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 Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday it is
redefining the scope of the nation’s bedrock clean water law to
significantly limit the wetlands it covers, building on a
Supreme Court decision two years ago that removed federal
protections for vast areas. When finalized, the new “Waters of
the United States” rule will ensure that federal jurisdiction
of the Clean Water Act is focused on relatively permanent,
standing or continuously flowing bodies of water, such as
streams, oceans, rivers and lakes, along with wetlands that are
directly connected to such bodies of water, the EPA said.
Solano County Supervisor Mitch Mashburn joined eight others on
the Delta Protection Commission to appeal
the Certification of Consistency for the Delta Conveyance
Project. The action, on a 9-0-1 vote, also included “submitting
comments to the Delta Stewardship Council on any appeals filed
by others.” Mashburn said there were “many reasons” for why an
appeal was needed. He said the commission majority did not like
the methodology the state Department of Water Resources used to
reach its conclusions of consistency, and felt the estimated
length of the project and the cost were flawed.
Across the St. George area, lush green golf courses sprawl
among red rock cliffs, cacti and yucca. This water-strapped
region hosts 14 courses within a 20-mile radius. The sport may
have reached a limit in southwest Utah, though. The Washington
County Water Conservancy District’s board passed a new policy
this month that increases regulations on the top 1% of
commercial, institutional and industrial water users, including
water guzzling industries such as golf
courses, data centers and
bottling plants. Any new project that will use
9 million gallons or more of the district’s water must receive
additional review and approval from a committee of mayors and
managers representing the eight cities and towns the district
serves, according to the district.
The application window is now open for our
2026 Colorado
River Water Leaders program, which will run
from March through September next year. Our biennial
program is patterned after our highly successful California
Water Leaders program and selects rising stars from the seven
states that rely on the river – California, Nevada, Arizona,
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico – as well as tribal
nations and Mexico to take part in the cohort. Acceptance to
the program is highly competitive. Get a program overview and
tips on
applying by attending our
virtual Q&A session on Dec. 10 at 12:30 p.m.
(Mountain Time) / 11:30 a.m. (Pacific Time).
Ocean waves could soon help solve Fort Bragg’s drought worries.
On Friday, the city and Quebec, Canada-based Oneka Technologies
displayed California’s first wave-powered desalination pilot
buoy. The Noyo Harbor-based buoy, part of the ResilenSea
Project, is a partnership with the city and supported by a
$1.5 million grant from the state of California. … The
system requires no batteries, grid connections or fossil fuels.
And the results of this pilot project will determine whether a
larger array of wave-powered units could eventually supplement
Fort Bragg’s municipal water supply.
A colder storm is moving through western Nevada on Monday,
bringing rain to the valleys and new snow to the Sierra. …
Tahoe elevations could see 3 to 6 inches, with lighter amounts
at lake level. … Another Pacific system is expected to
reach the region by early Thursday, bringing
the next round of rain and Sierra snow. A powerful atmospheric
river moving down the California coast has produced heavy rain,
thunderstorms and high-elevation snow, and state officials say
at least six people have died in storm-related incidents over
the past several days. The system is raising concerns for
flooding and debris flows in areas burned by
recent wildfires. Several rounds of moisture are expected to
move through California into midweek, sending additional rain
and snow into parts of the state.
Voracious, invasive zebra mussels hopped an upstream ride over
the summer and added 100 miles of Colorado River to their
fast-growing infestation of state waterways, Parks and Wildlife
officials said after a recent multiagency, multicounty
sampling. Previously pegged in the Grand Junction area, the
Oct. 29 sampling and subsequent analysis found adult zebra
mussels upstream in Glenwood Canyon and all the way up to the
Colorado River’s junction with the Eagle River at Dotsero, near
a private lake treated for zebra mussels in August.
California farms applied an average of 2.5m lbs of PFAS
“forever chemicals” per year on cropland from 2018 to 2023, or
a total of about 15m lbs, a new review of state records shows.
… The Environmental Working Group nonprofit put together the
report. … The risk for uptake of PFAS is likely
higher in water-rich fruits and vegetables, because water
attracts the chemicals, and research has shown PFAS may
concentrate at dangerous levels in some produce. The chemicals
also pollute water supplies and present a higher risk to the
often low income and Latino farmworkers.
Arizona leaders sent a bipartisan letter to the Trump
administration requesting that it maintain the original 1922
Colorado River Compact as negotiations continue to address the
river’s future water rights. … In the new agreement,
Arizona leaders said they want the Upper Basin States to agree
to use less water and to share the water shortage more evenly.
… Arizona leaders are concerned that these states are
refusing to cut back on water use, which will impact the
state’s water supply. … In the letter, the Arizona
leaders said the state has developed plans with California and
Nevada to conserve 1.5 million acre-feet of water per
year.
Chinook salmon have been seen making their way up Los Gatos
Creek in Campbell. This is all part of their late fall run,
which is taking place a little early this year thanks to recent
storms. … Experts say salmon numbers have been
increasing in recent years. “The numbers year-over-year have
been increasing,” South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition Executive
Director Steve Holmes said. “When we first started, we’d see a
couple dozen fish and that was it. As we’ve been working to
clean the waterway, we’ve seen incrementally the numbers
increasing.”
It’s the time of year when storms begin rolling in again across
Northern California, bringing much-needed water to the dry
landscape. And that precipitation is causing life to rebloom
again in the region’s vernal pools, small temporary wetlands
caused by rainwater filling up depressions in the ground.
… Near Mather Field in Sacramento, the public has a
chance to see some of these vernal pools, which date back
between 50,000 and 200,000 years. David Rosen is the Director
of Educational Programming and Lead Naturalist with the
nonprofit Sacramento Splash. He recently spoke with
Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about the uniqueness of the vernal
pool habitat, and how his organization is helping to bring that
science to the greater public.
Imperial Beach residents are reporting noticeable improvements
in water quality and odor as federal agencies work to address
the ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis that has plagued the South
Bay community for years. … The Environmental Protection
Agency reports it is ahead of schedule on infrastructure
upgrades designed to tackle the complex pollution problem. The
agency is seriously upgrading infrastructure, including
increasing the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant near
the border. Officials have also accelerated timelines for most
infrastructure projects, cutting project completion estimates
by roughly 12 years across all initiatives.
A decades-old stormwater solution that helps recharge
groundwater in Modesto is also a major contributor to yearly
street flooding and a potential source of contamination.
Modesto’s stormwater system is different from most other cities
of its size in California. Instead of a traditional system
using pipes that flow into rivers or out into the ocean, it
heavily relies on thousands of rock wells — gravel-filled holes
that drain untreated rainwater directly into the ground.
… Rock wells work as a source of groundwater recharge,
replenishing aquifers below. But they also are easily clogged
by debris like leaves and trash, leading to major street
flooding during heavy storms.
The Santa Margarita Groundwater Agency is undergoing a review
to make sure it’s not depleting its groundwater, as required by
state water regulations. … In 2023, when the California
Department of Water Resources reviewed the agency’s previous
self-evaluation, it noted lowering groundwater levels, degraded
quality and surface water depletion and recommended changes.
Recent reports on the basin have shown improved conditions,
despite the decrease in average rainfall in 2025. Groundwater
levels in the basin remain generally stable as a result of low
groundwater usage.
The Supreme Court wants to know where the Trump administration
stands in a battle between Colorado and Nebraska over water
from a river that flows between the two states. In a long list
of orders issued Monday, the justices requested the solicitor
general’s views on Nebraska’s plea for help from the high court
in a challenge against Colorado for hampering the Cornhusker
State’s effort to build a cross-border canal along the South
Platte River. Nebraska sued Colorado in July, arguing that its
neighbor is in violation of a 1923 compact that allows Nebraska
to take nearly 65 million gallons of water per day during the
irrigation season between April and mid-October, and larger
volumes during the rest of the year.
A powerful atmospheric river weather system has mostly moved
through California but not before causing at least six deaths
and dousing much of the state. Early Monday lingering
thunderstorms pose the risk of mudslides in areas of Los
Angeles county that were recently ravaged by wildfire.
… More than 4in of rain fell over coastal Santa Barbara
county as the storm approached Los Angeles. Parts of the Sierra
Nevada received more than a foot of snow. The weather service
said scattered rain could continue through Tuesday in the
southern part of the state. Another storm was expected to
arrive on Thursday.
Dry, dry, dry. And warm, warm, warm. That’s been the weather
story across Colorado so far this November. Colorado’s mountain
snowpack is off to a slow start this season, and the Denver
metro area still hasn’t seen flurries. Snowpack levels across
the state remain far below average, though meteorologists say
weather patterns are expected to shift in the coming days,
bringing a better chance for winter storms before the end of
the month. … According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, much of
the state is unusually dry, while patches of Pitkin and Eagle
counties have slipped into extreme drought.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
At least two thirds of California’s population and more than 4
million acres of California farmland rely on water delivered by
the federal Central Valley Project and the State Water Project,
two of the largest multipurpose water management projects in
the world. A report released this week by the National
Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine reviews these
projects’ monitoring, modeling, and other scientific activities
— specifically actions designed to help protect endangered
fish. … This first report examines three actions
designed to help protect fish and offers recommendations to
strengthen those actions.
Three months ago, Santa Clara County’s largest water agency
voted to kill a $3.2 billion plan to build a huge new reservoir
in the southern part of the county near Pacheco Pass. The
Pacheco Reservoir would have been the largest new reservoir
built in the Bay Area since 1998 when Los Vaqueros Reservoir
was constructed in eastern Contra Costa County. … This week,
the district, a government agency in San Jose that provides
water to 2 million South Bay residents, approved a roadmap for
the next 25 years that combines new reservoir projects,
groundwater storage and recycled water. The price tag: $3.9
billion.
When controversial Las Vegas developer Jim Rhodes abandoned
plans for a sprawling community near the northwestern Arizona
city of Kingman nearly two decades ago, the vast swaths of land
he’d purchased were mostly surrounded by open
desert. Instead of walking away from his investment,
Rhodes applied for a group of industrial-scale agriculture
wells that could reach the largely untapped groundwater in the
Hualapai Valley Basin. … Today, more than 99% of the
cropland in the basin is owned or controlled by out-of-state
farming operations or investment funds. … More than half of
the basin’s cultivated land is tied to California-registered
companies, which collectively farm close to 13,000 acres.
