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Last Tickets for Klamath Tour Up for Grabs; Theme Announced for Annual Water Summit; Read the Latest About FIRO and Atmospheric Rivers

Tickets for Klamath River Tour Now Up for Grabs

The remaining handful of tickets for our first-ever Klamath River Tour are now up for grabs! This special water tour, Sept. 8 through Sept. 12, will not be offered every year so check out the tour details here.

You don’t want to miss this opportunity to examine water issues along the 263-mile Klamath River, from its spring-fed headwaters in south-central Oregon to its redwood-lined estuary on the Pacific Ocean in California.

Among the planned stops is the former site of Iron Gate Dam & Reservoir for a firsthand look at restoration efforts. The dam was one of four obsolete structures taken down in the nation’s largest dam removal project aimed at restoring fish passage. Grab your ticket here while they last!

California’s Quest to Turn a Winter Menace Into a Water Supply Bonus is Gaining Favor Across the West
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: For years, atmospheric rivers were a mystery. Now, an innovative dam management approach is putting them to work

Image shows Lake Mendocino, the proving ground for Forecast-Informed Reservoir OperationsIn December 2012, dam operators at Northern California’s Lake Mendocino watched as a series of intense winter storms bore down on them. The dam there is run by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ San Francisco District, whose primary responsibility in the Russian River watershed is flood control. To make room in the reservoir for the expected deluge, the Army Corps released some 25,000 acre-feet of water downstream — enough to supply nearly 90,000 families for a year.

Water News You Need to Know

Aquafornia news Cowboy State Daily (Cheyenne, Wyo.)

Friday Top of the Scroll: Wyoming irrigators frustrated by getting shut off earlier in Colorado River Basin

For Mike Vickrey, a rancher in Wyoming’s Upper Green River Valley, this summer delivered another harsh lesson about the unpredictability of water in the arid West. Despite what appeared to be a promising winter snowpack, Vickrey had to shut off irrigation to his hay meadows about 10 days earlier than normal. … Vickrey wonders if early water cutoffs are here to stay as all the states in the Colorado River Basin continue to negotiate how to manage Lake Mead and Lake Powell downstream as less and less water flows through a watershed stretching from the Wind River Mountains to Mexico’s Sea of Cortez. … Lately, hay production has fluctuated from around 2,500 tons in good years down to 1,600 tons or less in bad years. That’s one reason Vickrey is encouraging others to join him at an upcoming public meeting in Pinedale, which is one of four outreach meetings Wyoming officials are hosting next week to discuss the state’s role in managing Colorado River water. 

Other Colorado River Basin news:

Aquafornia news The Sonoma County Gazette

Drying up: Sonoma County’s quiet disaster you need to know about

Sonoma County’s groundwater is quietly vanishing beneath our feet, and the numbers are alarming. In parts of Sonoma Valley, deep aquifers have plummeted nearly 100 feet in the last decade, according to recent reports from the Sonoma Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA). With some wells dropping as much as eight feet per year, residents and businesses alike have good reason to be worried. … Drilling a new well can cost $50,000 or more, a financial blow that smaller family-run vineyards find especially daunting. Sonoma Valley has responded by expanding a recycled water pipeline on the east side, delivering treated wastewater for irrigation and reducing pressure on depleted aquifers. …  The county is experimenting with Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR), injecting excess treated Russian River water underground during rainy months, banking it for future dry spells.

Other water scarcity and drought news:

Aquafornia news Politico

From green icon to housing villain: The fall of California’s landmark environmental law

… More than half a century ago, when Republicans were still running the state, Reagan brought CEQA (pronounced ‘see-kwa’) into the world as a shield against unintended consequences: a project that befouled waterways or drove species toward extinction. But the law’s reach expanded through a series of court rulings until it applied to developments of all kinds, becoming a handy tool for almost anyone to challenge a proposed project by demanding more analysis and remediation. CEQA has long been a bogeyman for Republicans and developers, a symbol of regulatory excess and government dysfunction — and an expensive one at that. … This summer, Newsom and like-minded legislators did what was unthinkable just a few years ago: They scaled the law back dramatically, exempting most urban housing developments, along with daycares, manufacturing hubs and clinics. 

Other CEQA news:

Aquafornia news Tahoe Daily Tribune (South Lake Tahoe, Calif.)

Tahoe State of the Lake Report released for 2024

The UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center today released its “Tahoe: State of the Lake Report,” which presents data from 2024 in the context of the long-term record. … Highlights of the report include data related to temperature, precipitation, algae, water clarity and more. Lake Tahoe today generally experiences higher air temperatures, more rain, less snow and earlier snowmelt than it did 113 years ago, the report said.

Related article

Online Water Encyclopedia

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 oxygen levels, 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.