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.
The October floods in southwestern Colorado damaged homes and
upended people’s lives, but there was one silver lining: A lot
of the water also helped replenish reservoirs
in the state. The deluge, caused by tropical storms and
hurricanes in the Pacific Ocean, dumped more than 480 billion
gallons of water on five counties in southwestern Colorado.
… But the water also bumped parts of the region out of
severe and extreme drought. The amount of water stored in
Colorado reservoirs surged or even doubled.
Other weather and water supply news across the West:
State water officials have taken the first formal step toward
regulating groundwater pumping in the Ranegras Plain
Groundwater Basin, marking a major shift for La Paz County
residents who have long warned that unregulated water use is
threatening their communities. The Arizona Department of Water
Resources announced it will begin procedures to consider
creating a new Active Management Area, or AMA, in the western
Arizona basin. The move follows years of local concern about
land subsidence, dried wells, and groundwater depletion linked
to corporate water use in rural parts of the county.
Tree rings can tell a story. Wide bands signal a wet period,
while narrow ones show a drought. Whole ecosystems can be
encoded in trees. In Western Colorado, scientists are examining
trees to find out more about the environment’s story in an
effort to protect the river they stand along. … The
Crystal River is one of the few rivers in Colorado that doesn’t
have any major dams; large stretches of it are still pristine.
… At the heart of what Cooper, Brown and Merritt are
trying to do with this study is establish the relationship
between the trees and the Crystal’s natural hydrologic rhythm,
which wouldn’t exist if it were dammed or diverted.
After hearing again from local residents regarding the need for
increasing water storage infrastructure before the Pacific Gas
and Electric Company fully decommissions its Potter
Valley Hydroelectric Project and removes the dams that help
fill Lake Mendocino, the Mendocino County Board of
Supervisors this week passed a resolution that many argued did
not express their needs forcibly enough. … At their
previous meeting on Oct. 21, the board did not advance [First
District Supervisor Madeline] Cline’s resolution, voting to
instead bring forward a modified version drafted by Fifth
District Supervisor Ted Williams.
In 2022, Governor Gavin Newsom released California’s Water
Supply Strategy, outlining necessary actions for the state to
adapt to a hotter, drier future where the changing climate
leaves less water to meet California’s needs. Since then,
California water managers have been looking at ways to address
the fact that the warming climate means that when storms do
come, a greater share of that rain and snow will be absorbed by
dry soils, consumed by thirsty plants, or evaporate into the
air.
Utah wildlife officials are again reminding people that it’s
illegal to dump fish into bodies of water after state
biologists discovered an unapproved species had been introduced
at a southeast Utah reservoir. Biologists found smallmouth
bass at Loyds Lake, located within the Colorado River drainage
located southwest of Monticello, while doing routine surveys,
the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources reported on Wednesday.
The reservoir is home to rainbow trout and green sunfish, but
not bass, largely because of its proximity to the Colorado
River and the threat to native fish within it.
The U.S. water and wastewater treatment market is forecast to
grow from approximately US $130.3 billion in 2025 to about US
$238.4 billion by 2034, representing a compound annual growth
rate (CAGR) of roughly 6.94%, according to a Towards
Chem&Materials report. The report states that
municipal utilities account for nearly 52% of the market in
2024, with industrial treatment services close behind at 38% —
and poised for the fastest growth.
On October 29, 2025, the California State Water Resources
Control Board’s Division of Drinking Water (State Water Board)
issued new and revised notification levels and/or response
levels for four per- and poly- fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS).
… California’s notification and response levels are
non-regulatory, health-based advisory levels established for
contaminants in drinking water for which State MCLs have not
been established. These are established as precautionary
measures for contaminants that may be considered candidates for
the establishment of MCLs. MCLs, in contrast, are legally
binding limits that public water systems are required to meet.
Fresno County has reclaimed its spot as the nation’s top
agricultural producer despite “extraordinarily difficult”
circumstances. According to the Fresno County Farm Bureau’s
(FCFB) 2024 Crop and Livestock Report, the county produced
$9,029,122,000 in total gross production in 2024. … How
did they do it? [Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan] Jacobsen
thanks hard work and water. “Food grows where water flows, and
2024 was a good water year for our county, allowing farmers to
grow the full rainbow of crops that we are capable of here,” he
said.
Achieving water sustainability in many water-scarce regions
will require reducing consumptive water use by converting
irrigated agricultural land to less water intensive uses.
Conventional approaches to this challenge that emphasize water
conservation as a singular objective often promote ad hoc
practices that temporarily leave land idle while missing an
opportunity to enhance landscape resilience and harness
synergies of managing water and land together. Multibenefit
land repurposing offers an alternative solution to this
challenge by strategically transitioning irrigated agricultural
land to other beneficial uses that consume less water and
provide benefits for multiple constituencies.
An empty and often overlooked parcel across from Sylvan Park is
being reimagined as a vibrant native plant and pollinator
garden. … Once completed, the 13,000-square-foot garden
will feature drought-tolerant native species, pollinator
habitats, educational signage, public seating, and engraved
pavers honoring donors. … The garden also supports the
city’s Climate Action Plan by promoting water conservation.
Case studies from the city’s Municipal Utilities and
Engineering Department show that properties switching to native
landscaping reduced water usage by as much as 70 to 80
percent.
… In this intergenerational conversation, three writers who
carry Western rivers in their blood talk about their boating
lives, creative bents, and views of moving water, in their
earlier years and now. Zak Podmore, whitewater boater and
award-winning journalist, joins us from Bluff, Utah. His books
and articles attracted the notice of Rose McMackin, former
whitewater guide, freelance journalist, and pop culture writer
in Austin, Texas. She is also the daughter of our third guest,
Becca Lawton, an author, fluvial geologist, and pioneering
Grand Canyon boatwoman living in Northern California.
… On Nov. 11, Colorado, Wyoming, New Mexico, Arizona,
California, Nevada and the Beehive state need to reach a
consensus on how to split up a dwindling river that supplies
water for nearly 40 million people. … Conserving water
in Utah is nothing new. During dry years, there’s often not
enough from rain and snowpack to meet everyone’s water rights,
so some people go without their share. Those cuts typically
happen on a small, localized basis. What makes potential
Colorado River reductions unprecedented … is that they
would happen basinwide. That’s why Utah has prepared for how
that might play out.
Board members of the nascent Tule East groundwater agency spent
their second meeting setting up basics but with an eye on the
clock and a sensitive ear to what didn’t work in the past. The
Tule East Joint Powers Authority Groundwater Sustainability
Agency (GSA), will take over governance of so-called “white
lands” from the embattled Eastern Tule
GSA. … Meanwhile, Tule East board members are
facing a herculean task to get organized and come up with a new
groundwater plan to present to the Water Resources Control
Board, which placed the entire Tule subbasin on probation last
fall for lacking a plan that would stem subsidence, among other
deficiencies.
Northern California’s Siskiyou County took another hit Tuesday
when a federal judge denied its summary judgment motion in a
case over residents’ claims they’re not getting the water they
need. The putative class — many of whom are Asian American and
live in a part of the rural county called Shasta Vista — sued
in 2022. … They also claim officials have used water
ordinances to deprive them in an area with no public water
system. County officials have said the local ordinances
that prevent the transfer of water to the Shasta Vista
residents are needed to combat illegal cannabis grows. But the
plaintiffs contend they’re used against a minority population
that needs water.
Blue veins of ice streaked the snow this January in Salt Lake
City, Utah. Snow hydrologist McKenzie Skiles eyed the veins,
worried. … Studies from her lab and others find that less
snow is falling on mountains worldwide, and there’s more rain
in the forecast. … [C]limate models of California’s Sierra
Nevada Mountains predict that, at 3 degrees warming,
more than half the range’s precipitation will fall as rain, not
snow. That would be disastrous for the Golden State,
where snowmelt from the Sierras is a third of the water supply.
California simply doesn’t have the infrastructure to capture
all that water from rain. More rain will also change flood
risks. … Overall, less snow compromises drinking and
agricultural water storage in the West.
A new website, the San Francisco Bay State of the Birds,
created by the San Francisco Bay Joint Venture and Point Blue
Conservation Science, provides scientists, policymakers, and
the public with an up-to-date look at which Bay Area bird
populations are thriving and which are declining, and what that
says about the health of San Francisco Bay’s wetlands
and waters. The findings suggest that the populations
of Bay Area marsh birds and wetland ducks are doing well,
shorebirds and diving ducks are declining, indicating that some
habitats are rebounding from “rapidly evolving climate change
and biodiversity challenges,” according to the project
researchers, while others still need conservation attention.
Heavy autumn rains brought relief to drought-plagued portions
of the Southwest, but across the Colorado River basin ongoing
water supply concerns still linger amid tense policy
negotiations and near record-low reservoir storage. Even
after accounting for the heavy rain, 57% of the
Colorado River watershed remains in severe drought,
according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. More than 11% of the
basin is in extreme drought. … In response to extremely
low water conditions, it’s possible water from upstream
reservoirs in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico could be
released to support Powell’s hydropower turbines.
Other weather and water supply news across the West:
… Cloud seeding has been happening in Colorado since the
1950s, and state scientists say it’s one tool that can help
boost snowpack during our changing winters. … State
scientists say cloud seeding can increase snowfall by 8% to 12%
per storm when conditions line up. … Colorado currently
has seven state-permitted cloud seeding programs, mostly in
high-elevation mountain areas. … Western states like
Arizona, California and Nevada even help fund Colorado’s cloud
seeding efforts because they benefit, too.
Arizona’s tech boom has brought jobs, investment and innovation
to the desert. But as the number of data centers multiply
across the Valley, so does concern over what keeps their
humming servers cool: water. According to Data Center Map, 162
data centers now operate in Arizona, with many more planned or
under construction. These massive facilities, the digital
backbone of cloud computing, social media and artificial
intelligence, rely on enormous quantities of water to keep
thousands of servers from overheating.
