The California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) adopted the final draft stipulated order on Tuesday that includes conditions benefiting the Salton Sea restoration. The Board’s action revised State Water Board Order WRO 2002-0013, which was approved in 2002 authorizing the largest agricultural to urban water transfer in the United States.
The State Water Resources Control Board today accepted a landmark agreement that defines the state’s commitment to restore and manage the Salton Sea to protect public health and critical Pacific flyway habitat. Today’s action also outlines the board’s oversight role in monitoring and ensuring progress toward the goals of the Salt on Sea Management Plan, which sets annual milestones for habitat restoration and dust-suppression projects over the next 10 years.
During California’s five-year drought, the row of ponds in the desert north of the Palm Springs often lay empty and dry. But this year, the ponds have been filled to the brim with a record amount of water from the Colorado River. The Coachella Valley’s water utilities are using the influx of imported water to chip away at the long-term problem of groundwater overdraft. For months, water has been flowing into the ponds at the Whitewater River Groundwater Replenishment Facility and seeping into the sandy soil to replenish the desert aquifer.
This compilation of drone footage from May 20, 2017 through November 1, 2017 highlights the transformation of Lake Oroville’s main spillway during repairs. Kiewit Infrastructure has led the massive construction effort to repair and reconstruct the main spillway by Nov. 1, 2017 to handle flows of 100,000 cubic-feet per second this winter.
You’ll want to hold onto your hat if you’re headed to the Sierra this week. A storm system moving over the mountain range shared by California and Nevada will bring a light dusting of snow, and more conspicuously high winds on ridge tops Wednesday through Thursday, with isolated gusts up to 100 miles per hour possible. “The wind is the most dramatic part of this storm system,” says Chris Johnston, a forecaster with the National Weather Service in Reno. “In the case of this storm, we are talking about what we call strong downslope winds.”
Snowpacks in Oregon, Idaho, Washington and California and are expected be much smaller by mid-century if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, according to federal projections released Friday. The Fourth National Climate Assessment, completed once every four years, asserts that the mild winter of 2014-15 may have foreshadowed the future. “As a harbinger, the unusually low Western U.S. snowpack of 2015 may become the norm,” according to the report.
Reps. John Garamendi, D-Walnut Grove, and Doug LaMalfa, R-Richvale, Monday introduced to a bill that would require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to conduct an additional environmental review of the Oroville Dam. The congressmen would like to see a review done before the commission approves the relicensing of the dam under state Department of Water Resources’ management. Garamendi is advocating for another environmental review since the Oroville Dam has undergone major structural changes in the aftermath of February’s crisis, sending over 180,000 downstream residents fleeing from their homes, he stated in a press release.
State Sen. Jim Nielsen, Assemblyman James Gallagher and Oroville Dam Coalition members are heading to Washington, D.C., this week to address what they say are outstanding issues following the spillway crisis. The group will attend meetings with commissioners and staff of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and attend briefings with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Additionally, the group will meet with the Federal Highway Administration regarding improvements to Highway 70.
It sounds like a nice, elegant compromise for a California water project swamped in uncertainty: If there isn’t enough money to build two Delta tunnels, why not build just one? Drastically downsizing Gov. Jerry Brown’s tunnels wouldn’t merely save money. It would also reduce the project’s footprint and make it more palatable to some of its critics. A coalition of environmental groups has endorsed a lone-tunnel approach.
The rains that swept into Northern California this weekend from the Gulf of Alaska didn’t turn out to be as extensive as forecasters had expected. But along with slick roads and soggy children’s soccer games, they brought some good news. There were no reports of mudslides or other major problems in Napa and Sonoma counties, where tens of thousands of acres of bare ground from last month’s fires raised concerns about significant erosion.
