The Mendocino County Inland Water and Power Commission will
host a workshop Monday about what the future holds for water
supplies in the wake of the decommissioning of the Potter
Valley Project. “The workshop is intended to help the
public better understand the facts, dispel misinformation, and
engage constructively in one of the most significant water
supply issues facing the region,” organizers said in a
statement. During the three-hour workshop, presenters from
the IWPC, Eel-Russian Project Authority and New Eel Russian
Facility will share factual updates and data about the future
of water in Potter Valley and areas in the Russian River
watershed.
Levels of hazardous chemical pesticides in the nation’s
groundwater are mostly on the decline, according to a new U.S.
Geological Survey report. That should be good news for the 75%
of Wyomingites who rely on private wells for drinking water.
But Jay Feldman, executive director of the nonprofit Beyond
Pesticides, said the study only looks at 22 pesticides — many
of which are no longer being used, and did not measure their
highly toxic replacements. “Some of the more modern chemicals
that are of concern,” Feldman said, “including Roundup,
glyphosate, 2,4-D, dicamba, paraquat — these are all highly
hazardous chemicals that are simply not evaluated in this
study.”
ForeFront Power is celebrating the completion of a 5-MW solar
project at the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant (EWWTP) in
Vacaville, California. There is also an energy storage system
on-site, but no details on the size of the system were
released. The EWWTP system will generate nearly 8.1 million kWh
of renewable electricity annually. Designed to offset the
annual electricity demand at the EWWTP facility, the solar and
storage system is projected to save the city more than $25
million in electricity costs. … The EWWTP solar and
storage system was developed through a 20-year PPA between the
city and ForeFront Power.
… Since a court-appointed receiver took over operational
control of [privately owned water company] Big Basin Water more
than two years ago, the system and its estimated 1,200
customers and 550 metered connections deep in the San Lorenzo
Valley have been pulled back from the brink of collapse. The
focus is now on expanding the system’s capacity and finding a
suitable buyer to keep things flowing smoothly for the
foreseeable future, said Nicolas Jaber, project leader with
Serviam by Wright LLP, which was appointed in 2023 by a Santa
Cruz County Superior Court judge to manage and stabilize the
company.
On Nov. 6, 2025, the Colorado River Indian Tribes Tribal
Council made history with a unanimous vote that fundamentally
changes how the Colorado River is recognized under tribal law.
The council granted legal personhood status to the Colorado
River itself, making CRIT the first community anywhere to
bestow such recognition on the 1,450-mile waterway.
… Under the new status, the Colorado River gains three
significant protections under tribal law. First, the river has
the legal right to be protected. … Second, current and future
CRIT tribal councils must consider the river’s needs when
making decisions. … Third, CRIT now has explicit legal
mechanisms to address the damage that climate change has
inflicted—and continues to inflict—on the Colorado River.
Feelings were running high—and interest was evident—as hundreds
of people turned out for our fall conference last week in
Sacramento. The lunchtime program featured a panel of five
experts representing water interests from across the state.
… Associate center director Caity Peterson set the stage
for the day’s conversation by describing the symbiotic
relationship between California and the federal government when
it comes to managing the state’s water. “We rely on the federal
government for critical data, services, the expertise of agency
staff—and for money. Now that partnership is changing, and we
don’t know quite yet where things are going to land,” said
Peterson.
Mountain meadows make up a small percentage of the land area in
the Sierra Nevada, but not as small a percentage as once
thought. This is exciting news as they have an outsized impact,
often functioning as high-elevation floodplains. As snow melts
in the springtime, meadows act like a sponge for cold
water, holding on to it until the drier months of the
year when downstream communities need water most. They also act
as a biodiversity hotspot for birds, fish, amphibians, wetland
plants, and insects. And a new model is revealing that there
may be more meadows in the Sierra than previously
estimated.
A major boost for Northern California’s struggling Chinook
salmon population is underway on Battle Creek, a tributary of
the Sacramento River. Earlier this month, biologists from the
Coleman National Fish Hatchery released approximately 263,000
juvenile late-fall Chinook salmon, with an additional 75,000
released last week. The timing couldn’t be better. A
series of winter storms is pushing higher flows through the
watershed, giving the young fish a better shot at making it
safely down the Sacramento River system and out to the Pacific
Ocean.
The board overseeing the state agency charged with finding new
water supplies for Arizona is poised to approve as many as five
water importation proposals. … Details of the five
projects — two involving desalination plants and the others
relying on wastewater treatment, surface water and an
unidentified third source — remain secret until the full board
of the agency known as WIFA meets Wednesday. But the Fort
Mojave Indian Tribe and the National Parks Conservation
Association say it’s pretty clear EPCOR plans to rely on a
controversial pumping project in the remote
southeastern California desert — an area protected by
environmentalists for decades.
Other groundwater and desalination news around the West:
As the San Diego-Tijuana region continues to get pounded by a
series of storms, a trash boom strung across the Tijuana River
channel is working flawlessly. Oscar Romo, project manager for
Alter Terra, the group responsible for the boom, says by the
time all the rain passes, the device is expected to have
stopped about 50 tons of trash from Mexico. … “That’s a
result of culture of just dumping — not always purposely done,
but the city lacks good trash collection. People are also aware
that the rain takes away the trash so previous to a rain they
dump and we get all that,” Romo said.
California’s water year is off to a great start, thanks in
large part to the past week’s stormy stretch for the state. The
water year began on Oct. 1 and continues until Sept. 30 next
year. Since the start of the water year, Sacramento has seen
nearly 5 inches of rain at Executive Airport. That is
more than three times the normal amount of
rain for this point in the season. Stockton and
Modesto have also more than tripled the normal rainfall through
mid-November. … The UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Lab
site in Soda Springs has recorded over 18 inches of
snow so far this water year. That’s right in line with
the normal value for mid-November.
Other weather and water supply news around the West:
It’s the time of year when storms begin rolling in again across
Northern California, bringing much-needed water to the dry
landscape. And that precipitation is causing life to rebloom
again in the region’s vernal pools, small temporary wetlands
caused by rainwater filling up depressions in the ground.
… Near Mather Field in Sacramento, the public has a
chance to see some of these vernal pools, which date back
between 50,000 and 200,000 years. David Rosen is the Director
of Educational Programming and Lead Naturalist with the
nonprofit Sacramento Splash. He recently spoke with
Insight Host Vicki Gonzalez about the uniqueness of the vernal
pool habitat, and how his organization is helping to bring that
science to the greater public.
Across the St. George area, lush green golf courses sprawl
among red rock cliffs, cacti and yucca. This water-strapped
region hosts 14 courses within a 20-mile radius. The sport may
have reached a limit in southwest Utah, though. The Washington
County Water Conservancy District’s board passed a new policy
this month that increases regulations on the top 1% of
commercial, institutional and industrial water users, including
water guzzling industries such as golf
courses, data centers and
bottling plants. Any new project that will use
9 million gallons or more of the district’s water must receive
additional review and approval from a committee of mayors and
managers representing the eight cities and towns the district
serves, according to the district.
The Supreme Court wants to know where the Trump administration
stands in a battle between Colorado and Nebraska over water
from a river that flows between the two states. In a long list
of orders issued Monday, the justices requested the solicitor
general’s views on Nebraska’s plea for help from the high court
in a challenge against Colorado for hampering the Cornhusker
State’s effort to build a cross-border canal along the South
Platte River. Nebraska sued Colorado in July, arguing that its
neighbor is in violation of a 1923 compact that allows Nebraska
to take nearly 65 million gallons of water per day during the
irrigation season between April and mid-October, and larger
volumes during the rest of the year.
The application window is now open for our
2026 Colorado
River Water Leaders program, which will run
from March through September next year. Our biennial
program is patterned after our highly successful California
Water Leaders program and selects rising stars from the seven
states that rely on the river – California, Nevada, Arizona,
Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico – as well as tribal
nations and Mexico to take part in the cohort. Acceptance to
the program is highly competitive. Get a program overview and
tips on
applying by attending our
virtual Q&A session on Dec. 10 at 12:30 p.m.
(Mountain Time) / 11:30 a.m. (Pacific Time).
Imperial Beach residents are reporting noticeable improvements
in water quality and odor as federal agencies work to address
the ongoing Tijuana sewage crisis that has plagued the South
Bay community for years. … The Environmental Protection
Agency reports it is ahead of schedule on infrastructure
upgrades designed to tackle the complex pollution problem. The
agency is seriously upgrading infrastructure, including
increasing the capacity of the wastewater treatment plant near
the border. Officials have also accelerated timelines for most
infrastructure projects, cutting project completion estimates
by roughly 12 years across all initiatives.
The Santa Margarita Groundwater Agency is undergoing a review
to make sure it’s not depleting its groundwater, as required by
state water regulations. … In 2023, when the California
Department of Water Resources reviewed the agency’s previous
self-evaluation, it noted lowering groundwater levels, degraded
quality and surface water depletion and recommended changes.
Recent reports on the basin have shown improved conditions,
despite the decrease in average rainfall in 2025. Groundwater
levels in the basin remain generally stable as a result of low
groundwater usage.
California farms applied an average of 2.5m lbs of PFAS
“forever chemicals” per year on cropland from 2018 to 2023, or
a total of about 15m lbs, a new review of state records shows.
… The Environmental Working Group nonprofit put together the
report. … The risk for uptake of PFAS is likely
higher in water-rich fruits and vegetables, because water
attracts the chemicals, and research has shown PFAS may
concentrate at dangerous levels in some produce. The chemicals
also pollute water supplies and present a higher risk to the
often low income and Latino farmworkers.
Chinook salmon have been seen making their way up Los Gatos
Creek in Campbell. This is all part of their late fall run,
which is taking place a little early this year thanks to recent
storms. … Experts say salmon numbers have been
increasing in recent years. “The numbers year-over-year have
been increasing,” South Bay Clean Creeks Coalition Executive
Director Steve Holmes said. “When we first started, we’d see a
couple dozen fish and that was it. As we’ve been working to
clean the waterway, we’ve seen incrementally the numbers
increasing.”
A colder storm is moving through western Nevada on Monday,
bringing rain to the valleys and new snow to the Sierra. …
Tahoe elevations could see 3 to 6 inches, with lighter amounts
at lake level. … Another Pacific system is expected to
reach the region by early Thursday, bringing
the next round of rain and Sierra snow. A powerful atmospheric
river moving down the California coast has produced heavy rain,
thunderstorms and high-elevation snow, and state officials say
at least six people have died in storm-related incidents over
the past several days. The system is raising concerns for
flooding and debris flows in areas burned by
recent wildfires. Several rounds of moisture are expected to
move through California into midweek, sending additional rain
and snow into parts of the state.
