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.
Subscribe to our weekday emails to have news delivered to your inbox at about 9 a.m. Monday through Friday except for holidays.
Please Note: Some of the sites we link to may limit the number of stories you can access without subscribing. Also, 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.
National parks are struggling with an $877 million backlog of
plumbing problems at restrooms and wastewater facilities with a
shortfall of workers needed to make repairs, according to an
audit released last week by the Interior Department’s inspector
general. Moreover, the park system — which hosted 332 million
visits last year at more than 400 sites — also lacks a system
to track critical wastewater hazards identified by NPS’ Office
of Public Health, the report said. The Office of Inspector
General surveyed 30 public health assessments for parks and
found 87 critical-level deficiencies such as permit violations
for sewage discharges, wastewater spills and other
problems.
Mexico will invest $6.1bn on 17 water projects in regions hit
by drought and flooding over the next six years, news website
Aquínoticias reports. The country is increasingly prone to
drought partly as a result of climate change and partly through
rapid urbanisation, which are draining aquifers. The work will
help 36 million people, said Efraín Morales López, director
general of Conagua, which manages Mexico’s water
infrastructure. He said $750m would be spent in the coming
year, and would fund site preparation for a desalination plant,
aqueducts and flood protection. The plant will be built in
Rosarito, Baja California, with a six-year investment of around
$600m. It will provide water to the Tijuana area, benefiting 6
million residents. Work will begin in November.
On March 14, 2025, the Court of Appeal for California’s Fifth
Appellate District issued its decision in Sandton Agriculture
Investments III v. 4-S Ranch Partners, 2025 S.O.S. 659. That
case provided guidance on ownership of captured water and
percolating groundwater. … The opinion in this case is a
timely one that provides guideposts for how parties should
think about property rights when purchasing or selling
property. The water rights at issue in this case were arguably
worth between $200 million and $600 million, and Sandton
acquired them almost for free. This case should be considered
in any acquisition or transfer of property with captured water
or groundwater.
California’s most-destructive and least-welcome swamp rodents
have arrived in its fifth-largest city. To be precise, they’ve
arrived in the stretch of San Joaquin River that traces
Fresno’s northwest border. Eight years have passed since a
reproducing population of nutria was found in western Merced
County — their first discovery in the state since the 1970s.
Despite eradication efforts that began in March 2018, nutria
have since spread north into the Delta, east into foothills
along the Merced River and south into the Fresno Slough and
Mendota Wildlife Area. … Since 2023 more nutria have been
taken from Fresno County than any county in California,
according to CDFW data. In the overall tally of 5,493 animals
that dates to 2018, Fresno County (1,140) trails only Merced
County (2,593). -Written by Fresno Bee columnist Marek Warszawski.
An appeals court on Thursday will hear arguments on Kern River
water diversions, which have killed thousands of fish and
drained the once flowing waterway in Bakersfield. The 5th
District Court of Appeals will consider whether to uphold a
preliminary injunction sought by a coalition of environmental
groups to stop the city of Bakersfield and agricultural water
storage districts from diversions that significantly reduce
river flow. … (A)n appeals court issued a stay on the
injunction, after agricultural water districts appealed. In
October state Attorney General Rob Bonta intervened in the
lawsuit, siding with environmentalists in challenging the
diversions. Thursday’s hearing will determine whether to
restore the injunction and allow Kern River water to flow once
again.
New research released today by the Pacific Institute and
DigDeep outlines over 100 actionable strategies for frontline
communities’ water and sanitation systems in the face of
intensifying climate impacts while addressing systemic
inequities. This report, “Achieving Equitable,
Climate-Resilient Water and Sanitation for Frontline
Communities,” defines specific attributes of equitable,
climate-resilient water and sanitation that are key to
advancing solutions to the climate crisis. … The report
identifies eight categories of attributes and strategies for
achieving equitable, climate-resilient water and sanitation
systems.
Other climate change and water science and analysis:
This spring, students can learn about water use and runoff
through interactive assemblies or explore local water resources
while engaging in class projects — all thanks to water
education programs hosted by Inside the Outdoors. In
celebration of World Water Day on March 22, the OCDE-led
environmental education program is making a splash by opening
applications to Orange County classrooms eager to learn more
about the wonders of water. The traveling scientist programs,
available for students in grades three through 12, are offered
through a grant partnership with the Municipal Water District
of Orange County and the Family of Orange County Water
Providers.
Residents have until 5 p.m. April 11 to submit comments on the
proposed renewal of the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System at the Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant,
6040 Vaca Station Road. Treated wastewater is discharged to Old
Alamo Creek, a tributary of New Alamo Creek, Ulatis Creek,
Cache Creek Slough and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. …
The tentative order includes updated effluent limitations for
ammonia nitrogen, nitrate plus nitrite, dichlorobromomethane,
dibromochloromethane, and cyanide. It removes effluent
limitations for acute whole effluent toxicity and electrical
conductivity.
… The administration is considering terminating the lease
on the Army Corps of Engineers’ Risk Management Center, which
current and former employees say is integral to oversight of
hundreds of dams and thousands of miles of levees nationwide. …
The uncertain future facing the Risk Management Center comes as
the Trump administration has fired employees at other agencies
— like the Bureau of Reclamation and National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration — also integral to dam safety. Now,
some dam safety experts worry the public will be at greater
risk of flooding and other potentially life-threatening
situations given the current trajectory.
Other federal water and public resource agency news:
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its
scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists,
biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to
documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on
Science, Space and Technology. The strategy is part of
large-scale layoffs, known as a “reduction in force,” being
planned by the Trump administration, which is intent on
shrinking the federal work force. Lee Zeldin, the administrator
of the E.P.A., has said he wants to eliminate 65 percent of the
agency’s budget. That would be a drastic reduction — one that
experts said could hamper clean water and wastewater
improvements, air quality monitoring, the cleanup of toxic
industrial sites, and other parts of the agency’s mission.
Utah is launching a plan to pay farmers to leave some of their
irrigation water in the Colorado River system. The Colorado
River Authority of Utah board has approved the first round of
applicants for the state’s new Demand Management Pilot Program.
It includes more than a dozen projects along Colorado River
tributaries in eastern and southeastern Utah. The program will
use up to $4.2 million of state money to compensate farmers who
temporarily forgo using some of their water in 2025 and 2026. …
Utah leaders hope quantifying the water those projects save
will help the state avoid mandatory cutbacks as it looks toward
a renegotiated Colorado River agreement in 2026.
The recent rain and snow are much needed for Central
California’s water supply. The latest set of storms is already
sparking talk of a “Miracle March.” “January was a really dry
month. It was really a bust for the amount of water we got,
very little snowpack,” said Steven Haugen, watermaster for the
Kings River Water Association. Haugen is paying close attention
to Central California’s snowpack, which he called our biggest
reservoir, holding more than a million acre-feet of water. Our
actual reservoirs are almost all at or above historical
averages, except nearby Millerton and to the south, Castaic.
Both are just below their average levels for this time of year.
… California’s sport and commercial fishermen have been
walloped by two years of salmon closures and are bracing for a
potential third, which they blame on a years-earlier drought
and state and federal water management policies they say have
made it tough for the species to thrive. … The dim outlook
comes as President Donald Trump has ordered officials to find
ways to put “people over fish” and route more water to farmers
in California’s crop-rich Central Valley and residents of its
densely-populated cities. Trump has professed his love for
farmers and contends too much heed is paid to the tiny delta
smelt, a federally-threatened species seen as an indicator of
the health of California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta. But salmon depend on this same water system for
their survival.
From my home in Los Angeles, I witnessed the devastation of
wildfires earlier this year and how they underscored the rising
urgency to modernize water infrastructure. … As wildfires grow
more frequent and intense, it becomes even more urgent to adapt
our water infrastructure to meet this new reality. Much of the
nation’s water infrastructure is nearing the end of its
lifespan. And yet, modernizing drinking and wastewater systems
could exceed $744 billion in costs over the next 20
years. Between the urgent need to upgrade decades-old
systems and the rising impacts of climate-driven weather
extremes, the vast networks of pipes, treatment plants, and
drainage systems across the U.S. are under immense strain. –Written by Kirsten James, senior program director for
water at the nonprofit sustainability organization Ceres.
The San Miguel Community Services District declined to join a
new agency that will charge fees for pumping groundwater from
the Paso Robles Groundwater Basin. The basin is managed by five
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies, four of which voted to
create a Joint Powers Authority that would have the power to
levy fees. On Thursday night, the San Miguel Community Services
District Board of Directors voted 2-2 on a motion to join the
Joint Powers Authority. Because the board was tied, the motion
failed, and the agency missed the Friday deadline to join the
Joint Powers Authority.
The Marin Municipal Water District Board of Directors just
decided on our “path to resiliency” by approving a pipeline to
bring water from the Russian River in Sonoma County. As a
director and co-founder of the Marin Coalition for Water
Solutions group, I can say our members thank the board for this
step, as it will help. However, it won’t completely solve
the problem. The pipeline will provide a limited amount of
water under contract with the Sonoma County agency. … (T)he
board should also aggressively pursue a longer-term,
drought-proof alternative – water reuse. –Written by Steve Isaacs, co-founder of Marin Coalition
for Water Solutions.
The first time I went to Imperial Beach, California, I was
struck by the community’s kindness. I went to the pier first,
not knowing where to find people to talk to, only knowing that
the pier was an iconic fixture of the town. … At first,
the story was about the loss of this beach, a community space
to swim and gather. But as I spoke to more people, and felt how
genuine they were and ready to talk to me and direct me to
where to go next, it was almost overwhelming how far the
impacts of the polluted water in Imperial Beach reached.
In 2024, after years of deliberation, California water
officials adopted landmark rules that will guide future water
use and conservation in the state. The “Making Conservation a
California Way of Life” framework went into effect at the
beginning of 2025 and requires compliance by 2027. The
framework is intended to help preserve water supplies as
climate change drives hotter, drier conditions and droughts
become more frequent and longer lasting, and is expected to
help save 500,000 acre-feet of water annually by 2040. That is
enough to supply more than 1.4 million households for a
year.
Dozens of Central Valley residents are planning to gather in
Fresno to voice their opposition to a plan to expand dumping
they say will bring dangerous waste to the region. On
March 20, residents and environmental justice advocates plan to
protest on the steps of Fresno City Hall against a proposed
expansion of hazardous waste dumping that could permit city
landfills to take more contaminated soil. … According to a
news release from the California Environmental Justice
Coalition, the plan threatens air and water quality, public
health, and community safety, especially in communities already
burdened by pollution.
… (T)echnologies that collect water vapor and turn it into
pure, liquid water are emerging to tackle global water
challenges — and, to help, industries including pharmaceutical
and semiconductor manufacturing are pouring money into research
and pilot testing. At Arizona State University, experts in the
field recently gathered for the second International
Atmospheric Water Harvesting Summit hosted in
collaboration with the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering,
Global Center for Water Technology, Julie Ann Wrigley Global
Futures Laboratory, Arizona Water Innovation Initiative and
Southwest Sustainability Engine. ASU News spoke with Paul
Westerhoff, a Regents Professor in the School of Sustainable
Engineering and the Built Environment, who chaired the summit.
