California Water Views

On March 4, 2026, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the launch of its the Real Water Technical Assistance (RealWaterTA) initiative. The press release highlights that the goal of the RealWaterTA initiative is to refocus on “public health and compliance with the Safe Drinking Water Act and Clean Water Act” largely through “align[ing] all technical assistance for drinking water and wastewater systems with tried-and-true services, such as engineering and design expertise, operational support, workforce development, and financial management.” The ...

On February 25, 2026, Governor Gavin Newsom launched the California Water Plan 2028, initiating a comprehensive, multi-year effort to modernize the State's water planning framework. Dubbed the “most ambitious water plan in California history,” the initiative arrives at a critical juncture as the State continues to grapple with extreme hydrological whiplash—swinging from historic droughts to record-breaking atmospheric rivers.

For water agencies, agricultural stakeholders, and local municipalities, the launch marks a significant shift in California’s water ...

On December 11, 2025, Representative Adam Gray (D-CA-13) and Representative Jim Costa (D-CA-21) announced a legislative package entitled the End California Water Crisis Package. The bills “aim to expand California’s water storage capacity by providing funding and technical support to both develop and maintain water infrastructure projects.” They seek to accomplish their goals by “authoriz[ing] additional California water storage projects, eas[ing] permitting restrictions, and creat[ing] enforceable timelines for environmental review processes.”

Both ...

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are the contaminant of concern across the water industry. The Biden administration was active in its approach to PFAS regulation, announcing drinking water maximum contaminant levels, new Superfund regulation, new listings of PFAS as hazardous constituents and more.  Now that we are more than six months into President Trump’s second term, his administration’s approach and the reactions thereto are crystalizing. Determining the proper approach for regulating is significant and timely, as new data shows the ubiquity of PFAS, with at least 73 million Americans drinking water containing PFAS. ... 

On January 10, 2025, Governor Newsom announced his 2025-2026 budget proposal of $322.3 billion. Unlike in 2023 and 2024, the proposal is for a balanced budget with a surplus of $363 million, although it does include $7 billion in funds from the state’s rainy day fund. The budget site includes a full combined summary, summaries of individual sections and a full detailed budget.

The budget includes reductions in funding for nearly all government agencies. The Natural Resources Agency has the biggest cut in net dollars and the second biggest cut percentage wise, with a 55.4% and ...

On October 23, 2024, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced $276 million in available funding for California water infrastructure projects. When combined with the $269 million it announced on October 8, 2024, that raises the total to $545 million announced this month.

The funding comes through President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which provides for $50 billion in investments in water infrastructure throughout the country. The October 23 announcement is part of a total of $3.6 billion in available funding, which is designated to particular states ...

The 2024 legislative session ended on August 31, 2024, meaning the legislature passed all bills for this year. All of the bills are currently with Governor Newsom. He has until September 30 to sign or veto any bills. Any bills not signed by September 30 will be vetoed through a ‘pocket veto.’

This session was a busy one for bills affecting the water sector with at least nine bills passed impacting water and sewer systems in California. The bills cover a wide range of topics, including fines for violating State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) orders, Proposition 26 and 218 requirements for water-related fees, Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) requirements, and the California Water Plan. … 

On September 6, 2024, EPA announced $7.5 billion in available loan funding through the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA). From that total, $6.5 billion is available through WIFIA loans and $1 billion is available through the State Water Infrastructure Financing Authority (SWIFIA). … 

On April 4, 2024, Governor Newsom and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (Bureau) announced that the Bureau awarded California $15 million for the Delta-Mendota Canal floating solar project. The project, which is funded through President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, marks a key step forward for ‘floating solar,’ a technology that is billed as a win-win for the energy and water sectors. … 

If there is one truism in California water, it is that there is not enough of it. In part to try to help address that issue, on December 19, 2023, the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) adopted the state’s first direct potable reuse (DPR) regulations. As detailed in the State Water Board’s press release, the new regulations represent the “most advanced standards in the nation,” provide a “climate-resilient water source,” and “add millions of gallons of additional drinking water.” However, is the picture quite that rosy? … 

The year started with a bang, with a lot of new Members of the Legislature, and more seasoned Members, invigorated and motivated to tackle some major water policy and funding issues for California. While some significant water policy changes were passed by the Legislature this year (with much controversy), there is still much left to debate and discuss in the second year of the two-year session, which will begin on January 3, 2024. … 

On January 10, 2023, Governor Gavin Newsom announced his $297 billion budget proposal for 2023-2024, which includes a $22.5 billion budget deficit. Despite environmental/climate change programs facing $6 billion in cuts, Governor Newsom’s proposed budget includes relatively few negative impacts to water projects. In fact, the drought response and water resilience section, which includes the vast majority of water-related funding, only faces a cut of two percent, from $8.7 billion to $8.6 billion. That two percent reduction is the lowest of any environmental category. ...  

On December 19, 2022, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Army Corps), Sacramento District released its Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the Delta Conveyance Project. The Army Corps is the federal agency tasked with evaluating the Delta Conveyance Project for compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act. Cooperating federal agencies include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. … 

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 the state to deal with the ongoing severe drought. The regulations cover two areas: a ban on irrigating non-functional turf and a requirement that urban water suppliers implement the Level 2 demand reduction actions in their water shortage contingency plan. …

On May 12, 2022, at the conclusion of a 10-hour hearing, the California Coastal Commission voted to deny Poseidon Water’s application to site and operate a desalination plant in Huntington Beach, in what could be a fatal blow for a project that has been debated for more than 20 years.

The Coastal Commission’s vote was unanimous, 11-0, in agreeing with the staff report’s recommendation to reject Poseidon Water’s application. The staff report recommended denial “due to this project’s fundamental inconsistencies with Coastal Act and LCP policies related to coastal ...

At a board meeting on April 26, 2022, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (“the Met”) announced it would be requiring reductions in water usage from retail water suppliers that are dependent on water from the State Water Project. The reduction, which the Met took as a result of the severity of the state’s current drought, will apply to six million Californians covering Los Angeles, Ventura and San Bernardino counties. The impacted retail water suppliers are Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Three Valleys Municipal Water District, Upper San Gabriel ...

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) recently took action in two proceedings addressing issues related to low-income customer assistance and affordability. The CPUC noted that the importance of these proceedings has been magnified due to the economic conditions created by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

First, on June 3, 2020, the CPUC issued an amended scoping memo in Rulemaking 17-06-024 requesting comments to consider potential CPUC response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This would be the second phase of this rulemaking proceeding, which was initiated to evaluate the ...