Constructed long ago by federal effort to help create farmland,
the Central Valley Project is one of the biggest water and
transport systems in the entire world.
In years of normal precipitation, it stores and distributes about
20 percent of the state’s developed water through its massive
system of reservoirs and canals.Water is transported 450 miles
from Lake Shasta in Northern California to Bakersfield in the
southern San Joaquin Valley.
Along the way, the CVP encompasses 18 dams and reservoirs with a
combined storage capacity of 11 million acre-feet, 11 power
plants and three fish hatcheries. As part of this, the Delta
Mendota Canal and Friant Dam on the San Joaquin River deliver
water to farms in the Central Valley.
Westlands Water District isn’t giving up on raising Shasta
Dam… The district, stopped in late July by a Shasta County
judge from conducting an environmental study on the impact of
raising Shasta Dam, filed a petition with the Sacramento-based
Third District California Court of Appeal on Monday to vacate
the trial court’s injunction.
A plan to raise and expand California’s largest reservoir is on
hold as federal officials look for partners to share in the
$1.4 billion cost. The federal Bureau of Reclamation also must
grapple with opponents who have sued, saying the Shasta Dam
project violates state law.
Funding is available for projects that: Increase the
reliability of water supplies through infrastructure
improvements; improve water management through decision support
tools, modeling and measurement; provide protection for fish,
wildlife and the environment. Up to $300,000 per agreement is
available for a project that can be completed within two years.
Up to $750,000 per agreement is available for a project that
can be completed within three years.
It’s hard for U.S. Representative T.J. Cox to understand why
the Friant-Kern Canal is just at 40 percent capacity. … Cox
said funding is provided to maintain the Friant-Kern Canal
that’s supposed to be reimbursed by the Federal Government, but
those reimbursements haven’t been coming.
In California, money does grow on trees. Almonds constitute a
$5.6 billion industry, and 2.26 billion pounds were shipped
from California last year to be roasted and salted, or turned
into anything from frothy, barista-friendly almond milk to
marzipan sold on the streets of Berlin.
People may want to think twice before taking a dip in the
green-tinted water near the Parrotts Ferry Bridge at New
Melones Reservoir, according to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
officials. The water’s greenish hue is due to a cyanobacteria
bloom that was first detected in the Middle Fork of the
Stanislaus River upstream of the reservoir on July 17.
While it may not be obvious to some, sustainable groundwater
management is inherently connected to the long-term survival of
the Delta. Not only does the state’s most significant
groundwater use occur in regions that also rely upon water from
the Delta watershed, reduced reliance on the Delta and improved
regional self-reliance are central to many of the goals
outlined in the Delta Stewardship Council’s Delta Plan.
On Monday, the state of California and a coalition of fishing
groups and environmentalists asked a judge to bar Westlands
from completing a crucial environmental report in hopes of
stalling the project. “Everything we see looks to be illegal,”
said deputy attorney general Russell Hildreth. At issue is a
stretch of the McCloud River that both sides agree would be
inundated by the project.
If credibility were measured like rainfall, the Trump
administration would be in the midst of a prolonged drought —
as evidenced most recently in its handling of plans to send
more water to California’s Central Valley.
An earthquake doesn’t have to happen in your neighborhood or
city, or even your region, for it to have an impact, especially
on Southern California’s water supply. According to UCLA
Professor Jon Stewart, the three main water systems that bring
water to Southern California each cross the San Andreas Fault
at least once.
The Coleman National Fish Hatchery is expecting good returns of
their fish in the foreseeable future after a few lean years of
comebacks. … Mother Nature worked with the hatchery this year
providing high water levels and spring storms, said Galyean.
When nature was not working in the hatchery’s favor was during
the recent drought.
For many years, federal “biological opinions” for delta smelt
and winter run chinook salmon have dictated restrictions on
operations of the pumps, reservoirs and canals of the federal
Central Valley Project and State Water Project… Informed by a
decade of science and on-the-ground experience with what we
know has not worked, long-awaited new federal biological
opinions are finally nearing completion.
The Friant Water Authority is confident a parallel canal is the
best solution. This new one will be built in a way that
prepares for subsidence. A new canal would also benefit from
the Ground Water Management Act of 2014, which will regulate
how much and when water is pumped out of the ground, preventing
what some believe is the main cause of subsidence.
A judge has rejected a San Joaquin Valley irrigation district’s
request to move a lawsuit against raising the height of Shasta
Dam to Fresno County. Westlands Water District, based in
Fresno, wanted to move the lawsuit against it to its home
county, but a judge has ruled the case will remain in Shasta
County.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) urged people to avoid
physical contact with the water at San Luis Reservoir in Merced
County until further notice and avoid eating fish from the lake
due to the presence of blue-green algae. DWR increased the
advisory from warning to danger after detecting an increased
amount of microcystins.
Many Delta problems are worsening. Climate change is raising
sea levels and temperatures, making floods and droughts more
extreme and will likely further alter the mix of species. State
legislation to end overdrafting of groundwater will increase
demands for water from the Delta from farmers in the San
Joaquin Valley struggling (mostly in vain) to find replacement
water.
Federal biologists worked frantically this year to meet a
deadline to assess the environmental impacts of Trump
administration plans to send more water to Central Valley
farmers. But the biologists’ conclusion — that increased
deliveries would harm endangered Chinook salmon and other
imperiled fish — would foil those plans.
Just days before federal biologists were set to release new
rules governing the future of endangered salmon and drinking
water for two-thirds of Californians, the administration
replaced them with an almost entirely new group … to “refine”
and “improve” the rules, according to an email obtained by
KQED. Environmental groups said the Department of
Interior is interfering with the science…
Seeking to implement updated scientific methods to its
operations in the Golden State, the Bureau of Reclamation
released a draft environmental impact report on the coordinated
operations between the federal Central Valley Project and
California’s State Water Project on Thursday.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
The water is coming straight from the Sierra Nevada Mountains
and is very cold, which is causing some concerns people hoping
to get into the water. But, the water itself, when used what
it’s intended for, has a great impact in our Central Valley.
A massive flow of fresh water is being released from Friant Dam
on Tuesday as Millerton Lake reached capacity. … Officials
are releasing 1,700-1,000 cubic feet per second into the San
Joaquin River. Stroup said Millerton Lake has received above
average snow melt forcing them to release the water to make
room for more run off.
We estimate that nearly 20%—or 840,000 acres—of irrigated
cropland in the valley has no access to surface water. … With
groundwater cuts looming and no other water supply to fall back
on, groundwater-only areas are on the front line of the effort
to bring basins into balance.
Pistachio trees require somewhere between one-third and
one-half as much water as almond trees. Unlike almond trees,
pistachio trees don’t die during extended droughts. Their
metabolism merely slows and when water returns, they start
producing nuts again. … Pistachios can also handle, as
Duarte’s team discovered, levels of salt that have already
killed many an almond tree.
On June 28, farmers gathered in Los Banos to ask questions of
President Trump’s agriculture secretary, Sonny Perdue. GV Wire
took the opportunity to ask growers if they believed Trump was
doing enough to bring water to farmers. Generally, they said
they like how things are progressing.
In their analyses, they write that the plan poses risks to
threatened fish; that the process is rushed; that they didn’t
receive enough information to provide a complete scientific
review; and that the Trump administration may be skewing the
science to make the environmental impact look less serious.
Parts of the San Joaquin and Kings Rivers are closed to
recreation. But the high water levels don’t just mean people’s
vacations are getting cut short. … Hilda Warren lives near
the river and says she’s starting to get worried, watching the
water levels rise day by day.
Delta smelt are poor swimmers. When they have to swim against
voluminous outflows, they struggle. They also lack endurance
for distance and swimming against currents. This was the result
of the taxpayer-funded swim performance test conducted more
than 20 years ago. Why is this important?
The Bureau of Reclamation updated its 2019 allocation for the
Central Valley Project South-of-Delta, increasing the westside
water allocation to 70 percent of the contract total. Said
Mid-Pacific Regional Director Ernest Conant: “The late storms
provided an added boost to the already above average
precipitation for 2019. Snowpack throughout the state is still
about 150% of average for this time of year.”
Members of Friends of the River and the Sierra Club are
planning a presentation on a controversial episode in Mother
Lode history, when activists unsuccessfully tried to prevent
flooding of a raftable section of the Stanislaus River by
rising water levels in New Melones Reservoir in the 1970s and
1980s. … The event is scheduled at 7 p.m. Wednesday this week
at Tuolumne County Library, 480 Greenley Road in Sonora.
For years fisheries experts have watched the number of
winter-run Chinook salmon dwindle as they suffered through
drought and adverse conditions in the Sacramento River. But
this year a small crop of the endangered salmon have made their
way back from the ocean to return Battle Creek in southern
Shasta County, something that hasn’t happened in some 25 years.
And officials hope the fish are the beginning of a new run of
salmon in the creek.
The lawsuit against the Fresno-based Westlands Water District
was filed in Shasta County Superior Court on Monday. State
officials have for years maintained that raising the height of
the dam would violate the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act because a
higher dam would further inundate the McCloud River, in
violation of state law.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which operates the Central
Valley Project, may update its 65% allocation for
south-of-delta agricultural contractors later this month. But
Lon Martin, general manager of the Los Banos-based San Luis
Water District, said landowners who are planting crops and must
secure water for the remainder of the year “cannot wait until
May and June to make decisions.”
It’s an exceptional year for Sierra snowpack — 150 to 200% in
some places. Mountain snow is the main water source for
agriculture on the Valley’s west side. But those farmers are
getting just 65% of their allocation… Fresno County Farm
Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen says it’s frustrating that in a water
year this good, some farmers still can’t get enough of it to
grow food.
Surviving an exhaustive maze of manmade barriers and hungry
predators, a hardy group of salmon have beat the odds and
returned to spawn in one of California’s most-heavily dammed
rivers. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation says for the first time
in over 65 years, threatened spring-run Chinook adult salmon
have returned to the San Joaquin River near Fresno to complete
their life cycle.
In court, the California Environmental Quality Act is a
familiar obstacle to projects large and small — housing
developments, solar projects, even bike lanes. It’s also lately
become a weapon in the state’s major water conflicts.
While all other Central Valley Project contractors’ allocations
were previously increased to 100% of their contract totals in
recent months, the Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday
that agricultural districts South-of-Delta will receive only
65% percent of their historic water allocation. … In light of
current hydrologic and reservoir conditions, Westlands Water
District officials said this minor increase in water allocation
is “astonishing.”
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt began working on policies
that would aid one of his former lobbying clients within weeks
of joining the Trump administration, according to a POLITICO
analysis of agency documents … Newly disclosed schedule
“cards” prepared by Interior officials for Bernhardt show more
than three dozen meetings with key players on California water
issues, including multiple lengthy meetings on specific
endangered species protections at the heart of his previous
work.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday that it will
supply South-of-Delta growers with 65% of their contracted
water total. … Rep. Jim Costa (D-Fresno), who is a grower and
one of the top water policy experts in Congress, said that he
expected the initial west-side allocation in February to be
50%, followed by a 75% revise.
The California Farm Bureau delegation met last week with more
than 20 members of the California congressional delegation,
with a particular emphasis on members newly elected in 2018.
They met with U.S. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, two days
before the Senate confirmed his appointment as the Cabinet’s
newest member. For the first time in several years, they
conducted a briefing for congressional staff members, to
describe key issues facing California farmers and ranchers.
Federal and state water managers have coordinated operations of
the CVP and the parallel State Water Project for many decades.
… But this intergovernmental water policy Era of Good Feeling
(relatively speaking) has come to a sudden and dramatic end
with the ascension of the Trump Administration.
At least 11 Democratic senators asked the inspector general to
investigate a range of claims against Bernhardt … The
inspector general also received a request from Democratic Sens.
Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts and Richard Blumenthal of
Connecticut, asking the office to examine whether Bernhardt
played a role in the department’s handling of endangered
species in the San Francisco Bay Delta…
Bernhardt has a roster to fill, with gaping vacancies in key
positions. He’s got, by his own account, a departmental ethics
program to fix and an ambitious reorganization scheme that
critics decry or simply dismiss. He’ll have to cope with a
multibillion-dollar national parks maintenance backlog and
thread the needle with an offshore drilling plan. And as he’s
already discovered during his short stint as acting secretary,
he faces opposition from Democratic lawmakers in control of the
House.
Even as winter and early-spring storms have filled reservoirs
to the brim and piled snow on Sierra Nevada mountaintops, state
and federal officials say they’re limited in how much water
they can send south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
The legislation, which received bipartisan support, will invest
$400 million from the State’s General Fund towards the
Friant-Kern Canal, one of the Central Valley’s most critical
water delivery facilities.
The area manager of the Shasta Dam, Don Bader said the image is
not a hole in the dam, but a spall, which is a small fragment
or a chip, that has broken off of a larger solid body.
Venture through California’s Central Valley, known as the
nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface
water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square
miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25
percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits,
nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
When the State Water Resources Control Board voted in December
to adopt the Bay-Delta Plan, its members ignored the direction
of former Governor Brown and current Governor Newsom to pursue
voluntary agreements with our irrigation districts. Many saw
this as an act of defiance by former Chair Felicia Marcus, the
executive director, and many of the activist staff.
Now that the federal government has filed its own lawsuits
against an unimpaired-flows plan for San Joaquin River
tributaries, farmers and other parties to the lawsuits wait to
learn where they will be heard–and prepare for a lengthy court
battle. California Farm Bureau Federation … filed its own
lawsuit against the unimpaired-flows plan in February…
The Trump administration has fast-tracked a process to deliver
more water to farms. But an investigation by KQED reveals those
changes are raising alarm among federal employees. In this
interview, we speak with KQED science reporter Lauren Sommer
about why, and what’s at stake.
Water storage at New Melones Reservoir in southeastern
Calaveras County is currently at 84 percent of its 2.4 million
acre-feet capacity – 35 percent higher than its 15-year average
for March… Although the dam’s emergency spillway has never
been tested, Reclamation has been proactively releasing water
in anticipation of snowpack runoff.
Water is coming out from Friant Dam into the San Joaquin River.
The dam is at about 82 percent of capacity, and the warm
weather is melting the mountain snow. Michael Jackson, area
director for the Bureau of Reclamation, says the flow out of
the dam is being increased. Flood releases don’t usually start
until April, so the extra water is good news for valley
growers, with extra irrigation water available.
Recent rains have left the San Joaquin Valley’s reservoirs in
better shape, but groundwater depletion and the resulting
ground subsidence continue to beset farmers and water managers.
What will this year hold? … Your best opportunity to
understand the challenges and opportunities of this vital
resource in the nation’s breadbasket is to join us on our
Central Valley Tour April 3-5.
The San Joaquin Valley, known as the
nation’s breadbasket, grows a cornucopia of fruits, nuts and
other agricultural products.
During our three-day Central Valley Tour April
3-5, you will meet farmers who will explain how they prepare
the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce that
helps feed the nation and beyond. We also will drive through
hundreds of miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams,
reservoirs and groundwater wells that provide the water.
While campaigning for president in 2016, Donald Trump promised
a cheering Fresno crowd he would be “opening up the
water” for Central Valley farmers… Trump took one of the
most aggressive steps to date to fulfill that promise Tuesday
by proposing to relax environmental regulations governing how
water is shared between fish and human uses throughout the
Central Valley.
Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman today named
Ernest A. Conant director of the Mid-Pacific Region. Conant has
nearly 40 years of water law experience and previously served
as senior partner of Young Wooldridge, LLP.
A simple web search will pull up nearly a million articles,
videos and photos featuring Frank Gehrke. He’s no fashion icon
like Kim Kardashian or a dogged politician like Gov. Jerry
Brown. But he has broken a lot of news. … For 30 years,
you might have seen Gehrke on TV, the guy trudging through snow
with a measuring pole, talking about how deep the pack is each
winter on the evening news. He retired from his post as the
state’s chief snow surveyor in December, but he’s not letting
go of his snowshoes and skis anytime soon.
Land subsidence from overpumping of San Joaquin Valley
groundwater sank portions of the Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River
to farms that help fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural
economy. A plan to fix it helped sink the $8.8 billion
Proposition 3 bond measure last November. Now San Joaquin
Valley water managers are trying to figure out another way to
restore the canal, not only to keep farmers farming, but to aid
the valley’s overtaxed groundwater aquifers. By Gary
Pitzer in Western Water.
As his term as governor drew to a close, Jerry Brown brokered a
historic agreement among farms and cities to surrender billions
of gallons of water to help ailing fish. He also made two big
water deals with the Trump administration. It added up to
a dizzying display of deal-making. Yet as Gavin Newsom takes
over as governor, the state of water in California seems as
unsettled as ever.
A coalition of environmental groups has called on California
members of Congress to prioritize the San Luis (B.F. Sisk)
Dam seismic remediation over federal funding for new California
dams. San Luis Dam is in a very seismically active area.
Independently reviewed risk assessments for Reclamation have
shown that a large earthquake could lead to crest settlement
and overtopping of the dam, which would result in large
uncontrolled releases and likely dam failure.
At stake is an important rule that defines which waters are
protected under the Clean Water Act. It’s also poised to
be a year of reckoning on the Colorado River, which supplies
water to 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland.
And it could also be a landmark year for water management in
California, with several key issues coming to a head.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
In the latter half of 2018, both the federal and state
governments released new climate change assessments that
outline the projected course of climate change and its
potential effects on water resources. At the December meeting
of the California Water Commission, staff from the Department
of Water Resources and the Delta Stewardship Council were on
hand to present an overview of the newly released assessments.
At the end of the last century, the Sierra Nevada captured an
average of 8.76 million acre-feet of water critical to the
nation’s largest food-producing region. By mid-century, a new
study projects, the average will fall to 4 million acre-feet;
and by century’s end, 1.81 million acre-feet.
Prompted by the collapse of fish populations, the State Water
Resources Control Board is trying to prevent humans from
totally drying up these rivers each year. The regulators’
lodestar for how much water the rivers need is the amount of
water a Chinook salmon needs to migrate.
A new study out of Stanford University finds that 10 percent of
the total carbon dioxide spewed from California, Oregon,
Washington and Idaho for power generation this century is the
result of states turning to fossil fuels when water was too
sparse to spin electrical turbines at dams.
A water district that provides irrigation to San Joaquin
Valley farmers heard mostly negative comments in Redding on
Wednesday about its role in the ongoing proposal to raise the
height of Shasta Dam. The Fresno County-based Westlands Water
District, which has stepped forward to help pay the cost to
raise the dam, held a meeting at the Holiday Inn to take
comments that will be used to develop an environmental impact
report on the project.
A trio of tiny salamanders could stand in the way of a massive
$1.4 billion project to raise the height of Shasta Dam. An
environmental organization has filed a lawsuit against the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, asking a judge to force the federal
agency to make a determination on whether three salamander
species living around Lake Shasta should be protected
under the Endangered Species Act.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
This tour ventured through California’s Central
Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an
imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering
about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state,
the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40
percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout
the country.
President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the government to
speed up environmental reviews and streamline regulations that
he says are hindering work on major water projects in
California and other Western states. Trump signed a memorandum
aimed at helping the Central Valley Project and the California
State Water Project in California, the Klamath Irrigation
Project in Oregon and California and the Columbia River Basin
system in the Pacific Northwest.
About 130 private property owners around Lake Shasta could be
forced to move if a plan to raise the height of Shasta Dam goes
forward. That was just one of the pieces of information that
came out of a community meeting about the project Monday night
in Lakehead. … About 90 people attended the meeting to hear
from U.S. Bureau of Reclamation officials about how Lakehead
residents and business owners will be affected if the height of
the dam is raised 18½ feet.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic
landscape as we learn about the issues associated with a key
source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants will get an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
Nathan Morgan has been hanging over the side of side of Shasta
Dam recently — sometimes upside down — making marks on the side
of the dam. Morgan is part of a U.S. Bureau of Reclamation crew
drilling holes in the side and on the top of the dam to test
the strength of the concrete. The drilling is part of the prep
work to raise the height of the dam 18½ feet. … Earlier
this year Congress set aside about $20 million for
pre-construction work and design on the dam raise.
The Colorado River Basin is more
than likely headed to unprecedented shortage in 2020 that could
force supply cuts to some states, but work is “furiously”
underway to reduce the risk and avert a crisis, Bureau of
Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman told an audience of
California water industry people.
During a keynote address at the Water Education Foundation’s
Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento, Burman said there is
opportunity for Colorado River Basin states to control their
destiny, but acknowledged that in water, there are no guarantees
that agreement can be reached.
With talk of boosting water deliveries to Central Valley
agriculture, the Trump administration is telling growers
exactly what they want to hear. But given California’s complex
water system and a web of federal and state environmental
regulations, such promises could prove more political than
practical. … The office of Deputy Interior Secretary
David Bernhardt will make final recommendations on the agency’s
steps in early September.
The Trump administration is trying a bold new tactic to bring
more water to Central Valley farmers — one that could come at
the expense of millions of urban Southern Californians. In an
unprecedented move, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation served
notice to California officials Aug. 17, stating it wants to
renegotiate a landmark 1986 agreement governing the big federal
and state water projects and how they pump water through the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to their member agencies in
southern half of the state.
The backdrop of [President Donald] Trump’s tweets is a charged
debate before the State Water Resources Control Board, the
agency tasked with allocating California’s water supplies. It
is set to vote this month on a plan to increase flows in the
San Joaquin River and its tributaries, which would help fish
but hurt farmers.
Completed during Harry Truman’s presidency, the Friant-Kern
Canal has been a workhorse in California’s elaborate man-made
water-delivery network. … Until now.
… A proposition on the November ballot would
raise billions of dollars for a variety of water projects
around the state, including roughly $350 million to repair the
Friant-Kern.
Splitting California into three new states would scramble
nearly every segment of government that touches residents’
lives, from taxes to Medi-Cal to driver’s licenses. … But of
all the gargantuan tasks facing Californians should they choose
to divide themselves by three — a proposal that has qualified
for the November ballot — none is arguably more daunting than
carving up the state’s water supply.
Officials with the federal government seem determined to
realize a controversial proposal to raise Shasta Dam and
increase the storage capacity of the reservoir behind it –
despite objections from fish and wildlife agencies and
California law that technically forbids such a project.
We traveled deep into California’s
water hub and traverse the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a
720,000-acre network of islands and canals that supports the
state’s water system and is California’s most crucial water and
ecological resource. The tour made its way to San Francisco Bay,
and included a ferry ride.
Many Americans know the name Kesterson as the California site
where thousands of birds and fish were discovered with gruesome
deformities in 1983, a result of exposure to selenium-poisoned
farm runoff. Thirty-five years later, it is one of the oldest
unresolved water problems in the state.
Congress and the Trump administration are pushing ahead with a
plan to raise a towering symbol of dam-building’s 20th century
heyday to meet the water demands of 21st century California — a
project backed by San Joaquin Valley growers but opposed by
state officials, defenders of a protected river and an American
Indian tribe whose sacred sites would be swamped.
We ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as
the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface
water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square
miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25
percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits,
nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
While one federal agency wants to go forward with plans to
raise the height of Shasta Dam, the congressman whose district
includes the dam called it a “rumor that is going around all
the time,” and said it is not his top priority for water
projects in Northern California.
The proposal to raise the height of Shasta Dam is back on the
table, with a 2019 federal budget request of $20 million for
pre-construction and design work on the structure. The U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation and several other water agencies in the
state have been interested in raising the height of the dam for
decades.
After a historically wet season last year, relatively little
precipitation has fallen this year in California during two of
the three historically wettest months. Officials are urging
stricter water conservation and caution drier months ahead.
After last week’s rains, the Sierra snowpack — a critical
factor in water availability — climbed to just 39 percent of
normal.
Dams and reservoirs under the jurisdiction of the California
Department of Water Resources will be inspected more regularly
thanks to a new law Gov. Jerry Brown signed this week. What
does this mean for Tulare County’s reservoirs and aging dams,
Kaweah and Success?
The Sierra snowpack may be next to nothing, but the Stockton
area is set to receive another full supply of water from New
Melones Lake, and there’s no reason to expect a shortage here
this year, officials said. … While the Stockton area is
getting its full share from New Melones, other federal water
contractors are not as fortunate.
With the threat of another drought looming, federal officials
announced water allocations Tuesday that gave the city of
Redding a full complement of water, but other water agencies,
such as the Bella Vista Water District, were left with
uncertainty.
With the threat of another drought looming, west San Joaquin
Valley farmers received some dismal news Tuesday about this
year’s water allocation. The initial allocation from the
Central Valley Project is 20 percent, the U.S Bureau of
Reclamation announced on Tuesday.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced Tuesday that most
farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta who get water
from the federal Central Valley Project will receive just 20
percent of their requested allocation this year. … The
State Water Project has set an initial allocation of 20 percent
for all of its farm and municipal customers.
The Bureau of Reclamation came to Chico Thursday to take input
on a proposal to maximize water deliveries from the Central
Valley Project, and for two hours a succession of speakers told
them it was a bad idea.
A meeting in Chico has been scheduled for Thursday to take
input on a Trump Administration plan to maximize water
deliveries from the federal Central Valley Project. The
project, which dates to the 1930s, consists of 18 dams and
reservoirs and 500 miles of canals that primarily deliver water
to farms and cities in the Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys.
Get a unique view of the San Joaquin Valley’s key dams and
reservoirs that store and transport water on our March Central
Valley Tour.
Our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, offers a broad view of water issues
in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the farms, orchards,
critical habitat for threatened bird populations, flood bypasses
and a national wildlife refuge, we visit some of California’s
major water infrastructure projects.
Friday night’s federal government shutdown had a minimal effect
in the North State over the weekend but those who drove to
Shasta Dam and Whiskeytown National Recreation Area found
themselves locked out of the visitors centers there.
Faced with a shortage of money and political support after
seven years of work, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration is
working on a plan to scale back one of his key legacy projects,
a $17 billion proposal to build two massive tunnels under the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to make it easier to move
water from Northern California to the south.
In the final days of 2017, President Donald Trump’s
administration announced it would consider sending as much
water as possible from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to
farmers and cities to the south. The notice comes as a
follow-up to a speech Trump made in Fresno during his
presidential campaign, when he condemned the downstream flow of
river water into the ocean as “insane.”
The Trump administration said Friday it will look at revving up
water deliveries to farmers from California’s Central Valley
Project, the largest federal water project in the United
States, in what environmental groups called a threat to
protections for struggling native salmon and other endangered
species.
We ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as
the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface
water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square
miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25
percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits,
nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to
learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most
expensive river restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
This tour traveled deep into California’s water hub and traversed
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 720,000-acre network of
islands and canals that supports the state’s water system and is
California’s most crucial water and ecological resource. The
tour made its way to San Francisco Bay and
included a ferry ride.
Brenda Burman, the director of water policy for Salt River
Project who previously worked for the U.S. Department of the
Interior, has been confirmed as the nation’s first female
commissioner of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. Burman, who was
nominated for the post in June by President Donald Trump, was
confirmed on a unanimous voice vote by the U.S. Senate on
Thursday, according to the Senate record.
California’s most important federal water reform law – the
Central Valley Project Improvement Act – will celebrate its
25th anniversary on October 30. … The law was an
historic effort to protect and restore California’s wetlands,
rivers, migratory waterbirds, salmon and other fish species,
and also to promote more sustainable water supplies for a
drought prone state.
Over the past several weeks crews have been out on Whiskeytown
Lake repairing the temperature curtains in the water near the
Visitors Center. … The curtains are an important part of the
bureau’s Central Valley Project, which includes Trinity and
Lewiston dams and Shasta and Keswick dams.
The flood risk in the Sacramento metropolitan area is greatly
improved now that a 12-year project to build a back-up spillway
at Folsom Lake is complete.
Dam builders from President Franklin Roosevelt’s administration
wanted to bring water to the parched eastern half of the San
Joaquin Valley, but first they had to deal with a cluster of
landowners whose ancestors had been there since the 1800s. The
deal they cut in 1939 paved the way for much of the Central
Valley Project, an engineering marvel that helped turn the
Valley into one of the world’s most productive farming regions.
A federal agency left U.S. taxpayers on the hook for $50
million in water project costs that should have been paid by
Central Valley irrigation districts, according to an inspector
general’s report released Friday.
A team of engineers were out this week with hammers banging on
the face of Shasta Dam. Hanging by ropes from the top of the
602-foot-tall dam, the group was inspecting the spillway,
looking for weak spots in the concrete.
The Golden State’s system of 154 major reservoirs is holding
34,464,000 acre-feet according to the most recent June 12 state
report with data pulled from an array of entities that own and
manage these bodies of water, including the Department of Water
Resources, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corps of
Engineers and several city water departments.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
Deep in the Trinity Alps, 130 miles northwest of the troubled
Oroville Dam, local officials are raising alarms about another
earthen dam with documented weaknesses and limited capacity for
releasing the water that has poured in from storms and melting
snow.
His name is David Longly Bernhardt, and he’s worked as the top
lobbyist for California’s Westlands Water District, the largest
agricultural entity of its kind in the nation. … On Friday,
the Trump administration announced it was nominating Bernhardt
to serve as deputy to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke.
Full water deliveries have returned to the last of the West
Side irrigation districts affected by federal water cutbacks in
recent years. … The news came too late for some farmers, who
have already planted based on the earlier projection of 65
percent for 2017.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is boosting the water allocation
for farmers south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to 100
percent for the first time since 2006. The announcement Tuesday
comes only weeks after the bureau told disappointed growers
that they would receive 65 percent of the contract supply from
the Central Valley Project.
California farmers have a sympathetic president in the White
House and have enjoyed one of the wettest winters on record.
But those in a giant swath of the San Joaquin Valley, one of
the most productive agricultural regions in the country, are
due to get only two-thirds of their water allotment this year
from the federal government.
State officials said Wednesday that Californians reliant on
water pumped out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta won’t face
supply shortages, even as crews shut down a massive pumping
station that serves much of Southern California for at least a
month to make repairs to its intake reservoir.
Federal officials announced Tuesday that the 20 reservoirs that
make up the Central Valley Project are so swollen with winter
runoff that many growers will get all the water they requested
this year — a remarkable change from the past few years when
countless orchards and fields received no federal water at all.
Stubborn New Melones Lake finally decided to join the party.
New Melones this week topped 100 percent of normal, the last of
California’s major reservoirs to climb out of the deep drought
hole.
Our tours are famous for not only being packed with diverse
educational opportunities about California water, but showcasing
local culture. Our Central Valley Tour on March
8-10 lets you unwind at a few San Joaquin Valley treasures and
hear stories that go back generations.
Water officials dramatically increased flows on the American
and Sacramento rivers Monday to lessen the flooding risk ahead
of big storms coming Monday and Tuesday night.
State and federal water managers ramped up water releases from
Sacramento Valley dams Monday afternoon to make space for the
water due to come from the storm that was expected to arrive
overnight.
After five years of drought, could California really have so
much rain and snow there’s no room to store all the water? …
One month into an exceptionally stormy 2017, river flows though
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have been so powerful that the
massive pumps that ship north-state water to Southern
California and the San Joaquin Valley have roared at full
throttle for weeks.
The San Joaquin Valley has been hit hard by the six-year drought
and related surface water cutbacks. Some land has been fallowed
and groundwater pumping has increased. What does this year hold?
Will these recent heavy storms provide enough surface water for
improved water deliveries?
Your best opportunity to see and understand this vital
agricultural region of California is to join us on our annual
Central Valley Tour,
March 8-10.
In its annual inventory of water in storage, the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation said the six key reservoirs owned by the federal
government’s Central Valley Project held a combined 4.9 million
acre-feet of water as of Oct. 1, the beginning of the “water
year” that runs through next September.
Seventeen water districts in the San Joaquin Valley and the
city of Fresno have filed a blockbuster claim for $350 million
against the federal government for not delivering water to
Friant Division contractors in the drought year of 2014.
Whiskeytown Lake, a major reservoir in the foothills of the
Klamath Mountains nine miles west of Redding, was
built at the site of one of Shasta County’s first Gold Rush
communities. Whiskeytown, originally called
Whiskey Creek Diggings, was founded in 1849 and named in
reference to a whiskey barrel rolling off a citizen’s pack mule;
it may also refer to miners drinking a barrel per day.
Ill-timed releases from New Melones Reservoir led to a 75
percent drop in rainbow trout on the lower Stanislaus River
last year, according to two water purveyors that could have
used some of the supply.
State and federal reservoir levels have been dropping at
dramatically different rates for the last couple of months, for
reasons that figure into last week’s discussions about the twin
tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
A still-controversial 1992 law intended to boost California’s
striped-bass population can be scaled back, the Obama
administration now believes. … Another bill, by Rep. Doris
Matsui, D-Sacramento, to revise a water-recycling grant program
established in the 1992 law likewise secured administration
support Wednesday.
Federal officials say farmers in Northern California can expect
to receive all of their requested water deliveries this year,
while those to the south of the Delta will likely receive a
fraction.
The 2016 irrigation season is rolling out on these warm April
days with close-to-normal supplies in parts of the Northern San
Joaquin Valley. In other parts, the drought of the past few
years has not eased much, and farmers face another year of
scraping by.
In the latest sign of California’s improving drought picture,
federal officials announced Friday that South Bay cities will
receive 55 percent of their contracted water amounts this
summer — up from 25 percent last year — from the Central Valley
Project, California’s largest water delivery system.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, in an eagerly anticipated
announcement, outlined the initial 2016 water allocations from
the Central Valley Project, the federal government’s massive
network of reservoirs, pumps and canals.
Federal officials will say how much water some California
farmers can expect to receive this year in one of the nation’s
most productive agricultural regions.
The drought is certainly not over, but the federal Bureau of
Reclamation was optimistic enough to offer water suppliers in
the Valley 30 percent of their contract allocations this year.
And several water agency officials believe more could be coming
as well.
Deliveries from the State Water Project are now forecast to be
45 percent of what was requested, still less than what’s
supplied during most wet years but more than what’s been
allocated since the first year of the drought.
Federal water managers warned Tuesday that northern California
could be headed for an “interesting” runoff season following a
series of late-season storms.
As the weekend’s soakings dumped billions of gallons of water
into Shasta Lake, California’s largest reservoir reached 79
percent capacity — and 108 percent of its historic average — on
Monday.
Saying too much water is flowing out to sea, U.S. Sen. Dianne
Feinstein on Friday called on operators of the federal and
state water projects to pump more water south through the Delta
to drought-stricken farms and cities in Central and Southern
California.
Like a car owner whose transmission unexpectedly breaks down
and results in a huge bill, Silicon Valley’s largest water
provider will have to spend at least $20 million to drain, test
and repair a critical water pipeline that failed last summer
and may have more hidden problems.
The recent onslaught of El Nino storms only slightly increased
the levels of California reservoirs that now stand at half of
historic depths for this time of year, federal officials said
Friday while releasing an initial water outlook for 2016.
Escalating the fight over California’s diminished water supply,
a coalition of environmental groups sued Central Valley farmers
and the federal government over the possible extinction facing
an endangered run of salmon.
Water year 2016 began with the potential for heavy El Niño rains
that captured the attention of the public. State and federal
officials knew that California’s drought-stricken reservoirs
would not recover that quickly.
Hydrologic conditions, precipitation patterns, the need for
fishery flows, and forecasts of state and federal water project
operations were all discussed at a special FREE briefing
held February 23, 2016. Sponsored by the California
Department of Water Resources and the Water Education Foundation,
the briefing was held at the Sacramento Convention Center, Room
202.
Sacramento Convention Center
1400 J Street, Room 204
With October comes a waiting season. Californians have more or
less survived one more dry year — with shower buckets and brown
lawns, with ever deeper wells and fallowed croplands; in short,
with every trick known to those who consume or manage water.
In the latest indicator of the severity of the drought, the
federal government’s main reservoirs serving California have
begun the new “water year” at just a quarter full and in worse
shape than last year.
The federal government will not pay the nearly $1.3 billion to
raise the height of Shasta Dam up to 18 1/2 feet, according to
a report released Wednesday on the feasibility of the project.
While the final feasibility report says raising the height of
the dam would be feasible, it stops short of recommending
approval because of cost and financing issues.
Mark DuBois did the impossible for five days in May 1979. With
boats and helicopters combing the Stanislaus River canyon
searching for him, the rising water of New Melones Reservoir
practically lapping at his feet and chained to a rock in the
canyon, DuBois hid beneath a small ledge to avoid detection and
possible arrest.
For most of the 1900s, the bureau’s [of Reclamation] system —
which grew into the largest wholesale water utility in the
country — worked. But the West of the 21st century is not the
West of Roosevelt.
The drought has become so severe that water is beginning to
flow backward along a major artery in California’s increasingly
distressed water delivery system.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Denham, R-Turlock, wants the federal government
to transfer ownership of New Melones Lake east of Stockton to
local water districts. That’s the aim of one of two bills
introduced by Denham on Wednesday.
The Bureau of Reclamation reports that, due to continued dry
conditions, the initial 2015 water supply allocation released
on February 27 for Central Valley Project agricultural
contractors and municipal and industrial contractors remains
unchanged.
The Shasta County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider
purchasing 250 acre-feet of water, about 81 million gallons,
from the McConnell Foundation to feed the needs of four
county-run water districts after projections in February showed
unprecedented water allocation cutbacks from the Central Valley
Project.
In a clear indicator that California is descending into a
fourth year of drought, the federal government on Friday
announced that the Central Valley Project — California’s
largest water delivery system — will provide no water again
this year to most Central Valley farmers and only 25 percent of
the contracted amount to urban areas such as Santa Clara,
Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
The US Bureau of Reclamation says most farmers south of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta will face a second year with no
water from the Central Valley Project.
The federal government said Friday it won’t send any of its
reservoir water to the Central Valley for the second straight
year, forcing farmers in California’s agricultural heartland to
again scramble for other sources or leave fields unplanted.
In a sign that the drought actually has worsened, federal
officials on Friday announced an unprecedented second
consecutive year with no water deliveries to many farms up and
down the Central Valley.
In another blow to California’s parched heartland, federal
officials said Friday that for the second year in a row most
Central Valley farmers are unlikely to receive water from the
region’s major irrigation project this summer.
Hundreds of farmers in the Central Valley were told Friday they
can expect zero water deliveries this year from the federal
government, the latest fallout from what is likely to be a
fourth straight drought year in California. … The
announcement does not affect all farms.
We’re late in another desperately dry winter, waiting for the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s February forecast of irrigation
deliveries for this summer in the San Joaquin Valley.
The next train wreck in California’s drought is headed for the
San Joaquin Valley this week when federal leaders forecast how
much river water farmers can expect to irrigate nearly 3
million acres this summer.
In the Consolidated Salmonid Cases, the Eastern District Court
of California reviewed a Biological Opinion (“BiOp”) issued in
2009 by the National Marine Fisheries Service (“NMFS”) that
placed restrictions on the Projects’ [Central Valley Project
and State Water Project] operations to protect endangered
species.
In the Consolidated Delta Smelt Cases, two district court
opinions for the Eastern District of California review a
Biological Opinion (“BiOp”) issued in 2008 by the Fish and
Wildlife Service (“FWS”) that placed restrictions on the
Projects’ [Central Valley Project and State Water Project]
operations to protect endangered species.
That’s how Jeff Shields, general manager of the South San
Joaquin Irrigation District, described it to me the other day.
The key reservoir east of Stockton is 23 percent full and 40
percent of normal.
One look at the numbers says it all about California’s latest
drought nightmare: The snowpack must grow seven times its
current size in the next two months just to be average.
The Bureau of Reclamation today [Jan. 27] released the final
report on the Central Valley Project Integrated Resource Plan.
Reclamation investigated climate change impacts on water
supplies and demands in the CVP service area and performed an
exploratory analysis of potential adaptation strategies to
address these impacts.
No surprise here, but the federal government is warning that
the Stockton area might not receive all of its contracted water
from New Melones Lake this year.
Facing a fourth drought year and maybe the driest January on
record, farm water leaders hope storms are on the way, but they
saw a dry January last year and got no water from the federal
Central Valley Project. … In late February, the bureau [of
Reclamation] makes a forecast of summer water delivery.
In preparation for the initial 2015 water supply allocation
announcement in late February, the Bureau of Reclamation
provided an update today [Jan. 23] on water supply conditions
for the federal Central Valley Project (CVP).
The Bureau of Reclamation announced on Jan. 8 that the public
comment period for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for
the Central Valley Project Municipal and Industrial Water
Shortage Policy which was set to end on Jan. 30 has been
extended until March 13, 2015.
The Bureau of Reclamation has released the final environmental
documents on a Safety of Dams project at Folsom Reservoir’s
Dike 1 in the Granite Bay Recreation Area. The Dike 1
improvement modifications are being performed under
Reclamation’s Safety of Dams Program to address water seepage
through the Dike 1 embankment.
Estevan López spent a dozen years managing water controversies
in drought-prone New Mexico as director of the Interstate
Stream Commission and the deputy state engineer. That training
was about the best anyone could get for managing the nation’s
largest water wholesaler, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, said
his longtime colleague, former state engineer John D’Antonio.
Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell today [Dec. 17] released
the following statement after the U.S. Senate confirmed Estevan
R. López to serve as Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation.
… “… With decades of public service to the people of
New Mexico, water management expertise, and an ability to bring
together diverse stakeholders from across the spectrum, he is
well suited to the challenges of being Commissioner in the 21st
century. …” Before López, Deputy Secretary of the Interior
Mike Connor served as Reclamation Commissioner.
The United States Senate has confirmed President Obama’s
selection for Commissioner of the Bureau of Reclamation. Having
served as Principal Deputy Commissioner since October 8, 2014,
with all of the responsibilities of Commissioner, Estevan López
will now carry the title and formally take the helm of the 5500
person agency that manages water and generates power in the
western United States.
The Bureau of Reclamation today [Nov. 3] released the Final
Environmental Assessments and Findings of No Significant Impact
for three projects funded by the Central Valley Project
Conservation Program and the Central Valley Project Improvement
Act Habitat Restoration Program.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Delta Science Program, in
coordination with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s National Marine Fisheries Service, U.S. Fish
and Wildlife Service, and California Department of Water
Resources, have scheduled an annual science review and workshop
on certain biological opinion implementation actions relative
to the 2014 operation of the Central Valley Project and State
Water Project. The 2014 annual science review will be the fifth
annual review.
The drought is causing low water levels at New Melones Lake.
“We are about 20 percent of our capacity,” park manager Alex
Michalek said Monday. … The Bureau of Reclamation said the
lake has not been this low in the past two decades.
Great horned owls hang out at the San Luis National Wildlife
Refuge. … But this year, predators may be the least of the
worries for these birds. Starvation, avian cholera and botulism
may be bigger killers than usual. It’s another dark twist from
California’s destructive drought.
Readers asked a very good question last week about the proposed
$2.6 billion reservoir project that would more than double the
capacity of Millerton Lake.
The signs appear about 200 miles north of Los Angeles, tacked
onto old farm wagons parked along quiet two-lane roads and
bustling Interstate 5. “Congress Created Dust Bowl.” “Stop the
Politicians’ Water Crisis.” “No Water No Jobs.”
Next week [Tuesday, Oct. 21] the Bureau of Reclamation will be
in Chico, asking folks to give feedback on an assessment of
water transfers from the Sacramento Valley over 10 years.
About 100 people listened at a public meeting in Fresno to
sometimes passionate statements from speakers who faulted
everything from the feasibility analysis to the notification
for the hearing on the draft Environmental Impact Statement for
Temperance Flat Reservoir.
