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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Huge die-offs of white sturgeon in the San Francisco
Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary over the last two
years were so devastating that the California Fish and Game
Commission recently moved to list the iconic gamefish under the
state Endangered Species Act. But that decision is hardly an
adequate substitute for meaningful action, said Tom Cannon, a
fisheries expert and consulting biologist for the California
Water Impact Network. The reasons adult white sturgeon died by
the thousands in 2022 and 2023 were warm water and algae
blooms, conditions caused by excessive state and federal water
diversions for corporate San Joaquin agriculture. “The one
meaningful thing the Newsom administration could do to avoid
another kill is increase cool water flows down the Delta,” said
Cannon. “But they aren’t doing that, and now we’re seeing the
same conditions in the Bay/Delta that we saw in 2022 and 2023
just prior to the die-offs.”
AUC Riverside environmental engineering team has discovered
specific bacterial species that can destroy certain kinds of
“forever chemicals,” a step further toward low-cost treatments
of contaminated drinking water sources. The microorganisms
belong to the genus Acetobacterium and they are commonly found
in wastewater environments throughout the world. Forever
chemicals, also known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances or
PFAS, are so named because they have stubbornly strong
carbon-fluorine chemical bonds, which make them persistent in
the environment. … Using bacteria to treat groundwater is
cost effective because the microorganisms destroy pollutants
before the water reaches wells. The process involves injecting
the groundwater with the preferred bacteria species along with
nutrients to increase their numbers.
The leaders of California’s embryonic hydrogen hub announced
Wednesday that they have signed a contract with the U.S.
Department of Energy worth billions. The California hub is part
of a $7-billion federal project to build the infrastructure for
a “clean” hydrogen economy to replace fossil fuels and reduce
greenhouse gas emissions. The California hub — known as ARCHES,
or the Alliance for Renewable Clean Hydrogen Energy Systems —
will net $1.2 billion of that federal money, with plans to
bring in another $11.2 billion in private investment.
California was awarded hub status in October.
Large, aging asbestos pipes have been left sitting on the
ground in an open lot next to the badly polluted New River in
Calexico near the Mexico border seven months after they were
discovered by a state inspector, according to California toxics
staffers and documents obtained by The Desert Sun. Asbestos in
various forms is a known carcinogen, but must be “friable” or
released to the air and inhaled over time to cause harm. While
there is no clear evidence of immediate risk, state toxics
staff told The Desert Sun some of the pipes are cracked or
broken, and appear to have been there a long time. Published
research shows old tiles, pipes or other materials containing
forms of the potential carcinogen can degrade into the air or
soil and release dangerous fibers.
As Mother Nature continues to turn up the heat this summer,
those looking to cool off along the California coast might want
to reconsider where they’re swimming. Ten California and Baja
California beaches, including around the Santa Monica Pier and
a stretch of Mother’s Beach in Marina del Rey, received the
poorest water quality grades based on measurements taken last
year during dry periods between April and October. Four
locations in San Diego County, two in Baja and two in San Mateo
County also made the list, which was part of Heal the Bay’s
34th annual report card of the state’s beaches released
Wednesday.
They’re three words that make any water engineer shudder.
“Toilet to tap.” It’s the alliteration credited with
sinking major water-recycling projects. Headline writers around
North America just can’t seem to resist using the phrase when
describing projects that convert wastewater into clean,
drinkable water. Despite the successful adoption of such
projects in places like drought-prone California, water reuse
hasn’t yet entered the conversation in the same way north of
the border. But in places like semi-arid Alberta, still
weighing its next moves as surging populations put new
pressures on a taxed water supply, some expect embracing more
reuse is the next critical step to take.
“Utilities race to be second. And sometimes it’s better to be
third.” So said Fred Pickel, the Los Angeles Department of
Water and Power’s in-house ratepayer advocate, at a DWP board
meeting in December 2019, a few months before the pandemic
brought everyday life to a screeching halt. He was discussing
the city’s first-of-its-kind plan to convert a coal plant to
green hydrogen — a key piece of L.A.’s plans to reach 100%
clean energy by 2035. Pickel was intrigued. But he was also
concerned that the coal-to-hydrogen conversion would be
expensive, driving up electric bills for DWP
customers. Five years later, he’s singing the same song.
… Pickel now recommends that the city delay its 100%
clean energy goal beyond the 2035 target established by
former Mayor Eric Garcetti and supported by current Mayor Karen
Bass, and endorsed by the City Council.
California State Parks today announced the department is
classifying and developing a comprehensive general plan for
Delta Meadows Park Property, which includes the Locke Boarding
House, in Sacramento County. The plan will enrich the visitor
experience, address critical resource management and
infrastructure needs, and incorporate public input into
decisions about the park’s future direction. An initial step to
gathering public input is an online survey that is now
open. The approximately 500-acre park property is one of
California’s natural gems and is located in the Sacramento–San
Joaquin River Delta, approximately 30 miles northwest of
Stockton and 25 miles south of Sacramento.
A plan to unite the Bay Area’s shoreline cities in preparing
for sea-level rise and climate change is underway — and San
Mateo County environmental agencies have suggestions. A
recent state law mandates cities on the shoreline, both ocean
and Bayside, create substantial plans to prepare for inevitable
sea-level rise. On the Bayside, these plans will be
guided and approved — or denied — by the San Francisco Bay
Conservation and Development Commission, the regulatory agency
currently developing a substantial regional strategy designed
to lead upcoming shoreline adaptation.
Chronic water scarcity in California is indeed the new normal,
but it’s not because of climate change. Even if the state is
destined to experience lengthier droughts and reduced snowpack,
most scenarios also forecast an abundance of years when the
state is inundated with a series of so-called atmospheric
rivers. That diluvian scenario was experienced by Californians
this past winter, and even more so in the winter of 2022–23.
Yet water remains scarce. Water is scarce because
Californians have been living off a previous generation’s
investment in the State Water Project, a remarkable system
of reservoirs and aqueducts built in the 1950s and ’60s that
were designed for a state with 20 million people but that is
now inhabited by a population nearly twice the size. —Written by Edward Ring, co-founder of the California
Policy Center and author of The Abundance Choice: Our Fight for
More Water in California
A Kings County judge today issued a temporary restraining order
against the state that pauses its unprecedented move to crack
down on groundwater depletion in California’s agricultural
heartland. The decision by Superior Court Judge Kathy
Ciuffini grants Kings County growers a temporary reprieve from
a state mandate to monitor and report how much water they pump
from heavily over-pumped aquifers. The order will last through
a hearing in August, when the judge will consider issuing a
preliminary injunction. The State Water Resources Control
Board in April put Kings County water managers on
probation under the state’s landmark groundwater law — a
first step towards wresting control of the severely depleted
Tulare Lake groundwater basin in the San Joaquin Valley.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife announced Tuesday that it has
discovered zebra mussels in the Colorado River and the
Government Highline Canal, nearly two years after the invasive
species was first detected in the state. The small,
freshwater mussels are native to lakes in Russia and Ukraine,
but they are known globally for their rapid reproduction rate.
Wildlife officials say the species poses an extreme risk to
local ecosystems because zebra mussels kill off native plankton
that native species rely on for food. Infestations can also
devastate water infrastructure because the mussels attach
themselves to surfaces in large clusters, clogging waterways
and drainage systems. CPW said they discovered the newly
confirmed zebra mussel population through routine plankton
samples taken in early July.
… Once abundant, Chinook have been devastated by habitat
loss, water diversions from the rivers where they spawn and
drought. If they are to recover, the salmon will need improved
spawning grounds and more floodplain nursery habitat. They
also need more cold water. And in 2023 and 2024, both
exceptionally wet years, they got it—until, that is, they
didn’t. Water temperatures in the middle Sacramento River
soared to lethal levels this spring, exceeding basic
environmental objectives and threatening salmon born last
summer and fall. The temperature troubles can be traced
upstream to Lake Shasta, California’s largest reservoir. The
lake is almost full—typically a great boon for fish downstream.
But its water is also unusually warm this year, according to
local irrigation districts, who say this has produced similar,
and unavoidable, temperature profiles in the river downstream.
As the planet continues to warm due to human-driven climate
change, accurate computer climate models will be key in helping
illuminate exactly how the climate will continue to be altered
in the years ahead. In a study published in the Journal of
Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, a team led by researchers
from the UC Irvine Department of Earth System Science and the
University of Michigan Department of Climate and Space Sciences
and Engineering reveal how a climate model commonly used by
geoscientists currently overestimates a key physical property
of Earth’s climate system called albedo, which is the degree to
which ice reflects planet-warming sunlight into space.
The Sacramento region’s big climate change threat is water -
either too much during floods or not enough to satisfy regional
demands. Our biggest problem in preparing for a drought is
pretty simple. It’s local government, way too much of it.
Surviving long droughts means jointly preparing to store more
water underground in wet years because our rivers will provide
less. And that demands a seamless regional water plan to start
preparing. But Sacramento County alone has 14 water districts
north of the American River. … And none have agreed to merge
for nearly a generation, endangering the future water
reliability of their ratepayers while driving up costs created
by way too many fiefdoms. — Written by Tom Philp, editorial writer, columnist for the
Sacramento Bee
Four states in the drought-stricken Colorado River Basin,
including Colorado, want credit for conserving water, but water
users and officials have big questions about how to make it
happen. … Cutting back on water use is a big topic of
conversation in the Colorado River Basin, which supplies water
to 40 million people and is enduring warmer temperatures and a
two-decade megadrought. Officials from each of the seven
states in the basin are weighing who might have to cut their
use and how to manage the basin’s reservoirs in high-stakes
negotiations over the river’s future after the current rules
expire in 2026.
The agencies that sampled water at El Dorado Beach and Nevada
Beach last week have detected no toxins associated with harmful
algal blooms in the lake. These are sites viral social media
posts purported could be where a dog ingested harmful
cyanobacteria and later died. “The agencies involved in
water-sample testing cannot draw conclusions about the cause of
death for the dog from these results;” the California State
Water Resources Control Board and Nevada Department of
Conservation and Natural Resources’ announcement reads, “they
can only speak to evaluating water quality and the presence of
HABs.” Last week, the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control
Board told the tribune that the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife attempted to reach the dog owner to get
information on veterinarian who treated the dog.
A somewhat new groundwater authority held its first meeting
Monday with a mandate to represent Kern County lands not
covered by existing water districts. The so-called
“non-districted lands” within the Kern subbasin (the San
Joaquin Valley portion of Kern) had sort of been previously
represented by the Kern Groundwater Authority KGA. But the KGA
has been disintegrating over the past two years as member water
districts left to form their own groundwater sustainability
agencies. The KGA held its final meeting on May 22 and has
since morphed into the Kern Non-Districted Lands Authority
(KNDLA).
A Klamath Basin irrigation organization is seeking more water
for farmers and expressed concern about the impacts of hot and
shallow water on birds and fish. The Klamath Water Users
Association requested “immediate action to prevent unnecessary
disasters” in a letter Saturday to Commissioner Camille Calimim
Touton of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Paul Simmons,
the association’s executive director, asked the agency to
embrace a spirit of cooperation “to address all interests and
needs in the Klamath Basin, including those of farms and
ranches.”
As farmers statewide prepare for anticipated cutbacks to
groundwater under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA, they are trying to stretch every drop of water to stay
in business. Merced County farmer Benina Montes, owner of
Burroughs Family Farms, planted cover crops between rows of
almond, walnut and olive trees at her farm near Snelling to
improve soil health and attract beneficial insects. She is now
seeing water savings. … Cover crops, any non-income
generating crop planted to cover the soil and enrich soil
diversity, hold great potential for water conservation such as
improved water-holding capacity and infiltration, according to
a report, “Cover Cropping in the SGMA Era,” published in May by
a group of more than 30 authors.
