Water

Even after legalization, illicit cannabis grows continue to pollute California’s public lands. And the contamination, new research shows, lingers.

A top California water official offers an inside look as the Trump administration referees a Colorado River stalemate.

In 2025, devastating California wildfires in LA became the state's most destructive. Climate goals faced federal opposition as Trump blocked clean-car mandates. Refineries closed, water conflicts intensified, and legislators passed compromises.

Atmospheric river threatens to unleash deadly debris flows through LA's wildfire scars. Officials warn: "Get out of the way." Evacuations are underway.

‘This is only going to hurt Americans.’ Scientists, California state officials say the Trump administration’s plans to dismantle a key climate science hub will put public safety at risk.

Even among experts the cost of water supplies is hard to pin down. A new study reveals huge differences in what water suppliers for cities and farms pay for water from rivers and reservoirs in California, Arizona and Nevada.

A new report estimates that California’s data centers are driving increases in electricity use, water demand and pollution even as lawmakers stall on oversight.

The federal government has often set deadlines on the Colorado River, but in recent years has rarely enforced them. Negotiations among California and the six other basin states will now continue into next year, as Arizona ramps up its rhetoric and calls for a firmer hand from the Trump Administration in the talks.

Western states in the Colorado River basin are racing a federal deadline to hash out the beginnings of an agreement governing the overtapped river. As the clock ticks down, two questions loom large: Just how real is this deadline, and what does it mean for California?

One year after the discovery that golden mussels had invaded the Delta, thick colonies coat boats and piers and threaten water supplies for cities and farms. Yet the state has no specific funding or plans to tackle harms in the heart of the invasion.