Last Tuesday, the California Legislature cast a vote on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s controversial water tunnel project in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by not voting at all.
A couple of bills meant to speed up the process were allowed to die in committee before reaching the state Assembly. Opponents of the project consider it a victory in a fight to protect the water of the delta and the towns that live along its banks.
A novel solar power project just went online in California’s Central Valley, with panels that span across canals in the vast agricultural region. The 1.6-megawatt installation, called Project Nexus, was fully completed late last month. The $20-million state-funded pilot has turned stretches of the Turlock Irrigation District’s canals into hubs of clean electricity generation in a remote area where cotton, tomatoes, almonds and hundreds of other crops are grown.
Project Nexus is only the second canal-based solar array to operate in the United States – and one of just a handful in the world. The United States’ first solar-canal project started producing power in October 2024 for the Pima and Maricopa tribes, known together as the Gila River Indian Community, on their reservation near Phoenix, Arizona. Two more canal-top arrays are already in the works there.
Low water levels at one of the City of San Diego’s reservoirs have halted some water activities. According to an announcement by the city on Thursday, the boat launch ramp at El Capitan Reservoir in Lakeside has been closed due to low water levels.
However, available water activities include shore fishing, canoeing, car toppers, kayaking and float tubes, the city said.
The Colorado River’s massive reservoirs are now so depleted that another dry year could send them plunging to dangerously low levels, a group of prominent scholars warns in a new analysis.
The researchers are urging the Trump administration to intervene and impose substantial cutbacks in water use across the seven states that rely on the river — California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
Ross Franson stood on the road between two fields, where nothing grows under the Fresno County sun.
As a teen, Franson hauled a water tank to spray down the dust on roads like this — rolling past rows of almond and pistachio trees, the CD on his Discman skipping with every bump.
For more than a century, PG&E’s Potter Valley Project has funneled water from one Northern California river to another. Now, the century-old system has become the center of a political firestorm, cast by the Trump administration as a battle of “fish over people.”
Earlier this summer, PG&E submitted its final proposal to federal regulators: Dismantle the project’s two dams, drain its reservoir and retire the diversion tunnel that has long carried Eel River water into the Russian River watershed. The company would replace the infrastructure with a smaller facility that sharply curtails diversions in order to restore the Eel River’s struggling salmon populations. Supporters along the Eel see a long, overdue chance to undo generations of ecological damage. On the Russian River side, critics warn of heightened wildfire danger, worsening water shortages and severe economic strain for farms and communities that rely on the supply.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and some of California’s major water agencies hit a setback this week when a proposal to fast-track plans for a 45-mile water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta died in the state Legislature.
Newsom has been trying to streamline legal and environmental review of the proposed water tunnel through budget measures that also would give the state authority to issue bonds to pay for the project.
Water is becoming a scarce resource as Texas continues to grow, and it’s prompting concerns among state officials and industry leaders over what happens when the next drought occurs.
The regional economy is expanding, but growth trends are beginning to collide with stark realities about natural resources that are already strained.
In the more than four decades since I started at the L.A. Times, we’ve never had a reporter cover water with the depth and persistence of Ian James. California’s story is often the story of water — who’s got it, who doesn’t and who will find our next acre-foot. Ian is a former foreign correspondent who has written about everything from novel water solutions like reclaiming sewage, to the intersection of H2O with wildlife and farms. Essential Cal talked to Ian about his work.
The Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors voted unanimously at its regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 2 to endorse California’s Delta Conveyance Project, with managers and directors saying the plan could strengthen the State Water Project and reduce pressure on the drought-stricken Colorado River.
The move is notable because Imperial County does not receive State Water Project water, and IID relies entirely on the Colorado River. The district said the endorsement underscores how the state’s two major water systems are linked, and that improving reliability in one benefits the other. The IID described its action as a “significant and unusual endorsement” in a press release, noting that it is the largest irrigation district in the United States and the largest single user of Colorado River water.
