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 new memo from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is raising
concern about the infrastructure at the Glen Canyon Dam and its
ability to deliver water downstream should levels at Lake
Powell continue to decline. Environmental groups are calling it
“the most urgent water problem” for the Colorado River and the
40 million people who rely on it. … Without upgrades to
the dam’s infrastructure, the bureau’s ability to get water
downstream to the lower Colorado River basin as required by the
Colorado River Compact could be in jeopardy. Even after
record-breaking snowfall in 2023 and an above average 2024
winter, Lake Powell remains at about 32% full, according to
data from the bureau. And scientists estimate flows
in the river have decreased by roughly 20% over the last
century, with warming temperatures resulting in a
10% decrease in runoff.
Kern River combatants are headed back to court where a local
advocacy group hopes to force the City of Bakersfield to goose
up flows, which were cut to a trickle leaving piles of dead
fish west of Bakersfield. The hearing is set for May 9 at 8:30
a.m. in Division J before Kern County Superior Court Judge
Gregory Pulskamp. “Nobody should be happy with the condition of
the Kern River right now; the people deserve and the law
requires a flowing river, not a couple of stagnant pools with
gasping and cooking fish,” wrote Attorney Adam Keats in an
email. Keats represents Bring Back the Kern and a coalition of
other public interest groups in a lawsuit with Water Audit
California against Bakersfield that seeks to have the city
study how its water diversions impact the environment. The city
owns water rights to the Kern as well as the river bed and six
that it operates in from about Hart Park west to Enos Lane.
The Great Salt Lake’s southern arm reached 4,195 feet elevation
at times over the stormy weekend as it nears reaching that
figure daily for the first time in five years. While that’s a
key water level in the ongoing efforts to preserve the lake
after it reached an all-time low in 2022, the state agency
tasked with overseeing the lake’s future recently took a field
trip to other parts of the Southwest as it soaks up ideas that
could help improve future water inflows.
In Salinas, U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren presented checks
appropriated by Congress for two community projects totaling
nearly $2 million. This federal funding is for water
infrastructure in Salinas and Watsonville. More specifically
going toward local wastewater treatment projects. … In
Salinas, the money will be used to expand the industrial waste
treatment facility with plans to lower the operational
costs. Watsonville’s treatment facility also needs major
upgrades. Public works for the city says the cost for the
repairs can go anywhere from $30 to $40 million.
For decades, concerns about automobile pollution have focused
on what comes out of the tailpipe. Now, researchers and
regulators say, we need to pay more attention to toxic
emissions from tires as vehicles roll down the road. At
the top of the list of worries is a chemical called 6PPD, which
is added to rubber tires to help them last longer. When tires
wear on pavement, 6PPD is released. It reacts with ozone to
become a different chemical, 6PPD-q, which can be extremely
toxic—so much so that it has been linked to repeated fish kills
in Washington state. … The Yurok Tribe in Northern
California, along with two other West Coast Native American
tribes, have petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to
prohibit the chemical.
A rebuild of a key pump station that prevents flooding around
Interstate 580 in San Rafael has hit a roadblock. Crucial
electrical components needed to operate the new San Quentin
pump station are unavailable at least until October because of
supply chain shortages.
Rain-swollen water levels at two Kenyan hydroelectric dams are
at “historic highs,” and people downstream should move away,
the Cabinet said Tuesday, ordering residents of flood-prone
areas across the country to evacuate or they’ll be moved by
force. Kenya, along with other parts of East Africa, has been
overwhelmed by flooding that killed 66 people on Monday alone
and in recent days has blocked a national highway, swamped the
main airport and swept a bus off a bridge. More than 150,000
people are displaced and living in dozens of camps. With
seasonal rains forecast to increase, the Cabinet said residents
of areas that have had flooding or landslides in the past and
those living near dams and rivers that are considered at high
risk will be told by Wednesday to evacuate. Those who refuse
will be moved by force.
Water use in California is typically thought of in three parts:
water for the environment (50%), water for agriculture (40%),
and water for communities (10%) per the Public Policy Institute
of California (PPIC). As a result, “ag” is the sector of the
economy that comes to mind first when we talk about the state’s
water supply. But the rest of California’s economy also
requires water. California’s manufacturers – one of the state’s
largest industry sectors, accounting for 11.8% of state GDP –
need water. -Written by Lance Hastings, President and CEO of
the California Manufacturers & Technology
Association.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
As California’s wet season comes to a close, forecasters are
already starting to talk about next winter: A La Niña weather
pattern is expected to develop. La Niña — the inverse of
El Niño — impacts weather around the world and is often
associated with wetter conditions in Northern California and
drier weather in Central and Southern California.
… While winter precipitation in California was below
normal in three of the last five La Niña years, it
was well above normal, even in Central and Southern California,
in one.
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.
