Water

Data centers are expanding into water-stressed California communities, but lax disclosure rules keep the public in the dark about actual usage

Roughly 600,000 Californians still lack access to safe and reliable drinking water supplies. The problem will cost billions to fix. So why is the Newsom administration considering a climate overhaul that could gut a key source of funding?

California's Delta tunnel largely cleared a key hurdle last week — but far bigger obstacles still stand in the way.

After three years of devastating closures, salmon fishing will finally reopen — can the industry survive the threats to come?

Two years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled a strategy to save declining salmon — spotlighting a historic partnership with the Winnemem Wintu Tribe to reintroduce endangered winter-run Chinook to the vital, cold waters upstream of Lake Shasta in far northern California.  Now, tribe officials say the state is ending its support, potentially causing salmon restoration […]

With reservoirs brimming — but snowpack abysmal — experts warn of a potentially early fire season.

A record-baking heat wave is scalding California, with major consequences for the state’s most important reservoir: its snowpack.  Providing about a third of the state’s water supply, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is a vital source of spring and summer runoff that refills reservoirs when the state needs the water most.  But a warm wet storm […]

The Trump administration Tuesday announced $40 million for “planning and preconstruction activities associated with raising Shasta Dam.”

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.