California’s climate, characterized by warm, dry summers and mild
winters, makes the state’s water supply unpredictable. For
instance, runoff and precipitation in California can be quite
variable. The northwestern part of the state can receive more
than 140 inches per year while the inland deserts bordering
Mexico can receive less than 4 inches.
By the Numbers:
Precipitation averages about 193 million acre-feet per year.
In a normal precipitation year, about half of the state’s
available surface water – 35 million acre-feet – is collected in
local, state and federal reservoirs.
California is home to more than 1,300 reservoirs.
About two-thirds of annual runoff evaporates, percolates into
the ground or is absorbed by plants, leaving about 71 million
acre-feet in average annual runoff.
Scientists at the United States Department of Agriculture
(USDA) Southwest Climate Hub and California Climate Hub have
developed a browsable map-based tool that addresses water
scarcity in the U.S. Southwest. The Water Adaptation Techniques
Atlas (WATA) consolidates over 200 case studies on research and
practices that water managers and producers can use to find
location-specific and topical information to make informed
decisions regarding water management. … water scarcity has
become a pressing issue with extremely hot temperatures and
severe prolonged droughts in a region already challenged by its
arid and semi-arid conditions. As reservoir and aquifer levels
drop, information about strategies to adapt to this new reality
is urgently needed. WATA provides information based on research
from USDA’s Agricultural Research Service and other sources
about practices for lessening the gap between water demand and
available supply, with an emphasis on cropping and irrigation
practices across the Southwest, including Arizona, California,
Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah.
Since Sacramento’s acclaimed Museum of Science and Curiosity
(MOSAC) opened in November 2021, more than 331,000 visitors
have toured the facility, which features dozens of interactive
exhibits on topics such as health care, nature, space
exploration and water. A popular MOSAC section is the Water
Challenge Exhibit, which includes three interactive displays
sponsored by Cultivate California and its nonprofit parent
organization the California Farm Water Coalition that
illustrate how farmers are working hard to use less water.
The U.S. and Mexico are experiencing another border dispute,
and this one is about water. The conflict stems from an
80-year-old treaty where the countries agreed to share water
from the Colorado River and the Rio Grande. However, because
water is in more demand but scarcer than ever, sharing has not
been going to plan. The U.S. and Mexico signed a treaty in
1944 stipulating that Mexico send 1.75 million acre-feet of
water to the U.S. every five years from the Rio Grande, and the
U.S. send 1.5 million acre-feet of water to Mexico from
the Colorado River each year. But water levels are
lower than ever, and Mexico has “sent only about 30% of its
expected deliveries, the lowest amount at this point of any
four- or five-year cycles since 1992,”
said Reuters. … The effects are far-reaching. …
Texas, in particular, is home to sugar and citrus farms
struggling from a lack of water. On the other hand, farmers in
Mexico are protesting sending water to the U.S., as they are
also suffering from scarcity.
Thursday [June 27] is doomsday for water prices in San Diego.
That’s when the region’s water importer – the San Diego County
Water Authority – debates whether to boost its prices a
whopping 18 percent come Jan. 1. The price increase is massive
compared to previous rate increases, and the Water Authority’s
biggest customer, the city of San Diego, is pretty ticked off.
… San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria directed his powerful
contingent of 10 water board members to fight the increase. We
won’t know how hard they’ll fight until the full 33-member
board meets Thursday afternoon to vote on it. Gloria’s
administration is building a water recycling project, which
costs billions of dollars. Once its built, in 2035, San Diego
won’t buy as much water from the Water Authority. But for now,
San Diegans are saddled with the cost of building water
recycling and purchasing expensive water from outside city
boundaries.
Arizona lawmakers adjourned last week after hearing more water
bills they had in decades. But of the few measures that made it
through to Gov. Katie Hobbs’ desk, none addressed rural
groundwater management in a way that would protect the state’s
dwindling aquifers, according to the governor’s staff. In the
end, the Legislature heard 24 water bills. Of those that
passed, Hobbs signed four and vetoed 12. Her office said Monday
she was ready to talk with policymakers and water users to find
reforms they could all agree on.
Customers served by Placer County Water Agency (PCWA) are urged
to reduce their water use to help manage an ongoing water
delivery problem caused by damaged Pacific Gas and Electric
Company (PG&E) facilities. PG&E has run into several
unanticipated schedule delays that have pushed their return of
service date from June to July 30th, more than 50 days beyond
the original estimate.
… Unlike climate change, no statewide goal or target exists
for a sustainable, clean water supply in California, to ensure
service to our residents, businesses, and the environment.
Instead, water managers around the state work to hold onto as
much water as the system can store. This strategy was
sufficient for the last 80 years, from the beginning of the
Central Valley Project in the 1930s up to the last major
construction on the State Water Project. But now that
California’s population is pushing 40 million – and facing an
increasingly volatile climate – the absence of a clear,
overarching target has left California’s system, and approach,
outdated. … That is why I introduced SB 366, which would
fundamentally transform the state’s water management and
provide a path to drought proof California’s water supply and
ensure a sustainable water supply for cities and towns,
agriculture, other industries, and the environment. — Written by State Sen. Anna Caballero, California’s Senate
District 14
California Forever plans to use a combination of water sources
to supply the needs of the new city, including tapping into
groundwater and surface water rights, which the company already
owns thanks to its purchase of more than 60,000 acres of
farmland. … They expect the groundwater and local surface
water to make up more than a quarter of the new city’s water
supply and will be used for some of the drinking
water. California Forever representatives said they also
plan to import almost a third of their water supply “upriver
from out-of-county sites in California,” conveying it through
“existing points of diversion on the Sacramento River and its
associated tributaries.” Water experts who have reviewed
California Forever’s plan said it’s clear the company did its
homework, but some vital questions remain — especially around
its plan to rely on water diverted from rivers in a state where
drought is so commonplace.
Wyoming native Leslie Hagenstein lives on the ranch where she
grew up and remembers her grandmother and father delivering
milk in glass bottles from the family’s Mount Airy Dairy. …
This summer, for the second year in a row, water from Pine
Creek will not turn 600 acres of grass and alfalfa a lush
green. … The Colorado River basin has endured decades of
drier-than-normal conditions, and steady demand. That imbalance
is draining its largest reservoirs, and making it nearly
impossible for them to recover, putting the region’s water
security in jeopardy. Reining in demand throughout the vast
western watershed has become a drumbeat among policymakers at
both the state and federal level. Hagenstein’s ranch is an
example of what that intentional reduction in water use looks
like.
The council also approved a purchase order from Oneka
Technologies Inc. for the wave-powered desalination pilot
project. … The city relies on the Noyo River, Waterfall
Gulch, and Newman Gulch to provide water to residents. However,
in recent years, droughts have strained these water sources.
The city has focused on increasing water storage, such as
recent purchases like Summers Lane Reservoir. However, the city
is looking into alternatives, such as water desalination, to
ensure abundant water. Oneka’s desalination modules rely on
wave power to remove salt. These units are 20 feet in diameter
and can process 13,000 gallons of water daily. As they rely on
waves, they have a minimal greenhouse gas impact.
Water is, and will forever be, an essential resource to any
community. Its importance and emphasis on use and conversation
has been the subject of much conversation in the wake of
droughts that have plagued the state in recent years. However,
water supplied to each community can vary. Most tap water in
the United States comes from surface water or groundwater,
according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
website section on drinking water. Examples of surface water
include a lake, river, or reservoir, while examples of
groundwater include water from a well or an aquifer. Water can
also be recycled .However, water supply, and even quality, can
differ from community to community….
State, local and regional officials gathered Thursday to mark
the beginning of Palmdale Water District’s new water treatment
demonstration facility, a project that is expected to not only
bolster local water resources, but also make strives toward a
carbon-neutral reality. … Under the auspices of the
Palmdale Recycled Water Authority, the project will treat
recycled water — provided by PRWA, a joint powers authority
with PWD and the City of Palmdale — to a very high level, then
inject it into the underground aquifer to bolster local water
supplies. … The demonstration facility is intended to serve
as a model for a future full-scale treatment facility that will
be capable of producing an additional 5,000 acre-feet of water
per year for injection into the groundwater, increasing that
source of water for PWD customers.
With an annual average precipitation of just 10.3 inches,
Nevada is the driest state in the nation. That makes it
challenging for water managers to monitor, restore and protect
the state’s waterways for agricultural and industrial use,
while still maintaining enough for recreation and ecological
protection. … Over the last century, the Walker River Basin
has gone from a healthy ecosystem that supported many
agricultural and economic activities to total ecological
collapse. “To put it real succinctly, upstream diversion has
lowered the flows of the river entering Walker Lake, and as the
flows have gone down, the lake level has subsided. The water
evaporates out of the lake, but the salt does not evaporate out
of the lake, and because of that, the salinity has increased
over time,” said Peter Stanton, CEO of the Walker Basin
Conservancy, a nonprofit organization working to repair and
restore the area. While it sounds dire, Walker Lake is
recovering, thanks in large part to the work of Stanton and his
team.
California Forever released a report Tuesday addressing one of
the biggest questions surrounding its billionaire-backed push to
build a new city on Solano County farmland: where exactly they
are getting the water to sustain a community of up to 400,000
people? Leaders say this initial review found they have secured
enough water for the first stage of buildout at 100,000 residents
and laid out the company’s plan for how they say they will scale
their water usage for when the community grows by four times.
In a move to combat the drought crisis affecting the Colorado
River Basin, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced on
Thursday an $11.1 million cooperative agreement with the
Foundation for America’s Public Lands. The partnership aims to
enhance drought resilience in the region, which is vital for
the millions of Americans who depend on the river for their
livelihoods. The funding, made available through the Inflation
Reduction Act under the Biden Administration, is set to bolster
efforts to ensure the sustainability of the Colorado River
Basin.
In the face of climate change and worsening cycles of drought,
California water managers have been increasingly focused on the
precise tracking of water resources. Snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada is measured with sensors and aerial images, reservoir
levels are electronically logged, and the movement of water
through aqueducts is apportioned based on rights and contracts.
Yet there is another key water metric that California has never
adequately measured: the flow of rivers and streams. New
research by UC Berkeley scientists has found that only 8% of
the state’s rivers and streams are equipped with gauges —
devices that measure the level and rate of movement of water.
The study … details the large portions of the state’s
waterways that aren’t monitored and examines the consequences
for humans and wildlife as climate change intensifies the water
cycle, alters watersheds and threatens vulnerable fish and
other species.
Every snowflake or drop of rain that falls in Wyoming’s Wind
River Mountains eventually plays a part in quenching the water
needs of 20 million Californians, and the demand only seems to
be rising. Meanwhile, the amount of water available from the
Colorado River, which is partly fed by the Green River flowing
out of the Wind River range, is at best barely holding steady.
That means that as a headwaters state, Wyoming could start
feeling pressure from those downriver to give up more.
… In the past 12 years, California has endured two multi-year
droughts, including a stretch from 2020 to 2022 that was the
state’s driest three-year period on record. California also
experienced two of the wettest winters on record, fueled by a
parade of atmospheric rivers that caused flooding in Santa
Clara County and across the state. If we fail to invest in
infrastructure now, we all will face serious challenges with
disadvantaged communities bearing the worst through
unaffordable water and increased flooding. That’s why Valley
Water and the Association of California Water Agencies are
advocating for a Climate Resilience Bond to be placed on the
November ballot with two-thirds of the funding going to water
infrastructure. -Written by Rick Callender, Chief Executive
Officer of Valley Water, and Dave Eggerton, Executive
Director of the Association of California Water Agencies.
California is awash in water after record-breaking rains
vanquished years of crippling drought. That sounds like great
news for farmers. But Ron McIlroy, whose shop here sells
equipment for plowing fields, knows otherwise. “I’ll be lucky
if I survive this year,” he said. Illustrating how broken
California’s vast water-delivery system is, many farmers in
Central Valley, America’s fruit and vegetable basket, will get
just 40% of the federal water they are supposed to this year.
Why? Endangered fish. The pumps that transport water from wet
Northern California to the semiarid south have been drastically
slowed to protect threatened migrating smelt, measuring up to 3
inches, and steelhead. That means growers in the U.S.’s richest
farming area are having to plant fewer crops even as they are
surrounded by water.
Mike Shannon’s city hall office is a “war room” for water. Maps
of wells and charts of usage rates cover the beige room’s
meeting table and desk. A large television screen mounted on
the wall displays satellite images of a future groundwater well
project. Coworkers visit throughout the day, often to talk
about those plans to pump more water. As city manager of
Guymon — a town of about 13,000 in the state’s panhandle —
Shannon oversees a network of 17 groundwater wells, all
operating near capacity to draw water from the Ogallala
Aquifer, the only water source in this arid region of
tumbleweeds and sand dunes. … At the top of the
list was Seaboard, a pork processing plant on the north side of
town that slaughtered more than 20,000 hogs daily. The plant
used 3,500 gallons of water a minute, three times the amount
used by all the homes in Guymon combined.
An honest-to-goodness map of the American West would show
L.A.’s tentacles everywhere. You’d see canals — the Los Angeles
Aqueduct, running along the base of the Sierra Nevada, carrying
water from the Owens River; the State Water Project, meandering
through the San Joaquin Valley, supplying many Southern
California cities and farms; and the Colorado River Aqueduct,
cutting through the desert on its mission to deliver water from
desert to coast. You’d see electric lines too — a sprawling
network of wires that over the decades have furnished Angelenos
with power from coal plants in Nevada, Utah and Montana; from
nuclear reactors in Arizona; and from hydropower dams in the
Pacific Northwest. Los Angeles has reshaped the West. And
the city’s Department of Water and Power has been the agent of
change. Last month, Janisse Quiñones took the helm as
the agency’s new leader, after being recommended by L.A. Mayor
Karen Bass and confirmed unanimously by City Council. -Written by Sammy Roth, climate columnist for the LA
Times.
As the drought-strapped Colorado River struggled to feed water
into Lake Powell to keep its massive storage system and power
turbines from crashing in 2021 and 2022, the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, its operator, was scrambling to bring in extra
water from Flaming Gorge and Blue Mesa reservoirs. Since the
return of healthier flows in 2023, water levels in Flaming
Gorge and Blue Mesa have been restored, as required under a
2019 Colorado River Basin drought response plan. But the
subsequent shifting of water in 2023 to balance the contents of
lakes Powell and Mead, required under a set of operating
guidelines approved in 2007, resulted in an accidental release
of 40,000 acre-feet of water that will not be restored to the
Upper Basin because it is within the margin of error associated
with such balancing releases, according to Alex Pivarnik,
supervisory hydrologist with Reclamation’s Upper Colorado Basin
Region.
Los Osos is one step closer to lifting its 35-year building
moratorium. Since 1988, construction in the coastal town of
15,500 people has been effectively banned due to a limited
water supply, habitat constraints and ineffective wastewater
treatment infrastructure. The Los Osos Community Plan, however,
seeks to solve those challenges by setting rules for
development that protect sensitive habitats and the water
supply. On Thursday, the California Coastal Commission is
poised to approve the Los Osos Community Plan with a handful of
revisions. If the commission supports the plan, the San Luis
Obispo County Board of Supervisors will vote on the
modifications in September or October, according to SLO County
Supervisor Bruce Gibson. After that, the commission would vote
on the plan one last time in December — clearing the way for
the county to start issuing building permits for Los Osos early
next year, Gibson said.
The Salton Sea is a terminal saltwater lake. It’s a flooded
basin with no natural outlet, similar to the Great Salt Lake or
the Aral Sea. And the Salton Sea is shrinking. One of the
reasons for that is the Imperial Water Transfer deal that has
brought hundreds of thousands of acre feet of water to San
Diego over the last two decades. The deal, signed 21 years ago,
meant the Imperial Valley began transferring excess water from
the valley’s farm fields to San Diego’s water taps. That meant
a lot less farm runoff that had been sustaining the Salton
Sea. San Diego State University economics professor Ryan
Abman said the biggest effects of that conservation plan were
seen about eight years into the agreement. “So really, after
2011, we see a noticeable increase in the rate of decline of
the water level and that leads to an increase in the increased
rate of playa exposure. So more of this dust-emitting surface
is being exposed every single year,” Abman said.
Several dozen dams throughout California could store up to 107
billion more gallons of water if they underwent repairs to fix
safety problems. But facing a staggering state deficit, Gov.
Gavin Newsom has proposed cutting funding for a dam repair
grant program in half this year, while state legislators want
the $50 million restored. California has an aging network
of nearly 1,540 dams — large and small, earthen and concrete —
that help store vital water supplies. For 42 of these dams,
state officials have restricted the amount of water that can be
stored behind them because safety deficiencies would raise the
risk to people downstream from earthquakes, storms or other
problems. Owned by cities, counties, utilities, water
districts and others, these dams have lost nearly 330,000
acre-feet of storage capacity because of the state’s safety
restrictions. That water — equivalent to the amount used by 3.6
million people for a year — could be used to supply
communities, farms or hydropower.
The billionaire proponents of a brand-new city that would rise
from the rolling prairie northeast of the San Francisco Bay
cleared their first big hurdle Tuesday, when the Solano County
Registrar of Voters certified the group had enough signatures
to put its proposal before local voters in November. The group
backing the measure, called California Forever, must now
convince voters to get behind the audacious idea of erecting a
walkable and environmentally friendly community with tens of
thousands of homes, along with a sports center, parks, bike
lanes, open space and a giant solar farm on what is now
pastureland. … But the proposal faces opposition from
some local leaders, along with environmental groups concerned
about the loss of natural habitat. Project opponents said a
recent poll they conducted found that 70% of the people
surveyed were skeptical.
The board of the agency that delivers water to nearly half of
Californians will consider firing its top leader over claims of
retaliation, harassment and cultivating a toxic work
environment at a special meeting Thursday morning, according to
an agenda and three people with knowledge.The Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California plans to consider whether
to discipline or dismiss its general manager and CEO, Adel
Hagekhalil, at a Thursday morning board meeting, according to
an agenda posted Tuesday.
Native American tribal leaders with a stake in the Colorado
River Basin have regular meetings with top Interior Department
officials, can claim progress toward major water rights
settlements, and often appear on panels at key conferences with
federal and state leaders. It’s a significant improvement
compared to decades of exclusion of Indigenous people on
decisions over the 1,450-mile-long river that supports 40
million people across seven states. But it’s also not enough,
according to officials from some of those tribes — who argue
their role still falls short of equal footing with states.
U.S. drinking water is among the world’s safest and most
reliable, but aging infrastructure across the country is posing
challenges. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates
that there’s a water main break every two minutes. Shannon
Marquez, professor of environmental health sciences at Columbia
University, joins John Yang to discuss why these problems are
so common.
Silicon Valley billionaires are still aggressively moving
forward with their attempt to create a utopian, sustainable
“city of yesterday” near San Francisco atop what they describe
as “non-prime farmland.” However, an accredited land trust now
claims California Forever’s East Solano Plan is intentionally
misleading local residents about the “detrimental harm” it will
cause ecosystems, as well as its potential to “destroy some of
the most self-reliant farmland and ranchland” in the state.
… [A]s CBS Sacramento first reported on June
7, Solano Land Trust’s executive director Nicole Braddock
contends California Forever’s aim “really goes against our
mission of protecting working farms, natural areas, land and
water Solano County.” Additionally, the influx of as many as
400,000 new residents would result in “a detrimental impact on
Solano County’s water resources, air quality, traffic,
farmland, and natural environment,” according to the trust’s
board of directors.
Working together to support local Tribal farmers, the
Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Santa Rosa Rancheria
Tachi Yokut Tribe have expedited two water transfers to meet
immediate water supply needs and to address long-term demands
north of the Tulare Lake area. Working with the Tulare Lake
Irrigation District, DWR and the Tachi Yokut Tribe entered into
a contractual agreement to institute both a temporary and
permanent transfer of water resulting in over 600-acre feet of
additional water for the area.
A sinkhole opened in the roadway in Madera on Monday, causing a
trailer of fertilizer to fall into the hole, according to the
California Highway Patrol. A truck driver suffered minor
injuries in the crash about 10:25 a.m. on Avenue 13 west of
Granada Drive, and the street was expected to be closed for
weeks as piping below ground was damaged, according to the CHP
and city officials. The city of Madera also asked its residents
to reduce water use to aid workers trying to fix the pipe,
which does not carry drinking water, officials said on social
media. “This is NOT a drinking water issue; drinking water
remains safe and unaffected,” the city said on the Madera
police Facebook page. “However, to assist in the repair efforts
and prevent further complications, which could result in sewage
backup, we ask that you please refrain from non-essential water
use.”
… All might be well in Lodi, but some other regions reported
cuts in their 2024 water supply. In the Westlands Water
District, which manages the water supply on the westside of
Fresno and Kings counties, a Westlands spokeswoman said the
agency was allocated less water than it had contracted for:
“[It’s] an incredibly disappointing and unjustifiably low
allocation for our district water users,” she said. How
is this possible, given the state’s historic rain and snow in
the 2023 water year and optimistic forecasts for the 2024 water
year? As of May 31, precipitation stood at 104% of normal for
the state, while major reservoirs are at 118% of normal,
according to figures compiled by California Water Watch.
Tribal leaders in the Colorado River Basin are urging Congress
to quickly sign off on a $5 billion settlement that would cap
four decades of negotiations and speed construction of a new
pipeline to deliver water from Lake Powell to reservation
lands. The Northeastern Arizona Indian Water Rights Settlement
would ensure flows from the Colorado River, its tributaries and
aquifers to the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe and San Juan Southern
Paiute Tribe.
The future of the Colorado River is in the hands of seven
people. They rarely appear together in public. [Last week],
they did just that – speaking on stage at a water law
conference at the University of Colorado, Boulder. The solution
to the Colorado River’s supply-demand imbalance will be
complicated. Their message in Boulder was simple: These things
take time. “We’re 30 months out,” said John Entsminger,
Nevada’s top water negotiator. “We’re very much in the second
or third inning of this baseball game that we’re playing here.”
The audience was mostly comprised of the people who will feel
the impact of their decisions most sharply – leaders from some
of the 30 Native American tribes that use Colorado River water,
nonprofit groups that advocate for the plants and animals
living along its banks, and managers of cities and farms that
depend on its flows.
Dozens of environmental groups, renewable energy companies,
labor unions, water agencies and social justice advocates are
lobbying state lawmakers to place a multibillion dollar climate
bond on the November ballot. Sacramento lawmakers have been
bombarded with ads and pitches in support of a ballot proposal
that would have the state borrow as much as $10 billion to fund
projects related to the environment and climate change. “Time
to GO ALL IN on a Climate Bond,” says the ad from WateReuse
California, a trade association advocating for projects that
would recycle treated sewage and storm runoff into drinking
water. … Negotiations are ongoing in closed-door
meetings, but details emerged recently when two
spreadsheets of the proposed spending, one for an Assembly
bill known as AB 1567 and the other for the Senate’s SB 867,
were obtained by the news organization Politico. The two
plans, which would be combined into a single ballot measure,
include money for wildlife and land protection, safe drinking
water, shoring up the coast from erosion and wildfire
prevention.
The City of Corning will now be represented by Martin Spannaus
on the Tehama County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District Groundwater Commission upon the resignation of Cody
Lamb, who had served on the commission since June 2023.
Spannaus’s appointment received unanimous approval from the
City Council during its May 28 meeting. Spannaus is the city’s
former fire chief. … Spannaus and his wife, Joann, live on a
cattle and hay ranch west of Corning in the Corning Groundwater
Subbasin, which currently sits at a “high” priority rating.
The Department of the Interior announced a $700 million
investment in water conservation projects across the Lower
Colorado River Basin on Thursday that has the potential to save
more than 700,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead. The funds,
which come from the Inflation Reduction Act, will go toward
water distribution structures, farm efficiency improvements,
canal lining, turf removal, desalination, recycling water,
water purification and other projects, according to a statement
from the Department of the Interior.
California Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan this week removed
the most controversial parts of her bill to expand the state’s
ability to fine illegal water diverters, resolving a yearslong
fight with public water agencies and farmers. What happened:
After Monday’s amendments, Bauer-Kahan’s AB 460 (23R) would
still increase the penalties for those who steal water or
exceed their allotted share during times of drought. But it no
longer expands the Water Resources Control Board’s overall
power to investigate and punish what it sees as violations of
water rights, which business and water groups said last year
would have robbed them of due process. Water users have already
begun dropping their opposition.
Of California’s many tough water challenges, few are more
intractable than regulating how much water must be kept in
rivers and streams to protect the environment. … But now, a
new strategy developed by scientists to end the
stalemate is gaining momentum. … Gov. Gavin Newsom has
already made the blueprint a key element of his plans
to recover salmon populations and build climate
resilience in California’s water systems. Known as
the California Environmental Flows Framework, the
scientists’ strategy shifts the focus of environmental
water management from single species to entire ecosystems.
… The blueprint is already being used for rivers that
wind through California’s famed vineyards and ancient redwood
groves, and streams that feed a Northern California lake of
cultural importance to Native American tribes.
Amid the debate over how to account for water shared by 40
million people, a top Nevada official asserted Thursday there
is at least one point that is unlikely to trigger any new
divisions: Election Day. President Joe Biden is headed toward a
November rematch with former President Donald Trump — setting
up a potential change of party control in the White House, or,
alternately, shifts in executive branch agency leadership that
would likely accompany a second Biden term. John Entsminger,
general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, said
Thursday that Colorado River negotiators are focused on the
long term, regardless of who is in the White House.
A major project to build a new massive reservoir in Northern
California got a step closer to the start of construction, when
a judge rejected a lawsuit from environment groups that don’t
support the development, the California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s
office said Tuesday. The Yolo County Superior Court
approved the Sites Reservoir project within 148 days from when
the suit was filed, in part due to a new law signed
last year by Newsom to speed up the process to build
projects geared at meeting the state’s climate goals. The
court released its ruling on May 31.
Solano County has announced next steps for the controversial
California Forever development. The proposal, backed by
tech and finance billionaires, would build a new city of up to
400,000 people between Fairfield and Rio Vista. Officials
will announce by June 12 whether the project gained enough
signatures to qualify for the November ballot. Bill Emlen,
Solano County Administrator, said there’s not a lot of
information yet about how this new city could impact roadways
and water supplies.
Making wine requires water. But how much? Water is a precious
resource in drought-prone California, and its use in
agriculture is rightfully a contentious topic. … While a wine
glut is compelling some grape growers to remove their
vineyards, some readers are suggesting that this might be a
good thing from a water use perspective. So I wanted to
understand: Just how big of a water suck are California
grapevines, really? The TLDR here is that California wine
grapes don’t gulp nearly as much water as crops like almonds,
pistachios and alfalfa. But the real story here is much more
complex …
The people who decide the fate of the Colorado River are
gathering in Boulder this week for an annual conference. Their
meeting comes at a pivotal time for negotiations on the river’s
future. Negotiators from all seven states that use the river
will be speaking publicly at the two-day conference. They’re in
the middle of tense talks about how to cut back on demand as
climate change is shrinking water supplies. They’ve got to come
up with new rules for sharing the river before the current
guidelines expire in 2026. … This week’s conference will also
feature speakers from tribes, cities and farm districts.
… California and the life cycle of salmon have been linked
for centuries, beginning when only indigenous people lived in
the state. California’s rivers and streams benefit from the
nutrients salmon bring with them from the ocean. Salmon create
jobs. Salmon are our shared living heritage. … [S]almon are
on the brink despite California having some of the strictest
environmental laws on the planet. The government’s ability to
regulate this species to safety is dubious at best. Consider
that the state’s primary plan to protect the Delta by balancing
the uses of water has not been updated by the State Water
Resources Control Board since Bill Clinton was in office. It’s
a telling example of water’s political and regulatory
paralysis. There is no shared sense of responsibility to save
the salmon because we have devised such self-centered
regulatory systems. -Written by Tom Philp, reporter with the Sacramento
Bee.
California is a semi-arid state in which the availability of
water determines land use, and in turn shapes the economy.
That, in a nutshell, explains why Californians have been
jousting over water for the state’s entire 174-year history.
The decades of what some have dubbed “water wars” may be
approaching a climactic point as climate change, economic
evolution, stagnant population growth and environmental
consciousness compel decisions on California’s water future. A
new study, conducted by researchers at three University of
California campuses, projects that a combination of factors
will reduce California’s water supply by up to 9 million
acre-feet a year – roughly the equivalent of all
non-agricultural human use. -Written by CalMatters columnist Dan Walters.
With temperatures spiking across
California this week, now is a great time to reserve your
spot on our Headwaters Tour July
24-25 when we’ll explore the role of the Sierra
Nevada snowpack in the state’s water supply and how heatwaves can
accelerate snowmelt.
The Turlock Irrigation District (TID) Board of Directors has
appointed Brad Koehn as General Manager, effective June 21,
2024. Koehn will replace Michelle Reimers who announced her
resignation on May 31, 2024, after an 18-year career with the
District. Koehn has been with TID for 13 years and has held
various leadership roles at the District, most recently serving
as the Chief Operating Officer since 2020. … Koehn
is a licensed professional engineer and land surveyor in the
State of California, and joined the District in 2011 as the
Civil Engineering Department Manager. In 2018, he was appointed
to Assistant General Manager of the Power Supply
Administration. Prior to working at TID, Koehn spent 16 years
in private practice engineering, most recently co-owning a
local civil engineering firm.
Two rural California airports that are crucial to local air
ambulance services, firefighting efforts and search and rescue
operations are unable to perform critical repairs, blocked by
an agency 300 miles away: the city of Los Angeles. The airports
are two of several major pieces of infrastructure in
California’s Owens valley left in disrepair because of LA
policies, an investigation by AfroLA, the Sheet and the
Guardian reveals. Los Angeles has owned large swaths of Inyo
county, where the Owens valley is located, for more than a
century. With ownership of the land comes rights to its water –
water that is key to servicing the thirsty metropolis of 3.8
million people. Aqueducts carrying water from Inyo and
neighbouring Mono county to LA provided 73% of the city’s water
supply last year.
California is one step closer to building its largest water
storage facility in nearly 50 years, after a court ruled in
favor of the Sites Reservoir project following a challenge by
environmental groups. The Yolo County Superior Court issued the
65 page ruling late last week, marking a possible end to the
project’s environmental litigation. The relatively quick ruling
stands in contrast to a typical, multi-year litigation period
under the Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Gov. Gavin Newsom
accelerated the project’s CEQA litigation period in November
under an infrastructure streamlining package passed the
previous summer. He celebrated the court’s ruling in a news
release Tuesday. … The proposed $4.5 billion reservoir would
inundate nearly 14,000 acres of ranch lands in Glenn and Colusa
counties to store water diverted from the Sacramento River
through new a system of dams, pipelines and a bridge.
Numerous lakes and reservoirs across the United States have
reached full capacity or near full capacity because of two
unusually wet winters. This resurgence in water levels is a
significant shift from the past few years when many regions
faced severe drought conditions. The map below shows all
the lakes currently at full capacity across the whole of the
U.S. These include several lakes that have been the subject of
great concern in recent years after prolonged drought
conditions. However, two wet winters in 2023 and this year,
have improved the outlook significantly, particularly in
California.
It’s not every day that a former source gets indicted. So when
a San Joaquin Valley water manager was charged by federal
prosecutors two years ago with allegedly stealing millions of
dollars worth of water for lavish personal gain, it stopped me
cold. It simply did not square with the person that I thought I
knew. Former general manager Dennis Falaschi of the Panoche
Water District ended up agreeing to a plea deal last week,
acknowledging that he stole some water and falsified some
income on a tax return. But upon any objective examination, the
deal is far more of a black eye to federal prosecutors than to
Falaschi himself because the feds had accused him of stealing
$25 million worth of water – more water than some California
cities use annually. The government utterly failed to prove
anything close to its original case. -Written by columnist Tom Philp.
Water is essential to many of our daily activities, but aging
infrastructure jeopardizes these systems. According to the EPA,
the country has underinvested in water infrastructure, a
sentiment Jerry Burke, who is part of the American Society of
Civil Engineers, also shares. … [I]ssues range from
constant water main breaks to decades-old water pipes, and they
are just two of the reasons why the ASCE gave the country a C
in its latest infrastructure report card. The report card
is released every four years and highlights the condition and
performance of the country’s infrastructure. This past
2021 report was the first time in 20 years that the grade was
out of the D range. Each state is also given a report card,
with California also obtaining a C-.
Marin County’s major water providers have raised rebates for
rainwater catchment systems because of county funding. The
Marin Municipal Water District and the North Marin Water
District are offering customers with the systems rebates of 75
cents per gallon of water — 25 cents more than before. The
offer is supported by $20,000 in funding from the Marin County
Stormwater Pollution Prevention Program. The grant marks a
collaboration between Marin County and the water utilities to
encourage residents to save water. Collecting rainwater to use
for irrigation also helps protect the area from potential
flooding during storms, and prevents pollutants collected
through water runoff from entering bodies of water.
The Sites Reservoir project is getting more federal
funding. Officials with the U.S. Department of the
Interior announced on May 30 that the Biden-Harris
Administration is investing $242 million toward projects aimed
at offering clean, as well as reliable, drinking water in
Western communities. From this funding, $67.5 million will be
offered for the Sites Reservoir project in Colusa and Glenn
counties. The initiative will add up to 1.5 million acre-feet
of new water storage west of the city of Maxwell, on the
Sacramento River system.
Michelle Reimers is resigning as general manager of the Turlock
Irrigation District after four years in the job. The water and
power utility announced the decision, effective June 21, in a
news release Friday. Reimers was its first female GM and had
started there as a public information officer in 2006. “She
does not have anything specific that she is moving to right
away and is looking forward to exploring new ways in which she
can impact the water and power industries,” said an email from
Constance Anderson, communications division manager.
When the state of California began to implement and enforce the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act some nine years ago, it
became clear that without change, there will not be enough
sustainably available groundwater to support all of the
irrigated acres that are currently in production. With that
decline in agriculture, the businesses, communities and tax
base that depends on those farms would be very negatively
impacted as well. This reality prompted a wide variety of
interests in the San Joaquin Valley to form a “coalition
of the willing” that came to be known as the Water Blueprint
for the San Joaquin Valley (Blueprint). The dairy industry was
one of those interests. Over 90% of California milk production
is located in the San Joaquin Valley, much of which is
designated by the State as “critically overdrafted.” On behalf
of Milk Producers Council, I have been involved with the
Blueprint from the beginning. Here is an update on the progress
of the Blueprint.
The completion of Woodward Reservoir 114 years ago has been a
godsend to South San Joaquin Irrigation District as well as the
cities of Manteca, Lathrop, and Tracy. It has played a key role
as an in-district safety net to help SSJID to weather droughts
in much better shape than many other water purveyors in
California including Tri-Dam Project partner, the Oakdale
Irrigation District. The reservoir that holds 36,000 acre feet
of water or enough for just over three complete districtwide
irrigation runs is off stream as opposed to Tri-Dam reservoirs
at Goodwin, Tulloch, Beardsley, and Donnells as well as the
Bureau of Reclamation’s New Melones Reservior. New Melones
holds up to 600,000 acre feet for OID and SSJID as the
result of the original Melones Reservoir built by the two
districts being inundated to build it. -Written by Manteca Bulletin editor Dennis Wyatt.
After more than two decades, Lake Casitas, a vital water source
for the Ojai Valley and parts of Ventura County, has reached
full capacity, to the delight of California residents who lived
through the drought. Phone lines were buzzing Thursday at
Casitas Boat Rentals as the news spread that the lake is
currently at its fullest since 1998. “It’s a really good
feeling to know California is healing from all the drought
we’ve had,” says Kim Sanford of Ventura. … Just two
years ago, during the worst of the drought, the lake level
dropped to below 30 percent capacity. However, two rainy
winters have completely transformed the situation. The
Casitas Municipal Water District emphasizes that despite the
lake holding roughly a 20-year supply of water, conservation
remains a top priority.
Southwestern Colorado is left with 6% of its peak snowpack
earlier than usual this season in part because of a rare,
sudden and large melt in late April. Snow that gathers in
Colorado’s mountains is a key water source for the state, and a
fast, early spring runoff can mean less water for farmers,
ranchers, ecosystems and others in late summer. While the snow
in northern Colorado is just starting to melt, southern river
basins saw their largest, early snowpack drop-off this season,
compared to historical data. For Ken Curtis, the only reason
irrigators in Dolores and Montezuma counties haven’t been short
on water for their farms and ranches is because the area’s
reservoir, McPhee Reservoir, had water supplies left over from
the above-average year in 2023. “Because of the carryover, the
impacts aren’t quite that crazy bad,” said Curtis, general
manager of the Dolores Water Conservancy District.
“Planned export is 4,500 acre-feet”—that is the
much-anticipated decision from Los Angeles on water diversions
from the Mono Basin this year. This means Los Angeles
Department of Water & Power (DWP) diversions will not increase
from last year, even though existing rules would allow DWP to
quadruple their exports from the Mono Basin. This is good news
for Mono Lake, because the decision will help preserve the five
feet of recent wet year lake level gains. Thanks and credit for
this decision go to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for her
leadership, city council and agency leaders, community leaders
for speaking up for environmental sustainability, and citywide
investment in water resilience such as stormwater capture and
other local water conservation measures. It follows a request
by the Mono Lake Committee and a diverse coalition of
supporters in March to not increase diversions.
I’ve spent years writing about California water policy and my
thoughts on water rights can be summarized simply: the current
system is inequitable and must be modernized if the state has
any hope of staving off the worst impacts of the climate
crisis. It is only a matter of time before we are in another
major drought and our water supply becomes even more scarce.
… The bills are currently making their way through the
committee process and it is vital they pass. The Coachella
Valley’s water future depends on it. AB 1337
(Wicks) gives the State Water Resources Control Board –
the agency charged with protecting water use during droughts
and times of scarcity – the ability to oversee the amount of
water used by all water rights holders when there is
a shortage. -Written by Amanda Fencl, a Western States Senior
Climate Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
…Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is looking for new places
to store water and preparing to prevent saltwater from creeping
into California’s main water hub as part of long-term drought
planning outlined in a report published Thursday. The report
was prompted in part by last year’s state audit that determined
that the state Department of Water Resources did not adequately
factor climate change into its forecasts. It lists several
ongoing efforts to revamp the State Water Project but does not
propose any significant changes in operations … Climate
change is likely to further constrict deliveries by the State
Water Project, the state-run system of pipes, pumps and
reservoirs that provides water to 27 million Californians and
irrigates 750,000 acres of farmland.
Democratic lawmakers and environmental advocates are urging
Gov. Gavin Newsom to support a bond measure to help pay for
billions of dollars in climate programs endangered by the
state’s record deficit and deepening budget
cuts. … Climate and public health advocates say
cutting or delaying spending on programs that reduce greenhouse
gases or help California adapt to climate change will
exacerbate natural disasters and weather emergencies and allow
air pollution to continue for years to come. California’s
climate spending includes programs to enhance coastal
resilience as sea levels rise, prepare for wildfires, ensure
water security and develop solar and wind energy projects.
Claudia Sheinbaum, front-runner in Mexico’s presidential race,
aims to overhaul water governance in the agriculture sector,
the top user of the country’s scarce supply, with a potential
investment of 20 billion pesos ($1.2 billion) per year. Julio
Berdegue, a member of Sheinbaum’s campaign team focused on
water and the agricultural sector, told Reuters the candidate’s
six-year plan will review existing water concessions, crack
down on illegal use, update irrigation technology and revamp
national water entity CONAGUA. He cautioned the plan,
details of which have not previously been reported, was still
in development and could change. Sheinbaum has said she plans
to reform the National Water Law and develop a strategy to
confront pervasive issues in Mexico, which is suffering from
crippling drought, widespread water shortages, and heat waves
in recent days so severe that howler monkeys are dropping
dead from trees.
Lawmakers aim to amp up protections for water used by
Colorado’s largest electric utilities with a broadly supported
bill based on recommendations from water experts around the
state. Senate Bill 197 would help electric utilities hold onto
water rights that could otherwise be declared “abandoned” as
the state transitions to clean energy. It would also enhance
protections for environmental and agricultural water, and ease
access to funding for tribes. The bill grew out of water policy
recommendations developed by the Colorado River Drought Task
Force in 2023. The bill, which passed with bipartisan support,
is the legislature’s main effort this year to address those
recommendations — and to help Colorado address its uncertain
water future. Polis has until June 7 to sign the bill, allow it
to become law without his endorsement or veto it.
The Kern County water world was deeply saddened to learn that
Dana Munn, a fixture in local water for decades, died May 8
after a three-year battle with brain cancer. He was 66. Munn
was extremely well regarded among water managers and engineers
both at the local and national levels as his Watermaster
position gave him the opportunity to work closely with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, which owns and operates the Isabella
Dam. “He was just a really calm and sensible voice,” recalled
longtime North Kern Water Storage District Scott Kuney. “He was
someone who loved to solve a problem. And he was an honorable
person down to his roots. People recognized that about him.”
Munn’s unflappable demeanor and encyclopedic knowledge of water
infrastructure, rights and contracts made him one of the top
players in Kern County water for decades.
It’s been almost a half-century since I first heard the term
“peripheral canal” uttered by William Gianelli, who was
then-Gov. Ronald Reagan’s top water official. The project, in
one form or another, had already been kicking around for
decades. The California Water Project became operative in the
1960s and was the most prominent legacy project of Pat Brown,
whom Reagan had defeated in 1966. The project dams the Feather
River near Oroville and releases impounded water to flow down
the Feather into the Sacramento River and eventually into the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Pumps at the southern edge of the
Delta suck the water into the California Aqueduct, which
carries it down the San Joaquin Valley to more pumps over the
Tehachapi Mountains into Southern California. -Written by Dan Walters, CalMatters columnist.
For a second consecutive year, Californians can celebrate the
rejuvenation of the state’s reservoirs. Lake Shasta, the
state’s largest reservoir, is full again after reaching
perilously low levels in the drought-stricken years from 2019
through 2022. The satellite images below, from the NASA, show
the lake in April 2022, at left — when it was at 40% capacity —
and then a little over two weeks ago, when the lake was a
lavish 96% full. On May 7, the lake was at 114% of its
historical average level. The so-called bathtub ring that
clearly outlined the lake in 2022 — so stark it was visible
from space — had disappeared by 2024. The image below
provides a closer look at Shasta’s former bathtub ring. Taken
Oct. 13, 2022, near the Pit River Bridge, the photo shows the
lake when it was 32% full.
Los Osos could end its building moratorium by the end of the
year and see new construction for the first time in decades
under a plan led by the California Coastal Commission and San
Luis Obispo County. The proposal could eventually bring 1%
residential growth to a community that has been under a
building ban since 1988. The history of Los Osos’
moratorium began with the septic tank discharge prohibition
issued by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board in 1983. That agency found that the town’s 5,000 septic
tanks were sending millions of gallons of effluent down the
drain and into both the groundwater and the bay. The county
then carried out a multi-decade struggle to site and fund a new
water treatment plant, finally launched in 2012 and put into
service in 2016.
Two groups of states submitted conflicting proposals in March
describing how federal officials should manage reservoirs on
the Colorado River after 2026. Former Colorado River Water
Conservation District General Manager Eric Kuhn, along with two
other water experts, have their own idea to pitch. Kuhn and his
co-authors, University of New Mexico professor John Fleck and
Utah State University professor Jack Schmidt want to add more
flexibility to dam operations to address environmental and
recreation concerns in the Grand Canyon below Glen Canyon Dam
(the dam that forms Lake Powell). Kuhn presented what has
been called the “academic proposal” during a Colorado Basin
Roundtable meeting in Glenwood Springs on Monday. He said the
document is not a “proposal” akin to the states’ proposals,
describing it as more of an “approach” that can be incorporated
with other proposals.
Major Central Valley water agencies have signed an agreement
with the federal government to establish a new drought
resiliency framework. The partnership is funded by the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation
Reduction Act. The big picture: The U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, the Friant Water Authority, the San Luis &
Delta-Mendota Water Authority and the San Joaquin River
Exchange Contractors Water Authority all signed a memorandum of
understanding on Tuesday to establish a South of Delta Drought
Resiliency Framework. The MOU establishes an approach to
implement drought resiliency projects and framework, which
includes a drought plan that allows the agencies to conserve
and store or exchange a portion of their water deliveries for
use in future years with lower supplies.
Related Central Valley water infrastructure
articles:
Pictures taken from a NASA satellite earlier this month show a
big difference in the water level at Shasta Lake from just two
years ago. According to NASA, the older photo shows the lake at
around 40% capacity, the low water level leaving a bright
outline around California’s biggest reservoir. The more recent
aerial photo shows the lake as it is approaching full
capacity. As of May 20, Shasta Lake is at 97% of its
4,552,000 acre-feet capacity, about 15% above average for this
time of year. The lake was similarly full last year at about
98% of capacity on May 29, 2023. California’s second-biggest
reservoir, Lake Oroville, is currently at 100% capacity, 27%
fuller than average.
Cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are
becoming more frequent and more severe, the Environmental
Protection Agency warned Monday as it issued an enforcement
alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect
the nation’s drinking water. About 70% of utilities inspected
by federal officials over the last year violated standards
meant to prevent breaches or other intrusions, the agency said.
Officials urged even small water systems to improve protections
against hacks. Recent cyberattacks by groups affiliated with
Russia and Iran have targeted smaller communities. Some water
systems are falling short in basic ways, the alert said,
including failure to change default passwords or cut off system
access to former employees.
Last year was notably wet, raising Mono Lake five feet—and
creating a conundrum. Under rules written three decades ago,
the lake’s rise over the 6,380-foot elevation threshold means
that on April 1, 2024, the maximum limit on water diversions
from Mono Lake increased nearly fourfold. Yet decades of
evidence show that increasing water diversions will erode the
wet year gains, stopping the lake from reaching the mandated
healthy 6,392-foot elevation. This flaw in the water
diversion rules, now obvious after 30 years of implementation,
has real-world results: Mono Lake is a decade late and eight
feet short of achieving the healthy lake requirement. The
California State Water Resources Control Board plans to examine
this problem in a future hearing.
Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday he is open to alternatives to
bring more Colorado River water to Southern Utah, including a
suggestion from the Utah Senate president to help California
fund desalination facilities in exchange for part of its water
share. … Earlier in the week, a report by Fox 13 News
and the Colorado River Collaborative journalism
initiative said that Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams,
R-Layton, has put forward the idea of providing part of
the funds for California to construct desalination facilities
to remove salt and brine from Pacific Ocean water to convert it
to safe drinking water. In exchange, Utah would get a portion
of California’s share of the river’s water.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
Learn the history and challenges facing the West’s most dramatic
and developed river.
The Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin introduces the
1,450-mile river that sustains 40 million people and millions of
acres of farmland spanning seven states and parts of northern
Mexico.
The 28-page primer explains how the river’s water is shared and
managed as the Southwest transitions to a hotter and drier
climate.
Moab is a growing town of 5,300 that up to 5 million people
visit each year to hike nearby Arches and Canyonlands national
parks, ride mountain bikes and all-terrain vehicles, or raft
the Colorado River. Like any western resort town, it
desperately needs affordable housing. What locals say it
doesn’t need is a high-end development on a sandbar projecting
into the Colorado River, where groves of cottonwoods, willows
and hackberries flourish. “Delusional,” shameful” or
“outrageous” is what many locals call this Kane Creek
Preservation and Development project. - Written by Mary Moran, a contributor to Writers on
the Range
After more than two decades of
drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the
arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking
water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the
water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are
racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable
reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on
imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
The climate-driven shrinking of the
Colorado River is expanding the influence of Native American
tribes over how the river’s flows are divided among cities, farms
and reservations across the Southwest.
The tribes are seeing the value of their largely unused river
water entitlements rise as the Colorado dwindles, and they are
gaining seats they’ve never had at the water bargaining table as
government agencies try to redress a legacy of exclusion.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
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.
Much of California’s water supply
originates in the Sierra Nevada, making it dependent on the
health of forests. But those forests are suffering from
widespread tree mortality and other ecosystem degradation
resulting mostly from the growing frequency and severity
of droughts and wildfires.
The states of the Lower Colorado
River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in
tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West.
California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals
and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper
Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even
during dry years.
But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water
cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper
Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are
muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river
whose average flows in the Upper Basin have already dropped
20 percent over the last century.
They have formed new agencies to better monitor their interests,
moved influential Colorado River veterans into top negotiating
posts and improved their relationships with Native American
tribes that also hold substantial claims to the river.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
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 special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
Growing up in the shadow of the
Rocky Mountains, Andrew Schwartz never missed an opportunity to
play in – or study – a Colorado snowstorm. During major
blizzards, he would traipse out into the icy wind and heavy
drifts of snow pretending to be a scientist researching in
Antarctica.
Decades later, still armed with an obsession for extreme weather,
Schwartz has landed in one of the snowiest places in the West,
leading a research lab whose mission is to give California water
managers instant information on the depth and quality of snow
draping the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
When the Colorado River Compact was
signed 100 years ago, the negotiators for seven Western states
bet that the river they were dividing would have ample water to
meet everyone’s needs – even those not seated around the table.
A century later, it’s clear the water they bet on is not there.
More than two decades of drought, lake evaporation and overuse of
water have nearly drained the river’s two anchor reservoirs, Lake
Powell on the Arizona-Utah border and Lake Mead near Las Vegas.
Climate change is rendering the basin drier, shrinking spring
runoff that’s vital for river flows, farms, tribes and cities
across the basin – and essential for refilling reservoirs.
The states that endorsed the Colorado River Compact in 1922 – and
the tribes and nation of Mexico that were excluded from the table
– are now straining to find, and perhaps more importantly accept,
solutions on a river that may offer just half of the water that
the Compact assumed would be available. And not only are
solutions not coming easily, the relationships essential for
compromise are getting more frayed.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
The three-year span, 2019 to 2022, was officially the driest ever
statewide going back to 1895 when modern records began in
California. But that most recent period of overall drought
also saw big swings from very wet to very dry stretches such
as the 2021-2022 water year that went from a relatively
wet Oct.-Dec. beginning to the driest Jan.-March period in the
state’s history.
With La Niña conditions predicted to persist into the
winter, what can reliably be said about the prospects for
Water Year 2023? Does La Niña really mean anything for California
or is it all washed up as a predictor in this new reality of
climate whiplash, and has any of this affected our reliance on
historical patterns to forecast California’s water supply?
Participants found out what efforts are being made to
improve sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) precipitation
forecasting for California and the Colorado River Basin at our
one-day Winter Outlook Workshop December
8 in Irvine, CA.
Beckman Center
Huntington Room
100 Academy Way
Irvine, California 92617
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.”
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
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
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
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.
Climate scientist Brad Udall calls
himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado
River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that
highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State
University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s
future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less
water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the
Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being
released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
For more than 20 years, Tanya
Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado
River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from
Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more
than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and
other crops.
Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower
Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water
evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a
lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the
Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for
sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later
worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of
California, exposing her to the different perspectives and
challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s
Lower Basin.
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, possibly as much as 10 degrees by end of the century, according to some models, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River.
On average, more than 60 percent of
California’s developed water supply originates in the Sierra
Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade Range. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
This tour ventured into the Sierra to examine water issues
that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and
throughout the state.
When you oversee the largest
supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think
big.
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has
focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building
security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s
borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of
California’s population.
As California slowly emerges from
the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, one remnant left behind by
the statewide lockdown offers a sobering reminder of the economic
challenges still ahead for millions of the state’s residents and
the water agencies that serve them – a mountain of water debt.
Water affordability concerns, long an issue in a state where
millions of people struggle to make ends meet, jumped into
overdrive last year as the pandemic wrenched the economy. Jobs
were lost and household finances were upended. Even with federal
stimulus aid and unemployment checks, bills fell by the wayside.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
This beautifully illustrated 24×36-inch poster, suitable for
framing and display in any office or classroom, highlights the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, its place as a center of
farming, its importance as an ecological resource and its
vital role in California’s water supply system.
The text, photos and graphics explain issues related to land
subsidence, levees and flooding, urbanization, farming, fish and
wildlife protection. An inset map illustrates the tidal action
that increases the salinity of the Delta’s waterways.
A government agency that controls much of California’s water
supply released its initial allocation for 2021, and the
numbers reinforced fears that the state is falling into another
drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that most
of the water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project
will get just 5% of their contract supply, a dismally low
number. Although the figure could grow if California gets more
rain and snow, the allocation comes amid fresh weather
forecasts suggesting the dry winter is continuing. The National
Weather Service says the Sacramento Valley will be warm and
windy the next few days, with no rain in the forecast.
Members of the 2020 Water Leaders class examined how
to adapt water management to climate change. Read their
policy recommendations in the class report, Adapting
California Water Management to Climate Change: Charting a Path
Forward, to learn more.
Twenty years ago, the Colorado River
Basin’s hydrology began tumbling into a historically bad stretch.
The weather turned persistently dry. Water levels in the system’s
anchor reservoirs of Lake Powell and Lake Mead plummeted. A river
system relied upon by nearly 40 million people, farms and
ecosystems across the West was in trouble. And there was no guide
on how to respond.
Radically transformed from its ancient origin as a vast tidal-influenced freshwater marsh, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem is in constant flux, influenced by factors within the estuary itself and the massive watersheds that drain though it into the Pacific Ocean.
Lately, however, scientists say the rate of change has kicked into overdrive, fueled in part by climate change, and is limiting the ability of science and Delta water managers to keep up. The rapid pace of upheaval demands a new way of conducting science and managing water in the troubled estuary.
Colorado is home to the headwaters
of the Colorado River and the water policy decisions made in the
Centennial State reverberate throughout the river’s sprawling
basin that stretches south to Mexico. The stakes are huge in a
basin that serves 40 million people, and responding to the water
needs of the economy, productive agriculture, a robust
recreational industry and environmental protection takes
expertise, leadership and a steady hand.
Sprawled across a desert expanse
along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high
bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges
of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full. How
those challenges play out as demand grows for the river’s water
amid a changing climate is fueling simmering questions about
Powell’s future.
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.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
The Colorado River is arguably one
of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to
40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the West.
But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and decisions
made about its management will have exceptional ramifications for
the future, especially as impacts from climate change are felt.
Every other year we hold an
invitation-only Colorado River Symposium attended by various
stakeholders from across the seven Western states and Mexico that
rely on the iconic river. We host this three-day event in Santa
Fe, N.M., where the 1922 Colorado River Compact was signed, as
part of our mission to catalyze critical conversations to build
bridges and inform collaborative decision-making.
Members of the 2019 Water Leaders class examined the
emerging issue of wildfire impacts on California’s water
supply and quality. Read their policy recommendations in the
class report, Fire and Water: An Emerging Nexus in
California, to learn more.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.
That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.
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.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
High in the headwaters of the Colorado River, around the hamlet of Kremmling, Colorado, generations of families have made ranching and farming a way of life, their hay fields and cattle sustained by the river’s flow. But as more water was pulled from the river and sent over the Continental Divide to meet the needs of Denver and other cities on the Front Range, less was left behind to meet the needs of ranchers and fish.
“What used to be a very large river that inundated the land has really become a trickle,” said Mely Whiting, Colorado counsel for Trout Unlimited. “We estimate that 70 percent of the flow on an annual average goes across the Continental Divide and never comes back.”
Registration opens today for the
Water Education Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit, set for Oct. 30 in Sacramento. This year’s
theme, Water Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,
reflects fast-approaching deadlines for the State Groundwater
Management Act as well as the pressing need for new approaches to
water management as California and the West weather intensified
flooding, fire and drought. To register for this can’t-miss
event, visit our Water Summit
event page.
Registration includes a full day of discussions by leading
stakeholders and policymakers on key issues, as well as coffee,
materials, gourmet lunch and an outdoor reception by the
Sacramento River that will offer the opportunity to network with
speakers and other attendees. The summit also features a silent
auction to benefit our Water Leaders program featuring
items up for bid such as kayaking trips, hotel stays and lunches
with key people in the water world.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Our 36th annual
Water Summit,
happening Oct. 30 in Sacramento, will feature the theme “Water
Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,” reflecting upcoming regulatory
deadlines and efforts to improve water management and policy in
the face of natural disasters.
The Summit will feature top policymakers and leading stakeholders
providing the latest information and a variety of viewpoints on
issues affecting water across California and the West.
New to this year’s slate of water
tours, our Edge of
Drought Tour Aug. 27-29 will venture into the Santa
Barbara area to learn about the challenges of limited local
surface and groundwater supplies and the solutions being
implemented to address them.
Despite Santa Barbara County’s decision to lift a drought
emergency declaration after this winter’s storms replenished
local reservoirs, the region’s hydrologic recovery often has
lagged behind much of the rest of the state.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.
~John Wesley Powell
Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.
Sixty percent of California’s
developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada,
making the state’s water supply largely dependent on the health
of Sierra forests. But those forests are suffering from ecosystem
degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
On our Headwaters Tour
June 27-28, we will visit Eldorado and Tahoe national forests to
learn about new forest management practices, including efforts to
both prevent wildfires and recover from them.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
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.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The 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 growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
As stakeholders labor to nail down
effective and durable drought contingency plans for the Colorado
River Basin, they face a stark reality: Scientific research is
increasingly pointing to even drier, more challenging times
ahead.
The latest sobering assessment landed the day after Thanksgiving,
when U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth National Climate
Assessment concluded that Earth’s climate is changing rapidly
compared to the pace of natural variations that have occurred
throughout its history, with greenhouse gas emissions largely the
cause.
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
The 1992 election to the United
States Senate was famously coined the “Year of the Woman” for the
record number of women elected to the upper chamber.
In the water world, 2018 has been a similar banner year, with
noteworthy appointments of women to top leadership posts in
California — Karla Nemeth at the California Department of Water
Resources and Gloria Gray at the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California.
The 2018 Water Leaders class examined ways to improve water
management through data. Read their recommendations in the class
report, Catch the Data Wave: Improving Water Management
through Data.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
As the Colorado River Basin becomes
drier and shortage conditions loom, one great variable remains:
How much of the river’s water belongs to Native American tribes?
Native Americans already use water from the Colorado River and
its tributaries for a variety of purposes, including leasing it
to non-Indian users. But some tribes aren’t using their full
federal Indian reserved water right and others have water rights
claims that have yet to be resolved. Combined, tribes have rights
to more water than some states in the Colorado River Basin.
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.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
“Dry, hot and on fire” is how the
California Department of Water Resources described Water Year
2018 in a recent report.
Water Year 2018 – from Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018 -
marked a return to dry conditions statewide following an
exceptionally wet 2017, according to DWR’s Water
Year 2018 report. But 2017 was exceptional as all but two of
the water years in the past decade experienced drought.
Was Water Year 2018 simply a single dry year or does it
signal the beginning of another drought? And what can
reliably be said about the prospects for Water Year 2019? Does El
Niño really mean anything for California or is it all washed up
as a predictor?
Attendees found out at this one-day event Dec. 5 in
Irvine, Water Year 2019: Feast or
Famine?
Beckman Center
Auditorium - Huntington Room
100 Academy Way
Irvine, California 92617
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.
People in California and the
Southwest are getting stingier with water, a story that’s told by
the acre-foot.
For years, water use has generally been described in terms of
acre-foot per a certain number of households, keying off the
image of an acre-foot as a football field a foot deep in water.
The long-time rule of thumb: One acre-foot of water would supply
the indoor and outdoor needs of two typical urban households for
a year.
The Colorado River Basin is more
than likely headed to unprecedented shortage in 2020 that could
force supply cuts to some states, but work is “furiously”
underway to reduce the risk and avert a crisis, Bureau of
Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman told an audience of
California water industry people.
During a keynote address at the Water Education Foundation’s
Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento, Burman said there is
opportunity for Colorado River Basin states to control their
destiny, but acknowledged that in water, there are no guarantees
that agreement can be reached.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine
water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts
downstream and throughout the state.
GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
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.
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.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
Spurred by drought and a major
policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented
mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the
hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to
halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of
recovery.
Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help
characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner
that reflects its original intent.
For decades, cannabis has been grown
in California – hidden away in forested groves or surreptitiously
harvested under the glare of high-intensity indoor lamps in
suburban tract homes.
In the past 20 years, however, cannabis — known more widely as
marijuana – has been moving from being a criminal activity to
gaining legitimacy as one of the hundreds of cash crops in the
state’s $46 billion-dollar agriculture industry, first legalized
for medicinal purposes and this year for recreational use.
As we continue forging ahead in 2018
with our online version of Western Water after 40 years
as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also
got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.
State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing
up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and
combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish
and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps
unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved
Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if
anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that
marijuana was legal.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
Learn what new tree-ring studies in
Southern California watersheds reveal about drought, hear about
efforts to improve subseasonal to seasonal weather forecasting
and get the latest on climate change impacts that will alter
drought vulnerability in the future.
At our Paleo
Drought Workshop on April 19th in San Pedro, you will hear
from experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of
Arizona and California Department of Water Resources.
Joaquin Esquivel learned that life is
what happens when you make plans. Esquivel, who holds the public
member slot at the State Water Resources Control Board in
Sacramento, had just closed purchase on a house in Washington
D.C. with his partner when he was tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown a
year ago to fill the Board vacancy.
Esquivel, 35, had spent a decade in Washington, first in several
capacities with then Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then as
assistant secretary for federal water policy at the California
Natural Resources Agency. As a member of the State Water Board,
he shares with four other members the difficult task of
ensuring balance to all the uses of California’s water.
Does California need to revamp the way in which water is dedicated to the environment to better protect fish and the ecosystem at large? In the hypersensitive world of California water, where differences over who gets what can result in epic legislative and legal battles, the idea sparks a combination of fear, uncertainty and promise.
Saying that the way California manages water for the environment “isn’t working for anyone,” the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shook things up late last year by proposing a redesigned regulatory system featuring what they described as water ecosystem plans and water budgets with allocations set aside for the environment.
Every day, people flock to Daniel
Swain’s social media platforms to find out the latest news and
insight about California’s notoriously unpredictable weather.
Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the
Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, famously coined the
term “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” in December 2013 to describe
the large, formidable high-pressure mass that was parked over the
West Coast during winter and diverted storms away from
California, intensifying the drought.
Swain’s research focuses on atmospheric processes that cause
droughts and floods, along with the changing character of extreme
weather events in a warming world. A lifelong Californian and
alumnus of University of California, Davis, and Stanford
University, Swain is best known for the widely read Weather West blog, which provides
unique perspectives on weather and climate in California and the
western United States. In a recent interview with Western
Water, he talked about the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, its
potential long-term impact on California weather, and what may
lie ahead for the state’s water supply.
The 2017 Water Leaders class
organized by the Water Education Foundation completed its year
with a report outlining policy recommendations for the
future of water storage in California.
The class of 20 from
various stakeholder groups and backgrounds that hailed from
cities and towns across the state had full editorial control to
chose recommendations. While they did not endorse a specific
storage proposal, they recommended that California:
Deepen your knowledge of California water issues at our popular
Water
101 Workshop and jump aboard the bus the next day to
visit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 720,000-acre
network of islands and canals that supports the state’s water
system and is California’s most crucial water and ecological
resource.
Atmospheric rivers are relatively
narrow bands of moisture that ferry precipitation across the
Pacific Ocean to the West Coast and are key to California’s
water
supply.
For decades, no matter the weather, the message has been preached
to Californians: use water wisely, especially outdoors, which
accounts for most urban water use.
Enforcement of that message filters to the local level, where
water agencies routinely target the notorious “gutter flooder”
with gentle reminders and, if necessary, financial penalties.
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
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
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.
For as long as agriculture has existed in the Central Valley,
farmers have pumped water from the ground to sustain their
livelihood and grow food consumed by much of the nation. This has
caused the ground in certain places to sink, sometimes
dramatically, eliminating valuable aquifer storage space that can
never be restored.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
A critical aspect of California’s drive to create new water
storage is in place after the California Water Commission
approved regulations governing how those potential storage
projects could receive public funding under Prop. 1.
The Dec. 14 decision potentially paves the way for new surface
water projects, such as Sites Reservoir, and expansion of Los
Vaqueros reservoir in Contra Costa County.
