Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 11:18 am
From the New York Times: “Since 1964, the Mokelumne River Fish Hatchery in California has supplied the watershed with four to 10 million juvenile Chinook salmon each year. The hatchery began the practice as a way of countering the effects of dams that block migration and making sure that the salmo...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 11:04 am
From the San Francisco Chronicle: “The billion dollars it would cost to raise the dam holding back the largest reservoir in California would, at least on the surface, be money well spent, a federal study concluded this week. A study by the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation found that the maximum possible...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 11:02 am
From KRCR News: “The Winnemem Wintu Tribe is raising objections to a new plan to raise Shasta Dam. The proposal was outlined in a federal report released Monday and recommends raising the dam 18 1/2 feet. Among other things, it would supplement our region’s water supply and make Lake Shasta bigg...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 10:56 am
From the Stockton Record: “Congressman Tom McClintock, R-Granite Bay, is calling for relaxation of “1970s-era” environmental laws that he says are blocking construction of much-needed dams in California and throughout the western United States. McClintock represents the 4th Congressional Distr...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 10:51 am
From the Pasadena Star News: “Local water agencies, chambers of commerce and construction unions are supporting a bill that would speed up the planning and set a date for construction of a new kind of peripheral canal to bring water from Northern California south. Senate Bill 250 by Bakersfield De...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 10:48 am
From OPB News: “Do you know where your drinking water comes from? If you’re like millions of Californians, then the answer is no. As KQED Climate Watch’s Craig Miller reported last week, a new statewide poll asking residents about the Sacramento Delta — an immense waterway north and inland o...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 10:46 am
Here are some brief weather notes: The Western Weather Blog takes a look at snow depth in the West in this post. Click here to hear Maury Roos, chief hydrologist at DWR, talk about the recent storms. Get the latest water conditions from DWR by clicking here. Check out the latest edition of the droug...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 10:39 am
From Monty Schmitt at the NRDC Switchboard blog: “Last year marked the fifth year of the San Joaquin River Restoration Program and the two year anniversary of renewed river flows – the first since the 1940s when the operation of Friant Dam dried up the river and ended the historic salmon runs. T...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 10:30 am
From the Environmental Water Caucus, this press release: “In late 2009, the legislature created the Delta Reform Act which established a suite of requirements and basic goals for the Sacramento-San Joaquin-San Francisco Bay Delta. These included a more reliable water supply for California, protect...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 9, 2012, 10:28 am
From Burt Wilson at the Public Water News Service, this commentary: “I ventured into a recent public meeting of the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) at their Sacramento Headquarters to see what was going on. I expected to hear their views on the financing of the coming Water Bill. I...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:54 am
From the Visalia Times-Delta: “News this week that the Sierra snowpack is less than half of average has raised worries about how much water will be available this year for communities and agricultural operations. But dairy owner Ron Koetsier is optimistic that the second half of this dry winter co...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:52 am
From the Santa Rosa Press Democrat: “Two large groups representing North Coast grape growers said Friday they are likely to voluntarily comply with rules designed to protect endangered fish in the Russian River, even though a judge has put the controversial regulations on hold. Enlarge | But it’...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:50 am
From the Silicon Valley Mercury News: “Among many challenges facing the controversial Redwood City Saltworks project, securing water for a community that may have as many as 12,000 homes is high on the list. DMB Pacific Ventures, a new company owned by Arizona-based DMB Associates that wants to de...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:45 am
From Restore the Delta’s blog: “The big news this week with the Delta Stewardship Council (DSC) is that everyone who wants to comment on the 2,000-and-some page Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Draft Delta Plan has until February 2 to do it. Restore the Delta has commented in det...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:43 am
From Alex Breitler’s blog: “It was Jim Kellogg’s last meeting as president of the California Fish and Game Commission. He took advantage. “Nobody’s got an answer on how this is done, or who declares it, so I’m going to declare the striped bass a native species of the state of California,...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:41 am
From Barry Nelson at the NRDC Switchboard blog: “Last week, the Luskin Center at UCLA sponsored a conference called “The Future of Water in Southern California.” The conference lived up to its ambitious title. That event also prompted me to write about an interesting analysis of the plans of S...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:36 am
From the Pacific Forest Trust, this press release: “We did it! This week marks the Pacific Forest Trust’s and Roseburg Resources’ successful completion of our working forest conservation easement on the 8,230-acre Bear Creek Working Forest in Siskiyou and Shasta counties. Approved by Californi...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:32 am
From the California Department of Fish & Game: “The Department of Fish and Game’s (DFG) Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) awarded $280,000 in grants for environmental enhancement projects. Recipients for 2012 are the City of Arcata’s McDaniel Slough Tidal Restoration project for $...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:30 am
From the Oroville Mercury Register: “A project to make use of some of the local reserve of Lake Oroville water is about six months away from completion. The Del Oro Regional Intertie project — about 10 years in the making — will provide lake water to customers in the Lime Saddle District. “I...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Feb 4, 2012, 10:29 am
From the Ukiah Daily Journal: “As of Wednesday, the Russian River water supply condition was changed from “normal” to “dry,” meaning flows from Lake Mendocino can be reduced, the Sonoma County Water Agency reported. According to the SCWA, the “dry” designation means the agency can redu...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 11:52 am
From the Los Angeles Times: “In his State of the State address in Sacramento on Wednesday, Gov. Jerry Brown is expected to attempt a risky balancing act: reconciling his well-crafted image as a penny pincher with one he aspires to as a builder in the mold of his father, former Gov. Pat Brown. Deta...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 11:42 am
From the Silicon Valley Mercury News: “Concerns are growing that an invasive water weed that has long frustrated Delta boaters and swimmers could return in force this year after an aggressive state effort to control it. In the shallow cove just beyond his Discovery Bay home, Allen Bellinghausen sa...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 11:34 am
That is a picture of Tuolomne Meadows taken on January 15th. From the Silicon Valley Mercury News: “A visit to Yosemite National Park in December or January typically means closed roads, cross-country skiing and towering snow drifts. But California’s extremely dry weather has created conditions ...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 11:30 am
But that’s all going to change now … Welcome, winter! Here’s the National Weather Service forecast as of this morning: “The images show the GFS model forecast of the incoming moisture toward California through the rest of the week. This will bring widespread rain and snow to northern Califor...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 11:18 am
From the Sacramento Bee: “THE ISSUE: Gov. Jerry Brown is moving ahead with plans to build a water diversion canal or tunnel through the San Joaquin-Sacramento Delta, saying the project is essential for reducing conflicts over fish and ensuring reliable water deliveries. Worried about environmental...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 11:10 am
From Doug Obegi at the NRDC Switchboard blog: “Starting with its 2007 report entitled “Envisioning Futures for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta,” the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) has significantly advanced the public conversation about whether to build a peripheral canal to con...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 11:05 am
From the Sacramento Bee, this editorial: “If California is to help protect the Central Valley from floods over the next half century, it can’t just place Band-Aids on the Valley’s current system of levees, dams, weirs and bypasses. Fortunately, the state Department of Water Resources, under Di...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 11:04 am
This last commentary item just popped up on my news reader, but it is dated 12/24/11. I don’t know why it is so late to the news wires, but here it is anyway. From the Bay Institute, this commentary: “This year’s holiday season brought a welcome Christmas present for the Bay-Delta estuary’s ...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 10:50 am
From the KMTG Natural Resources Blog: “On December 30, 2011, the Central Valley Flood Protection Board (Board) received the Public Draft 2012 Central Valley Flood Protection Plan (CVFPP) and the December 2011 Flood Control System Status Report (FCSSR) from the California Department of Water Resour...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Jan 18, 2012, 10:42 am
From the Liberty Blog: “Today the Natural Resources Defense Council filed this response brief in the Ninth Circuit, opposing California water users’ December 2011 motion for the dismissal of NRDC’s X2 injunction appeal.” For links to the court documents from the Liberty Blog, click here.
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 12:15 pm
From the Fresno Bee: “Federal protections for California’s delta smelt will remain intact, but Western water controversies will keep on boiling after a Supreme Court decision Monday not to hear farmers’ ambitious challenge to a key environmental law. The court’s decision, issued without comm...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 12:13 pm
From the Pacific Legal Foundation’s Liberty Blog: “Looks like the greenies are having a nice little field day in response to the Supreme Court’s decision not to review PLF’s Commerce Clause challenge to the federal delta smelt regulations. Feel free to peruse their sites yourself, but you’...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 12:11 pm
From Kate Poole at the NRDC Switchboard blog: “It’s shaping up to be a happy Halloween for California’s fishermen, boaters, birdwatchers, and drinkers of water – in other words, all of us who rely on a healthy Delta ecosystem. First, the Supreme Court today denied the Pacific Legal Foundatio...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 12:10 pm
From the Delta National Park: “Surprising but good news that the Supremes chose not to take on the Endangered Species Act. From Bloomberg: The rebuff marks the sixth time the nation’s highest court has refused to question the Endangered Species Act. The latest challenge to the law had the backin...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 12:08 pm
From the Western Farm Press: “Inland Empire water agencies want to work with state and federal environmental protection agencies to set up a master plan for habitat restoration and recovery to benefit the Santa Ana Sucker and other endangered species along the Santa Ana River. Top officials from R...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 12:06 pm
From the Vacaville Reporter, this editorial: “No one can argue with the assertion by Rep. George Miller, D-Solano, that the process of mapping the Delta’s future is becoming a “pay-to-play” procedure over which water agencies in Central and Southern California have more influence than do peo...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 12:03 pm
From the Hanford Sentinel, this commentary by State Senator Michael Rubio: “Fixing the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta will produce 129,000 jobs in California and provide a reliable water supply once and for all. When former Gov. Pat Brown built the California State Water Project, he succeeded and fa...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 12:00 pm
From Alex Breitler’s blog: “Delta Wetlands, the plan to flood two islands and convert two more into habitat, has an interesting history which I didn’t have room for in last week’s story. We’ve written barely a word about the project in more than six years. But apparently it was a major cam...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 11:58 am
From the Fresno Bee, this commentary by Terry Phillips: “There is no single resource more important to our quality of life than water. The Kern County Water Agency recently commemorated its 50th anniversary with a day-long conference at Bakersfield College. Participants were interested in working ...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Nov 1, 2011, 11:53 am
From the Western Farm Press: “How California can use the latest technology to solve its water supply crisis is the focus of a new Public Broadcast System program co-sponsored by the California Farm Water Coalition. “This is really a celebration of the creativity and leadership that everyone from...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 24, 2011, 4:23 pm
Received via email: “Washington, DC – Five Northern California Members of Congress are demanding answers on the current state of the Bay-Delta planning process and calling on the Interior Department today to rescind a “flawed” Memorandum of Agreement that was developed behind closed doors an...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 24, 2011, 10:24 am
From the New York Times: “Three generations of Al Kalin’s family have worked their 2,000 acres of carrots and sugar beets, wheat and alfalfa for almost a century in the Imperial Valley, a scorching swath of Southern California desert that was unfit for farming until water from the Colorado River...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 24, 2011, 10:20 am
From Dan Aiello at the Examiner: “At an oversight hearing in Sacramento last week, Assemblymember Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael),chairman of the Assembly Water, Parks and Wildlife Committee voiced concern that water exporters will have unprecedented control over the content and focus of a plan that ...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 24, 2011, 10:15 am
More from the September/October 2011 issue. “The future of LID and stormwater capture rests in part with technological improvements, financial investment and basic wherewithal. ‘There is always that critical moment when innovation catches up with what’s needed and what’s needed catches up wi...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 24, 2011, 10:13 am
From the Inkstain blog: “A: The Endangered Species Act A useful question came up on the Twitter last week about California’s Bay Delta Conservation Plan that’s nicely answered by a state legislative analysis I read this afternoon. The BDCP is a key part of process underway now in California th...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 24, 2011, 10:07 am
From the San Diego Union-Tribune: “When a sinkhole bigger than a commuter bus opened up on a University City road earlier this month, it created a huge headache for people who work nearby. The cause was traced to a corrugated metal storm water pipe, which today is known for chronic failures. Most ...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 24, 2011, 10:05 am
From the Pueblo Chieftain: “Two starkly different views of the ability of seven states to divide the waters of the Colorado River were given at Colorado College last week. Colorado Supreme Court Justice Gregory Hobbs marveled at how a river basin labeled by some early explorers as uninhabitable 15...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 23, 2011, 10:55 am
From the Sacramento Bee: “As communities around the Sacramento region continue to install water meters, a number of local officials say the devices are not saving as much water as expected. Water usage is definitely declining, but other factors – including a poor economy and years of conservatio...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 23, 2011, 10:50 am
From the Inland Daily Bulletin, this editorial: “The Delta Stewardship Council, charged with developing a plan for the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta that advances the “co-equal” goals of statewide water supply reliability and restoration of a sustainable Delta ecosystem, is to release its...
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Chris A. posted an article on Aquafornia - Oct 23, 2011, 10:46 am
From the Record Searchlight, this commentary by Caleen Sisk-Franco, tribal chief and spiritual leader of the Winnemem Wintu Tribe: “Because of Shasta Dam, the Winnemem Wintu Tribe hasn’t seen salmon in our river for more than 70 years. But we are an oral culture and a spiritual people, which mea...
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