Home

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.

Announcement

Registration Now Open for Annual Water Summit
One-day conference on Oct. 1 is the Foundation's premier annual event; Sign up for Klamath Tour and Grab a Ticket for NorCal Tour While They Last

Water Summit | October 1

Registration is now open for the Water Education Foundation’s 41ˢᵗ annual Water Summit featuring leading policymakers and experts in conversation about the latest information and insights on water in California and the West.

Water News You Need to Know

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: California achieved significant groundwater recharge last year

A year of average precipitation gave California’s groundwater supplies a significant boost, according to a state analysis released Tuesday. California’s aquifers gained an estimated 2.2 million acre-feet of groundwater in the 12 months that ended Sept. 30, the state’s 2024 water year. That’s about half the storage capacity of Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir. State officials said local agencies reported that about 1.9 million acre-feet of water went underground as a result of managed aquifer recharge projects designed to capture stormwater and replenish groundwater. … Gov. Gavin Newsom said California is collecting more groundwater data than it has previously, and is continuing to prioritize efforts to recharge aquifers. He said, however, that the state’s water infrastructure is unprepared for the effects of climate change, and he reiterated his support for building a water tunnel beneath the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

Other groundwater news:

Aquafornia news KUNC (Greeley, Colo.)

‘A glimmer of hope’ emerges from long-stuck Colorado River negotiations

There’s a break in the clouds that have hovered over Colorado River negotiations for more than a year. State water leaders appear to be coalescing behind a new proposal for sharing the river after talks were stuck in a deadlock for more than a year. The river is used by nearly 40 million people across seven states and Mexico, but it’s shrinking due to climate change. As a result, state leaders need to rein in demand. For months, they were mired in a standoff about how to interpret a century-old legal agreement. The new proposal is completely different. Instead of those states leaning on old rules that don’t account for climate change, they’re proposing a new system that divides the river based on how much water is in it today. … The new plan says the amount should be based on a three-year rolling average of the “natural flows” in the river — basically, how much water would flow through it if human dams and diversion weren’t in the way.

Other Colorado River Basin news:

Aquafornia news SFGate

Dried-up California farmland to become site of world-record solar facility

… On June 11, the California Energy Commission officially approved the Darden Clean Energy Project, a sprawling solar farm and battery storage facility proposed for a stretch of fallow farmland in western Fresno County. Darden is the first project approved under a new fast-track permitting program, which gave the commission just 270 days to finish its environmental review. …The land for the project, near Cantua Creek, was once a productive site for agriculture. But droughts and decades of farming have left the 9,500-acre area with dry and alkaline soil. The Westlands Water District currently owns the land and is shutting down irrigation on it and other swaths of former farmland, aiming to conserve water for areas with better dirt.

Other water and agriculture news:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

Trump rescinds ‘Roadless Rule’ that protects 58 million acres of national forests

The United States Department of Agriculture on Monday announced that it will rescind a decades-old rule that protects 58.5 million acres of national forestland from road construction and timber harvesting. The USDA, which oversees the U.S. Forest Service, said it will eliminate the 2001 “Roadless Rule” which established lasting protection for specific wilderness areas within the nation’s national forests. Research has found that building roads can fragment habitats, disrupt ecosystems, and increase erosion and sediment pollution in drinking water, among other potentially harmful outcomes. In a statement, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins described the rule — which applies to about 30% of national forestland — as outdated and overly restrictive. … More than 40 states are home to areas protected by the rule. In California, that encompasses about 4.4 million acres across 21 national forests, including the Angeles, Tahoe, Inyo, Shasta-Trinity and Los Padres national forests.

Other public lands and waters news:

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.