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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 January 16, 2019 Calif. Sportfishing Protection Alliance

Blog: Delta tunnels hearing at state Water Board drawing to a close

After more than three years, 104 days of testimony, and over twenty-four thousand pages of hearing transcripts, the hearing before the State Water Resources Control Board (State Board) on the proposal to construct two tunnels to convey water under the Delta (aka California WaterFix) is almost completed.  Probably, that is: there could be more if the project changes again to a degree that requires additional testimony and/or environmental review.

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Aquafornia news January 16, 2019 California Department of Water Resources

News release: McCormack-Williamson Tract project aims to protect people and wildlife

The McCormack-Williamson Tract restoration project, a 1,500 acre site, lowers the levees on the north side of the island to allow the river to overtop into the site. On the south side, DWR will alleviate the surge flows that pose a risk to neighbors by opening small holes in the levee. 2018 saw the completion of construction of a levee to protect existing infrastructure on the site, as well as progress on habitat restoration plans. For the next phase, DWR will strengthen the interior levees and take steps toward opening the site up to tidal flows.

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Aquafornia news January 15, 2019 San Jose Mercury News

Tuesday’s Top of the Scroll: Santa Clara Valley Water District files suit challenging state plan

In an attempt to block the state’s plan to divert more water toward the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and away from the Bay Area, the Santa Clara Valley Water District has filed a lawsuit arguing the project could significantly reduce the local water supply. If the plan advances, the water district might have to spend millions of dollars to obtain alternate water supplies and pull up more groundwater.

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Aquafornia news January 14, 2019 Modesto Bee

Gavin Newsom visits Stanislaus County to talk safe drinking water

A day after proposing a tax on drinking water, Gov. Gavin Newsom took a “surprise” road trip to meet with Stanislaus County residents in a community known for having unsafe wells. Newsom and his cabinet made their first stop at the Monterey Park Tract in Ceres, where he held a roundtable discussion with people who for years had to use bottled water for drinking and cooking because their community’s two wells were long-contaminated with nitrates and arsenic.

Related articles

  • Modesto Bee: Opinion: Gov. Newsom delivers a message: We’re in this together.
  • Manteca Bulletin: Opinion: In office less than a week & governor wants to tax your drinking water
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Aquafornia news January 14, 2019 Merced Sun-Star

Editorial: Water districts on Merced, Stanislaus, Tuolumne had no choice but to sue the state

The State Water Resources Control Board proved back on Dec. 12 that it wasn’t listening to a single thing anyone from our region was saying. By voting to impose draconian and scientifically unjustifiable water restrictions on our region, four of the five board members tuned out dozens of scientists, water professionals and people who live near the rivers.

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Aquafornia news January 11, 2019 San Francisco Chronicle

Friday’s Top of the Scroll: San Francisco sues state over potentially drastic water reductions

The city of San Francisco is not standing down in California’s latest water war, joining a lawsuit against the state on Thursday to stop it from directing more of the Sierra Nevada’s cool, crisp flows to fish instead of people.

Related articles:

  • KQED: San Francisco is fighting California’s plan to save salmon. Wait. What?
  • Sacramento Bee: San Francisco, farmers team up to fight California’s ‘water grab’
  • Modesto Bee: Fight over water heads to court: Irrigation districts sue state board
  • Bay City News Service: City joins lawsuit against Bay-Delta Plan
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news January 9, 2019 The Sacramento Bee

Newsom inherits California water strife from Jerry Brown

As his term as governor drew to a close, Jerry Brown brokered a historic agreement among farms and cities to surrender billions of gallons of water to help ailing fish. He also made two big water deals with the Trump administration. It added up to a dizzying display of deal-making. Yet as Gavin Newsom takes over as governor, the state of water in California seems as unsettled as ever.

Related articles:

  • San Jose Mercury News: Newsom names Jared Blumenthal to head Cal-EPA
  • San Francisco Chronicle: Newsom proposes $305M for fire safety programs
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Aquafornia news January 8, 2019 San Jose Mercury News

Opinion: State should use science to decide Delta water flows

Jon Rosenfield: Last month the State Water Resources Control Board finally required increased flows from three San Joaquin River tributaries, as the first step in a process to update water quality standards for the San Francisco Bay estuary. The board opted for weaker environmental protections in order to reduce impacts to agribusiness and San Francisco, ignoring the potential for changed agricultural practices and investment in sustainable water use to ease or eliminate the impact of reduced water diversions.

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Aquafornia news January 4, 2019 Chico News & Review

State breaks, shifts levees to restore natural floodplains

At the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers, a few miles west of Modesto, work crews removed or broke several miles of levee last spring and replanted the land with tens of thousands of native sapling trees and shrubs. It’s part of a growing emphasis on reconnecting floodplains to rivers so they can absorb floodwaters. This shift in methodology marks a U-turn from past reliance on levees to protect cities and towns.

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Aquafornia news January 2, 2019 ABC30.com

Sanitation concerns shut two areas in Yosemite National Park

Yosemite National Park officials say Hetch Hetchy and Mariposa Grove are now closed from lack of available restrooms and the impact of human waste as a result of the government shutdown.

Related articles:

  • Hi Desert Star: Human Waste Concerns Prompt Joshua Tree National Park to Close All Campgrounds
  • Washington Post: In Shutdown, National Parks Transformed into Wild West
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Aquafornia news January 2, 2019 Mother Jones

Wednesday’s Top of the Scroll: Like fruit, vegetables, and almonds? Scientists have bad news

At the end of the last century, the Sierra Nevada captured an average of 8.76 million acre-feet of water critical to the nation’s largest food-producing region. By mid-century, a new study projects, the average will fall to 4 million acre-feet; and by century’s end, 1.81 million acre-feet. 

Related articles:

  • San Diego Union-Tribune: Winter is shrinking, Scripps study finds
  • North Bay Business Journal: California farmers will need to be resilient again in 2019
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Aquafornia news January 2, 2019 Voice of San Diego

Big Northern California water deals will trickle down to San Diego

Prompted by the collapse of fish populations, the State Water Resources Control Board is trying to prevent humans from totally drying up these rivers each year. The regulators’ lodestar for how much water the rivers need is the amount of water a Chinook salmon needs to migrate.

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Aquafornia news January 2, 2019 - 8:37am The Fresno Bee

Opinion: New agreements will help fish in the Delta

Over the past three years, the State Water Resources Control Board has conducted a public process to increase the water flowing to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Rivers Delta with the intent of improving declining fish populations. However, an increase in river flow means a reduction in supplies for Californians, who are dependent on them for their lives and livelihoods.

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Aquafornia news December 17, 2018 Appeal-Democrat

Yuba Water Agency prepares for changes in river’s flow

State water regulators announced plans earlier this week to implement unimpaired flow requirements along the San Joaquin River, unless water users can establish voluntary agreements with state water and fish and wildlife agencies. The changes were part of the State Water Resources Control Board’s update to its Water Quality Control Plan for the greater Bay-Delta watershed as a way to improve conditions for struggling salmon populations and increase inflow into the Delta.

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Aquafornia news December 14, 2018 The Modesto Bee

Water districts were so close to deal. Now, lawsuits will contest ‘water grab.’

Some water districts would like to keep negotiating with state officials over river flows. But lawsuits replaced settlements as the most likely path forward, the day after a crucial vote in Sacramento approving the “water grab.”

Related Article:

  • San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco, other cities consider lawsuits to head off water restrictions

​Related News Releases:

  • California State Water Resources Control Board: State Water Board adopts Bay-Delta Plan Update for the Lower San Joaquin River and Southern Delta
  • California Department of Water Resources: State agencies outline comprehensive plan to improve river flows for fisheries
  • Read more
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Aquafornia news December 13, 2018 Associated Press

Thursday’s Top of the Scroll: California water board backs plan to increase river flows

A state board on Wednesday approved a contentious proposal to boost water flows through a Central California river, a move that would increase habitat for salmon but deliver less water to farmers and cities such as San Francisco. The plan under consideration by the Water Resources Control Board would alter management of the Lower San Joaquin River and three tributaries to address what environmental groups say is a crisis in the delta that empties into San Francisco Bay.

Related Articles:

  • The Modesto Bee: State board approves controversial river flows. What’s the next step for MID, TID?
  • San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco, other Bay Area cities will see water supply cuts under new plan
  • Los Angeles Times: State water board demands more water for fish

​Related Blog Posts:

  • California Department of Water Resources: State’s comprehensive plan to improve flows for fisheries
  • Northern California Water Association: Statement on Voluntary Agreements – Sacramento River Basin, A Comprehensive Restoration Strategy for the Bay-Delta Watershed
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Aquafornia news December 5, 2018 CALmatters

Wednesday’s Top of the Scroll: Let it flow: In about-face, state breaks and shifts levees to restore natural floodplains

At the confluence of the San Joaquin and Tuolumne rivers, a winter of heavy rains could inundate about 1,200 acres of riverside woodland for the first time in 60 years. That’s by design: Here, a few miles west of Modesto, work crews removed or broke several miles of levee last spring and replanted the land with tens of thousands of native sapling trees and shrubs.

  • Read more
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Aquafornia news November 26, 2018 The Fresno Bee

San Joaquin River salmon make big gains, but don’t call it a comeback yet

Fish biologists bringing back salmon runs on the San Joaquin River say a record number of fish nests have been found in the river below Friant Dam east of Fresno. The number of nests, called redds, created by spring-run Chinook salmon reached 41 this year, compared to just 13 last year. … Several fish biologists, lawyers and members of the public recently toured the river with the Water Education Foundation, based in Sacramento.

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Tour December 10, 2020 - 2:30pm - 5:30pm

San Joaquin River Restoration Tour 2020
A Virtual Journey - December 10

This event guided attendees on a virtual journey along the San Joaquin River to learn 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.

Under the now $1.2 billion plan, efforts are aimed at restoring flows to a 60-mile, mostly dry stretch of the San Joaquin River to revive chinook salmon runs while reducing or avoiding adverse water supply impacts to farmers.

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Tour April 3, 2019 - 7:30am - April 5, 2019 - 6:30pm Nick Gray

Central Valley Tour 2019

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.

  • Steve Chedester Presentation
  • Jose Gutierrez Presentation
  • Cristel Tufenkjian Presentation
  • Don Portz Presentation
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