Hydroelectric power is generated by the ability to turn falling
water into electricity and in California accounts for about 15
percent of the state’s power supply annually.
San Diego County Water Authority this week issued a formal
Request for Proposals seeking a full-service private partner
capable of developing a large-scale pumped energy storage
project planned jointly by the Water Authority and the City of
San Diego. Proposals are due by 2 p.m. Nov. 3, and details such
as how to file are included in the RFP document
at www.sdcwa.org/contracting-opportunities. The
partner agencies aim to maximize the value of the existing San
Vicente Reservoir for on-demand energy generation to support
the state’s clean energy goals.
The visible signs of America’s lingering drought are obvious at
reservoirs across the American West. Drive from Las Vegas and
step out of your car at Hoover Dam and Lake Mead in Nevada or
peek out at Lake Powell on the Arizona-Utah border, and you’ll
see the stone-stained “bathtub rings” indicating the high-water
marks of better times. … [A]s water levels drop, the unseen
effect of these drastic reservoir declines is
that hydroelectric power is decreasing.
The federal agency that distributes electricity from hydropower
plants in the Upper Colorado River Basin will ask its
customers, including more than 50 here in Colorado, to help
offset rising costs linked to Lake Powell’s inability to
produce as much power due to drought. The Western Area Power
Administration (WAPA), which distributes Lake Powell’s
electricity, is gathering public comments and asking its
customers how best to cope with long-term drought conditions
that have pushed Powell and other reservoirs to historically
low levels.
As part of its recently enacted budget for 2021-22, California
included funding to help foster the development of one such
storage method, known as pumped-storage hydropower. In
particular, the budget provided $18 million to the city of San
Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority for use in
advancing their planned joint project known as the San Vicente
Energy Storage Facility. The funding will enable the two
entities to issue a request for proposals in September for a
private partner willing to develop the project at its own
expense.
Wildfires and declining water levels at reservoirs have
threatened California’s power supply at various points this
summer. Desperate to avoid blackouts amid the compounding
crisis, California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom is eyeing the
construction of five “temporary” gas-fueled plants in the
coming months. According to Bloomberg, California’s Energy
Commission approved licenses for the emergency gas generators
on Tuesday for up to five years, each of which reportedly has
an individual capacity to generate 30 megawatts of energy.
Not only does the Turlock-native Congressman refrain from
partisan politics for the most part, although those who don’t
understand why a Democrat would vote for Nancy Pelosi as House
Speaker as opposed to Kevin McCarthy will argue that point, but
Harder knows a drought when he sees one. The second term 10th
District congressman in late July noted that California is in
dire straits. Harder pointed out the reservoirs we rely on are
at a lower point now than they were at the depth of the last
drought that ended in 2019. -Written by Turlock Journal columnist Dennis
Wyatt.
Severe droughts are drying up rivers and reservoirs vital for
the production of zero-emissions hydropower in several
countries around the globe, in some cases leading governments
to rely more heavily on fossil fuels. The emerging problems
with hydropower production in places like the United States,
China and Brazil represent what scientists and energy experts
say is going to be a long-term issue … In
California, the State Water Project was forced to shut down a
750-MW hydroelectric power plant at Lake Oroville this month
for the first time since it was built in 1967 because of low
water levels.
Included in the sweeping $1 trillion infrastructure bill
approved by the Senate is funding for Western water projects
that farmers, water providers and environmentalists say are
badly needed across the parched region. … The plan would
provide $1.15 billion for improving water storage and transport
infrastructure such as dams and canals. Groundwater storage
projects, which replenish underground aquifers that aren’t
vulnerable to evaporation, would also get funding.
In a year already plagued by the pandemic and wildfires,
Californians are also entangled with the crippling effects of a
drought. For example, the drought has lowered Lake Oroville’s
level to its lowest level in nearly 44 years, impacting
recreation and wildlife. A shuttle boat ferries people back and
forth across Lake Oroville. Now, it’s the only way to get to
the houseboats on the water.
In a year already plagued by pandemic and wildfires,
Californians are also entangled with the crippling effect of
drought. … In 2017, hundreds of thousands of lives were
threatened when massive flooding damaged the Oroville Dam.
Today, changing weather conditions have created a stark
contrast from years ago: Hot temperatures and low rainfall have
left miles of dusty, cracked shorelines exposed.
Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Calimlim
Touton today named Jacklynn (Jaci) L. Gould as regional
director for the Lower Colorado Basin Region. Gould has more
than 29 years of experience with Reclamation. … As regional
director, Gould will lead over 800 employees in the region,
which encompasses the last 700 miles of the Colorado River to
the Mexican border, southern Nevada, southern California, and
most of Arizona. She will oversee hydropower operations and
maintenance for 15 facilities …
The giant hydropower plant at Lake Oroville shut down in a
historic first Thursday because of the drought, putting
another dent in California’s defense against rolling
blackouts. The state Department of Water Resources said
the Hyatt Powerplant, a fixture at Lake Oroville since the
reservoir was built in the late 1960s, has been taken down
because of low water levels.
A developer has withdrawn two of the three proposals to
build a series of hydroelectric dams in the Little Colorado
River watershed, projects that had drawn opposition from
several tribes and environmentalists. Phoenix-based Pumped
Hydro Storage LLC relinquished preliminary permits
for the Salt Trail Canyon and Little
Colorado River proposals on July 26. … The
company left in place an application for a third
proposal in nearby Big Canyon.
Lake Oroville, one of California’s biggest reservoirs, reached
its lowest-ever point this week, breaking a record set decades
ago in the latest troubling sign of the punishing drought
conditions afflicting the state. The lake reached a “new
historic low elevation” of 642.73 feet of water, which is down
from 645 feet in September 1977, said John Yarbrough, assistant
deputy director of the California State Water Project, in a
statement.
A “mega-drought” across the Southwest will force the federal
government to declare a water shortage on the Colorado River
this month. The decision would be historic for the watershed,
which serves 40 million people in seven states: California,
Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado and Wyoming. The
river system provides irrigation that turns desert into
farmland and is an important source of drinking water and
hydroelectric power.
The annual snapshot of California’s electricity generation
shows how much drought conditions can affect the state’s power
mix. In-state hydroelectricity generation in 2020 dropped 44.3
percent from the year before, according to numbers recently
released by the California Energy Commission. All told, 21,414
gigawatt-hours came from a combination of the state’s large and
small hydro power plants — significantly lower than the 38.494
gigawatt-hours hydro delivered in 2019.
The state government’s decision to provide $18 million to fund
preliminary work on state and federal approvals for the
long-anticipated San Vicente Energy Storage Facility —
advocated by the San Diego County Water Authority and the city
of San Diego — makes the $1.5 billion project significantly
more likely to come to pass. The great news is that the “pumped
hydro” facility at the San Vicente Reservoir near Lakeside will
strongly shore up available energy supplies at night after
solar power is no longer directly available.
We are excited to share that the Twenty-First Century Dams Act
was introduced this month on July 15, 2021. This bill would
invest $21.1 billion to enhance the safety, grid resilience
benefits, and power generating capacity of America’s dams and
provide historic funding to remove dams that are no longer
necessary.
With an $18 million boost from the state, a major energy
storage project using hydroelectric power is taking shape at
the San Vicente Reservoir, nestled in the Cuyamaca Mountains
near Lakeside. The long talked about San Vicente Energy
Storage Facility — proposed by the city of San Diego and the
San Diego County Water Authority — received the funding earlier
this month when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the state budget.
The drought is taking its toll on dams and rivers throughout
California and there is no clearer example than at Lake
Oroville where water levels have been dropping all year.
… The Oroville Dam is the state water system’s tallest,
but boaters and fishermen have witnessed the water level fall
nearly 250 feet below average. State water regulators are
required to release water to protect fish downstream. They are
trying to preserve as much water as possible, but levels are
dropping a foot a day.
With water levels falling rapidly at Lake Powell on the
Arizona-Utah border, federal officials are taking what could be
the first of several steps to prop it up. This month the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation started a six-month effort to raise the
lake around 3 feet by the end of 2021 by releasing 181,000 acre
feet of water from three upstream reservoirs. It comes as the
lake just Sunday fell below its lowest level on record.
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.
A major California hydroelectric power plant could soon stop
generating power amid worsening drought conditions. According
to state water officials, the Edward Hyatt Powerplant at Lake
Oroville could go offline as soon as August or September — a
time frame that would coincide with a feared power crunch this
summer. The plant, which opened in the late 1960s, has never
been forced offline by low lake levels before.
A 500 MW pumped energy storage project proposed jointly by the
City of San Diego and the San Diego County Water Authority
received $18 million in the California state budget. The
support will help fund the San Vicente Energy Storage
Facility through initial design, environmental reviews,
and the federal licensing process. The project … could
generate revenue to help offset the cost of water purchases,
storage, and treatment.
The water levels behind the Colorado River’s biggest dams are
fast-approaching or already at record lows. The historic
21-year megadrought that is squeezing some Western states’
water supplies will also likely start showing up in energy
bills, because those dams can’t produce as much electricity.
The problem is most acute at the Upper Colorado River basin’s
largest reservoir: Lake Powell.
[A] developer hopes to submit [an application] by
the end of the year [to] utilize excess solar and wind energy
to power their pumped storage technology … By using
renewable energy to transfer water back and forth between two
reservoirs, the project would be a non-consumptive means of
using water to generate power. In the case of the Mokelumne
Pumped Storage Water Battery Project, the Salt Springs
Reservoir has been identified as the lower reservoir, as it
already has a small hydro-facility on it that generates about
44 megawatts of energy.
To the extent most Californians are thinking about energy right
now, they’re probably wondering whether the lights will stay on
during the next heat wave. It’s a reasonable fear, especially
after the state’s power grid operator issued an urgent call for
electricity supplies last week and warned of possible
shortfalls this summer. The California Independent System
Operator is seeking bids from power plants that can fire up
after sundown, when solar panels stop generating but air
conditioners keep humming. -Written by Sammy Roth, LA Times columnist.
[A]s a result of this year’s harsh drought conditions, we
expect hydroelectric generation in California to be lower in
2021 than it has been in recent years. In the first four months
of 2021, hydroelectric generation in California was 37% less
than in the same four months in 2020 and 71% less than during
those months in 2019. According to our Short-Term Energy
Outlook, hydroelectric generation in California this year will
be 19% less than last year, decreasing from 16.8 million
megawatthours (MWh) in 2020 to 13.6 million MWh in 2021.
California’s reservoirs and rivers are startlingly low, forcing
many of the state’s more than 270 hydropower facilities to
generate less power. Lake Oroville, one of the state’s largest
reservoirs, made headlines because its water levels have
dropped so low the power plant may need to shut down for the
first time. While most other hydropower plants aren’t at risk
of shutting down, plants that rely on watersheds up and down
the state are not able to generate normal amounts of power.
To understand a sharp-elbows squabble that’s developing behind
the scenes in the state Capitol, one must first understand
“pumped-storage hydro,” a way for electrical energy to be
stored. In its simplest form, water stored in a reservoir is
released to generate power as it flows into a second reservoir
at a lower elevation. Later, when the electrical grid’s need
for power diminishes, the water is pumped back into the upper
reservoir so the cycle can be repeated when demand
increases. -Written by Dan Walters, CalMatters columnist.
A project to generate electricity in the Little Colorado River
Basin may have stalled. Conservation groups were concerned
when a Phoenix-based company proposed building dams on the
Navajo Nation to generate electricity. Their concerns grew last
year, when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a
preliminary permit for feasibility studies. But the
company has missed deadlines that would move the project
forward. … The company has also failed to receive
approval for the project from the Navajo Nation, which would be
a critical step in the process.
Record-setting heat and drought gripping the western United
States are exposing a potentially severe risk to the nation’s
long-term power supply, and experts warn that grid operators
lack sufficient tools to plan and carry out a defense.
… Persistent drought also threatens power from
hydroelectric dams in the West, a critical resource for
California during extended heat waves. Water levels are so low
at Lake Oroville, California’s second-largest reservoir, that
officials are considering shutting down a hydroelectric plant
there.
In a few weeks, officials say, [Lake Oroville's] water levels
are likely to dip even lower – forcing them to shut down one of
the state’s largest hydroelectric power plants for the first
time since it was built in 1967. Amid a historic megadrought,
the climate crisis and energy crisis in California are about to
collide, and set off a vicious cycle. The state’s diminishing
water supply is cutting down hydropower, and California is
relying more on fossil fuels as extreme summer heat drives up
electricity use.
High temperatures are returning again this week — with the
hottest months still ahead — and that means the demand on
electricity will keep spiking. The answer to our problems is
not in rivers or lakes but in the ocean. Last month, the Biden
administration announced plans to build roughly 380 wind
turbines in federal waters off the California coast.
Eventually, the turbines will generate 4,600 megawatts — enough
to power 1.6 million homes.
In April of 2017, PGE began moving forward with its plans to
relicense the Potter Valley Project (PVP)—with, as of yet, no
designs to remove any of the infrastructure—and in August of
2019, Congressman Jared Huffman created the PVP Ad Hoc
Committee, a Two Basin Solution for the Eel and Russian River
basins, whose more than 20 members were tasked with the
relicensing process of the PVP to improve fisheries and fish
migration, minimize adverse impacts to water supply
reliability, respect tribal rights and minimize and mitigate
adverse impacts to Lake County including Lake Pillsbury.
Water lines on the banks of Lake Oroville in Butte County have
depleted so rapidly that the reservoir’s hydroelectric power
plant may have to shut down for the first time ever, straining
an already encumbered power grid during the hottest part of the
summer, California officials announced Thursday. Since
1967, the Edward Hyatt Power Plant has been a crucial source of
electricity for the area and usually has the capacity to power
up to 800,000 homes, pumping water from the lake through its
underground facilities, according to CNN.
A proposal to bring down four hydroelectric dams near the
California-Oregon border cleared a major regulatory hurdle
Thursday, setting the stage for the largest dam demolition
project in U.S. history to save imperiled migratory salmon.
California’s shaky power grid is on a collision course with an
epic drought that’s depleting a major source of supply:
hydroelectricity. The Western heatwave that began Wednesday has
the manager of the state’s grid, the California Independent
System Operator, warning of potential power shortages through
the weekend. Although the organization stopped short of
predicting another round of rolling blackouts, it appealed to
Californians to conserve energy to get the state through a
tough week.
The catastrophic drought that’s gripping the U.S. West is
claiming a new victim: the hydropower dams that much of the
region depends on for electricity supplies. Low water levels in
key reservoirs mean that hydropower supplies are declining. One
of the hardest hit areas is California, where output has
tumbled to the lowest in more than five years.
Interior Secretary Deb Haaland released a letter Friday to
the Federal Energy Regulatory Committee in support of Klamath
dam removal. … The four hydroelectric dams clogging the
Klamath River are slated to be removed in 2023 under an
agreement forged between the states of California and Oregon,
the dams’ owner PacifiCorp and the Karuk and Yurok tribes. And
Haaland’s letter comes as conditions in the Klamath River Basin
are the worst they’ve been in years due to drought conditions.
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.
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.
Just before midnight on March 12, 1928, the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power’s St. Francis Dam collapsed,
inundating the canyon below with some 12 billion gallons of
water. The floodwaters, which in the darkness registered first
as a mounting roar to those who were awake, tossed 10,000-ton
fragments of the dam thousands of feet downstream and scoured
the canyon walls to bare rock. More than 400 people in the
flood’s 53-mile path to the sea were drowned or battered to
death as the torrent sheared through orchards, pulverized
buildings, and crumpled bridges.
Only one week remains to register for our May 20 virtual
Lower
Colorado River Tour where you can hear directly
from experts offering a range of perspectives on the most
contested and meticulously managed river in the United
States. Practically every drop of water in the
Colorado River is already allocated, but pressure on the
hard-working river continues to grow from myriad sources —
increasing population, declining habitat and climate
change.
Reps. Jared Huffman and Mike Thompson, along with prominent
North Coast water managers and politicians gathered at a
virtual summit yesterday morning to discuss the severe drought
facing the North Coast and the entire state. At the summit (a
recording of which is available on YouTube), State Senator Mike
McGuire stated that the state legislature is moving forward on
a several billion dollar drought relief package, which would
include $1 billion in grants to help ratepayers and utilities
pay off back bills and $500 million to help smaller low income
communities develop enhanced drinking water supplies, among
other things (read the full list below).
The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) advises
being cautious during visits to Castaic Lake starting this May
during construction on the Castaic Dam in Santa Clarita, which
is expected to include a series of modernizations to prepare
for potential major earthquakes. Intending to reduce risks from
potential major earthquakes, the DWR plans to oversee Castaic
Dam construction in Santa Clarita, but the department also
warns of potential water hazards during the process.
Conservationists in California and across the West are deeply
skeptical of hydropower, and it’s not hard to see why. There’s
a long history of government agencies damming spectacular
canyons, choking off rivers, obliterating fish populations and
cutting off access to Indigenous peoples. … But despite the
environmental damage they’ve done, many dams also generate
electricity that is free of planet-warming carbon emissions.
Tearing down dams can revitalize ecosystems, but it can also
contribute to a climate crisis that is making rivers around the
world drier in some cases, more prone to flooding in others,
and in many cases hotter and more polluted.
-Written by Sammy Roth, a Los Angeles Times staff
writer.
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.
The Fresno County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed a
resolution proclaiming a local drought emergency. The vote on
the resolution during Tuesday’s special meeting was unanimous.
The resolution comes after Fresno leaders joined officials from
three other Central Valley counties on Friday to declare a
regional drought emergency and urge Gov. Gavin Newsom to do the
same statewide. Fresno County Chairman Steve Brandau said the
drought “is a crisis that we are putting upon ourselves.” He
said he’s not a water expert, but it has been “painful” for him
to watch “as water flows out into the ocean unused for human
resources.”
With the Colorado River’s largest reservoir just 38% full and
declining toward the threshold of a first-ever shortage,
Arizona water officials convened an online meeting this week to
outline how the state will deal with water cutbacks, saying the
reductions will be “painful” but plans are in place to lessen
the blow for affected farmers next year. Lake Mead’s decline is
expected to trigger substantial reductions in water deliveries
in 2022 for Arizona, Nevada and Mexico. The largest of those
cuts will affect Arizona, slashing its Colorado River supplies
by 512,000 acre-feet, about a fifth of its total entitlement.
President Biden’s pick this week to oversee the Army’s vast
natural resources operation would bring to the job decades of
water experience at the Interior Department and on Capitol
Hill. The president tapped Michael Connor to be the Department
of Defense’s assistant secretary of the Army for civil works,
which oversees the Army Corps of Engineers and its huge network
of dams and other projects. Connor would play a major role in
some of the most controversial projects facing the Biden
administration in the environmental arena, including the
Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines, as well as Clean Water
Act permitting.
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.
A federal court has ruled that Best Best & Krieger LLP client
City of Santa Maria and others are correctly not releasing more
water from a dam above the City, as doing so would be in
conflict with the dam’s Congressional purpose. … The
lawsuit claims the defendants are violating the Endangered
Species Act by not releasing enough water from Twitchell Dam on
the Cuyama River, thereby not providing sufficient water for
federal law-protected Southern California Steelhead trout to
spawn.
Visit key infrastructure and environmental restoration
sites along the lower Colorado River during our online
tour May 20 of the iconic river as it weaves through the
Lower Basin states of California, Nevada and Arizona. Our
Lower Colorado
River Tour starts at Hoover Dam near Las Vegas and
stops at major agricultural regions, tourist
destinations and key wildlife areas such as the Salton Sea
and a wildlife refuge in Yuma, Ariz. resulting from a
tribal-city partnership.
The state and federal agencies tasked with protecting our fish,
wildlife, and natural resources are once again scrambling to
avoid wiping out this year’s cohort of chinook salmon that
spawn below Shasta Dam. If this sounds familiar, it is because
this scenario is a repeat of attempts to “manage” Shasta
operations in 2014 and 2015, which resulted in over 75% of the
eggs and fry of endangered winter run chinook salmon being
destroyed in both of those years, solely from the lack of
sufficient cold water being released from Shasta Dam …
The Yurok Tribe said it’s sounding the alarm as culturally
invaluable salmon edge closer to extinction. The Yurok also
said it is canceling its commercial fishery for the fifth time
this year. Tribal officials said past water management
decisions and climate change have put Klamath river salmon
stocks at risk. The tribe said it’s gravely concerned about the
rapidly declining salmon stocks in the Klamath River
Basin … Tribal officials said [Reclamation's] plan
provides bare-minimum flows for imperiled Klamath salmon and
sucker fish populations.
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.
The dams that are built in the Sacramento and San Joaquin River
Watershed protect thousands of people and billions of dollar’s
worth of agriculture but they are far too old and far too many
of them need repair. Some unnecessary dams are drying rivers
and putting business in front of the environment.
The Department of Water Resources (DWR) took another step in
its ambitious efforts to reduce climate change impacts by
replacing an old electricity-generating turbine with a new,
energy efficient model at the Ronald B. Robie Thermalito
Pumping-Generating Powerplant in Butte County that will help
the Department achieve its goal of using 100 percent
zero-emission resources by 2045.
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.
A Biden initiative expected to pour up to $3 trillion into
repairing America’s decrepit infrastructure and funding other
programs has sparked a scramble across the nation for the
federal funds — with California expecting to reap the biggest
piece. …Rep. John Garamendi, a Northern California Democrat
who is a senior member of the House Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee…spent more than an hour with Biden
in recent weeks and came away convinced that the program will
be broad enough to improve most areas of the nation’s
infrastructure: highways, passenger rail, electric grids, dams,
sewers and water systems, ocean terminals and
airports….
[I]t was with some surprise that last year Warren Buffett found
himself recently embroiled in a hugely important California
water issue – removal of the Klamath River dams. The
socioecological effects of dams on the Klamath River have been
massive, almost uniformly negative, and ongoing. The Klamath
watershed has been estimated as the third-most productive
drainage on the West Coast for salmon and steelhead. Yet salmon
runs declined substantially over the last century in part
because dams fragment and isolate salmon from their historical
upland spawning habitats. … Indigenous peoples have
disproportionately dealt with the brunt of ecological impacts
from dams on the Klamath River.
The Bureau of Reclamation is awarding $42.4 million in grants
to 55 projects throughout 13 states. These projects will
improve the water reliability for these communities by using
water more efficiently and power efficiency improvements that
water supply reliability and generate more hydropower…. In
California, near the Arizona border, the Bard Water District
will receive $1.1 million to complete a canal lining and piping
project. The project is expected to result in annual water
savings of 701 acre-feet, which will remain in the Colorado
River system for other uses.
After a record dry summer and fall — and with winter snowpack
currently at 70% of normal levels — Utah Gov. Spencer Cox
signed an emergency order Wednesday declaring a state of
emergency due to drought conditions. The move comes after a
recommendation from the state’s Drought Review and Reporting
Committee and opens the door for drought-affected communities
and agricultural producers to potentially access state or
federal emergency funds and resources, according to a news
release. Cox said Wednesday that state leaders have been
“monitoring drought conditions carefully and had hoped to see
significant improvement from winter storms.”
Grain by grain, sandbars are ecologically important to the
Colorado River system for humans and wildlife, say scientists.
How sand, silt and clay move along and become deposited within
the river corridor in the Grand Canyon National Park,
downstream from Glen Canyon Dam, has become an important
question to a number of government agencies as well as to
Native American tribes. The answer impacts the entire Colorado
River ecosystem and will help scientists better understand how
the Colorado River system works.
The water flow in the Grand Canyon is temporarily changing and
it could reveal some surprises, geologists said. The U.S.
Geological Survey said Sunday that an 11-day “spring
disturbance” flow will start Monday and will drop water levels
in parts of the Grand Canyon. … While dam maintenance
may not seem exciting, the drop in water could reveal parts of
the Colorado riverbed that hasn’t been seen in decades, USGS
said. It could also impact in the Colorado River
ecosystem. The change in water levels will also
mimic what the Colorado River was like before the dam was
built, USGS said.
Scientists and boatmen with the United States Geological Survey
are preparing for a busy week on the Colorado River as
engineers at Glen Canyon Dam prepare to reduce the water
flowing out of Lake Powell substantially. In order to conduct
maintenance on the concrete apron downstream of the dam,
engineers will be limiting the water that runs through the
dam’s turbines starting Monday and continuing through the rest
of the week.
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.
California’s large reservoirs are currently operated using
historical hydrology and outdated assumptions about the state’s
climate. Many experts are calling for changing how reservoirs
are managed to reflect advances in weather forecasting, which
can help the state adapt to a warmer, more volatile climate. We
talked to Martin Ralph—director of the Center for Western
Weather and Water Extremes at the Scripps Institution of
Oceanography—about advances in this field.
The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) gave America’s
infrastructure a C- grade in its quadrennial assessment issued
March 3. ASCE gave the nation’s flood control infrastructure –
dams and levees – a D grade. This is a highly concerning
assessment, given that climate change is increasingly stressing
dams and levees as increased evaporation from the oceans drives
heavier precipitation events. … Climate scientists at
Stanford University found that between 1988 and 2017, heavier
precipitation accounted for more than one-third of the $200
billion in [flood] damage…
It was a Friday in late August when four jet boats made their
way up the Klamath River under a cloudless blue sky. The boats
carried three tribal chairs. From the Karuk Tribe, there was
Russell “Buster” Attebery, who’d found pride as a boy catching
salmon from the river and bringing them home to his family, and
later come to believe some tribal youth’s troubles — from
suicides to substance use — could be traced back to their never
having had that opportunity, growing up alongside a river now
choked with algae and diminishing fish populations.
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…
Though the nonprofit tasked with Klamath River dam removal is
about to submit its definite plan to federal regulators, Del
Norte County and the Crescent City Harbor District are still
worried about potential negative impacts. Harbor commissioners
on Thursday agreed to sign onto a memorandum of understanding
that includes the county and the Klamath River Renewal
Corporation. The MOU contains conditions that ensures the
harbor and county can recover potential damages to the port and
the fishing industry that occur as a result of dam removal and
reservoir drawdown on the Klamath River.
On Feb. 22, 2021, Lake Powell was 127.24 feet below ‘Full Pool’
or, by content, about 38% full. Based on water level
elevations, these measurements do not account for years of
sediment (clay, silt, and sand) accumulation—the millions of
metric tons on the bottom. Geologist James L. Powell said, “The
Colorado delivers enough sediment to Lake Powell to fill 1,400
ship cargo containers each day.” In other words, Lake
Powell is shrinking toward the middle from top and bottom. The
lake is down over 30 feet from one year ago, and estimates
suggest it could drop another 50 feet by 2026. The Bureau of
Reclamation estimated the lifespan of Glen Canyon Dam at
500–700 years. Other estimates aren’t as optimistic, including
some as low as 50 years.
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.
Federal regulators have issued a preliminary permit for a
pumped-hydropower project using water from Lake Powell, but
conservation groups say climate change could make the plan
unsustainable. The project would pump water from the lake,
drain it downhill to a generator, and send the power to massive
batteries for storage. The 2,200-megawatt project would supply
cities in Arizona, California and Nevada, over lines previously
used by the retired Navajo Generating Station. Gary Wockner,
executive director for Save the Colorado, which opposes the
plan, said falling water levels will make the Colorado River
Basin an unreliable source of water.
Conservation groups said 80 species were known to have gone
extinct, 16 in the last year alone. Millions of people rely on
freshwater fish for food and as a source of income through
angling and the pet trade. But numbers have plummeted due to
pressures including pollution, unsustainable fishing, and the
damming and draining of rivers and wetlands. The report said
populations of migratory fish have fallen by three-quarters in
the last 50 years. Over the same time period, populations of
larger species, known as “megafish”, have crashed by 94%.
Texas has always seen its share of extreme weather events,
but over the past two decades they have intensified. A few
years ago, after the fifth “ 500-year flood” in five years, I
remarked to a friend, “We’re going to have to stop calling them
that.” … Of course, this uptick in extreme weather is
not limited to Texas. Numerous places across the country—and
indeed the globe—have experienced multiple “historic” weather
events in recent years. Last year, droughts in California led
to six of the largest wildfires in the state’s
history. In 2017 and 2018, British Columbia had two consecutive
record-setting forest fire seasons.
-Written by Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer
with over 25 years of experience in the energy
industry.
“Basic climate science reveals that Lake Powell is not a
reliable water source for this ill-conceived project.” The
reference to ‘basic climate science’ refers to recent computer
models that show a drier climate throughout the American
Southwest over the next few decades, allegedly due to the
continued use of fossil fuels all around the globe. But even
without access to clever computer models, we have all seen Lake
Powell and Lake Mead — America’s two largest water reservoirs —
struggle to remain even half full, as we watch water users
extract more water than nature can replace.
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.
Following a disappointing 2019 adult fall run on the Klamath,
2020 proved to be only slightly better. Unfortunately, the
numbers weren’t enough to get us out of the “overfished”
category, and it’s likely we’ll have some severe
restrictions both in the ocean and in the Klamath and Trinity
rivers in 2021. … According to CDFW, the number of returning
fall run kings in 2020 was 45,407, about half the long-term
average. In 2019 only 37,270 adult kings returned. The return
of fall Chinook jacks was 9,037 fish, which is also below the
long-term average of 17,740.
Last month in an announcement on Business Wire, the Klamath
River Renewal Corporation (KRRC) and Resource Environmental
Solutions (RES) announced they have signed a contract for RES
to provide restoration services in connection with the removal
of four dams on the Klamath River. The agreement between RES
and KRRC finalizes habitat restoration, maintenance, and
liability transfer responsibilities for a fixed price, opening
the door to a successful restoration of native vegetation and
anadromous fish habitat along the historical, pre-dam path of
the Klamath River.
In a recent study published in Environmental Research Letters,
[Julia] Szinai and her colleagues present a framework that
outlines the links between and vulnerabilities of
[California's] energy and water systems. The findings can be
used to evaluate how both climate change and our adaptation
decisions might affect the interconnected systems. It’s a first
and an “exhaustive” quantification of the linkages between
energy and water…
The process to recoup over $1 billion in repairs to Oroville
Dam’s spillways after the 2017 crisis is receiving more federal
funds. The Department of Water Resources announced Feb. 1 that
the Federal Emergency Management Agency released an additional
approximately $308 million in requested funds for the Oroville
Dam spillways reconstruction and emergency response. These
funds are in addition to over $260 million that FEMA has
already committed to …
A Northern California water users’ association has filed a
motion against a $450 million plan to tear down four dams on
the Klamath River they claim irrevocably hurts local
homeowners. The motion was filed with the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC) last Wednesday by the Murphy and
Buchal Law firm on behalf of the Siskiyou County Water Users
Association. It claims the interstate agreement reached by
Oregon and California last year to remove the dams has incurred
“irreparable damage” to lakefront home values in the COPCO Lake
area as water levels are feared to decline.
The Klamath River Renewal Corporation last week signed an
agreement with Resource Environmental Solutions, a Texas-based
ecological restoration company, to provide restoration services
following the removal of four dams on the Klamath River. The
agreement with RES brings North Coast tribes one step closer to
their decades-long goal of dam removal.
Tens of thousands of large dams across the globe are reaching
the end of their expected lifespans, leading to a dramatic rise
in failures and collapses, a new UN study finds. These
deteriorating structures pose a serious threat to hundreds of
millions of people living downstream…. In 2017, a
spillway collapsed at the 50-year-old Oroville Dam in
California’s Sierra Nevada foothills. It caused the evacuation
of around 180,000 people. The 770-foot dam is the highest in
the U.S. and, after repairs to the spillway, remains critical
to the state’s water supply.
The Tuolumne Utilities District (TUD) Board of Directors is
hosting a virtual information meeting to update local board
members and agencies about the proposed purchase of water
infrastructure and water rights contracts. As reported here in
March last year, TUD and PG&E announced they were in
exclusive negotiations about the potential transfer of the
Phoenix Hydroelectric Project. The proposed agreement includes
the Phoenix Powerhouse, the Main Tuolumne Canal, the pre and
post 1914 water rights, the Lyons Dam and Reservoir, Strawberry
Dam and Pinecrest Reservoir.
The organization tasked with removing four dams on the Klamath
River has contracted with Resource Environmental Solutions to
spearhead habitat restoration work. The Bellaire, Texas firm
will be the lead restoration contractor for the project led by
the Klamath River Renewal Corporation. In hiring RES, KRRC
meets federal and state permitting requirements, according to a
Friday news release from Business Wire.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug
against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes,
pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay
of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these
orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a
multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But
that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has
depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded
ecosystems. The land is literally sinking…
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.
Ongoing drought in parts of the West could trigger water
conservation measures across seven states this year. It would
mark the first time that cutbacks outlined in drought
contingency plans drafted two years ago have been put in place.
Everything from hydroelectric power generation to agricultural
production to the bubbling fountains at Las Vegas casinos could
be impacted. Impacts on hydro generation could have ripple
effects across the Southwest, including solar and energy
storage.
In Oregon, the Klamath Basin wildlife refuges have fallen into
their winter silence now. The huge, clamorous flocks of geese
that fill the sky during migration have moved south. This
summer, a different silence gripped the basin. A dead silence.
The 90,000 acres of marshes and open water that make up the
Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges are a
small remnant of vast wetlands that once filled this region on
the Oregon-California border. -Written by Pepper Trail, a contributor to Writers on the
Range and a conservation biologist in Ashland, Ore.
Increasingly bleak forecasts for the Colorado River have for
the first time put into action elements of the 2019 upper basin
drought contingency plan. The 24-month study released in
January by the Bureau of Reclamation, which projects two years
of operations at the river’s biggest reservoirs, showed Lake
Powell possibly dipping below an elevation of 3,525 feet above
sea level in 2022. That elevation was designated as a critical
threshold in the agreement to preserve the ability to produce
hydropower at Glen Canyon Dam.
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.
For many years Pacific Gas & Electric Co. has operated the
“Potter Valley Project,” a hydroelectric facility on the main
stem of the Eel River consisting of Scott and Cape Horn dams
and a tunnel diverting water into the Russian River watershed,
where it is used to generate a small amount of electricity and
for irrigation by farmers in Potter Valley and farther south in
Sonoma County. The construction of Scott Dam in 1922
completely blocked passage of critically imperiled anadromous
fish including salmon, steelhead and lamprey…
As the planet continues to warm, the twin challenges of
diminishing water supply and growing energy demand will
intensify. But water and energy are inextricably linked. For
instance, nearly a fifth of California’s energy goes toward
water-related activities, while more than a tenth of the
state’s electricity comes from hydropower. As society tries to
adapt to one challenge, it needs to ensure it doesn’t worsen
the other. To this end, researchers from UC Santa Barbara,
Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UC Berkeley have
developed a framework to evaluate how different climate
adaptations may impact this water-energy nexus.
In 2019 the Two-Basin Solution Partnership filed a Notice of
Intent to apply for relicensing and ownership of the [Potter
Valley] project, followed in the spring of 2020 by a
feasibility study and project plan that includes removal of
Scott Dam, and a commitment to provide water to Potter Valley
and the Russian River…. Many questions remain, starting with
impacts on local recreational users and cabin owners. By
Victoria Brandon, board president of Tuleyome, a nature-based
environmental organization based in Woodland.
Joining a growing list, Turlock and Modesto Irrigation
Districts filed a Petition with the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission asking that the commission find that the State of
California has waived certification under the Clean Water Act.
… The Districts are seeking a new FERC license for two
hydropower projects on the Tuolumne River, the Don Pedro
Project and the La Grange Project.
The Department of Water Resources recently published a summary
report of a comprehensive needs assessment of safety at
Oroville Dam. It comes after the reconstruction of the
spillways that were damaged and failed in 2017.
Karuk Tribe natural resources spokesperson Craig Tucker joined
John Howard to talk about the historic agreement, its impact on
the region’s Salmon fisheries, and the potential for
replication in other places where dams are contested.
The Trump Administration Thursday released the Shasta Lake
Water Resources Investigation Final Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement to increase water storage capacity in the
Shasta Lake reservoir by 634,000 acre-feet,
PG&E Corp. named a new CEO on Wednesday, hiring a Michigan
utility executive to run California’s largest utility as it
confronts the state’s mounting wildfire risks following a stint
in bankruptcy. Patricia K. “Patti” Poppe, who has been CEO of
Michigan-based CME Energy Corp., will take over Jan. 4.
Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Oregon counterpart signed a landmark
deal Tuesday to take control of four aging dams targeted for
removal on the Lower Klamath River, an agreement designed to
push the controversial $450 million plan over the finish line.
… The agreement “ensures that we have sufficient backing” to
get the four dams demolished, said Chuck Bonham, director of
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The last three administrations have been active in Klamath
Basin issues regardless of political party. Negotiations for a
basin-wide agreement began under the Bush Administration and
continued under the Obama Administration until faltering in the
House of Representatives — though each president’s approach has
varied. Dan Keppen, executive director of the Family Farm
Alliance, said Biden’s experience in the Obama Administration
could prove an asset, if he brings a similar approach.
The Yuba Water Agency is in the process of applying for a new
license to continue its hydroelectric operations along the Yuba
River, but agency leaders say some requirements issued by the
State Water Resources Control Board threaten the effort by
making it too costly. The agency filed lawsuits in state and
federal court Friday to essentially vacate the state board’s
requirements to obtain what is called a water quality
certification.
The Army Corps of Engineers … is considering another rule
change that would also shrink federal protection of small
streams, ecologists and lawyers say. The Corps said in its
proposal it is acting in response to the president’s order to
review regulations that burden energy development. Some of the
proposed changes will have essentially the same consequence as
the Trump administration’s contraction of the Clean Water
Act…
A 19-month study of the safety of the Oroville Dam project has
found no “unacceptable risks.” The Department of Water
Resources released its Comprehensive Needs Assessment on Oct.
30, and notes its findings generally agree with those of an
Independent Review Board and a regular five-year review by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission…
Why are our food producers, including many century-old family
farms with 100-year-old water rights, facing a shortage of
water? Because we drain Oregon’s largest lake to artificially
increase water supply in California.
The California State Water Resources Control Board and a group
of environmental organizations each have filed a petition for
review with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit of
FERC orders finding that the Water Board waived its authority
under section 401 of the Clean Water Act to issue a water
quality certification in the ongoing relicensing of Merced
Irrigation District’s Merced River and Merced Falls Projects.
Judith Marshall joined the corps’ Portland office in 2011 to
manage several projects, including the agency’s 13 dams in the
Willamette River Basin. She quickly learned the corps was out
of compliance with several major environmental laws for
virtually all of them. She got nowhere when she raised her
concerns to her supervisors. Then she was harassed and bullied.
Now Marshall is blowing the whistle.
The future of our existing dams, including 2,500 hydroelectric
facilities, is a complicated issue in the age of climate
change. Dams have altered river flows, changed aquatic habitat,
decimated fish populations, and curtailed cultural and treaty
resources for tribes. But does the low-carbon power dams
produce have a role in our energy transition?
Located right below Slab Creek Dam and Reservoir and priced at
$16.5 million … the project has two main functions. One
includes a recreational flow release on a nine-mile stretch
below the reservoir that will improve boating, rafting and
kayaking opportunities… The other release feeds water into
the powerhouse to drive the turbine.
At the October meeting of the California Water Commission,
Aaron Fakuda representing Temperance Flat Authority and Bill
Swanson, Principal Engineer with Stantec discussed the
project’s status with the Commission.
U.S. Rep. John Garamendi has filed an official objection to a
plan backed by Sonoma County and his House Democratic colleague
Jared Huffman to remove Scott Dam on the Eel River and drain
Lake Pillsbury, a popular recreation spot for nearly a century.
Dam failure, though rare, can cause catastrophic destruction of
property and lives. Repairing hazardous dams can help, but
simply removing them can be a better, more cost-effective
option with accompanying environmental benefits … a mere
five states account for half of all removals: Pennsylvania
(343), California (173), Wisconsin (141), Michigan (94), and
Ohio (82).
Virtual rallies will be held Friday at the utility’s
headquarters in Portland and in Buffett’s hometown of Omaha,
Neb., according to a Save California Salmon news release. A
rally will also be held in Seattle, home of the Bill and
Melinda Gates Foundation, the top shareholder in Buffett’s
Berkshire Hathaway conglomerate. Berkshire Hathaway Energy is
PacifiCorp’s parent company.
Congressman John Garamendi, who represents the northern half of
Lake County, on Friday submitted a formal comment to the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission opposing removal of Scott
Dam on the Eel River at Lake Pillsbury and demanding that Lake
County have an equal seat at the table for determining the
future of Potter Valley Project and the lake.
A dialogue organized by Stanford that brought together
environmental organizations, hydropower companies, investors,
government agencies and universities has resulted in an
important new agreement to help address climate change… Dan
Reicher, a former U.S. assistant secretary of energy and board
member of the conservation group American Rivers, spoke with us
about brokering this new agreement…
The industry that operates America’s hydroelectric dams and
several environmental groups announced an unusual agreement
Tuesday to work together to get more clean energy from
hydropower while reducing the environmental harm from dams, in
a sign that the threat of climate change is spurring both sides
to rethink their decades-long battle over a large but
contentious source of renewable power. The United States
generated about 7 percent of its electricity last year from
hydropower, mainly from large dams built decades ago, such as
the Hoover Dam, which uses flowing water from the Colorado
River to power turbines.
A high-stakes Supreme Court confirmation and COVID-19
negotiations may be the focus on Capitol Hill, but a sprawling
water infrastructure bill is still advancing quickly behind the
scenes.
In the new study, scientists at The University of Texas at
Austin in collaboration with the Union of Concerned Scientists
found that leading climate projections used by the state
strongly agree that climate change will shift the timing and
intensity of rainfall and the health of the state’s snowpack in
ways that will make water management more difficult during the
coming decades.
In California’s Placer County, an unusual partnership between a
county water utility, the U.S. Forest Service and
environmentalists is taking on the work to prevent catastrophic
fires on more than 11,000 hectares in the northern Sierra
Nevada Mountains. The partnership arose from the ashes of
2014’s King fire.
Linking floating solar panels with hydropower could produce the
equivalent of 40% of the world’s electricity, according to a
new study by researchers at the Department of Energy. … The
study provides the first global look by federal researchers at
the technical potential of the hybrid concept.
Among the people forced to flee the Creek Fire were workers who
keep the vast network of hydroelectric dams running. Eric
Quinley, general manager of the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation
District, worried some of his table grape growers might not get
enough water in the future to finish up the growing season.
When the Creek Fire erupted on Sept. 5 and chewed through the
forest toward Southern California Edison’s Big Creek power
system, little did anyone know how that might affect grape
growers in Delano nearly a month later.
A crisis could be approaching. The two giant reservoirs on the
Colorado River are both below 50 percent of capacity. If
drought causes even more drastic drops, the Bureau of
Reclamation could step in to prioritize the making of
electricity by the hydro plants at lakes Mead and Powell. No
one knows what BuRec would do, but it would call the shots and
end current arrangements.
The right balance of nutrients is crucial for a healthy coastal
ecosystem. If rivers deposit too much nitrogen and phosphorus
in coastal areas, algae that flourish on those nutrients can
cause dead zones; if too little silicon flows downstream,
organisms that depend on it will die off.
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will this
week consider a pair of nominations — one Republican, one
Democratic — to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
Four aging dams on the Klamath River are coming down. Their
completion between 1921 and 1964 brought hydroelectric power to
Northern California. It also blocked hundreds of kilometers of
fish habitat, causing Chinook salmon to effectively disappear
from the upper river basin. But the removal of dams is no
guarantee the fish will return, so a team of wildlife
researchers hopes it can coax the fish to repopulate the river
by exploiting a new discovery about salmon genetics.
The Bureau of Reclamation, US Department of Energy’s Water
Power Technology Office and Army Corps of Engineers signed the
memorandum at Hoover Dam on Monday, which was National
Hydropower Day. The MOU provides for a collaborative working
relationship that prioritizes similar goals and aligns ongoing
and future renewable energy development efforts among the three
agencies.
The Pechanga Band of Luiseño Indians once warned that a
proposed mine would obliterate a sacred site equal to the
Biblical Garden of Eden. Now, the southwest Riverside County
tribe is sounding a similar alarm about the Lake Elsinore
Advanced Pumped Storage Project, or LEAPS, a hydroelectric
project proposed for the Lake Elsinore area.
Most scientists in the field agree that sea levels should have
risen more than they did over most of the past century. In this
new effort, the researchers have taken another look at the
problem and suggest the reason for the discrepancies was water
being captured in reservoirs by dams.
The San Diego County Water Authority announced Monday it is
partnering with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC
San Diego to better predict atmospheric rivers and improve
water management before, during and after those seasonal
storms. [The other affiliates are: Irvine Ranch Water District,
Orange County Water District, Sonoma Water, Turlock Irrigation
District, and Yuba Water Agency.]
A new Water Resources Development Act, or WRDA, has made
headway in Congress, most recently with House passage of a bill
authorizing about $9 billion for Army Corps of Engineers flood
and storm protection, environmental restoration and other
projects. But with time running short before Congress breaks
for the Nov. 3 elections, industry sources say water
infrastructure legislation may be put off until an expected
lame duck session.
As the Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage, or LEAPS,
hydroelectric project proceeds with licensing approval from the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, local roles have been
defined with a water delivery agreement following years of
litigation over project details.
It will take time to conduct a thorough autopsy of the
blackouts. Some observers have said the shutoffs were actually
unnecessary, that the state had enough power to make it through
the heat wave. Gov. Newsom has called for an investigation into
the matter.
The California Public Utilities Commission assumed that
hydroelectric plants would provide as much as 8,000 megawatts
when demand peaked this summer. But that number appears to have
failed to take into account low water levels at many dams…
And those plants delivered only 5,514 megawatts last Friday,
according to the California Independent System Operator.
Rep. Jared Huffman repeatedly sought this week to pin down the
utility PacifiCorp on whether it would recommit to the
country’s largest dam removal project — and when.
The State Water Board and environmental conservationists have
filed lawsuits against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
at the Ninth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals to protect the
Yuba and Bear river watersheds…
Sonoma Water Engineer Chris Delaney led development of a
forecast informed reservoir operations (FIRO) decision support
system for Lake Mendocino… Center For Western Weather And
Water Extremes… A proof-of-concept model was originally
developed by Chris in 2015 as a personal research project, and
has been refined over the past 5 years with research and
real-time testing…
North Coast Congressmember Jared Huffman hosted a forum of the
Water, Oceans and Wildlife Subcommittee he chairs Tuesday
afternoon, orchestrating a two-hour panel discussion focused on
the stalled agreement to remove four hydroelectric dams from
the ailing Klamath River.
Gov. Gavin Newsom has declared a statewide emergency in order
to help California respond to the fires burning across the
state amid an extreme heat wave that brought more warnings
about power outages on Tuesday. More than 30 wildfires are
burning across California, including nearly a dozen that
started in the last two days…
For the first time in nearly two decades, the federal
government tapped Glen Canyon Dam for extra power generating
capacity this weekend, triggering emergency water releases
as heat waves persisted across the West.
North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman will lead a live-streamed forum
that will examine the impacts of the Klamath Dams on tribes,
fisheries, the environment and downstream stakeholders on
Tuesday, Aug. 18 at 2 p.m.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced it will no longer be
conducting higher water flows for whitewater recreation on the
Feather River during the weekend of Aug. 22-23, saying in a
press release the cancellation came as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic.
If built, it would … pump groundwater into four new
reservoirs … Tribal members and environmentalists say the
project would flood several miles of canyons sacred to the
Navajo; risk damaging cultural sites for several tribes; draw
vast amounts of critical groundwater; potentially harm habitats
for plants and animals, including some endangered species; and
risk adverse effects for waterways leading into the Grand
Canyon.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced Wednesday a 30-day public
comment period for a 35-year contract renewal of the transfer
of operation, maintenance and replacement activities related to
Friant-Kern Canal and other associated works to the Friant
Water Authority.
By the 2070s, climate change will reduce snowpack and increase
extreme rainfall in the Sierra Nevada and California’s
reservoirs will likely be overwhelmed. That’s according to a
new study by UCLA climate scientists, who predict that run-off
during so-called atmospheric rivers will increase by nearly 50
percent, leading to widespread flooding across the state.
The loss in hydroelectric generation during the 2012-16 drought
cost PG&E and other California utilities about $5.5
billion, a new study says. As California’s climate becomes more
prone to severe droughts, the findings point to future costs
that utilities — and ultimately ratepayers — will likely be
forced to bear.
The average annual flow of the Colorado River has decreased 19
percent compared to its 20th century average. Models predict
that by 2100, the river flow could fall as much as 55 percent.
The Colorado River, and the people it sustains, are in serious
trouble.
For us, dam removal is absolutely necessary to restore our
struggling fisheries, maintain cultural practices, and provide
tribal members who struggle to make ends meet access to
traditional subsistence foods.
Summer energy demands driven higher as the COVID-19 pandemic
keeps more people at home could lead to more water flowing from
Glen Canyon Dam into the Colorado River. That could mean
rapidly changing conditions for rafters, anglers, hikers or
others on the river in Glen Canyon or the Grand Canyon,
officials said.
A 1997 guidance document from the White House Council on
Environmental Quality lays out best practices for FERC and
other agencies to address environmental justice as part of
reviews under the National Environmental Policy Act. The agency
isn’t legally required to act on its findings.
President Trump made two nominations to the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission Monday, bowing to pressure from
Democratic lawmakers who have pushed to maintain the bipartisan
split in the commission.
Species such as salmon, trout and giant catfish are vital not
just to the rivers and lakes in which they breed or feed but to
entire ecosystems. By swimming upstream, they transport
nutrients from the oceans and provide food for many land
animals, including bears, wolves and birds of prey.
In 1961, Placer County voters overwhelmingly approved the sale
of bonds to finance construction of the Middle Fork American
River Hydroelectric Project (MFP). Nearly 60 years later, with
the bonds fully paid and financial reserves fully funded, the
first-ever distribution of net revenue from the MFP has been
made…
For the past five years, Monty Currier, a California Department
of Fish and Wildlife environmental scientist, has been working
to rebuild the fishery at Mountain Meadows Reservoir after
the PG&E impoundment went dry in 2015 from the
combined effects of maintenance work and the drought. The
unfortunate fish kill presented Currier with something of a
dream opportunity.
Pumped storage hydropower (PSH) is a pretty simple technology.
… The effect is not to create energy. In fact, these
facilities are net consumers of energy. But by making renewable
energy available when it is most needed, PSH helps renewables
better match demand, reducing the need for gas on the grid.
The latest proposal would trim the budget by $2 billion and the
storage capacity by about 300,000 acre-feet, according to Jerry
Brown, the new executive director of the project. Sites would
use existing canals for conveyance rather than build new
pipelines. The plan also eliminates a pumped-storage system for
generating and storing energy during high flow events. He said
the business case for that element of the project “just didn’t
pencil out.”
The country’s largest dam removal project was thrown into
question last week when federal regulators refused to let the
current owner fully transfer the impoundments to a nonprofit to
carry out the demolition.
While it’s fair to say that salmon and steelhead are dying the
death of a thousand cuts in the Eel River, Scott Dam is by far
the deepest and most damaging of these injuries. Dam removal
efforts from Maine to Washington State to here in California
have shown time and again that restoring access to historical
spawning grounds is key to rebounding fish populations.
After four years of review, FERC granted the transfer of the
license for the J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron
Gate dams (collectively known as the Lower Klamath Project) to
the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, a nonprofit that would
carry out the dam removal. But it requires PacifiCorp, the
utility that currently operates the dams, to remain on the
license, too.
A multibillion-dollar measure that would help build, repair,
and maintain a wide variety of water infrastructure projects
sailed through the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee Wednesday. Approved unanimously by voice vote, the
Water Resources Development Act of 2020 (H.R. 7575) would
authorize the Army Corps of Engineers every two years to carry
out specific projects and feasibility studies.
The Karuk Tribe is set to hold its World Renewal Ceremonies in
Six Rivers and Klamath national forests from July through late
September. In honor of these long-standing tribal traditions,
outsiders will be prohibited from entering the water or
launching watercraft during the ceremonies, the U.S. Forest
Service has announced in a press release.
Last year, the world’s hydropower capacity reached a record
1,308 gigawatts… As with other energy sources, however,
hydropower is not without an environmental cost.
For the past two decades, dams have been falling across the
United States in a bid to reverse a legacy of destruction of
fish and their habitat. … But in southwestern Washington, a
local flood control district is going against the flow by
proposing a major new dam on the Chehalis River. … The
Chehalis is a critical salmon stream and the largest river
system fully contained within the state’s boundaries.
Pasadena conservationist groups secured a major victory on
Tuesday when the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
approved a settlement agreement, ending a protracted legal
battle centered on the removal of 1.7 million cubic yards of
sediment from the Devil’s Gate Dam and its potential
environmental impacts.
Decades of environmental protection is threatened to be undone
by the recent Trump Administration Executive Order to roll back
regulations from the Clean Water Act to speed up energy
projects. The proceeding EPA rule-making procedures make it
easier for owners of hydroelectric dam projects to bypass state
oversight and environmental accountability. Without legislative
protection, our waterways are under threat.
Researchers in the Grand Canyon now spend weeks at a time,
several times a year, monitoring humpback chub, which has
become central to an ecosystem science program with
implications for millions of westerners who rely on Colorado
River water.
In a recent study published in Environmental Research Letters,
a National Science Foundation-funded team led by a researcher
from North Carolina State University analyzed the effects of a
drought in California. The drought happened from 2012-2016 and
was one of the worst in the state’s history. The scientists
found that drought led to significant increases in power costs
for three major utilities in the state.
On June 24, 2020, the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of California denied the preliminary
injunctive relief requested by a coalition of fishery and
environmental groups regarding the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s
operations of Shasta Dam and Reservoir, and related temperature
management actions on the upper Sacramento River.
With a global pandemic, a catastrophic economic recession and
record-high unemployment, one would think the state has enough
issues to tackle. But proponents of a state water grab that I
have been fighting since the day I was sworn into office in
2012 disagree. Where others see turmoil and anguish, they see
opportunity. Apparently, they believe in the adage, “Never let
a crisis go to waste.”
The feasibility study refers to removal of Scott Dam as a
foregone conclusion. The reason being salmon and steelhead are
not able to access spawning grounds above the dam. This area is
a small percentage of the overall spawning habitat of the Eel
River watershed. … A fish ladder around Scott Dam makes much
more sense.
A team led by a researcher from North Carolina State University
analyzed the downstream effects of a drought in California that
took place in 2012-2016, and was considered one of the worst in
the state’s history. They found that drought led to significant
increases in power costs for three major investor-owned
utilities in the state… They also found that increased
harmful emissions of greenhouse gases could be linked to
hydropower losses during drought in the future, even as more
sources of renewable energy are added to the grid.
A team led by a researcher from North Carolina State University
analyzed the downstream effects of a drought in California that
took place in 2012-2016, and was considered one of the worst in
the state’s history. They found that drought led to significant
increases in power costs for three major investor-owned
utilities in the state… They also found that increased
harmful emissions of greenhouse gases could be linked to
hydropower losses during drought in the future…
Beginning June 11, the Bureau released flows to help sustain
juvenile salmon, but it plans to provide only 16,000 of the
40,000-acre feet promised in the plan developed with the Yurok
Tribe, fishing groups and irrigators in March. And nearly a
month passed without augmented flows when young salmon were
being infected and dying from disease-causing parasites and 1.5
million hatchery fish were released and ready to pass through
the infection zone.
The first slide of Daybreak Power’s first-ever presentation to
potential investors quotes Paul Allen, the legendary co-founder
of Microsoft, asking what he calls the most exciting question
imaginable: “What should exist? … What do we need that we don’t
have?”. The answer I reached in the years leading up to
co-founding Daybreak in 2018 is this: A bunch of big-honkin’
pumped storage hydropower projects
The proposed Eagle Mountain project went through nearly 10
years of regulatory review, mostly under the Obama
administration, with deep investigations of potential impacts
and subsequent requirements for some of the most stringent
mitigations ever placed on a project. … The one hitch for us?
We, the very communities who will be impacted by this project
have no real voice.
In recognition of National Dam Safety Awareness Day, Andy
Mangney who serves as the Field Engineering Branch Chief
overseeing DSOD’s dam inspection and monitoring program, took
some time to answer questions about what DSOD is doing to
protect Californians.
The Environmental Protection Agency finalized a rule Monday
curtailing the rights of states, tribes and the public to
object to federal permits for energy projects and other
activities that could pollute waterways across the country. The
move … upends how the United States applied a section of the
Clean Water Act for nearly a half century.
This is an excerpt from “Ruling the Waters: California’s Kern
River, the Environment, and the Making of Western Water Law” by
Douglas R. Littlefield, published in May 2020.
When a Phoenix company floated a proposal last year to build
two hydroelectric dams on the Little Colorado River, it faced
an outpouring of opposition. … Taking note of the criticisms,
the two businessmen who run the company have pivoted to a
different approach. They propose to move the project off
the Little Colorado River to an adjacent canyon to the east,
where they would build four dams.
For Indians, confronting economic uncertainty and food
shortages has been part of life since Europeans arrived in our
lands. … This is why the Yurok Tribe is fighting so hard to
remove Klamath River dams and restore the salmon runs that have
fed our people since the beginning of time.
A partnership of numerous Northern California agencies intends
to file an initial plan to acquire the Potter Valley project
from the Pacific Gas and Electric Co., multiple sources
confirmed. The coalition will submit a document to the Federal
Energy Regulatory Commission for its consideration. If
approved, the group may be able to form a partnered ownership
of complex water infrastructure dividing the Eel and Russian
rivers.
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works gathered
the last few comments on Friday on its plans to move two
mammoth water infrastructure packages this year. … At the
same time, the House Transportation and Infrastructure
Committee is gearing up to introduce its own big water bill,
which should come by month’s end and be marked up over the
summer, according to a committee aide.
At the 2020 California Water Law Symposium, a panel discussed
the project. Seated on the panel was Richard Roos-Collins, a
principal with the Water and Power Law Group and General
Counsel for the Klamath River Renewal Corporation; Paul
Weiland, lawyer for Siskiyou County; and Mike Belchik, Senior
Fisheries Biologist with the Yurok Tribe.
When the Water Forum Agreement was officially signed 20 years
ago, the occasion marked an unprecedented show of regional
cooperation. For years, interests representing business, the
environment, water suppliers and others had sparred over the
water needs of people vs. the environment of the lower American
River.
Over the past several months, the Authority has undertaken a
rigorous Value Planning effort to review the project’s proposed
operations and facilities in an effort to develop a project
that is “right sized” for current participants while still
providing water supply reliability and enhancing the
environment.The process has resulted in a project that includes
facilities and operations that are different than originally
proposed…
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) announced that it
will be upgrading the Lower Bucks Lake Dam this year by
attaching a waterproof membrane to the upstream surface of the
dam to prevent seepage and extend the dam’s service life.
Now, just as the first Earth Day in 1970 gave U.S. policymakers
a chance to chart a fresh course for conservation, this year’s
50th anniversary offers lawmakers an opportunity to act on a
growing body of evidence that free-flowing, well-protected
rivers serve the greater public good.
The Klamath River Renewal Corporation’s plans to remove four
dams on the Klamath River in the US has taken a major step
forward with the issuance of key documents from the California
State Water Board. The plan – the largest dam removal project
in the US – would re-open 360 miles of the Klamath River and
its tributaries to salmon.
