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 Biden administration, members of Congress and native tribes
will commemorate the designation of the Chumash Heritage
National Marine Sanctuary on Monday — the first such preserve
in California to be managed in cooperation with Indigenous
peoples. The 4,543-square-mile sanctuary, located off
California’s rugged Central Coast, would prohibit oil drilling
and offer other protections to an area that encompasses
numerous cultural resources, including the suspected remains of
ancient, submerged villages. The preserve could one day serve
as the final puzzle piece of an effort to protect virtually all
of California’s coast from the Channel Islands to Point Arena,
north of the Bay Area.
Other marine sanctuary and offshore drilling articles:
An ambitious project to improve the levee system around
Marysville has had one unintended consequence: street flooding
in parts of East Marysville. On Tuesday, the Yuba Water Agency
Board of Directors will consider approving a $713,000 grant to
the City of Marysville to replace high flow pumps at the East
17th detention basin near Highway 20. Beginning in 2023, the
detention basin has filled during high intensity rain events,
and flooded some of the surrounding streets because the pumps
are no longer large enough to drain the detention basin.
According to a staff report for Tuesday’s meeting, the flooding
is directly related to the multi-million dollar 7.6 mile long
Marysville Ring Levee project, which the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers launched in 2010.
Today, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development
California State Director Maria Gallegos Herrera announced USDA
is investing nearly $2 million in projects that will help
foster and protect clean water supplies for rural Californians.
“Access to clean and reliable water systems is essential for
the health and well-being of all communities, and in rural
California, USDA regularly invests in these systems to protect
the health of our residents and advance rural prosperity,” said
Gallegos Herrera. “I’ve seen the need firsthand as I’ve
witnessed Californians work hard to recover after disaster, and
I am so pleased to be able to support this recovery, and work
with our partner Self-Help Enterprises to advance clean water
in more rural areas.”
The Orange County Water District Ground Water Replenishment
System is the largest advanced water treatment plant in the
world for groundwater recharge. Since it was commissioned, it
has produced 445.8 billion gallons of water to serve 1 million
people. That amounts to 130 million gallons per day that is
treated through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and
ultraviolet disinfection. Mehul Patel, executive director of
operations for the OCWD GWRS, took WaterWorld editors on a
tour of the plant to share how it is bolstering Orange County’s
water supplies through water reuse.
An exceptional October heat wave is shattering temperature
records and accelerating drought conditions throughout the
Southwest. Phoenix broke another temperature record Wednesday,
the city’s 16th consecutive day with a new record. The hot
weather is causing more evaporation than normal across the
desert, which the U.S. Drought Monitor noted in its weekly
update. … Severe drought or worse plagued 9.9% of the
West last week but expanded to 14.6% this week’s update. Areas
of severe drought recently expanded into California’s Mojave
Desert for the first time since April 2023. Much of the severe
drought is in the Colorado River Basin, which feeds Lake Mead,
the largest reservoir in the United States.
The first thing you notice at Copco Lake is that there’s no
lake here. Yet, in this woodsy Northern California community
just miles from the Oregon border, wooden docks sit oddly in
grassy backyards. Boats lie idle in dirt lots or on parked
trailers. The occasional fishing pole or life vest is strewn
about on a side lawn. These fixtures of boating, swimming and
angling, no longer in use, serve as witness to the ghost of a
reservoir that haunts this rural area. Recently, the community
lost its signature Copco Lake when four hydroelectric dams were
removed on the Klamath River. In what was celebrated as the
largest dam-removal project in U.S. history, the reservoirs
behind the dams emptied of water and the popular aquatic
activities at Copco saw a quick death.
Candidates running to manage Arizona’s largest water provider
want the federal government to take a stronger role in stalled
Colorado River negotiations. Speaking during a candidates’
debate on Tuesday, Heather Macre, one of six people seeking a
seat on the Central Arizona Water Conservation board, argued
that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation — the federal agency
responsible for managing dams — should provide “contours” to
guide the seven Colorado River basin states toward a solution
for managing the river’s recent decline. Macre and fellow
board incumbent Terry Goddard said the bureau should at least
clarify that any proposals will have to conform to the
conditions of the 1922 Colorado River Compact, a critical
treaty that divides the river among the seven states.
An agenda
is now posted for Reflecting on
Silver Linings in Western Water, the Water
Education Foundation’s 2024 Water
Summit, set for Wednesday, Oct. 30, in
downtown Sacramento. Tickets to our premier annual event are
going quickly so reserve your spot soon. Foundation
members can take advantage of a $100 discount on registration!
Are you an up-and-coming leader in the water world?
Applications are now available for our 2025 California Water
Leaders cohort,
California’s reputation as a hothouse of progressive politics
is being tested in a string of U.S. House contests that are
again expected to play into which party controls the chamber
next year. …In the 13th District, Republican Rep. John Duarte
is facing Adam Gray, the Democrat he defeated two
years ago by one of the closest margins in the country, 564
votes. Duarte often is listed among the House’s most vulnerable
Republicans, given that narrow victory. Both candidates
have been stressing bipartisan credentials. Duarte, a
businessman and major grape and almond farmer, says his
priorities include curbing inflation and crime and securing
adequate supplies water for farmers, a
perennial issue in the valley. Gray, a former legislator, has
criticized state water management and puts water and
agriculture at the top of his issues list. He also
says he wants improvements in infrastructure, renewable energy
and education.
Nearly 40 years ago, after watching aquifers below Douglas
County plunge amid fast growth and heavy use, Colorado
lawmakers adopted a “sip slowly” management process that
required communities such as Parker and Castle Rock to pump out
fixed amounts of nonrenewable groundwater each year in an
effort to make the resource last at least 100 years. Fast
forward to 2020. That year, the state directed well owners to
sip even more slowly, explicitly stating how much water their
permits entitled them to, and requiring them to stop pumping at
the end of that 100-year period if they have fully used the
water to which they were entitled when the original well
permits were issued. … The high court is expected to
issue a ruling in the case before the end of the year,
according to spokeswoman Suzanne Karrer. Under Colorado’s
so-called 100-year rule, well owners can extract no more than
1% of the water under their lands each year, pumping all the
water within 100 years of the issuance of their permits.
Considering severe storms and flood damage across the country,
Sacramento County officials are urging Northern California
residents to know their home’s flood risk. Sacramento County is
in a flood plain recognized by FEMA and according to the U.S.
Army Corp of Engineers, Sacramento is considered one of the
most at-risk cities in the country for “catastrophic” flooding.
More than 500,000 people are dependent on the levees, a U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson said Thursday.
… almonds are a thirsty crop, which can be problematic under
water shortages in California. So Kind Snacks, a producer of
snack bars and cereal, is delving into the nuts and bolts of
almond farming. Last year, it launched a three-year pilot
program, the Almond Acres Initiative, to test regenerative
agriculture and new technologies in partnership with one of its
top suppliers, Ofi. With a year of promising progress
under their belt, the organizations are expanding the Central
Valley project to include a second, drier site. Undaunted by
dust and dehydration, they’re hoping to make our favorite nut a
little better for everyone.
Long Beach utility officials have lifted a warning residents in
California Heights, Bixby Knolls, Los Cerritos and most of
north Long Beach to avoid drinking or cooking with tap water
after a water main burst late Wednesday. Residents were updated
in an alert that went out about 3:30 a.m. Friday. Long
Beach Mayor Rex Richardson said the city put specialized
water monitoring in place out of an abundance of caution.
As they waited for testing to come back, city officials said
they distributed bottled water to affected residents. The alert
that went out early Friday said city officials had tested
117 water samples from the area and “concluded the water
is safe to drink.”
The U.S. Supreme Court will test how flexible the EPA and
states can be in regulating water pollution under the Clean
Water Act when it hears oral argument in City and County of San
Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency on Oct. 16, 2024.
This case asks the court to decide whether federal regulators
can issue permits that are effectively broad orders not to
violate water quality standards, or instead may only specify
the concentrations of individual pollutants that permit holders
can release into water bodies. My research focuses on water
issues, including the Clean Water Act. This case involves both
federal and state authority to issuing permits, and it will be
interesting to see where the court focuses. While justices have
been willing to limit the EPA’s authority under the act, they
traditionally have allowed states broad authority to protect
water quality. Thus, while some fear that this case is yet
another occasion for the court to limit the EPA’s authority,
California’s involvement may have exactly the opposite effect.
A California lawmaker says Imperial County officials need to
rework their controversial lithium spending plan, or they could
face state intervention. In an interview with KPBS,
Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia (D-Coachella) said the county was
required by state law to direct significantly more lithium tax
dollars to towns on the north end of the valley. He said the
current spending plan does not comply with those terms. … The
dispute between state and county officials goes back to
a 2022 state law that placed a new lithium tax on
companies hoping to extract the valuable mineral — a key
component in electric cars and other battery technology — in
California.
Two federal buildings in downtown San Diego that house
courthouses and a daycare recently tested positive for the
Legionella bacteria. The bacteria, which lives in water
droplets and commonly grows in cooling towers, can cause
Legionnaires’ disease, a serious type of pneumonia the CDC says
will kill about one in 10. Team 10 has learned Legionella
was found in 13 out of 15 samples taken at the James M. Carter
and Judith N. Keep U.S. Courthouse. Next door in the Edward J.
Schwartz Federal Building and United States Courthouse, 24 out
of 46 samples were positive for Legionella, Christi Chidester
Votisek, a spokesperson for the U.S. General Services
Administration, said.
On Sept. 27, Eric W. Thornburg loaded up into a passenger van
with his coworkers and headed out on a field trip into the
Santa Cruz Mountains just above Lexington Reservoir. The
Saratoga resident just happens to be the CEO of SJW Group, a
utility company that clocked net income of $32.4 million in
just the first six months of 2024. He was joined by Tanya
Moniz-Witten, president of SJ Water Co., and several employees
from different arms of the multi-pronged organization. The goal
was to give workers an on-the-ground look at the
life-sustaining system they use to bring drinking water to
local dining tables—a way to bring spreadsheets and data points
to life. What better way to do that than to head up into the
Santa Cruz Mountains for an overview of the watershed that
supplies Los Gatos and the surrounding areas with drinking
water.
PG&E will be increasing flows in a portion of the North
Fork Feather River this weekend, they are urging the public to
use extra caution during whitewater recreation. PG&E said
that during the higher flows, the Poe Reach of the river will
contain Class III, IV and V rapids, which they say are only
appropriate for skilled paddlers, and not appropriate for
tubing. The Poe Reach is a 7.6-mile section of the river in the
Plumas National Forest in Butte County, between PG&E’s Poe
Dam near Pulga and the Poe Powerhouse just upstream of Lake
Oroville.
… Colorado wine is climbing, rising in production and
quality, and gaining national attention for doing what the
state does best – pulling off elevated feats. Deeply drawn to
this terrain, it’s no surprise producers across the state join
the broader industry’s conscientious drive to protect natural
resources through land management. … Vineyards have long
relied on flood irrigation, dousing vineyards with thousands of
gallons of water from river canals. For days, the onslaught
soaks the land, but it also loses water to evaporation and
pulls nutrients through erosion. Every drop counts across the
state’s Western Slope, which relies on the precious and
nationally contested Colorado River. Maison La Belle Vie
partnered with the National Resources Conservation Service to
try something different for its 4.5 acres of grapes. This
summer, the family-run vineyard will have a new pump, water
lines, and microjets, preserving the river and land by
targeting vines more efficiently with less water.
Although autumn has fallen, some Valley residents are still
cooling off in the San Joaquin River; however, PG&E warns
that visitors should stay out of certain areas as they plan to
release dam water. The utility company says they will be
increasing flows along the 9-mile-long section of river between
the Kerckhoff Dam and Millerton Lake in Fresno County starting
Tuesday. The water releases will increase from about 25 to 500
cubic feet per second (cfs) until Nov. 22, when the releases
will be gradually reduced back to 25 cfs. Due to the often
challenging passage out of the San Joaquin River Gorge,
PG&E advises the public to avoid entering the water during
the high-flow event.
