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.
Today, there are hundreds of hatcheries in the Northwest run by
federal, state and tribal governments … The fish they send to
the Pacific Ocean have allowed restaurants and grocery seafood
counters to offer “wild-caught” Chinook salmon even as the fish
became endangered. The hatcheries were supposed to stop the
decline of salmon. They haven’t. The numbers of each of the six
salmon species native to the Columbia basin have dropped to a
fraction of what they once were, and 13 distinct populations
are now considered threatened or endangered.
A few months ago, [Paul] Ashcraft and several of his neighbors
at the highest point in Unaweep Canyon saw a plan proposed by
Xcel Energy to build a hydro power plant that will help the
company reach its renewable energy goals. The plan put a
75-foot dam holding back the edge of an 88-acre reservoir in
Ashcraft’s front yard. The proposal also puts his neighbors’
homes and Colorado 141 underwater. The plan would move
water between a reservoir on BLM land on top of the cliffs and
a reservoir on private land on the valley floor.
When California suffers a heat wave, it leans heavily on
hydropower from the Pacific Northwest to keep the lights on.
But that hydropower may not always be available when it’s most
needed, as climate change is shifting the ground on which the
West’s dams sit. Higher temperatures means snowmelt occurs
earlier in the year and leaves less water available for power
generation during the depths of summer.
The central and upper Midwest, Texas and Southern California
face an increased risk of power outages this summer from
extreme heat, wildfires and extended drought, the nation’s grid
monitor warned yesterday. In a dire new assessment, the North
American Electric Reliability Corp. (NERC) described regions of
the country pushed closer than ever toward energy emergencies
by a combination of climate change impacts and a transition
from traditional fossil fuel generators to carbon-free
renewable power.
Blue states, green groups and tribes that are challenging a
Trump-era Clean Water Act rule are trying an unusual procedural
move that could allow them to restart their case in federal
district court and bypass an appeal that’s currently underway
in the Ninth Circuit. The coalition is suing the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency to overturn a 2020 rule that
restricted states’ and tribes’ authority to deny permits for
projects such as pipelines under section 401 of the Clean Water
Act.
More reservoirs across Utah may run dry and the Great Salt Lake
will continue to decline, state officials warned lawmakers on
Wednesday. During a briefing before the Utah State
Legislature’s Natural Resources Interim Committee, lawmakers
were told that 99% of Utah remains in severe or extreme
drought…. A legislative commission [is] requesting a
study on the idea of a pipeline to take water from the Pacific
Ocean across California and Nevada into the Great Salt Lake.
The organization responsible for North American electric
reliability warned energy shortfalls were possible this summer
in California, Texas and the U.S. Midwest where extreme heat
from a severe drought could cause power plants to fail.
A large provider of Colorado energy says sagging hydropower
production on the Colorado River system, which has raised
concern over the long-term reliability of the power source in
the West, has not had a significant impact here. Tri-State
Generation and Transmission Association, the largest hydropower
customer on the Colorado River system, has received about
two-thirds of its normal hydro supply this year. But only 8% of
Tri-State’s total energy comes from the Colorado River Storage
Project, known as CRSP, and so the reduction only accounts for
about 3% of its total system, according to figures the company
provided.
Climate change is making the West hotter and drier, threatening
the Colorado River system, including the man-made reservoirs of
Lake Powell in Utah and Lake Mead in Nevada that provide water
for 40 million people in seven states. The National Park
Service has been forced to shut down 11 boat ramps at the Lake
Powell recreation area, which draws millions of visitors. The
critically low lake levels could soon cause the Glen Canyon Dam
to stop producing hydropower for more than five million people
in six states, forcing them to find alternative sources.
The electricity generated [at Flaming Gorge Dam], in northern
Utah near the Wyoming state line, helps keep the lights on
across 10 states. It’s made possible by a dam that interrupts
the Green River, which meanders into the Colorado River at Lake
Powell hundreds of miles downstream before flowing southwest to
Lake Mead — meaning as an Angeleno, I’ve been drinking this
water my whole life. … The Biden
administration said this month it would release an
extra 500,000 acre-feet of water from Flaming Gorge Reservoir
over the next year, as part of a desperate effort to stop
Powell from falling so low that Glen Canyon Dam can no longer
generate power.
But after 5 decades of shepherding countless groups down some
of the world’s most iconic and challenging runs, [river rater
Marty] McDonnell never expected to find himself in a mounting
battle against the changing climate, the solar industry and the
City of San Francisco. Although 2021 marked another dire year
for the dwindling Sierra Nevada snowpack, it’s not California’s
drought that worries McDonnell. Instead, it’s how hydropower is
generated along the Tuolumne River and distributed downstream.
California likely will have an energy shortfall equivalent to
what it takes to power about 1.3 million homes when use is at
its peak during the hot and dry summer months, state officials
said Friday. Threats from drought, extreme heat and wildfires,
plus supply chain and regulatory issues hampering the solar
industry will create challenges for energy reliability this
summer, the officials said. … Large hydropower projects
generated nearly 14% of the state’s electricity in 2020,
according to the independent system operator.
From its headwaters in the Sierra Nevada, the Feather River
flows some 3,600 feet downhill, where, in Oroville, it meets
the tallest dam in the nation. Its path shows exactly why
California geology is ideal for the production of hydropower.
It’s physics. The higher the mountains, the faster the water
falls. Hydropower dams capture this power and divert it through
spinning turbines in nearby powerhouses that activate
generators to produce electricity. But all this hydropower
comes at a cost.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation announced two measures [Tuesday]
to boost water levels in Lake Powell, keeping them high enough
to continue generating hydropower at the Glen Canyon Dam. Both
moves are being framed as painful but necessary band-aids,
cutting into reserves elsewhere in the region to stave off the
worst effects of a decades-long drought that has sapped the
nation’s second-largest reservoir. One measure will send water
from upstream to help refill Lake Powell. About 500,000
acre-feet of water will be released from Flaming Gorge
Reservoir, which straddles the border between Wyoming and Utah.
Lake Powell, the country’s second-largest reservoir, is drying
up. The situation is critical: If water levels at the lake were
to drop another 32 feet, all hydroelectricity production would
be halted at the reservoir’s Glen Canyon Dam. The West’s
climate change-induced water crisis is now triggering a
potential energy crisis for millions of people in the Southwest
who rely on the dam as a power source. Over the past several
years, the Glen Canyon Dam has lost about 16% of its capacity
to generate power. The water levels at Lake Powell have dropped
around 100 feet in the last three years.
The historic drought that’s choked off rivers and reservoirs
from the Rocky Mountains to the California coast is
threatening to strain power grids this summer, raising the
specter of blackouts and forcing the region to rely on more
fossil fuels. Many reservoirs that should be brimming with
spring snowmelt show bathtub rings of dry dirt instead,
including the largest one in the U.S., Lake Mead, which fell
this week to a record low. Hydropower dams feeding off those
reservoirs won’t be able to pump out as much electricity as
they should, if they keep operating at all.
Over the last century, cities including Los Angeles, Phoenix
and Las Vegas reshaped the American West by building coal
plants, hydropower dams and nuclear reactors to fuel their
growth. Now those cities are on the verge of doing it again,
only this time with solar panels, wind turbines, long-distance
transmission lines and lithium mines. These proposals are
igniting opposition from conservationists, tribal activists and
rural residents looking to protect landscapes and ecosystems —
and at times their way of life.
No one was surprised by Thursday’s letter granting PG&E an
annual license to run the Potter Valley Project until April of
next year. And, while a last-minute mystery application did
provide a few moments of titillating speculation, the enigmatic
Antonio Manfredini failed to generate any real suspense. The
50-year license to operate the Potter Valley Project, which
diverts water from the Eel River into the east branch of the
Russian River to Lake Mendocino by way of a tunnel, a pair of
dams and reservoirs, and a small hydropower plant, expired on
April 14.
The Colorado River Basin is inching ever closer to “Day Zero,”
a term first used in Cape Town, South Africa when they
anticipated the day in 2018 that taps would run dry. Lakes
Powell and Mead, the Colorado River’s two enormous reservoirs,
were full in 2000, storing more than four years of the river’s
average annual flow. For more than two decades water users have
been sipping at that supply, watching them decline. Long-term
drought and climate change is making this issue potentially
catastrophic.
The 100-year-old Potter Valley Project consists of two dams
along Northern California’s Eel River. The upstream Scott Dam
blocks salmon and steelhead from reaching prime spawning
grounds, according to Alicia Hamann, the director of Friends of
Eel River. Both fish are threatened under the Endangered
Species Act. Friends of the Eel River are one of a handful of
environmental groups planning to sue PG&E to seek
protections for these dwindling fish populations.
The Nevada Irrigation District will begin managing the South
Yuba Canal and the Deer Creek Powerhouse this month. The
purchase technically helps NID diversify Nevada County’s energy
sources, but the district’s purchase of the powerhouse is
“ancillary more than anything” to the acquisition of the canal
itself, Hydroelectric Manager Keane Sommers said. The canal
services the residents of Grass Valley, Nevada City, their fire
hydrants, the air attack base and Sierra Nevada Memorial
Hospital — over 30,000 customers.
A coalition of fishery groups has formally notified PG&E
that it plans to file suit under the Endangered Species Act,
alleging the continued injury to once abundant federally
protected salmon and steelhead trout as a result of operations
at the utility’s aging Potter Valley powerhouse. The legal
maneuver is part of an effort to expedite removal of Scott and
Cape Horn dams, which pose a threat to vulnerable fish species
in the Eel River and block access to hundreds of miles of prime
habitat upstream.
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.
