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.
(Editor’s Note: This is a repost of a blog originally published
in June 2020).
Damming rivers was once a staple of public works and a signal
of technological and scientific progress. Even today, dams
underpin much of California’s public safety and economy, while
having greatly disrupted native ecosystems (Quiñones et al.
2015, Moyle et al. 2017), displaced native peoples (Garrett
2010), and deprived residents of water access when streamflow
is transported across basins. California’s dams are aging and
many will require expensive reconstruction or rehabilitation.
Many dams were built for landscapes, climates and economic
purposes that no longer exist. California’s current dams
reflect an accumulation of decisions over the past 170 years
based on environmental, political, and socio-economic dynamics
that have changed, sometimes radically.
California regulators say the state is unlikely to experience
electricity shortages this summer after securing new power
sources and a wet winter that filled the state’s reservoirs
enough to restart hydroelectric power plants that were dormant
during the drought. The nation’s most populous state normally
has more than enough electricity to power the homes and
businesses of more than 39 million people. But the electrical
grid has trouble when it gets really hot and everyone turns on
their air conditioners at the same time. It got so hot in
August 2020 that California’s power grid was overwhelmed,
prompting the state’s three largest utility companies to shut
off electricity for hundreds of thousands of homes for a few
hours over two consecutive days. Similar heat waves in 2021 and
2022 pushed the state to the brink again. That won’t be a
problem this year after winter storms dumped massive amounts of
rain and snow on the state.
They come from four counties and have only months to work.
Their interests often diverge and sometimes even conflict with
one another. But they have a common goal: Find a path forward
in a world without Pacific Gas & Electric’s Potter Valley power
plant. The stakeholders include water providers, agricultural
users and elected officials whose constituents depend on
diversions from the Eel River to help fill Lake Mendocino and
feed the upper Russian River in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.
They also include fishery interests that want two aging dams
removed from the Eel River to improve fish passage and restore
the river’s ecological function.
in October of 2021, Ela Dam became more than a benign fishing
hole for Owle and other Cherokee members. While working on a
malfunctioning mechanism of the floodgate, dam operators
accidentally unleashed a wave of sediment downstream. According
to state officials, the event buried important aquatic habitat
for the Sicklefin Redhorse and several other sensitive species
under 18 to 24 inches of silt and sand. The dam’s owner hired a
contractor to remove the sediment, but federal scientists fear
the incident could have caused those species irreparable,
long-term harm. … The United States is home to more than
90,000 dams that serve a variety of purposes, including to
prevent flooding, expand development, provide water for
irrigation or generate electricity—like Ela.
The huge snowpack that has blanketed the Sierra Nevada this
winter has done more than end California’s drought and extend
ski season. It’s also changing how Californians keep the lights
on. With reservoirs full across the state, hydroelectricity
generation from dams is expected to expand dramatically this
summer, after three dry years when it was badly hobbled. In
2017, a wet year similar to this one, hydropower made up 21% of
all the electricity generated in California. But by 2021, in
the middle of California’s most recent drought, it provided
just 7%. This year, billions of gallons of water are once again
spinning turbines in power plants at huge dams like Shasta,
Oroville and Folsom, and will be all summer and into the fall
as the snowpack melts.
California’s wet winter will help the Golden State keep the
lights on when energy demand soars this summer, PG&E
Corp.’s top executive said. The series of atmospheric
rivers that slammed the state with heavy snow and rain has
replenished hydroelectric supplies that had been sapped by
drought. … Levels at PG&E’s 16 largest reservoirs
were close to average as of April 1, considerably better than
the prior year, Poppe said. Low hydroelectric supplies from
drought have made it more challenging for California’s grid
operators to meet soaring demand during the hottest summer
evenings.
On April 7, 2023, the Third District Court of Appeal filed a
lengthy published opinion – the latest installment in one of
the longer ongoing CEQA battles in recent memory – affirming a
judgment finding an EIR for the Federal relicensing of Oroville
Dam and related hydropower facilities legally adequate.
County of Butte and County of Plumas, et al v. Dept. of Water
Resources (2023) ___ Cal.App.5th ___. … This
case’s remarkably extensive litigation history has resulted in
no fewer than four published decisions, three from the Third
District and one from the California Supreme Court (aka
“SCOCA”). (Of the three Third District opinions, only
this case (Butte IV) is good authority, the other two having
been abrogated by SCOCA’s grants of review.)
For a century, hydroelectric power has been synonymous with
gigantic dams — feats of engineering that provide renewable
energy but displace communities and destroy ecosystems. New
research released Tuesday by Global Energy Monitor reveals a
transformation underway in hydroelectric projects — using the
same gravitational qualities of water, but typically without
building large, traditional dams like the Hoover in the
American West or Three Gorges in China. Instead, a technology
called pumped storage is rapidly expanding. These systems
involve two reservoirs: one on top of a hill and another at the
bottom. When electricity generated from nearby power plants
exceeds demand, it’s used to pump water uphill, essentially
filling the upper reservoir as a battery. Later, when
electricity demand spikes, water is released to the lower
reservoir through a turbine, generating power.
The states of the Lower Colorado
River Basin have traditionally played an oversized role in
tapping the lifeline that supplies 40 million people in the West.
California, Nevada and Arizona were quicker to build major canals
and dams and negotiated a landmark deal that requires the Upper
Basin to send predictable flows through the Grand Canyon, even
during dry years.
But with the federal government threatening unprecedented water
cuts amid decades of drought and declining reservoirs, the Upper
Basin states of Wyoming, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico are
muscling up to protect their shares of an overallocated river
whose average flows in the Upper Basin have already dropped
20 percent over the last century.
They have formed new agencies to better monitor their interests,
moved influential Colorado River veterans into top negotiating
posts and improved their relationships with Native American
tribes that also hold substantial claims to the river.
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.”
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand 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 some 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
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.
