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.
President Donald Trump’s nominee to head NOAA pledged Wednesday
to fully staff the National Weather Service, after catastrophic
Texas floods triggered a new wave of criticism over the
president’s deep cuts across government. Administration critics
have wondered whether efforts to reduce the federal workforce
and eliminate programs affected the government’s ability to
warn residents. … Jacobs, whose background is in weather
modeling, has advocated for retooling NOAA’s weather data
collection processes, including through greater engagement with
private-sector companies that operate their own satellites and
would benefit from multibillion-dollar government contracts.
… Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told Jacobs that the
nation cannot afford to retrench on climate change given its
direct impacts on communities facing rising frequency
and intensity of storms, floods, droughts, wildfire and other
natural disasters.
The Colorado River is now officially “positive” for invasive
zebra mussels in the latest failure of containment for the
voracious species, after three new samples came up with larvae
July 3, from between Glenwood Springs and Silt. The main stem
Colorado River discoveries piled on top of a confirmed “large
number” of adult zebra mussels in a private body of water in
western Eagle County, and two more positive larvae tests, at
Highline Lake and Mack Mesa Lake, both near the Utah border,
Colorado Parks and Wildlife officials said Wednesday. Sampling
was redoubled throughout June after tests found a single zebra
mussel larvae, or veliger, in the Colorado River from a June 9
collection. It’s the second year in a row veligers are
being discovered in the West’s key river channel through
Colorado, and now CPW officials are also dealing with a
full-blown adult zebra mussel invasion in the privately owned
Eagle County water.
Two major climate disasters of 2025 — the Texas flooding that
killed more than 100 people and the L.A. wildfires in January
that resulted in 30 deaths and wiped out more than 15,000 homes
and businesses — highlight the struggles officials face in
fully preparing for extreme weather
conditions. In both cases, the National Weather
Service offered clear warnings of potentially life-threatening
weather events; in Los Angeles, warnings were given days before
extraordinary winds — of up to 100 mph — slammed a region
already suffering from a record-dry fall. … Since then,
there have been calls for sweeping reforms of how Los Angeles
County prepares for disasters, and investigations into what
went wrong. … With climate change bringing more extreme
deadly weather, local emergency management officials around the
nation are trying to keep up.
Other flood risk and emergency management news around the West:
The remaining handful of tickets for our first-ever
Klamath River Tour are now up for
grabs! This special water tour, Sept. 8 through Sept. 12,
will not be offered every year, so check out the tour details
here. Plus, register for the 41st annual
Water
SummitOct. 1,
themed Embracing Uncertainty in the
West, and read our latest
Western Water story on how FIRO is helping
harness the power of atmospheric rivers.
The combined effects of climate change and air pollution have
led to direct declines in precipitation in the U.S. Southwest,
making drought inevitable, a new study has shown. These
circumstances, which began taking hold in about 1980, are
likely here to stay as the planet warms, according to the
study, published on Wednesday in Nature
Geoscience. Its authors attributed this decades-long trend
toward less precipitation to La Niña-like conditions, weather
patterns that lead to cooler surface temperatures in the
tropical Pacific Ocean. Even if El Niño-like conditions had
prevailed instead, the Southwest would not have experienced a
corresponding surge in rainfall, the researchers found.
… The post-1980 period in the U.S. Southwest exhibited
the fastest soil-drying among past and future periods of
similar lengths — a result that the authors attributed to
human-induced warming and a decline in precipitation.
The state of New Mexico is suing the US air force over its
refusal to comply with orders to address extremely high levels
of Pfas pollution stemming from its base, which has tainted
drinking water for tens of thousands of people, damaged crops
and poisoned dairy cows. Though the military acknowledges
Pfas-laden firefighting foam from Cannon air force base is the
source of a four mile chemical plume in the aquifer below
Clovis, New Mexico, it has refused to comply with most state
orders to address the issue. … In 2018, Cannon’s Pfas
was found to have poisoned drinking water for over 100 private
wells, and has so far taken out one municipal well that serves
Clovis, a city of 40,000 people. Levels found in surface water
were about 27,000 times higher than US Environmental Protection
Agency drinking water limits. … The air force has refused to
pay a $70,000 state fine.
California lawmakers reeling from President Donald Trump’s
assault on clean energy are considering a controversial
strategy to keep projects on track — slashing environmental
permitting further. That plan could intensify a fight between
clean energy advocates and environmentalists over the
trade-offs between building fast and environmental protection
that’s already playing out at home. California officials are
scrambling to respond to congressional Republicans’ budget
“megabill,” signed into law Friday, which demolishes Biden-era
tax credits that incentivize construction of large-scale solar
and wind projects, home energy efficiency improvements and
electric vehicle purchasing — centerpieces of blue states’
strategies to wean themselves off fossil fuels. Clean energy
groups say it will be impossible for California — which already
faces a tight budget — to replace those incentives, and are
instead pushing lawmakers to cut red tape and allow projects to
get shovels in the ground faster.
The frightening partial collapse of an L.A. County sanitation
tunnel under construction left 31 workers scrambling to make
their way to safety on Wednesday evening. … The accident took
place in the Clearwater Project, which is designed to carry
treated, cleanwastewater from the Joint Water Pollution Control
Plant to the ocean. Prior to the accident, the tunnel was
expected to reach Royal Palms Beach by the end of the year, at
which point it would be seven miles long. The plant is
the largest wastewater treatment plant owned and
operated by the L.A. County Sanitation Districts. This is
the first major incident that has taken place since
construction on the project began in late 2019. Work on the
tunnel itself started in 2021. But that work is paused for
the foreseeable future, [L.A. County Sanitation Districts chief
engineer Robert] Ferrante said on Wednesday night.
An isolated storm that caused large quantities of unexploded
fireworks to spill into Lake Tahoe has derailed what was
expected to be the most comprehensive modern study examining
the effects of fireworks shows on the famed lake. Clean Up The
Lake, a nonprofit group traditionally focused on removing
subsurface lake pollution, including the use of the first
human-powered circumnavigation cleanup of Lake Tahoe using
SCUBA, switched gears this July to spearhead the study. It was
aimed at examining the effects of fireworks on the lake, which
has suffered for decades from declining clarity, aquatic
invasive species invasions and other human-induced problems.
… The study was geared toward examining not just trash,
but also water quality, including microplastics in the
water, and had the potential to show the effects of
firework debris and large-scale public events at the lake. …
The barge, which sank in the lake near Incline Village, housed
the very fireworks Clean Up The Lake was planning to study
after their detonation.
Ruby Williams’ birthday was not your average 18th. She
celebrated it on the Klamath River, with a group of young
people making a historic journey paddling from the river’s
headwaters in southern Oregon to its mouth in the Pacific
Ocean, just south of Crescent City, California. It marked the
first time in a century that the descent has been possible,
after the recent removal of four dams allowed the river to flow
freely. Williams, together with fellow paddler Keeya Wiki, 17,
spoke to CNN on day 15 of their month-long journey, which they
are due to complete on Friday. At this point, they had just 141
miles (227 kilometers) of the 310-mile (499 kilometer) journey
left to go and had already passed through some of the most
challenging rapids. … [Wiki said] “I think we’re all just so
grateful, knowing that the salmon can finally go from the mouth
to the headwaters, and that we can go from the headwaters to
the mouth too.”
Energy companies that manage coal ash dumps have asked the
Trump administration for relief from a new regulation requiring
them to inspect and monitor those retention ponds for signs of
pollution. If EPA grants their request, it could delay cleanup
of one the nation’s most significant sources of industrial
waste. In a sweeping rule issued last year, EPA directed
companies to begin cleaning up over 100 coal ash dumps and
landfills, some of which are known to leak toxic,
cancer-causing metals like mercury, lead and arsenic into
groundwater. Now, companies say they are
struggling to evaluate those sites for signs of leaks and
structural problems, as required under the rule. Describing the
rule’s deadlines as “unreasonable and unworkable,” the Utility
Solid Waste Activities Group has asked EPA to delay additional
requirements until the agency creates a permit program to
“review, approve, and verify the existence” of coal ash sites
across the country, according to a letter viewed by POLITICO’s
E&E News.
… When the San Diego County Water Authority settled its long
legal battle with the Metropolitan Water District, it brought
to a close a nearly 20-year period of expensive and aggressive
contention between the two agencies. The agency’s Board of
Directors discussed re-upping the contract for the architect of
the legal confrontation over all those years, Chris Frahm, from
the law firm Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber and Schreck. It blew up
into a tense dispute mainly between former San Diego City
Councilmember Jim Madaffer, a board member, and General Counsel
David Edwards. The dispute was about whether some of Frahm’s
work deserved to be considered attorney-client privilege still
(the general counsel was vehement it should be public.)
… Now, several water managers in the region have sent a
letter reiterating that they believe Frahm’s work should be
public and demanding the Water Authority chair compel Madaffer
to apologize for what could be considered threats and a hostile
work environment.
Stantec announced on July 8, 2025, that it has been selected by
the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to provide
water resource planning and facilitation services to support
the California Water Plan Update 2028, a document that serves
as the state’s roadmap to set water management priorities in a
changing climate. First published in the 1950s and updated
every five years, the California Water Plan is the state’s
strategic plan to sustainably manage and develop water
resources for current and future generations. Required by
California Water code Section 10005(a), Update 2028 will
describe the status and trends of California’s water-dependent
natural resources; water supplies; and agricultural, urban, and
environmental water demands for a range of plausible future
scenarios. The document guides state and local agencies to
sustainably manage water resources in a manner that benefits
all water uses and users in California.
A new groundwater sustainability agency that has struggled to
get its footing in recent months is on a fresh trajectory with
a new general manager. Michael Knight, Porterville
assistant city manager, is leaving the city to take the reins
as manager of the Porterville Groundwater Sustainability
Agency. He also will serve as assistant manager for Porterville
Irrigation District. His first day is Aug. 4.
… Landowners have repeatedly voiced concerns over
management and transparency issues since the Porterville ID
board voted to break away from the embattled Eastern Tule GSA
in February. That move came amidst fallout from a ruling by the
state Water Resources Control Board to place the Tule subbasin
on probation for its lack of a cohesive groundwater plan that
would staunch runaway subsidence in the region and protect
domestic wells.
U.S. senators are set to interview President Donald Trump’s
pick to lead the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration on Wednesday in a confirmation hearing that may
be charged with concern over whether massive cuts to the
agency’s workforce may have contributed to the deaths of more
than 100 people when torrential rain flooded Central Texas
early Friday. In the five months since Trump chose Neil Jacobs
to serve as NOAA administrator, hundreds of NOAA scientists and
meteorologists have left the agency through firings, buyouts
and retirements. … Jacobs has emphasized a need for
the United States to improve the accuracy of its weather
forecasting models, which routinely perform worse than models
operated in Europe and, at times, Canada. He has most recently
served as chief science adviser for the Unified Forecast
System, an initiative he has spearheaded to improve U.S.
weather and climate forecasting accuracy using government,
academic and private-sector data.
A state water quality agency hopes to tackle a problem as old
as civilization itself – salt build up from irrigation. The
Central Valley Salinity Alternatives for Long-Term
Sustainability (CV-SALTS) is working with local water managers
and using state-of-the-art engineering software to understand
how groundwater moves through the western Kings and
Delta-Mendota subbasins as part of a long-term salt study. The
salt study, which began in 2022, aims to develop a Central
Valley-wide plan to manage salinity, focusing first on the
Kings and Delta-Mendota subbasins. … The salt study is
still laying the groundwork to understand the complex San
Joaquin Valley watershed and aquifer system. CV-SALTS will
begin developing water and salt management plans by 2026 and
develop a prioritization plan by 2028.
Six months after EPA warned about “forever chemicals” tainting
sewage sludge, states are resorting to a patchwork of policies
as the agency’s path forward on the widely used farmland
fertilizer remains unclear. In the final days of the Biden
administration, EPA inched toward regulating the toxic
chemicals in sewage sludge, releasing a draft report outlining
risks to people living near farms that use the foul-smelling,
nutrient-rich material to grow crops. Now, as the Trump
administration weighs options for addressing contamination
concerns, states and localities are struggling with how to
respond to growing evidence that sludge fertilizer can spread
forever chemicals. … Also known as biosolids, sewage sludge
is the partially dry byproduct of treated sewage from municipal
and industrial sources. EPA has long touted selling the
material to farmers, a practice that frees up landfill space
and reduces reliance on chemical fertilizer.
A major thunderstorm like the one that produced devastating
flash flooding in Texas over the holiday weekend is not likely
in the Bay Area or most of California, but climate scientists
say that if the perfect weather at the right time of
year and geography align, serious flooding can still wreak
havoc here. … A big flash-flood-producing thunderstorm
in California isn’t entirely out of the picture and can occur
during the summertime in the Sierra Nevada or the deserts
across the southeastern part of the state. “The kind of thing
that happened in Texas could also happen in California,” said
Nicholas Pinter, associate director of the UC Davis Center for
Watershed Sciences. “Anyone out hiking in confined, rugged
topography needs to be aware that we have this risk of flash
flooding in California, kind of similar to Texas.”
California officials have moved closer to their goal of
conserving 30% of lands and coastal waters by the target year
of 2030, a revelation that arrives as the Trump administration
advances directives that could claw back areas that were set
aside. Nearly five years after the inception of the so-called
30×30 initiative, California has conserved 26.1% of its lands
and 21.9% of its coastal waters — or roughly 41,000 square
miles and 1,150 square miles, respectively — according to a
California Natural Resources Agency report released Monday. In
2020, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order that set the
30×30 effort in motion. The initiative kicked off in earnest
two years later when officials released a detailed road map for
the plan. At that time, approximately 23.8% of lands and 16.2%
of coastal waters were conserved. The stated goals of the 30×30
initiative extend beyond conservation. The plan also seeks to
restore biodiversity, expand Californians’ access to nature and
help mitigate and build resilience to climate change.
Swimming past the California-Oregon border, a lost fish — one
of thousands — finds its way home after an exile of over 100
years. As swarms of salmon migrate north to Oregon along
the Klamath River, youth from across the region’s indigenous
tribes kayak south through northern California to the Pacific
Ocean — a 300-mile celebratory journey that would not have been
possible just a year ago. What’s changed? Beneath the fish
and kayaks lie the watery graves of four dams, built in the
early 20th century and dismantled over the past two years at a
cost of $500 million, the largest and most ambitious dam
removal in history. The return of salmon to the upper
Klamath River represents a victory for nature, an exhibition of
the century-long transition in how Americans view the
environment, and a signal achievement of the 1973 Endangered
Species Act.
Other dam removal and anadromous fish restoration news:
