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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A House panel advanced bipartisan legislation Wednesday to
continue funding an EPA grant program that helps reduce
pollution from farms, construction sites and roads. The House
Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted to
send H.R. 7376, the “Local Water Protection Act,” to the
House for consideration, overruling objections from one member,
Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.). Sponsored by Reps. Hillary Scholten
(D-Mich.) and Brian Mast (R-Fla.), the bill would reauthorize
EPA’s nonpoint source pollution grant program at $200 million
annually through fiscal 2031. Nonpoint pollution includes farm
runoff, road salt and construction debris, and can carry
fertilizer, chemicals and sediment into rivers, streams and
lakes.
Negotiations over how to manage the Delta’s water and fish
species hit a boiling point in late January, when hundreds of
members of the public, environmental groups, and Tribes pleaded
for days on end with California water officials. They demanded
that the State Water Resources Control Board go against
the wishes of powerful farming districts and mandate that more
water flows through the ailing estuary, lest its once prolific
chinook salmon, sturgeon, and smelt cross thresholds of
extinction. … The grueling faceoff came during a
three-day public hearing hosted by the State Water Board. The
sessions focused on the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan,
the keystone ruleset overseeing management of Delta water and
its various beneficial uses.
Senator Adam Schiff announced $54 million in federal funding
for the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project in Monterey
and Santa Cruz counties to increase flood protection by
rebuilding and strengthening failing levees. The new federal
investment will enhance flood protection by reconstructing
levees along the Pajaro River, which breached in 2023, flooding
Pajaro and surrounding areas and forcing thousands to evacuate
their homes. The federal funding aims to make critical
improvements to mitigate flood risk and protect residents, the
local economy, and infrastructure in the region.
Potential options for storing water if and when the dams
serving the Potter Valley Project are
eventually removed will be discussed Thursday by the Mendocino
County Inland Water and Power Commission, the board which First
District Mendocino County Supervisor Madeline Cline still sits
on despite reservations expressed last week by a fellow
supervisor. … Instead of the Two-Basin Solution that
many describe the proposed new diversions supported by the IWPC
as providing, [Former First District Supervisor Glenn] McGourty
said “at the moment we have what I call a one-and-a-half-basin
solution until we discover how we can store water so that
agriculture and the way of life in Potter Valley can
continue.”
In the Las Vegas Valley, both shade and water are critical
resources — and a new lawsuit is bringing to light how one is
sometimes sacrificed for the other in our desert community. A
lawsuit against the Southern Nevada Water Authority centers on
grass removal practices that critics say lead to widespread
tree damage. … As Las Vegas warms, shade from trees
becomes increasingly important for mitigating the health
impacts of extreme heat. On the other hand, a dwindling
Colorado River has people calling for conservation
measures across the basin. … With Colorado River water
irrigation for non-functional grass becoming illegal in 2027,
SNWA is encouraging property owners to take advantage of
current incentives, including $100 rebates for new trees
planted during grass conversions.
I stand at the mouth of the Tijuana River—a Stygian cesspool
that flows 120 miles north from Baja California, through the
working-class city of Tijuana with its hundreds of factories
manufacturing gadgets for American consumers—before crossing
the US-Mexico border. … While some find it convenient to
blame Mexico for not maintaining its system of pipes, pumps,
and wastewater treatment facilities, the reality is more
nuanced. Tijuana’s exponential growth resulted directly from US
economic and immigration policies, and its waste management
falls under the binational International Boundary and Water
Commission (IBWC), established by an 1889 US-Mexico treaty.
As water systems across the Southwest face mounting pressures
ranging from aging infrastructure to water supply challenges,
the need for a prepared, adaptable water workforce has never
been more urgent. Arizona State University’s Water
Management Certificate was designed to meet this moment,
offering a practical, accessible pathway into one of the
region’s most critical fields. Now in its third cohort, the
15-week, noncredit certificate has already enrolled more than
600 learners, with over 1,000 applicants from across the United
States. The program brings together working professionals,
graduate students, career changers and community members, many
of whom are encountering water management as a career option
for the first time.
A bipartisan group of Central Valley House members urged the
Newsom administration Monday to reverse an environmental rule
governing operations in the state’s main water hub, arguing it
is unnecessarily limiting exports south to farms and
communities. Democratic Reps. Jim Costa and Adam Gray and
Republican Reps. David Valadao and Vince Fong wrote to Gov.
Gavin Newsom and top water officials in his administration
asking them “to reverse an ill-timed decision” to limit water
pumping in the sensitive Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
this month. Both Newsom and President Donald Trump have
sought to export and store more water this year — including by
relaxing environmental rules in the Delta and backing new
reservoir projects.
Multiple storms will spin southward along the Pacific Coast of
the United States next week. Each storm will bring abundant
rain and mountain snow and cause significant impacts on travel
and the potential for flooding and mudslides. … On
Sunday or [Monday], drenching rain is likely to spin into
coastal areas of Northern and Central California. From there,
low-elevation rain and mountain snow will expand southward and
eastward across California then into the interior West.
… “It is possible the series of storms next week
in California delivers close to an entire month’s worth of rain
and snow,” AccuWeather Chief On-Air Meteorologist
Bernie Rayno said. … Much of the interior West is in
desperate need of storms with ample moisture.
Other winter storm and snowpack news around the West:
The Colorado River Basin is in crisis. Climate change is
reducing its flow and its biggest reservoirs are shrinking. The
seven U.S. states that use the river are negotiating cutbacks
to their water use. The Upper Basin states of Colorado, Utah,
Wyoming, and New Mexico are deadlocked with the Lower Basin
states of California, Arizona, and Nevada. But the federal
government has a big stake in the negotiations, too. …
Dwindling water levels hurt its ability to generate and sell
hydropower. Lower flows degrade the federally-managed national
parks the river flows through. Diminishing supplies threaten
the viability of the river’s core legal document, the Colorado
River Compact. With all of those layered interests, it’s led
some to ask: Why aren’t federal officials applying more
pressure to get a deal finalized?
Over the past decade, parts of California have plummeted by
multiple feet, according to satellite measurements. The San
Joaquin Valley saw the biggest drops, with parts of
the Tulare Basin sinking more than seven feet between
2015 and 2025. Although the most dramatic declines occurred
during drought years, subsidence did not stop when wetter
conditions returned: even from 2024 to 2025, sections of the
basin sank by as much as five inches. … Multiple
factors drive vertical land motion, but California’s subsidence
has largely been due to agricultural pumping for
groundwater, said Paul Gosselin, deputy
director for sustainable water management for the California
Department of Water Resources.
AI is driving a boom in data centers, and with it growing
demands on California’s water resources. Developers are
building more data centers alongside the hundreds already
operating in California. This report evaluates how to better
manage their water impacts on local communities and the
environment. Servers in data centers generate heat and
typically use water for cooling. Concern over data center water
use is growing. Yet, there is very little understanding of how
much water they actually use, where their water use may cause
negative impacts, and what measures the state, local leaders,
and the industry can take to manage it. To respond to this
growing challenge, our team reviewed current knowledge on data
center water use, mapped the policy and regulatory framework
for direct data center water use in California, and developed
recommendations.
This week, California Trout, Trout Unlimited and CalWild
announced that they would be working in partnership with the
the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (North
Coast Water Board) to designate Cedar Creek and Elder Creek —
two tributaries of the South Fork Eel River watershed —
Outstanding National Resource Waters. The ONRW designation, a
federal status established by the Clean Water Act, is “one of
the strongest legal mechanisms available to protect water
quality,” according to a joint news release issued Monday
morning. … The ONRW designation would extend throughout the
two creeks’ watershed to segments of Cedar Creek within the
Little Red Mountain Ecological Preserve (including Little Cedar
Creek, North Fork Cedar Creek and associated wetlands) and
Elder Creek’s tributaries, all important areas for salmonid
recovery efforts.
A pipeline used to send wastewater from Tijuana to the a
treatment plant in San Diego ruptured Feb. 10, the U.S.
International Boundary and Water Commission (USIBWC) reports.
The rupture sent sewage into and through Stewart’s Drain, but
no wastewater reached the Tijuana River channel due to efforts
from the USIBWC and its contractors Veolia and INBODE. The
transboundary flow was stopped using portable pumps and vacuum
trucks, and ultimately lasted from approximately 5 a.m. until
6:30 a.m. The ruptured pipe was repaired by 9 a.m. The incident
occurred as the IBWC finalized repairs of Junction Box 1
(JB-1), which is part of a network of infrastructure that
carries wastewater from Tijuana to the South Bay International
Wastewater Treatment Plant (SBIWTP) in San Diego.
The time to act on golden mussels is yesterday. If not
yesterday, then now, an expert on invasive mollusks told
attendees at the World Ag Expo in Tulare Wednesday. … These
things are “quagga mussel on steroids” said David Hammond, a
senior scientist at Earth Science Labs. He urged irrigation and
water district managers at the seminar to enact immediate
preventative measures, or their entire conveyance systems would
be at risk of being overrun by the tiny, rapidly multiplying
mussels. … Golden mussels, native to Southeast Asia and
a cousin to quagga and zebra mussels, were first discovered in
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in 2024. And in less than a
year, have traveled the length of the state, clogging
infrastructure as they rapidly multiply.
A cache of government documents dating back nearly a century
casts serious doubt on the safety of the oil and gas industry’s
most common method for disposing of its annual trillion gallons
of toxic wastewater: injecting it deep
underground. Despite knowing by the early 1970s that
injection wells were at best a makeshift solution, the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) never followed its own
determination that they should be “a temporary means of
disposal,” used only until “a more environmentally acceptable
means of disposal [becomes] available.” … The documents
show there may be little scientific merit to industry and
government claims that injection wells are a safe means of
disposal — putting drinking water and other mineral resources
in communities across the country at risk of contamination, and
jeopardizing local economies and public health.
The story in Planada remains in the frustrating phase of “two
steps forward, one step back” three years after many of the
small farmtown’s homes and businesses were flooded out when
Miles Creek busted its banks. Residents are starting to see
progress with homes being rebuilt. But even with millions of
extra state and federal dollars and widespread attention, the
process has been slow, cumbersome and confusing. … Work
is underway along Miles Creek. Vegetation removal has been
completed, and more is scheduled, North stated. Construction
has also begun on an emergency generator for the Planada
Community Services District, which will strengthen its ability
to maintain essential services during
emergencies. Planning is also underway for improvements to
local roads and other public infrastructure.
A measure to spend $8 million to assess what it would take to
fix aging wastewater and stormwater infrastructure sailed out
of the Senate Agriculture, State and Public Lands and Water
Resources Committee on a unanimous vote. Senate File 69, “Waste
and storm water infrastructure study,” would tap the Strategic
Investments and Projects Account and support a four-year
statewide assessment to help town and state officials determine
exact needs and costs, according to the bill’s
proponents. Some estimate that upgrading municipal water
systems across the state (Wyo.) could cost billions of dollars.
California regulators are moving toward a long-awaited decision
on how much water can be taken from the Sacramento–San Joaquin
Delta — a choice that could reshape supplies for cities, farms,
and fragile ecosystems statewide. The Bay-Delta Plan, now
nearing final approval, would require more freshwater to remain
in rivers and estuaries, limiting how much can be pumped south
during much of the year. Recent public hearings underscored how
consequential the plan is: conservation groups say the Delta’s
ecological collapse demands urgent action; agricultural
districts and urban water agencies warn it could reshape supply
chains, decimate the ag industry, and raise household water
bills.
… The physical infrastructure that enables Colorado River
water management is on the verge of its own real and
potentially catastrophic crisis — and yet Reclamation has
barely acknowledged this, with the exception of an oblique
reference in an unposted technical memorandum from
2024. The falling reservoir levels reveal another, deeper set
of problems inside Glen Canyon Dam, which holds back the
Colorado and Lake Powell. The 710-foot-tall dam was designed
for a Goldilocks world in which water levels would never be too
high or too low, despite the well-known fact that the Colorado
is by far the most variable river in North America. …
Insufficient or no flows through Glen Canyon Dam would be a
disaster of unprecedented magnitude, affecting vast population
centers and some of the biggest economies in the world, not to
mention ecosystems that depend on the river all the way to the
Gulf of California in Mexico. –Written by Los Angeles-based historian Wade Graham.
