Governor Newsom Expands Drought Emergency Statewide, Urges Californians to Redouble Water Conservation Efforts
Following the second driest year on record and with near record low storage in California’s largest reservoirs, Governor Gavin Newsom issued a proclamation extending the drought emergency statewide and further urging Californians to step up their water conservation efforts as the western U.S. faces a potential third dry year. The proclamation authorizes State Water Board to ban wasteful water uses to boost conservation efforts. Read more in the press release.

 

Ongoing Cyber Threats to U.S. Water and Wastewater Systems
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency (CISA), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Security Agency (NSA) released a joint advisory on October 14 to highlight ongoing malicious cyber activity—by both known and unknown actors—targeting the information technology (IT) and operational technology (OT) networks, systems, and devices of U.S. Water and Wastewater Systems (WWS) Sector facilities. This activity—which includes attempts to compromise system integrity via unauthorized access—threatens the ability of WWS facilities to provide clean, potable water to, and effectively manage the wastewater of, their communities. Note: although cyber threats across critical infrastructure sectors are increasing, this advisory does not intend to indicate greater targeting of the WWS Sector versus others. Information above from the Department of Homeland Security. Read more here.