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The $10 billion Congressional water bill that was approved last month transfers federal control of some water supplies in California to water authorities at the state level and provides funds for some badly needed structures is being applauded by farmers both north and south. President Obama signed the bill Dec. 16.  Sweeping victories by Republicans in the November elections that gave them majorities in the House and Senate as well as the presidency have brought dramatic changes in the ways California’s water resources — much of them stored or conveyed in federally financed structures — will be allocated.

 

Here in the land of beauty and make-believe, it’s important to keep up appearances. Tracy Quinn sees it whenever she walks her dog: sprinklers irrigating pretty green lawns and wasted water bleeding across sidewalks during the state’s driest spell in centuries. “It drives me crazy,” said Quinn, a water policy analyst for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Delta smelt has survived 2016, but that’s about where the good news ends. Surveys that wrapped up this month revealed no real increase in smelt numbers despite a wetter year with more freshwater flow in the Delta. In fact, the smelt’s situation may actually have gotten worse: For the first time since the extensive fish surveys began in the late 1960s, officials found smelt just one month out of four. In their many hours spent trawling the Delta with nets from September through December, they found a total of seven smelt, all of them in November.

 

The Colorado River is like a giant bank account for seven different states. Now it’s running short. For decades, the river has fed growing cities from Denver to Los Angeles. A lot of the produce in supermarkets across the country was grown with Colorado River water. But with climate change, and severe drought, the river is reaching a crisis point, and communities at each end of it are reacting very differently. Just outside Boulder, Colo., surrounded by an evergreen forest, is Gross Reservoir.

The community has two extra months to comment on a controversial State Water Resources Control Board document that proposes cutting water use after Board chair Felicia Marcus sent a letter to Gov. Jerry Brown last week, effectively extending the public comment period into March.This extension comes just two days after the State Water Board held its second-to-last public hearing on Dec. 20 in Modesto, which at its peak was standing-room only.