A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
‘This will make our town uninhabitable’: The long-awaited Delta tunnel strikes fear in locals
“Change tends to come at a creeping pace, if at all, in the Sacramento River community of Hood. Families that settled in this Delta outpost generations ago remain today, and pear orchards planted decades ago are still the region’s signature crop. Now Hood, population 271, is facing a formidable transformation that residents fear will shatter their sleepy agricultural community. One of the smallest towns in the region, Hood lies at ground zero of the main construction site for the Newsom administration’s proposed Delta water tunnel project. “This will make our town uninhabitable,” said longtime resident Dan Whaley, who helps manage his family’s business, the Willow Ballroom, a community landmark across the main street from Hood’s post office. “There will be so much heavy equipment and traffic and people going through town that the locals will be driven out.” … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Atmospheric river to wallop California as study finds storms getting worse
“A powerful atmospheric river storm was set to wallop California on Wednesday evening, drenching large swaths of the state with rain and bringing several feet of snow to the mountains – the latest in a wave of intense storms that new research shows are getting worse. Much of northern California was under a winter storm warning because of the gusty winds and heavy snow in the forecast that the National Weather Service (NWS) said would lead to “difficult to impossible travel conditions”. Severe thunderstorms and high winds were predicted across the San Francisco Bay area, according to reports. The NWS issued a flood watch in much of southern California through Thursday afternoon. The region was also anticipating dangerous driving conditions as well as road flooding and debris flows in areas affected by recent wildfires. … ” Read more from The Guardian.
New report shows implementation of Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations at Lake Oroville and New Bullards Bar can increase region’s resilience to floods
“A new report released today shows that changes to reservoir operations at Lake Oroville and New Bullards Bar Reservoir can further reduce flood risk for communities along the Yuba and Feather rivers during extreme atmospheric river storm events and potentially benefit water supply during drier periods. The approach, known as Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations, or FIRO, uses improved monitoring, weather, and runoff projections to build more flexibility and efficiency into reservoir operations. In the largest FIRO assessment to date, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Yuba Water Agency (Yuba Water) partnered with the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ (USACE) Engineering Research and Development Center to evaluate if FIRO could be implemented at both reservoirs to reduce downstream flood risk without negatively impacting water supplies. Lake Oroville is managed by DWR and New Bullards Bar is managed by Yuba Water. … ” Continue reading from the Department of Water Resources.
New hope for saving salmon: Weaving together Indigenous and Western sciences to restore California’s winter-run chinook
“Jamie Ward grew up hearing the stories his people have told for countless generations on the slopes of Mount Shasta, a glacier-capped peak in Northern California. Many of these stories celebrate the bond between his tribe, the Winnemem Wintu, and Nur, also called winter-run chinook salmon. … This promise has become almost impossible to keep. Government agencies charged with restoring California’s at-risk salmon have long shut tribes out of decision making, even though decades of Western science have failed to reverse the fishes’ precipitous decline. Winter-run chinook are among the most imperiled, largely due to habitat loss. The 1945 completion of Shasta Dam blocked the fish from their best spawning grounds, especially the cold mountain streams of the Winnemem Wintu’s ancestral homelands along the McCloud River. “I didn’t think they would ever return,” says Ward, a wildland management graduate student at California State University, Chico, who wants to restore waterways for salmon. But this winter, for the first time in 80 years, salmon that began their lives in the McCloud are likely coming back from the ocean to spawn. … ” Continue reading at Maven’s Notebook.
California salmon fishing season in jeopardy for third year in a row
“The Pacific Fishery Management Council (PMFC) is weighing a decision at one of their conferences to determine the fate of California’s salmon fishing season. While they’re still in the early stages of making that decision, for the third year in a row, the number of chinook salmon in the Sacramento River is coming in significantly low. If the fishing season is canceled, it will be historic for the state. “There have been two years of closure in a row before. We haven’t experienced a three-year closure,” said Angela Forristall, a salmon staff officer with the PFMC. … ” Read more from CBS News.
Del Puerto Canyon Reservoir project advances amid pushback from community
“A plan to build a new reservoir in Stanislaus County is getting some pushback. The Del Puerto Canyon Reservoir would basically cover the current Del Puerto Canyon Road, west of Interstate 5. The project would cause a roadway and power lines to be rerouted. The reservoir would hold water to be used for local agriculture. The Del Puerto Water District’s Patterson general manager, Anthea Hansen, said hundreds of thousands of acres of land would benefit the district, as the current water supply it uses is unreliable. “Some years, water supply is plentiful and some years not. This reservoir project would allow us to have a place to store water in times of plenty and be able to have local control over it, to use it during times of shortage,” Hansen said. … ” Read more from KCRA.
Reps. Jim Costa, Adam Gray call on Trump, Newsom for bipartisan action on Central Valley and State Water Projects
“In light of recent executive orders at the federal and state levels, U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (CA-21) and Adam Gray (CA-13) are calling on President Trump and Governor Newsom to work together to address the long-term operations of the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP). “Rather than engage in years of endless litigation, our desire is that through collaborative efforts we can work together to incorporate a common-sense regulatory structure that promotes solutions that better capture water through increased storage and enhanced conveyance infrastructure,” said the lawmakers. “This regulatory structure should strike an appropriate balance between species protection and water supply, supported by sufficient adaptive management to respond to both new science and changing weather conditions.” … ” Read more from Congressman Costa.
Newsom’s top water official will work with Trump to weaken California Delta water protections
“Karla Nemeth, Governor Gavin Newsom’s top water official, told an audience of growers and water managers at the Kern County Water Summit on March 6 that the state is willing to work with the Trump Administration to weaken environmental rules that restrict the pumping of water, allowing them over-pump the imperiled Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. “She said that she expected updating one particular rule governing pumping water in the state’s main water hub, called the Old and Middle River flow limit, to be part of ongoing regulations with federal counterparts this spring and throughout the year,” according to Politico. “My spidey sense is that’s probably going to be part of what plan comes out of the federal administration’s plan to implement the executive order,” said Nemeth, the Director of the California Department of Water Resources. “The state is open to that. We’re looking for a federal partner to help us work through that information together.” … ” Read more from the Daily Kos.
Trump-backed Calif. congressman moves to gut key coastal protections
“A local Republican congressman has set his sights on the California Coastal Commission, the vital agency tasked with protecting roughly 1,100 miles of ocean coastline from Oregon to Mexico. On March 5, Rep. Kevin Kiley announced the introduction of the Coastal Commission Accountability Act, which he said on X would “strip the CA Coastal Commission of its powers under federal law.” Kiley called the more-than-50-year-old Coastal Commission “out-of-control” and said the work being done by the commission “has repeatedly threatened the safety of Californians and weakened our national defense, while needlessly undercutting innovation and economic progress.” … ” Read more from SF Gate.
In commentary this week …
Desalination at scale is cost competitive
“On May 22, 2022, the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny final approval for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach. It would have produced 56,000 acre feet of fresh water per year, and would have been privately financed. To describe in detail the 20 year and roughly $100 million ordeal that federal, state, regional, and local agencies put the contractor through, along with continuous litigation, could consume volumes. But with this final rejection by the Coastal Commission, the project died. With that legacy, it’s become very unlikely any other civil engineering firm will ever try to build a big desalination plant on the California coast. The reasons aren’t based on cost, or energy consumption, or even environmental impact. Regulations, driven by ideology instead of facts, killed desalination. It’s always surprising the vehemence with which opponents of desalination make their arguments. Some of these critics are concerned about securing adequate water to continue farming, and correctly point out that desalination is expensive. But compared to what? … ” Continue reading this commentary.
A Tahoe water company saw its insurance rates raise by 200% despite never filing a claim
Jennifer Lukins, co-owner and general manager of Lukins Brothers Water Company in South Lake Tahoe, writes, “The cataclysmic fires that devastated Southern California have once again brought the instability of the California insurance market to the forefront. Insurance costs are forecast to increase as insurance companies and regulators continue to weigh the risks of wildfires and other natural disasters. Fire is why premiums have been skyrocketing for the Lukins Brothers Water Company, a South Tahoe water utility that my family has run for the past century. Our utility is located in the Lake Tahoe Basin, where we supply water to over 3,000 customers who live in some of the most rugged terrain in the Sierras. We work closely with community partners, including the U.S. Forest Service, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, City of South Lake Tahoe Fire Department, Lake Valley Fire and neighboring water utilities on the health and safety of our infrastructure. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
A story about salmon that almost had a happy ending
Jacques Leslie,the author of “Deep Water: The Epic Struggle Over Dams, Displaced People, and the Environment,” writes, “Completion of the world’s largest dam removal project — which demolished four Klamath River hydroelectric dams on both sides of the California-Oregon border — has been celebrated as a monumental achievement, signaling the emerging political power of Native American tribes and the river-protection movement. … The event is a crucial turning point, marking an end to efforts to harness the Klamath’s overexploited waterways to generate still more economic productivity, and at last addressing the basin’s many environmental problems by subtracting technology instead of adding it, by respecting nature instead of trying to overcome it. It’s an acknowledgment that dams have lifetimes, like everything else, and that their value in hydropower and irrigated water often ends up being dwarfed by their enormous environmental and social costs. … ” Read the full commentary at the New York Times.
What the war on California’s water is really about
Ryan Christopher Jones, a photojournalist and anthropology doctoral student at Harvard studying the local politics of water transfers in the California Delta, writes, “The sprawling estuary about 70 miles inland from San Francisco feels distinctly out of place — more like the swampy Florida Everglades than arid California. But from that confluence of two great rivers, the Sacramento and the San Joaquin, 1,100 miles of webbed waterways and levees send upward of six million acre-feet of freshwater a year to thirstier parts of the state, from farms in the San Joaquin Valley to the Southern California megalopolis. Known as the California Delta, the estuary is among the state’s most important sources of water — and most consistent flash points over environmental protection. … For Mr. Trump and some conservatives, the California Delta is a potent symbol of environmentalism’s overreach and the incompatibility of farming and conservation. And by meddling in California’s water debates, he stokes a host of tensions: between state and federal water management, urban Los Angeles and the rural Delta, and agricultural and residential uses. But the so-called war over California’s water is a dangerous, flawed trope that reduces certain water uses to right or wrong, and turns the Delta into a place with no local stakes. … ” Read more from the New York Times (gift article).
How customers pay for imported water needs to change
Tom Kennedy, Kennedy Water Consulting, writes, “California’s statewide water system is an engineering marvel and is a key reason the Golden State prospered over the last century. Absent the sophisticated mechanisms to capture water and move it to population centers, none of our major cities would exist as they do today. The actions by visionary leaders truly delivered on the promises they made. When these systems were built the main source of funding was from property tax assessments. The Colorado River Aqueduct, built by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, was financed with revenue bonds paid back by property taxes. It was not until the 70’s that over 50% of the cost of MWD’s facilities and operations were recovered through water rates levied on its member agencies. Similarly, the State Water Project’s enabling act – the Burns Porter Act – provided for costs to be recovered through property taxation and many State Water Project Contractors continue to pay their share of ongoing costs via the property tax rolls. Numerous lawsuits have confirmed the right of these agencies to collect revenue to pay ongoing costs via property taxation. Beginning in the 1970s and accelerating after the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978, some member agencies of the large wholesale agencies pushed for more revenue to come from rates and charges levied on retail water agencies. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
We’re facing a ‘forever chemicals’ crisis. We must stop PFAS at the source
Mark Ruffalo, actor and environmental activist, writes, “Several years ago, I made a movie called Dark Waters, which told the real-life story of a community in West Virginia poisoned by Pfas “forever chemicals”. DuPont – a chemical manufacturing plant – contaminated the local water supply, killing cows and wildlife, making its workers sick and exposing local residents to toxic chemicals. It was an environmental horror story. It’s still happening across the country. Pfas, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, aren’t just lingering in that community – they’re everywhere. In our air, soil, water and bodies. They’re called “forever chemicals” for a reason: they don’t break down, and once they’re in our bodies, they’re almost impossible to get rid of. … ” Continue reading at The Guardian.
In Trump’s war on NOAA, the losers will be Americans and the economy
David Helvarg, a writer and the executive director of Blue Frontier, an ocean policy group, writes, “Last month, close to 1,000 National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration workers, including weather forecasters, were fired. The Trump administration has now told agency leaders to fire another 1,000 people. Along with 300 resignations to date this will approach 20% of its workforce. The White House’s Department of Government Efficiency also informed NOAA that its lease on the Center for Weather and Climate Prediction in College Park, Md., will soon be canceled. The center is essential in creating accurate computer models for everything from the next severe weather front to hit farmers in the Midwest to the long-term costs of extreme weather events linked to climate change. NOAA was also ordered to cut off $4.5 million in funding to Maine Sea Grant, one of 34 state-based university sea grant programs that support research on marine and Great Lakes issues to help local economies. … ” Continue reading from the LA Times.
In regional water news this week …
‘Attack on working people:’ Trump admin won’t comment on Reclamation cuts in North State
“The Trump Administration is keeping a tight lid on information about cuts to North State programs, and even members of Congress are being left in the dark about how Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) cuts are affecting local communities in their districts. While the Trump Administration’s U.S. Bureau of Reclamation plans to close an office in Weaverville, representatives of that agency would not confirm which office it was, what would happen to employees working in that office or if employees would be relocated to another location. DOGE did list on its website that it canceled a $566,304 contract to provide environmental consulting services as part of an analysis for a modernization project at the Trinity River Fish Hatchery near Lewiston Dam. … ” Read more from the Redding Record Searchlight.
Endangered salmon move into newly restored habitat on the Mendocino Coast
“Thanks in part to NOAA’s 20-year investment in this species, Central California Coast coho salmon returned to Mendocino rivers and streams in record-breaking numbers last spawning season. Fish returning to these sites are bigger and healthier than other fish in the watershed. NOAA’s Office of Habitat Conservation funds habitat restoration projects benefiting the endangered Central California Coast coho salmon and steelhead on the Mendocino Coast. In 2023, it awarded The Nature Conservancy and Trout Unlimited $14.5 million through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for projects being implemented over the next several years. We recently checked in with our Mendocino Coast partners to ask how their work is progressing. They report that juvenile CCC coho salmon and steelhead have moved into recently restored habitats, including one where coho have been absent for 70 years or more. … ” Read more from NOAA Fisheries.
No water, just bills – more infrastructure damage discovered at PG&E’s Spaulding Reservoir
“Things are not going well at Spaulding, contrary to a press release sent by the utility corporation last week. The repairs to both Spaulding Powerhouse #1 and Powerhouse #2 are now joined by a new issue, the lower intake tower which is underwater and brings water to both powerhouses. When PG&E dewatered the tunnel again to start repairs on the second discharge horn in Spaulding #1, they found a piece of this steel grate in the tunnel, according to NID’s General Manager Jennifer Hanson. No water from Lake Spaulding is available during the repairs, according to PG&E. The repairs are slated to be completed by late June, then testing of the repairs will take place. Normal flows from Spaulding #1 are planned for early August. Spaulding #2, which predominantly feeds Scotts Flat, has repairs slated for 2026. … ” Read more from YubaNet.
‘There is literally no one’: The fallout coming to Lake Tahoe after forest service gutted
“The U.S. Forest Service manages 78% of the land in the Lake Tahoe Basin. Yet, a hiring freeze on seasonal workers and recent firings of key staff have gutted an already-stretched-thin agency, putting on hold critical work in water quality, environmental restoration and forest fuels reduction projects while also diminishing the forest service’s capacity to manage the millions of visitors who come to Lake Tahoe every year — especially on the Fourth of July. Eleven people who work at the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit lost their jobs last month in the so-called “Valentine’s Day Massacre” led by Elon Musk’s U.S. Department of Government Efficiency, according to former employees. The job losses compound chronically low staffing, plus a hiring freeze on seasonal workers that went into effect last fall. In all, the management unit has lost a third of its recreational staff, including the lone permanent wilderness ranger position in Desolation Wilderness. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
Fresno County’s Pleasant Valley heads to State Water Board for possible intervention
“A western Fresno County groundwater subbasin is the seventh in the San Joaquin Valley to come under threat of state intervention. The Department of Water Resources announced in a news release Feb. 27 that it deemed the Pleasant Valley subbasin’s 2024 groundwater sustainability plan ‘inadequate’ and punted oversight of the subbasin to the state Water Resources Control Board. Per the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, such a decision authorizes state bureaucrats to step in if managers cannot rectify issues in their groundwater plan. SGMA mandates that aquifers be balanced by 2040. In a letter to Pleasant Valley water managers, DWR cited three deficiencies in Pleasant Valley’s plan. Those include not being protective enough of groundwater levels and water quality. The plan also lacks a reasonable assessment of overdraft conditions and ways to prevent future overdraft. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Three troubled San Joaquin Valley subbasins may band together to tackle widespread sinking
“Subsidence, or land sinking, has been a major problem for all three regions, causing a 33-mile long sag in the Friant-Kern Canal and repeatedly sinking the Corcoran levee. Excessive groundwater pumping has caused so much subsidence, it can be seen from space and was nicknamed the “Corcoran bowl.” Subsidence is also a main focus of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which mandates groundwater agencies bring aquifers into balance by 2040 and halt negative impacts of over pumping – such as subsidence. Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s Manager Chuck Kinney informed the GSA board during a March 11 meeting that he’s met with other water managers in the region to work on a joint subsidence monitoring and action plan. “All of the discussions are preliminary at this point, but it seems like there’s an interest amongst the general managers to work towards this regional approach, since actions of a GSA could impact all of the other GSAs and all the surrounding subbasins’ ability to address subsidence,” Kinney told the board. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
Kings County Water District wants to mend fences with groundwater agency it imploded last year
“A Kings County water district blamed for leaving a key groundwater agency in the beleaguered Tulare Lake subbasin in tatters last year may want to stitch a new partnership. “I’d like to take the temperature of the (GSA) board and see what we can do to get back involved with that,” Kings County Water District Board Member Paul Gillum said during the district’s March 6 meeting. He referred to the Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency, which the Kings County Water District left in the dust after a chaotic and contentious break up last summer. Gillum’s comment raised eyebrows in the room but wasn’t discounted out of hand. Fellow Kings County Water District director Chip Mello allowed there could be room for such a conversation in 2026 as the board is currently focused on updating its groundwater plan and policies. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
After years of political clashes, is this Central Valley community finally on a path to clean water?
“Despite recent political momentum, the tiny Tulare County community of East Orosi remains without a clear path forward to solving its decades-long struggle with contaminated drinking water. Disputes between local and state officials, coupled with deep divisions and infighting among local district water board members have thwarted efforts to clear up the community’s water for many years. Formal efforts to consolidate East Orosi’s water system with the Orosi system have been underway since at least 2018, but little progress has been made. The slow crawl towards a solution has left East Orosi residents in fear of their own tap water. Many rely on bottled water deliveries, despite living less than a mile from Orosi and its safe, clean water. “Imagine children knowing that water only comes from a bottle and not from their own tap,” said Eddie Valero, a native of Cutler-Orosi who now represents District 4 of the Tulare County Board of Supervisors. … ” Read more from Fresnoland.
Paso Robles joins joint authority for water basin usage despite public opposition
“Despite heated opposition from residents, the Paso Robles City Council voted to opt in to a collaborative effort that aims to keep the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin from potentially going dry. At a meeting on March 4, the council heard from Public Works Director Christopher Alakel, who urged the city to join a joint powers authority (JPA) that aimed to be made up of five groundwater sustainability agencies—the city of Paso, San Miguel Community Services District, San Luis Obispo County, and the Shandon-San Juan and Estrella-El Pomar-Creston water districts. According to Alakel, all water agencies overlying the basin except for Paso Robles and the San Simeon Community Services District had voted to join, and San Simeon was waiting on Paso’s March 4 vote before it decided to move forward. … ” Read more from New Times SLO.
L.A. fires put new drinking-water safety measures to the test
“A month after the 2017 Tubbs fire, a Santa Rosa resident finally returned home to one of the handful of houses still standing amid a field of destruction. They turned on their kitchen faucet and smelled gasoline. It was an immediate red flag for Santa Rosa Water, which quickly sent over technicians to test the tap. In the water, they found benzene, a known carcinogen — a discovery that sent shockwaves through the scientific and water safety world. In Santa Rosa, the contamination investigation would expand from a single household to the entire burn area. As devastating urban wildfires continued to increase in frequency in the American West, the problem would reappear — in Paradise, Calif.; in Colorado; in Hawaii; and finally in L.A.’s Pacific Palisades and Altadena. All the while, scientists, regulators and local utilities raced to figure out what was happening and how to keep residents safe. By the time the Eaton and Palisades fires broke out, scientists and the state could hand the affected utilities a playbook on how to restore safe water for their customers. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
L.A.’s clear skies conceal a ‘toxic soup’
“On a Sunday in February, a white Ford van zigzagged through the fire-ravaged neighborhood of Altadena, Calif. Ash piles lined front yards. Charred washing machines sat on bare concrete foundations. “I can’t imagine coming back to this,” said Albert Kyi, a graduate student researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, briefly looking up from his laptop and out the van’s window. He and his colleagues, however, were there to help people learn whether it was safe to do just that. A mast poking out from the van’s roof was sending readings on hundreds of compounds in the air to the laptop. This laboratory on wheels was so sensitive, Mr. Kyi said, that it could detect the chemicals produced by someone peeling an orange outside. The data the team was gathering was part of a newly launched study tracking the health impacts of the Los Angeles wildfires over the next decade. By traversing the 38,000 acres that encompass the two burn zones in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades along with the surrounding region, the researchers hope to fill gaps in the data on air, soil and water quality. Already, they have found cause for concern. … ” Read more from the New York Times (gift article).
Joint effort by Orange County Water District and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers increases water supply for Orange County
“The Orange County Water District (OCWD), in collaboration with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), announces the approval of a minor deviation to the Water Control Plan at Prado Dam, effective February 28, 2025. This five-year deviation represents a milestone in OCWD’s ongoing efforts to bolster the drinking water supply for 2.5 million residents through innovative stormwater capture strategies. Denis Bilodeau, P.E., President of OCWD, underscored the importance of this approval, stating, “This is a significant achievement in our longstanding efforts to enhance the Orange County Groundwater Basin. By raising the water storage levels at Prado Dam, we are capturing more Santa Ana River stormwater and enhancing our community’s drinking water reserves in a sustainable and efficient way.” OCWD has partnered with USACE since 1995 to store water from the Santa Ana River at Prado Dam. The approved deviation allows for higher water storage levels, temporarily raising it to 508 feet above mean sea level, with potential future increases to 510 or 512 feet. This adjustment will allow for the capture of an additional two billion gallons of stormwater, which is enough water to supply 48,000 people and save $6 million in imported water costs. … Read more from the Orange County Water District.
Water is about to get a lot more expensive for millions of San Diegans
“Millions of Californians are set to see significant water rate hikes over the next few years, with prices for essential water supplies jumping by double-digit percentage points. In one large city, cumulative increases could see prices jump about 70% just in the next five years. San Diego County, the second-largest county in California by population, will see its water rates jump 14% for 2025, according to the San Diego County Water Authority. The public water agency, responsible for providing the majority of water to nearly two dozen area municipalities, including the city of San Diego, currently imports the majority of its water from elsewhere. The utility blamed the rate hikes on increased costs to import water, among other issues. Those costs, handed from a supplier directly to a consumer, are known as “passthrough costs.” … ” Read more from SF Gate.
SEE ALSO: Commentary: How customers pay for imported water needs to change, by Tom Kennedy, Kennedy Water Consulting
The Salton Sea is California’s most imperiled lake. Can a new conservancy save it?
“Haze hung over the Salton Sea on a recent winter day, while black-necked stilts and kildeer waded in the shallows, pecking at crustaceans. Something else emerged a few steps closer to the lakeshore: a briny, rotten egg stench wafting from the water. The Salton Sea is nearly twice as salty as the ocean, laden with agricultural runoff and susceptible to algal blooms that spew hydrogen sulfide, a noxious gas. It’s also a haven to more than 400 bird species and a key stop on the Pacific Flyway, one of North America’s main bird migration routes. State officials have wrestled with the sea’s deteriorating condition as its water becomes fouler and its footprint shrinks, exposing toxic dust that wafts through the region. This year, the state took a step toward a solution, creating a new Salton Sea Conservancy and earmarking nearly half a billion dollars to revive the deteriorating water body. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Colorado River choices botched by feds under Biden, letter to Burgum alleges
“The federal agency charged with managing the Colorado River failed to do its job properly when it excluded a viable option presented by Nevada, Arizona and California, according to documents that surfaced Friday. The three states that make up the Lower Basin are fighting a critical war for their rights to water from the river. The future of growing cities is in the balance, along with farms, businesses and everyone else in the desert Southwest. On Friday, a Feb. 13 letter to incoming Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was obtained by 8 News Now, along with a supporting document that argues the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is making a big mistake by refusing to address a known problem with Glen Canyon Dam, which creates the nation’s second-largest reservoir, Lake Powell. … ” Read more from KLAS.
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
ONLINE COURSE: Online Shortcourse, April-May 2025: Groundwater, Watersheds, and Sustainable Groundwater Management
