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.
California’s dismal snowpack is about to get a
late-season boost. A weekend storm is forecast to drop feet of
snow across the Sierra Nevada, prompting the National Weather
Service to issue a winter storm watch. The watch is
in effect from Friday evening through Saturday evening above
4,500 feet for the west slope of the northern Sierra, including
Interstate 80 and Highway 50. … Forecast snowfall totals
were trending higher, with 2 feet of snow possible
along I-80 over Donner Summit above 4,500 feet. The
highest peaks, including ski resorts, could pick more than 3
feet of snow, with localized totals up to 4
feet.
The USDA has declared natural disaster areas in Inyo County, as
well as three counties in Nevada, over what they say is an
extreme drought. The agency says the disaster area encompasses
areas in the states of California, Nevada and
Arizona, and includes Clark, Esmeralda, and Nye
counties in Nevada. The declaration allows the USDA and the
Farm Service Agency to extend emergency credit to producers
recovering from natural disasters through emergency loans. The
loans can be used to meet recovery needs, such as replacing
essential items, reorganizing farming operations, and
refinancing debts.
… By some measures, 2026 is shaping up to be the worst year
the river has seen since records began. Flows are down 20
percent from 2000 levels. Lake Powell, the reservoir straddling
Utah and Arizona, may drop below the threshold for generating
hydropower before the year is out. The negotiations between the
seven states over how to share what’s left have collapsed
twice, and the U.S. federal government is threatening to impose
its own plan. While the states argue and the river shrinks, a
growing set of machine learning tools is being deployed across
the basin. Federal water managers are running millions of
simulations to stress-test reservoir strategies against
different possible futures.
A groundwater subbasin in western Stanislaus and nearby
counties is no longer threatened with state probation, thanks
to a water board decision Tuesday. The state Water Resources
Control Board took action to move the Delta-Mendota
Subbasin back to the jurisdiction of the California
Department of Water Resources. … Twenty-three agencies,
including the cities of Patterson and Los Banos and many water
districts, are in the Delta-Mendota Subbasin, which was
referred to the state Water Resources Control Board in 2023 for
intervention because their sustainability plans were
inconsistent and would not result in stable groundwater levels.
Along the shores of the shrinking Salton Sea, desert winds
regularly kick up dust and send it drifting through nearby
neighborhoods. New research indicates that living there may
affect kids’ lungs. Scientists from the University of Southern
California tested the lung capacity of 369 children between the
ages of 10 and 12 for about two years and found that those who
live less than 6.8 miles from the Salton Sea have diminished
lung development compared with kids farther away. … The
saline lake has been shrinking rapidly since the early 2000s,
when the Imperial Irrigation District began selling some of its
Colorado River water to growing urban areas under an agreement
with agencies in San Diego County and the Coachella Valley.
Assemblymember Rhodesia Ransom warned Wednesday that California
is running out of time to contain the rapid spread of invasive
golden mussels, urging immediate state action to protect water
systems, agriculture and consumers. Speaking during a state
budget subcommittee hearing, Ransom called for funding
to establish five decontamination centers in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta, which she said is critical to slowing
the species’ expansion into other waterways. … Golden
mussels, first detected in California in 2024, spread by
attaching to boats and water systems, clogging pipes and
damaging infrastructure.
The Bureau of Reclamation released water from Keswick Dam just
after midnight Wednesday, causing water levels to rise along
the Sacramento River. The flow reached about 10,000 cubic feet
per second by 1 a.m. The increase is part of a spring pulse
flow, a short-term release designed to mimic natural river
conditions. The release helps juvenile Chinook salmon migrate
safely to the Pacific Ocean. … While the pulse flow
benefits salmon, officials warn it may also create dangerous
river conditions for anyone nearby.
Local, state, and federal agencies this week marked the
completion of the Los Banos Creek Detention Dam Project, an
upgrade to an existing flood-control facility designed to
improve water management in western Merced County. The Los
Banos Creek Detention Dam, originally constructed in 1966 by
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, was built to capture
floodwaters and protect the San Luis Canal, Delta-Mendota
Canal, and nearby communities, including Los Banos.
… Under the updated operations plan, natural flows from
Los Banos Creek can be released downstream during certain
periods to create storage capacity. The reservoir can then be
refilled with water conveyed from other sources using newly
installed infrastructure.
Funding from a 2021 settlement agreement between the Central
Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board and Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. is supporting the Drinkable Rivers Program in San
Luis Obispo County, a program that puts elected officials,
students and others on the water to witness the benefits of
beaver dams and ponds. … Once viewed as pests, beavers
are now recognized for their many ecological benefits and their
ability to help revitalize creeks and rivers. Research has
shown that beaver dams can boost groundwater levels,
improve water quality, provide drought resiliency, support
biodiversity and even reduce wildfire risk.
… 86-year-old activist [Brenda Adelman] has for more than
half her life fought to clean and protect the Russian River,
serving as a chief watchdog and champion for the 1,500-square
mile watershed. … The Russian River Watershed Protection
Committee, the nonprofit Adelman launched and led through that
era, made its mission in holding local and state government
accountable for the river’s health and restoration.
… Now, with 140 boxes of documents testifying to that
work stacked throughout her river-side house, Adelman is ready
to hang up her environmental activism boots. Come May, the
Russian River Watershed Protection Committee will officially
fold.
… Some people call it “human compost,” but Sharon Weaver
prefers a different term. “It is technically called natural
organic reduction soil,” said Weaver, who is executive director
of the non-profit San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation
Trust. … Weaver approved of using this compost along the
San Joaquin River because, she said, it would help restore the
land. … The practice had been happening for more than a
year. But last month, it became the center of a public
conversation. That’s because Fresno County Supervisor Garry
Bredefeld caught word of it. … In March, the county
handed Weaver a cease-and-desist letter to stop using this soil
along the San Joaquin River – and she did stop. … Still,
green burials like this are gaining popularity around the
country.
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.
