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.
… Yellow-legged frogs were once one of the most abundant
animals in the alpine habitats of the Sierra Nevada. But for
the past decade, the Oakland Zoo has been raising individuals
from the now-endangered species and releasing them to the wild
as a way to boost their numbers in the aftermath of a deadly
disease that has decimated 90% of their population. Known as
chytridiomycosis, or the chytrid fungus, the disease leads to
“devastating effects” and has contributed to the greatest loss
of biodiversity ever caused by a pathogen. … After
getting swabbed for the disease one last time, they were
transported to their final destination: Laurel Lake at Sequoia
and Kings National Park.
The Colorado River system, a lifeline for 40 million people
across seven states, is in decline — as negotiations for
water-sharing agreements approach a critical deadline. The
current guidelines governing use of the river expire in October
of 2026, so decision-making should be ramping up for how Nevada
and six other western states will share the essential water
resource in the future. … To better understand how the
pending agreements impact our region, Channel 13 teamed up with
our Scripps News Group member station in Phoenix, Arizona, to
hear from the people who depend on this river and those
sounding the alarm about its future.
This week, the nonprofit Native American Rights Fund hosted its
biennial tribal water symposium in partnership with the Western
States Water Council. It’s been a tradition since 1991, but
this year’s daylong gathering was virtual. The online forum
brought together tribal, state and federal stakeholders to
focus on Indian water settlements – past and present – and the
negotiations needed for them to be ratified by lawmakers on
Capitol Hill. Top-ranking Interior Department officials took
time to reassure tribes that the Trump administration is behind
them – despite recent staffing cuts and Congress clawing back
federal dollars.
The collapse of the Oxbow Bridge, which linked Cibola in La Paz
County to California, poses a serious threat to public health
and safety and has cut off a critical access route between the
two states, the La Paz County Board of Supervisors said. The
bridge connected Levee Road to the west side of the Colorado
River. The Oxbow 2 Fire burned about 5 acres near the Oxbow
Recreation and Wildlife Area, according to the Bureau of Land
Management. The collapse of the bridge also caused
hazardous debris to enter the Colorado River
waterway. This poses risks to environmental resources,
recreational users and emergency responders, La Paz County
Board of Supervisors said.
Several Colorado Democrats are using the recent detections of
zebra mussels in the Colorado River to push for implementation
of key provisions in the Expanding Public Lands Outdoor
Recreation Experiences Act. The EXPLORE Act, as it’s more
commonly known, passed in December 2024 and contained multiple
bills around improving public land access and conservation,
including the aptly named “Stop the Spread of Invasive Mussels
Act.” The law gave new authorities to the U.S. Department
of the Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture to respond
to and monitor aquatic invasive species.
The push by companies like OpenAI and Google to win the
artificial intelligence race has led to a proliferation of data
centers — giant warehouses for computer systems — in
communities across all 50 states. The rise of these server
farms has sparked fierce battles from the Virginia suburbs to
Tucson, Arizona, and beyond, as city and county governments
grapple with how to balance job creation and new revenue
streams against the strain data centers put on
water and energy resources. That debate
is inching up the ballot as state lawmakers race to regulate a
nascent industry, governors rush to embrace a new economic boon
and Big Tech makes major investments in AI growth.
The Los Angeles Department of Public Works has restored water
service to more than 9,000 San Fernando Valley residents after
a valve failure caused taps to run dry or slow to a trickle
last week. According to the DWP, water flow to residents in the
Granada Hills and Porter Ranch areas was restored as of 2:37
a.m. Monday. Residents however were told that a boil water
notice would remain in effect for several more days. The boil
water notice instructs residents to only used boiled tap water
or bottled water for drinking and cooking purposes.
Within days, Sacramento County will consider approving a
controversial 25,000-person housing development. north of
Interstate 80 that currently lacks an amenity that no home or
person can do without: A water source. … The 2,000-acre
plan known as Upper Westside is surrounded on three sides by
the city and the Sacramento River to the west. … A state
law promoting better water planning two decades ago, and
endorsed by the Sacramento Bee, aimed to prevent local land use
agencies like Sacramento County from approving big developments
with what is known as “paper water.” This describes some vague
plan for water without a firm supply. At the moment, Upper
Westside has paper water. –Written by Sacramento Bee columnist Tom Philp.
… One thing that I think would help to encourage
“conservation as a way of life” would be to charge Palo Altans
higher rates for excessive water use. Our rates, with only two
tiers, are less progressive than those of surrounding water
districts. We charge more for low water use and less for high
water use. … People with large lots in Palo Alto
tend to be wealthy, so charging them more for water may not do
much when it comes to conservation. But at least we could then
provide lower rates for lower-income households for more
essential indoor water. And perhaps we could make more programs
available for things like lawn conversions. –Written by Palo Alto Online blogger Sherry
Listgarten.
A breakthrough in agricultural gene editing may help farmers
breed more disease-resistant crops. Aided by artificial
intelligence, researchers at UC Davis managed to strengthen
plants’ immune response by re-engineering protein structures
that detect disease, known as immune receptors, to recognize
newly evolved pathogens. The method may provide a more
sustainable solution for tomato farmers near Sacramento — the
Big Tomato — who typically fight illnesses such as wilt disease
and southern blight with environmentally damaging pesticides.
Lake Mead is projected to reach some of its lowest water levels
ever recorded by 2027, raising concerns about the future of the
vital water source. … UNLV Emeritus Professor of
Hydrology and Geoscience David Kreamer explained that the
Colorado River Compact, an agreement from the 1920s, allocates
only 4 percent of the lower basin’s water to Nevada, with
California and Arizona receiving the remaining 96 percent.
Kreamer suggested that revising this agreement could help Lake
Mead’s water levels rise. ”We have to reach some sort of
an agreement with reduction of water,” Kreamer said, noting
that California has agreed to reduce its water usage.
In a landmark investment in regional water infrastructure,
South San Joaquin Irrigation District (SSJID) and Oakdale
Irrigation District (OID) have officially launched the $84
million Canyon Tunnel Project—an ambitious initiative to
protect and modernize water delivery for thousands of Central
Valley residents and farmers. … The 12,000-foot tunnel
will bypass a vulnerable section of the century-old Joint
Supply Canal (JSC), which has been increasingly threatened by
landslides and rockfalls. … The two districts are
jointly funding the project, with SSJID contributing 72% and
OID 28%, based on historical water usage from the shared
JSC.
… [Sen. Adam] Schiff was here this week to host the
Tahoe Summit, an annual event where lawmakers and community
leaders gather at a lakefront venue to champion environmental
protections, bipartisan collaboration and federal investment in
Lake Tahoe. This year, calls to protect Lake Tahoe come as the
Trump administration cuts funding for climate change research
and reduces staffing at public land management agencies.
… Schiff, who sits on the Senate’s agriculture
committee, told SFGATE on Tuesday aboard the John LeConte that
he is “deeply concerned” about cuts to the Forest
Service. … [H]e told SFGATE he wants to carry on [former
Sen. Dianne] Feinstein’s legacy and continue to advocate for
Lake Tahoe.
Assembly Bill 1413 seeks to quietly rewrite California’s water
laws, raising alarm among local water agencies, business
groups, lawmakers and many advocates of California’s
agriculture industry. The Indian Wells Valley Water District in
eastern Kern County has serious concerns about the proposal’s
threats to groundwater rights, due process, transparency and
scientific accountability. The bill would limit judicial
oversight and fundamentally alter the role of groundwater
sustainability plans in California, potentially treating them
as a legally binding determination of water rights. The Indian
Wells water district is undergoing an adjudication process to
protect property rights, and officials like me worry that AB
1413 would prohibit courts from reviewing the science behind
these plans, as well as potential errors. –Written by David Saint-Amand, board president of the
Indian Wells Valley Water District.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said this week that the
Trump administration plans to review and potentially alter the
nation’s climate science reports. In a Tuesday appearance on
CNN’s “The Source,” Wright told CNN host Kaitlan Collins the
National Climate Assessments have been removed from government
websites “because we’re reviewing them.” … The National
Climate Assessments are mandated by Congress and have been
released five times since 2000. The federal reports, prepared
by hundreds of volunteer scientists, are subject to extensive
peer review and detail how climate change is affecting each
region of the United States so far and provide the latest
scientific forecasts. Wright accused the previous reports of
being politically biased, stating that they “are not fair
assessments of the data.”
… One great waterway, newly freed from the stranglehold of
four hulking dams. More than 300 miles, through some of the
most intense rapids in the West. And 15 young kayakers, nearly
all of them new to the sport. Their goal: the first full
descent of the Klamath River, from its headwaters near the
Cascade Mountains in Oregon to its mouth on the Pacific coast
of California. … Though last year’s unprecedented
removal of the four dams on the Klamath’s lower stretch was
hailed as a major achievement, two smaller dams still stand
upriver. The tribes want them taken down next. The students
reached the remaining dams after about a week of paddling. They
pulled up on the bank, shouldered their kayaks and walked
around the barriers.
Tucson residents have been up in arms about a proposed data
center dubbed Project Blue. The project, which is tied to tech
giant Amazon, would have been built on 290 acres of
unincorporated land the developer wanted annexed into Tucson so
it could access water supplies. But, as
residents relentlessly pointed out, that’s water that Tucson
desperately needs. On Wednesday, the Tucson City Council heard
those constituents loud and clear. Council members voted
unanimously against bringing the massive project to Tucson.
… Arizona Luminaria reporter Yana Kuchinoff was there,
and she joined The Show to talk about what she saw and what
happens next.
… In the early 20th century, Los Angeles built a massive
aqueduct to take water from the Owens Valley and soon dried up
Owens Lake. Reaching for even more water, L.A. leaders pushed
farther and began tapping water from the mountain streams that
feed Mono Lake. … In 1994, state regulators ordered the
L.A. Department of Water and Power to take steps to raise the
lake 17 feet by taking less water from the creeks, leaving more
to flow into the lake. … The 1994 decision included a
backstop: If the lake level doesn’t rise enough, the State
Water Resources Control Board is to hold a hearing to determine
if the rules need to change — an assessment that both
environmental advocates and the DWP’s managers say they hope
will happen soon.
The National Weather Service has taken steps to begin filling
some of the more than 550 positions left vacant by federal
cutbacks and early retirements since Inauguration Day. Earlier
in the summer, the agency received an emergency hiring
exemption to fill 126 of its vacant positions and has begun to
post those jobs on usajobs.gov. But in an all-hands meeting on
Aug. 4, weather service employees learned the agency has since
received permission to hire a total of 450 people by September
2026. … [Retired NWS meteorologist Brian] LaMarre said
it’s also good news that hydrologists will be
among those hired. It could allow the agency to follow through
on a plan to place hydrologists in state emergency operations
centers, to assist in forecasting flood
events.
A Supreme Court decision expected within days could affect
thousands of federal grant recipients battling the Trump
administration over the termination of their funding for
projects including for climate and environmental
justice work. The case on the high court’s “shadow
docket” of emergency cases centers on the National Institutes
of Health’s attempt to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars
in research grants awarded to scientists and universities.
… Lawyers are awaiting the Supreme Court decision —
which could come at any time — for hints of how challenges to
EPA’s termination of grants could be treated by lower courts or
the Supreme Court itself. The latest briefs were filed with the
Supreme Court on Monday.
