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 headlines below are the original headlines used in the publication cited at the time they are posted here and do not reflect the stance of the Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit that remains neutral.
Colorado water managers say a state-run conservation
program planned for 2027 is in jeopardy as they wait
on an agreement with federal officials. Before they open
the application period for a new conservation program,
state officials want assurance from the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation that conserved water they store in Lake Powell
won’t just be released downstream for Lower Basin use.
In September, the state water board approved
the application review process and criteria for what
state officials are calling Colorado’s near-term contribution
program for 2027. The program aims to use nearly $100
million in funding from Reclamation to pay water users in the
Upper Basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and
Wyoming) to voluntarily cut back.
The Central Arizona Project has filed a motion to intervene in
Nevada’s lawsuit challenging a federal plan to curtail Colorado
River water to those two states and California. CAP,
which delivers water from the river to the Phoenix and Tucson
areas, has strenuously objected to the U.S. Department
of the Interior’s new “framework” for managing the river in the
coming decade in a manner that theoretically could
deplete all of the canal’s supply during the driest of years
while not forcing any new cuts on the four upstream
states collectively known at the river’s Upper Basin.
Now it is joining Nevada’s challenge to that plan.
… Arizona had previously joined Nevada’s
lawsuit, and announced it had done so on Oct. 16.
San Diego approved higher water rates Tuesday for low-volume
users and cheaper water for golf courses and other high-volume
users to comply with a controversial court ruling that
essentially outlaws rewarding conservation. City
officials also dashed hopes that a new state law might allow
them to revive rates rewarding conservation as soon as 2028,
contending they must wait for the state Supreme Court to rule
on the issue. The new rates, which kick in Jan. 1, represent
the same overall increase of 14.5% for calendar year
2027 that the council approved last fall. But the
increase will now be divided up differently, with
larger hikes for low-volume single-family homes and
smaller hikes for high-volume single-family homes, apartment
buildings and golf courses.
More water — or less — could be sent cascading down the
San Joaquin River through Stockton as a result
of a State Water Resources Control Board meeting
starting Wednesday. The board is considering revisions
to the Bay-Delta Water Quality Plan, the document that
sets goals for the amount and quality of what flows
through major rivers surrounding the Delta. It’s the
latest update to a plan that started in 1978 and has seen
updates three times since. Because it involves California’s
most precious commodity — water — any changes are sure to bring
disagreements. The latest issue pits farmers, Native American
tribes, water districts, environmentalists and others
trying to get sufficient water to meet their
divergent needs. At issue is just how much water
should course through Northern California rivers to ensure that
badly depleted fish stocks can be replenished.
… Roadway flooding is expected to return multiple times this
week and could be just the start of a nightmare for the
region during El Niño. According to a new report from
the UC Davis Road Ecology Center, the high risk of flooding
this winter threatens key infrastructure statewide.
… The National Weather Service has issued a coastal
flooding advisory in the Bay Area through Friday, warning that
flooding along the bayshore will continue this
week. At-risk locations include the shoreline of San
Francisco Bay, Monterey Bay and San Pablo Bay, as well as
low-lying areas bordering the ocean. … In an effort to
protect the road, Highway 37 closed this past week for
emergency construction after Gov. Gavin Newsom directed
Caltrans to elevate the flood-prone sections.
… The UC Davis report identified the problem that other
key parts of Bay Area infrastructure, such as SFO, are built on
former marshes.
Farmers in the Westlands Water District got a surprise addition
to their annual water allocation after the Bureau of
Reclamation announced Tuesday it would increase the
allocation of Central Valley Project contractors from 28% to
31% of their contract total. Westlands’ General
Manager, Allison Febbo, said in a statement, “While allocation
increases this late in the water year are unusual, the latest
hydrologic data shows there is water available in our
reservoirs that can be put to beneficial use now.” The
increase of three percentage points of the district’s total
contract (1,195,000 acre-feet) is 37,450 acre-feet, which is
close to the amount growers told Westlands they would need to
pump beyond what the Bureau had initially allocated to the west
Fresno district.
Invasive golden mussels that have been clogging pipelines
throughout the state’s water systems over the past two years
may also weaken concrete and cause water quality
issues, according to several studies. Westlands Water
District Deputy General Manager Kelly Vandergon told the
district’s board in September that a study in China
showed golden mussel attachment could weaken
cement. Vandergon said the study showed that the
way the mussel’s byssal threads attach to concrete
“essentially loosens that upper surface, allowing water
to penetrate deeper into the concrete
structure.” The mussels secrete byssal threads,
thin strands with adhesive tips, from inside their
shells. Vandergon said the concrete issue is “one of the
research projects we’re trying to develop for Prop 4 funding,
which has not yet been made available by the state.”
Intense rainstorms linked to a very active El
Niño-driven Pacific hurricane season have left thousands
of people in the Four Corners states displaced or facing
massive cleanups from flooding. The adjoining states
of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Arizona all saw substantial
flooding last week, and damage assessments are just starting to
trickle in from cities, towns and some of the most remote
territory in the continental U.S. The northern New Mexico
city of Farmington was hit particularly hard
after torrential rains fell on the San Juan mountains
in Colorado, sending floodwaters down the San Juan
River that passes through Farmington on its way to Lake Powell
on the Utah-Arizona border.
For all the talk about data centers, they can be pretty
unassuming up close. … Generally, researchers say, the amount
of water used inside the four walls of these nondescript
buildings is lower than most people think. However, they demand
massive amounts of electricity, and power plants can use a lot
of water while working to meet that demand. Ultimately, though,
there is relatively little data on how much water is used to
make electricity in Arizona, and analysts say it is hard to get
a complete understanding of data centers’ water demands without
more transparency from electric utilities. … Data
centers use massive amounts of electricity. The amount of
electricity it takes to power an average data center is roughly
equivalent to the power needed for 400 Costco warehouses,
according to an APS official. It takes a lot of water to
generate that power, and the need for those generating stations
is growing.
A conservation group sued the federal government Tuesday for
failing to make a timely decision on whether to list a rare
Nevada toad and fish as endangered or threatened species. The
Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service Tuesday for allegedly violating the Endangered Species
Act after federal wildlife managers failed to issue a 12-month
finding on whether to list the Amargosa toad and the Oasis
Valley speckled dace, as required by federal law.
… According to the petitions, both the rare toad and
fish are threatened with extinction due to groundwater pumping
from seven proposed gold mining operations along the
Amargosa. Six of those projects are being proposed by
British multinational miner AngloGold Ashanti, including what
is potentially the largest greenfield gold discovery in Nevada
in more than a decade.
One of the seven elected board members of Silicon Valley’s
largest water agency was censured for misconduct Tuesday in a
unanimous vote by her colleagues, the latest in a series of
clashes that have marked her four-year tenure in office as she
seeks another term from voters next Tuesday. By a 6-0 vote, the
Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors censured
Rebecca Eisenberg and prohibited her from serving on any board
committees. It was the second such censure vote board members
have taken against Eisenberg, the other coming in 2024.
… Two weeks ago, Eisenberg was removed from the dais by
security during a water district board meeting when she began
shouting that the other six board members had a vendetta
against her and she refused to yield the floor after her 5
minutes of allotted speaking time expired.
Conservationists across Wyoming are turning to an unlikely
source of inspiration to help combat wildfires, reduce
flooding, and restore natural habitats: beavers. Known as
Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs), these human-made structures mimic
the effects of natural beaver dams by slowing moving water,
raising water levels and helping restore wetlands and streams.
… Constructed using natural materials such as wooden posts,
branches and vegetation, BDAs are designed to slow water flow
and encourage moisture to spread into surrounding soil and
vegetation. By retaining water in the landscape, these
structures can help create wetter, healthier environments that
may be more resistant to wildfire. They can also slow
runoff during heavy rainfall or snowmelt, potentially reducing
downstream flooding and erosion.
Montecito Water District’s Board of Directors has approved a
non-binding Letter of Intent to sell approximately 40% of the
District’s State Water contract interests. The MWD will keep
nearly 60% of its State Water Contract interests, or
approximately 1,900 acre-feet of annual water allocation, and
the capacity to convey, store, and transfer water, if the sale
succeeds. At the District’s September Board meeting, MWD
General Manager Nick Turner presented information on the State
Water Project and the partial sale opportunity. Data shared
showed that the MWD has received its full annual State Water
Project allocation only five times since participation started
in 1997. “The MWD currently pays about $5 million annually
in fixed costs regardless of whether the allocation is 100% or
0%,” Turner explained. “If there is water available and we
deliver it, that cost increases.”
The federal government is accelerating development and testing
of technologies to remove and destroy PFAS, the persistent
chemicals that have contaminated drinking water in Colorado and
across the country. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
announced its first agency-wide strategy on Monday in Commerce
City, where a new $86 million treatment plant illustrates the
expense communities face in removing the chemicals.
… The initiative calls for research funding, pilot
projects at Superfund sites, military bases, wastewater plants
and drinking-water systems, as well as technical guidance for
local utilities. It will emphasize partnerships with states,
universities and private companies, rather than new regulatory
mandates.
Rivers can look normal on the surface and still be running dry
underneath. Streamflow drought happens when rivers and streams
drop below normal levels for weeks or months, shaped by
snowpack, groundwater, and reservoir operations as much as by
rainfall, which is why it can persist even after the rain
returns. Until now, water managers had little advance notice of
it. River DroughtCast, a new machine learning tool developed by
the US Geological Survey, changes that: it forecasts streamflow
drought one to thirteen weeks ahead at thousands of sites
across the United States, each forecast paired with an explicit
measure of uncertainty. It is the first operational tool of its
kind to combine multiple drought intensities and forecast
horizons at national scale. We spoke with John Hammond, the
research hydrologist who led its development, about how the
model was built, what it can and cannot yet do, and where it is
headed next.
Salinity is already affecting the Central Valley’s water
supplies, agricultural lands, and communities. It has forced
the retirement of hundreds of thousands of acres in the
Westlands Water District and other areas. In the Tulare Lake
Basin, farmers have relied on active evaporation basins and
Integrated Farm Drainage Management Systems to capture and
contain saline drainage water. However, these interim measures
do not provide a valley-wide solution, and a long-term salinity
management plan has yet to be implemented. If left unchecked,
salt accumulation could impair millions of acres of productive
farmland, reduce food production, and constrain the growth of
Central Valley communities. At its October 6 meeting, the State
Water Board received an update on efforts to address salinity
through CV-SALTS, which includes separate salt and nitrate
management programs.
The news business, if you haven’t heard, is a mess. Against the
worrisome backdrop of a steep drop in newsroom jobs, 38 climate
and environment reporters gathered at Flathead Lake Biological
Station, in Montana, in early October for two days of in-depth
talks. Representing big metro dailies, national print and radio
outlets, and nonprofit pioneers, we had an impossibly large
task: discuss the future of climate journalism.
… Organized by the Institute for Journalism and Natural
Resources, the convening was part graduate seminar, part
brainstorming session, part group therapy. It was an
opportunity for frank conversations about the impediments to
covering a gargantuan story that touches everything. Above all,
what business models will sustain it?
After an epically dry winter and a tense summer for the
Colorado River, the autumn has delivered a rare boost to one of
its most iconic stretches. In recent days, heavy rains pushed
Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon to their highest
levels in years. The rains, which also caused flooding and
destruction in communities throughout the Four Corners region,
provided a crucial slug of water to the Grand Canyon’s
unique ecosystems. River scientists are still
gathering precise information about the exact volume of water
surging through the river, but experts estimate flows reached
at least 21,000 cubic feet per second. According to the U.S.
Geological Survey’s measuring station above Diamond Creek, that
marks the highest rate of flow since April 2023, when
water managers deliberately sent a massive, sudden burst of
water through the canyon.
Scientists today say we’re just beginning to understand
the harm that the tiny bits of plastic we drink, eat
and breathe are doing to the human body. But recently
discovered chemical company documents dating back several
decades show that industry scientists have long been aware of —
and concerned about — the way microplastic particles
migrate beyond the gut in animals and humans, depositing in
important organs. … [T]heir presence has become
concern enough among health officials, lawmakers and
researchers that in 2018, California passed a
law requiring the state’s water agency to define, test
for, and report the particles in drinking water. The
Trump administration, averse to most regulation, announced
earlier this year that the EPA would begin tackling
them in drinking water as well.
Iron County is moving ahead with new regulations for
data centers in the southwestern Utah county — months
after passing a temporary moratorium on the controversial
projects. The Iron County Commission unanimously approved the
new rules during a meeting in Cedar City on Monday after
hearing from residents for more than an hour. Notably,
the new rules do not set hard limits on water use for
data centers. Instead, data center sites that would
use more than 50,000 gallons of water per day would have
to submit a plan to prove the additional water use
won’t harm the aquifer. … In another vote
Monday, the commission repealed the previous moratorium on data
centers, with no debate. Commissioners took public comment
before voting Monday and heard from residents who were
concerned about noise pollution, air quality, water
use and the longtime environmental effect of data
centers.
