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 Bureau of Reclamation today announced the initial 2024
water supply allocations for the Klamath Project along with
$8.5 million in immediate funding for the Klamath Basin
communities to support drought resiliency and $5 million for
Klamath Basin tribes impacted by drought. In partnership with
the Klamath Project Drought Response Agency, Reclamation has
secured $8.5 million for administration of specifically
authorized drought resiliency programs targeted for project
contractors who receive a reduced water allocation. Reclamation
is announcing this funding together with an additional $5
million from separate program sources which will be disbursed
through technical assistance agreements with Klamath Basin
Tribal Nations for drought and ecosystem activities.
Shasta Lake is near its capacity for the second straight year,
but officials say there still is plenty of room left to fill.
As of Monday, California’s largest reservoir is just seven feet
from its max capacity of 1,067 feet. This marks the first time
in over a decade that Shasta Lake has remained nearly filled in
back-to-back years, according to the Bureau of Reclamation’s
Don Bader. While less than 10 feet of room may not sound like a
lot, the reservoir still has plenty of storage space.
The governance of San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta water quality falls under the authority of the State
Water Quality Control Board. Among other duties, the Water
Board is responsible for adopting and updating the Bay-Delta
Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco
Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta
Plan). The Bay-Delta Plan’s purpose sets forth measures
and flow requirements to safeguard various water uses within
the watershed, including municipal, industrial, agricultural,
and ecological needs. Comprising five political appointees with
extensive powers, the Water Board plays a pivotal role in
shaping California’s water management policies. -Written by Cary Keaten, the general manager of
the Solano Irrigation District.
Spring is a time of rebirth and renewal. And this season, Tahoe
is witnessing its own rebirth in the form of a species of bird
that had been previously driven out of the region. Sandhill
cranes are making an unexpected return to the Lake Tahoe basin
after a century long hiatus caused by overhunting. The birds
stand at about 4 feet tall with a wingspan of 7 feet and boast
a signature red patch on their head. The sandhill cranes are
often compared to dinosaurs by those lucky enough to witness
them due to their large size and loud croaks.
Rebuilding beaches after hurricanes is costing U.S. taxpayers
billions of dollars more than expected as the Army Corps of
Engineers pumps mountains of sand onto storm-obliterated
shorelines. Congress approved more than $770 million since 2018
for emergency beach “nourishment” projects after five
megastorms struck Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Those
costs shattered government expectations about the price of
preventing beaches from disappearing through decades-old
programs that in many cases were created before the dangerous
effects of climate change were fully understood. Four of those
storms — Michael, Maria, Irma and Ian — were among the most
powerful to make landfall in the United States, raising
questions about the rising costs of pumping, dumping and
spreading sand onto beaches that are increasingly jeopardized
by the effects of climbing temperatures.
California’s Death Valley, the driest place in North America,
has hosted an ephemeral lake since late 2023. A NASA-led
analysis recently calculated water depths in the temporary lake
over several weeks in February and March 2024, demonstrating
the capabilities of the U.S.-French Surface Water and Ocean
Topography (SWOT) satellite, which launched in December 2022.
The analysis found that water depths in the lake ranged from
about 3 feet (1 meter) to less than 1.5 feet (0.5 meters) over
the course of about 6 weeks. This period included a series of
storms that swept across California, bringing record amounts of
rainfall.
For the first time in California history, state officials are
poised to crack down on overpumping of groundwater in the
agricultural heartland. The State Water Resources Control
Board on Tuesday will weigh whether to put Kings County
groundwater agencies on probation for failing to rein in
growers’ overdrafting of the underground water supply.
Probation — which would levy state fees that could total
millions of dollars — is the first step that could allow
California regulators to eventually take over management of the
region’s groundwater.
For the second year in a row, there will be no commercial or
recreational salmon fishing in California. … The Golden
State Salmon Association supports the recommendation of the
[Pacific Fishery Management Council], which works closely with
federally recognized West Coast tribes, many who define
themselves as “salmon people” and hold annual ceremonies to
honor their return each year. Bates said $20.6 million has
been allocated from the U.S. Department of Commerce to
compensate for some of the losses caused by last year’s closure
to charter fleets and commercial fleets, buyers and processors.
But the fisheries are calling on the state to allocate water,
not cash. Scott Artis, executive director of the Golden
State Salmon Association, said big agriculture is not limited
in their water use, but fisheries get hit with constraints.
… This year Western Slope leaders, led by the Colorado River
District, struck a $99 million deal to buy a tiny hydro plant’s
water rights from Xcel Energy and lease the water back to Xcel
to generate electricity. As part of the deal, Shoshone’s rights
would become the largest, most influential environmental water
right in state history. The change would protect fish and
habitat, but it would also beef up water security on the
Western Slope by protecting reliable westward flows for farmers
and tourist economies. … The Colorado River District’s
plan has drawn hawk-eyed attention from water players around
the state who are keen on protecting their supplies.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife will be joined
by Tribal leaders and fisheries experts to release over 500,000
salmon into the Klamath River Tuesday. According to CDFW, this
will be the first major release of Coho Salmon into the river
since the drawdown of Klamath River reservoirs as part of the
dam removal currently underway.
California’s second wet winter in a row has left L.A’s water
supplies in good shape for at least another year, but the
inevitable return to dry conditions could once again put the
city’s residents in a precarious position. After the state’s
final snow survey of the season, officials with the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power announced that Eastern Sierra
snowpack is measuring 103% of normal, “providing ample supplies
through the city’s most cost-efficient water supply from the
Los Angeles Aqueduct.”
Missouri lawmakers say water has almost always been plentiful
in their state, giving no reason to think twice about a concept
known as riparian rights — the idea that, if you own the land,
you have broad freedoms to use its water. But that could change
under a bill advancing quickly in a state legislature that is
normally sharply divided. The measure would largely forbid the
export of water across state lines without a permit, even
though there is no evidence that is happening on any large
scale. … lawmakers are wary of the West, and the chance that
thirsty communities facing dwindling water supplies will look
east for lakes and rivers to tap.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency [last week] unveiled
the first nationwide limits on dangerous “forever chemicals” in
drinking water, setting standards that will have sweeping,
costly effects throughout California. … In California
alone, traces of the compounds have been detected in water
systems serving more than 25 million people, nearly a third in
disadvantaged communities, according to an analysis by
the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The International Boundary and Water Commission is again being
sued over water-quality permit violations that have led to
rampant sewage polluting San Diego County’s southernmost
shoreline. The San Diego Coastkeeper and Coastal Environmental
Rights Foundation on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court
against the U.S. arm of the IBWC and its contractor Veolia
Water North America-West, alleging violations of the Clean
Water Act.
President Biden has approved California’s request for a major
disaster declaration to support recovery efforts from a string
of February storms that drenched much of the state with
historic rainfall and mountain snow and resulted in numerous
deaths, officials announced Sunday. Nine California counties —
Butte, Glenn, Los Angeles, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, Santa
Barbara, Santa Cruz, Sutter and Ventura — will receive federal
aid as a result of the declaration, which also includes funding
for statewide hazard mitigation efforts, officials said. “
Each morning is similar, but different. As we approach the pond
on the wooden catwalk, you can hear the birds calling,
eventually you start to smell the freshness of the ecosystem,
the glitters and splashing ahead gives some indication of bird
activity on the water. Sometimes an alligator lizard scoots
past along the floorwork – occasionally even two. Steam rises
from my coffee cup, to varying degrees, depending on how
quickly we got out the door. And then there are my three kids,
also ever changing. Each day, one to three are in-tow, usually
chatting it up about geology, Egypt, space, or the day’s most
pressing sports news. And so it goes on most mornings, ideally
when the mist is still fresh or the winter fog lingering, the
Rypel family ventures to the “the duck pond” aka Julie
Partansky Pond in north Davis.
… The federal government’s current approach to this imbalance
is the equivalent of trying to cure cancer with a Band-Aid.
Instead of pursuing a long-term solution, Washington is using
federal funds to pay states and tribal nations to leave water
in the river instead of taking their full allocation. Mostly,
that means paying farmers to stop farming. That is not a viable
long-term solution, and strategically, we need to be
encouraging MORE local farming and food production, not less.
It does make sense to assist local farmers in switching to
crops that require less water, but it does not make sense to
put American farmers out of business and make us more reliant
on food trucked or shipped thousands of miles before it arrives
on our tables. -Written by Arizona Republican Kari Lake, who is running
for the U.S. Senate.
Near the western tip of the Mojave Desert and a few miles west
of NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, fields of
wildflowers painted the landscape yellow in spring 2024. On
April 9, the OLI (Operational Land Imager) on the Landsat 8
satellite acquired this image of fields of yellow wildflowers
blanketing Antelope Valley amid solar and wind farms. The day
after the image was acquired, the Antelope Valley California
Poppy Reserve reported that wildflowers were “popping,” but the
region’s famous poppies were not. Rangers at the reserve said
they also saw very few small poppy plants maturing, suggesting
an impressive poppy bloom is unlikely in the coming weeks.
Four years ago, over 97% of Big Basin Redwoods State Park in
Santa Cruz County burned during the state’s worst wildfire
season in recorded history. Last year, unprecedented winter
storms caused an estimated $190 million in damages to coastal
parks. And at Seacliff State Beach, also in Santa Cruz County,
storms flooded the campground and destroyed the beach’s
historic pier. Climate change and the resulting severe
wildfires, extreme storms and rising sea levels are
increasingly threatening our beloved state parks. … To
address this unprecedented threat, we need to create
climate-resilient state parks that can prepare for, adapt to
and recover from climate impacts. -Written by Rachel Norton, the executive director
of the California State Parks Foundation.
A stretch of California that’s considered one of the
fastest-sinking areas in the nation, where farms have pumped so
much water from the ground that the land has slowly collapsed,
is on the verge of state intervention. In a first-ever move,
California regulators are looking to step in and monitor
groundwater pumping in the Tulare Lake subbasin, an
837-square-mile hydrological region flush with cotton, hay and
almonds between Fresno and Bakersfield. Because of heavy
pumping, some places here are sinking a foot a year, causing
roads to buckle and canals to crack. … The looming
confrontation between the state and water agencies marks the
latest, and one of the most significant, developments with
California’s decade-old groundwater legislation, the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA.
