Coastal cities up and down California continue to be confronted
by the reality of rising sea levels and how to manage coastal
erosion. But how to respond to the changing landscape has
divided residents, especially when it comes to “managed
retreat.” Managed retreat is a tool that moves people,
buildings and other infrastructure out of harm’s way before
disaster strikes. In Pacifica, that would mean moving back from
the coastline where several properties have already been lost
to eroding cliffs. Several other properties teeter on the
edge. Managed retreat in Pacifica would include moving
volunteering property owners and public infrastructure.
As Los Angeles burned for days on end, horrifying the nation,
scientists made an announcement on Friday that could help
explain the deadly conflagration: 2024 was the hottest year in
recorded history. With temperatures rising around the globe and
the oceans unusually warm, scientists are warning that the
world has entered a dangerous new era of chaotic floods, storms
and fires made worse by human-caused climate change. The
firestorms ravaging the country’s second-largest city are just
the latest spasm of extreme weather that is growing more
furious as well as more unpredictable. Wildfires are highly
unusual in Southern California in January, which is supposed to
be the rainy season. The same is true for cyclones in
Appalachia, where
Hurricanes Helene and Milton shocked the
country when they tore through mountain communities in October.
La Niña has finally emerged after months of anticipation, but
there’s a catch. The climate pattern — which typically has an
outsized influence on winter weather in the US — is rather weak
and may not stick around for long. But that won’t totally
eliminate its effect. And, despite its late arrival, it’s
already played a clear role in this winter’s weather.
Forecasters closely monitor La Niña and its counterpart El Niño
because they influence global weather in a way that’s largely
consistent and predictable well in advance – especially when
the patterns are strong. … Despite the timing and its
weakened state, La Niña’s atmospheric influence has already
been apparent this winter. California is the most
obvious example. Winter in Northern California is
typically wetter during La Niña while the southern half of the
state is drier than normal. Those extremes are playing out in a
major way: Northern California has had plenty of
rain while Southern California is so tinder-dry that
thousands of acres ignited this week.
The devastating wildfires that have ravaged Southern California
erupted following a stark shift from wet weather to extremely
dry weather — a phenomenon scientists describe as “hydroclimate
whiplash.” New research shows these abrupt wet-to-dry and
dry-to-wet swings, which can worsen wildfires, flooding and
other hazards, are growing more frequent and intense because of
human-caused climate change. “We’re in a whiplash event
now, wet to dry, in Southern California,” said Daniel Swain, a
UCLA climate scientist who led the research. “The evidence
shows that hydroclimate whiplash has already increased due to
global warming, and further warming will bring about even
larger increases.”
… The decline of the Great Salt Lake drew increased scrutiny
in recent years, after the lake hit record lows in 2022. At the
time, experts warned that if conditions continued, the lake
could be completely dry within 5 years. Environmentalists sued
the state over the lake’s decline, arguing it has violated its
public trust obligations by threatening a public health crisis
and ecological collapse and also filed an Endangered Species
Act petition to protect a bird whose declining population is
heavily reliant on the Great Salt Lake during its annual
migration. But the last two years have been wet years,
leading to policymakers, including the state’s governor, to
downplay the issue, despite continued concern over the future
of the lake from academics and environmentalists.
Nearly a quarter of animals living in rivers, lakes and other
freshwater sources are threatened with extinction, according to
new research published Wednesday. “Huge rivers like the Amazon
can appear mighty, but at the same time freshwater environments
are very fragile,” said study co-author Patricia Charvet, a
biologist at Brazil’s Federal University of Ceará. Freshwater
habitats – including rivers, lakes, ponds, streams, bogs and
wetlands – cover less than 1% of the planet’s surface, but
support 10% of its animal species, said Catherine Sayer, a
zoologist at the International Union for Conservation of Nature
in England. The researchers examined around 23,500 species of
dragonflies, fish, crabs and other animals that depend
exclusively on freshwater ecosystems. They found that 24% were
at risk of extinction – classified as vulnerable, endangered or
critically endangered – due to compounding threats from
pollution, dams, water extraction, agriculture, invasive
species, climate change and other disruptions.
As climate change warms the planet, wildfires have become so
unpredictable and extreme that new words were invented:
firenado, gigafire, fire siege — even fire pandemic. California
has 78 more annual “fire days” — when conditions are ripe for
fires to spark — than 50 years ago. When is California’s
wildfire season? With recurring droughts, it is now year-round.
Nothing is as it was. Where are the worst California wildfires?
All over. Whatever NIMBYism that gave comfort to some
Californians — never having a fire in their community before —
no longer applies to most areas. Los Angeles County is
the latest victim.
As fires raged across Los Angeles on Tuesday, some firefighters
battling the Palisades fire reported on internal radio systems
that hydrants in Pacific Palisades were coming up dry. “The
hydrants are down,” said one firefighter. “Water supply just
dropped,” said another. … A spokesman for the Department
of Water and Power acknowledged reports of diminished water
flow from hydrants but did not have details on the number of
hydrants without water or the scale of the issue. In a
statement, the DWP said water crews were working in the
neighborhood “to ensure the availability of water supplies.”
“This area is served by water tanks and close coordination is
underway to continue supplying the area,” the DWP said in its
statement.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has announced it
issued four underground injection control (UIC) Class VI well
permits to Carbon TerraVault JV Storage Company, a subsidiary
of California Resources Corporation, Long Beach, California.
Class VI UIC wells are used to inject carbon dioxide into deep
rock formations for permanent underground storage. This
technology, called carbon capture and underground storage or
geologic sequestration, can be used to reduce carbon dioxide
emissions to the atmosphere and mitigate climate change, the
EPA says. The four Class VI UIC permits are for the first
permitted Class VI injection wells in California and are the
first such permits issued by EPA’s Pacific Southwest Region.
EPA says it has determined that the activities authorized under
the Class VI UIC permits are protective of underground
sources of drinking water and public health as
required by the Safe Drinking Water Act.
A series of atmospheric river storms are expected to impact
Northern California over the weekend, raising the likelihood of
making holiday plans for many travelers more complicated. …
The first of the storm systems is expected to move into the Bay
Area on Saturday morning, bringing about a quarter of an inch
to a third of an inch of rain to San Francisco and Oakland,
according to National Weather Service meteorologist Dial Hoang.
The North Bay valleys are expected to get around half an inch
to three-quarters of an inch of rain while the mountains could
record one and a half inches, Hoang said. San Jose and the
inland portions of the East Bay could see a few hundredths of
an inch.
California state government and many local agencies put a
premium on reducing greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to
climate change. But recent developments underscore the parallel
emphasis on adapting to the effects of global warming — from
advances in sea-level rise strategies to stretching water
supplies to thinning forests at high risk for wildfire. The
scientific consensus that global warming is an existential
threat is facing renewed challenge, especially with
skeptic-in-chief Donald Trump taking up residence in the White
House again next month. Regardless of what one thinks about
climate change, it’s a fact that the seas are
rising, wildfires are more intense and
drought-afflicted water supplies are shrinking. Like efforts to
slow or reverse climate change, projects to adapt to it aren’t
cheap. But in many cases, not making the investments can be
more expensive. —Written by Michael Smolens, columnist for The
San Diego Union-Tribune
A coalition of environmental groups challenged California’s
leading climate regulator Wednesday, alleging that a recent
update to a leading climate program will create additional
pollution in the state’s San Joaquin Valley. Their lawsuit
filed in Fresno county superior court calls on the California
Air Resources Board to “adequately disclose, analyze and
mitigate the significant environmental impact” caused by
amendments to Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
… Environmental laws “require CARB to acknowledge the
obvious—that providing substantial financial benefits for the
production of fuel derived from manure at factory farms
incentivizes factory farm expansion,” environmentalists wrote
in the complaint. But the agency “fails to adequately evaluate
and mitigate their impacts, including increased local
air pollution, impacts to groundwater, and climate
change,” they determined. CARB’s environmental review,
the petitioners concluded, “cannot support a meaningful process
or informed decisions about the LCFS amendments.”
A little more than a third of the country is experiencing some
level of drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The
worst-hit areas include parts of Arizona, Utah and California,
as well as some regions of Texas. But areas in New Jersey,
Delaware and Massachusetts are also seeing extreme drought, and
much of the East Coast is currently in a moderate drought.
While this is somewhat new for those East Coasters, the West
has been dealing with drought for years. But that’s not the
only difference between drought in the East and drought in the
West. Andrea Thompson, associate editor for earth and the
environment at Scientific American, has written about this and
joined The Show to discuss, starting with what some of those
differences are.
There is almost no disagreement any longer among scientists
that climate change is a reality and that its effects are
already upon us. A number of researchers at Cal State Monterey
Bay are engaged in work that is either measuring those effects
or finding ways to combat them. Among the studies are those
looking at off-gassing from agricultural fields, warmer ocean
water’s impact on coral reefs, and wildlife preservation.
… Arun Jani, assistant professor in the Biology and
Chemistry department, is trying to determine the optimum use of
nitrogen as a fertilizer in agricultural fields in the hope of
reducing current levels. His projects run from fields near
Soledad to test plots in Watsonville. In addition to
decreased fertilizer use, Jani is also evaluating the effects
of using a material called biochar in the soil and determining
ideal crop rotations. … Nitrogen fertilizers not only produce
nitrous oxide gas, but they can also leach into groundwater and
raise levels of nitrate, a harmful chemical. The industry
standard for nitrogen fertilizers is to use 150 pounds per
acre. Jani’s studies have shown that much less of the chemical
can be used effectively for area crops.
A barrage of storms known as atmospheric rivers is expected to
soak the West Coast over the next eight to 10 days, raising the
risk of flooding, power outages and holiday travel disruptions
leading up to Christmas in a region that has already
experienced significant weather activity this season. The bulk
of the rain and snow is likely to fall between British Columbia
and Northern California, with Washington and Oregon poised to
have some of the wettest, sloppiest weather. Several storms,
including one that swept into the Pacific Northwest on Tuesday
night, are stacked up in the forecast, said Marty Ralph, the
director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes
at the University of California, San Diego.
Fog — a part of daily life for millions of Californians — is
fundamentally fickle. Yet now researchers are trying to more
consistently harvest it. The effort comes as global warming
pushes California’s climate pendulum from brutal droughts to
extreme deluges. As these swings intensify, water supplies are
becoming increasingly precious. Fog, however, blankets
parts of California through dry periods and heatwaves.
Scientists, and investors, say this untapped water resource
could make communities more resilient, while stirring an
impulse to conserve. … [Peter] Weiss and collaborators at Cal
State Monterey Bay and San Francisco State are investigating
just how much water they can seize from the mist. The amount
the group is harvesting is modest, but the scientists are
working with water districts, a housing developer and residents
on experimental projects across the Bay Area.
The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded the state of
California a combined $216.5 million in order to strengthen
climate resilience and reduce pollution in communities, with
more than $30 million of that going to San Diego County.
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla’s office made the announcement
Monday afternoon. “Overlooked communities across California
have struggled for generations with air pollution and
unaffordable water and energy bills,” Padilla said in a
statement. “The climate crisis has only underscored these
vulnerabilities.”
Across the US, coastal communities face increasing threats from
flooding, erosion, and rising groundwater tables due to
accelerating sea-level rise and changing storm patterns. CoSMoS
is a dynamic modeling approach that allows for detailed
projections of coastal flooding due to both future sea level
rise and storms. … CoSMoS models all the relevant
physics of a coastal storm (e.g., tides, waves, and storm
surge), which are then scaled down to local flood projections
for use in community-level coastal planning and
decision-making. Rather than relying on historical storm
records, CoSMoS uses wind and pressure from global climate
models to project coastal storm impacts under changing climatic
conditions during the 21st century. Projections of multiple
storm scenarios are provided under a suite of sea-level rise
scenarios. These options allow users to manage and meet their
own planning horizons and specify degrees of risk tolerance.
Even after some of Earth’s warmest years in history, two new
climate studies from Stanford University suggest that the
hottest years ahead will likely shatter existing records — even
if greenhouse gas emissions are slashed. The research comes as
this year is likely on track to beat out 2023 as Earth’s
hottest year on record. This summer was the warmest in the
world for California and at least three Bay Area cities. And as
average temperatures continue to climb, more extreme climate
conditions will be likely. For the first study, published in
Geophysical Research Letters, the researchers trained
artificial intelligence using historical temperature
observations alongside a range of temperature and greenhouse
gas data from global climate models.
The Colorado River is shrinking as climate change worsens the
Southwestern drought, so the Biden administration has been
paying farmers and cities not to use water. It’s spending
nearly $5 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act to ensure
the nation’s biggest reservoirs don’t go dry. But
President-elect Trump’s campaign has threatened to cut that
funding. And as KUNC’s Alex Hager reports, people who share the
river’s water are worried.
… The Franklin fire is burning within much of the footprint
of 2018’s devastating Woolsey fire, which destroyed more than
1,600 structures and burned about 97,000 acres in Malibu, the
Santa Monica Mountains and surrounding communities of Thousand
Oaks, Oak Park and Agoura Hills. Research shows wildfires have
grown more intense in recent decades, fueled by wildfire
weather (hot, dry conditions plus wind) that’s become more
frequent — especially in California. “Southern California had a
couple of wet years in a row, and that means a build-up of
fuels in wildlands,” Alex Hall, director of UCLA’s Center for
Climate Science, wrote in a statement. “The current wet season
has been very dry so far. The sequence of very wet followed dry
conditions sets the stage for big wildfires.”
A map shows the growing threat to coastal cities across the
United States due to rising sea levels. According to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)’s latest
projections, sea levels along the U.S. coastlines are projected
to rise, on average, around 10 to 12 inches by 2050. Many
communities along the Atlantic, Gulf, and Pacific coasts face
significant risks of partial inundation in the future if
current trends continue and mitigation efforts are not
intensified. NOAA’s Sea Level Rise Viewer shows which cities
may be impacted along each coast, with dark blue areas
indicating significant projected sea level rises.
The California State Coastal Conservancy is investing nearly $6
million in the restoration and management of Marin County
shorelines. The allocation is part of a larger statewide
distribution of more than $113 million approved last month to
protect the coast from the effects of climate change. In Marin,
a $1.4 million grant is going to Tiburon to fund the final
phase of restoration at Greenwood Beach and Brunini Beach at
Blackie’s Pasture. “Blackie’s Pasture is a much-loved and
used historical public park that has a highly eroded shoreline,
typical of many locations around SF Bay,” said David Eshoo,
engineering manager for the town. “This grant will pay for
100% of the construction costs including post-construction
monitoring for three years.” …
Southern California is bracing for another round of strong,
potentially dangerous Santa Ana winds just over a month after a
similar wind event helped fuel the Mountain Fire, which
scorched nearly 20,000 acres in Ventura County and sent
residents scrambling for safety. … Wind gusts of 50 mph to 80
mph and humidities between 5% and 15% are expected across the
coasts, valleys and mountains of the Santa Ana wind-prone
corridor. These Potentially Dangerous Situations are rarely
issued and are reserved for the most extreme events; however,
climate change is increasing the frequency of these
events.
Earth just experienced its second-warmest November on record —
second only to 2023 — making it all but certain that 2024 will
end as the hottest year ever measured, according to a report
Monday by European climate service Copernicus. Last year was
the hottest on record due to human-caused climate change
coupled with the effects of an El Nino. But after this summer
registered as the hottest on record — Phoenix sweltered through
113 consecutive days with a high temperature of at least 100
degrees Fahrenheit (37.7 Celsius) — scientists were
anticipating that 2024 would set a new annual record as well.
… Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell
Climate Research Center in Cape Cod, who wasn’t involved in the
report, said the big story about November is that “like 2023,
it beat out previous Novembers by a large margin.”
Much of Earth’s lands are drying out and damaging the ability
of plant and animal life to survive, according to a United
Nations report released Monday at talks where countries are
working to address the problem. The report was released at the
U.N. summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on combating
desertification — once-fertile lands turning into deserts
because of hotter temperatures from human-caused climate
change, lack of water and deforestation. It found that more
than three-quarters of the world’s land experienced drier
conditions from 1970 to 2020 than the previous thirty-year
period. … At the talks, which started last week and are
set to end on Friday, nations are discussing how better they
can help the world deal with droughts — a more urgent lack of
water over shorter periods — and the more permanent problem of
degrading land.
It’s all but certain that 2024 will be Earth’s warmest year on
record, surpassing 2023 as the previous record holder. While
this troubling milestone measures global average temperatures,
a new study from the Columbia Climate School found that
unexplained extreme heat wave hot spots are popping up in
specific areas worldwide. Calling it “a striking new
phenomenon,” the study’s authors write, “Distinct regions are
seeing repeated heat waves that are so extreme, they fall far
beyond what any model of global warming can predict or
explain.” According to the study, “The large and unexpected
margins by which recent regional-scale extremes have broken
earlier records have raised questions about the degree to which
climate models can provide adequate estimates of relations
between global mean temperature changes and regional climate
risks.”
Joey Luiz, manager of Guerneville’s Surrey Resort was warned
about wintertime along the Russian River. “Be ready for storms
in January and February,” he was told when he took over
day-to-day resort management in May. So, when he learned one of
those storms was set to arrive earlier, the week of Nov. 17, he
didn’t ignore the forecast. Nearly half the 22 tents for which
the glamping resort is known had already been put away for the
season. And in preparation of the rains and the projected
flooding, Luiz and his crew moved the resort’s vehicles to high
ground. What Luiz didn’t prepare for — or expect — was a
100-year-storm to inundate the town and property. … Luiz
said the incident is making him rethink the resort’s business
plan to ensure it can be sustainable through the
unpredictability caused by climate change.
… As climate change strengthens hurricanes and increases the
frequency and severity of extreme weather events, the risk of
landslides is also rising. To get a clearer picture of where
the risk is greatest, Truck Parking Club mapped county-level
data from the Department of the Interior Geological Survey,
then ranked California counties by the share of their land that
is susceptible to landslides as part of a larger national
analysis. Data was published in September 2024. Counties are
displayed by the share of their land area that is susceptible
to landslides. In California, over half of the land is
susceptible to landslides in 44 counties. In 9 counties, over
90% of land is susceptible.
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.
Participants joined us as we journeyed into the Sierra to examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and throughout the state.
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.”
Tour participants during a hard hat tour of Hoover DamExplore 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 is the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
Tour participants during a hard hat tour of Hoover DamThis 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.
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.
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.
Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission. (Source: Upper Colorado River Commission)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.”
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
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
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.
Water floods a restored floodplain at Dos Rios Ranch Preserve near Modesto. (Source: River Partners)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.
The Sierra NevadaStretching 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.*
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 has reduced its water consumption even as its population has increased. (Source: Southern Nevada Water Authority)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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Runoff from what some describe as an "epic flood" or "black swan" event in 1983 strained the capacity of Glen Canyon Dam to convey water fast enough. (Source: Bureau of Reclamation)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.
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.
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.
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
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.)
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Reclamation Commissioner Brenda BurmanBrenda 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
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.
Daniel SwainEvery 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.