The California Legislature was the first in the country to
protect rare plants and animals through passage of the California
Endangered Species Act (CESA) in 1970, Congress followed suit in
1973 by passing the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The federal ESA aims to, “protect and recover imperiled species
and the ecosystems upon which they depend.”
The state ESA states that, “all native species of fishes,
amphibians, reptiles, birds, mammals, invertebrates, and plants,
and their habitats, threatened with extinction and those
experiencing a significant decline which, if not halted, would
lead to a threatened or endangered designation, will be protected
or preserved.”
Imperiled species are defined as follows: “Endangered” if it is
in danger of extinction throughout all or a significant portion
of its range and “threatened” if it is likely to become an
endangered species within the foreseeable future.”
The US Environmental Protection Agency has put restrictions on
four pesticides to save endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead
species from extinction. The new mitigation measures, announced
Feb. 1, aim to protect 28 salmon species in Washington, Oregon,
and California from pesticide runoff and spray drift. The four
targeted pesticides are three herbicides—bromoxynil, prometryn,
and metolachlor—and the soil fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene. The
EPA put the measures in place after the National Marine
Fisheries Service found in 2021 that such restrictions are
needed to protect endangered and threatened salmon species. The
measures require no-spray vegetative buffers between waters
where salmon live and agricultural fields. They also require
retention ponds and vegetated drainage ditches. All of these
measures are intended to capture pesticides that otherwise
could seep into the water.
California’s mandated first flush of the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta in January resulted in the vast majority of incoming
Delta water being sent out into the San Francisco Bay.
Data from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for the month of
January revealed that more than 90 percent of all water that
entered the Sacramento Delta was pumped out to the Bay and into
the Pacific Ocean. The backstory: In early January,
following weeks of heavy rainfall throughout the Golden State,
up to 95 percent of all incoming water to the Delta was being
purposefully pumped into the ocean at points. -Written by SJV Sun reporter Daniel Gligich.
Two powerful state and federal agencies have stuck their toes,
so to speak, into an ongoing lawsuit against Merced Irrigation
District demanding the district reopen a long defunct fish
ladder. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and
National Marine Fisheries Service both sent letters to Merced
Irrigation District after Water Audit California sued the
district over the fish ladder on the Crocker-Huffman Dam, about
30 miles northeast of the City of Merced. It wasn’t the
first time the agencies had sought to have Merced Irrigation
District get the fish ladder running again. They had both sent
letters in 2009 and 2010, directing the district
to reopen the fish ladder, which had been closed since the
1970s to see if a “spawning channel” next to the dam would work
better for the salmon, steelhead and other fish.
Whether you are looking at tropical forests in
Brazil, grasslands in California, or coral reefs
in Australia, it is hard to find places where humanity hasn’t
left a mark. The scale of the alteration, invasion, or
destruction of natural ecosystems can be mind-bogglingly
huge. Thankfully, researchers, governments, and everyday
people around the world are putting more effort and money into
conservation and restoration every year. But the task is large.
How do you plant a billion trees? How do you restore thousands
of square miles of wetlands? How do you turn a barren ocean
floor back into a thriving reef? In some cases, the answer lies
with certain plants or animals—called ecosystem engineers—that
can kick-start the healing.In this episode of The
Conversation Weekly podcast, we talk to three experts
about how ecosystem engineers can play a key role in restoring
natural places and why the human and social sides of
restoration are just as important as the science.
Despite the wet winter, the Department of Interior has
announced plans to cut Klamath River flows up to 30% below the
minimum mandated by the Endangered Species Act to protect
listed coho salmon. River flows will drop below 750 cubic feet
per second (cfs) for the first time in decades. This could
prove disastrous to juvenile coho salmon along with other
species including Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, and Pacific
lamprey. The Yurok Tribe and the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations have already filed a 60-day Notice of
Intent to sue the federal government. … In 2002,
similarly low flows led to the infamous Klamath Fish Kill when
tens of thousands of adult salmon died as they tried to make
their way to their spawning grounds. In 2004, similarly
low flows caused a massive juvenile fish kill which in turn led
to a collapse of the entire west coast salmon fishery.
The past weeks following our recent large storms have been
awash in misinformation and hypocrisy about operating and
permitting water infrastructure in California. Even those who
closely follow the news about California water are likely
unaware that the data shows that more than half of the runoff
from the storms in early January was captured and stored in the
Central Valley. Or that the loudest voices criticizing
environmental protections for our rivers and fisheries during
the storms – which are requirements of the Trump
Administration’s 2019 biological opinions – are the very same
voices demanding that legislators and the courts keep those
biological opinions in place.
Climate change including multi-year droughts, extreme flooding,
and extreme weather swings negatively impact California.
Aridification of our ecosystem, and multi-year droughts are
damaging to cold-water-dependent species such as Chinook
salmon. Such is the case with the current drought we are
experiencing, which has exacerbated the stressors impacting the
Sacramento River’s threatened spring-run Chinook salmon and
endangered winter-run Chinook salmon. These stressors include
the inability to maintain suitable water temperatures,
increased predation, and diminished habitat quantity and
quality. Coupled with drought impacts in freshwater is
the recently discovered thiamine deficiency in adult Chinook
returning from the ocean which impacts the health of their
offspring.
It doesn’t matter whether California is mired in historic
drought or soaked from record-setting storms. The same dinosaur
mentality about how the state should capture, store and
allocate water never fails to resurface. … Writing about
these issues from a different perspective, one that doesn’t
view “the environment” as a pejorative, often makes me feel
like a salmon fighting against the current. So this time around
I enlisted the help of a much bigger fish: Dr. Peter Gleick, a
world-renowned expert on water and climate issues and
co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan global water
think tank. … Let’s reinforce that point: Valley farmers
depend on fresh water funneled through the Delta for their
irrigation. If the Delta gets polluted by salty ocean water,
the impact on agriculture would be immense. Letting the rivers
flow, to keep the Delta fresh, benefits growers as well. -Written by Marek Warszawski, Fresno Bee
columnist.
The National Marine Fisheries Service said Chinook salmon may
be eligible for protection, under the Endangered Species Act.
Chinook salmon is found on the Southern Oregon and Northern
California coast. The Center for Biological Diversity said fish
populations has decreased dramatically. The salmon used to be
found in all 11 river systems between Tillamook Bay and the
Klamath River. … Townsend said the National Marine
Fisheries Service will continue to research if the salmon need
to be listed as endangered. They will have until August,
one year from when a petition was started to make a decision.
The recent series of atmospheric rivers dumped enough rain and
snow on Northern California to give us hope that the end of the
drought may be near. … The tremendous amount of water flowing
through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the Pacific Ocean
is additional evidence of this winter’s bounty. … The outflow
is so abundant now that it’s more than 20 times the threshold
set by the state to meet environmental standards. …
[D]ecades-old regulations limit how much water can be captured
— even water is flowing over the banks of creeks and streams
and trees are being toppled. The rule preventing us from saving
more of this near-biblical flood is based on fish behavior
under certain historic conditions. However, we are clearly
living through exceptional circumstances, and these rules — and
California’s rule-makers — are utterly incapable of
adjusting. -Written by Ian LeMay, president of the
California Fresh Fruit Association and the chairman of the
Water Blueprint for the San Joaquin Valley.
The atmospheric river that fueled a string of heavy downpours
in California this month brought much-needed water to the
parched Golden State. But those billions of gallons of rain
also swept a form of pollution off roads into streams, rivers
and the Pacific Ocean that’s of rising concern to scientists,
environmentalists and regulators: particle dust created by car
tires. A growing body of research indicates that in addition to
being a major source of microplastic pollution, the chemical
6PPD, an additive that’s used to keep tires from wearing out,
reacts with ozone in the atmosphere to form a toxic new
substance scientists call 6PPD-Quinone. It’s killing coho
salmon and likely harms other types of fish, which exhibit
symptoms resembling suffocation.
California is experiencing one of its wettest winters in recent
history following a series of atmospheric rivers that hit the
state in rapid succession. The recent downpours and deluges
wreaked havoc on many parts of Northern California. But north
of San Francisco, the town of Petaluma was spared the worst of
the storms. There, the rain has been a boon for newts. … What
the newts need now is a safe way to get to their rendezvous
points. In many places, busy roads lie between newts and their
breeding grounds. In Petaluma and other parts of the San
Francisco Bay Area, thousands of newts are killed by cars each
year as they try to cross these roads. The carnage in Petaluma
is so severe that a group of local residents has taken it upon
themselves to stop it.
Scale-covered delta smelt fish were abundant in regions like
the San Joaquin River and the Sacramento River throughout the
1970s and 1980s — but this is no longer the case. The small
fish was deemed “critically endangered” by the International
Union for Conservation of Nature in 2012, and the population
has decreased ever since. … A recent
survey from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
noted the agency failed to catch any delta smelt in 2022
despite 61 sampling days between September and
December. Even the 12,942 marked adult delta smelt they
released into the Sacramento River near Rio Vista in November
failed to turn up in any sampling the agency ran on the region
in December.
The State Water Board now says it will take another two years
to finalize the San Francisco-San Joaquin Delta water
management plan, and it is proceeding with voluntary agreements
with water agencies in the meantime. Conservation groups spoke
out at a workshop held by the board late last week – and some
are asking the board to scrap the voluntary agreements. Ashley
Overhouse – California water policy advisor with Defenders of
Wildlife – said a new plan to put more water into the estuary
is crucial since four species of native fish have made the
federal endangered species list since 1992, bringing the total
to 6.
The Trump administration failed to consider the strain of
climate change and drought on the Colorado River and
tributaries when it agreed to give Utah 52,000 acre-feet of
water from a reservoir annually, environmental groups argued
Thursday and asked a 10th Circuit panel to order an
environmental impact statement for the plan. Forty million
Americans depend on the Colorado River for water, along with
5.5 million acres of land, 22 Native American tribes and nearly
two-dozen national parks and preserves. One of the Colorado
River’s tributaries is the Green River, which winds through
Utah and sustains ecosystems in the Browns Park National
Wildlife Refuge, Dinosaur National Monument, Ouray National
Wildlife Refuge and Canyonlands National Park.
A chorus of Republicans and moderate Democrats in the San
Joaquin Valley has called for the Newsom administration to ease
pumping restrictions and export more water to drought-stricken
regions of the state. For two weeks a surge of floodwater
flowed nearly unimpeded through the Sacramento–San Joaquin
Delta and into the bay. It was another missed opportunity to
seize on a wet year to export and store more water, argued the
lawmakers. Climate extremes and a lack of preparation underline
the challenge. But the fault lies with an inflexible process
for updating the pumping permits rather than on water managers,
according to a group of irrigation districts and water agencies
with contracts for the exports. This week the same regulatory
inertia put up another obstacle in the way of Delta pumping.
As drought persists and future impacts of climate change
threaten, salmonids across the state will increasingly seek out
refuge from warming waters. Cold-water streams like Big
Mill Creek, a tributary to the East Fork of the Scott River,
offer important refuge for these fish including the federal and
state threatened coho salmon. In the next few years, CalTrout,
with the support of The Wildlands Conservancy and our project
partners, will prepare to implement a project to restore fish
access to upstream habitat in Big Mill Creek creating impacts
that could ripple throughout the whole watershed. … Much
of the river is warm, but there are cold-water pockets where
thousands of coho salmon can be found.
Recent torrential rain and severe storms in California are due
in part to massive storm systems known as atmospheric rivers.
Although this term may seem abstract at first glance, it
actually refers to rivers in the sky (atmosphere) that are made
up of large volumes of water vapor. These storms will often
appear as trails of wispy clouds that can be hundreds of miles
wide. As the clouds move over land, the water vapor cools and
is released as precipitation or rain. Strong atmospheric rivers
have been known to carry 7.5-15 times the average flow of water
at the mouth of the Mississippi River and on average, a few
atmospheric rivers in a year make up 30-50% of the west coast’s
total annual rainfall.
A massive amount of water is moving through the Sacramento–San
Joaquin Delta in the wake of recent storms, and calls have
risen from all quarters to capture more of this bounty while
it’s here. We spoke with PPIC Water Policy Center adjunct
fellow Greg Gartrell to understand what’s preventing that—and
to dispel the myth of “water wasted to the sea.”
… People complain that we’re wasting water to the ocean.
While it’s true that there are pumping restrictions right now
to protect fish, the maximum the projects could be pumping is
about 14,000 cubic feet per second (cfs), not quite double what
they’re currently pumping (8,000 cfs on Jan 12). With current
outflows at about 150,000 cfs, we’d still see 144,000 cfs
flowing to the ocean if they were pumping without restrictions.
The most drenching storms in the past five years have soaked
Northern California, sending billions of gallons of water
pouring across the state after three years of severe drought.
But 94% of the water that has flowed since New Year’s Eve
through the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a linchpin of
California’s water system, has continued straight to the
Pacific Ocean instead of being captured and stored in the
state’s reservoirs. Environmental regulations aimed at
protecting a two-inch-long fish, the endangered Delta smelt,
have required the massive state and federal pumps near Tracy to
reduce pumping rates by nearly half of their full limit,
sharply curbing the amount of water that can be saved for farms
and cities to the south.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service today
announced nearly $8 million for three Klamath Basin Salmon
Restoration grant programs is available. Partnering with the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to administer funds, the
agencies are now seeking applicants to submit pre-proposals for
funding opportunities of up to $500,000 for Klamath River
projects, up to $500,000 for Trinity River projects, and up to
$7 million for Shasta Valley projects. On Jan. 19, 2023, from 1
p.m. to 2 p.m. PST, Reclamation, NRCS, and NFWF will host a
joint pre-proposal webinar to provide an overview of each grant
program’s purpose and objectives …
A comprehensive overhaul of water policy affecting the San
Joaquin Valley is back on the table, courtesy of Rep. David
Valadao (R–Hanford). Valadao initially introduced the Working
to Advance Tangible and Effective Reforms (WATER) for
California Act last September and is bringing it back, this
time with a Republican-controlled House. The entire California
Republican delegation joined Valadao as co-sponsors on the
bill. … What’s in it: If it passes, the act will
require the Central Valley Project (CVP) and State Water
Project (SWP) to be operated consistent with the 2019 Trump-era
biological opinions, which have been under fire by the Biden
administration.
The Biden administration said Tuesday it will consider adding
Chinook salmon in Oregon and Northern California to the
endangered or threatened species lists. “Based on information
provided by the petitioners, as well as information readily
available in our files, we find that hatcheries and climate
change may be posing threats to the continued existence of
SONCC Chinook salmon,” the notice from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, part of the Department of Commerce,
said. … The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) will now conduct a longer review, expected to be
concluded in August of this year, before deciding whether or
not the species — the largest of the salmonids — is eligible
for protected status.
California is on the cusp of an opportunity squandered. The
atmospheric river and “cyclone bomb” projections suggest well
over 10 inches of rain and as many feet of snow could fall on
the state within a week’s time. What is California doing,
amidst the governor’s declared state of emergency, to squirrel
away as much of that runoff and flood water as the state’s
infrastructure will allow? With all this known water
coming into the system, why isn’t the State of California
moving as much water as can physically be moved into San Luis
Reservoir? Roughly half of the reservoir’s water at full pool
is owned by the federal government, with the other half
controlled by the state. A full San Luis Reservoir means
more water for Central Valley farmers and more available water
for the State Water Project. -Written by Todd Fitchette.
The removal of four dams along the Klamath River near the
Oregon-California state line, cheered by tribal, state and
federal officials last month, is facing additional litigation.
Siskiyou County Water Users Association board member Anthony
Intiso has filed a lawsuit against Wade Crowfoot, the secretary
of the California Natural Resources Agency, claiming Crowfoot
is illegally using taxpayer money to fund the historic project,
KDRV-TV in Medford reported. … Intiso’s lawsuit cites
California’s Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure
Improvement Act of 2014, claiming the project funding is
illegal expenditure of tax money.
Not building the controversial Delta tunnel means Southern
California and Bay Area cities would need to invest in
desalination plants and groundwater recharge of brackish water
that could impact the visual pleasantries of coastal scenery.
That is the bottom line buried in the no-project alternative of
the Army Corps of Engineers’ latest 691-page Environmental
Impact Study on the proposed Delta tunnel study released in
late December. The report determined building the tunnel will
have major impacts on San Joaquín County as well as the
Northern San Joaquin Valley including agricultural, local water
supply, air quality, endangered species, and essential fish
habitat…. The Army Corps of Engineers has declined to
hold any in-person hearings for feedback on the study whose
comment period ends Feb. 14, 2002. That fact has drawn a sharp
rebuke from Congressman Josh Harder.
As California enters what is expected to be a fourth year of
drought, the State Water Resources Control Board is reviewing a
request from environmentalists to suspend Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power diversions from Mono Lake in the
Eastern Sierra Nevada. In its request, the nonprofit Mono
Lake Committee argues that the combination of drought and
diversions from streams that feed the lake are exposing the
lake bottom near islands that host one of the world’s largest
nesting gull populations. Unless this is addressed, they
say coyotes will be able to access the islands and
feast on the eggs of 50,000 California gulls.
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the fish of
California lost Bill Jennings on December 27, 2022. Above all,
Bill was a relentless activist. For over 40 years, he used the
law, meticulously documented data, an irascible wit, and a
stinging pen to defend and protect his beloved Bay-Delta
Estuary and all the rivers that feed it. Bill was chairman of
CSPA’s board of directors since 1988 and its executive director
since 2005. He led CSPA in decades of battles to increase
flows into the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta and through to
San Francisco Bay. He campaigned tirelessly against multiple
incarnations of canals and tunnels around the Delta. Through
his “Watershed Enforcers” program, Bill chased down stormwater,
wastewater, and agricultural polluters all over the state.
They’ve been pushed to the brink of extinction by dams,
drought, extreme heat and even the flare of wildfires, but now
California’s endangered winter-run Chinook salmon appear to be
facing an entirely new threat — their own ravenous hunger for
anchovies. After the worst spawning season ever in 2022,
scientists now suspect the species’ precipitous decline is
being driven by its ocean diet. Researchers hypothesize that
the salmon are feasting too heavily on anchovies, a fish that
is now swarming the California coast in record numbers.
Unfortunately for the salmon, anchovies carry an enzyme called
thiaminase, which breaks down thiamine — a vitamin that is
essential to cell function in all living things.
In the vast labyrinth of the West
Coast’s largest freshwater tidal estuary, one native fish species
has never been so rare. Once uncountably numerous, the Delta
smelt was placed on state and federal endangered species lists in
1993, stopped appearing in most annual sampling surveys in 2016,
and is now, for all practical purposes, extinct in the wild. At
least, it was.
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.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Voluntary agreements in California
have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve
environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows
and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be
diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state
regulators.
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.
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:
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.
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.
As vital as the Colorado River is to the United States and
Mexico, so is the ongoing process by which the two countries
develop unique agreements to better manage the river and balance
future competing needs.
The prospect is challenging. The river is over allocated as urban
areas and farmers seek to stretch every drop of their respective
supplies. Since a historic treaty between the two countries was
signed in 1944, the United States and Mexico have periodically
added a series of arrangements to the treaty called minutes that
aim to strengthen the binational ties while addressing important
water supply, water quality and environmental concerns.
Less than 50 miles northeast of Chico, California, begins the
93-mile Butte Creek – a tributary of the Sacramento River. It is named
after Butte County, which was in turn named for the nearby
volcanic plateaus, or “buttes,” and travels through a massive
canyon on its way southwest to the Sacramento Valley.
As a watershed, it drains about 800 square miles, both for
agricultural and residential use. The upper watershed is
dominated by forests, while the lower watershed is primarily
agricultural.
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.
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.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
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 Colorado River provides water to 40 million people and 4
million acres of farmland in a region encompassing some 246,000
square miles in the southwestern United States. The 32-page
Layperson’s Guide to the Colorado River covers the history of the
river’s development; negotiations over division of its water; the
items that comprise the Law of the River; and a chronology of
significant Colorado River events.
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.
The federal government passed the Endangered Species Act in 1973,
following earlier legislation. The first, the Endangered
Species Preservation Act of 1966, authorized land acquisition to
conserve select species. The Endangered Species Conservation Act
of 1969 then expanded on the 1966 act, and authorized “the
compilation of a list of animals “threatened with worldwide
extinction” and prohibits their importation without a permit.”
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 features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
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 Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
In California and the West, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is a
critical issue. Development and agricultural interests say the
law should not be used to unjustly block new projects, while
conservationists view the law as a major bulwark against the
destruction of vital habitat. In the water world, municipal and
agricultural interests say there is room to streamline the ESA’s
application to prevent undue interruption of water delivery.
Two events that transformed the West, population growth and the
dominance of agriculture, are inextricable parts of the battles
fought over its most vital resource, water. Throughout the 19th
century, as settlers sought to tame the rugged landscape,
momentum built behind the notion of a comprehensive, federally
financed waterworks plan that would provide the agrarian society
envisioned by Thomas Jefferson. The Reclamation Act of 1902,
which could arguably be described as a progression of the credo,
Manifest Destiny, transformed the West into an economic
powerhouse while putting an exclamation mark to the tide of
American migration.
