Despite droughts, the recession and natural disasters,
California’s urban population continues to grow.
This population growth means increasing demand for water by urban
areas—home to most of California’s population [see also
Agricultural Conservation]. As of 2012, seven of the most
populated urbanized areas in the United States are in California.
Pretty much every time I write about the amount of Colorado
River water that is consumed to irrigate alfalfa and hay,
readers respond with a comment or question about how much of
the alfalfa — and therefore Colorado River water — is shipped
overseas. … It is true that Western farms export alfalfa
to foreign countries. … But there’s a big caveat here: Many
farms in Arizona — and most if not all of the Saudi Arabia
owned ones — irrigate with groundwater, not with water diverted
from the Colorado River.
One of the biggest battles over Colorado River water is being
staged in one of the west’s smallest rural enclaves.Tucked into
the bends of the lower Colorado River, Cibola, Arizona, is a
community of about 200 people. … Nearly a decade ago,
Greenstone Resource Partners LLC, a private company backed by
global investors, bought almost 500 acres of agricultural land
here in Cibola. In a first-of-its-kind deal, the company
recently sold the water rights tied to the land to the town of
Queen Creek, a suburb of Phoenix, for a $14m gross profit. More
than 2,000 acre-feet of water from the Colorado River that was
once used to irrigate farmland is now flowing, through a canal
system, to the taps of homes more than 200 miles away.
The Commerce Department announced Monday it pledged up to
$6.6 billion to Taiwanese semiconductor manufacturer TSMC,
which will add a third chip manufacturing facility in Arizona
to the two in the works. The grant will go down in Washington
as one of the crown jewels of the Biden administration’s
initiative to bring the supply chain for ubiquitous—and
strategically vital—computer chips back to the United
States. But in Phoenix, where the factories are going to
be built, TSMC faces a lingering question: where’s the water
going to come from in one of the driest cities in the
country?
For most Northern Nevadans and Californians, Lake Tahoe is more
than a distinctive spot on the map. Whether you only go a few
times a year or every single weekend, it always feels like your
refuge. You never take it for granted. Neither do the
scientists, planners, biologists, volunteers, lawmakers and
engineers who work to protect the lake from environmental
threats. In fact, the call to protect Lake Tahoe has echoed
across America in support of one of the most comprehensive and
successful conservation programs in the nation. Since public
and private partners established the Lake Tahoe Environmental
Improvement Program in 1997, we have completed more than 800
major restoration projects to protect one of our country’s most
treasured landscapes. -Written by Julie Regan, executive director of the
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Time is quickly running out for businesses, HOAs and
multifamily properties to get the most out of the cash
incentives offered by the Southern Nevada Water Authority
(SNWA) for replacing thirsty non-functional grass with
drought-friendly landscaping. The SNWA recently approved
changes to the Water Smart Landscapes rebate program that will
decrease cash incentives for non-functional grass conversion
projects on non-single-family properties. Starting Jan. 1,
2025, the rebate for such projects will be reduced to $2 per
square foot for the first 10,000 square feet of non-functional
grass converted to drip-irrigated trees and plants, and $1 per
square foot thereafter.
The Marin Municipal Water District is taking a closer look at
storage expansion projects that could increase capacity for
billions of gallons of additional water to defend against
drought. After several months of study, district officials and
consultants are considering projects that could include raising
dam heights and some possibilities for creating new dams. Each
option would increase the storage capacity by about 20,000
acre-feet. The proposals include expansions of Alpine Lake,
Kent Lake and the Soulajule and Nicasio reservoirs. The
district is also looking at constructing new reservoirs in the
areas of Devil’s Gulch, Halleck Creek and upper Nicasio. The
proposals were presented to the water board at its meeting on
March 19.
Real estate websites are sharing more climate risk information
with home buyers and sellers. Why it matters: Of roughly 4,600
prospective buyers Zillow surveyed nationwide last spring, over
80% said they considered at least one climate risk when
shopping. State of play: Realtor.com, which was the first major
site to show a home’s flood risk, added heat, wind and
air-quality risks to listings this month. The company added
wildfire risk in 2022. Threat level: Nearly 45% of U.S. homes
face severe or extreme damage from environmental threats,
according to a new report from Realtor.com.
… 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.
Colorado’s “housing crisis” is essentially unsolvable by simply
building more market-rate housing, at least if we care about
our quality of life here in Colorado. … Colorado does,
however, have a real “water crisis.” The arguments between the
seven states working on sharing the Colorado River revolve
around Article III(d) of the 1922 Colorado River Compact, which
requires the Upper Basin states to deliver 7.5 million
acre-feet per year on average to the Lower Basin states,
plus multi-million acre-feet/year obligations to Mexico,
Native American tribes, and pre-Compact water rights
holders. There just isn’t enough water for all that, plus
serving many millions more people in the Front Range cities
that depend on trans-mountain diversions of the Colorado
River. -Written by Steve Pomerance, who served 10 years on the
Boulder city council and 6 years on the DRCOG
board.
Water regulation in Arizona has devolved into a game of
chicken. The governor and farmers are rivals revving their
engines, hoping their opponent will flinch first. Caught
in the middle is Gila Bend, a groundwater basin south of
Buckeye, where the state could decide to impose its most
stringent form of regulation, whether folks like it or not.
Both sides are using Gila Bend as a bargaining chip to win
support for competing legislative proposals. But to what
end? - Written by Joanna Allhands, Arizona Republic digital
opinions editor
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.
We have an unknown distance yet to run, an unknown river to explore. What falls there are, we know not; what rocks beset the channel, we know not; what walls ride over the river, we know not. Ah, well! We may conjecture many things.
~John Wesley Powell
Powell scrawled those words in his journal as he and his expedition paddled their way into the deep walls of the Grand Canyon on a stretch of the Colorado River in August 1869. Three months earlier, the 10-man group had set out on their exploration of the iconic Southwest river by hauling their wooden boats into a major tributary of the Colorado, the Green River in Wyoming, for their trip into the “great unknown,” as Powell described it.
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.
Owens Lake is a dry lake at the terminus of the Owens River
just west of Death Valley and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada. For at least
800,000 years, the lake had a continuous flow of water, until
1913 when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power
(LADWP) completed the 233-mile Los Angeles
Aqueduct to supplement the budding metropolis’
increasing water demands.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
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 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 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.
Despite droughts, recession and natural disasters, California’s
urban population continues to grow.
This population growth means increasing demand for water by urban
areas—home to most of California’s population [see also Agricultural
Conservation]. As of 2021, three of the nation’s 10 most
populated cities are in California.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water 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
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 explores some of the major
challenges facing Colorado River stakeholders: preparing for
climate change, forging U.S.-Mexico water supply solutions and
dealing with continued growth in the basins states. Much of the
content for this issue of Western Water came from the in-depth
panel discussions at the September 2009 Colorado River Symposium.
This issue of Western Water asks whether a groundwater
compact is needed to manage this shared resource today. In the
water-stressed West, there will need to be a recognition of
sharing water resources or a line will need to be drawn in the
sand against future growth.
This issue of Western Water examines the continuing practice of
smart water use in the urban sector and its many facets, from
improved consumer appliances to improved agency planning to the
improvements in water recycling and desalination. Many in the
water community say conserving water is not merely a response to
drought conditions, but a permanent ethic in an era in which
every drop of water is a valuable commodity not to be wasted.
When water and growth was featured in the May/June 1995 Western
Water, the debate in the California Legislature was about whether
a local water district should have any say when it came to
providing water to new developments. Of the four bills before
state lawmakers, it was Sen. Jim Costa’s SB 901 that cleared the
Legislature and was signed into law. The bill established a
voluntary link between water and land-use planning by requiring
planning departments to consult with local water purveyors about
the availability of new supplies.