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.
For Mike Vickrey, a rancher in Wyoming’s Upper Green River
Valley, this summer delivered another harsh lesson about the
unpredictability of water in the arid West. Despite what
appeared to be a promising winter snowpack, Vickrey had to shut
off irrigation to his hay meadows about 10 days earlier than
normal. … Vickrey wonders if early water cutoffs are
here to stay as all the states in the Colorado River Basin
continue to negotiate how to manage Lake Mead
and Lake Powell downstream as less and less
water flows through a watershed stretching from the Wind River
Mountains to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. … Lately, hay
production has fluctuated from around 2,500 tons in good years
down to 1,600 tons or less in bad years. That’s one reason
Vickrey is encouraging others to join him at an upcoming public
meeting in Pinedale, which is one of four outreach meetings
Wyoming officials are hosting next week to discuss the state’s
role in managing Colorado River water.
Sonoma County’s groundwater is quietly
vanishing beneath our feet, and the numbers are alarming. In
parts of Sonoma Valley, deep aquifers have plummeted nearly 100
feet in the last decade, according to recent reports from the
Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA). With
some wells dropping as much as eight feet per year, residents
and businesses alike have good reason to be worried. …
Drilling a new well can cost $50,000 or more, a financial blow
that smaller family-run vineyards find especially daunting.
Sonoma Valley has responded by expanding a recycled water
pipeline on the east side, delivering treated wastewater for
irrigation and reducing pressure on depleted aquifers.
… The county is experimenting with Aquifer Storage
and Recovery (ASR), injecting excess treated Russian River
water underground during rainy months, banking it for future
dry spells.
… More than half a century ago, when Republicans were still
running the state, Reagan brought CEQA
(pronounced ‘see-kwa’) into the world as a shield against
unintended consequences: a project that befouled waterways or
drove species toward extinction. But the law’s reach expanded
through a series of court rulings until it applied to
developments of all kinds, becoming a handy tool for almost
anyone to challenge a proposed project by demanding more
analysis and remediation. CEQA has long been a bogeyman
for Republicans and developers, a symbol of regulatory excess
and government dysfunction — and an expensive one at
that. … This summer, Newsom and like-minded
legislators did what was unthinkable just a few years ago: They
scaled the law back dramatically, exempting most urban housing
developments, along with daycares, manufacturing hubs and
clinics.
The UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center today released
its “Tahoe: State of the Lake Report,” which presents data from
2024 in the context of the long-term record. … Highlights of
the report include data related to temperature, precipitation,
algae, water clarity and more. Lake Tahoe today generally
experiences higher air temperatures, more rain, less snow and
earlier snowmelt than it did 113 years ago, the report said.
Colorado Sens. Michael Bennet and John Hickenlooper have
reintroduced a bill to expand access to clean water in tribal
communities. The Tribal Access to Clean Water Act aims to
increase funding that would critically expand water
infrastructure projects through the Indian Health Service, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Bureau of
Reclamation. … The 2025 version would authorize the
USDA to provide grants and loans for water infrastructure in
tribal communities, increasing funding for its Rural
Development programs by $100 million annually for five years,
with $30 million specifically dedicated to technical
assistance. It would also boost funding to the Indian Health
Service for facility construction, technical assistance and
operations, as well as authorize $90 million annually to the
Bureau of Reclamation’s existing technical assistance program.
EPA is moving to shed more employees and overhaul its
enforcement work as the Trump administration continues its
efforts to downsize and revamp the agency. The agency is
offering another round of incentives to resign or retire early
for staff who work in offices including the stand-alone science
shop, the enforcement office, staffers in regional offices,
those who had previously received layoff notices, and others,
according to an email sent to staff Thursday and obtained by
POLITICO’s E&E News. The move to downsize with another
round of “deferred resignation” and early retirement incentives
comes after a significant chunk of EPA’s staff has already left
the agency during the Trump administration. More than 1,500
employees signed on to leave the agency during its most recent
round of incentives for staff departures, according to figures
provided by EPA earlier this month.
More than 3,000 flash flood warnings have been issued in the
United States so far this year — the highest number on record,
according to data from Iowa State University. A total of 3,040
warnings from the National Weather Service went out from Jan. 1
through July 15, according to figures compiled by the Iowa
Environmental Mesonet, which collects and tracks data on
precipitation, soil temperature and other environmental
conditions. That’s more than any other year during that same
time period since 1986, when the modern alert system was
adopted. The new record portends a wetter and rainier future
that experts say is likely because of climate change. Studies
have shown that severe storms and extreme rainfall are both
expected to occur more frequently in a warming world. A flash
flood warning is issued by the National Weather Service when
sudden and dangerous flooding is imminent or occurring.
A federal judge on Thursday overturned the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers’ approval of a 314-acre mixed-use development in
Chico, California, that environmentalists claim will destroy
vernal pools that are the natural habitat of
several threatened species. U.S. District Judge Daniel
Calabretta granted in part the request for summary judgment by
the plaintiffs — the Center for Biological Diversity and
AquAlliance — and halted implementation of the Stonegate
Development Project until the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
has prepared a legally adequate biological opinion that the
development wouldn’t jeopardize protected species. …
According to the conservation groups, the project would also
permanently destroy 9.14 acres of wetlands,
although some additional meadowfoam habitat may be established
through mitigation efforts.
Hundreds of trees along the American River – and the habitat
around them – could be removed, as part of a flood- and
erosion-control project. Neighbors in Sacramento County’s La
Riviera neighborhood are urgently fighting the plans, which are
up for an important vote Friday. … [T]he park could be filled
with construction materials and equipment as soon as next
summer. Its soccer fields are set to be the staging area for
part of a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) project aimed at
protecting the levy from erosion in the event of a disastrous
flood. … The Corps is seeking environmental
approvals to move forward with a part of the project called
Contract 3B, which would affect trees and riverbanks along a
three-mile stretch of the American River, from Howe Avenue to
just east of Larchmont Park. It calls for the removal of
between 675 and 715 trees. … Neighbors say they want to see
more targeted, surgical approaches to erosion, rather than the
transformation of entire stretches of the riverbank, like the
Corps work done along the river in 2023 near Sac State.
The Imperial Irrigation District has taken a stance on where
solar energy projects should go. The board passed a resolution
saying too much farmland in the Imperial Valley is being
replaced with solar panels. Most of the power from these
projects goes to big cities like San Diego, not the local
community. IID officials say they support solar development,
but not at the expense of agriculture. “One in every six jobs
in the Imperial Valley is directly related to agriculture, so
solar is great, as long as it’s not on ag land,” said Robert
Schettler with IID. The district also says farmland plays a
role in helping the Salton Sea. “When growers
grow, whatever the size of their farmland is, one third of the
water that goes onto the field drains off and goes to the
Salton Sea, so if you take ag out of production you’re not only
affecting the local economy, you’re affecting the Salton Sea,”
said Schettler. … IID is encouraging future solar
projects to be built on desert or unused land instead.
Relief from huge proposed rate hikes for San Diego water and
sewer customers is looking less likely, after a consultant
recommended no rate changes and after a City Council committee
tentatively endorsed the increases Thursday. City officials are
proposing 62% hikes to water rates and 31% hikes to sewer rates
over four years to cover sharply rising costs for workers,
imported water, chemicals, energy, construction projects and
other priorities. The increases, which would incrementally kick
in between January 2026 and January 2029, need final approval
from the full council during a public hearing scheduled for
Sept. 30. But the city’s independent budget analyst said
Thursday that what is usually a key opportunity for a reprieve
— a legally mandated second opinion from an outside consultant
— won’t be providing relief this time around.
On July 11, several dozen indigenous youth from the Klamath
Basin and beyond completed a historic 310-mile, month-long
source-to-sea “first descent” of the recently undammed
Klamath River. They began their journey in Oregon and ended at
the mouth of the river on the Yurok Reservation. Rios to
Rivers, a nonprofit conservation group, observed that “as the
youths approached the sand spit adjacent to the Klamath’s mouth
in their bright-colored kayaks, tribal elders, family members,
friends and supporters waved and cheered them on.” … The
young paddlers trained up to three years to run whitewater with
kayak instructors from the Paddle Tribal Waters program, which
is operated by Rios to Rivers. The program includes teens from
the Klamath, Yurok, Karuk, Quartz Valley, Hoopa Valley, Warm
Springs and Tohono O’odham tribes. Four hydroelectric dams
owned by PacifiCorp had blocked the river for over a century,
preventing once-abundant salmon and steelhead runs from
ascending into their native habitat.
The Eel River Pikeminnow Fishing Derby is back again, after
over 500 fish were caught in the 2024 derby. The derby is put
on by a collaboration of groups working to restore native
fishes in the Eel River. From now through August 31st, anyone
with a fishing license (or if under 16 years of age, no license
is necessary) can go and catch pikeminnow on the Eel for a
chance to win up to $500, with $2,500 in cash prizes! There is
no entry fee. Data from your catches can help managers aid in
the conservation of our native fishes. Pikeminnow were
introduced to the Eel River via Pillsbury Reservoir in the late
1970’s. Since then, they have spread to all the forks of the
Eel and are remarkably prolific. … The waters open to
fishing for the derby are: the South Fork Eel River downstream
of the Humboldt County line to the confluence with the
mainstem, the mainstem Eel from Dos Rios to the mouth of the
Van Duzen, and the Van Duzen from Grizzly Creek to the mouth of
the Van Duzen.
For the first time in more than 100 years, the Kern River is
headed back to the California Supreme Court where justices may
overturn or uphold an order mandating flows be kept in the
riverbed through Bakersfield. The high court announced
Wednesday that it would grant review of a 5th District Court of
Appeal’s ruling that overturned a Kern County Superior Court
judge’s order mandating water be kept in the river for fish.
The 5th District’s ruling was also “published,” meaning it can
be used as legal precedent in other, similar cases. The Kern
River plaintiffs asked the Supreme Court to review the 5th
District’s ruling and have it depublished. Justices granted
review but declined to depublish the ruling. Instead, justices
said the 5th District’s Kern River ruling could stand, pending
their review. And that the ruling could be cited as both an
authoritative precedent as well as to show there is a conflict
of authorities and that it was up to trial courts to then
“choose between sides of any such conflict.”
Construction costs to build the largest new reservoir in
California in 50 years, a vast 13-mile-long off-stream lake
that would provide water to 500,000 acres of Central Valley
farmlands and 24 million people, including residents of Santa
Clara County, parts of the East Bay and Los Angeles, have risen
sharply. The price tag for Sites Reservoir,
proposed to be located in the rural ranchlands of Colusa County
70 miles northwest of Sacramento, have increased from $4.5
billion to at least $6.2 billion, and potentially as much as
$6.8 billion, the project’s planners confirmed Wednesday. The
increase is due to inflation for concrete, steel and other
construction materials since 2021, when the original estimate
was generated, planners said. Factory shutdowns during the
COVID pandemic caused many construction materials to increase
in price, and tariffs imposed by President Trump have led to
more cost increases in recent months.
Federal officials reported Tuesday that the water level in Lake
Powell, one of the main water storage reservoirs for the
Colorado River Basin, could fall low enough to
stop hydropower generation at the reservoir by December 2026.
The reservoir’s water levels have fallen as the Colorado River
Basin, the water supply for 40 million people, has been
overstressed by rising temperatures, prolonged drought and
relentless demand. Upper Basin officials sounded the alarm in
June, saying this year’s conditions echo the extreme conditions
of 2021 and 2022, when Lake Powell and its sister reservoir,
Lake Mead, dropped to historic lows. The basin needs a
different management approach, specifically one that is more
closely tied to the actual water supply each year, the Upper
Colorado River Commission’s statement said.
California is suing to reverse what it says is an unlawful
termination of a grant program that’s been used to mitigate the
impacts of natural disasters nationwide. California Attorney
General Rob Bonta and a coalition of 19 other states are asking
the courts to compel the Federal Emergency Management Agency to
reverse the termination of the Building Resilient
Infrastructure and Communities grant program, according to a
news release from the attorney general’s office.
… According to a court filing, FEMA had selected
Sacramento’s application for a $21.36 million
project under the program that would have funded flood
mitigation. … Prior to the grant program being
shut down, it was poised to fund hundreds of projects targeting
flooding mitigation, seismic retrofits, shelter from tornadoes,
vegetation management to reduce damage from wildfires and more
nationwide, according to the court document.
California lawmakers are growing increasingly concerned about
federal staffing cuts at the National Weather Service, which
they say are harming the state’s agriculture industry and
putting critical fire operations in jeopardy. In a letter dated
Wednesday and obtained by The Times, both U.S. senators from
California, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, urged the Trump
administration to reverse its considerable cuts to the nation’s
leading weather agency, which has lost at least 600 employees
to layoffs and buyouts this year. … Their letter follows
a Times report which found that two of the six NWS offices in
California — Hanford and Sacramento — are among the hardest-hit
by federal cuts in the nation. The president and his unofficial
Department of Government Efficiency have said the cuts will
help save taxpayers money and reduce federal waste.
California farmers, agricultural commissioners and lawmakers
have in recent months sounded an alarm about a troubling
symptom of the state’s struggling farm economy.
“Everywhere you turn there’s an abandoned vineyard,” said Randy
Baranek, project manager for the Stanislaus County-based
agricultural service provider Fowler Brothers. He estimated
there are twice as many untended grapevines in the Central
Valley this year than he has ever seen. … The phenomenon has
led to widespread concern that pests harbored in abandoned
orchards and vineyards could impact adjacent
farms. … Farmers cautioned that the situation could
get worse before it improves. While almond prices have improved
this year, the winegrape market has not. Meanwhile, limits
on groundwater pumping under California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act have led some growers in parts of
the San Joaquin Valley to begin abandoning orchards.
El Verano and eastern Sonoma Valley face worsening groundwater
shortages, leading officials to designate those regions as
Groundwater Sustainability Priority Areas requiring stronger
conservation efforts. The Sonoma Valley Groundwater
Sustainability Agency made the announcement in June following
years of observing the continously declining water levels in
the Valley’s deep aquifers, some of which have dropped by
nearly 100 feet over the last decade. In the most severely
impacted zones, groundwater levels are falling by as much as 8
feet per year, officials say. … The primary cause of the
crisis is over-pumping of deep aquifers — those more than 200
feet below ground — which recharge significantly slower than
shallow aquifers.
