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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The state legislature has mandated that water conservation
become “a California way of life.” This may sound simple, but
converting these words into reality — with tailored local
reduction targets for over 400 water agencies that deliver
water to most Californians each and every year — is proving to
be hard work for regulators. Getting this right, even if it
takes some extra time, is what matters. … As designed,
however, our analysis showed that the water savings would be
modest while the costs would be high. And, most troubling, we
found that the proposed regulations would hit low-income,
inland communities the hardest. That’s why we suggested that
the State Water Board revisit these rules. -Written by Ellen Hanak and David
Mitchell with the Public Policy Institute of California
Water Policy Center.
For the past 101 years, the cows on [the Mulas Dairy
farm] near San Pablo Bay were milked twice a day. In
recent years, that meant you’d hear the loud hum of vacuum
pumps running from midnight to 7 a.m. and again from noon to 7
p.m. … [Farm president Mike] Mulas was standing near a
drainage ditch on the east side of his 800-acre Schellville
property. The shallow stormwater trench runs through part of
the farm and empties into a field, not far from a network of
creeks that flow into San Pablo Bay. It was a major point of
contention in a lawsuit filed over alleged water quality
violations in early 2023. … For the North Bay’s
struggling dairy industry, it could also be read as another
signpost of the new era. In an age where some environmental
groups take to the courts in higher numbers, going after farms
they allege are polluting surrounding watersheds, many
struggling family farms simply can’t put up a fight anymore.
2023 was the planet’s warmest year on record, coming
in 2.12 degrees Fahrenheit above the 20th-century average.
But California bucked the trend. The state overall was just 0.8
degrees above the 1991-2020 average; some places had near- to
below-average temperatures. There’s a 55% chance that 2024 will
be even warmer than 2023, according to the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. And for now, California is
expected to be in line with this projection. Seasonal outlooks
show that the United States will be warmer than average this
summer, though pinpointing exactly how hot is a challenge.
Rising temperatures in California in late summer and into fall
could prime conditions for potential wildfires.
Workers have begun dismantling the largest dam on the Klamath
River … Several Indigenous leaders and activists watched as a
single earthmover tore into the top of Iron Gate Dam, starting
a pivotal phase in the largest dam removal project in U.S.
history. As they celebrated the long-awaited moment, they
shouted, embraced and offered prayers. They said they hope to
see the river’s salmon, which have suffered devastating
declines, finally start to recover once Iron Gate and two other
dams are fully removed later this year.
On the surface, Victoria by the Bay is a charming neighborhood
of 926 homes only a short walk from the shores of San Pablo
Bay. But the ground beneath the roughly 200-acre
development was once home to the former Pacific Refinery Co., a
facility built in 1966 that produced 55,000 barrels of oil
daily and stored other hazardous substances in the northernmost
corner of Hercules, adjacent to Rodeo.
Did you know packaging, most of it plastic, makes up more than
50% of what California dumps in landfills? … Single-use
plastics accumulate in landfills and break down into
microplastics that pollute air, food, water and our bodies.
… We must address plastic production and emissions at
the source.
Lake Tahoe watercraft inspection stations are open for the
season to help prevent the spread of aquatic invasive species
and boaters can now book an appointment for this summer online,
announced the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Tahoe
Resource Conservation District. With the discovery last year of
invasive New Zealand mudsnails in Lake Tahoe, the agencies are
urging boaters, paddlers, beachgoers, and anglers to learn how
to prevent the spread of this new threat.
Did you know Phoenix is home to wetlands? Located near 91st
Avenue and Broadway, lies a haven of biodiversity and
tranquility not usually found in the desert. The Tres Rios
Wetlands spans 700 acres of water and features a unique
ecosystem unlike anything in the Valley. From rare bird species
to lush vegetation, this hidden gem showcases seven miles of
hiking trails. … The recycled water goes through an
extensive cleaning process and then makes its way to Tres Rios,
providing an ecosystem for all kinds of fish like bass,
catfish, and tilapia. There are also numerous water-loving
plants you won’t see anywhere else in the state naturally.
If you live around the San Francisco Bay, you’re probably
familiar with cement sea walls and sturdy levees. But,
increasingly, a nature-based design is providing an alternative
— one with significant benefits in the face of sea level rise.
When we first met Jessie Olson, she was in the middle of a
multiyear project, to create what’s known as a horizontal
levee, alongside a newly opened tidal marsh in Menlo Park.
Joined by volunteers and colleagues from Save the Bay, the team
installed hundreds of plants that will help clean the bay
waters as the tides surge in and out.
As it deteriorates, the ecosystem around the Salton Sea in
Riverside County in Southern California, has been creating a
toxic environment that hurts the health of children of
immigrant families who live and work there, according to
researchers. A 2023 study by the University of California,
Riverside, looked at the immigrant population of low-income
Hispanic and Indigenous Mexican Hispanic people in communities
around the Salton Sea and found that the rate of childhood
asthma is 20% to 22.4%, much higher than the California average
of 14.5%. … The Salton Sea formed in 1905 when the
Colorado River, itself a river with high salinity, burst an
irrigation canal gate and flooded the area; the lagoon almost
had the same salinity as the ocean.
A lawsuit by the mining company with contracts to extract more
than 50 million tons of aggregate from Soledad Canyon has been
continued to July, according to court records. Cemex, a
multinational building materials company, is suing the State
Water Resources Control Board over the company’s application
for the rights to use the Santa Clara River. The State
Water Board said last year Cemex’s application would be
publicly re-noticed, after pressure from state lawmakers who
sought legislation to force the board to re-notice the request
to use the river to mine. When Cemex appealed the decision
to re-notice and the State Water Board denied that appeal,
Cemex sued in September, stating its application “has already
lingered since the first Bush administration.”
A free water quality testing program has been launched for
residents of Santa Cruz County. It is estimated that 21,000
residents in the county consume water from household wells and
smaller water systems that are not regulated and have never
been fully tested for safety, per the County of Santa Cruz
Health Service Agency. This is a concern for residents in the
southern part of the county, whose water has high levels of
contaminants. This program will provide point-of-use treatment
and drinking water replacements for those who rely on household
groundwater wells for their drinking water. If your well tests
positive for contaminants and your home is eligible for
assistance, you will be given information about free drinking
water replacement programs.
Giant pumps hum inside a warehouse-like building, pushing water
from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the California
Aqueduct, where it travels more than 400 miles south to the
taps of over half the state’s population. But lately the
powerful motors at the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant have been
running at reduced capacity, despite a second year of
drought-busting snow and rain. The reason: So many threatened
fish have died at the plant’s intake reservoir and pumps that
it has triggered federal protections and forced the state to
pump less water. The spike in fish deaths has angered
environmentalists and fishing advocates, who argue the state
draws too much water from the delta while failing to safeguard
fish.
The federal and state governments accused San Francisco on
Wednesday of discharging huge amounts of untreated wastewater
and sewage into the bay and the ocean for many years, violating
environmental laws and endangering beach-goers and aquatic
life. … And they said it’s been getting worse: In the rainy
season from October 2022 to March 2023, more than 4 billion
gallons were spewed into the waters. The lawsuit seeks
court orders requiring the city to change its practices, and
hundreds of millions of dollars in penalties to be paid to the
federal and state governments.
Water systems will need to comply with new rules on
contaminants at the state and federal levels after two
regulations were approved this month. That could bring
challenging costs to water providers. And still, advocates say
protections aren’t good enough. On April 17, the state
Water Resources Control Board passed a maximum contaminant
level (MCL) for hexavalent chromium, a heavy metal that can
occur naturally and through improper industrial site disposal.
… On April 18, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) designated perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and
perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) as hazardous substances.
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The award-winning Great Salt Lake Collaborative is expanding to
cover the Colorado River, and St. George News is among the
newsrooms kicking off this new reporting initiative. Called the
Colorado River Collaborative, the organization is made up of 11
Utah media partners that have agreed to report on the river,
its tributaries and destinations. Stories will explore how
Utahns are impacted by the river and how they can address a
dwindling water supply in the face of drought, climate change
and rapid growth. As a solutions journalism initiative,
Collaborative stories will also explain what can be done to
adapt to the new realities facing the river, what actions are
being taken and why.
Against a backdrop of the Colorado River, members of the
Colorado River Indian Tribes watched Secretary of the Interior
Deb Haaland, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Amelia Flores, the
tribe’s chairwoman, sign a historic agreement on April 26 that
asserts the tribe’s right to lease portions of their allocation
of the river’s water to users away from the tribal land. The
agreement between the tribe, the Interior Department and
Arizona gives the tribe the ability to lease, exchange or store
a portion of its Colorado River water entitlement. As one
leader expressed, the tribe is stepping away from the “outdated
framework” of federal restrictions that constrained their means
to supply water to areas off the tribal land.
Pro-Russia hackers have exploited shoddy security practices at
multiple US water plants in recent cyberattacks that have hit a
wider swathe of victims than was previously documented,
according to an advisory by US federal agencies obtained by
CNN. Though the attacks have not impacted drinking water, the
advisory lays bare the cybersecurity challenges facing the
thousands of water systems across the US, many of which are
often short of cash and personnel to deal with threats.
It’s a good water year in California. As of early April, the
snowpack in the Sierra Nevada mountains was 110 percent of
average. Winter rain storms have filled reservoirs, creeks,
streams and lakes. And as the mountain snow melts, more water
will be added. For almond grower Christine Gemperle, it
means that, for the second year in a row, she will open the
gates of the irrigation canal next to her orchard located in
the Turlock water district of California’s Central Valley
orchard and flood her property. As the water in the canal
permeates the soil, it will travel deep below the surface,
recharging depleted groundwater reserves. The groundwater
versus surface water distinction is important, especially for
dry regions such as the Golden State.
