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 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.
A Phoenix suburb ditched a plan to send recycled water
from toilets and other sources directly to residents’
taps, after political candidates made unproven claims
that the water is contaminated “poop water.” The affluent city
of Scottsdale mainly uses purified water from the city’s liquid
waste to recharge aquifers that can be drawn when other sources
are running low. But in June, as criticism mounted, the city
council replaced funding for the recycling program and
other water projects with a vague $100 million allocation for
new water sources and supplies. … Some experts
and residents said the budget change — along with a council
majority that frowns upon wastewater reuse — could
weaken resilience at a time when the West is mired in drought
and cities are facing significant cuts from the Colorado
River.
The Environmental Protection Agency agreed to permanently
restore about $19 million in University of California research
grants, including studies into wildfire-smoke health
effects and water management, that it canceled,
according to a settlement filed in federal court Wednesday.
The settlement would resolve one part of a broader
lawsuit, brought by a legal team that includes UC law
school professors and additional attorneys, challenging
roughly $2 billion in funding cuts across seven
federal agencies. Wednesday’s deal covers 24 research grants,
including projects at UC San Francisco and UC Berkeley. The
agreement still needs the approval of U.S. District Judge Rita
Lin, who previously ruled against the Trump administration in
the case.
Funding for a state drinking water program,
vital to many communities throughout the San Joaquin
Valley that struggle with groundwater
contamination and scarcity, is secure for one more
year after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed three budget bills into law
on Friday. The Safe and Affordable Fund for Equity and
Resilience (SAFER) program has $171 million to pay for
emergency supplies when homes, or entire communities, go dry,
and fund efforts to identify long-term water
solutions throughout the state. The funding came
after a harrowing ride through the legislature this
summer. SAFER was all but gutted in the spring, with $68
million. That is less than half of its previous annual funding
of $130 million. But a broad coalition of organizations
came together to get the program over the finish line at the
end of August.
Two New Mexico Supreme Court rulings will
allow water to flow and permitting to continue for
the Project Jupiter data center, which is
currently under construction. Meanwhile, one of the
conservation groups that lost its effort to cut off the water
says it is gearing up for a long legal fight. The site is
being built by Oracle and is expected to house
OpenAI, known for its ChatGPT platform. … The
recent rulings restore Oracle’s access to non-potable
groundwater via a private supplier. The Center for
Biological Diversity sued New Mexico State Engineer Elizabeth
Anderson in one case over water use, and the group New Energy
Economy sued New Mexico Environment Secretary James Kenney in
another, over air quality permitting.
New research finds only a small portion of the nation’s rivers
may be able to maintain today’s diversity of fish and other
aquatic wildlife as the climate warms. The study, published in
the scientific journal PLOS ONE, mapped waterways across the
Lower 48 to identify places that could give species more
options as temperatures and water conditions change.
… Some Western waterways stand out. Mountain rivers
in Idaho and Montana and headwaters of the Colorado
River system are among the more resilient areas
identified by researchers. Desert rivers in New Mexico,
Arizona and southern Nevada are more vulnerable, where
water is already scarce and a warming climate is putting
additional pressure on freshwater ecosystems. … Dams and
other barriers can leave fish with fewer options as warming
water pushes them toward cooler or more suitable habitats.
The California Department of Water Resources is pleased to
announce the publication of Bulletin 161–2026 – The 2026 Annual
Water Supply and Demand Assessment Summary Report to the State
Water Resources Control Board. This year, all urban water
suppliers that are required to submit an Annual Water Shortage
Assessment report have done so, achieving 100% reporting
compliance for the third year in a row! … Among this
year’s submissions, only a small percentage (3.6% of suppliers)
projected a potential shortage if next year turns out to be a
dry year. More importantly, every supplier that identified a
potential shortage also determined that they could fully
eliminate it through proactive drought response actions.
Kings County groundwater agencies are now in a race to head off
mandatory state pumping limits, which could be imposed by the
end of 2027. Water managers are scrambling to get a new,
unified groundwater plan to the state Water Resources Control
Board by April 2027 that they hope regulators will approve. But
Water Board staff has already begun writing its own
mandatory pumping plan for the region expected to be released
next summer. Given the severe subsidence, or land
sinking, in the Tulare Lake subbasin, which covers most of
Kings County, the state plan will likely include stringent
pumping limits. Or even pumping moratoriums, as a recently
released state plan could impose on farmers in the neighboring
Tule subbasin.
The San Benito County Board of Supervisors declared a local
state of emergency following the governor’s statewide emergency
declaration in preparation for the upcoming El Niño. County
supervisors unanimously approved the declaration as the county
takes “a proactive, preventative approach to forecasts calling
for historically rainy winter months with the possibility of
flooding and other damage.” State and local emergency
declarations will allow property owners and local jurisdictions
to clear creeks, culverts, ditches and other infrastructure
that could obstruct water flow without the usual approval
process from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife,
according to the county.
A federal public health agency has for the first time found
hydrogen sulfide in outdoor air near the Tijuana River reached
levels that could harm people’s health, concluding in a draft
report released Wednesday that short-term exposure to the gas
at those levels is a public health hazard. The Agency for Toxic
Substances and Disease Registry, which works alongside the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based its findings
on air monitoring at four sites. … Much of the shift
followed research by UC San Diego atmospheric chemist Kimberly
Prather. Her team, drawing on residents’ knowledge, identified
the Saturn Boulevard crossing as a primary source of the gas.
There, sewage and industrial waste spill from culverts onto
rocks below, creating turbulence that releases hydrogen sulfide
into the air.
Daniel Maldonado will take the reins of the Bakersfield Water
Resources Department as its Director effective immediately,
according to a City of Bakersfield press release.
… Maldonado has worked for Water Resources since 2015,
starting in maintenance and working his way up to Assistant
Director in 2023. In that time, he helped see the department
through two of the state’s worst multi-year droughts on record
and one of its biggest water years in 2023. … Maldonado
will also faces challenges as the city remains embroiled in a
lawsuit over Kern River flows as well as an ongoing political
fight over a 300% sewer rate increase approved by the City
Council earlier this year. [Editor's note: Daniel
Maldonado was a member of the Water Education Foundation's
Water Leaders program in 2025.]
The water crisis in England and Wales – which has seen the
countries facing widespread drought and utility companies fined
for polluting rivers and seas – has been decades in the making.
It has emerged as a result of underinvestment, ageing
infrastructure, fragmented oversight and governance decisions
that allowed financial and operational risks to accumulate
outside public view. While Canada and the US have mostly
avoided the privatisation approach adopted in the devolved
nations of England and Wales, recent infrastructure failures
indicate that some of these same governance and accountability
issues are beginning to surface. The situation is more
than just a warning about privatisation of water. It shows what
can happen when governments defer, delay and leave tough
conversations and oversight until failures are widespread.
The House of Representatives has passed a bipartisan water
infrastructure bill that includes more than $66 million for
Central Coast water projects. The Water Resources
Development Act of 2026 now heads to the Senate for
final passage. The legislation authorizes the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers to carry out water infrastructure projects
nationwide, including flood risk reduction, ecosystem
restoration, and navigation improvements. … The
bill includes $30 million for a new septic-to-sewer project in
the Los Olivos Community Services District, $25 million for the
City of Ojai to replace aging stormwater pipes installed in the
early 1960s, and $6.3 million for the City of Lompoc to
modernize its water treatment plant and build a stormwater and
flood control system.
A Yuma desalting plant would be restored under
federal legislation introduced by Congressman Andy Biggs of
Arizona, Republican state government leaders said late last
week. The GOP Arizona State Legislators announced their support
for the bill they said would authorize $19 billion to
increase the water supply for people living in the
Colorado River basin. Republicans say the bill, the
Colorado River Basin Water Security and Infrastructure Act,
would develop additional water. One way the bill would help is
to direct the U.S. Department of the Interior to restore the
Yuma Desalting Plant within 180 days and authorize $1 billion
for the project. The plant would allow treated
agricultural drainage water to reduce the amount of Colorado
River water that must be delivered from the U.S.,
Republican leaders said.
California leaders officially declared a State of Emergency on
Monday. The reason? El Niño and its potential to
influence a stormier than normal winter on the West
Coast. This declaration allows emergency
response resources to be readied and allocated ahead
of any storm damage. … In general, the impacts of a
major El Niño pattern are felt more strongly in Southern
California than in Northern California. … The
combination of El Niño and a marine heat wave closer to the
California coast has ocean temperatures running much warmer
than normal. That warmer water takes up more space than cooler
water, so water levels at the coast are also running
higher than normal. That is likely to be the case
through winter.
Gilbert leaders want strict rules on data
centers, making it as hard as possible for the massive
server farms to set up shop in town. Councilmembers were
expected to take up those new rules in September. However, a
town spokesperson said the new rules won’t be addressed until
sometime in October or November. The move comes amid
pushback from residents across the Valley and the
country about data center development raising concerns about
pollution, water and energy use. Arizona Attorney
General Kris Mayes called for a halt to new data center
development in late August, citingColorado River water cuts, and a new state law
in June that put a three-year moratorium on tax breaks for data
center development.
… Today’s WatchBlog post looks at our new report on this
issue, as well as federal efforts and challenges to improving
tribal access. Safe water is crucial to public health.
Yet, some American Indians and Alaska Natives live in
communities without running water or flushable
toilets. Without access to such basic
facilities, these communities have come up with a number of
alternatives. Some residents haul drinking water from a
community water station. Others use a “honey bucket” as a
makeshift toilet. And some residents rely on shared community
facilities to shower or wash laundry. For some tribal
communities that do have access to piped water, it does
not always meet safe drinking water
standards. How is this even possible in 2026? The
reality is that for many Tribes resources are scarce. Many face
a multitude of challenges to building, operating, and
maintaining water infrastructure.
The invasive golden mussel has been found at
Lake Del Valle in Livermore, prompting restrictions for
boaters, the East Bay Regional Park District announced Monday.
Under the new restrictions, watercraft launched at Lake Del
Valle face a mandatory 30-day quarantine before entering any
other waters in the district’s jurisdiction — unless they
return with an intact boat band, a seal proving the vessel
hasn’t been launched elsewhere. … Golden mussels
can clog pipes, damage water infrastructure, crowd out native
species, trigger harmful algae blooms and degrade water
quality. The park district said that until this week,
Contra Loma Reservoir in Antioch was the only other body of
water in the district where golden mussels had been found.
Colorado State Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, was elected last
week as the Upper Basin co-chair of the Colorado River Forum
(CRF), a program that fosters cooperation between state
lawmakers in the Colorado River Basin states locked in critical
negotiations over the future of the river. The CRF, part
of the Council of State Governments West (CSG West), is led by
co-chairs representing the Upper (Colorado, Wyoming, New
Mexico, Utah) and Lower (California, Arizona, Nevada) basins
who rotate and are elected by the membership. … Roberts
will serve as co-chair with Republican Arizona state Sen. Tim
Dunn — a Yuma farmer — who was elected Lower Basin co-chair
last week.
Suisun Marsh is a rich and vibrant environment, teeming with
growth and wildlife. DWR is harnessing that natural
productivity to explore a new approach to ecosystem improvement
– one that works with the marsh’s ability to produce the food
and habitat native species need to thrive. This approach
involves strategically managing wetlands to produce and export
tiny, shrimp-like organisms called zooplankton that
super-charge the food web to the benefit of native fish
species. It involves adjusting water levels, tracking food
web production and modeling how that food moves through Suisun
Marsh. … Its value is cumulative, with benefits that
extend across the ecosystem — from improving ecological
conditions to deepening the collective understanding of how the
Delta functions and how it can be best managed for the future.
The EPA has released a 53-page, $93.4 million plan to remove
dangerous chemicals from Richmond’s Heckathorn Superfund site,
but community members who’ve long advocated for a more
extensive cleanup aren’t impressed. While there may be some
aspects of the EPA’s United Heckathorn Superfund Site plan that
the Richmond Shoreline Alliance (RSA) might agree with, said
coordinator Janet Johnson, they don’t consider it a complete
cleanup. The RSA and its partner agencies became so frustrated
with the EPA last year that they wrote their own cleanup plan,
one that has been endorsed by the city of Richmond and Sen.
Jesse Arreguín. … The community is also concerned
that the channel will remain vulnerable to sea level and
groundwater rise, Johnson said.
