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Announcement

Water Leader Apps Now Available for 2025 Cohort; Agenda Posted for Water Summit, Sponsorship Opportunities Still Available

2025 Water Leader Applications Now Open

Are you an up-and-coming leader in the water world? Applications are now available for our 2025 California Water Leaders cohort, and are due no later than Dec. 5, 2024.

If interested in applying, start by checking out the program requirements. Make sure you have the time to commit to the program next year and approval from your organization to apply.

Announcement

Speaker List Grows for Oct. 30 Water Summit in Sacramento
Exclusive Sponsorship Opportunities Still Available; Last Call for Northern California Tour

Northern California Tour Nearly Sold Out!

Only a few seats are left on the bus for our Northern California Tour on Oct. 16-18 that explores the Sacramento Valley from Sacramento to Redding with visits to Oroville and Shasta dams!

Don’t miss this scenic journey through riparian woodland, rice fields, nut orchards and wildlife refuges while learning from experts about the history of the Sacramento River. Grab your ticket here before they’re gone!

Water News You Need to Know

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: California joins legal fight to keep water in Kern River

California officials have joined a legal effort to restore water to the Kern River after an abrupt shutoff of water dried up the river and killed thousands of fish in Bakersfield. The decision by state officials and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta to intervene in the court case gives new impetus to environmental groups as they try to compel the city of Bakersfield and agricultural water districts to bring back a flowing river. Bonta announced Monday that he and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife filed a brief supporting the environmental groups in the case before the state’s 5th District Court of Appeal.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news Newsweek

California atmospheric river forecast: ‘Big changes’ in storm path expected

Atmospheric rivers are forecast to “drench the West Coast” this winter, according to a recent meteorological report. Last winter, the West Coast faced a slew of atmospheric rivers that caused devastating floods and landslides. The storms also brought a deluge of rain that supplemented California lakes and rivers, helping to eliminate the state’s drought. Meteorologists are again predicting a wet winter for the West Coast, according to an AccuWeather report published Monday, and meteorologists are warning of a “big change” expected in the Golden State by midseason. Atmospheric rivers are a “long, narrow region in the atmosphere—like rivers in the sky—that transport most of the water vapor outside of the tropics,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Other weather and natural disaster articles:

Aquafornia news Stormwater Solutions

OCWD wins legal victory upholding authority over groundwater basin management

On October 7, 2024, the California Court of Appeal upheld the Orange County Water District’s (OCWD) authority to manage the Orange County Groundwater Basin in the case Irvine Ranch Water District v. Orange County Water District et al. This ruling ensures the continued ability of OCWD to achieve sustainable management of the basin, a vital source that provides 85% of the water for 19 cities and water districts serving 2.5 million Orange County residents. The court’s decision reaffirms OCWD’s groundwater management practices and statutory authority, ensuring the continued equitable distribution of groundwater across north and central Orange County. This legal validation allows OCWD to maintain its proven framework for managing basin resources while protecting water quality and local water supplies.

Other groundwater article:

Aquafornia news Bay Area News Group

Prop. 4: California ballot measure for wildfires, water projects, heat waves

California has endured three severe droughts over the past 15 years. Its five largest wildfires in recorded history have all occurred since 2018. Heat waves with temperatures above 110 degrees are breaking records summer after summer. With that backdrop, along with a state budget that lawmakers have struggled to balance over the past year, California voters will decide the fate of Proposition 4, a bond measure on the November ballot that would authorize $10 billion in spending to address climate change and its impacts. The money would fund a range of programs, from increasing forest thinning to planting more trees in cities to reduce temperatures during heat waves. It also would pay for programs to expand water conservation and recycling, enlarge state parks and create coastal wetlands to buttress rising sea levels.

Other election articles:

Online Water Encyclopedia

Aquapedia background Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Map

Wetlands

Sacramento National Wildlife RefugeWetlands are among the world’s most important and hardest-working ecosystems, rivaling rainforests and coral reefs in productivity. 

They produce high levels of oxygen, filter water pollutants, sequester carbon, reduce flooding and erosion and recharge groundwater.

Bay-Delta Tour participants viewing the Bay Model

Bay Model

Operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Bay Model is a giant hydraulic replica of San Francisco Bay and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. It is housed in a converted World II-era warehouse in Sausalito near San Francisco.

Hundreds of gallons of water are pumped through the three-dimensional, 1.5-acre model to simulate a tidal ebb and flow lasting 14 minutes.

Aquapedia background Colorado River Basin Map

Salton Sea

As part of the historic Colorado River Delta, the Salton Sea regularly filled and dried for thousands of years due to its elevation of 237 feet below sea level.

The most recent version of the Salton Sea was formed in 1905 when the Colorado River broke through a series of dikes and flooded the seabed for two years, creating California’s largest inland body of water. The Salton Sea, which is saltier than the Pacific Ocean, includes 130 miles of shoreline and is larger than Lake Tahoe

Lake Oroville shows the effects of drought in 2014.

Drought

Drought—an extended period of limited or no precipitation—is a fact of life in California and the West, with water resources following boom-and-bust patterns. During California’s 2012–2016 drought, much of the state experienced severe drought conditions: significantly less precipitation and snowpack, reduced streamflow and higher temperatures. Those same conditions reappeared early in 2021 prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom in May to declare drought emergencies in watersheds across 41 counties in California.