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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House Republicans passed a measure Thursday that would repeal
the government’s decision to place California’s longfin
smelt, a finger-sized fish, on the endangered species
list. House members passed the resolution, introduced by
California Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R-Richvale), in a 216-195 vote
that followed party lines. The resolution now goes to the
Republican-controlled Senate. “We want to block the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service’s misguided decision to list the San
Francisco Bay Delta population of the longfin smelt as being
endangered,” LaMalfa, who represents a rice-growing region in
Northern California, said before the vote. He said the agency’s
decision last year to declare the fish species endangered was
“unscientific” and said it’s making it harder to deliver water
from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to farmers.
Rapid melts across the U.S. West have caused snowpack to
disappear up to four weeks early in some areas — wreaking
potential havoc on the region’s water supply, federal
meteorologists warned Thursday. These conditions have
particularly affected parts of Utah, Colorado and New Mexico,
causing some basins to shift from above-average snowpack to
“snow drought,” according to an update from the
National Integrated Drought Information System
(NIDIS). That transition occurred in under a month, with
snow disappearing one to four weeks earlier than usual, the
NIDIS updated stated. … As for the Colorado
River Basin, the NIDIS update said that supply
forecasts for this region declined in comparison to April 1
projections, presumably due to dry conditions and early, rapid
snowmelt.
California’s largest reservoir, Lake Shasta, reached
capacity this week, marking the third straight year it has
filled or nearly filled with water. The run of big water years
at the reservoir reflects the unusual string of wet winters the
state has experienced, and it bodes well for water supplies
this year across California. The lake, which stretches
across an extraordinary 35 miles in the southern Cascades north
of Redding near Mount Shasta, is the cornerstone of the
federally run Central Valley Project. Its supplies are sent to
cities and farms hundreds of miles away, including the Bay
Area. The San Joaquin Valley’s booming agricultural industry is
the primary beneficiary.
… As we’ve been reporting, the Kern groundwater subbasin
could be put under probation. On Thursday, local water
officials met to discuss how to fix the problem. The Kern
River Groundwater Sustainability Agency is just one of 20 GSAs
(Groundwater Sustainability Agencies) in the Kern County
subbasin. They are working with the Kern County Water Agency,
Kern Delta Water District, the City of Bakersfield, and many
others to keep the Kern subbasin from going into probation
under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
Political leadership at EPA has told employees with at least
two program offices to expect reorganization announcements
Friday. According to multiple people with knowledge of
senior-level meetings, EPA has scheduled an all-hands meeting
late Friday with Office of Research and Development employees.
There, agency leaders are expected to inform staff that some
functions will be restructured or absorbed into other offices,
but ORD will no longer exist as a stand-alone program, said one
source with knowledge of the plan and granted anonymity to
speak due to fear of retaliation. … Staffers who sign up
for the “deferred resignation” program will go on paid leave
through the end of September. … This is the second time the
option has been offered since President Donald Trump began his
second term. About 545 workers took advantage of it in the
first round, according to EPA.
This month, a key milestone was reached as water began flowing
into the East Pond of the Species Conservation Habitat (SCH)
Project—the largest restoration initiative at the Salton Sea. A
mixture of water from the New River and the Salton Sea is now
filling the first pond, with the East Pond 1 expansion Pond
expected to follow by the end of May. Together, the two ponds
will support roughly 2,000 acres of habitat-roughly three
square miles, the California Natural Resources Agency said.
Launched in 2021, the SHC Project has expanded to nearly 5,000
acres at the Sea’s southern end, with future plans to grow the
footprint to more than 9,000 acres. The restoration efforts are
designed to rebuild critical wetland habitats and reduce
harmful dust exposure for surrounding communities.
Tiny pieces of plastic are an increasingly big problem. Known
as microplastics, they originate from clothing, kitchen
utensils, personal care products, and countless other everyday
objects. Their durability makes them persistent in the
environment – including in human bodies. … According to
a new literature review, a significant portion of our
microplastic exposure may come from drinking water, as
wastewater treatment plants are still not effectively removing
microplastics. … ”What our systematic literature review
found is that while most wastewater treatment facilities
significantly reduce microplastics loads, complete removal
remains unattainable with current
technologies,” says senior author Un-Jung Kim,
environmental engineer at the University of Texas at Arlington
(UTA).
The Water Forum is pleased to announce the appointment of
Ashlee Casey, PE, as its new Executive Director. With over a
decade of experience addressing California’s most pressing
water resource challenges, Casey brings a strong foundation in
engineering, collaborative problem-solving, and strategic
planning to her new leadership role. Casey originally joined
the Water Forum in 2021 as a water resources engineer, where
she focused on regional surface and groundwater reliability,
managed technical support for the Water Forum’s Flow Management
Standard on the Lower American River, and contributed to
projects addressing long-term sustainability. (Casey
graduated in 2018 from the Water Education Foundation’s
Water Leaders
program.)
Federally declared fishery disasters have risen sharply in the
United States over the past decade, but NOAA hasn’t stepped up
its efforts to get relief dollars to affected communities, a
new report found. NOAA can take a long time — in some cases up
to five years — to hand out financial assistance to fishermen
and others dealing with a fishery collapse or other disaster,
according to a report issued Wednesday by the Government
Accountability Office. The report examined the federal response
to 111 fishery disaster requests since January 2014, finding
that for nearly half of the approved requests, relief money
began flowing at least 12 months after communities were hit by
a disaster.
Atascadero residents could soon see their sewage bills go up
after the state mandated the city undertake a costly plan to
upgrade its water treatment plant. To help fund the project —
currently expected to cost upwards of $173 million — the city
is considering a sewage service rate increase of 18.5% to go
into effect this year, followed by a potential increase of the
same amount again in 2026. A single-family household would
pay over $100 more every year, according to the staff report
from the April 22 city council meeting. But there is still a
chance the rate increase might fail. … If a majority of
impacted homeowners or lease holders protest the rate increase,
Atascadero would be legally blocked from imposing the fee.
Thousands of San Luis Obispo County residents were recently
warned to boil or purify their drinking water after tests
detected a strain of coliform bacteria in the water supply. The
bacteria, which was found in the water distribution system of
Zone 3 of the San Miguelito Water Co., is an early indication
of a potential E. coli contamination. … This is the
first time coliform bacteria contamination at the Lopez
distribution system has triggered a boil water notice, the
county Public Works Department said in a Thursday news release.
Here’s what to know about the potentially dangerous water
contaminant.
Last week, I sat down with Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Lee Zeldin for a roundtable focused on a crisis
that’s poisoned our coastlines for decades: the relentless
dumping of toxic sewage from Mexico into Southern California’s
waters. This wasn’t another meeting about more studies, more
delays, or more bureaucratic finger-pointing. It was about one
thing: action. I told Administrator Zeldin what so many San
Diegans already know: this isn’t just an environmental disaster
— it’s a national security threat. When our Navy SEALs — the
elite warriors of our military — are forced to abandon training
operations due to contaminated waters, we have crossed a line.
When our families can’t enjoy our beaches without the risk of
serious illness, something is fundamentally broken. The good
news? Your voices are being heard. –Written by Jim Desmond, member of the San Diego County
Board of Supervisors.
… Arizona Water for All (AW4A) is a program of ASU’s Arizona
Water Innovation Initiative bringing together community
advocates, nonprofit organizations, and state agencies to
address water insecurity through community-based approaches.
This statewide network — with nodes in Tucson, Tempe, and
Flagstaff — aims to promote community participation in research
and policy related to water decision-making and to better plan
for the future of access to this precious resource,
particularly for the state’s most vulnerable residents.
… By prioritizing outreach with organizations and groups
across southern Arizona, organizing conversations around
household and community-level water insecurity, building
awareness about water-related struggles in our communities, and
helping to advance local solutions, our vision is to ensure
water security for all residents. –Written by Megan A. Carney, associate professor of
anthropology at the University of Arizona and southern Arizona
lead for AW4A, and Deyanira Ibarra, a PhD candidate in
anthropology at the University of Arizona.
Dust storms are pervasive across much of inland California and
have many adverse effects. Perhaps most notable are the health
impacts associated with dust, which range from traffic
accidents due to poor visibility, to respiratory disease caused
by direct exposure. Unfortunately, these health impacts are
disproportionately borne by vulnerable groups. However, dust
storms also affect many other aspects of life in the state,
including water resources, solar energy production,
agricultural productivity, and weather and climate. UC Dust is
a new center developed with the goals of developing and
implementing adaptation and mitigation strategies that address
current and likely future dust storms in California. UC Dust is
comprised of faculty, staff and students from 7 UCs who have
expertise in the diverse disciplines relevant to dust storms,
including the atmospheric, soil, health, and climate sciences,
geography, ecology, hydrology, and environmental policy and
justice.
Turn on the tap, and you have reasonably clean water to use
instantly. That is because electricity pumps water to your
faucets. Electricity is generated by heating water into steam
to run turbines unless you use wind or photovoltaic (PV) energy
sources for electrical production. Often, these essential
connections are not mentioned in public information. Especially
in drought-prone places, the simple fact is that you need water
for energy, and it takes energy to move, chill, or heat water.
Southern California is in a drought, and parts of the western
deserts are in severe drought conditions. We may realize that
hydroelectric power production from dammed rivers is diminished
in periods of extended drought. Living well in a water deficit
region requires enormous use of electrical energy to move water
from mountainous northern California to our desert and semiarid
regions.
This year marks a major milestone for the Eel River watershed,
as Phase 2 of the Eel River Restoration and Conservation
Program kicks off and the Potter Valley Project (including
two dams) nears decommissioning. To commemorate this epic year
of watershed renewal, California Trout was thrilled to
present the Eel River Photo Contest in
collaboration with the Rotary Club of Eureka! The winning
photos beautifully showcase the watershed through the lenses of
access, restoration, wildlife, and recreation. The Emerging
Photographer winner and Best Photo winners were selected by a
panel of CalTrout staff. The Grand Prize award was selected by
public vote at the Eel River Expo on April 19, 2025.
Interior Department veteran Andrea Travnicek on Wednesday
identified Colorado River policies, critical minerals
development and infrastructure as her top three priorities if
she is confirmed as Interior’s assistant secretary for water
and science. With a background that includes service in the
first Trump administration’s Interior Department and leadership
of North Dakota’s Department of Water Resources, Travnicek
noted that there are “a lot of discussions right now” related
to the 1,450-mile river and the allocation of its water. “We’ve
got some looming deadlines that are in front of us next year,
so we’re going to have to work really closely with those seven
states in the [Colorado River] basin,” Travnicek told the
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
Congress is expected to vote Thursday on a Republican
resolution to reverse endangered species protection for a tiny
inhabitant of San Francisco Bay that opponents say could set a
dangerous precedent. The resolution aims to remove the
endangered species status of longfin smelt in
the San Francisco Bay. The fish received that designation in
July under the Biden administration. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a
Republican from Butte County, introduced the resolution in
March under the Congressional Review Act, saying it was
necessary to protect the state’s water supply. Opponents say
the time period for such a resolution already expired and that
the Republican effort is part of an unprecedented attack on
endangered species protections.
The migrations that make up the well-known salmon life cycle
have long been described as one way at a time. Juvenile salmon
hatch and swim down rivers to the ocean, where they grow and
mature before returning to the same river to spawn the next
generation. Turns out that many young salmon do things
differently, according to new research by NOAA Fisheries,
Tribal, and university scientists. The findings were published
in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and the
Environment. They discovered that as many as 22% of
juvenile salmon in California and Washington streams swam
downriver to the ocean and then back up other rivers as many as
9 times. They reached rivers as far as 40 miles away along the
coast.
Today is
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