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 Nesting Bird Habitat Incentive Program is still accepting
applications for the Delayed Cereal Grain Harvest and Fallow
Agriculture programs until end of day Wednesday, April 10. If
you have winter planted cereal grains, winter planted cover
crops or farm fields that will be left fallow this growing
season, these programs could be a great fit for your
operations. You must be willing to leave them undisturbed and
or delay harvest until at least July 15th. Below are key
details for each of the program.
Genes are the blueprints that inform development and behavior,
and over time they are molded by evolution into adaptations
that allow species to persist in an ever-changing world.
However, animals adapted to one environment sometimes find
themselves suddenly dropped in another. Such is the case for
certain hatchery-raised steelhead (Oncorhynchus mykiss) in
California’s Central Valley. The genes of steelhead play an
important role in determining their life history, and may
influence the timing of migration and maturation. To evaluate
how such genes may be impacted by hatchery practices,
researchers from UC Santa Cruz and the National Marine
Fisheries Service dove into the genetics of steelhead from four
hatcheries in the Sacramento River Basin (Goetz et al. 2024).
The findings of their investigation show just how influential
genes are in determining the path that a steelhead’s life will
take.
Powerful pumps that supply much of California’s population with
water have killed several thousand threatened and endangered
fish this year, prompting a coalition of environmental groups
to demand that state and federal agencies take immediate steps
to limit “alarming levels” of deaths. In
a letter to state and federal water managers, leaders
of five fishing and environmental groups said the estimated
losses of threatened steelhead trout and endangered winter-run
Chinook salmon have exceeded maximum annual limits for water
intakes in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Spring storms brought more snow to mountains across the Western
U.S., bringing water for struggling Lake Powell with them. The
National Weather Service Colorado Basin River Forecast Center
on Friday estimated that Lake Powell will receive 5.7 million
acre-feet of water between April and July as snow melts off the
mountains. An acre-foot is roughly enough water to sustain two
houses for a year. That volume is 89% of the normal runoff for
that time period recorded between 1991 and 2020. Facing
extreme drought and climate change since the turn of the
century, Lake Powell dropped to a historic low of 22%
full in Feb. 2023. The reservoir currently stands at
about 32% full.
New California legislation seeks to permanently ban paraquat, a
powerful and widely used weedkiller that has been linked to
Parkinson’s disease and other serious health issues. Assembly
Bill 1963, introduced recently by Assemblymember Laura Friedman
(D-Glendale), would sunset the use of paraquat beginning in
January 2026. The herbicide, which is described by the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency as highly toxic, is regularly
sprayed on almonds, grapes, cotton and other crops in the
state. … California is the nation’s top user of paraquat
…
The Navajos live in the same 1,400-mile-long Colorado River
Basin that brings fresh water to millions in Southern
California, yet about 30% of homes on the reservation were
built without indoor plumbing. With the absence of pipes
connecting homes in this isolated corner of the reservation to
a water source, many Navajos must spend hours each week driving
to a community center in the tribal settlement of Dennehotso to
refill portable tanks. … Some see hope in a
proposed landmark agreement that would settle all
outstanding water rights disputes between the Navajo, Hopi and
San Juan Southern Paiute tribes and the state of Arizona. If
the final terms of the agreement are approved by the tribal
government, the Navajos will ask Congress for $5 billion in
federal funding to expand the reservation’s water delivery
infrastructure.
Arizona House Republicans convened in a newly created committee
Thursday afternoon to discuss an investigation into the state’s
Democrat attorney general. The conservative lawmakers announced
the creation of the House Committee on Executive Oversight
Wednesday in response to Attorney General Kris Mayes’ ongoing
investigations into “megafarms” she says are overusing
groundwater and draining the wells of rural Arizonans. …
Mayes has recently indicated in multiple town halls across
rural Arizona, specifically La Paz County, her intent to file a
public nuisance complaint against large industrial farms and
corporations that she says are sucking rural Arizonans dry.
Nearly half of US prisons draw water from sources likely
contaminated with toxic PFAS “forever chemicals”, new research
finds. At least around 1m people incarcerated in the US,
including 13,000 juveniles, are estimated to be housed in the
prisons, and they are especially vulnerable to the dangerous
chemicals because there is little they can do to protect
themselves, said Nicholas Shapiro, a study co-author at the
University of California in Los Angeles.
After years of heated debates and delays, the world’s largest
dam removal is currently underway on the Klamath River across
the California-Oregon border. … removing structures of
this size come with negative side effects—from droves of dead
fish to muddy waters. As a result, critics have recently spoken
out against the project, deeming it an “environmental
disaster.” But scientists say that they expected many of these
short-term impacts before the effort began and they will soon
fade. For today’s newsletter, I decided to dig into the science
behind dam removal, and how the rocky start to the Klamath
River project could yield a healthier river system overall.
A bill that would allow graywater systems to be included in new
homes throughout Colorado received rare unanimous approval from
the Colorado House on Friday. Graywater is made up of water
that has been used a single time from appliances like laundry
machines, baths or sinks and can be used again for non-drinking
purposes like toilet flushes and irrigation. Conservationists
point to graywater uses as a way to cut down on water
consumption as the drought in the West has deepened in recent
years.
Hydropower generated for electricity from Oregon and Washington
dams fell to historically low levels last year, and experts
expect it could drop further by year’s end. Officials at the
U.S. Energy Information Administration recently published data
showing that hydropower generation in the Northwest between
Oct. 1, 2022 and Sept. 30, 2023 dropped to a 22-year
low. … Across the West, hydropower generation in
2022 and 2023 was down 11% from 2021, according to the data.
California was an outlier, doubling the amount of hydropower
generated due to record rainfall and snowpack.
… [C]occidioides, a fungus that causes a disease called
coccidioidomycosis, better known as valley fever. If inhaled,
microscopic spores from the fungus can lodge in the lungs.
About a third of those infected with cocci never have any
symptoms, and most of those infected clear the disease and
develop immunity. But for between 1 and 5% of those who inhale
it, cocci spreads through the bloodstream and wreaks havoc in
the body that can sometimes be lethal. And the changing climate
has allowed valley fever to spread far beyond its traditional
territory of Arizona and parts of Southern California.
The Marin Municipal Water District has adopted its strategic
work plan as it strives to reduce potable water use and
increase supply. The work plan, approved unanimously at
Tuesday’s board meeting, outlines the steps needed to implement
the five-year strategic plan the district adopted in February.
The strategic plan includes targets for water supply, drought
resiliency, land stewardship and fiscal responsibility.
After 12 years of planning, gathering funding then completing
and re-doing – and re-doing again – environmental studies, the
City of Bakersfield has finally gone out to bid for the
northern extension of the Kern River Parkway Trail. “I’m very
excited, it’s been a long time coming,” Councilman Bob Smith
said of the 6-mile long addition to the nearly 40-mile-long
path that runs the length of the Kern River from Gordon’s Ferry
on the east all the way to the Buena Vista Lake Aquatic
Recreation Area on the west. This extension will take runners,
hikers and cyclists north at Coffee Road along the Friant-Kern
Canal up to 7th Standard Road, about a half mile west of the
Gossamer Grove development.
… To broaden your understanding of how the Colorado River
crisis and groundwater depletion are affecting Nevada, here are
a few books to snag for your shelf: “Cadillac Desert” by
Marc Reisner … “Where the Water Goes” by David Owen
… “Water Follies” by Robert Glennon … “All the
Water the Law Allows” by Christian S. Harrison
The USDA Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit
(LTBMU) released the final environmental review documents and
draft decision for the Meeks Bay Restoration Project. The
LTBMU, in conjunction with Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and
Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board, is developing a
plan to restore Meeks Creek to a more natural condition, while
continuing to support sustainable recreation
opportunities. In 1960, a marina with approximately
120 boat slips and a boat launch facility was dredged at the
mouth of Meeks Creek, on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe. The
marina eliminated a unique wetland habitat for numerous bird,
mammal, and amphibian species.
… This marked the second year in a row with above-average
snowfall and was a huge turnaround from conditions at the
beginning of 2024, when the snowpack across the state was
barely a quarter of the historic average. … The
relationship between snowfall and climate change is not as
simple as it might first appear. Though rising temperatures
will cause some would-be snow to fall as rain, this is partly
balanced out by the fact that precipitation will become more
intense overall, since warmer air can hold more water vapor.
Some parts of Alaska and Northern Canada have
seen increases in snowfall over the last 40 years; in
these frigid locales the amount of snow is more limited by cold
weather, which decreases the amount of moisture in the air. -Written by Ned Kleiner, a scientist and catastrophe
modeler at Verisk.
Microplastics are tiny, nearly indestructible fragments shed
from everyday plastic products. As we learn more about
microplastics, the news keeps getting worse. Already
well-documented in our oceans and soil, we’re now discovering
them in the unlikeliest of places: our arteries, lungs, and
even placentas. Microplastics can take anywhere from 100 to
1,000 years to break down and, in the meantime, our planet and
bodies are becoming more polluted with these materials every
day. Finding viable alternatives to traditional
petroleum-based plastics and microplastics has never been more
important. New research from scientists at the University of
California San Diego and materials science company Algenesis
shows that their plant-based polymers biodegrade — even at the
microplastic level — in under seven months.
Water bubbles up in streets, pooling in neighborhoods for weeks
or months. Homes burn to the ground if firefighters can’t draw
enough water from hydrants. Utility crews struggle to fix
broken pipes while water flows through shut-off valves that
don’t work. … Across the U.S., trillions of gallons of
drinking water are lost every year, especially from decrepit
systems in communities struggling with significant population
loss and industrial decline that leave behind poorer residents,
vacant neighborhoods and too-large water systems that are
difficult to maintain.
A much-anticipated water bill brought by one of the most
powerful lawmakers on Capitol Hill became public Thursday.
Senate President Stuart Adams’s SB 211, titled “Generational
Water Infrastructure Amendments,” seeks to secure a water
supply for decades to come. It forms a new council comprised of
leadership from the state’s biggest water districts that will
figure out Utah’s water needs for the next 50 to 75 years. It
also creates a new governor-appointed “Utah Water Agent” with a
$1 million annual budget that will “coordinate with the council
to ensure Utah’s generational water needs are met,” according
to a news release. But combing through the text of the bill
reveals the water agent’s main job will be finding an
out-of-state water supply. … The bill also notes the
water agent won’t meddle with existing water compacts with
other states on the Bear and Colorado rivers.