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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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.
Tucked into California’s remote northwest corner, the Smith
River winds through Del Norte County. … Down on the river’s
lower plain, though, the wilderness gives way to farmland.
Here, a handful of growers produce nearly all of America’s
Easter lily bulbs, which are then shipped off to greenhouses
across the country. The iconic plant is the most famous export
from Del Norte County — yet state scientists say decades of
pesticide use by these growers have contaminated the
tributaries that flow through those fields, threatening fish,
wildlife and nearby residents.
New research shows how a variety of natural disasters are
impacting the nation’s food supply, presenting costly
challenges to ranchers and farmers who are already struggling.
The full report covers over 3,000 U.S. counties and all 50
states. … Drought is a persistent challenge on the West
Coast, particularly in California, as well as the Southwest and
parts of the Southern Plains, where water scarcity hampers crop
yields and livestock production. In fact, California leads the
nation in agricultural losses due to natural hazards, with
farms in the state incurring an estimated $1.3 billion in
losses annually.
… [T]he [Monterey Peninsula Water Management District] board
is poised to consider finally taking the historic step of
applying to the State Water Resources Control Board to modify
its cease-and-desist order against Cal Am, which has precluded
the private utility from setting new water meters since 2009.
… [W]ith the expansion of Pure Water Monterey complete and
online as of Oct. 10, the Peninsula’s current supply of water
is more than 11,000 acre-feet annually (as approved by the CPUC
in August), while in the past water year that ended Sept. 30,
the Peninsula’s demand was 9,092 acre-feet of water.
Construction crews have begun clearing brush and working on the
road leading to the planned $165 billion Project Jupiter data
center in Doña Ana County, N.M. … Project Jupiter
intends to produce its own gas-generated electricity for now
and possibly incorporate solar-generated power later. Its four
coolers will initially require a 625,000-gallon water “charge,”
recycle it and thereafter a daily infusion of 20,000 gallons a
day. … That’s a fraction of what a 100,000 square-foot
water park would use, according to trade sources.
The Mountain Counties Water Resources
Association joined Placer County Water
Agency, The Nature Conservancy and the Sierra
Nevada Conservancy to sponsor the American River
Forest Health Legislative Tour on Oct. 13, bringing members of
the California Legislature and Capitol staff into the Sierra
Nevada headwaters. Co-hosted by Assemblymembers Diane Papan and
Joe Patterson, the tour highlighted how proactive forest
management and watershed restoration protect California’s water
supply while showcasing the power of local-state collaboration
in addressing wildfire resilience and long-term water
reliability.
… Several state legislators traveled to San Diego County on
October 10th to host a committee on the sea level rise and the
impact it might have on the state’s economy. … The
Executive Officer Of The San Diego Water Quality Control Board
Dave Gibson says his research indicates that sea level rise and
climate change are indeed real. … ”We could now turn the
question around and say, what could we do on the coast to
emphasize, expand, enhance the wetlands there, enable them to
advance inland as sea level rises,” Gibson said. “Can we create
mitigation banks along the coast in existing areas where they
can be expanded?”
The fresh waters of California support a diverse native fish
fauna, 130 taxa by our count (Leidy and Moyle 2021). At least
56 of these taxa are on trajectories towards extinction 7 are
already extinct; 32 are listed as threatened or endangered by
state and federal agencies. Not surprisingly, the declining
species attract lots of attention because protecting them
affects water use statewide. In this blog series, however, we
discuss native fishes that are not considered to be in trouble.
… The first species we discuss in this series is the
Sacramento Sucker (Catostomus occidentalis).
One of the core services provided by the Department of water
Resources is to monitor the state’s snow pack to predict annual
runoff. The department uses multiple methods including taking
remote readings from sensors high in the Sierra Nevadas called
“snow pillows.” A number of those sensors need to be repaired
and enhanced but it’s not an easy task. Crews had to trek into
the Emigrant Wilderness on horseback 18 miles for just one
sensor. … The trip took four days. And it made for epic
photos, which DWR shared online. Here are just a few.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
