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Topic: San Joaquin River

Overview July 1, 2014

San Joaquin River

San Joaquin RiverThe San Joaquin River, which helps drain California’s Central Valley, has been negatively impacted by construction of dams, inadequate streamflows and poor water quality. Efforts are now underway to restore the river and continue providing agricultural lands with vital irrigation, among other water demands.

After an 18-year lawsuit to restore water flows to a 60-mile dry stretch of river and to boost the dwindling salmon populations, the San Joaquin River Restoration Settlement is underway. Water releases are now used to restore the San Joaquin River and to provide habitat for naturally-reproducing populations of self-sustaining Chinook salmon and other fish in the San Joaquin River. Long-term efforts also include measures to reduce or avoid adverse water supply impacts from the restoration flows.

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Aquafornia news September 21, 2023 Vallejo Times-Herald

Senator Dodd recognizes Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Week

In appreciation of the critical role the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta plays in California’s economy and environment, Senator Bill Dodd, D-Napa, is recognizing the last week of September as Delta Week. “The Delta is a cherished watershed and the very lifeblood of California’s water system,” Dodd said in a news release. … Dodd’s Senate Concurrent Resolution 119 established Delta Week, which this year kicks off Sunday. As part of the annual tradition, it will be preceded on Saturday by Coastal Cleanup Day, which offers Californians a chance to participate in local waterway cleanup events.

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Aquafornia news September 18, 2023 Lodi News-Sentinel

A messy aftermath: Residents concerned about debris, erosion on Mokelumne River

Residents of a senior community in east Lodi want to know which agency is responsible for removing downed trees from the Mokelumne River. Joyce and Mike Tracy said the heavy storms that hit Lodi at the beginning of the year caused three trees to fall into the river in March, blocking water flow downstream. As a result, water levels have risen to the top of the riverbank, causing damage to properties in the Casa de Lodi community at 29 Rio Vista Drive.

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Aquafornia news September 18, 2023 SJV Water

Tübatulabal tribe celebrates homecoming with return of a slice of its ancestral lands

Tribal members celebrated the return of more than 1,200 acres of their ancestral lands in the jagged hills above Weldon on Saturday in a ceremony marked with gratitude, emotion and prayer. Chairman Robert Gomez opened the event by thanking a large number of people who helped find, purchase and deed the land back to the Tübatulabal tribe, which has called the Kern River Valley home for more than 5,000 years. Western Rivers Conservancy was chief among those Gomez called out for their help in obtaining the land. Western Rivers, a non profit dedicated to restoring rivers, helped secure funding through the state Wildlife Conservation Board and Sierra Nevada Conservancy and facilitated the handover of the land to the tribe.

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Aquafornia news September 14, 2023 SJV Water

Tule River tribe suffers chronic water problems, even in record wet year

Despite a record snowpack that has kept the South Fork of the Tule River flowing at a steady clip, residents of the Tule River Reservation – who get 60 percent of their supplies directly from the river – were recently without water for eight days. The problem, ironically, was too much water. Specifically, from Hurricane Hilary. When the late summer storm drenched dry, burn-scarred mountainsides, the runoff brought a torrent of muck with it and fouled the reservation’s intake and treatment system. But Hilary was just the tribe’s most recent go-round with water problems from an outdated system built to serve a fraction of the homes now on the reservation.

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Aquafornia news September 14, 2023 Ag Alert

State flows plan advances in, out of court

Central Valley water districts subject to a state plan that diverts flows from the San Joaquin River tributaries downstream for fish are working to achieve a more holistic approach for the fishery through voluntary agreements, while also challenging the state’s flows-only approach in court. Central to the issue is a plan adopted in 2018 by the California State Water Resources Control Board that requires affected water users to leave unimpaired flows of 30% to 50% in three San Joaquin tributaries—the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers. The work is the first phase of the state’s water quality control plan update for the San Francisco Bay/Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta, known as the Bay-Delta plan.

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Aquafornia news September 7, 2023 California Department of Water Resources

News release: DWR joins Stockton East Water District to announce $12.2M investment for water resilience project

On Wednesday, Stockton East Water District and the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) joined local and federal officials to highlight a $12.2 million project that will support groundwater recharge, water quality and habitat restoration project along the Calaveras River. … The event was held at the Bellota Weir Modification Project site on the Calaveras River. Funded by DWR’s Urban Community Drought Relief Program, the project will make conveyance improvements and install a modern fish screen at the Stockton East Water District’s Bellota municipal diversion intake on the Calaveras River. The conveyance improvements would double the amount of groundwater recharge per year and improve water reliability and quality for the city of Stockton’s drinking water. Additionally, the fish screen and new fishways will restore fish habitats along the Calaveras River and allow safe passage through the river for the threatened Central Valley Steelhead and Chinook Salmon.

Related articles: 

  • KCRA – Sacramento: Sacramento’s Regional Water Authority wants to make groundwater storage more flexible. Here’s how you can provide input
  • The Sacramento Bee: Elk Grove - Large water pipeline will soon cut through city
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Aquafornia news August 30, 2023 SJV Water

Floodplain work could start on two San Joaquin Valley rivers as soon as this week after state funding was approved

The state approved funding for a range of floodplain projects in the San Joaquin Valley, clearing the way for work to potentially begin as soon as this week. The state budget included $40 million for floodplain restoration projects in the San Joaquin Valley, which would let rivers spread out over large swaths of undeveloped land to slow the flow and absorb the water.  On August 24, the California Wildlife Conservation Board voted to spend $21 million of the funding which will be doled out to six on-the-ground projects and 10 planning projects, all overseen by the nonprofit River Partners. The rest of the money will be voted on in November at another board meeting and is proposed for two land acquisitions. 

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Aquafornia news August 29, 2023 We Grow California

Podcast: Unfunded mandates even for fish!

Darcy and Darcy welcome Steve Chedester, the Director of Policy and Programs for the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractors Water Authority into the We Grow California Studios. Steve has been with the Exchange Contractors for 28 years and provides a great background and status report on the San Joaquin River Restoration Project. After litigation, settlements, and decades of planning, this project is not even at the starting line.  Tune in and learn why.

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Aquafornia news August 28, 2023 Courthouse News Service

Stay out, stay alive: A story of Kern County’s killer river

[W]hat makes the Killer Kern so dangerous? It’s a combination of several factors, according to WX Research, a weather and climate research group. One of the river’s defining features is its swift currents, which often reach over 8,000 cubic feet per second. Spring and summer are the most dangerous times, as snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada Mountains adds speed and lowers the water temperature — sometimes to 38 F. Swimmers are at risk of hypothermia or drowning by inhaling water in an instinctive gasp response to the cold. They can also get trapped by underwater hazards or caught in hydraulics, holes that form when the current turns back on itself as it meets an obstacle.

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Aquafornia news August 25, 2023 The Sacramento Bee

Friday Top of the Scroll: 23 million chinook salmon were released throughout Central Valley. Here’s why

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced Wednesday it has completed its release of approximately 23 million fall-run Chinook salmon raised in Central Valley fish hatcheries. The 23 million salmon raised and released by state officials this year is a 15% increase from the count in 2022. This year’s production goals were expanded to try to help Chinook salmon overcome the consequences of the drought in which water temperatures rose and water flows fell throughout the Valley during critical salmon spawning periods, officials said. Those conditions, coupled with a thiamine deficiency that affects reproduction, have reduced in-river spawning success over the past several fall runs.

Related articles: 

  • California Trout: Blog - Klamath River Tributary Restoration Gives Salmon A Chance Before – and After – Dam Removal
  • CBS – San Francisco: Tire additive could push California salmon to extinction, study says
  • Chico Enterprise-Record: Turbid water in Butte Creek shows improvement
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Aquafornia news August 17, 2023 SJV Water

Group of valley water users files appeal against proposed new dam

A group of water users on the east side of the San Joaquin Valley is continuing its unlikely quest to stop a proposed new dam on the west side of the valley. Back in Oct. 2022, a Stanislaus County Superior Court judge dismissed a host of environmental challenges against the project as well as concerns brought by the Friant Water Supply Protection Association. On July 24, the Friant group filed an appeal in the Fifth District Court of Appeals. It’s not that the Friant group wouldn’t like to see more water storage, it would. But the group is concerned with how that stored water will be counted and how that accounting could affect Friant, according to the appeal. The proposed Del Puerto Canyon Reservoir would allow water users that are part of the San Joaquin River Exchange Contractor Authority to store up to  84,000 acre feet in the hills above Patterson, west of Interstate 5.

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Western Water January 13, 2023 Nick Cahill Layperson's Guide to Water Conservation WESTERN WATER-In One of the Snowiest Places in the West, A Scientist Hunts for Clues to the Sierra Snowpack’s Future By Nick Cahill

In One of the Snowiest Places in the West, A Scientist Hunts for Clues to the Sierra Snowpack’s Future
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Central Sierra Snow Lab Manager Andrew Schwartz Aims to Help Water Managers Improve Tracking of Snowpack Crucial to California's Drought-Stressed Water Supply

Photo of Andrew Schwartz, manager and lead scientist at the Central Sierra Snow Laboratory.Growing up in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains, Andrew Schwartz never missed an opportunity to play in – or study – a Colorado snowstorm. During major blizzards, he would traipse out into the icy wind and heavy drifts of snow pretending to be a scientist researching in Antarctica.  

Decades later, still armed with an obsession for extreme weather, Schwartz has landed in one of the snowiest places in the West, leading a research lab whose mission is to give California water managers instant information on the depth and quality of snow draping the slopes of the Sierra Nevada.

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Tour November 2, 2022 - 7:30am - November 3, 2022 - 6:30pm Nick Gray

San Joaquin River Restoration Tour 2022
Field Trip - November 2-3

This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river restoration projects.

The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most contentious legal battles in California water history, ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government, Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental groups.

Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720
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Tour April 20, 2022 - 7:30am - April 22, 2022 - 6:30pm Explore Epicenter of Drought and Groundwater Sustainability on the Central Valley Tour Nick Gray

Central Valley Tour 2022
Field Trip - April 20-22

Central Valley Tour participants at a dam.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.

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Western Water November 19, 2021 Alastair Bland California Water Map WESTERN WATER-California Spent Decades Trying to Keep Central Valley Floods at Bay. Now It Looks to Welcome Them Back By Alastair Bland

California Spent Decades Trying to Keep Central Valley Floods at Bay. Now It Looks to Welcome Them Back
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Floodplain restoration gets a policy and funding boost as interest grows in projects that bring multiple benefits to respond to climate change impacts

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.

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Western Water April 17, 2020 Gary Pitzer

Framework for Agreements to Aid Health of Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta is a Starting Point With An Uncertain End
WESTERN WATER IN-DEPTH: Voluntary agreement discussions continue despite court fights, state-federal conflicts and skepticism among some water users and environmental groups

Aerial image of the Sacramento-San Joaquin DeltaVoluntary agreements in California have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state regulators.

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Western Water October 24, 2019 California Water Map Gary Pitzer

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

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

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

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Western Water April 25, 2019 California Water Map Gary Pitzer

California’s New Natural Resources Secretary Takes on Challenge of Implementing Gov. Newsom’s Ambitious Water Agenda
WESTERN WATER Q&A: Wade Crowfoot addresses Delta tunnel shift, Salton Sea plan and managing water amid a legacy of conflict

Wade Crowfoot, California Natural Resources Secretary.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.

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Western Water April 11, 2019 Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Map Gary Pitzer

Bruce Babbitt Urges Creation of Bay-Delta Compact as Way to End ‘Culture of Conflict’ in California’s Key Water Hub
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Former Interior secretary says Colorado River Compact is a model for achieving peace and addressing environmental and water needs in the Delta

Former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt gives the Anne J. Schneider Lecture April 3 at Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum.  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.

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Announcement March 6, 2019

A Bounty of San Joaquin Valley Crops on Display During Central Valley Tour
Act now, our April 3-5 tour is almost sold out!

The San Joaquin Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket, grows a cornucopia of fruits, nuts and other agricultural products.

During our three-day Central Valley Tour April 3-5, you will meet farmers who will explain how they prepare the fields, irrigate their crops and harvest the produce that helps feed the nation and beyond. We also will drive through hundreds of miles of farmland and visit the rivers, dams, reservoirs and groundwater wells that provide the water.

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