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.
… HABs [harmful algae blooms] have been reported at
Eagle Valley Reservoir in Lincoln County, where a HAB watch is
in place. Farther north, a HAB warning began at Lahontan
Reservoir in early June. … Lake Mead National Recreation Area
officials advise people to keep pets away from the algae, which
can look very different in various forms. The danger comes from
cyanobacteria, which can release toxins when disturbed. Last
year, there was a report of a dog dying on the California side
of Lake Tahoe after exposure. Tests after the incident found no
cyanobacteria, but officials said toxins could have been there
before testing occurred.
The California Department of Water Resources has announced
changes to boat ramp hours for water recreators at local
waterways, effective September 1. Inspection and
decontamination services at North Thermalito Forebay will
maintain their current schedule, operating daily from 8:30 a.m.
to 5:30 p.m. However, other ramp hours will see reductions or
changes in the hours they are open. Lake Oroville ramps,
including Spillway and Bidwell Canyon, will open at 7:30 a.m.
and close at 9 p.m. each day. The hours for Lime Saddle and
Loafer Creek ramps will now be from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m.
… A newsletter this month by the Almond Board of California
said the [rat] infestation in parts of the San Joaquin Valley,
one of the world’s top agricultural regions, has impacted more
than 100,000 acres and caused $109 million to $311 million in
losses from damage to equipment and crops over a year. … Well
over half a million acres of California farmland were left
unplanted in the early 2020s because of a protracted drought
and diminishing water supplies, which also
meant no pest-control efforts in those fields. The drought
finally ended in the winter of 2022-23, the beginning of a
three-year spell of at least average rainfall
that resulted in more vegetation growth and an abundance of
food sources for wildlife.
Forecasters expect La Niña conditions to develop this fall and
winter. … La Niña is defined by cooler than average
sea surface temperatures in the central and eastern Pacific
along the equator. The ocean waters affect atmospheric
activity, tilting the odds toward drier than normal
conditions in Southern California and wetter than average
conditions to the far north, especially in the
winter…. During the most recent fall and winter,
California precipitation mimicked the expected La Niña pattern.
… But during the 2022-23 La Niña winter, Central and Southern
California faced a flurry of storms fueled by atmospheric
rivers, ribbons of water vapor in the sky. Downpours brought
flooding across California and snowstorms produced one of the
state’s largest snowpacks on record.
As we await Friday’s (Aug. 15, 2025) release of the Bureau of
Reclamation’s Colorado River 24-Month Study, we need to
remember a painful lesson of the last five years of crisis
management: whatever you see in Reclamation’s report of the
“Most Probable” reservoir levels for the next two years, we
must prepare for things to be much worse. A year ago,
Reclamation’s “Most Probable” forecast told us to expect Lake
Powell to hold 10.36 million acre feet of water at the end of
July 2025, with a surface elevation 3,593 feet above sea level.
Actual storage in Powell at the end of July was 7.46 maf, 2.9
million acre feet less, and the reservoir is 38 feet lower,
than the “Most Probable” forecast.
State regulators on Thursday ruled unanimously that the
Monterey Peninsula will need more water by 2050 than all
current available sources can supply, including the new
expansion of Pure Water Monterey that will be coming online
this year. As a result, commissioners believe that water
deficit will need to be filled with California American Water
Co.’s desalination project. It was not a
surprise for many, since administrative law judges Jack Chang
and Robert Haga at the California Public Utilities Commission
in May issued a proposed decision that adopted most of Cal Am’s
estimates on water supply and demand by the year 2050.
… Despite the Capitol’s fixation on national political
maneuvering — tinged by Newsom’s likely bid for the White House
— there are pending matters that hit closer to home. None is
more important than what’s been kicking around for at least six
decades, a project to bolster California’s north-to-south
shipments of water by bypassing the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. … Northern California legislators opposed to the
tunnel persuaded their leaders to stall on using a trailer
bill, but Newsom and tunnel advocates, such as the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California, will try again during
the session’s final weeks. –Written by CalMatters columnist Dan Walters.
Los Amigos de la Comunidad, Inc. hosted an information session
on August 14 on the receding Salton Sea and its potential
impact on air quality, bringing together researchers and
residents to address concerns about toxic dust. The project, a
two-and-a-half-year collaboration between UC San Diego, UC
Riverside, and community partners, aims to measure dust coming
from Salton Sea’s exposed lake beds, or playa, identify its
chemical composition, and assess the resulting health impact.
… The project also has a forecasting component, using
weather modeling to track where dust travels during wind
events.
The world’s largest data center campus may be coming to Utah,
with a pair of companies planning to construct artificial
intelligence-ready hubs in Millard County. The first domino
fell when Orem-based Fibernet MercuryDelta LLC in May filed a
request to rezone nearly 1,200 acres of property — located
southeast of Delta — from agricultural land to heavy industrial
land for its potential 20-million-square-foot data center
campus called Delta Gigasite. … ”Many operators have
designed closed-loop cooling systems that use various fluids
instead of water. When powered with natural gas, this system is
net water-positive — it can actually generate
about 100 acre feet of new water per 100 megawatts annually”
… reads a release from Creekstone.
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is set to commence
the removal of the Eel River Dam, a move that has sparked mixed
reactions among local communities. While some believe the
project will aid in the restoration of native fish populations,
others are worried about its potential impact on water supplies
for the Russian River Basin. … The deconstruction work,
part of the Potter Valley Hydroelectric Project originally
built over a century ago, is expected to take several years due
to the project’s scale and seasonal work constraints.
The latest California numbers suggest 2025 will be another
record-smashing year for valley fever, the illness linked to
drought and precipitation and spread by fungal
spores. … Researchers speculate the rise is tied to
patterns of drought and precipitation. Periods of severe
drought followed by wet winter and dry summer seem to coincide
with more people getting sick. They also suspect
climate change has expanded the fungi’s range
into areas where it was previously rare.
Funding for water in Colorado is seeing a surge, despite the
state budget crisis, with cash from sports betting hitting a
new high this year. The gaming initiative brought in $37
million for the fiscal year that ended June 30, according to
the Colorado Division of Gaming. That represents a nearly 21%
increase from last year, when tax revenue came in at $30.4
million. But water projects statewide still are at risk as the
legislature gears up for a special session next week to close a
new $1 billion gap in Colorado’s budget. Approved by voters in
2019, the sports betting tax is used to fund Colorado’s Water
Plan.
The California Department of Water Resources announced Thursday
there will be changes to the Feather River flows on Friday and
Saturday. Officials say that the reduction in flows is in order
to facilitate maintenance work at the O’Neill Forebay. On
Friday at 11 a.m., the Feather River releases will decrease to
1,000 cubic feet per second (cfs) through the City of Oroville.
By 1 p.m., flows from the Thermalito Afterbay River Outlet will
be reduced to 3,000 cfs, resulting in a total Feather River
release of 4,000 cfs downstream.
Local officials are doubling down on efforts to protect Lake
Sonoma from a tiny invasive mollusk with a massive destructive
potential. At this week’s Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
meeting, the board unanimously approved a plan to extend the
Lake Sonoma Mussel Infestation Prevention Program, aiming to
keep quagga and zebra mussels out of the
reservoir. The board’s official resolution ratifies and
approves Sonoma Water’s application for a state grant to fund
two more years of mussel-prevention measures at Lake Sonoma. In
plain terms, the county is trying to secure about $400,000 in
state funding to continue boat inspections, public outreach,
and early-detection monitoring on the lake through 2027.
The robust plan to start rebuilding Lake Hodges dam has come to
a screeching halt as a new cost analysis has just jumped from
$275 million to between roughly $500 million and $700 million.
Now, the San Diego Water Authority says they will no longer
cover their promised half of the repairs, and the City of San
Diego is now weighing alternatives to repairing the
106-year-old dam. … Lake Hodges has been an emergency
water supply for San Diego since World War I. Now with the
State deeming the dam unsafe to operate in its current
condition, 12 billion gallons of water has been released and
uncertainty to this manmade lake is in the air.
… Three to 6 million visitors a year flock to Lake Tahoe, due
in large part to the crystal-clear blue water. … But a
recently released study by UC Davis on the water’s health shows
clarity is the third murkiest since records were taken in the
1960s, with visibility ending at 62.3 feet down — a fair
distance from the best clarity level recorded of 102.4 feet.
… To protect water health and clarity, environmental
groups are turning to new tech — from sand-sifting and
surface-skimming robots to a flying water taxi with
environmental perks.
… Since the 1970’s, untreated sewage flows have polluted the
[Tijuana] river, contaminating beaches from the California
communities of Coronado to La Jolla and disrupting both
military operations and civilian life. Generations of service
members stationed along the Silver Strand in San Diego County
have trained, lived and worked under the shadow of this
cross-border contamination problem. For Naval Special Warfare
units, the ocean is an operational environment. SEAL candidates
train daily in the surf zone, practicing timed swims,
underwater navigation and small-boat handling. When bacterial
counts spike, training is curtailed or moved, disrupting
schedules and adding logistical strain.
The city of San Diego has been fielding complaints from some
Bay Park residents losing sleep over its water project. The
first phase of Pure Water San Diego is under construction
overnight at the intersection of Clairemont Drive and Denver
Street. … In part of a statement emailed to NBC 7, city
spokesperson Tyler Becker says the project “will provide a
sustainable, locally controlled water supply” and that
overnight construction is “necessary to maintain safety for
both the public and construction crews.” Residents question
that last one. The whole road is closed day and night.
… [F]or wetland biologists and others with a stake in the
health of the surrounding Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the
largest estuary on the West Coast, the birds represent the
latest – and an exponentially growing – threat to the few
remaining wetlands left in California. … Mute swans
also feed gluttonously on submerged vegetation, destroying the
plant life on which other native wetland species depend. … A
measure before the state Legislature aims to allow hunters and
landowners to shoot the swans for the next five years to try to
bring their numbers down to more manageable levels in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and beyond.
Climate change appears to have driven an ongoing 25-year
shortfall in winter rains and mountain snows across the U.S.
Southwest, worsening a regional water crisis that’s also
related to hotter temperatures and growing demand. Multiple
studies now suggest that human-caused climate change is
boosting an atmospheric pattern in the North Pacific that
favors unusually low winter precipitation across the Southwest.
… A study published in Nature on Wednesday, August 13,
finds that emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases and
tiny sun-blocking particles called aerosols have driven
long-term PDO [Pacific Decadal Oscillation] changes over the
last few decades, depriving the Southwest of much-needed winter
rain and snow.
Other drought, rain and snow news around the West:
