A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
Newsom says California needs to build a water tunnel. Opponents argue costs are too high
“As Gov. Gavin Newsom pushes for building a giant water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, his administration is saying it‘s the “single most effective” way for California to provide enough water as the warming climate brings deeper droughts and more intense storms. Environmental advocates and political leaders in the Delta, among other opponents, condemned a new state analysis that draws that conclusion, arguing that building the tunnel would harm the environment and several types of fish and would push water rates much higher for millions of Californians. The potential costs of building the 45-mile tunnel are generating heated debate. The state has estimated the project, if water agencies participate and contribute, would cost $20.1 billion. But in a separate analysis, economic research firm ECOnorthwest found the costs would probably range from about $60 billion to $100 billion or even more. “Unfortunately, the Newsom administration is brushing over and leaving out the real costs of the tunnel, both to the ratepayers and taxpayers and the environment,” said Carolee Krieger, executive director of the California Water Impact Network, a nonprofit group that commissioned the economic analysis. … ” Read more from the LA Times. | Read via Yahoo News.
SEE ALSO:
- Groups Say ‘Hell No’ to Newsom and DWR’s Plan to Fast-Track the Delta Tunnel, by Dan Bacher at the Daily Kos
State Water Contractors push for easier Delta tunnel passage path
“The State Water Contractors and a coalition of businesses and others who support the Delta Conveyance Project were at the state Capitol Wednesday lobbying for a version of the governor’s “budget trailer” bill. They may find that door is closed. “The Legislature has moved on, and (is) focused on pressing, time-sensitive issues like petroleum supply, insurance, wildfire, and cap-and-invest, among others,” according to a statement released by the office of Assemblywoman Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City. “Their press conference was just a second attempt to jam through a short-sighted proposal and didn’t warrant a response. Make no mistake, the assemblywoman and the Delta Caucus remain completely opposed to this effort.” … ” Read more from the Daily Republic.
SEE ALSO:
- State Water Contractors, State lawmakers, supporters urge legislative action on Delta Conveyance Project, press release from the State Water Contractors
- Flawed New Report Calls Delta Tunnel Project “Sustainable” But Overlooks Huge Costs and Destruction It Will Cause, from State Senator Jerry McNerney
- Delta Counties Coalition Opposes Big Water’s Latest Attempt to Ram Through Delta Tunnel Conveyance Project, from the Delta Counties Coalition
California Water Commission increases conditional funding for three projects in Water Storage Investment Program
“The California Water Commission has increased the available funding set aside for three projects in the Water Storage Investment Program (WSIP): the Chino Basin Program, the Kern Fan Groundwater Storage Project, and the Sites Project. The decision, made at Wednesday’s meeting, offsets some of the inflation that has occurred since the projects originally applied for WSIP funds. WSIP is funded by Proposition 1, also known as the Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Act of 2014, and Proposition 4, also known as the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Act of 2024.The Commission administers the WSIP to fund the public benefits associated with water storage projects. Through WSIP, the State’s investment in public benefits will yield flood control, ecosystem improvement, water quality improvement, emergency response, and recreation opportunities. … ” Continue reading from the California Water Commission.
New setbacks could be fatal for $2.7 billion plan to build major reservoir in Santa Clara County
“Already facing significant delays and cost increases, a proposed plan to build a new $2.7 billion reservoir in the rural hills of southern Santa Clara County near Pacheco Pass has suffered two major new setbacks, leading water officials who first proposed the idea to say it might be time to cancel the project that’s cost $100 million so far. On Wednesday, the California Water Commission, a state agency that distributes state bond money to water projects, voted 7-0 not to provide any additional funding to the proposed Pacheco Reservoir project, citing lack of progress by the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which has been pushing it since 2017. “We have to really think about stages of readiness and prioritize not putting good money after bad,” said commissioner Davina Hurt, an attorney who is a former mayor of Belmont. “We should put the money toward projects that are moving closer to becoming implemented.” … ” Continue reading from the San Jose Mercury News.
Plan for California’s largest reservoir in decades gets big funding boost
“The effort to build California’s largest new reservoir in decades received a welcome commitment of cash on Wednesday — nearly $220 million — which will help keep the project on track to break ground as soon as next year. Planned for 70 miles northwest of Sacramento, the proposed Sites Reservoir won the bulk of the funding because plans to expand the Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County fell through, freeing up money in the state’s 2014 water bond. The remainder of the money for Sites came from last year’s state climate bond. The California Water Commission, a state advisory board, decided on the bond allocations at its regular monthly meeting. Two other water projects, a groundwater banking program in Kern County and a combined water treatment-groundwater facility in the Inland Empire, were awarded lesser amounts of the bond funds. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Sites Reservoir: The permitting process
“This blog provides a glimpse into the complexity of permitting for large water projects like Sites. California water law is as intricate and varied as the systems it governs. What begins as a seemingly simple doctrine, such as “first in time, first in right,” can quickly spiral into a labyrinth of layered principles, regulatory frameworks, and practical tradeoffs. Add to that complicated state and federal environmental laws and permitting processes, and legal frameworks make the decision to move forward with any project a very involved process. The proposed Sites Reservoir Project provides a good opportunity to understand some of the processes and approvals required for a major water infrastructure project. … ” Continue reading at the California Water Blog.
Central Valley groundwater pumping, land-sinking stressing Aqueduct. Is there a fix?
“Years of collapsing areas of land in the San Joaquin Valley — caused primarily by the over-pumping of groundwater for farming — has taken a toll on California’s largest water delivery system that relies on stable land to work well. A state report released this year determined its 2023 annual water delivery capability had fallen 3% compared to original-design deliveries. If no action is taken, it could fall up to 87% by 2043. If that happens, 21 million Californians would feel the impacts, according to the California Department of Water Resources (DWR). “There are no quick solutions,” DWR engineer Jesse Dillon told The Fresno Bee. “Everybody’s going to need to realize that this is as big a problem as it is.” … ” Read more from the Fresno Bee.
Santa Cruz water utility grapples with a paradox: what to do when conservation becomes bad for business
“History is an increasingly unreliable teacher for water utility managers. The memory of everything that has gone wrong – floods, droughts, broken pipes, porous levees, unstable dams, or inadequate interties – and the record of how utilities fixed things and paid for the fixes – have traditionally been chapters in the textbook of rules for the future. California’s coastal Santa Cruz Water Department used the textbook of experience for decades as it gathered water from the San Lorenzo River and small groundwater wells, and stored it in the Loch Lomond reservoir behind the Newell Creek dam. The same lessons applied when treating water at the Graham HIll plant and delivering it though the Newell Creek pipeline. But climactic and political changes are rendering the 20th century textbook obsolete in the 21st century. The need to deliver clean water is the same. The weather, the financing, and the growing threat of unaffordability are not. The efforts the Santa Cruz Water Department is making to update the text parallels work being undertaken by many other utilities. … ” Read more from & the West.
Go Deep’ to make desal work along California’s coast
“The world is running out of fresh water and now companies are using the high pressure of the ocean depths to push seawater through a membrane leaving salt behind.This month Scientific American reports a breakthrough in strategy of how to apply reverse osmosis without huge energy costs or negative environmental issues by allowing it to” happen naturally” – using technology that harnesses pressure hundreds of meters underwater. “Reverse osmosis pods are submerged to depths of around 400 to 500 meters (1,600 feet) where immense hydrostatic pressure does the heavy lifting of separating water from salt. Purified water is then pumped back to shore. Far-fetched as it may sound, there are multiple prototypes already at work; the companies behind them aim to take cheap, large-scale desalination from pipe dream to reality.” … ” Read more from Sierra 2 the Sea.
Second Irrigated Lands Expert Panel meeting features Indigenous perspectives and a lot of data
“Day 2 of the Second Statewide Agricultural Expert Panel’s “Kick Off Meeting” convened August 14, 2025, at Sacramento State University Downtown Campus. The panel has been convened to advise the State Water Board on next steps for the Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP). The day was heavy on data. Themes addressed throughout the day included whether or not sufficient data exists to move forward with setting nitrogen (N) application and discharge targets and limits; challenges with interpreting data collected thus far due to discrepancies in how data are reported; the need to include acreage and location data with N data to be able to calculate field-level results and to independently verify calculations submitted by third parties; the relative value of the metrics N applied (A) minus N removed (R) [A-R] and A/R; and the need for regional flexibility in monitoring and reporting. … ” Continue reading at Maven’s Notebook.
Future winters promise less snow, more rain. Nobody’s prepared
“Blue veins of ice streaked the snow this January in Salt Lake City, Utah. Snow hydrologist McKenzie Skiles eyed the veins, worried. The blue ice formed where water had flowed, then refrozen. “That’s concerning,” Skiles says, “because it tells us snow is undergoing midwinter melt.” She pulled out a thermometer and found the snow near its melting point of 32 degrees Fahrenheit. In Salt Lake, snow shouldn’t melt in January. It typically piles through early April, the historical peak snowpack for cold, high western mountains. Melting snow starts dripping by midmonth, feeding creeks all summer. But the temperature swings of climate change have arrived in Utah and other snowy places. Long warm stretches now punctuate winter. During a weeklong February heatwave, Salt Lake hit a record 65 degrees Fahrenheit—20 degrees above the winter average. “You can’t help but think, ‘Is this every future winter?’” Skiles says from her office at The University of Utah. “Is it just going to keep getting worse?’ … ” Read more from PNAS.
Tips to understand our convoluted yet obligatory units of water
Edward Ring writes, “Those of us following water politics and the water industry have become familiar with the most common units of water volume and water flow. Professionals in the industry make constant use of terms, often reduced to acronyms, forgetting that the rest of us may have no idea what they’re talking about. When it comes to encouraging meaningful discussions over water policy, understanding these terms is mandatory. But whether it’s politicians who rely on staff members who are themselves usually spread too thin to become expert anyway, or journalists who often just grab a quote with a number in it to give their story a whiff of verisimilitude, water numeracy is unusual. The situation is compounded by the fact that unlike the rest of the world, where units of water are divided into neat levels of magnitude according to a decimal system – 1,000 liters of water is a cubic meter (weighing a metric ton), and 1 billion cubic meters is a cubic kilometer (weighing a metric gigaton) – American units of water volume are, to put it charitably, convoluted. … ” Continue reading from Edward Ring.
In commentary this week …
KARLA NEMETH: The Delta Conveyance Project is key to modernizing the state water project and delivering water to millions of Californians
DWR Director Karla Nemeth writes, “When two of every three Californians pay their water bills each month, they pay for reservoirs and aqueducts that were designed for them a half century ago. The State Water Project was conceived in the mid-1950s, when California’s population had doubled in the previous 15 years. Floods had recently ravaged Northern California towns. The concept was as simple as it was bold – bring water from the wetter parts of the state to the cities and agricultural operations that were outgrowing water supplies in the Bay Area, San Joaquin Valley, and Southern California. Fast-forward decades, and the State Water Project has helped resolve groundwater problems in the Santa Clara Valley, South Coast, and elsewhere. In the San Joaquin Valley farm belt, groundwater overdraft persists, but by law irrigation districts must bring aquifers into sustainable conditions by 2040. The 27 million Californians who pay for the State Water Project have become a $2.3 trillion economic engine, the equivalent of the eighth-largest economy in the world. Now the State Water Project is aging. … ” Read more from DWR.
Delta tunnel plans echo California’s troubled history of trying to control water
Devon Provo, an urban planner and senior policy manager at Accelerate Resilience L.A., writes, “Most mornings, I walk my dog at Hahamongna Watershed Park in Pasadena, pausing by the reservoir to watch grebes and ducks glide across the water. It’s a quiet routine, but since the fire tore through Eaton Canyon in January, the silence feels louder, like this place has something to say. As an urban planner, I’ve spent years working on land use and water policy. When I walk through my Altadena neighborhood, I don’t see a freak disaster. I see a moment of reckoning, in a much older story about the quest to control nature and consequences that echo across generations. As Californians struggle to recover from compounding climate disasters, Gov. Gavin Newsom is moving to fast-track the Delta Conveyance Project, presenting lawmakers with a familiar choice. But before committing billions to yet another major water project, we must confront some hard lessons from our past. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
The State Water Project’s dirty little secret
By Brett Baker, a sixth generation Delta farmer and attorney representing the Central Delta Water Agency and various Delta landowners, writes, “Earlier this month The Governor’s Press office announced a $200 Million Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) accountability plan to use taxpayer dollars to buy off local opposition to his fatally flawed DCP. Just this week the Governor doubled down and released a report claiming the DCP is the single most effective action for our state’s water future. This is simply not true, and is his latest effort in a long line to impregnate our state taxpayers and ratepayers with yet another megaproject. Spoiler alert: This one doesn’t pencil out either, there just isn’t enough water to put in it. The State and the State Water Project (SWP) contractors continue to foster new permanent demand by way of development in desert areas while shifting Project costs onto State and federal taxpayers for added facilities, repair and replacement of aging aqueducts, dams and other facilities, and mitigation of adverse environmental and regulatory impacts despite knowing the Project cannot meet existing commitments during a multi-year drought. Project operators don’t even bother to measure or account for how much Project water has been put to beneficial use on a given year. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
Sites Reservoir is a wolf in sheep’s clothing
Save California Salmon writes, “Today’s announcement that Governor Newsom’s California Water Commission allocated another $219 million for the proposed Sites Reservoir is a harmful regression for California’s rivers, their salmon, and for Tribal and rural communities. The Governor claims Sites will prepare California for a “hotter, drier future.” In reality this massive, $6.8 billion boondoggle will siphon water from the already overallocated Sacramento River, threatening endangered salmon runs, Tribal cultural sites, and the health of the Bay-Delta ecosystem. By diverting the river’s cold, clean flows into a reservoir without natural flushing, Sites would create stagnant waters that would produce toxic algal blooms, release methane gas, and concentrate mercury. Rather than providing safe drinking water, it would contaminate the supply for roughly 27 million Californians who depend on the Bay-Delta. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
Will the state stand by its own groundwater law?
Phillip Peters, First District Supervisor on the Kern County Board of Supervisors and board member of the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority, writes, “For the past decade, the Indian Wells Valley Groundwater Authority (IWVGA) has worked to secure the future of our water supply across nearly 600 square miles in Kern, Inyo, and San Bernardino counties. Like many others across California, this agency was born of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). In 2014, the Legislature passed SGMA which mandated local agencies in critically overdrafted basins to develop groundwater sustainability plans. These plans had to be backed by science, vetted by the public, and approved by the state. The state made the rules — and we followed them. That work wasn’t easy or cheap. In Indian Wells Valley, it took years of data collection, stakeholder engagement, over $13 million in local taxpayer investment, and close collaboration with the U.S. Navy to ensure both community survival and national security. In 2022, the state approved our plan. To be clear, SGMA has its flaws, and we have grappled with the State in our efforts to be in compliance. But in places like Indian Wells Valley, where aquifers were being pushed toward collapse, SGMA forced long-overdue action. It compelled communities to face hard realities and begin working toward sustainable solutions after decades of watching water tables decline. Now, that progress is in jeopardy — not because the science was flawed, but because the state may refuse to back its own process. … ” Continue reading this commentary.
Sacramento should pass bill that benefits Kings County workers, farmers, and a shared future
Lavande Moon of Hanford and Frank Threde of Avenal, both LiUNA Local 294 union members, write, “We’ve each spent decades working construction jobs across Kings County and the Central Valley. We’ve built roads, schools, bridges, and water systems. We’ve put in the hard work to support our families, and we’re proud of the role our labor plays in building our communities. But the future of our local economy, and the stability of the working families who power it, depend on more than just the jobs we’ve known. It depends on creating new ones. That’s why we strongly support Assembly Bill 1156. AB 1156 is a smart, forward-looking bill that offers a lifeline to communities like ours in Kings County. It helps farmers — our neighbors, family members, and friends — stay on their land in the face of mounting water restrictions while creating good-paying union jobs for workers like us. … ” Read more from the Santa Maria Times.
Yvon Chouinard says Newsom’s billion-dollar salmon bet is doomed to fail
Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder, and Matt Stoecker, a California farmer and fisheries ecologist, write, “In May, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced upgrades to 21 state-run fish hatcheries and truck salmon around dams in an effort to increase salmon populations. But Newsom’s plans are misguided and misleading. These schemes would waste our tax dollars on ineffective and never-ending boondoggles that fail to solve the destructive impacts of dams on our fisheries and watersheds. Hatcheries harm endangered California salmon without addressing a major cause of their decline: migration-blocking dams that degrade our treasured watersheds. These hatcheries and their derelict relative, trap-and-truck, which are also promoted by Newsom, require carbon-intensive facilities, diesel-powered fish “migration,” and billions in tax dollars to keep stumbling along indefinitely. No amount of upgrades can retrofit an entirely misguided concept. Advertising them to the taxpayer as climate resiliency measures is disingenuous. … ” Continue reading from Outside Online.
In regional water news this week …
‘Surprise’ drop in Lake Pillsbury water release stokes fears about PG&E’s Potter Valley Project decommissioning
“A planned-for reduction in the amount of water Pacific Gas & Electric Co. is releasing from Lake Pillsbury caught Potter Valley farmers and ranchers off guard earlier this month during a key point in the summer growing and ranching season. PG&E says stakeholders should have been expecting the dip in water pressure, which occurred on Tuesday, Aug. 5. But Janet Pauli, a rancher who is president of the Potter Valley Irrigation District board, says the utility failed to communicate about the change, which had been quietly approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. “Did we anticipate it? Yeah. But until FERC granted it, there was no reason for us to change what we were doing. Instead of giving us a ‘heads up,’ PG&E dropped their flows extremely rapidly,” Pauli said. “It was a surprise, and for a little while it was a problem.” As the Potter Valley agricultural community panicked over keeping cattle and crops sated, rumors erupted on social media that PG&E had begun cutting off the water supply from Scott Dam in advance of the structure being torn down as part of the decommissioning of PG&E’s Potter Valley Project, which includes a shuttered hydroelectric power plant. … ” Read more from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
Iron Canyon Fish Passage Project on Big Chico Creek enters construction phase
“On August 20, 2025, California Trout (CalTrout), the Mechoopda Indian Tribe, the Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve, and the City of Chico celebrated the start of the construction phase of the Iron Canyon Fish Passage Project on Ótakim Séwi, or Big Chico Creek, in the City of Chico’s Upper Bidwell Park. The Iron Canyon Fish Passage Project will create a path for anadromous and other migratory native fish to travel upstream of Iron Canyon to Big Chico Creek Ecological Reserve and beyond, into critical cold-water holding and spawning habitats. Currently, fish migrations are blocked by a total upstream migration barrier located in a bedrock gorge called Iron Canyon. By 2027, threatened steelhead and spring-run Chinook salmon will have restored access to the entirety of their historical distribution in Big Chico Creek, resulting in an expected 8.5 additional miles of available habitat. “When I heard CalTrout was taking on a fish passage project in Chico, I knew I had to be part of it,” said Holly Swan, Regional Manager for CalTrout’s Mt. Lassen region and project lead for the fish passage project. … ” Read more from Cal Trout.
A nightmare storm destroyed a NorCal bridge. 61 years later, cleanup begins.
“A major project began this week to remove 750 tons of metal and concrete that had been sitting in the riverbed of the North Fork of the American River for decades. The debris is all that’s left after a Christmas storm destroyed the Georgetown Bridge near Auburn, in the Sierra Nevada foothills, 61 years ago. Torrential rain in the days before Christmas 1964 had caused rivers to swell and stoked fears of flooding across Northern California and the Sierra Nevada foothills. Higher up in the Sierra Nevada, on the Rubicon River, rain and snowmelt pounded against the Hell Hole Dam. But on the morning of Dec. 23, 1964, the partially built dam burst, releasing a “hurtling wall” of water downstream toward Auburn, where a surge of frothing, fast-moving water took out the Georgetown Bridge on Highway 49, near the confluence of the North Fork and the Middle Fork of the American River. Twisted metal and concrete from the bridge sank beneath the water at the bottom of the North Fork of the American River. More than 60 years later, the remnants are still there. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
Watershed moment; From the snowy mountain peaks to a dead-end desert lake, follow the flow of Tahoe’s waters
“On a warm spring day, snowpack high in the peaks surrounding Lake Tahoe begins to melt. The water trickles down the granite rocks finding its way into winding seasonal creek beds, flushing into large meadows, flowing into backcountry alpine lakes, and joining larger streams as it makes its way down the mountain into the big blue lake below. Tahoe’s watershed — the land area that channels rainfall and snowmelt into a common body of water — is unique for a number of reasons. First and foremost is the size of the lake itself. The lake makes up 38% — a surface area of 192 square miles — of the 501-square-mile watershed, which is a major factor in the lake’s famed clarity. “The ridgelines that define the watershed boundaries are really obvious when you look at a map. The whole basin is basically a big bowl,” explains Theresa Cody, a hydrologist with the U.S. Forest Service Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit. “The watershed for Lake Tahoe is completely self-contained, so all of the water that comes into the lake comes from rain and snow that falls in the basin, so in that sense, it’s a really unique situation where everything that happens in the basin affects the lake.” … ” Read more from the Tahoe Daily Tribune.
Restoring flow: Removing a 1960s haul road bridge from the Tuolumne River
“In the 1960s, during construction of Don Pedro Dam, a haul road bridge was built across the Tuolumne River to move heavy equipment and materials. When the work was complete, large chunks of the bridge — concrete blocks, steel beams, and sheet piles — were abandoned in the river. For decades, these remnants have been more than just an eyesore. They’ve created hazards for boaters, blocked salmon migration, and disrupted the river’s natural flow. This summer, our restoration crew mobilized to begin removing the remaining debris from the river. The work isn’t simple — it requires specialized equipment and careful planning to protect both the river and its wildlife. … ” Read more from the Tuolumne River Trust.
A long-journeying bird connects lakes in California and Argentina — and two communities
“Thousands of birds fill the air over Mono Lake, banking and swooping in a swirling murmuration that resembles an aerial school of fish. As they sweep past, their beating wings whoosh in unison. This small species, the Wilson’s phalarope, arrives from the north in large numbers each summer to feed at the saline lake, preparing for a long journey to South America. After spending July gorging on the larvae of alkali flies, the birds are gradually departing this month to begin their migration to another saline lake about 6,000 miles away — Laguna Mar Chiquita in Argentina. Partly because of their remarkable transcontinental voyage between salt lakes, the grayish birds have inspired a close partnership between communities in California and Argentina. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
With no water tax, Paso Basin managers scramble for funding. What’s next?
“Without a water tax, the Paso Robles Area Groundwater Authority is on the hunt for funding to support its operating costs for the rest of the year. The agency’s Board of Directors was forced to abandon water use fees during a meeting on Aug. 1 after a majority of property owners objected to them. Now, the agency is almost $300,000 short of funds needed to cover the rest of the year’s operating costs, such as paying consultants and preparing the state-mandated annual report. Because the basin is considered “critically overdrafted” by the California Department of Water Resources, the Paso Robles Area Groundwater Authority is required to bring the basin into balance by 2040. Part of that process includes submitting an annual report on the health of the basin to the state. … ” Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
There’s a ‘lake’ of oil under LA’s soon-to-close refinery. Who’s going to clean it up?
“One of Los Angeles’ most polluted stretches of land soon will be cleared for new development, and a full accounting of the ground’s degradation will be left largely to an oil company. For almost 40 years in the middle of the 20th century, workers at an oil refinery with connected facilities in Wilmington and Carson buried truckloads of slop oil and acid sludge directly on site. Decades later, much of that waste still is in the soil and water table, state records show. Phillips 66, which now owns the century-old refinery, will idle the plants by the end of the year. In some areas, the contaminated underground layer is more than 16 feet thick. Yet the only estimates for how much it will cost to tear down the refinery and clean up the fouled land is from Phillips 66, which blamed “market dynamics” for its closing. … ” Read more from the LAist.
Metropolitan board opens new path to increase region’s water supply reliability through local water exchanges
“In a move to strengthen Southern California’s long-term water reliability, Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors this week approved a new framework that will allow local water agencies across the region to sell and purchase locally produced supplies among one another. Through the Local Supply Exchange Framework approved by the board on Tuesday (Aug. 19), Metropolitan will help facilitate an exchange of local supplies between its member agencies – providing potential new water sources for some communities, and an opportunity for other communities to financially benefit from investments in supplies and demand management programs they have already made. The framework is one of many strategies included in the district’s Climate Adaptation Master Plan for Water and an important step in preparing the region for increasing climate and water supply challenges. “For decades, Metropolitan has incentivized the development of local water projects through our Local Resources Program, fueling the growth of recycled water, stormwater and groundwater projects across Southern California,” said Metropolitan board Chair Adán Ortega, Jr. “This program represents our evolving approach to building a more resilient, flexible, and reliable water supply for Southern California. We are literally squeezing every drop from our local supply and demand management programs.” … ” Read more from the Metropolitan Water District.
Southwest in a ‘mega-drying’ zone due to groundwater loss, study finds
“Nevada, the driest state in the union, is only getting drier as the region’s supply of groundwater quickly disappears. The American Southwest – including Arizona, New Mexico, and portions of Nevada, Colorado, Utah and California – is linked to one of four continental-scale “mega-drying” regions worldwide that have undergone unprecedented rates of drying, according to a recent study in Science Advances. The loss of freshwater from the regions is the result of two key factors: severe droughts and groundwater overuse. Two decades of satellite observations revealed that as the dry areas of the world become drier and surface water in rivers and lakes declines, communities are becoming more reliant on groundwater, leading to rapid depletion of freshwater. The lower Colorado River Basin – which supplies water for Nevada, Arizona, and California – has lost groundwater equivalent to Lake Mead’s full storage capacity in the last 20 years, or about 28 million acre-feet of water. … ” Read more from the Nevada Current.
‘Beyond awful’ Colorado River forecasts put water talks under pressure
“After one of the Colorado River’s driest years in decades, Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the largest reservoirs in the country — could see alarming declines in the coming years, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced today. Federal officials again called for Arizona and Nevada to cut back their supplies from the overtapped river — though California, with its senior claims to the river’s water, will be spared. While expected, today’s two-year projection ratchets up tension among seven states in the Colorado River basin, which have struggled to agree on the river’s management after 2026, when current guidelines expire. “The urgency for the seven Colorado River Basin states to reach a consensus agreement has never been clearer. We cannot afford to delay,” Scott Cameron, the Department of the Interior’s Acting Assistant Secretary for Water and Science, said in a statement. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
