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 Interim Director Doug Beeman.
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.
After an unusually dry January where most of Northern
California went without rain for 27 days in a row, the storms
have come fast and furious, dramatically improving the state’s
water-supply outlook. So much rain fell in the first week of
February that California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, near
Redding, rose 22 feet. Shasta Lake is 34 miles long. The
watershed at the state’s second-largest, Lake Oroville, in
Butte County, has received 24 inches of rain in the past two
weeks — five times the historical average — sending the
reservoir level up 23 feet from Feb. 1 to Feb. 7. And now a new
atmospheric river storm is forecast to soak the Bay Area and
the rest of the state Thursday and Friday.
Heavy rain is expected to sweep across Southern California on
Thursday, raising the risk of flash flooding and mudflows in
and around recent wildfire burn areas. Small mudflows were
previously observed around the Palisades burn scar from last
week’s storm, but Thursday’s storm will present a more
pronounced risk. Thursday could be the wettest day in Los
Angeles since February 2024, according to National Weather
Service forecasts, with 2 to 3 inches of rain expected.
Sens. Mark Kelly and Ruben Gallego are asking the Bureau of
Reclamation to ensure projects for Colorado River preservation
will still get their funding. The Bureau of Reclamation has
already signed off on money for projects across Arizona —
including an $86 million agreement to build a recycled water
plant in Tucson in exchange for the city taking less Colorado
River water over the next 10 years. But in a letter to the
agency this week, the lawmakers say their constituents are
reporting funding for some of that work has been paused amid
the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze federal funding.
Officials from three counties and the Round Valley Indian
Tribes have reached a historic agreement that paves the way for
continued diversions from the Eel River to bolster flows in the
Russian River. The agreement represents a critical development
for anyone whose water comes from the Russian River. The
complex accord resulted from years of negotiations to preserve
supplemental flows in the Russian River, the water lifeline for
residents, ranchers and wildlife in Sonoma and Mendocino
counties. The agreement also supports the restoration and fish
recovery in the Eel River, which was crucial to securing
support from environmental interests, tribes and Humboldt
County residents.
Register today for the return of our Bay-Delta Tour May 7-9
as we venture into the most critical and controversial water
region in California. Get a firsthand look at the state’s vital
water hub and hear directly from experts on key issues
affecting the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco
Bay. The 720,000-acre network of islands and
channels supports the state’s two large water systems –
the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project
– and together with the San Francisco Bay is an important
ecological resource. You’ll learn firsthand how the drought is
affecting water quality and supply that serves local
farms, cities and habitat.
In California, a levy, charge, or exaction imposed by a local
government is an unconstitutional and invalid tax if it does
not qualify as one of seven enumerated tax exceptions and was
not approved by at least a majority of voters. The California
Court of Appeal for the Fourth Appellate District recently
invalidated a water rate increase imposed on non-agricultural
water users because the water district failed to produce
evidence that non-agricultural water customers were solely
responsible for paying increased groundwater replenishment
fees. The case highlights the evidentiary burden on local
governments to demonstrate an exaction is not a tax under the
California Constitution.
Figuring out the dividing line between rain and snow has long
flummoxed forecasters, especially in places like the high
country of the American West, where complex topography and
dramatic elevation differences shape the weather. … To
gain a clearer picture of the rain-snow transition and its
impact on the water cycle, scientists have been using a free
phone app and data from thousands of volunteer observers who
provide real-time reports of what precipitation type they’re
seeing. The observations from the NASA-funded citizen science
project—known as Mountain Rain or Snow—have highlighted the
shortcomings of existing approaches to differentiating the
phases of precipitation, according to a study published in
Geophysical Research Letters in December.
President Donald Trump has nominated Colorado’s Kathleen
Sgamma, the head of Western Energy Alliance, an oil and gas
trade group, to run the Bureau of Land Management.
Kathleen Sgamma Sgamma, a Denver resident, has been the head of
the Western Energy Alliance since 2006, working to protect the
interests of oil and gas producers amid an international
embrace of cleaner energies. Sgamma and the Western Energy
Alliance have been a vocal critic of former President Joe
Biden’s increased regulation of the oil and gas industry.
… Atmospheric rivers almost guarantee one thing for San
Francisco: millions of gallons of stormwater and raw sewage
will get poured into the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay.
In San Francisco, sewage and stormwater flow through the same
pipes as part of a combined system. The problem is that large
enough storms cause the system to overflow, which the city said
typically happens less than 10 times a year. …
Environmental groups and the state of California argue that the
city is discharging too frequently and at such high volumes
that it taints the waterways with bacteria that can cause
illness if people come into contact with it.
A few weeks ago, a fire broke out at the Moss Landing Power
Plant in California, the world’s largest collection of
batteries on the grid. Although the flames were extinguished in
a few days, the metaphorical smoke is still clearing. Some
residents in the area have reported health issues that they
claim are related to the fire, and some environmental
tests revealed pollutants in the water and ground near where
the fire burned. One group has filed a lawsuit against
the company that owns the site. In the wake of high-profile
fires like Moss Landing, there are very understandable concerns
about battery safety. At the same time, as more wind, solar
power, and other variable electricity sources come online,
large energy storage installations will be even more crucial
for the grid.
… With back-to-back atmospheric rivers poised to dump up
to 10 feet of snow in the Sierra Nevadas and bring as much as
15 inches of rain to northern areas, California faces a
familiar paradox: When it rains, it pours. Yet, water remains
scarce when it’s needed most. Why? Because balancing
environmental sustainability with agricultural and human needs
has been an ongoing challenge in state policies. For example,
substantial amounts of this precipitation are diverted to
support fish populations, leaving the Central Valley – one of
the nation’s most vital agricultural hubs – crippled by chronic
water shortages, depleted groundwater, and rising unemployment.
The new Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency’s
advisory group made recent headway on improving plans and
policies, though the agency is still behind its counterparts in
the subbasin. … During a Feb. 10 meeting, the advisory group
focused on updating Mid-Kings’ well registration and metering
policies. The proposed changes will go before the GSA board for
approval in March. When the former Mid-Kings imploded in summer
2024, the Kings County Board of Supervisors picked up the
pieces and started anew creating the advisory group to
represent growers. The advisory group has been doing a lot of
heavy lifting going over core policies intended to help bring
the area’s aquifers into balance, as mandated under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).
Republican Asm. Juan Alanis of Modesto is pressing for more
accountability in the state water board’s drought regulations.
His new bill would require the board to perform a comprehensive
economic study on the potential impacts of each emergency
regulation before renewing it. Last month the
board readopted an emergency drought regulation along
California’s northernmost rivers for the fourth year in a row.
Local farmers and ranchers have unsuccessfully pleaded with the
board for years to carefully consider the broader economic
impacts of the regulation.
Berkshire Hathaway Energy Renewables has suspended the
permitting process for its three proposed geothermal plants
near the Salton Sea, citing transmission interconnection
challenges, permitting delays and the lack of state-backed
offtake agreements. The projects — Black Rock, Morton Bay and
Elmore North — would have added 357 megawatts of renewable
energy to California’s grid. The decision comes after months of
regulatory proceedings with the California Energy Commission
and transmission studies with the Imperial Irrigation District.
The suspension halts what had been expected to be a significant
economic driver for Imperial County.
A conversation with Anecita Agustinez (state tribal policy
advisor, California Department of Water Resources) about water
governance and expertise around challenging policy
issues. Anecita Agustinez has served as (the
DWR’s) tribal policy advisor since August 2013. Agustinez
has over 30 years of advocacy experience on behalf of
California’s Native American tribes. She provides policy
support and recommendations regarding tribal issues to the
director and chief deputy director and has been actively
engaged with our projects and programs, assisting with tribal
consultation and development of the DWR Tribal Consultation
Policy.
California American Water announced the completion of a
$560,000 water storage tank rehabilitation project in Monterey.
This investment in critical infrastructure, a tank with
80,000-gallon capacity, will help ensure continued safe, clean
and reliable water service for customers and communities. The
Aguajito Tank project included extensive improvements to
enhance its long-term performance and resilience. These
upgrades included interior and exterior coating to prevent
corrosion and leaks, minimizing potential service
interruptions.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is
experimenting to see how the state’s only native sunfish fares
after being reintroduced in Sacramento ponds. The department
recently stocked 3,000 juvenile Sacramento perch – from M4
Aquatics, a Livermore-based hatchery – into a pond at Granite
Regional Park for fishing. … Sacramento perch were once
abundant within the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Clear Lake
in northern California. But have been displaced from their
historical range due to habitat modification and competition
from non-native sunfish that were introduced into California in
the early 20th century.
… Once carrying the promise of affordable and durable
materials, PFAS are now at the center of a widespread
contamination crisis. Developed in the 1940s by private
corporate actors, PFAS rapidly became used across industries
because of their resistance to heat and water. However, over
six decades after their widespread use, hidden research by
their developers was brought to light by one of the most famous
trials in PFAS in history. Now, there is incontestable evidence
collected over decades that links PFAS with the development of
over 13 serious conditions, including several types of cancers
and neurodevelopmental disorders. More concerningly, the extent
of the contamination crisis is so severe that out of every 100
Americans, over 97 have traceable amounts of PFAS in their
blood. –Written by Nathan Sharp, CFO at Environmental Litigation
Group, P.C.
As more waterways contend with algae blooms and pollution
caused by minerals from agricultural runoff and industrial
manufacturing processes, new methods to remove pollutants like
phosphate, copper and zinc are emerging. … A specialized sponge
created by researchers at Northwestern University that works to
slurp up pollutants, and then release them as desired, may
present a reusable, low-cost solution. The sponge, coated
with nanoparticles that have an affinity for pollutants, can
collect metals like zinc and copper, as well as phosphate, and
in previous iterations has successfully pulled lead from water,
and microplastics and oil from lakes and oceans. It then
releases these valuable resources when it is exposed to
different pH’s.
Several feet of snow is anticipated to blanket California’s
mountains this week, prompting the National Weather Service to
warn of “the strongest storm of the season” so far in the
Sierra Nevada. A powerful low-pressure system will move toward
Cape Mendocino on Thursday, farther south than many previous
storms this winter. The proximity of the storm means its cold
front will remain intact as it moves from Lake Tahoe toward
Mammoth Mountain and Yosemite National Park on Thursday
afternoon. Heavy snow is expected along this cold front, with
hourly accumulations of 2 to 4 inches and intense winds
creating periods of “zero visibility,” according to the weather
service.