A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Vik Jolly.
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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.
Nevada and six other Colorado River states failed to reach a
broad agreement Tuesday on how to share the river’s dwindling
water supply, missing a federally-imposed deadline after days
of intense closed-door negotiations. Despite missing the
deadline, the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of
Reclamation indicated states would be given additional time to
continue negotiations after making “collective progress.” …
The Bureau of Reclamation – which manages water in the West
under the Interior Department – initially gave states until
Nov. 11 to submit a preliminary agreement for a plan that could
replace the river’s operating guidelines set to expire at the
end of 2026. The initial timeline also called for states to
share a final consensus-based plan by mid-February
2026 in order to reach a final agreement in the summer
of 2026 with implementation of the new guidelines beginning in
October 2026.
A strong, wet storm was set to deliver gusty winds, heavy snow
and drenching rains across California beginning Wednesday
evening, and forecasters are growing increasingly concerned
about its potential to bring flash flooding to Southern
California in the coming days. This complex system will bring
potentially the most widespread and heaviest precipitation to
the state so far this fall, and the heavy soaking is expected
to bring a decisive end to the state’s wildfire season.
… Pulling in moisture from the tropics, this storm is
warm. Rain is forecast at lower elevations and snow will fall
only at the highest elevations.
The Trump administration will soon roll out a sweeping Clean
Water Act rule that could erode protections for many
wetlands and small streams. The White House on Friday
finished reviewing EPA’s plan to redefine which waters are
covered by the law, signaling that the proposal is ready to be
released to the public. The issue is a top priority for the
Trump administration. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced in
March plans to amend the scope of the Clean Water Act through a
new “waters of the U.S.” definition, marking the fifth time in
less than 15 years that would be changed.
Conservationists restoring salmon along California’s North
Coast have a mantra: A good coho salmon stream looks like a
teenager’s bedroom—if teenagers discarded logs and branches
instead of dirty clothes. … The first attempts to
restore Mendocino’s streams for coho and other salmon began in
the 1960s. Decades of logging in the area’s old-growth forests
left woody debris in stream channels, creating miles-long
barriers. Well-intentioned state conservationists decided to
remove it. … Gradually, researchers realized that salmon
needed the shelter provided by logjams.
… California is blessed with top-notch researchers—from state
and federal agencies, universities, consulting firms, and
NGOs—who are responsible for many of the tools the state uses
to manage its water. This spring, we convened some of these
experts, along with select leaders in water policy, for a
one-day intensive conversation. We asked them to evaluate the
state of water research in California and to identify research
priorities that could meet the challenges of the 21st century.
These conversations form the basis of our recommendations. This
report also highlights the challenges California is facing to
maintain vital research to support water management.
U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, Republicans from Texas,
have filed a bill to hold Mexico accountable for failing to
provide water to south Texas in accordance with a 1944-era
treaty. The Ensuring Predictable and Reliable Water
Deliveries Act of 2025 would strengthen enforcement of the 1944
Treaty of Utilization of Waters, which governs water usage
between the U.S. and Mexico. … The bill would impose
restrictions and measures against Mexico if it does not meet
its average annualized obligation. It requires the secretary of
State to report to Congress on Mexico’s status of meeting its
treaty obligations. If the secretary finds that Mexico hasn’t
met its obligations, the bill directs the president to deny all
non-treaty requests from the Mexican government.
In mountain regions like the Rockies, headwater streams make up
more than 70% of the river network and support the downstream
waterways and communities. … While these sources are crucial,
very few are monitored, and aspects of their hydrology are not
well understood. A team of researchers, including UConn
Department of Earth Sciences assistant professor Lijing Wang,
are working to determine what influences how and when water
moves through these streams, and what hidden source sustains
them long after the rush of snowmelt. Their findings are
published in Water Resources Research.
A recent change in the Bay Area’s tap water has some residents
noticing a different taste, but officials have said it’s
completely normal. The East Bay Municipal Utility
District, which supplies water to 1.4 million
people, said it is going through “seasonal
adjustments,” which might be why the tap water tastes a little
off for some people. … [T]he utility district is blending
more local sources with the Pardee Reservoir on the Mokelumne
River, Andrea Pook, a spokesperson for the utility district,
told SFGATE. … This shift happens regularly, Pook said,
and it occurs when the water needs to be pulled from different
treatment plants and local reservoirs based on operational
needs.
Northern Kings County residents and landowners are being asked
to have a say in how a local groundwater agency responds to
domestic wells going dry. At its Nov. 6 special meeting, the
South Fork Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) board
approved releasing a draft of its $1.5 million well mitigation
program for public comment for 30 days beginning Nov.
10. The draft program will aid domestic well owners, well
dependent-communities and industrial well owners whose wells
have gone dry or whose water quality has suffered due to
excessive pumping.
Droughts in California don’t just strain water
supplies. They strain relations between people and wildlife. A
study published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances found
that conflicts between humans and animals, be it a bear
break-in at Lake Tahoe, a mountain lion eating a sheep in
Sonoma County or a coyote toppling trash cans in San Francisco,
have been significantly higher during the state’s dry spells.
… Losing just one inch of annual precipitation, the
authors found, has meant, for some carnivores, as much as a 3%
increase in clashes with humans – an amount that adds up
quickly in years with substantially less rain.
Environmental organizations supporting the removal of the
Potter Valley Project dams will host a virtual and an in-person
workshop this month to help residents craft comments for
submission to the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission. Friends of the Eel River, Save California
Salmon, the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter and California Trout
are hosting the two-hour workshops, which will explain the
groups’ reasons for supporting the removal of the Scott Dam and
the Cape Horn (also known as Van Arsdale) Dam.
Hyacinth, an invasive and seasonal plant, is once again
invading Stockton waterways. This year’s bloom came into
downtown Stockton from the Tuolumne River, breaking off during
the last storm. … ”If you can’t have a bar pilot enter
the ship from San Francisco Bay and come upstream because their
radar is showing large mats of hyacinth, they pretty much call
Stockton and West Sacramento saying we’re gonna have to drop
anchor because we cannot distinguish between land and the
weeds,” California State Parks Boating and Waterways
Environmental Program Manager Edward Hard explained. Hyacinth
also brings mosquitoes [and affects] water
conveyance.
After years of back and forth, new flood maps with major
implications for property owners’ land values, insurance rates
and building costs along a watershed stretching from Santa Rosa
to Rohnert Park are in a final phase of review and approval.
Sonoma County challenged maps produced by the Federal Emergency
Management Agency that come with flood insurance requirements
and added building restrictions for those deemed in higher-risk
flood areas of the Todd Creek watershed. After the federal
agency rejected its appeal, the county launched its own flood
study in 2023, completed earlier this year. The results
showed a different flood hazard designation for 289 — nearly
one-third — of the 964 parcels affected, with more than half
removed from a flood zone.
“If we take care of that water, we know that water is going to
take care of us,” stated Lorelei Cloud, who has spent a
lifetime advocating for water conservation and access. Cloud, a
former vice chairman of the Southern Ute tribe, was also the
first tribal member on record to serve on the Colorado Water
Conservation Board. On Thursday, Nov. 6, The Arts Campus
at Willits (TACAW) hosted Cloud and a fellow trustee of The
Nature Conservancy (TNC) Colorado, Johnny Le Coq, for a
presentation on their respective backgrounds and water
conservation work.
Northern Water will further delay an initial partial filling of
its new Chimney Hollow reservoir into next year to allow time
for expanded groundwater tests in the area to make sure
unexpected uranium leaching inside the planned pool would not
migrate to other supplies. … Filling of a small portion
of the reservoir had been planned for this month, but now is
“expected in early 2026,” according to the agency. … The
project was meant to “firm” or store water rights Northern
Water owns in the Windy Gap project near Granby, which collects
and pumps Colorado River water into the Adams Tunnel for Front
Range buyers.
The Colorado River states are still divided — so much so that
they could not reach a broad agreement on how to manage the
river by their federal deadline. The Department of the
Interior gave seven Western states, including Colorado, until
Tuesday to indicate whether they can reach any level of accord
on how the water supply for 40 million people
should be managed in the future. The current agreement, which
has governed how key reservoirs store and release water
supplies since 2007, expires Dec. 31. … In a joint
statement Tuesday, the seven states and federal officials said
they recognize the seriousness of the basin’s challenges as
drought and low reservoirs have put pressure on the river’s
water supplies.
For the first time in more than a year, the House and Senate
produced compromise spending bills that could lay the
groundwork for a broader deal to fully fund the government. …
The legislation contains about $1.4 billion to support the
“revitalization of aging water and wastewater
infrastructure,” according to a summary. USDA’s
Watershed and Flood Prevention Operations budget would get $50
million under the negotiated proposal. An additional $3 million
would be set aside “for the rehabilitation of aging dam
infrastructure.” … Lawmakers added language to
increase by $2.6 million the statutory funding ceiling on the
Bureau of Reclamation’s Calfed Bay-Delta
program, which supports ecosystem restoration, water
supply management and levee integrity.
A fast-moving atmospheric river is heading toward California
this week and could pack a punch, threatening periods of heavy
rain and possible flooding and debris flows in recently burned
areas. After arriving in Northern California on Wednesday, the
storm system is expected to land in Southern California on
Thursday, where it could remain all the way through Saturday.
… The storm could also bring heavy snow to the Sierra
Nevada, and meteorologists were already discouraging travel
between Thursday morning and Friday morning. Donner Peak
could get 12 to 18 inches of snow.
The Valley’s two largest water providers will connect their
systems, allowing water from the Salt River Project into the
Central Arizona Project canal system. The project would give
SRP and CAP the flexibility to move water through the Valley.
Combined, the two providers serve the vast majority of
Arizonans. SRP water comes from the Salt and Verde Rivers. CAP
water comes from the Colorado River and is in danger of taking
cuts. SRP and CAP have different service areas. The proposed
SRP-CAP Interconnection Facility (SCIF) would allow water
users, like some central Arizona cities and towns with rights
to SRP water to access it.
Thanks to their use of a unique methodology, a McGill-led
research team has obtained new insights into how boulders
affect snow melt in mountainous northern environments, with
implications for local water resources. The team found
that snow near boulders melts faster, not only because rocks
radiate heat, but also due to subtle processes that reshape the
snow’s surface. This information will help researchers
understand how small-scale processes affect downstream water
resources. … The paper is published in the journal Cold
Regions Science and Technology.
