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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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.
In an effort to address the historic-low water level at Lake
Mead, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Tuesday approved an agreement with the federal government to
help add water to the reservoir. On Tuesday, Metropolitan’s
Board of Directors approved an agreement with the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation, which will provide the agency up to $65
million to keep up to 200,000 acre-feet of its Colorado River
supplies in the lake this year. … The board
also approved two other agreements with the Quechan Tribe and
Bard Water District, allowing the federal government to fund
the addition of up to 19,000 acre-feet of conserved
agricultural water to Lake Mead annually in 2027 and 2028.
As artificial intelligence fuels a new wave of data center
development across California, lawmakers are grappling with how
to support the growing industry while protecting the
state’s limited water supplies. Two bills moving
through the Legislature would give state and local officials
a more complete picture of data centers’ water
demands. AB 2469 would require developers to disclose
projected water use before local governments approve new
facilities, while AB 2619 would require operators to report
actual water use annually once the facilities open.
… Following the Bureau of Reclamation’s release of its formal
Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the post-2026
operational guidelines, the state [Ariz.] is locked in a
strict era of limits. Under federal fallback models analyzed in
the EIS, Arizona faces structural water cuts that could gut its
Central Arizona Project allocation by as much as 77 percent.
Because Arizona holds the most junior water rights on the river
system, it must take the brunt of the reductions
first. The resulting crisis is fundamentally shifting the
state’s economy, forcing a direct collision between traditional
legacy industries and a booming tech sector, while engineering
a historic transfer of socio-political power back to Native
American tribes.
A massive and much-anticipated housing development tied up in
litigation could potentially be back on again in a small town
that borders the Central Valley and Bay Area. The question
remains, however: Will there be enough water for it and
the surging population nearby? … In 2024,
local water agencies adopted the Delta-Mendota Subbasin
Groundwater Sustainability Plan, which included Patterson.
… [T]he city of Patterson decided to single out the
Keystone Ranch development and attempted to impose the cost of
building a groundwater recharge facility on
the development, then later denied the project wholesale on
April 1, 2025. The California Department of Housing and
Community Development, or HCD, found that the city’s review of
the project is inconsistent with the state housing agencies.
A new statewide survey shows that water reliability and
affordability have become a defining issue for California
voters ahead of the state’s November 2026 gubernatorial
election. The poll, conducted by FM3 Research for the
Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), a group
representing approximately 470 public water agencies that
together deliver about 90% of the water used across the state,
found that 77% of likely November 2026 voters are more
inclined to support a candidate who makes water a
priority, a view shared across the political
spectrum. Support for a water focused candidate reaches
83% among Democrats, 77% among independents and 67% among
Republicans, according to the memo.
Local water districts have spent $7.3 million, and counting,
trying to eradicate the rapidly spreading invasive golden
mussel, according to a report delivered during the Kern County
Board of Supervisors July 14 meeting. Water districts
are expecting those costs to balloon to $36 million a
year, according to a report by the County
Administrative Office. The board approved extending its local
emergency declaration by another 60 days regarding the mussels
and renewed pleas for the Governor’s office to declare a
statewide emergency. … San Joaquin and Sacramento
counties have also declared local emergencies. The Kern County
Water Agency and Friant Water Authority both also have task
forces to monitor the spread of the mussels, which have been
found in those agencies’ critical infrastructure.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission took its public
comment period on the Potter Valley Project in Ukiah over two
days in June. Comments were made in private, behind a closed
door. Press was barred and recording forbidden. The transcripts
of those comments were released Monday, 20 days after the first
session, over 43,000 words, more than 70 speakers.
… Janet Johnson drove down from Laytonville with a
friend who had come to testify, and spent the evening where the
public was made to spend it — in the waiting room, outside the
closed door, unable to hear any of it. She was blunt about who
she thought was on the other side of that door. They were
“carpetbaggers scamming our water,” she told The Voice. As it
turns out, according to the written testimonies, almost nobody
disagreed with her. They just couldn’t agree on anything else.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a
new initiative aimed at accelerating the delivery of federal
water infrastructure funding by bringing together states,
utilities and industry organizations to identify ways to
streamline key financing programs. EPA Assistant Administrator
for Water Jess Kramer recently convened what the agency
described as its first roundtable focused on improving
implementation of federal water infrastructure programs,
including the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving
Funds (SRFs), the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation
Act (WIFIA) loan program and the Emerging Contaminants in Small
and Disadvantaged Communities grant program. The discussion
centered on reducing delays that can slow drinking water,
wastewater and stormwater infrastructure projects.
A judge has denied a request from several environmental groups
to halt the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s planned water release
schedule for Shasta Dam this fall, amid an ongoing lawsuit
over concerns the releases could threaten Chinook
salmon. The lawsuit challenges the bureau’s planned
release amounts. Environmental groups argue the schedule does
not account for protections needed to manage water temperatures
for vulnerable fish, including salmon. … The judge
denied the groups’ request for a temporary restraining order,
finding they had not proved their interpretation of the
Endangered Species Act was more valid than the
bureau’s.
On July 9, the Trump administration delivered a gift to Cadiz
Inc., a politically well-connected firm that has been trying
for decades to win approval for a scheme to pump water out of
the Mojave Desert and market it to water agencies across the
Southland. The administration approved the company’s
application to convert an abandoned 220-mile oil and gas
pipeline crossing the desert to carry water instead. Susan
Kennedy, the chief executive of Cadiz, called the approval “a
pivotal milestone” that would enable the project to move into
its construction stage. Here’s betting that Kennedy’s statement
was somewhat premature. The project still faces significant
opposition from environmentalists, local Indian tribes and the
state of California. –Written by Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael
Hiltzik.
Scientists said wetlands can slow down storm surges, absorb
pollutants and even offer protection for infrastructure as a
buffer between the ocean and roads. That’s why for the past
decade, some scientists have been working on a solution for a
wetlands area in Seal Beach that had often been underwater.
… As part of a pilot project that began a decade ago,
scientists started applying a thin layer of sediment (mud or
sand to match the existing sediment) to the surface area of the
marsh in an attempt to raise its elevation. The method is
called “sediment (or soil) augmentation.” … After a
decade, [Cal State Long Beach biology professor Christine]
Whitcraft said the team is thrilled with the results of the
pilot project. “There are plants, there’s birds. It’s out of
the water at the highest tides.” she said.
I find it curious when I hear “people in Riverside don’t know
we have a river.” After all, it is the largest riparian
ecosystem in Southern California, flowing nearly 100 miles
beginning in the San Bernardino Mountains to the ocean at
Newport Beach. Winding its way through 2/3rds of the state’s
population under bridges and alongside freeways. For those
paying attention, the river is a sustainer of life. An ecology
that has been at the mercy of the dominant culture for over two
centuries. This begs the questions; what does it mean to live
alongside a river, what is our role in its caretaking and how
do we balance infrastructure with restoration?
As hot temperatures sweep across Utah and water supplies
continue to drop, states and the federal government are
launching a new effort to better measure how much water
evaporates from major reservoirs upstream of Lake Powell. The
Bureau of Reclamation partnered with scientists and Upper Basin
states, including Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, to
launch a new evaporation study at Flaming Gorge, Blue Mesa and
Navajo reservoirs — key water storage projects in the Upper
Colorado River Basin. … Reclamation is sending up to
1 million acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge to prop
up Lake Powell, which forecast models show will reach
levels that threaten hydropower production and could
damage dam infrastructure by early next year.
Where water normally flows continuously on the San Pedro River
east of Sierra Vista, only ponds and puddles persisted last
week. … The Charleston gauge, long considered a key indicator
of the San Pedro’s health, dried up late last month for
the first time in 21 years. And it stayed dry — or
nearly dry — until water from a monsoon storm arrived Friday
morning. It was the latest blow to a river whose lush riparian
groves and very high bird populations have long made it a
global treasure in the eyes of many ecologists. But the river’s
declining flows and the lowering of neighboring groundwater
wells over the years have also made it a political and legal
battleground pitting environmentalists wanting to limit the
area’s growth and groundwater pumping and government
officials who seek to keep the river flowing without curbing
economic development.
Facing legal challenges and growing industrial pressures, the
Imperial County Board of Supervisors will vote Tuesday
on whether to freeze new data center developments
across all unincorporated lands for nearly another year. The
proposed 10-month and 15-day extension of an urgency moratorium
underscores a deepening regulatory anxiety over how these
power-hungry facilities will affect the region’s strained
electric grid and vital water resources. Beyond the data center
freeze, Chairwoman Peggy Price will advance the framework for
a new data center advisory committee. The
group will attempt to bring order to the gold rush by
appointing an 11-member advisory panel representing a
cross-section of conflicting interests.
The Marin Municipal Water District is entering a $2.65 million
deal with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to advance a major
drought resiliency project. The water district board voted
unanimously Tuesday to approve the partnership agreement,
charging the Army Corps to support the “atmospheric
river capture” project. The project is a proposed
pipeline that would replenish Marin reservoirs with
Sonoma County rainwater during droughts. Under the
agreement, the Army Corps will design a section of the pipeline
that is 18,000 feet long. The agreement is a necessary step for
the district to use federal funding from the 2022 Water
Resources Development Act, or WRDA, slated for the project.
… Estimated at $214 million, the planned 13-mile,
36-inch pipe would tap into an aqueduct system that runs along
Highway 101, carrying water from the Russian River into Marin.
Sunday was an unusual summer day for much of Central and
Southern California, bringing clouds and even sparse rain
showers across much of the state as a monsoon was full steam
ahead. The North American monsoon – a weather pattern that
invites tropical moisture into the region during the summer
months – doesn’t always make its way all the way to Central and
Northern California. The fact that is has is a sign of the
strength of the weather pattern. … With a
strengthening El Niño at play, more moisture will be
available to crash into California from the south over the
summer months. There are hints that more monsoonal moisture
could return later this weekend or next week as the atmosphere
attempts to adjust to El Niño’s influence.
Commercial and recreational salmon fishing has resumed off the
North Coast after a three-year statewide closure, marking a
long-awaited milestone for a troubled industry that has endured
historic losses in revenue and resources. Charter captains are
reporting abundant catches out of Bodega Bay, and commercial
boats up and down the coast are again unloading hauls of the
prized West Coast staple for the first time since 2022. Still,
the reopening is far from a return to normal, industry veterans
say. This year’s season is heavily restricted with
staggered openings and closings designed to limit the take on
rebounding Chinook salmon returns. And fewer boats may be
around to cash in, as some fishermen say years of lost income
from curtailed and closed fisheries have driven some away from
the water for good.
… Cross-border sewage pollution has plagued Imperial Beach,
Coronado and other parts of South San Diego for decades, and
worsened in recent years. As Tijuana’s population grew and
wastewater plants on both sides of the border failed, hundreds
of millions of gallons of raw sewage poured into the ocean.
That has sickened swimmers and surfers, and led to near
continual beach restrictions for the past three years. Imperial
Beach residents describe waking up to headaches, asthma and
rashes after exposure to the water, or airborne pollutants from
the Tijuana River. Schools invoke “rainy day schedules” when
pollution levels spike. Struggling to breathe, sleep and swim,
many residents of the largely working class, majority Latino
community think their environmental burdens are
overlooked.
The U.S. Forest Service has approved a fast-tracked critical
minerals mine in Southern Arizona despite years of pushback
from nearby communities The $3 billion South 32 Hermosa project
will unearth deposits of zinc, manganese, lead and silver.
… Already, discharged water from the mine has been
flagged by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality for
exceeding allowable levels of heavy metals. … Each year,
it’s expected to remove 2,790 acre-feet of water from the
aquifer, amounting to 195,000 acre-feet over the course of its
operations. Though some water will be recharged, the final
environmental impact statement notes that net water loss from
the aquifer will be 34,000 acre-feet, equivalent to over 1
billion gallons. Nearby residents in the project’s 50-mile cone
of depression worry that groundwater pumping could cause their
wells to run dry and that the overall dewatering could affect
the surrounding ecosystem.
