The San Francisco Bay (Bay) drains water from 40 percent of
California. This includes flows originating from the Sierra
Nevada mountain range and the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers
that make their way down through Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta
through the Bay to the Pacific Ocean.
The Bay is the largest harbor on the U.S. Pacific Coast and
covers about 400 square miles with an average depth of 14 feet.
Its deepest point is 360 feet at the Golden Gate.
Every year, more than 67 million tons of cargo pass through the
Golden Gate. The Bay also supports commercial bait shrimp,
herring and Dungeness crab fisheries.
The Bay is a vital estuary and a key link in the Pacific Flyway,
and millions of waterfowl use the shallow portions of the bay as
a refuge each year.
If you think about the pollution your car causes, chances are
you’re not thinking about the tires. And probably even less
about a faraway creek, where a Coho Salmon is dying. But
researchers at the University of Washington and elsewhere
… say as the rubber wears away from car tires during
everyday driving, it spreads tiny micro particles, including a
destructive chemical called 6PPD. … Now, with
information gathered in part by the [San Francisco Estuary]
Institute, the State of California is stepping in, laying the
groundwork for potential regulations to curb the toxic tire
pollution.
Jewish law has a lot to say about what’s supposed to happen
when you die: your lifeless body must be washed and
buried quickly, with a simple headstone to mark your grave. But
nowhere, in 4,000 years of Jewish law, custom or tradition does
it say you need to rest eternally under bright, green grass. As
California struggles with the West’s
longest megadrought in 1,200 years,
emergency water conservation rules are set to take
effect on June 1. Yet cemeteries in L.A., including the three
largest Jewish ones, remain as grassy and green as a Scottish
golf course. -Written by Rob Eshman, national editor of the the
Forward.
Residents in Santa Clara County could face fines of up to $500
— and in extreme cases, $10,000 — for wasting water, under new
drought rules approved Tuesday afternoon that are among the
toughest of any urban area in California. … The new
rules take effect June 1, but depend largely on citizen
complaints and very few “water cops” to investigate
them. Under the rules, residents who see water being
wasted can notify the district of the address and date of
incident by calling 408-630-2000, or emailing
WaterWise@valleywater.org, or reporting online….
In my drought- and fire-plagued home valley, 40 miles north of
San Francisco, a debate has been simmering for decades over a
massive development planned on state-owned property. The
conflict is focused on nearly 1,000 acres of rural and wildland
in Sonoma Valley. The prime wine-country property has been eyed
for development since long before 2018 … Water,
especially, is in short supply. The valley’s 44,000-acre
groundwater basin and recycled water provide only half of the
community’s water. Piped-in supplies make up the other half,
shipped from increasingly drought-stressed river basins farther
north.
Those who regularly cross the Napa Creek footbridge from
Clinton Street to Coombs Street in downtown Napa might be
unaware of the beavers that live below. The thick-furred,
aqueous mammals are nocturnal, after all, and tend to go about
their wood-gnawing, dam-building business when people aren’t
around to watch them. They also haven’t been in the Downtown
Napa area for all that long, though the increasing presence of
them around the city of Napa in recent years has often been
heralded as a sign of environmental success connected to the
millions spent on flood control projects over the past few
decades.
The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board
announced the appointment of Eileen White as its executive
officer, succeeding Michael Montgomery. Her first day is July
11. White most recently served as director of East Bay
Municipal Utility District’s Wastewater Department, where she
recently led the development of EBMUD’s Integrated Master Plan
for its main wastewater treatment plant, along with EBMUD’s
Climate Action Plan, to guide operations, investments and
priorities for decades to come. White managed a workforce of
280 people.
Discovery Bay’s Willow Lake will be sealed off from water flow
next week for an experiment to reduce the number of blue green
algal blooms. The experiment is being conducted and monitored
by two separate companies and will last approximately three
months. The lake will still be available for residents to use,
officials said. Dave Caron, owner of Aquatic EcoTechnologies,
conducted tests in Discovery Bay waters in 2020 and found
peroxide to be effective in reducing blooms, but not harming
other plant or animal life in the water.
From tattoo parlors to senior housing, and ethnic-food vendors
to world-famous record shops, it’s been said that if you can’t
find what you’re looking for on San Pablo Avenue, then it
doesn’t exist. And now, the busy thoroughfare, which runs
north-south through the heart of the East Bay, is also a
testbed for a distributed network of rain gardens. The project,
known as the San Pablo Avenue Green Stormwater “SPINE”, began
nearly ten years ago (the caps are used for emphasis, not as an
acronym). In the fall of 2012, the U.S. EPA issued a $307,000
portion of a larger green-infrastructure grant for the design
of seven garden sites in seven different cities.
Petaluma, one of the driest corners of Sonoma County during the
past two years of drought, is making a multimillion-dollar
advance into recycled water. Operator of a wastewater
treatment plant that serves about 65,000 people and treats
about 5 million gallons of effluent a day, Petaluma is seeking
grants for four projects with a total cost of $42
million. Six other North Bay agencies — including Sonoma
Water and the Sonoma Valley County Sanitation District — are
proposing a dozen projects totaling $41.2 million, bringing the
total to $83.2 million, as Gov. Gavin Newsom is backing water
reuse as an antidote to drought.
The Bay Area is often associated with two things – the beauty
of its natural landscape, and the skyrocketing costs of living
in it. Of late those have been seen as being in
tension. … As a planning tool, CEQA has myriad
uses, but its overarching nature also means that it can be used
by just about everyone – which is how its implementation has so
often come to pit environmentalists against
developers … Environmentalists have long wanted to
add Area 4 to the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National
Wildlife Refuge as upland migration space – to preserve room
for wetlands to move inland as sea levels rise on the Bay
shoreline.
San Anselmo has approved a plan to renovate the playing fields
at Memorial Park with phased-in water conservation upgrades.
After being presented with three project options Tuesday, the
Town Council voted 4-1 to combine elements of two alternatives,
but to do the work in stages. The project calls for new grass
and an upgraded irrigation and drainage system to be installed
as soon as possible. A stormwater and grey water harvesting
system and a 100,000-gallon underground water storage tank will
be added later.
Warmer than average temperatures fill our Bay and Inland
neighborhoods Tuesday through this weekend and with each day
our wildfire risk increases, according to ABC7 News
meteorologist Mike Nicco. Each dry day takes more moisture away
from our vegetation and makes it more susceptible to critical
fire conditions.
Sea levels in San Francisco Bay have risen nearly 8 inches in
the last 100 years and continue to rise. The sea level in this
area could rise as much as 3 feet over the next 50 years, and
this project will help protect future generations. In December
2021, Valley Water and its partners broke ground on the first
portion of the South San Francisco Bay Shoreline Phase 1
Project. … Once completed, this project will help reduce
coastal flood risk for about 5,500 residents, commuters and
businesses within the vicinity of Alviso and North San José.
Research in Seattle-area creeks has discovered tire bits
shedding lethal amounts of a little-known, salmon-killing
chemical called 6PPD-quinone. … In December 2020, 27
coauthors published an article in the journal Science
identifying 6PPD-quinone as the coho killer. Within weeks, the
U.S Tire Manufacturers Association asked California officials
to treat tires with 6PPD as a priority under the state’s
toxic-chemical laws. Coho salmon is an endangered species in
California. The California rule, once finalized, would give
manufacturers of tires sold there 180 days to assess any known
or potential alternatives to 6PPD in tire rubber.
But after 5 decades of shepherding countless groups down some
of the world’s most iconic and challenging runs, [river rater
Marty] McDonnell never expected to find himself in a mounting
battle against the changing climate, the solar industry and the
City of San Francisco. Although 2021 marked another dire year
for the dwindling Sierra Nevada snowpack, it’s not California’s
drought that worries McDonnell. Instead, it’s how hydropower is
generated along the Tuolumne River and distributed downstream.
If you waste water in Santa Clara County, water cops could soon
be on the way. Since last summer, Santa Clara County residents
have been asked to cut water use by 15% from 2019 levels to
conserve as the state’s drought worsens. But they continue to
miss that target — and by a growing amount. In March, the
county’s 2 million residents not only failed to conserve any
water, but they increased use by 30% compared to March 2019,
according to newly released data…. Santa Clara Valley
Water District … is proposing to hire water enforcement
officials to issue fines of up to $500 for residents …
wasting water ….
[E]ven Bay Area residents who haven’t suffered such a loss feel
the dread creeping in as the hills turn brown and the Sierra
snowpack shrinks to its lowest level in some 70 years. The
American Psychological Association describes climate anxiety,
or eco-anxiety, as fear of environmental doom. In the Bay Area,
it has become easy to believe in doomsday scenarios on days
when wildfire smoke chokes the air with particulate matter and
turns the sky an apocalyptic orange.
Plastic seems to be everywhere nowadays, and based on existing
research on the greater San Francisco Bay, it is highly likely
that the Napa River and its watershed are filled with it, too.
… The most recent of [activist Chris] Malan and ICARE’s
missions is the Napa Watershed Microplastic Project, although
the group has historically conducted steelhead studies, helped
restore Suscol Creek and the like. An educational endeavor with
the hopes of teaching the public about microplastics, this new
project came about when ICARE members started to notice an
uptick in the amount of plastic in and around the Napa River.
Some water use restrictions that were imposed on most Marin
County residents during the drought last year are now set to
become permanent. The Marin Municipal Water District Board of
Directors voted unanimously on Tuesday to continue limiting
sprinkler use to two days per week, which is down from three
days it allowed before it adopted its drought restrictions in
2021. Drip irrigation will be allowed three days a week. All
pool owners in the district must also have a pool cover. These
rules will be part of the district’s list of permanent
conservation rules …
The cost to repair flood-damaged Stern Grove in San Francisco
ballooned to $20 million, according to a recent report from the
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission — five times more
than the $4 million city officials initially estimated. The
concert venue’s hillside was washed out after an air release
valve failed during maintenance of a 54-inch diameter water
line last August.
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change (IPCC) from the world’s scientific community leaves no
doubt that we must take urgent action on climate change while
we still have a chance to prevent the most destructive impacts
to the globe’s communities and ecosystems. This report must
spur every one of us to look at actions we can take in our
region to rapidly reduce emissions and prepare our communities
to adapt. … One of the most effective nature-based
solutions is the expansion and restoration of coastal
wetlands. -Written by Carin High, co-chair of the Citizens
Committee to Complete the Refuge; and Arthur
Feinstein, vice-chair of the Sierra Club California
Conservation Committee and Chair of the Sierra Club’s Bay
ALIVE! Campaign.
Marin County’s two largest water utilities are working to
narrow down what new sources of supply would provide the most
benefit in droughts. The North Marin Water District presented
findings of a study looking at how to bolster supplies for the
more than 60,000 residents it serves in its greater Novato
service area. The top scorers were projects to enhance the
storage at the district’s Stafford Lake reservoir. Other
options such as desalination, creating new reservoirs, dredging
the lake and a major recycled water expansion were deemed too
expensive or infeasible given the district’s size.
Justin Seidenfeld’s vineyard ran out of water last year. The
area of Petaluma where his Parliament Hills Vineyard is located
received just 4.5 inches of rain throughout 2021, not nearly
enough sustenance for his vines of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.
… This year, however, Seidenfeld’s grapevines are
healthy and happy, with plenty of water to drink. It’s not
because of rainfall, but rather because of a newly constructed
pipeline bringing recycled water from Petaluma’s
water treatment plant to vineyards along Lakeville Highway.
Despite a glut of recent rain descending on Sonoma County in
late spring and ratcheting rainfall totals to more than double
last winter’s paltry numbers, the region remains locked in
drought, and local water experts say residents should prepare
for ongoing restrictions. Since last September, Petaluma has
sought to curb the city’s overall water usage by 30% compared
to 2020 numbers, implementing restrictions on water use to help
the city meet mandatory cutback targets set by Sonoma Water,
the region’s primary supplier.
Today, the Responsible Flushing Alliance (RFA) published a new
infographic highlighting some of the strangest objects that
have been pulled out of municipal wastewater treatment catch
basins in three California areas. … Consumers are urged
to look for the “Do Not Flush” symbol on the packaging of wipes
that are not intended by the manufacturer to be flushable. This
includes baby wipes, household cleaning wipes, makeup removal
wipes, and other wipes made with plastic materials that do not
disperse in water.
Mark Puchalski is the director of facilities with the
Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. The nonprofit
is integrating a wide range of water-saving technologies into
its buildings, which serve low-income residents in San
Francisco. … “This building uses 50% less water, 51% to be
exact, less water than a building of comparable size and
community … ,” says Puchalski. … Their water
conservation model is so successful it’s being highlighted in a
new sustainability report by the nonprofits SPUR and the
Pacific Institute.
It is with great sadness that the West County Wastewater (WCW)
Board of Directors announce the sudden passing of Board Member,
Sherry Stanley. Director Stanley was first elected to the WCW
Board of Directors in 2016. In 2019 she sat as Vice President
of the Board. After WCW moved to a district-based election
system in 2020, Director Stanley was elected to District 2,
which serves North Richmond and areas of San Pablo.
You could say that Orange Memorial Park in South San Francisco
is about to turn deep green. … [Colma Creek is] an
historic, natural waterway that was heavily cemented for flood
control in the early days of the area’s development. For
decades, the creek has carried runoff from the surrounding
watershed straight into San Francisco Bay, along with a
significant amount of trash. But that’s about to change.
If the recent attacks on California’s landmark environmental
law sound tired, that’s because they are. Ever since the
California Environmental Quality Act went into effect in 1970,
there have been calls to tweak, reform or completely throw it
out. … In Napa, where hillside forests are being razed for
vineyards, CEQA was used to limit the size of a massive winery
conversion project to save as many carbon-sequestering trees as
possible. -Written by John Buse, senior counsel for the
Center for Biological Diversity.
For the first time in half a century, ocean-going fish will
soon be able to migrate up Alameda Creek to spawn, now that a
second fish ladder has been completed in the lower portion of
the creek in Fremont. Alameda County Water District and Alameda
County Flood Control District officials on Monday celebrated
the completion of the fish ladder, which was finished earlier
this month, according to Sharene Gonzales, a water district
spokesperson. The ladder, which consists of a series of
steadily elevating pools, allows migratory fish such as Chinook
salmon and threatened steelhead trout to get around human-made
barriers in the lower creek …
One of the most ambitious conservation efforts ever,
California’s 30×30 initiative aims to protect plant and animal
life across 30 percent of the state’s most critical land and
water by 2030. Gov. Gavin Newsom has described the plan as an
important step toward ensuring community well-being, equity,
and economic sustainability while staving off mega wildfires,
droughts, and other climate change-driven threats. Stanford
University experts have informed 30×30 through their
participation in public outreach sessions, meetings with the
plan’s leadership and a letter of support signed by faculty
members from all seven of the university’s schools.
Extreme storms like the massive bomb cyclone that drenched the
San Francisco Bay Area last October are likely to become more
powerful in the coming decades as climate change alters
atmospheric conditions. The Bay Area could see between 26% and
37% more water from these mega-storms by the end of the
century, according to a new study from the Lawrence Berkeley
National Laboratory commissioned by the city. … Even
though each mega-storm could pack more rain, other climate
change studies suggest water will overall be more scarce.
Valley Water is looking for ways to not only conserve but also
reclaim the precious crystal-clear liquid. In December, the
agency’s board of directors approved an agreement to work with
the city of Palo Alto to build an advanced water-purification
facility in Palo Alto. The 6.4-acre plant would be located at
the old Los Altos Regional Wastewater Plant at the eastern end
of San Antonio Road.
As California faces a third dry year, the Bay Area’s biggest
water agency may push forward with caps on customer water use,
and fines for those who exceed the limit. The move would put
the East Bay Municipal Utility District among a small, and
perhaps soon-to-grow, number of water suppliers in the region
that have taken the unusual step of compelling households to
cut back, instead of simply encouraging conservation.
Napa County has joined an effort to raise an early alarm about
flood control agencies potentially losing out on millions of
dollars if the state doesn’t take action to extend a
deadline. Specifically, a loss of access to reimbursement
funds would happen if the funding from Proposition 1E — a $4.09
billion bond measure for flood control projects passed by
California voters in 2006 — is allowed to expire by its current
deadline of July 1, 2023. The funds come by way of a state
program, managed by the California Department of Water
Resources, that pays back agencies their costs for
federally-required flood control projects.
In 2004, Emeryville, an industrial suburb of San Francisco,
sent an environmental remediation crew to inject 15,000 gallons
of cottage cheese into groundwater below an abandoned factory.
The factory manufactured car bumpers from 1951 to 1967, and the
hexavalent chromium it left behind had since traveled into the
groundwater. Hexavalent chromium gives humans cancer, trivalent
chromium doesn’t, and cottage cheese converts the former to the
latter.
Concerns are being raised over what the drought might be doing
to an ancient salmon run that goes through the heart of Silicon
Valley. Roger Castillo doesn’t look after the rivers and
streams and their wildlife in Silicon Valley because it’s his
job. He does it because he loves it. … The mostly
self-taught citizen-naturalist is a former truck mechanic who
just discovered thriving schools of Chinook salmon fry in Los
Gatos Creek. But because of reduced water flows due to the
drought, they’re likely to become trapped in pools of warm
water upstream with no way to swim out to sea when they mature.
Environmentalists are concerned Caltrans isn’t doing enough to
keep trash from washing off its properties into the San
Francisco Bay. The state transportation department has been
under a cease and desist order since 2019 requiring it to
reduce trash over the next seven years. The order
covers more than 8,000 acres of its property in the Bay
Area, including the South Bay. The San Francisco Bay Regional
Water Quality Control Board issued the order following
widespread community outrage about Caltrans failing to pick up
trash polluting local waterways.
Some drought restrictions imposed on most Marin residents last
year could become permanent, while others could be repealed in
the coming weeks. On Friday, the Marin Municipal Water District
proposed keeping a two-day-per-week sprinkler irrigation limit
in place for good but also rescinding some prohibitions to
allow residents to wash their cars at home or refill their
pools.
As our planet wobbles toward its 52nd Earth Day on Friday,
April 22, the global medical report is … not great. This month,
the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned that
if we don’t stop pouring carbon dioxide into the atmosphere
ASAP, we’ll soon be living in hell. California had its driest
first three months of the year in recorded history. Antarctic
ice shelves are melting before our eyes. Three new books
explore the perilous realities of life on Earth in 2022.
Residents who sued to block an affordable housing project are
appealing a court ruling that quashed their lawsuit.
… The group previously denied it filed the lawsuit to
delay the affordable housing project, instead claiming it was
brought because of “the very real and legitimate concern that
the city has failed” to properly environmentally evaluate the
project, including not fully considering “concerns raised by
the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board
regarding the historical contamination” at the site.
Despite being the largest estuary on the West Coast and
supporting both a highly diverse ecosystem and a multi-billion
dollar economy, the San Francisco Bay Estuary was not getting
its fair share of federal funding for restoration, according to
local lawmakers and environmental organizations. That changed
this year after Congress and President Joe Biden approved more
than $50 million in funding to the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency for projects to restore lost wetlands,
improve water quality, address pollution and bolster sea-level
rise defenses throughout San Francisco Bay.
The Vallejo Flood & Wastewater District announced Tuesday that
the proposed stormwater fee for Vallejo property owners did not
pass the vote. The fee increase was put forward to help cover
the cost of providing flood protection, improve water quality
in local creeks and lakes with trash removal, and other
projects that are required under California and federal laws.
Most Vallejo residents have not seen an increase to their $1.97
per month stormwater fee in 25 years. Of the 32,331 ballots
mailed to property owners, 7,210 (22.30 percent) were returned
— 32.21 percent were in favor, and 67.79 percent were opposed.
The Pacific Institute just released a new
assessment of a set of urban water strategies for
California that offers concrete solutions for saving water
through improved water-use efficiency measures, while boosting
local water supplies by expanding water reuse and capturing
more stormwater that falls on our urban areas. …
[E]fforts have led to a 30% drop in total urban water use
statewide – a remarkable improvement in efficiency! The
new study, however, shows that another 30% savings is possible
simply by bringing California homes, businesses and industries
up to current standards. -Written by Peter H. Gleick, Heather Cooley and
Amanda Bielawski, of the Pacific Institute.
San Francisco Bay is famous worldwide for the Golden Gate
Bridge, Alcatraz and many of the tech companies that ring its
edges. … It’s also an increasingly serious threat to millions
of residents and hundreds of billions of dollars of bay front
property — from neighborhoods to freeways to airports — as seas
continue their slow but relentless rise. On Thursday, state,
federal and local leaders broke ground on the latest effort to
reduce that risk, kicking off a $545 million project to protect
San Jose’s shoreline against winter flooding and rising sea
levels from climate change.
Blasted by sun and beaten by waves,
plastic bottles and bags shed fibers and tiny flecks of
microplastic debris that litter the San Francisco Bay where they
can choke the marine life that inadvertently consumes it.
Estuaries are places where fresh and
salt water mix, usually at the point where a river enters the
ocean. They are the meeting point between riverine environments
and the sea, with a combination of tides, waves, salinity, fresh
water flow and sediment. The constant churning means there are
elevated levels of nutrients, making estuaries highly productive
natural habitats.
Understanding the importance of the Bay-Delta ecosystem and
working to restore it means grasping the scope of what it once
was.
That’s the takeaway message of a report released Nov. 14 by the
San Francisco Estuary Institute.
The report, “A
Delta Renewed,” is the latest in a series sponsored by the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (DFW). Written by
several authors, the report says there is “cause for hope” to
achieving large-scale Delta restoration in a way that supports
people, farms and the environment. SFEI calls itself “one of
California’s premier aquatic and ecosystem science institutes.”
Zooplankton, which are floating
aquatic microorganisms too small and weak to swim against
currents, are are important food sources for many fish species in
the Delta such as salmon, sturgeon and Delta smelt.
This 3-day, 2-night tour, which we do every year,
takes participants to the heart of California water policy – the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and San Francisco Bay.
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 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.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive animals can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native animals. “Unwelcome Visitors”
features photos and information on four such species – including
the zerbra mussel – and explains the environmental and economic
threats posed by these species.
This 24×36 inch poster, suitable for framing, explains how
non-native invasive plants can alter the natural ecosystem,
leading to the demise of native plants and animals. “Space
Invaders” features photos and information on six non-native
plants that have caused widespread problems in the Bay-Delta
Estuary and elsewhere.
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.
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.
Operated by the U.S. Army Corps of the Engineers, the San
Francisco Bay/Delta Model is a hydraulic model of San Francisco
Bay and the Delta and is housed in a converted World II-era
warehouse in Sausalito in Marin County.
Stretching 320-feet by 400-feet wide, the Bay Model
features a replica of the Bay Delta watershed from the Golden
Gate to the Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta. Pumping systems move hundreds of gallons of water
throughout the display and create 14-minute tidal ebb and flow.
Invasive species, also known as
exotics, are plants, animals, insects and aquatic species
introduced into non-native habitats.
Often, invasive species travel to non-native areas by ship,
either in ballast water released into harbors or attached to the
sides of boats. From there, introduced species can then spread
and significantly alter ecosystems and the natural food chain as
they go. Another example of non-native species introduction is
the dumping of aquarium fish into waterways.
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 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 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.
