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.
… 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:
People who live, work or visit communities near the Tijuana
River Valley, where untreated wastewater spills over from
Mexico, attribute their worsening physical and mental health
issues to the cross-border pollution, a federal survey about
the sewage crisis found. County public health officials on
Tuesday released the findings on behalf of the federal Agency
for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which made its
online survey available from Oct. 21 through Nov. 22, 2024.
More than 2,000 people from Coronado, Imperial Beach, Nestor,
Otay Mesa West, San Ysidro and Silver Strand responded. The
survey, called an Assessment for Chemical Exposures or ACE,
follows a similar survey the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention launched in October, which also highlighted the
severe effect of the crisis on daily life and health. The CDC’s
randomized, in-person survey captured data from a much smaller
sample. But both document what residents and workers have said
for years: the ongoing pollution is affecting their quality of
life.
At least three people were missing in a mountain village in
southern New Mexico that is a popular summer retreat after
monsoon rains triggered flash flooding Tuesday that was so
intense an entire house was swept downstream. … In New
Mexico, officials urged residents to seek higher ground Tuesday
afternoon as the waters of the Rio Ruidoso rose nearly 19 feet
(2.7 meters) in a matter of minutes amid heavy rainfall. The
National Weather Service issued flood warnings in the area,
which was stripped of vegetation by recent wildfires.
… Matt DeMaria, a meteorologist with the National
Weather Service in Albuquerque, said storms formed in the early
afternoon over terrain that was scorched last year by wildfire.
The burn scar was unable to absorb a lot of the rain, as water
quickly ran downhill into the river. Preliminary
measurements show the Rio Ruidoso crested at more than 20 feet
(6 meters) — a record high if confirmed — and was receding
Tuesday evening.
Amid funding and programmatic uncertainty, many communities are
testing new plans, exploring new financing tools, and even
rethinking how they govern and operate their water
infrastructure. Aging distribution pipes, overwhelmed sewers,
and other vulnerable systems not only pose environmental and
public health risks, but also strain state and local budgets,
as well as those of the public utilities that own and operate
this infrastructure. Now,
“regionalization”—collaborations or partnerships among
geographically proximate local water systems—is gaining renewed
momentum nationally as a potential solution. But the specifics
of how communities pursue regional coordination vary widely,
and simply focusing on the economics of small systems to do so
overlooks a key point: how utilities can more effectively
function as essential community and economic partners and
service providers.
Last week, California enacted the most significant reforms to
the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) since the
mid-1970s. On June 30, Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate
Bill 131 and Assembly Bill 130 into law,
effective immediately. These laws will streamline or
exempt new project categories from CEQA review and reduce
litigation risks across the state. These unprecedented changes
mark a significant shift in how CEQA will shape project
timelines and risk profiles for developers, public agencies,
and regulated industries. The new framework also raises
important questions about the future impacts on environmental
protections and environmental justice communities throughout
the state.
Drinking water treatment that pursues a multi-contaminant
approach, tackling several pollutants at once, could prevent
more than 50,000 lifetime cancer cases in the U.S., finds a new
study by the Environmental Working Group. The finding
challenges the merits of regulating one tap water contaminant
at a time, the long‑standing practice of states and the federal
government. In the paper, published in the journal
Environmental Research, EWG scientists analyzed more than a
decade of data from over 17,000 community water systems. They
found that two cancer‑causing chemicals—arsenic and hexavalent
chromium, or chromium‑6—often appear together in systems and
can be treated using the same technologies. If water
systems with chromium‑6 contamination also reduce arsenic
levels to a range from 27% to 42%, this action could avoid up
to quadrupling the number of cancer cases compared to just
lowering chromium‑6 levels alone, the study finds.
Palisades Tahoe has reached an agreement with Keep Tahoe Blue
and Sierra Watch to settle litigation challenging proposed
development in Olympic Valley. The organizations have issued
the following shared statement: “Sierra Watch, Keep Tahoe Blue,
and Palisades Tahoe negotiated in good faith to find a solution
that effectively ends the fourteen-year conflict over Olympic
Valley while supporting the social, economic, and environmental
needs of Olympic Valley and the Lake Tahoe region.” Placer
County will now need to approve the revised blueprint, which
would end the conservation groups’ legal challenge to the
County’s 2024 approvals. … Key to Keep Tahoe Blue’s
mission, the agreement cuts upwards of 38% of daily car trips,
many of which would have entered the Tahoe Basin, along with
preventing more traffic, air pollution, and water
pollution that would have threatened the
Lake’s water quality and clarity.
American data center operator Novva has launched a facility in
Nevada. The data center is located in the Tahoe-Reno Industrial
Center, an industrial park found east of Reno in Storey
County. As announced in May 2023, the facility will offer
60MW of capacity across 300,000 sq ft (27,870 sqm). This will
be split across six 10MW raised floor data halls. A 100MW
on-site substation will supply power from NV Energy, a Nevada
utility. The company says that the data center will use
water-free direct-to-chip cooling and offer
robot dog monitoring. Novva has stated that additional capacity
will be made available in 2026. … This will be Novva’s
fourth completed data center. It has existing facilities in
Colorado, Utah, and Nevada. 1GW of capacity is currently
in development across four data centers, with new facilities in
San Francisco and Arizona alongside expansions to the Nevada
and Utah campuses.
The water treatment facility on Eucalyptus Avenue in Chino
Hills, west of Pipeline Avenue, won’t be operational until the
end of the year, after the city learned it would have to build
a meter station to comply with a state-mandated blending plan.
Utilities Operations Manager Mark Wiley told the city council
on June 10 that the city has been going back and forth with the
State Water Resources Control Board for a few months on the
operations and maintenance monitoring plan. “Another hurdle the
state threw out in the 11th hour is that we have to construct a
metering station to blend a specified amount of water in the
distribution system with well water,” Mr. Wiley said. “Once we
build the station, the state needs to sign off on it and issue
a permit before we can start operating.” The city expects to
have a fully operational facility in December 2025, he said.
Mr. Wiley said it will cost approximately $710,000 per year in
operations and maintenance costs to run the treatment plant.
The deadly flash flood along Texas’ Guadalupe River showed the
devastating toll such a disaster can take, and California could
face similar dangers when extreme weather strikes. Low-lying
areas along rivers and creeks can be hazardous when downpours
and torrents come, as shown by past floods in parts of the
state including the Los Angeles area, the Central Valley and
the Central Coast. When a series of extreme winter storms hit
California in 2023, about two dozen people died statewide,
including some who were swept away by floodwaters and others
who were killed by a rock slide, falling trees or car crashes.
… In a 2022 study, researchers, including UC Irvine’s [Brett]
Sanders, estimated that up to 874,000 people and $108 billion
in property could be affected by a 100-year flood in the Los
Angeles Basin, revealing larger risks than previously estimated
by federal emergency management officials.
A newly signed bill giving developers the ability to buy and
retire farmland in favor of subdivisions has been hailed by
supporters as the single biggest improvement in state water law
since the landmark Arizona Groundwater Management Act passed 45
years ago. It’s been promoted as a ticket to water savings,
since homes typically use significantly less water than cotton
fields. It’s also seen as a path to more affordable housing in
the Phoenix area and Pinal County, where the law would have an
impact. … But what’s called the Ag to Urban law comes with a
big question mark that centers on the often downplayed concept
of groundwater replenishment. The law will significantly
increase the amount of water that must be recharged into the
aquifer to compensate for groundwater pumped by new homes that
are built on retired farmland. As of now, it’s not clear
where that extra water will come from.
After months of stalemate, glimmers of hope have emerged for
consensus on a new plan to manage the shrinking Colorado River.
Negotiators from the seven river basin states said in a series
of meetings in recent weeks that they were discussing a plan
rooted in a concept that breaks from decades of management
practice. Rather than basing water releases on reservoir
levels, it would base the amount released from the system’s two
major reservoirs on the amount of water flowing in the river.
The new concept would be more responsive as river flows become
more variable. The comments signal a break in months of
stalemate between the Upper Basin states — Colorado, Utah, New
Mexico and Wyoming — and the three Lower Basin states:
California, Nevada and Arizona. … The new concept for
managing the river reflects an attempt to account for the
reality of the shrinking river and will, if adopted, adjust
releases from the reservoirs based on the amount of water in
the river.
