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.
It was a gorgeous June Saturday on Lake Tahoe, but the day
turned stormy in minutes when a torrent of winds whipped up
choppy waters that terrified boaters. Eight people died. The
Times looked at videos, radar and satellite imagery, and
interviewed over 30 people, including meteorologists, local
officials and boaters who were on the lake that day. The
investigation revealed a rare set of circumstances that led to
the unexpectedly dangerous day.
TSMC Arizona has broken ground and begun construction this
month on a planned 15-acre Industrial Reclamation Water Plant
(IRWP). The IRWP is designed to achieve “Near Zero Liquid
Discharge” which means the company will have the ability to
reuse nearly every drop of water. At start-up, the IRWP will
reach 85% recycling rate with a plan to reach 90% or better.
… This plant will convert industrial wastewater back to
the “ultrapure” standard required in the chipmaking process.
As the United States passes a tipping point in water security,
new research reveals that millions of Americans now face a
growing crisis in accessing clean, affordable water. The
findings, published in PLOS Water and PLOS One, were produced
by a multi-university team co-led by Dr. Wendy Jepson,
professor of geography and director of Environmental Programs
at Texas A&M University. ”Our research shows water
insecurity in the U.S. is not just a problem of pipes and
infrastructure—it’s a human issue that affects health, daily
life and dignity,” Jepson said.
… [In 2016], torrential storms drenched the Santa Cruz
Mountains in California, flooding the area around San Jose’s
Coyote Creek. Local officials there didn’t send alerts over the
federal system, which can, among other things, sound a blaring
alarm with evacuation orders on cellphones in geotargeted
areas. … ProPublica identified at least 15 federally
declared major disasters since 2016 in which officials in the
most-harmed communities failed to send alerts over IPAWS — or
sent them only after people were already in the throes of
deadly flooding, wildfires or mudslides.
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it is opening
an investigation into the California Environmental Protection
Agency, including the powerful California Air Resources Board,
over potentially discriminatory employment practices. In a
notice addressed to CalEPA Secretary Yana Garcia, the
Department of Justice said its investigation will determine
whether the state agency is “engaged in a pattern or practice
of discrimination based on race, color, sex, and national
origin” in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Across a state with snow-capped peaks and crystal-clear
mountain creeks, a lot of Colorado cities take pride in their
drinking water. But only one can be crowned as the state’s
best-tasting. According to a panel of judges at the Rocky
Mountain Water Conference in Keystone, the City of Broomfield
has Colorado’s tastiest water. Second place went to the Copper
Mountain Consolidated Metropolitan District, and Pueblo took
home third.
Earlier this year, several environmental groups sent a petition
to the federal government with a seemingly simple message:
Ensure that water from the imperiled Colorado River is not
wasted and only being delivered for “reasonable” and
“beneficial” uses. The organizations urged the Bureau of
Reclamation to use its authority to curb water waste in the
Lower Basin states: California, Arizona and Nevada. … The
petitioning groups argue reducing water waste could help ensure
the river has a sustainable future. But others worry cuts could
bring hardship to farmers and consumers.
Blue Forest, in partnership with the Colfax–Todds Valley
Consolidated Tribe, the Koy’o Land Conservancy and the Shingle
Springs Band of Miwok Indians, announces the launch of the
Colfax I forest resilience bond: the first FRB led by a tribal
nation. … The Colfax project takes place within the ancestral
homelands of the Miwok, Maidu and Nisenan peoples — territory
that includes the headwaters of the Sacramento River,
most of the American River watershed and parts of the Bear and
Cosumnes rivers. Restoration treatments span tribal
trust lands, private holdings and Bureau of Land Management
lands across Placer and El Dorado counties.
… After ruling out the usual culprits for benzene
contamination, such as a gasoline spill or leaking underground
storage tanks, utility staff were left with a startling
realization: The wildfire [2017 Tubbs Fire] had contaminated
the water system. … Staff at Santa Rosa Water started
reaching out to experts with experience responding to chemical
spills, including a Purdue University engineering professor
named Andrew Whelton. … Since then, at least eight wildfires
have contaminated public drinking water systems across the
United States, and Whelton has become the de facto national
authority on response and recovery.
For the first time in nearly a decade, federal officials on
Tuesday auctioned off leases for new geothermal energy projects
in California — and all 13 parcels offered received bids.
Dozens of buyers participated in the Bureau of Land
Management‘s online sale of 10-year leases on 23,000 acres in
Imperial, Lassen and Modoc counties. … [N]ew technology known
as Enhanced Geothermal Systems is broadening the places where
geothermal energy can be created. … Instead of searching for
existing sources of hot subsurface water, they can create their
own reservoirs by fracturing dry rocks underground and
injecting them with water from above.
The seven states that depend on the Colorado River are racing
against the clock to meet the 2026 deadline to determine how
they will divvy up the dwindling water supply, with one caveat
— they need to submit their proposals by Nov. 11. The
current operating guidelines for the Colorado River are set to
expire next year after a century. … Amy Haas, Executive
Director of the Colorado River Authority of Utah, said she is
optimistic they’ll meet that November deadline.
Please note: An earlier version of this
story appeared in yesterday’s Aquafornia and was revised by the
publication to clarify quotes from sources, including those
from Elizabeth Koebele, that the state of Utah is willing
to do more to conserve Colorado River water, but has not said
it was willing to take a reduction in how much it is
allocated.
The scientist traipses to a pond wearing rubber boots but he
doesn’t enter the water. Instead, Brad Hollingsworth squats
next to its swampy edge and retrieves a recording device the
size of a deck of cards. He then opens it up and removes a tiny
memory card containing 18 hours of sound. … [N]o croaking
from the invasive bullfrog, which has decimated the native
red-legged frog population over the past century. It was
another good day in his efforts to increase the population of
the red-legged frog and restore an ecosystem spanning the
U.S.-Mexico border.
… [El Monte Nature Preserve, LLC.] is suing San Diego
for releasing six billion gallons of water from the El Capitan
Dam and Reservoir into the surrounding areas “without notice”
back in 2023. El Monte Nature Preserve’s nearby property was
one of those areas, and the release of water caused its water
table to rise by roughly 40 feet, resulting in “damage to the
value of the property,” according to the lawsuit. … [M]ost of
El Monte Nature Preserve’s property is zoned for sand mining.
… However, now that the property’s water table has
risen, it can no longer be mined for sand because the city
doesn’t allow sand mining below the water table.
In the Sacramento and San Joaquin regions, more than a thousand
miles of levees protect farms and communities, but these aging
structures are vulnerable to floods and earthquakes. When there
is a lot of water coming down the rivers, a system of weirs can
take pressure off the levees by moving water into bypasses. The
Army Corps of Engineers, along with state and local partners,
is now working to nearly double the size of the Sacramento weir
in West Sacramento to improve flood management in the region.
OceanWell is hoping to make salty ocean water drinkable with an
innovative subsea reverse osmosis project, dubbed the Water
Farm 1, which is expected to deliver up to 60 million gallons
per day of fresh water by 2030 to thousands of residents in
Southern California. Southern California is the perfect place
to start due to its over-pumped groundwater basins, recurring
and worsening droughts, and reliance on imports from sources
like the shrinking Colorado River.
The Department of Homeland Security announced on Tuesday that
Secretary Kristi Noem has waived the protections of the
Endangered Species Act and other federal statutes to “ensure
the expeditious construction” of the border wall through the
Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge in
Texas. … [T]he federal government will no longer have to
follow the National Environmental Protection Act, the Clean
Water Act, the Migratory Bird Conservation Act and other
seminal federal laws. … The area targeted for construction
falls within the Rio Grande floodplain. A 1970
treaty between the U.S. and Mexico commits both countries to
ensuring that construction along the Rio Grande does not
obstruct the river or the flow of flood waters.
… Odds lean toward warmer and drier than normal conditions
lingering across the Beehive State over the meteorological fall
months of September, October and November, according to the
National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center, which
released its final seasonal outlook late last week. Utah has a
50% to 70% probability of having above-normal temperatures and
a 33% to 50% probability of below-normal precipitation,
according to the outlook. Eastern parts of the state have the
strongest odds for warmer and drier conditions along with large
chunks of Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
Things are starting to look pretty good as the salmon season
ramps up with decent numbers now being reported on the Feather
River from Yuba City to the Outlet Hole. There are still some
slow days, but the guides are reporting an increasing number of
limits, private anglers are posting some pretty fish and bank
anglers are posting some equally impressive catches. There are
still two months of fishing in the upper zone and by
mid-September, there should be plenty of fish in the system.
… NPS also lagged this year in staffing up for the busy
summer season — a monthslong process that begins during the
winter — due to the Trump administration’s hiring freeze. …
Yosemite ultimately hired 25 fewer seasonal employees this year
compared with last because of the hiring delay, according to
the person familiar with the park’s staffing data. … Jobs
running the park’s water treatment and electrical
systems are particularly challenging to keep filled in
the remote region, they said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency on Tuesday placed
several employees on administrative leave effective
immediately, just one day after they signed an open letter
warning Congress that the Trump administration’s sweeping
overhaul of the agency could lead to catastrophic failures in
disaster response. Titled “Katrina Declaration,” the letter
accuses President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary
Kristi Noem, whose department oversees FEMA, of undermining the
agency’s capabilities, ignoring its congressionally mandated
authority and appointing unqualified leadership.
