Watch our series of short videos on the importance of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, how it works as a water hub for
California and the challenges it is facing.
When a person opens a spigot to draw a glass of water, he or she
may be tapping a source close to home or hundreds of miles away.
Water gets to taps via a complex web of aqueducts, canals and
groundwater.
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Unlike California’s majestic rivers and massive dams and
conveyance systems, groundwater is out of sight and underground,
though no less plentiful. The state’s enormous cache of
underground water is a great natural resource and has contributed
to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural producer and
leader in high-tech industries.
A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 in California
with the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. The landmark law
turned 10 in 2024, with many challenges still ahead.
Time is running out to register for next Thursday’s Water
101 Workshop and go beyond the headlines to gain a
deeper understanding of how water is managed and moved across
California. Plus, only a handful of seats remain for the
opportunity to extend your ‘beyond the headlines’ water education
experience on the optional watershed tour the next day!
To replenish California’s
chronically depleted aquifers, the state’s Department of Water
Resources is taking a hard look at a new line of attack: Pairing
more sophisticated reservoir operations with groundwater
recharge. Water managers are aiming to make greater use of the
increased floodwater that’s expected to come with flashier, more
intense storms and earlier snowmelt.
The plan to build California’s largest reservoir in nearly 50
years has cleared one of its last and most fundamental hurdles:
tentative approval of the project’s water
right. The State Water Resources Control Board on
Friday released a draft permit that would allow Sites
Reservoir, a proposed 13-mile-long storage facility 70 miles
northwest of Sacramento, to draw water from the
Sacramento River. While not final, the
much-awaited draft permit indicates that state water regulators
support the project. … This could pave the way for
construction of the $6 billion reservoir to begin as soon as
late this year or early next. … Sites Reservoir
… has been widely supported by cities and farms as well
as by state leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom. However, some
environmental groups and tribal communities have opposed the
venture, saying it will take water from an already-stressed
watershed, thus harming plants and wildlife — including the
state’s biggest salmon runs.
Critical negotiations about the future of the Colorado River
took a two week hiatus last month after the seven states in the
basin missed a key Valentine’s Day deadline for striking a
deal, New Mexico’s water negotiator said Thursday. Estevan
López said talks resumed March 2, and the upper and lower basin
states are using a short-term pitch from Nevada as a starting
point. “Right now, we’re in discussions with the lower basin
about a potential short-term agreement,” Lopez told New
Mexico’s Interstate Stream Commission. Nevada is proposing to
increase water releases from upper basin reservoirs like
Flaming Gorge by at least 500,000 acre feet to help prevent
Lake Powell from dropping too low.
… Southern California urban areas are typically on the hunt
for more and more water from agricultural regions. In this
case, though, four Kern County, and one Kings County, ag water
districts have entered into a 59-year agreement to
buy water from an over-the-Grapevine agency in southern
California. The water will come from Santa Clarita Valley Water
Agency. … Over the years, it [SCVWA] has parked its
excess water in a variety of Kern County banks, sometimes in
one-off, or longer term deals. This new agreement sets up a
framework so both sides can have longer term certainty.
… Iconic mountain towns like Aspen, Colorado, and Park City,
Utah, were seen with shockingly bare slopes, as the region
endured a historic snow drought that experts warn could bring
water shortages and wildfires in the months ahead.
… Colorado hasn’t experienced such a severe snow drought
in more than 40 years. Neither has Utah … and newly released
federal drought data show similar conditions in New Mexico and
Arizona. All four states are contending with record-low
snowpack. … A snow drought of this magnitude has the
power to disrupt fundamental aspects of life in the West.
… In addition to increasing the risk of water shortages
for states already strapped for those resources, low snowpack
can make wildfire-prone land even more vulnerable.
Operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the
Bay Model is a giant hydraulic replica of San Francisco
Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. It is housed in a converted World II-era
warehouse in Sausalito near San Francisco.
Hundreds of gallons of water are pumped through the
three-dimensional, 1.5-acre model to simulate a tidal ebb
and flow lasting 14 minutes.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
Drought—an extended period of
limited or no precipitation—is a fact of life in California and
the West, with water resources following boom-and-bust patterns.
During California’s 2012–2016 drought, much of the state
experienced severe drought conditions: significantly less
precipitation and snowpack, reduced streamflow and higher
temperatures. Those same conditions reappeared early in 2021
prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom in May to declare drought emergencies
in watersheds across 41 counties in California.
