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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.
Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, 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.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will allocate $3
million to help homeowners near the Eaton burn area test for
lead contamination, after preliminary tests found elevated
levels of the heavy metal on homes standing after the fire.
… “Without adequate soil testing, contaminants caused by
the fire can remain undetected, posing risks to returning
residents, construction workers, and the environment,” the
state’s Office of Emergency Services director Nancy Ward wrote
in a February letter to FEMA. “Failing to identify and
remediate these fire-related contaminants may expose
individuals to residual substances during rebuilding efforts
and potentially jeopardize groundwater and surface
water quality.”
A gorgeous California city has been plagued with a foul
odor due to a stomach-churning problem in the Tijuana
River. The stink started after Mexico announced
it was forced to dump around five million gallons a day of
sewage into the river. Mexico is attempting to replace a
section of an ageing sewage pipeline with a newer one made of
concrete. … The US side of the (International Boundary
and Water Commission) said Mexico had informed them that the
decision to dump five million gallons of wastewater a day into
the river was a ‘difficult decision,’ but there were no other
alternatives to fixing the sewage problem. On Thursday,
the IBWC said that even though the sewage dump was ‘bad news,’
the decision was the best way to prevent wastewater from
polluting the Tijuana River long-term. The construction
project is on the Mexico side of the river and will be split
into two phases, scheduled to be completed by April 17.
A barrage of atmospheric river events that swept across
California during the winter and spring has left the state
well-positioned when it comes to water storage. As the
peak of the snowmelt season begins to slow down, the majority
of California’s major reservoirs are at least 90% full – a
promising sign for a state that frequently battles drought and
associated wildfires. Shasta Lake, California’s largest
reservoir, was last reported to be at around 95% capacity,
surpassing its historical average by 117%. The reservoir
affects 35 California counties and plays a crucial role in
managing water for the Sacramento and San Joaquin River
watersheds. … Just as notable is Diamond Valley Lake,
located about 80 miles southeast of Los Angeles in Southern
California. According to data from the California
Department of Water Resources, the water basin was at 97% of
capacity and 128% above its historical average.
Other water supply and snowmelt news around the West:
New research has identified hotspots in the US with concerning
levels of water quality and poor access to clean drinking
water, revealing that Mississippi, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and
Washington had the most water quality violations across the
board. The paper, published Tuesday in the journal Risk
Analysis, also developed county-level scores across most of the
country for unequal access to safe and clean drinking water,
finding that eight of the 10 counties with the worst “water
injustice” scores were in Mississippi, with the other two in
Texas and South Dakota. … “You can see some pretty stark
differences between states,” said study lead author Alex Segrè
Cohen, a social scientist at the University of Oregon. In
Arizona, Mississippi, and Pennsylvania, “almost every county
has high water violation scores,” she said.
… At the beginning of the 20th century, Frederick McKay, a
young dentist in Colorado Springs, noticed that his patients’
teeth showed unsightly browning — now known as fluorosis, a
consequence of exposure to too much fluoride. At the same time,
those patients’ teeth were far more resistant to dental decay
than those of people in nearby towns, whose teeth looked
better. … As for natural contamination of the kind that
Colorado Springs experienced, it’s estimated that more than
100,000 people in the United States get their water from wells
with naturally excessive fluoride levels. You’d think that the
folks calling to end fluoridation would also be unveiling a
comprehensive plan to help people make sure their private water
sources are safe. Yet Kennedy has not done so. Why not? A
better question might be why now? Why the sudden urge to talk
about fluoride? I think the answer may lie somewhere quite far
afield. In Texas, actually. -Written by Zeynep Tufekci, a professor of sociology and
public affairs at Princeton University and a New York Times
Opinion columnist.
Inactive ingredients in agricultural, pharmaceutical, and other
common products have typically been excluded from consideration
as potential contaminants in drinking water. However, while
these chemicals are inert in certain products, they can still
pose hazards when combined with other materials during the
drinking water treatment process. A new study from researchers
in the McKelvey School of Engineering at Washington University
in St. Louis reveals how large this impact might be. …
(Graduate student Jean) Brownell discovered that inactive
amines, which are used as stabilizing agents in herbicides to
increase solubility and reduce drift, may be more important
than active agents in herbicides when it comes to forming
disinfection byproducts (DBPs) linked to various health risks,
though the impacts vary by region and time. The results were
published in the April 15 issue of Water Research.
Along the U.S.–Mexico border in Arizona, the Cocopah Indian
Tribe is accustomed to change. Over centuries, they have seen
borders drawn that intersect their homeland. They’ve watched
their traditional way of life adapt and survive with each new
generation. The Cocopah are known as “the river people,” a name
given long before the Colorado River was diverted through
modern canals and dams. As the water disappeared, so did sacred
animals that dwelled in the riverside habitat. … To reconnect
to this cultural power source, the Cocopah have partnered with
the National Audubon Society on two significant restoration
projects on the reservation’s North and West sections. Federal
grant funding is helping the Tribe transform more than 400
acres in the Colorado River floodplain.
The Leucadia Wastewater District (LWD) has visited two
Encinitas Union School District campuses this year to provide
an engaging lesson on water conservation and how they play a
vital role in protecting our oceans. Students at La Costa
Heights and Capri got a behind-the-scenes look at how water is
managed after it leaves their homes and LWD field service
technicians showed off their line-cleaning truck and
demonstrated how a closed-circuit TV robot inspects sewer lines
across northern Encinitas and southern Carlsbad. La Costa
Heights teacher Jessica Caldararo and Capri teacher Nancy Jois
applied for grants from LWD for their educational initiatives,
using the funds for these demonstrations as part of their water
conservation units.
Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed new legislation that will
provide more than $170 million in state funding to help prevent
wildfires while signing an order aimed at speeding up the work
by easing environmental permitting. The funding — which
the Democratic governor said was part of a broader effort to
better protect communities ahead of peak fire season — comes as
the state is under extraordinary pressure after the January
infernos that devastated Los Angeles communities…. Authorized
as part of a fast-tracked, early action budget
bill approved by the Legislature, the funds will be paid
to six conservancies throughout California. The agencies,
which operate under the governor’s Resources Agency, will
manage the removal of vegetation and thinning of forests within
their regions.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power is dusting off a
114-year-old court ruling to argue the utility can’t be sued
for not providing enough water to fight the monstrous Pacific
Palisades fire because it didn’t have a contract to do so.
Attorneys from Munger, Tolles & Olson, a Los Angeles law firm,
are relying on a 1911 California Supreme Court decision to
defend the LADWP against multiple lawsuits blaming the utility
for running out of water to fight the blaze that started Jan.
7. Simply put, attorneys argue, the utility didn’t have a
contract to provide the water. “California courts have long
rejected attempts to hold water utilities liable for a failure
to provide water to fight fires, absent some specific contract
to do so,” wrote LADWP lawyers in a document submitted to the
court.
Last month, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD)
celebrated a rebound of native fish in the Big Sandy water
basin after 20 years of planning and treatment. The project
aimed to restore populations of flannelmouth suckers and
bluehead suckers, which are listed as species of greatest
conservation need in Wyoming and the Colorado River Basin. …
When the dams were built in the 1950s, they trapped some of the
large river species that were upstream from returning to the
Colorado River. As most Colorado River
tributaries were dammed, these species struggled to reproduce,
which resulted in declining populations throughout the mountain
states. … This project focused on removing illegally
introduced burbot, which were eating the smaller native
suckers, and invasive suckers, which were hybridizing with the
native suckers.
The tenth anniversary of the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA) last year put a spotlight on the challenges of
implementing this landmark legislation. Agencies in both the
San Joaquin and Sacramento Valleys scaled up efforts to
replenish aquifers in recent years, but they still need ways to
better harness the water received in wet years. Spreading
water on privately owned land so it can penetrate the soil and
refill below-ground aquifers — a process known as groundwater
recharge — is one way to make the most of surplus water when
it’s available. This can include methods such as spreading
water on farmland or on land that’s set aside solely for
recharge. Landowners may recharge using their own water and
land, an irrigation district’s water on their private land, or
their own water on an irrigation district’s land.
For the seventh time in less than a decade, Oregon’s commercial
fishermen, governor and congressional delegation are asking for
federal aid to soften the blow of climate change on the state’s
ocean salmon fisheries. … Oregon’s commercial ocean
salmon fishermen caught about 18,000 Chinook between March and
October of 2024 — about 40% of the 10-year average. From 2011
to 2015, the average catch was closer to 75,000 per year,
according to John North, an assistant fish division
administrator with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.
More than 50% of Chinook were caught in Newport in 2024, while
southern Oregon fisheries struggled with low returns due to
drought and warming waters in the Sacramento and
Klamath rivers.
Budget and staffing cuts under President Donald Trump’s
administration are undermining global efforts to monitor the
climate and produce accurate weather forecasts, warns the
European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The
quality and quantity of climate observations available to
scientists worldwide supplied by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has already suffered a
measurable decline, according to ECMWF Director General
Florence Rabier. … Rabier said there has been a reduction in
the number of observations shared by the U.S. since March,
including a roughly 10 percent decline from weather balloons
that collect data on temperature, humidity, and wind patterns.
Minutes before sunrise Monday, nearly a dozen boat owners were
already lining up in the Beals Point parking area for the first
day of boat inspections and a 30-day quarantine aimed at
preventing an invasive species from finding its way into Folsom
Lake. “It’s long before the scheduled 9:30 a.m. start time for
inspections, but I’m glad I got here early,” said Rudy Divin, a
fishing guide. Starting Monday, Folsom Lake and Lake Clementine
are closed to all motorized and trailered vessels for the next
month. All boats seeking to launch on either lake are required
to go through a mandatory 30-day quarantine.
Officials are monitoring reports from the San Diego County Air
Pollution Control District of an overnight uptick in hydrogen
sulfide readings in the Tijuana River Valley, creating odor
issues in South County. The increase in odors in the last 24
hours “appears to be associated with reports from the
(International Boundary and Water Commission) that sewage
infrastructure work in Mexico has resulted in the release of up
to 5 million gallons per night of sewage into the Tijuana River
Valley,” according to the county. This flow comes in addition
to “rogue sewage flows” being investigated by the IBWC with its
partners in Mexico. The IBWC operates the South Bay
International Wastewater Treatment Plant and is tasked with
collaborating with Mexico on border water issues.
… Studies suggest that PFAS has contaminated almost 50% of
the U.S. tap water supply. These chemicals are linked to a
growing list of health risks, including cancers and chronic
diseases. Many global institutions have recently taken
regulatory action. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) proposed stringent limits for PFAS in drinking water.
… Beyond drinking water, recent studies expose another
major PFAS concern: wastewater and sludge. Treated wastewater,
often considered safe for reuse, has been found to still carry
significant levels of PFAS. Even more concerning is the
widespread practice of using treated sewage sludge as farm
fertilizer. The EPA has warned that PFAS in sludge can
contaminate crops, soil, and groundwater, creating a direct
pathway from industrial chemical waste to the food we
eat. … The question isn’t whether businesses should act,
it’s whether they can afford not to.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has
gone after fluoride in drinking water, a move that medical
experts widely disagree with. Water fluoridation has been
proven to be so effective at preventing tooth decay that the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) named it one
of the 10 greatest public health achievements of the 20th
century, a time during which Americans’ life expectancies rose
by 30 years. “Fluoride has been studied extensively for decades
and is considered safe and effective at recommended levels,”
cosmetic dentist Dr. James Heaton tells USA TODAY. “While some
debates focus on the ethics of water fluoridation or potential
health concerns, the overwhelming consensus from the American
Dental Association, CDC and World Health Organization is that
fluoride is a critical tool in preventing tooth decay.” Here’s
what licensed medical experts want you to know about fluoride.
Ben Harris, senior staff attorney with the LA Waterkeeper,
discusses Assembly Bill 1313, which was introduced by assembly
member Diane Papan on March 25. The bill would enact a
statewide commercial stormwater permit in
California that will balance the cost of stormwater management
between private facilities and local governments while
encouraging stormwater capture through the development of more
green space in urban communities. Harris expands on the
purpose of the bill, why LA Waterkeeper sees it as necesssary
and other details.
President Trump’s “energy dominance” agenda will be undermined
by steep cuts to federal agencies that are said to be planned
by the Trump administration, scientists, lawmakers and energy
executives warned on Monday. Pleas from numerous quarters have
streamed into the inboxes of cabinet secretaries, asking them
to salvage various divisions of government agencies. Federal
officials face a deadline today to present their plans for
another round of mass firings, and agencies that address energy
and the environment are expected to be hard hit. … Opponents
of the job cuts are making arguments more in line with the
Trump administration’s priorities by saying the cuts threaten
nuclear energy, mineral production and expanding energy access.
