Aquafornia

Overview

Aquafornia
Water news you need to know

A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Vik Jolly

Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.

For breaking news, follow us on X (Twitter).

Please Note:

  • Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.
  • We occasionally bold words in the text to ensure the water connection is clear.
  • The headlines below are the original headlines used in the publication cited at the time they are posted here and do not reflect the stance of the Water Education Foundation, an impartial nonprofit that remains neutral.
Aquafornia news Times-Standard (Eureka, Calif.)

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: ‘Protecting the lifeblood of our people’; Klamath tributary bill signed into law

… [A] bill was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom that would keep emergency flow regulations in place for two Klamath tributaries. Supporters hailed the new law as essential for protecting salmon habitat and tribal rights. The Scott and Shasta rivers, major Klamath tributaries, have been under emergency drought regulations for years. Siskiyou County farmers, who pushed against the bill through lobbying associations, were required to limit water take to keep minimum flows in place after fish populations plummeted during a drought from 2020 to 2023. 

Other Klamath River Basin news:

Aquafornia news Aspen Public Radio (Colo.)

October marks the start of the new water year. Here’s what forecasters are looking out for on the Colorado River

October 1 marks the start of Water Year 2026. Hydrologists and water experts use October as the start of the water year, especially in the Western United States, when the majority of precipitation shifts from rain to mountain snow, and snowpack begins accumulating. … Much of the Upper Colorado River Basin will be entering Water Year 2026 in some state of drought. On October 1, 2024, only 7% of the Upper Colorado River Basin was experiencing drought conditions. 

Other wet season forecast news:

Aquafornia news SJV Water (Bakersfield, Calif.)

Kern County supervisor predicts “death of SGMA” after groundwater bill is tabled

A pair of bills that arose out of the ongoing fight over groundwater in eastern Kern County’s desert have come to very different conclusions – one awaiting the Governor’s signature and the other tabled indefinitely. Both bills address a process known as groundwater adjudication, in which a judge decides how much water is available in a basin and then assigns pumping rights to various users. These cases can go on for up to 10 years as courts sift through rights going back more than 100 years and try to find and engage with every pumper in the disputed region.

Other groundwater news:

Aquafornia news The San Diego Union-Tribune

Big San Diego water rate hikes are ‘crucial,’ budget experts warn ahead of vote

As San Diego council members prepare to vote on major water and sewer rate hikes, the city’s independent budget analyst warns that higher rates are all but unavoidable in order to keep the Public Utilities Department afloat — and that not raising rates would hurt customers in other ways. The City Council is scheduled to vote on Tuesday on a proposal that could raise water rates for San Diego customers by more than 60% and sewer rates by more than 30% over the next four years. … Without additional revenue, the IBA predicts that the PUD will need to cut its expenses by slashing either its operating costs — likely by cutting staff — or its spending on capital improvements.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news The Sacramento Bee

As the government nears a shutdown, here’s how Californians will see the impact

… Get ready for a partial federal government shutdown, starting at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, that promises to be unlike any other. … Go to the budget office’s website and you’ll be referred to specific agencies, where some detail their plans and some don’t. … Rep. Doris Matsui, D-Sacramento, noted that, based on past shutdowns, the EPA will suspend inspections at the “most hazardous waste sites, as well as drinking water and chemical facilities.” She also warned that efforts to address PFAS — often referred to as “forever chemicals” that are linked to potential health risks, including cancer — could face delays during the shutdown.

Other government shutdown news:

Aquafornia news KJZZ (Phoenix)

Arizona cities are taking different approaches to regulate large water users like data centers

A number of Arizona cities have adopted rules restricting water deliveries to users who use a lot of water. … The notion of large water users is often thought to be targeted at data centers, which are top of mind for many Arizonans at the moment. But they can also include places like golf courses and some manufacturing facilities. A new study looks at the kinds of rules cities have imposed, and it found that cities have, by and large, taken different approaches. Sarah Porter is director of the Kyl Center for Water Policy at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for Public Policy. She joined The Show to talk more about what the research shows.

Other data center water use news:

Aquafornia news Public Policy Institute of California

Blog: Environmental restoration gets a boost in California

Ecosystem restoration is an effective way to improve conditions for recreation, wildlife, and more. Yet permitting—while necessary for ensuring projects are well designed and beneficial—has long slowed restoration projects across California. Is that now shifting? We spoke with the State Water Board’s Paul Hann and Sustainable Conservation’s Erika Lovejoy about a new general order that’s changing the game.

Other environmental restoration news:

Aquafornia news Big Pivots

Blog: These ‘Traveling Wilburys’ of the Colorado River are being heard

… An ad hoc group of six Colorado River experts began assembling reports in 2025. They have been dubbed the Traveling Wilburys of the Colorado River Basin. … Big Pivots convened a conversation with several of the report authors on Sept. 18, a week after their latest report had been issued. …That report delivered the numbers that collectively showed dramatically increased risk during the upcoming two years of the dams on the Colorado River becoming dysfunctional.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

Aquafornia news The Sacramento Bee

Half a billion dollars for a sinking California highway? Gavin Newsom may OK it

Gov. Gavin Newsom may greenlight a half-billion-dollar effort to widen a North Bay highway [Highway 37] that Caltrans has acknowledged is sinking under its own weight. … [T]he sinking expressway was surrounded by sinking levees, which could be overwhelmed by the more intense and more frequent storms already occurring due to climate change. … The highway blocks flows into and out of the wetland habitat, cutting off healthy functions of the ecosystem. … Caltrans has agreed to open up more channels under the roadway, raise the bridge over Tolay Creek in Sonoma County and open the channel underneath to allow more movement of water.

Other marsh sinking news:

Aquafornia news The New Lede

Industry, environmental groups spar over California bill to ban PFAS in cookware

As US states increasingly pass laws to limit PFAS chemicals in consumer products, a debate is heating up over a California bill that proposes banning the sale of cookware with intentionally added “forever chemicals” beginning in 2030. intentionally added PFAS beginning in January 2028. … The bill’s supporters argue that PTFE from cookware adds to the flow of forever chemicals in household waste, adding to the costly public burden of treating PFAS-tainted wastewater. … A coalition of cookware industry leaders, however, is pushing back against similar proposed bans across the country.

Other PFAS and microplastics news:

Aquafornia news SFGate

Illegal dredging operations discovered at several California waterways

Five individuals have been caught illegally mining along several California waterways, state officials announced. According to a Sept. 26 news release from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the citations began in August of last year, when authorities found someone operating a suction dredge — a powerful tool that sucks materials out of underwater cracks and crevices — on the Salmon River. … According to the CDFW, this motorized equipment can harm fish and their native habitat by releasing contaminants, causing erosion and potentially creating more favorable conditions for the invasive signal crayfish.

Aquafornia news Grist

California extends cap-and-trade, as Indigenous nations grapple with the trade-offs

… [L]ast week, California Governor Gavin Newsom extended the state’s cap-and-trade program until 2045. … [T]he [Yurok] tribe has now received tens of millions of dollars in carbon credit sales, boosting its economy and funding environmental projects like recovery work on the Klamath River in the wake of dam removal. But critics of carbon markets remain staunchly opposed to the programs, alleging that the scheme perpetuates colonialism, incentivizes the theft of Indigenous resources, and allows companies to essentially pay to keep polluting without having to change their activities.

Aquafornia news The New Lede

How Big Sugar pushed fluoride — new study alleges a century of spin

The sugar industry and companies that make sweet drinks and foods have spent nearly a century downplaying sugar’s role in health problems and distorting the science around fluoride — and the practice continues today, according to a new study.  The study, published in the journal Environmental Health, adds to evidence that the industry promoted fluoride as the solution to tooth decay to avoid scrutiny over sugar’s role. … The findings come as two states — Utah and Florida — and dozens of communities have banned fluoride in public water.

Related article:

Aquafornia news The Story Exchange

Blog: An innovator in pest control has her sights on invasive species

After 35 years of working in organic pest control, serial entrepreneur Pam Marrone is on a new mission to eradicate invasive species using alternatives to terrible chemicals. In particular, she’s on a quest for what she calls “the holy grail” – an eco-friendly herbicide that will zap out non-native weeds. “We have the team that can really execute it,” says Marrone, whose 2-year-old startup, Invasive Species Corp., known as ISC, is already helping the state of California find a sustainable way to deal with golden mussels, which clog waterways and damage water treatment facilities. “There’s nobody doing exactly what we’re doing with invasive species.”

Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

Monday Top of the Scroll: How the first major Pacific storm of the rainy season will impact California

The first major Pacific storm of the wet season is forecast to wallop the West Coast. … Some Bay Area cities could record their wettest September day in decades. Showers will remain in the forecast Monday through at least Wednesday. … Rain showers are expected to linger across Northern California on Tuesday, where snow may mix in at the summits of Tahoe ski resorts. … Although the rain probably won’t be enough to completely end fire season in most places, it should moisten vegetation considerably and lower fire risk significantly, especially in the Coastal Ranges and northern Sierra.

Other wet season forecast news:

Aquafornia news KGW8 (Portland, Ore.)

Chinook salmon seen passing upper Klamath River dam for the first time since lower dams removed

Video captured a Chinook salmon successfully summiting the fish ladder at an upper Klamath River dam this week, according to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife — the first known instance since the removal of four lower dams last year. The video comes from Keno Dam, located just southwest of Klamath Falls. Salmon were previously spotted on the Keno Dam fish ladders last year, but this is the first time one’s been spotted passing the dam. The camera was installed just the day before. 

Other dam news:

Aquafornia news The Center Square

Data center energy and water needs raise concerns

Data center companies want to triple Nevada’s energy capacity to meet the power demands of a rapidly growing industry. … But the new demand comes at an awkward time for Nevada. Water access in the state is under severe threat by a dwindling Colorado River. Water by the hundreds of millions of gallons is commonly used by data centers to effectively cool the hard working computers. While a law to ban the most water wasteful centers — referred to as evaporative cooling —  was shot down in 2024, no such data centers have been approved since February of last year.

Other data center water use news:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

As Trump eyes overhauling FEMA, Californians’ flood insurance at risk

More than half a million Californians live among waterways in low-lying towns of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … [T]housands of homeowners in the region are insured against flooding thanks to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), which backs policies sold by private insurers. … But the flood insurance program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Trump administration says that agency is in need of a major overhaul. … The flood insurance program might even be eliminated, experts say. 

Other federal funding news:

Aquafornia news Arizona Capitol Times (Phoenix)

Opinion: Arizona’s water future – ‘Ag to Urban’ is a good start

… In July, the Legislature passed, and Governor Katie Hobbs signed, an unprecedented law to authorize the transfer of groundwater rights from agricultural to urban use within Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties. This framework legislation – called “Ag to Urban” – enables farmers in these three counties to sell and transfer their groundwater rights to the home building industry. … To gain the necessary majority for passage, Ag to Urban contains a significant limitation: the credits made available to home builders can be used only within a one-mile radius of the farmland being retired from production, thereby ensuring that local communities will retain a continuing share in ongoing regional development.
–Written by Bruce Babbitt, a former governor of Arizona and former U.S. secretary of the interior under President Bill Clinton.

Other groundwater regulation news around the West:

Aquafornia news SFGate

This SoCal water was once bottled and sold. Now it’s returning to nature.

… Last summer, Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife, or CLAW, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority purchased the approximately 2.5-acre parcel that’s home to Laurel Spring for $1 million after two months of intense and hurried fundraising. … The property near the corner of Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Lookout Mountain Avenue is home to a spring and stream that flow year-round, providing a valuable water source for species … which are dealing with increased habitat fragmentation from development and roadways that can make accessing the Santa Monica Mountains’ limited water sources even more difficult.