A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
What to expect during the potential ‘super El Niño’
“The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a weather phenomenon in which “sea temperatures at the surface in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean become substantially warmer than normal,” according to the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). As a result, it causes “extreme heat, dangerous tropical cyclones, and a significant threat to fragile coral reefs,” along with overall warmer temperatures, CNN writes. ENSO is expected to make an appearance sometime this year, and the phenomenon typically lasts between nine and 12 months. “Right now, the atmosphere and the ocean are both in sync and screaming ‘El Niño rapid development’ over the next few months,” climate scientist Daniel Swain told CNN. The phenomenon is said to be “like a natural form of climate change,” Time describes. … ” Read more from Yahoo News.
Could sightings of jelly-like creatures on California beaches signal El Niño on the horizon?
“Jim Serpa was like a giddy school kid exploring Mother Nature’s classroom as he scanned the sand. “There’s one … there’s another,” Serpa exclaimed as he walked along the damp high-tide line in north San Clemente on Monday, April 10. Dotting the shore were hundreds of “by-the-wind sailors,” jelly-like creatures known for their beautiful blue hues that get pushed to Southern California from tropical waters by wind and ocean currents. Thousands of the creatures were spotted Friday, April 7, about two miles from shore and by the weekend many had washed up at various beaches between the South Bay, Huntington Beach, Crystal Cove and San Clemente. The creatures’ scientific name is Velella velellas, and they are distinguished by their “sails” on top, which also look a little like a mohawk.Their appearance could be a sign of a changing weather pattern on the horizon – the onset of El Niño. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News (gift article).
State Water Board weighs status of six aquifer plans
“Local agencies for six San Joaquin Valley subbasins, facing possible state intervention after their groundwater sustainability plans were deemed inadequate, learned more about next steps last week from California water officials. During a board meeting of the California State Water Resources Control Board, officials signaled a willingness to allow agencies to bring aquifer plans into compliance with state sustainability mandates. “The board’s role is intended to be temporary, so state intervention is not a replacement for a groundwater sustainability plan,” said Natalie Stork, state water board supervising engineering geologist of the groundwater management program. “Our goal is to help get basins back on track with DWR (California Department of Water Resources), so it’s a temporary process.” … ” Continue reading at Ag Alert.
Drought dwindles to less than 9% of California
“Only remnants of California’s three-year drought remain after winter’s epic storms. The U.S. Drought Monitor reported Thursday that areas of drought cover less than 9% of the state, down from more than 99% at the Oct. 1 start of the water year. Those areas, in the far north and southeast, are surrounded by areas of abnormal dryness amounting to just over 25% of the state. California’s winter was marked by numerous atmospheric rivers that dumped enormous amounts of rain and blanketed mountains with an extraordinary snowpack. … ” Read more from the Associated Press.
Photos show how Lake Shasta water levels changed in a year
“Photos have revealed how the water levels of California’s Lake Shasta have changed in just a year. The reservoir, located in Shasta County, California, is the biggest in the state and just a year ago it was in a dire situation due to the ongoing drought. But a particularly wet winter saw the state receive an influx of rainfall and precipitation. This has provided some much needed storage for the state’s reservoirs, and now the lake is about three-quarters full. Pictures shared by KRCR News Channel 7 show side by side photos of the lake in January 2022 and April 2023. … ” Read more from Newsweek.
Groundwater gold rush: Banks, pension funds and insurers have been turning California’s scarce water into enormous profits, leaving people with less to drink
“As storms battered California in March, the state’s inland breadbasket erupted with almond blossoms. It happens every year. The Central Valley—the source of 40% of America’s fruit and nuts—explodes in a riot of pink and white blooms. This year petals fluttered off branches into raging irrigation ditches that only a few months earlier had twisted across the dry dust like coils of snake molt. California has a temporary reprieve. At the Woodville Public Utility District, 60 miles southeast of Fresno, Ralph Gutierrez has watched these cycles of flood and drought for decades. Gutierrez, 65, who grew up picking tomatoes and grapes with his parents in the nearby fields, has spent the past 43 years operating water systems for some of the poorest communities in the state. He’s a well whisperer. Brawny, with a tattooed forearm, a silver belt buckle and Western boots, Gutierrez coaxes water from stone aquifers that have been hammered for years by agricultural pollution and overpumping. … ” Read more from Bloomberg.
House panel dives head-first in drought, flood issues during Tulare hearing
“California’s water issues are receiving heightened attention from Federal lawmakers, particularly with the powerful House Committee on Natural Resources. Tuesday, that discussion made its way to the Central Valley as the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries held a field hearing in Tulare to discuss two proposed bills that would change how California’s water management system and endangered fish are managed. The hearing even managed to coin a new nickname for California Gov. Gavin Newsom. … ” Continue reading from the San Joaquin Valley Sun.
Feds’ Colorado River choice: California’s rights or Arizona’s future?
“Almost half of all the water that flows through the Colorado River each year is consumed by just two states: Arizona and California. Over the past year, as the Biden administration has scrambled to respond to a decades-long drought that has sapped the river, these two states have known a reckoning is coming. In order to stabilize the river, both of them will have to use less water. At a press conference overlooking the Hoover Dam on Tuesday, the administration unveiled two plans to achieve those cuts, promising to reach a final conclusion by August. One plan would divide future cuts equally between Arizona and California, a potential violation of California’s stronger legal rights to the river. The other plan would recognize the Golden State’s seniority and reduce Arizona’s water allocation by more than half its current size during the driest years. Both scenarios would be unprecedented in scale and severity, requiring at least some big reductions from both states as well as neighboring Nevada. … ” Read more from Grist.
Colorado River: Can feds legally cut IID, other rural water district allotments?
“The powerful Imperial Irrigation District and others with historic first dibs to Colorado River water are once again facing possible threats to their jealously guarded supply. At a press conference at the Hoover Dam on Tuesday, federal officials announced possible unprecedented, across-the-board cuts to all water contractors in three states if levels in its massive reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, fall so low that they might no longer function. Deputy Interior Secretary Tommy Beaudreau said Interior Secretary Deb Haaland has clear legal authority to take actions to protect public health and safety, and to ensure drinking water and other beneficial uses can be provided. But western water law is inordinately complicated, and while public officials do have broad emergency powers, a seminal 1922 Colorado River compact, varying state laws and other agreements and even court decisions since then that together comprise the “Law of the River” also tend to protect historic rights like those held by IID. … ” Read more from the Desert Sun.
California ag chief’s plan for future includes ‘with innovation, small farms can be viable’
“California Department of Food and Agriculture Secretary Karen Ross is putting forward a five-fold plan intended to guide the direction of farming in the the state in the next decade. Ross called Ag Vision “a plan for every Californian, from those who care about the land and landscape and making it better for the future, to those who work with or live around farming communities.” To create Ag Vision, officials said they used one-on-one interviews with “a diverse set of agricultural stakeholders,” along with roundtable discussions with various segments of California agriculture, including dairy and livestock farmers, berry growers, and tree nut producers. … ” Read more from the Fresno Bee.
Swimming pools and lavish gardens of the rich are driving water shortages, study says
“Swimming pools, flower gardens, indoor fountains — and the urbanites who can afford them — are big factors behind the increasingly dire water crises plaguing cities, an international research team says. Published in the journal Nature Sustainability, a new study found socioeconomic disparity to be just as influential as climate change and population growth when it comes to explaining why the water supply in so many cities is shrinking. “There are certain individuals with the power to decide how to manage water who also use more water,” said lead researcher Elisa Savelli of Uppsala University in Sweden. “Even with something as simple as water, it’s unjust. Some social groups have access to too much, and some social groups have too little.” … ” Read moire from KVCR.
From desert to wonderland: images show California’s striking superbloom
“California’s superblooms this year are so lush and so exuberant that they can be seen from space. Satellite images from Maxar Technologies, a Colorado-based company, show striking images of bright orange, red, yellow and purple blooms across southern California. The vast, vibrant blooms are a sign of abundance after a prolonged drought, which was broken by historic snow and rainfall this winter. Wildflower seeds that accumulated underground through a series of punishingly dry years are finally coming up, UC Davis plant sciences professor Jennifer Funk explained in a news release. “A very wet year – like the year we are having now – could trigger germination of all of these seeds at once, leading to a superbloom.” … ” Read more from The Guardian.
In commentary this week …
Dan Walters: Increasing temperatures increase California flood risk
“California was experiencing a series of major rain and snow storms in January when Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed a 2023-24 state budget. Tucked into one of the budget’s hundreds of pages of detail was this paragraph: “San Joaquin Valley Flood Plain Restoration – A reduction of $40 million General Fund in 2023-24, which eliminates funding for this purpose.” The $40 million had been a small down payment on the billions of dollars that would be needed to protect communities in the valley from disastrous floods that scientists had been warning could occur under certain meteorological circumstances. Just last summer, with California still experiencing a years-long drought, a major study warned about the state’s vulnerability to a huge flood similar to one that occurred in 1862. “We find that climate change has already increased the risk of a (1862) megaflood scenario in California, but that future climate warming will likely bring about even sharper risk increases,” the study declared. … ” Read more from Cal Matters.
Commentary: How managing flood flows can help rescue aquifers
Thomas Harter, Mallika Nocco, Isaya Kisekka and Helen Dahlke write, “As a changing climate stresses water supplies, a key focus for California is on how to manage flood flows in ways that store more water for drought years while reducing risk to life and infrastructure. A potential solution to this question is to enhance groundwater recharge, a natural process in the water cycle that leaks water from rainfall, rivers or flooded areas into the subsurface. Natural recharge is no longer enough to refill our overtapped groundwater reserves. But intentional, managed aquifer recharge, or MAR, can help reduce flood risk and store more water for dry periods. Some MAR has been practiced in California for a hundred years by either injection of water directly into the aquifer or, more commonly, the diversion of stream water into percolation basins where water can seep into storage. To achieve rapid percolation of water from several inches up to several feet per day, managed recharge basins need to be situated over portions of the aquifer that ensure water is quickly distributed underground into the broader aquifer system to avoid water “traffic jams.” … ” Read more from Ag Alert.
Commentary: Tulare Lake flap reveals the politics of water
Todd Fitchette, Western Farm Press, writes, “The politics of water and landowner disagreements in the Tulare Lake region of California is rising as fast as the flood flows inundating the area. A special meeting of the Kings County Board of Supervisors in late March allowed landowners to share concerns over how the lake bottom region, which is heavily farmed by a few large farming companies, will manage flood flows coming off the southern Sierra Nevada. SJV Water, a local non-profit news organization, continues to dig into accusations by farmers that the Boswell Company is cutting levees to protect their crops and facilities at the expense of other farmers. One of those farmers was our High Cotton winner from a few short years ago. … ” Read more from the Western Farm Press.
California’s water irony train is full
Todd Fitchette writes, “If a million acre feet of water is destined for Tulare Lake, the once-dry lakebed used to grow cotton, canning tomatoes, and other crops, will reassume its role as one of the largest freshwater lakes in the United States. California’s snowpack is close to 300% of normal in some places as nearly 900 inches of snow has fallen on top of Mammoth Mountain in the Eastern Sierra. And while Tulare Lake will likely fill for the first time in decades, California farmers still are not promised a full allotment of irrigation water. A day before an emergency meeting of the Kings County Board of Supervisors to address flooding on the Tulare Lake region, USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack sent a letter to California Gov. Gavin Newsom, declaring 54 California counties a “primary natural disaster area due to recent drought.” Don’t use that word with farmers in the Tulare Lake region right now. … ” Read more from the Western Farm Press.
Is this the end of California’s rivers?
Doug Obegi, Director of California River Restoration for the NRDC, writes, “If you care about California’s rivers, I’d encourage you to watch the beautiful documentary film River’s End, which is showing on PBS stations across the country this month and streaming online. The film documents the ongoing threats to California’s rivers and fisheries caused by unsustainable water diversions – which threatens thousands of salmon fishermen and women, Delta communities, Native American Tribes, and all of us who depend on healthy rivers and a healthy Bay-Delta estuary. It may seem strange to talk about the end of California’s rivers in a year when so many of them are flooding, after months of storms that battered the state and produced an epic snowpack. As flowing rivers wash away the nightmare of California’s most recent drought, they are also creating new crises of flooded communities, particularly poor, disadvantaged communities. … ” Read more from the NRDC.
Water mismanagement is an urgent wake-up call for Californians
William Bourdeau, executive vice president of Harris Farms, director of the Westlands Water District, and chairman of the Valley Future Foundation, writes, “As Californians, we are truly blessed to live in a state that has such abundant natural resources and vast expanses of farm land, making it a true epicenter of agriculture. The San Joaquin Valley, in particular, is one of the most productive agricultural regions in the world, producing a staggering number of crops that eventually find their way to our tables. It is imperative that we understand and appreciate the importance of agriculture in California, and more broadly, across the United States. It’s not just a matter of convenience or choice. A robust domestic food supply capability has immense national security ramifications. A lack of food supply puts us at a significant disadvantage – not just as portions of the population go hungry, but because we may be functionally dependent on imports from other countries. California’s agriculture plays no small part in maintaining our nation’s food security. … ” Read more from the San Joaquin Valley Sun.
Cleaning bay source pollution will enable more Delta diversions
Edward Ring, Senior Fellow at the California Water Policy Center, writes, “On February 21, the California State Water Resources Control Board waived environmental regulations in order to permit more storage in Central Valley reservoirs. This came a week after Governor Gavin Newsom temporarily suspended environmental laws that prevent reservoir storage if flow through the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta falls below 58,000 acre feet per day. A guest opinion piece in the San Francisco Chronicle, published immediately after Newsom’s action, warned of dire consequences. “Newsom just declared war on San Francisco Bay” was its thundering headline, claiming Newsom is waging “a generic war against the realities of California’s hydrology that cannot be won.” According to environmentalists, the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s “estuarine ecosystem is highly dependent on the amount of fresh water that flows into it from the watershed.” And while this is undoubtedly true, current environmentalist concerns ignore two important facts. … ” Read more from the California Policy Center.
This would’ve been the year for Sites Reservoir
Tim Hearden writes, “As California is still drying out from a historically wet winter, and as a massive snowmelt figures to create challenges for water managers throughout the summer, there’s one place in California that will remain conspicuously dry: the valley west of Maxwell that is set aside for Sites Reservoir. I’ve been hearing about the Sites project since I moved to Redding in 1998 to cover county government for the Record Searchlight, our city’s daily paper. For 25 years at least, conversations around these parts invariably include the phrase “If we can ever get sites built …,” but so far, no significant earth has moved. Recently, the Sites Project Authority – an agency put together to move the project forward – published an analysis that asserted Sites Reservoir could have diverted and captured 750,000 acre-feet of water as a result of the January storms if the reservoir was operational, and an additional potential 244,000 acre-feet of water as a result of the February-March storms. … ” Read more from the Western Farm Press.
Salmon declines and hatchery options
“Kilgore Trout” writes, “On Saturday (March 18, 2023), Sep Hendrickson’s “California Sportsmen” radio show hosted James Stone, current president of the Nor-Cal Guides and Sportsmen’s Association. The Association recently lobbied to close the California salmon fishing season for 2023. The discussion raised several interesting issues about the status and management of salmon. Mr. Stone questioned why regulators did not close the salmon fishery earlier than this year. He noted that in 6 of the last 8 years, the annual escapement of Sacramento fall-run Chinook salmon was below the minimum conservation objective of 122,000 adults, a dismal 75% failure rate for forecasters. … Sep and James agreed that all too often, 100% of California’s recent salmon declines are blamed on climate change and droughts, not factors like overfishing after years of low escapement. Indeed, a NOAA study conducted after the 2008 closure of the California salmon fishery attributed the collapse primarily to poor ocean conditions, but also noted contributing factors like dry inland conditions and fishing. Sep and James continued to discuss water management in California’s Central Valley. … ” Read the full post at the California Fisheries blog.
In regional water news this week …
Last ride in Hell’s Corner: Rafters savor final season on Upper Klamath before dam removal
“It’s last call for one of the West Coast’s most unique whitewater rafting trips this summer. The Upper Klamath River, located southwest of Klamath Falls, has taken rafters on thrill rides for the past four decades thanks to a system of dams that supplies dependable summertime water through the Class IV rapids of Hell’s Corner Canyon. But the same dams that have made this rafting experience possible have also wrought havoc on the Klamath River’s salmon runs and ecosystem. They’re scheduled for removal beginning later this year in the largest dam removal project in United States history. Without the water stored behind the dams and released at a specific time each day, river levels won’t be high enough for commercial trips through Hell’s Corner Canyon in summers after dam removal, local outfitters say. … ” Read more from the Statesmans Journal.
Lake Tahoe’s clarity the best it’s been since 1980s
“For the last five months of 2022, Lake Tahoe was the clearest it has been since the 1980s. That is due in part to a resurgence of the lake’s native zooplankton. They’ve provided a natural clean-up crew to help restore the lake’s famous blue waters. The findings are reported in the “Lake Tahoe Clarity Report 2022,” released today from the UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, or TERC, for the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Clarity is measured as the depth to which a 10-inch white disk, called a Secchi disk, remains visible when lowered into the water. In 2022, Lake Tahoe’s average annual clarity was 71.7 feet compared to 61 feet in 2021. The key finding from 2022 was the great improvement in lake clarity from August through December, when the average Secchi depth was 80.6 feet. This coincided with the highest numbers of the zooplankton Daphnia and Bosmina. … ” Read more from UC Davis.
The Bay Area’s economy of mud: Dredging concerns threaten jobs, $100 billion in assets
“At the Port of Oakland on a recent weekday, trucks, cranes and container-laden ships moved goods across the sprawling 1,300-acre complex with the precarious precision of a Rube Goldberg machine. Mere blocks from downtown Oakland, the port operates essentially as a city within a city. It’s the ninth biggest port in the country and the first stop for 99% percent of containerized goods moving through Northern California. In the whir of logistics and machinery, it’s easy to forget that everything happening here is made possible by one unsung, unglamorous and Sisyphean task: hauling mud from San Francisco Bay. That dredging process has enormous implications for the future of shipping and transportation in the Bay Area, and may hold the key to protecting local shorelines. “The bottom line is that if we don’t dredge, none of this happens,” said port spokesperson Robert Bernardo, looking out over stacks of containers. “Period.” … ” Continue reading from the Marin Independent Journal (gift article).
The big melt: San Joaquin Valley eyes historic snowpack with trepidation
“It’s unlikely that all the snow looming above the San Joaquin Valley will melt and barrel toward the valley floor at the same time. If history is a guide, the melt should be staggered between the San Joaquin, Kings, Tule and Kern river watersheds starting later this month through July. “That’s good,” said California Department of Water Resources Climatologist Michael Anderson during a press briefing on Tuesday. “It means not all the watersheds will see the same melt at the same time.” But there’s still going to be a massive amount of water coming down, according to DWR’s Bulletin 120, a monthly report that measures snowpack and water content across the Sierra Nevada mountains. The report also estimates when to expect how much water downstream. … ” Read more from SJV Water.
SJ Valley grower challenged on levee breaches
“Kings County, Calif. officials voted in closed session in late March to cut a levee near the lowest point of the old Tulare Lakebed after the damage was done to homes, farmland, and farm shops south of Corcoran. The move was meant to alleviate pressure in other parts of the lakebed and spread what could be over one million acre feet of runoff aimed at the lowest point in the southern San Joaquin Valley. The decision in a declared emergency session came after public testimony by officials with J.G. Boswell Company, who were asked by supervisors to defend their decision to unilaterally breach levees in an area of the lakebed that spared their farmland and infrastructure from flooding. … ” Read more from the Western Farm Press.
Record snowpack dramatically improves water supply outlook for Los Angeles
“After completing the final snow surveys for the 2022-2023 winter season, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) announced a record snowpack of 296% of normal for the Eastern Sierra on April 1. The snowpack created by this year’s epic winter season surpassed the 1969 historic record estimated at 270% of normal. “Los Angeles will continue to do all we can to ensure that we are turning record snow and rain into record water capture,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said. “We will continue to expand and secure a local sustainable water supply, and continue to use water wisely.” “It has been a phenomenally wet year, bringing a dramatic 180-degree turn-around for our city’s water supply,” said Martin Adams, LADWP General Manager and Chief Engineer. “But while we can breathe a little easier the extreme shift in weather patterns demonstrates the unpredictability of our snow and water levels each year. It’s crucial we continue to expand and secure a local sustainable water supply, and continue to use water wisely.” … ” Read more from LADWP.
Water release from San Antonio Dam causes flooding in Stone Canyon neighborhood of Claremont
“What began as a mysterious water leak in Claremont turned into full-on flooding Wednesday night after water was released from the San Antonio Dam. In a letter from the city of Claremont sent to residents on Tuesday, city staff was initially notified of “abnormal groundwater seepage” in the Appalachian and Nashotah areas of the Stone Canyon development. A few days later, the city began getting calls about more groundwater seepage from homeowners on New Hampshire and Moody Place. “In response, staff was informed that the Six Basins Water Master is conducting spreading operations to recharge the groundwater levels from what appears to be water released from the San Antonio Dam,” read the letter. “Army Corps of Engineers records for the San Antonio Dam show a water level decrease of 20 feet within the last 15 days.” … ” Read more from KABC.
Announcements, notices, and funding opportunities …
NOTICE OF SCOPING MEETING: Possible Amendment of the Bay-Delta Plan to Incorporate Voluntary Agreement for the Tuolumne River
NOTICE of public workshop on statewide nutrient management
NOTICE of Availability of Second Revised Draft Initial Biological Goals for LSJR and Notice of Workshop
NOTICE: Department of Water Resources Releases ‘Drinking Water Well Impacts’ Guidance and ‘Water Shortage Planning’ Brochure
