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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Farmers and ranchers in a rural Mendocino County valley have
long opposed the planned removal of two local dams because it
would reduce their summer irrigation supply. … The latest
reality check came Monday, when federal energy regulators
rejected the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District’s attempt
to formally join the case deciding the dams’ fate. The Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission determined that the Southern
California water district, which has floated the possibility of
buying and operating the dams itself, showed up too late. The
rejection does not kill the water district’s gambit entirely,
nor the hopes of the dams’ new political allies. But it
captures a central problem in the world of California water
politics: the dam’s defenders have plenty of newfound
influence, but still no clear path to keeping the
infrastructure in place.
Small farms across the state may not be able to comply with
groundwater regulations and stay in business, according to a
new report analyzing the impact of California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) on small-scale farms.
In the first-ever assessment of small farmer
consideration in California groundwater regulations,
researchers at the University of California Small Farms Network
and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers document the
challenges facing small-scale farms with groundwater
regulations. The report “Managing Groundwater with Small
Farms in Mind: Risks, Barriers and Opportunities in the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act” (PDF) warns
that farmers need an approach that helps them understand and
adapt to the new regulations – while safeguarding their ability
to grow food for California consumers.
Nevada is expected to give up more than a quarter of its
allocated Colorado River water — 84,000 acre-feet — over the
next two years under a federal operating framework plan
that cuts distributions to three states and is expected to be
officially released this week. Nevada holds by far the
smallest share of the Colorado River of any of the three Lower
Basin states — just 300,000 acre-feet, compared with Arizona’s
2.8 million and California’s 4.4 million. And it uses less than
it is allocated — only about 212,000 acre-feet of its
allocation in 2024, according to the Southern Nevada Water
Authority (SNWA), recycling the vast majority of its
water and sending it back to Lake Mead for
credit. That restraint hasn’t been enough to
escape the reckoning.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental
Protection Agency are working together on their largest cleanup
collaboration in more than 15 years at Lava Cap Mine in Nevada
City. The site, contaminated with arsenic and other toxic
materials from decades of gold and silver mining,
requires a massive water treatment system to protect
surrounding communities and wildlife. Col. Robert
McTighe, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said
the Corps does a lot of work with the EPA, but not to this
particular size and magnitude. The Corps is building the filter
system, which allows them to filter the water, treat the water
and then send the clean water back into the water system,
McTighe said.
Other water quality and treatment news around the West:
A long-duration heat wave will hit California in early August,
just as the state enters what is historically the peak of its
wildfire season. … Rapid drying of the landscape is expected
amid the hot weather. Vegetation will be more flammable than
any point so far this year, with near-record levels of energy
available for any fire that does break out.
… California’s fire season to this point has been quiet
relative to neighboring states. … The reason for
California’s relative good fortune so far is generally
threefold: More than 71% of the West is experiencing
drought, compared with just 6% of California,
according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The relationship between
drought and fire is complex, but drier landscapes generally
increase the potential for large wildfires.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced this
Tuesday that recreational salmon fishing off the North Coast is
officially closed. Fishing from the 40º10′ latitude line to the
Oregon border will remain closed for the remainder of 2026. …
“In the Klamath Management Zone, the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife’s preliminary estimates indicate that 3,968
Chinook salmon were taken by 4,830 anglers aboard both charter
vessels and private skiffs, achieving the area’s recreational
harvest guideline of 3,900 Chinook salmon.” … Several
areas off the California coast further south will remain open
pending the achievement of quotas. In the Fort Bragg Management
Area, for example, 4,352 Chinook salmon have been taken by
6,208 anglers, according to the CDFW, leaving 748 fish
available.
The Pinto Bean Capital of the World is at a boiling point. And
it’s not related to the Ferris fire that has torched nearly
65,000 acres nearby. The normally quiet town of Dove Creek has
gotten so politically charged that the town hall has had to
lock its doors. For more than two months, the once-upon-a-time
gas station that serves as town hall has been closed. A sign on
the door states it is “due to threats and inappropriate
behavior towards the Town staff and Town Board.” The anger is
centered on water — specifically water bills. They are being
doubled, and that increase has incensed the town’s residents.
… Dove Creek sits in the heart of dryland farming
country. In recent times it has been too dry even for some
dryland crops to grow in this parched corner of the
state.
Golden mussels pose a serious and fast-growing threat to
California’s water infrastructure. As the operator of the State
Water Project (SWP), DWR is deploying a comprehensive strategy
to mitigate the impact of golden mussel infestation and prevent
further colonization. DWR is attacking the problem through
several immediate response measures, concentrated investments
to strengthen infrastructure, and long-term research and
partnerships to improve the state’s ability to manage golden
mussels. … DWR is pursuing emergency registration of
potassium chloride (potash) as an additional treatment option.
It is effective at controlling adult golden mussels and is safe
for fish and wildlife at treatment concentrations.
The City of Oceanside has begun an effort to restore the Loma
Alta Slough, a coastal wetland at the mouth of Loma Alta Creek
in South Oceanside. Construction started in May and is expected
to continue through April 2027. The $6 million project is
funded by grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
State Coastal Conservancy, the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, and the Ocean Protection Council. The slough
is a seasonally tidal estuary at the end of the seven-mile-long
Loma Alta Creek. It is a highly dynamic system, shifting
between salt water and brackish water throughout the year as
conditions change at the ocean inlet. … In Oceanside’s early
years, the slough was an expansive coastal salt marsh covering
more than 40 acres. Over the past 50 years, development in the
surrounding floodplain shrunk the wetland to about eight acres.
Fifty years ago this week, a beautiful summer evening in
Colorado ended in catastrophe. On the night of July 31, 1976, a
powerful thunderstorm stalled over the Big Thompson Canyon west
of Loveland, unleashing a torrential rainfall in a matter of
hours. The resulting flash flood killed 144 people and became
the single deadliest disaster in the state’s history.
For Lori Peek, professor of sociology and director of
the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado
Boulder, the flood’s most important legacy may be the lessons
that emerged from it—and the realization that those lessons
still require attention today. “Anniversary events like
this one are so important because they serve as moments for
communities to come together and reflect upon what was lost,
what we’ve learned and what we still need to do to become more
resilient in the future,” she says.
In a requirement that is the first of its kind in the
country, some 600 commercial and industrial properties
in the Los Angeles area will have to clean up the water that
runs off their parking lots or pay to have it cleaned up. The
Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board voted to
require shopping centers, warehouses, private hospitals and
office complexes whose properties drain into the Dominguez and
Los Cerritos channels to get stormwater permits.
… Environmental advocates, who have pushed for the
change for years, said the new requirements will make a
major difference in addressing water pollution.
… But representatives of developers, property owners and
business groups raised concerns about the costs and
requirements that they said are sometimes unclear.
Joel Ferry is stepping down as commissioner of the Department
of Natural Resources, just ahead of an anticipated
announcement on Utah’s future share of Colorado River
water and as the state grapples with plunging water
levels in both the Great Salt Lake and Lake Powell. Since 2022,
Ferry has played a pivotal role in water issues, as Gov.
Spencer Cox’s point man on Great Salt Lake conservation efforts
and the Colorado River. ... Cox nominated Jamie
Barnes, the state forester and director of the Utah Division of
Forestry, Fire and State Lands since 2021, to take
Ferry’s place pending Senate confirmation. … Ferry has been
closely involved intense, high-stakes negotiations on the
allocation of Colorado River water between Utah and the other
states that rely on it.
In a major milestone after years of delays and cost increases,
the Santa Clara Valley Water District has approved a
construction contract to tear down and rebuild Anderson Dam,
the largest dam in Santa Clara County, and bring the
aging 240-foot-tall structure up to modern earthquake
standards. The San Jose-based government agency
awarded the $1.88 billion contract on Friday to
Flatiron-Dragados-Sukut, a joint venture of major
engineering firms Flatiron-Dragados and Sukut Construction
based in Concord. Work on the massive project, one of the
largest public works projects in the Bay Area in recent years,
is scheduled to begin Jan. 1 and finish by
2033.
Two environmental advocacy organizations and two Native
American tribes on Tuesday filed separate lawsuits to vacate
the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the use of a
decommissioned oil and gap pipeline across protected federal
public land in the Mojave Desert for a controversial water
project. The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra
Club said in their complaint filed in Los Angeles
that the bureau’s decision will have a devastating impact on
the fragile desert environment. Cadiz Inc. acquired the
pipeline from El Paso Natural Gas in 2011 and intends the use
it forits Mojave Groundwater Bank, a project to pump
water from an underground aquifer in the Mojave Desert to the
company’s customers west of the desert along the California
coast.
As the chances of a ‘super’ El Niño continue to rise — now 81%,
according to federal scientists — researchers are looking back
to 2015 and 2016, when a Pacific heat wave combined with a
strong El Niño threw some of the West Coast’s most important
commercial fishing fleets into turmoil. … Salmon also
suffered [in 2016], partly because drought had affected inland
rivers, where Chinook and Coho migrate to spawn, eggs hatch,
and salmon fry swim back downstream to the ocean. But warmer
oceans are also often bereft of the high-energy prey these
juvenile salmon need for rapid growth when they reach the
saltwater. … [T]he upcoming El Niño is likely to
be a mixed bag for California’s salmon. If the system
brings a lot of rain, which can happen during an El Niño, that
big water will benefit salmon who are in their river stages.
But the warm ocean water will be a blow to juvenile salmon, and
that won’t show up until two or three years later.
… From Tucson to Phoenix, residents are using significantly
less water per person than they did a generation ago. Cities
credit everything from replacing thirsty grass lawns
with desert landscaping to installing more efficient plumbing
fixtures and encouraging conservation through rebate
programs. The result is a surprising trend: Arizona
has added hundreds of thousands of residents while many
communities have reduced the amount of water each person uses
every day. … Across the Valley, water conservation has
become part of everyday life. In Glendale, city officials
reported a 19% reduction in municipal water use during
a Stage 1 Drought Watch, far surpassing the city’s
initial 5% conservation goal.
Other drought and water conservation news around the West:
The Park County commissioners are taking a hard line with data
centers, in large part after hearing overwhelming public
sentiment in opposition and due to simply not knowing enough
about potential issues. … While Gov. Mark Gordon recently
came out opposed to a moratorium at the state level, a number
of primary election candidates have expressed opposition to any
more data centers being built. … “At this time, based on
public input and just the unknown, the recommendation [from the
consultant] is to more widely prohibit them as opposed
to allow,” Planning Director Joy Hill told
commissioners during a work session last week. … “I don’t
know how much water they need and how often. I
could not tell you. I do not have enough factual information
about data centers generally to feel comfortable even advising
you.”
The climate-driven water crisis is becoming a housing crisis as
builders increasingly struggle to secure sufficient water
supplies for new residential developments. Now Japanese water
infrastructure company Kubota Corp. aims to provide developers
of suburban subdivisions with an unlimited source of water
through a technology that extracts H2O from the air. In a deal
announced Tuesday, Kubota is buying atmospheric water
harvesters made by Delaware-based AirJoule LLC to be
initially deployed in California and Texas. Both
states require developers to demonstrate that they have secured
long-term access to water supplies to receive approval to
build. In water-stressed areas, clusters of AirJoule
harvesters could be integrated into Kubota’s water recycling
systems to serve as decentralized neighborhood water plants for
new subdivisions.
A proposal to raise sewer rates for several hundred Kern County
residents tied into the Bakersfield sewer system failed to pass
Tuesday. Supervisors Philip Peters and Leticia Perez voted
against the rate increase while a lawsuit between the county
and the city of Bakersfield plays out. … Residents of
County Service Area 71 are not inside Bakersfield city limits,
but the county does not have its own wastewater treatment plant
for those residents and ties into the city of Bakersfield’s
sewer system. Residents pay the county an annual wastewater
fee, and the county then pays the city for the service. With
the city increasing its rates, the county will now have to pay
more to supply the service to residents.
Golden mussels have been declared an emergency in Yolo County,
but boat inspections for the invasive mollusks are no longer
required at Lake Oroville in Butte County. … On April
29, the California Department of Water Resources announced that
boat inspections are no longer part of DWR’s mussel prevention
program at Lake Oroville. Earlier this month, Yolo County Board
of Supervisors declared a state of emergency when the invasive
species was found at the Port of West Sacramento. The emergency
applies to waterways connected to the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. That doesn’t include Lake Oroville, which is formed by
the Oroville Dam and impounds the Feather River. DWR
decided that Lake Oroville’s deeper waters are too cold for
golden mussel larvae.
