Topic: Regulations — California and Federal

Overview

Regulations — California and Federal

In general, regulations are rules or laws designed to control or govern conduct. Specifically, water quality regulations under the federal and state Clean Water Act “protect the public health or welfare, enhance the quality of water and serve the purposes of the Act.”

Aquafornia news The Almanac and Bay City News

The fight to rid the bay of red algae may cost $11B

Ten years. That’s how much time the Bay Area’s 37 wastewater treatment plants will have to reduce fertilizer and sewage in their water by 40%. The estimated price tag for the facility upgrades is $11 billion. The San Francisco Regional Water Quality Control Board plans to adopt the change as part of its new discharge permit requirement beginning June 12. Previous permits did not require reductions …The regulatory change follows a damaging algae bloom in 2022 and 2023. A brown algae species called Heterosigma akashiwo, which feeds off the nitrogen in wastewater, infected the Bay and damaged aquatic ecosystems.

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Aquafornia news The Washington Post

Why the US has the second-highest weather damages in the world

The United States suffers the world’s second-highest toll from major weather disasters, according to a new analysis — even when numbers are adjusted for the country’s wealth. The report released late last month by Zurich-based reinsurance giant Swiss Re, which analyzed the vulnerability and damages of 36 different countries, suggests that weather disasters may become a heavy drag on the U.S. economy — especially as insurers increasingly pull out of hazardous areas. Those disasters are driving up insurance rates, compounding inflation and adding to Americans’ high cost of living. … Some insurers have stopped offering home insurance policies in California, which has seen numerous large wildfires in the past few years. 

Aquafornia news AP News

Monday Top of the Scroll: California proposes delaying rules aimed at reducing water on lawns, concerning environmentalists

California regulators this week proposed delaying new rules aimed at reducing how much water people use on their lawns, drawing praise from agencies that said they needed more time to comply but criticism from environmentalists who warn that the delay would damage the state’s already scarce supply. Last year, California proposed new rules that would, cumulatively, reduce statewide water use by about 14%. Those rules included lowering outdoor water use standards below the current statewide average by 2035. On Tuesday, regulators proposed delaying that timeline by five years, until 2040. The State Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to vote on the rules later this year. The state would not punish people for using too much water on their lawns. 

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Aquafornia news Half Moon Bay Review

Federal Council announces salmon fishing alternatives

The Pacific Fishery Management Council is considering three options for the ocean salmon season, set to begin May 16. The federal council that manages water from California, Oregon and Washington state came up with two options that would entail a short salmon season, and it’ll come with small harvest limits for both commercial and sport fishing. The last option includes closing off the ocean fisheries for the second consecutive year. Last year, commercial and recreation salmon fleets in California were left anchored following the PFMC’s decision to cancel the 2023 fishing season due to years of drought, low river level and dry conditions affecting the Chinook salmon populations in the Klamath and Sacramento rivers.

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Aquafornia news Sacramento Bee

California is digitizing its century-old paper water rights records

In a Sacramento office building, university students carefully scan pieces of paper that underpin California’s most contentious and valuable water disputes. One by one, they’re bringing pieces of history into the digital era, some a century old and thin as onion skin. The student workers are beginning to digitize the state’s water rights records, part of a project launched by the state’s water regulator earlier this year. It may seem simple, but scanning two million musty pages is part of a $60 million project that could take years. The massive undertaking will unmask the notoriously opaque world of California water. Right now, it’s practically impossible to know who has the right to use water, how much they’re taking and from what river or stream at any given time in the state.

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Aquafornia news Maven's Notebook

Court upholds State Water Board’s revised flow objectives for the San Joaquin River

The Sacramento Superior Court has ruled in favor of the State Water Board’s 2018 Bay Delta Plan update, denying all 116 claims by petitioners. In December 2018, the State Water Resources Control Plan adopted revised flow objectives for the San Joaquin River and its three major tributaries, the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced rivers. The new flow objectives provide for increased flows on the three tributaries to help revive and protect native fall-run migratory fish populations. The Board also adopted a revised south Delta salinity objectives, increasing the level of salinity allowed from April to August. Several petitions were filed in several counties challenging the Board’s action.  

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Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Mystery surrounds sudden increase in steelhead trout deaths

California environmental groups are urging a federal court to intervene amid a “dramatic increase” in the deaths of threatened steelhead trout at pumps operated by state and federal water managers. Since Dec. 1, more than 4,000 wild and hatchery-raised steelhead have been killed at pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, according to public data for the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. The agencies are now at about 90% of their combined seasonal take limit, which refers to the amount of wild steelhead permitted to be killed between January and March under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. A coalition of environmental and fishing groups — including the Golden State Salmon Assn., the Bay Institute and Defenders of Wildlife — are involved in ongoing litigation that seeks to challenge current federal operating plans in the delta, an estuary at the heart of the state’s water supply. 

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Aquafornia news Colorado Public Radio

Colorado River states remain divided on sharing water, and some tribes say their needs are still being ignored

The states that use the Colorado River have put out their latest proposals on how to manage the river’s shrinking amount of water, and the two plans reveal that there are still big differences in how upstream and downstream states want to divvy up future cuts to their water consumption. While state water negotiators say they’re committed to figuring out how they can compromise in the age of climate change when there is less water available to the 40 million people who rely on it, the Southern Ute tribal government in southwestern Colorado doesn’t believe either proposal addresses their concerns or helps them secure their water future.

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Aquafornia news AP News

Interior Department will give tribal nations $120 million to fight climate-related threats

The Biden administration will be allocating more than $120 million to tribal governments to fight the impacts of climate change, the Department of the Interior announced Thursday. The funding is designed to help tribal nations adapt to climate threats, including relocating infrastructure. Indigenous peoples in the U.S. are among the communities most affected by severe climate-related environmental threats, which have already negatively impacted water resources, ecosystems and traditional food sources in Native communities in every corner of the U.S. “As these communities face the increasing threat of rising seas, coastal erosion, storm surges, raging wildfires and devastation from other extreme weather events, our focus must be on bolstering climate resilience …” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of Laguna, said in a Wednesday press briefing.

Aquafornia news SJV Water

State board to vote on reducing extraction fees for probationary basins

On the eve of its first subbasin probationary hearing, the state Water Resources Control Board announced it will vote on whether to reduce a controversial groundwater extraction fee.  The board will vote at its March 19 meeting on whether to cut the fee from $40 to $20-per-acre-foot for well owners in a subbasin placed on probation.  It will hold its first probationary hearing on the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers Kings County, on April 16. Then the Tule subbasin, in the southern half of the valley portion of Tulare County, will come up for hearing Sept. 17. The extraction fee would only be charged if the Water Board had to step in and administer a subbasin in cases where it finds local groundwater agencies aren’t up to the job.

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Aquafornia news Sacramento Bee

Sacramento catches a break on water conservation in new rules

Sacramento and cities across California caught a break from the state’s water regulator this week after the agency faced criticism that its water conservation rules were too complicated and costly to meet. Regulators at the State Water Resources Control Board proposed new conservation rules Tuesday that would ease water savings requirements for urban water suppliers and will ultimately lead to less long-term water savings than initially planned. Under the new rules, the city of Sacramento would have to cut its overall water use by 9% by 2035 and 14% by 2040, far less than an initial proposal that would have required it to cut back water use by 13% by 2030 and 18% by 2035.

Aquafornia news New Times San Luis Obispo

LA Superior Court rules on Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin boundaries

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge confirmed that the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin is one connected basin—not separate subbasins—allowing for the groundwater adjudication to move forward following a year and a half of delays and litigation. … The Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin is one of California’s 21 critically overdrafted basins that was required under the 2014 California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to create a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) and corresponding groundwater sustainability plan.

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Aquafornia news Harvard Law School

Blog: Supreme Court tackles water rights in the West in Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado

Can Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado agree to a new apportionment of the Rio Grande’s waters without the U.S. government’s approval? The Supreme Court of the United States is set to hear a case next week that may affect access to water for millions of Americans — and set a precedent that could impact millions more, as increased usage and climate change further strain supply of the precious resource. On March 20, the Court will consider Texas v. New Mexico and Colorado, a tangled case involving water rights to the Rio Grande, a 1,896-mile river that begins at the base of the San Juan Mountains and runs into the Gulf of Mexico. The case, which has been in litigation for more than a decade, centers around a 1939 compact between the three states over how to apportion the river’s waters.

Aquafornia news KUNC - Greeley, Colo

Gila River Indian Community says it doesn’t support latest Colorado River sharing proposals

The Gila River Indian Community says it does not support a three-state proposal for managing the Colorado River’s shrinking supply in the future. The community, which is located in Arizona, is instead working with the federal government to develop its own proposal for water sharing. The tribe is among the most prominent of the 30 federally-recognized tribes that use the Colorado River. In recent years, it has signed high-profile deals with the federal government to receive big payments in exchange for water conservation. Those deals were celebrated by Arizona’s top water officials. But now, it is diverging from states in the river’s Lower Basin — Arizona, California and Nevada. Stephen Roe Lewis, The Gila River Indian Community’s Governor, announced his tribe’s disapproval of the Lower Basin proposal at a water conference in Tucson, Ariz., while speaking to a room of policy experts and water scientists.

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Aquafornia news Reuters

After destructive floods, EU sues Greece for failing to revise risk plans

The European Commission said on Wednesday it was taking Greece to the EU’s top court for failing to revise its flood risk management plans, a key tool for EU countries to prepare themselves against floods. The action comes five months after the worst rains in Greece flooded its fertile Thessaly plain, devastating crops and livestock and raising questions about the Mediterranean country’s ability to deal with an increasingly erratic climate. Under EU rules, countries need to update once in six years their flood management plans, a set of measures aimed to help them mitigate the risks of floods on human lives, the environment and economic activities. Greece was formally notified by the Commission last year that it should finalise its management plans but the country has so far failed to review, adopt or report its flood risk management plans, the Commission said in a statement.

Aquafornia news The Vacaville Reporter

State recommends huge cut to Solano water allocation

A new recommendation from the California State Water Quality Control Board in its Bay-Delta Water Quality Control Plan (Bay-Delta Plan) for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary could see Solano County forced to adapt to a fraction of the water it is currently allocated from Lake Berryessa. The implications for Solano County cities could be enormous, leaving Solano County with about 25 percent of its current allocation. Spanning hundreds of miles from north of Lake Shasta to Fresno, the tributaries of the Sacramento and Sac Joaquin rivers that feed into the San Francisco Bay reach well into the Sierra Nevadas and Central Valley. The State Water Quality Control Board has noted that diminished river flows in these areas are harming fish habitats and are detrimental to the water system as a whole ecologically.

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Aquafornia news California Department of Parks and Recreation

News release: Division of Boating and Waterways offering grants for quagga and zebra mussel infestation prevention programs

California State Parks’ Division of Boating and Waterways (DBW) today announced the availability of grant funding to prevent the further spread of quagga and zebra mussels into California’s waterways. Funded by the California Mussel Fee Sticker (also known as the Quagga Sticker), the Quagga and Zebra Mussel (QZ) Infestation Prevention Grant Program expects to award a total of up to $2 million across eligible applicants. 

Aquafornia news KPBS - San Diego

New state bill aims to force companies to clean up pollution in the Tijuana River

Still water in the Tijuana River Valley reflects the chirping birds who live there, giving the impression it is as nature made it — until you see the floating trash and smell the stagnant, polluted water. For decades, activists tried to clean up the Tijuana River’s watershed as it flowed from Tijuana into San Diego’s coastal waters, which are contaminated with both human and industrial waste. A recent study from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that coastal pollution is also transferring to the air. “This is nothing short of an environmental and public health crisis, and it has been made worse by the fact that California companies are part of the problem,” said State Senator Steve Padilla Monday, while announcing SB 1178, a bill to address cross-border pollution.

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Aquafornia news Law360

Tire companies seek exit from salmon-harming chemical suit

A dozen tire companies are asking a California federal judge to toss a suit claiming a rubber additive is harming protected salmon, arguing that the litigation stretches the Endangered Species Act “beyond its breaking point” and that regulation of the substance belongs with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, not in courts. 

Aquafornia news E&E News by POLITICO

States grapple with how to grow in drying West

Across the parched West, there are signs the region’s decades-long population and housing boom is confronting the realities of dwindling water supplies. These have come in recent months from court rulings and executive edicts alike, as states crack down on the potential for new users to draw from already oversubscribed aquifers and surface waters. The skeleton of a would-be subdivision outside Las Vegas illustrates the coming constraints, stymied by a lack of water to support the new community. Water shortages also forced difficult decisions in other places, such as new restrictions in the Phoenix suburbs and a Utah town that halted all new construction for more than two years until it could secure a new well.

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Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: California rolls out permanent water restrictions for cities, towns

Drought or no drought, California water regulators are pushing ahead with a new conservation policy that could force some communities to cut water use upward of 30% permanently — though on more lenient terms than originally proposed. The first-of-its-kind regulation is intended to help the state confront chronic water shortages as climate change makes for hotter, drier weather. The initial draft of the regulation, released last year, was widely criticized for asking roughly 400 cities and water agencies to cut back too much too quickly. The cost of compliance was also a concern. Acknowledging the burden, the State Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday unveiled a revised set of rules that would allow some communities to use more water than originally planned as well as extend deadlines for meeting the conservation mandates.

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Aquafornia news Cal Coast News

SLO receives $6.6 million grant to clean up contaminated groundwater

The California State Water Resources Control Board issued a $6.6 million grant for a city of San Luis Obispo project intended to clean up contaminated groundwater. Presently, the city does not use groundwater for its drinking water supply. SLO’s potable water supply comes from Whale Rock Reservoir, Santa Margarita Lake and Nacimiento Reservoir.  City officials have sought to diversify the water supply in an attempt to achieve “greater drought and climate change resiliency.” Previously, contamination from tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, served as a barrier to doing so. PCE is a toxic chemical produced by dry cleaning and industrial activities, which took place in the city decades ago. The cleanup project will consist of the city building two new groundwater supply wells that are expected to be fully operation in 2026. 

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Environmentalists push to add burrowing owl to endangered list

This month, several wildlife conservation groups petitioned the California Fish and Game Commission to list these owls as endangered or threatened under the California Endangered Species Act. … [Chair of the environmental studies department at San Jose State University Lynne] Trulio’s speciality is urban species, and she’s contributed to the research that underpins Santa Clara County’s habitat conservation plan on burrowing owls. But before that she was also the lead scientist for the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project, one of the largest tidal wetland restoration projects on the West Coast. “One of the things that drove the effort was the fact that there were endangered species” in wetlands, said Trulio. She said it took years to change the perception of the wetlands as a dumping ground and to get a ballot measure to fund its preservation.

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Aquafornia news Las Vegas Review-Journal

‘Closer’ to normal: What Rockies snowpack could mean for Lake Mead

Monday marked a key cutoff time by which Colorado River states had been tasked with proposing a consensus-based plant for long-term water conservation in the overtaxed system. But with the arrival of that deadline, set by the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Reclamation, no such agreement was on the table. Instead, the river system’s two main contingents — the Upper and Lower basins — submitted their own competing plans. The proposals pertained to an upcoming update of the rules — known as the 2007 Interim Guidelines for Lower Basin Shortages — that govern where, when and how much the seven basin states must conserve water from the 1,450-mile river.

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Aquafornia news SJV Water

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: Second San Joaquin Valley groundwater subbasin recommended for state takeover

The Friant-Kern Canal was called out specifically as one of the reasons the state should take over pumping in the Tule groundwater subbasin in Tulare County. The recommendation was contained in a recently released staff report to the Water Resources Control Board. While the report stated groundwater management plans covering the subbasin didn’t adequately address subsidence and continued depletion of the aquifer and degradation of water quality in general, it also noted the significant harm to the Friant-Kern Canal, which brings water 152 miles south from Millerton Lake to Arvin. Excessive overpumping caused land beneath a 33-mile stretch of the Friant-Kern Canal to collapse, creating a sag that reduced the canal’s carrying capacity south of Pixley by 60%.

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Aquafornia news CalMatters

‘Simply catastrophic’: California salmon season to be restricted or shut down — again

California’s fishing industry is bracing for another bad year as federal managers today announced plans to heavily restrict or prohibit salmon fishing again, after cancelling the entire season last year.  The Pacific Fishery Management Council today released a series of options that are under consideration, all of which either ban commercial and recreational salmon fishing in the ocean off California or shorten the season and set strict catch limits. The council’s decision is expected next month; the commercial season typically begins in May and ends in October. … [P]opulations are now a fraction of what they once were — dams have blocked vital habitat, while droughts and water diversions have driven down flows and increased temperatures, killing large numbers of salmon eggs and young fish.

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Aquafornia news Sacramento Bee

Opinion: Proposed CA water conservation rules put urban forests at risk

California officials are preparing new urban water conservation rules intended to help the state adapt to a drier future caused by climate change. In reality, the proposed restrictions are so great they could actually harm those adaptation efforts by sacrificing the tree canopy we have nurtured in our cities for generations. The “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” rule package, proposed by the State Water Resources Control Board, sets conservation targets unique to each urban water agency in the state. While conserving each and every year makes sense, so must the restrictions. A recent report by the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office found big flaws in the Water Board’s approach, describing the proposal as overly complex, expensive and unrealistic, with potential water savings amounting to a mere drop in the bucket statewide.
-Written by Jim Peifer, executive director of the Sacramento Regional Water Authority; and Victoria Vasquez, grants and public policy manager for California ReLeaf, which works to protect, enhance and grow California’s urban and community forests.​

Aquafornia news Office of Gov. Gavin Newsom

News release: California’s landmark plastic pollution law moves forward

California today took another step in implementing the nation’s most comprehensive measure to tackle the rise in plastic waste polluting our communities and ecosystems. Plastic waste is a major contributor to climate and trash pollution, with less than 9% of plastic recycled in California and the rest of the U.S. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act (SB 54) in 2022, which requires producers to cut single-use plastic waste and ensure the packaging on products they sell is recyclable or compostable. The state today released draft regulations for the measure, kicking off the formal rulemaking process.

Aquafornia news CalMatters

Displaced San Diego flood victims can get CalFresh benefits

Almost three months after a January storm and flash floods killed several people and displaced hundreds of San Diego-area residents, the state is offering one-time Disaster CalFresh benefits to help families recover. To be eligible for disaster food benefits, people must have lived or worked in storm-impacted areas on Jan. 21, the day record rainfall swelled creeks and rivers, deluging neighborhoods. About 600 people sought emergency shelter. California’s Department of Social Services said it will provide 30 days of food benefits to families who qualify. 

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Aquafornia news Golden State Salmon Association

News release: GSSA raises alarm about ongoing killing of protected steelhead by state water projects

On March 6, a coalition of environmental and fishing groups reiterated their request that a federal court modify federal agencies’ proposed interim plan for operating the federal Central Valley Project (CVP), in coordination with the State Water Project (SWP), to protect fish species listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and California Endangered Species Act (CESA). That coalition includes the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, the Golden State Salmon Association, The Bay Institute, Defenders of Wildlife, and Natural Resources Defense Council. Coinciding with that filing has been a recent dramatic increase of protected steelhead dying at the projects’ water pumps.  The CVP and SWP are still largely operating under rules written in 2019 under the leadership of, among others, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the powerful Westlands Water District. 

Aquafornia news The Associated Press

A Saudi business is leaving Arizona valley after it was targeted by the state over groundwater use

Arizona officials said a Saudi-owned company they targeted over its use of groundwater to grow forage crops is moving its farming operation out of a valley in the Southwestern state’s rural west. Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Arizona State Land Department announced late Thursday that Fondomonte Arizona is officially no longer pumping water in the Butler Valley groundwater basin. Some residents of La Paz County had complained that the company’s pumping was threatening their wells. A statement by Hobbs says an on-site inspection had confirmed that Fondomonte was moving to vacate the property. Fondomonte has several other farms elsewhere in Arizona that are not affected by the decision.

Aquafornia news LAist

LA has big plans to turn a landfill into a wetland, but delays are jeopardizing the project

… Los Angeles desperately needs to become more like a sponge. That will help to capture more stormwater locally when rain does come and lessen devastating flooding, said Edith de Guzman, a UCLA water equity and climate adaptation researcher. … The Rory M. Shaw Wetlands Park Project will turn a 46-acre landfill formerly used for materials such as concrete and gravel into an engineered wetland that can boost local water supply and alleviate local flooding. It’ll also become a 15-acre park with a lake and walking paths. … But now, the biggest barrier to completing the project is funding, said Mark Pestrella, the director of L.A. County Department of Public Works, which is spearheading the project (after it’s constructed, the city of L.A. will take over maintenance). The new goal is to complete it by 2028 or 2029.

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Aquafornia news Mendo Fever

New water authority unites Ukiah Valley, Redwood Valley, and Millview to navigate the next era of water challenges

In what one Ukiah Valley water leader calls “the next big era of major water decisions,” the City of Ukiah has joined up with Redwood Valley and the Millview water district to form a new water authority. The aim is to qualify for state infrastructure grants to create a more reliable water supply for small communities. The new authority has around 8500 to 9000 water users, with about half of them in the city of Ukiah. That’s pretty small by state standards, but First District Supervisor Glenn McGourty, who is retiring this year, thinks the water authority will help smaller districts comply with ever-increasing state requirements.

Aquafornia news California WaterBlog

Blog: A functional flows approach for environmental flows in Chile

Countries, regions, and river basins globally are struggling to provide and manage flows in rivers for ecosystems. One approach, of many, is a Functional Flows approach, because it seeks to provide a range of streamflows over the year and between years to support fundamental functions of river ecosystems and the ecosystem services for society. … The approach also involves a process for balancing multiple human and ecological objectives for river systems through broad engagement of multiple interests. In their challenge to maintain riverine ecosystem services, Chile and California can benefit from this dynamic approach to managing instream flows.

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Aquafornia news CNN

Arizona governor: Foreign-owned farm no longer pumping groundwater on state land to feed cattle overseas

A Saudi Arabian farm previously permitted to pump unlimited amounts of groundwater to grow alfalfa for dairy cows overseas has stopped irrigating its crops on state land in Arizona’s Butler Valley, Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs announced Thursday. Hobbs and the Arizona State Land Department announced after a recent inspection Fondomonte had stopped pumping water in the Butler Valley groundwater basin and has begun to take steps to leave the property. Hobbs took full credit for the outcome, saying it was a result of her move to terminate and decline to renew Fondomonte’s leases on state land in the area, part of a broader crackdown from Hobbs and her Democratic attorney general Kris Mayes.

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Aquafornia news Arizona's Family - Phoenix

Phoenix approves water conservation ordinance, impacting businesses that use 250,000 gallons or more per day

Water conservation is a top issue for cities across the Southwest. Now, Phoenix continues plans to reduce water use and prepare for the future. Phoenix City Council approved a water conservation ordinance for “big water users” this week. “It is Phoenix making sure that when a large volume user comes along, there is a sufficient benefit,” said Sarah Porter, director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at ASU. It only impacts new developments. Under the ordinance, companies that use more than 250,000 gallons of water per day will have to submit water conservation plans to the city. This could impact some hospitals, resorts, and manufacturers. Then, companies that use more than 500,000 gallons of water per day need to submit a conservation plan and ensure 30% of their water usage comes from recycled water. 

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

‘We can do better’ – Western states divided over long-term plans for Colorado River water

With climate change compounding the strains on the Colorado River, seven Western states are starting to consider long-term plans for reducing water use to prevent the river’s reservoirs from reaching critically low levels in the years to come. But negotiations among representatives of the states have so far failed to resolve disagreements. And now, two groups of states are proposing competing plans for addressing the river’s chronic gap between supply and demand. In one camp, the three states in the river’s lower basin — California, Arizona and Nevada — say their approach would share the largest-ever water reductions throughout the Colorado River Basin to ensure long-term sustainability. 

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Aquafornia news Santa Maria Sun

LA Superior Court rules on Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin boundaries

A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge confirmed that the Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin is one connected basin—not separate subbasins—allowing for the groundwater adjudication to move forward following a year-and-a-half of delays and litigation. … The Cuyama Valley Groundwater Basin is one of California’s 21 critically overdrafted basins that was required under the 2014 California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) to create a groundwater sustainability agency (GSA) and corresponding groundwater sustainability plan. After the California Department of Water Resources approved the sustainability plan, which called for a 60 percent water use reduction in 20 years, agricultural corporations Bolthouse Farms and Grimmway Farms filed a groundwater adjudication against every landowner in the Cuyama Valley in August 2021. 

Aquafornia news Stockton Record

Blog: Salmon fishing closures or restrictions are likely this year

The ocean and river salmon seasons in California are likely to be closed or severely restricted this year based on low abundance forecasts for Sacramento and Klamath River fall-run Chinook salmon that were released by state and federal fishery scientists at the CDFW’s annual salmon information meeting via webinar on March 1. California representatives are now working together to develop a range of recommended ocean fishing season alternatives taking place now at the March 6-11 Pacific Fishery Management Council (PFMC) meeting in Fresno. Final season recommendations will be adopted at the PFMC’s April 6-11 meeting in Seattle, Wash. Due to the collapse of fall-run Chinook salmon on the Klamath/Trinity and Sacramento River systems in 2022, all commercial and recreational salmon fishing on the ocean was closed in California and most of Oregon last year.

Aquafornia news KJZZ - Tempe, AZ

Colorado has had water courts for 50 years. Meet one of the referees who helps make them work

As water supplies come under more stress across the West, some states are seeing increased legal activity related to water rights. Bloomberg has reported some states, including Utah, are setting up specific water courts, or judges who deal mainly in water law. Colorado has had this kind of a setup for more than 50 years. Holly Strablizky is a water referee for the Water Court in Colorado. The Show talked with her about what her job entails.

Aquafornia news E&E News by POLITICO

A Superfund for climate? These states are pushing for it.

The oil and gas industry could be on the hook for billions of dollars as a growing number of states consider making the sector pay for climate impacts such as floods and sea-level rise. At least four states are debating legislation, modeled on the federal Superfund program for contaminated land, that would hold major fossil fuel companies liable for damage caused by the historical emissions of their products. In Vermont, which saw record flooding last year, a majority of the House and a supermajority of the Senate have signed onto the proposal, all but ensuring it will pass. Similar bills have been introduced in New York — where it already has passed the Senate — as well as Massachusetts and Maryland. 

Aquafornia news KJZZ - Tempe, AZ

Some Cochise County residents blame Arizona Rep. Gail Griffin for blocking groundwater conservation progress

At a recent listening session hosted by Attorney General Kris Mayes, Cochise County residents called on state officials to do more to protect Arizona’s groundwater — and pointed the finger at one rural lawmaker for blocking progress.  Cochise County residents such as Anne Carl reported that mega farms, dairies and lithium mines are sucking the groundwater out of the earth and leaving it dry which causes the ground to shake and crack. … Residents blamed Rep. Gail Griffin (R-Hereford), the powerful chair of the House Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee, for blocking bills that they say would protect their water rights. Mayes, a Democrat who’s spoken strongly against drill permits previously awarded to foreign-owned companies, suggested they vote her out and vowed to act if the Legislature will not. 

Aquafornia news State Water Resources Control Board

Notice: Department of Fish and Wildlife submits flow recommendations for Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks

The State Water Resources Control Board received a letter from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) submitting instream flow recommendations to inform a long-term flow-setting process to support anadromous salmonids and year-round ecological stream function on Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks. Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks are tributaries to the Sacramento River and provide aquatic habitat for several native fish species including Chinook salmon (spring-run, fall-run, and late fall-run), Steelhead, and Pacific Lamprey. Additional information will be forthcoming on the next steps in considering the recommendations. Additional information related to this matter can be found on the Mill, Deer, and Antelope Creeks – Flow Recommendations webpage.

Aquafornia news The Associated Press

Thursday Top of the Scroll: States in Colorado River basin pitch new ways to absorb shortages but clash on the approach

The seven U.S. states that draw water from the Colorado River basin are suggesting new ways to determine how the increasingly scarce resource is divvied up when the river can’t provide what it historically promised. The Upper Basin and the Lower Basin states, as neighbors, don’t agree on the approach. Under a proposal released Wednesday by Arizona, California and Nevada, the water level at Lake Mead — one of the two largest of the Colorado River reservoirs — no longer would determine the extent of water cuts like it currently does. The three Lower Basin states also want what they say is a more equitable way of distributing cuts that would be a 50-50 split between the basins once a threshold is hit. 

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Aquafornia news Water Education Foundation

Announcement: Upcoming workshops, tours and international conference to focus on groundwater

With National Groundwater Awareness Week approaching and 2024 marking the 10ᵗʰ anniversary of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in California, upcoming Water Education Foundation tours and events will help you gain a deeper understanding of groundwater fundamentals. Join us April 5 for our annual Water 101 Workshop, which includes a session that will provide an overview of the state’s groundwater resources, its importance in the state’s water supply, its history of use and overuse and the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). Learn what other topics will be covered and register here. Workshop participants can also join the Groundwater Tour the day before the workshop. And in April, our three-day Central Valley Tour will have a strong focus on groundwater as it moves through the San Joaquin Valley.

Aquafornia news The San Diego Union-Tribune

EPA approves water quality program at North San Diego County reservation

The Environmental Protection Agency has granted approval to a North County tribe to administer a water quality standards program on its reservation.  The Rincon Band of Luiseño Indians has become the 11th tribe to secure the right to uphold its own water quality standards out of the 148 federally recognized tribes in the Pacific Southwest region, which is comprised of Arizona, California and Nevada.  The move means the tribe can operate in a manner akin to a state, allowing it to implement and manage specific environmental regulatory functions and the ability to secure grant funding to support its programs. 

Aquafornia news Pleasanton Weekly

Pleasanton council to review potential bond sale to finance water infrastructure projects

The Pleasanton City Council will be reviewing a staff presentation on the city’s proposed plan to authorize and approve a bond sale for as much as $19 million to finance a portion of planned water infrastructure upgrades during Tuesday’s meeting. According to the March 5 staff report, staff will be presenting a debt financing overview and a resolution for the council to approve, which will declare the city’s intent to “reimburse expenditures relating to capital improvement projects from the proceeds of tax-exempt obligations.”

Aquafornia news Daily Kos

Blog: Protests against Delta tunnel change in water diversion must be filed by April 29

As salmon and Delta fish populations continue to crash due to massive water diversions to corporate agribusiness, the State Water Resources Control Board just issued a public notice regarding the Delta Conveyance Project Change in Point of Diversion (CPOD) Petition that was submitted by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to the State Water Board on February 22, 2024. This notice acknowledges receipt of the change petition and details the process to submit a protest against the petition. You can expect a wave of formal protests against the change petition by fishing groups, Tribes, environmental justice organizations, conservation groups and Delta region cities and counties. Protests against the change petition must be filed by April 29th, 2024, with a copy provided to the petition, according to the Water Board. 

Aquafornia news Salt Lake Tribune

New Colorado River agreement stops short of giving tribes a seat at the table

… On Monday, the Upper Colorado River Commission — an interstate agency composed of one federal representative and commissioners from the Upper Colorado River Basin states of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — took a step toward greater collaboration between the states and the tribes. The commission unanimously approved a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with six Colorado River tribes: the Jicarilla Apache Nation, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Indian Tribe, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ute Indian Tribe and the Shivwits Band of Paiutes. The agreement states that the Upper Colorado River Commission and the six tribes will meet about every two months to discuss shared interests on the Colorado River. Other tribes are welcome to join the agreement. The MOU does not give the tribes a permanent seat on the Upper Colorado River Commission, like the states and federal government.

Aquafornia news Chico Enterprise-Record

Opinion: Getting Sites Reservoir across the finish line

It’s difficult to build big water infrastructure projects in California. It takes collaboration and agreement across geographic and political divides. It takes time, funding, and the will of diverse stakeholders to advance solutions to address our state’s biggest water challenges. When you have a project that boasts all the above, you can get the job done. For us, that project is Sites Reservoir. Sites Reservoir is a new way of capturing and storing water – rather than damming a major river, the proposal involves utilizing existing infrastructure to convey and store water off-stream and deliver it back into the system when it’s needed the most. When flows are high on the Sacramento River – and once all other senior water rights are met – a portion of the water will be piped into Sites Reservoir.
-Written by Congressman Mike Thompson, representing California’s 4th Congressional District; and Congressman Doug LaMalfa, lifelong farmer representing California’s 1st Congressional District, which includes the physical footprint of Sites Reservoir.  

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Plant a tree, get $100 under new MWD program

With many areas of Southern California starved for shade, the region’s largest water supplier has launched a rebate program offering residents and businesses up to $500 as an incentive to plant trees. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California on Tuesday announced the addition of the tree incentive to its long-standing turf-replacement program, which offers cash to property owners who rip out water-guzzling grass and replace it with drought-tolerant landscaping. Starting this week, new applicants can seek a $100 rebate for each eligible tree planted — up to five trees total — as part of their turf-replacement project, according to a spokesperson for the district.

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Aquafornia news Law360

Split Calif. panel backs drinking water regs on oil operators

A split California appellate panel threw out a trial court ruling finding drinking water regulations put in place by the California Geologic Energy Management Division are invalid, saying, instead, the challenged regulations are consistent with …

Aquafornia news The Washington Post

Why tribes are angry over some of Biden’s clean energy projects

… Verlon Jose is one of several tribal leaders nationwide who are growing frustrated with the Biden administration and its ambitious plans for clean-energy projects that could affect their ancestral lands. While the White House has worked to repair the federal government’s relationships with Indigenous peoples, that effort is conflicting with another Biden priority: expediting projects essential for the energy transition.

Aquafornia news Nevada Current

Impacts of court groundwater decision still a long way off, top water regulator tells Nevada lawmakers

After years of groundwater decline and failed legislative action, a court decision in January affirmed the state’s right to limit groundwater pumping using the most current scientific data, but full implementation of the ruling may take some time. Last week, the state engineer — Nevada’s top water regulator — expanded on how the state will manage water resources in the aftermath of the recent Nevada Supreme Court decision that affirmed the state’s authority to develop science-based solutions to over-pumping, including managing surface water and groundwater as a single connected source when determining water rights. In the coming years, the court’s decision will have sweeping ramifications for Nevada, state engineer Adam Sullivan told lawmakers.

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Aquafornia news Willits News

Opinion: Reclaiming and recycling water is a great idea

In 2019, the city of Ukiah completed three of the four phases required to build a water recycling system, often referred to as the purple pipe project. The fourth phase is currently underway. As of now, the city produces about 1,000-acre feet of recycled water annually, which it uses for agricultural irrigation, parks, the golf course, schools, and industrial needs (things like dust control). Although it is rare for me to praise government projects, this one is a good one. The project reduces the amount of water pumped from aquifers, rivers, and lakes. It meets state water conservation objectives, promotes a healthy agriculture sector, and improves fish habitat. It’s a win all around.
-Written by Dick Selzer, a real estate broker who has been in the business for more than 45 years.  

Aquafornia news Ag Net West

LandFlex helping improve sustainable groundwater usage, but needs additional support

Transitioning towards sustainable groundwater usage is becoming more accessible for farmers and Groundwater Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) through involvement in the LandFlex Grant Program. The Department of Water Resources (DWR), which developed the program, prioritizes access to those living in rural areas with critically overdrafted basins. LandFlex provides farmers with resources to comply with requirements of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) while increasing availability of groundwater to surrounding local communities. With depleting underground water availability, the DWR hopes to accelerate sustainable groundwater usage immediately, rather than SGMA’s goal of groundwater sustainability by 2040.

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Aquafornia news Casper Star Tribune

Water watch: Wyoming Legislature moves to ease anxiety over Colorado River curtailment

One the most closely watched water bills in the Wyoming Legislature this session moved decisively through committee this week in a sign of hope for some of the state’s water-dependent industries. The bill, SF 66, seeks to address heightened anxiety around the Colorado River, whose diminishing flows have set off a scramble by its seven user states to draft new rules and contingency plans ahead of a 2026 deadline from the Bureau of Reclamation, the agency charged with overseeing water management in the west. In the meantime, the amendments aim to provide a sense of security to junior water rights entities who depend on water transfers, including municipalities, trona mine operators and oil refineries in the Green River Basin.

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Aquafornia news The New York Times

Courts give states new power to protect groundwater

After years of dangerous decline in the nation’s groundwater, a series of developments in Western states indicate that state and federal officials may begin tightening protections for the dwindling resource. In Nevada, Idaho and Montana, a string of court decisions have strengthened states’ ability to restrict overpumping of groundwater. California is considering penalizing local officials for draining their aquifers. And the White House has asked scientists who focus on groundwater to advise how the federal government can help. 

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Aquafornia news KSBY - Central Coast

Proposed bill could help low-income families struggling with increased bills

Residents in Grover Beach are feeling the pinch as water rates surged this month, but a new bill could ease their burden. “We had a rate increase of $26, which we were billed once every two months,” said Dave Browning, who lives in Grover Beach. “That was roughly $13 per month.” Grover Beach residents recently felt the impact of a long-discussed water rate hike. “We did send a couple of letters, and I know they’ve received quite a few from what I was being told,” Browning said. And while many still have strong opinions about it moving forward, those facing the reality of the hike now are concerned about how they’ll pay for it.

Aquafornia news Arizona Republic

Navajo Nation nears completion of historic water agreement

The Navajo Nation is nearing completion of a settlement of water rights claims in Arizona, ending decades of negotiations and giving hope for thousands of people who have long gone without running water. For the past 60 years, Navajo leaders have worked to settle water claims in Arizona. The aim of the Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Agreement is to affirm and quantify the nation’s rights to water in the state and to secure funding to build much needed water delivery infrastructure to homes on the Navajo Nation, according to a summary of the agreement. … The U.S. Supreme Court held last summer that the United States did not have an affirmative treaty or trust obligation to identify and account for Navajo Nation water rights on the Colorado River. Curley said that ruling was a pivotal moment that led the Navajo Nation and its water rights negotiation team to focus on completing on the settlement.

Aquafornia news The Associated Press

Climate change, cost and competition for water drive settlement over tribal rights to Colorado River

A Native American tribe with one of the largest outstanding claims to water in the Colorado River basin is closing in on a settlement with more than a dozen parties, putting it on a path to piping water to tens of thousands of tribal members in Arizona who still live without it. Negotiating terms outlined late Wednesday include water rights not only for the Navajo Nation but the neighboring Hopi and San Juan Southern Paiute tribes in the northeastern corner of the state. The water would come from a mix of sources: the Colorado River that serves seven western states, the Little Colorado River, and aquifers and washes on tribal lands. The agreement is decades in the making and would allow the tribes to avoid further litigation and court proceedings, which have been costly.

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Aquafornia news KSBW - Central Coast

$10 million to be given out to flood survivors in a California community

Pain and hurt continue to linger through the Pajaro community as the anniversary of the devastating floods approaches. On Tuesday, the Monterey County Board of Supervisors approved the final rollout plan for the $10 million allocated directly to help survivors. … Six million dollars will be allocated for individual households and $4 million for small businesses. Residents who sustained damages to property can qualify for up to $15,000 dollars, and small businesses up to $85,000. All residents, regardless of citizenship status, will be able to apply in person for aid. The county, ultimately decided how much would be dispersed on a case-by-case basis.

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Aquafornia news Monterey County Weekly

Cal Am fires its first defensive legal volley against the water district in public buyout case.

An effort toward a public takeover of the private water utility California American Water has taken years to get to this point. Activists asked voters to approve a ballot measure to that end in 2005, and it failed. They tried again in 2014, and lost again. They prevailed in 2018 with the passage of Measure J, which compelled the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District to acquire Cal Am’s local system “if and when feasible.” More than five years later, the matter has moved to the courts. In October 2023, the board of the water district determined that yes, it was feasible—and that it would pursue acquisition of Cal Am’s system. Because the utility company had rejected the public district’s previous offer of $449 million to buy it, the district would proceed by filing an eminent domain case. 

Aquafornia news Law360

Enviro orgs sue EPA over factory farm water pollution regs

Green groups are pushing the Ninth Circuit to revive their petition asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to craft new, stronger Clean Water Act regulations for the large animal feeding facilities …

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Aquafornia news KJZZ - Tempe

Auditor blasts Arizona Land Department over leases to Saudi-owned farm with low rent, no water rules

Arizona’s Auditor General has released a scathing report, criticizing the State Land Department for leasing land to a Saudi-owned company in western Arizona at cheap rates. The company, Fondomonte, used the land — and the groundwater beneath it — to grow alfalfa for dairy cattle in the Middle East. State Auditor General Lindsey Perry says the Land Department’s practices for valuing the land it leases don’t align with what’s recommended. In addition, state law requires the department to conduct a mass appraisal of its properties at least once every 10 years to determine its agricultural rental rates. But the last one was done in 2005. This resulted in $3.4 million less in revenues going into the land trust that provides revenues for K-12 education and other beneficiaries.

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Aquafornia news Tehachapi News

City tells court that water district’s arguments ‘lack merit’ and that district has sufficient water for Sage Ranch

The environmental impact report prepared by the city of Tehachapi for the proposed Sage Ranch residential development made the case that the project would not result in any significant, unmitigated impacts — and included a water supply assessment suggesting sufficient water exists for the project over the required 20-year horizon. The city of Tehachapi and Sage Ranch developer Greenbriar filed documents they believe support that position in Sacramento County Superior Court on Monday, Feb. 26 to defend the EIR approved by the Tehachapi City Council in September 2021. At the same time, the council approved a masterplan for  the project that would transform 138 acres near Tehachapi High School by adding 995 residential units over seven years.

Aquafornia news NBC 7 San Diego

When taxes are due for San Diego County after flooding

Federal tax deadlines have been extended until June 17 for San Diego County residents affected by last month’s rainstorms, the Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday. The amended deadlines will offer relief “for individuals and businesses in parts of California affected by severe storms and flooding that began on Jan. 21,” according to the IRS. The relief extends to any areas designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which includes San Diego County.

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Aquafornia news Western Outdoor News

Salmon Information Meeting to outline any possibility of a 2024 salmon season

Recreational and commercial fishermen are holding their breath for this Friday’s California Department of Wildlife’s annual Salmon Information Meeting to be held by webinar only. Although the escapement of fall-run salmon in the Sacramento River Basin exceeded the minimum of 122,000 returning hatchery and natural spawners, 133,638 returners fell short of the projected spawning escapement of 164,964 salmon. The 2023 salmon closure below Cape Falcon in Oregon throughout California was devastating to commercial salmon fishermen along with coastal communities due to the loss of economic activity by recreational anglers. According to the Golden State Salmon Association, Central Valley salmon have provided over $2 billion in economic activity to communities in California and Oregon along with 23,000 jobs in California and half that again in Oregon.

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Aquafornia news E&E News

Colorado River talks break down on drought response plans

Negotiations among the seven states that share the drought-stricken Colorado River have stalled ahead of a March target date to propose new operating plans for the waterway, as officials split over which states should absorb the brunt of cuts triggered by the region’s ongoing drought. The states — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the Upper Basin and Arizona, California and Nevada in the Lower Basin — are now expected to submit separate plans to the Biden administration early next month, rather than a single cohesive plan, according to representatives of states from both regions. “If there is interest in getting to a seven-state consensus compromise, all seven states have to actually compromise and recognize this is a massive problem that needs solving, not a party primary or campaign rally,” J.B. Hamby, chair of the Colorado River Board of California, told E&E News.

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Aquafornia news Sacramento Bee

Sacramento CA watering schedule: Here’s what changes in March

With warmer temperatures on the horizon, the city of Sacramento is switching to a new watering schedule. The spring and summer watering schedule, which governs how residents irrigate their lawns and landscaping during the hotter months, goes into effect on March 1 and runs through Oct. 31. Here’s what you need to know about the change. From Nov. 1 to Feb 28, watering guidelines in Sacramento allow residents to turn on their sprinklers one day per week, on either Saturday or Sunday. On March 1, Sacramento will add an additional day to its weekly watering schedule — allowing residents to use sprinklers two days a week instead of one. On those days automatic sprinklers can be used for irrigation before 10 a.m. or after 7 p.m.

Aquafornia news Arizona Capitol Times

Opinion: Reform water law to include the environment

Arizona officials are proud of their 1980 state water policy. The Arizona Groundwater Management Act (GMA), after many earlier attempts, was approved only after the federal government threatened to withhold funding for the Central Arizona Project (CAP) unless Arizona controlled groundwater pumping. Without the CAP, California would have claimed “our” Colorado River water and restricted future economic development in Arizona. The environment wasn’t at the negotiating table then, so our rivers were on the menu. The GMA managed groundwater only in limited areas and sacrificed some rivers. We have now seriously degraded five of Arizona’s major perennial rivers: the Colorado, Gila, Salt, Santa Cruz, and San Pedro. Additionally, future perennial flow in the upper Verde River is deeply threatened.
-Written by Gary Beverly, a member of the Sustainable Water Network steering committee.​

Aquafornia news ABC 10 - Sacramento

Sacramento’s new watering rules go into effect March 1

To conserve water as California heads into the drier spring and summer months, the city of Sacramento announced new watering regulations set to go into effect March 1. According to the city’s watering schedule ordinance, residents and businesses in the city of Sacramento are required to follow a seasonal schedule when watering landscapes using sprinklers. Here is the seasonal watering schedule from the ordinance: Spring and summer From March 1 to October 31: Customers with even-numbered addresses can water Wednesday and Sunday. Customers with odd-numbered addresses can water Tuesday and Saturday. Watering must be done before 10 a.m. and/or after 7 p.m. Watering is not allowed 48 hours after one-eighths inch of rain.

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Aquafornia news Route Fifty

EPA expands water program to help more disadvantaged communities apply for grants

The Biden administration announced Thursday that it will be expanding a program offering small disadvantaged communities help in applying for $50 billion in infrastructure act funding to improve drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, disadvantaged and underserved communities often struggle to access federal funding because they lack the money to do the assessments required to apply for grants. To try to help, the EPA said it will now be offering engineering assistance to communities to identify water challenges, develop plans, build capacity and develop their application materials through its WaterTA program. The program is free, and local governments, water utilities, state and tribal governments, and nonprofits are eligible for the assistance.

Aquafornia news Arizona Republic

A Phoenix resident missed a big water leak. Could smart meters help?

Like a lot of homeowners in neighborhoods with decades-old plumbing, Ken Hoag experienced a leak in the pipe leading under his yard from the curbside city meter to his house. Only this was no trickling stream, but a gusher that would cost him more than $1,000. City meter readers must check meters manually or, at homes with updated meters, they must at least drive through the neighborhood for it to ping their equipment with current water volumes. In Hoag’s case last fall, that took long enough that no one from the city alerted him of unusual readings until 160,000 gallons had drained away under his yard over parts of two billing cycles. He hadn’t noticed so much as a puddle to suggest a problem and was shocked when he got the first of those bills on Nov. 22.

Aquafornia news Sacramento Bee

Opinion: California’s Bay-Delta ecosystem needs regulatory protection

California’s Bay-Delta is in trouble, and its outdated water regulations need to catch up with the challenge. For a generation, the State Water Resources Control Board has not updated legally required and much needed rules for sharing water between the environment and other water uses throughout the Bay-Delta watershed. These new rules should result in additional flows for this water-starved system to protect fish and wildlife and improve water quality. Instead of finishing more than a decade of work and establishing long-overdue protections for the Bay-Delta ecosystem, the state is banking on voluntary agreements among water users to guide its actions. Some voluntary agreement proponents suggest there must be a choice between such agreements to provide flows and habitat and updated environmental protections.
-By Felicia Marcus, visiting fellow at Stanford University Water in the West Program; Michael Kiparsky, water program director at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE); Nell Green Nylen, senior research fellow at CLEE; and Dave Owen, a professor at UC Law San Francisco.

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Aquafornia news California WaterBlog

Blog: Minimum flow laws in California and Chile

California and Chile share a history of water allocation with little regard for instream uses of water, especially environmental uses. In California, for example, many water rights were obtained with no consideration of the environmental impacts of the water use, often because few environmental laws existed or were enforced when users obtained the rights. Similarly, in Chile, environmental considerations in the granting and exercise of water rights weren’t expressly included in the Water Code until 2005. More broadly, both places traditionally required diversion and use as key elements of water rights, making it difficult or impossible to use water rights to keep water instream. As a result, both Chile and California struggle to protect the minimum instream flows needed for ecosystems and other instream uses.

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Aquafornia news Arizona Republic

Quechan Tribe pushes for new national monument to protect Indian Pass

Quechan tribal members Elan and Donald Medart were excited for the opportunity to see some of their tribe’s most significant lands along Haquita — known to the greater world as the Colorado River — from the air. The day was especially noteworthy for Elan, who’s 14, because it was his first-ever flight over the rugged peaks and washes of Indian Pass, about 30 miles north of here. The six-passenger Cessna took load after load of tribal members and other interested people over the Colorado River Valley in Imperial County, California, to see Indian Pass, Picacho Peak and the nearby Picacho Peak Wilderness, the Colorado, and glimpses of trails, sleeping and prayer circles and an occasional geoglyph that hasn’t yet been ground to death under the wheels of ATVs and RVs.

Aquafornia news Today's News-Herald

U.S. Court decision could upend Central Arizona water deal on Colorado River

For five years, a $24 million water transfer agreement has threatened to establish a potentially dangerous precedent, and turn the Colorado River into a commodity. Now that deal will be put on hold under a decision in U.S. District Court. U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi ruled against that water transfer agreement on Wednesday. It was a decision made on the grounds that federal Reclamation officials’ approval of the agreement last year, absent an environmental impact study in that agreement, may have been “arbitrary and capricious.”

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Aquafornia news Legislative Analyst's Office

Report: Overview of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act

Report details importance of groundwater to California’s water resources and poses questions on funding and policies for the Legislature to consider in moving forward with implementing the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.

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Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Experts urge California to avoid water pitfalls in the delta

Some of the thorniest debates over water in California revolve around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where pumps send water flowing to farms and cities, and where populations of native fish have been declining…. State water regulators are considering … “voluntary agreements” in which water agencies pledge to forgo certain amounts of water while also funding projects to improve wetland habitats. … To learn more about these issues, I spoke with Felicia Marcus and Michael Kiparsky, two experts who wrote a report outlining what they say should be “guiding principles for effective voluntary agreements.” … Marcus said if voluntary agreements go forward without adequate standards in place, “the ecosystem will continue to collapse and more species will go extinct.”

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Aquafornia news Capital Public Radio

Nevada County rejects controversial gold mining project

After years of controversy, the Nevada County Board of Supervisors unanimously struck down a Grass Valley gold mining project. … Rise Gold first submitted an application to resume gold mining operations at the Idaho Maryland Mine, which is in Grass Valley, in 2019. The site had been inactive since its closure in the 1950s, but Rise Gold said it had untapped potential.  But the company was quickly met with mass opposition. Christy Hubbard, a Grass Valley resident and volunteer for a couple local groups opposing the project … said she was particularly concerned with the potential for mining operations to contaminate or otherwise negatively impact local groundwater supply. As a member of the Wells Coalition, a local group of well owners, and an owner of a well herself, she worried mining could reduce water flows or contaminate them. 

Aquafornia news Agri-Pulse Communications

State calls for outstanding water use reports

The California Water Resources Control Board said it still needs more than 40% of the required water usage reports that were due at the beginning of the month.

Aquafornia news Office of California Governor Gavin Newsom

News release: How California has captured water from storms

California is taking advantage of this year’s storms to expand water supplies, building off of last year’s actions to capture stormwater. Last year, the Newsom Administration’s actions resulted in three times more groundwater recharge capacity than would have otherwise occurred. Since 2019, the Governor has allocated $1.6 billion for flood preparedness and response, part of the historic $7.3 billion investment package and to strengthen California’s water resilience. Here’s what the state is doing this year to capture water:

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Aquafornia news Natural Resources Defense Council

Blog: New analysis shows widespread PFAS contamination of tap water in CA

Toxic “forever” PFAS chemicals are a serious environmental health issue in California and across the globe, linked to numerous health harms. California has been a leader in addressing PFAS, including banning PFAS use in multiple products (such as fire-fighting foam and textiles). Yet PFAS continue to be used in hundreds of different consumer and industrial products and our new analysis, released today, shows drinking water sources serving up to 25 million Californians are or have been contaminated with PFAS.  A bill by Senator Nancy Skinner, also introduced today, proposes a much needed comprehensive, efficient, and health-protective approach to phasing out the use of these highly problematic chemicals. Such preventative legislation will be key to helping to address the PFAS crisis. We also need to tackle current contamination by setting drinking water standards for PFAS.

Aquafornia news CA Department of Water Resources

News release: State report identifies future desalination plants to meet statewide water reliability goals

As California continues to adapt to the impacts of a changing climate, the State must work to identify future sources of safe, reliable water for all. This week, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) released a report identifying future planned desalination projects to help meet the brackish water supply goals identified in California’s Water Supply Strategy: Adapting to a Hotter, Drier Future. As a key strategy in the Water Supply Strategy, desalination is the process of removing salts and minerals from brackish water and seawater to produce water suitable for drinking water, irrigation and other supply needs. Brackish water is a mix of freshwater and saltwater and occurs in a natural environment that has more salinity than freshwater, but not as much as seawater. In 2020, over 100,000 acre-feet of brackish water was desalinated for drinking water, which was two-thirds of the desalinated water produced and used in California.

Aquafornia news E&E News

California water regulator declines implementing river diversion limits

The State Water Resources Control Board handed environmental and fishing groups a surprise loss Friday when it denied their petition for permanent instream flow restrictions on the drought-stricken Shasta River in Northern California. The denial came as a surprise because both the water agency and Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom have said they want to prioritize making some emergency drought rules for rivers permanent this year in order to better insulate the state from recurring drought. The board already extended the emergency limits it put on the Scott and Shasta rivers during the drought in a December decision, but the temporary rules run out in February 2025.

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Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

Thursday Top of the Scroll: California reservoir managers could sharply limit water to farms and cities this year

Even after all the rain and snow in California this month, state and federal water managers announced Wednesday that they’re planning to limit deliveries from the state’s biggest reservoirs this year because seasonal precipitation has lagged. Their plans, however, don’t fully account for the recent storms. The State Water Project, with Lake Oroville as its centerpiece, expects to ship 15% of the water that was requested by the mostly urban water agencies it supplies, including many in the Bay Area. The estimate is up from 10% in December but still low. The federally run Central Valley Project, which counts Shasta Lake among the many reservoirs it operates primarily for agriculture, expects to send 15% of the water requested by most irrigation agencies in the San Joaquin Valley and 75% to most in the Sacramento Valley.

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Aquafornia news Water Education Foundation

Announcement: Agenda posted for Water 101 Workshop in April; optional groundwater tour nearly full

Don’t miss a once-a-year opportunity to attend our Water 101 Workshop on April 5 to gain a deeper understanding of California’s most precious natural resource. One of our most popular events, the daylong workshop at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento offers anyone new to California water issues or newly elected to a water district board — and really anyone who wants a refresher — a chance to gain a solid statewide grounding on California’s water resources. Some of state’s leading policy and legal experts are on the agenda for the workshop that details the historical, legal and political facets of water management in the state. 

Aquafornia news CBS - Colorado

Projects funded to prevent tons of salt from entering Colorado River each year

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management recently awarded $20.9 million for six projects along the Colorado River aimed at reducing the costly amount of salt in its water. Five of the projects are in Colorado. In a Feb. 12 press release, the BLM estimated economic damages currently caused by excess salinity in the Colorado River water at about $332 million per year. That economic damage mostly comes from the inability to plant certain types of crops which need the river’s water for irrigation, as well as costs associated with treating the river’s water for residential and commercial usage, according to a BLM report released six years ago. ”This funding will prevent approximately 11,661 tons of salt each year from entering the Colorado River,” the BLM announced in its press release.

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Aquafornia news KVCR News

Judge rules to allow Arrowhead Spring bottler to continue taking water from San Bernardino mountains

A judge ruled last month to allow the company that bottles Arrowhead Spring Water to continue taking water from the San Bernardino National Forest. Activists are now calling on the Forest Service to stop the company’s operations. Fresno County Court Judge Robert Whalen on January 25 ruled to pause the state water board’s cease and desist order against BlueTriton Brands. BlueTriton took over Nestle’s operations in the national forest in 2021. The board last September stopped the company from extracting water from Strawberry Creek — the watershed in the forest that feeds local rivers, creeks and streams.

Aquafornia news NPR

New report unveils what plastic makers knew about recycling

The plastics industry has worked for decades to convince people and policymakers that recycling would keep waste out of landfills and the environment. Consumers sort their trash so plastic packaging can be repurposed, and local governments use taxpayer money to gather and process the material. Yet from the early days of recycling, plastic makers, including oil and gas companies, knew that it wasn’t a viable solution to deal with increasing amounts of waste, according to documents uncovered by the Center for Climate Integrity. … But the industry appears to have championed recycling mainly for its public relations value, rather than as a tool for avoiding environmental damage, the documents suggest.

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Aquafornia news Las Vegas Sun News

Nevada water law ruling backs state engineer’s powers, further stalls Coyote Springs project

Conservationists are calling a recent decision by the Nevada Supreme Court updating the state’s water law a significant victory because the ruling paves the way for the state to restrict groundwater pumping if it will affect other users and wildlife. The court’s decision last month gives the state’s top water official the authority to regulate how underground supplies are distributed. The ruling, a blow to stalled plans for the Coyote Springs master-planned community north of Las Vegas, enhances the survival for an endangered species of fish native only to natural springs in the area. The Center for Biological Diversity was a respondent in the case to protect the Moapa dace, a rare fish that only resides in the warm springs of the upper Muddy River and earned endangered status in 1967. 

Aquafornia news KSL - Salt Lake City

Utah passes agriculture water optimization measure, weighs another change

A bill that allows farmers and ranchers who optimize their water use to sell their conserved water for conservation purposes without losing their water rights cleared the Utah Legislature on Wednesday, as efforts to better track “saved” water intensifies. The Utah House of Representatives voted 66-3 on Wednesday to adopt SB18 after the Senate approved the measure with a 27-0 vote last month. The bill will head to Gov. Spencer Cox’s desk for his signature. The vote happened after members of the House Natural Resources, Agriculture and Environment Committee unanimously voted to advance HB448 earlier in the day. That bill would require the Utah Division of Water Resources to monitor state legislative water optimization efforts along the Great Salt Lake, Colorado River and Sevier River basins, and report its findings back to the state.

Aquafornia news The Denver Post

Friday Top of the Scroll: Colorado River states at risk of not reaching deal by March deadline

The seven Colorado River states face a quickly approaching deadline to present a unified plan for how to manage the drying river that provides water for 40 million people across the West. But major disagreements remain ahead of next month’s target — and the Upper Basin states, including Colorado, say they may submit their own proposal to the federal government instead. … The Upper Basin states are creating their own proposal to present to federal officials in case a seven-state consensus is not reached in time, according to the basin’s statement.

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Aquafornia news SJV Water

Water district between two counties and two subbasins forges its own groundwater sustainability path

The small Kern-Tulare Water District moved forward recently in breaking away from two other groundwater agencies to form its own independent groundwater sustainability agency (GSA). As the state’s historic Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) turns 10 this year and the 2040 deadline to bring aquifers into balance edges closer, groundwater agencies have splintered and reformed throughout the southern San Joaquin Valley. Most notably, the Kern Groundwater Authority which initially had 16 water district members,  reorganized as most of those members have broken off to form their own, or regional GSAs. Kern-Tulare, which covers 19,600 acres, and straddles two water subbasins and two counties, had always planned to go independent …

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Aquafornia news KCLU - Thousand Oaks

Water bottle waste: Ventura County legislator proposes state law to chip away at problem

It’s a type of pollution we see everywhere. We see them by the side of the road, floating in creeks and on our beaches. They are plastic water bottles. A state assemblyman from the Tri-Counties wants California to set an example, and to use alternatives. “Single use plastics just have a very negative impact on pollution, on the environment over,” said Democratic State Assemblyman Steve Bennett of Ventura. He said they do everything from create pollution which harms ecosystems to creating greenhouse gas emissions. On Wednesday, Bennett introduced a bill in Sacramento intended to make the state government a leader on this issue. It would ban state agencies from buying single use water bottles.

Aquafornia news San Luis Obispo Tribune

SLO County could see new water conservation requirements

Some San Luis Obispo County residents may need to cut their water use in the coming years under new regulations proposed by the state — one city as much as 30%. The new regulation framework, titled “Making Conservation a California Way of Life,” was rolled out by the California State Water Resources Control Board in the fall. The agency was still considering public feedback received on the proposed regulations as of Monday and will likely release an updated draft in March, according to spokesman Edward Ortiz. As currently proposed, the regulations would require some cities in San Luis Obispo County, but not all, to reduce residential and commercial water use by 2035, according to the state water board’s data.

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Silver lining to California winter storm damage: lower property taxes

If the floods, slides and landscape mayhem triggered by the string of winter storms severely damaged your house in California, there’s one bit of relief you can claim: a property tax cut. Under state law, property owners who suffer at least $10,000 in damage to their home’s current market value can apply for a reassessment. They have to file an application with their county assessor’s office within 12 months of the incident unless their county offers a later deadline. … If your home was substantially damaged or destroyed in the recent storms, Proposition 19 from 2020 allows you to transfer the taxable value to a newly purchased or constructed house anywhere in the state within two years after you sell the damaged property.

Aquafornia news KQED - San Francisco

California releases formal proposal to end fracking in the state

California oil and gas regulators have formally released their plan to phase out fracking three years after essentially halting new permits for the practice. The California Geologic Energy Management Division (CalGEM) wrote that they would not approve (PDF) applications for permits for well stimulation treatments like fracking to “prevent damage to life, health, property, and natural resources (PDF)” in addition to protecting public health and mitigating greenhouse gas emissions. … Hydraulic fracturing injects liquids, mostly water, underground at high pressure to extract oil or gas. Oil companies say fracking has been done safely for years under state regulation and that a ban should come from the Legislature, not a state agency.

Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

Thursday Top of the Scroll: Biden administration announces truce in Klamath Basin water wars

The Biden administration announced Wednesday it has brokered a “historic” agreement between tribes and farmers in the Klamath Basin over chronic water shortages, a problem that has fueled enduring water wars in the rural area along the California-Oregon border. … The agreement is technically a memorandum of understanding between the three tribes, the Klamath Water Users Association and the Interior Department. It does not lay out a new plan for how water supplies will be allocated, which is the underlying source of tension in the region. Instead, the deal calls for a wide range of river and creek restoration work as well as the modernization of agricultural infrastructure. It comes with $72 million of federal funding.

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Aquafornia news KUNC - Greeley, Colo.

What a multi-million dollar price tag for Colorado River water says about the West’s unquenchable thirst

In Colorado, the water that comes from our taps and keeps our fields growing can be in limited supply. That means heated debates over water – who gets to use it and how money should be spent to keep it flowing – are constant. That is evident right now, after a Colorado water agency announced plans to buy nearly $100 million of water from the Colorado River, even without plans to change how that water is used. “The purchase represents the culmination of a decades-long effort to keep Shoshone’s water on the west side of Colorado’s mountains, settling the region’s long-held anxieties over competition with the water needs of the Front Range, where fast-growing cities and suburbs around Denver need more water to keep pace with development,” explained KUNC reporter Alex Hager. He joined In The NoCo host Erin O’Toole to tell us more.

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Aquafornia news Center for California Water Resources Policy and Management

Blog: The Fish and Wildlife Service should go back to the drawing board on the Longfin Smelt listing

Over the past decade and a half, a persistent collection of petitioners has pressed the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) to list the Bay-Delta population of longfin smelt under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The longfin smelt spawns in freshwater tributaries that feed the Bay, including lower portions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Delta. Although the scarcity of longfin smelt in surveys that record pelagic fishes in the Bay and Delta is readily explained — the surveys poorly sample the habitats of longfin smelt during its two-year rearing period and do not at all sample its spawning habitat — data from those surveys have been used to support the notion that the longfin smelt population is greatly imperiled and may be verging toward extinction. Other data and analyses undercut this notion.

Aquafornia news Chico Enterprise-Record

Butte County adopts groundwater recharge plan

The Butte County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted the Butte County Recharge Action Plan during its meeting Tuesday in an effort to help bolster groundwater reserves throughout the region. Department of Water and Resource Conservation Director Kamie Loeser brought the item before the board with a presentation by Assistant Director Christina Buck, who helped head the project. Loeser said the plan was spurred by Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order last year that loosened restrictions on collecting floodwater. After the order, Butte County put forth a letter of intent to create a project. … With the approval of the board, the plan will also be sent to the California Department of Water Resources. Buck said the plan was also derived from the considerable amount of stormy weather last year that led to flooding throughout the county, adding that the plan also culminates from data and studies conducted.

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Aquafornia news Politico

Fixing a hole

…. Southern California has done a great job saving water — so good a job that it’s now facing a budget deficit. The Metropolitan Water District, the state’s largest water supplier, is considering double-digit rate increases after its 19 million customers saved so much water over the past two years that sales dropped to their lowest levels since the 1970s. … The problem has been building for decades but became urgent over the past two years when water sales came in 11 and then 24 percent less than forecast. At the same time, inflation drove up costs. While the district has chosen to dip into its reserves in the past to avoid large rate increases, Met General Manager Adel Hagekhalil argued that’s not enough anymore in light of increasing extreme weather swings. 

Aquafornia news Colorado Sun

Hundreds of formerly federally regulated Colorado wetlands and streams are unshielded right now

That’s the best way to protect hundreds of acres of wetlands and streams in Colorado, in the absence of federal rules that once did that work? It’s one of the biggest water issues facing state lawmakers this year. But as the legislative session kicks into high gear, there is no consensus yet on how to proceed. Last week, Republican Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, introduced Senate Bill 127 as a first stab at figuring it out. At issue is how the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency now defines so-called Waters of the United States, or WOTUS, which determines which waterways and wetlands are protected under the federal Clean Water Act. The definition has been heavily litigated in the nation’s lower courts since the 1980s and has changed dramatically under different presidential administrations.

Aquafornia news Colorado Sun

Dozens of Colorado farmers, ranchers and one city cut Colorado River water use in exchange for $8.7M

Coloradans gunning to join this year’s effort to save water in the Colorado River Basin could help conserve up to 17,000 acre-feet of water — much more than the 2,500 acre-feet saved in 2023 — and receive about $8.7 million in return.  The voluntary, multistate program pays water users to temporarily use less water. … After a stumbling relaunch in 2023, this year’s program is moving forward with more applications, more potential water savings and more money for participants. This year’s application period closed in December with 124 applications, according to the Upper Colorado River Commission. Of those, Colorado water users submitted 56; Utah, 32; New Mexico, one; and Wyoming, 35.

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Aquafornia news Sacramento Bee

Years after a Newsom order, California is finally set to ban oil and gas fracking

Nearly three years after Gov. Gavin Newsom directed it, California’s oil and gas industry regulator kickstarted a process to outright ban hydraulic fracturing, the fossil fuel extraction method known as ‘fracking.’ Fracking permits have not been issued in the state since 2021, but environmentalists celebrated the move as a win in the fight against climate change. Oil industry groups called it yet another example of regulatory overreach and argued it could lead to higher oil prices. … As the practice exploded in the mid-2000s, research gave fracking a reputation for pollution and public health dangers. Fracking not only is water intensive, it releases potent greenhouse gases such as methane and benzyne and can contaminate groundwater basins with chemical additives.

Aquafornia news Fox 13 - Salt Lake City

Bill to find creative ways to bring more water into Utah advances

A water bill that its sponsor says is “generational” is beginning to advance on Utah’s Capitol Hill. Senate Bill 211, being run by Senate President J. Stuart Adams, R-Layton, had its first hearing before the Senate Natural Resources Committee on Monday. … The bill proposes to create a special water commission and appoint a water commissioner to engage in creative ways to bring more water into the state. It may not be a pipeline from the Pacific Ocean to the Great Salt Lake (as lawmakers considered in the past) but other alternatives, like exchanges for water rights. … “Israel gets about 80% of their water from desalination,” Sen. Adams said. “The idea was not to bring a pipeline from the Pacific Ocean, but help California build a desalination plant but we can take some of their water rights and use it in Utah.”

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Aquafornia news Monterey Herald

Monterey Peninsula water lawsuit heads to appeals court

A quasi-governmental agency has appealed a Monterey County Superior Court decision that ruled the agency overstepped its bounds when it blocked a regional water district from acquiring the local assets of California American Water Co. In January 2022, the Local Area Formation Commission, or LAFCO, denied the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District’s petition for what’s called the district’s latent powers to buy out Cal Am’s local infrastructure. Latent powers essentially refer to whether or not the water district has the financial wherewithal and expertise to acquire and operate the Cal Am system. The water district sued, alleging the behavior of several LAFCO commissioners in denying the petition was inappropriate. 

Aquafornia news Desert Sun

Long-term Colorado River rescue plan at an impasse? North vs. south in West

Will seven Western states be able to rapidly craft a voluntary plan to keep the Colorado River afloat for decades to come? It’s increasingly unclear, as negotiations have foundered between two sides, according to key players. There are sharp differences between northern and southern states’ proposals. … For now, negotiations between the two sides have ground to a halt, even as a deadline looms to produce a draft agreement by next month. The last time representatives from all seven states met face to face was in early January.

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Aquafornia news Western Water Notes

Blog: Nevada tries new approach for water law cases

Nevada state courts have long grappled with settling water conflicts and defining the terms upon which water is managed in the nation’s driest state. Who gets priority to water when there is a conflict or in times of scarcity? What is the public’s interest in water? What is the state’s responsibility in protecting water for the public alongside those with water rights? These are all questions the court has had to grapple with. … In January, the Supreme Court’s water commission began a three-year pilot program that requires district court judges, certified as specialty water law judges, to hear water cases.

Aquafornia news Salt Lake Tribune

What improved snowpack means for Lake Powell and a resurfacing Glen Canyon

… Keeping [Lake] Powell full enough to generate hydropower is a strategy the U.S. Department of Interior signaled it will prioritize — even if it comes at the expense of other natural, recreational and cultural assets on the Colorado River — until at least the end of 2026. That’s when the federal government and seven states that rely on the river will have to re-imagine what to do in a drier, hotter and less water-secure future. The river remains overallocated and has lost about a third of its flow in recent years. For now, motorized boaters who love Lake Powell are breathing a sigh of relief that the federal government intends to keep the reservoir full enough that at least some of the marinas remain open. 

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Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

California’s war on plastic bag use seems to have backfired

It was a decade ago when California became the first state in the nation to ban single-use plastic bags, ushering in a wave of anti-plastic legislation from coast to coast. But in the years after California seemingly kicked its plastic grocery sack habit, material recovery facilities and environmental activists noticed a peculiar trend: Plastic bag waste by weight was increasing to unprecedented levels. … Plastic has been found everywhere scientists have looked: From the deepest oceanic trenches to the highest alpine peaks. Petroleum-based plastics do not biodegrade. Over time, they break down into smaller and smaller pieces — known as microplastics, microfibers and nanoplastics — and have been found in household dust, drinking water and human tissue and blood.

Aquafornia news Mercury News

Paper or no plastic: New bill may eliminate plastic bags in California entirely

… A bill lawmakers introduced Thursday, Feb. 8, in Sacramento would apply the Trader Joe’s policy statewide, banning stores from offering customers any sort of plastic film bags at checkout. If you’re thinking “didn’t we already do that?” the answer is yes and no. … “If you have been paying attention – if you read the news at all in recent years – you know we are choking our planet with plastic waste,” state senator Catherine Blakespear said. “A plastic bag has an average lifespan of 12 minutes and then it is discarded, often clogging sewage drains, contaminating our drinking water and degenerating into toxic microplastics that fester in our oceans and landfills for up to 1,000 years.”

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Aquafornia news Arizona Daily Star

Arizona lawmakers advance rural-groundwater-regulation bill

On a party-line vote, an Arizona Senate Committee approved a bill Wednesday to establish a rural groundwater management setup that’s favored by many farming interest groups but opposed by many environmentalists and some rural community leaders. The bill, introduced by Buckeye Republican Sen. Sine Kerr, would establish a complex legal and governmental process to designate groundwater basin management areas with the goal of reducing groundwater depletion while maintaining the area’s economy and agricultural base. The Republican-led Senate Natural Resources, Energy and Water Committee voted 4-3 to support the measure. It would allow some mandatory conservation measures while still protecting existing farmers’ groundwater rights, as certified by the Arizona Department of Water Resources. It would also appropriate $40 million to ADWR to pay for unspecified measures for farmers to achieve better water conservation.

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Aquafornia news Yuba Net

Opinion: Unimpaired flow proposal could devastate local agriculture, our community and the environment

While the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) is working hard to ensure the reliability of our water supply, the district is facing potential state regulations that would have dire negative impacts for agriculture, our community, fire protection, wildlife and aquatic habitat. State recommended regulations would affect NID operations and service, decreasing water supply and raising the cost of water to all customers if implemented. The California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) is working to update an action plan to improve water quality and save imperiled fish populations, including salmon and delta smelt, in the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Bay-Delta). … If adopted, this alternative would effectively negate NID’s long-standing water rights to the Yuba and Bear River systems. A cascading effect would ensure a significant decrease in the amount of water NID has available for its customers while negatively impacting all aspects of the district’s operational and financial viability.
-Written by Rich Johansen, president of the Nevada Irrigation District. 

Aquafornia news The Hill

Western US lawmakers push to protect watersheds from impacts of wildfires

A bipartisan team of lawmakers from Colorado and Utah are urging Congress to help safeguard the nation’s watersheds by considering a new bill aimed at expediting the cleanup of contamination caused by wildfires. The Watershed Protection and Forest Recovery Act, co-sponsored by Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Mitt Romney (R-Utah), would accelerate watershed recovery efforts on federal land, while also protecting private property and water resources downstream. 

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Aquafornia news Water Education Foundation

Announcement: Learn about California water basics & beyond at Water 101 Workshop April 5

Water management at the local level in California increasingly requires a firm grasp of issues across the state, so take advantage of this once-a-year opportunity to attend our Water 101 Workshop on April 5 and gain a deeper understanding of the history, hydrology and law behind California’s most precious natural resource. Top policy and legal experts will be presenting at our annual workshop held at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, with an optional groundwater tour the day before. .. Our Water 101 Workshop is an ideal way for new water district board members and those working in water-related fields to gain a statewide perspective on key water issues and the myriad agencies involved in water management. 

Aquafornia news Downey Brand LLP

Blog: US EPA proposes rules to expand cleanup of PFAS at hazardous waste sites

Last week, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued two new proposed rules, which further expand EPA’s regulatory oversight of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). The first rule would modify the definition of hazardous waste as it applies to cleanups at permitted hazardous waste facilities and to clarify EPA’s authority to address emerging contaminants that are not included in the regulatory definition of hazardous waste. The second rule would add nine particular PFAS, their salts, and their structural isomers, to the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act’s (RCRA) list of hazardous constituents for potential assessments and corrective actions. Nicknamed “forever chemicals,” PFAS have been used in a wide range of consumer products and industrial processes due to their qualities to be waterproof, stain-resistant, and nonstick. 

Aquafornia news Legal Planet

Blog: The long life and sudden demise of federal wetlands protection

It’s no wonder that one EPA staffer’s reaction to the Supreme Court ruling was a single word: “Heartbroken.” In 2023, the Supreme Court ended fifty years of broad federal protection to wetlands in Sackett v. United States.  It is only when you look back at the history of federal wetland regulation that you realize just how radical and destructive this decision was.  For instance, under the Court’s reasoning, a Reagan Administration regulation would be considered a blatant environmentalist overreach. Here’s a timeline of the major events. 1972, Congress passes the Clean Water Act, which requires a federal permit for filling or dredging in “navigable waters,” defined as the “waters of the United States.”

Aquafornia news The Sun-Gazette Newspaper

Costa, Valadao introduce measures to help Valley farmers

Two Congressmen representing the Central Valley have introduced measures to assist California communities ravaged by drought and extreme heat, as well as to advance and promote policies essential to U.S. agriculture. On Feb. 1, California Congress Member David Valadao, R-22nd District, and Nevada Congress Member Dina Titus, D-1st District, introduced the Water Conservation Economic Adjustment Act (Act). According to a press release from Valadao’s office, the bill “aims to make additional resources available for regions experiencing adverse economic changes caused by drought and extreme heat.” The Act amends the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 by adding environmental conditions that contribute to increased water supplies, including drought and extreme heat, to the list of events that may make communities eligible for financial assistance.

Aquafornia news Livermore Independent

EPA advocates for river flows to the Sacramento River Delta

The Bay Delta Plan should focus more on the amount of water flowing through rivers and less on habitat restorations to restore its ecosystems, according to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) comments submitted to the State Water Resources Control Board. The Water Board, which is in the process of revising its draft Bay Delta Plan for public review, will decide what river-flow requirements and water-quality controls will govern uses within the Sacramento River watershed. The EPA’s comments came as part of the plan’s public comment period, which closed on Jan. 19.

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Aquafornia news The Guardian

US court bans three weedkillers and finds EPA broke law in approval process

Dealing a blow to three of the world’s biggest agrochemical companies, a US court this week banned three weedkillers widely used in American agriculture, finding that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) broke the law in allowing them to be on the market. The ruling is specific to three dicamba-based weedkillers manufactured by Bayer, BASF and Syngenta, which have been blamed for millions of acres of crop damage and harm to endangered species and natural areas across the midwest and south. … Dicamba is also prone to drifting on the wind far from where it is applied. And it can move into drainage ditches and bodies of water as runoff during rain events. Monsanto, along with the chemical giant BASF, introduced new formulations of dicamba herbicides they said would not be as volatile, and they encouraged farmers to buy Monsanto’s newly created dicamba-tolerant crops. 

Aquafornia news BNN

Efficiency push in California water fluoridation trial: a potential game-changer for public health policies

As the California federal courtroom buzzes with anticipation, a monumental bench trial unfolds, its focal point – the potential risks posed by fluoridated water. The case, overseen by a seasoned judge, has been extended to allow the parties involved ample time to present their respective arguments. However, the judge’s recent remarks hint at an underlying dissatisfaction with the trial’s pace, urging the counsel to adopt a more streamlined and focused approach. The trial, by its sheer significance, has captured the nation’s attention. It grapples with public health concerns stemming from water fluoridation, a prevalent practice aimed at curbing tooth decay. Given its implications, the testimony of the former scientific director of the National Toxicology Program, who links fluoride to lower IQ in children, weighs heavily in the courtroom. The final phase of the trial is expected to delve into new evidence and science, further shaping the narrative.

Aquafornia news Ag Alert

Newsom announces strategy to help salmon populations

As California experiences hotter, drier temperatures due to climate change, Gov. Gavin Newsom has announced the state’s first strategy to protect and help restore salmon species to reduce their risk of extinction. The California Salmon Strategy, released last week, is a 37-page document that outlines actions state agencies are already taking to stabilize and recover salmon populations. It also maps out additional or intensified actions needed in coming years. The document identifies six priorities and 71 actions. The salmon strategy’s priorities call for: removing barriers and modernizing infrastructure for salmon migration; restoring habitat; protecting water flows in key rivers at the right times; modernizing hatcheries; transforming technology and management systems; and strengthening partnerships.

Aquafornia news SJV Water

Judge dismisses two claims, keeps key pieces of Kern River lawsuit intact

A motion that challenged four claims made in a lawsuit against the City of Bakersfield over how it operates the Kern River got a half-and-half ruling from Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp Monday evening. However, the heart of the lawsuit – that Bakersfield breached its duties under the Public Trust Doctrine by dewatering the river through town – will remain intact. “The City does not have the discretion to ignore its statutory and public trust duties,” Pulskamp’s ruling states. The judge also overruled opponents’ arguments that the Kern River isn’t subject to California Fish and Game Code 5937, which requires dam owners to allow enough water to pass those structures to keep downstream fish in good conditions. Opponents had argued that structures used to divert water out of the Kern River are weirs, or “conduits,” not dams. Pulskamp noted the code includes “all artificial obstructions” in its definition of dams.

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Aquafornia news KJZZ - Phoenix

Cattle are a part of Arizona’s history. Climate change, overgrazing concerns cloud their future

When you drive through parts of rural Arizona, it’s hard to imagine that cattle ranchers once came here for the grass. But Eduardo Pagan, a history professor at Arizona State University, says the state looked different a couple of centuries ago. … Cattle ranching helped shape rural Arizona into what it is today. It was one of the five C’s that once formed the backbone of the state’s economy, along with copper, citrus, cotton and climate.  But many ideas we have about the history of grazing are wrong, and researchers say that cattle have emerged as a major driver of climate change. Conservationists say it’s time to re-examine grazing on public lands. … Ranching has changed the way wildfire moves across the landscape. Ranching also helped introduce invasive plants, as new grasses were planted to offset overgrazing. Grasslands have been turned into deserts. Streambeds that once nourished shady cottonwoods and willows bake in the sun after cows eat the young trees. Wildfires burn bigger and hotter. 

Aquafornia news Ag Alert

Summit tackles water challenges facing California

Below-average precipitation and snowpack during 2020-22 and depleted surface and groundwater supplies pushed California into a drought emergency that brought curtailment orders and calls for modernizing water rights. At the Water Education Foundation annual water summit last week in Sacramento, Eric Oppenheimer, chief deputy director of the California State Water Resources Control Board, discussed what he described as the state’s “antiquated” water rights system. He spoke before some 150 water managers, government officials, farmers, environmentalists and others as part of the event where interests come together to collaborate on some of the state’s most challenging water issues.

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California Water Agencies Hoped A Deluge Would Recharge Their Aquifers. But When It Came, Some Couldn’t Use It
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: January storms jump-started recharge projects in badly overdrafted San Joaquin Valley, but hurdles with state permits and infrastructure hindered some efforts

An intentionally flooded almond orchard in Tulare CountyIt was exactly the sort of deluge California groundwater agencies have been counting on to replenish their overworked aquifers.

The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.    

Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland. Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.

As New Deadline Looms, Groundwater Managers Rework ‘Incomplete’ Plans to Meet California’s Sustainability Goals
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: More than half of the most critically overdrawn basins, mainly in the San Joaquin Valley, are racing against a July deadline to retool their plans and avoid state intervention

A field in Kern County is irrigated by sprinkler.Managers of California’s most overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable, detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250 newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a groundwater basin.

Tour Nick Gray

San Joaquin River Restoration Tour 2022
Field Trip - November 2-3

This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river restoration projects.

The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most contentious legal battles in California water history, ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government, Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental groups.

Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720

New EPA Regional Administrator Tackles Water Needs with a Wealth of Experience and $1 Billion in Federal Funding
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Martha Guzman says surge of federal dollars offers 'greatest opportunity' to address longstanding water needs, including for tribes & disadvantaged communities in EPA Region 9

EPA Region 9 Administrator Martha Guzman.Martha Guzman recalls those awful days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible time.”

She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely greatest opportunity.”

A Colorado River Veteran Takes on the Top Water & Science Post at Interior Department
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Tanya Trujillo brings two decades of experience on Colorado River issues as she takes on the challenges of a river basin stressed by climate change

Tanya Trujillo, Assistant Interior Secretary for Water and Science For more than 20 years, Tanya Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and other crops.

Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of California, exposing her to the different perspectives and challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s Lower Basin.

Tour Nick Gray

Headwaters Tour 2023
Field Trip - June 21-22 (optional whitewater rafting June 20)

On average, more than 60 percent of California’s developed water supply originates in the Sierra Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade Range. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality. 

This tour ventured into the Sierra to examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and throughout the state.

Pandemic Lockdown Exposes the Vulnerability Some Californians Face Keeping Up With Water Bills
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Growing mountain of water bills spotlights affordability and hurdles to implementing a statewide assistance program

Single-family residential customers who are behind on their water bills in San Diego County's Helix Water District can get a one-time credit on their bill through a rate assistance program funded with money from surplus land sales.As California slowly emerges from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, one remnant left behind by the statewide lockdown offers a sobering reminder of the economic challenges still ahead for millions of the state’s residents and the water agencies that serve them – a mountain of water debt.

Water affordability concerns, long an issue in a state where millions of people struggle to make ends meet, jumped into overdrive last year as the pandemic wrenched the economy. Jobs were lost and household finances were upended. Even with federal stimulus aid and unemployment checks, bills fell by the wayside.

Western Water Layperson's Guide to Water Rights Law By Gary Pitzer

California Weighs Changes for New Water Rights Permits in Response to a Warmer and Drier Climate
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: State Water Board report recommends aligning new water rights to an upended hydrology

The American River in Sacramento in 2014 shows the effects of the 2012-2016 drought. Climate change is expected to result in more frequent and intense droughts and floods. As California’s seasons become warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of the state’s water supply.

A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing climate could require existing rights holders to curtail diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.

Western Water By Gary Pitzer

Explainer: The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: The Law, The Judge And The Enforcer

The Resource

A groundwater pump in the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater provides about 40 percent of the water in California for urban, rural and agricultural needs in typical years, and as much as 60 percent in dry years when surface water supplies are low. But in many areas of the state, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can be replenished through natural or artificial means.

Western Water Gary Pitzer

Framework for Agreements to Aid Health of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is a Starting Point With An Uncertain End
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Voluntary agreement discussions continue despite court fights, state-federal conflicts and skepticism among some water users and environmental groups

Aerial image of the Sacramento-San Joaquin DeltaVoluntary agreements in California have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state regulators.

Western Water California Water Map Gary Pitzer

Meet the Veteran Insider Who’s Shepherding Gov. Newsom’s Plan to Bring Climate Resilience to California Water
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Former journalist Nancy Vogel explains how the draft California Water Resilience Portfolio came together and why it’s expected to guide future state decisions

Nancy Vogel, director of the Governor’s Water Portfolio Program, highlights key points in the draft Water Resilience Portfolio last month for the Water Education Foundation's 2020 Water Leaders class. Shortly after taking office in 2019, Gov. Gavin Newsom called on state agencies to deliver a Water Resilience Portfolio to meet California’s urgent challenges — unsafe drinking water, flood and drought risks from a changing climate, severely depleted groundwater aquifers and native fish populations threatened with extinction.

Within days, he appointed Nancy Vogel, a former journalist and veteran water communicator, as director of the Governor’s Water Portfolio Program to help shepherd the monumental task of compiling all the information necessary for the portfolio. The three state agencies tasked with preparing the document delivered the draft Water Resilience Portfolio Jan. 3. The document, which Vogel said will help guide policy and investment decisions related to water resilience, is nearing the end of its comment period, which goes through Friday, Feb. 7.

Western Water Layperson's Guide to Climate Change and Water Resources Gary PitzerDouglas E. Beeman

As Wildfires Grow More Intense, California Water Managers Are Learning To Rewrite Their Emergency Playbook
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Agencies share lessons learned as they recover from fires that destroyed facilities, contaminated supplies and devastated their customers

Debris from the Camp Fire that swept through the Sierra foothills town of Paradise  in November 2018.

By Gary Pitzer and Douglas E. Beeman

It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems and upend an agency’s finances.

Western Water California Groundwater Map Gary Pitzer

Recharging Depleted Aquifers No Easy Task, But It’s Key To California’s Water Supply Future
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: A UC Berkeley symposium explores approaches and challenges to managed aquifer recharge around the West

A water recharge basin in Southern California's Coachella Valley. To survive the next drought and meet the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability law, California is going to have to put more water back in the ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging overpumped aquifers is no easy task.

Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though, landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally recharged.

Announcement

Save The Dates For Next Year’s Water 101 Workshop and Lower Colorado River Tour
Applications for 2020 Water Leaders class will be available by the first week of October

Dates are now set for two key Foundation events to kick off 2020 — our popular Water 101 Workshop, scheduled for Feb. 20 at McGeorge School of Law in Sacramento, and our Lower Colorado River Tour, which will run from March 11-13.

In addition, applications will be available by the first week of October for our 2020 class of Water Leaders, our competitive yearlong program for early to mid-career up-and-coming water professionals. To learn more about the program, check out our Water Leaders program page.

Western Water Layperson's Guide to California Wastewater Gary Pitzer

As Californians Save More Water, Their Sewers Get Less and That’s a Problem
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Lower flows damage equipment, concentrate waste and stink up neighborhoods; should water conservation focus shift outdoors?

Corrosion is evident in this wastewater pipe from Los Angeles County.Californians have been doing an exceptional job reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive the most recent drought when water districts were required to meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable, Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water in the future.

Western Water Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Map Gary Pitzer

Bruce Babbitt Urges Creation of Bay-Delta Compact as Way to End ‘Culture of Conflict’ in California’s Key Water Hub
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Former Interior secretary says Colorado River Compact is a model for achieving peace and addressing environmental and water needs in the Delta

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt gives the Anne J. Schneider Lecture April 3 at Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum.  Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful, provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Delta tunnels plan.

Western Water California Groundwater Map Layperson's Guide to Groundwater Gary Pitzer

As Deadline Looms for California’s Badly Overdrafted Groundwater Basins, Kern County Seeks a Balance to Keep Farms Thriving
WESTERN WATER SPOTLIGHT: Sustainability plans required by the state’s groundwater law could cap Kern County pumping, alter what's grown and how land is used

Water sprinklers irrigate a field in the southern region of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County.Groundwater helped make Kern County the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.

Western Water Douglas E. Beeman

Women Leading in Water, Colorado River Drought and Promising Solutions — Western Water Year in Review

Dear Western Water readers:

Women named in the last year to water leadership roles (clockwise, from top left): Karla Nemeth, director, California Department of Water Resources; Gloria Gray,  chair, Metropolitan Water District of Southern California; Brenda Burman, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner; Jayne Harkins,  commissioner, International Boundary and Water Commission, U.S. and Mexico; Amy Haas, executive director, Upper Colorado River Commission.The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.

These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.

We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:

Western Water Klamath River Watershed Map Layperson's Guide to Groundwater Gary Pitzer

California Leans Heavily on its Groundwater, But Will a Court Decision Tip the Scales Against More Pumping?
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Pumping near the Scott River in Siskiyou County sparks appellate court ruling extending public trust doctrine to groundwater connected to rivers

Scott River, in Siskiyou County. In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.

Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.

Western Water Douglas E. Beeman

What Would You Do About Water If You Were California’s Next Governor?
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Survey at Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit elicits a long and wide-ranging potential to-do list

There’s going to be a new governor in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.

So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?

That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.

Headwaters Tour 2018

Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality.

Headwaters tour participants on a hike in the Sierra Nevada.

We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and throughout the state. 

GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
Western Water Layperson's Guide to Groundwater Gary Pitzer

Novel Effort to Aid Groundwater on California’s Central Coast Could Help Other Depleted Basins
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Michael Kiparsky, director of UC Berkeley's Wheeler Water Institute, explains Pajaro Valley groundwater recharge pilot project

Michael KiparskySpurred by drought and a major policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of recovery.

Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner that reflects its original intent.

Western Water Layperson's Guide to Water Rights Law Gary Pitzer

Amid ‘Green Rush’ of Legal Cannabis, California Strives to Control Adverse Effects on Water
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: State crafts water right and new rules unique to marijuana farms, but will growers accustomed to the shadows comply?

A marijuana plant from a growing operationFor decades, cannabis has been grown in California – hidden away in forested groves or surreptitiously harvested under the glare of high-intensity indoor lamps in suburban tract homes.

In the past 20 years, however, cannabis — known more widely as marijuana – has been moving from being a criminal activity to gaining legitimacy as one of the hundreds of cash crops in the state’s $46 billion-dollar agriculture industry, first legalized for medicinal purposes and this year for recreational use.

Western Water Jenn Bowles Jennifer Bowles

EDITOR’S NOTE: Assessing California’s Response to Marijuana’s Impacts on Water

Jennifer BowlesAs we continue forging ahead in 2018 with our online version of Western Water after 40 years as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.

State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that marijuana was legal.

Western Water California Water Map Gary Pitzer

One Year In, A New State Policymaker Assesses the Salton Sea, Federal Relations and California’s Thorny Water Issues
WESTERN WATER Q&A: State Water Board member Joaquin Esquivel

State Water Resources Control Board member E. Joaquin EsquivelJoaquin Esquivel learned that life is what happens when you make plans. Esquivel, who holds the public member slot at the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento, had just closed purchase on a house in Washington D.C. with his partner when he was tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown a year ago to fill the Board vacancy.

Esquivel, 35, had spent a decade in Washington, first in several capacities with then Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then as assistant secretary for federal water policy at the California Natural Resources Agency. As a member of the State Water Board, he shares with four other members the difficult task of ensuring balance to all the uses of California’s water. 

Headwaters Tour 2019
Field Trip - June 27-28

Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality. 

Tour

San Joaquin River Restoration Tour 2018

Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river restoration projects.

Fishery worker capturing a fish in the San Joaquin River.

The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most contentious legal battles in California water history, ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government, Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental groups.

Water Conservation

Drought-tolerant landscaping reduces the amount of water used on traditional lawns

Water conservation has become a way of life throughout the West with a growing recognition that the supply of water is not unlimited.

Drought is the most common motivator of increased water conservation but the gradual drying of the West as a result of climate change means the amount of fresh water available for drinking, irrigation, industry and other uses must be used as efficiently as possible.

Aquapedia background Layperson's Guide to California Wastewater

Wastewater Treatment Process in California

Wastewater management in California centers on the collection, conveyance, treatment, reuse and disposal of wastewater. This process is conducted largely by public agencies, though there are also private systems in places where a publicly owned treatment plant is not feasible.

In California, wastewater treatment takes place through 100,000 miles of sanitary sewer lines and at more than 900 wastewater treatment plants that manage the roughly 4 billion gallons of wastewater generated in the state each day.

Aquapedia background Colorado River Basin Map

Salton Sea

As part of the historic Colorado River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below sea level.

Aquapedia background

Safe Drinking Water Act

Safe Drinking Water Act

The federal Safe Drinking Water Act sets standards for drinking water quality in the United States.

Launched in 1974 and administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Safe Drinking Water Act oversees states, communities, and water suppliers who implement the drinking water standards at the local level.

The act’s regulations apply to every public water system in the United States but do not include private wells serving less than 25 people.

According to the EPA, there are more than 160,000 public water systems in the United States.

Dams

Folsom Dam on the American River east of Sacramento

Dams have allowed Californians and others across the West to harness and control water dating back to pre-European settlement days when Native Americans had erected simple dams for catching salmon.

Western Water Magazine

Changing the Status Quo: The 2009 Water Package
January/February 2010

This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater monitoring and the proposed water bond.

Western Water Magazine

Water Policy 2007: The View from Washington and Sacramento
March/April 2007

This issue of Western Water looks at the political landscape in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento as it relates to water issues in 2007. Several issues are under consideration, including the means to deal with impending climate change, the fate of the San Joaquin River, the prospects for new surface storage in California and the Delta.

Western Water Magazine

Thirty Years of the Clean Water Act:
November/December 2002

2002 marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most significant environmental laws in American history, the Clean Water Act (CWA). The CWA has had remarkable success, reversing years of neglect and outright abuse of the nation’s waters. But challenges remain as attention turns to the thorny issue of cleaning up nonpoint sources of pollution.

Western Water Magazine

Pervasive and Persistent: Constituents of Growing Concern
January/February 2011

This printed issue of Western Water, based on presentations at the November 3-4, 2010 Water Quality Conference in Ontario, Calif., looks at constituents of emerging concerns (CECs) – what is known, what is yet to be determined and the potential regulatory impacts on drinking water quality.

Western Water Magazine

Mimicking the Natural Landscape: Low Impact Development and Stormwater Capture
September/October 2011

This printed issue of Western Water discusses low impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging interest that are viewed as important components of California’s future water supply and management scenario.

Western Water Magazine

How Much Water Does the Delta Need?
July/August 2012

This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they might be provided.

Western Water Magazine

Hydraulic Fracturing and Water Quality: A Cause for Concern?
September/October 2012

This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the Groundwater Resources Association of California.

Western Water Magazine

A Call to Action? The Colorado River Basin Supply and Demand Study
November/December 2012

This printed issue of Western Water examines the Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study and what its finding might mean for the future of the lifeblood of the Southwest.

Western Water Magazine

Viewing Water with a Wide Angle Lens: A Roundtable Discussion
January/February 2013

This printed issue of Western Water features a roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.

Western Water Magazine

Nitrate and the Struggle for Clean Drinking Water
March/April 2013

This printed issue of Western Water discusses the problems of nitrate-contaminated water in small disadvantaged communities and possible solutions.

Western Water Magazine

Meeting the Co-equal Goals? The Bay Delta Conservation Plan
May/June 2013

This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying California’s long-term water supply reliability.

Western Water Magazine

Two States, One Lake: Keeping Lake Tahoe Blue
September/October 2013

This printed issue of Western Water discusses some of the issues associated with the effort to preserve and restore the clarity of Lake Tahoe.

Western Water Magazine

Overdrawn at the Bank: Managing California’s Groundwater
January/February 2014

This printed issue of Western Water looks at California groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by local, regional and state management. For more background information on groundwater please refer to the Founda­tion’s Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.

Video

The Klamath Basin: A Restoration for the Ages (20 min. DVD)

20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking engagements to help the public understand the complex issues related to complex water management disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances Fisher.

Video

The Klamath Basin: A Restoration for the Ages (60 min. DVD)

For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and California border has faced complex water management disputes. As relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp, farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists – all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water. After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the documentary here.

Publication

Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
Updated 2013

As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge and industrial uses.

Publication

Layperson’s Guide to the Klamath River Basin
Published 2023

The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is hot off the press and available for purchase.

Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and largest reclamation projects.

Publication

Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
Updated 2021

The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project explores the history and development of the federal Central Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).

Publication Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Map

Layperson’s Guide to the Delta
Updated 2020

The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta, its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.

Publication

Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law
Updated 2020

The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as the most thorough explanation of California water rights law available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation ditch through the complex web of California water rights.

Video

Shaping of the West: 100 Years of Reclamation

30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern day issues.

Video

Water on the Edge (60-minute DVD)

Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system, there have been some critical events that had a profound impact on California’s water history. These turning points not only forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.

Maps & Posters

Klamath River Watershed Map
Published 2011

This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The map text explains the many issues facing this vast, 15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration; agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement, and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Maps & Posters

Carson River Basin Map
Published 2006

A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin. Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin Area Office.

Maps & Posters

Invasive Species Poster Set

One copy of the Space Invaders and one copy of the Unwelcome Visitors poster for a special price.

Maps & Posters

Unwelcome Visitors

This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem, leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors” features photos and information on four such species – including the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic threats posed by these species.

Maps & Posters

Space Invaders

This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how non-native invasive plants can alter the natural ecosystem, leading to the demise of native plants and animals. “Space Invaders” features photos and information on six non-native plants that have caused widespread problems in the Bay-Delta Estuary and elsewhere.