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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On Jan. 9, 2026, the Central Nevada Water Authority board held
a meeting to discuss claims of vested water rights. Jeff
Fontaine, staff representative for Central Nevada Regional
Water Authority, presented new state law requirements for
formally claiming vested water rights. According
to Fontaine, vested water rights are “rights for water
that were put to beneficial use or were used prior to the
enactment of water laws in the state of Nevada.” In Nevada,
laws were enacted in 1905 for springs and streams, in 1913 for
artesian wells, and in 1939 for all groundwater. A change
in state law now requires these vested water rights to be
formally claimed, rather than relying solely on historic or
assumed use. If a claim is not filed, the right can be
challenged, lose priority, or potentially be lost
altogether.
The federal Large-Scale Water Recycling Project Grant Program
would be extended through 2032 under a bipartisan bill proposed
by U.S. Sen. John Curtis (R-UT). The senator on Jan. 27 signed
on as the lead original cosponsor of the Large-Scale Water
Recycling Reauthorization Act, S. 3693, which is sponsored by
U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV). “For the millions that
rely upon the Colorado River Basin, water scarcity is a daily
reality,” Sen. Curtis said. “Large-scale water recycling is one
of the most effective, forward-looking tools we have to stretch
limited supplies, support growing communities, and protect our
environment.
On Tuesday, February 3, the Inyo County Board of Supervisors
will host a workshop to discuss how to address the significant
threat to our local environment and economy posed by the Golden
Mussel. … Without active efforts to educate the
visiting public about this threat and a mandatory inspection
and decontamination requirement for boats, it is highly likely
that the Golden Mussel will be introduced into the Eastern
Sierra watersheds. … Given the looming threat, Inyo
County staff engaged with Mono County, CDFW, the Town of
Mammoth Lakes, the Inyo County Fish and Wildlife Commission,
the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Southern
California Edison, the City of Bishop, and the Inyo County
Sheriff and District Attorney, to consider how the numerous
parties can work collaboratively to help prevent the
introduction of the Golden Mussel to regional waterways.
The Trump administration is taking an unprecedented step to
control post-disaster rebuilding efforts by preempting local
regulations that it says have delayed projects that are funded
with federal loans. The move applies to thousands of homes and
businesses that are rebuilt each year with low-interest
disaster loans from the Small Business Administration. It took
effect Thursday under an 18-page rule the SBA issued with no
public input. … One target of the rule could be the
California Environmental Quality Act, which requires state
agencies to review the environmental effects of their actions.
… “I’m sure a target of this is the California Environmental
Quality Act,” said [Chad] Berginnis of the floodplain
association [Association of State Floodplain Managers].
Wells are going dry and the ground is sinking in the towns of
Wenden and Salome in eastern La Paz County. Residents fear a
proposed water transfer from their basin to Central Arizona
cities will force them to chase water deeper, which they cannot
afford. But the New York-based hedge fund attempting the
transfer argues this would save more water than their current
land use: growing alfalfa. … Now Rep. Gail Griffin,
R-Hereford, has proposed legislation that would make water
transfers from McMullen Valley a reality. Existing law wouldn’t
allow Water Asset Management, a firm that owns nearly 13,000
acres of alfalfa fields north of Wenden, to act as an
intermediary for the transfers. By amending the law with
Griffin’s bill, the transfer could go forward.
The schism between Democratic environmental ideals and
California voters’ anxiety about affordability, notably gas
prices, were on full display during an environmental policy
forum among some of the state’s top Democratic candidates for
governor on Wednesday. … In another controversial issue
facing the state, most of the Democratic candidates on
Wednesday distanced themselves from the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta tunnel, a massive and
controversial proposal to move water to Southern California and
the Central Valley. … Despite Newsom’s efforts to
fast-track the project, it has been stalled by environmental
reviews and lawsuits. It hit another legal hurdle this month
when a state appeals court rejected the state’s plan to finance
the 45-mile tunnel.
… U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
said in a statement that the Trump administration is merely
restoring the ESA to its “original intent” and ending “years of
legal confusion and regulatory overreach.” Of the five new ESA
rules so far, four are essentially repeats from the first Trump
administration that were in effect for a few months before the
Biden administration mostly did away with them.
… Karrigan Börk, a professor of law and director of the
Center for Watershed Sciences at U.C. Davis, calls the new
rules a “wholesale attack” on the ESA, compounded by the
administration’s attempts to weaken other bedrock environmental
laws, such as the Clean Water Act and Migratory Bird Treaty
Act.
Some Nevada residents in the Lake Tahoe Basin say they’re
growing increasingly frustrated with how the Tahoe Regional
Planning Agency (TRPA) makes decisions — concerns that surfaced
publicly last week during a legislative oversight meeting in
Carson City. Nevada lawmakers recently began a new round of
oversight hearings focused on TRPA and the Marlette Lake Water
System. The Nevada Legislative Committee for the Review and
Oversight of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the
Marlette Lake Water System met last Friday. … Residents
raised concerns about growing development in the basin,
declining water clarity, overcrowded parking, and risks related
to wildfire and emergency evacuations.
As Wyoming plans to spend $250 million on two new dams,
primarily for agricultural use, the state’s water office warned
lawmakers that it will also cost hundreds of millions of
dollars to restore existing irrigation canals and
infrastructure. Jason Mead, director of the Wyoming Water
Development Office, outlined the state’s challenges in remarks
Jan. 7 to the Legislature’s Joint Appropriations Committee.
… The proposed West Fork or “Battle Lake” dam on Battle
Creek [in the Colorado River Basin] above Baggs is expected to
cost $150 million. An additional $100 million is estimated for
the Alkali Creek reservoir proposed near Hyattville.
Twenty water professionals from across California have
been chosen for the 2026 cohort of the William R. Gianelli
Water Leaders, a highly competitive and respected leadership
program. … The 2026 cohort will
explore ways to find 9 million acre-feet of
additional water through conservation, storage and other
means by 2040. This goal was part of Senate Bill 72, which
was signed into law last October by Gov. Newsom. The bill
requires the California Department of Water Resources to
quantify water-supply gaps and identify 9 million acre-feet of
additional water supply by 2040 to offset losses anticipated as
the climate continues to warm.
Last weekend’s winter storm may have covered much of the
country in a glut of snow and ice, but the season has not
delivered out West, where several states face a snowpack
drought. … Given those conditions, scientists are
growing concerned about the water supply and a risk of
wildfires later in the year. Because the mountain snowpack in
Western states runs off as water throughout spring and summer,
the levels influence how much water farmers can use to irrigate
crops, how risky the wildfire season will be, and how much
electricity hydropower dams can generate.
Nearly 40 organizations across the Sacramento region are
beginning the formal process of approving the Water Forum 2050
Agreement, a major milestone in advancing the next generation
of regional water management. … “Twenty-five years ago,
the region made a bold decision to move past disagreement and
commit to a shared approach for protecting the Lower American
River and securing reliable water supplies,” said Water Forum
Executive Director Ashlee Casey. “Water Forum 2050 strives for
the same level of foresight. Our goal is that 25 years from
now, people will view this agreement with the same confidence
and appreciation we have for the original.”
Three communities – San Diego, Oceanside and parts of East
County – are entering the era of recycled water, at a crucial
moment for local water politics. How that gets sorted out will
be reflected in San Diegans’ water bills. A decade ago, amid
worries about the impact of drought on water supplies, those
San Diego municipalities turned to recycled water, that is,
turning sewage into drinking water. One local city, Carlsbad,
also has a desalination plant, which turns seawater into
drinking water. All those recycled water projects now are
coming to fruition. But angst about drought has been overtaken
by concern about the rising cost of water from the San Diego
County Water Authority.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency launched the first
step of its expedited review to determine safe levels of
fluoride in drinking water, according to a notice posted in the
Federal Register on Wednesday, advancing a priority of the
Trump administration’s “Make America Healthy Again” agenda. The
agency’s final toxicity assessment will inform potential
revisions to fluoride drinking water standards under the Safe
Drinking Water Act and will also support the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendations on fluoride in
drinking water, according to the notice.
The Marysville ring levee project started in 2010. Now, the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is nearing completion of the
project. Engineers are submitting for federal certification.
… By federal standards, the project is done. FEMA
requires a one-in-100-year level of protection. But the state
of California requires a 200-year level protection. … ”I
think it’s especially important for Marysville because it’s at
the confluence of two major rivers, Feather River and Yuba
River, which has been the focal point of devastating floods
over the last century or so,” said Ryan McNally, the director
of water resources and flood risk reduction with Yuba Water
Agency.
The California Farm Water Coalition has released its 2025
Impact Report. … In 2025, CFWC deepened its leadership
role as a unified voice for California agriculture, working
alongside the Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley and
the San Joaquin Valley Water Collaborative Action Program.
… Key advocacy efforts included supporting the Healthy
Rivers and Landscapes alternative in the Bay-Delta Plan,
championing critical infrastructure projects like the B.F. Sisk
Dam improvements, Sites Reservoir permitting and construction,
Success Reservoir Enlargement Project, and pressing for strong
federal action under Executive Order 14181 with a shared goal
of increasing available water supply by 9 million acre-feet per
year by 2040.
… You could feel the significance of what we were celebrating
[Dec. 11]: the functional completion of statewide LiDAR data
acquisition for California. … We now hold high-resolution,
three-dimensional information for the entire state—a dataset
capable of revealing everything from the heights of individual
trees to the traces of active earthquake faults.
… Across the state, agencies and partners are now
turning raw LiDAR data into actionable information products at
statewide and local scales. A few examples: WERK Initiative:
Advancing watershed-scale remote sensing products calibrated
for forest and landscape stewardship. Department of Water
Resources: Leading California’s contribution to the national
elevation-derived hydrography dataset—essential for modeling
water flow, flood behavior, and watershed resilience.
California’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) has increased
the 2026 State Water Project (SWP) allocation to 30% of
requested supplies, up from the initial 10% announced Dec. 1,
following mid-December storms that boosted available water
supplies. … Despite the recent dry conditions,
California’s reservoirs remain well above average, at 125% of
typical storage statewide. Lake Oroville, the SWP’s largest
reservoir, is currently at 138% of average for this time of
year. DWR also pointed to increased operational flexibility
following a December amendment to the project’s Incidental Take
Permit, which allows adjustments to certain fish protection
actions during storms.
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.”
