Devastating floods are almost annual occurrences in the West and
in California. With the anticipated sea level rise and other
impacts of a changing climate, particularly heavy winter rains,
flood management is increasingly critical in California.
Compounding the issue are man-made flood hazards such as levee
stability and stormwater runoff.
It’s clear the climate crisis is washing away an integral piece
of our California life. Sea level rise, coastal flooding and
erosion pose major threats to our state — where nearly 85% of
people live and work in coastal counties such as San Francisco.
Left unchecked, the climate crisis jeopardizes our health,
homes, safety and economy. In San Francisco alone, for example,
sea levels are projected to rise up to 55 inches by the end of
the century. This increase could put nearly half a million
people at risk of flooding and threaten $100 billion in
property and infrastructure. -Written by Amelia Fortgang, chair of the Bay Area
Youth Climate Summit, a Youth Leadership Council member at
EarthEcho, and a senior at Lick-Wilmerding High
School.
Since 1994, a 300-foot-long stretch of the West Trail, which
provides beach access to Pillar Point, has substantially eroded
and needed emergency repairs, according to a report from the
San Mateo County Harbor District. Now the Harbor District is
doing something about it. … The West Trail Shoreline
Protection project calls for the development of a “living
shoreline” along the beach. This strategy is meant to provide a
more natural ecological solution to erosion and flooding by
bringing in native vegetation that blends with the environment
and has minimal hard armoring.
For the past two weeks, a 375-foot dredge ship has been
cruising off the coast of San Francisco, ferrying thousands of
tons of sand from the seafloor to Ocean Beach and marking the
city’s latest effort to confront climate change. The ambitious
$7 million project is designed to anchor the city’s rapidly
eroding southern shoreline with a 3,000-foot-long, 30-foot-tall
sand berm. … Roads, underground infrastructure and
a major city wastewater treatment plant are at risk of being
swallowed by the sea.
The Bureau of Reclamation is launching a new prize competition
to improve the model currently used to calculate the sediment
transport rate in a river system. It is specifically
looking for solutions to improve the execution speed
of models that simulate river hydraulics, sediment
erosion, transport, and deposition. Up to $300,000 is available
to win during this two-stage prize competition. Up to four
awards totaling $150,000 will be available in Phase 1, with the
winner receiving $65,000.
A brutal summer of record heat and punishing drought has
claimed yet another California victim: the majestic,
snow-covered slopes of Mt. Shasta. Just as the impacts of
global warming have revealed themselves in extreme wildfire
behavior and plunging reservoir levels, climate change is now
altering the skyline of far Northern California and wreaking
havoc on communities surrounding the dormant volcano.
More than 50 years and millions of dollars of damage later —
and after spending hundreds of thousands more on studies and
plans — Marin County and the town of Ross are moving forward on
improving flood protection along Corte Madera Creek. The two
have reached a consensus on a $14 million plan that is headed
to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for its approval and
funding. For too long, reaching a constructive consensus seemed
an erstwhile political exercise.
As Tropical Storm Ida cripples New York City and flooding takes
dozens of lives along the East Coast, California suffers from a
two-year drought that has curtailed water supplies and spawned
wildfires scorching nearly 1,000 square miles. One side of the
nation gets far too much water, the other side far too little,
The common element is climate change and it would be folly for
Californians to yearn — even with flames approaching Lake
Tahoe, the jewel of the Sierra — for a portion of the rain
falling 3,000 miles away.
Racial minorities in the United States will bear a
disproportionate burden of the negative health and
environmental impacts from a warming planet, the Environmental
Protection Agency said Thursday, including more deaths from
extreme heat and property loss from flooding in the wake of
sea-level rise. The new analysis, which comes four days after
Hurricane Ida destroyed homes of low-income and Black residents
in Louisiana and Mississippi, examined the effects of the
global temperature rising 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees
Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial levels.
After a year of extreme weather, people in the drylands of
northern California and the hurricane-drenched bayous of
southern Louisiana are brooding on the same question: should we
leave? New global research suggests that one of these “water
shock” scenarios is more likely to result in migration. World
Bank researchers found that people are five times as likely to
move following drought conditions as they are after floods or
periods of excess water.
NPR climate correspondent Lauren Sommer talks with Emily about
a dilemma facing many local governments now. Should they
develop in areas vulnerable to rising sea levels? On today’s
episode, we look at Sunnyvale, California, in the San Francisco
Bay Area. It’s a situation complicated by a landowner that
really wants to continue expanding there, Google. In an episode
last week, we asked who should be paying for climate change —
taxpayers or private landowners with waterfront property?
As drought persists in the state of California, the need to
increase water supply reliability is an essential issue facing
water managers. A new report evaluating a pilot program to use
advanced weather and streamflow forecasts to enhance water
storage capabilities at a Riverside County, California, dam
found that enough water could be conserved to supply an
additional 60,000 people per year.
Experts studying the issue agree that sea level rise in coming
decades could pose an enormous threat to San Francisco Bay’s
shoreline. So perhaps it’s no surprise that there’s now talk of
looking into an equally enormous response. Why not build a
barrier to keep rising tides outside the Golden Gate?
Researchers in the past have dismissed this seemingly
straightforward concept on environmental grounds. Engineers are
skeptical, too. But the enormity of the challenge has some Bay
Area leaders saying it should at least be studied.
Angela Ramirez Holmes has been chosen as the new president of
the Zone 7 Water Agency board of directors. She was unanimously
voted in during the board’s July 21, annual reorganization
meeting. First elected to the board in 2012, Ramirez Holmes has
served one term as vice president and succeeds past board
president Olivia Sanwong.
On Monday, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on
Climate Change released a report that makes it unequivocally
clear that human beings have locked in a measure of warming for
the planet that will be extraordinarily difficult to endure.
… A 1.5 degree-warmed world means more summers like this
one: more evacuees in California, more intense drought in the
West, more blistering heat waves, more tropical storms that
dump a season’s worth of water in 24 hours. And yet, the
IPCC report makes it clear that this is officially
the best case scenario.
Reading projections from the recent United Nations climate
report is a like watching an invading army heading for San
Francisco Bay, with rising tides threatening long sections of
shoreline. … The Institute has produced detailed maps and
projections of what those changes might look like. At a full
five feet, cyclical flooding coupled with other impacts of
climate change could begin to cause havoc in the Bay Area.
The circumstance we find ourselves in today is a prime example
of why we need to build Sites Reservoir now. Just a few years
ago, in 2017 and 2019, we experienced a series of atmospheric
river events that produced so much runoff that it overtopped
our flood control system … If Sites Reservoir had been in
place during that time, not only could we have avoided many of
those flooding impacts, but we also would have captured and
stored much of this excess runoff for use in a dry year like we
are currently experiencing. -Written by Robert Cheng, assistant general
manager of the Coachella Valley Water District, and Charley
Wilson, executive director of the Southern California
Water Coalition.
The bipartisan infrastructure deal struck this week provides
new money for climate resilience unmatched in United States
history: Tens of billions of dollars to protect against floods,
reduce damage from wildfires, develop new sources of drinking
water in areas plagued by drought, and even relocate entire
communities away from vulnerable places. But the bill is
remarkable for another reason. For the first time, both parties
have acknowledged — by their actions, if not their words — that
the United States is unprepared for the worsening effects of
climate change and requires an enormous and urgent infusion of
money and effort to get ready.
Approaching November 2021, when the 26th United Nations Climate
Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) is to convene in
Glasgow, Scotland, amid continuing global pandemic concerns,
the reality is that the number and severity of extreme weather
events are overtaking efforts to reduce global greenhouse gas
emissions.
South San Joaquin County as well as the rest of California is
in severe drought. But one of the big worries of more than a
few people including rural South Manteca farmers and residents,
elected leaders in Manteca and Lathrop, and the handful of city
residents not oblivious to the fact they reside in one of the
most flood prone areas in California is too much water. On
Monday when the forecast calls for a high of 93 degrees with
absolutely no chance of rain, the San Joaquin Area Flood
Control Agency (SJAFCA) is updating the community on the
Manteca dryland levee project.
The Delta Stewardship Council has sided with a group that
argued the state Department of Water Resources did not
adequately address the issue of public access and recreational
opportunities related to the Lookout Slough Tidal Habitat
Restoration and Flood Management Project. … The group has
been fighting to maintain land access to Shag Slough and the
Liberty Island Ecological Reserve, which they said would be
lost if the project moves forward as planned.
Climate change projections show the Central Valley will see
more hot, dry years like 2021, but also some dangerously wet
years as well. This year has already seen high temperatures,
drought and high fire risk for Central Valley residents, and
Jordi Vasquez, environmental scientist for the California
Department of Water Resources, said climate models show the
Central Valley heating up 6 to 9 degrees Fahrenheit by the end
of the century. … The biggest impact for Central Valley
communities like Hanford will be water management, Vasquez
said.
During another terrible drought year, it may come as a shock to
hear that rafting prospects are spectacular for the rest of
summer on Northern California’s top rafting rivers, the
Tuolumne and American. In fact, those two rivers have attracted
an unusually high number of rafters with a thirst for cool,
clean water on hot days. … A key reason why outfitters
are able to keep operations running during such a dry year is
that regional water agencies are helping them.
Google is expanding its campus in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The company is planning to build offices as well as housing and
green space near the shoreline, which is at risk from rising
sea levels. And that’s raising the question of whether building
there should happen at all. NPR’s Lauren Sommer has the story.
One of the greatest lessons of the pandemic is that we can meet
the challenges of existential threats when we combine the
collective power of our creativity, innovation and industry. As
the climate crisis worsens, we need to address protecting and
preserving water with the same urgency that we put into
creating vaccines. We need to act like lives are hanging in the
balance—because they are. Water is already shaping our
politics, our economy and our national security too. - Written by José Andrés, a chef, activist and creator of
the documentary Undiscovered Haiti, and Caryl Stern, executive
director of the Walton Family Foundation
On July 2, 2021, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
issued an important decision regarding Section 401 of the Clean
Water Act, overturning an Order by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC’s Order had found that
the state of North Carolina had unlawfully “coordinated” with
the license applicant to delay the state’s certification that a
new FERC license for the Bynum hydroelectric project complied
with state water quality laws. FERC found that North
Carolina’s participation in the delay meant that the state had
“waived” its authority under Section 401 to issue the
certification.
Through fierce reporting and captivating prose, journalist Mark
Arax paints a vivid and complex portrait of California and its
water. Born into a family of farmers in Fresno, Arax has
witnessed firsthand the cyclical nature of droughts and floods
in the state. He delves into the history and future of
agriculture and water in his 2019 book “The Dreamt Land.” Arax
joins Evan Kleiman to talk about the lessons gleaned from the
state’s fraught water history, and what they might mean for its
present and future.
Monsoon season in the Southwestern United States is providing
relief to parts of the region that are desperate for any kind
of precipitation, but life-threatening flash floods and
lightning are also part of the deal. On Thursday night, a
downpour in Phoenix and Scottsdale, Ariz., brought heavy rain,
lightning and National Weather Service cellphone alerts of “a
dangerous and life-threatening situation.” … [T]his year
has already seen a dramatic difference — a 200 percent increase
in precipitation over the last two months in parts of the
Southwest.
Join us as we guide you 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.
The explorer John Wesley Powell once poked fun at the
professional rainmakers of his time, writing, “Years of drought
and famine come and years of flood and famine come, and the
climate is not changed with dance, libation or prayer.” As we
now know, humans can change the climate — one reason the
current drought is so intense, sparking what could be a record
wildfire season and depleting mighty reservoirs such as Mead
and Oroville. Yet as Powell noted, the West can quickly swing
from drought to flood. And it will again — possibly with
greater ferocity than before. -Written by Stuart Leavenworth, California Enterprise
Editor for the LA Times.
Every coast in the U.S. is facing rapidly increasing high tide
floods. NASA says this is due to a “wobble” in the moon’s orbit
working in tandem with climate change-fueled rising sea levels.
The new study from NASA and the University of Hawaii, published
recently in the journal Nature Climate Change, warns that
upcoming changes in the moon’s orbit could lead to record
flooding on Earth in the next decade. … They expect the
flooding to significantly damage infrastructure and displace
communities.
It started with a warning from state officials more than a
decade ago that a major earthquake could cause the crest of
Anderson Dam to slump, allowing water to cascade over the top
and leave Morgan Hill underwater in mere minutes. Last week,
the Santa Clara Valley Water District finally broke ground on
the first phase of what has become a 10-year, $648 million
project to retrofit the dam. The district first started
its planning process in 2012.
On June 24, Yolo County released a report on a recent design
charrette for the Tule Canal in the Yolo Bypass. The two-day
virtual workshop included 71 participants from a wide swath of
stakeholders — farmers, policy makers, landowners, hunters,
conservation scientists, educators, engineers and ecologists.
Led by consultants Robert Suarez and Teal Brown Zimring, with
generous funding from the State Water Contractors and
Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency, the executive summary and
full report are now available on Yolo County’s Delta e-library:
Communities trying to fight sea-level rise could inadvertently
make flooding worse for their neighbors, according to a new
study from the Stanford Natural Capital Project. The
research, published in Proceedings of the National Academy
of Sciences, shows how seawalls constructed along the San
Francisco Bay shoreline could increase flooding and incur
hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for communities
throughout the region.
For more than 60 years, California officials and experts have
discussed expanding the Sacramento River bypass and levee
system. … In summer 2020, contractors broke ground on
the first project to expand that capacity, the Lower Elkhorn
Basin Levee Setback (LEBLS) project. The California Dept. of
Water Resources is leading the design, construction and
permitting of the $103-million project, which will widen the
Sacramento Bypass and the east side of the Yolo Bypass.
A UCLA study shows that abnormally heavy rain and snowfall
events since as early as the 1980s are intensifying globally
due to human-driven climate change, researchers said Tuesday.
… The study was published Tuesday in Nature
Communications and shows the human influence in issues
like floods, soil erosion, crop damage and problems with water
resource management.
Migrating agriculture north to the Sacramento Valley can’t be a
one-to-one trade where every venture survives. The Sacramento
Valley is approximately one-half the size of the San Joaquin
Valley, and at most, 15 to 20 percent of the land could host
relocated agriculture. The majority of San Joaquin agricultural
businesses won’t survive in their current form—but some could
find new life by converting their fallowed fields into solar
farms to help the state achieve its goal of fossil fuel-free
electricity by 2045. Or we can allow the San Joaquin Valley to
revert to the desert it was before our forefathers planted a
garden in it.
The Bureau of Reclamation urges those recreating on or along
the Colorado River through Glen and Grand canyons to exercise
increased caution as summer energy demands may cause rapid
changes to the river’s flow. Unscheduled fluctuations in water
releases may occur without notice. Vessels should be secured to
withstand potential changes in water levels and campers should
avoid setting camp where a sudden river rise could reach tents
or other camping supplies.
Major renovations will begin Wednesday on the Anderson Dam
tunnel project in Santa Clara County. The project will
require the reservoir to be drained – and it will be unable to
be used for 10 years. The timing is not great as
California remains in a drought but water officials say this is
a vital project for flood protection that will protect the
public for years to come. The reservoir can hold more than
300,000 gallons of water and is the water district’s largest
drinking water reservoir.
Twenty years before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce called for
climate science to be put on trial, an official from the
powerful pro-business lobby group crafted what would prove to
be a prescient message on global warming. Harvey Alter,
who ran the Chamber’s resources policy department at the time,
said in 1989 there was “broad consensus” that human-made
climate change would likely have a disastrous impact on coastal
communities and farmers. … “Wetlands will flood, salt
water will infuse fresh water supplies, and there will be
changes in the distribution of tree and crop species and
agricultural productivity,” Alter said.
There is no drought – the Los Angeles Times wrote in a recent
editorial. The Times argued “if ‘drought’ means a period of dry
years followed by a return to the norm, California is not in
drought. The current climate is the norm.” That analysis has
important implications for Stockton and other communities along
the San Joaquin River and in the Delta. As our precipitation
increasingly swings between drought and flood, each extreme
challenges our communities. -Written by Douglass Wilhoit, CEO of the Greater
Stockton Chamber of Commerce and a former San Joaquin County
supervisor; and Barbara Barrigan-Parilla, executive
director and co-founder of Restore the Delta.
After the record-breaking 2020 wildfire season in California,
the charred landscapes throughout the state faced elevated
risks of landslides and other postfire hazards. Wildfires burn
away the plant canopy and leaf litter on the ground, leaving
behind soil stripped of much of its capacity to absorb
moisture. As a result, even unassuming rains pose a risk for
substantial surface runoff in the state’s mountainous terrain.
For the past three weeks, construction crews working 24 hours a
day have been stacking boulders across a river in eastern
Contra Costa County, building what may be California’s biggest
defense yet against the drought: a nearly 800-foot-long rock
wall. The state’s emergency project, which was wrapping up
Thursday, is designed to prevent San Francisco Bay’s salty
flows from pushing into the coveted freshwater supplies of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Water levels in the delta’s
rivers and sloughs have dropped after two dry years, putting
water for almost 30 million Californians at risk of saltwater
intrusion. The plan is to keep the wall up until November…
The considerable variability of precipitation within
given water years [in California] and from year to
year poses a major challenge to providing skillful
long-range precipitation forecasts. This challenge, coupled
with precipitation extremes at both ends of the
spectrum—extremes that are projected to
increase across the state through the 21st century as a
result of climate change—greatly complicates smart
management of water resources, upon which tens of millions
of residents rely.
When wildfires blaze across the West, as they have with
increasing ferocity as the region has warmed, the focus is
often on the immediate devastation — forests destroyed,
infrastructure damaged, homes burned, lives lost. But about
two-thirds of drinking water in the United States originates in
forests. And when wildfires affect watersheds, cities can face
a different kind of impact, long after the flames are out.
San Francisco Bay may be one of the most famous stretches of
waterway in the world, but when it comes to federal spending,
it’s recently been one of the most overlooked. Hundreds of
millions of dollars flowed to other areas like Puget Sound and
the Chesapeake Bay during the Trump years. … This week,
Speier took a big step towards turning the tide. Pushing
through a $125 million Bay Restoration bill in the House. The
money would be spread out over five years, and target projects
that could be key to the Bay’ survival.
A 100-year flood, like a 100-year storm, is one so severe it
has only a 1% chance of hitting in any given year.
Unfortunately, many people believe that if they experienced a
100-year flood this year, they will not see another one like it
for 99 years. It just doesn’t work that way. In reality, the
chance of being flooded next year, and the year after that, is
the same as it was when the house flooded the first time – 1%.
Islais Creek is an unassuming waterway along San Francisco’s
eastern industrial shoreline, meandering its way inland and
providing a natural border between The City’s Bayview and
Dogpatch neighborhoods. There’s a nice little park there,
tucked under a bridge, that locals visit. But it’s not the kind
of place most people think about much. Environmentalists
and urban planners, on the other hand, think about it a lot.
Here’s why: Rising sea levels and flooding.
Sea level rise is not some future dystopian fantasy. It is here
on the California coast. At high tide, water gushes over
stairways leading down bluff trails to beaches and up to some
oceanfront homes. Seawater routinely sloshes over Highway 1
between Eureka and Arcata along the northern coast. Homes in
some towns already flood. Others perch precariously on
crumbling bluffs. Sea walls erected to protect oceanfront homes
(for a while) end up accelerating the erosion of public beaches
on the other side of those walls.
Monterey County elected officials on Tuesday gave an
enthusiastic thumbs up to a $45 million restoration project at
the mouth of the Carmel River that will provide a host of
environmental benefits, including natural flood control for an
area that has historically been hit hard by river flooding. The
Monterey County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a
resolution that will move the project, called the Carmel River
Floodplain Restoration and Environmental Enhancement, forward
with the nonprofit Big Sur Land Trust as its key partner.
In the 1960s, Tulare County Supervisor Dennis Townsend was
working for the water master of the Tule River when the dam at
Success Lake got its first big test. … Starting in early
2024, a similar deluge would be contained because the spillway
is being raised by 10 feet, increasing reservoir storage by a
third. The federally funded project will boost flood
protection for Porterville and the downstream lands from a
50-year flood event to a 100-year flood event, according to the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
A $45 million project that will partially reshape the area
around the mouth of the Carmel River promises to increase flood
control and restore the biodiversity in the area. Called the
“Carmel River Floodplain Restoration and Environmental
Enhancement,” the nonprofit Big Sur Land Trust, Monterey
County, the Monterey Regional Parks District and the state are
collaborating to restore the historic floodplain of a portion
of the Carmel River where it meets Highway 1.
The Bureau of Reclamation is continuing increased flow releases
from New Melones Reservoir to assist with Delta outflow
requirements. Additional flow
releases began on the
lower Stanislaus River on June 10. The
increased flow of 1,500 cubic feet per
second will occur for an extended
duration. Increased river flow can create hazardous
conditions including higher water levels, faster currents,
colder water, and potential entrapment. … Recreationists and
visitors should take safety precautions when near or
on the lower Stanislaus River during
these increased flows.
The Ventura County Public Works Agency commemorated the start
of the Santa Ana Boulevard Bridge replacement project with a
groundbreaking ceremony Monday afternoon. The ceremony took
place at 2 p.m. and was attended by the county supervisor, Matt
LaVere, as well as representatives from the California
Department of Fish and Wildlife and California State Coastal
Conservancy.
Five years ago Bay Area voters wisely approved Measure AA, a
nine-county, 20-year, $12 per parcel annual tax to restore San
Francisco Bay and guard against the threat of rising sea levels
due to global warming. … An estimated 355,000 Bay
Area residents live within a 100-year flood plain that includes
800 miles of roads and highways, 70 miles of critical rail
lines, 46 wastewater plants, 35 schools and 15 hospitals.
San Rafael Creek could be dredged — at least in part — next
summer. The Biden administration’s proposed budget sets aside
$6.75 million for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to begin
working on the $13 million project. The budget must be approved
by congressional committees and is expected to be finalized in
October, according to the city. Due to years of neglect and
minimal funding, the creek has not been fully dredged since
about 2003. It was partially dredged in 2011, but storms have
carried sediment into the channel and shoaled it to depths as
shallow as 2 feet in some parts…
As California responds to yet another drought and prepares for
a future of greater climate extremes, securing funding to boost
the water system’s resilience is a top priority. One go-to
funding source over the last two decades has been state general
obligation bonds. In dollar terms, GO bonds play a relatively
small role in water system spending, yet they punch above their
weight when it comes to filling critical gaps.
A water war is under way in Sacramento right now that could
have far-reaching impacts on families in the Central Valley.
… Hearings got under way Wednesday, as Semitropic Water
Storage District in Kern County makes its administrative appeal
to the State Water Resources Control Board for water rights to
the Kings River. It filed its first petition in 2017, asking
for access to 1.6 million acre feet of floodwater from the
Kings River.
San Diego is launching a $10 million effort to complete risk
assessments of all nine of the city’s aging dams — only three
of which are considered in satisfactory condition. City
officials say the assessments are expected to reveal problems
that will require an estimated $1 billion in repairs and
upgrades in coming decades — and possibly some replacement dams
in extreme cases. San Diego’s dams are among the oldest in the
state and the nation.
Already one of the most productive watersheds in the state in
terms of runoff per square mile, the Yuba River watershed is
especially vulnerable to the impacts of atmospheric rivers and
the heavy, prolonged rainfall they bring. … Recognizing the
central role that atmospheric rivers play in both flood risk
and water supply — two of Yuba Water’s core mission areas –
the agency is investing in new research and tools to better
understand, forecast and manage these powerful storms.
Back when it first happened, we covered the Oroville Dam
near-disaster. Heavier-than-expected rainfall in California
back in early 2017 led to running the dam’s primary spillway at
much higher-than-normal levels. February 17, 2017, the
operators noticed something odd about the water flow down the
spillway, and when they turned off water flowing down the
spillway, it was made obvious that they had a major problem on
their hands. Several chunks of concrete were missing, and the
water had begun gouging into the earth beneath the spillway.
San Diego is launching a $10-million effort to complete risk
assessments of all nine of the city’s aging dams — only three
of which are considered in satisfactory condition. City
officials say the assessments are expected to reveal problems
that will require an estimated $1 billion in repairs and
upgrades in coming decades — and possibly some replacement dams
in extreme cases. San Diego’s dams are among the oldest in the
state and the nation.
A new local district aimed at combating the effects of sea
level rise and flooding is making waves this year starting with
a series of public meetings as it works to define its budget
and priorities. The San Mateo County Flood and Sea Level Rise
Resiliency District, known as OneShoreline, was founded in
early 2020 by the California Legislature to work to prevent and
to address the effects of flooding and sea level rise
throughout the county and on its shores, both on the Bayside
and the Coastside.
The calm water of Tiscornia Beach, where the Sacramento and
American rivers meet, could be deceiving for many swimmers and
boaters and lead to drownings. Even during a drought, the water
in these rivers and others throughout the Sacramento area is
still cold and fast. The water can easily catch anyone off
guard. Sacramento city officials on Tuesday reminded everyone
heading to the water for Memorial Day weekend that wearing a
life jacket is crucial to keeping them safe.
Passing President Biden’s infrastructure bill would be the most
significant step we’ve taken as a nation to start to address
climate change head on. Greenbelt Alliance believes this
infrastructure bill is a great start. Yet, so far there is no
path to guide how we can equitably shift away from rebuilding
in the most climate-vulnerable areas and instead build for a
more resilient future. That’s why we’re recommending this
infrastructure bill and related actions adopt these three
principles as a simple yet transformational way forward… -Written by Amanda Brown-Stevens, the San
Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance.
Because Bay Area low-lying sewage treatment plants remain
vulnerable to rising sea levels, government regulators told
sewage facility managers to “provide a written plan for coping
with SLR by the fall of 2021 – or they will be given a
plan.” The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit reached out to
10 “at risk” sewage treatment plants to see those
plans. All except one provided extensive documents of
their proposals, the cost to address them, and even provided
tours of completed work. San Francisco’s Public Utilities
Commission replied to the Investigative Unit’s public records
request that after a “diligent search for records…no records
were found.”
In Watsonville, there are big developments for flood prevention
efforts along the Pajaro River. On Monday, local, state
and federal representatives signed a design agreement for the
river levee to prevent flooding for homes and farms. Overall
it’s a $400 million project designed to tame the constant
threat of flooding brought on by heavy rainfall.
Yuba Water Agency’s board of directors today approved a $2
million loan to the Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority to
complete the construction of a new levee near the Yuba
Goldfields that will bring a 200-year level of urban flood
protection to southern Yuba County. The 2.5-mile-long levee,
which will be fully complete in June, runs parallel to
Hammonton-Smartsville Road and extends to high ground near
Beale Air Force Base. The 200-year level of protection means
there is a 1-in-200 chance in any given year that a storm could
come along that is bigger than the levee is designed to handle.
The Shasta-Klamath Region organizes work around protecting
California source water and volcanic aquifers, working with
family farms to improve water management, and protecting legacy
fly-fishing waters like the McCloud River, Hat Creek, and Fall
River. In 2021, we are heavily invested in conservation
projects in the Shasta and Scott watersheds. These key Klamath
tributaries will be critical for recovering salmon populations
in the Mid-Klamath Basin after dam removal.
Current and future climate change effects are intensifying the
hydrological cycle, leading to increased variability of both
precipitation and runoff. This heightened pattern results in
more frequent and severe droughts and floods, as well as more
recurrent swings between these two extremes. Harvesting
floodwaters using managed aquifer recharge to replenish
depleted groundwater aquifers can simultaneously reduce flood
and drought risks.
Despite the dry year, outdoor recreationists who enjoy
California rivers and streams should remain aware of
dangerously cold swiftly moving water. Although California’s
snowpack is about half of normal, rising temperatures are
accelerating the snowmelt. Pacific Gas and Electric Company
(PG&E) urges those who choose to venture near or in water
to take extra precautions, especially around hydroelectric
facilities and dams, where water flows can change rapidly.
Anglers also are encouraged to take precautions as trout season
has opened for most California rivers.
The seven members of the Delta Stewardship Council were seated
in 2010. The Council appointed ten prominent scientists to the
Delta ISB. Over the next decade, the Delta ISB produced over 30
scientific reviews, averaging over 3,000 hours of work per
year. But in 2020, the work of the Delta ISB stalled. The Delta
Stewardship Council reduced funding for the Delta ISB by over
90%.
Out where the Tuolumne River joins the San Joaquin, an
intriguing way of managing water is taking hold. Dos Rios Ranch
is nine years into its restoration, a $45 million-plus effort
across nearly 2,400 acres. It seeks to enhance flood
protection, wildlife habitat and water supplies in one grand
vision. Crews have reshaped former farm fields to mimic the
floodplains that spread across much of the Central Valley in
the time before dams and levees.
The Ross Town Council has selected an alternative plan for a
flood control project at Frederick Allen Park, sparing dozens
of creekside trees. The council voted unanimously Thursday in
favor of “alternative 1,” which would preserve 80 trees slated
for removal in the park. It would also nix the fish ladder and
add four large fish resting pools into the concrete channel
between the tennis courts and the post office.
A riverbed that has been parched since the end of the
19th century — a portion of the historic lifeblood of the
Gila River Indian Community — is now coursing again with water,
luring things like cattails and birds back to its
shores. … The revival of this small segment of the
649-mile (1045-kilometer) Gila River, which has served the
tribes that make up the Gila River Indian Community — the
Akimel O’odham (Pima) and the Pee-Posh (Maricopa) — for roughly
2,000 years, was an added benefit of a grassroots
infrastructure overhaul, known as “managed aquifer recharge,”
or MAR, which aimed to restore the local groundwater
basin.
Today, the Bureau of Reclamation announced a plan to increase
flow releases from New Melones Reservoir to assist with meeting
Delta salinity and outflow requirements. Additional flow
releases will begin on the
lower Stanislaus River
on May 10 and will reach a total
flow of 1,000 cubic feet per second and again
on May 11 to reach 1,500 cfs. This
increased flow of 1,500 cfs will likely
occur for an extended duration. During the increased
releases, water levels will be higher and currents
faster. Visitors should use caution when near or
on the Stanislaus River during these increased
flows.
As California enters what could be a record-breaking drought, a
just-completed nine-year floodplain restoration project at the
confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers offers an
ambitious attempt at one mitigation solution. At a 1,600-acre
former dairy ranch called Dos Rios, the conservation
organization River Partners removed berms that farmers had
originally constructed to protect their alfalfa and wheat crops
from the river. It turned fields into seasonal pools where
endangered baby salmon and migratory birds can rest, and water
can trickle down to refill aquifers.
Every year, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) relies on
data from monitoring stations strategically located across
California to provide information that will aid the
decision-making process regarding the flood control and water
supply operations of California’s State Water Project (SWP).
The Feather River watershed, located in Northern California’s
Sierra Nevada mountains south of Mt. Lassen, is a key location
for collecting data. It is the largest watershed in the Sierra
Nevada, covering 2.3 million acres or 3,200 square miles.
A big change in drought conditions came out Thursday
morning for all of California. With an update from
the US Drought Monitor, 73% of California is now listed in
Extreme Drought, the second most severe classification the US
Drought Monitor utilizes. So far, 5% of California is
listed as being in Exceptional Drought, which is the US Drought
Monitor’s top-level drought designation. The increase to
73% is a significant jump from 53% in Extreme Drought from last
week. This news comes on the heels of other drought changes,
such as water restrictions for agriculture north of the
Delta.
In our latest effort to ensure that our water management and
farming practices both protect and enhance environmental
benefits in our area, Garden Highway Mutual Water Company
(Garden Highway) recently completed a project to screen its
diversion on the Feather River. This project allows us to
protect Chinook salmon and other fish species from entrainment
while diverting water year-round to irrigate crops and to
provide Pacific Flyway habitat during the fall and winter
months. The project was a cooperative effort between Garden
Highway, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Bureau
of Reclamation U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Family
Water Alliance.
The Fish and Wildlife Service said today it will deny federal
protections to three salamander species that environmentalists
fear could be put in danger by a proposed California dam
project. Pressed by a lawsuit to make a decision, the federal
agency concluded the Shasta salamander, Samwel Shasta
salamander and Wintu Shasta salamander don’t need to be listed
under the Endangered Species Act even if plans proceed to
expand the Shasta Dam by raising it.
A federal judge’s decision rebuffed environmental groups’
effort to increase water flow from California’s Twitchell Dam,
stating that wildlife conservation was not among the dam’s
authorized purposes and that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
(Bureau) had no authority to modify the water releases for
conservation purposes. U.S. District Judge André Birotte Jr.
sided with defendants in San Luis Obispo Coastkeeper v.
Santa Maria Valley Water Conservation District, rejecting
plaintiffs’ claim that by failing to release enough water to
benefit protected steelhead trout, the Bureau and local water
district were in violation of the ESA.
The beaver does more to shape its environment than nearly any
other animal on Earth. They can cause incredible amounts of
destruction to infrastructure; downing power lines, and
blocking and rerouting waterways. But their dam-building also
can improve water quality, reduce flood risk, and create the
conditions for complex wetland habitats to form —providing
refuge for wildlife and storing carbon in the process.
Disagreement over restoring the Ballona Wetlands still remains
high. Walter Lamb, president of the Ballona Wetlands Land
Trust, recently held a webinar to discuss why the current
restoration plans are inadequate. The Land Trust disagrees with
the assertions of organizations such as Friends of Ballona
Wetlands, as they aren’t supported by available facts. Lamb
based his talking points around Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive
order made on October 7, 2020, of protecting biodiversity and
an announcement phasing out fossil fuels from September 23,
2020.
When President Joe Biden addresses a joint session of Congress
tonight a common thread will likely run through much of his
narrative: resilience. Beyond touting his administration’s
accomplishments, Biden is expected to use the spotlight to
pitch his $2.3 trillion American Jobs Plan, a wide-ranging
infrastructure initiative that promises “every dollar” spent on
rebuilding highways, airports, water systems and more will be
used to “prevent, reduce and withstand the impacts of the
climate crisis.”
No one will forget the intense challenges that 2020 brought us,
from record-breaking hurricanes and wildfires to a global
pandemic that devastated our economy and public health. As
Congress and the Biden administration look to help our country
rebuild and recover from these compounding crises, investing in
nature presents an opportunity to deliver multiple benefits for
communities, birds, and other wildlife. Audubon presents a new
suite of policy recommendations for making our communities and
wildlife more resilient to climate change, by putting our
wetlands, barrier islands, and other ecosystems to work.
While a decades-long battle over one major dam and river
diversion in northern Colorado appeared to end last week,
environmental groups signaled another fight will go on longer
as they filed an appeal meant to undermine Denver Water’s Gross
Dam expansion. The environmental coalition Monday asked
the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals to review a dismissal of
their case by a federal district court and order a trial on the
merits of their claims about the dangers of adding 131 feet to
the height of Gross Reservoir Dam. They argue federal review
agencies neglected species-protection laws and other guidelines
when handing Denver Water a permit for Gross.
The first automated dust-on-snow monitoring technology in the
mountains of Northwest Colorado is expected to be installed
this fall to study the impact of dust from arid landscapes on
downwind mountain ecosystems in the state and in Utah. McKenzie
Skiles, who is a hydrologist and a University of Utah assistant
professor, will use close to $10,000 from a National Science
Foundation grant to purchase four pyranometers, which measure
solar radiation landing on, and reflected by, snow.
California Governor Gavin Newsom declared drought in two
counties Wednesday and predicted others would soon join. He
bemoaned the prospect of another period of drought only a few
years removed from a five-year drought that strained the
state’s water resources. A study published this week in
Science Advances revealed one solution to the drought-like
conditions and their increased frequency due to a changing
climate is a counterintuitive one — floodwaters.
The first time the streets flooded, Appollonia Grey
‘Uhilamoelangi, known as Mama Dee in her East Palo Alto
community, got a little nostalgic. The weather, though severely
inclement, at least reminded her of home in Samoa. … But East
Palo Alto, with a population of 30,000, is prone to flooding,
and three times over the next 30 years, torrential rains
devastated the city. … Now, the bay waters being pushed
higher by the effects of climate change pose an existential
threat to this small community of mostly people of color.
That’s not hyperbole. … Of all Bay Area counties, San Mateo
is the most at risk from sea level rise, and of all places in
the county, East Palo Alto is one of the most vulnerable to
climate-driven inundation.
Floodwaters are not what most people consider a blessing. But
they could help remedy California’s increasingly parched
groundwater systems, according to a new Stanford-led study.
The research, published in Science Advances, develops
a framework to calculate future floodwater volumes under a
changing climate and identifies areas where investments in
California’s aging water infrastructure could amplify
groundwater recharge.
The Yolo County Farm Bureau as well as two former Farm Bureau
presidents have filed a lawsuit against the City of Woodland
and the Woodland City Council over the Woodland Flood Risk
Management Project. The suit — which was filed on March 25
— is a Verified Petition for a Writ of Mandate and
Complaint for Declaratory and Injunctive Relief, or a way to
get the judicial branch to reaffirm previous contracts.
The Alameda County Water District board has promoted Ed
Stevenson to serve as the district’s new general manager. The
district, which provides water to roughly 350,000 homes in
Fremont, Newark and Union City, announced that Stevenson,
a 24-year district employee, will take over after current
general manager Robert Shaver retires on July 1 following 30
years of service.
It’s a growing threat that sneaks in with the tide. Sea levels
here in the Bay Area are expected to rise by a foot or more
over the next several decades, potentially overwhelming levees
and seawalls around the Bay. But now an environmental group
says one of the most powerful weapons we have to fight back, is
being literally, thrown away. … [T]ons of sediment that are
dredged out of the Bay every year and barged out sea, or dumped
in deep water … could be the perfect solution to bolster the
wetlands that surround the Bay.
The Yuba Water Agency manages water storage and deliveries to
downstream customers while having a hand in preserving fish
habitats and recreational areas. Currently, the agency has
already begun doubling its reservoir releases at a time when
visitors to the river are also expected to go up. Due to
the time of year, those releases from upstream reservoirs are
dictated by irrigation needs of downstream growers.
There’s just one week left to register for our Water 101
Workshop, which offers a primer on the things you need to know
to understand California water. One of our most popular events,
this once-a-year workshop will be held as an engaging online
event on the afternoons of Thursday, April 22 and Friday,
April 23.
San Diego hiking enthusiasts might have to share part of their
favorite trail with a cement mixer for the next year. The San
Diego County Water Authority is building a massive
5-million-gallon concrete water storage tank, called a flow
regulatory structure. You will never see it once it’s
completed. One of the hiking trails in the northwest corner of
Mission Trails Regional Park is closed and there are trail
detours on other parts. … Construction began in February
as the pandemic took over California. It’s expected to take
another year to complete. As of Friday, more than a dozen
concrete pillars were sticking up out of the ground like a
building straight out of Ancient Rome.
Here’s a look at the nation’s top 10 cities with the most
properties at risk of flooding, according to 2020 data from the
First Street Foundation’s First National Flood Risk
Assessment. Flooding is a huge problem in America and is
only getting worse as global warming increases the frequency
and strength of tropical storms and hurricanes, and the warmer
atmosphere holds more water, leading to more rainfall. Warmer
temperatures also trigger winter snow to melt faster and
earlier. Flooding in the United States is likely to cause
some $20 billion in damages this year and cost as much as $32
billion by 2051, according to research from First
Street. Sundae took a look at the nation’s top 10
cities with the most properties at risk of flooding… #10. San
Jose … #5. Fresno … #3. Sacramento…
The Rancho California Water District received a nearly $3.5
million grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
which will fund up to 75% of Phase 1 of the Vail Dam Hazard
Mitigation Project. Phase 1 has already begun and includes
pre-construction activities such as design, environmental
compliance and permitting to upgrade the dam at Vail Lake,
located east of Temecula. Vail Lake, a reservoir with water
storage capacity of approximately 45,000 acre-feet or 14.7
billion gallons of water, was acquired by Rancho Water in 1978
and is an component of Rancho’s diversified water supply
portfolio for providing water supplies to over 150,000 urban
and agricultural water users in the cities of Temecula and
Murrieta, and the surrounding areas.
A year ago, when stay-at-home orders were a newly disorienting
fact of life, I started taking long walks through my
neighborhood on L.A.’s Westside. Wandering south from Palms
into Culver City, I realized I live near a huge concrete
channel — a creek, trapped in place — with a bike path along
the water, and a view of oil pumpjacks rising and falling atop
the Baldwin Hills. There were beautiful murals, too, showing a
healthy, thriving waterway. They were hashtagged
#KnowYourWatershed. And the more I admired them, the more I
realized that I did not, in fact, know my watershed, despite
growing up not far from here. -Written by Sammy Roth, a Los Angeles Times staff
writer.
Despite its semi-arid climate, characterized by mild, moist
winters and hot, dry summers, the area in and around Fresno,
California, has experienced numerous flood events. From
elevations reaching 5,000 feet in the Sierra-Nevada mountain
range, streams carry runoff from a 175-square-mile area flow
onto the valley floor, where they periodically inundate
farmland and urban development, including downtown
Fresno. Storm flows have caused local streams and canals
to overflow an average of once every four years since
1953. In the early 1950s, a group of citizens banded
together to find solutions to the area’s increasing storm water
management problems.
Restoration projects, like species, evolve. The Sonoma Creek
Enhancement Project, originally about mosquito control, has
shown itself to be a boon to special-status tidal marsh
wildlife as well. More than a decade of adaptive management
actions made that happen. The existing marsh, formed
rapidly beginning in the 1960s by deposited sediment, lacked
the dendritic channels of a mature marsh. High tides brought in
water that pooled in a central basin and didn’t drain out,
providing breeding habitat for mosquitos. The disadvantages of
chemical treatment prompted land managers to look for
alternatives.
Much like when tech money reshapes an historical neighborhood,
a beaver’s move downtown can cause the locals to worry. In
Napa, the animals’ sprawling waterfront complexes create
worrying pools along the riverbank, while the native
cottonwoods are whittled down and threaten landowners’ roofs.
It seems destined that two species known for their
environmental engineering would struggle to live in unison.
However, municipalities like Napa and Martinez in Contra Costa
County have learned to live with their beavers, and the
upcoming California Beaver Summit aims to set the record
straight.
As California’s seasons become warmer and drier, state
officials are pondering whether the water rights permitting
system needs revising to better reflect the reality of climate
change’s effect on the timing and volume of the state’s water
supply. A report by the State Water Resources Control Board
recommends that new water rights permits be tailored to
California’s increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable
enough to ensure water exists to meet an applicant’s
demand.
When the first European explorers arrived in California’s
Central Valley, they found a vast mosaic of seasonal and
permanent wetlands, as well as oak woodlands and riparian
forests. What remains of those wetlands are still the backbone
of the Pacific Flyway; along with flooded agricultural fields,
they support millions of migrating waterbirds each
year. According to a just-released study from Audubon,
tens of millions of land birds rely on the Central Valley as
well… But today, the situation is dire. More than 90% of
wetlands in the Central Valley – and throughout California –
have disappeared beneath tractors and bulldozers.
-Written by Samantha Arthur, the Working Lands Program
Director at Audubon California and a member of the
California Water Commission.
[F]or those who live in the legal Delta zone – some 630,000
people – the braided weave of the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Rivers and their maze of associated wetlands and levees
provides a place of home, community, and recreation. And, as a
recent study by the Delta Stewardship Council shows, climate
change is tugging on the watery thread holding it all together.
… The council’s overview reveals a grim outlook for the
millions of people that are tethered to the region’s water:
drought similar to that experienced in 2012-2016 will be five
to seven times more likely by 2050. This will result in more
severe and frequent water shortages and, as the report bluntly
states, “lower reliability of Delta water exports.”
While a supermajority of Americans finally believe we are
warming the world, a 2020 Yale Climate Opinion survey shows
that most people still aren’t very worried about it.
… But Californians do. Reeling from a decade of
record-shattering drought, heat waves, and wildfires, people in
the Golden State overwhelmingly tell Public Policy Institute of
California pollsters that the effects of global warming have
already begun. Indeed … researchers can now link climate
change with some of today’s extreme events [including the
wild swings in precipitation that cause intense rainstorms at
one end and severe droughts at the other] beyond a
reasonable doubt.
Water is one of the most valuable resources on the
planet — we need it to survive, to stay clean
and healthy, to grow food, to run businesses, to
support ecosystems, and so much more. And yet clean,
accessible, abundant water is often taken for granted, in
part because its cost rarely reflects its true value. But
anyone who has spent even a day, or a few hours, without
access to water knows its vital importance. Still today
over 2.2 billion people globally lack
access to safe drinking water.
The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, California’s state clean
water law, passed in 1969 and became the model for the 1972
federal Clean Water Act. Nearly half a century after passage of
the landmark federal law, it is time for both the state and the
nation to assess progress and chart a new course. Once again,
California is leading the way with Assembly Bill 377, a new
bill introduced by Assemblyman Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).
Although new legislation is needed, the existing federal and
California clean water acts have produced successes that should
be celebrated. -Written by Terry Tamminen, president of 7th
Generation Advisors and founder of Santa Monica
Baykeeper.
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will
likely hire a contractor for the sweeping Lower Walnut Creek
Restoration Project that aims to improve both flood control and
conditions for wildlife and recreation. County staff recommends
the board approve a deal with Four M Contracting, which came in
with the lowest bid on the project, at $11.285 million. The
Winters-based civil engineering firm specializes in wetland
enhancement projects and the creation of wildlife habitat.
Today, Representative Josh Harder (CA-10) sent a letter with
Rep. Jerry McNerny (CA-9) requesting new federal funds for the
Lower San Joaquin River Flood Risk Management and Feasibility
Study projects. The $36.5 million in requested funds would go
toward the Army Corps of Engineers and San Joaquin Area Flood
Control Agency’s critical flood damage reduction efforts. If
implemented, the project will protect 165,000 Valley residents,
reduce annual property damage by 84%, and increase the
resilience of 262 critical infrastructure sites, 12 of which
are essential to daily life in the Valley. The project is
expected to yield $7 for every $1 of taxpayer money invested.
Amid a drought, Napa County is preparing to protect more than
2,000 city of Napa properties from the next flood. The county
learned earlier this year that the stalled Napa River flood
control project will receive $48.3 million in federal funds.
That has local flood control officials talking about the final
round of projects. Step one has been meeting with officials
from the federal partner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, by
Zoom. Four flood control projects totaling about $94 million
are to be done with a mixture of federal, local, developer and
grant money.
Through collaborative projects, birds and endangered fish are
returning to areas they once reared in more than 100 years ago.
Partnerships among farmers, conservationists, universities, and
state and federal agencies are proving that by reactivating our
historic floodplains and using our bypasses during key times of
the year, we can create high-quality habitat that produces safe
haven and up to 149 times more food for salmon than the river.
These key projects demonstrate some of the work being done on
the wet-side of the levee.
In the latest effort to protect Coyote Valley, a Palo Alto
environmental group has closed three deals totaling $16.5
million to purchase 331 acres in the scenic expanse of rural
land on San Jose’s southern edges … The three properties
purchased in the most recent deals, left undeveloped, also will
be used to provide natural flood protection for downtown San
Jose. The idea is that when Coyote Creek is flooding, as it did
in 2017, causing $100 million in damage, its waters can be
deliberately spread over the open area to seep into the
groundwater table instead of all rushing downtown into
neighborhoods.
Mother Nature proved again in late January that the force of
torrential rainfall and surging water can undo about a decade’s
worth of difficult, expensive habitat conservation work. The
Santa Rosa Creek project completed in October in Cambria was
designed to stabilize the path of the creek in a vulnerable
North Coast area, while protecting its bank and its eponymous
roadway. Devin Best, executive director of the Upper
Salinas-Las Tablas Resource Conservation District (RCD), said
the district worked with landowners “to preserve their property
and also maintain the road so it doesn’t wash away.”
In the Capital Region, water determines destinies. The
10-county area is both plagued by drought and one of the
country’s most at-risk regions for catastrophic flooding. The
physical existence of Sacramento and surrounding cities and the
viability of the region’s heavily irrigated agriculture depend
on water resources engineers like Mary Paasch.
The $1.9-trillion relief package signed by President Biden on
Thursday includes $350 billion in aid for states and local
governments, on top of the billions allocated for schools,
transit agencies, health departments and “critical” state and
tribal infrastructure projects. … [T]he funding could be
spent preparing for the next disaster. As we emerge from this
public health emergency, there is surely another emergency
around the corner — and it’s probably going to be connected to
climate change, be it wildfires, flooding or drought.
California has a tremendous backlog of infrastructure and
environmental work to do to make the state more resilient to
climate change and extreme weather.
Today marks the anniversary of the deadliest man-made disaster
in California history. It’s a largely forgotten event
which killed hundreds of people in Ventura County. On March
12th, 1928, the St. Francis Dam collapsed, sending a wall of
water more than 50 miles from the Santa Clarita area through
the Santa Clara River Valley. More than 400 people died.
The water surged through parts of Piru, Fillmore, Santa Paula
and Ventura in the middle of the night. It was later
determined that the newly complete dam collapsed because of a
combination of issues with the terrain, and design.
For decades, the Cargill salt ponds in Redwood City have
stretched into the San Francisco Bay like a blank slate. What’s
to come of them? The Cargill corporation sees the outline of a
new housing development, while environmental groups see a
restored wetland habitat. David Lewis and his group Save the
Bay recently joined a lawsuit against the former Trump
administration’s EPA in a back-and-forth battle over whether
the area falls under federal protection.
Climate change and other environmental pressures are already
putting the pinch on water resources in California, the
Southwest and other arid parts of the world. Over-tapped
groundwater, rivers and lakes are forcing water managers to
find new supplies. Some of these can be costly, like treating
wastewater for drinking water. Or they can come with a hefty
price tag and outsized environmental footprint, like
desalination or new dams. There’s another option on the
table, though: stormwater. If we do the accounting right,
runoff from precipitation is a cost-effective supplementary
water resource, experts say.
A bipartisan group of California lawmakers is confronting
pollution problems along the U.S.-Mexico border, especially in
the Tijuana River Valley between San Diego and Tijuana. Several
House members who represent Southern California introduced a
bill called the Border Water Quality Restoration Act. Similar
legislation was presented last week in the U.S. Senate. If
approved, it will give the Environmental Protection Agency the
authority to coordinate all federal, state, and local agencies
when planning construction and infrastructure projects to
mitigate pollution in waterways throughout the southern border.
California is home to a diversity of coastal ecosystems like
tidal marshes, seagrass beds, and estuaries. These ecosystems
provide flood and storm protection, healthy habitats for fish
and birds, and recreational spaces. They may also play an
important role in addressing climate change. A new COS
and Natural Capital Project study in Global
Environmental Change investigates the carbon sequestration
potential of habitats along the California coast and details
pathways incorporating carbon-capturing habitats into climate
change policy.
The U.S. levee system — once considered the second largest
piece of the country’s infrastructure ”rivaled only by the
highway system” — is now nearly a century old and failing
inspections far more often than it passes them. Only one in 25
federal levees are rated Acceptable. … Those systems can
be found nationwide, from the Sacramento region in California
to the south Florida seaboard; from Appalachia to North Dakota
to the Mississippi River Valley. And the people who
maintain those vulnerable levees say their problems are
remarkably similar: systems that are too old and far too
expensive for locals to fix, much less replace.
Marin County plans to reroute a Bolinas Lagoon creek as part of
an effort to prevent flooding along Highway 1, prepare for
sea-level rise and restore habitat for threatened species. The
county’s Bolinas Lagoon Wye Wetlands Project aims to redirect
Lewis Gulch Creek closer to its historic route and raise a
nearby road to allow the creek more room to wind and flow
during winter storms. The project would also restore
floodplains at the northern end of the 1,100-acre Bolinas
Lagoon that were lost over more than a century as wetlands made
way for roads and pastures.
The US Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Sacramento District
selected Kleinfelder and Stantec to provide engineering
services for levee improvements on the Sacramento River in
Northern California. The design project consists of
seepage/stability improvements along the Sacramento River East
Levee (SREL) downstream of the American River confluence in
Sacramento. The project is part of the ongoing modernization of
Sacramento’s aging flood infrastructure system.
Experts in coastal science and policy at UC Santa Cruz are
teaming up with researchers at UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego,
and the U.S. Geological Survey to address the many challenges
of adapting to climate change along California’s coast.
… California’s iconic shoreline, from its communities
and beaches to coastal wetlands and intertidal habitats, is
increasingly threatened by coastal hazards such as extreme
flooding and erosion associated with climate change, sea level
rise, storms, and El Niño events.
Sacramento is typically ranked first or second in the country
for the risk of flooding….This year, the California-Nevada
River Forecast Center is forecasting a low potential for
flooding due to spring snowmelt.
Looking back over the past 30 years, the Northern California
Water Association has grown into an organization that the early
founders can be extremely proud of. The men and women who had
the foresight and passion to start the organization should be
given a large amount of gratitude. What now is a
high-level organization that fosters water management for
multiple beneficial uses, sprung from very humble beginnings.
Human fingerprints are all over the world’s freshwater. A new
study published Wednesday in the journal Nature shows that
while human-controlled freshwater sources make up a minimal
portion of the world’s ponds, lakes, and rivers, they are
responsible for more than half of all changes to the Earth’s
water system. … Climate change already looms large over the
world’s freshwater supply. Major sources of drinking water,
like the Colorado River, have less water and are flowing
more slowly due to climate change—even as they face increasing
demand from our water-hungry farms and cities. Rainfall itself
is becoming more erratic in some locations, such as
California…
The US Green Building Council Central California (USGBC-CC) has
received a grant from the San Joaquin River Conservancy
(Conservancy) to commence planning for a Native American and
Environmental Resource Center at the San Joaquin River. The
project will enable public access and create an Indigenous and
Environmental Resource Center at the Circle V property located
on the San Joaquin River, outside of Fresno in Madera County.
The USGBC-CC received final approval for the grant funding as
part of the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe
Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Fund and the Safe
Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River
and Coastal Protection Fund of 2006 from the Wild Life
Conservation Board.
In 1854, the Gadsden Purchase modified a short, 30-mile stretch
of the western border to be the midline of the Colorado River.
The Mexican and U.S. governments soon realized that when these
rivers shifted across their floodplains, questions about
national jurisdiction arose. For example, an exasperated U.S.
agent reported that “the lower Colorado … alters its channel
from time to time, cutting off a large stretch of land on one
bank and depositing the soil on the other or leaving its old
bed and tearing through a large piece of silty bottom land to
form a channel some distance away.” The agent went on to
complain that these movements made it difficult to determine
which land fell on which side of the line…
How do you factor in climate change? It can be a worrisome
question, yet, it’s one that rightfully so demands an answer. A
question that seems to loom over us, especially those who work
within and on behalf of the environment. Yet, it might be
difficult to notice the effects of climate change on Putah
Creek. A walk along the creek exposes you to native riparian
habitat and birds aplenty. Surely, the Chinook salmon return to
their historic spawning habitat along Putah Creek could only
signal a more healthy and stabilized habitat. -Written by Alli Permann, Putah Creek Council Education
Program Assistant.
The organization River Partners teamed up with California State
Parks and Butte County Resource Conservation District on
Thursday to host a flood plain restoration and
reforestation event. The event was called the
Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park Riparian Restoration
Project and was held near the Pine Creek Access point of the
Sacramento River in Chico.
Today, Ceres’ Director of Water, Kirsten James is speaking to
Betty Yee, who was first elected as California State Controller
in November 2014 – a position that serves as the state’s chief
fiscal officer. She also chairs the California Franchise Tax
Board and serves as a member of the California Public
Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) and the California State
Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) Boards, representing a
combined portfolio of nearly $500bn. She speaks about how her
experience managing the world’s fifth-largest economy has
shaped her thoughts on climate and water risk.
Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) released the following
statement on being named chairman of the Appropriations
Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. This subcommittee
has jurisdiction over funding levels for the Department of
Energy, the Army Corp of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation
and other federal agencies related to our nation’s energy and
water infrastructure programs.
Many of my best days as a lawyer were spent driving through the
Sacramento Valley and north Delta with George Basye (always in
his Volvo). As George neared his retirement, he wanted to
ensure that I, as the successor to a number of his clients,
understood the foundations of his client relationships.
George seemingly knew the history of every quarter section of
land up and down the Valley. He had a deep affection not
only for the landscape but, most important to George, for the
individuals and families who had settled and reclaimed the land
and built the agricultural economy of the region.
A restoration project for the long-suffering Ballona Wetlands
is moving forward after the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife certified the final Environmental Impact Report for
the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve last year. Years
of neglect, human impact, and development took a toll on the
wetlands for years. The project aims to remove invasive
plants and leftover fill from the development of Marina Del
Rey, re-establish a functioning floodplain, and create natural
levees for flood protection against sea level rise.
Despite objections from some of the same landowners who have
complained for nearly a decade that their property is being put
at risk, the Woodland City Council has advanced its Lower Cache
Creek Flood Feasibility Study. Acting this past week, the
council voted unanimously to put the financial well-being of
residents and businesses first in adopting an environmental
impact report which favors a multi-million dollar project to
divert Cache Creek floodwaters.
San Diego officials plan to spend the next five months
analyzing what size tax increase city voters would likely
support in November 2022 to pay for projects that boost flood
prevention and water quality. The ballot measure would be the
first opportunity for San Diegans to vote to raise taxes on
themselves to tackle an estimated $6 billion infrastructure
backlog that city officials began calling San Diego’s No. 1
challenge eight years ago.
A few weeks after [California's late-January] storm, in early
February, eight scientists with a research consortium called
the Multi-Agency Rocky Intertidal Network, or MARINe, hiked
towards a beach smothered by one of the Big Sur debris flows.
The sour smell of decomposing creatures hit them. A few turkey
vultures nipped at the sand. There were dead sea stars,
chitons, and likely hundreds of dead black abalone. In a
previous visit to this site, scientists were able to count 150
black abalone or “abs” in a small 50-meter area, with hundreds
left uncounted. A fraction of the site’s population remained.
In 1955 he joined Downey, Brand, Seymour and Rohwer in
Sacramento, becoming a partner in 1958 and specializing in
water and natural resources law. He represented the California
Central Valley Flood Control Association and over 30
reclamation, levee, water, and irrigation districts and mutual
water companies in the Sacramento Valley. He was actively
involved in negotiations leading to the water right settlement
agreements between the Sacramento River water users and the
United States in 1964. He formed the North Delta Water Agency
and negotiated the agreement in 1981 between that Agency and
the State of California, protecting water quality and uses
within the northern half of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Home to just under 2,000 people, the history of Hamilton City
includes many flooding events and several near misses. One of
the primary reasons for this susceptibility to flooding has
been the town’s reliance on a substandard and undersized levee
called the “J levee” – a levee that does not meet any USACE
engineering standards.
Climate change is impacting the whole Earth, including the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. There are some big challenges
ahead as the region changes over the next 30 years. In order to
adapt to a world with increased flooding, drought, wildfire and
intense heat, we need to start by understanding what’s going
on. But where to begin? The Delta Stewardship Council is
hosting a climate resilience scavenger hunt as part of its
Delta Adapts initiative…. Now through Feb. 26,
participants can complete as many activities as possible and
submit their findings online.
Despite the challenges of working through a pandemic, river
restoration practitioners continued to pursue dam removal
projects in 2020 to revitalize local economies and communities
and reconnect 624 upstream river miles for fish, wildlife and
river health. Sixty-nine dams were removed in 2020 across 23
states, including: California, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana,
Iowa, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, Vermont,
Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin.
It is the 35th anniversary of one of the costliest and
devastating storms in the history of Northern California. From
Feb. 11 to Feb. 20, 1986, a series of three storms, each
stronger than the previous, brought record-setting rain that,
in some areas, overwhelmed flood control measures. In the end,
the storms claimed 13 lives, and the damage was estimated at
$400 million. The storm also brought eventual changes to
California’s existing flood control system.
Modern forecasting methods fueled by advances in understanding
and predicting atmospheric river storms have enabled U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers (USACE) operators to better optimize water
resources at Lake Mendocino, a Northern California reservoir. A
multi-agency report issued Feb. 4, 2021, describes how
these forecasting tools have helped operators increase the
lake’s dry season stores of drinking water, improve its ability
to alleviate flood risk, and enhance environmental conditions
in the downstream Russian River to support salmonid
species.
Although the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and the near failure
of the Lower Van Norman Dam have given rise to construction
improvements … the overwhelming majority of California dams
are decades past their design life span. And while earthquakes
still loom as the greatest threat to California’s massive
collection of dams, experts warn that these aging structures
will be challenged further by a new and emerging hazard:
“whiplashing shifts” in extreme weather due to climate change.
The flash flood that killed dozens of people and left hundreds
missing in the Himalayas of India on Sunday was far from the
first such disaster to occur among the world’s high-mountain
glaciers. In a world with a changing climate, it won’t be the
last. Shrinking and thinning of glaciers is one of the most
documented signs of the effects of global warming caused by
emissions of greenhouse gases … Over the long term,
there are concerns about what the loss of
glaciers will mean for billions of people around the world
who rely on them at least in part for water for drinking,
industry and agriculture.
This report outlines the current use of National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) S2S products and services,
and how NOAA plans to improve the usability and transference of
data, information, and forecasts. It will serve as a guidepost
for NOAA planning and execution, as well as to inform the
public and NOAA’s stakeholders on its efforts on subseasonal
and seasonal forecasting…. and recommends a western U.S.
pilot project to support water management.
[FEMA] intends to provide federal financial assistance … to
the Santa Cruz County Flood Control and Water Conservation
District, Zone 7 in Santa Cruz County, California, to install a
sheet pile wall through the center of the existing Pajaro River
levee adjacent to the southern edge of the Watsonville
Wastewater Treatment Plant. The proposed action would protect
the plant flooding if the levee is compromised by river
erosion, slope failure, and seepage.
The California Department of Water Resources has secured $308
million in funding to pay for reconstruction and repair work
that has been done on the Oroville Dam’s spillways. The funds,
released by FEMA, are in addition to the $260 million that the
agency provided for repairs on the lower portion of the dam’s
main spillway. Repair work on the damaged emergency and main
spillways has been ongoing for nearly four years following
February 2017’s spillway crisis. The $308 million announced
Monday was at first rejected but later approved by FEMA
following an appeal from the DWR last year.
After a particularly wet week, Californians shouldn’t hang up
their snow shovels and raincoats just yet. Those in Southern
California should expect 1 to 8 inches of snow to fall in the
mountainous areas of Ventura and Los Angeles counties between
late Tuesday and Wednesday night, said Kathy Hoxsie, a
meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Oxnard.
Elsewhere in Los Angeles County, one-quarter to one-half of an
inch of rain is forecast to fall, with 3/4 inches expected in
the foothills, Hoxsie said.
In anticipation of the first big storm of the winter, the
Sonoma County Water Agency (Sonoma Water) on Tuesday, January
26, 2021 will begin the process of deflating its rubber dam
located in the Russian River near Forestville. Sonoma Water
routinely deflates the rubber dam when Russian River flow
forecasts show the river reaching 2,000 cubic feet per second
(cfs) in order to prevent damage to the rubber dam from the
high flows. The forecasted winter storm this week is expected
to raise river flows above 5,000 cfs by Thursday.
There is an adage in California that goes, “Whiskey is for
drinking and water is for fighting over.” But instead of
fighting, the California Water Commission (CWC) is looking for
opportunities to hear from local agencies on water
infrastructure projects. The CWC recently wrapped up a series
of public workshops intended to determine the opportunity for a
state role in financing water conveyance projects that meet the
challenges of a changing climate.
Today, 95% of the Central Valley’s historical floodplains are
cut off from the river by levees. Built in the early 1900s to
combat devastating floods, levees and bypasses were constructed
to corral mighty rivers and push water quickly through the
system. Even before invasive species, large rim dams, and Delta
water export facilities were introduced into the system, salmon
populations started to dramatically decline with the
construction of the levees. Simply put, the levees prevented
Chinook salmon from accessing their primary food source.
If you look deep into the eyes of a fish, it will tell you its
life story. Scientists from the University of California,
Davis, demonstrate that they can use stable isotopic analysis
of the eye lenses of freshwater fish—including threatened and
endangered salmon—to reveal a fish’s life history and what it
ate along the way. They conducted their study, published today
in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution, through
field-based experiments in California’s Central Valley. The
study carries implications for managing floodplains, fish and
natural resources; prioritizing habitat restoration efforts;
and understanding how landscape disturbances impact fish.
A storm that pounded Northern California with rain, snow, wind
and mud rolled southwards on Thursday, prompting flood warnings
and threats of mudslides in areas burned bare by wildfires. An
atmospheric river of moisture from the Pacific Ocean was
expected to dump 1 1/2 to 6 inches (15 centimeters) of rain in
Southern California from Thursday night into Saturday, with
winds up to 50 mph (almost 81 kph), according to the National
Weather Service. But threats also remained in portions of
central and Northern California.
The largest body of water in Colorado, Blue Mesa Reservoir is
nothing to scoff at. Found in the southern portion of the
state, Blue Mesa Reservoir is 20-miles-long, home to 96 miles
of shoreline, and constrained by a 390-foot-tall dam. However,
before this man-made reservoir and popular outdoor recreation
spot existed, the area was home to a thriving mountain town
that has since been wiped off the map.
A bid by Kern County farmers to take Kings River floodwater
officially got underway Tuesday as state regulators hashed out
procedures and next steps with the various parties. An initial
hearing had been set for April 15, but may now be pushed back
to July, depending on how Administrative Hearing Officer Nicole
Kuenzi rules.
A strong storm system brought heavy rain and powerful winds to
the Bay Area late Tuesday, increasing the risks of mudslides
and flash floods that have already prompted evacuations in some
parts of Northern California. An atmospheric river barreled
into the West Coast, causing flooding, evacuations and dropping
snowfall in the Sierra. In some places, including San Benito
County and Big Sur, the storm was expected to bring up to 10
inches of rain by Wednesday.
Federal officials, showing how rapidly the Biden administration
is overhauling climate policy after years of denial under
former President Donald J. Trump, aim to free up as much as $10
billion at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to protect
against climate disasters before they strike. The agency, best
known for responding to hurricanes, floods and wildfires [such
as those that struck California last year], wants to spend the
money to pre-emptively protect against damage by building
seawalls, elevating or relocating flood-prone homes and taking
other steps as climate change intensifies storms and other
natural disasters.
Flood damage attributed to climate change over a period of
three decades has cost the United States nearly $75 billion
according to a Stanford study released earlier this month,
Stanford News reports The study estimates blames climate change
for more than a third of the estimated $199 billion in damages
caused by floods related to climate change from 1988 to 2017,
the report aid.
The biggest storm of the season is barreling down on Northern
California. The Sacramento region could see up to 3 inches of
rain this week – perhaps doubling the amount of rain we’ve
received for the entire winter season – as an extreme storm
arrives Tuesday afternoon. The cold, wet system will bring
dangerous winds to the region, localized flooding and up to 80
inches of snow – yes, that’s nearly 7 feet – to the summits on
Interstate 80 and Highway 50.
Our 2020 Water Leaders class completed its year with a
report outlining policy recommendations for adapting California
water management to climate change. The class of
23 up-and-coming leaders from various stakeholder groups
and backgrounds – engineers, attorneys, planners, farmers,
environmentalists and scientists - had full editorial
control to choose recommendations.
Winter weather is finally arriving in Northern California. And
after weeks of dry, warm conditions and growing drought
concerns, it’s coming in hard. Forecasters say a sizable storm
— the first significant atmospheric river event to hit the
greater Bay Area this winter season and likely the biggest
storm in at least 12 months — will soak much of California
starting Tuesday night, continuing Wednesday, and bringing wet
roads, downed trees, power outages and the possibility of
mudslides.
After 10 days of protests, Britain’s Parliament did a
surprising thing: Its members approved a proposal to declare a
state of emergency in response to the rapidly overheating
planet. And while the U.K. was the first country to do so, it
wasn’t the last. Today, at least 38 countries around the world
— including the whole of the European Union, Japan, and New
Zealand — and thousands of towns, cities, and counties have
issued some kind of resolution declaring climate change a
crisis. … A week into his term, President Joe Biden is
already under pressure to do the same.
The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) estimates
that around 13 million Americans are living within a 100-year
flood zone. But over the last few years, researchers have found
that the government’s estimates are far lower than the ground
realities…. In a study published in the
journal Land Use Policy, researchers estimated that by 2050,
the number of houses in high-risk wildfire zones might increase
by nearly one million in California alone.
Baltimore may be a continent away from San Francisco, but the
coastal cities have at least one thing in common: rising seas.
Both are seeing more flooding, more shoreline erosion and more
battered infrastructure, and both want the oil industry to pay
for the damage. They blame fossil fuels for the global warming
that’s causing sea level rise. On Tuesday, Baltimore will lead
the campaign to recoup billions of dollars from oil companies
in a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles County officials released their
preliminary master plan for the river “reimagined” to
support both ecosystems and people who live along [the LA
River's] 51-mile corridor. … The long-awaited plan
— the result of five years of input from community residents,
organizations and people like renowned architect Frank Gehry —
will provide a foundation as the region balances its duty to
protect properties from flooding with the need for more access
to natural environments.
Dams built long ago to control floods or ease river transport
are gaining attention as a potential zero-carbon electricity
source in the US, as environmentalists and the hydropower
industry drop their longstanding antagonism in the face of
climate change. Hydroelectricity is like wind, solar and
nuclear power in that it emits no planet-warming carbon
dioxide, yet hydro capacity has not grown for decades after big
dams became impossible to build.
Large swathes of land in densely populated parts of the world
are subsiding rapidly as a result of groundwater depletion.
Paired with rising sea levels caused by global warming, this
could place many coastal cities at risk of severe flooding by
2040.
California has lost more than 90% of its wetlands since the
arrival of European settlers. Wetlands play an increasingly
crucial role in absorbing excess water and protecting coastal
and inland communities from flooding. They also provide
critical habitat for wildlife, including a variety of species
found nowhere else on Earth, some of which are at risk of
blinking out of existence…. we’ve identified three critical
lessons California has to offer the world to improve
restoration on a global scale… -Written by Julie Rentner, president of River Partners, and
Manuel Oliva, CEO of Point Blue Conservation Science.
Increasingly strong storms are responsible for more than a
third of the nation’s flood costs, swelling the tab by billions
of dollars a year as climate change continues to fuel more
extreme weather, according to new research at Stanford
University. The research, which is among the first to put a
price tag on heavier rainfall, found that the changing weather
is responsible for $75 billion of the cumulative $199 billion
of U.S. flood damage between 1998 and 2017. … Many of
the losses over that period were in California.
Water levels at the coastal mouth of the Russian River had
declined by late Thursday afternoon, eliminating the threat of
flooding in the town of Jenner, according to a release from
Sonoma Water, the county water agency. High waves pounded the
Sonoma Coast for days, creating a large mound of sand that
sealed the mouth of the river. The waves’ intensity initially
kept Sonoma Water from sending a heavy equipment operator to
dig a channel that would release the water from the river into
the ocean.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has calculated the risk
for every county in America for 18 types of natural disasters,
such as earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, volcanoes
and even tsunamis. And of the more than 3,000 counties, Los
Angeles County has the highest ranking in the National Risk
Index.
In an attempt to mitigate the effects of climate change that
are attacking Long Beach, the city has put together a
comprehensive Climate Action and Adaptation Plan with input
from scientists, business people, city leaders and the
public…The mammoth document and its appendices clocks in at
more than 900 pages and tackles the main challenges of climate
change: drought, sea level rise and flooding, extreme heat and
air quality.
Parts of the world economy may have been on pause during 2020,
dampening greenhouse gas emissions for a while. But that didn’t
slow the overall buildup of atmospheric carbon dioxide, which
reached its highest level in millions of years. If
anything, research during the year showed global warming is
accelerating…As polar ice melts more quickly, sea level rise
also accelerates…The acceleration could be felt especially
strongly along the West Coast, where sea level is starting to
rise much faster than in recent years, according to NASA.
USACE Sacramento District has a proven track record of facing
challenges head-on. When 2020 brought with it the Novel
Coronavirus, the District responded quickly to address the
needs of a rapidly changing work environment…This year marked
the start of major construction on the [American River Common
Features] project, and the pandemic hit just as crews were
mobilizing, meaning both USACE and its contractors faced
unexpected public impacts.
David Thurman Ford passed away peacefully on December 13, 2020
following 16 months of treatment for acute myeloid
leukemia… Ford had an illustrious career that began in
1978 as a hydrologic engineer at the US Army Corps of
Engineers, Hydrologic Engineering Center (HEC) in Davis,
California. In 1990 he founded David Ford Consulting Engineers,
Inc (DFCE) which specialized in a variety of water resources
and flood forecasting projects with the California Department
of Water Resources, the Sacramento Area Flood Control Agency,
the Central Valley Hydrology study, and various districts of
the US Army Corps of Engineers…
Local and state officials in California vowed Thursday to serve
as a united front as they seek state funding to mitigate the
anticipated devastating impacts of sea level rise on the Golden
State’s coast in the years to come.
The latest map that shows habitable properties in Montecito,
Summerland and Carpinteria at risk of debris flows or flooding
from a storm will be released this week by Santa Barbara
County officials. …The map will be utilized by local
emergency managers to determine the portions of the community
that would be evacuated this winter if necessary, according to
county officials.
When Hurricane Sandy hit New York City in 2012, it was a
wake-up call for Bay Area Council members, who were glued to
coverage of the devastation from their tenth floor offices near
San Francisco’s Ferry Building… They asked themselves if the
disaster unfolding 3,000 miles away could strike here too.
[They] realized the answer was yes when they learned about the
Great Flood of 1862, the worst in California’s recorded
history.
In California’s contentious water battles, finding points of
agreement is a challenging task as diverse interests compete
for a steadily dwindling, essential natural resource. By
pulling together these diverse interests, we found a way to
make progress towards improving what is arguably California’s
hardest-working floodplain, the 60,000-acre Yolo Bypass. -Written by Jim Provenza and Gary Sandy, Yolo County
Supervisors, and Robin Kulakow, founder of the Yolo Basin
Foundation.
For Daniel Swain, climate scientist at UCLA, weather is an
obvious inroad into engaging people on climate change, as
people are way more likely to respond to a fire or flood at
their doorstep than a chart of rising emissions…Swain studies
why extreme events are changing, how we’re experiencing them,
and what we can do to adapt to a new, disaster-prone world.
This year, he released papers tying flood
exposure and autumn wildfires in California to
climate change…
The fire that rampaged through the San Lorenzo Valley in August
and September burned hotter and destroyed more acreage than
anyone in these rugged, rural and breathtaking mountains can
remember…Now the region is bracing for more devastation, in
the form of potentially deadly debris flows caused by winter
storms.
The Biggs-West Gridley Water District, Ducks Unlimited and the
Bureau of Reclamation recently announced the completion of
Phase II (of five total phases) of the water supply project for
the world-renowned Gray Lodge Wildlife Area.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s recent Executive Order
(N-82-20) reinforced the urgency of accelerating “nature-based
solutions to our climate and extinction crises.”…The
forthcoming Delta climate vulnerability assessment is
innovative and essential, but it is only a first step.
Lake Mendocino currently sits at 712 ft above sea
level… That’s very low. But despite years of dry
conditions … it’s not the lowest the lake has ever been.
Thanks to a new set of satellite technologies and water
management techniques dubbed FIRO, or Forecast Informed
Reservoir Operations (pronounced FEE-roh), the lake is still
more than a dozen feet above its record low.
Mike Hoover, a Santa Barbara geologist, wants to remind us of
the Medieval Drought, the epic dry period that held California
and the West in its grip for 400 years, beginning in 950 CE….
It was so bad, he said, that it may have led to malnutrition
and warfare among the prehistoric Chumash.
Investigating historic debris flows is paramount to get insight
on which areas of Santa Cruz County could be at risk this
coming winter and beyond. California Geological Survey
scientists working with Santa Cruz County, and the U.S.
Geological Survey, are tracking what triggers debris flows
using drones, rain gauges and cameras.
The consolidated Oroville Spillway cases are currently
scheduled to go to trial in April of 2021. A large judgement
for monetary damages could potentially bankrupt the State Water
Project, according to filings by the Department of Water
Resources.
By burning and brushing, nurturing important plants and
keeping lands around their homes clear of dead brush and
debris, Native peoples carefully stewarded the lands to sustain
the biodiverse ecologies California is known for. Their
work resulted in a richly productive landscape that provided
food and habitat for not only humans but many land, air and
water animals. That included the salmon, a staple of tribes in
the West for millennia. All that changed when California became
a U.S. state in 1850.
Alfalfa is proving in University of California studies to be
remarkably resilient when flooded with large amounts of water
early in the year to refill ground depleted by deficit
irrigation, or to recharge groundwater drawn down by pumping.
