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OPINION: The Cost of State Inaction – The Future of California’s Water Supply

/in , /by /OC Registerby Jay Lund, Josue Medellin Azuara and Alvar Escriva Bou

California’s weather whiplash has left the Golden State in a place of severe uncertainty about its diminishing water supply and increasing human and environmental demands for water.

Research that my colleagues and I published last year, “The Magnitude of California’s Water Challenges” showed that Californians can expect their water supply to shrink 12 to 25% by 2050, up to 9 million acre-feet, or equal to one to two Lake Shastas.

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John Griffith on Strains Facing the US Water Supply

/in , /by /Bloombergby Open Interest

John Griffith, CEO of American Water, joins Open Interest to talk about the need to invest capital in our water infrastructure.

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Officials Turn to Innovative Method to Address Longstanding Emblem of Water Crisis: ‘Difficult Projects Are Possible’

/in , /by /The Cool Downby Jamie Speka

The Salton Sea has long been a worrying emblem of California’s water crisis. Based in the parched, desert-like lands, the decades-long project to bring new wetlands back to the scorched dirt is finally underway. In the midst of the Salton Sea’s years of evaporation, the waters have grown progressively saltier, killing native fish that acted as a food source for dozens of migrating birds like white pelicans, double-crested cormorants, and eared grebes — all of which have faced significant population declines.

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For the Future of Water Conservation, Look to … Los Angeles?

/in , /by /New York Timesby Michael Kimmelman

You’ve probably come across more stories about water woes in California than you can recall, so you may feel you’ve had enough for a while. I understand. There’s no easy or permanent fix. The protagonists don’t divide neatly into good and evil. Water in the state often isn’t where the people are — or, as with the recent fires, isn’t there at all.

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San Diego Residents Protest Water Rate Hikes as County Votes on New Pricing

/in , /by /ABC 10 News San Diegoby Dani Miskell Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

San Diego residents from underserved communities, seniors, to recent flood victims, gathered to protest against proposed water rate increases at the San Diego County Water Authority on Thursday. The water authority’s board met to deliberate on future pricing. It’s why residents came to share during public comments their demands for any future rate hikes not to be passed down to customers.

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Rate Increase of 8.3% Approved by Water Authority Board

/in , /by /Times of San Diegoby Jennifer Vigil Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

The San Diego County Water Authority’s board on Thursday approved a wholesale water rate increase for 2026 following a public hearing. Officials with the Water Authority said they were able to minimize impacts on ratepayers through a number of cost-saving actions as the board also approved the agency’s recommended budget for the next two fiscal years.

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County Wholesale Water Rate to Rise 8.3% in January, Less Than Half of Earlier Proposals

/in , /by /San Diego Union-Tribuneby David Garrick Mentioned: San Diego County Water Authority
Quoted: San Diego County Water Authority

Wholesale water rates in San Diego County — a key factor in how much local residents and businesses pay for water — will rise next year by less than half of what officials were predicting last winter: 8.3% instead of 18%. But the Jan. 1 increase, which the county water authority’s board of directors approved Thursday after months of debate and negotiation, is still a substantial hike that brings the cumulative two-year increase to 23.1%.

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Like Electric Lights, Water Reuse Is Destined to Become a Necessity

/in , /by /Fast Companyby Aaron Tartakovsky

Indoor toilets were once considered a health hazard. Electric lighting sparked fears of deadly fires. Air conditioning was dismissed as an unnatural threat to human health. It seems absurd now, but each of these technologies—now fundamental to modern buildings—was initially met with widespread skepticism and resistance.

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Forever Chemicals Are in Your Drinking Water: Here’s How Worried to Be—And What to Do About It

/in , /by /Fortuneby Ani Freedman

It’s not uncommon nowadays to fill a glass of water from your tap and wonder what chemicals and contaminants may be lurking in there. That’s because research has increasingly revealed that heavy metals, radioactive substances, and harmful PFAS (“forever chemicals”) are present in our water systems.

“It turns out millions of people have PFAS in their drinking water,” Tracey Woodruff, director of the Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment at the University of California, San Francisco, tells Fortune.

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OPINION: The Grand Water Bargain

/in , /by /The California Globeby Edward Ring

For the last few decades in California, the conventional wisdom has been that farmers and urban water consumers have to improve efficiency and reduce consumption. To the fullest extent possible, rain and snow falling on watersheds must proceed unimpaired from the mountains to the ocean, and if water is reserved in reservoirs, releases of the stored water must prioritize maintaining flow in the rivers over diversions for agriculture or urban consumption.

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