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.
Arizona lawmakers are tripling the size of the state’s
legal fund for potential lawsuits about sharing water from the
Colorado River. The new state budget will add $6 million to the
pool of money, which was first set up in 2025, bringing
the fund to a total of $9 million. … Negotiators
from the seven states are under pressure to agree on a new set
of rules for sharing water after the current ones expire later
this year. They have been unable to forge a deal, meaning that
the federal government will likely force a water management
plan on the states. If that happens, states are likely
to sue one other or the federal government, sending the
Colorado River’s future to a messy legal battle that
would likely end up in the Supreme Court.
When golden mussels were found in an
international shipping channel in Stockton nearly two years
ago, marking the first detection of the invasive shellfish in
North America, state officials knew it was going to be bad. Now
those fears are being borne out. The roughly 1-inch-long,
golden-brown mollusks, native to Asia, have spread from
the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where
they were initially spotted, through canals and aqueducts to
the Bay Area and Southern California. …
Across California, tens of millions of dollars are being spent
to stop the mussels. But with no retreat in sight and
increasing potential for disruptions to water delivery as well
as flood control systems and hydroelectric operations, efforts
to get a handle on the infestation are ramping up.
The Navajo Nation has officially declared a drought emergency
after President Buu Nygren signed the declaration on Wednesday,
June 10, putting immediate measures into effect to address
worsening conditions across the reservation. The declaration,
which was unanimously approved by the Commission on Emergency
Management (CEM) on Tuesday before being signed by Nygren,
responds to severe and ongoing drought conditions that
have reduced precipitation, strained water supplies, degraded
rangelands, lowered reservoir levels, and threatened
the economic well-being of Navajo communities. … The
commission also recommended allocating $6,553,730 from the
Agricultural Infrastructure Fund to support drought mitigation
efforts, including windmill repairs and related water
infrastructure improvements.
An alleged breach of several California water systems by an
Iranian-linked hacker group did not compromise any water
production or delivery systems, according California Water
Service Company. … [The hacker group] Handala stated Thursday
that it had gained access to several systems, including in
Bakersfield, Visalia and Chico and showed screenshots of what
it said were residents’ bills, according to several news sites.
It claimed to have five gigabytes of data from the alleged
breach on its website, according to Iranian news network Press
TV. In a statement carried by Iran’s state broadcaster, Handala
said it could disrupt the water systems if it chose to but had
refrained from doing so as a “warning” to Washington, D.C. The
alleged hack was in retaliation for U.S. strikes that may have
damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran near the
strait of Hormuz.
Under no projections for global temperature rise can the United
States supply the amount of water demanded by lithium mines
proposed across the nation, a new study has found. … The
researchers, who analyzed public mine proposals and available
data, say declining water availability is a problem in rapidly
warming and water-starved states like Nevada, the driest in the
nation with the country’s two fastest-warming cities. …
The study, published at the end of last month in the
peer-reviewed journal Communications Earth & Environment,
contends that water is the ultimate limiting factor to
lithium mining, said Dunn, director of the
university’s Center for Engineering Sustainability and
Resilience. … Nevada has been at the heart of the boom for
the better part of a decade. … Dunn said the study
should be a warning to mining companies that still have the
chance to explore how to reduce their water use.
El Niño has arrived in the Pacific Ocean, and federal
forecasters say it could become one of the strongest on record
by winter — raising the odds for, but not guaranteeing, a
wetter and more volatile rainy season in California. Scientists
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on
Thursday announced there is a 63% chance that very strong El
Niño conditions will appear from November to January. … Some
computer models are showing water temperatures could jump to
5.4 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, said Daniel Swain, a
climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture
and Natural Resources division. … He mentioned higher
chances of major winter rainstorms in California, which could
bring huge snow totals to the Sierra, along with
higher chances of Pacific hurricanes.
It’s hard to envision the vibrant landscape that the Mormon
Slough could become if Restore the Delta’s community-focused
efforts finally bear fruit. The 6.5 mile slough is mostly dry
on its westerly trek from about two miles east of Highway 99
through central Stockton to the San Joaquin River. It
used to be a natural drainage channel for excess water from the
Calaveras River but was intentionally cut off in 1910 …. With
$1.2 million in funding from California Jobs First through
North Valley Thrive, Restore the Delta has held 70 community
meetings, knocked on 3,000 doors and done an analysis of
possibilities. … [Artie] Valencia (Flood and Land Restoration
Manager for Restore the Delta) said the Mormon Slough
project is a prime example of how a locally driven project can
advance both community needs and broader Delta conservation
goals, which is why Restore the Delta focused on building its
extensive partnerships.
Construction crews have begun clearing a patch of desert
southeast of Tucson for a new data center development, but
roughly 40 protesters gathered Wednesday evening at the site of
the proposed Project Blue facility to make clear their fight is
not over. Protesters stood along a chain-link fence separating
the desert landscape from the construction site at South
Houghton Road, holding hand-painted signs and banners to voice
opposition to the facility’s projected environmental and
infrastructure footprint. As heavy machinery continued to work
in the background, demonstrators made clear they had no
intention of going quietly. … The environmental concerns
resonate deeply with local history, according to protest
attendee Nicole Borchaloey, who pointed to past issues
involving groundwater depletion.
South Bay communities are one step closer to relief from a
major air pollution hotspot after the California Coastal
Commission approved a county-initiated project Wednesday to
extend culvert pipes at the Saturn Boulevard crossing of the
Tijuana River, where cascading sewage and industrial waste have
blanketed nearby neighborhoods in toxic gases for years.
Separately, the federal agency tasked with trans-boundary flow
and wastewater treatment at the U.S.-Mexico border, the U.S.
International Boundary and Water Commission, told local
officials at a San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board
meeting Wednesday they are trying to achieve near-zero
dry-weather river flow by late 2027, as advocates and board
members pushed back on the agency’s transparency and the slow
pace of progress.
Directors of a capital water district don’t often consider
filing public records requests for its neighbor, let alone one
of its wholesale customers. However, in late May, directors of
the San Juan Water District considered it a reasonable next
step. Ted Costa, San Juan’s board president, proposed the
request in response to a recent inquiry from the Citrus Heights
Water District. Costa said a previous request from CHWD
required extensive staff time and resulted in San Juan
producing about 2,200 pages of records. … The records
dispute may seem unusual, but it reflects a much larger
disagreement among the partnering agencies, including
Sacramento Suburban Water District. The agencies are at
odds over access to pre-1914 surface water, one of California’s
most valuable water supplies.
A South Tulare County agricultural farm was targeted twice
within 48 hours in a copper wire theft that left crops without
water and caused significant damage. TJ Singh, the farm
manager, said thieves stole copper wire from a water pump on
two consecutive occasions, preventing irrigation at a critical
time. “We were supposed to have water on the crops 10 days ago.
Since this first occurred, we have had our pumps off this whole
time, and our trees are struggling,” Singh said. The thefts
resulted in more than $20,000 in damage. The stolen copper wire
is believed to yield only about $150 when sold, highlighting
the disproportionate impact on farmers. Authorities and
industry experts say such crimes are increasingly common in
agricultural areas.
El Niño is here, and it’s only getting stronger. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration … forecasts
greater than 90% odds of a “strong” El Niño and a 63%
chance of a “very strong” event by early
winter. “That would rank among the largest El Niño events
in the historical record going back to 1950,” NOAA said.
… El Niño probably won’t significantly impact
California’s weather this summer. An enhanced Pacific
hurricane season may direct larger swells, more frequent
dry lightning or a rare tropical storm toward the state, but
the most pronounced effects are expected this winter. An
El Niño in historic territory would favor all of
California for above-normal precipitation this winter.
California will provide $46 million to address water quality
problems at the California-Mexico border, Gov. Gavin Newsom
announced Thursday. According to a press release by the
Governors office, the State Water Resources Control Board
opened grant applications targeting contamination in
cross-border rivers and coastal waters. The funding
comes from Proposition 4, a voter-approved bond covering safe
drinking water, wildfire prevention and drought preparedness
that passed in 2024. … According to the governor’s
office, funding will support projects that reduce bacteria and
trash pollution, address public health impacts from
transboundary contamination, and support restoration and
sediment management. The grants target both the Tijuana
River and other areas, with at least one project
selected from each waterway.
The Flaming Gorge Reservoir on the Utah-Wyoming border is known
for its kokanee salmon and trophy lake trout. But when the
water started dropping rapidly a few weeks ago, business at
Buckboard Marina started drying up, too. … The
Flaming Gorge provides a backstop for larger reservoirs in the
Colorado River Basin. Lake Powell, a few hundred miles
downstream, is less than a quarter full. The federal Bureau of
Reclamation warned in April that hydropower production could
stop at Powell in August if the water levels continued to drop.
To prevent a significant blow to the region’s power supply, the
bureau announced it would send up to 1-million acre-feet of
water from Flaming Gorge over the course of a year to prop up
levels at Lake Powell.
Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), a member of the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and U.S. Sen. Martin
Heinrich (D-N.M.) introduced the Protecting Indian Water Rights
Settlements Act of 2026, legislation to ensure the federal
government fulfills its trust responsibilities by
providing dedicated, mandatory funding for Indian water rights
settlements through the Bureau of Indian Affairs’
Indian Water Rights Settlement Completion Fund. … While the
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law established the Indian Water
Rights Settlement Completion Fund to support settlements
authorized before November 2021, there is currently no
guaranteed funding source for agreements enacted after that
date. The Protecting Indian Water Rights Settlements Act of
2026 addresses this gap by amending the existing fund to
provide $2.95 billion in mandatory funding over ten years for
both already enacted and future settlements.
… The Razorback Suckers isn’t just a quirky team name. It’s a
statement about what matters to this community. The Grand
Valley, on the high-desert edge of Colorado’s Western Slope, is
deep in a fight to keep this endangered fish
alive. Razorbacks roamed the Colorado River for an
estimated five million years before humans almost fished them
out of existence and destroyed much of their habitat. Now
it’s up to today’s humans to save them. And on a recent
morning, hundreds of people gathered on the rocky banks of the
Colorado River in Palisade for a joyous razorback
release.
Subsidence from over pumping is still a problem in the Tulare
Lake subbasin covering most of Kings County. Opinions on how
much sinking is too much are still sharply divided. As are
views on how much pumping is too much and whether groundwater
can be moved from one area to another. Yet, the El Rico
Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) voted June 9 on several
measures it expects will reunite the fractured region. That
includes an effort to write a single, subbasin-wide groundwater
plan rather than each of the five GSAs writing their own.
What’s changed? One man was fired from a water district in the
northern reaches of the county.
… The Tehama-Colusa Canal, which runs north to south
along the western edge of the Sacramento Valley, will function
as the primary outlet for Sites Reservoir, a long-planned water
storage project. Its construction has been approved to begin
later this year. The largest California reservoir project in
decades, the reservoir will collect and store water in wet
years and release it to customers during dry ones. When it
does, it will start in the Tehama-Colusa Canal, which dead-ends
just south of Dunnigan. To continue, the water needs to cross
miles of farmland, roads and Interstate 5 to reach stakeholders
in Southern California and elsewhere that have invested in the
project. Engineers from the Sites Project Authority, which
is in charge of building the reservoir, designed a solution in
the form of the pipeline, which would run underground and dump
into the Colusa Basin Drain.
The state of California is walking back protections meant to
keep destructive golden mussels out of Lake Oroville, one of
the largest and most important reservoirs in the
state. The move follows a new state-funded risk assessment
that the invasive species poses a lower risk to the lake, which
water managers say changes the state’s calculus on costly and
difficult measures aimed at keeping the invaders at
bay. No state agencies or scientists have found mussels in
Oroville yet. But invasive species experts say the revised
policy of the Department of Water Resources increases the
likelihood that golden mussels will invade Lake Oroville and
hitch a ride on boats to other lakes. They disagree,
though, about whether preventing such an incursion is even
possible.
Colorado’s drought is only expected to worsen with more dry
weather for the forecasted future and a below-average snowpack
to fill reservoirs, leading water managers and authorities to
urge conservation to ensure we have enough water for essential
functions like firefighting. … “Our snow pack is at 30% or
less of normal,” [Ruedi Water and Power Authority
Chair Greg] Poschman said. “Our reservoirs aren’t going to
fill this year, and we need to restrict water use — otherwise
it’s going to be very dire in the valley, and it affects
everyone. Outdoor watering is the biggest concern.” He
emphasized that overuse of water could reduce what is available
for the things that are vital, such as firefighting efforts,
which are expected to continue to worsen in tandem with the
drought.
