As two landmark water recycling projects slowly move forward,
officials want to hear from you. First up: the city of
L.A.’s effort to convert the Hyperion wastewater treatment
plant. The goal is to recycle all that treated wastewater that
currently ends up in the ocean. The city is hosting a meeting
in June to provide information about the project and to solicit
feedback. Second, the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California recently released its draft environmental
impact report for their regional water recycling project, a
partnership with L.A. County Sanitation Districts. The water
recycling facility is in Carson and the MWD will take public
comment through July 14 online, as well as through upcoming
community meetings. Both projects would treat wastewater,
which currently winds up in the ocean, to meet drinkable
standards for use at our homes and businesses.
A new Executive Director has taken the helm of the Kings River
Conservancy with a focus on community engagement and
conservation. Molly Schnur-Salimbene was named the new
executive director of the conservancy in its monthly “Kings
River Currents” newsletter. Schnur-Salimbene first joined the
conservancy as an education director about seven months
ago. She took on the role April 1 after previous executive
director Vernon Crowder announced his retirement in
January. Schnur-Salimbene hopes to “create more of a sense
of community with our local communities along the Kings and
increase our visibility” in her new role. … A new
education director was also announced. Erica Chaffee will take
Schnur-Salimbene’s former role. Born and raised in Fresno,
Chaffee has a Master’s Degree in early childhood education with
a focus in special education.
The Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District awarded a contract
to upgrade the chemical pipelines at the Back Basin Groundwater
Treatment Plant.A 5-0 EVMWD board vote May 8 authorized a
$349,737 public works contract with Tharsos, Inc., whose office
is in La Mesa, for the work. Ardurra, which has a Temecula
office, performed the design of the upgrades and the board
action also authorized a $34,000 expenditure for Ardurra staff
time during the construction phase. The total $404,952
authorized expenditure amount also covers $19,296 for EVMWD
staff time and $1,919 for overhead, and the board action also
found the replacement or reconstruction of an existing facility
to be categorically exempt from California Environmental
Quality Act review.
After a brutal spring of toxic algae blooms turning some sea
lions into sick, snarling seaside hazards, anxious beachgoers
can breathe a sigh of relief as experts say the worst of the
poisoning is over. … The California coastline can
experience large-scale blooms of algae called Pseudo-nitzschia
australis when warm water combines with excess nutrients such
as nitrogen and phosphorus. Researchers say that climate change
and an increase in agricultural runoff,
wastewater discharge and urban
stormwater have increased the scale and
frequency of these blooms in recent years. Small fish
including anchovies and sardines ingest the toxic algae, which
then bioaccumulate in larger marine mammals that eat the
fish.
The January firestorms that swept through Altadena and Pacific
Palisades destroyed not only thousands of homes but also
portions of the water and sewer systems that served them.
Smaller water systems were hit the hardest, according to a
study by UCLA researchers released Thursday. In Altadena, for
example, the burned areas covered 79% of Rubio Cañon Land &
Water Assn.’s service area and 88% of Las Flores Water Co.’s
territory. By comparison, less than 5% of the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power’s service area suffered damage.
The DWP serves about 4 million people; Las Flores supplies
fewer than 5,000. … The report notes that smaller water
suppliers such as Las Flores and Lincoln Avenue have limited
access to funds to help rebuild their systems.
Many of California’s reservoirs have filled nearly to capacity
this year with runoff from the ample snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada. But the situation is very different along the Colorado
River, another vital water source for Southern California,
where a very dry spring has shrunk the amount of runoff
streaming into reservoirs. The latest forecast from the federal
Colorado Basin River Forecast Center shows that the river’s
flows into Lake Powell will probably be about 46% of average
over the next three months. … The snowpack in the upper
Colorado River Basin reached 89% of the median level on April
1, but the outlook worsened over the last two months because of
persistent dryness, warm temperatures and dry soils in the
mountains that have absorbed a portion of the runoff.
… The water level of Lake Powell, on
the Utah-Arizona border, sits at 33% of capacity. Downstream
near Las Vegas, Lake Mead is 32% full.
Since CalTrout’s inception 50 years ago, we have worked
tirelessly to protect and restore the Eel River. This
remarkable river, the third largest in California, holds
immense potential to recover a harvestable population of wild
salmon. These salmon have long served as an economic driver on
the North Coast and have been vital to the communities that
have lived near the river for thousands of years. As
PG&E moves forward with its plans to remove Scott and Cape
Horn dams as part of its decommissioning of the Potter Valley
Hydroelectric Project, here are six things to know about how
and why this is happening.
California’s water infrastructure is buckling under the weight
of inaction. The State Water Project — the backbone of water
delivery for 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of
farmland — is being pushed to the brink by climate change,
extreme weather swings and seismic vulnerabilities. … The
Delta Conveyance Project is the critical upgrade we need. It’s
a well-studied, extensively vetted and urgently needed
modernization of the very infrastructure that underpins the
health, safety and prosperity of much of California. But
despite its importance, the DCP has been stalled for nearly two
decades by duplicative permitting, frivolous lawsuits and a
maze of redundant bureaucratic hurdles — all while our climate
risks mount and our water delivery system grows more fragile.
That’s why Governor Newsom’s proposal in the May Revise budget
to streamline administrative process is exactly the right move
at exactly the right time. –Written by Jennifer Pierre, general manager of State
Water Contractors.
Imperial Beach Mayor Paloma Aguirre once served as an
environmental fellow in Sen. Cory Booker’s Washington office.
She leveraged that contact Thursday, as the New Jersey Democrat
and former presidential candidate visited her city to see the
Tijuana River sewage pollution crisis up close and demand more
federal action to address the issue. Booker called the
situation “an environmental justice crisis” and said he will
take “what I saw here back to Washington to help make sure this
community’s fight for clean air and water is heard and
answered.” … Booker’s visit comes the day after a UC San
Diego report found dangerous chemical compounds are present not
only in the water of the Tijuana River and off the coast of
Imperial Beach, but are also aerosolized by ocean spray and
make it into the air.
… On May 19, (Paul) Westerhoff — who is the deputy director
of the National Science Foundation Nanosystems Engineering
Research Center for Nanotechnology Enabled Water Treatment, an
interdisciplinary, multi-institution nanosystems engineering
research center headquartered at Rice University — kicked off
the event, acknowledging the launch of ASU’s Global Center for
Water Technology, which he’ll be leading. Part of ASU’s ongoing
work with the Arizona Water Innovation Initiative, which began
in 2022, the new center will advance innovative technologies
that enhance water quality while generating an additional
250,000 acre-feet per year of sustainable water annually within
a decade. The center’s work will be for and about Arizona: “We
looked at what do we need in Arizona that Arizona State
University can provide,” Westerhoff said.
Fallout from the ongoing who-owes-what dispute over the still
sinking Friant-Kern Canal led to some awkward and very
carefully worded moments during a meeting to discuss
replacement pump stations. At its May 22 meeting, the Friant
Water Authority ultimately voted to restart the bidding process
to build four replacement pump stations to deliver water from
the canal to the Saucelito Irrigation District. But the
board added some strings. It will only start construction if:
Litigation filed by Saucelito and its sister districts,
Porterville and Terra Bella, regarding the “Cost Recovery
Methodology” was resolved through a settlement or
verdict; Friant had sufficient cash on hand and certainty
of funding sources necessary to cover future payments for the
parallel canal and pump stations. The vote elicited a
mixed reaction.
As hot, dry and disastrous as the last few years have been, it
appears that the chaos caused by a warming planet is just
getting started. Though the hottest year in nearly two
centuries was recorded only last year, the world will probably
shatter that record yet again by 2029, according to a new
report from the World Meteorological Organization, the climate
and weather arm of the United Nations. There is a very good
chance that average warming over the next five years will be
more than 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, or 1.5 degrees Celsius, above
preindustrial levels, the cap established by the Paris
Agreement to ward off the worst consequences of climate change.
… In the western U.S. states, including
California, those effects most probably include
drought, heat waves and longer fire seasons
with more intense wildfires, climate scientists said.
The Supreme Court on Thursday sharply limited the reach of
environmental impact statements in a victory for developers. In
an 8-0 decision, the justices said these claims of the
potential impact on the environment have been used too often to
delay or block new projects. … In Thursday’s unanimous
decision, the high court ruled for the developers of a proposed
88-mile railroad in northeastern Utah, a spur line that could
carry crude oil that would be refined along the Gulf Coast.
… Sections of the rail line would run along the
Colorado River. … Agency officials said they
haven’t yet had a chance to study the Supreme Court’s decision,
and so it is unclear what the ruling’s effect will be (on
California high-speed rail), if any. The same is true for
the Delta Conveyance Project — a proposed $20-billion
tunnel that would move water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta to cities and farmlands to the south that
is undergoing NEPA review.
The final listening session focusing on a controversial water
rule will be held Thursday in Salt Lake City to give Utah
residents a chance to weigh in. Called the Waters of the United
States, or WOTUS, the hotly contested issue
has wrangled its way up to the U.S. Supreme
Court. … An Obama-era rule issued in 2015 as an
outgrowth of a Supreme Court decision was lauded by
environmental activists and conservation groups as the most
significant and impressive overhaul of the Clean Water
Act in 42 years. … Supporters of WOTUS say it
is meant to protect the benefits of water for all people of the
United States to enjoy, not just individual property owners.
The rule, however, was derided by states, private property
owners and ranchers as regulatory overreach that stretched the
meaning of words like navigable, near or adjacent.
… Low commodity prices, declining land values, and a
tightening credit market have all contributed to increased
anxiety for San Joaquin Valley farmers, especially almond
growers. In 2024, there were 216 farm bankruptcies nationwide,
an increase of 55% from the previous year. Of that number,
California had the most with 17 farms falling into bankruptcy.
… The decline in land value led to another problem for
farmers, a loss of collateral to back up their loans. “With the
loss of those large farming entities you have a flood of land
on the market and it depressed the land values and so now you
no longer have the collateral you need,” said Hagop Bedoyan, a
bankruptcy attorney in Fresno. “Lenders like to see more of an
equity cushion.” Bedoyan added that lenders not only want
farmers to have more equity but they are also requiring farmers
to have two sources of water, surface and well
water.
The State Water Resources Control Board is launching a new and
improved system called CalWATRS (short for California
Water Accounting Tracking and Reporting System) to make
reporting water rights easier and more efficient. This system
will help the state manage water data better and make it easier
for the public to access important information. … You’ll
be able to explore and get used to the new CalWATRS system from
July through September 2025. This is your chance to try it out
before official reporting begins. Look for more information on
the CalWATRS website. … The current system, eWRIMS, will stop
accepting reports on June 8, 2025. You’ll still be able to
search for water rights information in eWRIMS after that, but
you won’t be able to submit anything new.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW) reported
the Colusa County Superior Court sentenced a Placer County man
May 21 to two years in jail for commercializing state wildlife.
According to the DFW, Justin D. Lewis conspired to
commercialize Pacific lamprey, a jawless fish that is usually
sourced commercially from Alaska and highly regarded as bait
for sturgeon and other fish. The DFW also noted lamprey have
significant food and cultural significance to Yurok tribal
members in Del Norte County and other tribal communities in the
area. Lewis sourced the fish from the Klamath River in Del
Norte County and resold through co-conspirators in Colusa
County and elsewhere, DFW confirmed. “Because of a temporary
downturn in the bait market, Lewis and others created an
illegal commercial market for California lamprey,” the DFW
stated.
The major heat wave expected in California’s Central Valley
this weekend will bring triple-digit temperatures and increased
fire risk, a harbinger for what figures to be another scorching
summer. And this year the typically cool coastal areas may not
be spared, raising the possibility of even more widely spread
wildfires for a state long beleaguered by
them. … AccuWeather senior meteorologist Scott
Homan said the chances of wildfires will also be heightened,
especially in Southern California after it received
below-average precipitation in the winter and early spring.
Most of the region is in a drought, and
significant parts are in extreme drought. …The National
Interagency Fire Center noted the snowpack has
been melting faster than usual amid warm weather in the West
and will dissipate by late June even in mountain areas that had
large accumulations, removing a barrier to wildfire spread over
the summer.
Six years after first announcing plans to walk away from
the Potter Valley Project, Pacific Gas
and Electric Company has finally revealed the staggering price
tag for dismantling the century-old hydroelectric facility:
$532 million. That’s the estimated cost PG&E submitted to
state regulators on May 15, a half-billion-dollar teardown that
will be funded by PG&E customers, many of whom also risk
losing the year-round water supply the system delivers to
600,000 people across Northern
California. … Now, with the Potter Valley Project
slated for removal, a replacement is already on the drawing
board. The New Eel-Russian Facility, led by
the Eel-Russian Project Authority, commonly referred to as
ERPA, would be built near Cape Horn Dam to keep water flowing
while restoring the Eel River’s natural processes.
