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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Much like a household puts money into a savings account,
Southern Nevada has been setting aside part of its allocated
Colorado River water in Lake Mead for the last two
decades. At the end of 2025, the state had approximately
890,000 acre-feet of that water in the proverbial bank,
according to the Bureau of Reclamation’s annual water
accounting report. Nevada’s bank holds nearly three
years’ worth of the water the state can take from the
river, which is capped at 300,000 acre-feet a year.
… But under federal rules for the river, most of the
water can’t be taken out once Lake Mead drops below 1,000 feet
above sea level. Water levels at the lake sat at 1,037
feet on Oct. 18, according to the Bureau of Reclamation.
… The bank may also stop growing. Under Reclamation’s
river operating rules, no new water can be added to the
bank after Dec. 31 unless the Lower Basin reaches an
agreement.
The concrete is barely dry from the repairs made when storms in
2023 hammered California’s Central Coast and beyond. Yet
already many of the hard-hit coastal communities are bracing
for another possible drubbing with El Niño. From Santa Cruz to
Big Sur to Pacifica, local leaders say they’re doing what they
can to safeguard vulnerable infrastructure while
heeding lessons from the past to improve their emergency
response and better prepare residents for disaster.
Such seaside landmarks as Santa Cruz’s West Cliff Drive,
Capitola Village, scenic Highway 1 south of Monterey and the
beaches of Half Moon Bay are among the areas where officials
anticipate potential problems over the next few months. Many of
these sites remain in various states of recovery from
the turbulent atmospheric rivers of late 2022 and early
2023, which prompted a federal disaster declaration
across much of the state.
After floods inundated homes, washed out roads and destroyed
bridges across southern Utah over the past two
weeks, Gov. Spencer Cox on Friday declared a 30-day
state of emergency in San Juan and Washington
counties. This declaration allows the state to support local
recovery efforts and potentially receive federal assistance,
according to the governor’s office. San Juan County
declared a state of emergency on Nov. 1 and the town of Bluff
declared an emergency on Oct. 25. Leaders and residents across
the county have also told The Tribune in recent weeks that they
want the state to declare an emergency as well to mobilize
additional resources. … The declaration may
bring in federal aid to add to the assistance that’s
already been expended in southwest Utah.
Construction crews have finished a huge new $307 million outlet
tunnel at Anderson Dam, completing a key step in a $3.2 billion
seismic project to rebuild the largest dam in Santa
Clara County —and reduce the risk of flooding
this winter in San Jose as a historically strong
El Niño winter approaches. The new tunnel,
which is 24 feet high and 1,736 feet long with a
13-foot-diameter steel pipe running through the middle, has
been under construction for two years. It will allow the
sprawling reservoir east of Highway 101 near Morgan Hill
to be drained more quickly in the event of an
earthquake, extreme storm or other incident.
… The dam’s previous outlet pipe was very small, which
contributed to the floods in downtown San Jose during
major storms in 2017.
A draft report calls for California to convert less of its
agricultural land in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
for natural habitat and flood control. The report
reduces the amount of land from what the state previously
planned to convert. But there’s little to no indication
of how much the plan could cost taxpayers. That draft
report, which was released in September [by the Delta
Protection Commission], follows a 17-year-old mandate
that state officials find ways to create a more
reliable water supply throughout the state while simultaneously
restoring wildlife habitats in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta. The report also proposes ways to offset losses
in reclamation district assessments and local tax revenues,
which are paid by property owners in the state’s 110
reclamation districts and the five counties that fall in the
boundaries of the Delta.
The Southern Nevada fish thought to be the world’s most
endangered has made a stunning rebound. During a fall count in
Death Valley National Park’s Devils Hole, next to the Ash
Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, biologists counted 137 Devils
Hole pupfish, up from 77 last spring and 69 last fall.
… The Devils Hole pupfish earned its endangered listing
under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1967 in response to
the major threat of groundwater drawdown from ranching and
agriculture. The U.S. Supreme Court intervened, too. In its
decision on 1976 Cappaert v. United States, the court
upheld the ruling that ranchers could not pump groundwater in a
way that would affect levels at Devils Hole and undermine the
federal government’s mission of conservation at what was then a
national monument.
California’s governor-elect, Xavier Becerra, should
make flood and drought preparedness a top
prioritywhile protecting aging water
infrastructure and replenishing depletedgroundwater supplies, according to a new
report co-authored by a UC Riverside water expert. The
report, “Priorities for California’s Water: Advice for the
Incoming Governor,” warns that California’s water system is
increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather from climate change,
excessive groundwater pumping, and decades of deferred
infrastructure improvements. Prepared by the
Public Policy Institute of California’s Water Policy
Center, the report recommends better disaster
preparedness, stronger groundwater protections, and long-term
investments in water storage and delivery systems.
Since becoming the Mexican ambassador to the U.S., Roberto
Lazzeri has been confronted with many pressing cross-border
issues, ranging from trade deals and border security to
immigration. But he said there’s one in particular that comes
up constantly in his many meetings in Washington — the
Tijuana River Valley’s pollution crisis. The Mexican
ambassador visited San Diego for the first time last week since
taking the job in June. During his stay, he met with leadership
from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Border Patrol and
the International Boundary and Water
Commission, among others. … The Mexican
ambassador to the U.S. said that Mexico is conducting a study
to identify the most effective solutions. … Lazzeri said
he hopes the study will determine whether to expand the
[San Antonio de los Buenos wastewater] plant’s treatment
capacity or construct additional infrastructure.
… Right now, about two-thirds of data centers under
construction in the U.S. are being built in drought-stricken
areas like Utah. The Stratos Hyperscale Data Center
has 1.6 million gallons of water per day allotted through gross
diversion under historic ranch water rights on
the property purchased for the site. … But independent
researchers have found that, historically, because tech
companies often aren’t required to report water consumption
totals, it’s difficult to know just how much water data centers
are really using. The 80-acre patch of kochia at the
Flying M [ranch] gets watered once or twice a month,
April through September. … [T]he question of how the
Flying M can square their stewardship with the potential impact
of one of the world’s most powerful data centers hangs in the
air.
For Diana Almendariz, tule is more than just a plant. It’s a
connection to her ancestors, her Native American heritage and
the land and she’s determined to make sure those traditions
continue for future generations. As California’s wetlands
disappear, the risk of losing the cultural knowledge and
traditions tied to these ecosystems increases. Almendariz and
her daughter, Christina, are working to preserve both through
traditional tule practices and an exhibit highlighting the
relationship between Native communities and California’s
wetlands. … The family hopes to preserve these
traditions through an exhibit called “Good Fire, Living Water,”
which explores the deep connection between Native Americans and
California’s wetlands. With more than 95% of the state’s
historic wetlands lost, the exhibit highlights what’s at stake
beyond the environmental impact.
The Central Arizona Project is pulling financial
support for cloud-seeding efforts meant to boost snowfall in
the Colorado River headwaters, the latest casualty of
a widening Colorado River water war. CAP had provided some
$447,000 to the program in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah
last year, and would have provided up to $525,000 in
the coming year, rising gradually to $750,000 by 2036. Instead,
the CAP board’s majority rejected renewal at a
time when states are fighting over the river and
there’s no clear documentation of where the water ends
up. The board on Nov. 5 decided not to renew a 10-year
agreement that in the past used funds from water agencies in
all seven Colorado River states to spray silver iodide
molecules into advancing storms in the Rocky Mountains to
squeeze more precipitation. The collaboration is meant to boost
the flows that all seven states rely upon, though some of the
detractors questioned whether any of the resulting water
actually reaches Arizona.
The state’s water rights office says there is excess
water – up to 1.13 million acre feet – going unused on the
Kings River, which could open the system to a flood of
water seekers. The Administrative Hearing Office (AHO)
will hold a hearing Jan. 19, 2027 to delve
into whether the Water Resources Control Board should revoke
the 1967 “fully appropriated stream” designation on the Kings
River. If that happens, it would open the river to new
water permit applications, according to the AHO’s
hearing notice. This all stems from a legal fight that
started in 2017 when the the Semitropic Water Storage District
in Kern County filed an application for Kings River flood
flows. … Applicants had been battling it out through
various AHO proceedings, with the last one held in
2024. So, the recent AHO notice came as a bit of a
surprise that applicants said they were carefully sorting
through.
Come January, Torrance will start implementing a ban on
using drinking water on nonfunctional turf throughout the
city. The City Council this week unanimously approved
amending a local ordinance to implement the ban, and discussed
when it will go into effect and how it will be enforced. A
second reading and approval of the amendment will take place
before the end of the year. This amendment is required by state
law through Assembly Bill 1572, which was
signed into law in 2023. The bill establishes a phased
prohibition on using potable water – or drinking water – on
nonfunctional turf. … AB 1572 determined that
using potable water to irrigate nonfunctional
turf – ornamental lawns that are not regularly used
for recreation or public gatherings – is “wasteful and
incompatible with state policy related to climate
change.”
State officials have approved the final key permit
needed to build the largest new reservoir in California in 50
years, which supporters say will supply water to
millions of Californians from the Bay Area to Los Angeles to
reduce the impacts of droughts — but opponents worry will harm
the environment. On Wednesday night, the State Water Resources
Control Board voted 5-0 to provide water rights to
Sites Reservoir. The proposed 13-mile-long
off-stream reservoir would be built in rural ranchlands in
Colusa County, 70 miles northwest of Sacramento near the town
of Maxwell. With two 300-feet high earthen dams and 9 other
smaller dams 20- to 100-foot-high, the project would divert
water from the Sacramento River during wet
winter months to supply water to 24 million Californians and
500,000 acres of farmland in the Central Valley during dry
periods. Estimated to cost $6.2 to $6.8 billion,
the plan is designed to offset climate change, which
threatens to melt the state’s Sierra snowpack in the coming
decades. … Construction is set to begin by next
July.
The polls have closed on the latest seasonal outlook for
California, and the results are unanimous. All 51 forecasts of
one of the world’s leading seasonal models call for a
wetter-than-normal December through March in the San Francisco
area, with the average forecast at about 26 inches of rain,
nearly double the normal. The forecasts, released Thursday by
the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, also
anticipate a wetter than normal winter for cities up
and down the state amid the extremely strong El Niño.
… The model data puts just about every part of
California at high likelihood for above-average precipitation
over the next few months. In the Sierra, that should
eventually translate to above-average snowfall, but the
bulk of the snow may not come until after Christmas as
warm temperatures could keep snow restricted to higher
elevations, with rain below the snow line.
Other water and weather forecast news around the West:
Two years after President Donald Trump won Arizona with 52
percent of the vote, Democrats are poised to win a trifecta in
the state House, Senate and governor’s office, and could
potentially win every statewide elected position. The
battleground state’s blue wave could fundamentally alter how it
responds to increasingly deadly heat and persistent
drought brought on by climate change. Central to
the Democrats’ wins, party members and candidates said, was
their focus on addressing the state’s growing energy demand and
declining water resources, which are
increasingly top issues for Arizonans. … Taken together,
the Democrats’ wins present an opportunity for major changes to
how the state approaches climate change and energy policy,
potentially paving the way for new renewable energy development
and groundwater regulations.
The sewage-tainted water from the Tijuana River is traveling
further north than previously suspected, suggesting communities
beyond Imperial Beach may face potential health risks,
according to a new study. University of California Riverside
researchers, in cooperation with scientists from University of
California San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography,
discovered that the polluted water from the U.S.-Mexico border
can flow roughly 22 miles up the San Diego County coast before
releasing pollutants in the air near the pier at Scripps in La
Jolla. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports,
found that wastewater chemicals unable to survive that distance
in the air instead remained in the ocean. Currents then carried
them north before they escaped into the atmosphere near the
pier.
A nearly 500-yard side channel along Redding’s Riverview Golf
and Country Club is being restored to improve habitat for
salmon and steelhead in the Sacramento River, the Sacramento
River Settlement Contractors (SRSC) announced. The SRSC is a
coalition of irrigation and reclamation districts, mutual water
companies, cities, partnerships and landowners connected to the
Sacramento River from Redding to Sacramento. They said the
project, scheduled to begin Monday and Tuesday, Nov. 9-10, is
designed to give young fish places to feed, rest and shelter
from strong currents and predators as they migrate toward the
ocean, while creating more spawning habitat for adult
fish. Project leaders said sediment buildup and overgrown
vegetation had turned the channel into a warm, stagnant area
that was unsuitable for fish under most river flows.
Desert springs are remote pools of water, an unexpected and
unlikely sight in a landscape defined by dryness. For
millennia, they sustained life across the western United
States, guiding migration and shaping where people settled.
They are living archives, holding both human and natural
history in the same small patch of ground, rare lifelines that
sustain biodiversity, cultural history and hydrological systems
far out of proportion to their size. Their depletion is often
gradual, easy to miss without some memory of what these places
once were. … “Hidden Waters” acts as a witness to what
remains, a memory to hold on to. Some springs will not return
to what they were. But the act of making their decline visible
refuses to let them slip quietly into absence.
California water regulators have approved a permit for
Sites Reservoir, clearing the way for
construction of the state’s first new major reservoir
in decades. Plans call for two large dams about 300
feet high, as well as nine smaller ones, holding water pumped
from the Sacramento River and inundating about
15,000 acres in a valley northwest of
Sacramento. After a heated debate, the State
Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously late Wednesday
to approve the water right permit for the
reservoir near the community of Maxwell.
… State officials and managers of water agencies said
the $7 billion reservoir will be a critical part of
California’s efforts to adapt to climate change.
… Construction is scheduled to begin next year and
conclude in 2034. Opponents, including environmental
activists and fishing advocates, urged the board to reject the
permit, saying the reservoir would siphon too much
water out of the Sacramento River and harm salmon and other
native fish.
