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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This past water year—a calendar built around the wet season,
from Oct. 1, 2023 to Sept. 30, 2024—just 8,972 acre-feet of
water were pumped into Cal Am’s system to meet customer demand.
It marks the first time since 1977—a severe drought year that
led to water rationing—that number has dipped below 9,000
acre-feet. For contrast, the amount of water put into the
system in 1976 was around 16,000 acre-feet. …
Meanwhile, both the population and the price of water for
customers have grown considerably. What does that
mean? For one, it means that water conservation measures
implemented by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
are working. It also reflects that the demand for water, to a
certain extent, is elastic—residents need water to drink and
for domestic purposes, but perhaps some decided watering their
lawn or whatever else was just not worth the cost.
House Speaker Mike Schultz hosted lawmakers for a water policy
summit where he urged his colleagues to ensure efforts are
taken to help the state deal with growth, protect the Great
Salt Lake and ensure Utah gets its fair share of water from the
Colorado River. “Every part of this state has different needs,
different water issues,” Speaker Schultz, R-Hooper, told FOX 13
News on Thursday. “Collaboratively, we can come together as a
state and work to move the state ahead and make sure we have
enough water not just for us, but our kids and grandkids in the
future.” The Speaker has called for a “pause” on
major water bills in the upcoming session of the Utah State
Legislature. He said he believes major policy shifts have
happened with bills and spending on water conservation and
rewriting more than a century of water rights law.
House Speaker Mike Schultz hosted lawmakers for a water policy
summit where he urged his colleagues to ensure efforts are
taken to help the state deal with growth, protect the Great
Salt Lake and ensure Utah gets its fair share of water from the
Colorado River. “Every part of this state has different needs,
different water issues,” Speaker Schultz, R-Hooper, told FOX 13
News on Thursday. “Collaboratively, we can come together as a
state and work to move the state ahead and make sure we have
enough water not just for us, but our kids and grandkids in the
future.” The Speaker has called for a “pause” on
major water bills in the upcoming session of the Utah State
Legislature. He said he believes major policy shifts have
happened with bills and spending on water conservation and
rewriting more than a century of water rights law.
Humanity’s heating of the planet, driven by the burning of
fossil fuels and unchecked emissions of greenhouse gases, has
become the main driver of worsening droughts in California and
the American West, according to new research.A team of UCLA and
NOAA scientists found that while droughts in the last century
were caused mainly by decreases in precipitation through
natural cycles, an entirely different pattern has taken hold as
a result of the rising temperatures this century. The
researchers determined that since 2000, human-caused warming
has become the dominant force leading to more drought severity
in the Western United States. In the case of the intense
Western drought from 2020 to 2022, the scientists attributed
61% of its severity to high temperatures, and only 31% to
reduced precipitation.
President-elect Donald Trump will return to the White House in
January with an agenda to slash government regulations, expand
fossil fuel production and fire his critics in the federal
government. Following Trump’s decisive win Tuesday and with
Republicans clinching control of at least one chamber of
Congress, the president-elect and his team are poised to make
drastic overhauls to energy and environmental policies.
California voters approved a bond measure Tuesday that will let
the state borrow $10 billion to fund wildfire, flood protection
and other climate resiliency projects. Proposition 4 easily
passed in a state where devastating wildfires, heat waves and
other natural disasters linked to climate change are occurring
more frequently. Pollsters say those events — which have driven
a homeowners insurance crisis — have led to growing support for
climate action across regions and demographic groups. The
measure represents California’s latest effort to spend big on
climate resiliency and environmental health projects, with
billions allocated to prepare for droughts and floods. While
the largest portion of the money will go to water
infrastructure, Prop 4 also finances new projects to address
wildfire protection and sea-level rise. Forty percent of the
money is designated to projects in disadvantaged communities.
The City of Ventura asked its residents to limit their water
use as crews tried to extinguish the Mountain Fire Wednesday
night. The rapidly-spreading wildfire quickly burned through
more than 10,400 acres after sparking near Moorpark in Ventura
County. Firefighters attributed the explosion in size to the
Santa Ana winds that prompted a Red Flag warning. In this
particular instance, they issued a “Particularly Dangerous
Situation” alert because of the threat posed by “an
ongoing or imminent fire weather pattern.” Meteorologists
tracked some gusts of wind that reached more than 60 miles per
hour as the fire burned. The strong winds grounded firefighting
fixed-wing aircraft, adding another hurdle toward full
containment, according to Ventura County Fire Department.
Incumbents in two contested Coachella Valley Water District
races trounced their competitors in the Nov. 5 General
Election, but the race for a key Imperial Irrigation District
seat was too close to call on Wednesday morning. Longtime
Coachella Valley Water District board member Peter Nelson
received 8,774 votes, or 76.4% of ballots cast, blowing out
challenger Robert Keeran, who received 2,705 votes, or 23.6%.
Nelson, a veteran farm company manager, won a seventh four-year
term representing Division 4.
Soil moisture levels across Utah are extremely low, a factor
that could bring foreboding when it comes to the efficiency of
the spring runoff and what moisture is sucked up by the ground.
Still, the state’s mountains regions have reason to celebrate,
according to a new report by the Natural Resources Conservation
Service which tracks the water supply outlook during the snow
accumulation season. Jordan Clayton, supervisor of the agency’s
Utah Snow Survey, said the 2025 water year started off pretty
well even for Utah’s valley locations.
This winter, the Army Corps of Engineers will begin dredging
the L.A. River from Griffith Park to the 110 Freeway area. By
the time the project ends, nearby third graders will be in
college. About 50% of the sediment will be removed during the
10-year project, according to Stephen Baack, a public affairs
specialist with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Los Angeles
District. Work will begin with excavation and invasive species
removal, he added. According to Baack, $18 million has
been allocated for the project, though more money could come in
later. The next step involves awarding a contract to the entity
that will do the work.
With more than 10 miles of Bay shoreline, a Redwood City
Council study session focused on its vulnerability to sea-level
rise and adaptation planning considerations. A study
shows major sources of flooding in Redwood City include
elevated Bay water levels, runoff and emergent groundwater. Wet
winters and heavy storms also influence high tides and more
severe flooding along watersheds. Mayor Jeff Gee said
addressing flooding, sea-level rise and groundwater concerns
will be a long-term effort, but it can only start with these
studies of gaps in the city’s infrastructure and steps forward.
SYRCL, in partnership with the Tahoe National Forest, completed
the second year of project implementation on 229 acres of
meadow, fen, and meadow edge habitat within five high priority
meadows in the North Yuba Watershed: Haskell Headwaters Fen,
Chapman Saddle Meadow, West Church Meadow, Freeman Meadow, and
Bear Trap Meadow. Meadows are important ecosystems for
sequestering carbon, they serve as habitat for threatened
native species, and act as a “water bank” by holding snow water
as it melts then slowly releasing it through the summer.
As temperatures rise and precipitation shifts from snow
dominant to rain dominant, the resiliency of these meadow
ecosystems is increasingly threatened. While existing habitat
degradation in these meadows was initially caused by a variety
of historic human impacts, this degradation is expected to
worsen in response to the impacts of climate change without
intervention.
Over in the South Bay, the sewage crisis has been impacting the
community for years on end. We’ve heard complaints about the
smell and the pollution and all the heartache it has caused. To
help alleviate the pain, one local group, Wildcoast, is working
hard to at least stop thousands of pounds of trash from flowing
in. Watch the video in the player at the top of this page to
see how ABC 10News reporter Madison Weil follows through with
those volunteers.
A $10-billion California bond measure to finance water, clean
energy and other environmental projects was leading by a wide
margin in Tuesday’s election. Proposition 4 called for spending
$3.8 billion for water projects, including those that provide
safe drinking water, water recycling projects, groundwater
storage and flood control. An additional $1.5 billion would be
spent on wildfire protection, and $1.2 billion would go toward
protecting the coast from sea level rise. Other money would be
used to create parks, protect wildlife and habitats, fight air
pollution, address extreme heat events and fund sustainable
agriculture.
… Californians now face a repeat of Trump’s first term
from 2017 to 2021 — another four years of governance consumed
by combative showdowns between the state’s Democratic
leadership and Washington, D.C., possibly distracting from or
even setting back progress on addressing California’s own
problems. … Across state government, officials have been
gaming out a response to “Trump-proof” California. Gov. Gavin
Newsom and his budget team are developing a proposal for a
disaster relief fund after the former president repeatedly
threatened to withhold emergency aid for
wildfire recovery from California because of its water
policy. In 2019, as the Trump
administration narrowed federal water protections,
California adopted even more expansive state
regulations that developers complained made it
more complicated and costly to get building permits.
The recent discovery of a new type of invasive mussel in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta is raising concerns that the
non-native species could cause major ecological harm and
inflict costly complications for the infrastructure California
relies on to deliver water across the state. … After finding
the golden mussels in O’Neill Forebay, state workers have begun
surveys to determine the extent of the infestation in the State
Water Project system, including the California Aqueduct, which
transports water pumped from the Delta to cities and farmlands.
The increased monitoring and maintenance that will be required
is expected to have an economic impact for the State Water
Project, increasing water delivery costs, said Tanya
Veldhuizen, manager of the Department of Water Resources’
Special Projects Section.
The legal fracas over who should pay to fix the sinking
Friant-Kern Canal grew Friday when three Tulare County
irrigation districts sued the Friant Water Authority for
imposing steep fees on the districts approved through allegedly
secret communications and serial meetings. In a suit filed Nov.
1 the Terra Bella, Saucelito and Porterville irrigation
districts also seek to declare the fees, up to $295 million
approved in a special meeting held in August, void. “We are
hoping that Friant will go back and re-do that board meeting,
and if they do, that the outcome will be different,” said Sean
Geivet, general manager for the three districts. “The unlawful
tactics of Friant’s leadership need to cease because my three
middle-sized districts can’t continue to function on an uneven
playing field.” He said the districts have documents that show
the fees were approved illegally.
… The Arizona [semiconductor manufacturing] facility is being
built to mimic its “mother fab” in Taiwan, where TSMC has
already invested heavily in water reuse at its existing fabs.
Company officials say the new facility in Arizona aims to be as
efficient as possible. With blueprints in hand, [Greg]
Jackson’s job is to make that statement a physical reality.
… TSMC says its reuse and recycling efforts will make
its water use manageable and even small compared with other
Arizona water uses. Phoenix doesn’t expect it to strain city
resources. At the same time, other growth stemming from TSMC’s
arrival, uncertainty around the region’s Colorado River
supplies, and additional environmental concerns related to
semiconductor manufacturing generally could create more
troubling questions for the Phoenix community.
Every US state except Alaska and Kentucky is facing drought, an
unprecedented number, according to the US Drought Monitor. A
little more than 45% of the US and Puerto Rico is in drought
this week, according to the tracker. About 54% of land in the
48 contiguous US states is affected by droughts.
… California, which relies heavily on the agricultural
industry to support its economy, lost $1.7bn in crop
revenue in 2022 due to the ongoing drought. Dry conditions can
also result in low water levels on rivers and other
waterways. Ports and other water-borne transportation may
become limited due to a reduction in available routes and
cargo-carrying capacity, which increases transportation costs.
On a corner lot in Leimert Park in dusty South Los Angeles, not
far from Obama and Crenshaw Boulevards, sits a curiosity that’s
wildly different from all the neighboring grassy yards.
Abundant and lush, it looks like a mash-up between a country
idyll and something dreamed up by Dr. Seuss. Run by a
gardening wizard named Jamiah Hargins, this wee farm in the
front yard of his bungalow provides fresh produce for 45 nearby
families, all while using a tiny fraction of the water required
by a lawn. … The project has expanded to three front
yard microfarms growing in adjoining neighborhoods and
transformed into a nonprofit organization. …The mini farms
bring environmental benefits, thanks to irrigation and
containment systems that capture and recycle rain. That allows
the farms to produce thousands of pounds of food without using
much water.
