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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In a major win for the Western Slope, the Trump administration
released $40 million in funding for the purchase of
powerful historic water rights on the Colorado River tied to
the Shoshone Power Plant. The Colorado River Water
Conservation District, which spans 15 counties in western
Colorado, has been leading the charge since 2023 to purchase
the water rights from the hydropower facility’s owner, a
subsidiary of Xcel Energy, for $99 million. In early 2025, it
seemed like they’d soon be ready to write the check when the
federal government granted $40 million toward the purchase
during former President Joe Biden’s final hours in
office. Days later, the Trump administration froze the
funding. … The release of the funds a year and a half
later marks a significant step forward in the water rights
acquisition, which will still take years to complete.
Southern Nevada is now looking to the Pacific Ocean to ease its
water woes. In a vote Thursday, the Southern Nevada Water
Authority board approved a memorandum of understanding that
allows General Manager John Entsminger to hammer out a
first-of-its-kind water transfer deal with the San Diego County
Water Authority. In a region where growth could
outpace permanent water supplies in the next few
decades, that matters. The terms are far from certain. But
California would leave water in Lake Mead that Nevada could use
in exchange for compensation; California would fill that gap
with ocean water treated by the Carlsbad Desalination Plant.
… [I]f a contract materialized, it could revolutionize
what water managers thought was possible, effectively adding
permanent water to an arid region’s portfolio.
A coalition of conservation groups wants Southern California to
get 85% of its water locally, up from the 50% it gets now, by
2045, and says a new plan shows how. It’s urging state leaders
to scrap plans for a 45-mile tunnel beneath the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and
consider asking voters to approve a bond measure to fund local
water solutions. The 34-page strategy was released as critical
decisions loom for local officials, California’s next governor
and legislators. … The allied groups are calling
for recycling more wastewater, capturing more stormwater,
improving efficiency and cleaning up contaminated
groundwater. … The coalition includes fishing
groups, environmental organizations and Northern California’s
Winnemem Wintu Tribe.
The state and the Colorado River Water Conservation District, a
public water policy and planning agency on the Western Slope,
have a new plan to protect mountain towns from losing their
water supply during an unprecedented drought this
summer. The District’s proposed emergency water supply
plan was approved at the Colorado Water Conservation Board
meeting on Wednesday. Colorado River District general
manager Andy Mueller said that the Colorado River Basin is in a
historic drought, and “safeguards that we put in place more
than 80 years ago are failing.” The emergency plan would
protect certain water users on the main stem of the Colorado
River by replacing water that would have historically come from
Green Mountain Reservoir. This year forecasts say it won’t fill
up for the first time in history.
The Sites Project Authority submitted comments on a draft water
permit for the Sites Reservoir Project, expressing concerns
that some proposed conditions could undermine the project’s
viability. The authority filed its comments on May 22, 2026,
with the State Water Resources Control Board’s Administrative
Hearings Office. The authority praised the office’s tentative
determination that almost 1 million acre-feet of water is
available for appropriation from the Sacramento River for the
project. However, officials said certain permit conditions need
revision before the proposed order goes to the State Board,
currently scheduled for July 15, 2026.
Along the California coast, from Bodega Bay to Morro Bay,
commercial fishing boats have started pulling in salmon for the
first time in three years, and local salmon are once again
appearing on restaurant menus and in seafood markets across the
state. California’s commercial ocean salmon fishery began
reopening in May 2026 for the first time since a population
crash led to a three-year closure. But while the reopening,
happening in phases and with limits, is welcome news, it does
not mean the underlying problems have been solved. … The
state has the knowledge to create a more resilient system that
can help salmon better withstand California’s increasing
climate whiplash. But without significant changes in three key
areas, we believe today’s good news for salmon could be
short-lived once again.
Something is brewing over the Pacific Ocean that will have
wide-reaching implications for weather across the globe. As it
grows, so does the buzz over the potential for a super El Niño.
A Super El Niño is a stronger-than-normal El Niño, meaning
the surface waters of the Pacific are warming along the
equator. And some weather experts are predicting this one could
be a record-setter. That translates to the potential for
flooding, landslides, record temperatures and a supercharged
hurricane season. … Cowboy State Daily meteorologist Don Day
is aware of these predictions and projections. … “We are
undoubtedly going to have an El Niño, and it’s going to be a
strong one, but I’m telling people to proceed with caution,” he
said. “Making leaps into projections of what’ll happen six
months down the road is not smart.”
… Residents around industrial-scale data centers proposed
near Casper and Evanston are raising a number of questions
about whether data centers are right for Wyoming, ranging from
water and electricity use to fears of a growing artificial
intelligence-powered surveillance society. … The concerns now
surfacing in Natrona County along Big Muddy Creek and in Uinta
County near the Utah border echo a debate that’s already been
stewing in Cheyenne for the better part of a year. That
culminated Monday in debate of a proposed 12-month moratorium
on new data centers in Cheyenne, which drew hours of emotional
testimony. … Ultimately, the committee failed to make any
recommendation for or against the moratorium, which will go
back to the full City Council for a final decision.
… We’re talking about PFAS, or so-called “forever chemicals”
that don’t break down in nature. They can build up in the body
over time and may lead to health issues like cancer, weakened
immune systems and decreased fertility. So far, Utah is in a
“really good spot,” said John Steffan, emerging contaminants
manager with the Utah Division of Drinking Water. And more
funding for testing and treatment could be on the way. Drinking
water is one of the main ways people are exposed to PFAS, short
for perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, said Cyrus
Western, Region 8 administrator at the EPA. The agency recently
announced $9.4 million for Utah to help water systems serving
10,000 or fewer people get a sense of what they’re dealing
with.
… The Department of Water Resources is planting
fire-resistant native species around the dam and its facilities
as part of a broader effort to reduce wildfire risk at one of
the most critical pieces of water infrastructure in California.
Lake Oroville is the state’s second-largest reservoir and the
centerpiece of the State Water Project, which delivers water to
27 million people. The native plantings are designed to replace
flammable vegetation with species that are naturally more
resistant to fire, creating a buffer around the dam, spillways,
power plant and other structures. The approach aligns with Cal
Fire’s defensible space guidelines, which recommend removing or
replacing high-fire-risk vegetation within a set distance of
structures.
Gov. Spencer Cox declared a state of emergency Thursday, noting
every county is in a state of severe or extreme drought after
a dry winter marked by record warmth robbed Utah of its
snowpack and left rivers and streams running
low. The declaration opens the door for farmers
and ranchers to tap into federal funding and loans managed by
the state. It also gave state leaders another opportunity to
urge homeowners to cut back on watering their lawns and replace
some of their grass with less thirsty plants. … Cox
said about two-thirds of residential water is used outdoors and
pleaded with Utahns to stay vigilant and avoid watering too
much. But he said any restrictions are a decision for local
leaders and water districts, not for state officials.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation has freed up $52 million that
water managers will use to replace three old turbines at Hoover
Dam as forecasters expect Lake Mead levels to plunge to
historic lows over the next two years. Previously, the federal
agency had said extremely low reservoir levels could
cause a 40 percent reduction in hydropower — a
concerning sign for utilities that rely on it throughout
Nevada, California and Arizona. Older turbines
cannot generate power below 1,035 feet in elevation at the
reservoir, and hydropower levels would have dropped from 1,302
megawatts to 382 megawatts, the agency said. … Record-low
Lake Mead levels are coming largely due to the Bureau of
Reclamation’s move to reduce flows out of Lake Powell — a
decision made to ensure water can keep flowing in the face of
the worst runoff season on record.
Republicans and Democrats took a bipartisan step — or perhaps
more precisely, a tiptoe — toward putting Congress’ imprint on
the debate over the costs of data centers. As the House
Appropriations Committee hammered out a $58 billion fiscal 2027
energy and water spending bill Wednesday, members reached rare
consensus on a bipartisan amendment that would empower the
Energy Department to start regulating data centers.
… The bipartisan amendment, which would spur the Energy
Department to improve data centers’ water and energy
efficiency, was a signal that both parties are feeling
the public pressure around energy and data centers ahead of the
midterms.
For the first time in roughly a century, spring-run Chinook
salmon are swimming in the North Yuba River. And the program
that put them there just got funded for another year. The
Yuba Water Board of Directors approved a $500,000 grant to the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife on Tuesday to
continue the salmon reintroduction program in
the upper reaches of the North Yuba River watershed. The
two-year-old pilot program has already placed hundreds of
thousands of salmon eggs and adult fish into a 12-mile stretch
of gravel riverbed above Downieville. The process works in
two phases. CDFW biologists inject pre-fertilized eggs directly
into the gravel at the bottom of the river, mimicking natural
spawning conditions. They also release adult salmon to lay eggs
naturally.
Of all the risks farmers face in the San Joaquin Valley –
floods, droughts, fluctuating commodity prices, labor and its
costs – one now dominates their lives. The very land they work
is sinking beneath their feet. This phenomenon, known as
subsidence, threatens agricultural and other
infrastructure and incurs staggering repair costs.
… Subsidence has strained relations among farmers who
disagree on which pumping – or whose – causes the problem, how
to pay for repairs, and how to satisfy the various needs of the
state and the owners and managers of the damaged canals.
… Tribal water rights are an important—and often poorly
understood—component of California’s water rights system. These
rights are essential to the economy and well-being of
California’s Tribes in the same way that water rights are
critical for its cities and agriculture. Tribal water rights
also play an increasingly significant role in regional
water management in California and on the Colorado
River. … This report aims to shed light on
Tribal water rights. To understand the current state of these
rights, we provide an overview of their history, an analysis of
the approaches that have helped Tribes succeed in quantifying
their water rights, and a review of the contemporary exercise
of these rights—including in basins where water is fully
allocated. We conclude with a brief discussion of opportunities
under federal and state law for other Tribes to quantify or
otherwise protect their water resources.
U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla introduced new
legislation aiming to curb the spread and eradicate the
invasive golden mussel across California. The two senators,
both Democrats, introduced the golden mussel Eradication and
Control Act of 2026 to expedite wiping out the invasive mussel.
… Padilla said the bill would invest in “immediate steps” to
prevent the mussel’s invasive by implementing new technology,
inspection stations and rapid response programs to better
address this invasive species and protect our fragile Delta
ecosystems,” Padilla said. Since arriving in California
in October 2024, golden mussels have wreaked havoc on water
systems and infrastructure across the state, as the
mussels latch onto pumps and pipes compromising water delivery,
clogging water systems and impacting agricultural production.
The Trump Administration awarded a new, no-bid contract to a
company that’s being sued for allegedly failing to keep the
Tijuana sewage crisis at bay. And two men who work for agencies
on either side of the contract also worked together previously
at the Environmental Protection Agency during Trump’s first
term. In April, the federal government re-hired Veolia,
one of the world’s largest private operators of water, waste
and energy services, to run the South Bay International
Wastewater Treatment Plant at the U.S.-Mexico border. Veolia
has been the private contractor operating and maintaining the
plant for years. But recently it became the target of several
lawsuits filed by residents, a Coronado school district and
environmental groups that allege the plant has violated the
Clean Water Act under Veolia’s stewardship.
… Public uproar has echoed across the Tahoe area since April,
when our yearlong Mother Jones investigation revealed that, in
California, the fastest-growing use of glyphosate—the main
ingredient in Roundup—is to spray forested areas, including
this massive new project around Lake Tahoe. … As our
investigation revealed, the deployment of glyphosate in
California’s forestlands has been growing for decades, driven
in part by the worsening fires, as companies and government
officials scramble to harvest burned wood and replant trees for
future timber sales. Glyphosate is among the effective
methods—and the Forest Service says the cheapest—to get pine
trees to grow back faster, as it kills any other plant that
might compete for sunlight, soil nutrients, and water.
