The State Water Project (SWP) is responsible for bringing
drinking water to 25 million people and provides irrigation for
750,000 acres of farmland. Without it California would never have
become the economic powerhouse it is today.
The nation’s largest state-built water and power development and
conveyance system, the SWP diverts water from the Feather River
to the Central Valley, South Bay Area and Southern California.
Its key feature is the 444-mile long California Aqueduct that can
be viewed from Interstate 5.
The SWP has required the construction of 21 dams and more than
700 miles canals, pipelines and tunnels. To reach Southern
California, the water must be pumped 2,000 feet over the
Tehachapi Mountains; it’s the highest water lift in the world.
Today, about 30 percent of SWP water is used for irrigation,
mostly in the San Joaquin Valley, and about 70 percent is used
for residential, municipal and industrial use, mainly in Southern
California but also in the Bay Area. The SWP was built and is
operated by the California Department of Water Resources.
The California Water Board released a Caution Advisory for
harmful algae blooms Monday in Lake Oroville. The blooms of
algae were discovered in the Middle Fork of the lake, according
to an advisory released on the board’s Twitter Monday.
Through the Airborne Snow Observatory program, NASA and
California’s Department of Water Resources use instruments
mounted on airplanes to create high resolution estimates of
snow water content for priority watersheds in the Western U.S.
The collected data helps determine the timing of the spring
melt, which has downstream effects on hydroelectric power
generation and planning for how much water can be held in
reservoirs.
In order to address the impacts of climate change on the
state’s water resources, the Department of Water Resources
(DWR) has been developing its own comprehensive Climate Action
Plan to guide how DWR is and will continue to address climate
change for programs, projects, and activities over which it has
authority.
Delta smelt are poor swimmers. When they have to swim against
voluminous outflows, they struggle. They also lack endurance
for distance and swimming against currents. This was the result
of the taxpayer-funded swim performance test conducted more
than 20 years ago. Why is this important?
Governor Newsom recently called for a state portfolio of
actions to manage water under rapidly changing climate and
other conditions. This post reviews the state of water
portfolio planning in California today.
The Kern County Water Agency supports the state’s “reset” to a
one-tunnel approach because it is more cost effective and still
prepares California’s water system for earthquakes and climate
change while protecting the Delta’s fish and communities.
There are more concerns over lake levels in Oroville as Butte
County leaders take initiative to explore alternative options
for safety measures. The Department of Water Resources (DWR), a
leg of the State Water Project, manages the Oroville Dam. On
Wednesday, DWR officials remained adamant in saying they have
no plans to release water from the Oroville Dam spillway.
As part of efforts by Metropolitan Water District of Southern
California (MWD) to assess its 2014-2016 turf replacement
program during the California drought, we evaluated how yards
changed after converting a lawn through a MWD rebate in LA
County. We also evaluated trends in participation across
cities.
On our August Edge of Drought Tour, we’re venturing into the
Santa Barbara area to learn about the water challenges and the
steps being taken to boost supplies. The region’s local surface
and groundwater supplies are limited, and its hydrologic
recovery often has lagged behind much of the state despite the
recent lifting of a drought emergency declaration following
this winter’s storms.
Well, apparently we’re all about to die again. The internet
says so. And while the internet often says we’re all about to
die, and we don’t, for some reason people still unquestionably
believe the next scare to come down the information highway. So
it is with the latest local scare, involving the Oroville Dam
spillway.
Mission Springs Water District alleged that Desert Water
Agency, which also provides water to more than 100,000 Palm
Springs and Cathedral City residents, made a board decision
that violated a previous settlement between the two agencies.
… Last month, the issue over groundwater management in Desert
Hot Springs picked up steam when a study group
formed by Mission Springs published a 16-page report that
lambasted Desert Water Agency’s actions…
Like everyone else in Santa Clara Valley who uses wells,
farmers will see their groundwater production charges go up 6.8
percent this year. But unlike the others, they’ll continue to
receive substantial subsidies. In approving the increased
charges for well users, the Santa Clara Valley Water District
board left intact for at least two years the current structure
that allows farmers to pay only 6 percent of the amount
residents and businesses pay.
The big conflicts are deeply interconnected and appear to be
reaching their climactic phases. How they are resolved over the
next few years will write an entirely new chapter in
California’s water history, changing priorities and perhaps
shifting water from agriculture to urban users and
environmental enhancement.
When asked about his priorities, California’s recently
appointed Natural Resources Secretary quickly rattles off a
range of topics: climate change; strengthening water supply
resilience; and building water capacity for communities,
agriculture, and the environment, among them.
In reality, the WaterFix could not increase water exports while
protecting the Delta ecosystem. That’s because California’s
snow and rainfall are highly variable, making it unlikely that
existing supplies can meet increasing water demands reliably
into the future. Plus, the science demonstrates that San
Francisco Bay’s fish and wildlife need more water, not less, to
flow from the Central Valley to the Bay.
Because of the wet weather this winter, the district is
proposing to lower its Stage Two Drought Condition to a Stage
One Drought Condition, which would lift many mandatory drought
water-use restrictions.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power has turned two
big lakes into a monster battery capable of storing enough
energy to power tens of thousands of homes. It involves using
the excess wind and solar power L.A.’s renewable energy sites
produce during the day to pump water from Castaic Lake uphill
7.5 miles to Pyramid Lake.
The California Energy Commission is offering the city of San
Luis Obispo a $3 million loan to build a 261-kilowatt solar
photovoltaic system as well as a 264-kilowatt hydroelectric
generation system — both located at the city water treatment
plant on Stenner Creek Road behind Cal Poly. By generating its
own power at the treatment facility, SLO could earn savings of
$266,863 annually compared to its current power bill.
At first blush, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest action on water
seems fanciful and naive. But it has logic and conceivably
could work. Newsom wants to reexamine practically everything
the state has been working on — meaning what former Gov. Jerry
Brown was doing — and piece together a grand plan for
California’s future that can draw the support of longtime water
warriors.
Santa Maria residents are being asked by the city to cut down
on the amount of water softeners used through the end of the
year. City officials say the city will begin delivering
better-quality municipal water with a lower mineral content.
… Using water softeners in addition to this new municipal
water could be damaging to pipes and fixtures.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call on Monday for a new comprehensive
water plan for California looks like a smart timeout on one of
the state’s trickiest and most intractable battlefronts. As
with many political hot potatoes, there is no way to make
everyone happy when it comes to water management, because the
sides have mutually exclusive goals…
By rejecting the twin tunnels proposal, Gov. Gavin Newsom has
sent an important message that new thinking is required to
address California’s complex water issues.
Every day during the winter and spring, pumping operations for
the state’s two largest water projects in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta are fine-tuned to comply with detailed
regulations via the Endangered Species Act. These same
regulations provide no similar guidance on what flows are
appropriate through the Delta and out to San Francisco Bay
during this critical time in the lifespan of species such as
salmon.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
By rejecting the twin tunnels proposal, Gov. Gavin Newsom has
sent an important message that new thinking is required to
address California’s complex water issues.
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration is taking unprecedented
steps to combat President Donald Trump’s efforts to ship more
water to his agricultural allies in the San Joaquin Valley.
Saying Trump’s water plans are scientifically indefensible and
would violate the state’s Endangered Species Act, the state
Department of Water Resources on Friday began drawing up new
regulations governing how water is pumped from the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the southern half of the state.
In court, the California Environmental Quality Act is a
familiar obstacle to projects large and small — housing
developments, solar projects, even bike lanes. It’s also lately
become a weapon in the state’s major water conflicts.
The Department of Water Resources issued notice that it will
seek an updated environmental permit to operate the State Water
Project through a state-based approach in partnership with the
California Department of Fish and Wildlife. … Historically,
DWR has received environmental coverage for its pumping
operations through environmental parameters issued by the U.S.
Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries
Service.
California State Treasurer Fiona Ma announced the competitive
sale this week of $299.6 million in California Department of
Water Resources water system revenue bonds to refinance certain
State Water Project capital improvements, including a portion
of the costs of the Oroville Dam Spillways Response, Recovery
and Restoration Project.
Federal and state water managers have coordinated operations of
the CVP and the parallel State Water Project for many decades.
… But this intergovernmental water policy Era of Good Feeling
(relatively speaking) has come to a sudden and dramatic end
with the ascension of the Trump Administration.
Currently, the city has two significant environmental impact
reports, which CEQA requires, making their way through the
development process. One is for a plan to build a 7-mile
pipeline to tap into Ventura’s long-held investment in state
water. … The other project would capture effluent from
Ventura’s wastewater treatment plant, treat it and turn it into
drinking water.
John O. McClurg, 93, passed away peacefully on March 22, 2019,
in Carmichael, California. … In January 1952 John received a
bachelor’s degree in engineering from USC and went to work for
the California Department of Water Resources in its Ventura
County field office.
Even as winter and early-spring storms have filled reservoirs
to the brim and piled snow on Sierra Nevada mountaintops, state
and federal officials say they’re limited in how much water
they can send south of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.
Venture through California’s Central Valley, known as the
nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface
water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square
miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25
percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits,
nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
In a step to secure water supplies well into the future, the
Palmdale Water District Board of Directors unanimously approved
extending the contract for water imported from Northern
California for another 50 years, to 2085. The contract with the
state Department of Water Resources for State Water Project
water … accounts for 50% or more of the district’s water
supply. It is becoming especially important as a result of
the court settlement that sets limits on groundwater pumping
for the Antelope Valley.
A long-standing feud over who should pay a $650 million bill
for state water infrastructure reared its head Tuesday, as
board members of Santa Clara County’s regional water district
weighed whether to raise water bills or ramp up reliance on
property taxes.
Zone 7 Water Agency directors have voted to renew their
participation in two water storage projects so that the water
wholesaler can continue to plan for more alternative water
sources during droughts. The board voted unanimously to
participate in phase 2 of the Sites Reservoir project, a JPA
formed in 2010 to create a reservoir 75 miles northwest of
Sacramento. … Also, by a unanimous vote, directors
committed up to $355,000 for a second phase of participation in
the expansion of Los Vaqueros Reservoir in southeastern Contra
Costa County.
A simple web search will pull up nearly a million articles,
videos and photos featuring Frank Gehrke. He’s no fashion icon
like Kim Kardashian or a dogged politician like Gov. Jerry
Brown. But he has broken a lot of news. … For 30 years,
you might have seen Gehrke on TV, the guy trudging through snow
with a measuring pole, talking about how deep the pack is each
winter on the evening news. He retired from his post as the
state’s chief snow surveyor in December, but he’s not letting
go of his snowshoes and skis anytime soon.
As his term as governor drew to a close, Jerry Brown brokered a
historic agreement among farms and cities to surrender billions
of gallons of water to help ailing fish. He also made two big
water deals with the Trump administration. It added up to
a dizzying display of deal-making. Yet as Gavin Newsom takes
over as governor, the state of water in California seems as
unsettled as ever.
The paper, published in the Journal of Environmental
Management, suggests that eliminating outdoor landscaping and
lawns could reduce water waste by 30 percent.
It recommends importing water only when Los Angeles is not
in a drought, to build a surplus of water for dry years. The
paper also argues that groundwater basins that catch stormwater
could be used to recycle water. However, making these
improvements would require the cooperation of more than 100
agencies.
A coalition of environmental groups has called on California
members of Congress to prioritize the San Luis (B.F. Sisk)
Dam seismic remediation over federal funding for new California
dams. San Luis Dam is in a very seismically active area.
Independently reviewed risk assessments for Reclamation have
shown that a large earthquake could lead to crest settlement
and overtopping of the dam, which would result in large
uncontrolled releases and likely dam failure.
In the latter half of 2018, both the federal and state
governments released new climate change assessments that
outline the projected course of climate change and its
potential effects on water resources. At the December meeting
of the California Water Commission, staff from the Department
of Water Resources and the Delta Stewardship Council were on
hand to present an overview of the newly released assessments.
Gloria Gray became chairwoman of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California on Jan. 1 and made history,
though not for the first time. She has two big goals:
seeing through a controversial public works project to build
two new California water tunnels and ensuring her agency is
represented by a more diverse group of people.
A new study out of Stanford University finds that 10 percent of
the total carbon dioxide spewed from California, Oregon,
Washington and Idaho for power generation this century is the
result of states turning to fossil fuels when water was too
sparse to spin electrical turbines at dams.
At the end of the last century, the Sierra Nevada captured an
average of 8.76 million acre-feet of water critical to the
nation’s largest food-producing region. By mid-century, a new
study projects, the average will fall to 4 million acre-feet;
and by century’s end, 1.81 million acre-feet.
Prompted by the collapse of fish populations, the State Water
Resources Control Board is trying to prevent humans from
totally drying up these rivers each year. The regulators’
lodestar for how much water the rivers need is the amount of
water a Chinook salmon needs to migrate.
Dam inspectors overlooked technical details during safety
evaluations that could have identified structural problems with
the Oroville Dam spillway before it broke during heavy rains in
February 2017, according to an assessment ordered by the
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. FERC assembled an
independent, six-person panel to assess the safety inspections
that are required every five years for the roughly 2,500
hydropower facilities that FERC regulates.
Despite the last few storms that brought the North State much
needed rain, this water year has been relatively dry, and those
conditions are reflected in the Department of Water Resources’
initial State Water Project allocations.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
Employees of the state Department of Water Resources, with the
help of firefighting crews, were cutting brush and watering
down landscapes around Lake Oroville to prevent the
117,000-acre blaze from damaging the reservoir’s
infrastructure, including the 770-foot-tall Oroville Dam.
This tour ventured through California’s Central
Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an
imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering
about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state,
the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40
percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout
the country.
President Donald Trump on Friday ordered the government to
speed up environmental reviews and streamline regulations that
he says are hindering work on major water projects in
California and other Western states. Trump signed a memorandum
aimed at helping the Central Valley Project and the California
State Water Project in California, the Klamath Irrigation
Project in Oregon and California and the Columbia River Basin
system in the Pacific Northwest.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic
landscape as we learn about the issues associated with a key
source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants will get an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
Another attempt by the state Department of Water Resources to
have the Butte County District Attorney’s lawsuit against the
department thrown out was thwarted Friday. The civil suit stem
from the Oroville Dam crisis and the alleged 3.4 billion to 5.1
billion pounds of debris which fell from the collapsing
spillway into the Feather River in February 2017.
Nearly six decades ago, shortly after becoming governor, Pat
Brown persuaded the Legislature and voters to approve one of
the nation’s largest public works projects, the State Water
Plan. New reservoirs in Northern California, including the
nation’s highest dam at Oroville on the Feather River, would
capture runoff from snowfall in the Sierra, and a massive
aqueduct would carry water southward to San Joaquin Valley
farms and fast-growing Southern California cities.
A local oversight committee will get to have a say as long-term
changes are considered for the Oroville Dam, after Sen. Jim
Nielsen and Assemblyman James Gallagher recently came to an
agreement with the state Department of Water Resources.
A Butte County Superior Court judge will determine where
lawsuits against the state Department of Water Resources for
the Oroville Dam crisis will be considered in a written ruling.
This comes as Judge Tamara Mosbarger heard arguments on Friday
from plaintiffs and the defendant.
Splitting California into three new states would scramble
nearly every segment of government that touches residents’
lives, from taxes to Medi-Cal to driver’s licenses. … But of
all the gargantuan tasks facing Californians should they choose
to divide themselves by three — a proposal that has qualified
for the November ballot — none is arguably more daunting than
carving up the state’s water supply.
A lawsuit filed by Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey
against the state Department of Water Resources over
environmental damages resulting from the Oroville Dam spillway
crisis is moving forward in court. Butte County Superior Court
Judge Stephen Benson overruled DWR’s demurrer, which is
essentially a plea to have a case dismissed, through a written
ruling filed on May 31.
The Legislature created the Department of Water Resources in
1956 for the purpose of managing the State Water Project, then
in its early stages of planning. … AB 3045 would create
a new State Water Project Commission under the state’s Natural
Resources Agency to run the project – the agency, whose
secretary serves in the governor’s cabinet, has broad authority
over DWR.
The California Department of Water Resources announced Monday
this year’s allocation has been raised to 35 percent of full
distribution, or 1.48 million acre-feet of water statewide.
(One acre foot is enough to cover one acre of land with a foot
of water.) As of last month, the agency planned to distribute
only 30 percent of normal.
We traveled deep into California’s
water hub and traverse the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a
720,000-acre network of islands and canals that supports the
state’s water system and is California’s most crucial water and
ecological resource. The tour made its way to San Francisco Bay,
and included a ferry ride.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency recently told north
state congressmen Doug LaMalfa and John Garamendi that the
agency is still reviewing whether the state Department of Water
Resources is eligible for further reimbursement to fix the
Oroville Dam spillway.
A bill proposed by Assemblyman James Gallagher which would take
the State Water Project out of the hands of the state
Department of Water Resources passed unanimously on Tuesday
through a legislative committee. Assembly Bill 3045 passed 15-0
through the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee and
is now headed to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.
There are 34 storage facilities, 30 dams, 23 pumping plants and
nine hydroelectric power generation plants that are part of the
California State Water Project, and the Department of Water
Resources is in charge of not only operating but also of
inspecting all of them. Local Assemblyman James Gallagher says
that’s a conflict of interest, and a bill he’s pushing looks to
take some of that authority away from DWR.
The nearly 30 contractors that are part of the State Water
Project are expected to receive 30 percent of the water they
have requested for 2018 – up from January’s estimate of 20
percent – according to the Department of Water Resources. DWR
Director Karla Nemeth stated in a news release that late
precipitation and snow in March contributed to the rise in
projected allocations.
While some construction continues at Oroville Dam, the bulk of
work under phase two is expected to begin May 8, state
Department of Water Resources officials said Wednesday in a
monthly media update call. This comes as DWR submitted an
updated 2017-2018 Lake Oroville operations plan on Tuesday to
the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the California
Division of Safety of Dams for approval.
Oroville Dam operators said Tuesday they may have to release
water over a partially rebuilt spillway for the first time
since repairs began on the badly damaged structure last summer.
Department of Water Resources officials said anticipated storms
could trigger releases this week or next.
The storms of March may not have rained glory on the state, but
they dropped enough snow on the Sierra to greatly improve the
drought situation and, with another storm rolling in this week,
water resources officials believe thirsty California will make
it through the year.
We ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as
the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface
water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square
miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25
percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits,
nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
State Parks workers were pulling cable up a launch ramp at
Bidwell Marina Thursday because the water level in Lake
Oroville is on the rise. March’s storms have brought the lake
level up almost 13 feet since the start of the month, according
to the Department of Water Resources website.
After a historically wet season last year, relatively little
precipitation has fallen this year in California during two of
the three historically wettest months. Officials are urging
stricter water conservation and caution drier months ahead.
After last week’s rains, the Sierra snowpack — a critical
factor in water availability — climbed to just 39 percent of
normal.
California water officials tromped through long-awaited fresh
snowdrifts in the Sierra Nevada mountains Monday, but a welcome
late-winter storm still left the state with less than half the
usual snow for this late point in the state’s important rain
and snow season.
The storm that wrought avalanches at ski resorts and whiteouts
on mountain roads last week was so fierce that California water
officials postponed their much-anticipated monthly survey of
snow depth, setting the stage for potentially better news this
week.
Welcome drifts of fresh snow await California’s water managers
on their late-winter survey of the vital Sierra Nevada snowpack
Monday after a massive winter storm slowed the state’s plunge
back into drought. The storm piled snow by the foot in the
mountains, forcing Department of Water Resources officials to
postpone the measurement for a few days.
Dams and reservoirs under the jurisdiction of the California
Department of Water Resources will be inspected more regularly
thanks to a new law Gov. Jerry Brown signed this week. What
does this mean for Tulare County’s reservoirs and aging dams,
Kaweah and Success?
Locals who lost business or saw their property value decrease
because of the Oroville Dam crisis are anxious to be reimbursed
through a class action lawsuit filed last week. … There
is a variety of plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit,
including a child care facility, a water ski shop, a ranch and
a ministry.
A year ago, nearly 200,000 Northern California residents were
alarmed by an alert from the state Department of Water
Resources informing them of the potential failure of the
auxiliary spillway at the Oroville Dam. … Everything
department officials do at the Oroville Dam affects our [state
Sen. Jim Nielsen] community — from the water level to the
outflow.
Amid record-setting heat in the state’s south, California’s
water managers will measure the Sierra Nevada snowpack, which
supplies water to millions. Department of Water Resources
officials will trek to the mountains Thursday to check the snow
depth, one gauge of the state’s water supply.
More than 40 farmers and business owners in the Oroville area
sued the state Wednesday over the effects of the Oroville Dam
crisis, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.
The Department of Water Resources said Monday it currently
expects to provide customers of the State Water Project with
just 20 percent of their requested amounts.
After a 5-month stint running California’s Department of Water
Resources, Grant Davis was reappointed Tuesday to his prior job
as general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency. The Board
of Supervisors, acting as directors of the Water Agency,
unanimously agreed to reinstate Davis, commending him as a
trusted leader with a proven track record in the area.
Get a unique view of the San Joaquin Valley’s key dams and
reservoirs that store and transport water on our March Central
Valley Tour.
Our Central Valley
Tour, March 14-16, offers a broad view of water issues
in the San Joaquin Valley. In addition to the farms, orchards,
critical habitat for threatened bird populations, flood bypasses
and a national wildlife refuge, we visit some of California’s
major water infrastructure projects.
Critics who say state water policy tilts too far toward
Southern California got additional ammunition last week, when
Gov. Jerry Brown named a new director to run his Department of
Water Resources. New DWR Director Karla Nemeth is married to
Tom Philp, an executive strategist with the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California.
An investigation into last winter’s near catastrophe at
Oroville Dam uncovered a litany of problems with how the dam
was built and maintained, but one of them stands out: Even as
workers built the dam, they were raising alarms about the
eroded, crumbling rock on which they were directed to lay
concrete for the 3,000-foot-long main flood control spillway.
The city of Oroville filed a lawsuit against the state
Department of Water Resources Wednesday which alleges
fabricated maintenance reports, racial discrimination and
decades of mismanagement led to the Oroville Dam spillway
failure last February.
A lawsuit filed Wednesday against the state water agency in
charge of the Oroville Dam not only alleges mismanagement and
disregard for the public’s safety, but also a toxic work
environment rife with racism, sexual harassment and theft.
Faced with a shortage of money and political support after
seven years of work, Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration is
working on a plan to scale back one of his key legacy projects,
a $17 billion proposal to build two massive tunnels under the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta to make it easier to move
water from Northern California to the south.
The grassy brown Sierra meadow where California’s water
managers gave the results of the winter’s first manual snowpack
measurements Wednesday told the story — the drought-prone state
is off to another unusually dry start in its vital winter rain
and snow season. “We would like to have had more snow,” Grant
Davis, head of California’s Department of Water Resources, told
news crews gathered in this mountain field, bare of all but a
few crusty dots of old snow.
We ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as
the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface
water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square
miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25
percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits,
nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
The state Department of Water Resources on Thursday, Nov. 30,
announced an initial water allocation of 15 percent for most of
its State Water Project contractors for 2018. The low
percentage is a conservative figure, which is typical of the
department’s early season forecast.
Phase two of construction at Oroville Dam — with work on both
spillways — might prove more challenging than the first feat,
the contractor’s project director said in a media call
Thursday. … DWR [California Department of Water
Resources] will hold two community meetings next week.
Oroville’s mayor said Thursday she knew about cracks in the
replacement spillway at the troubled dam nearby and is not
concerned, but heaped criticism on state water officials for
failing to communicate with her town. Linda Dahlmeier said the
Department of Water Resources should have proactively
communicated that cracks were expected but has instead created
a “firestorm” in a community that was rattled by sudden
evacuation orders last February.
California’s wettest months of the year are still to come, but
the state’s largest water reservoirs already appear to be in
decent shape. As of Nov. 27, most of California’s major
reservoirs were above their historical averages for this time
of year, according to the Department of Water Resources.
Hairline cracks have been detected in sections of the newly
reconstructed flood-control spillway at Oroville Dam. State and
federal officials said they’re confident the cracks don’t pose
a safety problem and don’t need to be repaired.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
This tour traveled deep into California’s water hub and traversed
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, a 720,000-acre network of
islands and canals that supports the state’s water system and is
California’s most crucial water and ecological resource. The
tour made its way to San Francisco Bay and
included a ferry ride.
For as long as agriculture has existed in the Central Valley,
farmers have pumped water from the ground to sustain their
livelihood and grow food consumed by much of the nation. This has
caused the ground in certain places to sink, sometimes
dramatically, eliminating valuable aquifer storage space that can
never be restored.
The Oroville Dam flood control spillway has been fixed.
… In addition, [state Department of Water Resources
Director Grant] Davis said “repairs and updates” are already
being made at some of the 93 other dams around California where
the state ordered intensive inspections in the wake of the
Oroville crisis.
California is launching an overall safety review of the
nation’s tallest dam to pinpoint any needed upgrades in the
half-century-old structure, water officials said Wednesday,
launching the kind of overarching review called for by an
independent national panel of experts in September following
the collapse of two spillways at Oroville Dam.
Survey results largely showed that respondents weren’t happy
with how things went down this past February at the Lake
Oroville spillways and the events that followed. Most
respondents expressed their concerns were with the California
Department of Water Resources.
The state Department of Water Resources intends to open the
spillway boat launch ramp after construction at the dam is
complete, but there is a possibility it will stay out of
commission, according to a department official. The spillway
boat launch is the largest on the lake, with up to 12 lanes
when the water is high enough.
With just more than two weeks until the initial reconstruction
of the main spillway at Lake Oroville is supposed to be
completed, the Department of Water Resources released
operations plan for the reservoir for this coming flood season.
In February, a huge hole opened in the Lake Oroville main
spillway. The cause of the hole is still undetermined. …
State and federal agencies devised a plan to quickly repair or
replace the structures at the lake.
For months, regional water officials were prevented from
recharging drought-depleted water basins in the San Gabriel
Valley and southeast Los Angeles County because they feared an
infestation of an invasive shellfish that could destroy local
ecosystems.
Like every autumn, October is bringing cooler weather, changing
leaves and pumpkins to fields across California. But unlike the
past five years, when a historic drought gripped the state,
there’s something new across the landscape: full reservoirs.
Repairs to the Oroville Dam spillway are on track for the Nov.
1 deadline, state Department of Water Resources representatives
say, but work will be far from over then.
Bad design and construction of the tallest U.S. dam a
half-century ago and inadequate state and federal oversight
since then led to a disastrous spillway collapse in February,
an independent national team of dam safety experts said Tuesday
as they urged tougher safety reviews nationwide.
State dam operators have issued a new report that refutes
troubling allegations raised by a catastrophic engineering
expert who contends Oroville Dam may be dangerously leaking.
Slowly – but surely – we are learning that the
near-catastrophic failure of Oroville Dam’s main spillway
wasn’t truly caused by weather, even though the state claims
that in seeking federal aid for repairs. Rather, it resulted
from poor engineering and construction when the nation’s
highest dam was rising more than a half-century ago as the
centerpiece of the State Water Project, and poor maintenance
since its completion.
California Gov. Jerry Brown last week appointed Grant Davis as
director of the state’s Department of Water Resources. Davis,
54, general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency, brings
an unusual resume to the job. … Davis assumes the DWR
director’s job on Aug. 1, and Water Deeply recently talked to
him about his plans.
Grant Davis, general manager of the Sonoma County Water Agency,
was tapped Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown as the state’s new
director for the Department of Water Resources, handing a
veteran of North Bay politics and water policy a central role
in Brown’s controversial bid to overhaul California’s water
system with a $17 billion pair of tunnels under Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta.
The Golden State’s system of 154 major reservoirs is holding
34,464,000 acre-feet according to the most recent June 12 state
report with data pulled from an array of entities that own and
manage these bodies of water, including the Department of Water
Resources, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Army Corps of
Engineers and several city water departments.
Not just concrete and rebar, but “human and organizational”
factors that could have contributed to the emergency at the
Oroville Dam spillway will be included in the investigation
currently underway by an independent team of experts assembled
by two national dam associations.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry for the impact on your lives,” Bill
Croyle told a crowd of more than 250 people at the Butte County
Fairgrounds. Croyle, the acting director of the Department of
Water Resources, answered questions and listened Thursday
evening as people stepped up to a microphone and were heard
during the first of the water agency’s community meetings about
the Oroville Dam spillway disaster and evacuations.
A coalition of environmental groups that had warned Oroville
Dam’s emergency spillway was fatally flawed long before it
nearly washed away this winter is demanding that federal
regulators open up dam repair plans for public vetting.
Late in the afternoon of Feb. 12, Sheriff Kory Honea was at the
emergency operations center for the tallest dam in America when
he overheard someone say something that stopped him in his
tracks: “This is not good.”
The state Department of Water Resources has completed its
schedule of community meetings it will be holding to provide
information about the ongoing Oroville Dam spillway repairs.
State officials said Friday Southern California water agencies
will soon get close to a full of allotment of water — 85
percent — following several winter storms that broke rain and
snow records across the state.
State officials have reopened the damaged spillway at Oroville
Dam as another set of rainstorms began moving across Northern
California. … Water will continue pouring down the spillway
for up to two weeks, depending on how much more rain falls.
The Department of Water Resources announced that contractors
north of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta will receive full
allocations this year. Those south of the Delta, including the
giant Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, will
get 85 percent of what they’ve requested.
Blowing past state officials’ financial projections, three
construction contractors submitted bids for the Oroville Dam
repairs that begin at $275 million, the Department of Water
Resources said Saturday. … DWR said it would spend the
weekend reviewing the bids and declare a winner Monday.
In their 70s and 80s now, some men who built the Oroville Dam
still remember those tough days well, some 50-odd years later.
Most of the people they worked with have since passed on, but
some of the former construction workers who are living in
Oroville have continued to meet up over the years.
Lake Oroville is dropping about 4 feet a day and the Feather
River is running high, as the Department of Water Resources
empties space in the lake to absorb storm runoff and snowmelt.
A state reservoir at the starting point to ship Delta water to
23 million Californians has been damaged by heavy water flows
this winter — which may trigger a temporary shutdown of the
state’s giant water pumps.
State officials say that it will take 30 to 45 days to repair
damage detected this week at a key point in the state’s system
for shipping water from the Delta to farms in the San Joaquin
Valley and to cities from Silicon Valley to Los Angeles.
With water soon set to flow down the damaged spillway at
Oroville Dam, some residents are cautiously confident in
repairs and haven’t checked the newly minted evacuation plans
yet.
State officials said Wednesday that Californians reliant on
water pumped out of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta won’t face
supply shortages, even as crews shut down a massive pumping
station that serves much of Southern California for at least a
month to make repairs to its intake reservoir.
California water officials, still struggling with fixes at
Oroville Dam, will have to temporarily shut down the pumping
station that delivers water to much of Southern California and
Silicon Valley after discovering damage at another key state
reservoir.
A damaged flood control spillway at the Oroville Dam may have
to be used as early as next week as storm runoff and snowmelt
continue to fill the massive reservoir on the Feather River,
state water officials said.
Just how many people are out working at Oroville Dam in
response to the spillway emergency and how much is it going to
cost? Both reporters and elected representatives have struggled
to get an answer to that question.
Crews worked Tuesday to clean up dirt and debris from the base
of Oroville Dam and biologists rush to save stranded fish after
state officials shut off the flow of water from a damaged
spillway at the Northern California lake.
For three weeks, Oroville Dam’s fractured main spillway and the
surrounding hillsides have taken a nearly nonstop pounding. The
stunning waterfall crashing down what’s left of the 3,000-foot
concrete span has split the spillway in two and carved massive
canyons on either side.
The Department of Water Resources plans to remove at least some
of the debris at the bottom of the Oroville Dam spillway and
study the structure, but just aren’t sure when they’ll have a
chance to do that.
Jeffrey Mount, a leading expert on California water policy,
remembers the last time a crisis at the Oroville Dam seemed
likely to prompt reform. It was 1997 and the lake
risked overflowing, while levees further downstream failed
and several people died.
Rainwater erosion alongside the Oroville Dam’s main spillway
appears to have contributed to the heavy damage that prompted a
crisis, forcing more than 100,000 to be evacuated from their
homes, a report reviewed by The Times showed.
Officials raced to drain more water from a lake behind battered
Oroville Dam as new storms began rolling into Northern
California on Wednesday and tested the quick repairs made to
damaged spillways that raised flood fears.
Six months before rushing water ripped a huge hole in a channel
that drains a Northern California reservoir, state inspectors
said the concrete spillway was sound. As officials puzzle
through how to repair Oroville Dam spillway, federal regulators
have ordered the state to figure out what went wrong.
With both spillways badly damaged and a new storm approaching,
America’s tallest dam on Tuesday became the site of a desperate
operation to fortify the massive structures before they face
another major test. … In a sign of the progress made
Tuesday, officials downgraded the evacuation order to a
warning, allowing all evacuated residents to return home.
Congressional representatives said Monday they were stunned to
learn that Oroville did not have a backup spillway paved with
concrete that could be safely used if the main one was damaged.
Governor Jerry Brown has issued an emergency order on Sunday
night to increase California’s response to the Oroville Dam
emergency spillway possibly on the verge of breaking.
Water levels dropped Monday at California’s Lake Oroville,
stopping water from spilling over a massive dam’s potentially
hazardous emergency spillway after authorities ordered the
evacuation of nearly 200,000 people from towns lying below the
lake. California Department of Water Resources officials are
waiting for the light of dawn to inspect an erosion scar on the
spillway at the Oroville Dam, the nation’s largest.
Unchecked groundwater use is colliding with seesawing weather
patterns to produce a new act in California’s long-running
tragedy of the commons. According to NASA and European Space
Agency data released on February 8, parts of the California
aqueduct on the west side of the San Joaquin Valley, near
Avenal, sank more than two feet between 2013 and 2016 as
farmers pumped records amounts of groundwater during the
state’s historic drought.
The mass evacuations underway below the Oroville Dam capped a
week of frantic efforts to prevent flooding as America’s
tallest dam reached capacity and its main spillway was severely
damaged.
More than a decade ago, federal and state officials and
some of California’s largest water agencies
rejected concerns that the massive earthen spillway at
Oroville Dam — at risk of collapse Sunday night and prompting
the evacuation of 185,000 people — could erode during heavy
winter rains and cause a catastrophe.
A gaping hole in the spillway for the tallest dam in the United
States has grown and California authorities said they expect it
will continue eroding as water washes over it but the Oroville
Dam and the public are safe.
As storm runoff poured into fast rising Lake Oroville Thursday,
the state resumed releases down the reservoir’s damaged
spillway, creating dramatic scenes of muddy torrents gushing
over the concrete chute.
With stormwater and snowmelt pouring into the reservoir faster
than expected, the operator of the crippled Oroville Dam said
it was likely water would have to be released from the
facility’s emergency spillway as soon as Saturday – a
last-ditch alternative that officials had been hoping to avoid.
Faced with rising reservoir levels, state engineers on
Wednesday were trying to figure out how much water they could
send down Lake Oroville’s damaged spillway.
As a test run at the Oroville Dam spillway commenced Wednesday
afternoon, the director of the Department of Water Resources
said at a press conference in Sacramento he expected the bottom
of the spillway to be eroded away by spring, with a replacement
completed by fall.
State engineers gingerly began releasing water again through
the damaged Oroville Dam spillway Wednesday in a controlled
test to see how much water the scarred facility could handle,
as reservoir levels continued to climb behind the critical
flood-control structure.
Flows from one of California’s biggest supplies of drinking
water were suspended Tuesday after a massive hole opened in the
Oroville Dam spillway amid heavy rains.
Water officials dramatically increased flows on the American
and Sacramento rivers Monday to lessen the flooding risk ahead
of big storms coming Monday and Tuesday night.
State and federal water managers ramped up water releases from
Sacramento Valley dams Monday afternoon to make space for the
water due to come from the storm that was expected to arrive
overnight.
After five years of drought, could California really have so
much rain and snow there’s no room to store all the water? …
One month into an exceptionally stormy 2017, river flows though
the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta have been so powerful that the
massive pumps that ship north-state water to Southern
California and the San Joaquin Valley have roared at full
throttle for weeks.
State Water Project contractors will get 60 percent of the
water they want this year due to the storms that have filled
Lake Oroville and buffered the snowpack in the hills above.
With major reservoirs nearly full, the Sierra Nevada snowpack
well above average and flood warnings in place for some rivers,
federal scientists reported Thursday a continued weakening of
California’s drought. … Even as state officials urged
caution, they announced Wednesday that cites [sic] and farms
will receive at least 60 percent of the maximum amount of water
they are contracted to buy in the coming year from the State
Water Project, up from just 20 percent two months ago.
Southern California can expect to see its reservoirs continue
to rise this year after state water officials announced
increased water deliveries from Northern California on
Wednesday, Jan. 18.
No patterns, lots of blooms and more to learn. … For the
first time, the state tracked outbreaks of cyanobacteria,
commonly known as blue-green algae, confirming reports of
blooms in approximately 40 different lakes, rivers, streams and
other water bodies across the state, including Lake Elsinore,
Pyramid and Silverwood lakes and lakes at the El Dorado East
Regional Park in Long Beach.
California officials, acknowledging the wet start to winter, on
Wednesday more than doubled the expected allocation of water
from the State Water Project.
With the rainy season off to a strong start, California
officials on Wednesday more than doubled the amount of water
they expect to provide next year from the State Water Project.
Pyramid Lake is now infested with ecosystem-altering Quagga
Mussels after state officials found six of the non-native
freshwater mollusks Thursday in a tunnel that connects the lake
with another body of water along the state’s water delivery
system.
Rains have drenched Northern California, where most of the
state’s largest reservoirs are located. The state had the
second wettest October since the Department [of Water
Resources] began keeping records in 1921.
Flowing into the heart of the Mojave Desert, the Mojave River
exists mostly underground. Surface channels are usually dry
absent occasional groundwater surfacing and flooding
from extreme weather events like El Niño.
With a holding capacity of more than 260 billion gallons, Diamond
Valley Lake is
Southern California’s largest reservoir. It sits about 90
miles southeast of Los Angeles and just west of Hemet in
Riverside County where it was built in 2000. The offstream
reservoir was created by three large dams that connect the surrounding
hills, costing around $1.9 billion and doubling the region’s
water storage capacity.
State and federal reservoir levels have been dropping at
dramatically different rates for the last couple of months, for
reasons that figure into last week’s discussions about the twin
tunnels under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
After watching her 13-year-old son throw up everything he ate
when they got home from a day of jet skiing at Pyramid Lake,
Sharyn Martinez was angered to learn last week that the state
is now urging the public to avoid the water there because of a
toxic algal bloom.
California will deliver more water this year than it has for
each of the last three, as spring storms have nearly filled the
state’s major reservoirs, officials said Thursday.
In another sign that the so-called “Miracle March” storms in
Northern California helped ease the state’s drought, farms and
cities reliant on the State Water Project learned Thursday that
they’ll likely get 60 percent of the water deliveries they
requested from the state, an increase from a month ago.
Deliveries from the State Water Project are now forecast to be
45 percent of what was requested, still less than what’s
supplied during most wet years but more than what’s been
allocated since the first year of the drought.
Saying too much water is flowing out to sea, U.S. Sen. Dianne
Feinstein on Friday called on operators of the federal and
state water projects to pump more water south through the Delta
to drought-stricken farms and cities in Central and Southern
California.
With a bit more snow in the Sierra than in years past,
California officials on Wednesday boosted the amount of water
they expect to deliver this year from the state’s mountain-fed
reservoirs.
Recent El Nino storms have boosted the Sierra Nevada snowpack
to 115 percent of normal – more than the drought-stricken state
has seen in five years, officials said Tuesday.
The Department of Water Resources, mindful of the fruits of the
El Niño weather pattern, boosted expected water deliveries to
cities and farms from last month’s scant projection of 10
percent of what was requested to a slightly better 15 percent.
The recent onslaught of El Nino storms only slightly increased
the levels of California reservoirs that now stand at half of
historic depths for this time of year, federal officials said
Friday while releasing an initial water outlook for 2016.
California officials said Tuesday they expect to deliver just
10 percent of normal supplies from the State Water Project next
year, or half as much as this year.
California officials announced Tuesday that the state’s massive
water delivery system, which carries mountain runoff to cities
and farms, will likely supply 10 percent of the water requested
next year due to the drought — half of what was provided this
year.
Water year 2016 began with the potential for heavy El Niño rains
that captured the attention of the public. State and federal
officials knew that California’s drought-stricken reservoirs
would not recover that quickly.
Hydrologic conditions, precipitation patterns, the need for
fishery flows, and forecasts of state and federal water project
operations were all discussed at a special FREE briefing
held February 23, 2016. Sponsored by the California
Department of Water Resources and the Water Education Foundation,
the briefing was held at the Sacramento Convention Center, Room
202.
Sacramento Convention Center
1400 J Street, Room 204
Say you built a new house. A big, sturdy house, designed to
meet the needs of your family for generations to come. After 30
years, the roof starts leaking. The furnace breaks. The paint
peels, and wood trim begins to rot. Would you make repairs?
When Edmund G. Brown Sr. was governor of California, people
were moving in at a pace of 1,000 a day. … He was the
boom-boom governor for a boom-boom time: championing highways,
universities and, most consequential, a sprawling water network
to feed the explosion of agriculture and development in the dry
reaches of central and Southern California.
