A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation Writer Matt Jenkins.
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.
Recent monsoon rains helped boost flows in the San Pedro River,
but the benefits are only temporary in the midst of a
historically dry year. The river, which flows about 140 miles
through southeastern Arizona, has been threatened by myriad
factors including climate change and nearby groundwater
pumping. In late June, an important registering station along
the river registered zero flow. The Charleston gage, near
Sierra Vista, showed the river as completely dry. Joanne
Roberts, board president of the nonprofit Friends of the San
Pedro River, said that it went dry due to a combination of
factors — prolonged drought, climate change, mining and other
human uses. She said the river had only gone dry one or two
times in recorded history.
Investigators are still trying to determine who hacked into the
controls for Pixley Irrigation District’s main turnout off of
Deer Creek last month. A gate got stuck in “manual” mode
when it should have operated remotely in automatic mode.
Pixley’s water resources superintendent Kirk Masters called the
incident a “hiccup” that was discovered on June 22, the first
day of the district’s summer water run. Masters reported it at
Pixley’s July 9 board meeting and said the problem was
rectified within two hours. Masters said in his report
that he was told it was Iranian hackers, but that has not been
confirmed. … This incident comes on the heels of an
Iranian hacker group attempting to gain access to California
Water Service’s operational systems in Bakersfield, Visalia and
Chico.
A decades-old plan to move 1.25 million acre-feet of
groundwater out of the Mojave Desert has cleared a
major federal hurdle after the Trump administration
approved a 50-year permit to convert a dormant oil and
natural gas pipeline into a water conduit stretching roughly
162 miles across Southern California. … The U.S. Bureau
of Land Management limited its environmental review to the
pipeline conversion, excluding groundwater pumping and its
potential effects on the aquifer, springs and wildlife. The
agency said withdrawals would occur on private property under
state and local oversight and were outside its regulatory
authority. That distinction lies at the heart of the
latest fight over Cadiz: The BLM reviewed the pipeline
crossing federal land but not the groundwater pumping needed to
supply it, or the wider impacts of that pumping on the
Mojave ecosystem.
As the water level at Lake Hodges remains low, neighbors fear
what could happen if a wildfire tears through their valley
again, as it did nearly two decades ago — this time with a much
smaller water barrier to slow the spread. Efforts continue to
urge the City of San Diego, which owns Hodges Dam, to raise the
lake level from 280 to 295 feet. … Four years ago, the city
completed a risk assessment for Hodges Dam that found its risk
score exceeded industry standards. … According to the
city, the report concluded that lowering the lake to no more
than 280 feet was necessary to reduce “potential life loss in
the event of a dam failure.” … Paul Bernstein, whose
home overlooks the lake, along with Del Dios Town Council
President Kevin Kidd and Councilmember Brian Caldwell, believes
the city’s analysis, which led to the lower water level, was
flawed and failed to consider important upstream impacts that
would result if the lake level dropped.
Since invasive golden mussels arrived in California a couple of
years ago, officials up and down the state have scrambled to
come up with solutions to their rapid spread. For months, state
and local water agencies tried things like hot water treatments
and scraping of docks. … For the most part, efforts to
eradicate the newly established species fell short. Instead,
statewide water managers leaned on prevention and education,
hoping to stem the movement of mussels between bodies of water
by imposing boat hull inspections and cleaning protocols at
lakes and reservoirs. Recently, though, a water district in
Kern County used a copper treatment to effectively kill
golden mussels that had established themselves
locally. Officials said the move, which worked on full-grown
mussels and ones that had not yet attached, represents a tool
for water managers in the battle against the destructive
species.
There are a few locations where anglers congregate
shoulder-to-shoulder to toss spinners in search of salmon, and
for the first time since 2022, bankies will have the ability to
wear out a shoulder and avoid flying hooks starting July 16
from the Carquinez Bridge east to the Woodson Bridge on the
Sacramento River. … There was a season on the Mokelumne,
American, and Feather Rivers in 2025, but the main river, the
Sacramento, was off limits due to the extremely poor
salmon returns to the upper river in 2022. This year’s
returns on the Sacramento are also threatened by water releases
out of Shasta Dam. In addition to the Sacramento River, inland
anglers will enjoy a full season on the Feather,
American and Mokelumne rivers. For the Central Valley,
the general fall-run salmon fishing season will open on July 16
and close on Dec. 16.
A billion-dollar cleanup at one of Utah’s most popular
recreation destinations is almost complete, and a new report
hints at what might be in store. The U.S. Government
Accountability Office spent a year auditing the Moab Mill Site,
a Cold War-era uranium processing facility sandwiched between
the Moab, the Colorado River and Arches National Park.
… The Moab Mill Site operator dumped processed
rocks in an unlined tailings pond, which contaminated the
surrounding groundwater with uranium and ammonia, threatening
the nearby Colorado River. … As of this year, according
to a report released Wednesday, the government has removed 16
million tons of tailings, loading them on rail cars at the Moab
site and shipping them 30 miles away to a landfill near
Crescent Junction specifically designed to house the tailings.
In an effort to address the historic-low water level at Lake
Mead, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
Tuesday approved an agreement with the federal government to
help add water to the reservoir. On Tuesday, Metropolitan’s
Board of Directors approved an agreement with the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation, which will provide the agency up to $65
million to keep up to 200,000 acre-feet of its Colorado River
supplies in the lake this year. … The board
also approved two other agreements with the Quechan Tribe and
Bard Water District, allowing the federal government to fund
the addition of up to 19,000 acre-feet of conserved
agricultural water to Lake Mead annually in 2027 and 2028.
As artificial intelligence fuels a new wave of data center
development across California, lawmakers are grappling with how
to support the growing industry while protecting the
state’s limited water supplies. Two bills moving
through the Legislature would give state and local officials
a more complete picture of data centers’ water
demands. AB 2469 would require developers to disclose
projected water use before local governments approve new
facilities, while AB 2619 would require operators to report
actual water use annually once the facilities open.
… Following the Bureau of Reclamation’s release of its formal
Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the post-2026
operational guidelines, the state [Ariz.] is locked in a
strict era of limits. Under federal fallback models analyzed in
the EIS, Arizona faces structural water cuts that could gut its
Central Arizona Project allocation by as much as 77 percent.
Because Arizona holds the most junior water rights on the river
system, it must take the brunt of the reductions
first. The resulting crisis is fundamentally shifting the
state’s economy, forcing a direct collision between traditional
legacy industries and a booming tech sector, while engineering
a historic transfer of socio-political power back to Native
American tribes.
A massive and much-anticipated housing development tied up in
litigation could potentially be back on again in a small town
that borders the Central Valley and Bay Area. The question
remains, however: Will there be enough water for it and
the surging population nearby? … In 2024,
local water agencies adopted the Delta-Mendota Subbasin
Groundwater Sustainability Plan, which included Patterson.
… [T]he city of Patterson decided to single out the
Keystone Ranch development and attempted to impose the cost of
building a groundwater recharge facility on
the development, then later denied the project wholesale on
April 1, 2025. The California Department of Housing and
Community Development, or HCD, found that the city’s review of
the project is inconsistent with the state housing agencies.
A new statewide survey shows that water reliability and
affordability have become a defining issue for California
voters ahead of the state’s November 2026 gubernatorial
election. The poll, conducted by FM3 Research for the
Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), a group
representing approximately 470 public water agencies that
together deliver about 90% of the water used across the state,
found that 77% of likely November 2026 voters are more
inclined to support a candidate who makes water a
priority, a view shared across the political
spectrum. Support for a water focused candidate reaches
83% among Democrats, 77% among independents and 67% among
Republicans, according to the memo.
Local water districts have spent $7.3 million, and counting,
trying to eradicate the rapidly spreading invasive golden
mussel, according to a report delivered during the Kern County
Board of Supervisors July 14 meeting. Water districts
are expecting those costs to balloon to $36 million a
year, according to a report by the County
Administrative Office. The board approved extending its local
emergency declaration by another 60 days regarding the mussels
and renewed pleas for the Governor’s office to declare a
statewide emergency. … San Joaquin and Sacramento
counties have also declared local emergencies. The Kern County
Water Agency and Friant Water Authority both also have task
forces to monitor the spread of the mussels, which have been
found in those agencies’ critical infrastructure.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission took its public
comment period on the Potter Valley Project in Ukiah over two
days in June. Comments were made in private, behind a closed
door. Press was barred and recording forbidden. The transcripts
of those comments were released Monday, 20 days after the first
session, over 43,000 words, more than 70 speakers.
… Janet Johnson drove down from Laytonville with a
friend who had come to testify, and spent the evening where the
public was made to spend it — in the waiting room, outside the
closed door, unable to hear any of it. She was blunt about who
she thought was on the other side of that door. They were
“carpetbaggers scamming our water,” she told The Voice. As it
turns out, according to the written testimonies, almost nobody
disagreed with her. They just couldn’t agree on anything else.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a
new initiative aimed at accelerating the delivery of federal
water infrastructure funding by bringing together states,
utilities and industry organizations to identify ways to
streamline key financing programs. EPA Assistant Administrator
for Water Jess Kramer recently convened what the agency
described as its first roundtable focused on improving
implementation of federal water infrastructure programs,
including the Drinking Water and Clean Water State Revolving
Funds (SRFs), the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation
Act (WIFIA) loan program and the Emerging Contaminants in Small
and Disadvantaged Communities grant program. The discussion
centered on reducing delays that can slow drinking water,
wastewater and stormwater infrastructure projects.
A judge has denied a request from several environmental groups
to halt the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s planned water release
schedule for Shasta Dam this fall, amid an ongoing lawsuit
over concerns the releases could threaten Chinook
salmon. The lawsuit challenges the bureau’s planned
release amounts. Environmental groups argue the schedule does
not account for protections needed to manage water temperatures
for vulnerable fish, including salmon. … The judge
denied the groups’ request for a temporary restraining order,
finding they had not proved their interpretation of the
Endangered Species Act was more valid than the
bureau’s.
On July 9, the Trump administration delivered a gift to Cadiz
Inc., a politically well-connected firm that has been trying
for decades to win approval for a scheme to pump water out of
the Mojave Desert and market it to water agencies across the
Southland. The administration approved the company’s
application to convert an abandoned 220-mile oil and gas
pipeline crossing the desert to carry water instead. Susan
Kennedy, the chief executive of Cadiz, called the approval “a
pivotal milestone” that would enable the project to move into
its construction stage. Here’s betting that Kennedy’s statement
was somewhat premature. The project still faces significant
opposition from environmentalists, local Indian tribes and the
state of California. –Written by Los Angeles Times business columnist Michael
Hiltzik.
Scientists said wetlands can slow down storm surges, absorb
pollutants and even offer protection for infrastructure as a
buffer between the ocean and roads. That’s why for the past
decade, some scientists have been working on a solution for a
wetlands area in Seal Beach that had often been underwater.
… As part of a pilot project that began a decade ago,
scientists started applying a thin layer of sediment (mud or
sand to match the existing sediment) to the surface area of the
marsh in an attempt to raise its elevation. The method is
called “sediment (or soil) augmentation.” … After a
decade, [Cal State Long Beach biology professor Christine]
Whitcraft said the team is thrilled with the results of the
pilot project. “There are plants, there’s birds. It’s out of
the water at the highest tides.” she said.
I find it curious when I hear “people in Riverside don’t know
we have a river.” After all, it is the largest riparian
ecosystem in Southern California, flowing nearly 100 miles
beginning in the San Bernardino Mountains to the ocean at
Newport Beach. Winding its way through 2/3rds of the state’s
population under bridges and alongside freeways. For those
paying attention, the river is a sustainer of life. An ecology
that has been at the mercy of the dominant culture for over two
centuries. This begs the questions; what does it mean to live
alongside a river, what is our role in its caretaking and how
do we balance infrastructure with restoration?
As hot temperatures sweep across Utah and water supplies
continue to drop, states and the federal government are
launching a new effort to better measure how much water
evaporates from major reservoirs upstream of Lake Powell. The
Bureau of Reclamation partnered with scientists and Upper Basin
states, including Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming, to
launch a new evaporation study at Flaming Gorge, Blue Mesa and
Navajo reservoirs — key water storage projects in the Upper
Colorado River Basin. … Reclamation is sending up to
1 million acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge to prop
up Lake Powell, which forecast models show will reach
levels that threaten hydropower production and could
damage dam infrastructure by early next year.
