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A legal battle over California water rights has reached the doorstep of the U.S. Supreme Court, raising a fundamental constitutional question: When the government commandeers water for environmental reasons, is it merely regulating a resource or physically seizing private property?

The Liberty Justice Center filed an amicus brief last week in the case of United Water Conservation District v. United States, asking the high court to clarify the boundaries of the Fifth Amendment. The brief argues that diverting water specifically for government use should be classified as a “physical taking,” a designation that would mandate just compensation for property owners.

California can still wring water out of its rivers — in theory, and only if you’re willing to pay an increasingly steep premium for it.

Take Sites Reservoir, which could become the first new major reservoir in California in decades. It would pull water from the Sacramento River to fill a valley in the coast range with enough water for roughly 3 million households, then distribute it to the local farmers and Southern California cities that would partly fund its construction.

High up on the slopes of the west Maui mountains, the Plantation Course at Kapalua Resort provides golfers with expansive ocean views. The course is so renowned that The Sentry, a $20 million signature event for the PGA Tour, had been held there nearly every year for more than a quarter-century.

“You have to see it to believe it,” said Ann Miller, a former longtime Honolulu newspaper golf writer. “You’re looking at other islands, you’re looking at whales. … Every view is beautiful.”

Experts are sounding the alarm as Texas enters yet another year of punishing drought — pushing major lakes toward historic lows and raising concerns for communities across the Hill Country.

South-Central Texas has been stuck in a rainfall deficit since 2022, with San Antonio hit especially hard. According to a report from the San Antonio Express-News, the city is now short nearly 45 inches of rain. That kind of prolonged dry spell doesn’t just wilt lawns — it drains the region’s lifelines: its lakes.

A new scientific study found that boulders in mountain ecosystems are changing how snow melts.  As glaciers rapidly melt and expose what lies beneath, those rocks actively alter snow behavior.

Led by a McGill University team, researchers studied the Yukon’s Shár Shaw Tagà Valley and took detailed measurements of snow melt around boulders. They used 3D laser scanning, infrared cameras, and drone photogrammetry and published their findings in the journal Cold Regions Science and Technology.