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Announcement

Water Leaders Release Policy Recommendations for Promoting Green Infrastructure

Our 2023 California Water Leaders cohort completed its year with a report outlining policy recommendations for leveraging green infrastructure, such as restoring floodplains, meadows and wetlands, to help manage water statewide.

The cohort of 22 up-and-coming leaders – engineers, attorneys, planners, scientists, water managers and other professionals from water-related organizations – worked collaboratively and had full editorial control on the report. 

Announcement

Hot off the Press: Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin
2nd edition covers nation's largest dam removal project

The Water Education Foundation’s second edition of the Layperson’s Guide to The Klamath River Basin is hot off the press and available for purchase.

Updated and redesigned, the easy-to-read overview comes as the nation’s largest dam removal project is underway with the first of four Klamath River hydropower dams demolished this year.

The Layperson’s Guide covers the history of the region’s tribal, agricultural and environmental relationships with one of the West’s largest rivers. The river’s vast watershed straddles Cailfornia and Oregon and hosts one of the nation’s oldest and largest reclamation projects.

Water News You Need to Know

Aquafornia news Capital Public Radio

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: As atmospheric rivers become more frequent, California expands research to prepare

A new law expanding California’s atmospheric river research program goes into effect next year. It connects flood and reservoir control operations with new technologies and strategies that can help operators accurately predict the arrival of these storms.  California first established the program in 2015. It’s allowed officials to better understand — and respond to — the intense storms that are a regular part of wet years in the state.  In January [2015], a series of atmospheric rivers hit California hard, causing intense flooding, power outages and evacuations throughout the state. But although these storms can have devastating effects, they also crucially feed into California’s water supply.

Related articles:

Aquafornia news Los Angeles Times

L.A. County aims to collect billions more gallons of local water by 2045

Over the next two decades, Los Angeles County will collect billions more gallons in water from local sources, especially storm and reclaimed water, shifting from its reliance on other region’s water supplies as the effects of climate change make such efforts less reliable and more expensive. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday adopted the county’s first water plan, which outlines how America’s largest county must stop importing 60% of its water and pivot over the next two decades to sourcing 80% of its water locally by 2045. The plan calls for increasing local water supply by 580,000 acre-feet per year by 2045 through more effective stormwater capture, water recycling and conservation. The increase would be roughly equivalent to 162 billion gallons, or enough water for 5 million additional county residents, county leaders said.

Aquafornia news CNN

Climate change: 2023 will officially be the hottest year on record, scientists report

Earth’s temperature was off the charts this year, and scientists just confirmed what much of planet already felt coming: 2023 will officially be the hottest year on record. The analysis from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service found this year’s global temperature will be more than 1.4 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels — close to the 1.5-degree threshold in the Paris climate agreement, and beyond which scientists say humans and ecosystems will struggle to adapt. Every month since June has been the hottest such month on record, and November piled on. … “As long as greenhouse gas concentrations keep rising, we can’t expect different outcomes from those seen this year,” Copernicus Director Carlo Buontempo said. “The temperature will keep rising and so will the impacts of heatwaves and droughts.”

Related articles:

Aquafornia news Water Education Foundation

Announcement: Join Dec. 7 virtual Q&A session for 2024 Colorado River Water Leaders cohort

Join a virtual Q&A session Dec. 7 to learn more about applying for our 2024 Colorado River Water Leaders cohort. The biennial program, which will run from March to September next year, selects about a dozen rising stars from the seven states that rely on the river – California, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico. During the seven-month program designed for working professionals, the cohort members explore issues surrounding the iconic Southwest river. They deepen their water knowledge, build leadership skills and work with a mentor.

Online Water Encyclopedia

Aquapedia background Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Map

Wetlands

Sacramento National Wildlife RefugeWetlands are among the most important and hardest-working ecosystems in the world, rivaling rain forests and coral reefs in productivity of life. 

They produce high levels of oxygen, filter toxic chemicals out of water, sequester carbon, reduce flooding and erosion, recharge groundwater and provide a diverse range of recreational opportunities from fishing and hunting to photography. They also serve as critical habitat for wildlife, including a large percentage of plants and animals on California’s endangered species list.

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.

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.