News
Storms end Southern California water restrictions for millions
 NBC News – March 16
California’s 11th atmospheric river left the storm-soaked state with a bang Wednesday, bringing flooded roadways, landslides, and toppled trees to the southern part of the state as well as drought-busting rainfall that meant the end of water restrictions for nearly 7 million people. Even as residents struggled to clean up before the next round of winter arrives in the coming days — with some 27,000 people still under evacuation orders statewide Wednesday — the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California’s decision brought relief amid the state’s historic drought. The district supplies water for 19 million people in six counties. The board imposed the restrictions, which included limiting outdoor watering to one day a week, in parts of Los Angeles, Ventura, and San Bernardino counties last year during a severe shortage of state water supplies.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation finalizing $250M in water-saving measures to help drought-stricken Lake Mead
USA Today – March 10
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation is finalizing $250 million in water-saving deals that are expected to preserve up to 10 feet of Lake Mead's declining surface levels this year, agency Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton announced on March 10. The money will pay Lower Colorado River Basin water users, especially farmers, to forego some of their deliveries this year to help keep the reservoir from sinking further toward the point where it no longer flows past Hoover Dam. The initial funding is essentially an emergency measure that pays people not to use water temporarily. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation ultimately will apply other funds approved by Congress over the last two years to projects that increase on-farm efficiency, Touton said, such as canal liners and drip irrigation systems.
State water officials say they will fast-track groundwater recharge projects
Spectrum News – January 13
Facing scrutiny for billions of gallons of water draining to the ocean when they could instead be used to alleviate California’s "megadrought," the state Department of Water Resources on January 13 announced that it would fast-track efforts to capture and store flood waters. Earlier that month, the State Water Resources Control Board approved a six-month permit to enable landowners to divert excess flows from a creek near the city of Merced to help recharge a groundwater basin. The project, the first to be approved under a new pilot regulatory assistance program, is expected to divert 10,000 acre-feet of water from the creek during high-flow periods that would otherwise be wasted. Instead, the water will be directed to agricultural fields to help refill groundwater basins that can then be pumped back up to the surface during growing season.
State water agency rescinds controversial Delta order that put fish at risk
CalMatters – March 10
As storms swell California’s reservoirs, state water officials have rescinded a controversial February 21 order that allowed more water storage in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta while putting salmon and other endangered fish at risk. Ten environmental groups had petitioned the board to rescind its order. The reason for the state’s reversal, according to the State Water Resources Control Board, is that conditions in the Delta have changed as storms boost the snowpack and runoff used to supply water to cities and farms. The waiver reduced the volume of water flowing through the Delta into San Francisco Bay to only about half of the volume required under state rules. When Delta flows drop below critical levels, fish become more vulnerable to predators and can be killed by water export pumps.
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation suspends measures that were meant to boost water levels at drought-stricken Lake Powell
CNN – March 7
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation on March 7 began suspending extra water releases from Utah’s Flaming Gorge reservoir – emergency measures that had served to help stabilize the plummeting water levels downstream at Lake Powell, the nation’s second largest reservoir. Federal officials began releasing extra water from Flaming Gorge in 2021 to boost Lake Powell’s level and buy its surrounding communities more time to plan for the likelihood the reservoir will eventually drop too low for the Glen Canyon Dam to generate hydropower. The system is like a water loan program from Flaming Gorge to Lake Powell “in times of crisis,” said Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission. “With snowpack in the upper Colorado River system running upwards of 130% of the 30-year median, we have a unique opportunity – perhaps once-a-decade opportunity – to repay the loan,” Cullom told CNN.
Oroville Dam floodgates opened as storms fill massive reservoir
The Mercury News – March 10
California water officials on March 10 opened the floodgates at Oroville Dam to let water out of the state’s second-largest reservoir to reduce the risk of flooding to downstream communities. At noon, water began cascading down the huge concrete spillway for the first time in four years. Lake Oroville, built on the Feather River about 70 miles north of Sacramento in the 1960s, is the linchpin of the State Water Project, a system of dams, canals, and pumps that provide water to 27 million Californians from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. The purpose of the dam is not only to store water, but also to provide flood protection to communities in the Sacramento Valley.
California cancels salmon fishing season
CBS Bay Area – March 12
Thanks to recent atmospheric river storms, rivers in California are roaring, but the effects of years of drought are only now being seen on the salmon population. Last year, 196,000 adult fish were expected to return to the Sacramento River to spawn but only 60,000 appeared. As a result, the Department of Fish and Wildlife has canceled the entire salmon fishing season along the California coast. It's only the second time in history that has happened. The last time was in 2008-2009 after another period of prolonged drought.
Arizona says developers lack groundwater for big growth dreams in the desert west of Phoenix
Arizona Republic – January 11
A newly released Arizona state report on groundwater supplies under the desert west of Phoenix signals difficulty ahead for developers wishing to build hundreds of thousands of homes there. The modeling report, which Governor Katie Hobbs released on January 9, shows that plans to add homes for more than 800,000 people west of the White Tank Mountains will require other water sources if they are to go forward. The report, called the Lower Hassayampa Sub-basin Groundwater Model, finds that projected growth would more than double groundwater use and put it out of balance by 15%. The state’s groundwater law requires developers in the Phoenix area to get state certificates of assured water supplies extending out 100 years before they can build.
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