“Infrastructure” in general can be defined as the components and
equipment needed to operate, as well as the structures needed
for, public works systems. Typical examples include roads,
bridges, sewers and water supply systems.Various dams and
infrastructural buildings have given Californians and the West
the opportunity to control water, dating back to the days of
Native Americans.
Water management infrastructure focuses on the parts, including
pipes, storage reservoirs, pumps, valves, filtration and
treatment equipment and meters, as well as the buildings to
house process and treatment equipment. Irrigation infrastructure
includes reservoirs, irrigation canals. Major flood control
infrastructure includes dikes, levees, major pumping stations and
floodgates.
A newly detected invasive mussel is posing a potential threat
to Lake County’s water bodies. The Lake County Water Resources
Department, and Watershed Protection District urge residents
and visitors to Clear Lake, and other Lake County water bodies,
to be aware and on the lookout for invasive golden mussels
(Limnoperna fortunei). The newly detected invasive mussel
(freshwater bivalve) found in several locations in the Port of
Stockton and in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta region. On
Oct. 17, the California Department of Water Resources reported
finding attached, adult mussels at a sample site location in
the Port of Stockton. Mussel specimens were sent to UC Davis
Genomic Variation Laboratory and confirmed to be golden
mussels, originally from China and Southeast Asia; the species
had not previously been detected in North America.
The Washington County Water Conservancy District was selected
as one of five recipients of federal funding to put dollars to
work for saving water in the West — an urgent goal due to
decades of drought. … In Utah’s Washington County, the
$1 billion system will get a boost of $641,222 for new water
treatment facilities, advanced purification technology, new
conveyance pipelines and storage reservoirs, according to the
bureau’s release on Monday. The southern Utah area has
often come under attack for what its critics say is excessive
water use — which the district disputes.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the San Luis & Delta-Mendota
Water Authority [on Nov. 13] announced a negotiated
consensus has been met for the B.F. Sisk Dam Raise and
Reservoir Expansion Project. The joint project creates an
additional 130,000 acre-feet of storage space in San Luis
Reservoir, the nation’s largest off-stream reservoir, producing
additional water supply for two million people, over one
million acres of farmland and 135,000 acres of Pacific Flyway
wetlands and critical wildlife habitat. Reclamation signed the
Record of Decision for the project on Oct. 20, 2023, the first
approval of a major water storage project in California since
2011.
California’s massive water projects, its authority to clean its
air, federal support for offshore wind and disaster aid for
wildfires all depend on cooperation with the new Trump
administration. … Trump’s reelection has unnerved
environmental groups that are watching over the Sacramento-San
Joaquin River Delta and its imperiled fish. At stake are the
state’s massive projects that bring Northern California water
south to farmers and cities. In 2016, Trump
famously scorned California for wasting water by
allowing its major rivers to reach the ocean. More recently, at
a September campaign speech in Rancho Palos Verdes, Trump said
he will increase the amount of water these projects deliver,
promising Southern Californians “more water than almost anybody
has.”
California voters approved a bond measure Tuesday that will let
the state borrow $10 billion to fund wildfire, flood protection
and other climate resiliency projects. Proposition 4 easily
passed in a state where devastating wildfires, heat waves and
other natural disasters linked to climate change are occurring
more frequently. Pollsters say those events — which have driven
a homeowners insurance crisis — have led to growing support for
climate action across regions and demographic groups. The
measure represents California’s latest effort to spend big on
climate resiliency and environmental health projects, with
billions allocated to prepare for droughts and floods. While
the largest portion of the money will go to water
infrastructure, Prop 4 also finances new projects to address
wildfire protection and sea-level rise. Forty percent of the
money is designated to projects in disadvantaged communities.
The legal fracas over who should pay to fix the sinking
Friant-Kern Canal grew Friday when three Tulare County
irrigation districts sued the Friant Water Authority for
imposing steep fees on the districts approved through allegedly
secret communications and serial meetings. In a suit filed Nov.
1 the Terra Bella, Saucelito and Porterville irrigation
districts also seek to declare the fees, up to $295 million
approved in a special meeting held in August, void. “We are
hoping that Friant will go back and re-do that board meeting,
and if they do, that the outcome will be different,” said Sean
Geivet, general manager for the three districts. “The unlawful
tactics of Friant’s leadership need to cease because my three
middle-sized districts can’t continue to function on an uneven
playing field.” He said the districts have documents that show
the fees were approved illegally.
A $10-billion California bond measure to finance water, clean
energy and other environmental projects was leading by a wide
margin in Tuesday’s election. Proposition 4 called for spending
$3.8 billion for water projects, including those that provide
safe drinking water, water recycling projects, groundwater
storage and flood control. An additional $1.5 billion would be
spent on wildfire protection, and $1.2 billion would go toward
protecting the coast from sea level rise. Other money would be
used to create parks, protect wildlife and habitats, fight air
pollution, address extreme heat events and fund sustainable
agriculture.
On Oct. 2, about a year-and-a-half after the Pajaro River levee
failed, flood agencies broke ground on the
long-awaited Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project. The
five-year, $599 million project sets out to protect the river
valley and its tributaries from 100-year storms, by
constructing stronger levees and working on improvements to the
area. Following the celebration, the environmental watchdog
group LandWatch commissioned a report from EcoDataLab … to
get a better sense of whether the levee improvements would
protect potential housing development within the floodplain.
The resulting Pajaro River Flood Risk Report, released earlier
in October, focuses on whether the project’s design
sufficiently accounts for future climate impacts, assessing the
area under both typical and extreme weather scenarios. The
report concludes that, with proper levee maintenance, the area
is suitable for housing development.
The Environmental Protection Agency will be sending $47 million
to the state of Nevada to upgrade Nevada’s water
infrastructure. The grants will fund projects managing
wastewater, protect freshwater resources, and deliver drinking
water to homes, schools, and businesses. The funding was
announced by Nevada Senators Jacky Rosen and Catherine Cortez
Masto. “All Nevadans deserve access to clean, safe drinking
water, and I’m proud to see these funds coming to Nevada to
make critical improvements to our water infrastructure,” said
Senator Cortez Masto. “I’ll continue working in the Senate to
deliver essential resources to protect our water supply for
generations to come.”
Santa Clara Valley Water District (Valley Water) has announced
the completion of the construction of the last stretch of a
1,736-foot tunnel adjacent to the Anderson Dam in Santa Clara
County, California. By using a specialised micro-tunnel boring
machine (TBM), construction crews drilled the final 347ft,
reaching depths of 30ft below the water’s surface. Last month,
divers and crane operators removed the TBM, lifting sections of
the machine using a large crane. Although the tunnelling work
is complete, additional tasks remain before dam construction
can commence, said the California public agency responsible for
managing the water resources in Santa Clara County. Valley
Water is preparing the downstream creek channel to accommodate
increased water flow from the new outlet tunnel and is
installing a structural lining inside the tunnel to ensure
added support. The Anderson Dam tunnel project is part of the
larger $2.3bn Anderson Dam seismic retrofit project. Upon its
completion, the new, larger tunnel will increase Valley Water’s
capacity to release water from the reservoir in emergencies,
enhancing the dam’s safety measures.
The Marin Municipal Water District is seeking $4 million in
grants to fund two of its dam projects. The district board
unanimously approved two grant applications for the state
Department of Water Resources’ safety and climate resiliency
program. The grants would give up to $2 million for each
project. The funds would go toward repairing spillways at
various dams and replacing valves and actuators at Phoenix and
Lagunitas dams. Actuators help control water flow. “This
opportunity for the submission of these proposals seems like
it’s quite new, or this is a new program focused on the
maintenance of dams that predate a certain period,” Ranjiv
Khush, the board president, said at its meeting on Oct. 15.
“It’s a great opportunity that’s come up from our department
resources and I was really excited to see that we jumped on
it.”
If the Delta Conveyance Tunnel is granted all necessary
permits; if the California Department of Water Resources can
create a plan to raise $20 billion; if the Water Resources
Control Board extends water rights to the State Water Project;
and if a dozen or more lawsuits are won; then construction on
one of this century’s most ambitious civil engineering projects
will commence. The year would be 2035. It would be preceded by
five years of infrastructure upgrades in the Delta region.
Stronger bridges and streets will lay the way for machines of
every scale to safely traverse the tunnel’s 45-mile path from
Sacramento to the Bethany pump station at Stockton.
… Los Vaqueros was a rare species, seemingly bred for
threading the gauntlet of California water politics that’s held
up other new storage projects for decades: It would have
expanded an existing project, rather than starting from
scratch, which meant fewer permitting hurdles. It would have
gotten its funding from a pool of relatively deep-pocketed Bay
Area water agencies, rather than politically precarious state
or federal dollars. And it promised water for environmentally
sensitive wetlands, helping it avoid lawsuits from
environmental groups and tribes. But the expansion of the
reservoir in the hills between the Central Valley and the Bay
Area fell apart last month as the main water agency behind the
project decided to back out, blaming high costs and lowered
benefits as well as disagreement over who should pay for what.
The breakdown has shaken Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
administration, which has thrown its weight behind other big
infrastructure proposals to store and move around more water —
most notably Sites Reservoir in the Sacramento Valley and a
tunnel underneath the crumbling Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta —
as a way to adapt to climate change.
There’s a growing perception that there’s a water affordability
crisis in California, but as with most water issues, the
reality is more complex. PPIC Water Policy Center founder and
senior fellow Ellen Hanak sat down for a conversation with PPIC
adjunct fellow and water economist David Mitchell to learn
more. … Is there a water affordability issue in the
state right now—and if so, what’s causing it? Water rates have
been rising faster than inflation for a long time now. In the
late 1980s, observers lamented how crazy cheap water service
was, because a lot of the costs around procuring and delivering
water were not reflected in water bills. That’s changed now,
which is partly why water service costs have risen. Also, there
are now many more drinking water quality requirements and
environmental safeguards associated with producing water, and
these requirements contribute to rising costs.
California has one of the most ambitious and highly engineered
water delivery systems on the planet, and it’s being eyed for a
new extension. The Delta Conveyance Project is Governor Gavin
Newsom’s proposal for a 45-mile underground tube that would tap
fresh water from its source in the north and carry it beneath a
vast wetland to users in the south. The Delta is the exchange
point for half of California’s water supply, and the tunnel is
an extension of the State Water Project, which was built in the
1960s. It’s a 700-mile maze of aqueducts and canals that sends
Delta water from the Bay Area down to farms and cities in
Central and Southern California. This is a local story about a
global issue, the future of water. In a three-part series of
field reports and podcasts, Bay City News reporter Ruth
Dusseault looks at the tunnel’s stakeholders, its engineering
challenges, and explores the preindustrial Delta and its
future restoration.
The sound of construction equipment echoed through the quiet
streets of south Salinas as excavation work proceeded along
Park Street and a section of Archer Street earlier this month.
Part of California Water Service’s (Cal Water) extensive
program of infrastructure upgrades currently underway, the crew
was in the process of replacing a section of the approximately
350 miles of water mainline responsible for transporting
potable water within the city’s municipal water distribution
system with 1,871 feet of new 8-inch water main. The mainline
replacement project, which includes swapping out old fire
hydrants as well, began earlier this summer, according to Cal
Water, and is important for water quality and fire prevention
by preventing failure of aging and high-risk pipelines.
At the state and local level, ballot measures give voters an
opportunity to influence policy and spending decisions. Several
of those measures relate to water. There are fewer big-dollar
measures in 2024 compared to past years. But many smaller
considerations dot ballots from New Mexico and Minnesota to
Colorado and California. Water infrastructure
spending is a typical ballot question, and one that voters
generally endorse. Three states and a handful of towns and
counties will ask voters to approve funding measures for land
conservation, water quality protection, and climate resilience.
The biggest outlay would be in California, which has a $10
billion water and climate bond on the ballot.
It seems like an impossible task, cataloging all – or at least
most – of the various water projects underway and planned in
the San Joaquin Valley including new recharge basins, canals,
connections and more. But that’s the near Sisyphean effort two
valley water organizations have been working on over the past
year under a $1 million Bureau of Reclamation grant. The goal
is to have a central report where water managers, as well as
state and federal officials with potential funding, can see
what’s ongoing and where infrastructure gaps exist.
America has water problems. Water stress can be found in almost
every state. New Mexico falls into the category of extremely
high ‘water stress’ for multiple reasons, including climate
change, limited rainfall and reduced volume of water in both
the Rio Grande and Colorado rivers, which are major water
resources for the state. Arizona, California, Nebraska, and
Colorado also fall into the category of water stressed states.
These states struggle with high water demands brought on by
droughts, pollution, population growth, and extreme needs from
industries like agriculture and manufacturing. … Many state
leaders, however, are aggressively planning water
infrastructure projects to increase water supply or provide
more efficient use of available resources to curb the very
negative impacts of water stress. —Written Mary Scott Nabers, president and CEO
of Strategic Partnerships Inc
An ambitious project to improve the levee system around
Marysville has had one unintended consequence: street flooding
in parts of East Marysville. On Tuesday, the Yuba Water Agency
Board of Directors will consider approving a $713,000 grant to
the City of Marysville to replace high flow pumps at the East
17th detention basin near Highway 20. Beginning in 2023, the
detention basin has filled during high intensity rain events,
and flooded some of the surrounding streets because the pumps
are no longer large enough to drain the detention basin.
According to a staff report for Tuesday’s meeting, the flooding
is directly related to the multi-million dollar 7.6 mile long
Marysville Ring Levee project, which the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers launched in 2010.
Today, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development
California State Director Maria Gallegos Herrera announced USDA
is investing nearly $2 million in projects that will help
foster and protect clean water supplies for rural Californians.
“Access to clean and reliable water systems is essential for
the health and well-being of all communities, and in rural
California, USDA regularly invests in these systems to protect
the health of our residents and advance rural prosperity,” said
Gallegos Herrera. “I’ve seen the need firsthand as I’ve
witnessed Californians work hard to recover after disaster, and
I am so pleased to be able to support this recovery, and work
with our partner Self-Help Enterprises to advance clean water
in more rural areas.”
A last-resort attempt to shore up funding for ongoing
Friant-Kern Canal repairs has run into a buzzsaw of opposition
from several irrigation districts that were stuck with the bill
– up to $295 million. A letter disputing the fees accuses the
Friant Water Authority, which operates the canal, of, among
other things, extortion. … The Friant Water Authority is
about $90 million shy of the $326 million already spent to
rebuild a section of the sinking canal and needs to show the
Bureau of Reclamation, which owns the canal, how it will pay
for another $250 million in still-needed repairs. The problem,
according to Friant, is that the Eastern Tule Groundwater
Sustainability Agency hasn’t paid what Friant says it owes as
part of a settlement agreement reached in 2021. While some
farmers in Eastern Tule get surface water from water districts,
most rely exclusively on groundwater and have been blamed for
the over pumping that sank the Friant-Kern Canal along a
33-mile stretch.
As the permitting battle over the proposed Sites Reservoir
Project in Northern California heats up, it’s become clear that
the project would further heat up the atmosphere as well. Just
as California has made bold commitments to achieve carbon
neutrality in the next few decades, the state seems ready to
approve a dam project that would put that progress in jeopardy.
A new report, “Estimate of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the
Proposed Sites Reservoir Project Using the All-Res Modeling
Tool,” created by a science team at my organization, Tell The
Dam Truth, exposes the climate impacts caused by this massive
dam and reservoir system. -Written by Gary Wockner, PhD, who directs Tell The
Dam Truth
Residents living below the Isabella Auxiliary Dam were thrilled
earlier this month with a temporary fix that finally dried up
excessive seepage from the dam that had been swamping septic
systems and breeding forests of mosquito-infested weeds around
their homes. The didn’t realize how temporary the fix would be,
however. After only 12 days without a river cutting through his
land, rancher Gerald Wenstrand woke up to see the seepage back
on Saturday.
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
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.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
When you oversee the largest
supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think
big.
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has
focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building
security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s
borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of
California’s population.
As California slowly emerges from
the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, one remnant left behind by
the statewide lockdown offers a sobering reminder of the economic
challenges still ahead for millions of the state’s residents and
the water agencies that serve them – a mountain of water debt.
Water affordability concerns, long an issue in a state where
millions of people struggle to make ends meet, jumped into
overdrive last year as the pandemic wrenched the economy. Jobs
were lost and household finances were upended. Even with federal
stimulus aid and unemployment checks, bills fell by the wayside.
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.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
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.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
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.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
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.
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.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
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.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
Contrary to popular belief, “100-Year Flood” does not refer to a
flood that happens every century. Rather, the term describes the
statistical chance of a flood of a certain magnitude (or greater)
taking place once in 100 years. It is also accurate to say a
so-called “100-Year Flood” has a 1 percent chance of occurring in
a given year, and those living in a 100-year floodplain have,
each year, a 1 percent chance of being flooded.
Mired in drought, expectations are high that new storage funded
by Prop. 1 will be constructed to help California weather the
adverse conditions and keep water flowing to homes and farms.
At the same time, there are some dams in the state eyed for
removal because they are obsolete – choked by accumulated
sediment, seismically vulnerable and out of compliance with
federal regulations that require environmental balance.
The proposed Sites Reservoir would
be an off-river storage basin on the west side of the Sacramento
Valley, about 78 miles northwest of Sacramento. It would capture
stormwater flows from the Sacramento River for release in dry
years for fish and wildlife, farms, communities and
businesses.
The water would be held in a 14,000-acre basin of grasslands
surrounded by the rolling eastern foothills of the Coast Range.
Known as Antelope Valley, the sparsely populated area in Glenn
and Colusa counties is used for livestock grazing.
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.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is
suitable for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history
and the need to adapt its management for urban growth and
expected climate change impacts.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
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 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 CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
Dams have allowed Californians and others across the West to
harness and control water dating back to pre-European settlement
days when Native Americans had erected simple dams for catching
salmon.
This printed issue of Western Water examines water
infrastructure – its costs and the quest to augment traditional
brick-and-mortar facilities with sleeker, “green” features.
Everywhere you look water infrastructure is working hard to keep
cities, farms and industry in the state running. From the massive
storage structures that dot the West to the aqueducts that convey
water hundreds of miles to large urban areas and the untold miles
of water mains and sewage lines under every city and town, the
semiarid West would not exist as it does without the hardware
that meets its water needs.
This printed issue of Western Water discusses low
impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging
interest that are viewed as important components of California’s
future water supply and management scenario.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
changed nature of the California Water Plan, some aspects of the
2009 update (including the recommendation for a water finance
plan) and the reaction by certain stakeholders.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
It’s no secret that providing water in a state with the size and
climate of California costs money. The gamut of water-related
infrastructure – from reservoirs like Lake Oroville to the pumps
and pipes that deliver water to homes, businesses and farms –
incurs initial and ongoing expenses. Throw in a new spate of
possible mega-projects, such as those designed to rescue the
ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the dollar amount grows
exponentially to billion-dollar amounts that rival the entire
gross national product of a small country.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
financing of water infrastructure, both at the local level and
from the statewide perspective, and some of the factors that
influence how people receive their water, the price they pay for
it and how much they might have to pay in the future.
They are located in urban areas and in some of the most rural
parts of the state, but they have at least one thing in common:
they provide water service to a very small group of people. In a
state where water is managed and delivered by an organization as
large as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
most small water systems exist in obscurity – financed by
shoestring budgets and operated by personnel who wear many hats.
This issue of Western Water looks at water
infrastructure – from the large conveyance systems to the small
neighborhood providers – and the many challenges faced by water
agencies in their continuing mission of assuring a steady and
reliable supply for their customers.
Chances are that deep within the ground beneath you as you read
this is a vast network of infrastructure that is busy providing
the necessary services that enable life to proceed at the pace it
does in the 21st century. Electricity zips through cables to
power lights and computers while other conduits move infinite
amounts of information that light up computer screens and phone
lines.
This issue of Western Water explores the question of whether the
state needs more surface storage, with a particular focus on the
five proposed projects identified in the CALFED 2000 ROD and the
politics and funding issues of these projects.
