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.
Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.
We occasionally bold words in the text to ensure the water connection is clear.
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 Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has approved $59.5
million in grants to support 25 habitat protection and
restoration projects in 21 counties across California. Awarded
at WCB’s May 22 meeting, the projects will safeguard nearly
23,000 acres of the state’s most ecologically important
landscapes. Among the awards is a $14.75 million grant to
the Trust for Public Land(opens in new tab) (TPL) to acquire
approximately 6,475 acres near the city of Ventura. Known as
Rancho Cañada Larga, the land features coastal sage scrub,
native grasslands, oak woodlands, chaparral and riparian
habitats that support at least 20 special-status wildlife
species and eight rare plant species. The site provides
critical habitat for the California red-legged frog and
Southern California steelhead, and lies within the year-round
range of the California condor.
President Donald Trump’s California-related water policy hasn’t
always been thoughtfully executed, as the fracas over his
ordered water releases early this year to help with the Los
Angeles wildfires made clear. The decision was hastily made,
didn’t help firefighting efforts and squandered water that
Central Valley farms will need as the dry season takes hold.
Nevertheless, the president’s instincts are correct. California
faces repeated droughts, with state water policy prioritizing
environmental concerns over the needs of farmers and consumers.
This approach hasn’t done much to improve the environment or
boost fish populations. So Trump is right to shift priorities
on federally managed projects. The latest news is heartening,
as it points toward building a project that has been discussed
for decades: raising Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet.
There is now another option for boaters hoping to get out on
Folsom Lake amid golden mussel restrictions.
Boats can now undergo a hot water decontamination — skipping
the 30-day quarantine that was previously the only
option. The rules are aimed at preventing an infestation
of golden mussels, which were recently identified in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and that “pose a significant
threat to the ecological health of all waters of the state, its
water conveyance systems, infrastructure, and water quality,”
California State Parks said. California State Parks lists
one location that is authorized to conduct decontaminations and
place a green seal on vessels headed for Folsom Lake – Mello
Marine. … It’s a service that requires a lot of water
and Mello’s setup was designed with that in mind – using pond
liners, trenches, filters and holding tanks.
The Orange County Water District (OCWD; the District) and the
City of Tustin celebrated the dedication of a new PFAS
treatment plant, marking a major milestone in ensuring safe and
reliable water for Tustin residents and businesses.
The dedication ceremony brought together local, state and
federal representatives to recognize the proactive actions of
both OCWD and the City of Tustin in addressing PFAS, a group of
manufactured chemicals increasingly found in water sources
across the country, including the Orange County Groundwater
Basin. The new treatment system, implemented at the existing
Main Street Water Treatment Plant, uses ion exchange technology
to treat up to 6,400 gallons of groundwater per minute. The
centralized plant is fed by four offsite wells connected
through approximately 2.5 miles of conveyance pipeline.
Nicole Byrne watched anxiously from across the small kitchen in
her home as Parham Azimi, a Harvard University researcher,
lined up sample bottles next to the running tap. … Azimi was
there gathering water samples as part of an unprecedented
academic collaboration led by health, environmental, data and
wildfire risk assessment researchers at Harvard’s T.H. Chan
School of Public Health, the UCLA Fielding School of Public
Health, the University of California, Davis and the University
of Texas at Austin. With support from the Spiegel Family Fund,
the universities formed the LA Fire Health Study Consortium in
late January after the fires killed 29 people, destroyed more
than 16,000 structures, primarily in Altadena and Pacific
Palisades, and exposed millions to particulate matter, gases,
chemicals, heavy metals, asbestos, PFAS, microplastics and
other toxic pollutants.
The rate at which trees are dying in California has hit a
10-year low, according to a survey from the U.S. Forest
Service. Trees were dying at an alarming rate from 2015 to
2018, but after significant snow and rainfall in recent years,
trees are getting their necessary nutrients. ”We’ve had a
couple good years of precipitation,” said Jeffrey Moore, aerial
survey manager with the Forest Service. “We expected the amount
of mortality to start tapering off, and indeed that was the
case.” Severe droughts, he says, are the main culprits for the
amount of trees that die. Less water means fewer nutrients,
which then allows for a greater chance of trees to get disease
or infected with bugs that feed on dry bark. “The drought
itself was what we call the proximal factor,” Moore said. “It
weakened the trees to the point where other things could come
in and actually kill them outright.”
… Lake Tahoe is famous for its blueness. The growth and
spread of algae is one reason blue lakes around the world can
appear green in the summer. Algae form the base of many food
webs, and most algae in Lake Tahoe, though sometimes
unattractive, do not pose a health risk to people or animals.
Harmful algal blooms are a different story. HABs can be
mistaken for harmless types of algae that naturally occur in
Tahoe and can be found clinging to rocks, washing up on
beaches, and attached to the bottom of creek and river
channels. HABs, however, pose a risk to public health and
safety as they can produce toxins. The Lahontan Regional
Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) places a focus on
algae and HABs in Tahoe’s waterbodies. They are not alone. The
Tahoe Science Advisory Council (Science Council), and notably
its member the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center,
study the presence, abundance, and distribution of Tahoe’s
algae over time and how those characteristics are shifting with
climate change.
As the western United States heads into its traditional dry
season, water managers are assessing how winter rains have
helped replenish the region’s reservoirs. The vast majority of
precipitation that falls during the wet season results from
atmospheric rivers (ARs) that rain down life-sustaining water
but can also cause costly destruction. These fast-moving
“rivers” of water vapor in the sky supply up to half of the
region’s annual precipitation, with stronger ARs responsible
for the majority of flood damages along the West Coast. To
aid in predicting and monitoring these extreme weather events,
NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory (PSL) operates nine
atmospheric river observatories at sites distributed along the
coast from Washington to Southern California. These unmanned
weather stations send round-the-clock observations back to the
laboratory, which analyzes and displays the data publicly on
its Atmospheric River Portal.
UC Riverside-led study has found that a smartphone app that
tracks household water use and alerts users to leaks or
excessive consumption offers a promising tool for helping
California water agencies meet state-mandated conservation
goals. Led by Mehdi Nemati, an assistant professor of public
policy at UCR, the study found that use of the app—called
Dropcountr—reduced average household water use by 6%, with even
greater savings among the highest water users. Dropcountr works
by interpreting water-use data from smart water meters, which
many utilities originally installed for remote reading to
streamline billing. The app turns data from these meters into
real-time feedback for consumers, showing how much water they
use, how their usage compares to similar households, and how it
has changed over time.
… Until recently my husband, Norm Benson, and I were
mom-and-pop operators of a water treatment and distribution
system at Clear Lake, an idyllic, nutrient-rich version of a
green Lake Tahoe, about 110 miles north of San Francisco.
We love our community and didn’t mind pitching in. Over the
years our mutual water system, the Crescent Bay Improvement
Co., has become unsustainable. Our treated lake water could not
meet state or federal drinking standards. … The state
and a much larger water company in recent years threw us a
lifeline, for which we are grateful. By the time we got help,
our water hadn’t been drinkable for years. We were hardly
alone. More than 400 water systems, serving 885,000
Californians, are failing across the state, the State Water
Resources Control Board reports. More than half those failing
systems are in disadvantaged communities, and two-thirds serve
mostly people of color. –Written by Mary Benson, a Lake County real estate broker
who operated a small water system at Clear Lake with her
husband.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin warned states and tribes Thursday
not to “leverage” the Clean Water Act to block or impede energy
projects approved by the Trump administration. The agency
issued a memorandum reiterating states’ and tribes’ “specific
and limited” authority to review infrastructure projects for
potential water quality effects and announced it would soon
propose a regulation on the topic. “Under the last
administration, certain states attempted to leverage the Clean
Water Act to undercut projects that would boost national and
regional development and unleash American energy resources,”
Zeldin said in a statement. “With this memorandum, EPA is
reinforcing the limits on Clean Water Act section 401
certification to support energy, critical mineral, and
infrastructure projects that are key to economic growth and
Power the Great American Comeback.”
Denver, Aurora, Colorado Springs and Northern Water voiced
opposition Wednesday to the Western Slope’s proposal to spend
$99 million to buy historic water rights on the Colorado River
from Xcel Energy. The Colorado River Water Conservation
District has been working for years to buy the water rights
tied to Shoshone Power Plant, a small, easy-to-miss hydropower
plant off Interstate 70 east of Glenwood Springs. The highly
coveted water rights are some of the largest and oldest on the
Colorado River in Colorado. The Front Range providers are
concerned that any change to the water rights could impact
water supplies for millions of city residents, farmers,
industrial users and more. … The proposed purchase taps
into a decades-old water conflict in Colorado: Most of the
state’s water flows west of the Continental Divide; most of the
population lives to the east; and water users are left to
battle over how to share it.
California’s snowpack is dwindling, and climate scientists
believe another record-breaking hot summer could be in the
cards, ramping up the possibility of an early fire season. The
state’s snowpack is at 14% of average peak snowpack, down from
96% on April 1 — the date snow scientists consider the height
of the snowpack, according to the state. The snowpack is
melting a little faster than usual, but state scientists said
the rate of snowmelt isn’t entirely abnormal. However, climate
scientists believe early snowmelt this year could be partly due
to human-caused climate change. Andy Reising, manager of the
California Department of Water Resources’ snow surveys and
water supply forecasting unit, said it’s important to
understand that snow is not melting uniformly across all
watersheds.
All 1,200 scientists and staff at the U.S. Geological Survey’s
biological research arm are on edge this week as they wait to
learn whether they’ll still have jobs come Monday. For weeks,
the biologists who work in the division, known as the
Ecosystems Mission Area, have watched two parallel threats
unfold. Most immediate is the expected firing of most division
staff as soon as next week. … The second threat is even more
serious: If the White House has its way, its proposed 2026
budget would eliminate the Ecosystems Mission Area, or EMA,
altogether. … The elimination of EMA would have profound
consequences. … It would erase bipartisan and widely
respected programs that, for example, monitor waterfowl
populations for game agencies, track contamination in
drinking water, convene time- and cost-saving
collaborations between agencies, universities and nonprofits,
and foster the next generation of fish and wildlife
professionals. … EMA scientists also monitor toxic
chemicals in water, and are one of the only groups looking in
private wells.
The Trump administration has canceled $33 million worth of
federal funds meant to help pay for earthquake retrofits in
California — sparking “grave concern” and a call to reconsider
from one of the state’s highest elected officials.
… FEMA issued a statement on April 4 announcing the
cancellation of the Building Resilient Infrastructure and
Communities program, known as BRIC, that would have funded the
California earthquake retrofits. … Also in jeopardy is up to
$50 million in funding apiece for a Port of San Francisco
coastal resilience project, a flood protection
project for the Menlo Park area, a flood
adaptation project in Oakland and Alameda, a Sutter
Bypass levee project in the Central Valley,
for water supply resiliency for the city of
Riverbank in Stanislaus County, and for infrastructure
resiliency for the city of Pacifica in San Mateo County.
All of the legal motions that can be filed, have been filed in
the state’s appeal of a preliminary injunction that has kept it
from implementing sanctions against growers in Kings County.
The next step could be oral arguments, or not. It all depends
on how the justices at the 5th District Court of Appeal decide
to go forward. … The Farm Bureau sued the state Water
Resources Control Board after it placed the region, known as
the Tulare Lake subbasin, on probation in April 2024. Under
probation, farmers would have had to meter and register their
wells, paying an annual $350 fee to the Water Board, report
extractions and pay the state $20 per acre foot pumped. So far,
those sanctions have been held at bay after a Kings County
Superior Court judge issued a preliminary injunction, finding
the Water Board had overstepped its authority.
The Delta is an “ecosystem in crisis,” with state and federal
water policies doing great harm to chinook salmon and steelhead
populations, seven environmental groups and a Native American
tribe allege in a letter to the State Water Resources Control
Board. Two of the state’s top water delivery systems, the
Central Valley Project and the State Water Project, are
“exacerbating conditions for endangered species at high risk of
extinction in the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary” that violate
maximum fish take rates under the Endangered Species Act, the
May 16 letter states. The groups and tribe allege that the
State Water Project exceeded the annual loss limit for hatchery
winter-run chinook salmon. And they blame the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation for water releases that are killing more salmon and
steelhead than their permits allow.
The Kern County Water Agency fired its General Manager after
only five years in the top spot at one of the most powerful
water entities in the county and the state. The agency board
announced Thursday it would not renew Tom McCarthy’s contract
when it expires on June 30. The board will appoint an interim
manager and has formed a committee of board members to provide
continuity and “stability,” according to an agency press
release. The vote, held in closed session, was unanimous,
according to an agency spokesperson. No reason was given for
McCarthy’s dismissal other than, “…the Board believes this is
the right time to take a new direction in leadership to meet
the evolving needs of our organization and address future
challenges,” according to a quote by board president Eric
Averett in the release.
Boaters and anglers trying to get greater flows on the upper
Kern River have been frustrated by what they feel is an
absolute betrayal of the river ecosystem by the one state
agency they hoped would be their strongest ally – the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The advocacy groups
have been urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to
mandate Southern California Edison leave more water in the
river as part of the utility’s ongoing relicensing application
for its Kernville power plant, KR3. That process is
delayed with one study not expected to be complete until April
2026. After that, FERC will likely deem proposals by Edison and
other stakeholders “ready for environmental analysis,” which
will trigger a 60-day public comment period. FERC is expected
to make a determination on the new licence by Nov. 30, 2026.
The California Salton Sea Management Program celebrated a major
milestone Thursday with the filling of the Species Conservation
Habitat (SCH) Project’s East Pond Expansion, located at the
southern end of the Salton Sea. … This expansion adds
essential habitat for birds and fish while contributing to dust
suppression in surrounding communities. Since early April,
water has been flowing into the original East Pond. Now, the
adjacent East Pond Expansion brings the total restored habitat
to approximately 2,010 acres. With the completion of this
phase, the SCH project’s footprint now reaches nearly 5,000
acres. Plans are underway to expand even further—adding another
4,500 acres through the development of Center and West Ponds,
currently in the design phase. Once completed, the SCH will
encompass over 9,000 acres.
