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.
Employees at the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote to
Congress on Monday warning that the Trump administration had
reversed much of the progress made in disaster response and
recovery since Hurricane Katrina pummeled the Gulf Coast two
decades ago. The letter to Congress, titled the “Katrina
Declaration,” rebuked President Trump’s plan to drastically
scale down FEMA and shift more responsibility for disaster
response — and more costs — to the states.
History is an increasingly unreliable teacher for water utility
managers. The memory of everything that has gone wrong –
floods, droughts, broken pipes, porous levees, unstable dams,
or inadequate interties – and the record of how utilities fixed
things and paid for the fixes – have traditionally been
chapters in the textbook of rules for the future. … But
climactic and political changes are rendering the 20th century
textbook obsolete in the 21st century. The need to deliver
clean water is the same. The weather, the financing, and the
growing threat of unaffordability are not. The efforts the
Santa Cruz Water Department is making to update the text
parallels work being undertaken by many other utilities.
The history of California water is saturated with stories about
years-long battles that inevitably get called “water wars.” But
UC Merced is trying to flip that narrative and chart a new
course for water in California based on finding common ground,
or in this case, finding common water. “Finding Common
Water” is the name of a river trip that UC Merced and EDF have
organized to bring together individuals who often hold diverse
perspectives. The goal is to find areas of alignment and
explore new collaborations.
… [T]he Colorado River Indian Tribes, often referred to as
CRIT … are planning to establish legal personhood status for
the Colorado River, giving it some of the same rights and
protections a human could hold in court. No government, tribal
or otherwise, has given these kinds of rights to the Colorado
River before. … A Supreme Court decree, Arizona v.
California, recognized CRIT as having the most senior water
rights on the lower Colorado River, and among the most senior
in the entire basin. That means CRIT has some of the most
legally untouchable water rights along the lower half of the
Colorado River.
The Sites Project Authority will receive an additional $218.9
million in inflationary increases, thanks to a unanimous vote
by the California Water Commission. The new total maximum
eligibility for the project is $1.094 billion. This award from
the Calif. Water Commission is part of an effort to
redistribute funding that had been earmarked for the expansion
of Los Vaqueros Reservoir, a project that was halted in
November 2024, which freed up Proposition 4 funds.
… Floods are the most common and costly natural disaster, but
difficult to predict with accuracy. Artificial intelligence has
played a significant role in giving insurers the data they
needed to design a parametric flood policy that could make
sense on both sides. Fremont, which has not had a history of
high flood risk, was one of the first jurisdictions to obtain
this kind of coverage. As changing weather patterns make it
harder for communities to assume they are safe from damaging
floods, others could follow.
Arizona cities are joining together under one banner to
advocate for Arizona in ongoing Colorado River talks. Existing
agreements determining Arizona’s allotted share of Colorado
River water are set to expire next year. … CAP [Central
Arizona Project] is the system that delivers Colorado River
water throughout the state and is in partnership with the
municipalities under the new coalition, branded Coalition for
Protecting Arizona’s Lifeline. The goal of the new Arizona
coalition is to unite Colorado River water users and showcase
the state’s ongoing water conservation efforts.
Thousands of birds fill the air over Mono
Lake, banking and swooping in a swirling murmuration
that resembles an aerial school of fish. As they sweep past,
their beating wings whoosh in unison. This small species, the
Wilson’s phalarope, arrives from the north in large numbers
each summer to feed at the saline lake, preparing for a long
journey to South America. After spending July gorging on the
larvae of alkali flies, the birds are gradually departing this
month to begin their migration to another saline lake about
6,000 miles away — Laguna Mar Chiquita in Argentina. Partly
because of their remarkable transcontinental voyage between
salt lakes, the grayish birds have inspired a close partnership
between communities in California and Argentina.
A UC Davis study is highlighting what it calls inequities in
California’s water management, showing underrepresentation of
women and people of color in positions on water boards.
Sponsored by the nonprofit group Water Education for Latino
Leaders (WELL), the study was unveiled at the State Capitol,
revealing that women occupy only about 27% of water board
positions, Latinos hold 15% of board seats, and other people of
color account for just 5% of board positions. The group says
this lack of diversity means water agencies do not adequately
represent most Californians.
Three years ago, the AB&I metal foundry ceased all
operations in East Oakland. … The years of metal
smelting had left contaminants such as arsenic and lead in the
hardscape, soil, and groundwater, and the
polluted lot was supposed to be undergoing a yearslong
remediation process. … [Community members] soon came to
realize the site was being used as a tow yard by a company
called Auto Plus Towing. … Now an array of organizations
— the city, the companies, the watchdog group, the county, the
state’s Department of Toxic Substances Control, the San
Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board — are trying
to deal with the fallout, and make sure the polluted site
finally gets cleaned up.
… As Californians struggle to recover from compounding
climate disasters, Gov. Gavin Newsom is moving to fast-track
the Delta Conveyance Project, presenting lawmakers with a
familiar choice. But before committing billions to yet another
major water project, we must confront some hard lessons from
our past. … As mayor of Los Angeles in the early 1900s,
Frederick Eaton partnered with William Mulholland to develop
the L.A. Aqueduct, a massive conveyance system that redirects
water from Mono Lake and Owens Valley. … It was one of
the most significant and destructive water transfers in U.S.
history. –Written by Devon Provo, an urban planner and senior
policy manager at Accelerate Resilience L.A.
A brutally hot and dry summer is taking its toll on Utah’s
reservoirs, with water levels showing a “drastic decline,”
which officials say is more than double the normal rate. The
Utah Division of Water Resources shared Thursday that the
state’s reservoir storage currently sits at 67 percent, which
is slightly above the normal level of 65 percent for this time
of year. That number is much lower than at the same point in
2024, when the storage levels were at 83 percent.
… Along with the arid weather conditions, the water
level declines can also be attributed to last season’s
disappointing snowpack around the state.
For the first time in three years, anglers have been able to
fish sections of the Feather River, American River and
Mokelumne River for salmon. Since the opener on July 16, the
fishing has been productive but by no means hot on the Feather
River. But for anglers unable to fish for salmon in all Central
Valley streams since 2022, the fishing has drawn many to the
riverbanks near Oroville to catch a big, bright Chinook.
Recently, low counts have resulted in the continued closure of
Chinook salmon fishing in the Klamath River Basin and mainstem
Sacramento River by the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife.
As wildfires blazed through Los Angeles, turning buildings and
lives to ash, President Trump politicized the tragedy, blaming
an endangered species. In a January 8 Truth Social post, Trump
said—erroneously—that Governor Gavin Newsom caused the
wildfires by keeping water from Southern California to save “an
essentially worthless fish,” the delta smelt.
… It turns out Donald Trump had a political score to
settle. … In 2020, Newsom sued the federal government,
successfully, to halt a Central Valley water infrastructure
project that could help farmers but harm the smelt, thereby
violating the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The Hi-Desert Water District (HDWD) has broken ground on the
second phase of a $103 million sewage collection system in
Yucca Valley, California. … When completed later this
year, the new system will convey an estimated 210,000 gallons
of wastewater per day through 32 miles of new pipelines to the
Yucca Valley Wastewater Treatment and Water Reclamation
Facility. Commissioned in 2020, the facility is the region’s
first centralized treatment plant and provides critical
capacity for wastewater recycling and groundwater protection.
The Eastern Municipal Water District (EMWD) in Perris,
California, has launched new programs aimed at helping
residents and businesses use water efficiently amid
conservation efforts. A new portal called ‘Landscapes for
Living‘ is now available to help residents create their ideal
outdoor living space while using water efficiently.
… EMWD said it believes the approach can be a model for
other water agencies across California and other states,
focusing more on the promotion of aesthetically pleasing
landscapes rather than just conservation and fear of rising
water rates.
In a move to strengthen Southern California’s long-term water
reliability, Metropolitan Water District’s Board of Directors
this week approved a new framework that will allow local water
agencies across the region to sell and purchase locally
produced supplies among one another. Through the Local Supply
Exchange Framework approved by the board on Tuesday (Aug. 19),
Metropolitan will help facilitate an exchange of local supplies
between its member agencies – providing potential new water
sources for some communities, and an opportunity for other
communities to financially benefit from investments in supplies
and demand management programs they have already made.
… [I]n the past decade-plus, wildfire, and its effects on the
area’s water supply, has become an increasing concern for city
and state officials. … Enter the multiagency partnership
and cost-share funding collaborative created to assess the
impacts of post-wildfire hazards on critical water
infrastructure and to identify strategies to minimize these
impacts before and after fires. … Weston Toll, watershed
program specialist for the Colorado State Forest Service, said
after the partners had “treated a lot of low-hanging fruit, we
needed to start treating the right acre in the right
location.”
CBS Sacramento Law enforcement removed an illegal marijuana
cultivation site where more than 2,000 plants were located in
California’s Sequoia National Park last week, officials said on
Thursday. … The same cultivation site was raided last
year, but it was not rehabilitated until this year due to the
presence of hazardous chemicals. National park officials
reported damage to the site, such as diverting water
from a nearby creek and installing irrigation lines.
Officials said a significant amount of vegetation was cleared
from the site and several large pits were built to store the
diverted water.
… The Tehama County Groundwater Commission and the Tehama
County Flood Control and Water Conservation District Board of
Directors, serving as the region’s Groundwater Sustainability
Agency (GSA), continues to work on the county’s state-required
Groundwater Sustainability Plan (GSP). … Since the start of
the GSP process, the county’s GSA has been plagued with issues
associated with the plan, its development and implications. The
2023 Tehama County Grand Jury in its findings determined the
fee assessment of .29 cents an acre placed on well owners in
the county was faulty in the areas of inequitable fees,
inadequate communication, accountability and other
issues.
