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Changes Loom for Innovative Lower Colorado River Endangered Species Program Amid Drought, New River Rules
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: As the 50-year Multi-Species Conservation Program hits the 20-year mark this month, new questions about how to keep it strong hang over its future

Image shows Endangered bonytail chub were released into a Colorado River lagoon near Laughlin, Nev., in spring of 2024 as part of the MSCP. Before the construction of Hoover Dam on the lower Colorado River, as well as a slew of smaller sisters downstream, the stretch downriver served as a biological oasis in the middle of the unrelenting Mojave and Sonoran deserts. The marshes and backwaters along the river’s edge provided sheltered areas for fish to spawn and rear their young, and mesquite and cottonwood-willow forests provided important habitat for numerous species of birds and other animals.

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In this issue:

Central Valley Tour: April 23-25

Image shows Central Valley Tour participants gather at the edge of San Luis Reservoir, a critical piece of infrastructure to both the federal Central Valley Project and California's State Water Project.NEARLY SOLD OUT! Our Central Valley Tour travels the length of the San Joaquin Valley where water supply and use have been in the national headlines, including our first stop at San Luis Reservoir near Los Banos. The fifth-largest reservoir in the state has been in the news recently because plans to raise its dam are moving forward, which would create 130,000 acre-feet of additional water for off-stream storage used by both the federal Central Valley Project and California’s State Water Project.

Water News You Need to Know

Aquafornia news Stocktonia (Calif.)

Monday Top of the Scroll: $2 billion levee project breaks ground in Stockton

Construction on a $2 billion levee project that will effectively protect more than a third of Stocktonians’ homes from flooding kicked off this week. Local government officials took part in a groundbreaking ceremony Friday off March Lane at the Tenmile Slough in Brookside to launch the Lower San Joaquin River Improvement Project. … The first phase of the project, slated for completion in late 2026, will see improvements made to just over a mile of the Tenmile Slough levee, which sits directly in the backyard of many homes in the Brookside area of west Stockton, according to a presentation on the project’s overview. About one mile of the levee will be upgraded to have a seepage cutoff wall, which is an added layer of material preventing water seeping through or under the levee.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news SFGate

Trump administration mulls intervention in California dam removal

In a major twist, the Donald Trump administration is now reviewing regional appeals to halt PG&E’s plans to dismantle the Potter Valley Project. … In an April 14 letter, the Bureau of Reclamation responded to an inquiry from Aaron Sykes, a board member of the Lake Pillsbury Alliance, which represents the homeowners and stakeholders fighting to keep Scott Dam, the structure that holds back Lake Pillsbury. In the letter, which was reviewed by SFGATE, the federal agency said funding for the project is “undergoing reviews” to ensure it aligns with an executive order President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office that directs the government to explore any “undue burden” on the “use of domestic energy resources” including, oil, coal and hydropower.

Aquafornia news Utah News Dispatch (Salt Lake City)

Cox considers emergency declaration as drought worsens in southern Utah and Lake Powell levels drop

With drought conditions worsening in southern Utah, Gov. Spencer Cox says he’s working on issuing an emergency declaration. Despite northern Utah seeing average snow this year, counties in the south are exceptionally dry. Cox said he’s currently working with local officials on the declaration, which could extend to a handful of counties in the southwestern corner of Utah that have seen a meager snowpack this winter. … Statewide, the snow water equivalent — which is basically the amount of water currently in the snowpack — is at about 78% of normal, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, or NRCS, which tracks the snowpack at sites around the state. Much of northern Utah is between that or higher, with Snowbird’s site at 96%, and a site in Big Cottonwood Canyon at 115%. 

Other Colorado River Basin news:

Aquafornia news San Francisco Chronicle

A major California city lost its river. Residents are fighting to revive it

For decades, residents of Bakersfield have lived with a river that’s little more than a channel of dust. The Kern, which pours from the snowy peaks of the southern Sierra, descends upon California’s ninth-largest city and, in all but the wettest of years, runs dry. A sandy, weed-strewn corridor is left winding unremarkably through the downtown, beside roads, beneath bridges and behind businesses. … A group of residents is trying to change that. Cooper and dozens of others are fighting to bring water back to the Kern River, hoping to create a lush, parklike centerpiece in a city best known for the sunbaked oil fields and farms that surround it. It isn’t an easy go. The river’s waters are already largely accounted for, some serving the municipal needs of Bakersfield and nearby communities, but most drawn for agriculture, the engine of the regional economy. 

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.