You are now in California and the U.S. Media Coverage category.

California is investing $6 million to combat the spread of golden mussels after the species was discovered impacting water infrastructure in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, including facilities serving San Joaquin County.

State officials say the mussels have begun attaching to pipes, pumps, and gates, increasing maintenance costs and raising concerns about the long-term reliability of the region’s water supply. The announcement comes after Stockton declared a local emergency when mussels were found in the city’s Delta water supply intake station.

Lake Powell, one of the American West’s largest reservoirs that helps provide water, irrigation and power for over 40 million Americans across seven states, is drying up.

Bordering Utah and Arizona, the man-made lake’s summer water levels are at their lowest in recorded history, according to Utah data.

Arizona may soon purchase desalinated Pacific Ocean water to help offset shortages in the Colorado River caused by a decades-long drought. The price tag , however, will likely be very steep unless a long-term deal is struck.

A framework signed June 3 by water authorities in Arizona, California, Nevada and the federal Bureau of Reclamation opens the door for an interstate swap – the first of its kind, according to all parties involved.

In California, a sprawling 4,000-mile network of canals winds through citrus orchards and fields of tree nuts, delivering irrigation and drinking water to homes and farms across the state.

The canals are critical in an increasingly arid part of the country. But what if they could help fulfill another urgent need: renewable energy?

Water in the Colorado River is dwindling to levels that haven’t been seen in decades, and the seven states whose residents and farmers depend on the river can’t agree on a fair way to divide up what’s left.

Negotiations are going nowhere despite more than six months of ongoing talks, plus cajoling by the Trump administration, which twice gathered governors in hopes of a breakthrough that never came. States are already sniping at aspects of a water-use plan the federal Bureau of Reclamation is set to unveil this summer and impose later this year, and they’re threatening to sue each other over water deliveries, raising the prospects of prolonged legal battles just as Western states face demands to sharply reduce water use.