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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… Forecasters are expecting a brief ENSO-neutral period
(neither El Niño or La Niña conditions present) and then
calling for a strong El Niño to roll in later this year.
Initially, that chatter included the potential El Niño being a
“Super El Niño,” but now there are mumbles of something even
grander: a “Godzilla El Niño.” … The term Godzilla El
Niño popped up a little over a decade ago as conditions for a
massive El Niño were brewing over the Pacific. A NASA scientist
by the name of Bill Patzert coined the phrase as a way of
illustrating the expected scale of weather impacts, and that
drew comparisons to the historic El Niño of 1997-1998. … San
Francisco received the most rainfall it had seen in 100 years
that winter (1997-1998). … And snowfall in many parts
of the West reached double the average.
… [L]ast year … President Trump ordered the Army Corps of
Engineers to open up flows from the part of California’s vast
water system that’s controlled by the federal government. Trump
backed it up with an executive order and what’s now known as
Action 5, a plan for the Bureau of Reclamation to divert
more water to farmers, independent of state water officials.
… Several environmental groups, including San Francisco
Baykeeper and the Center for Biological Diversity are now
suing, claiming the Action 5 diversions violate the Endangered
Species Act and will harm fish populations including
chinook salmon.
Wildlife advocates are backing a bill to ban the killing of
beavers on Colorado public lands, while hunters and trappers
point to the proposal and a flurry of recent actions as a
concerted effort to block all hunting in the state. Animal
protection groups say there is currently no limit on how many
beavers can be taken from state or federal land in Colorado, at
a time when biologists and forestry experts are making
beaver-created wetlands a keystone strategy in
fighting the growing wildfire threat. … “We are in
drought conditions. We have a historically low snowpack. And we
need every ally we can get in this fight against increased
wildfires and drought,” said Samantha Miller, a wildlife
advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity.
A stretch of farmland along the Laguna de Santa Rosa floodplain
could become a new home for steelhead, coho salmon and wading
birds as part of a major wetland restoration
effort now backed by more than $1 million in state funding. The
Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation was awarded a $1.05 million
grant in late February from the California Wildlife
Conservation Board to begin planning restoring 175 acres of
farmland between Sebastopol and Forestville back into riparian
and wetland habitats. The grant marks a major turning point for
the foundation, which will now be able to take on its largest
singular project in the foundation’s 37-year history.
Nearly 50 labor, tribal, conservation and environmental justice
organizations have urged the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California to allocate $150 million toward planning
and design of a large regional wastewater recycling project,
according to a joint letter submitted ahead of a district
committee meeting Tuesday. … Supporters said the project
would produce up to 150 million gallons of purified water per
day once fully operational, creating a new local water supply
while reducing nutrient discharges into the ocean.
The proposed East Bay AI data center is not moving forward yet,
as the Provo City Council voted unanimously not to approve the
zoning change. … According to the memo on the ordinance,
the data center would power itself only from the city electric
grid rather than producing any electricity on-site, and it
would use a closed-loop water system with water use being
capped 4,380,000 gallons per year. … At the same time,
the water does still need to be replaced, and a representative
for B+F Timpanogos said that could happen every two to three
years, depending on engineering. … [A] large number of
people came to speak against approving the data center. Many of
them cited environmental concerns around water and power usage.
On January 14, 2026, a California Court of Appeal upheld the
Environmental Impact Report (EIR) certified by the City of
American Canyon (American Canyon) and the accompanying water
supply assessment (WSA) in City of Vallejo v. City of American
Canyon. The California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
requires a WSA to be prepared for certain large-scale
development projects as part of the environmental review
process to prove that adequate water supplies will be available
for the project once complete. Legal challenges related to the
availability of water to supply large developments are becoming
increasingly common. The Vallejo case provides some new
insights into the scope and details required for a valid WSA
under CEQA.
Both the Utah House and Senate signed off on a proposal to
require large data centers moving to Utah to report their
annual water use to state officials. … “The market itself has
reacted to the concern nationwide about water use,” said State
Representative Jill Koford, R-Ogden, who sponsored the bill.
“In the second-driest state in the nation, I think it’s good
for us to set the tone nationally.” … Koford’s bill
would require data centers that are at least 10,000 square feet
and use at least 75 acre-feet of water a year to report
their water usage tothe state. That
water usage data would also be accessible to the public.
The planet may experience a strong or even a super El Niño
later this year, one that could rival the strongest ones in
history. … [I]mpacts can include the frequency and location
of heat waves, the locations of flooding downpours and drought
could focus, where hurricanes may hit, and declining sea ice
concentrations. For example, the Western United States
could face a hotter than average summer. … Late
in the year, a stronger southern branch of the jet stream could
influence heavy downpours and the potential for flooding. …
That stronger southern jet stream can also increase the
chance for flooding wintertime downpours in
California.
This past winter was officially Utah’s warmest in over a
century, contributing to many of the snowpack challenges facing
the state. Utah posted a statewide average temperature of 36.4
degrees between Dec. 1 and Feb. 28, shattering the previous
meteorological record — set during the 2014-2015 winter — by
2.2 degrees, according to National Centers for Environmental
Information data released on Monday. … It could have
repercussions for later this year. The National Weather
Service’s Colorado Basin River Forecast Center updated its
spring runoff outlook on Friday, projecting that
snowmelt could be approximately 60% of normal or
lessat many of the major creeks and rivers in
the state.
Other snowpack and water supply news around the West:
Arizona will take nearly a $3 trillion total economic hit and
lose millions of jobs that would have come to the state by 2060
if Central Arizona Project deliveries are halted by the federal
government, a new report from the project’s governing agency
says. A CAP consultant’s report said the state’s total economic
output would by 2060 be 11% to 14% lower than it otherwise
would have been, under two proposed federal alternatives for
managing the Colorado River. At worst, the state’s total jobs
would shrink by 7.9% if the project’s supplies were eliminated,
the report said.
The Marin Municipal Water District has secured a $1.1 million
state grant to support its ongoing effort to restore habitat
for endangered coho salmon and other aquatic species in
Lagunitas Creek. The district plans to use the grant to
initiate the project “phase 2,” which is set for construction
in 2027. … Marin County has the largest population of
wild endangered coho salmon from Monterey Bay to the Mendocino
County-Sonoma County line. Once believed to have
numbered in the thousands, coho populations dwindled to the
hundreds during the 20th century because dam
construction blocked miles of former spawning grounds and
tributaries.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife is launching an awareness campaign
called “Oh Shell No” to address the spread of zebra mussels in
the state, with a focus on impacts to agriculture and water
infrastructure. In 2025, CPW detected adult zebra mussels in
the Colorado River for the first time, as well as in smaller
lakes and ponds in the Grand Junction area. … As
temperatures rise, CPW plans to put more technicians in the
field for sampling. The agency said it will focus monitoring
efforts upstream of areas where zebra mussels have already been
found.
Three new groundwater wells are giving the city of Antelope
more reliable access to drinking water and the flexibility to
meet water needs in wet and dry years. The Sacramento Suburban
Water District formally commissioned the three wells, known as
“the triplets” on Monday. The three wells plus a fourth
recently brought online can serve up to 33,500 homes in the
Antelope area daily. This project is part of a decades-long
larger effort to balance the Sacramento region’s use of
groundwater and surface water. During dry years, the use of
groundwater wells reduces the demand on surface water sources
like Folsom Lake and the Lower American River.
… Colorado has already seen multiple wildfires break out in
the past couple weeks alone; and though most experts recognize
the state’s fire season is year round at this point, they still
have great concern for the upcoming core summer fire season.
… “We’ve seen an unprecedented drying trend this winter
and no one really knows when that’s going to end,” said Jeff
Rasmussen, branch chief of fire planning for the Division of
Fire Prevention and Control. … “Those fuels will be
available as long as there’s no snow on the ground.”
Rapidly falling rain can overwhelm storm drains and cause
flooding. Windy rainstorms drenching the San Francisco Bay Area
occur on average once a year, but over the past 30 years these
storms have become wetter and more frequent. Rainstorms
are increasingly dangerous for homeless people living near
rivers and streams, according to University of California
scientists. … Nikhil Kumar, a hydroclimatologist, worked
with Lacan and UC Davis professor Gregory Pasternack to study
the impact of the wetter storms on some of the Bay Area’s most
vulnerable communities.
… [T]he Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California
… recently purchased significant portions of ancestral
land in the Sierra region. … The purchase was made
possible through a conservation partnership model, increasingly
common for tribal land returns in California. Over several
years, the Feather River Land Trust (FRLT) worked with the
Washoe Tribe to incorporate their perspectives into land
management and interpretive programming. … Alongside
reclaiming the ability to carry out traditional practices, the
tribe plans to manage the land with conservation as its guiding
principle, protecting habitats for pronghorn, mule deer, gray
wolves, natural springs, and vital water
sources.
In the heart of Napa Valley, St. Helena is home
to world-class Cabernet Sauvignon, a historic
stone-and-brick downtown and, to locals at least, brown tap
water. … The problem is that naturally occurring
minerals, mostly iron and manganese, have built up in the
city’s aging pipes. … City officials have insisted the water
may seem unappealing at times, but it is not harmful and is
safe to drink. The city’s reassurances have not satisfied some
residents who argue they can’t be expected to consume or bathe
in brown water — while still paying some of the Bay Area’s
highest water bills.
Amid Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson’s mission to put the “river”
back in Riverside, Councilmember Steve Hemenway is starting
with a lake – the former reservoir in the southwestern part of
the city known as Hole Lake. … Hemenway said Hole Lake’s
revitalization project is in partnership with the mayor’s
vision to reconnect Riverside with the Santa Ana River, as the
lake serves as a “bookend” to the stretch of river in the city.
Lock Dawson said the lake effort is a “meaningful step toward
putting the river back in Riverside” by investing in
restoration and addressing issues like illegal dumping.
… The Bureau of Reclamation’s latest most probable forecast
for Lake Powell shows it sinking below “power pool” — 3,490
feet — by December. At that level, water can’t make it through
the turbines at Glen Canyon Dam that generate hydropower and
keep the lights on across Utah and six other states.
… To prop up Powell, the bureau will likely rely on
another popular Utah reservoir: Flaming Gorge. The reservoir
that straddles the border of Utah and Wyoming has the best
water outlook in the basin, at 64% of normal, according to the
forecast center.
