A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday by veteran journalist Matt Weiser. Send any comments to Foundation News & Publications Director Doug Beeman.
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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.
Clear Lake is one of the richest lakes in the state when it
comes to nutrients. That is one reason we have algae blooms as
well as a massive amount of aquatic weeds. Some of the species
of aquatic weeds have been in the lake for more than a million
years and others only a few years. These new arrivals are
classed as foreign invasive weeds.
Over email, local water activists concocted a secret plan to
derail a vote that would potentially kill one water project and
bolster the prospects of another. The idea was to stage a
“filibuster” of the Monterey One Water board meeting scheduled
for Tuesday, May 26.
All nine Coachella Valley cities have passed resolutions for
ocean water import to the Salton Sea to reduce salinity levels
and restore the volume of water so the playa will not dry out
and the toxic dust will not become airborne. Supervisors have
refused to consider this solution to the problem
In 2014, the Cleveland National Forest (CNF) initiated an
effort to restore the migratory corridors for fish and other
aquatic species in the San Juan and Santiago Watersheds by
removing the remnants of small (approximately 2 – 15 ft) dams
constructed by Orange County (California) between 1940-70s.
The Klamath Project, a U.S. government-operated waterworks that
steers runoff from the towering Cascades to more than 200,000
acres of potatoes, alfalfa, wheat, onions and other produce on
both sides of the state line, is running low on supplies. The
local water agencies served by the project say they may not
have water to send to farms beyond next month.
Nine Orange County water agencies have retained a legal team to
study whether to file suit to recoup the $1 billion or more it
could cost to purify drinking water in local wells contaminated
with PFAS chemicals and to pay for more expensive imported
water in the interim.
When states began issuing stay-at-home orders and millions of
Americans lost their jobs due to COVID-19, governors in dozens
of states temporarily barred utility companies from shutting
off gas, water, electricity and even internet. … But as
states move to reopen, those moratoriums will end, and
advocates are already warning that many households won’t have
enough money to resume paying their utility bills, much less
repay their deferred bill.
More than 15,000 dams in the US would likely kill people if
they failed, and at least 2,300 of them are in poor or
unsatisfactory condition, according to recent data from the
federal government’s National Inventory of Dams.
The State Water Project now expects to deliver 20 percent of
requested supplies in 2020 thanks to above-average
precipitation in May, the California Department of Water
Resources announced. An initial allocation of 10 percent was
announced in December and increased to 15 percent in January.
Today’s announcement will likely be the final allocation update
of 2020.
For the first time in five years, Seville residents can safely
drink and cook with the water that flows from their taps. The
small agricultural community of about 500 nestled at the scenic
base of the Sierra Nevada has been ground zero for Tulare
County’s water crisis for more than a decade.
For homeless Americans, the coronavirus crisis has worsened a
problem that has blighted them for years; the steady closure of
the country’s public bathrooms. Health officials say frequent
hand washing is the best way to fight the spread of COVID-19,
but homeless campaigners warn that lockdown closures have left
hundreds of thousands of rough sleepers without access to soap
and water.
When a Phoenix company floated a proposal last year to build
two hydroelectric dams on the Little Colorado River, it faced
an outpouring of opposition. … Taking note of the criticisms,
the two businessmen who run the company have pivoted to a
different approach. They propose to move the project off
the Little Colorado River to an adjacent canyon to the east,
where they would build four dams.
In April, during the first full month of the lockdown, water
demand on the Monterey Peninsula dropped by 15 percent compared
to the same month a year ago, according to data provided to the
Weekly by local water regulators.
The availability of water from Gibraltar Reservoir, upstream on
the Santa Ynez River, in the past few years as well as Santa
Barbara’s desalination plant operation and water conservation
have enabled the city to accumulate a significant amount of
stored water in Lake Cachuma… The water-supply planning
positioned Santa Barbara to continue resting its groundwater
basins through fall 2022.
Most people in California receive some of their drinking water
supply from the State Water Project (SWP). The SWP also
supplies water to over 10% of California’s irrigated
agriculture. The SWP and its service area span much of
California, delivering water to 29 wholesale contractors
A local non-profit is suing the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and
a Southern California water district, over a long term water
transfer program. AquAlliance works to protect the Sacramento
River watershed. It is the main plaintiff in a lawsuit that
charges the proposed transfer would send too much water out of
Northern California and would cause severe impacts on area
communities, farms, and the environment.
Arthur L. Littleworth, a Riverside community leader and
preeminent water attorney with Best Best & Krieger LLP, is
profiled in a new documentary released by Riverside TV, the
city’s in-house production studio.
The Hi-Desert Water District opposes the proposed new status,
noting that the Joshua tree is already protected locally with
both city and county ordinances. They also said that, if the
listing was approved, it could deter people from building in
the Morongo Basin because most undeveloped plots in the area
have Joshua trees that developers will have to transplant or
work around.
Construction crews will soon begin work to restore Marsh Creek
along a nearly one-mile, treeless stretch near downtown
Brentwood. Crews are expected to close off the trail in the
area from Sungold Park to Dainty Avenue on Tuesday in the first
phase of a project to improve habitat and water quality for
fish and birds and to create a shady, natural creek corridor
for residents while keeping the community protected from floods
