The Sacramento Valley, the northern part of the Central Valley,
spreads through 10 counties north of the Sacramento–San Joaquin
River Delta (Delta). Sacramento is an important agricultural
region, growing citrus, nuts and rice among many other crops.
Water flows from the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range to the region’s
two major rivers — the Sacramento and American – and west into
the Delta. Other rivers include the Cosumnes, which is the
largest free-flowing river in the Central Valley, the lower
Feather, Bear and Yuba.
The Sacramento Valley attracts more than 2 million ducks and
geese each winter to its seasonal marshes along the Pacific
Flyway. Species include northern pintails, snow geese, tundra
swans, sandhill cranes, mallards, grebes, peregrine falcons,
heron, egrets, and hawks.
La Niña is finally over after three years, according to the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. This winter
has not acted like a typical La Niña winter with
California getting drenched, especially in Southern California
where La Niña typically signals a drier than average
winter…. Climate models are nearly certain El Niño will
develop later this summer or fall. California is typically
wetter during El Niño conditions, although the signal becomes
murkier from Sacramento northward.
Though California may be ending its winter with quenched
reservoirs and near record snowpack, meteorologists are warning
that the state will face increased flooding risk in the coming
months as Sierra Nevada snowmelt fills rivers and streams. On
Thursday, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
spring flood outlook reported that drought conditions will
continue to improve in much of the state, but the potential for
flooding will worsen in the face of heavy snowpack and elevated
soil moisture. … The severity of that flooding remains
to be seen, however, and depends on a variety of weather
factors, experts say. … Potential triggers for rapid
snowmelt could be an early season heat wave or another series
of warm storms, Swain said …
The State Water Resources Control Board has approved a request
by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation to divert floodwaters from
the San Joaquin River so they can percolate down to aquifers.
The plan would divert 600,000 acre feet of water — or more than
the 191 billion gallons supplied to the city of Los Angeles
each year. … Newsom also has signed an executive
order temporarily lifting regulations and setting clear
conditions for diverting floodwater without permits to recharge
groundwater storage. Groundwater accounts for as much as
60% of California’s water supply during dry times. The aquifers
usually refill when rain and floodwater percolates through the
soil and into the basins. As California’s drought lingered, the
basins weren’t recharging.
Last summer Governor Newsom released California’s Water Supply
Strategy–which calls for the modernization of our water
management system. We know that the Sacramento Valley continues
to modernize everything we do, from our farms, communities and
businesses, to the way we approach water. These improvements
include adopting improved water efficiency, irrigation systems,
and tools to measure water use. We are planting new varieties
that are more productive and produce more crop per drop. We are
investing millions to improve water delivery systems for the
environment as well as for farms, cities, and disadvantaged
communities.
The state Regional Water Quality Control Board on Wednesday
will receive an update on a 2017 mitigation case involving what
were three downtown cleaners. The businesses at the time were
One Hour Cleaner, which was located at 710 Madison St.,
Fairfield Cleaners, 625 Jackson St., which is now home to the
Republican Party headquarters, and Gillespie Cleaners at
622-630 Jackson St., the state reported. One other
business that was not responsible for any contamination, but
was affected, is Fairfield Safe & Lock, which is still doing
business at 811 Missouri St. … The report states that
the Tetrachloroethene – or PCE – plume that was discharged into
the groundwater has been reduced by more than 90% since the
mitigation plan was approved in September 2017.
An independent investigation has found that a catastrophic fish
mortality event at the UC Davis Center for Aquatic Biology and
Aquaculture in August 2022 was caused by accumulation of
mineral deposits inside sealed piping carrying wastewater away
from the facility. This blockage caused chlorine, added to
effluent water as a disinfectant, to back up to a water line
used to lubricate pumps at the well supplying the fish tanks,
and thus contaminate the tanks. There was no forewarning of the
problem and no individual or group of individuals can be
singled out as responsible, wrote Anthony Farrell, professor
emeritus of zoology at the University of British Columbia, who
conducted the investigation at the invitation of UC Davis Vice
Chancellor for Research Prasant Mohapatra.
Last century, California built dozens of large dams, creating
the elaborate reservoir system that supplies the bulk of the
state’s drinking and irrigation water. Now state officials and
supporters are ready to build the next one. The Sites Reservoir
— planned in a remote corner of the western Sacramento Valley
for at least 40 years — has been gaining steam and support
since 2014, when voters approved Prop. 1, a water bond that
authorized $2.7 billion for new storage projects. Still,
Sites Reservoir remains almost a decade away: Acquisition of
water rights, permitting and environmental review are still in
the works. Kickoff of construction, which includes two large
dams, had been scheduled for 2024, but likely will be delayed
another year. Completion is expected in 2030 or 2031.
California’s drought-stricken reservoirs have recovered due to
January’s string of “atmospheric river” storms, according to
the U.S. Drought Monitor, but don’t let what seems like copious
amounts of water fool you. The storms were “likely insufficient
to reverse” California’s drought, according to the NASA. Plus
notoriously hot and dry California summers, which typically
fuel worsening drought conditions and breed seasonal wildfires,
is just around the corner. For now, drought statuses remain
relatively the same, compared to one week ago. The U.S.
Drought Monitor — in a weekly update published Thursday —
reports the state’s “abnormally dry” status increased less than
one percentage point to nearly 99.4%. The other conditions
across the Golden State remained the same.
Come drought or deluge, how can we develop a lasting water
agreement for the greater Sacramento area? That’s the
challenging task before the Water Forum, a unique consortium of
business and agricultural leaders, citizen groups,
environmentalists, water managers and local governments,
including the City of Roseville. With eyes particularly on
Folsom Lake and the Lower American River, as well as weather,
Water Forum members work on water issues both near- and
long-term. Recent winter storms, following years of drought,
added extra complexity to that job.
I often tell people in Placer County that the Sacramento Valley
is a national leader in delivering high quality water to farms,
wildlife refuges, and all of our residents in a sustainable
way. But what does this really mean in practice? I
was recently asked to author an article for the American Water
Resources Association’s IMPACT magazine to give an example to
our ridgetop to river mouth “Supershed” approach. I am
sharing the article with you today, which discusses why it is
so important to our collective future to make sure we take a
broad view of water and natural resource management in our
respective watersheds.
ARI SHAPIRO, HOST: We tell stories all the time about
climate-fueled disasters that uproot people’s lives – fires in
California, hurricanes in Louisiana. Well, Jake Bittle’s new
book is about what happens in the years after those events.
It’s called “The Great Displacement: Climate Change And The
Next American Migration.” It goes from drought-hit farms in
Arizona to flooded coastlines in Virginia. Jake Bittle, welcome
to ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. … SHAPIRO: Even though the
patterns of displacement are chaotic and unpredictable, there
are certain consistent themes. Like, you say climate
displacement exacerbates income inequality. And one place
that’s really apparent is Northern California. You write about
the Tubbs Fire, which roared through Santa Rosa. What happened
after that?
The Butte County Office of Emergency Management applied for a
$17 million grant from the state to help fund projects and
mitigate the impact of the drought in Northern
California. The money will go towards long-term projects
to help the community be more drought resistant. Butte
County Office of Emergency Services Deputy Administrative
Officer Josh Jimerfield said it’s put together a plan with
three different components, including immediate action on
programs like water hauling, temporary tank programs and
bottled water, as well as education and outreach.
The time is fast approaching when a native fish species known
as the Clear Lake hitch should begin their yearly run up
tributaries around the lake to produce a new generation of
young. Pomo elders and old-timers say the hitch, or “chi,” as
they are known by the region’s Indigenous people, once spawned
in such abundance that people could practically walk across
their backs in the creeks. For the region’s tribal members, the
spawning time was cause for celebration — a reason for tribal
folk from all around to gather, collect food for the year and
visit. But all that was before expanding development and
agriculture, declining water quality, gravel mining, invasive
species, habitat loss and extended drought took a toll on the
hitch, a species of minnow found nowhere else on earth.
A team of researchers at UC Davis this year will study 10
different species of trees in Sacramento to determine which
have the best chance of thriving as global average temperatures
rise. On a hot summer day, highly populated cities can be much
hotter than surrounding rural areas. Suburban neighborhoods
tend to have far more shade-producing trees, which act as
natural air conditioners. Multiple studies have shown that
communities with a healthy tree population can be anywhere from
5 to 12 degrees cooler than more exposed urban centers. As
climate change threatens to make our hottest days even hotter
in the years ahead, scientists want to make sure that people
living in cities have trees that are strong enough to withstand
the challenges of heat waves and intensifying drought.
The fierce storms and heavy rain that have pounded California
in recent weeks could be the lifeline that one industry — and
the communities that rely on it for their own survival —
desperately needs. After years of drought, California has
received an epic amount of rain already in 2023. While it was
much-needed, the back-to-back heavy storms also ravaged the
state for weeks, creating dangerous flooding and mudslides that
led to at least 20 deaths and billions of dollars in economic
losses, by some estimates. But in one part of the state,
anxious communities are ready to embrace more rain.
The fierce storms and heavy rain that have pounded California
in recent weeks could be the lifeline that one industry – and
the communities that rely on it for their own survival –
desperately needs. After years of drought, California has
received an epic amount of rain already in 2023. While it was
much-needed, the back-to-back heavy storms also ravaged the
state for weeks, creating dangerous flooding and mudslides that
led to at least 20 deaths and billions of dollars in economic
losses, by some estimates. But in one part of the state,
anxious communities are ready to embrace more rain.
Ever since the late December and January deluge, California has
been pretty dry. Since the beginning of February,
Sacramento Executive Airport has recorded 0.56″ of rain. The
relatively dry weather since mid-January allowed the state to
dry out and lowered flood risk, but another storm cycle heading
into the dry season would be incredibly beneficial in terms of
breaking out of drought. …There are some signals that a
negative Pacific North American (PNA) pattern may set up
towards the end of the month and into March. This would set the
stage for potentially more rain and heavy snow producing storms
but it’s still too far out to tell specific impacts.
The California Fish and Game Commission decided to list a small
shrub with white flowers called the Shasta snow wreath as
threatened under the state Endangered Species Act on Wednesday.
The Shasta snow wreath has been found in just 26 locations
around the lake. It’s thought to have evolved as long as 34 to
56 million years ago, and grew across the Pacific Northwest.
But the plant has since retreated to small, isolated pockets
around the lake. The rare plant wasn’t discovered by scientists
until 1992. It looks similar to other common shrubs in the
area, and the U.S. Forest Service says the flowers – a common
way to identify a plant – last for a very short period. The
snow wreath is also often found growing among poison oak, which
may help explain why the plant has managed to hide in plain
sight for so long.
While some prefer to just “go with the flow” – Thad Bettner is
the flow. He is the one constant motion, continuously
engaging the journey even if it seems riddled with challenges
along the way. Active is a perfect adjective for a man who
spends his days entrenched in water resource and environmental
management issues as head of the Glenn-Colusa Irrigation
District. His journey to the general manager position
started in a small town south of Santa Barbara named
Carpinteria, a spot famous to surfers looking to ride the waves
off Rincon Point or to those who can’t resist a sprawling ocean
view as they hike the western slope of the Los Padres National
Forest.
In the wake of the deluge of rain that battered California at
the start of the year, many of the state’s most important
reservoirs and lakes have seen water levels rise. The increase
in water levels between last fall and now at two key California
reservoirs—Lake Oroville and Lake Shasta—can be seen clearly in
photographs taken from space by NASA’s Operational Land Imager
(OLI) on the Landsat 8 satellite and by the OLI-2 sensor on
Landsat 9. … As of January 29, 2023, when the most
recent picture was taken, Lake Shasta’s water levels stood
at 986.93 feet above sea level, according to the California
Department of Water Resources, amounting to around 56 percent
of its capacity, and 87 percent of the average water levels for
this time of year. On November 18, when the first picture was
taken, the lake’s water levels were measured at 917.95 feet
above sea level, around 31 percent of the lake’s capacity.
The Big Chico Creek Access opened Monday after winter storms in
January caused the Sacramento River to rise and flood the park,
spreading sediment and debris. As part of the
Bidwell-Sacramento River State Park, the park was designed to
be in a flood plain and flooding is a regular occurrence,
according to Aaron Wright, public safety chief for California
Parks and Recreation North Buttes District. “Floods are not
uncommon for this park. We typically see one or two floods for
2-3 years and then we have 1-2 years with no floods,” he said.
Wright said the parks sustained typical storm damage such as
downed trees, debris buildup and other damage related to water
inundation.
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.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
The deadliest and most destructive
wildfire in California history had a severe impact on the water
system in the town of Paradise. Participants on our Oct. 2-4
Northern California
Tour will hear from Kevin Phillips, general manager of
Paradise Irrigation District, on the scope of the damages, the
obstacles to recovery and the future of the water district.
The Camp Fire destroyed 90 percent of the structures in Paradise,
and 90 percent of the irrigation district’s ratepayer base. The
fire did not destroy the irrigation district’s water storage or
treatment facilities, but it did melt plastic pipes, releasing
contaminants into parts of the system and prompting do-not-drink
advisories to water customers.
Get an up-close look at some of
California’s key water reservoirs and learn about farming
operations, salmon habitat restoration, flood management and
wetlands on our Northern California Water Tour Oct. 2-4.
Each year, participants on the tour enjoy three days exploring
the Sacramento Valley during the temperate fall. Join us as we
travel through a scenic landscape along the Sacramento and
Feather rivers to learn about issues associated with storing
and delivering the state’s water supply.
Bruce Babbitt, the former Arizona
governor and secretary of the Interior, has been a thoughtful,
provocative and sometimes forceful voice in some of the most
high-profile water conflicts over the last 40 years, including
groundwater management in Arizona and the reduction of
California’s take of the Colorado River. In 2016, former
California Gov. Jerry Brown named Babbitt as a special adviser to
work on matters relating to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and
the Delta tunnels plan.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
An hour’s drive north of Sacramento sits a picture-perfect valley hugging the eastern foothills of Northern California’s Coast Range, with golden hills framing grasslands mostly used for cattle grazing.
Back in the late 1800s, pioneer John Sites built his ranch there and a small township, now gone, bore his name. Today, the community of a handful of families and ranchers still maintains a proud heritage.
Farmers in the Central Valley are broiling about California’s plan to increase flows in the Sacramento and San Joaquin river systems to help struggling salmon runs avoid extinction. But in one corner of the fertile breadbasket, River Garden Farms is taking part in some extraordinary efforts to provide the embattled fish with refuge from predators and enough food to eat.
And while there is no direct benefit to one farm’s voluntary actions, the belief is what’s good for the fish is good for the farmers.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin
rivers are the two major Central Valley waterways that feed the
Delta, the hub of California’s water supply
network. Our last water tours of
2018 will look in-depth at how these rivers are managed and
used for agriculture, cities and the environment. You’ll see
infrastructure, learn about efforts to restore salmon runs and
talk to people with expertise on these rivers.
Get an up-close look at some of
California’s key water reservoirs and learn about farming
operations, habitat restoration, flood management and wetlands in
the Sacramento Valley on our Northern California Water Tour
Oct. 10-12.
Each year, participants on the Northern California Water Tour
enjoy three days exploring the Sacramento Valley during the
temperate fall. Join us as we travel through a scenic landscape
along the Sacramento and Feather rivers to learn about
issues associated with storing and delivering the state’s water
supply.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
New water storage is the holy grail
primarily for agricultural interests in California, and in 2014
the door to achieving long-held ambitions opened with the passage
of Proposition
1, which included $2.7 billion for the public benefits
portion of new reservoirs and groundwater storage projects. The
statute stipulated that the money is specifically for the
benefits that a new storage project would offer to the ecosystem,
water quality, flood control, emergency response and recreation.
Despite the heat that often
accompanies debates over setting aside water for the environment,
there are instances where California stakeholders have forged
agreements to provide guaranteed water for fish. Here are two
examples cited by the Public Policy Institute of California in
its report arguing for an environmental water right.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as we learned about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply. All
together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. This year,
special attention was paid to the flood event at Oroville Dam and
the efforts to repair the dam spillway before the next rainy
season.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin are the two major rivers in the
Central Valley that feed the Delta, the hub of
California’s water supply network.
Our last two water tours of 2017 will take in-depth looks at how
these rivers are managed and used for agriculture, cities and the
environment. You’ll see infrastructure, learn about efforts to
restore salmon runs and talk to people with expertise on these
rivers.
Each year, participants on the Northern California Water Tour
enjoy three days exploring the Sacramento Valley during the
temperate fall. Join us as we travel along the Sacramento and
Feather rivers through a scenic landscape and learn about
issues associated with storing and delivering the state’s water
supply.
Protecting and restoring California’s populations of threatened
and endangered Chinook salmon and steelhead trout have been a big
part of the state’s water management picture for more than 20
years. Significant resources have been dedicated to helping the
various runs of the iconic fish, with successes and setbacks. In
a landscape dramatically altered from its natural setting,
finding a balance between the competing demands for water is
challenging.
ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric
river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur
once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011
report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate
the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property
and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.
Less than 50 miles northeast of Chico, California, begins the
93-mile Butte Creek – a tributary of the Sacramento River. It is named
after Butte County, which was in turn named for the nearby
volcanic plateaus, or “buttes,” and travels through a massive
canyon on its way southwest to the Sacramento Valley.
As a watershed, it drains about 800 square miles, both for
agricultural and residential use. The upper watershed is
dominated by forests, while the lower watershed is primarily
agricultural.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
This 24-page booklet traces the development of the
landmark Water Forum Agreement, signed in April 2000 by 40
Sacramento region water purveyors, public officials, community
group leaders, environmentalists and business representatives.
The publication also offers insight on lessons learned by
Water Forum participants.
This 24-page booklet details the conflict between
environmentalists, fish organizations and the Yuba County Water
Agency and how it was resolved through the Lower Yuba River
Accord – a unique agreement supported by 18 agencies and
non-governmental organizations. The publication details
the history and hydrology of the Yuba River, past and present
environmental concerns, and conflicts over dam operations and
protecting endangered fish is included.
This 30-minute documentary, produced in 2011, explores the past,
present and future of flood management in California’s Central
Valley. It features stories from residents who have experienced
the devastating effects of a California flood firsthand.
Interviews with long-time Central Valley water experts from
California Department of Water Resources (FloodSAFE), U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Reclamation, Central Valley Flood
Management Program and environmental groups are featured as they
discuss current efforts to improve the state’s 150-year old flood
protection system and develop a sustainable, integrated, holistic
flood management plan for the Central Valley.
This 30-minute documentary-style DVD on the history and current
state of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program includes an
overview of the geography and history of the river, historical
and current water delivery and uses, the genesis and timeline of
the 1988 lawsuit, how the settlement was reached and what was
agreed to.
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.
15-minute DVD that graphically portrays the potential disaster
should a major earthquake hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“Delta Warning” depicts what would happen in the event of an
earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale: 30 levee breaks,
16 flooded islands and a 300 billion gallon intrusion of salt
water from the Bay – the “big gulp” – which would shut down the
State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumping plants.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36 inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Flood Management explains the
physical flood control system, including levees; discusses
previous flood events (including the 1997 flooding); explores
issues of floodplain management and development; provides an
overview of flood forecasting; and outlines ongoing flood control
projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
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.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterfowl, and extends from Alaska and Canada, through
California, to Mexico and South America. Each year, birds follow
ancestral patterns as they travel the flyway on their annual
north-south migration. Along the way, they need stopover sites
such as wetlands with suitable habitat and food supplies. In
California, 90 percent of historic wetlands have been lost.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the challenges facing
small water systems, including drought preparedness, limited
operating expenses and the hurdles of complying with costlier
regulations. Much of the article is based on presentations at the
November 2007 Small Systems Conference sponsored by the Water
Education Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
