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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A House Natural Resources subcommittee this week will wade into
a fight over how to share water between farmers and tribal
fisherman in the Klamath Basin. The Subcommittee on Water,
Wildlife and Fisheries is set to take up Oregon Republican Rep.
Cliff Bentz’s H.R. 8259, the “Reclamation Project Consultation
Improvement Act.” Bentz introduced the bill earlier this month
in a bid to give irrigation districts and farmers more sway in
how flows are managed in areas where the Bureau of Reclamation
operates. That includes the Klamath Basin, where Reclamation is
rewriting the endangered species rules that govern its dams and
pumps. “Water is the lifeblood of the West, and the people
who rely on it deserve a voice in decisions that affect it,”
Bentz said in a statement, arguing that the Endangered Species
Act does not give those users sufficient input.
Utah natural resources officials say they met with local
leaders and water providers across the state this week to help
them prepare for what’s expected during what is normally the
state’s driest season, after determining that this year’s peak
snowpack runoff has officially passed. Peak runoff typically
begins about this time in the season; however, the Utah
Division of Water Resources reported Thursday that it has
“already come and gone” with statewide stream flow anticipated
to be half of the state’s median average. The current statewide
snowpack is the same as the median average for late May toward
the end of the normal runoff. That means the state’s
reservoirs aren’t expected to gain much, if anything, for the
rest of this year.
California’s largest agricultural water district wants to turn
a growing water crisis into an economic pivot. The Valley Clean
Infrastructure Plan aims to repurpose tens of thousands of
acres of water‑starved farmland in California’s San Joaquin
Valley into a massive solar‑and‑battery network, producing
power for the state’s grid, lowering energy costs for farmers,
and creating a new economic lifeline as groundwater rules force
fields to fallow. … Under California’s
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
aquifers in the San Joaquin Valley must reach sustainability by
the early 2040s — sharply limiting how much water farmers can
pump. District officials say that could force growers to fallow
hundreds of thousands of acres.
By some measures, Clear Lake is thriving. It holds more fish
per acre than any other lake in the United States and supports
a vast population of birds and other wildlife. But, by another
measure that has defined the lake for decades, Clear Lake is
deeply out of balance. Every year, harmful algal blooms take
over the lake’s surface, producing toxins that can make people
and animals who use the lake sick. The blooms shut down
recreational activities and strain local tourism. But now, a
group of scientists believe they have found a way to restore
Clear Lake’s water quality by tackling phosphorus, one of the
biggest drivers of the harmful algal blooms.
A Northern Arizona University professor and other researchers
are studying the monetary impacts of wildfires on local
communities. Wildfires can lead to issues like changes in the
water treatment process or the pollution of water due to
sediments, smoke and soot. That’s according to Siyu Pan, an
economics assistant professor at NAU. Her research came out of
a partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. One of her studies
found that communities with lower education and household
income are more open to wildfire exposure. “So my role as an
economist in this whole study initiative would be trying to
understand more specifically the monetary aspect of wildfires’
impact on people’s drinking water pollution,” she said.
San Jose Water has announced plans to test a new system that
could turn recycled wastewater into drinking water, part of a
broader effort to strengthen Silicon Valley’s long-term water
supply as drought and climate pressures grow across the western
United States. The private utility will launch a
proof-of-concept demonstration of direct potable reuse, or DPR,
an advanced treatment process that purifies recycled wastewater
to meet California’s recently adopted regulations for drinking
water use, according to SJW officials on Wednesday. … The
demonstration will rely on a mobile purification unit costing
about $3 million. Since the system can be moved around the
utility’s service area, utility officials said SJW will allow
testing in multiple locations while also helping educate the
public about the technology.
The Center for Coastal Climate Resilience (CCCR) at the
University of California, Santa Cruz, has partnered with The
Nature Conservancy to develop a new tool for funding wetland
conservation and restoration projects through verifiable
“Coastal Resilience Assets.” The value of these assets are
based on the storm and flood protection benefits that the
wetlands provide. Wetlands play an extremely valuable role
in storm protection. For example, mangroves reduced storm
damages from Hurricane Ian by more than $4.1 billion; and in
San Francisco Bay, the value of some marshes that serve as
flood protection infrastructure exceeds $350,000 per
acre.
Every year, billions of gallons of toxic pollution flow across
the U.S.-Mexico border down the Tijuana River, bringing
untreated sewage, hazardous industrial chemicals and trash into
the Tijuana Estuary and Pacific Ocean. This pollution has
led to years of beach closures in cities like Imperial Beach,
along with growing threats to public health from waterborne and
airborne pathogens. … With a large following on TikTok,
[high school teacher Jessica] Figueroa started creating videos
about what residents are experiencing. … In a recent TikTok,
she called on Governor Gavin Newsom to declare a State of
Emergency for the Tijuana River Sewage crisis. Earlier
this month, San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre also
urged Newsom to declare a State of Emergency due to high levels
of hydrogen sulfide in the South Bay.
Opponents of the Delta Conveyance Project said Thursday they
had only days to read a 200-page draft decision that, if
approved, would destroy their way of life. They stood before
the Delta Stewardship Council, asking for more time before it
opted to deny their appeals — a move that charts a course for
the massive water diversion project to proceed. … At its
regular Thursday meeting, it denied appeals to a certificate of
consistency from 10 different agencies. However, it chose to
remand two issues — about golden mussel habitat and a local
land use concern — to the state Department of Water Resources.
… The two intake facilities near Hood will handle 6,000
cubic feet of water per second. The 45-mile tunnel will carry
water south to pumping facilities, putting it in the Bethany
Reservoir and ultimately to Southern California.
A state judge ruled this week that the Arizona Department of
Water Resources illegally changed how it evaluates whether
there’s enough groundwater to build new homes in parts of the
Valley. The decision is a win for the Home Builders Association
of Central Arizona, which had sued. State law requires builders
in certain parts of the state — including the Phoenix area —
to prove there’s an assured hundred-year water supply
for houses being built there. But shortly after Gov.
Katie Hobbs took office, she released a report showing the
Phoenix Active Management Area was short of that. … Kathleen
Ferris, senior research fellow at the Kyl Center for Water
Policy at Arizona State University’s Morrison Institute for
Public Policy, joined The Show to talk about the ruling and its
potential impacts.
Last week, the federal government ordered emergency measures to
prevent water levels at Lake Powell from
falling so low that Glen Canyon Dam, which created the
reservoir, could no longer generate power or deliver water
downstream. Without this intervention, models showed that the
reservoir could drop below safe operating levels in August,
meaning that the river would not have a reliable way to flow
past the dam. This would threaten water and power supplies for
millions of people across the Southwest, as well as the flow of
water through the Grand Canyon. … In a meeting Tuesday, Upper
Basin state commissioners acknowledged the need for emergency
action but warned that this was not a long-term solution.
Despite the excessive rain and snow that California
received in April, drought has crept back into the
state, new data show. The U.S. Drought Monitor map
released on Thursday shows 65% of California as
abnormally dry and nearly 5% experiencing moderate
drought. Before now, the period from December
2025 through March 2026 marked the first time in 25 years that
California was entirely free of drought or even dryness on the
monitor. … Precipitation blanketed California during the
winter, but the record-breaking heat meant it either arrived as
rain or else melted away quickly. Preliminary data showed that
this year’s April 1 snowpack was the second lowest on record,
according to the California Department of Water Resources.
Nevada could see a longer, more dangerous and more expensive
wildfire season following the state’s warmest winter on record,
according to experts. This year’s winter has depleted
the Southwestern snowpack, increasing the likelihood
of wildfires in many areas and making for a potentially longer
peak wildfire season, experts said. “That time release
from the snowpack slowly through the summer season keeps soils
wet and vegetation green,” said Neil Lareau, a wildfire
researcher and an assistant professor of physics at the
University of Nevada, Reno. “When we lose the snow really early
or never develop that deep winter snow pack, things start
drying out a whole lot sooner,” Lareau told The Center
Square.
After four decades of piecing the San Joaquin River Parkway
together parcel by parcel, the state is preparing to hand six
of its properties — 874 acres in all — to California State
Parks, giving the long-stalled greenway its first permanent
institutional landlord. The new San Joaquin River Parkway
State Park is one of three that Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed
Wednesday under the “State Parks Forward” initiative.
… For the River Parkway Trust, which has run Sycamore
Island and other Conservancy lands under contract, the move
solves a looming problem. The Trust’s Sycamore Island operating
contract expires in June 2027.
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.
