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.
On October 10, 2025, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 394 (SB
394) into law. This legislation is designed to strengthen
existing legal protections for utility service providers
against utility theft, particularly water theft resulting from
the unauthorized use or tampering of fire hydrants. Under
existing California law, a utility provider may bring a civil
action for damages against any person who diverts, attempts to
divert, or aids in utility theft. In certain cases, such as
where a device was used to steal the utility, or when a meter
is tampered with, there is a rebuttable presumption that the
party who controls the premises or receives the direct benefit
of the utility is liable for damages.
Climate disasters, from wildfires to frequent floods, have
accelerated in recent years – emphasizing the importance of
being prepared and planning ahead for extreme weather events.
That is why for California Flood Preparedness Week, which runs
from October 18 through October 25, the California Department
of Water Resources (DWR) is calling on all Californians to
understand the risk posed by flooding and how to respond during
an emergency.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) submitted a
Certification of Consistency with the Delta Plan for the Delta
Conveyance Project on October 17, 2025. According to Delta
Stewardship Council regulations, materials relevant to this
certification will be posted on their website (https://coveredactions.deltacouncil.ca.gov),
if the Certification is appealed, an appeal hearing will be
held by the Council followed by the issuance of a determination
on the appeal. However, to support consideration of these
materials by the public, DWR has prepared the Delta Conveyance
Project Certification of Consistency Explainer.
… In an attempt to slow the river’s decline and to
convince the Lower Basin states that the Upper Basin can
voluntarily conserve water as opposed to shouldering mandatory
cuts, Wyoming has been developing a pilot water conservation
program in the Green River Basin. Wednesday’s meeting offered
members of the public and Wyoming’s Colorado River Advisory
Committee an opportunity to give feedback on the draft
legislation. … Wyoming’s pilot conservation program
would allow water users with a proven consumptive water right
in Wyoming’s portion of the Colorado River
basin to apply to the state engineer’s office to implement a
conservation project.
The Trump administration is “pausing” more than $11 billion in
water infrastructure projects to 12 Democrat-controlled states,
White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russ
Vought said Friday. The Army Corps of Engineers projects in
California, Illinois, Maryland, New York,
Oregon, New Mexico, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Delaware and
Colorado are now “under review,” according to
the Office of Management and Budget. … One project would
restore aquatic habitat for salmon and steelhead trout in
California.
In a desert landscape dominated by sagebrush, a piece of Los
Angeles’ immense water empire stands behind a chain-link fence:
a hydrant-like piece of metal atop a well. The electric pump
hums as it sends water gushing into a canal, forming a stream
in the desert. This well is one of 105 that L.A. owns across
the Owens Valley. … While many Californians know the story of
how L.A. seized the valley’s river water in the early 1900s and
drained Owens Lake, fewer know that the city also pulls up a
significant amount of water from underground. The pumping has
led to resentment among leaders of Native tribes, who say it is
leaving their valley parched and harming the environment.
In a landmark move for environmental policy, California has
fully established and funded the Salton Sea Conservancy, the
state’s first new conservancy in over 20 years, paving the way
for a more coordinated and sustainable future for the imperiled
region, the California Natural Resources Agency announced. The
conservancy, officially created by Senate Bill 583 authored by
Senator Steve Padilla and signed in September 2024, received
its crucial operational funding last month when Governor Gavin
Newsom signed Senate Bill 105. This dual legislative action
marks a significant shift in the state’s approach to the
long-standing challenges at the Salton Sea.
For the first time in more than 100 years, Chinook salmon have
been spotted at the confluence of the Sprague and Williamson
rivers in Chiloquin, the government seat of the Klamath Tribes
in Southern Oregon. It’s the latest milestone following the
removal of four dams on the Klamath River last year, which was
the largest river restoration project in U.S.
history. … Scientists have been tracking the
migration of this year’s run of fall Chinook as they’ve passed
all of the old dam sites on the river. Last week they reached a
huge milestone: A Chinook was photographed entering Upper
Klamath Lake.
At least two residents of the tiny community of Pond were
excited and hopeful by news that state money for flood control
might go toward Poso Creek, which flooded several Pond homes in
2023. “I think it’s a great start,” Kevin and Diane White said
in unison. The couple has lived in Pond for 38 years and said
they only got about a 10 minute warning in 2023 that flood
water was headed their way. The couple attended a press
conference Friday in McFarland touting the appropriation of
$21.5 million [from Proposition 4] – half the
amount originally sought – for flood safety projects in Kern,
Kings and Tulare counties.
… [A] powerful “parent” low-pressure system will deepen
explosively in the Gulf of Alaska, probably undergoing
bombogenesis by Wednesday as it drops toward 965 millibars. On
its southern flank, the jet will tap subtropical moisture,
spinning up two distinct atmospheric rivers. … For
California, the edge of that storm energy may only glance the
far north. A few light showers could reach the North Coast, but
widespread rain looks unlikely for now. Still, forecasts this
far out tend to wobble. Even a slight shift in the jet stream’s
orientation could steer one of those atmospheric rivers closer
to California.
… Nevada waterways are currently free of zebra and golden
mussels. But, Nevada officials and water managers are preparing
for what it could mean if the zebra or golden mussels find
their way into Lake Mead and other state water bodies and using
their experience with quagga mussels as a baseline.
Research shows that if quagga and zebra mussels are found in
the same area, quagga dominate zebra mussels, according to
Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) Regional Water Quality
Manager Todd Tietjen. Research also shows that golden mussels
could outperform both of them, “which is why we are really
ramping up our detection efforts.”
Tucked into California’s remote northwest corner, the Smith
River winds through Del Norte County. … Down on the river’s
lower plain, though, the wilderness gives way to farmland.
Here, a handful of growers produce nearly all of America’s
Easter lily bulbs, which are then shipped off to greenhouses
across the country. The iconic plant is the most famous export
from Del Norte County — yet state scientists say decades of
pesticide use by these growers have contaminated the
tributaries that flow through those fields, threatening fish,
wildlife and nearby residents.
New research shows how a variety of natural disasters are
impacting the nation’s food supply, presenting costly
challenges to ranchers and farmers who are already struggling.
The full report covers over 3,000 U.S. counties and all 50
states. … Drought is a persistent challenge on the West
Coast, particularly in California, as well as the Southwest and
parts of the Southern Plains, where water scarcity hampers crop
yields and livestock production. In fact, California leads the
nation in agricultural losses due to natural hazards, with
farms in the state incurring an estimated $1.3 billion in
losses annually.
… [T]he [Monterey Peninsula Water Management District] board
is poised to consider finally taking the historic step of
applying to the State Water Resources Control Board to modify
its cease-and-desist order against Cal Am, which has precluded
the private utility from setting new water meters since 2009.
… [W]ith the expansion of Pure Water Monterey complete and
online as of Oct. 10, the Peninsula’s current supply of water
is more than 11,000 acre-feet annually (as approved by the CPUC
in August), while in the past water year that ended Sept. 30,
the Peninsula’s demand was 9,092 acre-feet of water.
Construction crews have begun clearing brush and working on the
road leading to the planned $165 billion Project Jupiter data
center in Doña Ana County, N.M. … Project Jupiter
intends to produce its own gas-generated electricity for now
and possibly incorporate solar-generated power later. Its four
coolers will initially require a 625,000-gallon water “charge,”
recycle it and thereafter a daily infusion of 20,000 gallons a
day. … That’s a fraction of what a 100,000 square-foot
water park would use, according to trade sources.
The Mountain Counties Water Resources
Association joined Placer County Water
Agency, The Nature Conservancy and the Sierra
Nevada Conservancy to sponsor the American River
Forest Health Legislative Tour on Oct. 13, bringing members of
the California Legislature and Capitol staff into the Sierra
Nevada headwaters. Co-hosted by Assemblymembers Diane Papan and
Joe Patterson, the tour highlighted how proactive forest
management and watershed restoration protect California’s water
supply while showcasing the power of local-state collaboration
in addressing wildfire resilience and long-term water
reliability.
… Several state legislators traveled to San Diego County on
October 10th to host a committee on the sea level rise and the
impact it might have on the state’s economy. … The
Executive Officer Of The San Diego Water Quality Control Board
Dave Gibson says his research indicates that sea level rise and
climate change are indeed real. … ”We could now turn the
question around and say, what could we do on the coast to
emphasize, expand, enhance the wetlands there, enable them to
advance inland as sea level rises,” Gibson said. “Can we create
mitigation banks along the coast in existing areas where they
can be expanded?”
The fresh waters of California support a diverse native fish
fauna, 130 taxa by our count (Leidy and Moyle 2021). At least
56 of these taxa are on trajectories towards extinction 7 are
already extinct; 32 are listed as threatened or endangered by
state and federal agencies. Not surprisingly, the declining
species attract lots of attention because protecting them
affects water use statewide. In this blog series, however, we
discuss native fishes that are not considered to be in trouble.
… The first species we discuss in this series is the
Sacramento Sucker (Catostomus occidentalis).
One of the core services provided by the Department of water
Resources is to monitor the state’s snow pack to predict annual
runoff. The department uses multiple methods including taking
remote readings from sensors high in the Sierra Nevadas called
“snow pillows.” A number of those sensors need to be repaired
and enhanced but it’s not an easy task. Crews had to trek into
the Emigrant Wilderness on horseback 18 miles for just one
sensor. … The trip took four days. And it made for epic
photos, which DWR shared online. Here are just a few.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its
2025-2026 winter forecast outlook on Thursday, which predicts
seasonal changes for different parts of the United States for
the months of December, January and February. … NOAA’s
winter outlook does not offer snowfall predictions, but it does
forecast above-normal overall precipitation between December
and February for the Pacific Northwest and northern
California along the West Coast, as well as the
northern Rockies, Great Plains and western
Great Lakes, all of which are consistent with the presence of
La Niña.
