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.
Fifty years ago, Colorado realized it had made a mistake. Its
rivers, once alive with the movement of playful otters cutting
through currents and pressing their tracks into sandbars, had
gone quiet. “They were killed out,” said Colorado Parks
and Wildlife Species Coordinator for Wolverine, Lynx and River
Otter, Robert Inman. “That was largely due to no regulations
being in place on the taking of wildlife during the 1800s-1900s
and pollution from mining tailings affecting fisheries — and
therefore — otter food.” Now, through a new project on
iNaturalist, CPW is asking Coloradans to help document where
otters are showing up across the state.
For some 40 years, churchgoers at Our Lady of Victory Catholic
Church have enjoyed a grassy oasis tucked off Windmill Lane in
southeast Las Vegas. The towering trees and green grass keep
them cool in blazing summers. … The church is perhaps
the most unique plaintiff to join a high-profile
lawsuit against the water authority’s enforcement of the
state law. It is meant to rein in turfgrass irrigation — the
single-largest use of water from Lake Mead that cannot be
captured and recycled through Southern Nevada’s
robust wastewater purification and delivery systems.
An invasive species of mussel is becoming more of a concern in
California as it overtakes ecosystems and impacts
infrastructure, according to officials. Golden mussels, native
to China and Southeastern Asia, were first detected in October
2024 by California Department of Water Resources staff who were
conducting routine operations in the Port of Stockton. … On
Tuesday, San Joaquin County officials declared an emergency
over the threat posed by the golden mussel. All five county
supervisors voted in favor of the declaration during Tuesday’s
board meeting, including Supervisor Paul Canepa who described
the situation as “out of control.”
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from the Los Angeles District
gave a presentation about the Salton Sea Aquatic Ecosystem
Restoration feasibility study during a community meeting on
Thursday, April 30. Miguel Hernandez, a public affairs
officer at the California Natural Resources Agency for the
Salton Sea Management Program, explained that the study “is
looking into future long-term restoration for the Salton
Sea.” He asked participants to take a survey ranking four
objectives in order of importance regarding the Salton Sea:
restoring habitat for birds and fish, creating jobs and
economic opportunities, improving recreational access and
reducing dust to improve air quality. Corrie Stetzel, the
planning lead from the Corps, explained that the state of
California has a 10-year plan to improve the Salton Sea.
Utah’s water landscape doesn’t look good. After an
abysmally low winter for snow, 100% of the state is already in
drought. Plus, negotiations on the future of the
Colorado River are still going nowhere. Gov.
Spencer Cox thinks that grim reality could actually lead to
more cooperation on the future of the Colorado River.
… He’s hopeful that last winter’s record-low snow could
bring the states that share the river together after months of
deadlock and the failure to reach an agreement by a February
deadline. The upstream states of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming
have butted heads for years with Arizona, California and Nevada
over who should cut back their water use as the West has faced
a megadrought for the last quarter century.
… For more than half a century, California’s leaders have
debated rerouting water around, rather than through, the
network of rivers, farmland and marshes of the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta. Newsom’s version would pipe Sacramento River
water through a 45-mile bypass to a reservoir on the California
Aqueduct. … [T]he Delta Stewardship Council weighed
opponents’ many challenges to the project and last week voted
six-to-one to require the Department of Water Resources to
address just two of them. … Far bigger obstacles
loom: court rulings that have upended California’s financing
plans, critical water rights decisions still to come from state
regulators, and water agencies that have yet to decide whether
the tunnel’s water will be worth the cost.
For the first time, growers in one of California’s most acutely
water-stressed areas have to reveal how much
groundwater they are pumping. For generations, they’ve been
free to take water from wells on their own land without
reporting to it the state. The State Water Resources Control
Board ordered landowners in parts of the San Joaquin Valley
around Corcoran and Pixley to submit detailed reports by
Friday. The Tule and Tulare Lake groundwater subbasins were put
on probation by the board in 2024 because they weren’t doing
enough to control excessive pumping, which has caused levels to
plummet. By collecting the data, the agency is preparing to
charge landowners fees — $300 for each well plus a usage fee of
$20 for each acre-foot of water.
Governor Gavin Newsom announced the completion of California’s
first solar-covered canal in the Central Valley [Turlock],
launching a first-of-its-kind pilot project aimed at
saving water, generating renewable energy and
reducing maintenance costs. Known as Project Nexus, the $20
million initiative places solar panels directly over irrigation
canals to test whether the approach can help California better
manage water resources while expanding clean energy
production. State officials say the project is designed to
evaluate whether covering canals with solar infrastructure can
reduce water lost to evaporation before it reaches farms, homes
and businesses.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has approved a plan to refill
Truckee reservoirs early. The approved plan would temporarily
modify operations at Prosser Creek, Stampede and Boca dams. The
change is considered a major deviation from the 1985 Truckee
Basin Water Control Manual, and allows reservoirs to begin
refilling in mid-March, around a month earlier than usual. The
Bureau of Reclamation says the earlier refills enable
the capture of additional spring runoff without increasing
flood risk under current conditions. They say that as
a result, reservoirs are more likely to fill completely, or to
reach higher levels than under standard operations.
Across the country, data centers are drawing backlash from
across the political spectrum as Americans raise
concerns over drained water supplies and spiking energy
costs. The recently unveiled Stratos data center in
Box Elder County, backed by celebrity investor Kevin O’Leary,
shows many Utahns share the same sentiment. Days after a
crowd packed the historic courthouse in Brigham City to decry a
potential vote that would allow the project to proceed, the
Utah Division of Water Rights received a deluge of protests
over a water rights application submitted by the developer for
the project, totaling nearly 400 as of Thursday evening.
For the first time in four years, commercial salmon boats are
heading back out on the California coast. The California
Department of Fish and Wildlife announced that both commercial
and recreational ocean salmon fishing have officially reopened
for 2026 after three consecutive years of closures. The
shutdown, which began in 2023, was driven by historically low
Chinook salmon populations linked to drought, poor river
conditions and habitat degradation. The reopening was
made possible by significant improvements in Sacramento River
fall-run and Klamath River fall-run Chinook stocks.
The Klamath River runs in particular have benefited from the
removal of four dams, the largest dam removal project in
American history.
Before the Pacific Coast Highway,
before Malibu and before
multimillion-dollar beachfront homes, Topanga Creek flowed
freely down through the Santa Monica Mountains. The water,
swelling and subsiding with the seasons, eventually dumped out
into a large lagoon, which in turn drained out to the Pacific
Ocean. Historically, the lagoon covered 30 acres of
coastal wetlands. But over time, the brackish water slowly gave
way to homes, beach parking lots and the Pacific Coast Highway.
Today, less than 1 acre of the lagoon remains.
… In Malibu, a last-ditch effort is underway to
save and expand the Topanga Lagoon, which contains
some of the last remaining coastal wetlands in the state.
Despite demands from San Diegan officials that Gov. Gavin
Newsom declare a state of emergency for the
Tijuana Rivercrisis, the governor’s position stands —
the crisis remains a federal issue. … On April 9,
Aguirre took to Instagram to plead with the governor to declare
a state of emergency over the worsening sewage crisis in the
Tijuana River. The long-brewing problem is part of a broader
crossborder watershed in which untreated wastewater, sediment
and trash regularly flow into California from Mexico, impacting
public health and the environment, the California State Lands
Commission has said. But Newsom’s office has long argued
that the federal government is responsible.
In a study recently published in the Journal of
Geophysical Research: Planets, researchers from the University
of Arizona used drones equipped with ground-penetrating radar
to learn more about two debris-covered glaciers in the US.
These so-called ‘buried glaciers’ bear striking resemblance to
buried ice deposits observed on Mars and could therefore guide
the search for water on the Red Planet. … These kinds of
glaciers only make up 5% of glaciers globally, but
they’re found in mountainous regions across the world,
including in warmer areas such as Colorado and
California, where debris insulates the ice underneath
and stops it from melting. On Mars, similar-looking,
debris-covered glaciers are found in mid-latitude
regions.
Dozens of Mountain View homes have gone nearly a week without
safe drinking water after a construction mishap
contaminated a city water main, forcing families to
cook, clean and care for children using bottled water. …
[T]he contamination incident … began last Friday when a
slurry mix came into contact with a water main that was
undergoing repair and upgrade work, causing tests to come back
positive for coliform bacteria. City officials have not said
whether the contamination was caused by contractor error or
whether proper safety protocols were followed. While limited in
scope, the outage has highlighted how a single infrastructure
failure can leave residents without one of the most basic
necessities: safe drinking water.
The January 2025 fires in Los Angeles County exposed a critical
gap: water systems were never designed to fight large-scale
wildfires. As fire risks intensify, communities are asking what
the role of water systems should be in extreme events moving
forward and how these systems can remain reliable, affordable,
and resilient. On January 23, 2026, the UCLA and UC ANR Urban
Water Supply + Fire working group — organized by the
Sustainable LA Grand Challenge, Luskin Center for Innovation,
and the California Institute for Water Resources — convened 54
experts to examine a critical and underexplored issue: how to
finance water systems as fire risks change and intensify. The
workshop organizers have just released a report, Water Supply
Systems, Fire, and Finance, synthesizing key insights from the
convening.
The San Joaquin County Board of Supervisors declared a local
emergency Tuesday, April 28, as the invasive golden
mussel continues to damage infrastructure and threaten water
systems across the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The
board of supervisors approved the proclamation after hearing an
update from county staff and members of an ad hoc committee
formed to respond to the infestation, which was first detected
at the Port of Stockton in October 2024. … [District 2
Supervisor Paul] Canepa said officials first thought the
invasive golden mussel was a boating issue, but it became “way
more than a boating issue.” He referred to the Delta as “ground
zero” for the infestation in California, which now affects
agriculture, municipal water systems and flood protection
infrastructure.
… A winter of record-low snowfall in much of the U.S. West
means less snowmelt to feed the rivers and lakes that supply
the region’s water. It has sent a clear message to communities,
agricultural producers and businesses — everyone must live with
less. Cities are implementing outdoor watering restrictions.
Denver Water announced drought restrictions on March 25 — the
earliest in their history. Salt Lake City has urged residents
to voluntarily cut back and mandates that government offices
do. Cities such as Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Albuquerque
already have year-round seasonal watering rules. … Even
where restrictions don’t apply, growing your own produce can be
done in a water-wise way, even in a thirsty desert.
The cities of Phoenix and Tucson are setting up a new system
for sharing water among cities, towns and other water users in
Arizona. City officials are framing it as a way to help keep
cities around the state from going dry in the face of a
shrinking Colorado River. The program, which will be called the
“Secure Water Arizona Program” or “SWAP” will create an
emergency reserve of water and connect cities that are
interested in buying and selling water from other cities and
businesses. … SWAP is designed to be a completely
voluntary program that can help cities and towns facing water
cutbacks.
Members of the House Natural Resources Committee debated
Wednesday whether to give local water contractors input into
Endangered Species Act reviews, as shrinking water supplies
across the West increasingly put agricultural and environmental
needs at odds. The Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and
Fisheries reviewed H.R.8259, the “Federal Water Projects
Consultation Improvement Act,” which would require federal
agencies to involve local contractors during ESA biological
assessments, which can dictate when and how much water flows.
The bill, introduced by Rep. Cliff Bentz (R-Ore.), focuses on
the Bureau of Reclamation which operates across 17 western
states. That includes the Klamath Basinin Oregon [and California], where Reclamation
is rewriting the endangered species rules that govern its dams
and pumps.
