U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Archives

FPUD Awards Zak Controls Contract for Conjunctive Use Project SCADA Services

March 13, 2020/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /Village News (Fallbrook, Calif.)by Joe Naiman

Zak Controls has been awarded the Fallbrook Public Utility District contract for the supervisory control and data acquisition system programming for FPUD’s Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project.

The Feb. 24 FPUD board meeting included a 5-0 vote to award the Phoenix-based company a contract for $301,738.

“It’s just for all the programming for all the controls and all the automation for the project. It’s basically to help make it so we don’t have to have people there all the time,” general manager Jack Bebee said.

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Bureau of Reclamation Completes First Group of Congressionally-Mandated California Central Valley Project Contract Conversions

March 2, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Sierra Sun Times

SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The Bureau of Reclamation executed congressionally-mandated contract conversions last Friday, with Central Valley Project contractors pursuant to the Water Infrastructure Improvements for the Nation Act. These contracts provide water to families, farms and communities in the respective California contractors’ service areas. Today’s contract conversions are the first group of more than 75 repayment contract conversions requested by CVP contractors.

“Completing these contracts is a big win-win for our contractors and the American public,” said Ernest Conant, California-Great Basin’s regional director. “The federal government will receive early payment of over $200 million, which Congress directed should be used for much-needed storage projects.”

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Westlands Says 15% Water Allocation Is ‘Good News’ in Dry Year

February 26, 2020/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /GV Wire (Fresno, Calif.)by Bill McEwen

Despite President Donald Trump’s highly publicized signing of a memo last week directing more water to San Joaquin Valley farmers, the Bureau of Reclamation’s initial allocations announced Tuesday more closely reflected the below-normal Sierra snowpack and scant winter rain.

Farmers in the Friant Division will receive 20% of their Central Valley Project contract allocation while South-of-Delta growers will get 15%, Reclamation officials said.

The state Department of Water Resources reports that as of Monday, the average snow water content in the Sierra was 41% of the April 1 average. Northern Sierra precipitation is about 51% of the seasonal average.

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$1.5 Million Grant to Help Oceanside Conserve Water, Monitor Water Use

February 25, 2020/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /Times of San Diego by Debbie L. Skylar

A $1.5 million federal grant from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will help the city of Oceanside complete its $4.5 million project to replace more than 11,000 water meters to help conserve water and better monitor usage, it was announced Monday.

According to the city’s water utilities department, the upgrades will save 784 acre-feet of water or more than 255 million gallons. It will also reduce Oceanside’s dependence on imported drinking water, 85% of which comes from the Sacramento Bay Delta and the Colorado River, hundreds of miles away.

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Climate Change Has Stolen More Than a Billion Tons of Water From the West’s Most Vital River

February 20, 2020/in California and the U.S., Home Headline, Media Coverage /by Mike Lee /Washington Postby Juliet Eilperin

The Colorado River’s average annual flow has declined by nearly 20 percent compared to the last century, and now a new study has identified one of the main culprits: Climate change is causing mountain snowpack to disappear, leading to increased evaporation.

Four recent studies have found that up to half of the drop in the Colorado’s average annual flow since 2000 has been driven by warmer temperatures. Now, two U.S. Geological Survey researchers have concluded that much of this climate-induced decline — amounting to 1.5 billion tons of missing water, equal to the annual water consumption of 10 million Americans — comes from the fact that the region’s snowpack is shrinking and melting earlier. Having less snow to reflect heat from the sun, known as the albedo effect, creates a feedback loop, they say.

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Opinion: Colorado River Basin States Need to Cut Water Use

January 6, 2020/in Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /The San Diego Union-Tribune

A longtime water conservation advocate says Arizona and the other Lower Colorado River Basin states need to cut their water use more and faster.

Sustainable Waters president Brian Richter says Arizona, California, and Nevada need to slash total water use by 18% from their 2000-2018 average to bring Lakes Mead and Powell into a long-term state of balance, the Arizona Daily Star reports. He says the decrease would push the river’s falling reservoirs into sustainability.

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Opinion: Imperial Irrigation District on Path to Boost the Colorado River

January 3, 2020/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /Desert Sun by Henry Martinez

Several weeks ago, the Imperial Irrigation District Board of Directors approved a resolution committing the district to doing two things on the Colorado River in the year ahead:

First, that IID will engage with the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and the broader river community to negotiate a successor agreement to the 2007 Interim Guidelines, which end in 2025. Second, that the district will do nothing to harm the Salton Sea.

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IID Ratifies Revised Water Order

December 26, 2019/in Home Headline, Media Coverage, San Diego County /by Mike Lee /Imperial Valley Pressby Michael Maresh

EL CENTRO — The Imperial Irrigation board Monday, ratified revising its 2019 water order to resolve a longstanding issue between the district and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation over the 2010 pre-delivery of water to the Salton Sea.

IID’s revised 2019 water order was submitted last week and now includes an additional 46,546 acre-feet of conserved water. This water will remain in the river to build elevation at Lake Mead to benefit all Colorado River water users.

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Delta Smelt: The Tiny Fish Caught in California’s War With Trump

December 22, 2019/in California and the U.S., Media Coverage /by Gayle Falkenthal /The Guardianby Maanvi Singh

On a warm November morning, John Durand squints over the stern of a small research boat, and gestures toward gray-blue water, and the chaotic tangles of tube-like tule reeds.

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