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 Poway City Council unanimously approved a $441,000 payment
to the city of San Diego on Tuesday to resolve a years-long
billing dispute and establish an amended water rights agreement
with the city. The payment retroactively replaces water charges
made by San Diego to Poway for the calendar years 2017 to 2025,
according to a Poway staff report. The water agreement between
the two cities, which dates back to 1968, was intended to
resolve a protest related to San Diego’s prior downstream water
rights at Hodges Dam and to secure permits needed to build the
Poway Dam in 1971.
The Center for Biological Diversity sued the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service on Tuesday to force the agency to finalize
Endangered Species Act protection for the Clear Lake hitch.
These rare fish are found only in Lake
County and are said to be teetering on the brink of
extinction. The agency missed a legally required January
2026 deadline to issue a final decision on protecting the
species. The Center for Biological Diversity said the
delay underscores a broader failure: In 2025 not a single plant
or animal received Endangered Species Act protections, marking
the first time that has happened since 1981. … Each
spring, Clear Lake hitch migrate from their namesake lake into
tributary streams to spawn.
Los Angeles could be in for some light rain this weekend. A
storm system could bring intermittent showers to most areas
from late morning Saturday through the evening and overnight,
with rainfall totals expected to be under a quarter-inch and
probably one-tenth of an inch or less. … As Southern
California reaches the end of its rainy season, which typically
peters out in April, this water year thus far has been
relatively average. … But alarm bells have been ringing over
California enduring its second-worst snow drought in 50 years,
a sign of how rising temperatures from climate change are
worsening the West’s long-term water supply problems.
Butte County has launched a new website aimed at educating the
public about the impact of the Oroville Dam and how water from
the county is sent across California to support millions of
people and farmland. The site, ourwatertheirpower.org, is
intended to give residents what county leaders describe as a
clearer, more transparent look at one of California’s most
important water systems. It breaks down how water captured from
the Feather River is stored in Lake Oroville
and then sent hundreds of miles south as part of the State
Water Project. … The website also highlights economic
challenges local communities face, including what the county
estimates is an annual loss of more than $20 million tied to
the dam.
Eric Camberos used to walk along the Imperial Beach shoreline
with his mother every weekend. … The high school junior
is part of a recently formed coalition called the Youth Circle.
At the Imperial Beach Library this week, the group moderated a
discussion on the decades-long Tijuana River sewage crisis with
Camberos, county Supervisor Paloma Aguirre and Tijuana Estuary
Foundation researcher Jeff Crooks. … Some Youth Circle
members will travel to Sacramento next week for California
Ocean Day to lobby for state legislation that would update air
quality standards for hydrogen sulfide, commonly known as sewer
gas. The group will also push for the Saturn Boulevard hotspot
to receive Proposition 4 funding.
… Indigenous leaders at the United Nations Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII, are wrestling with a
paradox: how to harness AI’s protective capabilities without
fueling the extractive forces they’ve resisted for
generations. A new study published by Hindou Oumarou
Ibrahim, who is Mbororo and a former chair of the permanent
forum, highlighted some of the possibilities and challenges AI
presents for environmental protection, as well as the impacts
of the technology on Indigenous territories. These include
land-grabbing, water overexploitation and land degradation due
to its high energy, water and critical mineral needs.
The boards of Lower Tule River and Pixley Irrigation Districts
in Tulare County announced that their longtime legal counsel,
Alex Peltzer, is taking on the role of general manager. His
first day will be May 22. Peltzer replaces Eric Limas,
who resigned to become chief operating officer at the Friant
Water Authority. Lower Tule River is one of the largest
irrigation districts in the state, covering more than 104,000
acres with more than 150 miles of canals and Tule River
frontage in the southern portion of Tulare County’s flatlands.
It is known for playing an active role in local, state and
federal water policy. Nearby, Pixley covers nearly 70,000
acres.
Mandy Yeahpau has done a lot of whitewater rafting in Oregon,
but she never thought she’d get the chance to run the Klamath
River. That changed in 2024, when the river’s dams were removed
and the waterway ran free for the first time in generations,
allowing not only the salmon to return but also boaters, many
of whom jumped at the opportunity to explore the reawakened
river. On this week’s episode of the Peak Northwest
podcast, Yeahpau recounts her rafting trip on the Klamath
River, which she said was both a great adventure and a deeply
moving experience.
Representatives of the four upstream Colorado River states
called Tuesday for the Interior Department’s Bureau of
Reclamation to mediate talks among the Western states that are
warring over a water-sharing deal for the drought-riddled
waterway. “I think it’s worth us recommending that the
seven states and Reclamation engage with us in a mediated
process,” said Estevan López, New Mexico’s lead Colorado River
negotiator and a former Obama-era Reclamation commissioner.
“Every single state has said that litigation is not a good
outcome; we ought to put our money where our mouth is,” he
said, noting that talks have come down to the wire with rules
governing the river set to expire at the end of August.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District has
finalized its Record of Decision for the proposed Sites
Reservoir Project following completion of its National
Environmental Policy Act review. The Sites Reservoir Project is
a proposed off-stream water storage project located in Colusa
County, California, north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
The ROD documents the Corps’ evaluation of the project in
accordance with the National Environmental Policy Act and
informs future permit decisions under Section 404 of the Clean
Water Act and Section 10 of the Rivers and Harbors Act. The
Environmental Impact Statement for the project was prepared
under the leadership of the Bureau of Reclamation, with USACE
participating as a cooperating agency.
… Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted on X on Tuesday
that talks are underway with a Riverside County water district
to take over the Potter Valley hydroelectric project owned by
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. … The post immediately raised
a host of questions about a Southern California entity’s play
for a Northern California water project. … The news also
put more distance between parties who have for years labored to
ensure Eel River diversions for farms and
residents in Mendocino and Sonoma counties continue once the
dams are torn down and those behind more nascent attempts to
keep the dams, despite PG&E’s move to abandon them and
eventually see them torn down.
The Central Valley could soon be home to three new state parks
in what officials say is the largest expansion of California’s
state park system in decades. The proposed parks —
Feather River Park in Yuba County, San
Joaquin River Parkway near Fresno, and Dust Bowl Camp
in Bakersfield — would serve historically park-poor
communities. … The largest of the proposed parks,
Feather River in Olivehurst, Yuba County, sits on nearly 2,000
acres along the Feather River. It would be the first state park
in Yuba County, complete with a boat launch and riverside
beach, as well as a floodplain designed to take on
water in high-flow years. The San Joaquin River
Parkway in Fresno and Madera counties would join various
properties into an 874-acre state park directly upriver from
the city of Fresno.
The Water Resources Control Board voted to go forward with
sanctions against some Tulare County farmers – including up to
$12 million in pumping fees – after they failed to show
they had made enough progress toward stemming subsidence, among
other issues. More than 20 farmers from the Tule
subbasin, which covers the southern half of Tulare County’s
flatlands, appeared at the Water Board’s April 21
hearing on the issue. They made technical, tearful and even
angry pleas that they be exempted from the sanctions, including
the fees and a requirement that they report to the state how
much they pump beginning May 1. But, after a nearly
five-hour hearing, the Water Board voted unanimously to deny
the exemption requests.
U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff, both Democrats from
California, have introduced legislation to approve a water
rights settlement agreement involving the Agua Caliente Band of
Cahuilla Indians, the federal government, the Coachella Valley
Water District, and the Desert Water Agency. … The proposed
Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Water Rights Settlement
Act would ratify an agreement finalized in May 2025
that resolves long-running disputes over the tribe’s water
rights in the Coachella Valley. … Under the
settlement, the legislation would confirm the tribe’s federally
reserved water right of up to 20,000 acre-feet per year of
groundwater from the Indio Subbasin, along with surface water
rights in Tahquitz Creek, Andreas Creek, and Whitewater Ranch.
More plaintiffs, including a Catholic church, have joined the
lawsuit over “useless turf” regulations after the Nevada
Supreme Court ruled against an appeal. An amended class action
complaint filed in Clark County District Court on Tuesday shows
multiple community associations, homeowners and Our Lady of
Victory Catholic Church have been added to the case against the
Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA). The suit alleges that
SNWA’s enforcement of the state law to reduce non-functional
turf, part of larger water conservation efforts, has killed
many trees and destroyed property interests.
The latest flurries that dusted parts of the Sierra Nevada this
week are unlikely to do much to ease California’s snow
drought. Since April 1 — when the state measured its
second-lowest snowpack on record — the Sierra Nevada has seen a
few rounds of storms. This week’s system triggered winter storm
warnings in the range and brought up to two feet of snow at the
peaks. … “It’s not going to do enough to get you back to
a normal snowpack year,” said Chad Hecht, a meteorologist with
the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes at UC San
Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “Since we are in
April and approaching May, it will not last too long up in the
higher elevations. It’ll continue to melt off.”
Nearly one-fifth of Americans relied on drinking water systems
with elevated and potentially dangerous levels of nitrate in
recent years, according to a new study released Thursday. The
nonprofit Environmental Working Group examined test data
collected by water systems across the country between 2021 and
2023, the most recent data available. Water systems
serving more than 3 million people exceeded the federal safety
limit of 10 milligrams per liter over the three years, the
research and advocacy organization found. … [T]he report
found that 64% of all water systems that recorded nitrate
levels at or above the legal limit were in just five states:
California, Texas, Kansas, Nebraska and
Oklahoma.
The California State Water Resources Control Board now has
rules for distributing nearly $50 million in state bonds for
water quality projects that could help fix pollution in the
Tijuana and New rivers. Leaders in San Diego
and Imperial counties had been making their case for why their
regions should receive the full amount of funding that
Proposition 4 earmarked to clean up rivers and coastal waters
near the California-Mexico border. Proposition 4, which
California voters approved in November 2024, however, did not
specify who would get the funding and how much. On
Tuesday, board members unanimously approved a process to
decide.
The town of Kearny could use up its entire water allotment by
August if current usage continues, leaving the community about
90 miles from Phoenix in a crisis. The town’s water supply was
cut by roughly 85% due to ongoing drought conditions. Kearny
normally receives about 600 acre-feet of water, but is now
allocated only 77 acre-feet. The town uses an average of 280
acre-feet per year. “We will run out of water legally on August
1 at this point,” said Mayor Curtis Stacey. “There are 2,000
people here that I am responsible for.” The Gila
River, which flows from San Carlos Lake, serves as
Kearny’s water source. The supply is split among several
eastern Arizona communities. Little snowpack in Arizona and New
Mexico has left less water to distribute.
Sacramento River fish swimming through Redding will have more
places to rest, eat and hide from predators starting this
spring. Conservationists announced they’ll build rockwad homes
— tree and rock structures — for juvenile salmon and trout
to live until they migrate out of Shasta County. Rockwads
imitate debris clusters that once collected in the river. That
debris was “a refuge to nurture young fish at the start of the
life cycle,” said engineer Josh Watkins, Manager of the City of
Redding Water Utility. Replicating those habitats will “ensure
salmon and trout populations have a place to grow and thrive.”
