A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation Writer Matt Jenkins.
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For more than a century, Western states have fought to keep the
federal government out of their business when it comes to
water. Now, the Trump administration is about to seize control
of the Colorado River, the region’s most important waterway.
But it’s not the narrative you might think. Interior Secretary
Doug Burgum — himself a former Western governor — has said
repeatedly that he preferred to have the states work out the
shrinking river’s problems. Far from a brash commandeering of
the system, the plan his department is set to finalize
as soon as Monday is effectively a kick-the-can
exercise for managing the drought-riddled river that supplies
water for 1 in 10 Americans. … The river plan, which is set
to be unveiled in the form of a final environmental impact
statement, is less of an actual plan than it is a framework for
future decisions, according to public statements by Interior
officials and the states. It is expected to cover a
10-year period in which the federal government would issue
short-term operating regimes every other year,
potentially with the sign-off of the states.
El Niño is back, and it might be bigger than ever. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration declared in June that
the threshold for an El Niño had been met in the eastern
Pacific Ocean, and that it was likely to strengthen
significantly through the end of the year. … For
the Central Valley and Sierra, the question is also not just
how much precipitation falls, but the form it takes. Thanks to
warmer ocean waters, El Niño storms tend to be warmer, allowing
them to physically hold more moisture. That pushes the
rain-snow line higher up the mountains, meaningthat
some precipitation that should be piling up as snowpack
instead runs off as rain. … A strong El Niño
could deliver even more precipitation this coming winter.
However, if the storms are warm, theSierra snowpack may fail to recover even in a wet
year.
When Denver Water looked back at the historically abysmal
snowpack, and ahead to a historically scorching summer, the
crucial agency for 1.5 million Coloradans set a target of 20%
water use cuts to help solve challenges from the ongoing
drought. It’s not working. At roughly the midpoint
of the high season for lawn watering, which accounts for about
half of Denver Water home use, customers have cut only
about 2% of the five-year system average. Officials
fear that after a weekend of 100-degree temps forecast for the
Front Range, they’ll see even worse results as customers reel
from a searing streak of daily highs and defend their lawns
with amped irrigation.
California’s Central Valley is one of the country’s richest
farming regions, blessed with fertile soils, sunny days and a
massive man-made system of irrigation canals and reservoirs.
But as climate change intensifies, droughts deepen, and water
restrictions kick in, growers in much of the valley are
getting less water for their fields.They also face new
limits on how much they can pump from underground, forcing them
to leave hundreds of thousands of acres dry in the coming
years. Some are turning to an answer they never thought
they’d embrace: solar. … Farmers’ desperation
coincides with California’s solar dreams. The state is legally
mandated to reach 100% clean electricity by 2045. That will
require an additional 10 gigawatts of clean energy a year and
between 0.5 and 1.3 million acres of in-state solar
development.
Almost a month after invasive golden mussels were discovered at
the Port of West Sacramento, Yolo supervisors are expected to
declare a state of emergency. The resolution by supervisors,
expected to take place at their Tuesday
meeting, would allow county government to formally
request money from the state to assist in mitigation and
control. No fiscal effect associated with the resolution is
expected, according to a report from county administrators.
Ratification of the declaration will support the county’s
ability to seek state and federal assistance with associated
costs. … The recommended action is also consistent with
the regional response already underway — San Joaquin
and Sacramento counties as well as the city of
Stockton have each proclaimed a local emergency with
regard to the same infestation.
Representatives from all three levels of government convened
this week to discuss strategies for water management and
conservation in the Tijuana–San Diego region in a meeting
officially titled the Interinstitutional Coordination Meeting
CILA–SEPROA–Tijuana City Hall. … Mexican Commissioner
Adriana Beatriz Carolina Reséndez Maldonado spoke about
binational framework, focusing on two key agreements: Minutes
320 and 333. The former establishes a general protocol for
cross-border cooperation on Tijuana River basin issues, while
the latter outlines comprehensive measures to address the
sanitation crisis affecting Tijuana, Baja California, and San
Diego, California. Discussions also covered stormwater
management, river clean-up operations, and upcoming
infrastructure projects aimed at reducing the flow of
contaminants across the border.
Downtown-based water infrastructure company Cadiz Inc. recently
won a major victory when a federal agency approved the
company’s latest pipeline plan to convey water from its desert
aquifer to water-hungry communities nearby and throughout the
Southwest. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on July 8
approved Cadiz’s plan to convert an abandoned natural gas
pipeline to transport aquifer water, a crucial step in the
creation of what Cadiz calls the Mojave Groundwater Bank. “This
is the last permit we need to begin construction,” said Susan
Kennedy, chief executive of Cadiz. But will this victory truly
bring Cadiz closer to its decades-long quest to monetize its
aquifer under the eastern Mojave Desert?Or will it prove yet
another mirage as project opponents manage to place yet more
obstacles in Cadiz’s path?
A bipartisan water infrastructure bill that includes funding
authorizations and policy changes affecting water projects
across Arizona advanced unanimously out of the Senate
Environment and Public Works Committee this week, with Sen.
Mark Kelly highlighting provisions aimed at improving water
reliability, flood protection and wildfire resilience. The
Water Resources Development Act of 2026, known as WRDA,
authorizes U.S. Army Corps of Engineers water projects
nationwide and reauthorizes several Environmental Protection
Agency drinking water and wastewater infrastructure programs.
The legislation must still be approved by the full Senate and
House before becoming law.
County supervisors are scheduled to consider an agreement with
Four Corners Farmland Fund to buy land for the Knights Landing
Flood Mitigation project. In a report to supervisors for their
Tuesday meeting, Yolo administrators say the $94,000 would be
used to acquire land for permanent flood control and temporary
construction easements, and authorize the director of Public
Works to sign the agreement. The 204-acre site is located along
the right bank of the Sacramento River. … The county has
received two grants to implement the project, which includes a
series of drainage and levee improvements to the Sacramento
River Right Bank Levee and the Knights Landing Ridge Cut that
protect the community of Knights Landing.
Each year for the last 50, researchers from UC Davis have
boarded the Research Vessel John LeConte around midday and
slowly motored out into Lake Tahoe’s vast expanse. Somewhere in
the middle, they come to a stop, bobbing on the turquoise
surface. The researchers look over the side, down into one of
the deepest lakes in the world and drop a 10-inch white disk,
not much different than a dinner plate, into the water. …
Measurements taken for this year’s State of the Lake report
show a water clarity of just under 70 feet, roughly 30 feet
less than in 1960. Though researchers are cautiously
optimistic about that reading because it indicates clarity
levels are stabilizing after decades of decline, [Tahoe
Environmental Research Center Director Stephanie] Hampton said
plateauing is not the goal.
Colorado public health officials are tracking nine algae blooms
in reservoirs around the state, prompted in part by this
summer’s hot temperatures and low water levels. Colorado
officials warned of a busy season for toxic algae earlier this
summer, saying they might show up earlier than usual after a
record-poor winter ended a month early. … This summer’s
conditions have set the stage for rapid algae growth. Algae
love warm, stagnant, shallow water and higher concentrations of
nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus, which can be found on
farms and in household products. … After a record-low
snowpack this winter, the spring snowmelt was earlier and less
than usual. That meant less water to refill reservoirs before
the summer irrigation season.
For three years the Sacramento River has been off limits to
salmon anglers, and the silence on the water said everything
about how bad things had gotten. That ended this week.
… The numbers behind the reopening are the encouraging
part. Restoration work has helped bring more than 21,000 salmon
back to spawn, and those fish produced an estimated 500,000
juveniles. Up near Redding, crews are dropping large rocks and
whole trees into the river to slow the current and build the
sheltered water where young salmon can put on size before
making the run to the Pacific. Roger Cornwell of the
Sacramento River Settlement Contractors described the goal
plainly: hold the fish longer so they leave bigger.
A dispute connected to water use at Castello di Amorosa was
settled this week with an announcement the Calistoga-area
winery, fashioned as a medieval-style castle, will study a Napa
River tributary stream located on its property. The winery and
Water Audit California, a local environmental watchdog,
announced in a joint statement Monday, July 13, they would
collaborate on a study of Nash Creek. The first phase of the
work will involve adding monitoring equipment to collect video
and data about creek conditions and track water use, according
to the statement. The Napa River watershed historically
supported thousands of Chinook and Coho salmon along with
steelhead trout, but those numbers have been greatly diminished
over the past century. Information gathered via the stream
study will “guide future habitat restoration and water
utilization,” according to the joint statement.
In the culmination of a process that has been years in the
making, Colorado officials Wednesday announced the creation of
a state-run water conservation program. In what officials are
calling a “near-term contribution program,” the Upper Basin
states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) will
pay water users to voluntarily cut back in 2027 and 2028, using
$100 million in promised funding from the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation. Colorado will now join Utah and Wyoming
in setting up a conservation program within their respective
states. … These types of conservation programs have
traditionally targeted agricultural water users, often seen as
the low-hanging fruit for water savings because they use the
majority of Colorado River water. But
officials are hoping this program will have participation
across all water-use sectors, including municipal and
industrial.
San Diego leaders are calling for a renewed U.S.-Mexico-Canada
Agreement (USMCA) to includesolutions to the Tijuana River
sewage crisis. Their demand comes in response to President
Trump’s refusal earlier this month to renew the trade deal. At
a news conference Thursday in Otay Mesa, officials said the
president’s decision has created an opportunity for the
U.S. to strengthen the agreement. …The Trump
administration already has an agreement with Mexico that
promises to end the decades-long, cross-border pollution.
Adopted last year, Minute 333 lays out new wastewater
infrastructure and maintenance projects that each country must
take on by certain deadlines. … But San Diego
Assemblymember David Alvarez said those plans need the
enforcement and commitment that come with signing a trade
deal.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has downlisted the razorback
sucker from endangered to threatened, citing growth in fish
populations that the agency says has reduced the risk to the
species. The freshwater fish, which is native to the Colorado
River and the Grand Canyon, was first listed in 1991 after dams
on the river and other waterways in the Colorado River Basin
fractured its habitat and created conditions that hampered its
ability to reproduce. Non-native fish in the river
also contributed to losses to the species. … The fish
species still faces threats to its survival, the agency said,
including changes in river flows and habitat, changes in water
quality, drought and non-native species.
Tim York sees Aurora residents watering their lawns on those
extra days when they aren’t supposed to, even when their
illegal watering happens at 4 a.m. … This surveillance is
powered by smart water meters installed last year on homes in
Aurora. They transmit data every 15 minutes via cell signal.
York’s team automatically gets a spreadsheet each week of
thousands of likely outdoor watering violations. Humans verify
the data before sending warnings or fines. … Millions of
Coloradans remain under strict water restrictions because of
historic drought. Failing to conserve could mean empty
reservoirs, and even harsher restrictions. … But for all
the help computers are giving Aurora, its water future is still
in the hands of Mother Nature.
… As lake levels decline, Hoover Dam’s power generation
capacity decreases. Federal officials plan to cut the dam’s
output by up to 40 percent. Analysts warn that the reduction
will result in higher electric bills for families in the Las
Vegas Valley, compounding long-term concerns about the region’s
water supply. The declining lake levels formed the backdrop of
a more than four-hour Boulder City Council meeting Tuesday
night, where members debated the potential impact of a proposed
data center on the city’s water and power infrastructure. The
data center was approved at the federal level for Bureau of
Land Management-owned land within the city’s
jurisdiction. The council voted unanimously to appeal the
BLM’s approval of the data center, citing concerns that the
project could require the city’s local utilities and emergency
services.
Growers who farm within two miles of the Friant-Kern Canal in
southern Tulare County should be prepared for a pumping
moratorium as early as April 2027, water managers learned
Thursday. The move is part of Phase I of the state Water
Resources Control Board’s proposed pumping plan, which zeroes
in on damage to the canal caused by overpumping. The cost of
that damage already tops $797 million, according to a slide
presented Thursday. The severity of the state’s plan did not
surprise water managers, but the accelerated timeline did.
Congressman James Gallagher said several Northstate water and
infrastructure projects were included in the Water Resources
Development Act during a congressional committee meeting
Tuesday, July 14. … The bill includes $155 million for water
and wastewater upgrades across the Sacramento River Basin.
Gallagher’s office said the money would help improve water
quality, environmental restoration and long-term water
reliability. The bill also directs the Army Corps of
Engineers to use forecast-informed reservoir operations at
Shasta Dam. … Other projects included in the bill would
speed up a dam safety review at Black Butte Dam, provide $3.35
million to replace failing sewer mains in Robbins, and support
flood control work in Chico’s Five-Mile Basin.
