It’s the latest effort by Aurora Water to conserve as
much water as possible. It’s asking restaurant owners to only
serve a glass of water if the customer asks for it. It’s not a
law or an ordinance. Just an ask. … Aurora Water says its
long-term conservation strategy is necessary if customers want
to keep their water bills affordable. ”It is actually
becoming much harder to go out and acquire water rights. And
it’s very expensive to do this,” said [Aurora Water's deputy
director of internal and external affairs, Shonnie] Cline.
It’s been over two years since Colorado passed a law meant to
keep people from flushing wipes down toilets. But that hasn’t
fully stopped the pipe-clogging practice. Senate Bill 23-150
required disposable wipe products, like baby wipes and
antibacterial wipes, to be labeled with the phrase “Do Not
Flush”. The issue reached a head during COVID-19 lockdowns,
when more people were at home and using disposable wipes to
disinfect surfaces and packages. … Anecdotally, [Metro
Water Recovery’s chief operating officer, Liam] Cavanaugh said
they’ve seen a reduction in the number of wipes passing through
the facilities. But there’s still room for improvement.
Federal agencies released their first quarterly progress report
Friday on efforts to permanently resolve the decades-old
Tijuana River sewage crisis. … The Nov. 21 update from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S.
International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) marks the
first public progress report required under a memorandum of
understanding (MOU) signed in July between the U.S. and Mexico.
… [T]op of mind for many residents, advocates and officials
was expanding treatment capacity for the South Bay
International Wastewater Treatment Plant, which the EPA
reported is now at 35 million gallons per day capacity — up
from 25 million gallons.
There’s a big new development going up in Mountain View along
the edge of San Francisco Bay. … Workers are putting the
finishing touches on a three-year effort to restore 435 acres
of former industrial salt evaporation ponds to natural wetlands
and tidal marshes, along with building new public bayfront
hiking trails. … The $20 million project, which is scheduled
to be completed by the end of December, is the latest chapter
in an ongoing saga in which the state, federal government and
environmental groups are slowly converting 15,100 acres of
former salt ponds that ring the South Bay, Peninsula and
East Bay back to habitat for ducks, shorebirds, fish, even
leopard sharks, bat rays and harbor seals.
Tom Sephton, the president of Sephton Water Technology, gave a
presentation about water quality restoration at the Salton Sea
during the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Nov.
25. … To increase the availability of local
distilled water, Sephton proposed purifying and selling salt
from the Salton Sea to reduce the water’s salinity. … Phase 1
of this project will be a commercial demonstration of
technology, according to Sephton. Up until now, he said Cal
Energy has been doing a pilot scale project, which he wants to
expand. Sephton proposed building a demonstration plant to
distill the water and concentrate the salt brine.
Tucson city officials are moving to advance a plan to turn
wastewater into drinking water by seeking a company to design
and build an advanced water purification facility capable of
filtering 2.5 million gallons per day. … Last year, the
Arizona Department of Environmental Quality passed new rules
allowing municipal water officials to build so-called
“toilet-to-tap” systems, treating wastewater to what officials
called “very-high quality” water. In January, city officials
and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials signed an
agreement to build the $86.7 million water-purification
facility, scheduled for completion by June 2031.
A warning went out to residents in the Pierpont neighborhood,
instructing them to “not use the tap water.” But the “do not
use order” was later dialed back, with city leaders saying the
sample test was a “false positive.” … An official
with the city said they have tested the water regularly ever
since last year’s leak at the Sinclair Gas Station that
contaminated the groundwater. “There were two samples and were
initially reported with gasoline concentrations, and then once
the laboratory received that data, they contacted another
agency or another organization to do a reanalysis of the
samples,” said Jennifer Nance, Public Information Officer with
the City of Ventura.
After six years of transformative leadership, the California
Water Data Consortium is honoring two founding board members as
they complete their tenure as founding Board members: Deven
Upadhyay and Joone Kim-Lopez. When Senator Bill Dodd’s AB 1755
launched California’s Open and Transparent Water Data Act in
2016, it took visionaries like Deven and Joone to transform
legislative mandate into living practice. As part of the
founding board in 2019, they helped build the Consortium from
concept to California’s trusted partner in data-driven
decision-making.
Aquafornia is off for the Thanksgiving
holiday. We will return with a full slate of water news
on Monday, Dec. 1. In the meantime, follow
us on X/Twitter for
breaking news and on LinkedIn for
Foundation-related news.
We are grateful for our readers! Have a happy and safe holiday!
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.
