Stretching along the eastern edge of the state, the Sierra Nevada
region incorporates more than 25 percent of California’s land
area and forms one of the world’s most diverse watersheds.
It features granite cliffs, lush forests and alpine meadows on
the westside, and stark desert landscapes at the base of the
eastside. Wildlife includes bighorn sheep, mule deer, black bear
and mountain lions, hawks, eagles, and trout.
The majority of total annual precipitation – in the form of rain
and snow – falls in the Sierra Nevada. Snowmelt from the Sierra
provides water for irrigation for farms that produce half of the
nation’s fruit, nuts and vegetables, and also is a vital source
for dairies, which have made California the largest milk producer
in the country.
In addition, Sierra snowmelt provides drinking water to Sierra
Nevada residents and a portion of drinking water to 23 million
people living in cities stretching from the Bay Area to Southern
California.
More than 94 percent of the West is in drought this week,
according to the US Drought Monitor, with six states entirely
in drought status: California, Nevada, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and
Montana. Parts of the West saw record-setting rainfall that
brought some slight relief to the region, but most areas remain
dry. Against the backdrop of climate change-fueled drought,
wildfires have charred nearly 6 million acres of vegetation
across the region. Fire experts say that dry and windy
conditions create a prime environment for wildfires to spark
and spread.
Water resources managers and the leaders in Northern California
continue to advance Ridgetop to River Mouth water management
… There are unique opportunities in the Sacramento River
Basin to advance ridgetop to river mouth water management,
which can best be envisioned by looking holistically at: 1)
headwaters and forest health, 2) floodplain reactivation for
public safety and fish and wildlife, 3) sustainable groundwater
management (including groundwater recharge and banking), 4)
healthy soils and farms; 5) safe drinking water; and 6) vital
rivers and streams.
A complex of lightning-sparked wildfires burning in
California’s Sierra Nevada has exploded in size, prompting
evacuations and the shutdown of Sequoia national park, where
the fire is burning close to the park’s namesake trees. The KNP
Complex fire, composed of the Paradise and Colony fires, took
hold in the dense, mountainous vegetation on 9 September. By
Wednesday morning, the blaze had scorched more than 7,000
acres….Fueled by higher temperatures and extreme drought
conditions, more than 7,400 wildfires have burned in California
this year, scorching more than 2.2m acres.
Pyramid Lake was a vital fishery for thousands of years, but
the tribe had no legal rights to Truckee River water until 1908
when the U.S. Supreme Court determined that when the federal
government established Indian reservations it implicitly
reserved sufficient land and water to serve its purpose and
that non-Indians could not interfere with a tribe’s reserved
water. The precedent-setting decision also recognized prior
appropriation rights for Western tribes.The court’s opinion
gave the Paiute the most senior claims on Truckee River dating
back to 1859 when land for the Pyramid Lake Indian
Reservation was first set aside.
Four years after California created a legal, regulated
marijuana industry that’s largely shepherded by contentious
growers, its public lands continue to be decimated by criminal
cultivators associated with Mexican drug cartels. That
much was clear as federal investigators ended several major
probes over the summer, the incidents involving large-scale
plant and wildlife destruction from the central to northern
Sierra.
The annual Truckee River Cleanup Day set for September 25, 2021
is a 17 year-old beautification tradition. Every year, the
nonprofit organization Keep Truckee Meadows Beautiful (KTMB)
organizes hundreds of volunteers who, in a four-hour period,
remove trash, erase graffiti, and stencil a warning on storm
drains along a 20-mile stretch of the river, from Verdi to
Lockwood. Last year, in one day, some 500 volunteers
removed over 35 tons of trash and green waste from the Truckee
River Watershed. … But trash is only one environmental
threat to the Truckee.
President Biden visited California on Monday to tout his
efforts to better protect the state against the raging
wildfires that have burned more than two million acres,
displaced thousands and pushed responders to the brink of
exhaustion. “These fires are blinking code red for our
nation,” said Mr. Biden, who used the occasion to promote two
bills pending in Congress that would fund forest management and
more resilient infrastructure as well as combat global warming.
Drought. Wildfires. And, for the country as a whole,
temperatures worse than the Dust Bowl. In a further bit of
evidence of the reality of climate change, California has just
experienced its hottest summer on record, according to data
released this week by the federal government. The National
Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the average
temperature in California reached 77.3 degrees from June to
August. That topped the previous record of 76.5 degrees in
summer 2017.
Few clues have been shared by investigators working to
determine how a family and their dog died a little over three
weeks ago while hiking in Sierra National Forest, in a remote
section of Mariposa County southwest of Yosemite National Park.
Known harmful algae blooms in the south fork of the Merced
River, near where the family was mysteriously found dead along
the Savage-Lundy Trail in Devil’s Gulch, are among the hazards
being considered. … [But] investigators are “not saying”
that’s what killed Mariposa residents John Gerrish, Ellen
Chung, their daughter, Miju, and family dog, Oski.
California is again the center of the nation’s biggest and most
destructive wildfires. Over 2 million acres have burned, with
the enormous Dixie and Caldor fires (more than 917,000 and more
than 216,000 acres, respectively) accounting for more than half
of this acreage. More than 3,050 structures have been damaged
or destroyed, and over 14,000 firefighters are battling blazes
in the state. …The entirety of the state remains in drought,
with 88 percent in extreme to exceptional drought, the two
highest categories.
[A] day of hiking in the Sierra National Forest, even with the
demanding switchbacks and triple-digit heat, would not have
been unusual for Jonathan Gerrish and Ellen Chung,
husband-and-wife transplants from San Francisco who had
recently become parents to a little girl, Miju, during the
coronavirus pandemic. But the trek would be the family’s
last: Search teams found all three of their bodies on Aug. 17
… The Forest Service had previously posted warning signs
about potentially toxic algae blooms in the area.
Almost everything about a sequoia tree is giant: It can
grow to more than 200 feet tall and live longer than 3,000
years. Yet the sequoia’s footprint is shrinking, as
human-induced climate change threatens this ancient tree’s
survival. … There are only around 48,000 acres of sequoia
groves left in the world, and the trees are now facing threats
from human-made climate change in several ways.
On Monday morning, the Caldor fire had been 44% contained, the
California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said,
nearly double what the agency reported Thursday. Authorities
said lower temperatures, slowing winds and rises in humidity
allowed firefighters to take advantage of the slowed pace of
the wildfire to focus on mitigation efforts to keep the blaze
from spreading further.
The Caldor fire has triggered mass evacuations in two
states, torched hundreds of homes, made the air hazardous to
breathe and spurred President Biden to issue an emergency
declaration. But the erratic wildfire is also causing
another problem for Lake Tahoe: Smoke and ash particles are
entering the lake and clouding its world-famous crystal blue
waters.
As wildfires tear across America’s West, the immediate risk is
to life and property, but they will eventually affect water
supplies. That’s one reason large corporations are beginning to
help fund forest restoration in order to mitigate their water
risk. The water supply for many communities, including
large cities, starts in mountains and national forests. In
California, about 70% of the water either starts or flows
through national forests, according to Forest Service
estimates.
Sierra National Forest officials closed a portion of trails in
Mariposa County where a family and their dog were found dead
under mysterious circumstances in mid-August, citing
unspecified safety concerns. … Officials have not ruled
out water toxicity as a contributing factor in the family’s
death as they await the results of water tests taken from the
area where the family was found.
Sierra National Forest closed numerous hiking trails, picnic
areas and campgrounds, citing “unknown hazards found in and
near the Savage Lundy Trail,” where a Mariposa family was
mysteriously found dead two weeks ago. The closures went into
effect Sunday and extend through Sept. 26. … The
Sheriff’s Office previously said known harmful algal
blooms along the south fork of the Merced River are among
the many possible causes of death being considered in the
case with “no smoking gun” clues.
In the midst of a climate crisis in California, another species
has been added to the endangered species list: the Sierra
Nevada red fox, a subspecies of red foxes found only in
California. With an estimated population of about 18 to 39,
California’s distinct red fox population is now in critical
danger of extinction, joining a list that includes the
California condor and salt-marsh harvest mouse.
The climate crisis is making wild weather much more common.
Since Sunday evening, we’ve seen all kinds of destruction in
New Orleans as Hurricane Ida hit – winds, flooding, way too
much water. And meanwhile, in America’s West, they’re dealing
with fires and a historic drought – not enough water. And as
the West gets drier and drier, how water is used attracts a lot
of controversy.
Smoke and ash from wildfires near Lake Tahoe — one of the
deepest lakes in the world — is already clouding the lake’s
famously clear water, researchers say. While the long-term
effects are unclear, ash and soot are now coating the surface
of the High Sierra lake and veiling the sun, which can disrupt
the lake’s ecosystem and its clarity. More debris and sediment
are likely to wash into the lake from runoff and rain this fall
and winter.
[A] new analysis by Redfin, a real estate brokerage,
reveals more Americans are moving into areas that face the
highest climate risks than ever before. … Counties with
homes facing the highest heat risk saw populations increase by
an average of 4.7% over the last five years. Counties with
homes facing high drought risk saw population growth of 3.5%,
fire risk counties grew by 3%, flood 1.9%, and storm 0.4% over
the last five years.
It’s too early to say if Sonoma County and surrounding areas
will get enough rain this winter to revive the parched
landscape and replenish dwindling water supplies, but it
doesn’t look good. “The tilt is toward a drier than normal
winter,” said Brian Garcia of the National Weather Service. …
Don’t expect the kind of above-normal rainfall that would be
typical of an El Niño weather pattern. The opposite is
more likely: below normal rainfall common to La Niña conditions
…
Fire officials ordered more evacuations around the Tahoe Basin
Sunday evening as crews dealt with a two-week old blaze they
said was “more aggressive than anticipated,” and continued to
edge toward the pristine waters of Lake Tahoe. … Flames
churned through mountains just a few miles southwest of the
Tahoe Basin, where thick smoke sent tourists packing at a time
when summer vacations would usually be in full swing ahead of
the Labor Day weekend.
A California appeals court has blocked the expansion of Lake
Tahoe’s famed Squaw Valley ski resort because the development
plan fails to adequately address potential harm to air and
water quality, as well as increased noise levels and traffic in
the area. A three-judge panel of California’s Third District
Court of Appeals granted parts of two appeals brought by Sierra
Watch.
The Madera County Department of Public Health issued an
advisory Monday after large amounts of harmful algae blooms
were found in Hensley Lake near Yosemite Lakes. … There
has been renewed interest in the phenomenon after
a Mariposa family was found dead in the Sierra National
Forest. Mariposa County Sheriff’s deputies say they
are looking at all possible causes for their death
including signs of toxic algae.
The growing threat of catastrophic wildfires blazing across the
West and the resulting detrimental effects, such as hazardous
air quality, were top of mind for Nevada and California leaders
gathered on a slightly hazy shore Thursday morning for the 25th
annual Lake Tahoe Summit. Before speakers launched into
remarks on climate change, wildfires, infrastructure and
legislation aimed at preserving the popular year-round tourist
destination, Washoe Tribe of Nevada and California Chairman
Serrell Smokey began with a prayer.
Today, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced
that Sixteen to One Mine, one of California’s oldest
operational gold mines, has agreed to an Administrative Order
on Consent requiring the mine to install a new treatment system
that will remove pollutants from mine drainage before entering
local waters. The mine was found to be in violation of its
permit under the U.S. Clean Water Act after consistently
discharging mine-influenced water that exceeded limits on
pollutants.
There are a number of ways to analyze the behavior of wildland
fires using data that is easily available. The amount of
moisture in the live and dead vegetation is a critical factor
in determining how readily it will burn, because it has to be
cooked off before the grass, brush, or woody vegetation will
vigorously combust. The amount of precipitation over days,
weeks, months, and years affects how wildfires burn. The map
above depicts precipitation during the 30-day period ending
August 23, 2021.
A scramble is on in the Sierra to seize on favorable weather
conditions and keep the flames of the Caldor Fire out of the
Lake Tahoe basin. The 9-day-old blaze that has already
destroyed 447 homes and consumed more than 114,000 acres is now
the “No. 1 priority in the nation” for firefighting resources,
Cal Fire Director Thom Porter said on Monday. He warned that
the fire was “knocking on the door” of the Lake Tahoe region,
even after crews were encouraged by the progress of getting the
fire 9% contained by Monday evening.
The recent discovery of harmful algal blooms at multiple
locations in Crowley Lake in Mono County has prompted the
Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board)
and Mono County Environmental Health to urge recreational water
users to exercise caution when in the lake. Testing in
localized areas of the lake, a popular destination for trout
fishing located 45 miles southeast of Yosemite National Park,
confirmed the presence of harmful algal blooms (HABs).
Welcome to the summer of climate change. No longer a
distant phenomenon — something to worry about in a few decades
— the consequence of a warming planet has arrived in a
resounding fashion. Most Californians probably didn’t need
to read the recent doomsday report by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change to know that their lives are being
upended already by climate change. Now they must fret about
their electricity being shut off, their faucets running dry and
their houses catching fire.
A sewage spill into Lake Tahoe was prevented this past
weekend. South Tahoe Public Utility District received a
call regarding a foul odor coming from the beach by Valhalla
boat house. Upon arriving on scene, crews discovered that
the sewer main had backed up causing a manhole 35 feet from the
edge of Lake Tahoe to fill with sewage, the district said in a
press release.
Toxic algae in Sierra National Forest, now being considered in
the mysterious deaths of a family this week, was being retested
on Thursday by the California State Water Resources Control
Board and Mariposa County. … Mariposa residents John
Gerrish, Ellen Chung, their daughter, Miju, and family dog,
Oski, were found dead in this area on Tuesday after
not returning from a day hike in the Hites Cove area of Devil’s
Gulch, between Mariposa and Yosemite National Park. The
family may have been exposed to cyanobacterial toxins, the
water board said, which can form in algal blooms.
Thirty percent of California’s developed water supply originates high in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Our water supply is largely dependent on the health of our Sierra forests, which are suffering from ecosystem degradation, drought, wildfires and widespread tree mortality.
Join us as we guide you on a virtual journey into the foothills and the mountains to examine water issues that happen upstream but have dramatic impacts downstream and throughout the state.
Millions of people visit the Tahoe Sierra each year to enjoy
and recreate on Lake Tahoe, Donner and Independence lakes, as
well as the satellite reservoir system of Boca, Prosser and
Stampede. All these storage basins are in California, but since
the Truckee River system is part of Great Basin hydrology, none
of the streamflow reaches the Pacific Ocean. I frequently
get queries, especially during a drought, regarding our
regional water management. It seems that few people realize
that these reservoirs, including Lake Tahoe, are regulated
primarily for Nevada interests. -Written by Mark McLaughlin, freelance
contributor.
The Dixie fire, the second-largest in California’s recorded
history, was wheeling on Tuesday toward one of the biggest
urban targets in its path: the city of Susanville, population
15,000. It was one of several places in the foothills of the
Sierra Nevada where the authorities issued evacuation orders or
warnings on Monday. Officials in Northern California expect the
fire danger to remain exceptionally high over the next few days
amid high winds, low humidity and triple-digit temperatures.
Extreme weather events in recent headlines, including
wildfires, heat waves and flooding, could offer a preview of
what to expect in forecasts of the near future, experts
suggest. … Already, historic heat waves have ravaged the
Pacific Northwest, wildfires blaze across California and Oregon
and agencies are recording some of the hottest months on
record. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
said last week that July was the hottest month ever
recorded.
Signs of drought proliferate across the American
West. California is rationing water for farmers in the state’s
Central Valley. Salmon are dying en masse in the
Pacific Northwest as river temperatures climb. Lake Mead,
on the border of Nevada and Arizona, is drying up. …
Groundwater is the source of drinking water for half of
Americans, and nearly all of the country’s rural communities.
… But groundwater has become dangerously depleted in places
where pumping has exceeded the rate at which aquifers are
naturally replenished.
The Owens pupfish, a small blue fish native to the springs in
the California desert, was spared from extinction on an August
afternoon in 1969 by Phil Pister and his two buckets. That
day Mr. Pister, a state wildlife biologist, had heard that a
marsh called Fish Slough, one of the few natural oases in the
arid Owens Valley, was on the verge of drying up. The marsh, he
knew, held the world’s last population of Owens pupfish. So he
grabbed the buckets, jumped in his pickup truck and sped
through ranch land toward water.
As wildfires and heatwaves stress the western United States,
concern over drought is rising: Dry landscapes burn more
readily, and rain can help quell fires already raging. But
wildfire smoke may keep that essential rain from
falling. A new study finds tiny particles in
wildfire smoke affect the way droplets form
in clouds, potentially resulting in
less rain and exacerbating dry conditions that fuel
fires.
Water in Lake Tahoe could rise to unprecedented
levels, potentially placing communities downstream in
jeopardy, according to a study from environmental scientists at
UC Davis’ Tahoe Environmental Research Center. In the past
two years, California saw brutal heatwaves and droughts shrink
Lake Tahoe’s water level to a point so low that some boats
couldn’t be launched. However, that’s expected to change. While
temperatures aren’t projected to cool off, Lake Tahoe could see
a rapid depletion of its snowpack and an influx of water during
the coming years.
Drought across the Western U.S. has forced California to
ration water to farms. Hydroelectric dams barely work. The
smallest spark — from a lawnmower or even a flat tire — can
explode into a wildfire. While this region has always
had dry summers, they’re supposed to follow a pattern that
leads to relief with the arrival of the annual rainy
season in November. But a break is no longer
guaranteed…. Here are three forces desiccating the
region.
For nearly half a century, lightning-sparked blazes in
Yosemite’s Illilouette Creek Basin have rippled across the
landscape — closely monitored, but largely unchecked. Their
flames might explode into plumes of heat that burn whole
hillsides at once, or sit smoldering in the underbrush for
months. The result is approximately 60 square miles of forest
that look remarkably different from other parts of the Sierra
Nevada:
Since construction for the Hope Valley Restoration and Aquatic
Habitat Enhancement Project was completed in October of 2020,
early signs of willow growth seems to bode well for the future
of the West Fork Carson River. A collaborative effort led by
the Alpine Watershed Group, the project’s aim is to help reduce
erosion and sedimentation in the river system, ultimately
improving water quality and aquatic habitat while restoring
Hope Valley’s natural floodplain.
Both Theodore Roosevelt and John Muir might have applauded a
bold proposal currently being fought over in California: Shift
control of the 1.3-million-acre Sierra National Forest to the
National Park Service, which would manage it as a national
monument benefiting species, helping combat climate change, and
inching the Biden administration’s “30 by 30 initiative” a bit
closer to fruition. … It’s a stunning
landscape that rises to nearly 14,000 feet atop Mount
Humphreys. Deep canyons cut through the High
Sierra here and drain the boulder-strewn Kings, San
Joaquin, and Merced rivers.
The overall pattern over California has been remarkably
consistent thus far this warm season: exceptional, unrelenting,
and record-breaking heat across interior and higher elevation
areas (especially in NorCal), but relatively unremarkable
temperatures along the immediate coast that have actually felt
pretty chilly at times. It has been a summer of incredible
contrasts between the beaches and…virtually everywhere else in
California.
When hit suddenly by wildfire this week, people in Colfax
responded the way many in towns on the verge of being evacuated
from their homes often do. They turned on their sprinklers to
dampen property and broke out their garden hoses to spray down
their homes and rooftops. Then, the Placer County Water Agency
(PCWA) issued an urgent plea during the fire crisis for
residents to conserve water.
Microplastic pollution is seemingly ubiquitous, and few know
this as well as staff research associate with the UC Davis
Tahoe Environmental Research Center Katie Senft. Senft, in
collaboration with the Nevada Division of Environmental
Protection, is looking for sinks of microplastics in Lake
Tahoe. … Senft is looking at five different areas of the
lake. The first is surface water.
Today, U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) announced that he
secured over $71 million in federal funding for 20 projects
across California in the Senate’s Agriculture, Energy and
Water, and Military Construction Appropriations Subcommittee
bills. The bills were approved by the Senate Appropriations
Committee this week and now await passage by the full
Senate.
Known for its starry skies, Joshua Trees and 100-plus-degree
heat, California’s vast desert has recently become a hotbed of
something else: thieves stealing California’s water. So who’s
on the receiving end of all this theft? Local investigators say
it’s often illegal pot farms. And with the parched state in a
withering drought, water managers are doubling as amateur
detectives.
Facing criticism over its practice of monitoring some fires
rather than quickly snuffing them out, the U.S. Forest Service
has told its firefighters to halt the policy this year to
better prioritize resources and help prevent small blazes from
growing into uncontrollable conflagrations. The change came
days after politicians in California and the West, including
Gov. Gavin Newsom, publicly challenged the “let it burn”
approach after the Tamarack fire ignited last month, as The
Times detailed in a story Sunday.
For decades, California winemakers have long thought of the
Winkler Index as gospel. Developed in the 1940s by two
professors at the University of California at Davis (U.C.
Davis), the Index uses regional climate conditions to determine
the best places to grow a wide range of wine grapes. With
increasing pressures from heat and drought bearing down on the
state, however, the Index may currently be horribly out of
date. On July 22, U.C. Davis announced it would update the
Index for the first time in more than 75 years.
The Bureau of Reclamation’s California Great-Basin Region
announces the selection of Jack Worsley as the Lahontan Basin
Area Office Manager. The area office administers Reclamation
activities over a large portion of the Great Basin, including
the watersheds of Lake Tahoe, the Truckee and Carson rivers,
and much of northern Nevada. The office oversees the operations
of the Newlands Project, one of Reclamation’s first projects,
and the facilities that regulate Lake Tahoe and the Truckee
River.
Scientists largely agree that reducing these fuels is needed to
make our forests and surrounding communities more resilient to
wildfires and climate change. But policy and action have not
kept pace with the problem …. Seeing the urgent need for
change, a team of scientists from leading research
universities, conservation organizations and government
laboratories across the West has produced a synthesis of the
scientific literature that clearly lays out the established
science and strength of evidence on climate change, wildfire
and forest management for seasonally dry forests.
Wildfire-weary Californians may be wondering whether their
state – the world’s fifth largest economy – is destined for an
ever-intensifying cycle of destruction. Can ambitious
interventions slow the pace of conflagration fed by extreme
heat and drought? If so, what would they look like, how much
would they cost and where would the money come from?
A historic drought is spreading across California and much of
the American West. How bad is it? Which places are most
affected? What does it mean for our water supply and wildfire
risk? These 10 maps and charts tell the story.
As California grapples with the effects of an ongoing drought,
UC Berkeley researchers are studying changes in the magnitude
of streamflows and drought-induced tree mortality in order to
advise climate change policy.
Flanked by a hazy backdrop of Lake Oroville with the nearby
Dixie Fire creating a smoke-filled sky, federal and state
politicians representing the north state gathered above the
Hyatt Power Plant at Oroville Dam for a press conference
Tuesday to criticize, in their words, the state’s “gross
mismanagement” of water, wildlands and power.
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management are
collaborating through a five-year agreement to reduce wildland
fire threats in the popular Auburn State Recreation Area in El
Dorado and Placer counties. This agreement includes projects to
construct fuel breaks, remove hazard trees, and reduce brush.
Wildfires throughout California are increasing in size,
complexity, and frequency. Reclamation is collaborating with
the BLM to provide increased fuels (vegetation) reduction
support, management, and technical pre-suppression support for
fire protection and public safety.
Forest managers, community and environmental stakeholders, and
policymakers alike have called for an increase in the pace and
scale of proactive forest management. This work is essential to
reducing wildfire risk and improving forest health,
… Water agencies may be well placed to take on a leading
role—based on the value they receive from reducing wildfire
risk, their high capacity to manage complex projects, and their
watershed-scale management approach.
Across the U.S. West, shifting climate patterns are wreaking
havoc. An early start to fire season is scorching rural Oregon
and parts of Northern California. Record temperatures have led
to deaths of hundreds of residents of Seattle and Portland,
Ore. Lake Mead, the massive Colorado River reservoir outside
Las Vegas, is at its lowest point since its 1935 federal
construction, threatening water supplies to Arizona, Southern
California, Nevada and Mexico. In Arizona, 99% of the land
is undergoing years-long drought that has accelerated. Large
swaths of the region are now in extreme distress and the
picture may well get worse…
A review of 170 years of water-related successes in California
suggests that most successes can be traced directly to past
mistakes. California’s highly variable climate has made
it a crucible for innovations in water technology and
policy. Similar water imperatives have led to advances in
water management in other parts of the world. A close
look at California’s water model suggests that “far-sighted
incrementalism” is a path to progress.
In Spanish, Sierra Nevada means “snowy mountain range.” While
the term “snowy” has generally been true for most of U.S.
history, those mountains have seen less snow accumulation in
recent years. This decline plays a role in water management and
response to drought in California and other western states.
Each spring and summer, meltwater runoff from Sierra Nevada
snowpack helps replenish rivers and reservoirs, while also
recharging the groundwater. In fact, snowpack accounts for
about 30 percent of California’s water supply in a typical
year, according to the California Department of Water
Resources.
In recent years, wildfires on the West Coast have become larger
and more damaging. A combination of almost a century of fire
suppression and hotter and drier conditions has created a
tinderbox ready to ignite, destroying homes and polluting the
air over large areas. New research led by the University of
Washington and the University of California, Santa Barbara,
looks at the longer-term future of wildfires under scenarios of
increased temperature and drought … finds that there will be
an initial roughly decade-long burst of wildfire activity,
followed by recurring fires of decreasing area.
It sounds like the plot of a post-apocalyptic movie: Water
thieves roaming scorched terrain in search of nature’s most
precious resource. But in California, water theft is a massive
reality with numbers that are hard to comprehend — and as
droughts increasingly afflict the state, so does the extent of
this illegal activity. Over 12 billion gallons of water have
likely been stolen in California since 2013, John Nores — the
former head of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Marijuana Enforcement Team — recently told CNN.
No other region in the country is warming faster than the
western United States when it comes to increasing daytime
highs, a trend that became apparent with the unprecedented and
record-shattering heat wave that took over the Pacific
Northwest earlier this summer. Heat has been building all
across the west this year. In June, Idaho, Utah, Arizona,
Nevada and California all had record heat statewide. Salt Lake
City had its warmest June in 74 years of records with an
average temperature of 80.2 F, which is 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit
above normal.
California’s deepening drought is creating another big problem
for authorities: water theft. Water thieves, many of them
illegal marijuana growers, are tapping into fire hydrants and
drilling unauthorized water wells, according to officials,
threatening the water supply for residents. In a recent sting
in Antelope Valley in northern Los Angeles County, federal,
state and local law enforcement officers disrupted hundreds of
allegedly illegal marijuana cultivations in the area. They
arrested 131 people and seized 65 vehicles, including two water
trucks.
Creeks, rivers and lakes that are fed by melting snow across
the U.S. West are already running low as of mid-July 2021, much
to the worry of farmers, biologists and snow hydrologists like
me. This is not surprising in California, where snow levels
over the previous winter were well below normal. But it is also
true across Colorado and the Rocky Mountains, which in general
received a normal amount of snow. You’d think if there was
normal amount of snow you’d have plenty of water downstream,
right? … But another less studied way moisture can be lost is
by evaporating straight into the atmosphere.
Go 120 miles as the crow flies southeast of Manteca and you
will find the headwaters of two of California’s most tormented
rivers — the San Joaquin River and Owens River. The 183-mile
Owens River starts from Glass Creek on the southern face of the
11,597-foot San Joaquin Mountain. Today instead of ultimately
flowing into Owens Lake that just over 100 years ago covered
108 square miles and was teeming with aquatic life and
migratory birds, the lake is a dusty shell of its former self.
On July 2, 2021, the Fourth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals
issued an important decision regarding Section 401 of the Clean
Water Act, overturning an Order by the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (FERC). FERC’s Order had found that
the state of North Carolina had unlawfully “coordinated” with
the license applicant to delay the state’s certification that a
new FERC license for the Bynum hydroelectric project complied
with state water quality laws. FERC found that North
Carolina’s participation in the delay meant that the state had
“waived” its authority under Section 401 to issue the
certification.
Rural communities suffering from failing infrastructure and low
capacity often miss out on important funding opportunities
because the methods used by state agencies to determine
eligibility are inadequate for rural forested areas, new study
finds. Pockets of wealth (around a lake shore or golf-course
development, for example) raise the median household income
(MHI), which can mask the poverty of nearby communities.
I’ll keep this section brief, as there is much to discuss
regarding the upcoming pattern itself. But suffice it to say
that the interior of NorCal has continued to bake for most of
July, despite the slightly lessened pace of record-breaking
high temperatures. Some areas across the NorCal interior are
continuing to experience their hottest summer on record to
date, and this is in the midst of an extreme to record breaking
drought in the same region.
Environmental lawyers are urging a California appellate court
to overturn a pair of district court rulings that handed
significant victories to the Squaw Valley ski resort as it
moves forward with expansion plans critics say will
dramatically increase traffic in the area and harm Lake Tahoe’s
air and water quality. Justice Vance W. Raye, chief of the
Third District Court of Appeals, appeared sympathetic to their
arguments this week that Placer County may have violated a
public records law in approving part of an environmental
analysis and mitigation plan at the home of the 1960 Winter
Olympics.
The summer isn’t even halfway through and it’s already proved
to be a season of deadly extremes. In a little over a month,
four major heat waves have broiled the Western United States,
including record-shattering triple-digit temperatures in Oregon
and Washington that caused hundreds of heat-related deaths.
Wildfires are again tearing through the West, burning hundreds
of thousands of acres in California, Oregon and British
Columbia in Canada. … Climate change is making normal weather
events — heat waves, droughts, rainstorms and hurricanes — more
extreme and more devastating to communities unprepared for the
onslaught.
After two consecutive dry winters, Tahoe’s lake level is
sitting a little over 1.5 feet above its natural rim — a
threshold the alpine lake is forecasted to drop below in the
next three months. And while the rise and fall of Lake
Tahoe’s water level is cyclical in the short-term (with
evaporation and downstream flow offsetting spring runoff
filling the lake each year) and the long-term (the lake has
fallen below it’s natural rim over 20 times in the last century
since data collection began), experts are concerned by the
severity of the current drought and its impacts on water
supply, wildfires and wildlife.
Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen today announced
Jennifer Eberlien as regional forester for the Pacific
Southwest Region. Eberlien replaces incoming Chief Randy
Moore who has served as regional forester in the Pacific
Southwest Region since 2007. Eberlien will oversee 18 national
forests in California, which include 20 million acres covering
the North Coast, Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges and from Big
Sur to the Mexican border in the South Coast range.
Additionally, she will oversee state and private forestry
programs in Hawaii and the U.S.-affiliated Pacific Islands.
As if California’s dire dry season wasn’t already difficult,
thieves are making matters even worse. Illegal pot growers are
stealing water anywhere they can get it. That’s why the Nevada
County Sheriff’s Office has a warning that investigators are
cracking down. … But beyond stealing water, the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife is also finding the
illegal grows lead to large environmental impacts due to poor
cultivation practices and waste contaminating water
resources.
Environmentalists say the San Joaquin watershed needs more
water. So do state officials, who in 2018 ordered water users
to give a large share of water back to the San Joaquin and its
tributaries, notably the Tuolumne. But the fight to restore
this ailing ecosystem has turned political, and
environmentalists leading the effort are facing an unlikely foe
the water service provider for one of the most liberal cities
in the country.
In Northern California, wildfires are burning hot and fast.
…UC Davis Climate Modeling Professor Paul Ullrich says
without sufficient rain, fires are burning much hotter than
normal.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) is asking
recreational anglers to voluntarily change how, when and where
they fish to minimize stress and mortality among fish
populations suffering from drought conditions. CDFW is advising
anglers not to fish past noon on certain inland waters as even
catch-and-release angling during the hottest parts of the day
can greatly increase fish stress and mortality.
… Coldwater species such as trout, salmon and steelhead
have the greatest likelihood of being affected by the drought
this year but low water levels and high-water temperatures can
potentially affect all inland aquatic species.
As the West descends deeper into drought, climate and water
experts are growing increasingly alarmed by California’s
severely shriveling reservoirs. On Monday, Shasta Lake — the
largest reservoir in the state — held a scant 1.57 million
acre-feet of water, according to the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation, or about 35% of its capacity. A series of
satellite images captured by NASA show just how dramatically
the water level has fallen.
At least 70 large wildfires are burning across the US west and
nearby states – engulfing more than 1m acres in flames – as
fears mount that shifting conditions can worsen an already dire
situation. Significant areas of these states are in the grips
of drought conditions that are considered “extreme” and
“exceptional” – the most severe categories. In California,
a rapidly growing wildfire south of Lake Tahoe jumped a
highway, prompting more evacuation orders and the cancellation
of an extreme bike ride through the Sierra Nevada on Saturday.
Fueled by a trifecta of dangerous weather conditions — strong
winds, low humidity and high temperatures — a series of
wildfires, including a so-called megafire that has already
charred more than 100,000 acres, continue to burn huge swaths
of drought-dried vegetation in Northern California. In Plumas
County, the massive Sugar fire, the first 100,000-acre fire in
California this year, had burned more than 105,000 acres by
Sunday night and was 82% contained, officials said.
California’s 2021 water outlook became grimmer this spring as
the state did not get fabulous February or miracle March
precipitation. Unsurprisingly, spring streamflow forecasts from
snowfed basins in the Sierra were far below average. For
example, early April forecasts from California DWR called for
April-July runoff to be between 59-70% of normal. Bad, but not
terrible. Then came April, bringing little additional
precipitation. To compound matters, April brought very warm
temperatures for much of the state that led to rapid ablation
(evaporation) of the Sierra snowpack.
The punishing drought conditions afflicting most of California
are expected to endure for months, climate experts with the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association said Thursday.
There is a 60% chance, NOAA experts said, of a La Niña event
this winter — conditions that would likely bring about a cool
and very dry winter. NOAA climatologists presented a stark
portrait of the fiercely dry conditions gripping a huge portion
of the country: 46% of the contiguous U.S. is in a state of
drought, they said.
Mountain snow is like a bank account for water across the
western United States. Snow that falls on the Sierra Nevada,
the Rocky Mountains, and other ranges becomes a natural
reservoir that slowly melts each spring and summer and flows
down into the river valleys. The resource managers of western
states count on this allowance from nature to fill reservoirs
with sufficient water for the typically dry months of summer
and autumn. In 2021, those meltwater accounts have been turning
up “insufficient funds.”
The American West is baking, burning and drying in intertwined
extreme weather. Four sets of numbers explain how bad it is
now, while several others explain why it got this bad. The West
is going through “the trifecta of an epically dry year followed
by incredible heat the last two months and now we have fires,”
said University of California Merced climate and fire scientist
John Abatzoglou. “It is a story of cascading impacts.” And one
of climate change, the data shows.
Flora Bella Farms has been a fixture at the Santa Monica
Farmers market since it opened in 1991. James and Dawn Birch
have been a favorite stop for local chefs ever since they made
their first sale to Nancy Silverton. Because of the lack of
water in this year’s drought and the loss of most of their
crops, next Wednesday, July 21 will be their last day at the
market with no return day in sight. We talked to Dawn at the
market Wednesday, who told us that this is just the tip of the
iceberg.
The number of wildfires in California to date this year is
greater than the amount recorded in the same time period in
2020 — a year which saw more burned acreage than any recorded
year in history, according to data from the California
Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. Between
January 1 to July 11 of this year, approximately 4,163 fires
have burned in California, the department said. During the same
time period in 2020, 3,645 fires were reported by the
department.
Climate change is exacerbating droughts and accelerating the
transformation and decline of California’s native forest and
aquatic ecosystems. As a state, we are poorly organized to
manage these effects, which need extensive focused
preparation. We need to adapt (and we will make mistakes
in doing so). Our human, economic and environmental losses
will be much greater, however, if we manage poorly because of
delay, complacency or panic. -Written by Jay Lund, professor of civil and
environmental engineering at the University of California at
Davis.
The fires have burned more than 140,000 acres, from soaring
mountains along the California-Nevada border to forest north of
Mt. Shasta and the gateway to Yosemite. But many of 2021’s
biggest blazes have one thing in common: They are burning
faster and hotter than some firefighters have seen this early
in the year. A winter and spring of little rain and minimal
snow runoff — followed by months of unusually warm conditions
and several summer heat waves — left the vegetation primed to
burn fast, giving crews little time to get a handle on the
flames before they explode.
For the past few weeks, the American West has been confronting
a hellish climate nightmare of scorching heat waves, a severe
drought, and raging wildfires. And it’s not just the
West—or even the United States. In
typically chilly Siberia, ground temperatures reached
a blistering 118 degrees Fahrenheit. The Middle
East has been gripped by a searing heat wave and a drought
that has especially hammered Syria. In late June, a
small Canadian village was almost completely consumed
by wildfire. China is also bracing for another year
of extreme weather…
Every spring, the snow begins to melt and make its way down the
mountains, across marshes and meadows, and through the 63
tributaries flowing into Lake Tahoe. … [T]he route that the
water takes before eventually ending up in the lake is crucial
to maintaining Tahoe’s famed clarity. Why, you might ask? It’s
all about those SEZs. Stream environment zones are a
Tahoe-specific term, meaning “an area that owes its biological
and physical characteristics to the presence of surface or
groundwater,” according to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Meadows, marshes, streams, streambanks, and beaches are all
examples of SEZs…
California is off to another record-breaking year of wildfires
as the state enters its most dangerous months, with extreme
heat and dry terrain creating the conditions for rapid
spread. More than twice as many acres burned in the first
six months of this year than during the same period last year —
and hundreds more fires, officials said. June saw a series
of destructive blazes that swept through rural counties at the
northern edge of the state, fueled by a historic Pacific
Northwest heat wave. But July is already shaping up to be
worse.
Late at night beneath a star-studded sky, surrounded by the
Sierra Nevada and the White Mountains, circles of mourners sang
and stamped their feet in the dust. The cry dance honored Harry
Williams, Nüümü (Bishop Paiute) elder and internationally
recognized expert in the ancestral water systems of Payahuunadü
— Owens Valley. In his lifetime, Williams was responsible for
recovering knowledge of his tribe’s traditional irrigation
networks and water practices, strengthening the Paiute’s claims
for water rights in Owens Valley.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), National
Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and the United States
Forest Service (USFS) today announced a first-of-its-kind
partnership in the Eastern Sierra dedicated to improving forest
resiliency, increasing carbon capture, decreasing wildfires,
improving wildlife habitats and recreation sites, and enhancing
the Eastern Sierra watershed over the next two and a half
years.
Another extreme heat wave is about to smother Northern
California — high temperatures well into the triple digits are
expected this weekend in Sacramento. … Temperatures are
predicted to soar as high as 115 farther north in the
Sacramento Valley, including near Redding. South Lake Tahoe
could approach 90 degrees.
Last summer’s catastrophic Creek Fire burned about 380,000
acres in the upper San Joaquin watershed, the largest fire in
the Sierra Nevada’s history. The fire literally exploded, fed
by strong gusty winds and 150 million dead trees the fire
scorched 43% of the burned area “with high severity” said the
Sierra Nevada Conservancy, a state agency. Altogether, about
36% of the upper San Joaquin watershed was burned—the same
watershed that supplies nine dams and impounds water that feeds
a million acres of farmland below, along the Madera and Friant
Kern Canals.
Migrating agriculture north to the Sacramento Valley can’t be a
one-to-one trade where every venture survives. The Sacramento
Valley is approximately one-half the size of the San Joaquin
Valley, and at most, 15 to 20 percent of the land could host
relocated agriculture. The majority of San Joaquin agricultural
businesses won’t survive in their current form—but some could
find new life by converting their fallowed fields into solar
farms to help the state achieve its goal of fossil fuel-free
electricity by 2045. Or we can allow the San Joaquin Valley to
revert to the desert it was before our forefathers planted a
garden in it.
Faced with the prospect of another devastating wildfire year,
California policymakers are seeking ways to accelerate the pace
and scale of forest management. Urgency is warranted,
especially in the dry mixed-conifer forests that dominate many
headwater regions of the state. Decades of fire
suppression have left California’s forests too dense and
prone to disease. Two exceptional droughts over the past decade
have turned these forests into tinderboxes, primed for extreme
wildfires. Forest management can mitigate wildfire risk; we
just have to act fast and over much larger areas to
reap the benefits.
In Sept. 2020, the 7-year-old female mountain lion pictured
above was dehydrated and burnt on the bottom of her paw pads.
The pain made it unbearable to walk. According to data
from a satellite tracking collar and camera footage, seven
months later she is chasing deer, mating, and has even
travelled hundreds of miles through the San Gabriel Mountain
wilderness in southern California, on those once lifeless feet.
… She was found at the edge of a Monrovia resident’s
backyard pond, where she crawled in search of water during the
Bobcat Fire …
With drought conditions and a pair of record-setting heat waves
already in the rearview mirror, saving water is key during high
demand. In the face of record temperatures and the worst
drought in decades, the South Tahoe Public Utilities District
is offering three tips to save water as demand increases.
Skiers and snowboarders pray for snow so they can shred the
slopes. Climatologists and hydrologists have an entirely
different and more critical reason to cross their fingers for
the “white gold.” The West’s historic drought has many impacts,
including water shortages, more severe wildfire seasons and
unprecedented heat waves, to name a few. Intense droughts are a
result of many factors, one of which scientists have recently
begun to analyze with more scrutiny: snow drought.
Sprinkled along the foothills of California’s Central Valley
stand the iconic blue oak woodlands. Towering up to 80 feet
tall and some reaching over 400 years old, the trees are home
to one of the most biologically diverse ecosystems in the
state. But extreme drought and wildfires are forcing the
woodlands into an uncertain future. A new study conducted by
U.S. Geological Survey researchers found that the historic
drought of 2012-2016 alone caused nearly 490 square miles of
tree cover loss — or the reduction of leaves and branches — in
the blue oak woodlands.
California’s rain year officially ended Wednesday, and the data
reflects what the dry landscape in much of the Bay Area already
shows: It wasn’t pretty. Data shows that for many of the major
regions of California, the July 2020-June 2021 rain year was
one of the top 10 driest ever. Even more troubling is that the
extreme dry spells are starting to stack up, especially in the
Sierra Nevada watersheds that supply so much of the state’s
water.
Wildfire season came early this year in the Bay Area after a
meager rainy season left the landscape tinder-dry, offering an
abundance of fuel for wildland blazes. In just the past few
years, California has seen some of the largest, deadliest and
most destructive fires in state history. Last year was a
record-buster, with nearly 10,000 blazes burning more than 4
million acres. Meanwhile, most of the state is in extreme or
exceptional drought conditions, prompting Gov. Gavin Newsom to
declare a drought emergency in a majority of the state’s
counties.
With a record-shattering heat wave suffocating much of the
Pacific Northwest and a drought-fueled wildfire season already
well underway in New Mexico, Arizona and California, President
Biden will attend a virtual meeting with leaders of Western
states on Wednesday to discuss strategies to minimize
weather-related disasters this summer. Jen Psaki, the White
House press secretary, told reporters that the president
planned to bring together members of his cabinet and the
Western governors to assess “the devastating intersection of
drought, heat, and wildfires,” as well as “prevention,
preparedness, and response efforts for this wildfire season.”
The east side of the Sierra Nevada is remote and sparsely
populated. Like many rural places, it has struggled with a lack
of local resources to plan and implement large complex
projects. That is about to change. In 2019, the SNC invested in
the Eastern Sierra Climate & Communities Resilience
Project to engage stakeholders, create a partnership, and
collaboratively develop a needs assessment, project goals, and
proposed actions. Over the past 1.5 years, the project has done
just that with the help of another SNC grant recipient, the
Eastern California Water Association.
Much of the Western half of the United States is in the grip of
a severe drought of historic proportions. Conditions are
especially bad in California and the Southwest, but the drought
extends into the Pacific Northwest, much of the Intermountain
West, and even the Northern Plains. Drought emergencies have
been declared. Farmers and ranchers are suffering. States are
facing water cutbacks. Large wildfires burned earlier than
usual with more major fires burning in Arizona, New Mexico and
other states. There appears to be little relief in sight.
This summer, more than $2 billion in state funds will go
towards fighting fires. And even with those record
expenditures, we’re likely to endure a heavy loss. Once again
there is too little water and too much dry fuel. And once again
we continue to ignore or even kill the water-saving firefighter
who would work for free to protect us: the beaver. -Written
by Heidi Perryman, child psychologist and beaver
advocate.
Bay Area-born startup Lumineye began with a goal of giving
soldiers power to see through walls. But climate change has
broadened the market, and Lumineye is now working with
firefighters to tweak its product — a hand-held device that
uses radar to see people inside buildings and in thick brush.
… California’s drought, plus forests full of fuels and
communities along narrow roads in heavily treed areas make for
a lethal recipe, tragically exemplified by the 2018 Camp Fire
that killed 86 people in Paradise.
California’s drought and wildfire conditions are accelerating
at unprecedented rates, according to state officials, and
residents should brace for a summer of widespread burning and
mandatory water conservation measures in some regions. As
reservoir levels across the state continue to drop, and as
parched vegetation poses an increasing threat of wildfire,
officials in Sacramento and Southern California offered a bleak
assessment of the state’s drying climate, saying it has already
begun to affect people, plants and animals.
Drought may be the sneakiest of natural disasters. Although
human history teems with people engulfed by abrupt aridity —
the Akkadians of four millenniums ago, the Maya in the ninth
and 10th centuries A.D., the Great Plains farmers of the 1930s
— even today drought is a poorly appreciated phenomenon. …
The American West is once again facing drought, one of the
worst on record. Across a vast region encompassing nine states
and home to nearly 60 million people, the earth is being wrung
dry. -Written by Farhad Manjoo, NY Times opinion columnist.
In the 1950s, when University of California forestry professor
Harold Biswell experimented with prescribed burns in the
state’s pine forests, many people thought he was nuts. “Harry
the Torch,” “Burn-Em-Up Biswell” and “Doctor Burnwell” were
some of his nicknames from critics, who included federal and
state foresters and timber groups. Six decades after Biswell
preached an unpopular message to those who advocated full-on
fire suppression, he is seen not as crazy but someone whose
ideas could save the U.S. West’s forests and ease wildfire
dangers.
California’s severe drought was made worse this year by a
shocking surprise. Every year, much of the drinking water that
flows through the taps of millions of Californians begins in
the Sierra Nevada. Snow and rain fall on the vast mountain
range during the winter months, and the water moves downhill
into streams, rivers and reservoirs in the spring and summer.
But this year, in a trend that startled water managers, much of
that runoff simply vanished. … [T]he ground was so dry
that the water soaked in before making it down the
mountain.
Due to the extreme drought conditions and risk of wildfire,
Sierra Pacific Industries is closing its California forest
lands to public access. This closure began Monday, June 21, and
will remain in effect until further notice. … The
public’s use of SPI roads and walk-in access to their
privately-owned lands will not be allowed. SPI will regularly
evaluate the situation; however, it is anticipated the closure
will remain in effect into fall.
As California’s drought worsens, over 93% of all known giant
sequoia trees currently exist in areas experiencing
“exceptional drought” conditions — the most severe drought
classification established by the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). … [H]uman activity and
climate change threaten their continued existence. And now with
drought conditions worsening across the West Coast, virtually
every single one of the massive trees is now rooted in an area
under exceptional drought conditions, leaving them prone to
damage from wildfires.
Before last year’s devastating fire season, Gov. Gavin Newsom
directed firefighters to clear huge lines of trees and shrubs
near more than 200 communities to help stop or slow a potential
blaze. Much of the work was done in the Bay Area. These widely
promoted fuel breaks, a centerpiece of the governor’s
billion-dollar strategy to protect California from catastrophic
wildfire, however, have had limited success, according to data
reviewed by The Chronicle.
In early April, just over 700 Owens pupfish were relocated by
the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to River
Spring Lakes Ecological Reserve in Owens Valley. The move is
seen as a significant step forward for the rare North American
fish, once declared extinct in 1940, that has been considered
on “life-support” since it was re-discovered in
1964.
California is in a megadrought, with its key reservoirs falling
to their lowest points in history. Wildfire season is already
here, and officials are bracing for yet another catastrophic
year. Meanwhile, rural communities remain in desperate need of
viable, sustainable economic futures. One climate-smart
solution that addresses all these needs is watershed
restoration.
The Bay Area enjoyed a significant cooldown on the first day of
summer as the first major heat wave of the year subsided Sunday
— but forecasters are predicting another record-breaking hot
spell by next weekend. Last week’s heat wave saw a strong area
of high pressure build from the Southwest desert, strengthening
as it baked the central and southern regions of California
… Experts said the heat is likely to
intensify California’s already dire drought
conditions and bring potential wildfire danger.
A few years ago, filmmaker Emmett Brennan discovered that the
once-lush Owens Valley that sources water for Los Angeles is
now mostly a stark desert, and he had to do something. The
result is a meditative new feature-length documentary called
“Reflection: A Walk with Water” that traces a 200-mile trek by
foot along the entire length of the L.A. aqueduct to raise
awareness about the way we use and misuse water. The film, with
original music by Jacob Collier and Justin Kauflin, is
streaming through June 23 as part of the Tribeca Film Festival.
Lake Pillsbury… is located in the northeast part of Lake
County. Filled in 1922, impounded by the Scott Dam, it is part
of the Potter Valley Project that assures water security for
hundreds of thousands of people in the three counties of
Sonoma, Mendocino and Marin for drinking, farming, aquifer
replenishment and recreation….On March 17, 2021, FERC issued
a Study Plan Determination and per the order the Two Basin
Solution Partnership must analyze the effects of removing Scott
Dam on the communities around Lake Pillsbury, tribal interests,
recreation and other activities on the Eel River …
Last fall, the Maidu Summit Consortium, a nonprofit composed of
nine Mountain Maidu tribal member groups, installed 73
BDAs—beaver dam analogs—in Yellow Creek, a tributary to the
North Fork Feather River and a state-listed heritage trout
stream. … The idea behind the structures, which mimic beaver
dams, is to slow erosion, catch sediment, and build up the
river bottom to reverse the incised channel—without importing
soil and other materials or emitting carbon from heavy,
diesel-powered equipment.
It might be tempting to shrug at the scorching weather across
large swaths of the West. This just in: It gets hot in the
summer. But this record-setting heat wave’s remarkable power,
size and unusually early appearance is giving meteorologists
and climate experts yet more cause for concern about the
routinization of extreme weather in an era of climate change.
These sprawling, persistent high-pressure zones popularly
called “heat domes” are relatively common in later summer
months. This current system is different.
Summer has not officially started yet, but wildfire season has
already arrived in the US. Now an intense heat wave coupled
with extreme drought is threatening to make things worse. Large
wildfires have already burned 981,000 acres this year to date,
more than the 766,000 acres burned by the same time last year,
according to the National Interagency Fire Center. In Arizona,
more than 208,000 acres have burned, sending smoke into
Colorado.
A heat dome is baking Arizona and Nevada, … At Lake Mead,
which supplies water for 25 million people in three
southwestern states and Mexico, water levels have plunged to
their lowest point since the reservoir was filled in the 1930s.
In California, farmers are abandoning their thirstiest crops to
save others, and communities are debating whether to ration tap
water….And it’s not even summer yet.
Los Angeles is a pretty hot and dry place, and in fact,
California is suffering from increasing impacts of drought, so
how does the water we use every day get here? Let’s take the
journey your water takes from the source to your mouth with
these 5 things to know:
The drought facing the Western United States is
bad. Really bad. It’s become worse faster than the last
one. As more of the United States suffers from drought
conditions and water supplies are diminishing, water
demands are rising. Smaller water supplies combined with
increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and other effects
of climate change pose an enormous threat by creating a
feedback loop that exacerbates drought conditions and
increases wildfire risk across the United States.
Riparian forests, those tree-filled regions running next to
rivers and streams, host a breadth of important wildlife — but
water management practices focused on meeting the needs of
growing communities and agriculture may be putting their future
in jeopardy. These woodlands serve to protect water quality and
stream integrity, host wildlife and control flooding along
water ways, but the ecosystems they support are in danger of
failing in the coming decades.
The U.S. House of Representatives’ Transportation and
Infrastructure Committee last week marked up and advanced H.R.
1915, the Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of
2021. … By 2035, the City of Los Angeles expects to
recycle 100 percent of its water supplies and reduce its
reliance on costly imported water from the Colorado
River. Truckee Meadows Water Authority in Reno is planning
13-mile pipeline to provide 1.3 billion gallons of recycled
water annually to the Tahoe-Reno Industrial Center, home to
Tesla, Switch and Google, and ensure 20,000 jobs remain in
Nevada.
While fuel reduction can play an important role in limiting the
severity of wildfire, lack of funding often hinders forest
management efforts. The Upper Mokelumne River Watershed
Authority (UMRWA), a joint powers authority comprised of
Alpine, Amador and Calaveras counties and six water districts,
recently initiated a novel funding approach to improve forest
resilience to wildfire and safeguard communities and water
resources.
With a worsening drought gripping the West and wildfire season
looming, California is bracing for the most severe heat wave of
the year — one that promises to tax the state’s power supplies
while also offering a grim preview of challenging months to
come. The heat wave will bring triple-digit temperatures to the
valleys and inland regions of Southern California as well as
many parts of the rest of the state, heightening fire risks. It
comes as parts of Northern and Central California are turning
to water restrictions as the drought rapidly alters the
landscape.
California’s drought is accelerating the start of the 2021
wildfire season — and intensifying the pressure on PG&E
Corp. to prevent more mega-fires of the sort that drove the
state’s largest utility into bankruptcy. Pacific Gas and
Electric Co. executives said Wednesday they’ve begun gearing up
for wildfire season weeks earlier than usual, including putting
helicopters in the air to practice for PG&E’s “public
safety power shutoffs.”
Those watching the level of Lake Tahoe know it is dropping
quickly, and it’s not just because of a lack of snowfall this
year and another year of drought. Understanding why the lake
drops, and who causes it to drop (yes, there is a person – the
watermaster), is key to knowing why the lake should be at its
natural rim of 6,223 feet above sea level by the beginning of
August. As of June 8 the lake is two feet above that rim.
The Union has printed several opinion pieces by Idaho-Maryland
Mine Project opponents. The majority of these columns present
“information” that’s either biased or misleading and based
neither on science nor logic. Here are the facts.
… Recent columns erroneously suggest that groundwater
impacts cannot be accurately predicted. Numerous expert
hydrogeologists and a century of mining at the Idaho-Maryland
say otherwise. … The actual conclusion is that no wells
would be drained… -Written by Ben Mossman, president of Rise Grass
Valley and CEO of Rise Gold Corp., U.S. corporations.
Water is like electricity. Most people don’t think about it
much until it’s gone. Now, as California and other Western
states find themselves heading into a severe and worsening
drought, a new interactive map is providing a breathtaking
journey that shows where America’s water comes from and ends
up. The project is called River Runner. It allows anyone to
click on any place where a raindrop would fall in the United
States, and then track its path through watersheds, into
creeks, rivers, lakes and ultimately the ocean.
Storms from the Pacific set to swing into the rain-starved West
Coast this week may end up turning detrimental, AccuWeather
forecasters say, by whipping up gusty winds and heightening the
risk of lightning-induced wildfires. With over 87% of the
Western states in moderate to exceptional drought, the news of
Pacific storms poised to sweep onshore may sound good on the
surface. However, the pattern will be a double-edged sword.
Each storm is expected to arrive with “very limited moisture,”
according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alex
Sosnowski.
According to U.S. Congressman Jay Obernolte’s (R-Hesperia)
office, last Tuesday, June 1, he introduced a bill, HR 3649,
titled the Mono Lake Kutadika’a Paiute Tribal Recognition Act
that would grant federal recognition to the Mono Lake
Kutzadika’a tribe as a distinct Native American Tribe. The
legislation was originally introduced by former Rep. Paul Cook.
The bill would address the tribe’s decades-long struggle for
indigenous sovereignty and would afford them the services,
benefits, and rights provided to federally recognized tribes,
says the communique.
They were expert hunters, gatherers and basket weavers who
lived for thousands of years on a trade route over the Sierra
Nevada connecting them with the rest of California. The modern
history of the Mono Lake Kutzadika Paiute people is told mostly
through economic hardship, displacement and a 150-year fight
for federal recognition as a distinct Native American tribe — a
step needed to establish a sovereign land base to call home.
Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) proudly
partnered with the United States Forest Service (USFS) to clean
up National Forest System lands at Grant Lake Reservoir in Mono
County. The clean-up effort, which also included installing
signage to ensure current fire restrictions and sustainable
recreation practices are observed, was meant to prepare the
area for the upcoming summer recreation season.
Yosemite National Park and the Stanislaus National Forest are
seeking commentary from the public on their plan to restore
wetlands in the Ackerson Meadow, which they said have been
drained as a result of a century of domestic water
diversion. The plans include a complete fill of the
gullies developed over the last century by ranchers and
agriculturalists who utilized water flow, or the the
installation of manmade beaver dams to partially restore the
wetlands.
Annual rainfall totals illustrate how the naturally harsh
desert environment is becoming even more stressed. [Jim]
Cornett, who meticulously studies weather data compiled by the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said less than
1 inch of rain has fallen at the Palm Springs airport since
Nov. 1, well below averages of roughly 4.5 inches for the
period over the last half-century, which were down from a
5.5-inch average before that.
Drought conditions in California remain at record highs, with
most of the state now classified in “extreme” or “exceptional”
drought, reflecting conditions across the Southwest, according
to a new report from climate scientists. Much of the Bay
Area and the northern Central Valley have been included in the
most severe “exceptional drought” zone, along with much of
southeast California, the U.S. Drought Monitor reported.
A water war is under way in Sacramento right now that could
have far-reaching impacts on families in the Central Valley.
… Hearings got under way Wednesday, as Semitropic Water
Storage District in Kern County makes its administrative appeal
to the State Water Resources Control Board for water rights to
the Kings River. It filed its first petition in 2017, asking
for access to 1.6 million acre feet of floodwater from the
Kings River.
Lake Powell is within just a few feet of its low level ever
observed since it was first filled. Early season fires have
already torched over 400,000 acres in Colorado and California’s
reservoirs are 50 percent lower than they should be at this
time of year before summer has even officially begun. A year
after the skies over San Francisco glowed a hazy red as
wildfires choked the Bay Area, 2021 is shaping up to be the
year of real climate reckoning with drought in the western US
at historic levels.
Hidden from view when driving by is the [Rise Gold]
mine that is filled with water contaminated with
byproducts of hard rock mining. The water now forms a murky
lake several hundred yards wide. Rise Gold plans to pump out
3.6 million gallons of water every single day for six months
and after that another 1.2 million gallons a day for up to 80
years from this site. Let that sink in. Get your mind
fully around this. This is real. They will dump this water
into the little creek alongside the site and send it on its way
down Wolf Creek to the Feather River to the Sacramento River to
San Francisco Bay … -Written by Billy Packard.
Earlier this year, the State Water Resources Control Board
released a report, Recommendations for an Effective Water
Rights Response to Climate Change, that considered how the
State Wate Board could include climate change when considering
new water right applications. Since the report’s release,
it has been the subject of much discussion and has sparked
concerns amongst existing water right holders. At the
Kern County Water Summit, hosted by the Water Association of
Kern County, a panel addressed the topic.
In May, Lake Tahoe watercraft inspectors have identified
numerous boats carrying harmful aquatic invasive species and
added them to the list of boats that had to be decontaminated
before launching, according to the Tahoe Regional Planning
Agency and the Tahoe Resource Conservation District, which
manage the inspection program. As of press time, 14 of the more
than 1,000 boats inspected were found to have aquatic invasive
species in, on or attached to the boat, boat trailer, dock
lines or on-board recreational equipment, according to a press
release.
The Predictive Services 4-month outlook for the North Ops
region calls for drier and warmer than average weather through
September. There is some indication of a semi-regular low
pressure trough positioned along the west coast much of the
summer, which could lead to shorter stretches of intense dry
heat. Fuels, both dead and live and of all size classes, are
expected to dry to critical values earlier than usual at all
elevations, leading to a start to the active fire season 4-6
weeks earlier than usual.
Will the current drought increase the chances of another bad
fire season this year? We talked to Scott Stephens―a fire
ecologist at UC Berkeley and a member of the PPIC Water
Policy Center research network―about the risks, and what can be
done.
Already one of the most productive watersheds in the state in
terms of runoff per square mile, the Yuba River watershed is
especially vulnerable to the impacts of atmospheric rivers and
the heavy, prolonged rainfall they bring. … Recognizing the
central role that atmospheric rivers play in both flood risk
and water supply — two of Yuba Water’s core mission areas –
the agency is investing in new research and tools to better
understand, forecast and manage these powerful storms.
With California’s rivers running low after two consecutive dry
winters, state officials and local water agencies have pumped
out a steady stream of drought declarations and calls for water
conservation in recent weeks. It’s clear the Golden State is in
a drought and it could escalate to a crisis, but, you may be
wondering, just how bad is it?
Nearly half of the country — from the Pacific coast to the
Great Plains and upper Midwest — is experiencing moderate to
exceptional drought conditions. That’s expected to get worse
throughout the summer. … UCLA climatologist Park Williams:
“This drought is far from over. 2021 is shaping up to
potentially be the driest of all of the drought years in the
last century, and definitely one of the driest of the last
millennium.”
Multiple earthquakes rattled the Lake Tahoe region on Friday,
the latest in a sequence that began in late April. … Tahoe
sits on major fault lines more than a thousand years overdue to
rupture… A huge shake could even lead to a Tahoe
tsunami, but he says for now – it’s still highly unlikely. But
in the event of something major, Kent recommends not wasting
any time getting away from the water.
Assembly Joint Resolution 4 passed both houses of the Nevada
Legislature. The resolution now urges Congress and the
President to protect certain land containing swamp cedar trees
in Spring Valley, Nevada by designating the site a national
monument or expanding the Great Basin National Park to include
the area.
The Kern River Conservancy received a $23,000 grant to study
whether last year’s Sequoia Complex Fire harmed the water
quality in the wild and scenic section of the Kern River. The
Virginia and Alfred Harrell Foundation awarded the grant to the
non-profit conservancy, Gary Ananian, the conservancy’s founder
and executive director, told the Kern Valley Sun.
In just a few weeks, California’s water conditions have gone
from bad to terrible. Sacramento residents have been asked to
cut water usage 10%. Their counterparts on the Russian River
are being told to reduce their consumption 20%. Farmers across
the Central Valley are letting fields lie fallow and
dismantling their orchards. Government agencies are warning of
massive fish kills on the Sacramento River. After
a warm spring dried up practically the entire Sierra
Nevada snowpack — and robbed California of enough water to fill
most of Folsom Lake — state and federal officials have been
forced to dramatically ramp up their drought response plans.
A new grant will help Twain Harte turn stormwater into a
resource, say community leaders. The $3.75 million in funding
was awarded to the Twain Harte Community Services District
through the State Water Resources Control Board’s Stormwater
Grant Program. It will be used to construct the Twain Harte
Community Stormwater Enhancement Project. The district called
it an “amazing win” for the community in a press release.
[P]rivate and public stakeholders must hold Rise Gold Corp.
accountable when it promises to deliver drinkable water — a
promise it’s made — and in particular, investigate what primary
and secondary drinking water standards mean. According to the
Environmental Protection Agency, national primary drinking
water regulations are legally enforceable standards applied to
public water systems. In contrast, secondary drinking
water standards are “non-enforceable guidelines regulating
contaminants that may cause cosmetic or aesthetic effects.”
Cosmetic effects are detailed as affecting skin or teeth color,
and aesthetic effects refer to water’s taste, odor, or color.
After a wildfire, soils in burned areas often become water
repellent, leading to increased erosion and flooding after
rainfall events – a phenomenon that many scientists have
attributed to smoke and heat-induced changes in soil chemistry.
But this post-fire water repellency may also be caused by
wildfire smoke in the absence of heat, according to a new paper
from the Desert Research Institute (DRI) in Nevada.
A crippling drought — largely connected to climate change — is
gripping the Western United States, affecting over 70 million
people and around 40% of the U.S. … Farmers,
scientists, tribal officials, foresters and other groups
affected by the worsening drought testified at a House Natural
Resources Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife hearing on
Tuesday, asking lawmakers for both short-term relief and
long-term solutions from the worsening conditions.
Wildfires have burned roughly 14,000 acres in California
this year as a deepening drought grips the Southwest — more
than five times the acreage charred by the same time last
year. It’s a worrying trend that has fire officials taking
a proactive approach — from more funding to wildfire
prevention to hiring additional crews — after the state saw
its worst fire season ever in 2020. Only five
months into the year, a total of 2,340 fires have burned 14,340
acres, an increase of 1,284 fires and 11,793 acres over the
same period in 2020, according to new data from Cal Fire.
California’s drought, already rated “severe” to “extreme” for
most of the state, is expected to worsen throughout the summer,
combining with higher-than-average temperatures and dry
vegetation to steadily increase the risk of wildfires,
according to the interagency National Integrated Drought
Information System. That assessment comes in the wake of the
state’s worst wildfire season on record, 2020, which saw five
of California’s six largest recorded infernos and
extended the trend of wildfire seasons here growing longer
and more intense.
The 2021 legislative session is an anomaly. Notwithstanding
COVID, the bad water bills died early and the good ones pressed
on. That is not the norm. But it appears that more folks are
beginning to believe these are not normal times. Indeed,
this year is different. Long-time foes are singing kumbaya in
praise of AB356. The legislation, which passed both
chambers, saves 10 billion gallons of water annually in
Southern Nevada –– defending the dwindling supply of Colorado
River water by mandating the removal of all non-functional turf
by 2027 in Southern Nevada. -Written by Kyle Roerink, executive director of
the Great Basin Water Network.
California’s new drought is worsening. After two severely dry
winters, reservoirs are shrinking, fire danger is rising and
water supplies are looking more tenuous. The past two years
have been the driest in nearly half a century, since 1976-77.
How did the state find itself in a new crisis just as the COVID
pandemic is fading? Scientists say California’s parched plight
largely comes down to two words: “atmospheric river.” An
increasing body of research is showing that the state’s water
supply each year depends almost entirely on a handful of big
make-or-break storms. And the last two winters, too few
arrived.
As Elizabeth “Izzy” Martin retires after 19 years as CEO of The
Sierra Fund, the foothills celebrate the legacy and lament the
loss of one of their greatest advocates. The fund is a
nonprofit dedicated to restoring the ecosystem and building
community resiliency in the Sierra Nevada. In a year marred for
many by financial strain, the nonprofit is in a strong and
stable position to transition to new leadership, Martin
explained, which is part of the reason she’s leaving. Martin
said her career and mission have evolved with society’s
understanding and appreciation for environmental issues since
she began her vocation as an advocate on the very first Earth
Day celebration in the San Francisco Bay area in 1970.
The scale of the drought hitting the American West is beginning
to crystallize as Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona experienced
their driest year in terms of precipitation on record,
according to the National Center for Environmental Information.
In Utah and California, it was the second-driest winter on
record. For Wyoming, it was the third-driest ever. For
Colorado, only three winters were ever drier in the 127-year
history of record-keeping at the center.
The 2020 fire season was brutal for California. Wildfires
wreaked havoc across the state, burning more than 4.2 million
acres, the most in recorded history, and resulting in the
deaths of 33 people and the destruction of more than 10,000
structures. The outlook for the 2021 fire season isn’t any more
promising. A Chronicle analysis shows multiple measures of fire
danger all pointing in the same direction — California is
headed toward alarming, perhaps record-setting, dryness, and
heightened risk of wildfires.
Fossils dating back some five to ten million years have been
found in the Mokelumne River watershed in the Sierra Nevada
foothills in what’s being called one of the most significant
fossil discoveries in California history, researchers announced
Tuesday. California State University, Chico and the East Bay
Municipal Utility District (EBMUD) said the trove of fossils
was found in areas along the Mokelumne River near the town of
Valley Springs. The watershed provides drinking water to
EBMUD’s 1.4 million customers.
Updated timing on this late spring storm shows snow arriving in
the Tahoe Basin around noon Thursday. The chance of snow will
continue through Saturday with overnight snow levels dropping
as low as 4,500 feet in some areas. The heaviest accumulation
will be on Thursday with lighter showers Friday and Saturday.
Totals will range from 1-6 inches on the passes.
More wildfires. Hotter days. Drought. Sea-level rise. Those
conditions are an increasing reality in California, which is
steadily becoming an altered state. But if the grimmest
predictions of experts about our state and climate change
become true, the conditions will become far worse.
Despite the dry year, outdoor recreationists who enjoy
California rivers and streams should remain aware of
dangerously cold swiftly moving water. Although California’s
snowpack is about half of normal, rising temperatures are
accelerating the snowmelt. Pacific Gas and Electric Company
(PG&E) urges those who choose to venture near or in water
to take extra precautions, especially around hydroelectric
facilities and dams, where water flows can change rapidly.
Anglers also are encouraged to take precautions as trout season
has opened for most California rivers.
Californians are gearing up for what could be another dangerous
wildfire season, particularly in light of significant drought
conditions. Grasses, shrubs, and forests are drying out early
due to a lack of precipitation, providing potential fuel for
wildfires. Red flag warnings—when high winds and low humidity
increase fire risk—have already been issued this year across
broad swaths of the state. Small spring wildfires have put
firefighters and communities on edge. Is the state prepared for
another bad wildfire season? And how much progress has been
made to improve the resilience of vulnerable communities and
headwater forests?
“Everybody needs beauty as well as bread, places to play in and
pray in, where nature may heal and give strength to body and
soul.” Sierra Club founding member John Muir penned those words
more than a century ago as he launched a decades-long battle to
advocate for preservation of the American West. … More than a
century later, Muir’s legacy of environmental awareness lives
on through his great-grandson, Reno attorney Ross de Lipkau,
one of the state’s leading water rights experts.
California — already in the clutches of another drought
emergency — is looking over its shoulder at what happened
last time, anticipating the worst and evaluating the strategies
that worked and those that failed. So is California in a
better position to weather this drought? Some things are
worse, some better: Groundwater is still being pumped with no
statewide limits, siphoning up drinking water that rural
communities rely on. In northern counties, residents are
reliving the last disaster as water restrictions kick in again,
but in the south, enough water is stored to avoid them for now.
… The upshot is California isn’t ready — again.
As California descends deeper into drought, state regulators
are planning to do something they’ve done few times in modern
history: order thousands of people, farms, and even cities and
towns that hold historic water rights to stop drawing water
from the rivers, lakes and ponds they rely on. The move is
intended to make sure the dwindling flows in California’s
waterways are reserved for those with the most senior water
rights, as well as for fish and other wildlife. Many of those
with lesser rights would have to turn to storage, groundwater
or another source, if they have it.
The city of San Francisco is reviving a long-simmering feud
with the state over water, filing a lawsuit Friday that charges
state regulators with trying to take away the city’s coveted
Sierra Nevada water supplies. The suit claims the state water
board is demanding the city forfeit too much water from the
Tuolumne River as part of a licensing deal for two dams in the
faraway basin. State regulators have said the water is needed
to maintain proper river flows and support struggling salmon,
but city officials contend the demands would leave Bay Area
residents and businesses vulnerable to water shortages.
Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to throw $11.8 billion of California’s
money at climate change and the hazards it poses to the state.
The governor’s gargantuan revised budget proposal, released
Friday, includes expenditures to fight and prevent wildfires,
combat sea-level rise, put more Californians behind the wheel
of an electric vehicle and speed up the transition to a
carbon-free electricity grid. Nearly half of his climate change
package — $5.1 billion — would go toward easing the effects of
California’s newly-declared drought and remedying long-term
water supply problems, such as crumbling canals.
We asked some colleagues for lessons that might be useful in
managing the California’s new drought. Here is a first sampling
of thoughts. … Katrina Jessoe. Agricultural and Resource
Economics, UC Davis: Climate models indicate that
California’s droughts will become more frequent and severe.
Warming temperatures will further reduce surface water
availability, by increasing evaporation from soil, reservoirs,
and irrigated land. While reductions in surface water supplies
will be costly to agriculture, residential users and the
environment, these costs could be substantially reduced through
the reallocation of scarce supplies. Supplying water to those
who value it most will not eliminate the costs of drought, but
will make them less painful.
It’s only May, and I’m already having to write about wildfires
forcing Californians to evacuate their homes. Around 1,000
people were displaced from their homes Sunday as the Palisades
Fire in Los Angeles County grew to more than 1,300 acres. The
blaze, which was 0% contained as of Sunday afternoon, carved a
path through dense, old-growth chaparral that hadn’t burned in
more than 50 years, the Los Angeles Times reports. As such, it
embodied both California’s worsening drought and the grim
reality that its fire season is starting earlier and earlier
even as its conflagrations get larger and larger.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced
on Thursday that a key weather feature that affects global
temperature and precipitation has shifted into a “neutral,” or
average, state. La Niña, one of the factors behind last year’s
extremely active Atlantic hurricane season and a contributor to
below-average rainfall in the South and Southwest, has faded
away….In California, any drought relief associated with the
end of La Niña won’t come during the dry season that runs well
into next fall.
Senators Dianne Feinstein and Alex Padilla (both D-Calif.)
today joined with Senators Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky
Rosen (both D-Nev.) to introduce bipartisan legislation to
extend authorization of the Lake Tahoe Restoration Act. The
original Lake Tahoe Restoration Act was passed in 2000 and
authorized $300 million for the restoration of the lake and
surrounding basin. The current authorization, which was passed
in 2016, will expire in 2024. Reauthorizing the bill will
prevent an interruption in conservation and restoration
planning.
As Californians can tell by the already beige hills, the early
fire weather warnings and the dusty umbrellas sitting deep
inside closets, it’s been drier than usual this winter. And
according to decades worth of precipitation data, that’s the
new normal. What’s considered “normal” for baseline rainfall
amounts is determined by a 30-year average that gets
recalculated every decade. The latest recalculation, according
to Jan Null, a forecaster who runs Golden Gate Weather
Services, “show a noticeably drier state” through 2020 compared
to the previous “normal” calculation covering 1981 through
2010.
Tiny specks of degraded plastics have been documented in the
snowpack around Lake Tahoe — and in the lake itself. They
have been found in the Las Vegas Wash. The phenomenon is not
unique to Nevada. Microplastics, the end product of our plastic
consumption, have been found in ecosystems across the
world, even in remote areas. Microplastics are small
— less than 5 millimeters — but they are not uniform.
They can have different shapes and vary in size. Microplastics
from clothing can appear as synthetic fibers, whereas degraded
plastic from bags or water bottles might take on a different
composition.
Spring is generally a time of renewal for the watersheds of the
western United States. Warmed by the lengthening days, the
region’s towering mountain ranges shed their mantle of snow,
releasing freshets of water into welcoming streams and
reservoirs. This year, though, the cycle is in disarray.
Outside of the Olympic and Cascade ranges of Washington state,
winter snows were subpar. The spring melt has been a dud. From
the Klamath to the Colorado and Rio Grande, watersheds are
under stress once again, and water managers face difficult
tradeoffs between farms, fisheries, and at-home uses.
The Sierra Nevada snowpack, a crucial water source for
California’s cities and farms, has already dwindled to next to
nothing this year, adding to the state’s worsening drought
situation. The latest data from the state Department of Water
Resources on Tuesday showed California’s snowpack was just 6%
of normal for May 11, and 4% of the normal average for April 1.
That date is typically when California’s snowpack is the
deepest and has the highest snow water equivalent — the depth
of water that would result if the snow melted upon falling …
Amid drought conditions across the Sierra Nevada and
California, Lake Tahoe is 2.5 feet lower than it was at this
time last year, according to water data collected in Tahoe City
on May 11. … Lake Tahoe’s water typically gets a boost
from spring’s snowmelt. But as of May 11, the snowpack in the
Sierra Nevada has virtually melted, and Lake Tahoe’s water
levels are the lowest they’ve been in five
years, according to USGS data. Snow surveys on May 11
indicate California’s snowpack is just 6% of average for this
date. Barring significant precipitation this summer, Tahoe
is on track to reach a critical low point …
The state is facing major water impacts, but for those reliant
on water wells — in mobile home parks, rural communities, and
areas where water district access is limited — the concern is
growing. The Department of Water Resources has created
a website that can help those who rely on well water
to figure out just how much at-risk they are of a water
shortage. The site was created after the last drought, but
with California’s drought only recently worsening, it had not
been widely used or needed until now. The interactive map
allows users to explore their area and keep tabs on their well
water situation.
Ed Russo, CEO of RussKap Holdings LLC, announced today that his
company stands ready and able to assist California in its
ongoing quest to fight forest fires. “By using atmospheric
water generators we can have constant water flowing into
traditionally dry parched areas which will help prevent a
simple spark from igniting into a large brushfire.” … In
addition to eliminating the terrible environmental degradation
caused by fires, this solution would cost a tiny fraction of
what the power and insurance companies spend to replace damaged
homes and businesses annually.
Well, unfortunately, the overall drought trajectory has not
changed since the last post: it’s still getting worse. And
pretty rapidly worse, at that, across much of NorCal. There,
virtually no precipitation at all has fallen in places that are
usually still pretty wet in April/May, and unusually
persistent/recurrent north/northeast “blow drier” winds have
resulted in even more evaporation and snowmelt across the
landscape.
Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded his drought emergency declaration to
39 more counties Monday, underscoring the rapid deterioration
of California’s water supply in recent weeks. The governor
broadened his earlier drought order, which was limited to two
counties on the Russian River, to cover most of parched
California, which is plunging into its second major drought in
less than a decade. The new order covers the Sacramento and San
Joaquin river watersheds, the Tulare Lake basin region and the
Klamath region in far Northern California. About 30% of the
state’s population is now covered by the declarations…
