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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Three weeks after Tahoe’s biggest snowstorm in decades, Donner
Summit has as much dirt as snow. Feet of powder quickly
disappeared, as rain and unusually warm temperatures depleted
gains from the February blizzard that had been cheered at the
time as a potential season-saving event. California’s
snowpack is already its lowest since 2015, and
record-shattering March heat arriving next week will make it
worse. The rate of melting is “unprecedented,” said Tim
Bardsley, a hydrologist at the National Weather Service office
in Reno. The entire snowpack, he said, has been wiped away
along sunny parts of the Lake Tahoe shoreline.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
… Information from the Golden State Salmon Association and
the Pacific Fisheries Management Council forecasts a current
adult salmon ocean population of 392,349 in 2026 — more than
double last year’s ocean abundance estimate. The
Klamath River forecast also jumped to 176,233,
up from 82,672 in 2025. For comparison, the upper
Sacramento River saw a return of over 60,000 adult
salmon to natural spawning areas in 2025 compared to just over
4,000 in 2024. … The number of returning jacks is key to
forecasting the adult salmon population in the ocean now, which
informs how many salmon fishery managers will allow to be
caught this year. Both some commercial and sport fishing are
expected to be approved later this spring by the Pacific
Fishery Management Council.
In the midst of historic drought in the Rocky Mountains, many
water managers are looking for ways to get more moisture into
the environment. Some are considering things like cloud
seeding, which is meant to create more precipitation
in certain areas. It’s a technique that has been used for
decades in Colorado, Wyoming and Utah. Rain
Enhancement Technologies, a company that’s operated in Oman,
doesn’t use traditional cloud-seeding methods, which are
characterized by putting silver iodide particles into the
atmosphere. Instead, they do what they call “ionization cloud
seeding,” which uses high-voltage rays to ionize naturally
occurring aerosols in the atmosphere. Aerosols are necessary
for cloud formation, and therefore, precipitation.
For over 40 years, the U.S. Forest Service has been monitoring
high-altitude mountain lakes in Colorado to track the
environmental impacts of human-caused pollutants and climate
changes in delicate wilderness areas and
ecosystems. Mountain lakes are extremely sensitive, making
them a perfect testing ground for measuring ecosystem changes
in climate and the environment. … A study
[by researchers from the Forest Service and University of
Colorado Boulder] set out to determine whether
environmental changes — including climate change and air
pollution — have impacted the lakes’ chemistry and ecosystem
over time. … [T]his type of monitoring and data could help
answer questions about how this winter’s historically
low snowpack in Colorado could impact mountain
lakes.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a
new initiative designed to strengthen federal support for
drinking water and wastewater utilities nationwide, aiming to
improve compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act while
helping communities modernize aging water infrastructure. …
[T]he initiative, Real Water Technical Assistance
(RealWaterTA), refocuses federal resources on technical support
and practical guidance for water systems, particularly those
facing operational, financial or regulatory
challenges. EPA officials say the program is intended to
help utilities deliver reliable drinking water services while
maximizing the impact of federal infrastructure funding now
flowing to states and municipalities.
The director of the Border Environmental Education Project says
the San Antonio de los Buenos wastewater treatment plant has
helped reduce beach pollution in Tijuana, but has yet to
operate at full capacity. … … The plant came on line
in June of last year. Prior to the completion of the project,
the plant malfunctioned daily dating back to 2018, resulting in
constant spills of untreated water directly onto Tijuana’s
beaches, material that often flowed northward contaminating the
coastline in California cities such as Coronado and Imperial
Beach, where the beaches have been closed for more than 1,400
consecutive days.
Officials with the Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District say
hydraulic fluid observed earlier this week at Ruth Dam has not
reached the Mad River and remains contained
near the dam’s intake structure on Ruth Lake. The district said
the sheen was observed on Ruth Lake near the R.W. Matthews Dam
intake structure and is currently contained within floating
booms placed around the area. District staff surveyed the lake
and reported finding no evidence of oil along the reservoir
shoreline. … According to the district, a mechanical
failure occurred March 3 during a routine inspection by the
California Division of Safety of Dams.
Tribal leaders testified before the Senate committee on Indian
Affairs in support of a landmark water rights settlement. The
agreement would provide 56,000 acre-feet of Colorado River
water annually to the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and San Juan
Southern Paiute Tribe. The Northeastern Indian Water Rights
Settlement agreement has been years in the making. The deal
would help bring water to nearly 30% of Navajo and Hopi
residents without a running tap, often forced to haul water
many miles. Navajo President Buu Nygren tells KNAU that
Wednesday’s hearing was a positive step as tribal and state
leaders push Congress to ratify the settlement.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) has released the final
version of California’s Groundwater: Bulletin 118 – Update
2025, the State’s official and most comprehensive report of
groundwater monitoring, conditions, and management across
California. The report builds upon the previous update in 2020
and contains critical information about the state’s groundwater
supplies from 2020 to 2024, a period marked by record-setting
dry and wet weather events and increasing ambient temperatures.
It shows considerable progress made by California and local
agencies towards reaching the goals of groundwater
sustainability outlined in the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA).
Residents of Scotia were under a boil water advisory for six
days after turbidity spiked in the water treatment system. The
advisory was lifted Tuesday after operator efforts to flush the
system resulted in tests coming back within regulatory limits —
but structural problems with old water infrastructure remain.
The state water board is pushing for the district to get
funding for infrastructure replacement. The state Water Board,
which regulates drinking water, got involved Wednesday when the
Scotia Community Services District (SCSD) reported a turbidity
of 16 Nephelometric Turbidity Unit (NTU) measured at the plant.
This is about 50 times above the state’s standard of 0.3 or
below.
Recent court rulings on tiered water rates are creating
confusion and uncertainty at water agencies across California —
including in San Diego, where one of the rulings will mean rate
hikes for most single-family homes. The confusion stems
from conflicting rulings by separate California appellate
courts last year on tiered rates, which aim to reward
conservation by charging heavy water users more per gallon than
people who use less. San Diego’s use of tiered rates was ruled
unconstitutional last April by the Fourth District Court of
Appeal, forcing the city to abandon tiers and then hike rates
by roughly $6 a month for about 150,000 single-family homes.
But tiered rates in Los Angeles were vindicated in December by
the Second District Court of Appeal.
Senior leaders and project delivery team members with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers joined key partners for a meeting and
site tour of the Salton Sea Feb. 22-23 in Imperial County. The
interagency teams met to discuss updates on the Imperial
Streams and Salton Sea Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration
Feasibility Study and provide leaders with a deeper familiarity
with the issues surrounding the Salton Sea. USACE Los Angeles
District and its partners—the California Department of Water
Resources and Salton Sea Authority—signed a cost-share
agreement in December 2022 for the feasibility study, aimed at
identifying potential ecosystem, flood-risk management, or
other land- and water-resource projects and actions for the
long-term restoration of the sea.
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.
