An ecosystem includes all of the living organisms (plants,
animals and microbes) in a given area, interacting with each
other, and also with their non-living environments (air, water
and soil).
Ecosystems are dynamic and are impacted by disturbances such as a
drought, an extraordinarily freezing winter, and pests.
Longer-term disturbances include climate change effects.
Ecosystems provide a variety of goods and services upon which
people depend. Ecosystem management emphasizes managing natural
resources at the level of the ecosystem itself and not just
managing individual species.
The California Legislature was the first in the country to
protect rare plants and animals through passage of the California
Endangered Species Act in 1970. Congress followed suit in 1973 by
passing the federal Endangered Species Act.
On a recent, scorching afternoon in Albuquerque, off-road
vehicles cruised up and down a stretch of dry riverbed where
normally the Rio Grande flows. The drivers weren’t
thrill-seekers, but biologists hoping to save as many
endangered fish as they could before the sun turned shrinking
pools of water into dust. For the first time in four decades,
America’s fifth-longest river went dry in Albuquerque last
week. Habitat for the endangered Rio Grande silvery minnow — a
shimmery, pinky-sized native fish — went with it.
As I wrote this, news arrived that Sen. Joe Manchin — the
coal-loving Democrat from West Virginia — finally agreed to
support a climate bill that would potentially cut
planet-warming emissions by some 40% by 2030. It will be a huge
step forward (fossil fuel-friendly provisions aside) if it
makes it through Congress, but it won’t do much to ease the
West’s desiccation anytime soon. That gives the collective
users of the region’s water no choice but to cut our
consumption, and fast. -Written by Jonathan Thompson, a contributing
editor at High Country News and author
of Sagebrush Empire: How a Remote Utah County Became
the Battlefront of American Public Lands.
The forests and meadows of the Sierra Nevada, Coast Range, and
Cascade Mountains are the source waters for much of the
Sacramento River Basin and the State of California. Healthy
headwaters ensure increased water supply reliability and
reduced flooding risks, improved water quality, reduced impacts
from catastrophic wildfires, increased renewable energy
supplies, enhanced habitat, and improved response to climate
change and extreme weather.
Summer 2022 is a season of ecological restoration for the
Department of Water Resources (DWR). From June 23 to July
14, 2022, DWR and partners celebrated four multi-benefit
restoration projects taking place in California’s Central
Valley including the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Delta),
Suisun Marsh, and Yolo Bypass region. Each of these projects
have the capacity to deliver multiple benefits that include
habitat restoration, supporting endangered species, flood risk
reduction, or public access.
Just a day after it ignited on July 29th, California’s McKinney
Fire exploded in intensity, burning so hot that it exceeded a
satellite sensor’s ability to measure it while lofting multiple
fire clouds high into the atmosphere. Now, heavy rains in the
area have sent torrents of water, mud and debris down streams,
knocking out a bridge and inuring a man who was helping to
battle the blaze — which has grown to a third of the size of
New York City.
The Morro Bay National Estuary Program is getting $4.5 million
over five years to protect and restore water quality and
habitat, the Biden administration announced on Monday. The
funding comes from the bipartisan $978 billion Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act that Biden signed last November.
In the past few years, the San Francisco Estuary region has
confronted epic wildfires, historic rainfall intensity and
flooding, and chronic drought. The whiplash of these events has
confirmed that climate change has already begun to impact human
and wildlife communities from Sacramento to San Francisco, and
beyond. [T]he pervasive, horrific violence against Black,
Brown, and Asian and Asian-American people has amplified
long-term calls for racial justice, galvanizing new commitments
to address historic and present inequity through every thread
of our social fabric. These events have set the context for the
multi-stakeholder process that updates the San Francisco
Estuary Blueprint.
The Bureau of Reclamation and U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service are
partnering to protect winter-run Chinook salmon in a crucial
year of their life cycle at the Livingston Stone National Fish
Hatchery and third consecutive drought year in California. The
Service operates the hatchery while Reclamation provides water,
power, and funding to support operations and maintenance of the
facility. Behind the scenes, water managers, fish biologists,
and project managers from Reclamation and the Service have been
working together to best meet critical water needs anticipated
during this unprecedented drought.
A key priority of the Newsom Administration – the Delta
Conveyance Project – has officially entered its next chapter.
On July 22, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) released
its draft environmental impact report (Draft EIR) for the Delta
Conveyance Project. The Delta Conveyance Project is DWR’s and
Governor Newsom’s plan to build an underground tunnel to bring
water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the State Water
Project pumps near Tracy in order to reduce the risk from
earthquakes and climate change to the State’s water supplies.
Blooms of noxious, blue-green algae in California’s
second-largest freshwater lake have prompted Lake County
officials to issue warnings against consuming the water in
Clear Lake as toxin levels rise to a worrisome point. County,
health, and tribal officials urged Lake County residents and
tourists — and especially those who get their water from Clear
Lake — to be extra vigilant when getting near the water, and to
report any unusual medical symptoms to their doctors and the
county. … Blue-green algae, which is technically
cyanobacteria, occur in all freshwater and marine aquatic
ecosystems, and are not harmful to humans or animals when their
bacteria levels are low. But high nutrients and warm waters can
exacerbate the growth of those organisms …
A humpback whale was spotted off San Diego’s coast on
Valentine’s Day 2020, entangled in a green plastic fishing net.
It struggled to migrate up California’s coast, leaping
repeatedly to desperately try to rid itself of the net.
But rescuers were unable to safely get close enough to
try to cut the net off. … The plague of plastic in
our oceans is steadily worsening, taking an increasingly deadly
toll on whales, dolphins, seals and other marine mammals, not
to mention other marine life. -Written by Dave Phillips, executive director of
Earth Island Institute, a nonprofit environmental organization
based in Berkeley; and Mark J. Palmer, a biologist and the
associate director of Earth Island Institute’s International
Marine Mammal Project.
Lake Tahoe, the world’s clearest large lake, could become even
clearer over the next few years due to changes in its plankton
population, scientists said in a new report. Researchers at UC
Davis last week released their annual “State of the Lake”
report, detailing several significant changes in Tahoe’s water,
including the plunging level of Mysis shrimp, a type of
zooplankton, which could increase clarity. The team of
scientists predicted that the drop in the population of Mysis
shrimp will have a cascading effect on the lake.
With typically arid springs and summers, droughts are normal in
California… but not at this intensity: Climate change is
intensifying drought across the state, which puts the state in
a precarious position that compromises water supplies for
drinking and agriculture, increases wildfire risk, and
threatens fish and wildlife. … We can adapt to future
droughts through reducing our water use and switching to more
sustainable water uses. We can expand our existing usage of
recycled water, replenish our groundwater aquifers and increase
our flexibility in crop and municipal uses.
This week’s CaliforniaWaterBlog post is an excerpt (Box 1) from
a recent Delta Independent Science Board report on non-native
species and the California Delta. This excerpt summarizes
the experience of the Great Lakes, and how its physical and
ecological management has led to waves of profoundly disruptive
species invasions, resulting in a sequence of “novel”
ecosystems. This sequence of invasions seems likely to
continue to shape the Great Lakes. This history is a
wake-up and warning for policymakers and those working on
California’s Delta.
For over 50 years, researchers with the UC Davis Tahoe
Environmental Research Center (TERC) have been carefully
observing the waters of Lake Tahoe. This week, the annual
“State of the Lake” report was released. According to UC Davis
TERC director Geoffrey Schladow, 2021 data shows some major
changes that hadn’t been observed to this point. One of
the most notable is a drop in the Mysis shrimp population. This
non-native plankton species was introduced into the lake in the
1960s.
The Klamath Basin is one of the most iconic watersheds in North
America. It’s also one of the most troubled. The basin, which
spans 15,751 square miles along the remote California-Oregon
border, was once considered the “Everglades of the West” for
its network of more than 440,000 acres of
wetlands. … From a tribal lawyer laser-focused on
protecting her people’s salmon-fishing traditions to a
biologist doing everything he can to preserve the remnants of
the basin’s wetlands, these are the people fighting to return
the Klamath to its former glory. This is their river.
A Sonoma County wine executive and his business have reached a
$925,000 settlement with the Sonoma County District Attorney’s
Office following an environmental complaint that accused them
of causing significant damage to streams and wetlands while
constructing a vineyard in 2018 near Cloverdale, county
District Attorney Jill Ravitch announced Friday. Deeply ripping
apart the terrain, tearing down trees and pushing them down
streams without permits under the county’s Vineyard & Orchard
Site Development Ordinance, and lacking permits for grading
roads and installing culverts were among acts that Hugh Reimers
and Krasilsa Pacific Farms, LLC were accused of in August
2019.
Will the fifth time be the charm for California’s decades-long
effort to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta so that more
Northern California water can be transported to Southern
California? Don’t count on it. Last week, the state Department
of Water Resources released a draft environmental impact report
on the latest iteration of the 57-year-long effort to change
the Delta’s role in water supply, a 45-mile-long tunnel
officially named the “Delta Conveyance.” The 3,000-page
document immediately drew the responses that have accompanied
past versions — big municipal and agricultural water agencies
were in favor of it because it would, they hope, increase water
deliveries south of the Delta, and environmentalists were
against it, saying it would further damage the Delta’s already
bruised ecosystem. -Written by Dan Walters, columnist for CalMatters.
Democratic-led states, tribes, and conservation groups will not
see a Trump-era water rule declared invalid before the Ninth
Circuit decides the issue or the EPA issues a new rule, a
federal judge in California ruled. The plaintiffs wanted the US
District Court for the Northern District of California to
resume their lawsuit over the Clean Water Act Section 401
Certification Rule issued in 2020 that they said unlawfully
restricted states’ and tribes’ ability to reject water
polluting projects. But Judge William Alsup questioned the
point of moving forward when the Environmental Protection
Agency said it would “eviscerate” the rule anyway.
Today, the L.A. River is at a pivot point. Development,
pollution, and poor management are significant threats to the
river’s health. Earlier this year the environmental group
American Rivers ranked the L.A. River as the 9th most
endangered river in the country. In its recent history,
the river has been abused by its urban setting, channelized and
tainted with industrial runoff. But along its northern reaches,
a restoration is taking shape. The L.A. River Master Plan,
which aims to improve the profile of the river over the next 25
years, was approved by Los Angeles County officials in May.
In an ecosystem as complex and altered as the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta, determining the abundance and distribution of
native fish populations is a challenging undertaking. Enter the
Single-Platform Aquatic Species and Habitat Sampling System, or
simply the Platform. Crafted from a reconfigured pontoon boat,
the Platform provides a non-invasive way to monitor sensitive
fish species without having to capture and handle them.
Nearly 100 tons of sprawling fishing nets, piles of plastic
toothbrushes, laundry baskets, yoga mats, freezers and even a
laundry machine arrived at the Sausalito docks this week.
Fortunately for all, this haul of garbage was stored aboard a
130-foot-long sailing cargo ship that had just returned from a
cleanup mission in the sprawling garbage patch floating in the
Pacific Ocean. The cleanup operation was the latest to be
performed by the Sausalito-based nonprofit Ocean Voyages
Institute. The firm has been journeying to the swirling mass of
plastic and debris located between Hawaii and California since
2009 and has removed more than 692,000 pounds of trash.
Land use changes in watersheds often lead to ecological
degradation, but with degradation comes great opportunity for
restoration. With the release of a new recovery plan,
California Trout and our partners are actively pursuing
restoration opportunities in the Elk River watershed. …
Once a complex tapestry of forest, wetland, and aquatic
ecosystems, the watershed has since been transformed into a
patchwork of working landscapes providing timber resources,
agricultural and grazing lands, and homes to many residents.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued guidance July
26 for place-based projects using $132 million in
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funds being distributed
via its National Estuary Program. The NEP, which started in
1987, funds water quality and ecological integrity recovery
projects at 28 estuaries along the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific
coasts, plus Puerto Rico, considered to be of “national
significance.” … Local program directors detailed
funding plans in a statement, including building defenses in
California’s Santa Monica Bay area against sea level rise …
Lake Siskiyou is beautiful this time of year. About 200 miles
north of Sacramento, the artificial reservoir — formed by a dam
on the Sacramento River — is ringed by quiet beaches that offer
a cool respite from triple-digit heat. The views of Mt. Shasta
are spectacular. When I visited last week, I saw double-crested
cormorants, ospreys and great blue herons soaring over the
water and ducklings swimming with their mother. It’s a
great spot to take a few days off from work. It’s also not
immune to the climate challenges confronting California and the
American West as we enter August — a crucial month for water
supplies, wildfires, extreme heat and possible power
shortages. -Written by Sammy Roth, LA Times climate reporter and
columnist.
Often touted as the breadbasket of the world, California’s San
Joaquin Valley is the most agriculturally productive region on
Earth with over 250 different crops grown. But the area is also
a well-irrigated desert, and years of below-average rain and
snowfall have dried up its relatively few water sources. So
far, farmers in the region have fallowed approximately 100,000
acres of farmland. Experts believe that by 2040, drought may
force up to 500,000 acres to be fallowed. … The Public Policy
Institute of California (PPIC) released two reports and held a
webinar Tuesday to discuss both fallowing of land and the
resulting dust pollution as well as a solution: dryland
farming.
Here we go again. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration revived
the Delta tunnel project Wednesday, unveiling a downsized
version of the controversial, multibillion-dollar plan to
re-engineer the fragile estuary on Sacramento’s doorstep that
serves as the hub of California’s over-stressed water-delivery
network. After three years with little to no public activity,
the state released an environmental blueprint for what’s now
called the Delta Conveyance — a 45-mile tunnel that would
divert water from the Sacramento River and route it under the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta so that it can be shipped to farms
and cities hundreds of miles away.
San Luis Reservoir is under a warning because of toxic algae,
and swimming is considered dangerous, but the danger level has
been downgraded from earlier this month. The warning advisory
was issued by the state’s Department of Water Resources because
of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). At the reservoir, east of
Gilroy, people are warned not to swim and to keep their dogs
and horses out of the water. Boating and riding of personal
watercraft is allowed, and fish caught in the reservoir can be
eaten if they are filleted and rinsed.
The towering trees of Yosemite National Park have long held a
treasured place in the American psyche, whether the ancient and
majestic sequoias, the Ponderosa pines with their
snake-patterned bark, or the acorn-laden black oaks, the
lifeblood of many Native American cultures. … With more
than 140 million trees killed in California by drought and
plagues of beetles over the past decade — 2.4 million of them
in Yosemite alone — forestry experts describe the state’s
forests as wounded and extremely vulnerable. Now, as the state
suffers another severe drought, Yosemite seems perennially
under siege by fire and smoke.
Salmon and steelhead are cold water fish and have been on Earth
for millions of years, surviving numerous ice ages. Our present
climate, the new normal, consists of unprecedented climate
heatwaves, droughts and atmospheric rivers of wind and rain.
Climate extremes disrupt salmon and steelhead migrations and
increase their mortality rate. Salmon and steelhead are spawned
and mature in fresh water and then spend their adulthood in the
ocean, before returning to spawn in their natal place.
Atmospheric warming has led to ocean warming, which has caused
poor nutrient and health conditions reducing the amount of
returning salmon and steelhead. This year, the return of cold,
nutrient rich upwelling has improved the fitness of returning
fish.
The federal government is conducting a review of four dams on a
Maine river that could result in a lifeline for the last wild
Atlantic salmon in the U.S. The last of the wild salmon live in
a group of rivers in Maine and have been listed under the
Endangered Species Act since 2000. One of the rivers is the
Kennebec River, where Brookfield Renewable U.S. owns dams. …
The review comes as the Biden administration is also eyeing
changes to dams in other parts of the country. The
administration released reports earlier this month that said
removing dams on the lower Snake River in eastern Washington
may be needed to adequately restore salmon runs in the Pacific
Northwest.
State Fish and Wildlife Department officials have awarded a $1
million grant to the San Diego Association of Governments for
planning the restoration of the Buena Vista Lagoon at the
Oceanside-Carlsbad border. The $1 million announced last
month comes on top of $3 million the state Wildlife
Conservation Board awarded in December to SANDAG, which
oversees planning and contracting for the proposed cleanup of
the stagnant 220-acre lagoon. The new grant gives the
agency about half the money it needs to finish the engineering
and design work that must be completed before the project can
be offered for construction bids.
Throughout the West, thousands of ditches that snake for miles
through semi-arid country are nothing less than beloved. They
add living green corridors to walk or bike along, impromptu
wetlands frequented by birds, and always, a respite from summer
heat. But now a warming climate delivers less melted snow to
rivers that supply these diversion ditches with water. Federal
legislation also mandates piping many earthen ditches to cut
salinity in the Colorado River water that’s sent to Mexico. -Written by Dave Marston, publisher of Writers on
the Range, writersontherange.org, an independent nonprofit
dedicated to lively discussion about the West.
The California Department of Water Resources has announced
that it will be releasing their Draft Environmental Impact
Report (DEIR) early this week for the Delta Conveyance Project,
AKA the embattled Delta Tunnel. Documents for federal
review of the project will be released later this fall.
… The changes in the plans include changes to the
intakes, the tunnel itself, the power lines, the route and the
operations, according to DWR. Here are some of the highlights
of the proposed changes:
People often have strange ideas about how water works.
Even simple water systems can be confusing. When water
systems become large complex socio-physical-ecological systems
serving many users and uses, opportunities for confusion become
extreme, surpassing comprehension by our ancient Homo sapien
brains. When confused by conflicting rhetoric, using numbers to
“follow the water” can be helpful. The California Water
Plan has developed some such numbers. This essay presents
their net water use numbers for 2018, by California’s
agricultural, urban, and environmental uses by hydrologic
region.
The Bureau of Land Management is welcoming public comments on a
Wild and Scenic River Eligibility Report, which identifies
segments of northwest California rivers and streams that might
be eligible for inclusion in the National Wild and Scenic
Rivers System. The BLM will use the eligibility report in
developing the Northwest California Integrated Resource
Management Plan (NCIP), a land use plan that will guide
management of BLM public lands in northwest California for the
next 20 years.
With three consecutive years of drought reducing state and
federal water project reservoirs to historic lows, the State
Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday readopted measures
for the Delta to protect drinking water supplies, prevent
salinity intrusion and minimize impacts to fish and the
environment. The State Water Board decision updating an
emergency curtailment and reporting regulation authorizes staff
to determine the amount of water available to certain right
holders during the drought, preserving drinking water for 27
million Californians and the irrigation supply for more than
three million acres of farmland.
There we were, 19 of us on the stony shore of the Tuolumne
River, feeling a bit stranded like the crew of Gilligan’s
Island. Our “Finding Common Water” rafting excursion was
planned around “no water Wednesday,” when river releases are
held back for water conservation and infrastructure
maintenance. The trip’s goal: Get off our desk chairs and onto
rafts, out of the ordinary and into an extraordinary setting —
a hot, highly regulated, wild and scenic river — to push
us out of our comfort zone and get to work on addressing real
water problems.
For decades, coho salmon returning from the Pacific Ocean to
the creeks and streams of Puget Sound in Washington state to
spawn were dying in large numbers. No one knew why. Scientists
working to solve the mystery of the mass deaths noticed they
occurred after heavy rains. Toxicologists suspected pesticides,
as the main creek they studied ran through a golf course. But
no evidence of pesticides was found. They ruled out disease,
lack of oxygen and chemicals such as metals and hydrocarbons.
Health and tribal officials are reporting that, due to
persistent drought and heat, they are finding unprecedented
levels of cyanotoxins in some areas of Clear Lake. For Lake
County residents with individual water systems that draw water
directly from the lake using a private intake, drinking water
may become unsafe when high levels of toxins are present, Lake
County Health Services reported. Of particular concern are
those with individual water systems who live around the Sulphur
Bank Mine, and along the shore of Clear Lake’s Lower and Oaks
Arms.
Millions of highly skilled environmental engineers stand ready
to make our continent more resilient to climate change. They
restore wetlands that absorb carbon, store water, filter
pollution and clean and cool waters for salmon and trout. They
are recognized around the world for helping to reduce wildfire
risk. Scientists have valued their environmental services at
close to $179,000 per square mile annually. And they work for
free. Our ally in mitigating and adapting to climate change
across the West could be a paddle-tailed rodent: the North
American beaver. -Written by Chris Jordan, mathematical biology
and systems monitoring program manager at NOAA Fisheries’
Northwest Fisheries Science Center; and Emily Fairfax, an
assistant professor of environmental science and resource
management at Cal State Channel Islands.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is accepting
applications for approximately $29 million in grants, the
largest annual allocation ever, to protect and restore San
Francisco Bay watersheds and wetlands. The agency is announcing
two separate funding opportunities with a due date for
applications of September 20, 2022. … The San Francisco
Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund (SFBWQIF), a
competitive grant program EPA has administered since 2008, has
already provided $71 million over the years in 59 grant
awards.
A lot has been said about the drought’s effect on water
supplies for cities and farms, but little is said about how
Delta fish are faring. Freshwater inflow to the Delta was
about half of normal in April through June 2022 because of the
State Water Board Order approving the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) and the Bureau of Reclamation’s Temporary
Urgency Change Petition (TUCP) for Delta
operations. With some of this limited Delta inflow going
to water users during April, May and June, little was going to
the fish. The State Water Board granted the TUCP because
Central Valley reservoir storage was so low at the end of
winter in this third year of drought.
A new policy brief from the Public Policy Institute of
California is recommending cost-effective water storage
investments as the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is seeing less
inflow. It also offers a damning picture of the thirty-year
shift in how the Golden State divvied up water, largely pitting
fish species against millions of its residents. The institute –
a nonpartisan think tank – initially published the brief in
early spring, focuses on the Delta that supplies water to about
30 million residents and over six million acres of
farmland.
Citizens of the Klamath Tribes will host a two-day community
event, “Rally for the C’waam and Koptu”, highlighting the
importance of these endemic fish, also known as the Lost River
suckerfish and shortnose suckerfish. This free event will take
place this Friday July 22 and Saturday 23 in Chiloquin with a
caravan rally to nearby Klamath Falls on Saturday. … C’waam
and Koptu once inhabited the Upper Klamath Lake in the
millions, but today, only 4,000 Koptu and less than 20,000
C’waam remain.
As water in the North Fork of the Kern River dwindles,
controversy over its diminished flows is ramping up. At least
some river watchers are accusing Southern California Edison of
misusing a portion of the flows by continuing to divert water,
ostensibly, for a state-owned fish hatchery that has been
closed since 2020. The state Department of Fish and Wildlife
(CDFW) even sent a letter to Edison in January 2022 directing
the utility to stop taking water out of the river for the
hatchery, saying the facility and its pipeline are
inoperable.
Widely used insecticides that harm bees and songbirds would
face far-reaching restrictions in California under regulations
proposed by the state’s pesticide agency. The new limits would
be among the nation’s most extensive for agricultural use of
neonicotinoids, a class of insecticides used to kill
plant-damaging pests like aphids. The highly potent pesticides
have been shown to harm bees, birds and other creatures. Aimed
at protecting bees that pollinate crops, the California
Department of Pesticide Regulation’s proposed rules would
restrict four closely-related neonicotinoid chemicals:
imidacloprid, thiamethoxam, clothianidin and dinotefuran.
The lake at the Park at River Walk is fast disappearing, as are
the Truxtun Lakes and some other city-owned water features.
Blame the drought. The City of Bakersfield Water Resources
Department has cut off flows to city-owned recreation and water
recharge facilities to hold on to what little surface water
it’s receiving from the dwindling Kern River for drinking
water, according to Daniel Maldonado, a water planner with the
department. … Local resident Calletano Guiterrez understood
the city has to contend with the drought but hoped at least
some water could be set aside for what he said he and his
family have come to love about Bakersfield.
After completing degrees from Cornell University, University of
Michigan, and the University of New Mexico, Dr. Jon Rosenfield
returned to the Bay Area in 2002, where he worked as a
postdoctoral researcher in the laboratory of Dr. Peter
Moyle. He researches and is a tireless advocate for the
Central Valley’s native salmon, steelhead, and smelt species.
Dr. Rosenfield went on to The Bay Institute where he worked for
over ten years to protect fisheries, becoming one of the
region’s leading experts on the importance of freshwater flows
from the Delta for the sustainability of the Bay’s ecosystem
and fish populations.
The Marin County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a
conservation ordinance on Tuesday that would protect coho
salmon habitat and end a 15-year legal battle over California’s
most important watershed for the endangered species. The Stream
Conservation Area Ordinance would set development limits and
improve riparian habitat and water quality for Central Coast
coho and steelhead populations in the San Geronimo Valley and
Lagunitas Watershed.
Environmental agencies on the local, state and federal levels
are commending the efforts of two tidal habitat restoration
projects in Solano County. The California Department of Water
Resources is aiming to preserve smelt and other fish
populations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta by improving
food sources and habitat conditions in the Suisun Marsh,
specifically by restoring Bradmoor Island and Arnold Slough.
The 161-acre restoration project in Arnold Slough, located in
eastern Suisun Marsh, was recently completed in the fall of
2021.
The day’s first gillnet haul of nonnative fish on lower Lake
Powell was already alarming: three striped bass, three
gizzard shad and a channel catfish. Any one of them or their
offspring would be unwelcome intruders were they to slip
through the massive concrete dam’s hydropower tubes and
turbines to swim a few dozen miles downstream into the heart of
Grand Canyon. Above Glen Canyon Dam, state fisheries managers
in decades past would introduce alien species to support
recreational angling on the lake. But below the dam, the
fish could drift downstream to eat or outcompete Grand
Canyon’s threatened humpback chub population, swelling the
ranks of nonnatives that biologists are already battling.
Blazes have burned thousands of acres, cued mandatory
evacuations and threatened some of the state’s oldest and most
impressive trees, but far fewer acres have burned in California
wildfires through the first few weeks of summer than at the
same point last year. The tides may turn in the coming weeks as
conditions stay hot and grow drier, but the numbers to date
suggest the state may have averted a particularly nasty start
to this wildfire season. …And while the Golden State is
immersed in its third straight year of severe drought, a few
storms in April and June helped to dampen fire fuels.
At over 13,000 feet high, the Tuolumne River begins in Yosemite
National Park at Mount Lyell and Mount Dana, traveling 149
miles downstream before reaching its confluence with the San
Joaquin River, just 50 feet above sea-level. The Tuolumne is
designated as a Wild and Scenic River and is protected as such
under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Throughout the US, this
Act protects over 14,000 miles of rivers selected for their
remarkable scenic, recreational, geologic, fish and wildlife,
historic, or other similar values. The Wild and Scenic
Tuolumne River feels just that – wild and scenic – and yet I
was surprised to learn that it is constrained on both sides by
two large scale reservoir systems.
A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a 15-year plan for
several drought-stricken wildlife refuges along the Oregon and
California border against challenges by agribusiness and
conservation groups alike. The three decisions by the 9th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals mark a stalemate in a century-old
water war in the Klamath Basin, where a federal irrigation
project to support farming began in 1906 and the nation’s first
wildlife refuge was established in 1908. The U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service’s 2017 Comprehensive Conservation Plan drew
fire from agribusiness for regulating farming practices in the
Klamath Basin National Wildlife Refuge Complex, while
conservationists argued the restrictions did not go far enough.
Southern California is experiencing a drought of historic
proportions. In fact, some scientists are now referring to this
uber-drought as “aridification.” While droughts
are thought of as somewhat temporary, aridification signals a
whole new condition, one that Matthew Kirby, a
paleoclimatologist and professor at California State University
Fullerton, says, could mean living “under a permanent state
of water conservation.” Meanwhile, while the
summer months can mean mosquitos, a drought doesn’t necessarily
mean that their threat is diminished.
California’s Chinook salmon haven’t been able to reach the
McCloud River since 1942, when the construction of Shasta Dam
blocked the fish from swimming upstream and sealed off their
spawning areas in the cold mountain waters near Mt. Shasta.
After 80 years, endangered winter-run Chinook are about to swim
in the river once again. State and federal wildlife officials
this week collected about 20,000 winter-run salmon eggs from
the Livingston Stone National Fish Hatchery near Redding and
drove them for three hours to a campground on the banks of the
McCloud River.
California may be winning its five-year, $13 million battle
with nutria — the 20-pound, orange-toothed swamp rodents that
biologists once feared would play hell with wetlands,
flood-control levees and the state’s water-delivery system. …
[Valerie Cook, who runs the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s
nutria eradication program] said her team is seeing nutria
numbers declining, and they’ve managed to keep them out of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, California’s most important
waterway. Scientists who deal with invasive pests were
first alarmed when nutria — a beagle-sized rodent native to the
wetlands of South America — were spotted in a private
duck-hunting marsh in the spring of 2017 near the farming
community of Gustine in Merced County.
California’s forests are in rapid retreat, which bodes ill for
the future. Using satellite data, researchers from the
University of California, Irvine found that trees in the
state’s mountainous regions declined 6.7 percent between 1985
and 2021 thanks to wildfires, drought and other climate-related
sources of stress. The drop was even steeper in the Sierra
Nevada, which suffered 8.8% tree cover loss during that time
period. … ”We’re a little worried that relying on these
forests as a means for protecting water quality or erosion
protection or carbon sequestration (is) becoming more and more
at risk as a result of these increasing fires,” said Jon Wang,
a postdoctoral researcher at UC Irvine and lead author of the
study.
‘Tens of thousands of these fish once ascended streams in
Spring. They are of major cultural importance to the Pomo
people who harvested them as a valued food source.’ When
you read statements like this, most likely it is salmon that
come to mind. Yet this statement characterizes the Clear Lake
Hitch or Chi, a non-salmonid fish, that ascends the tributaries
to Clear Lake (Lake County) to spawn each spring (Thompson et
al. 2013, Pfieffer 2022). Spawners are typically 10-14 inches
long. They once moved up the streams in large numbers as soon
as spring rains created sufficient stream flows to attract the
fish (Moyle 2002, Moyle et al. 2015, Feyrer 2019).
Firefighters in Yosemite National Park have been celebrated for
preventing this month’s Washburn Fire from destroying the
nearly 3,000-year-old giant sequoias at Mariposa Grove. But it
wasn’t just hand tools and hose lines that kept the fire at
bay. Past forestry projects, which slashed the amount of brush
and trees fueling the flames, made the job much easier, park
officials say. And yet, the topic of forest management remains
a fraught one in California, especially in Yosemite.
It may seem counterintuitive in this very dry year to be
thinking and talking about floodplains; yet, these years
highlight the importance of the floodplain in the Sacramento
Valley and the opportunities we have in all years–including
critically dry years–to reactivate our floodplains as part of
ridgetop to river mouth water management. To learn more about
these opportunities, we encourage you to grab some popcorn and
watch several award-winning films that explore how reconnecting
our landscape with our vital rivers can have a profound impact
on recovery of endangered fish and wildlife populations in
harmony with our cities, rural communities and farms.
North Coast conservation groups are offering renewed criticism
of Pacific Gas & Electric this week after the utility argued
against a request from the National Marine Fisheries Service
(NMFS) aimed at protecting threatened fish in the Eel River.
Three species of fish in the Eel — coho salmon, California
Coastal Chinook salmon and Northern California steelhead — are
listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
Their populations have been impacted by PG&E’s Potter
Valley Project, a hydroelectric facility that diverts water
from the Eel to the Russian River.
It was once called the Salton Riviera and a miracle in the
desert. The Salton Sea is different now; dead fish, decaying
area, foul odor , and dangerous toxic fumes. It’s a
wasteland. Once California’s largest lake, now it’s on the
verge of extinction, many claiming it is beyond
repair. Rodney Smith PhD., Managing Partner of the Sea To
Sea Bi-National Canal Co., joined KUSI’s Logan Byrnes on “Good
Evening San Diego” to discuss how he will save the dying Salton
Sea.
According to a new study, dust that settles on Colorado’s
mountain snowpack, including in the San Juans, contains
widespread levels of microplastics, raising questions about
impacts to human health and the environment. In the early
2000s, the Colorado Center for Snow and Avalanche Studies
(CSAS) and other partners began tracking the “dust-on-snow”
phenomenon … In 2011, however, samples from these dust
events from 14 monitoring sites across the state began to show
traces of unknown materials. Over the ensuing years, better
sampling methods led researchers to confirm the dreaded truth:
microplastics …
Extreme precipitation from hurricanes and atmospheric rivers
can lead to increased flooding in the world’s coastal zones,
where more than 630 million people reside. Tidal marshes act as
important buffers in these areas, absorbing the initial impact
of storm surges and strong winds. In addition, tidal marsh
ecosystems rely on storm events to deposit sediments that help
with marsh accretion. In a new study, Thorne et al. focused on
tidal marsh accretion and elevation change in the San Francisco
Bay after an atmospheric river event in 2016-2017.
A wildfire that threatened a grove of California’s giant
sequoias in Yosemite National Park was burning eastward into
the Sierra National Forest on Wednesday. The Washburn Fire is
one of dozens of blazes chewing through drought-parched terrain
in the Western U.S. It has increased in size to more than 5.8
square miles, pushing containment from 22% down to 17%.
There has been a reasonable amount of recent activity related
to management (or lack thereof) of plastic waste. Two
more developments this month have me wondering whether we might
be near the proverbial tipping point in our approach to
managing plastics. First, California enacted a fairly sweeping
statute, S.B. 54, that will impose extended producer
responsibility requirements on producers of plastics.
As part of a long-term effort to return winter-run chinook
salmon to the McCloud River, 20,000 salmon eggs were placed in
the river for the first time since Shasta Dam was built in the
early 1940s. The fertilized eggs were placed in a special
incubator to keep them safe until the eggs hatch, according to
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. After they
hatch, the young fish will later be trapped in the river and
then released downstream of the dam so they can migrate out to
the ocean.
There have been two developments in the ongoing saga of the
Potter Valley hydropower project this week. The 20-year license
has expired, but PG&E still owns and operates the project
on an annual license. On Monday, PG&E submitted a rough
schedule to surrender the license to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). In a separate filing, PG&E
argued that it should be allowed to continue operating the
project under the biological protections that were attached to
the license when it was issued in 2002.
The fire in California’s Yosemite National Park may
benefit some of the world’s oldest giant sequoias by helping
release seeds and clear debris from the forest floor,
preventing more severe blazes that could wipe out many of the
massive trees, an official said on Tuesday. The fire
started on Thursday in the park’s Mariposa Grove, home to more
than 500 mature giant sequoias, the largest tree species by
mass. The trees have survived thousands of years despite
regular fires touched off by lightning.
This May, the California Coastal Commission unanimously
rejected the proposed $1.4 billion dollar Huntington Beach
Desalination Plant for environmental reasons. Set on a
low-lying coastal site, the Commission was concerned that the
facility’s location exposed it to rising sea levels, and that
its process for converting 50 million gallons of drinking water
per day would harm marine life in 100 billion gallons of
seawater each year. … Gov. Newsom supported the plant,
calling desal “more tools in the tool kit,” … So who do
you believe?
Ten people from California — including a Placer County water
manager, a North Coast tribal representative, and experts in
fire science, prescribed fire and the health impacts of air
pollution from wildfire – have been named as
primary or alternate representatives to a new federal
Wildland Fire Mitigation and
Management Commission. They are among 36 non-federal
members, 11 federal members and three co-chairs on the
commission, which will play a key role in recommending ways
that federal agencies can better prevent, mitigate, suppress
and manage wildland fires. It will also recommend policies and
strategies on how to restore the lands affected
by wildfire.
A company operating a sand mining facility in Alameda County
must pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to settle allegations
it discharged untreated wastewater into Alameda Creek last
year, officials with the State Water Resources Control Board
said Thursday. Mission Valley Rock Company must pay nearly
the statutory limit after it allegedly discharged 41,000
gallons of untreated wastewater from its Sunol facility in
March 2021.
California firefighters gained ground Monday in the battle
against a wildfire that poses a threat to a grove of giant
sequoias and a small community in Yosemite National Park. The
Washburn Fire on the western flank of the Sierra Nevada had
scorched about 4.2 square miles (10.9 square kilometers) but
was 22% contained as of Monday night, according to an incident
update. The fire was a threat to more than 500 mature sequoias
in the park’s Mariposa Grove and the nearby community of
Wawona, which has been evacuated.
Los Angeles County has 25 state parks, recreation areas,
historical sites and beaches. There are 24 more in Orange and
San Diego counties. But in the eight counties of the San
Joaquin Valley, which stretches from the Tehachapis to the
northern edge of San Joaquin County, there are only 15 state
sites, and only five of those are state parks. That is
about to change. In the budget just signed by Gov. Gavin
Newsom, enough money has been dedicated to start creating
California’s first new state park since Fort Ord Dunes in
Monterey County joined the system more than a decade ago. -Written by Julie Rentner, president of River
Partners, a nonprofit conservation organization; and
Assemblymember Adam Gray, a
Democrat representing Merced County and part of
Stanislaus County, including Dos Rios Ranch.
On the precipice of the largest dam removal project in U.S.
history, researchers at Oregon State University are partnering
with a northern California tribe to envision what lies ahead
for the Klamath River. Demolition of the J.C. Boyle, Copco 1,
Copco 2 and Iron Gate dams could begin as early as next year,
though federal energy regulators are still reviewing plans
submitted by the Klamath River Renewal Corp. to decommission
and raze the structures. Removal of the four dams is expected
to open 400 miles of upstream spawning habitat for endangered
salmon. It will also dramatically alter parts of the river
system, impacting water quality, water use and the aquatic food
web.
On Sunday, dozens of families and young people showed up to
clean trash out of the Trinity River. The clean up — which
involved the Hoopa Valley Tribe, Save California Salmon, and
the Warrior Institute — also served as an educational event
with river rafting and stopping at various cultural sites
featuring speakers from the Hoopa Tribe who addressed the long
history over the battle for water rights regarding the river.
Northern California tribes have long battled the state and
agriculture industry for water rights on their ancestral home,
and Central California agriculture significantly impacts the
river and salmon that live in it.
In a 6-3 decision last week, the Supreme Court restricted the
Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to curb climate
pollution from power plants. … The decision leaves intact the
EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and even
allows it to regulate power plants on a case-by-case basis. The
greater significance of the case, rather, may be the new inroad
it creates for challenges to environment and water
protections…. Hesitancy on the part of federal agencies
could be damaging for U.S. water issues, many of which cut
across state boundaries. James Eklund, an environmental lawyer
and architect of the Colorado Water Plan, said that ambitious
action by the Bureau of Reclamation has been central to
averting the worst water shortages in the American West.
Even here, in the scorching summer heat of Altadena, Seriina
Covarrubias’ front yard feels cool and inviting under the
dappled shade of a magnificent elm tree. … More than
thirsty birds have flocked to her garden since she tore
out her lawn and replaced it with mostly drought-tolerant
plants native to Southern California. Other wildlife has
returned, including lizards, ladybugs, praying mantises, bees
and caterpillars. … Two years before the Metropolitan
Water District of Southern California declared a water shortage
emergency and ordered outdoor watering limited to two days
a week, the couple knew they wanted to install plants that
could endure the heat with little watering.
News coverage of wildfires tends to focus on the acute events:
A blaze erupts, people are evacuated, homes burn down,
sometimes lives are lost. And rightfully so—it’s important to
know what’s happening as it’s happening. As a result though,
there are lots of articles and images out that describe and
show flames engulfing forests and communities, and wildlands
firefighters battling active burns. But what’s left when the
smoke clears? At minimum, it takes years for ecosystems to
recover from the worst wildfires. Often, years means decades.
One 2011 study found that desert environments need more than 65
years to fully re-establish after the flames …
Despite years of study and thousands of research projects, some
aspects of the biology of Chinook salmon remain altogether
mysterious. One enduring question is how outmigrating salmon
smolts behave and swim through our waterways to somehow find
their way into the ocean. For example, it has long been noted
that salmon ‘shoulder’ (hold on the river’s edge) at certain
times along their oceanward journey, and that they tend to
school and travel in packs alongside one another. Are they
actively swimming through these habitats? Or merely drifting
with the currents …?
A fire threatening hundreds of ancient sequoias in Yosemite
National Park continued to spread Sunday as firefighters braced
for more difficult conditions this week with warmer and drier
weather approaching. The Washburn fire had grown to at
least 2,044 acres by Sunday evening and was burning on the
southern end of the park near the historic Mariposa Grove, home
to about 500 giant sequoias, officials said. The blaze is also
threatening the community of Wawona and prompted officials to
close Highway 41 near the south entrance to Henness Ridge Road.
A wildfire has led to the closure of Yosemite National Park’s
Mariposa Grove in California, home to over 500 towering
sequoias, park officials announced Thursday. The Washburn
Fire, which is burning near the lower part of Mariposa Grove,
spans 60 to 70 acres, the park said on social media.
… California has been ravaged by decimating wildfire
seasons that last year burned more than 2.5 million acres in
over 8,800 incidents and killed three people, according
to Cal Fire’s 2021 data.
A virulent and voracious species of invasive fish has
penetrated the ecologically delicate waterways of the lower
Colorado River, The Associated Press reported. The
presence of smallmouth bass below the critical
barrier of the Glen Canyon dam means an existential threat
to chub, an ancient native fish, according to the AP.
Wildlife biologists have long dreaded the day when the bass — a
sport fish introduced into the freshwater lakes of the West
— would make it through the dam to attack the
threatened chub, as we reported in June.
The Los Angeles River. Some Angelenos actively avoid it. Others
deny its very existence. But it’s there. And it’s beautiful. I
recommend experiencing it on a kayak. Of the river’s nearly
51-mile stretch from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach, two
sections can be navigated by kayak during the summer: a
two-mile stretch in the Sepulveda Basin and a
two-and-a-half-mile passage through Elysian Valley. I opted to
paddle through the latter on an expedition led by L.A. River
Kayak Safari, based in Frogtown.
Since November 2020, investigators with the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife have installed GPS trackers on
cars, conducted nighttime stakeout surveillance operations,
spied on Facebook accounts and traced wire transactions
connected to what they describe as a major investigation into
the state’s caviar black market. The 18-month effort paid off:
Eight people have been arrested this year on suspicion of
illegal fishing and other violations, and prosecutors in Contra
Costa County are preparing to file criminal charges against
several others, according to court records. Authorities have
identified people believed to be illegally fishing sturgeon
from the Carquinez Strait and Sacramento River, as well as
middlemen who buy the roe, convert it into caviar, and sell it
to customers under the counter.
Two environmental groups asked a judge to block a permit for a
314-acre housing development in Chico, California, arguing that
federal officials failed to consider its effect on seasonal
wetlands …
A coalition led by Indigenous leaders from the Pit River, Hoopa
Valley, Winnemem Wintu, Yurok, Karuk, Pomo, and Miwok Tribes,
along with Indigenous scientists, and water protectors say that
the Sites Reservoir is a continuation of the state’s original
racist water policies, which prioritized dispossessing land
from its Native stewards to fuel the economic interests of
farmers and ranchers. Rather than manage water levels to
prepare for climate impacts, the reservoir’s construction will
likely exacerbate the very conditions of climate change that
state officials argue it will protect against, like flooding,
parched river beds, algal blooms, and other types of
pollution.
Trees are a very essential part of California’s infrastructure,
with some of them taking 20 to 30 years to mature. Despite the
drought, watering these important resources remains vital.
… Trees in a drought should still be hand watered about
twice a month at a minimum. During the hottest parts of the
summer, and especially in hotter and dryer areas of California,
trees need watering twice a week. … A mandatory two-day
outdoor watering restriction took effect across Los Angeles on
June 1 …
Between talk of a widely reviled Coal Train and continued
uncertainty over Pacific Gas & Electric’s Potter Valley
hydroelectric plant, the future of the Eel River has been a
source of profound anxiety over the past year. But there’s some
good news with the announcement that 5,620 acres of remote
wilderness along 11 miles of the river between Lake Pillsbury
and the Potter Valley Project are now permanently under a
conservation easement held by the Mendocino Land Trust.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has
completed its 2022 waterfowl breeding population survey. The
resulting data indicate the overall number of breeding ducks
has decreased by 19 percent, including mallards that are the
most abundant duck in the survey. … The full Breeding
Population Survey Report, which can be found on the CDFW
website, indicates the total number of ducks … is 30 percent
below the long-term average. The estimated breeding population
of mallards decreased from 239,830 in 2019 to 179,390 this
year, which is below their long-term average. The decline is
attributed to the ongoing drought and the loss of upland
nesting habitat for ducks.
California’s once-abundant salmon runs are on the verge of
collapse. That’s a tragedy, but this story is bigger than the
extinction of an iconic fish that once fed millions of people
and was the basis of thriving commercial, tribal and sport
fisheries. … Our salmon are flirting with extinction because
they’re not getting the cold water they need to survive.
… Although they were aware of the growing water crisis,
state and federal water managers have drawn down reservoirs
rapidly over the past three years, leaving cold water — indeed,
any water — in short supply. Why? To provide water to a small
subset of commercial growers. -Written by Tom Stokely, a member of the board of
the California Water Impact Network, a nonprofit working
for the equitable distribution of water resources.
The Great Salt Lake has hit a new historic low for the second
time in less than a year, a dire milestone as the US west
continues to weather a historic mega-drought. The Utah
department of natural resources said in a news release on
Monday that the Great Salt Lake dipped over the weekend to
4,190.1ft (1,277.1 meters). … The giant lake near Salt
Lake City is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi.
Its dwindling water levels have put millions of migrating birds
at risk and threaten a lake-based economy that is worth an
estimated $1.3bn in mineral extraction, brine shrimp and
recreation.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW),
Department of Cannabis Control (DCC) and State Water Resource
Board (SWRCB) announced in a press release on July 1 that it
would be collectively authorizing enforcement teams for the
2022 cannabis growing season. … This effort is funded by
Proposition 64 which enables these government agencies to focus
on protecting “priority watersheds and areas with sensitive
habitat and/or threatened or endangered species.” … The water
streams of California, and the wildlife that depends on them,
suffer when illegal cannabis grow operations divert
water.
Here at the Water Forum, we are deeply saddened by the recent
news that Jonas Minton has passed away. Our first full-time
executive director, Jonas was a vital guiding hand in our work
and left a huge imprint on many aspects of California water
policy. He died June 22, 2022, due to a heart condition at the
age of 73. Jonas worked for the California Department of Water
Resources starting in 1978, and rose to become a deputy
director … Among other accomplishments, he served on the team
that secured federal Wild and Scenic River protection in 1981
for more than 1,200 miles of California rivers.
A record run of wild spring run Chinook salmon on a
Sacramento River tributary turned into a disaster when the
majority of fish perished before spawning last year. In
May, the CDFW published a monitoring report on 2021’s
spring Chinook salmon run on Butte Creek, a Sacramento River
tributary, revealing that 91 percent of the adult fish died
before spawning. … An estimated 19,773 out of the over
21,580 fish total that returned to spawn in the Butte County
stream perished before spawning. Only an estimated 1,807 adults
survived to spawn in a year with a record return of fish.
… The fish perished from disease in the crowded, warm
water conditions on the creek …
A natural habitat for Delta waterfowl and wildlife, and more
recently grazing cattle, Jersey Island in East Contra Costa
County has remained largely undeveloped for more than a hundred
years. Plans are percolating, though, that could turn it into a
vacation getaway with a wave pool, sandy beaches, a wildlife
refuge — and more — close to home. That’s what one
entrepreneur/developer, Montezuma Water LLC, has in mind with a
preliminary concept it has presented to the island’s owner,
Ironhouse Sanitary District, which has been looking for ways to
reduce its responsibilities for the surrounding levees and shed
some of its expenses for an island it no longer needs.
The futures of tourism, wildlife and ranching in Mono County
are now at the mercy of the Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power – according to environmental groups – now that a court
has upheld the agency’s authority to cut irrigation water. For
about 100 years, the agency has leased its land and provided
water for ranchers to graze cattle in Long Valley and Little
Round Valley. But Wendy Schneider, executive director of the
nonprofit Friends of the Inyo, said the damage from allowing
less water to irrigate these valleys would be widespread.
… Schneider also said she worries about the survival of
trout and the potential for increased dust storms and fire
danger.
Summer is here, and residents and visitors are flocking to Lake
County’s bucolic communities and recreational activities. At
this time, regional health and water resource officials would
like to remind those enjoying local lakes and streams to
maintain awareness of cyanobacterial blooms, and take
appropriate caution. As is the case with all large,
biologically rich bodies of water, Lake Pillsbury is dynamic in
water quality. Recently, during a pre-holiday assessment, water
quality technicians observed cyanobacteria in the water column
throughout the area, appearing as small grass clippings,
strings, and clumps.
We must immediately differentiate between in-stream reservoirs
and off-stream reservoirs. They have distinct attributes.
In-stream reservoirs in general are considered far more
disruptive. To note just a few of the most obvious problems
with in-stream reservoirs, the dam constitutes an immovable
blockade of a naturally flowing river, the canyons behind the
dam are inundated, and fish swimming upstream cannot reach
their spawning grounds. There are nonetheless arguments for
some in-stream dams, particularly if they’ve already been
built. The Shasta Dam is the prime example …
The outlook for California’s drought is grim. The first
five months of the year have been the driest on record.
Snowpack in the mountains, at its usual April 1 peak, was the
smallest it’s been in seven years. Reservoirs are hovering near
historic lows for the season, including Lake Shasta, the
state’s largest. But there’s one, albeit small, bright
spot: spring runoff. The water that pours from the mountains to
rivers and streams, one of the most important barometers of
state water supplies, is up substantially from over a year ago
— though still far below normal.
We’re having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave. Also a
temperate heat wave and an Arctic heat wave, with temperatures
reaching the high 80s in northern Norway. The megadrought in
the Western United States has reduced Lake Mead to a small
fraction of its former size, and it now threatens to become a
“dead pool” that can no longer supply water to major cities.
Climate change is already doing immense damage, and it’s
probably only a matter of time before we experience huge
catastrophes that take thousands of lives. And the Republican
majority on the Supreme Court just voted to limit the Biden
administration’s ability to do anything about it. -Written by Paul Krugman, an Opinion columnist since
2000 and is a distinguished professor at the City University of
New York Graduate Center.
[S]tate, federal, and local agencies gathered to celebrate the
groundbreaking of the largest tidal habitat restoration project
in California history. The Department of Water Resources (DWR)
and Ecosystem Investment Partners (EIP) are teaming up on the
Lookout Slough Tidal Habitat Restoration and Flood Improvement
Project in Solano County. It is a multi-benefit effort to
restore the site to a tidal wetland, creating habitat and
producing food for Delta Smelt and other fish species while
also creating new flood capacity in the Yolo Bypass and
reducing overall flood risk in the Sacramento area.
Oregon State University researchers will embark in July on a
3½-year partnership with the Yurok Tribe to study what the
connections between river quality, water use and the aquatic
food web will look like after four Klamath River dams are
dismantled. … The joint project with the Yurok Tribe is the
first attempt to represent tribal knowledge in decision
processes in the Klamath Basin, she said. The Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, along with the utility PacifiCorp and
the states of California and Oregon, are poised to sign off on
the removal of the lower four dams on the Klamath River: the
J.C. Boyle Dam in Oregon and the Copco 1, Copco 2 and
Iron Gate dams in California.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a sweeping plastic-reduction
measure that aims to dramatically shrink the amount of
disposable packaging and food ware that Californians use in
their daily lives. The bill, SB54, is the result of a
breakthrough legislative deal between some environmentalists,
business groups and waste haulers, a last-minute compromise
that led proponents to withdraw an anti-plastic waste
initiative from the November ballot. … “California won’t
tolerate plastic waste that’s filling our waterways and making
it harder to breathe,” Newsom said in a statement. “We’re
holding polluters responsible and cutting plastics at the
source.”
As far back as the 1870s, the people of Reclamation District
108 were faced with seemingly insurmountable challenges, but
they always seemed to find a resolution to the problem before
them. From building levees to corral the mighty Sacramento
River, to pumping out millions of gallons of floodwater from
the fields, to creating unique irrigation systems to support
crop growth, our ancestors uncovered innovative and sustainable
solutions that we still use to this day.
Hydropower is the world’s biggest source of renewable energy,
generating about 16% of the global electricity supply. And it
will continue to play a key role as the world looks to meet
net-zero targets, not least of all because, like a battery, it
can store massive amounts of energy for later and quickly
release it in moments of peak demand. But despite being better
for the climate, it’s becoming increasingly clear that
renewable energy sources can have a negative impact on the
environment. Just 37% of the world’s 246 longest rivers remain
free-flowing—without any human-made dams, reservoirs, or other
structures controlling how and when the water moves …
A project to protect and restore more than 500 acres of
critical shore area habitats in East Palo Alto and Menlo Park
received a $1 million grant from the San Francisco Bay
Restoration Authority, the San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers
Authority, announced on Friday, June. 24. The grant will help
fund the Strategy to Advance Flood Protection, Ecosystems and
Recreation along San Francisco (SAFER) Bay Project, leading up
to the preparation of an environmental impact report.
News headlines in mid-June captured what Audubon’s Western
Water team knows well: the Colorado River Basin and Great Salt
Lake are in trouble—both facing historically unprecedented
risks. Both may be headed towards ecological disasters, years
in the making, the result of a pernicious combination of
climate change aridifying the region and water management that
does not adequately prioritize the environment. In the Colorado
River Basin and at Great Salt Lake, warming temperatures and
declining river flows threaten people and nature. And, we know
there’s significant quality wildlife and bird habitat still
worthy of attention and investments.
When I reminisce about the time I spent at the beach as a kid,
I remember peering into tide pools and splashing in the cool
water of the Pacific. Something I don’t remember — but that now
seems inescapable — is plastic pollution, everywhere. The
difference is not my imagination. Global plastic production has
nearly tripled in my lifetime. Plastics have reached every
corner of the planet, from deep ocean trenches to mountaintops
and even our lungs and bloodstreams. … We need a
multifaceted approach that includes using less plastic and
improving recycling rates. -Written by Dr. Anja Brandon, the U.S. plastics
policy analyst at the Ocean Conservancy and one of the chief
architects of the Senate Bill 54.
With numerous municipalities and states considering or enacting
strict limits on residential grass, you may have considered
ditching your home’s turf. Xeriscaping — or designing a
landscape that needs little irrigation to survive — is no
longer a radical idea, even if you don’t live in an area where
lawns are being restricted. Traditional lawn grasses are
thirsty. Because of shallow roots, they need anywhere from 20
to 60 percent more water than other plants in your yard to
appear green and lush, says Haven Kiers, assistant professor of
landscape architecture at the University of California at
Davis. … Here are some steps to transition your yard (or
portions of it) to a drought-friendlier — but still inviting —
space.
Turns out bipartisan cooperation in Washington, D.C. isn’t
completely dead, after all. It just requires a tall miracle.
Giant sequoias were considered virtually invulnerable to
wildfire. That view abruptly changed over the past two years
when nearly a fifth of the world’s largest trees perished in
wildfires that devastated the southern Sierra Nevada. With
more lethal blazes feared imminent, urgent action was needed.
Help arrived Thursday in the form of the Save Our Sequoias Act,
introduced by 28 bipartisan House members including California
Democrats Scott Peters and Jim Costa and Republican Minority
Leader Kevin McCarthy. -Written by Marek Warszawski, a columnist for The
Fresno Bee.
In its ongoing effort to address the prolonged decline of
native fish and the deteriorating ecosystem in the Lower San
Joaquin River, the State Water Resources Control Board released
a revised draft report that proposes initial biological goals
to evaluate implementation and monitoring programs, as well as
potential revisions to the Bay-Delta Plan…. Worsening
drought conditions and existing flow objectives – established
in 1995 and now insufficient to protect fish and wildlife -
amplify the need to implement the changes as soon as possible.
Three cannabis cultivators in Humboldt County are facing a
$209,687 fine in connection with sediment discharged into
tributaries of the Mad River that posed a risk to water quality
and aquatic life, according to a formal complaint signed last
week by staff of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control
Board. Szagora LLC, Toshko Toshkoff and Rudy Chacon (the
“cultivators”) commercially cultivated cannabis on a 100-acre
property along the Humboldt-Trinity County line between the
towns of Dinsmore and Mad River.
Forest pathologist Martin MacKenzie strode forward on a narrow
path through California’s mythic bristlecone pine forest in the
White Mountains near the Nevada border, methodically scanning
gnarled limbs for the invaders that threaten the lives of some
of the world’s oldest trees. … Now, scientists say,
these living symbols of longevity, strength and perseverance
may be at an evolutionary crossroads. Hotter droughts and bark
beetles are for the first time in recorded history killing
bristlecones, according to a recent study published in the
scientific journal Forest Ecology and Management.
The last few years have seen one distressing news story after
another about the scourge of plastic waste: Single-use plastic
packaging dumped in the ocean is killing sea animals who
mistake it for food. Elephants in Sri Lanka are dying after
ingesting plastic trash piled up in open-air landfills.
Discarded bottles, bags and wrapping broken down into
microplastic have invaded our food system and even our
bloodstream. Microplastic is in the air we breathe and water we
drink. … California however, is on the verge of taking
the first substantial steps in the nation to reduce the flow of
the harmful waste — if lawmakers don’t blow the chance.
In the rainless season we call summer in California, images of
shrinking bodies of water have a way of looming large. After
more than 22 years of drought compounded by warmer
temperatures, Lake Mead and Lake Powell — water sources that
are vital to life in the Southwest — have declined to their
lowest levels since they were filled. The two reservoirs now
sit at just 28 percent of capacity. But now, I don’t have
climate change on my mind. Instead, I’m thinking about another
reservoir that’s nearly empty: our reservoir of empathy. -Written by Steven P. Dinkin, president of the
National Conflict Resolution Center, a San Diego-based group
working to create solutions to challenging issues, including
intolerance and incivility.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic
landscape while learning 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.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
Water is flowing once again
to the Colorado River’s delta in Mexico, a vast region that
was once a natural splendor before the iconic Western river was
dammed and diverted at the turn of the last century, essentially
turning the delta into a desert.
In 2012, the idea emerged that water could be intentionally sent
down the river to inundate the delta floodplain and regenerate
native cottonwood and willow trees, even in an overallocated
river system. Ultimately, dedicated flows of river water were
brokered under cooperative
efforts by the U.S. and Mexican governments.
State work to improve wildlife habitat and tamp down dust at California’s ailing Salton Sea is finally moving forward. Now the sea may be on the verge of getting the vital ingredient needed to supercharge those restoration efforts – money.
The shrinking desert lake has long been a trouble spot beset by rising salinity and unhealthy, lung-irritating dust blowing from its increasingly exposed bed. It shadows discussions of how to address the Colorado River’s two-decade-long drought because of its connection to the system. The lake is a festering health hazard to nearby residents, many of them impoverished, who struggle with elevated asthma risk as dust rises from the sea’s receding shoreline.
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and 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.
Radically transformed from its ancient origin as a vast tidal-influenced freshwater marsh, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem is in constant flux, influenced by factors within the estuary itself and the massive watersheds that drain though it into the Pacific Ocean.
Lately, however, scientists say the rate of change has kicked into overdrive, fueled in part by climate change, and is limiting the ability of science and Delta water managers to keep up. The rapid pace of upheaval demands a new way of conducting science and managing water in the troubled estuary.
Out of sight and out of mind to most
people, the Salton Sea in California’s far southeast corner has
challenged policymakers and local agencies alike to save the
desert lake from becoming a fetid, hyper-saline water body
inhospitable to wildlife and surrounded by clouds of choking
dust.
The sea’s problems stretch beyond its boundaries in Imperial and
Riverside counties and threaten to undermine multistate
management of the Colorado River. A 2019 Drought Contingency Plan for the
Lower Colorado River Basin was briefly stalled when the Imperial
Irrigation District, holding the river’s largest water
allocation, balked at participating in the plan because, the
district said, it ignored the problems of the Salton Sea.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
High in the headwaters of the Colorado River, around the hamlet of Kremmling, Colorado, generations of families have made ranching and farming a way of life, their hay fields and cattle sustained by the river’s flow. But as more water was pulled from the river and sent over the Continental Divide to meet the needs of Denver and other cities on the Front Range, less was left behind to meet the needs of ranchers and fish.
“What used to be a very large river that inundated the land has really become a trickle,” said Mely Whiting, Colorado counsel for Trout Unlimited. “We estimate that 70 percent of the flow on an annual average goes across the Continental Divide and never comes back.”
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
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.
For the bulk of her career, Jayne
Harkins has devoted her energy to issues associated with the
management of the Colorado River, both with the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and with the Colorado River Commission of Nevada.
Now her career is taking a different direction. Harkins, 58, was
appointed by President Trump last August to take the helm of the
United States section of the U.S.-Mexico agency that oversees
myriad water matters between the two countries as they seek to
sustainably manage the supply and water quality of the Colorado
River, including its once-thriving Delta in Mexico, and other
rivers the two countries share. She is the first woman to be
named the U.S. Commissioner of the International Boundary and
Water Commission for either the United States or Mexico in the
commission’s 129-year history.
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 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.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
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 Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
Water means life for all the Grand Canyon’s inhabitants, including the many varieties of insects that are a foundation of the ecosystem’s food web. But hydropower operations upstream on the Colorado River at Glen Canyon Dam, in Northern Arizona near the Utah border, disrupt the natural pace of insect reproduction as the river rises and falls, sometimes dramatically. Eggs deposited at the river’s edge are often left high and dry and their loss directly affects available food for endangered fish such as the humpback chub.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
For more than 100 years, invasive
species have made the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta their home,
disrupting the ecosystem and costing millions of dollars annually
in remediation.
The latest invader is the nutria, a large rodent native to South
America that causes concern because of its propensity to devour
every bit of vegetation in sight and destabilize levees by
burrowing into them. Wildlife officials are trapping the animal
and trying to learn the extent of its infestation.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
As we continue forging ahead in 2018
with our online version of Western Water after 40 years
as a print magazine, we turned our attention to a topic that also
got its start this year: recreational marijuana as a legal use.
State regulators, in the last few years, already had been beefing
up their workforce to tackle the glut in marijuana crops and
combat their impacts to water quality and supply for people, fish
and farming downstream. Thus, even if these impacts were perhaps
unbeknownst to the majority of Californians who approved
Proposition 64 in 2016, we thought it important to see if
anything new had evolved from a water perspective now that
marijuana was legal.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
Along the banks of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in Oakley, about 50 miles southwest
of Sacramento, is a park that harkens back to the days when the
Delta lured Native Americans, Spanish explorers, French fur
trappers, and later farmers to its abundant wildlife and rich
soil.
That historical Delta was an enormous marsh linked to the two
freshwater rivers entering from the north and south, and tidal
flows coming from the San Francisco Bay. After the Gold Rush,
settlers began building levees and farms, changing the landscape
and altering the habitat.
Despite the heat that often
accompanies debates over setting aside water for the environment,
there are instances where California stakeholders have forged
agreements to provide guaranteed water for fish. Here are two
examples cited by the Public Policy Institute of California in
its report arguing for an environmental water right.
Does California need to revamp the way in which water is dedicated to the environment to better protect fish and the ecosystem at large? In the hypersensitive world of California water, where differences over who gets what can result in epic legislative and legal battles, the idea sparks a combination of fear, uncertainty and promise.
Saying that the way California manages water for the environment “isn’t working for anyone,” the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) shook things up late last year by proposing a redesigned regulatory system featuring what they described as water ecosystem plans and water budgets with allocations set aside for the environment.
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.
Estuaries are places where fresh and
salt water mix, usually at the point where a river enters the
ocean. They are the meeting point between riverine environments
and the sea, with a combination of tides, waves, salinity, fresh
water flow and sediment. The constant churning means there are
elevated levels of nutrients, making estuaries highly productive
natural habitats.
Zooplankton, which are floating
aquatic microorganisms too small and weak to swim against
currents, are are important food sources for many fish species in
the Delta such as salmon, sturgeon and Delta smelt.
A tributary is a river or stream
that enters a larger body of water, especially a lake or river.
The receiving water into which a tributary
feeds is called the “mainstem,” and the point where they come
together is referred to as the “confluence.”
With a holding capacity of more than 260 billion gallons, Diamond
Valley Lake is
Southern California’s largest reservoir. It sits about 90
miles southeast of Los Angeles and just west of Hemet in
Riverside County where it was built in 2000. The offstream
reservoir was created by three large dams that connect the surrounding
hills, costing around $1.9 billion and doubling the region’s
water storage capacity.
Headwaters are the source of a
stream or river. They are located at the furthest point from
where the water body empties or merges with
another. Two-thirds of California’s surface water supply
originates in these mountainous and typically forested regions.
In wet years, dry years and every type of water year in between,
the daily intrusion and retreat of salinity in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta is a constant pattern.
The cycle of ebb and flood is the defining nature of an estuary
and prior to its transformation into an agricultural tract in
the mid-19th century, the Delta was a freshwater marsh with
plants, birds, fish and wildlife that thrived on the edge of the
saltwater/freshwater interface.
This 28-page report describes the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada
region and details their importance to California’s overall water
picture. It describes the region’s issues and challenges,
including healthy forests, catastrophic fire, recreational
impacts, climate change, development and land use.
The report also discusses the importance of protecting and
restoring watersheds in order to retain water quality and enhance
quantity. Examples and case studies are included.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
California’s little-known New River has been called one of North
America’s most polluted. A closer look reveals the New River is
full of ironic twists: its pollution has long defied cleanup, yet
even in its degraded condition, the river is important to the
border economies of Mexicali and the Imperial Valley and a
lifeline that helps sustain the fragile Salton Sea ecosystem.
Now, after decades of inertia on its pollution problems, the New
River has emerged as an important test of binational cooperation
on border water issues. These issues were profiled in the 2004
PBS documentary Two Sides of a River.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to
Water Rights Law, recognized as the most thorough explanation of
California water rights law available to non-lawyers, traces the
authority for water flowing in a stream or reservoir, from a
faucet or into an irrigation ditch through the complex web of
California water rights.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
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.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterfowl, and extends from Alaska and Canada, through
California, to Mexico and South America. Each year, birds follow
ancestral patterns as they travel the flyway on their annual
north-south migration. Along the way, they need stopover sites
such as wetlands with suitable habitat and food supplies. In
California, 90 percent of historic wetlands have been lost.
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964 created Lake Powell.
Both are located in north-central Arizona near the Utah border.
Lake Powell acts as a holding tank for outflow from the Colorado
River Upper Basin States: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power
generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of
California, Arizona, and Nevada.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water examines science –
the answers it can provide to help guide management decisions in
the Delta and the inherent uncertainty it holds that can make
moving forward such a tenuous task.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the native salmon and
trout dilemma – the extent of the crisis, its potential impact on
water deliveries and the lengths to which combined efforts can
help restore threatened and endangered species.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Colorado River
Delta, its ecological significance and the lengths to which
international, state and local efforts are targeted and achieving
environmental restoration while recognizing the needs of the
entire river’s many users.
In the world of water, biology and engineering often clash -
especially when it comes to resolving the Delta dilemma. How do
we manage such an altered system to ensure water supply
reliability while restoring the ecosystem? How do we measure the
results of efforts to restore endangered species and habitat? Why
is biodiversity important?
Balance between ecosystem restoration and water supply
reliability is key to a Bay-Delta solution. Everyone agrees on
this concept. But the demands of the competing interests can tilt
the scales. So, too, can the member agencies’ conflicting
missions. For more than three years, the joint state-federal
CALFED Bay-Delta Program has been searching for equilibrium among
the Delta’s complex problems and its contentious stakeholders. In
December, it released its latest blueprint for resolving the
Delta dilemma — the Revised Phase II Report.
