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 powerful and politically right-leaning Westlands Water
District recently teamed up with left-leaning Democratic
assemblymember Esmeralda Soria on renewable energy. Her
bill, AB 2661, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom last month
and will allow Westlands in western Fresno County to
oversee the generation, storage and transmission of solar
energy. Within Westlands, about 130,000 acres – a little
more than one-third the footprint of the City of Los Angeles –
has been taken out of agricultural production and is available
for solar development under the renewable energy project,
called the Valley Clean Infrastructure Plan (VCIP,) said Jose
Gutierrez, assistant general manager of Westlands.
The Bureau of Reclamation continues to weigh options for
dealing with expected shortages in the Colorado River Basin in
the decades ahead, even as it remains without a seven-state
agreement on how to share anticipated reductions in water
supplies. Reclamation officials said this week their agency
remains uncommitted to any of the nine proposals it received
from regional groups, conservation advocates and tribal nations
earlier this year but they expect to decide on alternatives
outlined in planning documents by December.
The Supreme Court’s upcoming review of the Environmental
Protection Agency’s regulatory authority over wastewater
discharge pollution is likely to highlight bitter divides over
the court’s role in the democratic system. “Given the
makeup of this Supreme Court and in the aftermath of the Loper
Bright decision, the court will be less willing to give EPA any
sort of deference with respect to their interpretation of the
Clean Water Act,” Wyatt Kendall, a partner at Morris Manning
focused on environmental regulatory processes, said in an
interview. In June, the conservative majority abandoned agency
deference, overturning four decades of precedent on government
authority. Disagreements over agency rulemaking have already
caused tension on the bench.
… To clarify the connection between the snowpack and
streamflow—and project how climate change is altering the
relationship—the scientists used computer simulations and
hydrological modeling in a 2017 paper in Geophysical Research
Letters to estimate snow’s significance for runoff across the
West. Here’s what they found: 53% of total runoff in the West
originated as snowmelt, even though only 37% of the
precipitation fell as snow. … A quarter of the West’s land
area, primarily in the high country, produced 90% of total
runoff on average. Climate change will reduce the snowpack’s
contribution to runoff, according to the study, as warmer
temperatures make it more likely that precipitation will fall
as raindrops, rather than snowflakes, leaving downstream water
users vulnerable.
A last-resort attempt to shore up funding for ongoing
Friant-Kern Canal repairs has run into a buzzsaw of opposition
from several irrigation districts that were stuck with the bill
– up to $295 million. A letter disputing the fees accuses the
Friant Water Authority, which operates the canal, of, among
other things, extortion. … The Friant Water Authority is
about $90 million shy of the $326 million already spent to
rebuild a section of the sinking canal and needs to show the
Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the canal, how it will pay
for another $250 million in still-needed repairs. The problem,
according to Friant, is that the Eastern Tule Groundwater
Sustainability Agency hasn’t paid what Friant says it owes as
part of a settlement agreement reached in 2021. While some
farmers in Eastern Tule get surface water from water districts,
most rely exclusively on groundwater and have been blamed for
the over pumping that sank the Friant-Kern Canal along a
33-mile stretch.
One of the most consequential environmental laws in state
history turned 10 years old last month. You’d be forgiven if
you didn’t notice. The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
remains, like the declining resource it aims to protect,
largely invisible to most Californians. Despite this, the first
decade of SGMA (“sigma” to those who know it well) has laid the
foundation, still somewhat creaky in places, for nothing less
than the transformation of our rural landscape and economy. If
we allow it to, this law could nurture a genuinely resilient
landscape capable of thriving in an era of climate whiplash. On
paper, this is a law solely about managing a finite, limited
and largely unseen resource. In implementation, it needs to be
about revitalizing the very visible land and communities at the
heart of the state. —Written by Ann Hayden, vice president for climate
resilient water systems at the Environmental Defense Fund
… the Coachella Valley, home to a thriving agricultural
industry and a large population of Latino farmworkers, provides
a backdrop for Trump to highlight the region’s water and
agricultural needs, as well as immigration. Latinos constitute
almost 98% of Coachella, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.
… Trump criticized California as being horribly
mismanaged, primarily blaming Harris and Democratic Gov. Gavin
Newsom, especially when it comes to crime, the high cost of
living and water policy.
… In California, the history of introductions of all bass
species is murky and confusing because of poor record keeping
and the frequent treating of all species together as “black
bass” (Dill and Cordone 1997). Increasingly, predation by bass
species is regarded as an important factor contributing to
declines of native fishes in California. Furthermore, and
perhaps because of their warmwater thermal niche, bass tend to
grow best during droughts (Rypel 2009). Thus, as climate change
increases the duration and severity of droughts in California,
novel conditions increasingly favor the black bass complex
(Rypel 2021).
Regulatory challenges and increasing water demands are shifting
pressures and creating fierce resource competition in the San
Joaquin Valley that will affect Kings County’s future,
according to one speaker at the State of Kings County event
held Thursday. … Steve Haugen, Kings River Watermaster and
head of the Kings River Water Association, which serves
portions of Fresno and Kings Counties … briefly spoke about
the challenges the association faces such as water demand,
competitors and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
(SGMA).
Work is moving forward on a project to restore native habitat
and implement a series of water quality treatment projects to
redesign the path of stormwater to Middle Struve
Slough. … Much of the run-off from the roadways,
neighborhoods, commercial and industrial areas in Watsonville
flows untreated to the Watsonville wetlands and out to the
Monterey Bay … As a result, the City’s sloughs, once drained
for farming, and now surrounded by development has impaired
water quality, affecting birds, wildlife, and trail and beach
users. … When completed, the Middle Struve Slough Habitat and
Water Quality Improvement Project … will include treatment
wetlands and sediment catchment basins that intercept
stormwater before it flows to the wetlands, a series of ponds
designed to improve habitat for birds, western pond turtles,
and other wetland wildlife, and restored native plants
throughout the area.
The Biden administration, members of Congress and native tribes
will commemorate the designation of the Chumash Heritage
National Marine Sanctuary on Monday — the first such preserve
in California to be managed in cooperation with Indigenous
peoples. The 4,543-square-mile sanctuary, located off
California’s rugged Central Coast, would prohibit oil drilling
and offer other protections to an area that encompasses
numerous cultural resources, including the suspected remains of
ancient, submerged villages. The preserve could one day serve
as the final puzzle piece of an effort to protect virtually all
of California’s coast from the Channel Islands to Point Arena,
north of the Bay Area.
Other marine sanctuary and offshore drilling articles:
An ambitious project to improve the levee system around
Marysville has had one unintended consequence: street flooding
in parts of East Marysville. On Tuesday, the Yuba Water Agency
Board of Directors will consider approving a $713,000 grant to
the City of Marysville to replace high flow pumps at the East
17th detention basin near Highway 20. Beginning in 2023, the
detention basin has filled during high intensity rain events,
and flooded some of the surrounding streets because the pumps
are no longer large enough to drain the detention basin.
According to a staff report for Tuesday’s meeting, the flooding
is directly related to the multi-million dollar 7.6 mile long
Marysville Ring Levee project, which the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers launched in 2010.
Today, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development
California State Director Maria Gallegos Herrera announced USDA
is investing nearly $2 million in projects that will help
foster and protect clean water supplies for rural Californians.
“Access to clean and reliable water systems is essential for
the health and well-being of all communities, and in rural
California, USDA regularly invests in these systems to protect
the health of our residents and advance rural prosperity,” said
Gallegos Herrera. “I’ve seen the need firsthand as I’ve
witnessed Californians work hard to recover after disaster, and
I am so pleased to be able to support this recovery, and work
with our partner Self-Help Enterprises to advance clean water
in more rural areas.”
The Orange County Water District Ground Water Replenishment
System is the largest advanced water treatment plant in the
world for groundwater recharge. Since it was commissioned, it
has produced 445.8 billion gallons of water to serve 1 million
people. That amounts to 130 million gallons per day that is
treated through microfiltration, reverse osmosis and
ultraviolet disinfection. Mehul Patel, executive director of
operations for the OCWD GWRS, took WaterWorld editors on a
tour of the plant to share how it is bolstering Orange County’s
water supplies through water reuse.
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.
