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 Doug Beeman.
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Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, 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.
A Maricopa County judge in Arizona denied residents emergency
relief over their Scottsdale water source that has been cut off
since Jan. 1 because of drought conditions and despite repeated
city warnings to find an alternative water source. The action
for an emergency stay was brought by some residents of the
nearby unincorporated community of Rio Verde Foothills who saw
their deliveries of water run dry at the beginning of the year
due to action by the city of Scottsdale, whose leaders said
they repeatedly warned the community that continued deliveries
were unsustainable due to drought.
Climate change including multi-year droughts, extreme flooding,
and extreme weather swings negatively impact California.
Aridification of our ecosystem, and multi-year droughts are
damaging to cold-water-dependent species such as Chinook
salmon. Such is the case with the current drought we are
experiencing, which has exacerbated the stressors impacting the
Sacramento River’s threatened spring-run Chinook salmon and
endangered winter-run Chinook salmon. These stressors include
the inability to maintain suitable water temperatures,
increased predation, and diminished habitat quantity and
quality. Coupled with drought impacts in freshwater is
the recently discovered thiamine deficiency in adult Chinook
returning from the ocean which impacts the health of their
offspring.
[S]evere drought, which affected 90% of the state by the end of
2022, led to historic water restrictions in Southern
California — impacting millions of people. The Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power says L.A.-based golf
courses use about 1.6 billion gallons of drinking water each
year, about 1% of the total potable water used in the city.
Meanwhile, courses use only about one billion gallons of
recycled water. Those restrictions are also pushing golf
courses across the region to incorporate new technology to
become more efficient with their water usage.
On January 18, 2023, the United States Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) and the Department of the Army (collectively, the
“Agencies”) finalized a rule (2023 Rule) redefining how the
Agencies interpret “waters of the United States” (WOTUS)
pursuant to the Clean Water Act (CWA). The 2023 Rule
attempts to return federal jurisdiction to the scope reflected
in pre-2015 regulations and relies on the best available
science, agency experience, and Supreme Court precedent.
The 2023 Rule is scheduled to go into effect on March 20, 2023,
but will likely face legal challenge.
[C]limate experts and state officials are taking stock of flood
protection systems and our ability to take advantage of the
rainfall. The good news, they report, is “the ongoing rains are
already boosting California’s water storage system.” The bad
news, they warn, is “it would be hasty, though, to assume the
ongoing storms and wet forecast mark an end to the drought.”
… A significant casualty of the storm systems has been
our trees. Perpetually saturated soils have loosened their
roots, and vicious winds have taken them down. Over the summer,
we published an opinion piece by the Sacramento Tree Foundation
and Regional Water Authority that urged Sacramentans
to care for trees during drought, illustrated by a
satellite view of the area’s canopy loss.
The release of 64,000 gallons of untreated sewage prompted the
closures of several Los Angeles County beaches Wednesday,
public health officials said. A blocked main line led to the
sewage entering the storm drain system near Admiralty and
Palawan ways in Marina del Rey, the Los Angeles County
Department of Public Health said in a news release. The
blockage was cleared by Wednesday afternoon, but Mother’s Beach
in Marina del Rey, Venice City Beach and Dockweiler State Beach
were ordered closed. … The closures will remain in
effect until bacterial levels in daily water testing meet
health standards, the department said.
This is the first in a series of videos we’re calling “Rooted
in the Valley.” We hope to highlight family farmers in the San
Joaquin Valley, how they came to this area from all over the
world and what the future holds as water becomes a key factor
in their ability to survive.
If invasive mussels were to get into Clear Lake, how would the
county of Lake respond? The Lake County Water Resources
Department, partnering with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
and consultants at Creative Resource Strategies, invites the
public to attend a virtual forum to discuss how the county will
respond in the event invasive quagga or zebra mussels become
introduced or established in Clear Lake. The forum will be held
at 10 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 2, via Zoom. … Anyone that has
a business or residence in Lake County, and/or values or
recreates on Clear Lake or other lakes in the county is
encouraged to participate in the webinar. Clear Lake is
the largest natural freshwater lake located entirely in
California, and consistently ranks among Bassmaster’s top 10
bass fishing lakes.
It doesn’t matter whether California is mired in historic
drought or soaked from record-setting storms. The same dinosaur
mentality about how the state should capture, store and
allocate water never fails to resurface. … Writing about
these issues from a different perspective, one that doesn’t
view “the environment” as a pejorative, often makes me feel
like a salmon fighting against the current. So this time around
I enlisted the help of a much bigger fish: Dr. Peter Gleick, a
world-renowned expert on water and climate issues and
co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan global water
think tank. … Let’s reinforce that point: Valley farmers
depend on fresh water funneled through the Delta for their
irrigation. If the Delta gets polluted by salty ocean water,
the impact on agriculture would be immense. Letting the rivers
flow, to keep the Delta fresh, benefits growers as well. -Written by Marek Warszawski, Fresno Bee
columnist.
Bakersfield and the Kern River Valley made the list of Cal
Water’s top water-saving districts for December 2022.
California Water Service, Cal Water, said customers surpassed
the state’s conservation target of 15% in December 2022, saving
16.5% company-wide over December 2020. In a release it said,
“This is the eighth month in a row Cal Water customers reduced
their water use, with 11 districts saving more than 15%.” The
11 Cal Water districts that surpassed 15% in water-use
reductions are …
What’s worse? Horrifying killer storms or slow death by
drought? California’s climate can be extreme — drought or
deluge. Both are deadly, each exacerbating damage caused by the
other. Fortunately, some people are doing the necessary,
innovative and difficult work to combat drought and deluge at
the same time. Infuriatingly, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s budget
proposal abandons some of the most important flood-control,
drought-fighting measures taking place in our state. He removed
a $40 million allocation approved last year for floodplain
restoration — work designed to reduce lethal flooding, store
water underground, remove carbon from the atmosphere and create
wildlife habitat. This comes on top of a decision two years ago
to remove $60 million for other San Joaquin Valley floodplain
projects. -Written by Adam Gray, formerly
representing Merced County and part of Stanislaus County
in the California Assembly.
California’s water supply has hit a new milestone for the year
in the wake of three weeks of wet weather. Water levels at two
of the state’s largest reservoirs are now at their highest
point in 2.5 years, Chief Meteorologist Mark Finan said.
… Lake Shasta and Oroville have both added more than 1
million acre-feet of water in the past month and the levels
continue to rise. Inflow rates into those reservoirs have
decreased considerably, which is to be expected during periods
of dry weather. As of Tuesday, Lake Shasta is at 55% of
its total capacity and Lake Oroville is at 62% of capacity.
Last summer, Lake Shasta peaked at about 40% of its total
capacity.
Hefty snowfalls from a series of atmospheric rivers have
brought a slightly rosier outlook for the beleaguered Colorado
River. While not enough to fend off the falling water levels
entirely, the snow that has dropped in recent weeks across the
mountains that feed the river is expected to slow the decline
at Lake Mead, according to the latest federal projections
released last week. Forecasters now expect Lake Mead to finish
this year around 1,027 feet elevation, about 19 feet lower than
its current level. That’s about 7 feet higher than the 2023
end-of-year elevation in the bureau’s forecast from last month.
As for Lake Powell, the reservoir located on the Utah-Arizona
border is now expected to finish 2023 at 3,543 feet, or 16 feet
higher than last month’s forecast and about 19 feet higher than
its current level.
Global catastrophe and risk modelling solutions firm, Moody’s
RMS estimates total US economic losses from the recent
California flooding to be between $5-7 billion. This
estimate reflects inland flood impacts for the US, which
includes damage to infrastructure. The insured losses are
anticipated to be between $0.5-1.5 billion, including losses to
the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the private
flood market. Since late December, California has been hit
with extreme rain and winds, leaving entire neighbourhoods
under water, downing trees, and causing severe mudslides.
Madera County is keeping its recently approved current
structure for penalizing farmers who blow past their water
allocation, forgoing an option to implement a tiered penalty
structure. The decision came during Tuesday’s Madera
County Board of Supervisors meeting and maintains the status
quo for the Chowchilla, Delta-Mendota and Madera
Subbasins. The backstory: Last September, the Board
adopted a new penalty structure for water overdrafts, setting
the 2023 fine at $100 per acre-foot in excess of the allotted
amount. The penalty would increase by $100 per year and cap out
at $500 in 2027 and beyond.
Arizona needs tens of thousands of new housing units to meet
demand, but first, developers will need to find enough water.
The state’s water woes have been on full display this month as
it lost 21% of its Colorado River supply to cuts, homes outside
Scottsdale, Arizona, had their water cut off by the city, and a
recently released model found planned housing units for more
than 800,000 people west of Phoenix will have to find new water
sources. Arizona is one of the fastest-growing states and short
100,000 housing units, a state Department of Housing report
released last year found, but depending on where they’re
located, some homes will be more easily built than others.
In September 2020, workers in Brawley near the Mexico border
began loading dump trucks with soil from the site of an old
pesticide company. As an excavator carefully placed the
Imperial County waste into the vehicles, a worker sprayed the
pile with a hose, state records show. … Shipping documents
indicate the soil was contaminated with DDT, an insecticide the
federal Environmental Protection Agency banned decades
ago and that research has linked to premature births,
cancer and environmental harms. The Brawley dirt was
so toxic to California, state regulation labeled it a hazardous
waste. That meant it would need to go to a disposal
facility specially designed to handle dangerous material – a
site with more precautions than a regular landfill to make sure
the contaminants couldn’t leach into groundwater or pollute the
air. At least, that would have been the requirement if the
waste stayed in California. But it didn’t.
The California Department of Water Resources is set to begin
phase one of its plan to replace the hoists on the Oroville Dam
spillway sometime between May and October. Project Manager
Zerguy Maazouddi, who works under DWR’s Division of Operations
and Maintenance, said the first phase of prerequisites such as
site surveys and approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. … The idea behind the project is that during the
winter times when the lake level is higher, a new hoist is
created. During the later parts of the year, the hoist will be
installed. This will last for eight cycles.
The Sites Project Authority released findings from a new
analysis that projected Sites Reservoir could have diverted and
captured 120,000 acre-feet of water in just two weeks if the
reservoir had been operational from Jan. 3 through Jan. 15 and
would continue to capture water over the next few weeks as
flows continue to run high. … The project, which has
been in the works for more than 60 years, hopes to turn the
Sites Valley, located 10 miles west of Maxwell where Colusa and
Glenn counties meet, into a state-of-the-art off-stream water
storage facility that captures and stores stormwater flows in
the Sacramento River – after all other water rights and
regulatory requirements are met – for release in dry and
critical years for environmental use and for communities, farms
and businesses statewide to utilize when needed.
Organizers behind a proposed water district in the Alexander
Valley put forward Monday their vision for a new entity that
would seek to safeguard legal standing of agricultural
landowners in the famed grape-growing region. They made their
presentation at the Healdsburg City Council’s regular meeting
where they called for the formation of the Alexander Valley
Water District. It would give valley property owners, many of
them grape growers, a stronger legal foothold to protect their
rights to draw on Russian River flows and connected
groundwater. … The move comes in response to a host of
factors, such as the multi-year drought that has spurred state
regulators in recent years to curtail water rights for
thousands of water rights holders along the upper Russian
River, forcing some to cut back on irrigation with surface
water flows or turn to groundwater.
