News & Analysis as of

California Water

Best Best & Krieger LLP

The Price of Water Just Got More Complicated: San Diego’s Legal Battle Over Tiered Rates

On July 30, 2025, a divided California Court of Appeal issued its long-awaited opinion in Patz v. City of San Diego, affirming the trial court’s judgment that the City’s tiered residential water rates violated Proposition 218...more

Beveridge & Diamond PC

Beyond Review: Water Contract Conversion, Reclamation Law, and California’s Central Valley Project

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Key Takeaways What Happened: A Federal District Court in California ruled as a matter of statutory interpretation that certain mandatory water contract conversions for the Central Valley Project are not subject to...more

Allen Matkins

Special Water Supply Edition: California Environmental Law & Policy Update 7.25.25

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Beginning January 1, 2025, the “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” regulatory framework requires urban retail water suppliers — not individual households or businesses — to adopt a series of “urban water use...more

Allen Matkins

DWR and Water Board Propose Key Updates to Desalination Policy Framework

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As climate variability and drought continue to challenge California’s water supply, the state is renewing its focus on seawater desalination as part of a diversified water portfolio. While only a handful of large-scale...more

Nossaman LLP

The AI Thirst Trap

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to transform the water industry. The need for massive amounts of water to cool AI data systems could exacerbate already strained water resources in the U.S. and worldwide. To...more

Nossaman LLP

Diverting Flood Flows – Details on the Opportunity to Utilize Wasted Water

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Earlier this year, Governor Newsom issued Executive Order (EO) N-16-25. That order is designed to facilitate the diversion and storage of flood flows and aligns with the Governor’s broader water supply strategy, which is...more

Nossaman LLP

California Water Views – 2025 Outlook

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Water is simple. Water issues are complex. To provide more clarity, we asked our attorneys who are committed to the water sector to identify the pivotal issues they’re watching now and for the year ahead. Their perspectives...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update 5.16.25

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will rescind much of the Biden administration’s first nationwide drinking water standard aimed at protecting people from PFAS, which are found in hundreds of consumer and...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update 5.2.25

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The White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) circulated a draft template, dated April 8, 2025, to assist federal agencies in updating their procedures for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)....more

Nossaman LLP

New Court Case Reasserts Reasonableness as a Limitation on Water Use

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On April 2, 2025, the Court of Appeal for California’s Fifth Appellate District issued its decision in Bring Back the Kern v. City of Bakersfield, 2025 S.O.S. 909. That case held that courts must apply the reasonableness...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Water/Aquifer: California Appellate Court Addresses Whether Captured Flood Waters Constitute Personal Property

A California Court of Appeal (Fifth District) (“Court”) addressed in a March 14th Opinion whether water in an aquifer could be personal property. See Sandton Agriculture Investments III, LLC, v. 4-S Ranch Partners, LLC, 2025...more

Nossaman LLP

New Court Guidance on Rights to Use Captured Water/Percolating Groundwater

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On March 14, 2025, the Court of Appeal for California’s Fifth Appellate District issued its decision in Sandton Agriculture Investments III v. 4-S Ranch Partners, 2025 S.O.S. 659. That case provided guidance on ownership of...more

Nossaman LLP

The Making Conservation a California Way of Life Framework – What It Is and What It Means

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In 2024, after years of deliberation, California water officials adopted landmark rules that will guide future water use and conservation in the state. The “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” framework went into...more

Jackson Walker

U.S. Supreme Court Limits EPA’s Wastewater Permitting Authority in Major Clean Water Act Decision

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On March 4, 2025, the United States Supreme Court issued a decision in City and County of San Francisco v. Environmental Protection Agency[i], which restricted the scope of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (“EPA”)...more

Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates & Woodyard,...

Generic Prohibitions/NPDES Permits/Water Quality Standards: United States Supreme Court Decides City/County of San Francisco v....

The Supreme Court of the United States (“Court”) issued an Opinion on March 4th in the case styled: City and County of San Francisco, California v. Environmental Protection Agency. See No. 23-753....more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update 2.28.25

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On February 20, the White House Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) posted a pre-publication notice on its website of an Interim Final Rule rescinding its regulations implementing the National Environmental Policy Act...more

Nossaman LLP

Water Agencies Beware: Disproportionate Damage From Water Delivery May Create Inverse Condemnation Liability

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When water agencies provide water to customers, and that water causes damage to customer property, can water agencies face inverse condemnation liability?  For quite some time, inverse condemnation liability appeared to be...more

Nossaman LLP

Trump’s Executive Order on California Water

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On January 24, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order 14181 (“EO 14181”), entitled “Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California and Improve Disaster Response in Certain Areas.” While alluding to...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update 2.7.25

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Newly-appointed U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in a memo this Wednesday that the Justice Department will reverse a Biden-era directive to prioritize enforcement of environmental laws in disadvantaged and low-income...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update 1.31.25

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The Trump administration has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause its review of a case involving California’s stricter vehicle emissions and electric vehicle standards. Acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris filed the request...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update - Special Water Supply Edition

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President Donald Trump on Monday issued a memorandum directing the Secretary of Commerce and the Secretary of the Interior to develop a new plan within 90 days “to route more water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Emergency Measures to Provide Water Resources in California and Improve Disaster Response in Certain Areas (Trump EO Tracker)

Summary - Instructs various departments to report within 15 days on all available federal authorities to bolster wildfire fighting measures in southern California. Instructs the DOI and DOC to take immediate action to...more

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Putting People Over Fish: Stopping Radical Environmentalism to Provide Water to Southern California

President Trump has directed the Secretary of Commerce and Secretary of the Interior, in consultation with the heads of other departments and agencies of the United States as necessary, to immediately restart the work from...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update 1.10.25

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The White House announced on Monday that President Joe Biden would ban new offshore oil and gas drilling along most of the U.S. coastline. The order will protect 625 million acres of ocean along America’s Atlantic and Pacific...more

Allen Matkins

California Environmental Law & Policy Update 12.6.24

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Wednesday issued a new regulation preventing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly known as PFAS, from being approved through low volume exemptions — abridged reviews...more

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