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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Denver Water’s 1.5 million customers must shut off their lawn
sprinklers at the start of October as Colorado’s
largest water utility grapples with record-setting heat and
drought. The utility’s Board of Water
Commissioners on Wednesday voted unanimously
to impose the ban, which goes into effect Oct. 1. The new
rule adds to drought restrictions in place since
spring as Denver Water has attempted to rein in water use.
… Denver Water’s drought rules follow a winter with
little snow and an abnormally hot and dry summer. Low
snowpack reduced streamflows into Denver Water’s reservoirs to
less than a quarter of normal, and extreme drought
continues to fry the mountains from which the utility draws its
water. The dry, hot summer — the warmest on record for metro
Denver — has not offered relief.
California air regulators will start tracking estimates of the
gases that bubble up from the state’s artificial
reservoirs and contribute to climate change. The
California Air Resources Board says it will begin reporting how
much of the planet-warming gases methane and carbon dioxide are
released fromdams and reservoirs. The Air Resources Board
adopted the new policy last week in response to a
petition by environmental groups. It turned down the
groups’ request that it require reports on emissions from
managers of dams and reservoirs but said it will start
collecting estimated data using methods recommended by the U.N.
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. … Last year,
the Trump administration stopped reporting such data detailing
various sources of climate pollution to the United Nations.
The Trump administration will soon announce a program to
provide free cybersecurity services to vulnerable U.S.
water facilities, following a cascade of cyberattacks
across at least a dozen states that many experts suspect are
linked to Iran. The initiative is being led by the Office of
the National Cyber Director and has gained momentum over the
last several months, according to two people with knowledge of
the program. A third person with knowledge of the program said
it will begin with facilities in Texas and described it
as a “proof of concept” that could expand to other
states. … The program will offer water utility
providers in the state access to free services, such as tools
for scanning their networks for security vulnerabilities.
The San Diego region appears well-positioned to weather sharp
cuts to California’s share of Colorado River water. The U.S.
Department of Interior on Friday announced California, Arizona
and Nevada need to reduce their water usage by 1.25 million
acre-feet annually between 2027-2028, as climate change and
overuse push the Colorado River watershed further into crisis.
California is absorbing the second-largest cut, at
440,000 acre-feet of water. But Felicia Marcus, former
chair of the California State Water Resources Control Board,
said in an interview that local leaders have spent “smart
money” bolstering the water supply here. … Those factors
have contributed to a supply glut for the Water Authority,
which allows the utility to sell water to other California
agencies. The Water Authority is also exploring how to
sell water to other thirsty Western states.
A coalition of Arizonans in the western part of the state are
banding together to protect their shrinking groundwater basin
by establishing a zone to restrict pumping. Residents
are collecting signatures to establish a groundwater
protection zone around the McMullen Valley aquifer. A
New York City based-hedge fund Water Asset Management,
LLC, supported legislation earlier this year which would
have allowed it to pump some of that water out and sell
it to cities in the metro Phoenix area. The bill
died, but it spurred locals to take action.
… Backers of the protection effort want to put the
question of establishing an active management area (AMA) on
local ballots next March.
Pinal County supervisors on Wednesday rejected plans to build
La Osa Energy Center, a massive development planned outside
Eloy. It was among the largest proposed data centers in
Arizona. … The rejection comes even after the
developers proposed an 80% reduction in the original scale of
the project, self-imposed limits on water use
and a commitment to shoulder all of the energy costs.
… Between the last public hearing in May and Wednesday’s
vote, Vermaland added 22 new development conditions. These
included a 600 acre-foot cap on fresh water
use within the data center buildings — close to 200
million gallons worth of water — and at the on-site natural gas
plant. Vermaland said it would consider offsetting
some of this consumption by purchasing effluent water,
but didn’t mention firm requirements.
… Meteorologists forecast that the Northern Hemisphere is
heading into a very strong or “super” El Nino by the end of the
year, defined by well-above-average sea surface temperatures
across the central to eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean. Smith
said El Nino conditions are often synonymous with strong
precipitation early in the winter season, followed by
below-average snowfall during the middle of the season.
Colorado’s High Country is forecast to follow that pattern,
with above-normal precipitation expected for the three-month
period from September to November. … With an active
southerly storm track expected to emerge in November, however,
Smith said a strong El Nino winter could point to heavier
snowfall earlier in the year across Colorado’s mountains.
The new general manager of the Kern County Water Agency adheres
to a deceptively simple mantra: More water, less cost.
Contained in that sentiment are whole worlds of political,
regulatory and legal complexities. Which is why the agency
recently hired a second person to represent Kern’s interests in
Sacramento. Taryn Ravazzini, was officially hired as an
Assistant General Manager with an annual salary of
$350,000 during the agency’s August meeting. She will join
Craig Wallace as part of the agency’s Sacramento team.
… Other large water organizations, including the
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, have
Sacramento offices full of staff making sure those region’s
interests are heard, making it imperative that Kern has a seat
at the table, [General Manager Eric] Averett said.
DNA fragments from zebra mussels have been detected in Utah’s
section of the Colorado River for the first time, raising new
concerns for the river because of the challenges that the
species is associated with. The DNA fragments were found within
four of 22 samples collected in June and July near the Potash
Boat Ramp, nearly 15 miles downstream of Moab, Utah Division of
Wildlife Resources officials said in a statement on Tuesday. It
follows an infestation that was found last year near Loma,
Colorado, just upstream of the Utah-Colorado border. Zebra
mussels, much like quagga mussels, which have been an issue at
Lake Powell, are invasive and clog pipes and infrastructure,
while also creating new hazards on rocks and beaches,
potentially causing millions in damage.
Less than two years ago, four dams on the Klamath River were
removed. This week, the first peer-reviewed science is out —
published in Scientific Reports, part of the renowned
Nature portfolio of journals — confirming that Chinook salmon
reoccupied 88% of their historical range within just two
migratory seasons. … The study, led by CalTrout’s Shasta
Cascade Regional Director Damon Goodman alongside partners from
the Karuk Tribe, Klamath Tribes, Yurok Tribe, Oregon Department
of Fish and Wildlife, California Department of Fish and
Wildlife, NOAA, USGS, CalPoly Humboldt, and independent
researchers, is the first published quantitative assessment of
how salmon have responded to the removal of J.C. Boyle, Copco
1, Copco 2, and Iron Gate dams — the largest dam removal
project ever completed.
For the last two weeks, a little bird with big feet has turned
a 320-acre marsh in Irvine into one of the hottest birding
destinations in Southern California. Hundreds of birdwatchers
have flocked to the Irvine Ranch Water District’s San Joaquin
Marsh, hoping to catch a glimpse of a juvenile purple
gallinule. It’s the first documented sighting of the rare bird
in Orange County. … What brought the young purple
gallinule to the state is up for debate, but it was no surprise
it chose one of the largest coastal wetlands in Southern
California. The marsh was built in the 1990s to naturally clean
dry-weather urban runoff from San Diego Creek and address the
algae blooms that once existed in Upper Newport Bay, according
to the water district’s website.
The Redwood City Council opted not to widen its levee system
along Redwood Shores as part of a major $200 million upgrade to
the infrastructure addressing sea-level rise and
flooding. At the council’s meeting Monday, city staff
gave an update on the current design options for the Redwood
Shores Sea Level Rise Protection Project. The leading goal of
the project is to meet updated levee height standards
established by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to
reduce flood risk. … The first design proposed a
20-foot-wide levee trail that nearly doubles the trail’s
current width. … The alternative proposal — which
councilmembers largely favored — proposed to maintain the
existing width, but would favor a more natural shoreline design
by incorporating ecological features when possible.
Nearly eight years after the Camp Fire, sediment continues to
reduce storage capacity at Concow Reservoir, prompting the
Thermalito Water and Sewer District to seek state funding for a
major dredging project estimated to cost $50 million to $55
million. The reservoir is the primary drinking water source for
about 12,200 residents in the Thermalito community.
… The district is proposing to remove about 900,000
cubic yards of sediment. [Chris] Heindel [district engineer for
the Thermalito Water and Sewer District] said that represents
roughly 2,000 acre-feet of water storage capacity that has been
displaced since the Camp Fire, though he said removing the
sediment would not restore all of the reservoir’s historical
capacity.
Scientists from the California and Nevada Water Science Centers
attended the 30th annual Lake Tahoe Summit to discuss the work
the USGS is doing in the Tahoe Basin. … The Lake Tahoe
Summit is an annual event that brings local, federal, and state
leaders together to discuss ways to protect Lake Tahoe and
strengthen the partnership underlying the Lake Tahoe
Environmental Improvement Program. Recent USGS projects at Lake
Tahoe include the continued monitoring and analysis of the
impacts of the 2021 Caldor Fire, studying nutrient and sediment
loads flowing into the Lake, and assessing cyanobacteria and
cyanotoxins in the Lake’s nearshore.
The Upper Basin is on the verge of violating the Colorado River
Compact for the first time in the agreement’s 104-year history,
failing to send enough water downstream to the Lower
Basin, Central Arizona Project President Terry Goddard
told KTAR News 92.3 FM. … Nevada filed a
lawsuit Monday, arguing the agreement placed the burden of the
shortages on the Lower Basin, which could negatively impact its
economy. At an Arizona Reconsultation Committee meeting Monday,
Goddard said there are many parallels between Nevada’s lawsuit
and Arizona’s position. … He said it’s possible
Arizona joins Nevada’s lawsuit or files one of its
own.
… [T]he California Indian Freedom Act of 2026 seeks to
ensure that tribes can visit their historically sacred sites
and freely worship. To that end, it would require government
agencies to get tribal consent before pursuing activities that
might disrupt Indigenous practices on land that is now owned by
the state. … A broad coalition of businesses, water
agencies and local governments, led by the California
Chamber of Commerce, says that while the bill’s intentions are
good, they’re lining up against the proposal because of its
methods. … Whether the bill applies to water projects,
including such high-profile proposals as Sites
Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley and the
45-mile conveyance tunnel in the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta, is unclear. … Additionally, with
water bodies defined as potentially sacred
sites under the bill, there are concerns that the new authority
for tribes over state land would extend to California’s
navigable waterways.
As Colorado nears the final month of the 2026 water year,
extreme drought is persisting across the state
as many regions, including the Western Slope, continue to rack
up records when it comes to heat as well as precipitation — and
the lack thereof. “We continue to be way above anything that
we’ve seen in the data record for Colorado,” … said Allie
Mazurek, engagement climatologist at the Colorado Climate
Center, at the Aug. 25 Water Conditions Monitoring meeting of
the Colorado Water Conservation Board. … These
climate conditions have been the driving factors for things
such as dropping streamflows and reservoir
levels to high evaporative demand and soil moisture
deficits as drought conditions persist in 91% of the
state. Seventy-seven percent is experiencing severe or
worse drought.
Solano County supervisors voted Tuesday to oppose a plan that
would have allowed the billionaire-backed California Forever to
use an 18-year-old environmental report in its effort to create
a new shipbuilding facility in the county, throwing a wrench in
the group’s plans. The surprise 3-2 vote effectively kills
the initiative for this year, dealing a blow to Gov. Gavin
Newsom, whose office led discussions on it throughout the
summer. … The proposed “Solano Maritime and
Manufacturing Act” would have exempted 1,350 acres
along the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta from the
California Environmental Quality Act for “maritime and
manufacturing uses,” including infrastructure projects.
… Proponents have pitched a shipbuilding facility as a
potential source of at least 10,000 jobs and an opportunity to
pump up the area’s lagging economy.
In an unfortunate first, state wildlife managers say fragments
of invasive zebra mussel DNA have been found in a stretch of
the Colorado River near Moab. The
discovery is concerning because the tiny striped mussels
pose an outsized threat to rivers and lakes,
clogging pipes, covering beaches with razor-sharp shells and
damaging ecosystems. … The department sees the mussels
as an emerging threat after an infestation was recorded near
Loma, Colorado last year. And while detection of DNA in the
water indicates the presence of an animal somewhere upstream,
the division said it does not confirm that living mussels are
present in the test area.
U.S. Rep. Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) on Tuesday announced he had
co-sponsored two federal bills aimed at data center
transparency. Vasquez signed on as a co-sponsor to the FAIR
Data Act, sponsored by Rep. Josh Riley (D-N.Y.), and the Data
Center Water and Energy Transparency Act of 2026, sponsored by
Rep. Lauren Underwood (D-IL). The FAIR Data Act would shield
residential electric customers and small businesses from
shouldering increased energy costs related to large data
centers. The Data Center Water and Energy Transparency
Act of 2026 would require developers to provide state
and local governments that have data centers, or are
considering them, with information pertaining to energy
and water consumption. Companies that don’t comply
would face fines of up to $20,000 per day.
