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 Environmental Protection Agency on Friday informed union
officials that it would terminate the contracts it signed
with various labor partners effective immediately, making it
the second agency to fully implement President Trump’s March
executive order stripping most federal workers of their
collective bargaining rights. … As part of the decision,
the agency will no longer allow union officials to employ
official time. … EPA also said it will “reclaim” office space
previously occupied by unions and cease participating in
arbitration proceedings—arbitrators will be paid only for “work
performed to date” and their decisions are now deemed
“nonbinding.”
Charcoal made from human waste could help solve fertiliser
shortages as well as reduce pollution and energy use, a study
has found. … Treated sewage sludge is already spread on
farmland, but its use is controversial as it often contains
microplastics, heavy metals, Pfas forever chemicals, pathogens,
and pharmaceuticals.The researchers say biochar can avoid this
problem by separating the waste at source. … The biochar
production process also allows nutrient proportions to be
adjusted according to the needs of individual crops. This can
address problems associated with fertiliser use such as weed
growth and eutrophication – when excess nutrients leach into
groundwater, causing rapid growth of algae which depletes
oxygen availability.
Nearly 240,000 residents in parts of southeastern San Diego
County will soon see higher water bills. The Otay Water
District notified customers that it will implement an 8.3% rate
increase effective Jan. 1, saying the “unavoidable” hike is
mostly due to charges passed down from its wholesale water
suppliers: The Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California and the county Water Authority. … Otay Water
officials said the vast majority of the increase is tied to
costs from suppliers, which have seen higher labor and energy
costs and inflation, while also bringing in lower water sales
due to drought conditions.
A federal judge awarded Friends of the River nearly
half-a-million dollars in attorneys’ fees Friday after the
conservation group prevailed in a Freedom of Information Act
dispute that had dragged on for nine years. The award —
$491,676 in attorneys’ fees and $2,548 in costs — was less than
what the organization asked for but nearly twice what the Army
Corps of Engineers had proposed paying. The Corps was on the
hook for at least some of the litigation costs after losing a
FOIA lawsuit related to endangered species and dams on
California’s Yuba River.
… Lithium is a vital component in renewable energy
technology, and we have long known that there is a rich deposit
underground near the Salton Sea.
… Sadly though, Lithium Valley has thus far generated
more unfulfilled plans and lawsuits than EV batteries.
… California’s latest economic blueprint calls out
critical minerals as an economic sector the state will “bet”
on, and it has already invested well over $100 million. Yet
businesses that committed to the effort are reconsidering their
plans as progress stagnates. … Each new lawsuit, policy
and delay pushes the realization of Lithium Valley’s promise
further over the horizon. –Written by Adela de la Torre, president of San Diego
State University.
In a lengthy and highly technical published opinion filed
August 5, 2025, the Fifth District Court of Appeal partly
reversed and partly affirmed a judgment that had upheld the
State Water Resources Control Board’s (“State Water Board” or
“SWRCB”) adoption of the “State Policy for Water Quality
Control: Toxicity Provisions” (the “Toxicity Provisions”),
which policy in relevant part required use of a new “Test of
Significant Toxicity” (“TST”) in analyzing a type of pollution
known as “whole effluent toxicity.” … As to the CEQA
aspects of the Court’s opinion, it provides valuable
CEQA-compliance guidance to agencies with certified regulatory
programs adopting new regulations that will trigger generally
foreseeable future compliance actions the parameters of which
are speculative.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
Today, Congresswoman Norma Torres and Congressman David Valadao
– members of the House Appropriations Committee – announced the
introduction of the bipartisan Removing Nitrate and Arsenic in
Drinking Water Act. This bill would amend the Safe Drinking
Water Act to provide grants for nitrate and arsenic reduction,
by providing $15 million for FY25 and every fiscal year
thereafter. The bill also directs the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take into consideration the needs of
economically disadvantaged populations impacted by drinking
water contamination. The California State Water Resources
Control Board found the Inland Empire to have the highest
levels of contamination of nitrate throughout the state
including 82 sources in San Bernardino, 67 sources in Riverside
County, and 123 sources in Los Angeles County.
Catastrophic weather events wreaked havoc on U.S. agriculture
last year, causing nearly $22 billion in crop and rangeland
losses, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.
California accounted for $1.14 billion of that figure,
including nearly $880 million in damages from severe storms and
flooding. The figures represent a significant shift from
previous years, when drought and wildfires were California’s
biggest challenges. Since then, atmospheric rivers, Tropical
Storm Hilary and other weather events battered our farming
communities. - Written by Matthew Viohl, director of federal
policy for the California Farm Bureau
