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.
The state Water Resources Control Board unanimously approved
releasing the Delta-Mendota subbasin from potential enforcement
actions at its April 7 meeting. … Landowners in the
region will escape probation, which requires growers to meter
wells, register them at $300 each and pay $20 per acre foot
pumped. In order to avoid state sanctions, the 23 Groundwater
Sustainability Agencies (GSAs) that cover the Delta-Mendota
subbasin submitted one coordinated groundwater plan that
addressed negative impacts, such as land sinking and decreased
water levels. … Delta-Mendota is the fourth subbasin in
the San Joaquin Valley to avoid state intervention.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Tuesday that it will
temporarily release more water from Keswick Dam into the
Sacramento River to help juvenile Chinook salmon safely
make their journey to the ocean. The move came about
two weeks after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service released
more than 6.2 million young salmon from Coleman Hatchery into
Battle Creek, prompting conservationists to urge the agency to
increase dam-releases into Sacramento River that’s facing low
flows. … Meanwhile, the announcement also came as the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service announced its plan to release more
than 2 million salmon into Battle Creek on Tuesday.
We’re hosting our annual open house and reception on May 7 when
you can meet the team behind our Water Leaders programs, tours
and workshops, Project WET teacher trainings and Western Water
news. Visit our office anytime between 2 p.m. and 6
p.m. and enjoy happy hour refreshments and appetizers
while catching up on the latest Foundation news. We have much
to look forward to in 2026 as we gear up for the Foundation’s
50th anniversary in 2027. RSVP
now to let us know you’re coming and to get
directions. Everyone who attends will get their choice of a
water map or guide.
It was a record-smashing first quarter for the American West.
An astonishing heat wave smothered the region for weeks.
Mountain snowpack, already low in many states after a
rainy winter, melted quickly. Drought conditions
intensified. And it’s only early April. Scientists warn that
extreme conditions could continue and cause water shortages and
raging wildfires. Dwindling snowpack is a big warning sign,
climate experts say. Low snow levels in the spring often
foretell drought. Recent research suggests that “snow drought”
can worsen wildfires. A March 23 study in Environmental
Research Letters found that in years with earlier snow melt in
the West, wildfires generally burned more acres.
… National Weather Service forecasters expect a cold front to
move over the region, bringing cooler temperatures and rain
across the Bay Area, with potential snow in the Sierra
Nevada. By Wednesday, temperatures will drop to normal
springtime averages. Temperatures along the coast will be in
the 60s and 70s inland, said Rachel Kennedy, a meteorologist
with the weather service’s Bay Area office. … The cold
storm building from the Gulf of Alaska could also deliver about
a quarter inch of rain in low-lying areas and up to
three-quarters of an inch at higher elevations on Thursday and
Friday. … The frigid storm may add much-needed
snow to the state’s meager snowpack, sitting at 18% of
normal for this time of year.
… [T]here’s been a dramatic increase in investment in cloud
seeding across the Mountain West. Three years ago, the Nevada
legislature three years ago allocated about $600,000to support
DRI’s efforts. Surrounding states have invested even more. Utah
recently allocated $16 million for cloud seeding. And the
federal Bureau of Reclamation provided a nearly $2.5 million
grant for cloud seeding operations in Colorado, Utah
and Wyoming aimed at increasing the levels in Lake
Mead, which is fed primarily by the Colorado River.
… “We did a review of those [cloud seeding projects],
and we found that the vast majority of them had missing
information, incorrect information,” she [Karen Howard,
director of science and technology assessment at the Government
Accountability Office] said.
The explosive growth in data centers is fueling concerns in
California, as well as across the country, about water and
energy use. Some have gone as far as to propose a water usage
fee on data centers. However, others argue that data center
water use is just a drop in the bucket compared to other uses
or that most data centers are moving toward less
water-intensive practices, such as reusing water in closed-loop
systems. To help us understand what we do and don’t know about
California data centers and water use, we spoke with Dr. Marie
Grimm, an environmental policy research fellow at UC Berkeley’s
Center for Law, Energy, & the Environment, about their new
report “Regulating Data Center Water Use in California.”
California’s climate is defined by extremes, and water year
2025 put that reality on full display. One month delivered
warm, dry conditions that can typically stress water supplies;
the next brought a surge of winter storms, only for January to
swing dry again. These whiplash shifts aren’t outliers — they
are becoming the new operating conditions for water managers,
communities, and ecosystems across the state. Against this
backdrop, the Drought Resilience Interagency and Partners
(DRIP) Collaborative continued its work to strengthen
coordinated drought planning. … Released in March, DRIP
Collaborative’s 2025 Annual Report highlights the activities,
discussions, and recommendations developed during the task
force’s third year.
A desalination startup company hopes to gain Arizona customers
as the state prepares for more cuts to its Colorado River water
supply. Desalination is the process of taking ocean water and
removing the salt to make it drinkable. California-based
OceanWell is developing a subsea system that is more energy
efficient than traditional onshore desalination. OceanWell is
three years into a five-year research and development phase to
create an underwater operation called Water Farm I about 4.5
miles off the coast of Malibu in Santa Monica Bay. It will
consist of large purification pods that sit on the ocean floor.
The system is designed to use natural ocean pressure to push
seawater through the pods’ reverse osmosis membranes for
desalination.
Lukins Brothers Water Company (LBWC) is aiming to be the first
water company in the basin that is Firewise certified. It’s
already joined the Fire Adapted Communities program and with
new legislation, owner and president Jennifer Lukins hopes it
could potentially lower insurance fees and water rates for the
community. … Lukins believes other water systems could
join Firewise as well, and it’s possible that once LBWC sets
the precedent, more water systems may follow suit—especially as
the water affordability crisis grows more critical in
California with rising wildfire risks and insurance costs.
Best Management Practices (BMPs) have become one of the most
important tools the golf course industry uses to care for the
land responsibly. While the term may sound technical, the idea
is simple: use proven science and practical experience to
protect the environment while keeping golf courses healthy and
playable. … I saw the value of BMPs firsthand while
redeveloping a golf course next to the American River in
Sacramento, Calif. The course sits in an environmentally
sensitive area that includes a major fishery and the 5,000-acre
American River Parkway. State regulations strictly prohibit
fertilizer from entering the river basin, making environmental
protection a top priority.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Six tribes in the Upper Colorado River Basin, including two in
Colorado, have gained long-awaited access to discussions about
the basin’s water issues — talks that were formerly
limited to states and the federal government. Under an
agreement finalized this month, the tribes will meet every two
months to discuss Colorado River issues with an interstate
water policy commission, the Upper Colorado River Commission,
or UCRC. It’s the first time in the commission’s 76-year
history that tribes have been formally included, and the timing
is key as negotiations about the river’s future intensify.
… Most immediately, the commission wants a key number:
How much water goes unused by tribes and flows down to the
Lower Basin?
A group of Western lawmakers pressed the Biden administration
Monday to ramp up water conservation, especially in national
forests that provide nearly half the region’s surface water.
“Reliable and sustainable water availability is absolutely
critical to any agricultural commodity production in the
American West,” wrote the lawmakers, including Sens.
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), in a
letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The 31
members of the Senate and House, all Democrats except for Sen.
Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.), credited the administration for
several efforts related to water conservation, including
promoting irrigation efficiency as a climate-smart practice
eligible for certain USDA funding through the Inflation
Reduction Act.
A study led by NASA researchers provides new estimates of how
much water courses through Earth’s rivers, the rates at which
it’s flowing into the ocean, and how much both of those figures
have fluctuated over time—crucial information for understanding
the planet’s water cycle and managing its freshwater supplies.
The results also highlight regions depleted by heavy water use,
including the Colorado River basin in the United States, the
Amazon basin in South America, and the Orange River basin in
southern Africa.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
It’s the most frustrating part of conservation. To save water,
you rip out your lawn, shorten your shower time, collect
rainwater for the flowers and stop washing the car. Your water
use plummets. And for all that trouble, your water supplier
raises your rates. Why? Because everyone is using so much less
that the agency is losing money. That’s the dynamic in
play with Southern California’s massive wholesaler, the
Metropolitan Water District, despite full reservoirs after two
of history’s wettest winters. … Should water users be
happy about these increases? The answer is a counterintuitive
“yes.” Costs would be higher and water scarcer in the future
without modest hikes now.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
After nearly a century of people building dams on most of the
world’s major rivers, artificial reservoirs now represent an
immense freshwater footprint across the landscape. Yet, these
reservoirs are understudied and overlooked for their fisheries
production and management potential, indicates a study from the
University of California, Davis. The study, published
in the journal Scientific Reports, estimates that U.S.
reservoirs hold 3.5 billion kilograms (7.7 billion pounds) of
fish. Properly managed, these existing reservoir ecosystems
could play major roles in food security and fisheries
conservation.
