Coming to your California ballot this November is a question
from the state’s governor and lawmakers: Will you, dear voter,
approve $10 billion in state borrowing to help pay for climate
and environmental programs? … It’s also called the Safe
Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and
Clean Air Bond Act of 2024. … More than half will be
used to protect and increase water supply, according to a bond
analysis. That includes grants for drinking water quality,
groundwater storage and sustainability projects, and water
recycling programs. Just under half will be for flood risk
reduction, dam safety, and restoration of watersheds and
wetlands.
The Biden administration is finalizing a policy first proposed
in 2015 that aims to protect tens of thousands of federally
funded construction projects from heightened flooding caused by
climate change. Starting Sept. 9, public infrastructure that’s
rebuilt after a disaster with money from the Federal Emergency
Management Agency will have to be elevated at least 2 feet
above the local flood level. Projects include police stations,
schools, sewer plants, roads and bridges. The final rule being
announced by the White House on Wednesday marks a long-delayed
victory for environmental, taxpayer and insurance groups that
have sought to strengthen building standards in flood-prone
areas. It took nearly a decade and spanned three presidencies,
including a period of opposition during former President Donald
Trump’s administration.
… A recent study in Nature estimates sea level rise for US
coastlines of up to a full foot by 2050, “increasing the
probability of more destructive flooding and inundation of
major cities.” That doesn’t even take into account subsidence.
When that’s added in, the researchers say, up to 536 square
miles of US coastal land is under threat — and so are up to
273,000 people and their properties. … It is the “inevitable
continued rise” that nags. Unlike other, more immediate
threats, the power of erosion comes from its relentlessness.
Water always wins. The ocean is relentless, turning mountains
into sand.
The blistering heat across California and the West over the
last several days has been a stark reminder of how weather
extremes are becoming more extreme with the burning of fossil
fuels and how this demands a greater focus on adapting to
rising temperatures not just today but years into the future.
Just as the heat was building last week, California officials
made a major decision that will guide how urban water suppliers
adapt between 2025 and 2040. The State Water Resources Control
Board adopted regulations that will require suppliers in cities
and towns to meet individualized water-use targets and
conservation goals. The targets under the new rules, which
were required under 2018 legislation, will vary widely
depending on each city’s circumstances.
The tangle of pipes at this industrial plant [in Corpus
Christi, Texas] doesn’t stand out in this city built around the
carbon-heavy business of pumping oil and refining it into fuel
for planes, ships, trucks and cars. But this plant produces
fuel from a different source, one that doesn’t belch greenhouse
pollution: hydrogen. Specifically, hydrogen made from water
using renewable electricity, also known as green hydrogen. This
process could represent the biggest change in how fuel for
planes, ships, trains and trucks is made since the first
internal combustion engine fired up in the 19th century. …
Turning hydrogen into liquid fuel could help slash
planet-warming pollution from heavy vehicles, cutting a key
source of emissions that contribute to climate change. But to
fulfill that promise, companies will have to build massive
numbers of wind turbines and solar panels to power the
energy-hungry process. Regulators will have to make sure
hydrogen production doesn’t siphon green energy that could go
towards cleaning up other sources of global warming gases, such
as homes or factories.
New research further magnifies the growing risk rising
groundwater poses to San Francisco and other low-lying Bay Area
cities. The nonprofit SPUR (the San Francisco Bay Area Planning
and Urban Research Association) and the East Palo Alto
community organization Nuestra Casa released a study earlier
this week analyzing the impacts groundwater rise could have on
East Palo Alto. The research centered on the Peninsula city
because of its proximity to the water, making it one of the Bay
Area jurisdictions most susceptible to groundwater rise. But
the findings, researchers said, can be applied to all of the
Bay Area’s at-risk cities, including San Francisco. Groundwater
is rainwater that is stored underground in soils. It provides
50% of Americans’ drinking water and is a key resource for crop
irrigation and agricultural production. But as sea levels rise
due to climate change, groundwater is pushed up further towards
the surface. The closer the groundwater table gets to the
surface, the less capacity the soil has to absorb rain and,
consequently, the more likely heavy precipitation will cause
flooding, damage infrastructure and mobilize soil pollutants
like pesticides and asbestos.
With California experiencing extreme swings between severe
drought to torrential rain, the Department of Water Resources
(DWR) wanted to see if the State Water Project’s largest
reservoir, Lake Oroville, had shrunk (or lost storage capacity)
due to weather swings and almost six decades of service. DWR
utilized the latest terrain-mapping technology to determine if
there have been any changes in the lake’s volume to optimize
how the reservoir is operated and ensure accuracy in estimating
California’s water supply availability. … Starting with
an airplane-mounted LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) laser
system, DWR took advantage of the lake’s historically low water
levels in 2021 to first map portions of the basin that would
typically be under water during normal years. Then a boat
outfitted with multibeam-sonar bathymetry instruments spent
weeks in 2022 sending sonar pulses into the depths of Lake
Oroville to map its underwater surface terrain. What resulted
were highly detailed 3D topographic terrain models of the
bottom of the lake, which DWR engineers used to calculate a new
storage capacity of 3,424,753 acre-feet, approximately 3
percent less than previously estimated.
The frequency and magnitude of extreme wildfires around the
globe has doubled in the past two decades due to climate
change, according to a study released Monday… Though previous
research found a decrease in the area burned globally by
wildfires this century, the new study found that extreme
wildfire events have increased 2.2-fold since 2003. Extreme
wildfires have severe ecological and societal impacts, leading
to deaths and biomass loss while emitting high levels of
carbon. According to the study, burn severity, which is a
measure of these impacts, has increased in more regions than it
has decreased.
Sea level rise driven by global heating will disrupt the daily
life of millions of Americans, as hundreds of homes, schools
and government buildings face frequent and repeated flooding by
2050, a new study has found. Almost 1,100 critical
infrastructure assets that sustain coastal communities will be
at risk of monthly flooding by 2050, according to the new
research by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS). … The
number of critical infrastructure assets at risk of disruptive
flooding is expected to nearly double compared to 2020, even
when assuming a medium rate of climate-driven sea level rise
(rather than the worst case scenario). California, Florida,
Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey have the most
critical infrastructure that needs to be made more flood
resilient – or be relocated to safer ground.
… About a foot and a half of water had fallen across south
Florida — not the product of a hurricane or a tropical storm
but of a rainstorm, dubbed Invest 90L, a deluge that
meteorologists are calling a once-in-200-years event. It was
the fourth such massive rainfall to smite southeastern Florida
in as many years. … “Rain bombs” such as Invest 90L are
products of our hotter world; warmer air has more room between
its molecules for moisture. That water is coming for greater
Miami and the 6 million people who live here. … A massive
network of canals keeps this region from reverting to a swamp,
and sea-level rise is making operating them more challenging…
The majority of these canals drain to the sea during low tides
using gravity. But sea-level rise erodes the system’s capacity
to drain water — so much so that (South Florida Water
Management District) has already identified several main canals
that need to be augmented with pumps.
Experts are warning Californians to brace for a ‘very active’
wildfire season this fall as two back-to-back wet winters and
forecasts for a warmer-than-normal summer are likely to prime
the state’s landscape for fire. Even as recent blazes triggered
evacuations in Los Angeles and Sonoma counties, those incidents
may prove to be relatively tame compared with what the rest of
the year could have in store, said Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate
scientist and extreme weather expert. … Climate change is
also driving warmer global temperatures and a
thirstier atmosphere, both of which can extract more water from
the landscape and pave the way for hotter and faster fires in
the West and other arid areas, Swain said. In fact, he said the
state’s recent cycling between wet and dry conditions is in
some ways the worst setup for wildfire activity in a warming
world.
Water experts say that officials must work closely with
communities to efficiently manage groundwater systems amid
climate change — despite growing animosity among landowners.
Scientists and experts at the nonpartisan Water Education
Foundation’s third international groundwater conference Tuesday
said that, with so many styles of groundwater management,
strong partnerships are the only way to sustainably handle
water supplies within and beyond California.
A major wildfire in northern Los Angeles County continued
burning Monday evening southeast toward Pyramid Lake, scorching
more than 15,000 acres to become the state’s largest blaze of
the year.… Since Saturday, more than 20 fires sparked across
California, burning over 20,000 acres…. Such early-season
fires are fueled by heat-dried grasses, and Southern
California’s hillsides and mountains are dense with vegetation
after two back-to-back wet winters. Because of that, more
dangerous fires that engulf larger trees and plants are likely
in store for later this year, according to Daniel Swain, a
climate scientist with UCLA…. In particular, the forested,
high-elevation areas that have endured some of the state’s
worst wildfires in recent memory are still moist following two
strong wet seasons and haven’t yet started to display much
wildfire activity. That could change as conditions get hotter
and drier for longer stretches of time…
In the face of climate change and worsening cycles of drought,
California water managers have been increasingly focused on the
precise tracking of water resources. Snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada is measured with sensors and aerial images, reservoir
levels are electronically logged, and the movement of water
through aqueducts is apportioned based on rights and contracts.
Yet there is another key water metric that California has never
adequately measured: the flow of rivers and streams. New
research by UC Berkeley scientists has found that only 8% of
the state’s rivers and streams are equipped with gauges —
devices that measure the level and rate of movement of water.
The study … details the large portions of the state’s
waterways that aren’t monitored and examines the consequences
for humans and wildlife as climate change intensifies the water
cycle, alters watersheds and threatens vulnerable fish and
other species.
Tensions are rising in a border dispute between the United
States and Mexico. But this conflict is not about migration;
it’s about water. Under an 80-year-old treaty, the United
States and Mexico share waters from the Colorado River and the
Rio Grande, respectively. But in the grip of severe drought and
searing temperatures, Mexico has fallen far behind in
deliveries, putting the country’s ability to meet its
obligations in serious doubt. Some politicians say they cannot
give what they do not have. It’s a tough argument to
swallow for farmers in South Texas, also struggling with
a dearth of rain. They say the lack of water from Mexico
is propelling them into crisis, leaving the future of farming
in the balance. Some Texas leaders have called on the Biden
administration to withhold aid from Mexico until it makes good
on the shortfall.
… In the past 12 years, California has endured two multi-year
droughts, including a stretch from 2020 to 2022 that was the
state’s driest three-year period on record. California also
experienced two of the wettest winters on record, fueled by a
parade of atmospheric rivers that caused flooding in Santa
Clara County and across the state. If we fail to invest in
infrastructure now, we all will face serious challenges with
disadvantaged communities bearing the worst through
unaffordable water and increased flooding. That’s why Valley
Water and the Association of California Water Agencies are
advocating for a Climate Resilience Bond to be placed on the
November ballot with two-thirds of the funding going to water
infrastructure. -Written by Rick Callender, Chief Executive
Officer of Valley Water, and Dave Eggerton, Executive
Director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
Millions of people dependent on Himalayan snowmelt for water
face a “very serious” risk of shortages this year after one of
the lowest rates of snowfall, scientists warned
Monday. Snowmelt is the source of about a quarter of the
total water flow of 12 major river basins that originate high
in the region, the report said. ”This is a wake-up call
for researchers, policymakers, and downstream communities,”
said report author Sher Muhammad, from the Nepal-based
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
(ICIMOD). ”Lower accumulation of snow and
fluctuating levels of snow pose a very serious increased risk
of water shortages, particularly this year.” Snow and ice
on the Himalayas are a crucial water source for around 240
million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for
another 1.65 billion people in the river
valleys below, according to ICIMOD.
An honest-to-goodness map of the American West would show
L.A.’s tentacles everywhere. You’d see canals — the Los Angeles
Aqueduct, running along the base of the Sierra Nevada, carrying
water from the Owens River; the State Water Project, meandering
through the San Joaquin Valley, supplying many Southern
California cities and farms; and the Colorado River Aqueduct,
cutting through the desert on its mission to deliver water from
desert to coast. You’d see electric lines too — a sprawling
network of wires that over the decades have furnished Angelenos
with power from coal plants in Nevada, Utah and Montana; from
nuclear reactors in Arizona; and from hydropower dams in the
Pacific Northwest. Los Angeles has reshaped the West. And
the city’s Department of Water and Power has been the agent of
change. Last month, Janisse Quiñones took the helm as
the agency’s new leader, after being recommended by L.A. Mayor
Karen Bass and confirmed unanimously by City Council. -Written by Sammy Roth, climate columnist for the LA
Times.
Several dozen dams throughout California could store up to 107
billion more gallons of water if they underwent repairs to fix
safety problems. But facing a staggering state deficit, Gov.
Gavin Newsom has proposed cutting funding for a dam repair
grant program in half this year, while state legislators want
the $50 million restored. California has an aging network
of nearly 1,540 dams — large and small, earthen and concrete —
that help store vital water supplies. For 42 of these dams,
state officials have restricted the amount of water that can be
stored behind them because safety deficiencies would raise the
risk to people downstream from earthquakes, storms or other
problems. Owned by cities, counties, utilities, water
districts and others, these dams have lost nearly 330,000
acre-feet of storage capacity because of the state’s safety
restrictions. That water — equivalent to the amount used by 3.6
million people for a year — could be used to supply
communities, farms or hydropower.
Another winter without enough snow and rain has left much of
the western United States parched for water, according to
scientists monitoring a snow drought. Thanks to
below-normal precipitation during the water season, snow
drought conditions persist across most of the West, according
to a June 12 report from scientists at the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. While some regions such as the
Sierra Nevada range, improved over the winter, scientists say
many places will see further drought development or
intensification this summer. Many locations in Washington
and the northern Rocky Mountains received less than 15% of the
average rainfall, with eight weather stations in Montana and
two in Washington reporting record low rainfall values. In
Idaho, Montana and Washington, snow drought developed early in
the season and persisted, bringing snow water equivalent — the
water contained in a mountain’s snowpack — to 55 to 75% of the
normal amount.
As climate change unleashes ever-more powerful storms,
worsening floods and rising sea levels, San Francisco remains
woefully unprepared for inundation, a civil grand jury
determined in a report this week. The critical assessment —
written by 19 San Franciscans selected by the Superior Court —
found that the city and county lacked a comprehensive funding
plan for climate adaptation and that existing sewer systems
cannot handle worsening floods. Among other concerns, the
report also concluded that efforts toward making improvements
have been hampered by agency silos and a lack of transparency.
Members of the volunteer jury serve yearlong terms and are
tasked with investigating city and county government by
reviewing documents and interviewing public officials, experts
and private individuals.
… The Salton Sea region is facing economic pressure to become
a substantial domestic supplier of lithium, placing greater
challenges on lower-income communities that already face
significant disparities – yet contribute so much to the
prosperity and quality-of-life of others. … This year, state
leaders have a chance to place a climate bond on the
November ballot, which would give voters an opportunity to
approve important environmental protections and clean energy
projects. This bond can benefit all areas of the state, while
also providing $400 million to the Salton Sea region and $15
million to establish a conservancy. -Written by Silvia Paz, executive director of
Alianza Coachella Valley, and former chair of California’s
Lithium Valley Commission.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta intensified his legal
fight against five of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies
Monday, filing an amended complaint that accuses Exxon Mobil,
Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, BP, and the American Petroleum
Institute of engaging in a prolonged campaign of deception
about the realities of climate change and the environmental
damage caused by fossil fuels. In the amended complaint, filed
Monday afternoon in San Francisco County Superior Court, the
attorney general introduces new evidence of false advertising
and greenwashing by the companies and seeks the disgorgement
remedy provided by Assembly Bill 1366, which was enacted
earlier this year. The remedy would require the defendants to
surrender profits obtained through their alleged illegal
activities, with the funds being directed to the newly
established Victims of Consumer Fraud Restitution
Fund. Related article:
Firefighters are battling wildfires in Brazil’s Pantanal, the
world’s largest tropical wetland. The Pantanal is home to
jaguars, giant anteaters and giant river otters. Close to
32,000 hectares have already been destroyed by the fires in the
state of Mato Grosso do Sul, local media report. Climate
experts say this year’s wildfire season has started earlier and
is more intense than in previous years. Firefighters said their
efforts to extinguish the flames were being hampered by high
winds over the weekend. The region has also seen less rain than
in other years, which has made it easier for the fires to
spread.
Dozens of environmental groups, renewable energy companies,
labor unions, water agencies and social justice advocates are
lobbying state lawmakers to place a multibillion dollar climate
bond on the November ballot. Sacramento lawmakers have been
bombarded with ads and pitches in support of a ballot proposal
that would have the state borrow as much as $10 billion to fund
projects related to the environment and climate change. “Time
to GO ALL IN on a Climate Bond,” says the ad from WateReuse
California, a trade association advocating for projects that
would recycle treated sewage and storm runoff into drinking
water. … Negotiations are ongoing in closed-door
meetings, but details emerged recently when two
spreadsheets of the proposed spending, one for an Assembly
bill known as AB 1567 and the other for the Senate’s SB 867,
were obtained by the news organization Politico. The two
plans, which would be combined into a single ballot measure,
include money for wildlife and land protection, safe drinking
water, shoring up the coast from erosion and wildfire
prevention.
For California’s Sierra Nevada, the winter of 2022-2023
delivered an epic snowpack that broke many records and busted a
severe drought. … Both hazardous and helpful, the banner year
was also of interest to snow scientists, such as Adrienne
Marshall, an assistant professor of geology and geological
engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in
Golden. Marshall was lead author of a paper published in
April in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
that introduces the term “snow deluge” to describe extreme snow
years like the one California weathered.
With temperatures spiking across California this week, now
is a great time to reserve your spot on our Headwaters Tour July
24-25 when we’ll explore the role of the Sierra
Nevada snowpack in the state’s water supply and how heatwaves
can accelerate snowmelt. The state’s critical ‘frozen
reservoir’ was slightly above average at the end of
the 2024 snow survey season, following an epic snowpack in 2023
that prompted widespread flooding and the resurrection of
Tulare Lake. During the July tour, we’ll also learn how
snowpack is measured and translated into forecasts of
California’s water supply for the year.
… The 2-day, 1-night
tour with an overnight in Lake
Tahoe travels up the Sierra foothills and into
the mountains within the American River and Yuba River
watersheds. Meadow restoration, climate change, wildfire
impact and more will be discussed as we pass through
Eldorado and Tahoe national forests.
The giant sequoia is so enormous that it was once believed to
be indestructible. High in California’s southern Sierra Nevada
mountains, the oldest trees – known as monarchs – have stood
for more than 2,000 years. Today, however, in Sequoia national
park, huge trunks lie sprawled on the forest floor, like blue
whale carcasses stranded on a beach. Many of these trees were
felled by a combination of drought and fire. But among the
factors responsible for the rising toll is a tiny new suspect:
the bark beetle. Along with wildfires and rising
temperatures, scientists fear that the insects could contribute
to the breakdown of Earth’s northern conifer forests, including
the potential dieback of the taiga, the vast ecosystem that
stretches across Canada, Scandinavia, Siberia and Alaska.
Drought is a hazard, but it needn’t be a disaster. That is,
provided all communities are adequately equipped before it
strikes. At the 10th World Water Forum, held in Bali from 18 to
25 May, experts urged decision-makers to prioritize drought
resilience in the face of climate change, drawing inspiration
from success cases around the globe. Representatives from the
scientific, non-profit, and technical sectors made the case for
building resilience to the world’s costliest and deadliest
hazard at an event featuring partners of the International
Drought Resilience Alliance (IDRA.) … “Drought and
desertification are not just problems for the Sahel region of
Africa and for developing countries,” said UNCCD policy officer
Daniel Tsegai before an international audience. “We already see
impacts in highly productive and populated parts of the
developed world like California, Spain, and Australia.”
There is a critical need to improve and expand precipitation
forecasting in the Western United States. Access to reliable
forecasts at timeframes longer than seven days is long overdue,
especially in the West, where conditions can rapidly swing
between extreme droughts and floods. Advancing and
updating our precipitation forecasts is beyond necessary for
our decision-makers, water agencies, agricultural producers,
energy suppliers, tribes and others, so they can take accurate
and necessary mitigation actions and put contingency plans in
place to protect our cities and our local communities. The
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is
responsible for weather forecasts, provided through the
National Weather Service (NWS) and weather and climate research
produced by the Office of Atmospheric Research. Together, these
agencies support the National Weather Service’s goal of having
a “weather-ready nation,” preparing communities for extreme
weather, water, and climate events. -Written by Rep. Grace Napolitano, who
serves as the representative for California’s
31st District.
The first rounds of dangerous heat have arrived this summer.
Millions of Americans will endure extreme heat throughout
California and Texas on Tuesday, according to the National
Weather Service. Excessive heat warnings, excessive heat
watches and heat advisories have been issued across both states
and the desert Southwest. Extreme heats will impact the Great
Basin and Intermountain West toward the end of this week
continuing into next week. The Lower Rio Grande Valley can
expect record-breaking temperatures and dangerous heat indices
through Wednesday. The heat index could reach 117 degrees in
the valley, while Corpus Christi can expect a heat index of 111
degrees on Tuesday.
Wetlands are the Earth’s largest natural source of methane — a
potent greenhouse gas roughly 30 times more powerful than
carbon dioxide at warming the atmosphere — according to the
Department of Energy’s Larence Berkeley National
Laboratory. Methane is a key point of controversy
among dairy producers and the environmental justice community
given that dairy and livestock are responsible for over half of
California’s methane emissions, according to the California Air
Resources Board. However, a peer-reviewed paper
recently published by CABI Biological Sciences argues that the
state’s dairy sector can reach climate neutrality in the coming
years through aggressive methane mitigation which almost no
other sector can achieve.
The fate of the nation’s first outdoor experiment of the
potential to limit global warming by altering clouds will be
determined this week by a handful of local officials in the San
Francisco Bay Area. But before the city council of Alameda,
elected by a community of 77,000 people, decides on whether to
allow the resumption of the internationally significant
research, it will discuss replacing the roof of a senior center
and other municipal issues. The consideration of the marine
cloud brightening study — official, agenda item “7-B” — stands
to be one of the first consequential public hearings on solar
geoengineering in the nation. The unusual situation set to play
out Tuesday night illustrates just how hard it is to test
technologies that might be used in the future to brighten
clouds or spray aerosols in the stratosphere — promising but
ethically fraught ways to turn down the planet’s thermostat by
reflecting sunlight back into space.
California officials are cheering Mexican President-elect
Claudia Sheinbaum’s victory as one for the California climate,
too. “Having an engineer whose background is working on
climate, it’s a big deal,” said Assemblymember Eduardo Garcia,
a Democrat representing California’s inland border region who
was in Mexico City with Sheinbaum’s team on Sunday to witness
her landslide victory. … California politicians already
enjoy close relationships with their Mexican counterparts and
have agreements in place to work on a host of climate issues,
including drought, land conservation, recycling and
cross-border truck emissions. … Josué Medellín-Azuara,
an environmental engineering professor at the University of
California, Merced said he was hoping for more collaboration on
water infrastructure and drought resiliency in particular.
Amid extreme drought affecting Rio Grande tributaries, Mexico
is struggling to make water deliveries to Texas as required by
an 80-year old treaty. Martha Pskowski is a reporter with
Inside Climate News and spoke with Living on Earth’s Paloma
Beltran about how the situation is linked to climate change and
farmer livelihoods in both the US and Mexico.
Known for its glowing swaths of yellow, orange and red, the
U.S. Drought Monitor has warned farmers, residents and
officials throughout the nation of impending water scarcity
every week since 1999. Backed by data on soil moisture,
temperature, snow cover, meltwater runoff, reservoir levels and
more, the map has become an essential instrument for
determining the outlook of water supplies, declaring drought
emergencies and deciding where and when government aid should
be distributed, among other things. But this critical
diagnostic tool is also struggling to keep pace with climate
change as longer and more persistent dry spells plague the
American West and take an increasing toll on groundwater
reserves and the Colorado River, according to a recent study
published in the journal AGU Advances. One problem, researchers
say, is that the monitor was launched just as one of the driest
periods in the history of the Southwest began, and it has never
been adjusted for the region’s growing aridity.
For well over a century, the Great Flood of 1862 has remained
among California’s worst natural disasters — a megastorm that’s
been used as a benchmark for state emergency planners and
officials to better prepare for the future. A dreaded repeat of
the flood — which killed at least 4,000 people and turned the
Central Valley into a 300-mile-long sea — would probably
eclipse the devastation of a major California earthquake and
cause up to $1 trillion in damage, some experts say. Yet even
as California scrambles to cope with the effects of climate
whiplash and increasingly extreme weather, new research
suggests the potential magnitude of such events could be far
greater than that of the 1862 deluge. After analyzing layers of
sediment at Carrizo Plain National Monument, researchers at Cal
State Fullerton say they have identified two massive,
unrecorded Southern California flood events within the last 600
years.
Ukiah Fire Chief Doug Hutchison knew what kind of hassle the
city was getting into by acquiring some 763 acres of overgrown,
fire-starved forest on the city’s western edge—but it seemed
worth it. There, Doolin Creek’s two forks merge and run through
a steep canyon, eventually heading straight through the city
and emptying into the Russian River. Steelhead trout, which
swim most of the way up the Russian River’s 110 miles to spawn
in its tributaries, and year-round resident native fishes like
sculpins and roaches, are kept cool by big trees shading the
creek. California nutmeg, fragrant like sandalwood, has been
spotted here, and spiky chinquapin. Also, the manzanita and
chamise are so thick in places that it’s hard to walk through.
If a big hot fire rolled through here, it would be very bad for
the wildlife, the forest, and the community. The city has taken
on the property to mitigate those fire risks and protect the
watershed.
State water management officials must work more closely with
local agencies to properly prepare California for the effects
of climate change, water scientists say. Golden State
officials said in the newly revised California Water
Plan that as the nation’s most populous state, California
is too diverse and complex for a singular approach to manage a
vast water network. On Monday, they recommended expanding the
work to better manage the state’s precious water resources —
including building better partnerships with communities most at
risk during extreme drought and floods and improving critical
infrastructure for water storage, treatment and distribution
among different regions and watersheds.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Learn the history and challenges facing the West’s most dramatic
and developed river.
The Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin introduces the
1,450-mile river that sustains 40 million people and millions of
acres of farmland spanning seven states and parts of northern
Mexico.
The 28-page primer explains how the river’s water is shared and
managed as the Southwest transitions to a hotter and drier
climate.
State health officials know that extreme heat can cost lives
and send people to the hospital, just like wildfire smoke. Now,
new research finds that when people are exposed to both hazards
simultaneously — as is increasingly the case in California —
heart and respiratory crises outpace the expected sum of
hospitalizations compared to when the conditions occur
separately. … The study joins a growing body of research
about the intersection of different climate risks. Last month,
California-based think-tank the Pacific
Institute published a report about how converging
hazards — including wildfires, drought, flooding, sea level
rise and intensifying storms — are harming access to drinking
water and sanitation in California and other parts of the
world. The deadly 2018 Camp fire in Butte
County impacted an estimated 2,438 private wells, the
report said.
After more than two decades of
drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the
arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking
water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the
water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are
racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable
reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on
imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
The climate-driven shrinking of the
Colorado River is expanding the influence of Native American
tribes over how the river’s flows are divided among cities, farms
and reservations across the Southwest.
The tribes are seeing the value of their largely unused river
water entitlements rise as the Colorado dwindles, and they are
gaining seats they’ve never had at the water bargaining table as
government agencies try to redress a legacy of exclusion.
Every five years the California Department of Water Resources
updates its strategic plan for managing the state’s water
resources, as required by state law.
The California Water Plan, or Bulletin 160, projects the
status and trends of the state’s water supplies and demands
under a range of future scenarios.
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
On average, more than half of
California’s developed water supply originates in the
Sierra
Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade
Range. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health
of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem
degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree
mortality.
Join us as we head into the Sierra to examine water issues
that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and
throughout the state.
The states of the Lower Colorado
River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in
tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West.
California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals
and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper
Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even
during dry years.
But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water
cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper
Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are
muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river
whose average flows in the Upper Basin have already dropped
20 percent over the last century.
They have formed new agencies to better monitor their interests,
moved influential Colorado River veterans into top negotiating
posts and improved their relationships with Native American
tribes that also hold substantial claims to the river.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
Growing up in the shadow of the
Rocky Mountains, Andrew Schwartz never missed an opportunity to
play in – or study – a Colorado snowstorm. During major
blizzards, he would traipse out into the icy wind and heavy
drifts of snow pretending to be a scientist researching in
Antarctica.
Decades later, still armed with an obsession for extreme weather,
Schwartz has landed in one of the snowiest places in the West,
leading a research lab whose mission is to give California water
managers instant information on the depth and quality of snow
draping the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
When the Colorado River Compact was
signed 100 years ago, the negotiators for seven Western states
bet that the river they were dividing would have ample water to
meet everyone’s needs – even those not seated around the table.
A century later, it’s clear the water they bet on is not there.
More than two decades of drought, lake evaporation and overuse of
water have nearly drained the river’s two anchor reservoirs, Lake
Powell on the Arizona-Utah border and Lake Mead near Las Vegas.
Climate change is rendering the basin drier, shrinking spring
runoff that’s vital for river flows, farms, tribes and cities
across the basin – and essential for refilling reservoirs.
The states that endorsed the Colorado River Compact in 1922 – and
the tribes and nation of Mexico that were excluded from the table
– are now straining to find, and perhaps more importantly accept,
solutions on a river that may offer just half of the water that
the Compact assumed would be available. And not only are
solutions not coming easily, the relationships essential for
compromise are getting more frayed.
With 25 years of experience working
on the Colorado River, Chuck Cullom is used to responding to
myriad challenges that arise on the vital lifeline that seven
states, more than two dozen tribes and the country of Mexico
depend on for water. But this summer problems on the
drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace:
Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, whether Hoover Dam
and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce
hydropower, unprecedented water cuts and predatory smallmouth
bass threatening native fish species in the Grand Canyon.
“Holy buckets, Batman!,” said Cullom, executive director of the
Upper Colorado River Commission. “I mean, it’s just on and on and
on.”
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.
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Climate scientist Brad Udall calls
himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado
River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that
highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State
University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s
future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less
water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the
Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being
released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
For more than 20 years, Tanya
Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado
River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from
Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more
than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and
other crops.
Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower
Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water
evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a
lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the
Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for
sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later
worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of
California, exposing her to the different perspectives and
challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s
Lower Basin.
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.
Stretching 450 miles long and up to
50 miles wide, the Sierra Nevada makes up more than a quarter of
California’s land area and forms its largest watersheds,
providing more than half of the state’s developed water supply to
residents, agriculture and other businesses.*
Water is flowing once again
to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that
was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was
dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially
turning the delta into a desert.
In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent
down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate
native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated
river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were
brokered under cooperative
efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, possibly as much as 10 degrees by end of the century, according to some models, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River.
On average, more than 60 percent of
California’s developed water supply originates in the Sierra
Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade Range. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
This tour ventured into the Sierra to examine water issues
that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and
throughout the state.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
Twenty years ago, the Colorado River
Basin’s hydrology began tumbling into a historically bad stretch.
The weather turned persistently dry. Water levels in the system’s
anchor reservoirs of Lake Powell and Lake Mead plummeted. A river
system relied upon by nearly 40 million people, farms and
ecosystems across the West was in trouble. And there was no guide
on how to respond.
Radically transformed from its ancient origin as a vast tidal-influenced freshwater marsh, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem is in constant flux, influenced by factors within the estuary itself and the massive watersheds that drain though it into the Pacific Ocean.
Lately, however, scientists say the rate of change has kicked into overdrive, fueled in part by climate change, and is limiting the ability of science and Delta water managers to keep up. The rapid pace of upheaval demands a new way of conducting science and managing water in the troubled estuary.
Practically every drop of water that flows through the meadows, canyons and plains of the Colorado River Basin has reams of science attached to it. Snowpack, streamflow and tree ring data all influence the crucial decisions that guide water management of the iconic Western river every day.
Dizzying in its scope, detail and complexity, the scientific information on the Basin’s climate and hydrology has been largely scattered in hundreds of studies and reports. Some studies may conflict with others, or at least appear to. That’s problematic for a river that’s a lifeline for 40 million people and more than 4 million acres of irrigated farmland.
Sprawled across a desert expanse
along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high
bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges
of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full. How
those challenges play out as demand grows for the river’s water
amid a changing climate is fueling simmering questions about
Powell’s future.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
The islands of the western
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta are sinking as the rich peat soil
that attracted generations of farmers dries out and decays. As
the peat decomposes, it releases tons of carbon dioxide – a
greenhouse gas – into the atmosphere. As the islands sink, the
levees that protect them are at increasing risk of failure, which
could imperil California’s vital water conveyance system.
An ambitious plan now in the works could halt the decay,
sequester the carbon and potentially reverse the sinking.
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.
The Colorado River is arguably one
of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to
40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the West.
But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and decisions
made about its management will have exceptional ramifications for
the future, especially as impacts from climate change are felt.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
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.
California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.
That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.
The Colorado River Basin’s 20 years
of drought and the dramatic decline in water levels at the
river’s key reservoirs have pressed water managers to adapt to
challenging conditions. But even more extreme — albeit rare —
droughts or floods that could overwhelm water managers may lie
ahead in the Basin as the effects of climate change take hold,
say a group of scientists. They argue that stakeholders who are
preparing to rewrite the operating rules of the river should plan
now for how to handle these so-called “black swan” events so
they’re not blindsided.
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
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.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
As stakeholders labor to nail down
effective and durable drought contingency plans for the Colorado
River Basin, they face a stark reality: Scientific research is
increasingly pointing to even drier, more challenging times
ahead.
The latest sobering assessment landed the day after Thanksgiving,
when U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth National Climate
Assessment concluded that Earth’s climate is changing rapidly
compared to the pace of natural variations that have occurred
throughout its history, with greenhouse gas emissions largely the
cause.
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.
Just because El Niño may be lurking
off in the tropical Pacific, does that really offer much of a
clue about what kind of rainy season California can expect in
Water Year 2019?
Will a river of storms pound the state, swelling streams and
packing the mountains with deep layers of heavy snow much like
the exceptionally wet 2017 Water Year (Oct. 1, 2016 to Sept. 30,
2017)? Or will this winter sputter along like last winter,
leaving California with a second dry year and the possibility of
another potential drought? What can reliably be said about the
prospects for Water Year 2019?
At Water Year
2019: Feast or Famine?, a one-day event on Dec. 5 in Irvine,
water managers and anyone else interested in this topic will
learn about what is and isn’t known about forecasting
California’s winter precipitation weeks to months ahead, the
skill of present forecasts and ongoing research to develop
predictive ability.
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.
Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine
water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts
downstream and throughout the state.
GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
Our annual Water Summit, being held Sept. 20, will
feature critical conversations about water in California and
the West revolving around the theme: Facing
Reality from the Headwaters to the
Delta.
As debate continues to swirl around longer-term remedies for
California’s water challenges, the theme reflects the need for
straightforward dialogue about more immediate, on-the-ground
solutions.
Nowhere is the domino effect in
Western water policy played out more than on the Colorado River,
and specifically when it involves the Lower Basin states of
California, Nevada and Arizona. We are seeing that play out now
as the three states strive to forge a Drought Contingency Plan.
Yet that plan can’t be finalized until Arizona finds a unifying
voice between its major water players, an effort you can read
more about in the latest in-depth article of Western Water.
Even then, there are some issues to resolve just within
California.
Brenda Burman, commissioner of the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, will give the keynote lunch address
at our 35th annual conference, the Water
Summit, to be held Sept. 20 in Sacramento.
The daylong event will feature critical conversations about water
in California and the West revolving around the
theme: Facing Reality from the Headwaters to the
Delta.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
Learn what new tree-ring studies in
Southern California watersheds reveal about drought, hear about
efforts to improve subseasonal to seasonal weather forecasting
and get the latest on climate change impacts that will alter
drought vulnerability in the future.
At our Paleo
Drought Workshop on April 19th in San Pedro, you will hear
from experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of
Arizona and California Department of Water Resources.
Dramatic swings in weather patterns
over the past few years in California are stark reminders of
climate variability and regional vulnerability. Alternating years
of drought and intense rain events make long-term planning for
storing and distributing water a challenging task.
Current weather forecasting capabilities provide details for
short time horizons. Attend the Paleo Drought
Workshop in San Pedro on April 19 to learn more about
research efforts to improve sub-seasonal to seasonal
precipitation forecasting, known as S2S, and how those models
could provide more useful weather scenarios for resource
managers.
California’s 2012-2016 drought
revealed vulnerabilities for water users throughout the state,
and the long-term record suggests more challenges may lie ahead.
An April 19
workshop in San Pedro will highlight new information about
drought durations in Southern California watersheds dating
back centuries.
Every day, people flock to Daniel
Swain’s social media platforms to find out the latest news and
insight about California’s notoriously unpredictable weather.
Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the
Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, famously coined the
term “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” in December 2013 to describe
the large, formidable high-pressure mass that was parked over the
West Coast during winter and diverted storms away from
California, intensifying the drought.
Swain’s research focuses on atmospheric processes that cause
droughts and floods, along with the changing character of extreme
weather events in a warming world. A lifelong Californian and
alumnus of University of California, Davis, and Stanford
University, Swain is best known for the widely read Weather West blog, which provides
unique perspectives on weather and climate in California and the
western United States. In a recent interview with Western
Water, he talked about the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, its
potential long-term impact on California weather, and what may
lie ahead for the state’s water supply.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Evidence shows that climate change is affecting California with
warmer temperatures, less snowfall and more extreme weather
events. This guide explains the causes of climate change, the
effects on water resources and efforts underway to better adapt
to a changing climate. It includes information on both California
water and the water of the Colorado River Basin, a widely shared
resource throughout the Southwest.
Lake Tahoe is one of the world’s most beautiful yet vulnerable
lakes. Renowned for its remarkable clarity, Tahoe straddles the
Nevada-California border, stretching 22 miles long and 12 miles
wide in a granitic bowl high in the Sierra Nevada.
Tahoe sits 6,225 feet above sea level. Its deepest point is 1,645
feet, making it the second-deepest lake in the nation, after
Oregon’s Crater Lake, and the tenth deepest in the world.
Drought and climate change are having a noticeable impact on the
Colorado River Basin, and that is posing potential challenges to
those in the Southwestern United States and Mexico who rely on
the river.
In the just-released Winter 2017-18 edition of River
Report, writer Gary Pitzer examines what scientists
project will be the impact of climate change on the Colorado
River Basin, and how water managers are preparing for a future of
increasing scarcity.
Rising temperatures from climate change are having a noticeable
effect on how much water is flowing down the Colorado River. Read
the latest River Report to learn more about what’s
happening, and how water managers are responding.
This issue of Western Water discusses the challenges
facing the Colorado River Basin resulting from persistent
drought, climate change and an overallocated river, and how water
managers and others are trying to face the future.
The atmospheric condition at any given time or place, measured by
wind, temperature, humidity, atmospheric pressure, cloudiness and
precipitation. Weather changes from hour to hour, day to day, and
season to season. Climate in a narrow sense is usually defined as
the average weather, during a period of time ranging from months
to thousands or millions of years.
Variations in the statistical analysis of the climate on all time
and space scales beyond that of individual weather events is
known as natural variability. Natural variations in climate over
time are caused by internal processes of the climate system, such
as El Niño, and
phenomena such as volcanic activity and variations in the output
of the sun.
California agriculture is going to have to learn to live with the
impacts of climate change and work toward reducing its
contributions of greenhouse gas emissions, a Yolo County walnut
grower said at the Jan. 26 California Climate Change Symposium in
Sacramento.
“I don’t believe we are going to be able to adapt our way out of
climate change,” said Russ Lester, co-owner of Dixon Ridge Farms
in Winters. “We need to mitigate for it. It won’t solve the
problem but it can slow it down.”
California had its warmest winter on record in 2014-2015, with
the average Sierra Nevada temperature hovering above 32 degrees
Fahrenheit – the highest in 120 years. Thus, where California
relies on snow to fall in the mountains and create a snowpack
that can slowly melt into reservoirs, it was instead raining.
That left the state’s snowpack at its lowest ever – 5 percent on
April 1, 2015.
Because he relays stats like these, climate scientist Brad Udall
says he doesn’t often get invited back to speak before the same
audience about climate change.
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 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.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
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.
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.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
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).
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.
Climate change involves natural and man-made changes to weather
patterns that occur over millions of years or over multiple
decades.
In the past 150 years, human industrial activity has accelerated
the rate of change in the climate due to the increase in
greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide,
among others). Scientific studies describing this climate change
continue to be produced and its expected impacts continue to be
assessed.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
This printed issue of Western Water This issue of Western Water
looks at climate change through the lens of some of the latest
scientific research and responses from experts regarding
mitigation and adaptation.
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 examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water explores the
historic nature of some of the key agreements in recent years,
future challenges, and what leading state representatives
identify as potential “worst-case scenarios.” Much of the content
for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the Colorado River Symposium. The Foundation
will publish the full proceedings of the Symposium in 2012.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
Colorado River drought, and the ongoing institutional and
operational changes underway to maintain the system and meet the
future challenges in the Colorado River Basin.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at the energy
requirements associated with water use and the means by which
state and local agencies are working to increase their knowledge
and improve the management of both resources.
This printed copy of Western Water examines climate change –
what’s known about it, the remaining uncertainty and what steps
water agencies are talking to prepare for its impact. Much of the
information comes from the October 2007 California Climate Change
and Water Adaptation Summit sponsored by the Water Education
Foundation and DWR and the November 2007 California Water Policy
Conference sponsored by Public Officials for Water and
Environmental Reform.
Perhaps no other issue has rocketed to prominence in such a short
time as climate change. A decade ago, discussion about greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions and the connection to warming temperatures
was but a fraction of the attention now given to the issue. From
the United Nations to local communities, people are talking about
climate change – its characteristics and what steps need to be
taken to mitigate and adapt to the anticipated impacts.
This issue of Western Water looks at climate change and
its implications on water management in a region that is wholly
dependent on steady, predictable wet seasons to recharge supplies
for the lengthy dry periods. To what degree has climate change
occurred and what are the scenarios under which impacts will have
to be considered by water providers? The future is anything but
clear.
The inimitable Yogi Berra once proclaimed, “The future ain’t what
it used to be.” While the Hall of Fame baseball player was not
referring to the weather, his words are no less prophetic when it
comes to the discussion of a changing climate and its potential
impacts on water resources in the West.
