A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation Writer Matt Jenkins.
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… In recent weeks the Interior Department has contacted farm
districts, cities, tribes and other water users in
Arizona, California and Nevada looking to
extend Biden administration contracts that paid out nearly $1.4
billion from Democrats’ signature climate law to entities that
agreed to fallow fields, tighten conservation measures or
otherwise forgo water deliveries. At the same time,
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum ordered up a list of projects
from the region’s seven governors to address the river’s
long-term problems, for which the federal government could be a
“potential cost-share partner.” The menu of proposals they
delivered a week ago includes 85 projects totaling more than
$50 billion — a price tag that far exceeds what Interior
currently has in its coffers.
The Trump administration has offered one of its most detailed
explanations of why it wants to stop dam removal on
Northern California’s Eel River, citing in a
letter numerous concerns that include water, power, wildfire
safety and even the state’s “radical leadership.” Still, big
questions remain. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sent the
three-page letter Friday in response to a Congressional
inquiry about her agency’s sudden interest in a pair of
relatively obscure PG&E-owned dams. … The dams, in Lake
and Mendocino counties, are part of the Potter Valley
hydroelectric project, which Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is
seeking to retire because of its age and expense. … In
the letter obtained by the Chronicle, Rollins said her agency
is actively looking for someone new to operate the
project, to both continue power generation and maintain water
supplies.
A developing El Niño in the Pacific Ocean is showing its
earliest atmospheric fingerprints, with scientists detecting
shifts in pressure, wind patterns and ocean temperatures that
could shape weather across the United States in the months
ahead. … While California is not typically in the path
of tropical systems, forecasters say warmer ocean waters and
more favorable storm tracks can increase the risk of tropical
moisture reaching the region. That can translate into heavy
rainfall and flash flooding in parts of Southern California,
particularly in late-season setups. AccuWeather also warns of
an elevated flood risk across the broader Southwest,
including Arizona and New Mexico, where remnants of
Pacific storms can interact with monsoon moisture and produce
intense rainfall far inland.
… Desalination plants are notoriously large electricity
users. Some have natural gas pipelines running to them to fuel
dedicated power plants. The company OceanWell estimates its
technology will cut that electricity use by up to 40%. Its goal
is to anchor an array of units 4.5 miles offshore, at a cost of
$500 million to $1 billion, to deliver 60 million gallons of
water per day. That’s enough for about 400,000
people. Prompted by severe water cutbacks four years ago,
the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District has been working with
Menlo Park-based OceanWell to develop a cheaper, less
power-hungry way to turn saltwater into drinking water without
sucking in tons of sea life. In a recent test at a
local reservoir, it worked.
U.S. Representative Dr. Raúl Ruiz (D-CA) called for an
immediate halt to proposed data center projects in his
district, voicing sharp concerns over their potential impact on
local utility costs, power grid stability, and public health.
In a video statement released last week, Ruiz—a physician who
represents California’s 25th congressional district,
encompassing parts of the Imperial Valley and Eastern Riverside
County—argued that the massive energy and water demands of
these facilities pose an undue burden on an already vulnerable
region. … The environmental footprint of these
facilities extends to water consumption. Many data centers
utilize evaporative cooling systems that consume
millions of gallons of water daily—a logistics
challenge that Ruiz argues is unsustainable given the state’s
hydrology.
A piece of legislation with real consequences for Northern
California’s fishing communities cleared a major hurdle this
week. Senate Bill 1393, carried by Senator Mike McGuire, passed
out of the California Senate with bipartisan support and now
heads to the Assembly for consideration. The bill targets
three specific areas of the state’s fisheries management
system. First, it strengthens the steelhead trout
restoration program and directs more funding toward
habitat projects that support the species’ recovery. Second, it
updates the regulatory framework governing the Dungeness crab
fishery, one of the most economically significant commercial
fisheries on the entire West Coast. Third, it establishes clear
rules for vessel transit through areas where crab fishing has
been closed, giving boat operators a defined path forward when
navigating restricted zones.
People living and working near the polluted Tijuana River may
have noticed more sewage flows and worsened sewer gas odors
over the weekend. The U.S. International Boundary and Water
Commission, or IBWC, said that’s because a 10-mile pipeline in
Tijuana, dubbed the Parallel Gravity Line, collapsed Friday
night. The line is supposed to transport wastewater to the San
Antonio de los Buenos plant in Baja California, which is
designed to divert flows from the Tijuana River by treating 18
million gallons per day before releasing them into the Pacific
Ocean. Instead, the raw flows have been entering the
river. According to IBWC data, flows in the river spiked from
10 million gallons on Friday to 34 million gallons on Sunday.
… The IBWC also said that the Parallel Gravity Line has
ruptured twice over the past two weeks.
Lax regulations and mismanaged applications in the US are to
blame for the tons of nitrogen fertilizer that runs off into
waterways each year and contributes to water and air pollution,
cancer and environmental damage, according to a report released
Monday. US farmers annually apply over 11 million metric
tons of nitrogen fertilizer, according to the US Department of
Agriculture (USDA), making it the most used fertilizer in the
country. The new report, published by the Natural Resources
Defense Council (NRDC), finds that an estimated half of these
nutrients aren’t taken up by crops, but leach into the
environment instead in ways that cost the US billions of
dollars annually in water treatment costs, beach closures and
habitat loss. Most of the costs hit small and rural farming
communities, the report states.
At Metropolitan Water District’s May Imported Water
Subcommittee meeting, Christopher Martin, executive policy
advisor for the State Water Project at the California
Department of Water Resources, outlined the extent of
subsidence along the California Aqueduct, the state’s response
strategy, planned corrective measures, and the funding now
being assembled for repairs. Subsidence occurs when groundwater
pumping lowers water levels and reduces pore pressure in the
aquifer system, causing the fine-grained clay and silt layers
in the sediments to compact. … Because the sinking is
often uneven from place to place, it creates differential
subsidence that can distort the slope and freeboard of
infrastructure such as the California Aqueduct, reducing
conveyance capacity and increasing repair needs.
Balancing economic growth and environmental protection is not
easy. Consider wetlands, which provide flood protection, aid
water quality, and are linchpins of larger ecosystems. How can
we best preserve wetlands while enhancing economic
activity? According to a new study, one solution involves
supplanting traditional conservation mandates, which require
replacing affected wetlands locally, with tradeable offsets.
Through this system, a developer can build on a wetland by
purchasing credits representing an equivalent
environmental value created by improving a wetland somewhere
else in the same watershed, away from concentrated development.
… The scholars say it would provide a better way of
balancing wetlands preservation and economic gains, while
lowering flood risk.
The US Bureau of Reclamation has added two new categorical
exclusions for hydropower-related activities under the National
Environmental Policy Act, in a move the agency says will speed
up environmental reviews for selected projects and maintenance
work across its hydropower portfolio. The changes were
announced on Friday as part of Reclamation’s ongoing Hydropower
Action Plan, which the agency says is intended to support
capital investment, regulatory efficiency and technological
innovation in the US hydropower sector. … The agency
said the exclusions were developed after identifying categories
of hydropower activity that have “consistently demonstrated no
significant environmental impacts.”
Governor Cox (R-UT) signed an executive order establishing a
statewide framework to guide the evaluation and development of
large data center projects across the state. On Friday morning,
Governor Cox signed Executive Order 2026-03 with the goal
to direct state agencies toprioritize
protecting water resources, including the Great Salt
Lake. The order also is set to safeguard utility ratepayers,
protect air quality, mitigate wildlife impacts, support
transparent public engagement, and ensure future development
aligns with the long-term interests of Utah. … The
guiding principles of the framework include: Protecting the
Great Salt Lake and other water resources by ensuring
water consumption is not increased and water quality is
protected.
Congressman Jim Costa announced Friday that more than $131
million in federal funding is being awarded for major water
infrastructure improvements across the San Joaquin Valley,
including two main components of the federal water delivery
system, the Friant-Kern Canal and the O’Neill Pumping Plant.
… Groundwater overpumping had caused a 33-mile
section of the canal in Tulare County to sink,
crimping its carrying capacity by 60%. … The O’Neill Pumping
Plant is 12 miles west of Los Banos and lifts water from the
Delta-Mendota Canal into the O’Neill Forebay, where water then
travels to contractors of the federal Central Valley Project.
… It took nearly twenty years for Lake Powell to fill to
3,700 feet in elevation. It only stayed near that level for two
decades before climate change-induced drought and overuse
started shrinking the flows of the Colorado, San Juan
and other rivers that feed the reservoir. Now Lake
Powell teeters on the brink of collapse: Forecasts show it
could drop to its lowest level since filling and reach
elevations at which Glen Canyon Dam was not designed to
operate. That could threaten Reclamation’s ability to safely
and reliably send water downstream to major cities and
agricultural regions in Arizona, California, Nevada and
Mexico. But environmental groups and scientists have
found a silver lining to the Southwest’s water crisis: As Lake
Powell recedes, the once-drowned Glen Canyon is surfacing and
thriving ecosystems are emerging.
A recommendation to toss out a restriction for how far
groundwater can be moved out of the South Fork Kings
Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) will be considered at
the board’s next meeting on June 18. The recommendation was
made during the board’s May 21 meeting after South Fork was
repeatedly threatened with a lawsuit by John Vidovich, who
controls Sandridge Partners, a large landowner in the GSA. The
export restriction, which limits movement of groundwater pumped
out of South Fork to within one mile of its boundaries, is part
of the GSA’s allocation policy, or how much growers can pump.
A pipeline that carries wastewater through Tijuana has
collapsed again — just two weeks after Mexico made emergency
repairs to the same line. The U.S. Section of the International
Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) on Saturday reported an
overnight collapse on the Parallel Gravity Line. The cause of
the collapse is unknown. Mexico has shut down several pumps
along the border to allow crews to make repairs. That same line
failed on May 14, resulting in emergency repairs that were
completed on May 16. … The IBWC said it’s monitoring
expected flows, sediment, and trash in the canyon collectors
and is ready to respond. The agency also said it is
coordinating with Mexican water authorities and pressing Mexico
to bring all suspended pumps back into operation as quickly as
possible.
Reservoir levels in the East Bay are above average for this
time of year, signaling residents won’t have to conserve water
– or incur extra drought-related charges – in the coming summer
months. Water storage levels are nearly full at 96%, according
to the most recent East Bay Municipal Utility District water
supply report. Nelsy Rodriguez, a public information
representative for EBMUD, said that an early Sierra Nevada
snowpack melt, in addition to a lot of April rain, helped
refill reservoirs. “We are in a strong position heading
into summer. We are well above any potential drought trigger,”
Rodriguez said. “We have enough storage now to meet our
customers’ needs.”
California just committed $80.4 million to wildlife
connectivity and salmon recovery, and one of the biggest
projects is happening on the Feather River in Sutter
County. The Wildlife Conservation Board approved the
funding package [last] week, which includes removing the Sunset
Weir on the Feather River near Live Oak. The project, led by
CDFW and the Department of Water Resources, will restore
natural fish passage to 28.5 miles of river, giving salmon and
steelhead unobstructed access to spawning habitat that has been
blocked by the weir for decades. The Sunset Weir removal will
also include replacing and upgrading the Sunset Pumps Station,
installing new fish screens on the pumps and restoring an
eroded riverbank section downstream with native plants.
The Kern County Water Agency will erase a $14 million debt and
continue selling water at a lower rate to the Western Hills
Water District as part of a deal struck just days before it
said it would cut off the tap. The draft deal caps more than a
year of start-and-stop threats from KCWA to cut off water to
Western Hills, which is the exclusive purveyor to the 600-home
Diablo Grande development in the foothills west of Patterson.
The most recent cut-off date was May 31. … The details
of the deal are still vague as the two sides have only signed a
“letter of intent.” … However, some basics, including the
erasure of the $14 million debt, were released in a public
announcement sent to Diablo Grande residents.
As part of its comprehensive effort to address per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) has announced new investments in
multiple PFAS treatment projects across Southern California.
The funding, which totals $15.7 million for seven projects,
will advance concrete, tangible solutions to water
contamination challenges, and is in addition to EPA’s recently
announced $77.257 million investment in California communities’
efforts to address PFAS. … EPA has provided $4 billion
nationwide in Drinking Water State Revolving Funds dedicated to
address PFAS and emerging contaminants.
