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What Happens if China Hacks the US Water Supply? I Went to a Secret War Game to Find Out

/in , /by /Wired.comby Andy Greenberg

It’s around an hour and 10 minutes into the role-playing game I’ve been invited to observe, a simulated catastrophic cyberattack on US water utilities, when the whole thing begins to feel less like a fun afternoon playing Dungeons & Dragons and more like a plausible threat to civilization.

A full 24 hours of in-game time have passed since hackers disrupted 5,000 water utilities across the United States in this imagined scenario. Joshua Corman, the former Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency strategist serving as our dungeon master, stands at the front of a conference space in an office tower high above Times Square, narrating the latest updates to the game’s participants, a few dozen insurance executives set up in six teams. All of them have gone disturbingly silent.

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Newsom Looks To Lock In His Water Agenda

/in , /by /Politicoby Camille Von Kaenel

Gov. Gavin Newsom is putting his stamp on the powerful agency overseeing California’s biggest water fights — and racing to get his pet projects across the finish line before his term ends.

Jared Blumenfeld, Newsom’s former CalEPA secretary, took his seat for the first time Tuesday on the five-member State Water Resources Control Board days after Newsom appointed him to replace Laurel Firestone, the environmental justice advocate who stepped down last month to “pursue other opportunities” in water.

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Golden Mussels Plague Farms and Water Districts, California Farm Bureau Reports

/in , /by /Sierra Sun Timesby Caleb Hampton

The spread of golden mussels in California has alarmed farmers this year as the invasive species established itself in waterways across much of the state.

In the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the freshwater mollusks began obstructing irrigation systems that sustain billions of dollars’ worth of tree nuts, winegrapes, tomatoes and other crops.

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‘Absolutely’: El Paso Water CEO Says City Has Enough Water for Next 50 Years

/in , /by /KTSM El Pasoby Eliya Alvidrez and Jamel Valencia

The El Paso City Council on Monday reviewed a presentation from El Paso Water addressing water infrastructure planning for Northeast El Paso and projected water use at Meta’s data center site amid community concerns about the project’s impact.

Since Meta announced plans to build the data center, residents have continued to raise concerns about the project’s impact on nearby neighborhoods. KTSM previously reported that some residents who live near the site have already reported changes. They reported increased noise, dust, and bright lights from ongoing construction.

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Official Hopeful As Colorado River States Race To Reach Water Deal Before Deadline

/in , /by /ABC 13 Las Vegasby Steve Sebelius

They discussed it behind closed doors at the Western Governors’ Association meeting in Utah. They’ve been trading ideas and proposals among experts. They’ve blown one big deadline, and another is fast approaching.

And since the West is facing yet another hot, dry summer, time is of the essence in finding a solution to the long-running Colorado River crisis.

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Lake Powell, a Vital Reservoir, Plunges Toward Unprecedented Low Levels As Water Crisis Deepens in US West

/in , /by /The Guardianby Roque Planas

Lake Powell, US’s second-largest reservoir, threatens to plunge to unprecedentedly low levels this year after a historically bleak snowpack failed to raise its water level, scientists and water experts have said, adding renewed urgency to stalled talks over how to conserve a water source depended on by tens of millions of people in the US south-west.

The 185-mile Colorado River reservoir currently stands at about 23% of its capacity, or roughly 5.6m acre-feet. Lake Powell fell below that level for a few months three years ago. But those 2023 levels were recorded in the winter, when the reservoir straddling the Utah-Arizona border hits its lowest ebb. Spring runoff carried the level back up to 9.6m acre-feet by June, according to data from the US Bureau of Reclamation.

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‘Uncharted Territory’ As Brewing El Niño, Roasting Oceans, Heat Bring Risk for California, Planet

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Rong-Gong Lin II

As extreme heat smothered the eastern United States over the July Fourth weekend and Europe struggled with its own deadly heat wave, experts warned that more record high temperatures could be in store for this year because of a strengthening El Niño.

“We know that temperatures are warming in the long term, linked to human-caused climate change, and El Niño acts to boost those temperatures temporarily,” climate scientist Zachary Labe of the nonprofit Climate Central said in a recent briefing.

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Is It Time To Talk About Water Yet?

/in , /by /Politicoby Camille Von Kaenel

California’s water agencies are trying to force their way onto the 2026 gubernatorial campaign agenda.

Water is one of California’s most consequential governing problems and one of its least attractive campaign issues: it’s technical, regionally specific and easy to get wrong. Water matters intensely in the red-leaning Central Valley, the thirsty, agricultural heart of the state, but that rarely translates into votes for Democrats; in fact, the Democratic gubernatorial contenders barely mentioned it in the June primary.

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The Government Might Tell You To Take a Shorter Shower. Here’s Why

/in , /by /USA Todayby Jeanine Santucci

Americans across the nation are being asked (or ordered) to conserve water, thanks to widespread drought made even worse by a punishing heat wave.

It’s being felt this summer in Virginia, the Carolinas, Pennsylvania, Colorado, New Jersey and more.

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After Bold Pledge, EPA Shelves Microplastics Testing in U.S. Drinking Water

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Susanne Rust

For the next five years, the Environmental Protection Agency has indicated it will not require public water utilities to test for microplastics or pharmaceuticals in drinking water, according to a proposed rule published in the Federal Register.

On Friday, the EPA submitted a list of chemicals it plans to test for under the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, a mandatory testing program used to collect information about concerning chemicals in drinking water that could be harming human health. It did not include microplastics or pharmaceuticals.

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