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 Interim Director Doug Beeman.
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As climate change continues to drive global sea level rise,
many people living in coastal areas are already seeing the
effects. Coastal erosion is accelerating and shifting
coastlines inland, and storm surges are getting worse. But
lurking beneath the surface is another major consequence that
is thus far poorly understood: rising
groundwater. Evidence suggests that in some low-lying
coastal regions with shallow groundwater, rising sea levels
will drive a simultaneous rise in groundwater levels, with
potentially serious risks for homes, businesses, and other
infrastructure.
… (W)hat Donald Trump covets is what Canada has: critical
minerals, oil, trees, a massive slice of the Arctic and an
abundance of freshwater. It is the liquid assets that
bubbled into the conversation in September when Trump, in
reference to the Columbia River, talked about taking a very
large “faucet” in British Columbia and steering its waters
south, thereby solving drought-stricken, wildfire-prone
California’s problems. … No wonder Canada, the
resource-rich jewel of the north, with its rivers and two
million freshwater lakes, including the Great Lakes, four of
which — Erie, Huron, Ontario and Superior — are shared between
the two countries, is coveted by Trump.
California almond growers are used to dealing with swings in
the weather and water supply. Now they must also grapple with
the uncertainty of trade battles as the Trump administration
levies tariffs on goods from several countries and weighs
adding more to the list. With more than three-quarters of
California’s almond crop headed for export, tariffs could
impact where the nut is headed and send ripple effects
throughout the state’s economy, experts said. The state is the
biggest producer of the world’s almonds, accounting for about
80 percent of the global supply. Already, China has
responded to Trump’s move by raising tariffs on U.S. almonds —
and that’s on top of tariffs levied on the nut in the last
Trump administration.
It’s been nearly seven years since water began accumulating in
the crawlspace of Doug Ridley and Sherry Shen’s condo — an
alarming discovery that led to the uncovering of an
abandoned artesian well under their living
room that would wreak havoc on the couple’s lives. … Now, the
HOA and its former president, Steve Moritz, will be responsible
for more than $1.8 million in damages — a number that one of
the couple’s attorneys, Terry O’Hara, said is the largest known
award in California against an HOA for fraud and elder abuse.
Several feet of snow will fall across parts of the Sierra on
Wednesday and Thursday in what will be one of the most powerful
storm systems to impact California’s mountains so far this
winter. The midweek storm system won’t have an excessive amount
of moisture and will qualify only as a weak atmospheric river
event. However, an extremely favorable and efficient
environment for snow generation will exist in the Sierra over a
36-hour period stretching from Wednesday morning through
Thursday evening. … This storm system will also bring snow
to the mountains of Southern California. … (B)ut snowpack
levels are expected to remain slightly below normal.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the
nation’s premier agency for weather and climate science, has
been told by the Trump administration to prepare to lose
another 1,000 workers, raising concerns that NOAA’s lifesaving
forecasts might be hindered as hurricane and disaster season
approaches. The new dismissals would come in addition to the
roughly 1,300 NOAA staff members who have already resigned or
been laid off in recent weeks. … Some activities, including the
launching of weather balloons, have already been suspended
because of staffing shortages. Together, the reductions would
represent nearly 20 percent of NOAA’s approximately
13,000-member work force.
Other weather and natural resource agency layoff news:
The city of Paso Robles joined a countywide effort to create an
agency that could charge fees for pumping water out of the Paso
Robles Groundwater Basin, despite public outcry during a fiery
City Council meeting Tuesday night. The approved agreement
paves the way for sustainable and collaborative management of
the basin, which was determined by the California Department of
Water Resources to be in “critical overdraft,” according to
Paso Robles public works director Christopher Alakel. Annually,
pumpers use around 13,700 acre-feet more water than is returned
to the basin each year. … But dozens of community members
voiced opposition to the decision — with some going as far as
alleging that Paso Robles staff and officials were siding with
special interests to take away their constitutional water
rights.
After the Washington Post revealed late last week that the Army
Corps of Engineers knew that releasing water from two
California reservoirs at President Donald Trump’s direction in
January was unlikely to reach the southern part of the state,
Rep. Mike Levin, D-Calif., is demanding answers from the
Pentagon and the Department of Interior for what he calls the
“politically motivated, uncoordinated, unscheduled, and opaque
water releases” in the Central Valley between Jan. 31 and Feb.
2. “We fear that these releases were conducted to placate
the President’s vow to ‘open up the valves’ to bring more water
to Los Angeles to combat the devastating wildfires—which had
already been 100% contained by that point,” Levin wrote in his
letter Tuesday.
The Trump administration will consider easing regulations under
which it considers the safety of existing chemicals — drawing
concerns from public health advocates. The administration
announced Monday that it was weighing a rewrite of the rules
that govern safety screenings for these substances, which
decide whether they should be restricted. If implemented,
such changes are ultimately expected to prevent further
regulations on chemicals.
Millions of gallons of raw sewage spilled from a construction
site in Tijuana and found its way into San Diego County early
Sunday. The spill came after a few days of rain already flushed
the polluted Tijuana River Valley. … The international
collector is a new pipeline meant to deliver raw sewage to
wastewater treatment plants in the U.S. and Mexico. Tijuana
crews are currently installing a bypass to prevent sewage from
escaping while the new collector is put online. An IBWC
spokesman confirmed something happened early Sunday morning but
could not elaborate.
… Old underground storage tanks are scattered across
communities of all levels of vulnerability. Often relics of old
gas stations, they frequently leak gasoline into the
surrounding soil and groundwater. As cleanups go, they are
relatively simple, and the cleanup protocol is consistent
across sites. … The state Water Resources Control Board,
which oversees the cleanups of underground storage tanks, is
aware that cleanups take longer in more vulnerable communities.
Annalisa Kihara, the agency’s assistant deputy director in the
Division of Water Quality, said the agency is revising its
process to prioritize communities that are most burdened with
pollution, and that it has an initiative for expediting stalled
cases.
After a California judge denied environmentalists’ claims that
the Hells Kitchen lithium extraction project approved by
Imperial County was not adequately studied for water supply,
air pollution and tribal issues, the two groups are pressing
on. Their appeal filed on March 7 in California’s 4th District
Court of Appeal could stall the already badly delayed
project. Comite Civico del Valle and Earthworks charged in
a lawsuit a year ago that Imperial County violated the
California Environmental Quality Act by approving the project
by relying on an environmental impact report that failed to
adequately analyze and alleviate impacts, including possible
air pollution, hazardous waste and impacts to diminishing
county water supply.
Irvine Ranch Water District was deeply saddened to hear of the
passing of former Board Member Mary Aileen Matheis — a valued
leader in the water industry, the Orange County community, and
in state and national professional and charitable circles. Mary
Aileen served as an IRWD Board member from 1988 to 2020,
serving four times as president and eight times as vice
president during that time. She was pivotal in the creation of
IRWD’s San Joaquin Marsh and its Campus, and in the development
of the District’s water infrastructure, water efficiency and
supply diversification efforts that has made IRWD an
internationally recognized leader in water-supply reliability.
(Mary Aileen Matheis was a long time board member of the Water
Education Foundation.)
… (Before) investing $168 million to construct a 13-mile
pipeline over a half decade (while diverting 3,800 acre-feet to
4,750 acre-feet out of the Russian River’s ecosystem, let’s
first build resilience from within. Marin could quietly augment
our water security through a fast and affordable strategy that,
oddly, no one seems to be talking about: reduce systemic
losses. … In short, every day, for each of our 63,853
metered connections, MMWD leaks 21.5 gallons, misplaces another
9.6 and sends us 320 ridiculously cheap gallons to spray around
wherever and however we want. –Written by James Workman, author of the award-winning
book “Heart of Dryness” and founder of water credit platform
AquaShares Inc.
… Nutria are rodents native to South America, but they are
causing a headache for crews in California. … Crews are now
getting help from outside the state. The Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta Conservancy supplied an $11 million grant to bring in
detection dogs from the East Coast. The dogs are experts at
finding nutria scat, which helps find the best area for DFW
crews to set traps. Congressman Josh Harder has backed bills
authorizing federal funds in the fight. “These nutria cost
places like Louisiana hundreds of millions of dollars every
year in infrastructure losses,” Harder said. “That’s going to
happen to California if we don’t get this eradicated.”
An international company is asking for a 100-year extension to
continue mining operations along the San Joaquin River. If
approved, crews with CEMEX would blast hard rock and
drill a 600-foot-deep pit at one of the two sites for the
Rockfield Project located on Friant Road north of Willow
Avenue. According to the Draft Environmental Impact
Report (DEIR) for the project, the output would increase
to 3 metric tons in about 10 years, causing production in the
area to double. The changes are sparking some concern among
community members and environmental advocates in Fresno
County.
San Diego utility customers will see another upcharge on their
water bills starting May 1 after a 5.5% rate adjustment was
approved by the San Diego City Council last week. The city of
San Diego said the rate hike passed last Tuesday was a
pass-through charge necessary to cover a 14% increase approved
by the San Diego County Water Authority in July 2024. …
The SDCWA, which obtains water on behalf of 22 local agencies,
said the increase would help cover infrastructure, operation
and maintenance costs.
City of Redding staff members are urging water conservation,
going along with new California guidelines. They said the State
Water Board recently rolled out new regulations across
California, including indoor water use limits. Now, they
stated, each person per household should not use more than 47
gallons of water per day, which is roughly a 15% drop from
previous regulations. There’s no penalty right now for people
who exceed the amount, but it’s possible the city could have to
pay as a result. … Following the new requirements, the
city has begun a campaign called 47 Tips for 47 Gallons,
offering weekly water conservation pointers.
In a significant conservation effort, over 200 critically
endangered Southern California steelhead trout, rescued from
Topanga Creek following the devastating Palisades Fire in
January 2025, have been successfully relocated to The Land
Trust for Santa Barbara County’s Arroyo Hondo Preserve. This
release made possible through a partnership between The Land
Trust, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW),
and Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica
Mountains (RCDSMM) marks an important step in the preservation
of the region’s native fish populations and their habitats.
The Trump administration is pulling back on staff firings at
the federal agency that runs California’s sprawling water
system after the cuts threatened undercut President Donald
Trump’s order to maximize water deliveries to farms, according
to three agency staffers. The Bureau of Reclamation employees,
who were granted anonymity due to fear of reprisals, said
political officials have paused an additional planned round of
terminations across the federal agency that manages Western
water and are bringing back five previously fired employees of
the California office. The move comes after POLITICO reported
that the firings were impacting Reclamation’s ability to
operate facilities that are crucial to carrying out Trump’s
executive orders calling for California water supplies to be
dialed up.
