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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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.
Recent storms have once again pushed large amounts of trash
from Mexico into the Tijuana River Valley, but new equipment
installed along the river is already making a noticeable
difference. Project leaders say newly added floating trash
deflectors are improving how debris is captured, preventing
waste from scattering throughout the river corridor in San
Ysidro and reducing the risk of pollution reaching
the Pacific Ocean. … The deflectors work alongside
an existing trash boom installed about a year and a half ago at
the start of the Tijuana River Valley. Stretching roughly 700
feet across the river, the barrier is designed to intercept
debris flowing north from Tijuana before it spreads downstream.
Scores of communities around the United States have aging and
decrepit wastewater systems that can put residents’ health and
homes at risk. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and former
President Joe Biden’s administration promised hundreds of
millions of dollars to address the problem, but much of that
has been undone in President Donald Trump’s return to office.
Some of the Trump administration’s cuts have come as he has
targeted diversity, equity and inclusion. Advocates say that
will likely widen inequality, as many of the worst wastewater
systems are in poor communities. Here are key takeaways from
The Associated Press’ reporting on the issue.
The Grand Canyon is one of the world’s most famous waterways,
and its stretch of the Colorado River and its
tributaries are protected. But a new study has discovered that
some of the canyon’s water systems may contain pharmaceutical
drugs and forever chemicals. … Monument Spring, which
feeds into the Colorado River, showed traces of multiple
pharmaceutical medications, including an antibiotic,
antifungal, antidepressant, and a diabetic drug. The amounts
are small, but experts say the findings indicate wastewater
from a nearby treatment plant is somehow seeping back to the
canyon and the Colorado River, a major water source for plants,
animals, and humans in the region.
Lodi Unified School District students this week participated in
the first step to hatch salmon and return them to the Mokelumne
River. Representatives from East Bay Municipal Utilities
District visited more than 80 classrooms throughout the region
Thursday, delivering eggs that students will nurture and
monitor for the next couple of months. … [District
spokeswoman Mary] Campbell said there were some warm
temperatures early on during last year’s spawning season, but
EBMUD staff was able to maintain cold stable water conditions
to support salmon spawning, egg incubation and juvenile
survival in the lower Mokelumne River. She said temperatures
this season were very good, and some 10,536 Chinook salmon
returned to the river.
Sediment bulk density is a physical property of the sediment
bed that tells scientists how compacted the particles
are. … These analyses are used in beneficial
sediment reuse and marsh restoration projects in places like
San Francisco Bay, where marshes buffer shorelines from storms
but are in danger of drowning due to sea-level rise if sediment
accumulation can’t keep up. … To accurately calculate
ρdry in a system as complex and dynamic as the San Francisco
Bay and Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, USGS scientists decided
to create a site-specific model, described in a newly published
study.
The Bureau of Reclamation today released a draft Environmental
Impact Statement evaluating a range of operational alternatives
for managing of Colorado River reservoirs after 2026, when the
current operating agreements expire. Prolonged drought
conditions over the past 25 years, combined with forecasts for
continued dry conditions, have made development of future
operating guidelines for the Colorado River particularly
challenging. The draft EIS evaluates a broad range of potential
operating strategies. It does not designate a preferred
alternative, ensuring flexibility for a potential collective
agreement.
After experiencing one of the wettest holiday seasons on
record, still soggy California hit a major milestone this week
— having zero areas of abnormal dryness for the first time in
25 years. This data, collected by the U.S. Drought Monitor, is
a welcome nugget of news for Golden State residents, who in the
last 15 years alone have lived through two of the worst
droughts on record, the worst wildfire seasons on record and
the most destructive wildfires ever. Right now, the wildfire
risk across California is “about as close to zero as it ever
gets,” and there is likely no need to worry about the state’s
water supply for the rest of the year, said UC climate
scientist Daniel Swain.
One of the largest farming businesses in Arizona has agreed to
use less water and pay $11 million in a deal that state
officials say will help preserve disappearing
groundwater and provide financial help for residents
whose wells have run dry. Arizona Atty. Gen. Kris Mayes
announced the binding legal agreement with Minnesota-based
dairy company Riverview LLP on Thursday. … Groundwater
levels have been dropping rapidly over the last decade in the
Willcox area of southeastern Arizona’s Sulphur Springs Valley,
where Riverview runs a giant dairy and farming operation.
… Under the agreement, Riverview will stop irrigating
2,000 acres of crops in phases within 12 years.
… Utah is in a snow drought and it’s not
alone: Much of the vast, mountainous West is missing its
lifeblood — fueled by record-hot temperatures so far this
winter. California’sSierra Nevada
Mountains, only recently pasted with heavy snow from
atmospheric river storms, are the exception. And while this is
an immediate problem for businesses and active outdoors fans,
experts are also worried about bigger implications in the near
future. If the trend continues, it could deepen the West’s long
drought, aggravating already contentious negotiations about
allocating water along the Colorado River.
Water levels around the San Francisco Bay Area rose over a foot
higher than the tide charts predicted last week as a winter
storm arrived during king tides. … One reason that tide
predictions were off: sea level rise. The tide charts used by
sailors, city planners, surfers and coastal businesses around
the country are based on sea levels from roughly the 1990s, but
water levels have risen by about 3 inches in the Bay Area in
the meantime. Even that small amount can throw off tide
predictions and exacerbate flooding, though rain and winds —
which also do not get factored into the tide charts — were the
main culprits for both.
A wastewater spill that spurred warnings to stay out of the
Russian River this week after a storm drenched Sonoma County
was stopped Thursday morning, officials said. Tuesday’s heavy
rainfall overwhelmed a local wastewater treatment facility, the
Russian River Treatment Plant in Guerneville, which received
flows at a rate of around 4 million gallons per day — nearly
six times its average dry-weather design of 710,000 gallons.
With no additional storage available, millions of gallons of
untreated wastewater traveled roughly a quarter-mile through a
forested redwood grove before entering the mainstem of the
river. … The spill was officially stopped at 6:50 a.m.
Thursday.
Farmers in two of Southern California’s ag-centric irrigation
districts have long been playing their part to slow the decline
in the Colorado River’s system supply. They do this while
working with Metropolitan Water District of Southern California
to provide water to 19 million urban residents. … Through a
grant from the California Department of Food and Agriculture,
(Blythe farmer Grant) Chaffin installed a Rubicon water system
that tightly measures and controls his ditch deliveries from
the main Palo Verde Irrigation District Canal to his home ranch
with its 1,600 acres. He drastically reduced water deliveries
to his crops, … Western farmers are following suit and
have been for some time. Between 1984 and 2013, pressurized
irrigation usage doubled across 17 states.
Through a densely forested slope on the west side of Dutch Bill
Creek, upstream of its confluence with the Russian River, a
dirt road zigzags skyward through the redwoods. Once used by
loggers to extract the watershed’s timber, the road leads past
marks of the lumbering era: a coil of rusted cable strewn in
the ferns, deeply eroded stream channels, and countless redwood
stumps uphill and down. But the din of logging has
vanished from this land. Today, the steep road is a multiuse
trail and the recovering forest is protected, part of Sonoma
County’s Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park and Open Space
Preserve. Opened in 2020, Monte Rio quadrupled in size last
summer with the purchase of 1,517 acres of mostly second-growth
redwoods and mixed woodland.
The Southern Nevada Water Authority reports that the region has
approximately 11 years’ worth of water resources saved. Yet,
conservation efforts persist as people continue to remove and
replace grass under Assembly Bill 356. The bill, passed in
2021, targets non-functional turf—grass that provides no
recreational benefit. … Laura McSwain, founder and president
of the Water Fairness Coalition, expressed concerns about the
environmental impact of these efforts. … [Bronson Mack
from the Southern Nevada Water Authority] highlighted that
conservation efforts have reduced Colorado
River water consumption by more than 35%.
To get in top shape for the 2034 Winter Games, state officials
say the drying Great Salt Lake needs enough additional water
each year to fill 400,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
… The lake has shrunk after years of drought, climate
change and redirection of water for farming and other uses,
reaching a record low in 2022. It made some recovery before
dropping back down to end 2025 at its third-lowest level since
1903. Agriculture is the biggest consumer of water from the
Great Salt Lake Basin, at 65%, the report says, followed by
municipal and industrial uses at 26.8% and mineral extraction
at 5.7%.
The Trump administration on Wednesday renewed a streamlined
permit program for oil pipelines, highways and other projects
that disturb wetlands and streams, while making data centers
eligible as well. The Army Corps of Engineers finalized for the
next five years its nationwide permit program, which allows
infrastructure purported to have minimal adverse effects on
water quality to get faster approvals under the Clean
Water Act. … In addition to allowing data centers to
qualify for the permits, the agency added a new
category for environmental projects that help fish pass through
dams.
In a decision that could complicate Gov. Gavin Newsom’s push to
build a giant water tunnel and remake California’s water
system, a state appeals court has rejected the state’s plan for
financing the project. The 3rd District Court of Appeal ruled
against the state Department of Water Resources’ plan to issue
billions of dollars in bonds to build the 45-mile tunnel
beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. … If the
appeals court decision stands and the ongoing case doesn’t
bring a different conclusion, it might lead the Newsom
administration to revise its plan for financing the project.
Officials could also petition for the California Supreme Court
to hear the case.
Much of the western U.S. has started 2026 in the midst of a
snow drought. That might sound surprising, given the record
precipitation from atmospheric rivers hitting the region in
recent weeks, but those storms were actually part of the
problem. … A region can be in a snow drought during
times of normal or even above-normal precipitation if
temperatures are warm enough that precipitation falls as rain
when snow would normally be expected. This form of snow drought
– known as a warm snow drought – is becoming more prevalent as
the climate warms, and it’s what parts of the West have been
seeing so far this winter.
With months still left of winter, California’s major reservoirs
are holding about 129 percent of historical water levels for
this time of year. Officials with the state’s Department of
Water Resources say that’s welcome news after years of drought,
but it doesn’t mean California’s water challenges are
completely over. … Above average reservoir levels give
water managers more flexibility as they head into warmer months
and irrigation season, when demand rises and rain typically
fades. It also reduces the immediate risk of shortages for
farms, cities, and ecosystems.
Are you an emerging leader passionate about shaping the future
of the Colorado River Basin? If so, consider applying for our
2026 Colorado
River Water Leaders program to deepen your
knowledge of the iconic Southwest river, build leadership
skills and develop policy ideas with a cohort to improve
management of the region’s most crucial natural resource.
Applications are due Jan. 26, 2024 and you can find
application
materials here along with mandatory program dates.
Registration is also open for our Water
101 Workshop – The Basics & Beyond. Join us March
26 for this once-a-year primer on California’s most precious
natural resource detailing the history, geography, and legal
and political facets of water in California.
