The San Joaquin Valley stretches from across mid-California
between coastal ranges in west and the Sierras on the east. The
region includes large cities such as Fresno and Bakersfield,
national parks such as Yosemite and Kings and fertile farmland
and multi-billion dollar agriculture industry.
The federal Central Valley Project and State Water Project (about
30 percent of SWP water is used for irrigation) helped
deliver water to the valley. Today, San Joaquin Valley crops
include grapes, tomatoes, hay, sugar beets, nuts, cotton and a
multitude of other fruits and vegetables. At the same time, water
used to grow these crops has led to the need for agricultural
drainage.
On the parched west side of the San Joaquin Valley, the drought
has created a windfall for companies like Big River Drilling. A
water-well contractor based in the Fresno County community of
Riverdale, Big River can hardly keep up with demand for new
wells as farmers and rural residents seek to extract more water
from underground. … But talk about poor timing:
California farmers are supposed to start throttling back their
groundwater pumping to comply with a state law called the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, or SGMA.
Oil companies that blast water and chemicals into the earth to
extract fossil fuels are having trouble getting new permits for
their California operations even sooner than expected. Gov.
Gavin Newsom pledged the state would stop issuing new permits
for fracking by 2024, but California has already begun to ban
the controversial oil extraction method in practice by denying
permits in droves with little fanfare. … [Fracking has]
long been a controversial method because of what climate
activists see as unacceptable dangers, including the
possibility that it can contaminate groundwater.
Farmers in the heart of California’s agricultural belt – Kings
County – sense something is awry with their water supplies. In
this intensively farmed, perennially dry county, water is
leaving at a concerning rate. … As far as [walnut farmer
Steve Walker] knows, no agency, city or county board is
trying to figure out what’s really happening. … But this
much he knows — certain groundwater wells in the county are
running practically year round, even in wet years.
Another set of comments critical of how San Joaquin Valley
groundwater plans will impact drinking water wells dropped on
Friday from the powerful State Water Resources Control Board.
The comments focused on plans that cover the City of Fresno and
many surrounding towns as well as Visalia and a number of
smaller towns in Tulare County. Specifically, it commented on
plans covering most of the Kings and Kaweah subbasins.
The Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District has filed a
request for a hearing in its lawsuit against the city of
Tehachapi. But according to its general manager, Tom Neisler,
the filing made in Kern County Superior Court on Nov. 9 is
procedural and does not mean that a hearing is imminent.
Challenging the city of Tehachapi’s Sept. 7 approval of the
Sage Ranch project, the district filed suit on Sept. 16,
claiming that the city violated multiple state laws in its
approval of the planned development.
I’m your host Michela Tindera, and this is Priceless. In this
episode, we’re headed West to the epicenter of one of the most
productive farming regions in the world—California’s Central
Valley—where the area is in the throes of a megadrought that
has been drying up wells and damaging crops across the western
United States. It’s there in the Central Valley, where a
billionaire couple own a majority stake in one of California’s
largest water storage facilities.
The state’s water agency lambasted groundwater plans drafted by
some of California’s largest and most powerful agricultural
water suppliers in the San Joaquin Valley, indicating that they
fail to protect drinking water supplies from over-pumping. The
four large groundwater basins at stake underlie stretches of
San Joaquin, Merced, Madera and Fresno counties that are home
to nearly 800,000 people and more than a million acres of
irrigated agriculture.
Water systems in many small communities across Central
California are due for improvements to meet new standards and
deal with the drought, including Pixley in Tulare County.
… The agency announced its 4th round of funding support
through the Small Community Drought Relief Program. It’s
an opportunity leaders in Pixley took advantage of immediately.
Almond production in California is expected to drop 10% to 1.3
million tons this year because of high temperatures and
drought. Apart from this, the return of La Niña conditions
could bring another weak crop next year. The crop shortfall
threatens to drive almond prices sharply higher, with some
growers expecting a price jump of 50% or more from last year’s
$1.83 per pound.
Hoori Ajami, groundwater hydrologist Q: What will happen
to the Central Valley, in terms of groundwater and sinkholes,
if farmers continue to grow highly water intensive crops?
A: If farmers continue to pump groundwater at the current rate
and do not implement any conservation measures such as managed
aquifer recharge, the land subsidence issues become worse. The
groundwater levels will drop so far it will not be economically
feasible to pump groundwater anymore. The Central Valley
aquifer system is already amongst the top three highly depleted
aquifer systems in the country.
Two Fresno area Democrats who attended the signing of President
Joe Biden’s $1 billion infrastructure bill into law on Monday
say the package will improve the lives of Valley residents and
strengthen the local economy. … Over the next five
years, the package will provide: $1.15 billion to improve water
storage in California and the San Joaquin Valley … ; $3.2
billion to repair aging California water infrastructure
projects; $3.5 billion to improve California’s drinking water
infrastructure; $1 billion for rural water projects; $500
million to repair aging dams and ensure safety, for projects
like the San Luis Reservoir …
As the state of California seeks to fix its crumbling water
infrastructure, the State Water Board has embarked on an
ambitious program to encourage struggling small water systems
to join forces with larger, neighboring water systems. We spoke
with the State Water Board’s Michelle Frederick and clean-water
advocacy group Community Water Center’s Ryan Jensen about why
consolidation is important, how efforts are going, and what
could be improved.
About 30 hardy souls marched the length of the dry Kern River
bed — nine miles — from near Manor Street in east Bakersfield
all the way to Stockdale Highway Saturday morning to protest
the lack of water in the river. At the start of the hike,
the group filled bottles and jugs with water from the river,
which ends shortly after Manor Street as it’s divvied up by a
hydra of irrigation canals.
As the Sacramento River Basin pursues ridgetop to river mouth
water management, the Public Policy Institute of California
(PPIC) Water Policy Center has recently published its
Priorities for California’s Water: Responding to the Changing
Climate. The authors of the new brief have stated that: “the
current drought and a changing climate are affecting
California’s ability to manage water, offering a stark reminder
that we must accelerate our response to the disruptive changes
underway.
There are no shortages of critical issues facing Oakdale
Irrigation District in central California. As the
state looks to take 40% of the district’s springtime river
flows, district directors are searching for their next water
champion. … In October the State of California informed
OID and five other water districts, including the City and
County of San Francisco, that it would no longer negotiate over
stream flow agreements commonly known as “voluntary
agreements.” Under these coerced negotiations, the state seeks
to take 40% of river flows…
Don’t be surprised if the citrus you find at the grocery store
this season is smaller than in years past. Growers say early
navel varieties generally are running smaller this year,
putting a premium on larger offerings. Matt Fisher, a
Central California farmer who has citrus groves from Orange
Cove to Bakersfield, said multiple factors come into play,
including the state’s ongoing drought and triple-digit heat
waves.
The California Farm Bureau is applauding Congress for passing
the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, commending the
benefits it extends to local agriculture and rural communities.
The one trillion dollar plan passed by congress late Friday
night is set to fund improvement projects across the country
and projected to create some 2 million jobs. In the bill are
benefits for local agriculture and rural communities like water
storage and conveyance, road and highway improvements and
broadband internet for areas currently without coverage.
Area canals in the Fresno Irrigation District have run dry but
at some point during a wet year, a new recharge basin south of
Fresno will be full of water. … Because of ongoing
drought challenges, FID is drawing a line in the sand and
developing four new basins. Stretch said that one located
at Malaga and East avenues will deliver water to both growers
and families.
When an excessive amount of groundwater is pumped from wells,
it can cause the land above the wells to sink, causing
buildings to crumble and pipes to burst. A new report prepared
for Pajaro Valley water managers, however, shows that from 2015
to 2018 the land above the valley’s aquifer subsided only 2
inches — hopeful news as coastal communities battle a severe
drought. Just over the coastal mountain range in the Central
Valley, the “land subsidence” in over-pumped water basins is a
lot more dire. Some areas of the fertile valley have reached a
subsidence rate of nearly a foot a year …
It appears a new Kern River Watermaster will be chosen to
replace Dana Munn, whose contract winds up at the end of this
year. If he’s officially approved by all the voting members of
the “river interests,” Mark Mulkay will likely become the
fourth ever Kern River Watermaster. He said he’s discussed it
with all the parties and let them know he wants the job. Other
sources confirmed that the river interests, entities that hold
rights to the Kern River, have unofficially agreed on Mulkay as
incoming Watermaster.
For more than two decades the small Tulare County community of
Tooleville has been without a secure supply of safe drinking
water. The simplest solution would be to connect the town’s
water system to that of its neighbor, the City of Exeter. It
would take less than a mile of pipe to get it done. But years
of red tape and failed negotiations have kept the consolidation
from taking place.
North Bay water suppliers are partnering to create what would
essentially be a water banking system to draw from during times
of drought – and replenish when supplies are ample. The
Sonoma Water agency has already begun the work to bring three
existing wells in the Santa Rosa Plain online to supply another
source of water to Marin and its other customers in response to
the drought. The agency has reactivated these wells for every
drought since 1977, but now plans to upgrade them for the first
time to allow water to be injected back into them.
Farmer Erik Herman said he couldn’t help but feel a tinge of
remorse as he looked out over the dirt field where an orchard
of 8,000 fig trees stood until earlier this month, when they
were uprooted by bulldozers in the name of conservation. The
orchard, seven miles outside Madera in the sprawling San
Joaquin Valley, is another casualty of the water shortage that
is forcing farmers in the nation’s top-producing agricultural
region to abandon otherwise fertile ground en masse.
In the short span of two years, Kings Subbasin
Groundwater Sustainability Agencies in California’s Central
Valley have invested in 600 acres of prime
groundwater recharge land. This land represents 15 dedicated
basins that are constructed or in development. There are
thousands of landowners and many communities that overlie the
Kings Subbasin that are dependent on the subbasin’s groundwater
supply.
The public can weigh in on the Kern River at an upcoming
hearing but the proceeding will be very narrowly focused,
according to a ruling released Wednesday. Too narrowly
focused, according to one attorney representing several
nonprofits hoping to bring water back to the river through town
on a regular basis.
The statewide drought has put small communities in a bind when
it comes to water. Kettleman City may easily be the poster
child. Benzine and arsenic in the water wells in this I-5 town
led to state and federal help to build an $11 million water
treatment plant in 2020 so the town could finally get clean
water from the California Aqueduct that runs right through
town.
Amid this year’s severe drought, Hmong farmer June Moua had to
leave a portion of her 10-acre plot of land in eastern Fresno
County dry and fallow. Large sections of the rows of crops she
did plant, including bunches of water-intensive greens, have
wilted and shriveled into crunchy bits of brown foliage. Her
kale and bok choy are casualties of the central San Joaquin
Valley’s dwindling water supply. Declining groundwater levels
have made it harder for her to pump water from her well into
her fields.
The Bureau of Reclamation, in coordination with the McMullin
Area Groundwater Sustainability Agency, invites the public and
media to attend a virtual public scoping meeting on the
proposed Aquaterra Water Bank Project on Nov. 10. The
project includes construction, operation, and maintenance by
McMullin GSA of a 146,000 acre-foot per year dry-year return
water bank in Fresno County. The project is anticipated to
recharge up to 208,000 acre-feet of water during wet-year
conditions once constructed.
Another series of storms is set to sweep through the Pacific
Northwest and Northern California into next week and not only
bring much-needed rain and mountain snow but also flooding
concerns. A dip in the jet stream across the Bering Sea through
the northern Pacific Ocean will push waves of energy toward the
Canadian Rocky Mountains and Northwest this week, according to
AccuWeather Lead Long-Range Senior Meteorologist Paul Pastelok,
who added that temperatures will be near to below normal.
A delegation of 15 state lawmakers is joining a conference of
world leaders in Scotland to discuss climate change solutions.
As leaders of the world’s 5th largest economy, their
participation is important, but it’s more urgent for them to
act once they return. … The climate is already changing.
This summer was California’s hottest on record, after the
2010s were the hottest decade ever. California just
experienced its driest year in a century. Every corner of
the state faces severe drought. -Written by Mike Young, the political and
organizing director for California Environmental
Voters.
In a new report by the University of California Giannini
Foundation of Agricultural Economics, agricultural economists
have found a few surprises with the drought. For one, farm
revenues and prices this year may have only small impacts or
even be higher than in 2020, due to global supply and demand
conditions driving up prices. Feed grain and seed prices are
higher in the Midwest, along with beef and milk prices.
The San Joaquin Valley farm town of Teviston has two wells. One
went dry and the other is contaminated. The one functioning
well failed just at the start of summer, depriving the hot and
dusty hamlet of running water for weeks. … But for
years, probably decades, the water coming from Teviston taps
has been laced with the carcinogen 1,2,3-Trichloropropane, or
1,2,3-TCP, the legacy of pesticides.
June Moua started growing cherries, tomatoes and grapes in east
Fresno County 10 years ago. Now she grows a few different types
of crops. But her most profitable are the water-intensive Asian
greens like mustard greens and bok choy. … She says she
learned how to farm from her father when she was younger. Since
then, she’s learned even more through trial and error. She
enjoys bringing these Southeast Asian crops to farmers markets
in Los Angeles, but the drought has put her in a tough
position.
If you want to see the future of California fill up your tank
with $4.80 per gallon gasoline and take the Golden State
autobahn better known as Interstate 5 and head 160
miles south to Kettleman City. It’s slightly bigger than
the proverbial wide spot on the road. It is home to around
1,200 souls of which most are in households where often both
parents toil in fields sometimes along with their teen-age
children who join them during summers, weekends, and even after
school. -Written by Dennis Wyatt, managing editor of the Manteca
Bulletin.
Exeter, less than a mile away … has refused to connect
Tooleville to its water system. The engineering is simple:
0.7 miles of pipe. The human risk of not doing it is high.
Tooleville water is contaminated with the carcinogen hexavalent
chromium (chrom-6), and sometimes nitrates linked to
agriculture and bacteria….Among a slew of water bills signed
in September was one inspired largely by Tooleville’s struggle.
Called the “proactive water solutions bill,” SB 403 gives the
state the power to mandate and fund consolidation when there is
an at-risk water system.
A California judge has declined to validate a contract granting
permanent access to federally controlled water for the nation’s
largest agricultural water supplier, a move that means the U.S.
government is not bound by terms of the deal. Environmentalists
had blasted the contract between the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
and the Westlands Water District as a sweetheart arrangement
designed to benefit corporate agricultural interests over
environmental needs and taxpayers. It was crafted during the
Trump administration under then-Interior Secretary David
Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for Westlands …
California’s top crops have changed as drought strains the
state’s water resources and farmers’ ability to access them.
But that does not necessarily mean farmers are choosing crops
that consume less water. Drought pushes farmers to shift their
scarce water resources to crops with higher payoffs, such as
nuts and vegetables, said Daniel Sumner, an agricultural
economics professor at the UC Agricultural Issues Center — a
trend particularly noticeable this year with its uniquely
severe drought.
A analysis of an initiative that would set aside 2 percent of
the state budget to meet the state’s water needs could lower
water costs at the local level but also could cause reductions
in other programs. That’s the conclusion of a report from the
California Legislative Analysts on the Water Infrastructure
Fundy Act of 2022. Proponents of the initiative are trying to
gain enough support to place it on the November, 2022 ballot.
The initiative would require the state set aside 2 percent of
its budget to meet the state’s water needs.
The recent storms allowed California to suspend the drought
curtailment orders that had been imposed during the summer.
Cities and irrigation districts now are free to capture river
runoff that had been unavailable because of the orders.
Officials warned that they could fall back into place if the
state gets another stretch of dry weather.
Over the past decades there have been many “Water” initiatives
or propositions presented to California’s voters. Some of them
have included such wet provisions as funding for large public
soccer field complexes and most of them had more to do with
conservation and urban needs than increased storage and
infrastructure. They also relied heavily on bonds to fund
themselves. Two recent water propositions have brought and
dashed hope for Valley water needs: 2014’s Prop. 1 and 2018’s
Prop. 3. -Written by Don Wright, a contributor to The San
Joaquin Valley Sun and the publisher of
WaterWrights.net.
Despite the historic rainfall totals from the weekend, that
much rain in such a short amount of time caused problems for
some Central Valley farmers. Bruce Blodgett with the
San Joaquin County
Farm Bureau said the record rainfall from last
weekend was encouraging but it’s not enough to move the
needle on the statewide drought. … According to the farm
bureau, growers won’t know the true impact of the rain for
months.
As California weathers another drought, tools that can help
farmers and ranchers maximize the water they do get are being
sharpened. The newest effort to measure such water use was
launched last week by a public-private coalition featuring
three federal agencies – the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S.
Geological Survey – and a number of universities and private
entities.
Despite a wet week so far all signs are pointing to yet another
year of drought, and the governor is putting more effort behind
his water conservation agenda. … Bolstering conservation
efforts, the proclamation enables the State Water Resources
Control Board to ban wasteful water practices, including the
use of potable water for washing sidewalks and driveways. The
governor issued an executive order in July calling on
Californians to voluntarily reduce water use by 15% compared to
2020 to protect water reserves and complement local
conservation mandates.
The green beans growing on this Clovis farm were ready to be
picked. But now crews will have to wait a few days until the
muddy rows dry up. … [Farmer David] Sarabian says most of the
green beans should be fine as drier conditions settle in but
there will be some crop loss. … The slow, steady rain that
soaked his farm was more manageable than the windy storm he
watched whip through the [San Francisco] Bay Area on Sunday.
On this edition of Your Call’s One Planet Series, we’re
discussing a four-part series by Capital & Main on the
disproportionate impact of California’s worsening drought on
communities of color and low-income people living in rural and
farming areas in California. Nearly 10 years ago, California
enacted the Human Right to Water Act to help beleaguered
communities in the state. This landmark legislation obligates
the state to work towards safe, clean, affordable and
accessible drinking water to the one million residents without
it. What is being done to provide rural communities with
affordable and clean water?
For farmers in California’s San Joaquin Valley—the Saudi Arabia
of nuts—2021 brought many challenges. Scant snowfall in the
Sierra Nevada mountain range delivered almost no irrigation
water to the region’s vaunted complex of dams and aqueducts.
Record-high temperatures baked farm fields. Before this past
weekend’s furious storms, California endured its driest year in
recorded history. Yet the region’s ever-expanding and
very thirsty almond and pistachio operations are thriving
anyway. -Written by Tom Philpott, food and ag correspondent
for Mother Jones.
Christmas travelers driving Interstate 5 this year may need to
hunt up a different stopping point as Kettleman City could be
shut down for lack of water. The state Department of Water
Resources (DWR) has said it will give the tiny community in
western Kings County a few more acre feet of water — but only
enough for the personal taps of its 1,100 residents. The town’s
gas stations and fast food joints that bring in droves of
motorists on busy holidays could be left high and dry.
Local customers of California Water Service may soon face
enforcement actions against their use of outdoor irrigation if
state regulators give the company permission to advance to the
next phase of its water shortage contingency plan.
… Approval of Cal Water’s request would double fines for
customers watering outdoor landscapes more than two days per
week outside the hours of 6 p.m. to 8 a.m., unless local
ordinances say otherwise.
Between the late 1950s and 2008, Chevron disposed [fracking
wastewater] produced in Lost Hills in eight cavernous
impoundments at its Section 29 facility. Euphemistically called
“ponds,” the impoundments have a combined surface area of 26
acres and do not have synthetic liners to prevent leaking. That
meant that over time, salts and chemicals in the wastewater
could leak into the ground and nearby water sources like the
California Aqueduct, a network of canals that delivers water to
farms in the Central Valley and cities like Los Angeles. And
that’s exactly what happened, according to new research
…
Environmental advocates and a pair of Delta-centric water
agencies launched a suit seeking to halt water transfers to San
Joaquin Valley water users occurring in the late fall. It’s the
latest in a half-decade of litigation aimed at stopping all
water transfers – a key drought-era tool for parched Valley
water users – from water users awash with water north of the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
A new online platform launched yesterday that uses satellites
to estimate water consumed by crops and evapotranspiration
across the West. Called OpenET, the platform makes water
management data available in 17 western states. Data on the
amount of water used in agriculture has been fragmented and
often expensive, keeping it out of the hands of many farmers
and decision-makers. OpenET hopes to allow users to easily view
and download important water data.
California has a reputation as a leader on climate and
environmental policy. So it doesn’t advertise the fact that it
allows the oil and gas industry to store wastewater produced
during drilling and extraction in unlined pits in the ground, a
practice that began in the early 1900s. Now, though,
researchers have revealed the environmental costs of
California’s failure to regulate how its $111 billion oil and
gas industry manages the wastewater, known as produced
water.
Spring-run Chinook Salmon are starting to spawn in the San
Joaquin River after a brutally dry, hot summer. But the success
of the juvenile fish is uncertain as the drought and high
temperatures continue. Spring-run salmon, which return to the
river from the ocean as adults in spring months, have been
absent from the San Joaquin River for more than 70 years
because of dams that dried up the river. But the federal
government has reintroduced the fish in an attempt to bring
back the once native population.
California bore the brunt on Sunday of what meteorologists
referred to as a “bomb cyclone” and an “atmospheric river,” a
convergence of storms that brought more than half a foot of
rain to parts of the Bay Area, along with high winds, flash
floods and the potential for heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada.
… The convergence of storms comes at a challenging time
for California, which has been besieged by wildfires and
drought, the result of extreme weather brought on by climate
change.
If you’re having a salad for lunch today, chances are it comes
from the “Salad Bowl of the World,” the lush farmland that
stretches for some 90 miles across California’s Salinas Valley.
Lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli, strawberries, celery,
cauliflower and more grow in abundance there, a source of pride
and profits for farmers who work the land. But none of it
would be possible without water, and that’s the
problem. -Written by Paul Brandus, a columnist for MarketWatch and
the White House bureau chief for West Wing Reports.
As the L.A. Times correspondent responsible for covering the
Central Valley, Arax would become aware of the danger posed by
“Big Ag” and the ruthless use of technology to produce ever
increasing amounts of crops that the soil and water of
California cannot forever accommodate. The statewide water
distribution system — a dizzying series of canals, aqueducts
and rivers (redirected, merged, siphoned off) built mainly from
the 1930-’60s represents so many engineering miracles and
triumphs — yet it is also outdated and its growth today
unsustainable.
Water has become a major roadblock to desperately needed
housing in rural communities throughout the San Joaquin Valley.
Water scarcity and lack of infrastructure has scared off
developers just when housing is most needed, according to
officials and nonprofits that work on both water and housing.
… For developers to build housing, they must obtain a
“will serve” letter, official confirmation by the water
provider in the area that the new development can receive
water.
Water is life for us here in the Central Valley. It impacts
every facet of our day-to-day lives, from our jobs to
sustaining our daily needs. This summer, a few communities in
my district ran dry. One town —Teviston—was without running
water for a full month. The families there were unable to turn
their taps on to cook, bathe their children or even flush the
toilet. Drought and water conservation is becoming a way of
life for us across the state, but especially in the San Joaquin
Valley. Fortunately, farmers and farmworkers are resilient and
have found ways to cope. -Written by Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger,
representing California’s 14th Senate District.
The Tulare County Board of Supervisors received an update by
their chief lobbying consultant, Paul Yoder, earlier this
month. Out of all the hoopla that comes with policy lobbying in
Sacramento, Yoder was keen to point out that drought
legislation could become a priority in the state capitol. At
least that’s the way it seems according to the state
budget.
When the State of California issued its water curtailments late
last summer, TID and neighboring districts pushed back. A
coalition of water districts from Modesto, Oakdale, Manteca,
and San Francisco sued the state over its curtailment order.
Michelle Reimers, TID’s general manager and chief executive,
says she understands the idea behind the curtailments. Aside
from the pre-1914 water rights the districts own and what that
means under California law, Reimers says TID is bothered by the
blanket order because it fails to consider how well-managed
irrigation districts like hers operate and manage their
systems.
The Family Farm Alliance aims to protect water for Western
agriculture and describes itself as a powerful advocate before
the government for family farmers, ranchers, irrigation
districts, and allied industries in 17 Western states. The
drought-stricken Klamath Basin is one area that they’ve
identified as needing legislative change. The alliance says it
has this goal to ensure the availability of reliable and
affordable irrigation water needed to produce the world’s food,
fiber, and fuel.
Gov. Gavin Newsom today declared a drought emergency for the
entire state of California, as conservation efforts continue to
fall far short of state targets. Newsom also authorized
California’s water regulators to ban wasteful water use, such
as spraying down public sidewalks, and directed his Office of
Emergency Services to fund drinking water as needed. But he
stopped short of issuing any statewide conservation mandates.
Amid the fallout of California’s worst water year in its
history, the state will find its two primary water arteries
under the management of a temporary, plan tendered to a Federal
judge on Thursday, throwing out 2019 environmental rules that
boosted water supplies to the Central Valley and Southern
California. The plan … comes amid a cacophony of lawsuits
waged both by the Newsom administration and environmental
interest groups…
In a sizable series of transactions that speaks to looming
uncertainties in local ag, a Wasco farming family recently sold
2,400 acres in west Bakersfield — and with them, options to buy
45,000 acre-feet of water banked by the Semitropic Water
Storage District — to a Virginia-based investment company
drawn to California farmland.
The Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) made the
County of Madera responsible for groundwater management for the
more than 200,000 acres that are not part of an irrigation or
water district (the “white areas”) in Madera County. Like many
regions in the Central Valley, Madera County is heavily
groundwater dependent. … [T]he Madera County Groundwater
Sustainability Agency (GSA) has been implementing a range of
aggressive management actions to reduce water use, implement
projects to increase supply, and take additional measures to
track groundwater use … -Written by Rob Poythress, chair of the Madera
County Board of Supervisors. Supervisors Leticia Gonzalez,
David Rogers, Brett Frazier and Tom Wheeler contributed to this
story.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
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.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
The whims of political fate decided
in 2018 that state bond money would not be forthcoming to help
repair the subsidence-damaged parts of Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River to
farms that fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy along
the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin
rivers are the two major Central Valley waterways that feed the
Delta, the hub of California’s water supply
network. Our last water tours of
2018 will look in-depth at how these rivers are managed and
used for agriculture, cities and the environment. You’ll see
infrastructure, learn about efforts to restore salmon runs and
talk to people with expertise on these rivers.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
New water storage is the holy grail
primarily for agricultural interests in California, and in 2014
the door to achieving long-held ambitions opened with the passage
of Proposition
1, which included $2.7 billion for the public benefits
portion of new reservoirs and groundwater storage projects. The
statute stipulated that the money is specifically for the
benefits that a new storage project would offer to the ecosystem,
water quality, flood control, emergency response and recreation.
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
Get a unique view of the San Joaquin Valley’s key dams and
reservoirs that store and transport water on our March Central
Valley Tour.
Our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, offers a broad view of water issues
in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the farms, orchards,
critical habitat for threatened bird populations, flood bypasses
and a national wildlife refuge, we visit some of California’s
major water infrastructure projects.
The 2-day, 1-night tour traveled along the river from Friant
Dam near Fresno to the confluence of the Merced River. As it
weaved across an historic farming region, participants learn
about the status of the river’s restoration and how the
challenges of the plan are being worked out.
A few tickets are still available for our Nov. 1-2 San Joaquin River
Restoration Tour, a once-a-year educational opportunity to
see the program’s progress first-hand. The tour begins and ends
in Fresno with an overnight stay in Los Banos.
Explore more than 100 miles of Central California’s longest river
while learning about one of the nation’s largest and costliest
river restorations. Our San Joaquin River
Restoration Tour on Nov. 1-2 will feature speakers from key
governmental agencies and stakeholder groups who will explain the
restoration program’s goals and progress.
The Sacramento and San Joaquin are the two major rivers in the
Central Valley that feed the Delta, the hub of
California’s water supply network.
Our last two water tours of 2017 will take in-depth looks at how
these rivers are managed and used for agriculture, cities and the
environment. You’ll see infrastructure, learn about efforts to
restore salmon runs and talk to people with expertise on these
rivers.
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.
Our water tours give a behind-the-scenes look at major water
issues in California. On our Central Valley Tour, March
8-10, you will visit wildlife habitat areas – some of which are
closed to the public – and learn directly from the experts who
manage them, in addition to seeing farms, large dams and other
infrastructure.
The recent deluge has led to changes in drought conditions in
some areas of California and even public scrutiny of the
possibility that the drought is over. Many eyes are focused on
the San Joaquin Valley, one of the areas hardest hit by reduced
surface water supplies. On our Central Valley Tour, March
8-10, we will visit key water delivery and storage sites in the
San Joaquin Valley, including Friant Dam and Millerton Lake
on the San Joaquin River.
ARkStorm stands for an atmospheric
river (“AR”) that carries precipitation levels expected to occur
once every 1,000 years (“k”). The concept was presented in a 2011
report by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) intended to elevate
the visibility of the very real threats to human life, property
and ecosystems posed by extreme storms on the West Coast.
Contaminants exist in water supplies from both natural and
manmade sources. Even those chemicals present without human
intervention can be mobilized from introduction of certain
pollutants from both
point and nonpoint sources.
Both the drought and high nitrate levels in shallow groundwater have necessitated deeper
drilling of new wells in the San Joaquin Valley, only to expose
water with heightened
arsenic levels. Arsenic usually exists in water as arsenate
or arsenite, the latter of which is more frequent in deep lake
sediments or groundwater with little oxygen and is both
more harmful and difficult to remove.
Whiskeytown Lake, a major reservoir in the foothills of the
Klamath Mountains nine miles west of Redding, was
built at the site of one of Shasta County’s first Gold Rush
communities. Whiskeytown, originally called
Whiskey Creek Diggings, was founded in 1849 and named in
reference to a whiskey barrel rolling off a citizen’s pack mule;
it may also refer to miners drinking a barrel per day.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This issue examines the impacts of California’s epic
drought, especially related to water supplies for San Joaquin
Valley rural communities and farmland.
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
This 3-day, 2-night tour, which we do every spring,
travels the length of the San Joaquin Valley, giving participants
a clear understanding of the State Water Project and Central
Valley Project.
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.
Salt. In a small amount, it’s a gift from nature. But any doctor
will tell you, if you take in too much salt, you’ll start to have
health problems. The same negative effect is happening to land in
the Central Valley. The problem scientists call “salinity” poses
a growing threat to our food supply, our drinking water quality
and our way of life. The problem of salt buildup and potential –
but costly – solutions are highlighted in this 2008 public
television documentary narrated by comedian Paul Rodriguez.
A 20-minute version of the 2008 public television documentary
Salt of the Earth: Salinity in California’s Central Valley. This
DVD is ideal for showing at community forums and speaking
engagements to help the public understand the complex issues
surrounding the problem of salt build up in the Central Valley
potential – but costly – solutions. Narrated by comedian Paul
Rodriquez.
This 3-day, 2-night tour travels the length of the San Joaquin
Valley, giving participants a clear understanding of the State
Water Project and Central Valley Project.
15-minute DVD that graphically portrays the potential disaster
should a major earthquake hit the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
“Delta Warning” depicts what would happen in the event of an
earthquake registering 6.5 on the Richter scale: 30 levee breaks,
16 flooded islands and a 300 billion gallon intrusion of salt
water from the Bay – the “big gulp” – which would shut down the
State Water Project and Central Valley Project pumping plants.
30-minute DVD that traces the history of the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation and its role in the development of the West. Includes
extensive historic footage of farming and the construction of
dams and other water projects, and discusses historic and modern
day issues.
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.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36 inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to
Flood Management explains the physical flood control system,
including levees; discusses previous flood events (including the
1997 flooding); explores issues of floodplain management and
development; provides an overview of flood forecasting; and
outlines ongoing flood control projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to 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.
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.
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.
Located in the middle of California, the San Joaquin Valley is
bracketed on both sides by mountain ranges. Long and flat, the
valley’s hot, dry summers are followed by cool, foggy winters
that make it one of the most productive agricultural regions in
the world.
The valley stretches from across mid-California between coastal
ranges in west and the Sierras on the east. The region includes
large cities such as Fresno and Bakersfield, national parks such
as Yosemite and Kings, millions of people, and fertile farmland.
Flowing 366 miles from the Sierra
Nevada to Suisun Bay, the San Joaquin River provides irrigation
water to thousands of acres of San Joaquin Valley farms and
drinking water to some of the valley’s cities. It also is the
focal point for one of the nation’s most ambitious river
restoration projects to revive salmon populations.
The Pacific Flyway is one of four
major North American migration routes for birds, especially
waterfowl, and extends from Alaska and Canada, through
California, to Mexico and South America. Each year, birds follow
ancestral patterns as they travel the flyway on their annual
north-south migration. Along the way, they need stopover sites
such as wetlands with suitable habitat and food supplies. In
California, 90 percent of historic wetlands have been lost.
This issue of Western Water looks at the BDCP and the
Coalition to Support Delta Projects, issues that are aimed at
improving the health and safety of the Delta while solidifying
California’s long-term water supply reliability.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the issues
associated with the State Water Board’s proposed revision of the
water quality Bay-Delta Plan, most notably the question of
whether additional flows are needed for the system, and how they
might be provided.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed copy of Western Water examines the challenges facing
small water systems, including drought preparedness, limited
operating expenses and the hurdles of complying with costlier
regulations. Much of the article is based on presentations at the
November 2007 Small Systems Conference sponsored by the Water
Education Foundation and the California Department of Water
Resources.
This Western Water looks at proposed new measures to deal with
the century-old problem of salinity with a special focus on San
Joaquin Valley farms and cities.
