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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.
Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.
We occasionally bold words in the text to ensure the water connection is clear.
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.
As best practice, public water agencies prudently plan for
regional water supply needs and carefully piece together
resilient portfolios of various water supply sources. Zone 7 is
no different. … For these reasons, Zone 7 continues to
support investment in and modernization of the State Water
Project. We are supporters of the Delta Conveyance Project, the
Healthy Rivers and Landscapes Program and other efforts to
invest in and modernize the State Water Project. –Written by Valerie Pryor, general manager of the Zone 7
Water Agency.
Lately, the Imperial Valley has been graced by rain. Flooding
streets, darkening the desert floor, and releasing the scent of
desert soil. It has made me reflect on the impact of rain on
the psyche of the Imperial Valley. For us here in the Imperial
Valley, water is scarce and carefully managed; it also shapes
agriculture, daily life, and the way people relate to the land.
In a region defined by extremes, heat, and aridity, rain feels
like a special event.
Nimbus Fish Hatchery releases around 4 to 4.5 million young
salmon and 430,000 yearling steelhead into California waterways
annually. But due to rising costs and limited federal funding,
the hatchery is planning to release half of both numbers, which
is unprecedented. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation funds the
hatchery, which was originally created to mitigate the impacts
of Nimbus Dam [on the American River in the Sacramento region]
on steelhead and salmon runs. Fish raised in hatcheries
like this one are key to keeping their populations alive in
California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 697 into law Wednesday,
allowing expedited construction on a projected $500 million
project to widen part of Highway 37 as it continues to subside
into Bay Area marshland. The bill, authored by
Assemblymember Lori Wilson, D-Suisun City, carves out
exceptions to endangered species law so that construction on
the roadway can have a larger window. … Documents
previously reported on by The Sacramento Bee show that it is
sinking into the marsh and that it’s surrounded by
sinking levees and berms as sea level rises and
threatens to inundate the highway.
The Trump administration canceled $11 billion in disaster
payments to states in an unprecedented move that could signal a
slowdown in the flow of federal funding after extreme
weather events. The unannounced move was revealed
in a Sept. 15 government report showing that the Federal
Emergency Management Agency withheld $10.9 billion it had
planned to give 45 states in the final two months of the fiscal
year that ended Sept. 30. … One-third of the $11 billion
was slated for New York and California,
according to an analysis of FEMA records by POLITICO’s E&E
News.
Three scientists won the Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for
their development of new molecular structures that can trap
vast quantities of gas inside, laying the groundwork to
potentially suck greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere or
harvest moisture from desert environments.
… The committee said Susumu Kitagawa, Richard Robson and
Omar M. Yaghi were honored for “groundbreaking discoveries”
that “may contribute to solving some of humankind’s greatest
challenges,” from pollution to water scarcity.
… Today, Reno, “the Biggest Little City in the World,” is
poised to become a new player in the nation’s data center
construction boom. At least three data center projects have
been approved since 2024, with more in a nearby industrial
park. … But opponents argue that data centers can also
bring consequences, if they raise electricity costs or cause
water shortages down the road. … A Bloomberg investigation
found that two-thirds of all new data centers are being built
in water-stressed regions, like Nevada, where severe drought is
a major concern.
Western Slope elected officials, water managers, engineers, and
conservationists met in Grand Junction on Friday, Oct. 3, all
focused on one thing: the uncertain future of the Colorado
River. … While the seminar broached many of the
challenges and opportunities facing those who rely on the
Colorado River, most discussions came back to two looming
decisions that will dictate how the future looks for the 40
million people, seven states, two counties, and 30 tribal
nations that rely on the waterway.
… According to a September 2025 report issued by Comité
Cívico del Valle and Earthworks, Controlled Thermal Resources’
proposed lithium mining operation, the Hell’s Kitchen Lithium
and Power Project, will have significant environmental impacts
on the surrounding area. The operation, which is still in the
beginning stages, will divert at least 6,500 acre-feet
of fresh water each year, straining natural resources
in an arid region that’s already struggling to combat drought.
According to CCV, mining will speed up the recession of the
Salton Sea’s toxic shoreline, exacerbate dust
pollution, and produce hazardous waste containing arsenic and
lead.
… In Arizona, 76 percent of water use goes toward
agriculture. Mature alfalfa (hay) is largely used to feed
cattle, and in Arizona, alfalfa is a commonly planted thirsty
crop. A 2020 study found 79 percent of Colorado river water
goes to alfalfa. … Outside of certain areas, like
Phoenix, if you own the land, you can drill a well and take as
much water as you want. And many farms are doing just that. In
2015, the Center for Investigative Reporting did a deep-dive
into the Saudi-owned farm drilling deep wells to water alfalfa
that they then harvest and ship to Saudi Arabia. The story
brought light to a situation that, as time has gone on, is
slowly rendering the desert almost unlivable.
Wastewater plants emit about twice as much greenhouse gas as
previously believed, according to Princeton engineers who used
a mobile lab to check plants across the country. In an
article published Oct. 8 in the journal Nature Water, a
research team led by professors Mark Zondlo and Z. Jason Ren,
in collaboration with Prof. Francesca Hopkins of UC-Riverside,
reported that collectively sewer plants produced 1.9 times the
nitrous oxide gas estimated by the Environmental Protection
Agency and 2.4 times the methane. Based on the new
measurements, wastewater plants contribute 2.5 percent of U.S.
methane emissions and 8.1 percent of nitrous oxide.
The United States Senate has confirmed the nomination of former
NOAA Acting Administrator Neil Jacobs to lead the agency once
again as the undersecretary of commerce for oceans and
atmosphere. … Jacobs also said he would prioritize
getting stock assessments for commercial fisheries “back on
track” and expressed interest in “beefing up” the country’s
Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP). An atmospheric
scientist by trade, Jacobs was previously selected by Trump to
lead the administration during Trump’s first administration,
naming him acting administrator in 2018.
The Oroville City Council has moved to address the growing
issue of trash along the Feather River by approving a motion to
send a letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom. The council is seeking
assistance in tackling the environmental impact they believe is
caused by nearby homeless encampments. … Last month, the
Feather River Recreation and Parks District held their annual
Feather River Cleanup event. … Joseph Velasquez,
the park maintenance supervisor with the district, says their
team and the community picked up about 10,000 pounds of trash.
This fall, Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) invites the community
to participate in programs that help conserve one of Southern
California’s most precious natural resources: water. At these
events, attendees can capture rainwater for irrigation by
participating in an upcoming rain barrel distribution and
attending water efficient landscape workshops. All events are
open to the public and can be
found at PWPweb.com/TheRippleEffect.
A town administrator in Las Animas County is facing several
felony charges after investigators say she funneled more than
$26,000 from a small town’s water project intended to secure
long-term water access, to her personal bank account.
… Investigators say she took money from federal loans
and grants that were awarded to the town of about 450 for a
massive reservoir project. The money was allegedly commingled
with the town’s general fund and used for unauthorized personal
transactions and other town expenses, leaving contractors for
the critical water project unpaid.
… Every few years, wild pigs emerge from river habitat to
wreak havoc in the Fairmount Park area. … The pigs currently
roaming Riverside’s corridors descend from domestic swine that
escaped during catastrophic 1930s floods. … The Santa
Ana River corridor creates a green highway connecting
rural habitats to urban resources, with residential
neighborhoods serving as unintended waypoints between
wilderness areas. … The pigs have inhabited these river
bottoms longer than most human families, and they’ll probably
outlast current management strategies too.
Appellate court justices heard arguments Tuesday in the highly
watched dispute over whether the state exceeded its authority
when it placed the Tulare Lake subbasin on probation last year
for failing to come up with an adequate plan to protect the
region’s groundwater. … The outcome of Tuesday’s
arguments could have far reaching effects throughout the San
Joaquin Valley, most of which is severely overdrafted and
struggling to comply with the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA).
The Colorado River Indian Tribes may soon become the third
Indigenous government in North America to grant personhood
rights to a river. ‘Aha Kwahwat, or the Colorado River, has
been at the heart of Mojave culture and history for millennia.
The river is also critically important to the other three
cultures that make up the Colorado River Indian Tribes: the
Chemehuevi, whose ancestral lands lie to the northwest of
CRIT’s lands, Navajo and Hopi who moved to the area in the
1940s. … Once the tribal membership has completed weighing in
… the already-drafted resolution will be put before the
tribal council, and once approved, will become part of CRIT’s
law.
A bill with unanimous support is basically a unicorn in today’s
divided politics, so California just saw the return of a
water-planning unicorn in the form of SB 72 that Gov. Gavin
Newsom signed into law Oct. 1. Prior to being signed, the bill
— effectively an update to the California Water Plan that
enforces the need for quantifiable water needs reports and
water goals — passed through the state’s legislature without
any “no” votes. This also isn’t the first time it
happened. Past iterations of the bill also received unanimous
support, but this is the first time the governor signed it.
The clock is ticking down on Mexico’s deadline this month to
pay the United States water it owes under a 1944 international
treaty. So far, Mexico has paid less than half what it
owes during this five-year cycle, which ends on Oct. 25.
… Mexico must pay the United States 1.75 million
acre-feet of water every five years. The current cycle ends
Oct. 25 but so far they have only sent 807,980 acre-feet to the
Rio Grande. … Under the treaty, the United
States must send Mexico 1.5 million acre-feet of water annually
via the Colorado River out West.
