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California Unveils $1.7 Billion Plan For Rivers, Fish. Will It Ward Off A Water War?

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Ryan Sabalow and Dale Kasler

Hoping to head off one of the biggest California water wars in decades, state officials Wednesday proposed a sweeping, $1.7 billion plan to prop up struggling fish populations across many of the state’s most important rivers. Capping 30 days of feverish negotiations, the Department of Water Resources and the Department of Fish and Wildlife unveiled a dramatic plan that would reallocate more than 700,000 acre-feet of water from farms and cities throughout much of the Central Valley, leaving more water in the rivers and the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to support ailing steelhead and Chinook salmon populations.

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Climate Change will Bring More Strong El Niños. Here’s What That Means for California

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Julia Rosen

California is no stranger to extreme weather. The last decade has brought crippling droughts and dam-busting deluges. And climate change is only making the situation worse by turning up the heat during the dry season and supercharging storms during the wet season. Now, a new study suggests rising temperatures also will increase the frequency of strong El Niño events, which often bring pummeling rains across the state. “This adds to the evidence that what we’ve experienced in California over the last several years is consistent with what we can expect from global warming,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford University who was not involved in the study.

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Major Rollback of Water Rules Endorsed by California Farmers

/in , /by /Daily Democrat (Woodland, CA)by Ellen Knickmeyer and John Flesher

The Trump administration proposed withdrawing federal protections for countless waterways and wetlands across the country Tuesday, making good on President Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to weaken landmark Obama-era water rules long opposed by some developers, farmers and oil, gas, and mining executives.

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Carr Fire Damage Continues to Threaten Water Supplies

/in , /by /Redding Record Searchlightby Damon Arthur

More than three months after the Carr Fire was contained, the burned out hillsides the deadly blaze left behind continue to pose a threat to water quality in western Shasta County.

The barren fire-scarred hillsides could cause drinking water quality problems for communities that rely on water from Whiskeytown Lake, according to a report written for the Shasta County Public Works Department.

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Trump Administration Unveils Major Clean Water Act Rollback

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Evan Halper

The Trump administration unveiled its plan Tuesday for a major rollback of the Clean Water Act, a blueprint drawn up at the behest of farm groups, real estate developers and other business interests that would end federal protections on thousands of miles of streams and wetlands. The proposal has big implications for California and other arid Western states, where many of the seasonal streams and wetlands that are a foundation of drinking-water supplies and sensitive ecosystems would lose federal protection. Acting Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler said the Obama-era rule that put those waters under the protection of the Clean Water Act “further expanded Washington’s reach into privately owned lands.”

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A Wet Start To The Winter Brings Piles Of Snow To California Mountains And High Hopes For Water Supply

/in , /by /Los Angeles Timesby Alejandra Reyes-Velarde

In a good sign for California’s water supply, the Sierra Nevada has been blanketed by heavy snow thanks to a series of recent storms. The snowpack measured 106% of average, according to the state’s snow survey taken late last week. That’s more than double the 47% of average measured on the same day last year. The Sierra Nevada is a key source of water for California, which is still recovering from years of drought conditions. Two storms beginning on Thanksgiving brought up to 2 feet of snow in parts of the northern Sierra, said Emily Heller, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

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Feinstein Pushes To Extend Controversial Water Law Despite Environmental Concern

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Kurtis Alexander

Sen. Dianne Feinstein is joining forces with House Republicans to try to extend a controversial law that provides more water for Central Valley farms, but with a sweetener for the environment: help with protecting California’s rivers and fish. The proposed extension of the WIIN Act, or Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act, would keep millions of federal dollars flowing for new dams and reservoirs across the West. It would also continue to allow more water to be moved from wet Northern California to the drier south.

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OPINION: Dan Walters: New Water Deal Isn’t A Political Certainty

/in , /by /Napa Valley Registerby Dan Walters

Water supply is clearly the most important long-term issue affecting California’s future. It’s also the most politically complicated. Incremental changes in California water policy typically take years, if not decades, to work their way through seemingly infinite legal, regulatory and political processes at federal, state and local levels – and the conflicts often are over the processes themselves.

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Sierra Snowpack Well Above Average After Storms

/in , /by /NBC 4 (Los Angeles)

Back-to-back California storms blanket the Sierra Nevada in snow, more than twice the snowpack level compared to this time last year, with winter still nearly two weeks away. At the same time last year, the Sierra snowpack was 47 percent of average, the San Francisco Chronicle reported Friday. A series of systems starting around Thanksgiving dropped several feet (meters) of fresh powder in some mountain areas.

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7 Southwestern States, Including California, Expected to Miss Deadline on Colorado River Drought Plan

/in , /by /KTLA 5 (Los Angeles)

With drought entering a second decade and reservoirs continuing to shrink, seven Southwestern U.S. states that depend on the overtaxed Colorado River for crop irrigation and drinking water had been expected to ink a crucial share-the-pain contingency plan by the end of 2018. They’re not going to make it — at least not in time for upcoming meetings in Las Vegas involving representatives from Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, Wyoming and the U.S. government, officials say.

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