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Water news you need to know

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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Aquafornia news KVOA (Tucson, Ariz.)

PFAS settlement secures $4.8M for Tucson’s water safety

Tucson is taking significant steps to secure its water supply amidst ongoing PFAS contamination challenges. The City of Tucson has received an initial $4.8 million payment from a national legal settlement aimed at addressing the impacts of PFAS products used as Aqueous Film Forming Foam (AFFF). In an effort that began in 2018, Tucson joined a nationwide lawsuit alongside hundreds of other water departments, including those from Southern Arizona. This settlement is expected to bring nearly $30 million to the city over the coming years. PFAS contamination has forced Tucson to shut down nearly 40 drinking water production wells and incurred substantial costs. To combat this, Tucson Water is constructing advanced water treatment facilities to restore some of the affected wells. … While challenges remain, the settlement offers vital funding to manage the contaminated groundwater supplies effectively.

Other PFAS news:

Aquafornia news The Times-Standard (Eureka, Calif.)

Free Rivers Symposium kicks off in Klamath ahead of the First Descent kayakers return

The Klamath River Dam Removal First Descent youth kayaking trip will come to an end on Friday in Klamath for the First Descent Reception. The group will participate in some reflection on their adventure as well as speak about the importance of global river justice and its effect. Friday will be the 30th day of the group’s source-to-sea journey, becoming the first group to navigate through the recently undammed Klamath River. Friday’s event is also the beginning of the Free Rivers Symposium, a four-day event in Klamath with tribal leaders, scientists and environmental organizations highlighting the ecological and cultural significance of the restored Klamath River. In the Free Rivers Symposium, experts will highlight the impacts of wildlife and river ecosystems, the impact on the water and habitat restoration. The group of more than 30 youths traveled over 300 miles exploring the Klamath River after four of the river’s six dams were removed in the largest dam removal project in U.S. history.

Aquafornia news The Current (UC Santa Barbara)

Rivers choose their path based on erosion — a discovery that could transform flood planning and restoration

… Understanding why some waterways form single channels, while others divide into many threads, has perplexed researchers for over a century. Geographers at UC Santa Barbara mapped the thread dynamics along 84 rivers with 36 years of global satellite imagery to determine what dictates this aspect of river behavior. “We found that rivers will develop multiple channels if they erode their banks faster than they deposit sediment on their opposing banks. This causes a channel to widen and divide over time,” said lead author Austin Chadwick, who conducted this study as a postdoctoral researcher at UCSB. The results, published in the journal Science, solve a longstanding quandary in the science of rivers. They also provide insight into natural hazards and river restoration efforts. … The formula developed by the authors enables engineers and scientists to estimate the width a restoration project will need, a deciding factor in a project’s feasibility and cost. The analysis can also help policymakers prioritize candidates for recovery. 

Aquafornia news The University of Utah

Great Salt Lake’s mystery islands: U geologists are investigating phragmites-covered mounds that reveal spots where ancient groundwater reaches daylight

As Great Salt Lake’s levels continue to sag, yet another strange phenomenon has surfaced, offering Utah scientists more opportunities to plumb the vast saline lake’s secrets. Phragmites-covered mounds in recent years have appeared on the drying playa off the lake’s southeast shore. After several years of scratching their heads, University of Utah geoscientists, deploying a network of piezometers and aerial electromagnetic surveys, are now finding out what’s going on under the lakebed that is creating these reed-choked oases. Bill Johnson, a professor in the Department of Geology & Geophysics, suspects the circular mounds have formed at spots where a subsurface plumbing system delivers fresh groundwater under pressure into the lake and its surrounding wetlands. … One goal of Johnson’s research is to determine whether the groundwater can be tapped to restore broken lakebed crusts, thereby reducing dust pollution. 

Other Great Salt Lake news:

Aquafornia news FarmProgress

California almond crop rebounds to near-record levels

 … The mild spring appeared to bolster almond yields statewide. The USDA’s 2025 California almond production forecast has risen to 3 billion meat pounds, up 7% from May’s subjective forecast and 10% higher than last year’s crop of 2.73 billion meat pounds. The forecast is based on 1.39 million bearing acres, explains the National Agricultural Statistics Service office in Sacramento. … A 3-billion-pound crop would be California’s second largest in history. … The heavy load is despite storms that began in early February and peaked in the middle of the month. Rain, wind and hail hindered bee hours and blossom growth, but conditions improved in early March with warm temperatures accelerating the crop’s progress through the end of bloom. Mild temperatures and timely rain in spring supported nut growth and continued through early summer, lessening heat stress in orchards, NASS reports. 

Other agriculture news:

Aquafornia news edhat (Santa Barabara, Calif.)

Here’s why commercial water users in north SLO County may soon pay more

On Wednesday, July 9, 2025, Paso Robles Area Groundwater Authority (PRAGA) held an open house to discuss the possibility of implementing a new fee for commercial groundwater users. This added charge will be used to fund the county’s Groundwater Sustainability Plan in the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin area. The meeting was held to inform the public of the upcoming changes while also encouraging questions from them ahead of the formal hearing scheduled on August 1. … The agency says the fee will help fund the implementation of the Groundwater Sustainability Plan, a requirement under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA). The collected revenue will contribute to the management of the basin to achieve long-term water balance in the region. As per a press release, this fee will not be applicable to domestic well owners who use less than two acre-feet of water per year.

Other regional water management news:

Aquafornia news KVPR (Fresno, Calif.)

The tankhouse: a rapidly vanishing icon of the Central Valley

They were once a common and iconic part of the Central Valley landscape, but they’re growing increasingly rare. Today on KVPR’s Central Valley Roots, the story of the tankhouse – a key technology that made the valley bloom, over 100 years ago. Drive through the rural areas on the east side of the Valley and chances are at some point you’ll come across an old farmhouse from the 19th century. In many cases, you’ll see an odd shaped outbuilding, shaped kind of like a giant wooden milk carton, two or three stories tall. Some have sloping walls at the base, while others are boxy rectangles. They’re known as tankhouses, and while they can be found in places ranging from Texas to the Northwest, they’re especially identified with California, and the Central Valley. The earliest tankhouses were likely built in the 1860s and combined a water well, water pumping and water storage in one system. … The windmill would power a pump, which lifted water from the aquifer to the tank, 20 to 30 feet in the air, which was enough to supply gravity produced water pressure. 

Aquafornia news Politico

Thursday Top of the Scroll: NOAA nominee pledges full weather service staffing

President Donald Trump’s nominee to head NOAA pledged Wednesday to fully staff the National Weather Service, after catastrophic Texas floods triggered a new wave of criticism over the president’s deep cuts across government. Administration critics have wondered whether efforts to reduce the federal workforce and eliminate programs affected the government’s ability to warn residents. … Jacobs, whose background is in weather modeling, has advocated for retooling NOAA’s weather data collection processes, including through greater engagement with private-sector companies that operate their own satellites and would benefit from multibillion-dollar government contracts. … Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told Jacobs that the nation cannot afford to retrench on climate change given its direct impacts on communities facing rising frequency and intensity of storms, floods, droughts, wildfire and other natural disasters.

Other NOAA news:

Aquafornia news The Colorado Sun (Denver)

Zebra mussel larvae spreading fast in Colorado River and nearby lakes on Western Slope

The Colorado River is now officially “positive” for invasive zebra mussels in the latest failure of containment for the voracious species, after three new samples came up with larvae July 3, from between Glenwood Springs and Silt. The main stem Colorado River discoveries piled on top of a confirmed “large number” of adult zebra mussels in a private body of water in western Eagle County, and two more positive larvae tests, at Highline Lake and Mack Mesa Lake, both near the Utah border, Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said Wednesday. Sampling was redoubled throughout June after tests found a single zebra mussel larvae, or veliger, in the Colorado River from a June 9 collection. It’s the second year in a row veligers are being discovered in the West’s key river channel through Colorado, and now CPW officials are also dealing with a full-blown adult zebra mussel invasion in the privately owned Eagle County water. 

Related articles:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Warnings ignored: The grim connection between the L.A. wildfires and Texas floods

Two major climate disasters of 2025 — the Texas flooding that killed more than 100 people and the L.A. wildfires in January that resulted in 30 deaths and wiped out more than 15,000 homes and businesses — highlight the struggles officials face in fully preparing for extreme weather conditions. In both cases, the National Weather Service offered clear warnings of potentially life-threatening weather events; in Los Angeles, warnings were given days before extraordinary winds — of up to 100 mph — slammed a region already suffering from a record-dry fall. … Since then, there have been calls for sweeping reforms of how Los Angeles County prepares for disasters, and investigations into what went wrong. … With climate change bringing more extreme deadly weather, local emergency management officials around the nation are trying to keep up.

Other flood risk and emergency management news around the West:

Aquafornia news Water Education Foundation

Announcement: Last tickets for Klamath Tour up for grabs; theme announced for annual Water Summit; read the latest about FIRO and atmospheric rivers

The remaining handful of tickets for our first-ever Klamath River Tour are now up for grabs! This special water tour, Sept. 8 through Sept. 12, will not be offered every year, so check out the tour details here. Plus, register for the 41st annual Water Summit Oct. 1, themed Embracing Uncertainty in the West, and read our latest Western Water story on how FIRO is helping harness the power of atmospheric rivers.

Aquafornia news The Hill

Study: Air pollution, warming worsen US Southwest drought

The combined effects of climate change and air pollution have led to direct declines in precipitation in the U.S. Southwest, making drought inevitable, a new study has shown. These circumstances, which began taking hold in about 1980, are likely here to stay as the planet warms, according to the study, published on Wednesday in Nature Geoscience. Its authors attributed this decades-long trend toward less precipitation to La Niña-like conditions, weather patterns that lead to cooler surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean. Even if El Niño-like conditions had prevailed instead, the Southwest would not have experienced a corresponding surge in rainfall, the researchers found. … The post-1980 period in the U.S. Southwest exhibited the fastest soil-drying among past and future periods of similar lengths — a result that the authors attributed to human-induced warming and a decline in precipitation.

Other drought science and mitigation news:

Aquafornia news The Guardian (London, U.K.)

New Mexico sues US air force over PFAS pollution from military base

The state of New Mexico is suing the US air force over its refusal to comply with orders to address extremely high levels of Pfas pollution stemming from its base, which has tainted drinking water for tens of thousands of people, damaged crops and poisoned dairy cows. Though the military acknowledges Pfas-laden firefighting foam from Cannon air force base is the source of a four mile chemical plume in the aquifer below Clovis, New Mexico, it has refused to comply with most state orders to address the issue. … In 2018, Cannon’s Pfas was found to have poisoned drinking water for over 100 private wells, and has so far taken out one municipal well that serves Clovis, a city of 40,000 people. Levels found in surface water were about 27,000 times higher than US Environmental Protection Agency drinking water limits. … The air force has refused to pay a $70,000 state fine.

Other PFAS and microplastics news:

Aquafornia news Politico

California has an idea to counter Trump’s megabill: Roll back environmental laws

California lawmakers reeling from President Donald Trump’s assault on clean energy are considering a controversial strategy to keep projects on track — slashing environmental permitting further. That plan could intensify a fight between clean energy advocates and environmentalists over the trade-offs between building fast and environmental protection that’s already playing out at home. California officials are scrambling to respond to congressional Republicans’ budget “megabill,” signed into law Friday, which demolishes Biden-era tax credits that incentivize construction of large-scale solar and wind projects, home energy efficiency improvements and electric vehicle purchasing — centerpieces of blue states’ strategies to wean themselves off fossil fuels. Clean energy groups say it will be impossible for California — which already faces a tight budget — to replace those incentives, and are instead pushing lawmakers to cut red tape and allow projects to get shovels in the ground faster.

Other CEQA news:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

‘Shaken up’: 31 workers scramble to safety after partial tunnel collapse

The frightening partial collapse of an L.A. County sanitation tunnel under construction left 31 workers scrambling to make their way to safety on Wednesday evening. … The accident took place in the Clearwater Project, which is designed to carry treated, cleanwastewater from the Joint Water Pollution Control Plant to the ocean. Prior to the accident, the tunnel was expected to reach Royal Palms Beach by the end of the year, at which point it would be seven miles long. The plant is the largest wastewater treatment plant owned and operated by the L.A. County Sanitation Districts. This is the first major incident that has taken place since construction on the project began in late 2019. Work on the tunnel itself started in 2021. But that work is paused for the foreseeable future, [L.A. County Sanitation Districts chief engineer Robert] Ferrante said on Wednesday night.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news The Nevada Independent (Las Vegas)

Study to monitor fireworks’ effect on Tahoe upended when fireworks-laden barge sinks

An isolated storm that caused large quantities of unexploded fireworks to spill into Lake Tahoe has derailed what was expected to be the most comprehensive modern study examining the effects of fireworks shows on the famed lake. Clean Up The Lake, a nonprofit group traditionally focused on removing subsurface lake pollution, including the use of the first human-powered circumnavigation cleanup of Lake Tahoe using SCUBA, switched gears this July to spearhead the study. It was aimed at examining the effects of fireworks on the lake, which has suffered for decades from declining clarity, aquatic invasive species invasions and other human-induced problems. … The study was geared toward examining not just trash, but also water quality, including microplastics in the water, and had the potential to show the effects of firework debris and large-scale public events at the lake. … The barge, which sank in the lake near Incline Village, housed the very fireworks Clean Up The Lake was planning to study after their detonation.  

Other Tahoe area water quality news:

Aquafornia news CNN

Young indigenous kayakers about to complete historic river journey on Klamath River, after ‘largest dam removal in US history’

Ruby Williams’ birthday was not your average 18th. She celebrated it on the Klamath River, with a group of young people making a historic journey paddling from the river’s headwaters in southern Oregon to its mouth in the Pacific Ocean, just south of Crescent City, California. It marked the first time in a century that the descent has been possible, after the recent removal of four dams allowed the river to flow freely. Williams, together with fellow paddler Keeya Wiki, 17, spoke to CNN on day 15 of their month-long journey, which they are due to complete on Friday. At this point, they had just 141 miles (227 kilometers) of the 310-mile (499 kilometer) journey left to go and had already passed through some of the most challenging rapids. … [Wiki said] “I think we’re all just so grateful, knowing that the salmon can finally go from the mouth to the headwaters, and that we can go from the headwaters to the mouth too.”

Other dam removal and fish restoration news:

Aquafornia news E&E News by Politico

Companies seek pause of EPA coal ash cleanup rule

Energy companies that manage coal ash dumps have asked the Trump administration for relief from a new regulation requiring them to inspect and monitor those retention ponds for signs of pollution. If EPA grants their request, it could delay cleanup of one the nation’s most significant sources of industrial waste. In a sweeping rule issued last year, EPA directed companies to begin cleaning up over 100 coal ash dumps and landfills, some of which are known to leak toxic, cancer-causing metals like mercury, lead and arsenic into groundwater. Now, companies say they are struggling to evaluate those sites for signs of leaks and structural problems, as required under the rule. Describing the rule’s deadlines as “unreasonable and unworkable,” the Utility Solid Waste Activities Group has asked EPA to delay additional requirements until the agency creates a permit program to “review, approve, and verify the existence” of coal ash sites across the country, according to a letter viewed by POLITICO’s E&E News. 

Other EPA news:

Aquafornia news Voice of San Diego

Water managers want apology

… When the San Diego County Water Authority settled its long legal battle with the Metropolitan Water District, it brought to a close a nearly 20-year period of expensive and aggressive contention between the two agencies. The agency’s Board of Directors discussed re-upping the contract for the architect of the legal confrontation over all those years, Chris Frahm, from the law firm Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck. It blew up into a tense dispute mainly between former San Diego City Councilmember Jim Madaffer, a board member, and General Counsel David Edwards. The dispute was about whether some of Frahm’s work deserved to be considered attorney-client privilege still (the general counsel was vehement it should be public.) … Now, several water managers in the region have sent a letter reiterating that they believe Frahm’s work should be public and demanding the Water Authority chair compel Madaffer to apologize for what could be considered threats and a hostile work environment.

Aquafornia news WaterWorld

Stantec selected to support California Water Plan

Stantec announced on July 8, 2025, that it has been selected by the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to provide water resource planning and facilitation services to support the California Water Plan Update 2028, a document that serves as the state’s roadmap to set water management priorities in a changing climate. First published in the 1950s and updated every five years, the California Water Plan is the state’s strategic plan to sustainably manage and develop water resources for current and future generations. Required by California Water code Section 10005(a), Update 2028 will describe the status and trends of California’s water-dependent natural resources; water supplies; and agricultural, urban, and environmental water demands for a range of plausible future scenarios. The document guides state and local agencies to sustainably manage water resources in a manner that benefits all water uses and users in California.