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California increases water allocation after wet winter, but fish protections limit pumping

News Feed
Wednesday, April 24, 2024

With runoff from this year’s snow and rain boosting the levels of California’s reservoirs, state water managers on Tuesday announced plans to increase deliveries of supplies from the State Water Project to 40% of full allotments, up from 30% last month.The increased allocation, which had been widely expected, means that suppliers serving 27 million Californians, as well as some farming areas, will have substantially more water available to use and store this year. But the Department of Water Resources also said officials have had to limit pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta this year because of environmental protections for native fish.Although this year has brought average wet conditions, the agency said its ability to move water south through the system of aqueducts and reservoirs has been “impacted by the presence of threatened and endangered fish species” near the state’s pumping facilities in the south delta.“The presence of these fish species has triggered state and federal regulations that significantly reduce the pumping from the Delta into the California Aqueduct,” John Yarbrough, acting deputy director of the State Water Project, said in a notice outlining the increased allocation. Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science. That has limited the state’s ability to move water south to San Luis Reservoir, which stands at 72% of capacity — a level that is 86% of average for this time of year.The reduced pumping is expected to continue into late spring, Yarbrough said. State officials then expect to increase pumping significantly this summer, once conditions allow for it under the pumping facilities’ permits.Environmental and fishing groups have criticized a recent rise in the estimated numbers of fish that have died at the pumping facilities in the delta, and have demanded that state and federal agencies take steps to limit the losses of threatened steelhead trout and endangered winter-run chinook salmon.The massive pumps that draw water into the State Water Project and the federally managed Central Valley Project are strong enough that they can reverse the flow in parts of the south delta.The losses of fish are estimated based on how many fish are collected at a state facility near the pumps and trucked to nearby areas of the delta, where they are released. The calculations attempt to account for fish that are caught by predators and those that are killed when they are sucked into pumps.State water managers said they are taking various steps to limit the losses of fish. They said pumping has been reduced this month to minimal levels in order to comply with spring flow requirements.The Department of Water Resources said the increased allocation was based on the latest snowpack and runoff data. The snowpack measures 99% of average for this time of year, and the amount of runoff is projected to be above average.The state’s reservoirs rose dramatically in 2023, which brought one of the wettest winters on record, and this year’s storms have again boosted reservoir levels.Lake Oroville, the state’s second largest reservoir, is now at 94% of capacity and is projected to completely fill next month.The water that is pumped from the delta and flows south into the California Aqueduct provides a significant portion of Southern California’s supplies.With the increased allocation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will be able to meet the region’s water demands this year and will have surplus water to put into storage, said Adel Hagekhalil, the MWD’s general manager.That will build on the record 3.4 million acre-feet of water that the district has banked in various reservoirs and underground storage areas. The MWD’s added supplies amount to about 200,000 acre-feet, enough to supply roughly 600,000 typical households for a year.“We will make every effort to store as much water as possible in every storage account available, for use during the next dry year,” Hagekhalil said.He urged Southern Californians to keep up their efforts to save water.“The more efficient we all are during these wet years, the more water we can keep in storage for use during the next inevitable drought to provide reliable water supplies,” he said.The final water allocation still could change in May or June as state water managers reassess conditions.The restrictions on pumping this year have coincided with the ongoing debate over the efforts of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to advance the proposed Delta Conveyance Project, a 45-mile tunnel that would transport water beneath the delta.Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, said the limitations on pumping this year underscore “the challenges of moving water in wet periods with the current pumping infrastructure in the south Delta.”“We had both record low pumping for a wet year and high fish salvage at the pumps,” Nemeth said in a press release. “We need to be moving water when it’s wet so that we can ease conditions for people and fish when dry conditions return.”She said in a wet year like this, the proposed tunnel would allow the state to move more water during high flows “in a manner safer for fish.”Her department estimated that if the Delta tunnel had been in place this winter, the State Water Project would have been able to capture an additional 909,000 acre-feet of water, enough to supply roughly 3 million households for a year.The State Water Contractors, an association of 27 public agencies that purchase the water, reiterated its support for moving forward with the Delta Conveyance Project.“Water deliveries should be far higher in a good water year like we’ve had,” said Jennifer Pierre, the association’s general manager. “Today’s modest allocation highlights just how difficult it is to operate within current regulatory constraints and with infrastructure in need of modernization. Even in a good water year, moving water effectively and efficiently under the current regime is difficult.”Newsom has called the Delta Conveyance Project a central piece of his administration’s strategy for making the state’s water-delivery system more resilient to the effects of climate change.Opponents are trying to block the project in the courts. Environmental groups, fishing advocates, tribal leaders and local agencies have said the Delta Conveyance Project would harm the delta’s ecosystem and have also raised other concerns.In one of the latest court cases, four environmental groups and the Central Delta Water Agency are seeking to challenge the state’s reliance on decades-old water rights permits for the project. They’ve argued that the State Water Resources Control Board has wrongly given preferential treatment to the state, which is seeking to use water rights that were originally filed in 1955 and 1972.Lawyer Osha Meserve, who represents the Central Delta Water Agency, said the state water board is letting the Department of Water Resources “cut in line ahead of thousands of other water rights holders” — and ahead of flows that are necessary to keep the delta and its fish healthy.

California has increased water allocations to 40% of full allotments from the State Water Project. Officials say environmental regulations have limited pumping.

With runoff from this year’s snow and rain boosting the levels of California’s reservoirs, state water managers on Tuesday announced plans to increase deliveries of supplies from the State Water Project to 40% of full allotments, up from 30% last month.

The increased allocation, which had been widely expected, means that suppliers serving 27 million Californians, as well as some farming areas, will have substantially more water available to use and store this year. But the Department of Water Resources also said officials have had to limit pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta this year because of environmental protections for native fish.

Although this year has brought average wet conditions, the agency said its ability to move water south through the system of aqueducts and reservoirs has been “impacted by the presence of threatened and endangered fish species” near the state’s pumping facilities in the south delta.

“The presence of these fish species has triggered state and federal regulations that significantly reduce the pumping from the Delta into the California Aqueduct,” John Yarbrough, acting deputy director of the State Water Project, said in a notice outlining the increased allocation.

Aggressive and impactful reporting on climate change, the environment, health and science.

That has limited the state’s ability to move water south to San Luis Reservoir, which stands at 72% of capacity — a level that is 86% of average for this time of year.

The reduced pumping is expected to continue into late spring, Yarbrough said. State officials then expect to increase pumping significantly this summer, once conditions allow for it under the pumping facilities’ permits.

Environmental and fishing groups have criticized a recent rise in the estimated numbers of fish that have died at the pumping facilities in the delta, and have demanded that state and federal agencies take steps to limit the losses of threatened steelhead trout and endangered winter-run chinook salmon.

The massive pumps that draw water into the State Water Project and the federally managed Central Valley Project are strong enough that they can reverse the flow in parts of the south delta.

The losses of fish are estimated based on how many fish are collected at a state facility near the pumps and trucked to nearby areas of the delta, where they are released. The calculations attempt to account for fish that are caught by predators and those that are killed when they are sucked into pumps.

State water managers said they are taking various steps to limit the losses of fish. They said pumping has been reduced this month to minimal levels in order to comply with spring flow requirements.

The Department of Water Resources said the increased allocation was based on the latest snowpack and runoff data. The snowpack measures 99% of average for this time of year, and the amount of runoff is projected to be above average.

The state’s reservoirs rose dramatically in 2023, which brought one of the wettest winters on record, and this year’s storms have again boosted reservoir levels.

Lake Oroville, the state’s second largest reservoir, is now at 94% of capacity and is projected to completely fill next month.

The water that is pumped from the delta and flows south into the California Aqueduct provides a significant portion of Southern California’s supplies.

With the increased allocation, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California will be able to meet the region’s water demands this year and will have surplus water to put into storage, said Adel Hagekhalil, the MWD’s general manager.

That will build on the record 3.4 million acre-feet of water that the district has banked in various reservoirs and underground storage areas. The MWD’s added supplies amount to about 200,000 acre-feet, enough to supply roughly 600,000 typical households for a year.

“We will make every effort to store as much water as possible in every storage account available, for use during the next dry year,” Hagekhalil said.

He urged Southern Californians to keep up their efforts to save water.

“The more efficient we all are during these wet years, the more water we can keep in storage for use during the next inevitable drought to provide reliable water supplies,” he said.

The final water allocation still could change in May or June as state water managers reassess conditions.

The restrictions on pumping this year have coincided with the ongoing debate over the efforts of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration to advance the proposed Delta Conveyance Project, a 45-mile tunnel that would transport water beneath the delta.

Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, said the limitations on pumping this year underscore “the challenges of moving water in wet periods with the current pumping infrastructure in the south Delta.”

“We had both record low pumping for a wet year and high fish salvage at the pumps,” Nemeth said in a press release. “We need to be moving water when it’s wet so that we can ease conditions for people and fish when dry conditions return.”

She said in a wet year like this, the proposed tunnel would allow the state to move more water during high flows “in a manner safer for fish.”

Her department estimated that if the Delta tunnel had been in place this winter, the State Water Project would have been able to capture an additional 909,000 acre-feet of water, enough to supply roughly 3 million households for a year.

The State Water Contractors, an association of 27 public agencies that purchase the water, reiterated its support for moving forward with the Delta Conveyance Project.

“Water deliveries should be far higher in a good water year like we’ve had,” said Jennifer Pierre, the association’s general manager. “Today’s modest allocation highlights just how difficult it is to operate within current regulatory constraints and with infrastructure in need of modernization. Even in a good water year, moving water effectively and efficiently under the current regime is difficult.”

Newsom has called the Delta Conveyance Project a central piece of his administration’s strategy for making the state’s water-delivery system more resilient to the effects of climate change.

Opponents are trying to block the project in the courts. Environmental groups, fishing advocates, tribal leaders and local agencies have said the Delta Conveyance Project would harm the delta’s ecosystem and have also raised other concerns.

In one of the latest court cases, four environmental groups and the Central Delta Water Agency are seeking to challenge the state’s reliance on decades-old water rights permits for the project. They’ve argued that the State Water Resources Control Board has wrongly given preferential treatment to the state, which is seeking to use water rights that were originally filed in 1955 and 1972.

Lawyer Osha Meserve, who represents the Central Delta Water Agency, said the state water board is letting the Department of Water Resources “cut in line ahead of thousands of other water rights holders” — and ahead of flows that are necessary to keep the delta and its fish healthy.

Read the full story here.
Photos courtesy of

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Scientists Hope Underwater Fiber-Optic Cables Can Help Save Endangered Orcas

Scientists from the University of Washington recently deployed a little over 1 mile of fiber-optic cable in the Salish Sea to test whether internet cables can monitor endangered orcas

SAN JUAN ISLAND, Wash. (AP) — As dawn broke over San Juan Island, a team of scientists stood on the deck of a barge and unspooled over a mile of fiber-optic cable into the frigid waters of the Salish Sea. Working by headlamp, they fed the line from the rocky shore down to the seafloor — home to the region's orcas.The bet is that the same hair-thin strands that carry internet signals can be transformed into a continuous underwater microphone to capture the clicks, calls and whistles of passing whales — information that could reveal how they respond to ship traffic, food scarcity and climate change. If the experiment works, the thousands of miles of fiber-optic cables that already crisscross the ocean floor could be turned into a vast listening network that could inform conservation efforts worldwide.The technology, called Distributed Acoustic Sensing, or DAS, was developed to monitor pipelines and detect infrastructure problems. Now University of Washington scientists are adapting it to listen to the ocean. Unlike traditional hydrophones that listen from a single spot, DAS turns the entire cable into a sensor, allowing it to pinpoint the exact location of an animal and determine the direction it’s heading.“We can imagine that we have thousands of hydrophones along the cable recording data continuously,” said Shima Abadi, professor at the University of Washington Bothell School of STEM and the University of Washington School of Oceanography. “We can know where the animals are and learn about their migration patterns much better than hydrophones.”The researchers have already proven the technology works with large baleen whales. In a test off the Oregon coast, they recorded the low-frequency rumblings of fin whales and blue whales using existing telecommunications cables.But orcas present a bigger challenge: Their clicks and calls operate at high frequencies at which the technology hasn’t yet been tested.The stakes are high. The Southern Resident orcas that frequent the Salish Sea are endangered, with a population hovering around 75. The whales face a triple threat: underwater noise pollution, toxic contaminants and food scarcity.“We have an endangered killer whale trying to eat an endangered salmon species,” said Scott Veirs, president of Beam Reach Marine Science and Sustainability, an organization that develops open-source acoustic systems for whale conservation.The Chinook salmon that orcas depend on have declined dramatically. Since the Pacific Salmon Commission began tracking numbers in 1984, populations have dropped 60% due to habitat loss, overfishing, dams and climate change.Orcas use echolocation – rapid clicks that bounce off objects – to find salmon in murky water. Ship noise can mask those clicks, making it difficult for them to hunt.If DAS works as hoped, it could give conservationists real-time information to protect the whales. For instance, if the system detects orcas heading south toward Seattle and calculates their travel speed, scientists could alert Washington State Ferries to postpone noisy activities or to slow down until the whales pass.“It will for sure help with dynamic management and long-term policy that will have real benefits for the whales,” Veirs said.The technology would also answer basic questions about orca behavior that have eluded scientists, such as determining whether their communication changes when they’re in different behavioral states and how they hunt together. It could even enable researchers to identify which sound is coming from a particular whale — a kind of voice recognition for orcas.The implications extend far beyond the Salish Sea. With some 870,000 miles (1.4 million kilometers) of fiber-optic cables already installed underwater globally, the infrastructure for ocean monitoring largely exists. It just needs to be tapped. “One of the most important challenges for managing wildlife, conserving biodiversity and combating climate change is that there’s just a lack of data overall,” said Yuta Masuda, director of science at Allen Family Philanthropies, which helped fund the project.The timing is critical. The High Seas Treaty enters into force in January, which will allow for new marine protected areas in international waters. But scientists still don’t understand how human activities affect most ocean species or where protections are most needed. A dataset as vast as the one the global web of submarine cables could provide might help determine which areas should be prioritized for protection.“We think this has a lot of promise to fill in those key data gaps,” Masuda said.Back on the barge, the team faced a delicate task: fusing two fibers together above the rolling swell. They struggled to align the strands in a fusion splicer, a device that precisely positions the fiber ends before melting them together with an electric current. The boat rocked. They steadied their hands and tried again, and again. Finally, the weld held. Data soon began flowing to a computer on shore, appearing as waterfall plots — cascading visualizations that show sound frequencies over time. Nearby, cameras trained on the water stood ready so that if a vocalization was detected, researchers could link a behavior with a specific call.All that was left was to sit and wait for orcas.The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environmentCopyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Oct. 2025

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New York to appeal after judge OKs radioactive Indian Point water in the Hudson

Governor Kathy Hochul has confirmed that the Indian Point nuclear plant will not be reopened, despite a federal judge's ruling that the state's Save the Hudson Act, which aimed to prevent the dumping of radioactive wastewater into the Hudson River, was invalid.

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Use it or lose it: Summer EBT food benefits expiring Friday The plant is undergoing a decommissioning process that includes removing equipment and structures, reducing residual radioactivity, and dismantling the facility. Holtec projects that process to finish by 2033. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York sided with Holtec in a lawsuit they filed in April 2024, agreeing that state law can't block the discharge of radioactive wastewater from nuclear sites being decommissioned. The court found that only the federal government has that authority, because federal law like the Atomic Energy Act overrules the state under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution. Hochul launches $1B clean climate plan as state, federal energy agendas diverge The judge determined that S6893/A7208 wasn't meant to protect the radiological safety of the public or the environment, which falls under federal jurisdiction. Gov. 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Fish Kill at Clear Lake Reveals a Seven-Foot Sturgeon Surprise 

A problem lake was doing pretty well this year. Then came a series of unfortunate water-quality events. The post Fish Kill at Clear Lake Reveals a Seven-Foot Sturgeon Surprise  appeared first on Bay Nature.

Tiny silver fish float up at Clear Lake in August. Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians records indicate this was the biggest fish kill since 2017. (Courtesy of Luis Santana)As Luis Santana motored out onto Clear Lake this August, it seemed at first like a normal summer day out on the water: warm air, cloudy skies, and the wide lake waters full of what seemed like bubbles from the waves.  “Then I stopped, and I was like, Oh my god,” Santana, a fisheries biologist with the Robinson Rancheria tribe, recalls. Those weren’t bubbles; they were millions of dead threadfin shad, and others. “I saw literally every species of fish found in the lake,” except for the Clear Lake tule perch, Santana says. The measurements he took that day revealed what likely killed them: a near-total lack of oxygen in the lake. The fish had, essentially, suffocated. Amid the silver-lined shores, one fish washed up that no one had known to be a resident: a dead seven-foot-long white sturgeon. It was Clear Lake’s first on record. No one knows for sure how it got into the waters, but Santana thinks it died with the shad. White sturgeon (Acipenser transmontanus), the biggest freshwater fish in North America, live in the Bay-Delta. They became a candidate for listing as a threatened species under the California Endangered Species Act after a 2022 harmful algal bloom that killed hundreds of them.  Big ’un: A white sturgeon—in Clear Lake? CDFW says the average sturgeon caught in the Delta these days is about 3.6 feet long, and it is rare to encounter fish larger than 6.5 feet long in California. This one was seven feet. (Courtesy of Luis Santana)This fall’s fish die-off is the lake’s largest since at least 2017, according to records from the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians. And it is yet another environmental black mark for a lake—California’s largest freshwater body—that has been consistently troubled by poor water quality. Now, scientists are uncovering the exact cause of the die-off—and analyzing the sturgeon for more answers. For Angela DePalma-Dow, a lake scientist and executive director of the Lake County Land Trust, the event reminds her: “There’s so much we can learn from Clear Lake.”  As a five-year-old, Santana spent every summer day swimming in Clear Lake. That’s a distant dream now. The summer lake—despite the name—is rarely clear; more often, it’s clouded dirty green as harmful algal blooms take over the waters. Sometimes, Santana thinks the water smells like sewage. “I don’t think my kids have ever swam in Clear Lake,” Santana says.  Fish die-offs and fish kills are a consequence of these impaired conditions, especially the frequent harmful algal blooms (HABs), during which algae decompose and strip the water of oxygen (while also filling the water with cyanotoxins). The Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians has tracked harmful algal blooms in Clear Lake since 2014. The program started after five years of “thick, noxious blooms covering [Clear Lake’s] surface” (as the tribe writes in a history of the program) and no regular monitoring from the state, despite recommendations from the California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment. “We just needed to have more data,” says Sarah Ryan, the environmental director at the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians.  “It seems like they have fish kills every year,” says Ben Ewing, who studies the endemic Clear Lake hitch, a large minnow, at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “I lost track with how many.” In 2017, the state Legislature formed a committee to restore the lake, citing high mercury levels, dangerous contaminants in fish, and the regular HABs; to date, it has led to tens of millions in state funding for research, restoration, and education projects on Clear Lake, including helping sustain water quality monitoring cut by the state during the Covid pandemic.  Cyanobacteria bloom at Redbud Park, in Clear Lake’s southeast arm, in July 2020. Big Valley Pomo EPA’s sampling found toxins at a “warning” level. The lake is frequently beset by harmful algal blooms. (Courtesy of Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians)This die-off, Ewing says, caught lake-watchers off guard because 2025 seemed like the year Clear Lake might escape a fish kill. The characteristic pea soup of harmful algal blooms had been noticeably absent. Instead, the cause was likely a perfect storm of other conditions, says Ewing. “Everything had to line up correctly for this to happen,” he says.  Two bountiful water seasons laid the ground for it, DePalma-Dow explains. Fish populations—especially nonnative bait fish like shad—boomed with the increased water, which also meant some fish naturally died. She speculates that as their bodies decomposed, they stripped oxygen from the water column. Then, this fall, heavy winds came and distributed the low-oxygen water throughout the water column. A series of cloudy mornings arrived, during which the lake’s aquatic plants couldn’t respire oxygen back into the water. So more fish likely died, triggering oxygen levels to further plummet. Eventually, conditions became fatal for all species of fish. Santana says he measured “basically zeroes on every level” for dissolved oxygen through the water column. DePalma-Dow says this process is just the lake self-regulating, as fish populations outstrip the oxygen available. “This is totally not surprising for a lake cycle event,” she says. “This is a big, huge, natural system.” Santana blames human disturbance for the die-off. “We took away all the habitat that could potentially negate any of these effects,” he says. Clear Lake has lost up to 90 percent of its wetlands, he says, and creeks that might once have provided an infusion of oxygen-rich water into the lake now run dry in May and June. “There’s just so many things we’re taking and taking and not giving back,” he says.  A satellite image of Clear Lake during a May 2024 algal bloom. The emerald color doesn’t tell you whether toxins are present, though. That requires water sampling, which the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians EPA has been doing since 2014. (Sentinel-2 satellite, via the Copernicus browser)In lieu of those natural processes, technological solutions are being considered: Researchers from UC Davis are exploring installing oxygenators in Clear Lake that could trap nutrients in the sediment under a thin layer of oxygen, theoretically reducing the number of harmful algal blooms—and, possibly, keeping oxygen levels higher so more fish can breathe. “That would be one of the hopeful outcomes,” says DePalma-Dow. Neither the state nor county put out a press release about the die-off, Ryan notes. “It’s always better if you can anticipate the questions and try to get information out.” For now, those living by the lake watch (and smell) the dead fish decompose. “There’s really no post support,” she says.  The August die-off on Clear Lake silvered the shoreline. It claimed fish of “literally every species,” says Luis Santana, a Robinson Rancheria fisheries biologist. (Larger fish on shore courtesy of Luis Santana; silvery shoreline by Shawna McEwan; closeup by Sophia Zesati) Fish populations will likely recover, scientists say. Many fish probably survived, in nooks and crannies. With good winter rains, they can breed and repopulate the waters by spring. This die-off is just another challenge for a beleaguered lake.  As for the sturgeon? USGS scientists were trying to figure out how old it was, and hoping to answer when it got to the lake, but the government shutdown has since paused their work. And they cannot answer questions about their research until the shutdown ends. Santana’s observations of the sturgeon showed it was a female with eggs. For now, the giant fish is a reminder of the treasures that may hide in Clear Lake’s murky waters. “Every year is a mystery and surprise,” DePalma-Dow says.

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Education
Health

Millions of households face jump in water bills after regulator backs more price rises

Competition watchdog agrees requests from Anglian, Northumbrian, Southern, Wessex and South East to raise household billsBusiness live – latest updatesWater bills for millions of households in England will increase by even more than expected after the competition regulator gave the green light for five water suppliers to raise charges to customers – but rejected most of the companies’ demands.An independent group of experts appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided provisionally to let the companies collectively charge customers an extra £556m over the next five years, it said on Thursday. That was only 21% of the £2.7bn that the firms had requested. Continue reading...

Water bills for millions of households in England will increase by even more than expected after the competition regulator gave the green light for five water suppliers to raise charges to customers – but rejected most of the companies’ demands.An independent group of experts appointed by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) decided provisionally to let the companies collectively charge customers an extra £556m over the next five years, it said on Thursday. That was only 21% of the £2.7bn that the firms had requested.The five companies – Anglian, Northumbrian, Southern, Wessex and South East – together serve 14.7 million customers. The changes will add 3% on average to those companies’ bills, on top of the 24% increase previously allowed.The companies appealed to the CMA in February for permission to raise bills by more than allowed previously by the industry regulator, Ofwat. They argued they needed more to meet environmental standards.Water bills have become the subject of significant political controversy in recent years in the UK amid widespread disgust over leaks of harmful sewage into Britain’s rivers and seas.Emma Hardy, the water minister, said: “I understand the public’s anger over bill rises – that’s why I expect every water company to offer proper support to anyone struggling to pay.“We’ve made sure that investment cash goes into infrastructure upgrades, not bonuses, and we’re creating a tough new regulator to clean up our waterways and restore trust in the system.”English and Welsh water companies are mostly privately owned, but the prices the local monopolies can charge customers are regulated by Ofwat over five-year periods. Ofwat in December said average annual household bills could rise by 36% to £597 by 2030 to help pay for investment.Ofwat said the companies could spend £104bn in total, paid by consumers.The allowed bill increases stopped well short of the water companies’ requests. The CMA said the expert panel had largely reject companies’ funding requests for new activities and projects beyond those agreed by Ofwat. However, the panel did allow more money for returns to investors, to reflect sustained high interest rates since the bills increases were approved.Anglian Water, serving the east of England and Hartlepool, asked for the average annual household bill to rise to £649 – a 10% increase – but was granted only £599, or 1%. Northumbrian, mainly in north-east England, asked for £515, or 6%, and was given £495, also 1%.South East Water, which only provides drinking water and not sewage services in several home counties, asked for an 18% increase to £322, but was allowed 4% to £286. Southern Water, on England’s south-east coast, asked for a 15% increase to £710. That would have been the highest bill in England and Wales, but it was allowed only a 3% increase to £638.Wessex Water in south-west England asked for an 8% increase to £642, and was granted the biggest proportional increase on appeal of 5% to £622.The CMA and other regulators have faced pressure from the Labour government to put more focus on economic growth. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, this year appointed former Amazon boss Doug Gurr to lead the CMA.Kirstin Baker, the chair of the group that decided on the appeals, said: “We’ve found that water companies’ requests for significant bill increases, on top of those allowed by Ofwat, are largely unjustified.skip past newsletter promotionSign up to Business TodayGet set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morningPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotion“We understand the real pressure on household budgets and have worked to keep increases to a minimum, while still ensuring there is funding to deliver essential improvements at reasonable cost.”For affected households, the price increases will add to inflation on the cost of living. Mike Keil, chief executive of the Consumer Council for Water, which represents consumers, said “further increases will be very unwelcome”, and questioned whether the CMA should have allowed higher returns for investors.“There is a danger the customers of these companies will end up paying more, without seeing any additional improvements in return,” he said.Environmental groups have questioned why companies are allowed to return cash to shareholders while continuing to pollute Britain’s rivers and seas. James Wallace, chief executive of River Action, a campaign group, said: “Once again, water bill payers are forced to shoulder the cost of decades of failure.“Millions of households in England face higher bills while rivers continue to suffer from mismanagement by privatised water companies. In 2024 alone, four of these five companies were responsible for at least 1.4m hours of sewage discharges into rivers and seas – a stark illustration of ongoing environmental harm.”The CMA group’s decision will also be carefully considered by Thames Water, Britain’s biggest water company with 16 million customers. Thames also appealed initially but has agreed to pause it while the utility and its creditors negotiate with Ofwat over a restructuring plan to try to cut its debt burden and prevent it collapsing into temporary government control.Thames is still considering a request for a further £4bn. People close to Thames Water had criticised Ofwat’s approach to the price determination, arguing that the utility needed much more cash to turn around its performance on pollution.The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.If you have something to share on this subject you can contact the Business team confidentially using the following methods.Secure Messaging in the Guardian appThe Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.If you don't already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Scroll down and click on Secure Messaging. When asked who you wish to contact please select the Guardian Business team.SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and postIf you can safely use the tor network without being observed or monitored you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.Finally, our guide at theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each. Illustration: Guardian Design / Rich Cousins

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