A fast-moving atmospheric river is heading toward California
this week and could pack a punch, with the possibility of
periods of heavy rain, and a risk of 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. … Sacramento could get up to 2
inches of rain. The storm could bring heavy snow to the
Sierra Nevada. … Donner Peak could get 12 to 18
inches of snow.
General manager Deven Upadhyay has guided Metropolitan Water
District through major droughts and much more. As he prepares
to retire at the end of the year, we sat down with him to talk
about his experiences guiding an urban water agency through the
volatile 21st century. … [Upadhay:] Metropolitan is the
largest treated drinking water provider in the US. Just a few
years ago, 85% of our revenue came from volumetric fees on the
amount of water we delivered each year and just 15% of our
revenue came from fixed charges—but our costs were the
opposite. We’ve been struggling with that. … We’re looking at
multiple tools to raise revenue, including levying fixed
charges and property taxes and conducting water sales outside
of our service area.
Stockton’s downtown waterfront faces an annual takeover by
invasive water hyacinth, a fast-growing plant that can blanket
thousands of square feet of water in a single season. Deemed
“hopeless” by PBS in 2015, the plant returns each year to San
Joaquin County waterways, including McLeod Lake in Stockton,the
Calaveras River and the broader Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Known as “the fastest-growing plant in the world,” a single
hyacinth can wreak massive ecological and economic damage,
making it one of California’s most destructive invasive
species. Unlike other invasive plants, experts say eradication
is nearly impossible, leaving ongoing control as the only
viable solution.
Water and sewer rate increases proposed in October to take
effect in 2026 for Oceanside residents and businesses were cut
in half Wednesday by the Oceanside City Council, but only for a
year. Water department employees initially asked for increases
of 6% for water and 4% for sewer in 2026 and again in 2027, but
the council pushed for belt-tightening and postponed a decision
after complaints from residents at the Oct. 1 meeting. The
revised proposal, approved 3-2 Wednesday with Mayor Esther
Sanchez and Councilmember Rick Robinson opposed, calls for a 3%
hike for water and 2% for sewer in 2026 and then the 6% and 4%
increases in 2027.
The County of San Diego has selected Olivewood Gardens and
Learning Center as the new operator of the Tijuana River Valley
Community Garden, ensuring continuity for hundreds of plot
owners at the region’s largest community garden. Olivewood
Gardens, a nonprofit founded in National City, will serve as
interim operator for up to one year following the Resource
Conservation District of Greater San Diego County’s decision to
terminate its lease in September due to health and safety
concerns related to the Tijuana River sewage crisis.
The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors has approved a
nonbinding resolution in support of PG&E’s plan to
decommission the Potter Valley Project’s dams. The resolution
was approved 3-2. … [Supervisor Ted] Williams’
resolution, included on the Oct. 21 Board of Supervisors
agenda, got new additions and edits and was moved forward to
last week’s meeting as an alternative to a separate resolution
sponsored by Cline and Norvell. Williams’ resolution outlines
the positive impacts of the removal of the dams, such as fish
restoration and support for local Native American communities,
including the Round Valley Indian Tribes.
Chemical-laden dust from southern California’s drying Salton
Sea is probably harming the lungs of people around the
shrinking body of water, and the effects are especially
pronounced in children, new peer-reviewed research from the
University of California, Irvine, shows. A separate
peer-reviewed study from the University of California,
Riverside, also found the Salton Sea’s contaminated dust seemed
to alter lung microbiome, which could trigger pulmonary
problems that have been reported around the lake. The two
new papers are part of a series of studies that are revealing
the environmental and public health risks of dust from the
drying Salton Sea.
Pacific Gas and Electric has announced it will stop diverting
water through the Miocene Canal. This change is taking effect
after the Butte County Board of Supervisors recently approved
an amendment to a 2014 water supply agreement between Butte
County, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office, and
PG&E. Currently, PG&E diverts water from the West
Branch Feather River at the Miocene Head Dam, runs it through
about 500 yards of the canal for measurement purposes, and then
returns the water back to the river. The water eventually flows
into Lake Oroville and is used in the State Water
Project.
The Colorado River Indian Tribes have formally accorded
personhood status to the Colorado River, creating a powerful
new mechanism to protect the eponymous river that makes life
possible in their arid homelands. The resolution was approved
by the CRIT Tribal Council on Nov. 6 in Parker.
… Granting personhood to natural resources, such as
rivers, allows people or parties to take legal action to
protect them. For example, forum participants said a person
could sue a company or entity that pollutes a river because the
river has the right to be pollution-free.
The Kings County Farm Bureau is passing the hat to raise
between $1.5 million and $2 million to take its legal claims
against the state Water Resources Control Board to the
California Supreme Court. “We’re not stopping,” Executive
Director Dusty Ference told a gathering of about 30 farmers
Friday. … Ference referred to opinions issued last week
by the Fifth District Court of Appeal that both sided with the
state by tossing out a preliminary injunction and kept the meat
of the Farm Bureau’s lawsuit intact for trial in Kings County
Superior Court.
Negotiators for seven Western states are under mounting
pressure to reach an agreement outlining how they plan to share
the Colorado River’s dwindling water. The Trump administration
gave the states a Tuesday deadline to agree on
the initial terms of a plan for cutting water use to prevent
the river’s reservoirs from declining to dangerously low
levels. Because California uses more Colorado River water
than any other state, it will play a central role in any deal
to take less from the river.
Aquafornia is taking off Monday, Nov. 10, to
observe Veterans Day, but will return with a full slate of
water news on Tuesday, Nov. 11, on the official holiday.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and the
Yorba Linda Water District celebrated today the dedication of a
new helicopter hydrant at the Robert B. Diemer Water Treatment
Plant – providing firefighters a new, strategically located
water source for aerial fire suppression. … The Diemer
Helicopter Hydrant holds 8,500 gallons of water and can be
continuously refilled in less than 10 minutes via a gravity-fed
water line from Diemer Plant’s treated-water reservoir.
Ventura Water is proposing to raise the rates by over 10% each
year starting in July 2026 through 2031. That means a
typical single-family home that pays around $118 a month for
water and wastewater will pay around $137 a month by 2027 and
around $219 a month by 2031. … [Ventura Water General Manager
Gina] Dorrington said that this funding is needed to replace
aging infrastructure and for projects including Ventura Water
Pure, which will recover, purify and reuse water for the
community. But the estimated cost of the project has
increased to over $100 million over the past few years.
… Despite the uncertainty, there is growing confidence that a
storm will impact much of California by
Thursday, potentially the rainiest of any storm so far
this season. … One potential outcome of the complex
weather pattern is a prolonged period of wet weather, not only
in Northern California, but across the entire state. … The
[National] weather service highlights two areas of California
for the greatest chances of heavy precipitation: the Sierra
Nevada and the Southern California coastline. It’s too early to
speculate whether precipitation will fall as rain or snow in
Tahoe, but the agency also predicts heavy snow in the
highest elevations of the Sierra.
Other weather and water supply news across the West:
The Board of Supervisors discussed a resolution requesting
equitable Proposition 4 funding distribution for the New River
during the regular board meeting Tuesday, Nov. 4. Deputy CEO of
General Services for the County of Imperial, Gil Rebollar …
said that within the water chapter of Proposition 4, a
$10-billion climate bond that voters approved in Nov. 2024,
“there’s a specific line for California-Mexico rivers and
coastal waters.” … Rebollar said the resolution places
Imperial County on record as saying that the New River and
Salton Sea projects are eligible for a funding allocation and
emphasizes that Imperial County is seeking an equitable share
of the funding.
The Trump administration will soon propose changes to a Clean
Water Act regulation that allows states and tribes to veto
major energy projects over water pollution concerns. EPA’s
pending “Clean Water Act Section 401 Water Quality
Certification Improvement Rule” was sent Wednesday to the White
House Office of Management and Budget for interagency review,
according to a notice from the office. Section 401 of the
law requires companies seeking a permit from the Army Corps of
Engineers, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or other
agencies to also obtain a water quality certification from
states or tribes in which their project is located.
A state legislative committee failed to pass a bill draft last
week that would have placed a 10-year moratorium on all cloud
seeding activities in the state. During the moratorium, the
Wyoming Department of Environmental Quality would have been
tasked with completing a study of cloud seeding impacts
compared to baseline conditions, according to the initial bill
proposal – but University of Wyoming Atmospheric Science
Department Head Jeff French said that plan wouldn’t be
“scientifically sound.” … “The only way I could see us
actually being able to measure the effectiveness of cloud
seeding is by doing a focused study that includes cloud
seeding.”
State officials grilled Water Development Office Director Jason
Mead this week over ballooning costs and uncertainties dogging
three dam projects after he told them one project on the
Colorado border would cost $150 million, nearly double the
original estimate of $80 million. … The proposed
reservoir would release stored water into the Little Snake
River, which flows back and forth across the Colorado border
before leaving Wyoming for good, flowing into the Yampa, Green
and Colorado rivers. The dam and reservoir would allow Wyoming
to use more water from the Colorado River Basin.
Progress appears to be happening in the high-stakes
negotiations over the future of the Colorado River. Ahead of a
Tuesday deadline by the Trump administration for a deal in
principle, the Colorado River Commissioner for Utah said in a
statement to FOX 13 News that they may get there. … “We’re
making steady progress on key issues the federal government has
identified, aiming to reach broad alignment by November 11—even
if the finer details come later,” said Gene Shawcroft.
