California stands at a pivotal juncture in 2025, confronting an array of environmental and housing challenges. As usual, the California State Legislature is considering numerous strategies to address these issues. This year’s...more
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
On March 25, 2025, the University of Southern California’s (USC’s) Public Exchange and independent advisor Solar Aquagrid announced the California Solar Canal Initiative, a seven-university project to assess the...more
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
A judge has temporarily blocked a plan by a California state water board to take over monitoring groundwater use in a portion of the crop-rich San Joaquin Valley, according to a copy of the decision obtained on July 16. Kings...more
Like much of the western and southwestern U.S., California has experienced drought conditions on and off for decades. Fortunately, the regulatory landscape is starting to catch up with water treatment technology, paving the...more
In response to critics who said that proposed new statewide water conservation rules — aimed at cutting urban water use even in years when California is not in a drought — were too complicated and costly, the State Water...more
A coalition of conservation groups filed a petition on Tuesday asking the California Fish and Game Commission to protect burrowing owl populations in five parts of the state including parts of the Bay Area and the Central...more
On December 21, 2023, I published a post on the Center for California Water Resources Policy and Management’s DeltaCurrents blog discussing integration of resource optimization into endangered species policy to improve...more
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Monday proposed banning the cancer-causing chemical trichloroethylene (TCE), which can be found in consumer products including automobile brake cleaners, furniture care, and...more
The California 2023 Legislative Session ended on September 14, 2023, and presented the Governor with several important changes to California’s water-related statutes. The Governor had until October 14, 2023, to sign all...more
With California facing a hotter and drier future punctuated by bouts of extreme weather, state officials are moving forward with a new framework for urban water use that could require some suppliers to make cuts of 20% or...more
When ranchers violated an emergency order to stop pumping water from the Shasta River in 2022, state officials fined them $4,000, or roughly $50 each. Now California legislators are weighing a bill that would triple fines for...more
California legislators reject bill to curb agricultural groundwater pumping - The Bakersfield Californian – September 4 - California lawmakers have rejected proposed legislation seeking to rein in agricultural...more
On May 24, 2022, the California State Water Resources Control Board announced emergency drought restrictions resulting from Governor Newsom’s Executive Order N-7-22. The regulations are the latest in a series of attempts by...more