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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Thousands of dead fish have been left behind in the waterbed
where the Kern River sometimes flows through Bakersfield — not
due to drought but to maintenance by the city water department
that added to accusations of mismanagement. Those claims were
brought to Superior Court in a 2022 lawsuit by multiple
environmental advocacy organizations. In October, Bakersfield
argued against the claims, asserting it is not solely
responsible for the dewatering of the Kern River. The recent
fish deaths were “a really tragic situation, both ecologically
and for the community, and of course for the wildlife because
the fish has nowhere to go,” freshwater ecologist Rae McNeish
said.
… When Copco, the company, first started damming the Klamath,
bringing hydroelectric power to a remote corner of California
was a higher priority for government and industry than the
passage of fish up and down from the river’s headwaters in
southern Oregon to the sea. Today, scientists count damming
alongside overfishing, hatcheries, degraded habitat, and
climate change as the biggest blows to what were once the
third-largest salmon runs in the lower 48 states. Dam
proponents also ignored Native American rights and interests.
Their projects’ reservoirs flooded homelands of the Shasta
people, so utterly dispossessing them that they are not
currently a federally recognized tribe. … Two small towns are
most directly affected: Hornbrook, just downstream from Iron
Gate Dam, has a population of 650 if you include the
surrounding district; the cottage community of Copco Lake, on
the Copco reservoir, has 120 residents, not all of them
full-time. … There’s perennial conflict over how much
Klamath water should go to agriculture and other uses and how
much to fish. But that battle is centered upstream, in Klamath
Falls, Oregon, where a pair of dams will remain standing.
– Written by J.B. MacKinnon, journalist and author of
The Day the World Stops Shopping.
… Passed as a ballot initiative, the Safe Drinking Water and
Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 has resulted in warnings being
affixed to everything from vinyl-covered Bibles to
gas station pumps, advising that exposure to some 900 chemicals
can cause cancer, birth defects or reproductive harm. Ever
since the passage of Proposition 65, policymakers and
business groups have argued over whether the law is
effective in preventing people from ingesting and inhaling
toxic chemicals, or just providing a payday to plaintiffs
attorneys. Now, a new study published in
Environmental Health Perspectives has concluded that
Proposition 65 has curbed exposure to toxic substances in
California — and nationally. … The researchers analyzed
concentrations of 11 chemicals placed on the Proposition 65
warning list and monitored by the CDC between 1999 and 2016.
They included several types of phthalates, chemicals used to
make plastics flexible; chloroform, a toxic byproduct from
disinfecting water with chlorine; and toluene, a hazardous
substance found in vehicle exhaust.
New groundbreaking research involving the University of Hawaiʻi
at Mānoa is aimed at evaluating potential human health risks
from bacteria in surface water systems in four states. Courtesy
of the University of Hawaiʻi The 3-year study, which recently
received a $2.4 million grant from the Environmental Protection
Agency, will assess the environmental spread of
antimicrobial-resistant pathogens — disease-causing
microorganisms that evolved to withstand the effects of
antibiotics and other medicines designed to kill them — through
wastewater discharge and agricultural runoff. UH-Mānoa
researchers will focus on Kauaʻi’s Hanalei River, where they
will examine how cesspools and animal agriculture contribute to
the spread of antimicrobial resistance. … Waterways in
Nebraska, New Jersey and California join the Hawaiʻi river
system were selected for the study to represent diverse
environmental conditions and pollution sources.
For the first time since Sept. 19, 2022, low water levels in
Folsom Lake have led to the enactment of a 5 mph speed limit
for boaters. Since Oct. 1, the lake’s elevation level has
fallen over 12 feet. As of Monday morning, the lake’s elevation
stood at 398 feet and falling, according to data from the
California Department of Water Resources. California State
Parks is urging boaters to exercise “extreme caution” on the
lake due to hazards, like rocks, being much closer to the
surface level of the lake.
Aquafornia is off Monday, Nov. 11, in observance of
Veterans Day but will return with a full slate of water
news on Nov. 12. Meanwhile, follow us on Twitter where we post
breaking water news. You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram,
and LinkedIn.
California’s massive water projects, its authority to clean its
air, federal support for offshore wind and disaster aid for
wildfires all depend on cooperation with the new Trump
administration. … Trump’s reelection has unnerved
environmental groups that are watching over the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta and its imperiled fish. At stake are the
state’s massive projects that bring Northern California water
south to farmers and cities. In 2016, Trump
famously scorned California for wasting water by
allowing its major rivers to reach the ocean. More recently, at
a September campaign speech in Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump said
he will increase the amount of water these projects deliver,
promising Southern Californians “more water than almost anybody
has.”
Top state negotiators working on an agreement to guide the
future of the drought-ravaged Colorado River said they don’t
expect that the looming shift in control of the White House
will derail the process for drafting a long-term operating
plan. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory this week means
there soon will be new people in top jobs at the Interior
Department and the Bureau of Reclamation, which plays a
decisive role in brokering an agreement and could impose its
own view if participating states don’t come to a consensus. But
this might be one area where the shift in administration won’t
change much, negotiators said.
… According to Dr. Josh Fisher, a climate scientist at
Chapman University, many factors came together to result in the
wildfire moving quickly as it tore up hillsides, moving upwards
as it burned through Ventura County neighborhoods. “That fire
will spread faster up just because fire moves upwards,” Fisher
said. “So, we’ve got these conditions of the topography, the
wind and the plants — and also close to roads and human
property — all just kind of coming together to make this a lot
worse than it could’ve been if the winds were calm, the
vegetation was wet.” Friday, wind gusts will relax
more.
Related climate change, drought and weather articles:
Court hearings are under way in a lawsuit challenging one of
the Imperial Valley’s first lithium projects. Two environmental
justice organizations are suing Imperial County officials over
their decision to greenlight the Hell’s Kitchen Project, a
geothermal energy plant that would collect dissolved lithium
particles from searing hot water deep below the valley. The
project is being built by Controlled Thermal Resources, one of
several energy companies racing to set up lithium operations
near the Salton Sea and tap into the region’s massive
underground lithium reserves. But the environmental
organizations Comite Civico del Valle and Earthworks say county
officials didn’t look hard enough at how much water the plant
would use, whether it would pollute the valley’s air and how it
could affect tribal cultural resources.
The first big winter storm of the season is dumping inches to
feet of snow across Colorado — bringing some drought relief
with it. Coloradans, especially those in the southern and
eastern parts of the state, have seen buckets of steady
snowfall since early this week. … This week’s winter
storm is likely to offer relief from summer and fall drought
conditions in some parts of the state. About 34% of the state
was experiencing some level of drought in early
November, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. These
conditions, which are linked to wildfires and suffering crops,
were mostly reported in northern, central and eastern Colorado.
When it comes to drought relief and boosting soil moisture, the
news is good for the southeastern plains. This storm system
will likely bring enough moisture to bolster areas that were
short on rain over the summer back up to average precipitation,
Schumacher said.
Thousands of dead fish have been left behind in the waterbed
where the Kern River sometimes flows through Bakersfield – not
due to drought but to maintenance by the city water department
that added to accusations of mismanagement. Those claims were
brought to Superior Court in a 2022 lawsuit by multiple
environmental advocacy organizations. In October, Bakersfield
argued against the claims, asserting it is not solely
responsible for the dewatering of the Kern River. The recent
fish deaths were “a really tragic situation, both ecologically
and for the community, and of course for the wildlife because
the fish has nowhere to go,” freshwater ecologist Rae McNeish
said.
Last night [Nov. 6], the Contra Costa Water District (CCWD)
Board of Directors took action to end its participation in the
Los Vaqueros Phase 2 Expansion Project. This action
follows a September Board discussion during which staff was
directed to develop and present an exit plan for the Board’s
consideration. Los Vaqueros Reservoir, a drinking water
reservoir in Brentwood, was built and expanded by CCWD to
provide water quality and water supply benefits for the
residents of central and eastern Contra Costa County. For
decades, CCWD has worked with local, state and federal partners
to evaluate a Phase 2 expansion of the reservoir and related
facilities to provide regional benefits for urban, agricultural
and environmental interests, all while maintaining the benefits
derived from the initial investments by CCWD customers.
[Scott] Park, his wife, Ulla, their son, Brian, and his wife,
Jamie, operate one of the first farms in California to be
certified as regenerative organic, rotating a variety of crops
on 1,700 acres in the Sacramento Valley with minimal tillage
and no synthetic pesticides or fertilizers. Brise Tencer,
executive director of the Organic Farming Research Foundation
… noted that while the term regenerative agriculture means
different things to different people, it typically is used to
describe practices that are climate-friendly, healthy for soils
and protective of biodiversity. Organic agriculture, which has
a clear, legal definition that is verifiable and enforceable,
shares many of the same principles and goals of regenerative
farming, she said. “Organic agriculture is grounded in
principles that collaborate with nature, foster healthy soils
and contribute to clean water, biodiversity
and thriving farm communities,” Tencer said. Also, like
regenerative standards, organic standards require growers to
maintain and improve soil health.
Mexico has made a unique offer to repay a portion of the water
it owes the United States, but at least one South Texas leader
is balking at the plan. Mexico is offering to pay 125,000
acre-feet of water to the United States from flood overflows in
Rio San Juan basin in the state of Tamaulipas, which is not
part of a 1944 international water treaty between the two
countries. The treaty specifies from which tributaries Mexico
can deliver water so it can be stored by the United States in
its two South Texas reservoirs — Amistad and Falcon. But the
Rio San Juan empties into the Rio Grande south of these
international reservoirs and the water cannot be captured and
saved.
… Denver Water has found nearly 65,000 lead lines in the
city, primarily in homes built before the 1950s. That’s roughly
220 miles of pipe, according to Denver Water officials. The
condition of about 17,000 lines is still unknown. Since
starting the Lead Reduction Program in 2020, the utility has
replaced around half of the lines. They also sent Brita
pitchers and filter replacements to homes that are still
waiting to get their lines replaced. … These replacements
come in the wake of the Flint Water Crisis in Michigan in 2014
when the city changed its water source from Lake Huron to the
Flint River. Pipes corroded and there were no treatment methods
in place. Lead levels were nearly double the lead action level
set by the EPA in most of the homes, while others were in the
hundreds or thousands for parts per billion. It put the dangers
of lead in drinking water in the national spotlight. So why
weren’t Denver’s lines, and others, replaced sooner?
A week after a new majority seized control of the Central Basin
Municipal Water District’s board and fired its embattled
general manager, the results of Tuesday’s election could upend
the fledgling regime. … Central Basin Municipal
Water District is a public water wholesaler with few of its own
employees. It serves nearly 2 million people from 24 cities and
unincorporated areas in southeast Los Angeles County, with its
boundaries stretching from La Habra Heights in the east to
Carson in the west and from Signal Hill in the south to
Montebello in north. The board is made up of seven members,
four of whom are elected and three of whom are appointed by the
agency’s customers. The state Legislature forced the appointees
on the agency following a scathing state audit that
found questionable contract practices in 2016.
Rainbow Municipal Water District (Rainbow Water) has finalized
its detachment from the San Diego County Water Authority
(SDCWA), marking a significant step in its commitment to
securing cost-effective and reliable water supplies for its
customers. On Wednesday, October 30, Rainbow Water made a $3.2
million exit fee payment to SDCWA, the last requirement by the
Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to certify Rainbow
Water’s reorganization. Effective November 1, Rainbow Water
will purchase treated water from the Eastern Municipal Water
District (EMWD) …
In this episode of the Explore Oregon Podcast, host Zach Urness
talks with a Klamath River outfitter about how the largest dam
removal project in United States history has transformed the
river by returning salmon and opening stretches hidden for a
century. Will Volpert, owner of southern Oregon’s Indigo Creek
Outfitters, has been rafting every stretch of what he’s dubbed
the “New Klamath” after dam removal to document, map and
prepare for commercial trips and recreation on a stream that
looks a lot different after four dams and reservoirs were
removed near the Oregon and California state line. Volpert
talks about being surprised by a salmon in a class IV rapid,
exploring the river as it carves through old dam sites and
reservoirs, and running major rapids only recently discovered.
The Diablo Water District is considering using treated
wastewater from the Ironhouse Sanitation District to replenish
local groundwater supplies, according to officials from both
agencies. If implemented, both agencies said they hope that
replenished groundwater aquifers would strengthen East County’s
resilience to water supply changes and meet water reuse goals
directed by the state government. Reports from the California
Department of Water Resources advise that such an operation can
produce safe drinking water provided that significant water
quality tests are done before distributing the treated
water. The Diablo Water District provides water for
residents, parks, and businesses in a 21-square-mile area
consisting of Oakley, Cypress Corridor, Hotchkiss Tract, Summer
Lakes, and portions of Bethel Island and Knightsen. The
Ironhouse Sanitation District provides wastewater treatment for
Oakley and Bethel Island.
