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 Interim Director Doug Beeman.
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The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) said it
submitted comments to the White House Office of Science and
Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation
(NSF) regarding the development of a national artificial
intelligence (AI) action plan. AMWA, which represents large
drinking water systems across the United States, highlighted
the critical intersection of AI development and water resource
management in its comments. The association said it is urging
policymakers to assess AI’s impact on water demand while
leveraging AI for water efficiency.
… A recent study “Same data, different analysts: variation in
effect sizes due to analytical decisions in ecology and
evolutionary biology” highlights concerns for how we draw
conclusions from scientific study and how science can inform
policy. … Collaborative synthesis science is one way to
strengthen consensus and to understand the roots of disparities
between different studies and approaches, leading to more
robust science. In the realm of California
water, contemporary models of collaborative synthesis
include the CVPIA Science Integration Team and subgroups,
Interagency Ecological Program Project Work Teams, and working
groups at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and
Synthesis. At its best, this approach brings together
cooperative teams with diverse perspectives and expertise to
achieve highly innovative solutions to research problems.
The United States has refused a request by Mexico for water,
alleging shortfalls in sharing by its southern neighbor, as
Donald Trump ramps up a battle on another front. The state
department said on Thursday it was the first time that the
United States had rejected a request by Mexico for special
delivery of water, which would have gone to the border city of
Tijuana. … The 1944 treaty, which governs water allocation from
the Rio Grande and Colorado River, has come under growing
strain in recent years due to the pressures of the climate
crisis and the burgeoning populations and agriculture in
parched areas. … Under the treaty, Mexico sends water from
rivers in the Rio Grande basin to the US, which in turn sends
Mexico water from the Colorado River, further to the west. But
Mexico has fallen behind in its water payments due to drought
conditions in the arid north of the country.
Californians could be drinking water tapped from the Pacific
Ocean off Malibu several years from now — that is, if a
company’s new desalination technology proves viable. OceanWell
Co. plans to anchor about two dozen 40-foot-long devices,
called pods, to the seafloor several miles offshore and use
them to take in saltwater and pump purified fresh water to
shore in a pipeline. The company calls the concept a water farm
and is testing a prototype of its pod at a reservoir in the
foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains. The pilot study,
supported by Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, is being
closely watched by managers of several large water agencies in
Southern California.
Recent snowstorms in the Colorado Rockies have helped elevate
snowpack levels as the calendar turns to spring. About two
weeks remain to build up snowpack ahead of what climate experts
say will be another dry year in the desert Southwest. A report
released on Thursday by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA) forecasts a greater-than-50% chance that
the drought will persist through the end of June. The affected
area includes Southern Nevada, Southern California, Southern
Utah, all of Arizona, and southwest Colorado.
Alfred E. Smith II, a Southern California water law attorney
and an alumnus of the Water Education Foundation’s Water
Leaders program, has been elected president of the Foundation’s
board of directors. As chair of Nossaman LLP’s Water Group and
a partner in the firm’s Los Angeles office, Smith serves as
general counsel to several Southern California water districts
and represents clients on water rights, groundwater
adjudications, water contamination litigation and remediation
matters.
Environmental groups clashed Thursday with California water
districts before a state appeals court over water flows in the
Kern River in central California, buoying their arguments on
seemingly conflicting laws and supposed failures of the trial
court. Groups like the North Kern Water Storage District last
year appealed a preliminary injunction requiring enough flows
to keep fish in good condition. They argued that it’s improper
to interpret state fish and game code as favoring fish over all
other needs, adding that a balancing test must occur. They want
the injunction and related implementation order shelved, with
instructions relayed to the lower court from the Fifth District
Court of Appeal on next steps. No ruling occurred Thursday but
the three-judge panel took the matter under submission.
As firefighters in Los Angeles finally contained the flames
from the devastating fires in January, the Trump administration
made the curious decision to order the sudden release of
billions of gallons of fresh water from two dams about 360km
north of the city. … Now California’s environmental
policymakers are braced for four years of possible
interventions from Trump as the state faces many water
management challenges, including declining surface and
groundwater — not to mention the impact of a changing climate.
Almost everywhere in California, salmon are on the decline. But
in Putah Creek — a restored stream running through the
University of California, Davis, campus — wild salmon are not
only increasing, they also are completing their life cycle. A
UC Davis study, published in the journal Ecosphere, is the
first to document Putah Creek-origin salmon. Chinook salmon
have been observed at the creek since 2014, but prior studies
had shown them to be strays from hatcheries. This study now
confirms that some salmon returning to Putah Creek in the fall
to spawn are actually born there.
The Trump administration is giving thousands of NOAA employees
another chance to quit their jobs before the Department of
Government Efficiency’s ax blade falls again at the nation’s
climate, weather and oceans agency. In a Commerce Department
notice to employees, which include NOAA’s roughly 10,500
remaining staff, officials said “all employees, in all
positions, at all grade/band level, in every geographic
location” could file for what’s known as “voluntary early
retirement” or a “voluntary separation incentive payment” with
a one-time payout of up to $25,000. The offer excludes
positions in immigration enforcement, national security, marine
vessel operations, patent and trademark examining, and public
safety, according to the Commerce memo, a copy of which was
reviewed by POLITICO’s E&E News.
Other federal environmental and weather agency news:
Over $500 million is on the table for water storage projects
across California. Options on how to allocate this money were
discussed at the February meeting, and a final decision on
funding was expected to be made at the March 19 meeting.
However, the commissioners ultimately decided to withhold the
majority of the money, at least for now. Most of the available
funding came from the failed Los Vaqueros Reservoir
expansion in Contra Costa County. $453.7 million was
returned to the California Water Commission Water Storage
Investment Program (WSIP) following the collapse of the
project.
Where California’s towering Sierra Nevada surrender to the
sprawling San Joaquin Valley, a high-stakes detective story is
unfolding. The culprit isn’t a person but a process: the
mysterious journey of snowmelt as it travels underground to
replenish depleted groundwater reserves. The
investigator is a NASA jet equipped with radar technology so
sensitive it can detect ground movements thinner than a nickel.
The work could unlock solutions to one of the American West’s
most pressing water challenges — preventing groundwater
supplies from running dry.
In December 2024, the County of Fresno Department of Public
Works and Planning released the draft environmental impact
report (DEIR) on Cemex’s proposed plan to modify its existing
Rockfield aggregate operation on Friant Road (Modification
Plan) and received public comments through March 10, 2025. …
Inaccurate information about the modification plan has been
broadly communicated by a few project opponents and
unfortunately perpetuated by some local digital channels.
Importantly, Cemex does not propose to mine in the San Joaquin
River. This has been clear throughout the application process
and any suggestions otherwise are disingenuous at best and
appear designed to mislead the public.
A large invasive rodent capable of destroying up to 9 tons of
plant material a year has made its way to Fresno, according to
a report by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
(CDFW). The large semi-aquatic rodents are native to South
America; the CDFW says they are capable of causing extensive
damage to the local environment. According to CDFW, nutria can
weigh over 20 pounds and eat up to 25% of their body weight a
day. However, each rodent destroys much more than its body
weight in plant materials. … Nutria were first spotted in
Fresno along the San Joaquin River in 2024, but as of Feb. 11,
1,140 have been captured county-wide.
The United Nations World Water Development Report 2025,
entitled “Mountains and glaciers – Water towers”, is launched
on 21 March at a joint celebration for World Water Day and the
inaugural World Day for Glaciers. The 2025 edition of
UN-Water’s flagship annual report on water calls attention to
the essential services and benefits mountain waters and alpine
glaciers provide to societies, economies and the environment.
With a focus on the technical and policy responses required to
improve water management in mountains, the report covers
critical issues such as water supply and sanitation, climate
change mitigation and adaptation, food and energy security,
industry, disaster risk reduction and ecosystem protection.
A federal freeze on spending for Southwestern water
conservation projects called vital to protecting Lake Mead and
the Colorado River appears to be over, two months after it
began, many state, local and tribal officials say. Officials
from Arizona and California water agencies have said in the
past week that the money appears to be flowing again. It is
considered crucial for compensating cities and farms for
leaving Colorado River water in Lake Mead. The U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation confirmed Wednesday that it has approved release of
previously frozen money to the Gila River Indian Community,
which owns Arizona’s largest share of river water rights.
Reclamation said it “will continue to engage” with other
entities “as we work together to efficiently use water in the
Colorado River Basin.”
Six months after the collapse of a $1.5 billion plan to expand
Los Vaqueros Reservoir in Contra Costa County to provide more
water to Bay Area residents, state officials began Wednesday to
redistribute nearly half a billion dollars that had been
earmarked for the failed project. The California Water
Commission, a panel appointed by the governor, voted 7-0 to
give $73 million immediately to the Harvest Water Program in
Sacramento County, in addition to $291 million it had
previously provided. … But the commission punted Wednesday on a
question being closely watched by water managers around the
state: When will it dole out the rest of the Los Vaqueros
money? And which other reservoirs and other water storage
projects being planned around California will receive it?
Steady storms continued to benefit California in March, with
reservoirs across the state gaining 200,000 acre-feet of water
from the beginning of the month to Tuesday — that’s
enough to fill 100,000 Olympic-size swimming
pools. Across California, reservoir storage is well above
average for this time of year, according to the Department
of Water Resources. Statewide storage was 115% of normal, as of
Tuesday. … California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake,
was at 86% of its total capacity on Thursday, or 113% of normal
for this time of year. … Lake Oroville, the state’s
second-largest reservoir, received some 30 billion gallons of
water, with water levels rising by more than 6 feet. … The
statewide snowpack is 93% of normal for this time of year, as
of Monday.
Other water supply and snowpack news around the West:
The Bureau of Reclamation released its March 24-Month study
last Friday and just like last month, the forecast is for big
trouble in the Colorado River Basin. Under the “Most Probable”
scenario, the ten-year cumulative flow at Lee Ferry will drop
below 82.5 million acre-feet (the “tripwire”) by the end of
Water Year 2027. If this happens, the odds are high that
the Lower Division states will trigger what they referred to in
their February 13, 2025, letter to Secretary Burgum as a
“compact call.” The nuance, however, is that the Colorado
River Compact has no specific provision for a compact call.
Under the compact, a call is just another word for interstate
litigation.
Legislation to prevent the unnecessary and harmful discharge of
California water from reservoirs under false pretenses was
introduced by Assemblymember Diane Papan, D-San Mateo. Assembly
Bill 1146 would prohibit the release of California’s stored
water if it is carried out under knowingly false or fraudulent
representations regarding the purpose or intended use of the
water. … In January 2025, the ordered release of more than 2
billion gallons of California water from reservoirs was widely
criticized as unnecessary and disruptive to the state’s
delicate water storage system. Experts have warned that such
politically motivated decisions could have devastating
consequences, including increased flood risks and water
shortages during critical dry periods.
