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Tulare Lake Basin

Overview April 24, 2014

Tulare Lake Basin

Until the early 1900s, central California’s Tulare Lake naturally appeared every winter as the southernmost rivers flowing out of the Sierra Nevada Mountains filled the dry lakebed with rainfall and melted snow.

Farmers adjacent to the lake also used the water to irrigate their lands. But the variable shoreline made growing seasons unpredictable. In response, Pine Flat Dam was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to control Kings River flows. The Kings River is still used extensively for irrigation.

Because the Tulare Lake Basin’s irrigation water does not have an outlet, agricultural drainage is stored in a series of evaporation ponds in and near the lakebed, which has been converted to farm fields.  By the 1980s the water drained into 28 ponds totaling 7,300 acres. Crop production improved in part due to improved drainage. Today, drainage water from about 44,046 acres of farmland is contained and evaporated from eight basins encompassing 4,740 acres of evaporation ponds.

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Western Water June 1, 2023 Nick Cahill California Groundwater Map Layperson's Guide to Groundwater WESTERN WATER-High-Tech Mapping of Central Valley's Underground Blazes Path to Drought Resilience By Nick Cahill

High-Tech Mapping of Central Valley’s Underground Blazes Path to Drought Resilience
Aerial Surveillance Reveals Best Spots to Store Floodwater for Dry Times but Delivering the Surplus Remains Thorny

Helicopter towing an AEM loopA new underground mapping technology that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.

The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying helicopters towing giant magnets.

The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’ resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus underground for use during the next drought.

“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda, general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or AEM technology in California.

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Aquafornia news May 31, 2023 The New York Times

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Facing California’s future of flooding and droughts

In recent years, it is the dry side of California that has captured headlines: dwindling reservoirs where boat ramps lead only to sand, almond orchards ripped up for lack of irrigation water, catastrophic wildfires that rage through desiccated forests and into towns. In the longer view, though, the state’s water problems have come just as often from deluge as from drought. Other parts of the country can count on reasonably steady precipitation, but California has always been different, teetering between drenching winters and blazing summers, between wet years and dry ones — fighting endlessly to exert control over a flow of water that vacillates, sometimes wildly, between too much and too little.

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Aquafornia news May 30, 2023 Courthouse News Service

Race to move water underground on as California’s Central Valley overflows

After an unexpected wet winter, California’s drought-addled Central Valley now faces dangerous floods as a historic snowpack melts — even as the state moves to store the liquid gold as quickly as possible.  Once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River at about 650 square miles, it hosted a diverse ecosystem and many Indigenous people. When the lake dried as rivers were diverted for cities and farming, agricultural communities appeared thanks to the rich soil. Today, the basin spans several counties and produces more than half of the state’s agricultural output, according to the Public Policy Institute. Those crops account for 97% of regional water use, often relying groundwater pumping in dry years.

Related article: 

  • SJV Water: Floodplain projects are “foreign concept” for the south valley
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Aquafornia news May 26, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Opinion: We’ve seen the flooding in California. Will we move to higher ground?

The slow-motion rebirth of Tulare Lake has inundated farm fields and threatened levees, homes and whole towns. On Monday, the state projected the lake would reach its peak in the next week or so, but the floodwaters will linger for perhaps two years. The return of what used to be the largest lake west of the Mississippi has captured our attention as one of the most dramatic climatic events of 2023. Yet the flooded crops and tenuous levees at Tulare Lake represent only a fraction of the statewide and nationwide landscape now subject to greater floods of the global warming era.
-Written by author Tim Palmer, whose forthcoming book “Seek Higher Ground: The Natural Solution to Our Urgent Flooding Crisis,” will be published in 2024.

​Related article: 

  • Stanford: For beleaguered homeowners and their insurers, the fire next time could be a flood
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Aquafornia news May 25, 2023 SJV Sun

Flood worries recede as levees, diversions stem Tulare Lake expansion

California officials believe that tens of thousands of people living near Tulare Lake are unlikely to experience flooding this year, thanks to improving weather conditions and swift planning following a series of powerful storms that refilled the basin for the first time in decades. The backstory : Tulare Lake in California’s Central Valley was once the largest freshwater lake west of the Mississippi River, fed by snowmelt from the Sierra Nevada each spring. However, the lake eventually went dry as settlers dammed and diverted water for agriculture.

Related articles: 

  • Ag Alert: Farmers seek rebound after floods, virus hit lettuce crop
  • KFSN – Fresno: Project to raise Corcoran levee in Kings County nearing completion
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Aquafornia news May 24, 2023 Ag Alert

Dairies are returning to work after floods

Dairy operators in Tulare and Kings counties say they are thankful to return to the normal rhythms of feeding, milking and calving after historic flooding in March burst levees and forced dairies to rapidly evacuate their cows. The resumption of dairy activities is welcome news in two neighboring counties where milk and milk products are top commodities. Tulare County is the state’s leading milk and milk products producer. Kings County ranks fourth. Peter de Jong, owner of Cloverdale Dairy in Hanford, evacuated 5,000 cattle over two days in pouring rain in March, a feat he and his staff say they never want to repeat.

Related article: 

  • Northern California Public Radio: Napa growers see ag harvest jump 20 percent in value
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Aquafornia news May 23, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Risk of catastrophic flooding has diminished in Tulare Lake

The risk of catastrophic flooding in the Tulare Lake Basin has diminished as cool temperatures have predominated this spring, flattening the melt curve of the Sierra’s epic snowpack, state officials said Monday. We are “not forecasting nearly as severe of damage as perhaps we were looking at several weeks ago,” Brian Ferguson, deputy director of crisis communications for the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, said at a news conference Monday. “However, we want to strongly emphasize that we are not out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination.” Just a few weeks ago, officials worried that floodwaters from the melting Sierra Nevada snowpack would surge down the Tule, Kings, Kaweah and Kern rivers and topple berms, breach levees and inundate towns such as Corcoran and Stratford.

Related articles: 

  • San Francisco Chronicle: California’s once-dead Tulare Lake is nearly as large as Lake Tahoe
  • Fresno Bee: Tulare Lake now has more water than some California reservoirs. Efforts made to slow flow
  • Christian Science Monitor: California battles a ‘ghost lake’ – and its own political divisions
  • Newsweek: California’s Ghost Lake Nears Size of Lake Tahoe
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Aquafornia news May 22, 2023 Los Angeles Times

Rarely used relief valve will divert Kern River floodwaters to California Aqueduct

The Kern River is swollen with so much runoff from the epic Sierra Nevada snowpack that officials have opened a rarely used relief valve, diverting floodwaters into the California Aqueduct to be used as drinking water in Southern California. Opening this flow relief valve, known as the Kern River Intertie, is intended to prevent floodwaters from reaching Tulare Lake, a typically dry lake bed that in recent weeks has experienced a dramatic resurgence, replenished by powerful winter storms and, now, heavy spring runoff. … Over two months, state officials said, about 75,000 acre-feet of Kern River water will pass into the aqueduct, enough to supply approximately 225,000 homes for a year.

Related articles: 

  • Fox Weather: California to deal with some snowmelt flooding by diverting water
  • SF Gate: NASA images show the reappearance of a long-lost California lake
  • Newsweek: Yosemite Photos Show Park Flooding as Sierra Nevada Snow Melts
  • Ag Net West: Latest Flood-Related Executive Order Expands Diversion Flexibilities
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Aquafornia news May 18, 2023 Politico

Newsom chides McCarthy over California water money

Gov. Gavin Newsom is ramping up his pressure campaign against Republicans as a slow-moving natural disaster hits a conservative-leaning region of California. And the Democrat is using a perennial Republican calling card — water funding — to drive home his message. Newsom, who has grown increasingly frustrated over the lack of federal action, is casting Republicans as unwilling to fund critical flood protection in the Central Valley, where record snowmelt has already submerged farms and will continue to threaten communities into the summer, while California steps up to front the money.

Related article: 

  • Ceres Courier: Valley congressman fighting for water rights, transit needs
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Aquafornia news May 15, 2023 SJV Water

Kern River water to go into California Aqueduct to keep it out of Tulare Lake; flows to ramp up mid-June

For the first time in 17 years, the Kern River “intertie” will be opened on Monday to release Kern River flood waters into the California Aqueduct, according to the Kern River Watermaster. The move is an attempt to keep more flood water off the already waterlogged Tulare Lake bed as officials anticipate significantly increased Kern River flows starting in mid-June. River flows are expected to increase shortly to 7,500 cfs and could potentially go above 9,000 cfs in mid-June, according to Department of Water Resources estimates. Lake Isabella is anticipated to fill beyond its maximum capacity, to 658,262, sometime in mid-June forcing outflows up to 9,234 cfs, according to a May 8 DWR estimate provided by Kern County Administrative Officer Ryan Alsop.

Related articles: 

  • Washington Post: Analysis - The flooding in California isn’t entirely bad news
  • Hanford Sentinel: 600,000 years of history, and Tulare Lake isn’t done yet
  • SJV Sun: Calif. to cover costs to raise Corcoran Levee as re-emerging Tulare Lake swells
  • KVPR – Bakersfield: Despite state investment in Corcoran levee, concerns remain for incarcerated population
  • SJV Water: Floodwater is filled with icky stuff but won’t likely hurt drinking water long term
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Aquafornia news May 12, 2023 CBS News

Severe storms have devastating impact on Central California crops

California’s Central Valley produces a quarter of the nation’s food, but a parade of atmospheric rivers this winter caused severe storms that destroyed thousands of acres of crops. The storms, which have been linked to climate change, swamped 150,000 acres in the region, according to numbers from Kings County officials. About 99% of the nation’s pistachio supply is grown in Central California, per data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Pistachio farmer Nader Malakan estimates that about 1,200 acres of pistachio crops were destroyed, to the tune of $15 million.

Related articles: 

  • KCBX – Central Coast: Local officials urge Congress to provide more aid for California farms damaged in storms
  • The Guardian: California’s ‘ghost lake’ reappears after sodden winter
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Aquafornia news May 10, 2023 The Washington Post

Wednesday Top of the Scroll: Will California’s ‘big melt’ cause catastrophic floods? Here are four scenarios

California’s “big melt” is underway, and if forecasts bear out, much of the water being held in mountain snow will flow downhill in May and June. But at the moment, the state’s snowpack remains huge — about three times its normal size for this time of year — and depending on coming conditions, the snow can either dissipate slowly or quickly cause trouble. Snowmelt often accelerates in May with warmer weather, longer days and a higher sun angle. … Although it started out at a higher point, California’s snowpack is already melting faster than it did in 1983, a year of historic flooding in the San Joaquin Valley, thanks to a dry April and a heat wave late in the month. … With the weather driving how quickly snow will melt, here are four scenarios that could determine flood severity this spring and summer.

Related articles: 

  • Los Angeles Times: Striking satellite photos show the dramatic scale of California’s 2023 snowpack
  • U.S. Army Corps of Engineers: USACE prepares for large-volume snowmelt at Isabella Lake
  • Record Searchlight: Lake Shasta, rivers filling. Why boaters and swimmers should beware
  • Bakersfield Californian: Kern braces for ‘Big Melt’
  • Herald and News: Snowfall in Klamath National Forest above average
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Aquafornia news May 9, 2023 SJV Water

Kern River water may be plentiful this year but it’s never cheap

The Kern Water Bank Authority paid $35,000 just to file an application for a temporary permit to take up to 300,000 acre feet of Kern River flood water. There’s no guarantee the permit will be approved. Nor that the conditions in the permit – that rights holders are so full they can’t take more water and it’s in danger of being lost to the county – will ever be met. That may seem like a high price for a slim chance. But if the permit is approved, and the water comes through it will have been the deal of the century. Especially considering what water bank participants currently pay just for the hope of Kern River flood water.

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Aquafornia news May 9, 2023 San Francisco Chronicle

California flooding is impacting farms and food prices. Here’s how

A year ago, Kirk Gilkey was taking stock of his newly planted cotton, watching green shoots poke through freshly tilled dirt. These days, he has a view of nothing but water. Nearly two-thirds of the Gilkey family’s 8,700 acres in the southern San Joaquin Valley has been engulfed by Tulare Lake, the long-dormant body of freshwater that has re-emerged with the wet winter and grown to half the size of Lake Tahoe. … The area, between Fresno and Bakersfield, is one of California’s agricultural hubs hit hardest by this year’s historic flooding. While the toll on the state’s farming industry is still being tallied, crop losses are expected to soar to potentially billions of dollars, on top of billions more in property damage. It’s a modest but noticeable dent in California’s roughly $50 billion of total farm production annually and acute for the affected regions and their mainstay crops.

Related articles: 

  • Fresno Bee: The growing Tulare Lake now is visible from outer space. See NASA’s latest satellite images
  • The Packer: Flood recovery goes beyond acreage
  • SJV Water: Safe – for now - State prisons in Corcoran should stay dry, but flood water is creeping up
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Aquafornia news May 4, 2023 CBS - San Francisco

Reborn from record winter, Tulare Lake could see explosive growth from snowmelt

Tulare Lake has sprung back to life, its shoreline rapidly expanding from the runoff of a winter of epic rainstorms and the melting of the massive southern Sierra snowpack. The lake, which has been mostly dry for decades, now covers miles of rich farmland and is threatening to overwhelm nearby communities. … Tulare Lake is back to claim roads, orchards, farms, and anything left behind on that land. It is a disaster unfolding in slow motion, threatening everything around it, including the city of Corcoran. The lake has wrapped itself around the southern and western sides of Corcoran, so the community is now completely dependent on the levees designed to box in and protect this pocket of land. It probably will be for some time to come. Corcoran is the largest single community threatened by the reborn lake, and that includes the 8,000 inmates in the city’s state prison facilities.  

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Aquafornia news May 3, 2023 Hanford Sentinel

Study: Central Valley’s private wells at risk of manganese contamination

A new study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology estimates that thousands of private well users in the Central Valley could be extracting contaminated water. The study estimates a 0.7 percent chance users of a domestic well in the Tulare Lake hydrologic region, which includes Hanford, would draw water above the Environmental Protection Agency’s secondary maximum contaminant level for manganese.  According to Samantha Ying, principal investigator of the study and assistant professor of Soil Biochemistry at the University of California Riverside, manganese, a mineral naturally found in groundwater, can have serious effects on health. This is particularly true for babies and children.

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Aquafornia news May 2, 2023 San Francisco Chronicle

Tuesday Top of the Scroll: California’s snowpack remains massive. And it’s not melting that fast

Although it’s well into spring, the snowpack in California’s mountains remains huge, measuring 254% of average in the state’s May 1 snow survey on Monday. The Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades together have seen near-record accumulation this year, with the snowpack peaking on April 8 and then beginning to decline, state records show, losing just under 20% of its water mass since. A cold start to April and lots of cloud cover prompted the snow to melt at slower-than-average pace, state officials say, leaving the snowpack in May among the largest in modern times for the month. This amount of snow presents the potential for catastrophic flooding as it melts through the rest of spring and into summer. Already, many areas of the state are on high alert, notably the southern San Joaquin Valley.

Related articles: 

  • Los Angeles Times: Despite recent heat wave, most of California’s colossal snowpack has yet to melt
  • Mercury News: California flooding - 80% of Sierra Nevada snowpack hasn’t melted yet
  • Bay City News: CA’s snowpack boosts state’s water supply but raises concerns over flooding
  • Sacramento Bee: Here is how much snow remains in the Sierra as officials plan for a big spring runoff
  • Courthouse News Service: California snowpack reaches historic 240% of normal
  • KCRA – Sacramento: DWR snow survey – Sierra snowpack remains more than double the average for this time of year
  • Newsweek: Photos show Yosemite waterfalls from above as snow melts
  • Popular Science: What California’s weird winter means for its water problems
  • Read more
  • View Original Article
Aquafornia news April 27, 2023 Public Policy Institute of California

Blog: The toll of the San Joaquin Valley floods – “It’s not pretty”

Lois Henry is the engine behind the small but mighty two-person journalistic operation that is SJV Water, an independent, nonprofit news site dedicated to covering water in the San Joaquin Valley. She and reporting partner Jesse Vad have been at ground zero for much of the spring flooding that’s already occurred. We asked her what she’s seen—and what might happen as the weather heats up. The San Joaquin Valley has already experienced serious flooding this year. What are you seeing on the ground? First, I know that some people are cheering on the return of Tulare Lake. The water is coming back to the former lake bed, but I want to be clear that it’s not pretty. 

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Aquafornia news April 27, 2023 CNBC

California’s reappearing Tulare Lake could remain for two years

Satellite images taken over the past several weeks show a dramatic resurrection of Tulare Lake in California’s Central Valley and the flooding that could remain for as long as two years across previously arid farmland. The satellite imagery, provided by the Earth imaging company Planet Labs, show the transition from a dry basin to a wide and deep lake running about ten miles from bank to bank on land used to grow almonds, tomatoes, cotton and other crops. Scientists warn the flooding will worsen as historically huge snowpack from the Sierra Nevada melts and sends more water into the basin. This week, a heat wave could prompt widespread snow melt in the mountains and threaten the small farming communities already dealing with the resurrected Tulare Lake.

Related articles: 

  • CBS – Bay Area: State officials not expecting further flooding in Tulare Lake Basin
  • SF Gate: Tahoe area put on flood watch this weekend as snowpack melts
  • USA Today: ‘The Big Melt’ - California braces for flooding as heat wave takes aim at state
  • Weather West: “The Big Melt” has arrived as early season heatwave spikes flood concerns; Cut-off low to bring cooling trend but also possibly thunderstorm outbreak next week
  • Insurance Journal: California Community Braces for Floods as Epic Snow Melts
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Aquafornia news April 26, 2023 San Francisco Chronicle

As lost California lake roars back, some want to make it permanent

Tulare Lake, the long dormant lake that made a surprise comeback in California’s San Joaquin Valley this year, has gotten so big with the wet weather that water experts say it won’t drain until at least next year, and maybe well after that. … While landowners as well as local, state and federal officials are focused on keeping major towns and infrastructure dry, the broader issue of whether there’s a better way to manage water in the basin looms. … the re-emergence of the lake, for some, has sparked a sense of awe and enthusiasm, if not the desire for a more natural, more resilient landscape. Nowhere does this sentiment run deeper than among the ancestors of the native Yokuts whose creation story was inspired by the historical waters.

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Tour April 20, 2022 - 7:30am - April 22, 2022 - 6:30pm Explore Epicenter of Drought and Groundwater Sustainability on the Central Valley Tour Nick Gray

Central Valley Tour 2022
Field Trip - April 20-22

Central Valley Tour participants at a dam.This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.

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Western Water October 5, 2018 Douglas E. Beeman

What Would You Do About Water If You Were California’s Next Governor?
WESTERN WATER NOTEBOOK: Survey at Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit elicits a long and wide-ranging potential to-do list

There’s going to be a new governor in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.

So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?

That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.

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Aquapedia background May 17, 2016 Layperson's Guide to Groundwater California Groundwater Map

Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA)

A man watches as a groundwater pump pours water onto a field in Northern California.A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management plans with the state as the backstop.

SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the “management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without causing undesirable results.”

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Video May 27, 2014

A Climate of Change: Water Adaptation Strategies

This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an excellent overview of climate change and how it is already affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are underway to plan and adapt to climate.

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Video May 27, 2014

Salt of the Earth: Salinity in California’s Central Valley

Salt. In a small amount, it’s a gift from nature. But any doctor will tell you, if you take in too much salt, you’ll start to have health problems. The same negative effect is happening to land in the Central Valley. The problem scientists call “salinity” poses a growing threat to our food supply, our drinking water quality and our way of life. The problem of salt buildup and potential – but costly – solutions are highlighted in this 2008 public television documentary narrated by comedian Paul Rodriguez.

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Maps & Posters May 20, 2014

California Water Map, Spanish

Spanish language version of our California Water Map

Versión en español de nuestro mapa de agua de California

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Maps & Posters April 17, 2014 California Water Bundle

California Water Map
Updated December 2016

A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect gift for the water wonk in your life.

Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts – including federally, state and locally funded projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects, wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado River.

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Aquapedia background February 11, 2014 California Water Map Layperson's Guide to the Central Valley Project

Tulare Lake Basin

Image shows flooded crop fields in Tulare Lake Basin in 2023Until the early 1900s, Central California’s Tulare Lake naturally appeared every winter as the southernmost rivers flowing out of the Sierra Nevada filled the dry lakebed with rainfall and melted snow.

In the spring, the shallow lake near Visalia could cover as much as 790 square miles, or four times the surface area of Lake Tahoe. By the end of the hot San Joaquin Valley summer, however, the giant lake – once the largest freshwater body west of the Mississippi River – could disappear primarily due to evaporation.

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Western Water Magazine March 1, 2013

Nitrate and the Struggle for Clean Drinking Water
March/April 2013

This printed issue of Western Water discusses the problems of nitrate-contaminated water in small disadvantaged communities and possible solutions.

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