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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… Turbine A8, the eighth turbine on the Arizona side, is one
of only five wide-head turbines at the dam that are primed for
drought, able to function with water levels below 1,035 feet
elevation at Lake Mead without guaranteed risk
of permanent damage. A8 has been out of commission
awaiting repairs for months. The dam has 17 turbines
in all. Now, Lake Mead’s projected decline could
spell crisis for rural utilities across Nevada, Arizona
and California that have counted on Hoover Dam hydropower for
decades. The federal government intends to see how far
it can push the dam’s infrastructure. Bureau of Reclamation
spokesman Peter Soeth said the agency will, for the
first time in history, test whether those older turbines can
operate at lower water levels, with strict limits on
operating hours as well as monitoring and frequent inspections
to ensure safety.
First came the flood. Then the fire. In a matter of weeks,
neighboring cities in Orange County were battered by
dueling disasters that laid bare the risks posed to California
as the world warms. In early September, powerful waves
from the Pacific Ocean began to wallop the houses along Beach
Road, a ribbon of multimillion-dollar waterfront properties
hugging the coast in the picturesque hamlet of Dana Point.
Several factors conspired to create the strongest swell that
anyone in the area can recall. But a main culprit was
El Niño, the natural climate pattern that typically
happens a few times a decade and scrambles weather patterns
worldwide. The current El Niño is dangerously strong.
In California, it is elevating sea levels and creating
more intense storms. A phenomenon known as a Kelvin
wave — a huge, slow-moving pulse of warm water in the ocean
that’s linked to El Niño — is raising sea levels as well.
A project that could carry groundwater about
162 miles across the desert from Cadiz, in a remote area of San
Bernardino County, to Mojave has garnered some support in Kern
County. The Kern County Board of Supervisors, the city of
Tehachapi, the Boron Community Services District, and the
Desert Lake Community Services District have expressed varying
levels of support for the project in letters to the California
State Lands Commission. The right-of-way for the
project — known as the Cadiz Northern Pipeline —
was approved by the Bureau of Land Management in July,
but the project still needs additional approvals. The
project is sometimes called the Mojave Groundwater Bank. The
BLM’s approval was challenged in court in late
July by the Center for Biological Diversity and the
Sierra Club, and the litigation is ongoing.
PG&E has a conditional OK to drill into Cape Horn Dam on
the Eel River, one of two dams it wants to tear
down. The holes will test the dam, the ground under it
and the river sediment that has built up behind it, according
to records filed with state and federal dam regulators. Cape
Horn Dam holds back Van Arsdale Reservoir. An intake 400 feet
upstream of the dam takes in Eel River water.
The water runs through the Potter Valley Project’s tunnels to
the East Fork of the Russian River, according to the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission. … In a Sept. 2 letter,
PG&E told FERC the drilling is meant “to characterize
reservoir sediments as well as to evaluate the Cape
Horn Dam embankment and foundation materials in
support of the Potter Valley decommissioning.”
The Water Education Foundation has selected MacKenzie Elmer,
reporter for Voice
of San Diego, as the recipient of its annual
journalism award recognizing outstanding coverage of water
resources in California and the West. Elmer’s reporting
on the Tijuana River sewage crisis, Colorado River management
and Southern California water policy has helped audiences
understand some of the region’s most complex and significant
water challenges. “Her reporting brings clarity, accountability
and context to topics that are often difficult to explain yet
critical to the public interest,” said Jenn Bowles,
executive director of the Water Education Foundation. Elmer has
covered water issues in San Diego County, including water
rates, desalination and the financial challenges facing water
suppliers.
The rehabilitation of a sewage plant addressing the
ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis may slip past
its 2027 deadline. The end of next year has long been the
finish line for the rehabilitation and expansion of the South
Bay International Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP). The
International Boundary and Water Commission (IBWC) no
longer expects to finish it by then, Councilmember
Mark Fleming told the Coronado City Council on Nov. 3. Mayor
John Duncan, who recently met with IBWC Commissioner Chad
McIntosh for about two hours, heard something more hopeful.
McIntosh is still committed to the end of 2027, Duncan
said, though it “could be a few months into 2028.”
October 2026 was the fourth warmest in 132
years of recordkeeping for the contiguous 48 U.S. states,
NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Prediction reported
on Monday. This was a microscopic cooldown at best in the wake
of July, August, and September (plus March) all having set
monthly U.S. heat records. … When pulled together for
the nation as a whole, October wasn’t a standout month for
precipitation: it came in as 51st-wettest across 132
years of data. However, Fig. 3 below suggests how much
is hidden behind that number. A total of 22 states were drier
than average. … Meanwhile, although just 11 states were
wetter than average in October, these included most of the
larger southwest and south-central states. Arizona,
Colorado, Nevada, and Utah each had a top-ten-wettest
October.
CEMEX’s proposed Rockfield Expansion Project near Friant is
drawing criticism from environmental advocates who say it could
threaten the San Joaquin River, and nearby
homes. The company wants to expand its existing quarry using
explosive blasting to mine rock for construction materials. The
proposal has raised concerns about wildlife, water
quality, and families living near the site.
… The conservation group American Rivers ranked the San
Joaquin second on its 2026 list of America’s Most Endangered
Rivers, citing the proposed expansion. But supporters say the
project is important for the valley’s economy. The Central
Valley Business Federation, which counts CEMEX as a member,
says the quarry supports 100 union jobs and an estimated 750
indirect jobs.
Located in the center of the San Francisco Estuary, Suisun
Marsh is an ecological hotspot in the
intermediate zone between the freshwater Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta and salty San Francisco Bay. The Suisun Marsh landscape
looks wildly different today compared to its historic past. In
1850, U.S. Congress passed the Swamp Land Act, which
handed federal wetlands to states to encourage rapid
reclamation for agriculture. … However,
agriculture succumbed to high salinity and, over time, was
converted into seasonally managed wetlands for waterfowl
habitat and recreational hunting. Now, managed wetlands
comprise about 70% of Suisun Marsh and include both public and
private lands mainly managed for waterfowl habitat.
… The flood schedule of these wetlands plays a large
role in how much and what kind of life thrives in each of these
systems. This intermittent seasonal connectivity provides
opportunities to concentrate and then export plankton-rich
water to adjacent sloughs.
For years the Klamath River came with a warning label every
summer, signs telling people not to touch water that could kill
a dog, thanks to blue-green algae blooming in the reservoirs
upstream. Two years after those reservoirs drained, the toxin
is barely showing up at all. The Angry Optimist, a nature
and science newsletter, compiled the latest data from the Karuk
and Yurok tribes, Sustainable Northwest, and CDFW. Below the
former Iron Gate Dam, where 58 percent of Karuk samples once
exceeded the public health limit for microcystin, every sample
since removal has come in under the limit, and in 82 percent
the toxin could not be detected at all. The reason traces back
to what the four reservoirs actually were: roughly 2,200 acres
of warm, still, nutrient-rich water, exactly what Microcystis
needs.
Much like a household puts money into a savings account,
Southern Nevada has been setting aside part of its allocated
Colorado River water in Lake Mead for the last two
decades. At the end of 2025, the state had approximately
890,000 acre-feet of that water in the proverbial bank,
according to the Bureau of Reclamation’s annual water
accounting report. Nevada’s bank holds nearly three
years’ worth of the water the state can take from the
river, which is capped at 300,000 acre-feet a year.
… But under federal rules for the river, most of the
water can’t be taken out once Lake Mead drops below 1,000 feet
above sea level. Water levels at the lake sat at 1,037
feet on Oct. 18, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
… The bank may also stop growing. Under Reclamation’s
river operating rules, no new water can be added to the
bank after Dec. 31 unless the Lower Basin reaches an
agreement.
The concrete is barely dry from the repairs made when storms in
2023 hammered California’s Central Coast and beyond. Yet
already many of the hard-hit coastal communities are bracing
for another possible drubbing with El Niño. From Santa Cruz to
Big Sur to Pacifica, local leaders say they’re doing what they
can to safeguard vulnerable infrastructure while
heeding lessons from the past to improve their emergency
response and better prepare residents for disaster.
Such seaside landmarks as Santa Cruz’s West Cliff Drive,
Capitola Village, scenic Highway 1 south of Monterey and the
beaches of Half Moon Bay are among the areas where officials
anticipate potential problems over the next few months. Many of
these sites remain in various states of recovery from
the turbulent atmospheric rivers of late 2022 and early
2023, which prompted a federal disaster declaration
across much of the state.
After floods inundated homes, washed out roads and destroyed
bridges across southern Utah over the past two
weeks, Gov. Spencer Cox on Friday declared a 30-day
state of emergency in San Juan and Washington
counties. This declaration allows the state to support local
recovery efforts and potentially receive federal assistance,
according to the governor’s office. San Juan County
declared a state of emergency on Nov. 1 and the town of Bluff
declared an emergency on Oct. 25. Leaders and residents across
the county have also told The Tribune in recent weeks that they
want the state to declare an emergency as well to mobilize
additional resources. … The declaration may
bring in federal aid to add to the assistance that’s
already been expended in southwest Utah.
Construction crews have finished a huge new $307 million outlet
tunnel at Anderson Dam, completing a key step in a $3.2 billion
seismic project to rebuild the largest dam in Santa
Clara County —and reduce the risk of flooding
this winter in San Jose as a historically strong
El Niño winter approaches. The new tunnel,
which is 24 feet high and 1,736 feet long with a
13-foot-diameter steel pipe running through the middle, has
been under construction for two years. It will allow the
sprawling reservoir east of Highway 101 near Morgan Hill
to be drained more quickly in the event of an
earthquake, extreme storm or other incident.
… The dam’s previous outlet pipe was very small, which
contributed to the floods in downtown San Jose during
major storms in 2017.
A draft report calls for California to convert less of its
agricultural land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
for natural habitat and flood control. The report
reduces the amount of land from what the state previously
planned to convert. But there’s little to no indication
of how much the plan could cost taxpayers. That draft
report, which was released in September [by the Delta
Protection Commission], follows a 17-year-old mandate
that state officials find ways to create a more
reliable water supply throughout the state while simultaneously
restoring wildlife habitats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta. The report also proposes ways to offset losses
in reclamation district assessments and local tax revenues,
which are paid by property owners in the state’s 110
reclamation districts and the five counties that fall in the
boundaries of the Delta.
The Southern Nevada fish thought to be the world’s most
endangered has made a stunning rebound. During a fall count in
Death Valley National Park’s Devils Hole, next to the Ash
Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, biologists counted 137 Devils
Hole pupfish, up from 77 last spring and 69 last fall.
… The Devils Hole pupfish earned its endangered listing
under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1967 in response to
the major threat of groundwater drawdown from ranching and
agriculture. The U.S. Supreme Court intervened, too. In its
decision on 1976 Cappaert v. United States, the court
upheld the ruling that ranchers could not pump groundwater in a
way that would affect levels at Devils Hole and undermine the
federal government’s mission of conservation at what was then a
national monument.
California’s governor-elect, Xavier Becerra, should
make flood and drought preparedness a top
prioritywhile protecting aging water
infrastructure and replenishing depletedgroundwater supplies, according to a new
report co-authored by a UC Riverside water expert. The
report, “Priorities for California’s Water: Advice for the
Incoming Governor,” warns that California’s water system is
increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather from climate change,
excessive groundwater pumping, and decades of deferred
infrastructure improvements. Prepared by the
Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy
Center, the report recommends better disaster
preparedness, stronger groundwater protections, and long-term
investments in water storage and delivery systems.
Since becoming the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Roberto
Lazzeri has been confronted with many pressing cross-border
issues, ranging from trade deals and border security to
immigration. But he said there’s one in particular that comes
up constantly in his many meetings in Washington — the
Tijuana River Valley’s pollution crisis. The Mexican
ambassador visited San Diego for the first time last week since
taking the job in June. During his stay, he met with leadership
from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol and
the International Boundary and Water
Commission, among others. … The Mexican
ambassador to the U.S. said that Mexico is conducting a study
to identify the most effective solutions. … Lazzeri said
he hopes the study will determine whether to expand the
[San Antonio de los Buenos wastewater] plant’s treatment
capacity or construct additional infrastructure.
… Right now, about two-thirds of data centers under
construction in the U.S. are being built in drought-stricken
areas like Utah. The Stratos Hyperscale Data Center
has 1.6 million gallons of water per day allotted through gross
diversion under historic ranch water rights on
the property purchased for the site. … But independent
researchers have found that, historically, because tech
companies often aren’t required to report water consumption
totals, it’s difficult to know just how much water data centers
are really using. The 80-acre patch of kochia at the
Flying M [ranch] gets watered once or twice a month,
April through September. … [T]he question of how the
Flying M can square their stewardship with the potential impact
of one of the world’s most powerful data centers hangs in the
air.
For Diana Almendariz, tule is more than just a plant. It’s a
connection to her ancestors, her Native American heritage and
the land and she’s determined to make sure those traditions
continue for future generations. As California’s wetlands
disappear, the risk of losing the cultural knowledge and
traditions tied to these ecosystems increases. Almendariz and
her daughter, Christina, are working to preserve both through
traditional tule practices and an exhibit highlighting the
relationship between Native communities and California’s
wetlands. … The family hopes to preserve these
traditions through an exhibit called “Good Fire, Living Water,”
which explores the deep connection between Native Americans and
California’s wetlands. With more than 95% of the state’s
historic wetlands lost, the exhibit highlights what’s at stake
beyond the environmental impact.
