Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn joined eight others on
the Delta Protection Commission to appeal
the Certification of Consistency for the Delta Conveyance
Project. The action, on a 9-0-1 vote, also included “submitting
comments to the Delta Stewardship Council on any appeals filed
by others.” Mashburn said there were “many reasons” for why an
appeal was needed. He said the commission majority did not like
the methodology the state Department of Water Resources used to
reach its conclusions of consistency, and felt the estimated
length of the project and the cost were flawed.
A decades-old stormwater solution that helps recharge
groundwater in Modesto is also a major contributor to yearly
street flooding and a potential source of contamination.
Modesto’s stormwater system is different from most other cities
of its size in California. Instead of a traditional system
using pipes that flow into rivers or out into the ocean, it
heavily relies on thousands of rock wells — gravel-filled holes
that drain untreated rainwater directly into the ground.
… Rock wells work as a source of groundwater recharge,
replenishing aquifers below. But they also are easily clogged
by debris like leaves and trash, leading to major street
flooding during heavy storms.
The Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it is
redefining the scope of the nation’s bedrock clean water law to
significantly limit the wetlands it covers, building on a
Supreme Court decision two years ago that removed federal
protections for vast areas. When finalized, the new “Waters of
the United States” rule will ensure that federal jurisdiction
of the Clean Water Act is focused on relatively permanent,
standing or continuously flowing bodies of water, such as
streams, oceans, rivers and lakes, along with wetlands that are
directly connected to such bodies of water, the EPA said.
Arizona leaders sent a bipartisan letter to the Trump
administration requesting that it maintain the original 1922
Colorado River Compact as negotiations continue to address the
river’s future water rights. … In the new agreement,
Arizona leaders said they want the Upper Basin States to agree
to use less water and to share the water shortage more evenly.
… Arizona leaders are concerned that these states are
refusing to cut back on water use, which will impact the
state’s water supply. … In the letter, the Arizona
leaders said the state has developed plans with California and
Nevada to conserve 1.5 million acre-feet of water per
year.
Voracious, invasive zebra mussels hopped an upstream ride over
the summer and added 100 miles of Colorado River to their
fast-growing infestation of state waterways, Parks and Wildlife
officials said after a recent multiagency, multicounty
sampling. Previously pegged in the Grand Junction area, the
Oct. 29 sampling and subsequent analysis found adult zebra
mussels upstream in Glenwood Canyon and all the way up to the
Colorado River’s junction with the Eagle River at Dotsero, near
a private lake treated for zebra mussels in August.
Ocean waves could soon help solve Fort Bragg’s drought worries.
On Friday, the city and Quebec, Canada-based Oneka Technologies
displayed California’s first wave-powered desalination pilot
buoy. The Noyo Harbor-based buoy, part of the ResilenSea
Project, is a partnership with the city and supported by a
$1.5 million grant from the state of California. … The
system requires no batteries, grid connections or fossil fuels.
And the results of this pilot project will determine whether a
larger array of wave-powered units could eventually supplement
Fort Bragg’s municipal water supply.
Panish | Shea | Ravipudi LLP has identified Riverside, San
Diego, San Bernardino, Los Angeles and Ventura as the
California counties most susceptible to wildfires in 2026,
based on recent hazard mapping and federal risk
data. … According to the firm, environmental
conditions such as prolonged drought, high temperatures, low
humidity and strong winds including Santa Ana and Diablo winds
dry out vegetation and accelerate fire spread. It flags
additional factors such as dry lightning strikes, dead
vegetation, invasive plant species, extensive tree mortality
from pests and the build-up of fuel where natural fire cycles
have been suppressed.
The California Farm Water Coalition is pleased to announce the
selection of Michelle Paul as its next executive director. Ms.
Paul will replace Mike Wade, who is retiring in February from
his role as the Coalition’s executive director, a position he
has held since 1998. Ms. Paul was selected following a
comprehensive statewide search led by the Coalition’s executive
director selection committee, which considered a strong and
diverse field of candidates from across California. She will
join the Coalition in mid-January and assume full
responsibilities on March 1.
When controversial Las Vegas developer Jim Rhodes abandoned
plans for a sprawling community near the northwestern Arizona
city of Kingman nearly two decades ago, the vast swaths of land
he’d purchased were mostly surrounded by open
desert. Instead of walking away from his investment,
Rhodes applied for a group of industrial-scale agriculture
wells that could reach the largely untapped groundwater in the
Hualapai Valley Basin. … Today, more than 99% of the
cropland in the basin is owned or controlled by out-of-state
farming operations or investment funds. … More than half of
the basin’s cultivated land is tied to California-registered
companies, which collectively farm close to 13,000 acres.
When New Mexico water users convinced the federal government to
build the San Juan-Chama Project in 1962, they hoped it would
relieve stress on the Rio Grande. The pipeline from southern
Colorado to Northern New Mexico would bring water from the
Colorado River Basin to the Rio Grande Valley. But in recent
years, as Northern New Mexico has seen historic shortages on
the Rio Grande, water managers say the Colorado River has not
softened the blow. Rather, the two water sources have both
become more unreliable, linked to one another by legal and
natural systems that have turned stretches of wet river into
highways of mud and sand.
Dry, dry, dry. And warm, warm, warm. That’s been the weather
story across Colorado so far this November. Colorado’s mountain
snowpack is off to a slow start this season, and the Denver
metro area still hasn’t seen flurries. Snowpack levels across
the state remain far below average, though meteorologists say
weather patterns are expected to shift in the coming days,
bringing a better chance for winter storms before the end of
the month. … According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of
the state is unusually dry, while patches of Pitkin and Eagle
counties have slipped into extreme drought.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
A powerful atmospheric river weather system has mostly moved
through California but not before causing at least six deaths
and dousing much of the state. Early Monday lingering
thunderstorms pose the risk of mudslides in areas of Los
Angeles county that were recently ravaged by wildfire.
… More than 4in of rain fell over coastal Santa Barbara
county as the storm approached Los Angeles. Parts of the Sierra
Nevada received more than a foot of snow. The weather service
said scattered rain could continue through Tuesday in the
southern part of the state. Another storm was expected to
arrive on Thursday.
The Delta Protection Commission continued its
consideration on the Certification of Consistency for the Delta
Conveyance Project. Of the 11 members present, two … recused
themselves and left prior to the beginning of discussion on the
item,” a staff report following the Thursday meeting in Hood
stated. “Two of the remaining members indicated they would
abstain.” … ”That left only seven members who would be
available to vote on (the item), when eight are required for
action. The commission evaluated its options and decided to
adjourn and continue the meeting to 10 a.m. Monday via
teleconference.”
Environmental groups and Democratic lawmakers say delays at the
Environmental Protection Agency are putting Americans’ drinking
water at risk, accusing the agency of withholding critical
public health information about PFAS chemicals. Rep. Chellie
Pingree, D-Maine, said the EPA has failed for months to release
a report on PFNA, a type of PFAS contaminant. PFAS, often
called “forever chemicals,” are man-made substances found in
air, groundwater and drinking water across the country.
… Pingree sent a letter last month to EPA Administrator
Lee Zeldin demanding an update, but she said the agency has not
responded.
Three months ago, Santa Clara County’s largest water agency
voted to kill a $3.2 billion plan to build a huge new reservoir
in the southern part of the county near Pacheco Pass. The
Pacheco Reservoir would have been the largest new reservoir
built in the Bay Area since 1998 when Los Vaqueros Reservoir
was constructed in eastern Contra Costa County. … This week,
the district, a government agency in San Jose that provides
water to 2 million South Bay residents, approved a roadmap for
the next 25 years that combines new reservoir projects,
groundwater storage and recycled water. The price tag: $3.9
billion.
Last week, more than a dozen tribes across the U.S. commented
on a new proposal by the Trump administration to let developers
obtain preliminary permits for hydropower projects on
reservations in spite of tribal opposition. This rule would
apply to projects like dams, reservoirs and pump-storage
facilities — all overseen by the independent Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, which, under a Biden-era rule, does not
issue such permits without consent. The regulator is being
asked to change course by Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
When it comes to zebra mussels in the Colorado River system,
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Director Jeff Davis summed it up
this way: “We look, we find.” While Colorado’s first
detection of the highly invasive zebra mussel was in 2022,
Parks and Wildlife, alongside federal and local partners, has
ramped up testing for the species following a growing number of
finds this summer on the Western Slope. … Zebra mussels
are an invasive aquatic species notorious for their prolific
reproduction and destruction of ecosystems and
infrastructure.
At least two thirds of California’s population and more than 4
million acres of California farmland rely on water delivered by
the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project,
two of the largest multipurpose water management projects in
the world. A report released this week by the National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reviews these
projects’ monitoring, modeling, and other scientific activities
— specifically actions designed to help protect endangered
fish. … This first report examines three actions
designed to help protect fish and offers recommendations to
strengthen those actions.
Water is often taken for granted, if you’re lucky enough to
have it coming out of taps. Yet it lies at the heart of
national security. … I’m an academic specialist in the
field of trans-boundary rivers and national security. This
field of research studies the clash between the legal concept
of sovereign equality (that all countries are equal under
international law), and rights associated with river flows and
border demarcations. Disputes over rivers, from the Chobe and
Orange rivers in southern Africa to the Nile in the north, show
that being able to access water and control water sources can
determine social stability, migration, investment and even
international relations.
The CVP and SWP (referred to collectively as “the Projects”)
rarely deliver their full contracted amount of water. … [I]n
late 2023 USBR contracted with the National Academies of
Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) to form an expert
committee that could serve as an independent review for the CVP
and SWP as they operate into the future. … The three actions
chosen for the study—the Shasta Coldwater Pool Management
Action, the Old and Middle River Flow Management Action, and
the Summer-Fall Habitat Action for Delta Smelt— are perceived
as consequential for species survival and controversial for
their effects on water deliveries to contractors.
