Last year was notably wet, raising Mono Lake five feet—and
creating a conundrum. Under rules written three decades ago,
the lake’s rise over the 6,380-foot elevation threshold means
that on April 1, 2024, the maximum limit on water diversions
from Mono Lake increased nearly fourfold. Yet decades of
evidence show that increasing water diversions will erode the
wet year gains, stopping the lake from reaching the mandated
healthy 6,392-foot elevation. This flaw in the water
diversion rules, now obvious after 30 years of implementation,
has real-world results: Mono Lake is a decade late and eight
feet short of achieving the healthy lake requirement. The
California State Water Resources Control Board plans to examine
this problem in a future hearing.
California’s contentious and long-debated plan to replumb the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and pump more water south finally
has a price tag: about $20 billion. The new estimate for
the Delta tunnel project — which would transform the massive
water system that sends Northern California water south to
farms and cities — is $4 billion higher than a 2020 estimate,
largely because of inflation. Included is almost $1.2 billion
to offset local harms and environmental damage, such as impacts
on salmon and rare fish that state officials have called
“potentially significant.” The goal of the project is to
collect and deliver more water to two-thirds of California’s
population and 750,000 acres of farmland during
wet periods … But environmental groups and many
Delta residents have long warned that the tunnel could put the
imperiled Delta ecosystem at even greater risk, sapping
freshwater flows needed for fish, farms and communities in the
region.
Heavy rains this winter and spring sent torrential flows down
local creeks and rivers, and L.A. County managed to capture and
store a significant amount of that stormwater, officials say.
To be exact, they snared an estimated 295,000 acre-feet of
water since last October, or 96.3 billion gallons. That’s
enough water to supply about 2.4 million people a year — nearly
one-fourth of the county’s population. … The county,
working with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and
other agencies, was able to capture and store this amount of
water thanks in part to investments totaling more than $1
billion since 2001, Pestrella said. Some of the money has gone
toward raising dams and increasing the capacity of spreading
grounds, where water is sent into basins and then percolates
underground into aquifers.
Those stunning warnings in 2021 that the Marin Municipal Water
District was within months of running out of water led voters
to demand change. In the 2022 election, that frustration was
evident as voters elected three new directors. The historic
drought has taken a toll on the district’s chain of reservoirs,
the capacity of which it relies to meet the water needs of the
communities MMWD serves. The Lake Sonoma reservoir, which MMWD
relies on to import about 25% of its supply, was also depleted
by the drought and its releases restricted. The drought was a
huge test of the district’s long held policy of maintaining its
supply through conservation. The prolonged drought proved that
conservation, while vitally necessary, wasn’t enough — and the
district was caught in a crisis.
After another wet winter, record rainfall has turned California
green and replenished the state’s reservoirs, which had been
perilously low during the worst days of the drought. Lake
Oroville, the state’s second-biggest reservoir, often serves as
a rainfall barometer. As of Tuesday, Oroville was at 100%
capacity, according to data from the state Department of Water
Resources. … The left photograph shows Enterprise Bridge
on Dec. 21, 2022, when the lake was at 29% of its total
capacity. The right side shows the same area April 24, 2024,
when the lake was at 96% of capacity — a figure it has now
eclipsed. As of May 7, Lake Oroville was at 128% of its
historical level. Lake Shasta, the state’s largest reservoir,
was 97% full Tuesday, or 115% of its historical level.
California’s reservoirs are not only vital to the state’s
complex water systems, providing millions of people and the
state’s agricultural economy with needed access to water;
they’re also important gauges for how healthy the state is
overall. This year’s at-capacity reservoirs have been a boon
for a region besieged by drought over much of the past decade,
but more work is needed to help ensure a plentiful and
water-wise future for the most populous state in
America. Enter Sites Reservoir, a long-in-the-works
project that aims to be the biggest reservoir development in
nearly half a century. It’s been a massive dream for
decades, an idea first worked up by landowners and water
districts northwest of Sacramento. Thanks to a new infusion of
federal cash, the proposal is closer than ever to actually
happening — but not without a very real cost.
Lake Oroville, the second-largest reservoir in California,
reached capacity on Monday for a second straight year after
another relatively wet winter. The rising waters come as state
reservoir managers have been reducing outflows from the lake in
recent weeks — as winter inflows tailed off and the threat
of downstream flooding waned — allowing the reservoir to
slowly fill to its current 899-foot elevation, or 3.52-million
acre-feet of water. … Lake Oroville contains 28% more water
than it historically has on this date. “This is great news
for ensuring adequate water supply for millions of Californians
& environmental needs,” the state Department of Water Resources
posted Monday afternoon on X, formerly Twitter.
The Marin Municipal Water District is bolstering its strategy
on conservation with policy updates and incentive programs
designed to reduce water use by hundreds of millions of gallons
annually. The draft “2024 Water Efficiency Master Plan” is a
playbook that outlines how water is used today in the county,
and how the district can help its 191,000 customers in central
and southern Marin cut back. The plan aims to reduce water use
districtwide by more than 1,000 acre-feet a year starting in
2025, with even greater incremental reduction targets beyond
that. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons of water. District
staffers presented the draft plan to the board at a special
meeting on Wednesday.
Grand County and Northern Water have struck a deal that will
send more water running down Western Slope streams to benefit
farmers, boaters and the environment. Grand County in northern
Colorado is home to nearly 16,000 people, part of Rocky
Mountain National Park and the headwaters of the Colorado
River. Each year, four major diversion tunnels take up to
350,000 acre-feet of Colorado River water out of the county and
push it east to the Front Range. Now, the county and the water
provider are agreeing to release water in the opposite
direction, to the west.
As the California State Water Resources Control board meets at
the California Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters for
three days of discussion on its Bay-Delta Water Quality Control
Plan Solano County water officials are there to speak in
opposition to a course of action that could see the county’s
water allocation from Lake Berryessa cut by 75 percent. Chris
Lee and Alex Rabidoux of the Solano County Water Agency
presented information regarding the growth of salmon
populations in Putah Creek in recent years. The state has
claimed that diminished river flows in these areas are harming
fish habitats and are ecologically detrimental to the water
system as a whole, but SCWA argues that Putah Creek is already
a standout example of salmon repopulation.
Already fuller this year than it was at this time a year ago,
Lake Shasta continues to fill, creeping toward the top ―
sometimes rising just inches a day. But by early May, the lake
level is expected to stop rising and the long draw-down of the
lake will begin again and continue through the summer. The lake
is expected to reach about 5 feet from full sometime in early
May, according to Michael Burke, a spokesman for the U.S.
Bureau of Reclamation, which operates Shasta Dam. … Two
years ago, conditions at the lake were dire, with the water
level down to historically low levels. … But with the
lake fuller this year, many water agencies are receiving their
full allotment of water from the bureau.
The governance of San Francisco Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin
Delta water quality falls under the authority of the State
Water Quality Control Board. Among other duties, the Water
Board is responsible for adopting and updating the Bay-Delta
Water Quality Control Plan for the San Francisco
Bay/Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta Estuary (Bay-Delta
Plan). The Bay-Delta Plan’s purpose sets forth measures
and flow requirements to safeguard various water uses within
the watershed, including municipal, industrial, agricultural,
and ecological needs. Comprising five political appointees with
extensive powers, the Water Board plays a pivotal role in
shaping California’s water management policies. -Written by Cary Keaten, the general manager of
the Solano Irrigation District.
The Bureau of Reclamation today announced the initial 2024
water supply allocations for the Klamath Project along with
$8.5 million in immediate funding for the Klamath Basin
communities to support drought resiliency and $5 million for
Klamath Basin tribes impacted by drought. In partnership with
the Klamath Project Drought Response Agency, Reclamation has
secured $8.5 million for administration of specifically
authorized drought resiliency programs targeted for project
contractors who receive a reduced water allocation. Reclamation
is announcing this funding together with an additional $5
million from separate program sources which will be disbursed
through technical assistance agreements with Klamath Basin
Tribal Nations for drought and ecosystem activities.
The majority of California’s reservoirs are above their
historic average levels following the end of two wet winters.
The state’s largest reservoirs, Shasta Lake and Lake Oroville,
were measured at a respective 118% and 122% of their averages
for early April, according to data from the California
Department of Water Resources. Folsom Lake in the Sierra Nevada
foothills exits early April at 116%. Only two reservoirs, San
Luis in western San Joaquin Valley and Castaic in Southern
California, were below average. San Luis Reservoir was at just
87% and much smaller Castaic Lake in Los Angeles County was at
92%.
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.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
People in California and the
Southwest are getting stingier with water, a story that’s told by
the acre-foot.
For years, water use has generally been described in terms of
acre-foot per a certain number of households, keying off the
image of an acre-foot as a football field a foot deep in water.
The long-time rule of thumb: One acre-foot of water would supply
the indoor and outdoor needs of two typical urban households for
a year.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36 inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
Redesigned in 2017, this beautiful map depicts the seven
Western states that share the Colorado River with Mexico. The
Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in
Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming
and Mexico. Text on this beautiful, 24×36-inch map, which is
suitable for framing, explains the river’s apportionment, history
and the need to adapt its management for urban growth and
expected climate change impacts.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Flood Management explains the
physical flood control system, including levees; discusses
previous flood events (including the 1997 flooding); explores
issues of floodplain management and development; provides an
overview of flood forecasting; and outlines ongoing flood control
projects.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Central Valley Project
explores the history and development of the federal Central
Valley Project (CVP), California’s largest surface water delivery
system. In addition to the project’s history, the guide describes
the various CVP facilities, CVP operations, the benefits the CVP
brought to the state and the CVP Improvement Act (CVPIA).
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the Delta explores the competing
uses and demands on California’s Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
Included in the guide are sections on the history of the Delta,
its role in the state’s water system, and its many complex issues
with sections on water quality, levees, salinity and agricultural
drainage, fish and wildlife, and water distribution.
A new look for our most popular product! And it’s the perfect
gift for the water wonk in your life.
Our 24×36 inch California Water Map is widely known for being the
definitive poster that shows the integral role water plays in the
state. On this updated version, it is easier to see California’s
natural waterways and man-made reservoirs and aqueducts
– including federally, state and locally funded
projects – the wild and scenic rivers system, and
natural lakes. The map features beautiful photos of
California’s natural environment, rivers, water projects,
wildlife, and urban and agricultural uses and the
text focuses on key issues: water supply, water use, water
projects, the Delta, wild and scenic rivers and the Colorado
River.
An acre-foot is a common way in the U.S. to measure water volume
and use. It is the amount of water it takes to cover an acre of
land one foot deep. An acre is about the size of a football
field.
An acre-foot of water equals 325,851 gallons, and historically
that was enough to serve the needs of two families for a
year in California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
agricultural water use – its successes, the planned state
regulation to quantify its efficiency and the potential for
greater savings.
This issue updates progress on crafting and implementing
California’s 4.4 plan to reduce its use of Colorado River water
by 800,000 acre-feet. The state has used as much as 5.2 million
acre-feet of Colorado River water annually, but under pressure
from Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt and the other six states
that share this resource, California’s Colorado River parties
have been trying to close the gap between demand and supply.