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:
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.
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.
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.
Utah and Colorado are in some ways sisters. They share a border
of over 200 miles, are both world-renowned skiing destinations
that straddle the beautiful and rugged Colorado Plateau, and
both revere the mighty Colorado River that passes through them
on its way to the sea. But they could not be farther apart when
it comes to the new administration and its current and promised
actions regarding open lands and environmental protections. One
embraces it, the other is girding its loins against it.
Why? –Written by Kevin T. Jones, a writer who lives in
southwest Colorado and served as Utah’s state archaeologist for
17 years.
The Trump administration has appointed Josh F.W. Cook as head
of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Pacific Southwest
Office, overseeing federal environmental policy in California,
Arizona, Hawaii, Nevada, the Pacific Islands and 148 Tribal
Nations. Cook, who lives in Chico (Butte County), is a
government and tribal affairs consultant, according to his
LinkedIn account, and has held a handful of government
positions. He spent a decade as chief of staff for former
Republican State Sen. Brian Dahle, R-Bieber (Lassen County) and
has served on advisory committees for the U.S. Forest Service
and Bureau of Land Management. His resume also includes helping
with the emergency response to California’s deadly Camp Fire in
2018.
After days of snow falling in the Sierra, the winter season is
inching closer to recovering from a dry start to the year.
According to snow sensor data from the California Department of
Water Resources, the statewide Sierra snowpack fell to 66% of
average on Jan. 30. On Feb. 28, the date of the last manual
snow survey along Highway 50, the statewide snowpack stood at
85% of average.
The leading trade group representing California’s public water
agencies came out Monday against a bill meant to protect the
state from Trump administration rollbacks. The Association of
California Water Agencies adopted an “oppose” position to Sen.
Ben Allen’s SB 601, which would clarify state law to reclassify
all waters that were previously defined as “waters of the
state” prior to the Supreme Court’s 2023 Sackett v. EPA
decision. ACWA senior policy advocate Soren Nelson said in an
email the group has “serious concerns with SB 601, as it would
needlessly complicate the state’s regulatory framework for
protecting water quality, lead to frivolous litigation, and
almost certainly translate into higher water bills for
Californians.”
… 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
California State Parks, the California Coastal
Commission’s Boating Clean and Green Program, and The Bay
Foundation invite the public to participate in California’s
Dockwalker Program, now in its 25th year. Free virtual and
in-person training sessions will be held from mid-March through
May 2025. By joining the program and attending the training,
participants provide a critical community service by sharing
educational tools to promote clean boating and help reduce
water quality impacts. Dockwalkers help raise awareness
about important boating practices related to curbing pollutants
such as oil, fuel, sewage, trash, and marine debris through the
distribution of educational materials, such as the California
Boater Kits, at marinas, boat launch ramps and boating events,
or anywhere where boaters are.
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.
… (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.
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.
… 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.
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.
