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Announcement

DWR Director Karla Nemeth to Keynote Water Summit; Application Window Opens Soon for 2025 California Water Leaders

Visit Shasta & Oroville Dams; Learn about Park Fire Impacts Firsthand during NorCal Tour

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

New Tour Stop! This year’s tour includes a stop at Battle Creek where participants will learn firsthand how the Park Fire, California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record, could push already threatened Chinook salmon populations closer to extinction by burning through tributaries to the Sacramento River that provide critical spawning habitat.

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!

Announcement

Seize a Coveted Sponsor Spot for Oct. 30 Water Summit; Claim One of the Few Remaining Seats on October NorCal Tour

Water Summit: Exclusive Sponsorship Opportunities Available

In case you missed the news last week, you can now register for the Water Education Foundation’s 40ᵗʰ annual Water Summit to be held on Wednesday, Oct. 30, in Sacramento, with the theme, Reflecting on Silver Linings in Western Water.

Water News You Need to Know

Aquafornia news California Department of Water Resources

Thursday Top of the Scroll: Levee breach marks completion of the Delta’s largest-ever tidal wetland restoration project

For the first time in 100 years, tidal waters are flowing to 3,400 acres of restored habitat that will support fish and wildlife species and provide new flood capacity in Solano County. [On Sept. 18], the Department of Water Resources (DWR) and Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP) held a levee breaching ceremony to celebrate the completion of the Lookout Slough Tidal Habitat Restoration and Flood Improvement Project (Lookout Slough). This multi-benefit project restores tidal wetland habitat and produces food for Delta smelt and other fish species, while reducing overall flood risk in the Sacramento area. 

Related news release:

Aquafornia news National Geographic

Is ‘weather whiplash’ our new normal?

When Kamie Loeser took over as the director of water and resource conservation in Butte County, in Northern California, she was immediately tasked with navigating a once-in-a-lifetime drought. It was October 2021. California had just seen its second-driest year on record, and Lake Oroville, a major reservoir in Butte County, was at its lowest level ever—just 22 percent of capacity.  But by the end of that month, a “bomb cyclone” atmospheric river had dumped so much water that Lake Oroville’s surface level rose by 30 feet in one week. Parts of Northern California experienced their highest single-day rainfall ever recorded. … In less than three years on the job, Loeser has dealt with drought, flooding, and fire in quick and devastating succession. It’s a pattern repeating across California and around the world as climate change intensifies extreme weather and, increasingly, drives the rapid transition from one extreme weather event to another.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news Time

What the Colorado River’s water crisis says about America

In the Navajo Nation—a sweeping landscape of red-rock canyons and desert that takes in the Four Corners—water is not taken for granted. Here, more than 1 in 3 Diné, as Navajo people call themselves, must haul water to their homes, often across long distances. The Diné use the least amount of water per person of anyone in the U.S., and pay the most. Eighty miles away, residents of Utah’s Washington County rely on essentially the same water supply, yet pay less for that water than almost anyone else in the U.S. and, until recently, consumed the most. The contrast reflects not only inequities of power and access. It also carries a warning that reaches beyond two arid communities. A megadrought has desiccated the American West, which is drier than it has been in 1,200 years. On June 22, the planet experienced its hottest day in recorded history, breaking a record set one day earlier. Dust clouds churn on the horizon. Much of the world may be headed this way.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news Water Education Foundation

Announcement: DWR Director Karla Nemeth to keynote water summit; Application window opens soon for 2025 California Water Leaders

Only a few seats are left on the bus for our Northern California Tour October 16-18 that journeys across the Sacramento Valley with visits to Oroville and Shasta dams! This year’s tour includes a stop at Battle Creek where participants will learn firsthand how the Park Fire, California’s fourth-largest wildfire on record, could push already threatened Chinook salmon populations closer to extinction by burning through tributaries to the Sacramento River that provide critical spawning habitat. Also:

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.