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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except holidays.
Please Note:
Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.
We occasionally bold words in the text to ensure the water connection is clear.
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.
After an epically dry winter and a tense summer for the
Colorado River, the autumn has delivered a rare boost to one of
its most iconic stretches. In recent days, heavy rains pushed
Colorado River flows through the Grand Canyon to their highest
levels in years. The rains, which also caused flooding and
destruction in communities throughout the Four Corners region,
provided a crucial slug of water to the Grand Canyon’s
unique ecosystems. River scientists are still
gathering precise information about the exact volume of water
surging through the river, but experts estimate flows reached
at least 21,000 cubic feet per second. According to the U.S.
Geological Survey’s measuring station above Diamond Creek, that
marks the highest rate of flow since April 2023, when
water managers deliberately sent a massive, sudden burst of
water through the canyon.
Scientists today say we’re just beginning to understand
the harm that the tiny bits of plastic we drink, eat
and breathe are doing to the human body. But recently
discovered chemical company documents dating back several
decades show that industry scientists have long been aware of —
and concerned about — the way microplastic particles
migrate beyond the gut in animals and humans, depositing in
important organs. … [T]heir presence has become
concern enough among health officials, lawmakers and
researchers that in 2018, California passed a
law requiring the state’s water agency to define, test
for, and report the particles in drinking water. The
Trump administration, averse to most regulation, announced
earlier this year that the EPA would begin tackling
them in drinking water as well.
Iron County is moving ahead with new regulations for
data centers in the southwestern Utah county — months
after passing a temporary moratorium on the controversial
projects. The Iron County Commission unanimously approved the
new rules during a meeting in Cedar City on Monday after
hearing from residents for more than an hour. Notably,
the new rules do not set hard limits on water use for
data centers. Instead, data center sites that would
use more than 50,000 gallons of water per day would have
to submit a plan to prove the additional water use
won’t harm the aquifer. … In another vote
Monday, the commission repealed the previous moratorium on data
centers, with no debate. Commissioners took public comment
before voting Monday and heard from residents who were
concerned about noise pollution, air quality, water
use and the longtime environmental effect of data
centers.
Winter and spring storms can bring a deluge of rain to Sonoma
County, swallowing vineyards and turning low-lying areas into a
network of lakes and ponds. While the sight of a flooded
vineyard may be worrisome, the dormant grapevines
typically remain unaffected, their roots requiring
little oxygen or nutrients while growth is suspended.
But what happens if the rain keeps
coming? … Despite the potential risks,
heavy rains help irrigate the vines deep beneath the soil,
which is beneficial in the long term, added [Balletto Vineyards
founder John] Balletto. To prepare for impending storms, his
team is currently installing erosion controls in
flood-prone areas. … Jackson Family Wines has
largely continued its usual operations leading up to winter,
but [vice president of farming Scott] Welch took a
precautionary step in mid-July, instructing his team to
stop replenishing some reservoirs in anticipation of El
Niño.
In 1884, a group of ranchers from Redlands rode up over 5,000
feet of elevation into the mountains to their north,
where they built a rock dam to collect water for
agriculture. … But in recent years, the lake
has been plagued by drought-fueled low water
levels, followed by short recovery stints after heavy
winter storms, making it a prime example of the climate
change-fueled whiplash that’s being experienced across
California. … The water issues are hard to spot from the
docks. After all, Big Bear Valley is centered around a giant,
gleaming blue body of water. But that water is
technically still owned by the successors of those 19th-century
ranchers. The mountain communities, meanwhile, rely
entirely on local groundwater fed by precipitation.
… Now, the mountain community is in the early
stages of an $88.6 million plan to keep its wastewater
local.
While lawyers for Arizona and Nevada square off against the
federal government in a Las Vegas federal courtroom, Imperial
Valley farmers are already calculating how much less water the
All-American Canal will deliver to their fields. … For
Imperial County, California’s 440,000-acre-foot annual
reduction is not an abstract number. The Imperial
Irrigation District holds the single largest entitlement on the
river, roughly 3.1 million acre-feet, much of it under senior
Present Perfected Rights dating to the early 20th century.
Nearly all of that water irrigates the half-million
acres of farmland that make the Valley one of the nation’s most
productive agricultural regions. Winter vegetable
crops, alfalfa, and other commodities depend entirely on
Colorado River diversions; there is no meaningful
groundwater alternative.
Salmon habitat and flood protection rarely show up on the same
project list, but the latest round of restoration work planned
for the Tuolumne River promises both. Three more projects are
in the works to benefit Tuolumne salmon, including one that
eases flood risk in west Modesto. The river’s major water
diverters are getting help on them from River Partners, a
nonprofit that has restored floodplains around California.
Those diverters are the Modesto Irrigation District, the
Turlock Irrigation District and the San Francisco Public
Utilities Commission, which together committed $80 million of
their own money to habitat work on the lower Tuolumne. River
Partners leads the team of biologists and ecologists behind it,
and the goal by 2030 is 77 acres of floodplain rearing habitat
and roughly 100,000 tons of added gravel.
Invasive golden mussels continue to spread through California
waterways, increasing concerns about damage to water
infrastructure, threats to agriculture and rising
costs for boaters and communities. The issue was the focus of a
public discussion Monday in Stockton, where Rep. Josh Harder
and Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom discussed efforts to contain
the mussels and limit their spread. Stockton was where
golden mussels were first detected in California more than two
years ago. ”It continues to be where we have the
biggest problem with golden mussels across our state,” Harder
said. … Harder’s bill would establish a
rapid-response program, expand inspection stations and
support research into ways to eradicate the mussels.
The legislation received a congressional hearing last
month but still needs approval before it can take
effect.
… Protected and restored by the Nature Conservancy, Cosumnes
River Preserve is south of Sacramento along I-5. The last
undammed, free-flowing river originating in the Sierra Nevada
is one of California’s richest wildlife areas. The cranes
migrate into the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta and the
surrounding Central Valley each winter, arriving from far
northern nesting grounds, seeking refuge and food. The
migration has been repeating for thousands of years.
… From its source in the Sierra Nevada counties of El
Dorado and Amador, the Cosumnes watershed comprises 940 square
miles from the Sierra crest to the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. … Uniquely undammed, the Cosumnes’ winter floods
still spread across the floodplain, naturally recharging the
groundwater. Native forests regenerate. Salmon still spawn.
At the urging of Gov. Gavin Newsom, California water officials
have been working with a group of agencies for years on a
far-reaching plan to protect the rivers that nourish the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The
Newsom administration is seeking an arrangement in which urban
and agricultural suppliers across the state agree to
take less water from California rivers, and help restore river
habitat, in exchange for more flexibility using water and
meeting regulations. … But even as the governor has
made finalizing what’s called the Bay Delta Plan a priority
before he leaves office in January, the state’s negotiations
with the water agencies appear to have come up short.
The State Water Resources Control Board is scheduled to
adopt the plan this week, yet water providers up and
down the state are taking issue with it, many saying it isn’t
the collaborative deal they were promised.
Arizona’s historic legal fight over Colorado River water is
drawing a warning from one of the Trump administration’s top
officials, even as an Arizona congressman defends the state’s
decision to take the federal government to court. U.S. Interior
Secretary Doug Burgum cautioned that the lawsuit could
backfire on a state already facing significant cuts to its
Colorado River water supply. ”The last thing that
Arizona should want to do is have a judge decide where the
water is going to go,” Burgum said during a visit to southern
Arizona earlier this week. … Burgum, who oversees the
Department of the Interior and its Bureau of Reclamation,
disputes the legal basis for the lawsuit. “I
think that the lawsuit will get tossed out because you can’t be
injured in theory,” Burgum said.
Communities in southwestern Colorado and the Four Corners
region that faced devastating floods this week will get
a break Monday from the storm system that forced evacuations
and damaged homes. Gov. Jared Polis declared a
disaster emergency for 12 counties due to flooding in
much of southern Colorado. The floods have caused
helicopter rescues, destroyed bridges and closed roads while
rain has continued to fall since Wednesday. Southwestern
Colorado had received about 3 to 7 inches of
rain, according to the NWS office in Grand Junction,
which monitors conditions across the Western Slope. All of
that rain flows downhill into the San Juan
River, which drains rivers and streams in southwestern
Colorado into the Colorado River. …
Meteorologists expect to see the river to peak at about 29.5
feet early Monday morning
San Bernardino County has partnered with a Cadiz Inc. affiliate
to establish a public financing authority that could
advance the company’s controversial Mojave Desert groundwater
pipeline project, which has faced years of
environmental opposition and litigation. The San Bernardino
Water and Power Authority announced its formation Monday, Oct.
19, following an inaugural meeting on Oct. 5. The county Board
of Supervisors unanimously approved the joint powers agreement
with Fenner Gap Mutual Water Co., the Cadiz affiliate, on April
21. The partnership marks another potentially significant
development for Cadiz, which has spent decades trying
to bring its groundwater in the Cadiz and Fenner valleys, near
Amboy, to Southern California communities despite
fears that pumping could dry up natural springs and damage
fragile desert ecosystems.
Six years ago, scientists in the Pacific Northwest untangled
a mystery about why salmon were dying in the
region, often in astonishing numbers — with as
many as 90% of the migrating adult coho salmon perishing in
parts of Puget Sound. The culprit turned out to be a
toxic chemical from tires washing into waterways. Now,
some of the same researchers that made the 2020 discovery
have confirmed that this tire-derived compound is
present, at worrisome levels, in salmon-bearing watersheds in
California. A study published last month in the
journal Environmental Science and Technology Letters finds that
at least 10 rivers and creeks in the Bay Area and Santa
Cruz region have had potentially lethal concentrations
of the chemical 6PPD-quinone after stormwater flowed into
them. … [F]ive of the California rivers and creeks that
logged harmful levels of the toxic substance are
federally designated as “critical habitat” for
endangered coho.
As the proposed Sites Reservoir project approaches its next
design phase, American Canyon officials are considering
whether to scale back the city’s planned share to better match
lower water-demand forecasts. American Canyon’s $3.6
million upfront investment in the estimated $6.8 billion
project gives it access to 25,000 acre-feet of water
storage capacity, or 1.8% of the project, to
help meet the needs of the fast-growing city. During
the City Council’s Oct. 20 meeting, City Manager Jason Holley
… said the city’s use of a major state-managed water
storage and delivery system fell from about 3,600 acre-feet in
2014 to about 2,200 acre-feet last year — a reduction
of roughly 1,400 acre-feet, or 39%. … Holley
suggested the city could therefore consider
“fine-tuning our participation level” in the Sites
project, potentially reducing its 1.8% share to 1%.
California State Parks increased the Mussel Fee Sticker price
Thursday, Oct. 22, raising the cost of a full two-year
sticker cycle from $16 to $42. The fee is $21 when a
sticker is first purchased in an even-numbered year and $42
when it is first purchased in an odd-numbered year. The fee is
separate from vessel registration. The Division of Boating and
Waterways said the higher fee will fund more
inspections, decontamination, early-detection monitoring and
public education to prevent invasive mussels from
spreading. California created the sticker program
in 2012 to help stop quagga and zebra mussels.
State Parks said the program expanded after the state detected
golden mussels in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta in October 2024; the mussels have since been
found in other waterways and water infrastructure.
One of the most vexing initiatives on the November ballot is
touted by supporters as a long-awaited revision of California’s
56-year-old bedrock environmental law, including changes
promoted to speed housing construction and other key projects.
But many opponents are concerned about the potential lasting
impacts on California’s environment, as well as tighter limits
on public say over proposed development, fearing the changes
would serve as a “smokescreen” for industry. … CEQA is
one of the state’s most consequential environmental laws,
requiring close study and input on projects with potential to
harm such things as human health, air and water quality, and
wildlife habitat, or add to traffic, noise and greenhouse gas
emissions. … Those supporting the measure
say CEQA has been used to block many developments that
would serve local communities, including new housing, green
energy and water projects.
2026 was one for the record books in Colorado for water,
according to the Colorado Climate Center’s ‘Water Year in
Review Report’ just released on Tuesday. The report found that
this year was Colorado’s warmest on record by a substantial
margin and also one of our driest. Colorado also recorded its
lowest mountain snowpack, straining water resources and
contributing to widespread drought. This year’s climatic
conditions had substantial impacts across numerous sectors:
from agriculture and wildlife to human health and recreation.
Marty Lenz spoke with Allie Mazurek, Engagement Climatologist
with the Colorado Climate Center at Colorado State University,
on the findings, and more.
Environmental researchers, Tribal leaders, and government
officials gathered at the fifth biannual Salton Sea Summit to
evaluate ongoing ecological restoration efforts and outline
long-term strategies for California’s largest lake. Hosted by
the University of California, Riverside, and the Pacific
Institute on Oct. 16–17 at UCR’s Palm Desert Center, this
year’s summit—themed “Spotlight on Solutions”—focused on recent
collaborative actions taken to address the sea’s escalating
environmental and public health challenges. A primary focus of
the two-day conference was the State of California’s Species
Conservation Habitat (SCH) project. Speakers highlighted the
initiative’s creation of habitat ponds, which have successfully
supported local fish and bird populations while suppressing
dust emissions from exposed, dried lakebed—a major source of
air quality concerns for surrounding Imperial and Coachella
Valley communities.
In a promising sign of wildlife recovery in the Bay Area,
researchers have observed a river otter living along the San
Mateo County coast, the first documented sighting of the
nimble, furry-coated swimmers there since the 1800s, scientists
say. … Once numerous across the United States, river otters —
a more slender cousin of sea otters who spend their time mostly
in inland streams, creeks and bays — were hunted for their
dense fur in the 1800s and also experienced population declines
due to development and toxic chemicals. In recent years, river
otters have made a comeback across Northern California, with
sightings increasingly common along the shores of San Francisco
Bay, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and Marin and Sonoma
counties. But they have been slow to expand their range down
the coast south of the Golden Gate Bridge.
