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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Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday toured wastewater treatment
facilities on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border, marking his
first in-person visit to the sites undergoing critical upgrades
to reduce rampant sewage polluting Tijuana and south San Diego
County communities. The California leader started his tour at
the San Ysidro-based South Bay International Wastewater
Treatment Plant, which on Tuesday will begin a yearslong effort
to repair and expand its capacity, which has long been
insufficient for treating Mexico’s sewage. He then traveled to
the San Antonio de los Buenos plant in Baja California, which
also is being overhauled after at least a decade of dumping
millions of gallons of untreated wastewater into the Pacific
Ocean. Years of negligence and underinvestment in wastewater
treatment plants in both countries have resulted in sewage and
toxic chemicals pouring over the border, leaving people ill
with headaches, nausea, respiratory issues and other symptoms.
State water regulators are in the early stages of easing
environmental rules for desalination plants along California’s
coast to boost water supplies as the climate changes. The State
Water Resources Control Board kick-started its process to amend
its ocean protection standards for desalination plants at a
scoping meeting Monday after Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered the
regulator to consider streamlining new projects in August 2022.
Though the board has yet to publish new draft rules, staff said
Monday they were looking to speed permitting, especially for
novel technologies, and clarify how and when to measure and
mitigate the loss of marine life to the highly saline water
that plants discharge back into the ocean. They are also
interested in requiring projects to prove a strong need for the
additional water supply.
Key state officials negotiating the future of the
drought-ravaged Colorado River said Monday that a multi-state
agreement is still in the works, even as “sticky issues”
continue to bar consensus and prompt the Interior Department to
shift back an expected analysis of any plans. Anne Castle, the
Biden administration’s appointee to the Upper Colorado River
Commission, outlined the change in timing for developing the
next operating plans for the Colorado River during a meeting of
the group on Monday. She said the Bureau of Reclamation will
not publish in December a full draft environmental impact
statement analyzing the options, as had been originally
planned. The delay comes as the seven Colorado River states —
Arizona, California and Nevada in the Lower Basin and Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the Upper Basin — continue to
debate a potential consensus agreement dictating how the pain
of future cuts to water supplies would be shared.
A years-long legal battle that could result in billions of
gallons of oil being shipped along the Colorado River will go
before the United States Supreme Court in December. The case,
Seven County Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, asks the
Supreme Court to review a lower court decision that found there
was insufficient environmental analysis of a railway project in
eastern Utah. That project, the Uinta Basin Railway, would
construct about 80 miles of new track in order to connect oil
production sites with existing train routes. Opponents
said that expansion would increase the risk of hazardous
material spills into the most important waterway in the Western
United States. The concerns prompted a lawsuit from Eagle
County to halt the project. At issue is whether or not the
National Environmental Policy Act requires agencies to consider
environmental impacts beyond the immediate scope of the
project. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C.
Circuit ruled that the Surface Transportation Board erred by
not considering risks to the Colorado
River.
This week, California is set to experience its first widespread
precipitation in months. From Wednesday through Saturday, a
series of cold fronts will bring significant rain and snow,
particularly across Northern California and the Sierra. On
Wednesday, a strengthening low-pressure system will move
southward from the Gulf of Alaska toward California. A strong
cold front attached to the storm will first push into Northern
California on Wednesday, then sweep through the rest of the
state late Wednesday and into early Thursday morning. By
Wednesday afternoon, moderate to heavy rain will develop along
the Northern California coast, with 0.25 to 0.5 inches expected
in just a few hours from Eureka to Crescent City. Precipitation
will spread inland overnight and into Thursday morning,
bringing 6 to 12 inches of snow to the mountains around
Shasta Valley.
Republican Rep. John Duarte and Democrat Adam Gray are running
for California’s 13th congressional district with the hopes of
either keeping the U.S. House of Representatives red or
flipping it to blue. … Duarte and Gray were in Modesto on
Friday for a debate at the State Theatre. Here’s what they had
to say. Duarte was asked how he plans to help Modestans
and the surrounding area if re-elected to the House. “Modesto
here is a thriving community, because we had a vision for the
water rights on the Tuolumne River,” Duarte
said. “If you look at the Modesto Irrigation District and the
history of Modesto, they’re very closely tied.” …“Here in
Stanislaus County, if you go a little bit further out of town
here, You’re going to find Dos Rios, which is the new State
Park– It’s actually the newest in the State of California,”
Gray said. … The Dos Rios state park was established in
partnership with River Partners, who thanked Gray as a
“longtime floodplain advocate.” “They protect us from floods
when we have big wet years off these rivers and you can just
put the water out into these floodplains and they recharge
groundwater,” Gray said.
State water regulators are leaving their options open for how
best to protect endangered fish and distribute water in the San
Francisco Bay and Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta under a draft
plan released Friday. The release intensifies a bruising battle
between environmentalists, tribes and fishing groups on one
side and cities and farmers on the other over managing the
state’s main water hub, which supplies water to most
Californians as well as habitat to migratory birds and
endangered fish like chinook salmon. The State Water Resources
Control Board detailed several alternatives in its draft plan
for meeting state and federal water quality standards,
including requiring minimum flows on the Sacramento and San
Joaquin rivers and tributaries, settling with water districts
that’ve proposed instead to limit their deliveries and pay for
habitat restoration, and a combination of both.
Fast-growing fires were responsible for nearly 90% of
fire-related damages despite being relatively rare in the
United States between 2001-2020, according to a new study.
“Fast fires,” which thrust embers into the air ahead of rapidly
advancing flames, can ignite homes before emergency responders
can intervene. The study, published recently in Science, shows
these fires are getting faster in the Western U.S., increasing
the risk for millions of people. “In California, we’ve been
transfixed by so-called megafires because of their massive
size, but it turns out that the most destructive fires are ones
that grow so fast they can’t be stopped,” said Professor
Crystal Kolden, director of the UC Merced Fire Resilience
Center and a co-author of the study. “Fast fires are the ones
that destroy homes and lives.”
Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water) has announced
the completion of the construction of the last stretch of a
1,736-foot tunnel adjacent to the Anderson Dam in Santa Clara
County, California. By using a specialised micro-tunnel boring
machine (TBM), construction crews drilled the final 347ft,
reaching depths of 30ft below the water’s surface. Last month,
divers and crane operators removed the TBM, lifting sections of
the machine using a large crane. Although the tunnelling work
is complete, additional tasks remain before dam construction
can commence, said the California public agency responsible for
managing the water resources in Santa Clara County. Valley
Water is preparing the downstream creek channel to accommodate
increased water flow from the new outlet tunnel and is
installing a structural lining inside the tunnel to ensure
added support. The Anderson Dam tunnel project is part of the
larger $2.3bn Anderson Dam seismic retrofit project. Upon its
completion, the new, larger tunnel will increase Valley Water’s
capacity to release water from the reservoir in emergencies,
enhancing the dam’s safety measures.
Wind-strewn dust from California’s lithium-rich, shrinking
Salton Sea may be triggering respiratory issues in children who
live nearby, a new study has found. Among the many symptoms —
worse for those young people who reside closest to the saline
lake — are asthma, coughing, wheezing and sleep disruptions,
according to the study, published in Environmental
Research. About 24 percent of children located in this region
have asthma, in comparison to the national rate of 8.4 percent
for boys and 5.5 percent for girls, the authors found. Of
particular concern to the researchers was the fact that these
abnormally high rates affected predominantly low-income
communities of color around 150 miles southeast of Los Angeles.
Nearly 775,000 illegally cultivated cannabis plants across the
state were eradicated in a joint effort by California Attorney
General Rob Bonta’s office and local and federal law
enforcement partners. The enforcement was part of the
Eradication and Prevention of Illicit Cannabis program (EPIC),
Bonta announced this month. … The teams recovered 201
weapons, and removed infrastructure, including dams, water
lines, and containers of toxic chemicals, such as carbofuran,
methyl parathion, aluminum phosphate, zinc phosphide, and
illegal fertilizers, state officials reported. Carbofuran,
in particular, poses untold risks to public health, state
officials said. A lethal insecticide that is banned in the
United States, carbofuran remains on plants after application
and seeps into soil and nearby water sources.
… Kettleman City’s location at the junction of Highway 41 and
Interstate 5 — the country’s busiest interstate — brings high
pollution levels. Contaminated water is still a problem for the
community despite some improvements in recent years. At the
same time, hundreds of thousands of acres of agricultural
fields have created extreme levels of pesticide pollution.
There’s even a human waste compost facility and multiple
shipping facilities, like FedEx and UPS. … There have
also been vital victories for residents. Since 2017, community
advocates have secured improved air and water monitoring
supported by state grants. In 2018, the town’s campaign against
diesel emissions saw the state help with educational efforts
and “No Diesel Idling.” The biggest victory coming out of the
civil rights agreement was convincing the state to replace the
town’s aging and unreliable water treatment system and water
source.
Demolishing the Phillips 66 Santa Maria Refinery will have only
one “significant and unavoidable” environmental impact,
according to the final environmental impact report for the
project. … The draft environmental impact report
analyzed how demolishing the oil refinery and remediating the
soil would effect the environment surrounding it. On Thursday,
the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission voted
unanimously to certify the report and approve a coastal
development permit for the demolition and remediation project.
… The Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board
will set standards for and oversee the remediation efforts. The
soil will be cleaned up to an industrial land use standard,
while the water must be cleaned to “background level,” which is
the state of the water before contamination occurred, county
project manager Susan Strachan said.
The South Tahoe Public Utilities Department (STPUD) held a
stakeholders advisory group and public information meeting
regarding how they deal with recycled water. The plan is open
for comment from October 24 to November 11. STPUD was
established in 1950 to provide drinking water and provide
sewage collection, treatment, and export for the South Tahoe
community. Since California has limited water supplies, the
entire state has recycled wastewater for decades through
chemical and microbiological treatment. STPUD is no different
and currently recycles 100% of its wastewater. Because of
the Porter Cologne Act, which protects water quality and water
use in the state, the STPUD began exporting its wastewater to
facilities in Alpine County in 1967, a response to
environmentally protect the watershed of Lake Tahoe. Since
then, STPUD has worked with Alpine County and Harvey Place
Reservoir to store and distribute wastewater—a costly endeavor,
as the water must be pumped over 26 miles over major elevation
changes.
Seats at the Monte Rio Community Center were full Thursday
night for what residents thought was the final step before
county supervisors forced them into an unpopular and expensive
plan to replace their septic systems. Clarity only came
late in the meeting, when Deputy County Administrator Barbara
Lee attempted to calm frustrated residents. Until then, the
prevailing assumption was the Sonoma County board of
supervisors would decide in January whether every household in
Monte Rio and Villa Grande had to connect to a new sewer line
or create community leach fields, all at a cost of tens of
thousands of dollars per home.
… An estimated eight to ten species of lamprey are native to
California (Auringer et al 2023), providing many ecological and
cultural benefits. … And, like salmon, carcasses of
anadromous species (such as the Pacific lamprey) shuttle marine
nutrients to our freshwater rivers after completing upstream
spawning migration. It is likely that all native species
of lamprey in California are in decline, yet a dearth of
information on their ecology and population status makes it
difficult to know how to conserve them. This is especially true
of the small and often forgotten river resident species like
the endemic Kern brook lamprey pictured below. Indeed, lampreys
are one of the least studied groups of fishes in
California. Without these important ecosystem engineers
and aquatic health indicators, we could miss processes
with big roles in keeping our freshwater systems healthy and
full of life. And importantly, population declines of
Pacific lamprey threaten Indigenous culture and food
sovereignty for tribal communities.
AB 460 addresses a critical gap in our state’s water management
by substantially increasing the fines that the State Water
Resources Control Board can impose on illegal water diverters.
This is particularly important during critically dry years in
sensitive watersheds, where every drop of water counts.
Previously, the penalties for illegal water diversion were so
minimal that they could be easily disregarded, essentially
creating a loophole in our water protection efforts. AB 460
closes this loophole, giving real teeth to existing laws and
providing a powerful deterrent against harmful water use
practices. CalTrout’s primary focus in supporting this
bill was to discourage illegal water diversions during
curtailment actions, which harm both fish and downstream water
users. These diversions pose an existential threat to our
state’s already limited water resources, particularly during
drought conditions when our rivers and streams are most
vulnerable.
The Biden and Newsom administrations will soon adopt new rules
for California’s major water delivery systems that will
determine how much water may be pumped from rivers while
providing protections for imperiled fish species. But
California environmental groups, while supportive of efforts to
rewrite the rules, are criticizing the proposed changes and
warning that the resulting plans would fail to protect fish
species that are declining toward extinction in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and San Francisco Bay.
… The rules under revision govern dams, aqueducts and
pumping plants in California’s two main water systems, the
Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, which
deliver water to millions of acres of farmland and more than 25
million people. Pumping to supply farms and cities has
contributed to the ecological degradation of the Delta, where
threatened and endangered fish species include steelhead trout,
two types of Chinook salmon, longfin smelt, Delta smelt and
green sturgeon.
In the push to stop burning fossil fuels, California may find
itself becoming less of a national power player after November.
That’s if Donald Trump or the Supreme Court dismantles one of
the state’s key weapons against carbon emissions, a
half-century old Environmental Protection Agency waiver program
that allows California to set regulations that are stronger
than federal rules. … Among other programs, [Pres. Joe]
Biden’s landmark climate law is expected to support the state’s
transition to clean energy with funding for renewables, to
modernize the electric grid and expand EV charging
infrastructure. The state climate bond, Prop 4, will also fund
a wide variety of programs from clean drinking
water to habitat restoration across the state.
A federal judge on Friday granted in part a preliminary
injunction against a Northern California county accused of
discriminating against its Asian American population over
access to water. The plaintiffs live in parts of the county
with no wells or other means of accessing water, and say that a
blanket prohibition on transporting water offsite — which isn’t
enforced across the board — disproportionately hurts Asian
American residents.
