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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.
Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, 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 head of the Environmental Protection Agency clashed with
Democratic senators Wednesday, accusing one of being an
“aspiring fiction writer” and saying another does not “care
about wasting money.’’ … The heated exchanges, at a
Senate hearing to discuss President Donald Trump’s proposal to
slash the agency’s budget in half, showed the sharp partisan
differences over Zeldin’s deregulatory approach. … Sen.
Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told Zeldin that a plan to cut EPA
spending by 55% means that, to Zeldin and Trump, “more than
half of the environmental efforts of the EPA … to make sure
Americans have clean air and clean water are
just a waste.” If approved by Congress, the budget cuts “will
mean there’s more diesel and more other particulate matter in
the air” and that “water that Americans drink is going to have
more chemicals,” Schiff said.
In 1987, the Carmel River Steelhead Association filed a
complaint with the State Water Resources Control Board, arguing
that utility company California American Water was pumping too
much water from the Carmel River to supply users in and around
the Monterey Peninsula, harming steelhead trout. That state
board agreed, and in 1995, issued Order 95-10, directing Cal Am
to find a replacement water supply for river water it was
illegally siphoning away from the habitat. It’s 30 years later,
and Cal Am has complied. Since 2021, it has pumped within its
legal limit (3,376 acre-feet per year) from the Carmel, down
from about 14,000 acre-feet at the time. And yet Order 95-10 is
still in place, with state officials calling for a “permanent
replacement” supply before lifting it. … For years, Cal
Am and leaders in the hospitality industry have argued a
“permanent replacement” will require massive new infrastructure
– specifically, a desalination plant.
The call of American bullfrogs was deafening when scientists
from the University of California, Davis, first began
researching the impact of invasive bullfrogs on native
northwestern pond turtles at Yosemite National Park. … But
the ponds of Yosemite sound different today, with a chorus of
native species making themselves heard. The researchers’ study,
published in the May issue of the journal Biological
Conservation, found that as the park was depopulated of
bullfrogs, northwestern pond turtles began to return. The study
suggests that removing invasive bullfrogs may be necessary in
priority conservation areas to help pond turtle populations
recover.
The California Tahoe Conservancy let the public tour its latest
restoration project at the former Motel 6 property in South
Lake Tahoe Wednesday. According to the group, the portion of
the Truckee River underneath the Motel 6 is the missing link
between miles of marshland that feeds into Lake Tahoe,
providing critical wetland habitat among other environmental
benefits. “These wetlands provide a lot of really important
functions. One of those is protecting and improving water
quality by providing natural filtration,” Senior Environmental
Scientist at the California Tahoe Conservancy Stuart Roll said.
In addition to helping keep Tahoe blue, the marshland habitat
is home to several ecosystems and wildlife. “Lots of species
use these wetland, and so restoring them and improving them
really helps biodiversity and ecosystems in Lake Tahoe,” Roll
said.
A few years ago, scientists started identifying a potentially
major culprit in the dramatic decline of the coho salmon
fishery — a chemical known as “6PPD-quinone,” a byproduct of a
chemical used in automotive tires. Throughout the course of
their life, tires deposit the precursor of this chemical
everywhere they travel. This precursor degrades into 6PPD-q and
enters the water system, killing coho in particular — a
protected species under the Endangered Species Act — with great
efficiency. Now, a new study from Humboldt Waterkeeper,
conducted in Eureka and Arcata throughout the last few months,
shows that you don’t need a huge, dense car population to
generate potentially lethal concentrations of 6PPD-q — regular
old parking lots seem to do it just fine. … The
study comes at a time when the California Assembly is
considering legislation — Assembly Bill 1313 — that would
require owners of large parking lots to acquire
stormwater discharge permits and mitigate
their runoff.
Water credits, farm equipment, a piece of the
farm itself. These are some of the assets farmers have sold
this year to finance their operations. Typically, many
farmers take out yearly operating loans to pay for labor,
fertilizer, fuel and other input costs, and then they pay back
the loans after harvesting and selling their crops. But as the
farm economy struggles, lenders have pulled back, and some
farmers are liquidating assets to continue
farming. “What’s happened is the working capital—those
loans—just dried up,” said Bill Berryhill, who farms in
Stanislaus, San Joaquin and Sacramento counties. “It’s a little
tough to farm without any operating money.” … In
addition to low commodity prices and high farming costs,
California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act has impacted lending and pushed some growers to
sell land, especially in the San Joaquin Valley.
A new study from the San Francisco Estuary Institute shows
concerning levels of “forever chemicals” — or per- and
polyfluoroalkyl substances — in at least 10 fish species in the
San Francisco Bay, with contamination levels particularly high
in the southern region. PFAS chemicals are considered dangerous
due to their near-ubiquity in food and everyday-use products,
as well as their inability to break down easily in the body and
environment. They have been linked to a variety of conditions
and diseases, including some cancers and reproductive issues.
Studies have shown elevated PFAS levels in freshwater fish, and
even though saltwater fish tend to see lower amounts, Rebecca
Sutton, managing senior scientist at the San Francisco Estuary
Institute, said studying fish in bodies of water like the San
Francisco Bay is still critical.
According to a recent report from global water market data and
insights provider Bluefield Research, nearly one in five
gallons — 19.5% — of treated drinking water in the United
States is lost before it reaches customers or is improperly
billed. Known as non-revenue water (NRW), Bluefield estimates
that it costs utilities more than $6.4 billion (USD) in
uncaptured revenues annually. According to Bluefield, a major
contributor to water loss is vast and aging distribution
networks that span more than 2.2 million miles across the
country. Water main breaks are estimated to occur every two
minutes, placing significant financial, operational and
infrastructure burdens on utilities and their stakeholders.
Along with physical water loss, utilities also need to be
concerned about under-registering meters that may improperly
bill customers for their water usage, resulting in lost revenue
for the utility. The total value of the water lost from
physical leakage and water that goes unbilled, is non-revenue
water.
Fifteen California lawmakers from both parties are up in arms
over Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest proposal to to use the budget
process to fast-track the Delta tunnel — a deeply
controversial, $20 billion plan to replumb the estuary and
funnel more water south. With the clock ticking for the
Legislature to pass a budget bill tackling the state’s $12
billion deficit, Newsom dropped a spending plan last week that
would add sweeping changes to permitting, litigation,
financing, and eminent domain and land acquisition issues aimed
at speeding approval of the massive
project. … Assembly and Senate Democrats and
Republicans representing Delta counties, including Sacramento,
Yolo, Contra Costa and San Joaquin, fired back in a letter last
week, saying it would “change several, separate parts of state
law to benefit only a portion of California, to the detriment
of Californians north of the Delta.”
Limited Chinook salmon fishing on sections of the Mokelumne,
Feather and American rivers is being reopened for the first
time in two years, the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife announced Tuesday. … The Department of Fish and
Wildlife says salmon stocks throughout the state have been
harmed by multiyear droughts, causing
inadequate spawning and migration conditions, ocean forage
shifts and thiamine deficiencies. Thiamine, also called Vitamin
B1, is an essential nutrient for salmon and their reproduction.
Scientists have theorized that anchovies, which are often prey
for salmon, produce the thiaminase enzyme that breaks down
thiamine. It’s believed warmer climates have caused anchovy
populations to shift to ocean areas where river salmon go to
grow and find food before returning to their rivers to spawn.
The western U.S. is experiencing a late-season snow drought,
according to an update Wednesday by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration’s National Integrated Drought
Information System. The diminished snowpack could result in
water supply issues and increased wildfire risk in the coming
months, the authors wrote. Above-normal temperatures and a lack
of precipitation in April and early May caused depletions even
in basins where snow had piled up in prior months.
… “While the rate of the snowmelt has not had a major
impact on forecasted April through July seasonal runoff, below
average spring precipitation has lowered runoff projections
slightly,” said Andy Reising, manager of the California
Department of Water Resources’ snow surveys and water supply
forecasting unit.
The Trump administration significantly cut funding for flood
prevention projects in blue states across the country while
creating new water construction opportunities in red states,
undoing a Biden-era budget proposal that would have allocated
money more evenly, according to a data analysis prepared by
Democratic staffers. California and the state
of Washington lost the most funds, with the administration
cutting water construction budget for those states by a
combined $606 million, according to the analysis, which was
shared with CNN. Texas, meanwhile, gained $206 million. …
Collectively, states with Democratic senators lost over $436
million in funding compared to what they would have received
under the last proposed budget of President Joe Biden’s
administration, the data analysis shows. Republican-led states
gained more than $257 million, the analysis shows.
… Throughout the West, pretty much every last drop of
Colorado River is used and accounted for. The majority of
Colorado’s allotment of the river is used for agriculture.
Human-caused climate change is stretching the river even
thinner, and drought persists. That means that the people who
rely on the river have to get creative when it comes to
conservation, especially in Colorado, where the river begins.
… It’s all part of Colorado’s complex water law system,
which states that water released from reservoirs must be put to
a “beneficial use.” That usually means using it for things like
irrigation or industry. The environment, and even fish,
historically haven’t counted. But there’s a workaround:
hydropower. It keeps the water in the river, and under state
law, it qualifies as beneficial.
… Arizonans across the state are facing rapidly declining
groundwater. Many officials, lawmakers, residents, and
conservation advocates say stemming the loss is urgent for
communities—and wildlife, too. In 2025, the Arizona Department
of Water Resources took an unprecedented step to declare the
Willcox groundwater basin a new “active management area” (AMA)
under the 1980 water law. The designation requires that large
groundwater consumers in (some parts) of Arizona report their
use, prohibits drilling large new wells and the expansion of
irrigated farmland, and sets goals to cut withdrawals over
time. Many now want to see that momentum spread statewide.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers recently introduced
bills that would end Arizona’s era of unlimited groundwater
extraction.
Contaminants known as “forever chemicals” have been discovered
in San Francisco Bay fish at levels that could pose a health
threat to people who eat fish caught there, according to new
research published today. Linked to an array of health
conditions such as cancers, heart disease and pregnancy
disorders, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances resist breaking
down in the environment. … Researchers from the San Francisco
Estuary Institute found the chemicals in striped bass,
largemouth bass, leopard shark, white croaker, white sturgeon
and other fish collected between 2009 and 2019 throughout San
Francisco Bay. Recreational and subsistence anglers catch
striped bass and the other fish from boats, shores or piers,
but they are not sold commercially.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the
International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) have
announced the expansion of the South Bay International
Wastewater Treatment Plant will be fast-tracked to be completed
in just over 3 months. The work is in an effort to reduce
polluted river flows and aims to address air and water quality
impacts in southern San Diego County. The USIBWC and EPA
announced Tuesday the South Bay International Wastewater
Treatment Plant that is located just north of the U.S.-Mexico
border along the Tijuana River in southern San Diego County
will be expanded from 25 to 35 million gallons per
day. The work will now take place in 100 days for the
project that was initially slated to take two years to
complete, USIBWC said.
Wastewater and drinking water systems in small and rural
communities across America will receive an extra funding boost
to improve water quality, per an announcement from the
Environmental Protection Agency Tuesday. The EPA will
distribute $30.7 million in technical assistance grants to help
small, underfunded public water systems comply with the Safe
Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act. The funds can also be
used to help private well owners in rural areas improve their
water quality and update small public wastewater septic
systems. “Small and rural communities are the backbone of our
country, and they face unique challenges when it comes to
ensuring clean and safe water,” EPA Senior Advisor Jessica
Kramer said.
Invasive golden mussels have spoiled boating season on the
Sacramento-San-Joaquin Delta after East Bay
Municipal Utility District announced in April the closure of
boat launches in 2025 while the public utility studies the
prevention and removal of the mollusks. EBMUD seeks to prevent
one of the most common ways that golden mussels spread — in
water held on vessels that is then expelled in other waterways
–because if the mussels cross into EBMUD’s infrastructure, they
could clog pipes, pumps, and lead to costly removals.
… Biologists at EDMUD are concerned about containing
golden mussels — the first invasive mussel found in Northern
California — because they are far more adaptable than other
invasive species in California’s waterways, able to survive in
habitats with less calcium and higher water temperatures than
other invasive species like quagga mussels.
… California is grappling with two pressing issues: a
shrinking water supply and the growing demand for clean,
dependable energy. SGMA requires local agencies to balance
groundwater use by 2040. Meanwhile, statewide power demand is
expected to rise 80% by 2045. In response, AB 1156 would allow
landowners to lease their farmland for solar panel
installation. “This land is fallow this year. Obviously, as you
can see in the background, we don’t have anything growing there
— and that’s because of the SGMA regulations, along with quite
a bit of other land that we have.” Mike Frey said. Mike
Frey is a fifth-generation farmer in Buttonwillow. His family
has been farming in Kern County since 1962, growing almonds,
pistachios, cotton, wheat, corn, potatoes, and carrots. Now,
he’s working to turn that fallow land into a solar farm.
Memorial Day weekend guests at Whiskeytown National Recreation
Area should be on alert for fast moving, deep and very cold
water, the park’s rangers cautioned. The Bureau of
Reclamationis releasing more water through Whiskeytown Dam and
into the park through June 24, boosting water levels. Expect
highest flows this week, peaking Thursday, according to an
announcement issued by the park. … Increasing the amount
of water flowing into Clear Creek and the Trinity River will
benefit fish species, including salmon, by
mimicking natural springtime runoff. These fish need a lot of
water, “particularly cold water if you are (a) Chinook salmon,”
the park said. Sacramento River spring-run Chinook live in
Clear Creek, and are under federal protection.
