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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Until last week, Adam Sullivan was Nevada’s state engineer —
the person most responsible for managing water in the nation’s
driest state. That changed when state officials confirmed
Sullivan’s departure from the role — an unusual move, given
that the state engineer often serves under multiple governors
and must have expertise in Nevada’s oft-byzantine set of water
laws and regulations. So what happened? In his first
public comments since news of his departure broke, Sullivan
said he was terminated amid complaints about his decisions,
telling The Nevada Independent that there were a number of
disagreements between himself, Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo’s
office and the director of his department that escalated over
the last six months.
San Diego arrived in Las Vegas this week ready to sell off some
of its excess water at negotiations over the dwindling Colorado
River between the states, tribes and farmers who use it. They
left without a deal in place. Dan Denham, the San Diego
County Water Authority’s general manager, has been hinting
there’s willing buyers of San Diego’s expensive desalinated
ocean water in the state of Arizona. Arizona is first in line
to have their Colorado River supply cut off during water
shortages. That very scenario is what the annual Las Vegas
negotiations were set up to prevent.
A controversial recent study highlights an old truth
about the American West’s snowpack: it’s difficult to
measure—and just as hard to forecast how much of its water will
ultimately reach tens of millions of people and vast swaths of
farmland. Water managers have increasingly turned to aircraft
that use lasers to gauge the snowpack across entire basins. But
the Aug. 15 scientific paper argues for a less expensive
strategy: focusing new monitoring efforts on a select number of
locations known as “hotspots” that excel at predicting how much
water will run off from the snowpack—a frozen reservoir that
can change dramatically over short distances.
The Trump Administration and the U.S. Department of Agriculture
have stepped in to address concerns involving the Potter Valley
Hydroelectric Project. According to Congressman Doug LaMalfa,
this intervention aims to protect vital water supplies critical
for agriculture and firefighting efforts across several
counties. In a press release published by … LaMalfa, he
praised USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins and the Trump
Administration for demanding that the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission consider the real-world impacts before proceeding.
… On November 4, 2025, a group of 30 researchers, lawyers,
agency managers, and growers with subject-matter expertise met
in Davis to discuss the challenges and potential opportunities
for small farmers to participate in groundwater markets that
are currently developing under SGMA. … Among the issues
raised were identifying ways of addressing equity concerns,
preserving the vitality of small farmers, mitigating any
negative labor and employment effects of markets, and
preventing forms of market influence that could disadvantage
small farmers.
The U.S. Senate has confirmed a new leader to head the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fisheries division,
the agency responsible for managing the nation’s marine
fisheries and conserving protected ocean species. The Senate
approved Timothy Petty as the new Assistant Secretary of
Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, the top position overseeing
NOAA Fisheries, on Dec. 19, 2025. … Petty previously
served as a senior staffer for the U.S. House Transportation
and Infrastructure Committee’s Subcommittee on Water and
Environment, and as Assistant Secretary for Water and Science
at the Department of the Interior from 2018 to 2021.
The California Water Institute at Fresno State released a new
report showcasing how applied research, education and strategic
partnerships are supporting responses to California’s pressing
water challenges. Amid historic droughts, climate extremes and
growing pressure on groundwater supplies, the report
underscores how the institute’s work is helping communities as
they plan for long-term resilience. Its release comes as
federal lawmakers introduce new water infrastructure
legislation aimed at expanding storage capacity and improving
project delivery across California, highlighting the need for
research, data tools and collaborative planning to help local
agencies prepare for future water conditions.
… On a crisp morning in northwest Colorado, Joseph Leonhard,
The Nature Conservancy’s Riparian Restoration Project Manager,
wades into Yellow Creek—a tributary of the White River. With
deliberate care, he places sticks and mud in a pattern that
echoes the engineering genius of beavers, which once shaped
this landscape. … Over time, these simple, hand-built
structures begin to transform the ecosystem—nurturing native
plants, attracting wildlife, reducing wildfire risk and
bolstering resilience to drought. This is low-tech process
based restoration (LTPBR), and it’s reshaping the future of
fresh water in Colorado and beyond.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife recommended
Alternative 3 – Salmon Closure during the final days of the
Pacific Fisheries Management Council (PFMC) meeting mirroring
the opinions of commercial and recreational charter boat
anglers. The department’s position is a significant change from
early March. The PFMC meetings are being held in Seattle from
April 6 to 11, and the final recommendations of the council
will be forwarded to the California Fish and Game Commission in
May.
Sustaining the American Southwest is the Colorado River. But
demand, damming, diversion, and drought are draining this vital
water resource at alarming rates. The future of water in the
region – particularly from the Colorado River – was top of mind
at the 10th Annual Eccles Family Rural West Conference, an
event organized by the Bill Lane Center for the American West
that brings together policymakers, practitioners, and scholars
to discuss solutions to urgent problems facing rural Western
regions.
