Focus
Every drop counts: Urban water retailers and the future of California water conservation
Allen Matkins - June 18
Beginning January 1, 2025, the “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” regulatory framework requires urban retail water suppliers — not individual households or businesses — to adopt a series of “urban water use objectives.” And beginning January 1, 2027, the regulations require urban retail water suppliers to annually demonstrate compliance with those objectives. The objectives are calculated based on indoor residential water use; outdoor residential water use; commercial, industrial, and institutional irrigation use; and potable reuse.
News
Newsom’s plan to give water agencies more leeway in meeting rules moves forward
Los Angeles Times – July 24
California regulators are supporting a controversial plan backed by Governor Gavin Newsom — and opposed by environmental groups — that would give water agencies more leeway in how they comply with water quality rules. The approach is included as part of a proposed water plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, released by the State Water Resources Control Board on July 24. The plan would give water agencies two potential pathways to comply with water quality goals — either a traditional regulatory approach based on limiting water withdrawals to maintain certain river flow levels, or an alternative approach supported by the governor in which water agencies, under negotiated agreements, would make certain water flow commitments while contributing funding for wetland habitat restoration projects and other measures. The State Water Resources Control Board plans to hold a public hearing on the draft plan Sept. 8-9 and will be accepting written comments until Sept. 10.
Colorado River states see possible breakthrough as deadline looms
E&E News – June 26
Members of the Upper Colorado River Commission — which represents Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming — announced on June 26 that the states are weighing a new method of sharing the waterway based on the actual flow of the river, as opposed to projected flows and historical agreements. The plan was proposed by the Lower Basin states of Arizona, California, and Nevada, said Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s Colorado River commissioner and acting chair of the Upper Colorado River. A series of existing agreements that govern the waterway are set to expire next year, and a new agreement must be in place by Oct. 1, 2026, which marks the start of the 2027 water year.
California’s highest court to hear Kern River case
SJV Water – July 16
For the first time in more than 100 years, the Kern River is headed back to the California Supreme Court where justices may overturn or uphold an order mandating flows be kept in the riverbed through Bakersfield. The high court announced on July 16 that it would grant review of a 5th District Court of Appeal’s ruling that overturned a Kern County Superior Court judge’s order mandating water be kept in the river for fish. Environmental groups sued the City of Bakersfield in 2022 asking the court to order the city to study the impact of how it operates the river on the environment and public access.
DWR and Water Board propose key updates to desalination policy framework
Allen Matkins – June 18
As climate variability and drought continue to challenge California’s water supply, the state is renewing its focus on seawater desalination as part of a diversified water portfolio. While only a handful of large-scale desalination facilities have been approved along the California coast — including the Carlsbad, Dana Point, and Marina plants — desalinated water remains a small but potentially expandable component of the state’s water strategy. Over the past year, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and State Water Resources Control Board (Water Board) have taken significant steps to evaluate and update the regulatory and planning frameworks that govern these projects.
California groundwater levels see another bump — but long-term trend still grim
San Francisco Chronicle – June 24
California saw a notable bump in groundwater supplies in 2024, marking a second straight year that the crucial underground reserve wasn’t drawn down by cities and farms, new state data shows. Moderately wet weather, in combination with efforts to proactively recharge aquifers and limit pumping, is largely responsible for a gain of 2.2 million acre-feet of water across the dozens of groundwater basins tracked by the state. The increase is equal to about half of what can be held in California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake. While the increase is modest, it comes amid a decades long slide in groundwater reserves.
Meager snowpack adds to Colorado River’s woes, straining flows to Southern California
Los Angeles Times – May 30
Many of California’s reservoirs have filled nearly to capacity this year with runoff from the ample snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. But the situation is very different along the Colorado River, another vital water source for Southern California, where a dry spring has shrunk the amount of runoff streaming into reservoirs. The latest forecast from the federal Colorado Basin River Forecast Center shows that the river’s flows into Lake Powell probably will be about 46% of average over the next three months.
Southern Nevada data centers used a ton of water in 2024. Here’s how
Las Vegas Review-Journal – July 18
In Nevada, the country’s driest state, the recent growth of generative artificial intelligence has put increased attention on data centers’ power demands and the water needed to cool servers. This comes as Lake Mead risks hitting crisis levels, and more groundwater has been signed away in parts of Northern Nevada than is actually available.
California lawmakers decline to audit $20 billion Delta water tunnel
The Sacramento Bee – June 19
California’s state auditor will not investigate the state’s controversial Delta Conveyance Project, which would divert water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta down to farms and consumers in Southern California. Despite the proposal receiving some bipartisan support, lawmakers on the Joint Legislative Audit Committee stopped short of recommending the project be audited. The Delta Conveyance project is still accruing permits from various agencies, and according to CalMatters, state officials said the build could start by 2029.
Officials raise alarm over growing groundwater shortage in Sonoma Valley
The Sonoma Index-Tribune – July 16
El Verano and eastern Sonoma Valley face worsening groundwater shortages, leading officials to designate those regions as Groundwater Sustainability Priority Areas requiring stronger conservation efforts. The Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency made the announcement in June following years of observing the continuously declining water levels in the Valley’s deep aquifers, some of which have dropped by nearly 100 feet over the last decade.
How much water is available for groundwater recharge in the Central Valley?
PPIC – June 26
Many California groundwater basins remain far from their recharge goals, and since 2023, discussion has intensified on how to augment recharge without harming other water users or the environment. PPIC’s high-level look at conditions in 2023 in the Central Valley—California’s largest watershed—illustrates how much water would be needed to comply with environmental regulations in the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and how much might have been made available for other purposes, including groundwater recharge.
A new invader threatens California water supplies. Can the state stop its spread?
CalMatters – July 15
State water managers last October discovered golden mussels, which are native to China and Southeast Asia, in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River, marking the first known detection of the species in North America. The mussels have already infiltrated California’s two major state and federal water systems, and their larvae are spreading through the network of pumps, pipes, and canals. The mussels cannot be eradicated. Water suppliers bracing for the onslaught have instead turned their efforts to shoring up pipes, pumps, and treatment plants against the infestation.
Arizona approves ‘ag-to-urban’ water conservation plan
Courthouse News Service – June 30
In a bipartisan compromise, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs approved a program estimated to conserve nearly 10 million acre-feet of water and facilitate thousands of new housing developments across central Arizona. Senate Bill 1611 creates a voluntary program for farmers in the Phoenix and Pinal County active management areas to sell portions of their land and the accompanying water rights to developers to build new urban communities with a lower demand than the previous agricultural use.
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