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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For the first time, Grand County can call upon a water right to
increase streamflows in the Colorado River
while providing environmental, agricultural and recreational
benefits to the county. Under a new Operational Framework
agreement, Grand County can release up to 10,000 acre-feet, or
about 3.3 billion gallons, of water annually from the
Colorado-Big Thompson Project, according to a
joint news release from Grand County and the Northern Colorado
Water Conservancy District (Northern Water). Grand County
plans to use the water to increase flows in the
Colorado River during periods of low water and high
temperatures, according to Grand County Communications
Director Christine Travis. Higher flows help cool the river and
protect aquatic life.
Strengthening California’s defenses against emerging artificial
intelligence-enabled cyber threats, Governor Gavin Newsom today
[Aug. 10] announced a first-in-the-nation
initiative to protect state assets and critical
infrastructure while advancing responsible AI
innovation. Building on California’s nation-leading 2023 and
2026 Executive Orders on Artificial Intelligence, the Governor
is directing state agencies to establish an AI Cyber Defense
Program, strengthen cybersecurity coordination across state
government, expand AI-enabled defenses for critical
infrastructure and local governments, and improve preparedness
for emerging AI cybersecurity incidents. … “Cyberattacks
can disrupt the essential services Californians rely on every
day, including water, power, transportation,
and emergency communications,” said California Governor’s
Office of Emergency Services Director and state Homeland
Security Advisor Caroline Thomas Jacobs.
The Dixie Valley toad’s only known habitat is a 760-acre
wetland fed by hot springs in a remote part of
Churchill County, about 130 miles east of Reno. When the
species, a descendant of toads that lived in the Great Basin’s
marshes and lakes during the last ice age, was listed under the
Endangered Species Act in 2022, federal agencies identified
groundwater pumping as one of several threats
to its survival. Now, those threats may become harder to
address. On July 10, the federal government rescinded the
definition of “harm” in the Endangered Species Act that has
prevented habitat destruction that would affect a species’
chances of survival. The move has reignited a decades-long
debate about what it means to protect an endangered species,
which could have far-reaching ramifications for listed species
in Nevada like the Dixie Valley toad.
U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) spent last Thursday
evening touring the Russ Creek and Centerville Slough
Restoration Project, a 1,540-acre project at the mouth of the
Eel River Estuary northwest of Ferndale. …
[T]he Russ Creek and Centerville Slough Restoration Project
purports to be one of the largest coastal restoration
efforts in California. It’s also a unique project
insofar as it is on privately owned land, and in addition to
reestablishing 550 acres of continuous floodplain and tribal
habitat, it will allow for the preservation and
improvement of adjacent agricultural lands — working
across multiple plots of private property to address systemic
tidal connectivity and drainage challenges along a rapidly
subsuming reclaimed agricultural landscape that was once
important brackish marshland habitat.
Other wetland restoration and green infrastructure news:
It’s never too early to start thinking about applying for our
preeminent water leadership
program. Applications for
the 2027 William R. Gianelli
Water Leaders program, focused on
California participants, will be available in October. This
program starts in January 2027. The goal of the program is to
build a network of water leaders from diverse backgrounds who
will deepen their water knowledge, build their leadership
skills and learn to take a collaborative approach to
decision-making about water resources. Those interested should
sign up for our
announcements to find out when applications will
be available and when we will host a virtual
question-and-answer session prior to application
deadlines.
The fifth of five groundwater agencies in Kings County
officially committed to a region-wide planning effort that
water managers hope will fend off the potential of
state regulators mandating how much farmers can pump.
Over the summer four of the five GSAs in the Tulare Lake
subbasin, which covers most of Kings County, agreed to work on
a single groundwater management plan and hired two engineering
firms to get the job done. The Southwest Kings Groundwater
Sustainability Agency (GSA) was the final GSA to agree. At its
August 7 meeting, Southwest agreed to join the region-wide
effort, rather than writing its own plan. The board agreed
unanimously and without comment.
Federal environmental agencies and local leaders will gather in
Calexico later this month to update the public on ongoing
efforts to address long-standing pollution in the New River, a
vital cross-border waterway flowing from Mexicali, Mexico, into
California’s Imperial Valley. The U.S. Section of the
International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) and the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced they will
co-host a hybrid public roundtable on Tuesday, Aug. 18, from 11
a.m. to 1 p.m. PDT. … For decades, the New River has
carried industrial wastewater, agricultural runoff, and
untreated sewage northward across the U.S.–Mexico border,
creating persistent public health hazards and environmental
concerns for residents in Calexico and surrounding Imperial
County communities.
… Through its Healthy Rivers and Landscapes (HRL) program,
among other initiatives, California is restoring habitat in the
Yolo and Sutter Bypasses. These are engineered
floodplains built in historical flood basins, and
their first job is flood control: when the
Sacramento River runs high, the bypasses take the water that
would otherwise reach Sacramento and the towns around it. But
they can do two things at once. The same shallow, slow,
seasonally flooded ground that protects cities turns out to be
excellent rearing habitat, giving juvenile Chinook salmon room
to feed and grow before they head out to sea. However, that
comes with a question the program is required to answer:
As floodwater recedes, could young salmon get left
behind in isolated pools?
Local, state and federal agencies are collaborating to release
about 800 million gallons of water from Twin Lakes, near the
headwaters of the Arkansas River, into the river, according to
a joint statement. The goal is to protect river health,
recreation and fisheries from the effects of high temperatures
and low flows. … [T]he additional water will help moderate
water temperatures and reduce stress on fish during peak summer
months of the drought. … The Southeastern Colorado Water
Conservancy District approved the cooperative plan to use up to
2,500 acre-feet — which is about 814 million gallons — of water
from an existing transbasin diversion that moves water
from the Colorado River into the Arkansas River,
called the Fryingpan-Arkansas Project.
In Colorado, water is critical. But what’s spreading in the
water on the western slope has experts concerned. Now, the
fight to contain zebra mussels has become a priority around the
state for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. … According to
CPW, zebra mussels were first discovered in Highline Lake in
2022, the first infestation of the species in Colorado. By
2024, zebra mussels were detected in the Government Highline
Canal and the Colorado River. … These shells already
infect some western slope lakes and more than 100 miles of the
Colorado River, from the Utah border to where it meets with the
Eagle River in Dotsero. They want its spread to stop there.
Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir and a vital source of
water for more than 25 million people across the Southwest, has
dwindled to its lowest levels ever as the
region struggles through a punishing drought. The
record, first broken on Thursday night and then again on the
following days as the water level continued to fall,
is the latest warning of the Colorado River’s dire condition.
The river system, a lifeblood for much of the Western United
States, is threatened by rising temperatures and decades of
overuse. The seven states whose cities and farmers rely on it
are locked in tense negotiations over how to divvy up what
little water remains. Lake Mead’s milestone is a reminder that
the clock is ticking.
A strengthening El Niño could bring the highest sea levels ever
recorded to the California coast this year, raising the
risk of widespread and damaging flooding. It’s the
latest effect forecast for what’s expected to be an
historically strong event, one forecasters warn could also lash
Southern California with powerful rain and broil both land and
sea with punishing heat waves. … Sea level rise is
expected to increase in all sorts of areas, from the San
Francisco Bay to San Diego, Merrifield said, and impact
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … The
strength of this El Niño “is going to significantly shift the
odds in favor of a particularly wet winter, especially in
Southern California. But for an event this big, probably
Northern California as well,” [UC climate scientist Daniel]
Swain said.
A bitter legal battle has emerged over water availability in
Nevada’s technology epicenter, raising questions about whether
companies critical to diversifying the state economy have
enough water to survive into the future.For nearly two years,
the developer of the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center (TRIC) — a
sprawling complex east of Reno that houses Tesla’s
“Gigafactory” and Switch data centers — has traded legal barbs
with the quasi-governmental entity that provides water to
companies. It has included a lawsuit, countersuit and
myriad subpoenas, with a trial set for next
spring. The most notable parts of the case deal
with whether the developer of TRIC has been able to
deliver the amount of water it promised, and whether it’s
responsible to make up for alleged shortfalls.
As weather patterns change and the length of droughts
increase due to climate change, the county is
interested in pursuing desalination — a drinking water
source that doesn’t rely on rainfall. … The San
Luis Obispo County Water Resources Advisory Committee received
a presentation on Wednesday about a draft of the
county’s $1.2 million feasibility study that
evaluated where a desalination facility could be located, how
much it would cost and what communities could use the water.
Once the final report is ready in September, the county and
other local water providers can decide if they want to further
evaluate or even build a facility in one of the five areas
identified by the study.
A California appellate court this week ruled Sonoma County
failed to comply with the state’s bedrock environmental
law when officials in 2023 amended the local ordinance
regulating approval of new well permits outside city limits.
The ruling means the county will likely have to devote
closer study to the impact of its amended ordinance on
imperiled species like salmon and steelhead trout in the
Russian River watershed. … Russian Riverkeeper
and Coastkeeper Alliance also argued the county had violated
the common law public trust doctrine, which requires local
governments to protect certain waterways for public uses,
including commerce, recreation, navigation and species habitat.
The appellate court’s three-justice panel reversed the lower
court’s decision on those grounds.
The waters of Dutch Charlie Creek flow in northern Mendocino
County, west of Laytonville into the South Fork of the Eel
River. The peaceful area is now the subject of contention.
Friends of Dutch Charlie Creek has filed a lawsuit
challenging CAL FIRE’s approval of two timber harvest plans in
the Dutch Charlie Creek watershed, alleging that logging
authorized under the plans could damage habitat used by
state-listed endangered coho salmon. The organization is asking
the court to halt operations under the “Hot Tuna” and “Lincoln
Logs” timber harvest plans while the case is
considered. According to Friends of Dutch Charlie Creek,
surveys cited by the organization show that Dutch Charlie Creek
has the highest coho redd—or salmon nest—density among
tributaries to the South Fork Eel River.
A growing coalition of civic groups is lobbying San Diego to
accelerate efforts to rebuild Lake Hodges Dam and to raise the
dam’s existing water level — but city officials are limited by
state regulations and cost concerns. The lobbying effort comes
as city officials finalize two complex studies: one analyzing
whether a new dam should be built, another analyzing how to
handle the existing 108-year-old dam until
there’s a long-term answer. The civic groups say a new dam is
crucial to keeping downstream communities like Rancho
Santa Fe safe from flooding, securing a reliable local water
supply, supporting existing wildlife and limiting risks to
homes in the wildfire-prone area. The groups, which
include the Rancho Bernardo Community Council and the Friends
of Lake Hodges, also want the water level raised from 280 feet
to 295 feet during the roughly 10 years it will take to build a
new dam.
… Imperial County is trying to fast track industrial projects
on the southern end of the Salton Sea through what’s called the
Lithium Valley Specific Plan. The concerns are as sprawling as
the scope of the project. A coalition including Los Amigos de
la Comunidad, Audubon and Lideres Campesinas en California
submitted a letter claiming the report does not sufficiently
account for public health impacts from air pollution stemming
from the receding Salton Sea which the project would worsen,
and that its assessment of water and energy use is vague and
unsupported. Among other concerns are that the document fails
to account for cumulative impacts of all the potential
projects, to distinguish between exposed playa and wetland
habitats and to analyze how the effects of climate change and
rising temperatures will be worsened by the plan.
The Monterey Park Tract has two main streets and fewer than 200
residents, almost exclusively Black and Latino. Like many areas
of rural Stanislaus County, it relies on
septic systems and has no gutters or sidewalks. … When
county leaders applied for a grant in the early 1980s to help
Monterey Tract residents get access to clean water, they did
not do enough to prevent long-term contamination.
… Decades later, in 2011, both wells drilled to address
previous contamination of nitrate and bacterial coliform became
tainted with nitrate and arsenic. … In response,
residents were connected to the city of Ceres municipal water
system about five miles north in 2015. [T]he pipes installed to
run the water to the community are defective and could not
handle the chlorinated water. … Despite issues with
Ceres’ water, Monterey Tract residents pay, on average, 50%
more than what Ceres residents pay to access the city’s
water.
In one of the driest years in Colorado’s recorded history,
water use and conservation are becoming more important topics
than ever. As such, many industries, individuals and
organizations are looking for ways to conserve as much water as
possible. One method that’s been used for thousands of years,
from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to helping feed American
soldiers in the harsh climates of World War II’s Pacific
Theatre, has been gaining renewed interest as of late:
hydroponics. … [T]hese systems can operate year-round
since they are built within greenhouses, allowing for farms to
produce scalable amounts of produce consistently without having
to break for seasons or worry about degrading soil health. Both
qualities which prove especially useful in Eagle County due to
our short growing season and unpredictable, high elevation
climate.
