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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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.
Colorado lawmakers, worried that a key source of money for
water projects is too easily tapped for other programs, want to
create a special task force to examine ways to stabilize and
boost funding for things like new water pipelines and
conservation programs. Under Senate Bill 40, a nine-member
panel would examine new options to replace severance tax money
that is collected on nonrenewable resources, such as oil and
gas and some minerals, and is highly variable. A portion of the
revenue is used to help Colorado address looming water
shortages. According to state forecasts, by 2050 those
shortages could be as high as 740,000 acre-feet of water, under
a worst-case planning scenario, or much lower if growth slows
and climate change impacts are less than expected.
The Trump administration plans to increase “regulatory
flexibility” for oil and gas companies trying to find ways to
dispose of copious amounts of toxic wastewater. … Fracking
generates massive quantities of this toxic wastewater that
companies are struggling to manage. … Under the Environmental
Protection Agency’s current rule, discharges of produced water
are more restricted in the Eastern United States than in the
arid West. The agency announced last week that it will revise
that regulation to “help unleash American energy.” Among
the items it’s considering: expanding the geographic range
where treated oilfield wastewater can be discharged into rivers
and streams. The EPA also said it will review new
opportunities for using treated wastewater for industrial and
agricultural applications, including for artificial
intelligence and data center cooling, and to irrigate
rangeland.
The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement Act,
which would resolve decades-long disputes over water access and
usage for the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and the San Juan
Southern Paiute Tribe, has been reintroduced. The legislation,
introduced by Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly and Arizona Rep. Ruben
Gallego, now faces a new administration’s approval. If passed,
it will provide the three tribes with legally recognized water
rights. At the core of the bill is the formal recognition and
legal ratification of the tribes’ water rights. For years, the
three tribes have struggled with limited and uncertain access
to water, hindering economic development, agriculture, and
public health.
The country’s largest public water district hired a new science
adviser to guide the organization and help balance water
availability with environmental needs. Brad Cavallo comes to
Westlands Water District by way of Cramer Fish Sciences, where
he was vice president and principal scientist at the research
institute, according to a release from Westlands. Before that,
he also worked as senior environmental scientist for the
California Department of Water Resources and as a fisheries
biologist with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Cavallo says there is a way to balance water needs for
California’s endangered fish species and ensure water
availability.
The Klamath Water Users Association announced Elizabeth Nielsen
has accepted a position as executive director of the
organization, effective April 7, 2025. Nielsen currently serves
as deputy county administrator for Siskiyou County, California.
… Nielsen has worked on Klamath Basin watershed issues for
the past 14 years in various capacities, including with the
Bureau of Reclamation in Klamath Falls. In her current
position, her responsibilities include overseeing Siskiyou
County’s natural resources department. In recent years, Nielsen
has been instrumental in the work of the “Tri-Counties,” a
coalition among Klamath County Siskiyou and Modoc counties in
California, that has engaged effectively on water issues
regionally, statewide, and nationally.
On Jan. 31, the California Fourth District Court of Appeal
upheld a Riverside County Superior Court ruling that the
Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD) is required to reimburse
to non-agricultural customers a minimum of $17 million. On
March 12, CVWD filed an appeal with the California Supreme
Court. In what has been dubbed “the canal water rates case,”
the court found that the water district illegally charged this
group more than its agricultural customers for the delivery of
water via the Coachella Canal during the CVWD’s 2020, 2021 and
2022 fiscal years. According to the court, the plaintiff, the
Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association (HJTA), established that
the water district was charging agricultural businesses $34.32
per acre-foot during these years, while non-agricultural
customers—primarily single-family residence customers—were
charged $102.12 per acre-foot.
The proposed Delta Conveyance Project aims to divert more water
from the Sacramento River to 27-million people, largely in
Southern California, along with acres of farmland. Supporters
say the tunnel would cut down on earthquake risks, provide
cleaner water, and bolster the state’s water supply. However,
Delta residents worry about how construction could affect their
communities and native wildlife. CalMatters Environment
Reporter Alastair Bland joins Insight to talk about these
concerns, proposed alternatives, and whether the “Delta Tunnel”
is too big to kill.
A series of atmospheric rivers slammed California in early
2023, dumping as much as 300% of the historical annual average
rainfall on some parts of the state. The rains replenished
surface water storage above its historical average, but
scientists are still unraveling how the influx of precipitation
affected the state’s groundwater, which suffered from extreme
drought conditions from 2020 to 2022. In a new study
published in Science, researchers used an existing network of
seismic instruments to probe that question. They found that
surface water, such as lakes, streams, and reservoirs, had
recovered above its historical average after the winter storms.
But the volume of groundwater—defined in the study as water
stored more than 50 meters (164 feet) below the surface—lagged
far behind.
