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.
A doctoral student and his professor at the University of
Nevada, Reno spend long hours at their computers, using
highly sophisticated satellite data to create a map of the
underground water resources in Nevada. … [A] specialist with
the University’s Extension unit supports alfalfa
farmers with new practices that use less water. … It’s all
part of efforts by researchers, students and outreach
specialists with the University’s College of Agriculture,
Biotechnology & Natural Resources to help the driest state in
the nation … by focusing on the discovery and implementation
of practices that ensure the best-possible uses of Nevada’s
limited water resources.
A significant knowledge gap exists in understanding the
post-fire soil chemical processes that lead to soil water
repellency and, consequently, increase the risk of post-fire
hazards such as floods and landslides. To help address this,
DRI Associate Research Professor Vera Samburova and
Postdoctoral Researcher Yan Wen were recently awarded a
National Science Foundation grant to study the chemistry of
post-fire soil water repellency. The research will address this
knowledge gap by identifying the dominant organic chemical
compounds and functional groups that cause post-fire soil water
repellency. The three-year project began this month.
With the ultimate goal of preserving historic and environmental
treasures along the Monterey Bay and surrounding areas, the
Monterey Bay National Heritage Area Study Act has been authored
and reintroduced by Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Carmel Valley, which
could also see the designation strengthen local economies and
communities. This legislation would direct the National Park
Service to initiate a comprehensive study on whether the
coastal communities surrounding the Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary qualify for designation as a National Heritage
Area.
… A dismal snowpack followed by a warm spring with short
bursts of precipitation put the aspens and other trees in
distress, dimming the glow of Colorado’s seasonal color show in
many parts of the state. … If there’s enough sugar
trapped in the leaves, some will turn a purplish-red. This
year, that wasn’t the case for many aspen strands because the
trees were stressed for water and struggling to keep the
metabolic process going. … Farther west, where the extreme
drought conditions persisted through the summer, more leaves
have browned edges.
A new report commissioned by Wilderness Workshop identifies 10
landscapes across western Colorado where wildlife habitat,
migration corridors and clean water are at
risk. The Crystal River, Thompson Divide, Red Table Mountain
Ridge and the Colorado River Valley … made the list. In the
10 areas, rivers, forests and open spaces that supply
drinking water, sustain wildlife and anchor
the state’s outdoor economy are facing increasing threats by
“extractive development and short-sighted policy decisions,”
according to the Wild for Good report, officially released
today on the eve of National Public Lands Day, which is
Saturday.
On a gloomy Saturday morning in Pacific Beach, Friends of Rose
Creek executive director Karin Zirk awaited participants for
the California Biodiversity Day BioBlitz. As locals trickled
in, the Sept. 13 morning’s activities got underway, with
cameras out, snapping images of birds and plants. … With
participants hailing from Pacific Beach and across San Diego
County, Friends of Rose Creek’s primary goal is to connect
those involved with the natural environment and inform the
public on the importance of clean water systems. … Using
the mobile app iNaturalist, participants snapped images of
birds, plants, trees and shrubs along the salt marsh section of
the creek and uploaded them to the app.
… Colorado treats the [right-to-float] issue differently
than many other states. In some, rivers and streambeds are
considered public land, but in Colorado and several others, the
waters belong to the people while streambeds belong to adjacent
landowners. … So, in Colorado the water is public, but not
the land under it. Thus, wading, anchoring, and portaging
around obstructions on private land may be
trespassing. Public access for floating is well
established in Colorado. … This creates an uneasy balance
between that public right and the rights of private property
owners that can only be addressed through a case-by-case
mediated process, which was formalized in 2010.
… If signed into law, Assembly Bill 93 will require data
center operators to share with their water supplier how much
water they estimate they will consume when they apply for or
renew a business license or permit. It also directs state
agencies to develop water use efficiency guidelines and best
practices for data centers. … The same Big Tech groups
that are fighting the consumer cost bill are also opposed to
the water legislation, saying sharing water use data could
divulge trade secrets and harm the competitive edge of
businesses. … Roughly 17 data center projects
planned in California as of May are in areas where
water stress is high or extremely high, according to reporting
by Bloomberg.
Now that Colorado’s zebra mussel problem has been confirmed in
the Colorado River, the strategy for fighting
the invasion has started to shift. Colorado Parks and Wildlife
said it won’t try chemical treatments on the river as they’ve
done in the past with Highline Lake, one of the first spots CPW
found the mussels. It believes the risks that could bring to
native fish, along with the sheer scale of the waterway make
that impossible. Instead, the focus now is on containing the
spread and keeping mussels out of other lakes and reservoirs.
Farmers in southeastern Tulare County left hanging after their
old groundwater agency disintegrated have new leadership but
their path forward will not be easy. … The new Tule East
GSA was created from lands left behind as water districts fled
the Eastern Tule GSA. The exodus began after the state Water
Resources Control Board put the region on probation in 2024 and
specifically called out Eastern Tule for continued subsidence
and what it said were “alarming” groundwater accounting
methods. … As Eastern Tule fell apart, a new
organization had to take on responsibility for those white
lands. [Mike] George, a representative of Ducor Water District,
was sworn in as chair of the new GSA Sept. 15 with about 20
landowners in attendance.
When wildfires scorch a landscape, the flames are just the
beginning. NASA is helping communities across the nation
foresee and prepare for what can follow: mudslides, flash
flooding, and contaminated surface water supplies. A new online
tool called HydroFlame, built with support from NASA’s Earth
Science Division, relies on satellite data, hydrologic
modeling, and artificial intelligence to predict how wildfires
could affect water resources, from tap water to the rivers and
streams where people fish.
The composition of fish populations in streams and rivers
across the U.S. has been severely altered as a result of
changing water temperatures and human-driven introductions of
fish, according to new research. Cold-water streams have
experienced disproportionate impacts, experiencing more than a
50% decrease in fish abundance over the last three decades,
according to a study published Wednesday in Nature. Some of the
largest threats include climate change and fish introductions
— both by invasive species or game fish stocking, scientists
say.
Ted Cooke, the former nominee for commissioner of the Bureau of
Reclamation, called the decision to scuttle his nomination
“feckless.” President Donald Trump had nominated Cooke, the
former director of the Central Arizona Project, in June to head
the bureau. … Cooke was an integral part of the
negotiations in the Colorado River’s 2019 Drought Contingency
Plan, an agreement among all seven Colorado River basin states
that aimed to protect water levels in Lake Mead and Lake
Powell. … Cooke’s nomination was greeted with applause
from the Lower Basin states, and a certain amount of skepticism
from the Upper Basin states.
The Stockton City Council voted to formally oppose the state of
California’s Delta Conveyance Project, known as the Delta
Tunnel, due to concerns about water quality and environmental
impacts. The city resolution states that the project would
degrade water quality for the Stockton region, threaten fish
and wildlife, increase harmful algae blooms, and increase
salinity intrusion in the Delta. … However, the
state says the project is needed to ensure the safety of
drinking water for millions of people.
Major construction on the Sunol Valley Fish Passage Project, an
effort intended to restore fish passage and ecological function
in the upper Alameda Creek, is expected to be completed this
year. The project involves the removal of an existing Sunol
Valley concrete erosion-control mat, which is protecting a
36-inch pipeline, L303, owned and operated by Pacific Gas and
Electric Company (PG&E). … Removal of this final
major barrier in the mainstem Alameda Creek was driven by
decades of work by the Alameda Creek Alliance and the Alameda
Creek Fisheries Restoration Workgroup to complete 16 other
fish-passage projects.
The Interior Department has stopped dozens of
environment-related grants to at least two nonprofit groups,
recipients said Wednesday. Interior agencies including the Fish
and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management stunned two
organizations — California Trout and the
Institute for Applied Ecology — on Tuesday with the declaration
that their grants were canceled. California Trout has received
28 FWS grants since fiscal 2014, according to a federal
spending database. … All seven of California Trout’s
active grants were axed.
A conservation group on Wednesday formally petitioned for the
western spadefoot frog to receive protection under California’s
Endangered Species Act. The Center for Biological Diversity
petitioned for federal protection for two frog populations
separated by Southern California’s Transverse
Ranges. … The frogs depend on vernal pool
complexes, which are temporary wetlands connected to
upland grasslands or shrublands. Vernal pools are depressions
in a forest that hold water for part of each year, supporting
species like the western spadefoot. According to the
center, more than 90% of these pools have been lost to urban
development, intensive agriculture and roads.
I recently spoke with seventeen-year-old Keeya Wiki about the
first descent of the Klamath River, a 263-mile
river in Oregon and California. Keeya, who is Yurok and Māori,
was one of thirty youth who kayaked the river for the first
time in one hundred years. She reminded me of what it feels
like when you protect something sacred. In 2024, four dams came
down on the Klamath River, the largest dam removal in U.S.
history, and the river was free. The youth trained for the
descent on white waters throughout the region, and even in
Chile, to make sure they were safe. Then this summer they
joined the river and traveled for a month of freedom, joy, and
renewal.
As the San Diego City Council prepares to make major water rate
hikes, city staff clearly want weary councilmembers to blame
the San Diego County Water Authority and not the wastewater
recycling project the city is building. … On Friday,
city Public Utilities staff released a new cost analysis that
showed how Pure Water, a multi-billion-dollar wastewater
recycling project, could produce cheaper water than what the
San Diego County Water Authority provides. The city’s new Pure
Water numbers are the latest jab at the Water Authority over
growing water prices.
California is seeing a spike in cases valley fever — an illness
spread by fungal spores. Researchers speculate the
rise is tied to patterns of drought and
precipitation. … [Gail Sondermeyer Cooksey,
epidemiologist at the California Department of Public Health:]
When we see prolonged drought followed by heavy winter rains,
we see these surges in Valley Fever in the years that follow.
… There is a lot of concern that changes in climate and
environment are going to lead to these diseases occurring more
in the state of California, but also elsewhere in the United
States.
