A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation Writer Matt Jenkins.
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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.
The Interior Department unveiled Thursday the first iteration
of a new public tool for mapping federal lands and waters,
rolling out a unified “national map” with boundaries used by
five agencies. The U.S. Geological Service led creation of the
digital map to meet requirements laid out by Congress in the
“Modernizing Access to Our Public Land (MapLand) Act” signed
into law in 2022. That legislation directed Interior to
standardize data on federal lands across five agencies: the
Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, Bureau of Land
Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest
Service. Congress subsequently passed the “Modernizing
Access to Our Public Waters (MAPWaters) Act,” which was signed
into law in late 2025, which applied similar requirements to
federally managed waters.
… At an outpost on state-owned land in the eastern mountain
range, a rotating cast of volunteers lent their hands and help
in service of the mission, a collaboration between the Arizona
Game and Fish Department and the Amphibian and Reptile
Conservancy, to create wetlands for a creature that
many people have never seen: Chiricahua leopard frogs.
… The frogs will also share their new wetlands with
other fauna, like bighorn sheep, deer and birds, all of which
need access towater resources in an
increasingly arid Southwest where drought, groundwater
depletion and wildfire are transforming the
landscape.The project depends on the
promise of summer storms.
Three top-level personnel changes at two San Joaquin Valley
water agencies have come with significant compensation
packages, according to employment documents reviewed by SJV
Water. Starting salaries for the three new hires range from
$360,000 to $400,000 a year, with likely increases for each
after the first year. The three, connected personnel changes
started in January when Johnny Amaral was promoted to Chief
Executive Officer of Friant Water Authority from his previous
position of Chief Operating Officer for the authority. In
March, Eric Limas, formerly General Manager of the Lower Tule
River and Pixley irrigation districts, was hired to fill
Amaral’s COO position at Friant. A month later, attorney
Alex Peltzer was hired as General Manager for the Lower Tule
and Pixley districts. All three are key positions in the
southern valley and Tulare County, which is reflected in the
compensation.
The Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) approved $80,450,797 in
grants for 23 projects across 16 counties to protect
biodiversity, restore wildlife habitat and expand public access
to nature. The board met today at the California Natural
Resources Agency headquarters in Sacramento. Among these, seven
projects advance the California Salmon Strategy for a Hotter,
Drier Future(external link), restoring floodplains,
improving stream function and enhancing habitat for
coho salmon, Chinook salmon and steelhead trout. Projects also
include investments in wildlife corridors, wildfire resiliency,
wildlife-oriented recreation and butterfly pollinators.
In a single-paragraph assent this week, the U.S. Supreme Court
accepted a deal between Texas and New Mexico, ending the
13-year lawsuit between the states and the federal government
over the waters of the Rio Grande. With the dismissal of
the case, the deal establishes new rules in the stretch of Rio
Grande below Elephant Butte, an area reshaped by water scarcity
and agriculture. Among other agreements, the parties will
divide irrigation water into a 57-43% split, with the majority
going to New Mexico farmers. The agreement also mandates less
groundwater pumping by New Mexico. … Under the
settlement, New Mexico will need to reduce groundwater
pumping in the Lower Rio Grande by 18,200 acre-feet
within the next 10 years.
Senate Bill 583, passed by the California Legislature and
signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2024, created the
Salton Sea Conservancy (SSC), the first state conservancy
created in the last 15 years. On April 10, the governor
announced the inaugural appointees to the conservancy board.
… The initial 22 conservancy board members—15 voting
members, and seven ex-officio members—include state and
regional agency, department and non-governmental organization
representatives, including two local longtime advocates for
long-term solutions: Castulo Estrada, a member of the Coachella
Valley Water District Board of Directors and a 12-year member
of the Salton Sea Authority; and Silvia Paz, founder and
executive director of Alianza Coachella Valley. The Independent
spoke with both of them about the role the SSC will play.
The “Our Water: Innovations and Collaborations in Arizona”
exhibit at Northern Arizona University was created and
sponsored by the Arizona Water for All (AW4A) Program.
AW4A is an initiative that brings together Arizona’s three
state universities and community partners across the state. The
exhibit is focused on water on the Colorado Plateau and the
role of collaboration in managing water issues. The team behind
the project invited local artists to contribute work and
collaborated with local water professionals to create
informational panels highlighting water partnerships in
northern Arizona.
The U.S. Supreme Court has approved a settlement package
designed to rein in groundwater pumping along one of North
America’s longest rivers and ensure enough water reliably makes
it from New Mexico to Texas, ending a long-running dispute over
management of the Rio Grande. In a brief order Tuesday, the
court accepted the recommendation of a special master to move
forward with agreements first proposed last year by New Mexico,
Texas and Colorado. The settlement calls for
reducing groundwater pumping along the dwindling river
and retiring water rights from irrigated farmland in
southern New Mexico. … While the Colorado
River gets all the headlines, experts say the
situation along the Rio Grande is just as dire. Stretches of
the river as far north as Albuquerque are expected to go dry
again this year, marking the third time in five years.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
