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Nonprofit Files Plan To Remove Four Klamath Dams

/in , /by /Capital Press (Salem, Ore.)by George Plaven

The Klamath River Renewal Corporation has filed its “Definite Plan” with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to remove four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River. Four hydroelectric dams blocking fish passage along the lower Klamath River in southern Oregon and northern California are slated for removal under a “Definite Plan” filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The dams — J.C. Boyle, Copco No. 1, Copco No. 2 and Iron Gate — were built between 1911 and 1962, and are currently operated by PacifiCorp with a combined generation capacity of 169 megawatts.

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Local Water-Storage Project May Benefit From State Water Bond Measure

/in , /by /Daily Bulletin (Rancho Cucamonga)by Sandra Emerson

An Inland Empire water wholesaler is poised to get a boost in state funding for its effort to create a new local water supply that would provide ecological benefits in Northern California. The California Water Commission has tentatively approved nearly $207 million in Prop. 1 water bond funds for the Inland Empire Utilities Agency’s Chino Basin Conjunctive Use Environmental Water Storage/Exchange Program.

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Corporation Submits Plans To Remove Four Dams On Klamath River

/in , /by /Redding Record Searchlightby Damon Arthur

The largest dam removal project in U.S. history is set to begin in 2020 on the Klamath River in Siskiyou County, according to documents filed recently with federal regulators. The Klamath River Renewal Corp. plans to begin site work in two years to remove four dams on the Klamath River and deconstructing the dams will begin in 2021, according to the “Definite Plan for the Lower Klamath Project.”

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Deeply Talks: New Water Storage In California

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Ian Evans

In this episode of Deeply Talks, Tara Lohan, managing editor of Water Deeply, talks with Jay Lund, a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of the Center for Watershed Sciences at the University of California, Davis, and Rachel Zwillinger, water policy adviser for Defenders of Wildlife, about how water storage projects in California are being funded, which projects are receiving state money and what kinds of water projects the state really needs.

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OPINION: Sites Reservoir Is Too Smart An Investment For California To Pass Up

/in , /by /The Sacramento Beeby Jeff Harris

When California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 1, they specifically called for new storage to help the environment. The Sites project, a proposed off-stream reservoir north of the Delta meets this need, providing as much as 200,000 acre-feet a year of new flows for fish. Sites is a smart and long overdue investment that the California Water Commission must seize by giving its final approval on Wednesday to as much as $1 billion in Prop. 1 money.

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Santa Clara Valley Water District To Buy Site For Huge New Reservoir, Largest In 20 Years In Bay Area

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

Saying it needs an insurance policy against future droughts, the Santa Clara Valley Water District is moving forward with plans to purchase a key property to build the largest reservoir constructed in the Bay Area in the past 20 years. The water district’s board is scheduled to vote Tuesday afternoon on an agreement to purchase 274 acres near Pacheco Pass for the project.

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We All Want Water Storage, Here Is An Innovative Pitch That’s Succeeding

/in , /by /ABC 10 (Sacramento)by Rob Carlmark

In the heart of the drought, reservoirs were getting sucked dry and the immediate concern was that we would not have enough water for everybody. These were stressful, dramatic days and in 2014, California residents voted to spend billions of dollars to fend off the next drought. The Prop 1 Water Bond was passed by 66 percent of voters and the long road to build water storage, and conservation, were underway.

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Feds Push To Raise Shasta Dam, But Would It Ease California Water Woes?

/in , /by /Water Deeply (New York)by Alastair Bland

Officials with the federal government seem determined to realize a controversial proposal to raise Shasta Dam and increase the storage capacity of the reservoir behind it – despite objections from fish and wildlife agencies and California law that technically forbids such a project. In January, the United States Bureau of Reclamation, which manages the dam, received a $20 million appropriation from Congress to begin design and preconstruction work – and, with the support of water agencies in the San Joaquin Valley, the bureau has announced plans to begin construction as early as the end of 2019.

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Interior Revives The Push For A Higher Shasta Dam

/in , /by /High Country News (Paonia, Colo.)by Tay Wiles

California’s largest reservoir, Shasta Lake, sits where the dry Central Valley meets the rainier, mountainous northern part of the state. At its western edge is Shasta Dam, 602 feet high, built by the Bureau of Reclamation between 1938 and 1945 to help irrigate California. For decades, agricultural and municipal water districts have sought to heighten the dam to capture more water as it runs out of the Cascade Range through the McCloud, Pit and Sacramento rivers. Environmentalists have long rallied against the proposal, and state officials contend such a project would violate California law.

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Sites Reservoir Officials: $1 Billion Falls Short Of Hopes

/in , /by /Appeal Democrat (Marysville)by Jake Abbott

The California Water Commission – the entity responsible for awarding $2.7 billion in Proposition 1 funds to water storage projects in a few months – didn’t quite see eye-to-eye with officials pushing for Sites Reservoir, primarily on the benefits to salmon the project would provide. When final public benefit ratio scores came out earlier this month, the commission said Sites, situation on the Colusa and Glenn counties border, was eligible for $1 billion – about $600 million short of what Sites officials requested.

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