Several news sources featured in the Daily Digest may limit the number of articles you can access without a subscription. However, gift articles and open-access links are provided when available. For more open access California water news articles, explore the main page at MavensNotebook.com.
On the calendar today …
- ONLINE SUMMIT: 5 years of Central Valley water quality progress from 9am to 12pm. CV-SALTS is building on 5 years of success by hosting a virtual summit dedicated to building new partnerships and exploring solutions to Central Valley water quality challenges. Hear from state regulators, permittees, and community leaders about progress and challenges across the Valley. Click here to register.
In California water news today …
Lake Powell, Lake Mead, and Southern California’s water dilemma
“Two years ago, the Colorado River Lower Basin states united to conserve an extra 3 million acre-feet of water by 2026, aiming to stabilize Lake Powell and Lake Mead while crafting the post-2026 guidelines for managing the river. With last year’s near-normal snowpack and conservation efforts ahead of schedule, success seemed within reach. However, over the last few months, this year has become anything but normal, and the system is looking to be anything but stabilized. At Metropolitan’s Imported Water Subcommittee, Laura Lamdin, Senior Engineer and interim team manager for the Colorado River, briefed subcommittee members on the challenging situation. … ” Read more from Maven’s Notebook.
June Water Supply: Lake Mead drops 2 more feet this month as drought spreads
“Lake Mead has dropped about 2 feet since the beginning of June as drought conditions continue to worsen across Nevada. On the first of the month, the elevation was 1,057 ft and as of June 29, it’s now at 1,055.13 ft. Currently, the elevation higher than it’s record-breaking low year in 2022. However, the reservoir is sitting lower than where it was in 2020, 2021, 2023, and 2024. … ” Read more from Channel 13.
Feds must decide on protections for Chinook salmon
“In a move environmentalists are hailing as an important victory for Chinook salmon conservation, the federal government has agreed to decide this year whether the fish warrants federal protections. By Nov. 3, the National Marine Fisheries Service must decide whether so-called Oregon Coast and Southern Oregon and Northern California Coastal varieties of Chinook salmon warrant protections under the Endangered Species Act. By Jan. 2 of next year, feds must do the same for Washington Coast spring-run Chinook salmon, according to a settlement agreement from Thursday. The Center for Biological Diversity — joined by the Native Fish Society, Umpqua Watersheds, and Pacific Rivers — in February sued the service and two top officials after the service failed to issue 12-month findings on the groups’ petitions to list the fish. “This agreement requires a decision that is already overdue,” said Michael Morrison, chair of Pacific Rivers. “Science and law are crystal clear. These unique and endangered salmon urgently need and deserve protection.” … ” Read more from Courthouse News Service.
Keeping microplastics out of the San Francisco Bay: A conversation with environmental toxicologist Ezra Miller
“In 2019, the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) published a three-year study of microplastics in the San Francisco Bay that was―and still is―among the most thorough assessments of these tiny contaminants globally. The study was also groundbreaking. Much to the researchers’ surprise, microplastics that entered the Bay in runoff from storms dwarfed those from wastewater treatment plants. “This was a paradigm shift for us,” says Ezra Miller, an SFEI environmental toxicologist who is part of a team working on microplastics in the Bay. “Most people’s gut reaction is that wastewater effluent is the main source.” The team’s next steps include figuring out how microplastics get into stormwater, which will help identify strategies for keeping them out of aquatic ecosystems. Miller presented SFEI’s latest microplastics work at a recent symposium called Microplastic Pollution: Impact on the SF Bay Delta and Remediation Strategies. … ” Read more from Maven’s Notebook.
Advocating for growers and farmworkers in California ag
“In the latest Ag Business Update, Nick Papagni speaks with Manuel Cunha, president of the Nisei Farmers League, about how the organization is helping California growers navigate a complicated labor and regulatory landscape. “The immigration labor issue is so complicated,” Papagni noted. “What can you do for the grower?” Cunha responded by explaining how the League supports its members through legal advocacy, in-field representation, and direct outreach. “We have an in-house counsel, a former judge, that deals with legal issues—OSHA, water, Department of Labor, state wage and hour,” Cunha said. “And we go out to the fields and packing houses to advocate for our growers and their workers.” … ” Read more from Ag Net West.
Scientists seek to reduce heat-related cotton yield losses
“The correlation between heat stress events and aborted cotton bolls is being studied in a region of California that can produce epic Upland yields amid some of the hottest temperatures in the U.S. Cotton Belt. Studies in 2023 and 2024 by Michael Rethwisch, crop production and entomology adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension in Blythe, are trying to help farmers mitigate crop losses linked to summertime heat. Last year some of those farmers saw two- to four-bale losses from early-season heat stress. This in a region that can see some plots yield as much as seven bales to the acre. … ” Read more from the Western Farm Press.
SFEWS: Traditional knowledge and current science inform conservation and preservation practices
This edition of SFEWS (Volume 23, Issue 2) includes research on integrating traditional knowledge with science in the Delta, a framework for multiple-benefit conservation in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, thermal stress impacts on aquatic species, genetic assessments of juvenile Chinook salmon in floodplains, conservation strategies for the endangered soft salty bird’s-beak, and sediment transport in tidal salt marshes. Read this edition of SFEWS.
NASA: By air and by sea: Validating NASA’s PACE ocean color instrument
“In autumn 2024, California’s Monterey Bay experienced an outsized phytoplankton bloom that attracted fish, dolphins, whales, seabirds, and – for a few weeks in October – scientists. A team from NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, with partners at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC), and the Naval Postgraduate School, spent two weeks on the California coast gathering data on the atmosphere and the ocean to verify what satellites see from above. In spring 2025, the team returned to gather data under different environmental conditions. Scientists call this process validation. The PACE mission, which stands for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem, was launched in February 2024 and designed to transform our understanding of ocean and atmospheric environments. Specifically, the satellite will give scientists a finely detailed look at life near the ocean surface and the composition and abundance of aerosol particles in the atmosphere. Whenever NASA launches a new satellite, it sends validation science teams around the world to confirm that the data from instruments in space match what traditional instruments can see at the surface. … ” Read more from NASA.
In commentary today …
The California story we keep erasing
Tony Platt is a scholar at UC Berkeley’s Center for the Study of Law and Society, writes, “I’ve spent most of the last five years digging into California’s past to expose UC’s role on the wrong side of history, in particular Native American history. Beginning in the early 20th century, scholars at Berkeley (and at USC and the Huntington Library) played a central role in shaping the state’s public, cultural identity. They wrote textbooks and popular histories, consulted with journalists and amateur historians, and generated a semiofficial narrative that depicted Indigenous peoples as frozen in time and irresponsible stewards of the land. Their version of California’s story reimagined land grabs and massacres as progress and popularized the fiction that Native people quietly vanished into the premodern past. Today, prodded by new research and persistent Indigenous organizing, tribal groups and a later generation of historians have worked to set the record straight. For thousands of years, California tribes and the land they lived on thrived, the result of creative adaptation to changing circumstances. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
Future-proofing California: Why smarter water storage matters more than ever
Matthew Kayser, Cadiz, Inc, writes, “Contrary to what many think, California doesn’t suffer from a lack of water, but it does suffer from a lack of timing. Rain and snow may fall in abundance during a few months each year, but that water isn’t always there when it’s needed most. The real challenge is managing the supply so it lasts. Overflowing reservoirs in wet months often waste water that could serve communities later. That’s why storage, specifically smarter, long-term storage, is key to a more balanced statewide water strategy. For decades, California counted on snowpack and reservoirs as natural storage tools. These systems once provided seasonal flow, slowly releasing water through spring and summer. But warmer winters and hotter summers have disrupted that balance. Snow melts too quickly, and reservoirs evaporate too fast. Traditional surface systems can’t handle the volatility of modern weather patterns. … ” Read more from the USA Today.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Restoration of Klamath River tributaries begins as part of historic dam-removal project
“Stantec, a global leader in design and engineering, has spearheaded the restoration design process for five priority fish-bearing tributaries of the Klamath River in northern California and southern Oregon as part of the largest dam removal and river restoration project in US history. Stantec is a subcontractor of Resource Environmental Solutions (RES), which is overseeing the restoration activities to recover the Klamath River.Last summer, the last of four dams was removed from the Klamath River, thus reopening more than 400 miles of historical habitat for migratory salmon, steelhead trout, Pacific lamprey, and other native fish. Removing the dams and restoring the river has been a long-time goal for tribal communities, anglers, and other regional conservation organizations. About 263 miles long, the Klamath River and its tributaries were once home to the third-largest salmon population in the US West; however, the four dams and lack of habitat led salmon populations to crash. In 2016, the Klamath Hydroelectric Settlement Agreement (KHSA) was reached to remove the dams, and demolition began in 2023. … ” Read more from ECO.
MOUNTAIN COUNTIES
Aquatic weed containment in the Tahoe Keys is the season’s focus
“Last summer marked the completion of the Tahoe Keys Lagoons Aquatic Weed Control Methods Test (CMT) — a three-year, science-based testing program aimed at tackling Lake Tahoe’s largest and most persistent infestation of aquatic invasive weeds. For decades, invasive weeds in the Tahoe Keys lagoons have been spreading into the greater lake, risking water quality, recreational access, and the native ecosystem. The test was complex: it trialed every available tool — including ultraviolet light technology and the one-time application of EPA-certified herbicides — to fight aquatic invasive weeds. Now, as agency experts and independent scientists analyze the 500,000 data points collected during the test to determine effective and sustainable treatment, containment of invasive weed fragments is the top priority. While long-term solutions are developed, fragments from fast-growing weeds like Eurasian watermilfoil and curlyleaf pondweed continue to break off and float toward the lake. Their ability to regrow from small fragments makes them a critical threat. Small infestations detected around Lake Tahoe have been quickly stamped out by divers when they are caught early. … ” Read more from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Build it, and they will come: Early evidence for establishment of Chinook salmon in Putah Creek, CA
“For the third year in a row, regulators have canceled California’s commercial Chinook salmon fishing season.Poor spawning salmon returns in 2024 and low predicted numbers of salmon in the ocean during 2025 prompted the decision. These issues, in a nutshell, are symptoms of the persistent pressures that California salmon populations face. In particular, Chinook salmon in the Central Valley face chronic habitat loss due to dams and wetland conversion (Yoshiyama et al. 2001), warming water temperatures (Williams et al. 2016), poor migration survival rates (Michel et al. 2015), impacts from hatchery management (Williamson and May 2005), changing diets in the ocean (Mantua et al. 2021), and drought-related and worsening climate effects (Herbold et al. 2023), among other concerns. … ” Read more from the California Water Blog.
NAPA/SONOMA
Sonoma Water moves forward with regional water bank strategy
“Sonoma Water’s Board of Directors voted on Tuesday to develop a Regional Water Bank Implementation Strategy through an agreement with Jacobs Engineering Group, Inc. The contract, which runs through the end of 2027 will guide planning and coordination to improve long-term water supply reliability across Sonoma and Marin counties. The contract is not to exceed $474,700. The strategy will be developed in collaboration with Sonoma Water’s water contractors and key regional partners, including the Groundwater Sustainability Agencies for the Santa Rosa Plain, Sonoma Valley and Petaluma Valley groundwater basins. … ” Read more from the Sonoma Valley Sun.
BAY AREA
In Silicon Valley’s backyard, Pescadero struggles with unclean water, rising rates
“When it rains in Pescadero, Irma Rodriguez gets to work — lining up containers on her patio to catch as much water as she can. It may seem unusual in a town just 30 miles southwest of the wealth and power of Silicon Valley along the Peninsula’s coast. But for Rodriguez, it’s a matter of survival. For the past 20 years, she has relied on water pumped from a nearby creek to bathe and wash dishes. But when it rains, the water turns dark and murky — “like chocolate,” she says — forcing her to depend on rainwater to brush her teeth or flush the toilet in the tiny rental that she shares with her daughter. Her experience reflects a chronic crisis in Pescadero: a lack of access to clean water. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News.
San Mateo ups stormwater fee
“About a year and half into the passage of the city’s stormwater ballot measure, the City Council approved slight fee increases for property owners. At the end of 2023, San Mateo property owners voted in favor of the Community Flood and Stormwater Protection Initiative, which enacts a monthly fee meant to provide a dedicated source of funding to bolster the city’s stormwater infrastructure. Over the past fiscal year, which ends this month, the fees generated about $3.9 million, slightly lower than the originally projected $4.05 million. … ” Read more from the San Mateo Daily Journal.
Floodwall plan splits advocates for creek improvements
“A regional plan to bolster flood control near the San Francisquito Creek remained on shaky grounds Thursday as city leaders and water agency officials charged with implementing it squabbled this week over the budget and an allegation that the Menlo Park mayor had threatened to “blow up the project” if it included floodwalls. The San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority, which includes officials from Palo Alto, East Palo Alto and Menlo Park, has been exploring ways to protect neighborhoods in the three cities ever since the devastating February 1998 flood. After completing its first major project in the particularly vulnerable area downstream of U.S. Highway 101 in 2019, the agency has spent years planning for its second project, which would the “Reach 2” area between the highway and the Pope-Chaucer bridge. In 2023, the creek authority reset its plans after a heavy rainstorm upended its hydraulic assumptions. … ” Read more from Palo Alto Online.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Coastal advocates and agencies urge July 4th beachgoers to protect endangered shorebirds
“As Southern California beaches prepare for one of the busiest holidays of the year, July 4th, a coalition of environmental nonprofits and public agencies is urging beachgoers to celebrate responsibly to protect beach-nesting birds near sensitive habitats like the Santa Ana River mouth and Huntington State Beach’s Least Tern Natural Preserve. On July 4th, 2024, a fireworks incident near this area likely caused a massive colony abandonment among California least terns, an endangered seabird species that nests along the coast each summer. By July 9, surveyors confirmed that the colony was effectively abandoned, jeopardizing the immediate and long-term population growth of this species. This year, a coalition including Orange County Coastkeeper, OC Habitats, Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, and Sea and Sage Audubon Society, in support of California State Parks, is taking action. Increased enforcement, public education, and on-the-ground monitoring will aim to prevent similar disturbances and ensure the protection of nesting birds. … ” Read more from the OC Coastkeeper.
Here’s how you can weigh in on plans for OC’s newest coastal nature preserve
“Officials behind Orange County’s newest conservation area, the nearly 400-acre Randall Preserve, are seeking input as they plan for future public access and preservation in the face of climate change. Conservation groups purchased the land, formerly known as Banning Ranch, in late 2022. It’s considered the biggest undeveloped expanse of private land along the Southern California coast. The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, which manages the land, held a series of public events in recent months to share draft plans for public access, resource management and a coastal resilience strategy. Preserve managers are also working with local Native American tribes on plans to allow for tribal access and use of the land. Comments on the plans will be accepted through July 14. … ” Read more from the LAist.
IMPERIAL/COACHELLA VALLEYS
In California’s Imperial Valley, another golden industry is at-risk
Gil Rebollar, Mayor of the city of Brawley, writes, “Once upon a time, the entire world looked west to California to see dreams pursued and achieved. Soundstages buzzed in Culver City, studios lit up Burbank, and every small-town kid with a script or a camera thought this is where they could make it. Many believed that our system of workers and facilities couldn’t be found anywhere else, but the Golden State. Then came the tax hikes, runaway costs, labor rules, legislative-backed legal fees, and permits costing more than props. States like Georgia and New Mexico took advantage of this and rolled out the red carpet, while California threw up more hurdles and rules. Hollywood didn’t vanish overnight. It disappeared, scene by scene, until the film reel jammed and bursted into flames of red tape. California let it happen, and it is happening again. This time, not to the dream factory of movies, but to something far more real: Agriculture, our food. Crops, not props. … ” Read more from the Desert Review.
SAN DIEGO
State resolution presses Congress, Trump for urgent Tijuana River action
“California lawmakers are calling on Congress and President Donald Trump to declare a national emergency and fully fund repairs to address the ongoing pollution crisis in the Tijuana River Valley, citing severe impacts to public health, the environment and the local economy. Assemblymember David Alvarez, D-San Diego, who represents communities from Barrio Logan to the U.S.-Mexico border, introduced the bipartisan resolution last week. The measure, AJR 16, urges the federal government to provide the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with full funding for its Comprehensive Infrastructure Solution for the Tijuana River. … ” Read more from Channel 8.
Along the Colorado River …
Floods, channels, a giant metal curtain: Feds target invasive fish in the Colorado River
“An invasion of smallmouth bass from the Great Lakes region is spreading to new areas of the Colorado River in Arizona. The bass have already thwarted efforts to save threatened native fish in the upper river basin, and wildlife officials are fighting to keep the same from happening below Lake Powell, even if it requires cranes, excavators and maybe one day, a giant metal curtain. Federal officials say they took a major step in fighting the bass invasion below the Glen Canyon Dam in June. The National Park Service and Bureau of Reclamation have cleared out a warm backwater in the river where bass and other invasive species used to spawn, eliminating a critical resource for the predatory fish that could wipe out one of the last holdouts for some of the Colorado River’s threatened and endangered fish. … ” Read more from the Arizona Republic.
New zebra mussel veliger found in Colorado River
“The Colorado River showed another sign that its problem with invasive zebra mussels is far from over. Colorado Parks and Wildlife’s Aquatic Nuisance Species staff found a zebra mussel veliger during its increased sampling efforts in Early June, according to a news release. CPW Aquatic Nuisance Species (ANS) staff collected plankton samples on June 9 from a number of sites along the river. Then on June 17, laboratory technicians discovered a single veliger, the mussel’s larval stage, in a sample collected near New Castle, which was confirmed days later through DNA testing, the release stated. “Although not ideal,” Invasive Species Program Manager Robert Walters stated in a release, “these results provide us with critical information as we continue working closely with our partners to protect our natural resources and infrastructure crucial to the Western Slope, including our goal of identifying the source.” … ” Read moire from the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel.
In national water news today …
Salmon, tribal sovereignty, and energy collide as US abandons Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement
“Earlier this month, the Trump administration pulled the federal government out of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement — a deal struck in 2023 by the Biden administration between two states and four Indigenous nations aimed at restoring salmon populations and paving a way to remove four hydroelectric dams along the river system. The move is likely to revive decades-old lawsuits and further endanger already struggling salmon populations. But hydroelectric producers in Washington and Oregon have hailed the administration’s decision, citing an increased demand for energy driven primarily by data centers for AI and cryptocurrency operations. “Washington state has said it’s going to need to double the amount of electricity it uses by 2050,” said Kurt Miller, head of the Northwest Public Power Association representing 150 local utility companies. “And they released that before we started to see the really big data center forecast numbers.” … ” Read more from Grist.
Plan to sell off public land in the West nixed from ‘big, beautiful bill’ amid GOP backlash
“A controversial plan to sell hundreds of thousands of acres of public land across Western states — including California — was axed from the Republican tax and spending bill amid bipartisan backlash, prompting celebration from conservationists. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who spearheaded the proposal, announced he was pulling the provision on Saturday night on the social media platform X. Lee had said the land sale was intended to ease the financial burden of housing, pointing to a lack of affordability afflicting families in many communities. “Because of the strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process, I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock and not to any foreign interests,” he wrote in the post. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
