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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For all the concerns about a historic El Niño fueling epic
storms striking California this winter, there is still
a surprising amount of debate among experts about how
bad it will actually be. Scientists are highly
confident about the risk of coastal seawater flooding and beach
erosion — fueled by rising sea levels and strong surf — with
king tides coming around Thanksgiving, Christmas and Martin
Luther King Jr. Day. But when it comes to predicting
the power of winter storms, there is far less
consensus. … On Thursday, the National
Weather Service’s Climate Prediction Center said that El Niño
is continuing to strengthen, with temperatures continuing to
increase on the sea surface. There is virtually a 100% chance
that this El Niño will be classified as “very strong.” …
Some experts caution that very strong El Niños aren’t a
100% bet on massive floods for California.
Major reforms to Arizona’s groundwater management are likely
now that Democrats have won control of the Legislature. Senate
President-Elect Priya Sundareshan proposed a massive overhaul
of Arizona’s rules on groundwater management in January 2025,
but the legislation died without even getting a committee
hearing. The Rural Groundwater Management Act
would have allowed rural communities to create their own water
management programs and set conservation goals –
shutting down what Gov. Katie Hobbs’ office described as a
“free-for-all in rural Arizona on unprotected, vulnerable
groundwater aquifers.” Sundareshan and state Rep. Chris Mathis
worked with local leaders in rural Arizona on the legislation.
Now, with a second term for Hobbs and Democratic majorities in
both chambers starting in January, Sundareshan will
have another chance.
Ignoring overwhelming community opposition, a dire
warning of “catastrophic risk” by a key state agency
and the likelihood of litigation, the Republican majority on
Fresno County’s highest elected body greenlit an
unprecedented hard-rock mine near California’s second-longest
river. Following a special meeting that lasted nearly
5 hours, the Fresno County Board of Supervisors on Thursday
gave multi-national mining company CEMEX its thumbs-up
to blast and drill a 300-foot-deep pit 3.5 miles
outside the Fresno city limits for the next 63 years.
The company already mines near the San Joaquin
River using traditional alluvial methods.
… Julie Vance, Central Region manager for the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife, raised concerns about
land ownership, water rights and potential impacts to both
salmon restoration and nesting birds.
… [T]he Salton Sea also sits atop one of the world’s
largest reserves of geothermal energy. The
super-heated brine thousands of feet beneath the lakebed
contains critical minerals such as battery-grade
lithium, earning it the nickname “Lithium Valley.”
Three major development projects to extract geothermal power
and lithium in the area are currently moving from proposals to
active construction, with full-scale production targeted in the
coming years. A proposed permitting reform
bill may soon fast track that development.The Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs
Act aims to streamline both clean energy and
fossil fuel projects by cutting red tape. … As
votes to open the bill for debate echoed through the Senate
chamber on Nov. 9, the policy deliberation over legal
hurdles and permit timelines gave way to a much simpler reality
back in California’s Imperial Valley. For those living around
the drying Salton Sea, the potential passage of the Senate bill
signals a fundamental shift in who bears the risk of America’s
energy transition.
Other Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act news:
Prolonged drought conditions affecting the Colorado
River Basin led to record low hydropower generation
this summer in the Southwestern electricity supply region,
which includes Arizona, New Mexico, and small parts of
Nevada and California. Hydropower generation from
April through August 2026 was 19% lower than during the same
period last year and 28% lower than the 10-year average,
according to the latest data from our Form EIA-923 survey.
Water elevations atLake Powell and
Lake Mead, which are formed by the Glen Canyon
Dam and Hoover Dam, respectively, hit record
lows. To be able to generate hydropower at the Glen
Canyon Dam, Lake Powell should have an elevation of at least
3,490 feet, also known as the minimum power pool. At the end of
September, this elevation reached 3,518 feet, less than 1%
above minimum power pool.
A virus linked to the deaths of about 220 fish at a Nevada
County lake was detected in California for the first time, the
state Department of Fish and Wildlife said. “This is a sobering
discovery given how widely distributed largemouth bass are in
California, how popular they are as a sport fish and their
economic importance to our rural communities,” said Jay Rowan,
the agency’s fisheries branch chief, in a Thursday news
release. About 220 fish, mostly largemouth bass but also
some bluegill, died at Lake of the Pines in September, and
tests confirmed the presence of largemouth bass virus,
officials said. The virus does not pose a health risk to humans
or other warm-blooded animals, the agency said.
Wildfires leave behind charred trees and scorched vegetation
that impact the streams and rivers providing drinking water to
much of the country, and new studies show that contamination
could remain for more than a decade. … After a wildfire
sweeps through hillsides and forests, rains carry ash and
organic matter into the streams that feed water treatment
plants for towns and cities alike. Communities are working to
adapt, but it can take years and require stopgap solutions.
… Forested watersheds provide water to nearly two-thirds
of municipalities in the U.S., according to Carli Brucker, lead
author of a University of Colorado Boulder study that assessed
wildfire-affected water quality in hundreds of burned basins
and compared them to unburned areas.
… Coastal wetlands essentially act as natural sponges,
sopping up extra water from stormwater runoff or high tides and
reducing the impacts of flooding. But these natural sponges had
a major drawback: They were located right along prime
oceanfront real estate. … Restoration could finally
be on the way for the Ballona Wetlands, the largest remaining
wetland habitat in Los Angeles County. … A
long-awaited restoration project would enhance these wetlands
and upland habitat on 566 of the reserve’s 577 acres,
“restoring ecological function to currently degraded wetlands
and providing a critical buffer against the effects of sea
level rise,” according to the department. A revised
environmental impact report for that project was released in
September and remains open to public comments through Dec.
7.
After nearly 60 years of efforts to secure a water supply from
New Melones Reservoir, Tuolumne Utilities District signed a
long-term agreement with the federal government Thursday that
the agency says could help protect Tuolumne County against
future water shortages and interruptions. A news release from
TUD stated that the agreement, signed Thursday at the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation’s Region 10 – California Great Basin
Office in Sacramento, marks the culmination of decades of
negotiations and planning. The contract provides access for
purchasing up to 6,000 acre-feet of water per year from New
Melones Reservoir, including 2,500 acre-feet for TUD and 3,500
acre-feet for the Chicken Ranch Rancheria of Me-Wuk Indians of
California, which partnered with the district in pursuing the
agreement.
The City of Solvang is exploring the possibility of privatizing
its water, wastewater and water treatment systems, a decision
that could impact residents in nearby contracting communities
including Santa Ynez and Los Olivos. … If the effort
turns up enough interest, city staff will develop a request for
proposal which will be brought to the city council later this
winter along with pros and cons of such a move. … All related
work is done internally by city staff. What [Mayor David] Brown
referred to as “a fishing expedition” is meant to explore
alternatives in an effort to relieve customers from rising
rates. … Solvang resident Denise El Amin pointed to
privatized systems that have failed including Flint, MI;
Jackson, MS; Newark, NJ.
In the early 1900s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers built a
massive jetty from the shore of North Island almost 1.5 miles
into the mouth of San Diego Bay. The Zuniga Shoals Jetty
Project was designed to create a deepwater port for vessels to
enter and exit. But, it took over a decade to complete, cost
far more than anticipated and, according to the San Diego
History Center, was an epic failure. … More than one century
later, Coronado resident George Mullen, principal of
StudioRevolution and co-founder of Sunbreak Ranch, began
touting another huge jetty – convinced that a rock seawall
along the coast could block Tijuana’s sewage from reaching San
Diego County beaches. … Mullen contends the Zuniga Jetty
proves that you can affect the movement of sewage with
breakwaters and jetties.
Stormy weather that has been battering the Pacific Northwest
and southwest Canada is expected to spread into
California in the coming days, bringing the region’s first
major dose of winter rains. The storms are arriving
amid dire forecasts that this year’s El
Niño, the climate pattern that scrambles and
intensifies weather around the globe but especially in
California, is one of the strongest on
record. … The first storm, which is likely to be
the stronger of the two, was expected to bring rain to far
Northern California as early as Thursday night and
gradually spread south through Saturday. The second
will sweep the state Sunday into Monday, forecasters said.
California’s North Coast is likely to record the most rain in
these storms, with over five inches possible.
… Several inches of snow is expected in the
Sierra Nevada.
With Colorado River water cuts looming, the city of Phoenix is
preparing to enter Stage 2 of its drought management
plan, which includes an extra charge for high-volume
users. City officials said Tuesday they expect to
enter Stage 2 in January, when a new two-year
Colorado River operating agreement with
significant cuts to Arizona’s share is scheduled to
take effect. Arizona and the fellow Lower Basin states
California and Nevada still need to approve the deal, but
Phoenix officials are working under the assumption it will be
finalized as is. … The goal of Stage 2 is to get
residents and businesses to voluntarily cut water use
by 5% and for city departments to reduce their use by
10%.
With California’s 2025–26 legislative session coming to a close
this fall, it’s time to take stock of bill outcomes. While the
legislature addressed hot-button issues during this
session—including affordability, data centers, and
wildfire—a number of bills that focused on significant
natural resource issues did not make it to the governor’s desk
or were not signed into law. … SB 872 would have
created a dedicated fund for Delta levee and State Water
Project conveyance repairs. The bill was vetoed, with
the governor citing existing funding of more than $170 million.
… And, though groundwater recharge has become an increasingly
important water supply strategy for the state, it continues to
face both legal and physical barriers. AB 2026 would
have streamlined permitting for diverting floodwater
underground. The bill did not pass the legislature.
Neighbors near a rustic, mostly unknown park east of Fresno
near the Kings River, say a gravel company’s
proposal to change how it mines could dry up their
wells and decimate an ancient oak grove in China Creek
Park. Vulcan Materials Company wants to resume “dry”
mining at its Sanger-area quarry nearly 20 years after the
county approved its switch to “wet” mining, according to Fresno
County Planning Department documents. The company wants to
switch back to dry mining, Vulcan area manager Terry Marshall
wrote in an email, because it can no longer reach the
deeper permitted reserves by wet mining. So, it is
seeking an amendment to its conditional use permit to dewater
two pits to more easily access those reserves. Marshall
confirmed that dewatering the pits would cause “a
localized drop in the water level elevation.”
Half of the groundwater used to grow America’s favorite fruits,
nuts, veggies, seeds and greens is drawn from aquifers faster
than they can refill, according to a new study. Irrigating 75%
of produce and specialty crops with groundwater between 2008
and 2020 helped spare farms from the immediate impacts
of droughts, but dependence on draining aquifers could set up
producers for future water supply strife. A new
study appearing in Water Resources Research provides the first
county-level data on irrigation sources for 65
different specialty crops, including everything from
cantaloupes to cabbage. … Knowing where
irrigation water goes and where it comes from—rivers,
reservoirs or underground aquifers—is vital for
farmers and policymakers deciding how to manage finite water
supplies for farms in the face of mounting water scarcity.
The population of the endangered Devils Hole pupfish,
one of the world’s rarest fish, more than doubled over
the past year. Wildlife biologists counted 137 Devils Hole
pupfish during a National Park Service survey on Oct. 10—
nearly twice the 77 fish recorded during the spring 2026 survey
and more than double the 69 observed in fall 2025. The
tiny blue fish, whose entire wild population lives on a shallow
limestone shelf in a sinkhole within Nevada’s Ash Meadows
National Wildlife Refuge, has struggled to keep its population
over 100. … The Devils Hole pupfish was listed as
endangered in 1967 under the Endangered Species Preservation
Act, the predecessor to the current Endangered Species Act,
which was enacted in 1973. Its population began to
decline in the 1990s, following growing groundwater
pumping.
Ahead of the January legislative session, Wyoming lawmakers are
moving forward with one of two proposed ways to
regulate responsible water use as data center development
grows across the state. During a meeting on Friday,
the Select Water Committee considered a proposal for
caps on water consumption for hyperscale data centers
and a suggestion for further study of groundwater
resources. The conversations come amidst significant
data center development across the state in recent years. In
Cheyenne, there are 10 existing data centers, with
seven under construction and eight more in the planning
phase, according to economic development non-profit
Cheyenne LEADS. Two of these data centers began construction in
the last three months, according to the nonprofit’s reports.
As aggressive water conservation, agricultural recycling, and
water transfers reduce the flow of runoff into California’s
largest lake, receding shoreline waters are exposing broad
swathes of dry lakebed — exposing local residents to new
airborne health risks. A study led by University of California,
Riverside researchers for the California Institute for Water
Resources provides crucial baseline chemical profiling of dust
emerging from the exposed Salton Sea lakebed, known as playa.
The research underscores how shifting water management
practices in Southern California are directly impacting
regional air quality in a basin that already fails to meet
state and national standards. … The team’s analysis
revealed distinct chemical fingerprints distinguishing lakebed
dust from traditional desert soil.
In northwestern Mexico, where rainfall is scarce and aquifers
cannot keep up with demand, desalination has become a central
part of the water strategy. Baja California, Baja California
Sur and Sonora already operate or are building plants that turn
seawater into fresh water. However, the technology faces
questions about its cost, its energy consumption and its impact
on fragile ecosystems such as the Gulf of California.
… The greatest environmental risk is brine. Most
processes generate about 1.5 liters of brine for every liter of
drinking water, which can raise the salinity, temperature and
turbidity of seawater and damage seagrass beds, reefs and
seafloor communities. Water intakes can also trap plankton,
fish eggs and larvae. The risk is greater in the northern Gulf
of California, which UNESCO added to its List of World Heritage
in Danger in 2009.
