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.
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In the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where California’s
biggest rivers meet, the state’s massive pumps send water
flowing into canals to about 27 million people and
750,000 acres of farmland. A major new lawsuit argues
the state is taking far too much water out of the
Delta, harming native fish and the ecosystem, causing
toxic algae blooms, and threatening local farms and
communities. “The goal that we are aiming for is to save
the Delta,” said Carolee Krieger, executive director of the
environmental group California Water Impact Network. “We want
them to cut back the water they take out of the Delta
by half.” … Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration
has defended how the state balances pumping in the
Delta to protect fish and the ecosystem with
delivering water for farms and cities.
Denver Water is pulling more water from rivers, creeks and
communities in Grand County to refill its reservoirs after a
record-hot summer, sparking pushback from some western
Coloradans. Denver Water’s reservoirs — the water
storage for 1.5 million people — are far lower than
normal for this time of the year. The utility has
issued mandatory restrictions, which means it can also
increase the amount of water it pulls from certain streams and
rivers on the Western Slope for the Denver
area. … Denver Water has some of the
oldest rights to water in the area, which
means it has priority over more recent, junior water users
under Colorado water law. The utility’s water management is
guided by agreements made in past decades, like the 1992
Clinton Reservoir-Fraser River Water Agreement and the
2013 Colorado River Cooperative Agreement.
… Groundwater overuse and sinking land in the state’s
agricultural heartland continue to jeopardize both
water supply and delivery systems. The fishing industry is
cratering and farmers feel so squeezed that some are planting
solar panels instead of crops. And, hundreds of thousands of
Californians still lack access to safe, affordable
water. The next governor — Republican Steve
Hilton or Democrat Xavier Becerra — will inherit these
challenges, and more. … From this shared reality, the
two candidates’ strategies diverge: Hilton is outspoken about
his plans to clearcut environmental regulations in order to
build more ways to store and move water to farms and
cities. Becerra leans on his history as attorney
general, the legal arm in California’s first-term fights
against President Donald Trump. But Becerra offers no
specific proposals on water.
Just one day after San Francisco set a new October high tide
record, a gauge at Crissy Field surpassed that
mark again when it measured a water level 1.73 feet
above the average highest daily
tide. …Tides are predicted to be
more than a half-foot higher on Oct. 27 and
28. … El Niño is fueling record-breaking
sea surface temperatures off the coast of California.
Warmer-than-normal water takes up more volume and pushes tides
higher, a process known as thermal
expansion. … Scientists predict El Niño
will bring the highest king tides on record
this winter to the California coast and San Francisco
Bay.
… Companies are racing to draw out lithium from brine
bubbling below the Salton Sea. … A
recent study concludes that most lithium mining areas
won’t have enough water by mid-century to meet the
industry’s demands. “Those regions are already
water-stressed,” said co-author Jennifer Dunn, director of the
Center for Engineering Sustainability and Resilience at
Northwestern University. Adding lithium mining onto them
without reducing water consumption across the board will make
it extremely challenging for those mines to operate in the near
future, not to mention meeting everyone’s water needs.
… As the warming planet shrinks freshwater resources,
experts say, the clean-energy transition driving demand
for lithium may ultimately be constrained by the water
scarcity that decades of fossil fuel use have
accelerated.
A controversial gravel mining project north of Fresno near the
San Joaquin River received a temporary stop sign Thursday by
the Fresno County Planning Commission. Multinational mining
company CEMEX proposed expanding their current operation on the
river into a 600-foot deep blast mine with a 100-year timeline.
However, county staff recommended a shallower, shorter project
alternative. By a 3-3 deadlocked vote, commission members
rejected the modified proposal, which had required a majority
for approval. … While gravel mining has been part of the
San Joaquin River landscape since the early 1900s, all used
traditional alluvial methods, which involve digging and
excavating using heavy machinery. What CEMEX proposes, to blast
and drill into the granite bedrock near the river, is entirely
new for the area.
The Riverbank City Council could vote Tuesday to extend
its data center moratorium for 10 1/2 months.
… Aemetis Inc. has been developing a 60-megawatt data
center proposed at the Riverbank Industrial Complex and the
city has received other inquiries in the past year. A city
staff report for Tuesday’s meeting says data centers may cause
significant impacts “related to energy consumption,
water, wastewater, land use, air emissions,
noise, infrastructure demands, environmental quality and
community aesthetics.” … Since passage of the
45-day pause in September, Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed bills
with requirements for data center projects, including
disclosure of projected electricity and water consumption and
assuming financial responsibility for electrical grid and water
system upgrades needed for projects.
The Broomfield Eagle Trace Golf Club permanently closed last
week. The cause? Drought, according to the
club’s staff. “The drought in Colorado this year left us with
very little water available, and has forced us to close as we
will no longer be able to maintain the course,” read a
statement on the club’s website. … The club was already
scheduled to shutter in November after a full lack of
water access went into effect due to a water-rights
issue, according to reporting by The Denver Gazette’s
news partners 9NEWS. The club’s owner privately sold
the water rights to Owl Creek water brokers for more than $4
million. … Denver is under a Stage 1
drought declaration, and businesses were ordered by Denver
Water to turn off their lawn watering and spray irrigation
systems Oct. 1.
High in the Walker Basin, where the Eastern Sierra spills
across the California–Nevada border, an imperiled native trout
is hanging on. Lahontan cutthroat trout (LCT) once thrived
throughout the region’s high-elevation streams and lakes.
Today, roughly 95% of their historic California habitat has
been lost. Non-native trout introductions and decades of land
use change pushed this ancient fish to the edge. Now,
protecting the handful of isolated, fragile populations, is
critical. CalTrout and our partners are working stream by
stream to change that trajectory. Alongside the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife, U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service, Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Trout Unlimited, and
the Walker Basin Conservancy, and with funding from the Keefe
Family Foundation, we’re reclaiming waters where LCT can build
durable, self-sustaining populations.
The Coachella Valley averages about 3 inches of rain a year,
yet about 95 percent of the drinking water Desert Water Agency
serves to the community and is pumped from wells, according to
the agency. Nearly all the water used in the valley comes from
a groundwater basin, or aquifer, beneath the surface, Desert
Water Agency says. A local water-conservation campaign
describes it as a body of permeable rock that stores water, 500
to 1,300 feet below the valley floor, holding about 39 million
acre-feet, or roughly 13 trillion gallons. Desert Water
Agency, which serves Palm Springs, operates 27 wells drilled
1,000 to 1,200 feet deep, with pumps set as far down as 500
feet. The agency says the water is of high enough quality that
it only needs chlorination, as state regulations require,
before delivery.
Biologists have discovered a live adult zebra mussel below the
Westwater Recreation Area in the Utah side of the
Colorado River, raising the risk of
the invasive species spreading in the state. The
discovery was made Sept. 22, about a month after testing
detected zebra mussel DNA in the water in Utah, according to a
news release from the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. The
division received confirmation Wednesday that it had in fact
found a live mussel downstream of the infestation near Loma,
Colorado. … Invasive mussels are aparticular threat in irrigation-dependent
Utah. They can spread to water lines, clogging pipes
and costing millions of dollars to remove, and damage boat
engines. They remove plankton from water, disrupting food
supplies for fish.
… Experts have warned that a potentially historic El Niño is
brewing, with the power to unleash extreme weather
around the world. The climate phenomenon,
characterized by warmer than average equatorial sea surface
temperatures, is already under way, according to federal
forecasters, and it is expected to strengthen through the
northern hemisphere’s autumn and winter. California is
poised to be in its crosshairs. Landslides, flash
floods and encroaching sea levels are all on the menu –
and they could all happen at once. … Some
areas could see supercharged storms and relentless
rains. Others face explosive surf, strong currents and
devastated marine ecosystems. … Preparations are already
under way at all levels of government as officials work
to secure vital infrastructure, preset response resources and
inform the public of the incoming hazards.
Farmers in the Mexicali Valley face a deepening water crisis
that threatens to derail winter crops early next
year following a double hit of international cutbacks
and federal reallocations, regional agricultural leaders
warned. Rubén Camacho Ledón, president of the Permanent
Agrarian Congress (CAP), said local growers will bear
the brunt of reduced flows from the Colorado River under Minute
334 of the International Boundary and Water Commission
(IBWC/CILA). Under the agreement, Mexico is ceding 308 million
cubic meters (308 million m3) of its annual Colorado
River quota during 2027 and 2028 due to a 25-year drought
across the river basin, La Voz newspaper reported. … The
strain will peak in January and February, when
irrigation schedules for alfalfa, wheat, and cotton overlap
simultaneously.
As controversy over data centers swells in communities around
the Bay Area and the nation, Santa Clara leaders are pushing to
beef up the city’s regulations and standards for future
data center development. In an hourslong and at times
tense discussion that began Tuesday night and stretched to
nearly 1 a.m. Wednesday, the Santa Clara City Council directed
city staff to prioritize tightening air pollution and
water use regulations for new data centers in the city
as they take a more comprehensive look at all city policies
related to data centers. … The city already requires
data centers built after December 2022 to use the equivalent of
carbon-neutral power, through purchasing offsets, encourages
the use of recycled water and asks developers
to expand recycled water infrastructure during
buildouts, city staff said.
Droughts and wet periods in major Western watersheds often
happen together, according to new research that shows how water
conditions in one area can be closely tied to those hundreds of
miles away. Researchers analyzed more than 20 years of
satellite and climate data from five major areas: the Upper and
Lower Colorado River basins, the Great Basin,
California and the Pacific Northwest,
including parts of Mexico and Canada. Together, those areas
provide water to more than 60 million people and vast
stretches of farmland. The researchers found some of
the strongest connections between California and the Great
Basin — which includes most of Nevada and much of Utah. Runoff
conditions in the two areas were synchronized 65% of the time,
while soil moisture moved together 67% of the time. Overall,
six major watershed pairings had runoff conditions that
were synchronized more than half the time.
CEMEX’s proposed blast mine on the San Joaquin River stalled
before the Fresno County Planning Commission on Thursday, when
commissioners deadlocked 3-3 — a split that amounts to a
preliminary denial and sets up a likely appeal to the Board of
Supervisors at a date yet to be determined. Fresno County’s
meeting hall was packed to the gills Thursday morning: the
hearing room was standing-room-only, with three overflow rooms
filled with scores of residents from across the county who
oppose the controversial proposal, which sits about 200
yards from the San Joaquin River. Speaker after
speaker said they could not imagine a worse location for a mine
than a river, inside a public parkway, near where salmon spawn
and children play at summer camp.
Tribal organizers and river‑advocacy groups are calling on
North Coast residents to show up this weekend for a salmon
dinner and later this month as the State Water Resources
Control Board prepares to vote on the Bay Delta Plan and Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s voluntary agreements, a decision they say could
weaken protections for the Trinity and Klamath rivers at a
critical moment. … The push, led by Communities United for
Water Protection and local communities, follows Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s veto of two tribal rights and environmental bills that
organizers say underscore the need for stronger river
protections. … Organizers say the Bay Delta Plan and
voluntary agreements omit key protections for the Trinity
River, including carryover storage and cold‑water safeguards,
and eliminate the releases that help prevent Klamath fish
kills.
The $23 million Marlette Lake dam rehabilitation project was
completed this month and access to the west side of Spooner
Lake backcountry was opened, providing access to trails that
had been closed since June 2025 when the project started. The
historic water system was constructed in the mid-1870s to
provide water to Virginia City. After draining the reservoir,
the project removed the existing earthen dam and constructed a
new one. The project also included upgrades to help the dam
better withstand earthquakes, improvements to the spillway and
replacement of the discharge piping and outlet valves,
according to a news release. The dam is a critical component of
the Marlette Lake Water System, which supplies water to Carson
City and Storey County.
The scope of federal jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act is
about to change again, and this round of rulemaking is one that
landowners, developers, and energy and infrastructure sponsors
cannot afford to watch from the sidelines. On November 20,
2025, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) (together, the agencies)
published a proposed rule that would substantially narrow the
definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the
Clean Water Act, and on September 4, 2026, the agencies issued
a supplemental notice seeking additional comment on two of the
proposal’s most consequential definitions. Together, these
actions signal that a new, narrower WOTUS rule is likely to
take effect within the next year, and developers and landowners
should be evaluating how the changes will affect their sites.
Expansive, green lawns with large trees in the front yard are
on their way out in Colorado — and they need to be, experts
say. Temperatures are warming and rain continues to be
unpredictable in Colorado. Parts of Colorado have experienced
some level of drought for almost all of the last 25 years, and
this year was no different. Cities responded with watering
restrictions, and residents saw their lawns go dry and then
turn brown. It’s time for a change, experts told 60 people
gathered at The Colorado Sun’s water solutions event Sept. 26.
… Many water utilities have been able, or are trying, to
keep community water use relatively flat as populations grow.
The state has also been pushing the idea of xeriscaping — using
water-saving landscaping plants, tools and strategies
— since the 1980s. It’s time for Coloradans to take the
hint, experts said.
