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.
… As the planet’s atmosphere has quickly warmed thanks to the
burning of fossil fuels, the amount of water available in the
world’s rivers, lakes, and reservoirs has shrunk. To
compensate, nations the world over have plundered the water
stored underground to irrigate crops and hydrate parched
citizens. But many of these hidden water reserves are being
sucked dry by humans quicker than they are being replenished
through rainfall and snowmelt, or through artificial
groundwater recharge. The cascading consequences are immense.
Next month, the seven Colorado River Basin states — Arizona,
California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Wyoming —
are set to finalize a new framework for sharing a shrinking
resource. Billed as a modern compact for a hotter, drier
century, it will shape how the West survives in an age of
scarcity. Yet amid debates over drought, equity, and cutbacks,
one rapidly expanding demand remains almost invisible: the
immense water consumption of artificial intelligence and the
data centers that sustain it. –Written by nature photographer Rusty Childress.
… As part of DWR’s California Stream Gage Improvement Program
(CalSIP), DWR and Napa County are collaborating to bring five
stream gages online in the Napa River watershed, targeting data
gaps in the watershed and key tributaries which will help water
managers plan for dry periods and make faster emergency
decisions during flooding events. Made possible with
funding from the Budget Act of 2023, the CalSIP program is
enabling the revival and deployment of gages at five critical
sites in Napa County.
Utah leaders are extending a deadline for projects that may
help bring water to the Great Salt Lake because they say the
ongoing government shutdown makes it challenging to coordinate
with federal agencies. The Great Salt Lake Commissioner’s
Office had set a Friday deadline for government agencies,
nongovernment organizations, institutions and private entities
to submit their proposals to receive a share of $53 million in
grants for projects that support the Great Salt Lake or its
wetlands. However, it’s been pushed to Jan. 16, 2026, to allow
more time for the state to organize planning with the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) is reminding
eligible small businesses and private nonprofit (PNP)
organizations in California of the Nov. 25, 2025 deadline to
apply for low interest federal disaster loans to offset
economic losses caused by drought beginning Oct. 1, 2024. The
disaster declaration covers the California counties of Alpine,
Fresno, Imperial, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Los Angeles, Madera, Mono,
Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo,
Santa Barbara, Tulare, Tuolumne and Ventura as well as the
Arizona counties of La Paz, Mohave and Yuma, and the Nevada
counties of Clark, Douglas, Esmeralda, Lyon, Mineral and Nye.
San Diego County has launched a formal search for the next
operator who will manage the Tijuana River Community Garden.
… Growers received a 60-day notice to vacate from the
Resource Conservation District of Greater San Diego County in
early October. The district has rented the land from the county
and managed it since 2002. … In late September, district
officials told gardeners that they would no longer renew their
lease with the county, blaming the ongoing Tijuana River sewage
crisis.
… Although the Interior Department has a large presence in
Wyoming — a state that’s half federal land — the legal filing
only revealed two clearly in-state positions that are being
eliminated. Both those “abolished” positions are with the
Bureau of Reclamation’s Wyoming Area Office. The filing does
not specify which jobs are being removed from the office, which
manages irrigation, flood control infrastructure and associated
land in river basins west of the Continental Divide in Wyoming
and parts of Colorado and Montana.
Drying soils in northern Mexico can trigger simultaneous
drought and heat wave episodes in the southwestern United
States, including Arizona and states like Texas and New Mexico,
according to a new study involving an Arizona State
University professor. Co-authored by Enrique Vivoni, a senior
global futures scientist with the Julie Ann Wrigley Global
Futures Laboratory, the research underscores the increasing
persistence of “hot droughts,” which extend across consecutive
days and nights, hindering recovery and posing significant
risks to the region. A hot drought is described as droughts
intensified by extreme temperatures that amplify evaporation,
plant stress and the loss of moisture in the soil.
It seems like just about everyone has a plan for the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. … Now, an effort called Just
Transitions in the Delta aims to make planning for the region
more equitable by inviting everyone to have a voice. Launched
in 2023, the four-year project hosts participatory workshops
for natural resource researchers and managers; environmental,
boating and fishing interests; and underrepresented groups and
communities. The Just Transitions in the Delta team will
present their work and hold a participatory planning session
and an interactive exhibition at the State of the San Francisco
Estuary Conference in late October.
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.
