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.
Amid tense negotiations over the Colorado River’s future,
Nevada leaders came together Thursday to focus on the state’s
strategy to meet the climate and drought crisis threatening
Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. Democratic Rep. Susie Lee, whose
district falls within the boundaries of Lake Mead and half of
the Hoover Dam, brought together regional water and hydropower
leaders to highlight mounting needs the state faces during her
third annual Southern Nevada Water Summit at the Springs
Preserve.
New research backs up the concerns of people who live near the
Tijuana River and have long complained that foul air wafting
from the polluted waterway is making them sick — irritating
their eyes and noses, making breathing difficult and causing
headaches. The study indicates they’re being exposed to high
levels of the toxic gas hydrogen sulfide. … The study,
published Thursday in the journal Science, tracked air
pollution emanating from a foamy, churning section of the river
where water falls from culverts.
Northern Water has halted some design and construction
contracts and is cutting back its multibillion dollar, two-dam
supply project after its biggest customer said it was pulling
out, officials said, as they detailed how the budget for their
decades-long ambition suddenly jumped to $2.69 billion from $2
billion. Four design-and-build contracts for the Northern
Integrated Supply Project, meant to serve growth in 15
communities and water agencies, were pulled from the bidding
process for at least three to four months while engineers
consider how costs could be cut.
The world is running out of fresh water and now companies are
using the high pressure of the ocean depths to push seawater
through a membrane leaving salt behind. This month Scientific
American reports a breakthrough in strategy of how to apply
reverse osmosis without huge energy costs or negative
environmental issues by allowing it to “happen naturally” using
technology that harnesses pressure hundreds of meters
underwater. … One such company with big but achievable
pipe dreams for the California coast is San Francisco-based
OceanWell, who announced a pioneer project called Water Farm1
(WF-1) with six Los Angeles-area water agencies this month.
As highly-invasive golden mussels spread across California
waterways, officials are urging boaters to take thorough
precautions to avoid introducing the species to unaffected
waters over the busy Labor Day weekend. It’s also a good idea
to contact the body of water you plan to visit to get the
latest information before heading out there, according to the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife. … The freshwater
mollusks threaten the state’s water infrastructure by clogging
pipes and power systems.
… Weeks into their journey, the paddlers had passed through
the lower river banks where, in 2002, tribes and
environmentalists witnessed an ecological and cultural
catastrophe known as the Klamath River Fish Kill. Hundreds of
thousands of dead adult salmon and steelhead trout washed
ashore, sparking a movement for dam removal and restoration of
the river. The movement would lead to a decadeslong fight and
eventually a $200 million settlement with the dam’s owners,
PacifiCorp, which acknowledged the dams were too costly to
maintain and didn’t contribute to water supplies or help with
flood control.
… OneShoreLine, a county-wide agency working to address sea
level rise, flooding and coastal erosion, recently installed a
monitoring system in Pescadero to help residents figure out
just how flooded the road is and whether it’s too dangerous to
drive. Before OneShoreLine intervened, the only way residents
could guess if the road was safe enough to cross was by looking
at an old marker, a metal sign with a white line painted on it.
… The [Resource Conservation District] is trying to
get homeowners along Pescadero Creek Road to agree to a kind of
radical solution: if each one gives up a little bit of their
property and allows the RCD to plant willows and add rocks, it
will stabilize the shore.
Southern California businesses, schools, homeowners
associations and other institutions that choose to replace
grass with more sustainable landscaping will receive additional
financial assistance to help with the effort, the Metropolitan
Water District announced Thursday. Beginning Monday, the water
agency will more than double its turf replacement rebate for
non-residential property owners, increasing it from $3 per
square foot to $7 — the highest amount offered regionwide. The
increase comes as the agency aims to boost water conservation
efforts and adapt to climate change.
A coalition of leading water experts recently announced the
launch of the Groundwater Demand Management Network, a new
statewide initiative designed to create a comprehensive
community of practice for managing California’s critical
groundwater resources. … With California facing
increasing water scarcity and the ongoing implementation of the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, the Network aims to
connect groundwater managers, agricultural producers, municipal
water suppliers, and other partners to share knowledge, tools,
and strategies for sustainable water use.
The Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has approved $21.7
million in grants to support 16 habitat protection and
restoration projects in 11 counties across California. …
Among the awards is a $559,000 acquisition by California
Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to protect 120 acres
near Bridgeville in Humboldt County. The property includes a
rare peat fen wetland — a sensitive, permanently saturated
natural wetland community ranked as “critically imperiled” —
along with mixed evergreen hardwood and riparian forest. The
fen provides a cold-water source for endangered summer
steelhead trout in the Van Duzen River.
A state project that would build a tunnel to divert water from
the Delta to other regions of California is the “key” to
modernizing the state’s water projects and providing water to
millions of Californians, according to a recent study by the
California Department of Water Resources. But local water
agencies disagree, calling the project potentially damaging to
the local ecosystem. … The DWP has pushed back
against these concerns, and others, in a fact sheet that seeks
to address common questions about the tunnel project.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will open up public comments
on Friday on its plan to repeal a 24-year-old rule that
prohibits road construction and timber harvesting on 91,000
square miles of federal Forest Service land. … The
National Parks Conservation Association said throwing out the
rule would allow for increased oil and gas leasing and other
harmful development on public lands that can destroy or disrupt
habitats, increase erosion and worsen sediment pollution in
drinking water.
… Climate-fueled costs have injected a new dynamic into
negotiations over extending cap-and-trade before the
legislative session ends Sept. 12. … Negotiations
to extend cap-and-trade to 2045 have moved slowly behind closed
doors for much of the year. The program is complex, and just 21
of the state’s 120 legislators were in office for the last
reauthorization vote. But the talks have become more urgent as
auction returns earlier this year faltered, reflecting
uncertainty about the future of the program.
Before the town of Bouse overhauled its groundwater system in
2025, residents were hesitant to drink from their
taps. … A new study from Clemson University could add
weight to those fears, seeming to confirm for the first time
that arsenic exposure can lead to widespread damage to
neurological systems like vision and motor function. The
study casts a new light on an issue that has plagued
southwestern communities for decades. Almost one-fifth of the
main aquifers in the southwestern United States contain levels
of arsenic above federal drinking water regulations, according
to the US Geological Survey.
Residents in Benson, Arizona, are up in arms about a proposed
aluminum processing plant they say could pollute their air and
deplete their water. In fact, they’re so mad about it, they’re
trying to recall the mayor and City Council over the issue.
Aluminum Dynamics is preparing to build a $190 million
recycling plant in the 5,500-person city in an area zoned for
heavy industrial use. At a recent public hearing over the
issue, the Arizona Republic reported that residents essentially
begged Arizona Department of Environmental Quality officials to
deny the company’s air quality permit application.
For the past eight years, a manufactured home park in Tucson
has been overcharging its residents for water by hundreds of
dollars. But that practice ended this summer when the Arizona
attorney general stepped in as part of a broader investigation
into submetering practices in mobile home parks. Now Skyline
Real Estate, the company that runs Desert Haven Mobile Home
Park in Tucson near I-10 and Miracle Mile, will credit
residents with the money they overpaid. … Residents in
master meter parks are at the mercy of an antiquated utility
system with a history of overcharging problems.
Faced with new cost overruns, the board of Santa Clara County’s
largest water agency on Tuesday voted to kill a plan to build a
huge new reservoir in the southern part of the county near
Pacheco Pass after eight years of studies and $100 million in
public spending. The board of the Santa Clara Valley Water
District voted 6-0 to halt planning and engineering studies,
and to withdraw the agency’s application for state bond funds
for the Pacheco Reservoir project.
As flames from the Pickett Fire continue to sweep through the
rugged landscape of Northern California’s Napa County, local
officials have declared a health emergency, citing fears that
hazardous debris could infiltrate the area’s drinking
water systems. The blaze, which ignited August 21
near Aetna Springs, has scorched more than 6,800 acres and is
just 17 percent contained, according to Cal Fire. More than
2,700 firefighters are on the ground as of Tuesday, working to
prevent the fire’s advance toward critical infrastructure and
populated areas.
Money raised from California’s cannabis industry is being
channelled into saving endangered Coho salmon in Santa Cruz
County. The state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has
awarded more than $3.9 million from its Cannabis Restoration
Grant Program to the Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project
(MBSTP), supporting operations at the Kingfisher Flat
Conservation Hatchery. The programme, funded by cannabis tax
revenues and penalties from unlicensed cultivation, was created
to repair environmental damage linked to the industry. This is
the first time it has supported Coho salmon conservation south
of San Francisco Bay.
A pair of recent court decisions in San Diego—Patz v. City of
San Diego and Coziahr v. Otay Water District—have thrust
California’s Proposition 218 back into the spotlight. But what
is this proposition, and how does it affect our water bills and
the state’s water providers? As Californians grow increasingly
concerned about affordability, we asked Dave Owen, a professor
at UC Law San Francisco, to explain how Prop 218 and water
rates are connected. … [Dave Owen:] “Prop 218 matters for
water because it imposes limitations on fees.”
