The San Joaquin Valley stretches from across mid-California
between coastal ranges in west and the Sierras on the east. The
region includes large cities such as Fresno and Bakersfield,
national parks such as Yosemite and Kings and fertile farmland
and multi-billion dollar agriculture industry.
The federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project (about
30 percent of SWP water is used for irrigation) helped
deliver water to the valley. Today, San Joaquin Valley crops
include grapes, tomatoes, hay, sugar beets, nuts, cotton and a
multitude of other fruits and vegetables. At the same time, water
used to grow these crops has led to the need for agricultural
drainage.
In a wide-ranging ruling that could have larger implications
for public interest lawsuits throughout California, the 5th
District Court of Appeal reversed a preliminary injunction that
had required water in the Kern River through the heart of
Bakersfield. … Bring Back the Kern, Water Audit California
and several other public interest groups sued the City of
Bakersfield in 2022 for dewatering the river. They are
demanding the city study the environmental impacts of its river
operations. That lawsuit is set for trial in December. The
preliminary injunction was an outgrowth of that 2022 lawsuit.
It was an attempt to keep water in the river for fish that had
come teeming back with high flows in 2023. The 5th
District’s ruling, issued Wednesday, reversed the injunction
but didn’t close the door to a possible future injunction and,
in fact, gave lengthy direction for how that could be done.
Lemoore area growers and landowners weren’t happy about giving
out their well locations and pumping data but said, if they had
to, they’d rather give that information to a local agency than
the state. … Wednesday’s turnout, about 45 people, was
significantly higher than the GSA’s first workshop March 3
where only nine people showed up. “We’ve made really good
progress,” South Fork General Manager Johnny Gailey reported at
a grower’s advisory group March 27. The GSA now has 45 accounts
in its system with 120 ag and 38 domestic wells registered.
South Fork Kings is aiming to register all wells within its
boundaries by July 1.
A billion-dollar blast mine planned along the San Joaquin
River’s prime salmon spawning habitat is facing its first major
political challenge after months of diplomatic silence from
Fresno leaders. Assemblymember Joaquin Arambula
introduced new state legislation last week aimed directly at
stopping global mining giant CEMEX from blasting a crater twice
as deep as Millerton Lake along the San Joaquin River’s planned
parkway near Fresno. Arambula’s proposal has the support
of Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer, who called the CEMEX blast mine an
“unacceptable” assault to the region’s river and
roads. … Arambula’s bill would toss the county’s
playbook for developers in the trash, killing CEMEX’s
controversial mining proposal before the county supervisors get
a chance to approve it.
Alta Irrigation District has purchased 80 acres to develop the
London West Pond recharge basin. The recharge basin will
be located at Ave. 384 and Rd. 56 next to the existing London
Pond recharge site. … Both groundwater recharge basins
will help Alta divert more surface water and boost its
groundwater sustainability efforts to comply with the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Alta said the
basins will increase the available water supply during dry
years for growers and also support nearby residents who are
reliant on groundwater for drinking water.
The largest remaining wetland prairie in the San Joaquin Valley
will open to the public on Saturday, March 29, an event that
only comes around once or twice a year. The James K. Herbert
Wetland Prairie Preserve, which houses and protects rare and
unique species in Tulare County, will be open from 9 a.m. to 1
p.m. Attendees can explore the preserve and catch a self-guided
tour with staff. The event is made possible by the
Alta Peak California Native Plant Society, Sequoia Riverlands
Trust and the Tulare Kings Audubon Society.
A clearer path forward could be emerging in the tiny Tulare
County community of East Orosi, which has long struggled with
contaminated drinking water, a decrepit sewer system and
dysfunction among elected leaders. The state Water Resources
Control Board will be in town Thursday, April 17 to explain why
it proposes that the community’s sewer system be run by a new
administrator, the Tulare County Resource Management Agency
(RMA). … The proposed sewer administration change is a result
of Assembly Bill 805, authored by Dr. Joaquin Arambula
(D-Fresno) and signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom in
September in the backyard of an East Orosi resident. The
bill authorizes the state Water Board to intervene when a sewer
service provider does not meet regulatory standards or fails to
maintain the technical, managerial and financial capacity
needed to prevent waste, fraud and abuse. The Water Board can
then contract with a new administrator.
Only about a dozen residents attended a recent event in Hanford
to learn about free well testing and organizers learned it’s a
trust thing. “(Rural Kings County residents) don’t want you
coming out and checking their water because they’re afraid
you’re going to close their well down and tell them they have
to dig a new well that they can’t afford,” said attendee Sandra
Martin. “A lot of elderly are afraid.” Kings Water
Alliance Executive Officer Debra Dunn assured attendees the
organization has no intent, nor authority, to shut anyone’s
well down. “We do not tell people what to do with their wells,”
Dunn said.
Justices with the 5th District Court of Appeal peppered
attorneys with questions about the application of state water
law and the fight over Kern River flows during arguments in
Fresno on Thursday. How the 5th District rules on this appeal
could have far-reaching effects on river conservation efforts
throughout California as it involves California Fish and Game
Code 5937. That code states dam owners must keep enough water
downstream to keep fish in good condition. It was the linchpin
in restoring other California rivers, including the San Joaquin
River in Fresno County. And 5937 is the underpinning of a
preliminary injunction and implementation order issued in late
fall 2023 by Kern County Superior Court Gregory Pulskamp that
mandated the City of Bakersfield keep enough water in the river
through town for fish.
In December 2024, the County of Fresno Department of Public
Works and Planning released the draft environmental impact
report (DEIR) on Cemex’s proposed plan to modify its existing
Rockfield aggregate operation on Friant Road (Modification
Plan) and received public comments through March 10, 2025. …
Inaccurate information about the modification plan has been
broadly communicated by a few project opponents and
unfortunately perpetuated by some local digital channels.
Importantly, Cemex does not propose to mine in the San Joaquin
River. This has been clear throughout the application process
and any suggestions otherwise are disingenuous at best and
appear designed to mislead the public.
California’s most-destructive and least-welcome swamp rodents
have arrived in its fifth-largest city. To be precise, they’ve
arrived in the stretch of San Joaquin River that traces
Fresno’s northwest border. Eight years have passed since a
reproducing population of nutria was found in western Merced
County — their first discovery in the state since the 1970s.
Despite eradication efforts that began in March 2018, nutria
have since spread north into the Delta, east into foothills
along the Merced River and south into the Fresno Slough and
Mendota Wildlife Area. … Since 2023 more nutria have been
taken from Fresno County than any county in California,
according to CDFW data. In the overall tally of 5,493 animals
that dates to 2018, Fresno County (1,140) trails only Merced
County (2,593). -Written by Fresno Bee columnist Marek Warszawski.
An appeals court on Thursday will hear arguments on Kern River
water diversions, which have killed thousands of fish and
drained the once flowing waterway in Bakersfield. The 5th
District Court of Appeals will consider whether to uphold a
preliminary injunction sought by a coalition of environmental
groups to stop the city of Bakersfield and agricultural water
storage districts from diversions that significantly reduce
river flow. … (A)n appeals court issued a stay on the
injunction, after agricultural water districts appealed. In
October state Attorney General Rob Bonta intervened in the
lawsuit, siding with environmentalists in challenging the
diversions. Thursday’s hearing will determine whether to
restore the injunction and allow Kern River water to flow once
again.
Dozens of Central Valley residents are planning to gather in
Fresno to voice their opposition to a plan to expand dumping
they say will bring dangerous waste to the region. On
March 20, residents and environmental justice advocates plan to
protest on the steps of Fresno City Hall against a proposed
expansion of hazardous waste dumping that could permit city
landfills to take more contaminated soil. … According to a
news release from the California Environmental Justice
Coalition, the plan threatens air and water quality, public
health, and community safety, especially in communities already
burdened by pollution.
A bank is suing large San Joaquin Valley grower John Vidovich
for more than $105 million in allegedly defaulted loans and is
demanding the foreclosure and sale of large swaths of farmland,
solar sites, a nut-hulling facility and the SunnyGem almond
processing plant in Wasco. Affected lands could span
Fresno, Kings, Tulare and Kern counties, according to three
volumes of exhibits in the lawsuit, which was filed March 12 in
Kern. … Vidovich has been a controversial figure in the
valley since 2009 when he permanently sold State Water
Project contract rights to 14,000 acre feet from the
Dudley Ridge Water District in Kings County to a southern
California district for $73 million.
A march in the mostly dry Kern River bed from the Panorama
bluffs eight miles west to the Bellevue Weir started with about
30 people and gained steam to end with about 130 marchers,
according to organizers. “It was successful for what we wanted
to do,” said Chris Molina, an organizer with the public
interest group Bring Back the Kern. “What we wanted was to get
media attention as a last-minute rallying cry to hopefully put
pressure on the court to lean in favor of a flowing river. And
the event exceeded our expectations.” He referred to a hearing
scheduled for Thursday, March 20 before the 5th District Court
of Appeals in Fresno on whether to uphold a preliminary
injunction issued by Kern County Superior Court Gregory
Pulskamp in October 2023 mandating the City of Bakersfield keep
enough water in the river for fish to survive.
Water managers in the Tulare Lake, Tule and the Kaweah
subbasins are discussing the possibility of creating a regional
subsidence plan that would cover the three
basins. Subsidence, or land sinking, has been a major
problem for all three regions, causing a 33-mile
long sag in the Friant-Kern Canal and repeatedly
sinking the Corcoran levee. Excessive groundwater pumping
has caused so much subsidence, it can be seen
from space and was nicknamed the “Corcoran
bowl.” … Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability
Agency’s Manager Chuck Kinney informed the GSA board during a
March 11 meeting that he’s met with other water managers in the
region to work on a joint subsidence monitoring and action
plan.
Despite recent political momentum, the tiny Tulare County
community of East Orosi remains without a clear path forward to
solving its decades-long struggle with contaminated drinking
water. Disputes between local and state officials, coupled with
deep divisions and infighting among local district water board
members have thwarted efforts to clear up the community’s water
for many years. … The slow crawl towards a solution has
left East Orosi residents in fear of their own tap water. Many
rely on bottled water deliveries, despite living less than a
mile from Orosi and its safe, clean water.
U.S. Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff (both D-Calif.)
announced that the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs advanced
their legislation to formally recognize the Tule River Tribe’s
reserved water rights and quantify the Tribe’s water right of
5,828 acre-feet per year of surface water from the South Fork
of the Tule River (in the San Joaquin Valley). The bill passed
out of committee by voice vote and now moves to the Senate
floor for consideration by the full Senate. For decades, the
Tule River Tribe has worked with the federal government and
downstream water users to advance a settlement agreement,
avoiding costly and adversarial litigation for both the Tribe
and the United States government.
Rural Kings County residents concerned about their drinking
water may sign up to have their wells tested for free at an
event to be held at 5:30 p.m. March 18. The Kings Water
Alliance is hosting the informational event for residents to
apply to have their wells tested for nitrate contamination. The
event will be held at the Kings Cultural Center, 14054 Front
Street, Armona. The well testing program is free for Kings
County residents who rely on wells for drinking water. The
alliance has offered its free program to residents in portions
of Fresno and Tulare Counties and a small northeast portion of
Kings County.
Groundwater regulation and its impacts on farming dominated
panel discussions at Thursday’s Water Association of Kern
County’s annual Water Summit. While the picture of how
SGMA will likely impact agriculture has become more clear, it
hasn’t gotten any prettier over the past 10 years since the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act became law. The
first panel of the day set the tone as farmland appraisers Mike
Ming and Allan Barros flipped through slide after slide showing
how values have dropped, especially in regions where growers
are totally groundwater dependent or even if they have
contracts for state water.
A criminal investigation by the California Department of Fish
and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Law Enforcement Division and the Stockton
Police Department has resulted in a suspect being identified
and charged on suspicion of a September 2024 illegal petroleum
dumping incident that impacted the Smith Canal Waterway in
Stockton. … The multi-agency effort recovered oil from the
waterway and removed impacted soil along the canal. David
Andrew Sump was arrested and arraigned on charges stemming from
his alleged role in dumping approximately 280 gallons of waste
oil into the waterway and surrounding environment.
Tea Pot Dome Water District has agreed to pay Friant Water
Authority $1.4 million in exchange for relief from its role in
a contract designed to pay for damage to a 33-mile section of
the Friant-Kern Canal. It also agreed to give Friant
pumping data that’s at the heart of a much larger
dispute. The deal is one small piece of the ongoing
conflict between Friant and several of its own member
contractors over who should pay – and how much – to fix
the Friant-Kern Canal, which has been sinking due to excessive
groundwater pumping.
Ted Page, a long-serving director of the powerful Kern County
Water Agency, announced his resignation from the board
Wednesday. … The agency provides wholesale supplies to
water purveyors serving large sections of east Bakersfield. It
owns rights to high flow water on the Kern River. It is one of
six entities that control the massive Kern Water Bank.
And it is one of three members that govern the Kern River
Groundwater Sustainability Agency, which monitors water tables
and can set pumping limits. … The process to fill Page’s seat
will commence immediately and be completed over the next 60
days.
Assembly Bill 1044, introduced by Assembly Member Alexandra
Macedo (R-Tulare) Feb. 20, would create a new agency to be
administered through Tulare County and that would cover half of
Eastern Tule’s original acreage. The bill was written at the
county’s request after Eastern Tule lost all of its irrigation
district members. … The new groundwater entity will
include the Hope and Ducor water districts, neither of which
have surface water contracts. … But under recent Proposition
218 elections, the districts were able to levy land assessments
to fund a study to look at connecting to the Friant-Kern
Canal.
The San Joaquin River, just along the City of Fresno, offers
recreation and a getaway from city life. But it also provides
another crucial resource: gravel. The multinational company
Cemex is proposing to dig deeper for the resource, but
community residents are trying to stop the project. Today, we
speak with Sharon Weaver from the San Joaquin River Parkway and
Conservation Trust about the concerns she and others have about
the proposal.
A senior Army Corps of Engineers official offered few specifics
to lawmakers Tuesday on the agency’s controversial decision
last month to suddenly release billions of gallons of water
from dams in California’s Central Valley. Speaking before the
House Appropriations Committee, Lt. Gen. William Graham Jr.
said the unexpected water release was in response to a
directive from President Donald Trump and was “within the
statutory authority” of the Army Corps. But Graham, the
agency’s chief of engineers, was mum in response to questions
from Rep. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) about whether the flow of water
actually helped with efforts to fight wildfires in Los Angeles,
as Trump has claimed.
State and federal agencies plan to deliver more water to
California farms and cities following recent storms that
brought rain and snow and boosted reservoir levels. Cities in
Southern California and other agencies that depend on water
delivered from Northern California via the State Water Project
are projected to receive 35% of requested water supplies, up
from an estimated 20% last month, the state Department of Water
Resources said Tuesday. In a similar announcement, the federal
Bureau of Reclamation said agricultural irrigation districts
south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta are expected to
receive 35% of their full contract amounts from the federal
Central Valley Project — more than double the 15% they were
allocated at this time last year.
A new aquatic invader, the golden mussel, has penetrated California’s ecologically fragile Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the West Coast’s largest tidal estuary and the hub of the state’s vast water export system. While state officials say they’re working to keep this latest invasive species in check, they concede it may be a nearly impossible task: The golden mussel is in the Golden State to stay – and it is likely to spread.
How will selling groundwater help keep more groundwater in the
San Joaquin Valley’s already critically overtapped aquifers?
Water managers in the Kaweah subbasin in northwestern Tulare
County hope to find out by having farmers tinker with a pilot
groundwater market program. Kaweah farmers will be joining
growers from subbasins up and down the San Joaquin Valley
who’ve been looking at how water markets might help them
maintain their businesses by using pumping allotments and
groundwater credits as assets to trade or sell when water is
tight.
… A state audit from the California Water Resources Control
Board released last year found that over 920,000 residents
faced an increased risk of illness–including cancer, liver and
kidney problems–due to consuming unsafe drinking water. A
majority of these unsafe water systems are in the Central
Valley. The matter has prompted community leaders to mobilize
residents around water quality as politicians confront
imperfect solutions for the region’s supply. Advocates point
out that impacted areas, including those in Tulare County, tend
to be majority Latino with low median incomes. … This
year’s extreme weather has only worsened the valley’s problems.
The storms that hit California at the start of this year caused
stormwater tainted with farm industry fertilizer, manure and
nitrates to flow into valley aquifers.
A new underground mapping technology
that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in
California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the
state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.
The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources
for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime
underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork
by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming
manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the
composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying
helicopters towing giant magnets.
The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’
resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture
water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus
underground for use during the next drought.
“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really
helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based
on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda,
general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early
adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or
AEM technology in California.
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
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.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
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.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less 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.
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.
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.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
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.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
Get a unique view of the San Joaquin Valley’s key dams and
reservoirs that store and transport water on our March Central
Valley Tour.
Our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, offers a broad view of water issues
in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the farms, orchards,
critical habitat for threatened bird populations, flood bypasses
and a national wildlife refuge, we visit some of California’s
major water infrastructure projects.
Participants of this tour snaked 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.
The 2-day, 1-night tour traveled along the river from Friant
Dam near Fresno to the confluence of the Merced River. As it
weaved across an historic farming region, participants learn
about the status of the river’s restoration and how the
challenges of the plan are being worked out.
A few tickets are still available for our Nov. 1-2 San Joaquin River
Restoration Tour, a once-a-year educational opportunity to
see the program’s progress first-hand. The tour begins and ends
in Fresno with an overnight stay in Los Banos.
Explore more than 100 miles of Central California’s longest river
while learning about one of the nation’s largest and costliest
river restorations. Our San Joaquin River
Restoration Tour on Nov. 1-2 will feature speakers from key
governmental agencies and stakeholder groups who will explain the
restoration program’s goals and progress.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin are the two major rivers in the
Central Valley that feed the Delta, the hub of
California’s water supply network.
Our last two water tours of 2017 will take in-depth looks 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.
Protecting and restoring California’s populations of threatened
and endangered Chinook salmon and steelhead trout have been a big
part of the state’s water management picture for more than 20
years. Significant resources have been dedicated to helping the
various runs of the iconic fish, with successes and setbacks. In
a landscape dramatically altered from its natural setting,
finding a balance between the competing demands for water is
challenging.
Our water tours give a behind-the-scenes look at major water
issues in California. On our Central Valley Tour, March
8-10, you will visit wildlife habitat areas – some of which are
closed to the public – and learn directly from the experts who
manage them, in addition to seeing farms, large dams and other
infrastructure.
The recent deluge has led to changes in drought conditions in
some areas of California and even public scrutiny of the
possibility that the drought is over. Many eyes are focused on
the San Joaquin Valley, one of the areas hardest hit by reduced
surface water supplies. On our Central Valley Tour, March
8-10, we will visit key water delivery and storage sites in the
San Joaquin Valley, including Friant Dam and Millerton Lake
on the San Joaquin River.
ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric
river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur
once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011
report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate
the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property
and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.
Contaminants exist in water supplies from both natural and
manmade sources. Even those chemicals present without human
intervention can be mobilized from introduction of certain
pollutants from both
point and nonpoint sources.
Both the drought and high nitrate levels in shallow groundwater have necessitated deeper
drilling of new wells in the San Joaquin Valley, only to expose
water with heightened
arsenic levels. Arsenic usually exists in water as arsenate
or arsenite, the latter of which is more frequent in deep lake
sediments or groundwater with little oxygen and is both
more harmful and difficult to remove.
Whiskeytown Lake, a major reservoir in the foothills of the
Klamath Mountains nine miles west of Redding, was
built at the site of one of Shasta County’s first Gold Rush
communities. Whiskeytown, originally called
Whiskey Creek Diggings, was founded in 1849 and named in
reference to a whiskey barrel rolling off a citizen’s pack mule;
it may also refer to miners drinking a barrel per day.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This issue examines the impacts of California’s epic
drought, especially related to water supplies for San Joaquin
Valley rural communities and farmland.
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
This 3-day, 2-night tour, which we do every spring,
travels the length of the San Joaquin Valley, giving participants
a clear understanding of the State Water Project and Central
Valley Project.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
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.
Salt. In a small amount, it’s a gift from nature. But any doctor
will tell you, if you take in too much salt, you’ll start to have
health problems. The same negative effect is happening to land in
the Central Valley. The problem scientists call “salinity” poses
a growing threat to our food supply, our drinking water quality
and our way of life. The problem of salt buildup and potential –
but costly – solutions are highlighted in this 2008 public
television documentary narrated by comedian Paul Rodriguez.
A 20-minute version of the 2008 public television documentary
Salt of the Earth: Salinity in California’s Central Valley. This
DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking
engagements to help the public understand the complex issues
surrounding the problem of salt build up in the Central Valley
potential – but costly – solutions. Narrated by comedian Paul
Rodriquez.
This 3-day, 2-night tour travels the length of the San Joaquin
Valley, giving participants a clear understanding of the State
Water Project and Central Valley Project.
15-minute DVD that graphically portrays the potential disaster
should a major earthquake hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“Delta Warning” depicts what would happen in the event of an
earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale: 30 levee breaks,
16 flooded islands and a 300 billion gallon intrusion of salt
water from the Bay – the “big gulp” – which would shut down the
State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumping plants.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36-inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
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 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Flood Management explains the
physical flood control system, including levees; discusses
previous flood events (including the 1997 flooding); explores
issues of floodplain management and development; provides an
overview of flood forecasting; and outlines ongoing flood control
projects.
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).
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36-inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
Located in the middle of California, the San Joaquin Valley is
bracketed on both sides by mountain ranges. Long and flat, the
valley’s hot, dry summers are followed by cool, foggy winters
that make it one of the most productive agricultural regions in
the world.
The valley stretches from across mid-California between coastal
ranges in west and the Sierras on the east. The region includes
large cities such as Fresno and Bakersfield, national parks such
as Yosemite and Kings, millions of people, and fertile farmland.
Flowing 366 miles from the Sierra
Nevada to Suisun Bay, the San Joaquin River provides irrigation
water to thousands of acres of San Joaquin Valley farms and
drinking water to some of the valley’s cities. It also is the
focal point for one of the nation’s most ambitious river
restoration projects to revive salmon populations.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterbirds, and stretches from Alaska in the north
to Patagonia in South America.
Each year, birds follow ancestral patterns as they travel the
flyway on their annual north-south migration. Along the way, they
need stopover sites such as wetlands with suitable habitat and
food supplies. In California, 95 percent of historic
wetlands have been lost, yet the Central Valley hosts some of the
world’s largest populations of wintering birds.
The California Aqueduct, a critical part of the State Water
Project, carries water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta to the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California.
Established as part of a $1.75 billion bond passed by voters in
1960, the 444-mile-long California Aqueduct (formally known as
the Edmund G. Brown California Aqueduct) begins at the Harvey O.
Banks Pumping Plant in the Delta.
It parallels Interstate 5 south to the Tehachapi Mountains.
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 examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the challenges facing
small water systems, including drought preparedness, limited
operating expenses and the hurdles of complying with costlier
regulations. Much of the article is based on presentations at the
November 2007 Small Systems Conference sponsored by the Water
Education Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
This Western Water looks at proposed new measures to deal with
the century-old problem of salinity with a special focus on San
Joaquin Valley farms and cities.
