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.
The dream of turning a 384-acre oil field at the mouth of the
Santa Ana River into a public park and nature preserve grows
closer to a reality by another $8 million, thanks to a grant
from the state’s fish and wildlife department announced earlier
this month. The $8-million grant for the purchase of Banning
Ranch, given to the Trust for Public Land, is one of 28
projects — and one of three acquisition projects — selected to
receive a grant this year.
The move to end mining in a Tri-Valley lake became official
this week. Alameda County planning commissioners on Monday
approved plans for restoring the Eliot Quarry, where more than
a century of rock mining in the unincorporated area between
Livermore and Pleasanton will eventually be turned into lakes
surrounded by open fields and recreation trails. … [T]he
project will include the planting of native trees and shrubs,
creating passages for fish, and reducing the amount of
groundwater lost to San Francisco Bay by deepening the lake so
it can hold more water.
The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) and
Sonoma County Department of Environmental Health Services
advise caution for anyone who boats, fishes or swims after
harmful algal blooms (HABs) were discovered in multiple Sonoma
County rivers. Because children and dogs are most susceptible
to serious health impacts, it is recommended that they avoid
touching any suspicious-looking algal material found in the
water or along river banks.
Due to the extreme drought conditions and risk of wildfire,
Sierra Pacific Industries is closing its California forest
lands to public access. This closure began Monday, June 21, and
will remain in effect until further notice. … The
public’s use of SPI roads and walk-in access to their
privately-owned lands will not be allowed. SPI will regularly
evaluate the situation; however, it is anticipated the closure
will remain in effect into fall.
I’ve spent my whole life near San Francisco Bay. But the amount
of time that I’ve actually spent out on the water has been
minimal — a few ferry rides, a dinner cruise or two, a trip to
Alcatraz and back in grade school. That’s it. I like to blame
my yacht-less friends, who have been amazingly inconsiderate
over the decades and never bought fancy sailboats to take me
out on the water. The real reason, of course, is that I’d never
explored some relatively inexpensive ways to explore this
area’s most famous feature. Turns out it’s pretty easy to
do, especially if you like to paddle.
Three conservation groups aiming to keep more water in rivers
for recreation are working on a revision to a state law.
American Whitewater, Conservation Colorado and Western Resource
Advocates are proposing an amendment to legislation that would
allow natural river features such as waves and rapids to get a
water right. Under the state’s current statute, in order to get
what is known as a recreational in-channel diversion water
right, it must be tied to a man-made structure in the river,
such as a design feature that creates the waves in many kayak
parks.
We had been walking for only a few minutes when Scott
Culbertson stopped in front of a field of twisted, blackened
bark. “I haven’t been here since the fire,” the executive
director of the Friends of Ballona Wetlands told me, scowling
at the destruction from behind dark sunglasses. Three months
ago, this spot in the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve in
Playa del Rey had been a stand of native willow trees and other
vegetation where endangered songbirds would nest. Then, one
sunny afternoon, a brush fire broke out and scorched five acres
before firefighters could put it out. -Written by Erika Smith, LA Times columnist.
Several locations along the American River north of Sacramento
are showing above-average levels of E. coli, according to the
Central Valley Water Board. KCRA 3 spoke with health officials
in Sacramento County on Friday about the concerning levels of
E. coli.
Lake Pillsbury… is located in the northeast part of Lake
County. Filled in 1922, impounded by the Scott Dam, it is part
of the Potter Valley Project that assures water security for
hundreds of thousands of people in the three counties of
Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin for drinking, farming, aquifer
replenishment and recreation….On March 17, 2021, FERC issued
a Study Plan Determination and per the order the Two Basin
Solution Partnership must analyze the effects of removing Scott
Dam on the communities around Lake Pillsbury, tribal interests,
recreation and other activities on the Eel River …
While typically the water flow in the Stanislaus River slows
during the summer, that’s not likely to happen this year, so
recreational users of the river are urged to observe safety
precautions to avoid tragedy. Why is the river running so high?
… In a nutshell, it means New Melones is being
called upon to backfill a good portion of water that Shasta,
Folsom and Oroville should be releasing during this summer to
the delta…
Hot temperatures are drawing people to the cool water of
Tiscornia Beach, but what many there may not know, there are
high levels of E.coli found in the water. … Robert
Metcalf is a retired professor who’s taught microbiology at
Sacramento State University for 42 years. He said finding
E. coli in the water means there is recent fecal
contamination. Mary Beth Metcalf, a retired clinical
professor of pediatrics from UC Davis, said E.coli leads
to other infections.
In the same area of the mountains where the snow was 80
percent, river flows dripped out at 30 percent of their
average. … [T]here’s not much water when there’s this
level of aridity. Paddling, for me, is a benchmark, a tangible
way to understand what all those drought maps and numbers mean.
And these days, the bottom-scraping springtime runs feel like a
creepy indicator of how bad things will be downriver, where
those waterways are used to grow food, maintain ecosystems,
fight wildfires, and provide drinking water.
The first glimpse of the water driving down Highway 86 is
breathtaking. From some angles, you can’t even see the other
side of California’s biggest lake. It seems out of place in the
vast desert expanse of the Imperial Valley, just north of the
Mexican border, where it’s over 100 degrees for much of the
year. But then the car door opens, and it hits: the
overwhelming smell of rotten eggs. At the shoreline is a
sign saying not to touch the toxic water.
Reservoirs throughout the west are showing signs of the drought
that really turned severe over the winter. There may be records
set by the end of this summer as some reservoirs are down near
half capacity already. But is it all bad news? News 8’s Steve
Fiorina went in search of answers regarding the status of our
San Diego County lakes and reservoirs. Many reservoirs
across California are lower than preferred as we deal with the
ongoing drought. In San Diego, so far there are no worries.
A heat wave blanketing Southern California is driving
blistering temperatures from the beaches to the mountains,
triggering excessive-heat warnings and sparking fears that the
hot, dry conditions are ripe for wildfires. With temperatures
expected to reach triple digits in some areas, the National
Weather Service issued an excessive-heat warning from 10 a.m.
Tuesday to 9 p.m. Friday in the mountains of Ventura and Los
Angeles counties, not including the Santa Monica range.
At Crocker Amazon Park in the Excelsior, six acres of formerly
underutilized land owned by the San Francisco Public Utilities
Commission has been turned into an urban farm through the
efforts of People Organizing to Demand Environmental and
Economic Rights, known as PODER. The urban community
agriculture project, dubbed Hummingbird Farm, provides organic
food as well as medicinal plants, and serves as a community and
education hub in particular for young people.
Lake Powell has drastically shriveled during 20 years of
drought, allowing dozens of miles of the Colorado River to
become a river again in world-famous Cataract Canyon. But why
have many of its legendary rapids failed to return? Three men
from Moab have made it their crusade to study that issue and to
document a stunning after-effect of Lake Powell: a river
struggling to cut its way through a monumental legacy of dried
mud.
Among the East Bay Regional Park District visitor centers
offering programs as pandemic-related restrictions ease is the
one at Oakley’s Big Break Regional Shoreline. On Big Break
Road off Main Street (Highway 4), Big Break is a window on the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta’s rich cultural and natural
history. Outside, there’s a kayak launch, a fishing pier, a
small amphitheater, a scale model of the entire Delta and
shoreline trails leading to Brentwood and the Marsh Creek
Regional Trail, which is open from 5 a.m. to 10
Managers of some Arizona golf courses are fighting a plan that
would cut water use at a time when the state is being
forced to confront shrinking water supplies. A group
representing golf courses has been pushing back against a
proposal by state officials that would reduce overall
water use on courses, instead offering a plan that would entail
less conservation. Opposition to the state’s proposal for
golf courses has emerged over the past several months, aired in
sometimes-tense virtual meetings …
California is rolling out a fresh strategy to keep its economy
afloat — releasing 17 million salmon into the San Francisco
Bay. Millions of Chinook salmon raised in hatcheries will
bypass California’s drought-stricken riverbanks to be released
directly into colder, downstream sites in the San Francisco
Bay, in an attempt to maximize their survival rate amid some of
the most extreme environmental conditions the state has ever
faced.
The Bureau of Reclamation is continuing increased flow releases
from New Melones Reservoir to assist with Delta outflow
requirements. Additional flow
releases began on the
lower Stanislaus River on June 10. The
increased flow of 1,500 cubic feet per
second will occur for an extended
duration. Increased river flow can create hazardous
conditions including higher water levels, faster currents,
colder water, and potential entrapment. … Recreationists and
visitors should take safety precautions when near or
on the lower Stanislaus River during
these increased flows.
The state Supreme Court rejected the appeal Wednesday of the
owner of an island in Suisun Bay who has been ordered to pay
millions of dollars in penalties and restore landfill he
discharged into marsh waters to make room for duck hunters and
a kite-surfing club. John Sweeney purchased the 39-acre island,
Point Buckler, on the eastern edge of Grizzly Bay in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta in 2011. It had been used by duck
hunters for many decades until the 1990s, but regulatory
agencies said levee breaches and neglect of the site had turned
it into a tidal marsh.
A Sacramento woman says she nearly drowned and her son was
traumatized when she got stuck in a fish trap while floating on
the American River. A lawsuit filed Friday in Superior Court
seeks damages from state and federal wildlife agencies and
Sacramento County over the incident, on June 10, 2020, just
west of the Watt Avenue bridge in Sacramento. The woman and her
son had been floating on inner tubes for less than a
quarter-mile, the complaint says, when hers was pulled toward a
“rotary screw trap” — a floating device intended to
capture salmon for monitoring purposes.
Instead of being flush with newly melted snow, Folsom Lake is
the driest it’s been in springtime since the epic drought of
1977. Water levels are so low that temporary pumps probably
will be installed to help move water out of the stricken
reservoir. Water levels at Lake Oroville have plunged to
the point that its giant hydropower plant could be idled for
the first time ever this summer … [C]onditions are so
bad that major cities are drawing up conservation plans,
farmers have scaled back plantings and environmentalists are
angrily warning of massive fish kills.
The ocean shoreline at Tijuana Slough National Wildlife Refuge
and Border Field State Park was closed Saturday due to
contaminated sewage water that may be moving north into the
U.S., county water authorities said. The San Diego County
Department of Environmental Health and Quality issued the
contact closure for the ocean shoreline Saturday. Ocean water
samples exceeded state health standards, DEHQ officials said.
Climate change has created new “seasons” that challenge
communities across the nation. California now has a “fire
season,” and sadly, we are embarking on harmful algal bloom
(HAB) season again. NRDC has updated its national map of
state-reported freshwater HABs, which tracks the HABs reported
by states from 2008-2020 and shows that these toxic outbreaks
are increasing across the country, making our rivers, lakes,
and beaches unsafe for swimming, boating, and drinking. Between
2008 and 2020, over 44,000 HAB events were recorded across 38
states.
In May, Lake Tahoe watercraft inspectors have identified
numerous boats carrying harmful aquatic invasive species and
added them to the list of boats that had to be decontaminated
before launching, according to the Tahoe Regional Planning
Agency and the Tahoe Resource Conservation District, which
manage the inspection program. As of press time, 14 of the more
than 1,000 boats inspected were found to have aquatic invasive
species in, on or attached to the boat, boat trailer, dock
lines or on-board recreational equipment, according to a press
release.
The lack of Sierra snowmelt has significantly reduced the size
of Folsom Lake. It’s 68 feet lower that it was last year, the
equivalent of a five-story building. Only one of the
lake’s 13 boat ramps was open over Memorial Day
Weekend. … Besides the lack of snowfall, the ground
has become so dry that, as the snowpack melts, it’s absorbed
into the ground instead of going in the reservoir.
The drought is taking a major toll on local lakes, most notably
Big Bear Lake, one of the most beautiful views in Southern
California. After another dry winter, water officials say the
lake could hit historically low levels by fall. Many of the
people who live and work in the area are concerned because they
say the lake is shrinking.
Multiple earthquakes rattled the Lake Tahoe region on Friday,
the latest in a sequence that began in late April. … Tahoe
sits on major fault lines more than a thousand years overdue to
rupture… A huge shake could even lead to a Tahoe
tsunami, but he says for now – it’s still highly unlikely. But
in the event of something major, Kent recommends not wasting
any time getting away from the water.
It was a question asked of panelists discussing the Salton Sea
on Tuesday, May 25. State and local officials were asked a
number of questions about the drying sea during a one-hour
online forum. The Red Hill Bay project that stalled after
breaking ground in 2015 was one of the topics panelists
discussed.
Malibu residents voiced concerns about a large algae bloom in
Malibu Lagoon at the Monday, May 24, Malibu City Council
meeting, with one requesting the city demand California State
Parks to do something about the lagoon—which public speakers
said could breach as soon as the early morning of Wednesday,
May 26. Malibu Lagoon has previously been plagued by algal
blooms; in 2018, one large bloom choked native plants and
fish—which suffocated, died and floated to the surface in a
massive, smelly die-off.
The Kern River Conservancy received a $23,000 grant to study
whether last year’s Sequoia Complex Fire harmed the water
quality in the wild and scenic section of the Kern River. The
Virginia and Alfred Harrell Foundation awarded the grant to the
non-profit conservancy, Gary Ananian, the conservancy’s founder
and executive director, told the Kern Valley Sun.
It has lost nearly 95% of its volume in the past two decades,
upending what was once a thriving resort economy, a healthy
brine shrimp population, crucial wildlife and bird habitat, and
critical mineral extraction industries. The miles of stark,
exposed lakebed threaten the millions of people who live nearby
due to wind-whipped dust settling in their lungs. It’s Lake
Urmia, nearly 6,900 miles away from the Great Salt Lake. But
the two are now connected as efforts to save this lake deliver
unique lessons as Utah grapples with a way to preserve and save
its salty landmark from a similar fate.
The calm water of Tiscornia Beach, where the Sacramento and
American rivers meet, could be deceiving for many swimmers and
boaters and lead to drownings. Even during a drought, the water
in these rivers and others throughout the Sacramento area is
still cold and fast. The water can easily catch anyone off
guard. Sacramento city officials on Tuesday reminded everyone
heading to the water for Memorial Day weekend that wearing a
life jacket is crucial to keeping them safe.
With lake levels out at Lake Shasta getting lower, more
underwater gems will be visible for the community to explore.
As of Tuesday, May 25, Lake Shasta is 106 ft. below regular
lake levels. KRCR spoke with both the Bureau of Reclamation and
the Shasta Historical Society who each shared some must-see
sightings. Out at the Shasta Dam, people can check out
what is left of the historic 1940 Headtower that was used to
deliver 6.5 million cubic yards of concrete to make up the dam,
says the Bureau.
The USGS will collect high-resolution aerial imagery over
Grand Canyon National Park for approximately one week beginning
Saturday, May 29, to document, observe and track long-term
ecosystem changes in the Colorado River.
The Sonoma County Regional Parks department is in the early
stages of exploring an idea to turn the seasonal summer dam at
Healdsburg Veteran’s Memorial Beach into a series of about 18
inches of drops, which would create four mini pools for lazy
river-style tubing, family-friendly swimming and fishing. The
early concept is a result of the need to either rebuild the
aging dam infrastructure, or create an alternative option in
lieu of the dam. The concept includes low flow channels for
fish passage, portage access, fishing access, trails and three
separate beaches.
The city of Escondido is moving forward with plans to replace
the Lake Wohlford dam, a structure built of earth and rock that
has stood at its present location since 1895. Lake
Wohlford is about 5 miles northeast of downtown Escondido, just
beyond city limits in the unincorporated area of San Diego
County, and the dam is owned by the city. The lake has long
served the city both as a recreational asset for boaters and
fishing enthusiasts and as an emergency storage reservoir to
supply drinking water in case of a drought.
The state plans to break [a levee at Shag Slough] in nine
locations to create 3,000 acres of tidal wetlands. It has asked
the county to vacate that section of Liberty Island Road that
runs atop the levee. Taylor Dahlke, the leader of a group
fighting to maintain land access to Shag Slough, the Liberty
Island Ecological Reserve and the region in general told the
Delta Stewardship Council on Thursday night that the state
proposal violates the Delta Plan.
Just who is in charge of revitalization of California’s largest
lake, and why has it been so tough to solve the issues at the
Salton Sea? … There has been a lot of blame passed around by
those who own the land around and under the Salton Sea. The
biggest land owner here is the Imperial Irrigation District, or
IID. Then, the federal government. Next, the Torres-Martinez
tribe.
Beginning next week, the Bureau of Reclamation plans to reduce
overnight releases from Davis Dam on selected dates in an
attempt to decrease the local caddisfly population – following
a request from the cities of Laughlin, Nevada and Bullhead
City, Arizona. The reduced flows along the river reach below
Davis Dam will help with an ongoing pest abatement study being
conducted by the downstream communities to combat this nuisance
species that negatively impacts businesses and visitors to the
area.
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.
Lake Shasta this summer is facing possibly its lowest level in
at least 44 years, and that could be bad news for the people
who rely on it for drinking and irrigation water, as well as
endangered salmon that depend on it to survive. Dam
operators have to go all the way back to 1977 to compare how
bad this year’s water situation is shaping up to be, said Don
Bader, area manager for the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, which
manages the dam.
The seven members of the Delta Stewardship Council were seated
in 2010. The Council appointed ten prominent scientists to the
Delta ISB. Over the next decade, the Delta ISB produced over 30
scientific reviews, averaging over 3,000 hours of work per
year. But in 2020, the work of the Delta ISB stalled. The Delta
Stewardship Council reduced funding for the Delta ISB by over
90%.
As California enters another dry summer, the supply and use of
water are once again becoming topics of immediate concern.
Statewide, agriculture dominates use of developed water —
meaning water which is moved through pipes at some point.
In urban areas, about half of developed water is used outdoors,
and of that fraction about half is used for landscape
irrigation. That half is an important fraction in Los Angeles
and other urban areas. Across the state, homeowners may be
interested in saving money on water bills, improving plant
health, limiting weeds, and being ecologically responsible
while still having an attractive, low-maintenance landscape.
[I]n a new study, UCLA researchers found that nitrogen in
treated sewage is driving a massive growth of oceanic algae and
loss of oxygen, which will likely have lasting effects on the
region’s ecosystem. From 1997 to 2000, for example, the growth
of microscopic marine algae called phytoplankton was 79% higher
than it would have been without nitrogen from human sewage in
the waters along the coast from the Baja California Peninsula
to Santa Barbara. The problem occurs in large part because
freshwater from sewage is less dense than the seawater it’s
injected into, which causes the wastewater to rises to the
surface, where phytoplankton live.
The Ross Town Council has selected an alternative plan for a
flood control project at Frederick Allen Park, sparing dozens
of creekside trees. The council voted unanimously Thursday in
favor of “alternative 1,” which would preserve 80 trees slated
for removal in the park. It would also nix the fish ladder and
add four large fish resting pools into the concrete channel
between the tennis courts and the post office.
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.
The Colorado River is flowing again in its delta. This is a big
deal for a river that has not flowed through its delta in most
years since the 1960s, resulting in an ecosystem that is
severely desiccated and devastated. Thanks to commitments from
the United States and Mexico in the Colorado River binational
agreement—Minute 323 – 35,000 acre-feet of water (11.4
billion gallons) dedicated to create environmental benefits
will be delivered to the river from May 1 to October 11. The
expectation is that this will create and support habitat for
birds like the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, Yuma Ridgway’s Rail, and
Vermilion Flycatcher, and give life to the many plants and
animals in this ribbon oasis of green in the midst of the
Sonoran Desert.
Beavers, known for their work ethic, tenacity and sometimes
destructive instincts, are making a comeback in the worlds of
science and water as researchers look for natural ways to
restore rivers and wetlands and improve the health of
drought-stressed aquifers. … This fall, Colorado Headwaters,
a nonprofit that advocates for protecting and restoring
headwater regions in the state, is sponsoring a beaver summit,
a conference designed to unveil some of the latest ecological
research on creatures once valued only for their glossy fur.
The Salton Sea continues to be a big talker when it comes to
lithium, but a long problem remains in and around the sea when
it comes to toxic air. During our extensive coverage of the
Salton Sea, we learned that toxic air is not only coming from
dried-up parts of the sea, but other parts of the sea are now
contributing to the toxicity. “It is not just the toxic
elements that have been trapped by the water and now exposed as
the sea recedes,” explained Frank Ruiz, Salton Sea Director
with Audubon California. Ruiz has been working with researchers
who have been studying the toxic levels at the Salton Sea.
May is American Wetlands Month and this year also marks the
50th anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands of
International Importance. This intergovernmental treaty is
focused on the conservation and wise use of important wetlands
and their resources. … Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine
Research Reserve … provides habitat for a diversity
of wildlife species, including more than 100 species of fish,
500 species of invertebrates, and the region’s iconic southern
sea otters. … Tomales Bay is a marine-coastal
wetland consisting of estuaries, eelgrass beds, sand dune
systems, and tidal marshes.
Although Indigenous people had, since prehistoric times,
modified the [Sierra Nevada] landscape and caused widespread
ecological change, the arrival of Europeans and Americans for
the gold rush brought a much more invasive level of alterations
with the construction of dams, permanent manipulation of
rivers, clear-cutting of old-growth trees and an ill-advised
practice of fire suppression that makes these forests ripe for
wildfires, especially when compounded by climate change, which
means more heat waves, decreased snowpack and drier conditions
among other impacts.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla (both D-Calif.)
today joined with Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky
Rosen (both D-Nev.) to introduce bipartisan legislation to
extend authorization of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act. The
original Lake Tahoe Restoration Act was passed in 2000 and
authorized $300 million for the restoration of the lake and
surrounding basin. The current authorization, which was passed
in 2016, will expire in 2024. Reauthorizing the bill will
prevent an interruption in conservation and restoration
planning.
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.
AB-377, is a proposed state Assembly bill titled Water Quality:
Impaired Waters. The premise of this legislation seems to be
that local authorities are responsible for all the dirty water
in local waterways. While the goal of “cleaning up the water”
is commendable the proposed solution is problematic. The Lompoc
City Council discussed a staff request to oppose this
legislation on May 4; the staff explains that “Assembly Bill
(AB) 377 seeks to ensure California’s waterways are drinkable,
fishable and swimmable by 2050.” -Written by Ron Fink, a Lompoc resident.
Spring is generally a time of renewal for the watersheds of the
western United States. Warmed by the lengthening days, the
region’s towering mountain ranges shed their mantle of snow,
releasing freshets of water into welcoming streams and
reservoirs. This year, though, the cycle is in disarray.
Outside of the Olympic and Cascade ranges of Washington state,
winter snows were subpar. The spring melt has been a dud. From
the Klamath to the Colorado and Rio Grande, watersheds are
under stress once again, and water managers face difficult
tradeoffs between farms, fisheries, and at-home uses.
Newly announced state funding for the Salton Sea is expected to
maximize habitat outcomes and provide immediate economic relief
to the community. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $5.1 billion water
infrastructure, drought response and climate resilience
proposal, which he announced Monday as part of his $100 billion
“California Comeback Plan,” includes $220 million for the
Salton Sea. At Tuesday’s Imperial County Board of Supervisors
meeting on Tuesday, District 1 Supervisor Jesus Eduardo Escobar
wanted to know what is meant by providing immediate economic
relief to the community and how this would occur.
Amid drought conditions across the Sierra Nevada and
California, Lake Tahoe is 2.5 feet lower than it was at this
time last year, according to water data collected in Tahoe City
on May 11. … Lake Tahoe’s water typically gets a boost
from spring’s snowmelt. But as of May 11, the snowpack in the
Sierra Nevada has virtually melted, and Lake Tahoe’s water
levels are the lowest they’ve been in five
years, according to USGS data. Snow surveys on May 11
indicate California’s snowpack is just 6% of average for this
date. Barring significant precipitation this summer, Tahoe
is on track to reach a critical low point …
A conflict over access to water in the Klamath Basin is
signaling the way climate change could play out across the
western United States. After a drier-than-normal spring,
farmers and indigenous tribes in the Klamath Basin are at odds
over water in Upper Klamath Lake. According to the U.S. Drought
Monitor, the Klamath Basin is experiencing “extreme drought,”
… Centuries ago, the area was wetlands; but in the early
20th century, the land was opened up to agriculture. Members of
the Klamath Tribes say tree removal and drainage hastened
drying as the climate warmed.
Newly released emails reveal that lawyers and lobbyists for
mining companies, developers and the agriculture industry had a
hand behind the scenes in shaping Arizona’s newly adopted law
on clean-water rules for rivers and streams. The emails
show the involvement of these influential groups went beyond
their public endorsements of the legislation. Their lawyers and
lobbyists were given access to offer input while the final
legislation was being drafted, and the emails show they
suggested specific language, offered “wordsmithing” tweaks and
requested significant changes that state officials incorporated
into the bill.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s $5.1 billion water infrastructure,
drought response, and climate resilience proposal
includes $220 million for the Salton Sea, and Assembly
member Eduardo Garcia, D-Coachella, applauded the announcement.
Garcia, chair of the Assembly Committee on Water, Parks, and
Wildlife, stated in a press release from his office that the
funding would maximize habitat outcomes and provide immediate
economic relief to the community.
Today, the Bureau of Reclamation announced a plan to increase
flow releases from New Melones Reservoir to assist with meeting
Delta salinity and outflow requirements. Additional flow
releases will begin on the
lower Stanislaus River
on May 10 and will reach a total
flow of 1,000 cubic feet per second and again
on May 11 to reach 1,500 cfs. This
increased flow of 1,500 cfs will likely
occur for an extended duration. During the increased
releases, water levels will be higher and currents
faster. Visitors should use caution when near or
on the Stanislaus River during these increased
flows.
As California enters what could be a record-breaking drought, a
just-completed nine-year floodplain restoration project at the
confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers offers an
ambitious attempt at one mitigation solution. At a 1,600-acre
former dairy ranch called Dos Rios, the conservation
organization River Partners removed berms that farmers had
originally constructed to protect their alfalfa and wheat crops
from the river. It turned fields into seasonal pools where
endangered baby salmon and migratory birds can rest, and water
can trickle down to refill aquifers.
Chula Vista resident and Imperial Beach lifeguard Lillian
Burkhart still remembers the sting on her skin after surfing in
Imperial Beach waters one day last summer. Within 24 hours, she
fell ill with a gastrointestinal infection, she said.
… Burkhart’s experience is commonplace and a reminder of
the decades-long struggle to address the recurring sewage
spills from Tijuana that pollute the South Bay shoreline.
Last week, Senator Alex Padilla (D-Ca) announced the
introduction of a bill that will protect special places in the
Los Padres National Forest and Carrizo Plain National Monument
for their ecological, cultural, and recreational values. The
bill also prohibits future oil drilling in certain places,
improves equitable access to the outdoors, and benefits local
and statewide economies. The bill is a companion to
Representative Salud Carbajal’s Central Coast Heritage
Protection Act, which passed the House of Representatives in
February. It … safeguards about 159 miles of wild and scenic
rivers.
Much of water management draws on patterns involving
randomness. This is typically done in building models based on
organizing equations, but has some relevance to art. The
following is a collection of art that relates randomness and
patterns with reflections on water management.
The North Marin Water District failed to adequately study
whether there will be enough water for endangered fish in
Lagunitas Creek if it builds a new well in West Marin, an
environmental group alleges. The well is intended to address
worsening saltwater contamination in the water supply. Save Our
Seashore, a nonprofit in Inverness, filed an appeal against the
project with the Marin County Planning Commission. … The
commission is expected to hold a hearing on the issue on May
24.
In 2020, the Salton Sea was described by Palm Springs Life
Magazine as “the biggest environmental disaster in California
history.” With the largest lake in California holding such a
bleak title, it’s amazing how obscure its legacy is. Over
spring break, we decided to go on a road trip to visit an
eccentric settlement in the middle of the lower Colorado
desert, known as a Slab City. This settlement is most well
known for being a site of post-apocalyptic garbage art and a
home for colorful nomads. Due to its libertarian ethos, it is
billed as the “last free place in America.”
Bakersfield raised a brew, literally, to the State Water
Resources Control Board on Friday in honor of the Kern River.
An iced down package of seven locally made craft beers was
delivered to board members as part of the latest outreach
effort by Bring Back the Kern, a local group advocating for
water to flow through Bakersfield in the Kern River.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a landmark water protection bill
Wednesday to ensure clean water in nearly 800 Arizona streams,
lakes and rivers that are critical for everyday use. The
legislation will preserve water quality, list protected Arizona
waters and develop management practices that will protect the
waterways.
A spectacular super bloom of lupine flowers has exploded in and
around Folsom Lake. Lupine flowers, which are native to
California and commonly found around the state, tend to crop up
every year. But this spring, experts say the super bloom that’s
sprouted in the Sierra foothills reservoir 25 miles east of
Sacramento is like nothing they’ve ever seen — and says a lot
about the dire state of California’s deepening drought.
…[B]right purple lupines that now blanket the reservoir in
areas that normally would be underwater but are now fertile
blooming ground because of historically low water levels.
Just a short drive south of Palm Springs, you’ll find
California’s largest lake. The drive along the circumference of
the Salton Sea reveals surprising, majestic views unlike
anything you’d expect to find in the desert. But for its
impressive sights and size, the Salton Sea is not a household
name, least of all in the very state it’s found. These days, if
you travel along the increasingly shrinking shorelines, you’ll
see suffering communities dotted with abandoned homes and lined
with silent streets.
Hear directly from a range of experts offering a variety of
perspectives on our May 20 virtual Lower Colorado River Tour as
they put into context the 20-plus year drought on what is the
most contested and meticulously managed river in the United
States. Among the experts featured are farmers, tribal
representatives, and managers from wildlife agencies, water
districts, the Bureau of Reclamation and others who will
discuss drought impacts, habitat projects, farming and
restoration efforts at the Salton Sea.
California’s drought is forcing hatcheries to truck young
salmon to the San Francisco Bay because the fish would
otherwise likely die trying to swim on their own
downstream to the Pacific Ocean. The Coleman National Fish
Hatchery along Battle Creek in Shasta County plans to drive
about 950,000 fall chinook salmon smolts in May to increase
their chances of survival.
In many American communities, rivers irrigate the farms that
feed families, quench people’s thirst—rivers are the source of
more than two-thirds of the drinking water in the U.S.—sustain
wildlife habitat, and provide an economic boost for
communities. Yet only a very small portion of those waterways
are protected from threats ranging from pollution to damming,
which would wreck the water’s natural flow.
… California’s Regional Water Quality Control Boards
have authority to designate ONRWs but to date have done so for
only two bodies of water: Lake Tahoe and Mono Lake. However,
the state did initiate an analysis of the Smith River as
an ONRW but has not completed the effort. The Smith is a
Pacific salmon stronghold.
In our latest effort to ensure that our water management and
farming practices both protect and enhance environmental
benefits in our area, Garden Highway Mutual Water Company
(Garden Highway) recently completed a project to screen its
diversion on the Feather River. This project allows us to
protect Chinook salmon and other fish species from entrainment
while diverting water year-round to irrigate crops and to
provide Pacific Flyway habitat during the fall and winter
months. The project was a cooperative effort between Garden
Highway, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Bureau
of Reclamation U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Family
Water Alliance.
Phase 3C of the Lower Clear Creek Floodway Rehabilitation
Project has been completed, attracting fish and wildlife to new
habitats and people to new recreation opportunities. This phase
concludes the extensive and decades-long effort to restore more
than 2 miles of stream channel on Bureau of Land Management
property below Whiskeytown Dam. It was led by the Clear Creek
Technical Team, which includes BLM, Bureau of Reclamation, U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service, Yurok Tribe and other federal,
tribal, state, local agencies and stakeholders.
Experts say a statewide drought declaration … could bring
significant consequences for the regulatory structure governing
California’s complicated water-delivery system. Many farmers
believe an emergency order could loosen environmental
regulations and free up water supplies for them. Environmental
groups fear the very same thing – that more of California’s
dwindling water supply could be directed to farming at the
expense of fish and wildlife.
Increasingly ominous signs suggest that we are entering another
multiyear drought in California. The State Water Project
recently reduced projected water deliveries for 2021 from 10
percent of requested supplies to 5 percent, and on April 21,
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a regional drought emergency in the
Russian River watershed in Northern California. But it’s a
different story in San Diego County.
-Written by Gary Croucher, chair of the San Diego County
Water Authority’s Board of Directors.
California is one of the most biodiverse places on the planet,
and the San Diego region is one of the most diverse in
California, but we are losing our biodiversity at an alarming
rate. The coming summer months and dry conditions are going to
further hurt that richness of life here. Conserving our water
resources directly and indirectly benefits our wildlife and is
consistent with the overall conservation ethic in San Diego,
which is why we need to prepare in case drought conditions
worsen.
-Written by Chuck Bonham, director of the CA Department of
Fish and Wildlife.
California could get 600,000 new acres of federally protected
wilderness under legislation introduced in the U.S. Senate
recently. The designation would ensure the lands remain free of
development, vehicles and commercial activity. … It
would also designate more than 583 miles of river — including
45 miles of San Gabriel River tributaries, as well as Little
Rock Creek — as “wild and scenic rivers,” a protection that
prohibits dams or new mining.
Seven years ago, after the fish died, Sarah Ryan decided she
couldn’t wait any longer for help. California at the time
was in the depths of its worst drought in the last millennium
and its ecosystems were gasping. For Ryan, the fish kill in
Clear Lake, the state’s second largest and the centerpiece of
Lake County, was the last straw. Ryan is the environmental
director for Big Valley Rancheria, a territory of the Big
Valley Band of Pomo Indians that sits on the ancient
lake’s western shore. She and others raised alarms for several
years about increasingly dire blooms of toxic
cyanobacteria.
Ever since I started working on Colorado River issues, I have
wanted to travel through the iconic landscape of the Grand
Canyon by boat. I was skeptical of my chances given the highly
coveted and limited number of permits, but this spring I was
lucky enough to be invited on a private trip. For 21 days, we
traveled through this remote stretch where the canyon walls
tower up to 4,000 feet above the river in some places. We
celebrated on the downstream side of big rapids and scrambled
up forgotten side canyons. We spied great blue herons and
merganser ducks on the river’s edge. We saw very few other
people.
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.
California officials will again truck millions of young salmon
raised at fish hatcheries in the Central Valley agricultural
region to the Pacific Ocean because projected river conditions
show that the waterways the fish use to travel downstream will
be historically low and warm due to increasing drought.
Officials said the massive trucking operation is aimed at
ensuring “the highest level of survival for the young salmon on
their hazardous journey to the Pacific Ocean.”
The Nevada Assembly voted Thursday to approve a non-residential
turf removal proposal brought by Southern Nevada water
regulators, who say it will save the water-shy Las Vegas Valley
12 billion gallons of water per year. With little debate from
lawmakers, the Assembly voted 30-12 on Assembly Bill 356,
sending the proposal to the Senate. Four Republicans — Glen
Leavitt, R-Boulder City, Heidi Kasama, R-Las Vegas, Melissa
Hardy, R-Henderson, and Jill Tolles, R-Reno — crossed party
lines to vote with the 26 Democrats.
Disagreement over restoring the Ballona Wetlands still remains
high. Walter Lamb, president of the Ballona Wetlands Land
Trust, recently held a webinar to discuss why the current
restoration plans are inadequate. The Land Trust disagrees with
the assertions of organizations such as Friends of Ballona
Wetlands, as they aren’t supported by available facts. Lamb
based his talking points around Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive
order made on October 7, 2020, of protecting biodiversity and
an announcement phasing out fossil fuels from September 23,
2020.
The frequency of natural disasters has soared in recent
decades. Total damage topped $210 billion worldwide in 2020.
With climate change, the costs attributed to coastal storms
will increase dramatically. At the same time, coastal habitats
such as wetlands and reefs are being lost rapidly. Some 20% of
the world’s mangroves were lost over the last four decades.
More than half of the Great Barrier Reef was degraded by
bleaching in 2020 alone. In California, we have lost more than
90% of our coastal marshes. -Written by Michael W. Beck, a research professor in
the Institute of Marine Sciences at UC Santa Cruz.
With the dry year facing California, there is increased
awareness about water quality issues and particularly harmful
algal blooms. The Natural Resources Agency in its Report To The
Legislature on The 2012–2016 Drought provided that “the
drought’s most visible water quality impact was harmful algal
blooms (HABs), which were reported more frequently during the
2012–2016 drought than during prior droughts.”
The US Forest Service is taking public comments on a proposed
exploratory mining operation near the headwaters of Hot Creek
in the Eastern Sierra that could lead to harmful open pit
mining near this fishery. We need your help to stop it. This
project is problematic and disastrous in many ways: KORE
Mining wants to drill around Hot Creek for gold with no plan or
guarantee that gold exists in that area. Dredging,
excavation, and hydraulic mining will cause dramatic
stream degradation. The proposal for the exploratory operation
provides no information on how much water is needed, the depth
of drilling, or the negative impact on the wildlife and the
environment.
It’s been another dry year in California. Governor Gavin Newsom
has declared a drought emergency in two northern California
counties and the Sierra snowpack is well below normal. All that
does not bode well for this summer’s wildfire season. To get a
sense of what to expect this year, KAZU’s Doug McKnight spoke
with Cal Fire Battalion Chief Issac Sanchez…
Millions of young salmon raised at fish hatcheries in the
Central Valley will be trucked to San Francisco Bay and other
coastal sites for release, because the rivers they’d normally
travel to get to the ocean are drying up, state and federal
officials said Wednesday. The ambitious trucking program, a
response to the state’s escalating drought, is intended to
maximize survival of the hatchery fish that prop up
California’s fall-run of chinook — the mainstay of the state’s
commercial and recreational salmon industries. Officials in
charge of the five major inland hatcheries that rear the fish
say convoys of tanker trucks are the only way to ensure the
3-inch smolts make it to sea.
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.
The California State Water Resources Control Board Friday urged
people and their pets to avoid the water in the Salton Sea due
to a toxic algae outbreak. Officials said that patches of toxic
cyanobacteria have been discovered at numerous sites in the
sea, and a dog recently died after swimming in the water.
“Cyanobacteria harmful algal blooms can affect the skin, liver
and nervous system of people and of dogs and livestock,” the
state water board said. As a precaution, visitors were urged
not to swim in the water, or let their pets enter the water, or
eat algal mats scattered about the shore line.
On Earth Day, the California Coastal Commission conditionally
approved a general management plan for a 28,700-acre federally
owned park in the San Francisco Bay Area — a plan vehemently
opposed by conservationists because it calls for killing native
tule elk in an area where thousands of acres of federal land
are leased to small dairy and cattle beef farmers.
… Last year, an estimated one-third of one the
tule elk herds died due to malnutrition, likely
exacerbated by drought conditions which decimated the animals’
foraging habitat at Point Reyes.
It has taken until the end of the second straight historically
dry winter, but California and its vast network of urban and
agricultural water suppliers, including those on the parched
North Coast, are now ramping up to confront the drought that is
tightening its grip on the state. Sonoma County
supervisors are set on Tuesday to proclaim a drought emergency,
becoming the first local government to take formal action on a
burgeoning water crisis that Gov. Gavin Newsom highlighted
Wednesday.
The Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) has approved
approximately $33.5 million in grants to help enhance flows in
streams throughout California. A total of 30 stream flow
enhancement projects were approved for funding at its April 22
meeting. The approved projects will provide or lead to a direct
and measurable enhancement of the amount, timing and/or quality
of water in streams for anadromous fish or special status,
threatened, endangered or at-risk species, or to provide
resilience to climate change.
California water officials on Friday issued a draft order
telling Nestlé to ”cease and desist” taking much of
the millions of gallons of water it pipes out of the San
Bernardino National Forest to sell as Arrowhead brand bottled
water. The order, which must be approved by the
California Water Resources Control Board, caps years of
regulatory probes and a public outcry over the company’s
water pipeline in the San Bernardino Mountains, where opponents
argue that siphoning away water harms spring-fed Strawberry
Creek and the wildlife that depends on it.
The water level of Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir,
has dropped more than 130 feet since the beginning of 2000,
when the lake’s surface lapped at the spillway gates on Hoover
Dam. Twenty-one years later, with the Colorado River
consistently yielding less water as the climate has grown
warmer and drier, the reservoir near Las Vegas sits at just 39%
of capacity. … The river’s reservoirs are shrinking as
the Southwest endures an especially severe bout of dryness
within a two-decade drought intensified by climate
change, one of the driest periods in centuries that shows no
sign of letting up.
The Los Angeles River spans nearly 51 miles — running from
Canoga Park to Long Beach. [T]he river changed in the 1930s
after a series of catastrophic floods hit the region and the
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers channelized the entire length of
the river — encasing it in concrete — and turning it into a
flood control channel. … [Marissa Christiansen, president of
the Friends of the Los Angeles River, hopes] to bring the
river back to its roots. And, for Earth Week, FOLAR is planning
a huge cleanup. From June to July, the group is asking for help
cleaning up 100 tons of trash from the waterway.
The nearly 12,000-acre Oroville Wildlife Area (OWA) in Butte
County is a popular stopping place on the Pacific Flyway for
migrating and native birds. After the Oroville Dam was
completed in 1968, the Department of Water Resources (DWR)
contracted with the then California Department of Fish and Game
to operate the Oroville Wildlife Area for the preservation of
fish and wildlife habitat. The OWA also includes DWR’s
Thermalito Afterbay reservoir, a prime habitat for migrating
waterfowl as well as several different Endangered Species.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday declared a drought emergency for
Sonoma and Mendocino counties, but resisted calls to issue a
statewide proclamation — at least for now. Newsom’s emergency
order primarily affects communities and water districts in the
Russian River watershed, which includes the cities of Santa
Rosa, Ukiah and Sebastopol. Some 360,000 people live in the
area.
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.
If the San Diego-Tijuana region were a human body, it’d have
the stomach flu: Bad stuff is coming out of both ends. But
instead of tackling the complicated source of the infection,
the border towns are fighting over where to put a Band-Aid. Six
miles from the U.S.-Mexico border lie three giant ponds full of
really old poo that regularly flush into the Pacific Ocean and
flow north along the Southern California coast during summer
tourist season.
Just how bad is the drought in the Western US? The
shrinking of Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir, is a
troubling indicator. The massive man-made lake, which
straddles the border of Arizona and Nevada, is now only
at 39 percent of its full capacity, down from 44
percent in April 2020. That’s equivalent to a 10-foot drop
in the water level, according to the latest data from
the Bureau of Reclamation. Which means mandatory
restrictions on the amount of water surrounding states draw
from Lake Mead could be triggered in the next few months.
Last Tuesday, American Rivers released its annual America’s
Most Endangered Rivers list for 2021. Because of a Trump-era
proposal to raise Shasta Dam, the group named northern
California’s McCloud River as the nation’s 7th most threatened
river. Over the past century, California has engineered the
structure of water capture and distribution in the state.
… During the Trump administration, then Secretary of the
Interior David Bernhardt advanced plans to increase the height
of Shasta Dam by 18.5 feet and to expand Shasta Lake by more
than 200 billion gallons.
The Colorado River’s biggest reservoirs are likely to drop to
historically low levels later this year, prompting mandatory
conservation by some of the river’s heaviest users. The latest
Bureau of Reclamation reservoir projections, which take into
account river flows in a given year, show a likelihood that
Lake Mead on the Arizona-Nevada stateline will dip below the
critical threshold of 1,075 feet in elevation in May and remain
below that level for the foreseeable future. A first-ever
official shortage declaration from the Department of the
Interior is almost certain later this year.
After a year hiatus because of COVID-19, the H2O Hackathon
returned to San Joaquin County on Saturday
with middle school, high school and college students
tackling a virtual challenge to help solve California’s water
problems. … The challenge for this year’s event was to
protect the San Francisco Bay-Delta estuary from harmful algal
blooms, bacteria that live in freshwater, estuarine and marine
environments that grow out of control and
produce toxic or harmful effects on people,
fish, shellfish, marine mammals and birds.
San Diegans will undoubtedly head to the ocean this weekend as
temperatures warm — but not in Imperial Beach. Sewage spilling
over from Tijuana forced officials on Friday to completely
close the city’s shoreline yet again. The move comes less than
a week after Baja officials said repairs were completed to a
broken water pump in the Tijuana River, which had allowed tens
of millions of gallons of sewage-tainted water to escape
capture starting in late March.
No country is immune from water scarcity issues — not even the
world’s wealthiest country, the United States. The southwestern
states, in particular, have faced frequent and ongoing droughts
over the past two decades, and traditional water supplies are
failing. … Our existing water supplies must go
further, and the technology exists to make this happen — by
turning wastewater into drinking water.
For the past four years, a Canadian mining company has been in
Nevada County, about 60 miles northeast of Sacramento,
collecting samples of what it suspects is one of the world’s
highest-grade underground gold deposits, potentially worth
billions. … The legacy of gold, while widely celebrated, is
not something that many in this area, now home to more retirees
and Bay Area transplants than men in hard hats and overalls,
want to revisit. … [T]he scars it left on the landscape
remain visible, and unwanted. Creeks still get mucked up
with iron and sulfuric acid from old mines. Soils contain
arsenic left over from drilling. …
The successful Bakersfield children’s book series “Indy, Oh
Indy” has launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund its sixth
upcoming book, titled “The Mighty Kern River.” The book was
inspired by a larger effort from the grassroots group Bring
Back the Kern to raise awareness about Bakersfield’s mostly dry
river and efforts to revive a more regular flow of water
through town.
Restoration flows will begin tomorrow, April 16, on the Trinity
River to help improve conditions after another critically dry
water year. A flow schedule based on the expected amount of
water available to support salmon restoration efforts on the
Trinity River is brought forward by the Trinity Management
Council each year. This week’s two-day schedule is slated to
increase daily average flows from 300 cubic feet per second to
1,300 cubic feet per second.
The City of San Diego’s Public Utilities Department has
completed the 2020 Watershed Sanitary Survey, which evaluates
any potential water quality issues at the source and will be
used as a basis for future watershed management and planning
efforts. A watershed is an area of land that drains water into
a specific body of water. Everything that is on the land,
whether a natural feature or a human activity, is part of the
watershed.
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.
Shasta Dam, which rises over 600 feet, flooded much of our
tribe’s homeland and inundated dozens of our sacred sites. It
stopped our salmon from reaching their spawning grounds. And by
holding back water when it is needed by the river, Shasta Dam
has driven our salmon to the brink of extinction. That threat
continues in the proposal to raise Shasta Dam. That project
would flood more of our sacred sites and further harm salmon.
The Trump administration made that project their top priority
water infrastructure project in the nation.
-Written by Caleen Sisk, the spiritual leader of the
Winnemem Wintu Tribe.
Southern California, like most of the West, is in the middle of
a record dry season. To combat it and keep the metropolitan
area well-watered, they’re relying more heavily on the Colorado
River, with water pumped directly from the south end of Lake
Havasu. Last Wednesday, the Metropolitan Water District began
pumping from Lake Havasu at full capacity for the first time in
years, drawing water from the Whitsett Intake Pumping Plant
located just north of the Parker Dam. The eight-pump flow is
equivalent to about 3,000 acre feet of water being pumped per
day, according to MWD Manager of Colorado River Resources Bill
Hasencamp.
The state plans to inspect three dairy ranches in the Point
Reyes National Seashore after independent water quality tests
conducted in nearby creeks and lagoons earlier this year found
E. coli bacteria concentrations up to 40 times higher than
state health standards. The San Francisco Regional Water
Quality Control Board plans to inspect Kehoe Dairy, McClure
Dairy and R&J McClelland Dairy, which are located near
Kehoe Creek and waterways that flow into Abbotts Lagoon in the
northern region of the national seashore.
Hundreds of farmers who rely on a massive irrigation project
that spans the Oregon-California border learned Wednesday they
will get a tiny fraction of the water they need amid the worst
drought in decades, as federal regulators attempt to balance
the needs of agriculture against federally threatened and
endangered fish species that are central to the heritage of
several tribes. Oregon’s governor said the prolonged drought in
the region has the “full attention of our offices,” and she is
working with congressional delegates, the White House and
federal agencies to find relief for those affected.
Harmful algal blooms (or HABs) occur when colonies of algae,
under the right conditions, grow out of control and produce
toxic or harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, marine
mammals, and birds. Every U.S. coastal and Great Lakes state
experiences harmful algal blooms. In California, reports
of harmful algal blooms have increased from 91 in 2016 to 241
in 2019. In 2020, Stockton experienced a severe harmful
algal bloom; it marked the first year that algal blooms spread
into the San Joaquin and Calaveras Rivers so early in the
summer and fall months. Drought and heat are factors that
increase harmful algal blooms …
Tule elk are treasured creatures in California, and for years,
animal rights groups have butted heads with the Point Reyes
National Seashore over its practice of keeping elk fenced away
from nearby cattle ranches. Amid a dry 2020, the groups tried
to bring water to the creatures but were rebuffed by the
National Park Service. Now the federal agency has released a
report indicating that more than one third of the 445 elk
fenced in at Tomales Point died this past winter, bringing the
population down to 293.
Advocates, such as the Colorado Water Trust, a nonprofit that
spearheaded the new approach, say the tools can be used as
templates across other river basins, where older water rights
are already spoken for. … Across Colorado nearly 40,000
miles of streams flow year-round and, as a result, have the
potential to receive protection under the state’s Instream Flow
Program.
The San Joaquin Valley’s quest for groundwater sustainability
will result in large amounts of irrigated agricultural lands
being retired. A new book explores how some of these lands
could be restored to natural areas that bring multiple
benefits. We talked to Scott Butterfield, a senior scientist at
The Nature Conservancy and one of the book’s editors, about
this vision.
Ballona Wetlands activists and Westside residents are planning
an Earth Day protest, calling on local leaders to shut down the
Playa del Rey oil field and pushing back against what they call
a disguised restoration project meant to restore the gas
company’s infrastructure below the ecological reserve.
While the federal government sees the prospect of raising the
height of Shasta Dam as a way to increase water storage for a
thirsty California, the Winnemem Wintu of Shasta County see it
as a threat to their culture. It was a theme picked up
this week by American Rivers, a conservation group that named
the McCloud River one of America’s 10 most endangered rivers
because of the proposal to raise the height of Shasta Dam.
… Raising the height of the dam would raise the level of
the lake about 20 feet when full. It would also further
inundate about a third of a mile of the McCloud River …
Tree roots are being blamed for a 98,280-gallon sewage spill in
Sausalito that went unnoticed for two weeks. The overflow
started on March 17 and went undetected because of heavy
vegetation, according to the county.
Dozens of people gathered at Point Reyes National Seashore
Saturday to protest after the deaths of more than 100 rare tule
elk. Last week, the National Park Service announced 152 elk in
a fenced preserve died in 2020 because of overpopulation and
drought conditions. The drought has reduced the amount of water
in the area, leading to limited access and malnutrition.
California’s shrinking Salton Sea is getting a closer look
scientifically with the state, local air districts, and
community groups examining air, water, and even dust from the
parched shoreline where water was once plentiful. The increased
scrutiny comes as the state has continuously failed to meet
dust suppression and habitat goals set in a 2017 management
plan to restore nearly 30,000 acres of the state’s largest body
of water by 2028. The sea spans Imperial and Riverside counties
near the Mexican border, where disadvantaged communities
breathe some of the nation’s worst air and suffer from high
asthma rates. Chronic nosebleeds are also common.
The California State Water Resources Control Board (the State
Board) will use $4.4 million of a U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) grant to fund projects in seven counties around
the state. EPA’s Nonpoint Source Program grant assists the
State Board in implementing programs to address pollution
caused by runoff moving over the ground, known as nonpoint
source pollution. The Marin Resource Conservation District was
awarded over $700,000 by the State Board for its Conserving Our
Watersheds Program. This project helps ranchers within the
Point Reyes National Seashore prevent nitrogen, phosphorus,
sediment, and bacteria from livestock operations from running
off into Tomales Bay. Tomales Bay supports oyster production
and recreational activities including kayaking and fishing.
San Diego hiking enthusiasts might have to share part of their
favorite trail with a cement mixer for the next year. The San
Diego County Water Authority is building a massive
5-million-gallon concrete water storage tank, called a flow
regulatory structure. You will never see it once it’s
completed. One of the hiking trails in the northwest corner of
Mission Trails Regional Park is closed and there are trail
detours on other parts. … Construction began in February
as the pandemic took over California. It’s expected to take
another year to complete. As of Friday, more than a dozen
concrete pillars were sticking up out of the ground like a
building straight out of Ancient Rome.
California remains far behind its targets for addressing
exposed playa around the Salton Sea, according to data released
in the 2021 Salton Sea Management Program annual report.
But state officials expressed optimism in a public
workshop that they are finally beginning to catch up to those
goals. The state was supposed to implement dust suppression
projects or build wetlands habitat across 3,500 acres of
exposed playa by the end of 2020 to tamp down dust that’s
imbued with a century’s worth of salts, pesticides and other
agricultural runoff.
Our Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project has just
been updated to reflect the latest developments affecting
California’s largest surface water delivery system. The 24-page
guide explores the history of the Central Valley Project, from
its roots as a state water project that stalled amid the Great
Depression to its development as a federal project that
stretches from Shasta Dam in far Northern California to
Bakersfield in the southern San Joaquin Valley.
If you skip a rock across the surface of the Great Salt Lake,
it will skim and ricochet across the far-reaching, glassy face
for what seems like a mile. It’s as if the waters were never
introduced to the laws of gravity. Or if they were, it didn’t
matter. The lake’s salinity — and in turn, its density — has
increased since the mid-1800s. Today, the tourmaline-colored
water in the north arm is eight times saltier than the ocean.
Rocks, those daring enough to swim and reflections of flushed
sunsets are held at the surface of the water — suspended and
unable to be lost. But in a cruel illustration of irony, we are
losing those waters. As historian Dale Morgan put it in 1947,
“It is a lake of paradoxes.” Today, the Great Salt Lake’s
volume has dropped nearly 50%. The largest saline lake in the
Western Hemisphere is drying up.
A year ago, when stay-at-home orders were a newly disorienting
fact of life, I started taking long walks through my
neighborhood on L.A.’s Westside. Wandering south from Palms
into Culver City, I realized I live near a huge concrete
channel — a creek, trapped in place — with a bike path along
the water, and a view of oil pumpjacks rising and falling atop
the Baldwin Hills. There were beautiful murals, too, showing a
healthy, thriving waterway. They were hashtagged
#KnowYourWatershed. And the more I admired them, the more I
realized that I did not, in fact, know my watershed, despite
growing up not far from here. -Written by Sammy Roth, a Los Angeles Times staff
writer.
Scientists have been predicting for years that the Colorado
River would continue to deplete due to global warming and
increased water demands, but according to new studies it’s
looking worse than they thought. That worries rancher Marsha
Daughenbaugh, 68, of Steamboat Springs, who relies on the water
from the Colorado River to grow feed for her cattle.
… Recent reports show that the river’s water flows were
down 20% in 2000 and by 2050 that number is estimated to more
than double.
South Bay officials are beginning to run out of patience over
the continued cross-border flow of sewage-tainted water. The
pollution warning signs have been up most of 2021 on the sand
in Imperial Beach. Last Friday, the pollution flowed north to
Coronado, forcing beach closures there. Imperial Beach’s top
officials are fed up.
For the second time in less than a year, state health officials
plan to ask lawmakers to fast-track permitting authority over
hundreds of miles of streams left unprotected after a 2020
Trump Administration rollback of federal Clean Water Act rules.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment’s move
comes just weeks after a federal court denied Colorado’s effort
to prevent the new federal rules from taking effect.
Humboldt County authorities are warning people it is still too
early to swim in some rivers due to high and swift water. A
report of multiple swimmers in distress this week led to a
sheriff’s deputy rescuing three people stuck on a rock in
Willow Creek. The Sheriff’s Office says the three Arcata-area
residents had decided to swim due to good weather. The office
says people should check National Weather Service information
on river levels and flow information. The advice includes the
Trinity River. Warming spring weather causes snowmelt that
sends cold and fast-moving water down through California’s
rivers to lakes and reservoirs. Authorities say even the most
experienced swimmers can be in danger. California State
Parks on Thursday began a series of online programs to help
prevent drownings in waterways.
Rejecting arguments that a utility can’t be sued over
century-old pollution, a federal judge signaled Wednesday that
he will likely advance a lawsuit seeking to hold Pacific Gas
and Electric liable for contamination that occurred more than
100 years ago. … [Plaintiff and San Francisco resident Dan]
Clarke claimed groundwater contamination stemming from the site
of PG&E’s former gas plant “is intermittently discharged
into the bay.” He said seasonal, tidal and other factors result
in groundwater passing the former plant site and intermixing
with contaminants before leaking into the San Francisco Bay.
The huge, lush green meadows that stretch between the S.R. 203
junction with U.S. 395 and Crowley Lake may seem like they have
been there forever but in reality, their existence has been
under threat for several years after the Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power threatened to withdraw much of the water
from the meadowlands a few years ago, stating it needed the
water for its own uses. If implemented, the proposed
‘de-watering’ of much of the massive meadows would have turned
them into sage and dust, destroying wildlife habitat, historic
cattle grazing leases, the fishing habitat along Hot Creek and
the Upper Owens River and much more.
San Francisco Bay’s life support systems are unravelling
quickly, and a wealth of science indicates that unsustainable
water diversions are driving this estuary’s demise. Yet,
with another drought looming, federal and state water managers
still plan to divert large amounts of water to their
contractors and drain upstream reservoirs this summer.
Meanwhile, the state’s most powerful water districts are
preparing yet another proposal to maintain excessive water
diversions for the long-term. By delaying reforms that the
law requires and that science indicates are necessary, Gov.
Gavin Newsom encourages wasteful water practices that
jeopardize the Bay and make the state’s water future
precarious. -Written by Jon Rosenfield, a senior scientist for SF
Baykeeper.
With the end of the first quarter of 2021 approaching, we
thought it timely to issue an update on selected recent
developments and proposed changes in law and policy touching
environmental, land use, and natural resource issues. At the
national level, with the new Biden administration, federal
policies already have undergone a significant sea-change from
those of the Trump administration. And the Golden State
continues to lead with a protective agenda on land use,
environmental, and natural resources legislation and
regulation.
Updated water supply allocations announced last week would
still drain upstream reservoirs in order to deliver 4.5 million
acre feet of water to the contractors of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP) and State Water Project (SWP), devastating
fish and wildlife. This week, the fisheries biologists at the
National Marine Fisheries Service projected that these planned
operations are likely to result in lethal water temperatures
that will kill 89% of endangered winter-run Chinook salmon
below Shasta Dam this year. This mortality estimate is even
worse than what was observed in 2014 and 2015, when salmon
populations were devastated by warm water in their spawning
grounds.
With racism in the public eye and the pandemic wreaking havoc
on vulnerable populations disadvantaged by ecological hazards,
the need to ensure environmental justice has become more
apparent – and more important – than ever… Race affects
class. Class then affects your options. It’s more of
a human rights issue today than a civil rights
issue. When you broaden it to human rights, then we’re
talking about a wide variety of things that affect the
opportunities open to people as people, not as citizens: Do we
have a right to clean water? Do we have a right to decent
housing? Do we have a right to an environment free of
pathogens?
Over the coming decades, California’s San Joaquin Valley will
transition to sustainable groundwater management under the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), ensuring
reliable groundwater supplies for generations to come.
Sustainable groundwater management and a changing climate will
inevitably affect how land is used on a sweeping scale. By some
estimates, the amount of farmland that will have to be taken
out of production to balance groundwater demand and supply is
equivalent to the size of Yosemite National Park — a transition
that could serve a huge blow to the agricultural economy, rural
communities and the environment.
The San Francisco Estuary Partnership’s next update to it’s
2016 Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the
Estuary—or Estuary Blueprint—will bring a new focus on equity
and environmental justice to ongoing efforts to restore and
protect the Bay and Delta.
The Vallecitos Water District received two awards for its
innovative use of technology to reduce algae blooms at Mahr
Reservoir, it was announced Thursday. The district received the
“Excellence in Action” national award from the WateReuse
Association and the “Innovation and Resiliency” state award
from the California Association of Sanitation Agencies for its
use of an ultrasound technology to address water quality at the
Stanley A. Mahr Reservoir with a reduced need for chemical
treatment. The most common method of treating algal blooms is
with chemicals. VWD instead uses technology developed by the
international company LG Sonic, which provides an overview of
the water quality allowing identification and treatment of
algal blooms.
The second consecutive dry winter has prompted state water
managers to reduce allocations to the state water project that
supplies millions of Californians and 750,000 acres of
farmland. The state Department of Water Resources
announced this week that it will only be able to deliver
5% of the requested allocations following below-average
precipitation across the state. That figure is down from the
initial allocation of 10% announced in December. Many of
the state’s major reservoirs are recording just 50% of average
water storage for this time of year, and won’t see a major
increase due to a snowpack that is averaging just 65% of
normal, according to state statistics..
[F]or those who live in the legal Delta zone – some 630,000
people – the braided weave of the Sacramento and San Joaquin
Rivers and their maze of associated wetlands and levees
provides a place of home, community, and recreation. And, as a
recent study by the Delta Stewardship Council shows, climate
change is tugging on the watery thread holding it all together.
… The council’s overview reveals a grim outlook for the
millions of people that are tethered to the region’s water:
drought similar to that experienced in 2012-2016 will be five
to seven times more likely by 2050. This will result in more
severe and frequent water shortages and, as the report bluntly
states, “lower reliability of Delta water exports.”
Two East County water agencies plan to reduce future water
rates by using millions of dollars they received from the
County Water Authority as part of a legal settlement. The Water
Authority announced a plan Feb. 25 to distribute $44.4 million
to its 24-member agencies — including the Helix Water District
and Padre Dam Municipal Water District — after receiving a
check for that amount from the Metropolitan Water District of
Southern California. A San Francisco Superior Court ruled in
favor of the Water Authority in January in two lawsuits against
Metro challenging rates and charges. The money is for legal
damages and interest from the decade-long rate cases.
A San Diego program that aims to keep toxic sewer water out of
the Pacific Ocean suffers from outdated methods and inadequate
efforts to identify and inspect the business sites of
industrial polluters, a new city audit says. The 56-page audit
says the program, which oversees industrial polluters served by
San Diego and 12 other local sewer districts, needs to step up
efforts to find polluters and modernize its inspection program.
The program – the Industrial Wastewater Control Program – is
also understaffed and not capable of handling the larger
workload it should handle without adding more workers, the
audit says.
With World Water Day this week and the dry year emerging
throughout the Sacramento Valley, we take this moment to
reflect on the value of water as we cultivate a shared vision
in the region for a vibrant way of life. We encourage you to
watch and read the following vignettes that all showcase the
value of water.
White River National Forest officials on Monday said Aurora
Water and Colorado Springs Utilities can move ahead with test
drilling to determine whether a controversial dam on Homestake
Creek in Eagle County is technically feasible…. conservation
groups say they are adamantly against any new water transfers
to suburban water users across the Continental Divide and will
oppose every approval step….Environmental groups oppose new
dams on Homestake in part because they would take
water out of tributaries that feed the already-depleted
Colorado River.
Colorado Governor Jared Polis and Dan Gibbs, executive
director, Colorado Department of Natural Resources, announced
recently the establishment of a Water Equity Task Force to
better understand existing equity, diversity and inclusivity
(EDI) challenges in Colorado water issues and inform the
Colorado Water Plan. … The 2005 Water for the 21st Century
Act (HB 05-1177) ushered in a new area of regionally inclusive
and collaborative water planning. That spirit was further
codified in the 2015 Colorado Water Plan, which ensured that
all water uses in Colorado are interconnected and of equal
value.
A new poll shows Latino voters in California are even more
supportive than the general population of policies that protect
public lands and combat climate change. The new survey finds an
overwhelming majority of Latino voters, 85%, support President
Joe Biden’s new goal of protecting 30% of the country’s lands
and waters by the year 2030. … The poll also found 83%
of Latinos surveyed support dedicating funding to address air
and water pollution in lower-income parts of California,
compared to 72% of all voters.
The Porter-Cologne Water Quality Act, California’s state clean
water law, passed in 1969 and became the model for the 1972
federal Clean Water Act. Nearly half a century after passage of
the landmark federal law, it is time for both the state and the
nation to assess progress and chart a new course. Once again,
California is leading the way with Assembly Bill 377, a new
bill introduced by Assemblyman Robert Rivas (D-Hollister).
Although new legislation is needed, the existing federal and
California clean water acts have produced successes that should
be celebrated. -Written by Terry Tamminen, president of 7th
Generation Advisors and founder of Santa Monica
Baykeeper.
The Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will
likely hire a contractor for the sweeping Lower Walnut Creek
Restoration Project that aims to improve both flood control and
conditions for wildlife and recreation. County staff recommends
the board approve a deal with Four M Contracting, which came in
with the lowest bid on the project, at $11.285 million. The
Winters-based civil engineering firm specializes in wetland
enhancement projects and the creation of wildlife habitat.
Of all the existential threats California parks face —
dwindling budgets, more visitors and costly, long-deferred
maintenance — now comes a climate-driven conundrum: When is a
park no longer a park? When its namesake trees disappear in a
barrage of lightning strikes? When its very land is washed away
by ever-rising seas? The California Department of Parks
and Recreation is coming to terms with this dilemma after a
climate-reckoning moment last August, when more than 97%
of Big Basin Redwoods, California’s oldest state park, was
charred by a lightning-sparked wildfire.
Spurred by the rising price of gold, K2 Gold Corp., of
Vancouver, Canada, is drilling and trenching in hopes of
selling its findings or partnering with a bigger company that
would, perhaps, transform the public lands into an open pit
cyanide heap leach mine, just a few miles from Death Valley.
… Opponents … worry about air pollution … and
the water required for mining gold. Pumping out millions
of gallons from desert aquifers, or underground lakes, they
fear, could exhaust regional springs in valuable wildlife
habitat, and attract wildlife to ponds of cyanide-laced water.
Mother Nature proved again in late January that the force of
torrential rainfall and surging water can undo about a decade’s
worth of difficult, expensive habitat conservation work. The
Santa Rosa Creek project completed in October in Cambria was
designed to stabilize the path of the creek in a vulnerable
North Coast area, while protecting its bank and its eponymous
roadway. Devin Best, executive director of the Upper
Salinas-Las Tablas Resource Conservation District (RCD), said
the district worked with landowners “to preserve their property
and also maintain the road so it doesn’t wash away.”
Placer County leaders are supporting the removal of a bridge
that collapsed 60 years ago near the confluence of the North
Fork and Middle Fork American River in the Auburn State
Recreation Area. … [Gary Estes, a board member for
Protect American River Canyons,] said the debris poses threats
to swimmers and kayakers. A sign posted on the State Route 49
bridge, where the collapsed bridge used to stand, warns people
to use extreme caution around the steel and concrete debris.
A beach water use advisory is now in effect until Thursday,
warning people of possible bacteria in the water following
rainfall. The recent rainfall, bacteria, chemicals, debris,
trash, and other public health hazards from city streets and
mountain areas are likely to contaminate ocean waters at and
around discharging storm drains, creeks, and rivers. People who
enter the water in these areas could become ill, according to
Los Angeles County Health Officer, Muntu Davis, MD, MPH. This
advisory will be in effect until at least Thursday at 1o a.m.
Sometime in the middle of next year, if Northern Water gets its
way, the bulldozers will start piling earth and rock 25 stories
high to plug this dry basin southwest of Loveland
forever. Four miles to the south, they’ll build another
dam to keep their newly-made bathtub from leaking out the back
toward Lyons. Drill crews will bore a massive pipeline through
the hogback making up the east edge of the bathtub, in order to
feed Carter Lake a few hundred yards to the east. They’ll move
a power line. Help build a surrounding open space park. Upgrade
a sewage plant in Fraser. Four years later, they’ll close dam
gates reinforced to hold back 29 billion gallons of life-giving
water.
The climate change cabal in Sacramento is ignoring some
extremely low hanging fruit in their bid to protect us from
ourselves. The reason they don’t see it is simple. It doesn’t
involve raising taxes, rewarding corporations or disruptor
greenies they align with, nor does it destroy jobs. The
California Legislature needs to ban grass lawns for front yards
as well as general commercial development for all new building
projects. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, editor of the Manteca
Bulletin.
Professor Marc Beutel and his graduate student Mark Seelos have
been recognized for papers and a presentation on toxic mercury
mitigation by the North American Lake Management Society.
… “About half the reservoirs in California are impaired
because of historic mercury and gold mining,” Seelos said.
Today’s road trip features the Delta “super highway” of the
1800s, with plenty of water, quaint river towns, history and
food along the way. From Stockton, you’ll travel a little more
than 100 miles, so plan for a fun day-long outing. You’ll see
every type of agriculture, levees built by Chinese labor after
the early railroads were constructed, and boats and cargo ships
travelling the same sloughs as did old steamboats and sailing
packets.
The US Green Building Council Central California (USGBC-CC) has
received a grant from the San Joaquin River Conservancy
(Conservancy) to commence planning for a Native American and
Environmental Resource Center at the San Joaquin River. The
project will enable public access and create an Indigenous and
Environmental Resource Center at the Circle V property located
on the San Joaquin River, outside of Fresno in Madera County.
The USGBC-CC received final approval for the grant funding as
part of the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe
Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Fund and the Safe
Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River
and Coastal Protection Fund of 2006 from the Wild Life
Conservation Board.
Lake Wohlford Dam is an important water storage, flood control
and recreational facility that has served Escondido for
generations. Restoring storage capacity and making it
earthquake-safe is critically important, which is why I
introduced AB 692. The dam was originally constructed in
1895 to store water transported via a wooden flume from the San
Luis Rey River to Escondido. One of the first rock-fill dams in
California, Lake Wohlford Dam was 76 feet high and had a
storage capacity of about 3500 acre-feet.
-Written by Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron,
R-Escondido.
A wetland enhancement project in south Oceanside has been
selected as the recipient of a $1 million federal grant from
the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, it was announced Thursday.
The award was issued through the National Coastal Wetlands
Conservation grant program, which funds projects that protect,
restore and enhance coastal wetland ecosystems. The grant will
go toward construction of the first phase of the Loma Alta
Slough Wetlands Enhancement project, which is intended to
restore and enhance six acres of coastal wetland and upland
habitat near Buccaneer Beach.
On Jan. 28 Defend Ballona Wetlands filed a lawsuit with the Los
Angeles Superior Court against the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife to stop the restoration project in the
Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve and challenge the
environmental impact report. The proposed project is set to
restore and revitalize 640 acres across the wetlands and create
10 miles of bike and footpaths.
The San Bernardino Valley Municipal Water District has decided
to join them, not fight them. Stymied by environmental barriers
and losses in court for 11 years, the large water wholesaler
serving 700,000 residential and business customers from Fontana
to Yucaipa is on the precipice of releasing an environmentally
based plan that would nearly double its supply of water by
diverting billions of gallons from the Upper Santa Ana River,
while mitigating the effects on 20 indigenous fish and bird
species.
A restoration project for the long-suffering Ballona Wetlands
is moving forward after the California Department of Fish and
Wildlife certified the final Environmental Impact Report for
the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve last year. Years
of neglect, human impact, and development took a toll on the
wetlands for years. The project aims to remove invasive
plants and leftover fill from the development of Marina Del
Rey, re-establish a functioning floodplain, and create natural
levees for flood protection against sea level rise.
Nearing the 50th anniversary of the federal Clean Water Act,
Assemblyman Robert Rivas held a press conference on Feb. 2 to
discuss the proposed California Clean Water Act, AB 377. The
legislation, co-introduced by Rivas and state Senate Majority
Leader Robert Hertzberg, would work to ensure all rivers,
lakes, oceans and other bodies of water in California are clean
enough for drinking, swimming and fishing purposes by
2050.
California’s Boating Clean and Green Program is looking for
individuals to become Dockwalkers to help keep the ocean, lakes
and reservoirs clean. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic,
recreational boaters continue to recreate in California’s
waterways. The need to share clean boating practices with the
recreational community, while abiding to COVID-19 guidelines,
remains important.
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.
A federal agency has ruled that the state can continue to seek
higher flows on the Tuolumne River than planned by the Modesto
and Turlock irrigation districts. The Jan. 19 ruling drew
cheers from environmental and fishing groups that have long
sought larger releases from Don Pedro Reservoir into the lower
river.
There are many ways to gauge the severity of a drought. This
winter in Colorado, all you have to do is look around. “The
stream flows across the state have been really, really, really
down throughout the whole fall season, so that is an
indicator,” said Karl Wetlaufer. Wetlaufer is a rafter, so he
pays attention to stream flow. It’s also part of his job as a
hydrologist with the Natural Resources Conservation
Service Snow Survey Program.
Sensational headlines, like those speculating that Wall Street
will make billions off the Colorado River or that West Slope
farmers should pack it in now, certainly attracts readers.
Unfortunately, these articles wholly fail to convey the reality
of the water challenges facing the Colorado River Basin. …
The Colorado River is certainly in bad shape. Last year was
marked by extremely hot temperatures, low flows and massive
fires.
Written by Dan Keppen, executive director of Family
Farm Alliance; Scott Yates, director of Trout Unlimited’s
Western Water & Habitat Program; and Taylor
Hawes, Colorado River Program director for The Nature
Conservancy.
On Jan. 15, State Assemblymembers Robert Rivas and Rudy Salas
introduced Assembly Bill 252, which if approved would help
alleviate the impacts of the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act (SGMA) on farmers and ensure that farmland taken out of
production due to SGMA is reused to provide conservation,
recreation, or other benefits to local communities.
On Wednesday, Los Angeles County officials released their
preliminary master plan for the river “reimagined” to
support both ecosystems and people who live along [the LA
River's] 51-mile corridor. … The long-awaited plan
— the result of five years of input from community residents,
organizations and people like renowned architect Frank Gehry —
will provide a foundation as the region balances its duty to
protect properties from flooding with the need for more access
to natural environments.
Eco-friendly projects designed to improve water quality and
increase access to parks while addressing social issues in
surrounding communities are among the goals of an updated
master plan to revitalize the Los Angeles River, released
Wednesday.
San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust has purchased
another stretch of riverside land — an important piece of a
puzzle needed for a 22-mile public-access regional park
envisioned in north Fresno. The newly acquired Sumner Peck
Ranch boasts oak forest and riparian vistas alongside acres of
foothill vineyard, citrus, berries and landscaped event space.
… Ranch roads and meandering trails cut through habitat
used by deer, beaver, bobcat and migrating geese…
The building of dams on the Colorado River has forever changed
the ebb and flow, flooding, drying and renewal cycle of what
was once Lake Cahuilla, changing its character and changing its
name to the Salton Sea. Entrepreneurs once thought that the
Salton Sea would become a sportsman’s mecca, providing fishing,
boating, and waterskiing experiences like no other. There were
a few decades where that dream seemed to be true. Then it
wasn’t.
You may know it as Dog Ranch or perhaps Dead Man’s Drop Forest,
but forget that. The parcels immediately to the west of Samoa
Bridge [near Humboldt Bay] are now officially the Samoa Dunes
and Wetlands Conservation Area. “We’re looking to re-introduce
this place to our community,” says Mike Cipra, who heads up
Friends of the Dunes, the new titleholder of the 357 acres.
“This property is a fantastic jewel for our local community and
we want to emphasize just how special it is with the name.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) has
certified the final Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for a
project aiming to restore the largest coastal wetlands complex
in Los Angeles County and increase public access to outdoor
recreation and natural spaces in one of the most densely
populated areas in the world. The Ballona Wetlands Ecological
Reserve (BWER) project will enhance and establish native
coastal wetlands and upland habitat…
I came to the Salton Sea as part of the research for a new book
about the ecology and psychology of abandoned places, an
investigation into how nature can adapt and recover in the long
shadow cast by human activities. It had taken me to some
of the world’s most eerie, ravaged and polluted sites — from
the disaster zones of Chernobyl and Montserrat, to former
frontlines in Cyprus and Verdun, Detroit’s blighted
neighbourhoods and a Scottish island whose last residents left
in 1974. The Salton Sea — its seaside resorts left
landlocked by shrinking waters, its boats rotting in the bowls
of dry marinas — felt a fitting final destination.
BlueGreen Water Technologies has secured approval from the
California Department of Pesticide Regulation for its
algaecide, Lake Guard Oxy, for commercial application in the US
state. According to the firm, in the past year, there has
been a marked rise in the severity of toxic algal blooms, also
called as ‘blue green algae’ and ‘red tide’ in several of the
state’s lakes as well as on the coasts.
The steady drumbeat of support to get more water flowing in the
Kern River through Bakersfield continued Tuesday at the State
Water Resources Control Board. During the public comment
portion of the meeting three speakers from Bakersfield and Kern
County’s political realm urged board members to finally hear —
and grant — a decade-old petition by the City of Bakersfield to
appropriate water on the river to run through the heart of
town.
Climate change and overuse are causing one of the Colorado
River’s biggest reservoirs, Lake Powell, to drop. While water
managers worry about scarcity issues, two Utah river rafters
are documenting the changes that come as the massive reservoir
hits historic low points.
A refillable water station will replace a drinking fountain at
Main Beach as part of Laguna Beach’s ongoing effort to reduce
single-use plastics from littering beaches and the ocean and
ultimately harming marine mammals. The water station – planned
for a January installation – is thanks to a collaborative
effort by the Laguna Bluebelt Coalition and several other
community groups…
