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 U.S. Supreme Court decision on the Uinta Basin Railway
proposal in Utah published Thursday was a consequential ruling
when it comes to the National Environmental Policy Act, or
NEPA, narrowing the scope of the legislation and giving federal
agencies more room to conduct their own analysis with more
limited interference from courts. But it did not approve
the controversial 88-mile railroad that supporters argue will
drive economic growth in rural Utah by connecting the Uinta
Basin’s oil field with the national rail network. And the
high court did not address the concerns of Eagle County, which
sued to reverse the Surface Transportation Board’s 2021
approval of the railroad, arguing the agency did not adequately
consider the risk to communities and the Colorado
River with increased tanker traffic on riverside
tracks. … The arguments before the Supreme Court
centered on NEPA, not Eagle County’s concerns.
The federal government has rescinded termination notices for
eight of nine USDA offices slated for closure in California.
The decision comes after California lawmakers argued that
closing the offices would burden farmers. The Trump
administration has reversed its decision to shutter eight
California outposts of the U.S. Department of Agriculture,
according to a letter from agency head Brooke Rollins. The
about-face came at the urging of a group of Democratic
California lawmakers led by Sen. Adam Schiff, who decried plans
from the unofficial Department of Government Efficiency to
close USDA offices in Bakerserfield, Blythe, Los Angeles,
Madera, Mt. Shasta, Oxnard, Salinas, Woodland and Yreka.
… The original closure plans came amid sweeping layoffs
and lease terminations at government agencies across the
country led by Elon Musk’s DOGE team — including nearly two
dozen California offices related to science, agriculture and
the environment. Musk has since stepped down.
California’s Westside farmers are once again caught in a cycle
of uncertainty as water allocations remain
unpredictable—despite full reservoirs and years of strong
snowfall. According to AgNet West’s Nick Papagni, this system
continues to punish growers trying to plan ahead for planting
season. Farmer Mike Omari explains that the decision-making
window is razor-thin. “We usually get our water allocation
announcement the last week of February, but our planting season
starts March 1st,” he says. “You’re gambling everything on a
number that might change later—but by then, your decisions are
already locked in.” This year’s initial allocation was only
35%, even with a full Lake Orville and favorable snowpack.
Although the number was later bumped to 55%, the delay in
information makes strategic crop planning almost
impossible.
A newly published study finds that California’s Salton Sea
emits hydrogen sulfide, a toxic and foul-smelling
gas, at rates that regularly exceed the state’s air
quality standards. The presence of these emissions in
communities surrounding the Salton Sea are “vastly
underestimated” by government air-quality monitoring systems,
the researchers found. The study, published in the
journal GeoHealth, underscores the risk posed by
hydrogen-sulfide emissions to communities already burdened by
other environmental and socioeconomic stressors, the
researchers say. … The study found that between 2013 and
2024, SCAQMD (South Coast Air Quality Management District)
sensors in the communities of Indio, Mecca and the Torres
Martinez Indian Reservation frequently showed hydrogen sulfide
readings exceeding State of California standards.
… The fish Delta smelt plays a pivotal role in
California’s perennial water wars. Its shaky survival status
has triggered orders to shut down the pumps near Tracy that
send water into the California Aqueduct and the Delta-Mendota
Canal at crucial points in Delta smelts’ life
cycle in the spring. When the pumps are running, the Delta
smelt get sucked in and killed. The Delta smelt has also
benefitted from massive releases of stored water to send more
fresh water into the Delta in a bid to help them. Those
releases have been criticized by farmers in the southern end of
the San Joaquin Valley who argue the water is simply going out
to sea and not being diverted for human uses especial during
drought periods. … The health of the ecological
system and the need for water that is being commandeered by
courts to help the Delta smelt is why the 2-inch fish has
become — depending upon how you look at things — the poster
fish for all that is wrong with California water development or
the whipping fish for how state water policy has been skewed.
After decades of planning and construction, the Richard L.
Schafer Dam Spillway at Lake Success is officially complete.
Leaders say this large reservoir will dramatically improve
flood control, protecting homes and lives in the area. This is
a historic milestone for our community,” said Congressman Vince
Fong. “We not only built a new emergency spillway, but we
raised this dam ten feet, that is more water storage for us.”
The improvements will increase the lake’s storage capacity by
28,000 acre-feet, bringing the total to 112,000
acre-feet. ”What that really means is 9.8 billion gallons
of water, additional water storage that we can now hold in this
lake so it’s critical for us,” explains Fong. … The
total cost of the project was $135 million.
When Christy Zamani received word late last year that her
nonprofit, Day One, was awarded a $20 million federal grant, it
was a shot in the arm for a group that, for nearly 40 years,
has served marginalized communities in the San Gabriel Valley.
… Then, two weeks ago, bad news. Word came that the grant had
been cancelled, part of the Trump administration’s broader
pullback of hundreds of what are called “environmental justice”
grants, money initially aimed at efforts to improve minority
communities impacted by pollution, climate change and air and
water quality issues. Those included nearly
$300 million for more than 60 projects in California, according
to a review of the canceled grants provided by California Sen.
Adam Schiff’s office. More than $67 million was set to go to
more than a dozen projects spearheaded by organizations in Los
Angeles and Orange counties, as well as the Inland
Empire.
The Trump administration’s nominee to oversee the Forest
Service is facing a new dispute over his use of land managed by
the agency. Michael Boren, the pick for
Agriculture Department undersecretary for natural resources and
environment, is clashing with the Forest Service for building a
cabin and clearing land in the Sawtooth National Forest near
Stanley, Idaho, according to agency correspondence and people
familiar with the situation. … Boren’s nomination hearing has
been scheduled for Tuesday in the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition
and Forestry Committee. The dispute about the cabin and other
work including diverting a stream is the
latest issue between Boren and the Forest Service over how he
manages land in and around the national forest. It also speaks
to broader questions about how the Forest Service deals with
communities and neighboring property owners, as well as how the
agency handles special-use permits for a variety of activities.
After nearly eight months of delays, malfunctions and
redesigns, the San Antonio de los Buenos Wastewater Treatment
Plant partially came online recently and has begun treating raw
sewage that comes from the city of Tijuana. The facility, built
near the coast about 6 miles south of the border, is still not
operating at full capacity. Mexican officials say they are
still conducting tests and going through the certification
process before the plant can be geared up to treat 18 million
gallons of raw sewage per day — its maximum
capacity. Despite going into partial service, communities
north of the border, where much of that sewage ends up, have
seen little to no relief. Beach closures in Imperial Beach and
the city of Coronado to the north, remain in effect. In
Imperial Beach, beaches have been off limits for more than
three years.
With the Mendocino coast a popular tourist destination, many
Northern Californians are aware of the water scarcity that
caused thousands of gallons of water to be trucked in from
Ukiah during the drought of 2021-2022. But inland regions in
the county suffered dry wells and severe water rationing in
that same drought. More of the same is ahead according to
the final report prepared by the county’s Drought Task Force, a
committee formed to fulfill the state’s 2021-22 mandate that
every county must draft and submit a drought resilience plan.
Mendocino County’s committee included several county
departments, major public water suppliers, such as the cities
of Ukiah, Willits, and Fort Bragg, the Ukiah Valley Water
Authority, eleven tribal groups, the State Water Resources
Control Board, special water districts, and others. The task
force chaired two public meetings, one in Ukiah and one in Fort
Bragg, and created a survey on the group’s website.
Fresno does not have to look far for successful examples of how
to bring locals and visitors to a river parkway. In
Bakersfield, the Kern River Parkway boasts the longest
municipally-owned bike trail in the country. In Sacramento, the
American River Parkway hosts archery tournaments, a “Burger
Battle” between local chefs and firefighters, and large
festivals for rock and country music fans. … But, in
Fresno, access to the water and revenue-generating activities
along the parkway or adjacent to it are limited in comparison
to other Central Valley cities. And a lot of Fresnans still
don’t know that they can enjoy their river. According to
existing plans, the Fresno-Madera parkway will one day offer a
full trail system along 22 miles of the San Joaquin
River from Friant Dam to Highway 99. However, the path
to completion has been far from simple, or speedy.
New research from Colorado State University and Cornell
University shows that the presence of solar panels in
Colorado’s grasslands may reduce water stress, improve soil
moisture levels and – particularly during dry years – increase
plant growth by about 20% or more compared to open fields. The
findings were published in Environmental Research Letters this
week. The paper outlines the potential benefits and challenges
when photovoltaic (PV) arrays are located in grassland
ecosystems. The findings are particularly relevant when
considering drought in the arid west and the
potential for future climate change.
… Colorado’s semi-arid grasslands often need more water
than is available through precipitation in each season. The
team found that plants beneath and around the solar systems in
that environment benefited from partial shading and additional
water that collects on panels – aiding in their fight to
survive during the harsh summer months.
… Local agencies are hosting community workshops to explain
how the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
works—and why it matters to you. The act, also known as SGMA,
is a California law that requires local water agencies to
manage groundwater to prevent overuse and water scarcity.
… Dan Bartel, Engineer Manager at RRB, says: “SGMA
requires that we coordinate not just amongst the public
agencies, but with the public—because in the public, there are
so many private pumpers. We’re required to get input from those
beneficial users and incorporate their opinions, thoughts,
questions, and concerns into our plans so we can, as a
community, reach sustainability by 2040.” Starting last summer,
GSAs held workshops across Kern County. More recently, they’ve
been hosting pop-up events—going to the community rather than
waiting for the community to come to them.
In early 2025, California faced a series of devastating
wildfires that ravaged vast areas of the state—particularly its
southern regions. Two weeks after the fires broke out in Los
Angeles, President Donald Trump issued an executive order
mandating the release of 2.2 billion gallons of water from
reservoirs in the Central Valley. This directive was presented
as a measure to combat the wildfires. However, a closer
examination reveals that the action was motivated more by
politics than by emergency, ultimately undermining California’s
water management authority, favoring agribusiness interests,
and jeopardizing the state’s environmental and water resources.
Fifteen states, led by California, are suing the
White House over its April executive order
to protect American energy from state overreach. They
claim the order is an unconstitutional interference in state
affairs. But they’re wrong. President Trump is doing what the
Constitution empowers him to do — protect interstate commerce
and ensure that America’s energy security is not compromised by
a patchwork of state-led, politically motivated lawsuits. For
years, progressive attorneys general — led by
California’s — have kowtowed to the environmental lobby, waging
lawfare through coordinated lawsuits against American
companies for “causing” climate change. These suits are
designed to bankrupt the energy sector, force Americans onto
unreliable grids, and shift power to unelected climate
czars. –Written by Mimi Walters, who represented California in
the U.S. Congress and served on the House Judiciary and Energy
& Commerce Committees.
Concerningly low amounts of water are flowing from Rocky
Mountain snowpack this spring, a summer of drought looms across
swaths of the West, and the negotiators tasked with devising a
sustainable long-term water plan for the 40 million people who
rely on the Colorado River are running out of time.
Commissioners from the seven states in the Colorado River Basin
— Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Utah, Arizona, California and
Nevada — must create a plan that will govern how those states
divvy up the river’s water after the current guidelines expire
at the end of 2026. As the river shrinks due to drought and
climate change, the negotiators must decide who will take less
water — and they need to do so in the next few months. … The
negotiators, who met in Las Vegas this week, have repeatedly
said they are committed to finding a consensus solution, but
have not yet done so and have already blown past previous
deadlines set by federal authorities more than a year ago.
Gov. Gavin Newsom is calling on the Trump administration to do
more to harden California’s forests to fire as the state
fast-tracks plans of its own to confront the wildfire threat.
On Friday, the governor announced $72 million of funding for a
slew of large-scale forest resiliency projects, primarily
tree-thinning and prescribed burns. All of the projects qualify
for an expedited environmental review process initiated by
Newsom in March for fire safety work. … The state funding
announced this week will go to 12 forestry projects, from
pulling out highly combustible weeds and planting
fire-resistant trees in San Bernardino County to paring back
overgrown forests with proactive burns in Humboldt County. One
$7 million project would create a “ring” of protected space
around communities in Santa Cruz County. Another project,
costing $4.2 million, seeks to improve the health of forests in
the upper Mokelumne River watershed in the
central Sierra Nevada.
The San Diego County Water Authority and Metropolitan Water
District are set to announce a historic settlement of decades
of legal disputes following the 2003 deal to purchase water
from Imperial Valley farmers. The disputes are insanely
complex and they have cost San Diego ratepayers an estimated
$20 million in legal fees. … The Water Authority agreed to
purchase water for several decades from IID. It also invested
heavily in lining the canals that bring water from the
Colorado River, saving significant amounts of
water that had been lost to seepage. … The settlement
will set a framework for the Water Authority to sell water to
other Southern California water agencies or to Metropolitan
itself. And Metropolitan has agreed to even allow the Water
Authority to sell water out of state, if it’s not needed here.
The Trump administration’s proposed budget for 2026 slashes
about 90 percent of the funding for one of the country’s
cornerstone biological and ecological research programs. Known
as the Ecosystems Mission Area, the program is part of the U.S.
Geological Survey and studies nearly every aspect of the
ecology and biology of natural and human-altered landscapes and
waters around the country. The 2026 proposed budget allocates
$29 million for the project, a cut from its current funding
level of $293 million. The budget proposal also reduces funds
for other programs in the U.S. Geological Survey, as well as
other federal science agencies. … The E.M.A. is also a
core part of federal climate research. The Trump administration
has sharply reduced or eliminated funds for climate science
across federal agencies, calling the study of climate change
part of “social agenda” research in an earlier version of the
budget proposal.
Other water and environmental project funding news:
The flood plains of Sacramento are a geologic
world away from the more cinematic California of coastal crags
and lofty peaks. Yet that sometimes overlooked region could be
home to one of California’s great disasters waiting to happen,
according to a February report from First Street, a prominent
climate risk prediction firm. The firm’s models suggest
that the mounting risks of catastrophic
flooding will drive Sacramento County — the heart of
California’s fourth-largest metro area, at about 2.4 million
people — to lose, in the average scenario, 28% of its
population by 2055. … Few places in the U.S., if any,
are more at risk of catastrophic flood than
Sacramento. … In modern times, water has been
corralled into aqueducts and dams and not allowed to pool into
the fertile soil, drying out the wetlands and leaving hard,
dusty earth that offers no buffer against floodwater.
