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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.
Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, 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.
… As part of a broader push by the administration to slash the
federal government’s footprint, Trump’s so-called Department of
Government Efficiency team has announced more than 700 lease
terminations for offices across the federal government. …
The list of leases to be terminated, published by Democrats on
the House Natural Resources Committee, includes five
sites now utilized by Reclamation staff: the
Columbia-Pacific Northwest Regional Office in Boise,
Idaho; the Southern California Area Office in
Temecula, California; the Western Colorado
Area Office in Durango, Colorado; Trinity
River Restoration Program Office in Weaverville,
California; and the Bend Field Office in Bend,
Oregon.
Other water and natural resource agency
jobs and funding news:
Despite recent political posturing over water management in
California, the state’s top water official says her agency is
working closely with the federal government to maximize
long-term water resilience for people and farms. Karla Nemeth,
director of the California Department of Water Resources,
asserts officials from the State Water Project and federal
Central Valley Project communicate daily, and sometimes even
hourly, to calibrate water movement through the state’s
elaborate but aging system of canals and reservoirs. She said
improving conveyance and storage with projects such as Sites
Reservoir, the proposed Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
tunnels and groundwater recharge will provide agriculture with
a more reliable water supply. “There’s a lot happening in
water management in California and Washington, D.C.,” Nemeth
said recently at the American Pistachio Growers’ annual
conference in Monterey, Calif. “In a lot of ways we’re aligned,
regardless of what you see in the press.”
For the first time in decades, the White House will no longer
have National Environmental Policy Act rules. But it will take
some time to see changes in how the bedrock environmental law
is applied, legal experts say. Project developers are grappling
with the potential consequences of President Donald Trump
scrapping the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s
NEPA regulations — rules that since 1977 have told federal
agencies how to analyze the effects of building pipelines,
transmission lines, highways and wind farms.
… Legislation introduced in Congress would prohibit the EPA
from using any of IRIS’ hundreds of chemical assessments in
environmental rules, regulations, enforcement actions and
permits that limit the amount of pollution allowed into air and
water. The EPA would also be forbidden from using them to map
the health risks from toxic chemicals. The bills, filed in both
the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives earlier this year,
are championed by companies that make and use chemicals, along
with industry groups that have long opposed environmental
rules. If it becomes law, the “No IRIS Act,” as it’s called,
would essentially bar the agency from carrying out its mission,
experts told ProPublica.
Tea Pot Dome Water District has agreed to pay Friant Water
Authority $1.4 million in exchange for relief from its role in
a contract designed to pay for damage to a 33-mile section of
the Friant-Kern Canal. It also agreed to give Friant
pumping data that’s at the heart of a much larger
dispute. The deal is one small piece of the ongoing
conflict between Friant and several of its own member
contractors over who should pay – and how much – to fix
the Friant-Kern Canal, which has been sinking due to excessive
groundwater pumping.
Ian James is a veteran climate and water reporter at the Los
Angeles Times. His recent stories have exposed misinformation
surrounding California’s water supplies and wildfire
response. … Together, he and Sammy break down the facts
that will shape our climate future, and our ability to survive
it.
California lawmakers have introduced a bill to ban private
firefighters, like those who saved many buildings in the
Palisades and Eaton fires, from using public hydrants, saying
firefighting is a “public good.” Assemblyman Isaac Bryan, D-Los
Angeles, introduced Assembly Bill 1075 with the support of the
California Professional Firefighters Union, which claims
private firefighters are not trained or equipped as well. …
Bryan said he has no problem with wealthy individuals paying to
protect their properties but added that private firefighters’
drawing of water from hydrants could have contributed to the
hydrants running dry.
Ted Page, a long-serving director of the powerful Kern County
Water Agency, announced his resignation from the board
Wednesday. … The agency provides wholesale supplies to
water purveyors serving large sections of east Bakersfield. It
owns rights to high flow water on the Kern River. It is one of
six entities that control the massive Kern Water Bank.
And it is one of three members that govern the Kern River
Groundwater Sustainability Agency, which monitors water tables
and can set pumping limits. … The process to fill Page’s seat
will commence immediately and be completed over the next 60
days.
Every year, when winter swells bring San Diego’s best waves to
their fullest potential, local surfers flood the lineups of
popular spots like Black’s and Swami’s. But some of the
heaviest and most dangerous surf lies further south, off the
coast of Imperial Beach. The area’s crown jewel, Tijuana
Sloughs, sometimes serves up 20-plus-foot waves that break up
to a half-mile from shore. Even as the surfing population has
exploded, however, IB remains empty in comparison to the rest
of San Diego, thanks to the pollution that plagues its waters.
Surfers in IB don’t just check the surf cams and swell
forecasts—they monitor the water data from the nearby
International Boundary and Water Commission.
Trinity Dam has been a source of anxiety ever since Oroville
Dam on the Feather River almost failed during the megastorms of
2017. Both are earth-fill dams, and both are vulnerable to
overtopping. … (D)am safety advocates first warned of the
threat to the Trinity River’s dams during the spectacularly wet
winter of 2017, when Oroville’s main and emergency spillways
were eroded by exceptionally heavy rains and a high reservoir
level. … (I)t’s only likely to worsen under President
Trump, given his administration’s wholesale firing of
government employees in essential public safety and science
positions.
A criminal investigation by the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Law Enforcement Division and the Stockton
Police Department has resulted in a suspect being identified
and charged on suspicion of a September 2024 illegal petroleum
dumping incident that impacted the Smith Canal Waterway in
Stockton. … The multi-agency effort recovered oil from the
waterway and removed impacted soil along the canal. David
Andrew Sump was arrested and arraigned on charges stemming from
his alleged role in dumping approximately 280 gallons of waste
oil into the waterway and surrounding environment.
The city of Folsom began work on the 24-inch water pipe running
down East Bidwell Street to Folsom Ranch. Folsom currently
provides water to more than 25,000 connections. The major city
project lays a new 24-inch pipeline to provide reliable and
redundant water service to Folsom Ranch. Part of the plan is to
take advantage of unused Folsom water rights to the American
River and the lake, staff said. … Much of Folsom water by
right does not get used in typical years, authorities said. A
portion of the water saved, which would otherwise flow down the
American River for others to use, will serve Folsom Ranch
instead, staff explained.
Key Trump administration officials have signaled their strong
support for finalizing a $1.3 billion Biden-era loan for a
lithium production plant in impoverished Imperial County,
according to county officials who met with them in Washington,
D.C., last week. … (Trump) promised in his address to Congress
on Tuesday that “later this week, I will also take historic
action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals
and rare earths here in the USA.” That statement, following the
Feb. 28 meeting between Imperial County officials and more than
half a dozen federal officials, has buoyed local officials’
hopes, said County Supervisor Ryan Kelley, who was there and
who represents the area around the Salton Sea that holds the
rich underground deposits of lithium, zinc and manganese.
A massive new reservoir project in Northern Colorado is closer
to reality after its architects settled a lawsuit with an
environmental group seeking to block construction. The Northern
Integrated Supply Project, or NISP, will go ahead sooner than
expected after a lawsuit settlement. Northern Water will pay
$100 million into a trust after Save the Poudre, a nonprofit,
agreed to drop its lawsuit. That money will fund river
improvement projects. The controversial water project, which
will cost around $2 billion to build, has been tied up in
planning and permitting for more than two decades.
Every day, the United States’ extensive water supply system
faces pressure to deliver safe water. Now, University of
Vermont (UVM) scientists have invented a new tool using AI to
help communities better predict threats to their supply.
New research published today by Vermont scientists shows how an
already-existing computer system—the federal government’s
National Water Model—can be modified, with AI and real-time
data from sensors, to go beyond simply forecasting stream
flow—to predicting water quality too. … The framework
developed by the team has national applicability, as it can be
adapted nationwide, allowing water plant operators and other
managers to learn about their water quality constituent of
interest, such as phosphorus, nitrogen, nitrate, turbidity, or
chloride.
Wildlife officials are encouraging California residents to add
a rodent to their daily diet as part of efforts to control the
invasive species’ population. The nutria, a large, semi-aquatic
rodent native to South America, is threatening the state’s
ecosystems by destroying habitats and outcompeting native
wildlife. The nutria’s harmful impacts have prompted wildlife
officials to promote hunting and consumption as possible
solutions. … To mitigate their impact, CDFW has removed
about 5,500 nutria from California wetlands as of early
February. The highest concentration of these rodents were found
in Merced, Fresno, Stanislaus and Solano counties.
A divided Supreme Court on Tuesday made it harder for
environmental regulators to limit water pollution, ruling for
San Francisco in a case about the discharge of raw sewage that
sometimes occurs during heavy rains. By a 5-4 vote, the court’s
conservative majority ruled that the Environmental Protection
Agency overstepped its authority under the Clean Water Act with
water pollution permits that contain vague requirements for
maintaining water quality. The decision is the latest in which
conservative justices have reined in pollution control efforts.
Lake Mead, the largest man-made reservoir in the United States,
is at the center of a major conservation effort involving
federal funding and regional cooperation. … Tucson, Arizona,
secured $86.7 million from the Bureau of Reclamation to
construct an advanced water purification facility. The
agreement, part of a broader $257.6 million federal investment
in Arizona’s Lower Colorado River Basin System Conservation and
Efficiency Program, ensures Tucson will leave 56,000 acre-feet
of Colorado River water behind Lake Mead over the next
decade. … Beyond Tucson, the Town of Gilbert also
secured nearly $17 million in federal funds to improve water
metering and conservation efforts, adding 8,500 acre-feet of
water savings over the next 10 years.
Fourteen California water agencies have appealed to Interior
Secretary Doug Burgum, urging him not to proceed with planned
staff reductions at the Bureau of Reclamation. The agencies
argue that terminating 100 employees will not benefit
taxpayers. The Bureau of Reclamation, which oversees water
infrastructure projects such as Millerton Lake and the Friant
Kern Canal, is set to reduce its workforce through terminations
and buyouts. … A letter signed by representatives from
irrigation districts, water, and canal companies in California
was sent to Secretary Burgum.
… Snow levels will start around 6,500 to 7,500 feet on
Wednesday but will drop to 3,000 to 4,000 feet across much of
the state by Thursday morning. The central and southern Sierra
Nevada will see the heaviest snowfall, with 1 to 2 feet
expected above 6,500 feet by Friday. Lower amounts, around 6
inches to one foot of snow, are forecast for areas near Lake
Tahoe and Mammoth. Even the peaks of the Inyo Mountains,
including areas near the Mojave Desert, will receive a few
inches of snow.
