A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Vik Jolly.
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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 United States Department of Agriculture on Monday announced
that it will rescind a decades-old rule that protects 58.5
million acres of national forestland from road construction and
timber harvesting. The USDA, which oversees the U.S. Forest
Service, said it will eliminate the 2001 “Roadless Rule” which
established lasting protection for specific wilderness areas
within the nation’s national forests. Research has found that
building roads can fragment habitats, disrupt ecosystems, and
increase erosion and sediment pollution in drinking
water, among other potentially harmful outcomes. In a
statement, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins described the rule —
which applies to about 30% of national forestland — as outdated
and overly restrictive. … More than 40 states are home
to areas protected by the rule. In California, that encompasses
about 4.4 million acres across 21 national forests, including
the Angeles, Tahoe, Inyo, Shasta-Trinity and Los Padres
national forests.
Caltrans has proposed a $500 million project to widen a wine
country highway that the agency said could be underwater in 25
years. Members of the California Transportation Commission will
decide at a public meeting beginning Thursday whether to award
Caltrans and local agencies a $73 million grant that would
cover some of the cost to widen Highway 37 — a roadway linking
Vallejo to Sears Point across the Napa Sonoma
Marsh, much of which is only one lane in each
direction. In the long term, Caltrans has a plan to replace the
current road with an elevated causeway that would move vehicles
above the wetlands below. That project would cost more than $10
billion and is not funded. To deal with Highway 37’s
bottleneck in the meantime, the agency has proposed a $500
million “interim project” to widen the existing roadway. The
state agency estimated that construction on the first half — a
$250 million eastbound lane — would finish in 2029. The plan,
Caltrans said, “does not address sea level rise.”
It’s been a little over a year since the Environmental
Protection Agency rolled out the first legally-enforceable
limits on some PFAS chemicals in drinking water. The
regulation came after years of research tying the human-made
chemicals to a range of health issues. … Under the EPA’s
first formal limits last year, drinking water can have no more
than four parts per trillion of the PFAS listed. … Tucson is
already in compliance. But (Tucson Water Director John) Kmiec
estimates the city has spent some $70 million of its own money
to get there. Additional federal funding came down for
communities nationwide last year — including a roughly $33
million for Tucson. That’ll be used to build a new treatment
plant Kmiec says will bring a handful of wells back online and
some 3.3 million gallons of drinking water back into the
system. … But some things are changing now, under the Trump
administration. A directive released by the EPA in May drops
four out of the six compounds listed in 2024. Only PFOA and
PFOS will remain regulated for now.
Seven people died and another person is missing after a boat
overturned near D.L. Bliss State Park at Lake Tahoe on Saturday
afternoon amid strong winds and rainy conditions. Elsewhere in
South Lake Tahoe, a number of boats crashed into each other and
came ashore near Camp Richardson. … The National Weather
Service in Reno noted in an early Saturday morning update that
occasional showers and thunderstorms were expected through the
afternoon around the Tahoe Basin and north of Highway 50, but
pegged those chances at 10-20%. Another update at 1:12 p.m.
also noted the chance for afternoon showers and thunderstorms.
NOAA/National Weather Service Meteorologist in Charge Chris
Smallcomb said the weather event that occurred on the lake that
afternoon was “sudden, localized and of limited
predictability.” It briefly produced wind gusts of 45 mph, he
said. … Below is how Smallcomb responded to KCRA’s
questions about Saturday’s event.
Anaheim’s ambitious push to turn the often-dry Santa
Ana River into a river walk with ample water and
activities for the public is estimated to cost $200 million,
according to a city budget overview. OC River Walk would add
inflatable rubber dams to the Santa Ana River
near Angel Stadium to create a riverbed with standing water.
Along the Santa Ana River, the city would construct new park
space with trails and terrace steps for what’s envisioned as a
destination for the region. City spokesperson Mike Lyster said
the $200 million figure is an estimate of what it would cost to
build today, but there are no plans to begin construction
anytime soon. The big costs are building the dam system,
embankments and a pedestrian bridge. Currently, city officials
are studying the project with grant support from other levels
of government and a nonprofit. Where new trails and bridges
might go is all to be determined. The city anticipates studies
on planning and design will take through at least 2030 and has
the funding identified for that.
California’s June 7-8 Ocean salmon season offered some of the
best fishing many longtime anglers can remember. Fast action,
quick limits and bustling harbors characterized the weekend
along much of the coast with a hot salmon bite reported as far
south as San Luis Obispo County. Excellent ocean conditions
from Crescent City all the way down to Avila Beach allowed
anglers to get out both days and try to catch the iconic sport
fish in ocean waters for the first time since 2022. … The
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) estimates
9,165 Chinook salmon were taken statewide by 10,505 anglers
aboard both charter vessels and private skiffs, achieving the
summer fishery harvest guideline of 7,000 Chinook. On
recommendation from CDFW and industry, the National Marine
Fisheries Service took in-season action today to close the
remaining summer dates of July 5-6, July 31-August 3, and
August 25-31.
Drought doesn’t just affect Utah’s lakes, rivers, and streams —
it also affects the fish who live in them, requiring more
thought and care from anglers this summer. While fish can’t
drown in quite the way people can, it is possible for them to
suffocate in the water when there isn’t enough dissolved
oxygen. And unfortunately for Utah’s fish, drought means not
only less water, but less dissolved oxygen in the water. …
That doesn’t mean, though, that you can’t or shouldn’t fish
during a drought — in fact, at Crouse Reservoir, anglers are
currently allowed to harvest more fish than usual, since
extremely low water levels have led to fears fish won’t
survive. … That means following some best management
practices when practicing catch and release to make sure the
fish can recover, including going earlier in the day, pinching
down the barbs on hooks, and minimizing the time you’re
fighting the fish or have them out of the water.
… Efforts in Montecito have become an emblem of how
communities can come together after storms to rebuild a
resilient town ahead of future climate-driven disasters. …
Montecito officials and residents took a multifaceted response
to rebuilding after the 2018 debris flow, including a
realisation that new safety initiatives had to be adopted.
… The Flood Control District started regularly walking
debris basins that had been built in the 1960s after the
previous damaging mudslides, and using drones to spot any
debris needed for removal by bulldozers and trucks. Sediment
would have normally washed to the sea on its own but now gets
stuck in the basins. The county implemented a routine of
removing some of the larger sediment flows to nearby beaches as
part of an “emergency beach nourishment” programme, to help
keep the basins clear. They are also in touch with other
communities that might need sediment for uses such as a coastal
dune restoration site. While it was at first met with
criticism … because it de-beautified some of the community’s
beaches, the removal allowed the basins to stay open for future
storms.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated an
administrative order on consent with Radius Recycling Inc. in
response to alleged Clean Water Act violations at the
company’s metal recycling facility in West Oakland, California.
The order targets the site’s discharge of pollutants into the
Oakland Inner Harbor and San Francisco Bay in violation of the
facility’s permit under the Clean Water Act. In January,
EPA signed a memorandum of understanding with Radius Recycling,
the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA), other
state regulators and a community organization to address the
impacts of the company’s metal shredding operation on the West
Oakland community. … Radius will install a granular activated
carbon treatment unit capable of reducing metals below effluent
limitations. Radius also will develop and implement a Water
Pollution Prevention Plan that increases inspections of the
site and strengthens cleaning and maintenance measures.
On May 29, 2025, in a decision long-awaited by project
developers, the Supreme Court issued Seven County
Infrastructure Coalition v. Eagle County, Colorado, which
clarified the proper scope of review and deference to be
afforded to agency decisionmaking under the National
Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). This decision reinforces
longstanding Supreme Court holdings and may help improve the
NEPA process by providing support for agencies to focus their
NEPA reviews on impacts associated with their authorizations.
… The decision is also noteworthy for its commentary on
how NEPA litigation has negatively impacted project
development. The Court noted that project opponents may not
always be motivated by their concern for the environment,
instead using NEPA to prevent new infrastructure
projects.
Nearly two-thirds of California was “abnormally dry” as the
state braced for more hot, dry weather and strong winds,
according to the U.S. Drought Monitor’s latest update. About a
third of the Golden State was experiencing “moderate” to
“exceptional” drought conditions as of Thursday, June 19, the
U.S. Drought Monitor said, with Southern California and parts
of the Central Valley getting hit the
hardest. … Recent hot spells and dryness have
“manifested in rapidly developing soil moisture shortages,
declining prospects for summer water supplies, an elevated
wildfire threat, a boost in irrigation demands and increased
stress on rain-fed crops,” researchers wrote in a weekly
national drought summary. Bouts of warm weather have resulted
in the rapid drying and early melting of the snow pack, leading
to “a variety of agricultural and water-supply issues and
concerns.”
The Senate on Wednesday approved a package of bills from the
Energy and Natural Resources Committee, including legislation
to shore up Colorado River water supplies and
to expand a national park. Both Nevada Democratic Sen.
Catherine Cortez Masto and Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa
Murkowski praised the bipartisan package. “I am hopeful that
the Senate can pass more of these similar, very
noncontroversial bills through the unanimous consent process,”
Murkowski said on the Senate floor. … The measures include S.
154, the “Colorado River Basin System Conservation
Extension Act,” from Colorado Democratic Sens. John
Hickenlooper and Michael Bennet. That bill would renew a $125
million effort to reduce water use in the Upper Basin of the
Colorado River. That region covers parts of Colorado, New
Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The Arizona House is taking up the so-called “Ag to Urban
bill.” The Senate approved the bipartisan measure Thursday.
Also known as Senate Bill 1611, the measure provides what
Senate Natural Resources Chair Thomas “T.J.” Shope calls
solutions to Arizona’s most pressing issues: groundwater
protection and skyrocketing home prices due to low supply.
Under the bill, farmers would be allowed to sell their land and
water rights to developers who will in turn build for-sale
housing to meet the needs of Arizona’s growing population. In a
press release, Shope, who’s also the Senate president pro
tempore, called this “the most consequential piece of
groundwater legislation” in decades. ”An analysis of the
Ag-to-Urban program by the Arizona Department of Water
Resources reveals our state will save 9.6-million-acre feet of
water over the next 100 years,” said the Republican senator.
Wildfires can dramatically alter water quality, resulting in
severe implications for human and freshwater systems. However,
regional-scale assessments of these impacts are often limited
by data scarcity. Here, we unify observations from 1984–2021 in
245 burned watersheds across the western United States,
comparing post-fire signals to baseline levels from 293
unburned basins. … Overall, this analysis provides
strong evidence of multi-year water quality degradation
following wildfires in the western United States and highlights
the influence of basin and wildfire features. These insights
may aid water managers in preparation efforts, increasing
resilience of water systems to wildfire impacts.
The Nimbus Fish Hatchery, a longtime regional hub for fish
conservation and education along the American River, will close
its visitor center, fish ponds and parking lot beginning July 1
due to budget constraints, officials announced Friday. The
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, which operates the
hatchery, shared the news in a statement posted to social
media. The closure, they said, is due to “reductions in
funding” and will remain in effect until further notice.
… It was originally constructed to offset habitat losses
caused by the development of the Folsom-Nimbus water project,
which severely limited access to upstream spawning areas for
anadromous fish. The Nimbus Hatchery raises Chinook salmon
and steelhead trout, releasing them into the American River
annually. Its visitor center and adjacent fish ponds have long
served as an educational destination for school groups and
nature enthusiasts, especially during the fall spawning season.
On a warm, Wednesday afternoon, scientists, community members
and local leaders gathered at the Grange Hall in San Luis
Obispo to discuss the Trump administration’s attempts to weaken
laws protecting public land and waters — and how those policies
could impact the Central Coast. … From an attempt
to reduce the scope of the Endangered Species Act to an effort
to allow the president to eliminate national monuments, here
are three issues to keep an eye on for the Central Coast.
… “Our nation’s public lands provide tangible goods that
we all depend on — things like water, safety from wildfire,
timber, grazing for cattle,” (Los Padres National Forest
wildlife biologist Ben) Vizzachero said. “We need to support
those things, and as a biologist, I’m making sure that our
forest can provide those without sacrificing wildlife habitat.”
… The state Senate passed two bills by Sen. Steve Padilla
aimed at protecting the polluted Tijuana River
Valley. One would authorize using funds from the
new East Otay Mesa toll road for the South Bay International
Boundary and Water Commission sewage treatment facility, which
filters sewage from Mexico and discharges the treated water to
the Pacific Ocean. The other would prohibit a state agency
from approving a new landfill, until the local agency that
oversees waste facilities has held a public hearing on the
project and certified that it won’t harm an environmentally
burdened community. It’s aimed at the East Otay Mesa Recycling
Collection Center and Landfill, which was passed by ballot
measure 15 years ago. This is Padilla’s second stab at
this issue. Last year he proposed a related bill that would
have prohibited a regional water board from issuing a waste
discharge permit for a new landfill in the Tijuana River
Valley. That bill failed on the Assembly floor, but
Padilla is trying again.
… The Supreme Court’s reasoning in Seven
County encourages judicial restraint in NEPA cases.
Thus, Seven County may prompt federal agencies to
conduct NEPA reviews with less fear of judicial oversight than
they may have had prior to the decision. For proponents of
water infrastructure projects involving the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers (Corps), Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), or
other federal agencies, this shift could create a less onerous
permitting process. However, these project proponents remain
exposed to regulatory uncertainty — especially in projects
involving multiple federal agencies — because of the recent
rollback of the Council on Environmental Quality’s unified NEPA
framework. The proponents also face litigation risk at the
state level, and under statutes that, unlike NEPA, impose
substantive constraints on development decisions. In fact,
approval of the project at the heart of Seven
County remains vacated under some such authorities at this
time. Therefore, all stakeholders — project proponents and
opposers alike — should proceed cautiously as this area of law
continues to evolve.
The first day of summer in Lake Tahoe began under blue skies,
but the sunny Saturday suddenly turned dark when a thunderstorm
whipped up strong winds and waves of 6 to 8 feet high. At least
six people died when a boat capsized near D.L. Bliss State Park
around 3 p.m. … Gusts up to 45 mph were measured by a
NASA-maintained buoy in the middle of the lake when the cold
front hit. It’s likely that stronger winds materialized over a
smaller portion of the lake in a phenomenon known as a
downburst. Downbursts are caused by rain-cooled air that
falls out of a cloud into a drier environment below, often
accelerating as it reaches the ground. Once the downdraft
reaches the ground, winds spread out in all directions, like
water out of a faucet hitting a sink. Weather models estimated
favorable conditions for downburst winds over Lake Tahoe on
Saturday afternoon, with a mix of dry and moist air amid an
unstable atmosphere.
… We are the Round Valley Indian Tribes. In the early
20th century, without our consent, the Potter Valley Project
dammed our river and started diverting significant portions to
generate electricity, after which the water was made available,
at no cost, to users in the Russian River watershed. All the
while, our community endured the loss of a critical part of our
economy and culture: the decimated Eel River salmon fishery.
… We also understand, however, that we are part of the larger
region, and our members live, work and study in the surrounding
communities, which support our tribal economy. These
communities, in turn, depend on the river. Thus, while removal
of the project facilities and the return of a healthy river is
our goal, we must achieve this goal mindful of how this may
affect others. The Round Valley Indian Tribes support the
Two-Basin Solution, which shares this limited resource between
both basins by pairing fishery restoration with continued
diversions that do not harm the fishery. –Written by Joe Parker, president of the Round Valley
Indian Tribes.
