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.
On the one hand, state and federal agencies pledged more than
$40 million to the recovery and future protection of Planada,
the tiny farm town swamped by floods in 2023. Multiple agencies
and helping organizations were mobilized and tasked with
rebuilding the 840 homes lost after Miles Creek busted its
banks south of Merced. On the other hand, more than two years
is a long time to wait to get back home. Add to that what some
say has been poor communication and a lack of transparency and
residents are frustrated. … On top of their long,
frustrating wait, residents fear they could be flooded out
again if Miles Creek isn’t kept clear and the region is hit by
another string of atmospheric rivers.
Landowners who rely on domestic wells for drinking water may be
able to seek help from the Mid-Kings River Groundwater
Sustainability Agency if the tap runs dry. In an Aug. 12 board
meeting, the GSA unanimously approved a $2 million program to
help owners repair wells damaged by excessive groundwater
pumping and keep water flowing to residents. … In April
2024 the state Water Resources Control Board put the region on
probation for lacking an adequate groundwater plan. A month
later, Mid-Kings imploded after the Kings County Water District
bailed and the county was left to pick up the pieces.
Southern Nevada is one of several southwest areas in an
“exceptional” drought – the most severe category, according to
the U.S. Drought Monitor. … The Southern Nevada Water
Authority (SNWA) responded with a number of water conservation
efforts more than two decades ago, including a Water Patrol.
About two dozen Water Waste Investigators patrol the city in
blue and white vehicles searching for signs of waste.
… When the SNWA first started enforcement, about 20% of
residents received citations.
Tucson’s City Council’s August 6 vote to reject Project Blue
was more than a local win, it was a line in the sand over how
this city’s water and infrastructure will be used in the age of
AI. Now, with developer Beale pursuing relocation to Marana, a
nearby community whose water rights and public benefit
protections could soon be tested. At the same time, the
proposed Benson Aluminum Dynamics plant has raised its own
concerns over large-scale industrial water use and unclear
public returns. Together, these projects underscore that
Arizona’s fight over how much public we give for private
development is far from over. –Written by Tucson resident Julie Dittmer.
… On Tuesday, [North American Development Bank managing
director John Beckman] met in Juarez with the head of
CILA, the Mexican section of the International Boundary and
Water Commission, to talk about the sewage crisis in the
Tijuana River. … The United States will
spend $600 million to improve wastewater treatment in the San
Diego-Tijuana area, while Mexico is expected to commit at least
$94 million. NADBank will commit funds, and it previously
issued a $150 “green” loan to the state of Baja California for
water sanitation.
Lake Tahoe’s clear waters are benefiting from a record-breaking
effort to reduce pollution, according to a new report from
California and Nevada. The report by the Lahontan Regional
Water Quality Control Board found that an estimated 727,000
pounds of fine sediment; more than 5,800 pounds of nitrogen;
and nearly 2,100 pounds of phosphorus were prevented from
reaching the lake in 2024 — all annual record highs since the
program began tracking these statistics in 2016. These
pollutants can fuel algae growth and harm the lake’s clarity.
Blue Forest, a nonprofit conservation finance organization,
announces it has joined the Sierra Institute for Community and
Environment, U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service,
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, Pacific Gas
and Electric Co., California Department of Water Resources and
the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to launch the North Feather I
Forest Resilience Bond. This bond represents a strategic
alignment of organizations and governmental agencies to finance
the acceleration of forest restoration activities, known as
treatments, bringing a comprehensive approach to address
wildfire and watershed risks in California,
says Blue Forest.
As the leading voice of our state’s water community, shaping
beneficial regulations and legislation, the Colorado Water
Congress provides leadership to help manage, protect, conserve,
and develop the state’s water. Hosting a slate of annual events
to foster collaboration, networking, and professional
development, this one is the year’s biggie. The state’s
preeminent water industry convention lets members share
information on the state’s key water resource issues to drive
positive change for the state’s water future.
As Gov. Gavin Newsom pushes for building a giant water tunnel
beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, his
administration is saying it‘s the “single most effective” way
for California to provide enough water as the warming climate
brings deeper droughts and more intense storms. Environmental
advocates and political leaders in the Delta, among other
opponents, condemned a new state analysis that draws that
conclusion, arguing that building the tunnel would harm the
environment and several types of fish and would push water
rates much higher for millions of Californians.
… Utah and the six other states along the Colorado River are
in the middle of negotiating new agreements governing the
river. At times, it appears the discussions have been
acrimonious. When the seven state representatives left a power
summit in Las Vegas last year? They weren’t speaking. …
Upper Basin states have been criticized for not taking as deep
of cuts, where they argue they already have made reductions.
One thing that Utah is planning for post-2026? More
conservation. … ”Conservation is one thing that I think
that the Upper Basin has contemplated all along that we would
be able to put on the table in order to facilitate a deal,”
said Amy Haas, the executive director of the Colorado River
Authority of Utah.
Until Tuesday, a company with zoning approval in Tucson could
have relatively unlimited access to Tucson’s water system, even
if it was going to use millions of gallons of water. Now, with
the unanimous passage of a new ordinance by the city council,
any large water user that wants to gain access to Tucson’s
water will have to apply to the city and show its water
conservation efforts. The goal, said Mayor Regina Romero, was
to protect the city from large water users like data centers as
quickly as possible.
Without a water tax, the Paso Robles Area Groundwater Authority
is on the hunt for funding to support its operating costs for
the rest of the year. The agency’s Board of Directors was
forced to abandon water use fees during a meeting on Aug. 1
after a majority of property owners objected to them. Now, the
agency is almost $300,000 short of funds needed to cover the
rest of the year’s operating costs, such as paying consultants
and preparing the state-mandated annual report. … During
a meeting on Monday, the board voted unanimously to direct
staff to send a request to the four participating groundwater
sustainability agencies to bridge the funding gap.
A proposed trail bridge in San Juan Capistrano would allow for
the removal of barriers in Trabuco Creek, making it easier for
endangered southern steelhead trout to travel from the ocean to
their spawning grounds in the Santa Ana Mountains. The $45
million project, which would also include removing non-native
plant species along the creek, stabilizing soil along the banks
and some other public safety features, is being spearheaded by
California Trout, a nonprofit group with a mission to preserve
the state’s salmon, steelhead trout and other wild trout
populations.
… 2025 has featured a very weak monsoon on the western
fringe of the typical summer wind reversal region–so much so
that summer 2025 to date has been among (if not singularly) the
driest on record to date across a broad swath of the Great
Basin. … Fortunately, it does appear that a late
monsoonal surge will slightly ease these concerns. I don’t
expect a dramatic “saved by the bell” moment, but a substantial
and more western-oriented monsoonal surge now appears likely
over the next 7-10 days across the Great Basin and even
extending into portions of southern and eastern
California.
For years, residents of the Fresno County city of Sanger
endured foul, overbearing odors caused by a wastewater
treatment plant stressed by immense amounts of raw
sewage from the nearby Pitman Family Farms chicken processing
plant. … The city of Sanger failed to fully enforce a
state-required wastewater pretreatment program for industrial
dischargers like Pitman Family Farms for more than two decades,
a Fresno Bee investigation has found. … For this
investigation, The Bee interviewed regional water regulators,
city officials, wastewater experts and reviewed hundreds of
pages of city and state reports.
… [S]ince late 2021, swaths of the south San Diego coast have
been closed every day — 1,345 days in a row and counting —
because of sewage and industrial pollution flowing in from the
Tijuana River. … For youths in South Bay communities
such as Imperial Beach, San Ysidro and Nestor, worsening river
conditions the last few years have stripped away not just
recreational opportunities but a key part of community life.
… The Tijuana River is ranked the second-most endangered
river in the United States by American Rivers. Data from the
San Diego County Department of Environmental Health & Quality
show the Imperial Beach shoreline this year has been closed
every day except for one.
The timber industry and its supporters, joined by many in the
Trump administration, have long promoted logging as a way to
reduce fire danger. Some even blame declining timber operations
in recent decades for the uptick in catastrophic wildfire. A
growing body of research, however, suggests the benefits of
logging are far more limited. The latest study to examine
the impact of harvesting trees on fire behavior, published
Wednesday in the journal Global Change Biology, finds that
lands administered by private timber companies were nearly 1½
times more likely to burn at “high severity” levels than public
lands with less timber production.
On Monday, U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (CA-21) and Chuck
Edwards (NC-11) introduced the Emergency Rural Water Response
Act, bipartisan legislation to cut the red tape and deploy
emergency federal water funding to rural communities. … From
the return of Tulare Lake to wells running dry in East Fresno
County, the Valley has been hit hard by water crises in recent
years. Since the program’s [USDA’s Emergency Community Water
Assistance Grants] creation in 1972, only rural communities
with fewer than 10,000 residents have been eligible for aid.
While populations in many rural towns have grown over the past
five decades, the eligibility cap has not kept pace, leaving
thousands of residents in small but growing communities without
access to this lifeline.
A U.S. appeals court has temporarily blocked the transfer of
federal forest land in Arizona to a pair of international
companies that plan to mine one of the largest copper deposits
in North America. … The land includes Oak Flat — an area used
for centuries for religious ceremonies, prayer and gathering of
medicinal plants by the San Carlos Apache people and other
Native American tribes. … Before the land exchange can
happen, the plaintiffs argued that the federal government must
prepare a comprehensive review that covers “every aspect of the
planned mine and all related infrastructure.” They said the
government failed to consider the potential for a dam
breach, pipeline failure and if there was an emergency
plan for a tailings storage area.
Two weeks ago, 43 endangered Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs
took to the skies in a helicopter from the Oakland Zoo. A team
transported them to their new home in the high country of
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks. The zoo has now
successfully translocated its 1,000th frog to its mountain
home. … The Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs
(Rana sierrae), also called yellow-legged frogs, used to be
common across California’s alpine lakes and streams. Keeping
insect populations balanced and feeding predators like birds
and snakes. Non-native trout introduced in the late 1800s
were the first blow to this native species. The trout ate the
tadpoles in large numbers.
