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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The state water board has given the green light to a one-year,
state-run water conservation program. On Wednesday, the
Colorado Water Conservation Board unanimously
approved the application review process and criteria for what
state officials are calling Colorado’s near-term
contribution program for 2027. … The
contribution program aims to use $100 million in funding from
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to pay water users in
the Upper [Colorado River] Basin states (Colorado, New
Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) to voluntarily cut
back. … The approval comes at a
pivotal moment, as the federal government has taken
over operations for the Colorado River and the
nation’s biggest reservoirs after the seven states that share
the river failed to find agreement after years of negotiations.
For the first time, scientists have found a direct link between
the snow that falls on California’s mountains and the
groundwater that lies beneath Central Valley farmlands.
Analyzing two decades of measurements from NASA satellites, the
researchers discovered that after a snowy winter in the Sierra
Nevada, the melting snow that runs off the mountains
substantially raises water levels underground. The
study documents just how important years of heavy snow are for
recharging California’s groundwater aquifers. It also reveals
that a year with rain but little snow doesn’t benefit
the state’s underground water nearly as much.
… The study backs up something farmers have noticed for
years: that the water in their wells sometimes rises in the
months after heavy snows in the mountains.
California Supreme Court justices will hear oral arguments on a
key piece of the ongoing lawsuit over Kern River flows
Oct. 7 at a special session of the court to be held in
Redding. … The last time justices ruled on a case involving
the Kern River was 140 years ago. That 1886 ruling set the
basis for California’s water rights system. This time
around, the outcome could be just as weighty. The
justices are looking at whether the 5th District Court of
Appeal erred when it overturned a temporary injunction
by Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp issued in
fall of 2023 after an epic water year filled the mostly dry
river bed through town – bringing fish with it. That
injunction had required the City of Bakersfield, which
operates the river, to keep some water in the
river based on California Fish and Game Code Section
5937, which requires dam owners to let enough water run
downstream to keep fish in good condition.
What if Colorado gets exactly what everyone is hoping for this
winter? Weeks of heavy snowstorms blanketing the mountains. A
deepening snowpack. A spring runoff that sends water
rushing into rivers and replenishing depleted
reservoirs. Well, according to experts, it still might
not be enough. After a record-low snowpack last winter and an
exceptionally dry summer, Colorado’s water system is
starting the winter with a deficit that can’t be erased in a
single season, according to state water officials and
snowpack experts. And right now — despite the promise of a
strong El Niño and plenty of optimism about the water it could
bring — forecasters can’t say whether this winter will
even deliver the above-average snowpack that Colorado
needs.
… [Iron] county has been developing a new ordinance for
approving such projects and other large developments like
natural gas plants or solar farms. The proposed rules
would cap water use for most data centers at 50,000
gallons per day, set limits on noise and light
pollution, require more efficient cooling systems and give the
county more control over where those projects can be built.
… Developers would have to meet criteria governing where
projects could be built and how close they can be to homes,
show that water, power and transportation are available
nearby, and minimize impacts on the environment or
agriculture. … If a project needs more than 56 acre-feet
per year, a developer could acquire more water
rights, retire them and use that as credit for more
water use, according to the draft ordinance.
New research examining more than eight decades of wildfire
activity found that fires are burning more land in Western
watersheds that supply water to millions of people. The study
published in Communications Earth & Environment
[September/2026] analyzed wildfire trends from 1940
through 2024 across approximately 17,000 watersheds in 11
Western states. Led by Dalston J. Karto, a San Diego State
University computational science doctoral student,
and Alicia M. Kinoshita, the study was conducted in
collaboration with researchers from NASA’s Jet Propulsion
Laboratory and the U.S. Geological Survey. The researchers
found that some of the watersheds most important for generating
runoff and supplying downstream drinking water are experiencing
significant increases in burned area.
A bipartisan water bill passed by the U.S. House of
Representatives includes $208 million for Colorado projects and
would revive federal financing for a pipeline that
was vetoed by President Donald Trump late last
year. The House voted 415-9 Wednesday night to
pass the Water Resources Development Act,
with all eight of Colorado’s representatives joining in
support. The bill is a biennial measure that authorizes studies
and projects for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and local
communities. The office of Rep. Brittany Pettersen, a Democrat
from Lakewood, said the bill incorporates provisions
from a bill led by Pettersen and co-sponsored by most
of the state’s delegation earlier this year. It would
add Colorado to a federal program that supports rural water
projects in western states. The bill passed Wednesday
would allow up to $150 million for water
projects in Colorado under that program.
Former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, a longtime Republican lawmaker from
Arizona who shaped landmark water policies in the U.S.
West and guided the confirmation of Supreme Court
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, has died. He was 84. … Before being
elected for the first of his four terms in the House in 1987,
Kyl was a key participant in shaping Arizona’s 1980
groundwater code as a lawyer representing a large
water utility. The first-of-its-kind code created a
regulatory framework for managing groundwater in the
drought-stricken state, largely centering on the state’s
population centers, including Phoenix and Tucson. In
2004, Kyl authored legislation that provided one of the
largest tribal water rights settlements, which, after
a decades-long battle, gave the Gila River Indian
Community enough water to fill nearly 313,500
Olympic-sized swimming pools annually.
Today is the last day to tell federal regulators what they
should study before two century-old dams come off the Eel
River. The comment window on the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission’s scoping document closes September 18, capping a
week of public sessions in Eureka. The commission took
comments at the Wharfinger Building on Tuesday and Wednesday,
following an earlier round in Ukiah in June. The sessions were
one-on-one with a stenographer rather than open mic, a format
FERC says is less intimidating, though some advocates missed
the energy of the packed Klamath hearings. The dams in question
are Scott Dam, which created Lake Pillsbury in 1922, and Cape
Horn Dam downstream near Potter Valley. Together they make up
PG&E’s Potter Valley Project, which has not generated
electricity since equipment failed in 2021.
Foreign actors gained access to two small water utility systems
in Colorado late last month, state officials confirmed, just
weeks after hackers with suspected links to Iran had attempted
to access similar systems elsewhere in the United States. It’s
unclear who the actors were or if the attempted interference
was related to the July hacking attempts that affected at least
seven states. Gov. Jared Polis’ office told The Denver Post
that the computer systems for two Colorado utilities — both of
which are private and serve fewer than 200 people — were
targeted in late August. But his office said that, to the
state’s knowledge, “treatment processes and water quality were
not impacted at either provider,” similar to the outcome in of
reported hacking efforts in other states.
… [Karl] Bly runs a volunteer group called American River
Lost & Found. He keeps more than a dozen kayaks, canoes and
inflatables in his yard, garage and strapped atop his car,
along with buckets filled with scores of oars and paddles. He
has more than 30,000 followers on Instagram and 64,000 on
Facebook. … Through word of mouth, people know that if
they drop their phone, a wedding ring or their prescription
glasses into the murk, Bly is the one to call. On a near-daily
basis, especially in summer, he is contacted by people
desperate to find something they have lost. Improbably, given
how vast the river is, if they tell him where they were when
they lost it, Bly knows the flows and currents well enough to
have more than a fighting chance of finding it.
The city of Peoria has signed a $100 million agreement to buy
water from a private company, as Arizona faces cuts to its
supply from the Colorado River. Peoria says it will receive
about 173,672 acre feet of water in storage credits to help
shore up the city’s supply. That’s roughly enough to
provide half a million homes with water for a year.
The city says it bought a 120 acre campus that includes two
wells from Vidler Water Company in the Harquahala irrigation
area in La Paz County. When all permitting is finished,
Peoria plans to pump groundwater into the Central Arizona
Project canal, and eventually into a treatment facility for the
city’s use.
Rep. Andy Biggs on Wednesday introduced a sweeping water bill
that would pour $19 billion in federal funding into new
infrastructure while cutting permit requirements across the
drought-stricken Colorado River Basin. … His bill would
remove environmental review requirements that
can hold up water projects for years, require the federal
government to make permitting decisions within six months and
pay two-thirds of the cost of new water projects. The bill
would also reopen a shuttered desalination plant near
Yuma, partner with Mexico to desalinate
seawater and study how to capture California
stormwater before it drains into the Pacific Ocean.
A predicted “super” El Niño this winter could put one of Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s plans to bolster the state’s water
supplies to the test just as his governorship winds
down. The storms could bring danger, potentially overwhelming
levees and causing damaging floods. But they could also give
California, where water supplies can swing wildly from drought
to flood, a chance to capture and store excess water
underground for later use. … Newsom has tried for
the past couple of years to make it easier for water managers
to divert floodwaters into underground
aquifers as part of his broader efforts to store and
send more water to farms and cities, sometimes angering
environmentalists who argue it comes at the cost of endangered
species.
Jon Kyl, a giant in Arizona politics who served the state in
Congress for nearly three decades, has died, his family
announced Thursday. He was 84. … Former Republican U.S.
Sen. Kyl announced last year his withdrawal from public life
following a dementia diagnosis. … Kyl leveraged his
expertise on water policy in Congress to gain approval of
tribal water rights settlements, said Sarah Porter of
Arizona State University. He was an “important participant” in
negotiations that created the state’s water
rules, said Porter, director of the university’s
Kyl Center for Water Policy that is named
after the former senator.
In what would be a seismic shift, the Trump administration is
quietly moving to strip a core protection of the Endangered
Species Act, according to an internal memo obtained by The New
York Times. … Currently, enforcement of the Endangered
Species Act relies on a permitting system that seeks to
balance protecting imperiled animals with allowing business to
operate. For example, if developers wanted to build
houses on a tract of land that is home to endangered
salamanders, they would have to apply for a permit. In exchange
for implementing some measures to protect the salamanders, and
perhaps paying for salamander conservation elsewhere, the Fish
and Wildlife Service would issue what’s known as an incidental
take permit, absolving them of killing a certain number of
salamanders. The memo, which was signed by Brian Nesvik, the
director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, appears to
upend that entire system.
Colorado communities are moving ahead with approvals of massive
new data centers, even as new public polling shows citizen
opposition swelling over concerns about electricity and
water use and noise. … The Weld
County Commission is embracing data growth, approving on Sept.
9 a plan from Global AI that would become the largest
data center operation in the state. … The commission
had earlier this year approved a set of special planning and
permitting rules for data centers, banning development in
agricultural zones and requiring water conservation
plans and adequate power sources. … While many
local residents objected to the Global AI approval, the
commissioners said they were adding important limitations on
the developer, requiring a closed-loop cooling system
that needs far less water use than many existing data
centers.
Drought conditions are forcing some Colorado ranchers to sell
and ship cattle earlier than usual as water and feed become
more difficult and expensive to obtain. At Mountain View Meats
near Fort Collins, beef producer Nicole Uthmann said her family
is spending more time hauling water to keep its cattle
supplied. … Jennifer Martin, an associate professor in
meat safety and quality at Colorado State University, said
drought is also contributing to a shortage of hay and grass.
… Those higher costs can make it harder for ranchers to keep
their entire herds. Martin said some cattle producers are
shipping animals earlier than they normally would because it’s
harder to feed them. … The U.S. Department of
Agriculture reports that the nation’s cattle herd is at its
lowest level since 1951.
Federal regulators are seeking public input on a proposal to
remove two PG&E-owned dams on the Eel River, a plan
supporters say could bring significant ecological
benefits while reshaping recreation for nearby
communities. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
held a meeting after releasing a scoping document that outlines
what the agency plans to study as it considers the dam
removals. … PG&E said it received one proposal “from
a diverse group of stakeholders” for construction of
the “New-Eel River,” and that it included the proposal
in its application to FERC. PG&E said it has not received
any proposal from the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District.
Board members questioned why the Indian Wells Valley
Groundwater Agency is budgeting $195,000 for communications
with an Orange County-based agency. … The amount
set aside for Westbound Communications is a “not to exceed”
amount of $195,000, said agency representative Christopher
Perez. It was the same amount in the 2026 budget. The agency
anticipates only charging $165,000 this year, Perez
noted. He also pushed back on the idea that the agency
only made a few Facebook posts saying Westbound has also
assisted the authority with its website, created infographics,
fact sheets and other forms of work for the district.
