California’s climate, characterized by warm, dry summers and mild
winters, makes the state’s water supply unpredictable. For
instance, runoff and precipitation in California can be quite
variable. The northwestern part of the state can receive more
than 140 inches per year while the inland deserts bordering
Mexico can receive less than 4 inches.
By the Numbers:
Precipitation averages about 193 million acre-feet per year.
In a normal precipitation year, about half of the state’s
available surface water – 35 million acre-feet – is collected in
local, state and federal reservoirs.
California is home to more than 1,300 reservoirs.
About two-thirds of annual runoff evaporates, percolates into
the ground or is absorbed by plants, leaving about 71 million
acre-feet in average annual runoff.
The massive climate and healthcare package that passed
Sunday in the Senate includes $4 billion to help shore up
the rapidly dwindling Colorado River and its massive
reservoirs. California officials who are pushing to meet an
August deadline for huge water savings in Lake Mead and Lake
Powell praised the bill’s passage…. Officials with two
powerful southern California agencies — the Imperial Irrigation
District serving rural farmers and the Metropolitan Water
District serving greater Los Angeles — are haggling
over 400,000 acre-feet in possible reductions, as reported
Thursday by The Desert Sun.
In a drought-prone area like Los Angeles, rainwater provides
tremendous potential to boost local water supply, as well as
provide multiple other ecosystem and community benefits. That’s
why in 2018, L.A. County voters approved Measure W, a tax that
raises about $280 million annually to capture, clean and reuse
water runoff. Measure W and the program it created, the Safe
Clean Water Program, funds projects to clean and strengthen the
local water supply and build community resilience. Research by
the UCLA Luskin Center for Innovation and Stantec is helping to
ensure that these investments benefit all Angelenos, especially
residents of disadvantaged communities, as the program already
calls for.
A natural resources investment company announced Thursday it
intends to allocate up to 5,000 acre-feet of water annually to
the Salton Sea and Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe
as part of a public-private partnership intended to help
reinvigorate the dying Salton Sea and ensure reliable potable
water for communities on tribal land. Los Angeles-based Cadiz
Inc. said that an agreement with the Salton Sea Authority,
tribe and Coachella Valley Water District will be part of a
wider water distribution enterprise known as the Cadiz Water
Conservation & Storage Project, which originally focused on
drawing water from the Colorado River and delivering it to
Southern California metropolitan areas via a single pipeline.
Charlie Hamilton hasn’t irrigated his vineyards with water from
the Sacramento River since early May, even though it flows just
yards from his crop. Nearby to the south, the industrial
Bay Area city of Antioch has supplied its people with water
from the San Joaquin River for just 32 days this year, compared
to roughly 128 days by this time in a wet year. They may be
close by, but these two rivers, central arms
of California’s water system, have become too salty to use
in some places as the state’s punishing drought drags on.
Water is the lifeblood in the parched San Joaquin Valley,
sustaining endless acres of trees, seeds and pastures that feed
a hungry nation. But a controversial pipeline sits empty, as
dry as dust, caught in an angry feud between two of
California’s largest land barons, Silicon Valley developer and
farmer John Vidovich and Pasadena-based longtime cotton king
J.G. Boswell Company. Vidovich needs the pipe to move water.
The Boswell Company wants it blocked, saying it threatens the
company’s own water supplies, which run through a canal over
the pipeline’s underground route.
The drinking water for a family near Keyes comes from an
unusual source: It’s extracted from air. Such systems could
help parts of the Central Valley with polluted wells, and parts
of the world where water is always in short supply. The idea is
being tested by the Valley Water Collaborative, which has
delivered free bottled supplies since last year in parts of
Stanislaus and Merced counties. The new system yields just
10 gallons a day, but that’s enough for the drinking and
cooking needs of a typical household.
Millions of people in the Western U.S. are at risk of seeing
reduced access to both water and power as two of the nation’s
biggest reservoirs continue to dry up inch by inch. The United
Nations issued a warning on Tuesday that the water levels in
Lake Mead and Lake Powell are at their lowest ever and are
getting perilously close to reaching “dead pool
status.” Such a status means that the water levels are so
low that water can’t flow downstream to power hydroelectric
stations. At Lake Mead, located in Nevada and
Arizona, the country’s largest artificial body of water, levels
have gotten so low that it’s essentially become a graveyard
– human remains, dried-out fish and a sunken
boat dating back to World War II …
Knowing they are targets, farmers in southern Arizona and
California who receive irrigation water from the Colorado River
are discussing a plan that could go a long way toward meeting a
federal conservation mandate in the drying basin. With key
reservoirs Mead and Powell at record lows and despite the
continued decline of the Salton Sea, federal officials are
demanding historic cuts in water use next year, on the order of
2 million to 4 million acre-feet, or roughly one-third of the
river’s recent annual flow.
No matter where you look at Lake Shasta you can see the
dramatic “bathtub ring” – bright orange soil contrasting with
the blue water and the green tree line. It’s a visual
reminder of the severity of California’s drought, and one not
seen on a day-to-day basis in places like the Bay Area. But for
those who work and live at Lake Shasta, it serves as a
daily warning. … The lake was last completely full in
2019. The all-time low point for Lake Shasta was in 1977 when
the lake was 230-feet below its maximum level. The very
next year, after a very wet winter, it was nearly full.
EPA is poised to announce a new rule that would require states
to oversee more than 1,000 water utilities’ cybersecurity
plans, according to a top White House official. Anne Neuberger,
deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging
technology, said at an event hosted by the Center for a New
American Security that EPA will be issuing a rule “shortly” to
expand the regular reviews to include cybersecurity as threats
at facilities mount across the country.
In their pleas to Western states to cut back on water use from
the Colorado River Basin, federal officials are keenly focused
on keeping Lake Powell’s elevation at 3,490 feet — the minimum
needed to keep hydropower humming at Glen Canyon Dam. But if
federal efforts can’t stop the reservoir from shrinking to new
lows — its elevation is 3,536 feet as of Monday — the lights
going out might not even be the worst problem. If it dips 60
feet below its current level, the already dwindling Colorado
River could trickle down into a fraction of what is expected
for states below the dam, a new analysis by conservation groups
found.
The forests and meadows of the Sierra Nevada, Coast Range, and
Cascade Mountains are the source waters for much of the
Sacramento River Basin and the State of California. Healthy
headwaters ensure increased water supply reliability and
reduced flooding risks, improved water quality, reduced impacts
from catastrophic wildfires, increased renewable energy
supplies, enhanced habitat, and improved response to climate
change and extreme weather.
It wasn’t until she was 26 and had one degree in environmental
science and another in water recycling that Nina Gordon-Kirsch
learned where the water in her faucet came from. The Mokelumne
River, which carries snowmelt from the Sierras through the
Central Valley and out to the San Francisco Bay delta, is
surprisingly little-known considering how many lives depend on
it.
This month will be a moment of truth for Arizona cities. The
Federal Bureau of Reclamation is scheduled to release its
“24-month study” that announces how much water Lake Powell and
Lake Mead will release in 2023. Meanwhile, seven western states
must also present a plan to dramatically cut 2-4 million
acre-feet of water. According to federal records, that amounts
to as much as 25% of water allocated to the states.
A key priority of the Newsom Administration – the Delta
Conveyance Project – has officially entered its next chapter.
On July 22, the Department of Water Resources (DWR) released
its draft environmental impact report (Draft EIR) for the Delta
Conveyance Project. The Delta Conveyance Project is DWR’s and
Governor Newsom’s plan to build an underground tunnel to bring
water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to the State Water
Project pumps near Tracy in order to reduce the risk from
earthquakes and climate change to the State’s water supplies.
960,000 acres of land in California are used to produce
alfalfa, using 2 million gallons of water per acre, per year,
all of which goes to feed livestock. What kind of livestock?
Mostly dairy cows, of which there are 2.5 million in California
alone. … It turns out, states [author Richard] Oppenlander,
“60 to 70 percent of California water goes to livestock and
crops to feed them.” …Once I learned that it takes 1,000
gallons of water to produce one gallon of milk, (raising the
cow, growing grain for the cow, cleaning the cow) buying
non-dairy milk sounds like a much wiser choice. Once I learned
that it takes 2,400 gallons of water to produce one pound of
meat, giving up meat altogether seems like the only choice.
-Written by Patsy Ouellette, a longtime
environmental advocate.
Climate change has had a major impact across the world,
specifically in California, one example of it has been the
increasingly disastrous wildfires and drought issues we see
today. With aridification, or the gradual change to a drier
climate, changing the state, it does leave many wondering what
can be done to limit its effects on Californians. The stricter
statewide regulations on water, the state has shown a
willingness to take the situation seriously–but the recent
resignation of a California drought official did put into
question just how urgent California officials are viewing
aridification.
Basking in the sunshine on a boat at Lake Powell is the
quintessential backdrop for a perfect summer getaway. The
human-made reservoir straddling the Utah-Arizona border has
been a beloved destination spot that has spanned generations
for many families. The glistening green waves against red rock
canyons is home to many summer memories — but also to one of
the nation’s greatest water reserves. … The blue-green water
levels are getting lower and lower each year, raising questions
about the future of the lake for tourism and recreation as well
as generating hydroelectric power.
As California’s prolonged drought continues, the State is at a
crossroads. Recent headlines have been dominated
by devastating wildfires and a growing number of the
State’s poorest communities without water. These
catastrophic conditions demand answers and solutions from our
leaders. … With the cost of living continuing to climb,
the San Joaquin Valley’s most vibrant sector – agriculture –
cannot continue to feed our communities, state, nation, or the
world, if we do not have the most basic resource necessary to
grow food, water. -Written by William Bourdeau, executive vice
president of Harris Farms, director of the Westlands Water
District, and chairman of the Valley Future
Foundation.
As California enters yet another year of a continued drought,
cities and counties across the state implemented water
restrictions in the hopes of reducing strain on the states
water sources. According to the state, banning the watering of
non-functional lawns will save hundreds of thousands of
acre-feet of water a year. In April, Contra Costa
Water District asked users to reduce water usage by
15%. The district proposed a temporary drought surcharge
of up to 15% starting in July.
The brown hills of Northern California are peppered with
cattle. They spend their days slowly meandering under the sun,
munching drought-withered grass. Cattle are California’s
fourth-biggest agricultural commodity, valued at $2.74 billion
in 2020, according to the state’s agricultural department. But
increasingly dry conditions are making the land less and less
suitable for feeding and watering them. In March 2021, every
pond on Scott Stone’s ranch was dry for the first time in the
46 years his family has owned it.
New Melones Reservoir, the Golden State’s fourth-largest
capacity reservoir, was 70% empty Wednesday — its lowest level
in five years — due to the drought described by officials at
the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation as “unprecedented.” Federal
authorities closed the lower boat ramp at Tuttletown Recreation
Area in Tuolumne County earlier this month because of the
lowering water levels. … On Wednesday, the reservoir was
holding 722,889 acre-feet of water, three-tenths of its 2.4
million acre-foot capacity, and it was 70% empty, according to
state Department of Water Resources data.
Mayor Louie Trujillo has issued a declaration of emergency for
The City of Las Vegas due to the threat to the city’s water
supply caused by the recent wildfires and subsequent
flooding. Earlier this week, a culvert designed to stop
contaminated water from going from the Gallinas River into Las
Vegas’ reservoirs failed, causing Peterson Dam to be filled
with ash and debris from the fire. The dam, which was not full
of water at the time, was taken offline, meaning no more water
can be pulled from that reservoir at this time.
Will the fifth time be the charm for California’s decades-long
effort to replumb the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta so that more
Northern California water can be transported to Southern
California? Don’t count on it. Last week, the state Department
of Water Resources released a draft environmental impact report
on the latest iteration of the 57-year-long effort to change
the Delta’s role in water supply, a 45-mile-long tunnel
officially named the “Delta Conveyance.” The 3,000-page
document immediately drew the responses that have accompanied
past versions — big municipal and agricultural water agencies
were in favor of it because it would, they hope, increase water
deliveries south of the Delta, and environmentalists were
against it, saying it would further damage the Delta’s already
bruised ecosystem. -Written by Dan Walters, columnist for CalMatters.
Colorado River basin water has transformed Nancy Caywood’s
fields in the desert southwest of Phoenix into carpets of green
cotton and alfalfa for generations. But in June, the alfalfa
was expected to dry up, and a vast majority of the cotton
wasn’t even planted. The irrigation canal that serves her
property was shut down amid a 22-year megadrought that has hurt
growers across the seven states that comprise the
basin. Vultures gathered in the muddy pools of her canal,
feasting on the dying fish, a week after her hay was cut in
early June, likely for the last time this year.
Rising river levels? It’s been a surprising sight in recent
days for people out along the American River. California is in
year three of a severe drought and people are being asked to
conserve, but water releases from Folsom Dam are being
dramatically increased this week. Parts of the American River
Parkway that had been dry ground just a few days ago are now
covered with water, which is something surprising to many
people along the shoreline.
California is on year three of one of the worst droughts in
state history, and it’s hurting our farmers and ranchers. Jim
Rickert owns Prather Ranch and has been ranching in the
Northstate for more than five decades. He said this could be
one of the worst droughts in his lifetime. … Rickert
said this has meant making some tough and emotional choices
like the decision to sell off part of their herd.
… Inflation also plays a role in their hard times. He
said their input costs have increased exponentially thanks to
inflation. Farming necessities such as fertilizer, hay, and
even power bills for needing to pump water have all increased.
The 2022 Colorado River Summit was held Thursday for the
community and stakeholders to come together to inform each
other of the drought issue, the drastic measures that may be
coming our way and how those measures can be mitigated by
working together. Imperial County, Comite Civico Del Valle, the
Coalition of Labor, Agriculture & Business (COLAB), Imperial
County Office of Education (ICOE), and the Imperial Valley
Vegetable Growers Association hosted the forum.
Utah’s main crop is a thirsty one and with water becoming more
limited, some are wondering if farmers should consider a crop
that uses less, according to a report released by Gov. Spencer
Cox Wednesday. The report, the third in Cox’s “Utah’s
Coordinated Action Plan for Water,” calls for new strategies
such as split stream leases and water banking. The 20-page
report focuses on agriculture. The previous reports highlighted
infrastructure investments and communities.
It’s no con the western United States is amid a prolonged
drought, one which some scientists believe is the most serious
in more than 1,000 years. So how we conserve water and manage
it is key to the economic and societal health of California and
Solano County and the decisions we make today will affect us
all in the years and decades to come. To that end, the Solano
Resource Conservation District will host its Second Annual
Water Institute for Teachers from Aug. 3 to 5. (Among the
partners in the institute is The Water Education Foundation’s
Project WET program).
One of Colorado’s top water officials says he cannot enforce
recent federal demands to start conserving more on the Colorado
River. State engineer Kevin Rein oversees the state’s
water rights system. In a meeting with the Colorado River
District board on Jul. 19, Rein assured members he would not be
mandating conservation among their municipal, industrial and
agricultural users. The district covers 15 counties in Western
Colorado.
As the drought punishing California drags on, water is a top —
and growing — worry for residents of our parched state,
outpacing wildfires and climate change, according to a new poll
about environmental issues. With reservoirs and snowpack
shrinking, Californians listed the state’s water supply as
their number one environmental worry, with 68% of adults saying
it’s a big problem — up from 63% a year ago. … [F]ewer
than half said they have done a lot to reduce their water use,
and 16% say they have done nothing. … 69% of Californians
said people in their area are not doing enough to conserve.
Lake Siskiyou is beautiful this time of year. About 200 miles
north of Sacramento, the artificial reservoir — formed by a dam
on the Sacramento River — is ringed by quiet beaches that offer
a cool respite from triple-digit heat. The views of Mt. Shasta
are spectacular. When I visited last week, I saw double-crested
cormorants, ospreys and great blue herons soaring over the
water and ducklings swimming with their mother. It’s a
great spot to take a few days off from work. It’s also not
immune to the climate challenges confronting California and the
American West as we enter August — a crucial month for water
supplies, wildfires, extreme heat and possible power
shortages. -Written by Sammy Roth, LA Times climate reporter and
columnist.
In his time at the California State Water Resources Control
Board, Max Gomberg has witnessed the state grapple with two
devastating droughts and the accelerating effects of climate
change. Now, after 10 years of recommending strategies for
making California more water resilient, the board’s climate and
conservation manager is calling it quits. The reason: He no
longer believes Gov. Gavin Newsom and his administration are
willing to pursue the sorts of transformational changes
necessary in an age of growing aridification.
Farmers and water managers may need to do more to engage with
lawmakers from outside the Central Valley before the state
Legislature can be persuaded to make important investments in
water storage and other infrastructure projects, members of
Kern’s Sacramento delegation told an audience Tuesday of the
Water Association of Kern County. The three locally
elected representatives — Assemblyman Vince Fong and state
Sens. Shannon Grove and Melissa Hurtado — made the request
in the context of their frustration with big-city, coastal
lawmakers they said misunderstand how things work in not only
the water world but in-state energy production as well.
Here we go again. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration revived
the Delta tunnel project Wednesday, unveiling a downsized
version of the controversial, multibillion-dollar plan to
re-engineer the fragile estuary on Sacramento’s doorstep that
serves as the hub of California’s over-stressed water-delivery
network. After three years with little to no public activity,
the state released an environmental blueprint for what’s now
called the Delta Conveyance — a 45-mile tunnel that would
divert water from the Sacramento River and route it under the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta so that it can be shipped to farms
and cities hundreds of miles away.
Three years ago, amid shaky political support and uncertain
funding, Gov. Gavin Newsom killed plans by his predecessor,
Jerry Brown, to build two massive tunnels under the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Valley Delta to more easily move water
south. Now a slimmed down version of the project — which has
been one of the most contentious water issues in California
since the early 1980s — is back. On Wednesday, Newsom’s
administration released details of his new plan, which calls
for building one tunnel instead of two.
Local farmers may soon be forced to bite the bullet and find
ways to use significantly less water in 2023 — potentially for
a lot longer. This drastic measure may come as a result of an
emergency water conservation effort to prevent further
depletion of the Valley’s main source of water, the Colorado
River. If less water flows down the Colorado River, the
consequences could be catastrophic for the two reservoirs —
lakes Mead and Powell — that feed into the so-called basin
states. For example, if water levels in Lake Mead continue
dropping, it could bring water and hydropower to a grinding
halt, all due to a relentless drought over two decades.
Reading the headlines about water issues in Arizona can be
disconcerting. Our state is now more than 20 years into an
historic drought with conditions projected to worsen in the
coming years. We can no longer rely on the water resources
that once seemed abundant. Dwindling Colorado River supplies
coupled with inadequate groundwater regulation in large parts
of Arizona have put the entire state in a tough
position. But this is not a reason to despair – or to
panic. We don’t need to discourage growth or declare that
Arizona is closed for business because of the water challenges
we face. Written by Jaime A. Molera, former Arizona state
school superintendent, partner of Molera Alvarez, and the
Arizona director for The Western Way, a nonprofit organization
that builds support for market-driven solutions to
environmental challenges.
On June 8, 2022, DWR’s Director, Karla Nemeth, made a
presentation on the Delta tunnel project to the Delta
Independent Science Board (Delta ISB), with several of the
scientists who had worked on the project. She said that she
supported the Delta ISB’s review of the project. But unlike the
twin tunnels project, the Department of Water Resources did not
release the Administrative Draft EIR for the single tunnel. DWR
is instead planning for the Delta ISB to review the new project
for the first time during the CEQA comment period on the Draft
Delta Conveyance EIR, which could be as short as 90 days.
Sometimes, it takes zooming out to a bird’s eye view to fully
understand the devastating impacts of drought in California.
Images captured from space by government and private satellites
offer a sobering look at how the current drought — in year
three — is affecting the state’s land and natural
resources. The latest data from the U.S. Drought Monitor
shows about 97% of California in moderate or worse
drought, with much of the Central Valley and southern portions
of the state in the worst conditions.
More water will flow into farms and cities on the Valley’s east
side after a decision by the federal government to increase the
supply streaming down canals. On July 20, the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation (USBR) announced it will increase the water supply
delivered to contractors along the eastern side of the Valley
to 30%, doubling the original allocation of 15% announced in
February. The amount of Class 1 water, for contractors with
first rights for water deliveries, was confirmed by Friant
Water Authority, which operates the Friant-Kern Canal, in a
July 22 update on its website.
As California declared multiple drought
emergencies and imposed mandatory water restrictions on
residents in recent years, the state’s almond farmers expanded
their orchards by a remarkable 78%, according to new
research by Food & Water Watch. In a brief but
critical report issued last week, the climate and consumer
advocacy group found that California’s nut farms have grown
steadily over the past 12 years, even as the state’s water
crisis has deepened. Between 2017 and 2021 alone, almond and
pistachio crops expanded so quickly that they required an
additional 523 billion gallons of irrigation water.
Contentious comments by representatives of the city of
Tehachapi and Golden Hills Community Services District have
been made at meetings of the local water board for a number of
months. Generally, board members don’t respond. But at the July
20 meeting of the Board of Directors of Tehachapi-Cummings
County Water District, some directors didn’t hold
back. … In June, Golden Hills and the city told
directors they believe 75 percent of all water imported from
the State Water Project by the local water district should be
allocated on a first priority basis to M&I use, presumably
leaving 25 percent of the water for agriculture.
Solar-powered weather stations that beam real-time information
to farmers are the first investment for Galvanize Climate
Solutions, the firm launched last year by billionaire Tom
Steyer and Katie Hall to battle climate change. Galvanize led a
$40-million funding round for San Francisco-based Arable, whose
weather equipment gives farmers information on how much
sunlight and water crops are getting, and can help optimize
when to irrigate or fertilize. Such visibility is becoming
increasingly important amid tight on-farm labor and with
drought shrinking water reserves.
The California Department of Water Resources has announced
that it will be releasing their Draft Environmental Impact
Report (DEIR) early this week for the Delta Conveyance Project,
AKA the embattled Delta Tunnel. Documents for federal
review of the project will be released later this fall.
… The changes in the plans include changes to the
intakes, the tunnel itself, the power lines, the route and the
operations, according to DWR. Here are some of the highlights
of the proposed changes:
As stakeholders negotiate the current crisis on the Colorado
River, we believe the representatives of the states of the
Upper Basin – our states – are making a dangerous argument.
Their premise is simple. With deep cutbacks needed, the Upper
Basin states argue that their part of the watershed already
routinely suffers water supply shortages in dry years. … Our
review of those data suggests that, on average, overall Upper
Basin use is slightly greater in dry years,
and less in wet years.
Two agencies in the San Joaquin Valley are closer to funding
water conservation projects thanks to an $800,000 grant from
the Bureau of Reclamation. The money comes from the
Bureau’s Agricultural Water and Conservation Efficiency
grants. About $362,000 will go to the Corcoran Irrigation
District in Kings County and $430,000 will go to the Lost Hills
Water District in Kern County. The money will partially
fund projects aimed at water savings and streamlining water
transportation and storage. The rest of the funding will come
from local contributions.
One of the most famous attractions at Hearst Castle in San
Simeon is the marble-framed outdoor Neptune pool. While severe
drought is causing California State Parks to implement water
restrictions at the castle, they say the iconic pool will
remain full, even as most irrigation stops and portable toilets
replace bathrooms. California State Parks, which operates and
preserves the Hearst estate, turned off much of the water at
there earlier this month amid the statewide drought.
The water level in Folsom Lake has been dropping quickly in
recent weeks. The level peaked in early June just shy of 456
feet, which is about 89% of Folsom’s total capacity and 110% of
the average for that point in the year. Overall, that is
more than double the amount of water that was stored last
year…. A decreasing water level is to be expected throughout
the summer months as water managers make releases needed to
keep cool water flowing into the American River, keep the delta
saltwater-free and export water to Southern California. But
those that pay close attention to the water and releases at the
reservoir may have noticed that water is leaving the lake a
little quicker than normal. That is because additional releases
are being made to make up for water shortages at Lake Shasta.
But fortunately, Lake Oroville’s water level is high enough to
support its water requirements.
As I drive across my family’s farm in the San Joaquin Valley,
it feels as if I’m traveling on a chessboard. I cross one
square with crops and then another without crops — our fields
that must lay fallow. Our farm’s crops have been decimated by
the drought. Last year, reduced water deliveries in the state
led to 395,000 acres of cropland being idled, according to UC
Merced researchers, and about 8,750 agricultural workers lost
their jobs. … Without enough water, farmers in
California can’t survive. The state’s aging water supply
infrastructure has not kept up with the growth of the
state. -Written by Joe L. Del Bosque, CEO and president
of the family-owned Del Bosque Farms in the San Joaquin
Valley.
People often have strange ideas about how water works.
Even simple water systems can be confusing. When water
systems become large complex socio-physical-ecological systems
serving many users and uses, opportunities for confusion become
extreme, surpassing comprehension by our ancient Homo sapien
brains. When confused by conflicting rhetoric, using numbers to
“follow the water” can be helpful. The California Water
Plan has developed some such numbers. This essay presents
their net water use numbers for 2018, by California’s
agricultural, urban, and environmental uses by hydrologic
region.
California is currently suffering through its worst drought in
over 1,200 years, a fact painfully illustrated by a hot, dry
summer, nearly empty reservoirs, and a historically diminished
Colorado River. New water restrictions have gone into effect
across the state. As California scrambles to conserve water,
desalination plants, facilities that use reverse osmosis
filters to purify seawater and transform it into drinking
water, have increasingly become part of the discussion.
Marin Municipal Water District officials, continuing their
quest to boost supply, met this week for a detailed cost
assessment on expanding reservoirs and connecting to new
sources. District staff stressed to the board that — unlike
other options under review such as desalination and recycled
water expansion that can produce a continual flow of water —
enlarging reservoirs or building pipelines to outside suppliers
does not guarantee water will be available when needed.
As the California drought continues to impact agriculture as
well as the lives of residents, local government bodies have
requested regular updates on water resources. Once again, the
Butte County Board of Supervisors will hear the latest updates
regarding the drought, groundwater and water-related activities
within the county. In December, the board contracted Luhdorff
and Scalmanini Consulting Engineers to create an analysis of
drought impacts on the county in 2021.
With three consecutive years of drought reducing state and
federal water project reservoirs to historic lows, the State
Water Resources Control Board on Wednesday readopted measures
for the Delta to protect drinking water supplies, prevent
salinity intrusion and minimize impacts to fish and the
environment. The State Water Board decision updating an
emergency curtailment and reporting regulation authorizes staff
to determine the amount of water available to certain right
holders during the drought, preserving drinking water for 27
million Californians and the irrigation supply for more than
three million acres of farmland.
Arizona’s water leaders on July 13 laid out the path forward
for contending with the extraordinarily difficult choices
facing all of the Colorado River system’s water users over the
next several months. In a sobering presentation to the Arizona
Reconsultation Committee (the panel assembled to help develop
an Arizona perspective on new operational guidelines for the
river system by 2026), Arizona Department of Water Resources
Director Tom Buschatzke and Central Arizona Project General
Manager Ted Cooke described the unprecedented challenges facing
the system currently.
There we were, 19 of us on the stony shore of the Tuolumne
River, feeling a bit stranded like the crew of Gilligan’s
Island. Our “Finding Common Water” rafting excursion was
planned around “no water Wednesday,” when river releases are
held back for water conservation and infrastructure
maintenance. The trip’s goal: Get off our desk chairs and onto
rafts, out of the ordinary and into an extraordinary setting —
a hot, highly regulated, wild and scenic river — to push
us out of our comfort zone and get to work on addressing real
water problems.
There has not been much good news about California’s water
supply lately, but there could be some relief on the way. The
North-of-Delta Offstream Storage project, often referred to as
the planned Sites Reservoir, was authorized by Congress in
2003. The long delayed project got a financial boost in March
when the federal government signaled its intent to loan the
project nearly $2.2 billion — about half of the cost to design,
plan and build it. … The new reservoir could increase
Northern California’s water storage capacity by up to 15% and
would hold enough water to supply about 1.5 million to 3
million households for one year — although much of the water
would be for agricultural purposes.
[Aquafornia Editor's Note: The Los Angeles
Times story below wrongly states that Shasta Lake is part of
the State Water Project. It is part of the federal Central Valley Project.
We still believe this photo essay is worthy to share because of
the importance Shasta Lake plays in California.]
Shasta Lake, one of the state’s largest reservoirs, is
currently at 38% capacity, a startling number heading into the
hottest months of the year. Part of the State Water Project, a
roughly 700-mile lifeline that pumps and ferries water all the
way to Southern California, the reservoir is the driest it has
been at this time of year since record-keeping first began in
1976. California relies on storms and snowpack in the Sierra
Nevada to fill its reservoirs. The state received a hopeful
sign of a wet winter in late December when more than 17 feet of
snow fell in the Sierra Nevada. But the winter storms abruptly
ceased, ushering in the driest January, February and March ever
recorded.
States in the Colorado River basin are scrambling to propose
steep cuts in the water they’ll use from the river next year,
in response to a call by the federal government for immediate,
drastic efforts to keep the river’s main storage reservoirs
from reaching critically low levels. The request comes with the
Southwest still in the grip of a severe two-decade drought that
shows no signs of letting up…. [E]xperts in Western water
issues writing Thursday in the journal Science say significant
policy changes could stabilize the river over the long term,
even if the drought continues. But concessions that “may be
unthinkable at the moment” must be implemented soon, they
wrote.
Limiting the size of new swimming pools in and around Las Vegas
might save a drop in the proverbial bucket amid historic
drought and climate change in the West. Officials are taking
the plunge anyway, capping the size of new swimming pools at
single-family residential homes to about the size of a
three-car garage. Citing worries about dwindling drinking water
allocations from the drying-up Lake Mead reservoir on the
depleted Colorado River, officials in Clark County voted this
week to limit the size of new swimming pools to 600 square feet
(56 square meters) of surface area.
Drought has drained the three reservoirs that provide about 60%
of the water for the [Monterrey, Mexico] region’s 5 million
residents. Most homes now receive water for only a few hours
each morning. And on the city’s periphery, many taps have run
completely dry. … “It should be a wake-up call,” said
Samuel Sandoval Solis, an expert in water management at UC
Davis who described the situation in Monterrey as a “crystal
ball” for Southern California. Both are densely packed
metropolitan centers that rely heavily on faraway water
sources. … Southern California cities, which import
about 55% of their water from the Colorado River and Northern
California, have already been forced to reduce water usage and
face the prospect of further cuts as drought persists …
The lake at the Park at River Walk is fast disappearing, as are
the Truxtun Lakes and some other city-owned water features.
Blame the drought. The City of Bakersfield Water Resources
Department has cut off flows to city-owned recreation and water
recharge facilities to hold on to what little surface water
it’s receiving from the dwindling Kern River for drinking
water, according to Daniel Maldonado, a water planner with the
department. … Local resident Calletano Guiterrez understood
the city has to contend with the drought but hoped at least
some water could be set aside for what he said he and his
family have come to love about Bakersfield.
Across the country’s western drylands, a motley group of actors
is responding to the region’s intensifying water crisis by
reviving a well-worn but risky tactic: building water pipelines
to tap remote groundwater basins and reservoirs to feed
fast-growing metropolitan areas, or to supply rural towns that
lack a reliable source. Government agencies, wildcat
entrepreneurs, and city utilities are among those vying to pump
and pipe water across vast distances — potentially at great
economic and environmental cost. Even as critics question the
suitability of the water transfers in a new climate era,
supporters in California, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, the
federal government, Indian tribes, and other states are
prepared to spend billions on water-supply pipelines.
[Lake Powell's] water is receding because the Colorado
River is drying. Climatologists aren’t sure when, or if, Powell
will ever fill again. Rather, they expect conditions to
worsen. The chalky ring around Powell is just one sign of
many that the 40 million people who directly depend on the
Colorado River must fundamentally change their way of life,
experts agree. And it’s going to hurt, experts say. “This
is not a drought, this is aridification,” Rhett Larson, a water
law professor at Arizona State University, said. “This is not
something we can wait out. This is not something we can
survive. This is the new world we live in.”
It’s crunch time for the Colorado River. The river’s badly
depleted reservoirs keep dropping, and the federal government
has announced that major water cutbacks need to happen soon to
prevent supplies from reaching perilously low levels. The
future of the Southwest’s main water lifeline hinges on whether
the seven states of the Colorado River Basin will effectively
address the river’s chronic overuse and shrinking flows after
more than two decades of drought intensified by global warming.
… There are also 30 federally recognized
tribes in the Colorado River Basin, and I’ve been
interested in learning more about the roles they will play in
shaping how dwindling supplies water are apportioned and
conserved.
The Clark County Commission approved a new measure to mitigate
the falling water level of Lake Mead on Tuesday, limiting
residential pool sizes in the Las Vegas area. The
commission Tuesday unanimously approved a new ordinance
prohibiting the Las Vegas Valley Water District from serving
residents with pools with a total surface area of over 600
square feet. The new code will only apply to single-family
residential customers who received a pool permit for their
“pool(s), spa(s), and/or water feature(s)” after Sept. 1, 2022.
Seizing a generational opportunity to leverage unprecedented
state funding to combat drought and climate change, the State
Water Resources Control Board provided an historic $3.3 billion
in financial assistance during the past fiscal year (July 1,
2021 – June 30, 2022) to water systems and communities for
projects that bolster water resilience, respond to drought
emergencies and expand access to safe drinking water. The
State Water Board’s funding to communities this past fiscal
year doubled compared to 2020-21, and it is four times the
amount of assistance provided just two years ago. The marked
increase also comes as a result of last year’s $5.2 billion
three-year investment in drought response and water resilience
…
As drought conditions persist and with the potential for
another dry winter due to La Niña, some good news: the
California State Water Resources Control Board learned
Wednesday reservoirs in the northern and central parts of the
state have more water than at this time last year. State Water
Project reservoirs across Northern and Central California
remain below historical averages after three consecutive years
of drought. But with a combination of people cutting water use,
curtailments, farmers fallowing fields and a focus on storage,
the reservoirs in the State Water Project are either above or
near where they were last year.
There’s a lot of big ideas for solving California’s perpetual
water shortages. Desalinate ocean water. Tow giant bags of
water or use a pipeline to pull water out of the mouth of
the Columbia River. But there are also less ambitious and
perhaps more practical ways too. The city of Santa Rosa is
looking to help, one drip at a time. Thomas Hare and Holly
Nadeau are water resource specialists from the Santa Rosa’s
water department, On a recent Wednesday, in the Oakmont
district, they were welcomed to the home of Leslie and Greg
Gossage…ready to get down to some detective work.
Recently, historic record-low water volume in Lake Mead and
Lake Powell has been headline news. While the trend of dropping
water levels at two of the nation’s largest water reservoirs
has been widely recognized for years (perhaps decades), a
discussion about what it truly means for those who rely on its
source for water and electricity downstream is rarely heard.
Lake Mead’s water level continues to fall to historic lows,
bringing the reservoir less than 150 feet away from “dead pool”
— so low that water cannot flow downstream from the dam. The
loss of water entirely from this source would be
catastrophic. -Written by Richard Thomas, a retired business owner
and author in La Mesa.
The water news in California has been grim. As PPIC Water
Policy Center senior fellow Jeff Mount says, “we’re in year
three of a miserable drought”—with “miserable” being the
operative word. We sat down with Mount, senior fellow Alvar
Escriva-Bou, and center director Ellen Hanak to discuss recent
water news. We’re in year three of a serious drought. How
different is it from last year? Jeff Mount: One difference is
that the State Water Board has been very proactive. They
announced curtailments earlier and they are moving much more
quickly than last year. They have the right authorities to deal
with the drought.
The seven Colorado River basin states have until mid-August to
come up with a plan to drastically cut their water use. Federal
officials say the cuts are necessary to keep the river’s giant
reservoirs from declining to levels where water cannot be
released through their dams and hydropower production ceases.
If state leaders fail to devise a plan, they could face a
federal crackdown.
More extreme water cuts are all but certain in the Southwest
starting next year – including new water cuts for California –
according to the latest government forecast for the Colorado
River and Lake Mead, the country’s largest reservoir. Lake
Mead, which provides water to roughly 25 million people in
Arizona, Nevada, California and Mexico, is losing water at an
alarming rate amid an extraordinary, multi-year drought made
worse by the climate crisis.
The Marin Municipal Water District took a deeper look at some
of the more complex and expensive options on the table for new
supply: desalination plants and recycled water. The district
board and consultants with the Jacobs Engineering firm held
discussion Tuesday on the preliminary cost estimates, water
yields and challenges of building desalination plants and
expanding the district’s recycled water system.
A small fish called the Delta Smelt has been a big topic for
farmers in California, as the state cites its 2016 Delta Smelt
Resiliency Strategy for limiting the amount of water from the
Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta, earmarked for agriculture. Wade
Crowfoot, California Natural Resources Agency Secretary, spoke
during the Western Food and Ag Issues Summit hosted by
Agri-Pulse. He says although the state of California is bound
by the federal Endangered Species Act to protect the fish, the
agency is working towards a more encompassing solution.
California’s historic drought may leave the state with the
largest amount of empty farmland in recent memory as farmers
face unprecedented cuts to crucial water supplies. The size of
fields intended for almonds, rice, wine grapes and other crops
left unworked could be around 800,000 acres, double the size of
last year and the most in at least several decades, said Josue
Medellin-Azuara, an associate professor at University of
California Merced.
Most cities across metro Phoenix have enacted the first stages
of their drought preparedness plans. It’s a smart move. Because
even if those first stages don’t mandate action, they place
more emphasis on saving water. Which is a message we all
need to hear. … It’s true. We could completely cut off
taps across metro Phoenix and still not change the trajectory
of shortages on the Colorado River. … Cities don’t use enough
water to make up that difference. But saving water is
still in our best interest … -Written by Joanna Allhands, Arizona Republic
columnist.
Thousands of new apartments will be built in Irvine, and this
create cognitive dissonance for Stan Jones. The planned 24-acre
lagoon at “Cotino, Storyliving by Disney” in Rancho Mirage, and
the 17-acre Wavegarden Cove Pool and Resort in Palm Desert, do
much the same for Paul Burt of San Pedro. Larry Anderson
shakes his head, too. He tracks construction within a 40-mile
radius of Hemet and counts more than 7,000 new units planned or
already rising, even as the governor implores Californians to
dramatically cut water use to deal with historic drought and
officials scold us for falling short. -Written by columnist Teri Sforza.
The Colorado River is approaching a breaking point, its
reservoirs depleted and western states under pressure to
drastically cut water use. It’s a crisis that scientists have
long warned was coming. Years before the current shortage,
scientists repeatedly alerted public officials who manage water
supplies that the chronic overuse of the river combined with
the effects of climate change would likely drain the Colorado’s
reservoirs to dangerously low levels. But these warnings by
various researchers — though discussed and considered by water
managers — went largely unheeded.
In California’s fields, farmers are already facing the impacts
of climate change every day. They are heading into yet another
potentially devastating fire year, and the third year in a row
of drought.
Orange County needs a unified approach to water conservation
and drought as California faces the driest 22-year period in
over a thousand years, the Orange County Grand Jury recommended
in a new report published late last month. The June 22 Grand
Jury report stated that Orange County water providers need to
“consolidate their resources and establish a unified voice to
lead the County more efficiently in its water policies and
planning.” Orange County has two water supply agencies:
Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) and Orange
County Water District (OCWD).
American agriculture is going to have to do without three
things that it has long taken for granted, according to a
recent article by Chloe Sorvino, who leads food and agriculture
coverage for Forbes. Those things are cheap energy, free water,
and a reliable climate…. Permanent crops are obviously
more vulnerable than annual ones. If the latter are plowed
under or the land for them is fallowed, there is always next
year. But trees and vines take a certain number of years to
mature and produce. To say that water in California is
free is simply not true.
In California, climate change is already a reality. Annual
devastating wildfires, years long droughts and over-pumped
groundwater systems are symptoms of the onset of a global
environmental catastrophe. Researchers worldwide are
desperately looking for ways to avert the worst case scenario
and, should it already be too late, deal with the new
environmental challenges in the most effective way possible.
The Solar Canal Project, a kilometer-long network of irrigation
canals in California which will be used to generate renewable
energy, is emerging as one promising solution to these
challenges.
As two major new water storage projects designed to capture the
flows of the drought-strapped Colorado River are rising on
Colorado’s urban Front Range, observers say they represent the
end of an era on the river. The projects, Northern Water’s
Chimney Hollow Reservoir west of Berthoud, and Denver Water’s
Gross Reservoir Expansion, in Western Boulder County, both more
than 20 years in the making, will store an additional 167,000
acre-feet of water, the majority from the Colorado River.
That’s enough water for more than 320,000 new homes.
It was late 2020, less than a year into the pandemic, but Luis
Sinco wasn’t thinking about COVID-19. He was overwhelmed by
catastrophe. Fires were burning, glaciers were melting, and the
West was again in drought. But from talking to his kids and
friends and people around him, the award-winning Times
photographer sensed little dire urgency, little connection
between the climate crisis and the routines of everyday life.
… [Sinco] set off on his own. In between assignments, he
traveled roughly 1,500 miles, from the river’s headwaters in
the Rocky Mountains down to where the Colorado once regularly
reached its terminus, in the Sea of Cortez in Mexico.
Thanks to the 1974 fictionalized movie Chinatown, many
people know the infamous story of the Los Angeles
Aqueduct, built to capture runoff from the Sierra Nevada
in the Owens Valley for delivery to Los
Angeles. Construction of the aqueduct, started in
1908, compared in complexity to the building of the
Panama Canal. It required 3,900 workers at its peak
and involved the digging of 164 tunnels. At the time
it was the longest aqueduct in the world …
David Schmalz here, thinking about the Seaside Basin, which,
along with the Carmel River and recycled water from Pure Water
Monterey, is one of three major water sources serving residents
in the Monterey Peninsula. Water is a highly complex
topic on the Peninsula and in the county at large, and
what follows is no exception. Still, it’s important: water
facilitates life, and its availability, or lack thereof,
changes the world we live in. It’s one fundamental reason we
can, or cannot, build much-needed housing. I’m thinking
about the Seaside Basin for this reason: recent decisions made
by the Seaside City Council, as it relates to that water
supply, will have an impact on housing in the city in a major
way.
On June 27, 2022, the legislature authorized the Acting State
Auditor to perform an audit of the reasons for major errors
Department of Water Resource’s snow runoff forecasts in 2021.
The Department of Water Resources’ Director, Karla Nemeth, told
the legislature that “the forecasting work is undertaken
exclusively by the Department of Water Resources. The State
Water Board is not responsible for this action and as such
should not be a party to the audit.” The State Water
Resource’s Control Board’s Executive Director, Eileen Sobeck,
agreed.
At the San Francisco Fed, we are students of the economy. We
monitor ongoing and future risks to the economy, including
climate risk. The economic impacts of a changing
climate—including the frequency and magnitude of severe weather
events—affect each of our three core responsibilities:
conducting monetary policy, regulating, and supervising the
banking system, and ensuring a safe and sound payment system.
… Of course, it’s not just California and Utah grappling
with a record drought—impacts are being felt across the Twelfth
District. According to the journal Nature Climate Change, the
megadrought in the Western United States has produced
the region’s driest two decades in at least 1,200 years
As much of the Western United States suffers from drought and
cities turn to water restrictions to help conserve water,
farmers in California are becoming increasingly worried about
how it will impact consumers around the country. Fresno County
Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen’s farmers in California’s Central
Valley are preparing to harvest almonds in an area that
produces about 80 percent of the state’s supply.
… Jacobsen is a fourth-generation farmer on both sides
of his family, meaning he and his ancestors have seen many good
and bad years for harvesting.
Months after crying foul over a diversion of water resources,
it appears that water agencies reliant on Friant Dam will see a
boost in water supplies, Federal water officials announced on
Friday. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation raised allocation to
Class 1 contractors within the Friant Division of the Central
Valley Project from 15 to 20 percent. Class 2 Friant
contractors have not received an allocation for two straight
years. The trend, Federal officials announced, will continue
for the time being.
The Bay Area’s largest water agencies on Tuesday were expected
to assess their current drought situations and possibly discuss
further restrictions on water use. Valley Water in the South
Bay, which supplies water for thousands in the Santa Clara
Valley, will report that between June 2021 and May 2022,
customers used 3% less water compared to 2019. That’s far short
of the 15% reduction goal set by the district’s board.
Dwindling water levels at Lake Powell, which is now at 28%
of its 24m acre-feet capacity, have put the Glen Canyon dam at
risk. In March, water levels fell below 3,525 feet –
considered a critical buffer to protect hydropower – for the
first time. If the lake drops just another 32ft, the dam will
no longer be able to generate power for the millions who rely
on it…. The Bureau of Reclamation… forecasts that
even with significant proposed cuts to water allowances there
is a 23% chance power production could halt at dam in
2024 due to low water levels and that it is within the realm of
possibility that it will happen as soon as July 2023.
When Shasta Reservoir levels drop 90 feet down from the top of
the dam remnants of the “head tower,” a structure used during
the dam’s construction in the early 1940s, becomes visible. To
locals and water wonks alike, it’s a reminder that it’s going
to be another dry year. … The lake’s historic lowest
level was in the summer of 1977 when it was down 230 feet below
the dam’s crest. Last year’s lake level was the second lowest
on record, and yes, the head tower was exposed — along with
roads, train tunnels, and car bridges.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed B1740 yesterday, investing
$1.2 billion over three years to fund projects that will bring
additional water to the state to secure Arizona’s water future,
improve existing water infrastructure and implement
effective conservation tools. The projects will help ensure
that Arizona families, businesses and agriculture continue to
have adequate long-term water supplies.
Where does your drinking water come from? Berkeley native and
self-described “water warrior” Nina Gordon-Kirsch wants you to
know. This month, Gordon-Kirsch, 33, is walking roughly 200
miles from her home in Oakland to the headwaters of the
Mokelumne River, the source of drinking water for most of the
East Bay. She aims to call attention to the knowledge gap
between urban residents and their water, a resource she says is
taken for granted.
The Southwest’s ongoing drought has put the spotlight on water
conservation. Experts agree it’s an important part of the
solution. But what does conservation mean to the average
Arizonan? Shorter showers? No more grass lawns? What really
matters might surprise you. Let’s say you’re standing at the
kitchen sink with an empty peanut butter jar. You want to put
it in the recycling bin, but you’re going to rinse it out
first. Is it worth the water? In our daily lives, there are
many ways to save water …
In a 6-3 decision last week, the Supreme Court restricted the
Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to curb climate
pollution from power plants. … The decision leaves intact the
EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, and even
allows it to regulate power plants on a case-by-case basis. The
greater significance of the case, rather, may be the new inroad
it creates for challenges to environment and water
protections…. Hesitancy on the part of federal agencies
could be damaging for U.S. water issues, many of which cut
across state boundaries. James Eklund, an environmental lawyer
and architect of the Colorado Water Plan, said that ambitious
action by the Bureau of Reclamation has been central to
averting the worst water shortages in the American West.
As state officials and experts continue to push for more
housing to address the state’s worsening affordability crisis,
people often bring up another issue gripping California:
drought. How is it that California Gov. Gavin Newsom can
call for the creation of millions of new housing units while
demanding that people cut back on long showers and watering
their lawns? In fact, new research shows
there’s plenty of water to accommodate the growing
population as long as the decades-long trend of
diminishing water use per capita continues.
Historically, the relationship between the North San Joaquin
Water Conservation District and the East Bay Municipal
Utilities District has been tense at times, hindering the
opportunity to collaborate on regional projects. The tension,
NSJWCD attorney Jennifer Spaletta said, was over EBMUD building
the Camanche and Pardee reservoirs and ending up with senior
water rights along the Mokelumne River. But over the last two
decades, the two agencies have worked to resolve their issues,
and ultimately came to the mutual understanding that they
needed to work together in order to solve future water supply
challenges.
Ask and ye shall receive — at least partially. And the Friant
Water Authority is hopeful there’s more to come. FWA announced
on Friday the Bureau of Reclamation has increased its 2022
water allocation for Friant Division Class 1 contractors from
15 to 20 percent. FWA added as in the past two years, Friant
Division Class 2 contractors continued to received 0 percent,
“which continues to reflect the hydrology for the 2022 water
year is very dry.”
The Bureau of Reclamation last week revised its data on the
amount of water stored in Lake Powell, with a new, lower tally
taking into account a 4% drop in the reservoir’s total
available capacity between 1986 and 2018 due to sedimentation.
Bureau data on the reservoir’s water-storage volume showed a
loss of 443,000 acre-feet between June 30 and July 1 — a 6%
drop in storage from 6.87 million acre-feet (which is 28.28% of
live storage based on 1986 data) to 6.43 million (26.46% of
full).
Ute Mountain Ute irrigation manager Michael Vicenti looked out
from his reservation — toward the Navajos’ sacred “winged rock”
and across the arid Southwest — then focused in front of his
feet on three-foot-high stalks of blue corn. They stood
straight. But these growing stalks, established on one inch of
water per week, now would require twice that much. And Vicenti
winced, confiding doubts about whether Ute farming can endure
in a hotter, drier world. Each evening he calls operators of
McPhee Reservoir to set the flow into a 39-mile clay canal —
the Utes’ only source of water — and makes a difficult choice.
Either he saves scarce water or he saves corn.
Californians are starting to save water, but not enough to meet
Gov. Gavin Newsom’s call for conservation in the face of one of
the worst droughts in recorded history. Urban water use fell
3.1% in May compared to the 2020 baseline set by the governor,
according to figures released Friday by the State Water
Resources Control Board. While that’s well short of the 15%
call issued by Newsom last July, it does show that Californians
are beginning to heed the governor’s call for reduced
consumption. Water use actually rose in March and April
… preliminary results for June show that water usage
fell by nearly 8% compared with two years ago.
With a megadrought draining water reserves in the West, states
are looking for alternatives to handle water rights, many of
which were set more than 100 years ago when water supplies were
far more abundant. Back then, just posting a sign next to a
water diversion was enough to be considered a right, one which
could still be honored now. But the climate crisis is now
straining those rights. There just isn’t enough water in
California to satisfy what’s been allotted on paper.
It is unlikely the Sacramento area will receive a substantial
amount of rain anytime soon, according to the National Weather
Service. Forecasts for this weekend show temperatures climbing
above the average for this time of year which is around 94
degrees, weather service spokesman Craig Shoemaker said. And
it’s expected to remain dry in the area for awhile.
… This interactive map depicts drought status levels in
Sacramento and throughout the country, using data from the U.S.
Drought Monitor.
California’s newest member of Congress will be serving on the
House Natural Resources Committee. Rep. Connie Conway, a
Republican who represents the 22nd District in the
agriculture-heavy Central Valley, got assigned to Natural
Resources by House GOP leadership, Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) the
ranking member of the committee, announced today. In a
statement, Conway said that she understood “the diverse water
and energy challenges impacting the livelihoods of Central
Valley residents and farmers.” She added that she looked
forward to “working with my colleagues to address the drought
and rising energy costs by modernizing outdated environmental
laws and improving water storage infrastructure.”
Colorado has no plans to make additional cuts to water use next
year to meet the Bureau of Reclamation’s demand to conserve
millions of acre-feet of water, a step needed to preserve power
production in Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Instead, Colorado
officials insist that other states should do the cutting. …
[Amy Ostdiek, a section chief with the Colorado Water
Conservation Board,] told The Gazette the Upper Basin
states — Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming and Utah —
dramatically reduced their water use in 2021 because
of drought conditions. …But, at the same time, total water
use in the Lower Basin has not been cut enough to preserve
levels in the lakes, said Ostdiek.
In the middle of 300 acres of picturesque hay meadows just
north of Kremmling, not far from the headwaters of the Colorado
River, a metal pillar surrounded by fencing rises 10 feet from
the ground. It looks something like a miniature cellphone tower
with various technical instruments and antennas jutting out at
the top. … It is providing farmers and researchers
with critical information about how much water Colorado
agriculture could potentially conserve in the drought-stricken
West.
California regulators have begun curtailing the water rights of
many farms and irrigation districts along the Sacramento River,
forcing growers to stop diverting water from the river and its
tributaries. The order, which took effect Thursday, puts a hold
on about 5,800 water rights across the Sacramento and San
Joaquin rivers’ watersheds, reflecting the severity of
California’s extreme drought. Together with a similar order in
June, the State Water Resources Control Board has now curtailed
9,842 water rights this year in the Sacramento and San Joaquin
watersheds, more than half of the nearly 16,700 existing
rights.
A state appellate court has reversed a judge’s ruling that
would have required the Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power to conduct an environmental review before making annual
decisions about deliveries of water on pastureland it owns east
of Yosemite. The city agency on Thursday said the previous
ruling had “set an impossible standard” as it faces the complex
challenges of servicing ratepayers and meeting environmental
requirements in a time of drought, dwindling snowpack and
changing water availability.
As water interests in the Colorado
River Basin prepare to negotiate a new set of operating
guidelines for the drought-stressed river, Amelia Flores wants
her Colorado River Indian Tribes (CRIT) to be involved in the
discussion. And she wants CRIT seated at the negotiating table
with something invaluable to offer on a river facing steep cuts
in use: its surplus water.
CRIT, whose reservation lands in California and Arizona are
bisected by the Colorado River, has some of the most senior water
rights on the river. But a federal law enacted in the late 1700s,
decades before any southwestern state was established, prevents
most tribes from sending any of its water off its reservation.
The restrictions mean CRIT, which holds the rights to nearly a
quarter of the entire state of Arizona’s yearly allotment of
river water, is missing out on financial gain and the chance to
help its river partners.
Summer is here, and water resource managers around the state
are gearing up for another dry season. In Santa Cruz County,
unique geology and three distinct basins make protecting the
water supply a complicated and fractured process involving
multiple water agencies. From the Pajaro Valley to the Santa
Cruz Mountains, here’s what they’re doing.
Colorado’s water leaders have released an updated blueprint
detailing how the state will manage and conserve water supplies
as climate change and population growth strain the system in
unprecedented ways. The first Colorado Water Plan was released
in 2015 after back-to-back years of historic drought and sought
to address the possibility that the state might not have enough
water in the next few decades…. The reservoirs on the
Colorado River, which starts in the mountains of Colorado and
supplies more than 40 million people in the West with water,
have hit critically low levels in the last year.
The snowpack on the far reaches of the Stanislaus River
watershed in late June was as anemic as it gets in mid-August.
Atop the 11,404-foot summit of Sonora Peak — the highest and
eastern most point where water from melting snow makes its way
into the middle fork of the Stanislaus River — the view was
reminiscent of a typical precipitation year leading up to Labor
Day and not the Fourth of July weekend. Small splotches and not
wide swaths of snow were on the horizon looking south toward
Yosemite. … This is the result of 60 percent of
California being in an exceptional drought — as in
exceptionally bad.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation Wednesday that will
provide $1.2 billion over three years to boost long-term water
supplies for the desert state and implement conservation
efforts that will see more immediate effects. The legislation
that was hammered out over months during the just-completed
legislative session is viewed as the most significant since the
state implemented a groundwater protection plan in
1980. Climate change and a nearly 30-year drought forced
the move, which comes as Arizona faces cutbacks in its Colorado
River water supply and more loom.
Farmers and cities on the east side of the Valley may get more
water than they originally thought. Friant Water
Authority, which operates the Friant-Kern Canal, said in a
recent memo on its website it is confident its contractors will
not only get the 15% allocation of surface water deliveries
announced in February but that the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation
will likely increase the amount to 20%, possibly as early as
this week. … Better snow and rainfall in the
Sacramento area late in the spring has allowed the Bureau of
Reclamation to budget more water to be delivered to the San
Joaquin Exchange Contractors …
Laser technology is being used to more accurately measure
mountain snowpack — crucial information for farmers and water
managers in drought-stricken areas like the Colorado River
Basin. … Let’s escape now to Colorado, where some
mountains are still covered with snow. Scientists there have
been using lasers aimed from airplanes to assess how much water
is in that snow. It’s crucial information for the
drought-stricken Colorado River Basin. Stephanie Maltarich
reports from high in the rocky mountains.
The next six weeks, California pistachios will be on close
watch around how much–if any, the current drought in the state
is affecting its growth or “nut fill.” … So while some
growers are located in areas with good groundwater and/or are
receiving some supply of surface water, others have zero
surface water and also limited sources of groundwater.
… At the same time, the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA) is starting to be implemented. This
legislation, which passed in 2014, requires that all
groundwater basins in California be sustainable and agencies
were formed to ensure compliance with the act.
As Southern California faces the most challenging drought in
its history, two new studies highlight the value and
wide-ranging success of Metropolitan Water District’s Turf
Replacement Program, which gives cash rebates to residents who
swap their water-guzzling lawns for more water-efficient
California Friendly and native plants. One study found
that for every 100 homes that converted their yards using a
rebate, an additional 132 nearby homes were inspired to convert
their own grass without receiving a rebate to help fund the
projects. This “multiplier effect” more than doubled the value
of Metropolitan’s investment in making Southern California more
sustainable.
California and six other Western states have less than 60 days
to pull off a seemingly impossible feat: Cut a multi-way deal
to dramatically reduce their consumption of water from the
dangerously low Colorado River. If they don’t, the federal
government will do it for them. A federal Bureau of Reclamation
ultimatum last month, prompted by an extreme
climate-change-induced drop in water levels at the nation’s
largest reservoirs, reopens years of complicated agreements and
political feuds among the communities whose livelihoods depend
on the river. The deadline represents a crucial moment for the
arid Southwest, which must now swiftly reckon with a problem
that has been decades in the making.
California’s water issues may be complicated. But the rainfall
shortage driving the state’s current drought comes down to
basic math. … Over the three-year period that ended June
30, most Northern California cities received only about half to
two-thirds of their historical average rainfall, according to
data that [Jan Null, a meteorologist with Golden Gate Weather
Services in Half Moon Bay] compiled. And each passing year
without soaking winter rains has been steadily drying the state
out a little more — further dropping reservoirs, parching soils
and forests and depleting groundwater.
In March the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency invited the
backers of Sites Reservoir — a mammoth water storage project in
the Sacramento Valley that’s being personally led by [Fritz
Durst, a farmer in Yolo County] — to apply for a $2.2 billion
construction loan. … But the reservoir, planned for
a spot straddling the Glenn-Colusa county line, 10 miles west
of the Sacramento River, won’t dig California out of its
current mega-drought. Even if all goes according to plan — a
pretty big if — Sites wouldn’t finish construction until 2030.
… The only way out of this, for the time being, is
conservation, forcing farmers and homeowners alike to make do
with less water.
The Marin Municipal Water District took a first look this week
at how much water it could receive from new sources such as
desalination or expanding reservoirs, and how much they would
cost. On Tuesday, consultants with the Jacobs Engineering firm
provided the district’s board with an overview of the
preliminary cost and water production estimates for several
supply options. More expensive options included desalination,
dredging existing reservoirs, expanding the recycled water
system and building pipelines to connect with other Bay Area
water suppliers.
The West is parched, and getting more so by the day. Lake Mead
— the country’s largest reservoir — is nearing “dead pool”
levels, meaning it may soon be too low to flow downstream. The
entirety of the Four Corners plus California is mired in
megadrought. Amid this desiccation, hundreds of the country’s
data centers use vast amounts of water to hum along. Dozens
cluster around major metro centers, including those with
mandatory or voluntary water restrictions in place to curtail
residential and agricultural use. Exactly how much water,
however, is an open question given that many companies don’t
track it, much less report it.
The futures of tourism, wildlife and ranching in Mono County
are now at the mercy of the Los Angeles Department of Water and
Power – according to environmental groups – now that a court
has upheld the agency’s authority to cut irrigation water. For
about 100 years, the agency has leased its land and provided
water for ranchers to graze cattle in Long Valley and Little
Round Valley. But Wendy Schneider, executive director of the
nonprofit Friends of the Inyo, said the damage from allowing
less water to irrigate these valleys would be widespread.
… Schneider also said she worries about the survival of
trout and the potential for increased dust storms and fire
danger.
We must immediately differentiate between in-stream reservoirs
and off-stream reservoirs. They have distinct attributes.
In-stream reservoirs in general are considered far more
disruptive. To note just a few of the most obvious problems
with in-stream reservoirs, the dam constitutes an immovable
blockade of a naturally flowing river, the canyons behind the
dam are inundated, and fish swimming upstream cannot reach
their spawning grounds. There are nonetheless arguments for
some in-stream dams, particularly if they’ve already been
built. The Shasta Dam is the prime example …
If there is a promised land for home developers in San Joaquin
County, it might just be Manteca. Lathrop thanks to the
15,001-home planned River Islands community was — once
aberrations involving Paradise and Santa Cruz growth due to
people returning to rebuilt homes after being burned-out
in a PG&E sparked wildfire and the return to in-person
learning at University of California campuses — the fastest
growing city in California in 2021. … Mountain House
will likely be checked to a large degree by water. It needed a
10,000 acre-foot water transfer from the South San
Joaquin Irrigation District to try and weather the drought this
year after the state cut off their water deliveries.
Last month, the federal government dropped a
bombshell on the states that share the Colorado
River. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation gave Colorado and
the other six states in the basin just two months to come up
with a plan to drastically reduce the amount of river water
they use. If they don’t, the federal government has threatened
to use its emergency authority to make the cuts it feels are
necessary. … Becky Mitchell, the commissioner of the
Colorado Water Conservation Board, .. said most of that
responsibility should be on the states in the lower part of the
river basin: Arizona, Nevada and California.
The outlook for California’s drought is grim. The first
five months of the year have been the driest on record.
Snowpack in the mountains, at its usual April 1 peak, was the
smallest it’s been in seven years. Reservoirs are hovering near
historic lows for the season, including Lake Shasta, the
state’s largest. But there’s one, albeit small, bright
spot: spring runoff. The water that pours from the mountains to
rivers and streams, one of the most important barometers of
state water supplies, is up substantially from over a year ago
— though still far below normal.
[T]he prospect of harvesting 2.8 billion pounds this year —
just shy of the 2.9 billion pounds in 2021 and the record 3.1
billion pounds in 2020 — has industry leaders both excited and
worried. That’s because about 1.3 billion pounds of unsold
almonds are still sitting in piles at processing and packing
facilities. The problem comes at a time when inflation and a
historic drought are pushing the costs of production and water
supplies to an all-time high, and the price of almonds has
fallen to an all-time low of about $2 per pound. It’s a sharp
reversal for the industry after four decades of relentless
expansion across 1.6 million acres in California’s agricultural
Central Valley from Tehama County to southern Fresno County.
Rising river levels? It’s been a surprising sight in recent
days for people out along the American River. California is in
year three of a severe drought and people are being asked to
conserve, but water releases from Folsom Dam are being
dramatically increased this week…. The Bureau of Reclamation,
which manages Folsom Dam, said a small portion of the increased
water is going to farms and cities downstream. But the majority
of the higher flow is to help flush out salt water that is
pushing up into the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Berkeley native Nina Gordon-Kirsch departed Tuesday on a
240-mile walk from her home in Oakland’s Longfellow
neighborhood to the headwaters of the Mokelumne River, the
primary source of the East Bay’s drinking water. Gordon-Kirsch,
a 12th grade teacher, will be bringing a two-person film crew
and hopes her journey will inspire students to think about
issues of water conservation and reuse. The trek is her attempt
to show “all the steps it takes” for water to arrive at our
faucets.
U.S. House Appropriations Committee Democrats voted down all
three drought-related amendments offered by U.S. Rep. David
Valadao (R-CA) to the fiscal year 2023 Energy and Water
Appropriations bill during the committee’s June 28 markup of
the legislation. … The first amendment offered by Rep.
Valadao addressed water storage capacity issues. It would have
extended the California storage provisions of the federal Water
Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation (WIIN) Act through
the end of 2023, as well as the authorization of appropriations
for water storage projects, according to information provided
by the congressman’s staff.
Farmers up and down California are once again facing an
uncertain season ahead of them as a state water curtailment
order issued in August 2021 continues to take its toll on
farming and ranching families. In July 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom
signed an executive order calling a drought emergency and
asking for water conservation. Soon after, farmers and ranchers
in California received curtailment orders from the
California Water Board (CWB) to either immediately or
prepare to suspend their senior water rights. Water
rights are a complicated and century-long system that farmers
and ranchers are all too familiar with — because water is their
lifeline.
The seven states that rely on the Colorado River must come up
with a plan to cut 2 to 4 million acre-feet of water use. By
mid-August. And if they don’t, the federal Bureau of
Reclamation will act for them. It’s a massive amount of water
to find in a short amount of time. And there are more questions
than answers about what this entails. But let’s walk
through what we know. Could the Colorado River dry
up? Maybe. Depending on how you define “dry up.”
For the last 25 years that Scott Martin has been practicing
water law in Utah, the concept of appointing water judges or
creating a water court has been a topic of conversation many
times. … But as the finite resource becomes more scarce, the
conversation of appointing water judges in Utah has turned into
a reality. A new rule passed by the Utah Judicial Council that
goes into effect on Nov. 1 will establish at least three
district court water judges throughout the state. The district
court judges will volunteer to be a water judge and then be
approved by the Judicial Council.
Bakersfield City water managers learned from California’s last
“epic” drought – don’t wait to make a deal. In 2015, city
water managers scrambled to keep taps flowing for more than
20,000 Bakersfield residents as the Kern River ran so low the
city had zero water entitlement coming down the river. The
river is the only source for Bakersfield’s northeast water
treatment plant but at only 11% of normal, there just wasn’t
enough.
Last week Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill (AB) 2505 into
law, clarifying that irrigation districts may impose increased
penalties for water theft under Government Code section
53069.45, in addition to the fines or penalties currently
available under the Irrigation District Law.
Assemblymember Adam Gray (D-Merced) authored AB 2505 in
response to growing concern that Government Code section
53069.45 could cap the amount of fines irrigation districts may
impose under the Irrigation District Law. Senate Bill 427,
which the Governor signed into law last July, added Section
53069.45 to the Government Code.
Assemblymember Adam Gray (D-Merced) announced Monday that the
Joint Legislative Audit Committee has approved his request to
audit California’s water operations. Gray suspects the
audit will shine a light on the Department of Water Resources
and the State Water Resources Control Board and their failures
to accurately forecast California’s water supply and the
impacts of those flawed forecasts on reservoir operations and
the allocation of water to rights holders. Gray cited the
overestimation and premature release of 700,000 acre-feet of
water last year as one of his prime considerations.
Calling the regional drought a major emergency in need of
long-term regional solutions, the Los Angeles City Council
Wednesday requested a series of reports on projected municipal
water supplies and expansion of efforts to recycle water and
support long-term conservation. … The council
unanimously approved a motion asking for reports from the
city’s Department of Water and Power and the Metropolitan Water
District — Southern California’s regional water wholesaler — on
a variety of topics, most notably on current and projected
drought conditions and efforts to increase water supplies
through recycling and conservation measures.
High above the Pacific Ocean, tucked in the steep contours of
mountainous Malibu, [David Hertz and his wife, Laura
Doss-Hertz] supply their house, pool, and network of
firefighting hoses with water harvested from the air. The
couple use their property – dubbed Xanabu – as a demonstration
site for atmospheric water generation.
… Globally, 1 in 3 people do not have access
to safe drinking water, according to the World Health
Organization. This urgency is driving support for
innovations in atmospheric water generation to address the two
biggest hurdles to widespread use: scaling it up, and making it
accessible – and affordable – to people in regions that
need it most.
Unprecedented dryness across the western United States is
meeting with increasingly warm temperatures to create climate
conditions so extreme that the landscape of California could
permanently and profoundly change, a growing number of
scientists say. The Golden State’s great drying has already
begun to reduce snowpack, worsen wildfires and dry out soils,
and researchers say that trend will likely continue, along with
the widespread loss of trees and other significant shifts. Some
say what’s in store for the state could be akin to the
conditions that drove people thousands of years ago to abandon
thriving cities in the Southwest and other arid parts of the
world as severe drought contributed to crop failures and the
crumbling of social norms.
When we picture California agriculture, we tend to think of
almond and citrus orchards and the massive tracts of strawberry
and lettuce fields that we can see from the highways dividing
the western part of the state from the east. But dairy is, in
fact, king. There are an estimated 1.7 million cows living on
dairy farms in California, and the industry brought in $7.5
billion in 2020, including $2 billion in export sales. And
because most people in the state don’t see the abundance of
dairy farms—most of them function like feedlots surrounded by
fields of feed crops such as alfalfa and corn growing
nearby—they may not be aware of the fact that they use millions
of gallons of water a day.
Marin Municipal Water District will hold a series of meetings
focused on adding new water sources. The district, which serves
191,000 central and southern Marin residents, launched a water
supply study in March as it faced depleting its local reservoir
supplies after two years of severe drought. On Tuesday, staff
will provide the district Board of Directors a first-time
overview of the various water supply options the agency could
consider as it looks to bolster its supply … desalination,
increasing local reservoir storage, groundwater banking in
Sonoma County, increasing water imports from the Russian River,
expansion of recycled water systems, conservation measures and
a pipeline across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge.
Jonas Minton, the Senior Water Policy Advisor for Planning and
Conservation League, passed away on June 22, 2022. He was 73. I
had the privilege of serving on an expert panel with Jonas on
April 2, 2018…. Jonas Minton provided many great
observations that day. The observations which most show his
legacy are in his testimony on truly collaborative processes.
In my opinion, Jonas’ ability to facilitate collaborations
between stakeholders in truly fair, equitable, and transparent
processes was his greatest gift to the California water
community. He will be greatly missed.
As California’s multi-year droughts become longer, hotter and
more frequent, communities like Petaluma will need to work much
harder to adapt to this new reality. That’s according to John
Shribbs, president of the Petaluma Wetlands Alliance and a
longtime science teacher at Casa Grande High School, who says
that scientists warned us for decades that the dramatically
rising level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere from the
burning of fossil fuels would spawn more destructive wildfires,
longer droughts, more intense heat waves, ongoing sea level
rise and collapsing ecosystems. -Written by the Argus-Courier’s former publisher John
Burns.
News headlines in mid-June captured what Audubon’s Western
Water team knows well: the Colorado River Basin and Great Salt
Lake are in trouble—both facing historically unprecedented
risks. Both may be headed towards ecological disasters, years
in the making, the result of a pernicious combination of
climate change aridifying the region and water management that
does not adequately prioritize the environment. In the Colorado
River Basin and at Great Salt Lake, warming temperatures and
declining river flows threaten people and nature. And, we know
there’s significant quality wildlife and bird habitat still
worthy of attention and investments.
A California Court of Appeal held that the EIR for a public
water authority’s river diversion and water storage project
adequately described the unadjudicated waters to be diverted
and adequately analyzed impacts to water rights and groundwater
supply. Buena Vista Water Storage District v. Kern Water
Bank Authority 76 Cal. App. 5th 576 (2022). Until 2010,
the Kern River had been designated by the State Water Resources
Control Board as a fully appropriated stream, and only those
who held an appropriative water right could divert Kern River
water.
The Colorado River’s precipitous decline pushed Arizona
lawmakers to deliver Gov. Doug Ducey’s $1 billion water
augmentation fund — and then some — late Friday, their final
night in session. Before the votes, the growing urgency for
addressing the state’s oncoming water shortage and the
long timeline for approving and building new water projects
nearly sank the legislation.
As a member of Congress from the nation’s driest state, Rep.
Susie Lee has a major stake in the health of the Colorado River
Basin, which is currently enduring historic drought. … In
office, Lee has pushed for federal funding for an array of
“common-sense solutions” to the crisis—including water
recycling … Last year, she authored a measure that will make
hundreds of millions of dollars available for water recycling
projects. But Lee’s interest in this issue appears to be more
than simply political. The two-term Democrat also has a portion
of her considerable personal wealth invested in a company that
stands to benefit from the water recycling legislation she has
championed.
The price of water — essential for human life, nature,
communities and businesses — is often subsidized, reflecting a
commonly held belief that everyone should have abundant access
to clean water…. In the Western United States, cutbacks to
one of the Southwest’s most important watersheds,
the Colorado River, are imminent and
possibly economically crushing to farmers …
California agriculture lands are straining to access
groundwater that used to be plentiful. … Some
companies that want to stay one step ahead of the pressing
water crisis are adopting strategies that set higher internal
prices on water than what they actually pay to their local
utility or municipality.
They appeared to be just a couple of special-education
teachers, freed up by Flag Day, out for a morning of bass
fishing on Lake Mead. Matt Blanchard and Shawn Rosen had
settled into their 18-foot motorboat, put beers on ice and
waited their turn at the last functioning boat launch on this
rapidly disappearing body of water. It wasn’t until the old
Bayliner was chugging away that Rosen mentioned an ulterior
motive for their mid-June excursion.
There’ll be an audit of California’s water supply forecast
after the state overestimated and prematurely released 700,000
acre-feet of water last year, officials announced Monday. A
news release from Assemblymember Adam Gray (D-Merced) announced
that Gray’s request for audit was approved. It aims to examine
the impacts of the flawed forecasts and the Department of Water
Resources (DWR) and State Water Board. … California’s
water operations overestimated the forecast by 68% for the
Sacramento River region, 45% for the San Joaquin River
region and 46% for the Tulare Lake region, according to a
state report. Those overestimations left the operators with
less stored water than was necessary, according to Gray’s news
release.
For many decades, the Colorado River was managed with the
attitude that its water levels would remain roughly stable over
time, punctuated by alternating wet and dry periods. But in the
face of possibly the river’s driest period in 1,200 years, a
new approach is now needed to managing the river’s reservoirs —
one that can account for “deep uncertainty” about future
climate and runoff conditions, says the U.S. Bureau of
Reclamation. And for the next two months, the bureau wants to
hear from the public about how it should go about operating
reservoirs including Lake Mead, Lake Powell and other parts of
the river system under such conditions.
In the parched southwestern United States, few forecasts are as
important as the future height of Lake Mead, which tells
federal authorities how much water to release to the 20 million
people living downstream of the giant reservoir. This year, the
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is testing out a new tool it hopes
will make those projections a little better: A model that can
predict — months in advance — the summer rainfall associated
with the North American Monsoon.
As the State of California faces a record drought, ocean
desalination has been highlighted as a potentially more
reliable alternative to imported water. Following the
California Coastal Commission’s (CCC) unanimous vote to deny
permits for the Brookfield-Poseidon Desalination plant in
Huntington Beach last month, the South Coast Water District
(SCWD) is working to obtain all major permits for its own
desalination plant near Doheny by the end of the year. The
local water district is looking to produce up to five million
gallons of potable drinking water a day by 2027 through its
proposed Doheny Ocean Desalination project.
The drought is hitting northern Mexico so hard that the state
of Baja will likely have to buy water from farmers in the
agricultural region of Mexicali. That’s what Vicente
Calderón, my collaborator on the Tijuana River Pollution crisis
series, reported last week. He tapped José Armando Fernández
Samaniego, the Baja secretary for water management, sanitation
and protection, for more details and here’s what he learned.
If the people of Baja don’t reduce their water use by at
least 20 percent per household, the government will probably
have to buy extra water at an inflated price – perhaps three
times its value…. Tijuana relies on the Colorado River
for almost all of its water.
After three years of drought, the massive state and federal
water projects that serve California’s cities and farms have
less water to distribute, forcing water managers to
increasingly ration supplies. This year, squeezed extra tight
by the prolonged drought conditions, both the state and federal
water projects are expecting to deliver mere fractions of what
cities and farms are asking for. … Everyone gets less
water during a drought. But the breakdowns of the state and
federal projects’ water allocations show some groups —
particularly farmers who have longtime rights to divert water —
faring better than others.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic
landscape while learning 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.
Travel along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand about one
of the nation’s largest and most expensive river restoration
projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Momentum is building for a unique
interstate deal that aims to transform wastewater from Southern
California homes and business into relief for the stressed
Colorado River. The collaborative effort to add resiliency to a
river suffering from overuse, drought and climate change is being
shaped across state lines by some of the West’s largest water
agencies.
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.
Climate scientist Brad Udall calls
himself the skunk in the room when it comes to the Colorado
River. Armed with a deck of PowerPoint slides and charts that
highlight the Colorado River’s worsening math, the Colorado State
University scientist offers a grim assessment of the river’s
future: Runoff from the river’s headwaters is declining, less
water is flowing into Lake Powell – the key reservoir near the
Arizona-Utah border – and at the same time, more water is being
released from the reservoir than it can sustainably provide.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
For more than 20 years, Tanya
Trujillo has been immersed in the many challenges of the Colorado
River, the drought-stressed lifeline for 40 million people from
Denver to Los Angeles and the source of irrigation water for more
than 5 million acres of winter lettuce, supermarket melons and
other crops.
Trujillo has experience working in both the Upper and Lower
Basins of the Colorado River, basins that split the river’s water
evenly but are sometimes at odds with each other. She was a
lawyer for the state of New Mexico, one of four states in the
Upper Colorado River Basin, when key operating guidelines for
sharing shortages on the river were negotiated in 2007. She later
worked as executive director for the Colorado River Board of
California, exposing her to the different perspectives and
challenges facing California and the other states in the river’s
Lower Basin.
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and 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.
This tour guided participants on a virtual journey deep into California’s most crucial water and ecological resource – the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The 720,000-acre network of islands and canals support the state’s two major water systems – the State Water Project and the Central Valley Project. The Delta and the connecting San Francisco Bay form the largest freshwater tidal estuary of its kind on the West coast.
Las Vegas, known for its searing summertime heat and glitzy casino fountains, is projected to get even hotter in the coming years as climate change intensifies. As temperatures rise, possibly as much as 10 degrees by end of the century, according to some models, water demand for the desert community is expected to spike. That is not good news in a fast-growing region that depends largely on a limited supply of water from an already drought-stressed Colorado River.
When you oversee the largest
supplier of treated water in the United States, you tend to think
big.
Jeff Kightlinger, general manager of the Metropolitan Water
District of Southern California for the last 15 years, has
focused on diversifying his agency’s water supply and building
security through investment. That means looking beyond MWD’s
borders to ensure the reliable delivery of water to two-thirds of
California’s population.
As California slowly emerges from
the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic, one remnant left behind by
the statewide lockdown offers a sobering reminder of the economic
challenges still ahead for millions of the state’s residents and
the water agencies that serve them – a mountain of water debt.
Water affordability concerns, long an issue in a state where
millions of people struggle to make ends meet, jumped into
overdrive last year as the pandemic wrenched the economy. Jobs
were lost and household finances were upended. Even with federal
stimulus aid and unemployment checks, bills fell by the wayside.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
This beautifully illustrated 24×36-inch poster, suitable for
framing and display in any office or classroom, highlights the
Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, its place as a center of
farming, its importance as an ecological resource and its
vital role in California’s water supply system.
The text, photos and graphics explain issues related to land
subsidence, levees and flooding, urbanization, farming, fish and
wildlife protection. An inset map illustrates the tidal action
that increases the salinity of the Delta’s waterways.
A government agency that controls much of California’s water
supply released its initial allocation for 2021, and the
numbers reinforced fears that the state is falling into another
drought. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said Tuesday that most
of the water agencies that rely on the Central Valley Project
will get just 5% of their contract supply, a dismally low
number. Although the figure could grow if California gets more
rain and snow, the allocation comes amid fresh weather
forecasts suggesting the dry winter is continuing. The National
Weather Service says the Sacramento Valley will be warm and
windy the next few days, with no rain in the forecast.
Members of the 2020 Water Leaders class examined how
to adapt water management to climate change. Read their
policy recommendations in the class report, Adapting
California Water Management to Climate Change: Charting a Path
Forward, to learn more.
Twenty years ago, the Colorado River
Basin’s hydrology began tumbling into a historically bad stretch.
The weather turned persistently dry. Water levels in the system’s
anchor reservoirs of Lake Powell and Lake Mead plummeted. A river
system relied upon by nearly 40 million people, farms and
ecosystems across the West was in trouble. And there was no guide
on how to respond.
Radically transformed from its ancient origin as a vast tidal-influenced freshwater marsh, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta ecosystem is in constant flux, influenced by factors within the estuary itself and the massive watersheds that drain though it into the Pacific Ocean.
Lately, however, scientists say the rate of change has kicked into overdrive, fueled in part by climate change, and is limiting the ability of science and Delta water managers to keep up. The rapid pace of upheaval demands a new way of conducting science and managing water in the troubled estuary.
Colorado is home to the headwaters
of the Colorado River and the water policy decisions made in the
Centennial State reverberate throughout the river’s sprawling
basin that stretches south to Mexico. The stakes are huge in a
basin that serves 40 million people, and responding to the water
needs of the economy, productive agriculture, a robust
recreational industry and environmental protection takes
expertise, leadership and a steady hand.
Sprawled across a desert expanse
along the Utah-Arizona border, Lake Powell’s nearly 100-foot high
bathtub ring etched on its sandstone walls belie the challenges
of a major Colorado River reservoir at less than half-full. How
those challenges play out as demand grows for the river’s water
amid a changing climate is fueling simmering questions about
Powell’s future.
Voluntary agreements in California
have been touted as an innovative and flexible way to improve
environmental conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta
and the rivers that feed it. The goal is to provide river flows
and habitat for fish while still allowing enough water to be
diverted for farms and cities in a way that satisfies state
regulators.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Our Water 101 Workshop, one of our most popular events, offered attendees the opportunity to deepen their understanding of California’s water history, laws, geography and politics.
Taught by some of the leading policy and legal experts in the state, the workshop was held as an engaging online event on the afternoons of Thursday, April 22 and Friday, April 23.
The Colorado River is arguably one
of the hardest working rivers on the planet, supplying water to
40 million people and a large agricultural economy in the West.
But it’s under duress from two decades of drought and decisions
made about its management will have exceptional ramifications for
the future, especially as impacts from climate change are felt.
Every other year we hold an
invitation-only Colorado River Symposium attended by various
stakeholders from across the seven Western states and Mexico that
rely on the iconic river. We host this three-day event in Santa
Fe, N.M., where the 1922 Colorado River Compact was signed, as
part of our mission to catalyze critical conversations to build
bridges and inform collaborative decision-making.
Members of the 2019 Water Leaders class examined the
emerging issue of wildfire impacts on California’s water
supply and quality. Read their policy recommendations in the
class report, Fire and Water: An Emerging Nexus in
California, to learn more.
Many of California’s watersheds are
notoriously flashy – swerving from below-average flows to jarring
flood conditions in quick order. The state needs all the water it
can get from storms, but current flood management guidelines are
strict and unyielding, requiring reservoirs to dump water each
winter to make space for flood flows that may not come.
However, new tools and operating methods are emerging that could
lead the way to a redefined system that improves both water
supply and flood protection capabilities.
It’s been a year since two devastating wildfires on opposite ends
of California underscored the harsh new realities facing water
districts and cities serving communities in or adjacent to the
state’s fire-prone wildlands. Fire doesn’t just level homes, it
can contaminate water, scorch watersheds, damage delivery systems
and upend an agency’s finances.
California is chock full of rivers and creeks, yet the state’s network of stream gauges has significant gaps that limit real-time tracking of how much water is flowing downstream, information that is vital for flood protection, forecasting water supplies and knowing what the future might bring.
That network of stream gauges got a big boost Sept. 30 with the signing of SB 19. Authored by Sen. Bill Dodd (D-Napa), the law requires the state to develop a stream gauge deployment plan, focusing on reactivating existing gauges that have been offline for lack of funding and other reasons. Nearly half of California’s stream gauges are dormant.
