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.”
A bill to exempt some housing projects from a controversial
California law that pro-building activists blame for slowing
down development cleared its first legislative hurdle this
week. On Monday, the State Assembly’s Natural Resources
Committee approved AB 609, introduced by Assemblymember Buffy
Wicks (D-Berkeley), which would exempt infill housing projects
built within existing cities from review under the California
Environmental Quality Act. … In recent years, CEQA has become
a political lightning rod as housing activists have argued
it has been used to slow or stop housing projects from
moving forward, while defenders say it hasn’t played a
major role in deterring housing production in California.
… But not everyone is on board with the proposed
changes. “We just have blinders on in terms of how much good
CEQA — and looking at the environmental reviews — has done to
preserve safety and safety for water and safety from fire,”
said Susan Kirsch, president of Catalysts for Local Control.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on
April 22, 2025, settlements with 10 entities with facilities
across California for claims of chemical safety-related
violations under the Clean Air Act. Two water treatment plants
were listed in EPA’s expedited settlement agreements. All
entities agreed to come into compliance with Risk Management
Program (RMP) safety requirements and pay penalties, which
total over $170,000. According to the EPA, two water
treatment plants in the state of California had violations:
Benecia Water Treatment Plant … (and) Cement Hill Water
Treatment Plant.
… Advocates for communities overburdened by industrial
pollution and the impacts of climate change say years of
progress toward cleaner air, water and corporate accountability
are at stake. … While it took down environmental justice
maps and datasets, the EPA published a new webpage inviting
fossil fuel and chemical companies to apply for presidential
exemptions to pollution limits. … The EPA recently set
up a new webpage with step-by-step instructions to apply for
two-year waivers from nine major EPA pollution protections. …
The rules include tougher limits on dangerous pollution from
smokestacks and chemical plants, new emission standards for
cars and trucks for reducing asthma and lung disease, and a
historic rule designed to update water systems and protect
children from lead in drinking water.
The proposal advanced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and
National Marine Fisheries Service would limit the meaning to
taking direct action to kill or injure endangered or threatened
wildlife — removing the prohibition against habitat destruction
that leads to those ends. It fits with White House officials’
intent to spur economic growth by slashing regulations. If
adopted, the change could significantly curtail the reach of
the Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973 under former
President Nixon. It would also flout a 1995 U.S. Supreme Court
ruling that upheld the definition of harm to encompass
“significant habitat modification or degradation.” …
(T)he previous definition prevented acts like cutting down
swaths of old-growth forests in Northern California and the
Pacific Northwest where federally threatened northern spotted
owls nest and roost. Or filling in a wetland inhabited by
red-legged frogs, California’s state amphibian also listed as
federally threatened.
The Port of Los Angeles must significantly improve its
management of stormwater and groundwater to ensure that toxic
pollutants stay out of the harbor, according to Wednesday’s
tentative settlement of a lawsuit against the city of Los
Angeles for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act.
The lawsuit brought by Los Angeles-based Environment California
in July 2024 alleged that there have been more than 2,000
illegal discharges of pollution in the previous five years at
the port. That pollution stems from bacteria-laden stormwater
and contaminated groundwater that accumulates in a 53-acre area
of the port and is discharged into the harbor, the suit
alleges.
Gov. Gavin Newsom today signed new legislation that will
provide more than $170 million in state funding to help prevent
wildfires while signing an order aimed at speeding up the work
by easing environmental permitting. The funding — which
the Democratic governor said was part of a broader effort to
better protect communities ahead of peak fire season — comes as
the state is under extraordinary pressure after the January
infernos that devastated Los Angeles communities…. Authorized
as part of a fast-tracked, early action budget
bill approved by the Legislature, the funds will be paid
to six conservancies throughout California. The agencies,
which operate under the governor’s Resources Agency, will
manage the removal of vegetation and thinning of forests within
their regions.
President Trump this week directed 10 federal agencies —
including the Environmental Protection Agency, the Energy
Department and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission — to implement
a novel procedure to scrap a wide array of longstanding energy
and environmental regulations. He told agencies that oversee
everything from gas pipelines to power plants to insert
“sunset” provisions that would cause regulations to
automatically expire by October 2026. If the agencies wanted to
keep a rule, it could only be extended for a maximum of five
years at a time. Experts say the directive faces enormous legal
hurdles. But it was one of three executive orders from Mr.
Trump on Wednesday in which he declared that he was pursuing
new shortcuts to weaken or eliminate regulations.
California is making it faster, easier, and more affordable to
launch environmental restoration projects across the state,
thanks to a program the state’s Department of Fish and Wildlife
established in 2021 called Cutting Green Tape. It’s a simple
idea: streamline the complex red tape – ‘green tape’ in the
case of restoration work – that often delays or blocks habitat
restoration projects. … Since 2022, the program has helped
more than 500 restoration projects move forward by reducing
costly delays and making the approval process easier to
navigate. These efforts have already contributed to the
restoration of nearly 200,000 acres of habitat, the
reconnection of 5.5 million acres of land, and the improvement
of over 700 miles of California streams. All of these projects
are critical for fish, wildlife, and clean water.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will be
reconvening an independent panel of health experts to make a
new recommendation on putting fluoride in drinking water, a
spokesperson said on Monday. The use of the mineral, which is
added to water to strengthen tooth enamel and promote dental
health, has been a hot-button political issue in some states
for decades. ”HHS is reconvening the Community Preventive
Services Task Force to study and make a new recommendation on
fluoride,” an HHS spokesperson said. The statement
followed an Associated Press report quoting Secretary of Health
and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. saying at an event in
Salt Lake City, Utah, that he plans to tell the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoride in
drinking water.
Clean water and scenic beauty for Santa Barbara’s creeks may
come at a cost to the city’s homeowners. At least, that’s how
creekside residents see it. Many are not happy about the city’s
proposed creek buffer ordinance, which would require any and
all new developments to stay away from a creek’s edge.
The city has 16 creeks. They zigzag through neighborhoods,
showing off bare bottoms that host only a trickle of water for
most of the year. Right now, the city is working on a
draft ordinance that prohibits new development within 50 feet
of any of these creeks. That includes buildings, patios, and
non-native gardens (yes, even tomato plants). The only
development that would be allowed in buffer zones without city
approval would be the planting of native vegetation and debris
removal for flood control purposes. Existing development would
be allowed to stay where it is, as well as be repaired and
remodeled without city approval.
Sen. Ben Allen accepted amendments Wednesday to narrow the
scope of his bill meant to protect state waters from Trump
administration rollbacks. What happened: The Senate
Environmental Quality Committee said it would approve SB 601—
which would create the term “nexus waters” to encompass all
waters of the state that were under federal jurisdiction before
the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Sackett v. EPA — after
Allen agreed to amend it to clarify that it doesn’t apply to
agricultural runoff or drinking water. “We are taking
amendments to be very clear that we’re only talking about point
sources, not non-point source,” said Sean Bothwell, executive
director at California Coastkeeper Alliance and author of the
bill.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration finally finalized its
regulatory approach for how farms will be required to manage
the food safety risk posed by preharvest water applications
that contact fruit. The compliance dates for the new rule,
which is part of the Food Safety Modernization Act’s Produce
Safety Rule, take effect for large farms this month and for
small farms next year. The final rule replaced the initial
approach that included water testing criteria with an annual
risk assessment approach specific to each farm. This
change makes the regulation both more flexible and more
complicated, according to experts who have been on the speaking
circuit at industry meetings this past fall and winter.
The Trump administration is considering rolling back a major
Biden-era regulation on “forever chemicals” in drinking water,
a move that could leave people more exposed to the substances
linked to cancer, high blood pressure and fertility problems.
But any attempt to weaken the rule would run into a formidable
statutory standard, experts say — the same one that has gotten
EPA into legal messes in the past. Finalized last spring, EPA’s
current rule requires water utilities to remove the man-made
chemicals from drinking water starting in four years. Formally
called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances or PFAS, “forever
chemicals” are known for their virtual indestructibility and
have been found in approximately half the nation’s tap water.
“If you’ve ever owned the same piece of land since 1972 the
year the Clean Water Act became law, you’ve operated under 14
different definitions of the Waters of the US,”
(says) National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Chief
Counsel, Mary Thomas-Hart. Lee Zeldin, who’s the new EPA
Administrator, made two pretty substantial announcements.
First, they dropped a guidance document that pulled back some
of the prior more aggressive enforcement activity from the
Biden administration and then opened up a Request for
Information docket for 30 days, so the agency is basically
seeking input from regulated stakeholders as they try to create
some finality in this WOTUS space. Thomas-Hart says that
questions remain for landowners and farmers trying to apply
WOTUS on their operations specifically what guidance they need
from the EPA to confidently make preliminary determinations on
whether a feature falls under federal regulation.
In a continued effort to expedite rebuilding after Los Angeles’
devastating firestorms, Gov. Gavin Newsom this week suspended
California environmental laws for utility providers working to
reinstall key infrastructure. His latest executive order
eliminates requirements to comply with the California
Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, and the California Coastal
Act for utilities working to rebuild “electric, gas, water,
sewer and telecommunication infrastructure” in the Palisades
and Eaton fire burn zones. Newsom also continued to encourage
the “undergrounding” of utility equipment when feasible, which
he said will help minimize the future fire risk in these
communities.
The California dairy industry, renowned for its significant
contributions to agriculture, is navigating a series of
challenges that demand substantial adaptation to ensure future
success. Water scarcity, stringent labor laws and complex
permitting regulations top the list of challenges in the Golden
State, the nation’s largest milk producer and home to 1.71
million milk cows. Karen Ross, secretary of the California
Department of Food and Agriculture, emphasizes the need to
support the state’s farmers during these challenging
times. “What we would like to do is focus on smart
incentives because, over the years, the cumulative effect of so
many regulatory agencies is adding to the complexity … as well
as the cost of compliance,” Ross said in a one-on-one interview
with Farm Journal during the California Dairy Sustainability
Summit.
A California Court of Appeal (Fifth District) (“Court”)
addressed in a March 14th Opinion whether water in an aquifer
could be personal property. … The land and attached
improvements were appraised in 2019 at $14,985,000. The
appraisal excluded any subsurface water or mineral rights. In
addition, the appraisal indicated that due to two perpetual
United States Fish and Wildlife conservation easements, that
the land was limited to its current use as an irrigated and dry
pasture ranch with some lower intensity farming uses. The
trial court had held, and this Court agreed that: Water
was not personal property owned by 4-S; and,
Rights to use of the water ran with the land
and therefore the lender acquired those rights at the
foreclosure sale.
The Trump administration has appointed Josh F.W. Cook as head
of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest
Office, overseeing federal environmental policy in California,
Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands and 148 Tribal
Nations. Cook, who lives in Chico (Butte County), is a
government and tribal affairs consultant, according to his
LinkedIn account, and has held a handful of government
positions. He spent a decade as chief of staff for former
Republican State Sen. Brian Dahle, R-Bieber (Lassen County) and
has served on advisory committees for the U.S. Forest Service
and Bureau of Land Management. His resume also includes helping
with the emergency response to California’s deadly Camp Fire in
2018.
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its
scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists,
biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to
documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on
Science, Space and Technology. The strategy is part of
large-scale layoffs, known as a “reduction in force,” being
planned by the Trump administration, which is intent on
shrinking the federal work force. Lee Zeldin, the administrator
of the E.P.A., has said he wants to eliminate 65 percent of the
agency’s budget. That would be a drastic reduction — one that
experts said could hamper clean water and wastewater
improvements, air quality monitoring, the cleanup of toxic
industrial sites, and other parts of the agency’s mission.
In 2024, after years of deliberation, California water
officials adopted landmark rules that will guide future water
use and conservation in the state. The “Making Conservation a
California Way of Life” framework went into effect at the
beginning of 2025 and requires compliance by 2027. The
framework is intended to help preserve water supplies as
climate change drives hotter, drier conditions and droughts
become more frequent and longer lasting, and is expected to
help save 500,000 acre-feet of water annually by 2040. That is
enough to supply more than 1.4 million households for a
year.
… The Trump administration’s plan to alter the Clean Water
Act’s definition of wetlands to exclude (seasonal streams,
ponds and pools) could render vast areas of California
essentially unprotected from developers and
growers. … (A) new bill introduced last month,
(state) Senate Bill 601, would build in more protection,
amending the state Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act to
copy existing federal protections. It would, among other
provisions, require new permitting rules for pollutants from
business operations or construction.
Other federal and Calif. environmental regulation news:
Cities across California and the Southwest are significantly
increasing and diversifying their use of recycled wastewater as
traditional water supplies grow tighter.
The 5th edition of our Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
covers the latest trends and statistics on water reuse as a
strategic defense against prolonged drought and climate change.
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.
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.
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
EPA Region 9 Administrator Martha Guzman. (Source: Water Education Foundation)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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
A groundwater pump in the San Joaquin Valley. (Source: Water Education Foundation)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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt gives the Anne J. Schneider Lecture April 3 at Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum. (Image: Water Education Foundation) 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.
Water sprinklers irrigate a field in Kern County, in the southern region of the San Joaquin Valley. (Image: California Department of Water Resources.)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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
As 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 has become a way of life throughout the West
with a growing recognition that water supply is not unlimited.
Drought is the most common motivator of increased water
conservation. However, the gradual drying of the West due to
climate change means the amount of fresh water available for
drinking, irrigation, industry and other uses must be used as
efficiently as possible.
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.
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.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 facilities, operations and benefits the water
project brings to the state along with the CVP
Improvement Act (CVPIA).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 the
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.
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.
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.
