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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Within weeks following completion of a $1.7-million Water Forum
project in October, giant Chinook were spawning in new gravel
beds. The 2024 effort to aid the endangered species centered on
River Bend Park (Rancho Cordova) and William B. Pond Park
(Carmichael). The work augmented salmon breeding habitat with
thousands of tons of clean gravel. A deepened and reconnected
side channel also created rearing havens for baby salmonids.
Following similar projects over 16 years, the latest
restoration impacted eight American River acres. At the peak of
the recent salmon run, biologists counted almost 40 new redds
(nests) in previously unhospitable areas. Female salmon were
using muscular tails to dig cradles when this reporter joined
survey biologists. Following the Chinook migration, steelhead
and Pacific lamprey will reproduce in the same spots.
“Today I’m at Freshwater Farms to talk with the North Coast
Regional Land Trust about how their restoration projects
helped create a sustainable future for both salmon and farmers
alike,” said Redwood News Reporter Liam Gwynn. … The
Northcoast Regional Land Trust works with landowners
voluntarily to conserve their properties. So that’s one piece
of our work is to put conservation easement on private
lands to protect them for future generations. We also
have properties like Freshwater Reserve. This is
our public access property that we have available for the
community to use any time they want. It’s open every
single day with the nature trail, and we manage
this property for the public, but also for restoration and
wildlife habitat,” said Nadia Van Lynn the Outreach &
Development Director of North Coast Regional Land Trust.
The Fish and Wildlife Service proposed Tuesday adding a rare
Nevada butterfly called the bleached sandhill skipper to the
federal list of endangered species. Citing potential threats
that include climate change and groundwater pumping, the
federal agency agreed with environmentalists in determining the
butterfly warrants Endangered Species Act protections. “The
bleached sandhill skipper is a desert occupant, likely living
close to its upper thermal limits under normal conditions,
leaving little buffer for accommodating warming and drying
conditions,” FWS stated, adding that “the climate within [the]
bleached sandhill skipper range has been drying and warming
over the last several decades.”
The widespread use of pharmaceuticals in America is introducing
even more toxic “forever chemicals” into the environment
through wastewater, according to a study released Monday, and
large municipal wastewater treatment plants are not capable of
fully filtering them out. The plants’ inability to remove
compounds known as organofluorines from wastewater before it
enters drinking water supplies becomes even more pronounced
during droughts and could affect up to 23 million people,
scientists wrote in an article published Monday in Proceedings
of the National Academy of Sciences. Most of the compounds
came from commonly prescribed medications including
antidepressants and statins, the researchers found.
The Medicine Lake Highlands in Northern California,
near towering Mount Shasta, has a long and storied past. Its
distinct lakes, lava beds and underground labyrinths rose from
the blasts of what is the largest volcano, by volume, in the
Cascade Range. The striking landscape has since drawn countless
Native Americans seeking its professed healing powers. It has
served as training grounds for NASA moon missions. It
has sustained aquifers that help supply water to
millions. On Tuesday, the site made new history
with its designation by President Joe Biden as the 224,000-acre
Sáttítla National Monument.
The designation recognizes this remote, mostly wooded
area in Siskiyou and Modoc counties, about 350 miles north of
San Francisco, as federally significant and brings protections
to ensure its safekeeping.
Wyoming’s water chief wants emergency funds for hydrologists to
measure flows in the state’s portion of the troubled Colorado
River Basin, documentation he said is vital to preserving
irrigation and other uses. State Engineer Brandon Gebhart asked
for $167,210 in supplemental budget funds, a piddling amount in
the world of western water finances, but a critical sum
necessary to launch the work this spring. He called parts of
the proposed allocation an “emergency,” a designation that
would enable disbursements to begin this fiscal year. Among
other things, the money would employ three full-time
hydrographers to measure flows in the Green and Little Snake
river drainages. The total figure covers money specifically
directed toward Colorado River issues as Wyoming girds to
protect irrigators and other water users.
By January, Southern California usually has experienced enough
rain that a major winter wind event does not bring fears of a
major fire. But not this year. More than eight months without
any measurable rainfall, Southland officials are gearing up for
what is expected to be a “life-threatening and destructive”
windstorm. Beginning Tuesday, the winds are forecast to last
several days and hit areas well beyond the region’s typical
wind corridors — with the potential to stretch an
already-active fire season into January.
As imperiled Central Valley salmon and Delta fish
populations move closer and closer to the abyss of
extinction, the California Sportfishing Protection
Alliance (CSPA) has sued the California Department of Water
Resources (DWR) and the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife (CDFW) over the “Incidental Take Permit” (ITP) for the
operation of the State Water Project. CSPA is joined in the
lawsuit, filed on Nov. 26, 2024, by the North Coast Rivers
Alliance, the San Francisco Crab Boat Owners Association and
the Winnemem Wintu Tribe. The Law Offices of Stephan C. Volker
filed the suit in the Sacramento Superior Court on behalf of
CSPA and fellow plaintiffs. The lawsuit alleges violations
of the law under the California Environmental Quality Act,
Public Resources Code section 21000; the Delta Reform Act,
Water Code section 85000, the California Endangered Species Act
, Fish and Game Code section 2050, and the Public
Trust Doctrine.
From one end of the U.S.-Mexico border to the other, water and
wastewater infrastructure are perennial problems. In the Rio
Grande Valley, farmers are running out of time to get more
water from Mexico for their crops. In Imperial Beach,
California, residents are fed up with raw sewage flowing over
the border from Tijuana. The Colorado River states and Mexico
are haggling over limited water. In the final weeks of
Joe Biden’s presidency, the administration’s record on border
environmental issues is still up for debate. Some will remember
the record infrastructure investments that allowed many border
residents to have drinking water in their homes for the first
time. Or the agreements the U.S. struck with Mexico to share
Colorado River and Rio Grande water. Others are left with the
stench of sewage in their noses, as the flows from Tijuana into
South Bay California continue unabated and solutions are still
months or years away.
Plans are nearly complete for a wetlands reserve restoration
that will replace trash and weeds with native plants and a
public trail in a highly visible spot at the Carlsbad-Oceanside
border. The vacant land along South Coast Highway is opposite
the Buena Vista Audubon Society’s Nature Center. The nonprofit
purchased 3.5 acres of the roughly 6-acre site in 2016 for
$1.55 million raised in donations, nearly a decade after a
developer’s proposal to build a multi-story, 82-room hotel
there failed. Much of the site is covered by ice plant and
invasive, non-native weeds. It’s also littered with trash, much
of it left by people who sometimes camp hidden in the brush.
Most of the land is in Oceanside, but a fraction is in Carlsbad
and owned by the state Department of Fish and Wildlife. That’s
because Carlsbad’s boundary includes all of the more than
200-acre Buena Vista Lagoon, and the state owns the lagoon.
A new report linking fluoridated drinking water to lower IQ
scores in children is sure to ratchet up the debate over a
practice that’s considered one of the greatest public health
achievements of the 20th century. The report published Monday
in JAMA Pediatrics synthesizes the results of dozens of
research studies that have been released since 1989. Its
overall conclusion is that the more fluoride a child is exposed
to, the lower he or she tends to score on intelligence tests.
The analysis was conducted for the U.S. National Toxicology
Program, and it has attracted a good deal of criticism over the
many years of its development. Among the biggest critiques is
that it’s based on data from places where fluoride levels are
far higher than the concentration recommended by the U.S.
Public Health Service.
… California’s southern Central valley is a
particularly popular spot for pistachio farming. The dryness of
desert-like conditions during the summer months is no deterrent
for the nut. … “Pistachios also don’t need the same
high-quality water that something like almonds do,” said Darwin
Inman, vice-president of sales and marketing at Horizon Nut
Company. “They’re a fairly stout tree. They can get away with a
little bit less quality of water, irrigation water.”…
The diminished need for water means that farmers have more
readily embraced pistachios, including when it comes to the
nut’s biggest rival, almonds, which generated nearly $4bn in
California last year. More growers are opting to dedicate land
to drought-tolerant pistachios over thirsty almond trees.
Big storms around the holidays have left snowpack and reservoir
levels in good shape throughout the West, as Oregon’s snow
level was 166% of normal and California’s was above average as
of Monday, Jan. 6. La Nina atmospheric conditions, which favor
colder northern systems, combined with a parade of
atmospheric-river storms in November and December to leave a
deep layer of snow throughout much of the region. Snowpack
levels are above their 30-year averages in Oregon (166%),
Nevada (131%), Idaho (119% south of the Salmon River),
Washington (115%) and California (110%), according to the
Natural Resources Conservation Service’s National Water and
Climate Center. … The Colorado River Basin has recorded
near-normal rainfall and snowfall this season, although Arizona
and southeastern California are severely lagging.
Proposed vineyard wastewater regulations provoked a major hue
and cry among Sonoma and Mendocino growers when government
officials introduced them in 2022. On Dec. 4, 2024, state
water board officials announced a new plan they hoped would
better address growers who farm 65,000 acres of planted
vineyards–more than 10 percent of the 550,000 acres planted in
the state (see meeting slides here). But the
proposed revisions were still found wanting, locals said.
County leaders pointed out the water board itself still has not
defined standards for Russian River sediment and said vineyards
are not the ones to blame for water issues. The fault lies
instead with rural roads and the federal and Sonoma County
authorities who oversee Lake Mendocino, they said.
Southern Oregon University recently hosted the Klamath Dam
Removal Research Collaboration Workshop, a follow-up seminar
for the numerous groups and agencies working together on the
world’s largest-ever dam removal and river restoration project.
The November workshop brought together nearly 150 researchers,
Tribal leaders and agency representatives to share information
about ecological and social changes in the Klamath River basin
that have resulted from the removal of its four dams. Removal
of the Iron Gate (45 minutes southeast of Ashland), J.C. Boyle,
Copco No. 1 and Copco No. 2 dams was completed ahead of
schedule on Aug. 28, but work will continue for several years
to restore about 2,200 acres of land that had been submerged
for decades. The dams were built between 1918 and 1962 to
provide electricity, but had severe effects on salmon
populations and Tribal communities. The river now flows freely
from Lake Ewauna near Klamath Falls to the Pacific Ocean.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it
issued four underground injection control (UIC) Class VI well
permits to Carbon TerraVault JV Storage Company, a subsidiary
of California Resources Corporation, Long Beach, California.
Class VI UIC wells are used to inject carbon dioxide into deep
rock formations for permanent underground storage. This
technology, called carbon capture and underground storage or
geologic sequestration, can be used to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions to the atmosphere and mitigate climate change, the
EPA says. The four Class VI UIC permits are for the first
permitted Class VI injection wells in California and are the
first such permits issued by EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region.
EPA says it has determined that the activities authorized under
the Class VI UIC permits are protective of underground
sources of drinking water and public health as
required by the Safe Drinking Water Act.
The Redwood Valley County Water District (RVCWD) transfer of
water services to the Ukiah Valley Water Authority (UVWA) was
completed on January 2, 2025 with the City of Ukiah assuming
oversight. At the December 19, 2024, board meeting, General
Manager Jared Walker outlined updates on billing changes,
financial reporting, and recent repairs. The board also
discussed the future of local water governance, including
potential consolidation and the dissolution of the Upper
Russian River Water Agency (URRWA), while addressing ongoing
vandalism at the Lake Mendocino pumphouse. The new UVWA billing
system will keep Redwood Valley’s practice of sending separate
bills for domestic and irrigation water, even if the account
holder is the same person. On many properties the domestic and
irrigation water are paid by different parties, so the bills
will continue to be separate.
Water is again running in the Kern River through Bakersfield,
four months after it suddenly went dry at the end of August,
2024, leading to a massive fish die off. But it will only last
through January 20, according to Bakersfield Water Resources
Director Kristina Budak. “Water is being released from Isabella
Dam as part of Power Flow operation requirements. It is
anticipated to last through approximately January 20, 2025,”
Budak wrote in an email. Southern California Edison’s Kern
River No. 1 power plant, a few miles east of the mouth of the
Kern River Canyon, has rights to the first 412 cubic feet per
second of river flow, as long as that amount or more is coming
into Isabella Lake. It runs the water through its turbines then
releases it back to the river. Typically, though, the bulk of
that water doesn’t make it all the way down the river through
Bakersfield as a large share is taken out of the river bed by
the Beardsley Canal, a few miles east of town.
Drought is back in Southern California — a region that has not
seen significant rain for nearly nine months — and the
remarkable dryness has made the landscape vulnerable to winter
wildfires. Santa Ana winds could bring a serious fire weather
threat this week. Pacific storms that typically arrive by
November or December to end the fire season have instead
targeted Northern California and the Pacific Northwest over the
past two months, leaving the southern part of the state at real
risk. And impending offshore winds could end up being the
strongest wind event of the fire season. While Santa Ana winds
tend to strengthen in winter as cold weather systems dive into
the interior West and drive dry winds into Southern California,
conditions are typically much wetter here in January.
Winter is off to a promising start for California water
managers. A handful of storms in late fall and over the
holidays primed the state’s mountains with a solid base of
snow, with such high-elevation spots as the Truckee River
basin, the Mammoth Lakes area and Lassen Volcanic National Park
reporting 5 or more feet of snow on the ground. On Thursday, as
state water managers trudged through powdery fields to conduct
the first snow survey of the season, the cumulative snowpack
across the Sierra, southern Cascades and Trinity mountains
measured 108% of average for the date. Snowpack was greatest,
by far, in the north with some areas in the south missing out
on the early winter weather.
