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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A broad coalition of Colorado River water users is calling on
the federal government to provide at least $2 billion in new
funding for drought programs. The letter to congress comes from
a strikingly diverse group. Its co-signers include farm
districts, environmental nonprofits, Native American tribes,
cities and others. The Colorado River has been stretched thin
for more than two decades. A 26-year megadrought,
fueled by climate change, has shrunk supplies.
Policymakers across the Southwest have not done enough to rein
in demand accordingly. As a result, the nation’s two largest
reservoirs have dropped to anxiety-inducing low levels for the
users that depend on their water.
Advocates are urging the restoration of full funding for
California’s Safer program, which aims to help rural
communities address contaminated water issues and secure
long-term solutions. … The Community Water Center
highlighted the struggles of residents in unincorporated areas
such as Royal Oaks, Las Lomas, and Castroville, where
contaminated wells have been a persistent issue. … The
Monterey County Public Health Bureau identified several
contaminants in water across the state, including nitrate, TCP,
PFAS, and chromium 6, all of which can cause cancer with
prolonged exposure. … [A]round 240 households are working
together to find a long-term solution, with many relying on
bottled water as a temporary measure.
… The severe drought seizing Colorado may leave some of the
state’s most popular lakes looking more like puddles by the end
of the summer. Lakes aren’t just places for recreation and
relaxation. … Many are reservoirs, and all that water goes
toward agriculture and irrigation, in addition to the
municipalities that need it for things like drinking water.
This year, of course, there isn’t much water to go around. …
In a normal year, those snowpacks feed our rivers, which flow
into those reservoirs, leaving them plump and happy. This year,
the rivers were more like a trickle, and that not only means
not much went into the reservoirs, but that those who own water
rights will likely have to use them sooner and in much greater
gallons.
Continued dredging issues related to U.S. Army Corps of
Engineer (USACE) practices have frustrated the Port of
Stockton’s ability to reach its legally mandated 35-foot draft
undermining waterborne transport volumes of import and export
cargoes, according to Kirk DeJesus, Executive Director, Port of
Stockton. Resolving these challenges will increase cargo
volumes and growth, he said. In an interview with AJOT on
April 20th, DeJesus described problems getting the US Army
Corps of Engineers San Francisco District to fully dredge the
Stockton Ship Channel which stretches along the San Joaquin
River to Stockton, an inland river port that is a major
import/export link for warehouses and agricultural growers in
California’s San Joaquin Valley.
Descanso Gardens broke ground on a series of water reclamation,
wildfire readiness and habitat restoration projects designed to
improve long-term sustainability and public access at the
botanical garden on Monday morning. The groundbreaking ceremony
was held in the auxiliary parking lot at Descanso Gardens,
where excavation will begin on a new underground stormwater
capture system. According to Descanso Gardens officials, the
project will include a cistern system capable of storing about
1.5 million gallons of water and capturing up to 21 million
gallons of stormwater annually from a 256-acre watershed. The
reclaimed water will be reused for irrigation, lake
replenishment and habitat support.
California officials announced Friday that the State Water
Project will deliver more water than expected in 2026. The
Department of Water Resources increased the project’s water
allocation to 45% from 30% of requested supplies. … Lake
Oroville, the state’s largest reservoir, is now at 99% of
capacity, according to the California Department of Water
Resources. Across California, reservoirs are at 117% of
average levels for this time of year.
… “California’s reservoirs are full, but most snowpack
melted off weeks ago,” Department of Water Resources Director
Karla Nemeth said. “We must use this stored water carefully
because there’s no backfill until next season.”
Directors of a Riverside County water agency said to be
interested in a pair of Eel River dams, 600 miles away from
their jurisdiction, held a public meeting Thursday night that
proved revelatory. It shed light on a recent trip by Elsinore
Valley Municipal Water District directors and representatives
of a neighboring water agency to the North Coast waterworks. It
also gave both supporters and opponents of dam removal on the
Eel River a chance to weigh in on the seemingly far-fetched,
Trump-era move by the Southern California entities in a complex
Northern California water dispute. The updates and public input
came in a May 14 board meeting of the Elsinore Valley Municipal
Water District, which now has an ad hoc committee dedicated to
“exploring opportunities associated with Potter Valley,”
according to Director Chance Edmondson.
An alfalfa-growing megafarm can’t halt a public nuisance
lawsuit accusing it of excessive groundwater pumping in the
southwest corner of Arizona, plagued with fissures and land
subsidence, a state judge ruled Friday. Fondomonte
Arizona LLC, which accounts for more than 80% of groundwater
pumping in the 912-square-mile Ranegras Plain Basin,
asked Maricopa County Judge Scott Minder to pause a 2024
lawsuit filed by Attorney General Kris Mayes so the Arizona
Department of Water Resources could first implement its own
restrictions. The department designated the basin an active
management area in January and has begun a two-year process
aimed at cutting groundwater pumping by 50% over 50
years.
Data center builders don’t tell the public how much water they
use, according to a new report — and the industry is
encroaching into water-stressed and vulnerable communities. The
report, by the think tank Next10 and researchers at Santa Clara
University, finds that planned data centers — the ganglia of
artificial intelligence — are spreading to regions
reliant on overtapped groundwater and strained surface water,
with potentially major effects in the Central and Imperial
Valleys. But, reinforcing previous studies, the
researchers found that a patchwork of state, federal and local
policies allow data center operators to avoid publicly
disclosing their actual water use.
Gov. Gavin Newsom set aside $25 million for the Healthy Rivers
and Landscapes Program in his May budget revision – a Delta
Plan option strongly supported by Solano County, Suisun City
and a number of other local agencies. However, a usual Solano
water ally is not happy with Sacramento. Restore the Delta, a
coalition of regional tribes, farming, environmental and
fishing interests, called the revise a “major blow to an
already declining Delta.” It was particularly unhappy that no
funding was provided for what it says are critical Delta levee
protections. … Solano County Water Agency General
Manager Chris Lee had not seen the revise details, so he did
not want to comment. However, he has strongly advocated for
the Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program over an earlier
Unimpaired Flow state proposal that Lee and others have said
would devastate Solano.
The U.S. government has proposed a new water-sharing plan for
the drought-stricken Colorado River that could cut up
to 40% of current supplies to Arizona, California and
Nevada, according to a senior Arizona official. With a
20-year-old plan expiring this year, and talks between seven
states that share the river at an impasse, the federal
government late last week intervened with a strategy to deal
with severe water shortages, according to Tom Buschatzke,
director of the Arizona Department of Water
Resources. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation proposed a
10-year plan in which Arizona, California and Nevada would
potentially cut water use by up to 3 million acre-feet per year
to maintain water levels in Lake Mead and Lake Powell.
San Diego County officials are warning South Bay residents
about possible sewage impacts after failures in Tijuana’s
wastewater system prompted concerns about increased
cross-border flows into the United States. According to the
U.S. International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC),
emergency repairs are underway on a leak involving the Parallel
Gravity Line, a major pipeline that carries wastewater through
Tijuana. … During the repairs, pump stations known as PBCILA
and PB1 will be taken offline, forcing additional wastewater
from Tijuana’s sanitation system toward the treatment plant
near the U.S.-Mexico border. Officials say South Bay
residents could notice stronger sewage odors and increased
wastewater flows in the Tijuana River Channel while repairs are
underway.
The West is entering the summer in a drought. The Wyoming state
engineer’s office is in charge of water rights in the state.
It’s preparing for the summer with some water restrictions
already in place. Wyoming Public Radio’s Kamila Kudelska spoke
with Deputy State Engineer Jack Morey to learn about what this
summer might look like. … KK: Could you say some
examples of some tributaries that would be affected that you
said have never been affected before? JM: On the western side
of the state, there’s a lot of tributaries. … I think it
would be safe to say pretty much any tributary in Wyoming,
there’s a chance of being on regulation this summer.
As the summer boating season gets underway with Memorial Day
weekend, golden mussels continue to pose a threat to
California’s waterways, officials said. The invasive
mussels clog critical water delivery pipes, damage boats and
outcompete native fish. They also spread rapidly,
mostly via boats. On Tuesday, Kern County supervisors
declared a local emergency over the mussels, joining San
Joaquin County. Many lakes and waterways across California,
including Lake Tahoe, now require inspections before you can
put your boat in the water. “Golden mussels are not in Lake
Tahoe, and you can help us keep it that way,” the Lake Tahoe
Invasive Species Program said. Motorized boats are required to
be decontaminated before entering the lake.
Scientists predict that an upcoming “Super El Niño” will make
2026 to 2027 the hottest years on record and bring significant
sea level rise to the Bay. An update on Thursday from the
National Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center said that
El Niño is likely to emerge as soon as May and persist through
the end of winter. While El Niño, a warming of the ocean,
and La Niña, a cooling of the ocean, are natural patterns that
come and go every 2 to 7 years, this year’s El Niño could be
one of the strongest on record. … Beyond sustained sea
level rise, scientists expect major storms and flooding
starting this winter. They predict that these storms will be
particularly strong as the effects of El Niño compound with the
effects of climate change.
For the first time in three years, Morro Bay fisherman Mark
Tognazzini sailed into the harbor this month with a catch of
wild Chinook salmon. The state reopened the commercial salmon
fishery on May 1 after a three-year hiatus, and the fishermen
who survived the closure readied their boats and dashed out to
sea to catch their share of an icon of the Pacific coast.
… From May 1 to 6, fishermen across the state caught
about 16,975 salmon, according to the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife. After a two-day break to allow the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife to tally the number
of salmon caught, the fishermen launched for another five days
of fishing on May 9.
Stockton assured thousands of residents [last] week that
its tap water is safe to drink despite a foul odor, while
residents of a Mountain View neighborhood continue to face boil
restrictions weeks after their water supply was
contaminated. Stockton’s supplier, the California
Water Service, said the odor was caused by a seasonal sourcing
shift but that the supply continues to meet safety standards.
… Meanwhile, in Mountain View, water samples taken at
service lines near homes north of Cuesta Park came back clear
of bacteria this week, while a fire hydrant in the affected
area tested positive for bacteria and was disconnected from the
system, the city said in an update Friday.
In many San Luis Obispo County communities, water is the single
biggest limiting factor on development. Social media commenters
with a shallow understanding of water economics frequently
suggest that water districts are weak willed. The argument
is, “You got all the water you need, the biggest ocean in the
world is right there. Go get it.” … The county is studying
desalination as a resilient source of drinking water, and there
are certainly communities that need water — Nipomo, Los Osos
and Cambria spring to mind. But when wells and reservoirs
are full of relatively cheap water, it is hard to sell
expensive desal. It has been a long evolution of finding the
easiest cheapest water sources.
Just off Palm Canyon Drive in Borrego Springs, a dead honey
mesquite tree remains rooted in the hot sand. It’s lifeless but
not yet useless — not to the creatures that find shade under
its branches or the plants that count on its nutrients. Over
the last year, mesquite has been at the heart of a growing
water war in Borrego Springs, a tiny but scenic town deep in
the San Diego County desert that for years seemed blessed with
a rare combination of blazing sun and a font of available
groundwater. A century ago, abundant green mesquite blanketed
the landscape. But in the decades since, the forest the trees
form has deteriorated — just as the town has pumped too much
water out of its underground subbasin to sustain its farms,
resorts, golf courses and some 3,000 residents. Now,
controversy has broken out over whether that mesquite forest
relies on the same water as the town.
The likelihood of a potentially powerful El Niño taking shape
in the Pacific Ocean is rising, heightening concerns that
Southern California could be in for an extreme rainy season.
There is now an 82% chance that El Niño is likely to
emerge over the next few months, up from the 61%
chance estimated a month ago. And there’s now a 96% chance
that the climate pattern — characterized by warmer
ocean waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific — will
be in force this winter, the National Weather Service’s Climate
Prediction Center said Thursday. … While it’s no given
that El Niño will bring a potent rain season to Southern
California, some previously high-powered patterns have been
monsters.
