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Water Wise: Fair Shows Ways To Use Less Water And Help Native Plants

/in , /by /Hi-Desert Star (Yucca Valley, Calif.)by Jené Estrada

Water-wise planting, pool safety and groundwater pollution — the Joshua Basin Water District’s annual Water Education Day focused on a crucial aspect of desert living: the Basin’s relationship with water. Public outreach consultant Kathleen Radnich helped greet locals as they made their way into the biggest Water Education Day yet. “It’s been a very good turnout,” she said. “One of our big draws is our native plant sale and that has over 460 plants this year.” The water district’s native plants are grown with the help of Joshua Tree National Park. While harvesting is illegal within the park borders, harvested plants from outside of the park can be nurtured within the park’s nursery and distributed.

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‘We’re Rolling’: Irrigation Season Begins For Klamath Project

/in , /by /Herald and News (Klamath Falls, Ore.)by Holly Dillemuth

Water rushed forth into the A Canal in Klamath Falls Tuesday afternoon as Fritz Frisendahl and Scott Cheyne of the Klamath Irrigation District opened the headgates via the control panel. Between 20- and 40-cubic feet per second of water is now traveling through the canal, about as much water to fill about 20 bathtubs per second, according to Gene Souza, manager of the Klamath Irrigation District. Frisendahl, who helped turn on the headgates, has been through some tough water years in the Klamath Basin, including the 2018 drought.

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Farmers Welcome Federal Agencies’ Suits On Flows Plan

/in , , /by /Ag Alert (Sacramento)by Christine Souza

Now that the federal government has filed its own lawsuits against an unimpaired-flows plan for San Joaquin River tributaries, farmers and other parties to the lawsuits wait to learn where they will be heard–and prepare for a lengthy court battle. The U.S. departments of Justice and Interior filed suits in both federal and state courts last week, against the plan finalized last December by the State Water Resources Control Board. The plan would redirect 30 to 50 percent of the flows in the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers in an attempt to increase fish populations.

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OPINION: California Can’t Save Fish By Diverting More Water From Rivers

/in , /by /CALmatters (Sacramento)by John McManus

Recent decades have brought the slow collapse of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and its salmon runs. A half dozen species face extinction. Lacking natural flushing, the Delta now suffers outbreaks of toxic algae. The salmon fishing industry suffered a shutdown in 2008 and 2009 which cost thousands of jobs. Science points to a clear cause: inadequate flows caused by excessive diversions. In some years, 90 percent of the Tuolumne River is diverted, leaving only 10 percent for salmon and the Bay-Delta. Every Central Valley salmon river also suffers from over diversion in many years. Recent proposals from water users fall far short of what is needed by salmon and required by the law.

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Bills In Congress Would Implement Drought Plan In West

/in , , /by /Associated Press

Two members of Arizona’s congressional delegation introduced legislation Tuesday on a plan to address a shrinking supply of water from a river that serves 40 million people in the U.S. West. Republican Sen. Martha McSally and Democratic Rep. Raul Grijalva vowed to move identical bills quickly through the chambers. Bipartisan lawmakers from Colorado River basin states signed on as co-sponsors. Arizona, California and Nevada in the lower basin and Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming in the river’s upper basin spent years crafting drought contingency plans. They aim to keep two key Colorado River reservoirs from falling so low that they cannot deliver water or produce hydropower.

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‘A California Water Supply Dream’: Record Snowpack Measured In Sierra Nevada, Lake Tahoe Region

/in , , /by /Capital Public Radio (Sacramento)by Ezra David Romero

California received some good news on Tuesday for the state’s water supply: The Sierra Nevada snowpack is well above normal, at 162 percent of average. This amount of snow is thanks to the more than 30 “atmospheric rivers” that brought storms this winter and spring. Chris Orrock, with the California Department of Water Resources, says the cold storms have helped preserve the snow. “The snowpack is nice and cold. It’s a little different than 2017, where it was warmer winter … and [the snowpack] melted quicker,” Orrock said while reporting measurements at Phillips Station near Lake Tahoe. His crew found 106.5 inches of snow at the spot. As it melts and ends up in reservoirs, the snowpack provides about 30 percent of the state’s water supply, and water managers use the snowpack-measurement data to plan releases from the state’s reservoirs.

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California Turns To Dam’s Spillway For 1st Time Since Crisis

/in , , /by /The San Diego Union-Tribuneby Rich Pedroncelli and Olga R. Rodriguez

An epic winter of rain and snow has refilled California’s reservoirs and pressed into service a spillway at the nation’s tallest dam Tuesday, a $1 billion structure that drained excess water for the first time since it crumbled two years ago and drove hundreds of thousands to flee the threat of catastrophic flooding. Water flowed down the spillway and into the Feather River as storms this week and melting snowpack are expected to swell the lake behind Oroville Dam in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada, said Molly White, principal engineer with the California Department of Water Resources.

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One More ‘Atmospheric River’ As Rainy Season Continues

/in , , /by /The Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.)by Mark Gomez

A series of storms this week in the Bay Area, including a weak ‘atmospheric river’ system Friday expected to bring widespread rain to the region, should allow San Francisco and San Jose to reach their annual rainfall totals. Since the start of the water year Oct. 1, San Francisco has received 23.27 inches of rain, just shy of its annual average of 23.65 inches. San Jose has received 14.82 inches (annual average is 14.90) and Oakland 18.57 inches (20.81 average).

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Oroville Dam Holds Up As Officials Christen New Spillway Two Years After Near Disaster

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Hannah Fry and Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

Bystanders were met with the rumble of rushing water as Oroville Dam’s gates released millions of gallons of water down a newly reconstructed concrete spillway on Tuesday for the first time since the structure failed two years ago. In February 2017, people who live downstream in Oroville watched in disbelief as millions of gallons of water eroded the main spillway of the nation’s tallest dam, sending a deluge of water cascading down a hillside and forcing thousands of residents to evacuate. That scenario was exactly what bystanders watching the first water flow from the newly rebuilt spillway hoped to avoid.

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California’s Water Works An Engineering Wonder That Made The Golden State What It Is Today

/in , /by /Oakdale Leader (Oakdale, Calif.)by Dennis Wyatt

California — without a doubt — has the most intricate and massive water storage and transfer system man has ever created. It is the largest, most productive, and most controversial water system in the world that harnesses nature using man’s ingenuity. At its northernmost reaches it captures the snow run-off of the Modoc Plateau — volcanic highlands in northeast California and southeast Oregon — that is drained by the Pit River, Snow blanketing the hills of the Modoc Plateau today will melt in the coming weeks and start a long journey in the form of water. The journey’s end for water — that makes it that far — are faucets and water taps in San Diego less than a mile from the border of Mexico.

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