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.
San Diego is backing away from plans to rebuild the Lake Hodges
Dam, thanks to ballooning cost estimates and the county
water authority announcing it’s no longer willing to pay half
the cost. The state declared the dam unsafe two years ago,
demanded the water level be lowered because of flood risk and
ordered San Diego to accelerate efforts to rebuild the
106-year-old dam. The city was on track to begin the rebuild by
the end of 2029 — until a recent analysis determined the
estimated costs had climbed from $275 million to somewhere
between $474 million and $697 million. That new 386-page
analysis, which was conducted by an outside consultant, has
prompted the cash-strapped county water authority to withdraw
its support for the rebuild.
…[A] study recently published by University of Nevada, Reno
researchers finds that increasingly severe wildfires and drier
conditions in places such as Lamoille Canyon are threatening
water quality, fish and other aquatic life in streams.
… The researchers found that with drier conditions, even
less severe fires can cause lasting harm to water quality and
aquatic habitat. Wildfire ash is rich in nitrogen, and when
plant recovery is slow after a burn, they take up less nitrogen
from the soil. So, the nitrogen ends up in the streams instead,
degrading water quality and threatening fish and other species
living in those habitats.
A binational analysis of data from 20 beaches on both sides of
the border shows fecal bacteria is present in the water and
exceeds health standards almost year-round. Over a two-year
period, One Coast Project and the Permanent Forum of Binational
Waters looked into water samples gathered since 1999 along the
coastline from Carlsbad, California, about 50 miles north of
the border, to Rosarito, Baja California, roughly 15 miles
south of Tijuana. The study found that in Southern California’s
beaches, the highest concentrations of enterococci bacteria
were reported during the spring, averaging over 15,000 units
per 100 milliliters of water, nearly 100 times the binational
legal limit average in both countries.
The Delta Conveyance Project (DCP) continues to
advance as a state-of-the-art upgrade to California’s water
delivery system, ensuring a reliable and affordable water
supply for millions of residents across the state. As this
project moves forward, we remain focused on how it’s built
differently, engineered to withstand earthquakes, floods, and
climate-driven challenges while responding to impacts
in Delta communities and the environment. This
includes a $200 million Community Benefits Program to
support locally driven initiatives that reflect the values and
priorities of Delta communities. These investments are meant
to provide lasting benefits for all those who live
and work in the region.
… [T]here’s growing debate over whether additional fluoride
should be introduced to drinking water. This year, states
including Utah and Florida have banned the use of fluoride in
public water systems, and federal officials have called for
more states to follow suit. Nicole Deziel is an
associate professor of epidemiology (environmental health
sciences) and co-director of the Yale Center for Perinatal,
Pediatric and Environmental Epidemiology at the Yale School of
Public Health. In an interview, she explains the benefits and
risks of fluoride, how “forever chemicals” and climate change
impact water quality, and how we can monitor the water we
drink.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent signing of two bills limiting
the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, could pave
the way for more housing developments in Los Gatos, a town with
a significant housing quota and a reputation for lagging on
development applications. … [A]lmost all of the proposed
projects in the town are infill and not in the Wildland Urban
Interface, which would render them exempt from CEQA analysis.
… According to the town’s Housing Element, around
three-fourths of Los Gatos has a low vulnerability to pollution
sources like ozone, particulate matter, toxic release,
hazardous waste, groundwater threats and solid waste sites.
A nearly 18-acre stretch of Menlo Park that was once home to
the U.S. Geological Survey has officially changed
hands. The U.S. General Services Administration announced
on Monday it had finalized the $137 million public sale of
Rockaway Grove, the former USGS campus. … In June,
19 U.S. senators with the Senate Committee on Energy and
Natural Resources sent a letter to the Department of the
Interior, in which they warned that the proposed $564 million
in budget cuts, the reported terminations of hundreds of
scientists and the potential termination of GSA leases for USGS
facilities were representative of a “multi-front assault on the
nation’s scientific infrastructure.” They argued that …
the federal government should err on the side of caution in
moving forward with proposed changes that may undermine key
research on disasters, ecosystems, water resources and climate
adaptation.
After decades of water shortages and well failures, work is
underway in Palermo to bring a reliable drinking water system
to residents. Construction crews began installing water mains
Wednesday at Fulton and North Villa avenues, as well as South
Villa Avenue and Upper Palermo Road, marking the start of the
Palermo Dry Well Consolidation Project. The effort is a
partnership between Butte County and the South Feather Water
and Power Agency, aiming to connect homes with a treated
drinking water system.
West Las Vegas Valley neighbors are voicing concerns about
grass removal across their neighborhoods and the impact on the
health of trees. … By 2027, businesses and residential
communities must remove “non-functional turf”: grass that has
no recreational value. Assembly Bill 356, passed in 2021,
mandates that no water from the Colorado River can irrigate
non-functional, decorative grass. As communities continue to
implement turf removal measures, residents have voiced concerns
over the visible aftermath: after grass is removed, some
surrounding trees and plants are slowly dying. Various
residents voice concerns about the impact of the “heat island”:
elevated temperatures in parts of the Valley that lack
greenery.
… The California Department of Fish and Wildlife classified
the Mojave Desert tortoise as threatened in 1989. A year later,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the tortoise as
threatened. But California has taken measures a step further
this year by declaring the tortoise as endangered under the
state’s Endangered Species Act. … [T]hey face multiple
threats, including off-road vehicles, predators, drought, and
even military bases. Then there’s climate
change. During California’s long drought that
lasted from 2012 to 2016, Lovich conducted a study that showed
a big decline in female tortoises. That’s because when female
tortoises lay eggs, they lose water and protein.
Drought exacerbates this, ultimately affecting
the population’s survival.
Western Slope communities and water agencies want to be able to
use powerful Colorado River water rights tied to the Shoshone
Power Plant to help the environment. Over 170 members of the
public weighed in on the process — and all but one said
they liked the idea. The Colorado Water Conservation Board, a
state water agency, gathered the public comments in preparation
for a hearing about whether to incorporate the water rights
into the state’s Instream Flow Program. The program aims to
keep water in rivers to help aquatic and riparian ecosystems.
The proposed change is part of a larger plan on the Western
Slope to permanently maintain the historic flows around
Shoshone.
A California court just confirmed that groundwater rights pass
with the land in foreclosure, settling a major question for
commercial mortgage professionals statewide. … The
dispute began in 2017, when 4-S Ranch Partners, LLC secured a
$33 million loan from Sandton Credit Solutions. … However, by
2019, 4-S Ranch had defaulted on the loan. … Sandton
sought a court declaration that all rights to the groundwater
passed with the land at foreclosure. 4-S Ranch continued to
argue that the groundwater was personal property and should not
have transferred with the land. The trial court ruled in
Sandton’s favor. … On August 8, 2025, the Fifth District
Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s decision.
Pacific Gas & Electric has begun the lengthy federal process to
decommission and dismantle the century-old Potter Valley
Project — a two-dam hydroelectric system that has diverted
water from the Eel River to the Russian River for more than 100
years. Removing the Potter Valley Project’s dams would
release the Eel River, connecting crucial habitats for salmon
and steelhead and making it California’s longest free-flowing
river.
… A quiet revolution is unfolding across Bay Area suburbs. In
cities like Berkeley and San Jose, the meaning of a “nice yard”
is being redefined. With water bills rising each summer—by an
average of 6.5% in the East Bay and 5.5% in the South Bay,
according to East Bay Municipal Utility District and San Jose
Water—more residents are putting down the hose and embracing a
wilder approach to residential landscaping. These so-called
“feral lawns” take many forms. Some are carefully planned
native gardens filled with drought-tolerant California flora,
while others look like an HOA citation waiting to happen. But
one thing is clear: Those who stray from traditional lawn
culture often face pushback from nosy neighbors and city
officials for their decision to disrupt the suburban status
quo.
Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks in California’s Sierra
Nevada mountains are now home to more than three dozen
yellow-legged frogs recently released by staff from the Oakland
Zoo. During the first week of August, the zoo said 43 mountain
yellow-legged frogs were flown by helicopter to their release
site near Laurel Lake. The event marked the 1,000th
yellow-legged amphibian released by the zoo during conservation
efforts designed to save the species from disappearing
entirely. Biologists said the frogs are part of a broader
recovery program designed to pull the species back from the
brink of extinction. Scientists attribute much of the
population collapse to chytridiomycosis, a deadly fungal
disease that has impacted animal populations worldwide.
Residents of the Diablo Grande housing development in the
foothills west of Modesto hope a possible water sale could keep
water flowing to their own homes, but they need buy-in from the
Kern County Water Agency. For its part, KCWA hasn’t said yes.
But it hasn’t said no. In a July 29 letter to the attorney for
Western Hills Water District, which serves Diablo Grande
exclusively, KCWA states it is willing to work with the
district “…if an economically, logistically and regulatorily
feasible solution can be found.” Given the complexity of the
24-year deal that first brought KCWA and Western Hills
together, that could be tricky.
In a first, researchers have identified the nation’s roughly
8,700 cattle feeding operations, and the map shows California
has more of them than any other state. California also has the
most feedlot acreage: over 85,000 acres. … For decades,
such operations have been associated with degraded air and
water quality. … The lack of precise
location data has meant that local governments, academics and
nonprofit organizations have struggled to document the effects
of these facilities on the environment and community health. So
the researchers decided to build a database and map combining
existing data sets. … The study was published Tuesday in the
journal Communications Earth & Environment.
… This March, Colorado’s Energy and Carbon Management
Commission (ECMC), which regulates the oil and gas industry,
passed new rules requiring drillers to recycle more of their
wastewater—a caustic, brackish and chemically
laden byproduct of the drilling and fracking process known as
“produced water.” The new rules were set in motion by
HB23-1242, passed in 2023, which requires oil and gas
extraction companies to use more recycled water, but do not
address another key provision of the law: the increased
recycling of produced water cannot cause more oil and gas
emissions, which can contain CO2, methane, benzene, a known
carcinogen, and other volatile organic
compounds. Regulators across the state are trying to
figure out whether meeting one requirement of the new law
requires violating the other.
EPA is preparing to extend key deadlines set by the Biden
administration for reducing coal-fired power plants’ water
pollution, according to a court filing Monday. A proposal to
amend the Biden administration’s water pollution rule for coal
plants is undergoing review by the White House, per the filing
from the Trump administration and a notice Monday from the
Office of Management and Budget. EPA expects the new proposal,
focused on compliance deadlines for plant owners, to be issued
“shortly” and finalized before the end of the year, the filing
said. … Last spring, EPA strengthened pollution standards for
coal wastewater, requiring plant owners to install new
technologies to virtually eliminate heavy metals and other
harmful pollutants from three major waste streams.
Five dogs have died and more than 20 have fallen sick in
California as researchers suspect a toxic algae is to blame.
Los Angeles County health officials are warning residents to
keep their furry best friends away from the Venice Canals as
they work to figure out what’s behind the mysterious illnesses
of multiple neighborhood dogs. The county’s Department of
Public Health said in an alert last Friday that there have been
26 local dogs that have suddenly fallen severely ill, including
five that have died as a result. … California water
officials tested the canal water, algae and scum, finding the
presence of algal toxins. But a definitive link between the
toxins and the dog illnesses has yet to be confirmed.
