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.
Lake Havasu is a reservoir on the Colorado River that supplies
water to the Colorado River
Aqueduct and Central Arizona Project. It is located at
the California/Arizona border, approximately 150 miles southeast
of Las Vegas, Nevada and 30 miles southeast of Needles,
California.
For both small and large concentrations, parts-per notation is a
very convenient way to communicate numbers that would ordinarily
have many zeros (either before or after a decimal point). For
example, 3 ppt (parts per trillion) is much cleaner than
reporting 0.000000000003. Additionally, it is important to
distinguish what units are being described. Is it 3 particles per
trillion particles? 3 grams per trillion grams? In other words,
parts-per notation offers a unit-less ratio, and in scientific
literature the true units are either directly stated or implied
from context.
Pelagic fish are those that live near the water’s surface rather
than on the bottom. In California, pelagic fish species include
the Delta smelt, longfin
smelt, striped bass and salmon.
In California, the fate of pelagic fish has been closely tied to
the use of the water that supports them.
Fred T. Perris (1837-1916)
became the chief engineer and superintendent of construction of
the California Southern Railway. A civil engineer, he also played
a role in surveying and taking water measurements in San
Bernardino and Los Angeles counties. The Lake Perris State
Recreation Area and the city of Perris are named after him.
The State Water
Project facility Lake Perris, below the San Bernardino
Mountains, stores water for Inland Empire cities such as San
Bernardino and Riverside. [See also Santa Ana River.]
The Pit River is the longest tributary of the Sacramento River
and largest river in northeast California. It connects to
the Sacramento River at
Shasta Lake and has headwaters at the
confluence of its two tributaries – the
North and South Forks.
Point sources release pollutants from discrete conveyances, such
as a discharge pipe, and are regulated by federal and state
agencies. The main point source dischargers are factories and
sewage treatment plants, which release treated
wastewater.
Carley V. Porter (1906-1972) was the
longtime chairman of the California Legislature’s Assembly
Committee on Water who has two historical and important water
laws named after him. He was a Democrat from Compton in Los
Angeles County and a teacher before being elected to the
Assembly.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
John Wesley Powell (1834-1902) was historic and heroic for being
first to lead an expedition down the Colorado River in 1869. A major
who lost an arm in the Civil War Battle of Shiloh, he was an
explorer, geologist, geographer and ethnologist.
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam
in 1964 created Lake Powell. Both are located in north-central
Arizona near the Utah border. Lake Powell acts as a holding tank
for outflow from the Colorado River Upper Basin States: Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power
generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of
California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Prado Dam – built in 1941 in
response to the Santa Ana
River’s flood-prone past – separates the river into its
upper and lower watersheds. After the devastation of the
deadly Los
Angeles Flood of 1938 that impacted much of Southern
California, it became evident that flood protection was woefully
inadequate, prompting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to
construct Prado Dam.
Prescriptive Rights are water use rights gained illicitly that
evolve into a title. Typically this occurs with rights to
chronically overdraftedgroundwater basins gained
through trespass or unauthorized use.
In California, the California Supreme Court developed the
doctrine of prescriptive rights in 1949.
Rooted in Roman law, the public
trust doctrine recognizes the public right to many natural
resources including “the air, running water, the sea and its
shore.”
The doctrine requires the sovereign, or state, to hold in trust
designated resources for the benefit of the people.
Traditionally, the public trust applied to commerce and fishing
in navigable waters, but its uses were expanded in California in
1971 to include fish, wildlife, habitat and recreation.
In addition to riparian
and appropriative
water rights, there are two other types of surface water rights
in California: pueblo rights and federal reserved rights.
