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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: Secretary Speaker Series: Climate Change and the Future of Our Delta from 12pm to 1pm. Groundbreaking science is helping regions across California adapt to climate change and its impacts. No place demonstrates this more than the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. This huge estuary is a hub for water supply, agriculture, recreation, and cultural heritage. It is also under grave threat from climate impacts including sea level rise and weather whiplash. Join us to unpack how emerging scientific research is shaping innovative strategies to protect the Delta’s communities, agriculture, infrastructure, and world-renowned biodiversity in coming decades. Click here to register.
- IN-PERSON: Science Storytelling with the San Francisco Estuary Institute in Berkeley beginning at 5:30pm. Surfing the East Bay mud. Chasing midnight storms. Sharing invisible maps. Join us for an evening of science storytelling with ten environmental scientists from the San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI). In five minutes or less, each will share insider perspectives on what it takes to study and protect the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay. Expect to be surprised, inspired, and reminded of the wonder in our own backyard. This event is free and open to all. Please choose the free admission to register and the donation ticket to contribute to SFEI and help make this event possible. No physical ticket is necessary for entry. Click here to register.
In California water news today …
This collaboration between farmers, water officials and environmentalists is saving wildlife
“Water policy in California is defined by fighting. Water agencies, farmers, cities and environmentalists argue over every last drop available in the state’s overdrawn water system. Plans to fix the system languish for decades, and if they’re implemented, they end up in court for many more years. The Floodplain Forward Coalition has broken out of that paradigm. Floodplain Forward brings together conservation groups such as Audubon, California Trout and Ducks Unlimited, agricultural interests such as the California Rice Commission, water providers and other interest groups to work on some of the state’s biggest water problems. Members of Floodplain Forward say the stakes are high in the effort to address issues such as habitat loss for fish and waterbirds. To take one high-profile example, the endangered status of the Chinook salmon has led state officials to consider reducing agricultural and municipal water use on the Sacramento River watershed to provide more water for fish. … ” Read more from Comstock’s Magazine.
Inside California’s salmon survival toolkit
“California’s Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is doing something rare for a state agency: teaming up with the powerful Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the fishing industry to rethink how and when hatchery salmon are released. The goal is simple but ambitious—diversify release strategies so more fish survive a warming, heavily managed river system. To understand the shift, I spoke with Jay Rowan, CDFW’s chief of the Fisheries Branch. He says one of the main constraints on Central Valley fall-run Chinook—especially in drought years—has been “poor egg-to-fry survival due to warm water temperatures below several of the major reservoirs during the first several weeks of spawning and incubation.” The trend line isn’t encouraging. “As the climate continues to warm,” Rowan notes, “these warm water conditions will become more frequent.” One pilot tactic is to use unfed hatchery fry to supplement natural production, with the hope that those fish will return to natural spawning grounds in wetter years and bolster wild runs. … ” Read more from The Platform.
As California’s storm season begins, weather office short-staffing prompts fears
“National Weather Service offices in California are scaling back operations ahead of the critical winter storm season, as federal cuts and staffing shortages take a toll. The California-Nevada River Forecast Center, which is run by the weather service and provides water managers with critical data to prevent river flooding, is seeing cutbacks that could end up “limiting the state’s ability to track … dangerous shifts in weather,” Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office said last week. Elsewhere, weather service scientists are stretched so thin that meteorologists in Los Angeles, San Diego and the San Francisco Bay Area are simultaneously forecasting waves at Pacific beaches and snow in the Sierra Nevada — far beyond their typical area of responsibility. The number of written forecasts issued by the Sacramento office, which watches for winter storms across the Northern Sierra, has plummeted since it announced cutbacks in April. The forecasts contain critical information that doesn’t exist elsewhere, and the decline has been noticeable, according to Daniel Swain, climate scientist at UC Agriculture and Natural Resources. … ” Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.
Following a cool and wet October, a much warmer and drier November to come across California
“2025 has been a decidedly strange weather year in California–starting with January’s devastating Los Angeles-region firestorms amid a record-dry 6-9 period (and following near-record wet conditions over the 1-2 years prior). The spring and early summer were notably cool by recent (climate-warmed) standards–in fact, some coastal and near-coastal locations saw their coolest start to summer in over 30 years. With a couple of modest exceptions, the rest of summer (though notably warmer, and in most cases slightly warmer than even the recent average) lacked episodes of extreme or statistically/historically exceptional daytime heat, though persistently above-average overnight temperatures became widespread starting later in August. The exceptional basin-wide North Pacific marine heatwave, meanwhile, did eventually make it all the way to the U.S. West Coast (including CA), where well above average near-shore and offshore temperatures persist even as of this writing. … ” Continue reading from Daniel Swain at Weather West.
Water technology experts, entrepreneurs share dreams for the industry
“Water technology entrepreneurs and consultants came together on Thursday morning for “Water is Life and Legacy,” a panel discussing the elements of a successful water tech startup. Hosted by former Stanford postdoctoral researchers Jinyu Guo, Ph.D. ’25 and Kindle Williams, the conversation, moderated by Williams, also shed light on the funding journeys of these startups. Guo and Williams are far from strangers to these topics. The pair founded water tech startup Recovered Potential, which removes and recovers nitrogen from wastewater, based on ideas developed during their time as postdocs at Stanford. … The panelists for the event included NOAH Water Solutions CEO Rik Van Meirhaeghe, Waterline CEO and founder Derek Bednarski, FLOWS Energy co-founder Jose “Pepe” Bolorinos Ph.D. ’21 and Confluence West CEO Kimery Wiltshire. The term “water technology” includes any innovations or systems that intersect with water supply or waste management, said Williams. Experts in both domains shared their challenges securing funding at the panel. … ” Read more from Stanford Daily.
Streamlining desalination to save drinking water
“In many areas of the world, including California, the demand for freshwater exceeds supply, and the effects of climate change are exacerbating the issue. More frequent and longer periods of drought mean communities that depend on rainfall for freshwater, such as Santa Cruz, are increasingly at risk of completely or severely depleting their freshwater supply. Additionally, as sea levels continue to rise in the coming decades, salt water is expected to intrude into fresh groundwater sources along the coasts, rendering the water undrinkable. In response to this pending crisis, UC Santa Cruz chemistry and biochemistry professor Yat Li is working on a logical solution for creating a sustainable freshwater supply: desalinization. There are a few ways to remove salt from seawater, but Li and his colleagues are focused on a method called capacitive deionization, which uses electrochemical technology. This method is particularly efficient for removing low amounts of salt from slightly salty, or brackish water, such as would be the case with contaminated groundwater supplies in coastal communities. With support from UCSC’s Center for Coastal Climate Resilience, Li’s team is applying 3D printing techniques to fabricate a scalable apparatus with high desalination efficiency. … ” Continue reading from UC Santa Cruz.
What California’s chemicals phase out means for procurement
“California has imposed strict health targets on perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS – synthetic compounds widely used in manufacturing for their resistance to heat, oil and water. Known informally as “forever chemicals” due to their persistence in the environment, PFAS accumulate in soil, water and the human body, creating regulatory, procurement and clean-up challenges for both public and private sectors. The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has now adopted new public health goals for two of the most studied PFAS compounds: perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS). These non-enforceable health targets complement legislative action under Assembly Bill 347, giving authorities broader enforcement tools to regulate PFAS use at the product level. The impact of these new thresholds is set to reverberate across supply chains and public infrastructure procurement, demanding long-term adjustments in material sourcing, testing and compliance management. … ” Read more from Procurement.
In regional water news and commentary today …
NORTH COAST
Salmon seen in Upper Klamath Basin for 1st time in century after historic Northern Calif. dam removal
“A year after the historic removal of four dams along the Klamath River in Northern California and Southern Oregon, Chinook salmon have cleared the waterway’s last remaining dams and returned to tributaries in the Upper Klamath Basin for the first time in over a century. In late September, a Chinook salmon was seen on video ascending a fish ladder at Keno Dam, one of the Klamath’s two remaining dams in the upper basin southwest of Klamath Falls. Since then, cameras and radio tags have confirmed the presence of salmon at various locations further upstream, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife announced on Oct. 17. This marks the salmon’s first return to the Upper Klamath Basin since the dams were built in the early 20th century. “I never thought in my lifetime, or especially in my parents’ lifetimes, that we would see the salmon back up in our area,” Klamath Tribal Chairman William E. Ray Jr. told SFGATE. … ” Read more from SF Gate.
Radio: Amy Cordalis on her family’s fight to save the Klamath River
“On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, Indigenous rights and environmental advocate Amy Bowers Cordalis discusses her new book, The Water Remembers: My Indigenous Family’s Fight to Save a River and a Way of Life. Cordalis chronicles a multigenerational struggle to protect Indigenous cultural heritage and the Klamath River from environmental damage, which led to the largest river restoration project in history. She writes: “The lessons from Klamath dam removal are critical now because the relationship between humans and nature is out of balance across the planet. Klamath dam removal proves that humans can work with nature to create a thriving future on planet earth. Dam removal is just the beginning. The Klamath dams embodied the legacy of the dark underbelly of the founding of this country that supported the industrialization of nature at the expense of Indigenous peoples, the environment, and marginalized communities. … ” Listen at KALW.
Project of the Year, Best Water/Environment: Klamath River Renewal Project
“The Klamath River Renewal project involved the removal of several dams in Northern California (and southern Oregon) over the span of just 16 months. In October 2024, the project was completed on budget and ahead of schedule, returning 35 river miles to natural habitat for the first time in over a century. Kiewit Infrastructure West Co., working for project owner Klamath River Renewal Corp. (KRRC), handled the demolition of 100,000 cu yd of concrete, 1.3 million cu yd of earth and 2,000 tons of steel in the removal of four dams—each unique—built between 1903 and 1962. “The work finished ahead of schedule and on budget,” says Dan Petersen, Kiewit project manager, “achieving a milestone that tribes, communities and federal, state and local stakeholders had pursued for decades. The project also involved multiple high-risk operations that required disciplined planning and execution to be carried out safely.” … ” Read more from Engineering News-Record.
SACRAMENTO VALLEY
Butte County to continue discussions on Five-Mile Basin flood prevention
“After weeks of removing biological materials from the Five-Mile Basin in September, Butte County is looking at long-term ways to prevent flooding in north Chico during major storm events. The Butte County Board of Supervisors is set to hear from its Public Works Director, Josh Pack, on Tuesday regarding future strategies for cleaning and maintaining the waterway and potentially restoring it as a means of mitigating flood risk to nearby communities. “This urgent initiative focused on targeted vegetation management and channel improvements in the Five-Mile Basin to address short-term flood concerns affecting the City of Chico and surrounding communities,” the related staff report said. “The project reduces flood risks, protects homes and infrastructure, and improves public safety ahead of the winter storm season while demonstrating the County’s commitment to environmental stewardship by balancing community safety with care for natural resources.” … ” Read more from the Chico Enterprise-Record.
Government shutdown hits sandhill cranes at a preserve near Sacramento
“The government shutdown has not had much effect on the human visitors at the Cosumnes River Preserve, but it may have a lasting impact on sandhill cranes and other birds that pass through this fall: Federal water bird counts in October were canceled. “That is a critically important piece of data that gets entered usually twice a month,” said Sally Galiste, who volunteers as a naturalist at the preserve, just west of Galt. Dozens of volunteers participate and determine which species are present in what numbers. “That is not happening, and that is not good, because if we can’t monitor and figure out where the birds are, how many are here, where they’re hanging out at, and all that, it’s hard.” … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
SAN JOAQUIN VALLEY
Workshops to help Fresno County well owners with registration upcoming
“Well owners from Kerman to Clovis are invited to several workshops being held by the North Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) from Oct. 29 to Nov 14 to learn how to register their wells with the agency. Well owners must register wells by Nov. 30 or they may incur a $100-per-well late fee, according to the GSA’s policy. North Kings is working to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which requires local agencies to bring overpumped aquifers into balance by 2040. Data on the locations and number of wells, among other information, within its boundaries will help in that process, according to the GSA. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
Are we in a La Niña? What it could mean for Southern California’s winter
“Officials are flagging that La Niña conditions, generally a driver of drier conditions for Southern California, are expected through winter, but what it means to a resident may be less about its immediate impact and more about what could follow, such as heightened wildfire threats. The Climate Prediction Center reported earlier in October that La Niña conditions are present and are favored to continue through December 2025 to February 2026, or the winter months. Zooming out, the state receives about half of its annual precipitation from December through February, according to the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. Slightly overlapping with this period is a 55% chance where conditions transition to ENSO-neutral, or when neither El Niño nor La Niña conditions are present, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. … ” Read more from the Desert Sun.
SAN DIEGO
Big water rate vote is coming
“We’re on the edge of our seats. Tomorrow the San Diego City Council will decide whether to charge San Diegans more for water over the next four years. As our MacKenize Elmer reported, not approving the rate increase could wreak havoc on the city’s Public Utilities Department. And while the San Diego County Water Authority’s leader said they won’t turn off the water if the city can’t pay its water bill, not paying up could cost the city a lot in fees. So, will they do it? … ” Read more from the Voice of San Diego.
New way to turn sewage into drinking water could transform San Diego’s Pure Water behemoth
“San Diego may shift the second phase of the city’s Pure Water sewage recycling system to a more efficient purification method that could save billions of dollars, preventing steep jumps in local sewer and water bills. The new method could dramatically change the size, scope and cost of the massive project’s Phase Two, which had been expected to be nearly twice as large as the nearly complete first phase. City officials say it could let them avoid building expensive pipelines to either San Vicente Reservoir or Lake Murray from a new purification plant to be built in Mission Valley. That change is possible because California recently loosened its purification rules to allow purified wastewater to be pumped directly into a water system, instead of being stored for months in reservoirs or underground basins. The rule change, which took effect last fall, came just as San Diego was already re-evaluating Phase Two of Pure Water, because conservation has depressed local water demand and construction costs have soared. … ” Read more from the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Along the Colorado River …
Arizona Water Infrastructure Finance Authority shaky on water funding
“It’s bad to be sitting on a pot of money if you’re a state agency in a tough budget year. That’s a lesson that board members of the obscure entity charged with finding new water supplies for drought-plagued Arizona learned over the past two years. Sitting on a pot of cash makes you a target when state lawmakers facing a budget shortfall for basic state services are looking around for places from which to grab it. Members of the board overseeing the Water Infrastructure Finance Authority have seen that happen already. And that has them trying to figure out how to spend what they do have — and quickly. … ” Read more from KAWC.
At packed meeting, Tucson residents ask Pima County to put a stop to latest Project Blue proposal
“Community members in Tucson packed the Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday asking them to put a stop to Project Blue — a data center proposed for a 290-acre swath of county land. A non-disclosure agreement obtained by the Arizona Luminaria show Amazon Web Services is the company behind the project. The Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 3-2 to approve the land sale in June, and the proposal next sat the city of Tucson — which needed to decide whether to annex the land and provide millions of gallons of city water to cool off computer systems inside the data center. City leaders rejected that proposal this summer amid public outcry. Now Project Blue’s developer, Beale Infrastructure, wants to use electricity for its cooling needs from Tucson Electric Power, or TEP. Speaking to supervisors Tuesday, Eliseo Gomez argued data centers pose public health risks. … ” Read more from KJZZ.
Almost 40% of Nevada groundwater wells are in decline, study says
“Nevada’s growing reliance on groundwater for irrigation and drinking water has led to significant declines in thousands of wells across the state, according to a recent study. The study, published in Hydrological Process, analyzed data from about 6,500 wells across Nevada and found that about 40% had significant declines over the last three decades amid intensifying drought and rising water demand – a decline that is expected to put groundwater dependent ecosystems in the state at serious risk. “That was a little surprising, we didn’t realize it was to that extent,” said Laurel Saito, water strategy director for The Nature Conservancy in Nevada and lead author of the study. Only about 15% of wells analyzed had increasing water level trends over that same time period. … ” Read more from the Nevada Current.
Utah high court backs rejection of Colorado water pipeline plan
“Utah’s high court has backed that state engineer’s decision to reject a proposal to pipe water from the Green River to Colorado’s Front Range. The project’s proponent is viewing the ruling as only a temporary setback. “Look, the court gave us a C-minus on a couple homework issues. We’ll resolve it and get our thesis straightened up and get on down the road,” Aaron Million, founder, CEO and chair of Water Horse Resources, LLC., said Friday in an interview. Gary Wockner with the group Save the Colorado is viewing the ruling differently. “While we weren’t involved in this court case, we’ve been fighting versions of this project for 15 years. The Utah Supreme Court’s ruling should be a nail in the coffin for the idea that Green River water can be diverted in Utah and piped across Wyoming over to Fort Collins, Colorado, to fuel the growing Denver megalopolis,” he said in a media statement. … ” Read more from the Grand Junction Sentinel.
River users, landowners and lawmakers revive decades-long debate over river access in Colorado
“Colorado’s rivers are bouncing with boats. Anglers are casting everywhere. “We are getting into places that have never been paddled before and the increase in demand since COVID is a huge explosion of people getting in the outdoors learning more about our state,” said Nik White, who teaches whitewater paddling skills on the Arkansas River, Clear Creek and the South Platte with nearly a third of his classes focused on packrafting, up from zero five years ago. And White — who has been teaching paddling for 15 years and owns a company called Whitewater Workshop — has seen a recent uptick in angry landowners. He’s got stories of property owners waving guns, chasing boaters and threatening paddlers as they walk around dangerous rapids. … ” Read more from the Colorado Sun.
In national water news today …
Drought is quietly pushing American cities toward a fiscal cliff
“The city of Clyde sits about two hours west of Fort Worth on the plains of north Texas. It gets its water from a lake by the same name a few miles away. Starting in 2022, scorching weather caused its levels to drop further and further. Within a year, officials had declared a water conservation emergency and, on August 1 of last year, they raised the warning level again. That meant residents rationing their spigot use even more tightly, especially lawn irrigation. The restrictions weren’t, however, the worst news that day: The city also missed two debt payments. Municipal bond defaults of any kind are extraordinarily rare, let alone those linked to a changing climate. But, with about 4,000 residents and an annual budget of under $10 million, Clyde has never had room to absorb surprises. So when poor financial planning collided with the prolonged dry spell, the city found itself stretched beyond its limits. The drought meant that Clyde sold millions of gallons less water, even as it imported more of it from neighboring Abilene, at about $1,200 per day. Worse, as the ground dried, it cracked, destroying a sewer main and bursting another, quarter-million dollar, hole in the town budget. … ” Read more from Grist.
Cemeteries: how the dead protect the wild
“It happens under shadow of night: a near-silent exodus as the dark horde creeps from the chilly waters and fans out across the cemetery grounds. Zombies? Vampires? Better yet, spotted salamanders. This annual migration from water to land is the culminating event for some very small residents of Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It requires a vernal pool (a temporary wetland that fills with water during wet seasons) — in this case, in a natural hollow. When the ice in the vernal pool thaws each spring, the spotted salamanders (Ambystoma maculatum) converge there to breed and lay eggs. After a couple months the larvae metamorphose and climb back up the hill. It’s an event celebrated by Mount Auburn staff and visitors alike. “The spotted salamander has cover under the plants and in the leaf debris, but also in crevices in some monuments. If we weren’t a cemetery, that habitat wouldn’t be available,” says Paul Kwiatkowski, who has served as the cemetery’s full-time ecologist since 1999. … ” Continue reading from The Revelator.
