Focus
Allen Matkins – January 20
California water right holders have until January 31, 2026 to electronically file their annual water use and diversion reports to the State Water Resources Control Board’s new California Water Accounting, Tracking, and Reporting System (CalWATRS) database. In 2025, the State Board launched the CalWATRS database to replace the outdated Electronic Water Rights Information Management System (eWRIMS), thereby modernizing the system for water right reporting and recordkeeping in the state.
News
The Mercury News – January 16
For the second time in the past two weeks, the U.S. Drought Monitor, a prominent national report, classified 100% of California as being drought-free. That’s a rating that hasn’t occurred in 25 years. But the drought-free designation could be misleading if not viewed in the right context, experts said. So why does California have a 100% “drought-free” rating now? The state has had three wet winters in a row. Reservoirs are at or above historical averages. And precipitation this winter has been spread out unusually broadly to all 58 California counties, said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist with the National Drought Mitigation Center in Lincoln, Nebraska.
San Francisco Chronicle – January 16
A lack of snow — known as a snow drought — grips much of the West as a result of unusually high temperatures over the first half of winter. Snow cover was less extensive than any Jan. 14 on record across the West, according to satellite-based measurements. Colorado and Oregon reported their lowest mid-January snowpack since the 1980s, when routine measurements began. In California, the snowpack is proportionally worse below 6,500 feet than atop mountain peaks. While most Sierra ski resorts are at high elevations, low-elevation snow is critical for the ecosystem and water resources because it accounts for a larger area.
The Salt Lake Tribune – January 17
The federal government released draft proposals for the future of the drought-stricken Colorado River last week, outlining sweeping water cuts that could reshape how the Southwest’s most important river is managed. The public can now weigh in on those proposals after the Bureau of Reclamation on January 16 kicked off a 45-day public comment period on alternatives for operating Lake Powell and other Colorado River reservoirs after the current guidelines expire at the end of the year. Some of the proposals call for significant water conservation in Utah and other Upper Basin states that are far above any commitments made to date, but it’s unclear how, or whether, that could be enforced or measured. The most aggressive of the government’s proposals would impose heavy cuts on the Lower Basin states of California, Arizona, and Nevada.
The Press Democrat – December 23
Opponents of a plan to remove two Pacific Gas & Electric Co. dams from the Eel River in Lake and Mendocino counties have gained a powerful ally: the Trump administration. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on December 26 filed a notice to intervene to oppose the utility giant’s bid to decommission its waterworks in the rural area, which also include a century-old power plant that helps to shunt Eel River water into irrigation canals that support Mendocino County’s Potter Valley and dump into the upper Russian River, boosting supplies for farms and hundreds of thousands of urban dwellers in the Northern San Francisco Bay Area. The commission has received more than 1,900 comments, letters, and notices on the Potter Valley Project, a mix of laudatory and critical, coming from a wide range of North Coast residents, farm interests, boaters, environmental stewards, and anglers hoping to revive the area’s fisheries. PG&E said through a spokesperson that the utility worked for years to find a new owner for the dam-and-diversion system, “but ultimately no third party stepped forward to execute a transaction. PG&E made the difficult decision to stop our relicensing effort of the project, as it was not economical for our customers to continue operating the project.”
The Sacramento Bee – January 2
A California appellate court dealt a setback to the state’s Delta tunnel project, ruling that the Department of Water Resources lacks the legal authority to issue billions of dollars in bonds to dig the controversial conveyance under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to Southern California. In an opinion issued on December 31, 2025, the state’s 3rd District Court of Appeal said the bond plan — first approved by water managers in 2020 — was too vague and gave the department “unfettered discretion” to decide what to build and how to pay for it.
CBS News – December 5
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on December 1 announced a new plan for operating the Central Valley Project, a system of pumps, dams, and canals that direct water southward from the state’s wetter north. It follows an executive order President Trump signed in January 2025 calling for more water to flow to farmers, arguing the state was wasting the precious resource in the name of protecting endangered fish species. Environmental groups and certain California officials critiqued the move, saying sending significantly more water to farmlands could threaten water delivery to the rest of the state and would harm salmon and other fish.
KCBX – December 7
A federal appeals court on December 3 overturned a judge’s order that required San Luis Obispo County, California, to release more water from Lopez Lake into Arroyo Grande Creek. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the judge did not fully weigh the impacts across all protected species or consider the broader public interest, including local water supply. The plaintiffs argued the additional water was necessary to support threatened steelhead trout, whose numbers have declined sharply along the Central Coast. But, county officials countered that increasing releases could instead harm two other species protected under the Endangered Species Act: the California red-legged frog and the tidewater goby.
GV Wire – December 17
Legislation put forth by Reps. Adam Gray, D-Merced, and Jim Costa, D-Fresno, would provide $4.4 billion to water agencies to build out wells, repair canals, and increase conveyance. Gray’s End California Water Crisis Package builds out water infrastructure to improve delivery and storage, according to a news release. The package sends millions of dollars to irrigation and storage districts and to cities to build or repair wells and canals.
ABC News – January 15
Off the Southern California coast, a company is betting it can solve one of desalination’s biggest problems by moving the technology deep below the ocean’s surface. OceanWell claims its deep sea approach would cut energy use by about 40% compared to conventional desalination plants while also tackling the other major environmental problems plaguing traditional desalination. For now, a single prototype operates in the Las Virgenes Reservoir where the local water district has partnered with the company in hopes of diversifying its water supply.
The Sacramento Bee – January 15
Warming temperatures and shifting precipitation patterns will reshape the American, Bear, and Cosumnes river watersheds, intensifying snowpack loss and placing greater strain on California’s water supply, a two-year study has found. A draft watershed resilience report by the Regional Water Authority reviewed by The Sacramento Bee projects earlier snowmelt, shifting runoff patterns, and more water lost to evaporation due to climate change. The report is slated for release by the end of March.
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