A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation Writer Matt Jenkins.
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… [D]ata centers’ everyday utility has been lost in a haze of
anxiety about new proposals. … In 2024, The
Washington Post released a report claiming that a 100-word
email written by ChatGPT consumes an entire bottle of water or
519 milliliters. … When Andy Masley, a former physics
teacher turned writer, saw this report, it didn’t sit well with
him. So he started looking into the article’s methodology, then
reached out to the researcher tapped for the calculation,
Shaolei Ren, an associate professor of electrical and computer
engineering at the University of California, Riverside.
… In a conversation with the Deseret News, Ren said
the Washington Post’s report should not be considered an
accurate measure of today’s artificial intelligence water
demands. … “[I]t’s just never correct to say, ‘AI uses this
much water,’” Ren said.
Palo Alto officials say the San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission is hoarding water based on unrealistic drought
projections, driving up rates and killing salmon.
… Utsav Gupta, a member of the city’s Utilities Advisory
Commission, raised the alarm about the SFPUC planning rates
based on a drought that hasn’t happened in 1,100 years,
according to tree-ring data. Other agencies like Valley Water
and the East Bay Municipal Utility District plan for a repeat
of the worst drought on record from 1987 to 1992, but the SFPUC
uses an unprecedented and severe 8.5-year drought, Gupta said
in a letter to council. The SFPUC sells water to cities
and water districts throughout the Bay Area from eight
reservoirs near Yosemite. Palo Alto buys about 7% of the water.
Golden mussels again dominated board discussions at several
water district meetings. … Eric McDaris, water resources
manager for Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District told
his board that the first step is for costs to hit $5
million. At that point the county would send a letter to the
state Office of Emergency Services that would potentially
result in some reimbursements to districts. … He said
they were finding 100% mortality in mussel testing bags, as
well as no mussel growth on settling plates. North Kern began
its golden mussel treatments with Blue Tech. Ram Venkatesan,
deputy general manager for the district reported they had 90%
mortality in the district’s testing bags, the remaining 10%
were starting to open up and would be dying off as well.
The search is officially underway for the inaugural leader of
the newly established Salton Sea Conservancy. Created under
California Senate Bill 583—introduced by state Senator Steve
Padilla—the state agency is looking for an experienced
executive officer to take the reins of an environmental rescue
mission decades in the making. It is a monumental task:
building durable partnerships, managing completed restoration
projects, and shaping the long-term strategy for a shrinking,
dust-yielding lake that threatens both public health and
ecological stability in the region. … According to the
state’s official job posting, the incoming executive officer
will command a monthly salary between $11,812 and $13,165.
… Local fights are flaring over proposed data centers in Kern
and Imperial Counties, some of California’s most
water-parched regions. The ratcheting up of tension
comes as two bills from Assemblymember Diane Papan that would
force earlier disclosure of data centers’ projected and
actual water use are winding their way through
the Legislature, with a first hearing in the Senate
scheduled next Tuesday. AB 2469 would require data
centers to provide more information on water supply, use and
planning before cities or counties can approve new or expanded
data centers. AB 2619 would require data centers to report
projected and actual water use as a requirement for renewing a
local business license.
Federal agriculture and interior officials convened a meeting
Monday at the White House with PG&E and a Southern
California water district over the future of the Eel River —
and the tribe with senior water rights on that river was not in
the room. The Round Valley Indian Tribes said Wednesday that
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins had called the meeting,
which also included Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and
representatives of the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water
District. The subject was the Potter Valley Project, a
hydroelectric complex on the Eel River. … Round
Valley has spent years at the negotiating table with Russian
River water users working out what the parties call the
Two-Basin Solution — a plan to allow salmon recovery on the Eel
while keeping water flowing to communities that had come to
rely on diversions from the north.
For the 18 ranchers who rely on the Maybell Irrigation
District’s canal to funnel water to their fields, the
127-year-old headgate that diverted flow from the Yampa River
meant a two-hour round trip through a rocky canyon whenever
they needed water. … Then legalized sports betting came
along, and, with it, millions of dollars for Colorado
water projects. … Since sports betting became legal
in May 2020, the state has collected more than $154 million in
taxes, and the Colorado Water Conservation Board has
funneled $140 million to various projects that preserve and
conserve Colorado’s precious water. Supporters say the
gambling money is a godsend for ranchers, fishermen, paddlers
and others who want to protect the state’s water and those who
depend on it for their livelihoods. Critics, however, say
legalized sports betting has come at a cost.
Facing a looming water crisis that could slash deliveries from
the Colorado River by hundreds of millions of cubic meters,
agricultural officials in Baja California are urging
local farmers to pivot toward climate-resilient crops.
The warning comes as the region braces for sharp reductions in
its water supply. According to Alfonso Cortez Lara, director of
the El Colegio de la Frontera Norte (Colef) in Mexicali, Baja
California expects its annual quota from the Colorado River to
be cut by 350 million cubic meters by 2027, La Voz newspaper
reported. Mónica Vargas Núñez, head of Baja California’s
Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (SADER BC), said
the state is working alongside Mexico’s federal agriculture
ministry and the National Water Commission (Conagua) to
mitigate the impact.
California has taken a significant step forward in its
long-term water storage agenda, with Governor Gavin
Newsom announcing that the California Water
Commission has approved an additional $268.9 million for the
Sites Reservoir project. The new tranche brings the state’s
total eligible investment through the Water Storage
Investment Program to $1.363 billion. … The
facility is seen as a cornerstone of California’s strategy to
cope with increasingly volatile precipitation patterns driven
by climate change, which have produced sharper swings between
drought and flooding in recent years. … Before funding
can be formally disbursed, the project must still
satisfy a series of voter-mandated conditions,
including securing financing, obtaining permits, completing
environmental review, and contracting with the relevant state
agencies.
… The Arizona Tri-University Recharge and Water Reliability
Project released [their] findings on June 17 — and included
some hopeful revelations. … Among the research products aimed
at facilitating improved watershed management are hydrologic
profiles for each of the state’s 51 groundwater basins, as well
as a statewide profile illuminating the overall balance of
inflows and losses. … Projected changes in temperature,
precipitation, recharge and runoff by the end of this century,
defined as 2060 to 2099, forecast a drier future for
already-parched Arizona compared with the historical period of
1981 to 2020. … Despite this grim overall outlook for
Arizona’s water future, the report struck a positive
note by compiling a matrix of recharge opportunities.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said a
package of fishery disaster relief for West Coast and Alaska
fishermen is on the way. NOAA announced the
allocation of $123.6 million in fishery resource disaster
funding, appropriated by Congress in the American Relief
Act, 2025. The money will go to address fishery resource
disasters that occurred in Oregon, California, the Squaxin
Island tribe in Washington State, and multiple Alaska fisheries
between 2019 and 2023. … The aid allocations apply to
previously declared fishery resource disasters, including: …
2024 California Sacramento River Fall Chinook and Klamath River
Fall Chinook ocean and inland salmon fisheries.
An area of the Sierra Nevada foothills is experiencing an
“unpleasant” taste and odor in their drinking water,
authorities said. The drinking water in Amador County has
an “earthy odor” but is safe to drink, the Amador Water Agency
said in a Facebook post. The unusual smell and taste is coming
from the algae bloom in the Ione Reservoir, which is the source
of drinking water for the city of Ione and surrounding
areas. The water agency, which serves approximately 10,000
customers, said the algae bloom this year was sudden because of
“hot water quickly following a mild spring.” “Water at the
bottom of the raw water reservoir that supplies Ione’s water
supply quickly warmed, cool water rose to the top, and the
water supply essentially ‘flipped’ in the reservoir. This can
often lead to the formation of elevated levels of taste and
odor,” the agency said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has announced $46 million in
funding to address persistent water quality problems along the
California-Mexico border, adding to approximately $38 million
the state has spent since 2019. The Tijuana River flows north
from Mexico into southern San Diego County carrying sewage,
trash and industrial waste, much of it originating from
Tijuana’s strained and ageing infrastructure. The New River
enters California near Calexico in similarly degraded
condition, draining northward into the Salton Sea some 100
kilometres away. Both waterways have created chronic public
health crises for border communities on the U.S. side. The new
funding, administered through the State Water Resources Control
Board, will be distributed via competitive grants opening June
11 through August 31.
In a crowded Democratic primary field to be Colorado’s next
attorney general, Hetal Doshi believes she stands out for
multiple reasons. … Doshi spoke about the Colorado River
Compact negotiations. … She called these negotiations
crucial, noting that, without an agreement between states, the
decision will be the federal government’s to make. If there’s
litigation over this, Doshi said, the case would immediately go
before the U.S. Supreme Court because of original jurisdiction.
… She said, as attorney general, she would work with towns,
municipalities, the governor’s office and the Public Utilities
Commission (PUC) to make sure any business coming to Colorado
that works in conjunction with data centers are properly vetted
and measured for their impact on water usage as well as energy
and utility rates.
President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Bureau of Reclamation
has landed at the agency. Aubrey Bettencourt, a Western
water and agriculture expert, is listed as principal
deputy commissioner for the bureau on Interior Secretary Doug
Burgum’s most recent order delegating leadership authorities.
The order also taps her to perform the duties of the
commissioner. The Interior Department did not immediately
respond to a request for comment. Last week, a White House
official confirmed to POLITICO that Bettencourt will be
nominated to lead Reclamation, although it has not yet been
sent to the Senate for consideration. The White House did not
immediately respond to a request for comment on the
nomination’s status.
The Ninth Circuit delivered a victory to the Yurok Tribe and
fishing advocates on Wednesday, affirming a lower court’s
finding that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation must comply with
the Endangered Species Act when operating the Klamath
Irrigation Project. In a 2-1 decision, the appeals panel
held the Endangered Species Act applies to the
government’s operation of the Klamath Irrigation Project and
that the rights of Klamath Project water users are subject to
the requirements of the ESA. The panel largely
focused on the applicability of Section 7 of the ESA — which
requires federal agencies to ensure that agency action “is not
likely to jeopardize the continued existence of any endangered
species or threatened species or result in the destruction or
adverse modification of habitat of such species” — on the
Klamath Irrigation Project.
Building on years of progress, Governor Gavin Newsom today
announced that California is advancing the state’s Sites
Reservoir project with an additional $268.9 million funding
increase from the California Water Commission — strengthening
long-term water storage and helping prepare for a hotter, drier
future. … Sites Reservoir is a key component of the
Governor’s water strategy and will capture water from
the Sacramento River during wet seasons and store it for use
during drier seasons – holding up to 1.5 million
acre-feet of water, enough to supply over 4.5 million homes for
a year. … With this additional funding, the Sites
Project is eligible for a total of $1.363 billion in Water
Storage Investment Program (WSIP) funding from Proposition 1
and Proposition 4.
The Utah State Legislature took some initial steps to begin
regulating large-scale data centers in the state. On Wednesday,
the legislature’s Economic Development & Workforce Services
Interim Committee voted unanimously to open a bill file
to define in Utah State Code exactly what a large-scale data
center is. … Celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary’s
plans for a massive data center in Box Elder County has sparked
significant public uproar. … “We want to make sure
there are clear guidelines to protect the environment,” Rep.
[Paul] Cutler told FOX 13 News. “To make sure that data
centers, especially in the Great Salt Lake Basin, the
Colorado River Basin, there are strict
guidelines on water use.”
NOAA scientists predict a 63% chance of a very strong El Niño
this fall and winter — but for Colorado, the drought
relief may be limited. El Niño is a buildup of warm
water in the tropical Pacific Ocean that can bring wetter
conditions to the Southwest and warmer weather to the
North. Kris Karnauskas, an associate professor in the
Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences at CU Boulder,
says Colorado sits in an area where El Niño’s impact is
often less reliable. “So the southern part of Colorado
does reach into the part of the US that typically gets a little
bit more moisture to the southwest, and to the northwest, it
could be a little bit warmer. The problem is the headwaters are
not in the south, so the impact on Colorado’s water supply, for
example, is not very robust,” Karnauskas said.
Four golden mussels were tucked tightly beneath the
bolt of a screw, hiding behind metal plates and a small flap on
the back of the boat. The stowaways latched onto the boat in
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, securing themselves with
byssal threads as thin as hair but strong enough for a journey
more than 150 miles long, all the way to the Lake Tahoe
Basin. Each was as small as a sunflower seed, but don’t be
fooled: Golden mussels are like an aquatic invasive species on
steroids, officials say, with power to destroy ecosystems,
decimate local fish populations, overwhelm water
infrastructure, litter beaches with shells and fuel algae
growth. They could turn Tahoe’s blues into greens.
