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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… Water managers in states that use the Colorado River say
they have plans to make water systems more efficient as
supplies shrink due to drought and climate change. A new
list of potential water infrastructure projects shows the ways
Arizona and its neighbors might adapt to a drier future, and
the massive spending it will take to make them possible. The
list appears to follow an April meeting between Interior
Secretary Doug Burgum and governors from the seven states that
use water from the Colorado River. The secretary requested a
sort of wishlist from those states, and they returned a
wide-ranging collection of more than 80 projects with
ballpark cost estimates that totaled in the tens of billions of
dollars. The list, which was obtained by KJZZ,
outlines more than $25 billion of potential spending in Arizona
alone.
Some property owners above Napa Valley’s 72-square-mile
groundwater subbasin will see a new fee on their property tax
bills in December. As part of the Napa Valley Subbasin
Groundwater Sustainability Plan, Napa County mailed
informational postcards this past week to subbasin property
owners and groundwater users, encouraging them to review
information about the groundwater fee that will range
anywhere from $38 to $129 per acre per year.
… Under California’s Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act — a state law requiring local agencies to sustainably
manage groundwater — the fee will fund water monitoring,
reporting, planning and compliance, but not the actual use of
the groundwater.
Jeff Martin couldn’t sleep the night Gross Dam was scheduled
for completion. … Martin, the program manager for the dam
project, had worked for 12 years on the $600 million effort to
replace the old Gross Dam with one that is 131 feet taller,
tripling the reservoir’s storage. Crews still have some
finishing work remaining, he said, but the major work to raise
the dam is now complete. … But it remains unclear
whether Denver Water will ever be able to fill the reservoir to
its new full capacity as a yearslong court battle
lumbers on between the utility and environmentalists. …
Environmental groups argued in court, and in their filings,
that regulators failed to evaluate how siphoning more water
from the drought-stricken Colorado River would
impact the basin as a whole. And the groups charged that they
failed to weigh other project options that wouldn’t require the
clear-cutting of a half-million trees or risk damage to
wetlands.
In California, a long-abused river has been reborn. For
decades, humans disrupted its course and restricted its flows
to the detriment of its ecosystem, only to lately reverse
direction and restore it to a facsimile of its natural state.
And salmon, the bellwethers of aquatic health, have responded,
returning much faster and in greater abundance than anyone
anticipated. This description applies not to the Klamath River
— or not only to the Klamath, recently liberated from
its four lower dams — but rather to the far less-celebrated
Putah Creek. … Along its 85-mile course, it is imprisoned
behind dams, siphoned off by ditches, squeezed between
artificially straightened and hardened banks. Although
it lacked salmon for decades, in 2025 more than 2,000
chinook returned to spawn — an improbable triumph
that reflects both human-led restoration and the resilience of
the fish themselves.
With summer fast approaching, we are gearing up to host K-12
educator workshops to help bring lessons on water into the
classroom. During our Water Institutes for Educators featuring
Project WET, you
will get to explore wetlands, paddle rivers and learn about
your local watershed with experts in their fields. Institutes
will be hosted in Butte, Solano, Sacramento and Los
Angeles counties this summer. All participants will
receive a stipend. See available workshops and how to
register. Plus, we just published an update to our
Layperson’s
Guide to California Water, among the many
easy-to-understand guides that cover an array of topics such as
water rights, the Colorado River, groundwater and California’s
two major water supply projects – the State Water Project and
the federal Central Valley Project. You can find them here.
A new study out of the University of Arizona measures the
scale and economic output of tribal agriculture in Arizona
— and it’s big. University of Arizona professor and Hopi
dry farmer Michael Kotutwa Johnson co-authored the study. It
found American Indians operate 62% of farms in the state and
manage more than 80% of the state’s total agricultural land —
to the tune of 20 million acres. But, as Kotutwa Johnson told
The Show, it’s a seriously under-researched area. …
[Johnson:] I don’t think people really understand the
agricultural imprint and footprint that we have here in Arizona
and have since almost like to say time immemorial. We’ve got
canal infrastructure that was basically built upon existing
Hohokam agriculture that was done before the state was even
founded and the country was founded.
California Water Service’s billing systems for customers in
Bakersfield, Visalia and Chico were not breached through a
cyber attack by an Iranian-linked group, according to the
corporate spokesperson. … [A]n Iranian-linked hacker group
called Handala claimed on Thursday to have breached several
water systems in California, specifically in Bakersfield,
Visalia and Chico. The group showed screenshots of what it said
were residents’ bills from CalWater and claimed to have five
gigabytes of data from the alleged breach on its website.
… The alleged hack was in retaliation for U.S. strikes
that may have damaged two water storage facilities in southern
Iran near the strait of Hormuz. [Spokesperson Yvonne] Kingman
said Friday that CalWater’s production and distribution systems
were not breached and updated SJV Water Monday that the billing
system was secure as well.
Clean, drain, dry and tag: State and county officials are
relying on boaters to prevent the spread of an invasive golden
mussel that has infested much of the San Francisco estuary. On
Monday, new rules that aim to curb the spread of the species go
into effect for all reservoirs open to recreational boating
within Santa Clara County. The first North American detection
of golden mussel was in California in 2024, according to the
state Department of Fish and Wildlife. … Lawmakers and
water managers have responded with a variety of measures.
Several reservoirs, including Lake Tahoe and Lake Berryessa,
maintain strict boat inspection programs aimed at preventing
new infestations. Federal lawmakers are also seeking a broader
response.
… [W]hile the majority of Utah’s water goes to agriculture,
the share going to residential watering has been increasing
over the decades. … That growth makes sense — as Utah
adds more people and houses, of course residential water use
increases too. But obviously, a limited supply of water
remains, so if Utah let residential water use grow
indefinitely, we’d find ourselves in trouble in the decades to
come. … For current residents, you want to incentivize
them to remove their lawns for much more water-wise
landscaping. For future residents, you want to make the
landscaping that surrounds homes in new developments as
water-efficient as possible. … Naturally, you could just
enact laws that do both of those things separately. But in an
interesting piece of strategy, the Utah Legislature and the
Division of Water Resources (DWR) have tied those two ideas
together. –Written by Salt Lake Tribune data columnist Andy
Larsen.
Members of San Diego’s congressional delegation Monday called
on the U.S. Small Business Administration to continue to
support small businesses impacted by Tijuana River Valley
pollution. Reps. Juan Vargas, Scott Peters, Sara Jacobs, all
D-San Diego, and Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, also
asked for additional information from SBA Administrator Kelly
Loeffler on what steps the SBA has already taken. “As South San
Diego County’s beaches continue to be impacted by untreated
wastewater, sediment and trash from the Tijuana River, South
Bay businesses have suffered economically,” the lawmakers wrote
in a joint letter. “While we continue to work with our Mexican
counterparts to address the causes of the pollution, it’s
important that we also take steps to support local small
businesses impacted by the pollution and the consumers who rely
on them.”
The nonprofit Truckee River Watershed Council (TRWC), alongside
staff from the Tahoe National Forest, is launching a new forest
health project near Boca Reservoir later this month that will
help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire locally, and
protect the drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people
living downstream in the Reno-Sparks area. In total, the
project anticipates treating approximately 1,940 acres of US
Forest Service lands over the next three years to improve
overall forest health. The project will remove ladder and
surface fuels and use mechanical thinning to produce a healthy
distribution of trees of varying sizes to decrease stand
density and improve forest resilience and wildlife habitat.
Fireline construction and any necessary trail reconstruction
will also be completed.
Arizona lawmakers are tripling the size of the state’s
legal fund for potential lawsuits about sharing water from the
Colorado River. The new state budget will add $6 million to the
pool of money, which was first set up in 2025, bringing
the fund to a total of $9 million. … Negotiators
from the seven states are under pressure to agree on a new set
of rules for sharing water after the current ones expire later
this year. They have been unable to forge a deal, meaning that
the federal government will likely force a water management
plan on the states. If that happens, states are likely
to sue one other or the federal government, sending the
Colorado River’s future to a messy legal battle that
would likely end up in the Supreme Court.
When golden mussels were found in an
international shipping channel in Stockton nearly two years
ago, marking the first detection of the invasive shellfish in
North America, state officials knew it was going to be bad. Now
those fears are being borne out. The roughly 1-inch-long,
golden-brown mollusks, native to Asia, have spread from
the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, where
they were initially spotted, through canals and aqueducts to
the Bay Area and Southern California. …
Across California, tens of millions of dollars are being spent
to stop the mussels. But with no retreat in sight and
increasing potential for disruptions to water delivery as well
as flood control systems and hydroelectric operations, efforts
to get a handle on the infestation are ramping up.
The Navajo Nation has officially declared a drought emergency
after President Buu Nygren signed the declaration on Wednesday,
June 10, putting immediate measures into effect to address
worsening conditions across the reservation. The declaration,
which was unanimously approved by the Commission on Emergency
Management (CEM) on Tuesday before being signed by Nygren,
responds to severe and ongoing drought conditions that
have reduced precipitation, strained water supplies, degraded
rangelands, lowered reservoir levels, and threatened
the economic well-being of Navajo communities. … The
commission also recommended allocating $6,553,730 from the
Agricultural Infrastructure Fund to support drought mitigation
efforts, including windmill repairs and related water
infrastructure improvements.
An alleged breach of several California water systems by an
Iranian-linked hacker group did not compromise any water
production or delivery systems, according California Water
Service Company. … [The hacker group] Handala stated Thursday
that it had gained access to several systems, including in
Bakersfield, Visalia and Chico and showed screenshots of what
it said were residents’ bills, according to several news sites.
It claimed to have five gigabytes of data from the alleged
breach on its website, according to Iranian news network Press
TV. In a statement carried by Iran’s state broadcaster, Handala
said it could disrupt the water systems if it chose to but had
refrained from doing so as a “warning” to Washington, D.C. The
alleged hack was in retaliation for U.S. strikes that may have
damaged two water storage facilities in southern Iran near the
strait of Hormuz.
Under no projections for global temperature rise can the United
States supply the amount of water demanded by lithium mines
proposed across the nation, a new study has found. … The
researchers, who analyzed public mine proposals and available
data, say declining water availability is a problem in rapidly
warming and water-starved states like Nevada, the driest in the
nation with the country’s two fastest-warming cities. …
The study, published at the end of last month in the
peer-reviewed journal Communications Earth & Environment,
contends that water is the ultimate limiting factor to
lithium mining, said Dunn, director of the
university’s Center for Engineering Sustainability and
Resilience. … Nevada has been at the heart of the boom for
the better part of a decade. … Dunn said the study
should be a warning to mining companies that still have the
chance to explore how to reduce their water use.
El Niño has arrived in the Pacific Ocean, and federal
forecasters say it could become one of the strongest on record
by winter — raising the odds for, but not guaranteeing, a
wetter and more volatile rainy season in California. Scientists
at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on
Thursday announced there is a 63% chance that very strong El
Niño conditions will appear from November to January. … Some
computer models are showing water temperatures could jump to
5.4 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, said Daniel Swain, a
climate scientist with the University of California Agriculture
and Natural Resources division. … He mentioned higher
chances of major winter rainstorms in California, which could
bring huge snow totals to the Sierra, along with
higher chances of Pacific hurricanes.
It’s hard to envision the vibrant landscape that the Mormon
Slough could become if Restore the Delta’s community-focused
efforts finally bear fruit. The 6.5 mile slough is mostly dry
on its westerly trek from about two miles east of Highway 99
through central Stockton to the San Joaquin River. It
used to be a natural drainage channel for excess water from the
Calaveras River but was intentionally cut off in 1910 …. With
$1.2 million in funding from California Jobs First through
North Valley Thrive, Restore the Delta has held 70 community
meetings, knocked on 3,000 doors and done an analysis of
possibilities. … [Artie] Valencia (Flood and Land Restoration
Manager for Restore the Delta) said the Mormon Slough
project is a prime example of how a locally driven project can
advance both community needs and broader Delta conservation
goals, which is why Restore the Delta focused on building its
extensive partnerships.
Construction crews have begun clearing a patch of desert
southeast of Tucson for a new data center development, but
roughly 40 protesters gathered Wednesday evening at the site of
the proposed Project Blue facility to make clear their fight is
not over. Protesters stood along a chain-link fence separating
the desert landscape from the construction site at South
Houghton Road, holding hand-painted signs and banners to voice
opposition to the facility’s projected environmental and
infrastructure footprint. As heavy machinery continued to work
in the background, demonstrators made clear they had no
intention of going quietly. … The environmental concerns
resonate deeply with local history, according to protest
attendee Nicole Borchaloey, who pointed to past issues
involving groundwater depletion.
South Bay communities are one step closer to relief from a
major air pollution hotspot after the California Coastal
Commission approved a county-initiated project Wednesday to
extend culvert pipes at the Saturn Boulevard crossing of the
Tijuana River, where cascading sewage and industrial waste have
blanketed nearby neighborhoods in toxic gases for years.
Separately, the federal agency tasked with trans-boundary flow
and wastewater treatment at the U.S.-Mexico border, the U.S.
International Boundary and Water Commission, told local
officials at a San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board
meeting Wednesday they are trying to achieve near-zero
dry-weather river flow by late 2027, as advocates and board
members pushed back on the agency’s transparency and the slow
pace of progress.
