Agency decisions and permit filings don’t explain themselves, yet they are consequentially shaping water across the nation.
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The Rundown
- After the midterm election, Congress still needs to pass a budget – and maybe act on permitting reform, Water Resources Development Act, and revolving fund reauthorization.
- October storms lift Lake Powell out of immediate danger but do not solve the long-term water deficit.
- GAO audits EPA’s cost recovery from polluters for Superfund cleanups.
And lastly, Colorado River water managers will meet this week to discuss the basin’s 2027 operating plan.
“Much of what the administration has done the past two years has moved forward simply because there was no congressional check and balance. I think you’re going to see a dramatic shift when we begin to have a check in the form of Congress that does its job.” – Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) speaking with the Los Angeles Times’s Boiling Point about the focus of the upcoming Democratic-majority Congress. Huffman is in line to lead the House Natural Resources Committee. And, if you aren’t already a reader, Boiling Point is worth subscribing to.
In context: 2026 Election Roundup — Voters Approve Water Measures Amid Democratic Rout
By the Numbers
20 Feet: Rise in the water level at Lake Powell since the beginning of October, a temporary reversal of the big reservoir’s recent decline. The cause: a series of remnant tropical storms that washed across the Four Corners region at the end of October and beginning of November. More than 1.2 million acre-feet flowed into the reservoir last month, more than double the historical average for October. The unexpected water also wetted soils, which could “prime the pump” for better spring and summer runoff – if winter snow materializes. Too soon to say.
News Briefs
Lame-Duck Session
Congress returns from the midterm election with a lengthy to-do list.
Looming largest, lawmakers need to pass a 2027 budget. A continuing resolution that maintains the previous year’s funding expires December 11.
Beyond the budget, a number of water-related bills await action. The House passed the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA), which authorizes Army Corps water and ecosystem restoration projects. The Senate version has moved out of committee but hasn’t received a full vote.
For water infrastructure, Congress needs to reauthorize the state revolving funds, a mainstay of federal support for drinking water and wastewater systems. The Senate included reauthorization in its WRDA package, and increased the spending limit for the drinking water fund to $4.5 billion by 2030 – about four times higher than recent baseline funding.
The House, in contrast, has floated a separate bill that maintains current funding levels of just over $1.1 billion. It could be consolidated in a final WRDA package.
The loudest debate, however, will be over a gargantuan bill, the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, to revamp the environmental review process for major construction projects.
The bill overhauls certain parts of the Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, and National Environmental Policy Act to enable the faster buildout of transmission lines, geothermal, oil pipelines, nuclear, hardrock mining, renewable energy, and more. It does this by excluding smaller projects from review, setting strict permitting timelines, coordinating agency actions, and extending permit lengths.
For water, one of the most controversial elements is changing state water-quality reviews. Republicans have recoiled at the use of Section 401 authority to block fossil fuel infrastructure – see New York and the Constitution pipeline – but the changes would reduce state power to attach conditions to hydropower relicensing as well. Dave Owen, a law professor, outlines the argument in a blog post at Legal Plant.
For more details, the Environmental Policy Innovation Center has a summary of the Senate bill’s 71 sections.
Another item to watch for potential lame-duck action: a $5 billion water rights settlement for tribes in northeastern Arizona. The bill resolves claims by the Navajo, Hopi, and San Juan Southern Paiute to the Colorado River, Little Colorado River, and groundwater sources in northeastern Arizona. Though approved by Arizona and the tribes, it did not pass in the previous Congress and has been opposed by four states in the Colorado River’s upper basin due to its leasing provisions.
In context: The $43 Billion Water Boost Is Over. Now What?
Studies and Reports
Finding the Superfund Polluters
The EPA, which oversees Superfund cleanups and pays for them when the original polluters cannot be held liable, could improve the way it tracks those costs for nonfederal sites, according to a GAO audit.
The audit found that EPA spent $19.2 billion on site remediation between 1996 and 2024. But polluting parties contributed only 40 percent of the cost.
As of May, there were 1,186 nonfederal Superfund sites.
On the Radar
Colorado River Operating Plan
Water managers will meet on November 12 to discuss the draft plan for operating the basin’s reservoirs in 2027.
Some decisions in the plan are provisional. Under new guidelines approved this summer, Lake Powell water releases will be between 6 million and 7 million acre-feet. The exact amount will not be finalized until April 2027, a post-winter period in which there will be more clarity about the amount of water in the system.
In any case, Lake Mead will decline to new record lows. The basin’s biggest reservoir is expected to hold between 19 and 23 percent of its full capacity by the end of next September.
Federal Water Tap is a weekly digest spotting trends in U.S. government water policy. To get more water news, follow Circle of Blue on Twitter and sign up for our newsletter.
