California and the U.S.

The latest news and analysis covering water issues in Caliornia and the rest of the United States.

OPINION: More Water Storage Doesn’t Mean Build More Dams

The California Water Commission has been meeting this week to discuss how to invest $2.7 billion in water storage funds approved by voters under Proposition 1. The commission — and all Californians — should bear in mind that water storage doesn’t necessarily mean a dam with water behind it. The commission’s charge is not to fund the […]

Santa Clara Valley Water District Delays $650 Million Vote On Brown’s Delta Tunnels Project

After a five-hour packed public hearing, the board of Silicon Valley’s largest water provider late Wednesday night put off a closely watched vote until next week on whether to provide up to $650 million to support Gov. Jerry Brown’s $17 billion plan to build two giant tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to make […]

Pressure Mounts To Solve California’s Toxic Farmland Drainage Problem

Many Americans know the name Kesterson as the California site where thousands of birds and fish were discovered with gruesome deformities in 1983, a result of exposure to selenium-poisoned farm runoff. Thirty-five years later, it is one of the oldest unresolved water problems in the state. Selenium, a naturally occurring element, is essential to people and animals […]

To Manage California’s Groundwater, Think More About Surface Water

California’s 2014 legislation, the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) was significant in that it was the state’s first major groundwater regulation. But Michael Kiparsky the founding director of the Wheeler Water Institute at the University of California Berkeley School of Law, says that it was also significant in another way. “It breaks with what had been decades of a legal […]

Arizona Utility Tries To End Multi-State Colorado River Feud

Arizona’s largest water provider tried Tuesday to defuse a multi-state dispute over the Colorado River, saying it regretted the belligerent-sounding words it used to describe its management strategy for the critical, over-used waterway. The Central Arizona Project, which provides water to about 5 million people, pledged to be more cooperative with other river users and […]

Coast Line: ‘Stage 1’ Water Restrictions Begin Tuesday In Santa Cruz

In an effort to maintain water storage in the city’s only drinking water reservoir, Loch Lomond, the Santa Cruz City Council adopted a Stage 1 Water Shortage Alert, which takes effect Tuesday. Below normal rainfall and runoff, coupled with water supply needs for fish habitat, have reduced the amount of water available for city of […]