The Great Salt Lake’s southern arm reached 4,195 feet elevation
at times over the stormy weekend as it nears reaching that
figure daily for the first time in five years. While that’s a
key water level in the ongoing efforts to preserve the lake
after it reached an all-time low in 2022, the state agency
tasked with overseeing the lake’s future recently took a field
trip to other parts of the Southwest as it soaks up ideas that
could help improve future water inflows.
On May 7, scientists from University of California, Riverside,
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, Colorado State University
Extension, Kansas State University, University of Arizona,
Central Arizona Project, and USDA-Agricultural Research Service
will gather with growers in Palm Desert to discuss how
artificial intelligence can be used in agriculture.
For the last 20 years, the Southern Nevada Water Authority has
been giving Las Vegas residents cash for each square foot of
grass they convert to a desert landscape. That incentive went
up just for 2024 from $3 a square foot to $5 a square foot of
grass converted. … Last year, over 12 million
square feet of grass was converted and that was when the
incentive was at $3 a square foot. Now this year at $5 a square
foot SNWA is seeing around a thousand applications each month
for the rebate program which has a budget of about $24
million.
Farmers in the critically overdrafted Tulare Lake Subbasin in
the San Joaquin Valley are bracing for escalating costs as
state and local agencies assess fees on wells and groundwater
pumped. For the first time, the California State Water
Resources Control Board last week placed the subbasin on
probationary status as part of regulations under the state’s
landmark 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA.
… Kings County Farm Bureau Executive Director Dusty Ference
said new state and local groundwater-related fees will impact
farmers and communities.
In what may be an illegal tax increase, the board of the
Metropolitan Water District just approved a two-year budget
that doubles the property tax it collects in its six-county
service area. MWD is a water wholesaler with 26 cities and
water retailers as its customers. Through those entities, MWD
supplies water to about 19 million people in Los Angeles,
Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura
counties. The new budget raises the wholesale rates by 8.5% in
2025 and then by 8.5% again in 2026. The rates for treated
water will go up 11% and then 10%. Metropolitan said it has to
raise rates and taxes to cover its operating costs because
they’ve been selling less water, first because of drought, and
then because of rain.
The current water year, which began Oct. 1, has been wetter
than usual, with the Russian River watershed accumulating 119%
of the yearly average rainfall, totaling 49.38 inches since
October. In the past, we might have celebrated our good fortune
and watched lake levels rise only to watch much of it sent
downriver to the Pacific Ocean as reservoirs reached an
inflexible upper threshold. Today, we get to continue enjoying
that ample rainfall long after summer sunshine arrives. Grant
Davis With almost a decade of data under its belt, the Russian
River Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations program has been
making great strides by demonstrating the viability of this
strategy to operate reservoirs more effectively using modern
technology and forecasting. -Written by Grant Davis, general manager of Sonoma
Water.
Santa Clara County residents could see higher water bills in
the upcoming year, as one water agency looks for ways to cover
costs. Valley Water, the region’s main water supplier, is
proposing raising groundwater production charges on cities and
private water retailers. The increase will be passed on to
household ratepayers through local water companies such as San
Jose Water. This could add $8.78 a month to customers’ bills in
the upcoming fiscal year. Valley Water is spending big to
fix the Anderson and Pacheco dams and other projects that hold
and protect the county’s water supply from climate change. The
board of directors is looking for more money amid a
multimillion-dollar structural deficit, putting residents on
the hook for the district’s losses.
The sunlight glints off a geometric shape across the glassy
surface of a reservoir in the Golan Heights. This is a solar
array, with panels mounted on floating pontoons, and anchored
to the banks, rising and falling with the water level. The
innovation of “dual use” reservoirs — providing water storage
on the one hand, and “green” energy on the other — is just the
latest advance pioneered by the Jewish National Fund (JNF),
which manages Israel’s forests and farmland. …
California has not seen a major reservoir built since the late
1970s, but Israel built hundreds of small reservoirs from 1990
to 2010, after a water crisis in the 1970s and 1980s prompted
the government to expand the system’s capacity.
The Sonoma County Water Agency —Sonoma Water— Board of
Directors voted Tuesday to increase wholesale water rates to
address the pressing aging infrastructure needs. The adjusted
wholesale water rates are forecasted to have a modest impact on
household budgets of between $2-$3 per month, based on location
and water usage. The cities of Cotati, Petaluma, Rohnert Park,
Santa Rosa and Sonoma; the town of Windsor; and the Marin
Municipal, North Marin and Valley of the Moon water districts,
all purchase their water from Sonoma Water.
The Metropolitan Water District plans to spend up to $250
million on four non-traditional water projects that, combined,
could supply up to 100,000 Southern California households over
the next few years. Wastewater recycling, rainwater reclamation
and transforming ocean water into drinking water are some of
the technologies that could get money in the coming wave of
funding from MWD. The Los Angeles-based wholesaler, which helps
transfer water from Northern California and the Colorado River
to 26 retail water districts in the Los Angeles region, has
spent about $700 million on smaller, non-traditional water
projects since launching its Local Resources Program in 1990.
The amounts announced Monday, April 15, represent some of MWD’s
biggest investments in water innovation to date.
Ecuador on Tuesday began to ration electricity in the country’s
main cities as a drought linked to the El Niño weather pattern
depletes reservoirs and limits output at hydroelectric plants
that produce about 75% of the nation’s power. The power cuts
were announced on Monday night by the ministry of energy, which
said in a statement that it would review its decision on
Wednesday night. … The power cuts in Ecuador come days after
dry weather forced Colombia’s capital city of Bogotá to ration
water as its reservoirs reached record lows, threatening local
supplies of tap water. In the town of La Calera, on the
outskirts of Bogotá, water trucks visited neighborhoods where
water has been scarce recently because a local stream that
supplies the town with water is drying up.
… The federal government’s current approach to this imbalance
is the equivalent of trying to cure cancer with a Band-Aid.
Instead of pursuing a long-term solution, Washington is using
federal funds to pay states and tribal nations to leave water
in the river instead of taking their full allocation. Mostly,
that means paying farmers to stop farming. That is not a viable
long-term solution, and strategically, we need to be
encouraging MORE local farming and food production, not less.
It does make sense to assist local farmers in switching to
crops that require less water, but it does not make sense to
put American farmers out of business and make us more reliant
on food trucked or shipped thousands of miles before it arrives
on our tables. -Written by Arizona Republican Kari Lake, who is running
for the U.S. Senate.
California’s second wet winter in a row has left L.A’s water
supplies in good shape for at least another year, but the
inevitable return to dry conditions could once again put the
city’s residents in a precarious position. After the state’s
final snow survey of the season, officials with the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power announced that Eastern Sierra
snowpack is measuring 103% of normal, “providing ample supplies
through the city’s most cost-efficient water supply from the
Los Angeles Aqueduct.”
Pasadena Water and Power (PWP) has launched a new multi-year
campaign called “The Ripple Effect” aimed at promoting water
sustainability and resilience in the community. Acting General
Manager David Reyes urged all PWP customers to become local
water stewards for Pasadena and the region by participating
in the campaign. “We invite every member of our
community to embrace their role as local water stewards,” said
Reyes. “Each one of us holds a vital place in shaping
Pasadena’s water future.” About one-third of
Pasadena’s water supply comes from local groundwater, with the
remaining two-thirds imported from other sources. PWP
emphasized that understanding where the community’s water comes
from helps foster a greater appreciation for
this critical resource.
A bill that would allow graywater systems to be included in new
homes throughout Colorado received rare unanimous approval from
the Colorado House on Friday. Graywater is made up of water
that has been used a single time from appliances like laundry
machines, baths or sinks and can be used again for non-drinking
purposes like toilet flushes and irrigation. Conservationists
point to graywater uses as a way to cut down on water
consumption as the drought in the West has deepened in recent
years.
The Marin Municipal Water District has adopted its strategic
work plan as it strives to reduce potable water use and
increase supply. The work plan, approved unanimously at
Tuesday’s board meeting, outlines the steps needed to implement
the five-year strategic plan the district adopted in February.
The strategic plan includes targets for water supply, drought
resiliency, land stewardship and fiscal responsibility.
The Navajos live in the same 1,400-mile-long Colorado River
Basin that brings fresh water to millions in Southern
California, yet about 30% of homes on the reservation were
built without indoor plumbing. With the absence of pipes
connecting homes in this isolated corner of the reservation to
a water source, many Navajos must spend hours each week driving
to a community center in the tribal settlement of Dennehotso to
refill portable tanks. … Some see hope in a
proposed landmark agreement that would settle all
outstanding water rights disputes between the Navajo, Hopi and
San Juan Southern Paiute tribes and the state of Arizona. If
the final terms of the agreement are approved by the tribal
government, the Navajos will ask Congress for $5 billion in
federal funding to expand the reservation’s water delivery
infrastructure.
Canals in California may soon feature a new look — solar panel
canopies, designed to stop evaporation and soak up the sun’s
rays, created under a new project funded with help from the
federal government to boost green energy
infrastructure. Governor Gavin Newsom joined staff from
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on Thursday to highlight a new
“solar-over-canal” project along one of the state’s primary
aqueducts. The pilot project proposes placing a solar canopy to
“float” over a major waterway as a source of renewable energy
that can also prevent loss of precious water through
evaporation. Adam Nickels, Deputy Regional Director at the
Bureau of Reclamation, said that the Biden Inflation Reduction
Act helped make it possible to pick a portion of the
Delta-Mendota Canal for placement of a solar panel in Merced
County.
The start of April means that California’s rainy season is
coming to an end. Things are looking pretty good this year, but
there are some caveats. The snowpack across the Sierra Nevada
and the Colorado River Basin — both critical stores of water —
is hovering slightly above average, though it’s nowhere near
what we saw last winter. … It’s looking unlikely, as our
reservoirs are quite full and we’ve had a good showing of
snow. “We pulled back on restrictions last year, however,
we’re telling people to use their common sense,” said Adel
Hagekhalil, CEO of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California. The public agency will neither be drawing from
or putting water into storage, though that’ll change if the
allocation increases. According to Hagekhalil, the MWD has
enough water to help Southern California get through the next
three years.
Time is quickly running out for businesses, HOAs and
multifamily properties to get the most out of the cash
incentives offered by the Southern Nevada Water Authority
(SNWA) for replacing thirsty non-functional grass with
drought-friendly landscaping. The SNWA recently approved
changes to the Water Smart Landscapes rebate program that will
decrease cash incentives for non-functional grass conversion
projects on non-single-family properties. Starting Jan. 1,
2025, the rebate for such projects will be reduced to $2 per
square foot for the first 10,000 square feet of non-functional
grass converted to drip-irrigated trees and plants, and $1 per
square foot thereafter.
California’s State Water Board is wrestling with what terms to
set for water conservation regulation for urban areas. This
regulation implements state policy designed to Make
Conservation a California Way of Life. But the only way to make
that vision equitable is to ensure the needs of low-income
communities are taken into account. Unfortunately, the Water
Board is considering making it too easy to slow-walk
investments in conservation, not only in low-income
communities, but also in wealthy places like Beverly Hills that
use significantly more than their fair share. The proposed
regulation currently under consideration means that 72% of
Californians will not need to save a single additional drop
until 2035. -Written by Kyle Jones, Policy & Legal Director
at the Community Water Center.
A coalition of environmental groups is proposing a new set of
rules for managing the Colorado River after 2026, when the
current guidelines expire. … The “Cooperative
Conservation Alternative,” as dubbed by the environmental
proposal’s authors, offers a series of ideas on how to make
sure decisions about the water supply for people and businesses
don’t leave the environment behind. The first idea outlined in
the proposal is the implementation of a new way of measuring
how much water is stored in reservoirs along the Colorado
River, with water releases adjusted accordingly.
On the heels of two wet winters, it’s easy to forget how close
some parts of California came to running out of water a few
short years ago. But this climate amnesia will not help us
prepare for the next inevitable drought. … the water board is
about to trample the hard-won work that’s been done so far by
allowing water utilities until 2035 or later to
implement meaningful reductions. … Because the water
board’s latest plan for implementing efficiency standards has
such an extended timeline, water will inevitably become even
more expensive, including for low-income households and
communities. -Written by Robert Hertzberg, a former speaker of
the Assembly and former majority leader of the state Senate;
and Assembly member Laura Friedman
(D-Glendale), running to replace Adam Schiff in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
To address the concern of historic groundwater overdraft in the
San Joaquin Valley, the California Water Institute at Fresno
State, with assistance from students and faculty, conducted a
feasibility study to explore the potential for groundwater
recharge within disadvantaged communities. … The analysis
identified four potential locations for the design and
construction of recharge basins near or in the cities of
Kerman, Raisin City, Caruthers and Laton.
California farmers could save massive amounts of water if they
planted less thirsty — but also less lucrative — crops such as
grains and hay instead of almonds and alfalfa, according to new
research by scientists who used remote sensing and artificial
intelligence. Such a seismic shift in the nation’s most
productive agricultural state could cut consumption by roughly
93%, researchers with UC Santa Barbara and the NASA Jet
Propulsion Laboratory reported Monday. But Anna Boser, the
study’s lead author, acknowledged that replacing all of
California’s water-intensive crops with the least-intensive
ones is an unrealistic economic scenario. … In a
less-extreme scenario, Boser and her colleagues reported that
fallowing 5% of fields with the most water-intensive crops
could cut water consumption by more than 9%, according to
the study, published in the journal Nature Communications.
The Colorado River is relied upon by roughly 40 million people.
That includes members of 30 federally-recognized tribes, as
well as residents across seven states. Four of those are in the
region known as the Upper Basin – that includes Colorado, Utah,
Wyoming, and New Mexico – and the other three are in the Lower
Basin – California, Arizona, and Nevada. In Colorado alone,
half of Denver’s supply – as well as half of Colorado Springs’
supply – rely on the river. Tribal nations in Colorado,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming have been left out of key
agreements involving the Colorado River for well over a century
now.
Efficiently managing agricultural irrigation is vital for food
security today and into the future under climate change. Yet,
evaluating agriculture’s hydrological impacts and strategies to
reduce them remains challenging due to a lack of field-scale
data on crop water consumption. Here, we develop a method to
fill this gap using remote sensing and machine learning, and
leverage it to assess water saving strategies in California’s
Central Valley. We find that switching to lower water intensity
crops can reduce consumption by up to 93%, but this requires
adopting uncommon crop types. … These results reveal diverse
approaches for achieving sustainable water use, emphasizing the
potential of sub-field scale crop water consumption maps to
guide water management in California and beyond.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The message is oft-repeated that
water must be conserved and used as wisely as possible.
The California Water Code calls water use efficiency “the
efficient management of water resources for beneficial uses,
preventing waste, or accomplishing additional benefits with the
same amount of water.”
From the Greek “xeros” and Middle Dutch “scap,”
xeriscape was coined
in 1978 and literally translates to “dry scene.”
Xeriscaping, by extension, is making an environment which can
tolerate dryness. This involves installing drought-resistant and
slow-growing plants to reduce water use.
Irrigation is the artificial supply
of water to grow crops or plants. Obtained from either surface or groundwater, it optimizes
agricultural production when the amount of rain and where it
falls is insufficient. Different irrigation
systems are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in
practical use are often combined. Much of the agriculture in
California and the West relies on irrigation.
This card includes information about the Colorado River, who uses
the river, how the river’s water is divided and other pertinent
facts about this vital resource for the Southwest. Beautifully
illustrated with color photographs.
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 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
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.
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 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.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, illustrates the
water resources available for Nevada cities, agriculture and the
environment. It features natural and manmade water resources
throughout the state, including the Truckee and Carson rivers,
Lake Tahoe, Pyramid Lake and the course of the Colorado River
that forms the state’s eastern boundary.
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 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
Water conservation has become a way of life throughout the West
with a growing recognition that water supply is not unlimited.
Drought is the most common motivator of increased water
conservation. However, the gradual drying of the West due to
climate change means the amount of fresh water available for
drinking, irrigation, industry and other uses must be used as
efficiently as possible.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study and what its
finding might mean for the future of the lifeblood of the
Southwest.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
agricultural water use – its successes, the planned state
regulation to quantify its efficiency and the potential for
greater savings.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
financing of water infrastructure, both at the local level and
from the statewide perspective, and some of the factors that
influence how people receive their water, the price they pay for
it and how much they might have to pay in the future.
This printed copy of Western Water examines California’s drought
– its impact on water users in the urban and agricultural sector
and the steps being taken to prepare for another dry year should
it arrive.
Perhaps no other issue has rocketed to prominence in such a short
time as climate change. A decade ago, discussion about greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions and the connection to warming temperatures
was but a fraction of the attention now given to the issue. From
the United Nations to local communities, people are talking about
climate change – its characteristics and what steps need to be
taken to mitigate and adapt to the anticipated impacts.
This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of
smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from
improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the
improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the
water community say conserving water is not merely a response to
drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which
every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.
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.
This issue updates progress on crafting and implementing
California’s 4.4 plan to reduce its use of Colorado River water
by 800,000 acre-feet. The state has used as much as 5.2 million
acre-feet of Colorado River water annually, but under pressure
from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the other six states
that share this resource, California’s Colorado River parties
have been trying to close the gap between demand and supply.