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Announcement

Sign Up for Our Klamath River Tour and Grab a Ticket for Other Fall Programs While They Last!
Water Summit Registration Opens Next Week; Northern California Tour Filling Quickly; Klamath River Tour Ticket Release Begins Tomorrow

Be sure to reserve your spot for our popular fall programs before your summer adventures begin. The tours, in particular, have limited seating and may be sold out before you return!

Klamath River Tour | September 8-12

Join us on this special journey as we 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 following the obsolete structure’s removal. Click here for more details.

Announcement

Registration for Fall Tours & Water Summit Opening Soon; Keep Informed with Daily Water Newsfeed; Read Our 2024 Annual Report

As we head into summer, be sure to mark your calendars for our popular fall programs which will all be opening for registration soon!

Importantly, we will launch our first-ever Klamath River Tour to visit the watershed and, among other things, see how the river has responded to the dismantling of four obsolete dams. It will not be an annual tour, so don’t miss this opportunity!

Check out the event dates and registration details:

Water News You Need to Know

Aquafornia news Politico

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: Trump’s quiet truce on California water

President Donald Trump promised to break California’s water rules wide open. So far, he’s mostly working within them. Five months after Trump issued a pair of directives for federal agencies to overturn state and Biden-era rules limiting water deliveries, the federal government has done no such thing. Instead, it’s quietly increasing water flows following the very rules Trump once railed against — at least for now. … What’s changed? For one, California had a wet winter, which tends to smooth over political differences. … Newsom has also aligned himself more with Trump on water, as when he jilted Delta-area Democrats last month in pushing to expedite a tunnel to move more supplies from Northern to Southern California. More substantively, some of the water districts that might be expected to agitate for Trump to overturn Biden-era water rules concede that they actually allow more deliveries than Trump’s version.

Other Trump administration and California water news:

Aquafornia news The Salt Lake Tribune (Utah)

A battle is brewing in the American West: A thirst for cheap power on one side and a prehistoric fish on the other

… The Colorado River system rushes through turbines inside Glen Canyon Dam on Lake Powell, producing affordable, carbon-free hydropower. … Climate change and chronic water overuse continue to constrict the mighty river’s flows, though, jeopardizing the dam’s ability to produce hydroelectric power. The lack of water has also created a slew of environmental problems in the Grand Canyon’s ecosystem, which sprawls below Glen Canyon Dam — most notably for an ancient, threatened fish species, the humpback chub, which is hunted by invasive smallmouth bass. Under Biden last year, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation finalized a decision that allows the dam to periodically release surges of water that bypass the machinery that generates power. These flows cool the river below the dam, which curbs smallmouth bass reproduction. Utah Republicans and power providers say that decision has only further threatened the valuable energy source — and they hope to undo it.

Other endangered and threatened species news:

Aquafornia news Chico Enterprise-Record (Calif.)

Lake Oroville begins process of slowly draining

After sitting near capacity for almost a month, Lake Oroville is beginning to slowly creep back down in water elevation as the California Department of Water Resources steadily increases outflows. Lake Oroville was reported at 896.35 feet in elevation Monday and will likely lower more in the weeks to come. DWR spokesperson Raquel Borrayo said the lake was once again bolstered by a wet and snowy winter. “Thanks to above-average precipitation and average snowpack levels in the northern Sierra for the last three years, water levels at Lake Oroville have been peaking in May and June and then slowly declining to their low point around November,” Borrayo said. Borrayo said the higher releases are sent into the Feather River, though some of the water remains local. … On Monday, inflows into Lake Oroville were estimated at 3,000 cubic feet per second.

Other reservoir and snowpack news around the West:

Aquafornia news KJZZ (Phoenix, Ariz.)

Trump pushes ‘America First’ in Mexico water deal. Experts worry it may backfire

… Trump has found a perhaps obvious avenue to pursue his goal to ensure the United States is getting a fair shake on the world stage. But some experts fear bringing tariff threats and “America First” rhetoric into the world of water negotiations will backfire, and that the careful work of administering the 1944 water treaty could get damaged in the process. … The treaty is a complex document, but it requires the United States to deliver water from the Colorado River to Mexico, and Mexico to deliver water from the Rio Grande to the United States. … After Trump threatened tariffs in April, Mexico’s president did announce an additional water shipment to Texas from Mexico’s reservoirs on the Rio Grande. But experts say there just isn’t enough water available for Mexico to get back on track by October. … Many of northern Mexico’s reservoirs are low or empty, and in some places, a lack of rain means rivers run dry.

Other water treaty 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.