“Infrastructure” in general can be defined as the components and
equipment needed to operate, as well as the structures needed
for, public works systems. Typical examples include roads,
bridges, sewers and water supply systems.Various dams and
infrastructural buildings have given Californians and the West
the opportunity to control water, dating back to the days of
Native Americans.
Water management infrastructure focuses on the parts, including
pipes, storage reservoirs, pumps, valves, filtration and
treatment equipment and meters, as well as the buildings to
house process and treatment equipment. Irrigation infrastructure
includes reservoirs, irrigation canals. Major flood control
infrastructure includes dikes, levees, major pumping stations and
floodgates.
One of the largest dams built in the United States in the last
two decades is one year away from completion, a dam that will
help supply water to Northern Coloradans for decades to
come. The Chimney Hollow Reservoir project is
underway in the Foothills west of Loveland, and it’s expected
to be completed and retaining water by summer of 2025.
… Northern Colorado is one of the fastest growing
regions in the state.
Rebuilding beaches after hurricanes is costing U.S. taxpayers
billions of dollars more than expected as the Army Corps of
Engineers pumps mountains of sand onto storm-obliterated
shorelines. Congress approved more than $770 million since 2018
for emergency beach “nourishment” projects after five
megastorms struck Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas. Those
costs shattered government expectations about the price of
preventing beaches from disappearing through decades-old
programs that in many cases were created before the dangerous
effects of climate change were fully understood. Four of those
storms — Michael, Maria, Irma and Ian — were among the most
powerful to make landfall in the United States, raising
questions about the rising costs of pumping, dumping and
spreading sand onto beaches that are increasingly jeopardized
by the effects of climbing temperatures.
Workers hurriedly tried to shore up a rural Utah dam after a
60-foot crack sent water pouring into a creek and endangering
the 1,800 residents of a downstream town. State and local
leaders don’t think the Panguitch Lake Dam is in imminent
danger of breaking open but have told residents to be prepared
to evacuate if conditions worsen.
Key backup tubes inside the Glen Canyon Dam might be damaged,
potentially threatening the delivery of water to Lake Mead in
the future if water levels ever dip too low in Lake Powell,
according to a Bureau of Reclamation memo. Below 3,490 feet,
water releases from Lake Powell are wholly dependent on “river
outlet works,” which water managers now feel are not functional
and could threaten the water supply downstream. Currently, the
reservoir sits at 3,558 feet, and the latest two-year
projection places water levels above 3,560 feet until at least
February 2026. Looming threats of climate change and
evaporative losses also are complicating state negotiations for
how to allocate the shrinking Colorado River.
Aiming to boost the county’s water supply, the Marin Municipal
Water District is exploring the idea of connecting pipelines in
Petaluma and Cotati to its reservoirs. District staff presented
three main potential projects — narrowed from 13 — at Tuesday’s
board of directors meeting. … The pipelines would transport
water from the Russian River into Marin reservoirs. Treated
Russian River water is transported to Marin through a 9-mile
aqueduct along the Highway 101 corridor from Petaluma to North
Marin Water District in Novato. The district then sends the
water directly to the Marin Municipal Water District’s water
distribution system. Board members expressed concern over cost
estimates, which ranged between $140 million and $380 million.
Wetlands have flourished along the world’s coastlines for
thousands of years, playing valuable roles in the lives of
people and wildlife. They protect the land from storm surge,
stop seawater from contaminating drinking water supplies, and
create habitat for birds, fish and threatened species. Much of
that may be gone in a matter of decades. As the planet warms,
sea level rises at an ever-faster rate. Wetlands have generally
kept pace by building upward and creeping inland a few meters
per year. But raised roadbeds, cities, farms and increasing
land elevation can leave wetlands with nowhere to go. Sea-level
rise projections for midcentury suggest the waterline will be
shifting 15 to 100 times faster than wetland migration has been
clocked. -Written by Randall W. Parkinson, Research Associate
Professor in Coastal Geology, Florida International
University.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has a new sales pitch for a tunnel to move
more water south from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta
that past governors have tried and failed to build for five
decades. “The Delta conveyance is an adaptation project,” he
said last week in a snowy field in the Sierra Nevada, where a
winter that started out dry eventually delivered a
just-above-average snowpack that will soon melt into the
Sacramento River and its
tributaries. … Long-skeptical Delta lawmakers
aren’t convinced by the latest rationale. “He’s searching for a
reason,” said Representative John Garamendi, a Democrat
from the western part of the Delta.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Monday that recently
uncovered damage to the Glen Canyon Dam will require it to
reduce flows through portions of the structure as it looks to
repair the site and prevent future problems at one of the
nation’s major reservoirs. Wayne Pullan, the Bureau of
Reclamation’s Upper Colorado Basin regional director, said that
the agency — which is responsible for delivering water to
Arizona, California and Nevada — is investigating damage to the
lowest level of pipes at the dam, four structures known as the
“River Outlet Works.” “In nearly 60 years of operation in Glen
Canyon Dam, we didn’t need to address the issues that we’re
facing now,” Pullan said in a news conference. “We didn’t need
to consider the possible sustained operation of the River
Outlet Works at low elevations.”
A first-of-its-kind report has estimated that Los Angeles
County must invest billions of dollars through 2040 to protect
residents from worsening climate hazards, including extreme
heat, increasing precipitation, worsening wildfires, rising sea
levels and climate-induced public health threats. The report,
published this week by the nonprofit Center for Climate
Integrity, identified 14 different climate adaptation measures
that authors calculated would cost L.A. taxpayers at least
$12.5 billion over the next 15 years. … To mitigate
these impacts, the county must expand its stormwater drainage
infrastructure by installing bioswales, porous pavement and
other opportunities for stormwater to seep into the ground, the
report found.
Almost half of all homes in the U.S. are at severe or extreme
risk of flood, hurricane winds, wildfires, heat and/or
hazardous air quality. In the 2024 Housing and Climate Risk
Report, Realtor.com looked at homes across the nation to
analyze which cities had homes at the highest risk of those
disasters, which the site calls climate
risk. … About 9% of homes across the U.S. are at
severe to extreme air quality risk. The San Francisco
Bay Area tops the list. California’s
frequent droughts, wildfires and heat waves are largely at
fault. ”Shifts in environmental conditions, including
extreme heat, drought, and wildfires, are amplifying the
likelihood of heightened air pollution risk,” wrote
analysts.
It doesn’t look like wastewater will be turned into tap water
in Marin County any time soon. California regulators approved
new rules in December allowing water agencies to purify
wastewater and put it back into the pipes that carry drinking
water to homes, schools and businesses. Officials at the Marin
Municipal Water District said potential projects come with a
high cost and lots of complexities. “Where we stand is we look
forward to continuing to monitor the regulations and larger
agencies,” said Lucy Croy, water quality manager. With that
said, members of the district board said they are interested in
pursuing expansion of its purple pipe system that delivers
recycled water for such purposes as irrigation, toilet flushing
and industrial cooling.
Journalist and author Stephen Robert Miller grew up in Tucson.
And now, he’s written a book taking a different look at his
childhood home. In “Over the Seawall,” Miller investigates how
lofty attempts to control nature and protect ourselves from
climate change often backfire — and how vulnerable people are
the most affected by it. It’s about unintended consequences and
good — and sometimes bad — intentions. And, in Arizona, it’s
about water – and our often futile attempts to get more of it
in our ever-growing metropolises. … I focused a lot on
agriculture and, obviously, you know, as everyone kind of does
and you start writing about climate change and especially
Arizona, because ag uses so much of the water, right about
three-quarters of the whole system.
The Biden-Harris administration is redoubling its efforts to
improve cybersecurity for the nation’s water systems. In March,
the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the White
House issued a dire warning to state governors alerting them of
the need to protect water and wastewater systems from ongoing
cybersecurity threats and requested that the states provide
plans to decrease the risk of attacks on water and wastewater
systems in their state. … While the letter focused on
the national need for investment in water infrastructure,
California’s water systems are in particularly dire need for
upgrades. The EPA has previously estimated that California
needs about $51 billion in improvements to its water
infrastructure.
The Imperial Irrigation District announced in a recent press
report that it has been awarded $7 million in grant funds from
the Department of the Interior in support of the district’s
proposed Upstream Operational Reservoir Project, which would be
the largest reservoir ever constructed in the Imperial Valley
during IID’s 113-year history as an irrigation district. The
announcement was recently made by the Interior Department, with
funds coming from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to increase
water supply reliability. This latest grant award to IID is in
addition to a $9.5 million grant previously awarded to the
district for a total of $16.5 million in federal funding for
the Upstream Operational Reservoir Project.
A generational issue for the families living in San Lucas
continues as they’ve gone decades without drinking water. Soon
federal, state, and local leaders will secure nearly a million
dollars to build a pipeline to King City. … Plants not
growing, animals dying, young children unable to bathe, this is
the reality for those living in the unincorporated South
Monterey County town of San Lucas.
As a homeowner, you invest a great deal of time, money, love,
imagination, and hard work into your house and property.
Of course, you hope nothing will go seriously wrong. Still, you
purchase homeowner’s insurance to give you peace of mind and to
ensure you’re financially protected if your home and belongings
are damaged by unpredictable events such as fire, vandalism,
theft, or storms. Today, climate change is causing
increasingly erratic weather patterns. Natural disasters,
including severe storms and wildfires, are becoming more
frequent and devastating. In 2023, nine “atmospheric
rivers” pummeled the western United States, dumping record
amounts of rain and snow. According to the National
Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service, more
than 32 trillion gallons of water drenched California, racking
up $4.6 billion in damages. -Written by John Petrov, a contractor and public
insurance adjuster with over 25 years of experience in the
construction industry.
Flooding could affect one out of every 50 residents in 24
coastal cities in the United States by the year 2050, a study
led by Virginia Tech researchers suggests. The study, published
this month in Nature, shows how the combination of land
subsidence—in this case, the sinking of shoreline terrain—and
rising sea levels can lead to the flooding of coastal areas
sooner than previously anticipated by research that had focused
primarily on sea level rise scenarios. … The study
combines measurements of land subsidence obtained from
satellites with sea level rise projections and tide charts,
offering a more holistic projection of potential flooding risks
in 32 cities located along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf
coasts.
At least $11 billion would be needed to upgrade wastewater
treatment facilities across the Bay Area if regulators impose
anticipated stricter environmental rules, according to a
regional water board that seeks to protect the San Francisco
Bay. The upgrades at dozens of sewage treatment plants,
needed to prevent toxic algae blooms and protect fish, would
cost an average of $4,000 per household, and consumers may end
up funding the improvements. The key culprit? Nitrogen
found in urine and fecal matter, which feeds the growth of
algae.
Hydropower generation in the U.S. West plunged to a 22-year low
last year — dropping 11 percent from the year before, according
to a new federal data analysis. The total amount produced
in the region amounted to 141.5 million megawatt-hours, or
about 60 percent of the country’s total hydroelectricity output
in the 2022-23 “water year,” per the data published
by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
… On the other hand, a series of atmospheric rivers in
California spurred an increase in hydroelectricity production
in the Golden State — nearly doubling it in comparison to the
previous water year, the analysis noted.
Water Audit California has voiced concerns about Napa County in
recent months, appealing two Planning Commission decisions and
calling new county plans for storing paper records a “black
hole.” The environmental advocacy group appealed a Dec. 20
county Planning Commission decision approving a Nova Business
Park project. But its bigger claim is that the county fails to
do adequate due diligence, something the county denies.
… The two impacts of data centers drawing the most concern in
Colorado are the growing demand for power and impact it could
have on the power grid and the need for millions of gallons of
water by data centers, primarily for cooling. … While
Colorado and the West have suffered a 20-year drought and there
is haggling over the future of the dwindling Colorado River, a
hyperscale data center with evaporative cooling can, according
to Dglt, use more than 200 million gallons of water a year,
about 550,000 gallons a day — enough to supply 1,200 households
of four to five people for a year.
At the Indian Wells Valley Water District board meeting on
March 11, the Water District board moved forward in learning
about the process of consolidating the Dune 3 water mutual
company into their service area. Some negotiation and planning
still needs to happen before any decision is finalized, but for
the moment the board is willing to cautiously move forward in
the process. The IWV Water District serves water to IWV
residents by pumping water out of the IWV groundwater basin.
However, they are not the only ones doing so. Dotted all across
IWV are domestic well owners and even a few other public or
private organizations resembling a water district. If one of
those organizations fails, an obligation still exists to serve
water to the people in that region.
Imagine putting billions of dollars into creating something
that tastes like nothing. When it comes to municipal water
systems the world over, that’s what water companies strive to
provide — no bad or off flavors, no assertive minerals, just
bland safety. It’s a miracle, and one we shouldn’t take for
granted. In The Taste of Water, author Christy Spackman looks
beyond the glass to ask how our water should and shouldn’t
taste. Spackman, a professor at Arizona State University, is
also the director of the Sensory Labor(atory), an experimental
research collective dedicated to disrupting longstanding
sensory hierarchies. Through her work, she became interested in
why people eat what they do and how the management of taste and
smell done by food scientists and engineers, shapes the
experiences we often take for granted.
The U.S. government is warning state governors that foreign
hackers are carrying out disruptive cyberattacks against water
and sewage systems throughout the country. In a letter released
Tuesday, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan
warned that “disabling cyberattacks are striking water and
wastewater systems throughout the United States.” The letter
singled out alleged Iranian and Chinese cyber saboteurs.
Sullivan and Regan cited a recent case in which hackers accused
of acting in concert with Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had
disabled a controller at a water facility in Pennsylvania. They
also called out a Chinese hacking group dubbed “Volt Typhoon”
which they said had “compromised information technology of
multiple critical infrastructure systems, including drinking
water, in the United States and its territories.”
Water shortages are becoming a way of life in cities across the
globe — Los Angeles; Cape Town, South Africa; Jakarta,
Indonesia; and many more — as climate change worsens and
authorities often pipe in water from ever-more-distant sources.
“Water sources are depleted around the world,” said Victoria
Beard, a professor of city and regional planning at Cornell
University. “Every year, more cities will face ‘Day Zero,’ with
no water in their piped systems.” Mexico City — founded by the
Aztecs on an island amid lakes, with a rainy season that
brought torrents and flooding — might have been an exception.
For decades, the focus has been getting rid of water, not
capturing it. But a grim convergence of factors — including
runaway growth, official indifference, faulty infrastructure,
rising temperatures and reduced rainfall — have left this
mega-city at a tipping point after years of mostly unheeded
warnings.
Colorado lawmakers say they want Congress to do its job and
fund repairs to a deteriorating irrigation system in
southwestern Colorado. The irrigation system, called the Pine
River Indian Irrigation Project, is one of 16 federal projects
in the West that have fallen into disrepair. The maintenance
backlog is extensive and would cost more than $2.3 billion to
address. … Southern Ute representatives focused on the
Indian Irrigation Fund during Colorado River Drought Task Force
meetings in 2023.
Plans to build a water pump station in Novato are drawing
opposition from neighbors. The North Marin Water District is
considering building the station at “Site 2,” a parcel on a
city-owned greenway that borders Arroyo San Jose Creek near
Ignacio Boulevard and Palmer Drive. … Opponents say the pump
station will be an eyesore in the creek’s promenade area.
Household leaks waste nearly 1 trillion gallons of water
nationwide every year, enough to provide water to over 11
million homes. During Fix a Leak Week (March 18 to March 24),
the Department of Water Resources (DWR) encourages everyone to
find and fix leaks inside and outside their home to save water.
Leaks are not just a household problem – parts of California’s
water delivery infrastructure are aging and developing leaks
too. This aging infrastructure can cause significant water loss
and hinder our ability to deliver water efficiently. DWR is
committed to repairing them to maintain our infrastructure and
protect California’s valuable water supplies for future
generations.
Set against the context of unprecedented demand for water
supply solutions, Brownstein and WestWater Research brought
together water industry and finance leaders for the second
annual Sustainable Water Investment Summit. The World Resources
Institute’s latest data helps articulate the scale of the
demand for water supply reliability, sustainability and
innovation: by 2050, an additional billion people will be
living in arid areas and regions with high water stress, and by
2050, around 46% of global GDP is expected to come
from areas facing high-water risk (up from 10% currently).
Given these realities, it’s unsurprising that diverse interests
are now converging to meet the challenges of ensuring a
resilient and accessible water future. Polls find that 63% of
global companies now undertake water-related risk assessments,
and 1,100 CEOs have annual performance reviews tied to results
around water goals.
The United States suffers the world’s second-highest toll from
major weather disasters, according to a new analysis — even
when numbers are adjusted for the country’s wealth. The report
released late last month by Zurich-based reinsurance giant
Swiss Re, which analyzed the vulnerability and damages of 36
different countries, suggests that weather disasters may become
a heavy drag on the U.S. economy — especially as insurers
increasingly pull out of hazardous areas. Those disasters are
driving up insurance rates, compounding inflation and adding to
Americans’ high cost of living. … Some insurers have
stopped offering home insurance policies in California, which
has seen numerous large wildfires in the past few years.
The Biden administration will be allocating more than $120
million to tribal governments to fight the impacts of climate
change, the Department of the Interior announced Thursday. The
funding is designed to help tribal nations adapt to climate
threats, including relocating infrastructure. Indigenous
peoples in the U.S. are among the communities most affected by
severe climate-related environmental threats, which have
already negatively impacted water resources, ecosystems and
traditional food sources in Native communities in every corner
of the U.S. “As these communities face the increasing
threat of rising seas, coastal erosion, storm surges, raging
wildfires and devastation from other extreme weather events,
our focus must be on bolstering climate resilience …”
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of the Pueblo of
Laguna, said in a Wednesday press briefing.
Gavin Newsom’s stealthy divide and conquer tactics are pushing
marginalized communities against each other in a war over
water. Newsom, his administration and State Water Contractors
are appropriating environmental justice language to sway public
opinion in Southern California about the Delta Conveyance
Project – also referred to as the Delta tunnel. They argue that
the Delta tunnel is essential for Southern California’s
disadvantaged communities, yet misrepresent the harm the
project continues to have on the tribal communities along
California’s major rivers and on communities in the Delta
watershed. Pitting disadvantaged communities from different
regions of the state against each other is a cynical strategy,
and is all the more egregious when considering it’s done in the
interest of serving only one sector of California’s economy
that these players have deemed all-important – special
interests in Southern California and portions of Silicon
Valley. -Written by Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director
of Restore the Delta.
The European Commission said on Wednesday it was taking Greece
to the EU’s top court for failing to revise its flood risk
management plans, a key tool for EU countries to prepare
themselves against floods. The action comes five months
after the worst rains in Greece flooded its fertile
Thessaly plain, devastating crops and livestock and raising
questions about the Mediterranean country’s ability to deal
with an increasingly erratic climate. Under EU rules,
countries need to update once in six years their flood
management plans, a set of measures aimed to help them mitigate
the risks of floods on human lives, the environment and
economic activities. Greece was formally notified by the
Commission last year that it should finalise its management
plans but the country has so far failed to review, adopt or
report its flood risk management plans, the Commission said in
a statement.
School-age children affected by the water crisis in Flint,
Mich., nearly a decade ago suffered significant and lasting
academic setbacks, according to a new study released Wednesday,
showing the disaster’s profound impact on a generation of
children. The study, published in Science Advances, found
that after the crisis, students faced a substantial decline in
math scores, losing the equivalent of five months of learning
progress that hadn’t recovered by 2019, according to Brian
Jacob, one of the study’s authors. The learning gap was
especially prevalent among younger students in third through
fifth grades and those of lower socioeconomic status. There was
also an 8 percent increase in the number of students with
special needs, especially among school-age boys.
As floodwaters receded from the streets of southeastern San
Diego on Jan. 22, two things began to happen. Several local
nonprofits — not trained in disaster response — set up a victim
assistance center at the Jackie Robinson Family YMCA. At the
same time, county and city officials had a series of extreme
miscommunications that delayed the opening of a government-run
assistance center within city limits for nearly two weeks,
according to letters obtained by Voice of San Diego.
Normally in the wake of a disaster, government officials open
what they call a Local Assistance Center near the disaster
site. These assistance centers connect survivors with
government and non-government resources. A survivor could get
anything from a new driver’s license to food or unemployment
benefits.
The California State Water Resources Control Board issued a
$6.6 million grant for a city of San Luis Obispo project
intended to clean up contaminated groundwater. Presently, the
city does not use groundwater for its drinking water supply.
SLO’s potable water supply comes from Whale Rock Reservoir,
Santa Margarita Lake and Nacimiento Reservoir. City
officials have sought to diversify the water supply in an
attempt to achieve “greater drought and climate change
resiliency.” Previously, contamination from
tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, served as a barrier to doing so.
PCE is a toxic chemical produced by dry cleaning and industrial
activities, which took place in the city decades ago. The
cleanup project will consist of the city building two new
groundwater supply wells that are expected to be fully
operation in 2026.
The Friant-Kern Canal was called out specifically as one of the
reasons the state should take over pumping in the Tule
groundwater subbasin in Tulare County. The recommendation was
contained in a recently released staff report to the Water
Resources Control Board. While the report stated groundwater
management plans covering the subbasin didn’t adequately
address subsidence and continued depletion of the aquifer and
degradation of water quality in general, it also noted the
significant harm to the Friant-Kern Canal, which brings water
152 miles south from Millerton Lake to Arvin. Excessive
overpumping caused land beneath a 33-mile stretch of the
Friant-Kern Canal to collapse, creating a sag that reduced the
canal’s carrying capacity south of Pixley by 60%.
NID released a notice informing the public of cuts to the Bear
River water flows yesterday afternoon. The district cited
“unexpected maintenance work in the headwaters” in their
release. We can now confirm a shutdown of PG&E’s Spaulding
#1 powerhouse is the cause of what could be a prolonged outage
in water flows. According to a PG&E
spokesperson: During a routine inspection at PG&E’s
Spaulding 1 powerhouse on March 6, a leak was discovered
adjacent to a pressure relief valve. On March 7 a more detailed
inspection was made of the PRV [pressure relief valve] and
PG&E determined that repairs would need to be made before
the powerhouse could be returned to service. The estimated
return to service date is April 30.
In what one Ukiah Valley water leader calls “the next big era
of major water decisions,” the City of Ukiah has joined up with
Redwood Valley and the Millview water district to form a new
water authority. The aim is to qualify for state infrastructure
grants to create a more reliable water supply for small
communities. The new authority has around 8500 to 9000 water
users, with about half of them in the city of Ukiah. That’s
pretty small by state standards, but First District Supervisor
Glenn McGourty, who is retiring this year, thinks the water
authority will help smaller districts comply with
ever-increasing state requirements.
Nearly $20 million in federal community project funds for 14
San Gabriel Valley projects, and $1.67 billion for Southern
California water infrastructure were a step closer to reality
after a House of Representatives vote this week, according to
the Rep. Grace Napolitano’s office. The $19.6 million was money
Napolitano secured in this year’s congressional spending bills,
she said. The 14 projects include: $5,500,000 for the San
Gabriel Basin Water Quality Authority’s San Gabriel Basin
Restoration Fund…
With nature providing plenty of water – finally – this year,
and groundwater regulation well underway, water managers,
farmers and others turned their focus to infrastructure at
Thursday’s Water Summit put on by the Water Association of Kern
County. Early in the day’s line up of speakers, Edward Ring,
senior fellow with the California Policy Center, captured the
audience’s attention with an extensive cost-benefit analysis of
the Delta Conveyance project, a tunnel that would take
Sacramento River water beneath the ecologically sensitive
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta 45 miles to be exported south. His
conclusion: the project has a whopping price tag for a
“dribble” of water.
A recent large die-off of young salmon released into the
Klamath River shocked and dismayed state biologists,
reinforcing that human efforts to restore nature and undo
damage can be unpredictable and difficult to
control. The tiny Chinook salmon turned up dead downriver
just two days after they were released from the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife’s brand new Fall Creek Fish
Hatchery, built to supply the Klamath River as it undergoes the
largest dam removal in history. … No wild salmon were
harmed. And the consequences aren’t expected to be catastrophic
for the Klamath hatchery project.
As the permitting battle over the proposed Sites Reservoir
Project in Northern California heats up, it’s become clear that
the project would further heat up the atmosphere as well. Just
as California has made bold commitments to achieve carbon
neutrality in the next few decades, the state seems ready to
approve a dam project that would put that progress in jeopardy.
A new report, “Estimate of Greenhouse Gas Emissions for the
Proposed Sites Reservoir Project Using the All-Res Modeling
Tool,” created by a science team at my organization, Tell The
Dam Truth, exposes the climate impacts caused by this massive
dam and reservoir system. -Written by Gary Wockner, PhD, who directs Tell The
Dam Truth
Residents living below the Isabella Auxiliary Dam were thrilled
earlier this month with a temporary fix that finally dried up
excessive seepage from the dam that had been swamping septic
systems and breeding forests of mosquito-infested weeds around
their homes. The didn’t realize how temporary the fix would be,
however. After only 12 days without a river cutting through his
land, rancher Gerald Wenstrand woke up to see the seepage back
on Saturday.
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.
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.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
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.
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.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
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.
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.
The San Joaquin Valley, known as the
nation’s breadbasket, grows a cornucopia of fruits, nuts and
other agricultural products.
During our three-day Central Valley Tour April
3-5, you will meet farmers who will explain how they prepare
the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce that
helps feed the nation and beyond. We also will drive through
hundreds of miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams,
reservoirs and groundwater wells that provide the water.
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.
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.
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.
Get a unique view of the San Joaquin Valley’s key dams and
reservoirs that store and transport water on our March Central
Valley Tour.
Our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, offers a broad view of water issues
in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the farms, orchards,
critical habitat for threatened bird populations, flood bypasses
and a national wildlife refuge, we visit some of California’s
major water infrastructure projects.
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.
Contrary to popular belief, “100-Year Flood” does not refer to a
flood that happens every century. Rather, the term describes the
statistical chance of a flood of a certain magnitude (or greater)
taking place once in 100 years. It is also accurate to say a
so-called “100-Year Flood” has a 1 percent chance of occurring in
a given year, and those living in a 100-year floodplain have,
each year, a 1 percent chance of being flooded.
Mired in drought, expectations are high that new storage funded
by Prop. 1 will be constructed to help California weather the
adverse conditions and keep water flowing to homes and farms.
At the same time, there are some dams in the state eyed for
removal because they are obsolete – choked by accumulated
sediment, seismically vulnerable and out of compliance with
federal regulations that require environmental balance.
The proposed Sites Reservoir would be an off-river storage basin
on the west side of the Sacramento Valley, about 78 miles
northwest of Sacramento. It would capture stormwater flows from
the Sacramento River for release in dry and critical years for
fish and wildlife and for farms, communities and businesses.
The water would be held in a 14,000-acre basin of grasslands
surrounded by the rolling eastern foothills of the Coast Range.
Known as Antelope Valley, the sparsely populated area in Glenn
and Colusa counties is used for livestock grazing.
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.
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.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is
suitable for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history
and the need to adapt its management for urban growth and
expected climate change impacts.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
Dams have allowed Californians and others across the West to
harness and control water dating back to pre-European settlement
days when Native Americans had erected simple dams for catching
salmon.
This printed issue of Western Water examines water
infrastructure – its costs and the quest to augment traditional
brick-and-mortar facilities with sleeker, “green” features.
Everywhere you look water infrastructure is working hard to keep
cities, farms and industry in the state running. From the massive
storage structures that dot the West to the aqueducts that convey
water hundreds of miles to large urban areas and the untold miles
of water mains and sewage lines under every city and town, the
semiarid West would not exist as it does without the hardware
that meets its water needs.
This printed issue of Western Water discusses low
impact development and stormwater capture – two areas of emerging
interest that are viewed as important components of California’s
future water supply and management scenario.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the
changed nature of the California Water Plan, some aspects of the
2009 update (including the recommendation for a water finance
plan) and the reaction by certain stakeholders.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
It’s no secret that providing water in a state with the size and
climate of California costs money. The gamut of water-related
infrastructure – from reservoirs like Lake Oroville to the pumps
and pipes that deliver water to homes, businesses and farms –
incurs initial and ongoing expenses. Throw in a new spate of
possible mega-projects, such as those designed to rescue the
ailing Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and the dollar amount grows
exponentially to billion-dollar amounts that rival the entire
gross national product of a small country.
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.
They are located in urban areas and in some of the most rural
parts of the state, but they have at least one thing in common:
they provide water service to a very small group of people. In a
state where water is managed and delivered by an organization as
large as the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California,
most small water systems exist in obscurity – financed by
shoestring budgets and operated by personnel who wear many hats.
This issue of Western Water looks at water
infrastructure – from the large conveyance systems to the small
neighborhood providers – and the many challenges faced by water
agencies in their continuing mission of assuring a steady and
reliable supply for their customers.
Chances are that deep within the ground beneath you as you read
this is a vast network of infrastructure that is busy providing
the necessary services that enable life to proceed at the pace it
does in the 21st century. Electricity zips through cables to
power lights and computers while other conduits move infinite
amounts of information that light up computer screens and phone
lines.
This issue of Western Water explores the question of whether the
state needs more surface storage, with a particular focus on the
five proposed projects identified in the CALFED 2000 ROD and the
politics and funding issues of these projects.
