Today Californians face increased risks from flooding, water
shortages, unhealthy water quality, ecosystem decline and
infrastructure degradation. Many federal and state legislative
acts address ways to improve water resource management, ecosystem
restoration, as well as water rights settlements and strategies
to oversee groundwater and surface water.
A bill aimed at preserving flows for fish on two Klamath
tributaries passed through both chambers of the state
legislature last week and awaits signature by Governor Gavin
Newsom. Assembly Bill 263, authored by North Coast
Assemblymember Chris Rogers (D-Santa Rosa), would maintain
existing minimum flows for the Shasta and Scott rivers. The
flow regulations were established as part of an emergency
drought declaration four years ago. If enacted, the regulations
would be kept until 2031 or whenever the State Water Board sets
permanent rules that are currently in the works.
Other California water and environmental policy news:
… On Sept. 10, members of the House Appropriations Committee
made clear that they heard this message, rejecting the White
House proposal to eliminate NOAA’s research arm and cut the
agency’s budget by one-third. Instead, the legislators approved
a fiscal year 2026 spending bill that includes a modest
trim—about 6 percent—and directs the agency to avoid closure of
any of its laboratories or cooperative research institutes. The
Senate, meanwhile, is set to consider a budget bill that would
maintain the current funding level at NOAA: about $6.1
billion.
A California lawmaker’s proposal to make it easier to build
solar projects on former farmland stalled in the early hours of
Saturday amid continued divisions among agricultural groups.
Assemblymember Buffy Wicks pulled her AB 1156, which would have
streamlined land-use changes to allow solar development on
water-scarce farmland, from consideration in the final hours of
the legislative session. … [T]housands of acres of fields and
orchards are set to become fallow in the next decades as local
officials and farmers work to meet the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act.
Last Tuesday, the California Legislature cast a vote on Gov.
Gavin Newsom’s controversial water tunnel project in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta by not voting at all. A
couple of bills meant to speed up the process were allowed to
die in committee before reaching the state Assembly. Opponents
of the project consider it a victory in a fight to protect the
water of the delta and the towns that live along its banks.
… Newsom said he would like to see the tunnel fully
entitled by the time he leaves the governor’s seat.
The U.S. Department of the Interior is looking to overturn the
Bureau of Land Management’s Public Lands Rule in a move that
has environmental groups decrying it as a way to favor
extractive industries. … [The Federal Land Policy
and Management Act] tasked the bureau with managing the
following “principal or major” uses: recreation, range, timber,
minerals, watershed, wildlife, and fish and natural scenic,
scientific, and historical values. … In adding conservation
explicitly as a use, the Bureau’s Public Lands Rule also
formalized regulatory tools and frameworks for restoring
degraded public lands and water.
A bipartisan bill for weather research advanced out of the
House Science Committee on Wednesday by unanimous vote. The
Weather Act Reauthorization reaffirms and updates NOAA
research, forecasting, and emergency preparedness programs
authorized in the 2017 Weather Research and Forecasting
Innovation Act. The bill recommends between $160 million and
$170 million each year through 2030 for NOAA’s research office
to carry out specified weather research programs, roughly
steady with the program amounts for fiscal year 2024.
The Trump administration’s top official in EPA’s land office is
focused on expediting Superfund hazardous waste remediation, in
part by loosening cleanup standards. “We need to make decisions
faster and move forward faster,” said Steven Cook, principal
deputy assistant administrator for the agency’s Office of Land
and Emergency Management, during an American Bar Association
conference Thursday. That involves state leaders,
retraining project managers and rethinking acceptable cleanup
levels for dangerous chemicals at Superfund sites, Cook said.
Water officials in Tucson say the city has started receiving
settlement funds from a class action lawsuit against major
manufacturers of a firefighting foam that contains PFAS. The
human-made chemicals don’t break down naturally and are linked
to cancer and other health issues. A firefighting foam called
AFFF that contains PFAS has been used for decades at military
sites and airports — including in Tucson. The chemicals seeped
in groundwater and caused contamination.
The House Appropriations Committee approved its fiscal 2026
Commerce-Justice-Science spending bill Wednesday, including an
amendment prohibiting the Trump administration from closing
NOAA laboratories and ending university-based cooperatives that
provide fundamental research on extreme weather and climate
disasters. The spending package, which passed 34-28 along party
lines, also includes a manager’s amendment requiring NOAA to
advance research on early prediction and warning systems for
flood disasters in rural areas, provide support for NOAA’s
Hurricane Hunter program and fund coral reef research
institutes on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
The California Legislature unanimously approved a bill to
address PFAS pollution and California’s water supply on
Wednesday, which was introduced by Senator Jerry McNerney.
… McNerney stated that the new bill will establish a
state fund called the PFAS Mitigation Fund to provide financial
support to local agencies and cities for cleaning toxic PFAS
from California’s water. McNerney released a report that
showed how PFAS have been found in waterways serving at least
25.4 million Californians.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and some of California’s major water agencies
hit a setback this week when a proposal to fast-track plans for
a 45-mile water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River
Delta died in the state Legislature. … Delta lawmakers
said they were pleased that the governor’s proposal failed to
move forward in the final days of the legislative session.
… Newsom and supporters of the project say the tunnel is
essential to modernize the state’s water system for more severe
droughts and deluges with climate change.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune took the first steps Monday
to change the Senate rules so that large groups of lower-level
administration nominees can be confirmed by simple majority.
The process, which will play out in the coming days, could mean
President Donald Trump will soon see picks for EPA and the
departments of Energy, Interior and Agriculture approved after
weeks or months of delay. The list includes Jessica
Kramer to lead EPA’s water office and Katherine
Scarlett to lead the White House Council on Environmental
Quality. Both have garnered bipartisan support.
California lawmakers are scrambling to finalize a last-minute
deal that would extend the state’s landmark greenhouse gas
reduction program – known as cap and trade – through
2045. At the center of this year’s reauthorization fight
are a number of controversial concessions that former Gov.
Jerry Brown gave to various industries – including oil and gas
– when the Legislature last renewed the program in 2017.
… The twist? There’s no bill. And even if the text of
legislation comes out by the Wednesday deadline to introduce
it, opponents argue that such a critical policy should not be
rushed through at the last minute.
California lawmakers have approved SB 72, a sweeping water
management bill designed to set statewide water supply targets
and strengthen long-term planning. The measure, authored by
Senator Anna Caballero, passed the Assembly [last] week and now
heads to Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk for signature. Backed by
water agencies, counties and environmental and business groups,
SB 72 would enhance the California Water Plan, require regional
planning and collaboration across stakeholders, and codify
supply goals to help drought-proof the state.
House Republicans narrowly passed legislation on Thursday that
would slash $766.4 million from the budgets of the Department
of Energy, Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation and
their related agencies compared to what they received last
year. … It also increases authorizations for a number of
water projects, including allocating $1.8 billion for the
Navajo-Gallup water supply project in New Mexico, and provides
$1 billion for water management improvement grants, and $177.5
million for water recycling and reuse projects.
U.S. senators from New Mexico, Colorado and Idaho introduced
legislation Wednesday to increase funds for local partnerships
to prevent water pollution and restore watersheds. … [The
Headwater Protection act,] if passed, would triple the
yearly funding for the Water Source Protection
Program for the U.S. Forest Service in order to
provide more than $30 million per year for farmers, ranchers,
water utilities and local and tribal governments for restoring
forests or cleaning up watersheds. The legislation would
prioritize giving funds to projects to improve drinking water
quality and harden forested areas to wildfire and climate
change.
As the National Weather Service scrambles to hire up to 450
people to restore deep cuts by the Department of Government
Efficiency, potential applicants are being asked to explain how
they would advance President Donald Trump’s agenda if hired. A
posting from the weather service’s parent agency seeking
meteorologists asks applicants to identify one or two of
Trump’s executive orders “that are significant to you, and
explain how you would help implement them if hired.” It’s among
screening questions added to government job applications as
part of a “merit hiring plan” that Trump announced at the
outset of his second term.
… Climate-fueled costs have injected a new dynamic into
negotiations over extending cap-and-trade before the
legislative session ends Sept. 12. … Negotiations
to extend cap-and-trade to 2045 have moved slowly behind closed
doors for much of the year. The program is complex, and just 21
of the state’s 120 legislators were in office for the last
reauthorization vote. But the talks have become more urgent as
auction returns earlier this year faltered, reflecting
uncertainty about the future of the program.
A pair of recent court decisions in San Diego—Patz v. City of
San Diego and Coziahr v. Otay Water District—have thrust
California’s Proposition 218 back into the spotlight. But what
is this proposition, and how does it affect our water bills and
the state’s water providers? As Californians grow increasingly
concerned about affordability, we asked Dave Owen, a professor
at UC Law San Francisco, to explain how Prop 218 and water
rates are connected. … [Dave Owen:] “Prop 218 matters for
water because it imposes limitations on fees.”
… Housing developers and farmers in increasingly urban areas
celebrated the signing of Arizona’s new “ag-to-urban” water
program, which Gov. Katie Hobbs called a “huge water policy
win.” … But some of the left-leaning lawmakers who voted
against the new law that paves the way for some agricultural
water to be used instead to boost housing developments,
environmental activists and farmers whose land is outside of
the limited areas that it impacts say it doesn’t go far enough
in protecting the state’s water future — or their
livelihoods. On the other hand, some far-right lawmakers
who voted against the proposal argued that it went too far in
protecting the state’s water future and the state would be
better off throwing open the doors to developers.
The Trump administration on Wednesday announced it is opening
an investigation into the California Environmental Protection
Agency, including the powerful California Air Resources Board,
over potentially discriminatory employment practices. In a
notice addressed to CalEPA Secretary Yana Garcia, the
Department of Justice said its investigation will determine
whether the state agency is “engaged in a pattern or practice
of discrimination based on race, color, sex, and national
origin” in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
On Monday, U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (CA-21) and Chuck
Edwards (NC-11) introduced the Emergency Rural Water Response
Act, bipartisan legislation to cut the red tape and deploy
emergency federal water funding to rural communities. … From
the return of Tulare Lake to wells running dry in East Fresno
County, the Valley has been hit hard by water crises in recent
years. Since the program’s [USDA’s Emergency Community Water
Assistance Grants] creation in 1972, only rural communities
with fewer than 10,000 residents have been eligible for aid.
While populations in many rural towns have grown over the past
five decades, the eligibility cap has not kept pace, leaving
thousands of residents in small but growing communities without
access to this lifeline.
The California Senate Appropriations Committee released a
report Friday outlining the potential fiscal impact of AB
1018, a high-risk artificial intelligence bill moving through
the state legislature which could cost state and local agencies
millions of dollars. Known as the Automated Decisions
Safety Act, or AB 1018, the legislation would set new rules for
how artificial intelligence and other automated-decision
systems are used in situations that significantly affect
people’s lives, such as in the domains of housing, jobs, health
care, credit, education and law. … The California
State Water Resources Control Board, which
offered information on the potential fiscal impact of the
legislation, said in the report that the bill is “vague,
ambiguous, and could encompass many current tools used, like
excel workbooks.” “These tools are used broadly across
Water Boards programs, and many are used to inform actions that
could be considered consequential actions under the bill,” the
report read. “To meet the bill’s AB 1018 provision, the State
Water Board estimates significant cost pressures, likely in the
millions of dollars per year.”
A Supreme Court decision expected within days could affect
thousands of federal grant recipients battling the Trump
administration over the termination of their funding for
projects including for climate and environmental
justice work. The case on the high court’s “shadow
docket” of emergency cases centers on the National Institutes
of Health’s attempt to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars
in research grants awarded to scientists and universities.
… Lawyers are awaiting the Supreme Court decision —
which could come at any time — for hints of how challenges to
EPA’s termination of grants could be treated by lower courts or
the Supreme Court itself. The latest briefs were filed with the
Supreme Court on Monday.
Assembly Bill 1413 seeks to quietly rewrite California’s water
laws, raising alarm among local water agencies, business
groups, lawmakers and many advocates of California’s
agriculture industry. The Indian Wells Valley Water District in
eastern Kern County has serious concerns about the proposal’s
threats to groundwater rights, due process, transparency and
scientific accountability. The bill would limit judicial
oversight and fundamentally alter the role of groundwater
sustainability plans in California, potentially treating them
as a legally binding determination of water rights. The Indian
Wells water district is undergoing an adjudication process to
protect property rights, and officials like me worry that AB
1413 would prohibit courts from reviewing the science behind
these plans, as well as potential errors. –Written by David Saint-Amand, board president of the
Indian Wells Valley Water District.
Top Democrats on the House and Senate energy, natural resources
and agriculture committees introduced bills to halt planned
firings at the Interior Department, the Forest Service and the
Department of Energy. The bills, introduced Monday, aim to
place a moratorium on any reduction in force (RIF) at the
agencies while Congress reviews their staffing needs. The bills
come after months of turmoil stemming from the Trump
administration’s efforts to cull the federal workforce. …
“The Trump administration is firing the public servants who
protect lives and communities by helping to battle deadly
wildfires, tracking extreme weather events, and keeping water
clean and public lands accessible,” [Natural Resources ranking
member Jared] Huffman [D-Calif.] said in a
statement.
Cities across California and the Southwest are significantly
increasing and diversifying their use of recycled wastewater as
traditional water supplies grow tighter.
The 5th edition of our Layperson’s Guide to Water Recycling
covers the latest trends and statistics on water reuse as a
strategic defense against prolonged drought and climate change.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
California has unveiled an ambitious plan to help combat the
worsening climate crisis with one of its invaluable assets: its
land. Over the next 20 years, the state will work to transform
more than half of its 100 million acres into multi-benefit
landscapes that can absorb more carbon than they release,
officials announced Monday. … The plan also calls for
11.9 million acres of forestland to be managed for biodiversity
protection, carbon storage and water supply protection by 2045,
and 2.7 million acres of shrublands and chaparral to be managed
for carbon storage, resilience and habitat connectivity, among
other efforts.
Today, Congresswoman Norma Torres and Congressman David Valadao
– members of the House Appropriations Committee – announced the
introduction of the bipartisan Removing Nitrate and Arsenic in
Drinking Water Act. This bill would amend the Safe Drinking
Water Act to provide grants for nitrate and arsenic reduction,
by providing $15 million for FY25 and every fiscal year
thereafter. The bill also directs the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) to take into consideration the needs of
economically disadvantaged populations impacted by drinking
water contamination. The California State Water Resources
Control Board found the Inland Empire to have the highest
levels of contamination of nitrate throughout the state
including 82 sources in San Bernardino, 67 sources in Riverside
County, and 123 sources in Los Angeles County.
A much-anticipated water bill brought by one of the most
powerful lawmakers on Capitol Hill became public Thursday.
Senate President Stuart Adams’s SB 211, titled “Generational
Water Infrastructure Amendments,” seeks to secure a water
supply for decades to come. It forms a new council comprised of
leadership from the state’s biggest water districts that will
figure out Utah’s water needs for the next 50 to 75 years. It
also creates a new governor-appointed “Utah Water Agent” with a
$1 million annual budget that will “coordinate with the council
to ensure Utah’s generational water needs are met,” according
to a news release. But combing through the text of the bill
reveals the water agent’s main job will be finding an
out-of-state water supply. … The bill also notes the
water agent won’t meddle with existing water compacts with
other states on the Bear and Colorado rivers.
Last week, Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria introduced AB 2060 to
help divert local floodwater into regional groundwater
basins. AB 2060 seeks to streamline the permitting process
to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in support of
Flood-MAR activities when a stream or river has reached
flood-monitor or flood stage as determined by the California
Nevada River Forecast Center or the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB). This expedited approval process would be
temporary during storm events with qualifying flows under the
SWRCB permit.
… In California, just figuring out who holds a water right
requires a trip to a downtown Sacramento storage room crammed
with millions of paper and microfilmed records dating to the
mid-1800s. Even the state’s water rights enforcers struggle to
determine who is using what. … Come next year, however,
the board expects to have all records electronically accessible
to the public. Officials recently started scanning records tied
to an estimated 45,000 water rights into an online database.
They’re also designing a system that will give real-time data
on how much water is being diverted from rivers and streams
across the state. … Proponents say the information
technology upgrade will help the state and water users better
manage droughts, establish robust water trading markets and
ensure water for fish and the environment.
… Without more investment and regulatory relief,
Californians face a future of chronic water scarcity. Our
system of water storage and distribution is in trouble. We have
depleted aquifers, nearly empty reservoirs on the Colorado
River, and a precarious network of century-old levees that are
one big earthquake away from catastrophic failure. Then there’s
always the next severe drought. Even if the governor
aggressively pushes for more investment in water supply
infrastructure and more regulatory relief so projects can go
forward, the state is again staring down a budget deficit.
Bonds to fund water infrastructure projects are going to have a
hard time getting approval from voters already overburdened
with among the highest taxes in America. - Written by Edward Ring, senior fellow with the
California Policy Center.
Below-average precipitation and snowpack during 2020-22 and
depleted surface and groundwater supplies pushed California
into a drought emergency that brought curtailment orders and
calls for modernizing water rights. At the Water Education
Foundation annual water summit last week in Sacramento,
Eric Oppenheimer, chief deputy director of the California State
Water Resources Control Board, discussed what he described as
the state’s “antiquated” water rights system. He spoke before
some 150 water managers, government officials, farmers,
environmentalists and others as part of the event where
interests come together to collaborate on some of the state’s
most challenging water issues.
This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand
about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river
restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720
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.”
Groundwater provides about 40
percent of the water in California for urban, rural and
agricultural needs in typical years, and as much as 60 percent in
dry years when surface water supplies are low. But in many areas
of the state, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can
be replenished through natural or artificial means.
The bill is coming due, literally,
to protect and restore groundwater in California.
Local agencies in the most depleted groundwater basins in
California spent months putting together plans to show how they
will achieve balance in about 20 years.
California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.
That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
Low-income Californians can get help with their phone bills, their natural gas bills and their electric bills. But there’s only limited help available when it comes to water bills.
That could change if the recommendations of a new report are implemented into law. Drafted by the State Water Resources Control Board, the report outlines the possible components of a program to assist low-income households facing rising water bills.
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.
Spurred by drought and a major
policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented
mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the
hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to
halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of
recovery.
Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help
characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner
that reflects its original intent.
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.
Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to
learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most
expensive river restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
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.
As part of the historic Colorado
River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for
thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below
sea level.
The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when
the Colorado River broke
through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years,
creating California’s largest inland body of water. The
Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130
miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe.
The federal Safe Drinking Water Act sets standards for drinking
water quality in the United States.
Launched in 1974 and administered by the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, the Safe Drinking Water Act oversees states,
communities, and water suppliers who implement the drinking water
standards at the local level.
The act’s regulations apply to every public water system in the
United States but do not include private wells serving less than
25 people.
According to the EPA, there are more than 160,000 public water
systems in the United States.
The California Environmental Quality
Act, commonly known as CEQA, is foundational to the state’s
environmental protection efforts. The law requires proposed
developments with the potential for “significant” impacts on the
physical environment to undergo an environmental review.
Since its passage in 1970, CEQA (based on the National
Environmental Policy Act) has served as a model for
similar legislation in other states.
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.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
This issue of Western Water looks at the political
landscape in Washington, D.C., and Sacramento as it relates to
water issues in 2007. Several issues are under consideration,
including the means to deal with impending climate change, the
fate of the San Joaquin River, the prospects for new surface
storage in California and the Delta.
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.
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 issue of Western Water looks at the energy
requirements associated with water use and the means by which
state and local agencies are working to increase their knowledge
and improve the management of both resources.
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 the
Colorado River Basin Water Supply and Demand Study and what its
finding might mean for the future of the lifeblood of the
Southwest.
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.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
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.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
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 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 Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Flood Management explains the
physical flood control system, including levees; discusses
previous flood events (including the 1997 flooding); explores
issues of floodplain management and development; provides an
overview of flood forecasting; and outlines ongoing flood control
projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various facilities, operations and benefits the water
project brings to the state along with the CVP
Improvement Act (CVPIA).
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
For more than 30 years, the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta has been embroiled in continuing controversy over the
struggle to restore the faltering ecosystem while maintaining its
role as the hub of the state’s water supply.
Lawsuits and counter lawsuits have been filed, while
environmentalists and water users continue to clash over
the amount of water that can be safely exported from the region.
Passed in 1970, the federal National Environmental Policy Act
requires lead public agencies to prepare and submit for public
review environmental impact reports and statements on major
federal projects under their purview with potentially significant
environmental effects.
According to the Department of Energy, administrator of NEPA:
California has considered, but not implemented, a comprehensive
groundwater strategy many
times over the last century.
One hundred years ago, the California Conservation Commission
considered adding groundwater regulation into the Water
Commission Act of 1913. After hearings were held, it was
decided to leave groundwater rights out of the Water Code.
Federal reserved rights were created when the United States
reserved land from the public domain for uses such as Indian
reservations, military bases and national parks, forests and
monuments. [See also Pueblo Rights].
One of the major characteristics of federal reserved water rights
is that they often are senior in priority to water rights
established under state law. The date of priority of a federal
reserved right is the date the reservation was established, and
many were established prior to state water claims.
The federal government passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973,
following earlier legislation. The first, the Endangered
Species Preservation Act of 1966, authorized land acquisition to
conserve select species. The Endangered Species Conservation Act
of 1969 then expanded on the 1966 act, and authorized “the
compilation of a list of animals “threatened with worldwide
extinction” and prohibits their importation without a permit.”
California’s Legislature passed the
Wild and Scenic Rivers Act in 1972, following the passage of the
federal Wild and Scenic Rivers Act by Congress in 1968. Under
California law, “[c]ertain rivers which possess extraordinary
scenic, recreational, fishery, or wildlife values shall be
preserved in their free-flowing state, together with their
immediate environments, for the benefit and enjoyment of the
people of the state.”
The legal term “area-of-origin” dates back to 1931 in California.
At that time, concerns over water transfers prompted enactment of
four “area-of-origin” statutes. With water transfers from
Yosemite’s Hetch Hetchy Valley to supply water for San Francisco
and from Owens Valley to Los Angeles fresh in mind, the
California statutes were intended to protect local areas against
export of water.
In particular, counties in Northern California had concerns about
the state tapping their water to develop California’s supply.
It would be a vast understatement to say the package of water
bills approved by the California Legislature and signed by Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger last November was anything but a
significant achievement. During a time of fierce partisan battles
and the state’s long-standing political gridlock with virtually
all water policy, pundits at the beginning of 2009 would have
given little chance to lawmakers being able to reach compromise
on water legislation.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of one of the most
significant environmental laws in American history, the Clean
Water Act (CWA). The law that emerged from the consensus and
compromise that characterizes the legislative process has had
remarkable success, reversing years of neglect and outright abuse
of the nation’s waters.
In January, Mary Nichols joined the cabinet of the new Davis
administration. With her appointment by Gov. Gray Davis as
Secretary for Resources, Ms. Nichols, 53, took on the role of
overseeing the state of California’s activities for the
management, preservation and enhancement of its natural
resources, including land, wildlife, water and minerals. As head
of the Resources Agency, she directs the activities of 19
departments, conservancies, boards and commissions, serving as
the governor’s representative on these boards and commissions.
Two days before our annual Executive Briefing, I picked up my
phone to hear “The White House calling… .” Vice President Al
Gore had accepted the foundation’s invitation to speak at our
March 13 briefing on California water issues. That was the start
of a new experience for us. For in addition to conducting a
briefing for about 250 people, we were now dealing with Secret
Service agents, bomb sniffing dogs and government sharpshooters,
speech writers, print and TV reporters, school children and
public relations people.
