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.
President Donald Trump and Gov. Gavin
Newsom are so in sync on California water that they’re in
a race to capture as much of it as possible — possibly even at
each other’s expense. Trump and Newsom’s relative
alignment on water issues has been good news all around
for farmers and cities that draw from both sides of the state’s
main water hub: the federally run Central Valley
Project and the aptly named State Water Project, which
is state-run. Water deliveries have ticked up, mostly as a
result of back-to-back wet years but also as a result of
loosened environmental rules on both sides, much to the chagrin
of environmental groups concerned about the collapse of
endangered fish populations in the sensitive Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta. But the feds have been steadily squeezing out
more water over the course of the past year — to the point
where state customers are getting worried that their own
supplies could be in jeopardy.
The U.S. Department of the Interior approved a major
California water project on Friday, clearing a key obstacle for
a massive new reservoir. The proposed 1.5 million
acre-foot Sites Reservoir would store water from the
Sacramento River and distribute it during droughts to several
parts of California, including the Sacramento and San Joaquin
valleys, Southern California and the Bay Area. Stretching
about 4 miles across and 13 miles north to south, it’s
meant to provide water to approximately 24 million people, and
it would mark California’s first major reservoir project since
1979. … The next steps in the project are
securing water rights from the state and getting local agencies
to officially sign off on funding.
… Complicating BOR’s mission, the Western States have
experienced ongoing historic drought over the last two decades.
Our work has identified multiple challenges in this area. For
example, we audited BOR’s cost allocation and ratesetting
processes for the Central Valley Project and
determined that BOR did not have internal controls sufficient
to ensure the accuracy of those processes, which is necessary
to ensure that costs are accurately allocated and that
construction and operations costs are recouped by the Federal
Government as appropriate.
The San Francisco Bay and Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta Estuary
(hereafter, Bay-Delta) is the largest estuary on the West Coast
of the United States. The Bay- Delta covers more than 1,600
square miles and drains a watershed of more than 75,000 square
miles, which is greater than 40 percent of California. The
region surrounding the Bay- Delta is home to about 10 million
people, and its habitats (fig. 1) support more than 800 plant
and animal species. The waterways of the Bay- Delta are the
central hub of California’s extensive freshwater delivery
system, supplying water to more than 27 million Californians
and 4 million acres of farmland in the Central Valley.
… This fact sheet focuses on research conducted by the
USGS in the Bay- Delta region, mostly within the past 5 years.
Utah has successfully bid to seize control of the defunct US
Magnesium plant, and it plans to donate the massive volume of
water it evaporated each year to benefit the Great Salt Lake.
The company declared bankruptcy in September following years of
insolvency, a catastrophic equipment failure in 2021 and after
it fell short on an environmental cleanup contract with federal
regulators. State regulators, meanwhile, denied the company’s
attempts to extend intake canals in 2022 and continue siphoning
away the Great Salt Lake’s record-low water. … US
Magnesium pumped more than 52,000 acre-feet of lake brine and
groundwater in 2024, according to state information.
A groundbreaking water research facility is taking shape along
the San Diego River, giving scientists access to something
they’ve never had before: real water, in real time. The
project, called the One Water Lab, is being developed by San
Diego State University. … What makes it unique is direct
access to multiple water sources, including the San Diego
River, stormwater runoff, and even wastewater. A dedicated
sewer line will allow researchers to work with wastewater
onsite before safely returning it to the system. Next door, a
massive biofiltration basin is already quietly doing critical
work. The system collects stormwater and treats it through
layers of specialized media, helping remove pollutants before
they reach the river.
I have been attending a series of four lectures at the Imperial
Valley College (IVC) about a dying Salton Sea, the largest lake
in California, and the potential catastrophic and environmental
threat it presents to the health and welfare of Imperial County
residents and communities. … One of the most salient and
distressing lectures were by UCR researchers whose ongoing
studies of the lake, and contaminants contained in the surface
water and in the middle of the lake bed obtained through sample
cores clearly show that in the near future if solutions are not
implemented soon, this region will experience dire health
consequences. –Written by Calexico Chronicle guest columnist Victor
Zazueta.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox is again calling on people of all faiths
to pray for precipitation, as the state’s snowpack nears a low
point in the modern era of snowpack collection tracking.
… His call comes as Utah’s snowpack remains at 5 inches
of snow water equivalent, or 60% of the median average for the
final week of January. It’s also only about one-third of the
median average for any given year, with only about two months
left before the normal peak. … Cox’s call for prayers
comes less than a week after federal hydrologists
released a discouraging first water supply outlook for the
year, where they pointed out that the state might see
equally below-average streamflows by the time the snowpack
melts this spring.
Reliable access to water remained a dominant factor in
agricultural land valleys in Kern County over 2025, according
to data compiled by brokerage and appraisal company Alliance
Ag. Sales data from the past 21 years clearly show a “SGMA
effect” that has driven prices down overall since the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was
passed in 2014. The good news is that it appears land values
dropped less steeply in 2025 and may even have bottomed out in
some water category districts. … So-called “white
lands,” meaning land outside of water district boundaries that
rely almost exclusively on groundwater, have lingered at
between $2,000 and $3,000 an acre for the past three years.
A program designed to get farmers to switch to new water-saving
technologies is showing signs of success, lawmakers on Utah’s
Capitol Hill were told during a budget hearing. During a
hearing of the Utah State Legislature’s Natural Resources
Appropriations Committee, Utah’s Department of Agriculture &
Food reported the agriculture water optimization program, which
helps farmers buy new irrigation equipment that’s more
water-efficient, has resulted in roughly 100,000 acre-feet per
year of savings. … On Utah’s Capitol Hill, lawmakers
have passed dozens of bills and spent roughly $1 billion on
water conservation measures to help the [Great Salt]
lake and the Colorado River.
… Through a series of blog posts, we will explore how
California might leverage AI to better manage our water
resources, while mitigating the risks of this rapidly evolving
technology. … One of the most popular types of AI for
water is machine learning, in which models learn and adapt
without explicit instructions. In California, the Department of
Water Resources and the State Water Resources Control Board
have applied machine learning models to a range of topics, from
modeling salinity to predicting drought impacts. … Perhaps
the most thorny challenge is that no one knows how AI reaches
its answers, including those who built the systems. Building
the data infrastructure, quality control, and trust in AI
outputs is critical, especially as its use in the water sector
becomes more commonplace.
… A measly 1% of Earth’s freshwater is on the surface, where
it can be seen and measured with relative ease. But beneath
that, measurements vary massively depending on water table
depth and ground porosity we can’t directly see. …
But a new groundwater map by
[Princeton University hydrologist Reed] Maxwell and colleagues
offers the highest-resolution estimate so far of the amount of
groundwater in the contiguous United States: about 306,500
cubic kilometers. That’s 13 times the volume of all the Great
Lakes combined, almost 7 times the amount of water discharged
by all rivers on Earth in a year.
Governor Spencer Cox (R-Utah) is traveling to Washington this
week for a high-stakes meeting on the future of the Colorado
River. Cox will meet on Friday with leaders from the seven
Colorado River states and Secretary of the Interior Doug
Burgum. … “Federal intervention will be necessary if the
states do not agree on a solution, and it will have winners and
losers, with Utah almost certainly on the losing side. The only
new Colorado River water available for Utah to divert is if
water users on the Wasatch front cut their water supplies or
Uinta basin farmers cut their water use more than they already
have,” [Utah Rivers Council Executive Director Zach] Frankel
said.
The Tahoe Water for Fire Suppression Partnership today
celebrated the enactment of the Fiscal Year 2026 federal
appropriations “minibus” funding package, marking a major
milestone for Lake Tahoe’s wildfire resilience and emergency
preparedness efforts. Included in H.R. 6938, the Commerce,
Justice, Science; Energy and Water Development; and Interior &
Environment Appropriations Act, 2026, this legislation provides
more than $20 million in federal funding for long-standing Lake
Tahoe Restoration Act (LTRA) priorities, including watershed
protection, forest health, aquatic invasive species mitigation,
water infrastructure improvements, and climate resilience
projects that reduce wildfire risk and protect water quality.
San Diego County supervisors will vote Wednesday on a $4.75
million funding proposal aimed at studying health impacts and
reducing toxic emissions from the ongoing Tijuana River
pollution crisis. The proposal, presented by the Ad Hoc
Subcommittee on the Tijuana River Sewage Crisis, includes
funding for epidemiological studies and a temporary
infrastructure fix at Saturn Boulevard, identified as a major
hotspot for airborne pollutants. … The funding, which
would be drawn from county reserves, includes $2 million for a
long-term health study, contingent on $4 million being raised
from other sources such as state and federal partners.
… Over the first few days of the year, water levels in the
San Francisco Bay Area hit record highs as the winter storms
collided with king tides. Marin County, one of the
hardest-hit areas, tallied over $4.3 million in
damage from coastal and inland flooding across its central and
southern zones, including a costly levee failure.
… Efforts to upgrade Santa Venetia’s levee
infrastructure, estimated to cost $25 million, have stalled for
years due to a variety of funding issues, including lukewarm
community support for a parcel tax. The county is still seeking
federal, state and local funding to build a new
floodwall. In order to conduct the project, the county
also still needs to purchase easements from all the people with
bordering properties.
… The Mid Klamath Watershed Council conducts generational
work. The mine tailings they restore to salmon habitat are from
multiple generations ago. The full remediation of those
tailings, and a return to a healthy fishery, might not take
hold fully until generations from now. The glaciers in the area
— if having glaciers in greater Humboldt is news to you, it was
news to me too — that have been there for generations may not
last another, but the climate MKWC plans for, one without
glaciers, will be there for many years. All of this region is
historically abundant, and it has every ability to continue to
be that, but it will be different in the future. –Written by Northern California Association of Nonprofits
volunteer Michael Kraft.
… California relies on a patchwork of local rules — like
“dry-out” periods that require boaters to wait before using new
waterbodies — to ward against the proliferation of invasive
aquatic species. These measures frustrate recreationists and
hurt rural economies. And, unfortunately, they have not stopped
the spread. … California must shift from a “closed-gate”
model to active suppression and coordination. We can use
promising tools — like UV disinfection systems and copper-based
treatments — to kill larvae at major water hubs before they
reach rural systems. These investments protect infrastructure,
fisheries and recreation economies. –Written by Calaveras County Supervisor Amanda
Folendorf.
In 1971, with an increasing global focus on protecting the
environment, a treaty was signed at the Ramsar Convention in
Iran to highlight the significance of wetlands and strive
toward conservation. … In California alone, the state has
lost an estimated 90% of its wetlands, according to the
California Water Quality Monitoring Council. … Watsonville,
having some of the largest freshwater wetlands on the Central
Coast, has naturally been taking part in World Wetlands Day for
17 years. It will do so again Feb. 7 with a cleanup and
planting at Struve Slough. Volunteers will be removing invasive
plants and installing native species, picking up litter and
learning about the local wetlands.
A massive public art installation along Table Mountain
Boulevard in Oroville, now stands as a testament to community
collaboration and environmental appreciation. The Feather River
Art Wall, led by Daniel Evers, founder and CEO of the
Rainforest Art Project, features 60 mosaic panels stretching
over 600 feet. The artwork visually narrates the
Feather River’s journey from the Sierra Nevada to the
Sacramento River. … The project, believed to be
the largest of its kind in the United States, involved more
than 2,000 participants, primarily students from local schools.
… Located near the Feather River Fish Hatchery, the
installation is open to the public.
