California’s two primary salmon species, Coho and Chinook, have
experienced significant declines from historical populations.
Of particular importance is the Chinook salmon because the
species supports commercial fishing and related jobs and economic
activities at fish hatcheries.
The decline in salmon numbers is attributed to a variety of
manmade and natural factors including drought, habitat
destruction, water diversions, migratory obstacles created by
local, state and federal water projects, over-fishing,
unfavorable ocean conditions, pollution and introduced predator
species. Wetlands have also been drained and diked; dams have
blocked salmon from reaching historic spawning grounds.
Years of declining populations represent a significant economic
loss and have led to federally mandated salmon restoration plans
that complicate water diversions and conveyance for agriculture
and other uses.
The US Environmental Protection Agency has put restrictions on
four pesticides to save endangered Pacific salmon and steelhead
species from extinction. The new mitigation measures, announced
Feb. 1, aim to protect 28 salmon species in Washington, Oregon,
and California from pesticide runoff and spray drift. The four
targeted pesticides are three herbicides—bromoxynil, prometryn,
and metolachlor—and the soil fumigant 1,3-dichloropropene. The
EPA put the measures in place after the National Marine
Fisheries Service found in 2021 that such restrictions are
needed to protect endangered and threatened salmon species. The
measures require no-spray vegetative buffers between waters
where salmon live and agricultural fields. They also require
retention ponds and vegetated drainage ditches. All of these
measures are intended to capture pesticides that otherwise
could seep into the water.
Two powerful state and federal agencies have stuck their toes,
so to speak, into an ongoing lawsuit against Merced Irrigation
District demanding the district reopen a long defunct fish
ladder. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife and
National Marine Fisheries Service both sent letters to Merced
Irrigation District after Water Audit California sued the
district over the fish ladder on the Crocker-Huffman Dam, about
30 miles northeast of the City of Merced. It wasn’t the
first time the agencies had sought to have Merced Irrigation
District get the fish ladder running again. They had both sent
letters in 2009 and 2010, directing the district
to reopen the fish ladder, which had been closed since the
1970s to see if a “spawning channel” next to the dam would work
better for the salmon, steelhead and other fish.
The Biden administration on Tuesday moved to protect one of the
world’s most valuable wild salmon fisheries, at Bristol Bay in
Alaska, by effectively blocking the development of a gold and
copper mine there. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a
final determination under the Clean Water Act that bans the
disposal of mine waste in part of the bay’s watershed, about
200 miles southwest of Anchorage. Streams in the watershed are
crucial breeding grounds for salmon, but the area also contains
deposits of precious-metal ores thought to be worth several
hundred billion dollars. A two-decades old proposal to mine
those ores, called the Pebble project, has been supported by
some Alaskan lawmakers and Native groups for the economic
benefits it would bring, but opposed by others, including
tribes around the bay and environmentalists who say
it would do irreparable harm to the salmon population.
Bays and estuaries across California provide important habitat
for anadromous fish to grow and nurture their young before
transitioning to life in the sea. However, since European
settlement, much of that crucial fish habitat has been lost due
to land use conversion. In the North Coast, over 95% of
Humboldt Bay’s historic footprint has been altered by
anthropogenic activity, much of it for agricultural uses.
CalTrout’s recently completed restoration project on Cochran
Creek will restore function back to a small yet important piece
of the landscape. Located between the coastal towns of
Eureka and Arcata, Cochran Creek is a small creek that flows
into Humboldt Bay. The creek meanders through the lowlands
around Humboldt Bay converted from a tidal marsh years ago.
On a nearly 45-degree slope along the middle Klamath River in
October, Isha Goodwin joined women from across the planet
preparing to set fire to the land surrounding Ishraamhírak, a
Karuk village site north of Orleans. Under a dappled canopy of
conifers, tanoak and oak trees, and the occasional poison oak
patch, Goodwin, a member of the Karuk Tribe, drew fiery circles
with a drip torch on accumulations of dead leaves, twigs and
other dried-out plant material, or duff as it’s known in the
fire trade. … The program, known as TREX, was developed
to provide hands-on training for local fire crews by running
cooperative prescribed burns. … Putting “good
fire” on the ground supported forests and other lands that
require fire to maintain healthy conditions. Smoke from these
“low, slow” burns also shaded rivers and streams, which cooled
the waters for the salmon.
Despite the wet winter, the Department of Interior has
announced plans to cut Klamath River flows up to 30% below the
minimum mandated by the Endangered Species Act to protect
listed coho salmon. River flows will drop below 750 cubic feet
per second (cfs) for the first time in decades. This could
prove disastrous to juvenile coho salmon along with other
species including Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, and Pacific
lamprey. The Yurok Tribe and the Pacific Coast Federation of
Fishermen’s Associations have already filed a 60-day Notice of
Intent to sue the federal government. … In 2002,
similarly low flows led to the infamous Klamath Fish Kill when
tens of thousands of adult salmon died as they tried to make
their way to their spawning grounds. In 2004, similarly
low flows caused a massive juvenile fish kill which in turn led
to a collapse of the entire west coast salmon fishery.
Climate change including multi-year droughts, extreme flooding,
and extreme weather swings negatively impact California.
Aridification of our ecosystem, and multi-year droughts are
damaging to cold-water-dependent species such as Chinook
salmon. Such is the case with the current drought we are
experiencing, which has exacerbated the stressors impacting the
Sacramento River’s threatened spring-run Chinook salmon and
endangered winter-run Chinook salmon. These stressors include
the inability to maintain suitable water temperatures,
increased predation, and diminished habitat quantity and
quality. Coupled with drought impacts in freshwater is
the recently discovered thiamine deficiency in adult Chinook
returning from the ocean which impacts the health of their
offspring.
It doesn’t matter whether California is mired in historic
drought or soaked from record-setting storms. The same dinosaur
mentality about how the state should capture, store and
allocate water never fails to resurface. … Writing about
these issues from a different perspective, one that doesn’t
view “the environment” as a pejorative, often makes me feel
like a salmon fighting against the current. So this time around
I enlisted the help of a much bigger fish: Dr. Peter Gleick, a
world-renowned expert on water and climate issues and
co-founder of the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan global water
think tank. … Let’s reinforce that point: Valley farmers
depend on fresh water funneled through the Delta for their
irrigation. If the Delta gets polluted by salty ocean water,
the impact on agriculture would be immense. Letting the rivers
flow, to keep the Delta fresh, benefits growers as well. -Written by Marek Warszawski, Fresno Bee
columnist.
The National Marine Fisheries Service said Chinook salmon may
be eligible for protection, under the Endangered Species Act.
Chinook salmon is found on the Southern Oregon and Northern
California coast. The Center for Biological Diversity said fish
populations has decreased dramatically. The salmon used to be
found in all 11 river systems between Tillamook Bay and the
Klamath River. … Townsend said the National Marine
Fisheries Service will continue to research if the salmon need
to be listed as endangered. They will have until August,
one year from when a petition was started to make a decision.
A gazillion gallons of stormwater have been rampaging down
rivers into the sea. But that uncaptured bounty hasn’t been
“wasted.” “Wasted water” being dumped in the ocean is an old
cliché that resurfaces whenever there’s a big storm in this
weather-eccentric state — or during the inevitable dry periods
when crops are thirsty and homeowners are told to shut off
their lawn sprinklers. But “wasted water” is a myth. Uncaptured
runoff flowing to the sea flushes pollutants out of rivers and
bays, helping to cleanse water for local domestic use. It also
saves many kinds of fish, including salmon, not only for
recreationists but for the coastal fishing industry. And it
deposits sand on beaches. -Written by LA Times columnist George Skelton.
The atmospheric river that fueled a string of heavy downpours
in California this month brought much-needed water to the
parched Golden State. But those billions of gallons of rain
also swept a form of pollution off roads into streams, rivers
and the Pacific Ocean that’s of rising concern to scientists,
environmentalists and regulators: particle dust created by car
tires. A growing body of research indicates that in addition to
being a major source of microplastic pollution, the chemical
6PPD, an additive that’s used to keep tires from wearing out,
reacts with ozone in the atmosphere to form a toxic new
substance scientists call 6PPD-Quinone. It’s killing coho
salmon and likely harms other types of fish, which exhibit
symptoms resembling suffocation.
When Governor Gavin Newsom announced that all new car sales in
California would be zero-emission vehicles by 2035, many
activists celebrated the move. … But there was a word few
people mentioned in response to the news: microplastics. One of
the potential unintended consequences of the transition to
electric vehicles could be more microplastics. When rubber
meets road, tires shed small synthetic polymers less than five
millimeters in diameter. … “We ended up estimating that
stormwater was discharging about seven trillion [microplastics]
into the [San Francisco] Bay annually,” said Rebecca Sutton, a
senior researcher at the San Francisco Estuary Institute
(SFEI). Half of those particles come from tires. … These
tire particles are already in the air we breathe as well as the
San Francisco Bay and the groundwater that empties into
it.
As drought persists and future impacts of climate change
threaten, salmonids across the state will increasingly seek out
refuge from warming waters. Cold-water streams like Big
Mill Creek, a tributary to the East Fork of the Scott River,
offer important refuge for these fish including the federal and
state threatened coho salmon. In the next few years, CalTrout,
with the support of The Wildlands Conservancy and our project
partners, will prepare to implement a project to restore fish
access to upstream habitat in Big Mill Creek creating impacts
that could ripple throughout the whole watershed. … Much
of the river is warm, but there are cold-water pockets where
thousands of coho salmon can be found.
The current wet spell, made up of a parade of atmospheric
rivers, is a welcome change from the last three years of record
dry and warm conditions. For very good reasons, the focus
during these big, early winter storms is first and foremost on
flood management and public safety. There is of course also
great interest in the potential of these storms to relieve
water shortages for communities and farms. What is not always
appreciated is the role of these early winter storms in
supporting the health of freshwater ecosystems. For millennia,
California’s biodiversity evolved strategies to take advantage
of these infrequent, but critical high flow events. Benefits
from recent storms are now being realized throughout the state,
from temperate rainforests of the North Coast to semi-arid and
arid rivers in the south.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the U.S. Department of
Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service today
announced nearly $8 million for three Klamath Basin Salmon
Restoration grant programs is available. Partnering with the
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation to administer funds, the
agencies are now seeking applicants to submit pre-proposals for
funding opportunities of up to $500,000 for Klamath River
projects, up to $500,000 for Trinity River projects, and up to
$7 million for Shasta Valley projects. On Jan. 19, 2023, from 1
p.m. to 2 p.m. PST, Reclamation, NRCS, and NFWF will host a
joint pre-proposal webinar to provide an overview of each grant
program’s purpose and objectives …
As Californians struggled to deal with a grueling drought that
has led to water rationing and other extreme water-conservation
measures, Mother Nature has this week intervened with an
atmospheric river that has led to massive rainfalls and
flooding — especially up in our end of the state. This cycle of
drought and flooding is nothing new. … Unfortunately,
California has left itself dependent on the weather (or
climate, if you prefer) because it hasn’t built significant
water infrastructure since the time that essay was published —
when the state had roughly 18 million fewer residents. Some
environmentalists argue against building water storage when
there’s little rain, but they only are correct if it doesn’t
rain again. History suggests the rains will always come —
at least eventually, and this week’s ongoing series of storms
is a whopper of an example.
The Biden administration said Tuesday it will consider adding
Chinook salmon in Oregon and Northern California to the
endangered or threatened species lists. “Based on information
provided by the petitioners, as well as information readily
available in our files, we find that hatcheries and climate
change may be posing threats to the continued existence of
SONCC Chinook salmon,” the notice from the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration, part of the Department of Commerce,
said. … The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
(NOAA) will now conduct a longer review, expected to be
concluded in August of this year, before deciding whether or
not the species — the largest of the salmonids — is eligible
for protected status.
Finally, after a 50-year effort, four massive dams on the
Klamath River in northern California and Oregon will start
coming down this July. For the Yurok, Karuk, Hoopa, Shasta and
Klamath tribes living along this river since time immemorial,
there’s much to celebrate. They have long fought for the lives
of the salmon that are harmed by these dams, and for their
right to fish for them. Even PacifiCorp, which marketed the
electricity of the four hydroelectric-producing dams, will also
have something to cheer about. PacifiCorp, which is owned by
billionaire Warren Buffett, won’t have pricey fish ladders to
install and its share of the cost of dam removal has been
passed to ratepayers in both states.
–Written by Rocky Barker, a contributor to Writers on the
Range
The removal of four dams along the Klamath River near the
Oregon-California state line, cheered by tribal, state and
federal officials last month, is facing additional litigation.
Siskiyou County Water Users Association board member Anthony
Intiso has filed a lawsuit against Wade Crowfoot, the secretary
of the California Natural Resources Agency, claiming Crowfoot
is illegally using taxpayer money to fund the historic project,
KDRV-TV in Medford reported. … Intiso’s lawsuit cites
California’s Water Quality, Supply and Infrastructure
Improvement Act of 2014, claiming the project funding is
illegal expenditure of tax money.
The string of wet storms streaming over California since the
end of 2022 have brought the San Joaquin Valley both relief and
frustration, depending on location. In the Fresno area, flows
out of Millerton Lake into the San Joaquin River have nearly
tripled from 600 cubic feet per second (cfs) to 1,600
cfs. In the coming days the Bureau of Reclamation, which
operates Millerton’s Friant Dam, expects releases to exceed
4,500 cfs. That’s great for agricultural water districts
that take Millerton water on the northern end of the Friant
system. And it’s great for the San Joaquin River Restoration
Program, which aims to bring back native spring Chinook salmon
runs. … Meanwhile, water managers on the southern end of
the Friant system are watching those flows with more than a
little frustration.
Along the banks of the Sacramento River near Redding, the
ancestral home of chinook salmon, a major project is making the
waters more hospitable for the juvenile fish as they begin
their annual migration downstream toward the Pacific
Ocean. Crews have carved a side river channel and
supplemented the main riverbed with gravel. From there, it’s a
matter of watching the natural process unfold.
A board member of the Siskiyou County Water Users Association
has filed a lawsuit against the secretary of the California
Natural Resources Agency. The lawsuit claims the secretary is
illegally using taxpayer money to fund the historic dam removal
project…. While the Siskiyou County Water Users
Association is against the removal of the dams, its president
says the main priority should be improving the quality of the
river.
Bill Jennings, a virtuoso environmentalist—a David who gave
shiners to many a water-grabbing Goliath in his almost 40-year
fight to save the Delta and other rivers—died Dec. 27. He was
79.Jennings was admitted to Dameron Hospital suffering from
pneumonia which followed a bout of Covid-19. He also
had heart problems. His exact cause of death is unclear.“ Bill
was a genius,” said Barbara Barrigan Parilla of Restore the
Delta. “Nobody could ever fill Bill’s shoes.”
Not building the controversial Delta tunnel means Southern
California and Bay Area cities would need to invest in
desalination plants and groundwater recharge of brackish water
that could impact the visual pleasantries of coastal scenery.
That is the bottom line buried in the no-project alternative of
the Army Corps of Engineers’ latest 691-page Environmental
Impact Study on the proposed Delta tunnel study released in
late December. The report determined building the tunnel will
have major impacts on San Joaquín County as well as the
Northern San Joaquin Valley including agricultural, local water
supply, air quality, endangered species, and essential fish
habitat…. The Army Corps of Engineers has declined to
hold any in-person hearings for feedback on the study whose
comment period ends Feb. 14, 2002. That fact has drawn a sharp
rebuke from Congressman Josh Harder.
The California Sportfishing Protection Alliance and the fish of
California lost Bill Jennings on December 27, 2022. Above all,
Bill was a relentless activist. For over 40 years, he used the
law, meticulously documented data, an irascible wit, and a
stinging pen to defend and protect his beloved Bay-Delta
Estuary and all the rivers that feed it. Bill was chairman of
CSPA’s board of directors since 1988 and its executive director
since 2005. He led CSPA in decades of battles to increase
flows into the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta and through to
San Francisco Bay. He campaigned tirelessly against multiple
incarnations of canals and tunnels around the Delta. Through
his “Watershed Enforcers” program, Bill chased down stormwater,
wastewater, and agricultural polluters all over the state.
They’ve been pushed to the brink of extinction by dams,
drought, extreme heat and even the flare of wildfires, but now
California’s endangered winter-run Chinook salmon appear to be
facing an entirely new threat — their own ravenous hunger for
anchovies. After the worst spawning season ever in 2022,
scientists now suspect the species’ precipitous decline is
being driven by its ocean diet. Researchers hypothesize that
the salmon are feasting too heavily on anchovies, a fish that
is now swarming the California coast in record numbers.
Unfortunately for the salmon, anchovies carry an enzyme called
thiaminase, which breaks down thiamine — a vitamin that is
essential to cell function in all living things.
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 ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
Land and waterway managers labored
hard over the course of a century to control California’s unruly
rivers by building dams and levees to slow and contain their
water. Now, farmers, environmentalists and agencies are undoing
some of that work as part of an accelerating campaign to restore
the state’s major floodplains.
Biologists have designed a variety
of unique experiments in the past decade to demonstrate the
benefits that floodplains provide for small fish. Tracking
studies have used acoustic tags to show that chinook salmon
smolts with access to inundated fields are more likely than their
river-bound cohorts to reach the Pacific Ocean. This is because
the richness of floodplains offers a vital buffet of nourishment
on which young salmon can capitalize, supercharging their growth
and leading to bigger, stronger smolts.
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.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
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.
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.
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.
Before dams were built on the upper
Sacramento River, flood water regularly carried woody debris that
was an important part of the aquatic habitat.
Deprived of this refuge, salmon in the lower parts of the upper
Sacramento River have had a difficult time surviving and making
it down the river and out to the ocean. Seeing this, a group of
people, including water users, decided to lend a hand with an
unprecedented pilot project that saw massive walnut tree trunks
affixed to 12,000-pound boulders and deposited into the deepest
part of the Sacramento River near Redding to provide shelter for
young salmon and steelhead migrating downstream.
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.
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.
20-minute version of the 2012 documentary The Klamath Basin: A
Restoration for the Ages. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues related to complex water management
disputes in the Klamath River Basin. Narrated by actress Frances
Fisher.
For over a century, the Klamath River Basin along the Oregon and
California border has faced complex water management disputes. As
relayed in this 2012, 60-minute public television documentary
narrated by actress Frances Fisher, the water interests range
from the Tribes near the river, to energy producer PacifiCorp,
farmers, municipalities, commercial fishermen, environmentalists
– all bearing legitimate arguments for how to manage the water.
After years of fighting, a groundbreaking compromise may soon
settle the battles with two epic agreements that hold the promise
of peace and fish for the watershed. View an excerpt from the
documentary here.
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.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, features
a map of the San Joaquin River. The map text focuses on the San
Joaquin River Restoration Program, which aims to restore flows
and populations of Chinook salmon to the river below Friant Dam
to its confluence with the Merced River. The text discusses the
history of the program, its goals and ongoing challenges with
implementation.
This beautiful 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, displays
the rivers, lakes and reservoirs, irrigated farmland, urban areas
and Indian reservations within the Truckee River Basin, including
the Newlands Project, Pyramid Lake and Lake Tahoe. Map text
explains the issues surrounding the use of the Truckee-Carson
rivers, Lake Tahoe water quality improvement efforts, fishery
restoration and the effort to reach compromise solutions to many
of these issues.
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 California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
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).
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
The Red Bluff Diversion Dam, its gates raised since 2011 to allow
fish passage, spans the Sacramento River two miles
southeast of Red Bluff on the Sacramento River in Tehama County.
It is owned by the Bureau of Reclamation and operated and
maintained by the Tehama-Colusa Canal Authority.
Pelagic fish are those that live near the water’s surface rather
than on the bottom. In California, pelagic fish species include
the Delta smelt, longfin
smelt, striped bass and salmon.
In California, the fate of pelagic fish has been closely tied to
the use of the water that supports them.
The Klamath Basin’s Chinook salmon and coho salmon serve a vital
role in the watershed.
Together, they are key to the region’s water management, habitat
restoration and fishing.
However, years of declining population have led to federally
mandated salmon restoration plans—plans that complicate the
diversion of Klamath water for agriculture and other uses.
Battle Creek, a tributary of the
Sacramento River in Shasta and Tehama counties, is considered one
of the most important anadromous fish spawning streams in the
Sacramento Valley.
At present, barriers make it difficult for anadromous fish,
including chinook salmon and Central Valley steelhead trout, to
migrate. Battle Creek has several hydroelectric dams, diversions
and a complex canal system between its north and south forks that
impede migration.
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 issue of Western Water examines science –
the answers it can provide to help guide management decisions in
the Delta and the inherent uncertainty it holds that can make
moving forward such a tenuous task.
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.
This printed issue of Western Water provides an overview of the
idea of a dual conveyance facility, including questions
surrounding its cost, operation and governance
This printed copy of Western Water examines the native salmon and
trout dilemma – the extent of the crisis, its potential impact on
water deliveries and the lengths to which combined efforts can
help restore threatened and endangered species.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the Delta through the
many ongoing activities focusing on it, most notably the Delta
Vision process. Many hours of testimony, research, legal
proceedings, public hearings and discussion have occurred and
will continue as the state seeks the ultimate solution to the
problems tied to the Delta.
This issue of Western Water explores the implications for the San
Joaquin River following the decision in the Natural Resources
Defense Council lawsuit against the Bureau of Reclamation and
Friant Water Users Authority that Friant Dam is required to
comply with a state law that requires enough water be released to
sustain downstream fish populations.
Fresh from the ocean, adult salmon struggle to swim hundreds of
miles upstream to spawn — and then die — in the same stream in
which they were born. For the salmon, the river-to-ocean,
ocean-to-river life cycle is nothing more than instinct. For
humans, it invites wonder. The cycle has prevailed for centuries,
yet as salmon populations have declined, the cycle has become a
source of conflict. Water users have seen their supplies reduced.
Fishermen have had their catch curtailed. Environmentalists have
pushed for more instream flows for fish.
