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 state water board has begun taking testimony in its long
process to evaluate the potential environmental impacts of the
proposed off-stream reservoir.
As the burning of fossil fuels and other human activities
continue to increase the levels of carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere, the ocean is absorbing a large portion of the CO2,
which is making seawater more acidic. … And here’s one
important fact about ocean acidification: It’s not happening at
the same rate everywhere. The California coast is one of the
regions of the world where ocean acidification
is occurring the fastest. … In particular, effluent
discharged from coastal sewage treatment plants, which has high
nitrogen levels from human waste, has been shown to
significantly contribute to ocean acidification off the
Southern California coast.
The Upper Truckee River Watershed is the largest contributor of
freshwater to Lake Tahoe. … With fewer floodplains, more fine
sediment and nutrients began flowing in, and the lake’s clarity
declined from more than 130 feet in the 1960s to a low point of
60 feet in 2017. … Once a healthy wetland, the property
is paved with asphalt, housing a defunct Motel 6 and a
long-shuttered restaurant. During the next several years,
the buildings will be razed, the asphalt removed and the
wetland restored, connecting 560 acres of the Upper Truckee
Marsh on the shores of Lake Tahoe to 206-acre Johnson Meadow
across Highway 50 to the south. It’s all part of a bigger
effort to restore the lake’s clarity by reclaiming habitat
around the 9 miles of the river closest to Lake Tahoe, an area
that has seen heavy development.
Erica Gies has always cared deeply about water. … Today, Gies
is an award-winning independent journalist and author who has
covered sustainability and water in outlets like The New York
Times, Scientific American, Nature, The Economist, and National
Geographic … River Partners sat down with Gies recently to
talk about bringing back floodplains, the importance of native
seeds and plants in restoration, what California is doing—and
what it could be doing—in managing water, and how optimistic
she is that we can thrive in an era of weather whiplash.
California fishermen spoke out against state water management
policies Thursday after federal fishing officials canceled
ocean salmon fishing season in the state for the second
consecutive year, delivering a major blow to the fishing
industry. … Salmon stocks have been impacted by the
state’s multi-year drought and climate disruptions, including
wildfires, algal blooms and ocean forage shifts, according to
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The salmon
population has also been impacted by rising river water
temperatures in addition to a rollback of federal
protections for waterways by the Trump administration.
As part of a new survey launched this year, personnel with the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife are visiting various
locations along the Russian River, including at least two in
Ukiah, to collect data regarding the Steelhead trout that local
anglers are catching. One of the main reasons why the survey is
being done in person, according to CDFW staff, is that while
the existing “Steelhead report Card program is meant to collect
similar data,” only about a third of the report cards are
submitted.
A northern Arizona county is getting $15.5 million in federal
funding to mitigate post-wildfire flood damage, the Biden
administration announced Thursday. Coconino County received the
funding to make improvements to the drainage system along U.S.
Highway 89. Wildfires have made the area more susceptible to
flooding that threatens homes and businesses and forces highway
closures. The Navajo Nation and Hopi Reservation are
disproportionately impacted by the flood threat, according to
the U.S. Department of Transportation.
… the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [on
Wednesday] announced the final National Primary Drinking Water
Regulation establishing the first national legally enforceable
drinking water standards … for six per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), commonly referred to as
“forever chemicals” …. actions required for public water
systems under the final rule are likely going to require
significant investment of money, time, and human effort.
President Biden plans to expand the perimeters of two national
monuments in California, protecting mountains and meadows in a
remote area between Napa and Mendocino as well as a rugged
stretch east of Los Angeles, two people familiar with the
administration’s plans said Thursday. The San Gabriel Mountains
National Monument and the Berryessa Snow Mountain National
Monument will each get new boundaries designed to protect land
of cultural significance to Native American tribes, as well as
biodiversity and wildlife corridors, said the people, who asked
not to be named because they were not authorized to discuss the
plans publicly.
In a devastating blow to California’s fishing industry, federal
fishery managers unanimously voted today to cancel all
commercial and recreational salmon fishing off the coast of
California for the second year in a row. The decision is
designed to protect California’s dwindling salmon populations
after drought and water diversions left river flows too warm
and sluggish for the state’s iconic Chinook salmon to
thrive. … Many in the fishing industry say they
support the closure, but urged state and federal officials to
do more to improve conditions in the rivers salmon rely on.
Fishing advocates and environmentalists have lambasted Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s administration for failing to prioritize
water quality and flows to protect salmon in the
vital Bay-Delta watershed.
Key backup tubes inside the Glen Canyon Dam might be damaged,
potentially threatening the delivery of water to Lake Mead in
the future if water levels ever dip too low in Lake Powell,
according to a Bureau of Reclamation memo. Below 3,490 feet,
water releases from Lake Powell are wholly dependent on “river
outlet works,” which water managers now feel are not functional
and could threaten the water supply downstream. Currently, the
reservoir sits at 3,558 feet, and the latest two-year
projection places water levels above 3,560 feet until at least
February 2026. Looming threats of climate change and
evaporative losses also are complicating state negotiations for
how to allocate the shrinking Colorado River.
Earth’s worrisome warming trajectory continued unabated last
month, with March marking the 10th month in a row that the
planet has broken global heat records, international climate
officials announced this week. With an average surface
temperature of 57.45 degrees Fahrenheit, last month was warmer
globally than any previous March on record, according to the
European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service.
… There is a 62% chance that its cooler, drier
counterpart, La Niña, will develop between June and August.
That could be good news for temperatures but bad news for water
supplies — at least in Southern California.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced
the first federal limits on PFAS — manmade “forever
chemicals” linked to cancer, organ damage and other health
issues — in the nation’s drinking water. The regulation,
which was initially proposed in 2023, requires water systems to
reduce levels of six of the most studied types of PFAS to
the lowest levels that can be reliably measured with
testing. … The Bay Area’s drinking water generally
has low levels of PFAS because large water systems in the
region get most of their drinking water from pristine sources
in the Sierra or local reservoirs in regional parks, according
to researchers who study toxic chemicals in drinking water. The
city of San Francisco, for instance, gets most of its water
from Hetch Hetchy, a reservoir north of Yosemite Valley.
After being sanctioned by federal regulators for plowing up
protected wetlands on his California farm, a U.S. lawmaker is
now spearheading an effort to roll back federal water
protections — including the very same provisions that he once
paid penalties for violating. If the scheme is successful,
environmental groups say industrial polluters could more freely
contaminate wetlands, rivers, and other waters, harming both
the nation’s water resources and the communities depending on
them. It could also benefit the lawmaker spearheading the
attack, since he still owns the farm where he was found to be
destroying wetlands.
The majority of California’s reservoirs are above their
historic average levels following the end of two wet winters.
The state’s largest reservoirs, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville,
were measured at a respective 118% and 122% of their averages
for early April, according to data from the California
Department of Water Resources. Folsom Lake in the Sierra Nevada
foothills exits early April at 116%. Only two reservoirs, San
Luis in western San Joaquin Valley and Castaic in Southern
California, were below average. San Luis Reservoir was at just
87% and much smaller Castaic Lake in Los Angeles County was at
92%.
We gathered at Sierra Nevada Brewery on March 8 for our Annual
Meeting, and we continue to cherish the discussions and
insights shared during that event. Among the many highlights of
the gathering was a compelling address by Senator Alex Padilla,
whose remarks resonated deeply with our shared commitment to
safeguarding California’s water resources. Read the excerpt
from Chairman Bryce Lundberg’s introduction and watch Senator
Padilla’s address below.
The water in California’s San Francisco Bay could rise more
than two meters by the year 2100. For the region’s tidal
marshes and their inhabitants, such as the endangered Ridgway’s
rail and the salt marsh harvest mouse, it’s a potential death
sentence. Given enough time, space, and sediment, tidal marshes
can build layers of mud and decaying vegetation to keep up with
rising seas. Unfortunately, upstream dams and a long history of
dredging bays and dumping the sediment offshore are starving
many tidal marshes around the world of the sediment they need
to grow. To keep its marshes above water, San Francisco Bay
needs more than 545 million tonnes of dirt by 2100.
Klamath, Modoc and Siskiyou County leaders are asking for an
“adequate water supply” on behalf of local irrigation. A news
release from Klamath Water Users Association this week said a
letter has been sent to the Bureau of Reclamation requesting
the full water allocations on behalf of Klamath Project
irrigators. The letter, sent to Reclamation Commissioner
Camille Calimlim Touton, bases the request for increase water
flows in congruence with “favorably hydrology” this year in the
Klamath Basin.
Chiquita Canyon Landfill has drawn more than 10,000 complaints,
a number of lawsuits and calls for it to close from residents
and elected officials and is allegedly dumping untreated
stormwater into local waterways, according to a complaint
issued this week by state water officials. The L.A.
Regional Water Quality Control Board issued another violation
Tuesday against Chiquita Canyon Landfill, after Castaic and Val
Verde residents sent the agency numerous photos of the landfill
allegedly pumping from its stormwater basin into the local
waterway at night. Multiple photos were posted to local social
media groups as well.
An interdisciplinary team of scientists and researchers from
University of California, Davis, are studying agave plants in
the Golden State as farmers are turning to the crop as a
potential drought-tolerant option of the future. The research
is centered on studying agave genetics, virus susceptibility,
pest control, soil management and crop productivity, said Ron
Runnebaum, a viticulture and enology professor who is leading
the team of researchers at the newly formed UC Davis Agave
Center. … Agave plants don’t require much water and
their hardy leaves are fire resistant. The crop can be used as
a fiber, distilled into spirits or converted into a sweetener.
That combination of traits could offer an alternative to
fallowing fields by switching from thirsty crops to one
requiring less water.
