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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After Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed her data center water
disclosure bill last year, Assemblymember Diane Papan,
D-San Mateo, returned this year with a two-bill package. One of
the bills, AB 2619, was passed by the Legislature Thursday
morning, sending to Newsom a measure that would require
data centers to report their water consumption
annually. The other bill, AB 2469, which would require
information about projected water demand before new
data centers are approved, is still moving through the
Legislature. … Opponents have argued that existing state
law already gives local water agencies the information they
need to plan for new development and that additional reporting
requirements would place unnecessary burdens on the industry.
… This year, El Niño is “becoming so
dominant” that it is “drowning out” another key weather factor,
the Madden-Julian Oscillation, the National Hurricane
Center said. The MJO is an area of thunderstorms
circumnavigating the tropics, and typically central and east
Pacific tropical cyclone activity ebbs and flows every two to
six weeks due to those storms. But in recent months,
record-warm ocean temperatures fueled by El Niño are supporting
the nearly nonstop thunderstorms that provide
the first key ingredient for potential tropical
cyclones. The Pacific “hot spot” will continue through
early September, the center said. … “There is growing
potential for one of these tropical storms or
hurricanes to make a right hook toward California,”
Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UC Agriculture and Natural
Resources, said.
Nevada’s decision to take the federal government to court over
the Colorado River’s new operating rules could stall
the Navajo Nation’s push to get its Arizona water rights
settlement through Congress before the year ends, a
Navajo Nation water rights attorney said this week. “We’re on
an extremely limited window of time,” said Dwight Witherspoon,
an attorney with the Water Rights Unit of the Navajo Nation
Department of Justice. … The state of Nevada, the Colorado
River Commission of Nevada and the Southern Nevada Water
Authority filed a complaint Monday, Aug. 24, in U.S. District
Court for the District of Nevada against Interior Secretary
Doug Burgum, the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of
Reclamation and Aubrey Bettencourt, the bureau’s principal
deputy commissioner.
The San Diego County Water Authority is expected to generate
$15 million in revenue during the first five years of a
long-term agreement announced Thursday that will allow Burbank,
in Los Angeles County, to purchase water from the
agency. Under the agreement, Burbank will be able to
purchase up to 5,000 acre- feet of water annually through 2047,
according to the Water Authority. The agencies will use
existing infrastructure to share the water, with no new
pipelines required. Water Authority officials said
revenue from the agreement will help offset costs associated
with investments made over the past three decades to improve
San Diego County’s water supply reliability. … The
agreement is the Water Authority’s third regional water
supply partnership announced this year.
New research methods are revealing how much water can
be found buried in Utah’s mountains, leading to an
updated understanding of our water supply and knowledge of
future hazards. There is enough water in the Timpanogos
Rock Glacier to fill 600 Olympic swimming pools, according to
new research by University of Utah geologists.
… [Glaciologist Lief] Anderson says the presence of
these ice-filled rock glaciers can be good news for
Utah. Firstly, because the glacier can be good for arid,
dry climates like Utah where rock glacier ice melts more slowly
than an exposed glacier would. … Second, since the ice
is covered, its melted water is much cooler and can
bring important ecological benefits to cold water
species.
In August 2024, excavation crews breached the last of four dams
on the Klamath River in far northern California, marking the
first time in over a century 100 years that salmon could swim
above the dam sites. Now, new research published on
Thursday shows that in the two years since dam removal, over
20,000 chinook salmon have migrated up the Klamath River, many
past the former dam sites and into traditional spawning
grounds. … Even now that the PacifiCorps dams are gone,
two dams with fish passage regulate flows on the river. The
federal Bureau of Reclamation manages the Link River and Keno
dams, located below Klamath lake as part of the Klamath
Project, which allocates water to farmers, fish, tribes, and
other stakeholders.
Other anadromous fish and habitat restoration news:
The Imperial County Board of Supervisors authorized the
submission of a $750,000 grant application to the State Water
Resources Control Board on Tuesday, August 25, for the
Proposition 4 United States-Mexico Border Funding Program. Prop
4, also known as the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention,
Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act, passed in 2024 to
provide $50 million for projects to address water quality
problems in the California-Mexico cross-border rivers and
coastal waters, including the New River. Prop 4 provides
funding for projects focused on research and planning, with a
separate grant application type for construction and
implementation projects. The county’s grant application would
not be in competition with efforts or grants coming out of the
City of Calexico’s operations.
Leading artificial intelligence and cybersecurity companies,
including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft, are urging
greater collaboration between AI labs and the government to
better equip cyber defenders with the tools needed to face an
impending onslaught of AI-enabled cyberattacks. … At
least 100 global companies, including AI leaders, cybersecurity
companies and critical infrastructure providers, warn that
“status quo security won’t be enough” and are pushing for a
whole-of-society response to secure critical infrastructure,
ranging from hospitals to water treatment facilities. The
companies also have a message for governments: They should
coordinate and fund cyber defense programs, strengthen threat
intelligence sharing and give hospitals, water treatment
facilities and local governments access to AI-powered defense.
A regional water quality control board has issued a health
advisory for several North Coast rivers where toxic algal mats
that can make people and animals sick have been found. The
North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board — a state
agency responsible for protecting water quality in the region
— cautions people to keep themselves and their animals away
from toxic algal mats in North Coast rivers such as the
Klamath, Trinity, Salmon, Scott, Mad, Eel, South Fork Eel, Van
Duzen, Navarro, Russian and East Fork Russian. The agency
urges people to pay special attention to keeping children and
pets away from contact with algae or suspect river water since
the toxic algae poses the strongest health risk to them.
Temperatures and courtroom tensions are rising every year in
Southern Nevada as hundreds die in the desert heat and some
families seek justice in the form of monetary settlements.
According to over a half-dozen lawsuits that the Las Vegas
Review-Journal has identified, the extreme heat of the Mojave
Desert has killed people in a broken-down tour bus,
in the parking lot of a hospital and in homes without
adequate air conditioning. In decades past, their deaths could
have been written off as health-related accidents. But an
increasing number of lawsuits in Clark County have been
accusing businesses and organizations of negligence when
someone dies from the extreme heat. … The Review-Journal
has identified at least 10 lawsuits in recent years in which
attorneys have claimed that businesses or organizations have
acted negligently when someone died of extreme heat.
Denver Water’s 1.5 million customers must shut off their lawn
sprinklers at the start of October as Colorado’s
largest water utility grapples with record-setting heat and
drought. The utility’s Board of Water
Commissioners on Wednesday voted unanimously
to impose the ban, which goes into effect Oct. 1. The new
rule adds to drought restrictions in place since
spring as Denver Water has attempted to rein in water use.
… Denver Water’s drought rules follow a winter with
little snow and an abnormally hot and dry summer. Low
snowpack reduced streamflows into Denver Water’s reservoirs to
less than a quarter of normal, and extreme drought
continues to fry the mountains from which the utility draws its
water. The dry, hot summer — the warmest on record for metro
Denver — has not offered relief.
California air regulators will start tracking estimates of the
gases that bubble up from the state’s artificial
reservoirs and contribute to climate change. The
California Air Resources Board says it will begin reporting how
much of the planet-warming gases methane and carbon dioxide are
released fromdams and reservoirs. The Air Resources Board
adopted the new policy last week in response to a
petition by environmental groups. It turned down the
groups’ request that it require reports on emissions from
managers of dams and reservoirs but said it will start
collecting estimated data using methods recommended by the U.N.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. … Last year,
the Trump administration stopped reporting such data detailing
various sources of climate pollution to the United Nations.
The Trump administration will soon announce a program to
provide free cybersecurity services to vulnerable U.S.
water facilities, following a cascade of cyberattacks
across at least a dozen states that many experts suspect are
linked to Iran. The initiative is being led by the Office of
the National Cyber Director and has gained momentum over the
last several months, according to two people with knowledge of
the program. A third person with knowledge of the program said
it will begin with facilities in Texas and described it
as a “proof of concept” that could expand to other
states. … The program will offer water utility
providers in the state access to free services, such as tools
for scanning their networks for security vulnerabilities.
The San Diego region appears well-positioned to weather sharp
cuts to California’s share of Colorado River water. The U.S.
Department of Interior on Friday announced California, Arizona
and Nevada need to reduce their water usage by 1.25 million
acre-feet annually between 2027-2028, as climate change and
overuse push the Colorado River watershed further into crisis.
California is absorbing the second-largest cut, at
440,000 acre-feet of water. But Felicia Marcus, former
chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board,
said in an interview that local leaders have spent “smart
money” bolstering the water supply here. … Those factors
have contributed to a supply glut for the Water Authority,
which allows the utility to sell water to other California
agencies. The Water Authority is also exploring how to
sell water to other thirsty Western states.
A coalition of Arizonans in the western part of the state are
banding together to protect their shrinking groundwater basin
by establishing a zone to restrict pumping. Residents
are collecting signatures to establish a groundwater
protection zone around the McMullen Valley aquifer. A
New York City based-hedge fund Water Asset Management,
LLC, supported legislation earlier this year which would
have allowed it to pump some of that water out and sell
it to cities in the metro Phoenix area. The bill
died, but it spurred locals to take action.
… Backers of the protection effort want to put the
question of establishing an active management area (AMA) on
local ballots next March.
Pinal County supervisors on Wednesday rejected plans to build
La Osa Energy Center, a massive development planned outside
Eloy. It was among the largest proposed data centers in
Arizona. … The rejection comes even after the
developers proposed an 80% reduction in the original scale of
the project, self-imposed limits on water use
and a commitment to shoulder all of the energy costs.
… Between the last public hearing in May and Wednesday’s
vote, Vermaland added 22 new development conditions. These
included a 600 acre-foot cap on fresh water
use within the data center buildings — close to 200
million gallons worth of water — and at the on-site natural gas
plant. Vermaland said it would consider offsetting
some of this consumption by purchasing effluent water,
but didn’t mention firm requirements.
… Meteorologists forecast that the Northern Hemisphere is
heading into a very strong or “super” El Nino by the end of the
year, defined by well-above-average sea surface temperatures
across the central to eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Smith
said El Nino conditions are often synonymous with strong
precipitation early in the winter season, followed by
below-average snowfall during the middle of the season.
Colorado’s High Country is forecast to follow that pattern,
with above-normal precipitation expected for the three-month
period from September to November. … With an active
southerly storm track expected to emerge in November, however,
Smith said a strong El Nino winter could point to heavier
snowfall earlier in the year across Colorado’s mountains.
The new general manager of the Kern County Water Agency adheres
to a deceptively simple mantra: More water, less cost.
Contained in that sentiment are whole worlds of political,
regulatory and legal complexities. Which is why the agency
recently hired a second person to represent Kern’s interests in
Sacramento. Taryn Ravazzini, was officially hired as an
Assistant General Manager with an annual salary of
$350,000 during the agency’s August meeting. She will join
Craig Wallace as part of the agency’s Sacramento team.
… Other large water organizations, including the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, have
Sacramento offices full of staff making sure those region’s
interests are heard, making it imperative that Kern has a seat
at the table, [General Manager Eric] Averett said.
DNA fragments from zebra mussels have been detected in Utah’s
section of the Colorado River for the first time, raising new
concerns for the river because of the challenges that the
species is associated with. The DNA fragments were found within
four of 22 samples collected in June and July near the Potash
Boat Ramp, nearly 15 miles downstream of Moab, Utah Division of
Wildlife Resources officials said in a statement on Tuesday. It
follows an infestation that was found last year near Loma,
Colorado, just upstream of the Utah-Colorado border. Zebra
mussels, much like quagga mussels, which have been an issue at
Lake Powell, are invasive and clog pipes and infrastructure,
while also creating new hazards on rocks and beaches,
potentially causing millions in damage.
Less than two years ago, four dams on the Klamath River were
removed. This week, the first peer-reviewed science is out —
published in Scientific Reports, part of the renowned
Nature portfolio of journals — confirming that Chinook salmon
reoccupied 88% of their historical range within just two
migratory seasons. … The study, led by CalTrout’s Shasta
Cascade Regional Director Damon Goodman alongside partners from
the Karuk Tribe, Klamath Tribes, Yurok Tribe, Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Fish and
Wildlife, NOAA, USGS, CalPoly Humboldt, and independent
researchers, is the first published quantitative assessment of
how salmon have responded to the removal of J.C. Boyle, Copco
1, Copco 2, and Iron Gate dams — the largest dam removal
project ever completed.
