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 Chris Bowman.
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… In an interview aired Wednesday night, Trump said he may
withhold aid to California until the state adjusts how it
manages its scarce water resources. He falsely claimed that
California’s fish conservation efforts in the northern part of
the state are responsible for fire hydrants running
dry in urban areas. … Several California
representatives agreed that the federal government must guard
against the misuse of funds but argued that the money should
not be held up or saddled with restrictions not placed on other
states after tornadoes and hurricanes. The dilemma played out
in social media posts by Republican Rep. Ken Calvert, who
narrowly prevailed in November in his swing district
east of Los Angeles. “Californians are entitled to receive
federal disaster assistance in the same manner as all
Americans,” he wrote on X. But, he quickly added, “Some federal
policy changes may be needed to expedite rebuilding as well as
improve future wildfire prevention. Those kind of policies are
not conditions.”
On Friday, in the last hours of the Biden administration, the
Bureau of Reclamation announced it would spend $388.3 million
for environmental projects in Colorado and three other Colorado
River Basin states. Now that funding is in limbo. The money was
set to come from a Biden-era law, the Inflation Reduction Act.
On Monday, President Donald Trump ordered federal agencies to
halt spending money under the act. Lawmakers were still trying
to understand whether the freeze applied to the entire
Inflation Reduction Act or portions of it as of Wednesday
afternoon. The new executive order focused on energy
spending but also raised questions about funding for
environmental projects in the Colorado River Basin, including
$40 million for western Colorado’s effort to buy powerful water
rights tied to Shoshone Power Plant on the Colorado River and
16 other projects in Colorado.
The Department of Water Resources yesterday filed a petition
with the State Water Resources Control Board to extend the
timeframe to maximize its existing water rights. This is an
important component of meeting the State’s climate change
preparedness goals and the potential to develop additional
storage of water and would help support virtually every major
water initiative underway. These include California’s Water
Supply Strategy: Adapting to a Hotter, Drier Future, the
Department’s Climate Adaptation Plan, the Healthy Rivers and
Landscapes Program, the state’s water quality control plan, and
all efforts for water reliability in and through the Delta.
… To accommodate growth in Pacific Palisades, they built a
reservoir in Santa Ynez Canyon, as well as a pumping station
“to increase fire protection,” as the L.A. Department of Water
and Power’s then-chief water engineer, Gerald W. Jones, told
The Times in 1972. Some Palisades residents had initially
fought having a reservoir so close, fearing a repeat of the
1963 Baldwin Hills disaster when a reservoir failed, killing
five people and destroying about 280 homes. In the decades
since, the Santa Ynez Reservoir became a source of comfort. …
But on Jan. 7, the reservoir that had long been a lifeline was
empty when Palisades residents needed it most, as a wildfire
spread rapidly amid dangerously high winds. … The episode has
drawn an urgent question from residents and city leaders: Why
was the reservoir empty for nearly a year?
Tulare County Farm Bureau’s $10,000 contribution to the Kings
County Farm Bureau’s legal defense fund has inspired donations
from several of its members. The donations will help support
the farm bureau’s legal fight against the California State
Water Resources Control Board, which farm bureau members
believe overreached in enforcing the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA). On April 16, 2024, the 837-square-mile
Tulare Lake Subbasin, which is almost entirely in Kings County,
was put on probation for “groundwater over pumping” and as a
consequence, groundwater pumpers in the basin were to be
assessed $300 per well and $20 per acre-foot of water. In May,
however, Kings County Farm Bureau formed the SGMA Defense Fund
to contest these and other sanctions that were to be imposed by
the water board.
A seventy-year-old stalwart is getting a much-needed makeover.
The San Diego County Water Authority is working to upgrade the
historic First Aqueduct to deliver safe and reliable water
supplies for the region. As part of the Southern First
Aqueduct Facilities Improvement project, there will be traffic
diversions and possible delays on Hardin Street between East
Washington Ave. to the north and Escondido Creek Channel to the
south in Escondido. “The Water Authority is working
closely with its member agencies to minimize impacts to
residents and business and ensure there is not interruption to
water delivery,” the agency said in a statement.
One year ago, on Jan. 22, a historic rainstorm hit the San
Diego region, bringing 2.73 inches of rain in a 24-hour period,
making it the highest level of precipitation since 1850.The
storm caused significant flooding in several neighborhoods of
the city along Chollas Creek and in other jurisdictions,
causing devastating damage to homes and businesses. During
the storm, San Diego Fire-Rescue and San Diego Police
Department teams responded to rescue multiple
people who were trapped in their homes or vehicles due to
the flooding. More than 200 water rescues were performed.
Monterey County supervisors on Tuesday declared a state of
emergency in response to last week’s major fire at the Vistra
lithium battery plant in Moss Landing. The emergency
declaration came during a special meeting where officials gave
updates on the fire and ongoing response. While the fire has
burned itself out, there are still a lot of questions from
local leaders and neighbors about what’s next. … The
county says it is going to start water quality testing this
week, but they say that is not as high of a concern as the air
quality was during the fire.
In one of the final acts of the Biden Administration
on January 10, 2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) sent a letter to the State Water Resources Control
Board regarding two petitions filed with the EPA by the
Delta Tribal Environmental Coalition (DTEC) in December 2022
DTEC includes the Buena Vista Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians,
Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians, Winnemem Wintu Tribe,
Little Manila Rising and Restore the Delta. The letter urged
swift action on the San Francisco Bay-Delta Plan in support of
Tribal and Bay-Delta communities at a time when the
Bay-Delta ecosystem is in its worst-ever crisis as Central
Valley salmon and Delta fish populations collapse.
… [The agreement] would resolve the Nation’s
longstanding water rights claims and secure much-needed funding
for regional water infrastructure projects. The Agreement
includes federal funding for a number of projects benefitting
the Nation’s members and potentially other local communities.
The Yavapai-Apache Nation Water Rights Settlement Act,
introduced last summer, proposed $1.039 billion in federal
funding for the Tribe to build and maintain essential water
infrastructure, including the Cragin-Verde Pipeline Project and
the Yavapai-Apache Nation Drinking Water System Project, a
water treatment facility and a treated water distribution
system, together known as the Tú ńlįįníchoh Water
Infrastructure Project or “TWIP”…
Coconino County officials have approved $12 million in funding
to finish a series of flood control measures put in place after
a devastating fire nearly three years ago east of Flagstaff.
The Pipeline Fire burned more than 26 square miles of mountain
slopes and forest in the San Francisco Peaks in the spring of
2022. Severe flooding in neighborhoods east of Flagstaff
followed as water rushed unchecked off slopes newly stripped of
vegetation. Since then, officials have shored up berms,
drainpipes and slope restoration to slow the water coming down
off the mountains in the rainy season. This last set of funding
will pay for construction of the final berms to be put in place
to move rushing water away from neighborhoods and from Highway
89.
Equipped with scopes, binoculars and high-powered cameras,
dozens of birders gathered at the Salton Sea State Recreation
Area in Mecca for the annual Salton Sea Bird Festival. Hosted
by the Sea and Desert Interpretive Association, San Diego Bird
Alliance and the Audubon Society, in partnership with the
Salton Sea State Recreation Area and the Sonny Bono Salton Sea
National Wildlife Refuge, the festival took place on Saturday,
Jan. 18. The annual event brings together birders,
conservationists and nature enthusiasts to observe migratory
species, discuss birding techniques, and, in recent years, to
raise awareness of the environmental challenges facing
California’s largest lake. As the Salton Sea continues to
shrink due to declining water inflows and increasing salinity,
experts warn of significant impacts on bird populations that
rely on this vital stop along the Pacific Flyway.
President Donald Trump lost no time Monday in advancing his
agenda for California’s water supply with a “presidential
action” intended to send more Delta water south to millions of
Southern Californians and San Joaquin Valley farms. The memo
calls on the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the
Interior to develop a new plan within 90 days “to route more
water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to other parts of
the state for use by the people there who desperately need a
reliable water supply.” Entitled “Putting People Over
Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to
Southern California,” Trump’s order calls for reinstating 2019
regulations drafted by his first administration. At stake are
the rules that guide operation of the federal Central Valley
Project and State Water Project, the two systems that deliver
water from Northern California rivers to San Joaquin Valley
farmers, Southern California residents and other water users in
the southern half of the state.
After a day of strong winds that helped fuel small, scattered
fires across Southern California, a reprieve from extreme fire
danger may be in sight. A small amount of rain is in the
forecast beginning late Friday through early Saturday, a
much-anticipated change of weather for the region, which has
suffered through a prolonged dry spell that has fueled deadly
and destructive fires. Nevertheless, Southern California is not
out of the woods yet when it comes to fire risk. On Tuesday
afternoon, the National Weather Service extended its red flag
warning — which had been scheduled to expire at 10 p.m. — until
8 p.m. Thursday due to an anticipated boost in wind coupled
with persistent low humidity. … Although a smattering of rain
would be beneficial for dry conditions, too much could trigger
mudflows and landslides within burn scars.
Kern water managers’ struck out again on their fourth attempt
to write an adequate plan to protect the region’s groundwater,
according to a report from state Water Resources
Control Board staff released Tuesday, which recommends the
board put the subbasin on probation at its Feb. 20 hearing in
Sacramento. Probation would bring with it requirements for
farmers to meter and register their wells at $300 each, report
all extractions and pay an added $20 per acre foot pumped to
the state. That’s on top of fees and assessments they already
pay to their water districts and groundwater sustainability
agencies. Specifically, the staff report found Kern’s
recently revised plans still don’t do enough to
protect water quality and domestic wells from going dry;
keep land from sinking around critical canals and other
infrastructure; and stem the chronic lowering of groundwater,
among other issues.
Acting Interior Secretary Walter Cruickshank has appointed more
than a dozen acting agency directors and key leadership team
members who will begin implementing President Donald Trump’s
new vision for the agency. … Appointments outlined in a
secretarial order Cruickshank signed Monday include Scott
Cameron — who previously served as Interior’s acting assistant
secretary for policy, management and budget in the first Trump
administration — as a senior adviser to the secretary and
assistant Interior secretary for water and science.
… The temporary positions also include David Palumbo as
Reclamation commissioner.
Two local organizations have been selected to receive grant
money for a drought mitigation project. The Mesa Conservation
District and Colorado West Land Trust were selected to receive
around $4.6 million in grant funds for their Drought Resiliency
on Western Colorado Conserved Lands project under the Upper
Basin Environmental Drought Mitigation Program. … According
to Holly Stanley, the executive director for the Mesa
Conservation District, the project will support working lands
through a series of ecological restoration strategies, that are
a part of a broader and transformative investment working with
farmers to address climate change and drought challenges.
… “We are honored to be part of this historic investment
in the resilience and sustainability of the Upper Colorado
River Basin,” said [Holly] Stanley. “This funding will allow us
to partner with the Colorado West Land Trust to implement
impactful strategies to safeguard water resources, restore
critical habitats, and build a more drought-resilient future…
”
Biologists, engineers, contractors, and cultural monitors with
the Klamath Tribes watch as two large machines remove scoops of
wet mud in a coordinated dance, while a mini-excavator grabs
bucketfuls of brush. Agency Lake is the uppermost portion of
Upper Klamath Lake, a massive, shallow freshwater lake just
northwest of Klamath Falls. It’s about to get a lot bigger. …
The large excavators are supported on a narrow strip of native
soil and rip-rap. The water level on the lake side of the strip
is about three feet higher than the level on the other side. As
they expand the opening, the operators will back up, removing
the strip material as they go. … Breaching this levee is like
pulling a drain plug on a massive bathtub, allowing some 14,000
acres of refuge land–specifically, the Barnes and Agency
Units–to be inundated. The reconnection with Upper Klamath Lake
will transform this vast area into diverse wetlands that
support native fish, spotted frogs, and thousands of birds that
breed and migrate through the Klamath Basin.
The research, conducted in the aftermath of the 221,835-acre
(89,773-hectare) Caldor Fire, focused on a heavily logged,
forested watershed in California’s western Sierra Nevada, and
provides findings needed to understand and anticipate post-fire
sediment risks. … Wildfires leave hillslopes vulnerable to
erosion, often leading to increased sediment transport in
streams. This sediment surge can fill up water-storage space
in reservoirs, damage infrastructure, and disrupt water
supplies, particularly in regions where fire activity is
intensifying due to climate change. Understanding the extent
and timing of sediment delivery is crucial for resource
managers assessing risks to ecosystems, water supplies, and
downstream infrastructure.
Nearly 30 million people are living in areas of the US with
limited water supplies as the country faces growing concerns
over both water availability and quality, according to a new
assessment by government scientists. The US Geological Survey
(USGS), which is part of the Department of the Interior, issued
what it said was a first-of-its-kind report last week, with
USGS Director David Applegate warning of “increasing challenges
to this vital resource.” The Jan. 16 report, based on data from
2010 to 2020, examines not only water supplies but also demand
patterns and water quality. The report showed that most of the
country had supplies that exceeded demand during the period
examined, but worrisome trends were noted.
