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.
Dust from California’s drying Salton Sea
doesn’t just smell bad. Scientists from UC Riverside found that
breathing the dust can quickly re-shape the microscopic world
inside the lungs. … Published in the journal mSphere,
the study shows that inhalation of airborne dust collected
close to the shallow, landlocked lake alters both the microbial
landscape and immune responses in mice that were otherwise
healthy. “Even Salton Sea dust filtered to remove live
bacteria or fungi is altering what microbes survive in the
lungs,” said Mia Maltz, UCR mycologist and lead study author.
The salmon season is drawing to a rapid close, but the fish are
in, and things should only get better! Salmon action on all
three rivers, the Feather, American and now the Mokelumne is in
full swing. Despite the full closure of the Sacramento River,
and the current low flows on the Feather, anglers are now
enjoying some of the best action of the season. … On an
interesting note, the San Joaquin River Restoration Program set
a record this year with 448 adult spring-run Chinook returning
to the system. This is the highest number of captured returns
since action began in 2014 and is a testament to the potential
success of well-managed restoration programs.
For years, San Diegans near our southern beaches have learned
to treat the Pacific with suspicion. On a day when the water
looks inviting, invisible pathogens may be drifting north from
Tijuana, where a water treatment plant struggles to contain its
outflow. … But oceanographers at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography have devised a way to tip the odds. The new
Pathogen Forecast Model translates the complexity of oceanic
physics (currents, winds, tides, waves) into something as
simple as a weather report. … The new model can project, up
to five days in advance, where contaminated water is likely to
travel and how risky it might be to take a swim at various San
Diego beaches.
The accurate detection of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances
(PFAS), often termed “forever chemicals,” presents a critical
and complex challenge for environmental science due to their
structural diversity, the lack of standardized methods, and the
need for highly sensitive equipment to measure trace
environmental levels. A study published in Environmental
Science and Technology reveals an innovative, deep
learning-based approach to overcome these obstacles. The
prevalence of background contamination and the sheer number of
distinct PFAS compounds further complicate the development of
universal detection protocols.
A controversial proposal to build a 14-mile underground tunnel
to transport water from Northern California southward got a
boost from the state Court of Appeals, which ruled that
preliminary work can begin on the project. Last year, a judge
in Sacramento County agreed with a collection of counties,
water districts, environmental groups and native tribes seeking
to stop the Delta Conveyance Project. The
judge found that preconstruction geotechnical work had to be
certified by a state agency before it could begin, and issued a
preliminary injunction preventing that work from moving
forward. But on Friday, a three-judge panel from the state
appellate court reversed that ruling.
Salmon on the Klamath River have crossed a
major threshold a year after four dams were
removed along the California-Oregon border, with the fish
reaching the river’s headwaters for the first time in more than
a century. Oregon wildlife officials said Friday that
multiple salmon were observed in Upper Klamath Lake, as well as
its major tributaries, which confirms the 300-mile migration of
salmon from the Pacific Ocean in Northern California to their
historical spawning grounds in southern Oregon.
Colorado is in its first year of responding to a zebra mussel
infestation in a big river, the Colorado River. State staff say
they have what they need to handle the high-priority needs —
they just need their funding to stay off the chopping
block. The fast-reproducing mussels, or their microscopic
stage called veligers, were first detected in Colorado in 2022.
Since then, the state’s Aquatic Nuisance Species team and its
partners have been working to monitor water, decontaminate
boats and educate the public to keep the mussels from
spreading. That effort logged a serious failure this summer
when state staff detected adult zebra mussels in the Colorado
River, where treatment options are limited.
The Interior Department on Monday revealed it was planning more
than 2,000 layoffs that are now paused under a court order,
with the scheduled cuts spread throughout its bureaus and
offices. The department shared the details of its plans
after a federal judge ordered the disclosure as part of her
temporary freeze on many reductions in force during the
government shutdown. … [The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service] is looking to lay off 143 covered
employees, or about 2% of its overall workforce. Its Migratory
Birds, Conservation Investment and Fish and Aquatic
Conservation offices would see the most significant cuts. …
[The Bureau of Reclamation] is
planning to shed 30 covered employees. Those cuts are set to
occur in the Pacific Northwest, at the Hoover
Dam and scattered across other locations.
An atmospheric river taking shape over the Pacific could bring
rain and mountain snow along Interstate 80 and other Sierra
routes late this week, according to the National Weather
Service. Forecasters in Sacramento said confidence continues to
rise in a “potent atmospheric river event” developing between
Friday and Monday. Snow levels begin above 8,000 feet Friday
and drop to near pass level, including Donner, later in the
weekend. The storm is being driven by a deepening trough from
the Gulf of Alaska, which may funnel subtropical moisture
directly into Northern California.
Water agencies all over California are experiencing water
affordability and cost increase challenges. We spoke with Dan
Denham, general manager of San Diego County Water Authority, to
learn how his agency is working to keep prices affordable for
its customers. … [Dan Denham:] Water markets are
absolutely part of the solution. They should have been 20 years
in the making. … [T]here are barriers, including compacts and
court decrees between different parties, that make it difficult
to set up a water arrangement. But we can get around that with
cooperative agreements.
The United States has been at the nexus of a data center boom,
as OpenAI, Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others invest hundreds
of billions to build the giant computing sites in the name of
advancing artificial intelligence. But the companies have also
exported the construction frenzy abroad, with less scrutiny.
… As data centers rise, the sites — which need vast
amounts of power for computing and water to cool the computers
— have contributed to or exacerbated disruptions not only in
Mexico, but in more than a dozen other countries, according to
a New York Times examination.
… This megadrought—defined as a multidecade period of extreme
dryness—has been ongoing for 25 years across the southwestern
United States and northwestern Mexico. Scientists say it’s
driven by anthropogenic climate change, supercharged by
greenhouse gases. … This drought is impacting agriculture,
industry, and water availability for people’s everyday use, but
it has also hit animals hard. Its impacts are particularly
visible in birds, who have lost habitat, struggled to find
food, and in some cases have begun to decline dramatically.
Colorado oil and gas companies used toxic chemicals prohibited
under state law in operations involving dozens of wells on
either side of the Rocky Mountains over at least the last 18
months, a Capital & Main investigation found. Disclosures to
the state’s fossil fuel regulator showed operators combined
banned substances with water, sand and other chemicals as part
of a process known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.”
… Physicians and environmental groups say that
it’s important to disclose such substances because drilling
machinery penetrates aquifers without any concrete casing
around the bit, potentially exposing
groundwater to contamination.
The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has approved a renewed
15-year water supply agreement with the Marin Municipal Water
District that will run through 2040. The new agreement updates
how Russian River water is delivered to Marin Water and
includes a one-time $12.5 million payment from Marin Water to
support regional water resiliency projects. … The
deal also recognizes Marin Water’s interest in studying a new
pipeline connection from the North Marin Aqueduct to a Marin
Water reservoir to store locally available winter water for
future drought use.
The San Diego Foundation has awarded more than $650,000 in
grants to 18 nonprofits in the U.S. and Mexico as part of the
foundation’s Binational Resilience Initiative. Much of this
year’s funding focuses on community-led projects in the Tijuana
River watershed and Cali-Baja Coast to address sewage pollution
and cross-border water management that have threatened public
health and environmental resilience. This year’s grants range
from $15,000 to $103,000 and will go to nonprofits to monitor
water quality, restore the watershed and improve coastal
resilience.
The Tahoe Institute for Global Sustainability through the
University of Nevada, Reno’s Lake Tahoe Campus is gaining
momentum after its launch in early June. … In its Tahoe
focused research, a number of institute scientists are
furthering insight on clarity, wildfire effects on landscape,
stream ecology and its connection to the lake’s nearshore
areas. The institute has also developed the Tahoe Environmental
Observatory Network, which offers an information and
interactive story-map explaining intricacies of the basins’
watershed, streams and lake. It will eventually offer real time
and publicly available data from sensors placed around Lake
Tahoe.
As California enters a new water year, the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) has released two new groundwater reports – the
Semi-Annual Groundwater Conditions Update and a draft of
California’s Groundwater Update 2025– that show measurable
progress towards achieving groundwater sustainability in
California. Combined, the two reports along with DWR’s
California’s Groundwater Live (CalGW Live) incorporate
historical data with near real-time insights to help
groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs) monitor conditions
in their region and adjust custom-tailored solutions to meet
sustainability objectives defined in their groundwater
sustainability plans and the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA).
On October 10, 2025, Governor Newsom signed Senate Bill 394 (SB
394) into law. This legislation is designed to strengthen
existing legal protections for utility service providers
against utility theft, particularly water theft resulting from
the unauthorized use or tampering of fire hydrants. Under
existing California law, a utility provider may bring a civil
action for damages against any person who diverts, attempts to
divert, or aids in utility theft. In certain cases, such as
where a device was used to steal the utility, or when a meter
is tampered with, there is a rebuttable presumption that the
party who controls the premises or receives the direct benefit
of the utility is liable for damages.
Climate disasters, from wildfires to frequent floods, have
accelerated in recent years – emphasizing the importance of
being prepared and planning ahead for extreme weather events.
That is why for California Flood Preparedness Week, which runs
from October 18 through October 25, the California Department
of Water Resources (DWR) is calling on all Californians to
understand the risk posed by flooding and how to respond during
an emergency.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) submitted a
Certification of Consistency with the Delta Plan for the Delta
Conveyance Project on October 17, 2025. According to Delta
Stewardship Council regulations, materials relevant to this
certification will be posted on their website (https://coveredactions.deltacouncil.ca.gov),
if the Certification is appealed, an appeal hearing will be
held by the Council followed by the issuance of a determination
on the appeal. However, to support consideration of these
materials by the public, DWR has prepared the Delta Conveyance
Project Certification of Consistency Explainer.
