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Shasta Dam To Raise Over 18 Feet

/in , /by /Action News Now (Chico)by Stephanie Schmieding

Construction is currently underway to raise the height of the Shasta Dam by 18 and a half feet, a project that has been decades in the making. The stage of pre-construction is expected to take place in the next few months. Geologists have already begun drilling for core samples on and around the dam to determine the engineering needs for construction. “The cores provide concrete-strict data that contractors would then use for determining how to anchor the new 18 and a half feet onto the existing surface,” said Jon Bader, manager for the Bureau of Reclamation in Northern California.

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OPINION: Long Road Still Ahead To Fund New California Water Storage Projects

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Jay Lund

The California Water Commission recently allocated $2.7 billion from Proposition 1 bonds for eight water storage projects. Proposition 1 was passed in 2014 to fund a range of projects, including the “public purposes” of water storage projects, such as for ecosystem support, flood risk reduction, water quality, recreation and emergency response. Among its many funding provisions, both surface and underground water storage projects were eligible, nonstorage projects were not eligible and Proposition 1 could fund no more than 50 percent of storage project costs. Proposition 1’s storage provisions were driven by the still common notion that expanding surface storage is the major way to end water problems.

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OPINION: Prop. 3 Promises More California Water Projects. Too Bad So Many Are The Wrong Projects

/in , /by /The Sacramento Bee

We must do more to protect the future of California’s water, but that doesn’t mean just pumping in more money without making sure the investments will have widespread benefits for the public. Proposition 3 – the $8.9 billion bond on the Nov. 6 ballot – fails that test. Voters should say “no.” The measure promises money for quite a few local agencies, nonprofits, private water companies and others, which is great for them. It’s not clear, however, that these are the projects that California needs most right now, or that they couldn’t get the money elsewhere.

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Largest Bay Area Dam Built In 20 Years Is Finally Finished

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

After toiling away in the remote hills east of Interstate 680 on the Alameda-Santa Clara county line for seven years, hundreds of construction workers have finally finished the largest dam built in the Bay Area in 20 years. The 220-foot tall dam at Calaveras Reservoir — as high as the roadway on the Golden Gate Bridge soars above San Francisco Bay — replaces a dam of the same size, built in 1925.  State dam inspectors flagged the older dam in 2001 as at risk of collapse in a major earthquake on the nearby Calaveras Fault. If it had failed, state officials estimated it could have sent a 30-foot wall of water into Fremont and neighboring communities, potentially killing thousands of people.

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$823 Million, 31 Billion-Gallon Calaveras Reservoir Dam Ready For Debut

/in , /by /San Francisco Chronicleby Dominic Fracassa

After nearly two decades of planning and construction in the rolling, sun-baked hills of the Sunol Valley, crews are finishing a new, $823 million dam that will be the showpiece of a major overhaul to the Bay Area’s water delivery system. At the northernmost tip of the Calaveras Reservoir, the clatter and roar of heavy machinery fills the air as earthmovers and bulldozers, cutting deep treads in soft soil, line the dam’s sloping walls with riprap — big chunks of blueschist rock blasted off a nearby hillside that will defend the earthen structure against erosion.

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Data Collection Begins Toward Raising Shasta Dam

/in , /by /Paradise Post (Paradise, Calif.)

Geologists are beginning take core samples to collect data for a proposal to raise Shasta Dam by 18 1/2 feet. The Bureau of Reclamation says the samples will be taken over the next few months from on, around and deep within the dam, in order to characterize concrete and geology conditions. The federal government has been studying the idea of raising the dam and enlarging Shasta Reservoir on and off since the 1980s. But the state of California, environmental groups and the Winnemem Wintu Tribe have been and remain opposed.

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California’s Looming Water Pollution Problem

/in , /by /Pacific Standard Magazine (Santa Barbara)by Kate Wheeling

In the winter of 2001, Tom Frantz and a friend were cruising in his pick-up truck along a stretch of Highway 33 in Kern County, California. Known as the Petroleum Highway, this particular stretch of the roadway cuts across some of the state’s largest oil fields. Frantz, a mustachioed man whose wispy white hair is usually hidden beneath a beige fedora, was born and raised in Kern County; he was used to seeing pumpjacks bobbing up and down on the west side of the region, but on this cool winter day, a plume of steam in the distance caught his eye.

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Congress Must Move to Renew Federal Fund Vital For Watershed Protection

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Jay Ziegler

FOR MORE THAN 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has protected national parks and open spaces in every corner of the United States. In many ways, it is the most important conservation and recreation program in the U.S. But it will expire at the end of this month, unless Congress acts to reauthorize it prior to that. We need the LWCF to protect iconic outdoor places, increase public access to public lands for hunting, fishing, hiking and other outdoor activities, and create parks for our communities.

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California’s Plan To Store Water Underground Could Risk Contamination

/in , /by /KQED (San Francisco) by Amanda Heidt

As California begins handing out $2.5 billion in state funds for several new water management projects, a shift is taking place in the ways officials are considering storing water. To contend with the likelihood of future extreme droughts, some of these new strategies rely on underground aquifers — an approach far removed from traditional dam-based water storage.

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Congressman Garamendi Says Delta Tunnels Letter Is Full Of Misrepresentations

/in , /by /The Reporter News (Vacaville)by Melissa Murphy

Congressman John Garamendi’s office (D-Solano) confirmed Wednesday he sent a letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler describing the “misrepresentations” present in the Delta Conveyance Finance Authority (DCFA) Letter of Interest (LOI) for the Delta Tunnels project known as California WaterFix. The DCFA submitted a Letter of Interest to the EPA’s Water Infrastructure, Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) loan program seeking $9.5 billion in funding for the Delta Tunnels. The total estimated project cost is $19.8 billion.

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