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Inflatable Dams and a Water Wheel: Latest Plan to Revitalize the L.A. River

/in /by /Los Angeles Times

Hydrologist Mark Hanna stood on the North Broadway Bridge recently and gazed out on an industrial vista of treated urban runoff flowing down the Los Angeles River channel between graffiti-marred concrete banks and train trestles strewn with broken glass. The forlorn scene is in marked contrast to the vision city officials and environmentalists long imagined for the river: Reviving it from a concrete wasteland into a nature center and recreational area.

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California’s First Big Winter Snow Storm Headed For Sierra Nevada

/in /by /The Mercury News (San Jose)by Paul Rogers

It’s only Halloween, but winter is on the way. Two storm systems moving out of the Gulf of Alaska are on track to bring the first substantial snow of the 2017-18 winter season to the Sierra Nevada, starting Friday, and widespread rainfall across the Bay Area over the weekend. Forecasters said Monday that gusty winds and 1 to 2 feet of snow are likely Saturday and Sunday along California’s main mountain passes, including Donner Pass near Lake Tahoe, Tioga Pass at Yosemite, Ebbetts Pass and Carson Pass, with perhaps a foot along the shoreline of Lake Tahoe this weekend.

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Two Years After California’s Biggest Dam Removal, Fish Rebound

/in /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Enrique Gili

At a time when California was suffering from a record-breaking drought, removing a dam would have seemed counterintuitive. But that’s what happened in 2015 on the Carmel River when the 106ft San Clemente Dam was torn down in the name of public safety and for the benefit of an iconic fish. Now, two years later, scientists are evaluating just how big an impact the dam removal has had on steelhead trout, which are listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. So far, the results are promising.

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Are Long-Range Forecasts Washed Up? Your Turn to Predict Rainfall

/in /by /The San Diego Union-Tribune

Long-range weather forecasters have been striking out lately. Two years ago, they whiffed on El Niño, which was supposed to be a “monster” that would drench California and end four years of drought. Instead, the El Niño of 2015-16 turned out to be a mouse, and the drought dragged on.

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Rain Expected to Douse Wine Country Wildfires

/in /by /SF Gate

Firefighters expect to fully contain the deadly Wine Country wildfires this week, just as a final blow to the burn areas is anticipated from above — in the form of rain. The most vicious blaze to explode across Sonoma and Napa counties three weeks ago, the 36,807-acre Tubbs Fire, was 98 percent contained Sunday, nearing the 100 percent mark when crews are confident they’ve entirely surrounded the burn with fire breaks. The blaze has killed 22 people and leveled 5,300 structures, most in Santa Rosa.

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OPINION: California Must Build on Salton Sea Momentum

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)

After far too many years lost to the indecisiveness of “let’s do yet another study,” momentum finally seems to be behind real efforts to “save” the Salton Sea. The California Legislature recently approved a massive new water and parks bond that would provide $200 million for efforts to mitigate harmful effects of the drying up of the state’s largest inland sea. Gov. Jerry Brown, with his signature, has given the move his blessing, placing it before state voters on the coming June primary ballot.

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Desert Farmers Reap Millions Selling Water to California Cities

/in /by /The Desert Sun (Palm Springs)

Over the past 12 years, the country’s biggest urban water agency has paid farmers about $190 million not to grow crops on thousands of acres near the Colorado River in the Palo Verde Valley. The water has gone to Los Angeles and other cities across Southern California, and in return, the farmers who’ve left some of their lands unplanted have been able to count on additional income.

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Oroville Dam, Months After Near Disaster, Ready for Another Winter

/in /by /San Francisco Chronicle

No one knows whether winter will bring pounding storms like those seen last season, but California water officials say Oroville Dam is ready for whatever comes. The nation’s tallest dam became one of the fastest construction projects in modern state history after the dam’s spillway partially collapsed in February amid heavy rain and caused the evacuation of thousands. Hundreds of workers have been laboring around the clock for five months to rebuild the chute before wet winter weather returns.

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NASA Ends Trailblazing Satellite Mission That Revealed Global Groundwater Trends

/in /by /Circle of Blue (Traverse City, Mich.)by Brett Walton

The unexpectedly long life of a pair of pioneering satellites that deepened scientific understanding of society’s influence on water and land is over. NASA and its project partners decided to end the GRACE satellite mission this week after the eighth of 20 battery cells on GRACE-2 failed. GRACE-1 was still working, but the mission, which measures fractional changes in Earth’s gravity based on the position of the satellites relative to each other, requires both to move in tandem. Losing one means losing all.

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OPINION: Editorial: Focus on Flood Prevention, Not Disaster Cleanup

/in /by /Chico Enterprise-Record

Once again, state legislators have done what is popular instead of what is necessary — and that’s one big reason California’s infrastructure is in such sorry shape. That reminder was driven home this week in a discussion about levees and flood protection. Flood experts gathered in Sacramento on Monday to mark the beginning of flood preparedness week. In a press conference, the president of the Central Valley Flood Protection Board pleaded for the state to make the investment in flood protection. Bill Edgar says the state spends $30 million a year in repairs and maintenance, but that the state needs to spend $130 million a year.

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