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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The numbers are so vast, so enticing that they tantalize like a
desert oasis. Deep below the surface in Arizona – roughly a
quarter mile underground – sit large volumes of water that are
less salty than the ocean, but not easily used. At a depth of
1,200 to 1,500 feet, between 530 million and 700 million
acre-feet fill this layer statewide. If it were all pumped to
the surface and purified, this brackish groundwater would
supply Arizona’s water needs for a century or more. Problem is,
it can’t all be pumped. Though the numbers are legitimate – and
detailed in an updated state assessment that was published in
August – the reality for brackish groundwater, at this point,
is more of a mirage. Exploiting this resource to satisfy the
state’s demand for water in an arid climate is not as simple as
drilling wells.
Air quality management commonly aims to mitigate nitrogen oxide
(NOx) emissions from combustion, reducing ozone (O3) and
particulate matter (PM) pollution. Despite such ongoing
efforts, regulations have recently proven ineffective in rural
areas like the Salton Sea Air Basin of Southern California,
which routinely violates O3 and PM air quality standards.
… We conducted a source apportionment of NOx (an
important precursor to both O3 and PM) using nitrogen
stable isotopes of ambient NO2, which revealed a significant
contribution from soil-emitted NOx to the regional budget.
…. Inorganic fertilizer amendments are not regulated,
leading to over-application and nutrient leaching into the
surrounding environment, such as the groundwater, local water
sources, atmosphere, and soils24,28. The objective of this work
is to understand the implications of agricultural practices in
arid agroecosystems of the SSAB on regional air quality.
A water conservation group in California won its bid for a
quick win in the latest phase of its case alleging the unlawful
discharge of pollutants into waters of the US by an equestrian
center. California Coastkeeper Alliance is entitled to summary
judgment because it showed that a livestock facility falls
under the jurisdiction of a permit that wasn’t obtained,
Magistrate Judge Sean C. Riordan of the US District Court for
the Eastern District of California said Monday.
A lack of a clean water supply in the largest reservation in
the United States is a century-old issue, but it’s an issue
that many Americans have never heard about. Navajo journalist
Charly Edsitty hopes to raise awareness of the history of
oppression and exclusion that has kept the Navajo from their
water and the ongoing legal and political battles to secure
basic human rights. Edsitty is fronting the 4th season of the
award-winning ABC News podcast series Reclaimed with The
Lifeblood of Navajo Nation.
Since Dwight Eisenhower was president, tiny Middle Park Water
Conservancy District has hoarded a precious gem: 20,000
acre-feet of water rights on Troublesome Creek, near Kremmling,
and the authority to build a dam for it. In October,
Middle Park gave its treasure to a private rancher. For
$10. The Middle Park district, which primarily
serves ranchers and hay growers in Grand and Summit counties,
has only a few hundred thousand dollars of revenue each year,
and no ability to raise potentially tens of millions of dollars
for environmental permitting and hundreds of millions for
construction, the district’s attorney said. The private
buyer, Circle C Ranch Kremmling LLC, owns the property on
Colorado River tributary fork East Troublesome Creek northeast
of Kremmling, where Middle Park had been planning a dam for
decades.
The strongest atmospheric river to hit California in months is
expected to dump rain and snow across the northern half of the
state this week — also bringing high winds and possible
flooding — before eventually making its way south, forecasters
say. … The low pressure system off the Pacific Northwest
coast driving this storm will begin rapidly intensifying
Tuesday — reaching the threshold of a bomb cyclone —
which will drastically increase its moisture and strength.
Parts of northwest California will be
under flood and high wind watches starting
Tuesday, when persistent rain is expected to begin,
dropping 4 to 8 inches over several days. Some
ridgetops could see gusts up to 75 mph.
Arizona and California officials are turning to the threat of a
“compact call” in the Colorado River Basin to ratchet up the
pressure on four Upper Basin states, including Colorado, in
stalled negotiations over how the river will be managed in the
future. The century-old legal concept raises the prospect of
forced water cuts in the Upper Basin states if inter-basin
water sharing obligations aren’t met. The details of how a
compact call would work are not entirely clear — it has never
been enforced since it was first introduced in the 1922
Colorado River Compact.
A new study shows land in California’s San Joaquin Valley has
been sinking at record-breaking rates over the last two decades
as groundwater extraction has outpaced natural recharge. The
researchers found that the average rate of sinking for the
entire valley reached nearly an inch per year between 2006 and
2022. Researchers and water managers have known that
sinking, technically termed “subsidence,” was occurring over
the past 20 years. But the true impact was not fully
appreciated because the total subsidence had not been
quantified. This was in part due to a gap in data. Satellite
radar systems, which provide the most precise measure of
elevation changes, did not consistently monitor the San Joaquin
Valley between 2011 and 2015. The Stanford researchers have now
estimated how much the land sank during these four years.
Toilet water in Los Angeles will soon reduce the strain on Lake
Mead, thanks in part to a $26.2 million boost that was
announced Monday. The recycled water will benefit Nevada and
other states and tribes that depend on the lake for drinking
water. Named the Pure Water Southern California project, when
it’s active, it will generate enough water to serve nearly
386,000 households, according to a news release from U.S. Sen.
Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev.
State leaders on the Eastern Seaboard are scrambling to deal
with something California officials know all too well — drought
and fire. While the unusual dry spell fueling wildfires in New
York and New Jersey is only expected to get worse, some
California officials hope the moment can bring attention to
issues long considered niche to the West. … Californians,
long accustomed to periods of climate-driven megadrought, see
an opportunity to help other states respond. On the one hand,
expanding drought fuels tensions over water, as evidenced most
obviously in the fierce competition between the seven Colorado
River states that remain at an impasse over how to share the
shrinking river.
… Near the Oregon border, another coalition is seeking
monument status for an area known as Sáttítla that extends over
parts of the Shasta-Trinity, Klamath and Modoc national
forests. They say local tribes and numerous
Californians depend on the area’s aquifers — which
flow into the Fall River and beyond — for clean drinking water
and renowned fisheries. The geologically unique area is a
spiritual center for the Pit River and Modoc tribes and serves
as habitat for protected species, including the bald eagle and
northern spotted owl.
A lawsuit was announced Monday on behalf of a group of South
Bay residents affected by raw sewage allegedly discharged from
the South Bay International Water Treatment Plant and flowing
into the waters of southern San Diego County. The complaint
filed Friday in San Diego Superior Court alleges Veolia, which
was contracted by the International Boundary and Water
Commission to operate, manage and maintain the plant, has
failed to prevent hundreds of such sewage discharges over the
years.
The Oxnard–Thousand Oaks–Ventura metropolitan area is making
waves in water conservation with the launch of a groundbreaking
desalination project. The initiative, which went online today,
aims to address long-standing water scarcity issues in the
region by converting seawater into potable water using
advanced, environmentally friendly technology. The $500 million
facility, located along the coast near Oxnard, utilizes
cutting-edge reverse osmosis techniques and renewable energy
sources to minimize its environmental impact. It’s expected to
produce up to 30 million gallons of fresh water per day, enough
to supply about 25% of the metro area’s residential water
needs.
… The speed of the salmon’s return has astonished even the
most seasoned biologists. … News of the salmon’s return
prompted a flurry of texts and excited phone calls among fish
advocates. Their return is especially poignant to members of
the Klamath Tribes, whose ancestral lands include the upper
Klamath Basin above the dam sites. With the construction of the
dams, salmon, or c’iyaals, had been absent from the Upper
Basin for over 100 years. Now attention is shifting from the
massive dam-removal project to the equally enormous task ahead:
restoring the Klamath watershed. Biologists will look to the
fish themselves for guidance.
Water is vital to California. Access to water and
ecosystem information helps communities plan for the increasing
demands caused by climate change, population growth, and other
factors. This data assists in identifying areas and populations
most at risk from drought, flooding, and water quality issues.
To effectively manage California’s water resources amid
significant changes, everyone – from the public to Tribes to
local, state, and federal representatives – needs to have
shared access to reliable, timely, and credible water and
ecosystem data. So in 2016, the California Legislature passed
the Open and Transparent Water Data Act, authored by Senator
Dodd, which required state agencies to make water and ecosystem
data available for widespread use. The California Water
Data Consortium (Consortium), established in 2019, is dedicated
to supporting the implementation of the Act by state agencies.
… Imperial County ranks among the most economically
distressed places in California. However, the region also
happens to sit atop massive lithium reserves large enough to
provide for a third of all global demand. And as the renewable
energy transition drives global demand for lithium and other
minerals to power battery packs, investors eyeing the Imperial
Valley have already rebranded it as “Lithium Valley.” Public
officials are heralding a new era of prosperity. But are local
fortunes really changing? Or will the new “lithium gold rush”
follow old, familiar patterns?
The Santa Fe Irrigation District board is taking action to plan
for the future of Lake Hodges Dam, setting aside $10.4 million
for its share in the cost of a replacement dam. At the board’s
Nov. 13 meeting, the board approved putting an additional $6.7
million into its Hodges Dam Fund, the fund created last year to
pay for current needs and prepare for the construction of the
future. The city’s proposed timeframe is for design of the new
dam to be completed in 2028 with a four-year construction
beginning in 2030.
There are three policy issues particularly important to
California’s farmers that Trump wants to change. If he does
what he has promised, one might benefit the industry and two
might damage it. The beneficial change is what California Farm
Bureau President Shannon Douglas, in a post-election statement,
calls “securing a sustainable water supply.” For years, state
officials have been trying, either through regulatory decrees
or negotiations, to reduce the amount of water San Joaquin
Valley farmers take from the San Joaquin River and its
tributaries to enhance flows through the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta, thus improving its water quality to support fish and
other wildlife. Farmers are miffed that after two wet winters
filled the state’s reservoirs, state federal water managers
still limited agricultural deliveries. … The two pending
issues that could backfire on farmers who voted for Trump
are imposing tariffs on imports from China, which could invite
retaliatory tariffs on agricultural exports, and deporting
undocumented immigrants, who comprise at least half of the
state’s agricultural workers. —Written by Dan Walters, columnist for CalMatters
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s potential role leading the Department
of Health and Human Services would not give him carte blanche
over fluoride in drinking water — although he could still
influence the debate in other ways, legal experts say. Kennedy,
President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to head HHS, professed this
month that Trump would sign an executive order in January
advising all water utilities to remove fluoride from drinking
water supplies. But while Trump later expressed tentative
support for the idea, the main agency with the ability to
mandate changes on water fluoridation is EPA — not the one
Kennedy was chosen to lead.
The Cedar City Council approved a purchase of 15-acre feet of
water for over $240,000 at last Wednesday’s meeting. The
proposal was first presented at the Nov. 6 City Council
meeting. Manager Paul Bittmenn said that Kimbal Holt with KS
Cedar Ridge planned to sell 15-acre feet of water rights. Cedar
City had a right of first refusal, meaning the city had a right
to purchase the water before a transaction could be entered
with a third party. The total cost of the water rights
was $240,750.00 — $16,050 per acre-foot, Bittmenn said.
The city and the company will split the closing costs, and the
purchase was set to close on Nov. 15.
