State and Local Water Policy Negotiations in Congress: Implications of the June 3 Letter to Water Commissioner Tom Buschatzke and the Commission on Natural Resources

Whoever is at the forefront of the cuts needed to keep the river flowing into the country is in a precarious position. If the feds take a hardline approach, it could set the stage for a lengthy legal battle as the nation’s largest reservoirs continue to decline.

Failing to do so means either of these lakes, the largest manmade reservoirs in the country, could reach “dead pool” in the next two years, where the water level is too low to flow through the dams and downstream to the communities and farmers that need it.

The report calls on the governor’s office to put in place emergency water use reduction measures that would not only reduce water use, but also ensure that the water makes it to the lake to replenish it.

Western state officials wrote a letter in May agreeing to leave 1 million acre-feet of water in Lake Powell. Then, they watched as the same amount of water disappeared due to system losses and evaporation.

“Everything we tried to do through the May 3 letter was wiped out by mother nature,” top Arizona water official Tom Buschatzke told CNN. “We have to understand that could happen to us again. It’s been happening to us almost every year for the past few years.”

The West is seeing a growing anxiety as the levels plummet. Lower basin states of California, Arizona and Nevada have been tense and closely watched by other states as they negotiate voluntary water cuts.

The talks have halted due to disagreement on how much water each state should give up and how much money should be paid to farmers to use less water.

State negotiators are waiting for the feds to rule on how they will give $4 billion in drought relief money, which the Biden administration wants to pay people to not use water.

But, he says, “it makes it a little more difficult because of the uncertainty and not knowing” what the difference will be between the money the federal government is offering, and the voluntary cuts districts are willing to make.

The deals that have been struck are important. In November, the Biden administration pledged to spend millions of federal dollars to help restore California’s endangered Salton Sea – a key demand from the powerful Imperial Irrigation district in Southern California. With that funding, other states like Arizona are hoping Imperial and other California water users agree to put more cuts on the table.

There is also a distinct possibility that the federal government will step in if voluntary cuts don’t come close to what’s needed. But that plan would almost assuredly be greeted with a court challenge.

The Colorado River During the December Storm and the Last Two Months: Climate Change in Northern California, and the Loss of Power in California and Nevada

At a December conference of Colorado River water users, Assistant Secretary of the Department of the Interior Tanya Trujillo addressed that likelihood, according to Porter.

Warmer-than-average weather in February and March will allow the river basin to get weeks of above-average snowfall. The occasional wet winter can’t save the Colorado River because of the growing, longterm dry spell.

The storms will improve the situation in Northern California for a short time. But in the long term, he said climate change has already made its mark and that it would take a lot more than one exceptionally wet year – it will take consecutive wet years and cooler conditions to bust this drought.

Climate researchers have said it’s a lack of precipitation, higher temperatures, and an increase in evaporative demand – also known as the “thirst of the atmosphere” – that has pushed the West’s drought into historic territory.

Dry air leaves a trail of water in the soil. Water shortages on the Colorado River are caused in part by the fact that the air sucks up water from what is left of them.

“Over the next two months, it is important that we still see periodic rain and snowstorms to keep an above average pace for our precipitation totals,” Mohr said.

The state of California is going to suffer floods and even mud and debris flows as powerful storms start the new year.

An atmospheric river can carry more than 20 times the water of the Mississippi River. California is prone to floods from these storms as they come ripping off the Pacific Ocean, and major floods from them have happened before — but climate change is raising the stakes with millions of people likely to be impacted.

At least two people died in the storm, including one who was found dead inside a completely submerged vehicle Saturday in Sacramento County, and a 72-year-old man who died after being struck by a fallen tree at a Santa Cruz park, according to officials.

Poweroutage.org reported that 103,000 homes, businesses and other power customers were without power in California and Nevada as of Sunday night, down from more than 300,000 on Saturday. US.

Northern California Winter Storm Flood Evacuations Monday: Flood Flooding Warnings for Elk Grove, Sacramento County, and Watsonville, Calif.

Winter storm warnings are posted in some parts of the Midwest when snow is expected to fall on Monday.

There is a chance of damaging winds, tornadoes and hail in some parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana. Storms are expected to begin in the afternoon and will last through the overnight hours.

The Sacramento County area was particularly hard hit, with emergency crews spending the weekend rescuing multiple flood victims by boats and helicopter and responding to fallen trees and disabled vehicles in the flood waters, the Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District said.

Glanville Tract and Franklin Pond were placed under an emergency warning Sunday, after an order to evacuate was issued for the rural areas of Point Pleasant.

A flash flood watch was placed on the west side of 5 freeway to theSacramento River because there were fears of more rain and more flooding.

The day before, rising flood waters forced evacuations in Wilton, California, as well as three communities near the city of Watsonville in Santa Cruz County.

Flooding from the Cosumnes River forced the closure of Highway 99 south of Elk Grove in Sacramento County, the California Department of Transportation tweeted. “SR 99 is one of the state’s heavily traveled, and commercially important, corridors,” its website adds.

Aerial video from CNN affiliate KCRA showed cars submerged past their doorhandles in flood waters from Highway 99 and the Dillard Street area. Chris Schamber is a fire captain with the Cosumnes Fire Department.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/02/weather/northern-california-storm-flooding-evacuations-monday/index.html

Sacramento and the Bay Area are dealing with the worst of the El Nio phenomenon, and this state is in dire need of a little help

The weather system is expected to bring light to moderate valley rain and mountain snow to the area Monday and Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service in Sacramento.

The Sierra locations received around 20 to 45 inches of snow Saturday through Sunday, and another round of light snow is on the way.

The latest in the series of storms are expected to reach the coast Wednesday morning, and while the entire state will see impacts by the end of Thursday, Northern California and the Bay Area are likely to see the worst of the weather.

A so-called “bomb cyclone” over the Pacific Ocean – named because of how rapidly it intensifies over a short period of time – will sling a series of fronts at the West Coast. These fronts are being powered by the atmospheric river that extends west to Hawaii.

The storm could cause more widespread flooding, roads wash out, hillside collapsing, fallen trees, major power outages, and likely loss of human life, according to the National Weather Service.

“They’re two sides of the same coin: they can be extremely beneficial because they bring so much of California’s water supply to the state or they can also be drought busters,” Kalansky told CNN. “But when the duration becomes too long, they become too strong, they come back-to-back, and the landscape doesn’t get an opportunity to absorb all the rain, it can lead to this flooding.”

While these storms bring in some hazard, they are needed more than ever to alleviate the harmful effects of the ongoing El Nio phenomenon.

Rainfall in parts of California exceeded 8 inches over the weekend as the last storm moved across the state. Oakland saw its wettest day on record on December 31 when 4.75 inches of rain fell, and San Francisco marked its second-wettest day with 5.46 inches – nearly half of its typical December rain.

“We haven’t seen the mega floods, but we have definitely seen hints of increasingly extreme precipitation even in the middle of what has otherwise been a period characterized by a pretty severe and persistent drought,” Swain said.

Yet despite this wet start to the year, it’s worth noting that last year was relatively much wetter around this time — and the state was still mired in drought for the remainder of 2022.

The Great Salt Lake in Utah is facing unprecedented danger, as it is falling to alarmingly low levels amid a climate change-fueled megadry spell in the West, experts say.

Its disappearance could have dire effects on Utah’s public health, environment, and economy. “The choices we make over the next few months will affect our state and ecosystems throughout the West for decades to come.”

“The lake’s ecosystem is not only on the edge of collapse. Benjamin Abbott, a professor of ecology at Brigham Young University who is the author of the report, told CNN that it is collapsing. I was completely surprised to see how much of the lake is gone. The lake is mostly lakebed right now.”

He noted that this was a bellwether for what would happen in the larger river basins. “We need to lay out some very clear language about where we’re headed.”

The Colorado River could be cut to stave off a collapse in the state’s largest reservoirs, or at least, Lake Oroville and San Luis

The State Water Project’s two largest reservoirs — Lake Oroville and San Luis — gained a total of 1.62 million acre-feet of water, which is roughly enough water for 5.6 million households for an entire year. 324,000 gallons is the amount of water needed to one acre foot deep.

“We really encourage everyone from an individual water user up to the governor’s office and the federal government to focus on conservation,” Abbott said. “That is the only way that we can get enough water to the Great Salt Lake in time to save it.”

The impacts are widespread. The lake’s decline threatens critical habitat for jeopardized species as well as the state’s economy. From the mineral industry to agriculture and recreation, the Great Salt Lake contributes $1.3 billion to the annual economy, according to a state assessment. The economic toll could be anywhere from $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion annually if the lake continues to dry up.

There is harmful dust in the lakebed that could harm human health. The Great Salt Lake can be used as a terminal lake because it can allow water to flow in and out of the basin. There are tiny particles that can be breathed in when strong winds blow over a drying lakebed. There are health issues linked to pollutants such as asthma, heart disease and chronic bronchitis.

The authors of the report want lawmakers to focus on ramping up the effort to restore the lake, rather than discussing different strategies to increase it.

On Monday, six states – including lower basin states of Arizona and Nevada – released a letter and a proposed model for how much Colorado River water they could potentially cut to stave off a collapse and prevent the nation’s largest reservoirs, Lakes Mead and Powell, from hitting “dead pool,” when water levels will be too low to flow through the dams.

A model for how much water the Colorado River could potentially cut was released on Monday by six basin states. That model accounts for the water lost to evaporation and leaky river infrastructure.

In 1968, the state of Arizona agreed to a junior water right in exchange for the creation of the Central Arizona Project, a system of canals that can take Colorado River water from Phoenix to Tucson. That means historically, Arizona has been the first in line for cuts, while California’s river allocation has been left untouched. Arizona believes that cities like Phoenix and Tuscon should not be cut to zero.

“The lack of a consensus and six states moving forward with an approach that does not harmonize with the law is troubling,” Hamby said. “It is everyone’s best interest to avoid litigation, but being put into a situation like this where you have six states approaching things in this way raises the risk.”

Many outside observers and negotiators believe this year will bring litigation to the Supreme Court due to the difficulty of reaching state consensus and the federal government’s refusal to act on its own.

The Supreme Court might take it, said Wade Noble, a lawyer representing farmers and irrigation districts in Arizona. “I suspect everybody who has been lawyering up wants to make sure their legal team has Supreme Court experience. These are the types of issues that get there.”

One source familiar with the meeting disputed that California asked to model cutting other agencies and cities all the way to zero but stipulated that if California was to compromise to other states’ demands, it also wanted to see one of the options follow the river’s current strict priority system “as the default baseline.”

“We’re not going to give up a century of history and position and things that people worked for over a century to protect in two days,” Hamby said of the recent negotiations. Doing away with the priority approach is not acceptable.

“Decisions to cut back water deliveries below the Hoover Dam cannot wait for a complex water rights case to be litigated up through the Supreme Court. That can take years,” Hayes said. “Plus, no legal decision will solve the fundamental problem of insufficient water. That reality needs to be faced.”

Arizona’s top water official, Tom Buschatzke, wouldn’t comment on the closed-door discussion. But he told CNN Arizona officials would not contemplate entirely cutting their biggest cities and Native American tribes off Colorado River water.

The Central Arizona Water Project: Why do we want to go to zero? A source familiar with the three-state proposal, and why we are committed to working together

The eye-catching suggestion was quickly and firmly rejected by other state officials at the table, the people familiar with the discussions said.

John Enstminger, general manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, told CNN that the proposal was a significant concern for public health and safety in Western cities.

“If you want to model cutting off most or all of the water supply of 27 million Americans, you can go through the exercise but implementing that on the ground would have the direst consequence for almost 10% of the country,” Entsminger said.

The federal government may be asked to model a scenario whereby the Central Arizona Project goes to zero. I won’t do that. The implications would be severe if CAP went to zero. Severe for tribes, severe for cities, severe for industries.”

According to one source familiar with the meeting, Arizona thinks California will let them dry up and blow away. California’s perspective, the source added, is: “We fought for a century to preserve our super-priority, why should we give it up now?”

Multiple states told CNN that they would continue to try to get an agreement, while acknowledging that talks have been difficult.

“We’re committed to continuing to work collectively as seven basin states,” said Chuck Cullom, executive director of the Upper Colorado River Commission.

Buschatzke, Arizona’s top water official, called the six-state proposal a “very positive outcome” and said he and others would try to keep conversations going with California.

“I’m committed to continuing to work with all seven states,” Buschatzke said, adding additional conversations and negotiations would continue “over the next few months.”

Source: https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/31/us/california-water-proposal-colorado-river-climate/index.html

The State Water Project: Managing and Conserving California’s Water Supply during the 2022-2019 Long-Term Drought. Commissioner Karla Nemeth

He said that they had not shared any cumulative ballpark with them. It will be less of a gap to close on the necessary reductions if we know the ballpark at least and the specific number.

As the drought continued across much of the state, officials still had to figure out a way to conserve California’s rapidly dwindling water supply. They announced in May 2022 water agencies relying on the state project would only receive 5% of water requests, which went into effect in December 2022 and was supposed to go through this year.

Before-and-after photos show incredible improvement at the reservoir which as of this week stood at 115% of the historical average for the date, a jump from just 61% in February 2020 and 77% in 2022, a notable jump from both of those years.

There is abathtub ring of dirt around the edge of the lake, marking how far the water levels had fallen. By late January, the bathtub ring was underwater again.

There is still a lot of uncertainty and water managers are trying to hold as much water as possible while also preparing for the spring.

In 2021 it was just 24% of total capacity. The lake’s water level sat well below boat ramps and exposed intake pipes, which are used to send water to power the plant.

The plant is the fourth-largest hydroelectric energy producer statewide, according to the California Energy Commission, with the ability to power up to 800,000 homes when operating at full capacity. About 13% of the state’s electricity was generated by hydroelectric power plants as of 2018.

Although Oroville’s water levels remained well below average in 2022, storms last winter brought record-breaking precipitation to the Sierra Nevada, which gave the lake’s levels a much-needed boost.

The California Department of Water Resources operates the State Water Project system, which includes Lake Oroville, and provides water to 29 public water agencies serving 27 million Californians and 750,000 acres of farmland.

After this winter’s storms, California state water officials announced at the end of January it will increase allocated water deliveries to 30% of requested water supplies this year.

Karla Nemeth, director of the Department of Water Resources, warned during the state’s February 1 snowpack survey this month was not looking promising for more rain and snow.

“I will point out that this is a traditional wet month that is actually starting off pretty dry — and given where the forecasts are, that dryness is expected to continue,” she said.

The peakprecipitation timing is also changing with the climate. We do not know if we have reached the peak of the winter weather in our area on February 1 or not, and those data points help us manage water in California.

The Colorado River feeds Lake Mead and Lake Powell, the two largest reservoirs in the country. In the last year, record low water levels in the lakes have led to mandatory water cuts for some Western states. Lake Powell has hit a new low and Lake Mead is also close to a record low.

It’s all an example of how human-caused climate change is transforming water systems around the world, cranking up temperatures and making droughts more severe and frequent.