Since World War II and a booming state population that
increasingly sought out the great outdoors to relax, the state’s
water-based recreational activities have continued to grow more
popular and diverse, occurring in a multitude of sources –
from swimming pools and spas to beaches, reservoirs, natural
lakes and rivers.
Public water supply projects, such as the State Water Project,
have helped to provide additional recreational opportunities for
Californians. In some cases, reservoir releases can contribute to
downstream recreation benefits by improving fisheries or by
creating whitewater rafting opportunities that would not be
possible in the absence of reservoir regulation. However, there
are conflicting values and needs for the same river system.
To help agricultural producers improve water quality, the U.S.
Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation
Service (NRCS) has awarded $1.6 million in funding through the
National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI) for three projects in
high priority watersheds in California. … The Clear Lake
project has been selected for funding as a new Source Water
Protection planning watershed, targeting conservation efforts
through the National Water Quality Initiative (NWQI), according
to the release.
At the September meeting of the California Water Commission,
Kealiʻi Bright, Assistant Director of the Division of Land
Resource Protection at the California Department of
Conservation (or DOC), gave a presentation on a new program
being spun up to repurpose farmland being retired due to SGMA
implementation. Mr. Bright began by acknowledging that the
Department of Conservation being at a Water Commission might be
unusual because they are not a groundwater agency or any kind
of water agency, but they are an agency with a suite of
programs that invest in natural and working lands’ land use
…
This holiday season, you can see a great deal more than “seven
swans a swimming” in Northern California. Each year, more than
100,000 Tundra Swans migrate from the Arctic to overwinter in
the flooded rice fields of Northern California. And through
January, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is
leading weekly tours highlighting the visiting swans.
Three years ago, a 26,600-acre ranch in remote Northern
California, with a 10-bedroom lodge, 16 miles of riverfront and
two herds of Roosevelt elk was drawing attention in the
nation’s luxury real estate market. … As it turns out, the
$25 million plot on the Eel River, which spans both Mendocino
and Trinity counties, will go to a conservation group. The
Wildlands Conservancy closed escrow on the tract Tuesday and
plans to turn this mostly untamed stretch of mountains and
valleys into a preserve open to the public.
The group that helped force the state to revisit recreational
opportunities in the Liberty Island area of Solano County,
failed Tuesday to get the Board of Supervisors to do the
same. Taylor Dahlke, the spokesman for Liberty Island
Access, called into the board meeting and asked the supervisors
to table a decision on a memorandum of understanding
with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and Department
of Water Resources until more specific recreation commitments
from the state are included in the agreement – specifically
land access.
About 30 hardy souls marched the length of the dry Kern River
bed — nine miles — from near Manor Street in east Bakersfield
all the way to Stockdale Highway Saturday morning to protest
the lack of water in the river. At the start of the hike,
the group filled bottles and jugs with water from the river,
which ends shortly after Manor Street as it’s divvied up by a
hydra of irrigation canals.
As California’s drought continues and temperatures creep up
into the 90s in Northridge and Chatsworth, the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power is sponsoring two free workshops
in Northridge to help residents learn how to reduce their water
usage when landscaping. Two “Lawn Be Gone” workshops on
Saturday, Nov. 13, and Saturday, Nov. 20 will teach residents
how to remove turf without chemicals and install sustainable
landscaping, incorporate low water-use native California
plants, capture and recycle rainwater, install efficient drip
irrigation, mulch to make healthy soil, and more.
When Lake Powell is filled or near capacity, as was the case
through much of the 1980s and 1990s, the river current stopped
just downstream of the drops, its muddy waters becoming a
limpid blue reservoir as hundreds of millions of tons of
sediment settled to the river bottom. … As the Colorado
carves a channel through the reservoir sediment, long-buried
rapids have started to reemerge, side canyons are being scoured
of mud, beaches are forming again, native plants are
reestablishing themselves and habitat for threatened fish
species may be expanding.
Top federal environmental regulators in California laid out
a $630-million plan on Monday to capture and treat
sewage-tainted water that routinely flows over the border from
Tijuana into Imperial Beach and up the
coast. The blueprint focuses largely on
installing a pumping system in the Tijuana River north of the
U.S.-Mexico border to suck polluted flows out of the channel
before they can foul shorelines in San Diego. Trash booms would
be installed directly upstream of the intake.
If you replaced your grass and switched to a water-resistant
garden, then you can learn Tuesday night about how to take
advantage of savings. Join the West Basin Municipal Water
District at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday for an interactive virtual
discussion with water efficiency experts who will answer your
questions about the district’s grass replacement rebate
application process.
“My girlfriend tells me I smell like trash,” says Colin West.
And he takes that as a compliment. West spends 40 to 60 hours a
week scuba diving Lake Tahoe to locate and remove submerged
trash. On the day I spoke with him, he and a group of divers
had collected 576 pounds of underwater garbage, including a
massive monster truck–style tire. And since launching the
nonprofit Clean Up the Lake in 2018, West and his team of ten
full-time employees and contractors, plus an army of trained
volunteers, have picked up more than 18,000 pounds of
refuse.
Yosemite’s fall colors come with a special treat this year:
More water rushing through waterfalls from big storms last
month. [Photographer Glenn Lee] Robinson said Yosemite’s
best-known waterfalls, Yosemite Falls and Bridalveil Fall, are
still going strong.
The big storm that dumped rain and snow on northern Nevada did
not relieve us from our severe drought. All that rain in Reno
and Sparks quickly filled the Truckee River but most of it is
just surface runoff. Every drop of that water in the Truckee is
already spoken for, no matter how high or low the water levels.
It all starts upstream at Lake Tahoe. … Jim Litchfield
who is a former surface water hydrologist says not everyone
getting a fair cut of the water.
As the rain falls down in the watershed, Lake Oroville’s water
level rises. Lake Oroville recovered some of its water over the
last two weeks from a recent storm ending a long streak of low
lake levels that has lasted since its record low on Aug.
4.
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation decided not to send water
rushing through the Grand Canyon this month to rebuild beaches
for campers and sandbars for fish because of persistent
drought, officials said. An abundance of sand in the Colorado
River system gives the agency an opportunity to flood the
waterway to spread the sediment throughout the canyon. Despite
favorable conditions after a remarkable monsoon, the November
flood is a no-go.
Early-season storms that have dumped several feet of snow
across the Lake Tahoe region have prompted the Palisades Tahoe
ski areas to open this Friday, a month sooner than expected.
Palisades, the umbrella brand of adjacent ski resorts in North
Lake Tahoe formerly called Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows,
announced Tuesday afternoon that more than 3½ feet of snow had
fallen on its upper mountains in recent days.
Christmas travelers driving Interstate 5 this year may need to
hunt up a different stopping point as Kettleman City could be
shut down for lack of water. The state Department of Water
Resources (DWR) has said it will give the tiny community in
western Kings County a few more acre feet of water — but only
enough for the personal taps of its 1,100 residents. The town’s
gas stations and fast food joints that bring in droves of
motorists on busy holidays could be left high and dry.
A Northern California family found mysteriously dead in August
on a hiking trail in the Sierra most likely died from a
combination of hyperthermia and dehydration, the local Sheriff
who led the investigation said Thursday. The news sheds light
on a case that has confounded investigators and the public and
raised new questions about outdoor recreational activities in
an era of rising temperatures and climate fueled extreme
weather.
In South Lake Tahoe, where the beaches are shallow, the water
has receded so far from the shore that it’s as if the tide has
gone out, revealing a lake bottom oozing with slimy, green
algae. Trash that had sunk in Tahoe’s waters is now
exposed to the sunlight: a cigarette lighter, a seat cushion, a
champagne bottle. It is a dystopian version of the postcard
image of Lake Tahoe. But the worst part is the smell. The
air hangs with the scent of sewage or rotting seaweed. The
stink comes from the algae that has been left behind by the
retreating waters. It’s now rotting on the beach.
Richmond Mayor Tom Butt says plans by the Marin Municipal Water
District (MMWD) to construct a water pipeline across the
Richmond-San Rafael Bridge and related facilities in Richmond
will have adverse impacts in his city. He feels Richmond’s
concerns and proposals for alternatives and mitigation measures
are being ignored in order to rush through the project, which
aims to support MMWD’s roughly 190,000 customers amid drought
conditions.
Forty-nine years ago this week, Congress passed the federal
Clean Water Act, with the goal of restoring America’s
waters. Yet today, 95% of California’s rivers, lakes, bays
and wetlands are plagued by pesticides, metals, pathogens,
trash and sediment, making it unsafe to swim, fish or drink. As
we approach the 50th anniversary of this landmark environmental
legislation, it is time for the state to get on track toward
ensuring swimmable, fishable and drinkable waters for all
Californians. -Written by Sean Bothwell, the executive director
of California Coastkeeper Alliance.
El Segundo residents may be startled by smoke and flames
periodically coming from the Hyperion Water Reclamation Plant
the rest of the month — but there’s no need for concern,
officials say. It’s all part of scheduled maintenance work that
begins Sunday, Oct. 17, according to an alert from El Segundo
this week. The plant’s Bioenergy Facility will undergo
maintenance to preserve critical equipment such as pumps,
breakers and compressors, the alert said.
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.
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
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
Deep, throaty cadenced calls —
sounding like an off-key bassoon — echo over the grasslands,
farmers’ fields and wetlands starting in late September of each
year. They mark the annual return of sandhill cranes to the
Cosumnes River Preserve,
46,000 acres located 20 miles south of Sacramento on the edge of
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
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 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
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
A companion to the Truckee River Basin Map poster, this 24×36
inch poster, suitable for framing, explores the Carson River, and
its link to the Truckee River. The map includes Lahontan Dam and
Reservoir, the Carson Sink, and the farming areas in the basin.
Map text discusses the region’s hydrology and geography, the
Newlands Project, land and water use within the basin and
wetlands. Development of the map was funded by a grant from the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Mid-Pacific Region, Lahontan Basin
Area Office.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
