A watershed is a land area that helps drain runoff (snowmelt and
rain) into a diverse system of lakes, streams, rivers, and other
waterways.
Watersheds may be as small as a patch of land draining into a
tiny pond or as large as the Sacramento River Basin, which drains
an area about 27,000 square miles.
Watersheds follow natural boundaries and are usually separated
from one another by ridges or mountains. A watershed has many
important natural functions. It collects water from
precipitation, stores groundwater in aquifers, releases
water as runoff and provides habitat for plants and animals.
On a bright morning in early January near the confluence of the
San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers in Central California, John
Cain looks out over a small, curved lake. The trees are mostly
bare for winter, but Cain, senior director of conservation of
the nonprofit organization River Partners, points out … the
wild landscape in front of him is buzzing. … Until a
little more than a decade ago, this area was productive
farmland … Now it’s set to be California’s next state park
after a restoration project spearheaded by River
Partners converted the ranch into rewilded riverside
habitat. As climate change has doubled the likelihood of
flooding in California, and is projected to increase runoff
from storms by as much as 200 percent to 400 percent, this
restored floodplain is proving to be a promising approach. Not
only does the area help buffer downstream communities from
flood damage, it also maximizes environmental benefits from
high waters. “When we step back from the river, when we give
the river more room, flooding actually is a very productive
process for the ecosystem,” says Cain. “It recharges
groundwater. It filters polluted water. It nourishes riparian
forests that support all kinds of wildlife. It’s alive.”
It wasn’t the appearance of a flashy, high-ranking California
official at the podium, or the review of 35 years of efforts to
protect the Bay’s watershed at the beginning of the May 2024
State of the Estuary conference that made me sit up in my red
velvet auditorium seat. It was an awards ceremony for
outstanding projects. … There to receive each small plaque
from Friends of the Estuary were long lines of “collaborators.”
As they snaked on and off the stage for a photo and handshake,
the line of folk who had helped complete this or that project —
from mapping the range of the salt marsh harvest mouse to
involving students and teachers in watershed restoration — got
longer and longer. … Though the region’s ability to
collaborate with other agencies and scientists and managers to
protect and restore the San Francisco Estuary has grown
exponentially, over the years, these same folks are now
tangling with a new challenge: how to make this work relevant
to the Bay Area’s most “underserved” communities.
Experts are warning Californians to brace for a ‘very active’
wildfire season this fall as two back-to-back wet winters and
forecasts for a warmer-than-normal summer are likely to prime
the state’s landscape for fire. Even as recent blazes triggered
evacuations in Los Angeles and Sonoma counties, those incidents
may prove to be relatively tame compared with what the rest of
the year could have in store, said Daniel Swain, a UCLA climate
scientist and extreme weather expert. … Climate change is
also driving warmer global temperatures and a
thirstier atmosphere, both of which can extract more water from
the landscape and pave the way for hotter and faster fires in
the West and other arid areas, Swain said. In fact, he said the
state’s recent cycling between wet and dry conditions is in
some ways the worst setup for wildfire activity in a warming
world.
Forest thinning increases water supplies downstream while
reducing wildfire risk, according to a study conducted by Salt
River Project and Arizona State University. Land managers
and scientists knew forest thinning — a technique that clears
smaller trees and vegetation to reduce fuel loads in forests —
decreases wildfire hazard, but wanted to quantify how
restoration projects also benefit watersheds. …One acre-foot
of water can supply three Arizona families with water for a
year. SRP provides water for much of metro Phoenix from
snowfall and rain runoff across 8 million acres of land in
northern Arizona.
A major wildfire in northern Los Angeles County continued
burning Monday evening southeast toward Pyramid Lake, scorching
more than 15,000 acres to become the state’s largest blaze of
the year.… Since Saturday, more than 20 fires sparked across
California, burning over 20,000 acres…. Such early-season
fires are fueled by heat-dried grasses, and Southern
California’s hillsides and mountains are dense with vegetation
after two back-to-back wet winters. Because of that, more
dangerous fires that engulf larger trees and plants are likely
in store for later this year, according to Daniel Swain, a
climate scientist with UCLA…. In particular, the forested,
high-elevation areas that have endured some of the state’s
worst wildfires in recent memory are still moist following two
strong wet seasons and haven’t yet started to display much
wildfire activity. That could change as conditions get hotter
and drier for longer stretches of time…
In an effort to elevate the needs of the environment in water
management, the state of Colorado is convening a new committee
that is scheduled to begin meeting this summer. The
Colorado Water Conservation Board and Boulder-based nonprofit
River Network are creating a pilot program known as the
Environmental Flows Cohort, which will assess how much water is
needed to maintain healthy streams and how to meet these flow
recommendations. The cohort will include not just environmental
advocates, but agricultural and municipal water users, who may
initially feel threatened by environmental flow
recommendations. The goal of the program is to address
the barriers that lead to these recommendations being excluded
from local stream management plans. The cohort was one of the
recommendations in a January 2023 analysis of SMPs by
the River Network.
After a year of dominance, El Niño’s wrath has come to end —
but it’s climate-churning counterpart, La Niña, is hot on its
heels and could signal a return to dryness for California. El
Niño is the warm phase of the El Niño Southern Oscillation,
sometimes referred to as ENSO. The climate pattern in the
tropical Pacific is the single largest driver of weather
conditions worldwide, and has been actively disrupting global
temperatures and precipitation patterns since its arrival last
summer. Among other effects, the El Niño event contributed to
months of record-high global ocean temperatures, extreme heat
stress to coral reefs, drought in the Amazon and Central
America, and record-setting atmospheric rivers on the U.S. West
Coast, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said
in its latest ENSO update.
Millions of people dependent on Himalayan snowmelt for water
face a “very serious” risk of shortages this year after one of
the lowest rates of snowfall, scientists warned
Monday. Snowmelt is the source of about a quarter of the
total water flow of 12 major river basins that originate high
in the region, the report said. ”This is a wake-up call
for researchers, policymakers, and downstream communities,”
said report author Sher Muhammad, from the Nepal-based
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
(ICIMOD). ”Lower accumulation of snow and
fluctuating levels of snow pose a very serious increased risk
of water shortages, particularly this year.” Snow and ice
on the Himalayas are a crucial water source for around 240
million people in the mountainous regions, as well as for
another 1.65 billion people in the river
valleys below, according to ICIMOD.
The wet weather of the past two years has been a stark contrast
to the drought conditions that California has become accustomed
to. Floods, landslides, and overflowing streets were a winter
staple as storms from atmospheric rivers–so named for their
shape and the amount of moisture they carry–dumped buckets of
rain on the Golden State. Now that we’ve moved out of the
rainy season into the drier, warmer summer months, we can begin
to take stock of the effects of the wet years. These include
filled groundwater supplies and lush hills, along with worse
allergies and more fuel for wildfires, to say nothing of the
considerable toll taken on road infrastructure. Here’s a look
at some of the ways that the statewide effects of the rain
might show up for Oakland residents.
… Last year, Assemblymember Jim Wood (D-Healdsburg)
introduced a pivotal piece of legislation to enhance drought
preparedness and climate resiliency for North Coast watersheds.
Supported by a coalition of organizations and Tribal Nations,
and co-sponsored by CalTrout, AB 1272 promises a better future
for North Coast communities and the iconic species that live
there. North Coast communities are deeply connected to
salmon populations and rivers. Declining salmon numbers due to
severe droughts and water management challenges have led to the
closure of salmon fishing in 2023 and again this year.
Another winter without enough snow and rain has left much of
the western United States parched for water, according to
scientists monitoring a snow drought. Thanks to
below-normal precipitation during the water season, snow
drought conditions persist across most of the West, according
to a June 12 report from scientists at the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration. While some regions such as the
Sierra Nevada range, improved over the winter, scientists say
many places will see further drought development or
intensification this summer. Many locations in Washington
and the northern Rocky Mountains received less than 15% of the
average rainfall, with eight weather stations in Montana and
two in Washington reporting record low rainfall values. In
Idaho, Montana and Washington, snow drought developed early in
the season and persisted, bringing snow water equivalent — the
water contained in a mountain’s snowpack — to 55 to 75% of the
normal amount.
Grass, meet spark. Bay Area residents, meet fire. The explosive
start to the 2024 fire season — the Corral Fire near Livermore
that tore through rolling grasslands and rapidly scorched more
acreage than the 1,253 previous California wildfires this year
combined — heralds the types of blazes experts say residents of
the Bay Area and elsewhere in Northern California can expect in
coming weeks: fast-moving grass fires. What comes later depends
largely on the weather. … The Sierra Foothills and Sacramento
Valley are also facing normal wildfire threat levels.
California’s water supply could be in trouble, as a new study
has found that the state’s rivers and streams are severely
under monitored, posing serious risks to effective water
management. The study, published in Nature Sustainability,
stresses that while the state relies heavily on its rivers and
streams for water supply, flood control, biodiversity
conservation and hydropower generation, only 8 percent of
California’s rivers and streams are monitored by stream gauges,
devices used to measure water flow. The lack of monitoring
not only makes it difficult to manage water resources
efficiently but also hinders the ability to understand the
effects of climate change and conserve freshwater biodiversity.
… The study found that only 9 percent of California’s
large dams had stream gauges upstream or downstream to measure
water flow. The lack of monitoring hampers the ability to
manage water supply and control floods effectively, the
researchers said.
Cal Fire on Sunday announced it is suspending burn permits in
state-managed areas east of Sacramento due to worsening summer
fire conditions. The agency’s Amador-El Dorado unit moved to
limit burning due to “increasing fire danger posed by the high
volume of dead grass and hotter, drier conditions in the
region,” according to a news release. The suspension applies to
Cal Fire-managed areas in Alpine, Amador and Sacramento
counties, as well as El Dorado County west of Echo Summit and a
portion of San Joaquin County. It does not apply to areas of
AEU territory in the Lake Tahoe Basin.
For California’s Sierra Nevada, the winter of 2022-2023
delivered an epic snowpack that broke many records and busted a
severe drought. … Both hazardous and helpful, the banner year
was also of interest to snow scientists, such as Adrienne
Marshall, an assistant professor of geology and geological
engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in
Golden. Marshall was lead author of a paper published in
April in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
that introduces the term “snow deluge” to describe extreme snow
years like the one California weathered.
The state engineer recently approved water rights for lithium
drilling on the Green River. She is now reconsidering her
decision. Lithium extraction requires a lot of water. An
Australian company promises that a new method uses virtually no
water to draw out the metal, which is a fundamental element for
rechargeable batteries used in phones, computers, cameras — and
especially electric vehicles. The Biden administration
considers lithium vital to the nation’s transition to cleaner,
renewable energy, and in her approval, Utah State Engineer
Teresa Wilhelmsen cited a growing demand for lithium and
batteries. But a group of farmers, residents and
environmentalists said that using water from the
drought-plagued Colorado River system for an unproven project
opens a dangerous door.
The grey smoky skies can be seen for hundreds of miles. But now
researchers are on the trail of wildfire threats that are
invisible to the naked eye. The result of intense heat, from
wildfires burning longer and hotter. “When we start getting
really severe fires, we see a transformation where the really,
really intense fires leave these lasting impacts on the soil,”
says Professor Scott Fendorf, Ph.D., of Stanford’s Doerr School
of Sustainability. Fendorf is leading a multi-year study.
The team examined soils in forest areas that have been slow to
recover from recent wildfires in the Sierra and elsewhere.
Although early research has pointed to cycles of drought,
Fendorf and his colleagues identified toxic concentrations of
chemicals in the soil which could also be slowing regrowth. …
Researchers say another key concern moving forward will be the
safety of drinking water. And they’re hoping to learn more
about the effects of runoff from contaminated soils.
Utah state officials reversed course this week on a key water
permit for a major lithium extraction project in the state,
agreeing with conservation advocates who asked for further
review of the project. In a decision issued Tuesday, Utah State
Engineer Teresa Wilhelmsen said her office would suspend its
earlier approval of nearly 4.6 billion gallons of water to be
used by a mining company as part of a “direct lithium
extraction project” near the Green River. The office will
continue consideration of the proposal. Wilhelmsen’s ruling
came at the behest of conservation advocates who had raised
concerns about the location of the proposed wells — which would
draw water from an aquifer system 10,000 feet below the surface
— including the proximity to waste left by a former uranium
mining facility.
With temperatures spiking across California this week, now
is a great time to reserve your spot on our Headwaters Tour July
24-25 when we’ll explore the role of the Sierra
Nevada snowpack in the state’s water supply and how heatwaves
can accelerate snowmelt. The state’s critical ‘frozen
reservoir’ was slightly above average at the end of
the 2024 snow survey season, following an epic snowpack in 2023
that prompted widespread flooding and the resurrection of
Tulare Lake. During the July tour, we’ll also learn how
snowpack is measured and translated into forecasts of
California’s water supply for the year.
… The 2-day, 1-night
tour with an overnight in Lake
Tahoe travels up the Sierra foothills and into
the mountains within the American River and Yuba River
watersheds. Meadow restoration, climate change, wildfire
impact and more will be discussed as we pass through
Eldorado and Tahoe national forests.
The fate of the nation’s first outdoor experiment of the
potential to limit global warming by altering clouds will be
determined this week by a handful of local officials in the San
Francisco Bay Area. But before the city council of Alameda,
elected by a community of 77,000 people, decides on whether to
allow the resumption of the internationally significant
research, it will discuss replacing the roof of a senior center
and other municipal issues. The consideration of the marine
cloud brightening study — official, agenda item “7-B” — stands
to be one of the first consequential public hearings on solar
geoengineering in the nation. The unusual situation set to play
out Tuesday night illustrates just how hard it is to test
technologies that might be used in the future to brighten
clouds or spray aerosols in the stratosphere — promising but
ethically fraught ways to turn down the planet’s thermostat by
reflecting sunlight back into space.
A wind-driven wildfire in San Joaquin County reached 14,168
acres by Sunday night, prompting evacuations in some areas,
officials said. The Corral fire near the city of Tracy,
east of San Francisco, is 50% contained, the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said. The blaze
was reported late Saturday afternoon near the Lawrence
Livermore National Laboratory Site 300, southwest of Tracy. The
Environmental Protection Agency describes Site 300 as
a “high-explosives and materials testing site in support of
nuclear weapons research.” The EPA said operations at the site,
which began in the 1950s, “contaminated soil and groundwater
with hazardous chemicals,” and long-term cleanup is ongoing.
Ukiah Fire Chief Doug Hutchison knew what kind of hassle the
city was getting into by acquiring some 763 acres of overgrown,
fire-starved forest on the city’s western edge—but it seemed
worth it. There, Doolin Creek’s two forks merge and run through
a steep canyon, eventually heading straight through the city
and emptying into the Russian River. Steelhead trout, which
swim most of the way up the Russian River’s 110 miles to spawn
in its tributaries, and year-round resident native fishes like
sculpins and roaches, are kept cool by big trees shading the
creek. California nutmeg, fragrant like sandalwood, has been
spotted here, and spiky chinquapin. Also, the manzanita and
chamise are so thick in places that it’s hard to walk through.
If a big hot fire rolled through here, it would be very bad for
the wildlife, the forest, and the community. The city has taken
on the property to mitigate those fire risks and protect the
watershed.
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.
As we head into summer, don’t miss your chance to explore the
statewide impact of forest health on water resources
on our Headwaters Tour July
24-25! We’ll venture with experts into
the foothills and mountains of the Sierra Nevada to examine
water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts on
water supply and quality downstream and throughout California
on our
Save the dates for:
Northern
California Tour, October 16-18: 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. Registration
opens June 12!
Water Summit, October 30: Attend the Water
Education Foundation’s premier annual event hosted in
Sacramento with leading policymakers and experts addressing
critical water issues in California and across the West. More
details coming soon!
Growing up in the shadow of the
Rocky Mountains, Andrew Schwartz never missed an opportunity to
play in – or study – a Colorado snowstorm. During major
blizzards, he would traipse out into the icy wind and heavy
drifts of snow pretending to be a scientist researching in
Antarctica.
Decades later, still armed with an obsession for extreme weather,
Schwartz has landed in one of the snowiest places in the West,
leading a research lab whose mission is to give California water
managers instant information on the depth and quality of snow
draping the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
Land and waterway managers labored
hard over the course of a century to control California’s unruly
rivers by building dams and levees to slow and contain their
water. Now, farmers, environmentalists and agencies are undoing
some of that work as part of an accelerating campaign to restore
the state’s major floodplains.
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.
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.
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.”
Each day, people living on the streets and camping along waterways across California face the same struggle – finding clean drinking water and a place to wash and go to the bathroom.
Some find friendly businesses willing to help, or public restrooms and drinking water fountains. Yet for many homeless people, accessing the water and sanitation that most people take for granted remains a daily struggle.
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.
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.
Water means life for all the Grand Canyon’s inhabitants, including the many varieties of insects that are a foundation of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, in Northern Arizona near the Utah border, disrupt the natural pace of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left high and dry and their loss directly affects available food for endangered fish such as the humpback chub.
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.
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.
Lake
Tahoe, the iconic high Sierra water body that straddles
California and Nevada, has sat for more than 10,000 years at the
heart of the Washoe tribe’s territory. In fact, the name Tahoe
came from the tribal word dá’aw, meaning lake.
The lake’s English name was the source of debate for about 100
years after it was first “discovered” in 1844 by people of
European descent when Gen. John C. Fremont’s expedition made its
way into the region. Not long after, a man who carried mail on
snowshoes from Placerville to Nevada City named it Lake Bigler in
honor of John Bigler, who served as California’s third governor.
But because Bigler was an ardent secessionist, the federal
Interior Department during the Civil War introduced the name
Tahoe in 1862. Meanwhile, California kept it as Lake Bigler and
didn’t officially recognize the name as Lake Tahoe until 1945.
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.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
A new study could help water
agencies find solutions to the vexing challenges the homeless
face in gaining access to clean water for drinking and
sanitation.
The Santa Ana Watershed Project
Authority (SAWPA) in Southern California has embarked on a
comprehensive and collaborative effort aimed at assessing
strengths and needs as it relates to water services for people
(including the homeless) within its 2,840 square-mile area that
extends from the San Bernardino Mountains to the Orange County
coast.
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.
ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric
river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur
once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011
report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate
the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property
and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
The Eel River supports one of California’s largest wild salmon
and steelhead runs in a watershed that hosts the world’s largest
surviving stands of ancient redwoods.
The Eel flows generally northward from Northern California’s
Mendocino National Forest to the Pacific, a few miles south of
Eureka. The river and its tributaries drain
more than 3,500 square miles, the state’s
third-largest watershed.
This 24-page booklet details the conflict between
environmentalists, fish organizations and the Yuba County Water
Agency and how it was resolved through the Lower Yuba River
Accord – a unique agreement supported by 18 agencies and
non-governmental organizations. The publication details
the history and hydrology of the Yuba River, past and present
environmental concerns, and conflicts over dam operations and
protecting endangered fish is included.
This 28-page report describes the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada
region and details their importance to California’s overall water
picture. It describes the region’s issues and challenges,
including healthy forests, catastrophic fire, recreational
impacts, climate change, development and land use.
The report also discusses the importance of protecting and
restoring watersheds in order to retain water quality and enhance
quantity. Examples and case studies are included.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this
24×36-inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson
River, and its link to the Truckee River. The map includes the
Lahontan Dam and reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming
areas in the basin. Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and
geography, the Newlands Project, land and water use within the
basin and wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant
from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan
Basin Area Office.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of
the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is
hot off the press and available for purchase.
Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview covers the
history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental
relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers — and a
vast watershed that hosts one of the nation’s oldest and
largest reclamation projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Flood Management explains the
physical flood control system, including levees; discusses
previous flood events (including the 1997 flooding); explores
issues of floodplain management and development; provides an
overview of flood forecasting; and outlines ongoing flood control
projects.
A watershed is the land area that drains snowmelt and rain into a
network of lakes, streams, rivers and other waterways. It
typically is identified by the largest draining watercourse
within the system. In California, for example, the Sacramento River Basin is the
state’s largest watershed.
Southern California’s Santa Ana River is the largest watershed
drainage south of the Sierra and is located largely in a highly
urbanized, highly regulated setting.
At about 100 miles long and with more than 50 tributaries, the
Santa Ana spans parts of San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange
counties as it drains 2,840 square miles of land.
Drawn from a special stakeholder symposium held in September 1999
in Keystone, Colorado, this issue explores how we got to where we
are today on the Colorado River; an era in which the traditional
water development of the past has given way to a more
collaborative approach that tries to protect the environment
while stretching available water supplies.
Lake Tahoe is one of the Sierra Nevada’s crown jewels, renowned
for its breathtaking clarity. The high-altitude, clear blue lake
and its surrounding basin, which lie on the California-Nevada
state line, is a spectacular natural resource that provides
environmental, economic, recreational and aesthetic benefits.