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 Chris Bowman.
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If you’re planning to be on the north fork of the Feather River
this weekend, PG&E urges you to use caution as they plan to
increase flows to the area on Sept. 27 and 28. PG&E says
they’re increasing flows on the Rock Creek Reach part of the
river near the community of Storrie for whitewater recreation.
They say it’ll have class 3, 4, and 5 rapids, which are only
for skilled paddlers and not for people hoping for a little
tubing. Flows will gradually reduce on Sunday afternoon.
… As I write this today, I am less concerned with the
planting of trees than I am with the water required to grow
them. We must start protecting our water, and these
changes must be implemented by those who currently hold power
in our country. Water waste is the number one issue facing us
currently. … it is still empirically evident that we are
suffering through a devastating megadrought. We must take
adequate steps toward conversation immediately, or we risk
forever damaging our water security. Younger generations cannot
implement this level of change by themselves. We must call on
older members of our society to create change for the benefit
of others, knowing that they may never see the positive impact
of their actions. —Written by Mitchell Katz, a student at the Buckley
School in Sherman Oaks, California
The deadline to apply for the Tule Land and Water Conservation
Trust’s land fallowing program has been extended to Monday,
Sept. 30. More than $1.2 million is available to growers
in the Tule subbasin, which covers the southern half of Tulare
County’s flatlands, to participate in the third year of the
program. Those funds come from local groundwater
sustainability agencies (GSAs) which collect pumping fees from
landowners. The trust, formed in 2020 to help the basin
navigate the requirements of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), works to match those funds with grants
and private donations.
Lawmakers in San Francisco are launching a last-ditch effort to
kill the city’s lawsuit challenging federal water pollution
requirements, weeks before Supreme Court oral arguments are set
to begin. The city has accused EPA of including unreasonably
vague requirements in a wastewater permit for one of its sewage
treatment plants. The language in the permit is designed to
protect water quality and is widely used in permits for
municipalities nationwide. San Francisco says it’s virtually
impossible to follow. But on Tuesday, San Francisco Supervisor
Myrna Melgar introduced a resolution urging the city attorney’s
office to drop the case. … Despite the case’s
local origins, the outcome could have broad ramifications for
wastewater permits and limit EPA’s ability to control the
release of sewage and other contaminants, legal experts
said.
Five U.S. Bureau of Reclamation conservation agreements
targeting California farmers were signed on Wednesday with a
big intended impact. … The agreements involving the Imperial
Irrigation District, Bard Water District and the Metropolitan
Water District represent the last conservation efforts from
“bucket one,” or the first round, of funding from Congress’
Inflation Reduction Act. Lake Mead, which provides about 90
percent of Southern Nevada’s drinking water, stands at around
1,063 feet as of September’s end — about 23 feet higher than
the reservoir’s all-time low in 2022. [Reclamation Commissioner
Camille Calimlim Touton] has cited aggressive conservation
as a direct boost to Lake Mead’s outlook, though two heavy
snowpack years in the Rocky Mountains have helped, as well. The
Bureau of Reclamation predicts that the agreements will save
717,000 acre-feet of water in total. One acre-foot of water is
roughly enough to serve two single-family homes for a year.
A federal judge has ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because
high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development
of children. U.S. District Judge Edward Chen cautioned that
it’s not certain that the amount of fluoride typically added to
water is causing lower IQ in kids, but he concluded that
mounting research points to an unreasonable risk that it could
be. He ordered the EPA to take steps to lower that risk, but
didn’t say what those measures should be. It’s the first time a
federal judge has made a determination about the
neurodevelopmental risks to children of the recommended U.S.
water fluoride level, said Ashley Malin, a University of
Florida researcher who has studied the effect of higher
fluoride levels in pregnant women.
On September 25th, the Nevada Irrigation District voted on the
future of their proposed Centennial Dam project, a $1 billion
project that the South Yuba River Citizen’s League (SYRCL) has
rallied the community in opposition to since its inception. …
In August of 2014, the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) began
planning to construct a new 275-foot-tall dam and reservoir on
the Bear River between the existing Rollins and Combie
reservoirs. The water agency’s proposed new 110,000 acre-foot
reservoir with a 275 foot-tall dam on the Bear River would have
inundated six miles of the Bear River, completely flooding the
Bear River Campground, more than 25 homes and 120 parcels,
hundreds of cultural and sacred Native American sites, and the
Dog Bar Bridge, the only crossing of the Bear River between
Highway 49 and Highway 174. … Now, NID has voted to
withdraw its water rights application and to discontinue all
feasibility, environmental, and other analyses in support of
the proposed Centennial Reservoir Project.
The recent discovery of a nutria in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta in Contra Costa County has raised concerns of damage to
the region’s fragile ecosystem from the invasive rodent
species, prompting officials to ask the public to report any
new sightings. Nutria are native to South America and live in
waterways, such as deltas, rivers and ponds. They’re known to
be invasive, destroying crops and weakening levees “to the
point of failure,” said Matthew Slattengren, an agricultural
commissioner for the Contra Costa County Department of
Agriculture, on Wednesday. Only a handful of nutria have been
spotted in the county in recent years, according to Slattengren
and state Fish and Wildlife data. But officials say the
animals have the potential to cause “serious damage” to the
vast Delta watershed and its network of aging earthen levees —
a critical water source for much of California.
Three Tulare County irrigation districts that recently found
themselves in the state’s crosshairs over groundwater
extractions and subsidence are scrambling to show officials
they are getting on the right side of “sustainability.” The
boards of the Terra Bella, Porterville and Saucelito irrigation
districts each approved resolutions seeking to cut back the
amount of groundwater farmers can pump within their boundaries.
… But some say the action may be too little, too late.
Groundwater allocations are actually doled out by the Eastern
Tule Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA), which overlays
all three districts. So, technically, the districts’
groundwater preferences are requests to the Eastern Tule GSA,
which must vote separately on any future groundwater
allocations.
… Pollution in the [Tijuana] river has been an entrenched
environmental crisis for decades, with all sides pointing
fingers at one another. Residents blame politicians for failing
to find a solution. Local politicians blame Congress for not
funding improvements in the South Bay International Wastewater
Treatment Plant, which processes raw sewage from Tijuana. The
federal government blames Mexico for lax sewage regulations.
The International Boundary and Water Commission says it’s not
its job to collect the wastewater from unknown sources that
flows into the Tijuana River. Complicating matters further:
Researchers and county officials are sharply split on whether
the stench is simply a nuisance or a danger to public health.
Some help is on the way, potentially. Mexico’s new
wastewater treatment plant is set to open this month, and
there are plans to double the capacity of the South Bay
International Wastewater Treatment Plant, although that project
will take five years.
… [The] Salton Sea, the state’s biggest and most toxic lake,
is an environmental disaster. And the region’s politics have
been dominated by a conservative white elite, despite its
supermajority Latino population. The county also happens to be
sitting on enough lithium to produce nearly 400 million
batteries, sufficient to completely revamp the American auto
fleet to electric propulsion. Even better, that lithium could
be extracted in a way consistent with broader goals to reduce
pollution. The traditional ways to extract lithium involve
either hard rock mining, which generates lots of waste, or
large evaporation ponds, which waste a lot of water. In
Imperial Valley, companies are pioneering a third method. They
are extracting the mineral from the underground briny water
brought up during geothermal energy production and then
injecting that briny water back into the ground in a closed
loop. It promises to yield the cleanest, greenest lithium on
the planet.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is awarding $1.4
million in funding for nine emergency response agencies across
the state to increase their ability to respond to flood events.
This funding will help put resources in the hands of local
first responders tasked with protecting our communities.
California continues to adapt to an increase in extreme
weather, with swings from dry conditions to dangerous flooding.
The previous two winters have demonstrated the importance of
planning for flood emergencies, especially at the local level.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) [on Sept.
25] announced the award of $41 million in grants for 20
restoration and protection projects throughout the state to
benefit wetlands and meadows, Southern California steelhead and
watersheds impacted by cannabis cultivation. Today’s awards
continue the effort to support critical restoration projects
with funding made available in late 2022 through the Nature
Based Solutions Initiative and Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund,
funding through CDFW’s Cannabis Program, as well as funding
dedicated to improving Southern California steelhead habitat
through Proposition 68. These projects also support key
initiatives including California’s 30×30 initiative and
California’s Salmon Strategy for a Hotter, Drier Future.
The Secretary of Commerce announced that a fishery resource
disaster occurred in the 2023 Pulikla Tribe of Yurok People
Klamath River subsistence salmon fishery. The determination is
in response to the request from Ms. Fawn C. Murphy, Chairperson
of the Pulikla Tribe of Yurok People. Secretary of Commerce,
Gina M. Raimondo, working with NOAA Fisheries, evaluates each
fishery resource disaster request based primarily on data
submitted by the requesting official. A fishery disaster
determination must meet specific requirements under the
Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act.
Lake Tahoe is the oldest lake in North America and the third
oldest in the world, according to new research presented at the
Geological Society of America’s annual meeting on Monday in
Anaheim. The finding places Tahoe in the
pantheon of the world’s most ancient lakes. Lake Tahoe is at
least 2.3 million years old, according
to Winnie Kortemeier, a professor of
geosciences at Western Nevada College in Carson City,
Nevada. She initially made that discovery in 2012, when she
sent samples of volcanic rock she collected near Tahoe City to
the U.S. Geological Survey geochronology laboratory for
radiometric dating.
Water district boards often aren’t a top concern for most
voters, but the entities wield power over your bills and the
amount and quality of water coming out of your tap or
sprinkler. There are a few competitive races for seats on area
boards of directors in this November’s election. … The
Coachella Valley Water District, founded by farmers more than a
century ago and who have long dominated the the board, now
serves more customers than any other water district in the
valley, including about 110,000 homes and businesses, about
1,000 agricultural accounts, and many of the valley’s 100-plus
thirsty golf courses. Two seats are up for election on
the Coachella Valley Water District Board: Division 2
and Division 4.
An agency that provides drinking water to roughly 200,000
people in South San Diego County is poised to award a $150,000
consulting contract to a former employee who once sued the
agency and now has close personal and political ties to its
governing board members. Directors at Wednesday’s board
meeting of the Sweetwater Authority in Chula Vista will vote on
awarding the $225-per-hour consulting contract to Michael
Garrod, a retired engineering manager who, along with three
other employees, sued the agency in 2012 for allegedly
discriminating against non-white employees and retaliating
against people who complained. The lawsuit was settled in 2014
with no admission of wrongdoing by the agency. Garrod withdrew
his complaint after one of the other plaintiffs settled.
“It’s hurting economic development,” said Willcox City Manager,
Caleb Blaschke. “It’s hurting our ability to grow.” Blaschke
and Willcox residents are concerned about the amount of water
being used and pumped from the Willcox Playa Basin. Roughly
5,000 people rely on the City of Willcox for
water. ”In the Willcox basin, you can pump as much
water as you want, and there’s no protections for residents.
There’s no protections for the city,” Blaschke. He says there
are over 1,600 water connections to the city waterlines, which
includes businesses and residences. “I think that’s a big issue
right now, is the water is not being recharged as quickly as
the water is being taken out of the aquifer,” he said.
Residents of East Orosi played host to Governor Gavin Newsom
Tuesday, who briefly stopped in the tiny community nestled
against the foothills of northern Tulare County to sign three
bills guaranteeing them an end to decades worth of dirty water
flowing to their homes. … AB 805 by Dr. Joaquin Arambula
(D-Fesno), which mandates a public process to determine whether
an administrator is needed for local sewer systems and
empowers the state to provide technical and financial support.
… SB 1188 by Senator John Laird (D-Santa Cruz) to
support small water systems by providing them technical
resources to prevent failure … AB 2454 by Assemblymember Alex
Lee (D-Milpitas) that would require rental property owners to
participate in state programs for domestic well testing and to
determine if remediation is needed to make the water clean.
Contamination of key Los Angeles waterways such as the Santa
Monica Bay, Los Angeles Harbor and Echo Park Lake due to the
spread of toxic chemicals is at the heart of a $35-million
settlement between the L.A. City Council and agriculture giant
Monsanto and two smaller companies. The City Council on Tuesday
announced the payout by the companies to settle a lawsuit filed
in 2022 over damage from long-banned chemicals called PCBs,
which have been linked to health problems including
cancer. … The complaint sought compensation for the
cost of past cleanups — and for future abatement of —
polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. The chemicals tainted and
continue to pollute many Los Angeles waterways, including the
Dominguez Channel, Ballona Creek, Marina del Rey and Machado
Lake.
