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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The Nevada Irrigation District (NID) in California has decided
to move forward with a plan to increase water storage at its
Rollins Reservoir and abandon a long-standing plan to build the
new Centennial Reservoir Project. Citing the fundamental
responsibility to provide a reliable future water supply to the
community, NID is moving forward with the storage alternatives
evaluated in the Plan for Water process. Since November 2021,
the Plan for Water process has involved community participation
and input at monthly public workshops. The Board of Directors
approved a resolution in support of increasing storage at
Rollins Reservoir and withdraw NID’s state-filed application to
build the proposed Centennial Reservoir Project. The district
will discontinue all feasibility, environmental and other
analyses in support of a Centennial project.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has
awarded $41 million in grants to support 20 restoration and
protection projects across the state. Among the recipients is
the San Luis Obispo Beaver Brigade, which received funding for
their ongoing work on the Salinas River. The grant will
support the Beaver Brigade’s efforts to protect and map
beaver-managed wetlands in the upper Salinas River, a key area
for biodiversity and watershed health. The funding aligns with
CDFW’s Beaver Restoration Program, which aims to restore
ecosystems by leveraging beaver activity to enhance natural
habitats.
In May 2024, the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and San Juan
Southern Paiute Tribe approved the proposed Northeastern
Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement (NAIWRSA). If
implemented, this agreement would settle the three Tribal
nations’ water rights claims to the Colorado River, the Little
Colorado River and groundwater sources in Northeastern Arizona.
An Indian water rights settlement is a voluntary multi-party
agreement through which Tribal and non-tribal entities quantify
Tribal and sometimes non-tribal water rights, waive and release
water rights and environmental claims and fund and collaborate
on various water infrastructure projects. An Indian water
rights settlement may contain a variety of other terms, for
example, regulating use of shared groundwater or authorizing
leases of a Tribe’s water resources.
One of Valley Water’s missions is to provide Santa Clara County
with a reliable water supply. Valley Water identifies and plans
for new water supply and infrastructure investments through its
Water Supply Master Plan. Our agency updates the plan every
five years by assessing how much water we’ll need in the future
and what projects are needed to meet that demand. We are
updating the plan now. As part of the process, we are
evaluating 18 water supply and infrastructure projects,
including taking a closer look at a proposed desalination plant
located within Santa Clara County.
Two local agencies have formally objected to an effort to
confirm title to Tehachapi Basin water rights in Santa Barbara
Superior Court. The Bozenich Family Trust, with Nathaniel D.
Carey as trustee, has petitioned Santa Barbara Superior Court
to confirm title to 55 acre-feet of water rights that
Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District records show
transferred to Golden Hills Community Services District around
1998. The matter is set for hearing in Santa Barbara on Oct. 3.
The petition is part of a larger case to settle probate matters
related to the Bozenich Family Trust. Gary Bozenich died in
February 2022. His mother, Dorothy Bozenich, died in 2002. A
review of water district records and a description of a series
of real estate transactions between various parties beginning
in 1979, shows a conflicting history of 110 acre-feet of
Tehachapi Basin water rights that once belonged to former
Tehachapi resident Sue Sullivan. Sullivan died in 2007.
The State Water Resources Control Board announced Monday it is
appealing a Kings County judge’s preliminary injunction that
has forced the state to hold off on measures intended to corral
excessive groundwater pumping in the region. The Water Board
filed a notice to appeal Kings County Superior Court Judge
Kathy Cuiffini’s Sept. 13 ruling. The appeal will be considered
at the Fifth District Court of Appeal in Fresno. According to a
Water Board statement, the appeal “… seeks to rectify a broad
injunction that prevents it from taking action stemming from
the probationary designation of the critically overdrafted
Tulare Lake Subbasin – delaying state oversight and
exacerbating the harmful impacts experienced by local
communities, California Native American tribes, farmers and the
environment due to excessive groundwater pumping.”
A vast majority of Arizona voters support securing long-term
water supplies and enacting stronger groundwater protections,
but have little faith in Arizona’s current water policies’
ability to sew long term sustainability, according to the
latest survey from the Center for the Future of Arizona.
Voters’ recognition of water as a key issue facing the state is
not new, but has crept closer to the forefront of voters’
consciousness given prolonged drought conditions, lack of
oversight of groundwater supply and general anxiety over the
state’s water future.
Gov. Gavin Newsom [Sept.30] signed a law that will give
oil and gas companies several extra years before they begin
detecting and fixing wells near homes and schools that leak
into the air and water. Companies won’t have to monitor their
oil and gas wells within 3,200 feet of California’s residential
areas for leaks until July 2030 — three and a half years later
than the deadline that Newsom and the Legislature set in law
two years ago. … More than 2.5 million Californians —
including many in Long Beach, Los Angeles and Kern County —
live within 3,200 feet of an oil or gas well,
predominantly in low-income communities of color. Oil wells can
leak dangerous contaminants into the air and
groundwater, and research has linked an array
of health effects, including a higher incidence of premature
and low birthweight babies, to people’s proximity to
wells.
October 1 marks the beginning of the new Water Year in
California. … It is a good time to reflect on the last year
and make largely futile predictions of precipitation for the
coming 12 months. The 2024 water year was blissfully
normal. Not too wet. No major floods. Not a
drought. The year was unusually normal, for the last
decade. … For the Central Valley, Water Year 2024’s precipitation
was near average, making it highly unusual for recent
decades. Most major reservoirs have
higher than average water storage at the end of the
irrigation season. This storage will go a long way to dampening
a drought for cities and agriculture if the coming water year
is moderately dry. … Groundwater is by far the largest supply
of stored water in California, particularly for droughts.
Despite 10 years since the passage of the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and a couple of wettish
years, some areas of the San Joaquin and Tulare basins continue
to deepen the overdraft and land subsidence that they will need
to address by 2040.
An unusually warm autumn heat wave is continuing to push
temperatures up across California, heightening fire risks
across the state and prompting power shutoffs in the north and
additional wildfire evacuations in the south. Heat advisories,
many warning of temperatures in the triple digits this week,
have been issued throughout the state, from San Diego through
Redding, with most areas expecting highs at least 10 to 20
degrees above average for this time of year, according to the
National Weather Service. While fire season in California
typically stretches through October or November, this kind of
heat is abnormal for the season, helping dry out landscapes and
drop humidity levels, which officials expect to more easily and
quickly foster wildfire growth. … “California looks much
warmer than average for the foreseeable future, with little or
no prospect of rain anywhere,” Daniel Swain, a UCLA
climatologist, said in a recent online briefing.
When researcher Brian Richter set out to take a close look at
how big cities in the Western U.S. were adapting to water
scarcity, he already knew the story’s basic
contours. Previous studies showed the trend clearly for
some large utilities. As a megadrought has baked the Southwest
since 2000, the region’s biggest cities have reined in their
use to keep pace with the declining supply. But it had
been years since someone took a more region-wide look at who
was conserving and how much. … After gathering data for 28
large and medium-size water utilities dependent on the Colorado
River, Richter and his team were able to see the more modern
trend lines in sharp detail. The results surprised him. It
wasn’t just that cities like Denver, Los Angeles, Tucson and
Las Vegas were using less. They were doing it while growing
rapidly. His 2023 study found that collectively the
region’s cities had grown by 25% from 2000 to 2020, while their
water use dropped by 18%. Per person use rates declined even
more sharply, falling by 30%.
Elected officials across San Diego said Monday they hope that
$5.7 million for the renovation of a key piece of
infrastructure at a wastewater treatment plant that straddles
the U.S.-Mexico border in San Diego will be the first step in
solving a decades long sewage-pollution problem that fouls the
air and makes people sick. … The South Bay
International Wastewater Treatment Plant — under a joint
U.S.-Mexican body called the International Boundary and Water
Commission — treats sewage from Tijuana, but hasn’t been doing
that since 2021 following the failure of a piece of the plant’s
infrastructure. When Junction Box-1 is operable, it’s supposed
to control the amount of wastewater coming into the plant from
Tijuana before it’s treated and sent to the Pacific
Ocean. Since 2021 though, the box — which sits mere feet
away from the border wall — has been inoperable, meaning mounds
of sewage passed through the plant without being treated.
While the cleanup effort gets underway in the southeast region
of the United States after Hurricane Helene, West Coast
disaster preparedness experts say something similar could
happen here. It’s highly unlikely that California could see a
Category 4 storm like Helene park itself well inland and dump
water at record breaking rates. But we’re still vulnerable to
flooding, especially during a Pineapple Express. Letitia
Grenier directs the Water Policy Center at the Public Policy
Institute of California and says climate change takes it up a
notch. “Now with the heating in the atmosphere, we are getting
these really intense stormburst in certain places, in
particular storms,” Grenier stated. “And that may be more like
a hurricane in terms of those moments.”
The long and ultimately successful journey to clean drinking
water for a rural school district west of Bakersfield may point
to a path forward for other remote areas dealing with
groundwater contaminated by nitrates and the carcinogen
1,2,3-TCP. Instead of the bottled water they have relied on for
almost a decade, students of the Rio Bravo-Greeley Union School
District were able to use the district’s drinking fountains
last week — many for the first time — thanks to state
grants and proceeds from a lawsuit the district brought against
companies found liable for the 1,2,3-TCP pollution. Challenges
RBG faced along the way are becoming frustratingly common in
the Central Valley, from the contamination itself to the
district’s inability to consolidate with a larger water
district nearby and the considerable expense of maintaining the
new treatment system. The state’s hope now is that communities
in similar situations pool their resources to achieve similar
results.
The former head of a water district in Fresno and Merced
counties who admitted to stealing about $1.5 million to $3.5
million in public water will not see any prison time and has
been ordered to pay about $10,000 in fines. Dennis Falaschi,
78, of Aptos pleaded guilty in May to two counts for conspiring
to steal federally owned water during his time leading the
Panoche Water District and filing a false tax return. Falaschi
was sentenced to five years probation with the first six months
under home detention in a Monday hearing before U.S. District
Court Judge Jennifer L. Thurston. Thurston said during the
hearing she took into account Falaschi’s advanced age and
health, which included a stroke and a diabetic kidney
condition, according to his attorney.
New Stanford-led research reveals how water systems, from
desalination plants to wastewater treatment facilities, could
help make renewable energy more affordable and dependable.
The study, published Sept. 27 in Nature Water, presents a
framework to measure how water systems can adjust their energy
use to help balance power grid supply and demand. … As
grids rely more on renewable energy sources like wind and
solar, balancing energy supply and demand becomes more
challenging. Typically, energy storage technologies like
batteries help with this, but batteries are expensive. An
alternative is to promote demand-side flexibility from
large-load consumers like water conveyance and treatment
providers. Water systems – which use up to 5% of the nation’s
electricity – could offer similar benefits to batteries by
adjusting their operations to align with real-time energy
needs, according to [Akshay] Rao and his co-authors.
… [Brook] Thompson, a PhD student at University of California
Santa Cruz, is a member of the Yurok Tribe, whose reservation
borders the tail end of the mighty 250-mile Klamath River in
Northern California. … And for almost as long as
Thompson has been alive, the river has been sick. Three
hydroelectric dams that were installed more than a century ago
have contributed to low water flows, high levels of
bacteria, and mass salmon die-offs. … Thompson has
a BS in civil engineering from Stanford University with a focus
on water resources and hydrology. … And against the
odds, after years of struggle, in 2022, the go ahead was
given to remove the dams. … Thompson had hoped to be
involved in the removal of the dams, considering her
background, but never received a response from the construction
firm contracted to take them down. … Now she’s working as a
restoration engineer for the tribe, serving as an integral
member in the mammoth efforts to restore the landscape now the
river is flowing freely again.
More than 80 acres of wetlands and salt marsh have been
restored at the San Dieguito Lagoon. Much of the area, which
sits between Del Mar and Solana Beach near Interstate 5, had
been used for agriculture. Restoring the wetlands involved
removing enough soil to fill 333 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
Invasive plants were also removed and replaced with native
ones. The project restored habitat for several endangered bird
species. “What was here before was rows and rows of always — it
seemed to be — dried out tomato plants,” said Solana Beach
Mayor Lesa Heebner. “To see it go from that to this, is a
stunning transformation.” The tomato plants have been replaced
by a marsh, where cranes wade in the water and other birds dive
for fish. Officials said birdwatchers have already spotted
coastal California gnatcatchers and light-footed Ridgway’s
rails, two species with dwindling populations.
Public health officials have issued a drinking water warning to
Jurupa Valley residents after a positive case of E. Coli was
discovered at a local water source. The warning remained
in effect through the weekend but was lifted on Monday
afternoon after tests found that there were no traces in the
water. The positive test sample of the fecal indicator was
found on Wednesday, according to the Jurupa Community Services
District. Authorities say that the sample was found before
disinfection took place and it was subsequently removed from
the water system. They also said that the sample was not
found in the distribution system nor was it discovered in the
treatment system, but rather in a contained water source.
Last week, Arizona Senator Mark Kelly appeared before the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs to introduce Navajo Nation
President Buu Nygren, Hopi Chairman Timothy Nuvangyaoma,
Yavapai-Apache Nation Chairwoman Tanya Lewis, and San Juan
Southern Paiute Tribe Vice President Johnny Lehi. These leaders
came to testify in support of two critical tribal water
settlement bills that Kelly previously introduced to secure
long-term water rights and resources for Arizona’s tribal
communities. In July, Kelly introduced the Yavapai-Apache
Nation Water Rights Settlement Act—bipartisan legislation to
secure a sustainable water supply for the Nation by delivering
water from the C.C. Cragin Reservoir, ensuring access to clean
drinking water while protecting the Verde Valley’s vital water
resources. He also introduced the Northeastern Arizona Indian
Water Rights Settlement Act (NAIWRSA) of 2024, which addresses
water claims in the Colorado River Basin, providing significant
water resources to the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and San Juan
Southern Paiute Tribe.
