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.
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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 Paso Robles Area Groundwater Authority needs help funding
its operating costs next year. On Monday, the agency’s Board of
Directors approved a budget of $944,952 for fiscal year 2025-26
— with a $300,000 shortfall for costs planned for January to
June of next year. The agency’s Board of Directors was
forced to abandon water use fees after a majority of property
owners objected to them this year. Now, the agency is looking
for other ways to cover its operating costs. … On
Monday, the board voted unanimously to ask the four
participating Groundwater Sustainability Agencies to contribute
a combined total of $300,000 to bridge the funding gap.
University of Arizona researchers are testing natural plant
additives called biostimulants to help lettuce farms in Yuma
grow more crops with less water during the peak growing season.
The research comes as drought threatens the Colorado
River, Arizona’s primary water source. Yuma County
supplies about 90% of the leafy greens Americans eat from
November through March. … [Assistant Professor Ali] Mohammed
found that pairing biostimulants with smart irrigation sensors
and organic farming techniques significantly boosted crop
yields. He estimates this combination could allow Yuma’s
organic farms to skip a few watering cycles during the growing
season, potentially saving 1 to 2 inches of water per
acre.
… Iran’s escalating water and environmental problems are the
predictable outcome of decades of treating the region’s finite
water resources as if they were limitless. … Iran has
relied heavily on water-intensive irrigation to grow food in
dry landscapes and subsidized water and energy use, resulting
in overpumping from aquifers and falling groundwater supplies.
… The country needs to start to decouple its economy
from water consumption by investing in sectors that generate
value and employment opportunities with minimal water
use. Agricultural water consumption can be reduced by
producing higher-value, less water-intensive crops, taking into
account food security, labor market and cultural
considerations.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has unveiled
preliminary flood maps for Butte County and the City of Chico,
highlighting revised flood hazards along various sources in the
region. These maps aim to assist building officials,
contractors and homeowners in making informed mitigation
decisions, fostering safer and more disaster-resilient
communities. Before the new Flood Insurance Rate Maps
(FIRMs) take effect, a 90-day appeal period will run from Dec.
3, 2025, to March 3, 2026. During this time, residents or
businesses with technical and scientific data, such as detailed
hydraulic or hydrologic information, can challenge the flood
risk details on the preliminary maps.
On November 19, 2025, the Klamath Tribes filed a motion to
amend their petition in the Circuit Court of Klamath County.
The amended petition seeks to reverse recent illegal orders
that replaced a long-time administrative law judge in the
Klamath Basin Adjudication (KBA) on the heels of a secret deal
cut between the Oregon State Office of Administrative Hearings
and certain water users in the Upper Klamath Basin.
… The KBA is a several-decades-old lawsuit pending in
the Circuit Court of Klamath County. It is quantifying the
federal reserved water rights of the Klamath Tribes in the
Klamath River Basin.
Many thousands of fall-run Chinook salmon migrated beneath the
Golden Gate Bridge into the upper Sacramento River to spawn
this fall. About 100 of the adult fish carried small tags that
signaled their location as they went. A monitoring network
tracked the fish, showing their progress online in real time as
part of a joint project by scientists at NOAA Fisheries and UC
Santa Cruz. They followed adult salmon through the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into
Central Valley Rivers and their tributaries. … The
research is funded by California’s State Water Board to learn
more about how water temperatures influence the salmon that
support valuable commercial and recreational fisheries.
Deep in the heart of the Tijuana River Valley is a small
commune of growers who thrive despite being in an area that has
been described as “an environmental disaster.” The site is
known as the Tijuana River Valley Community Garden, which is
owned by the County of San Diego and managed by a private
contractor. … One concern is whether the food grown by
[grower Ed] Whited and the others is safe for consumption,
considering the amount of contamination in the area, especially
with the heavily-polluted Tijuana River next door. “Our worst
problem here is the flooding,” he said. “The river runs right
by here; if a plant is touched by water or potentially touched
by water, it’s no longer edible or considered edible and it’s a
complete loss.”
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.
Today, Congresswoman Norma Torres and Congressman David Valadao
– members of the House Appropriations Committee – announced the
introduction of the bipartisan Removing Nitrate and Arsenic in
Drinking Water Act. This bill would amend the Safe Drinking
Water Act to provide grants for nitrate and arsenic reduction,
by providing $15 million for FY25 and every fiscal year
thereafter. The bill also directs the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take into consideration the needs of
economically disadvantaged populations impacted by drinking
water contamination. The California State Water Resources
Control Board found the Inland Empire to have the highest
levels of contamination of nitrate throughout the state
including 82 sources in San Bernardino, 67 sources in Riverside
County, and 123 sources in Los Angeles County.
