The San Joaquin River, which helps
drain California’s Central Valley, has been negatively impacted
by construction of dams, inadequate streamflows and poor water
quality. Efforts are now underway to restore the river and
continue providing agricultural lands with vital irrigation,
among other water demands.
After an 18-year lawsuit to restore water flows to a 60-mile dry
stretch of river and to boost the dwindling salmon populations,
the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement is underway.
Water releases are now used to restore the San Joaquin River and
to provide habitat for naturally-reproducing populations of
self-sustaining Chinook salmon and other fish in the San Joaquin
River. Long-term efforts also include measures to reduce or avoid
adverse water supply impacts from the restoration flows.
Fresno’s largest body of water — and likely its most diverse
wildlife habitat — shimmers in silence on a sunny spring
afternoon. … Where we’re at is Milburn Pond, a reclaimed
gravel mining pit that belongs to the San Joaquin River
Ecological Reserve and is managed by the Department of Fish and
Wildlife. … Listed at 287 acres, Milburn Pond is large
enough to be considered a lake. Except for the fact that it’s
not surrounded by land on all sides. … Now, though,
there’s a state-approved proposal to isolate the pond that has
been kicking around since the historic 2006 settlement to
restore river flows and self-sustaining salmon runs. It’s a
plan Moosios and others believe would irreparably harm this
little-known or observed wildlife sanctuary — even though less
destructive and expensive options have been proposed that would
accomplish virtually the same stated purpose. -Written by columnist Marek Warszawski.
… Riparian forest is a rare sight in the Central Valley.
About one million acres of trees, shrubs, and grasses once
flourished, drowned, and flourished again along the valley’s
rivers, creeks, and floodplains; now, perhaps 130,000 acres
remain. In recent years, though, that number has begun to inch
up again. Caswell has about 260 acres. Seven miles south of
there is Dos Rios Ranch—2,100 acres, much of it former dairy
farm and almond orchard, at the extremely floodable confluence
of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers—which is steadily being
restored to riparian forest. Later this year it will open as
California’s first new state park in 15 years.
A Sacramento judge upheld a decision by California’s water
regulator to cut back agricultural and municipal water use from
the San Joaquin River. The decision could lend support for
future regulations in the rest of the Sacramento-San Joaquin
River Delta system. It comes amid declining fish populations
and increasing pressure on water supply due to climate change.
But rather than move forward with strict regulations, the state
agency is considering a plan pushed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that
would grant water districts more flexibility.
The Sacramento Superior Court has ruled in favor of the State
Water Board’s 2018 Bay Delta Plan update, denying all 116
claims by petitioners. In December 2018, the State Water
Resources Control Plan adopted revised flow
objectives for the San Joaquin River and its three major
tributaries, the Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Merced rivers. The
new flow objectives provide for increased flows on the three
tributaries to help revive and protect native fall-run
migratory fish populations. The Board also adopted a revised
south Delta salinity objectives, increasing the level of
salinity allowed from April to August. Several petitions
were filed in several counties challenging the Board’s
action.
Just south of Dos Rios Ranch, a much-praised effort at river
restoration, another such project is taking root. It will add
about 380 acres of floodplain and other habitat to the 1,600
acres at Dos Rios. They are near the confluence of the Tuolumne
and San Joaquin rivers, about eight miles southwest of Modesto.
The state-funded project, totaling about $20.8 million, is on
the former Hidden Valley Dairy. Annual feed crops are giving
way to oaks, cottonwoods, willows and other native plants. The
floodplain will take on high river flows that otherwise could
threaten nearby Grayson and downstream towns. The standing
water could recharge the aquifer below for use during droughts.
The place could offer food and shelter to fish, birds, mammals
and other creatures.
California has lost most of its natural wetlands as rivers have
been cut off from their natural floodplains. And it’s pretty
remarkable what can be achieved when rivers are given space to
reconnect with floodplains. I learned more about opening up
spaces for rivers to roam while working on an article about
floodplain restoration efforts in the Central Valley. These
types of projects have received broad-based support in recent
years as an effective nature-based solution that can bring
various interrelated benefits. They include: reducing the risks
of flooding in vulnerable communities downstream; capturing and
storing more water underground in aquifers; improving water
quality; and helping to repair ecosystems.
… Natural floodplains — the lush green lands along
rivers that historically flooded, retained water, and nourished
life in the heart of the valley — were mostly drained and
converted to farmland generations ago as the state’s waters
were dammed and diverted. Today, an effort to bring back
some of those floodplains is flourishing at the 2,100-acre Dos
Rios Ranch Preserve near Modesto, where workers years ago
planted native trees on retired farm fields and removed berms
to create space for water to spread out again. … By making
room for the rivers to overflow, the restoration project has
created an outlet for high flows that helps to reduce the risk
of dangerous flooding in low-lying communities nearby.
Though the Delta Conveyance Project was only recently
approved by the Department of Water Resources after completing
the lengthy California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
process, the project faces new obstacles to implementation.
Nine lawsuits challenging DWR’s December 21, 2023 approval of
the Project were recently filed in Sacramento County Superior
Court by a total of thirty-three plaintiffs representing all
the Delta counties, the City of Stockton, environmental and
other nongovernmental organizations, and tribe[s]. Resolution
of that litigation could take several years.
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.
This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand
about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river
restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
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.
Voluntary agreements in California
have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve
environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows
and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be
diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state
regulators.
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.
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.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
The San Joaquin Valley, known as the
nation’s breadbasket, grows a cornucopia of fruits, nuts and
other agricultural products.
During our three-day Central Valley Tour April
3-5, you will meet farmers who will explain how they prepare
the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce that
helps feed the nation and beyond. We also will drive through
hundreds of miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams,
reservoirs and groundwater wells that provide the water.
The whims of political fate decided
in 2018 that state bond money would not be forthcoming to help
repair the subsidence-damaged parts of Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River to
farms that fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy along
the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin
rivers are the two major Central Valley waterways that feed the
Delta, the hub of California’s water supply
network. Our last water tours of
2018 will look in-depth at how these rivers are managed and
used for agriculture, cities and the environment. You’ll see
infrastructure, learn about efforts to restore salmon runs and
talk to people with expertise on these rivers.
New water storage is the holy grail
primarily for agricultural interests in California, and in 2014
the door to achieving long-held ambitions opened with the passage
of Proposition
1, which included $2.7 billion for the public benefits
portion of new reservoirs and groundwater storage projects. The
statute stipulated that the money is specifically for the
benefits that a new storage project would offer to the ecosystem,
water quality, flood control, emergency response and recreation.