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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.
Please Note:
Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing.
We occasionally bold words in the text to ensure the water connection is clear.
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.
A long-running effort to divert water from the Eel
River into the Russian River basin is
under review as Pacific Gas & Electric Co. moves forward with
plans to decommission the Potter Valley Project, a 9.2-megawatt
hydroelectric facility in Northern California. PG&E is
evaluating proposals from entities interested in owning and
operating the project’s dams, a process expected to take years
and carry significant implications for regional water supplies
and fish habitat. … PG&E said the only proposal it
has received so far is from “Sonoma County Water Agency, Inland
Water & Power Commission of Mendocino County,
Round Valley Tribes, Humboldt County, Cal Trout, Trout
Unlimited and California Department of
Fish & Wildlife,” and said it continues to work
with those groups.
Utah cities, ski resorts, farmers and scientists tracking and
preparing for the fallout of this year’s lowest-ever
snowpack and winter drought are already feeling the
effects. … Hosted by the nonprofit Great Salt Lake
Alliance, panelists discussed the wide-ranging implications for
Utah’s economy and environment, and the realities of a future
with less water. … The Monday event followed an
announcement from state water managers last week of a “bleak
outlook” for the next few months. … Also at risk: the
groundwater supply and several springs that are already running
low, said Bethany Neilson, director of the Utah Water Research
Laboratory at Utah State University in Logan.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced
$90 million in grant funding aimed at improving drinking water
and wastewater infrastructure serving Tribal Nations and rural
communities across the United States. … According to the
agency, the funding will be split between targeted investments
and broader technical assistance programs. A total of $30
million will be deployed in collaboration with the Indian
Health Service to advance water infrastructure projects in
Tribal communities. These efforts include expanding access to
centralized drinking water and wastewater systems,
rehabilitating aging infrastructure, reducing contaminants to
meet regulatory standards, and replacing deteriorated sewage
collection and treatment facilities.
When most people hear the word “mussel,” they probably think of
seafood, not a growing environmental threat. But in Colorado,
state officials are urging the public to pay attention to a
different kind of mussel entirely: invasive freshwater species
that can multiply rapidly, disrupt aquatic ecosystems, and
damage critical water infrastructure. Colorado Parks and
Wildlife’s (CPW) aquatic nuisance species program focuses on
preventing the spread of invasive organisms like zebra mussels,
quagga mussels, and golden mussels. Zebra and quagga mussels
have been present in the United States since the late 1980s,
while golden mussels were first detected in California in 2024
and are spreading there quickly. Golden mussels are not
currently known to be in Colorado, but officials say the threat
is real.
The State Water Contractors hailed the Delta Stewardship
Council’s certification of the Delta Conveyance Project, while
a coalition of opponents argued the agency ignored the
project’s flaws for political expediency. The council
determined that the project is consistent with the Delta Plan,
but also sent two issues back to the state Department of Water
Resources to demonstrate consistency with a Golden Mussel
mitigation strategy and the siting of planned Delta Conveyance
Project facilities in relation of farmland designated for use
for recharging recycled water. … Restore the Delta, a
coalition of tribes, environmental interests, fishing advocates
and others, said the decision “ignores state law, threatens
important tribal cultural sites and the health of the Delta
ecosystem.”
Thousands of homeowners have now joined a lawsuit against the
Southern Nevada Water Authority and the grass removal program.
In January, several local residents sued the agency, arguing
the SNWA’s grass removal mandates lack proper legal and
constitutional oversight. … In total, the HOAs and
entities in this case represent more than 10,000 homes and more
than 25,000,000 square feet of grass. They also claim that
since the grass removal mandate was put into place, “to date,
more than 4,000 trees are now diseased, or dead, some of which
have toppled and damaged property.” … They also
previously argued while SNWA has stated the reason for the
grass conversion is conservation, agency experts say there is
enough water to last until the 2070s.
A group of states that use water from the Colorado River is
proposing a new way to break the deadlock in negotiations about
the river’s future: bringing in a moderator. After states blew
through a mid-February deadline for a new plan about sharing
the river’s shrinking supply, the Upper Basin states of
Colorado, Utah, Wyoming and Utah are calling
for state leaders to return to the negotiating table and bring
a moderator into the room. “I really would like to see the
swords laid down,” Becky Mitchell, Colorado’s top water
negotiator, told KJZZ. “Particularly the threats of litigation.
That creates a scenario where it’s really hard to be creative.”
A plan to install a tunnel beneath a 45-mile stretch of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta has moved closer to final approval
after a state agency determined most of the project’s
certification was consistent with a regulatory plan. … The
Delta Stewardship Council voted 6-1 Thursday to return two
issues related to the Delta Conveyance Project back to the
California Department of Water Resources for further review,
while rejecting most appeals filed by 10 groups challenging the
project’s compliance with policies. … The decision
allows the state to continue advancing permitting for the
proposed 36-foot diameter tunnel, which is intended to
move excess rain and flood water through the Delta and
deliver it directly into the State Water Project.
As California heads into its dry season, its major
reservoirs are in good shape, with statewide
storage on Friday estimated to be 20% above
normal for this time of
year. Robust rainfall in April has given a
slight boost in places — especially welcome after
an unusually dry March. The state’s overall water outlook
remains complicated, however. The Sierra snowpack,
which effectively functions as a frozen reservoir, is far below
normal. The Colorado River system, which is critical
for Southern California’s water supply, is also struggling amid
a deepening drought and below-average snowfall in the
Rocky Mountains. … The largest reservoir in California,
Shasta Lake, was at 91% of total capacity through Thursday,
which is 9% above its historical average.
The Arvin-Edison Water Storage District found invasive golden
mussels in its system last December, quickly approved a $2.5
million budget and by the first week of April had already
completed a 30-day treatment. … Time is of the essence
as golden mussel breeding ramps up with the temperature. The
mussels are tiny but cling to equipment and inside pipes,
building on each other until pipes are clogged and equipment
fails. … Meanwhile, at its April 23 meeting, the Kern
County Water Agency approved spending $350,000 to hire a
consultant to develop a mussel treatment plan. This comes more
than a month after KCWA staff notified the board that they had
already been battling an ongoing, significant infestation in a
key piece of the county’s water infrastructure, the Cross
Valley Canal.
… The California Chamber of Commerce has collected more than
945,000 signatures — nearly twice the 546,651 required — to
qualify a measure on the November statewide ballot to overhaul
the California Environmental Quality Act, commonly known as
CEQA. On Monday it will begin turning them in to elections
officials. The changes, if approved by a majority of
voters, will help lower housing, energy and water costs,
supporters say, by cutting burdensome regulations and making it
easier to build everything from homes to reservoirs to solar
farms. Environmental groups call the measure a giveaway to
developers and are lining up to fight it.
The Trump administration is urging PG&E to halt plans to
remove two aging Northern California dams that play a crucial
role in the region’s river system. … The Trump
administration’s argument was that removing the dams would cut
off critical water supply for farmers and rural communities. In
December, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins urged the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject PG&E’s plan.
FERC has jurisdiction over the facility as the federal agency
that licenses hydropower projects. The Potter Valley Project
included a hydroelectric powerhouse until 2021. Now, Rollins is
saying a potential buyer has emerged for the century-old
complex.
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.
