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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Arizona, California and Nevada would take less water
from the Colorado River under a proposal announced
Friday by the federal government to stave off crisis in
the beleaguered waterway. The proposal from the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation spares Colorado, Utah, New Mexico
and Wyoming from facing mandatory cuts for now. But
it’s a temporary fix as the states that rely on the river still
fight over a long-term management plan for the
dwindling resource that powers huge swaths of the Western
U.S. Under the plan, the Lower Basin states could face
collective cuts up to 3 million acre-feet (130 billion cubic
feet) through 2036, “subject to hydrology,”
according to a press release by the Department of the Interior.
That’s about enough water to serve more than 25 million people
a year.
… According to a new report, rigid fee structures and
complex regulations threaten to harm California’s smallest
growers, driving land consolidation in favor of deep-pocketed
corporate orchards. The report by the University of California
Small Farms Network and the nonprofit group Community Alliance
with Family Farmers warns that without immediate action
by state and local agencies, many family farms could be forced
out of business. … The researchers suggested
each local groundwater agency identify the smaller farmers,
consider exempting those that use minimal water and set
fees in a tiered system that allows growers who pump less to
pay less.
Since President Donald Trump took office for a second term, his
administration has rolled back numerous environmental
protections. The latest target is the Endangered Species Act,
one of the nation’s bedrock conservation laws. Earlier this
month, the U.S. Department of the Interior issued a new
interpretation of what would constitute harming an endangered
species that sharply loosens the act’s protections related to
the degradation of protected wildlife’s habitat.
… Endangered and threatened fish species have carried
particular weight in dictating how state and federal agencies
regulate the flow of water into and out of the
Delta. Agencies today balance irrigation and
development needs with the water quality and
temperature needed by endangered and threatened fish,
ranging from winter run Chinook salmon and Central
Valley steelhead trout to diminutive delta and longfin
smelt.
A class-action lawsuit filed last week seeks to challenge a
controversial water-use fee that the Las Vegas Valley Water
District has said is an attempt to rein in the valley’s
top water-wasters. Attorneys argue that the district’s
excessive use fees generated at least $96 million in agency
revenue that should be returned to ratepayers. Tens of
thousands of Las Vegas residents could join the lawsuit and
potentially recover the penalty they paid for using too much
water per the policy, according to a legal complaint.
… Officials have said the goal of the program is
to help identify leaks and reduce community water usage as
drought in the Colorado River Basin and the outlook of Lake
Mead worsen every year.
Tom Gibson, new director of California’s Department of Water
Resources, will serve as the keynote speaker for our 42ⁿᵈ annual Water
Summit on Oct. 29. Guided by this year’s
theme, Stewarding a New Era in Western
Water,Gibson and other leading
policymakers and experts will address emerging topics related
to the challenges and opportunities facing water resource
management in California and the West. A full agenda of the
Water Summit featuring a slate of engaging panels and speakers
will be available soon, but you can register
now for the daylong conference on Thursday, Oct.
29 at the Sawyer Hotel in downtown Sacramento.
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) is deploying
a range of monitoring, treatment and infrastructure measures to
protect the State Water Project (SWP) from the rapidly growing
threat posed by invasive golden mussels. Golden mussels can
colonize pipes, pumps and other water infrastructure, creating
biofouling that can restrict flows, damage equipment and
increase maintenance requirements. DWR’s response includes
expanded environmental DNA (eDNA) testing and inspections
throughout the SWP to detect infestations early. At
affected facilities, DWR is using low-dose copper treatments as
its primary mitigation strategy while increasing manual
cleaning, pipeline flushing, power washing and
hand-scraping.
Congressman James Gallagher (CA-01) helped secure $155 million
for water and wastewater infrastructure projects throughout the
Sacramento River Basin through the Water Resources Development
Act (WRDA), providing significant new federal support for
projects that improve water quality, modernize critical
infrastructure, and strengthen long-term water reliability
across Northern California. The investment was included in the
Water Resources Development Act as approved by the House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. The funding
expands the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ authority to partner
on environmental infrastructure projects throughout the
Sacramento River and Bay-Delta region, helping communities
address aging infrastructure while improving regional water
resilience.
The Truckee River Watershed Council (TRWC) has broken ground on
the Coldstream Canyon Lower Floodplain Restoration project
along the lower reach of Cold Creek. The project will
reestablish important habitat for vegetation and wildlife,
restore critical ecosystem functions, prevent erosion, increase
climate resiliency, and improve water quality flowing
downstream to the Truckee River. The project will create
3.2 acres of floodplain area and 1.9 acres of additional
riparian habitat. The effort will remove erosive, nonnative
filler soils and upland species such as lodgepole pine to
create room for riparian (waterway-adjacent) species that
stabilize banks, prevent erosion, and mitigate the impacts of
flooding.
This year’s heat death toll for Southern Nevada rose to 46 on
Thursday, a day after the Clark County coroner’s office
released a spreadsheet that listed 29 heat-related
deaths. The updated number comes as Las Vegas braces for
110-degree highs through next week and the county extended its
cooling station activation until Wednesday. The coroner’s
office broadened its criteria in 2021 for determining when heat
should be considered during a death investigation, and
temperatures above 95 degrees are generally when investigators
will consider heat illness. It’s widely believed that even
the most inclusive standard leaves out deaths from
official counts.
Plato Malozemoff Distinguished Professor at UC Berkeley and
co-founder of major research platforms including ReNUWIt and
the National Alliance for Water Innovation, David Sedlak has
spent three decades bridging environmental chemistry, treatment
engineering and water policy. In this conversation, he
discusses public trust, PFAS regulation, the quiet bottleneck
of concentrate management, and why the future of water security
may depend less on any single technology than on dismantling
the institutional silos that keep drinking water, wastewater
and stormwater artificially apart.
Farmers and ranchers in a rural Mendocino County valley have
long opposed the planned removal of two local dams because it
would reduce their summer irrigation supply. … The latest
reality check came Monday, when federal energy regulators
rejected the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District’s attempt
to formally join the case deciding the dams’ fate. The Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission determined that the Southern
California water district, which has floated the possibility of
buying and operating the dams itself, showed up too late. The
rejection does not kill the water district’s gambit entirely,
nor the hopes of the dams’ new political allies. But it
captures a central problem in the world of California water
politics: the dam’s defenders have plenty of newfound
influence, but still no clear path to keeping the
infrastructure in place.
Small farms across the state may not be able to comply with
groundwater regulations and stay in business, according to a
new report analyzing the impact of California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) on small-scale farms.
In the first-ever assessment of small farmer
consideration in California groundwater regulations,
researchers at the University of California Small Farms Network
and the Community Alliance with Family Farmers document the
challenges facing small-scale farms with groundwater
regulations. The report “Managing Groundwater with Small
Farms in Mind: Risks, Barriers and Opportunities in the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act” (PDF) warns
that farmers need an approach that helps them understand and
adapt to the new regulations – while safeguarding their ability
to grow food for California consumers.
Nevada is expected to give up more than a quarter of its
allocated Colorado River water — 84,000 acre-feet — over the
next two years under a federal operating framework plan
that cuts distributions to three states and is expected to be
officially released this week. Nevada holds by far the
smallest share of the Colorado River of any of the three Lower
Basin states — just 300,000 acre-feet, compared with Arizona’s
2.8 million and California’s 4.4 million. And it uses less than
it is allocated — only about 212,000 acre-feet of its
allocation in 2024, according to the Southern Nevada Water
Authority (SNWA), recycling the vast majority of its
water and sending it back to Lake Mead for
credit. That restraint hasn’t been enough to
escape the reckoning.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental
Protection Agency are working together on their largest cleanup
collaboration in more than 15 years at Lava Cap Mine in Nevada
City. The site, contaminated with arsenic and other toxic
materials from decades of gold and silver mining,
requires a massive water treatment system to protect
surrounding communities and wildlife. Col. Robert
McTighe, commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said
the Corps does a lot of work with the EPA, but not to this
particular size and magnitude. The Corps is building the filter
system, which allows them to filter the water, treat the water
and then send the clean water back into the water system,
McTighe said.
Other water quality and treatment news around the West:
A long-duration heat wave will hit California in early August,
just as the state enters what is historically the peak of its
wildfire season. … Rapid drying of the landscape is expected
amid the hot weather. Vegetation will be more flammable than
any point so far this year, with near-record levels of energy
available for any fire that does break out.
… California’s fire season to this point has been quiet
relative to neighboring states. … The reason for
California’s relative good fortune so far is generally
threefold: More than 71% of the West is experiencing
drought, compared with just 6% of California,
according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The relationship between
drought and fire is complex, but drier landscapes generally
increase the potential for large wildfires.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced this
Tuesday that recreational salmon fishing off the North Coast is
officially closed. Fishing from the 40º10′ latitude line to the
Oregon border will remain closed for the remainder of 2026. …
“In the Klamath Management Zone, the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife’s preliminary estimates indicate that 3,968
Chinook salmon were taken by 4,830 anglers aboard both charter
vessels and private skiffs, achieving the area’s recreational
harvest guideline of 3,900 Chinook salmon.” … Several
areas off the California coast further south will remain open
pending the achievement of quotas. In the Fort Bragg Management
Area, for example, 4,352 Chinook salmon have been taken by
6,208 anglers, according to the CDFW, leaving 748 fish
available.
The Pinto Bean Capital of the World is at a boiling point. And
it’s not related to the Ferris fire that has torched nearly
65,000 acres nearby. The normally quiet town of Dove Creek has
gotten so politically charged that the town hall has had to
lock its doors. For more than two months, the once-upon-a-time
gas station that serves as town hall has been closed. A sign on
the door states it is “due to threats and inappropriate
behavior towards the Town staff and Town Board.” The anger is
centered on water — specifically water bills. They are being
doubled, and that increase has incensed the town’s residents.
… Dove Creek sits in the heart of dryland farming
country. In recent times it has been too dry even for some
dryland crops to grow in this parched corner of the
state.
Golden mussels pose a serious and fast-growing threat to
California’s water infrastructure. As the operator of the State
Water Project (SWP), DWR is deploying a comprehensive strategy
to mitigate the impact of golden mussel infestation and prevent
further colonization. DWR is attacking the problem through
several immediate response measures, concentrated investments
to strengthen infrastructure, and long-term research and
partnerships to improve the state’s ability to manage golden
mussels. … DWR is pursuing emergency registration of
potassium chloride (potash) as an additional treatment option.
It is effective at controlling adult golden mussels and is safe
for fish and wildlife at treatment concentrations.
The City of Oceanside has begun an effort to restore the Loma
Alta Slough, a coastal wetland at the mouth of Loma Alta Creek
in South Oceanside. Construction started in May and is expected
to continue through April 2027. The $6 million project is
funded by grants from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the
State Coastal Conservancy, the National Fish and Wildlife
Foundation, and the Ocean Protection Council. The slough
is a seasonally tidal estuary at the end of the seven-mile-long
Loma Alta Creek. It is a highly dynamic system, shifting
between salt water and brackish water throughout the year as
conditions change at the ocean inlet. … In Oceanside’s early
years, the slough was an expansive coastal salt marsh covering
more than 40 acres. Over the past 50 years, development in the
surrounding floodplain shrunk the wetland to about eight acres.
Fifty years ago this week, a beautiful summer evening in
Colorado ended in catastrophe. On the night of July 31, 1976, a
powerful thunderstorm stalled over the Big Thompson Canyon west
of Loveland, unleashing a torrential rainfall in a matter of
hours. The resulting flash flood killed 144 people and became
the single deadliest disaster in the state’s history.
For Lori Peek, professor of sociology and director of
the Natural Hazards Center at the University of Colorado
Boulder, the flood’s most important legacy may be the lessons
that emerged from it—and the realization that those lessons
still require attention today. “Anniversary events like
this one are so important because they serve as moments for
communities to come together and reflect upon what was lost,
what we’ve learned and what we still need to do to become more
resilient in the future,” she says.
