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.
In County of Butte v. Dep’t of Wat. Resources (2022) 13 Cal.5th
612, issued on August 1, 2022, the California Supreme Court
carved out a role for the California Environmental Quality Act
(“CEQA”) even where the project is largely governed by a
federal proceeding. The case arose in connection with the
relicensing of the Oroville Dam by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (“FERC”). The Federal Power Act (“FPA”)
(16 U.S.C. § 791, et seq.) delegates to FERC the authority to
license hydroelectric dams; the FPA has “a significant
preemptive sweep.” Despite a comprehensive federal process for
licensing dams, the Supreme Court held that state agency review
under CEQA was not entirely preempted.
With 25 years of experience working
on the Colorado River, Chuck Cullom is used to responding to
myriad challenges that arise on the vital lifeline that seven
states, more than two dozen tribes and the country of Mexico
depend on for water. But this summer problems on the
drought-stressed river are piling up at a dizzying pace:
Reservoirs plummeting to record low levels, whether Hoover Dam
and Glen Canyon Dam can continue to release water and produce
hydropower, unprecedented water cuts and predatory smallmouth
bass threatening native fish species in the Grand Canyon.
“Holy buckets, Batman!,” said Cullom, executive director of the
Upper Colorado River Commission. “I mean, it’s just on and on and
on.”
The relentless Western drought that is threatening water
supplies in the country’s largest reservoirs is exposing a
reality that could portend a significant shift in electricity:
Hydropower is not the reliable backbone it once was. Utilities
and states are preparing for a world with less available water
and turning more to wind and solar, demand response, energy
storage and improved grid connections. That planning has helped
Western states keep the lights on this summer even in severe
drought conditions. Take California, which experienced record
demand during a heat wave last week but did not have to impose
any rolling blackouts.
On September 8, 2022, the United States Court of Appeals for
the Ninth Circuit (Ninth Circuit) issued its decision in
Klamath Irrigation District et al. v. United States et al.,
Case No. 20-36009, affirming the United States District Court
for the District of Oregon’s dismissal of two actions filed by
various Klamath Project (Project) irrigation parties
challenging United States Bureau of Reclamation’s (Reclamation)
operating procedures for the Project. In April 2019, Project
irrigation parties, including the Klamath Irrigation District
(KID) and a group that included the Klamath Water Users
Association (KWUA) and several Project districts and individual
farmers filed two complaints challenging Reclamation’s
2019-2024 operating plans or procedures for the Project in the
District Court.
… Lake Mead’s own decline threatens to upend a vast irrigated
agricultural empire in Southern California and southwestern
Arizona, and to restrict or eventually cut off a significant
source of hydroelectricity and household water for the urban
Southwest. Powell once seemed Mead’s failsafe backup, a
reservoir that, in a wet string of years, could accumulate far
more than what the river delivers in a single year. During dry
spells, it could pour its excess through Grand Canyon and into
Mead, supplying users downstream. Now the excess was gone.
… If the snows that melt to replenish the reservoir are
lower than expected this winter, the dam’s managers warn, it’s
possible that water will dip below Glen Canyon Dam’s hydropower
intakes by the end of 2023.
Two years after the last rolling blackouts, with an intense
heat wave starting to blanket the West, California’s
electricity grid remains extremely vulnerable to power outages.
The potential shortfall in power supplies is the result of
climate-driven heat waves, drought-induced strains on hydro
power and global supply-chain problems that are hindering the
flow of new energy sources. Temperatures were expected to hit
the high 90s Wednesday and soar to as high as 115 degrees
Monday in parts of the Sacramento Valley, sending state
officials scrambling to avoid a repeat of the rolling blackouts
of 2020.
. . . The worst dry spell in 1,200 years has gripped nearly
every inch of California with drought this summer, leaving
rivers and reservoirs perilously low. That has significant
implications for a state that generates about 10% of its
electricity from hydroelectric dams and has aggressively closed
natural-gas power plants in recent years.
This is the Jim Bridger power plant, one of the largest
coal-fired power sources in the nation and an enormous emitter
of carbon dioxide pollution. … The plant sucks up about 16
million gallons of water each day, using it to power more than
million homes across six western states, all the way to Oregon.
But there’s a problem that looms for the coal plant operator
and the customers that rely on it for electricity. This water
is piped here from the Green River, a tributary of the rapidly
shrinking Colorado River. Now, amidst a decades-long drought
and a shortage of water downstream across the Southwest, future
conservation in the basin could mean industrial users like Jim
Bridger see their water shut off, says Wyoming State Engineer
Brandon Gebhart.
Major Colorado River cuts must be made, one way or another. The
only looming questions are when and on what terms, with
negotiators scheduled to resume interstate meetings this week.
The Colorado River remains in an unfolding and worsening
crisis. Demand far exceeds supply. Long-term drought, worsened
by climate change, has meant less water refilling the river’s
large reservoirs as water users have continued to overtap
them. … Although all seven states are expected to
be at the meeting, the focus is likely to zero in on reaching a
deal among the three states that comprise the Lower Colorado
River Basin: Arizona, California and Nevada.
Another lawsuit was filed this week in the continuing saga of
the Potter Valley Project, a hydroelectric plant affecting the
Russian and Eel Rivers. PG&E is in the early stages
of surrendering control of the Project – a pair of dams, a
diversion tunnel, and a hydro-electric station along the Eel
River – and some groups are hoping the surrender will result in
California’s next dam removal project.
A coalition of five conservation and fishing groups has filed a
lawsuit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)
in federal court over alleged Endangered Species Act (ESA)
violations in operating the Potter Valley Project. The
hydropower project diverting flows from the Eel River to the
Russian River is set to be decommissioned, and FERC recently
approved Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E)’s proposed 30-month
timeline for creating its final decommissioning plan. On
Aug. 15, Friends of the Eel River, California Trout, Trout
Unlimited, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s
Associations, and the Institute for Fisheries Resources sued
FERC in the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, asking the
court to modify the Annual License FERC recently issued for the
Potter Valley Project, in order to comply with the ESA.
It takes a lot of water to make power. From spinning turbines
to hydraulic fracturing to refining fuel, the flow of water is
critical to the flow of electrons and heat. About 40 percent of
water withdrawals — water taken out of groundwater or surface
sources — in the United States go toward energy production. The
large majority of that share is used to cool power plants. In
turn, it requires energy to extract, purify, transport, and
deliver water. So when temperatures rise and water levels drop,
the energy sector gets squeezed hard. The consequences of water
shortages are playing out now in swaths of the American West,
where an expansive, decades-long drought is forcing drastic
cuts in hydroelectric power generation.
Climate scientist Brad Udall calls
himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado
River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that
highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State
University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s
future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less
water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the
Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being
released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
The majestic beauty of the Sierra
Nevada forest is awe-inspiring, but beneath the dazzling blue
sky, there is a problem: A century of fire suppression and
logging practices have left trees too close together. Millions of
trees have died, stricken by drought and beetle infestation.
Combined with a forest floor cluttered with dry brush and debris,
it’s a wildfire waiting to happen.
Fires devastate the Sierra watersheds upon which millions of
Californians depend — scorching the ground, unleashing a
battering ram of debris and turning hillsides into gelatinous,
stream-choking mudflows.
Even as stakeholders in the Colorado River Basin celebrate the recent completion of an unprecedented drought plan intended to stave off a crashing Lake Mead, there is little time to rest. An even larger hurdle lies ahead as they prepare to hammer out the next set of rules that could vastly reshape the river’s future.
Set to expire in 2026, the current guidelines for water deliveries and shortage sharing, launched in 2007 amid a multiyear drought, were designed to prevent disputes that could provoke conflict.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
Amy Haas recently became the first non-engineer and the first woman to serve as executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission in its 70-year history, putting her smack in the center of a host of daunting challenges facing the Upper Colorado River Basin.
Yet those challenges will be quite familiar to Haas, an attorney who for the past year has served as deputy director and general counsel of the commission. (She replaced longtime Executive Director Don Ostler). She has a long history of working within interstate Colorado River governance, including representing New Mexico as its Upper Colorado River commissioner and playing a central role in the negotiation of the recently signed U.S.-Mexico agreement known as Minute 323.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
This issue of Western Water discusses the challenges
facing the Colorado River Basin resulting from persistent
drought, climate change and an overallocated river, and how water
managers and others are trying to face the future.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
Whiskeytown Lake, a major reservoir in the foothills of the
Klamath Mountains nine miles west of Redding, was
built at the site of one of Shasta County’s first Gold Rush
communities. Whiskeytown, originally called
Whiskey Creek Diggings, was founded in 1849 and named in
reference to a whiskey barrel rolling off a citizen’s pack mule;
it may also refer to miners drinking a barrel per day.
As one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world,
the Imperial Valley
receives its water from the Colorado River via the
All-American Canal. Rainfall is scarce in the desert region at
less than three inches per year and groundwater is of little
value.
The construction of Glen Canyon Dam in 1964 created Lake Powell.
Both are located in north-central Arizona near the Utah border.
Lake Powell acts as a holding tank for outflow from the Colorado
River Upper Basin States: Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.
The water stored in Lake Powell is used for recreation, power
generation and delivering water to the Lower Basin states of
California, Arizona, and Nevada.
This 28-page report describes the watersheds of the Sierra Nevada
region and details their importance to California’s overall water
picture. It describes the region’s issues and challenges,
including healthy forests, catastrophic fire, recreational
impacts, climate change, development and land use.
The report also discusses the importance of protecting and
restoring watersheds in order to retain water quality and enhance
quantity. Examples and case studies are included.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Klamath River Watershed. The
map text explains the many issues facing this vast,
15,000-square-mile watershed, including fish restoration;
agricultural water use; and wetlands. Also included are
descriptions of the separate, but linked, Klamath Basin
Restoration Agreement and the Klamath Hydroelectric Agreement,
and the next steps associated with those agreements. Development
of the map was funded by a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and the country of Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch
map, which is suitable for framing, explains the river’s
apportionment, history and the need to adapt its management for
urban growth and expected climate change impacts.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Nevada Water provides an
overview of the history of water development and use in Nevada.
It includes sections on Nevada’s water rights laws, the history
of the Truckee and Carson rivers, water supplies for the Las
Vegas area, groundwater, water quality, environmental issues and
today’s water supply challenges.
Dams have allowed Californians and others across the West to
harness and control water dating back to pre-European settlement
days when Native Americans had erected simple dams for catching
salmon.
Hydroelectric power is produced when
water released from a reservoir turns a turbine connected to a
generator. Gravity causes water to drop toward a turbine
propeller. The falling water then turns the turbine, which
produces power through the connected generator.
The Yuba Accord is a landmark agreement that balances the
interests of environmental groups, agriculture, water agencies
and hydroelectric operators relying on water from the Yuba
River. A tributary of the Feather River, the Yuba is
located north of Sacramento.
Pieced together after two decades of lawsuits, the Yuba Accord
allows for fresh water flows to support native fish while also
providing water for hydropower, transfers and irrigation. The
Accord took effect in 2008 after two years as a pilot project.
Though seemingly a long-way from California’s Central Valley, the
Trinity Dam helps supply irrigation water for Valley farmers and
for hydropower production.
Constructed in the far northwest of California in the 1950s,
Trinity Dam and Lewiston Dam, just downstream, increased the
storage capacity of the federal Central Valley
Project by more than 2.5 million acre-feet.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at the energy
requirements associated with water use and the means by which
state and local agencies are working to increase their knowledge
and improve the management of both resources.
Diverting water for farms and cities, generating hydro-electric
power, supplying an ever-growing urban population and protecting
endangered species have all shaped the development and management
of the Colorado River we know today. How to sustain the system
and build a resilient future for what is known as the “lifeline
of the Southwest” is the task facing the region and the river’s
multiple users.
Hydropower generation is prevalent in the West, where rapidly
flowing river systems have been tapped for generations to produce
electricity. Hydropower is a clean, steady and reliable energy
source, but the damming of rivers has exacted a toll on the
environment, affecting, among other things, the migration of fish
to vestigial spawning grounds. Many of those projects are due to
be relicensed by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The vital importance of water in the West is a given. It is the
basis upon which everything moves forward – the burgeoning
subdivisions, the seemingly limitless acreage of fruits and
vegetables and the remaining stretches of wilderness that support
fish, fowl and wildlife. In addition to its life-sustaining
properties, water, more specifically the force of moving water,
plays a significant part of the nation’s power system by
providing an inexpensive, reliable and renewable generation
source.
Those on the California water insider track know all too well the
fine line the state walks with regard to maintaining its water
supply. Hydrologic conditions put California at the mercy of the
weather and some are predicting this year could be the start of a
dry cycle not just for the state, but the Southwest as a whole.
Combine that with a regional dry spell in the Northwest and
California’s power woes, and a potential recipe for disaster
begins to solidify.
