Northern Kings County residents and landowners are being asked
to have a say in how a local groundwater agency responds to
domestic wells going dry. At its Nov. 6 special meeting, the
South Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) board
approved releasing a draft of its $1.5 million well mitigation
program for public comment for 30 days beginning Nov.
10. The draft program will aid domestic well owners, well
dependent-communities and industrial well owners whose wells
have gone dry or whose water quality has suffered due to
excessive pumping.
After years of back and forth, new flood maps with major
implications for property owners’ land values, insurance rates
and building costs along a watershed stretching from Santa Rosa
to Rohnert Park are in a final phase of review and approval.
Sonoma County challenged maps produced by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency that come with flood insurance requirements
and added building restrictions for those deemed in higher-risk
flood areas of the Todd Creek watershed. After the federal
agency rejected its appeal, the county launched its own flood
study in 2023, completed earlier this year. The results
showed a different flood hazard designation for 289 — nearly
one-third — of the 964 parcels affected, with more than half
removed from a flood zone.
Environmental organizations supporting the removal of the
Potter Valley Project dams will host a virtual and an in-person
workshop this month to help residents craft comments for
submission to the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. Friends of the Eel River, Save California
Salmon, the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter and California Trout
are hosting the two-hour workshops, which will explain the
groups’ reasons for supporting the removal of the Scott Dam and
the Cape Horn (also known as Van Arsdale) Dam.
A recent change in the Bay Area’s tap water has some residents
noticing a different taste, but officials have said it’s
completely normal. The East Bay Municipal Utility
District, which supplies water to 1.4 million
people, said it is going through “seasonal
adjustments,” which might be why the tap water tastes a little
off for some people. … [T]he utility district is blending
more local sources with the Pardee Reservoir on the Mokelumne
River, Andrea Pook, a spokesperson for the utility district,
told SFGATE. … This shift happens regularly, Pook said,
and it occurs when the water needs to be pulled from different
treatment plants and local reservoirs based on operational
needs.
Hyacinth, an invasive and seasonal plant, is once again
invading Stockton waterways. This year’s bloom came into
downtown Stockton from the Tuolumne River, breaking off during
the last storm. … ”If you can’t have a bar pilot enter
the ship from San Francisco Bay and come upstream because their
radar is showing large mats of hyacinth, they pretty much call
Stockton and West Sacramento saying we’re gonna have to drop
anchor because we cannot distinguish between land and the
weeds,” California State Parks Boating and Waterways
Environmental Program Manager Edward Hard explained. Hyacinth
also brings mosquitoes [and affects] water
conveyance.
Nevada and six other Colorado River states failed to reach a
broad agreement Tuesday on how to share the river’s dwindling
water supply, missing a federally-imposed deadline after days
of intense closed-door negotiations. Despite missing the
deadline, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of
Reclamation indicated states would be given additional time to
continue negotiations after making “collective progress.” …
The Bureau of Reclamation – which manages water in the West
under the Interior Department – initially gave states until
Nov. 11 to submit a preliminary agreement for a plan that could
replace the river’s operating guidelines set to expire at the
end of 2026. The initial timeline also called for states to
share a final consensus-based plan by mid-February
2026 in order to reach a final agreement in the summer
of 2026 with implementation of the new guidelines beginning in
October 2026.
A strong, wet storm was set to deliver gusty winds, heavy snow
and drenching rains across California beginning Wednesday
evening, and forecasters are growing increasingly concerned
about its potential to bring flash flooding to Southern
California in the coming days. This complex system will bring
potentially the most widespread and heaviest precipitation to
the state so far this fall, and the heavy soaking is expected
to bring a decisive end to the state’s wildfire season.
… Pulling in moisture from the tropics, this storm is
warm. Rain is forecast at lower elevations and snow will fall
only at the highest elevations.
The Valley’s two largest water providers will connect their
systems, allowing water from the Salt River Project into the
Central Arizona Project canal system. The project would give
SRP and CAP the flexibility to move water through the Valley.
Combined, the two providers serve the vast majority of
Arizonans. SRP water comes from the Salt and Verde Rivers. CAP
water comes from the Colorado River and is in danger of taking
cuts. SRP and CAP have different service areas. The proposed
SRP-CAP Interconnection Facility (SCIF) would allow water
users, like some central Arizona cities and towns with rights
to SRP water to access it.
This month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is
accepting public comments on PG&E’s surrender and
decommission plan for the Potter Valley Project, which would
remove the Scott and Cape Horn dams from the lower Eel River
and replace the utility’s water diversion facility with a New
Eel Russian Facility. Friends of the Eel River and Save
California Salmon, alongside other partners, have teamed up to
host a series of events along the North Coast to update the
public on the dam removal process and help community members
navigate FERC’s public commenting process.
The Colorado River states are still divided — so much so that
they could not reach a broad agreement on how to manage the
river by their federal deadline. The Department of the
Interior gave seven Western states, including Colorado, until
Tuesday to indicate whether they can reach any level of accord
on how the water supply for 40 million people
should be managed in the future. The current agreement, which
has governed how key reservoirs store and release water
supplies since 2007, expires Dec. 31. … In a joint
statement Tuesday, the seven states and federal officials said
they recognize the seriousness of the basin’s challenges as
drought and low reservoirs have put pressure on the river’s
water supplies.
For the first time in more than a year, the House and Senate
produced compromise spending bills that could lay the
groundwork for a broader deal to fully fund the government. …
The legislation contains about $1.4 billion to support the
“revitalization of aging water and wastewater
infrastructure,” according to a summary. USDA’s
Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations budget would get $50
million under the negotiated proposal. An additional $3 million
would be set aside “for the rehabilitation of aging dam
infrastructure.” … Lawmakers added language to
increase by $2.6 million the statutory funding ceiling on the
Bureau of Reclamation’s Calfed Bay-Delta
program, which supports ecosystem restoration, water
supply management and levee integrity.
President Donald Trump nominated a former lawmaker from New
Mexico on Wednesday to oversee the management of vast public
lands that are playing a central role in Republican attempts to
ramp up fossil fuel production. The nominee for the Bureau
of Land Management, former Rep. Steve Pearce of New Mexico,
must be confirmed by the Senate. … The Sierra Club said
in a statement that Pearce was “an opponent of the landscapes
and waters that generations of Americans have
explored and treasured.” … The National Cattlemen’s Beef
Association and Public Lands Council said in a joint statement
that Pearce “understands the important role that public lands
play across the West.”
The Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) have taken a huge leap
forward in their ongoing efforts to protect and preserve their
namesake. Last week, the tribal council voted to acknowledge
legal personhood status for the body of water. The Nov. 6 vote
follows similar actions other tribes have taken to safeguard
natural resources. However, CRIT has made history as the first
community to ever bestow personhood status on the Colorado
River. The move came in response to overuse of water resources,
according to a Tuesday announcement from the tribes.
… As a legal person, the Colorado River has the right to
be protected under tribal law.
When Amazon proposed building its Project Blue data center in
Tucson, Arizona, the company faced intense pushback. Residents
raised concerns about the enormous amounts of water and
electricity that the data center would need—two major ways such
projects impact the environment, especially in a desert
city. … A study published this week in the journal
Nature Sustainability makes that connection even clearer. Led
by researchers at Cornell University, the study analyzed the
environmental impact that data centers could have in the U.S.
as their growth continues, and created a state-by-state look at
where those data centers should go to avoid the worst effects.
Thanks to their use of a unique methodology, a McGill-led
research team has obtained new insights into how boulders
affect snow melt in mountainous northern environments, with
implications for local water resources. The team found
that snow near boulders melts faster, not only because rocks
radiate heat, but also due to subtle processes that reshape the
snow’s surface. This information will help researchers
understand how small-scale processes affect downstream water
resources. … The paper is published in the journal Cold
Regions Science and Technology.
Last month, a trash boom strung across the Tijuana River
channel just inside U.S. territory stopped 40 tons of materials
during a one-hour rain event – as the trash gets removed and
sent to area landfills, another environmental issue has
surfaced. Dumps north of the border are having to take in the
additional trash coming in from Mexico compounding a critical
shortage of landfill space, according to Oscar Romo, director
of Alter Terra, a binational environmental group. All of it has
to go into a landfill in San Diego.
A fast-moving atmospheric river is heading toward California
this week and could pack a punch, threatening periods of heavy
rain and possible flooding and debris flows in recently burned
areas. After arriving in Northern California on Wednesday, the
storm system is expected to land in Southern California on
Thursday, where it could remain all the way through Saturday.
… The storm could also bring heavy snow to the Sierra
Nevada, and meteorologists were already discouraging travel
between Thursday morning and Friday morning. Donner Peak
could get 12 to 18 inches of snow.
Iran’s president has warned that the capital is facing an
unprecedented water and energy crisis as reservoirs have
plunged to historic lows, threatening supplies of drinking
water and electricity generation. … The city has entered
its sixth consecutive year of drought, with some dams at less
than 10% of capacity. Officials say that in the east of Tehran,
the Latyan Dam — one of five key reservoirs — is only about 9%
full. … Experts say the link between water availability
and electricity generation has become increasingly evident, as
hydropower output drops and thermal plants struggle with
cooling shortages.
A federal project cutting trees on the American River Parkway
to fortify banks against flooding could be stalled as a judge
heard arguments Friday from environmental groups seeking a
preliminary injunction. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
planned flood protection measures at the lower American River,
Natomas East Main Drainage Canal, Arcade Creek and Magpie
Creek. … The American River Parkway is at the heart of a
lawsuit filed by Sacramento nonprofits and the Center for
Biological Diversity, a national environmental conservation
group. A judge will consider whether to block a 3.3-mile
portion of the Corps’ work, between Watt and Howe avenues.
Observers have rejoiced at recent sightings of Chinook salmon
swimming past former Klamath River dam sites toward historic
spawning grounds. Scott White, general manager of the Klamath
Drainage District, shared in the celebration but grew nervous
after spotting Chinook in canals used to divert water to
agricultural land. … The 2016 Klamath Power and
Facilities Agreement, made among state, federal and other
stakeholders in the Klamath Basin, set a goal to limit new
regulatory burdens on irrigators from the reintroduction of
fish species, like salmon. Part of the agreement was to support
“entrainment reduction facilities” — or fish
screens. White is frustrated that it has remained
unfilled.
