A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Chris Bowman.
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A thousand years ago, native fish and birds rested in a fertile
floodplain at the intersection of the Sacramento and Feather
rivers and Butte creek along their migratory routes. Since the
turn of the 20th century, the area has been engulfed in rice
fields. But in the next decade, the bygone natural floodplain
is coming back. That’s after California conservation nonprofit
River Partners secured millions for restoration work on 750
acres from state wildlife agencies and Apple Inc., the
multinational tech company. It’s all part of the state’s effort
to conserve important wild lands for their myriad climate
benefits and Apple’s support for clean energy and conservation
projects to counterbalance pollution and water consumption from
its operations.
Prosecutors have accused Dennis Falaschi, 77, a gregarious
local irrigation official [with the Panoche Water District], of
masterminding the theft of more than $25 million worth of water
out of a federal canal over the course of two decades and
selling it to farmers and other local water districts.
According to the allegations, proceeds that should have gone to
the federal government instead were used to benefit Falaschi,
his water district and a small group of co-conspirators, much
of it funneled into exorbitant salaries and lavish fringe
benefits. … Some farmers who relied on Falaschi and his
irrigation district were outraged — at the government. They see
him as the Robin Hood of irrigation. … For more than a
year, Falaschi maintained his innocence, insisting there had
been no theft. Then this spring, his attorneys filed paperwork
that said he was prepared to change his plea. Exactly what he
will plead guilty to remains unclear.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week rejected a
massive pumped hydropower proposal on the Navajo Nation in
Arizona, cementing a new agency policy to no longer advance
energy projects opposed by tribes whose land would be affected.
The Navajo Nation filed comments last month opposing the
proposed Big Canyon Pumped Hydro project, which would have
dammed the Lower Colorado River and flooded hundreds of acres
to create reservoirs to store and dispatch power. The tribe
warned that the storage project could create “adverse impacts”
to water and cultural resources, as well as the tribe’s water
rights. Those comments were enough to nix the project’s
preliminary permit application, which had been pending since
2020.
As the California State Water Resources Control board meets at
the California Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters for
three days of discussion on its Bay-Delta Water Quality Control
Plan Solano County water officials are there to speak in
opposition to a course of action that could see the county’s
water allocation from Lake Berryessa cut by 75 percent. Chris
Lee and Alex Rabidoux of the Solano County Water Agency
presented information regarding the growth of salmon
populations in Putah Creek in recent years. The state has
claimed that diminished river flows in these areas are harming
fish habitats and are ecologically detrimental to the water
system as a whole, but SCWA argues that Putah Creek is already
a standout example of salmon repopulation.
The state Fish and Game Commission recently declared the
Southern California steelhead trout an endangered species. You
think? These native beauties have been endangered for decades.
In March, there was excitement when one steelhead was spotted
in the Santa Ynez River basin in Santa Barbara County. “One
fish where 25,000 used to be,” says Russell Marlow, south coast
project manager for California Trout, a nonprofit activist
organization. … “While I celebrate the ability of one
fish to exist, it’s a giant red flag.” Three adult steelhead
were sighted five years ago in the Santa Clara River that flows
between Santa Clarita and Oxnard, Marlow adds. Only 177
Southern California steelhead have been seen in the last 25
years, he says. Endangered? They’re practically
extinct. -Written by LA Times columnist George Skelton.
The city of Sanger has allowed its largest private employer,
Pitman Family Farms, a years-long delay in settling $1 million
in payments after the city failed for years to collect money
tied to the company’s increased water use. Pitman Family Farms
poultry processor, known for its line of high-end chickens sold
under the brand Mary’s Chicken, has steadily grown in recent
years. The family-owned company established its plant in Sanger
in 2002 and is today the second largest employer in the city
behind the public school district. As the company has grown its
business – including several plant expansions over the years
from a one-story to a four-story processing plant – its use of
city water has increased. This growth has had an impact on the
city’s infrastructure, but the city wasn’t properly charging
the company for its water use, city records show.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is shutting down its
15.5-mile-long Main Tuolumne Canal, the chain of flumes and
ditches that conveys 95% of Tuolumne Utilities District’s
drinking water supply, this Sunday, April 28, to next Sunday,
May 5, and TUD is urging all of its customers to limit water
use for the temporary shutdown. … The Main Tuolumne
Canal outage is strictly for routine biannual maintenance on
the flumes and ditches each spring and fall. Beginnings of the
Main Tuolumne Canal, which brings water from Lyons Reservoir to
Phoenix Powerhouse, and other ditches further downstream that
are owned by TUD, date back to the 1850s when Gold Rush miners
needed water at their diggings in places like Sonora and
Columbia.
Increased water allocations from systems that move water from
northern to southern California were met with disappointment
and frustration from contractors. Both the Department of Water
Resources and Bureau of Reclamation increased allocations this
week to 40% of contracted amounts, going up 10% and 5%,
respectively. With nearly all the state’s reservoirs filled to
above average levels, the increases were seen as stingy, at
best. “This allocation increase is incredibly disappointing and
should be much higher,” said Kern County Water Agency Board of
Directors President Ted Page in a press release. … The
presence of the fish “triggered state and federal regulations”
that put an automatic crimp on pumping, the release states.
Page objected to that sort of snap regulatory reaction saying
the restrictions are “based on outdated fish population
estimating tools.”
Two massive local water purification projects set to begin
construction within the next 18 months have received up to $182
million from water wholesaler Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California. The regional water agency funds are headed
for a $700 million groundwater replenishment project in the San
Fernando Valley and a $364 million water purification project
in the Westlake Village area. Contractors have been selected
for both projects, which are set to begin construction within
the next 18 months. “For decades, investments in local projects
have helped strengthen Southern California’s resiliency by
reducing demands for imported water supplies and decreasing the
burden on our system,” said Nancy Sutley, Metropolitan board’s
vice chair of climate action.
At least 35 people have been killed and dozens of others are
missing after a dam burst in southern Kenya, sweeping away
homes and vehicles as the country grapples with weeks of heavy
rains and devastating flash floods. A CNN team on the ground in
Kenya’s Rift Valley town Mai Mahiu has seen overturned
vehicles, uprooted trees and homes which had been swept away in
mass flooding. CNN witnessed damage to one of the most affected
areas from flooding in Kenya’s north-western Nakuru county,
which spanned several kilometers in every direction. A
distraught man told CNN that he feared several of his family
members were still buried under
the mud and debris.
The way water used to burst from the ground in Las Vegas is
hard for me to fathom — until I actually see photos of it.
There is a reason they call Las Vegas “the meadows.” Before all
the concrete and master-planned communities, before traffic,
red cones and cranes, Las Vegas relied on artesian wells.
Because of the geology beneath the Earth’s surface, underground
pressure and physics, these coveted artesian wells sprayed
water into the air without pumping. In Las Vegas, such wells
offered an early water supply. These were the free-flowing and
freewheeling days of Las Vegas water.
On May 7, scientists from University of California, Riverside,
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, Colorado State University
Extension, Kansas State University, University of Arizona,
Central Arizona Project, and USDA-Agricultural Research Service
will gather with growers in Palm Desert to discuss how
artificial intelligence can be used in agriculture.
Marina-area residents are looking at a jump in the cost of
their water that can be as high as 20% a year in order to raise
money for repair and replacement of dilapidated infrastructure
like pipes and pumps. The Marina Coast Water District board of
directors approved an increase on April 22 but has to hold a
special meeting Monday to correct errors in what it calls its
2024 Five-Year Rate Study. It also approved a Proposition 218
mailing, which requires special districts in California to send
out notices to every property owner within the district service
area notifying them of a rate change and allowing them to
protest the change. Before any increase can legally take
effect, the district board of directors need to hold a public
hearing in mid-June.
Coronado lifeguards use leak-proof dry suits for open water
rescues. Imperial Beach lifeguards decontaminate in showers
after leaving the ocean. And both have ditched jet skis for the
protection offered by boats. These aren’t new equipment
standards.They are tools the two South County departments have
rolled out independently to protect themselves from daily
exposure to polluted, sewage-tainted waters. No safety
standards exist for lifeguards who come into contact with
contaminated water while trying to save lives.
One of the most terrifying features of the climate crisis is
how it jeopardizes our access to water, without which we cannot
live. Some two billion people lack safe drinking water, while
about almost two thirds of the human population suffers water
scarcity for some part of the year. This in turn imperils food
security, since agriculture is impossible without
water. As climate change exacerbates water shortages,
water profiteering is making the problem even worse. The
barbaric capitalist insistence on treating water as a commodity
incentivizes scarcity and hoarding, as well as imposing ever
more extreme levels of thirst upon the world’s poor. -Written by Liza Featherstone, the author
of Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of
Consultation.
For years, scientists have said that atmospheric rivers can
either make or break the water supplies of thirsty California
cities and farms. For the last two winters, a steady succession
of these giant “rivers in the sky” have dumped record-breaking
and drought-busting precipitation across the state, while
simultaneously causing catastrophic floods, landslides, and
dangerous blizzards. But now, new research has found that these
recent atmospheric rivers pale in comparison to some of the
monster storms that battered ancient California — a sobering
revelation that suggests to some experts that the state could
be revisited once again by such cataclysmic storms.
… The study’s findings do not bode well for a state
whose flood infrastructure was severely strained last year,
when a train of atmospheric rivers breached numerous levees,
flooded communities and re-filled once dry Tulare Lake.
The Pacific Northwest lays claim to well over two-fifths of
America’s dam-derived electricity. So when a drought hits the
region, the nation takes notice. That happened in 2023
when, according to a recent report, U.S. hydroelectric
power hit its lowest level in 22 years. … Last year offered
energy providers in the West a glimpse of the conditions they
may need to adapt to as the world warms and seasonal weather
patterns shift. While models predict climate change will plunge
California and the Southwest deeper into drought, what awaits
Washington and Oregon is less clear.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta faces significant
challenges affecting the health of its waterways and ecosystem,
and stewards say state agencies must accelerate efforts to
prepare for the impacts of climate change and a growing urban
landscape. Delta Stewardship Council staff presented the
Delta Plan Five Year Review on Thursday, recommending numerous
measures to preserve precious water and environmental habitats
against future crises such as extreme drought, sea level rise
and earthquakes. The council recommended that stewards work
with state regulators to improve the delta’s ecosystems and
reduce reliance on delta water, and with landowners to identify
affordable uses of sinking land for sustainable farming.
Water users in the Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability
Agency shot down a proposed pumping fee that would have been
nearly $100 per acre-foot. That sends the Mid-Kings River
GSA back to the drawing board, with local stakeholders calling
for more input in the next proposal. The
backstory: California views that the GSA – which comprises
of water users in the Kings County Water District, the City of
Hanford and Kings County – has not done enough to manage
groundwater pumping through the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA). SGMA was passed by the Legislature
in 2014, and it governs how agencies in critically overdrafted
areas achieve groundwater sustainability.
The water in Imperial Beach could soon be much cleaner. A
legislative package protecting the Tijuana River Watershed was
passed by the Senate Environmental Quality Committee Wednesday.
The two bills address corporate pollution tainting California’s
water supply. Companies responsible for sewage, garbage and
chemicals that are spilling over from south of the border and
contaminating the waters of San Diego could soon be held
accountable by having to pay fines depending on how much waste
they improperly dump.