A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday by veteran journalist Matt Weiser.
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Please Note: 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.
Over the last two decades most urban creeks have been reverted
from straight, lifeless channels back to more naturalized
streams that still provide flood protection but are now
abundant with trees, grasses and wildlife. … Despite these
tremendous advances, the 150 creeks in the Russian River
watershed and the critters that live in them are vulnerable.
Water managers across the state face new and more extreme
challenges as the climate warms—from balancing the sometimes
conflicting needs of urban, agricultural, and environmental
water users to reducing risks from fires, floods, and droughts.
We talked to Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County
Water Agency, about how his agency is approaching these
challenges comprehensively, at the scale of the entire
watershed.
The mass of unusually warm water, known officially as the
Northeast Pacific Marine Heatwave of 2019, is the second
largest in 40 years. Experts say it is behaving in the same way
and is on a trajectory to be as strong as the infamous blob
that disrupted the entire West Coast ocean ecosystem from 2014
to 2016.
Forecasts of strong winds in Southern California this week have
heightened concerns that the state’s fire season, tame in its
early stages compared to the devastation of last year,
could swing into destructive, even deadly mode.
California on Monday sought to block the Trump administration
from allowing new oil and gas wells in national parks and
wilderness areas in the state. Any new oil or gas projects
approved in federally protected areas would be prohibited from
having their pipelines or other essential infrastructure cross
state lands, under legislation approved by California
lawmakers.
Get an up-close look at some of California’s key water
reservoirs and learn about farming operations, salmon habitat
restoration, flood management and wetlands on our Northern
California Water Tour Oct. 2-4.
A representative from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
on Monday evening updated San Diego residents on the EPA’s
efforts to reduce transboundary pollution in the water between
Mexico and the United States.
After performing testing on nearly 60 state waterways with a
history of harmful algal blooms, the State Water Board last
week put out a “danger” advisory for Iron Gate Reservoir and
Copco Reservoir.
Sanger’s water tower at Academy and Fifth has stood tall for
105 years. Recently it started showing its age. Public works
director John Mulligan says the base plate where the water
climbs up the pipe into the tank is leaking.
Today, the California Department of Water Resources began
assessment work on Pyramid Dam’s spillways in Los Angeles
County as part of a statewide effort to reduce seismic and
hydrologic risk to State Water Project facilities spanning 705
miles throughout California.
Of all the chicken-or-the-egg dilemmas that will determine
Paradise’s recovery from the Camp Fire, water may be the most
critical. To rebuild, the town needs water from the Paradise
Irrigation District. To survive, PID needs the town to rebuild.
One can’t happen without the other, and it’s been tough to
figure out how it’s going to work.
We cannot advance the fight for environmental quality by
declaring that all science stopped on a specific date. If it’s
dumb for the President to close his eyes to science, it’s
dumber for us to follow him down that rabbit hole.
When the next drought rolls around, and it will, we could be
sitting pretty with healthy trees and landscapes using less
water from the Sierra than we do now. How could we accomplish
this? The answer is graywater, defined in California as the
discharge from laundry wash water, showers, and bathroom sinks.
The state’s drought response was seen by some as an
overwhelming success and by others as an unprecedented, and
possibly illegal, invasion of local water suppliers’
management… Through analyzing the practical outcomes of the
state’s drought response, the overall experience can be
distilled into what worked and what didn’t.
Presently, three (Los Angeles, Phoenix, and San Diego) of the
top ten most populous cities in the US–home to about 7 million
people–are within ‘extremely high’ water stress regions. …
Twenty years from now, another four cities (New York, Chicago,
San Antonio, and San Jose) may experience such conditions.
Removing one obsolete dam is an accomplishment. Removing more
than 30 in one year is unheard of. Yet, that’s exactly what
Cleveland National Forest did in 2018. They removed 33 dams,
which accounted for more than 40% of all dam removals in the
United States in 2018.
Senate Bill 1 has strong support from some of California’s most
influential environmental and labor organizations, including
some that helped get Gov. Gavin Newsom elected. But several of
California’s water suppliers and agricultural interests …
oppose the measure. This includes the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California, which has made SB 1 a top
lobbying priority.
Wildfires in California leave behind acres of scorched land
that make snowpack formation easier and more water runoff
downstream from the Sierra Nevada to basins in the Central
Valley, increasing the amount of water stored underground.
That’s the finding from researchers at Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory, who discovered that blazes in some parts
of the state could result in more water availability.
Westlands Water District has filed an appeal with the
California Supreme Court in an attempt to overturn a lower
court ruling and get on with assessing the effects of raising
the height of Shasta Dam.
Here’s a golden deal to celebrate the Golden State’s Admission
Day into the Union: Get 50 percent off the paperback Water &
the Shaping of California, a treasure trove of gorgeous color
photos, water literature and famous sayings about water.
