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Topic: Russian River

Overview April 24, 2014

Russian River

The Russian River drains the sparsely populated, forested coastal area that stretches from San Francisco to the Oregon border.

Along the Russian, federally funded dams have created Lake Mendocino (at the Coyote Dam) and Lake Sonoma (Warm Springs Dam). Locally built aqueducts channel water from these lakes into growing Marin and Sonoma counties.

The Russian River is one of the most flood-prone rivers in California, routinely overflowing during wet years. As storm systems approach California, the wet bands of clouds are uplifted by the Coast Range, releasing precipitation first and most intensely on the coastal streams. One flood control dam is on the Russian River and one on Dry Creek, a tributary to the Russian River, which can capture about 20 percent of flood flows.

In addition to flooding issues, the Rus­sian River faces other challenges to balance competing demands for its water. In an area that was once legacy to massive num­bers of salmon and steelhead, restoring the fishery has been a key focus, while water providers must accommodate municipal needs as well as those of grape growers in one of the world’s most prized wine-producing regions.

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Aquafornia news March 15, 2023 JDSupra

Blog: California court refuses to dismiss ESA challenge to Corps’ operation of Coyote Valley Dam on Russian River

Recently, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a concerned citizen against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) alleging Endangered Species Act (ESA) violations in connection with the Corps’ operation of the Coyote Valley Dam on the Russian River in Northern California. The court opined that federal defendants cannot avoid having to defend their prior actions simply by initiating the consultation process under section 7(a)(2) of the ESA, and the equities weighed against a stay of the litigation while the consultation process unfolds.

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Aquafornia news March 9, 2023 Wall Street Journal

In California, a race to capture the water before it escapes

Neil McIsaac has something many other dairy farmers here don’t: a storm-runoff capture system that can provide backup water for his herd when local reservoirs go dry, as they did last year. Already, he and others involved in the project say it has proven its worth. It has captured 670,000 gallons so far this winter, enough to slake the thirst of his 700 cows for a month, Mr. McIsaac said.

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Aquafornia news February 28, 2023 Water Talk Podcast

Episode 42: Regenerative Viticulture — Water Talk

A conversation with UCCE Viticulture Advisor Dr. Chris Chen (Sonoma, Lake, Mendocino Counties) and soil scientist Noelymar Gonzalez-Maldonado (UC Davis) about regenerative viticulture, soils, and climate resilience in vineyards. Released February 24, 2023.

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Aquafornia news February 27, 2023 CBS - San Francisco

Sonoma supes to hold special meeting over potential water rate hikes

Sonoma County will be hosting a special public meeting of the Board of Supervisors on Monday to discuss water infrastructure and climate change challenges as well as possible water rate hikes. The county says that its water, wastewater and flood protection systems are more than a half-century old and are therefore precarious in the face of a large earthquake, climate change and wear and tear.  Sonoma County Water Agency is the county’s wholesale supplier of water to communities in both Sonoma and Marin counties, serving more than 600,000 people, according to the county. Six water collector wells exist near the Russian River and three groundwater wells. Water pumped from these wells goes through 88 miles of aqueducts that are between 45 and 65 years old.

Related article: 

  • Press Democrat: Close to Home - Investing in our tap water 
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Aquafornia news February 24, 2023 Yale E360

How weather forecasts can help dams supply more water

For Patrick Sing, a water manager with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the deluge was an opportunity to try something that would be dangerous anywhere else in the country. Sing sits at the controls of Lake Mendocino, a reservoir on the Russian River near Ukiah, in northern California. … Researchers working on the approach in the U.S. say they aren’t aware of any similar projects in other countries, but studies suggest that integrating forecasts has the potential to improve reservoir operations anywhere weather predictions are sufficiently reliable. The approach could also help aging dams respond to more variable precipitation seen with climate change. 

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Aquafornia news February 23, 2023 The Guardian

‘Help us fight’: California farmers ask for more aid after deadly storms

As a series of deadly storms whipped through California’s wine country, liquefying fields and turning vineyards into wading pools, thousands of farm workers in the region were forced to stay home. Though the power has been long since restored and roads reopened – many of them are still confronting an economic catastrophe. For Isidro Rodriguez, the storms caused him to lose half his monthly income – about $1,100. For nearly two weeks, it was too wet and windy to safely prune the pinot noir vines at the estate vineyard where he worked. Even still, he risked the roads to drive over there during lulls in the storms, just in case.

Related article: 

  • Appeal-Democrat: Sutter County eligible for FEMA public assistance 
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Aquafornia news February 22, 2023 The New York Times

Parched California misses a chance to store more rain underground

It sounds like an obvious fix for California’s whipsawing cycles of deluge and drought: Capture the water from downpours so it can be used during dry spells. Pump it out of flood-engorged rivers and spread it in fields or sandy basins, where it can seep into the ground and replenish the region’s huge, badly depleted aquifers. … Yet even this winter, when the skies delivered bounties of water not seen in half a decade, large amounts of it surged down rivers and out into the ocean. Water agencies and experts say California bureaucracy is increasingly to blame — the state tightly regulates who gets to take water from streams and creeks to protect the rights of people downriver, and its rules don’t adjust nimbly even when storms are delivering a torrent of new supply.

Related articles: 

  • Ag Alert: Farmers race to sink water into ground after storms
  • Red Bluff Daily News: Tehama County Groundwater Commission to go over well registration program
  • Modesto Bee: TID farmers will get full water allotments, and then some, thanks to wet weather 
  • Western Water Rewind: California Water Agencies Hoped A Deluge Would Recharge Their Aquifers. But When It Came, Some Couldn’t Use It 
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news February 21, 2023 Press Democrat

Benefits of rainstorms in Sonoma County far outweighed damage they caused

When atmospheric rivers drenched the North Bay in December and January, the Lockharts greeted those heavy rains with open arms and undisguised relief. Daunting and destructive as those storms were — causing widespread flooding, downed trees and mudslides — they brought a bounty that soaked a parched landscape, easing stress and strain on a wide range of flora and fauna. Joining the Lockharts’ chorus of hallelujahs were farmers and ranchers, anxious water supply experts and — if they could sing — coho salmon and steelhead trout now migrating up the recharged Russian River and its now-swollen tributaries, to spawn.

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Aquafornia news February 15, 2023 Grist

A California town’s wastewater is helping it battle drought

Standing under a shady tree drooping with pomegranates late last year, Brad Simmons, a retired metal fabricator who has lived in Healdsburg, California, for 57 years, showed off his backyard orchard. Along with the apple, cherry, and peach trees, he’s packed one pear tree, two lemon trees, and a century-old olive tree into his bungalow’s compact garden. Of course, the small grove requires plenty of water — an increasingly scarce resource in a state that continues grappling with a historic drought despite recent torrential rains. Yet Simmons, like many of his fellow 12,000 residents, has managed to keep much of this wine country community north of San Francisco looking verdant while slashing the city’s water use in half since 2020.

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Aquafornia news February 13, 2023 The Guardian

‘Double-edged sword’: why the badly-needed rains in California could fuel catastrophic fires

Deep underneath the sodden soils and the berms of snow that now coat California, fuels for fire are waiting to sprout. Grasses and other quick-growing vegetation, spurred by the downpours that saturated the state at the start of the year, quickly turn to kindling as the weather warms. … While experts say it’s still too early to predict what’s in store for the months ahead and if weather conditions will align to help infernos ignite, it’s clear the rains that hammered California this winter came as a mixed blessing, delivering badly-needed relief while posing new risks. Along with seeding the tinder of tomorrow, the inclement weather hampered efforts to perform essential landscape treatments needed to mitigate the risks of catastrophic fire. … The cold, rainy conditions also helped forests recover from the drought, which will make them more burn-resistant. Water tables are looking far better and bug species that wreak havoc on vulnerable trees are being better kept at bay.

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Aquafornia news February 8, 2023 Lake County News

Lake County supervisors vote unanimously to declare emergency for Clear Lake hitch

After two meetings and nine hours of hearings and public testimony, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday evening voted unanimously to declare an emergency in an effort to save the Clear Lake hitch — a fish at the heart of Pomo culture — from extinction. The board’s proclamation of a local emergency, which can be read in its entirety below, cites drought and habitat loss as factors in the potential extinction of the hitch, known to the Pomo as the chi. The hitch is a native minnow that lives up to seven years, spawns in creeks and then makes its way to Clear Lake. Supervisor Moke Simon, a member of the Middletown Rancheria, fished for them with his family and tribe growing up, and on Tuesday recalled seeing the creeks run black with the fish.

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Western Water November 21, 2019 California Water Map Gary Pitzer

Can a New Approach to Managing California Reservoirs Save Water and Still Protect Against Floods?
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Pilot Projects Testing Viability of Using Improved Forecasting to Guide Reservoir Operations

Bullards Bar Dam spills water during 2017 atmospheric river storms.Many of California’s watersheds are notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.

However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water supply and flood protection capabilities.

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Western Water October 24, 2019 California Water Map Gary Pitzer

Understanding Streamflow Is Vital to Water Management in California, But Gaps In Data Exist
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: A new law aims to reactivate dormant stream gauges to aid in flood protection, water forecasting

Stream gauges gather important metrics such as  depth, flow (described as cubic feet per second) and temperature.  This gauge near downtown Sacramento measures water depth.California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.

That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.

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Tour October 9, 2014 Images from the Russian River tour

Russian River Tour 2014
Field Trip (past)

The 2014 tour took place October 9-10.

This 2-day, 1-night tour travels the Russian River watershed, a microcosm of water management issues in the West.

  • David Keller's presentation
  • Joshua Fuller's presentation
  • Matt Brennan's presentation
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Video May 27, 2014

A Climate of Change: Water Adaptation Strategies

This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an excellent overview of climate change and how it is already affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are underway to plan and adapt to climate.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

California Water Map, Spanish

Spanish language version of our California Water Map

Versión en español de nuestro mapa de agua de California

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Photo gallery May 15, 2014

Images from the Russian River tour

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Maps & Posters April 17, 2014 California Water Bundle

California Water Map
Updated December 2016

A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect gift for the water wonk in your life.

Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts – including federally, state and locally funded projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects, wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado River.

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Aquapedia background February 11, 2014

Russian River

The Russian River is one of the major northern streams that drain the sparsely populated, forested coastal area that stretches from San Francisco to the Oregon border.

Other North Coast waterways include the Klamath, Trinity, Eel and Smith [see also North Coast Rivers]. These rivers and their tributaries flow west to the Pacific Ocean and account for about 40 percent of the state’s total runoff.

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Western Water Excerpt May 1, 2009 Gary PitzerRita Schmidt Sudman

A Tale of Two Rivers: The Russian and the Santa Ana
May/June 2009

Travel most anywhere in California and there is a river, creek or stream nearby. Some are highly noticeable and are an integral part of the community. Others are more obscure, with intermittent flows or enclosed by boxed concrete flood channels that conceal their true appearance. No matter the loca­tion, each area shares some common themes: cooperation and conflict regarding water allocations, greater water conservation, an awareness of environmental stewardship, and plans that ensure long-term sustainability.

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Western Water Magazine May 1, 2009

A Tale of Two Rivers: The Russian and the Santa Ana
May/June 2009

This printed issue of Western Water examines the Russian and Santa Ana rivers – areas with ongoing issues not dissimilar to the rest of the state – managing supplies within a lingering drought, improving water quality and revitalizing and restoring the vestiges of the native past.

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