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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The city of Peoria has signed a $100 million agreement to buy
water from a private company, as Arizona faces cuts to its
supply from the Colorado River. Peoria says it will receive
about 173,672 acre feet of water in storage credits to help
shore up the city’s supply. That’s roughly enough to
provide half a million homes with water for a year.
The city says it bought a 120 acre campus that includes two
wells from Vidler Water Company in the Harquahala irrigation
area in La Paz County. When all permitting is finished,
Peoria plans to pump groundwater into the Central Arizona
Project canal, and eventually into a treatment facility for the
city’s use.
Rep. Andy Biggs on Wednesday introduced a sweeping water bill
that would pour $19 billion in federal funding into new
infrastructure while cutting permit requirements across the
drought-stricken Colorado River Basin. … His bill would
remove environmental review requirements that
can hold up water projects for years, require the federal
government to make permitting decisions within six months and
pay two-thirds of the cost of new water projects. The bill
would also reopen a shuttered desalination plant near
Yuma, partner with Mexico to desalinate
seawater and study how to capture California
stormwater before it drains into the Pacific Ocean.
A predicted “super” El Niño this winter could put one of Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s plans to bolster the state’s water
supplies to the test just as his governorship winds
down. The storms could bring danger, potentially overwhelming
levees and causing damaging floods. But they could also give
California, where water supplies can swing wildly from drought
to flood, a chance to capture and store excess water
underground for later use. … Newsom has tried for
the past couple of years to make it easier for water managers
to divert floodwaters into underground
aquifers as part of his broader efforts to store and
send more water to farms and cities, sometimes angering
environmentalists who argue it comes at the cost of endangered
species.
Jon Kyl, a giant in Arizona politics who served the state in
Congress for nearly three decades, has died, his family
announced Thursday. He was 84. … Former Republican U.S.
Sen. Kyl announced last year his withdrawal from public life
following a dementia diagnosis. … Kyl leveraged his
expertise on water policy in Congress to gain approval of
tribal water rights settlements, said Sarah Porter of
Arizona State University. He was an “important participant” in
negotiations that created the state’s water
rules, said Porter, director of the university’s
Kyl Center for Water Policy that is named
after the former senator.
In what would be a seismic shift, the Trump administration is
quietly moving to strip a core protection of the Endangered
Species Act, according to an internal memo obtained by The New
York Times. … Currently, enforcement of the Endangered
Species Act relies on a permitting system that seeks to
balance protecting imperiled animals with allowing business to
operate. For example, if developers wanted to build
houses on a tract of land that is home to endangered
salamanders, they would have to apply for a permit. In exchange
for implementing some measures to protect the salamanders, and
perhaps paying for salamander conservation elsewhere, the Fish
and Wildlife Service would issue what’s known as an incidental
take permit, absolving them of killing a certain number of
salamanders. The memo, which was signed by Brian Nesvik, the
director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, appears to
upend that entire system.
Colorado communities are moving ahead with approvals of massive
new data centers, even as new public polling shows citizen
opposition swelling over concerns about electricity and
water use and noise. … The Weld
County Commission is embracing data growth, approving on Sept.
9 a plan from Global AI that would become the largest
data center operation in the state. … The commission
had earlier this year approved a set of special planning and
permitting rules for data centers, banning development in
agricultural zones and requiring water conservation
plans and adequate power sources. … While many
local residents objected to the Global AI approval, the
commissioners said they were adding important limitations on
the developer, requiring a closed-loop cooling system
that needs far less water use than many existing data
centers.
Drought conditions are forcing some Colorado ranchers to sell
and ship cattle earlier than usual as water and feed become
more difficult and expensive to obtain. At Mountain View Meats
near Fort Collins, beef producer Nicole Uthmann said her family
is spending more time hauling water to keep its cattle
supplied. … Jennifer Martin, an associate professor in
meat safety and quality at Colorado State University, said
drought is also contributing to a shortage of hay and grass.
… Those higher costs can make it harder for ranchers to keep
their entire herds. Martin said some cattle producers are
shipping animals earlier than they normally would because it’s
harder to feed them. … The U.S. Department of
Agriculture reports that the nation’s cattle herd is at its
lowest level since 1951.
Federal regulators are seeking public input on a proposal to
remove two PG&E-owned dams on the Eel River, a plan
supporters say could bring significant ecological
benefits while reshaping recreation for nearby
communities. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
held a meeting after releasing a scoping document that outlines
what the agency plans to study as it considers the dam
removals. … PG&E said it received one proposal “from
a diverse group of stakeholders” for construction of
the “New-Eel River,” and that it included the proposal
in its application to FERC. PG&E said it has not received
any proposal from the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District.
Board members questioned why the Indian Wells Valley
Groundwater Agency is budgeting $195,000 for communications
with an Orange County-based agency. … The amount
set aside for Westbound Communications is a “not to exceed”
amount of $195,000, said agency representative Christopher
Perez. It was the same amount in the 2026 budget. The agency
anticipates only charging $165,000 this year, Perez
noted. He also pushed back on the idea that the agency
only made a few Facebook posts saying Westbound has also
assisted the authority with its website, created infographics,
fact sheets and other forms of work for the district.
When rain falls across San Diego, it does more than send water
rushing through local rivers and creeks. It can also mobilize
pollution across the watershed. New research published in
Journal of Hydrology: Regional Studies (October 2026) from San
Diego State University finds larger storms transport greater
pollutant loads through the San Diego River watershed, offering
new insight into how storm intensity, urbanization and aging
sewer infrastructure can shape water quality in the region.
Researchers in SDSU’s Department of Civil, Construction, and
Environmental Engineering examined the San Diego River and
Alvarado Creek, a small, highly urbanized tributary adjacent to
SDSU that feeds into the river. … They found a
statistically significant relationship between a storm’s
maximum discharge, or peak flow, and the cumulative amount of
pollutants transported.
Throughout California’s Central Valley, Chinook salmon and
steelhead trout migrate between the ocean and inland rivers to
spawn during their lifecycles. Ahead of the fall spawning
season, DWR completed a salmonid habitat improvement project in
the low-flow channel of the Feather River in Oroville, placing
approximately 8,000 cubic yards of spawning gravel between the
Table Mountain Bridge and Bedrock Park. “Oroville Dam
blocks the upstream passage of some fish to their natural
spawning habitat and prevents the migration of gravel that
would naturally flow downstream,” said Kassie Henley, senior
environmental scientist with DWR’s Feather River program.
“Through gravel restoration projects, DWR supports fish that
use the Feather River for this critical phase of their lives.”
… From the lake to forests of the Basin, a live sensor
network is collecting real-time data on water quality, weather
patterns, and ecosystem health throughout the region. The Tahoe
Institute for Global Sustainability at the University of
Nevada, Reno, partnering with the U.S. Forest Service and the
Tahoe Science Advisory Council, is leveraging the Lake Tahoe
campus and a new research vessel to pioneer this
groundbreaking, interdisciplinary data network with nearly 35
sensors in the air, land and water to track how wildfires,
climate and invasive species impact the lake. Live data
from flexible, scalable monitoring infrastructure supports
public audiences, researchers, policymakers, land managers, and
community stakeholders in making informed decisions about the
lake’s future.
AB 1572 bans the use of potable (drinking) water for irrigation
of non-functional turfgrass in certain areas. This law applies
to commercial and municipal landscapes rather than private
homeowners. “Non-functional” refers to grass in median strips,
islands, parking lots, and landscaped areas around commercial
buildings. This also includes HOA common areas. It specifically
excludes sports parks, cemeteries, and single-family homes.
Most public landscapes are already irrigated with non-potable
water. Purple irrigation pipes carry non-potable water (you’ve
probably seen them in parks and other public areas). Since the
law specifically excludes single-family homes, the average
homeowner will not be affected by this law.
Denver Water can finish its Gross Dam expansion and fill the
controversial reservoir in western Boulder County, the 10th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Tuesday, lifting an
injunction by a lower court judge and confirming the dam’s
permits as sound. The appeals court said the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers had acted responsibly in issuing
construction permits for the $600 million expansion,
which is largely complete and will be filled using
water rights Denver holds in the Colorado River basin
on the western side of the Continental Divide. While a
federal district judge in Denver had issued the injunction
after declaring the Corps had failed to consider less-damaging
alternatives, or the fact that climate change could rob
Colorado of river water, the appeals court rejected that
view.
As the region braces for the looming threat of flooding posed
by a strengthening El Niño system expected to batter much of
the West Coast this winter, Sonoma County’s
northernmost city is working to safeguard critical power and
water infrastructure from flood damage. The Cloverdale
City Council earlier this month unanimously passed a
resolution declaring a local emergency — the first in Sonoma
County — in anticipation of what’s expected to be another
heavy, if not, historically stormy winter. … The city,
which sits directly adjacent to the Russian
River, is no stranger to the chaos unleashed by
atmospheric rivers that have in recent years drenched the
region and led river levels to rise.
San Diego County officials presented preliminary findings
Tuesday from a long-awaited study that estimates the Tijuana
River sewage and pollution crisis costs the regional economy
between $125.6 million and $503.5 million annually,
with unmitigated losses potentially reaching $7.9
billion over 20 years. The Board of Supervisors
received the draft report during its regular meeting, though no
action was required. The board directed the county’s chief
administrative officer in September 2025 to commission the
study, which was ultimately awarded to the consulting firm
ECOnorthwest. Supervisor Paloma Aguirre said the
findings will bolster the county’s case for outside
intervention and aid in this crisis.
From neighborhood protests to countywide moratoriums, water-
and energy-intensive data centers have united protesters who
distrust the industrial behemoths. … There are now
more than 70 data centers either operating in or
planned for Nevada, but as more are planned, Nevadans
across the state are turning out in droves at public meetings
to speak against their construction. … Water
consumption per data center varies. … City of Reno
planning numbers forecast the Keystone and Webb data centers —
which are on the “smaller” side for data centers, requiring
less than 30 megawatts of power per project — will each require
around 650,000 gallons of water a year. … Across
Southern Nevada, data centers account for about 0.5
percent of water usage. Golf courses account for more than 5
percent while casinos use 7 percent.
The commission that represents Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and
Wyoming received sobering updates on declining reservoir
levels, worsening conditions on the Colorado
River and the ongoing struggle to keep Lake
Powell from dropping to record lows. The states
offered grim reports of their snowpack conditions, underscoring
the drought hammering them. … The Upper Colorado
River Commission met Monday for the first time since Interior
Secretary Doug Burgum released his agency’s decision on how to
manage the river for the next two years. The decision was left
to Burgum after the seven states of the Colorado River
Basin failed to reach an agreement after two years of
negotiations on how to operate when the river’s
current agreement ends on Sept. 30.
Golden mussels appear to have – so far – skipped one district
in Kings County, Tulare Lake Basin Water Storage District.
The invasive species wreaking havoc throughout
California’s water systems from Yolo to San Diego
counties are in districts immediately to the north and
south, but not the Tulare Lake Basin district. … It’s
not because Tulare Lake Basin hasn’t taken deliveries from the
State Water Project, which is spreading the mussels from their
initial infestation point in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,
throughout California. Tulare Lake Basin has taken 43,760 acre
feet of water off the aqueduct as of Aug. 31. But no mussels.
Every few minutes, an airplane flies over the Upper Elkhorn
Basin, reminding those who live and work there that changes are
coming. Bounded on the east by the Sacramento River and the
west by the Yolo Bypass, the quiet, agricultural stretch of
Yolo County has been farmed for more than a century. … But as
climate change and development along the eastern edge of the
river increases flooding risk for thousands of residents in the
Sacramento region, state and federal water managers are eyeing
the Upper Elkhorn Basin as a potential solution. To protect
vulnerable points along the river, including the airport and
other parts of the Natomas Basin, the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers recently released a tentative plan to widen
the Yolo Bypass into the Elkhorn Basin. The
move would inundate roughly 1,200 acres of prime
farmland, fundamentally altering how the land would be
used.
