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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High in the Rocky Mountains, spring-fed streams and ponds have
vanished, leaving patches of cracked mud in what were once
spongy meadows. This year has been so extremely warm and arid
that the mountains have remained largely snowless. The
water-generating source of the Colorado River, its headwaters,
is drying up. … About three-fourths of the
water that’s taken out of the Colorado River is used for
agriculture, producing alfalfa, corn, lettuce, broccoli and
other crops. In Colorado, farmers and ranchers are struggling
with the immediate consequences. They’re leaving many fields
and pastures dry, selling off cows, and bracing for tough
economic times.
The president of the Utah State Senate, who championed a huge
data center beside the Great Salt Lake, was defeated in his
Republican primary on Tuesday night, one of the most
high-profile signs of the voter backlash to data center
projects. … Mr. Adams did not directly represent the
40,000-acre proposed site of the data center in Box Elder
County, a fast-growing farming and industrial area about 60
miles north of Salt Lake City. But he became the focus of
an anti-data-center groundswell because he served as chairman
of a Utah agency that approved initial plans this spring to
build the data center, known as Stratos. … They [voters]
worried about how much energy it would consume and how its
water usage would affect the drought-stricken Great
Salt Lake.
The sea wants to move inland, a fact that’s been known in the
region for over 80 years as agricultural production increased.
But over time, groundwater was pumped faster than could be
replenished, exacerbating the inland march of salty water
beneath Castroville toward Salinas. … Thanks to California’s
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, passed
just over a decade ago, local water agencies need to decide on
a plan to protect future water supply. … Now, 2026 marks a
pivotal year. All of the groundwater modeling, the public
meetings, the basin boundary decisions and feasibility studies
of the last 10 years culminate in this moment, where local
agencies must push plans across the line into implementation.
Western wildfires start and spread because of a whole host of
factors — wind, temperature, drought, forest health. But
scientists are finding that the most important indicator of
where the next big fire might ignite isn’t held in the trees
themselves, but in the soil their roots are buried in. Recent
studies demonstrate how soil moisture data can help
wildfire experts predict a potential fire’s location and
severity. Those studies could eventually aid in
developing more precise forecasts for fires across the
country. This link, between how moist the ground is under
a forest or grassland and fire risk, is gaining more traction
among scientists due to an increasingly expansive network of
monitoring equipment.
The California State Water Board approved the issuance of a
general use lease to build slant wells on the former site of
the the CEMEX sand mining operation in Marina. The decision
took only a few minutes on Tuesday, but came after over four
hours of public comment from both detractors and supporters.
These wells will draw from seawater and a portion of Marina’s
groundwater to supply California American Water’s desalination
project, which they say will build climate resiliency
and provide water to vulnerable Castroville. …
Marina’s argument is simple, but multifold. Industrial
development stands to compromise the delicate water
table under the city and create permanent ecological
damage, a concern the staff report from the water
board addresses but does not expand on or further investigate.
The Bureau of Reclamation has awarded Flatland Energy Services
LLC a $75.5 million contract to build a section of pipeline
that will help deliver water to parts of the Navajo Nation in
New Mexico. Flatland will install 10,000 feet of pipeline
starting at the Frank Chee Willetto Reservoir 17 miles east of
Shiprock as part of the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project,
according to the bureau. When the project is finished, 300
miles of pipeline, two water treatment plants and at least 19
pumping facilities will carry water from the San Juan
River to the southwestern portions of the Jicarilla Apache
Nation and Gallup. This section will cross beneath the
San Juan River, a major tributary of the Colorado
River, and the Chaco River to avoid difficult terrain
and existing infrastructure.
A breach of California Water Service systems in Bakersfield,
Visalia and Chico by an Iranian-linked hacking group that
surfaced June 11 was limited to a one customer
account and an external GPS website, according Cal Water
spokeswoman Yvonne Kingman. She wrote in an email that CalWater
immediately activated its cybersecurity response plan using
Mandiant, a cybersecurity firm that specializes in these types
of threats. “Mandiant did not identify evidence of threat
actor activity in Cal Water’s internal information technology
or operational technology environments,” Kingman wrote in an
email. “The investigation determined that the threat actor
accessed one active customer’s online Cal Water account using
stolen user credentials.”
Chromium-6, a chemical compound known to cause cancer, has been
detected in localized valley drinking water supplies,
triggering notification letters to regional consumers. While
local water officials stress that the trace amounts discovered
do not constitute an emergency or an immediate public health
hazard, the recorded concentrations do breach California’s
newly established, highly aggressive state water quality
benchmarks. Residents across the Coachella Valley recently
received informational letters alerting them that water testing
conducted in May 2025 found levels of hexavalent chromium,
commonly referred to as Chromium-6, above the state’s drinking
water safety threshold. … California’s new maximum
contaminant level is 90% more stringent than the national
restriction.
Arizona State University researchers and scientists from across
the country are studying whether extreme heat, rapid urban
growth, dust and other airborne particles are changing how
monsoon storms form and where rain falls across metro Phoenix.
The project, called DUSTIEAIM, Desert Urban System Integrated
Atmospheric Monsoon, kicked off this month on ASU’s West Valley
campus. … The study is focused on three questions. First,
researchers want to understand how Phoenix itself influences
weather, including how buildings, roads, pavement and urban
growth interact with the surrounding Sonoran Desert to affect
heat, wind patterns, cloud formation and storm development.
Second, scientists will investigate the role of dust, pollution
and wildfire smoke. … Third, the team wants to better
understand what controls where and when rain falls across the
Valley.
During the weekly meeting of the ANPAC Tijuana chapter,
Councilor Miguel Loza announced plans to form a delegation in
the coming days for a trip to Mexico City. The goal is to press
the central offices of the National Water Commission (CONAGUA)
for immediate action on the urgent cleanup of the Tijuana River
channel. Beyond the immediate demand, Loza said he would also
pursue the creation of a permanent working group, bringing
together all stakeholders to address the issue on an ongoing
basis through a dedicated collaborative
roundtable. … The last major cleanup operation
along the channel took place in 2019, carried out by the state
administration and CESPT. However, due to a lack of civic
awareness among some residents, the canal has since been
repurposed as an illegal dumping ground.
San Carlos Lake has been closed for nearly three weeks, the
entire fish population has died off, and experts say it may
happen again. The reservoir, about 160 miles from the
Phoenix metro area, has lost so much water that it has caused a
massive fish die-off. Rhett Larson, a professor of water law at
Arizona State University, says this winter was the worst he has
seen in two decades. … The snow drought lowered water
levels, Larson said, but Arizona’s water laws also contributed
to the die-off. … When farmers with senior rights demand
their water, they get first dibs on the water from the lake.
Eventually, the lake can’t fulfill all of its water rights
holders’ requests. Larson says releases from Coolidge Dam at
San Carlos Lake to satisfy those rights brought the lake to
record low levels.
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.
