A collection of top water news from around California and the West compiled each weekday. Send any comments or article submissions to Foundation News & Publications Director Vik Jolly.
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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.
The California Department of Water Resources on Tuesday asked a
state appellate court to lift a preliminary injunction on
geotechnical investigations for the controversial Delta
Conveyance Project. … Last year, Sacramento County
Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto agreed with a group of
local counties and water districts, as well as environmental
and tribal organizations, that the preliminary work is a
“covered action,” and the state agency must certify that the
entire project complies with the requirements of the California
Delta Reform Act. The hourlong hearing … Tuesday revolved
around the question of whether the proposed preliminary work
itself, as opposed to the tunnel itself, is in fact a covered
action.
Western Slope water officials are asking for more time to
negotiate before the state decides whether influential Colorado
River water rights can be used to help the environment. A
state water agency, the Colorado Water Conservation Board, is
scheduled to make its final ruling Thursday on the future usage
of a pair of water rights tied to Shoshone Power Plant, owned
by an Xcel Energy subsidiary called Public Service of
Colorado. On Tuesday, the Xcel subsidiary and Colorado
River District — the Western Slope water entity leading the
effort to use the rights to help the environment — filed an
11th-hour extension to delay the ruling to November.
Ferocious overpumping that has caused huge swaths of the San
Joaquin Valley to sink, damaging key water arteries including
the Friant-Kern Canal and California Aqueduct must stop,
according to the Department of Water Resources (DWR). It’s one
of the main reasons the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
(SGMA) was passed in 2014. After 11 years, though, not much has
slowed the sinking, other than a few good, wet years, prompting
the state to issue proposed subsidence guidelines that leave no
doubt how serious DWR is about the issue.
California voters approved Proposition 4 last year. It will
yield $10 billion to pay for environmental projects and
programs. Of that total, $50 million is earmarked to spend on
water quality projects in the polluted Tijuana River. … San
Diego Supervisor Paloma Aguirre flew to Sacramento to ask the
State Water Resources Control Board on Tuesday for the full $50
million. … But Calexico Mayor Diana Nuricumbo said that
her city is relying on its share of the $50 million to pay for
upgrades to its wastewater treatment plant, which
processes and cleans wastewater before discharging it into the
New River.
A mechanical failure during last week’s emergency repair work
to a damaged Humboldt Bay Municipal Water District (HBMWD)
transmission pipeline caused chlorinated water to spill into
Janes Creek, resulting in the death of more than 250 fish,
including trout, sculpin and Coho salmon, according to district
staff. … [O]ne of that agency’s [CDFW] environmental
scientists responded to the scene of the spill — near Coombs
Road in northern Arcata — and saw “a couple dozen” dead Coho
salmon, about 200 dead trout (mostly cutthroat) and roughly 40
dead sculpin.
… Climate scientists at UC Santa Barbara analyzed two
approaches that involve reducing the amount of sunlight warming
Earth’s surface: cloud seeding over the
eastern Pacific and introducing aerosols into the stratosphere.
By modeling local effects on the Pacific Ocean, they found that
the first strategy would completely disrupt one of the planet’s
major climate cycles, the El Niño Southern Oscillation. At the
same time, the second would scarcely affect the system at all.
The results, published in the journal Earth’s Future,
underscore the importance of considering the broad range of
consequences that any geoengineering solution may have.
When scores of dead and dying sea animals began washing up on
L.A.-area beaches just weeks after January’s devastating fires,
the timing seemed suspicious. … [T]he especially high number
of animal deaths this year prompted several research teams to
investigate whether runoff from the fires may
have accelerated algae growth to particularly dangerous
proportions. The evidence available so far suggests that this
year’s algae bloom would have been just as deadly if the
catastrophe on land hadn’t happened, multiple scientists said
this week.
The fight over lithium extraction at the Salton Sea has now
entered the appeals stage. Two environmental groups are
pressing ahead with their challenge to Imperial County’s
approval of the Hell’s Kitchen lithium and geothermal project,
a development they say risks worsening water scarcity, air
pollution and cultural loss in one of California’s most fragile
regions … [T]he project comes with a heavy water
footprint — about 6,500 acre-feet annually — in a desert region
where the shrinking Salton Sea already drives some of the
state’s worst air quality.
… [G]rass is problematic in deserts and any place with
limited water, such as the American West, where it won’t do
well without irrigation. As climate change makes the world
hotter and triggers more extreme weather, including drought,
thirsty expanses of groomed emerald are taxing freshwater
supplies that are already under stress. Enter xeriscaping —
landscaping aimed at vastly reducing the need for irrigation,
including by using native or drought-tolerant plants. (A
utility here, Denver Water, says it coined the term in 1981 by
combining “landscape” with the Greek word “xeros,” which means
dry, to encourage reduced water use.)
The Yuba Water Agency has approved more than $8.1 million in
grants and loans to support projects aimed at advancing flood
risk reduction and enhancing water supply reliability in Yuba
County. … One of the major projects receiving funding is
the Marysville Ring Levee, which will provide 200-year levee
protection for the city of Marysville.
A historic East Bay company that generated the foul stench of
sewage odor, polluting a town’s air, has settled a lawsuit with
Contra Costa County prosecutors for approximately $500,000,
authorities said Tuesday. C&H Sugar, whose plant has been a
staple in the unincorporated city of Crockett since 1906,
committed the odor violations in 2022 at a
wastewater treatment plant it jointly owns on
Dowrelio Drive, according to a statement from the Contra Costa
County District Attorney’s Office. They added that the company
agreed to pay $400,000 in civil penalties and $100,000 in
costs.
Gila monsters are shrouded in mystery. The venomous,
desert-dwelling lizards spend most of their lives underground
and out of sight. … Gila monsters are dependent on the summer
monsoon season for hydration. … Most projections suggest that
under current climate models, the Southwestern monsoon season,
which brings increased moisture and rainfall to the region,
will start later in the summer, according to
Climate.gov. … Though they can reabsorb the water
content of their urine, utilizing their bladder sort of like an
internal canteen, this hydration reservoir can only carry
monsters so far. … [J]ust a half-month delay of the monsoon
season could push Gila monsters into dangerous territory.
Ten environmental and animal rights organizations sued EPA on
Monday for abandoning a Biden-era plan to require stronger
pollution controls at slaughterhouses, a decision that they say
violates the Clean Water Act. Slaughterhouses and meat
rendering facilities are a major source of nitrogen and
phosphorus pollution, which can degrade water quality and fuel
harmful algal blooms. In 2021, EPA agreed to update wastewater
standards for the industry in response to a similar
lawsuit. The agency proposed new standards in early 2024,
but the Trump administration reversed course last month.
More than 200 million people are at risk of drinking tap water
contaminated with chemicals that cause cancer, liver damage,
birth defects and other reproductive harms, according to
research released Wednesday that includes an interactive map of
high-risk hot spots. The map, developed by the Environmental
Working Group (EWG), focuses on arsenic, chromium-6 and
nitrate. … Of the three chemicals examined in the
report, nitrate affects the most people in terms of tap water.
EWG said nitrate is affecting the tap water of an estimated 263
million Americans in 49 states served by 26,644 water systems.
The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors has adopted
a resolution recognizing the week of Sept. 15-19, 2025, as
Water Construction Week in the Imperial Valley, according to an
IID press release. The resolution salutes more than 100
dedicated IID employees, including 65 construction workers,
leaders and foremen, 48 heavy equipment operators and 14
equipment and maintenance mechanics who proudly perform one of
the district’s most essential jobs.
… Keeping the water that flows through our treatment plants,
rivers and taps healthy and safe from microbial
infection is a challenge. … The distribution of microbes
varies considerably across time and space. This makes them
difficult to track through conventional monitoring programmes
which rely on infrequent sampling (monthly or weekly at best)
at fixed locations. … Continuous monitoring is the best way
to detect epidemics before they explode, identify
contaminations before they spread, and proactively protect
public health. In the small country of Luxembourg, we have been
trialling new online monitoring initiatives such as Microbs and
Cyanowatch to achieve this at a national level.
Adult zebra mussels have been found in the Colorado River and a
nearby lake in Grand Junction, Colorado Parks and Wildlife said
Monday. The agency has detected the invasive species in
its larval stage, called a veliger, in past sampling efforts in
the river and nearby lakes. This is the first time an adult
zebra mussel, a sign of a more established population, has been
found in the Colorado River in Colorado. … They can take
up key nutrients for other aquatic species — tanking food
systems — and can build up in layers on docks, pipes and
diversion headgates, ruining water infrastructure.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasters are
predicting a La Niña winter for California, increasing the
potential for warmer and drier weather. … Much of
California’s water supply for homes, businesses, and
agriculture comes from Sierra snow runoff, which is stored in
dams and then released through the state’s extensive canal and
piping system. … Are farmers gearing up for shorter water
supplies if La Niña means a drier winter? [Fresno Farm Bureau
CEO Ryan] Jacobsen said it’s still too early to make those
preparations, but farmers will definitely be watching the skies
and hoping for an average or even above-average year for rain
and snowfall.
A bill aimed at preserving flows for fish on two Klamath
tributaries passed through both chambers of the state
legislature last week and awaits signature by Governor Gavin
Newsom. Assembly Bill 263, authored by North Coast
Assemblymember Chris Rogers (D-Santa Rosa), would maintain
existing minimum flows for the Shasta and Scott rivers. The
flow regulations were established as part of an emergency
drought declaration four years ago. If enacted, the regulations
would be kept until 2031 or whenever the State Water Board sets
permanent rules that are currently in the works.
Other California water and environmental policy news:
Antioch has finally turned on the taps of its long-awaited
brackish water desalination plant, which is expected to help
the city safeguard its water supply for decades to come. The
$160 million facility, hailed by city leaders as a milestone in
California’s water sustainability efforts, will meet up to 40%
of Antioch’s water needs. Residents and businesses use up to 11
million gallons of water daily in the winter and 23 million in
the summer. With the plant in service, the city can treat and
convert into drinking water about 6 million gallons a day of
brackish water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta.
