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 odds of La Niña have decreased again, according to a
monthly update by the Climate Prediction Center on Thursday.
The agency reports a 57% chance that La Niña develops during
the period from October to December. That’s a decrease from an
update last month, when forecasters announced a 71%
probability that La Niña would be present during that same
three-month period. For now, the climate pattern is expected to
be in place through January-March 2025 and still has the
potential to influence California weather this winter.
If you are an up-and-coming leader in the water world who
is thinking about applying for our 2025 California Water
Leaders cohort, you can
view a virtual Q&A session to get tips on
applying for the competitive program. During the session, Jenn
Bowles, our executive director, and other Water Education
Foundation team members provided an overview of the program and
gave advice on submitting an application by Dec. 5, 2024.
Find more information here.
Water from Colorado’s West Slope basins plays a vital role in
supporting the economy and natural environment across seven
western U.S. states, but a new study finds that even under
modest climate projections, the basins face a potential tipping
point where traditional water delivery levels to Lake Powell
and other critical areas may no longer be sustainable. The
study, published Nov. 9 in the journal Earth’s Future, is the
largest and most comprehensive exploratory modeling analysis of
drought vulnerability in the Colorado West Slope basins – six
watersheds along the Colorado River that feed the Lake Powell
reservoir and support a $5 billion annual agriculture economy.
The finding comes at a critical time as state and federal
policymakers negotiate water-sharing agreements set to expire
in the coming years.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the San Luis & Delta-Mendota
Water Authority [on Nov. 13] announced a negotiated
consensus has been met for the B.F. Sisk Dam Raise and
Reservoir Expansion Project. The joint project creates an
additional 130,000 acre-feet of storage space in San Luis
Reservoir, the nation’s largest off-stream reservoir, producing
additional water supply for two million people, over one
million acres of farmland and 135,000 acres of Pacific Flyway
wetlands and critical wildlife habitat. Reclamation signed the
Record of Decision for the project on Oct. 20, 2023, the first
approval of a major water storage project in California since
2011.
Historically dry conditions and drought in the mid-Atlantic and
Northeastern part of the United States are a key factor in the
string of wildfires the region has faced in the past weeks,
with officials issuing red flag warnings across the Northeast.
On the West Coast, California is battling multiple wildfires,
where dry conditions and wind have caused explosive fires that
have burned more than 200 homes and businesses. It’s not
possible to say that climate change caused the fires, but the
extreme conditions fueling the fires have strong connections to
the effects of climate change, according to David Robinson, the
New Jersey state climatologist at Rutgers University.
Other drought, climate change and wildfire articles:
The Colorado State University research center in Fruita looks
similar to other farm operations in the valley, except these
workers have another full time job on top of planting, growing,
and harvesting crops. Researchers gather data on water usage,
nutrient quality of the crops they grow and even the
temperature of the soil two feet underground. All this
information is vital for CSU projects that look to make
agriculture more efficient in a semi-arid
environment. “[There’s] processing and sampling those
crops and then sending them off for analysis.It’s really like
working on your own farm, but add in the data part of it,” said
Michael Lobato, a CSU researcher. He drives around in a golf
cart, irrigating his hay field, and recording exactly how much
water is applied to the two halves of the experiment. One half
is regular farm ground, the other half has a supplement added
into the soil. That’s the side Lobato hopes will be just as
healthy, but with less water.
A large, fast-breeding rodent that tears through wetlands and
crops has raised alarm among Solano County officials and
farmers. Nutria, which may grow up to 2 feet long and weigh 20
pounds, were discovered in the Central Valley as early as 2017,
after going undetected for 40 years in California. But recently
they’ve multiplied. State Fish and Wildlife efforts have
captured a total of 5,171 nutria across 10 counties, including
Stanislaus, Fresno, San Joaquin, Mariposa, Sacramento, Contra
Costa, Madera, Tuolumne and Solano. The fear is they will
migrate to other North Bay areas beyond the Suisun Marsh,
specifically into sensitive wetlands and watersheds, such as
the Napa-Sonoma Marshes Wildlife Areas, San Pablo National
Wildlife Refuge and San Francisco Bay.
PFAS may be contaminating drinking water for up to 70% of about
140 million people in the US who draw water from the nation’s
aquifers via private or public wells, a new federal government
study estimates. The findings show a potential impact on about
95 million people, or 27% of the nation’s population. The US
Geological Survey sampling and modeling of groundwater
contamination found readings up to 37,000 times higher than the
EPA’s new drinking water limits. In some regions virtually all
of those using public systems that draw from groundwater may be
drinking contaminated water. This is especially a problem for
those who draw from private wells, or small public wells,
because neither is covered by strong new PFAS limits
implemented by the Environmental Protection Agency – those
people represent about 13% of the US population.
Nearly 400 acres of open land that once was planned for offices
and parking lots in Coyote Valley, a scenic rural expanse on
San Jose’s southern edges, is moving into public ownership to
become part of an open space preserve for wildlife, flood
control and recreation. The Peninsula Open Space Trust, a
non-profit environmental group based in Palo Alto, is selling
the 376-acre property, known as Laguna Seca, for $16 million to
the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, a government
agency in San Jose. That’s a discount: the land trust, commonly
called POST, bought it for $21 million five years ago. … The
property is valuable not only as a wildlife corridor for deer,
coyotes, mountain lions and other wildlife, but also as a
natural flood control basin, where water from Coyote
Creek can settle in big storms and seep into the ground, rather
than flooding neighborhoods and roads.
On Thursday, the California Coastal Commission will vote on the
approval of a $175 million climate-related project that would
transform the southern portion of San Francisco’s Ocean Beach.
… Created by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
and other agencies, the plan includes a 3,200-foot-long buried
seawall designed to protect a sewage tunnel and wastewater
treatment plant located along the coast south of Sloat
Boulevard. The 14-foot diameter Lake Merced Tunnel is used to
store combined stormwater and wastewater during big storms when
the plant is at capacity. It’s particularly vulnerable because
that part of the beach is projected to erode by more than 100
feet between now and 2100 because of sea level rise and larger
storms that come with climate change, according to a recent
study by the U.S. Geological Survey.
The Salton Sea Management Program (SSMP) announced the
expansion of its Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) Project at
the south end of the Salton Sea, aimed at supporting regional
air quality and wildlife. A groundbreaking ceremony, attended
by Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot, Deputy
Secretary Samantha Arthur, and other officials, marked the
start of this effort. This expansion adds 750 acres to the SCH
Project, bringing the current area close to 5,000 acres, with
potential growth to nearly 8,000 acres.
Leaders of San Diego County’s second-largest city unanimously
voted Tuesday to declare a local state of emergency due to the
impacts of the Tijuana River sewage crisis reaching Chula
Vista. The resolution is largely symbolic, calling on the White
House, especially with a forthcoming change in administration,
and other top government officials to fast-track more spending
for solutions. Chula Vista officials are directed to “explore
any and all options to improve conditions in the Tijuana
River,” the proclamation reads. The council’s vote marked the
first, official acknowledgment that the rampant pollution was
no longer just affecting the communities closest to the river.
Its effects, such as noxious sewer gas odors, are impacting
people several miles away in Chula Vista.
With more rain on the way, water agencies are urging people to
prepare for what winter will bring. On Wednesday, Valley Water
wanted to make sure South Bay residents were ready when the
bigger storms hit. “The rain is coming, winter is coming. We’ve
already experienced a little bit of it,” said Brian Garcia, NWS
warning coordination meteorologist The national weather service
says there isn’t a strong indicator of whether we’ll see an el
Nino or la Nina this winter. While they don’t expect the
historic storms the Bay Area and California saw two years ago,
the NWS said the winter could prove tough to forecast.
Cadiz Inc. has been called a “zombie,” a “poison pill” and a
scheme to “suck the desert dry” by draining a delicate
groundwater aquifer north of Joshua Tree National Park and
selling the water to wealthy coastal cities. … Cadiz
announced a deal to supply groundwater to Spanish developer RIC
Energy. RIC would build a solar farm at Cadiz’s Mojave Desert
Ranch, 160 miles northeast of downtown Los Angeles, and use the
electricity to split water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen
atoms. The energy developer would sell the clean-burning
hydrogen for combustion in cars, trucks and power plants, to
replace planet-warming fossil fuels. Oh yeah, the icing on
the cake — this week, Cadiz agreed to buy 180 miles of steel
pipe from the failed Keystone XL oil pipeline … Cadiz
will use the pipe for its groundwater project, which it now
says will be majority Indigenous-owned and largely supply water
to low-income and tribal communities. … This is too good
to be true. Right? — Written by Sammy Roth, climate columnist for the Los
Angeles Times
UC Santa Cruz has received nearly $7.5 million from the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA) to vault
scientific research on imperiled Pacific salmon populations
into one of the nation’s most powerful collaborations between
the agency and academia to save the vital species. The
transformational funding will support and expand a longstanding
joint effort between UC Santa Cruz and NOAA’s Southwest
Fisheries Science Center—a partnership that the agency sees as
one of the most robust of its 16 collaborative research
institutes, which spans 80 universities across the country.
Tuolumne Utilities Districts (TUD) receives one of the largest
state grant awards for water system consolidation and will
bring cost savings to the district and customers. A $45.6
million State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) grant/loan
has been awarded to the district to construct a
state-of-the-art 3 million gallons per day (mgd) regional water
treatment facility at Sierra Pines in Twain Harte. The Sierra
Pines Regional Water Treatment Facility (WTF) Consolidation
Project aims to consolidate up to six aging surface water
treatment plants, replacing them with advanced technology to
ensure enhanced reliability and superior water quality for TUD
customers.
In a social media post days after the election, President-elect
Donald Trump made clear that California’s water wars are top of
his agenda – and he’s firmly on the side of big water users,
not fish. His early words for the state come as little surprise
after his first four years in office. The previous Trump
administration successfully rolled back environmental
protections to send more water from rivers in the north to
farms and cities farther south. While the agriculturally rich
San Joaquin Valley welcomes water that might return with Trump
2.0, critics worry that the president’s prior term gives him
the know-how now for an even bigger water grab, all the while
drying up landscapes, killing wildlife and ruining the serenity
and sport many residents seek on the state’s waterways.
A pair of storms moving through Redding this week could dump
1.5 to 2 inches of rain in the region, helping bring up water
levels at Lakes Shasta and raising hope California’s largest
reservoir will fill up for a third straight year if a robust La
Niña arrives this winter. The lake was at 56% total capacity
as of Monday, which is 104% of its historical average,
according to the state Department of Water Resources’ most
recent data. That compares to 69% total capacity for the same
day in 2023. The data provides concrete evidence of the impact
the extreme weather that baked the West had on the lake, when
billions of gallons of water were lost due to evaporation.
The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab, at some 7,000 feet in
the Sierra Nevada Mountains, had 6.3 inches of snowfall Monday.
It’s a welcome sign for Andrew Schwartz, the lab’s director.
Not just because it’s building the snowpack early in the
season, but also because it helps reduce fire risk. “It’s
seeping into the soils,” Schwartz said of the snow.
… Michael Anderson, state climatologist with the
Department of Water Resources, told Courthouse News that the
state is at 37% of average rainfall at this point. However,
California gets about half of its annual precipitation between
December and February. … Pivoting to the state’s
reservoirs, Anderson said they likely won’t reach their low
point for the year until next month…. The snowpack itself is
like a reservoir in solid state. When it starts to melt during
the spring, the water enters rivers and, eventually, state
reservoirs.
A projected increase in the kind of “atmospheric river” type
storms California experienced in the historic 2023 water year
could be disastrous for the San Joaquin Valley – or its
salvation. The difference depends on whether locals can adapt
to the coming changes by absorbing the intermittent deluges and
storing that water for later dry times. Right now, systems in
the San Joaquin and Sacramento River watersheds were built to
collect and move precipitation that first lands as snow in the
Sierra Nevada mountains and then slowly melts through
springtime. A warmer climate, though, will mean more rain than
snow, filling rivers and reservoirs more quickly, said Daniel
Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the Environment
and Sustainability at UCLA, during a webinar hosted by the
Sustainable Conservation.
