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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California is resuming commercial salmon fishing after three
consecutive years of closure due to concerns over declining
populations. Gavin Newsom and state officials celebrated the
move, citing the state’s conservation efforts as a key factor
that has contributed to the progress. … The state has
restricted commercial fishing for three consecutive years since
2023 and has leaned on a number of efforts to support the
salmon population, including increasing the number of
hatchery-reared salmon, while conservationists continue to call
for stronger measures and increased water
allocations. “The return of salmon seasons in 2026 is a
testament to the heavy rains of 2023, not a shift in
management,” Vance Staplin, executive director of the Golden
State Salmon Association said in an email.
Despite pressure from Colorado’s congressional delegation,
around $140 million in federal funding previously granted to
Western Slope water projects has lingered in limbo for nearly
16 months. The funds, awarded to 17 Western Slope projects in
the final days of President Joe Biden’s administration, were
part of the Inflation Reduction Act’s drought mitigation grant
opportunity for the Upper Colorado River Basin. This included
$40 million granted to the Colorado River District to aid in
its purchase of the Shoshone water rights, the oldest and
largest non-consumptive right on the Colorado River tied to the
hydropower plant in Glenwood Canyon. … In June, the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation released funds for two of the projects in
the Orchard Mesa Irrigation District in Palisade, but the rest
remain frozen.
Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a bill aimed at funding the recovery of
brackish groundwater— one of the ways some leaders want to
address the water shortage in Arizona. Brackish
groundwater requires some extra treatment than non-brackish
groundwater due to its higher salinity levels. Experts say this
veto doesn’t close the doors on options helping provide
Arizonans with sustainable water
sources. ”Groundwater in the state of Arizona
needs to be managed as a non-renewing water supply,” said Sarah
Porter, the director of ASU’s Kyl Center for Water Policy.
… In her veto letter for the bill, Gov. Hobbs said the
legislation “diverted important funding” to “speculative
groundwater extraction proposals” that she says are already
eligible for funds.
… Now, an even more costly water project is about to break
ground in the Carpinteria Valley—a $90 million system for
converting wastewater to drinking water. It’s a joint project
of the valley’s water and sanitary districts, and it’s the
first of its kind in the county. The purified
wastewater, 1.3 million gallons per day, will be enough to
supply a quarter of the valley’s yearly water demand.
… This kind of water recycling, called “indirect potable
reuse,” or, more indelicately, “toilet-to-tap,” has been
rejected by water agencies elsewhere on the South Coast as too
expensive. But, armed with $34 million in state and federal
grants and a 30-year, $50 million low-interest loan from the
state, the Carpinteria Valley agencies are moving full steam
ahead.
Five years ago, a tragic and depressing environmental story
unfolded when thousands of giant sequoia trees, an iconic
California species that tower 300 feet high and can live for
3,000 years, were killed during multiple large wildfires that
roared across the southern Sierra Nevada. The fires in
2020 and 2021 at Sequoia National Park, Sequoia National Forest
and other areas burned with unprecedented intensity, killing
nearly 20% of the world’s giant sequoias, and
exposing the growing vulnerability of the most massive
trees on the earth. … Another added stress is climate
change. Hotter temperatures dry out soils and vegetation,
making fire more severe. The drought of 2012-2016 and 2020-2022
killed millions of other trees in the Sierra, providing more
fuel for fires.
… Mountain snowpack is the West’s largest reservoir,
providing water for 100 million people and diverse ecosystems.
The amount of water stored in the snowpack historically peaks
around April 1. But this year, the snowpack in many places was
absent, or nearly so, by then — the lowest level in the 45
years since automated measurements began. … The lack of snow
was unusually widespread across the Western U.S. But
considering it as a whole makes it easier to miss the regional
manifestations and implications of a winter that also brought
record flooding and record dryness in addition to record heat.
Here’s how the snow drought played out in a few regions that
exemplify this winter’s variability.
After years of planning, permitting, and massive earth-moving
work, California’s landmark Species Conservation Habitat (SCH)
Project at the southwest end of the Salton Sea has begun
filling with water. … The 2026 Annual Report on the Salton
Sea Program, released by the California Natural Resources
Agency, highlights this achievement as a watershed
moment—literally and figuratively—for restoring
habitat, suppressing dust, and improving air quality around the
shrinking lake. … Salton Sea Management Program
(SSMP), now evolving under the newly established Salton Sea
Conservancy, continues its Phase I 10-Year Plan aimed at
constructing 30,000 acres of projects to combat exposed lakebed
dust and create vital habitat for fish and birds.
A nationwide expansion of controversial and resource-guzzling
artificial intelligence data centers has reached Los Angeles
County, and the wave has cities in the region grappling with
questions over their impact. In addition to data centers’
energy demands, critics highlighted concerning impacts to
water, pollutants from backup generators and data centers
creating heat islands. … Underpinning the data
center question is the amount of energy they use and the impact
on the environment as they power vast servers needed for modern
tech life. Many data centers use water for cooling. That
same size data center may consume about 40 acre-feet of water
per year, the equivalent of the water use of 120
households.
Toxic gas invaded South Bay again Sunday night. Levels of
hydrogen sulfide spewing from the sewage-polluted Tijuana River
exceeded what the state says is safe for sensitive groups like
children and the elderly in Nestor and San Ysidro. The San
Diego Air Pollution Control District alerted the community, but
that’s the extent of the authority air pollution cops say they
have. That could change if the California Legislature approves
a bill by State Sen. Steve Padilla, a Democrat representing
District 18. Padilla’s bill, SB 58, would require the state
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to develop a
new public health hydrogen sulfide standard, direct the state
to hold public workshops on the matter locally, and give more
power to local air pollution control districts to protect the
public from harm.
American Rivers is today announcing the San Joaquin River as
one of America’s Most Endangered Rivers® of 2026 due to a
600-foot-deep blast mine proposed alongside it, threatening its
flows, water quality, and the people and wildlife that rely on
it. The San Joaquin River is the water source for 30
million Californians, supports nearly half of the state’s $61
billion agricultural economy, and is the prime habitat for
Chinook salmon and Steelhead trout. … The global gravel
mining company CEMEX seeks a 100-year permit for the mine,
which would divert water from the life-sustaining San Joaquin
River to a quarry site, potentially exposing the water supply
to hazardous mining pollution.
Preserving Lake Tahoe’s clear, blue water depends in large part
on reducing vehicle travel. The basin, however, lacks reliable
and efficient transit for residents, tourists, and commerce,
and a funding source to fix it, say experts who testified
Friday before the Nevada Legislative Committee for Review and
Oversight of the Lake Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
… Vehicles emissions, microplastics from tires, and dust
from trucks and autos are among the factors preventing Tahoe
from reaching a visibility goal of 97 feet deep. In 2024,
average water clarity was down to 62.3 feet, according to the
Tahoe Environmental Research Center at the University of
California at Davis.
It’s not just gas prices: Some U.S. water utilities are
reporting the Middle East war is disrupting their ability to
maintain recommended fluoride levels in the drinking water.
Over the past few weeks, a few water utilities have said their
supply had been disrupted, according to the Association of
Metropolitan Water Agencies. … Israel is one of the
world’s top exporters of fluorosilicic acid, according to the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. EPA data also shows the
U.S. is among the world’s top five importers of the product.
… The number of water utilities affected so far is
small, but the shortage is affecting hundreds of thousands of
people.
The Trump administration is preparing to take drastic action to
keep the West’s most important river flowing to cities, farms
and through hydropower turbines after a warm, dry winter has
forecasters warning of record low flows down the waterway this
year. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation is
planning to cut releases out of one of the Colorado River’s
biggest reservoirs — Lake Powell — to the lowest level that’s
legally permissible, while at the same time moving a massive
amount of water from upstream reservoirs to bolster Powell’s
water levels, according to an internal report from Arizona’s
top water officials obtained by POLITICO. The report says
Reclamation’s plans are not yet final but that the emergency
actions could begin as soon as [this] week.
California has launched the Salton Sea
Conservancy, a new state agency to oversee restoration,
manage habitat and improve air quality at the deteriorating
inland lake. On Friday Gov. Gavin Newsom announced the
appointment of a 20-member conservancy board, with members from
state agencies, Riverside and Imperial County governments,
local water districts, tribal groups and public organizations.
The new conservancy is the first created in California in more
than 15 years, since the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
Conservancy was established in 2010. The new body will direct
state resources toward what has long been a local problem in
the Southern California desert, Newsom said in a statement.
Commercial fishing crews will be permitted to catch salmon
along the California coast this year for the first time since
2022 as regulators end a three-year shutdown after
seeing an increase in the struggling salmon
population. The Pacific Fishery Management Council, a
body established by Congress that manages ocean fishing along
the West Coast, voted Sunday to approve a plan to reopen the
salmon fishing season under strict limits in California.
… Fishermen in the San Francisco region will be allowed
to catch a maximum of 160 Chinook per vessel during several
open periods in May and August, and 100 on additional dates in
September. … The plan also includes limits on the total
number of fall-run Chinook salmon that may be caught during the
season.
A spring Sierra storm dropped more than a foot of snow
in parts of the northern Sierra, according to a report
from the California-Nevada River Forecast Center. Snow totals
from automated gauges showed the heaviest snowfall in Alpine
County, where Leavitt Lake recorded 15 inches and Ebbetts Pass
measured 13 inches. Carson Pass and Monitor Pass each saw 9
inches. In Placer County, Palisades Tahoe reported 14
inches of snow, while the Central Sierra Snow Lab measured 12
inches. … The snowfall totals are based on provisional data
from automated gauges and have not yet been fully verified,
according to the forecast center.
In the months before Nevada’s top water regulator was fired,
major mining companies and others complained about him to Gov.
Joe Lombardo’s office, accusing him of “coercion” and
slow-walking communications as the state inched to a nuclear
option in water policy — curtailing rights in Nevada’s largest
basin. The complaints, which came in the form of nearly 200
emails, letters, attachments and meetings reviewed by The
Nevada Independent, largely centered around a draft
order to reduce groundwater pumping in the Humboldt River
Basin. It’s an overappropriated watershed in Northern
Nevada where the state is undertaking its first major,
large-scale application of conjunctive water management; a
strategy to coordinate surface and groundwater use.
The Trump administration is tightening its grip over EPA’s
scientific enterprise as it prepares to relocate employees from
its once esteemed research arm. The agency’s new, smaller
science office has laid out its policies on how EPA will
approve new research and publish its work for the public,
according to internal memos obtained by POLITICO’s E&E
News. Further, EPA’s remaining scientists from the
now-dissolved Office of Research and Development received
reassignments earlier this week, including many who will have
to move if they want to continue working at the agency.
… Research office staffers who remained at EPA were
expecting to be reassigned last month, as the agency officially
closed the program. Many had already been transferred into the
air, chemical and water programs.
… Research groups, news organizations and water officials
have been blaring warnings about the worst snowpack in
history and water supply concerns heading into the
summer. In some ways, conditions are so bad, the state
is headed into uncharted territory, experts said. In the face
of a worrisome year, farmers, reservoir operators and city
utilities are focused on getting the best data possible.
They’re turning to scientists and pilots with newfangled
snowpack measurement methods — plus the tried-and-true
measurement methods used since the early 1900s. Their
goal: Figure out how to use a scant water supply as effectively
as possible.
… Nutria, a creature with the body of a small beaver, webbed
feet like a platypus, and the tail of a rat, reappeared in the
state’s wetlands a few years ago, nearly four decades after it
was considered eradicated. California has been battling the
rodent ever since, and recent research by wildlife officials
suggests the rodent’s sudden return may have been
intentional. The study, released Tuesday by the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife, found that the state’s nutria
populations share a close genetic match with nutria from
Oregon. The distance between the states makes it nearly
impossible for them to have migrated on their own, according to
researchers, which means they were likely transported here
intentionally.
