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Aquafornia
Water news you need to know

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.
Aquafornia news The Colorado Sun (Denver)

Are beavers a nuisance or a necessity? Why Colorado wildlife officials are wading into the debate.

… [Beavers] are praised for bringing lands alive with lush threaded wetlands that offer resiliency in droughts and wildfires. On the other hand, a rancher or streamside homeowner might counter that they are just smelly rats — rats with a single-minded penchant for property damage. They gnaw down landscaping and cause floods. … This month, CPW is having to wade into the middle of the contentious beaver debate and come up with a management strategy for an animal considered a keystone species. That means an entire ecosystem would change drastically without the presence of beavers. 

Other biodiversity news:

Aquafornia news KRCR (Redding, Calif.)

California boosts Sites Reservoir project funding to tackle water shortages

Governor Gavin Newsom is advancing the Sites Reservoir project to expand California’s water storage capabilities, as the state braces for water shortages impacting western states and the looming threat of a hotter and drier future. The California Water Commission has approved a nearly $219 million funding increase for the project to ensure it progresses swiftly. The additional funding is necessary due to increased costs from delays, including inflation and anticipated construction cost hikes.

Other reservoir news:

Aquafornia news AP News

As AI becomes part of everyday life, it brings a hidden climate cost

… AI is largely powered by data centers that field queries, store data and deploy information. As AI becomes ubiquitous, the power demand for data centers increases, leading to grid reliability problems for people living nearby. … The data centers also generate heat, so they rely on fresh water to stay cool. Larger centers can consume up to 5 million gallons (18.9 million liters) a day, according to an article from the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. That’s roughly the same as the daily water demand for a town of up to 50,000 people.

Other data center water use news:

Aquafornia news Metropolitan Water District

News release: Metropolitan taps farming partners to advance sustainability in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta

To improve sustainability in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California this week secured agricultural partners to cultivate rice on two district-owned islands in the Delta – the heart of California’s water supply system and one of the state’s most vital ecosystems. In two separate actions, Metropolitan’s 38-member board on Tuesday (Aug. 19) approved two lease agreements to convert current agricultural lands to rice farming on Webb Tract in California’s Contra Costa County and on Bacon Island in San Joaquin County. 

Other Delta news:

Aquafornia news The Colorado Sun (Denver)

Hundreds lose water source with no warning

… [M]any people in the poorest county in the state have opted for cisterns, reservoirs buried underground and covered with a plastic lid or cement slab. To fill them, residents drive 20 minutes or so to town, often weekly, with tanks in their pickup trucks or on their trailers to buy water at 10 cents a gallon, or they have it delivered for an extra fee. … [I]n Fort Garland [Colo.], the system was abruptly cut off this month — without warning or notice. … Underneath it all is a deep concern about whether this is a preview of the water wars ahead as the West deals with unprecedented drought and its residents compete for a resource that is finite yet essential to life.

Other drought impact news:

Aquafornia news SFGate

New homes banned along some of California’s most dangerous coastline

… This week, the City Council for Rancho Palos Verdes, a small, upscale city along the coast, formally approved an ordinance that permanently bans new residential construction in an area known as the Portuguese Bend Landslide Complex. … Part of the issue, the city said, has (ironically for a drought-ridden state) been water. The area has been soaked with rain for much of the past half decade, which seeped into and destabilized the precarious hillside soil.

Aquafornia news SJV Water (Bakersfield, Calif.)

Fresno-area well owners must register their wells by Nov. 30

A northern Fresno County groundwater agency is ramping up efforts to help landowners register their wells by hosting the first in a string of workshops on Aug. 27. Dates for future workshops are still in flux. Owners of water wells in the greater Kerman, Biola, Easton, Fresno and Clovis areas are invited to the workshop, from 3-6 p.m. at the Kerman Community Center, 15101 W Kearney Blvd. The North Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency  board of directors issued a mandatory well registration policy in April. All well owners must register by Nov. 30, 2025 to avoid a $100 penalty per well. 

Aquafornia news inewsource (San Diego)

Tijuana River stewards host statewide tour of the watershed

Last week I attended a tour of the Tijuana River Valley, organized by 11 organizations for the 30×30 Partnership Summit, a statewide meeting of groups committed to achieving California’s conservation goals. … A vast array of entities oversee and advocate for the river valley. On the U.S. side alone, the land is stewarded by federal, state, county and city agencies. Advocacy groups with a stake in the river’s future — and in resolving the public health crisis caused by billions of gallons of untreated wastewater pouring into the watershed — hail from both sides of the border.

Other Tijuana River news:

Aquafornia news PsyPost

Chronic exposure to microplastics impairs blood-brain barrier and damages neurons

A study on rats suggests that exposure to microplastics may impair the blood–brain barrier, induce oxidative stress in the brain, and damage neurons. The microplastic exposure involved oral administration of low-density polyethylene (LDPE) suspended in water for 3 and 6 weeks. The research was published in Molecular Neurobiology. … Study author Ghasem Forutan and his colleagues note that freshwater contamination is a major route by which microplastics can enter the human body. 

Other microplastics news:

Aquafornia news The New York Times

FEMA employees warn that Trump is gutting disaster response

Employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote to Congress on Monday warning that the Trump administration had reversed much of the progress made in disaster response and recovery since Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast two decades ago. The letter to Congress, titled the “Katrina Declaration,” rebuked President Trump’s plan to drastically scale down FEMA and shift more responsibility for disaster response — and more costs — to the states. 

Related articles:

Aquafornia news & the West (Stanford University)

Blog: Santa Cruz water utility grapples with a paradox — what to do when conservation becomes bad for business

History is an increasingly unreliable teacher for water utility managers. The memory of everything that has gone wrong – floods, droughts, broken pipes, porous levees, unstable dams, or inadequate interties – and the record of how utilities fixed things and paid for the fixes – have traditionally been chapters in the textbook of rules for the future. … But climactic and political changes are rendering the 20th century textbook obsolete in the 21st century. The need to deliver clean water is the same. The weather, the financing, and the growing threat of unaffordability are not. The efforts the Santa Cruz Water Department is making to update the text parallels work being undertaken by many other utilities.

Other water management news:

Aquafornia news On the Water Front (Environmental Defense Fund)

Blog: The transformative power of three days on a river

The history of California water is saturated with stories about years-long battles that inevitably get called “water wars.” But UC Merced is trying to flip that narrative and chart a new course for water in California based on finding common ground, or in this case, finding common water.  “Finding Common Water” is the name of a river trip that UC Merced and EDF have organized to bring together individuals who often hold diverse perspectives. The goal is to find areas of alignment and explore new collaborations. 

Aquafornia news KUNC (Greeley, Colo.)

Friday Top of the Scroll: The Colorado River is this tribe’s ‘lifeblood,’ now they want to give it the same legal rights as a person

… [T]he Colorado River Indian Tribes, often referred to as CRIT … are planning to establish legal personhood status for the Colorado River, giving it some of the same rights and protections a human could hold in court. No government, tribal or otherwise, has given these kinds of rights to the Colorado River before. … A Supreme Court decree, Arizona v. California, recognized CRIT as having the most senior water rights on the lower Colorado River, and among the most senior in the entire basin. That means CRIT has some of the most legally untouchable water rights along the lower half of the Colorado River.

Other tribal water news:

Aquafornia news Action News Now (Chico, Calif.)

Sites Reservoir to receive $218.9 million more in Prop 1 funding

The Sites Project Authority will receive an additional $218.9 million in inflationary increases, thanks to a unanimous vote by the California Water Commission. The new total maximum eligibility for the project is $1.094 billion. This award from the Calif. Water Commission is part of an effort to redistribute funding that had been earmarked for the expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir, a project that was halted in November 2024, which freed up Proposition 4 funds. 

Other Sites Reservoir news:

Aquafornia news Governing

How AI helped a California city insure against flood risk

… Floods are the most common and costly natural disaster, but difficult to predict with accuracy. Artificial intelligence has played a significant role in giving insurers the data they needed to design a parametric flood policy that could make sense on both sides. Fremont, which has not had a history of high flood risk, was one of the first jurisdictions to obtain this kind of coverage. As changing weather patterns make it harder for communities to assume they are safe from damaging floods, others could follow.

Other flood preparation news:

Aquafornia news KJZZ (Phoenix, Ariz.)

Arizona mayors unite to fight in Colorado River negotiations

Arizona cities are joining together under one banner to advocate for Arizona in ongoing Colorado River talks. Existing agreements determining Arizona’s allotted share of Colorado River water are set to expire next year. … CAP [Central Arizona Project] is the system that delivers Colorado River water throughout the state and is in partnership with the municipalities under the new coalition, branded Coalition for Protecting Arizona’s Lifeline. The goal of the new Arizona coalition is to unite Colorado River water users and showcase the state’s ongoing water conservation efforts.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

A graceful bird connects distant lakes in California and Argentina

Thousands of birds fill the air over Mono Lake, banking and swooping in a swirling murmuration that resembles an aerial school of fish. As they sweep past, their beating wings whoosh in unison. This small species, the Wilson’s phalarope, arrives from the north in large numbers each summer to feed at the saline lake, preparing for a long journey to South America. After spending July gorging on the larvae of alkali flies, the birds are gradually departing this month to begin their migration to another saline lake about 6,000 miles away — Laguna Mar Chiquita in Argentina. Partly because of their remarkable transcontinental voyage between salt lakes, the grayish birds have inspired a close partnership between communities in California and Argentina.

Aquafornia news KCRA (Sacramento, Calif.)

UC Davis study reveals diversity gaps in California water management

A UC Davis study is highlighting what it calls inequities in California’s water management, showing underrepresentation of women and people of color in positions on water boards. Sponsored by the nonprofit group Water Education for Latino Leaders (WELL), the study was unveiled at the State Capitol, revealing that women occupy only about 27% of water board positions, Latinos hold 15% of board seats, and other people of color account for just 5% of board positions. The group says this lack of diversity means water agencies do not adequately represent most Californians. 

Related article:

Aquafornia news The Oaklandside (Calif.)

A toxic foundry finally left East Oakland. Then the city allowed in a new polluter

Three years ago, the AB&I metal foundry ceased all operations in East Oakland. … The years of metal smelting had left contaminants such as arsenic and lead in the hardscape, soil, and groundwater, and the polluted lot was supposed to be undergoing a yearslong remediation process. … [Community members] soon came to realize the site was being used as a tow yard by a company called Auto Plus Towing. … Now an array of organizations — the city, the companies, the watchdog group, the county, the state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board — are trying to deal with the fallout, and make sure the polluted site finally gets cleaned up. 

Other water pollution news:

Aquafornia news CalMatters

Opinion: Delta tunnel echoes California’s water control mistakes

… As Californians struggle to recover from compounding climate disasters, Gov. Gavin Newsom is moving to fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project, presenting lawmakers with a familiar choice. But before committing billions to yet another major water project, we must confront some hard lessons from our past. … As mayor of Los Angeles in the early 1900s, Frederick Eaton partnered with William Mulholland to develop the L.A. Aqueduct, a massive conveyance system that redirects water from Mono Lake and Owens Valley. … It was one of the most significant and destructive water transfers in U.S. history.
–Written by Devon Provo, an urban planner and senior policy manager at Accelerate Resilience L.A.

Other Delta tunnel news: