A wrap-up of posts published on Maven’s Notebook this week …
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In California water news this week …
California judge rules state can’t issue bonds to finance Delta tunnel project
“The controversial Delta Conveyance Project took a major financial hit this week, after a Sacramento County judge ruled California can’t issue bonds to fund the project. Sacramento County Superior Court Judge Kenneth C. Mennemeier issued a narrow ruling Tuesday about the bonds for the project, which would put a massive tunnel to convey water under the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. Mennemeier found the California Department of Water Resources’ definition of the “delta program” isn’t linked to the Feather River Project. A bureaucratic connection between the two is essential for the bonds, the judge ruled in the case Sierra Club v. California Department of Water Resources. The department has the power to issue bonds to finance projects under the Central Valley Project Act. The Feather River Project falls under that act. However, for the department to issue bonds for the delta project, it must be a modification of the Feather River Project. … ” Read more from the Courthouse News Service.
Court sides with counties and agencies, dismissing DWR’s attempt to “validate” bond resolutions to finance controversial Delta tunnel project
“On January 16, 2024, the Sacramento County Superior Court denied the Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) request for an order “validating” bond resolutions that would have financed the Delta Tunnel project known as the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP). Like its failed predecessors, the DCP would divert water from the Sacramento River near the Delta communities of Hood and Courtland out the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta for export to portions of the Bay Area, South San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The Counties of San Joaquin, Contra Costa, Solano, Yolo, Butte, Plumas, and Sacramento (and their related water agencies), among other litigants, challenged DWR’s authority to issue an unlimited amount of bonds to finance the DCP. The Court agreed with the Counties and Agencies, ruling that “DWR exceeded its delegated authority when it adopted the Bond Resolutions, which purported to authorize the issuance of the Delta Program Revenue Bonds.” … ” Continue reading this press release.
Delta Conveyance Project update covers updated timeline, reliability of the State Water Project beyond 2040
“The January meeting of Metropolitan Water District’s One Water and Stewardship Committee included an informational update on the Delta Conveyance Project, which proposes to construct intake facilities in the North Delta to deliver water via a tunnel to existing infrastructure in the South Delta. The update was given by Nina Hawk, Chief of Bay-Delta Resources; Dee Bradshaw, Environmental Program Manager; and Jennifer Nevills, Principal Resource Specialist. The agenda item included an update on the final EIR, an updated timeline, and an analysis requested by Metropolitan on the reliability of the State Water Project beyond 2040. … ” Read more from Maven’s Notebook.
Court strongly sides with DWR, rejects all legal challenges to continued long-term operation of State Water Project through 2085
“Last week, the Third District Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the California Department of Water Resources (DWR), upholding amendments to DWR’s water supply contracts with water agencies throughout the state for the long-term operation of the State Water Project (SWP). The amendments extend the 1960s-era contracts to 2085. After reviewing the amendments in an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), DWR filed an action to approve the amendments in 2018. Parties opposed DWR’s action, and two additional petitions were filed challenging the amendments under CEQA, the Delta Reform Act, and the public trust doctrine. The court’s ruling last week in favor of DWR confirms that water supply contracts for water from the most important piece of water infrastructure in the state can be extended far into the future. … ” Read more from the State Water Contractors.
The Delta in decline
“The life cycle of a salmon, so the story goes, is a heroic journey. The fish emerge from fertilized eggs in a river bed, swim to the ocean where they spend most of their lives and return to give birth in the exact place where they were born. The reality in California is more complicated. Many salmon are born in hatcheries — government fish farms. Hatchery salmon are often transported and released near the ocean to avoid the substandard water conditions in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its tributaries. The state tries to capture wild juvenile salmon in creeks and bring them to tanks at UC Davis — once again to keep the fish out of the Delta. The salmon that swim the Delta are deterred from one route by a “bio-acoustic fish fence” and then might be caught in a large net if they make a wrong turn towards a pump station, each a measure to keep them alive. … ” Read more from Comstock’s.
Five guiding principles for effective voluntary agreements: A case study on VAs for water and habitat in California’s Bay-Delta watershed
“California has increasingly emphasized efforts to develop voluntary agreements (VAs) with water users as a means of achieving regulatory goals. VAs are negotiated agreements that establish pathways for regulated entities to meet regulatory requirements through alternative means. In theory, a VA can combine the protectiveness of a regulatory backstop with the creativity and flexibility of a negotiated deal to produce outcomes as good as, or better than, those achievable through strict application of regulatory requirements alone. VAs may also be able to achieve those outcomes more quickly, with less conflict and litigation. However, theory and reality do not always match. This policy paper examines the state’s pursuit of VAs for flow and habitat restoration to support native fish populations in California’s Bay-Delta watershed. … ” Read more from Berkeley Law..
DWR completes review of Groundwater Sustainability Plans: 10 plans approved, 7 deemed incomplete
“The Department of Water Resources (DWR) marked a major milestone in long-term water supply management efforts today with the completion of the review process of groundwater sustainability plans for high and medium priority groundwater basins in the state. The plans were prepared and submitted at the local level for the first time, ensuring that communities near these precious resources have a significant role in ensuring their sustainability. California’s groundwater basins, which collectively make up a massive underground reservoir, provide a critical water supply for 15.4 million people, especially during dry years when surface water supplies are lacking. As California adapts to a hotter, drier future, these groundwater supplies will become a more vital resource for local water agencies and agriculture. … ” Read more from the Department of Water Resources.
Water Commission presents statewide strategies for protecting communities, fish and wildlife during drought
“The California Water Commission today approved a white paper that contains potential strategies to protect communities and fish and wildlife in the event of drought. The white paper is in support of Water Resilience Portfolio Action 26.3, and will be shared with the Secretaries for Natural Resources, Environmental Protection, and Food and Agriculture, who requested the Commission’s engagement on this topic. California is a drought-prone state. Climate change exacerbates drought conditions in California by creating hotter and drier baseline conditions, leading to more intense droughts. Additionally, climate change is creating the conditions for “weather whiplash” – a phenomenon California experienced in the 2022-2023 water year, swinging rapidly from severe drought to record-breaking precipitation events and flooding. To ensure California’s people and environment have sufficient water during times of drought, the State will need to adapt to this new normal of ongoing weather extremes. … ” Read more from the California Water Commission.
A new, rigorous assessment of OpenET accuracy for supporting satellite-based water management
“Sustainable water management is an increasing concern in arid regions around the world, and scientists and regulators are turning to remote sensing tools like OpenET to help track and manage water resources. OpenET uses publicly available data produced by NASA and USGS Landsat and other satellite systems to calculate evapotranspiration (ET), or the amount of water lost to the atmosphere through soil evaporation and plant transpiration, at the level of individual fields. This tool has the potential to revolutionize water management, allowing for field-scale operational monitoring of water use, and a new study provides a thorough analysis of the accuracy of OpenET data for various crops and natural land cover types. … ” Read more from the Desert Research Institute
As abandoned boats pile up in Bay Area waters, who’s responsible for the environmental damage?
“On Jan. 2, a 27-foot sailboat sank off the southern coast of Alameda in stormy weather. Rescue crews saved the man on board, but the ship landed beside a long rock wall jutting from the island. … Who is going to pay to remove that boat?” De Lappe said. “This shouldn’t happen.” There are hundreds of thousands of boats registered in California — the fourth-most in the nation — and the state’s $10 billion recreational boating community supports tens of thousands of jobs. But the state has few comprehensive plans for disposing of aging or abandoned boats. Registration and insurance requirements are limited and rarely enforced. There is no registration requirement for new owners. Although shipwrecks can conjure romantic images of treasure and adventure, in the Bay Area they are more likely to serve as environmental and navigational hazards. When owners get fed up with aging, costly vessels, they often dump their boats in the bay, sometimes filled to the brim with trash. Frequently, there are pollutants onboard — gas, chemicals, even sewage. … ” Read more from the San Jose Mercury News (gift article).
A new study finds a critical vitamin for salmon in rivers
“From dams to drought, salmon face a lot of threats in the West. Add thiamine deficiency to the list. New research sheds light on where salmon could get this vitamin. Thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, is critical for salmon health. Juvenile fish can die without enough of the nutrient. Researchers have known salmon’s ocean diet impacts their thiamine levels. Scientists at Oregon State University have called “thiamine deficiency complex” a growing threat. For example, a diet rich in anchovies rather than sardines can lead to a deficiency. But for the first time, scientists have measured the vitamin’s availability in freshwater rivers where the fish deposit eggs. … ” Read more from Jefferson Public Radio.
Dam-failure flood risk in California: How to manage low-probability hazards
“Every year, damaging floods strike somewhere around the world, including sometimes in California like during winter 2022-23. Even a house with just a 1% chance of flooding each year (by the so-called “100-year flood”) has a 26% chance of inundation over a 30-year mortgage. Other natural hazards have much lower probabilities, but would bring more catastrophic consequences. These threats are much more challenging to plan for; dam failure and associated flooding is one such hazard. Over the past 100+ years, California has built over 1200 dams, which impound ~42 million of acre-feet of water statewide. The probability of a dam failing in any one year is very small but no dam is “failure-proof.” … ” Read more from the California Water Blog.
Costly and ‘unnecessarily complex’: Report blasts California water conservation plan
“In a scathing review, advisors to the state Legislature have found that California’s proposed regulations for urban water conservation would be costly, overly complicated and difficult to implement. State water regulators have been developing regulations, as required under 2018 legislation, that would call for water suppliers in cities and suburbs to meet increasingly stringent targets for reducing water use between 2025 and 2035. The proposed rules are intended to help California adapt as climate change brings more intense droughts and puts growing strain on water supplies. But the nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said in its report that the regulations, as proposed by the State Water Resources Control Board, would create challenges for water suppliers, “in many cases without compelling justifications.” … ” Read more from the LA Times.
LAO issues report criticizing the “Make Conservation a California Way of Life” framework – are changes coming??
“On January 4, 2024, the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) issued its statutorily-mandated report – “Assessing Early Implementation of Urban Water Use Efficiency Requirements” – analyzing the implementation of the “Make Conservation a California Way of Life” framework. That framework, which consists of statutory requirements and draft State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) regulations, sets out water use objectives (WUOs) for urban water agencies. The LAO’s report is critical of the framework both in regard to the statutory requirements and the State Water Board’s draft regulations. Whether this analysis has any impact at the legislative or agency level is something to watch for 2024. … ” Read more from Nossaman.
Why do hotter, drier areas struggle to meet their water use efficiency targets?
“The California Data Collaborative has been estimating the impacts of the State’s Framework for “Making Conservation a California Way of Life” and helping water suppliers to prepare since 2016 when the framework was still an executive order and had not yet been signed into law. In the years since, having spoken to dozens of urban water suppliers and having helped more than 20 suppliers calculate their urban water use objective (WUO), one observation kept sticking in my mind: suppliers in cooler/coastal regions often had water use levels at or sometimes well below their WUO, while those in hotter, more inland regions seemed more likely to exceed their WUO — sometimes dramatically. The question in my mind was: why? … ” Continue reading from the California Data Collaborative.
The impact of Governor Newsom’s proposed budget on water projects
“On January 10, 2024, Governor Newsom announced his 2024-2025 State budget proposal for $291 billion with a $37.9 billion proposed deficit. For water projects, the proposal is remarkably similar to his proposal from last year. The main differences as compared to last year’s proposal are bigger cuts (to many of the same areas cut last year) and less funding for new projects. Governor Newsom seeks to address the $37.9 billion budget shortfall (which is substantially lower than the Legislative Analyst Office’s $68 billion projection from last month) through a variety of mechanisms: $13.1 billion from reserves, $8.5 billion in reductions, $5.7 billion in revenue/internal borrowing, $5.1 billion in delays, $3.4 billion in fund shifts, and $2.1 billion in deferrals. A meaningful portion of these actions impact environmental programs, with the governor reducing his climate commitment from 2021 and 2022 from $54 billion to $48.3 billion. … ” Read more from California Water Views.
EOS: Scientists “astonished” at 2023 temperature record
“The year 2023 was the warmest on record, according to analyses of global temperatures from NASA and NOAA. Scientists aren’t sure why temperatures were so anomalous. “We’re frankly astonished,” said Gavin Schmidt, an author on NASA’s temperature analysis and a climate scientist at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, at a press conference. NASA’s and NOAA’s analyses, as well as a report from climate research nonprofit Berkeley Earth, all released Friday, concur that 2023 was a scorcher. NASA and NOAA scientists found that average temperatures were 0.15°C–0.16°C (0.27°F–0.29°F) warmer than temperatures in 2016, the previous hottest year ever recorded. … ” Read more from EOS.
The planet experienced an astonishing change last year. But California was an outlier
“Scientists are in consensus that last year was Earth’s hottest on record. But 2023 played out differently in the western United States, especially in California, where temperatures were below normal, thanks to an especially cold and wet winter. On average, California climate is in line with the rest of the planet and “very likely will continue to do so in the future,” said Dan Cayan, a climate scientist with UC San Diego’s Scripps Institution of Oceanography. “But we do have these interruptions just because of the wiggles in the jet stream.” … ” Continue reading at the San Francisco Chronicle (gift article).
In commentary this week …
Muddying the waters: State Water Board’s Bay-Delta environmental analysis falls short
The California Water Impact Network (C-WIN) writes, “The State Water Control Board’s long-awaited environmental assessment of the San Francisco Bay/ Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta estuary correctly describes the dire state of current affairs: keystone native fish species are nearing extinction, commercial fisheries, sport angling and recreational opportunities are disappearing, costs for domestic water services are skyrocketing, toxic algal blooms are threatening human health and wildlife, and salinity is intruding far into the Delta, threatening domestic water supplies and arable farmland. The Water Board also notes in the 6,000-page assessment that tree nuts – notoriously thirsty crops that have been the mainstay of San Joaquin Valley agribusiness for two decades – are now spreading northward into the Sacramento Valley. … ” Read more from the California Water Impact Network.
To salmon, Indigenous tribes and conservationists, Newsom says: Let them eat almonds
Tom Stokely, senior water policy analyst and board member of the California Water Impact Network, writes, “Gov. Gavin Newsom has made it a point to tout his green credentials whenever possible — citing his administration’s initiative to derive 90% of the state’s energy from sustainable sources by 2035, for example. But Newsom has a blind spot in his progressive environmental agenda, and it’s overshadowing his laudable efforts elsewhere. Under Newsom’s watch, the state’s once abundant salmon runs are plummeting. But instead of promoting policies that could reverse the trend, the governor is actively driving the fish to extinction. Salmon need clean, cold water in their natal rivers to survive. And while it’s true that recent droughts have severely taxed these iconic fish, Newsom has failed to help them even when he had the means at hand — as he did this year, following one of California’s wettest winters on record. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
Column: Delta tunnel approval process far from over
Columnist Thomas Elias writes, “And so, in late December the word went out from Sacramento: The long-anticipated (and, in some quarters, dreaded) 45-mile Delta Tunnel has been approved. Construction presumably to start soon, whatever that means. Yet, as a “Porgy and Bess” drug dealer named Sportin’ Life noted musically, “It ain’t necessarily so.” Yes, the pared down tunnel proposal, about two-thirds the size of twin tunnels once proposed by ex-Gov. Jerry Brown, now has all needed state government approvals. Its formal name is the Delta Conveyance Project and the state Department of Water Resources’ (DWR) formal approval announcement claimed it would produce about 500,000 acre feet of fresh water each year in perpetuity for consumers and farmers. … ” Read more from the Napa Register.
Is the state’s water conservation proposal too restrictive? Some experts say yes
Tom Philp, Sacramento Bee opinion writer, writes, “Two independent and respected monitors of California government are warning the state’s top water regulator that it is dangerously off course by proposing massive cuts in water use for residents throughout the state, particularly in the Central Valley, in the name of better day-by-day conservation. No regulation is final. So for the sake of the State Water Resources Control Board and a whole lot of everyday Californians who have no idea double-digit water cuts are being proposed for them, a course correction seems in order. “Some communities are looking at 20 to 40 percent reductions in their water use,” said David Mitchell, an economist who consults for water districts and is also an adjunct fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. He and PPIC’s long-time (and retiring) water leader, Ellen Hanak, have published a blog that detailed a multitude of ways in which the state water board is erring on implementing a whole new way to approach water conservation in California. … ” Read more from the Sacramento Bee.
California should rethink its water conservation plan
The Santa Rosa Press Democrat editorial board writes, “In the wake of a megadrought, California is planning for a drier future. Regulators shouldn’t rush to impose conservation efforts that cost more than they’re worth. At the peak of the last drought, efforts to reduce water consumption remained mostly voluntary. The governor asked people to please stop watering lawns, washing cars, taking long showers etc. We all know the drill by now. Californians used less water, though not as much as officials had hoped. Now the state wants to prepare for the next drought and the ones after that. A 2018 law calls for urban retail water suppliers to reduce usage starting next year. How much they need to save will increase until 2035. … ” Read more from the Santa Rosa Press Democrat.
DAN WALTERS: Rollercoaster weather shows why California needs better infrastructure for wetter years
“As California’s traditional season for rain and snow began last fall, meteorologists and hydrologists predicted that the state would probably experience a second year of heavy precipitation. The previous winter had been a record-breaker that strained – and sometimes overwhelmed – California flood control systems. Among other things, it recreated Tulare Lake, once an inland sea between Fresno and Bakersfield that had dried up and become a huge expanse of agricultural production. When the rain and snow finally stopped in the spring and the immense Sierra snowpack had melted, the state’s reservoirs were full, which was welcomed after several years of severe drought. … ” Continue reading from Dan Walters.
The Klamath Basin ‘Restoration’ is at what cost?
Edward Ring, senior fellow and co-founder of the California Policy Center, writes, “If you scan news reports and search results for Klamath Dams removal, the news is universally upbeat. “The river will run free again.” “A step towards justice.” “Largest river restoration project in American history!” But as waters now drain out of the reservoirs behind these half-demolished dams for the last time, unanswered questions persist. How this project will impact the region’s agricultural economy, and whether or not it’s even the most environmentally worthwhile use of mitigation funds on the Klamath watershed is not beyond debate. In fact, if you speak with nearly everyone actually living along the middle and upper Klamath, you’ll get informed opinions and testimonials that are completely different from what you’ll find in the downstate press, or from press releases from the many NGOs, agencies, and government contractors partaking of this half-a-billion dollar taxpayer-funded bonanza, or via any mainstream social media or search engines. … ” Read more from the California Globe.
We don’t know how worried we should be about nanoplastics
F.D. Flam, a Bloomberg Opinion columnist, writes, “What does it mean that scientists found 240,000 million nanoparticles of plastic in a typical bottle of water? The number is big and sounds alarming, but it isn’t very informative. How many particles are needed to cause disease? What kinds of ailments are likely to result? Are there people who are dead now who’d be alive if they’d avoided bottled water? These questions need to be addressed before we can make informed decisions at the individual and societal level. Should we ban plastic bottles for water and other drinks? Require health warnings? Would doing so save lives — or would it only take attention and money from more pressing health problems? … ” Read more from the Marin Independent Journal.
Editorial: Nanoplastics are dangerous — and they are in your ‘pure’ bottled water
The LA Times editorial board writes, “Is anyone really surprised to learn that bottled drinking water is loaded with tiny bits of plastic? The bottles are, after all, plastic. So are the caps. It stands to reason that microscopic bits of the stuff get into the water inside during bottling or packaging, or while sitting in storage. A 2018 study found as much. The shocking part of a recent Columbia University Lamont-Doherty laboratory study, published last week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is the revelation that bottled water is laden with even tinier nanoplastic bits and associated chemicals. Nanoplastics are potentially more dangerous than microplastic particles because they are so small they can be absorbed into human cells. … ” Continue reading from the LA Times.
Opinion: No matter the weather, climate change means it’s always ‘fire season’
Manjula Martin, a writer and editor, writes, “In December, as rains were predicted in California, I performed the annual ritual of removing my go bag from its place in the living room and stashing it in a storage closet. From spring until early winter the bag, filled with emergency supplies, sits just inside my front door, ready to grab in the event of a wildfire evacuation. As I put it away, I felt a wave of relief. I went outside in the clean forest air and looked up at the evergreen trees that surround my small house, and I allowed myself to admire the landscape’s beauty without fear. Fire season was finally over. In places at high risk for wildfire, the close of fire season brings a certain peace of mind to people like me who live with constant anxiety during times of extreme weather. Each winter, fire and regional officials commence the annual ritual of declaring an end to the season. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
In regional water news this week …
‘It means the river has a future’: Advocates cheer milestone as water flows from a Klamath River dam
“This week, water started being released from a reservoir on the Klamath River, kicking off the largest dam removal in U.S. history. On Jan. 11, the gate on a sixteen-foot wide tunnel at the base of Iron Gate dam was widened from a crack to 36 inches. As the water level rose, Amy Cordalis and Mike Belchik could hear boulders rolling and tumbling; the water turned to dark chocolate milk as pent-up sediment surged through the opening of the dam. “This is historic and life changing,” said Cordalis, an attorney and Yurok Tribe member who has played a critical role in advocating for dam removal. “It means that the Yurok people have a future. It means the river has a future; the salmon have a future.” … ” Read more from Jefferson Public Radio.
With a boom, John C. Boyle Dam drawdown begins on Klamath River
“The blast rocked the room. In a warehouse just steps away from the John C. Boyle Dam, more than 50 people watched Tuesday as, seconds later, a livestream video — captured by a drone hovering over the dam — showed water bursting through the 10-by-10-foot hole the blast had opened. The group soon gathered on the walkway above the dam as water released from the upstream Boyle Reservoir surged downstream toward the Copco 1 Dam. The process, called “drawdown,” is the slow draining of water from reservoirs behind the dams. Another step in removing four dams — the largest dam-removal project in U.S. history — along the Klamath River was successfully completed. … ” Read more from the Capital Press. | Read via the Herald & News.
Organizations petition the State Water Board to set permanent instream flow requirements for the Shasta River, a critical Klamath River tributary
“As the largest dam removal project in history unfolds on the Klamath River, conservation and social justice organizations filed a legal petition seeking a permanent instream flow requirement for the Shasta River, an important Klamath River tributary. “The Shasta River was historically the most productive chinook salmon river in the Klamath River Basin, and now it is used mainly to flood irrigate fields,” explained Regina Chichizola from Save California Salmon, a Tribally led environmental justice organization. “The impact of dewatering Klamath River tributaries to Tribal subsistence fishing and the commercial fishing industry can not be overstated.” The petition filed with the California State Water Resources Control Board (California Water Board) requests a permanent instream flow requirement (a requirement to leave water in the river) that is sufficient to achieve recovery of endangered species and satisfy beneficial uses of the Shasta River, including subsistence fishing and recreation. … ” Read more from Save Our Salmon.
Scott River’s 2023 coho salmon returns above average —population resilience calls into question state’s emergency water regulation
Unprecedented emergency regulations on a small ranching community in the Klamath River watershed are being called into question as state data shows that coho salmon populations continue to improve in the Scott River. The Scott, a major tributary of the Klamath River, continues to produce an increasing number of coho salmon, a threatened species listed under the state and federal endangered species acts. According to a preliminary report by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife issued on December 28, 2023, at least 913 adult coho salmon have returned to the Scott River this fall of 2023. This number is a minimum estimate, due to the fact that the video counting weir was removed on December 27th in light of high flow forecasts. This conservative estimate of 913 is above the 15-year average (703) for returning spawners. The success of this particular brood year is significant, as protection of this generation of coho was cited as a primary reason for the State Water Resource Control Board’s adoption of unprecedented emergency regulations that curtailed 100 percent of local irrigation water in September of 2021. Similar regulations remain in place to this day: when “emergency flow” levels are not met in the Scott River, irrigation water is curtailed. … ” Read more from the Scott Valley Agriculture Water Alliance.
Working group collaborating on efforts to recover salmon in Battle Creek
“A group consisting of state and federal fishery, water management and land management agencies, local governments, water agencies, conservation organizations, an electric utility, a Resource Conservation District, fishing interests, and a watershed protection group has come together to promote Chinook salmon recovery in Battle Creek. The Battle Creek Salmon Recovery Working Group, which was formed in January 2023, has developed a list of priority actions to advance salmon recovery in the creek that include habitat projects, hatchery improvements, science, and monitoring activities. A January 8 letter to state and federal fisheries, water and land management entities described the efforts of the working group and included the list of these priority actions. … ” Read more from the Northern California Water Association.
Utah State University-inspired labyrinth weir takes shape at California’s Isabella Dam
“How do you maximize the length of a line that fits inside a confined space? One option is to fold the line into a zigzag. Another is to curve the line. How about a combination of both? That’s the idea that started at the Utah Water Research Laboratory decades ago. Today, that concept is a concrete reality in Southern California. Many dams around the world feature a spillway structure with a weir, which allows water to flow out of a reservoir at controlled rates. When water reaches the top of the weir, it spills over and flows to the downstream side. But with a changing climate punctuated by extreme weather, civil engineers are increasingly concerned about the ability of conventional weirs to control the occasional, record-smashing outflow. … ” Continue reading from Utah State University.
New 4-year cloud-seeding pilot program hopes to make it rain in Santa Ana River watershed
“Using meteorology and chemistry to help prod Mother Nature, water officials have begun seeding storm clouds throughout the Santa Ana Watershed to boost regional water supplies by enhancing the rain and snowfall produced during storms. Started in November as a four-year pilot under the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority — a joint powers authority comprising five public agencies, including Orange County Water District and others in the Inland Empire, San Bernardino and Riverside — the project aims to increase precipitation levels anywhere from 5% to 15%. Officials estimated in a 2020 feasibility study that, on the southwest end of the watershed in Orange County, cloud seeding could add .59 inches of seasonal rainfall, amounting to nearly 450 additional acre-feet of natural streamflow, or a 9.7% increase. … ” Read more from the LA Times.
