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Salton Sea workshop meeting people

Workshop Highlights Progress at the Salton Sea

/in /by /Water News Network Staffby Darren Simon

EL CENTRO – High-ranking agency officials delivered a simple – but critical – message during a standing-room only forum on Salton Sea issues in early March: The current Salton Sea Management Plan represents the best path forward for addressing immediate needs at the sea while laying the groundwork for long-term restoration.

Speakers emphasized that for the first time the State of California has a feasible plan for meeting its restoration obligations under state legislation related to the 2003 Colorado River Quantification Settlement Agreement.

In addition, funding sources are materializing to help make the management plan a reality and protect public health. Proposition 68, a water bond that would provide $200 million for Salton Sea restoration, will go to California voters in June. If approved, that bond would add on to an earlier bond that provided $80 million for Salton Sea restoration.

The March 5 workshop was the first of two organized by IID, the San Diego County Water Authority, Imperial County and the California Natural Resources Agency to keep the public informed about state restoration efforts at the sea. The state is working under the Stipulated Order, an amendment to the state’s original water order approving the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement. The Stipulated Order – drafted by IID, the Water Authority and Imperial County, with support from Natural Resources and environmental organizations – requires the state to provide 30,000 acres of habitat and air quality projects at the sea over the next 10 years.

Speakers included IID General Manager Kevin Kelley, IID Water Manager Tina Shields, Imperial County Deputy County Executive Officer Andy Horne, Water Authority Assistant General Manager Dan Denham and Natural Resources Assistant Secretary Bruce Wilcox, who oversees Salton Sea policies. Each speaker discussed the importance of the Stipulated Order for ensuring annual progress on the State’s Salton Sea Management Program, a phased approach to restoration.

Presenters made several key points, including that the longstanding environmental issues at the sea will not be solved by work done under the first 10 years of the management plan. Under the Stipulated Order, the state must have a long-term restoration plan in place in 2022. Denham emphasized that progress toward restoration must quickly translate to on-the-ground projects.

Kelley said it’s also crucial that other Basin States endorse the Salton Sea Management Plan – which they have begun to do – because a unified front could ultimately deliver more positive results.

While the state restoration program is in the earliest stages, a separate effort has been under way since the QSA was signed to implement an environmental mitigation program that addresses any impacts associated with the QSA. That mitigation program – led by a Joint Powers Authority comprising IID, the Water Authority, Coachella Valley Water District and the State of California –  provided mitigation water to the Sea for the first 15 years of the QSA until December 2017.

As of 2018, the mitigation focus shifted to an air quality program that includes on-the-ground projects, which can work together with the state’s restoration program. Already, the JPA has funded pilot projects on more than 1,000 acres near the sea. This year, 3,000 acres of new dust control projects are planned.

Welcome Snow Slows California’s Plunge Back To Drought

/in /by /Fox News

Welcome drifts of fresh snow awaited California’s water managers on their late-winter survey of the vital Sierra Nevada snowpack Monday after a massive winter storm slowed the state’s plunge back into drought. The storm piled up to 8 feet (2.4 meters) of new snow in the mountains from late last week through the weekend, forcing Department of Water Resources officials to postpone the measurement for a few days.

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Jerry Brown’s Grand California Water Solution Remains In Jeopardy As He Prepares To Exit

/in /by /Los Angeles Timesby Bettina Boxall

Two tunnels, one or none? The question continues to swirl around plans to perform major surgery on the sickly heart of California’s water system. Confronted with a shortage of funding, state officials announced last month that they would move ahead with the construction of one giant water tunnel under the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta rather than two. But the announcement did little to settle the fate of the project, which Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration considers vital to sustaining water deliveries to one of the country’s richest agricultural regions and the urban sprawl of Southern California.

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Drought Has Returned To The U.S. This Winter, NASA Map Shows

/in /by /The Weather Channelby Sean Breslin

Drought conditions have returned to much of the Desert Southwest and southern Plains due, in part, to a dry winter that left the land parched in several states.Using data from the U.S. National Drought Monitor, NASA compiled a map that shows the areas of the country that have fallen back into some of the worst drought categories just nine months after 95 percent of the nation was drought-free. The map, using data acquired Feb. 27, shows extreme drought taking over parts of Texas and the Desert Southwest, with moderate or severe drought seen in the Southeast, northern Plains and parts of California.

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More Rain On Way As 47.87% Of State Remains In Drought

/in /by /Manteca Bulletinby Dennis Wyatt

More rain and snow is on the way. It’s expected to be dry today, Tuesday and through Wednesday night in the South County with the high hitting 70 degrees before cooling off again, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). But then Wednesday night another storm will move into the area bringing up to a quarter of an inch rain to Manteca through Friday. Yosemite Valley is expected to receive a half inch of rain.

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COMMENTARY: Dan Walters: The Next Big Front In California’s Water War

/in /by /Napa Valley Registerby Dan Walters

After one year of torrential respite, drought may have returned to California, and with it, a renewal of the state’s perpetual conflict over water management. State and federal water systems have told farmers not to expect more than a fifth of their paper allocations, the state Water Resources Control Board is weighing a new regime of mandatory conservation, and supporters of more reservoirs are complaining about the glacial pace of spending $2.7 billion set aside in a water bond for more storage.

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To Feed The Nation, California Farmers Must Adapt To A Warming Climate, Study Says

/in /by /The Fresno Beeby Brianna Calix

Heat waves, droughts and floods are climate trends that will force California farmers to change some practices — including what they grow — to continue producing yields that historically have fed people nationwide, a new study by the University of California says. Researchers reviewed 89 studies on California climate trends and impacts on the state’s diverse agriculture industry to predict how the industry must adjust through the end of the 21st century.

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Study: Snowpack Drops Over Decades

/in /by /The Associated Pressby Gillian Flaccus

Scientists have found dramatically declining snowpack across the American West over the past six decades that will likely cause water shortages in the region that cannot be managed by building new reservoirs, according to a study published Friday. The study led by scientists from Oregon State University and the University of California, Los Angeles found drops in snow measurements at more than 90 percent of regional snow monitoring sites that have consistently tracked snow levels since 1955, said Philip Mote, director of the Oregon Climate Change Research Institute at Oregon State University.

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Back To Dry – Get Organized And Prepared For Drought Again

/in /by /California WaterBlog (Davis)by Jay Lund

Despite this week’s rain and snow, California is back to dry conditions again after a very wet 2017.  With about four weeks left in the normal wet season, the Sacramento Valley is at about 65% of average precipitation (less than 1/3 of last year’s precipitation).  The southern Central Valley has less than 50% of average precipitation and southern California is still drier.  Snowpack is much less, at 37% statewide.  Surface reservoirs, which almost all refilled and spilled in record-wet 2017, are now at 98% of average for this time of year, and will fall quickly as there is well-below-normal snowpack to melt.

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Frazier: New DWR Director Is ‘Too Beholden to Water Contractors She Must Regulate’

/in /by /Elk Grove Newsby Dan Bacher
While Jerry Brown has been a genius at manipulating the media to portray him as a “green governor” and the state as the nation’s “green leader,” the regulators have in fact been captured by the regulated in California. This is particularly true when it comes to water and environmental policies.
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