The Central Valley is a vital agricultural region that dominates
the center of California, stretching 40-60 miles east to west and
about 450 miles from north to south. It covers 22,500
square miles, about 13.7% of California’s total land area.
Key watersheds are located here: The Sacramento Valley in the
north, San Joaquin Valley and Tulare Basin to the south. In
addition, the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers drain their
respective valleys and meet to form the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Bay Delta, which flows to the Pacific Ocean via the San Francisco
Bay.
One new legal filing and a raft of letters have been sent to
the California State Supreme Court alternately praising and
decrying the recent 5th District Court of Appeal opinion that
overturned a local court order that had kept the Kern River
flowing, at least for a few months. The response, filed by
several agricultural water districts with Kern River rights,
urges the Supreme Court to deny a petition to review the 5th
District’s opinion and let it remain published, which can set
precedent for how other courts rule in similar cases. The
letters all seek to have the Supreme Court “depublish” the 5th
District’s ruling, making it less potent. Two of the letters
were filed by the original plaintiffs. … The state Attorney
General and two environmental public interest groups also sent
letters beseeching the state’s top court to depublish the 5th
District’s opinion.
More than 100 residents in the tiny unincorporated town of West
Goshen can weather the summer months knowing that by the end of
it, the water flowing through their faucets will be safe for
drinking, cooking and bathing thanks to a new connection to
California Water Service. Residents along with local and state
officials marked that monumental step at a groundbreaking
ceremony Thursday evening in West Goshen, west of Visalia and
Highway 99 in Tulare County. … California Water Service
provides water to Visalia residents. It was able to connect
West Goshen through an emergency consolidation project. West
Goshen residents had relied for years on bottled water after
they discovered groundwater from private wells was laced with
uranium, nitrates and other contaminants. The 60-day
connection project will require a crew of eight to lay more
than 8,000 feet of pipe.
The Kern County Water Agency filed a motion May 30 seeking to
remove Kern County Superior Court Judge Gregory Pulskamp from
the long-running Kern River lawsuit saying it believes he is
prejudiced against the agency. It’s highly unusual – one
opposing attorney said improper – to try and get a judge
removed from a case without a ruling, much less one that hasn’t
even gone to trial yet. Disqualification efforts are typically
filed if one side gets a negative ruling at trial that’s later
overturned at a higher level and then sent back down to the
original judge. … The Kern County Water Agency is
making its case to Kern County’s Presiding Judge John Lua that
Pulskamp is biased against it because his preliminary
injunction, which had required enough water in the
river to support fish, was overturned by the 5th
District Court of Appeal. “The term ‘new trial’ is
interpreted broadly to include any reexamination of actual or
legal issues in controversy in the prior proceeding,” the
agency’s motion states.
Fresno does not have to look far for successful examples of how
to bring locals and visitors to a river parkway. In
Bakersfield, the Kern River Parkway boasts the longest
municipally-owned bike trail in the country. In Sacramento, the
American River Parkway hosts archery tournaments, a “Burger
Battle” between local chefs and firefighters, and large
festivals for rock and country music fans. … But, in
Fresno, access to the water and revenue-generating activities
along the parkway or adjacent to it are limited in comparison
to other Central Valley cities. And a lot of Fresnans still
don’t know that they can enjoy their river. According to
existing plans, the Fresno-Madera parkway will one day offer a
full trail system along 22 miles of the San Joaquin
River from Friant Dam to Highway 99. However, the path
to completion has been far from simple, or speedy.
After decades of planning and construction, the Richard L.
Schafer Dam Spillway at Lake Success is officially complete.
Leaders say this large reservoir will dramatically improve
flood control, protecting homes and lives in the area. This is
a historic milestone for our community,” said Congressman Vince
Fong. “We not only built a new emergency spillway, but we
raised this dam ten feet, that is more water storage for us.”
The improvements will increase the lake’s storage capacity by
28,000 acre-feet, bringing the total to 112,000
acre-feet. ”What that really means is 9.8 billion gallons
of water, additional water storage that we can now hold in this
lake so it’s critical for us,” explains Fong. … The
total cost of the project was $135 million.
Fallout from the ongoing who-owes-what dispute over the still
sinking Friant-Kern Canal led to some awkward and very
carefully worded moments during a meeting to discuss
replacement pump stations. At its May 22 meeting, the Friant
Water Authority ultimately voted to restart the bidding process
to build four replacement pump stations to deliver water from
the canal to the Saucelito Irrigation District. But the
board added some strings. It will only start construction if:
Litigation filed by Saucelito and its sister districts,
Porterville and Terra Bella, regarding the “Cost Recovery
Methodology” was resolved through a settlement or
verdict; Friant had sufficient cash on hand and certainty
of funding sources necessary to cover future payments for the
parallel canal and pump stations. The vote elicited a
mixed reaction.
Boaters and anglers trying to get greater flows on the upper
Kern River have been frustrated by what they feel is an
absolute betrayal of the river ecosystem by the one state
agency they hoped would be their strongest ally – the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The advocacy groups
have been urging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to
mandate Southern California Edison leave more water in the
river as part of the utility’s ongoing relicensing application
for its Kernville power plant, KR3. That process is
delayed with one study not expected to be complete until April
2026. After that, FERC will likely deem proposals by Edison and
other stakeholders “ready for environmental analysis,” which
will trigger a 60-day public comment period. FERC is expected
to make a determination on the new licence by Nov. 30, 2026.
… California is grappling with two pressing issues: a
shrinking water supply and the growing demand for clean,
dependable energy. SGMA requires local agencies to balance
groundwater use by 2040. Meanwhile, statewide power demand is
expected to rise 80% by 2045. In response, AB 1156 would allow
landowners to lease their farmland for solar panel
installation. “This land is fallow this year. Obviously, as you
can see in the background, we don’t have anything growing there
— and that’s because of the SGMA regulations, along with quite
a bit of other land that we have.” Mike Frey said. Mike
Frey is a fifth-generation farmer in Buttonwillow. His family
has been farming in Kern County since 1962, growing almonds,
pistachios, cotton, wheat, corn, potatoes, and carrots. Now,
he’s working to turn that fallow land into a solar farm.
Central Valley water regulators want the world’s largest winery
to stop using its wastewater on local crops — a decades-old
waste management practice — because it’s threatening Fresno’s
drinking water supply. The Central Valley Water Regional
Quality Control Board issued a tentative Cease and Desist Order
to E. & J. Gallo Winery in March for allegedly violating 2015
waste discharge requirements. … The stipulated order
says the winery at Olive and Clovis avenues is “threatening to
adversely impact groundwater beneath the Facility.”
Specifically, Gallo’s practice of applying some of its
untreated wastewater from the grape crush and press process
directly to 400 acres of local cropland has resulted in
concentrations of nitrate and other contaminants above
allowable levels. The city of Fresno is directly impacted by
the winery’s wastewater practices because it relies on
groundwater downgradient of the winery for its municipal
drinking water.
Groups trying to bring water back to the dry Kern River bed
through Bakersfield have petitioned the California Supreme
Court to review an appeals court decision that knocked down an
order that had kept flows going for a few months last year.
… The main lawsuit, filed in 2022, is still ongoing with
a trial date set in December. That suit seeks to force
Bakersfield to study its river operations under the Public
Trust Doctrine, which requires water be put to the highest
public benefit, including environmental protection and public
access. The action seeking Supreme Court review involves a
preliminary injunction issued in late 2023 that mandated
Bakersfield keep enough water in the river to keep fish in good
condition per California Fish and Game Code Section 5937.
Agricultural water districts with river rights appealed that
injunction. The 5th District Court of
Appeal overturned it in April stating.
Tulare County Board of Supervisors made its annual trip to
Sacramento to advocate for issues important to the county. The
two days of meetings were held on April 22-23, immediately
before the 2025 California State Association of Counties
Legislative Conference. … “We talked to everybody about
kind of the same issues,” (Supervisor Larry) Micari said,
explaining that the main focus of the advocating effort was
water. “The biggest thing that we talked about is the
Airborne Snow Observatories,” he said. … “There’s talk
of them reducing funding, so we spoke to them to try to get
that funding to stay, and to actually increase it,” he
said.
A tour bus filled with water experts, agency directors,
biologists, engineers and one news reporter traveled through
the Central Valley this spring, stopping at key infrastructure
sites where the San Joaquin Valley’s water is collected and
shipped to farms and cities. The tour offered a wealth of
information on water structures and districts covering about
20,000 square miles of the southern valley. The three-day
tour was put on by the Water Education
Foundation, a nonprofit organization that provides
information and education on California’s byzantine water
world, from April 23 – 25. Starting in Sacramento, the
tour moved south to the San Luis Reservoir, which stores water
for both the state and federal systems. Along the way, water
managers and experts shared crucial information about how the
systems operate.
The Imperial Irrigation District and its partners, the
California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and California
Project WET (Water Education Today), hosted a climate change
and water workshop for educators, Saturday, May 3, in IID’s
Condit Auditorium. Teachers working with students in
grades 3-12 attended to learn how climate change is allegedly
linked to floods, droughts, and water quality. Educators
learned how the changing climate may impact California’s water
resources, and Imperial Valley’s water in particular. They also
discussed activities to help students understand how they can
adapt to the region’s changing environment.
Few developments in local history have changed the Valley more
than Friant Dam. From providing flood control and irrigation
water to the east side of the Valley, to drying up huge
portions of the river, and destroying the salmon population,
the scale of the dam’s impact is undeniable. Today on KVPR’s
Central Valley Roots, we explore the dam’s history. California
leaders originally envisioned the Central Valley Project as a
state funded effort as early as 1919. But amid the Great
Depression, the state couldn’t sell the bonds necessary to fund
construction. Instead the state turned to Washington. In 1935
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt approved the construction
of Friant Dam.
A decade after the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act
became law, many California farmers still feel lost in the
bureaucracy surrounding its implementation. A new study finds
that, despite widespread awareness, real engagement remains
low. According to research from CSU-WATER — an initiative
encompassing 23 California State University campuses —
significant logistical and representational barriers have
prevented farmers from meaningfully engaging with their
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies. The research is part
of SGMA WAVE — short for Water and Valley Economy — a project
led by CSU-WATER, a water policy initiative involving all 23
CSU campuses. The study focuses on 72 GSAs across the San
Joaquin Valley counties of Madera, Fresno, Tulare, Kings, and
Kern.
Some of the top players in Central Valley water policy are
urging farmers to take action while the time is ripe to press
their elected representatives to work with President Donald
Trump on making real change in the amount of water that will be
delivered to the region for years to come. That was as
the core of the message delivered to over 100 farmers at the
fifth annual California Water Alliance forum, held in Fresno on
Friday. … The message from (Rep. Vince) Fong and (Friant
Water Authority CEO Jason) Phillips was simple: With Trump at
the helm, this is a once in a generational opportunity to flip
California’s water crisis on its head and return to a period
several decades ago when water flowed freely across the
state.
Dust storms are pervasive across much of inland California and
have many adverse effects. Perhaps most notable are the health
impacts associated with dust, which range from traffic
accidents due to poor visibility, to respiratory disease caused
by direct exposure. Unfortunately, these health impacts are
disproportionately borne by vulnerable groups. However, dust
storms also affect many other aspects of life in the state,
including water resources, solar energy production,
agricultural productivity, and weather and climate. UC Dust is
a new center developed with the goals of developing and
implementing adaptation and mitigation strategies that address
current and likely future dust storms in California. UC Dust is
comprised of faculty, staff and students from 7 UCs who have
expertise in the diverse disciplines relevant to dust storms,
including the atmospheric, soil, health, and climate sciences,
geography, ecology, hydrology, and environmental policy and
justice.
Congress is expected to vote Thursday on a Republican
resolution to reverse endangered species protection for a tiny
inhabitant of San Francisco Bay that opponents say could set a
dangerous precedent. The resolution aims to remove the
endangered species status of longfin smelt in
the San Francisco Bay. The fish received that designation in
July under the Biden administration. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, a
Republican from Butte County, introduced the resolution in
March under the Congressional Review Act, saying it was
necessary to protect the state’s water supply. Opponents say
the time period for such a resolution already expired and that
the Republican effort is part of an unprecedented attack on
endangered species protections.
From citrus groves to floodgates, Jake Severns’ journey has
come full circle. Raised on a citrus farm in California’s
Central Valley, he learned the value of water early in life.
Today, he helps manage that vital resource as the operations
project manager for Pine Flat Dam with the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers Sacramento District. The Central Valley spans about
20,000 square miles and includes the Sacramento Valley, Delta
and Eastside Streams, San Joaquin Basin, and Tulare Basin. For
Jake and his family, one of more than 44,500 family farms in
the state, according to the USDA’s 2022 Census of Agriculture,
life on the farm taught resilience.
A long-term shift toward drier conditions is reshaping
landscapes and livelihoods across the globe. Known as
aridification, this gradual drying trend now affects 2.3
billion people and 40% of Earth’s land, with serious
implications for agriculture and water systems—especially in
the U.S. From California’s Central Valley to the Great Plains,
often called the world’s breadbasket, farmers are facing tough
decisions about what to plant, how to irrigate, and how to
adapt to a future where water is no longer guaranteed. These
findings appear in the Nature Water article “Increasing
aridification calls for urgent global adaptive solutions and
policy action,” led by Mississippi State University
Associate Vice President and Professor Narcisa Pricope in
collaboration with a team of international scientists.
A new underground mapping technology
that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in
California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the
state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.
The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources
for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime
underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork
by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming
manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the
composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying
helicopters towing giant magnets.
The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’
resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture
water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus
underground for use during the next drought.
“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really
helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based
on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda,
general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early
adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or
AEM technology in California.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
Land and waterway managers labored
hard over the course of a century to control California’s unruly
rivers by building dams and levees to slow and contain their
water. Now, farmers, environmentalists and agencies are undoing
some of that work as part of an accelerating campaign to restore
the state’s major floodplains.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
A government agency that controls much of California’s water
supply released its initial allocation for 2021, and the
numbers reinforced fears that the state is falling into another
drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that most
of the water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project
will get just 5% of their contract supply, a dismally low
number. Although the figure could grow if California gets more
rain and snow, the allocation comes amid fresh weather
forecasts suggesting the dry winter is continuing. The National
Weather Service says the Sacramento Valley will be warm and
windy the next few days, with no rain in the forecast.
The bill is coming due, literally,
to protect and restore groundwater in California.
Local agencies in the most depleted groundwater basins in
California spent months putting together plans to show how they
will achieve balance in about 20 years.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Shortly after taking office in 2019,
Gov. Gavin Newsom called on state agencies to deliver a Water
Resilience Portfolio to meet California’s urgent challenges —
unsafe drinking water, flood and drought risks from a changing
climate, severely depleted groundwater aquifers and native fish
populations threatened with extinction.
Within days, he appointed Nancy Vogel, a former journalist and
veteran water communicator, as director of the Governor’s Water
Portfolio Program to help shepherd the monumental task of
compiling all the information necessary for the portfolio. The
three state agencies tasked with preparing the document delivered
the draft Water Resilience Portfolio Jan. 3. The document, which
Vogel said will help guide policy and investment decisions
related to water resilience, is nearing the end of its comment
period, which goes through Friday, Feb. 7.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
The San Joaquin Valley, known as the
nation’s breadbasket, grows a cornucopia of fruits, nuts and
other agricultural products.
During our three-day Central Valley Tour April
3-5, you will meet farmers who will explain how they prepare
the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce that
helps feed the nation and beyond. We also will drive through
hundreds of miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams,
reservoirs and groundwater wells that provide the water.
The whims of political fate decided
in 2018 that state bond money would not be forthcoming to help
repair the subsidence-damaged parts of Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River to
farms that fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy along
the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
The Colorado River Basin is more
than likely headed to unprecedented shortage in 2020 that could
force supply cuts to some states, but work is “furiously”
underway to reduce the risk and avert a crisis, Bureau of
Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman told an audience of
California water industry people.
During a keynote address at the Water Education Foundation’s
Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento, Burman said there is
opportunity for Colorado River Basin states to control their
destiny, but acknowledged that in water, there are no guarantees
that agreement can be reached.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
New water storage is the holy grail
primarily for agricultural interests in California, and in 2014
the door to achieving long-held ambitions opened with the passage
of Proposition
1, which included $2.7 billion for the public benefits
portion of new reservoirs and groundwater storage projects. The
statute stipulated that the money is specifically for the
benefits that a new storage project would offer to the ecosystem,
water quality, flood control, emergency response and recreation.
For more than 100 years, invasive
species have made the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta their home,
disrupting the ecosystem and costing millions of dollars annually
in remediation.
The latest invader is the nutria, a large rodent native to South
America that causes concern because of its propensity to devour
every bit of vegetation in sight and destabilize levees by
burrowing into them. Wildlife officials are trapping the animal
and trying to learn the extent of its infestation.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Along the banks of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Oakley, about 50 miles southwest
of Sacramento, is a park that harkens back to the days when the
Delta lured Native Americans, Spanish explorers, French fur
trappers, and later farmers to its abundant wildlife and rich
soil.
That historical Delta was an enormous marsh linked to the two
freshwater rivers entering from the north and south, and tidal
flows coming from the San Francisco Bay. After the Gold Rush,
settlers began building levees and farms, changing the landscape
and altering the habitat.
Despite the heat that often
accompanies debates over setting aside water for the environment,
there are instances where California stakeholders have forged
agreements to provide guaranteed water for fish. Here are two
examples cited by the Public Policy Institute of California in
its report arguing for an environmental water right.
Get a unique view of the San Joaquin Valley’s key dams and
reservoirs that store and transport water on our March Central
Valley Tour.
Our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, offers a broad view of water issues
in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the farms, orchards,
critical habitat for threatened bird populations, flood bypasses
and a national wildlife refuge, we visit some of California’s
major water infrastructure projects.
The 2-day, 1-night tour traveled along the river from Friant
Dam near Fresno to the confluence of the Merced River. As it
weaved across an historic farming region, participants learn
about the status of the river’s restoration and how the
challenges of the plan are being worked out.
Our tours are famous for not only being packed with diverse
educational opportunities about California water, but showcasing
local culture. Our Central Valley Tour on March
8-10 lets you unwind at a few San Joaquin Valley treasures and
hear stories that go back generations.
Our water tours give a behind-the-scenes look at major water
issues in California. On our Central Valley Tour, March
8-10, you will visit wildlife habitat areas – some of which are
closed to the public – and learn directly from the experts who
manage them, in addition to seeing farms, large dams and other
infrastructure.
The recent deluge has led to changes in drought conditions in
some areas of California and even public scrutiny of the
possibility that the drought is over. Many eyes are focused on
the San Joaquin Valley, one of the areas hardest hit by reduced
surface water supplies. On our Central Valley Tour, March
8-10, we will visit key water delivery and storage sites in the
San Joaquin Valley, including Friant Dam and Millerton Lake
on the San Joaquin River.
The San Joaquin Valley has been hit hard by the six-year drought
and related surface water cutbacks. Some land has been fallowed
and groundwater pumping has increased. What does this year hold?
Will these recent heavy storms provide enough surface water for
improved water deliveries?
Your best opportunity to see and understand this vital
agricultural region of California is to join us on our annual
Central Valley Tour,
March 8-10.
ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric
river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur
once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011
report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate
the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property
and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.
Excess salinity poses a growing
threat to food production, drinking water quality and public
health. Salts increase the cost of urban drinking water and
wastewater treatment, which are paid for by residents and
businesses. Increasing salinity is likely the largest long-term
chronic water quality impairment to surface and groundwater in California’s Central
Valley.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This 30-minute documentary, produced in 2011, explores the past,
present and future of flood management in California’s Central
Valley. It features stories from residents who have experienced
the devastating effects of a California flood firsthand.
Interviews with long-time Central Valley water experts from
California Department of Water Resources (FloodSAFE), U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Central Valley Flood
Management Program and environmental groups are featured as they
discuss current efforts to improve the state’s 150-year old flood
protection system and develop a sustainable, integrated, holistic
flood management plan for the Central Valley.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
Salt. In a small amount, it’s a gift from nature. But any doctor
will tell you, if you take in too much salt, you’ll start to have
health problems. The same negative effect is happening to land in
the Central Valley. The problem scientists call “salinity” poses
a growing threat to our food supply, our drinking water quality
and our way of life. The problem of salt buildup and potential –
but costly – solutions are highlighted in this 2008 public
television documentary narrated by comedian Paul Rodriguez.
A 20-minute version of the 2008 public television documentary
Salt of the Earth: Salinity in California’s Central Valley. This
DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking
engagements to help the public understand the complex issues
surrounding the problem of salt build up in the Central Valley
potential – but costly – solutions. Narrated by comedian Paul
Rodriquez.
This 3-day, 2-night tour travels the length of the San Joaquin
Valley, giving participants a clear understanding of the State
Water Project and Central Valley Project.
15-minute DVD that graphically portrays the potential disaster
should a major earthquake hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“Delta Warning” depicts what would happen in the event of an
earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale: 30 levee breaks,
16 flooded islands and a 300 billion gallon intrusion of salt
water from the Bay – the “big gulp” – which would shut down the
State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumping plants.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36-inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Flood Management explains the
physical flood control system, including levees; discusses
previous flood events (including the 1997 flooding); explores
issues of floodplain management and development; provides an
overview of flood forecasting; and outlines ongoing flood control
projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various facilities, operations and benefits the water
project brings to the state along with the CVP
Improvement Act (CVPIA).
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36-inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
Travel across the state on Amtrak’s famed California
Zephyr, from the edge of sparkling San Francisco Bay,
through the meandering channels of the Delta, past rich Central
Valley farmland, growing cities, historic mining areas and into
the Sierra Nevada mountain range.
With the dual threats of aging levees and anticipated rising sea levels,
floodplains — low
areas along waterways that flood during wet years — are
increasingly at the forefront of many public policy and water
issues in California.
Adding to the challenges, many floodplains have been heavily
developed and are home to major cities such as Sacramento. Large
parts of California’s valleys are historic floodplains as well.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterbirds, and stretches from Alaska in the north
to Patagonia in South America.
Each year, birds follow ancestral patterns as they travel the
flyway on their annual north-south migration. Along the way, they
need stopover sites such as wetlands with suitable habitat and
food supplies. In California, 95 percent of historic
wetlands have been lost, yet the Central Valley hosts some of the
world’s largest populations of wintering birds.
The Mendota Pool, located at the confluence of the
San Joaquin River and Kings River in California’s Central
Valley, is the terminus of a long journey for water from the
Sacramento River.
After being diverted, the Sacramento River water heads south from
the Sacramento
San Joaquin Delta via the 117-mile long Delta-Mendota Canal.
Environmental concerns have closely followed California’s
development of water resources since its earliest days as a
state.
Early miners harnessed water to dislodge gold through hydraulic
mining. Debris resulting from these mining practices washed down
in rivers and streams, choking them and harming aquatic life and
causing flooding.
In the Central Valley, wetlands—partly or seasonally saturated
land that supports aquatic life and distinct ecosystems— provide
critical habitat for a variety of wildlife.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the challenges facing
small water systems, including drought preparedness, limited
operating expenses and the hurdles of complying with costlier
regulations. Much of the article is based on presentations at the
November 2007 Small Systems Conference sponsored by the Water
Education Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
This issue of Western Water examines the extent to
which California faces a disaster equal to or greater than the
New Orleans floods and the steps being taken to recognize and
address the shortcomings of the flood control system in the
Central Valley and the Delta, which is of critical importance
because of its role in providing water to 22 million people.
Complicating matters are the state’s skyrocketing pace of growth
coupled with an inherently difficult process of obtaining secure,
long-term funds for levee repairs and continued maintenance.
This issue of Western Water analyzes northern California’s
extensive flood control system – it’ history, current concerns,
the Paterno decision and how experts are re-thinking the concept
of flood management.
