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 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.
The House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan water
infrastructure bill that includes more than $66 million for
Central Coast water projects. The Water Resources
Development Act of 2026 now heads to the Senate for
final passage. The legislation authorizes the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers to carry out water infrastructure projects
nationwide, including flood risk reduction, ecosystem
restoration, and navigation improvements. … The
bill includes $30 million for a new septic-to-sewer project in
the Los Olivos Community Services District, $25 million for the
City of Ojai to replace aging stormwater pipes installed in the
early 1960s, and $6.3 million for the City of Lompoc to
modernize its water treatment plant and build a stormwater and
flood control system.
A Yuma desalting plant would be restored under
federal legislation introduced by Congressman Andy Biggs of
Arizona, Republican state government leaders said late last
week. The GOP Arizona State Legislators announced their support
for the bill they said would authorize $19 billion to
increase the water supply for people living in the
Colorado River basin. Republicans say the bill, the
Colorado River Basin Water Security and Infrastructure Act,
would develop additional water. One way the bill would help is
to direct the U.S. Department of the Interior to restore the
Yuma Desalting Plant within 180 days and authorize $1 billion
for the project. The plant would allow treated
agricultural drainage water to reduce the amount of Colorado
River water that must be delivered from the U.S.,
Republican leaders said.
California leaders officially declared a State of Emergency on
Monday. The reason? El Niño and its potential to
influence a stormier than normal winter on the West
Coast. This declaration allows emergency
response resources to be readied and allocated ahead
of any storm damage. … In general, the impacts of a
major El Niño pattern are felt more strongly in Southern
California than in Northern California. … The
combination of El Niño and a marine heat wave closer to the
California coast has ocean temperatures running much warmer
than normal. That warmer water takes up more space than cooler
water, so water levels at the coast are also running
higher than normal. That is likely to be the case
through winter.
Gilbert leaders want strict rules on data
centers, making it as hard as possible for the massive
server farms to set up shop in town. Councilmembers were
expected to take up those new rules in September. However, a
town spokesperson said the new rules won’t be addressed until
sometime in October or November. The move comes amid
pushback from residents across the Valley and the
country about data center development raising concerns about
pollution, water and energy use. Arizona Attorney
General Kris Mayes called for a halt to new data center
development in late August, citingColorado River water cuts, and a new state law
in June that put a three-year moratorium on tax breaks for data
center development.
… Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report on this
issue, as well as federal efforts and challenges to improving
tribal access. Safe water is crucial to public health.
Yet, some American Indians and Alaska Natives live in
communities without running water or flushable
toilets. Without access to such basic
facilities, these communities have come up with a number of
alternatives. Some residents haul drinking water from a
community water station. Others use a “honey bucket” as a
makeshift toilet. And some residents rely on shared community
facilities to shower or wash laundry. For some tribal
communities that do have access to piped water, it does
not always meet safe drinking water
standards. How is this even possible in 2026? The
reality is that for many Tribes resources are scarce. Many face
a multitude of challenges to building, operating, and
maintaining water infrastructure.
The invasive golden mussel has been found at
Lake Del Valle in Livermore, prompting restrictions for
boaters, the East Bay Regional Park District announced Monday.
Under the new restrictions, watercraft launched at Lake Del
Valle face a mandatory 30-day quarantine before entering any
other waters in the district’s jurisdiction — unless they
return with an intact boat band, a seal proving the vessel
hasn’t been launched elsewhere. … Golden mussels
can clog pipes, damage water infrastructure, crowd out native
species, trigger harmful algae blooms and degrade water
quality. The park district said that until this week,
Contra Loma Reservoir in Antioch was the only other body of
water in the district where golden mussels had been found.
Colorado State Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, was elected last
week as the Upper Basin co-chair of the Colorado River Forum
(CRF), a program that fosters cooperation between state
lawmakers in the Colorado River Basin states locked in critical
negotiations over the future of the river. The CRF, part
of the Council of State Governments West (CSG West), is led by
co-chairs representing the Upper (Colorado, Wyoming, New
Mexico, Utah) and Lower (California, Arizona, Nevada) basins
who rotate and are elected by the membership. … Roberts
will serve as co-chair with Republican Arizona state Sen. Tim
Dunn — a Yuma farmer — who was elected Lower Basin co-chair
last week.
Suisun Marsh is a rich and vibrant environment, teeming with
growth and wildlife. DWR is harnessing that natural
productivity to explore a new approach to ecosystem improvement
– one that works with the marsh’s ability to produce the food
and habitat native species need to thrive. This approach
involves strategically managing wetlands to produce and export
tiny, shrimp-like organisms called zooplankton that
super-charge the food web to the benefit of native fish
species. It involves adjusting water levels, tracking food
web production and modeling how that food moves through Suisun
Marsh. … Its value is cumulative, with benefits that
extend across the ecosystem — from improving ecological
conditions to deepening the collective understanding of how the
Delta functions and how it can be best managed for the future.
The EPA has released a 53-page, $93.4 million plan to remove
dangerous chemicals from Richmond’s Heckathorn Superfund site,
but community members who’ve long advocated for a more
extensive cleanup aren’t impressed. While there may be some
aspects of the EPA’s United Heckathorn Superfund Site plan that
the Richmond Shoreline Alliance (RSA) might agree with, said
coordinator Janet Johnson, they don’t consider it a complete
cleanup. The RSA and its partner agencies became so frustrated
with the EPA last year that they wrote their own cleanup plan,
one that has been endorsed by the city of Richmond and Sen.
Jesse Arreguín. … The community is also concerned
that the channel will remain vulnerable to sea level and
groundwater rise, Johnson said.
California’s water system is running on borrowed time. While
the state continues to innovate, its water delivery systems
have not kept pace. … Today’s structure relies on
one-off financing to maintain or build large-scale water
projects, leaving ratepayers to cover what grants and bonds
cannot finance. … The Sites Reservoir project is a good
example. When the project was proposed in 2019, it carried an
estimated price tag of $3 billion. Today, that estimate has
climbed to between $6.2 billion and $6.8 billion. … This
cost burden is especially difficult for California’s farmers
and ranchers, who compete in global markets where others set
prices, and rising water costs are simply absorbed. … Yet
there are other options. –Written by Michelle Paul, executive director of the
California Farm Water Coalition.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday declared a statewide emergency for
California, warning of damaging storms that
could be generated this winter from a historically strong El
Niño brewing in the Pacific Ocean. The move is the latest sign
that emergency officials are growing increasingly
concerned about flooding, landslides, coastal damage and power
outages as winter approaches. The declaration
fast-tracks permits for flood protection projects and allows
state agencies to obtain emergency supplies without the usual
competitive bidding process. … On Monday, state
emergency officials said they are already holding planning
meetings with cities and counties to identify places
most at risk, and are beginning to clear drains on
roads and preposition resources, such as sandbags, in locations
across the state.
It’ll take a lot of money to help save water from the shrinking
Colorado River. Now, Amazon is helping foot the bill. The
ecommerce giant announced that it would send $20
million to water-saving projects in Arizona and
California, kicking off a new longer-term effort to
rally money for water conservation. The company formed a new
coalition, dubbed the “Colorado River Basin
Collaborative,” and aims to spend $100 million
on water conservation across two years. …
[Amazon Water Sustainability Lead Will] Hewes cited a new
$2.4 million project that aims to improve irrigation efficiency
on tribal farmland in northern Arizona. … [T]he project
would install high-tech sensors that give farmers
real-time data about when crops need water, ultimately
reducing their draw on Lake Mead, the nation’s largest
reservoir.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signedseven new data center regulations into
law Monday, as public concerns about the facilities’ demands
for water and electricity have reached a fever pitch. Newsom
signed a raft of bills that require data center
operators to report their water consumption and pay
for upgrades to offset any increased electricity grid demands.
… One of the measures was a resurrected measure from
Assemblymember Diane Papan, D-San Mateo. The governor vetoed a
similar bill last year that would have required data centers to
disclose their water usage when applying for licenses.
Chinook salmon have been laying eggs in gravelly nests in the
Sacramento River for millennia. But California’s biggest river
is now so warm that biologists expect a significant number of
the eggs won’t hatch. Environmental advocates blame the Trump
administration. They say the federal government took too much
water out of Shasta Lake for farms in the Central Valley,
leaving the reservoir too warm for many salmon eggs to
survive in a vital spawning area downstream from Shasta
Dam. … State biologists who monitor salmon
nests in the Sacramento River estimated on Sept. 4 that
about 20% of the eggs may not survive. The
river has gotten warmer since then.
We are gearing up for an engaging Water Summit on Oct. 29 and
also prepping our 2027 California Water Leaders program. Our
42ⁿᵈ
annual Water Summit is the Foundation’s premier
event of the year and returns to Sacramento October 29 with
leading policymakers and experts addressing critical water
issues in California and across the West. Conversations during
the Summit will revolve around this year’s theme,
Stewarding a New Era in Western
Water, with a focus on emerging topics related to
the challenges and opportunities facing water resource
management. And if you’re interested in applying for
the 2027 California Water Leaders cohort,
sign up for a virtual Q&A session on Nov.
10 to get an overview of our popular but competitive
program and tips on how to submit a strong application.
The Yuma City Council is preparing for a legal fight on two
fronts to protect the region’s water supply as competition for
the Colorado River intensifies. Council
members voted unanimously to authorize legal action
over water transfers from rural areas to growing
suburbs, as well as potential federal mandates that
could reduce water allocations across the desert
Southwest. … One of the city’s primary targets is a
proposed transfer of Colorado River water from GSC Farm
in La Paz County to the fast-growing town of Queen
Creek. Yuma is joining Mohave and La Paz counties to
challenge the transfer. Local leaders worry the move could
set a dangerous precedent, allowing expanding
municipalities to buy up and redirect water rights away from
rural agricultural hubs.
Any groundwater agency hoping to independently avoid state
sanctions under the so-called “good guy” clause of the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) will have to
pay between $50,000 and $250,000 just to be
considered. That’s how much the state Water
Resources Control Board staff says it costs to review
the technical and often voluminous exemption
requests. … The Water Board approved the good
guy application fees at its Sept. 15 meeting and got an update
about how well – or not – Tulare County farmers have been
paying other fees. … Exemptions are the only way
individual agencies can avoid fees when a subbasin is
placed on probation by the Water Board for lacking an adequate
groundwater plan.
Access to water, and, more importantly, clean drinking water,
remains a challenge for many people on the Navajo Nation, so
Northern Arizona University chemistry professor Jani Ingram and
a team of researchers took on the challenge. They created
a map identifying wells with water that is considered
safe to drink and those that may be best avoided.
Ingram, a citizen of the Navajo Nation, has been at NAU since
2002. Upon arriving, she almost immediately started working on
some of the contaminant issues, particularly water
contamination on the Navajo Nation related to legacy
uranium mining. She said her work was motivated by
uranium mining and community members who “requested for this
type of work to be done.”
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced a
$251 million Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act
(WIFIA) loan to the Las Virgenes-Triunfo Public Financing
Authority in California to support drinking water treatment
improvements and advance water reuse. The funding will support
the Pure Water Project, which will construct an advanced water
purification facility to treat recycled water for the Las
Virgenes-Conejo region of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. The
project is expected to provide the region’s first local water
supply while increasing capacity and system reliability for
approximately 105,000 customers.
Beneath the Rocky Mountains, the Sierra Nevada, and the deserts
in between, lies a massive energy source — and it isn’t a
fossil fuel. The smashing and separating of tectonic plates
that produced many of the West’s most dramatic landscapes have
also allowed heat from the planet’s core to rise nearly to the
surface. Now, an explosion of new geothermal energy companies
wants to drill into the Earth and capture that heat for clean
electricity. … These new geothermal projects are located
in dry Western states because of their geology, but they face
an ironic practical challenge: Most new geothermal technologies
need water to produce power. … A company called XGS
Energy is trying to provide geothermal energy that requires
nearly no water to New Mexico, which is currently suffering a
decades-long drought.
