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.
State officials may have solved the puzzle of how zebra mussels
got into the Colorado River. On July 3, Colorado Parks and
Wildlife officials discovered a large number of adult zebra
mussels in a privately owned body of water in western Eagle
County. On Monday, Madeline Baker, an invasive species
specialist with CPW, told members of the Colorado Basin
Roundtable they believe this private lake is an upstream source
of the mussels that have contaminated the Colorado River, the
Government Highline Canal, Highline Lake and Mack Mesa Lake.
… Baker said that the lake’s owner is collaborating with
CPW on a mitigation plan. … Zebra mussels are a prolific
invasive species that if left unchecked could clog irrigation
infrastructure, and strip the plankton and nutrients from the
water.
Emergency hiring plans are underway in an effort to keep two
Central Valley weather stations fully staffed in the wake of
federal budget cuts. The National Weather Service’s Sacramento
and Hanford offices have been operating for months with reduced
staff. California legislators have issued dire warnings about
the service reductions, calling the cuts “the beginning of a
public safety crisis.” … [Tom Fahy, the legislative
director for the union that represents the National Weather
Service] said in late July there were 11 vacancies among the 29
staff positions at the NWS’s Sacramento office, including eight
unfilled meteorologist roles. Three technical staff vacancies —
an observing program lead, or OPL, an assistant electronic
systems analyst and an administrative assistant — are also
leaving gaps, he said.
A western Fresno County groundwater agency hopes to increase
pumping fees by about 212%, from $8 per acre foot to $25 per
acre foot, in a bid to avoid state intervention. The Pleasant
Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) board agreed at
its July 29 meeting to put the proposed fee hike to a vote of
its growers through a Proposition 218 election, which is
required before increasing land assessment or pumping
fees. A hearing is scheduled for Oct. 28 where growers can
protest the proposed increase. If the pumping fee hike
succeeds, the Pleasant Valley Water District, which also acts
as the GSA, would reduce existing land assessment fees from $6
per acre to $3.25 per acre. The money from the pumping fee is
needed, according to GSA board members, to pay for a revised
groundwater plan. The Department of Water Resources deemed
the region’s existing plan inadequate in
February.
With the removal of four dams on the Klamath River,
Californians now have a new place to kayak, raft, fish and
explore. In the footprints of century-old reservoirs in a
remote area near the Oregon border is a fresh 45-mile stretch
of restored river that flows freely through a varied landscape
of striking basalt canyons, evergreen forests and grassy
valleys. There’s palpable excitement in witnessing the river
corridor come back to life, and opportunities abound for
world-class whitewater paddling and steelhead fishing.
… Friday marks the opening of five newly installed
recreation sites along the Upper Klamath – three in California
and two in Oregon. There’s been limited access since May but
the sites are fully open as of Aug. 1.
In Puerto Rico’s most rural municipalities, residents are often
not connected to the main water system. The Puerto Rico
Aqueduct and Sewer Authority (PRASA) owns and operates 95
percent of the public water supply and wastewater systems in
the archipelago, but rural residents must rely on smaller
aqueduct systems for their potable water. Unpaid
community members often volunteer to maintain these smaller
systems, doing the work out of passion and care for their
neighbors despite having far fewer financial resources than
PRASA. But when federal funding that helps communities maintain
their water systems is cut, the way that individuals are able
to maintain these systems is impacted. Weather patterns
attributable to climate change, such as more frequent and
powerful storms, exacerbate this issue.
State water officials are worried about how to protect
residents from drinking water contaminated with “forever
chemicals” — and how shifting federal regulations will affect
their responsibilities. During a meeting this week with the
Environmental Protection Agency on its plan to rescind and
reconsider President Joe Biden’s landmark drinking water
standard on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), state
officials and industry representatives complained that
regulatory uncertainty was placing communities in a bind.
… At least 250 bills have been introduced in about 36
states this year to address PFAS by banning the chemicals in
products, setting maximum levels in drinking water and
allocating funding to clean up contamination. Dozens of states
have passed regulatory standards for at least one forever
chemical in drinking water.
A Sacramento agency that’s been criticized by the grand jury
for its poor operational and safety practices is now being
dissolved. The Del Paso Manor Water District has been in
business since 1956, serving customers in the Arden-Arcade
area. Now a new district is taking over. A long list of
problems needs to be fixed in the Del Paso Manor Water
District: rusted and corroded underground pipes, contaminated
water wells and fire hydrants with broken valves. … But
now a solution may be in sight. The Del Paso Manor District is
being merged into the neighboring Sacramento Suburban Water
District, which has big plans for improvements. … A top
priority is replacing outdated underground pipes that are
leaking and can’t provide enough water for firefighting.
The Energy Department released a report this week promising a
“critical review” of climate science, coinciding with the
Environmental Protection Agency’s move to end climate
regulation across the federal government. But scientists
say the report, drafted by researchers known for questioning
mainstream climate science, is riddled with errors and
cherry-picked data. … The Washington Post annotated key
sections of the new report with the help of climate scientists.
… Scientists argue that the new report, composed in less
than two months by five authors known to have skeptical views
on climate science, would not pass any peer review process.
… Sulphur Creek was intended to be part of a movement.
Billions of dollars in former President Biden’s Bipartisan
Infrastructure Law (BIL) and Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) were
meant to be “a freaking game-changer” for conservation and
climate work in the Bay Area, according to one expert Bay
Nature interviewed when we first began tracking that money
in June 2023. … This legislation has been in the
crosshairs of the Trump administration since before its January
inauguration; early executive actions froze BIL and IRA
funding. … Still, a lot of this money has already been
awarded locally—more than $1.4 billion, in fact, according to
Bay Nature’s reporting. What kind of difference can it still
make—especially as Trump claws back funds and eviscerates
federal natural-resource agencies?
… The state Legislature came to a (partial) rescue in 2011 by
passing SB 618, which cut the cancellation fee in half for
farmers who want to transition to solar. To qualify for the
break, however, applicants must prove that the soil on their
land can no longer sustain farming. That program has not been a
rousing success; over its first nine years, only three
applicants pursued solar easements under SB 618, according to
the state Department of Conservation. Now, another bill, AB
1156, would expand eligibility to include land that can no
longer be farmed due to water shortages.
… It’s hard to see any downside to this legislation. If
land isn’t fit for farming and is too remote or otherwise
unsuitable for much-needed housing development, using it to
boost California’s clean energy production makes sense.
The EPA has approved the Yurok Tribe’s request for authority
under the Clean Water Act to develop water quality standards
for rivers and streams on its lands. “This action recognizes
the Yurok Tribe’s capability to protect water resources that
are vital to cultural practices, public health, and local
ecosystems,” the agency said in a statement. With this
approval, the Tribe can establish water quality standards for
its Reservation, which will be subject to EPA review and
approval before taking effect. These standards will help guide
decisions on water protection and management. “The Yurok Tribe
will now be able to develop standards that reflect both
scientific criteria and the Tribe’s priorities for protecting
fish habitat and ceremonial uses,” EPA officials said.
County authorities are warning the public to take precautions
when going to Avocado Lake after elevated levels of E. coli
were found. The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control
identified elevated levels of the bacteria after a sample was
collected on Wednesday. The sample surpassed the Statewide
Bacteria Water Quality Objectives established by the California
State Water Resources Control Board. E. coli is a bacterium
found in the intestines of warm-blooded animals and serves as
an indicator of fecal pollution in water. Officials say
elevated levels may indicate a higher risk of illness for
swimmers who interact with the water.
Tribal leaders and environmentalists are asking the Bureau of
Land Management to reverse course on a southern Arizona mining
project it green-lit at the end of June. The Copper Creek
Exploration Project is the beginning stage of what could become
an open-pit copper mine across a roughly 25 square mile stretch
near a portion of the San Pedro River in the Galiuro mountain
range northeast of Tucson. … The groups argue the BLM’s
Safford Office, which conducted the assessment, didn’t fully
consider the project’s impacts on surface water,
groundwater, and wildlife habitat as is required by
federal laws like the National Environmental Protection Act.
The top-line findings of a massive analysis of the growth rate
of more than 20,000 tropical trees in over 30 countries may at
first seem reassuring: that droughts over the past century have
had a minimal effect on their growth. Because tropical forests
play a crucial role in naturally sequestering carbon dioxide
(CO2) from the atmosphere—combatting global warming—the trees’
resilience should be a relief. However, the study, published on
July 31 in the journal Science, also raises concerns that this
resilience is highly likely to wane as the planet continues to
warm and the frequency of droughts increase. As announced by
the United Nations last year, the global effort to reach the
“net zero” target for carbon emissions by 2050 will not succeed
at the current rate of progress—resulting in more frequent and
severe extreme weather events.
San Francisco just quietly notched one of the wettest Julys in
the city’s history, according to National Weather Service data
going all the way back to the 1870s. Dylan Flynn, a
meteorologist for the agency’s Bay Area office, confirmed the
statistic to SFGATE on Thursday afternoon, explaining that
lingering drizzle from the marine layer squeezed out one more
hundredth of an inch of precipitation on Sunday. That puts July
2025 in a four-way tie for the city’s eighth-wettest July, with
eight hundredths of an inch of accumulated
precipitation. The weather service’s downtown San
Francisco weather station, one of the oldest climate sites in
the country, previously tracked the same amount of
precipitation in July of 1906, 2011 and 2014.
Where does the evapotranspiration that rises from forests and
grasslands come back down as rain? This was the question that
Ruud van der Ent asked as a hydrology graduate student. He
wondered if he could make a map of the world that would show
this flow of moisture around the world. Van der Ent worked with
his professor, the renowned Hubert Savenije to make this map.
They published this in a paper called “Origin and fate of
atmospheric moisture over continents”. … This is the map
they made. It shows where evaporation that goes up, will become
rain again on the same continent. … I was really happy
when I managed to track down Professor Ruud van der Ent, and he
agreed to do this interview. Below is an edited excerpt
from the interview.
Crescent City — one of California’s northernmost towns and Del
Norte County’s lone city — took a close-to-$1 million hit to
its harbor after tsunami waves battered the North Coast earlier
this week. Harbormaster Mike Rademaker told SFGATE in a
call that initial estimates put the damage from rough seas
triggered by the 8.8-magnitude quake off Russia’s coast at
$100,000. Now, Rademaker said, “It’s probably getting closer to
$1 million.” … [Crescent City] recorded the highest tsunami
waves in the continental U.S. — up to 4 feet — with powerful
surges arriving just before dawn, lifting docks off their
pilings and slamming the harbor.
While the Bureau of Reclamation in on the right track as it
weighs how to split flows from the drought-stricken Colorado
River, any new agreement must include “clear, binding
commitments” by all states to reduce or conserve water,
California’s lead negotiator said. For nearly two years,
officials with the seven Colorado River states — Arizona,
California and Nevada in the Lower Basin; and Colorado, New
Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the Upper Basin — have been in
negotiations over a new long-term operating agreement for the
drought-stricken waterway. They face a November deadline from
the Bureau of Reclamation to strike a deal. States
negotiators revealed in June that they have begun to coalesce
around a deal based on “natural flow” — or estimates of how
much water would be in the river without human-interventions
like diversions or dams.
Adult winter-run Chinook salmon have been spotted in northern
California’s McCloud River for the first time in nearly a
century, according to the California department of fish and
wildlife (CDFW). The salmon were confirmed to be seen near Ash
Camp, tucked deep in the mountains of northern California where
Hawkins creek flows into the McCloud River. A video posted by
CDFW and taken by the Pacific states marine fisheries
commission shows a female Chinook salmon guarding her nest of
eggs on the river floor. … The Winnemem Wintu Tribe has
long fought the enlargement of the Shasta dam, which has
hindered salmon hatching by warming water temperatures above
the chilly range that salmon prefer to lay their eggs in.
A plan that would have stopped the flow of essential forecast
data from a trio of aging military satellites during the middle
of hurricane season has been nixed after widespread pushback.
Statements from the U.S. Navy and the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration confirmed on July 29 that data flow
from microwave sounders on the trio of Department of Defense
Satellites would continue until sometime next year as
originally planned, backtracking from earlier announcements in
May and June. The sounders track rain and winds over
the oceans and ice. … Losing half the
microwave data available to forecasters decreases the ability
to identify the most dangerous storms, the ones that intensify
quickly and catch forecasters and the public off guard.
