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Starved of freshwater inflow from the Central Valley rivers that feed it, the San Francisco Bay-Delta is on the verge of collapse. This iconic estuary, which defines our region, has been neglected for too long. Fortunately, the state Water Board is poised to provide relief by updating the Bay Delta Water Quality Control Plan. Phase 1 of the plan calls for requiring 40 percent of unimpaired flow (what would occur in the absence of dams and diversions) between February and June on the lower San Joaquin River and its three major tributaries.

These three graphs show key California reservoir conditions and river stages for the upper and lower Sacramento Valley. The images are from the California Department of Water Resources’ Data Exchange Center and the National Weather Service.

 

A new train of storms has arrived along the Pacific coast, and a potent one is set to hit California hard with heavy rain, mountain snow and strong winds during the latter part of this week. The first storm will focused on areas from Northern California to Washington during Wednesday and Thursday. The second storm in the series will focus most of its moisture on Central and Southern California from Thursday night to Saturday.

Northern California residents, who had spent days at evacuation shelters, were allowed to return to their homes but many stayed only long enough to pack valuables before fleeing an approaching storm that will test recently repaired spillways at the nation’s tallest dam. Authorities say the immediate danger has passed for the nearly 200,000 people living downstream of the Oroville Dam. They said the Lake Oroville water level was 26 feet below the emergency spillway by Wednesday night.

A soft light was just beginning to outline the Tejon Hills as Bret Adee counted rows of wizened almond trees under his breath. He placed a small white flag at the end of every 16th row to show his employees where they should place his beehives. Every so often, he fingered the buds on the trees. “It won’t be long,” he said. Mr. Adee (pronounced Ay-Dee) is America’s largest beekeeper, and this is his busy season. Some 92,000 hives had to be deployed before those buds burst into blossom so that his bees could get to the crucial work of pollination.