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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California and Biden administration officials on Tuesday
announced new ecosystem restoration plans for the dwindling
Salton Sea, where conservation efforts aim to improve regional
air quality and support wildlife. … As the restoration
project proceeds, state officials said that they aim to revive
the region’s ecological value by creating networks of ponds and
wetlands, providing habitats for fish and birds and suppressing
dust within the area. The Salton Sea is one of many salty lakes
around the world that has been stirring up dust and worsening
air pollution as it dries up.
The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case on Oct. 16 that
environmentalists say could weaken the Clean Water Act.
Surprisingly, it originates from what many consider one of the
greenest cities in the nation: San Francisco. In City and
County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency, San
Francisco is suing the EPA over what it calls unclear
restrictions on the quantity of untreated sewage that can be
released into local waterways. San Francisco has argued that it
cannot control the water quality in the ocean or the Bay and
that being held accountable for it leaves the city vulnerable
to unpredictable fines. The city and county are requesting the
Supreme Court uphold the Clean Water Act, the 1972 law that
governs water pollution, and ensure the EPA issues permits with
clear instructions to prevent water pollution.
Top Biden administration officials are vowing to consider a
wide array of proposals to ensure the future of water supplies
of the Colorado River Basin, while touting recent emergency
efforts to address shortfalls on the drought-ravaged waterway.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Bureau of Reclamation
Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton co-authored an op-ed
published Sunday in the Arizona Republic, as the Biden
administration considers new long-term operating plans for the
Colorado River. “We are harnessing the best available
science to create robust and adaptive guidelines that can
withstand the impacts of ongoing drought and a changing
climate,” Haaland and Touton wrote. “Every viable option is
being explored as we seek solutions that address the diverse
needs of all that depend on the basin.”
… Evaporation is the natural process of liquid water turning
into water vapor. As Colorado and Western states heat up, more
water evaporates into the atmosphere, leaving less for
irrigation and drinking water supplies. It’s a vicious feedback
loop: Warmer, drier air triggers more evaporation, which
creates warmer air, and so on. Evaporation is a big deal
because it eats into our declining water supply, at a time when
the entire West is in a record mega-drought. The problem
is that the tools historically used to measure evaporation are
stuck in the 1900s. “Better understanding [evaporation] as
a whole, and how it varies in time and space, is a key need on
the Colorado,” said the Desert Research Institute’s Chris
Pearson, who studies high-tech techniques to measure
evaporation.
Fall is in full swing, but it’s not too soon to look ahead to
winter, especially one that could feel considerably different
than last year’s dominated by El Niño. A weak La Niña is
expected to develop ahead of the season and influence
temperatures, precipitation, and by extension, even snow across
the United States. La Niña is a natural climate pattern that
influences global weather marked by cooler than average ocean
temperatures in the equatorial Pacific. The effects on weather
are most pronounced during the winter months in the Northern
Hemisphere and have a much weaker influence in the summer.
Decades of neglect by a French company operating a federally
funded wastewater treatment plant on the U.S.-Mexico border has
led to billions of gallons of sewage and toxic chemicals in the
Tijuana River, according to nearby residents who in a lawsuit
decried the serious ecological and human health devastation.
The plant is supposed to treat wastewater from Tijuana and then
dump it into the Pacific Ocean at Imperial Beach, California.
But according to the residents, [Veolia Water West Operating
Services has by virtue of ] misconduct, reckless behavior and
negligence — including not investing in or maintaining the
sewage plant’s infrastructure — discharged fecal bacteria,
heavy metals and chemicals banned in the U.S. like DDT,
benzidine, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) into the
Tijuana River.
Governor Gavin Newsom today highlighted a $3.5 million federal
investment to improve access to the San Gabriel Mountains
National Monument and enhance a key Southern California water
source that provides Los Angeles County with one-third of its
water supply. Federal, state, tribal and local partners
celebrated the announcement today [Oct. 15], which will support
trash removal projects, create new walking trails and install
additional restrooms on this popular stretch of the San Gabriel
River used primarily for recreation by surrounding underserved
communities.
… Desert Center is nearly perfect for solar energy projects.
When the nation began looking to transition away from the
fossil fuels driving climate change, nearly half of the federal
lands currently designated as areas for solar development were
found in the Riverside East area Carrington and the
neighborhood group he helps lead—the Active Community of Desert
Center—call home. … The goal, federal officials, developers
and environmentalists say of the planning, is to avoid
conflict. But Desert Center shows how such tensions are
almost impossible to avoid. … As the solar farms kept
coming, the locals, many of whom never knew the area around
them had been designated for solar, began to push back. The
development had eaten away at the desert they love, impacting
desert tortoise habitat, and would now surround their community
on three sides. The dust from the construction posed health
concerns, and keeping it down with groundwater led
local wells to run dry —something federal
regulators approving the projects knew for years could
happen.
We spoke to graduate student researcher Kelsey Kim about her
work on the groundbreaking “Gender and Everyday Household Water
Use in Los Angeles” report. The innovative study set out to
examine the often-overlooked intersections of gender, race,
class, and migration in shaping water use patterns across
diverse Los Angeles neighborhoods. Through in-depth interviews,
household observations, and creative water diaries, Kim and her
team aimed to uncover how day-to-day realities and household
activities reflect gendered labor, broader social dynamics, and
challenge conventional understandings of urban water
management.
The Water and Resource Conservation group held a meeting at the
local Chico library on Monday morning, where they invited local
members of the community to give their feedback on their
current and future plans. The group called the meeting “Coffee
with Water”. Originally, only seven people had signed up to
attend the event. To the department’s surprise, almost 30
people were in attendance. A main concern for everyone in the
room was the ground-level water, which has been reported to be
at a deficit within Butte County areas like Vina. Many locals
drove from their small towns to express their worries about
another drought and what that could mean for landowners who
mainly live off well water. Members of the conservation group
were able to show maps and future plans that they hope to put
into place, to give peace of mind to those concerned about the
well-being of their homes.
America has water problems. Water stress can be found in almost
every state. New Mexico falls into the category of extremely
high ‘water stress’ for multiple reasons, including climate
change, limited rainfall and reduced volume of water in both
the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers, which are major water
resources for the state. Arizona, California, Nebraska, and
Colorado also fall into the category of water stressed states.
These states struggle with high water demands brought on by
droughts, pollution, population growth, and extreme needs from
industries like agriculture and manufacturing. … Many state
leaders, however, are aggressively planning water
infrastructure projects to increase water supply or provide
more efficient use of available resources to curb the very
negative impacts of water stress. —Written Mary Scott Nabers, president and CEO
of Strategic Partnerships Inc
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.
