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.
Water levels at some of the United States’ largest reservoirs
are well below average for this time of year, according to data
from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR). Lake
Mead was 31 percent full as of June 29, with just over
eight million acre-feet of water in storage, according to the
data. This equated to 52 percent of the average storage level
for this date between October 1, 1990 and August 30, 2020.
… The USBR’s June 29 data revealed that Lake
Powell, situated on the Colorado River in Utah and
Arizona, fared only marginally better than Lake Mead, at 32
percent of full capacity. However, this was just 49 percent of
the average storage level for this date. In contrast,
California’s Shasta Lake contained more than
3.8 million acre-feet of water, reaching 84 percent of its
total capacity of 4,552,000 acre-feet — about seven percent
above its historical average for this time of year.
California is at a groundwater management crossroads as legal
loopholes threaten to undo the state’s progress toward
responsible groundwater sustainability. At the core of this
legal conflict are two legal processes. The first is the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the landmark law
passed in 2014 to bring order to overdrafting of basins and
ensure long-term sustainability of the state’s groundwater
resources. The second is groundwater adjudications, a
legal tool to determine water rights of who can pump water and
how much they can use. … Assembly Bill 1413 is
sensible, straightforward legislation that would strengthen the
state’s efforts to manage this precious resource. AB 1413 is
intended to protect the right to challenging a sustainability
plan, but at the same time, preserve the integrity of the
groundwater law’s process and provide clarity to judges in
adjudications. –Written by Scott Hayman, chair of the Indian Wells Valley
Groundwater Authority.
Environmentalists filed suit against the Fish and Wildlife
Service on Tuesday for alleged inaction in the face of threats
to a rare desert plant called the Tecopa bird’s beak. Citing
the presence or possibility of nearby mines, solar energy farms
and geothermal projects, the Center for Biological Diversity
called on the federal agency to make a final determination as
to whether the plant warrants listing as threatened or
endangered. According to the lawsuit, the FWS missed a decision
deadline established under the Endangered Species Act. “The
Fish and Wildlife Service has delayed long enough,” said
Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director at the CBD. “We’re suing
to make sure that these special little plants get the
protections they need before it’s too late.” Donnelly added
that the wildflower found in parts of Nevada and California are
“uniquely vulnerable to extinction” because of their reliance
on groundwater that’s also being tapped for
farming, energy production, (and) residences.
The U.S. Supreme Court delivered setbacks to environmental
interests in a series of recent rulings including by further
restricting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority and
relaxing requirements for environmental impact studies for
proposed projects. While cases involving President Donald
Trump’s policies on immigration and other issues captured
attention during its just-completed nine-month term, the court
also continued its years-long trend of narrowing federal
protections for the environment in several rulings that could
be a boon for businesses. Wendy Park, a lawyer with the
Center for Biological Diversity environmentalist group, said
those rulings “dealt huge blows to the environment and public
health and safety.” “We’ll all suffer from unhealthier air,
less safe water and more climate warming,” Park
added. Park’s organization was on the losing side of
perhaps the term’s biggest environmental decision, one that
involved a proposed Utah railway intended to transport crude
oil.
With the worst of wildfire season ahead, Gov. Gavin Newsom
urged President Donald Trump on Tuesday to direct the federal
government to dramatically increase its investment in forest
management. At the Mount Howell lookout tower in Colfax, Newsom
spoke to reporters about a model executive order sent to the
White House that he said would bring federal firefighting and
forest management efforts more in line with California’s.
… The draft order would make it federal policy for the
U.S. to match the capabilities and investments of “the most
advanced states and local governments with respect to forest
management and firefighting capabilities.” It would direct the
Office of Management and Budget to develop spending plans to do
so, including the reversal of recent staffing and funding
cuts. … The U.S. Forest Service has lost 10% of all
positions, which will likely “impact wildfire response this
year,” Newsom said, adding that noncompetitive federal
firefighter pay has led to further staffing shortages.
Global restoration and conservation of freshwater biodiversity
are represented in practice by works such as the Klamath River
Renewal Project (KRRP), the largest dam removal and river
restoration in the United States, which has reconnected 640
river kilometers. With dam removals, many biological outcomes
remain understudied due to a lack of pre-impact data and
complex ecosystem recovery timeframes. To avoid this, we
created the KRRP molecular library, an environmental specimen
bank, for long-term curation of environmental nucleic acids
collected from the restoration project. We used these initial
samples, environmental DNA metabarcoding, and generalized
linear mixed-effects models to evaluate patterns of pre-dam
removal fish richness and diversity. Demonstrating the
suitability to resolve biological differences, the baseline
shows that tributary and mainstem streams had greater native
fish diversity and 2.3–10.7 times greater native fish species
richness than reservoirs.
The city’s drinking water met federal and state safety
standards last year, but Vacaville is dealing with a new,
tougher regulation on a known carcinogen. However, the
California State Water Resources Control Board, effective Oct.
1, adopted a new regulation setting the maximum contaminant
level for hexavalent chromium, which was detected in city water
at levels that exceeded that new standard,
the 2024 Annual Water Quality Report released Tuesday
states. “Hexavalent chromium is a heavy metal that has been
used in industrial applications and found naturally occurring
throughout the environment. While chromium can exist in a
nontoxic, trivalent form, the hexavalent form has been shown to
be carcinogenic and toxic to the liver,” the state Water
Resource Control Board reported. “We are working to address
this exceedance and comply with the (maximum contaminant
level),” the city stated in the report. … In the meantime,
the city reported the water system is safe.
California lawmakers today approved one of the most substantial
rollbacks of the state’s signature environmental review law in
decades, including a controversial exemption that would allow
high-tech manufacturing plants to be built in industrial zones
with no environmental review. The changes to the California
Environmental Quality Act were embedded in a last-minute budget
bill that sailed through the Senate and the Assembly. The new
law exempts nine types of projects from environmental reviews:
child care centers, health clinics, food banks, farmworker
housing, broadband, wildfire prevention, water
infrastructure, public parks or trails and, notably,
advanced manufacturing. Aiming to streamline and lower the cost
of construction in California, the new law also restricts legal
challenges under CEQA by narrowing which documents courts can
consider.
A federal judge agreed on Monday with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation that conversion of temporary water contracts from
the California Central Valley Project doesn’t require a new
environmental review under the National Environmental Policy
Act or the Endangered Species Act. U.S. District Judge Jennifer
Thurston, a Joe Biden appointee …. said she agreed with and
adopted the bureau’s interpretation that (the 2016 Water
Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act) requires
contract conversion upon request by farmers and other water
users that obtain water from the Central Valley Project and
that it strips the bureau of discretion to modify any
contractual right other than those related to the financial
terms specifically addressed in the statute.
The invasive two-inch wide golden mussel showed up near the
Port of Stockton last fall. Since then, it’s spread south,
extending to other waterways in the Delta and some in the San
Joaquin Valley. Now, eyes are looking north to Lake
Oroville, where the mussels could pose a large threat if
they’re introduced. The reservoir is the second largest in
California. … The mussels also pose a significant
environmental threat. Eric See is with the Department of Water
Resources. He said Lake Oroville feeds water into the Feather
River Fish Hatchery through small diameter piping. It raises
steelhead trout and chinook salmon. Chinook populations are
threatened, and the state is currently trying to bring them
back. If that pipe gets blocked, it cuts off water to the fish.
… The mussels could also create large algae blooms that can
kill fish and filter water, increasing aquatic weed growth.
That makes it harder for fish in the water to navigate and find
food.
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 decision on Sackett v.
Environmental Protection Agency dramatically weakened
protections for millions of acres of the West’s essential
wetlands and streams. Under the ruling, only bodies of
water with a “continuous surface connection” to a “relatively
permanent” traditional, navigable water body can be legally
considered part of the waters of the United States (WOTUS) and
therefore covered by the Clean Water Act. … In the absence of
federal regulations, state dredge-and-fill permitting programs
can protect wetlands, and California, Oregon and Washington all
have broad protections for non-WOTUS wetlands and streams. And
since the Sackett decision, Colorado and New Mexico have passed
laws restoring clean water protections for waters excluded from
WOTUS.
In a bipartisan compromise between state lawmakers and the
executive branch, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs approved a
program estimated to conserve nearly 10 million acre-feet of
water and facilitate thousands of new housing developments
across central Arizona. State Senator T.J. Shope’s Senate
Bill 1611 met Hobbs’ pen Monday morning, setting in motion what
state officials refer to as the “Ag-to-Urban” plan. …
Under the program, farmers in either of the active management
areas would voluntarily relinquish groundwater rights on
individual acres of land irrigated by groundwater in three of
the previous five years. In exchange, a farmer would receive
conservation credits based on the number of acres
relinquished. The farmer would then sell the acres to land
developers, who would “pledge” the credits to a water provider
that services that land.
The U.S. House of Representatives during the last week of June
passed the Wastewater Pollution Prevention and
Environmental Safety (WIPPES) Act, a bipartisan, bicameral, and
ACWA-supported legislation. This legislation would require wipe
manufacturers to clearly label their products as non-flushable
to protect wastewater systems from pollution and structural
damage, which can cost millions of dollars to repair critical
infrastructure nationwide. The legislation passed by a
unanimous voice vote, indicating broad support in the
chamber. The WIPPES Act was introduced in March by U.S.
Representatives Jared Huffman (D-CA-02), Kevin Mullin
(D-CA-15), Lisa McClain (R-MI-10) and Tom Kean (R-NJ-07). Next,
the WIPPES Act will be taken up in the U.S. Senate.
Utah’s drought has intensified in recent weeks, but help could
soon be on the way. A “light” monsoonal system is forecast for
the middle of this week, thanks to a pair of storms near Utah
that should rotate moisture in the state, said KSL
meteorologist Matt Johnson. A high-pressure system near the
Four Corners is helping push water vapor from the Gulf of
Mexico, also referred to as the Gulf of America, toward Utah,
while a low-pressure system off the California coast may do the
same from the Pacific Ocean. … Precipitation totals will
vary across the state, depending on where a storm pops up.
Monsoonal storms can often dump heavy totals in localized
areas, leading to flooding potential, but they also leave some
communities without much precipitation.
In all the talk about the San Joaquin Valley’s groundwater
restrictions and resulting loss of agriculture, it’s important
to consider how transitioning from farming operations to
clean-energy production creates construction job opportunities
for thousands of area workers. The mandate to meet state clean
energy goals by 2045 — and the loss of farmland due to
groundwater restrictions under the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act — have opened the door to a vast solar resource
that can keep land economically productive and local people
employed in good jobs for the long term. But current law makes
these land transitions cumbersome and complicated, hampering
the region’s potential to become a solar energy hub. If
corrected, the switch from unusable farmland to low-water-use,
clean energy projects would generate billions in tax revenue
and labor income while lowering household electric bills and
cleaning up our air.
Two of Mendocino County’s key water agencies—the Inland Power
and Water Commission (IWPC) and the Ukiah Valley Basin
Groundwater Sustainability Agency (UVBGSA)—met this June to
address funding gaps, contractor amendments, and looming
questions about long-term water infrastructure and governance.
As the region braces for continued drought pressures and state
compliance deadlines, both agencies are navigating complex
inter-agency negotiations, unexpected cost overruns, and the
challenge of maintaining quorums amid member
withdrawals. The Inland Power and Water Commission held a
closed session to discuss price and terms of negotiations with
PG&E regarding the Potter Valley Project. … Although the
possibility of extra costs had been raised in December, an
invoice totaling $67,280 was not submitted until the day of the
meeting. With the 2025–26 budget already finalized, a payment
plan will need to be arranged.
A group of Environmental Protection Agency employees on Monday
published a declaration of dissent from the agency’s policies
under the Trump administration, saying they “undermine the EPA
mission of protecting human health and the environment”. More
than 170 EPA employees put their names to the document, with
about 100 more signing anonymously out of fear of retaliation,
according to Jeremy Berg, a former editor-in-chief of Science
magazine who is not an EPA employee but was among non-EPA
scientists or academics to also sign. The latter figure
includes 20 Nobel laureates. The letter represents rare
public criticism from agency employees who could face blowback
for speaking out against a weakening of funding and federal
support for climate, environmental and health science.
Scientists at the National Institutes of Health made a similar
move earlier in June.
The U.S. Department of Food and Agriculture recently announced
it would try to roll back the “roadless rule,” a decades-old
policy that prevents road construction and logging on nearly 4
million acres of national forest in Utah. … Utah leaders
celebrated the decision, with House Speaker Mike Schultz,
R-Hooper, calling it a “big win” for the state. But in
Utah, proponents of the rule say it’s a vital tool for
protecting the state’s forests, which in turn keep
water clean, provide habitat for wildlife and allow
recreation opportunities. “This rule protects almost half
of the forest service land in Utah,” said Kate Groetzinger,
communications director for the Center for Western Priorities.
“This opens about half of Utah’s forest land to logging that
has been previously protected. That can drastically change the
feel of some of our most popular forests.”
A new Fresno County Civil Grand Jury report found that the City
of Fowler has been working to address its drinking water not
meeting state standards. The grand jury report, which was
released on Monday, detailed that while the city’s water does
not currently meet state standards, the city has been working
for the past seven years to rectify the
situation. Microplastic 1,2,3-trichloropropane (TCP) was
found in Fowler’s drinking water after it was detected above
the legal limit in one of the city’s wells. … The grand
jury found that Fowler has planned to install a new filtration
system for several years but could not afford it without some
extra funding. … The grand jury is recommending that
Fowler should improve its training process for all Public
Works, Water Department operators and should improve its
website to make it easier to find all water information in
order to improve transparency, among other
recommendations.
The Western Hills Water District board on Saturday approved a
huge increase in water service rates in an attempt to maintain
a water supply for the 600-home Diablo Grande community in
western Stanislaus County. The Kern County Water Agency, some
200 miles away, had threatened to stop water deliveries June 30
if the financially troubled Western Hills district did not
resume payments for an annual 8,000 acre-feet allocation. Mark
Kovich, president of the Western Hills board, said at
Saturday’s meeting that district representatives would meet
with KCWA officials Monday to discuss the next steps. Last
week, Kern’s board took action to extend the deadline related
to the potential water shutoff to Sept. 30. KCWA has said
it would continue deliveries through Dec. 31 if the Western
Hills district came up with money to make monthly payments, so
that date remains in effect with the water rate increase
approved Saturday.
