The driest start to the calendar year in recorded history is
taking a toll on water resources during California’s third
year of drought. Find resources to stay up-to-date with the
latest on drought.
Some people in California and across the West struggle to access
safe, reliable and affordable water to meet their everyday needs
for drinking, cooking and sanitation.
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Only a few seats remain for our
popular Lower Colorado River TourMarch 8-10 that takes participants from
Hoover Dam and weaves south along the river through Nevada,
Arizona and California to learn firsthand about the
challenges and opportunities now facing the “Lifeline of the
Southwest.”
Four new members bringing a wide
range of water resource experiences and perspectives have joined
the Water Education Foundation Board. They include
representatives from Environmental Defense Fund, a Southern
California water agency, an engineer and a water policy manager
for a municipal utility association.
They join a volunteer board of more than 30
directors representing a broad cross-section of
water, education, business, environmental, agricultural and
public interest communities that governs the Foundation, an
impartial nonprofit
based in Sacramento.
The seven states that depend on the Colorado River have missed
a Jan. 31 federal deadline for reaching a regionwide consensus
on how to sharply reduce water use, raising the likelihood of
more friction as the West grapples with how to take less
supplies from the shrinking river. In a bid to sway the process
after contentious negotiations reached an impasse, six of the
seven states gave the federal government a last-minute proposal
outlining possible water cuts to help prevent reservoirs from
falling to dangerously low levels, presenting a unified front
while leaving out California, which uses the single largest
share of the river. The six states — Arizona, Colorado, Nevada,
New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming — called their proposal a
“consensus-based modeling alternative” that could serve as a
framework for negotiating a solution.
Higher-than-normal rainfall during the past month has
dramatically changed Lake Shasta, with the water level of
California’s largest reservoir rising 60 feet since the end of
December. Gone are vast areas of shoreline that became parking
lots and campgrounds as the lake dried up and the water level
dropped during the past several years of low rainfall in the
North State. By Monday, the lake was 56% full, an improvement
over the 34% recorded Jan. 3. The California Department of
Water Resources said the lake was 87% of normal as of Monday,
compared to the 57% of normal at the beginning of January.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is considering altering its
monthly Colorado River forecasting methods in the face of
criticism from experts inside and outside the agency that
predictions have been too optimistic. Changing forecast methods
could have major ramifications in how the bureau manages the
river, water experts say. Larger cutbacks in water deliveries
to Arizona, Nevada and California could possibly be triggered,
for example. The agency will consider starting to base its
forecasts on the past 20 years of flows into Lake Powell,
compared to the 30 years it uses now, a bureau official told
the Arizona Daily Star.
The Water Education Foundation has unveiled an interactive online tour of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta that offers viewers and readers a
broad overview of the heart of California water – its history
and development, its importance as an ecological resource and
water hub and the array of challenges it faces. Titled
“Exploring the Heart of California Water,” the online tour,
built as a story map, guides readers and viewers through
different facets of the Delta. It includes the Delta’s history
and the people – including the Native American tribes – who
have lived there, the fish and wildlife that depend on its
waters and its role as a crossroads for federal, state and
local water projects.
Wetlands 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.
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.
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.
