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On the calendar today …
- PUBLIC HEARING: Delta Conveyance Project water right hearing beginning at 9am. The State Water Resources Control Board Administrative Hearings Office will hold a Public Hearing on the pending Petitions for Change of Water Right Permits for the Delta Conveyance Project. Interested members of the public who would like to watch this hearing without participating may do so through the Administrative Hearings Office YouTube channel at: bit.ly/aho-youtube. Click here for the meeting notice.
- WEBINAR: Laying internet of water bricks: The backend, frontend and everything in between from 12pm to 1:30pm. Building the Internet of Water is not about a single system but about assembling many bricks into a shared foundation for interoperability. Geoconnex provides one of the key structural elements: a linked-data framework for publishing metadata in interoperable formats and linking data to common hydrologic features like streams, lakes, and watersheds. Other bricks include the efforts of individual organizations that publish their own identifiers and metadata, as well as user interfaces, tools, and workflows that apply this framework for data discovery and access. This WRRC Water Webinar will explore how Geoconnex works behind the scenes, including backend standards and APIs that support interoperability and frontend hubs and visualization platforms where users interact with data. It will also emphasize the space in between, where cross-organizational contributions form a common data commons, and local or project-specific portals gain value by connecting to a larger ecosystem. Click here to register.
In California water news today …
With gold prices at record highs, ‘gold fever’ returns to California
“Jody McNair squinted into a murky trough of water. She dipped a pan to the bottom and raised it, swirling until nothing remained but a slurry of pebbles and sand. As she shook the pan, a sequin-size flake glinted unmistakably in the light. “There we go!” McNair exclaimed. “That’s a picker.” Pickers — gold flecks that can be picked from a pan between one’s thumb and forefinger — sell for $20 to $100 at Matelot Gulch Mining Co., the historic gold panning outfit where McNair works. And as the worldwide price of gold has skyrocketed, they’re suddenly more valuable than ever. McNair is working to fill a one-ounce vial of gold. A year ago, such a vial would have been worth about $2,660. This week, the price climbed to a record $3,858. The result, according to McNair? “Gold fever,” with hobbyists pouring into the foothills to hunt for gold. This summer, Matelot Gulch has seen an influx of visitors from across the state, as well as countries as far away as Switzerland and the Netherlands. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle. | Read via MSN News.
NOTICE of intention to submit Certification of Consistency with the Delta Plan for the Delta Conveyance Project
“This notice serves to inform all interested parties that the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) intends to submit to the Delta Stewardship Council a Certification of Consistency for the Delta Conveyance Project. Consistent with the Delta Stewardship Council requirements, DWR is posting a draft of the certification at least 10-days prior to formal submission for public review and comment. … ” Read more and view/download certification.
California: A salmon society?
“Consider for a moment the identity of the Pacific Northwest as a Salmon Society. When you fly into an airport in the Pacific Northwest, salmon are on the floors and walls as art. This art is an expression of societal values in which salmon are important. In contrast, when you fly into Sacramento you see art of a river, birds, agriculture, but the salmon are missing. We have forgotten our past as a Salmon Society. That doesn’t mean that they can’t be in California’s future. Historically, California was a land of abundant natural resources. Indigenous communities from time immemorial lived in reciprocity with the land and water. One of these resources was prolific populations of Chinook salmon. People cared for the salmon, and the salmon provided for California’s peoples. … ” Read more from the California Water Blog.
DWR releases new fact sheet on the impacts of land subsidence
“The Department of Water Resources (The Department, DWR) has released a factsheet on the impacts of land subsidence in California. This factsheet builds on the introduction of subsidence impacts in the previously released Subsidence 101 Factsheet and provides a deeper dive on the significant impacts subsidence can have on infrastructure and communities. … ” Click here for more information and to view/download the fact sheet.
California’s water puzzle: Insights from Avid Water’s Cory Broad
“California’s agriculture industry is built on innovation, resilience, and adaptation—qualities that define experts like Cory Broad, Agronomic Sales Manager at Avid Water. In a conversation with host Nick Papagni on the AgNet News Hour, Broad delved into the state’s ongoing struggle to manage water efficiently amid drought cycles, regulatory pressures, and urban expansion. “Water is pretty important to everybody in the Valley,” Broad began. “Whether you’re a farmer, an urban resident, or anywhere in between, we’re all in this together.” … ” Read more from Ag Net West.
CV-SALTS: From safe drinking water to long-term solutions: CV-SALTS at five years
“2025 marks the 5-year anniversary of the launch of both the Salt and Nitrate Control Programs. To commemorate the progress of both programs, and to help lay the foundation for future progress, CV-SALTS held an online workshop on June 30, 2025, focused on water quality in the Central Valley. Workshop panelists included CV-SALTS program staff and regulated participants, elected officials, local community leaders, and State and Regional Water Board staff. The goals for the workshop included: Develop a wider recognition of the CV-SALTS program and its effectiveness; Build trust in the unique public/private partnership and how it is advancing water quality in the Valley; Reinforce and expand local partnerships on salt and nitrate management; and Lay a foundation for future funding. … ” Continue reading this newsletter.
Water systems and wildfire: Understanding capacities and limitations
“The January 2025 fires in Los Angeles made clear an issue that has been brewing for years: as wildfires become more urban in nature, what is the role of urban water systems in their prevention, response and recovery? In the last decade, wildfires in Colorado and Northern California revealed how fire can disrupt water supply and distribution systems and have long-term impacts for recovery. In response, we at UCLA and UC Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) held an in-person workshop in 2021 and authored a report, Wildfire and Water Supply in California, addressing early questions of water system preparedness for increasingly catastrophic wildfires in urban areas. Following the disastrous 2025 fires in Los Angeles—and increasing national attention to issues of water supply and availability for urban fires—we developed a set of frequently asked questions to directly respond to related challenges. Yet, big questions remain: How should water systems prepare for 21st century wildfire events? What policy changes and infrastructure investments are needed to increase resilience? … ” Read more from UCANR’s The Confluence.
‘All the trees are dead’: An ancient California forest has been wiped out
“Roughly 500 years ago in California’s High Sierra, pine cones dropped to the ground and a cycle began. The Aztec Empire was falling. The printing press was new. The seedlings grew. Half a millennia later, U.S. Forest Service scientists began testing strategies to save these now ancient and massive trees in the little-known area east of Fresno called the Teakettle Experimental Forest. They had plans to light a huge prescribed burn to clear overgrowth next year. But then the Garnet Fire ignited amid a lightning storm and scorched all 3,000 federally protected acres on its path through the Sierra National Forest. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle. | Read via MSN News.
In regional water news and commentary today …
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Walnuts make rare ascension to top-valued crop in Butte County, Calif.
“The highest valued crop produced last year in Butte County, California was… wait for it… Walnuts. While the northern California county grows over 50,000 acres of walnuts, it is commonly rice and almonds that fight for the top spot by gross value in the county, Dismal grower prices for walnuts has commonly been to blame for this. Grower prices – the amount farmers are paid when their commodity leaves the farm – of walnuts not too many years ago were reported at or around 20 cents per pound. By 2025 those prices were much better. Nevertheless, walnuts were the most valued commodity sold off Butte County farms last year, valued at more than $150 million. This happened on lighter yields across 51,000 acres of nuts. Those yields averaged 15% lower than the previous year, according to the annual crop and livestock report published by the Butte County Department of Agriculture. … ” Read more from the Western Farm Press.
BAY AREA
Bill to expedite Highway 37 project awaits Newsom’s signature
“A bill aiming to relieve environmental constraints to speed up a project on Highway 37 is awaiting Gov. Gavin Newsom’s signature. Assembly Bill 697 was introduced by Assemblymember Lori Wilson, a Democrat from Suisun City in Solano County. It seeks to expand the construction window that would otherwise be limited to three months or less because of four protected species. The law would enable project planners to secure “incidental take” permits from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “Incidental take” means wound, kill or otherwise harm a fully protected species listed by the California Endangered Species Act during construction activity. The protected species in question include the salt marsh harvest mouse, the California Ridgway’s rail, the California black rail and the white-tailed kite. … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal.
Pleasanton council set to vote on new water rates, connection fees, sewer rates
“The Pleasanton City Council is set to hold a public hearing Tuesday to consider adopting proposed increases to the city’s water rates for the next four years, which city staff estimate would raise the average single-family customer bill by roughly $20 each year. If approved, the proposed amendments to the city’s “master fee schedule” would also include changes to the water connection fees and sewer rates. These rate increases would then be set to take effect starting Jan. 1, according to the staff report. Two years ago, the City Council approved a two-year water rate increase of 30%, which went into effect January 2024 and 12%, which went into effect January 2025. According to the city, those increases were meant to “maintain adequate funding for short-term operations and maintenance of its water systems and to replenish the reserves to City Council-approved levels”. … ” Read more from Pleasanton Weekly.
CENTRAL COAST
‘Amazing transformation’: How a 30-year oil cleanup is restoring Central Coast dunes
“These days, coyotes, mountain lions and even, once, a black bear, roam through a former oil field at the Guadalupe-Nipomo Dunes Complex. Once the site of an 8-million-gallon oil spill, Chevron and its team of nine contractors have removed much of the pollution and restored many of the ecosystems on the scenic coastal property. Now, with the end of 30 years of cleanup in sight, Chevron signed an agreement on Sept. 16 to donate 2,700 acres of the property to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service when the restoration project is complete in about three to five years, Chevron Environmental Management Company lead public affairs adviser Jeff Moore said. “We’re really excited,” he said. … ” Read more from the San Luis Obispo Tribune.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Phillips 66 Los Angeles refinery redevelopment unknown amid environmental, economic concerns
“For more than a century, the Phillips 66 Los Angeles refinery, in Wilmington and Carson, has symbolized the legacy of the region’s oil industry – which, in many ways, built Southern California. The industrial behemoth, however, now represents something else: the slow, but constant, decline of that once resolute legacy. By year’s end, Phillips 66 will shutter the refinery. The facility — which is among a cluster of South Bay refineries, including the El Segundo Chevron Refinery that experienced a fire last week — is one of the largest fuel providers in the country. It spans 405 acres across two facilities, produces about 139,000 barrels of crude oil and 85,000 barrels of gasoline per day, and employs hundreds of people. … ” Read more from the LA Daily News.
Large sinkhole in Orange reportedly opened after water main break
“Crews worked overnight to repair a large sinkhole that opened up in the middle of a major street in Orange on Saturday, Oct. 4. The sinkhole, estimated at up to 15 feet deep, appeared on Meats Avenue at Santiago Boulevard. The street was blocked off and traffic was redirected. What caused the sinkhole is under investigation, but apparently it followed a water main break. The water at a couple of nearby homes was shut off as repairs were underway, according to ABC7. … ” Read more from the OC Register.
IMPERIAL/COACHELLA VALLEYS
Where are the active volcanic fields in California? Only in Imperial Valley
“Deep in California’s desert, where the Salton Sea sits 226 feet below sea level, five volcanic domes rise like ancient guardians from the barren landscape. These are the Salton Buttes, and they represent something extraordinary: the only active rhyolitic lava dome chain in Southern California’s desert region, where volcanic forces still simmer beneath your feet. What makes this place truly remarkable isn’t just its geological uniqueness. It’s where 2,500-year-old obsidian formations created the Southwest’s most important Native American tool-making workshops, and where mud volcanoes still bubble at temperatures reaching 180°F in America’s most unexpected volcanic field. Standing at 226 feet below sea level, this is the only place in North America where you can witness active volcanism in a below-sea-level desert basin. The last major eruption occurred just 1,300 years ago—practically yesterday in geological terms. … ” Read more from the Desert Review.
SAN DIEGO
Poor decisions on Lake Hodges risk disaster
” … Two years ago, the state declared the 106-year-old [Lake Hodges Dam] “unsatisfactory” and ordered water levels lowered — not because of a proven imminent failure, but based on theoretical earthquake models that never tested the dam’s unique multi-arch structure. What they didn’t factor in was the much greater and well-documented risk of wildfire in the exposed lakebed. That single decision — keeping Hodges 13 feet lower than safe, historic norms — has already forced the release of 12 billion gallons of our cheapest water source. If stored and used, that water could have saved ratepayers $109 million to $120 million compared to desalinated water, or $46.6 million to $54 million compared to Pure Water San Diego. Instead, we’ve been buying high-priced imported or desal water — driving up water rates and, inevitably, the cost of housing and development. Meanwhile, those artificially low levels have created 500 acres of dry, invasive grasses with moisture content under 5% — a ready-made runway for the next Santa Ana wind-driven fire. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Michael Smolens: Water chief keeps focused on long game amid rate-hike heat
“Disputes over water have been a constant in California history, and San Diego is going through a particularly rough patch on that front these days. At the center of the current maelstrom is Dan Denham, general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority. Often the fights have been over water availability, but that’s not the case here. The county has plenty. That was by design, the result of an effort launched a quarter-century ago to ensure water security for the region after the threat of devastating reductions during a drought in the 1990s. In fact, San Diego now has too much water. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Along the Colorado River …
New idea for the Colorado River hits old roadblocks
“Three months after officials introduced a concept to revive stalled negotiations over the Colorado River, that concept has run into the same pitfalls that sank previous ideas, leaving the river on a course for federal intervention as reservoir levels plunge. Speakers at the Colorado River Water Conservation District’s annual water seminar in Grand Junction on Friday said the new concept still falters because it would require Colorado and other upper basin states — New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — to commit to some restrictions on their water use during dry years. “(Lower Basin leaders) are insisting that the Upper Basin is the problem in getting to an agreement because we’re refusing to take mandatory cuts,” said Andy Mueller, general manager of the river district. … ” Read more from Aspen Daily News.
Paying farmers proves most cost effective way to conserve Colorado River, study says
“The most cost-effective and quickest way to conserve the Colorado River’s shrinking water supply amid persistent drought and rapid population growth is changing how states handle the largest use of water on the river: agriculture. Agriculture uses about 80% of the river’s water, but the good news is that paying farmers not to use water allotted to them has proved to be remarkably cost-effective. That’s according to a comprehensive study examining 462 federally funded Colorado River conservation and supply projects using available spending data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The study, published in the Journal of the American Water Resources Association last week, was conducted by UC Riverside’s School of Public Policy in partnership with the Utah Rivers Council. The water projects examined – ranging from large-scale infrastructure such as reservoirs and wastewater treatment plants to agricultural water use – totaled about $1 billion in federal funding between 2004 and 2024. “How much water is actually being saved for every dollar we are spending?” asks Mehdi Nemati, an assistant professor of public policy, co-author of the study. “If we want to be more efficient or gain more water saved per dollar spent, then answering this question matters.” … ” Read more from the Nevada Current.
Human emissions are helping fuel the Southwest’s epic drought
“The American Southwest has been gripped by an epic drought that has lasted decades and strained the fast-growing region’s naturally limited water resources. … Long before humans began altering the climate with greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, the Southwest was subject to feast-or-famine weather featuring extreme dry spells, raising the possibility that this current drought is just part of that natural variability. What scientists are exploring now is how the human touch is imprinted on the drought due to our ongoing transformation of the climate, atmosphere and oceans. Three recent scientific studies identify human emissions as a key driver in the precipitation declines that have helped cause the Southwest’s current drought, which has been made much worse by rising temperatures due to climate change. … ” Read more from the Water Desk.
Pinal water leaders see big challenge in Colorado River talks
“Sharing is hard even — perhaps especially — between siblings: the last chocolate chip cookie, the favorite red shirt or in some cases, an entire room. So how might discussions go among seven states, Native American reservations and Mexico while the federal government plays referee, and the thing being shared is the most precious resource on our planet? Not well. Pinal water leaders privy to the ongoing discussions to renew previous plans dividing up Colorado River allotments between the Lower Basin States — Arizona, California and Nevada — and the Upper Basin States — Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — are not optimistic about meeting the December 2026 deadline. They surmise that the White House might need to get involved. Both Pinal County Supervisor Steve Miller and state Sen. T.J. Shope, R-Coolidge, say is what they’re looking to as a priority. The previous water-related priority for the county and state, the ag-to-urban program, took effect on Sept. 26 and began taking applications. … ” Read more from Pinal Central.
Zebra mussels threaten infrastructure and native ecosystems. Colorado ramps up efforts to contain them
“Zebra mussels cause damage to both native aquatic habitats and human infrastructure. Colorado Parks and Wildlife has been increasing its efforts to defect the bivalve ever since it was first discovered in the state in 2022. It’s a bluebird day at West and East Lake in Grand Junction, and Maddie Baker is throwing a plankton tow net into the water, and dragging it back to her. “This is made of a 64 micrometer mesh, so that allows us to trap the veligers in their juvenile form, where they are microscopic and invisible to the eye,” she explains. Baker is an invasive species specialist for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. A veliger is the larval form of many kinds of mollusks, including the invasive — and pervasive — zebra mussel. Baker doesn’t have to tow the plankton net to know the mussels are here. She picks mussel after mussel off of a concrete platform that gives anglers access to the lake. … ” Read more from KUNC.
In national water news today …
Sector applauds introduction of bipartisan water system resilience bill
“Water sector groups are reacting favorably to the reintroduction of the Water Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability Act. The bipartisan legislation would fund upgrades to drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure and make them more resilient against threats ranging from cyberattacks to extreme weather. The bill was introduced in the House of Representatives last month by Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-N.J.), Rep. Troy Carter (D-La.) and Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.). The Water Infrastructure Resilience and Sustainability Act would reauthorize the following three water infrastructure resilience programs from Fiscal Year 2027 to Fiscal Year 2031 at current authorization levels … ” Read more from Water Finance & Management.
