California’s climate, characterized by warm, dry summers and mild
winters, makes the state’s water supply unpredictable. For
instance, runoff and precipitation in California can be quite
variable. The northwestern part of the state can receive more
than 140 inches per year while the inland deserts bordering
Mexico can receive less than 4 inches.
By the Numbers:
Precipitation averages about 193 million acre-feet per year.
In a normal precipitation year, about half of the state’s
available surface water – 35 million acre-feet – is collected in
local, state and federal reservoirs.
California is home to more than 1,300 reservoirs.
About two-thirds of annual runoff evaporates, percolates into
the ground or is absorbed by plants, leaving about 71 million
acre-feet in average annual runoff.
“Planned export is 4,500 acre-feet”—that is the
much-anticipated decision from Los Angeles on water diversions
from the Mono Basin this year. This means Los Angeles
Department of Water & Power (DWP) diversions will not increase
from last year, even though existing rules would allow DWP to
quadruple their exports from the Mono Basin. This is good news
for Mono Lake, because the decision will help preserve the five
feet of recent wet year lake level gains. Thanks and credit for
this decision go to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass for her
leadership, city council and agency leaders, community leaders
for speaking up for environmental sustainability, and citywide
investment in water resilience such as stormwater capture and
other local water conservation measures. It follows a request
by the Mono Lake Committee and a diverse coalition of
supporters in March to not increase diversions.
I’ve spent years writing about California water policy and my
thoughts on water rights can be summarized simply: the current
system is inequitable and must be modernized if the state has
any hope of staving off the worst impacts of the climate
crisis. It is only a matter of time before we are in another
major drought and our water supply becomes even more scarce.
… The bills are currently making their way through the
committee process and it is vital they pass. The Coachella
Valley’s water future depends on it. AB 1337
(Wicks) gives the State Water Resources Control Board –
the agency charged with protecting water use during droughts
and times of scarcity – the ability to oversee the amount of
water used by all water rights holders when there is
a shortage. -Written by Amanda Fencl, a Western States Senior
Climate Scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists.
…Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is looking for new places
to store water and preparing to prevent saltwater from creeping
into California’s main water hub as part of long-term drought
planning outlined in a report published Thursday. The report
was prompted in part by last year’s state audit that determined
that the state Department of Water Resources did not adequately
factor climate change into its forecasts. It lists several
ongoing efforts to revamp the State Water Project but does not
propose any significant changes in operations … Climate
change is likely to further constrict deliveries by the State
Water Project, the state-run system of pipes, pumps and
reservoirs that provides water to 27 million Californians and
irrigates 750,000 acres of farmland.
Democratic lawmakers and environmental advocates are urging
Gov. Gavin Newsom to support a bond measure to help pay for
billions of dollars in climate programs endangered by the
state’s record deficit and deepening budget
cuts. … Climate and public health advocates say
cutting or delaying spending on programs that reduce greenhouse
gases or help California adapt to climate change will
exacerbate natural disasters and weather emergencies and allow
air pollution to continue for years to come. California’s
climate spending includes programs to enhance coastal
resilience as sea levels rise, prepare for wildfires, ensure
water security and develop solar and wind energy projects.
Claudia Sheinbaum, front-runner in Mexico’s presidential race,
aims to overhaul water governance in the agriculture sector,
the top user of the country’s scarce supply, with a potential
investment of 20 billion pesos ($1.2 billion) per year. Julio
Berdegue, a member of Sheinbaum’s campaign team focused on
water and the agricultural sector, told Reuters the candidate’s
six-year plan will review existing water concessions, crack
down on illegal use, update irrigation technology and revamp
national water entity CONAGUA. He cautioned the plan,
details of which have not previously been reported, was still
in development and could change. Sheinbaum has said she plans
to reform the National Water Law and develop a strategy to
confront pervasive issues in Mexico, which is suffering from
crippling drought, widespread water shortages, and heat waves
in recent days so severe that howler monkeys are dropping
dead from trees.
Lawmakers aim to amp up protections for water used by
Colorado’s largest electric utilities with a broadly supported
bill based on recommendations from water experts around the
state. Senate Bill 197 would help electric utilities hold onto
water rights that could otherwise be declared “abandoned” as
the state transitions to clean energy. It would also enhance
protections for environmental and agricultural water, and ease
access to funding for tribes. The bill grew out of water policy
recommendations developed by the Colorado River Drought Task
Force in 2023. The bill, which passed with bipartisan support,
is the legislature’s main effort this year to address those
recommendations — and to help Colorado address its uncertain
water future. Polis has until June 7 to sign the bill, allow it
to become law without his endorsement or veto it.
The Kern County water world was deeply saddened to learn that
Dana Munn, a fixture in local water for decades, died May 8
after a three-year battle with brain cancer. He was 66. Munn
was extremely well regarded among water managers and engineers
both at the local and national levels as his Watermaster
position gave him the opportunity to work closely with the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers, which owns and operates the Isabella
Dam. “He was just a really calm and sensible voice,” recalled
longtime North Kern Water Storage District Scott Kuney. “He was
someone who loved to solve a problem. And he was an honorable
person down to his roots. People recognized that about him.”
Munn’s unflappable demeanor and encyclopedic knowledge of water
infrastructure, rights and contracts made him one of the top
players in Kern County water for decades.
It’s been almost a half-century since I first heard the term
“peripheral canal” uttered by William Gianelli, who was
then-Gov. Ronald Reagan’s top water official. The project, in
one form or another, had already been kicking around for
decades. The California Water Project became operative in the
1960s and was the most prominent legacy project of Pat Brown,
whom Reagan had defeated in 1966. The project dams the Feather
River near Oroville and releases impounded water to flow down
the Feather into the Sacramento River and eventually into the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. Pumps at the southern edge of the
Delta suck the water into the California Aqueduct, which
carries it down the San Joaquin Valley to more pumps over the
Tehachapi Mountains into Southern California. -Written by Dan Walters, CalMatters columnist.
For a second consecutive year, Californians can celebrate the
rejuvenation of the state’s reservoirs. Lake Shasta, the
state’s largest reservoir, is full again after reaching
perilously low levels in the drought-stricken years from 2019
through 2022. The satellite images below, from the NASA, show
the lake in April 2022, at left — when it was at 40% capacity —
and then a little over two weeks ago, when the lake was a
lavish 96% full. On May 7, the lake was at 114% of its
historical average level. The so-called bathtub ring that
clearly outlined the lake in 2022 — so stark it was visible
from space — had disappeared by 2024. The image below
provides a closer look at Shasta’s former bathtub ring. Taken
Oct. 13, 2022, near the Pit River Bridge, the photo shows the
lake when it was 32% full.
Los Osos could end its building moratorium by the end of the
year and see new construction for the first time in decades
under a plan led by the California Coastal Commission and San
Luis Obispo County. The proposal could eventually bring 1%
residential growth to a community that has been under a
building ban since 1988. The history of Los Osos’
moratorium began with the septic tank discharge prohibition
issued by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board in 1983. That agency found that the town’s 5,000 septic
tanks were sending millions of gallons of effluent down the
drain and into both the groundwater and the bay. The county
then carried out a multi-decade struggle to site and fund a new
water treatment plant, finally launched in 2012 and put into
service in 2016.
Two groups of states submitted conflicting proposals in March
describing how federal officials should manage reservoirs on
the Colorado River after 2026. Former Colorado River Water
Conservation District General Manager Eric Kuhn, along with two
other water experts, have their own idea to pitch. Kuhn and his
co-authors, University of New Mexico professor John Fleck and
Utah State University professor Jack Schmidt want to add more
flexibility to dam operations to address environmental and
recreation concerns in the Grand Canyon below Glen Canyon Dam
(the dam that forms Lake Powell). Kuhn presented what has
been called the “academic proposal” during a Colorado Basin
Roundtable meeting in Glenwood Springs on Monday. He said the
document is not a “proposal” akin to the states’ proposals,
describing it as more of an “approach” that can be incorporated
with other proposals.
Major Central Valley water agencies have signed an agreement
with the federal government to establish a new drought
resiliency framework. The partnership is funded by the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation
Reduction Act. The big picture: The U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, the Friant Water Authority, the San Luis &
Delta-Mendota Water Authority and the San Joaquin River
Exchange Contractors Water Authority all signed a memorandum of
understanding on Tuesday to establish a South of Delta Drought
Resiliency Framework. The MOU establishes an approach to
implement drought resiliency projects and framework, which
includes a drought plan that allows the agencies to conserve
and store or exchange a portion of their water deliveries for
use in future years with lower supplies.
Related Central Valley water infrastructure
articles:
Pictures taken from a NASA satellite earlier this month show a
big difference in the water level at Shasta Lake from just two
years ago. According to NASA, the older photo shows the lake at
around 40% capacity, the low water level leaving a bright
outline around California’s biggest reservoir. The more recent
aerial photo shows the lake as it is approaching full
capacity. As of May 20, Shasta Lake is at 97% of its
4,552,000 acre-feet capacity, about 15% above average for this
time of year. The lake was similarly full last year at about
98% of capacity on May 29, 2023. California’s second-biggest
reservoir, Lake Oroville, is currently at 100% capacity, 27%
fuller than average.
Cyberattacks against water utilities across the country are
becoming more frequent and more severe, the Environmental
Protection Agency warned Monday as it issued an enforcement
alert urging water systems to take immediate actions to protect
the nation’s drinking water. About 70% of utilities inspected
by federal officials over the last year violated standards
meant to prevent breaches or other intrusions, the agency said.
Officials urged even small water systems to improve protections
against hacks. Recent cyberattacks by groups affiliated with
Russia and Iran have targeted smaller communities. Some water
systems are falling short in basic ways, the alert said,
including failure to change default passwords or cut off system
access to former employees.
Last year was notably wet, raising Mono Lake five feet—and
creating a conundrum. Under rules written three decades ago,
the lake’s rise over the 6,380-foot elevation threshold means
that on April 1, 2024, the maximum limit on water diversions
from Mono Lake increased nearly fourfold. Yet decades of
evidence show that increasing water diversions will erode the
wet year gains, stopping the lake from reaching the mandated
healthy 6,392-foot elevation. This flaw in the water
diversion rules, now obvious after 30 years of implementation,
has real-world results: Mono Lake is a decade late and eight
feet short of achieving the healthy lake requirement. The
California State Water Resources Control Board plans to examine
this problem in a future hearing.
Gov. Spencer Cox said Thursday he is open to alternatives to
bring more Colorado River water to Southern Utah, including a
suggestion from the Utah Senate president to help California
fund desalination facilities in exchange for part of its water
share. … Earlier in the week, a report by Fox 13 News
and the Colorado River Collaborative journalism
initiative said that Utah Senate President J. Stuart Adams,
R-Layton, has put forward the idea of providing part of
the funds for California to construct desalination facilities
to remove salt and brine from Pacific Ocean water to convert it
to safe drinking water. In exchange, Utah would get a portion
of California’s share of the river’s water.
In today’s globalized world, ensuring that Americans can depend
on local food production is more critical than ever. The
California Farm Water Coalition, dedicated to raising awareness
about the connection between farm water and our food supply,
has released three educational fact sheets shedding light on
the water needed to produce the food Californians consume
daily, and the risk we face from unsustainable foreign food
production. California’s population of 39 million requires
a staggering 11.3 trillion gallons of water annually to grow
enough food and fiber to meet its needs, as described in the
fact sheet, “Where Does Farm Water Go?”. However, current water
supplies fall short, leaving a gap of 38 percent between the
water used to grow our food and the demand on food production
by the state’s population.
California’s weather was made for demagogues. For as long as
records have been kept, the state has typically experienced a
series of dry years followed by a series of wet years. The
weather lines up conveniently with election cycles. A few years
of drought will prompt an excitable politician to declare that
projections clearly show the end of the world is upon us unless
California takes immediate action. Depending on the
circumstances, that action can be the election of that
politician to office, or re-election to office, or an
oppressive law that takes effect after the perpetrators are out
of office, or voter approval of borrowed money for an
overpriced project that might be a state-of-the-art boondoggle.
In 2018, as Gov. Jerry Brown prepared to head into the sunset
of his colorful political career, he signed two new laws that
imposed permanent drought-emergency restrictions on the people
of California. -Written by Susan Shelley, columnist with the LA Daily
News.
California’s contentious and long-debated plan to replumb the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and pump more water south finally
has a price tag: about $20 billion. The new estimate for
the Delta tunnel project — which would transform the massive
water system that sends Northern California water south to
farms and cities — is $4 billion higher than a 2020 estimate,
largely because of inflation. Included is almost $1.2 billion
to offset local harms and environmental damage, such as impacts
on salmon and rare fish that state officials have called
“potentially significant.” The goal of the project is to
collect and deliver more water to two-thirds of California’s
population and 750,000 acres of farmland during
wet periods … But environmental groups and many
Delta residents have long warned that the tunnel could put the
imperiled Delta ecosystem at even greater risk, sapping
freshwater flows needed for fish, farms and communities in the
region.
As of Tuesday morning, there was no news from Sacramento County
Superior Court Judge Stephen Acquisto on a dispute over the
city’s approval of the proposed Sage Ranch subdivision. The
issue is whether the city of Tehachapi violated state law when
it approved a 995-unit residential project on 138 acres near
Tehachapi High School in September 2021. The long-awaited
hearing on the first through third causes of action of the
case, Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District vs. City of
Tehachapi, took about three hours on May 3, with Acquisto
questioning attorneys about case law and water.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s May Revision of the state budget plan
released on May 10, aims to address a “sizable deficit” of
roughly $56 billion into 2026. The multi-billion-dollar deficit
is in stark contrast to the $97.5 billion budget surplus that
Newsom projected in the 2022-23 state budget. Several budget
cuts, amounting to over $30 billion were announced, including a
$500 million cut to water storage projects. These discretionary
spending cuts delay certain funding sources for water-storage
projects such as the planned Sites Reservoir north of
Sacramento. While funding awarded under Proposition 1 — a
voter-approved 2014 ballot initiative to support various water
projects — will not be affected by the budget crisis, the
California Farm Bureau explained in a press release that $500
million in discretionary funding to support the project would
be cut.
The Pleasanton City Council unanimously approved finance
documents to allow the city to issue water revenue bonds with a
principal maximum amount of $19 million, which will help pay
for water system improvement projects and the first phase and
design work for drilling new wells as part of the city’s Water
Supply Alternative Project. Following the council decision to
authorize the bond issuance during the May 7 council meeting,
staff said pricing and interest rates for the bonds will be
established on May 20 or May 21 with the goal of having the
city receive the bond proceeds on June 4. “This is similar to
buying a house. You don’t just get it from your salary,
sometimes you have to go into debt and pay it back over time,”
Mayor Karla Brown said during the meeting. “But this will be a
big shift in this city.”
California’s almond crop this year is expected to increase by
21 percent compared to 2023, according to the U.S. Department
of Agriculture. The USDA expects the almond crop to total
around three billion pounds, a significant boost from the 2.47
billion pounds produced last year. Driving the
news: California’s lofty almond production projections are
driven by favorable weather for the first half of the growing
season, according to an analysis from the USDA.
… If California’s almond crop projections are accurate,
2024 would be the second-best year on record in the last
decade.
The U.S. government is dedicating $60 million over the next few
years to projects along the Rio Grande in southern New Mexico
and West Texas to make the river more resilient in the face of
climate change and growing demands. The funding announced
Friday by U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland marks the first
disbursement from the Inflation Reduction Act for a basin
outside of the Colorado River system. While pressures on the
Colorado River have dominated headlines, Haaland and others
acknowledged that other communities in the West — from Native
American reservations to growing cities and agricultural
strongholds — are experiencing the effects of unprecedented
drought.
According to a new report by the United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA), Lake Tahoe, situated on the
California-Nevada border, will reach it’s “full” level for the
first time since 2019, provided further evidence of
California’s water recovery. For the last 10+ years, California
has had mostly drought years. A mid 2010’s drought, lasting
from 2011 to 2017, covered virtually the entire state at its
peak. While a few average years followed, a megadrought formed
in 2020, once again covering almost the entire state. State
reservoirs reached critical lows, with some so depleted of
water that hydro-electric power turbines no longer generated
electricity. Natural lakes, like Lake Tahoe, also saw water
levels go down below its ‘full’ level in the summer of 2019.
Beachgoers at the lake had difficulty getting spots
because of the lower levels, and commentators during the 2021
NHL games played next to the lake even noted the size change.
Thanks to favorable weather conditions, California’s almond
crop for 2024 is expected to be 21 percent greater than last
year’s final output, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)
reports. The almond crop should amount to about 3 billion
pounds, as opposed to the 2.47 billion pounds generated in
2023, according to the USDA’s National Agricultural
Statistics Service Pacific Regional Office, based in
Sacramento. … Mature almond trees in the southern
Sacramento Valley can consume 41 to 44 inches of water in an
average year when water use is unrestricted, while those in
Central California’s San Joaquin Valley can use as much as 50
to 54 inches, according to data from the University of
California, Davis.
Heavy rains this winter and spring sent torrential flows down
local creeks and rivers, and L.A. County managed to capture and
store a significant amount of that stormwater, officials say.
To be exact, they snared an estimated 295,000 acre-feet of
water since last October, or 96.3 billion gallons. That’s
enough water to supply about 2.4 million people a year — nearly
one-fourth of the county’s population. … The county,
working with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and
other agencies, was able to capture and store this amount of
water thanks in part to investments totaling more than $1
billion since 2001, Pestrella said. Some of the money has gone
toward raising dams and increasing the capacity of spreading
grounds, where water is sent into basins and then percolates
underground into aquifers.
Those stunning warnings in 2021 that the Marin Municipal Water
District was within months of running out of water led voters
to demand change. In the 2022 election, that frustration was
evident as voters elected three new directors. The historic
drought has taken a toll on the district’s chain of reservoirs,
the capacity of which it relies to meet the water needs of the
communities MMWD serves. The Lake Sonoma reservoir, which MMWD
relies on to import about 25% of its supply, was also depleted
by the drought and its releases restricted. The drought was a
huge test of the district’s long held policy of maintaining its
supply through conservation. The prolonged drought proved that
conservation, while vitally necessary, wasn’t enough — and the
district was caught in a crisis.
With Lake Oroville creeping toward capacity, concerns over
emergency spillage loom. The California Department of Water
Resources, however, said this won’t happen because of
controlled outflows and monitoring. DWR Spokesperson Raquel
Borray said the dam is being watched closely. … As of
Tuesday, Borrayo said, total releases into the Feather River
come out to 10,000 cubic feet per second with the majority —
9,350 cfs — going through the Thermalito Afterbay Outlet and
the remaining 650 cfs pouring through the low-flow channel. She
added that DWR is making adjustments as they are necessary.
The Colorado River is in trouble. More than two decades of
megadrought fueled by climate change have sapped its supplies,
and those who use the river’s water are struggling to rein in
demand. Now, with current rules for river sharing set to expire
in 2026, policymakers have a rare opportunity to rework how
Western water is managed.
Rainfall and snow storms boosted California’s groundwater
supplies and replenished the Sierra Nevada snowpack, but
scientists say dry conditions in the summer — and starting as
soon as this weekend — could reverse that progress. …
temperatures in California — including in San Francisco — are
forecast to climb over their usual seasonal highs. That
could accelerate the rate at which the state’s snowpack melts,
according to Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist and
station manager at the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow
Laboratory …
After another wet winter, record rainfall has turned California
green and replenished the state’s reservoirs, which had been
perilously low during the worst days of the drought. Lake
Oroville, the state’s second-biggest reservoir, often serves as
a rainfall barometer. As of Tuesday, Oroville was at 100%
capacity, according to data from the state Department of Water
Resources. … The left photograph shows Enterprise Bridge
on Dec. 21, 2022, when the lake was at 29% of its total
capacity. The right side shows the same area April 24, 2024,
when the lake was at 96% of capacity — a figure it has now
eclipsed. As of May 7, Lake Oroville was at 128% of its
historical level. Lake Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir,
was 97% full Tuesday, or 115% of its historical level.
California’s reservoirs are not only vital to the state’s
complex water systems, providing millions of people and the
state’s agricultural economy with needed access to water;
they’re also important gauges for how healthy the state is
overall. This year’s at-capacity reservoirs have been a boon
for a region besieged by drought over much of the past decade,
but more work is needed to help ensure a plentiful and
water-wise future for the most populous state in
America. Enter Sites Reservoir, a long-in-the-works
project that aims to be the biggest reservoir development in
nearly half a century. It’s been a massive dream for
decades, an idea first worked up by landowners and water
districts northwest of Sacramento. Thanks to a new infusion of
federal cash, the proposal is closer than ever to actually
happening — but not without a very real cost.
A new study found that the Colorado River may experience a
rebound after two decades of decreased flows due to drought and
global warming. “Importantly, we find climate change will
likely increase precipitation in the Colorado headwaters,”
Professor Martin Hoerling, the study’s lead author, wrote to
The Salt Lake Tribune in an email. “This will compensate some
if not most of the depleting effects of further warming.”
Recently published in the Journal of Climate, the study by
researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder’s Cooperative
Institute for Research in Environmental Science used data from
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. … The
study’s climate projections forecast that there is a 70% chance
that climate change will lead to increased precipitation in the
Upper Basin between 2026 and 2050. That precipitation increase
could boost the river’s flows by 5% to 7%.
Residents of Allensworth are finally getting attention from a
company that installed and then abandoned hydropanels, which
make water out of thin air, several years ago. As SJV
Water reported in March, residents were frustrated they
couldn’t get support from Source Global, the company behind the
panels, after the panels had fallen into disrepair. Following
SJV Water’s story, Source Global dedicated a staff person to
oversee operations in Allensworth, said Kayode Kadara, a
community leader in Allensworth. … Kadara said Source
Global staff has been making calls to residents in town with
the hydropanels and technicians have come out to perform upkeep
and check the hydropanels. Kadara’s own hydropanels at home
were serviced. The hydropanels at Allensworth’s community
center still aren’t working though, said Kadara.
Related San Joaquin Valley drinking water article:
A local ag industry titan is being recognized for his lifelong
service in farming and civic life. Assemblymember Esmeralda
Soria has recognized Firebaugh farmer Joe L. Del Bosque as her
office’s 2024 Latino Spirit Award Honoree. Following years of
migrant farm work, Del Bosque’s family established themselves
on the westside of the San Joaquin Valley, where he grew up on
the farm with his father, going to work at age 10. He graduated
from Fresno State in 1975 and then his started own operation in
1985. Del Bosque Farms produces organic melons, tomatoes,
almonds and cherries. Del Bosque is a vocal advocate for
farmers and farmworkers impacted by water policies.
The Marin Municipal Water District is embarking on a yearlong
study to examine the impact of frequent, severe storms on the
utility’s seven dams. The district board authorized spending up
to $1.06 million to evaluate the capacity of the dam spillways,
and to use climate change projections to assess potential
hazards. The study is a response to a critical Marin County
Civil Grand Jury report published last summer. The watchdog
panel said dam safety plans for the Marin Municipal Water
District and the North Marin Water District are failing to
account for more regular “atmospheric river” storms brought on
by climate change. The grand jury recommended, among other
actions, that the water districts update their dam hazard
mitigation plans with the latest science on climate change
effects on storms.
In another move to build water resilient systems in the West
and particularly in the Colorado River Basin, the U.S. Bureau
of Reclamation announced Monday $147 million in federal grants
to help underserved communities dogged by water scarcity
issues. The funding will support 42 projects in 10 states. In
eastern Utah, nearly $6.6 million was granted to the Ute Indian
Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation which operates the
Ute Tribe Water Systems, providing water service to tribal
members.
Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California,
reached capacity on Monday for a second straight year after
another relatively wet winter. The rising waters come as state
reservoir managers have been reducing outflows from the lake in
recent weeks — as winter inflows tailed off and the threat
of downstream flooding waned — allowing the reservoir to
slowly fill to its current 899-foot elevation, or 3.52-million
acre-feet of water. … Lake Oroville contains 28% more water
than it historically has on this date. “This is great news
for ensuring adequate water supply for millions of Californians
& environmental needs,” the state Department of Water Resources
posted Monday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will examine the possibility of
drilling tunnels through Glen Canyon Dam to ensure water can
pass through it at low Lake Powell elevations, two
knowledgeable sources told the Arizona Daily Star. Such a
re-engineering project will be among several options the bureau
will look at due to new concerns about the ability to deliver
Colorado River water through the 61-year-old facility under
such circumstances. It could prevent a catastrophic occurrence
if lake elevations ever fall so low that no water could get
through the dam to serve farms and Lower River Basin cities,
including Tucson, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Los Angeles and San
Diego.
The Marin Municipal Water District is bolstering its strategy
on conservation with policy updates and incentive programs
designed to reduce water use by hundreds of millions of gallons
annually. The draft “2024 Water Efficiency Master Plan” is a
playbook that outlines how water is used today in the county,
and how the district can help its 191,000 customers in central
and southern Marin cut back. The plan aims to reduce water use
districtwide by more than 1,000 acre-feet a year starting in
2025, with even greater incremental reduction targets beyond
that. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons of water. District
staffers presented the draft plan to the board at a special
meeting on Wednesday.
Perhaps no environmental topic is as controversial in
California as the Delta Tunnel. … The tunnel is a key
part of the State Water Project’s new risk-informed strategic
plan. That strategic plan is known as Elevate to ‘28.
It lists five goals that it says will help to make the State
Water Project (SWP) “the most reliable, sustainable, and
resilient water provider for the people and environment of
California, now and for future generations.” To learn more
about the plan, ABC10 Meteorologist Brenden Mincheff invited
Tony Meyers, the Principal Operating Officer for the State
Water Project for a conversation. Here are some key takeaways
from that.
Last year, California experienced weather whiplash. After years
of severe drought, 2023 saw heavy rainfall and snowpack that
flooded the state, recharged groundwater and filled our
reservoirs. While desperately needed, we cannot pretend that
the good times are here to stay. Increasingly dry years are in
our future, and it will not be long until we find ourselves
facing drought conditions once again. The time to prepare our
water infrastructure for the future is now. Currently,
lawmakers in Sacramento are working to close a $37.9 billion
deficit. While we have made progress at the state level in
recent years — including allocating $8.6 billion in state
funding for water projects — pulling back on water
infrastructure funding now could jeopardize further federal and
local funding sources for key projects already underway. -Written by Senator Anna M. Caballero and Ric Ortega,
general manager of the Grassland Water
District.
Grand County and Northern Water have struck a deal that will
send more water running down Western Slope streams to benefit
farmers, boaters and the environment. Grand County in northern
Colorado is home to nearly 16,000 people, part of Rocky
Mountain National Park and the headwaters of the Colorado
River. Each year, four major diversion tunnels take up to
350,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water out of the county and
push it east to the Front Range. Now, the county and the water
provider are agreeing to release water in the opposite
direction, to the west.
Governor Gavin Newsom, with the support of the Department of
Water Resources (DWR) and other state agencies, signed into
effect new developments for the California Water Plan which
details water conservation efforts for the next five
years. Newsom said that the state has invested $9 billion
in the last three years, and that “I want folks to know that we
are not just victims of fate, that we recognize the world we’re
living in.” Recognizing that California will be
operating with ten percent less water in 2040 than what is
currently available, Newsom said “We put out a hotter, drier
strategy” to offset the loss. This includes plans for improving
water security, desalinization plants, stormwater capture,
water recycling, and new strategies for large-scale
conveyance.
Tribes that use the Colorado River want a say in negotiations
that will reshape how the river’s water is shared. Eighteen of
those tribes signed on to a letter sent to the Bureau of
Reclamation, the federal agency that will finalize new rules
for managing the river after 2026, when the current guidelines
expire. In the memo, tribal leaders urge the federal government
to protect their access to water and uphold long-standing legal
responsibilities. … The tribes’ letter aims to make sure
that Indigenous people, who used the Colorado River before
white settlers ever occupied the Western U.S., are not
left behind as Reclamation considers those proposals. “If you
are not at the table, you are on the menu,” Jay Weiner, a water
lawyer for the Quechan Indian Tribe, said. Weiner, who helped
craft the letter, said it aims to answer the complicated
question: What do tribes want?
Winter-like weather will make a brief return to California this
weekend, with widespread snow in the Sierra Nevada. The
National Weather Service has issued winter weather advisories
for much of the Sierra, including Donner Pass, the Tahoe
Basin and Yosemite National Park. The spring snowmaker will add
fresh powder in some locations, boosting an already healthy
snowpack.
Giant pumps hum inside a warehouse-like building, pushing water
from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta into the California
Aqueduct, where it travels more than 400 miles south to the
taps of over half the state’s population. But lately the
powerful motors at the Harvey O. Banks Pumping Plant have been
running at reduced capacity, despite a second year of
drought-busting snow and rain. The reason: So many threatened
fish have died at the plant’s intake reservoir and pumps that
it has triggered federal protections and forced the state to
pump less water. The spike in fish deaths has angered
environmentalists and fishing advocates, who argue the state
draws too much water from the delta while failing to safeguard
fish.
After screening proposals to expand water storage capacity, the
Marin Municipal Water District has narrowed its options. But
expansion of the Soulajule reservoir — the district’s star
prospect — is drawing mounting opposition from neighboring
ranchers who fear that their multigenerational homes and
ranches will be engulfed by the new footprint created by the
larger dam.
Against a backdrop of the Colorado River, members of the
Colorado River Indian Tribes watched Secretary of the Interior
Deb Haaland, Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Amelia Flores, the
tribe’s chairwoman, sign a historic agreement on April 26 that
asserts the tribe’s right to lease portions of their allocation
of the river’s water to users away from the tribal land. The
agreement between the tribe, the Interior Department and
Arizona gives the tribe the ability to lease, exchange or store
a portion of its Colorado River water entitlement. As one
leader expressed, the tribe is stepping away from the “outdated
framework” of federal restrictions that constrained their means
to supply water to areas off the tribal land.
Pro-Russia hackers have exploited shoddy security practices at
multiple US water plants in recent cyberattacks that have hit a
wider swathe of victims than was previously documented,
according to an advisory by US federal agencies obtained by
CNN. Though the attacks have not impacted drinking water, the
advisory lays bare the cybersecurity challenges facing the
thousands of water systems across the US, many of which are
often short of cash and personnel to deal with threats.
A new memo from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is raising
concern about the infrastructure at the Glen Canyon Dam and its
ability to deliver water downstream should levels at Lake
Powell continue to decline. Environmental groups are calling it
“the most urgent water problem” for the Colorado River and the
40 million people who rely on it. … Without upgrades to
the dam’s infrastructure, the bureau’s ability to get water
downstream to the lower Colorado River basin as required by the
Colorado River Compact could be in jeopardy. Even after
record-breaking snowfall in 2023 and an above average 2024
winter, Lake Powell remains at about 32% full, according to
data from the bureau. And scientists estimate flows
in the river have decreased by roughly 20% over the last
century, with warming temperatures resulting in a
10% decrease in runoff.
Water use in California is typically thought of in three parts:
water for the environment (50%), water for agriculture (40%),
and water for communities (10%) per the Public Policy Institute
of California (PPIC). As a result, “ag” is the sector of the
economy that comes to mind first when we talk about the state’s
water supply. But the rest of California’s economy also
requires water. California’s manufacturers – one of the state’s
largest industry sectors, accounting for 11.8% of state GDP –
need water. -Written by Lance Hastings, President and CEO of
the California Manufacturers & Technology
Association.
California Forever announced today that the group has collected
20,472 petition signatures for their initiative that would
change Solano County zoning laws to accommodate a new city of
400,000 people between Fairfield and Rio Vista. The Silicon
Valley billionaire-funded development group turned the
signatures in to the Solano County Registrar of Voters on
Tuesday, according to county records. … Opponents of the
project have raised concerns about additional traffic that the
project will add to the highways, the potential for the
development to interfere with the training and other operations
at Travis Air Force Base and where the development is going to
source its water.
A steady stream of water spilled from Lake Casitas Friday, a
few days after officials declared the Ojai Valley reservoir had
reached capacity for the first time in a quarter century. Just
two years earlier, the drought-stressed reservoir, which
provides drinking water for the Ojai
Valley and parts of Ventura, had dropped under 30%.
The Casitas Municipal Water District was looking at emergency
measures if conditions didn’t improve, board President Richard
Hajas said. Now, the lake is full, holding roughly 20 years of
water.
Last year’s snow deluge in California, which quickly erased a
two decade long megadrought, was essentially a
once-in-a-lifetime rescue from above, a new study found. Don’t
get used to it because with climate change the 2023 California
snow bonanza —a record for snow on the ground on April 1 — will
be less likely in the future, said the study in Monday’s
journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
… UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain, who wasn’t part
of the study but specializes in weather in the U.S. West, said,
“I would not be surprised if 2023 was the coldest, snowiest
winter for the rest of my own lifetime in California.”
As California’s wet season comes to a close, forecasters are
already starting to talk about next winter: A La Niña weather
pattern is expected to develop. La Niña — the inverse of
El Niño — impacts weather around the world and is often
associated with wetter conditions in Northern California and
drier weather in Central and Southern California.
… While winter precipitation in California was below
normal in three of the last five La Niña years, it
was well above normal, even in Central and Southern California,
in one.
The way water used to burst from the ground in Las Vegas is
hard for me to fathom — until I actually see photos of it.
There is a reason they call Las Vegas “the meadows.” Before all
the concrete and master-planned communities, before traffic,
red cones and cranes, Las Vegas relied on artesian wells.
Because of the geology beneath the Earth’s surface, underground
pressure and physics, these coveted artesian wells sprayed
water into the air without pumping. In Las Vegas, such wells
offered an early water supply. These were the free-flowing and
freewheeling days of Las Vegas water.
Two massive local water purification projects set to begin
construction within the next 18 months have received up to $182
million from water wholesaler Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California. The regional water agency funds are headed
for a $700 million groundwater replenishment project in the San
Fernando Valley and a $364 million water purification project
in the Westlake Village area. Contractors have been selected
for both projects, which are set to begin construction within
the next 18 months. “For decades, investments in local projects
have helped strengthen Southern California’s resiliency by
reducing demands for imported water supplies and decreasing the
burden on our system,” said Nancy Sutley, Metropolitan board’s
vice chair of climate action.
As the California State Water Resources Control board meets at
the California Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters for
three days of discussion on its Bay-Delta Water Quality Control
Plan Solano County water officials are there to speak in
opposition to a course of action that could see the county’s
water allocation from Lake Berryessa cut by 75 percent. Chris
Lee and Alex Rabidoux of the Solano County Water Agency
presented information regarding the growth of salmon
populations in Putah Creek in recent years. The state has
claimed that diminished river flows in these areas are harming
fish habitats and are ecologically detrimental to the water
system as a whole, but SCWA argues that Putah Creek is already
a standout example of salmon repopulation.
Increased water allocations from systems that move water from
northern to southern California were met with disappointment
and frustration from contractors. Both the Department of Water
Resources and Bureau of Reclamation increased allocations this
week to 40% of contracted amounts, going up 10% and 5%,
respectively. With nearly all the state’s reservoirs filled to
above average levels, the increases were seen as stingy, at
best. “This allocation increase is incredibly disappointing and
should be much higher,” said Kern County Water Agency Board of
Directors President Ted Page in a press release. … The
presence of the fish “triggered state and federal regulations”
that put an automatic crimp on pumping, the release states.
Page objected to that sort of snap regulatory reaction saying
the restrictions are “based on outdated fish population
estimating tools.”
On May 7, scientists from University of California, Riverside,
UC Agriculture and Natural Resources, Colorado State University
Extension, Kansas State University, University of Arizona,
Central Arizona Project, and USDA-Agricultural Research Service
will gather with growers in Palm Desert to discuss how
artificial intelligence can be used in agriculture.
One of the most terrifying features of the climate crisis is
how it jeopardizes our access to water, without which we cannot
live. Some two billion people lack safe drinking water, while
about almost two thirds of the human population suffers water
scarcity for some part of the year. This in turn imperils food
security, since agriculture is impossible without
water. As climate change exacerbates water shortages,
water profiteering is making the problem even worse. The
barbaric capitalist insistence on treating water as a commodity
incentivizes scarcity and hoarding, as well as imposing ever
more extreme levels of thirst upon the world’s poor. -Written by Liza Featherstone, the author
of Divining Desire: Focus Groups and the Culture of
Consultation.
The city of Sanger has allowed its largest private employer,
Pitman Family Farms, a years-long delay in settling $1 million
in payments after the city failed for years to collect money
tied to the company’s increased water use. Pitman Family Farms
poultry processor, known for its line of high-end chickens sold
under the brand Mary’s Chicken, has steadily grown in recent
years. The family-owned company established its plant in Sanger
in 2002 and is today the second largest employer in the city
behind the public school district. As the company has grown its
business – including several plant expansions over the years
from a one-story to a four-story processing plant – its use of
city water has increased. This growth has had an impact on the
city’s infrastructure, but the city wasn’t properly charging
the company for its water use, city records show.
Prosecutors have accused Dennis Falaschi, 77, a gregarious
local irrigation official [with the Panoche Water District], of
masterminding the theft of more than $25 million worth of water
out of a federal canal over the course of two decades and
selling it to farmers and other local water districts.
According to the allegations, proceeds that should have gone to
the federal government instead were used to benefit Falaschi,
his water district and a small group of co-conspirators, much
of it funneled into exorbitant salaries and lavish fringe
benefits. … Some farmers who relied on Falaschi and his
irrigation district were outraged — at the government. They see
him as the Robin Hood of irrigation. … For more than a
year, Falaschi maintained his innocence, insisting there had
been no theft. Then this spring, his attorneys filed paperwork
that said he was prepared to change his plea. Exactly what he
will plead guilty to remains unclear.
Colorado voters may be asked to let more money flow to water
projects by allowing the state to keep all of the sports
betting tax revenue it collects, if a measure referring the
issue to the November ballot is approved by lawmakers. House
Bill 1436 … collects a 10% tax on the proceeds of licensed
sports betting. Some of the money is used to cover the cost of
regulating betting and the rest, up to $29 million total, is
funneled toward water projects. In the event tax collections
exceed $29 million, the legislature decides how to refund the
money under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
A water transfer from a small western Arizona town to a growing
East Valley community has some observers concerned. About a
decade ago, a company called Greenstone bought nearly 500 acres
of land in the town of Cibola, in La Paz County. But, a few
years later, Greenstone sold the water rights for that farmland
to Queen Creek. In the process, the company made about $14
million in profit. Since then, La Paz and two other Arizona
counties have sued the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, arguing the
agency didn’t consider the long-term implications when it
approved the deal. A judge this year sided with those counties,
and told the bureau to essentially redo its environmental
assessment of the arrangement.
The Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta faces significant
challenges affecting the health of its waterways and ecosystem,
and stewards say state agencies must accelerate efforts to
prepare for the impacts of climate change and a growing urban
landscape. Delta Stewardship Council staff presented the
Delta Plan Five Year Review on Thursday, recommending numerous
measures to preserve precious water and environmental habitats
against future crises such as extreme drought, sea level rise
and earthquakes. The council recommended that stewards work
with state regulators to improve the delta’s ecosystems and
reduce reliance on delta water, and with landowners to identify
affordable uses of sinking land for sustainable farming.
Long-term weather models are hinting a wet storm could sweep
California in early May, but forecasters warn that people
shouldn’t arrange their plans around this potential system just
yet. On Tuesday, the National Weather Service’s Weather
Prediction Center told SFGATE that some models show the storm
could generally bring a chance of 0.5 to 1 inch of rain across
the entire state. An inch of rain is not a big deal in the
winter, but in May, it’s a little less typical.
… Weather models show the storm potentially arriving May
4, with rain chances continuing into Monday, May 6. Oravec
shared this information with a big caveat: The timing of the
storm is likely to change in the coming days, or the entire
forecast could shift.
Conservationists lost an appeal to the Ninth Circuit on
Wednesday as they attempted to force the federal government to
reconsider climate change studies in managing the Glen Canyon
Dam and Colorado River. Save the Colorado, Living River and the
Center for Biological Diversity initially asked the U.S.
Department of the Interior to consider emerging climate science
and the severe potential of climate change in updating its
management plan in 2016 for the Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell,
which has a water level 3,564 feet above sea level.
… [The judges] concluded that the Interior did not
violate environmental law when developing its 20-year plan for
managing water releases from the dam or the plan’s accompanying
environmental analysis.
Several environmental groups asked San Francisco on Tuesday to
reduce its diversion of Tuolumne River water. They said chinook
salmon and other wildlife suffer from the current operations,
especially the river stretch in and near Modesto. At a meeting
of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, the groups
urged more conservation and wastewater recycling. The agency
responded that these “single-issue activists” do not understand
the city’s needs. San Francisco secured rights in 1913 to about
an eighth of the Tuolumne, which arises at about 13,000 feet in
Yosemite National Park. Most of the water diversion is at Hetch
Hetchy Reservoir, built just inside the western park boundary
to the dismay of early preservationists.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday that
south-of-Delta water contractors are having their water
allocation increase from 35 percent to 40 percent of their
contracted amount. That five percent increase was
“incredibly disappointingly low” for Westlands Water
District. The big picture: South-of-Delta contractors
were initially allocated 15 percent of their contracted total
in February, but that number was boosted to 35 percent in
March. Farmers were hopeful that California’s above
average snowpack would result in a greater boost, considering
the state has had a good start to the year with precipitation.
When Californians voted for Proposition 1 in 2014, they had
every reason to expect sound investments in climate-resilient
water projects. And all but one of the projects selected to
receive the proposition’s $2.7 billion in water supply funding
fulfill those criteria.They replenish groundwater basins and
enhance the storage capacity of existing reservoirs to better
withstand droughts — benefits that are realized by all people
across the state. Unfortunately, the one project that does not
measure up — the Sites Reservoir Project — would be publicly
funded to the tune of nearly $900 million. -Written by Max Gomberg, a former California
State Water Resources Control Board climate adviser and a
senior policy consultant and board member of the California
Water Impact Network.
Fresno State is introducing a groundbreaking new minor, in
collaboration with the California Water Institute, focusing on
multiple facets of the water industry for students to add to
their educational plan. … This new water minor is designed
for students who want to learn more about water systems in
California, as well as those interested in water-related
careers after graduation. The minor is open to all disciplines
at Fresno State and allows students of any study background to
learn more about the water management challenges that impact a
reliable water supply.
Arizona Democrats are looking to capture voters mindful of one
resource that is sparse in the desert state: water. As
political battles over abortion and the southern border hit
close to home for some Arizonans, record-setting
high-temperature summers and droughts worry many. Democrats
look to rein in rural voters who have turned on the party by
framing water as a “life or death” matter going into the 2024
elections. … In tandem, Mayes and Gov. Katie Hobbs
(D-AZ) have cracked down on controversial farms that
had unlimited access to the state’s limited groundwater
supply. Last year, the pair ended a contract with a Saudi
Arabian company, Fondomonte, that grew alfalfa in Arizona and
then shipped the hay back to the Middle East. Under the
contract from former Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, the company
was given unlimited access to groundwater in Arizona.
With runoff from this year’s snow and rain boosting the levels
of California’s reservoirs, state water managers on Tuesday
announced plans to increase deliveries of supplies from the
State Water Project to 40% of full allotments, up from 30% last
month. The increased allocation, which had been widely
expected, means that suppliers serving 27 million Californians,
as well as some farming areas, will have substantially more
water available to use and store this year. But the Department
of Water Resources also said officials have had to limit
pumping from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta this year
because of environmental protections for native fish.
With San Diego more than half done with the first phase of its
Pure Water sewage recycling system, city officials say they are
considering major changes to how they will handle the second,
larger phase. … Plans for the second phase, which were
mostly put in place 13 years ago, could change significantly
based on new state regulations and new information about how
much purified water the city is projected to need. … But
the city could abandon a plan to build the phase two
purification plant on a vacant 17-acre site in Mission Valley,
and plans to store purified water from that plant in either
Lake Murray or the San Vicente Reservoir.
Since the first Earth Day in 1970, the world has experienced
profound ecological changes. Wildlife populations have
decreased by 69 percent, the result of habitat loss caused by
rapid industrialization and changing temperatures. 2023 was the
hottest year on record. Certain ancient practices could
mitigate the deleterious effects of global warming. From
building seaside gardens to water management in desert terrain,
these time-honored practices work with the natural world’s
rhythms.
Atmospheric river storms are like punches in a boxing match. A
flurry of weak ones are OK. But it’s best to avoid the big
knockout blows. That’s exactly what happened in California this
winter. Scientists say that from Oct. 1 to April 1, the state
actually received more atmospheric rivers, the famous
moisture-laden meteorological events that are critical to the
water supply, than it did last year — 44 this winter compared
to 31 last winter. But the intensity made all the difference.
Statewide, California had just 2 strong atmospheric rivers this
winter, compared with 7 last year. Many of the biggest this
winter hit Washington and Oregon instead. The result was, for
the most part, a remarkably, blissfully average rainy season
for California. 3 were moderate and 7 were strong. This year,
26 were weak, 16 were moderate and 2 were strong.
Already fuller this year than it was at this time a year ago,
Lake Shasta continues to fill, creeping toward the top ―
sometimes rising just inches a day. But by early May, the lake
level is expected to stop rising and the long draw-down of the
lake will begin again and continue through the summer. The lake
is expected to reach about 5 feet from full sometime in early
May, according to Michael Burke, a spokesman for the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Shasta Dam. … Two
years ago, conditions at the lake were dire, with the water
level down to historically low levels. … But with the
lake fuller this year, many water agencies are receiving their
full allotment of water from the bureau.
The mainstream media continues its obsession with the amount of
water that goes to producing alfalfa and other important forage
crops in the West. The Colorado River right now is
understandably a favorite topic of environmental journalists,
as state, federal and tribal decision-makers are scrambling to
negotiate a long-term river operating agreement to replace the
current one that expires in 2026. Those arguments were teed up
again last month when the Los Angeles Times broadcast a recent
study showing that agriculture is the “dominant” user of
Colorado River water, “about three times the combined usage of
all the cities that depend on the river”. Unfortunately, not a
single Colorado River farmer or water manager was mentioned in
that story. -Written by Dan Keppen, executive director of the Family
Farm Alliance.
The current water year, which began Oct. 1, has been wetter
than usual, with the Russian River watershed accumulating 119%
of the yearly average rainfall, totaling 49.38 inches since
October. In the past, we might have celebrated our good fortune
and watched lake levels rise only to watch much of it sent
downriver to the Pacific Ocean as reservoirs reached an
inflexible upper threshold. Today, we get to continue enjoying
that ample rainfall long after summer sunshine arrives. Grant
Davis With almost a decade of data under its belt, the Russian
River Forecast-Informed Reservoir Operations program has been
making great strides by demonstrating the viability of this
strategy to operate reservoirs more effectively using modern
technology and forecasting. -Written by Grant Davis, general manager of Sonoma
Water.
Lake Powell could reach a four-year high this spring and summer
as snowmelt supplements the reservoir’s water levels. Lake Mead
in Nevada and Arizona and Lake Powell in Utah and Arizona have
suffered from a regional drought for years, and excessive water
usage is slowly depleting the Colorado River faster than
natural weather patterns can fill it. An above-average snowfall
and excessive precipitation last spring and this winter have
bolstered the water levels at Lake Powell and Lake Mead, and
new data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation revealed that the
nation’s second-largest reservoir could rise by up to 50 feet
by mid-summer.
In an effort to protect more than 5 million Californians from a
cancer-causing contaminant, state regulators today set a new
standard that is expected to increase the cost of water for
many people throughout the state. The State Water Resources
Control Board unanimously approved the nation’s first drinking
water standard for hexavalent chromium, which is found
naturally in some California groundwater as well as water
contaminated by industries. Now water suppliers will be forced
to install costly treatment to limit the chemical in water to
no more than 10 parts per billion — equivalent to about 10
drops in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Learn the history and challenges facing the West’s most dramatic
and developed river.
The Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River Basin introduces the
1,450-mile river that sustains 40 million people and millions of
acres of farmland spanning seven states and parts of northern
Mexico.
The 28-page primer explains how the river’s water is shared and
managed as the Southwest transitions to a hotter and drier
climate.
Moab is a growing town of 5,300 that up to 5 million people
visit each year to hike nearby Arches and Canyonlands national
parks, ride mountain bikes and all-terrain vehicles, or raft
the Colorado River. Like any western resort town, it
desperately needs affordable housing. What locals say it
doesn’t need is a high-end development on a sandbar projecting
into the Colorado River, where groves of cottonwoods, willows
and hackberries flourish. “Delusional,” shameful” or
“outrageous” is what many locals call this Kane Creek
Preservation and Development project. - Written by Mary Moran, a contributor to Writers on
the Range
After more than two decades of
drought, water utilities serving the largest urban regions in the
arid Southwest are embracing a drought-proof source of drinking
water long considered a supply of last resort: purified sewage.
Water supplies have tightened to the point that Phoenix and the
water supplier for 19 million Southern California residents are
racing to adopt an expensive technology called “direct potable
reuse” or “advanced purification” to reduce their reliance on
imported water from the dwindling Colorado River.
The climate-driven shrinking of the
Colorado River is expanding the influence of Native American
tribes over how the river’s flows are divided among cities, farms
and reservations across the Southwest.
The tribes are seeing the value of their largely unused river
water entitlements rise as the Colorado dwindles, and they are
gaining seats they’ve never had at the water bargaining table as
government agencies try to redress a legacy of exclusion.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
A new underground mapping technology
that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in
California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the
state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.
The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources
for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime
underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork
by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming
manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the
composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying
helicopters towing giant magnets.
The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’
resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture
water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus
underground for use during the next drought.
“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really
helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based
on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda,
general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early
adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or
AEM technology in California.
Much of California’s water supply
originates in the Sierra Nevada, making it dependent on the
health of forests. But those forests are suffering from
widespread tree mortality and other ecosystem degradation
resulting mostly from the growing frequency and severity
of droughts and wildfires.
The states of the Lower Colorado
River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in
tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West.
California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals
and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper
Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even
during dry years.
But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water
cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper
Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are
muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river
whose average flows in the Upper Basin have already dropped
20 percent over the last century.
They have formed new agencies to better monitor their interests,
moved influential Colorado River veterans into top negotiating
posts and improved their relationships with Native American
tribes that also hold substantial claims to the river.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
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.
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
Growing up in the shadow of the
Rocky Mountains, Andrew Schwartz never missed an opportunity to
play in – or study – a Colorado snowstorm. During major
blizzards, he would traipse out into the icy wind and heavy
drifts of snow pretending to be a scientist researching in
Antarctica.
Decades later, still armed with an obsession for extreme weather,
Schwartz has landed in one of the snowiest places in the West,
leading a research lab whose mission is to give California water
managers instant information on the depth and quality of snow
draping the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.
When the Colorado River Compact was
signed 100 years ago, the negotiators for seven Western states
bet that the river they were dividing would have ample water to
meet everyone’s needs – even those not seated around the table.
A century later, it’s clear the water they bet on is not there.
More than two decades of drought, lake evaporation and overuse of
water have nearly drained the river’s two anchor reservoirs, Lake
Powell on the Arizona-Utah border and Lake Mead near Las Vegas.
Climate change is rendering the basin drier, shrinking spring
runoff that’s vital for river flows, farms, tribes and cities
across the basin – and essential for refilling reservoirs.
The states that endorsed the Colorado River Compact in 1922 – and
the tribes and nation of Mexico that were excluded from the table
– are now straining to find, and perhaps more importantly accept,
solutions on a river that may offer just half of the water that
the Compact assumed would be available. And not only are
solutions not coming easily, the relationships essential for
compromise are getting more frayed.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
The three-year span, 2019 to 2022, was officially the driest ever
statewide going back to 1895 when modern records began in
California. But that most recent period of overall drought
also saw big swings from very wet to very dry stretches such
as the 2021-2022 water year that went from a relatively
wet Oct.-Dec. beginning to the driest Jan.-March period in the
state’s history.
With La Niña conditions predicted to persist into the
winter, what can reliably be said about the prospects for
Water Year 2023? Does La Niña really mean anything for California
or is it all washed up as a predictor in this new reality of
climate whiplash, and has any of this affected our reliance on
historical patterns to forecast California’s water supply?
Participants found out what efforts are being made to
improve sub-seasonal to seasonal (S2S) precipitation
forecasting for California and the Colorado River Basin at our
one-day Winter Outlook Workshop December
8 in Irvine, CA.
Beckman Center
Huntington Room
100 Academy Way
Irvine, California 92617
With 25 years of experience working
on the Colorado River, Chuck Cullom is used to responding to
myriad challenges that arise on the vital lifeline that seven
states, more than two dozen tribes and the country of Mexico
depend on for water. But this summer problems on the
drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace:
Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, whether Hoover Dam
and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce
hydropower, unprecedented water cuts and predatory smallmouth
bass threatening native fish species in the Grand Canyon.
“Holy buckets, Batman!,” said Cullom, executive director of the
Upper Colorado River Commission. “I mean, it’s just on and on and
on.”
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
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.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
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
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
Climate scientist Brad Udall calls
himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado
River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that
highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State
University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s
future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less
water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the
Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being
released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
For more than 20 years, Tanya
Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado
River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from
Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more
than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and
other crops.
Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower
Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water
evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a
lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the
Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for
sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later
worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of
California, exposing her to the different perspectives and
challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s
Lower Basin.
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, possibly as much as 10 degrees by end of the century, according to some models, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River.
On average, more than 60 percent of
California’s developed water supply originates in the Sierra
Nevada and the southern spur of the Cascade Range. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
This tour ventured into the Sierra to examine water issues
that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and
throughout the state.
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.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
This beautifully illustrated 24×36-inch poster, suitable for
framing and display in any office or classroom, highlights the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, its place as a center of
farming, its importance as an ecological resource and its
vital role in California’s water supply system.
The text, photos and graphics explain issues related to land
subsidence, levees and flooding, urbanization, farming, fish and
wildlife protection. An inset map illustrates the tidal action
that increases the salinity of the Delta’s waterways.
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.
Members of the 2020 Water Leaders class examined how
to adapt water management to climate change. Read their
policy recommendations in the class report, Adapting
California Water Management to Climate Change: Charting a Path
Forward, to learn more.
Twenty years ago, the Colorado River
Basin’s hydrology began tumbling into a historically bad stretch.
The weather turned persistently dry. Water levels in the system’s
anchor reservoirs of Lake Powell and Lake Mead plummeted. A river
system relied upon by nearly 40 million people, farms and
ecosystems across the West was in trouble. And there was no guide
on how to respond.
Radically transformed from its ancient origin as a vast tidal-influenced freshwater marsh, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem is in constant flux, influenced by factors within the estuary itself and the massive watersheds that drain though it into the Pacific Ocean.
Lately, however, scientists say the rate of change has kicked into overdrive, fueled in part by climate change, and is limiting the ability of science and Delta water managers to keep up. The rapid pace of upheaval demands a new way of conducting science and managing water in the troubled estuary.
Colorado is home to the headwaters
of the Colorado River and the water policy decisions made in the
Centennial State reverberate throughout the river’s sprawling
basin that stretches south to Mexico. The stakes are huge in a
basin that serves 40 million people, and responding to the water
needs of the economy, productive agriculture, a robust
recreational industry and environmental protection takes
expertise, leadership and a steady hand.
Sprawled across a desert expanse
along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high
bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges
of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full. How
those challenges play out as demand grows for the river’s water
amid a changing climate is fueling simmering questions about
Powell’s future.
Voluntary agreements in California
have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve
environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows
and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be
diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state
regulators.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
The Colorado River is arguably one
of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to
40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the West.
But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and decisions
made about its management will have exceptional ramifications for
the future, especially as impacts from climate change are felt.
Every other year we hold an
invitation-only Colorado River Symposium attended by various
stakeholders from across the seven Western states and Mexico that
rely on the iconic river. We host this three-day event in Santa
Fe, N.M., where the 1922 Colorado River Compact was signed, as
part of our mission to catalyze critical conversations to build
bridges and inform collaborative decision-making.
Members of the 2019 Water Leaders class examined the
emerging issue of wildfire impacts on California’s water
supply and quality. Read their policy recommendations in the
class report, Fire and Water: An Emerging Nexus in
California, to learn more.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
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.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
High in the headwaters of the Colorado River, around the hamlet of Kremmling, Colorado, generations of families have made ranching and farming a way of life, their hay fields and cattle sustained by the river’s flow. But as more water was pulled from the river and sent over the Continental Divide to meet the needs of Denver and other cities on the Front Range, less was left behind to meet the needs of ranchers and fish.
“What used to be a very large river that inundated the land has really become a trickle,” said Mely Whiting, Colorado counsel for Trout Unlimited. “We estimate that 70 percent of the flow on an annual average goes across the Continental Divide and never comes back.”
Registration opens today for the
Water Education Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit, set for Oct. 30 in Sacramento. This year’s
theme, Water Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,
reflects fast-approaching deadlines for the State Groundwater
Management Act as well as the pressing need for new approaches to
water management as California and the West weather intensified
flooding, fire and drought. To register for this can’t-miss
event, visit our Water Summit
event page.
Registration includes a full day of discussions by leading
stakeholders and policymakers on key issues, as well as coffee,
materials, gourmet lunch and an outdoor reception by the
Sacramento River that will offer the opportunity to network with
speakers and other attendees. The summit also features a silent
auction to benefit our Water Leaders program featuring
items up for bid such as kayaking trips, hotel stays and lunches
with key people in the water world.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Our 36th annual
Water Summit,
happening Oct. 30 in Sacramento, will feature the theme “Water
Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,” reflecting upcoming regulatory
deadlines and efforts to improve water management and policy in
the face of natural disasters.
The Summit will feature top policymakers and leading stakeholders
providing the latest information and a variety of viewpoints on
issues affecting water across California and the West.
New to this year’s slate of water
tours, our Edge of
Drought Tour Aug. 27-29 will venture into the Santa
Barbara area to learn about the challenges of limited local
surface and groundwater supplies and the solutions being
implemented to address them.
Despite Santa Barbara County’s decision to lift a drought
emergency declaration after this winter’s storms replenished
local reservoirs, the region’s hydrologic recovery often has
lagged behind much of the rest of the state.
Californians have been doing an
exceptional job
reducing their indoor water use, helping the state survive
the most recent drought when water districts were required to
meet conservation targets. With more droughts inevitable,
Californians are likely to face even greater calls to save water
in the future.
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.
Sixty percent of California’s
developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada,
making the state’s water supply largely dependent on the health
of Sierra forests. But those forests are suffering from ecosystem
degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
On our Headwaters Tour
June 27-28, we will visit Eldorado and Tahoe national forests to
learn about new forest management practices, including efforts to
both prevent wildfires and recover from them.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
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.
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.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The whims of political fate decided
in 2018 that state bond money would not be forthcoming to help
repair the subsidence-damaged parts of Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River to
farms that fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy along
the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
As stakeholders labor to nail down
effective and durable drought contingency plans for the Colorado
River Basin, they face a stark reality: Scientific research is
increasingly pointing to even drier, more challenging times
ahead.
The latest sobering assessment landed the day after Thanksgiving,
when U.S. Global Change Research Program’s Fourth National Climate
Assessment concluded that Earth’s climate is changing rapidly
compared to the pace of natural variations that have occurred
throughout its history, with greenhouse gas emissions largely the
cause.
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
The 1992 election to the United
States Senate was famously coined the “Year of the Woman” for the
record number of women elected to the upper chamber.
In the water world, 2018 has been a similar banner year, with
noteworthy appointments of women to top leadership posts in
California — Karla Nemeth at the California Department of Water
Resources and Gloria Gray at the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California.
The 2018 Water Leaders class examined ways to improve water
management through data. Read their recommendations in the class
report, Catch the Data Wave: Improving Water Management
through Data.
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.
As the Colorado River Basin becomes
drier and shortage conditions loom, one great variable remains:
How much of the river’s water belongs to Native American tribes?
Native Americans already use water from the Colorado River and
its tributaries for a variety of purposes, including leasing it
to non-Indian users. But some tribes aren’t using their full
federal Indian reserved water right and others have water rights
claims that have yet to be resolved. Combined, tribes have rights
to more water than some states in the Colorado River Basin.
Just because El Niño may be lurking
off in the tropical Pacific, does that really offer much of a
clue about what kind of rainy season California can expect in
Water Year 2019?
Will a river of storms pound the state, swelling streams and
packing the mountains with deep layers of heavy snow much like
the exceptionally wet 2017 Water Year (Oct. 1, 2016 to Sept. 30,
2017)? Or will this winter sputter along like last winter,
leaving California with a second dry year and the possibility of
another potential drought? What can reliably be said about the
prospects for Water Year 2019?
At Water Year
2019: Feast or Famine?, a one-day event on Dec. 5 in Irvine,
water managers and anyone else interested in this topic will
learn about what is and isn’t known about forecasting
California’s winter precipitation weeks to months ahead, the
skill of present forecasts and ongoing research to develop
predictive ability.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
“Dry, hot and on fire” is how the
California Department of Water Resources described Water Year
2018 in a recent report.
Water Year 2018 – from Oct. 1, 2017 to Sept. 30, 2018 -
marked a return to dry conditions statewide following an
exceptionally wet 2017, according to DWR’s Water
Year 2018 report. But 2017 was exceptional as all but two of
the water years in the past decade experienced drought.
Was Water Year 2018 simply a single dry year or does it
signal the beginning of another drought? And what can
reliably be said about the prospects for Water Year 2019? Does El
Niño really mean anything for California or is it all washed up
as a predictor?
Attendees found out at this one-day event Dec. 5 in
Irvine, Water Year 2019: Feast or
Famine?
Beckman Center
Auditorium - Huntington Room
100 Academy Way
Irvine, California 92617
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
People in California and the
Southwest are getting stingier with water, a story that’s told by
the acre-foot.
For years, water use has generally been described in terms of
acre-foot per a certain number of households, keying off the
image of an acre-foot as a football field a foot deep in water.
The long-time rule of thumb: One acre-foot of water would supply
the indoor and outdoor needs of two typical urban households for
a year.
The Colorado River Basin is more
than likely headed to unprecedented shortage in 2020 that could
force supply cuts to some states, but work is “furiously”
underway to reduce the risk and avert a crisis, Bureau of
Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman told an audience of
California water industry people.
During a keynote address at the Water Education Foundation’s
Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento, Burman said there is
opportunity for Colorado River Basin states to control their
destiny, but acknowledged that in water, there are no guarantees
that agreement can be reached.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
We headed into the foothills and the mountains to examine
water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts
downstream and throughout the state.
GEI (Tour Starting Point)
2868 Prospect Park Dr.
Rancho Cordova, CA 95670.
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.
Nowhere is the domino effect in
Western water policy played out more than on the Colorado River,
and specifically when it involves the Lower Basin states of
California, Nevada and Arizona. We are seeing that play out now
as the three states strive to forge a Drought Contingency Plan.
Yet that plan can’t be finalized until Arizona finds a unifying
voice between its major water players, an effort you can read
more about in the latest in-depth article of Western Water.
Even then, there are some issues to resolve just within
California.
It’s high-stakes time in Arizona. The state that depends on the
Colorado River to help supply its cities and farms — and is
first in line to absorb a shortage — is seeking a unified plan
for water supply management to join its Lower Basin neighbors,
California and Nevada, in a coordinated plan to preserve water
levels in Lake Mead before
they run too low.
If the lake’s elevation falls below 1,075 feet above sea level,
the secretary of the Interior would declare a shortage and
Arizona’s deliveries of Colorado River water would be reduced by
320,000 acre-feet. Arizona says that’s enough to serve about 1
million households in one year.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
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.
For decades, cannabis has been grown
in California – hidden away in forested groves or surreptitiously
harvested under the glare of high-intensity indoor lamps in
suburban tract homes.
In the past 20 years, however, cannabis — known more widely as
marijuana – has been moving from being a criminal activity to
gaining legitimacy as one of the hundreds of cash crops in the
state’s $46 billion-dollar agriculture industry, first legalized
for medicinal purposes and this year for recreational use.
As we continue forging ahead in 2018
with our online version of Western Water after 40 years
as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also
got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.
State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing
up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and
combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish
and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps
unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved
Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if
anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that
marijuana was legal.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
Learn what new tree-ring studies in
Southern California watersheds reveal about drought, hear about
efforts to improve subseasonal to seasonal weather forecasting
and get the latest on climate change impacts that will alter
drought vulnerability in the future.
At our Paleo
Drought Workshop on April 19th in San Pedro, you will hear
from experts at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, University of
Arizona and California Department of Water Resources.
Joaquin Esquivel learned that life is
what happens when you make plans. Esquivel, who holds the public
member slot at the State Water Resources Control Board in
Sacramento, had just closed purchase on a house in Washington
D.C. with his partner when he was tapped by Gov. Jerry Brown a
year ago to fill the Board vacancy.
Esquivel, 35, had spent a decade in Washington, first in several
capacities with then Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and then as
assistant secretary for federal water policy at the California
Natural Resources Agency. As a member of the State Water Board,
he shares with four other members the difficult task of
ensuring balance to all the uses of California’s water.
Does California need to revamp the way in which water is dedicated to the environment to better protect fish and the ecosystem at large? In the hypersensitive world of California water, where differences over who gets what can result in epic legislative and legal battles, the idea sparks a combination of fear, uncertainty and promise.
Saying that the way California manages water for the environment “isn’t working for anyone,” the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shook things up late last year by proposing a redesigned regulatory system featuring what they described as water ecosystem plans and water budgets with allocations set aside for the environment.
Every day, people flock to Daniel
Swain’s social media platforms to find out the latest news and
insight about California’s notoriously unpredictable weather.
Swain, a climate scientist at the Institute of the
Environment and Sustainability at UCLA, famously coined the
term “Ridiculously Resilient Ridge” in December 2013 to describe
the large, formidable high-pressure mass that was parked over the
West Coast during winter and diverted storms away from
California, intensifying the drought.
Swain’s research focuses on atmospheric processes that cause
droughts and floods, along with the changing character of extreme
weather events in a warming world. A lifelong Californian and
alumnus of University of California, Davis, and Stanford
University, Swain is best known for the widely read Weather West blog, which provides
unique perspectives on weather and climate in California and the
western United States. In a recent interview with Western
Water, he talked about the Ridiculously Resilient Ridge, its
potential long-term impact on California weather, and what may
lie ahead for the state’s water supply.
The 2017 Water Leaders class
organized by the Water Education Foundation completed its year
with a report outlining policy recommendations for the
future of water storage in California.
The class of 20 from
various stakeholder groups and backgrounds that hailed from
cities and towns across the state had full editorial control to
chose recommendations. While they did not endorse a specific
storage proposal, they recommended that California:
Deepen your knowledge of California water issues at our popular
Water
101 Workshop and jump aboard the bus the next day to
visit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 720,000-acre
network of islands and canals that supports the state’s water
system and is California’s most crucial water and ecological
resource.
Atmospheric rivers are relatively
narrow bands of moisture that ferry precipitation across the
Pacific Ocean to the West Coast and are key to California’s
water
supply.
For decades, no matter the weather, the message has been preached
to Californians: use water wisely, especially outdoors, which
accounts for most urban water use.
Enforcement of that message filters to the local level, where
water agencies routinely target the notorious “gutter flooder”
with gentle reminders and, if necessary, financial penalties.
Sixty percent of California’s developed water supply
originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water
supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests,
which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought,
wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.