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 Upper Colorado River Commission welcomed a new
representative from New Mexico at a meeting in downtown Denver
on Tuesday, where it discussed ongoing negotiations over how to
share America’s most over-allocated river. Tanya
Trujillo, deputy state engineer and senior water
policy advisor to New Mexico Gov. Michelle Grisham, replaced
Estevan López as the state’s top negotiator on the Colorado
River, which supplies water to 40 million people across
seven Western states, 30 tribes and Mexico. Trujillo
served as the Interior Department’s assistant secretary for
water and science under President Joe Biden.
Colorado’s rivers and streams are expected to flow at only a
quarter of normal levels during June and July, following what
the Natural Resources Conservation Service referred to as an
“unusual volatile winter” in its June water supply
outlook. On the Western Slope, the outlook is even more
grim, with the Colorado River headwaters basin expected
to see streamflows 21% of normal and the
Yampa-White-Little Snake basin 19% of normal during these two
months. This year, Colorado’s snowpack accumulation was
the lowest on record. … As Colorado’s climate experts
and forecasters look for any bright spot or relief for the
drought, many are looking at the June 11 arrival of El Nino at
the expected arrival of a Super El Nino by the end of the
year.
California’s troubled commercial salmon fleet, fishing this
year for the first time since 2022, is in store for some
federal disaster aid after the Trump administration announced
it would allocate $21.3 million to support the state’s
beleaguered fishery. The June 17 announcement by the National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, follows years
of requests for help from a West Coast industry still reeling
after a historic closure that banned all California salmon
fishing in 2023, 2024 and 2025 due to low ocean forecasts of
returning fish. … Salmon stocks have
weathered sharp declines amid waves of drought,
shifting ocean conditions and longstanding effects from dams,
river diversions and other development that have decimated
their spawning runs.
The San Diego County Water Authority Monday proposed a 3% rate
increase for 2027, with similar adjustments tentatively planned
through 2032. SDCWA leaders said while the rate hike was
painful, it was actuallybelow the national rate of
inflation and a significant decrease from earlier projections
— at least partly due to two water-sharing agreements
with other agencies signed this spring. … The
water authority inked a deal in April to supply an annual
quantity of 10,000 acre-feet to the Eastern Municipal Water
District of Southern California for 21 years at a rate in year
one of around $1,350 per acre-foot. Additionally, Eastern will
pre-purchase an additional 30,000 acre-feet for $19 million.
All told, in the first five years of the agreement, the water
authority would generate $74 million in new revenue.
As the City of Las Vegas maps out places to create
public drinking water and cooling spaces, some details
around its heat mitigation strategy are still sparse. The city
council, meeting as the city’s planning commission last week,
received an update on the development of the city’s heat
mitigation plans. City of Las Vegas Chief Sustainability
Officer Marco Velotta outlined plans for how Las Vegas can
combat high temperatures. Commissioners approved the plan, and
it is scheduled to go before the council on July 15.
… Under the plan, pedestrians, cyclists, and transit
users will have more access to drinking water, with an
interactive map directing them to the nearest
source. Only a few more than 20 facilities exist
within the city limits that provide available drinking water,
according to a map provided by the City of Las Vegas during the
meeting.
Fractures are rapidly mending in the Kings County region after
groundwater agencies split apart two years ago when the state
placed the region on probation. In the latest show of unity,
the Mid-Kings Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) voted
June 9 to join a region-wide effort to write a single
groundwater management plan, rather than each of the five GSAs
writing its own. At the same meeting, a representative of the
Kings County Water District, which abandoned the GSA in 2024,
asked to reconcile. … The five GSAs are hoping to
present a cohesive plan that the Water Resources Control Board
finds acceptable to bring the Tulare Lake subbasin, which
covers most of Kings County out of probation. The Water Board
placed the area on probation in 2024.
… As the state grapples with artificial intelligence and how
to regulate the industry, attempts to add data centers to
support this wave of technology are being met with strong
resistance. Earlier this month in Monterey Park, east of Los
Angeles, residents overwhelmingly voted to permanently
ban data centers in the city. HMC Statcap is an
Australian Company, and it had planned to build an AI data
center in Monterey Park. … Residents packed a city council
meeting in January to protest the plans. [Resident Yun] Wang
said the city council didn’t really address residents’
concerns about water and electricity use. And
so residents started organizing. Three months later, the city
council voted to place a measure banning data centers on the
June ballot.
The Tijuana City Hall has approved a formal measure urging the
National Water Commission (Conagua) to carry out immediate
cleaning and maintenance efforts along the Tijuana River
channel and the Alamar River bed. The initiative, introduced by
councilmember Miguel Loza, responds to mounting complaints from
local residents, business owners, and commuters who navigate
the areas surrounding both waterways on a daily basis. Beyond
the request for federal intervention, the agreement also seeks
to strengthen coordination among municipal, state, and federal
authorities is to restore the safety, functionality, and
overall condition of these critical infrastructure corridors
for the benefit of the surrounding communities.
Tribes and environmental groups have registered their strong
opposition to a California water bill, AB 2215, that they say
would clear the path for controversial water projects,
including the embattled Delta Tunnel, without proper
regulatory and public oversight. AB 2215 would extend the
Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) water rights permit for
the State Water Project until 2046. Bill proponents claim that
it is a “critical response to climate change and ensuring
reliable water supplies,” but opponents say the very opposite
is true. The California Assembly approved the bill as amended
on May 27 with a vote of 59 to 1 and 20 no votes recorded. It
will be considered by the Senate Natural Resources and Water
Committee on Wednesday, July 1.
… The Water Leadership Institute in northern Arizona (WLI) is
an initiative in partnership with three organizations: the
Water Society and Policy Lab at NAU, the Environmental Defense
Fund (EDF) and the Arizona Water for All (AW4A) initiative at
Arizona State University. Lucero Radonic, professor in the
Department of Anthropology and head of the Water, Society and
Policy Research Lab, said the WLI started in California in 2013
and was later adapted for southern Arizona in 2024, where it is
coordinated by EDF and local partners. Building on the success
and momentum of that inaugural Arizona cohort, they began
exploring the possibility of piloting a WLI for the Colorado
Plateau, a unique ecological region spanning northern Arizona,
southern Utah, southwestern Colorado and northwestern New
Mexico.
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District appointed Lora
Anguay, who has spent the past five years guiding the utility’s
ambitious zero-carbon effort, to become the agency’s next chief
executive officer. Anguay will take over leadership of the
utility — which employs about 2,400 people and serves an area
with a population of about 1.5 million — as the utility
navigates a shifting energy market and pursues an aggressive
zero-carbon goal. Anguay serves as the chief zero carbon
officer, a role she has held since 2021. She has overseen the
retooling of SMUD’s largest natural gas plant, the Cosumnes
Power Plant, which reduced emissions by 27%, according to the
utility.
A new caucus has formed in the Utah State Legislature to
monitor bills and advocate for the state’s interests on the
Colorado River. Rep. Scott Chew, R-Jensen, told FOX 13 News he
formed the Colorado River Caucus on Utah’s Capitol Hill
made up of lawmakers whose districts are along the
river and its tributaries.He has run legislation
seeking to defend Utah’s interests in the high-stakes political
negotiations over the water that provides life for more than 40
million people in the West. … Rep. Chew said he wanted
to ensure people in his part of the state are represented on
the Colorado River.
Six hundred miles is a long way to go for water. That’s how far
the Scott and Cape Horn dams are from the Elsinore Valley
Municipal Water District. It’s not far enough to deter Elsinore
Valley’s interest in buying the dams located in a rural stretch
of Northern California.The dams’ fate is the subject of an
intensifying showdown involving conservationists, Native
Americans, farmers and most recently, the Trump administration.
… In an April 21 post on X, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture
Brooke Rollins described the district as a “legitimate buyer”
for the dams, which are part of the Potter Valley Project that
sends water to the Russian River flowing through Mendocino and
Sonoma counties.
The California State Water Resources Control Board has released
a final draft remand order directing the Central Valley
Regional Water Quality Control Board to revise dairy water
quality regulations, prompting concerns from industry groups
about potential costs and operational impacts on dairy farms.
The proposed changes apply only to dairies operating in the
Central Valley. … The order focuses on reducing
nitrate impacts to groundwater. … A key
component of the proposal is a broader whole-farm nitrogen
accounting system. Dairies would be required to track nitrogen
generated on their operations, applied to cropland and exported
off-site, with the goal of reducing nitrogen that could
contribute to groundwater contamination.
In April, developers of the massive Imperial Data Center
cleared a major hurdle after Imperial County Supervisors
approved a plan to combine several tracts of land for the
nearly one-million-square-foot facility in rural Southern
California. It would be the largest data center in the
state. … Last week, that progress came to a
halt when the county board walked back its decision, declaring
a 45-day moratorium on data centers and forming a public
commission to advise the county on zoning policy for the
facilities. … The company originally pledged to
use recycled water from neighboring cities, but when
that didn’t pan out, it sued Imperial Irrigation District in
Imperial County Superior Court this month, seeking 260
million gallons of river water each year.
California State Parks is expanding and for the first time
ever, Yuba County will have its own state park along the
Feather River. … State Parks Forward is a recent
initiative to bring three new state parks to the
central and Sacramento Valley by 2030. Specifically
targeting underserved areas, the parks will be at the
San Joaquin River Parkway, Dust Bowl Camp, and Feather
River Park in Yuba County. … The state expansion
also means protection for the rare riparian forest. “There’s
only 2% of the original riparian forests remaining and this is
a prime example where we can perpetuate it and make sure it’s
available for those future generations,” said [Matthew Allen,
the Northern Buttes District superintendent of California State
Parks].
Growers in a small western Fresno County region are falling out
over groundwater, specifically who should be entitled to how
much. And accusations have started piling up against the
Pleasant Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) board
president, Jimmy Anderson. Some farmers say Anderson has
manipulated groundwater credits for his own benefit, creating a
captive market to sell water and setting up smaller farmers for
failure. The problem, they say, is a groundwater allocation
policy that Anderson instituted after he came on the board in
January. That policy gives water credits to land parcels based
on historical use versus a per-acre, equal spread as is common
in other GSAs. That gave large landowners, like Anderson,
more credits regardless of how the land is now being used.
The Yurok Marine Department and the UC Davis Bodega Marine
Laboratory announced they recently deployed a real-time ocean
monitoring buoy near the mouth of the Klamath River. Installed
in about 60 feet of water, the Klamath River Spotter buoy
collects and transmits data on water temperature, wave
conditions, wind speed and direction, and barometric pressure.
The information is publicly available through the SOFAR Ocean
platform. The Yurok tribe says the buoy will help researchers
better understand the Klamath River plume. … Researchers
plan to use the data to study environmental conditions near the
river mouth and monitor potential long-term changes
following the removal of four dams on the Klamath
River.
The California State Lands Commission will hold a hearing on
Tuesday to consider whether to grant the
California-American Water Company a lease to construct and
operate slant wells in Marina as part of its proposed
desalination project in the area. Marina City Council
chambers will open Tuesday at 11:30 a.m. for Marina residents
to weigh in during the public comments section of the hearing.
Marina is encouraging all interested members of the public to
attend and make their thoughts known. For the city of Marina,
the hearing, and the decision that follows, will be one in a
long battle against what the city feels is a private company
intruding not just on the natural beauty where they live, but
on their legal rights to the water under them.
Although there have not yet been detections of the golden
mussel in the waterways of Sutter, Colusa and Yuba counties,
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is asking that
everyone be on guard. That’s partly because these freshwater
mollusks were sighted in Sacramento County in 2024 and 2025 –
directly in the Sacramento River and parts of the Delta – and
last week elected supervisors in those jurisdictions declared a
local state of emergency. The invasive species from China can
disrupt native aquatic ecosystems and get into plumbing or
essential water passageways. … “You can see the mussels
are in the Delta, and downstream of the Delta, but they have
not been detected in lakes upstream, in the foothills,” [CDFW
information officer Krysten] Kellum said.
