A pedestrian and bike path on the American River bridge, pictured Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2026. The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday, March 17, 2026 voted to advance the Water Forum agreement designed to protect the river’s health while meeting growing water demands.
HECTOR AMEZCUA
hamezcua@sacbee.com
The Sacramento City Council on Tuesday voted to advance a major water-management plan for the Lower American River, marking another green light the region’s key water supply partnership needs before the agreement is fully approved.
Tuesday’s decision made Sacramento City Council the 21st member to give the agreement a thumbs up, with about 10 more boards and councils still to go for the powerful partnership, or the Water Forum.
In 2000, members across the four caucuses — business, environmental, government, and water — that make up the Water Forum signed a landmark agreement to guide management of the river, creating a vital foundation for balancing water supply and river health in the Sacramento region.
The pact was designed to last through 2030 and updated then. But it soon ran up against the direct impacts of climate change, prompting the members to accelerate the timeline and push to adopt an updated plan years earlier than originally planned.
“About five years ago, (members of the Water Forum) decided that they wanted to get started early on updating the agreement, a large part because of climate change,” said Ashlee Casey, executive director of the Water Forum in a separate interview with The Sacramento Bee.
“Climate change was a lot less understood then. … Climate change impacts that have been predicted are manifesting in years like this year, where the snow pack is almost gone already and it’s only the middle of March.”
Scientists and researchers warn that climate change is shaping people’s daily life in increasingly extreme ways, from whiplash swings between very wet and very dry seasons to earlier springs, more frequent heat waves and shrinking snowpacks. The Department of Water Resources announced that as of March 1, about 20% of the state’s peak snowpack had already melted.
In a study by the Regional Water Authority, officials found that the American River region could see a roughly 66% decrease in snowpack compared with historical averages.
During the meeting, Brett Ewart, a supervising engineer with the city’s Department of Utilities, noted that the proposed agreement packages work the city has already been doing for decades, including accelerated metering, tighter irrigation ordinances and better support for the river’s health.
“There remain questions and interested parties on how that rate structure is developed, but there is broad consensus that if you want to support the environment and support the water reliability interests, the utility needs the revenue to do that,” Ewart said.
For Fiscal Year 2026 through 2030, the proposed budget under the agreement is roughly $10.7 million.
Casey said the most notable new piece of the agreement is the American River Climate Adaptation Program, which will focus on how climate change is reshaping the river and water supplies and how member agencies will need to tailor their operations and projects in response.
The initial budget for that program is under $100,000 in FY 2027, she added. A working group for the new climate adaptation program is set to kick off in April, with a goal of meeting monthly or every other month to flag emerging concerns and help shape projects aimed at keeping the river healthy while meeting growing water demands.
“Ultimately, I’d say the thing that is new and the most exciting in the new agreement is the American River climate adaptation program, which is our member’s commitment to continuing to work together and collaborate on solutions in a changing environment,” Casey said.
Whether it is “taking surface water from the Sacramento River instead of the American River” or “increasing the amount of conjunctive use that’s practiced in the region,” she continued, the program is meant to help members tailor their response to the challenges of climate change.
This story was originally published March 17, 2026 at 6:07 PM.
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Chaewon Chung covers climate and environmental issues for The Sacramento Bee. Before joining The Bee, she worked as a climate and environment reporter for the Winston-Salem Journal in North Carolina.