Water

While it’s an unprecedented third year in a row for no commercially caught salmon, brief windows will be allowed for sportsfishing in California.

The Delta faces a funding crisis to repair and maintain an aging network of 1,100 miles of levees. These earthen berms, mostly on private land, could rupture and endanger half a million people and flood thousands of acres of farmland.

At 90% of the state historical average, the Sierra Nevada snowpack is nothing like record-smashing 2023. But it's the third year in the row with near-average or above-average snowpack.

Billions of state and federal dollars are spent on Lake Tahoe. But is all this attention actually protecting this unique treasure? Pollutants pour in, while development continues. Funding has shifted in focus to tourism and traffic projects, while money spent directly on fixing the lake has declined.

President Trump — once again — will rein in the nation's 53-year-old law protecting waterways. At stake are seasonal streams, pools and ponds. The move is welcomed by farmers and builders.

The governor’s planned $20 billion tunnel to divert more water south and bypass the Delta would bring years of construction noise, pollution and traffic. Residents worry their rural farm towns will never be the same.

A new conservancy will oversee work to improve vegetation, water quality and natural habitat in the Salton Sea. Will nearly half a billion dollars in projects be enough?

The governor vowed to clear the way for more groundwater recharge. Has it worked? “We’re still tinkering around with small numbers,” one expert says.

San Gabriel Valley areas scarred by the Eaton Fire are at “high to very high risk” of debris flows this week. How do they happen? What is being done to prepare? And what do survivors of a catastrophic one that killed 23 people remember about the day that the hills came down?

LA had planned to take substantially less from the iconic Eastern Sierra lake this winter. The decision is a blow to conservationists who have been trying to restore the lake for decades.