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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Blue Mesa Reservoir, the largest in Colorado and an
emergency savings bank for Lake Powell, has been on a
crash course with critically low water levels this summer, the
kind that halt power production and keep dam managers up at
night. Officials have stepped in to cut dam releases and
restrict water use, but they’re still facing grim
possibilities if more rain doesn’t start falling soon.
The expansive federal reservoir stretches for nearly 30 miles
between the city of Gunnison and Black Canyon of the Gunnison
National Park. But it’s not just a scenic lake — it’s part of
the plumbing of the West. Water experts say Blue Mesa
serves as a proxy for Colorado’s water conditions and
conditions in Lake Powell, an immense reservoir on the
Utah-Arizona border. This year, it’s a clear demonstration of
the record dry conditions straining water and renewable
power supplies across the West.
… Increased temperatures earlier in the year followed by
other weather-related phenomena are causing much of the western
United States to experience what scientists are calling
“snow-eater” heat waves. A new study, published Wednesday in
the journal Science Advances, analyzes the weather events using
a method developed to identify the heat waves. Snow-eater heat
waves are pretty much like they sound — abrupt snowmelt
triggered by rain-on-snow and followed by several days of
unseasonably high temperatures. … The authors
noted that in the spring and early summer in the West, heat
waves occur regularly. But they have nearly doubled in
frequency and intensity since the mid-1990’s. And with
those extreme temperatures comes increased snowmelt,
which in turn can cause severe floods.
Federal officials said Thursday they will not release cool
water this year from one of the Colorado River’s major
reservoirs, which would have protected a threatened native
fish downstream but put more strain on already struggling
hydropower production. In an email obtained by The Associated
Press, the Bureau of Reclamation told various groups that water
from Glen Canyon Dam in northern Arizona would
not be released “due to significant hydropower generation
concerns under already strained system conditions.” As the
Colorado River and its once massive reservoirs shrink from
overuse and climate change, officials were faced with a
decision that pits conservation of the humpback chub — a
threatened fish native to the river — against ratepayer costs
for electricity.
A lawsuit brought by two out-of-state investment firms could
make it harder for Arizona to protect vulnerable groundwater
basins, threatening one of the state’s few tools for
safeguarding rural water supplies. The companies, tied
to real estate developers in Utah and Nevada, sued after the
Arizona Department of Water Resources designated northern
Mohave County’s Hualapai groundwater basin an Irrigation
Non-Expansion Area in 2022. Under the designation, no
new farmland can be irrigated, though existing farms can keep
pumping. The investors argue ADWR should have used the
state’s standard rulemaking process in creating the INA. A
Maricopa County Superior Court judge agreed with the investors
in January, rejecting ADWR’s position that state law allows it
to use a separate procedure. The agency has appealed.
The looming El Niño could bring one of the wettest winters on
record to California, according to renowned climatologist
Daniel Swain. In a social media post shared Thursday,
Swain, a climate scientist with the California Institute for
Water Resources, shared an update from the European Centre for
Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, the gold standard for weather
forecasting, which predicts a “genuinely extraordinary to
extreme” El Niño that could impact California for months. Swain
says that the ECMWF prediction indicates 70% to 100% odds of
above-average winter precipitation in the Golden State, and 70%
to 100% odds of the coming winter, from December to
February, being among the top 20% of wettest California winters
ever recorded.
A major restoration effort on the Eel River estuary near
Ferndale drew attention today as Rep. Jared Huffman hosted a
press tour of the Russ Creek and Centerville Slough Restoration
Project, a large-scale environmental and climate-resilience
undertaking spanning more than 1,400 acres west of Ferndale.
… Huffman said the work is also aimed at protecting
ranch land threatened by sea level rise and saltwater
intrusion. … The project is led by the Humboldt County
Resource Conservation District and the Wildlands Conservancy.
Key elements include reconnecting tidal flows by
re-establishing the Centerville Slough tidal network and
lowering levees to bring full tidal cycles back to hundreds of
acres of marshes.
A 16-year effort to hold a McKinleyville-area property owner
accountable for polluting Little River hit a major turning
point today [Aug. 6] after the North Coast Regional Water
Quality Control Board unanimously voted to refer the case to
the state Attorney General’s Office for review. Now the case
will play out in the courts. Since December 2010, state
agencies and environmental advocacy groups have sounded the
alarm over allegations of unpermitted solid waste disposal and
unauthorized grading at the 226-acre property, which is just
upstream from Moonstone Beach. Water board staff assert that
“poorly managed livestock grazing” and abandoned cow and horse
carcasses have contaminated Little River with bacteria,
specifically E. coli and fecal coliform, putting beachgoers and
threatened salmonid species at risk.
For months, the Trump administration has sought to open the
California coast to a radically industrialized future:
large-scale desalination plants, floating
nuclear reactors, more rocket launches and expanded offshore
oil drilling along the state’s most iconic beaches. Holding the
line against all this is a little-known but longstanding
federal law, the Coastal Zone Management Act, which grants
coastal states like California the right to review and object
to any project in federal waters that clashes with state
policy. Now, citing California’s “environmental extremism,”
Trump officials are attempting to decertify the state’s power
under this law. Framed as a performance review of the
state’s coastal management practices, this challenge begins in
earnest Monday during a public hearing in Santa Monica.
The California Water Plan is the state’s long-range strategic
roadmap for managing water resources. Updated every five years,
it helps guide decisions by state, regional, and local water
managers. Development is now underway for California Water Plan
(CWP) 2028, the first under a new planning approach established
by Senate Bill 72 (Chapter 210, Statutes of 2025). Initial
public engagement efforts and early technical work are laying
the foundation for a more actionable CWP that will help guide
water decisions for years to come. During the first
meetings of the CWP Advisory Committee, Tribal Advisory
Committee, State Agency Team, and Technical Working Group,
participants shared their insights and concerns. DWR will use
this information to develop the most significant modernization
of the CWP in decades.
Over the past week, a growing number of municipalities across
the United States have reported that their water systems were
hacked. The Times has found that the attacks were most likely
perpetrated by Iran. Today, Dustin Volz, a cybersecurity and
intelligence correspondent for The New York Times, explains how
the hacking exposes yearslong failed efforts to shore up
vulnerabilities in U.S. infrastructure, and how Iran may be
seeking a new kind of leverage that could extend the war’s
reach to within U.S. borders and affect something as elemental
as the water we drink.
Located in the rugged landscape of Mission Trails Regional Park
is a stone structure that quietly tells one of San Diego’s
earliest stories. More than 200 years ago, an ambitious
engineering project was built along the San Diego River to
capture water, support agriculture, and help sustain Mission
San Diego de Alcalá. Today, Old Mission Dam remains one of the
region’s most important reminders of the challenges involved in
establishing the Spanish mission community and the ingenuity
used to overcome them. … The stone structure was an
ambitious undertaking for its time — and much of it still
stands today.
One of the world’s top climate models puts a bull’s-eye on the
California coast as El Niño strengthens, with a greater
than 90% chance of above-normal precipitation from December
through February. There’s at least a 70% chance of
well-above-normal precipitation. That outlook is from the
European Center for Medium-Range Forecasts, which on Wednesday
released its first full supercomputer forecast that includes 51
model simulations of winter. … In California, a
run-of-the-mill storm this winter may be a few degrees warmer
than in a typical year as mild, tropical air is directed toward
the state. That means pushing the snow line up hundreds
of feet higher in the Sierra Nevada.
New big data centers in Tucson must now comply to a host of new
rules and restrictions, after the City Council voted 6-1 on
Wednesday to approve an ordinance governing their construction
and operation. The regulations pay specific attention to noise,
public notice, land use andwater and energy use.
… Large-scale data centers will have to prove
they have access to enough water and energy to make their
projects work. They would also have to disclose the
energy mix, including how much renewable energy the project
would use. Also, the builders of these developments would be
required to follow the city’s rules specifically users of large
amounts of water and noise ordinances. A large-water-use
ordinance is in the works at City Hall.
No silver bullets to eradicate golden mussels were revealed at
a symposium on the invasive species held Wednesday by the Water
Association of Kern County and Kern County Farm Bureau. But
participants got a solid overview of what water districts have
learned so far – what’s worked, what to look out for and how
big the bill is expected to be Agricultural water districts in
Kern have spent about $9 million combined trying to keep
the rapidly reproducing, pipe clogging little mollusks
at bay, according to Stacy Kuwahara, Assistant County
Administrative Officer. She said she expects those
costs to balloon to $36 million a year –
conservatively.
At this point, it’s old news to say that the Colorado
River is in crisis. … But on nearby Lake Havasu,
the water’s not just fine; it’s perfect for an endless
summertime party. … The discord is a side effect of the
complex series of compacts, court decisions, federal laws and
other regulations that guide policy along the Colorado
River. … Because Lake Havasu must maintain a
certain elevation to keep water flowing into the [Colorado
River] aqueduct, which provides water to some of the most
powerful water users in the Colorado River system, the lake’s
surface elevation typically stays between 445 feet and its
maximum of 450 feet. Water is also diverted from the lake for
the Central Arizona Project, which carries river water to
Phoenix and Tucson.
In a challenge by environmental groups to the pumping of
groundwater from rivers to fill wells for farmers, homes and
businesses in Sonoma County, a state appeals court says
counties must consider the impact of their water wells on fish
and the environment. Tuesday’s ruling by the 1st District Court
of Appeal in San Francisco said Sonoma County had not properly
considered the effects of new rules it issued in 2023 for
increased pumping from the Russian River and
other waterways, but might be able to meet legal
standards with an environmental review. On the central
legal issue in the case, however, the court rejected the
county’s argument that such reviews of water wells are required
only for the state, and not for local governments.
In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden
administration proposed creating stronger cybersecurity
guidelines to better safeguard the nation’s water supply from
hackers. The steps were modest, but necessary, officials said
at the time: Many municipalities lacked even basic protections,
and the computers that monitor and adjust water quality,
including chemical-treatment levels, were easy-to-find targets
for a would-be intruder. The E.P.A. rescinded the order,
however, after Republican-led states and industry groups sued
to block its enforcement. … The episode is just one of
several in recent years in which efforts to bolster the
cyberdefenses of America’s water systems were blocked despite
repeated attacks that highlighted vulnerabilities.
A group of homeowners has filed a class-action lawsuit against
the Las Vegas Valley Water District, alleging the
agency has imposed excessive water use charges without due
process while residents watch their yards, trees, and
plants die. The lawsuit came into focus this week at a Las
Vegas Valley Water District Board of Directors meeting.
… According to the lawsuit, the Las Vegas Valley Water
District has collected more than $96 million from residential
users since the excess use fee began in 2023. The suit contends
that money should be returned to homeowners. … The
lawsuit also points to a new state law taking effect at the end
of the year that mandates the removal of non-functional grass
anywhere served by the Southern Nevada Water Authority, with
the exception of single-family homes.
A long-running binational effort to improve wastewater
infrastructure in the Tijuana-San Diego region has reached a
new milestone, with authorities reporting significant progress
on projects designed to reduce cross-border sewage pollution
and improve water treatment. According to Baja California’s
Secretariat for Water Management, Sanitation and Protection
(SEPROA), the initiative represents a joint investment of more
than 15.6 billion pesos (around $900,000) by Mexico and the
United States. SEPROA Secretary Víctor Daniel Amador
Barragán said authorities are overseeing 20 infrastructure
projects grouped under 16 initiatives established through
Minute 328, a binational agreement focused on modernizing
wastewater infrastructure in the Tijuana River watershed.
The call that might have averted disaster came into William
Mulholland’s office that morning. Stubborn, single-minded and
tireless, lionized and controversial, the Los Angeles water
boss was 72. Fifteen years earlier, he had opened the great
aqueduct that carried Sierra snowmelt to the San Fernando
Valley and made the metropolis possible. Now, on March 12,
1928, a supervisor at the St. Francis Dam was calling to say
there might be a problem. Water was seeping from under the
structure. It looked muddy, which might indicate real trouble —
erosion in the foundation. … “Like all dams, there are
little seeps here and there,” Mulholland would later testify at
a coroner’s inquest. “Of all the dams I have built and of all
the dams I have ever seen, it was the driest dam of its size I
ever saw in my life.”
