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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… The Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the West’s
reservoirs and dams, has plans to pay cities from
Gilbert to Glendale to use less of the Colorado River.
In recent years, sweeping cuts to water allocations in Arizona
and some other states that use the Colorado River have been
made possible with big chunks of federal money. The Biden
administration set aside $4 billion from the Inflation
Reduction Act for Colorado River work. Beginning in
2022, hundreds of millions of dollars from that pool have been
used to pay cities, farms and tribes to temporarily use less
water. Those supplies are left behind in Lake Mead, the
nation’s largest reservoir. Propping up the reservoir, which
straddles the Arizona-Nevada border, has become a federal
priority in recent years. Its water levels are now the
lowest they’ve been since the reservoir filled about 90 years
ago.
Even on chilly January days in years past, it was possible to
see and hear more than 100 kinds of birds at the Vierra
Wetlands in the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge. But
last winter, dozens of species like the snowy egret, northern
shoveler and the strikingly colorful wood duck did not
appear. The seasonal wetlands, which are part of a larger
pit stop for migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway,
were nearly bone dry — and not because of a drought.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service simply didn’t have
enough employees dedicated to opening the levees that flood the
wetlands. It’s a reality playing across many of the
national wildlife refuges in the country, including the 35 in
California. Labor shortages at the federal government’s various
land management agencies — which have intensified in President
Donald Trump’s second term — have left departments with less
capacity to manage the refuges.
The already strong El Niño conditions in the Pacific Ocean
continue to grow stronger, federal scientists said Thursday,
with a 69% chance that this year’s event will be the strongest
since modern records began in 1950. Scientists at the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in College Park,
Maryland announced there is a 90% chance of a very
strong El Niño through this fall and winter as
water temperatures along the equator off South America continue
to rise. But while El Niño increases the odds of wet winters in
California, it doesn’t mean what many people assume:
That flooding is imminent later in the year for
residents who live along rivers and creeks.
Denver Water is throwing its weight behind a proposed ballot
initiative that would ask voters to redirect a portion of state
sales tax revenue on sleeping bags, hiking boots and
skis to help fight wildfires, reduce risk of additional blazes,
and restore mountain watersheds already damaged by
fire. It’s a rare move for the state’s largest water
provider, which serves 1.5 million customers in the metro area,
and has been hard hit by major blazes, with thousands of acres
of land scorched and reservoirs filled with debris.
… For the past 20 years, as deep droughts have
periodically gripped the state, wildfires have emerged
as a major threat to the mountain watersheds that deliver fresh
water across the state, from Durango, to Aurora,
Denver and Fort Collins.
Crayfish have joined the list of non-native
species massing below Glen Canyon Dam for a potential
invasion of Grand Canyon, raising alarms from conservationists
who want to protect pristine tributary streams in the national
park. National Park Service biologists … netted more
than 3,000 so far this year in a short stretch of the Colorado
River where last year they found just over two
dozen. … The Park Service also reported a boom
in non-native fish, including bluegills and sunfish. These
invaders and the crayfish, all thought to have slipped through
the dam’s hydropower turbines, may benefit from the warming
water that the dam releases as long-term drought and water
demands push Lake Powell’s warm surface closer to the power
plant’s intakes.
… The McCumber reservoir, often called “Lake McCumber,” is a
small body of water created by the McCumber Dam, which sits at
the North Fork of Battle Creek in Shasta County. It’s
part of the broader Battle Creek Hydroelectric
Project currently owned and operated by PG&E. …
PG&E’s license for the hydroelectric project, which
originally generated power using dams, canals and pipes,
expired this year. The company has decided not to
renew its license. Since no group or entity has volunteered to
take over ownership of the project, the McCumber Dam, along
with the North Battle Creek Dam, could be removed in the years
to come — quickly draining the existing reservoir and
fundamentally changing the community that surrounds it.
A new CRS report on federal water infrastructure programs
examines the Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year 2027
budget cuts and their collision with decades of unmet
infrastructure needs, proposing steep reductions to programs
that have long underpinned American water systems. The nation
faces a combined 20-year need for wastewater and drinking water
infrastructure exceeding $1.2 trillion, yet the budget would
slash core funding mechanisms by roughly 79 percent for the
Clean Water State Revolving Fund and 63 percent for the
Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, calculated against the
elevated Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) funding
levels of $2.603 billion annually through 2026 for each
revolving fund. These cuts threaten to reverse gains made by
the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Small farmers in the San Joaquin Valley are struggling with
groundwater regulations to the point that 85% of 170
farmers surveyed for a recently released report said they were
concerned they would have to shut down. Others
said they are “cutting their farms in half, or more,” said
Alyssa DeVincentis, one of the report’s authors, with the
California Alliance with Family
Farmers. … California enacted SGMA to
prevent aquifers from drying up in the state’s most overtapped
groundwater basins. It mandates that local agencies,
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs), develop plans to
stop six “undesirable results” associated with withering
aquifers. … The report argues the loss of small farms
is a seventh undesirable result.
EPA is turning to local governments as the Trump administration
pushes to build data centers required to win the global race
for artificial intelligence. On Wednesday, the agency named 22
state and municipal officials as members of its Local
Government Advisory Committee, which included 13 new members
and nine returning members. On the panel’s agenda for its
public meeting in September is discussion about what local
governments face when siting and developing data centers in
line with the environment. The infrastructure necessary for AI
has become a hot topic in politics, as voters protest data
center projects over worries about high electricity costs as
well as growing air and water pollution.
… [A] recent study, published in the journal Science Advances
… attempted, for the first time, to identify what
conditions exactly make for a “snow eater.” Compared to normal
warm spells or heat waves, the researchers determined that
these events happen when temperatures stay above freezing
through both day and night for multiple days, typically three
to five. These events can roughly double the rate at which snow
melts, causing flooding and making it challenging to manage
water resources. “Snow eaters” appear to be occurring
earlier in the year and becoming more widespread in the Western
United States as the climate warms. Since the 1850s, the study
found, the area affected by snow eaters has increased by an
average of about 40,000 square miles per century, and the first
snow eater of the season has been arriving about one month
earlier per century.
El Niño is no longer merely threatening to enter new territory.
Federal forecasters now say a record-breaking event is the most
likely outcome. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said Thursday
there is a 69% chance the agency’s three-month El Niño index
reaches at least 2.5 degrees Celsius during October through
December. That would make it stronger than any El
Niño in NOAA’s modern record dating to 1950. NOAA
also raised the odds of a “very strong” El Niño developing this
fall and winter to greater than 90%, likely eclipsing the
1982-83 and 1997-98 events. … Stronger events
increase the chances of familiar El Niño patterns, including
a stormier California winter, but individual storms and
seasonal rainfall still depend on the atmosphere’s notoriously
chaotic behavior.
Nevada water leaders still aren’t pleased about the federal
government’s framework of cuts to water from the
Colorado River, but they say that suing other
states to maximize their water rights remains an absolute last
resort. ”Our first, second and third choice is negotiation
and cooperation,” John Entsminger, general manager of the
Southern Nevada Water Authority and Nevada’s lead negotiator on
river rights, said during an annual water conservation summit
hosted by Rep. Susie Lee (D-NV) in Las Vegas on
Wednesday. But he emphasized that Nevada has a
right to fight. “At the end of the day, we have to
protect our legal interests,” Entsminger said. “We’re not just
going to lose if negotiations fail. We will protect the people
of Nevada.”
A plan to pump billions of gallons of groundwater from under
the Mojave National National Monument is back in court – this
time led by two tribes. The plan was blocked by a federal court
in 2022 but last month the Bureau of Land Management approved a
new right-of-way grant for Cadiz Inc. to begin converting a
natural gas pipeline to transport the water from an aquifer
system located within the monument. Now the Fort Mojave
and Chemehuevi Indian Tribes have taken the plan back
to the court. “This is the Mojave Desert, and we are the Mojave
people, the caretakers of this land, water and wildlife since
time immemorial” … said Fort Mojave Chairman Timothy Williams
in a statement. “Their plan to pump and sell 25 times
more groundwater each year than the aquifer can
replenish would desecrate our traditional territories
and any community sold this water would be left with an
unreliable, unsustainable supply.”
Western rivers like the San Juan and the
Colorado are mostly fed by burbling mountain streams,
which are themselves fed by groundwater and snowmelt. But a
study published on June 5 says those tiny streams are in
trouble. The study in the journal Earth’s Future says the base
amount of water in streams and rivers that doesn’t come from
rain, also known as “base flow,” has been steadily declining
since 1950, though that trend varies depending on the specific
time period. … The study’s implications aren’t limited
to the past. It predicts that if climate warming continues, by
the end of the century, headwater streams could have
anywhere from 45% to 65% less base flow to sustain
them.
Other climate change and drought impact news around the West:
Start making arrangements now to attend our first-ever
Kern River Tour and annual Water
Summit so you don’t miss out. These popular fall
programs have limited seating and will fill up
quickly! Join us on this special journey as we examine
water issues along the Kern River,
from its mountain-fed headwaters in the southern Sierra Nevada
to its terminus in the Central Valley west of Bakersfield. In
anticipation of high demand, the Foundation will begin
releasing tickets via lottery on August 19. To enter the
lottery before the limited bus seating is
gone, review
the tour details here and submit the entry
form linked at the top of the tour page at your earliest
convenience. And don’t forget to reserve your spot for the
October 29 Water
Summit, our premier annual event hosted in
Sacramento featuring leading policymakers and experts
addressing critical water issues in California and across the
West.
For the first time in four years, salmon will return to the
fire at the Yurok Tribe’s Salmon Festival on Saturday,
restoring a centerpiece of the event that many community
members say defines the day as much as the parade, the vendors
or the tournaments. … This summer, with a limited harvest and
signs of recovery on the river, the tribe can bring salmon back
to the menu. Festival co‑organizer Maya Mace said the return
carries cultural weight after years of closures and the 2024
removal of four Klamath River dams. … Salmon fishing
reopened this year on a restricted basis, ending a three‑year
closure triggered by record‑low runs on two of California’s
largest salmon-producing rivers, the Klamath and Sacramento.
The tribe’s quota remains tightly restricted under Pacific
Fishery Management Council rules. Still, even a modest harvest
is enough to restore a tradition that many consider central to
the festival’s identity.
Mendocino County water officials are reporting promising
results from models predicting the amount of water that the
proposed New Eel-Russian Diversion Facility would make
available if and when the dams serving Potter Valley Project
are removed. “Sonoma County Water Agency conducted some very
in-depth modeling on how much water would have come through the
project if the NERF, the pump that would pump water from the
Eel River into the Russian River, were in the place,” Mari
Rodin, the city of Ukiah’s representative on the Mendocino
County Inland Water and Power Commission, told her fellow Ukiah
City Council members. … “[W]e’re continuing to look at
storing water in Potter Valley, but also, most importantly,
raising Coyote Valley Dam,” which would allow more water to be
stored in Lake Mendocino.
Last week, the California North Coast Regional Water Quality
Control Board adopted an order establishing discharge
requirements for commercial lily bulb growers in the Smith
River Plain. The order marks a culmination of more than 30
years of struggle to prevent large agricultural interests along
the Smith River Plain from polluting the waterway and
surrounding area, environmental groups say. It also represents
an important path forward for the restoration of a crucial and
eminently curable portion of the state’s anadromous fish
habitat. … The Smith River is one of the state’s few
undammed river systems and home to several protected species
including coho and Chinook salmon, northern tidewater goby and
coastal surf smelt.
More than 300 residents of Doña Ana County, where the massive
Project Jupiter data center is under
construction, aired their frustrations this week with state
lawmakers as they shared their plans for the 2027 legislative
session. … Residents had the chance to ask questions
pertaining to water usage, air quality,
energy, economic development and other concerns about the
project being built in the southern part of the county.
… Residents also voiced concerns over security for
personal information and for banks and hospitals; that impacts
to children and future generations are being overlooked;that
the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer granted
emergency water usage permits; and that the New Mexico
Environment Department will similarly grant air quality permits
to the project.
A California appellate court has ruled that Imperial County
must overhaul key portions of its environmental review for
Controlled Thermal Resources’ high-profile Hell’s Kitchen
geothermal and lithium project. … Tuesday’s decision by the
California Court of Appeal reverses a lower ruling by the
Imperial County Superior Court, finding that the project’s
initial environmental impact report under the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) fell short. … The ruling
marks a pivotal moment for the burgeoning “Lithium Valley”
beneath the Salton Sea, where vast underground deposits of the
metal—crucial for electric vehicle batteries and renewable
energy storage—are drawing a rush of industrial interest. …
[R]esidents in the heavily agricultural and historically
overburdened Imperial Valley have raised persistent concerns
regarding how the water-intensive process will impact local
supplies.
